The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

This yet another magnum opus from Nintendo. Breath of the Wild came and completely changed the way we gamers viewed and played open-world games. Now after 6 years, Tears of the Kingdom shows how Nintendo still had a lot of innovative ideas in the minds to improve the experience even further, a feat I didn't think was possible. So many new and incredible gameplay mechanics are introduced here which I haven't seen in any other game I've ever played. I would go on to say these gameplay mechanics are the most innovative and creative. They completely changed the way players will experience Hyrule again. The Hyrule itself although similar is quite different than before. We have the new Sky and Underground maps now that makes the exploration even more worthwhile. One thing I also appreciate about its gameplay is how it allows freedom but also test the player's creativity and problem-solving skills like no other. Having many tools at the disposal means nothing if the players can't exploit them according to their creativity and not something that was scripted by the developers. The physics engine in this game is also the best i've ever seen with Red Dead Redemption 2's physics engine at close second place. This time the game has a heavy emphasis on story, and the plot is very interesting with proper voice acting. There are also dungeons in this one for those missing them in Breath of the Wild. Last but not the least, the graphics although not ground-breaking by today's standard, are still very artistic. In fact, it looks and feels like a Studio Ghibli movie. Due to this art-style, this game will still look gorgeous even after 25 years whereas most photorealistic game of today will probably not age well in comparison. We've seen this in case of Wind Waker, which is a timeless piece of joyful art. In comparison Mass Effect, which came a few years later hasn't aged that well in looks department. Although, I do admit that there are a few performance drops in some instances due to Switch's hardware limitations. I believe this should have been a launch title for the Switch 2 and as a result should've made use of improved specification to run smoother and looked better. Nevertheless, the questions is that do I like it more than Breath of the Wild? Well, in some cases yes and in some cases no. Yes because it's clearly a more grander experience with vastly larger map, better gameplay mechanics and better story. But it doesn't compare with the experience of discovering Hyrule for the first time in Breath of the Wild. Although by comparison the experience of Breath of the Wild was a lot simpler; but that was where the true beauty of Breath of the Wild really was. It was after a very long time that I had some much fun, and a sense of nostalgic escapism; or maybe, feeling like a kid again playing a video-game. Nintendo clearly knows how to make the most memorable and joyful video-game experiences, and this alongside Breath of the Wild ranks topmost in my absolute best game of all time.

Tears of the Kingdom had to live up to the impossible expectations of being a sequel to one of the best games of all time. What is even more impossible is that it not only lived up to those expectations, it blew past them in every possible way.

My personal worry while waiting for this game was that it would be good, but it wouldn't capture the same magic of exploration that Breath of the Wild did. The game soon proved me wrong with it's sheer size and vastly changed Hyrule. The game world has been changed to a point where it's near unrecognizable apart from the huge landmarks, and the added layers of verticality expand upon the world to be more than double the size.

I was immediately lost and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff to do and explore, see how my favorite locations have changed etc. But in an absolutely good way. Really, the amount of times I was distracted from what I was doing only shows how magical exploring Hyrule again was.

The new abilities and mechanics are a joy to toy around with, and the physics engine is so in depth that the possibilities given to the player are almost truly limitless. There are countless ways to solve puzzles, and probably as many for straight up skipping them. The vehicle building was an unexpected but definitely welcome addition and I had way too much fun designing the worst and most cursed ways of traversal.

It is amazing how good the game looks even with the limitations of the Switch. The art direction is absolutely gorgeous and I would often stop and just enjoy the view, accompanied by the immaculate sound design. The atmosphere is so good that I enjoyed even just walking through the environment.

That being said there are also moments where the Switch doesn't pull through in the form of janky textures, very noticeable pop-in, and occasional frame drops. Even then the game was too good for these problems to hinder my overall experience.

The story is a simple but functional Zelda story so it is nothing amazing, but the high points and climaxes still hit extremely hard. Especially the finale was exceptionally good, one of the best videogame finales out there.

Everything I hoped for and more, a true masterpiece.

Just a heads up this review has no major spoilers.

From the moment this game starts you are in for an immersive experience. Anything from the story to the actual gameplay is phenomenal. The overall performance of the game will encounter very few flaws.(but yes they are there just not very noticeable) If you are a long time Zelda fan or you are a fan of open world type games you are in for an absolute treat! This game is not even close to what you consider just simply " Botw DLC" it's so much more than that and it really stands out not only as a direct sequel but as it's own title as well. There has been moments that were jaw dropping as well as moments that had my heart racing from excitement. Overall, the music, the graphics, the exploration, the story and game mechanics are to die for. Pick up this game immediately and ignore these people who claim this is just " DLC" it's so much more than that!

I have played many year over the years from god of war to grand theft auto. And i have to say with all honesty it's the best game i've played The most open and creative game i've played and it's surprising how it runs on a switch properly I'm giving the game a 10/10 Best game i've ever played yet Everything about the game from the story to the gameplay to the characters Everything is perfect.

Best game ever.

It should be goty2023 And it improves so much on botw After seeing what zelda can do i can't wait for a sequel to totk The legend of zelda tears of the kingdom is a very nice and fun game to play 💯

My title holds some weight, I know.

Calling a game the "best game of all time" will always be subjective, but to call this game anything but a piece of art is criminal. I've seen a few reviews here that rate 6 and below, and I don't think I've agreed with almost anything they've said. Sure there are some minor story and performance issues, but neither effected me too much in my experience, not to mention the performance issues being a byproduct of this masterpiece being a switch title. And even then, if you have a good enough PC, just pick up a physical copy of TOTK and then play it on your PC, they deserve the money for this title.

This game is not only the sequel to what many considered one of the best games ever made, it is BETTER in every aspect. To call BOTW a better experience is near blasphemy on gaming, don't get me wrong, I love BOTW's setting and story elements as much as the next person, but this game expands on everything BOTW had and MORE, a better setting, a better more fleshed out story, quite literally everything is better.

Unique Mechanics, an Improved world from the previous game, a good story, an amazing score, incredible art direction, good combat, MANY enemies to fight, adding basically an entire maps worth of new area to explore, DUNGEONS ( I continue to hear "these aren't dungeons!" from people, but they are Dungeons. This is just like when people said BOTW wasn't a Zelda game back in 2017. ) and so much more I can't even list off the top of my head as I just did the aforementioned features.

Calling this game DLC shows that you fail to understand what a sequel is. I didn't see people crying over how God of War Ragnarok's map was reused, but because it's Nintendo, it's instantly bad. I'm not trying to defend Nintendo, as they do happen to produce half baked spin-offs quite often, but that's a topic for another review.

This game captivated me like no other, BOTW was a magical experience, and this game caught that feeling into an intricately wrapped gift and gave me the exact same feeling, but a new and fresh experience. I may as well treat this game's existence like the second coming of christ, because dear god have I never loved a game more.

I currently have 100 hours on the game, which may not seem like much at the moment, but I'm not even nearing the completion any time soon.

Tears of the Kingdom is truly something out of this world, and I don't think the gaming landscape is going to see anything like it until the next Zelda game releases, which I have high hopes for.