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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of Kingdom on Nintendo Switch 2 are easily among the best-looking video games ever made. They always were gorgeous works of art, but the paid upgrades they've received (slightly meatier than the patches and backwards compatibility improving other Switch 1 titles) are transformative to the point I'm scared of not being able to finish the second one in the near future.
Earlier this year, I talked about how I wanted to hit my Switch 1 backlog hard once the new console came out. I loved what I played (around 40 hours) of Tears of the Kingdom back in 2023, but after walking into the Phantom Ganon boss fight at Hyrule Castle a bit unprepared and getting sidetracked by other games, the open-world banger went into the 'pile of shame' we all struggle with.
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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom review – "A rich, robust experience that builds on what came before"
This was to be expected, especially with Switch emulation being a thing for years now, but it still feels weird (in a good way) to be playing such an expansive and drop-dead gorgeous open-world game on Nintendo hardware at a high resolution and steady 60 FPS. BotW and TotK are great (if not the best) recent examples of how fantastic art direction can make games future-proof, and I can easily imagine a Switch 2 doubter spending a few minutes with their upgrades and going "yeah, I need to get this ASAP." Last-gen releases can be current-gen system sellers if cards are played right, which is why complete physical re-releases of both games exist too.
It's now early July, and I find myself enchanted once again by Hyrule's worn-down but lush vistas at double (more than double?) the framerate. The plan was to complete a few more temples and work on my equipment to push into the later stages of the main quest. In a way, I'm still working towards those same objectives, but I've slowed down. I just need more time. My backlog and all those hot upcoming releases I need to play for work aren't happy about this. Cyrodiil in its stunning remastered form will have to wait too. I want to spend many more hours following the sounds of uncorrupted nature and looking for new entry points into the Depths.
Much of the beauty of these two games is that dilly-dallying around almost always pays off. Whereas other big sandboxes can often feel filler-y if you don't stick to clearing key points of interest, Hyrule's long distances and daunting topography have a purpose, and even areas that seem 'empty' from afar hide secrets and can surprise me with random events or wandering NPCs that feel ant-sized against the backdrop of giant mountains and a new impending apocalypse. I love that approach to world design, and few (if any) games of that size capture those same vibes.
I'm no completionist. Even when playing far smaller open-world games, I'd rather just engage with the side content and everything the maps have to offer only for as long as I find them to be rewarding. Once that magic and sense of wonder vanish, I go from one quest marker to the next and only wander around when I feel like it, but without a clear objective. This is why I love Bethesda Game Studios' worlds so much: You don't need a 'game plan' to make the most of them. They're just fun to inhabit. With Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo achieved the same even if the philosophy at their core is different.
The Switch 2's beefier hardware also makes zapping between locations faster, which is the sort of non-visual improvement that's made a huge difference in the past for other open-world games. If I forget about a key consumable item I needed (or my horse, as is often the case), fast-travelling to the relevant location only takes a few seconds. When you're dealing with three distinct massive maps and lots of unplanned long falls while climbing or descending obstacles, this is a huge change. The time-saving adds up, and playing Tears of the Kingdom during a lunch break becomes more fruitful than before.
What I'm getting at is that we shouldn't understate the importance of sound technical improvements and the direct impact they make on the actual game experience. When someone states they "can't notice" the difference between 30 (or less) and 60 FPS, I scratch my head and think they haven't really paid attention. The same goes for "we don't need more than 1080p" takes. Tears of the Kingdom on Switch 2 proves "tech doesn't matter that much" folks wrong at every turn. This is an already fantastic game which absolutely feels more engaging and enduring when I don't have to worry about wacky contraptions destroying the performance and trees aren't pixelated 30 meters in front of me. Hyrule needed this.
These are the upcoming Switch 2 games to keep an eye out for - but if you're still on the fence about buying the latest handheld, check out our Nintendo Switch 2 review
