Tears of the Kingdom: Thoughts and Review
The wait for the next Legend of Zelda game is over. I’ve started this as a “first impressions” kind of thing, but will be expanding this into an overall review once I’ve played more. So let’s get into Tears of the Kingdom (TotK).
First Impressions
Positives: The seriousness of the opening title when opening the game was an interesting tone to set, and it left me intrigued in where it was going. The overall tone of the predecessor Breath of the Wild (BotW) leaned heavily on the barren and ambient throughout and was pretty tonally flat throughout the game. Starting with something more ominous, both in the opening title and inciting incident sequence, was definitely appealing. Already there was a plotline that would be worth progressing through, and that is a big step above BotW’s lack of story. The starting sky island was pretty neat and was a nice tutorial area introducing a lot of the new features. Once I left the sky island I sort of felt lost even though the kingdom is pretty much the same, which I’m counting as a positive since there is a definite feeling like not everything is the same.
Negatives/Mixed Feelings: Rauru, a member of an extinct(?) race of humanoids from the sky, was the ghostly guide for Link’s tutorial on the starting sky island and he pretty much felt like a copy-paste of the king of hyrule’s ghost. He didn’t have much of a personality and was kind of just there rather than being interesting—the most interesting thing about him is that he gave Link his arm somehow. With there being a recurring plot element of a lost/dilapidated/forgotten civilization, I got a bit skeptical; I’d had more than enough interacting with ghosts of former people and with looking at the dilapidated state of Hyrule in BotW, I don’t think I need any more. And at the end of the tutorial Rauru is like “K, I’m out, hope you find Zelda,” and he disappears. Anyway, I’ve got mixed feelings about the return of shrines as well as Koroks. And lastly, after the tutorial and touching down on the kingdom of Hyrule, I was both interested and confused by some other things: it’s nice the stables retained the horses I caught in BotW, but disappointing I wouldn’t need to tame new/better horses; and it’s unaddressed and bizarre that Link doesn’t have other previous things like the Sheikah Slate and paraglider.
Early-Game Impressions
I’ve remained entertained, but the number of problems I had have grown. After obtaining the paraglider, the main story quest repeated the same format as BotW and gave 4 places to go and all 4 places are the same as BotW—the Zora area, the Gerudo area, the Rito area, and the Goron area. While not… terrible… it feels too similar to BotW. As for general exploration, it’s also felt the same. I’ve been finding shrines, Koroks, and towers here and there, the same as the way BotW did it, and haven’t run into anything that felt like… WHOA! That’s new/cool! Sure, sky islands and caves are new, but are they really substantial? So far, I can say definitively, no. They aren’t. But, I’ve yet to find a way to thoroughly explore the sky given all that’s available to me currently is what I can reach after being shot out of a tower—I’ve also yet to delve into a malice hole given I get one-shot by most things still. The ease of a game over is an early gripe I had in BotW as well but later got over once I obtained enough blessing things for hearts. Going back to my thoughts on exploring more of the same, the towns I’ve seen are disappointingly the same; what I mean by that is they’re not the substantial, expansive hubs I imagined and desired that BotW sorely lacked. In Gerudo Town’s case, it’s actually even worse—it’s pretty much a shell of its former state. Kakariko and Hateno villages also are the same… To keep my complaints here short, a lot feels the same. Other thoughts on exploration, I’ve come across a decent number of side quests that definitely feel more significant than BotW, but I’ve also come across copy-pasted quests from BotW which feels not-so-good. Some examples are the guy at a stable who wants to see a skeleton horse and a guy in Hateno who wants to woo a woman.
Mid-Game Impressions
To sum up this section, a lot of my earlier complaints have been addressed.
After getting a comfortable amount of hearts, I finally stopped actively avoiding the ominous chasms and ventured into one and found a world of darkness. The Depths was the substantial thing I was looking for—it may not have given me a “WHOA!” moment, but it was certainly an “Oh, cool,” moment. Granted, my first time down there I had no idea what I was doing and no idea what to use to light up the darkness, so I pretty much stumbled around for a bit before finding a faintly glowing chest that triggered some sort of gauntlet of monsters that killed me repeatedly until I gave up and teleported out. In any case, I finally got something worthwhile to explore beyond everything already provided in BotW.
