Crazy how much they changed with this one, you guys have no idea ;)
real gaming is back
This would be rated 7/10 by journalists if it wasn't zelda
I will be slowly adding to this review, and it will likely end up being really, really long, but my summary is this.
Tears of the Kingdom is Domino's Pizza. I ate it sober, and the critics ate it baked out of their minds. To me, its a greasy bit of open world action that satisfies me, but never impresses. To them, its the best food they've ever eaten.
If you liked Breath of the Wild, this is basically that, but removing the sheikah slate powers with infinitely more impractical ones. Gone are remote bombs and stasis, instead you get the incredibly gimmicky recall and ascend powers. Ascend is a nice get out of jail free card in regular caves, but recall is totally useless outside of puzzles. Fuse is a cool gimmick that bellyflops the execution by making the act of fusing a constant tedious process, thats required to make weapons do damage. 90% of items are useless to fuse because they only affect elemental powers and a static power level.
The Ultra Hand steals the show, essentially being a more unwieldy GMod prop gun. The main problem with this power, along with fuse, is that I expected them to be so much deeper than they are. Fuse only really adds an element or higher DPS to weapons, and ultra hand can build bridges or useless makeshift vehicles for your amusement. To make matters worse, you have to grind up useful interactable props in a gacha machine in the sky. So making your own fun is often prefaced with grinding Zonai cores to trade in.
The other big nut tap I recieved was finding out how weak the dungeons are in TOTK. Theres 4 and a quarter dungeons in the game, and all of them can be beaten with little thought in less than 45 minutes each. The bosses are alright, although too easy with the expection of the thunder boss and final bosses. If there was one god damn thing I wanted Nintendo to fix after 6 years, it was the weak ass dungeons. And they couldn't even do that.
Tears of the Kingdom is stuck in limbo. Its not fresh in the slightest, but it slaps some total gimmicks into a 6 year old game, like a 50 year old lady slapping on layers of makeup. The new powers are now my textbook definition of gimmick, its so face slappingly obvious. They seem like gamechangers for about an hour, before fading into the background for 45. The shrines exist as some form of justification for them, making cool but overly simple physics puzzles involving ultrahand.
The massive underground depths are again, cool at first. But they take way too long to explore, are butt ugly and also don't contain any substancial content. So...from a game design perspective, why even have them? It feels cynical, like making a big, second ugly copy pasted overworld will band aid the severe lack of change.
The sky islands are actually a great addition. They feel fresh, with cool geometry, puzzles and rewards, but there's barely any of them. It pains me to say that, because the thing thats all over the marketing actually works as an addition to good game, and they underdevelop them. What were they doing for 6 years??
And I don't really need to say it, but after reading countless critic reviews praising it, I need to. The story and writing is abysmal. Characters have very, very simple personalities. There's no wit or charm to the very inhuman dialogue, consisting of what feels like robots constantly congratulating each other. Way to go, Link! Zelda for example, is just a shell of a human, she doesn't joke, entertain or even try to do anything but exposition dump, as does LITERALLY every major player in the game.
I have more to say...but I'll break here for now. I wouldn't normally go this hard, but after beating it and seeing the insane 97 metascore, I feel obliged to kind of, put my hands up and say, "what the fuck, people?" Its totally good, fine, and fun enough, but so are Hogwarts and Jedi Survivor. Neither of which are worse or better than TOTK. Its like giving the Mario Movie an Oscar.
Breath of the Wild felt like a special game with a creative vision, Tears of the Kingdom feels like an unnecessary retread of it. And I say that, experiencing the new additions, feeling they aren't very meaty or interesting, and looking back at it from the end. I'm not like the reactionaries on this site who are disappointed and give it half a star. By all means, its polished and impressive by the standards of a Switch game in a post PS5 world. But it's no big shot mind blower like the original BOTW, or Elden Ring. It's not fun enough to beat out Sekiro, Doom 2016 or Hollow Knight. It's not creative or even close to as smart as Outer Wilds, Disco Elysium or Forgotten City. It's a fun mindless open world jaunt, and I'm not pretending it's more than that.
