After years of anticipation, it's finally here. We've spent time with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and here is our spoiler-free video review of one of the most anticipated sequels in Nintendo history.
Can it possibly live up to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? You'll have to watch to find out.
Can it possibly live up to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? You'll have to watch to find out.
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00:00 Hi, I'm Mahim Kassor for GamesRadar and I'm super jealous but also very happy to be sat
00:24 next to Joel Frady who is reviewing Tears of the Kingdom.
00:29 How are you?
00:30 I'm tired.
00:31 He's doing a lot of guides so bear with him.
00:35 Yeah, I've had the game for nearly two weeks and I don't think I've done anything else
00:41 in that time except play the game.
00:46 It's really good that it's a good game or I'd be feeling very burnt out right about
00:55 now.
00:56 That's a good start guys, it's good.
00:57 We can confirm it is in fact good.
00:59 It was worth the wait.
01:01 So there are some things that Joel's not allowed to mention, just tell me to shut up if I ever
01:06 ask any of those things but without further ado let's get straight into it.
01:10 So first of all I want to ask, with Breath of the Wild one of the most annoying things
01:15 was when weapons were breaking and stuff and in this new game you've got the fuse ability,
01:20 does that fully replace that mechanic?
01:24 No, it's the solution to it.
01:28 So weapon durability is back everyone, you can be happy about that.
01:32 And not only that, it's worse than before.
01:36 I don't think it's weapon durability degradation, you know, sword snapping your hand.
01:41 I think it's a good thing because the game doesn't have much else to reward you with
01:45 and there's even an NPC early in the game who basically looks you square in the eye
01:50 and goes "Yeah weapon degradation is even worse this time, how's about that?"
01:55 "Oh that's bold Miyamoto."
01:58 So when you were playing it did you find yourself leaning more towards the fused weapons or
02:02 these other weapons that are already in the game?
02:05 Well, so you can fuse any weapon with a few exceptions like special stuff that's practically
02:13 pre-fused when you get it.
02:15 You can mix anything with almost anything else.
02:21 So fusing items generally, depending on what you fuse it with, boosts its durability.
02:27 So if you have something that is going to break apart in about three strikes, that is
02:31 your motivation to find something to mix it with because that will ensure that it breaks
02:38 later rather than sooner.
02:41 And depending on what you mix it with, it might break a lot later.
02:45 So even if you don't find anything, you should just go find a rock in a path and just stick
02:51 it to the end because it will get a minor damage upgrade and it will take a lot longer
02:56 to break.
02:57 So you should fuse everything you find.
03:00 The game wants you to do that, it wants you to mix and match.
03:03 So when you first loaded up the game, let's start from the beginning, is it similar to
03:09 Breath of the Wild when you come out of the cave and the whole world is for you to explore
03:12 and you start from nothing?
03:13 What is it like this time when you first load into the game?
03:15 So there's a little bit of a preamble and what follows is more of a mystery narrative
03:21 than last time because before, at any point you could go to the castle and fight the dragon.
03:29 Everything up to that was theoretically optional to make that easier.
03:33 This time around, you don't know where the enemy is and you don't know where Zelda is
03:40 and the plot is following their steps and working out where they've gotten to.
03:47 So it sounds like there's a more happening and ongoing story which is something I was
03:51 really hoping for because in Breath of the Wild, the story was mostly flashbacks.
03:58 So how much of the story is actually ongoing and happening in Tears of the Kingdom?
04:02 It's a mix.
04:04 There's definitely stuff to find out because there's a new element where obviously everyone's
04:07 seen all these sky islands floating around that are left over from the Zonai civilization
04:14 that was around at the birth of Hyrule and are now beginning to reappear.
04:18 Again, you have that thing where there's four different regions, each one with its own problem.
04:25 So it sounds like a lot is actually different in Tears of the Kingdom.
04:28 A lot of people are worried that it's going to be more of the same but did you feel like
04:32 there's enough happening in the normal standard world on surface level land?
04:37 Yes.
04:38 Oh, there is?
04:39 Yes.
04:40 It is different enough.
04:41 It does not feel like DLC.
04:42 It does not feel lazy to any degree.
04:45 It feels like a full-fledged sequel.
04:47 Yes, the map is sort of the same in that it's the bones.
04:54 It's the geography.
04:55 Yeah.
04:56 Like the mountains are where you remember them, the chasms are where you remember them.
04:59 Hyrule Castle has not moved massively but what's happening in all these things has changed
05:06 and there are differences.
05:07 Things have changed.
05:08 It does feel like time has progressed and the world has twisted.
05:12 So while it is the same world, it is notably different.
