Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Release: May 12, 2023
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Genre: Action, Adventure, Genres, Nintendo Switch Categories, Switch Reviews, Video
PEGI: 12
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Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been out for a week now. Thanks to Nintendo Canada we’ve been playing this game and now we’re ready to give you our full review. How is Tears of the Kingdom? Is it better than Breath of the Wild? Should you being playing it right now? Here is our review of Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for the Nintendo Switch.

In part 1 and 2 of our review-in-progress, we talked about Tears of the Kingdom’s unique new gameplay. In part 3, we talked about the game’s story. For our final review-in-progress part 4, we talked about the game’s graphics. Now it is time for overview of it all and final score!

Legend of the Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild, however you don’t have to play Breath of the Wild to understand Tears of the Kingdom. The two games share the same characters and the same world, but their stories are very different. The start of the Tears of the Kingdom is a bigger and more epic than Breath of the Wild, and it’s not even close. We won’t give away much other than to say that the game begins with Link and Zelda exploring the caverns below Hyrule Castle before getting separated. This is a great way to connect Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. After all, how does Link go from an epic warrior hero to a three hearted plug? I loved how this game started, and it is easily one of the most epic openings Nintendo has ever created.

That said, the focus for Tears of the Kingdom is the gameplay. After the beginning of the game is over, you can do the story in any order you want and just ignore the story if you want and explore. In fact, I found myself hours into the game without having accomplished anything major. Sure, I knocked off a number of shrines and cleared a bunch of caves. But that was about it!

There are three unique places to explore in this game: the sky, the surface, and the underground. If you played Breath of the Wild, you’ll be a little familiar with the surface, though it has changed some. As for the sky and the underground, be prepared for your jaw to drop; the sky and underground are amazing. And you can drop from the sky to the surface and right into the underground whenever you want! The sky is dotted with little islands that have fun and sometimes tricky puzzles to complete. The underground is full of terrifying monsters, decay, and secrets. It’s a huge addition to an already massive world!

The game has a lot of action too. There are tons of enemies to beat, big and small, and lots of challenges that you can take on or not take on. There is so much to see and do in Tears of the Kingdom. Breath of the Wild was a huge game and Tears of the Kingdom is bigger! Be prepared to clear you schedule for this game. You could easily get a hundred hours or more.

And we didn’t even mention the out of this world new building abilities, the caves, the secret locations, and so much more wonderful new additions to the Legend of Zelda franchise. I spent so much time using the games various items to build crazy contraptions. Some where simple vehicles to get me from A to B, but I also experimented with traps and more! It pales in comparison to what others have created, but I had fun regardless! I’m not even sure Nintendo was prepared for what people would create!

Best of all is that the graphics and the sound both serve the gameplay really well too.

Tears of the Kingdom has beautiful graphics. You’ll hear a lot of hardcore gamers talk about framerates and how powerful the Switch is but it doesn’t matter. Tears of the Kingdom runs better than games on more powerful systems with better graphics and higher framerates. You’ll notice some object pop-in as you fall from the sky and you might experience a freeze once in a while (like really once in a while, hardly with mentioning), but the game has no load times between the sky, ground, and underground. There are some brief load times when you first start the game or fast travel but all of this is nothing compared to what we see on other systems. Compared to Breath of the Wild, these load times are nothing!

And then there’s the game’s sound! The music can be subtle like Breath of the Wild but it kicks into high gear for the epic, amazing cutscenes and boss battles. It is fantastic music, always fitted to the situation Link finds himself in. The sound effects are great too. The game also has very good voice acting! Link doesn’t talk but some of the other people won’t shut up. It’s wonderful. Tears of the Kingdom is wonderful.

Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a must have Nintendo Switch game. Even if you didn’t like Breath of the Wild, you should give this game as try. Nintendo has taken the Legend of Zelda franchise to the next level, creating a game with out of this world gameplay, fantastic graphics and wonderful sound. You won’t want to stop playing Tears of the Kingdom. What a great game!

Thanks to Nintendo Canada for providing a review code for this game. Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is out now for the Nintendo Switch.

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