When we talk about big, complicated games, it comes with the assumption that they’ll be at least a little buggy. I’m as excited forStarfieldas anyone, but I have to temper my expectations and remind myself that basically no Bethesda game launches without enough bugs to fill a Hoover Dam-sized terrarium. That comes with the territory for big systems-driven games, as the rocky launches ofCyberpunk 2077,Redfall, andFallout: New Vegasremind us. A game can launch in a bad state and still go on to be revered as a classic (see:Final Fantasy 14), so a little jank can usually be forgiven if the ambitions are big enough.
Which is why it’s wild thatThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomis largely bug-free. Nintendo could have shipped this game with far more issues and, judging by recent releases, still received critical acclaim. But, since launch, I’ve put 85 hours intoNintendo’s open-world RPG, and last night was the first time I ran into a noticeable bug.
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It happened when I arrived at the Water Temple floating in the sky above Zora’s Domain. I overshot the area where I was supposed to meet Prince Sidon, then had to float back down to the platform where he was waiting. As I did, I got yanked into a cutscene, with Link standing behind Sidon, as the prince faced the waterfall that led up to the dungeon’s main level. As he spoke to Link, Sidon never turned around to face him, he just kept leaning away. When the text box indicated that he was about to leap into the water, he remained stationary, but a water effect started spraying around his character model. I left it like that for about 30 seconds and nothing changed, so I had to quit out of the game and start back up. When I came back — with my progress helpfully autosaved right before this conversation — the cutscene played out correctly, with Sidon turning to face Link, mugging, then leaping into the waterfall.
Nothing was especially important or interesting about this bug, except that the game broke at all. The fact that this is even notable is a huge testament to Tears of the Kingdom’s sheer, gobsmacking polish. This is a massive, complex game that, a month and a half after launch, is still shocking players and developers as they uncover new, wild possibilities. It’s a huge creative sandbox that is far more polished than anyone could have expected.
There are a few reasons that TOTK ended up this peerlessly functional. Arguably most important is the fact that the Tears of the Kingdom team has worked together for decades. They know how to work together, they know how to make Zelda games, and this is their second shot at the formula they established withBreath of the Wild, so they knew how to make the foundation for Tears of the Kingdom’s experimentation.
The other factor is that the Zelda team had an incredible amount of time to focus on polishing a feature complete game. Eiji Aonuma has said thatthe game was essentially finished a year before release, and that the team spent that year perfecting it. Often when a game is buggy at launch, it’s because it’s coming in hot. The team has committed to hitting a date and, for whatever reason, they can’t miss it. That might be because the game is one part of a larger launch, as with tie-in games. E.T. for the NES was legendarily bad because it was completed in just five weeks to launch in time for Christmas the year the movie opened. TotK’s fellow Nintendo release,Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, was an example of the same thing happening today. The Pokemon games are one part of a larger machine and delaying a game would mean delaying the anime, trading cards, and toys, as well. So you end up with a buggy game.
Experience plus time can result in immaculately polished games, who would have thought? Though I would love to see Tears of the Kingdom impact the mechanics of games going forward, I would rather see it impact the way games are made. Teams that feel happy and stable enough to stay together for years, and that are given the time they need to work on a game until it’s just right. Well, save a bug or two.
NEXT:Every Time I Think I’m Out, Tears Of The Kingdom Pulls Me Back In
