Find Princess Zelda: Complete

After eight months and what were probably hundreds of gameplay hours, I finally finished Tears of the Kingdom. Or, at least, the main story quest part of it (along with a whole bunch of side quests and adventures that I completed along the way).

The funny part is that, while I feel the usual sense of accomplishment, I also feel a little lost, like my purpose in life is now gone. Over the past eight months, I'd reserved a couple of hours here and there on weekend afternoons to play the game, and those hours felt like a welcome and relaxing escape (even though fighting Lynels or puzzling through difficult shrines were anything but relaxing). Yes, I have Hogwarts: Legacy now, having received it as a welcome Christmas present, but while it's fun, there's simply nothing - to me, anyway - like a Zelda game.

WARNING: Major spoilers for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to follow after the jump

And yes, I know that I can just go back and continue playing the game - there are TONS of things I haven't done, including reuniting most of those lost Koroks - but really, it just wouldn't feel the same. As much as I enjoy side quests, in my mind everything I do tends to have an undercurrent of purpose to it, that purpose being to eventually defeat Ganondorf and finish the main story. Like, for example, after completing a minor side quest where the only reward is, say, 100 rupees, I would think, "okay, well, those rupees will help me pay for armor upgrades, or more arrows or healing items."

See, the thing is, if you go back and continue the game, you go back to a point before you entered the final boss stage. You do have some additional perks (your save file has a star on it and you now have a game completion percentage meter), but it would feel weird to me to be running around doing stuff when I know I already beat the boss but for some reason he's still there. What I really would like is a new gameplay mode where Ganon and all the gloom is gone and Link can just cruise around Hyrule doing fun things content in the knowledge that the day has been saved. He won't be able to Ultrahand or Ascend or anything anymore, and Mineru won't be there, but that's okay. He can take his time exploring, getting his paraglider dyed in different colors, and maybe visiting Zelda while she oversees the rebuilding of Hyrule castle (which would be done with the help of Zonai devices powered by Zonaite from the now-restored underground mines). Or, heck, maybe you can even play as Zelda and visit the different towns and stables to talk to citizens and restore morale. Nintendo, maybe think about doing that for the next game, huh?

Anyway, at least I have a fun and exciting event lined up for this weekend to fill the Zelda-shaped hole in my life - namely, a table read for Hold My Beer!

(Yes, I was kidding about losing my purpose.)