Editor’s Note: At the beginning of each month, we’ll be diving back through our fondest memories with Nintendo Switch as we head closer to the end of its lifetime. Our first column explores The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and the overload of creativity it provides players.
In 2011, Nintendo revealed the Wii U. Meant to be a replacement for the Wii, the new console would have a controller with a screen in it. The controller would operate as a companion to what was happening on the television screen. When Nintendo announced the console, there were numerous questions: would it be a new console? Would the gamepad be available separately? How much did it cost? What games would release?
One of the biggest questions came from the end of the reveal trailer. As it drew to a close, footage of a new The Legend of Zelda game appeared on screen. With full HD graphics, it appeared to be a mix of elements from Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time, and Skyward Sword. The inventory could be directly viewed on the gamepad, a seemingly vital innovation. Who cared about that, though? The one question on everyone’s mind was, “What’s the deal with that new Zelda game?”
After a few more trailers, a delay, and a title announcement, all would be revealed in 2017 with the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Wii U and its successor, the Nintendo Switch. It defined the generation, winning numerous awards for its story, open-world design, and gameplay. The problem with a game that is awarded so many accolades and endlessly praised immediately became clear: how do you improve upon brilliance? If there were to be a sequel, how would Nintendo update the formula in a way that feels natural and doesn’t feel forced?
In 2023, the company would once again provide an answer. It would be an answer that was so unapologetically Nintendo and one that would remind the world why the Nintendo Switch is one of their best consoles to date. Indeed, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom improved upon Breath of the Wild by being something completely different, new, and more exciting than ever before.
A Memorable (and Haunting) New Beginning
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild immediately begins with Link waking up and seeing Hyrule as he is thrust into a quest to stop the Calamity Ganon and rescue Princess Zelda. Tears of the Kingdom, on the other hand, is slow and more methodical by comparison.
Link and Zelda are journeying into the depths of Hyrule. The latter remarks that the kingdom’s citizens have been growing ill due to the spread of a red mist known as gloom. As Link (and by extension, you, the player) dive deeper into the forgotten half of the historic kingdom, Zelda notices markings and paintings referencing the original king of Hyrule and a demon king who threatened the safety of all who called it home.
Then, Link and Zelda find a mummified corpse attached to a mystical hand. The hand falls, and a crystalized tear is detached from it. When Zelda picks up the crystal, the corpse wakes up. He cripples Link, covering him with “corruption,” only to break the Master Sword. The creature recognizes both Zelda and Link and lifts Hyrule Castle into the sky, which leads to Zelda and Link being separated as the former disappears into the shadows.
You have just met Ganondorf, the monster at the heart of Tears of the Kingdom and a majority of the Zelda franchise to date. From there, the story picks up in weird and intriguing ways. From finding out that there is an entirely new series of islands in the sky to discovering that Zelda is seemingly alive and well at Hyrule Castle to finding new pits in the very ground of Hyrule.
With all of its new secrets, Hyrule practically begs you to take a closer look at everything it has to offer. If you’re like me, after the game’s prologue, you can’t help but jump in and unravel the dark mysteries of the Kingdom of Hyrule.
The Sky, Depths, and Mysteries of Hyrule
Hyrule has always been one of the most fascinating and expansive worlds in video game history. Whether it was in the very first Legend of Zelda on the Nintendo Entertainment System or Breath of the Wild on the Switch, each subsequent entry in the series has managed to build on the foundations of its predecessor in order to create a more dynamic locale. Tears of the Kingdom is, clearly, no different. However, it manages to enhance Hyrule in a way that no other Zelda game has done to date.
When you’re first introduced to Hyrule, it’s not through the typical greenery we have come to expect from the series. Instead, we see the beloved kingdom from the sky through a collection of stray islands. There are countless new ways to navigate the world, one of which is through skydiving. The feeling of seeing one of the most beautiful locales on the Nintendo Switch from the sky as if you’re a superhero is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.
When you’ve decided to stop pretending to be Superman, you can descend into a nearby river or lake. Once you do, you are greeted by a vibrant Hyrule. The land is coated in a bright green due to the cel-shaded grass. Due to the dynamic weather, you’ll often see the bright sky turn to pouring rain, showering snow, and a dark night that all look stunning despite the “limited hardware” of the Nintendo Switch.
