"Tears of the Kingdom" Is a Masterpiece (Explained)

this video is brought to you by Squarespace when it comes to websites online stores Etc there's no place to build a beautiful online presence like Squarespace as a certified movie guy making a review for The Legend of Zelda tears of the kingdom was kind of a no-brainer not only because I've spent too many hours in this game in the last few days for me not to do something about it but more importantly because breath of the wild means a lot to me it was a deeply necessary Escape when I first booted it up in 2017 and because the universe works in just the strangest ways this new one has also been timed pretty perfectly with where my life is at and I have not stopped playing also breath of the wild felt like it broke out of just the video game crowd and I know a lot of film friends that really connected to it for whatever reason so it just feels right to get into it over here that said I really wanted to get some thoughts out on this thing because God damn it it might just be better than the first one in fact it is better than the first one and now I want to talk about it something I'll get out of the way right off the bat is that I'm aware that this is in some ways a premature review what I mean by that is I was still playing breath of the wild up until this last summer these Zelda games are crafted in a way to provide the player with unlimited tasks and activities even after you've explored every inch of the map there's always something to do and if there's not something to do there's something to try out this is even more the case with tears of the Kingdom I'll probably be playing this thing for a while and I'll never truly feel done but I don't think I'll ever be as fully immersed in it as I am now I definitely won't be as excited about it as I am this week so what better time to get some thoughts out put it very simply tears of the kingdom is basically everything I loved about breath of the wild and then some weirdly enough even though that is exactly what I wanted I was also a little worried that that would happen because I like a lot of people was really hoping that with a new game we'd get a lot of new stuff I didn't want a DLC I wanted a new game and what we got here is like freaking three new games and that's a great thing your first exploration and this isn't a spoiler as it is the first thing you do in the game is you explore this sky island and go about a pretty similar routine to that of the first game you get to know the different weather you learn your arm stuff the things you can do with your cool new arms like a really lengthy tutorial but if we're calling it a tutorial it's probably the most fun a tutorial could possibly be to this game kind of pulls off the impossible in that way on one hand no pun intended a lot of the controls are about the same you do the same stuff to swing your sword and use your shield and paraglide and it's all there yet the game makes it so enjoyable to relearn all of this with just how unpredictable and fascinating this first sky island is here's the kingdom adds more variety to the original Hyrule we're familiar with so much so that it does feel like an entirely new place not all of it is new but that doesn't really matter what matters is that the player is still curious and excited to explore the entire map and this game makes that happen I'm saying all of this to make the point that this is in fact a new game I am not even a little bit disappointed I'm actually quite overwhelmed I threw away like three days of my life playing this thing and I'm I'm still not done with the main story I have ADHD and if I see a rock I'm gonna pick it up so I am moving through this pretty slowly but still it's just it's a [ __ ] ton of new [ __ ] I'll be honest I was a little worried at first about the map being the same as the last game I love the sky stuff but it's not like it's the entire second world that I wanted it to be but then I stumbled into a certain area and I am still thinking about this area as I'm saying this right now this is something I was secretly hoping they would do I was thinking about this for years and they did it I was over the moon I was overwhelmed I was shocked it is one of the best feelings I've ever had playing a video game I'm being very vague about this discovery on purpose even though so many people have spoiled it in their own reviews already but I'm only being vague about it because this sense of Discovery and surprise is what makes this game so special especially when you're so immersed in it and it kind of hits you out of nowhere I don't want to ruin this reveal for you guys so I'll refrain from mentioning what it is that I'm talking about thank you Nintendo you made me very happy let's talk about the other things that I was worried about that now make me look like a fool now these games can be played exactly how you want them to be played I personally am a puzzle guy I love puzzles yet looking back at breath of the wild while I still hold it in high regard some of those shrines were just not fun at all I haven't even played every Shrine in this new game I'm not even close close but not one Shrine hasn't been enjoyable the puzzle solving in this game feels like a massive step up with problems that are just as tricky and clever yet so much more fun to figure out not only because the solutions can often be deceptively simple sometimes they're deceptively unsimple and it's literally as simple as just putting a ball in a hole but also sometimes I'm doing these puzzles in a way where I'm so positive I'm not doing it the way it was intended I feel like I'm breaking the game that is what makes it such a good time it makes the world feel Limitless it makes you feel like you're a genius even if I'm not because I'm pretty sure these are the right ways to do it damn doesn't leave me with a good feeling it gets me excited to enter other shrines whereas in breath of the wild sometimes I just activate them and then decide to do them later because I wasn't in the mood with tears the kingdom I'm always in the mood for a shrine because they don't feel like another thing to check off on a list they're just fun one of the biggest improvements from breath of the wild is the enemies they're just more of them in this one you got slugs