Tears of the Kingdom is Overrated
Warning: Opinions Inbound. Anyway, is it even a real Thrillingduck video if it isn't over an hour long? C'mon.
00:00 Intro
2:40 Ocarina of Time
4:27 Skyward Sword
5:38 Breath of the Wild
9:43 TotK Map
11:46 Twilight Princess
14:20 Critiquing Mechanics
21:00 Petty Critiques
23:32 Exploration
30:27 TotK Positives
36:14 Spoiler Warning
36:34 Yiga Clan
38:34 Mineru
40:28 Majora's Mask
46:18 TotK Atmosphere
47:58 Narrative Critique
58:04 TotK Finale
59:14 TotK Ganondorf
1:01:49 Outro
As usual, all footage is borrowed from other channels. Links below:
TotK Early Game B-Roll:
• The Legend of Zelda: T...
BotW Memories:
• All 18 Memories In Ord...
Twilight Princess HD Cutscenes:
• TPHD CS 09: Meeting th...
Majora's Mask 3D HD:
• Zelda Majora's Mask 3D...
Ocarina of Time 3D HD:
• Zelda Ocarina of Time ...
Ganondorf's Execution HD:
• The Legend of Zelda: T...
Twilight Princess Hylian Shield:
• Zelda Twilight Princes...
Skyward Sword Hylian Shield:
• How to Get the Hylian ...
Calamity Ganon:
• The Legend of Zelda BO...
Skyward Sword HD Gameplay:
• The Legend of Zelda: S...
TotK Master Sword Pull:
• 【Zelda: TOTK】 Master S...
TotK Boss Fights:
www.youtube.com/@BossFightDat...
Seized Construct and Mineru Awakens:
• Scourge of the Spirit ...
Mineru in Overworld:
• Video
TotK Ganondorf Phase 1 and 2:
• Zelda Tears of the Kin...
TotK Cutscenes:
www.youtube.com/@hyruleminute...
Great Sky Island Cutscenes:
• Zelda totk great sky i...
Mr. Aonuma Presents:
• The Legend of Zelda: T...
Nintendo Treehouse TotK Footage:
• Nintendo Treehouse: Li...
Regional Attire:
• How to Get All Champio...
Light Dragon Farming:
• How To Farm LIGHT DRAG...
TotK Hylian Shield:
• Zelda: Tears of the Ki...
BotW Divine Beast Battles:
• ALL DIVINE BEASTS BATT...
BotW Great Plateau:
• Why Breath of the Wild...
Sheikah Runes:
• The Legend of Zelda Br...
BotW Boomerang:
• Zelda Breath of the Wi...
BotW Weapon Showcase:
• [Zelda Breath of the W...
Depths Footage:
• How to Conquer THE DEP...
Lowering the Hood:
• The Worst Thing About ...
BotW Hyrule Castle:
• [Zelda Breath of the W...
TotK Great Fairies:
• How To Unlock All Grea...
TotK B-Roll:
• The Legend of Zelda: T...
BotW B-Roll:
• The Legend of Zelda: B...
Arriving at Lookout Landing:
• Meet Purah - Tears Of ...
Reusing the map really ruined it for me, especially since the depths and sky islands were for the most part so disappointing.
I wish we were exploring the Hyrule that Zelda was sent back to.
And yet the fans will complain that they can get away with it when compared to Spider-Man 2 on PS5 because it expanded and reused its old map. But, to me, it set up a BETTER sequel story than TotK did, the same game that decided to replace the amazing Sheikah mech and weapons for the lame Zonai stuff
@@asterthehedgehog6861 also, exploration isn't necessarily essential to Spider-Man. New York is New York. It's mostly about the characters and the plot. Zelda has always been hugely about exploration.
@@asterthehedgehog6861totk isn’t getting a sequel 😭your take is invalid
@@asterthehedgehog6861agreed
the geoglyphs should have given you the story chronologically no matter which one you found imo
You can't do that because each geoglyph represents an image relating to the particular memory. For example, The scimitar geoglyph near Lurelin Village hints to the murder of Sonia by Ganondorf in that particular memory !
If that's your only issue just change the glyphs lol
@@mahirooyama9424 Theres actually more to it than that. The glyphs story is presented on the light dragon's path in order from where on the path it starts to where on the path it ends to repeat. So the exact placements were intentional by design. As far as being in order no matter which ones you go to doing that would break the secret they hid.
48:49 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😮😅😅
@@mtgstudios1556 sounds like it was bad design for the type of game they wanted
Honeymoon phase is over baby
I sure hope so
@@ThrillingDuckas somebody who has had the most fun playing w the pyschics and making cool stuff with ultrahand like a lot of stuff that even blew up on reddit 😂 I still agree, I grew up w Zelda it's my favorite franchise but totk was a let down in so many ways that even the fact they basically made it gmod which is also my childhood says a lot. 💀 I swear if they use the same world again 😢
Lol yup
why are you like this? just enjoy games and let others enjoy too
@@prod1gy_yes enjoy slop and mindlessly consume like a good consumer and don’t question or critique the quality of a game 💀
Link doing flips in Majora's Mask is really one of the greatest features in Video Game history.
I’m honestly kind of glad they never brought it back, because that sort of makes it the Hero of Time’s thing in my head.
The Hero of Time will always be the best Link.
@@ray3435absolute facts. OoT Daddy Link
@@vivaofficial7372 Your comment got hearted 💀
@@Pecktor and?
Twilight Princess is amazing!!!! 😭 I legitimately am always surprised that it received so much critique.
TP is probably the best Zelda game with the most obvious flaws. Wolf combat is basically just "charge the Midna attack", the world kinda feels like it's floating cause the edges of regions are just sudden trenches to nowhere, and the utility of the items you get aren't just limited, but almost single use. They're the most item is a key items in any Zelda game. Plus the game is just lacking in difficulty balance and far too easy for its own good most of the time. Yet, even with all of that, it is still my favorite because the design and game feel are just so good, and the dungeons are really great
@@Chronoflationas least the world of tp isn’t as empty as tears with it’s repetitive enemies and questlines lol
@@angelgarcia4641 Based opinion is based.
@@netweed09 thank you my fellow og Zelda enjoyer!
