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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00:00Zelda, we rely on your knight and that legendary sword he carries. Our last line of defence
00:10will be Link.
00:11Link.
00:12Hi, I'm Maheem Kassor for GamesRadar and I'm super jealous but also very happy to be sat
00:24next to Joel Frady who is reviewing Tears of the Kingdom. How are you?
00:30I'm tired.
00:31He's doing a lot of guides so bear with him.
00:35Yeah, I've been, I've had the game for nearly two weeks and I don't think I've done anything
00:41else in that time except play the game.
00:46It's really good that it's a good game or I'd be feeling very burnt out right about
00:55now.
00:56That's a good start guys, it's good. We can confirm it is in fact good.
01:00It was worth the wait.
01:01So there are some things that Joel's not allowed to mention, just tell me to shut up if I ever
01:06ask any of those things but without further ado let's get straight into it.
01:11So first of all I want to ask, with Breath of the Wild one of the most annoying things
01:15was when weapons were breaking and stuff and in this new game you've got the fuse ability,
01:20does that fully replace that mechanic?
01:24No, it's the solution to it.
01:28So weapon durability is back everyone, you can be happy about that.
01:32And not only that, it's worse than before.
01:36I don't think it's weapon durability degradation, you know, sword snapping your hand.
01:41I think it's a good thing because the game doesn't have much else to reward you with
01:45and there's even an NPC early in the game who basically looks you square in the eye
01:50and goes yeah weapon degradation is even worse this time, how's about that?
01:56That's bold Miyamoto.
01:59So when you were playing it did you find yourself leaning more towards the fused weapons or
02:03these other weapons that are already in the game?
02:06So you can fuse any weapon, with a few exceptions like special stuff that's practically pre-fused
02:14when you get it, you can mix anything with almost anything else.
02:21So fusing items generally, depending on what you fuse it with, boosts its durability.
02:27So if you have something that is going to break apart in about three strikes, that is
02:32your motivation to find something to mix it with because that will ensure that it breaks
02:39later rather than sooner and depending on what you mix it with, it might break a lot
02:44later.
02:45So even if you don't find anything, you should just go find a rock in a path and just stick
02:51it to the end because it will get a minor damage upgrade and it will take a lot longer
02:56to break.
02:57So you should fuse everything you find.
03:00The game wants you to do that, it wants you to mix and match.
03:04So when you first loaded up the game, let's start from the beginning, is it similar to
03:09Breath of the Wild when you come out of the cave and the whole world is for you to explore
03:12and you start from nothing?
03:13What is it like this time when you first load into the game?
03:15So there's a little bit of a preamble and what follows is more of a mystery narrative
03:22than last time because before, at any point you could go to the castle and fight the dragon.
03:29Getting up to that was theoretically optional to make that easier.
03:33This time around, you don't know where the enemy is and you don't know where Zelda is
03:41and the plot is following their steps and working out where they've gotten to.
03:47So it sounds like there's a more happening and ongoing story which is something I was
03:51really hoping for because in Breath of the Wild, the story was mostly flashbacks.
03:58So how much of the story is actually ongoing and happening in Tears of the Kingdom?
04:02It's a mix.
04:04There's definitely stuff to find out because there's a new element where obviously everyone's
04:08seen all these sky islands floating around that are left over from the Zonai civilisation
04:14that was around at the birth of Hyrule and are now beginning to reappear.
04:19Again you have that thing where there's four different regions, each one with its own problem.
04:25So it sounds like a lot is actually different in Tears of the Kingdom.
04:28A lot of people are worried that it's going to be more of the same but did you feel like
04:32there's enough happening in the normal standard world on surface level land?
04:37Yes.
04:38Oh there is?
04:39Yes.
04:40It is different enough.
04:41It does not feel like DLC.
04:42It does not feel lazy to any degree.
04:46It feels like a full fledged sequel.
04:48Yes, the map is sort of the same in that it's the bones, it's the geography.
04:56The mountains are where you remember them, the chasms are where you remember them, Hyrule
04:59Castle has not moved massively.
05:03But what's happening in all these things has changed and there are differences.
05:07Things have changed.
05:08It does feel like time has progressed and the world has twisted.
05:12So while it is the same world, it is notably different.
05:16Plus there's all the sky island stuff which is admittedly not as big as I'd want it to
05:22be.
05:23No.
