Why the ‘industrial revolution’ never came to Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
On TikTok, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom players have shared thousands of videos flexing complicated machines built in the open-world game since its May release. The clips show footage of terrifying war machines and mind-blowing contraptions that can mine rocks. Because of the flexibility of Nintendo’s systems, and how they allowed for such a wide range of design savvy, many hailed the machinery as the coming of the “industrial revolution” to Hyrule. Despite that excitement, that revolution never came. Although the developers of Tears of the Kingdom afforded freedom in ways previously unimaginable in Zelda, and scarcely seen in video games as a medium,Tears of the Kingdoms does have its limits; and they tell us a lot about the developers’ priorities.
In Tears of the Kingdom, Link has new abilities that allow him to pick up and re-arrange objects, as well as glue them together to create a larger structure. It’s a key change from Breath of the Wild that introduces myriad more layers of sandbox possibilities. For many, these powers serve as a way to create simple structures and vehicles to help traverse the land. However, some have been pushing these gameplay elements to build Fordian and Goldbergian machines. Groups like the Hyrule Engineering Club were founded to serve as hubs for players looking to see just how far these abilities could go.
As someone who still struggles to build a functional glider, the accomplishments of some builders astound me. Players have built marvels like a 1-bit calculator or jets that can traverse Hyrule in minutes. As amazing as these creations are, though,, these expert builders are still pushing up against the boundaries of the game. Some aspects — like the 45 degree turn when
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