Tears of the Kingdom takes all the rules established in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and throws them out. Looking back, Breath of the Wild feels quaint by comparison, like a proof of concept for what was to come in Tears of the Kingdom. Whereas Breath of the Wild merely hinted at player creativity and expression but offered few tools to do so, Tears of the Kingdom infuses these elements into every aspect of the game. If the original title felt a little barren, its sequel is positively brimming with content, personality, and creativity. Tears of the Kingdom is a sequel that throws out even BOTW’s most basic abilities and is all the better for it. Never has creative problem-solving and player agency been so much at the forefront of an open-world game. Never on this scale and not by a developer as typically strict in its design philosophy as Nintendo. If BOTW was testing the waters, Tears of the Kingdom is the dive into the deep end.

Tears of the Kingdom opens, throwing the world immediately into another calamity called the Upheaval. The world has changed; this time, ancient ruins in the sky have appeared, Hyrule Castle is floating, and new caves are opening everywhere. After the incredible opening, one of the series’ most immediate and intense, Link is placed again on a plateau to explore and grasp his newest abilities. Nintendo’s first stroke of genius was to throw out all the tools from BOTW. Every way you engage with the world in Tears of the Kingdom will be different from the outset by comparison. Forget everything you know about BOTW; these are uncharted waters. The other major upgrade from BOTW is that the first area is not a total microcosm of the rest of the game. What you did on the plateau in BOTW was very similar to the core loop of that game from hour 1 to 100. Tears of the Kingdom allows you to explore and experiment, but its scope is so huge and its solutions so creative that the starting plateau is only the tip of the iceberg. You will be startled by new mechanics and discoveries deep in the game.

These new abilities change how you play; your first ability is the perfect introduction to the kind of game that Nintendo is making -- Ultrahand offers the ability to grab almost any object and stick it to others; at first, it seems simple. Take some planks and stick them together for a bridge or some logs for a makeshift boat. But begin to think outside the box and see the possibilities; Ultrahand is built into every interaction in Tears of the Kingdom. You begin to see the remains of the ancient civilization that created the sky ruins, the Zonai, everywhere. Their leftover constructs and machine parts are crucial to learning how to use Ultrahand properly, and before you know it, you are riding rocket-powered minecarts, crafting hot air balloons, and creatively problem-solving in ways you have never seen.

Fusion breathes life into BOTW’s materials and crafting. There are so many monster parts, materials, foodstuffs, and more in BOTW that I soon forgot about them. I merely used what I needed and cooked basic meals to get along. I never felt like I had to learn about or engage with them meaningfully. Fusion changes this completely. Every material, monster part, and item can be stuck to arrows, weapons, and shields, mixing up their properties or increasing their power. Almost every weapon is afflicted with Gloom, one of the significant threats in Tears of the Kingdom. It deteriorates them and in their place, you must fuse new items to create powerful blades or devastating hammers. Take a monster horn and replace your blade to create a flaming sword with unique abilities; take a rock and fuse it to a stick to make a rudimentary hammer, all the better to break ore deposits. Fusion is an absolute game-changer; it changes every interaction in Tears of the Kingdom and justifies the wealth of materials and the weapon degradation system. You are constantly creating new tools for the job, which is phenomenal.

The scope of the open world in Tears of the Kingdom is unlike anything I have ever seen in a game. Without loading, you can drop from the highest point in the sky to the lowest point of the Depths. The Depths are another new area, nay, another world, below Hyrule. Don’t get it twisted; the Depths are a fully realized location deep beneath the surface that offers a massive area to explore, far more significant than the new sky islands. Hyrule in this game is three worlds on top of each other, and you can travel between them organically and without loading. The technology behind this game is astounding; you can even punt a Bokoblin down one of the pits and find them falling all the way to the Depths in real time. That doesn’t even consider the other abilities players have at their disposal, such as Ascent, which lets you pass through a ceiling to whatever is above it. Be it a second story or the top of a mountain. You can sit at the bottom of the depths and use Ascent to travel to the surface of Hyrule in a mere instant.

Tears of the Kingdom gives you the tools, the creativity, and the space to explore them, but it would be nothing without the absurd amount of high-quality content that litters the world. Unlike BOTW, there is something around every corner. There are new caves to explore, new camps to take out, tons of side-quests with excellent objectives, and fantastic stories. This game feels truly epic and open in a way no other does. There is always some new adventure on the horizon and new surprises around the corner. I was still finding new quests, characters, and mechanics late into the game.

Nintendo didn’t stop there. On top of everything, Tears of the Kingdom sees the return of dungeons and more traditional Zelda elements layered on top of the creative freedom it offers. Yes, temples return, but they offer the same level of creative problem-solving and player agency that every area of the game does. The temples are lovely, and the bosses see a return to the iconic design Nintendo is known for, and Tears of the Kingdom is full of memorable fights. Where BOTW struggled with the Divine Beasts, this game shines with its temples.

There are so many other things that one could go on about. The music is incredible, and the story is unique in the series’ scope; as a direct sequel, it carries over characters, plot elements, and more from BOTW. The visuals are frequently breathtaking (although many of BOTW’s same performance issues rear their ugly head, although in this case, I blame it on the hardware), and it is a joy to play. Tears of the Kingdom sets the standard for games regarding creative play and player agency. Every element of the game revolves around solving problems your way; you always feel like you are breaking the game a little bit, but then it works, and you realize that Nintendo planned for every contingency. You are always free to push the boundaries and tackle trials your way, and it takes everything BOTW did and pushes it to an extreme I never thought possible. Tears of the Kingdom is the game that everyone made BOTW out to be and then some. The NES was released in 1983 in Japan, and since then, Nintendo has been a standard-setter in the gaming industry, and Tears of the Kingdom shows that even forty years later, nobody can do it better.

Pros:

• Ultrahand changes everything

  
  

• Technically astounding

  
  

• Focuses on player agency

  
  

• The music

  
  

• The world design

  
  

• The side quests

  
  

• The Fusion system

  
  

• The new temples

Cons:

• There are technical issues with the framerate in certain areas.

Reviewer played the game on Nintendo Switch

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available now on Nintendo Switch.