5/5 ★ – Kalle_Deimos's review of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

TLDR: What a trip. What a trip. Lots of people, including me, were worried about the content load and variety of this sequel. And safe to say, it has knocked it out of the park. Even after 100+ hours, Tears of the Kingdom is the gift that keeps giving. Gameplay: TOTK is the definition of an astounding sequel. Take the first game, build upon all of it's strengths, plug it's weaknesses, and crank it to 11. The main world is absolutely massive, full of varied content and worthwhile exploration. The choices you have for travel and combat is astounding with the new fuse mechanic. BOTW was sometimes referred to as a "sandbox". Well, BOTW is not a sandbox, TOTK is a sandbox. The amount of freedom you have for creation is limited only by your mind (and resources lol). And you can use your wits to overcome every challenge in your own special way, or you can take the path of the brute and smackdown everything in your path. And that's still a lot of fun. BOTW had this problem late in the game where strong enemies were simply not worth it. They had too much health and used up too many of your weapons, and didnt give you anything in return. Now, your weapons are derived from the enemies you slay, meaning that fighting strong enemies is a worthwhile challenge and encouraged. And since we create our own weapons here, we are less likely to get attached to one as we can easily remake it. Sidequests are also massively improved, offering interesting content and unique challenges. The other two worlds are great changes of pace (even though the Sky Islands can be a bit eh sometimes). Fighting feels better because you have much more options and you can have friends to help you out so every enemy isn't simply rushing your ass. Boss fights are better. Temples are cooler. Everything works. It's all here. Story: The best move here was to make a story in the present. Sort of. No spoilers but it's a personal story with a good amount of twists and turns. The Dragon Tear cutscenes could probably be played in a specefic order regardless on which ones you get so that the story can be consistent tho. Getting a cutscene where I see all these characters introduced and then accidentally getting the next one where something horrible has happened does not help the storytelling. The ending is also fufilling. No, it doesnt go too out of the box in what its trying to do, but I was happy with how it ended. Graphics: Graphically, it is pretty much exactly the same as BOTW. Which is fine because that games look nice. Aesthetically, everything looks much better and there was a lot of moments in my playthrough where I was astounded with what I was seeing. Sound: I really like the music in this one. Lots of musical motifs and tunes to match the locations and situations you find yourself in. The combat theme is not nearly as repetitive, and each song fits the locale. The main theme is also really cool, and when it plays in the end it's very hype. Personal favorite musical thing goes to everytime you enter the depths, and a big horn goes "bWAHHHHHHHHheeeeeerrr" Extra: Almost everything is extra in this game. There is so much shit here you wouldn't believe it. 100+ hours in and I've only done 40% of what the game offers. Favorite Thing: Retrieving the Master Sword in this game is a very special experience. As soon as I did it, I wanted to do it again. Not My Favorite Thing: Ganondorfs depiction makes me a tad sad. Mainly because I miss his voice from the previous games. It was a rough, powerful voice and sounded like it fit an older man like Ganondorf. Now it feels like a young guy doing his evil voice, which is fine because Matthew Mercer is very compotent but still. Kinda wish they got someone with a disgusting voice.