A minor point that I want to touch on is the addition of old maps. I found two old maps while exploring some of the sky, and it fulfilled some of the yearning for adventure and intrigue that sea charts did for me in Wind Waker. For such an expansive game as BotW, this addition in TotK is a veeeeeeery good addition even if it’s minor. I hope there are lots more.
Regarding the main story, I’ve progressed through the Gerudo part and I was relieved to find an actual dungeon that had a unique boss that WASN’T GANON. The new enemies and phasing of the area as events occurred was also nice to provide some nuance to the world. I was itching for more “world events” (or events that changed/affected the world either due to time or something else) in BotW like the Blood Moon or Tarrey Town, and TotK delivered some of that. I’m still bummed about Gerudo town not getting much expansion/changes as a massive hub would be fun to explore, but whatever. Anyway, regarding the return of dungeons, I thought the Lightning Temple provided a solid amount of puzzles that didn’t feel too short while also not feeling too long. Past Zelda dungeons were longer, but I feel like this one’s length was great and I doubt I’ll have complaints about the others when I get to them. While I remain unsatisfied with the lack of key items (something I’m just going to have to live with when it comes to BotW and TotK), the earned ability feels significant enough to let me forget my longing for them (at least a bit). The return of the Yiga Clan was oddly unexpected for me, which was fun since it makes total sense—and discovering Master Kohga to be living in the Depths was a neat way to tie in BotW’s (pitifully small) story. I’m still confused about some inconsistencies, such as the disappearance of BotW’s shrines and divine beasts.
Some of the side quests are feeling unlockable which is also taking care of one of my gripes with BotW in that there was a diminished feeling of progression compared to past Zelda games. Mind, I’ve yet to find a side quest that has felt entirely worthwhile—the biggest so far has been returning eyes to some Poe collector statue beneath the Great Plateau to get a heart container—so an absence of key or unique items may yet prove disappointing. I will say, the building a house side content is definitely cool and fun.
I think I’m still missing a genuinely memorable piece of music. The closest thing that comes to mind is the ominous, wavering and discordant sounds that happen in the Depths but there’s not a whole, solid piece I’m liking. BotW was pretty minimalist on its soundtrack but still had some nice pieces like Hateno Village’s theme and the battle music from Monk Maz Koshia (though regrettably that latter one is DLC). Maybe one of the later dungeons, boss fights, or events will have something that stands out.
Final Impressions
(“Final” being a term which here means “Up to this point in time,” and “After beating the main story”)
All right, so the game is overall solid with a lot to enjoy. It retains some gripes I had with BotW such as weapon durability (a problem that seems exacerbated in this game despite and/or because of Fuse) and a lack of traditional LoZ “key” items. I’ve already mentioned how key items would enhance and incentivize main story and side content, but it’d also streamline menu-ing quite a bit. Because there are so many items to have, use, and use with Fuse, the amount of time spent in a menu is a lot. Considering sifting through what feels like (and in some cases literally is) hundreds of items compared to how simpler it would be to have Skyward Sword itemization which only requires sifting through less than 10 items, TotK can feel a bit disjointed with prolonged menu use. But that’s just the type of game TotK is, as more of an open world survival game. Menus themselves are part of the gameplay, as opposed to how menus traditionally were used for simply pausing.
The Depths was a great addition to the open world, as was the sky (to a lesser extent), and both have yet more I need to explore. It’s very cool how each layer of the world relates to the others, and I’ll reemphasize my enjoyment of the old maps that can be found in the sky that lead to treasure in the Depths. Although, I do think such maps could’ve better been utilized in the manner of treasure charts in Wind Waker where treasures were “unlocked” when the chart was obtained and opened (it was disappointing finding a majority of them being useless as I’d already found the armor it led to). This could prove infuriating with the open world element, but if the old maps were given more substantial and unique puzzles to obtain that the game could point you towards in some way I could see it working and being even better. Okay, before I get off onto a tangent of what I think the game should’ve done, I’ll return to how the new layers of the world were great, and the returning land layer of Hyrule was also good enough to explore again. Exploration is among the things I enjoy in Zelda games, and TotK brought some of that enjoyment back that BotW lacked. At the risk of beating a dead horse, the continued lack of key items did hold TotK exploration back, but an abundance of unique armor sort of filled that hole as well.