@@angelgarcia4641 Yea ,,,,,,
hated how draconification just had no consequence in the end lmao
In one instance, likely due to divine intervention. We have literal evidence of Zelda coming back being the exception to the rule. Almost positive it’s due to the Triforce as well, and with Ganondorf and seemingly the Demon Tribe as a whole fine, there’d be no other “wish” to make than to revert Zelda. That’s largely speculative though.
1000s of years of pain, and seperation from your love, memories, and soul is not "no consequence". She paid very dearly for a very long time.
@@concernedcitizen6870 bro she did not even remember being in that state, she just woke up from what felt like a dream
@@maxwebbcomor3014yeah but the point was she was willing to basically end herself to help Link. It was about character not story.
@@MylesKillis I was just responding about there being no consequence, not that it wasn’t a meaningful character moment. It just would have been much more impactful for the story if there were consequences and she couldn’t have been brought back - I’d rather have the characters face some kind of loss than a sunshine and rainbows happy ending.
Imagine the exact same intro as TOTK, only Rauru doesn't keep Link from falling. Link falls and follows Zelda into an abyss of time and space, distorting everything, into a new Dark World. He fights through a new and dangerous world to find her... Meanwhile, you also play as her, with her different abilities, struggling to find him... Back and forth between them you traverse some similar areas (in different ways) along with different ones, only to discover in the mid game that the dilation of time (of their mere seconds apart) in the fall amounted to their arriving to this world a few thousand years apart. And not only that, but if they can't be united in the work they do in this world, they will never be able to both restore it to peace and reunite with each other. It's not difficult to tell a better story. Nintendo for some reason simply doesn't want to. It's been this way for decades. Storytelling for them hasn't evolved much since the 1990s.
sounds like you're just bitter the 'zelda is playable' was never real. Its called the legend of zelda and atleast with this title it fully lives up to it what it claims . Sure we could complain the story wasnt linear and it went to heavy with with the memories but yuo really cant do open world with a coherent story. They made the right choice with this sequel, expanded the map and gave more context to previously set up story lines. as is its a great expansion with flaws that will delt with on hardware that can handle it.
@@hued2542 My point wasn't about who's playable. My point was that it's easy to tell a better story regardless. Because it is. Nintendo just repeated BOTW elements in the past while ignoring BOTW in the same space. It's a bizarre way to "sequel," and the story told is dull and repetitive.
@@hued2542ghost of Tsushima told a great story while being open world
@@hued2542 "You really can't do open world with a coherent story." *RDR1 Enters Chat* *RDR2 Enters Chat* *GTA Enters Chat* *Ghost of Tsushima Enters Chat* *Zelda Wind Waker Enters Chat* *Fallout Enters Chat* *The Elder Scrolls Enters Chat* *Farcry 3 Enters Chat* *Death Stranding Enters Chat* *The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt Enters Chat* *Marvel's The Amazing Spiderman Enters Chat*
pleas never comment your idea of a good story again 😭🙏
There should have been a level in tears of the kingdom where the purah pad lost connection and your abilities get disabled, allowing for one more traditional zelda dungeon. One bonus tradition linear dungeon in the depth (maybe shadow temple) like this would've been great.
That would've been rad!
True, I would have wanted more Dungeons. I guess since I love the Content that is already there, the potential and Lore make TOTK underrated if anything! 😁
The Purah pad doesn't give you the runes, Rauru's arm does, forehead.
I wish i could've enjoyed Mineru as much as you did. She really needs to deal more dmg ..
I do 100% agree with that lol
@@ThrillingDuck She was fun but i used her solely as a bullet time launch pad. Which is kind of sad
@@ThrillingDuck I personally like to attach strong monster parts to her arms, especially something like a frost talus heart
@@user-dj9hh7ww7c I prefer strong Zonai parts for aesthetic reasons, but yeah stronger parts definitely help her be more pragmatically useable lol
@@user-dj9hh7ww7c On my Talus murder spree for the medal of honour, having a Frost Talus heart in one hand and an Igneo Talus heart in the other made Mineru a force to be reckoned with
Glad to hear the complaint about weapon aesthetics. I felt that pretty strongly, but it felt like I never heard anyone else talk about it. Late game I only ever used fuse combos that look cool, and never touched those stupid pinecones again.
I was weirdly disappointed in the community for nobody calling out how stupid most weapon fusions look. I was like does nobody else have any taste or what?
@@ThrillingDuck I've been wondering what's been going on with instances like this. I think because so much of the community's dialogue is online (usually surrounding a review or what-have-you), there is much more of a tendency to "play it safe" and say what may get them the most views, likes and subscribes. Glad to see you can think and speak for yourself man. It's refreshing to know, that there are still individuals out there (Who record and upload quality content! 😊)
@@ThrillingDuckI think it's because its a relatively minor thing that doesn't really cross enough people's minds to talk about it. Plus, it can be argued that they add to the wackiness of the building mechanics.
Mate, same here. Fuse mechanic led to some of the ugliest abominations I've ever seen and yet I rarely heard anyone talk about it.
the dumbass silver bokoblin horns lmao, WHY did they need a dingly puffball at the end??? not to mention the black and silver moblin horns, and the silver boss boko horn.@@ultimatedumbass4640
My issue with Breath of the Wild is that there is no real sense of progression. The whole world being open from the start with all the essential tools in your kit, combined with enemy scaling, means that... the game doesn't really change much at all from the first minute to the end. The tutorial is the best part because you are limited at first by what you can do.
This is my main complaint with it too and I still replay the hell out of both games, botw and totk. Love em, think they’re amazing, but I have to implement my own rules of restriction if I want to make it more challenging. Doing a puss in boots run right now and the first thing I did when I hit lookout landing’s skyview tower I went straight to hyrule castle, found the Royal hidden passage and ran rampant through it. Geared up, rupee’d up and arrow’d up and I haven’t died yet *knock on wood*
Not saying that too brag, just saying it gets too easy
@@AJWEXISTI was the same way with Elden ring. Had to not use summons to 1v1 every boss and make it more difficult. Also what’s a puss n boots run??
The first TotK brainstorming session was probably like, “Soooo, Zelda…what number are we one again?” “Twenty, I think?” “Wow a milestone entry. Well, what can we do differently this time?” “…Have we talked to the engineers in the basement yet?”
Yeah it still doesn't feel like the basic story structure has changed after 40 years.
@@RMProjects785how can it??
@@The-Legend-of-P A Better Writer, Thats How.
