Highlights
- Tears of the Kingdom's Side Quests complement the tutorial area by teaching players additional gameplay mechanics and features.
- The game distinguishes between large-scale Side Adventures and smaller, individual Side Quests, with the former requiring more effort from players.
- Side Quests in Tears of the Kingdom cover the basics and provide players with instructions and rewards, serving as a guide along their journey.
Even with everything that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom covers within its tutorial area of Great Sky Island, the game's Side Quests pick up the slack to teach players about less important but still useful details that might have been missed. Tears of the Kingdom's tutorial follows Breath of the Wild's own example by restricting players to an area that's been designed to cover all the basics of gameplay. But while Tears of the Kingdom's tutorial showcases the game's core mechanics such as Link's Ultrahand abilities, there's still more left to learn as players reach Hyrule's surface
Fortunately, however, Nintendo has already considered how it can introduce players to Tears of the Kingdom's other gameplay mechanics and features not yet covered. For example, many of the shrines located close to Lookout Landing - Tears of the Kingdom's first location players should visit on the surface - are mini-tutorials in their own right as they teach players about the particular techniques of combat, fusing, and more. As such, whether it's about how the Ultrahand abilities interact with the world, exploring the game's new caves, or even simple things like horse taming and riding, Tears of the Kingdom's Side Quests come to the rescue.
The Differences Between Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's Side Adventures and Side Quests
One of the key distinctions between Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the latter's new approach to quests and missions. Unlike its predecessor's three categories of main, side, and shrine quests, Tears of the Kingdom seems to try to distinguish between large-scale missions or "Side Adventures" versus smaller, individual "Side Quests." The main difference that's believed to separate the two boils down to how much work they require from the player, such as traveling large distances, completing multiple steps, or involving multiple different characters, stories, and quest lines.
As a result, it's easy to associate the two and confuse them, especially when many Side Adventures are hugely beneficial to the player's experience, such as the multiple Great Fairy serenades and the potential Princess Zelda sightings. But while Side Adventures encompass a large amount of Tears of the Kingdom's features like unlocking access to the Great Fairies in order to upgrade Link's armor, Side Quests can touch upon the subtler mechanics that wouldn't ordinarily be so obvious to the player as they progress. But even in spite of these differences, their shared goal of guiding and supporting the player's journey is achieved all the same.
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's Side Quests Covers The Basics
Similar to how Lookout Landing's nearby shrines teach players techniques and tricks for combat like charged attacks and perfect dodges, many Side Quests also available in this area encourage players to get to grips with the game's basic mechanics and features. For instance, "The Incomplete Stable" shows players that their Ultrahand abilities can be directly involved with solving in-game puzzles, while another Side Quest unlocked shortly after completing this called "Spotting Spot" teaches players about taming and riding horses. In fact, many Side Quests also require the Purah Pad's camera function, ensuring players speak to Robbie and in the process learn about the Depths too.
In many ways, the larger Side Adventures could be seen as a guide for Tears of the Kingdom's players, with various Side Quests serving as small nudges along the way to provide more direct instructions and rewards. For example, another of Lookout Landing's Side Quest "Village Attacked by Pirates" will lead players to the larger Side Adventure of liberating Lurelin Village from its monster occupation. In addition to the new Monster Forces battles the Side Quests also help push players to fight Tears of the Kingdom's mini-bosses, from the old Hinox, Talus, and Molduga to the all-new Flux, Frox, and revamped Gleeoks.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available now on Nintendo Switch.
