Earlier in the year, Breath of the Wild successor The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom may have seemed like a potential game of the year, but 2023 has seen many exciting, refined, and innovative games released since then that make the latest Zelda title feel lackluster. Compared to Final Fantasy 16’s marriage of the renowned JRPG series with silky smooth combat, or Baldur’s Gate 3 modernizing the beloved Dungeons & Dragons video game series, Tears of the Kingdom did far less for Zelda. Essentially bolting a clunky item fusion system onto an existing game map, TOTK simply cannot stand alongside the true gaming greats of 2023.
The scale and ambition of Tears of the Kingdom may have impressed on release, but it became clear that more locations to explore does not equate with enjoyable gameplay. The TOTK Depths are ugly and dull, adding a vast and unpleasant underground world largely devoid of interesting content. While the verticality of TOTK is an impressive feat, as are its new methods for traversal, TOTK often feels like merely an expansion to Breath of the Wild. Alternatively, from a different perspective, BOTW felt unfinished, and Tears of the Kingdom was simply the finished product. In a leaner year, that still might have been enough to merit the most coveted GOTY accolade.
Related: Tears Of The Kingdom Shows One Zelda Gameplay Feature Still Needs Work
This year has been anything but lean, however, and the string of more ambitious and well-polished successes shove Tears of the Kingdom out of serious consideration for game of the year by most rubrics. The minimalist storytelling of TOTK cannot compare to the heartfelt bonds in Sea of Stars or the myriad narratives of Octopath Traveler 2. Nintendo’s flagship franchise provided a much better entry with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, a game that flawlessly captured the timeless charm of the 2D platformer while adding truly creative new mechanics. Zelda’s most recent entry, conversely, presents another awkward amalgamation of other open-world adventure games, still lacking proper Zelda dungeons.
Just as The Depths proved disappointing, TOTK’s Sky Islands were an inadequate addition to the game, adding a scant number of new areas, most of which failed to match the initial Wind Temple experience. Custom Zonai device builds are certainly entertaining and innovative, but the awkward physics and bizarre fusion system left this as a novelty, rather than a real stab at a Minecraft style Zelda. There’s likely more satisfaction to be gained from exploring Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s rendition of New York City, or the Like A Dragon: Ishin take on Edo-era Japan, over a second run through BOTW’s map of Hyrule with a few underwhelming new locations added above and below.
2023-11-06 20:00:05
Source from screenrant.com
