“The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” is an open-world action adventure role-playing game where you play as the Hero of Courage, Link, who aims to defeat the pestilence of Ganon to save the land of Hyrule.

   This game series follows the same premise as its preceding versions, but each version is different with their execution and story. However, “Breath of the Wild” is special because it is the game that would popularize the open-world genre in the gaming market.

   Open-world is a genre that allows the players to make their own path to the end of the story. Many years after its release, other developers would attempt to make their own open-world games to varying degrees of success.

   For example, “Elden Ring,” a game made by FromSoft, would stand on its own because it as artistic as “Breath of the Wild” while following their own style of making games. This isn’t about the successes and failures that came from the open-world genre, but about “Breath of the Wild” and its now released sequel, “Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.”

   This new installment follows the events of the “Breath of the Wild” from story to gameplay but instead of remaining stagnant, it expands upon this premise. The game creators took the criticism for weapon durability in the games. Where in the past players would have to find a strong weapon somewhere but now they can craft strong weapons with material they can use during their journey. They took their old ideas and refined them. Afterall, they have been using the same engine that they used for “Breath of the Wild” for more than a decade.

   Another thing to note is that “Tears of the Kingdom” was made because “Breath of the Wild” had way too many DLC (Downloadable Content) ideas and game creators decided that they would use those to make an entirely new game, which in hindsight is pretty inventive.

   Finally, what do the masses, fans and fellow gamer developers think of “Tears of the Kingdom?”

   On one hand, fans and newcomers to the “Legend of Zelda” franchise are adoring or criticizing the game, which is usual for any piece of media. Part of that is factored from the fact that the game is built upon the layout of “Breath of the Wild,” to the point where people are saying, “’It’s Breath of the Wild,’ but charged 70$ instead of the initial 60$.’”

   Of course, “Tears of the Kingdom” is far from that. However, game developers, specifically AAA developers who specialize in larger media games, see “Tears of the Kingdom” as an embarrassment to their careers. But why would it be an embarrassment if it’s not a game made from their labor” They feel like this because they’re impressed by the mechanics of the game.

   For example, the crafting mechanic mentioned earlier isn’t like crafting in “Minecraft” but more akin to fusing two objects together, allowing the player to fuse not only objects with items they find but also the environment around them like fusing a stick with a piece of stone. Although this doesn’t sound like it’s a big deal, to game developers it is because mechanics like these are super hard to code. Not only that, but this technical innovation paired with other mechanics that achieve the same amount of difficult coding and the fact that the game is optimized and has an overarching story make it unique.

   So, the feelings from AAA developers are completely warranted. Of course, that doesn’t mean all developers hate the game. It’s just a lot.

   Although this isn’t an advertisement, it is without a doubt that “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” is a good game. Try it out and create your own adventure.