The team over at Nintendo are black magic wizards. The environment interactivity is some mind bending shit. The game was great, but did feel bloated. I don't need an underground, main level and sky section to explore.
Continues one of my major gripes with modern games, especially open world.....they don't need to be so damn big.
Continues one of my major gripes with modern games, especially open world.....they don't need to be so damn big.
From a gameplay perspective, it's simply Breath of the Wild, but better. Still, I don't think the main issues of the first game have been addressed too much altogether, and the choice to ignore the story of the first is baffling. That being said, the return of Ganondorf is fantastic. I do have to dock it some points for feeling less fresh than the original, to where the two are about tied for me.
Peak. Beautiful ending.
Bah je suis ce pur N-Sex bah ouais j'aime trop
This review contains spoilers
It’s rather impressive how the strengths and weaknesses of Breath of the Wild were flipped for Tears of the Kingdom. Where the former game was a refreshing open world dragged down by its underbaked immersive sim elements, the latter is a brilliant immersive sim parred with a disappointing open world. Put another way, with the re-use of Breath’s Hyrule, the joy of discovery that defines the best entries in the open world has been shifted to the mechanics and the new maps that Tears provides. One of these emotive redistributions works quite well (for the most part) and the other does not (for the most part), leading to a final product that sings quite well but sag in a few important places.
The core problem that needs to be solved when designing an immersive sim is that all of the wacky creative choices that the player needs to be more appealing than just taking the path of least resistance. Tools like magnetism and time freeze in Breath had limited applications in combat, and simply slapping enemies with your sword was just more efficient, even with the weapon degradation system attempting to force the player into more spontaneous play. In a single fell swoop, the new ability Fuse, which allows the player to attach any item to any weapon, provides a host of useful and whacky combat and exploration utility, while also giving purpose to the hoard of items and weapons that the player accrues of the course of playing these two games. Being able to enhance any weapon I find with whatever I choose makes the temporality of my weapons far less bothersome because I’ll always have something on hand to suit my needs, while still having the possibility open for creativity and experimentation. While the powers Ascend and Rewind allow for unique navigation options, the real showstopper of Tears is, of course, Ultrahand, which allows the assemblage of standard items and special Zonai tools into nearly whatever form the player desires. The building blocks of the system are easy and intuitive, allowing for both complex engineering and satisfying simple solution crafting. However, the game is far better at incentivizing using Ultrahand to solve simple problems in closed areas, such as the sky islands, the shrines, and the dungeons than it is at incentivizing that complex engineering. Tearsrequires the player to have intrinsic motivation to access its wilder possibilities outside of funny videos on twitter, which is mostly fine, but makes all the time I spent to get my Zonai batteries to max capacity feel like a waste, which brings us to the reason why the new open world ofTears falls so flat.
Of course, there’s a good degree of value in the opportunity to see how the people of Hyrule have progressed since the events of Breath, but the accompanying busy work of unlocking regions I’ve already explored is hardly appreciated. This wouldn’t be a large problem whatsoever weren’t for the lacking nature of the new open world zone in the form of The Depths. My initial discovery of the massive underground cavern lying below Hyrule was a rush of horror and awe (albeit a pale shadow of the experience of entering Elden Ring’s Caelid for the first time) but once you’ve seen one area of The Depths you’ve seen them all, with rare exception. However, this area has the materials that are needed to build Zonai devices from scratch and to mean upgraded battery, which means if you don’t want your time with the toys you build to be painfully short, you have to spend a painfully long time down under. I wanted to make use of the more open ended nature of the Ultrahand system, so after my time in The Depths I built a war machine that I’m decently proud of to fight Ganon, but could only be used for twenty seconds on a max level battery. Turns out, in the actual fight I didn’t have enough time for auto-build to assemble it and for it to take off, so I simply resorted to slapping him with a sword again. It was a sharp reminder of how the freedom of the mechanics conflicts with the freedom of the open world, making me wish that this was a more focused and condensed experience, that asked the player to use ultrahand and fuse to solve more specific problems.
