I didn’t expect to be sucked in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom so fast. I’ve spent most of my 50 hours plowing through the depths and taking down the Yiga clan, tearing through Bokoblin camps while exploring the game’s overworld, and refusing to shy away from any Frox or Flux Construct I come across. It’s a totally different approach than the way I played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wilda style of play so different that it surprised me at first.
My newfound confidence is due at least in part to Link’s new abilities, most notably Fuse, which allows me to combine items and weapons, such as adding bomb flowers to arrows or sticking elemental crystals to swords. But the real culprit might just be the hours I spent Elder ring last year, and how that game completely changed my view of open-world games with terrifying enemies.
I put off playing at first Breath of the Wild until 2018, saving it for a 14-hour flight to see family in Taiwan – at which point it had been named 2017 Game of the Year at numerous outlets, including Polygon. The game was also apparently accessible to newcomers – a statement that foolishly made me think it would be easy. I was actually intimidated, unable to use the same strategies I’ve relied on in the past when playing open-world games, as I’d mostly played RPGs in the past: I usually avoid head-on combat and prefer to rely on stealth instead -characteristics. I choose thief or ranger classes – the ones that let me stab and steal in the back, or shoot from a safe vantage point. In Skyrim, I get the most out of sneaking, pickpocketing, archery and magic. I plunder, plunder, let Atronachs do my dirty work, then sell the stolen goods for a profit. In Divinity: Original Sin 2I play as two characters, one classified as a ranger and the other as a villain.
After years of acting like an ungainly rat in the bowels of various fantasy cities, Breath of the Wild felt vast and empty, yet full of random and unexpected threats. I’d run across a field to run into Chuchus or a Bokoblin encampment. When I confronted them, my weapons broke and I hesitated to use my bow and burn through the five arrows I once had to hand. Nightfall was even worse, bringing skeletal enemies, some of whom put themselves back together after I scattered their bones to the wind. It felt like I was running nowhere, fighting random creatures with sticks that kept breaking. Whenever I became familiar with the weapon I was using, I suddenly had to find a new one.
Thankfully, I made it through those first few hours, collected my paraglider, exited the Great Plateau, and made my way into the game’s vast open world. This is when Breath of the Wild clicked a little bit more for me and became the kind of adventure I could easily put hundreds of hours into. I climbed mountains, jumped off ledges and found hidden passages. But even when I was hopelessly sucked into the game, I still only really fought enemies when I needed to, and even then, sometimes I just gave up. Bokoblins repeatedly frustrated me. I stopped talking to strangers on sidewalks because I kept bumping into the Yiga Clan.
I kept expecting the game to get easier – and yes, exploration got easier as I grew my stamina wheel – but even with more hearts, combat remained difficult, almost unfathomable. I’d try to sneak past enemies, but I’d panic if groups of them ran towards me and quickly travel elsewhere to get out of combat. And while I made my way through some of the Divine Beast temples, I fell out at the boss fights. I didn’t feel much reason to mess with them; the entire game’s map was available anyway, and I could spend countless hours unraveling the mysteries. Sure, defeating bosses would reward me with powers and story information, but I could live without any of those things.
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
Suffice it to say, while I loved a lot Breath of the WildI didn’t replay it leading up to Tears of the Kingdom. i entered Tears of the Kingdom assuming I would enjoy it as much as I did Breath of the Wildwhich means, to a point, and then I’d call it a day – I was ready to live vicariously through other people’s stories of taking down Lynels or Stone Taluses. Instead, I sank in for hours Tears of the Kingdom immediately; it finally clicked. About 20 hours later, and my weapon stash was filled with deadly Zonai-powered swords and shields, along with ungodly combinations of various devices. Far from fearing the depths, I dove headfirst into every crevice I could find, sometimes running about in sheer darkness because I didn’t feel like wasting brightly blooming seeds.
I thought about the hundreds of hours I spent with it Elder ring, and how much it influenced my approach to open-world games with challenging combat systems. Part of it was sheer exposure to certain aesthetics and textures: I already loved a silent protagonist, but Elder ringThe vast open spaces and varied climates helped me love the solitude of such exploration. But Elder ring also ultimately made me into a video game player who runs headfirst into danger, rather than one who flinches or sneaks in the background.
Part of this is due to the boss’s placement on the game’s world map. although Elder ringThe game’s map is also quite open, many of the game’s bosses were located in key choke points – and it was clear what benefits I would gain from defeating them. I wanted to run that charge in an amount that was otherwise difficult to obtain. More than that, Elder ring gave me what I jokingly call “video game nihilism,” i.e. it caused me to repeatedly kill my character. Elder ring bosses are so hard you have to agree, and more than that, you have to accept that some (many) of your attempts are purely instructional, more fact-finding than gripping victory.
Die, inside Elder ring, is also incredibly funny. The moment your virgin ass tastes death, “You Died” floats across the screen, as you enjoy watching your character get mauled by knights, or a huge lobster, or a pack of wolves, or some birds with knives at their feet. Elder ring earned my appreciation for weird little dudes who want you dead. And Tears of the Kingdom is absolutely full of weird little dudes, including Yiga Clan members whom I now call “those bitches that want to kick your clan” – most notably Master Kohga and his many vehicles – and who I now love to fight.
Thanks to this paradigm shift, I’m more willing to throw myself at bosses Tears of the Kingdom just to find out what their deal is. I’m less frustrated when a boss absolutely clears me out because I know each attempt teaches me something new – a new attack pattern to exploit, a new material to hook up with Fuse. Sometimes it just teaches me that I’m not strong enough yet, and that’s helpful too. (Or, if I’ve wasted precious material in a boss fight and determined it wasn’t worth it, I can just accept death and resume the fight.) It was an absolute delight to finally see the silly attack firsthand formations boss Bokoblins and their cronies face off against, or the cool stages of a tough Flux Construct battle, or encountering Evermeans and taking them out with a nice thump of an axe.
I’ve also found failure so much funnier while playing Tears of the Kingdom. My Zonai device experiments have exploded, sent me to unfortunate places, or just not worked at all. There is a gloomy comedy for Link die in Tears of the Kingdom. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of a Wizzrobe cheering over his corpse, or watch his body tumble off a cliff as he shouts his autograph aaaAAahhaAahh falling death scream. A “Game Over” screen appears and when I return to the game the map shows where I died with a red X labeled “RIP”. LOL. Lmao.
Because I finally take on these bosses, I have stronger weapons, more arrows and better armor. I’ve also expanded my stamina wheel and added more hearts by completing shrines – but I’ve finally got the kit that makes me feel more powerful as I blast my way through Hyrule, be it in the air, on the surface or in the depth is. I took on Colgera and was rewarded with a new power. In retrospect, it feels incredibly, mind-numbingly stupid. Of course I never got proper tools in it Breath of the Wild. I ran from any enemy she might drop. And I have Elder ring to thank me for finally realizing that I could simply face these threats.