Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Jim gets bossy...
Note. This article discusses certain elements of some Regional Phenomena boss battles, including tactics and screenshots. If you are still maintaining an internet blackout for the game, then we suggest tackling them before coming back to this article.
Reading through all of the reviews in the run-up to Tears of the Kingdom's release date, one promise seemed to ring loud and clear: You are going to see that Game Over screen. And you're going to see it a lot.
For the most part, that statement is difficult to deny. This take on Hyrule might not actually be any more brutal than those which have come before, but the layers of exploration and gradually-scaled enemies do mean that when this world hits, it hits hard.
In my 70-odd hours of playtime so far, I have been beaten by Bokoblins, squished by stones, weakened by weather fronts, and I'd rather not mention the number of times that I have confidently leapt from a Sky Island, bullishly holding 'R', only to have slightly botched my aim as I watch Link smush, inelegantly, onto a rock.
All of this, however, is to do with the world itself and the number of creative options that I now have at my fingertips. It's difficult to measure whether a Zelda game is necessarily getting 'more challenging' in this respect because each of us can make the game easier or harder depending on how we go about completing certain tasks. We've all seen the videos of players taking down a Gleeok with a Zonai orbital laser, after all.