5/5 ★ – TylerTurner7's review of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Breath of the Wild was perfect, but Tears of the Kingdom was more perfect in almost every way. Most notably, Link’s TotK adventure is far more story and cinematic-heavy than its predecessor. The meat of the story is told in flashbacks, similar to BotW, and I found myself wanting to know more and more of what was going with the history and future of Hyrule. I cannot quantify how addictive the exploration and gameplay loop is in TotK. I couldn’t get enough. I found myself not wanting to finish the main story for fear that it would keep me from wanting to explore and discover more of the game's secrets. Though I have a few thoughts I’d like to brag on, I will not say anything that hasn’t already been said about a generation and console-defining game. It blows my mind that this game is even on the Switch. The slate of powers in TotK are some of the most unique I have seen in any game ever. Being able to fuse weapons to random objects can add durability and abilities to a weapon that would otherwise break easily or be relatively useless. Being able to ascend through the ceiling is such a clever way of maneuvering around the world that it does not get old. And, of course, building constructs became one of the most ingenious additions to the game resulting in some significant big-brain thinking for players around the world. I could spend hours just watching the devices that people created in the game, from torturer devices to mechs or the Batmobile. Possible spoilers, but one of the most remarkable additions from BotW to TotK is the addition of verticality in the map. You are able to go to the Depths, a separate, underground world and the Sky, which seem to both be harkening back to Link to the Past’s Dark World or Twilight Princess’s Twilight World and Skyward Sword’s Skyloft, respectively. The mechanics of moving around in the Depths and Sky were so stinking satisfying. I love that the Sky encouraged building constructs to move from island to island and how stressful it was to move from Lightroot to Lightroot in the Depths. A thought I had, these additional explorable areas are meant to induce memories of older games it would have really been fantastic to have a proper ship and deeper naval exploration like Wind Waker, which is still one of my favorite titles in the entire franchise. It is evident that Nintendo heard all the criticisms leveraged at BotW and allowed it to be a rough draft of a game that will undoubtedly be remembered for its depth, beauty, and excellence for generations to come.