Summary
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomhas been a runaway success for the Nintendo Switch, serving as both another smash hit for the franchise and one of the great final exclusives for the console during its twilight years. The scale of the game is enormous, unbelievably dwarfing the alreadygargantuan size ofBreath of the Wildwith an adventure that spans the skies, surface, and underworld. The main quest alone can take several hours to complete, never mind the nearly endless list of side content and activities to discover.
One criticism ofBreath of the Wildwas that the trademark dungeons the series was known for were lacking thematically, all looking too similar to one another.Tears of the Kingdomgreatly improved upon this, by including dungeons that once again feature an elemental theme, with the puzzles and area built around this core concept. Going an extra step beyond, however, one dungeon inTears of the Kingdomarguably outdid a particular theme far better than any previous installment.
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The Problem with the Water Temple in Past Zelda Games
As stated,The Legend of Zeldagames feature several challenging dungeons filled with enemies and puzzles, all of which revolve around a specific element. Forest, Fire, Shadow, and others are all recurring concepts in several installments as well as Water, which has been the most divisive of them all. Practically every appearance ofwater-themedZeldadungeons or templeshas been met with mixed opinions, ranging from players feeling these areas were either too hard or too tedious, sticking out like a sore thumb within an otherwise highly praised collection set piece locations.
A recurring issue with these areas is how water is placed far too front and center as the main obstacle or gimmick to control and navigate. In bothOcarina of TimeandTwilight Princess, players were tasked with repeatedly manipulating water levels to reach specific areas within the temple. This was seen as frustrating and repetitive, with its inclusion inOcarina of Timespecifically being seen as the weakest part of the experience. In other examples such asOracle of Ages, water is used as a constant obstacle, as Link needs to swim through the entire temple. This inhibits movement and can make things needlessly cumbersome on top of trying to fight enemies and solve puzzles. By comparison, it’s not as if Link must constantly slice through vines in the Forest Temple or use a light source to cut through the darkness of the shadow temple.
How Tears of the Kingdom Reinvents the Water Temple
In a wise creative shift,Tears of the Kingdomutilizes the theme of water as a tool instead of an obstacle or gimmick this time around. Rather thanthe Water Templebeing submerged deep underwater, it is now high in the sky above the world of Hyrule, with altered gravity resulting in Link being able to moon jump across platforms. Rather than the water itself being something in Link’s way that he must overcome, it is instead something Link can use to directly control and use to his advantage to progress further in the temple.
Link can use water to clean out sludge similar toFLUDD inSuper Mario Sunshine, in order to uncover hidden switches and other interactive objects. Furthermore, water bubbles can be utilized to cleverly reach higher places, carrying this idea of Link using the water in service of himself as opposed to something that must be dealt with. This continues all the way into the boss battle of the temple, Mucktorok, in which water must again be used as a tool by the player to wash away the sludge covering the enemy before landing the finishing blow.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomis available now exclusively on Nintendo Switch.
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