The Legend of Zelda timeline is fairly disconnected between games, meaning you don’t necessarily have to play the previous entry in the series to enjoy the latest. That doesn’t necessarily apply to Tears of the Kingdom, however, because the developers always planned on making it a Breath of the Wild sequel.
So if you haven’t already played Breath of the Wild and are wanting to dive right into what our Tears of the Kingdom review called a “A remarkable sequel that somehow raises the bar”, you may want to slow your roll. While you can certainly play Tears of the Kingdom without playing Breath of the Wild and still enjoy yourself, you’d be missing out on one of the best Legend of Zelda games of all time.
If you do want to skip to the latest Zelda game, though, the official story recap above should fill in the broader strokes. Otherwise, let’s dive into some of the reasons you should for sure play BotW first.
The Breath of the Wild Map Sets the Stage for Tears of the Kingdom
Outside of the obvious story tie-ins between games, both games being the same version of Hyrule is a huge reason to play BotW first. The Breath of the Wild map is enormous, and many of the locations are also in Tears of the Kingdom.
Considering Tears of the Kingdom is set years in the future, something you’d be missing out by the previous game is to see the evolutions that have taken place in Hyrule. Things have changed, and if you don’t have the context of what it was like before, you likely won’t be able to enjoy the smaller details.
The Characters Have Evolved Over Time
Yet another aspect that comes with a direct sequel is that there will be a lot of crossover characters between titles. Link and Zelda will have changed over the years between games, but so will most of the surrounding characters. The story will likely still make sense without the context of what core characters like Sidon and Riju were like in Breath of the Wild, but you’ll still be missing a lot of great story details.
Breath of the Wild Is One of the Best Games of All Time
Perhaps the most important reason not to skip The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the simplest of them all. It’s flat out one of the best video games of all time. Not only was it the first truly open-world Zelda game, it brought in new elements to the genre that revolutionized how we interact with open-world games in general. There’s so much to explore and uncover that you’ll likely never get tired of doing just that.
Tears of the Kingdom was made on the foundations that Breath of the Wild built, both literally and figuratively. It would be a shame if you missed out on playing such an amazing game just because the sequel has arrived.
If you are playing Breath of the Wild for the first time, or replaying it before Tears of the Kingdom, you can check out our guide on how to finish the game quickly using our Wiki guide.
Also be sure to check out our Tears of the Kingdom guide for all of the gameplay tips, tricks, and secrets in the new Zelda game when it goes live.
Hi there. My name is Julián, and I’m the lead developer of Despelote – a slice-of-life adventure about childhood and soccer in Quito, Ecuador in the year 2001. Myself and the team are happy to stop by the Xbox Wire today to announce that our game is coming to Xbox Series X|S in 2024. We’re also able to announce today that Despelote will be part of Tribeca’s 2023 Festival Selection and that the game will be published by Panic, who helped bring Untitled Goose Game and Firewatch to the world.
While Despelote is very much a game about soccer, you won’t really find yourself playing a full soccer match or even needing to understand the rules. Instead,our game focuses on the inherent fun of being a kid, just kicking around a soccer ball with your friends while you’re out and about, talking about your day at school… and maybe annoying your neighbors in the process.
It’s the year 2001, and Ecuador is on the verge of qualifying for the World Cup. Ecuador had never qualified for the World Cup before, and as a country just recovering from a massive financial crisis, the idea of qualifying has filled the community with hope and optimism. Learning about the people of Quito as you play soccer with your friends, and feeling that energy from your community as you explore is what Despelote is all about.
Together with my friend and artist Sebastián Valbuena we set out to make a game that is not only visually distinctive, but also one that communicates a strong and specific sense of place. This is partly because Despelote is a semi-autobiographical game, as I grew up in Quito, Ecuador around this time, so it was important to me that we get it right. You also play as a young boy named Julian, but he’s not directly a one-for-one mirror of me!
