The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was developed by Nintendo to be a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The game’s original development plans were to be just DLC, however the developers and the company decided that it should be developed into a full game. The development would definitely not have gotten this far without the amazing success of the original game. Though the development story of this game is fraught and complex, the outcome is enjoyable and exciting.

In terms of story, the game itself has a bit more than the first game, adding more depth to characters which were originally glazed over in Breath of the Wild. The open world aspect is still very clear, with multiple quests that you select from at once. In Breath of the Wild, one of the coolest concepts of the game was how you could skip right to the final boss and complete the game within a few short hours (although you had to have significant skill and luck to do this), while the final objective in this game is much more hidden and mysterious. I definitely prefer this, however, because it retains the open world aspect while allowing players to experience the story more fully. 

The gameplay hasn’t changed drastically from the previous game, with the game engine and physics being the exact same. There are new features focusing on obtainable items and skills that are introduced gradually throughout different points in the game. These different things are very intuitive and taught well, with a wide array of them being introduced near the start of the game, yet they are utilized evenly throughout the rest of the game's progression. The combat throughout the game is fairly basic for any player to use, yet it allows people who want to learn the combat more deeply to play around and use it in a wide variety of ways. I really enjoyed this, since I was familiar with the controls and feel of Breath of the Wild, yet I was able to have fun with the combat from square one going into this game. 

The world and atmosphere in this game are fairly good, with the map, like many other things, calling back to Breath of the Wild. In fact, a third of the map is almost like a remixed version of the original, with the points of interest and other encounters being altered to fit the new settings that this game brings us. However, Tears of the Kingdom was able to take this idea and expand it threefold, introducing a sky-island layer and another layer that was exposed later into the game. It still amazes me that the developers were able to optimize all of these new changes and expansions into the same game file size as the original, despite there clearly being way more content. The atmosphere for each setting is very clearly supported by the occasional song from the soundtrack, which do a fine job at immersing the player into the game, despite music only being used in very content-filled places. 

Something that is unfortunate for the game is just the system that it is running from. The Nintendo Switch clearly struggles with running this game, despite the game being specifically designed for this console. It has been the console that Nintendo has been using for 6 years, and even when it was released, the console power was weaker than a PS4, another console that was released 4 years before the Switch was, which goes to show how behind it is in terms of console power. This isn’t anything against the game specifically, but the console hurts the enjoyability of the game because the game can run noticeably choppier when going into higher-density areas in the map. 

For my conclusion, I’d say that the game in terms of gameplay and exploration is definitely an improvement over the last, which goes to show how amazing this game really is, considering its predecessor was able to pull in many awards and is acclaimed critically. I definitely recommend this game thanks to the multiple hours of fun and excitement that it has. I give this game a strong 4.5 stars out of 5. All of my complaints are very insignificant and I enjoyed the time I spent on this game.