The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

September 2, 2025

Link Unleashed

Let’s start strong: in my opinion, “Breath of the Wild” is one of the best games in history. However, “Tears of the Kingdom”, even though it was built upon its foundations and improved many aspects of its predecessor, I didn’t enjoy it as much.

”Breath of the Wild” (BotW) exceeded all expectations. Even with its flaws, the gameplay experience it provided was something that had never been seen before.

”Tears of the Kingdom” (TotK) is a great game: it’s spectacular and I really enjoyed it.

Although it includes many performance improvements, new powers, a larger world to explore, and fosters creativity, I experienced boring moments and even abandoned it on several occasions, for reasons I’ll explain below.

Even so, it’s a tremendous game and well worth playing.

Who knows, maybe in the future we’ll get to enjoy a hybrid between BotW and TotK. That would be truly epic.

What I liked the most

TotK gives us freedom like very few games, expanding upon the abilities BotW already had with things such as:
- Building vehicles for land, sea, and air
- Modifying weapons
- Creating traps
- Altering the time of objects to reach distant places
- Passing through ceilings
- Gliding without the paraglider
Being able to solve challenges or reach places in multiple ways while still being a challenge. Impeccable level design.
Bosses are fun and have more depth than those in BotW.
Shrines remain very varied and imaginative, definitely one of the game’s strongest points.
A game that doesn’t lack small details that make life easier for the player:
- Summons move aside when you aim with the Purah Pad camera.
- When picking up an item (sword, bow, …) and reaching the limit for that type, it lets you easily discard one. In BotW you couldn’t do this and it was a hassle.
Having the same map as BotW (the good part): being able to revisit places you already knew and the curiosity of seeing which characters are still around (supposedly around 5 years have passed since the previous game).
Abilities don’t have restrictions like in other games, where they don’t work in certain places. Here, if you can do it, you can do it anywhere.
- For example: passing through ceilings in places where no one would ever think to, totally unnecessary areas but… why not?
How the game subtly gives you clues at times to guide you in a very elegant way, almost without you realizing it’s giving you a hint.
- For example: placing an item that catches your eye and suddenly there’s a cave entrance. You’re lost in the middle of a snowy mountain, looking for a cave you know should be nearby, and suddenly you see a fruit in the distance. You approach it and discover the cave entrance right next to it.

What didn’t win me over

The inventory sorting options feel very limited. I wish there were more ways to organize it or make it more customizable.
Something that didn’t quite convince me in BotW were the interactions with secondary NPCs: they felt very flat and generally added little. My feeling is that in TotK this problem remains.
Crystal generation feels excessively tedious. Having different golems for different energy item functions, some to generate batteries and others to generate crystals, while also being located in different places, adds nothing and only feels cumbersome.
Secret chests usually give very mediocre rewards, like weak shields (something I barely needed until the final boss).
I think the horse feels underutilized. In BotW I already used it very little, since it was often more practical to climb mountains, glide, or fast travel between shrines. However, in TotK I hardly used it at all: with the new abilities, horseback riding loses almost all of its appeal and usefulness. I also wish I could summon the horse from anywhere (like in The Witcher 3).
The world is massive. Something that could be good ends up becoming overwhelming, especially in areas that feel a bit lifeless.
The underground area gets boring way too quickly: it’s not interesting, and the need to constantly create light sources makes it tedious.
Just like in BotW, both games, while offering impressive freedom, end up being very rigid in their main storyline:
- There are four main tasks, all consisting of reaching a place, solving a puzzle zone, and then fighting a boss.
- This might be acceptable, but if after each one you’re told exactly the same story (with a different “mask”), by the time you finish the second and see it’s the same, the third feels repetitive and the fourth becomes a chore.
- The final enemies of each section are interesting, but reaching them created so much friction that I abandoned the game several times, not because of difficulty, but due to lack of motivation to find something new.
Same map as in BotW (the bad part): a big part of BotW’s charm was the experience of exploring new places. If you already played BotW, TotK loses a bit of that magic.
Companion summons are chaotic if you have them all active at once, and they’re not that helpful. I think it was better implemented in BotW, simply having the abilities you could use without needing to approach anyone to activate them.
Not being able to skip the tower activation animation: every time you activate a new one, it’s exactly the same.
Regarding side quests and rewards: some NPCs present interesting stories, but the quests turn out monotonous and the rewards very weak, so you end up not doing them, which makes you less motivated to fully explore the world.
Menu navigation (inventory of items, weapons, …) with L and R isn’t circular. Meaning if you reach the far right, you have to repeatedly press left to go back.
Although TotK is the sequel to BotW and seemingly continuous, we return to the same world after about 5 years. However, there are characters who don’t know you, despite having had a relationship with them in the previous game.
Just like in BotW, I have the same problem with inventory space. Not having enough room to store things is a hassle; in my opinion, there should be more slots available from the beginning of the game.
That you have to press a button to pick up rupees!

My favorite songs

Explore the game on the shelf