To give players a true picture of Ecuador, we took photos and recorded audio during trips to Quito that are now used in the game for items such as building textures and conversations you’ll hear as you explore the streets. Sebastián is also doing an incredible job of hand drawing our characters, as well as the animals you’ll run into during your time in Quito. The game is also fully voice acted in Spanish, with localized subtitles depending on your preference.
So that’s Despelote: a bittersweet and sometimes dreamy semi-autobiographical tale about how soccer can impact a place and its culture. We hope you stop by and visit Quito when it is released on Xbox in 2024. ¡Garcias, y cuidense!
If you posted gameplay or fanart – or really, anything at all – about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild over the past six years, congrats: you may have had a small hand in influencing its sequel.
In a long interview published by Nintendo, producer Eiji Aonuma, director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, and designer Satoru Takizawa talked about how the reaction to the previous game guided their approach to Tears of the Kingdom, and how it encouraged them to give players even more freedom.
When asked if they ever watch fan gameplay videos, Aonuma answered, “there was some talk about them among the development team.”
“The direction of giving players the freedom to do anything in this game came about precisely because of the reactions of people who played the last game,” he said.
“Even though it’s been six years since the last title was released, many fans still post drawings, comments and videos on social media,” Takizawa added. “Especially when the team is facing difficulties during development, these things light up the eyes of our staff and make them think, ‘Alright, let’s show ’em what we’ve got!’ “
“Letting players come up with their own solutions to puzzles gives them a stronger sense of being the only one to have figured them out.
After all three thanked the fans, Aonuma went into more detail about how the reception to past Zelda games impacted their approach to Tears of the Kingdom’s puzzles.
“I’ve seen some fans say that the Legend of Zelda games make them feel like they’re the only player to have solved the puzzle, and that’s what they like about the series,” he said. “I think letting players come up with their own solutions to puzzles gives them a stronger sense of being the only one to have figured them out than if we got them to use pre-defined solutions. In a sense, this is something unique to the Legend of Zelda series, and I think it’s something that’s brought out even more in this title.”
Elsewhere in the interview, they also gave advice to those who’ve been eagerly awaiting to start playing tonight – especially since Aonuma has finished Tears of the Kingdom 20 times already.
That sense of freedom and exploration is certainly something that’s come up a lot around Tears of the Kingdom, with IGN’s Tom Marks writing in his 10/10 review that it “both revamps old ground and introduces vast new areas so immense it somehow makes me wonder if Breath of the Wild was actually all that big.”
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
If you ever wanted to go fast like Sonic – but in Crocs – now is your chance. SEGA has teamed up with Crocs to release a new line of Sonic-themed Clogs and Jibbitz charms.
The upcoming collaboration takes notes from the world of Sonic, which includes Gold Rings that you can collect throughout the game, Chaos Emeralds, chili dogs, and of course, Sonic’s red shoes. The Jibbitz charms will include fan-favorite characters such as Tails, Amy Rose, Knuckles, and Shadow.
Officially announced today we’ve gotten our look at the Sonic Crocs! Red crocs with a White Heel Strap that has the Sonic the Hedgehog logo with 8 different jibitz exclusive to this pair These will be available in Toddler, Kids and Adult sizes and will drop on May 23rd https://t.co/ir8HPYansYpic.twitter.com/30w0fOUbLx
You can pick yourself a pair on May 23 if you’re in the U.S. and May 24 for everyone else. If you want to purchase the Classic Sonic the Hedgehog Clog, they’ll cost $59.99; the Kids’ Classic Sonic the Hedgehog Clog will cost $49.99; and the Toddlers’ Classic the Hedgehog Clog will be $44.99. In addition to that, loose Jibbitz charms will cost $4.99, and the charm pack will cost $19.99.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time Sega has collaborated with a shoe brand before. In 2021, it partnered with Puma to make a Dr. Eggman and Sonic-inspired shoe collection. Following that collaboration, SEGA teamed up with FILA to create another Sonic-themed shoe, but this time it was to promote Sonic the Hedgehog 2: The Movie.
