The producer behindThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Eiji Aonuma, reveals that the game was pretty much complete and set to release last year but still required a year-long delay. This entry in the long-running franchise has been finally released after much anticipation, earning plenty of praise from fans and critics. While not as bad as some other games of its caliber, the game had a few times it was delayed during its development cycle. The number of delays it had might have been for the better, asTears of the Kingdomhas seen success critically and commercially.Tears of the Kingdomwas hit with a big delay last year, moving from its targeted March 2022 release to the following year, which some fans had some trepidation over initially. Big open-world games of this caliber have had issues at launch, even after they were delayed.Cyberpunk 2077is usually the big offender when delays are brought up as not helping the product’s quality, though that game had its own set of issues during development. According to Aonuma however,Tears of the Kingdom’s delay was necessary for its release, even if it was almost ready for launch at that time.RELATED:Tears of the Kingdom Voice Actress Says That Zelda and Link Are ‘In a Relationship’In an interview between Aonuma and The Washington Post, the expectations forTears of the Kingdomwere incredibly high following the critical and commercial reception ofBreath of the Wild. Aonuma stated that the delay was announced to ensure that everything in the game was to their standards. As such, afterTears of the Kingdom’s delay, the last year was spent polishing it and making sure the physics worked as intended.

This reasoning is similar tohowBreath of the Wildgot delayed, going from a targeted 2015 release and eventually moving to 2017. These could be pinned on the game’s physics engine, which was cited to be the main cause of development woes. Despite that, the physics were among the most praised and striking aspects of the game, so its delays were to its benefit. DespiteTears of the Kingdomhaving similar physics, it also introduced a number of complex additions with its Ascend and Fuse mechanics.

Tears of the Kingdomproves that delays are a sort of necessary evilin the gaming industry, where if they’re implemented correctly, it can see a game polished to an astounding degree.Tears of the Kingdomhas avoided the faults of recent releases likeRedfallandStar Wars Jedi: Survivorwhich suffered from poor performance or graphics on launch. Hopefully, other gaming companies can follow this example and use delays to properly polish their game instead of using them as a crutch when poor scheduling has a game miss its targeted date.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomis available now for Nintendo Switch.