The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Is Perfect, Full of Queer Vibes

This The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom review contains mild spoilers.

On Saturday morning, my dear friend Meg Jones Wall texted me to ask how far along I was in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I wasn’t too far, to be honest; these games take me forever to play because I love them but am also terrible at puzzles, especially ones requiring spatial awareness and the ability to reorient objects in your mind. So I asked Meg to tell me something awesome, which I knew meant they’d tell me something gay, and they did: “Sidon is back!” they texted. “There is KNEELING and a VOW.” And so I hardly put the game down for the rest of the weekend.

One of my favorite things about Breath of the Wild was watching so many queer and trans friends imprint onto Link. Trans guys and trans gals, nonbinary gamers, butch lesbians, and on and on. I think it’s because of Link’s general androgyny and also the fact that Link never says a single word, but also there’s just a vibe. One of those if you know, you know ones about Link. That elf just feels queer. Our own Niko Stratis has written about how Link held a mirror up to her life as a trans woman. I also loved this piece at Gizmodo called “A Link Between Genders” about The Legend of Zelda’s trans joy. And I’m happy to say that the vibe is back and queerer than ever in Tears of the Kingdom.

It’s hard to write an actual review of this game because the only thing to compare it to is the massively successful Breath of the Wild, but it surpasses even that masterpiece, going places no video game has gone before. So here are just a few of the things I love:

Link’s new powers. In Breath of the Wild, there was a very clear way the game wanted you to solve all its puzzles and riddles, but Tears of the Kingdom almost invites you to break it to try out new and creative ways to make things happen. Pick stuff up, stick it together, teleport through it, set it on fire, tear it down, build a bridge, merge your weapons. I have, more than once, been so overwhelmed with options that I just stopped and picked apples for a while! All these options make the giant world map even more exciting because there’s infinite ways to traverse it. I even saw a critic say that playing this game has cured them of their to-do list obsession; they’re just free.

The quality of life improvements, especially cooking and inventory management, make gameplay much more seamless.

The story starts off like always: Link naked and unarmed! After a little subzero Hyrule Castle explanation with Zelda, Link gets blasted by a new big bad and wakes up in the sky (kind of). When he finds his way back to Hyrule, there’s been an Upeaval, so he’s got to solve that while also finding Zelda who’s gone missing (surprise!). It’s kinda spooky, the apparitions of Zelda that Link runs into, but it’s hard to get too emotional about it, because Link unlocks even more cool gear and abilities when he’s back in Hyrule.

Link and Sidon basically getting married.

I’ve only put in about 20 hours, and I honestly feel like I’ll get 100 out of it before it’s all said and done! How are you feeling about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom?