Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Breath of the Wild walked, so it could run.

When The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was released back in 2017, it stunned longtime fans with its departure from the linear style of clear dungeon, obtain heart container, rinse repeat. Gone was the familiarity of Zelda titles of yore, and on to greener pastures, as they say. You were free to do whatever you pleased. Just pick a direction and go.

Breath of the Wild was genuinely a breath (no pun intended) of fresh air for the franchise, with its captivating new mechanics with the rune abilities, shield surfing, paragliding, wall climbing, and much more. It gave players a true sense of freedom. Surely Nintendo couldn’t possibly output a grander Zelda than Breath of the Wild, could they?

The answer is a resounding yes. Eiji Aonuma, lead designer, producer, and director of The Legend of Zelda series, and his team have done the unthinkable. It’s a rarity in the industry to receive near universal acclaim on any given title. When a sequel was announced to Breath of the Wild, with its perfect scores and now legendary status, how were they going to top such a game? When the then unnamed sequel to Breath of the Wild was revealed at E3 2019, gamers were elated. The news was drip fed during the course of these past four years, leaving us with more questions than answers.

If the previous game was anything to go by, Tears of the Kingdom would be another exceptional entry in the Zelda franchise, however, what Nintendo decided to show before, did not leave the best taste in my mouth. Each trailer showed too little and was released at a snail’s pace. Skip ahead to the third trailer, released a month before the launch of Tears of the Kingdom, and I could say in confidence this was going to blow us all away.

Here we see the reintroduction of Ganondorf, in his best design to date. The legendary Matt Mercer lends his voice to the big bad in his most menacing appearance to boot. New story elements were shown. What seems to be a new assist mechanic, we see returning characters such as the comical Zora prince, Sidon, aiding Link in combat.

You pick up right where Breath of the Wild ends in one of the best openings to any Nintendo game, period. Upon boot up, a black screen appears with three lines of text, “Nintendo presents The Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom.” A couple of drum beats in between each line. Nothing flashy, just the sheer confidence in the product with the minimalist introduction. It supplements a foreboding atmosphere.

Off to the races, you and Zelda discover a cave underground in search of forgotten Hyrulian lore. Curiosity almost kills the cat, as the deeper they delve, a nasty surprise awaits. Ganondorf reawakens in a grotesque, skeletal-like state, immediately trying to take out the princess before Link intervenes.

He attempts to repel the darkness with the legendary master sword but is quickly overpowered by a weakened Ganondorf, destroying most of the master sword and Link’s arm in the process. As everything is crumbling around them, Zelda falls down into a chasm as Link fails to save her. This is possibly the most hopeless intro to any Nintendo game yet. Not all hope is lost as a mysterious arm, similar to the one that laid on Ganondorf’s chest, rescues Link before he would have fallen to his impending death.

Similar to Breath of the Wild, you are in a deep sleep and awaken a few years later, as opposed to one hundred in the former. Link has also gained a new arm after the encounter with Ganondorf. The introduction was able to successfully recapture that moment of wonder and awe I first felt when booting up my copy of Breath of the Wild on that fateful launch day, March 3rd, 2017. No hand holding, just go explore. You eventually make your way outside, high above the clouds on the Great Sky Island. You are greeted by a steward construct, robotic automatons of the ancient Zonai tribe.

They serve as tutorials for Tears of the Kingdom and introduce you to the mechanics, both old and new. If you are a seasoned Breath of the Wild player, you can skip these pointers entirely. Tears of the Kingdom does a phenomenal job of teaching you the ins and outs of its new mechanics, and there is plenty!

Gone are the runes from the previous game in favor of new abilities, thanks to Link’s mysterious new arm. There are certain conditions that need to be met before you can obtain them. The first three are unlocked through completing the first main quest, the closed door, which is comprised of three shrines.

You are first introduced to Ultrahand, which is a game-changer for the Zelda series. It allows Link to attach applicable materials together at will. This is where the wild rollercoaster ride begins. In the beginning, you are taught the basics by making primitive builds such as a raft made up of logs or attaching fans to the back of a mine cart to propel it forward on a track.

Your creations are only bound by your imagination, as long as something can attach to one another, you can create anything. The aforementioned fans are one example of a Zonai device, which is ancient technology used for a plethora of scenarios. There are many types, so get creative with it!