Like Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom has plenty of new shrines for players to beat and master. Unlike Breath of the Wild, though, there are plenty of new caves to explore, each carrying its own set of secrets and mysteries. There are also the Skyview Towers, which are reminiscent of Breath of the Wild‘s Sheikah Towers. While those were used to simply illuminate the map, the new towers do the same by rocketing Link into the sky, providing a better and more stunning look at the world around you.
While back in the sky, you may encounter a series of chasms surrounded by that red mist from the beginning of the game. If you decide to be daring and dive into those mysterious pits, you will find the game’s greatest secret: a separate map buried underground. These are the Depths, a dark realm buried in the shadows of Hyrule. Every enemy here can destroy you within just a few hits, and if you don’t have brightbloom seeds, it’s impossible to see where you’re going.
That said, if you’re willing to put in the work, you can fully brighten the Depths by discovering Lightroot Points. In time, the entire area is revealed to be just as massive as the Hyrule above. It’s a thrilling endeavor that makes Tears of the Kingdom all the more exciting.
You do not have to play the game in a set way. If you want, you can spend a majority of your play session exploring the sky islands or depths, or you can barely touch those areas as you focus on the other areas of Hyrule. It makes every player’s journey across the game unique. What helps this uniqueness is the many tools that Tears of the Kingdom gives you to traverse Hyrule and fight your way straight to Ganondorf.
The Thrilling and Exciting Sandbox of Tears of the Kingdom
Breath of the Wild gave Link tools similar to other entries in The Legend of Zelda franchise. He has access to remote bombs, magnetism to lift items, the ability to lock items in place, and the power to create towers of ice to walk across water. While these abilities were great for the game’s world, Tears of the Kingdom takes Link’s catalog of powers to an entirely new level.
The game’s prologue introduces you to each of these new tools slowly and carefully. They each serve a different purpose in the land of Hyrule. First, there’s the Ultrahand. Named after an old Nintendo toy, it allows players to mash items in Hyrule’s sandbox together. For example, you can stick wooden logs together alongside a set of electronic fans and create a makeshift boat. If you stick the fans to the steering a wheel, you have yourself a hover bike.
Players have created numerous insane devices that either allow for further traversal, more potential in combat encounters, or other contraptions that are used for vastly more inappropriate purposes. One of my favorite parts of the game was a boss fight that required players to put together a jet in order to fight a monster at the top of Death Mountain.
The next set of abilities in the game’s sandbox is just as important as Ultrahand. There’s Fuse, a way to fuse weapons together in various ways. You can combine two spears to create one long spear, add monster parts to the edge of a sword to make it stronger, use those same parts to create elemental effects on your arrows, and even fuse a shield and a rocket to propel yourself into the sky.
Another ability, Ascend, creates greater vertical mobility. Players can phase through an obstacle above them in order to solve puzzles and traverse the newly introduced sky islands. While it may seem a bit underwhelming compared to the other abilities, it is invaluable if you’re trying to get from point A to point B as easily as possible without worrying about cliffs and other obstacles.
Finally, there is Recall. You can reverse the flow of time in an item. You can rewind a set of debris that fell from the sky and use it to get an easy way back to the skybox. You could also use it to reverse a giant projectile, such as a rock or a spiked boulder, right into the enemy that threw it in the first place.
Each of these items can be used together and in tandem to traverse and fight through the world of Hyrule as you work to find Princess Zelda. As I got better at using all of the new abilities, I found myself manipulating the sandbox in ways that felt downright illegal. You can recall an item back into the sky, use a rocket fused to your shield to send you even higher, spawn a glider to take you farther across the skies of Hyrule, all the while waiting to get under the floating castle in the sky to ascend right into its Throne Room.
It was so thrilling and rewarding to master these tools, but a Zelda game is about more than the abilities Link can use. It’s about more than the gameplay, more than the dungeons, more than the very world of Hyrule. At its core, The Legend of Zelda is a story about a kingdom and its people that struggles to survive in the face of an ongoing apocalypse. It’s a story of resilience, courage, wisdom, and a princess and her royal knight that have been tied together for millennia.