@@Hitman2and3 well yeah that’s obvious
@@Hitman2and3 Legend of Zelda is literally "Hero goes around destroying evil then fights the BBEG and saves the princess" story. In pretty much every game. You can change how the story is written, but the core concept is gonna be the same. Especially when the entire series has a built-in reason for having a repeating story. But I would personally think a game where Link is the one that disappears and Zelda needs to save him would be a nice change. Weird, but probably fun.
Minor spoilers but, Worst part about both botw and totk is how much of a joke the stories are, you don't play through a story you go do a digital history lesson with the memories and both games have underwhelming endings just to make it worse. Great video
I genuinely thought Zelda would stay a dragon and the Master sword would get destroyed or lost, stuck in the head of the demon dragon. All the stakes were completely reversed and it sucks.
Dont forget about the korok seeds and millions of shrines you have to do to 100% the game
@@viktorthevictor6240 I mean, that's about the most Anti thing you could say. Baffling to anyone normal.
LINK DO YOU REMEMBER ME???? …… the end
I will say I think Botw’s story was way better than Totk because along with the memories the story is supposed to be Link learning to be part of the world again after losing his memories. In Totk they try to make the Link part of the story him discovering community and relying on others which felt very disingenuous since he had already done that in Botw.
So refreshing to see people who aren't blind to the big flaws of this game. I don't wanna say it's bad or anything exactly, but I was very let down tbh. Great Video!
Thanks a lot! And my sentiments exactly - it’s clearly a good game, but after 6 years of waiting and a recycled map, I was quite underwhelmed.
i do , it's clearly a bad game , op must have miss titled his video cause he gave tokt a 10/10 while simultaneously clamming it's overrated.....
@@iamLI3 Oh good you’re still here lol: kzhead.info/sun/hLuvlrqQipNop58/bejne.htmlsi=jAd62axYNltMkA2a
@@ThrillingDuckClearly, something can be good and also overrated. But your review came off a bit like an IGN review - all sorts of significant criticisms, but...10/10.
What I didn't like about the story (besides the big plot holes) is the fact that it didn't mean anything. Ganondorf was just a villain of the week.
He was just there, waiting in the castle.Heck, even Kogha does more than Gannondorf does ; building bases in the dephs, organising his members into teams and most important of all , building zonai devices.
@sakuraneko2595 Kogha is the true villain (And those of you who see this go "but Ganondorf messed with the 4 towns" no, that was Phantom gannon)
@@randomwolfboi7866 Phantom Ganon IS Ganondorf, and so is Calamity Ganon (which is literally his soul outside of his corpse according to the game). All of the Gloom and Gloom possessed enemies in the game ARE Ganondorf himself or at least directly controlled by him. And considering that TotK Ganondorf = Calamity Ganon that makes ToTK Ganon the single most accomplished version of the character in the franchise since he basically destroyed the entire world twice in 10,000 years.
@@sakuraneko2595 Nothing Kogha does has any lasting impact. He's just a comic relief villain.
Im tired of villains who are a sad dark story. I lowkey miss just pure evil. I don't need a Madara Uchiha story to make the villain good.
"I have to do this again so I can get strong enough to actually experience the new story content in this recycled world" is probably the best way to describe how I felt about this game put in one sentence 😂and yeah what you said after about the exploring feeling more like a grind, so much agree! I felt kind of alone in not being over the top enthusiastic about this game. But more and more people seem to finally pick apart some of the lackluster bits. I haven't finished the video yet, but liking the essay a lot. You back up your arguments with examples and it's interesting to follow
You're not alone. I honestly hate that I bought this game.
@@tgatt5759woah woah.. why?? I got back into it and I’m obsessed with it. There’s so much to do
@@The-Legend-of-PA lot of the content is MMO busywork. The game is stingy with important resources that are a grind to get. The story is aimless. Many quest rewards are unsatisfying, largely comprised of outfits from BotW and its DLC. Most importantly, the exploration-driven gameplay loop is fragile. If you don't care for the Ultrahand building system, then all you have left is the recycled map and the monotonous Depths and the sparse copy-pasted sky islands. If any of that becomes tedious to explore, then the gameplay loop comes crashing down.
@The-Legend-of-P that means you did nothing in botw
Tears of the kingdom added more content but none of it adds to the actual game. They just put new stuff into the game to keep the player busy. Breath of the wild felt natural when it came to exploring and doing tasks
Exactly. Botw felt like an adventure in a world with secrets to discover. The more you explored the more you were rewarded. Totk felt like a grindy fetchquest that was extremely unrewarding.
@@kupersimonton6967TotK felt like an MMO. I was getting flashbacks to RuneScape, joylessly mining zonite for the extremely stingy battery and build requirements.
YES. I’ll admit BOTW did have a similar issue with Tears, but at least the content was NEW. Everything we were exploring and interacting with was completely new. TotK took Botw’s issues and made them even worse.
@@kupersimonton6967 That's literally the most delusional opinion I've ever seen, lol. 😂 What are you even on?? Breath had literally _nothing_ - Open world? Boo hoo: Oblivion was doing Rolling hills 10 years before! The ''4'' bosses were bland, totally uninspired pieces of literal goop all copy pasta'd. 0 Dungeons. Even Mr Aonuma himself took Breath's heavily criticism on board and re-instated themed Dungeons back into Tears. To much Success.
@@netweed09 everyone has a taste yours is uninspired copy and paste games. Tears was a soft reboot just not a good one.
