Summary
Seven years ago,The Legend of Zeldawas changed forever with the release ofBreath of the Wild. As Nintendo’s first Game of the Year award winner,Breath of the Wildtook the linear world ofZeldaand placed it in what has now been deemed one of thebest open worldsin video game history.Breath of the Wild’s open world was massive without feeling overwhelming, primarily due to the way it encouraged curiosity-driven exploration using visual and audio cues. Six years later, Nintendo releasedBreath of the Wild’s sequel,The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which arguably upped the ante on its predecessor’s acclaimed open world with additional layers of exploration, plenty of new secrets to uncover, and a wide variety of brand-new activities.
It has now been one year sinceThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomwas released, so it’s worth examining how it has held up since then. Fortunately, it’s still possible to jump intoTears of the Kingdoma year later without feeling like it’s become irrelevant. In fact,Tears of the Kingdomarguably sets a standard for timelessness that not many other games have achieved. To this day, its unrestricted gameplay remains its lifeblood and the reason anyone can pick it up again at any time without feeling pressured to play it in a certain way.
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s Timelessness Is Fueled by Its Unrestricted Gameplay
Tears of the Kingdom’s Open World Is Masterfully Crafted to Encourage Self-Governed Gameplay
After a while, if someone doesn’t complete a game that they’ve started — especiallyone as massive asTears of the Kingdom— and they step away from it for a time, it can be difficult for them to get back into it without feeling overwhelmed by the number of things left to do, as well as attempting to figure out what they were in the middle of doing when they stopped playing it before. However,Tears of the Kingdomessentially allows players to do whatever they want, so they don’t have to worry about getting back on track once they pick it up again.
Tears of the Kingdom’s open worldis set up so that players can govern their own gameplay without ever being prompted by the game to do anything specific. Its open world is designed to encourage players off course, so there’s never necessarily any need to call to mind what they might have been doing when they stopped playing months prior. Instead, they can pick up the game a year later and continue choosing their own path as they did before, never feeling obligated to go one way or another. In this way,Tears of the Kingdomis timeless, not only because of its quality as a game, but also because of the freedom it provides its players.
Tears of the Kingdom’s Ultrahand Ability Will Likely Keep the Game Alive for Years to Come
The breakout star ofTears of the Kingdomis undoubtedlyLink’s Ultrahand ability. With it, players can create almost any type of vehicle they want, so long as it obeys the laws of physics. Unfortunately, Nintendo has confirmed that it will be retiring Ultrahand from here on out, which meansTears of the Kingdomwill be the only option players have for using it again. However, this also means thatTears of the Kingdomwill likely be alive for many years, simply due to Ultrahand’s pull on players to return to the game, once again contributing to its timelessness and proving its unrestricted gameplay.
It’s currently unclear where Nintendo will takeThe Legend of Zeldafrom here, but one thing is certain:Tears of the Kingdom’s unrestricted gameplay has set a precedent for the series that the developer can’t afford to ignore.Tears of the Kingdomis not perfect, but its effects on theZeldafranchisecan’t be denied.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
WHERE TO PLAY
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to the beloved open-world adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This installment once again sees Link and Zelda battling to protect Hyrule from falling to Ganondorf. This new adventure takes place in the same land of Hyrule as Breath of the Wild but sees something called the Upheaval, which allows link to travel to Sky Islands, as well as deep into the Depths beneath Hyrule. Players can use special abilities to fuse together weapons, and build items to help them progress through the release.
