What’s exciting about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is how it picks up from some of the most influential elements of Breath of the Wild.
I, like a lot of people, wondered how fresh Tears of Kingdoms would be with a similar look six years later on console hardware that has barely changed, and it’s not just the same series that Zelda has to compete with game.
The mechanical deviations popularized by Breath of the Wild have been so comprehensively replicated and adopted by action games around the world that they are almost considered the default setting – kind of like how the Call of Duty control scheme stagnated after Modern Warfare 2 and has remained It’s been everywhere since then (I still shudder every time I think about pressing R3 to ADS).
Almost every game where you can climb a flight of stairs shows your grip being exhausted by a small wheel, and the glider has never been this big. So how can you say this new Zelda stands out as an innovator when you can do the same thing every day in Genshin Impact for the past three years?
But those are some of the main ways you traverse in Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom looks at them and says, “Well, you really don’t do that anymore”.
Link can now have Superman go from the bottom through caves to the high places instead of climbing the side of each cliff alone. Or, better yet, he can use the power of the Fuse to snap together a few pieces of wood, a few doohickeys, a battery, and a mechanized dragon head to pilot a fire-breathing hovercraft into the sunset.
In practice, the build is clumsy, but has the chaotic energy of a Top Gear challenge that makes every misaligned rocket and wobbly wheel a frenzy of fun: if it breaks, you just put the Tear it off and try again.
You don’t have to painstakingly piece together every creation you want to concoct throughout the game, but in the end there are things that simplify the process – so hopefully it doesn’t feel too much like a gimmick, heavily influenced throughout You are welcome to spend time with Kingdom Tears.
Speaking of crafting things together, Fuse can also be used on weapons and shields, turning a long stick into an exploding spear, or turning an inert board into a wind tunnel that blows enemies away.
One of my first tasks in Tears of the Kingdom was to attack Bokobrin Fortress. Speeding by in a rocket-powered “car” with three fans strapped to the back instantly blew away the element of surprise, beating a lanky moblin to one of their forehead-slender horns.
Fusing it to the end of a large pole allowed me to poke a few holes with the best pole, turning a humble twig into a dangerous piece of equipment. But you can also do stupid things with Fuse.
They tried to squash me with a giant spiked ball as I sneaked to the rest of the Bokobrin camp. Link’s Rewind power makes it roll back up the hill with explosive results, but then I can fuse the ball to the end of my two-handed sword to fight Boss Bokoblin – and he immediately does the same.
Enemies also use Fuse powers in combat with you to make it feel passive, like even though enemies are visually the same, they can take a completely different approach to fighting you instead of pulling from a fixed list of attacks come out.
When I posed in a duel with Boss Bokoblin, I remembered how satisfying the momentum-packed ragdoll fights in Breath of the Wild were, with slamming rams that knocked big guys to the ground. Then I (entirely on purpose, guaranteed) smashed its giant club into pieces like I was Obi-Wan cutting Darth Maul’s lightsaber in half, and when it finally stood up, it was amazed Turn around.
These physics-focused systems have huge potential for variety compared to other massive open-world games that feel stiff and unresponsive. It has the proper sandbox feel to it, making you feel like you’re cleverly changing the rules of engagement rather than just following predetermined moves. All of this also applies to puzzles. You can use your powers, platforms to manipulate large objects, interact with ancient technology or be launched into the air; sometimes all in the same campaign.
So while I didn’t see in my relatively brief preview whether the world of Tears of Kingdoms had the same incredible sense of density as Breath of the Wild – it’s always easy to fall into the trap of assuming you have everything What you see is what you get – it certainly gave me the same daunting sense of vastness and almost endless exploration.
Literally, if you were late to the party and played 100 hours of Breath of the Wild recently, not in 2017, you would still find Tear of Kingdoms completely different. However, the additions to the core loop do make this feel like a full-fledged sequel rather than just an update. The power of Fuse steals the show, letting you take an experimental approach to nearly everything you encounter.
