Games worth discovering

I'm addicted to gluing things together in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

55K View2023-05-14

Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom isn’t just an incredible sequel; it’s a masterpiece in its own right. The massive open world is filled with surprises, whether it’s a dragon flying off in the distance or a lizard sunbathing on a rock. It’s made for exploration, and thanks to its many viewpoints and endless traversal options, I feel like I’ll be able to uncover every last inch.

There’s clearly a lot to love about Tears of the Kingdom, but the game’s greatest achievement lies in one simple feature: the ability to take two random items and attach them to each other.

Over the course of Tears of the Kingdom, Link unlocks a spectrum of superpowered abilities, essentially becoming a one-man version of the X-Men. These skills let him do things like move objects with his mind, phase through ceilings, and even rewind time. My favorite ability, Fuse, lets Link attach just about anything to a weapon, arrow, or shield, creating bizarre equipment that has to be seen to be believed.

One of Breath of the Wild’s most controversial features was its durability mechanic. Most weapons in Breath of the Wild were pretty fragile and would eventually break after repeated use. Weapon durability hasn’t gone away, but now that I can fuse things together, it’s exciting to see my weapons break. Tossing out an old weapon frees up valuable inventory space and lets me come up with new creations.

If I need a little more range, I just take my two swords and stick them together. When blocking enemies gets a little boring, I attach a flame emitter to my shield to create a shield/flamethrower hybrid. At one point, I nabbed a Bokoblin arm and stuck it to the end of my weapon while it was still moving.

As if the ability to fuse axes to apples wasn’t ridiculous enough, Link can also use his powers to create all kinds of contraptions. When you’re moving items with the Ultrahand ability, you can attach objects to each other with a glue-like substance. I’ve successfully built boats, bridges, a very old-fashioned car, and even a makeshift house!

Tears of the Kingdom has a genuinely compelling story, and I’m very curious to see where it all goes. I want to uncover more of its secrets, but it’s hard to focus on the main plot when there are still so many fusions for me to create.

Can I fuse a minecart to the end of my sword? I’ve made plenty of bomb and fire arrows, but what happens if I attach an arrow to a set of bat wings? There are plenty of questions in Tears of the Kingdom I want answered, but for now, these are the mysteries I really want to solve.