The Legend of Zelda Franchise is one of the most iconic video game franchises out there. Chances are you’ve heard of the game. In 2017, Nintendo released “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild.” It was an open world game, something uncommon for franchises, and it quickly rose to popularity and has become one of the top three Zelda games. On May 12, 2023, Nintendo released the sequel to the game, “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.” It was set to be released late in 2022 but got pushed back to the spring. Needless to say, fans have been waiting a long time. 

The game follows shortly after the end of the first game, after the calamity and Zelda and Link are shown investigating a strange goo called gloom around the castle as it’s affecting its citizens. After Ganondorf is awoken, Zelda and Link get separated and Link wakes up on a sky island. It’s up to Link to figure out where Zelda is and how to stop Ganondorf. 

!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

The gameplay forces you to take your time. The “tutorial” bit of the game, when Link first wakes up, is a lot longer. It requires a lot more effort to travel on the sky islands, especially since you don’t get the paraglider out of the tutorial like the last game. Even when you descend to the surface, it’s intended that you follow the main story line and go see Purah, otherwise you can’t activate the other towers. So the game is a lot more story driven this time around. They spend a great deal setting up the plot and the details of the Zonai. The Zonai were people of Hyrule long ago, but weren’t quite humans like the Hylians. There’s a mystery you have to uncover by finding geoglyphs around the kingdom, similar to how Link had to find his memories in the first game.

The monsters are definitely more intense this time around, and more present within Hyrule. In BOTW you would see them a lot but nothing like TOTK. They’ve also become more diverse, with new monsters in general such as a three-headed dragon, Ents as well as a gloom monster. They’re not as easy to beat as the first game. This is balanced out because there are a lot more combat training shrines than the first ones. So make sure you keep your skills sharp. 

The color palette and overall look of the game is something worth mentioning too. Where “Breath of the Wild” was blue focused, “Tears of the Kingdom” is very green focused. There’s a more mission oriented feel to the kingdom as well as the outfits Link wears. It’s very warrior-like, and every town you visit is being affected a great deal more by the sky islands arising, or as they call it, the “Upheaval.” The shrines are stone with green and blue ribbons flying around it making it more simple in aesthetic. Shrines are also farther between each other; you aren’t running into a shrine every 10 minutes like BOTW. 

The map is also amped up from the last game. “Breath of the Wild” was so popular because there was so much to explore, but Tears of the Kingdom have taken it even further. Not only is there the addition to the sky islands, they have also added “The depths.” There are gaps in the all around the earth called “Chasams” which you can go down in and are transported to a dark underworld filled with gloom monsters that break a heart if you are touched by them, and the only way to refill it is to go back on the surface or go to the “Light Roots.” The Light Roots are The Depths version of Towers. They illuminate a certain portion of the Depths and download it onto your Purah Pad. They also serve as travel markers making it easier to travel through the depths. 

All around, “Tears of The Kingdom” is a promising sequel and made for everyone and caters to new and advanced gamers. It isn’t a direct copy of the first game, and lots of things are different but there’s still that same charm that made the first game so spectacular.