It’s been over two years since the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and over eight years since its award-winning predecessor, Breath of the Wild, launched alongside the Nintendo Switch. After recently enjoying new Switch 2 playthroughs of each monumental Zelda release, enough time has passed to safely compare the games’ strengths and weaknesses – mainly, why I still think Breath of the Wild is a more fulfilling experience than Tears of the Kingdom.

I’d like to preface by stating that I adore both games. Tears of the Kingdom is a phenomenal sequel that improved on almost every facet of Breath of the Wild from a gameplay perspective. However, after playing both games back-to-back again, admittedly Breath of the Wild managed to win me over in a few ways that Tears of the Kingdom couldn’t, and I’d like to highlight some points on why I prefer the former to the latter today.

World Design



By far, the most crucial deciding factor in my opinion came down to the world design. Tears of the Kingdom opted for a “bigger is better” approach, offering the same Hyrule from its predecessor (albeit with a few interesting changes to the environment) as well as the breathtaking Sky Islands and the enormity of The Depths below Hyrule. Tears of the Kingdom gives players a lot more content and exploration but upon closer inspection, it’s not all great content.

The Depths, for example, is the size of Hyrule – a gigantic dark labyrinth of empty space occasionally cluttered by busywork like Bokoblin encampments and environmental puzzles. The Depths is absurdly massive and the more I played Tears of the Kingdom, the less motivated I got to actually dive back into those depths unless I really needed resources that were abundant there. It’s impressive that Nintendo actually managed to create such a sprawling world beneath our feet but sadly, it’s a world not nearly as exciting as Hyrule above once the shine wears off.

Tears of the Kingdom gives players a lot more content and exploration but upon closer inspection, it’s not all great content.

The same can be said for the Sky Islands, the big selling point for Tears of the Kingdom. The game’s tutorial area is set on a massive floating island and it’s great, but that’s about as good as you’ll get for most of the Sky Islands. Unfortunately, a vast majority of these explorable floating lands tend to blur together and becomes less interesting as time goes on. What keeps them from feeling less tedious than The Depths is the joy of skyward exploration – something we haven’t seen in the franchise since Skyward Sword – and how good it feels to reach impossible heights before skydiving back down to Hyrule. It’s a feeling I never grew tired of.



Where Breath of the Wild really gets the one-up over Tears of the Kingdom’s world design is simplicity. More open-world busywork does not always equal more fun, and that’s where Tears of the Kingdom falls short. While Breath of the Wild has plenty to do in its open world, it spreads most of its landmarks and key locations pretty far apart, letting you soak in the world as you’re traversing these wide open spaces – it makes you feel like you’re actually swept up on a grand adventure in a massive fantasy landscape scattered and torn asunder.

Tears of the Kingdom, on the other hand, tries to space its activities far apart too but it ends up cluttering those wide, breathtaking spaces with standard open-world stuff – new caves, new locations, tools for your Ultrahand, new enemies, and more – that makes it feel less absorbing than Breath of the Wild’s more open and intimate natural landscapes and vistas. All this to say Tears of the Kingdom feels a lot more “video game-y” than Breath of the Wild in the way it approaches its world design. It’s not inherently a bad thing, but it does sacrifice some of that immersion that I loved about Breath of the Wild.

Atmosphere



Going hand-in-hand with world design is atmosphere. This might not be a major crutch for some players but personally, I love how video games can build a specific atmosphere to reel you into its world. On that note, Breath of the Wild feels a lot more atmospheric than Tears of the Kingdom. Sure, you can say that it’s due to technical limitations at the time, but Nintendo had to get creative when making a believable atmosphere in Breath of the Wild that complements the scope of Hyrule.

In Tears of the Kingdom, you still get atmosphere but it’s not quite as immersive as its predecessor. I’m specifically talking about the quietness of the natural environments, the sound design, the foggy skylines, the luminescent flora, the wise use of silence to paint a picturesque moment in time – all of these coalesce beautifully in Breath of the Wild.

Unfortunately, Tears of the Kingdom doesn’t always evoke those same strong feelings or hits those marks as successfully, largely due to its busier world design that has a “go, go, go” mentality as opposed to a “stop and smell the roses” approach to exploration that I dearly loved in Breath of the Wild.

Story



I’ll keep this one short because both games deliver a very similar freeform storytelling style. Each game’s narrative is doled out in tidbits like memories or visions that Link has to find throughout the world. Without these narrative puzzle pieces connecting the plot and characters, it’s difficult to really appreciate the stories being told unless you’re actively looking for all of them. Admittedly this is a flaw of both games that I wish Nintendo found a better solution to, but as far as overarching stories go, there’s a clear winner here too.

Breath of the Wild’s story isn’t exactly novel. It retreads the same “save the princess” storyline we’ve seen a bit too often in gaming. Where I feel Breath of the Wild really excels above Tears of the Kingdom is its characters. The Champions of Hyrule are a much more fascinating batch of characters than the sequel’s Sages, in my opinion. In both cases, you’ll learn a lot about each of them when you tackle their respective challenges, but it feels like the writers take the Champions a bit more seriously than the Sages at times.

Without these narrative puzzle pieces connecting the plot and characters, it’s difficult to really appreciate the stories being told unless you’re actively looking for all of them.

I will say that Tears of the Kingdom’s background story involving Zelda is excellent, but again, simplicity triumphs over complexity and that’s where Breath of the Wild’s narrative feels more refined and focused, even if it doesn’t have as many story cogs turning.

What Tears of the Kingdom Nails



As I mentioned at the beginning, I love both of these games for different reasons, but Tears of the Kingdom does have qualities that outshine its predecessor too. The sequel’s various new abilities, for example, are easily the best addition. Using Zonai devices to craft elaborate machines, deathtraps or whatever your imagination desires really pushes the boundaries of creativity and how wild you can get with its flexibility. Other abilities like Ascend and Recall add new layers of depth to exploration and puzzles, while Fuse sorta addresses the weapon degradation issues I had with Breath of the Wild.

Tears of the Kingdom’s shrines and puzzles are also a lot more interesting, well-designed and time-consuming, pushing players to constantly think outside of the box for solutions – there’s no one “right way” to solve a puzzle with the sequel’s new abilities at your disposal. Sure, Breath of the Wild also gave players a bit of flexibility when coming up with creative solutions using Magnesis or Stasis, but not to the degree that Tears of the Kingdom delivers.

Finally, enemy variety is a huge upgrade in Tears of the Kingdom. You’re no longer slaughtering the thousandth Lizalfos or Bokoblin variant, but running into much more diverse foes around every corner. There’s a staggering amount of diversity when it comes to enemies in Tears of the Kingdom, though I will say that Lynels are far more terrifying in Breath of the Wild for some reason.

A Moment to Breathe

Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are cut from the same cloth but succeed on different terms. Ultimately, it was Breath of the Wild that won me over. It’s a masterpiece that sunk its claws into me from the get-go, offering a near limitless amount of freedom that made me appreciate its wonderful world design, storytelling, and incredible exploration. Tears of the Kingdom falls short of giving me those same highs (no pun intended) despite its improvements over the first game, but make no mistake, I think both titles are absolute must-plays on Nintendo Switch and some of the finest games in the franchise.

I’d strongly recommend playing both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom on Nintendo Switch 2 today.



Original article on GLITCHED