The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Reviews
The ability to travel easily between sky, land, and the underground seamlessly, without so much as a loading screen, is absolutely incredible. And this freedom ensures that, even with the power to craft flying machines at your fingertips, Hyrule still feels absolutely enormous. Tears of the Kingdom will certainly go down in history as the best Zelda title of the generation.
Creating something with a greater draw than the Breath of the Wild was always going to be a challenge, but Nintendo has taken lessons learned from and systems established in it to create a glorious follow-up that fully deserves the plaudits that have already come its way.
Pushing the limits of interaction allows Hyrule to move beyond just being an incredibly beautiful puzzle box setting into something entirely grander. A truly living, breathing world.
Overall, Tears of the Kingdom stands tall as a sequel that transcends the great achievements of its predecessor. It takes players on yet another unforgettable journey through the enchanting world of Hyrule. While the temple puzzles may not reach the heights of older Zelda games and the complex controls require a learning curve, these minor setbacks pale in comparison to the grandeur and excitement that Tears of the Kingdom has to offer. It is a testament to the prowess of the developers and a must-play title for any fan of the Zelda franchise.
Regardless of whether it’s superior or inferior to its predecessor, Tears of the Kingdom is a staggering achievement in video game design and programming, and one of the very best games of the generation.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a masterclass in game design, with a rich and vast open world where creativity rules above all else, coupled with a great soundtrack, fun combat and tons of new abilities to use.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Link’s latest adventure hasn’t even been out for a month, yet I’m well over 100 hours in (75 in the first ten days). I kept playing because the game earned and invested in my attention. When I wanted to freely explore Hyrule, I got handsomely rewarded. Shrines and Temples challenged my brain in new and unusual ways. Zonai Devices let me build what I wanted for whatever I needed. Say what you want about the framerate slowdowns, but they are far from ruining the game. I’ve never wanted to recommend a game as much as Tears of the Kingdom because this has redefined what I previously thought the limits of a video game were.
No number of superlatives can do this game proper justice, so I’ll cut to the chase: this game is nothing short of a masterwork that must be played. By all accounts, it is as much of an accomplishment as its predecessor. Like the game that came before it, it’s by no means perfect, but the number of new and creative things it does far outweighs that and turns it into something more important. Better still is that just about every new thing it does is well-conceived, fleshed out, and fun most of all. Even in moments of frustration or when things started to slow down, I was never anything less than enchanted by all of the new things it was doing. It’s like the game cast a spell that I was all too happy to be under. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom embodies what it means to be an outstanding video game.
It’s easy to wonder if this game’s sequel will be even more grandiose, if it will have Link go the cosmic route of Nintendo’s plumber mascot Mario and end up in outer space. Maybe we’ll get to see him jump off of the moon before gradually descending upon Hyrule yet again. If so, one can only hope that more than just the path back down to Zelda’s kingdom will be littered with truly novel, go-for-broke creative highs of the sort that not just Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel rode, but earlier Legend of Zelda games as well. Because balancing tradition with innovation doesn’t make a game like Tears of the Kingdom, or any other for that matter, soar if the most transparent thing about it is how it chooses to ride in on another’s coattails.
All in all, while Tears of the Kingdom isn’t perfect, it’s a classic maximalist sequel and it succeeds at that, whatever baggage or quibbles various players might bring to it. It was never going to supplant Ocarina of Time among that game’s diehards. Neither will it supplant Breath of the Wild thanks to how thoroughly the former wilderness has been tamed and signposted. After six years, something more revelatory or revolutionary would have been quite welcome, but in the end the worst I can say about Tears of the Kingdom is that it’s a very good game that earns its place in the Zelda pantheon.
In my opinion, the answer is yes. I’ve dumped dozens of hours into Tears of the Kingdom, and I am still in awe of it. It shouldn’t exist, and it certainly shouldn’t be this good. It transcends its hardware, the genre in which it operates, and the series that spawned it. It’s a masterpiece. It’s Zelda. And I can’t wait to see how Nintendo tries to top it.
Tears of the Kingdom builds on and innovates from all the foundations laid by Breath of the Wild, thus rediscovering the meaning of the open world.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an awe-inspiring masterpiece that surpasses its predecessor, Breath of the Wild, in every way. With its vast open world, boundless exploration, and innovative new abilities, the game offers an unforgettably immersive experience. It's a perfect game that will keep you enthralled for hours on end.
You can bet we'll see Tears of the Kingdom at the top of every "best games" list for the next few centuries.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom brought childlike joy I never thought I could experience again, where it shows that when it comes to human ingenuity and creativity, the sky’s the limit. It is a true watershed moment of game design.
This is a game that shows the value of a game being given time to cook and of a studio that has supported a consistent group of developers working on the same series for decades. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is not a game anyone else could make. This is why you bought your Switch, even if you didn't know it at the time.
The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is a near-perfect title with everything feeling fresh, fun, and new. Even the places you've been too before have been reborn in some ways. You'll spend dozens of hours in the game without breaking a sweat and love pretty much all of it.
Tears of the Kingdom is a tour de force. A consummate masterstroke of game design and worldbuilding, unrepentant in its pursuit of player freedom, well-deserving of a place among the greatest games of all time.
If nothing else, Tears of the Kingdom proves how revolutionary Breath of the Wild was six years ago. The new installment doesn't attempt to redefine the series further or revolutionize game design. It both threads the path of its predecessor and improves upon it. And as it also proves, that sometimes you don't need anything more than that.
Review in Czech | Read full review