Everyone has their own favorite Zelda game, from the era-defining surprise of Link to the Past’s Dark World to the dark gonzo appeal of Majora’s Mask. No matter which entry you hold closest in your heart, it’s fair to say most of us can agree that Breath of the Wild is one of the best games in the series, if not of all time. Its radical take on the open-world genre gave Zelda a new lease on life, and many of its innovations found their way into other hit games, including Elden Ring.
With all that said, there were definitely some aspects of Breath of the Wild that exhibited some room for improvement. Considering how rare direct sequels are in the greater series, this gave Tears of the Kingdom an exciting opportunity to build on some of these shortcomings in order to achieve an even better open-world Zelda than ever before. And while Tears of the Kingdom has some of its own foibles which are natural to any work of art, it did manage to improve on most of BotW’s flaws. Here are the top ways that Tears of the Kingdom directly builds on Breath of the Wild.