Shoe manufacturer FILA announced the Ray Tracer Evo X Sonic 2 slip-on sneakers, which are designed to look like the Blur Blur’s iconic kicks. pic.twitter.com/OO9B6r3ObA
While most of the world is still waiting to boot up The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, producer Eiji Aonuma has already finished it 20 times, and he has some advice: “don’t head straight for the ending.”
Breath of the Wild, of course, was praised for its vast open world that encouraged non-linear exploration, and Aonuma says that detours are even more fun this time around.
“I’ve played this game from start to finish about 20 times, and I can say that it’s more fun with detours, even more so than in the previous game,” he said in a recent interview published by Nintendo. “When testing the game, I sometimes needed to rush ahead to clear the story, but later on, as I started to go off on side paths, I realized… it’s a whole different game!”
It got to the point, he revealed, where even he was surprised by the things he could do in Tears of the Kingdom. Despite clearing the game as many times as he has, he claims he “never felt bored once.”
“As I started to go off on side paths, I realized… it’s a whole different game!
“Even when sticking things together, there are so many different combinations that even I don’t know all of them,” he went on. “I even discovered something new the other day while shooting the gameplay demonstration video. So, it may take some time, but as you take detours and try out whatever you can at the time, I think you’ll be able to enjoy the game in your very own way.”
And for what it’s worth, IGN’s own 10/10 review agrees, with Tom Marks writing that it has “almost alarming number of tasks to complete, mysteries to discover, and delightful distractions to keep you from ever reaching that place you naively thought you were headed.”
So basically, get distracted – you’re supposed to!
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Player choice is a core tenant for PlayStation 5’s DualSense Edge wireless controller. The ultra-customizable, high-performance features unlock a wealth of options to tailor gameplay to players’ preferences. The array of choices to select from excites both gamers and developers alike, so who better to share insights on tuning your DualSense Edge wireless controller than the people making the games?
A new Developer Experience Series featuring perspectives from devs at Santa Monica Studio, EA Sports, and Bungie highlights game-specific ways to optimize gameplay with the DualSense Edge wireless controller. From adjusting trigger heights to rapidly blitz on the pitch in FIFA 23 to modifying back buttons for seamless weapon toggling in God of War Ragnarök, here’s a look into how you can make the DualSense Edge wireless controller work for your style of play.
God of War Ragnarök
Developer: Santa Monica Studio
In God of War, you’re hitting the triggers a lot because that’s where your primary attacks and aiming are, so I ended up using the low stops for the triggers to make them feel more like regular buttons. Jason McDonald, Design Director, Santa Monica Studio
In God of War Ragnarök, you want to move the character fairly quickly, especially in the middle of combat, so the left analog stick I set to the Quick setting, and I did the inverse of that on the right analog stick, which is used for camera movement, aiming, etc. Mihir Sheth, Lead Combat Designer, Santa Monica Studio
FIFA 23
Developer: EA Sports
The DualSense Edge wireless controller enables FIFA/FC players to personalize their FIFA/FC experience further, focusing on what matters more to them regarding the controller. Some players prefer their right stick to be perfectly precise for Skill Moves, while others favor a specific sensitivity when Switching. Some players will want to remap controls at a system level to suit their preferences. In contrast, others will be delighted with the ability to have a quicker-to-activate Sprint by adjusting the length of the triggers.
