It's late, you are sleepy and fighting an enemy; it is in the sky where you can't reach it, and suddenly you think, "Wait, what if I add a rocket to my shield? Will it get me there?". And it works. The physics and gameplay mechanics are there to give you total freedom. "Hey, these are the rules; use them". Do you want to lateral-think your way through a shrine without solving the puzzles? "Here is your Light of Blessing sir, I hope you enjoy it!"
The number of possibilities for making your way through Hyrule is infinite. Connecting with the mechanics is so rewarding and connects you to the world in a way that no open-world game has achieved. It just feels real.
Hyrule... In Breath of the Wild, it was the first contact for me and for LInk, as he had lost his memories. But now, we both know the kingdom, the paths, the mountains, etc. And the game knows it, in a way. There is always something waiting for you in a special place you remember from Breath of the Wild. The game always rewards that "I remember a shrine quest here" moment. Breath of the Wild allowed you to recover your memories about Hyrule, and Tears of the Kingdom uses those memories to bring you back to your previous adventure as you enjoy the new one. "The best way to make things travel through time is to make them remember".
It was in a Game Score Fanfare video that I saw the idea that Breath of the Wild is a story of redemption. Zelda and Link were meant to defeat Ganon a hundred years before the start of the game, but they failed. And, as you discover more about the game, you can see what this failure would mean to Zelda, given how afraid she was of not being worthy. The war was lost, and the flourishing kingdom is now in ruins. Link's goal is just to become stronger to finally defeat Ganon. To do what they couldn't, to pay their debt to the kingdom.
Tears of the Kingdom, instead, is a story about cooperation. As an unknown mystery threatens the kingdom, people are organizing themselves. Search and rescue, monster control, research groups... All the effort Zelda has put into rebuilding the kingdom after the destruction has paid off. Link can be a fine swordsman and may be able to go into the sky or down into the abyss, but he is not an archeologist, and he is not able to understand the ancient ruins. He needs help, this is now about working together to solve the mystery. Your bombs are replaced with a tool that allows you to build whatever you want, because, at this time, rebuilding is more important than destroying.
But the game does not shine during the main quest; it shines when interacting with the locals. Finding the princess is important, but helping a small town debate between tradition, progress, and falling under the sharp claws of capitalism is more important. Helping people who have lost their homes, bringing fireflies to someone who wants to surprise a friend... The joy of the small things, the beauty of the ordinary. In the end, real heroes are the ones who dedicate their time to making others lives better. Nothing more, nothing less.
Everybody has their own problems, preoccupations, and struggles. Playing a video game is not going to make them go away, of course. But during the time you are exploring Hyrule, you are so immersed that you just forget for a moment about them. That's the power of videogames. Maybe that Nintendo ad was not wrong after all.
The number of possibilities for making your way through Hyrule is infinite. Connecting with the mechanics is so rewarding and connects you to the world in a way that no open-world game has achieved. It just feels real.
Hyrule... In Breath of the Wild, it was the first contact for me and for LInk, as he had lost his memories. But now, we both know the kingdom, the paths, the mountains, etc. And the game knows it, in a way. There is always something waiting for you in a special place you remember from Breath of the Wild. The game always rewards that "I remember a shrine quest here" moment. Breath of the Wild allowed you to recover your memories about Hyrule, and Tears of the Kingdom uses those memories to bring you back to your previous adventure as you enjoy the new one. "The best way to make things travel through time is to make them remember".
It was in a Game Score Fanfare video that I saw the idea that Breath of the Wild is a story of redemption. Zelda and Link were meant to defeat Ganon a hundred years before the start of the game, but they failed. And, as you discover more about the game, you can see what this failure would mean to Zelda, given how afraid she was of not being worthy. The war was lost, and the flourishing kingdom is now in ruins. Link's goal is just to become stronger to finally defeat Ganon. To do what they couldn't, to pay their debt to the kingdom.
Tears of the Kingdom, instead, is a story about cooperation. As an unknown mystery threatens the kingdom, people are organizing themselves. Search and rescue, monster control, research groups... All the effort Zelda has put into rebuilding the kingdom after the destruction has paid off. Link can be a fine swordsman and may be able to go into the sky or down into the abyss, but he is not an archeologist, and he is not able to understand the ancient ruins. He needs help, this is now about working together to solve the mystery. Your bombs are replaced with a tool that allows you to build whatever you want, because, at this time, rebuilding is more important than destroying.
But the game does not shine during the main quest; it shines when interacting with the locals. Finding the princess is important, but helping a small town debate between tradition, progress, and falling under the sharp claws of capitalism is more important. Helping people who have lost their homes, bringing fireflies to someone who wants to surprise a friend... The joy of the small things, the beauty of the ordinary. In the end, real heroes are the ones who dedicate their time to making others lives better. Nothing more, nothing less.
Everybody has their own problems, preoccupations, and struggles. Playing a video game is not going to make them go away, of course. But during the time you are exploring Hyrule, you are so immersed that you just forget for a moment about them. That's the power of videogames. Maybe that Nintendo ad was not wrong after all.