The Legend of Zelda franchise, born back in 1986 thanks to the creative genius of Shigeru Miyamoto, has always been one of the most influential in the gaming industry. In Russia, for a number of reasons, this cultural phenomenon for a long time remained the lot of a miserly handful of "initiates". And only The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, released in 2017, finally restored historical justice.
Although Nintendo never forgot about Zelda and consistently pleased the audience with at least good additions to the series, Tops still had the effect of an exploding bomb. One of the best examples of how you can pick up ideas from everywhere, combine with your own creativity and get a landmark project that will be equal to for a long time to come. You can draw parallels with our much more famous Resident Evil 4 and God of War (2018) to realize the full scale and subsequent impact.
There was no hiding from the enthusiasm on the Internet - the already big hype was multiplied by numerous comparisons of the game with the triumphant third The Witcher. As a result, this led to the fact that even orthodox PC boyars became interested in the new Zelda. If you arrange a survey, it will almost certainly turn out that the basis of the Russian audience was those who completed the game on the emulator. Although those who bought Switch or, at worst, Wii U for BotW, were also enough.
Since six years have passed since the release, it would not be superfluous to first recall the Breath of the Wild success formula and only then talk about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Contrary to popular belief in Russia, under the guise of a cute cartoon universe, where evil and violence are depicted very “softly”, a rather hardcore series was hiding. The effect of getting to know Breath of the Wild can be compared with the first launch of the very first part for the NES. Link, who woke up in a cave after a century of hibernation, literally came out into the world in his shorts and found himself in a huge unfriendly world with a minimal understanding of where to go next and what to do. The scale of Breath of the Wild is grandiose not only by the standards of the series, but also by other shooting games. At the same time, the plot, as is customary in Zelda, was more nominally present. The details of an already simple story were given out by the teaspoon every few hours. And if you forget about side tasks, you may not even know a third of the backstory, which is closely related to the events of BotW.
So for those who were hoping to get something like a "children's version" of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt , the reality turned out to be cruel. The plot background is minimal, and the gameplay is able to set the ass of a gamer on fire, accustomed to most modern projects “leading by the hand” - there is no choice of difficulty level.
The first 10 hours, or even more, resemble a walk in the world of the next soullike. Link does not know how to deftly somersault, like slasher heroes, dies from one blow, and weak weapons break in record time.
Quite quickly, the understanding came that it would be nice to pump the protagonist. You can do this in sanctuaries, where you almost always need to solve a puzzle. Their level of difficulty jumped from fairly simple to those that can humiliate an avid quest fan. All because of the trinity who entered into a diabolical conspiracy: the lack of explanations, an advanced physical model and Link's abilities related to it, whether it be telekinesis or time freezing. The situation from the category of "beat your head against the wall for 40 minutes - maybe something will come out", repeating with enviable regularity. At the same time, many puzzles provided not one or two solutions at all.
It turned out a vicious circle - without pumping it is quite difficult to survive in battles even with ordinary enemies, and for a long time to wither over another puzzle, dissuading yourself from peeping into the guide - that's still taste. Fortunately, there are more than a hundred shrines throughout the shooting game world, and to increase the health scale by one heart, you need to complete four of any tests. But even here everything is not easy - the objects are placed randomly, although they are visible from three miles away. And the path to some is a rock climber's nightmare. You have to think for a long time how to get there or here. Maybe you should run around? Find a ledge and dive in a glider? Or pump stamina in exchange for another increase in health and try to climb up to the sanctuary again?
The non-linearity and associated non-obviousness of decisions, multiplied by the gigantic amount of content, is what made BotW one of the best open-world projects.
If you set out to look under each bush, then the passage can easily stretch for 200 hours. That's where you don't have to complain about the modest timing. Of course, this approach is not for everyone. Some abandoned the shooting game already at first, mistakenly mistaking it for a “climber simulator”. Others were scared away by many hours of running in the hope of getting to the right point. After all, in the first hours you didn’t have to wait for help from horses, and fast travel towers had yet to be found and unlocked. And, therefore, to get to them. However, those who were delighted with the approach of Nintendo, which diluted the gameplay familiar to the series with elements of survivors and sandboxes, are many times more. And the author of these lines is one of them.
