The first time I'd ever been disappointed by a mainline Zelda game. While I wasn't a fan of Breath of the Wild (I'm not big on open worlds), it was so fresh and novel that I could respect and love what it did differently despite its slew of flaws. This time, however, ToTK came through the door expanding only on what makes open worlds so incredibly lackluster and tedious. This game peaks at the Great Sky Island and then never picks up again afterwards.
In many ways, ToTK feels like the definitive version of BoTW, it's the game that BoTW should have been, in my opinion. I actually had fun with the shrines here unlike its predecessor, and while there were still too many repeats, most were actually interesting and head scratching while remaining open-ended. The abilities Link has are usable almost everywhere, feeling less limited and useless than BoTW's for most parts of the game. The temples appear unique again! Though, practically, they fall through worse than BoTW's and feel like one shrine stretched far too wide.
But where it takes steps forward, it takes 10 steps back. The world feels incredibly empty, most of the time you're just walking around without actually exploring. The worst offender of this is the Depths, which are essentially just an emptier inverted mirror of the surface world. It's cool for the first 30 minutes, then it just becomes Minecraft's Nether back in 2010: dark, open, with nothing to find but the occasional large enemy. Once you've seen one corner of the Depths, you've seen the entire thing. And the saddest part is that if you do explore the Depths out of a sunk cost fallacy, you're rewarded with zonaite and......... DLC armor from the first game.
The sky islands and the Zonai are the biggest tragedy of this game, and I don't say that lightly. As I said earlier, the Great Sky Island is the best designed area in the game, and is also the only well designed sky island overall. There are only maybe 3 or 4 "types" of sky islands to find which all repeat themselves over and over. Similar to the depths, once you've found a few islands you've found them all. A shame given how unique and underutilized the idea of "sky islands" are to fantasy and video games in general, but also how beautiful and fun actually getting to these lands are.
I grieve for how the Zonai were treated here, truly grieving. Zelda has always had such wonderful and fantastical races, and the Zonai are no exception. They are magnificently designed, and have such an incredibly enchanting lore basis... and yet they are essentially nonexistent in their own game. It'd be interesting if you learned more about the Zonai, how they lived, how they influenced Hyrule, and key actors of their society as you play, similar to the Nomai in Outer Wilds (a game that I think does what ToTK wanted to do but vastly better), but that doesn't happen. The Zonai only serve as a way to give link new toys to play with and a new ability wheel to interact with the world.
Even Rauru, a fantastic character concept, is absent after patting you on the back and saying "have fun!" in beginning of the game. If the next Zelda games move on from the BoTW world as interviews imply, we may never see the Zonai again similar to the Minish or the Twili, which feels terrible given how they didnt have any time to shine. Despite that, I don't want to spend another minute in this world and want to get out of this Hyrule as soon as possible.
And do I even have to mention how awful the story is here? While the series has never had the prose and depths of a good novel, "Zelda has never had story" mfers show their ass that they've never played a Zelda game before BoTW because the old games at least try to support the feeling of adventure that the games offer, but through dialogue and cutscenes. Scenes like the desperate ending of Twilight Princess, the heartbreak of leaving Outset Island, these scenes couldn't happen without a story to give them meaning and ToTK offers a "story" but doesn't understand why the old games had one. There's nothing to feel watching the Zonai memories here, and the singular twist of the game is absolved and neutered by its ending. This game tries to have its cake and eat it too, and it feels so undeserved.
I could go on and on about how many things this game brings up, giving me hope for fun, and then drops the ball immediately. This game was just everything I didn't want in a Zelda game. Interviews with Aonuma released after ToTK's launch where he stated he didn't know how people could enjoy the old games anymore, and that makes me understand why ToTK feels so nothing as a game, the developing studio doesn't know what makes things fun.
When I asked friends of friends IRL, what they all loved about this game is that they could build things and blow up enemies. They all said they didn't care about the characters or world, and just loved that they had "freedom." None of them had played Zelda, and none of them wanted to know more about the series, they just wanted to play in the sandbox. And really, I think that's why this game had so much success: it didn't blow up because it's Zelda, it's great to most people because it's not Zelda, because it's shed so much of its identity for a common denominator, and that hurts as a longtime fan.
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I teetered on the edge of being done with Zelda after BoTW, and now I'm fully convinced. I won't be returning to this series, and will be happier that way than being disappointed and edged for a good game for over a decade. There is so much wasted potential in ToTK, and Zelda as a series' corpse is ripe for indies to scavenge off, and I want to be there to see it. Now, if only anyone wanted to make a 3D Zelda or could even make a good 2D one, that's another topic on its own. But even if it's bad, I'd love to see people try.
