After a six-year wait, Nintendo released its latest Legend of Zelda title — Tears of the Kingdom (TOTK) — on Friday, 12 May 2023, and the game is an impressive expansion of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
As a testament to the franchise’s popularity and the instant acclaim the game received, Nintendo revealed TOTK sold over 10 million copies within three days of its launch.
We got the game on launch day — I’ve been playing it all week and have only uncovered a fraction of what there is to discover.
Having only last played the Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask — released in 1998 — I was immensely impressed with the new title.
As one would expect with an over 20-year break between playing the Legend of Zelda series, the first thing that jumped out at me was the level of detail and overall graphics.
Although I know Breath of the Wild looked similar, to me, what used to be a world of pixelated trees and textures is now vibrant and vast, with exciting and challenging landscapes.
The size of the map has also significantly increased, and I often found myself distracted by specific points of interest and landmarks while travelling to complete some of the main quests.
I am primarily a first-person shooter gamer, with most of my gaming hours spent playing Overwatch 2 on PC, and, with this being my first time getting my hands on a Nintendo Switch, I was nervous about whether I would enjoy the game.
However, I was pleasantly surprised. The introduction to the game is elaborate. It gives players detailed tutorials on using abilities and game mechanics while allowing them time to hone their skills.
It is also quite forgiving. On one occasion, I got to a point where I needed to cross a fast-flowing river and messed up the process by letting the materials provided for a raft wash away downstream.
However, thanks to the Ultrahand ability — explained in more detail later — it was pretty easy to chop down and join trees to create a makeshift raft.
There were multiple times something like this happened where I thought: “Well, that’s it. I’m stuck now.” However, after looking around and considering my options, there always seemed to be an alternative method to such tasks.
My one gripe with the game — and this is mainly due to a lack of patience on my part — is the long cut scenes. While most of them are skippable, several aren’t and I found myself mashing buttons trying to cut them short to no avail.
As someone new to the Nintendo Switch and modern Legend of Zelda games, I can easily recommend Tears of the Kingdom to anyone looking to play a fun and engaging action-adventure.
The story follows Link, the iconic swordsman you play in all Legend of Zelda games, as he tries to uncover the truth behind a cataclysmic event called The Upheaval that happens after he and Zelda accidentally awaken Ganondorf.
Ganondorf propels Hyrule Castle into the sky, tearing chasms in the Kingdom of Hyrule leading to the depths below.
At the same time, pieces of Zonai ruins began falling from the sky, metallic weapons start to decay, and a slew of bizarre disasters began taking place all over the kingdom.
As a result of the catastrophic event, the game’s map has expanded exponentially, with new parts of Hyrule available to explore and two additional maps — one for the depths below the kingdom and another for the floating sky islands above.
During the Upheaval, Zelda vanishes, and Link is tasked with finding the princess, who seems to appear every time a disaster occurs.
Zonai Sky Islands
In Tears, the story starts shortly after the Upheaval, with Link waking up on a Zonai sky island above Hyrule.
Climates on the island can get quite cold, forcing players to find clothing to protect from the cold or ingredients to cook food that provides Link with the cold-resistance effect.
Speaking of cooking, Nintendo has enhanced the system by adding a recipe book which automatically adds recipes as you cook a new one.
This simplifies picking and holding ingredients from your inventory by automatically pulling them out when you select a recipe.
Link re-learns some of his abilities on the sky islands, such as Ultrahand and Recall.
Recall gives Link the ability to rewind certain objects.
For example, the Upheaval caused pieces of sky islands to fall to the earth. Link can use Recall on the pieces once they have landed to lift himself into the sky and to the position from where the chunk of the island fell.
This is particularly useful once Link receives his glider, allowing players to get a bird’s eye view of Hyrule and travel long distances.
Ultrahand lets Link lift, rotate, and bond certain materials. This opens a world of possibilities for travel with Zonai devices such as electric wheels, fans, and rockets.
Link can attach fans to gliders to propel them forward or a rocket for a massive but short-lived speed boost.
Similarly, he can attach electric wheels to a wooden, rock, or metal platform to create a ground vehicle when travelling across Hyrule.
Link also learns the Fuse ability, which lets him fuse certain materials to weapons, shields, and arrows to make them more powerful or add effects.
For example, your path may be blocked by a breakable rockfall. Players can fuse a bolder to a melee weapon, increasing its bluntness and making it efficient at rock breaking.
Link can attach almost any material to arrows to increase their effectiveness, launch bomb flowers that explode on impact, or freeze enemies, depending on the material attached.
Link gets access to the Kingdom of Hyrule’s ground-level area after completing a few tasks and learning abilities on the sky islands.
The Kingdom of Hyrule
The Kingdom of Hyrule is significantly larger than in Breath of the Wild. To put this into perspective, I only explored a fraction of the world in my 30 hours of playtime.
When you land in Hyrule, the map is mostly blank. However, a short walk will bring you to Lookout Landing, where Link is shown the first Skyview Tower.
Skyview Towers launch Link high into the air and uncover a large area of the map when activated for the first time.
They are also valuable points of interest for a quick launch into the air when travelling, so you can glide for part of your journey to reduce the time it takes.
I did most of my exploring in ground-level Hyrule, completing two of the four “Regional Phenomena” main-line quests that Link receives shortly after landing in the Kingdom.
Strewn across the map are various caves, each of which houses valuable loot and multiple enemies.
Players should beware of the Blood Moon’s cycle. The moon occurs once every seven in-game days, bathing the night in a red glow.
During a Blood Moon, all defeated enemies in the Kingdom of Hyrule are revived, including powerful Lynels, Taluses, and Constructs.
While it makes the Kingdom of Hyrule a dangerous place for its duration, the Blood Moon also resets all resources, and the revival of enemies lets Link defeat them again for loot.
Parts of Hyrule, particularly those close to the chasms that lead to the depths below, are covered in a substance called Gloom.
Gloom was spread across the map during the Upheaval, and touching it for approximately two seconds will remove one of Link’s hearts — effectively a section of his health bar — that can’t be replaced by eating.
Every now and then, I ran into Gloom Hands. These jump-scare monsters crawl out of the ground and try to grab Link, removing hearts in the process.
Once defeated, a set of Gloom Hands becomes a Phantom Ganon — a mini-boss that takes on one of three attack styles.
I am reluctant to admit how many times I died to Gloom Hands and the subsequent Phantom Ganon.
The Depths
One of Link’s earliest tasks when landing in Hyrule is to go into the depths below the Kingdom.
Gloom surrounds the chasms leading to the depths, although Link can largely avoid the substance while jumping into the abyss.
Once Link lands at the bottom of the chasm, he is presented with a dark world just as expansive as the Kingdom of Hyrule above.
In the depths, Link faces new enemies, can collect specific materials, and, most importantly, explore.
Travelling in this underworld is difficult due to the dark and multiple pools of Gloom strewn across the map.
However, he can illuminate areas using Lightbloom Seeds, which can be thrown or attached to an arrow to be launched further.
Like in the ground-level Kingdom of Hyrule map, there are structures in the depths Link can interact with to uncover sections of the map.
In the depths, these are known as Lightroots. When activated, they also restore Link’s hearts that were lost to Gloom.
As you can see from the screenshot below, I only explored a small portion of the depths during my first 30 hours with the game.
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