Tears of the Kingdom is Domino's Pizza. I ate it sober, and the critics ate it baked out of their minds. To me, its a greasy bit of open world action that satisfies me, but never impresses. To them, its the best food they've ever eaten.
If you liked Breath of the Wild, this is basically that, but removing the sheikah slate powers with infinitely more impractical ones. Gone are remote bombs and stasis, instead you get the incredibly gimmicky recall and ascend powers. Ascend is a nice get out of jail free card in regular caves, but recall is totally useless outside of puzzles. Fuse is a cool gimmick that bellyflops the execution by making the act of fusing a constant tedious process, thats required to make weapons do damage. 90% of items are useless to fuse because they only affect elemental powers and a static power level.
The Ultra Hand steals the show, essentially being a more unwieldy GMod prop gun. The main problem with this power, along with fuse, is that I expected them to be so much deeper than they are. Fuse only really adds an element or higher DPS to weapons, and ultra hand can build bridges or useless makeshift vehicles for your amusement. To make matters worse, you have to grind up useful interactable props in a gacha machine in the sky. So making your own fun is often prefaced with grinding Zonai cores to trade in.
The other big nut tap I recieved was finding out how weak the dungeons are in TOTK. Theres 4 and a quarter dungeons in the game, and all of them can be beaten with little thought in less than 45 minutes each. The bosses are alright, although too easy with the expection of the thunder boss and final bosses. If there was one god damn thing I wanted Nintendo to fix after 6 years, it was the weak ass dungeons. And they couldn't even do that.
Tears of the Kingdom is stuck in limbo. Its not fresh in the slightest, but it slaps some total gimmicks into a 6 year old game, like a 50 year old lady slapping on layers of makeup. The new powers are now my textbook definition of gimmick, its so face slappingly obvious. They seem like gamechangers for about an hour, before fading into the background for 45. The shrines exist as some form of justification for them, making cool but overly simple physics puzzles involving ultrahand.
The massive underground depths are again, cool at first. But they take way too long to explore, are butt ugly and also don't contain any substancial content. So...from a game design perspective, why even have them? It feels cynical, like making a big, second ugly copy pasted overworld will band aid the severe lack of change.
The sky islands are actually a great addition. They feel fresh, with cool geometry, puzzles and rewards, but there's barely any of them. It pains me to say that, because the thing thats all over the marketing actually works as an addition to good game, and they underdevelop them. What were they doing for 6 years??
And I don't really need to say it, but after reading countless critic reviews praising it, I need to. The story and writing is abysmal. Characters have very, very simple personalities. There's no wit or charm to the very inhuman dialogue, consisting of what feels like robots constantly congratulating each other. Way to go, Link! Zelda for example, is just a shell of a human, she doesn't joke, entertain or even try to do anything but exposition dump, as does LITERALLY every major player in the game.
I have more to say...but I'll break here for now. I wouldn't normally go this hard, but after beating it and seeing the insane 97 metascore, I feel obliged to kind of, put my hands up and say, "what the fuck, people?" Its totally good, fine, and fun enough, but so are Hogwarts and Jedi Survivor. Neither of which are worse or better than TOTK. Its like giving the Mario Movie an Oscar.
Breath of the Wild felt like a special game with a creative vision, Tears of the Kingdom feels like an unnecessary retread of it. And I say that, experiencing the new additions, feeling they aren't very meaty or interesting, and looking back at it from the end. I'm not like the reactionaries on this site who are disappointed and give it half a star. By all means, its polished and impressive by the standards of a Switch game in a post PS5 world. But it's no big shot mind blower like the original BOTW, or Elden Ring. It's not fun enough to beat out Sekiro, Doom 2016 or Hollow Knight. It's not creative or even close to as smart as Outer Wilds, Disco Elysium or Forgotten City. It's a fun mindless open world jaunt, and I'm not pretending it's more than that.
a masterclass on reusing existing content.
i'll make an actual log of the game once I finish the main objectives (and another one when I'm done with the game, everything that I want to do, subquests, etc) but with about 80 hours into the game I can surely confirm that it is as good as botw if not objectively better.
some folks will probably still prefer botw over totk because the overall vibe has changed from wild, kinda innocent, and exploration-focused to a more serious, dark one.
i can see why people would call this one an DLC, at first you'll probably have this feeling too, but about 10 hours into the game you'll see that it isn't.
it may be the same world, but its a whole new adventure, with places to discover, mechanics to master, a new story to be intrigued about, and so on.
why objectively better? simple. there isn't a single thing that totk does worse than botw. at the very least, it does the exact same, and with twice the scale.
