Video games: "Tears of the Kingdom", or the return of the legend of Zelda

"The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom," on Nintendo Switch. © Business Wire via AP

Text by: Igor Gauquelin Follow

8 min

Fans of action-adventure or medieval-fantasy already call it by its acronym, "ToTK", for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The latest adventures of Link, on the Switch console, from the Japanese Nintendo, were released this Friday, May 12 all over the world. An event.

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On the eve of the weekend at the Italie 2 center in Paris, people of all ages took advantage of their lunch break to buy fissa the new Zelda, sometimes with the same excitement as in the days of the Super NES. We were there, we saw them. There were many of them!

In line, Keo asks Sebastian if he prefers not to download the game, given the crowds at the checkout. Clear answer: "I prefer the cartridge." Will it go on the shelf to join those – golden – of its very first Nintendo, the "NES"? That's what happened to us.

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My brother Olivier, he's already on it, he's 50 years old this year, says Sébastien. My other brother too. It's unbelievable, they manage to keep us in it. I play like someone my age now, who works a lot, but it takes me back to my years as a total gamer!

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It's a game that renews itself, he continues, that's why it crosses generations. The last one was very modern, but he remained attached to his values. He kept the magical side, the princess that must be saved, by incorporating new things, the graphics of today.

It is true that the more the years pass, the more Link, as well as his acolytes, in the cutscenes, look like characters straight out of a Hayao Miyazaki anime. But it's him. "Heroic fantasy is the immortal genre, which doesn't age," Keo concludes.

An important issue for Nintendo

Since 1986, with Mario Bros. or Donkey Kong, then Pokémon, from console to console, Zelda has made the reputation of the Japanese group Nintendo, which once competed with Sega and continues, today, to make its way between the PlayStation, Sony, and the XBox, of the giant Microsoft.

But the situation is somewhat different this time. Because the previous Zelda, released at the launch of the Switch, six years ago in 2017, was a hit. Breath of the Wild has sold 29 million copies. No other installment in the series had even come close to such success.

For comparison, Zelda, in all, is 125 million copies sold worldwide since the beginning of the adventures of the little man with the shield. Also, the pressure is great and the economic stakes important, with this new opus, Tears of the Kingdom.

Nintendo is counting on its green hero to support its business, while sales of its console could see a decline of 16.5% this year, to 15 million units, according to its forecasts. The ultimate dream of the Japanese, basically, would be to reach the billion dollar with him.

► Read also: The Pokémon phenomenon is 25 years old

Zelda, ancestor of "open worlds"

Certainly, to meet a recurring request of the most fanatical of its faithful, Nintendo created, a few years ago, through a book, a chronology supposed to explain when each episode takes place in the long fresco of the Kingdom of Hyrule.

However, it would be a lie to say that this timeline has any consistency. Because with each new medium, from the Nintendo Entertainment System to the GameCube through the Nintendo 64, the Game Boy, the DS, etc., Link gets a makeover: it's about reinventing the myth.

In 2017, the nostalgic will have been looking for their sword in the forest, as in the time of A Link to the Past, released in Europe in 1992. Then, they will have found, with tears in their eye, their friends the Gorons, or the Zoras, wondering where the Piafs came from, when they had missed The Wind Waker, the game published in May 2003 on the Old Continent.

Zelda was, in a way, the first "open world" game, offering a map to explore as you go, according to the player's desires and not according to a pre-established order. GTA, Assassin's Creed: The greatest successes on PlayStation do not follow another model. A video from the newspaper Le Monde will help you grasp our psychology.

Map redesigned so you don't get bored

The problem is a bit specific with the latest addition to the line. Because as for The Adventure of Link, released in 1988, it was a question of making a sequel on the same support as the previous video game, a particularly delicate exercise in the great epic of the world of Zelda.

Because precisely, the map of Hyrule Switch version, the player already knows it, he even spent dozens of hours to get lost to discover all the corners, in search of dragon scales for example, or to arm himself, before going to face the Scourge. So how do you do it?

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Breath of the Wild was indeed a very horizontal game, very plan. When we thought about something new for the sequel, we thought that the space that remained was the sky or the underworld, "explains to Brut Hidemaro Fujibayashi, creator at Nintendo and director of this latest opus.

And this is how the gamer will plunge back into the universe created in 2017, largely reworked to incorporate flying islands, through a scene propelling him with Link and Zelda into the underground bowels of Hyrule Castle, to the rediscovery of the origins of the Kingdom, as indicated in a presentation video commented by Eiji Aonuma, the producer of the game.

Keeping the community awake

Where its predecessor respected the canons, Tears of the Wind must therefore take up the torch of Majora's Mask (released in 2000): enrich the universe of Zelda without being able to rely on the simple "remake". It's off to a good start: on Friday morning, it had an average score of 97/100 on Metacritic.

We started ourselves, and we are now waiting to finish this article to continue. Especially since Ganon, the great villain of the series, the number one antagonist of Link, our worst nightmare, is back, while the Scourge was only borrowing traits from him.

New game also says new "gameplay", new way of playing. While retaining what made the strength of the previous one. Because Breath of the Wind, on the engine side, is a masterpiece: it was possible to make Link do everything that would have been impossible for him, big or small, in Ocarina of Time.

This is also one of the successes of the previous Zelda: even today, people share their small experiences on social networks, en masse. Who thought of cutting the tree with an axe to make it fall into the water and use it as a bridge? I'll show you!

"Solice" is not allowed

In the world of video games, the precursor Nintendo, champion of innovation since the beginning of his adventure, is apart, remained childish, lending himself well, especially since the Wii, to family practice. Mario Kart has accompanied many people during lockdowns.

But in the world of Nintendo, both console builder and video game creator, The Legend of Zelda is a world apart as well. This Japanese franchise has inspired entire generations of gamers, from childhood, and generations of video game creators, too.

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In Zelda, a villain is not just a boss like Ganon, it's also all the puzzles that will be on your way. A good villain is someone or something that will block your progress and requires using your imagination to triumph," Fujibayashi said.

The moment for us to remind us that it is strictly forbidden for Zelda to look for the solution of a riddle, the "solice", on the Internet. Assume that it is not enough at all to Google the name of a place in Hyrule to find out how to get out of the bad step it has reserved for you...

Full of existential questions

Who doesn't know Zelda? Who does not know the music of Zelda, sublime in the last opus? Link is a universal myth, whose return was expected to the four corners of the Earth. The Japanese were, jet lag obliges, among the first to be able to get the game in store. Some, as always, queued at dawn.

In other countries, some stores have decided to open at midnight to pay tribute to one of Shigeru Miyamoto's most famous creatures. This was particularly the case in a Parisian brand, where 150 people went in the middle of the night to buy the game.

At the moment, the craziest must already share with friends their experiences in this or that "temple". What is the use of the key, which I found by burning a wall covered with vegetation? How to melt the block of ice to release the switch that is visibly underneath, and open the door?

What's in this chest? Did they keep the famous "jingle"? What happens if I cook mushrooms with milk, adding a bat wing? Can I use this chicken to fly? Is this pebble stronger than my blade? These are the questions that any good Zelda player will ask themselves this weekend.

► Read also: Video game music, an original and interactive story (RFI Musique)

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