Before I go, I will expend a few words on the narrative of Tears, which has some strikingly bold decisions but is ultimately let down by typical Nintendo cowardice, where status quo triumphs over progression everytime. I must ask, is there anyone on the planet who doesn't want Link to keep his awesome new arm, and if so, who is letting them near Nintendo’s development offices? A similar aversion to consequences manifests in Zelda’s arc, which sees her unfortunately sidelined once more but this time in a way that’s actually kind of interesting, until it’s reverted in tidy fashion in time for the credits. Even in a series with threadbare continuity, things must go back to the way things were. Now, thanks to my dopamine starved brain, this review is being published several months after I actually finished the game, but when I think about Tears of the Kingdom these days, two things come to mind; the all timer final boss fight and all the time I spent gathering apples at the same damn apple orchard from Breath of the Wild.
The core problem that needs to be solved when designing an immersive sim is that all of the wacky creative choices that the player needs to be more appealing than just taking the path of least resistance. Tools like magnetism and time freeze in Breath had limited applications in combat, and simply slapping enemies with your sword was just more efficient, even with the weapon degradation system attempting to force the player into more spontaneous play. In a single fell swoop, the new ability Fuse, which allows the player to attach any item to any weapon, provides a host of useful and whacky combat and exploration utility, while also giving purpose to the hoard of items and weapons that the player accrues of the course of playing these two games. Being able to enhance any weapon I find with whatever I choose makes the temporality of my weapons far less bothersome because I’ll always have something on hand to suit my needs, while still having the possibility open for creativity and experimentation. While the powers Ascend and Rewind allow for unique navigation options, the real showstopper of Tears is, of course, Ultrahand, which allows the assemblage of standard items and special Zonai tools into nearly whatever form the player desires. The building blocks of the system are easy and intuitive, allowing for both complex engineering and satisfying simple solution crafting. However, the game is far better at incentivizing using Ultrahand to solve simple problems in closed areas, such as the sky islands, the shrines, and the dungeons than it is at incentivizing that complex engineering. Tearsrequires the player to have intrinsic motivation to access its wilder possibilities outside of funny videos on twitter, which is mostly fine, but makes all the time I spent to get my Zonai batteries to max capacity feel like a waste, which brings us to the reason why the new open world ofTears falls so flat.
Of course, there’s a good degree of value in the opportunity to see how the people of Hyrule have progressed since the events of Breath, but the accompanying busy work of unlocking regions I’ve already explored is hardly appreciated. This wouldn’t be a large problem whatsoever weren’t for the lacking nature of the new open world zone in the form of The Depths. My initial discovery of the massive underground cavern lying below Hyrule was a rush of horror and awe (albeit a pale shadow of the experience of entering Elden Ring’s Caelid for the first time) but once you’ve seen one area of The Depths you’ve seen them all, with rare exception. However, this area has the materials that are needed to build Zonai devices from scratch and to mean upgraded battery, which means if you don’t want your time with the toys you build to be painfully short, you have to spend a painfully long time down under. I wanted to make use of the more open ended nature of the Ultrahand system, so after my time in The Depths I built a war machine that I’m decently proud of to fight Ganon, but could only be used for twenty seconds on a max level battery. Turns out, in the actual fight I didn’t have enough time for auto-build to assemble it and for it to take off, so I simply resorted to slapping him with a sword again. It was a sharp reminder of how the freedom of the mechanics conflicts with the freedom of the open world, making me wish that this was a more focused and condensed experience, that asked the player to use ultrahand and fuse to solve more specific problems.
Before I go, I will expend a few words on the narrative of Tears, which has some strikingly bold decisions but is ultimately let down by typical Nintendo cowardice, where status quo triumphs over progression everytime. I must ask, is there anyone on the planet who doesn't want Link to keep his awesome new arm, and if so, who is letting them near Nintendo’s development offices? A similar aversion to consequences manifests in Zelda’s arc, which sees her unfortunately sidelined once more but this time in a way that’s actually kind of interesting, until it’s reverted in tidy fashion in time for the credits. Even in a series with threadbare continuity, things must go back to the way things were. Now, thanks to my dopamine starved brain, this review is being published several months after I actually finished the game, but when I think about Tears of the Kingdom these days, two things come to mind; the all timer final boss fight and all the time I spent gathering apples at the same damn apple orchard from Breath of the Wild.
i played this for like 355 hours before i beat it. i do love it, but the story leaves a lot to be desired. sure, the bigger story beats hit the emotions really well, but when you stop and think about it for more than five minutes you see the cracks. but the gameplay is great. it does feel crappy to want more from it, but alas.
i will say, the sound design in this game is chef’s kiss as is the music.
i will say, the sound design in this game is chef’s kiss as is the music.
