The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was initially set to release in 2022, but the game was delayed until its release just a few weeks ago.
Why was The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom delayed?
According to Nintendo producer Eiji Aonuma, the reason was simply to make sure everything worked and was polished.
Speaking to The Washington Post (via VGC), Aonuma — who has served as a director or producer on nearly every The Legend of Zelda title — revealed that the game was completely finished last year when the team announced its delay. However, the team still decided to delay the project, with Aonuma noting it was “to make sure that everything in the game was 100 percent to our standards”.
In the end, the decision was a smart one, as the game was released to stellar praise and nearly no huge issues, something that other AAA titles in the past few years have had to deal with. Elsewhere in the interview, Aonuma also noted that his nearly 15-minute gameplay demo from March was actually made after Nintendo felt fans weren’t excited enough about the game following a February trailer.
“People had not gotten their heads around the gameplay elements or where the fun might be,” said Aonuma. However, following the explanation on gameplay, excitement for the title exploded.
At OpenCritic — a review aggregation site for video games — Tears of the Kingdom currently sits at a 97 average critic score, with 100% of critics recommending the game. As of this writing, the game is currently the highest-rated game of all time on OpenCritic’s site, beating out fellow Nintendo games Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the top spot.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available now. If you’re playing and need help with things like duplicating items, how to fish, or more, check out our guides on the game.
