![]() In Tears of the Kingdom, that still remains true, but instead of just climbing you could also strap a rocket to a hot air balloon to fly up into the clouds, or attach some fans to some wings and propel yourself across the map in an airship. This starts simple enough, as you cobble together wooden planks to make a large ramp, but advances rapidly when you factor in gravity to build full-on flying machines, speedboats, or vehicles that would make Epona feel somewhat insignificant by comparison.īOTW prided itself on the idea that you can climb anything you see, and the combination of climbing and gliding took up a lot of that adventure’s playtime. This ability allows you to magically grab nearby objects and paste them together to invent your own means of traversal. Link’s most interesting ability – and the one that is likely to generate the most creative solutions in the gaming community – has to be Ultrahand. “…full-on flying machines, speedboats, or vehicles that would make Epona feel somewhat insignificant by comparison.” They use a new resource called Zonai Charge energy, so they only really work as temporary measures to traverse the environment in creative ways, but they instantly change how you think about the world in terms of what is accessible. This opening (which easily takes a few hours or more depending on your pace) not only introduces you to those necessary skills, but also the Zonai devices that, when charged up, allows you to engineer self-powered vehicles and other contraptions, using fans, wheels, rockets, flame-spewing statues and more. A series of well-tutorialised areas promptly but cautiously teach you each of the skills that you’ll be using for the rest of your journey, with simple puzzles showing you the ropes before things escalate. The strange islands in the sky set the scene of what to expect for the rest of Tears of the Kingdom’s runtime. ![]() This holistic style of narrative, that combines a broad, game-changing threat with various other smaller-but-still-important dangling story threads, works wonders in building a living, breathing world with its fate resting firmly on your shoulders. ![]() The different tribes of Hyrule are in need of your aide, as strange environmental anomalies are causing problems, and the kingdom is under threat from strange beasts that fill the world with darkness and violence whenever the sun sets. While you’re tackling the whereabouts of Zelda herself, you’ll also find yourself pulled in various other directions. I found the revelations to be compelling, and the history adds some profound depth that provides more context to this version of the Hyrule universe. Without spoiling anything, I feel like this is the richest storytelling that The Legend of Zelda has ever featured. ![]() While she isn’t present for your adventuring, the main questline gives you the opportunity to unlock memories, uncovering more about Zelda and her connection to Hyrule. The lore presented in Tears of the Kingdom made me think about Zelda herself, the history of Hyrule, and its various evils in a very different way to what I was expecting. Why are there all of these islands in the sky, and what are the strange robotic Constructs guarding them? What is the strange dark Gloom that is all over the place? What lurks in the dark and spooky depths of Hyrule, underground? And where exactly did Zelda go, anyway? This is not necessarily boiled down to a simple “save the princess, save the world” setup, as mysteries impacting the kingdom are present from the jump that create tantalising threads begging to be unraveled. Indeed, Zelda is sidelined, leaving Link wounded and on some mysterious sky islands, where he must learn new abilities, find Zelda, and save Hyrule, naturally. Heroic ambitionsįollowing on directly from the ending of BOTW, Tears of the Kingdom picks up with Link and Zelda looking to uncover the mysteries of the earth, before a rude interruption separates the two of them. While the core DNA of Breath of the Wild remains, this is a fresh point of view on Hyrule that will force you to rewire your brain to think differently, in the best way possible. That formula made for an entirely memorable gaming experience that many have dubbed the best adventure game of all time, and boldly, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom attempts to follow up that super strong lineage with a sequel that remixes and rewrites the series into an experience that is somehow even more special than it was before. A monumental jump in a loved franchise, it placed our hero Link in a bold and impressive open world, with mysteries to solve and secrets galore. Much has been said about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and its absolutely incredible scope that has kept it in the cultural zeitgeist over six years since its initial release.
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