05:24You don't actually spend much time up there.
05:25There's not a huge amount of it and a lot of the time it's quite optional which is a
05:28shame because some of the best stuff is up there.
05:32Weapon wise?
05:34Just content wise.
05:35There's some really good dungeons, there's some really good bosses, there's some really
05:37good experiences to be had in Sky Island.
05:41I wouldn't have minded more of it.
05:42There's also a subterranean area now called The Depths.
05:46Right, underground.
05:47Yes.
05:48And it is as big as Hyrule.
05:50Is it?
05:51Yes.
05:52So is the sky area as big as the ground area and is the ground area as big as the normal
05:57plain land area?
05:58So The Depths is as big as Hyrule.
06:02It sort of mimics it.
06:06Where there's a mountain in Hyrule there'll be something to match it in The Depths and
06:10a lot of the spaces kind of mimic each other.
06:14The sky region is nowhere near as big.
06:17Otherwise you'd be blotted out if it was a national island.
06:19And how do you travel from the sky to the ground level to the underground, how does
06:24all that work?
06:25So if you want to get to sky level you can make a vehicle, except not necessarily because
06:30actually it's so high up that most of the time your vehicles run out of battery before
06:34they get you that high.
06:35Right.
06:36But the main way you ascend now is that there's the fast travel towers have a system built
06:43in where they launch you into the air.
06:45Okay.
06:46Like they literally fire you up.
06:47Are those like shrines?
06:48It's like a cannon.
06:50It's like the towers that you used to reveal the map last time.
06:52So they shoot you skywards and then you can use the glider to land on a nearby island
06:57of your choice.
06:58One thing also I wanted to ask about is this all seems like a lot, not just like vertically
07:05up and down as well.
07:06Are there any like loading issues, frame rate issues, stuff like that?
07:13Not hugely.
07:14Okay.
07:15Now it...
07:16No, no, no.
07:17No, no, no.
07:18It's not bad.
07:19It's not.
07:20Okay.
07:21So Breath of the Wild basically held itself together just about.
07:25Yeah.
07:26I would say this is another just about maybe a shade little more shaky.
07:31Right.
07:32Okay.
07:33But after a string of recent AAA games that have basically crumbled as you held them,
07:40this is doing way better than all of those.
07:43So usually it's because this is a game that's not doubled down on new areas, it's doubled
07:48down on new systems.
07:49So stuff like Ultra Hand and the vehicles and fusions and NPCs and all the various mechanics
07:56twisting together.
07:58When it starts to stumble in terms of frame rates, it's inevitably when there's about
08:0250 different systems like rubbing against each other and you can hear the switch going.
08:09This is a lot.
08:10This is a lot to deal with, which isn't too often.
08:14I'd call it a B, like a B grade thing where every now and then if I was going down the
08:20chasm there'd be like a bit of lag because you can tell that it's clearly unloading what's
08:26above and quickly loading what's below.
08:28Or if the vehicle's got too complex because they're not really vehicles, they're a bunch
08:34of disparate pieces glued together so the game has to kind of work out how they all
08:39interact constantly rather than it being a single untwisting NPC thing effectively.
08:48So as a huge Zelda fan myself, one thing I really did want to see is more diverse temples.
08:54Like what's the shrine, temple, divine beast situation as much as you can say?
09:01There's basically shrines again.
09:03They work pretty much like how they did last time.
09:05They're dotted around the map, they're fast travel points.
09:10Inside is a puzzle or a challenge or a situation that's like a little mini dungeon effectively.
09:17And they give you the little orbs that you can redeem for stamina and health.
09:22Are there normal dungeons?
09:23Yes.
09:24So is there like a fire dungeon and a water dungeon like this?
09:28Yes.
09:29In the last one, the divine beast, the interior, the interior decor all looked the same.
09:33So I'm just wondering, what's the situation with that?
09:36I'd say there's about five or six major dungeons.
09:41What do they feel like?
09:43They're pretty similar to how they were last time.
09:46In terms of mechanics, they're aesthetically very different because they're in different
09:53regions, but they're functionally quite similar.
09:56But yeah, if you played Breath of the Wild, you will kind of know what to expect from
10:00the dungeon in this one.
10:01Honestly, that does apply a lot.
10:04This is an evolution of Breath of the Wild, but it is clearly like Breath of the Wild.
