Do I Need to Play Breath of the Wild Before Tears of the Kingdom? Explained

As with many iconic games that have multiple installments, there’s always the age-old question of whether you need to play the previous game before tackling the big new sequel. Given the sheer scale and acclaim of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and now its successor Tears of the Kingdom, it’s definitely worth asking if you should play both in succession. Here is our answer to do I need to play Breath of the Wild before Tears of the Kingdom? Explained

Is Playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild a Requirement to Play Tears of the Kingdom?

Unlike other series, the overall lore and timeline in The Legend of Zelda has stayed fairly disconnected in between installments. There is no technical obligation to play each one in order, and the skip in lore isn’t detrimental. There are even multiple story recap videos posted by various sources (such as this one from GameSpot) to help you get caught up, therefore it is entirely possible to play Tears of the Kingdom on its own without playing Breath of the Wild first.

That said, the developers themselves proclaimed that Tears of the Kingdom was intended to be a sequel to Breath of the Wild, rather than a standalone title. Given the astronomical accolades received by Breath of the Wild, it is of course recommended just on that front to dive into that game first, so that once you reach your new journey in Tears of the Kingdom, the experience is all the more rewarding and immersive. After all, reviews of the game have already called it a beyond worthy successor of Breath of the Wild, somehow even more monumental and incredible its predecessor.

There are other factors that contribute to the advantage of playing both games, including:

• Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom both take place in the same version of Hyrule, lending a seamless continuity to both stories. That also gives you an inherent advantage of knowing where to travel across the immensely vast map.
• Many characters from Breath of the Wild do carry over to Tears of the Kingdom, their personal arcs and connections to one another developing in tandem with the main story. Along with Link and Zelda, Sidon, Riju, and other characters from various notable sidequests in Breath of the Wild make their return in the sequel. Skipping the previous game can mean missing a good bit of context and lore from all of them.

That concludes our guide to do I need to play Breath of the Wild before Tears of the Kingdom? Explained. We hope that you find this useful, and let us know what you think of the new game so far.

Be sure to check out all of our other guides for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as you begin your new adventure, such as 8 Things You Should Know Before Starting Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.