Now that some time has passed since its initial release, it’s finally time to reckon with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom‘s flaws. In the days after a highly anticipated game first comes out, it can be easy to get caught up in the hype, becoming selectively ignorant of its obvious shortcomings. That goes double for a sequel to a much-beloved original game. Right after its release, all the discussions about TOTK related to its incredible scope, its unbelievable new features, its differences from Breath of the Wild. In the midst of all that, it was hard to distill the few ways it fell short.
And for the most part, TOTK really did meet – and in some ways, exceed – expectations. It carried over a lot of what was great about BOTW, added some quality-of-life improvements, and even included some unexpected surprises. In short, TOTK delivered on almost everything it was supposed to be, and then some. But that doesn’t mean it was without its disappointments.
Zelda: TOTK’s Depths Suck
From the first gloomy glimpse to the last Lightroot, TOTK‘s Depths are an exercise in misery. It’d be easier to list the handful of things The Depths do right than the myriad they do wrong, but here goes nothing: they’re boring, they’re ugly, they’re too hard, they’re frustrating, and they’re ultimately unrewarding.
As a whole, it’s impossible to avoid The Depths. The game keeps pushing players down there by hiding the best base weapons in TOTK exclusively underground. A few quests force Link to plunge headlong into them: Josha’s research, the Bargainer Statues, the Fire Temple in TOTK. There are also just a handful of worthwhile rewards down there that aren’t part of the main quests that pertain to The Depths, but once players have collected all those, they’re better off staying above ground.
Zelda: TOTK’s Depths Are Boring
The first problem most players will notice with The Depths is that they’re painfully dull. Their defining characteristic is empty space, and there’s little in the way of varying geography or unique landmarks to distinguish any one part from another. To make matters worse, the gameplay loop of Depths spelunking is extremely repetitive. Dive down, find some Brightblooms, light up the area, step around Gloom, almost get killed by enemies, chug some Gloom-resistant potions, find a Lightroot, heal up, rinse, and repeat. The pattern remains almost completely unbroken for the entire game, making Depths exploration at the end of the game as it was at the beginning.
There are very few areas that deviate from this formula, like the Fire Temple, the occasional cave, and the dual labyrinths. Even so, those are only interesting because of the other quests or activities they’re a part of – their being in The Depths doesn’t actually add any substance to them.
Zelda: TOTK’s Depths Are Too Hard
The Depths are also just too hard, and not even in a fun way. The problem begins from the first moment Link arrives: it’s impossible to see absolutely anything. Of course, that’s the point, and players are encouraged to use Brightblooms or cleverly manipulate Sage abilities to make The Depths easier to explore. But it doesn’t look interesting, or even as foreboding as the initial dive through the chasm; it just looks like a vast puddle of mucky soup.
Then, of course, Link steps forward and comes face-to-face with the Gloom. Touching it effectively reduces Link’s maximum HP by “shattering” his Heart Containers the longer he stands in it. As an environmental obstacle, Gloom makes perfect sense, and plays nicely with the game’s core gimmicks. Players are encouraged either to find a way around on foot, or to use whatever’s available to build a bridge or platform so they can pass safely. But then Link encounters a group of monsters, and that’s where the problem starts.
Most of the enemies down here also inflict Gloom when they hit Link, making these battles crushingly difficult. In the early game, they’re almost impossible without a ton of Gloom-curing items, which in turn requires hours of monotonous Sundelion farming. And even then, they’ll have to pause the game every time they want to use one, which can be disruptive to the flow of battle. They can eventually unlock the Gloom-resistant Depths Armor set, but doing so requires collecting hundreds of Poes, which are only found in The Depths. That means that they’ll have to spend hours suffering the worst of The Depths to gain the ability to resist them.
Of course, it’s also possible to try a stealthy approach, taking out enemies from long range without being seen. But with the plain, flat geography of The Depths, it’s nearly impossible to find a well-hidden spot. So players are forced to confront monsters head-on, which usually means either a huge waste of healing items or death.
TOTK’s Depths Are Pointless
But there has to be something at the end of it all, right? No game would put players through all this suffering just for a glorified achievement. Unfortunately, that’s just what awaits players at the end of The Depths: once they’ve unlocked all the Lightroots, they receive the Dispelling Darkness Medal. This is a functionally useless item. It can’t be used, can’t be Fused, and doesn’t grant any new abilities. Its only application is to sit in Link’s inventory, a futile monument to a monumental waste of time.
Of course, there are a couple of useful (even necessary) things to be gathered in The Depths, like the Gloom-resistant armor, the Autobuild ability, and the Sage of Fire’s power. But going any further than that is not only boring and frustrating – it’s also completely worthless in the end.
The main reason The Depths exist is that TOTK needed to meaningfully expand on BOTW‘s map while still being set in the same world. It’s one of two areas added to the overall map, the other being the Sky Islands. While the attempt at variety is well-intentioned, neither actually offers much of any long-term interest. They’re both boring, frustrating, and largely pointless in their own unique ways, and beyond a couple of unique rewards, are simply not worth spending too much time on. With no plans for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom DLC, they’re destined to remain that way.
