Daily Debate: Did Tears of the Kingdom Do Enough to Justify Its Existence as a Standalone Game?
Posted on April 15 2025 by Nick Miller
After the announcement that Tears of the Kingdom would reuse Breath of the Wild‘s overworld, an immediate concern for many fans was if Tears could make another trip to that iteration of Hyrule worthwhile. What could be done to keep that world feeling fresh and exciting? What new gameplay elements could possibly be entertaining enough to justify revisiting a world that fans had already scoured inside and out?
The answer to those questions mostly came in the form of Ultrahand, an ability that built upon the foundation that Breath of the Wild laid and greatly expanded the capacity for players to interact with the game’s environment. Using Link’s new abilities, players could build an infinite variety of contraptions to battle enemies of Hyrule, traverse the world, and more. With a robust physics engine to support these gameplay mechanics, players were truly only limited by their own creativity. Tears of the Kingdom made Zelda into a sandbox in the truest sense of the word.
Additionally, the overworld saw some minor alterations in the form of caves, as well as changes to certain locations as a natural result of the passage of time. Likewise, the map was expanded vertically, adding floating islands high in the sky and murky Depths deep beneath the surface.
However, even with these new features, fans are torn. Some fans call Tears of the Kingdom a “DLC expansion of Breath of the Wild“. Others passionately argue that it was “so much more than DLC!” One Zelda Dungeon reader called Tears “a wonderful and impressive game that will claim a spot among my favorite games of all time.” Another called it “a major downgrade from Breath of the Wild.”
Additionally, fans are torn on the reuse of Breath of the Wild‘s map, as well as the changes that were made to that map. In reply to a report on the use of procedural generation in Tears of the Kingdom, one fan remarked, “I was so disappointed that the Sky Islands ended up just being so similar to one another.” In that same thread, another fan called the world design “lazy.” Not everyone is disappointed by the recycled map though. One fan said, “Returning to have another adventure here [in Breath of the Wild‘s Hyrule] was the biggest draw of the game for me,” adding, “I really loved revisiting this Hyrule.”
One more balanced comment read, “I don’t think reusing the same map was the problem here. The game intended to remix the contents of the surface, and for the most part it succeeds. The real problem is . . . the surface area got inevitably spoiled by the underworld. If you’re in the Depths for too long, you’ll trivialize the surprise factor of the surface.” That same commenter also argued that many of the more interesting areas in Breath of the Wild “lost any sort of meaningful use in Tears of the Kingdom” because the content they were originally designed for was stripped away, reducing them to just another landmark.
Is it possible that Tears of the Kingdom would have been better off as an expansive DLC for Breath of the Wild? Should Nintendo have scrapped the idea of the Sky Islands or the Depths altogether and just implemented Tears‘ new abilities, like Ultrahand, into Breath of the Wild? Or did Tears of the Kingdom do enough to justify its existence as a standalone game? Were the additions and changes made to the overworld worth exploring, or at least worth the cost of another full-priced game? Join the debate and tell us all of your thoughts in the comments below!
Nick is a writer for Zelda Dungeon and a longtime fan of the Zelda franchise. In his free time, he enjoys fishing, archery, skateboarding, and some good ol’ fashioned family time. He’s an advocate for physical media and an avid video game collector. His favorite Zelda game is Ocarina of Time, though Breath of the Wild and the Link’s Awakening remake are close contenders. His other favorite video games series include Kingdom Hearts, Fallout, and Ratchet & Clank.