A World In Which You Are Never Alone
Breath of the Wild was a world in the midst of an apocalypse, and both the story and characters reflected that. The kingdoms belonging to the Gerudo, Zora, Goron, and Rito were all but abandoned, the roads of Hyrule were desolate, and the land was covered in the remains of a war that destroyed the world. Tears of the Kingdom is a world that has seemingly recovered from one apocalypse just to be thrust into another, yet its people are hopeful and resolute even in the face of danger.
This can be seen in the opening moments of the game. While in Breath of the Wild, Link wakes up alone and without any memory of the past one-hundred years, Link wakes up in Tears of the Kingdom surrounded by new and friendly faces, while knowing exactly what it is he needs to do in order to save the kingdom once again.
Even when you land in Hyrule, there is already an organized effort to contain what Ganondorf has done. Characters like Purah, Robbie, Impa, Paya, and a few others return from Breath of the Wild, and all of them are working together to save the kingdom once again. Rather than the abandoned roads in the previous game, the roads here are constantly teeming with life. You’ll find traveling merchants, teachers, musicians, and even journalists doing what they can to make the best out of their new reality.
Even as you explore the other parts of Hyrule, you see that life remains, in spite of the growing menace that now threatens it. The new champions introduced in Breath of the Wild such as Sidon of the Zora, Teba and Tulin of the Rito, Riju of the Gerudo, and Yunobo of the Gorons all return. Each of them take on a far more prominent role as allies to Link during his journey.
It’s such a remarkably different tone from other, similar games I’ve played in both the series and the broader genre. I was so used to the darker tones of Breath of the Wild, Elden Ring, and Horizon: Zero Dawn that I never believed a story with such a haunting beginning where you literally see the mummified corpse of Ganondorf would have such a hopeful thesis.
In spite of all the hardship that is occurring in Hyrule, Link is never alone. Whether it’s the new champions helping you fight the monsters Ganondorf has unleashed, the scientists trying to contain the disaster, or even the normal citizens who are all trying to live their own lives in spite of what has happened. When I realized that, I found myself massively appreciating everything that Tears of the Kingdom and the Nintendo Switch itself have offered.
The Best of the Nintendo Switch
At the beginning of this piece, I talked about the Wii U. I talked about how its reveal was a mess, filled with contradictions that left the entire gaming industry confused, even when the console finally launched in 2012. What I didn’t talk about was how the Wii U almost broke Nintendo. When sales were going down in 2016, they lost 49 million dollars in operating losses. It took a miracle to regain both their previous financial success and the trust of their player base. That miracle would be the Nintendo Switch.
Over the last seven years, the company has hit high note after high note with titles that have defined the entire industry. In 2017, it was Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. In 2018, it was Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In 2019, it was Fire Emblem: Three Houses. In 2020, it was Animal Crossing: New Horizons, in 2021, it was Metroid Dread, in 2022, it was Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and in 2023, it was The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Those are just a few games that have managed to move millions of players around the world.
As the console’s time comes to an end, how do you begin to look back at the console’s history? Where do you start in reviewing the history of the Nintendo Switch, a platform that has changed the lives of so many? You start by looking at its games. Tears of the Kingdom is one such game.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom may seem unremarkable compared to the other games on the console. Sure, it’s a sequel to a beloved title from the Nintendo Switch’s launch, but it’s not like it won any awards, changed the industry, or received any major accolades beyond its sales. Yet, why does that matter?
Tears of the Kingdom is one of many Nintendo games during this recent generation that has moved people. A story about overcoming odds and finding solace in the people around you, with brilliant gameplay, a stunning world, and a compelling sandbox. The writing is incredible, the worldbuilding is intriguing, and there were countless moments where I was on the verge of tears.
Even now, as I write this piece, I find myself wanting to go back and play it again. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is one of my favorite games of all time and one that I will treasure forever. Furthermore, it’s one of the many reasons why the Switch will go down as my favorite console of all time. Nintendo, in trying to fix their previous mistakes, accidentally created a masterpiece.
