The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a universally loved title and yet another Nintendo Switch title worthy of praise. At least that's how I felt when I first played the game, gliding through the skies above Hyrule at breakneck speeds, watching as the untold potential of a new world whizzed past me, filling me with excitement. However, after a long time away from it and the pre-release hype, I've come to a completely different opinion.
It's fair to say that my opinion differs significantly from that of TOTK's initial comments, although it's not like I hated it. In fact, I quite like Tears of the Kingdomalthough a lot of it is what I liked Breath of Nature. After months of reflection and discovering exactly what it is TOTK I don't like it, I've come to a conclusion. Nintendo prioritized its love of mechanical creativity in a game that simply didn't need it.
Tears Of The Kingdom isn't as good as it should have been
It is iterative rather than innovative
I want to emphasize that I do not believe, like some Tears of the Kingdom detractors, that it's just glorified DLC. In truth, Tears of the Kingdom does exactly what a sequel should, expanding the original experience with new mechanics, stories, and characters. I also appreciate your attempts to flesh out Hyrule, as although I believe the next Zelda the game must move to a new location, Tears of the Kingdom did the best he could to make Hyrule feel new again.
Tears of the Kingdomas Animal Crossing: New Horizons Before it, it seemed like a game with limitless potential on the surface, but the more I interacted with it and the more I tried to piece together its core components, the more shallow it started to feel.
However, it's clear that both fans and Nintendo knew that this wasn't enough for a sequel to one of the biggest and most influential games of all time. It had to be bigger and better, introduce entirely new ideas to change the industry and push the Switch to its absolute limits. Then, Nintendo did what it does best and took its most creative ideas and put them into TOTK. This was done by introducing the enigmatic Ultrahand and a host of other gameplay-focused features, integrating them all into virtually every facet of the game. TOTK's DNA.
On my first playthrough, I immersed myself as much as I could into these mechanics, approached each new and returning piece of content as if it were entirely new, and did my best to immerse myself in the game's somewhat thin plot. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, something felt wrong. Tears of the Kingdomas Animal Crossing: New Horizons Before it, it seemed like a game with limitless potential on the surface, but the more I interacted with it and the more I tried to piece together its core components, the more shallow it started to feel.
Crucially, a good sequel expands on what made the original great without interrupting it. I believe that while it is important to add new content and ideas to a sequel, this should not mess with its core identity. THE Marvel's Spider-Man games, however iterative they are, manage this perfectly, as the tenants that structure their exploration, narrative, and characters remain intact between sequels. However, TOTK left almost everything he did aside BOTH so goodits atmosphere, its sense of wonder in the face of hopelessness and the importance of exploration in favor of Nintendo's creative efforts.
Nintendo is prioritizing the wrong features
It's focusing on creativity rather than atmosphere
While many have managed to create ridiculously creative Ultrahand creations, I quickly realized that it, and its equally creatively focused game mechanics, were getting in the way of the elements that made BOTH such an innovative game in the first place. Nintendo placed so much importance on its new ideas that, although perhaps in the spirit of the original Zelda games, didn't really fit in Tears of the Kingdom open world model. Ultrahand, for example, was used to make puzzles and exploration more interesting, breaking the rules established in the first game.
Link can build a car to get around Hyrule which, while cool, completely steals the game's atmosphere. Flying around in a mech built from haphazardly cobbled together Zonai parts is a novelty and certainly helps sell the brilliance of Ultrahand, but it doesn't really fit the desolation and apocalyptic atmosphere that made Breath of the Wild's world feel truly unique. . Every time I was forced to use this mechanic, There was the initial excitement that came with feeling like I was breaking the game, followed quickly by the crushing realization that I really didn't want to.
Puzzles are made worse by adding too many variables, making genuine solutions seem incorrect if they are not executed perfectly. Weapons look absurd thanks to the unlimited combo potential. Exploration seems overwhelming when it's possible to make any creation as long as you have the patience and aptitude to do it. I truly believe the Ultrahand adds a lot Tears of the Kingdombut I also feel like this takes it too far be worth it.
In my opinion, these creative ideas came at the expense of other much-needed gameplay mechanics that could have improved the already established formula, rather than disregarding it.
I hate to criticize Nintendo for trying something new, for creating such a brilliantly unique mechanic that allows players to break down such a finely tuned game and build incredible creations that feel completely out of place. After all, it's Nintendo's bread and butter, something it has always excelled at since the original Mario all the way up Breath of Nature brilliant reinvention of the open world formula. However, in my opinion, this came at the expense of other much-needed gameplay mechanics that could have improved the already established formula rather than disregarding it.
The Switch 2 needs to move away from Nintendo's creativity
It runs the risk of seeming enigmatic
As mentioned above, I believe that Animal Crossing: New Horizons suffer from this same problem. It abandoned the cute villager interactions that served as the defining feature of what is often considered the best life simulator in favor of the creative freedom to customize an island. It's a fun twist on Animal Crossing Formulabut which seems more suited to a spin-off than a main title, as it completely removes the central tenet of the Animal crossing gameplay loop that made it such an iconic and beloved series in the first place.
Although perhaps not that extreme, it seems equivalent to a Valley of the Stars sequel completely removing romance options and meaningful interactions between characters for a deeper farming simulation experience similar to Agricultural Simulator games. I firmly believe that Nintendo should continue to strive to come up with these wonderfully creative ideas and build games around them.but I also fear that it is setting a negative trend - especially within the Zelda franchise as similar mechanics emerged within Echoes of Wisdom - this could continue into the Switch 2 era.
It's not so much that Nintendo should stop doing what it's been doing well for so long, but rather separate its mechanics-based experiences from its more atmospheric and narrative games. Tears of the Kingdom shouldn't be a game about creative mechanics, but rather a game with a much deeper narrative that further examines the fascinating Zelda tradition while being based on the Hyrule established in BOTH. Nintendo failed Tears of the Kingdom in this regard, but we hope it's better able to distinguish between games that should embrace atmosphere and world-building versus those that should be built around mechanical freedom.
Source: Nintendo of America/YouTube