Summary
The recent first anniversary ofThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomsees the title in a great place to celebrate. Not only isTears of the Kingdoma breakout critical success, but the title’s sales continue to inch ever closer to those ofBreath of the Wild, with the second iteration of open-worldZeldapromising to take overBreath of the Wild’s place as the best-selling game in the franchise. Given how much of a needed shot in the arm the pivot to an open-world formula was forThe Legend of Zelda, it’s hard to imagine the series going back to the style of gameplay championed byOcarina of Time. Still, theseries once again finds itself in a perfect position for reinvention.
While there’s no way to denyTears of the Kingdom’s quantifiable success, there is a case to be made thattheZeldafranchiseruns the risk of becoming too predictable if it doesn’t deviate from the open-world formula the franchise has been built around in the past two mainline entries. On the other hand, millions of newer Zelda fans will likely be disappointed if the nextZeldagame doesn’t include the kind of emergent gameplay and freeform player expression thatTears of the Kingdom’s crafting systems facilitate. It begs the question, then, of where the franchise can (and should) go from here.
A New Open-World Zelda Could Still Deviate From Tears of the Kingdom
Prior to the series' radical reinvention as an open-world adventure inBreath of the Wild, theLegend of Zeldaseries had begun to fall back on a predictable pattern that began with 1998’sOcarina of Time. Every3DZeldagamereleased over the course of more than a decade would adhere to a similar design philosophy, to the point where players were eager to experience something new in the franchise by the timeSkyward Swordwas released in conjunction with the franchise’s 25th anniversary.
The Legend of Zelda: SkywardSwordwould end up being the lowest-selling mainline game in the series sinceMajora’s Mask, moving only 3.67 million units with its original release on the Wii.
Skyward Sword’s disappointing sales signaled the need for innovation, and Eiji Aonuma and his team were more than up to the task. BothBreath of the WildandTears of the Kingdom’s successdrive home the point that the open-world pivot was a wise choice for theZeldafranchise, but the series needs to do something to differentiate itself from previous entries lest it run the risk of repeating past mistakes. A new open-worldZeldais all but certain at this point, but it could greatly benefit by leaving the crafting ofTearsbehind in favor of a new gameplay innovation.
Nintendo May Be Leaving Money on the Table Without Crafting Systems in a New Zelda
Of course, a counterargument to the desire for further innovation in the series afterTears of the Kingdomis that the game’s runaway success is due in large part to the game’s inclusion of an incredibly intuitive crafting system.TotK’s Ultrahandand Fuse transform the gameplay enough to justifyTears of the Kingdom’s existence alone, without even taking the Sky Islands and Depths into consideration for how they meaningfully expandBreath of the Wild’s open-world sandbox. Taking those crafting elements away from the next entry in the series would seem almost counterintuitive.
ThoughBreath of the Wildhas sold more units (helped by its position as a launch title for the Switch),Tears of the Kingdomis the fastest-selling first-party title on the Switch and thefastest-selling Nintendo gamein the West. Much of the title’s hype was built around the inclusion of its crafting systems, making the game an amalgamation ofBreath of the WildandMinecraftin the eyes of many. Though there’s room for innovation in a newZeldatitle, abandoningTears of the Kingdom’s crafting systems this soon may see the series shooting itself in the foot.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
WHERE TO PLAY
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to the beloved open-world adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This installment once again sees Link and Zelda battling to protect Hyrule from falling to Ganondorf. This new adventure takes place in the same land of Hyrule as Breath of the Wild but sees something called the Upheaval, which allows link to travel to Sky Islands, as well as deep into the Depths beneath Hyrule. Players can use special abilities to fuse together weapons, and build items to help them progress through the release.
