The secret to Zelda’s success: crack the game your own way

It was a comedy of errors.

I grabbed a buggy, some glider wings and what I thought were perfectly positioned fans. I hooked them all together, made sure my little friend Korok was strapped on, and proceeded to launch off a cliff.

It turns out fan fans It was not Perfectly positioned, and my wonderful co-pilot even tipped the scales on “my plane”. The two of us were on a slope, heading straight for a river.

We only had one umbrella, and guess who took it?

Needless to say, my little woodland buddy—whom I was entirely intent on rescuing—didn’t descend gracefully to safety.

This may sound like a failure, but stories like it have fueled The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom’s Tearswhich sold 10 million copies in the first three days of its release – becoming the franchise’s fastest-selling game. Much like last year Elden ringAnd Kingdom Tears It lets you play your way and feel part of a community of like-minded miscreants while you do it.

Breath of the Wild 2.0.1 Update

Until last week, internet skeptics were skeptical that Nintendo could pull off a successor to this groundbreaking project The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

It is difficult to overestimate how important the 2017 match was. While zelda Titles have always featured huge worlds to explore – Breath of the Wild The format opens more than any other format. You can go directly to the last boss without completing any from the main story.

The “do what you want” mentality fueled the community’s endless content: Speedrunners finished the game in less than 30 minutes, Twitch streamers would complete hysterical challenges, and players generally had a great time cracking the game.

Rumors of a sequel first surfaced in 2019 and fueled wild speculation. After Eiji Aonuma, the main producer of zelda franchise, featuring gameplay for the first time Kingdom Tears In April 2023, haters screamed on social media: “$70 DLC,” they said. “It’s literally the same game,” another wrote.

It’s true that Nintendo wasn’t completely remade Breath of the Wild. They took the same game engine, stuffed it with new tools, and more than doubled the square footage of the map. But despite the limitations of the old Switch console, Nintendo an act Create something intoxicating and fresh.

Explore, create, iterate

Perched captivatingly above the modified kingdom of Hyrule, beautiful and complex heavenly islands — their cascading waterfalls and golden trees hint at a story deeper than the one directly in front of the player — one steeped in deep fantasy lore that YouTubers have deciphered in hours-long videos.

The new abilities also open the door for in-game creations that feel closer to them Maine Craft from zelda. Linear format of zelda Feels like a distant memory like Kingdom Tears A sandbox with limitless toys and gadgets opens. How about a complicated missile? certainly. hoverboard? easy. This rude beast: yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever silly building you can dream up, you can create it.

in the elderly zelda There is usually only one solution to each puzzle – bomb a wall to reveal a secret key or shoot an arrow to open a hidden door. in Breath of the Wild And even more so in tears-There are dozens of ways to solve a given puzzle. You could Create a makeshift glider with propellers and wheels, but if it’s too complicated, gluing logs together to make a giant rickety bridge works just as well.

alone together

while my boss zelda Titles have always been a single player, and with innovative and often funny creations flooding Instagram, Reddit, and TikTok, the series has never felt like a shared experience.

No, you can’t literally play with multiple people, but you can dive into a vast sea of ​​memes and inventions, each weirder and more luminous than the last. Refreshing to see zelda Evolve, even after players believe Breath of the Wild It was as good as you’ll get. Like the islands of heaven that now hover over Hyrule, zelda Reach higher heights.

before starting tears, I re-watched the final scenes of the prequel. In the real end the The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildthe titular princess, staring at her broken kingdom, says to our hero, Link: “Let’s be apart.”

It’s a line that epitomizes one of the most iconic series in video games, W.O.L Kingdom Tears Perfectly answers Zelda’s parting call. Adventure awaits you in the dark caverns below the surface and high above the clouds – let’s get out there and see it all.

Keller Gordon is a columnist for The Join the game. Find him on Twitter: @kelbot_

James Perkins Mastromarino contributed to this story.