Today, six years after the launch of wildly popular Switch entry, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, its sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, has released.
The latest installment in the legendary Legend of Zelda franchise sees Link explore the land of Hyrule once again to save it from the clutches of the eternal enemy, Gannondorf. Following up as a direct sequel to 2017's Breath of the Wild, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom seemingly takes the formula that worked so well for Nintendo six years ago and expands on it in meaningful ways.
While the Hyrule we know from BotW is largely there, many of the trailers and pre-release footage have centered on the islands floating above Hyrule which Link can explore, centered around the ancient Zonai civilization. While the main story itself is still a mystery (even reviewers thankfully kept this a mystery), we do know that Gannondorf somehow survived the events of Breath of the Wild's final act as Link and Zelda sealed the Calamity.
If you need a refresher on the story of Breath of the Wild, Nintendo has you covered in this handy little video.
We're diving into Hyrule today to start our review in earnest. We'll definitely have more to say about this game, which based on its Metacritic and OpenCritic scores should be an easy Game of the Year contender. Many, many outlets have given the RPG top scores, though there are a few middling reviews out there as well - which is honestly a good thing as our friends over at Kotaku noted.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is seemingly being heralded as a swan song for the Nintendo Switch as well, with the RPG building on the lessons developers have learned to eke out as much juice as they can from the platform's hardware.
If you're interested in how it performs and looks before you drop $70 on your copy, check out Digital Foundry's tech analysis embedded below.
