The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to the critically acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The game takes place in the same open-world environment of Hyrule, but it has been expanded to allow for more vertical exploration. The game's story follows Link's efforts to assist Princess Zelda in preventing Ganondorf from destroying Hyrule.
I have played the first two hours of Tears of the Kingdom, and I am impressed with what I have seen so far. The game is visually stunning, and the gameplay is both challenging and rewarding.
Here is a detailed breakdown of the pros and cons of the game:
Pros:
Visuals: The game is visually stunning, with a beautiful art style and impressive attention to detail. The world of Hyrule is vast and varied, and there is always something new to discover.
Gameplay: The gameplay is both challenging and rewarding. There is a lot of freedom to explore the world and approach challenges in your own way. The combat is fluid and engaging, and the new abilities add depth to the exploration. I will say the amount of controls and abilities even in the first hour can come off complex, although I felt I got the hang of it pretty quickly (although I kept trying to run with the ability feature button).
New abilities: The new abilities that Link can learn in Tears of the Kingdom add a lot of depth to the exploration from what I can tell. You can climb up almost any surface, glide (and dive) through the air, and even swim around the map. This gives you a lot more freedom to explore the world and find new secrets.
Story: The story is compelling and engaging. It picks up where Breath of the Wild left off, and it does a great job of expanding the lore of the series. The 15 minute intro cinematic was nicely put together and gets me excited for what’s to come!
Cons:
Puzzles: Some of the puzzles in the game can be a bit tricky. They can be difficult to accomplish even when you know what you need to do. I found myself stuck due to mechanics versus the actual challenge of the puzzle. For example, using the fuse option and piecing together items was a bit difficult, although knowing what I needed to do, making the object and allowing it to properly function was the hardest part.
Overwhelming: The game can be a bit overwhelming at first. There is so much to do and see, and it can be hard to know where to start. However, once you get the hang of things, you'll be able to explore the world at your own pace. I’ve heard some players were on the “tutorial” portion for 5-6 hours, which doesn’t surprise me, but it could be a bit much for the beginning of this title.
Price: This part threw me off at the store, seeing the pricetag an even $10 over the typical price of $60 for a Switch title ($70 USD), it may discourage some of the younger players that love Zelda. I won’t argue the price for what level of content you get, but for some I’ve heard this was a bit of a dealbreaker for them.
Overall, I am very impressed with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It is a worthy sequel to Breath of the Wild, and I highly recommend it to fans of the series.
