19. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (SWITCH)
Before I jump into my review of Tears of the Kingdom (TOTK) I want to give what I'm about to say context. Its predecessor, Breath of the Wild (BOTW) is my 2nd favorite game of all time and my favorite Zelda game ever made. I know that game has minor annoyances, however for each one of these or flaw it had, it had 50 other thing that made it amazing. In other words, TOTK had some very, very big shoes to fill and I'll be directly comparing the two when summing up how I felt about TOTK. The other thing I want to get out of the way is no, I didn't hate TOTK and in fact thought it was a really good game. With that said, I'm going to be very critical in what I'm about to say, however this does not detract from all the amazing things I experienced while playing TOTK. Okay, let's get into my thoughts on TOTK lol.
Unfortunately TOTK is an inferior game to BOTW for a variety of ways, however the biggest one by far is the fact that Nintendo decided to have it take place more or less in the same Hyrule that BOTW took place in. "But what about the sky islands and the Depths!" you might be asking. I'll get to that in a moment. For anyone who played BOTW extensively, TOTK world almost feels like a rerund, albeit of a amazing episode. BOTW's hyrule fascinated me and filled me with endless wonder about what was on the other side of that mountain, or if I could reach that far away island. So returning to the same Hyrule, while good and all, lacked that same sense of wonder and pull for me to want to explore, mostly because I already had done this while playing BOTW. As for the minor geographical differences really only account for 10% at best when it comes to new things to explore on the surface. This includes new caves, structures, and towns that weren't in BOTW. This leaves the sky islands and depths, which I found to be pretty uninteresting and even somewhat lazy in design. The sky islands mostly all looked the same in terms of art assets, aesthetics and design with a few small surprises hear and there. As for the depths, it was mostly a bland wasteland that was beyond tedious and annoying to explore, and pretty much just possessed recycled enemies and bosses from other parts of the games with some minor things of interest here and there. If Nintendo was trying to pull the wool over my eyes and be like "look at all the new, amazing stuff to explore!" they really didn't succeed, at least for me. This over familiarity with TOTK's settings extended to pretty much everything in the game including the characters, enemies, music, items, and pretty much everything else. TOTK really just felt like a repackaged expansion for BOTW rather than a full fledged new entry in the Zelda franchise. Again, I loved all these things, but I found myself fairly jaded when it came to seeing so much of the same stuff all over again throughout the game.
In BOTW I remember staring off into the distance beyond the borders of Hyrule and wondering what else was out there. This is where I wanted the sequel to my favorite Zelda game to take place, not in the same place I'd thoroughly explored and conquered already.
In terms of Gameplay it's mostly lifted right out of BOTW, with the noteworthy exceptions being some of your tablet's new ability, but mostly the ability to craft items. From the time crafting was first revealed, I found this mechanic to be fairly uninteresting. I get how some people have used it to create crazy machines already, but for me it's just something I never really cared for beyond solving a puzzle or getting from point A to B. It works mostly as it should and for that I'll give credit where credit is due. There is also a new time mechanic which is also primarily used to resolve puzzles in the game's shrines and temples, but I found myself using this ability the least.
Speaking of the games shrines and temples, I found these to be mostly a downgrade over what was offered in BOTW in terms of design. There seemed to be a lot of haphazard design, especially in the temples which just made them feel lazy at times and they lacked the memorable feel of many previous Zeldas. Still, I will say in terms of aesthetics, the temples are a massive upgrade over the divine beasts in BOTW. Even more than that, BOTW's bosses are lightyears more enjoyable than the Blight enemies of BOTW. Their design and the diverse ways in which you have to beat them was also a very welcome change compared to BOTW.
Really the only thing left to discuss is TOTK's story and plot. Overall, I found it to be decent, with some stuff making me roll my eyes and sigh, while other parts of it actually hit me super hard in the feels. I also mostly liked the subtle and not so subtle nods and influences from Ocarina of Time in this game, particularly the element of time travel. But I will admit that the story does have a leg up on its predecessor for the most part.
Overall, I find myself disappointed with TOTK, but only because it's the sequel to one of the best games I've ever played. On its own, TOTK is an excellent game and easily better than 95% of the games I've played. It's just too bad Nintendo didn't take this game a step further and set it in an entirely new world much like they have in most other Zelda games. If they'd taken the time to craft a new world, even with all the same gameplay mechanics of BOTW, I'd have loved this game significantly more. This would include different enemies and NPCs as well. Again, it just felt like I was getting a shinier, repackaged version of BOTW, which was the biggest negative for me while playing TOTK. Still, TOTK is an amazing game and worth playing for any Zelda fan. (5/29/23) [40/50]