The Shrines of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom limit the way we play the game

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom feels like a giant playpen where players can run around like a bunch of kids and wreak havoc in the best possible way. New powers and items allow Link to build everything from skateboards to twisted gadgets that torment koroks. Combine that with an expansive world and Tears of the Kingdom offers players ample opportunity to experience the world in different ways. However, that freedom comes with strings attached: players must complete dungeon-style shrines to level up Link, and it limits the way people play the game – for better or worse.

Link has two main stats Tears of the Kingdom: Hearts (which determine how much damage he can take) and Stamina (which determine how long Link can run, climb, swim, or slide). Together, these two stats play a vital role in how each person experiences the game. More hearts or a larger stamina wheel will make routine activities like fighting and exploring easier to complete. It can mean the difference between being killed in one hit and surviving, or allowing you to slide or climb far enough to reach an objective. While there are ways around these limitations – improved armor can bolster Link’s defenses, and Zonai Devices can help Link explore – both of these stats, on the whole, have a major impact on a player’s ability to travel around Hyrule.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

With the exception of some hearts, which you can get by playing through the main questline, you can only improve these traits by completing miniature dungeons called shrines. Defeating a Shrine will reward you with a Light of Blessing, and you can spend four of these on either a Heart Cache or part of the Stamina Wheel. Each shrine functions as a tiny dungeon with a small puzzle – or series of puzzles – to solve. While some shrines can offer tricky puzzle solutions, none of them span the length of a temple.

There’s a lot to love about this particular system. Some of the shrines act as tutorials that show players how to interact with the world. Instead of teaching the use of each individual Zonai device at the beginning of the game, players gradually integrate the knowledge after completing dozens of shrines. This is particularly important in Tears of the Kingdom because at first you don’t know how to use all the items or how to make complicated machines with Zonai devices. Besides its functionality, it is also flexible. If you’re having trouble with a specific shrine, you can just skip it. There are so many shrines that skipping a few here and there won’t hurt your stats.

However, unless you’re a tricked-out speedrunner, this system also limits how you can play this open-world adventure. Two of Link’s most important stats are related to Shrine completion, which can seem inflexible for players who are more into exploring. At the start Tears of the Kingdom, the cavernous darkness of the deep area absolutely fascinated me. I liked how challenging the exploration was and felt the excitement of big, bad creatures appearing in the dark. And while I really enjoyed my time there, I eventually had to discipline myself and force myself to build shrines. Link’s health just wasn’t enough, especially considering that the gloom in the depths can temporarily steal hearts.

I don’t think developers should get rid of shrines or that shrines are bad. But the current shrine system limits how people can enjoy the game, as it’s a de facto requirement for anyone wanting to add Link’s hearts or stamina wheel. If players don’t get the same rewards for activities like exploring the overworld, it will make it harder to play the game with exploration alone. If someone is more interested in building cool Zonai machines, or just wants to turn Hyrule into a horse simulation game – or isn’t interested in shrines for some other reason – then they’re out of luck.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

Previous Zelda games rewarded additional exploration by allowing players to collect heart pieces in chests throughout the overworld – a feature that did not exist there Tears of the Kingdom. Other adventure games also offer no-die or no-damage modes where players can simply run around the world. On the other hand, the Nintendo developers seem determined to let all players go through the shrines and solve them.

Critics of this idea might rightly point out that dungeons are a defining feature of the Legend of Zelda games. The only problem is that the breadth and openness of Tears of the Kingdom has already eclipsed that idea. The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, and now Tears of the Kingdom and its new sandbox mechanics have dramatically expanded what Zelda could be. Zelda is on a journey of discovery. Zelda builds ridiculous robots. Zelda collects and cooks. It’s about dressing Link in cute outfits and taking pictures. And for some, Zelda might not finish dozens of shrines.