The DualSense Edge controller helped my defending game tremendously, as I can more easily keep Running Jockey active (L2 + R2) while activating Teammate Contain or player Switching by using the new back buttons (as L1 and R1). Having extra buttons on the back of the controller and personalizing them with the command you want can become invaluable when playing a decisive FUT Champions match or a rival derby in Career Mode. Thomas Caleffi, Gameplay Producer, EA Sports
Among the most useful features that make the DualSense Edge controller stand out and particularly suitable for FC enthusiasts are its adaptive triggers and back buttons, which enable players to have faster reactions and play smarter on the pitch by swiftly switching between different team tactics or changing the team mentality without having to take their thumbs off the sticks. In addition to that, having the option to remap any button to match your preferences and adjust the sensitivity of the triggers will give FC fans more control and customization over their gameplay experience. It is certainly a more enjoyable and improved experience. Danillo Abreu, Game Designer, EA Sports
Destiny 2
Developer: Bungie
The DualSense Edge Controller has been amazing for letting me dig in deeper with Destiny 2’s pinnacle activities across both PvP and PvE! I’ve currently got two primary configurations I bounce between for Trials of Osiris and Raids – and, I’ve got a matching in-game loadout to compliment each one. Being able to seamlessly swap between the needs of Destiny 2’s pinnacle activities both in-game and out of game has been a game changer! Andy Salisbury, Senior Social Media Manager, Bungie
As a massive fan of PvP modes in Destiny 2 like Iron Banner and Scorched, the ability to map my desired controller settings makes it really easy to tailor to my specific playstyle. If I’m going into Scorched, I want chaos. Being able to charge up this mode’s explode-y goodness and then mapping out exactly how I let that fire rain from above using the switchable back options is a blast. It keeps me in the flow, keeps me out of my head, and lets me enjoy the total mayhem that always ensues when taking this mode head-on. With the different options to both the front-side and back-side of the controller, it’s a more personalized experience and that personalization means more ways for everyone to play. Liana Rupert, Community Manager, Bungie
Bandai Namco announced that One Piece: Odyssey’s Reunion of Memories DLC will release on May 25. In this upcoming expansion, the Straw Hats are approached by a girl resembling Lim and they are sent into another world.
Over on the PlayStation Blog, Bandai Namco explained how the Reunion of Memories has a new battle system called Limited Order Battles that emphasizes a more strategic way of fighting. In a battle with Rear Admiral Barricade, the Straw Hats must defeat him while avoiding knocking out his sailor allies. Defeating the sailors isn’t necessary to win the battle, and each sailor knocked out only makes Rear Admiral Barricade stronger.
While the Straw Hats can stun and confuse the sailors, the DLC adds an NPC ally that will try to defeat the sailors, boosting Barricade’s power level. The purpose of this ally is to make battles more dynamic.
Additionally, the DLC’s narrative has a branching storyline system where players can choose between two options. One choice potentially keeps the Straw Hats away from danger while the other will put them in it. When the Straw Hats are trying to save the mayor of Water Seven, they can either save the workers and ask for their help or take the streets back to the mayor’s house. Both paths result in a battle but the enemies will be different.
One Piece: Odyssey was released on January 12 for PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. The Reunion of Memories DLC was teased back in April, but now it’s confirmed to release later this May.
In IGN’s One Piece: Odyssey review, we said, “One Piece Odyssey proves that a classic turn-based RPG is a good genre fit for the world and characters of One Piece, and that makes it rewarding despite a lack of tension in its all-too-easy fights and some frustrating quest design that pads out its length.”
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey
The worst part about strategy games is the shuffling. I give up on most 4Xs in the midgame, because shuffling more icons around is too wearying. No Total War since Medieval has truly enraptured me, because pathfinding for every army added nothing but hassle.
It’s why I love the model of Imperialism, where everywhere is one turn, no shuffling away. It’s also why I’m a little surprised how engrossing Foxhole is as a strategy game. As most players (including Brendy) will tell you, it’s a game all about shuffling, ie. logistics. But after finally making time for it, I’ve realised that most of them, even some of the “logi” focused players, don’t know what that actually means.
The BAFTA-nominated and critically acclaimed Fights in Tight Spaces will be making its way to the Switch later this month, publisher Mode 7 has announced.
Launching on May 25th, 2023, the game will bring deckbuilding and turn-based fighting gameplay to the Switch with slick, stylish visuals to boot. Originally released for the PC and Xbox in 2021, it resonated with critics and gamers as one of the top strategy games of the year.
Sea of Thieves has kicked off its latest Mystery event, The Hoarder’s Hunt.
