With The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom review scores out now, did it match the unrealistically high expectations set for it?
The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Review Scores: 96 on Metacritic
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the tentpole release of the Nintendo Switch, developed and published by Nintendo, launching as a console exclusive on May 12, 2023.
As of press time, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is already the all-time, highest-rated game on Metacritic by a comfortable margin. At 96 Metascore, Tears of the Kingdom is the best-rated game of all time, trailed by the 93 Metascore of Tetris Effect and Resident Evil 4. Very impressively, in spite of the unrealistically high expectations critics had for the game, it still turned out to be way better than expected.
The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom received dozens out of dozens of perfectly-scored reviews. It's hard to pick out a single one just to make a point, but it appears to be a nearly universally loved title, coming from game critics from different backgrounds and expectations.
Of all the 10/10s, we would like to highlight IGN's review, which reads: “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an unfathomable follow-up to one of the greatest games ever made, somehow improving upon it in nearly every way – be that with simple quality-of-life improvements, a genuinely exciting story, or wildly creative new building mechanics that make you rethink what is possible. It both revamps old ground and introduces vast new areas so immense it somehow makes me wonder if Breath of the Wild was actually all that big, with an almost alarming number of tasks to complete, mysteries to discover, and delightful distractions to keep you from ever reaching that place you naively thought you were headed. Nintendo has followed up a triumph with a triumph, expanding and evolving a world that already felt full beyond expectation and raising the bar ever higher into the clouds.”
It would also be a bit counter-productive to just put out heaps of praises to Tears of the Kingdom on this article, given that anyone could just hit the Metacritic link and see them for themselves. In an effort to not get stuck in an echo chamber, let us at least highlight the negatives that have been thrown into the game; after all, players who have already decided they'll like Tears of the Kingdom might not need any more validation than the review scores – but for anyone else who is still on the fence, this is for you.
The game definitely gets compared to both classic linear The Legend of Zelda games like Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess, as well as its direct predecessor Breath of the Wild. There are two major criticisms that have been leveled at Tears of the Kingdom.
When compared to Breath of the Wild, the thoughts of many have been perfectly encapsulated by Digitally Downloaded's 4.5 Stars out of 5 Stars review for the game, which reads: “Breath of the Wild was a monumental experience and, in the eyes of most people who played it, a masterpiece. But it was also a big step forward for the Zelda series. People were as impressed by the boundless creativity that Nintendo brought to the team’s first effort at an open world format as they were by anything else. Tears of the Kingdom is, as mentioned before, very iterative. It’s still impressive, creative, and still plays beautifully. However, when people play it, they’ll realise quickly that the basic structure is more of the same… I suspect Tears of the Kingdom will be the same. It’s still incredible and will dominate the discourse around games for some weeks ahead. But, a decade down the track, it’s still going to be Breath of the Wild that’s held up as the transformative masterpiece.”
Meanwhile, those who have been asking Nintendo to turn Tears of the Kingdom into something closer to the classics they grew up loving, Gfinity's 6/10 score says it best: “For the most part, it’s the exact same bio-diverse world you explored all those years ago, only with more natural caves, a sprawling underground chasm, and frankly too many rock formations in the sky to really care about. New tales are spun throughout it, yet each one has a disappointing air of familiarity. Breath of the Wild’s fiddly controls are pushed further to the breaking point, all in an effort to stack more systems on top of those that split the fanbase almost as much as Toon Link…. If you’ve yet to step foot into the open world of Hyrule, Tears of the Kingdom is the best way to experience it, with just enough new ground to keep things interesting. But if you didn’t gel with the 2017 release, the story alone might not be worth the second attempt.”
Fans who loved and adored Breath of the Wild will get more in Tears of the Kingdom, and will definitely feel right at home with how Nintendo designed the sequel. But to those who are longing for a more classic take on Zelda, or those who didn't really feel any joy in playing the original, then this would hardly change your mind.
Conclusion: Is The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom a Good Game? Yes. Oh Yes.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is officially one of the best, if not the outright best, video games of all time. All of the review scores given to the game have been unanimously positive and in spite of its flaws, its positives far outweigh any negatives there is that might drag it down.
Truly, even if the game is sold at $70, the first and currently only Nintendo Switch title to have that price, the game is still worth the price, and probably even double that. The only big issue that Link and Zelda face now is the game's performance issues on the Nintendo Switch. And with that issue, it only gets me excited at the prospect of the game being re-released in a future, much stronger Nintendo console somewhere down the line. And even then, it's worth spending yet another $70 all over again just to experience Tears of the Kingdom all over again with better hardware.
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