05:16 Plus there's all the Sky Island stuff which is admittedly not as big as I'd want it to
05:21 be.
05:22 You don't actually spend much time up there.
05:24 Really?
05:25 There's not a huge amount of it and a lot of the time it's quite optional which is a
05:28 shame because some of the best stuff is up there.
05:32 Weapon-wise?
05:33 Just content-wise.
05:34 There's some really good dungeons, there's some really good bosses, there's some really
05:37 good experiences to be had in Sky Island.
05:40 I wouldn't have minded more of it.
05:42 There's also a subterranean area now called The Depths.
05:45 Right, underground.
05:46 Yes.
05:47 And it is as big as Hyrule.
05:49 Is it?
05:50 Yes.
05:51 So is the Sky Area as big as the ground area and is the ground area as big as the normal
05:57 plain land area?
05:58 So The Depths is as big as Hyrule.
06:02 It sort of mimics it.
06:06 Where there's a mountain in Hyrule there'll be something to match it in The Depths and
06:10 a lot of the spaces kind of mimic each other.
06:14 The Sky Region is nowhere near as big otherwise you'd be blotted out if it was a match.
06:19 And how do you travel from the sky to the ground level to the underground?
06:23 How does all that work?
06:24 So if you want to get to sky level you can make a vehicle except not necessarily because
06:30 actually it's so high up that most of the time your vehicles run out of battery before
06:33 they get you that high.
06:34 Right.
06:35 But the main way you ascend now is that there's the fast travel towers have a system built
06:43 in where they launch you into the air.
06:45 Okay.
06:46 Like they literally fire you upwards like a cannon.
06:48 More like the towers that you used to reveal the map last time.
06:51 Right.
06:52 So they shoot you skywards and then you can use the glider to land on a nearby island
06:57 of your choice.
06:58 The other thing also I wanted to ask about is this all seems like a lot.
07:03 Not just like vertically up and down as well.
07:06 Are there any loading issues, frame rate issues, stuff like that?
07:13 Not hugely.
07:14 Okay.
07:15 Now it's...
07:16 No, no, no.
07:17 No, no, no.
07:18 It's not bad.
07:19 It's not.
07:21 So Breath of the Wild basically held itself together just about.
07:26 I would say this is another just about maybe a shade little more shaky.
07:31 Right.
07:32 Okay.
07:33 But after a string of recent AAA games that have basically crumbled as you held them,
07:40 this is doing way better than all of those.
07:43 So usually it's because this is a game that's not doubled down on new areas, it's doubled
07:48 down on new systems.
07:49 So stuff like Ultra Hand and the vehicles and fusions and NPCs and all the various mechanics
07:56 twisting together.
07:57 When it starts to stumble in terms of frame rates, it's inevitably when there's about
08:02 50 different systems rubbing against each other and you can hear the Switch going...
08:09 This is a lot.
08:10 This is a lot to deal with, which isn't too often.
08:14 I'd call it a B, like a B grade thing where every now and then if I was going down the
08:20 chasm there'd be a bit of lag because you can tell that it's clearly unloading lots
08:26 above and quickly loading what's below.
08:28 Or if the vehicles got too complex because they're not really vehicles, they're a bunch
08:33 of disparate pieces glued together.
08:36 Yeah, use your battery or whatever.
08:37 So the game has to kind of work out how they all interact constantly rather than it being
08:42 a single untwisting NPC thing effectively.
08:48 So as a huge Zelda fan myself, one thing I really did want to see is more diverse temples.
08:54 Like what's the shrine, temple, divine beast situation as much as you can say?
09:00 There's basically shrines again.
09:03 They work pretty much like how they did last time.
09:05 They're dotted around the map, they're fast travel points.
09:10 Inside is a puzzle or a challenge or a situation that's like a little mini dungeon effectively.
09:17 And they give you the little orbs that you can redeem for stamina and health.
09:22 Are there normal dungeons?
09:23 Yes.
09:24 So is there like a fire dungeon and a water dungeon?
09:28 In the last one, the divine beast, the interior, the interior decor all looks the same.
09:33 So I'm just wondering what's the situation with that?
09:36 I'd say there's about five or six major dungeons.
09:41 What do they feel like?
09:43 They're pretty similar to how they were last time.
09:45 In terms of mechanics, they're aesthetically very different because they're in different
09:53 regions, but they're functionally quite similar.
09:55 But yeah, if you played Breath of the Wild, you will kind of know what to expect from
10:00 the dungeon in this one.
10:01 Honestly, that does apply a lot.
10:04 This is an evolution of Breath of the Wild, but it is clearly like Breath of the Wild.