Crazy to think this game underwhelmed me and it's still a masterpiece.
Awesome
It's a little bit saturated
Game had me so hyped I was genuinely tweaking three months straight before it came out. Though sadly. It could never be the game I wanted to be.
The tears of the dragon and its significance to the fragmented and familiar world of Hyrule is one of the most beautiful stories Tears of the Kingdom could tell...
Still, the gamified and survivalist mechanics with a touch of ancestral alien technology repeat more intensely in the sequel, to the point where not even one of the most legendary tales of the franchise can impact a... Naked Link.
Yes, a Naked Link.
A Link who learned to communicate with his world through wild and compulsive interaction with it. Objectifying everything he encounters, because everything needs a purpose for him. Even his interactions with female characters with romantic undertones come across as a violation of boundaries.
A hero with the courage to violate what he loves if the end justifies the means? I really can't understand this Link. Maybe a mix of Conan the Barbarian with a Twink but without even the strength or desire to dominate others? A link to the past? I don't really know but I congratulate him for having the courage to spend hours and hours playing pretend as an engineering student.
Still, the gamified and survivalist mechanics with a touch of ancestral alien technology repeat more intensely in the sequel, to the point where not even one of the most legendary tales of the franchise can impact a... Naked Link.
Yes, a Naked Link.
A Link who learned to communicate with his world through wild and compulsive interaction with it. Objectifying everything he encounters, because everything needs a purpose for him. Even his interactions with female characters with romantic undertones come across as a violation of boundaries.
A hero with the courage to violate what he loves if the end justifies the means? I really can't understand this Link. Maybe a mix of Conan the Barbarian with a Twink but without even the strength or desire to dominate others? A link to the past? I don't really know but I congratulate him for having the courage to spend hours and hours playing pretend as an engineering student.
It's a better Breath of the Wild purely for the fact that it's a sandbox with more interesting toys to play with. Everything I like and dislike about Breath of the Wild applies here.
The reused surface map is lame, there's no getting around that for me. I felt no sense of discovery walking through the world of this game. It's the same map with new repeated content. It's all the same stuff as Breath of the Wild like Korok seeds and sidequests and such, but didn't I already do enough of this in the last game? Why do I have to do the same grinds again? The new shrines and dungeons are the same as before, samey and poorly integrated into the world. It all works well enough, but frankly it's boring and I was hoping to see less busywork. Reusing maps can work, it's just that nothing here is fundamentally different from Breath of the Wild.
The sky and depths are cool aesthetically, but they don't really add a lot. I almost wish the depths didn't have lightroots since they kinda take away the edge and danger. The gloom effects are cool at least, mechanically and aesthetically. The aesthetics in general are a strong suit and look more interesting than the Sheikah stuff.
Fuse is an interesting idea, but in practice it's kind of awkward and forces you to pause the game to use weapons even more than Breath of the Wild did. Ideally there should've been some kind of favorites hotbar or something instead of just the entire inventory. Once again, the game gives you way too many resources for the weapon durability to be anything more than a nuisance. It really should've been removed or reworked this time around.
Ultrahand alone almost carries the game. But the issue is that you need to farm ore in the depths to go get random parts from gacha machines in the sky, which is quite tedious and boring. I wouldn't mind it so much of the depths and sky were more interesting to explore, but they're both rather barren. You basically only go there for this stuff, which makes it feel like a chore. The battery charge, even at max, feels so short. Objects despawn after walking just a little bit away. Maybe they made it this way to better balance the mechanic, but the most effective creations are usually rather simple and take few resources to autobuild. As a result, I never felt the desire to be creative or experiment.
Then I tried playing it on Yuzu with infinite stamina, infinite weapon durability, and infinite battery, and wow - what a difference that all makes. Suddenly I was having a lot of fun creating all sorts of contraptions and experimenting with the physics system. It's true that games are built around limitations, and those limitations can breed creativity. Personally, I would rather be limited by this game's tools and engine themselves than by arbitrary resource farming. Maybe I'm lazy, but I don't care.
