Review of the game The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Is it 10/10 or not?

So Zelda came out, one of the most popular franchises not only among Nintendo fans, but also in the world.

Numerous foreign editions and even widely distributed among the novelty almost 10/10. The game has really been waiting for many years. Especially after a massive relaunch for the Nintendo Switch.

The measure of a project’s success is a sale. And after only 3 days, the company managed to sell over 10 million copies of the game! This is also taking into account the fact that the game is essentially a Nintendo Switch exclusive. That is, it is not officially available on other platforms.

We have already played 20 hours and are in a hurry to share our feelings. Yes, this is far from a complete walkthrough, but enough to leave some impressions about her.

Welcome back to Hyrule

It’s been 6 years since the release of a significant part. The plot term turned out to be not so long, although without specifics.

Link and Princess Zelda are discovered in the caverns of an ancient existence that is connected to all Existence in Hyrule, awakening dark powers that are born as they rise into the sky. As before, the princess, along with numerous impulses, gathered at the scale of the kingdom to find out its deepest secrets.

For the most part, the history of consumption is the same formula as in the prequel. We are quickly brought up to date and immediately shut down the main evil that must ultimately be defeated. Here, no one began to reinvent the wheel, and this is not necessary for a children’s story.

What pleased me right away was that the creators of the game listened to the publication and delved into the ENT. We are better able to reveal both the main and secondary features. It turns out not through notes (but they are here, where without it), but also through various cutscenes. The latter became more, all of them dubbed into Russian.

At the level of elaboration of side quests, the game did not come close to the reference Witcher 3, as many reviews wrote. This is wrong. In most cases, there is a micro-history, and through this random random supply, fetch-brings turn into something more.

There are also quest lines, united by a common plot. They can start at five o’clock and continue in a few more hours. But in fact, there is not much of such content.

And the general history is still being fed to us bit by bit. Although it has become more, it is still not enough.

But what is important is that this story can be separate. It is not necessary to know the plots of the external parts, different characters and some parts of the locations are only partially represented here. For a general understanding, the “base” that the authors of the novelty give us is enough.

However, the story-wise game feels more like a big addition to Breathe of the Wild than a full-fledged sequel. We are not invented, something new has appeared, but already a proven formula. A similar situation was with God of War: Ragnarok.

I can’t call it a negative. As they say, it’s better not to touch what works well. And in this case, it’s true. Something has changed a lot even on their own initiative to scare away the fans.

It’s still the same Breathe of the Wild, but better

I said above that the plot formula remained unchanged. The same applies to the whole game as a whole.

Gameplay it works exactly the same. You start with an extensive, but closed, prologue location for 4 hours. Then we rush into the open world. And if at first we were given only one fragment of the plot, then later it can be divided into at least four.

Like the last part, this one is focused on the complete freedom of exploring the world. Almost at the very beginning of the game, if you know where to look for it. The battle with him will, of course, be almost killed. Nevertheless.

Surprisingly, even the map remained the same. Yes, it has changed, and somewhere even expanded. But in fact this all the same world.

With this approach, I especially like the fact that you can literally trace how the land and the characters have changed – how they have grown above themselves. For example, remember the Lourelin village from BotW? In history. But now pirates have attacked her, and her fate awaits you. Cool, cool, interesting – thanks!

So. Before us is a new game, which means we need to offer something really new to us. In this case, the developers decided to modernize the existing mechanics, striving for “ultra-hand” gameplay. All the magical abilities of the protagonist are tied to it.

The link lost his hands, but he was given a new one. And she is capable of several things:

• Combikinesis (similar to telekinesis, you can move things, the power of thought and use a number of mechanisms)

• Enchantment (allows you to improve weapons so that they do not break so quickly and become more powerful due to the imposed spells)

• Spell Portal (allows you to go through walls and through fossils)

• Autoreverse (returns items and objects back in time)

A lot of puzzles are tied to the first abilities. There are simple ones, some will make you think. Case some puzzles may have multiple solutions.

But what’s cool is the administrative building system. The bottom line is that Link now knows how to create truly accessible devices. The Internet is already full of videos of people assembling their killer robots or flying cars or helicopters.

I will not sign on this matter. This 2-minute example will become obvious, and everything will become clear to you right away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XJz2GYU too

This element allows you to open up brighter. Here everything depends only on the implementation of the structure.

Is it worth playing on the “switch” or is it worth paying attention to emulators?

I’ll tell you right away. If you wanted to take the Nintendo Switch for the new Zelda, don’t. The game looks much better on a PC with an emulator.

On a portable console, the project is very soapy, and in general it is 720p. On a computer, you can make at least 8K resolution, the graph will be different from a portable one. Still, the hardware of the “switch” is no longer enough for projects in 2023.

However, of course, the novelty is not played as smoothly as you would like. Yes, it is capable of delivering more or less stable frame rates. It turns out even 60+ FPS. But not rare, while it drops to 15 frames per second.

In general, it is still playable and even very. But there are also graphic artifacts that cannot be avoided yet.

No, I do not drown for emulators and generally condemn any approach. But you can at least look at such projects. Plays well overall. And various shortcomings will be corrected in the near future.

But kamon. This is not the schedule that should be in 2023. Even the no longer new Borderlands 3 looks nicer than this year’s novelty. I understand that everything depends on the power of the “switch”, but still …

Great game worth the money

Yes, there is no “cannon graphon” here. But otherwise, the novelty plays cheerfully, the plot is interesting, the game mechanics are diverse and exciting.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is one of the best Nintendo exclusives, but far from the best game of recent years. She has something to tighten gamers, but it’s still a great addition, not a full-fledged new game.