The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomis on its way for launch halfway through 2023. Precious little is known about it, but fans ofBreath of the Wildalready have the gist of what they’re getting into.The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildwas a hugely successful game, so much so that the expansion intended to beThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomwas spun off into a full sequel.Breath of the Wilddefinitely helped developers and players see the open world genre in a new light.The Legend of Zelda’s modern efforts have shown the potential of an open world, and other games likeSonic Frontiersare showing this influence by pushing the genre’s potential.
This includes Nintendo’s other titles. While some have not invested in a giant open world yet,Super Mario Odysseyexpanded the size ofMario’s average collectathon level, andBowser’s Furyserves as a strong prototypefor a true open worldMario.Pokemonhas done its own experiments with open world environments for the past couple entries, andScarletandVioletwill finally show the fruits of that. Other Japanese game companies are looking more into the genre now, with Sega in particular about to test the waters withSonic Frontiers. Nintendo may want to take notice of some thingsSonic Frontiersis doing, as one particular feature may be an asset inTears of the Kingdom’s more vertical Hyrule.
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How Sonic Frontiers Compares to Open World Zelda
The exact similarities thatSonic Frontiersand theBreath of the Wildduology share are not entirely clear yet.Sonic Frontiersis another example of a game that appears open world, but really isn’t. Its “open zone” formula resembles that ofSuper Mario OdysseyandPokemon Legends: Arceus, though it has entrances to regular stages dotting its landscape. Those stages seem to fall somewhere in betweenBreath of the Wild’s Shrines and Divine Beasts, though there’s a chance thatTears of the Kingdomcould also hide medium-length dungeons in its sky islands and caverns.
Apart from various commonalities like shops, towers, puzzles and limited climbing ability, one of the main similarities betweenSonic FrontiersandBreath of the Wildseem to be their world bosses. Among the options that players have to gather keys to unlock Chaos Emeralds, fighting larger boss enemies is one of the more exciting.
It’s unclear how many of these bosses there are lying out inSonic Frontiers' various islands, but they could end up with a similar count to that of thenamed bosses dottingBotW’s landscape. The size and shape of these can vary wildly, and some even take Sonic on a wild chase through the skies. However, they break up the gameplay in much the same way asBreath of the Wild’s bosses, andTears of the Kingdomwill probably have some new and remixed equivalents.
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Sonic Frontiers’ Titans Could Work Perfectly in Tears of the Kingdom
That’s not all there is in regard toSonic Frontiers' boss fights, however. Wandering certain parts of the Starfall Islands are gigantic enemies called Titans that regular Sonic can barely fight. Gathering the Chaos Emeralds and becomingSuper Sonicis now a core part of the game’s story and progression, and is the only way to finish these major foes off. While only one has been shown so far, it’s definitely one of the biggest obstacles in the game, towering over the rest of the landscape.
Sonic Frontiersis not alone in using its larger environments for bigger fights, although thisShadow of the Colossus-like format is still largely unexplored in the open world space.Elden Ringexperimented with this in dragon fightsby allowing them to take place in extremely large areas, with boundaries set up that will keep the dragons from going somewhere unintended. Those encounters benefited from Torrent the horse, and Sonic’s speed will help in the same way, but his ability to climb larger bosses like they’re miniature levels is clearly more alongSotC’s design.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildhas also made use of giant bosses, although they may not be obvious at first. One of the three dragons, Naydra, serves as a subdued boss fight in the mountainous Lanayru region, and the final phase ofCalamity Ganon’s fight takes place in Hyrule Field. These are both epic in scale and allow Link to make use of various movement techniques that he’s accrued across his adventure. The assaults on the Divine Beasts could also be considered boss fights on the same scale asSonic Frontiers’ Titans, but they are also rigidly scripted in ways the Titans and the other two field boss fights may not be.
Tears of the Kingdom’s Vertical World Is Built For Giant Bosses
As it stands,Tears of the Kingdomhas aerial infrastructureset up to useSonic Frontiers’ enormous bosses. With the Divine Beasts out of the way, it has every reason to invent more moments of epic spectacle in its giant open world.The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomhas a remarkable amount of variety in its terrain, allowing players to go from beneath the earth to above the clouds and find adventure all along the way. It’s the ideal environment for a draw distance-straining colossus to dare anyone to approach it.
There are many avenues thatTears of the Kingdomcould pursue for this epic goal. New or repurposed dragons could make for running boss fights across Hyrule, or giants made of Malice could rear their heads in key locationslike a corrupted Death Mountainor a maelstrom in the Gerudo Desert. Link would be able to approach them on foot and attempt to glide over to low points on them, but could also conceivably fall from above, with some deliberately placed obstacles on sky islands needing to be cleared first.
A repairedMaster Swordmay be what it takes to slay these beasts, much like how Super Sonic is necessary inSonic Frontiers. Alternatively, they could activate in cutscenes when Link gets near their region like inBreath of the Wild. Whatever the case, giant boss fights make for a great spectacle, and emphasize the immense scope of a game like nothing else. With any luck, Nintendo has already been building on concepts that made their way into other open world games likeSonic Frontiers, and will wow the game industry with titanic fights of a scope never seen before.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomreleases Jun 13, 2025, on Nintendo Switch.
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