The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - DF Tech Review - Is It Really 'Too Big for Switch'...?

It's finally here - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom sees Nintendo at the very top of its game, delivering a game that builds and expands upon the original Breath of the Wild in many different dimensions... but is the scale of the ambition really 'too big for Switch'...? John Linneman has answers.

[gruby]

Always love that John highlights the sounds and scores of games

[KarlRock]

It’s incredible that it runs on the hardware it does. It’s amazing work by Nintendo devs. You summed it up well at the end too John!

[oak]

I'm still amazed by how much they expanded on the original game, not just on the scale but the complexity of the gameplay mechanics that work seamlessly within the vast world on the ageing Switch. It's great to see a more detailed break down on the performance and various techniques used to maintain this game - makes me excited what the future will hold for the series with even better hardwares down the line, as Nintendo and Monolith Soft have proven that they can work magic even with limited capacity.

[astreakaito]

Just goes to show just how much "game" you can achieve even on such a low power system if you have a strong art direction and have strong optimization.

[Davemate]

The amazing physics, scale, lighting etc, all of it is amazing.

And it also makes Pokemon Violet and Scarlet look completely amateur in comparison.

[DashieSim]

Regarding the physical version not having having the latest performance patch: Nintendo regularly updates the game versions printed on their cartridges. Early copies may not have the latest patch, but copies being printed moving forward should

[venomrrider]

Dude... Nobody does an intro like John... He always finds a way to make anything interesting and gets you pumped! The pacing, delivery and information are all top notch!!

[GTXDash]

1:28 I love the pixelated transition to Link to the Past which was a very common effect used on the SNES.

[igodreamer]

The Sound Direction in this game is so amazing and pleasing to heard! Great work there! 👍

[godminnette]

Didn't even know the embargo was lifted yet! Glad to see you guys got a review code.

[ScottAhearnShipbuilder]

Super Mario Odyssey uses a resolution dip during camera pans to keep the framerate up and it works very well, looks like they brought that over.

[Михаил-мул]

God bless 4IFIR for smooth 720p 60fps experience.

[noobicorn_gamer]

DF’s production quality is just… top notch now that I watch it more than regular game review sites lol damn

[bugrakaradeniz]

Looks as good as one can look on the Switch

[skinsthewin]

The one thing I was hoping was improved the most was object pop in. Aka things like wildlife, monsters, chests, etc. I hate how when flying thru the air half the time enemies, wildife & chests and such don't appear til you're fairly close, which makes it hard to scope out areas from a distance for loot. I hope that has been improved significantly, as well as the distance you can travel before objects despawn such as dropped enemy loot and such.

[athlonzero]

Finally a game where the publisher don't need to say sorry.

[waywardlaser]

Zelda always has an incredible amount of polish. The series has long been a textbook example of how great art direction and optimization can make up for any technical shortcomings.

[Alex_Logan]

MGSV had similar levels of interaction and physics simulation within an open world, just in a very different genre, setting and premise. The level of interplay in its systems, with the AI and everything was pretty absurd.

[monkfishy]

The reason the patch improves performance so much is because it made FSR dynamic resolution more aggressive and also drops LOD quality drastically compared to v1.0, among other things.

[SirIzike]

This was EXACTLY the kind of review I was looking for, from technical performance to a succinct discussion of the game's open-world feel. Thank you very much, DF and John!