SUMMARY
- TOTK introduces many new game mechanics but also disappoints with time-consuming and repetitive tasks.
- The game wastes players' time with extraneous dialogue, cutscenes, and the lack of efficient inventory management for cooking.
- Despite its flaws, TOTK still offers immersion in a beautiful world, which helps to overlook the frustrations and makes waiting worthwhile.
The Hylian Hood is one of the first pieces of armor available in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and it perfectly encapsulates what is perhaps the game’s biggest problem. TOTK is an incredible game with massive amounts of content to enjoy. However, this isn't to say the game is without issues, as TOTK can also disappoint players at times with what can be seen as lackluster features.
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom introduces players to a Hyrule that has begun to rebuild after a century of decline following the end of Breath of the Wild. When Ganondorf rises once more, triggering the Upheaval, Link is thrown into a new quest to save the kingdom all over again. TOTK is bigger than BOTW in practically every way; it has a larger map, more items and enemies, and a set of brand-new abilities. Just like BOTW, TOTK introduces many new game mechanics to the franchise and gives players plenty of time and space to explore their applications. But despite all this, TOTK is also not a perfect game.
The ability to lower the Hylian Hood in TOTK is a nice little customization option that stops Link's face from being half-obscured while wearing it. This can appeal to plenty of players, particularly those who enjoy the Hylian Hood’s defensive benefits but dislike having Link’s face covered like this, which can be especially noticeable during cutscenes. However, in order to alter the Hylian Hood’s positioning, players need to first complete "The Mayoral Election" side adventure in Hateno Village, which is essentially a quest chain in its own right. Then players need to ask Cece to adjust the Hood after a conversation, each and every time they wish to do so.
Naturally, if someone wants to switch Link’s appearance back and forth regularly, the chore of needing to go to Cece can actually take up a notable amount of time. Combined with the time needed to complete "The Mayoral Election" to begin with, that is a significant investment for something so relatively minor; even if doing so was required to activate the ability, it would surely be more efficient to have the conversation with Cece enable toggle accessible via the inventory, where players could adjust the Hylian Hood whenever they wished. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and this time-consuming system can actually be seen echoed throughout TOTK’s design.
At many points during Tears of the Kingdom’s gameplay, Link must go through actions that are not only repetitive but time-consuming. For example, accessing Beedle’s Shop means sitting through plenty of extraneous dialogue every time Link visits the bug-loving merchant. If all the player wants is to sell a few items or restock on arrows, this can quickly become frustrating, with such a conversation potentially taking longer than the actual transaction. Although Beedle’s dialogue does provide his character with some added flavor, by forcing the player to go through it every time, TOTK can begin to drag on in these moments.
Tears Of The Kingdom Repeatedly Wastes The Player’s Time
The Great Fairy Tera giving Link's armor a first tier upgrade by blowing a kiss in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Another example of time-wasting design can be seen in how TOTK treats the Great Fairies. Every single armor upgrade is accompanied by a cutscene and extra dialogue, leading to players being given the same basic tips and advice countless times. A similar cutscene is part of dyeing said armor at the Kochi Dye Shop, and quickly gets old - especially if, as with the Hylian Hood, the player enjoys changing Link’s style on a regular basis. Although these cutscenes can of course be skipped, the extra seconds the process always takes can add up quickly.
Cooking is another notable example of TOTK’s more obtuse design flaws, being a frustrating mixture of convenient and not. The in-game recipe book allows Link to look up what he can cook with a given item in his inventory, then put the rest of said recipe’s items together instantly. What it is not possible to do is to simply browse the recipe book as a whole and select a recipe from there to gather the ingredients for; the player must always find one of the items in their inventory first. It seems illogical, especially as the full recipe book can already be accessed by examining a meal in the inventory.
If an item is buried deep in Link’s inventory, or if the player does not remember the recipe and has to search for it (or, indeed, both), then setting up to cook can take quite some time. However, the problem does not end there; every meal must be cooked individually, even if the player wishes to cook the same meal several times in a row. An option to cook multiple copies of a meal would be extremely useful here, but instead, Link must go through the same process for each individual meal. Naturally, this can quickly become an arduous task if stocking up before a boss battle.
Even the flow of combat can be affected by inventory management to some degree, due to the way that Fusing items to arrows works. Although time pauses during this process, if Link’s inventory is full of many different items, then it can still take some time for him to find the perfect material to Fuse. This is especially true if it is a more rarely-used item that none of the selection menu’s filtering options will sort to the beginning of the list. As a result, combat can be dramatically slowed down in those moments, although the menu will at least then default to that same item for repeated Fusings.
Between its own flaws and even repeating some of BOTW’s mistakes, it is clear that Tears of the Kingdom can be frustrating to play at times. The amount of time that is unnecessarily wasted with extraneous dialogue and cutscenes, as well as some game mechanics like that tied to the Hylian Hood, can be enormous. However, this isn't to say that TOTK is a poor game. In reality, immersion in the beautiful world of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom can actually do much to smooth over these more jarring moments while playing, and the waiting does at least always come with some benefit to the player.
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