Video Game Review: Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

 

I finished this game a few months ago but I hadn't written about my experience. 

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to the Breath of the Wild game. The game uses the same folklore and a very similar map to the one in the first installment, but this time, there is a world in the clouds and another underground, which makes for three maps.

The gameplay is similar, too (and I just love playing link with his swords and bow/arrows) but the tools he uses are different. Gone are the unlimited bombs that I so loved, and the other three abilities (magnesis, cryonis and stasis). Instead, you get the ability to build, the ability to phase upwards, the ability to fuse things to your weapons, and the ability to turn back time instead of stopping it.

I honestly enjoyed the bombs and magnesis much more. The build ability in Tears of the Kingdom could get a little annoying. I found that it took me so long to build things the right way and then whatever I build wasn't "unlimited". Eventually, things broke down. Also, they need battery, which is also limited. The building caused me a lot of frustration during the game and I mostly tried to avoid building anything. I know there were players building all kinds of things, but it just wasn't for ma. Sorry.

As I completed the game, I got additional abilities similar to the ones I got when defeating the guardians in Breath of the Wild. While in Breath of the Wild I got a shield, thunder, upward wind and the ability to revive when killed, this time, I got a water shield that dissolved quickly and which I could send to an enemy with my sword, to activate an area that I could potentially electrify with an arrow, a gust of wind (horizontal this time) and a rock I could throw (that kinda replaced the bombs, but not quite).

Now, in Breath of the Wild, the powers were just there when I pushed a button. In Tears of the Kingdom, I needed to approach the "phantom" version of the summoner to summon it. This could get a little annoying at times because sometimes they would get in the way of my collecting items, which used the same button (A).

Apart from those little things. The map is mostly the same (with a few changes). The Sheika is completely gone, so now towers and shrines need to be activated, and there are a few new bad guys to fight.

The underground is an inverse replica of the world, which made it easier to find a few shrines. If there is a mountain in the overworld, there is a ditch in the underworld. All of the "shrines" (which are actually called lightroots) are shiny in a dark underworld, which makes them easy to spot (most of them, anyway). Once I found the lightroots, it became easier to find the shrines in the overworld, even if they were inside caves.

The story wasn't as good as the first game, but it was still ok, and the main quest was interesting enough. It was nice to revisit the gameplay and world and discover new things, but I didn't feel like exploring as much as I explored Breath of the Wild. 

I am still grateful we got a game to follow up the wonderful Breath of the Wild, don't get me wrong, but there were things that I definitely missed from that first game, and somehow, that made all the difference.

I enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom, but I would replay Breath of the Wild in a heartbeat, not its sequel.

Cheers!