When The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild launched back in March 2017, its Nintendo Switch Metacritic score ultimately landed on 97/100, a ridiculously high number. Now, its sequel is falling into that same territory. The review embargo for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom lifted today, and at Metacritic, the score is currently hovering between 96 and 97. In a nutshell, it sounds like Tears of the Kingdom is everything people loved about Breath of the Wild — but with a ludicrous amount of new mechanics that increase player freedom more than ever. Yet despite all that, there are reports it feels more like a traditional Zelda game than Breath of the Wild as well.
Everyone will have to try the game out for themselves to know how they really feel, but so far, the game sounds like it’s “have your cake, eat it too, then bake several of your own cakes and eat those as well.” I’m being purposely vague because there’s no reason to spoil people on additional game mechanics at this point if they don’t want to be spoiled. But the prognosis is extremely good with the Tears of the Kingdom Metacritic score.
All of that being said, the Nintendo developers themselves have had a field day revealing elements of Tears of the Kingdom in an interview series released across the past few days. The last two parts were released today, Part 4 and Part 5, which discuss the intricate building mechanics (even using video examples) and the cohesive world design. Prior to that, the developers revealed major details about the game’s core theme, story, and dungeons.
Tears of the Kingdom launches on Friday, May 12.
