We are finally ready to present you the second part of the review of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
We warn everyone that if we were particularly raw and bad in the first part, we will be particularly sweet and cheesy in the second!
I wanted to anticipate that we have deliberately chosen, with the good Riccardo's consent, to divide the review into two parts. Firstly, to highlight the defects of the game which, in relation to the year of release, 2023, should, in our opinion, be mentioned.
Second then to accumulate as many hours as possible to concretely probe what the new Nintendo effort has to offer. From the top of one hundred and fifty (150!) hours of play, and after completing the main quest, we considered the experience quite effective. It is therefore necessary to dedicate a standing ovation to Tears of the Kingdom.
Where to start? There is actually spoiled for choice!
This time I would like to start from something that is often given little weight or in any case almost always remains in the background: the OST (Original Soundtrack).
The Original SoundTrack is simple and elegant at the same time, it really excites. With unsuspected strength, it takes the player by weight and throws him into the experience, exponentially enhancing the identification with the adventure!
Nintendo had this time the arduous task of having to entertain the player at least in the same way as the majestic predecessor of the saga (Breath of the Wild). I assure you that until the release of the last Nintendo conference, dedicated to the new powers of Link, I didn't have the faintest idea what they could do to equal so much fun. But “mom” Nintendo has her unique ability to entertain like no other. And this time too she managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat!
The poker of powers
The game starts with a very evocative introduction. However, the cards on the table change a bit, given that Hyrule is a bit modified compared to how we remembered it six years ago. Once this is done, we immediately possess the key to fun. A poker of decidedly revolutionary powers, which immediately extends the purest playful potential of the game towards infinity!
ultrahand
This power allows you to assemble objects to create anything you can think of. And when we say anything, we really mean that the only limit will be your imagination! We have available wheels, fans, rockets, lights and so on. With these we will be able to create planes, cars, helicopters, shelters, etc.. Everything we can imagine will lead us to many solutions and interpretations with which to face and/or achieve a certain goal!
Composer
This is the second power Link will learn. This skill grants the ability to assemble any piece collected by mobs with any weapon. We will thus be able to create ever more powerful weapons as the power of the monsters we kill increases.
The wear of the weapons has remained almost unchanged compared to the previous chapter of The Legend of Zelda. After a more or less numerous amount of blows, also depending on the fragility of the creation material, we will see our weapon destroyed. But the variety of components and weapons that the game makes available does not make you feel the slightest sense of regret that was felt in Breath of the Wild in using a very strong weapon. Indeed, this will push us to kill ever more powerful monsters to get to know and create new equipment!
Ascension
The third power is what at least we, in the Lost In Dice inn, have assimilated later than anyone else. Get used to the long climbs of Breath of the Wild, the possibility of choosing a ceiling above us, not taking the thickness into consideration in the least, and crossing it by "swimming" inside it to emerge beyond it, was something that put our flexibility of thought to the test. Many puzzles took us a long time. Precisely because our being "boomer" gamers didn't make it easy for us to remember it was possible to approach a climb in that way, given the absolute originality of the feature implemented in a title like Zelda!
Revert
The fourth Ace of the poker of powers allows us to select an object and rewind time to make it retrace its trajectory or in any case the movements made from there to shortly before. Can you imagine even here how many solutions can come up to solve a mission?
Take, for example, a lava river criss-crossed by alternating stone slabs. The easiest thing to think of is to jump on it and sprint to get to the other side. A moderately high risk. However, by investing the right amount of time, as many Platform Games have taught us, we will certainly succeed in ours.
Yes, OK! But we possess the power ofultrahand. With this we can take all the slabs and assemble them to create a safe bridge that takes us to the other side. But then, why not wait for a slab to approach and with power Revert Do I jump on it and go back in time?
In short, this is one of the many examples that the game will put us in front of. But we could make you an endless list, believe us. Our advice is: GIVE YOURSELF!
Tears of the Kingdom: It's impossible to deny the miracle
Unthinkable that this title with this disruptive desire to amaze and give hundreds of hours of fun, variety and spirit of adventure could run on Nintendo Switch, a console that turned six on March 3 of this year and for Nintendo is still half of its life cycle.
It is now common knowledge that the Nintendo Switch has outdated hardware compared to its counterparts from Sony and Microsoft. But precisely the home of the big N has shown us, once again, that he knows how to make the most of it to create yet another videogame marvel!
In first part of the review we had underlined the reasons why we did not agree to assign perfection to this title. However, we do not fail to intellectual correctness in declaring that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, is a veritable miracle on Switch! And, although it may have large technical gaps in 2023, the spirit of exploration and the breath of fresh air, which had so overwhelmed us with the predecessor, is strong and pulsating even in Tears of the Kingdom. All this can only endlessly feed our evergreen desire to play!
Is it necessary to have played the first chapter to play Tears of the Kingdom?
Many, during the live shows, asked us if it was necessary to have played Breath of the Wild before buying Tears of the Kingdom. Our answer, after several hours of gameplay, is NO.
The game makes possible, and optional, some dialogues with NPCs that explain the stories or characteristics of tribes, or important events, of the first episode. So you will never find yourself without knowledge, if you are a player who cares about the history and lore of the game. Our advice, however, is to go and take a look at the many contents made available on YouTube. You can find a summary video on the dedicated page of our inn "LostInDice". Here you can get a smattering of the characters, or at least broadly, of what happened in Breath of the Wild so as not to be found completely unaware, especially in the first bars of Tears of the Kingdom.
So is it a title to play?
If, like us, you are passionate who breathe video games, you must never deprive yourself of such an experience in your life!
Tears of the Kingdom is a title that goes beyond fun. It even recalibrates all the limits of the genre and marks, without a shadow of a doubt, a new stage in the history of video games!
It is a game that manages to outdo itself. Even where it was almost impossible to do it! Tears of the Kingdom "shouts" the desire to be videoPLAY in all its nuances! It's an experience that lets you dream and travel, which captivates like very few others and gives you many, many hours of fun. From Tears of the Kingdom you will talk about it a lot with your friends. It also creates sharing, because each experience will be truly unique in the interpretation and resolution of the facts. We tell you with a NERD heart in hand, don't deprive yourself of this beauty especially if you already own the Nintendo console.
Tears of the Kingdom: conclusions
We care little, in the "Lost In Dice" inn, whether this title is 10 or less. We wanted much more to let you know if this too The Legend of Zelda, is one of the masterpieces of videogame media. The 9,6 that we assign to it, I think can be an answer without any shadow of a doubt!
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