Barbara
IF YOU LOVED BREATH OF THE WILD, YOU’LL LOVE TEARS OF THE KINGDOM: AN ANALYSIS
If you’re a big fan of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, then you’ll understand the feeling of developing your own playstyle after countless hours of gameplay. The game gave us the freedom to explore and progress through the story as we saw fit, which made it unlike any other game in the franchise. Similarly, Tears of the Kingdom offers a bigger world and new weapons for Link to use. As a Breath of the Wild veteran, I must admit that playing Tears of the Kingdom has been a thrilling experience, as the game’s developers seem to know how I’ve played in the past and challenge me to change my ways.
When I first started playing Breath of the Wild, everything was new and unfamiliar, and I often found myself reflexively pressing the plus button to give myself a chance to get my bearings during fights with monsters. The game allowed us to equip new swords, shields, bows, and arrows using only a combination of the left and right directional and ZR buttons, but I preferred pulling up the full inventory menu every time I needed to switch weapons. Tears of the Kingdom requires a new set of muscle memories for the Switch’s buttons that activate all of Link’s new powers like Fuse, and this mechanic has changed how I interact with the game’s world, which I thought I already knew well.
One of the reasons why Tears of the Kingdom is so appealing is because of Link’s new powers, which allow us to combine random objects to create new weapons and tools. Though it’s still exciting to come across powerful weapons while exploring, it’s often more fun to combine items and see what we can come up with. This mechanic has led me to care less about holding onto powerful weapons, as I can always make more. The game’s emphasis on quickly pulling up small menus has also changed how I play, forcing me to act more on instinct and less on overthinking.
Tears of the Kingdom can be challenging, but it’s also rewarding. While it’s not always clear how significantly the game’s new mechanics are influencing our behavior, it’s evident that the game’s been pushing us out of our comfort zone. We may be dying more often, but it’s all part of the transformative experience of rewiring our brain to better understand how to get the most out of the game. Ultimately, Tears of the Kingdom is making it harder and harder to put down, and we can’t wait to continue playing it for the foreseeable future.
