Okay, so this site is usually about movies, but today I'm doing a video game, because my nine-year-old and I have been playing Zelda together for a long time now, and I just saw what Nintendo is releasing in November and I'm very excited.
Questions come up, because these games have goddesses in them, statues you pray at, and a villain called the Demon King. And if you're a Christian parent hearing the buzz about these games but you're not sure whether they're appropriate, that's a fair thing to wonder about. So I want to answer that question. And then I want to tell you about the ending of Tears of the Kingdom, because it's one of the strongest pictures of sacrifice I've seen in a story, let alone a video game.
What we're talking about
Today we're doing The Legend of Zelda, and specifically the two big ones on the Switch, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. They're both rated E10+, and they're the games where Nintendo handed you an enormous open world and said, go anywhere, climb anything, figure it out.
You play as Link, who is a quiet young man with a sword, and you're trying to rescue Princess Zelda and save the kingdom of Hyrule from Ganon, who in Tears of the Kingdom becomes the Demon King. That's the plot of most Zelda games, and it's been that way for forty years, which Nintendo is celebrating right now with an Ocarina of Time remake in November and a live-action Zelda movie next spring.
I've put a decent number of hours into both of these games, but mostly Tears of the Kingdom. My son was gifted Breath of the Wild a year before Tears of the Kingdom came out, and that was my first experience with a Zelda game, and I was hooked. So when Tears of the Kingdom came out, my husband bought it for my birthday, which landed right after its release. Before the Switch 2 edition gave you a second save slot, we started about ten new profiles just to restart the game and try new things.
The goddesses question
So let's discuss the thing parents ask about, which is the religion in these games, because there is one.
Hyrule has a made-up faith. There are three golden goddesses who created the world, there's a goddess named Hylia who watches over it, and there are goddess statues all over the map. When you collect enough lights of blessing from the shrines (spirit orbs, in Breath of the Wild), you go to one of those statues, the game says you pray, and Hylia gives you another heart or more stamina. And in Tears of the Kingdom there's an ancient king named Rauru and a group of sages, so there's a whole mythology going on.
I absolutely understand why a parent pauses at that. I paused at it too.
Here's how I've handled it. It's a fictional religion inside a fictional world. The game never asks you to believe any of it, it never presents it as a real spiritual practice you could go and do, and there are no real-world spells or rituals in it. The prayer at a statue is a menu where you trade four orbs for a heart. My son knows Hylia is made up the same way he knows Moana is made up, and we've talked about fictional stories and how we can look at these things objectively.
As a side note, and this may upset some people, my husband and I chose not to tell our kids Santa is real, for the same reason. We want them to have a firm grasp on what is real and what is not, so that when we tell them Jesus is real and Santa is not, there's a firm line between the two. Santa isn't a swear word in our house. We explain that he was a real man originally who did good, so he became part of the Christmas tradition. He just isn't a magical guy who brings gifts. Those gifts are from us, and the main reason we celebrate Christmas is Jesus.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8 that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and there is only one God. And then in the same chapter he says to be careful with the person next to you whose conscience is weaker, so that your freedom doesn't trip them up. I think both halves of that apply here. A cartoon goddess statue has no power over my kid, and I don't have to be afraid of it. However, if it sits wrong in your spirit, or in your child's, then it's a pass in your house, and that's perfectly fine, because Romans 14 says the person who doubts and does it anyway isn't acting in faith. I'm never going to talk anyone out of their own conscience.
And regarding the Demon King, because the word puts people off, I'll say what I said about KPop Demon Hunters. The demon in this game is the thing that wants to destroy everything good, and the whole game is about standing against it. It's never cool and it's never neutral.
Why it's in our house
Now let me tell you why it's in our house in the first place, because it's a big reason.
These games reward curiosity and kindness. You see a mountain and you can climb it. You find a stranger on the road and you can help them, and half the time it turns into a whole side story where you build a town or reunite a family. There are shrines, which are puzzles you have to figure out, and they can be very challenging, which I love.
