The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom – it’s almost here (pic: Nintendo)

A reader looks forward to next week’s big release and how it feels for someone for who Breath Of The Wild was their first Zelda game.

We are now less than a week until the newest Zelda and frankly I can’t wait. I just hope it delivers.

Breath Of The Wild is, to this day, most probably my favourite game of all time and was my first Zelda game. I had a rocky relationship with the game at first and wasn’t really sure how I felt about it. I struggled with the lack of direction and spent most of my time wandering around aimlessly. In fact, I ended up trading the game in and was convinced that it was undeserving of the praise.

A year or so later I picked it up on the cheap and gave it another try and this time something just clicked. I was able to find purpose and upgrade my strength, my stamina, and my weapons and take each divine beast one by one at a time, eventually defeating Calamity Gannon.

I’ve since finished the game a second time, completing the Champions Ballad DLC and every one of the 120 shrines. I can’t think of another game as big that I’ve found the time or motivation to return to. I just love the inventiveness of the game, Link’s abilities such as Magnesis and Stasis breathe new life into puzzle-solving, combat, and traversal.

Personally, I was never able to master more complex techniques such as the bomb impact launch but seeing how others have used the game mechanics in unique and unexpected ways, and how secrets are still been uncovered speaks volumes of how special the game is. I don’t even mind the breakable weapons, as it encourages experimentation and towards the end of the game it’s usually a case of having too many available weapons. I also loved the shrines, being probably the best part of the game in my opinion.

The game isn’t perfect, I’ll agree climbing in the rain is a frustration; the amount of Korok seeds to collect was ridiculous, which is why I didn’t bother; and I did find the horse to be slightly useless at times, as it wasn’t long before you had to forgo it when approaching any kind of incline. Although the saddle in the DLC meant you could summon your horse no matter whereabouts on the map you are. However, these are minor quibbles and don’t detract from the overall quality of the game.

I’m trying to dampen my expectations for Tears Of The Kingdom. Don’t get me the wrong, the game so far looks amazing. However, if I judge it against Breath Of The Wild I might be disappointed. Instead, I’m trying to think of it as just another game that I’m looking forward to and that can be judged on its own merits.

The build-up to the game has been near perfect, with the exceptions of the first trailer in 2019, which was way too early, all the other information has come within a decent timeframe and has teased the game in a way that shows some of the core gameplay whilst still leaving much to be revealed, such as is Zelda playable, does Link have his old powers, are dungeons a thing, how about shrines?

Personally, having not really had much experience of other Zelda games other than Breath Of The Wild, I don’t really have any great interest in the story. Although I will say it seems more engaging than Breath Of The Wild. I also have little opinion on playing as Zelda, unless this adds any value to gameplay, in which case I’ll be on board. I’m down for dungeons as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of smaller scale puzzles or shrines.

Let’s hope Tears Of The Kingdom lives up to the expectations, although how to judge that is difficult to say. For some Tears Of The Kingdom being merely a good game will be enough, for some it’ll need to be great and for a not insignificant minority I imagine it needs to be one of if not the best game ever made.

Roll on 12th May so we can find out.

By reader matc7884

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A reader looks forward to next week’s big release and how it feels for someone for who Breath Of The Wild was their first Zelda game.