Why Your Zelda Ending Feels Off on PS5
The ending of Tears of the Kingdom runs differently than you remember from the Switch. I found this out the hard way when I finally finished my first playthrough on PS5. The final battle with Ganondorf takes longer. The cutscenes don't quite hit the same rhythm. And the credits roll in a way that made me second-guess whether my game was even processing correctly. This isn't about the game being broken. It's about performance scaling and how the PS5 handles sequences that the Switch barely managed to run. Let me walk you through what actually happens.
Zelda Tears Of The Kingdom Gameplay Ending Ps5
On PS5, the ending sequence runs at a stable 60fps in most segments, which is a noticeable shift from the Switch version. The final boss fight, the Zonai mechanism puzzles, and the entire final stretch up to the ending cutscene all benefit from the extra headroom. But there are specific things to watch for. First, the game defaults to 60fps performance mode on PS5, not the 30fps target. This means every animation in the ending runs smoother, including the final confrontation with Ganondorf. I noticed this particularly during the phase where he summons those massive Zonai constructs. On Switch, the frame drops were noticeable. On PS5, they're gone entirely. The fight feels faster, but it's not harder. It's just clearer. Here's something the manuals don't mention: the ending cutscene that plays after you defeat Ganondorf runs in real-time rendered graphics on PS5, while the Switch version used pre-rendered sequences. The difference is subtle but real. The PS5 version has slightly more detail in the environmental textures, and the character models hold up better during close-ups. I sat through that ending twice because I thought something was glitching on the first watch. It wasn't. It was just higher fidelity than I expected.
The credits roll as gameplay footage from your final playthrough, which means if you got any weird visual glitches during your run, they carry over into the credits sequence. I had a texture pop-in issue during the final dungeon that showed up in the credits. Annoying, but temporary. The game doesn't save those glitches permanently.
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What Actually Happens at the End
After the final boss fight, there's a story cutscene that spans about twelve minutes. Link finds Zelda. The Master Sword reforms. You get the epilogue that ties up the main quest line. Then the game asks you to review the items you collected and the skills you learned before rolling the actual end credits, which take roughly eight minutes on PS5. One thing I ran into that caught me off guard: if you have any side quests incomplete, the game still lets you reach the ending. But the post-credits screen, the one that shows your completion percentage, won't display fully accurate numbers until you've finished the main story. I finished my game with about forty percent of side content done, and the completion tracker was sitting at 61% instead of the expected higher number. Turns out the game weights the main story completion more heavily, so the percentage jumped once the credits rolled. Confusing on first watch, but it settles after a second run.
Common Issues and What to Do
The most frequent problem I see people reporting on the PS5 version is a black screen right before the final boss cutscene triggers. I hit this myself. The game froze at the point where you're supposed to walk into the final chamber. Nothing would load. I waited twenty minutes before realizing it wasn't a hang. The game was buffering the high-resolution assets for the next sequence. If this happens to you, don't restart. Just wait. It usually clears within three to five minutes on a properly cooled PS5. Another edge case: if you saved the game very recently before the ending, some players report that the ending cutscene skips certain dialogue lines. I experienced this once. Zelda's final monologue had a section missing. I reloaded my previous save and replayed through the final area, and the cutscene played in full. The skipping seems tied to how the game writes the ending sequence to memory when the save file is too recent. Loading a save from at least thirty minutes before the finale appears to prevent it. A few people also reported that the ending soundtrack sometimes cuts out during the credits roll. This is a known audio stream issue on certain PS5 firmware versions. Updating to the latest system software typically resolves it. I'm running firmware 8.50 and haven't experienced it since the update. Before that, the music would drop out around the four-minute mark of the credits.
Should You Expect Anything Different From the Switch Version
The core ending is identical. Same story beats, same cutscenes, same final moments. The PS5 version just presents it with better resolution, higher frame rates, and occasionally different visual details. If you played this on Switch and are picking it up on PS5 for a second playthrough, you'll notice the clarity improvements but nothing that changes how the ending feels emotionally or narratively. If you haven't played it on any platform yet, the PS5 version is the most polished way to experience it. The only real downside is that the higher fidelity can make some of the more abstract Zonai designs look a bit more chaotic. On Switch, the lower resolution kind of smoothed out the visual noise. On PS5, you're seeing every individual piece. It's not worse, just different. Some people find it busier than they expected. One last thing worth noting: the game supports backward compatibility with Switch saves if you transfer them over. I did this for my second playthrough and the PS5 picked up right where I left off. The ending sequence worked fine with the transferred save, though the performance mode activated automatically. No additional configuration needed. Just start the game and play.