16:00 god i feel so validated here. I adored my 'travelling knight' aesthetic in BOTW, but in TOTK i feel your weapon strength is inversely proportional to its aesthetics. Sticking a giant bokoblin horn on the end of a metal pole just looks horrible to me
I found the game to be a drag after a certain point, I didn't even do all the sidequests like I did for botw. The sky and depths were boring, adding caves while a nice addition isn't enough to make the surface fresh. The game is a direct sequel and yet seems scared to address botw or really follow through. We built Terry Town in a few days and you expect me to believe there aren't any new towns from the several year gap? (Outside of lookout landing which is a fort). The calamity and the old sheikah tech haven't been addressed either. The game feel disjointed in it's connection to past Zelda games including the one it's a sequel to and it's distracting. However, like you the ending did soften the blow it was a whole spectacle. However I will say within the ending I have a few complaints. I have no problem with Zelda coming back I just think it could've been built up better to feel less out of nowhere. I also think Link should be kept Rauru's arm since they stated how it was lost. Recall doesn't even make sense for him since well it's gone, if it was transformed than sure but it was replaced. With how recall works he would be left with nothing. Though Link losing an arm also would've worked, I liked the catching Zelda bit too much, it mirrors the beginning and is a phenomenal moment. After that I also just couldn't stand Link. His blank star for when Zelda is talking to him and him just standing there in the post credits scene is distracting. He couldn't even make a gesture of any kind? Like yeah he saved her but to me that's the bare minimum. That is his job and even then ofc he wasn't just going to let her fall unconscious. He helps citizens on the daily, helping and saving them is what he does. But then to not comfort her? She's been through so much and there's no reaction or comfort. There's also when after he gets all the memories and he watches Zelda fly by and there's no reaction. It's frustrating to see, I'm feeling so many emotions and the character I'm playing looks like he is feeling nothing. What's even more frustrating is he is expressive outside of any important story moments. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. It just makes me think about the time in Skyward Sword where Zelda seals herself away to sleep for a thousand years. Link is desperately trying to reach her and when he can't you see the absolute pain he is in. He cries. Or scenes like in Spirit Tracks in the ending. Instead of being super expressive Link and Zelda comfort each other, reaching for each other's hand with Link gently squeezing Zelda's as they watch the sunset. Moments like this would've worked wonders in this game. Link cannot express how he feels through words so him not being expressive or doing any gestures outside well protecting her (which again is his job so) it hurts Link and the scenes for me. It takes me out of it. Nintendo needs to bring back Link being expressive in both his face and body language. (Also I know he smiles out of bounds in the end, no that doesn't count. That was never meant to be seen so someone snuck it in.) This game in a way made me appreciate botw more. Botw knew what it was. Everything was expertly crafted for its world and the environmental storytelling worked. Totk clashes with itself. It's story and gameplay don't mesh and the big empty world full of ruins doesn't work with the tone as well as botw. I love the dragon stuff but all the contradictions to past titles leaves a sour taste. I find it funny how the one Zelda game about sacrifice is the one to not have any major loss in the end. Every Zelda game you lose something.
I loved the depths. When I first picked up the game I thought I would hate it, but I really like it for some reason.
Agree with all these points!
BoTW is truly magical, exploring everything for the first time with its storytelling is amazing ToTK really didnt had to follow BoTW way of storytelling. Felt like what held ToTK back is due to constraints that WORKED in BoTW but not in ToTK
Yeah, ironically I think Tears is a game that actually would've *benefitted* from a linear story, and the open structure it had worked against it. Hard to feel the full emotional impact of the last memory when you got the second to last tear first lol
@@Tea_Noire I feel like I'd have preferred BotW and Tears a lot more (well, I'm only 20 hours into Tears) if they were a lot more linear, or at least if the story itself was. To me the Xenoblade Chronicles games are a perfect blend of open world and story delivery. If you just remove some of the gating from the Xenoblade world to let you explore more freely but keep the story a very clear "go to this square yard to continue the main story" affair, and made a Zelda game like that, it'd be my favourite Zelda. BotW and Tears are just about there mechanically, but I care about story too much to be able to fully enjoy what I consider a big step back in storytelling post Skyward Sword. Yeah, it's fun enough to solve puzzles, but I'm forcing myself through every hour because I can't become invested in the plot of Tears after the disappointment not just of BotW, but of seeing how overwhelmingly positive people were about it and how it's going to be "the future all Zelda games are based on". I'm tired of old story-focused series I love being made open world and less story-focused.
@@Tea_NoireI feel like totk could've given you like the same open world exploration as botw but when you hit certain story points you're forced (or gently eased) into a more linear fashion so you, you know, don't spoil the whole game
@@rubellite4480well the game kinda nudges you to the the dragon tear in the beginning and then go to Rito village. I said screw that and went to Akkala instead. Being linear would be cool but if they made it linear then there might have to be caps on certain things. Like “can’t go to X cause you sont have enough hearts” The devs at Nintendo sacrificed linear story with an insane open world sandbox
@@The-Legend-of-P Thank you. 👍 People just like being difficult and 'hard to please' for show and attention these days. They have next to no idea of game development. It's like they think they're some type of genius with their 'cool ideas' then when actually trying it out given the chance (Indie Devs), over 90+% of them fall flat on their faces.
What did it for me was: they set up a whole new concept for the game, more story, a big war in hyrule, the land has to unite the mystery of zeldas disappearance, all these new features and locations. Then the fire they gave me, the excitement and appreciation for this game quickly fizzled out and it was back to being BotW without a real purpose for being so. I get why BotW feels a bit storyless (in my opinion) , because that’s the point of the whole game, you need to explore. But TotK has no reason for it after the story is complete. Also without the first glitches of farming I would not have been where I am in the story I still love it, but did it really gave me those big feelings? Maybe at first but they rapidly switched to indifference
two of my friends literally saw the cutscene where sonia dies as like their 3rd memory or something and were confused but still maintain that telling a story that way is fine smh man lol
It's literally how Tarantino makes his movies. Out of sequence. You're both wrong and stupid. Congratulations
Over an hour long, and I'm still thinking of new ways to try and express what I'm really trying to get across. I prefer BotW because it's a purer experience - it feels more like “Zelda evolved” to me. TotK is so overstuffed with zany mechanics and clusterfuck visuals (with regard to Link's equipment - especially if you're using Fuse on everything), that on top of my other gripes, it just doesn't feel like Zelda a lot of the time. I think what's really resonating with people in TotK is the Zonai contraption building aspect, but the best of that comes from intrinsic motivation, because the game's challenges really don't call for anything too elaborate. I'm intrinsically motivated to explore, but only when the world is new. And I'm only extrinsically motivated to build, so for me the act of building is purely functional and pragmatic, and it slows the pace of my adventure. On top of that, I'm less motivated to build elaborate contraptions because I can't actually keep them - only their blueprints. If I could actually store designs without needing to burn through resources to reconstruct them (like in Nuts & Bolts), then I'd be much more inclined to really go crazy with and find satisfaction in the building mechanics. As things are though, I didn't really engage with building much beyond the bare minimum, because there was very little, if any, extrinsic reason to do so. In essence, these are the reasons why BotW resonated with me in a way that TotK simply didn't. I hope that makes sense :) Anyway, I await your pedantic lore corrections.