"muh bigger game doesnt mean better game" i know, but everyone liked botw even being that big. this one is like twice the size while maintaining the overall quality.
anyway, just know that the game rocks. it is now on my top 5.
i'll make an actual log of the game once I finish the main objectives (and another one when I'm done with the game, everything that I want to do, subquests, etc) but with about 80 hours into the game I can surely confirm that it is as good as botw if not objectively better.
some folks will probably still prefer botw over totk because the overall vibe has changed from wild, kinda innocent, and exploration-focused to a more serious, dark one.
i can see why people would call this one an DLC, at first you'll probably have this feeling too, but about 10 hours into the game you'll see that it isn't.
it may be the same world, but its a whole new adventure, with places to discover, mechanics to master, a new story to be intrigued about, and so on.
why objectively better? simple. there isn't a single thing that totk does worse than botw. at the very least, it does the exact same, and with twice the scale.
"muh bigger game doesnt mean better game" i know, but everyone liked botw even being that big. this one is like twice the size while maintaining the overall quality.
anyway, just know that the game rocks. it is now on my top 5.
Link tearing through the lands of Hyrule on the shit that killed Shinzo Abe
Ganondorf has taken over hyrule its time to unleash the Cockmobile
Thank you "Nintendo" for the "Review Copy"
Played it 11 days before oficial release thanks to Nintendo, it wasn't intentional but i will take it lol.
Game was amazing, really doubt anything will top this for this year at least. The final boss fight was fucking peak, there are people trivializing it exploiting a single major non intended weakness the boss has and uploading it to Youtube, except that if you cheesed the final boss, you spoiled the game for yourself as well.
The ending section of this game: chasm until fight with demon king army and the ending is probably my favorite ending section all time.
"oh but this game runs at 20fps lmao and people had the nerves to call God of War Ragnarok, a technical MASTERPIECE, as DLC! This one is even worse"
honestly, fuck off, stupid bitchy mentality, this game is amazing and yeah, if you play it for more than 2 hours you will notice that it isn't a dlc.
Game was amazing, really doubt anything will top this for this year at least. The final boss fight was fucking peak, there are people trivializing it exploiting a single major non intended weakness the boss has and uploading it to Youtube, except that if you cheesed the final boss, you spoiled the game for yourself as well.
The ending section of this game: chasm until fight with demon king army and the ending is probably my favorite ending section all time.
"oh but this game runs at 20fps lmao and people had the nerves to call God of War Ragnarok, a technical MASTERPIECE, as DLC! This one is even worse"
honestly, fuck off, stupid bitchy mentality, this game is amazing and yeah, if you play it for more than 2 hours you will notice that it isn't a dlc.
It only took completing one dungeon to solidify the fact that this is the best game I've ever played - and it's not even close.
Full review incoming.
Final ratings by category:
Gameplay - A+
- Map design: Perfect
- Puzzles/shrines: A+
- Combat: A
- Exploration: A+
Story - A+
- Characters: A+
- Plot: A+
- Emotional connection: Perfect
Graphics/design - A+
- Graphics: A
- Art design: A+
- Immersiveness: A+
Music - A+
- Exploration music: A+
- Story music: Perfect
- Combat music: A+
Full review incoming.
