The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has one hell of a tutorial. If you thought the Great Plateau was good, which most people did, this is on a whole other level. Literally. After a brief introduction with more story content than the entirety of Breath of the Wild, Link finds not awoken from a century-long slumber, but instead transported to the sky.
TheGamer team has mixed thoughts about this opening. Some had trouble finding, or getting to, the shrines. Others just find it a bit pointless. But I liked it. I like the grandeur, the Zonai tech, the peering over edges to get a glimpse of a changed Hyrule. Once armed with my new abilities and after spending far too long working out how the Wings work (hint: it’s just gravity), you jump off the edge and plummet towards Hyrule proper.
You’re pretty much guaranteed to land in Hyrule Field, or at least somewhere near the centre of the map, and a quest pops up to tell you to find Purah. She’s in a settlement not too far away, so I did as the game requested for the time being. However, after revealing you’re no longer missing and were instead chilling on the sky islands, you’re sent towards Hyrule Castle. This is where I went AWOL.
“Story content?” I said to myself. “No thanks, I’m full.” I ran off in the opposite direction, to see what the deal was in Kakariko Village. It turns out there are loads of floating stones and stuff, it’s pretty rad. Duelling Peaks, an immediately iconic location from Breath of the Wild, was next on my agenda. I found a stable, but no horses. I climbed mountains and collected mushrooms. I cooked and I fought. I was having a great time, helping a stablehand fend off monsters, jumping down a well to save a villager, and delivering lazy Koroks to their preferred destinations.
Then I arrived at a tall tower. I hadn’t figured that it was the equivalent of a Sheikah Tower just yet, but it became clear as I approached. There was a little guard fella who forbade my entry, however, and told me that I should seek out Purah to get more info. Purah. From the beginning. I had no horse, I’d outright avoided most shrines because they don’t match up to the thrills of unbridled exploration, and I quickly realised that I didn’t have a paraglider yet. How would I get back to the start without fast travel or flight? I’d meandered for hours without a care in the world, and now I had to retrace my steps?
So I started walking. I can’t remember how long it took me, and it wasn’t completely unenjoyable, but it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing. I trudged back, Link dragging his feet as his stamina wheel depleted oh-so-quickly compared to what I was used to at the end of Breath of the Wild. I walked, I jogged, I jumped when I got bored, and maybe even swam a little bit, and eventually returned to Lookout Landing, the exact spot where I’d been about six hours earlier.
Purah kept badgering me to go to the castle, so I caved and followed the main quest in search of the missing princess. As it turns out, this was a 15-minute venture (plus the time it took to do a nearby Shrine and unlock it’s all-important fast travel spot) to pump a little more story into my veins before Purah would explain the Skyview Towers to me, unlocking handy fast travel spots, great movement options for gliding across Hyrule, and crucially revealing the map as I went. Oh, and I finally got the paraglider, too.
So my advice to you, dear reader, is to do a little bit of the main story first. Tears of the Kingdom is a Breath of the Wild successor in every way, and that includes the focus on exploration. Going off the beaten track is encouraged, nay, expected, but there’s a little bit of housekeeping you should do first. Don’t repeat my mistake. Get the paraglider. Unlock the Skyview Towers. Only then should you go exploring, or else it starts to feel real boring, real fast.