THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM is the perfect sequel to THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD

It’s no secret that The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom Tears has enjoyed a hugely successful launch. Nintendo Life reported that the game surpassed 10 million copies sold in just three days. Unfortunately I was unable to repeat the playback Sword to the sky before it came out as I didn’t have the patience to finish it before it burst Kingdom tears. I’ve logged many hours and feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of the game and am loving every minute of it. For me, this was a great sequel to Breath of the wild for many reasons. I won’t discuss any specific story points, but if you want to go into the game completely blind, stop reading here.

The first challenge the game overcame was how to make an old map feel fresh and new. Those who 100% Breath of the wild they probably had very little of the world they hadn’t explored (those cursed Koroks have been in the damnedest places). Well the surface level map is familiar and has some new twists added, but now we have both the sky and underground to explore. This was a brilliant way to keep things fresh and new while giving players some fun rediscovering familiar places. It was great fun to come across the Great Plateau area again and it was really fun to see how other familiar places have evolved. But the sky and especially the Depths have so much to offer in terms of exploration, you can spend hours trying to complete your map. There are also familiar old monsters and some terrifying new additions to enemies, so stay alert as you explore.

The history of this game was a lot of fun to learn. I don’t want to give too much spoiler here, but suffice it to say that Link and Zelda are going their separate ways and there are places you can go that will show you what Zelda is up to during the separation. It was really nice to see her being a more proactive character who totally follows what we’ve seen from her Breath of the wild. While I still think Ocarina of time had my favorite Zelda characterization, this is definitely a close second. But I digress. The thing I really liked about this story uncovering game is that there are giant glyphs where you search for the point to unlock the cinematic scene. I like this more than Breath of the wild which was kind of boring the way you unlocked those memories. This made it easier to see a glyph in the distance and mark it on the map for later exploration. I didn’t go too far into the actual story, but what I found is really interesting and definitely worth unlocking.

The new skills in the game are so much fun. You’ve probably already seen tons of videos of people making cool and ridiculous weapons and structures. It’s a lot of fun to see what you can build and how new weapons and shields can work. But my favorite so far has been the ascension which will allow you to reach the top of any structure from below. He did so much to aid in the exploration to prevent a lot of tedious climbing. There’s still a lot of climbing to be done, but it’s a fun way out of a cave that proved too difficult to traverse.

Lastly, the game looks and plays well. Does it run at high fps like other new games? No. But is it still great? Absolutely. And it runs smoothly with no terrible glitches that I’ve found. You wouldn’t think it necessary to say this, but sometimes it seems like fewer and fewer games are actually being completed. It appears that this game was made by a team of people who were passionate and wanted to make a great game. Also, the music is just too perfect, I desperately need the official soundtrack to release.

I am seriously loving this game. If you liked it Breath of the wild then you definitely will too. Absolutely no notes, just a great game, 10/10. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have more sanctuaries to complete.