The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom keeps pushing the envelope for open world games

12:05How The Legend of Zelda bridges the gap between gamers and casual fans

The new The Legend of Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom, came out over the weekend.

Though the franchise first launched in the '80s, critics are saying it's as innovative as ever, with multiple perfect scores coming in from industry reviewers around the world.

Culture writers and Zelda fans Sarah Hagi and Niko Stratis join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to tell us how Zelda keeps redefining what an open world game can be, bridging the gap between gamers and casual fans.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: I'm excited to do this, but I'm particularly excited to just get the record straight on one thing: Zelda is the title of the game. Zelda is not the main character of the Zelda games. Niko, can you please describe who Link is so people know how Zelda fits into this whole world?

Niko: I mean, you could argue that Zelda is the main character because everything that Link does is in service of [Zelda]. So, Link is the character player. He's a silent himbo; he's no talk, all action.

Every Zelda game sort of exists in a different timeline, except for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. But Link is sort of this fabled hero that recurs over and over throughout time, and everytime he does, basically his life is in service of Zelda, who is always a princess. She's always a descendant of the royal family of this land. He is an act-first, never-ask-any-questions-about-what-it-is-you're-doing sort of guy — and we love him for that. And he looks great in green, which is a hard colour to pull off.

Elamin: When you hear the song Whatta Man, that's what it's about. It's actually about Link. Sarah, this new game is a sequel to Breath of the Wild, both in terms of the story and also how it looks, how it sounds. Would you please use your writerly skills to drop us right into Tears of the Kingdom?

WATCH | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Official Trailer #1:

Sarah: This one takes place, I think, several years after Breath of the Wild, so things are pretty stable. Link and Zelda seem to have a little thing going on, and—

Elamin: Like a relationship? Is that what you mean by that?

Sarah: I mean, yeah.

Elamin: They're not putting labels on it?

Sarah: Link doesn't speak, so you don't really know. But, the Kingdom of Hyrule is finally rebuilding itself after the events of the last game. Link and Zelda are exploring this underground chamber under the Hyrule Castle, and Zelda comes across all these ancient ruins that kind of tell the story of Hyrule. In the process, they kind of reawaken this monster who then wages war on Hyrule.

Elamin: Sure.

Sarah: Link and Zelda are separated once again, and you're kind of put into the game in a new landscape. There's a lot of floating islands in this one, and Link's arm is destroyed in the process, so he has this bionic arm-type of thing.

Elamin: Amazing.

Sarah: And you're off to find Zelda again in this different-looking version of Hyrule, and trying to figure out what is going on — and again, how to save the kingdom.

Elamin: Sonically and visually, what does it look like?

WATCH | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Official Trailer #2:

Sarah: It's so beautiful. It really looks like a painting or animation. A lot of open world games are highly realistic, so you see every single thing. But I feel like these Zelda games are a bit different. I feel like for the first couple of hours you're just getting a feel for the environment. It just looks and feels different…. You're in a very artistic experience.

Elamin: Niko, The Legend of Zelda has been known for being this non-linear storytelling kind of thing. When you're playing a Mario game, you're just moving from the left to the right of the screen. You've got to do the next thing in order to progress. With the Zelda games, it is an open world; there's lots of silly side quests.… There's no specific way to finish the game. You might not even necessarily finish the game. Why do you think Zelda does open world so well compared to others?

Niko: I would argue that they're so good at it because they've been doing it from the very beginning. I mean, the very first Legend of Zelda game that came out on the Nintendo entertainment system in 1986 transports you to a place and then says, "Do whatever you want. Figure your way through this." It respects the intelligence of the player, but also still sort of helps and guides them through.… A lot of open world games are homework now. There's things to collect and this busy map, and it becomes kind of stressful. The thing that's really beautiful about Breath of the Wild and now Tears of the Kingdom is it's very calm and it's very open; you can do nothing or you can do everything.

Elamin: Sarah, what are some of the ways that you think Nintendo has played with this idea of the open world in Tears of the Kingdom, do you think?

Sarah: When you play open world games, often they can feel very overwhelming. They're usually not for every type of audience; a lot of them are rated M because there's a lot of violence…. Sometimes it feels like there's a compromise if you want to play something that's less violent and more puzzle-like and more exploratory, where it kind of does feel boring. But I feel like what these last two Zelda games have done for me was that feeling of ease and relaxation while also being very stimulated. There's just so much to explore. People play these games for hundreds of hours — and they still feel like there's more to do. I feel like that's pretty rare, to not kind of get burnt out on all these repetitive tasks. It just feels like there's always beauty in the world created for these games.

WATCH | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Official Trailer #3:

Elamin: Niko, you can speak a little bit to the idea that gamers and non-gamers alike are both like, "You know what? Zelda seems like a nice hang." What is it about Zelda that does that?

Niko: It's not very stressful, right? The landscape is very beautiful, and it's very calming to look at. There's this element, especially watching people play, where you can sort of get into the spirit of it. You know, a thing that Zelda does really well is it sort of creates this conversation amongst people of, "Oh, did you see this thing? Did you go here?" With the very first Legend of Zelda game, people would hand-draw maps and would talk to each other about what you've got to do. You create a conversation around it that never sounds off-putting.

Video games can often keep people out because they sound too weird or too difficult, and it's none of those things. It's inviting, and it's fun. There's a lot of whimsy in it, and heart. I think that really helps too, because you never sort of feel like, "This isn't for me," or, "This isn't my pace." It's this beautiful neutral palette that is very calming for people…. It gives you that spirit of, "Just one more. I just need a little bit more."

Elamin: I have to say, if somebody made me a hand-drawn map of the world of Zelda, I would be indebted to them for the rest of my life. That sounds like the sweetest possible thing. Somebody did that for you?

Niko: I remember renting a copy of The Legend of Zelda for Nintendo from the video store in the Yukon when I was a kid, and somebody had hand-drawn a map on a piece of paper and they had left it in the case. I mean, people still do that. I know people that play this game or Elden Ring, a game that came out last year, who keep notebooks and they hand-write all their notes.… It creates this sort of tactile conversation that is kind of uncommon in the digital world.

Elamin: That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jane van Koeverden.