It’s kinda similar to how I feel about how BOTW handled combat and weapon durability. It’s a neat idea, encouraging a kind of survival game playstyle where you’re always expending and scrounging for resources, but it actually ends up being a situation where I just run away from 90% of fights because I’d rather just save my weapons for a (super underwhelming) boss fight. TOTK alleviates this a little with fusion and enemies that are actually kind of strong and varied now, but the building mechanic feels like a repeat of this same problem. A simple limitation to the building resources in the form of despawning and resource burn for blueprints has led to building interesting solutions being a net negative. I think it’s odd that they did this while also making the paraglider optional. I was thinking of doing a no-paraglider run which would force me to really engage with the building mechanics a lot more, but after they patched the dupe glitch I don’t think I want to spend that time.
@@throwawaydetective9080 I get that, and yeah weapon durability was always a controversial mechanic. In my case, I didn't mind expending weapons in smaller fights because I never came anywhere close to running out, but I also basically do this thing where I'm essentially just equipping my weakest weapon at all times and then moving up in power as the weakest ones break, and I get that a lot of people like the satisfaction of getting something stronger and then just equipping that, knowing it's not gonna shatter (like in the older Zeldas). So I completely understand your perspective. The Master Sword could alleviate this by serving as a renewable default weapon if its cool down timer wasn't so long, and I would've liked to see that get cut in half or something in Tears, but no such luck.
yea exactly, building cars is so far from what i enjoy about zelda games that i struggle to even call it that. it's cool that people are enjoying it but no other games were like zelda, now zelda is like every other game with mechanics i really don't care for
@@ThrillingDuck You know, very frequently I find myself hating the idea of breakable weapons, but then I always imagine a Zelda experience, that had the Champions weapons and the Master Sword, NEVER break. With that change, I'd also like WAY fewer weapon slots. Let me pick and choose. Make sacrifices... AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, CAN WE HAVE A PROPER PLACE TO STORE WEPONS!? Hell, what about the abilities to at least repair weapons and shields, before they break? There were so many options that aren't ground breaking or revolutionary to the gaming industry! BotW had a new vibe, but the survival aspect, fell short for me, due to all the obvious quality of life things that should have been in the game... Along with all the "game stuff", like koroks giving seeds so you can carry more, while I can carry hundreds of apples. Oh yeah... and Hestu's gift was so funny. Thanks for "rewarding" me for my favorite thing to do in Zelda games... Exploring. Insulting...😑 I just felt like, a better mix of previous and new ideas would have worked best. I was SO disappointed when the Master Sword in TotK broke... The set up. The story. The price that was paid. The weight of all that, felt SO cheapened. What made it worse is, the designers knew this, because they don't have it break when you're fighting Ganondorf! Imagine if it did... Well, that's how I felt. It was all just set dressing. Nothing truly substantial, because TotK was just BotW 2, at best. 😔
@@highdefinition450Zelda is not like any other game still. If you want OG Zelda back then tbh play Ghost of Tsushima OR AC odyssey or Valhalla. That’s the more RPG run N gun style, linear gameplay and action. GoT is a lot of fun and it’s like a samurai Zelda w/ parkour TOTK and botw haven’t been done before, EVER. It’s the most open world sandbox games out there and no one is copying Zelda cause no one can! Zelda is leagues above rn in terms of developing. No game copied old Zelda formula, just like no one’s copying the new Zelda formula. There is no other game with any of these mechanics that Zelda has. It jus ain’t the case. You can argue rdr2 gameplay wise but it still ain’t comparable to having an actual physic system in the game.
It was a good thing for me that I did not have the opportunity to play breath of the wild, because tears was all new to me.
25:35 I completely agree. These tiny customization things really bugged me throughout my playthrough. I would never wear any hat items because they would always put link's hair in a ponytail. Now, I've made peace with that but it still should be an option to keep link's hair down on simple items like the snowquill headdress or ANY of the gerudo earrings. It feels lazy, and it isn't nice for all the "flowy hair link supporters".
That's what happens when you literally copy paste and re-skin with as minimal effort as possible
What a stupid complaint lmaoooooo
@@SurfinTheKaliYuga exactly. These are the kind of complaints the average fan puts forward and people wonder why new games are getting shittier and shittier. Game Dev: I could spend 100 hours fleshing out the characters or building a new map or designing better dungeons, but I guess the fans want me to make better looking hair, so with the 30 hats in the game and 100 different perspectives, I guess I’ll spend 100 hours fixing that instead.
@@goodmanwiseman303 I honestly think these aren't even fans, but addicts. These are people so desensitized to good games that all they have left is picking apart minute details. Like this cat needs to just step away from the screen and touch grass for a while before playing again, because he's just miserable lol
@@SurfinTheKaliYugaIt’s the same people that say a game sucks cause frame rate. If frame rate stops you from enjoying the game then that’s on you
I recently played Windwaker and Twilight Princess for the first time and they were both awesome
Much better than botw/totk
@@Truthbomb7 disagree
@@SS4Vegito1 Doesn't surprise me
I completely agree with you about the fused weapons, my friend and I love to draw and before totk came out we drew fused weapons, I remember drwing a banana on a sword and the the hilt became a banana at the weapons was a boomerang now. But in Totk if you do that you'll get a couple of bananas on the tip of the sword:(
items that don't become the blade and only give effects should just have made the sword look like the effect it does. so a fire fruit to a sword gives it flames or a red glow or something. sticking it to the top is fucking stupid. same thing for zonai devices, mirror shield should be a reflective surface, not the ugly ass mirror thing stuck to a shield that's clunky as hell lmao
@@highdefinition450 Omg exactly lol
This was such a well written and thought out critique of the game. I for one am In LOVE with both Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of Wild but that’s mainly due to it being the only Zelda games I’ve ever played. Your review actually really makes me want to play Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask to see what I’ve missed out on 😊
Thanks a lot! I'm not going to pretend that Ocarina doesn't show its age at all, but it's still a classic that's extremely easy to return to and enjoy. And the original Zelda formula is definitely worth experiencing if your only exposure to the franchise thus far has been the Breath duology :)
I would definitely recommend Twilight Princess or Wind Waker following OOT and MM! Twilight Princess is the pseudo-sequel to Ocarina of time as it follows Link’s descendant, and Wind Waker is just plain fun.