The reused surface map is lame, there's no getting around that for me. I felt no sense of discovery walking through the world of this game. It's the same map with new repeated content. It's all the same stuff as Breath of the Wild like Korok seeds and sidequests and such, but didn't I already do enough of this in the last game? Why do I have to do the same grinds again? The new shrines and dungeons are the same as before, samey and poorly integrated into the world. It all works well enough, but frankly it's boring and I was hoping to see less busywork. Reusing maps can work, it's just that nothing here is fundamentally different from Breath of the Wild.
The sky and depths are cool aesthetically, but they don't really add a lot. I almost wish the depths didn't have lightroots since they kinda take away the edge and danger. The gloom effects are cool at least, mechanically and aesthetically. The aesthetics in general are a strong suit and look more interesting than the Sheikah stuff.
Fuse is an interesting idea, but in practice it's kind of awkward and forces you to pause the game to use weapons even more than Breath of the Wild did. Ideally there should've been some kind of favorites hotbar or something instead of just the entire inventory. Once again, the game gives you way too many resources for the weapon durability to be anything more than a nuisance. It really should've been removed or reworked this time around.
Ultrahand alone almost carries the game. But the issue is that you need to farm ore in the depths to go get random parts from gacha machines in the sky, which is quite tedious and boring. I wouldn't mind it so much of the depths and sky were more interesting to explore, but they're both rather barren. You basically only go there for this stuff, which makes it feel like a chore. The battery charge, even at max, feels so short. Objects despawn after walking just a little bit away. Maybe they made it this way to better balance the mechanic, but the most effective creations are usually rather simple and take few resources to autobuild. As a result, I never felt the desire to be creative or experiment.
Then I tried playing it on Yuzu with infinite stamina, infinite weapon durability, and infinite battery, and wow - what a difference that all makes. Suddenly I was having a lot of fun creating all sorts of contraptions and experimenting with the physics system. It's true that games are built around limitations, and those limitations can breed creativity. Personally, I would rather be limited by this game's tools and engine themselves than by arbitrary resource farming. Maybe I'm lazy, but I don't care.
Final boss and ending is SO FUCKING GOOD I just wish it were harder
The way to Ganondorf is harder than Ganondorf himself, the Lynels really fucked me up and make me think I'm not that good of a gamer and i should quit. First tried Ganon, ez 10/10.
Fuck you the Lynels community.
Fuck you the Lynels community.
it's crazy because TOTK is essentially better than BOTW in every single way, but because it holds so closely to BOTW, i'd still argue that Breath of the Wild is what stands out to me more today because it introduced so many brilliant concepts.
If BOTW was the Nintendo Wii of free roam exploration games, Tears of the Kingdom is a lot more like the Wii U. Iterative and more advanced than its predecessor, but far less unique therefore, much less special. That being said, it's still a beautiful game.
If BOTW was the Nintendo Wii of free roam exploration games, Tears of the Kingdom is a lot more like the Wii U. Iterative and more advanced than its predecessor, but far less unique therefore, much less special. That being said, it's still a beautiful game.
yea.. it good i suppose... step down from BOTW though and BOTW was already overrated
There's no doubt in my mind that this game is phenomenal, but something about the brain-numbing amount of content turned me off about 65 hours in. I'll come back to it eventually.
Brilliant game although it wouldn't have been as enjoyable for me if i had played BOTW i imagine. Definitely holds itself back by using the same map
Dios! Como amé este juego.
Maravilloso. Hermoso. Creativo. Desafiante. Conmovedor. Entretenido.
Maravilloso. Hermoso. Creativo. Desafiante. Conmovedor. Entretenido.
Enjoyed the 80-100 hrs I invested but kept the streak alive for unfinished Zelda games. Want to go back one day - probably my favorite Zelda out of the ones I’ve played.
During your first playthrough it feels absolutely magical, like nothing youve played before. After completing it and letting it simmer on your thoughts youll start to see the faults and problems it has MUCH much clearer
Una de las mejores experiencias que jamás he tenido, todo ha sido fascinante de principio a fin, absolutamente hermoso
Llevo 120 horas y planeo hacerlo al 100%, no me aburre el juego para nada tras todo este tiempo
Llevo 120 horas y planeo hacerlo al 100%, no me aburre el juego para nada tras todo este tiempo
I like the game, I really do, I can see the effort they did, and it is incredible the amount of work they must have put into this game, but it's so overwhelming... I really want to finish it, but it's so, so overwhelming.
