Nintendo released the first series of software for the family computer disk system in 1986, the monumental action-adventure game “The Legend of Zelda”. Since then, it is no longer necessary to explain in detail that it has been popular for a long time as a signboard title for successive Nintendo platforms.
On May 12, 2023, the latest software for Nintendo Switch, “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” will finally be released. This is the first new release in about six years since the previous title, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which was also the launch title for the Nintendo Switch console. It seems to be waiting.
On the official website of “Breath of the Wild”, which celebrates its 6th anniversary on March 3, 2023 today, from February, titled “Hyrule you don’t know”, the history and highlights of the world of Hyrule, which is the stage of the game. , A new page has been released that introduces specialty products by region. As of February 27th, up to VOL.2 is open to the public, and VOL.3 is “COMING SOON (coming soon)”. It’s been a long time since the game was released, and the fact that the site is updated at this time made me wonder, “If I review it now, maybe I’ll find useful information when I play the next game?” The work becomes more and more fun.
Below, in this article, we will commemorate the 6th anniversary of the release of the unmistakable masterpiece “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” which has sold 29 million copies
worldwide and won numerous awards both in Japan and overseas. And, after looking back at what this work provided to us players, I tried to summarize the prospects for the next work. For those of you who can’t wait for the release date, I hope you enjoy reading while immersing yourself in the memories of the previous work.
*Numbers are as of the end of December 2022 on Nintendo’s website.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yIHLQJNvDw
But just being there is fun, breaking new ground in “Breath of the Wild”
The stage of the game is the world 100 years after the “Great Calamity” that destroyed the Hyrule Kingdom. The adventure begins when the main character, Link, who has been in a long sleep after being severely injured in a catastrophe, wakes up from the Shrine of Rebirth, naked without a sword, shield, or armor.
The fun unique to this game is that it incorporates so-called open world elements for the first time in the series, and the player can freely decide the destination of the adventure or the purpose of play. If you try to go out of the plateau, you still have a low physical strength, so there is a restriction that you will die instantly when you jump off and land).
The ultimate goal of the game is, of course, to defeat Calamity Ganon, the final boss. However, this work ignores the main challenge (story) and runs around unfamiliar lands on horses and rafts, spreads a “parasail” from a high mountain and travels in the air, and sometimes uses a shield instead of a snowboard ( Shield surfing) It’s strangely fun to just walk around and look at the scenery, such as sliding on the snow.
Along the way, you’ll meet people from various backgrounds, such as the Zora, Rito, Goron, and Gerudo tribes, as well as enjoy barbecues at riversides and other places where enemies such as Bokoblin, Molyblin, and Rizalphos live. You may come across hordes of enemies. Even going out to uninhabited areas and catching and gathering vegetables, fruits, wild grasses, wild animals, insects, etc. that can be used to recover physical strength and cook and synthesize items will make you feel as if you were playing in the mountains when you were a child. It’s fun like that.
Even if you don’t aim to overthrow Calamity Ganon, just being in the world of Hyrule is fun. This is where I think the greatest charm of this work lies.
The plate-shaped item “Seeker Stone” that can be obtained immediately after starting the game will further tickle the player’s adventurous spirit and make Hyrule exploration fun.
In addition to serving as a map that automatically records the areas and facilities that Link has visited once, the Seeker Stone can also be used as a picture book that lists equipment and items you have obtained, data on enemies you have fought, a telescope, and a camera. It can also be used as a radar for discovering the “Shrine of Trials” hidden underground in various places, which corresponds to the labyrinths or dungeons of the successive “The Legend of Zelda” series, and can be called a multi-information terminal.
Relying on the reaction of the Seeker Stone, it’s a real pleasure to find a new Shrine of Trials. In addition, while dodging enemy attacks, while fighting against the limit of the “Ganbari Gauge” that is consumed by swimming in the sea and rivers and climbing cliffs, climb to the top of the high-rise building “Seeker Tower” scattered in various places, The effect of setting the seeker stone and being able to see the map of the surrounding area at once was also wonderful.
In the “Legend of Zelda” series, the basic flow is to alternately adventure fields and dungeons, and in many cases the entrance to the dungeon is opened in order of decreasing level (difficulty). However, in this work, there is no order to explore the 4 huge dungeons called “divine beasts”, the shrine of the ordeal, and the achievement quota is not decided. One of the unique features of this work is that when and where to challenge the divine beasts and shrines is entirely up to the player’s will.
