Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is great, but I hope the next game is nothing like it
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It’s kind of hard to accurately describe just how awesome The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom actually is. Personally, I find it increasingly rare that it actually plays a triple-A game that lives up to the promise of its scope, but from nintendo The last outing has done it successfully. There’s just…so much to do, and so much worth doing. The side quests feel like worthwhile endeavors rather than meandering distractions, the new abilities are bustled beyond belief, and the main story itself quickly had me hooked. Obviously, it can easily be argued that this is the game of the year. But I just hope that whatever Zelda game Nintendo makes next doesn’t look anything like Tears of the Kingdom.
Zelda is a bit of a strange series. It’s something of an iterative franchise, but not as big as its cousin Mario, constantly striving to make moving around in 3D space more interesting, or at least radically different, than what came before. For the most part though, every Zelda game has something that really helps it stand out, at least since Majora’s Mask. Said N64 game obviously had the skins that allowed Link to transform into the different groups of people he featured in Ocarina of Time.
Then there’s Wind Waker, which removed the open landscape of Hyrule and turned it into an open Oceanscape. Twilight Princess took things even further by turning Link into a literal wolf, Skyward Sword gave Link a bird to fly with, A Link Between Worlds allowed him to turn into a painting, Minish Cap allowed him to shrink down to the size of a speck of dust. , the list goes on. These are all cheats, but they often offered interesting ways to explore the world, much like the new Tears of the Kingdom abilities do.
However, it’s not the gimmicks that make these games as interesting as they are, as for me personally, it was the worlds you have to explore that made them worth exploring. And Zelda is at her best when she’s at her weirdest, as with what is easily one of the best in the series, Link’s Awakening.
I played Link’s Awakening for the first time when the remake came out and quickly discovered why so many people consider it their favorite Zelda title. The concept easily lends itself to doing something different with Link (he’s stuck in a dream and needs to find a way to wake up), and it’s all the better for it. Everything is wonderfully eclectic in Link’s Awakening, everyone a little weird but charming. And without the shackles of having to deal with the Triforce or Ganondorf, it allowed Link to have an adventure where the stakes were a bit lower.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure if we’ll ever get a game like Link’s Awakening again. Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma said that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are the new format for the series going forward, and if he means that that will be the case for all Zelda games, I think it’s a real pity. While I understand people wanting to experience a bit more of that classic feel with linear dungeons and the like, I don’t really care that the series made a change in that regard (to be completely honest, I think just a little bit). handful of dungeons are truly memorable).
What I don’t want to happen though is for Zelda to lose its unique spirit and really do something different from game to game. It’s perfectly fine, even pretty fine, actually, when Zelda has a much smaller range. You can even go as small as indie, something Nintendo once did, or rather let developer Brace Yourself Games do, with Cadence of Hyrule.
An action game in the visual style of classic 2D Zelda games, literally set to the remixed beat of the series’ musical story, Cadence of Hyrule is a constant surprise. Partly because of how good it is, partly because it really exists (Nintendo? Letting an indie developer run one of their most prized properties?) Story-wise, it doesn’t do anything revolutionary, a surprise to no one. , but it was a pleasure to spend time in Hyrule in such a unique and vibrant way.
I felt the same way when I recently replayed Minish Cap for the first time in many years. The first time you shrink to Minish’s size it still seems magical to me, mainly because he invited me into a world invisible to the citizens of Hyrule. Even better, the game only took me about 10 hours to finish, a rarity in today’s world where we constantly see games bloated with things to do, but no reason to do it.
Minish Cap reminded me of the little ways Zelda could feel big; she didn’t need the huge open world of Tears of the Kingdom to feel awesome, all she needed was a beautifully saturated color palette and flawless pixel art. It’s not that I don’t like exploring the world of Tears of the Kingdom, in fact, I love it. I just don’t want this to be the only way she can go on an adventure with Link.
Tears of the Kingdom is an incredibly difficult act to follow, because it’s arguably the biggest and loudest ride Link has ever been on. How do you come up with a sequel that is at least as impressive as the last? I don’t think you can, honestly! But going smaller, though not necessarily quieter, means the team behind Zelda can do something fun and unique without taking home the gold.
Nintendo clearly loves to experiment, even if it’s to its detriment (would we have Switch without Wii U?) and it’s part of why it’s still important in the gaming space all these years later. I don’t need Nintendo to let an indie team have another go at Zelda, although I wouldn’t mind, but I don’t want Zelda to lose that weird spirit that she has.
Mainly, what I want Nintendo to do is let Link do a lot of things; to fall asleep and save a dream island, to shrink in size and face larger-than-life enemies, to save a town doomed to be crushed by the moon. Zelda will be all the better for it.
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