The four-week event will see players solving puzzles both in-game and elsewhere online, with real-life treasure to be won.
We spoke to the team behind the Mystery to discover how it was inspired, how it was made, and learn a little about what’s in store.
As the story goes, in 1730, Olivier Levasseur stood on the gallows, awaiting his execution for a lifetime of piracy – which had included the theft of an enormous treasure haul from a Portuguese galleon, subsequently buried on the Seychelles island of Mahé. Asked for any last words, Levasseur removed a necklace from his neck, shouted, “My treasure for he who can understand!”, and threw it into the watching crowd. That necklace was hung with a parchment featuring a 17-line cryptogram, seemingly offering the location of his hidden riches. For more than three centuries, treasure hunters have tried and failed to decode the message on that parchment, and the gold remains lost to this day.
It’s a fitting inspiration for Sea of Thieves’ new mystery, The Hoarder’s Hunt, which will take players both in-game and beyond in the hunt for a real-life treasure – a golden skull, which will be awarded to the first player that solves a multitude of puzzles (with more physical treasure for the next 110 players to reach the end of the process, and in-game rewards for others who take part). Those puzzles might not be quite as difficult to decode as Levasseur’s treasure, but it certainly won’t be a simple process.
For Lead Designer Chris Davies, the promise of the event is simple: “To deliver the ultimate treasure hunt. Sea of Thieves is five years old, and we’ve done a lot of allowing players to pursue that pirate fantasy of searching out treasure, and digging it up. [So,] how can we offer the ultimate version of that? Taking it outside of the game as well as in-game and actually offer real-world treasure for our community to search out.”
To do that, The Hoarder’s Hunt will feature out-of-game puzzles, spread out across the online world, which will lead you to otherwise-locked in-game Voyages, which in turn lead to more out-of-game clues to decode. All of this will be wrapped up in the story of a new character, H, who – for the next four weeks – will send players cryptic messages, helping direct them to their next goal, leading to a race to the prize (and you can sign up to receive H’s first message now). The first player to finish that final Voyage will receive the golden skull as their reward.
Aside from Levasseur’s gold, the event has been inspired by other treasure hunts, from Cadbury’s Conundrum promotion (which offered real golden eggs for those that could solve complex puzzle books), to Ready Player One’s story about an online hunt with enormous real-life rewards. But it’s also a reaction to previous Sea of Thieves events. Before release, Rare set up a quest to earn real-life golden bananas, and the game’s first Mystery event saw players cracking the case of who killed Sea Dog DeMarco. But The Hoarder’s Hunt aims to improve on both.
The hunt for the Golden Bananas saw fewer and fewer players able to participate until its end – The Hoarder’s Hunt will remain open to all right until its conclusion. Meanwhile, the Mystery of DeMarco was fairly open-ended, leading to a very long mystery, dominated by clues solely from Rare’s own social channels. This hunt will be far more open but it’ll be time-limited, giving players more interesting puzzles, but with an endgoal always in sight.
To do this, Rare has worked with real-life puzzlemasters, tasked with creating truly mind-boggling tasks that will send players all over the internet in the hunt for the next solution – with a view to creating a very interesting dynamic: this should be a collaborative effort, with multiple players working together to uncover solutions – until it transforms into an individual hunt for that final treasure.
“What we don’t want,” explains Davies, “is individuals, puzzle experts, to kind of squirrel themselves away and solve these individually. We want this to be something where the community needs to lean on each other, where they speculate on potential avenues of investigation to find the solutions. And by getting the community working together, that’s what makes it such an interesting dynamic shift, [until] people reach that point of, ‘Okay, this is actually a race with a cool prize at the end of it.’”
