Is it worth it to go back to the same Hyrule after six years? That is the question many The Legend of Zelda fans asked themselves when it was announced that Tears of the Kingdom, the long awaited sequel to the groundbreaking Breath of the Wild, would recycle the same map and land as its predecessor. Tears of the Kingdom originally started as a concept for Breath of the Wild DLC, but it was too big, too ambitious, and had too many possibilities for it to simply be an add-on. Instead, the developers decided to make a whole new game. 

Tears of the Kingdom picks up the story in a period of reconstruction of renovation a few years after the events of Breath of the Wild. We follow Zelda and Link as they venture into the dark, secret hallways beneath Hyrule’s castle, as gloom (a malicious, poisonous substance) has manifested around the kingdom and whose place of origin seems to be within the depths of the castle. Zelda and Link eventually find a mummy-like figure who happens to wake up just as they enter the chamber. This mummy, revealed later to us as Ganondorf, the recurring villain from the saga, lifts up Hyrule castle to the sky and attacks our protagonists. Though Link tries to protect the princess with the Master Sword, the weapon is severely damaged by gloom and he fails to catch Zelda as she falls into the depths.

This is just the beginning of the stories of Zelda and Link, who now will follow two different paths. Link is able to put the pieces of the puzzle together through the Dragon Tears to find out what has happened to Zelda and where to find her, similar in function to the memories in Breath of the Wild. It is through these Dragon Tears that we “meet” some of the other important characters of the story as we learn about Hyrule’s ancient history. However, these memories, unlike in Breath of the Wild, fail to make the player feel included in the development of the story. After all, we are following a story that has already taken place in the past that has no direct involvement of Link whatsoever. Much of it feels impersonal and distant, amplified by how the rest of the characters of the game don’t catch up with what the player already knows from these memories. The storytelling in general leaves much to be desired: we learn nothing about Ganondorf’s motivation or origin, irreversible acts turn out to be, in fact, reversible, and the ancient Sages lack personality and depth—we never even learn their names!

After Zelda’s disappearance, Hyrule changes. This is referred to in the games as The Upheaval: chasms opening the earth and giving access to the depths have appeared in all regions, and the sky has cleared, revealing floating islands. As Link wakes up in The Great Sky Island and makes his way down to the land, he finds the same kingdom he knows, and yet it is completely different now. The thrill of discovery and exploring Hyrule is not lost, and I found myself getting sidetracked every couple of minutes while traveling because of the quantity of things to do. There are notably more shrines, Koroks and side quests than in the previous game. But that thrill is only reserved for the surface. Tears of the Kingdom adds two more layers to the overworld for the character to explore: the Sky, and the Depths. The Upheaval is never explained in game, leaving the player with the feeling that these new layers are disjointed and disconnected, as well as confusing in terms of their role in the story. My disappointment goes beyond the wish for coherence: there also isn’t all that much to do in these new layers. After a few minutes of playing in the Depths, I felt like I had already seen it all (it’s the same biome copied and pasted ad nauseam), and the Sky islands left me wishing for more. I never found the excitement of exploring the Great Sky Island at the beginning of the game again anywhere else. Even when I encountered a location that caught my attention, these new places failed to have any importance in the world or the story. 

Breath of the Wild was characterized by its use of its post-apocalyptic open world. The Hyrule in Tears of the Kingdom, however, is much more vivid and energetic than the one players were familiar with in the previous game. NPCs fight monsters more efficiently than before and the towns are more interconnected with each other. Surprisingly, not many characters remember Link, in what I assume is an attempt to avoid making new players feel alienated. Many quests, as well as solving the regional phenomena, will make the world change in real time, a sweet and dynamic addition that rewards the player for their actions. However, too much in Tears of the Kingdom feels identical to Breath of the Wild, even when accounting for the fact that this is a sequel. Not only the anatomy of the memories is reused, but the structure of the main quests from each region is also recycled, leaving the game little space to stand out from its predecessor. Even most of the new items and clothing come from previous Breath of the Wild DLC!

Completing each region’s main quest will give the player one of the Vows of the Sages, an avatar of each Sage that will follow you around and allow you to use their powers. The way this mechanic is integrated is a clear downgrade from the previous game. The more Sages you have activated, the less efficiently they will work in battle, and in order to activate their powers, you have to run up to each Sage. Unfortunately, most of the time they are standing together, leading me to activate the wrong Sage far too many times. In the end, I wound up playing with most of them deactivated. This is one of my main criticisms of the game. The UI is hard to navigate, especially in battle. Switching between the Sages, weapons, and objects is already awkward, and when you factor in fusing and combining, you’re left with downright confusing gameplay.

Tears of the Kingdom fosters the creativity of the players with five new powers (ultrahand, fuse, recall, ascend and autobuild). Ultrahand is the most noteworthy ability. You can create bridges, various means of transport like cars and tanks, artifacts to defeat monsters, or even torturing devices for Koroks: the possibilities are endless. This is a breath of fresh air, but I wish the game encouraged the player more to use that creativity outside of the shrines. Fusing helps the player to create new weapons and upgrade them, mostly with monster items. However, there isn’t an abundance of new monsters. The most terrifying additions are Gloom Hands and Phantom Ganon— I will never forget the terror I felt the first time I encountered them. The other powers are fine, but largely unmemorable.

No matter how innovative Tears of the Kingdom could feel at times, the game never took off as a stand-alone for me, nor does it ever seem to want to become its own thing. The game feels rather content in remaining in the shadows of its predecessor. From its story to its gameplay and even to its beautiful world, much of this game feels repetitive, sparse, and scattered. Even though it maintains some of the charm and allure of the series and boasts impressive technical achievements in the game design, it doesn’t live up to expectations. And really, the core issue with Tears of the Kingdom is that it lacks identity and independence. It presents itself as a sequel, but looking closely, it seems more like a repackaging decorated with paraphernalia to keep it exciting enough. Yet despite my many issues and disappointments, this game succeeds at that! Sure, it reuses plot points, quest design, and structure, but the game is massively entertaining and I was never bored for a second. Everything that works is very much built on the foundations of its predecessor, and much of what doesn’t work leaves the player thinking that this was, in fact, a very long and expensive Breath of the Wild DLC. And in the end, is essentially being an extensive add-on to one of the greatest games in recent memory all that bad?

8/10