The Legend of Zelda: The Tears of the Kingdom
Review
2024-09-21
In that intro sequence where you're plodding around the boring tutorial cloud island I actually for a moment thought maybe Nintendo had whiffed it with the sequel to BOTW. And then Link jumps off from the island and that fucking music starts. I'm not gonna lie, man, I teared up.
And then I used Ascend for the first time. And then I discovered the Depths. And then I made a fucked up flying go-kart with a little man tied to it. And then and then and then. 95 hours of wonderful little experiences that only Nintendo could make. Play it.
2023-06-17
I'm kind of dreading this review because it's such an utterly spectacular game with an absurd amount of content and systems and polish and...wonder that I know it's just going to be impossible to capture everything that made me love my time (almost 100 hours) with the game.
To start I actually was pretty cool on the game. You open with basically a playable cutscene which is new for Zelda but then after some Plot Stuff you end up in the clouds. And wow yeah it's cool looking. But then it's tutorial after tutorial after tutorial. You don't have many of your powers and getting around is very painful. I mean adding in the cold mechanics that early when you don't have stamina and you can't easily travel around felt a little cruel. I was genuinely a little worried.
And then you jump off the ledge from the floating island and the fucking music starts playing. And there's a dragon flying in the background. And I was filled with awe and wonder. I honest to god started to tear up. In that moment I was like "My god, they've done it." Because of course they have. It's Nintendo, it's Zelda, and they've had 6 years to make the follow up to one of the greatest games of all time. And it's another fuckin' greatest game of all time, baby.
After that it was just surprise after surprise and the addiction of exploring the world like in BOTW set in. I'm learning the new abilities, I'm fighting a Flux Conscript, and that the fight uses those abilities and it's cool as shit, I'm learning about how combining different items makes different weapons, I see the return of Like Likes and it spits up a chest, they have Bomb Flowers. I realized Ascend might be one of the coolest abilities ever put in a game because it makes just think about the layout of levels and the world totally differently ("Oh well if I just go through this platform then I can go there...").
Then I find the Depths and my mind blows up. Because I was already sold on just exploring the overworld again with the addition of the sky islands but now there's whole 'nother underground world? And it's scary but rewards you with stuff that benefits you in exploring aboveground? And exploring the skies gives you maps that show treasures in the Depths. Then I realized the 1:1 relationship between shrines on the overworld and the Lightroots in the Depths.
God I haven't had as much fun playing a game since Elden Ring. They both have huge open worlds that are chock full of fun organic things to do. They're gorgeous so you just want to go to see things. But they also reward you constantly with items and progression of your character. There are so many different resources to be gathering in different places that all synergize and build together so you're always building towards something you're excited about.
After probably about 60 hours of just purely exploring, most of that focused on the Depths because they're broody and scary and fascinating and fun, I finally started the main quest. And the Temples are great. About 4 interconnected puzzles and then a big boss fight. And the boss fights are superlative. I mean these are some of the coolest bosses you'll ever see and each one is fun utilizing the new ability you gain from your Sage-buddy in classic Zelda fashion.
Oh, I almost forgot the puzzles. I think this Zelda game might have the best puzzles of any Zelda game, and therefore, any puzzle game I've ever played. I only got stuck on a couple of them but I don't think I love them just because they're easy. I love them because 1) they give you a hint in the title with the Shrine or with the array of items they give you and 2) even if you get stuck you can combine the abilities and crafting in the game to cheese through a ton of it. I can't tell you how many shrines I got through because in a situation where I needed to bring an item to an elevated platform I just lifted the item with Ultrahand, let it fall, climbed up to the platform, reversed time on the item I lifted, and then picked up the item from the platform. Or I built some rickety bullshit because I fundamentally didn't understand what they wanted me to do. But it didn't matter because I finished the puzzle anyway. The sheer creativity the array of mechanics they put in the game fosters is unreal.
The final boss was maybe a little bit of a slog in how long it was but the final part with Zelda dragon facing off against Ganon dragon is one of the coolest things I've ever seen in a video game. A tremendous send off for a tremendous game. God, .