Final ratings by category:
Gameplay - A+
- Map design: Perfect
- Puzzles/shrines: A+
- Combat: A
- Exploration: A+
Story - A+
- Characters: A+
- Plot: A+
- Emotional connection: Perfect
Graphics/design - A+
- Graphics: A
- Art design: A+
- Immersiveness: A+
Music - A+
- Exploration music: A+
- Story music: Perfect
- Combat music: A+
this is probably very obvious to most people, but if you liked breath of the wild or thought that it was flawed but a good jumping off point for a sequel, you will probably enjoy tears of the kingdom. however, if you thought breath of the wild was bad as a game and/or as a direction for the series, tears of the kingdom is not going to make you a fan.
the dungeons are better, but they're still formatted like in breath of the wild. the shrines are better, but they're still shrines. the bosses are much better, but they're still fought with the same combat system. the world is technically bigger, but it's built off of the same world as before. the story is definitely better, but it's still shown and told the same way. the construction gimmick gives you and arguably encourages more avenues to experiment with the game's systems, but they're still the same systems. there's still korok seeds, there's still bad swimming, and the enemy variety still leaves a lot to be desired. it's a game that does a good amount to polish the game that came before it, but it still is adamant about being it's own type of zelda and that won't be for everyone.
for me personally, i enjoy tears of the kingdom as a sequel to breath of the wild and that's how i've chosen to view the game because that's what it was trying to be. the traditional zelda aspects, while improved somewhat, haven't been improved nearly enough for me to see it as a good zelda in the same way i see other zelda games as good zeldas but it wasn't trying to be other zeldas and that's okay with me, but it won't be for everyone.
not at all worth $70 though (no game is)
the dungeons are better, but they're still formatted like in breath of the wild. the shrines are better, but they're still shrines. the bosses are much better, but they're still fought with the same combat system. the world is technically bigger, but it's built off of the same world as before. the story is definitely better, but it's still shown and told the same way. the construction gimmick gives you and arguably encourages more avenues to experiment with the game's systems, but they're still the same systems. there's still korok seeds, there's still bad swimming, and the enemy variety still leaves a lot to be desired. it's a game that does a good amount to polish the game that came before it, but it still is adamant about being it's own type of zelda and that won't be for everyone.
for me personally, i enjoy tears of the kingdom as a sequel to breath of the wild and that's how i've chosen to view the game because that's what it was trying to be. the traditional zelda aspects, while improved somewhat, haven't been improved nearly enough for me to see it as a good zelda in the same way i see other zelda games as good zeldas but it wasn't trying to be other zeldas and that's okay with me, but it won't be for everyone.
not at all worth $70 though (no game is)
It’s the biggest piece of dogshit
not going to give a proper review for this. i typed up my delirious shopping list and am not going to edit it. sorry. the ultrahand glue fumes got me.
as someone who dropped botw after a few hours, this still does a lot of the same stuff i dont like but i kinda kept playing it anyway. no real reason. im just a fan of retreading stuff out of peer pressure
leaving this as “complete” even though i still have to do some endgame stuff please dont tell the backloggd police. itll be accurate by tomorrow i swear. (its all good now)
things i liked:
Sound Design - he goes pitter patter!!
Graphed icks - i think this “cel shading” thing shows promise !
Polish - theyre juggling all of the variables. x, y, z, omega, backwards w, all those letters. other games fall apart when you click to fire the gun. which is more relatable to me but we cant have that now
Music in the Towns - cool stuff, heard an erhu in there a bunch. good instrument, checks my box
Main Abilities - the phys gun thingy is a good gimmick to centre a game around. the other 3 are also good like the rewind time one. now i finally understand king crimson kinda. the botw ones are lame and i cant pretend im jojo in that one
Moon Logic needed to get to the Dungeons - this is good it feels like im really in a legend of
things i kinda liked but kinda didnt like:
Combat - yeah i could do something GOOFY with the phys gun or i can just mash Y a bunch with the weapon im already holding. “weapon durability” is not real anyway you get 1000 knives (rip goat) you can all fuse together with the 5349022 different body parts looted in your backpack. the mokoboboblins all act the same, the like likes spit a few balls at you with the energy of a pensioner. but hitting things with a stick is visceral and timeless so its all good (i do not beat pensioners with sticks)
Sky Islands - theyre samey but a good change of pace. i would see them and have to open the map to be like “have i actually been to this one” because theyre just not visually distinct.
