The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a Masterpiece

Console: Nintendo Switch

Time played: 120+ hours

It’s extremely rare for me that I can play a game for over 120 hours and still feel like I’ve got plenty more to accomplish with it, but that’s the way I feel about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, an all-around fantastic open-world adventure that can be enjoyed by just about anyone.

TOTK presents players with an expansive land that they’re free to explore at whatever pace, and in whatever order, they so choose, while at the same time presenting a compelling and rewarding story for players who more fully explore the world of the game. In nearly every way, it’s an improvement off of the Switch’s flagship title, and the console’s first Zelda game, Breath of the Wild, that was released in 2017.

I should point out before I delve into some more thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom, that I am not a diehard fan of the Zelda series of games as a whole, as I know many people are. In fact, I didn’t finally play Breath of the Wild until earlier this year, and while I definitely enjoyed it (grading it an 8.5/10), I also acknowledged that it wasn’t a perfect game for me. Tears of the Kingdom, on the other hand, if it’s not a perfect game, comes pretty darn close.

As with the first Zelda game on the console, the ultimate strength of TOTK, is its beautifully crafted, and incredibly full, world. In addition to a surface map very similar to BOTW’s, TOTK introduces players to the sky and the depths, equally full areas with plenty to do and discover.

The islands scattered throughout the sky can be glided to after launching Link from one of the surface’s 15 Skyview Towers. These varying-in-size islands feel bright and colorful. Here, we’re above any potential storms that might be raging on down below, and there are shrines to find, sundelion flowers to gather, and patrolling robot constructs to defeat.

The depths are another story. The land beneath the surface is covered in health-depleting gloom and filled with tough gloom-covered monsters. There are no shrines with Spirit Orbs as rewards here. In the depths, players search out Lightroots, collect Poes, and mine for zonaite. The depths definitely felt intimidating to me when I was first playing the game, but after I improved, I found that there was plenty to accomplish down below.

The majority of a player’s time will be spent on the surface though, and this was still my favorite part of the game to focus on. While Link’s ultimate goal might be to find out what’s happened to Princess Zelda by way of investigating four regional phenomena and searching out dragon’s tears, there are plenty of other goals to accomplish here.

Link needs to help a musical troupe re-assemble so that they can play music for fairies that can increase the strength of his armor. He’s also a newspaper reporter with a giant pelican assistant investigating news stories. He needs to save a village from monsters and then help rebuild it. He should search out, and catch, Zelda’s golden horse. There’s just so much to do in this game, and what you choose to do before facing Ganondorf is entirely up to you.

The fact that you can basically do (or not do) whatever you want in TOTK could work against the game if players don’t accomplish main tasks, specifically collecting the dragon’s tears. When you find one of the 12 tears scattered across the land, you’re shown a glimpse into the past, and learn more about what’s happened to Zelda.

I really enjoyed these short scenes, which each lasted around a few minutes, and feel like without finding the tears I wouldn’t have gotten the majority of the story of the game. Finding the tears really should almost be required to complete TOTK. I understand that the game’s developers want to leave as much choice as possible in the player’s hands, but these scenes made the game great to me. The scenes are the perfect length too – long enough that we get an emotional story, but not overlong, as is the case with cutscenes in many games.

I still have some minor gripes with TOTK, mainly when it comes to the precision-related aspects of puzzles or building things. There were definitely times I was frustrated when I understood what I was supposed to do to accomplish a task or solve a puzzle, but couldn’t handle the controls in the way I was meant to. These times though were not as frequent as they were in BOTW, and there was so much fun to be had in the game that it didn’t detract from my overall experience too much.

There are so many enjoyable and rewarding aspects to TOTK. It’s a game where you can spend hours gathering the materials necessary to improve a piece of armor, and have a great time doing so. It’s also a fulfilling game with a worthwhile story, as long as you take the time to seek it out.

I’d recommend TOTK to anyone who has even the remotest potential interest in playing a video game of any sort. It’s the new gold standard in an adventure open-world game.

Grade: 9.5/10