So, I was sort of expecting a more substantial story given BotW lacked it (I mean really lacked it), and while TotK certainly has more of a story it unfortunately follows a lot of the same formula as BotW. The main story takes players to the same four areas (Rito, Zora, Gerudo, and Goron areas) to gain four sages (who are pretty much stand-ins to the four champions (though there’s a “secret” fifth sage)), collect memories (this is pretty much a copy-paste of the BotW thing), and then face off with Ganondorf. I’ve a sort of bittersweet happiness for seeing the Gerudo dungeon first, as it seemed the most dungeon-like as compared to the other much shorter dungeons. The lead-ins to the dungeons felt cool and fun for the most part, but when experiencing the dungeons themselves (excluding the Lightning Temple) I felt like it was a second appetizer rather than a main course. I think I can see the touches Monolith Soft put on the story, and they’re definitely for the better, it’s just the game isn’t right for something more interesting on that front and the video game development studio can only do so much with the game’s limitations. The finale of the game was cool with the worryingly deep descent, the waves of enemies, the confrontation with Ganondorf himself finally, the phases of his fight, and the wrap-up cinematics. What was less cool was that there’s no postgame. This is a gripe I have with pretty much every Zelda game and it’s just such a wasted opportunity to not reward players with something unlocked. Something I only experienced in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was a turning point in the story where a major hub that could once be travelled to could never be travelled to again. I don’t know why games don’t take more risks with story and world development/progression like that; I use that as an example for something that could be done to provide reason to replay and reexperience that section as well as force the game to compensate somehow with something different. Oof, I’m going off on a tangent of what the game should’ve done. Anyway, back to the story. This may sound worse than I actually mean it to be, but Pokémon Scarlet had a better story than TotK. Just… let that sink in. A Pokémon game has a better story than a Zelda game. I never thought I’d see the day. I really do want to hammer in the point, though, since a story is important to me; the game feels more like a vehicle for gameplay than one for story elements. Ooh, perfect segue…
Now to finally address my cynical prediction about TotK before it released: I was wrong in several ways, and right in several ways.
Gameplay is the forefront of TotK.
The Sheikah Slate 2.0 abilities obtained from Link’s new arm are all that is necessary to do anything and everything, and all gotten in the tutorial (the paraglider came shortly after). What made my prediction ironic was that Fuse was less so the reason for item limitations (although it is still a reason) than the Ultrahand ability was. Ultrahand is honestly too much for me to really describe, so I’ll put a link to some of what it can do here and summarize that it is the ability that holds the most utility. As for the extent of items which largely amount to weapons, it weirdly feels worse than BotW. Every weapon is rusted, making them even more prone to breaking. I guess having bad weapons evens out their durability when fused with something else, but oftentimes Fuse is more cumbersome than a help. I can’t say what ultimately caused an absence of key items and a crafting system, but I can say that the absence of both is nonetheless there.
And regarding my rant on Nintendo/Miyamoto sidelining the story, I do feel like that’s what more or less happened, but, again, this game (and BotW) just isn’t the kind of game where the story matters a lot. I repeat, gameplay is the forefront. While a game with an interesting story matters to me, I just have to accept this game isn’t… ugh, I hate this phrase, but… this game isn’t meant for me, at least in that way. I still found (and am still finding) enjoyment in what is in the game and its gameplay. But I’m not going to forget the gripes I’ve had with BotW that persist in TotK, and how both deviate from traditional Zelda games.
Review
Pretty much all my impressions constitute my review, but I’ll recap the gist of it here in 10 bullet points:
The story is more prominent than BotW but is objectively not the focus compared to gameplay
The side content is more expansive than BotW and is objectively enjoyable and engaging
Both the story and side content have some re-used elements from BotW that can feel lazy
There are more areas to explore than BotW that are objectively substantial and interesting
The characters are more interesting than BotW and are objectively decent
The new abilities are innovative and offer many opportunities for puzzle-solving and creativity
There are tons of items that can be played with, but with so many items menu time can be excessive
A lack of key items detracts from progression, exploration, story, and side content similarly as BotW and misses the chance for crafting and upgrading
Weapon durability is more of a problem than BotW and is objectively not great
The soundtrack is more atmospheric than integral and memorable; it also re-uses quite a bit of BotW’s music which can feel lazy and can be disappointing
If I were to give it a number score, I’d say TotK is between a 7 and 8 out of 10. It’s thoroughly enjoyable and worthwhile, especially for fans of BotW. As for my thoughts on where the Legend of Zelda series may go from here, that’ll have to wait for a follow-up post, because I absolutely have some thoughts.
