Why are the bestselling ‘Zelda’ video games so successful?
Highly anticipated is an understatement for players’ feelings about the new game in the “Zelda” series, “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” which was released on May 12.
Its predecessor, “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” released in 2017, sold around 30 million copies worldwide and is considered a masterpiece by gaming critics. Those are some big shoes to fill for the 20th installment in a wildly successful video game series dating back to the 1980s.
In “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” the player controls the hero Link, who sets out to save Princess Zelda and the kingdom of Hyrule from the villain Ganondorf. All titles in the video game series have this basic storyline in common, but the newest installment has some surprises in store. This time, Link and Zelda begin their adventure side by side.
Deep under the ruins of the dilapidated Hyrule Castle, they discover murals that tell the story of how the kingdom was founded. The so-called Zonai, a god-like species that lived on floating islands in the sky, were apparently involved in this process.
Just an hour into the game, Link is already exploring these islands in the sky, separated from Zelda by an evil demon. He is…
