Do you need to play ‘Breath of the Wild’ before playing ‘Tears of the Kingdom?’

When it comes to longstanding video game franchises, Nintendo is king. The first Legend of Zelda dropped well over 30 years ago, and while the series does have some callbacks and a fairly well-connected history, the games exist mostly independently from one another. That remains true for the latest entry, Tears of the Kingdom. While it’s technically a direct sequel to 2017’s Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom doesn’t require any previous experience with its predecessor. Though we might recommend it.

See, Tears of the Kingdom, according to early reviews, improves every aspect of the first game. While Breath of the Wild was well-received, many hardcore fans felt it lacked some distinctly Zelda aspects. The sprawling open world in Breath of the Wild is gorgeously realized, but it lacked the puzzle-oriented challenges that fans had come to know and love. If players pick up Tears of the Kingdom first, the improved world may take all of the wonder out of a potential visit to the first game. With early reviews describing Breath of the Wild as a blueprint for the much larger, incredibly ambitious sequel, players might simply find less joy in a visit to Breath of the Wild’s Hyrule once they have played Tears.

Likewise, there are several quests that influence the townships of Breath of the Wild. With Tears of the Kingdom promising to shake things up and switch around much of the world, there are emotional aspects of the revamped Hyrule that new players might not understand the meaning of. In the end, we’re certain that Nintendo will leave enough information for players unfamiliar with the story thus far to quickly catch up and enjoy Tears of the Kingdom despite never picking up Breath of the Wild, but for our two cents, it might be worth picking up Breath of the Wild before diving into Tears of the Kingdom.