Daily Debate: Do You Enjoy Exploring The Depths Or The Sky More In Tears of the Kingdom?
Posted on June 09 2023 by Sean Gadus
The world of Tears of the Kingdom is the most expansive in any Zelda game. While many Zelda titles are broken into two worlds (present and future, light world and dark world), Tears of the Kingdom is broken into three massive areas: The Sky, The Surface, and The Depths. In Tears of the Kingdom, players can move fluidly between these three massive areas with an impressive amount of freedom. While the surface world is generally the same world as seen in Breath of the Wild, The Sky and The Depths are exciting new additions for the player to explore.
With this in mind, do you you enjoy exploring The Depths or The Sky more in Tears of the Kingdom? These two areas each have their own distinct visual identities, barriers to exploration, and hidden treasures.
Overall, I find The Depths significantly more interesting to explore than The Sky in Tears of the Kingdom. I am not sure why Nintendo did not advertise The Depths more in their prerelease promotional campaign because it is such an expansive addition to the game world. The mechanics related to The Depths like using Brightbloom Seeds to light a narrow path forward, traveling from Lightroot to Lightroot, and moving carefully to avoid gloom are much more interesting than what is available in the sky. In many ways, many of the sky areas feels like an extension of the surface world, while The Depths feel like a completely new area. Skydiving is one of my favorite mechanics in the game, but exploring the Sky Islands can be time consuming depending what Zonai devices the player has access to and what Skyview Towers the player has activated. Additionally, The Sky can feel segmented at times due to the distances between different islands and island chains, whereas the different areas in The Depths are much more interconnected.
What do you think? Do you enjoy exploring The Depths or The Sky more in Tears of the Kingdom? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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.
