The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a big leap forwards for the series in a lot of ways, taking elements from Breath of the Wild and expanding upon what made them so critically praised. While the game's many mechanics feel like a natural progression of the open-world sandbox from Breath of the Wild, one area where The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leaves room for a future entry to improve upon is in its use of the Sages. Although the Sages play an important role in the story, their limited screen time and low interactivity wouldn't suggest this to be the case.
The primary quest in Tears of the Kingdom involves gathering the Sages from around Hyrule by tackling each respective temple and defeating the Demon King's minions that have been causing dangerous regional phenomena. Each of these Sages will aid Link from a gameplay standpoint by offering a unique ability that will be necessary to complete their associated dungeons. However, the time spent with these Sages is limited, which seems like a missed opportunity to give Link his first true party of characters to adventure with, but could be a feature a future title focuses on.
Tears of the Kingdom's Sages Demonstrate the Need for a True Party of Heroes
Although the experience of traversing each main temple in Tears of the Kingdom with its respective Sage is a unique experience, the game squanders their potential by limiting their companionship to these missions. Rather than letting the player travel with them after solving the issues with their region's phenomenon, Link only gets the ability to summon an avatar of the Sage who can use their specific ability but lacks in any form of their personality. Instead, these characters should have joined Link on his adventure to gather the rest of the Sages, rather than just reappearing inexplicably at the game's climax.
The main exception to this rule is the fifth Sage Mineru, whom players need to build a body for in the Construct Factory before she can be recruited. Afterward, Mineru's spirit possessing the construct will then follow the player much like the avatars for the other Sage will when summoned, only this time it is Mineru herself, albeit in spirit form, who accompanies Link. It makes sense that Breath of the Wild, a game that builds an atmosphere of isolation, would have Link travel alone, but Tears of the Kingdom's emphasis on restoring Hyrule warrants more interaction with companions than it offers.
A future Zelda game could build upon the Sage mechanics of Tears of the Kingdom by allowing Link to recruit party members that last for the duration of the game. While these companions could function similarly to the Sages and their avatars by offering Link use of a specific ability, there should be a more robust social system in place that allows the player to interact with these characters and hear their thoughts about the journey along the way. A system like this could even take a page out of Persona's book with Social Links and let players rank up their bonds by taking part in specific activities with party members.
Breath of the Wild pushed the envelope for open-world exploration, much like Tears of the Kingdom did for crafting and sandbox physics. As such, the next Zelda game could follow up the series' trend of honing in on and polishing specific gameplay aspects by developing a unique party system for the first time in the franchise. With the introduction of voice acting to the series in Breath of the Wild, it only seems like a matter of time before social elements become a key aspect of a Zelda game.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available for Nintendo Switch.