“In this sequel to the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild game, you’ll decide your own path through the sprawling landscapes of Hyrule and the mysterious islands floating in the vast skies above. Can you harness the power of Link’s new abilities to fight back against the malevolent forces that threaten the kingdom?“

Breath of the Wild is considered by many to be one of the best Zelda games. It ditched the linear story and landscape of the previous games, introducing players to a Hyrule where Link could go anywhere and do anything, how and when he wanted. I had found all the shrines and completed Botw’s DLC, but I never viewed the game as highly as others. While I really did enjoy the two aspects mentioned above and often thought – “Hmm, I wonder what else I can go back and find” – it never rose to the same level as the other 3D Zelda’s and lacked traditional aspects that made me a fan of the series from day one. While I embrace the idea of heading in a new direction with each entry, if memorable characters, dungeons, or music are nowhere to be found, it doesn’t feel like Zelda. 

My expectations for Tears of the Kingdom were high. The build-up until the final trailer was slow, with the first three trailers being no longer than a minute and a half. The very last one blew us all away, channeling Botw’s “Nintendo Switch 2017 Presentation” energy. It felt as if Nintendo took this new Hyrule, brought back the traditional elements we all craved, and put them together. The best of both worlds. At this time of writing, I have 80 hours in, and I’m very happy to say that is exactly what we got.

Almost every issue I had with Botw has been fixed or given some sort of an improvement that I have no desire to ever go back to the previous game. I will not discredit Botw as we would have not gotten here without it, but everything is just so, so much better. There’s a story that is engaging, returning characters feel like really matter this time around, legit dungeons replace Divine Beasts, Ganondorf is back, and it has quite possibly the best pulling of the Master Sword in the entire series. On top of that, Link has four (technically five) brand-new abilities, you can create all sorts of whacky things with the new Zonai devices, and there are two additional maps to explore. This doesn’t even cover the small QoL updates that have been made since the previous title, but wow – this game truly feels like Zelda and brings so much to the table.

There are also some very memorable songs, another key thing Botw lacked. The main theme, “Shrine Theme”, “Colgera’s Theme”, and “Demon Dragon Theme” are all incredible. Speaking of that last song, the final boss battle in Totk is tough and super fun. Botw’s sucked real bad. At each stable, it plays the usual theme but you can do some side quests to get the “Lon Lon Ranch Theme” to mix in as well. 

I beat the game with a 40% completion rate, so I will be busy for quite a while. I’m currently working on finding all the shrines in the sky, as I have covered most of the surface world extensively so far, and then when finished will attempt to get all the light roots in the underground. My only complaints with the game would be about the two additional maps and the fifth “dungeon”. It’s awesome to have these different levels of verticality to explore that you can transition between seamlessly, but they unfortunately, feel a bit half-baked compared to the surface. In regards to the fifth dungeon, it sucks and doesn’t count in my opinion. It’s the worst part of the game.

Tears of the Kingdom is a game that provides a wonderful balance between traditional Zelda and the new open-world setting. It still wouldn’t be at the top of my list, but it’s above Skyward Sword & Majora’s Mask for sure. If you have yet to pick it up, go do it now. I’m hopeful some DLC gets announced in the future, but if not there’s so much to unpack here!