The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

[autodach]

I finished TotK this week, and I want to write down my thoughts because this game deserves to have its praises sung <3. No story spoilers, but I do mention game mechanics and characters.


Graphics & style

Starting with the least important out of spite because I saw people online criticising the graphics and frame rate. I noticed a drop in frame rate exactly twice - both times the game recovered quickly and resumed as normal. TotK does not have frame rate issues. The slightly stylized art works brilliantly for the mechanics. I also find it aesthetically pleasing. Photorealism is not the measure we should apply here and I am frankly tired of the gaming community's obsession with hyperrealism.



Gameplay

• Abilities
Link’s old abilities from Breath of the Wild are gone (I weep for the bombs), replaced by his shiny new Zonai hand and everything it can do. At the heart of the game sits the building mechanic. It’s deceptively simple; just glue movable objects together to join them semi-permanently. Add in the special Zonai objects to get wheels, steering wheels, fans, rockets and other fun stuff. I’m gonna be honest here: It does clash a little with the sword-and-shield -fantasy Zelda has going on when Link flies around in an attack helicopter; but it works so well gameplay-wise I can forgive that easily.
In a similar vein, you can fuse objects to weapons, shields, arrows, or simply throw them. There are a LOT of possible combinations, and it’s up to you to figure out what works the best (and what makes you op in the late game lol).
The game also lets you phase through ceilings, which seems overpowered at first, but actually most of the time you want to climb mountains and that doesn’t work without an overhang or something like that. It’s also restricted in its range.

• The game gives so many tools to deal with the obstacles you encounter. You feel smart for figuring out a puzzle precisely because you aren’t just stumbling on the one solution that exists, but actually have to logically apply your tools and use the game mechanics to your advantage. So many times I found myself thinking "that was definitely not the intended way but it worked". For example, in warm environments you take damage unless you: Wear appropriate clothing, eat cool food, use a cooling elixir, splash yourself with water, or stay in the shade. Or you could tough it out and heal the damage. It's your choice and I love that.

• Tutorials/game flow
The game guides gently without handholding. For example the ruby spear: When you reach the desert oasis for the first time, you will probably talk to the NPCs. One Gerudo has a quest asking for a fused weapon, a fire weapon crafted from a spear and ruby. You can find a spear at the oasis. After you fused it and showed it to her, you can keep the fire spear.
Shortly after you encounter the area’s most numerous enemies: Gibdos. They are a pain to kill via raw damage, but highly vulnerable to elemental damage such as fire. So the game just handed you the perfect weapon against these foes, and taught you how to make more in the process, with 0 tutorial text.
There are traditional tutorials as well, but most of the information is acquired more organically like this.

• The world of TotK has three layers this time:

1. The Ground/Earth. This map is basically the same as BotW. Some things have changed; a stable has moved, a house has been built, a lake dried up, that sort of thing. But still very familiar if you have played BotW. What’s different is the atmosphere: In BotW, there was this sense of loneliness, melancholy, and wilderness. You were exploring the ruins of a Hyrule that was destroyed 100 years ago and there is nothing you can do to fix that destruction. Nature has already taken back its rights, the survivors have resettled in new places. In TotK, the danger is current. You meet other soldiers fighting back against Ganon’s forces. You meet refugees from a village that has been taken over by pirates, and if you defeat those, the displaced villagers will return and rebuild. You recruit permanent allies to accompany you on your travels.

2. The Sky. This one I liked the least. It’s a diffuse collection of floating islands and a lot of them are a pain to reach.

3. Hell The Depths. This area is completely dark and only lights up little by little as you activate light roots. Every root is located beneath a shrine on the surface, which helps to find both shrines and roots. The Depths are filled with gloom that lowers your maximum health until you resurface or reach light root, and the enemies here also deal gloom damage. So you can’t just power through the damage by healing constantly. I like the different flavor of challenge here and it’s extremely satisfying to gradually reveal the map and literally light up the area.

This game is huge. There are 1000 Koroks and a Bubbul in every cave, holy shit. I did everything except the Koroks and Bubbul gems.




Story & music

Zelda and Link can’t catch a break lol. I have no complaints but no particular praise about the overall story either. It’s fine.
One thing I like is the return of Koga & the Yiga, they are very entertaining. This time you can also steal their schematics from their bases, as well as dress up as a Yiga yourself. Super fun!

The music is largely the same as in BotW. It serves the atmosphere but is also a bit boring. A lot of piano; erhu for the dragons – actually, only stables and dragons feature noticeable tracks at all.
Past Zelda titles have had great music that I find myself humming while chopping vegetables. Take for example Ocarina of Time: It had subdued music in the temples, but still featured the iconic Gerudo Desert, Lost Woods and Lonlon themes in other places. I don’t need to be blasted by music all the time but some more memorable tracks would have been nice.



Other notes


• In BotW you could challenge Ganon anytime after the tutorial. This time, you have to do at least a bit of the main quest I think (not sure though), but you can still go up against the final boss quite early. You can even, totally hypothetically of course, wander right into the final battle accidentally and suddenly face Ganon completely unprepared using only whatever equipment you happened to carry at the time. In this very hypothetical scenario you might be glad to discover Ganon is actually a pushover. Seriously, this fight is laughably easy. I had more trouble with regular enemies.

• Speaking of enemies: If you thought the guardians from BotW were scary, you haven’t met the Gloom Hands yet. These things are terrifying.

They look the part, too:



In the late game they are manageable, but until then, if you are misfortunate enough to encounter them, you run.