Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is one of the most anticipated games of 2023, and new fans of the series will wonder if they should play Breath of the Wild first. TotK is a sequel, but how much do you really need to know?
Is it okay to play Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom before Breath of the Wild?
You don’t need to play Zelda: Breath of the Wild before Tears of the Kingdom. It might be a sequel, but Tears of the Kingdom tells a fairly self-contained story. You can start it with no knowledge of BotW and understand what’s going on perfectly. However, if you have the option to play Breath of the Wild first, you should take it.
Many characters and locations in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom carry over from Breath of the Wild. Most of them have changed in the time between games, and you’ll get more out of it if you understand all the references. However, you could play the games in reverse order for a similar result.
Despite Tears of the Kingdom being a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild, there’s no crossover between the main stories of each of them. The only carryover is that Link and Zelda are the stars. So, playing them in any order will work. However, we recommend playing BotW first because of how much TotK builds on its mechanics.