Devices and Gadgets - this is like fine but my approach to anything is never going to be to open a huge ass menu and sift through it, if you already give me the planks and wheels i need to do [TASK] at [LOCATION]
Story - the “memories” part of this game actually gets cool once it gets going. but until then its all just kinda monotonous and i dont care about any of these people. sorry for your kingdom or happy that happened
Dungeons - some of this is fun but if i wanted to visit 5 rooms and call it a day id go to a museum
The World - its too big but theres some cool stuff. this doubles for real life
things i didnt like:
Shrines - you didnt need to make them all look and sound the same. only 10% of these are actually really any fun, im not a preschooler anymore. come on guys i thought people were telling you this 6 years ago
Music Elsewhere - not against a minimalist impressionist thing but both this and the botw ones still just go in one ear out the other
Depths - not fun to navigate, the rewards arent cool, it all looks the same. i see why it wasnt advertised much lol
Cutscenes - hmm this is a non linear game so to ensure people get the memo we will give the same speech at 4 different mandatory locations - “game design” and “narrative effect”. im good
Voice Acting - you can switch to japanese though
Quests - kinda boring
Materials Menu - this is soooooo big lmao. the up button menu is unusable if you dont sort it by “most used”. there was something better that couldve been done here. sorry ill end the review now that its getting to nitpicks
it may have strayed from the series roots, but theres still a bunch of different collectibles and you can make wheely cars that go FAST so whos to say if banjo kazooie: nuts and bolts is really bad. also im pretty sure they play the among us theme in the shrines so i see why the kingdom is malding
as someone who dropped botw after a few hours, this still does a lot of the same stuff i dont like but i kinda kept playing it anyway. no real reason. im just a fan of retreading stuff out of peer pressure
things i liked:
Sound Design - he goes pitter patter!!
Graphed icks - i think this “cel shading” thing shows promise !
Polish - theyre juggling all of the variables. x, y, z, omega, backwards w, all those letters. other games fall apart when you click to fire the gun. which is more relatable to me but we cant have that now
Music in the Towns - cool stuff, heard an erhu in there a bunch. good instrument, checks my box
Main Abilities - the phys gun thingy is a good gimmick to centre a game around. the other 3 are also good like the rewind time one. now i finally understand king crimson kinda. the botw ones are lame and i cant pretend im jojo in that one
Moon Logic needed to get to the Dungeons - this is good it feels like im really in a legend of
things i kinda liked but kinda didnt like:
Combat - yeah i could do something GOOFY with the phys gun or i can just mash Y a bunch with the weapon im already holding. “weapon durability” is not real anyway you get 1000 knives (rip goat) you can all fuse together with the 5349022 different body parts looted in your backpack. the mokoboboblins all act the same, the like likes spit a few balls at you with the energy of a pensioner. but hitting things with a stick is visceral and timeless so its all good (i do not beat pensioners with sticks)
Sky Islands - theyre samey but a good change of pace. i would see them and have to open the map to be like “have i actually been to this one” because theyre just not visually distinct.
