UPDATE
The game is now out on Switch! So go get it and see how many times you can beat it!
ORIGINAL STORY
Given the “state of video games” currently, many gamers and critics are rightfully asking how much time developers put into their titles. That may seem mean-spirited, as no developer seeks to make a “truly bad game,” but we’ve seen so many AAA titles coming out in terrible, and buggy states that the question does need to be asked. Plus, that puts pressure on future games, no matter the publisher and developer, to not make these same mistakes. One such title under pressure was The Legend of Zelda Tears Of The Kingdom, which has been in development for years, and many worried about how it would play.
Thankfully, those fears seem to have been put to rest. First, the reviews of Tears Of The Kingdom have been released, and the game currently stands as one of the best-reviewed games on the site. The title’s reviews even had no major mention of technical issues or bugs on the Switch, which undoubtedly boosted the scores further.
But if you want a person to thank for this “clean” game, that would be Eiji Aonuma. He was the producer and overseer of the project, and he personally went into the game several times to ensure everything worked properly. In the latest part of the developer interview about the game, he talked about how many times that was:
“I wonder how many times I’ve played the game to debug it… I’ve played this game from start to finish about 20 times, and I can say that it’s more fun with detours, even more so than in the previous game. When testing the game, I sometimes needed to rush ahead to clear the story, but later on, as I started to go off on side paths, I realized… it’s a whole different game! I even discovered something new the other day while shooting the gameplay demonstration video. So, it may take some time, but as you take detours and try out whatever you can at the time, I think you’ll be able to enjoy the game in your very own way.”
He also encouraged players not to “rush to the end” but instead enjoy the world and see all they can do. That’s something that was brought up in previous interviews with the team. They made a world more expansive than the previous Hyrule, yet interconnected in so many ways you could help but explore them all.
So when the game comes out tomorrow, you won’t have to worry about “whether you can play it.”
