Summary
- Tears of the Kingdom is a critical and commercial success, nearing the sales of Breath of the Wild.
- The open-world formula revitalized Zelda, but future innovation is needed to avoid predictability.
- Crafting systems are key to Tears of the Kingdom's success, potentially essential for future titles.
The recent first anniversary of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom sees the title in a great place to celebrate. Not only is Tears of the Kingdom a breakout critical success, but the title's sales continue to inch ever closer to those of Breath of the Wild, with the second iteration of open-world Zelda promising to take over Breath of the Wild's place as the best-selling game in the franchise. Given how much of a needed shot in the arm the pivot to an open-world formula was for The Legend of Zelda, it's hard to imagine the series going back to the style of gameplay championed by Ocarina of Time. Still, the series once again finds itself in a perfect position for reinvention.
While there's no way to deny Tears of the Kingdom's quantifiable success, there is a case to be made that the Zelda franchise runs the risk of becoming too predictable if it doesn't deviate from the open-world formula the franchise has been built around in the past two mainline entries. On the other hand, millions of newer Zelda fans will likely be disappointed if the next Zelda game doesn't include the kind of emergent gameplay and freeform player expression that Tears of the Kingdom's crafting systems facilitate. It begs the question, then, of where the franchise can (and should) go from here.
A New Open-World Zelda Could Still Deviate From Tears of the Kingdom
Prior to the series' radical reinvention as an open-world adventure in Breath of the Wild, the Legend of Zelda series had begun to fall back on a predictable pattern that began with 1998's Ocarina of Time. Every 3D Zelda game released over the course of more than a decade would adhere to a similar design philosophy, to the point where players were eager to experience something new in the franchise by the time Skyward Sword was released in conjunction with the franchise's 25th anniversary.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword would end up being the lowest-selling mainline game in the series since Majora's Mask, moving only 3.67 million units with its original release on the Wii.
Skyward Sword's disappointing sales signaled the need for innovation, and Eiji Aonuma and his team were more than up to the task. Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom's success drive home the point that the open-world pivot was a wise choice for the Zelda franchise, but the series needs to do something to differentiate itself from previous entries lest it run the risk of repeating past mistakes. A new open-world Zelda is all but certain at this point, but it could greatly benefit by leaving the crafting of Tears behind in favor of a new gameplay innovation.
Nintendo May Be Leaving Money on the Table Without Crafting Systems in a New Zelda
Of course, a counterargument to the desire for further innovation in the series after Tears of the Kingdom is that the game's runaway success is due in large part to the game's inclusion of an incredibly intuitive crafting system. TotK's Ultrahand and Fuse transform the gameplay enough to justify Tears of the Kingdom's existence alone, without even taking the Sky Islands and Depths into consideration for how they meaningfully expand Breath of the Wild's open-world sandbox. Taking those crafting elements away from the next entry in the series would seem almost counterintuitive.
Though Breath of the Wild has sold more units (helped by its position as a launch title for the Switch), Tears of the Kingdom is the fastest-selling first-party title on the Switch and the fastest-selling Nintendo game in the West. Much of the title's hype was built around the inclusion of its crafting systems, making the game an amalgamation of Breath of the Wild and Minecraft in the eyes of many. Though there's room for innovation in a new Zelda title, abandoning Tears of the Kingdom's crafting systems this soon may see the series shooting itself in the foot.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Released
- May 12, 2023
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.
- ESRB
- Rated E for Everyone 10+ for Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Franchise
- The Legend of Zelda
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
- Genre(s)
- Adventure, Action, Open-World
- How Long To Beat
- 59 Hours
- Metascore
- 96
