Tears of the Kingdom

In a world filled to its brim with the water of stale, stagnant open-world games, mere drops away from having its contents overflow and spill out uncontrollably, resulting in irreparable harm, there can be found a paltry few games which deviate from the overwhelming minimap icons and tedious side-quests... The recent masterpiece from FromSoftware, Elden Ring, was thought by many to be the unparalleled champion of open-world design for years to come, with its fresh and long-overdue take on the aforementioned tropes that have plagued the genre for a putridly absurd span of time. 

However, the majesty of Elden Ring's game design is an endless tirade of information that has more than earned its own dedicated eulogy, and in any case, the topic of today's blog is actually the sole challenger to Elden Ring's claim to the throne as the greatest open-world game of the 2020s - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Keheheh... Admittedly, I do carry somewhat of a bias towards this title within mine own dark bosom, for I have been a fan of the series for my entire life, starting with The Wind Waker... In addition, I obtained this game just in time for my geminous sojourn in Los Angeles, as if delivered unto me by some divine miracle. Perhaps, the arrival of such a masterpiece in my dire time of need truly was orchestrated by a higher power, as a result of my boundless good karma!

If it was not already abundantly clear, Tears of the Kingdom a near-flawless pinnacle in abject, from its pulchritudinous visual style, replete with vivid orange skies dotted with floating stone islands from a long forgotten civilization, to its superbly creative mechanics, such as Ultrahand, which allows you to fuse multiple objects in the world together to create and customize unique contraptions in order to solve vexing puzzles, traverse the vast world, and even to combat ferocious enemies - all accented by what is undoubtedly the most advanced physics engine that has ever graced this defiled land... Truly, this game is nothing short of a class act, and will no doubt serve as an inspiration for the next decade of games, if not far longer!

Keheh... Unfortunately, when it comes to open-world games, I'm somewhat of an obsessive explorer... Immediately after making an elaborate landing onto the lands of Hyrule, I discarded any and all notion of continuing the game's main questline in lieu of fully revealing a map of the world, and obtaining as many powerful weapons and powers as possible... Surely, within the next hundred or so hours of gameplay, I'll wind up progressing the story to some extent, even if only by accident...