Are Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild worth watching on Switch 2? – The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

You won’t hear any harsh words from me if you don’t fully understand the gradual rollout of updates to older Switch -games with the promise that they will technically perform better on Switch 2. Basically, there are three different ways games are upgraded, each with its own exceptions.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom are in the most comprehensive category, as you can buy them as special Switch 2 games in the now recognizable red box, or buy the technical upgrades digitally via an expansion on the Switch eShop. Since these upgrades are paid for either way, we can clearly expect a fairly extensive redefinition of the basics of each game, right?

Well, that’s true even with some modifications, but first let’s try to understand what distinguishes these more expensive Switch 2 -versions from the original Switch -versions:

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First, it’s important to note that there are no groundbreaking graphical upgrades here, although the upgrades present may be crucial to your enjoyment of both games. The higher resolution helps with both sharpness and draw distance, which really benefits both games in terms of how terrain and navigation shape the enjoyment of organic exploration, and it is both necessary and a pleasure to experience both games at a stable 60 fps. Whether it’s Hyrule Castle in Breath of the Wild or the gradual lighting in The Depths in Tears of the Kingdom, the key resolution and frame rate improvements are noticeable in both games and are ubiquitous regardless of activity.

As for the games themselves, there is no additional content here as such, and the two Breath of the Wild expansions are not even included in this more expensive Switch 2 edition – they still have to be paid for separately, which seems particularly brutal. But my opinion of each of these games, and Tears of the Kingdom in particular, is now clearer than ever; Both are among the best games ever made, and experiencing them in a way where technology makes these great experiences possible, rather than limiting them, is a good excuse in itself.

Both games are masterpieces, and this is clearly the best way to play them. That means that if you can get these updates for free, available initially through Nintendo Switch Online, that’s a nice gesture. But for those of you who are somehow considering whether these upgrades are worth the higher price, the simple answer is “no.”

But precisely because I consider both games to be masterpieces, I feel well equipped to argue that the update itself, and the idea of re-releasing them on Switch 2 at a higher price than the original, is not really justified by these improvements. Whether it would have required new content, new built-in features in the games themselves or something entirely different is hard to say, but the bottom line is that these games are too expensive for what Nintendo is offering.

And that brings us to Zelda Notes, which offers a wealth of features that would have significantly enhanced the game, but precisely because they exist separately and you have to double-use devices to make use of them, it makes them less effective. Navigation allows you to set a destination and then receive voice-based directions, like a GPS, but in practice it feels extremely counterintuitive to put down your controller, or the entire console, to set a destination, and it also feels strange to have the voice guide take you through. The new Voice Memories are a wonderful addition with new insights from the original voice actors, but again, it is so inconvenient to have your smartphone with you while playing a game, especially when all of this could have been implemented relatively easily directly into the game’s existing user interface.

Zelda Notes is one of the most curious, strange and downright bizarre additions I’ve seen from Nintendo in many years, and I just can’t imagine using any of these features on a regular basis.

It sounds like I’m giving both games a hard time, but I assure you it’s out of love, and mostly out of respect for how fantastic, memorable and meaningful both are to me. If you already know you want to revisit Hyrule, both versions shine brighter and sparkle even more on Switch 2, but as a re-released product at a higher price, Nintendo doesn’t justify the trade-off with content, features or technical improvements.