head to head

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild cover artvsThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom cover art

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the WildvsThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery); The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).

EXECUTION4 /10READS1 /10VARIANCE2 /10OPTIMIZATION6 /10
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the WildThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Axis by axis

Execution4 vs 4

Even - both lean on execution about the same.

Reads1 vs 0

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild leans harder on reads: Enemies follow fixed scripted behaviors.

Variance2 vs 1

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild leans harder on variance: Weapon drops and weather lightly randomized.

Optimization6 vs 8

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leans harder on optimization: Build contraptions and route the open world

Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.

full breakdown

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

full breakdown

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom