Should You Play The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom If You Have A Fear Of Heights?

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has players soaring to the skies with their paragliders and rockets in an exuberant fashion. The developers obviously put a lot of effort into this feature, as it’s a blast to go from the sky all the way to the depths without a single loading screen getting in the way of your adventuring. However, there are some challenges that come with that accomplishment, specifically the player’s fear of heights. So while it is a great game, it also involves lots of skydiving from extreme distances that will put even the most seasoned Zelda veteran on edge. Does this mean you avoid the game if you’re dealing with acrophobia? Or is the new Zelda title a safe bet? You’ve come to the right place.

For starters, I don’t have any phobias of my own. But that doesn’t mean I’m not aware of others who do! Videogames should always be as inclusive as possible, so if someone is interested in playing a new release but a particular feature turns them off from it, that’s not right. Skydiving in Tears of the Kingdom is incredibly fun, but there is also no way to avoid doing it. You can make yourself go faster with the addition of a wingsuit, but that just makes everything feel even more dangerous.

Thankfully, the Sky Islands aren’t that crucial to the experience because they really only have some shrines, a Zonai dispensary, and enemies to fight — at least for the majority of Tears of the Kingdom. There are definitely some instances where players will have to go up into the sky to do a dungeon or other necessary activities. Still, the dungeons aren't too long, and the other tasks are fairly quick and are only necessary if you're aiming for a completionist run. However, the temples are a critical story element needed to defeat the Demon King, so if you want to see the end of the game, you’ll have to do them all. The world is so large, though, and filled with a dizzying amount of sidequests that a 50-hour plus playthrough is almost guaranteed with a title this big. So if you want to be technical and miss out on some of Zelda’s best content, you can avoid the Sky Islands as much as possible and still get a fulfilling experience out of this title.

Hopefully, all of this information has made the arcophobics out there less nervous about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. They might have to give up the chance of a complete experience, but sadly, there is just no way of getting around the sky-diving part of this entry game without missing out on some content because Nintendo didn’t consider all the people who live with an intense fear of heights. Thankfully, the open world is so huge that players should still be able to get enough from the experience to feel satisfied and happy with their purchase. It sucks, but maybe we should think about the people dealing with anxiety every day before putting in these wacky features. That’s not to say developers shouldn’t keep pushing the boundary of what is possible when it comes to game development — because of course they should. Maybe they just need to stop locking content behind anxiety-inducing features required to beat their mega-budget videogames. Or perhaps they could think of a way to get the best of both worlds? Whatever the case, hopefully, everyone out there can enjoy the latest Zelda release without too many paraglider malfunctions and as much Korok saving as possible.