Devices and Gadgets - this is like fine but my approach to anything is never going to be to open a huge ass menu and sift through it, if you already give me the planks and wheels i need to do [TASK] at [LOCATION]
Story - the “memories” part of this game actually gets cool once it gets going. but until then its all just kinda monotonous and i dont care about any of these people. sorry for your kingdom or happy that happened
Dungeons - some of this is fun but if i wanted to visit 5 rooms and call it a day id go to a museum
The World - its too big but theres some cool stuff. this doubles for real life
things i didnt like:
Shrines - you didnt need to make them all look and sound the same. only 10% of these are actually really any fun, im not a preschooler anymore. come on guys i thought people were telling you this 6 years ago
Music Elsewhere - not against a minimalist impressionist thing but both this and the botw ones still just go in one ear out the other
Depths - not fun to navigate, the rewards arent cool, it all looks the same. i see why it wasnt advertised much lol
Cutscenes - hmm this is a non linear game so to ensure people get the memo we will give the same speech at 4 different mandatory locations - “game design” and “narrative effect”. im good
Voice Acting - you can switch to japanese though
Quests - kinda boring
Materials Menu - this is soooooo big lmao. the up button menu is unusable if you dont sort it by “most used”. there was something better that couldve been done here. sorry ill end the review now that its getting to nitpicks
it may have strayed from the series roots, but theres still a bunch of different collectibles and you can make wheely cars that go FAST so whos to say if banjo kazooie: nuts and bolts is really bad. also im pretty sure they play the among us theme in the shrines so i see why the kingdom is malding
a once in a lifetime game, nintendo took breath of the wild and made it bigger and better and there is so so much care put into this thing. i waited 6 years for this game and it was absolutely worth it, true masterpiece 10/10
We were so lucky to get Majora's Mask
THIS IS THE HIGHEST RATED GAME ON BACKLOGGD WE DID IT, was what I said before E3
I haven't even played it yet and its already a 5 star
Link is more badass in this. Whether or not you like this or BOTW more depends on how much of an egghead you are. I'm more of a cool guy than a nerd so it not 100% my thing, but it's definitely worth the $70.
got to play it since someone leak it 2 weeks early lol, the ninjas cant stop the yo ho life.
You guys spent $70 on Bad Piggies
This review contains spoilers
A great step up from BotW and pretty much the zelda game I hoped it would be, I do think there is still room for improvement however.
Whilst the attempt at actual dungeons this time is appreciated they still feel a bit too similar to the format of divine beasts vs dungeons of previous titles and I would hope any further games in this format will try to adjust further in that direction.
I would also like to see a less segmented approach to story, whilst memories this time did feel like overall they were a good additive and gave us the background details as we went in meaningful ways, it does still leave a shallower experience than if it had been more firmly placed within the story structure than just being the occasional vignette….Also high key they did Ganondorf dirty as a character in terms of any sense of motivations.
Either way ending had me screaming and like the direction the franchise is currently headed, if Zelda has to say in this open world format it now has all the elements needed to make that work, they just need to expand upon them
Whilst the attempt at actual dungeons this time is appreciated they still feel a bit too similar to the format of divine beasts vs dungeons of previous titles and I would hope any further games in this format will try to adjust further in that direction.
I would also like to see a less segmented approach to story, whilst memories this time did feel like overall they were a good additive and gave us the background details as we went in meaningful ways, it does still leave a shallower experience than if it had been more firmly placed within the story structure than just being the occasional vignette….Also high key they did Ganondorf dirty as a character in terms of any sense of motivations.
Either way ending had me screaming and like the direction the franchise is currently headed, if Zelda has to say in this open world format it now has all the elements needed to make that work, they just need to expand upon them
parece uma dlc com quality of life e sla o que n é um botw 2 tlgd é tipo GOW 2018 com GOW ragnarok tlgd
assim esperar tanto tempo pro jogo sair e ser so um botw com essas porra é preguiça mano vsf os cara so fez isso + colocou MAIS shrine + e MAIS aquelas porra de bicho pra pegar vida ou stamina so pra sla colocar que demora muito pra platinar o jogo e pá
com o tempo eu edito isso blz
assim esperar tanto tempo pro jogo sair e ser so um botw com essas porra é preguiça mano vsf os cara so fez isso + colocou MAIS shrine + e MAIS aquelas porra de bicho pra pegar vida ou stamina so pra sla colocar que demora muito pra platinar o jogo e pá
com o tempo eu edito isso blz
no whistler un hat the flip
Breath of the Wild and its consequences have been a disaster for video games
GOTY 2k23
Through some insane butterfly effect this game's release got me arrested. Still loved it though, if I can spend 100 hours in a game and still feel like I'm gonna miss it as I look over its world then it's probably good.
i hate Nintendo so dogshit
Masterpiece
BotW was the result of Hidemaro Fujibayashi hearing a Todd Howard and/or Peter Molyneux E3 speech without then fact checking the actual game was even remotely close to what was described.
For TotK, Fujibayashi got really into Garry's Mod.
For TotK, Fujibayashi got really into Garry's Mod.