Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom fans outline biggest upgrades over BOTW

Andrew Highton
zelda and link in tears of the kingdom cut scene

The scope and vision of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom make it an experience like no other. Even though Breath of the Wild was a huge success for Nintendo, players have cited the ways in which Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s upgrades make it better compared to its predecessor.

Zelda games are some of the most lauded and loved games in history. Each one is usually the recipient of astronomically high review scores and also impressive sales figures.

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom had the arduous task of following Breath of the Wild – and we think it did so with flying colors. But don’t take our word for it, Tears of the Kingdom players are also loving the game too.

Thanks to new innovations and subtle tweaks across the board, fans believe that multiple facets of the game are now “better” compared to Breath of the Wild.

Tears of the Kingdom improves weapon durability

While BOTW was rightfully hailed as an all-time gaming great, not everything was perfect. Weapon durability was one of the game’s biggest points of contention with players not overly keen on the degradation system.

However, players now believe that the new Fuse ability has changed that: “Fuse also solved the durability problem because if you have a weapon you like that breaks you can just make it again,” said one user in response to the TOTK ability.

Zelda’s mob mentality and stacked inventory

The Fuse comment came in another Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom upgrades appreciation thread that also praised the idea of fighting mobs. In BOTW, Link wasn’t rewarded excessively for fighting groups of enemies, but in TOTK, enemy items and weapon drops intertwine nicely with Fuse.

Additionally, supply drops have also been commended. “Every archer and wooden box drops loads of arrow bundles, no more emptying stores of arrows or farming them with a wooden shield,” said Reddit user isaactheewolf in a post titled: “The best change I’ve noticed.”

Another fan was in complete agreement with this fresh fix: “Yes! The game so far has given me a steady supply of arrows. I don’t feel the need to hit up beedle anytime I’m near a stable.”

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Shrines are “10x better!”

If that wasn’t enough, another element of Breath of the Wild that was already beloved has also seen some fixes too – Shrines.

One user’s Reddit post claimed that “The shrines are 10x better now that every single one has multiple solutions,” and gave evidence to back this up.

“Almost every shrine I’ve done, I don’t think I did it the way that’s “intended” or wet up for you. And I adore it. Some of the shrines in BOTW were tedious and annoying cough ball mazes cough. Where there was really only one solution unless you really forced and cheesed it somehow with an unintended glitch. It’s so much more fun for that reason. The entire game. I’m never sick of the puzzles and I could be when grinding shrines in BOTW.”

The sea of positive upvotes and goodwill comments across suggests that all these feelings are very mutual.

With players happy collecting Korok Seeds and finding inventive ways to pet dogs in Tears of the Kingdom, it seems like the praise will keep coming for Nintendo’s big success.

About The Author

Andrew Highton is a former Games Writer for Dexerto. He has a Creative Writing degree from Liverpool John Moores University and has previously written for games websites such as Twinfinite and Keengamer. With 13,000+ PlayStation Trophies to his name, Andrew is a fan of a huge variety of video games, his favourites being God of War and Metal Gear Solid. Contact him at andrew.highton@dexerto.com, on Twitter @AndyHighton8 or at www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-highton.