Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom early impressions – a feast fit for a short king

techcrunch.com:

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has only been out in the wild for a few days at this point, marking a mere sliver of the time players will spend exploring Hyrule’s fresh secrets over the course of the coming months and years, ifBreath of the Wild is any indication.

For anyone avoiding full-game reviews and spoilers, here are some early thoughts on the expansive elf survival simulator’s first 20 hours or so. This serves as a warning for spoilers about Tears of the Kingdom‘s world from here on out. I won’t get into much that’s plot related here, mostly gameplay, map and mechanics stuff. But if you’ve yet to play, some of the world’s surprises are really, really worth saving. Do yourself a favor!

Out of the gate, Tears of the Kingdom’s starter area this time around is big. Everything still looks very Breath of the Wild, which is to say the game’s cel-shaded vibes and lush natural setting remain, but Tears of the Kingdom kicks off on an interconnected series of mysterious floating sky islands dotted with esoteric devices and elaborate, crumbling ruins. Getting out of this area took me at least five hours, including a bit of side exploration but mostly sticking to the objectives: Trek to shrines, unlock new abilities, chill with the inexplicably sexy androgynous goat guy giving me spiritual guidance.

Tears of the Kingdom establishes a few key things in these early sequences, introducing players to the sky islands that comprise the upper layer of the map and making it clear that almost every aspect of gameplay from the last game remains intact, right down to me repeatedly throwing my weapons by accident and dying left and right while panic-crouching before getting the hang of the combat controls again.

The tutorial is