After The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild stole the hearts of fans everywhere, there was an incredibly large demand for a Breath of the Wild 2, but it was hard to picture just where a sequel could improve on an already impressive experience. Despite the odds, Nintendo found a great way to expand on the formula in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom by expanding player creativity and Zelda's exploration elements above all else.

However, with large-scale games such as Tears of the Kingdom, it isn't abnormal for developers to team up to help streamline the game development process. This is where Monolith Soft, the studio responsible for the Xenoblade Chronicles series, comes in. Monolith Soft has recently revealed that it helped with game design, graphics design, and programming in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The company's involvement can be seen and felt all throughout players' experiences with TOTK for a number of reasons.

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Monolith Soft's Technical Talents on the Nintendo Switch

The Xenoblade Chronicles 3 protagonists fighting a large robot in a new trailer

Over the last few years, Monolith Soft has made itself rather comfortable on the Nintendo Switch, making the console the definitive home for Xenoblade Chronicles. All three games in the trilogy can be found on the hybrid console, and if one were to tackle these RPGs for the first time back-to-back, they'd be occupied for quite some time. The first Xenoblade Chronicles game's story takes up to 51 hours, and the scale of the series' worlds match the game's lengths easily.

Considering the Switch's hardware limitations, the Xenoblade Chronicles games feel like an incredible feat as the game loads large, full, detailed maps with day-and-night cycles with reflections and more. These technical feats don't come without caveats, though. The Definitive Edition of XB1 was known to drop frames at times, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was known for having some of the worst handheld mode image quality on the Switch when it came out. Still, what Monolith Soft managed to do with how outdated the Switch console is incredibly commendable in terms of innovation, and has made fans wish Nintendo would take similar approaches in other first-party titles.

How Well Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Performs

Link crouches on a Zonai Wing midair in Tears of the Kingdom

Compared to Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom is a great improvement in many of its predecessor's weak spots, especially in terms of frame rate. Previously, BOTW would suffer from some frame rate drops and technical struggles relatively often, while TOTK offers a much smoother experience overall. There are still some places where frame drops can be spotted, though, such as when Link's Ultrahand ability is enabled.

Considering the sheer depth that Tears of the Kingdom adds to Hyrule with all the sky islands and underground passageways, the fact that there is a notable upgrade is commendable. As Monolith Soft has helped with game design as well as programming, there's a strong chance that it added features that have helped with other grand-scale worlds and environments such as those seen in Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

Of course, this isn't the first time that Monolith Soft has helped out Nintendo on an important title, and it won't be the last. The RPG studio has offered its assistance to prominent Nintendo releases since Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but this may be the first time that the efforts by Monolith Soft can be truly felt and seen in real-time. This is made even more prominent when looking at Xenoblade's own innovations that ended up being the building blocks for Tears of the Kingdom's incredible presentation.

As prominent Nintendo Switch games such as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are suffering from performance issues long after patches have tried to fix things, it's obvious that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was an important game that needed to deliver. TOTK exceeding expectations on the technical side compared to Breath of the Wild makes the game an even better reward for the lengthy wait.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available on Nintendo Switch.

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