The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomhas been a fantastic ride so far, and players will likely be enthralled with its world for years to come. It seems to take everything good aboutZelda: Breath of the Wildand just does it better. Almost every single aspect has been improved inThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, including a much-needed combat revamp.
Zelda: Breath of the Wildwas an impressive game, but its combat was always a bit lacking. Players spent most of their time endlessly bashing their enemy with a stick until it died, but the sequel has changed that with the addition ofZelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s brand-new Fuse ability. This addition has made combat far more engaging and can lead to some pretty exciting scenarios during Link’s adventure through Hyrule.
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Link’s New Fuse Ability Finally Makes Combat Exciting
Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s strong suit was never its combat. While some players could do some impressive things with it, it never felt that varied or exciting compared to other action-adventure titles. Combat was not badly designed, but it definitely felt like it was lacking something, and the durability mechanic did not help it. Some players would try their hardest to avoid combat altogether, and durability proved a bit controversial online. Luckily, it seems like Nintendo is really trying to improve things withZelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
The Fuse ability lets players go absolutely wild withZelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s combat scenarios. Players can attach practically whatever they want to their melee weapon, shield, and arrows. Some items will give these tools incredible boosts while others will not do anything. Players will have to constantly experiment with their items to see what works, and each monster type requires a whole new strategy to defeat it. While it does not fix every problem with combat, it goes a long way in actually making it feel varied.
A standard combat encounter inZelda: Tears of the Kingdomcan rapidly fall apart depending upon the items that players use. If they want to attach a bomb to the end of their arrow or shoot flames from a spear, they can; if they want their shield to freeze incoming enemies or lob an entire boulder at someone, then they can do that too. There are so manycreative possibilities withZelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s Fuse ability, and players will likely be discovering more combinations for years to come.
Whileweapon durability is still divisive inZelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Fuse helps circumvent it. Players now have the ability to forge their own destructive weapons from anything that they pick up from the ground. They can turn a simple stick into a massive explosive device that shatters any foe it comes across. Once it finally shatters, players can just forge another one and continue their conquest across Hyrule. This gives these weapons a ton of flexibility and customizability which will surely lead to some wild creations.
WhileZelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s combat is still not the most advanced action-adventure combat out there, Fuse gives it some much-needed variety. It will be very interesting to see what players can create using these tools, and what modders will do once they lift the few restrictions that Nintendo put in place. It is probably one of the most exciting additions totheLegend of Zeldafranchisein years and will hopefully become a series staple going forward.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomis available now on Switch.
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