Revisiting Starfield in 2026: Its Temple Loop Still Loses to Tears of the Kingdom

I can still remember the sheer weight of 2023. That year was an absolutely monumental one for video game releases, with at least one huge, critically acclaimed title dropping every month. As a regular player, I was bouncing between releases, trying to keep up with the constant flood of new worlds. Two games stood out above the rest for me: Bethesda's Starfield and Nintendo's Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Now it is 2026, and I still think about that year. Starfield arrived on Xbox Game Pass in September 2023 after years of anticipation. I remember the divided critical response. Some loved it. Some wanted more. But Bethesda fans turned up in droves. It quickly became one of the biggest games of the year, and maybe one of the biggest releases of the entire console generation so far. That scale was impossible to ignore.

Yet Starfield is not perfect. The main story contains a gameplay loop that just does not hold a candle to what Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom offered earlier that same year. I did not fully understand this until I was several hours into Starfield's campaign.

The game is gigantic. In classic Bethesda fashion, I spent dozens of hours without ever making meaningful progress in the opening set of missions. There was simply too much to do. Ship customization kept me busy. Dogfighting pirates in space was thrilling. Creating an outpost and mining resources felt rewarding. Battling raiders on the surface gave me constant action. Solving the galaxy's little mysteries pulled me in every direction. All of that was great.

But when I finally focused on the main story, I found one of Bethesda's better narratives. The core cast is fairly compelling, even if their facial animations feel stilted. The premise is inherently exciting: a galaxy-wide search for mysterious alien artifacts. I wanted to know what came next. The story had me.

Then the temple loop arrived.

After a fun set of opening missions and a few barebones tutorials, Starfield asked me to find and explore a strange structural anomaly on a planet. This led me to an impressive-looking sci-fi temple. Entering it began a simple but effective puzzle. I flew through collections of light to power up a spinning ring in the center of a dark chamber. Upon entering the ring and receiving a magical space vision, I unlocked my first supernatural power.

That first time was extremely exciting. It was atmospheric. It felt mysterious and special.

Then I was asked to repeat the process. Over and over again for the next few hours.

The repetition killed the wonder. The same dark chambers. The same floating orbs. The same spinning ring. What once felt magical became a chore. I started to dread each new artifact clue because I knew exactly what was waiting for me. The loop did not evolve. It did not surprise me. It just repeated.

This naturally brought up comparisons with Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. That game also has temples. They are not considered the best in the franchise by some fans. But every temple in Tears of the Kingdom provided a fun, engaging challenge. Each one offered a ton of puzzles. Each one ended with a grandiose boss fight. Each one rewarded me with a brand new power-up and a spirit companion.

The overall formulaic structure was the same, yes. But the activities inside each temple were usually very different from one another. The environments were completely different. Paired with excellent visuals and outstanding music, these temples were leaps and bounds ahead of Starfield's version.

Here is how the two compare from my player perspective:

This table reflects how I felt in 2023. It still reflects how I feel in 2026. Starfield has a lot to offer. Its ship building, exploration, and side quests can be incredible. The main story has strong characters and an intriguing mystery. But whenever the main quest pushed me toward another temple, I wished I were playing something else.

That is a problem. A main story should never make me feel that way. Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom understood how to balance repetition with novelty. Starfield did not.

If you missed one of Starfield's saddest side quests, you might be missing one of the game's most human moments. But that is another story. The temple loop remains the clearest example of where Starfield fell short.

Starfield is available for PC and Xbox Series X/S. Even in 2026, that core criticism has not changed for me. Some games age gracefully. Others reveal their flaws more clearly with time. For Starfield, the temple loop is still the weakest part of the journey.