Despite experiencing a serious case of FOMO when Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom first released last year, I took my sweet time actually working my way up to playing it. As much as I enjoyed my time with Breath of the Wild, I've been quite hesitant to step into Link's follow-up adventure in Hyrule for one simple reason: I didn't think I would be any good at it. I'm not the best when it comes to solving puzzles, particularly when said puzzles require me to build things. I'm also not the most creative when it comes to crafting, and it seemed as though Link's new mystery hand was putting both of my weaknesses at the forefront of the sequel.
From the outside looking in, I couldn't help but admire the creativity and ingenuity from the Tears of the Kingdom community following the game's release. From building impressive vehicles, to creating inventive ways to defeat enemies, Reddit was flooded with impressive examples of how the new Ultrahand and Fuse abilities could be used. Even now, we're still seeing some incredible player creations, but I couldn't get out of my own way to actually give it a go myself.
But when I received Tears of the Kingdom for my birthday, I figured it was high time to push my apprehensions to one side and finally try it. And let me tell you, after a handful of hours, I've never been happier to be proven so wrong. The very features that put me off the sequel have turned out to be the most satisfying and rewarding mechanics in the game.
Lending a hand
I'm not saying I'm anywhere near as inventive as some of the players in the Tears of the Kingdom community are. But as I've come to discover, that hardly matters when the Fuse and Ultrahand abilities consistently make me feel like a creative genius by doing the most basic things. It speaks not only to how well designed the mechanics are, but how effective the adventure is at introducing them to you and giving you a playground to experiment. It's so well done, in fact, that even though I'm historically bad at solving puzzles or crafting, I never feel like I am in Link's shoes.
The best Zelda Tears of the Kingdom weapons, bows and more
While the shrines pose various challenges to overcome, early doors many of them serve as tutorials on all of the ways you can use Tears of the Kingdom's abilities and powers. The intuitive puzzles make it feel as though I'm organically discovering how to put Link's new arm to use. What's more, the amount of eureka moments I've already experienced makes me feel like I'm actually creative and clever, even when I'm ostensibly just welding objects together and chucking things around.
Fusing things to make my own apparatus to get from one point to the next is always satisfying. From sticking a hook on to a board to get across a crevice, to combining all manner of gadgets together to turn even the most basic of weapons into deadly contraptions, I love that even my most rudimentary builds can become a makeshift solution. Whether that be a ramshackle platform I've created for a puzzle, or a weird weapon combination that gives me the upperhand in combat, Tears of the Kingdom does such an effective job at making it easy to get to grips with Link's tools.
Even when I'm probably not putting the arm to use in the best possible ways, I also appreciate that I can just cheese my way through some solutions with my hodgepodge creations. At one point, for example, I created a very ugly-looking platform that was haphazardly mashed together and placed onto a wire overhead, but I still managed to make it work to get to where I needed to go.
I was surprised by just how quickly the Ultrahand and Fuse features made me throw all of my apprehension out the window. The crafting side of Tears of the Kingdom has completely won me over in a way I never expected it to; it actually makes me feel like I'm quite good at it without having to try too hard. I wish I could have put my fears to one side much sooner, because I'm having such a blast with the abilities the sequel introduces. I have no idea what I'll go on to create next, but I do know that whatever it is, I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun doing it.
If you're getting to grips with the abilities like I am, be sure to check out our Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Fuse guide.