Not to be confused with the Ultrahand, Fuse allows you to combine any material: food, enemy parts, creatures, boulders, etc., to your weapon, shield, or arrow. This is where it gets wackier. If, for some reason, you want to attach a baked apple to a club, go right ahead. You can put a rocket on your shield to propel yourself into the air, attach a flamethrower, attach a steak to your arrow and use it as bait, Tears of the Kingdom allows complete freedom. My mouth was left wide open in awe at the sheer number of combinations that can work together. The amount of time it would take to see every single combination in Tears of the Kingdom is most likely incalculable.

It comes in handy when you have a weapon with a low attack output. You can combine it with a moblin horn, for instance, to increase its max damage. The sky is the limit. Speaking of sky, the last ability gained from the Great Sky Island shrines is Ascend, which allows Link to protrude through the ground above as long as the area marked is green. When I would complete the exploration of a cave, instead of walking all the way back, I was able to point up and reach the surface within moments.

Shortly after completing this quest and opening the door to the Temple of Time, you are given Recall. It is similar to Stasis from Breath of the Wild, except you can also rewind the animation of an object back a few seconds. If a moving platform is not going in the direction you like, not a problem! Just use Recall to have it going in the opposite direction. If you are shrewd enough, you might be able to cheat certain shrines with Recall if you utilize it properly.

Last but not least, Autobuild allows you to save creations or use schematics to automatically combine parts together. As long as you have the required materials and some Zonaite, a material found most specifically in caves or the world below, you can create it. No more trying to get that fan or laser in the right spot, make it once and save it, and you are good to go. I can’t even describe how game changing all these new mechanics are. It easily blows the runes out of the water. I haven’t felt that childhood sense of wonder in a game in a long time.

Even down to the score, which is incredible as always. The Sky Islands features a track that sounds like the GameCube system music, which always sounded creepy but beautiful. That fits the tone of the area perfectly. There are next to no NPCs around, just you, the constructs, and plenty of areas to explore in solitude. The chasm has little to no music. Some synths come in momentarily and fade out. The surface has the most varied music selection, as much of the main game takes place here.

The scope of Tears of the Kingdom is the grandest of any Nintendo game, let alone Zelda. While most of the core gameplay stays intact from its predecessor, the world is larger, with three separate maps between the sky, surface, and depths. The best part? You can seamlessly go from the highest point in the sky, past the surface, into the depths with no loading screens!

The fact that Nintendo’s Entertainment Planning and Development team was able to execute this with the Switch’s antiquated hardware is stunning. I haven’t suffered many frame drops in my play through outside of explosions with multiple enemies on screen.

The graphics have not improved much since Breath of the Wild, but that is to be expected. Tears of the Kingdom pushes the hardware to its absolute limit as is with the bevy of new mechanics and its massive game world. As of the time of this review, I still haven’t unearthed every facet of what Tears of the Kingdom has to offer.

Some concerns people had over easily broken weapons are now squashed by the fuse mechanic, adding an extra layer of durability to the weaker ones. Traversal has never been easier, thanks to Ultrahand and Autobuild, coupled with the attachments of Zonai devices.

Combat is still as tight and fun as it was before, now with new items to change your approach to an enemy encounter. The voice direction is absolutely fantastic, with Matt Mercer as Ganondorf and Patricia Summersett as Zelda, in addition to other returning voice actors. Matt’s performance, in particular, sells the most terrifying Ganondorf to disgrace our screens. Side characters you helped in Breath of the Wild are back and respond to quests you helped them with previously, amplifying the excellent world-building.

Never before have I experienced the amount of freedom, creativity, and wow factor set forth by this sequel to one of the best video games ever made. This is an incredible achievement to not only make the perfect Zelda game but to do it again and then some. Dungeons make a comeback for anyone who was upset with the lack of them previously. It excels at balancing lightheartedness with seriousness in all the right places. My only complaint is that Tears of the Kingdom is held back by such old hardware in terms of graphics and performance. That’s it.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a tour de force of game design that managed to outdo its already impeccable predecessor by a large margin. This is the premiere Zelda experience, and I can’t wait to see how Nintendo manages to top this one because those are mighty large boots to fill. Masterpiece.