Joguei essa delicia no switch pro e simplesmente eu so vivia pensando nesse jogo, adorei cada segundo é uma verdadeira evolução do primeiro mas ainda prefiro o primeiro.
Thank you Nintendo for simply existing
Fantastic game, adds on to the bones of BOTW in a fantastic way. So much to do, the depths are incredible, the sky though barebones is the highlight of exploration. Unbelievable game that makes me wonder how the zelda team can top it.
I don't think I'm ever going to get around to finishing this game, so now's as good a time as any to do a write-up.
Breath of the Wild is my favorite game. It got me back into gaming after putting it down after a few years, and back into Nintendo games after not caring for nearly a decade. I was excited as anyone for Tears of the Kingdom. The early marketing was excellent, presenting an ominous, Majora-esque asset flip of the more melancholic BotW. I imagined deep crevices carved into the ground, exhuming all sorts of long-dormant horrors, forever altering the Hyrule with which I was familiar. I had faith that the long development time would be used to add all sorts of interesting content and well-designed dungeons.
My initial impression of the game was good. I enjoyed the tutorial island. Helping the overpacked Korok get to his friend was cute. On the surface, one of the first caves I found was the Majora tree stump cave. I remember feeling excited by the Japanese aesthetic for the shrine housing the piece of Fierce Deity armor, and wondered what other kinds of ancient architecture I'd find. Diving into The Depths for the first time was thrilling.
Disappointments, however, quickly crept in. The oddly specific over-packed Korok scenario quickly became contrived as I found dozens more. The tutorial island turned out to be the most interesting sky island by far, as the others were sparse and often copied multiple times. The tree stump cave turned out to be one of the few interesting caves, with most of the others largely using the same mossy aesthetic, with the same Horriblins and the same Japanese architecture housing the same BotW DLC armor. The Depths turned out to have a dearth of interesting content, my time largely spent stumbling around in the dark, avoiding the same enemy camps that absolutely litter the surface.
My biggest problem with TotK is how much it mindlessly copies from BotW. For BotW, the developers went back to the drawing board, and thoughtfully reconsidered all of the rote Zelda tropes that had accumulated in the series since Majora's Mask, like so many fleas. All of the pieces fit together. Take the memory system, for example. For BotW, the developers smartly crafted a smattering of nonessential vignettes, where the order in which you found them was not important, because it suited the open world structure of the game. Anyone with a brain can see that this structure does not fit the essential, linear story that TotK wants to tell. It felt like watching a movie with its scenes out of order. It also leads to big problems like Link spending all his time "trying to find Zelda," when he already knows exactly where she is, but doesn't bother letting anyone else know.
No one held a gun to Aonuma's head and said he had to use the same damn Korok seed inventory system, or shrine health and stamina system, or combat durability system, or memory-based narrative, or music. BotW was great in part because of how new everything felt. But Aonuma's team is already resting on its laurels, and I fear BotW's revolutionary template is already ossified convention.
The worst is how TotK handles BotW's map. Many previous points of interest are utterly devoid of content, including Thundra Plateau, Gut Check Rock, Hyrule Castle Ruins, and The Forgotten Temple. Areas with affecting environmental storytelling in BotW like Fort Hateno are downgraded to dumps littered with ugly brown-gray sky island slabs. I was baffled and offended when I made my way to Akkala Citadel, only to find an inexplicably generic monster cave where the citadel entrance should have been exposed. They really should have made sure there was enough to do on the surface before bothering with the dull-as-dishwater Depths.
Speaking of environmental storytelling, how bad is TotK's? What's the point of introducing another heretofore unmentioned technologically advanced ancient civilization? What happened to the Shiekah tech from BotW, including the army of laser-spewing spider robots and Divine Beasts that devastated the countryside for 100 years? I don't think they're even mentioned once. It almost feels like The Calamity didn't even happen. This created a huge disconnect from the world for me. All the ruins that felt so meaningful to explore in BotW felt like they belonged in a different game in TotK.
