Check Out Digital Foundry’s Technical Review and Analysis of Tears of the Kingdom
Posted on May 20 2023 by Sean Gadus
Digital Foundry is one of the most well-respected voices when it comes to analyzing the technical elements of video games. Whether it is image quality, frame rate, loading times, or graphics, the team at Digital Foundry does an excellent job of explaining these concepts to viewers who might not be as familiar with the more technical aspects of video games. Digital Foundry has published numerous videos on the Legend of Zelda series, including tech reviews of Twilight Princess HD, Breath of the Wild, Link’s Awakening, and Skyward Sword HD. Digital Foundry is particularly useful for fans trying to identify how remakes and remasters compare to their original versions.
In a new technical review, Digital Foundry takes on the monumental task of analyzing Tears of the Kingdom. In the video’s opening, Digital Foundry’s John Linneman notes that video games are at an interesting technical crossroad in terms of how games perform at launch. Many major games, including Nintendo’s Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet, have launched with notable technical hiccups and flaws. Linneman also reminds viewers that Nintendo has rarely made sequels in the Zelda series, but all of the sequels in the Zelda series are notable for adding intriguing new ideas to the foundations built by their predecessors. Tears of the Kingdom fits perfectly into this discussion because it is built off the systems and world created for Breath of the Wild, but it expands the mechanics, gameplay, and technology in significant ways.
Because Tears of the Kingdom is built off of many of the same systems from Breath of the Wild, it is almost impossible to discuss Tears of the Kingdom without discussing its predecessor. Digital Foundry notes that Tears of the Kingdom features a new procedural cloud system to enhance exploration of the skies above Hyrule; players can now pass through and around clouds as the dive through the skies. The volumetric lighting, wind simulation, dynamic time of day, and physics systems all return from Breath of the Wild, though some enhancements have been made for the new game. The interplay between Breath of the Wild‘s and Tears of the Kingdom‘s different systems (lighting, weather, physics, and others) is a key to what made the two games so distinct from other open world games, and it is impressive how well they work together.
In terms of image quality, Digital Foundry notes that Tears of the Kingdom is similar to Breath of the Wild in that both games target 900p in docked mode. Tears of the Kingdom has an interesting camera trick that affects image quality. In some cases, the resolution of the game changes based on whether the player is moving the camera around. As the player is moving the camera, there can be some changes to the sharpness and clarity of the image because the resolution is dropping to as low as 720p while the camera is in motion. The game then returns to 900p resolution when the camera has stopped moving. One of Digital Foundry criticisms is the quality of some of the cutscenes. Some of the cutscenes are not rendered in real time, and they appear in lower quality when compared to the real time cutscenes that are in the game.
In their section on performance, Digital Foundry notes that the previews and review copies of Tears of the Kingdom had significant framerates drops (the game targets 30 FPS) throughout their gameplay. However, a significant patch has since corrected many of the frame rate issues that were in preview and review builds. The Ultrahand ability is by far the most taxing new addition to the game, and using the new system is where the frame rate is most likely to drop. Combining Ultrahand with some of the more demanding areas of the game is likely to exhibit significant drops in frame rate. Outsides of the most taxing areas (Kakariko Village is used as an example) and Ultrahand, the game has a relatively smooth frame rate. This is impressive given the game’s massive size and scope.
One of the most interesting differences between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom is the position of the sun in each of the worlds. Digital Foundry visited the same locations at the same times in the two games, and they found that the sun is not in the same location. This means that the shadows between 4:30 PM in Tears of the Kingdom will be different from 4:30 PM in Breath of the Wild. That is a really interesting change that many fans may not notice, and I wonder if the addition of the Sky Islands required the developers to change the position of the sun for Tears of the Kingdom.
Digital Foundry rounds out their review by discussing a variety of smaller topics that viewer might find interesting. Linneman notes that the loading times in Tears of the Kingdom seem to have been improved by a few seconds when compared to Breath of the Wild. These small improvements may be the result of optimizations across the game world. Digital Foundry also praised the sound quality and musical score for the game, calling Tears of the Kingdom one of the most “sonically pleasing games in the franchise,” which is high praise for a game with such a notable musical legacy. Linneman singled out the main theme as one of the game’s musical highlights, and the video takes some time to highlight some of the beautiful music that players can expect from Tears of the Kingdom.
In the wrap-up section, Digital Foundry praises Nintendo for creating an “impressively polished, complete game.” The fact that the game runs so smoothly despite the complexity of the massive open world and complex systems is commendable. That being said, the team at Digital Foundry notes that the visuals shown in the original trailers for the game exceed that which appears in the final game, and Linneman laments the hardware limitations of the Switch in comparison to other more powerful devices. Linneman ends the review by stating he enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom more than Breath of the Wild, and he praised the game for mixing hand craft quest elements like dungeons into the vast open world.
What do you think of this technical review of Tears of the Kingdom by Digital Foundry? Are there any improvements or changes you have noticed from Breath of the Wild to Tears of the Kingdom? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Digital Foundry (Via My Nintendo News)
Sean Gadus is a Senior Editor at Zelda Dungeon. His first Zelda game was Ocarina of Time, and he loves all of the 3D Zelda games from 1998-2011. The final battle of Tears of the Kingdom is one of his favorite final battles in the entire series. He wants to help build a kinder, more compassionate world. You can check out his other written work at The-Artifice.com.
