When Nintendo announced during E3 2019 that they were developing a direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I became very ecstatic for all the possibilities the developers would take with the concepts introduced in Breath of the Wild.
Breath of the Wild took the Zelda formula back it’s established roots of the original NES classic and took the series to new heights with its open world and freedom of exploration.
With Tears of the Kingdom, the opportunity to take the established open world concept to the next level makes me very excited with its upcoming release on May 12 at the time of this post.
Leveling Up the Open World
Breath of the Wild gave us an open world Hyrule that was intended to be explored to its fullest limits, and Tears of the Kingdom has the unique opportunity develop the world further by adding new locations, new characters, new concepts and new game conventions in general.
Hyrule looks so much bigger and beautiful with its Skyward Sword-like elements of islands in the sky and Link’s ability to traverse the world through flight. How it all fits together in the story, I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Possible Incorporation of Older Zelda Elements
I honestly have hopes that the developers are able to bring back elements that were in previous Zelda titles such as traditional dungeons, caves, familiar items like the Hookshot.
Call me petty or too hooked on the classics, but there’s a certain uniqueness to the Zelda franchise that can be brought back into the mix as long as it fits the narrative and expands the world rather than just give fans what they want.
Developers and Feedback
With Tears of the Kingdom, I really hope the developers listened to any feedback from the fans. Here’s what I hope they addressed:
Weapon Durability
I hope they addressed the weapon durability system. It was a good idea that was implemented for Breath of the Wild as it makes you think about what weapon you’ll use in battle, but one of my gripes with the game is that the weapons were too quick to break, especially when you get higher level weapons like The Master Sword.
If they extended the durability by like 10-20 percent, that would address that particular gripe for myself.
The Story
Stories are what draw me into each game that I end up loving, one of my bigger gripes was that the story of Breath of the Wild was short and thin.
I understand that they probably had to sacrifice storytelling to shift focus on the game’s open world. But now with Tears of the Kingdom, I really hope that they focused more on making the story stand out as well as giving more development to the main characters, Link and Zelda.
Sure, there were moments of development between Link and Zelda during the memory scenes, but now that it’s the present-time for this world, I hope they take their relationship further.
Zelda Bosses
One last feedback that I hope got addressed was the bosses. Every great Zelda game, in my opinion, has great bosses, especially the final boss.
Breath of the Wild had an interesting idea to where you would fight the same boss with different elements like Thunder, Fire and Water as it represented a portion of Calamity Ganon, but it feels really repetitive that it makes me miss the bosses that had vulnerabilities you had to find.
You’ve got Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask and Skyward Sword, all of which have great final bosses as they feel climatic and epic in my opinion. Breath of the Wild’s final boss felt anticlimactic and dull as it was a typical giant boss battle.
Call this a petty comment, but I know there were a lot of disappointed fans, like me, that did not like the way that Breath of the Wild’s final boss turned out to be.
Last Thoughts
My excitement for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is at a high level. I have optimistic hopes that it will be just as good as Breath of the Wild, maybe even better. Will we get everything we want? No, of course not, most anticipated sequels don’t always give us everything.
I’m all for sequels these days, and the opportunities that were given to the developers, I hope they took advantage of them that it makes Tears of the Kingdom another special Zelda game.
Fingers are crossed.
Mister Fatherly
I hope it meets your expectations!!