In Kingdom Tears, everyone is relieved from a second apocalypse, for better or worse

“The end of the world has seen the end of the world,” he stated Far Cry: Dragon BloodThe reveal trailer is nearly 10 years old. Whether it’s done for laughs or to help build a serious environment, I wish we had more worlds in video games that experience a second major devastating event when not everyone can pick up the pieces from the final cataclysm. In case The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom’s TearsNintendo EPD has used this supposedly grim premise to tell a charming and uplifting story about collective endurance.

There are light early game spoilers for The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom’s Tears Before.

Once you get off Kingdom TearsStarting area, the game attempts to guide players towards the area in front of Hyrule Castle. What was once a death zone filled with corrupt guardians is now an operations center for the community trying to rebuild the kingdom to its former glory. In case you don’t play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (must), it should be noted that Kingdom Tears The movie takes place only two to three years after its predecessor, so people are barely beginning to get over Calamity Ganon’s reign of terror, which has already kept Hyrule in a post-apocalyptic state for nearly 100 years.

Even if Hyrule Castle wasn’t lifted into the sky and bits of mysterious ruins didn’t start falling from the sky, Kingdom TearsIt was great to explore a post-apocalyptic setting on its own; Recent video games have begun to explore the sad beauty of trying to protect and re-grow little innocence and residual nature in such scenarios. but Kingdom Tears It goes further when Hyrule is basically thrown into another Dark Age after a brief introduction.

Returning to the aforementioned base of operations, we find a colorful group of characters dealing as best they can with the many mysteries currently popping up across the land, all while searching for Zelda. It soon struck me how most of the characters and random NPCs were about the somewhat frustrating situation, but then I remembered that this isn’t the first rodeo with a world-ending threat. In fact, the demonic terrors spilling out from holes in the ground and ancient boulders falling from the sky weren’t the worst they had encountered over several generations.

The camaraderie, patience, and rock-solid fortitude that the Hyrule people display despite not knowing what’s going on is really comforting. Right now, we can’t know for sure how much of the development team’s experiences during the COVID pandemic made it into the game, but it’s not hard to draw some real-life parallels after a few hours wandering around a kingdom that has so many like us, it can’t stand on its own two feet. For one reason or another, not for lack of trying. Moreover, scientists are adopting a more prominent role this time around, demonstrating that there is no good substitute for good research and experiments in the face of overwhelming disaster.

Alas, good capitalism hasn’t gone anywhere either. Once I stepped out a few steps from the base and towards the floating castle, I ran into this guy who couldn’t let go of a signpost because the boss would go crazy (or at least that’s what he thought). The solution to his problem was a nice little puzzle that just required taking a step back and analyzing the problem from a different angle, but I’m sure he’ll come up somewhere later, still stuck at the same lousy job. oh well…

This is just one example of many. The yurt-like stables have not been crushed by giant pieces of debris and are still doing well financially. Dealers hit the roads a lot as they did before. And adventurers still talk about walking through spooky caves alone because someone told someone else about some treasure. No one thought their current predicament had worsened the situation That much. In fact, things are arguably better now that Link is a famous hero who is known to prowl the Earth fixing people’s problems.

Once Link is tasked with discovering the strangest happenings happening across Hyrule, a good place to visit first is Rito’s village, now led by Teba, who helped Link fight off one of the four divine beasts in Breath of the Wild. The most pressing issue is a strange meteorological event that has covered their area with clouds and a seemingly endless snowfall. Trade was frozen, and food gathering became increasingly difficult. It seems that no one but Tolin (Tiba’s brave son) is in a hurry to explore the strange storm at the heart of the problem.

The adventure that follows is less nuanced in relation to the real-world disasters we’ve faced and are currently battling. This main endeavor is about climate change and inaction. Of course, magical boats and floating ruins aren’t part of the worrying climate change on Earth, but there’s a cautionary tale here about an entire community contemplating every possibility except the one in front of them. (Floating ships? That’s just a legend!) To be fair, however, Rito doesn’t stop Link and Tulin from chasing answers.

Like I said at the beginning of this piece, the overall look Kingdom Tears It seems positive to pursue him, but I don’t think everyone I’ve encountered (so far) in my travels has the right attitude. And that’s fine, because it paints a strangely realistic picture of a fairytale world in shambles. Some people are looking to make quick money, and entire groups refuse to face the gravity of a second disaster, but persistence and clever collaboration keep the entire kingdom together when things seem more fragmented than ever.