Hipsters pretending OoT and MM are somehow better than the modern games are honestly the worst kind of dorks. BotW and TotK represent massive leaps in gaming, not just for Nintendo, but for video games as a whole. Anyone pretending otherwise or complaining about silly shit like customization or weapon aesthetics is just doing so for internet cool guy points. But it doesn't work cuz none of them are actually internet cool guys. This whole video is what happens when no bitches.
@@charlieguggemos890twilight process is Links descendant???
@@charlieguggemos890@The-Legend-of-P Zelda has descendants. Same bloodline. If anything Link has reincarnations. Same spirit of the hero
The two people I know who have played Tears of the Boredom and liked it happened to be two people whose only prior experience with the Zelda series so far has been Breath of the Wild...not sure if that's a coincidence or not but it wouldn't surprise me. One of my cousins got reasonably far into the game before giving up on it and described it as "the most well-crafted game I've ever been utterly bored in"; I myself explored the overworld and unlocked most of the towers, brought about forty korok backpackers to their friend, helped Hudson Signpost Fanboy twenty or so times, completed thirty shrines (most of which involved glueing sticks and planks together to cheese my way to the goal), and then decided that my patience with tedious busywork, a clunky user interface and glueing random junk to tree branches and pot lids in a recycled world had run out.
I was the same way. I was really bored with the game seeing it was mostly tedious shit, but then I stopped playing and got back in, and I’m loving it. It’s repetitive a lil bit, but any challenge can be overcome however yu want it. You don’t need to do it 1 way cause there’s 20 ways to solve for it. It’s just 1 big sandbox and I’m loving it. Once I do a lot of stuff I’ll definitely get bored, but we all get bored of stuff. Nothing can entertain us 24/7
“Tedium of the Kingdom”
Twilight princess is the best Zelda game in my opinion because of it's Artstyle, Story, and tone, and music out of any Zelda game that NEEDED a sequel it is Twilight princess because I 100% think Twilight princess deserved a sequel because Twilight princess was the direction that 3D Zelda games should of went into Artstyle and tone wise
Wolf link and everything felt so much fun! I should watch someone replay it cause I miss that game! The final Ganon fight in my favorite
I'm enjoying the game so far but i agree it's far from perfect. The depths were cool at first but eventually they just came an absolute chore to go around. It's just a barren wasteland of a map that's needless big and empty. Also the story is essentially a rehash of Breath of the Wild with Link having to free the races of Hyrule from a plight caused by a Cataclysm (Upheaval,Calamity) and uncover memories. While the gameplay in my opinion is more fun than BOTW in terms of story, it's a downgrade.
I agree with most of the video but I have to disagree with the ending. Yes it's a spectacular setpiece on its own, but at the same time it's problematic narrative-wise. It's a deus ex machina that undoes Zelda's sacrifice just in order to have a happy ending, which retroactively makes her sacrifice have less weight. If they weren't going to commit to it, then she shouldn't have sacrificed herself like that in the first place.
I've seen this take before, and I totally get it. In my case, I don't feel it undoes her sacrifice necessarily, because she still had to endure countless millennia of torment, which is pretty insane. Like I think she's suffered enough lol. It's not the same thing as undoing a death. But hey, that's just my take on it. Thanks for watching!
@@ThrillingDuck that's the other issue I have with this. She has no memory of any of it. There's a lack of consequence to these narrative choices that ultimately rid them of any substantial weight
@@NaitorYT Yeah, I see what you mean and that's totally fair. I'm just a sucker for feel-good endings in certain media lol.
Could not agree with you more on your critique of Tears. I grew up with Zelda and absolutely loved Breath of the Wild, completing it twice (normal and master mode). As you said, experiencing the launch of both BotW and Mario Odyssey in 2017 felt like reliving the wonder of Ocarina and Mario 64 anew! I even thoroughly enjoyed Age of Calamity as it provided a fresh perspective and gameplay while deepening the lore of this particular locale in the Zelda timeline. Tears was such a let down for me in all the ways you described, most notably the ugly weapon fusing, forced re-exploration, the lackluster underworld, and bizarre story without any consequences for Zelda’s actions. For all of its sore spots, I was genuinely surprised to see all the praise TotK got for months on end when my experience was so contrary to the general public’s. Thanks for providing your thoughts. It helped this lifelong Zelda fan over here feel heard.
The depths SUCK!
This video straight up made me realize that I was the guy criticizing Twilight Princess for being an Ocarina of Time rip off when I was younger, lmao. In reality, my younger self was extremely biased toward it because I didn't like the realistic art style, which is hilarious to me because I was one of those fanboys who would go on about how "graphics aren't everything." Really funny that my previous self was super against anything that tried to be darker/ realistic to the point where I would label stuff I hadn't even played as garbage. In the modern day, being a fan of something like Paper Mario, I would absolutely love for them to attempt to build on that franchise in the vein of previous titles in the same way Twilight Princess did to Oot. Beyond like a generally similar setting and being positioned as the successor to that game, TP takes aspects that worked about Ocarina of Time and does an entirely different game with it. Honestly, the comparison you made between Tears and TP really struck a cord me lol. It's absolutely insane to me that I and others used that whole "it's a rip off of Ocarina" excuse for years when talking down on that game, and fast forward to the future, we've got a game that literally repurposes the same world map as the previous title in the series, features the same progression system, the same types of collectathon tasks, and what is essentially an almost beat for beat pseudo retelling of the lore of the previous game. Full stop, I was a guy who was incredibly skeptical of this game from the moment wwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when there was an interview with Aonuma in which he vaguely alluded to the game taking place on the same map. I don't remember exactly what the quote was, but he said something along the lines of we hope you're looking forward to return the world of hyrule. Any way, what I think was interesting about this, when this quote came out, I watched so many people online kind of just brush it aside and collectively say "surely they would reuse the same map, the appeal of this game was exploring the new world, must've just been misconstrued words or bad translation." I bring this up because it shows that there WERE a group of people concerned about this from the start. Anyway, go to when it is officially confirmed, and then you have some of those same people being a like, welp, I guess this means they have some massive ground breaking surprise to go with this, they will make this world reuse worth while. And when they revealed the extent of ultra hand and I heard that there was an entire underground area unrevealed, I came around on it. As release got closer, the excitement that I usually feel when the next instalment of a big Nintendo franchise comes along. But maaaaan, it just didn't deliver for me even with my expectations dialed back to "I know it won't be as big of a game changer as Botw, but I think it can still be great." I have seen so many people claim that "Tears of the Kingdom Fixes All of Breath of the Wild's Problems," "despite the reuse of the map the game still manages to surprise you and be exciting to explore," "it is just as