Players need to complete shrines to upgrade Link’s health and stamina in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I wish there were option for players who prefer to just explore.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom feels like a giant playpen where players can run around like a bunch of kids causing chaos in the best way possible. Thanks to a new set of powers and items, Link can build anything from skateboards to twisted devices that torture Koroks. Pair that with a sprawling world, and Tears of the Kingdom gives players ample opportunity to experience its world in different ways. This freedom, however, comes with certain strings attached: Players need to complete dungeon-like shrines to upgrade Link, and it restricts how people play the game — for better or worse.
Link has two main stats in Tears of the Kingdom: hearts (which dictate how much damage he can take) and stamina (which determines how long Link can run, climb, swim, or glide). Together, these two stats play an integral role in how each person experiences the game. More hearts, or a larger stamina wheel, make routine activities like fighting and exploring more manageable. It can make the difference between being killed in one hit or surviving, or enable you to glide or climb enough to reach a destination. Although there are ways to budge around these constraints — upgraded armor can up Link’s defenses and Zonai devices can help Link explore — by and large, these two stats deeply impact a player’s ability to get up and around Hyrule.
With the exception of some hearts that you can get by playing through the main quest line, the only way you can upgrade these traits is by completing miniature dungeons called shrines.
