The Legend of Zelda has held a special place in our gamer hearts for over three decades with its iconic mix of adventure, action, and unforgettable storytelling. With the highly anticipated release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom just around the corner, there’s never been a better time to delve into the rich gaming history of this beloved franchise.
Whether youโre a new player or a Zelda veteran looking for games to scratch the anticipation itch, here are 4 Zelda games that you can play before Tears of the Kingdom comes out!
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
This might seem extremely obvious, but if youโre looking to satisfy your anticipation, Breath of The Wild is the first game you should play or revisit.
If you havenโt played Breath of The Wild yet, itโs literally a breath of fresh air as it completely deviates from most traditional Zelda games; itโs now an open-world game where you can explore the vastness of Hyrule right after you finish the tutorial level, if youโre reckless and skilled enough, you can even go straight to Hyrule castle to kill Calamity Ganon!
Breath of The Wild also gave Link new abilities and more realistic weapons, tools, clothing, and food system.
This installment also detaches from the traditional timeline of Zelda games, placing itself on a new timeline. Everything about this game is new and innovative, which also makes it one of the best games to start with if you havenโt played any Zelda games yet (traditional Zelda games are great, and they hold up today, but these games might be on outdated consoles you don’t have).
If you havenโt played BOTW yet, nowโs a great time to pick it up and play it! Itโs a lengthy game to finish and enjoy, so you might miss the Tears of the Kingdom release, but I donโt think itโs ideal to play Tears of the Kingdom without playing BOTW first, anyway!
If you played BOTW, itโs a great game to revisit it. You can start a new game and try to speedrun or play right where you left off and explore the world once more. Maybe collect hundreds of Korok seeds or play the DLCs!
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
If you played Breath of The Wild already, a game you can play next is Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity! It is set roughly a hundred years before the events of Breath of The Wild, just before the great calamity left Hyrule in ruins.
However, this game tells a different story and shows us what would happen if Link and the other champions were informed about the attack that Ganon is about to launch and what would have happened if they prevented the great calamity from leaving Hyrule in ruins.
Yes, Age of Calamity is not a canon Zelda game; itโs not even a Zelda game since itโs a spin-off musou game, which means this is a hack-and-slash game instead of a puzzle adventure like Zelda games. But hey, the story is worth playing, and the gameplay is pretty fun despite the Switch dropping frames when there are a ton of enemies, which is basically all the time.
If you donโt want to spend money and time to play Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, you can just watch the cutscenes on YouTube! Itโs like watching a movie, and you get the whole storyline through that. It definitely scratched my anticipation itch!
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
If you want to revisit or start with a classic Zelda title, then why not start with Skyward Sword? Itโs also the first game in terms of chronological events in the Zelda timeline!
Skyward Sword tells the story of the Goddess sword, which, as we progress, gets upgraded further and further until it becomes the Master Sword. This might be a bit of a spoiler, but a lot of the story starts by introducing us to the main characters and by showing us Skyloft, a city in the sky, raised by Hylia herself to provide a safe place for people. But! It being a traditional Zelda title, Zelda got in some trouble and fell down to the surface below, which is Hyruleโ only it isnโt called Hyrule yet.
Skyward Sword is released on the good olโ Wii, but luckily for us, Nintendo recently made it available for the Switch, and itโs updated with HD graphics and the option to use button-only controls, thank god! Donโt get me wrong, Iโm a huge fan of the motion controls, especially the ones on Twilight Princess, but the added complexity of tilting your sword slash and bomb throws to the proper angle means that the Wiimote and even the JoyCons canโt keep up all the time. Even controlling your Loftwing and aiming your bow can be a real chore sometimes. But hey, if youโre playing on the Switch, donโt forget the option to use button controls!
The main reason why Iโm recommending Skyward Sword, itโs because of the rumors that BOTW and Tears of the Kingdom might actually be connected. Tears of the Kingdom might be a prequel to Skyward Sword or something similar; not convinced yet?
In the trailer of Tears of the Kingdom, masses of land also rose from the ground, much like during the creation of Skyloft, and the Master Sword is also broken, which might lead to the restoration or creation of the Goddess Sword once again. This is all speculation, though, and weโll find out once we play the game!
Overall, like BOTW, itโs worth playing Skyward Sword for the first time or as a revisit before Tears of the Kingdom, given the possible connection between the two; just make sure to say hi to Siriโ I mean Fi!
The Legend of Zelda: Majoraโs Mask
The last Zelda game Iโll recommend for you to play before Tears of the Kingdom is Majoraโs Mask. I know itโs a bit of a long stretch given that Majoraโs Mask is now a 23-year-old game and placed far in the Zelda Timeline, but by the looks of it (through trailers and a leaked artbook), Tears of the Kingdom might have a darker tone, much like Majoraโs Mask.
Majoraโs Mask starts after the events of Ocarina of Time with Link getting lost in a forest while trying to find Navi, but he ends up in the land of Termina, which is said to be a parallel world to Hyrule. Termina has a problem that Linkโs ocarina of time can solve, and the problem is that the moon is falling down on Termina! Let me just tell you this: the moon in Majoraโs Mask fueled my childhood nightmares!
Majoraโs Mask is a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time (which is a must-play as well!), and it also shares a lot of gameplay elements with OOT. I guess we can expect Tears of the Kingdom to feel similar to BOTW, but then again, with a slightly different world and a much darker tone, which I kinda like. Serious and darker Zelda games hit differently for meโ and in a good way! But overall, I recommend Majoraโs Mask since it shows the possible changes that you might find in a sequel like Tears of the Kingdom!
Conclusion
There you have it! That’s pretty much all the Zelda games I can recommend playing before getting Tears of the Kingdom. Tears of the Kingdom is definitely one of the most anticipated releases gamers are waiting for this year.
Is there a Zelda game we missed or any other that you’d like to add and recommend? Make sure to leave them in the comments below, but for now, I’ll leave you with the final trailer for Tears of the Kingdom; enjoy!
Is there a Zelda game we missed or any other that youโd like to add and recommend? Make sure to leave them in the comments below, but for now, Iโll leave you with the final trailer for Tears of the Kingdom; enjoy!
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