I am Tired of Pretending Tears of the Kingdom is a Great Game

The title says it all. Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (“TOTK”) is a good game at best and pales in comparison to its predecessor.

More importantly, TOTK represents a gross misunderstanding by Nintendo of what the Legend of Zelda series is about, similar to its missteps in Skyward Sword. While Zelda has always struggled to strike a balance between open-world game play and narrative driven gameplay, TOTK does neither well, resulting in a lackluster sequel that hardly carries on the intrigue of Breath of the Wild (“BOTW”) and creates a disconcerting precedent for future games, where Nintendo may be tempted to recycle assets in attempt to sell yet another 70 dollar DLC.

The Legend in Legend of Zelda

Legend of Zelda has always had an identity crisis as to what type of game it wanted to be. In its hayday, Legend of Zelda was effectively an exploration game that used narrative to encourage the exploration of its world. The original Zelda and Link to the Past, while having narrative elements integrated into their games, ultimately focused on the exploration of dungeons, terrains, caves, etc. in order to strengthen your hero to defeat the evil baddie at the end.

This all changed in Legend of Zelda: Orcarina of Time (“OOT”), which shifted from a narrative second to a narrative first framework. Whereas prior games used narrative as a tool to prod the player along, Orcarina of Time used the world to tell a story. The world itself changed drastically as certain milestones were hit within the story. The terrain you could traverse was limited based on your point in the story. The game oriented the world to the narrative.

And Zelda continued down this path for awhile. Majora’s Mask, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, all of these games followed the OOT framework of narrative first, world building second. And Zelda fans grew sick of it. EgoRaptor famously criticized OOT for its narrative first structure in his Sequelitis series, deriding the game for “missing the point” of a Zelda game. Skyward Sword, among other things, was heavily critcized for its rigid, narrative oriented structure.

Then BOTW came out and our prayers were answered. Not only was narrative going to be deemphisized, it was subverted. When players asked what is the story BOTW had to tell, BOTW boldly answered, the world of Hyrule tells the story itself. BOTW sold record numbers and effectively answered the critiques of EgoRaptor, bringing back to the forefront the world of Hyrule, while also maintaining the narrative as a prodding tool.

So why bring up this abbreviated history of Zelda games? While Zelda often oscillated between two different game philosophies — world building and narrative — TOTK does not fall squarely in either.

Note: This is the point of the review where I spoil the entire game. If you do not want me to spoil anything, skip to the conclusion. This review also assumes you’ve played the game.

TOTK is not narrative driven whatsoever. The long drawn out cutscene of Link and Zelda heading underneath the castle is both inexplicable and frankly a bit idiotic. I can hear the inner voice playing in my head of why the hell are these characters choosing to fuck with something they have no business checking out. Later on you’ll be given the convenient “it was fate” explanation, but this explanation feels weak when considering the impetus of the prior a game, an epic war that nearly brought the entirety of the world to the brink of destruction.

TOTK also does little to develop its narrative. Aside from hearing the same “this is the imprisoning war” cut scene regurgitated several times over, the role the sages play and why they play it is similarly chalked up to fate. The Zelda tear sequence, possibly the most compelling storytelling in the game, is an optional quest that can and will be ignored by most players. This leaves players with the same unsatisfying answer it was given in Skyward Sword for why all of this saving of the world matters: it matters because you are Link and you have to care.

Compare this to BOTW, where you are led through a tutorial stage with a ghost who later reveals themselves to be the former King of Hyrule and he leaves you with the most compelling reason to finish the game before setting you free into the world: you must save her, my daughter.

The narrative of TOTK is lackluster because it fails to leverage the relationships established in BOTW. While many of the same characters reappear, we hardly see them struggle with loss their predecessors in BOTW struggled with. Sidon’s father, while injured, is conveniently licking his wounds in an alcove. Riju is tasked to deal with yet another sandstorm. They decided to completely punt the story of the Rito to an annoying adoloscent side character. I have not yet completed the Goron story because frankly, why should I, the last three stories did not put at stake any true concerns and I have always found the Death Mountain story arcs to be among the worst in the Zelda series.

Even healing the Great Deku Tree is a unceremonious endeavor, harkening back to the original OOT where the Great Deku Tree served as the first dungeon Link explores, except without any of the Korok upbringing as context for the exploration.

