Before we dive too deep into Hyrule, a quick note about spoilers. I won’t spoil the (actually pretty great) story Tears tells, but these games are about so much more than the plot. That magic the first time you see one of BotW’s dragons soaring overhead is around every corner here too, and the last thing I’d want to do is steal the many moments that made my jaw literally drop from you. That said, there are some huge parts of Tears that are introduced fairly early on that I will be talking about because of how fundamental they are to why this game is so impressive. I am going to preserve as much of the magic as I can but, if (like millions of others) you’ve already decided you are going to play Tears, you should probably just go play it and then come back to share in the wonder with

 

 

 

On top of that, you’ll likely want to have played BotW to fully understand much of what I’ll be discussing here – not to mention because it’s an incredible game and you’re depriving yourself by skipping it. Tears looks even smarter and more expansive when you know what came before it, but many of the recognizable basics shine just as brightly. Things that are as simple as being able to climb nearly any wall or glide as far as your expandable stamina will take you, or the concept of shrines acting as self-contained puzzle chambers you can solve to boost your abilities are things I don’t have time to get into here simply because there’s so much new to cover.

 

 

 

I can safely say people who enjoyed BotW will almost certainly like Tears, partly because of just how similar these two games are. The initial structure is a very familiar one: you start in a masterfully crafted introductory area where you learn the ropes and get a new set of powerful abilities, then dive into the open world with a main quest marker that quickly splits into four. From there you are free to do whatever the heck you want. You can even march right to the finale of the campaign if you know where to look, though that’s not quite as straightforward to attempt this time around (which is probably for the best, as I do not recommend it for anybody but the inevitable speedrunners, whom I proudly salute).