Kingdom Tears and Underground Fears
Nintendo's triumph with Tears of the Kingdom
Released earlier this year, Tears of the Kingdom is the newest edition in Nintendo’s iconic Legend of Zelda franchise. It not only received critical acclaim, but also quickly became the fastest selling game in the Zelda franchise, selling over 10 million copies in three days. Making this even more impressive, is that this is the first Nintendo game to be priced at $70.
Tears of the Kingdom’s success is due to a lot of factors, but we will focus on the gameplay and technical aspects which really sets it apart. Full disclosure, I have not finished the story yet, so it will not factor into this piece in a significant way.
For the newest entry in the Legend of Zelda series, Nintendo did a fantastic job building off of the foundation they lay with their previous one, Breath of the Wild. Many gameplay mechanics from the original, such as breakable weapons, gliding, a focus on open world exploration, and cooking return.
For the gameplay, Nintendo added several new mechanics that blend well both with the previous game’s mechanics, as well as the games excellent physics system. The biggest edition is the new powers Link has in the game.
The player, or Link, gains these new powers as they progress through the game. They include the ability to lift, move and fuse objects together, the ability to ascend through solid surfaces, the ability to fuse weapons to together, the ability to save constructs you have built and the ability to reverse the direction an object is going. Each of these changes the game up significantly.
The first, moving objects is probably the one I have used the most. It's allows you pick up many objects regardless of size, fuse them to others, and even build constructs like bridges and vehicles. There are plenty of videos online now of many impressive, and hilarious constructions made by players. This power is useful, not only for changing the way you solve puzzles, but also traverse the world.
The second ability, ascend, is one I didn’t think I would use much, but it became incredibly useful later in the game. When you are in a cave, or dungeon, it completely change stheboptions available to you getting past certain areas.
Fusing weapons together is another ability that changes up the game in significant ways. Like in Breath of the Wild, your weapons do eventually break in this game. However, fusing them with objects or other weapons extends their life, essentially restoring them to new. It also can boost your attacks, and gives weapons new abilities. Combat can change dramatically when this is used the right way.
Time reversal is the last ability I wanted to discuss. When an object, such as a boulder or platform is moving, you can cast this on it to make it return to its point of origin. This is significant for puzzle solving, exploration, and even combat. When enemies throw boulders or blocks, this power can change the course of a battle. When we are exploring the world, platforms that feel from the floating sky Islands can be returned with you on them, getting you access to new areas.
This final point really highlights where these powers shine: the way they interact with the rest of the world. The map in this game is even bigger than Breath of the Wild, partially due to the addition of new underground cave areas, and floating areas high up in the sky.
The world of Tears of the Kingdom is vibrant and fun to explore. It always feels like there is something new to discover no matter where you go, and the new powers add to this. They are usable anytime, and the player is given a large degree of freedom in how and when they are used. Something as simple as traversing the world can be done in so many different ways now.
This also changes how the player engages with the story. As with Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom allows you to take the story at your own pace, or even skip over large portions of it if you choose too. As mentioned earlier, I haven’t finished yet, but what I have played is fantastic.
Nintendo has struck a fine balance, delivering a serious, dramatic story with genuinely great game plays that enhances it. Gaming is a unique medium that allows players to engage with a story in different ways, and the creators of Tears of the Kingdom seem to unstand both aspects are important.
The final part of Tears of the Kingdom worth talking about is visuals. The Nintendo Switch has noticably less power than other systems such as the PS4 and 5 and one result is that visuals are never quite as sharp. Nintendo’s answer for this issue was to opt for a more cartoony, and stylized visual style in Tears of the Kingdom. The result not only works well in its favor, but puts it above the competition in many ways.
The first is performance. I played the game at launch and ran fine. In an age where so many games are essentially launching broken, it's was refreshing to pop in a new game have it working. Beyond working well at launch, the gameplay benefits immensely front eh simplistic visual style. The game is a large, wide open world with deep caverns and sky Islands. Traversing between these different areas is practically seamless and there are very loading screens in the game.
The final benefit that Tears of the Kingdom’s visual style has, is that it give sit more character. Far too many games these days opt for a photorealistic, HD visual style. While these games are technically impressive, they are increasingly hard to tell apart and even bland. Franchises that once has their own distinct look now blend together visually, sacrificing some of the characters and uniqueness to them. In some cases, it also leads to gameplay becoming more simplistic.
Zelda’s artsyle in Tears of the Kingdo gives it a unique look that instantly lets you know which game it is. The visuals and art direction give the game its own identity, in a way a lot triple releases don’t have currently.
Given Tears of the Kingdom’s sales numbers, it is clear other game studios will look at it and try to replicate its success. Whether they learn the right lessons remains to be seen. Thanks again for reading everyone.