Have you ever heard of the “Legend of Zelda”? The tale of the princess with the blood of the goddess, the courage of the hero and the evil malice of the demon king repeating over and over? Or you might have heard of the “Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” the first Zelda game on the Nintendo switch?

Well, you see, in 2019, Nintendo announced a sequel to “Breath,” and after four years of development, Nintendo released the “Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” the topic of today’s review. One of the greatest things about “Tears” is its explorative nature – you never know what’s around each and every corner or in every nook and cranny.

So what precisely is there to do in “Tears”? Well, for starters, you can go for the main quests or shrines (the stuff that drives the plot forward) which are like mini-challenges. But what is the plot? (I probably should have started with that.) Link, an esteemed warrior of Hyrule castle, and Zelda, the princess/queen/last remaining person of the royal family, find a passage that leads deep beneath Hyrule to the ruins of an old civilization called the Zonai.

They delve deeper until they find the mummy of Ganondorph which causes Hyrule castle to erupt. Zelda falls and disappears into a flash of yellow light while Link is carried away in a white flash of light. He then awakes on a sky island, only to find the sword that seals the darkness has been destroyed, Zelda is missing and Hyrule is in panic once again. Yes, again.

Have I mentioned that there’s a lot to do in “Tears”? Because there is. So much. To do. There are over 100 shrines to solve and find, over 900 Korok seeds to locate, mini-bosses scattered about, memories about the ancient past to uncover, other adventures and just helping out. But if you think that’s all, then you have another think coming.

Once you beat a level it unlocks different trackers for a 100-percent completion of the game. I’ve played this game for over 170 hours, and I’ve explored less than 60 percent of the map. I’m probably not even one quarter of the way to completely completing “Tears.”

At the end of it all, “Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” is a really good game. Is it a ten? No. Is it close? Yes. In my opinion, it gets a rating of nine out of ten stars. Next month, look out for a “splatastic” review of a DLC game.