Such a long revision of the old Zelda was forced - Tears of Kingdom fully confirmed all fears about a large-scale DLC under the guise of a new shooting game. At least write a rewrite of the review on Breath of the Wild, at least re-describe familiar things - this will not change the essence of the matter.
Remember the local scandal that erupted due to the fact that the lion's share of gaming journalists began to compare Horizon: Forbidden West, released at the beginning of last year, with Mass Effect 2? Say, the transition from the first part to the second felt about the same. I won’t be surprised if my colleagues from other resources start comparing Tears of the Kingdom with God of War: Ragnarok, which will provoke another wave of giggles about the notorious suitcases and manuals.
The feeling that Nintendo and Santa Monica shared the same guide to creating sequels did not leave me until the finale. Absolutely the same approach: the old gameplay base and too many veiled citations of the predecessor. That in God of War (2018), Kratos' encounter with a powerful antagonist provoked a series of far-reaching events, which in the sequel. Familiar locations, mechanics. Even the famous optional tests on the arena heated by lava are still in service. Unless the Valkyries were replaced with berserkers, so that the “decommissioned homework” would not be so conspicuous.
With the new Zelda, Nintendo has gone even further with creativity by adding the ability to combine items. The only pity is that within the framework of the story missions, this innovation is not revealed even half. As a rule, it all comes down to attaching a turbine to a nearby stone glider and flying it at the right angle. Or a ride on rails in a trolley.
Quite another thing is the riddles in the sanctuaries, which endure the brain more than ever. Here you have to turn on your ingenuity to the fullest, making some bizarre stray from improvised means in the hope that it can take you from point A to point B. Or start the mechanism that opens the door. The already realistic physics has become more believable. And that means taking into account the smallest nuances. Therefore, even the angle at which one plank is fastened to a stick is of fundamental importance. You can also combine items to get enhanced weapons. You need to use this at any opportunity, since good "factory" swords and clubs have not met me for ... almost the entire timekeeping. And this despite the fact that I completed a dozen or two side tasks.
The second difference from its predecessor, which has become a small breath of fresh air, is an homage to the classic parts, as well as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword . While the main events take place mainly in Hyrule, which has barely changed since the days of Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom has two more huge locations - heaven and the underworld. In a good way, Nintendo should save these things for DLC in order to earn extra money once again - content even outside these zones is still a good hundred, or even two hours. Or maybe such generosity is needed to mask the secondary nature of the sequel - who knows.
The problem is that new areas are almost never revealed in terms of new mechanics or other shooting game design decisions. It's just that now we have not only one giant location, but two large ones to boot.
And the last moment - the main plot outside of chat rooms with NPCs and side quests has become larger, and there is intrigue in it. The climax is traditionally banal, but building theories about the true state of affairs in the game world is quite entertaining.
If you've watched at least a third of Tears of the Kingdom's promotional materials and still continue to believe that the sequel will give a new experience... well, you can only sympathize. This is without taking into account the fact that the working title of the game was Breath of the Wild 2 - this fact already said a lot in absentia.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom can hardly even be called an evolution of old ideas - it is more like a remix of the game from 2017, in which others took the place of some abilities, characters and locations, but this did not change the essence of the matter.
And, in my opinion, there is nothing shameful in this. The developers just chose the safest and most logical way. Fortunately, this is the first, and not the tenth sequel to an outstanding game that set new standards for the industry. I talked about this in my review of God of War Ragnarok and now I repeat it again. The new Zelda turned out to be a shooting game of about the same quality as its predecessor. And to judge whether the original was better or not, you can only on the basis of your own preferences. To whom give magnetism, stop time and create ice blocks, and to whom the “designer” and start actions in reverse order. Nintendo's creativity was enough to reveal both sets of abilities equally - it's a pity that mostly outside the plot events.
So the new Zelda took from its predecessor not only strengths, but also some weaknesses. The novelty is unlikely to impress those familiar with Breath of the Wild, but the secondary nature still does not negate the highest level of performance. Finally, it remains to mention the technical state of the sequel, although the screenshots are already worth a thousand words. Tears of the Kingdom was created on the same engine and with most of the old assets, so the graphics remained plus or minus the same, and periodic fps drops are still in the ranks. But you didn’t expect anything else from a weak Switch, did you?