10:08 I don't think that's a criticism.
10:10 I think it is different enough to be its own beast.
10:13 It's not rote copying.
10:14 It's not lazy.
10:15 It's not lazy.
10:18 But the DNA of Breath of the Wild is clearly there in that it's the same engine and the
10:24 same systems.
10:25 And it's just a sort of enhanced version of all that with new situations and settings.
10:30 And then what were you saying about the underground?
10:34 So the depths are just this open plane.
10:38 And it does feel like they've taken inspiration from software.
10:43 It's dark, so you have to keep throwing these little light pods to illuminate it.
10:48 There's poes down there, which are a collectible currency.
10:51 You can use to buy stuff.
10:53 There's enemies that do max health reduction.
10:57 There's a lot of bosses.
10:59 It's just not very fun.
11:03 It's not terrible.
11:06 But I only ever went down there because the game was telling me to.
11:12 Because on its own terms, it's probably just fine.
11:17 Like it's a challenge.
11:19 It's a bit more punishing, but some of the best rewards are down there.
11:22 So it's a kind of risk/reward thing.
11:27 But it's far less interesting than what's above because there's no NPCs.
11:31 It's pure monsters and random bosses dotted around.
11:36 So it's pretty brutal down there.
11:38 That's kind of the point.
11:39 There's no NPCs to talk to.
11:43 The terrain is all fairly uniform, similar.
11:49 It's not terrible, but I never went down there because what was surface and sky level was
11:55 always a thousand times more interesting to me.
11:58 Maybe other people feel differently.
12:00 I guess that if you do love the idea of a real challenge, and it is basically as tough
12:06 as it gets down there, then it might appeal to you.
12:11 And finally, a lot of comparisons and people are hoping that it's going to be like the
12:16 Majora's Mask to Ocarina of Time kind of comparison sort of thing.
12:20 But how dark would you say, in story, in aesthetic, in general, is Tears of the Kingdom?
12:29 I really want it to be dark.
12:31 It's definitely not like Majora's Mask, which had that creepy carnival tone.
12:36 I'd say it's tonally not too dissimilar from Breath of the Wild.
12:41 I'd say they share a kind of quiet melancholy.
12:45 I guess if anything, Breath of the Wild had it a little bit more because it felt like
12:49 that world was basically slightly post-apocalyptic and the high-roof-
12:56 This is happier.
12:57 Well, it's in a period of rebuilding, as I said.
13:00 Zelda is back at the beginning of that game.
13:03 Link is back.
13:04 Everyone's trying to recreate Hyrule and then things go wrong.
13:10 So I guess it feels like it's a bit more emotionally involved because there's more of something
13:17 at stake.
13:19 It's not a dark game, I would say.
13:22 Cool.
13:23 Cool.
13:24 That sounds good.
13:25 Whether that appeals to you or not, then that will be personal taste.
13:28 Is there anything personally you want to get off your chest about this game?
13:33 Oh God, there's so much to talk about.
13:36 You can say no.
13:37 Well, no, there's about 50 things I want to talk about.
13:41 How many have you got?
13:42 A few hours?
13:43 It's good.
13:44 It is good.
13:45 Go play it.
13:48 It's not a copy of Breath of the Wild.
13:50 It's not lazy.
13:52 It's different enough to be its own thing.
13:54 The reused map is not a sign of laziness because all that effort has gone into other sections
14:01 of it.
14:02 It's probably not as revolutionary as Breath of the Wild, but then I don't think it could
14:06 have been.
14:07 No, yeah, of course.
14:08 So I think there'll be less of a shock enjoyment of it because I don't think anyone was expecting
14:16 Breath of the Wild to be the lightning bolt that it was.
14:19 But it is still good.
14:20 And it's a game that I have burnt myself out playing for two weeks and I'm going back in
14:25 my own time, which is a good sign as someone who plays a lot of games and is used to a
14:31 lot of stuff and always has something new on the table.
14:34 It is something I'm still seeking out and still exploring.
14:38 And having reached the end credits over the weekend, I think it's really good and worth
14:45 playing.
14:46 Nice, nice.
14:47 I'm very excited about this.
14:49 Listen to that.
14:50 It's not the same game.
14:51 There is enough difference.
14:52 It is a sequel.
14:53 I've been Mahim Kassor and this has been Joel Frady.
14:57 And remember to like, comment and subscribe.
14:58 See ya.
14:59 See ya.
14:59 Okay, let's go.
15:00 But you are not alone.
15:01 Link.
15:02 You are our final hope.
15:02 You are our final hope.
15:16 You are our final hope.
15:20 (electronic music)
15:23 [MUSIC]