The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was released in May 2023 for the Nintendo Switch and is considered a masterpiece by many – it has a score of 95% on Metacritic. However, for journalist Jasmine Gould-Wilson from Gamesradar, the game turned out to be far too difficult. She accidentally activated the ‘Elden Ring’ mode.
This was the player’s experience: On Gamesradar the journalist writes that she was completely desperate in Zelda for 40 hours:
- Bosses killed her with a single hit
- She barely felt any character progression, her Link just wasn’t getting stronger
- During each boss fight, she died three to five times.
- She had to play ultra-carefully, Zelda felt like ‘Elden Ring’ to her
She writes:
As I made my way through Frost Gleek, I had little more than a handful of arrows, a shield, and a rapidly diminishing will to stay alive.
Player wanted to save 30 minutes by taking a shortcut
What did she do wrong? The author took a creative shortcut right at the beginning of the game, walked along a footpath and saved herself the ‘Long Way’ with the glider. But that would have led her to a place that would have explained the equipment system to her.
She says she thought she was clever and had saved herself half an hour of walking and was as creative as the game wanted her to be. After all, the new Zelda encourages players aggressively to be ‘innovative and adventurous’. So she did that and took to the skies when the game said ‘Go west’, soaring over the mountains.
However, by doing so, she missed the seminar on ‘How to Upgrade My Items’ and dived straight into the fray, having to play the game for 40 hours without the intended equipment.
The author convinced herself that it would get better – once she ‘progressed a little further’. Somewhere in the main story, she would surely encounter the ‘Great Fairies’ she knew from other Zelda games. But that moment never came.
When did she notice it? Only after 40 hours did the journalist realize the reason for all her problems when she looked at a colleague’s character and recognized upgraded armor pieces there.
Then I noticed that I missed something big. I didn’t need to progress further in the game, I needed to go back.
Well, sometimes it is good to go with the flow.
Most people love the new Zelda, but there is one major critic:
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