monkeys robots cubes dragons and hands I won't elaborate on on the hands thing if you've seen the hands you know exactly what I'm talking about it's [ __ ] up I feel like that doesn't even scratch the surface plus almost all the same enemies from breath of the wild are here besides the Guardians and maybe I'm alone here but I do not miss those fellows at all they were annoying and there were too many of them which is the other thing despite how many new enemies there are to fight it never feels overwhelming or like an annoyance with breath of the wild it sometimes felt like I couldn't not face a guardian but you can kind of decide how much you actually want to indulge in combat with this new one which just adds to how customizable the whole thing is that said when I do have to fight a boss or wipe out a clan of enemies it always feels like a unique fight depending on the setting you're in who the enemy is or what skills you have access to the game manages to make it feel fresh and like you're fighting for the first time again rather than like a copy and paste situation which is how a lot of games feel speaking of combat I do feel like weapons are easier to access in this one specifically arrows it always felt like such a hassle to find an arrow in breath of the wild and I haven't really had much trouble this time around which is so nice weapons still break break a little too easily but I'm not that upset about that I think it keeps things interesting and engaging adds a level of strategy to how you play of course I gotta touch on the whole building thing as well as all the other new abilities in this game you can grab and attach different objects fuse objects with your weapons recall and Ascend all of which are so fun to use I like breath of the wild stuff a lot I missed the bombs they were always a blast but those always felt very specific to combat these on the other hand are used for literally every aspect of the game sometimes it makes me feel like I'm cheating because instead of going through the hassle of climbing I'll find the teeniest Ridge on a cliff that sort of counts as a ceiling and I'll just Ascend right up to the top of the mountain it's editions like these and like the easier to access weapons that don't necessarily make the game feel easier but they do make exploring a hell of a lot more convenient and that's what matters the player still has to be engaged and you're constantly making decisions there is effort to be put into this they've just made it so that getting from point A to B is way more enjoyable and less of a headache than it sometimes used to be the story is fine I think there are some interesting and cinematic moments here and there like when you see Zelda super briefly and everyone was like wait was that Zola but if there was anything copy paste about this it is the story structure each Temple is super unique but the way you go about them is a bit repetitive and predictable which is a bit of a disappointment then again the game feels mostly focused on immersion making sure you're having fun and they succeeded more than I could have ever imagined in that so I can't complain too hard about a shallow story we weren't really asking for something mind-blowing in that department and on top of all of that despite the switch being embarrassingly behind every other big name gaming console in 2023 with its quality I thought the game itself looked and sounded gorgeous all things considered the lighting the reveals of some of these locations the character design the extremely unsettling music at times all of it is so inviting and so soothing to the eyes and ears makes it just that much easier to fully lose yourself in this game because of just how soothing it all is so like I said tears of the kingdom is like like everything I loved about breath of the wild but it's even better it's like when you're first born and you're crawling around the world and you're like this is pretty good the world seems pretty awesome and then this game is like when you learn to walk and you're like oh I can do so much new [ __ ] now so obviously I love this game I love to walk around and playing through this new one despite putting some serious hours into the first game I felt like I was discovering this world for the first time again and that is quite the feat I can't recommend this game enough even if you aren't into video games I promise you'll probably get lost in this thing pretty easily I guess the entire point of me making this video was to give you guys a reason for why there might not be a lot on my next what I watched this month video and that's what I gotta say thanks for watching go play The Legend of Zelda tears of the kingdom and form your own opinion and before you head out I gotta thank this week's sponsor Squarespace now Squarespace if you didn't already know is a place where you can go online to build your brand whether it be an online store a Blog a portfolio you name it the professional portfolio designs where you can create galleries for that work of yours as well as password protected Pages for clients me personally I'm a big fan of their video block feature which allows me to Showcase some of my favorite work in a way that looks really nice and matches my style plus they have a built-in mobile web designer which makes it so that no matter what website you make it's going to look great no matter what platform it's on while still matching that unique style of yours the best part about it all though is that if you go to squarespace.com Karsten my name you can get 10 off of your first purchase so guys really no reason not to give it a chance give it a chance they're great thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring this video thanks for watching this video and I will see you all in the next one bye [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: Karsten Runquist

Views: 165,178

Keywords: Tears of the Kingdom, The Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild, Video Game, Game, Gaming, Video, Film, Filmmaking, Movie, Video essay, cinema, cinematic, nintendo, mario, super mario, switch, review, explained, masterpiece, analysis, ending, cut scene, battle, fight, shrine, tower, tutorial, karsten runquist

Id: DOFzUMvZlnU

Length: 9min 54sec (594 seconds)

Published: Fri May 19 2023