The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has arrived. And… It’s a game-changer. We mean that both literally and figuratively, with our ten-plus hours of playtime (occasionally interrupted by the Mother’s Day festivities and that power crisis we’re facing) confirming that Tears of the Kingdom is about as far removed from being Breath of the Wild DLC as anything could be. Our aim here is to assuage the fears of folks that see this as an overhyped, overpriced Nintendo cash grab following Breath of the Wild’s success.

That couldn’t be further from the truth. Sure, Breath of the Wild’s most devoted fans will certainly get an extra kick out of this direct sequel. Tears of the Kingdom makes its Game of the Year-winning younger brother feel like a developer playtest, which is a testament to just how brilliant Nintendo’s latest instalment is.

(Warning: Minor spoilers but only stuff that was shown in trailers.)

We’d rather be playing Tears of the Kingdom

As fun as writing about 2023’s Game of the Year is, it’s nothing compared to seeing it in action with your own two eyes. We finally got it booted up after Eskom delayed us from venturing into Hyrule. From the first note and the muted black title screen, we knew things were going to be different. The music – haunting rather than uplifting, the visuals – helping tell a story that was lacking in Breath of the Wild and, of course, the return of Ganondorf – teasing a darker story than the first.

Despite the obvious attention given to Tears of the Kingdom’s main quests, we hardly managed to get any of it done. That’s partly thanks to Nintendo for deciding that a Mother’s Day weekend release was necessary, and partly thanks to the game’s balls-to-the-wall mechanics taking up most of our initial playtime. We did manage to complete some story – just recently finishing up a mission in Rito Village with the help of a fledging named Tulin and his uniquely wonderful control over the winds. The thing is; that’s one of the game’s earliest main questlines. The rest of the time… Well. Let’s just say it involves a hand, some wheels and ~~a single~~ many, many, rocket ships.

Oh, and lest we forget to mention the Kingdom of Hyrule itself which feels just as much a character as Princess Zelda, or even Link (the Kingdom probably talks more anyways). This time around, however, the world is different. For one, Breath of the Wild’s sheikah technology is gone, without so much as a mention of where it all went. The world is far more deadly, with Bokoblin camps littering the fields like some crazy imitation of Earth and McDonalds. Oh, and there are sky islands – but you probably already knew that didn’t you?

Considering that the biggest change to the map (besides some other stuff we won’t mention here) has to do with the story, we won’t discuss their origin. What we will say is that they (being the sky islands) keep the map feeling fresh, with absolutely massive (and we mean massive) chunks of land to explore, both above ground and on the old map.

“The Ability to Create”

Even though we don’t know how the story will shake out, we’re confident in saying that it’s got stiff competition as Tears’ crowning achievement, which lies with the game’s new mechanics; Fuse, Ascend, Recall and most importantly – Ultrahand. Gone are the days of infinite bombs that, if you know what you’re doing, could carry you across the map in search of Calamity Ganon in seconds.

But that’s okay. Almost all of Link’s new powers are designed to make traversal more fun, while also managing to be speedier than a regular horse. The game does its best to shoo new players towards learning Ultrahand first, and for good reason. This is Link’s lifeblood – allowing him to create almost anything at will (as long as he’s got the necessary parts nearby). We’ve yet to encounter a limitation that didn’t involve our own creativity, which, when you’re playing on a Switch, is saying something.

While Ultrahand’s ability to create cars and planes like some suped-up version of Banjo Kazooie will almost certainly keep the game alive for years to come (they’re doing what to that Korok?), it’s not the only fun power to keep things interesting. We spent the first few hours forgetting that we had Fuse – a power that can bind anything to Link’s sword and shield (again, as long as he has the ingredients). Once we got the hang of it – we were adding bee’s nests to our swords and minecarts to our shields to take down our enemies.

We haven’t quite gotten the feel for Ascend and Recall yet with those abilities only being useful in specific, puzzle-related situations. Ascend has cropped up in more combat situations, though those encounters are few and far between in the land of Hyrule. We’re sure they’ll become more useful as we, you know, play the game.