game changing as Botw" and I just cannot agree. In the early stages of this game, I forced myself to play with the sandbox mechanics, and I will say, the amount of polish and extent of what's possible with the vehicle building is a coding marvel. So many interactions that connect together relatively seamlessly and just do what you'd expect. But, for that greatness, it just feels so tacked on to me. All of the complex ways to interact with this stuff, and the only utilizations of it are to do the most simple, bare bones, samey solutions that use one percent of your brain power to accomplish. I really did enjoy testing the limits of the stuff in the first 20 hours. But, as mechanically impressive as it is, compelling game design it does not make imo. It has to be utilized in such a way that you are constantly actively engaging with and critically thinking of solutions using it, but why on earth would the average person do that when there is not incentive to? Strap to fans to a steering wheel, and congrats, you have the most powerful and boring means of traversal possible. But what's more, I found myself almost EXCLUSIVELY doing this across the entire map, just to get to shrines, because they are mainly the only "substantial content" in the game. No in depth side quests with deep story lines, inviting characters, only "kill this monster" and "bring me 2 of these." But what is absolutely the most tragic thing here, IS the reuse of the world map. I would argue that the flaws of Botw's progression system shows through a lot if you've ever tried replaying the game; initially, you're reward is checking out the different land masses and immersing yourself into that world. The problem is, once you've seen basically the extent of what it has to offer, you are left with the actual content in the game itself for your reward, and what is that? Middle of the road shrines that don't build to anything, and give you a health expansion that imo actually makes the game worse because of how simplistic the combat becomes when you've got like 10 hearts. And beyond that, you have Korok seeds, which are largely the same insignifcant puzzles spammed to fill the map with something, and the reward itself is the same problem as the hearts. But the biggest problem is just, why? What is my incentive to get more hearts and inventory if I know I don't need it to beat the challenges in the main quest? And the thing is, Tears of the Kingdom, felt like when I tried replaying Botw. I've seen these landscapes, and the new ones added, the depths and skylands, are a step down in quality from the OG map. It's essentially two new biomes stapled onto a map that is almost EXACTLY the same as the previous one, and man, it really feels like it. No matter how great the world was the first time, and no matter how much it will absolutely be engrained in my mind probably until the day I die, it just doesn't hold up on repeat visits with the same basic, underwhelming and repetitive activities that you did the first time. So yeah, I've seen a lot claim that Tears expanded on Botw, fixed so many problems it had. But the way I see it, it repeats the SAME short comings of the previous game that I was then more lenient about because the entire concept of the game was so fresh for the series, in a game that should've absolutely been THE time to alter and fine tune the issues because of the saved time from reusing the world map. Like, for example, in botw, I feel like most people thought that shrines and koroks worked "just enough" as a small bonuses to keep you repeatedly doing the same type of exploration type stuff in the game. But I don't think anyone realistically thought, no, these aspects of the game are what makes it so amazing, they should totally not rework this system of progression at all in the next title. Hell, I even recall a lot of people jokingly being upset at the prospect of having to collect a thousand korok seeds again when tears released, but imo, where this game stands, it isn't something I can just shrug off as "lol, guess I'll just spend my time mindlessly grinding korok seeds." Because it is repetitive, is lame, it is quite literally the same reward whether you head north, west south, or east, no critical thinking required. It is not satisfying, it is not rewarding, it is quite literally a waste of my time. It isn't even just me, I know for a fact that one of my friends who'd played Botw on release back in the day, specifically mentioned to me that he wasn't going for all shrines this time, or wasting a single second on koroks, because "there are more exciting things to do besides that." And granted, I'm not saying that he was lying to me, he definitely spent a lot of time messing with ultrahand, and that's totally cool if you're into that. But beyond my first 20 hours of finding the limits of ultrahand, in my mind, there WASN'T anything better to do than koroks and shrines. Unfortunately, THAT is the extent of the content. Like I said, no substantial side quests beyond a few stand outs, no unique activities or events that happen in specific areas beyond seeing the same bosses repeated in different places, there is just nothing to do but shrines and koroks. With that in mind, my playthrough went like this past a point: I'd seen this world, I'd done these activities. So I simply flew over the majority of the map to the next shrines, or the next light root, just to check the number off a list. Couple that with the occasional mindless grinding for zonaite in the depths (which turned out to be just as boring and underwhelming as the sky islands), and I was exhausted by the time I was done. I was transformed from a person that said Botw was his favorite game of all time to someone that sees and feels every flaw within these games, and idk if it's just me growing into a cynical adult, but it is what it is. Heck, this has went on for so long as this point, I may as well add this on: I don't think open world was a bad move for Zelda. Far from it. As a guy that's a big fan of games that don't tell you much and you just find things out by playing and experimenting, I think this direction was absolutely the right move for Zelda. Here's the but... it's just the way they're executing it right now is fundamentally broken and boring. Heck, I really don't think may people would complain if they went for a more standard open world progression system, where you some times have to meet specific requirements to advance the story to a point or location. I just want it to feel like it is building to something, and that you are being rewarded for playing the games for 100s of hours with actual content instead of repeated garbage over and over. Anyway, end rant.
I love this comment so much I wish I could just wholesale plagiarize it and staple it onto the video. Very well articulated from beginning to end, thank you for this.
@@ThrillingDuck Lol thanks
That was a hella novel you wrote there. But i red the whole thing and it was a really interesting comment.
Great Comment
Not reading allat
11:16 "Everything was strikingly beautiful." _Shows a horse's ass_
Worst 3D Zelda ever released. 6 year wait for a rehash. Almost a year and I’m still shocked at how bad this game was. From story, game design, progression, balancing, lore, continuity, all of it was genuine trash shockingly bad quality. I wish I could see the development cycle of this game first hand. Miyamoto was unavailable for alot this games development apparently due to the Mario movie and he came back after he was done with that. The game weirdly picks up in both gameplay and thematic quality upon reaching the mineru quest, so I imagine that’s where he came back and why the game got delayed even after 5 whole years. The series seems to be in danger with Aonuma at the helm, it’s weird because he’s the same guy that directed the incredible Majoras mask that was made in a year. I won’t be buying the next Zelda game at release, no way. The false advertising this game (and, admittedly, even though I adore BotW, it too) got in terms of story telling. Tears of the Kingdom worse for the advertising of a sky adventure that turned out to be completely absent.