I haven't mentioned Ultrahand until now, because it felt largely superfluous to my experience with the game. On the tutorial island, I learned to my great disappointment that walking more than 50 yards from a boat I'd built to cross the first lake caused it to despawn. I was further let down after my first exhilarating flight on a wing part was cut short by the extremely stingy 30-second use time limit.
Ultrahand is barely integrated into the game. It feels like someone took the building mechanic from Garry's Mod, shoved it into BotW, and dumped a bunch of Lego parts everywhere. The game almost never requires its use outside of scripted events like the Death Mountain approach or boring green crystal sky island shrines; it's often faster and more effective to deal with the game's many enemies using the vanilla BotW combat.
So many elements of the game disincentivize its use. The building mechanic itself is finicky and time-consuming, and the distance and time limits are even more demoralizing. I was lucky to find auto-build early in the game, but the heavy Zonaite cost kept me from using it much. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered if going in to The Depths was fun, but mindlessly mining Zonaite felt like the worst kind of grindy MMO filler. I think the biggest tell is how many people complained when Nintendo removed the duplication glitch from the first build of the game. I normally side with Nintendo in these instances, but here, I think it exposes just how unfun and stingy the game is with resources.
I'm just scratching the surface of TotK's serious flaws. The "dungeons" are lackluster, and their "press these 5 or so buttons in any order" design uninspired. The repetitive sage cutscenes after the fairly enjoyable but too-easy boss fights are pathetic. Shrines are often just tutorials for Zonai parts, and can often be cheesed in unsatisfying ways. Sage powers are horribly implemented.
I'll balance all the negativity I just wrote by saying that I recognize that TotK isn't a bad game. If I hadn't played BotW, I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more. Maybe my expectations for the sequel of my favorite game were too high. And there are truly excellent moments that incentivized me to push through all the middling content, like launching off the roofs of sky ships into the eye of a snow storm, or exploring the super interesting Gerudo underground shelter, or fighting a Boss Bokoblin squad for the first time. But I can't deny that I resented most of the 100+ hour grind I put into this game, and I regret ever buying it.
Breath of the Wild is my favorite game. It got me back into gaming after putting it down after a few years, and back into Nintendo games after not caring for nearly a decade. I was excited as anyone for Tears of the Kingdom. The early marketing was excellent, presenting an ominous, Majora-esque asset flip of the more melancholic BotW. I imagined deep crevices carved into the ground, exhuming all sorts of long-dormant horrors, forever altering the Hyrule with which I was familiar. I had faith that the long development time would be used to add all sorts of interesting content and well-designed dungeons.
My initial impression of the game was good. I enjoyed the tutorial island. Helping the overpacked Korok get to his friend was cute. On the surface, one of the first caves I found was the Majora tree stump cave. I remember feeling excited by the Japanese aesthetic for the shrine housing the piece of Fierce Deity armor, and wondered what other kinds of ancient architecture I'd find. Diving into The Depths for the first time was thrilling.
Disappointments, however, quickly crept in. The oddly specific over-packed Korok scenario quickly became contrived as I found dozens more. The tutorial island turned out to be the most interesting sky island by far, as the others were sparse and often copied multiple times. The tree stump cave turned out to be one of the few interesting caves, with most of the others largely using the same mossy aesthetic, with the same Horriblins and the same Japanese architecture housing the same BotW DLC armor. The Depths turned out to have a dearth of interesting content, my time largely spent stumbling around in the dark, avoiding the same enemy camps that absolutely litter the surface.
My biggest problem with TotK is how much it mindlessly copies from BotW. For BotW, the developers went back to the drawing board, and thoughtfully reconsidered all of the rote Zelda tropes that had accumulated in the series since Majora's Mask, like so many fleas. All of the pieces fit together. Take the memory system, for example. For BotW, the developers smartly crafted a smattering of nonessential vignettes, where the order in which you found them was not important, because it suited the open world structure of the game. Anyone with a brain can see that this structure does not fit the essential, linear story that TotK wants to tell. It felt like watching a movie with its scenes out of order. It also leads to big problems like Link spending all his time "trying to find Zelda," when he already knows exactly where she is, but doesn't bother letting anyone else know.
