Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s Successor Has an Easy Way to Level Up the Armor System

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom only released last year, so it will probably be quite some time before players can get their hands on the next entry in the franchise. Still, the next chapter in the Zelda series is a rather exciting prospect, as Nintendo plans to move away from the Breath of the Wild approach to gameplay that has defined the modern era of the IP.

Right now, Zelda faces a world of opportunity. The franchise is set to once again reset, offering a new style of gameplay, storytelling, and possibly even visual design. Breath of the Wild marked a major shift for Zelda, abandoning the more linear and dungeon-focused designs of its many predecessors in favor of totally unbridled freedom of exploration. Tears of the Kingdom iterated on this design philosophy by doubling down on BOTW‘s emergent gameplay and immersive sim aspects, adding ingenious mechanics like the Ultrahand ability. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Breath of the Wild is perhaps the most influential open-world game of the past decade, with TOTK being a significant upgrade, so it’s hard to imagine where the series could go from here.

How Gear Could Work In the Next Zelda Game

Breath of the Wild Set the Stage for the Future of Armor In Zelda

Tears of the Kingdom has some great armor, as does Breath of the Wild, which is among the more significant distinctions of the duology. Before BOTW, it wasn’t uncommon for a Zelda game to have alternate outfits for Link, but these were few and far between and often reserved for specific use cases. On top of this, armor was never modular before Breath of the Wild; it was always one complete set versus another.

Breath of the Wild borrows from more traditional action RPGs when it comes to armor, letting players mix and match different headwear, tops, and legwear, each with corresponding armor ratings and, sometimes, unique abilities. This approach to gear could be a feature that the next Zelda game keeps, as it relates to aspects like defense stats, buffs, and customization, all of which pair nicely with a number of other design elements. Put simply, Breath of the Wild‘s armor system is highly adaptable.

Building On Breath of the Wild’s Armor System

Tears of the Kingdom improves armor in a number of ways, but it still feels like the concept has a lot of room to grow. From a customization standpoint, the next Zelda could benefit from being even more modular, offering compartmentalized armor slots for things like gloves, shoes, and facewear. This would be more of an expansion than a complete reworking of the current system, but it could go a long way, especially if the next Zelda game leaps ahead in terms of graphical fidelity or cinematics, as it’s rumored to be releasing on the Switch 2.

Armor’s impact on gameplay would depend on the next Zelda‘s design philosophy. With the last two games putting exploration front and center, perhaps the series will want to hone in on a different gameplay pillar, like combat, with its next release. In this scenario, armor could offer more offensive benefits or maybe even introduce FromSoftware-style weight scores, with heavier armor impacting movement speed. Conversely, the next game could be even less focused on action, allowing apparel to serve a purely cosmetic purpose by either removing or downplaying stats. Either way, the series should build off how armor is implemented in BOTW and TOTK, rather than keeping things static or axing the system altogether.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to the beloved open-world adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This installment once again sees Link and Zelda battling to protect Hyrule from falling to Ganondorf. This new adventure takes place in the same land of Hyrule as Breath of the Wild but sees something called the Upheaval, which allows link to travel to Sky Islands, as well as deep into the Depths beneath Hyrule. Players can use special abilities to fuse together weapons, and build items to help them progress through the release.

Released

May 12, 2023

Developer(s)

Nintendo

Publisher(s)

Nintendo

Genre(s)

Adventure

ESRB

Rated E for Everyone 10+ for Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes

How Long To Beat

59 Hours

Metascore

96