Is ‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’ Only Great Because It Broke?

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a technical marvel.

Some aspects of its physics engine have great potential across many industries. 

However, when Tears of the Kingdom was in development, it actually broke. The break was significant, affecting game mechanics and physics. Across the developer floor, programmer Takahiro Takayama could hear people shouting things like, “it’s flying” or “it broke” and that things were absolute “chaos.”

They had realized that everything had to be physics-driven by removing all non-physic-driven objects.

One innovation they implemented was independent interactions between objects without any special attention. Players now have massive choices instead of having to stick with more basic ones. 

Nintendo’s decision to do this is what ultimately led to the video game as it is today. It led to systems for object movement and assigning sounds. The idea that two similar but different objects have uniquely generated sound – that even the sound director doesn’t remember creating – is a marvel. A player could, for example, build a boat. There’s no specific way that it needs to be done, or special tools necessary to do it. Depending on different object factors, interacting with it during the building process will produce different sounds. 

Essentially, Nintendo created an advanced physics engine inside the game. There are so many possible uses for such an engine that it’s hard to list them all. I must say that I would absolutely love to be able to purchase that sound engine independently and apply it to some of my own projects. 

Nintendo continues to display relevance in the modern world with another stunning accomplishment. The continuation of The Legend of Zelda in such a technical marvel shows that Nintendo isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. What will they do next?