In many ways, ToTK feels like the definitive version of BoTW, it's the game that BoTW should have been, in my opinion. I actually had fun with the shrines here unlike its predecessor, and while there were still too many repeats, most were actually interesting and head scratching while remaining open-ended. The abilities Link has are usable almost everywhere, feeling less limited and useless than BoTW's for most parts of the game. The temples appear unique again! Though, practically, they fall through worse than BoTW's and feel like one shrine stretched far too wide.
But where it takes steps forward, it takes 10 steps back. The world feels incredibly empty, most of the time you're just walking around without actually exploring. The worst offender of this is the Depths, which are essentially just an emptier inverted mirror of the surface world. It's cool for the first 30 minutes, then it just becomes Minecraft's Nether back in 2010: dark, open, with nothing to find but the occasional large enemy. Once you've seen one corner of the Depths, you've seen the entire thing. And the saddest part is that if you do explore the Depths out of a sunk cost fallacy, you're rewarded with zonaite and......... DLC armor from the first game.
The sky islands and the Zonai are the biggest tragedy of this game, and I don't say that lightly. As I said earlier, the Great Sky Island is the best designed area in the game, and is also the only well designed sky island overall. There are only maybe 3 or 4 "types" of sky islands to find which all repeat themselves over and over. Similar to the depths, once you've found a few islands you've found them all. A shame given how unique and underutilized the idea of "sky islands" are to fantasy and video games in general, but also how beautiful and fun actually getting to these lands are.
I grieve for how the Zonai were treated here, truly grieving. Zelda has always had such wonderful and fantastical races, and the Zonai are no exception. They are magnificently designed, and have such an incredibly enchanting lore basis... and yet they are essentially nonexistent in their own game. It'd be interesting if you learned more about the Zonai, how they lived, how they influenced Hyrule, and key actors of their society as you play, similar to the Nomai in Outer Wilds (a game that I think does what ToTK wanted to do but vastly better), but that doesn't happen. The Zonai only serve as a way to give link new toys to play with and a new ability wheel to interact with the world.
Even Rauru, a fantastic character concept, is absent after patting you on the back and saying "have fun!" in beginning of the game. If the next Zelda games move on from the BoTW world as interviews imply, we may never see the Zonai again similar to the Minish or the Twili, which feels terrible given how they didnt have any time to shine. Despite that, I don't want to spend another minute in this world and want to get out of this Hyrule as soon as possible.
And do I even have to mention how awful the story is here? While the series has never had the prose and depths of a good novel, "Zelda has never had story" mfers show their ass that they've never played a Zelda game before BoTW because the old games at least try to support the feeling of adventure that the games offer, but through dialogue and cutscenes. Scenes like the desperate ending of Twilight Princess, the heartbreak of leaving Outset Island, these scenes couldn't happen without a story to give them meaning and ToTK offers a "story" but doesn't understand why the old games had one. There's nothing to feel watching the Zonai memories here, and the singular twist of the game is absolved and neutered by its ending. This game tries to have its cake and eat it too, and it feels so undeserved.
I could go on and on about how many things this game brings up, giving me hope for fun, and then drops the ball immediately. This game was just everything I didn't want in a Zelda game. Interviews with Aonuma released after ToTK's launch where he stated he didn't know how people could enjoy the old games anymore, and that makes me understand why ToTK feels so nothing as a game, the developing studio doesn't know what makes things fun.
When I asked friends of friends IRL, what they all loved about this game is that they could build things and blow up enemies. They all said they didn't care about the characters or world, and just loved that they had "freedom." None of them had played Zelda, and none of them wanted to know more about the series, they just wanted to play in the sandbox. And really, I think that's why this game had so much success: it didn't blow up because it's Zelda, it's great to most people because it's not Zelda, because it's shed so much of its identity for a common denominator, and that hurts as a longtime fan.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I teetered on the edge of being done with Zelda after BoTW, and now I'm fully convinced. I won't be returning to this series, and will be happier that way than being disappointed and edged for a good game for over a decade. There is so much wasted potential in ToTK, and Zelda as a series' corpse is ripe for indies to scavenge off, and I want to be there to see it. Now, if only anyone wanted to make a 3D Zelda or could even make a good 2D one, that's another topic on its own. But even if it's bad, I'd love to see people try.