The recent launch of one of 2023’s most anticipated games,The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, has been a resounding critical and commercial success.Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomhas garnered significant attention from fans and games media in the lead-up to its announcement, with many fearing that delays of the title would see it end up on the Nintendo Switch’s successor and not launch on current-gen hardware. Nintendo’s EAD team has not only developed one of the most technically impressive games on the system but also established there’s still life yet in the Switch. However, not all are happy with the game’s performance.
Although the critical reception toZelda:Tears of the Kingdomhas been overwhelmingly positive, the latestZeldahas still been subject to review-bombing. The few negative reviews of the game center around one of two issues, with performance and the adherence toZelda:Breath of the Wild’s alterations to theZeldaformula as chief complaints. Those that decry the game’s performance on the Nintendo Switch and point out the occurrence of frame drops in the massive open world or during combat are doing so without taking into context just how incredible of a technical achievementZelda:Tears of the Kingdomtruly is.
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Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s Optimization Is Nothing Short of Technical Wizardry
When considering the work that Nintendo put intoZelda: Tears of the Kingdom, perhaps one of the more significant accomplishments it made was in getting the absolutely massive open-world game down to just 16GB for an installation size. In a year when high-profile games likeStar Wars Jedi: Survivorseeminglycompete for the largest installation size, the fact that Nintendo somehow squeezed down not one, but three open-world maps and a dizzying array of systems down to less storage space than some AAA games' save files is just shy of miraculous.
Some are complaining aboutZelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s semi-frequent frame rate dropsthat occur in areas where the draw distance gives way to seemingly endless horizons, or the appearance of several enemies on screen creates hectic encounters. These same detractors are missing the plot on why these frame skips are occurring in the first place. Nintendo obviously put significant work into making sure that early Switch adopters still playing on launch hardware purchased in 2017 could playZelda:Tears of the Kingdomwithout needing to resort to external storage of any kind.
Despite Its Age, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Showcases the Switch at Its Peak
Contrary to other first-party Nintendo titles such asthe somewhat disappointingPokemon Scarlet andViolet,Zelda:Tears of the Kingdommakes the absolute most of Nintendo’s aging hardware. Whereas many felt that the newestPokemongames' open world was largely lifeless and didn’t make use of its open-world setting,Zelda:Tears of the Kingdomis practically bursting with potential for adventure and creativity in its open world.
Nintendo’s EAD team should be commended for its proficiency in bringing the game to the Switch in the state that it’s in when one considers that a game this large runs on seven-year-old hardware at all. Truthfully, there will likely be an officialannouncement from Nintendo regarding the Switch’s successorin the near future. That could very well include a twin reveal of a ‘definitive’ edition ofZelda:Tears of the Kingdomthat runs flawlessly (and maybe even at 60FPS) on the new hardware.
In the meantime, the fact that a game as impressive asZelda:Tears of the Kingdomis running on the last of the previous-gen consoles is an astounding technical achievement on Nintendo’s part. One could argue that the occasional frame rate drop is excusable when a game as extraordinary asZelda:Tears of the Kingdomruns on the Switch at all.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomis available now on Switch.
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