Daily Debate: Did Breath of the Wild Players Have a Harder Time with the Gameplay in Tears of the Kingdom Than New Players?
Posted on January 02 2024 by Alexis S. Anderson
Tears of the Kingdom introduced a number of gameplay mechanics that Breath of the Wild lacked, as well as left behind a few mechanics that its predecessor offered. In doing so, it my have caused Breath of the Wild fans to experience an adjustment period that prevented them from hitting the ground running in the new title. New players, on the other hand, did not have to re-learn how to navigate within the game, and may have adjusted more quickly as a result.
I speak from personal experience on this issue, as my partner was having much more success fighting and exploring in Tears of the Kingdom than I did at first. I realized this difference when he was fighting a Stone Talus and reflected its rock fists back at it with the Recall ability. I had struggled fighting a Stone Talus the day before, but he just blew right through. I had not even considered using Recall on it, as I had fought many a Stone Talus already in Breath of the Wild and just continued with my old strategies. I later realized I could also use the Ascend ability to get on top of a Stone Talus.
Speaking of Ascend, it took me a minute to utilize that to the fullest extent. I was so used to using Revali’s Gale to get up in the air that I ended up using Hylian pinecones in fires more often than remembering I could Ascend early in my playthrough. Again, my partner watching me play would ask why I was bothering to climb up a structure that had a protrusion or cave I could use to ascend or why I warped out of a cave instead of just ascending out of it– then I realized how often Ascend really came in handy.
I eased into arrow and weapon fusing, too. My partner tried every possible arrow combo right away, so he was skillfully using them his entire playthrough. I, on the other hand, felt I wanted to conserve my resources and it took me a long time to find some of the coolest and most useful arrow combinations (which was fun in a way, since the game kept on surprising me). And my partner did so much more weapon fusing than I ever did– I did not think of my random monster parts as potential weapon augments since they didn’t occupy that role in Breath of the Wild, so he was building crazy strong weapons it had never crossed my mind to create.
Finally, building with Ultrahand was brand new to all of us, but I was particularly bad at it. I wasn’t creative about it, but I think in part that was because I had already traversed this land without it, so I didn’t feel like I needed to make use of it if I wasn’t forced to. Like, I knew I could get around on my horse, so why would I build an Ultrahand vehicle? (Luckily I made use of jumping off of sky islands early and often, so at least my travels were made easier from the start that way.)
I am truly curious if anyone else had the same re-adjustment experience, where you had your go-to methods of combat and exploration from Breath of the Wild that it took a second to mix with new mechanics. I imagine if my partner played Breath of the Wild now that he would have trouble adjusting, too, so it likely goes both ways (and this is in part why I find myself recommending that people play Breath of the Wild first if they ask me whether or not they should get Tears of the Kingdom, particularly if they have an interest in both games). That said:
Did anyone else who played Breath of the Wild first experience a delayed incorporation of Tears of the Kingdom’s new mechanics? Let me know in the comments!
Alexis S. Anderson is a Senior Editor at Zelda Dungeon who joined the writing team in November, 2014. She has a JD from the UCLA School of Law and is pursuing a career in Entertainment and Intellectual Property Law. She grew up in the New Jersey suburbs with her parents, twin brother, and family shih-tzu.