Compared to BOTW, let’s take just one of the Champion narratives, that of Link and Mipha. You get to piece together memories of Link and Mipha throughout the mainquest, where it is revealed that Mipha likely had romantic feelings for Link, so much so, she had Zora armor fashioned for him. We get to see Link have an emotional reunion with Mipha after Link takes control of Vah Ruta, and Mipha leaves parting words for her father, an emotional capstone on the Zora arc. TOTK tries to capitalize on the this narrative, by suggesting Prince Sidon, Mipha’s brother, has unresolved trauma over losing his finacee the same way he lost his sister. But these concerns are merely a footnote in a long boring drudge to the finish line.

The narrative in TOTK feels hastily slapped on as an afterthought, secondary to the new mechanics and terrain Nintendo added in the tword. The motivations are muddied. The threat is unclear. And the characters are uncompelling.

World Exploration Needs Two Things: A World to Explore and the Tools to Explore it With

But surely where TOTK fails on its ability to tell a compelling narrative, it makes up for in its ability to create an interesting world to explore. You would unfortunately be mistaken because TOTK effectively provides you the same world as BOTW.

The world of Hyrule is hardly altered from BOTW to TOTK. While certain small details are changed, Lurelin Village, the Outpost, etc., the world itself remains nearly identical. With this, the thrill of exploration goes away. Remember that time you randomly came upon the spring of courage, well don’t worry it’s still there, just as you remember it. Remeber the Great Deku Tree, Zora’s Domain, Gerudo Town, Rito Village, do not worry, finish a few quests and they will look nearly identical to what they were in BOTW.

I am not suggesting that Nintendo needed to significantly alter every single crevice of the map, but when each pivotal touchstone in the world feels nearly identical to the way I left it in BOTW, it makes me question what is left to explore.

The obvious rebuttal to my argument is TOTK’s introduction of a skyworld and underground region, but those areas are possibly the biggest slap in the face Nintendo has given Zelda fans in ages. The skyworld and underground region can hardly be called new areas of terrain to explore and are more akin to the copy and paste caves and terrain we see in other open world games, such as Skyrim and Fallout. On the ground, terrain changes and conforms to different climates and geographical structures, while the above and below ground regions remain painfully similar, only differing in the various ornamental features affixed on them such as ruins or machines. Nintendo tries to encourage the exploration of the underground through the collection of poes, but fails to point us in the direction of the merchant who trades armor for poes. The armor he trades is largely end game focused, and will likely only be sought by die hard fans who want to relive their days in Majora’s Mask as the Fierce Diety without paying 50 dollars for an amiibo.

The sky terrain is even more boring and even more duplicative. I have yet to be shocked or amazed by an area I have stumbled upon in the sky, and I take every chance I get to plop down on a sky block.

But let’s say for the sake of arguement, you like the world Nintendo has presented and you are more than happy with retracing your steps in the same iteration of Hyrule, well Nintendo has further spat in your face with the introduction of the Zonai constructs. These constructs, especially as you get later in the game, make any exploration optional. Terrain transveral appeared so optional that I did not invest a single heart into stamina until I realized that stamina was the attribute required to pull out the Master Sword. Why would I climb a mountain when I could find a nearby falling piece of wreckage to let me avoid climbing. Why would I explore a chasm, when I can just drive my conveniently apparated car through the terrain.

If the boring and duplicative world was the nail in the coffin, the construct and sky-world access was the incinerator that turned to ashes any semblance of exploration or intrigue. If I wanted to spend my time building vehicles and driving around procedurally created terrains I would crank up Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.

Conclusion: Where do we go from here?

What concerns me the most is that TOTK is being given rave reviews. It is being regarded as an instant success and will likely be grounds for Nintendo to reuse the same assets in a third installation. I want Nintendo to do something different. Zelda has consistently produced amazing games because of Nintendo’s willing to pivot and try new ideas. If its permitted to basically recycle the assets of BOTW, add an awful background plot with copy and paste terrain as additives, we are setting ourselves up for a disappointing trilogy; a tirology where we are given the same world to explore, a lackuster story, and additional features that do not contribute to the initial awe and wonder BOTW brought back to the Legend of Zelda series.