Summary

• Tears of the Kingdom ultimately falls short compared to other innovative and refined games released in 2023.
• The additional locations in Tears of the Kingdom, like the Depths and Sky Islands, are unimpressive and lack interesting content, making it feel like an expansion to Breath of the Wild.
• The outdated formula and lack of growth in the Zelda franchise, along with questionable patenting decisions, overshadow the emotional highs of Tears of the Kingdom.

Earlier in the year, Breath of the Wild successor The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom may have seemed like a potential game of the year, but 2023 has seen many exciting, refined, and innovative games released since then that make the latest Zelda title feel lackluster. Compared to Final Fantasy 16’s marriage of the renowned JRPG series with silky smooth combat, or Baldur’s Gate 3 modernizing the beloved Dungeons & Dragons video game series, Tears of the Kingdom did far less for Zelda. Essentially bolting a clunky item fusion system onto an existing game map, TOTK simply cannot stand alongside the true gaming greats of 2023.

The scale and ambition of Tears of the Kingdom may have impressed on release, but it became clear that more locations to explore does not equate with enjoyable gameplay. The TOTK Depths are ugly and dull, adding a vast and unpleasant underground world largely devoid of interesting content. While the verticality of TOTK is an impressive feat, as are its new methods for traversal, TOTK often feels like merely an expansion to Breath of the Wild. Alternatively, from a different perspective, BOTW felt unfinished, and Tears of the Kingdom was simply the finished product. In a leaner year, that still might have been enough to merit the most coveted GOTY accolade.

Other 2023 Releases Have Easily Sured Zelda: TOTK

This year has been anything but lean, however, and the string of more ambitious and well-polished successes shove Tears of the Kingdom out of serious consideration for game of the year by most rubrics. The minimalist storytelling of TOTK cannot compare to the heartfelt bonds in Sea of Stars or the myriad narratives of Octopath Traveler 2. Nintendo’s flagship franchise provided a much better entry with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, a game that flawlessly captured the timeless charm of the 2D platformer while adding truly creative new mechanics. Zelda’s most recent entry, conversely, presents another awkward amalgamation of other open-world adventure games, still lacking proper Zelda dungeons.

Just as The Depths proved disappointing, TOTK’s Sky Islands were an inadequate addition to the game, adding a scant number of new areas, most of which failed to match the initial Wind Temple experience. Custom Zonai device builds are certainly entertaining and innovative, but the awkward physics and bizarre fusion system left this as a novelty, rather than a real stab at a Minecraft style Zelda. There's likely more satisfaction to be gained from exploring Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s rendition of New York City, or the Like A Dragon: Ishin take on Edo-era Japan, over a second run through BOTW’s map of Hyrule with a few underwhelming new locations added above and below.

The runaway success of Baldur’s Gate 3 alone would likely have stolen any momentum from Tears of the Kingdom, but Baldur’s Gate was not the only franchise to receive a stronger new iteration than the latest Zelda. Fighting games like Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1 both refined on their predecessors while staying true to elements franchise fans love, unlike the TOTK approach, which added elements no one ever asked for in a Zelda game, while retaining the universally reviled item breakage. Alan Wake 2 and the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion, Phantom Liberty, both offered mature takes on their genres of horror and cyberpunk, respectively.

TOTK Impressed Upon Release, But Has Been Overshadowed

Meanwhile, the Zelda franchise refuses to grow up, maintaining an antiquated damsel in distress role for the titular princess who goes to absurd lengths to empower a man to save her kingdom instead of doing it herself. Despite its formulaic storytelling, Nintendo’s overreaching TOTK patents could harm gaming as a whole, as they include basic gameplay conventions that predate the latest Zelda, along with physics engine techniques that should be open to every game developer. The intuitive fusion of rhythm and action game styles in Hi-Fi Rush, and the one-of-a-kind perspective challenging puzzles of Viewfinder, both hold more merit for originality, without locking their creativity behind patents.

There are certainly some emotional highs to the TOTK experience, and some players may cling to their memories of solving a puzzle in an unconventional way, or thrill at riding a dragon into battle. Others will simply recall The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as the Zelda game that let players fuse a rock to a stick, which is hardly enough to stand among the many gaming greats of 2023 and claim the title game of the year.