No one held a gun to Aonuma's head and said he had to use the same damn Korok seed inventory system, or shrine health and stamina system, or combat durability system, or memory-based narrative, or music. BotW was great in part because of how new everything felt. But Aonuma's team is already resting on its laurels, and I fear BotW's revolutionary template is already ossified convention.
The worst is how TotK handles BotW's map. Many previous points of interest are utterly devoid of content, including Thundra Plateau, Gut Check Rock, Hyrule Castle Ruins, and The Forgotten Temple. Areas with affecting environmental storytelling in BotW like Fort Hateno are downgraded to dumps littered with ugly brown-gray sky island slabs. I was baffled and offended when I made my way to Akkala Citadel, only to find an inexplicably generic monster cave where the citadel entrance should have been exposed. They really should have made sure there was enough to do on the surface before bothering with the dull-as-dishwater Depths.
Speaking of environmental storytelling, how bad is TotK's? What's the point of introducing another heretofore unmentioned technologically advanced ancient civilization? What happened to the Shiekah tech from BotW, including the army of laser-spewing spider robots and Divine Beasts that devastated the countryside for 100 years? I don't think they're even mentioned once. It almost feels like The Calamity didn't even happen. This created a huge disconnect from the world for me. All the ruins that felt so meaningful to explore in BotW felt like they belonged in a different game in TotK.
I haven't mentioned Ultrahand until now, because it felt largely superfluous to my experience with the game. On the tutorial island, I learned to my great disappointment that walking more than 50 yards from a boat I'd built to cross the first lake caused it to despawn. I was further let down after my first exhilarating flight on a wing part was cut short by the extremely stingy 30-second use time limit.
Ultrahand is barely integrated into the game. It feels like someone took the building mechanic from Garry's Mod, shoved it into BotW, and dumped a bunch of Lego parts everywhere. The game almost never requires its use outside of scripted events like the Death Mountain approach or boring green crystal sky island shrines; it's often faster and more effective to deal with the game's many enemies using the vanilla BotW combat.
So many elements of the game disincentivize its use. The building mechanic itself is finicky and time-consuming, and the distance and time limits are even more demoralizing. I was lucky to find auto-build early in the game, but the heavy Zonaite cost kept me from using it much. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered if going in to The Depths was fun, but mindlessly mining Zonaite felt like the worst kind of grindy MMO filler. I think the biggest tell is how many people complained when Nintendo removed the duplication glitch from the first build of the game. I normally side with Nintendo in these instances, but here, I think it exposes just how unfun and stingy the game is with resources.
I'm just scratching the surface of TotK's serious flaws. The "dungeons" are lackluster, and their "press these 5 or so buttons in any order" design uninspired. The repetitive sage cutscenes after the fairly enjoyable but too-easy boss fights are pathetic. Shrines are often just tutorials for Zonai parts, and can often be cheesed in unsatisfying ways. Sage powers are horribly implemented.
I'll balance all the negativity I just wrote by saying that I recognize that TotK isn't a bad game. If I hadn't played BotW, I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more. Maybe my expectations for the sequel of my favorite game were too high. And there are truly excellent moments that incentivized me to push through all the middling content, like launching off the roofs of sky ships into the eye of a snow storm, or exploring the super interesting Gerudo underground shelter, or fighting a Boss Bokoblin squad for the first time. But I can't deny that I resented most of the 100+ hour grind I put into this game, and I regret ever buying it.
Take everything about breath of the wild and improve it. Even just from visual spectacles, this game is amazing. Despite the world being fairly the same, it's still so vast, theres so much to do and the entire underground world is an amazing game. The combat and gameplay are still full of things to do The boss fights were so major in this game, doubling down on that with the final boss and the best master sword pull in the entire series. The game is a must-play if your a Zelda fan.
This is not a bad game by any stretch of the word - it is merely a derivative one. I completely understand where people are coming from when they say that this is a masterpiece or a 10/10, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Too much of this game's core DNA is "Breath of the Wild again" to ignore. And while the new additions to gameplay are enjoyable to use, the loss of the old ones is definitely noticeable. Sadly, Tears fails to innovate on the the rest of its core systems - namely in the world, exploration and storytelling. The underground and sky are empty as fuck - there is quite literally next to nothing to find there. I feel like this game is best experience if you haven't played BOTW first.
Zonite farming makes sense things less fun.