(Photo courtesy of GameRiv) “‘Tears of the Kingdom’ is an instant fan-favorite”.
Morgan Mylon
Connector Contributor
“The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” was released back on May 12, 2023. Developed and published by Nintendo, it was an immediate hit among loyal Zelda fans. “Tears of the Kingdom,” the sequel to Nintendo’s “Breath of the Wild,” is an open-world action-adventure game where you play as Link, the hero of Hyrule.
After saving the world and Princess Zelda once before, he must do the same thing again after he and Zelda venture underneath Hyrule castle to investigate a mysterious smog. Once Link awakens after the encounter, Zelda is missing and there are hundreds of floating islands spread across Hyrule. This edition of “Legend of Zelda” also introduces the depths, a mirrored copy of Hyrule. Mountains are now trenches, and water now transformed into giant walls. The player can find members of the Yiga clan roaming the depths, an enemy seen in the first game. With the addition of the depths and the sky islands, the map of Hyrule has now doubled compared to the first game.
In order to defeat Ganon once more, Link must team up with his friends from the past game: Sidon the Zora from Zora’s Domain, Tulin the Rito from Rito Village, Riju the Gerudo from Gerudo Town and Yunobo the Goron from Goron Mountain. These friends had previously helped Link defeat Ganon and it is now their task to help him again, but first, Link must recruit them.
Link can travel to these four corners of the world through many means. The first is by horseback. Link can tame any horse found in the wild and bring it to a stable to have it permanently as a companion. There are also special horses such as the golden horse and the giant white horse. The second method of travel is with the sky towers. These towers launch the player into the air and allow for some air time to glide toward the direction you desire; these are also perfect for reaching sky islands. The last method uses one of Link’s new powers, Ultrahand. With this ability, Link can move any object and attach it to another. This allows the player to create insane vehicles with their creativity.
There are also other abilities that Link can unlock: Ascend, Fuse, Recall and Autobuild. Ascend allows the player to zoom through the roof of any building or cave and reach the top. This allows for a quick exit in caves the player is having a hard time defeating. The second ability, Fuse, allows the player to attach any item to their weapon. This allows for a mushroom to be on a shield or a giant rock on a sword; there’s also the option to have a sword on a sword. Recall allows the player to rewind an object’s history. If a rock has fallen from the sky, Link can jump on top of it and use Recall to have the rock go back to its original place in the sky, this sometimes leads to islands Link can explore. Lastly, Autobuild has presets and your saved builds to construct at a moment’s notice. Although, it does require some materials from your inventory.
Grade: A+