My son and I will spend an evening doing nothing but exploring, and he'll say, "Mom, what if we go up there?" Or, "What if we try a new profile where we're only allowed to use bows?" The two of us have bonded over it in a really wonderful way that I very much cherish.
The Popcorn & Prayers filter
As for content, both games are E10+ for fantasy violence and mild suggestive themes. The fighting is against monsters, there's no blood, and enemies vanish when they're beaten. Some of the bosses are big and scary, though, and the Depths in Tears of the Kingdom, with the gloom, might be too much for sensitive little ones. I personally jump every time the gloom hands come out. I can't stand those guys. The suggestive stuff is the Great Fairies, who are enormous and flirty, and one bit in Breath of the Wild where Link dresses in women's clothing to sneak into Gerudo Town, a town that only allows women, which my son thought was funny. For age, I'd say nine and up with a parent nearby, and younger for a kid who just wants to watch, which is exactly what my daughter does.
As for celebration, it wants you cheering for courage, for helping strangers, for patience, and for a hero who barely says a word and just keeps showing up. It also celebrates a princess who is the smartest person in the game, which I appreciate with my daughter watching.
As for conscience, everything I said in the goddesses section. For us it's a yes with a conversation, and if it's a pass for you, there's no judgment here at all. You know your kids.
As for fruit, my son and I bonded over this game. I've seen him practice his reading because he wants to play solo and know what's going on, figure out the puzzles in the shrines, pass levels, and be really proud of himself. It's just fun, and it never leaves me feeling depleted. If I don't want to fight a boss, I go off and pick mushrooms and do some side quests to relax.
Echoes of the gospel: what Tears of the Kingdom says about sacrifice
This is a full spoiler for the ending of Tears of the Kingdom, so if you're still playing, maybe come back later.
Early in the game, Zelda gets thrown ten thousand years into the past, and she meets Rauru, the first king of Hyrule, and his wife Sonia. She watches Ganondorf murder Sonia and rise as the Demon King, and she watches Rauru give his own life to seal him away, knowing the seal won't hold forever.
And then Zelda finds out what it will take to finish it. The Master Sword is broken, and the only way to restore it is for it to soak up sacred power over thousands of years. There's one way to do that. She can swallow her secret stone and become a dragon and carry the sword across all that time, and the cost is that she'll lose herself. Her mind, her memory, who she is. It's described as something you can never undo.
And she does it. She does it for a future she will never see, and a kingdom that will never know what she did, and for Link, who won't even be born for thousands of years, so that the sword will be there in his hand when he needs it.
You find that out in pieces, through her tears, which is part of where the title comes from. And when you get the whole picture and look up, and that dragon is flying over Hyrule, and it's been her the whole time, it's a really meaningful moment.
Philippians 2 says that Jesus, being in very nature God, made himself nothing, and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. And Hebrews 12 says that he endured the cross for the joy set before him. Zelda empties herself for a joy she'll never get to feel, and I think that's why the ending lands so hard on so many people. We know that shape. We were made to recognize it.
And then the last thing, which is the part I love most. When it's over, Zelda is restored. Rauru and Sonia reach across time and give her back her body and her mind, and she didn't earn that, and she couldn't have done it for herself. It was given.
Now, here's where it stops, and it's a good place to have a conversation with your kid. Zelda gives herself for a world she loves. The gospel goes further than that. Romans 5 says God shows his love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He did it for people who were on the wrong side. And the restoration in the game comes from a king and queen reaching back, which is lovely. In our story, the one who died is the one who rose, and he's the one who reaches for us.
I hope this left you feeling good today. I do new reviews weekly, and while this is a movie review site, I'll be playing Ocarina of Time for my very first time in November, so you'll definitely be hearing about that. The full video is up on the Popcorn & Prayers YouTube channel. Have a great day, and be kind to yourself.