Speak about The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, the highly anticipated sequel to Breath of the Wild which made its appearance with a cryptic announcement in 2019, is a company that speaks of freedom. Of the right to deliver to the gamer the chance to experimentto challenge the imagination and think outside the usual schemes so dear to video games.
The temptation by Nintendo to take advantage of the enormous success of Breath of the Wild, an episode of the Zelda saga released in 2017 to crown the debut of the Switch hybrid console, could have been real and plausible given that Tears of the Kingdom was initially conceived as DLC, content additional. But Nintendo wouldn’t be the historic house of Kyoto if it didn’t know constantly reinventing yourselfif it could not be, incredibly and at the same time, traditionalist and innovative. So welcome back to the lands of Hyrule, in heaven, earth and underground, ready to take on a challenging adventure with echoes of the past and many innovations.
Link welcome to the Heavenly Origin Island
In the opening bars of the game we find our hero Link in the company of Princess Zelda in the dungeons of Hyrule Castle. The couple is intent on deciphering a series of complicated bas-reliefs that tell the story of the Zonau, an ancient civilization that came into contact with the Hylia.
The selection
5 games to try on the Nintendo Switch that you were given for Christmas
by Giacomo Barbieri
Naturally, a relaxing stroll through the crypts soon turns into Princess Zelda’s disappearance, followed, without giving too many spoilers, by a spectacular event that literally transports Hyrule Castle into the heavens.
The projection of the fortress in the air it is the excellent trick adopted by Nintendo to greatly expand the game map.
The introduction of the aerial setting, in addition to presenting new challenges, requires the player to consider i two levels: earth and sky. Parts of the same map that cannot be treated as separate territories.
Due to the nefarious event Link finds himself, stripped of everything, on the floating Island of Origins. Just like the Origins Plateau of Breath of the Wild, the environment serves to introduce and become familiar with a series of new skills available to the hero.
Some basic settings remain those seen in Breath of the Wild, there is the vigor indicator that indicates the amount of time Link can climb, paraglide or swim, weapons and shields break and need to be replaced, eating food, preferably prepared with reasoned recipes, allows both to regain health and to obtain specific temporary boosts, such as resisting cold or heat.
The vision of the prequel, so familiar to fans of the saga, on the Island, they immediately collide with an incorporeal figure, a representative of the ancient people of the Zonau, a sort of Virgil in Nintendo fantasy sauce who will introduce Link to the amazing abilities of the Ultrahand.
Ultramano is the gamer in power
After finding the three shrines on the Island of Origins, solving the environmental puzzles contained within them, Link finds himself in full control of the powers of the Ultraman, a sort of bionic limb he inherited when he woke up on the island.
Link will therefore have the ability to rewind time, go through ceilings, move and assemble objects and combine and create weapons and armaments in the most varied of ways. The only limit imposed is the gamer’s imagination and desire to experiment.
Zelda turns 35: announcements and wishes for the anniversary of the most famous princess of video games
Alessandra Contin
Link can move, assemble and / or combine the objects and resources he finds in his path, an unprecedented crafting that sees its fulcrum in the use of Zonau devices.
Zonau devices are particular devices that can be combined with other objects that are sometimes in common use. The assembly gives the creations unique properties: a fan transforms simple connected planks into a boat, a balloon attached to a flamethrower becomes a deadly fire-breathing war machine.
The freedom to create gadgets and weapons has an impact on the style of play, because no puzzle, environmental puzzle or encounter with enemies has a unique solution.
Let me be clear, crafting has been present in the world of videogames for some time, in many titles of the sandbox genre it is possible to build and combine functional objects for solving puzzles, but Nintendo introduces this component, always poised between lightness and complexity, in the fantastic world already seen in Breath of the Wild, making Tears of the Kingdom explode in a blaze of fireworks of possibilities in play and play depending on the needs of the moment.
Italian Video Game Awards. Triumphs Zelda and the Italy of Mario + Rabbids
Jaime D’Alessandro
You have Ultrahand, now you are free to move
Like its predecessor Tears of the Kingdom is a fantasy adventure set in an open world. After Origin Island serving as a long tutorial for mastering the possibilities of the Ultraman, it reveals itself as a portal to the lands of Hyrule.
Also in this case Nintendo leaves total freedom on how to continue in the search for Princess Zelda and face the game world.
The map is divided into four macro zones, sky and earth, regions with different characteristics and climates, where you can move at will. It is possible to walk, to walk for hours, to build means of locomotion, to capture horses.
You can decide to start exploring an area, complete missions and then move to another, or activate all the Meteorological Towers to immediately have the detailed and complete map.
Along the way, Link will meet many familiar faces and new friends, stories set in a fairy-tale universe in which to get lost in the pastel colors of the sky, or to continue tirelessly completing up to the last secondary mission.
Martina Felli, the voice of Zelda and other video game heroines
by Alessandra Contin
Closing
Tears of the Kingdom è il worthy sequel to Breath of the Wild, is Zelda for fans and Zelda newbies. From a technical point of view, in some situations, it recalls its origins as additional content, but overall the innovations made by Nintendo to the gameplay, and the expansion of the map, make it veer towards originality.
Finally Zelda is Zelda, a self-fulfilling prophecy of success, available on Nintendo Switch from tomorrow 12 May.