10:08I don't think that's a criticism.
10:10I think it is different enough to be its own beast.
10:13It's not rote copying.
10:14It's not lazy.
10:15It's not lazy.
10:18But the DNA of Breath of the Wild is clearly there in that it's the same engine and the
10:24same systems.
10:25And it's just a sort of enhanced version of all that with new situations and settings.
10:30And then what were you saying about the underground?
10:34So the depths are just this open plane.
10:38And it does feel like they've taken inspiration from FromSoftware.
10:43It's dark, so you have to keep throwing these little light pods to illuminate it.
10:48There's Poes down there, which are a collectible currency you can use to buy stuff.
10:54There's enemies that do max health reduction.
10:57There's a lot of bosses.
10:59It's just not very fun.
11:04It's not terrible, but I only ever went down there because the game was telling me to.
11:12Because on its own terms, it's probably just fine.
11:17It's a challenge.
11:19It's a bit more punishing, but some of the best rewards are down there.
11:22So it's a kind of risk-reward thing.
11:27But it's far less interesting than what's above, because there's no NPCs.
11:32It's pure monsters and random bosses dotted around.
11:36So it's pretty brutal down there.
11:38That's kind of the point.
11:39There's no NPCs to talk to.
11:43The terrain is all fairly uniform, similar.
11:48Yeah, it's not terrible, but I never went down there because what was surface and sky
11:54level was always a thousand times more interesting to me.
11:58Maybe other people feel differently.
12:00I guess that if you do love the idea of a real challenge, and it is basically as tough
12:06as it gets down there, then it might appeal to you.
12:11And finally, a lot of comparisons, and people are hoping that it's going to be the Majora's
12:17Mask to Ocarina of Time kind of comparison sort of thing.
12:21How dark would you say, in story, in aesthetic, in general, is Tears of the Kingdom?
12:29I really want it to be dark.
12:32It's definitely not like Majora's Mask, which had that creepy carnival tone.
12:36I'd say it's tonally not too dissimilar from Breath of the Wild.
12:42I'd say they share a kind of quiet melancholy.
12:45I guess if anything, Breath of the Wild had it a little bit more, because it felt like
12:49that world was basically slightly post-apocalyptic, and was, you know, the Hyrule...
12:56This is happier.
12:57Well, it's in a period of rebuilding, as I said.
13:01Zelda is back at the beginning of that game.
13:03Link is back.
13:04Everyone's trying to recreate Hyrule, and then things go wrong.
13:10So I guess it feels like it's a bit more emotionally involved, because there's more of something
13:18at stake.
13:19It's not a dark game, I would say.
13:22Cool.
13:23Cool.
13:24That sounds good.
13:25Whether that appeals to you or not, then, you know, that will be personal taste.
13:28Is there anything personally you want to get off your chest about this game?
13:32Um...
13:33Oh, God, there's so much to talk about.
13:37You can say no.
13:38Well, no, there's about 50 things I want to talk about.
13:42How many have you got?
13:43A few hours?
13:44It's good.
13:45It is good.
13:46Go play it.
13:48It's not a copy of Breath of the Wild.
13:50It's not lazy.
13:52It's different enough to be its own thing.
13:55The reused map is not a sign of laziness, because all that effort has gone into other
14:01sections of it.
14:02It's probably not as revolutionary as Breath of the Wild, but then I don't think it could
14:07have been.
14:08No, yeah, of course.
14:09So I think there'll be less of a shock enjoyment of it, because I don't think anyone was expecting
14:16Breath of the Wild to be the lightning bolt that it was.
14:19But it is still good, and it's a game that I have burnt myself out playing for two weeks,
14:25and I'm going back in my own time, which is a good sign, as someone who plays a lot of
14:30games and is used to a lot of stuff and always has something, you know, new on the table.
14:34It is something I'm still seeking out and still exploring, and having reached the end
14:40credits over the weekend, I think it's really good and worth playing.
14:46Nice, nice.
14:47I'm very excited about this.
14:49Listen to that.
14:50It's not the same game.
14:51There is enough difference.
14:52It is a sequel.
14:53I've been Maheem Kassour, and this has been Joel Frady, and remember to like, comment
14:58and subscribe.
14:59See ya.
15:00See ya.
15:01Okay, let's go!
15:02But you are not alone.
15:03Me.
15:04You are our final hope.