Never Ending Realm

Video game reviews, fan fiction, gaming news, and more! Since 2003. We especially love JRPGs, RPGs and the best of the rest. Never Ending Realm: Where your favorite games live forever!

Menu
  • News
    • PlayStation
    • Nintendo
    • Xbox
    • PC
    • Mobile
  • Fan Fiction
  • Opinion
    • Throwback Bit Thursday
    • Games Costing A Kidney
    • Thank God It’s Friday
  • Lists
  • Reviews
  • Humor
  • About
Menu
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Nintendo Does it Again! The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an Early Favorite for GoTY Awards

Posted on May 12, 2023 by Samuel Rivera

Main (Nintendo EAD developed) Zelda games are never just good, they are either very good, or great, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (so far) has proven to be the rule, rather than the exception.

The game holds a 96% Metacritic rating as its average score from 87 reviews. That makes it the highest rated game of 2023, and an early frontrunner for winning numerous GoTY awards. Given its score, and provided that other big upcoming launches do not stack up, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom could duplicate 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild‘s feat.

Breath of the Wild won around 189 GoTY awards from different sources, including the The ‘Game Awards’ GoTY honors. Metacritic has always been a good barometer for predicting which game will win the vast majority of awards on any given year (since many of the same publications and critics are responsible for awarding these honors).

Closest Competitors to Tears of the Kingdom (Critical Reception Wise) are Remakes, Expansions, and Remasters

Resident Evil 4 Tears of the Kingdom article
The fantastic looking Resident Evil 4 Remake is one of the best remade games of all time. Critics loved it as much as they did the original GameCube game.

Metroid Prime Remastered is Tears of the Kingdom closest competitor with a 94% Rating. Other entries on the list are the next-gen update for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt which scored a 94% rating as well, and Resident Evil 4 (Remake) which holds a 93% rating. The latter could be one of the Zelda’s stiffest competitors for the awards.

The closest rated JRPG is Nintendo’s own Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Expansion Pass Wave 4- Future Redeemed (92%). As the title suggests, this is an expansion, as Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a 2022 game.

With the top two critical slots held by Nintendo Switch games, it has been a good year for owners of the little portable/console hybrid machine which is thriving despite being on its last legs (hardware wise) at this juncture.

The Bar Has Been Set High For Final Fantasy XVI

Final Fantasy XVI
Expectations for Final Fantasy XVI are high, but now the game will have to be a masterpiece, universally loved by critics, in order to stand a chance at out doing Nintendo’s latest The Legend of Zelda at end of the year game award contests.

Next month, on June 22 to be exact, Final Fantasy XVI arrives, and comparisons will be made. Can Final Fantasy XVI capture the series’ 1991-2001 glory? In those days, the series went blow for blow with the Legend of Zelda in terms of critical reception. It seems like in order for Final Fantasy’s latest entry to steal Tears of the Kingdom’s critical thunder, the game will have to be a masterpiece of the likes that we haven’t seen (within this series) since Final Fantasy IX took the critical world by storm 23 years ago.

It would be awesome if Final Fantasy XVI and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom went toe to toe at The Game Awards. It would be throwback to an era were both franchises couldn’t miss with its main entries. Both Japanese franchises can trace their origins back to the late 1980s, and their most popular titles to the 199os decade.

Nintendo (as always) delivered, can Square Enix do the same?

Agree with the author? Couldn’t disagree more and are frothing at the mouth to tell him? Leave a comment here, on Facebook or send an email and make sure to follow Never Ending Realm on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube!

Category: News, Opinion
Tags: Action-Adventure, Action-RPG, Final Fantasy (Series), Final Fantasy XVI, JRPG, Nintendo, RPG, Square Enix, The Legend of Zelda Series, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow us on social media!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

Must Reads

  • 2023 is Here and The Never Ending Realm Turns 20 Years Old
  • Throwback Bit Thursday: Remembering a Merry 1998 Christmas 
  • A Mid 2022 PlayStation 5 vs Xbox Series X Comparison
  • TBT: Five Critically Underrated 32-Bit Era JRPGs
  • The Rise and Fall of Japanese Role-Playing Games (JRPGs)
  • Yoshida: Final Fantasy is Struggling to Keep Up With Industry Trends
  • The Top Ten Greatest Final Fantasy Games of All-Time
  • Top Ten Greatest ‘The Legend of Zelda’ Games of All Time
  • 5 Of The Best JRPG Heroes
  • The Top 10 Best Selling PlayStation 2 JRPGs (All Time Sales)

Action-Adventure Action-RPG Bandai/Namco Bethesda CD PROJEKT RED Chrono Cross Cyberpunk 2077 Final Fantasy (Series) Final Fantasy IX Final Fantasy VI Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VII Remake Final Fantasy XVI First-Person RPG First Person Shooter Halo: Infinite Halo Series JRPG Microsoft Nintendo Nintendo 64 Nintendo Switch PC PlayStation PlayStation 1 PlayStation 2 PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 RPG SEGA Sega Saturn Sony Square Enix Tales Series The Legend of Dragoon The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time The Legend of Zelda Series XBOX Xbox 360 Xbox Game Pass Xbox One Xbox Series S Xbox Series X Xenogears

  • Legend of Dragoon
    Masayuki Kasebe: The Legend of Dragoon Could Have Saved FFVII Remake
  • Wukong cover
    Wukong Dev: No ‘Black Myth’ Version for Xbox Thanks to Difficulties on Underpowered Series S
  • Astro Bot Water Effects
    2024 Recap: Xbox Launches its Best Games, Xbox Gets out of the Race Against Sony, Astro GotY, and More!
  • Intergalactic protagonist
    Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet the Most Hated New Game Reveal? Concord 2.0?
  • Astro Bot Water Effects
    Astro Bot Review (PS5)
  • FFVII Rebirth
    Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Welcome to the Multiverse! Review (PS5)
  • Echoes of Wisdom Raises Zelda To New Heights Through Brilliance, Grace and Elegance – My Review and Verdict
  • Legend of Zelda Fanfiction: The Plane of Masked Yearning – Part Seven
  • PS5 Pro
    PlayStation 5 Pro’s $700 Tag: A Peek at a Future Without Xbox?
  • Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster
    Final Fantasy Should be “Political”: Has Sakaguchi Been Misunderstood By News Outlets?
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright 2022 by Never Ending Realm, Mont Cessna & Samuel Rivera