The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's Shrines are easier to spot than in Breath of the Wild - and possibly nicer to listen to.
Tears of the Kingdom reviews started going live earlier today on May 11, so new details about the sequel have been flooding online ever since. One easy-to-miss aspect was shared by Axios reporter Stephen Totilo, who revealed that Shrines now have a giant spire of green light emanating from them in the Breath of the Wild sequel.
Some may scoff.How, they will say, could Zelda: Breath of the Wild be improved?I will submit: For Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo changed the shrine alert sound https://t.co/LMWQbjki0S pic.twitter.com/sJuiG3u3PnMay 11, 2023
This ultimately makes the Shrines themselves easier to spot in Tears of the Kingdom. Breath of the Wild always had us pinpointing Shrines simply by the smooth beacon protruding from the top of the shrine's mouth, but now we've got something a lot more distinctive to look for when scanning around the distant horizons.
Totilo even reveals that the Shrines have a new sound whenever you're in their vicinity. For comparison's sake, you can listen to the Shrine sounds in Breath of the Wild just below, which are a hell of a lot higher pitched and slightly more ear-splitting than in the newer game.
Compare to the ping in Breath of the Wild, the series' second worst sound effect behind "hey, listen!" pic.twitter.com/cRVvv6Wj9EMay 11, 2023
Well, whether they're one of the worst sound effects in the Zelda series at large is entirely up for debate. Nintendo's devs have certainly eased up on just how much the sound effects demands your attention, and if we had to bet on it, there's likely an option to tune the sound effects like this to your liking in Tears of the Kingdom's menus.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will finally be here tomorrow on May 12. To see what we made of Link and Zelda's latest adventure, you can check out our full The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom review for more.
If you still want to reserve your copy before tomorrow at the cheapest price point possible, you can read our The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom pre-order guide.