Various tricks are prepared for the Divine Beast, and a tough boss enemy awaits at the final point. There are 120 types of variations in total, such as the shrine of ordeal, which has a strong puzzle-solving and puzzle element, an action-oriented floor structure that focuses on dodging obstacles such as iron balls and thorns, and a battle-oriented floor structure that just fights enemies. I’m glad that it is.
In the successive “Legend of Zelda” series, there were many titles that included a scene in which Link obtained the sword, which is the main weapon, in the opening. However, in this work, the first weapon that can be obtained is the unremarkable “tree branch” that can be found on a short walk after leaving the Shrine of Regeneration, and the former partner, the Master Sword, is a weapon that can be obtained for a while. cannot be obtained during
Moreover, there is no weapon shop that sells swords, axes, spears, etc. in this work (*Armor shops will appear), and most of the weapons are consumable items that break after being used several times and become unusable. You should always have a stock of them, either by picking them up in the dungeon, looting them from enemies, or retrieving them from hidden treasure chests. In order to obtain weapons with high attack power, it is necessary to defeat powerful enemies, or to steal them by chance, so naturally try out various types of weapons and encounter enemies that appear wherever you go. I want to fight from.
Regardless of the location or type of battle, there are various strategies that make this game fun. Not only can you challenge head-on with a sword, but you can also make a surprise attack by approaching while erasing the sound of your footsteps from behind. Also, if you dodge an enemy’s attack with a cartwheel or back jump at the right time, you can activate a “rush” state that allows you to counterattack for a short time, or if you use your shield just before receiving an enemy attack, you can “guard just”. It is also interesting that it becomes easier to counterattack.
In addition, you can set the surrounding grass on fire and drop beehives to drive away enemies, hide enemies at a lookout far away and defeat them with a bow and arrow, rocks, fallen trees, and hand-held bombs from cliffs. Depending on your ingenuity, you can come up with a variety of fighting styles, such as dropping gunpowder barrels and exploding them with gunpowder barrels.
“Tears of the Kingdom” has only a small amount of information released at the moment, so I can’t say for sure, but it inherits the elements that make the player think “just being there is fun” in the open world. We can’t help but expect that the search points will be equal to or greater than “Breath of the Wild”, and that the player’s adventurous spirit will be greatly stimulated.
Additional content and collaboration titles appear one after another
In addition, on June 30, 2017, the first installment of the additional downloadable content “Expansion Pass”, “Torido no Hasha” was released, and on December 8, the second installment, “Eiketsu no Uta (Ballad)” was released. was done.
When you purchase the first volume, a treasure chest containing new equipment will be added to the map, and if you overcome all the trials that will strengthen the Master Sword, the travel route of the last 200 hours will be recorded on the map. Footprints Mode” and high difficulty “Master Mode” have been added.
In the second installment, if you overcome all the trials, you can get a new vehicle, Master Bike Type 0, and by the bard “Kassiwa”, Princess Zelda and four heroes who are important characters in the story. I was also happy that it offered a new enjoyment of listening to poems that included episodes. In particular, the latter poem is highly recommended for players who are thinking of playing this work, or for those who have not played it. The “Expansion Pass” is still available, but please be aware that the Wii U version will be discontinued on March 28th.
Similarly, for “Tears of Kingdom”, we would like to pay attention to whether the “Expansion Pass” will be distributed from this autumn to the end of the year, and whether it will be a title that can be played for a long time.
In 2020, the collaboration title of this work was released by Koei Tecmo Games instead of the “original” Nintendo. Its name is “Zelda Warriors: Apocalypse of Calamity”.
This work is a prequel to “Breath of the Wild”, that is, the land of Hyrule where the “Great Calamity” occurred 100 years ago. Heroes, the King of Hyrule, young Impa, Plua & Lobery, as well as gigantic fairies, Koga-sama, who was the villain in the main story, and others appeared as player characters (*Plua & Lobery appeared as additional downloadable content).
In addition to the unique enjoyment of the “Musou” series, where you can slay countless enemies, depending on the stage, you can control the giant weapons, the four gods, and instantly kill even those powerful guardians one after another with beams. . This work also gained support from fans of both the “Musou” and “The Legend of Zelda” series, and the total number of shipments worldwide exceeded 4 million.
In “Tears of the Kingdom”, will collaboration titles such as “Zelda Warriors” appear, or will one of the characters join the battle as a new fighter in the “Smash Bros.” series? I’m wondering if there will be a collaboration that goes beyond the boundaries of manufacturers and genres this time as well.
“The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” is about two months away from its release. In the sky world that will be the new stage, not only will various puzzles be solved and battles with enemies will appear, but it will be a work that allows the player to adventure as they wish. I can’t help but expect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgyE7NGWy_k
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