Daily Debate: Should Nintendo Retire The Idea of Shrines After Tears of the Kingdom?
Posted on September 02 2023 by Sean Gadus
Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom utilize the concept of small scale puzzles and challenges in the form of Shrines. Shrines are mysterious structures scattered across the massive world of Hyrule. Shrines act as fast travel points for players, and they contain a small prize at the conclusion (Spirit Orbs in Breath of the Wild and Light of Blessings in Tears of the Kingdom). There are 120 Shrines in Breath of the Wild (more if you count the game’s DLC) and 152 Shrines in Tears of the Kingdom.
Shrines have been an integral part of the open world Zelda games on Nintendo Switch, but with Tears of the Kingdom potentially wrapping up the player’s experience with the current version of Hyrule, do you think Nintendo should retire or discontinue the concept of Shrines after Tears of the Kingdom?
Given that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were set in the same version of Hyrule, it made sense for there to be a significant amount of overlap in gameplay and world design. In both games, Shrines give players a great from open world exploration by providing some puzzles for the player to solve. Overall, one of the biggest issues with the Shrines is the massive amount of them packed into Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. All of the Shrines share a near identical visual design, and the shrines begin to blend together after a while. Additionally, there a wide range in the difficulty of different Shrines. Some Shrines force the player to think extremely hard or be very inventive, while other Shrines are extremely simple. My hope is that Nintendo experiments with a new concept for the next Zelda title rather than continuing to use Shrines. While Shrines had their moment with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, it seems like it is time to move on to something new.
What do you think? Should Nintendo retire the concept of Shrines after 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.
