Big Challenges

Tears of the Kingdom players think it might be tougher than Breath of the Wild

Enemies do certainly seem to be able to do some big hits.

News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor

Published on May 18, 2023

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has a lot of changes from Breath of the Wild, and it looks like the biggest for some players is the difficulty.

When I first played Breath of the Wild back in 2017, I was surprised at how difficult the early game was. The weapon degradation system meant I always had to keep an eye on what I'm fighting with, enemies could do some pretty big hits, and obviously guardians were a nightmare to deal with. So colour me surprised when Tears of the Kingdom felt even harder than the first game, a feeling that a lot of other players seem to be sharing.

Players over on the Zelda subreddit are discussing their feelings on the game's difficulty, with the user that started the thread opening with, "Who else loves the fact that this game is way harder than [Breath of the Wild]?" While I neither love nor hate how the game is harder, a number of players are definitely finding it more challenging than the first game.

"I died more times in 10 hours of play in [Tears of the Kingdom] than I did in 400 hours of [Breath of the Wild]," wrote one user. "Even if you take out the fall damage from forgetting to switch back to [the] glider after diving, it's still a helluva lot… I find this game overwhelming in a way I never got from [Breath of the Wild]." A number of players expressed some frustration over how many times enemies end up one-shotting them, a problem they didn't experience in the first game - and something I'm finding to be a problem too.

One user shared that they aren't sure which they think is harder, believing that "combat is slightly harder," in Tears of the Kingdom, but "platforming is easier" because of Link's new powers. Another simply said they "got killed by a lizard with a mushroom on its boomerang," which is annoying, but also very funny, so who's to say if it's a bad thing or not.

Story wise it does make a lot of sense that everything is stronger - everyone is weaker too, due to side effects from the gloom issue. Though it doesn't always make for a smooth gameplay experience.

Difficult gameplay isn't the only thing players are having to adjust to. A number of players are also just completely forgetting about the Ascend ability, leading them to be stuck in some tricky situations.