{"id":377845,"date":"2023-05-11T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jbsgame.com\/?post_type=eg_reviews&p=377845"},"modified":"2023-05-11T08:22:43","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T13:22:43","slug":"review-the-legend-of-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"eg_reviews","link":"https:\/\/jbsgame.com\/reviews\/review-the-legend-of-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tears of joy or sadness? You decide<\/h2>

It didn’t take long for\u00a0Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom<\/em> to kick into overdrive. That’s sort of its modus operandi: it partially assumes you’ve played\u00a0Breath of the Wild<\/em><\/a>, and already know some of this particular timeline’s shtick and gameplay.<\/p>

That’s a good thing for Tears<\/em>; given how all of the improvements clean up a lot of the mechanics from its predecessor while adding a whole new layer of creativity.<\/p>

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom<\/em> (Switch<\/a>)<\/strong>
Developer: Nintendo
<\/strong>Publisher: Nintendo
Release: May 12, 2023
MSRP: $69.99<\/strong><\/p>

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Screenshot by Destructoid.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

This is one of the best\u00a0Zelda<\/em> worlds to date<\/h2>

Having played every game in the series, I’ve witnessed every different take on\u00a0Zelda<\/em>: from the sprawling to the more intimate. What\u00a0Tears of the Kingdom<\/em> really has going for it is variety. In addition to all of Hyrule at ground level, you also have a sky region (which doesn’t take up nearly as much space as Hyrule itself but is peppered throughout the map with some larger areas to explore), as well as underground.<\/p>

I’m letting you know upfront that I’m a sucker for floating islands. But to say I felt overwhelmed at any given time playing through\u00a0Tears of the Kingdom<\/em> is an understatement. Rocks can fall from the sky, allowing you to “rewind” them back upward to explore more aerial ruins, and there are holes in the ground to drop into the aforementioned chasm. While exploring Hyrule I was often presented with multiple paths to discover, rather than aimlessly (and slowly) walking through just Hyrule itself.<\/p>

The world has sort of entered a “WoW Cataclysm<\/em>“-like state<\/strong>, in that it’s similar, but reinvented (as a result of being messed up by another cataclysmic event). Some towns that existed in Breath of the Wild<\/em> were reduced to ruins, and some new establishments have popped up. Key locations have been shifted around a bit, new areas are in, and many old areas are remixed to the point where they feel different.\u00a0Then you have the entire sky map and the underground zone.<\/p>

The addition of two whole new areas should alleviate a lot of the complaints that Breath of the Wild<\/em>‘s world is “boring,” but the real magic sauce is that Nintendo completely changed up how you interact with the game world.<\/p>

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Screenshot by Destructoid.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Durability matters less, but it’s still in<\/h2>

Here are the big new powers that Link has at his disposal following the tutorial:<\/p>