It’s been a long road since the Switch first released with the absolute bombshell that was Breath of the Wild, and there’s been many more games to be enjoying on the hybrid system across the years. But the sequel to Breath of the Wild? That was one to watch. Back in 2017, things were crazy for Breath of the Wild, so does Tears of the Kingdom live up to its predecessor?
There are many repeating factors in the structure of this one, but when the base is so good, why improve it? After all, what made Breath of the Wild so loved is its exploration, the freedom of play with its systems, so doing too much to disrupt that would work against this sequel. The game makes sure to put twists on the familiar so that it doesn’t feel like a repeat.
After the introduction to the calamity that takes hold of Hyrule, Link again finds himself awakening in a cave with no equipment. Out of the cave, it’s revealed he’s up high among the sky islands. This first is much like the Great Plateau from Breath of the Wild, with four shrines (one of which on a cold snowy mountain) that teaches how to use each of the four new powers.
Ultrahand has been a lot of fun to mess around with, allowing things to be stuck together. Zonai tech such as fans can then power those creations to move. It’s simple enough to control the mechanics behind Ultrahand, if a bit fiddly. Since it’s unlikely you’ll be using it in combat situations (unless you want to use it to try sneaking past an enemy with a wooden board), that doesn’t matter too much.
Fuse can create new weapons, shields, and arrow types, giving them special effects and repairing the damage of them. With the massive amount of items in the game, you can create some weird-looking things. Anyone for a meaty thick stick? Recall also comes in handy for combat, being the power that reverses time on an object. While useful for puzzles, it can also be used to send something thrown back the way it came. Big lumbering enemies throwing explosives… opportunity for that to blow up in their face.
The last power is Ascend, which is only useful for puzzles and movement, but can help to get out of some combat situations quickly if there’s something above your head. These four are different to what Breath of the Wild offered, with those original powers no more. As such, when it’s time for Link to dive back down to Hyrule, exploring the familiar land brings with it new ways to interact with that land.
What stays the same, as I said before, is the structure. Tasked with going to four areas with the end game quest also marked, the choice is yours as to what you do. But there is plenty scattered around Hyrule to grab your attention. The towers to fill in the map on the Purah Pad now come with a bit of challenge rather than just climbing to their top. The shrines have massive variety to them. Caves and wells have interesting items to find within.
Since the game is so natural in giving you freedom to explore, that’s just what I did. Turning off the main quest marker, I just explored. Wandered the land from tower to tower, finding shrines and koroks, dangers I was unprepared to face, stubbornly refusing to back away from more cold mountains and wasting all that food I’d found rather than cooking them into meals that would restore more hearts. It was such a great adventure of survival.
Exploring freely allowed me to appreciate the beauty of this world. The forests, the lakes, the mountains… every region has been injected with delightful scenery that’s hard to not want to drink in. The towns each have their own style, with those occupied mostly by the other species being the most unique. When the blood moon rises to respawn all slain monsters, there’s an eerie atmosphere to the world as it gets bathed in red.
But no atmosphere can compete with that of the depths. Just as there’s lands above, there’s also a land below ground, and this is the greatest of places to be exploring. At first, there’s no light. All is dark except for the small green glow of the air mites and the red glow of the gloom. It looks like you’re walking on air, climbing on air, and being oppressed by the darkness. There are temporary ways to bring light to the darkness, revealing small sections of this underground landmass, but also a permanent way.
The roots of trees stretch down to this underground area, with many serving as a way to bring light from above to provide a guiding light around a small section of those roots. Well, small when you consider the depths are as large as Hyrule is. The light reveals an ancient civilisation, with ruins and statues, temples and other facilities. An entire ecosystem lost to time, with a rocky harsh landscape that still has a beauty of its own.
There are a lot of dangers that have come from the Upheaval, being the same as the Calamity that had struck Hyrule previously. Monsters have risen again, raiding the land and bringing chaos. They feel a lot tougher this time around, which means no rushing in without being prepared with a strategy. Or the same stubborn glutton attitude as tackling a snow-covered mountain.
Things are even more dangerous down in the depths, where the gloom will stop you from being able to recover hearts unless you know ways to combat that. As well as that are things jumping you from the dark. It’s never been so fun to be a coward, running away in total darkness trying to find somewhere to climb or hoping for a cliff to glide down before you get pummelled.
It is a wonderful game of discovery, much the same as Breath of the Wild. As I said with my Saints Row review, sometimes it’s okay to be more of the same. Though there’s more things to find and explore, and new powers to explore with, the core of this experience is the same. But that is not a problem at all. Though it might all seem familiar, there is still joy in uncovering everything of this world.
Images Taken From:
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | Nintendo Switch (Undocked)