And that final race will be fascinating to see – the moment this becomes a true sprint for the end will be a test for players’ moral compasses as well as their brains. It’s truly the first player to solve the mystery that earns the reward – not their crew. The final golden skull comes with four detachable golden keys, allowing the victorious player to reward their crew – but they don’t have to. That’s very much by design:
“[This is] the ultimate test of the Pirate Code,” says Head of Brand and Licensing, Adam Park. “Because fundamentally as a crew you can go and win this prize but whoever proposed that voyage will be the actual winner. So that person could at that point turn around and choose to keep the prize for themselves, or it’s been made in such a way that it can be split with the keys – they can share their spoils but again, it’s going to be another fascinating test of how people actually behave. I know what I’d do… you’d never hear from me again.”
“That’s why I’d never crew up with you Adam,” laughs Davies.
All of this has led Rare to think in new ways about how it delivers this Mystery. For the out-of-game puzzles, the mantra has been that there’s no puzzle too difficult, as long as the clues have been provided fairly, and that at least a few players could crack the code and share it with the community. I won’t give anything away, but be prepared to look for clues in some very unexpected places.
Even the in-game Voyages are a new undertaking, though:
“We’re calling them Hunt Voyages,” says Davies. “Ultimately, you’re hunting for one of the keys that can be used to unlock the chests that have been added to every Gold Hoarders tent. It’s a unique Voyage, different to what we’ve done before. It’s going to send you throughout the locations in the game, island-hopping, to do a map-wide scavenger hunt for these keys. But obviously, after five years, our super-engaged players know these locations like the back of their hand. And what we actually want this to feel like is, even if you haven’t played the game as much, even if you’ve recently joined the game, you’ve still got a great chance of winning these.”
The key to that is the new character, H. Players have been solving in-game riddles for years, but H speaks to players in an entirely different way: “H will see things through a slightly different lens and describe things in a slightly different way. You can’t rely on how we usually describe these aspects of the scenes, you need to interpret H’s lexicon and how they talk about these things, try and understand what H was seeing when they were making these notes and following in their footsteps.”
In effect, H will be the game’s own version of the Mystery’s inspiration, Levasseur, offering inscrutable materials for players to puzzle over, discuss, and work together on – until they strike out on their own to receive the ultimate prize. But don’t dilly-dally; you have a lot less than 300 years to figure this one out.
Xbox Live Gold membership required to play on Xbox One; sold separately.
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2023 Edition Out Now
Celebrate five years since Sea of Thieves’ launch with this special edition of the game, which includes a copy of Sea of Thieves itself with all permanent content added since launch, plus a 10,000 gold bonus and a selection of Hunter cosmetics. The Hunter Cutlass, Pistol, Compass, Hat, Jacket and Sails will ensure you cut a formidable figure as you set sail for adventure!
About the Game
Sea of Thieves offers the essential pirate experience, from sailing and fighting to exploring and looting – everything you need to live the pirate life and become a legend in your own right. With no set roles, you have complete freedom to approach the world, and other players, however you choose.
Whether you’re voyaging as a group or sailing solo, you’re bound to encounter other crews in this shared world adventure – but will they be friends or foes, and how will you respond?
A Vast Open World
Explore a vast open world filled with unspoiled islands and underwater kingdoms. Take on quests to hunt for lost loot, forge a reputation with the Trading Companies and battle foes from Phantoms and Ocean Crawlers to Megalodons and the mighty Kraken. Try your hand at fishing, make maps to your own buried treasure or choose from hundreds of other optional goals and side-quests!
Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life
Play the Tall Tales to experience Sea of Thieves’ unique narrative-driven campaigns, and join forces with Captain Jack Sparrow in Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life, an acclaimed original story that brings Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean sailing into Sea of Thieves. These immersive and cinematic quests provide around 30 hours of the ultimate pirate adventure.
A Game That’s Always Growing
With each Season bringing in new game features every three months alongside regular in-game Events and new narrative Adventures, Sea of Thieves is a service-based game that’s still growing and evolving. Check back regularly to see what free content has been newly added, and see how far you can climb through each Season’s 100 levels of Renown to earn special rewards.
Become Legend
On your journey to become a Pirate Legend you’ll amass loot, build a reputation and define a unique personal style with your hard-earned rewards. Adventurer. Explorer. Conqueror. What will your legend be?