I actually agree with everything you said! but it seems I enjoyed it way more. I was NOT expecting to sit through this entire hour long video but here I am😅 Very well made u earned a sub!
I feel like twilight princess is one of those games you had to play when it came out to “get it.” It was an amazing journey, and I feel like people who complain are people who got into the series later and just binge the games.
I much prefer the previous 3d Zelda games to BOTW and TOTK. These games just never "clicked" for me. But with that said, I'm fine with that and it is good seeing the series being more popular than it has ever been. I just hope that Nintendo does more 2d Zeldas in tandem to appease fans looking for a more traditional and focused experience.
Voiced characters, anime-esque aesthetics, breakable weapons (as the standard), androgynous Link, a magical tablet eerily reminiscent of real-life computer tablets, inventory option-bloat (along with unnecessary HUD clutter), open world for the sake of open world... Nintendo doesn't realize that too much is too much; people love to defecate on _The Adventure of Link_ because of its difficulty, but it managed to strike a nice balance between details of the world and gameplay despite its limitations. Here's to hoping that this franchise is reset back to its roots.
I still think there's a lot to love about this "open-air" style, so I wouldn't want to see it totally abandoned going forward, but if this was all they could do after 6 years with a recycled map, maybe it's time for another Ocarina-like. At least as a palette cleanser.
Link has ALWAYS been nonbinary/androgynous. There are multiple interviews with the devs where they explicitly state that Link is supposed to look ambiguous because they want both boys and girls to be able to identify with him. He's always been a little fairy boy twink running around in a tunic (which might as well be a dress) and tights with makeup, jewelry and long flowing hair, while also possessing masculine qualities like the way his body is built with wide shoulders and a muscular torso and legs. That's a really stupid complaint to have. Even Twilight Princess Link, who is probably the most masculine of all the Links, still possesses feminine qualities.
@@Sqwivig Take your revisionist garbage outta here.
@@ThrillingDuck "maybe it's time for another Ocarina-like. At least as a palette cleanser." Agreed.
Elaborating on your point about the unintuitive new shrine placements, a lot of the areas of TotK feel a lot more awkward and pointless since they were once setpieces in BotW but aren't anymore. Areas like the big field near Fort Hateno or the North Mine of the volcano feel so much more empty now that the piles of guardians and lava are removed. What once felt like significant areas designed for a lot of players to encounter became weird in-between areas that only exist out of obligation.
The problem I think with tears of the kingdom is that i felt that it wasnt necessarily a sequel, more like a copy of breath of the wild
We don't talk about it much, but I really feel like The Depths were a textbook example of how overreliance on procedural generation can make parts of a game feel meaningless. I can't prove which parts were procedurally generated, but I'm absolutely certain that's the only way Nintendo was able to make The Depths so huge. Used properly, procedural generation can take interesting human-designed elements and give them just enough pseudo random variation to feel meaningful, like in Cadence of Hyrule and any good Roguelike. But use too much of it, and it just feels a landscape painted with a machine-mounted paintball gun. The Depths could have been a rich world built on top of a procedurally generated canvas (and parts of it are), but they left too much of it in the hands of computer A.I. A huge chunk of the end result feels hollow.... and not always in an interesting way.
I definitely agree with your critiques, even though the last Zelda game i played before this one was Ocarina. Some very important things were seemingly not given enough importance, while other more gimmicky aspects were heavily focused on based on the existing systems from BOTW. Also the main story should definitely have been laid out in a linear fashion and Ganondorf should have had his background and motives properly established. And it’s really saying something when a game is a 10 with so many nitpicks and critiques !
Ganon wasn’t fleshed out in the other ones except the introduction and then his death. He’s just kinda there. The old Zelda games werent even linear tbh. You can still choose your own path and adventure and idk what other complaints there are.
@@The-Legend-of-P for sure! We often tend to overlook the fact that a lot of the classic games of our childhood didn’t have really strong and fleshed out narratives, and that a lot of the story and lore we hold dear was introduced afterwards in books, articles, etc. I think we expect all big expansive games released today are expected to have a big and expansive cinematic narrative along with them.
@@apoplexiamusic oh 100%! Everyone kinda has rose colored glasses on and don’t understand. Revisionist history is true and everyone has it for video games. Also it’s hard to have a good expansive story, with great characters and great gameplay. Sometimes it’s hard to do all of that! And the ones that do are regarded as just great games! I love to know more games that have all 3 of those, but rn only a select few got those!
What you said about the Timeline are common myths. 1. First of all, the very idea of a timeline being a thing in Zelda wasn't the creation of the fans, it was Nintendo themselves when they decided to make A Link to The Past a prequel to the Original game back in 1990, then Ocarina a prequel of that. It wasn't until 2002 when Wind Waker was being promoted before its was released when the fandom itself became obsessed with the then vague Timeline. 2. The idea that Tears of the Kingdom contradicts the timeline is a popular myth based on widespread misconceptions many fans have about Skyward Sword and other earlier games. First of all, Skyward Sword itself takes place long, maybe centuries before the Kingdom of Hyrule was ever even established (in fact, Hyrule itself and even the Hylian race are never mentioned once throughout all of Skyward Sword). Skyloft is not Hyrule and neither existed when the goddess Hylia was still around. Also, there is not a single game in the entire franchise before Tears that actually shows nor even gives a detailed account of the founding of Hyrule and it's first King. Meanwhile, the next game in the timeline after Skyward Sword is Minish Cap and that game takes place many centuries after Hyrule was already established. So logically, the flashbacks of Tears must take place long after Skyward Sword and long before Minish Cap. 3. And finally, Rauru & Sonia not knowing anything about Link, Zelda and the Master Sword before Zelda arrived in the past was basically explained in Skyward Sword itself. In that game, during the scene at the Temple of Hylia where Zelda tells Link about their past incarnations as Hylia and her Champion she says that its best if no one else knows about their identities as such since they could be hunted down by villains for the rest of their lives if that information gets out. Its also a reason why Zelda and Link choose to leave Skyloft and move down to the Surface where nobody knows who they are at the end of the game. And the Master Sword itself was sealed under the Sealed Grounds at the end of the game too, so all of that easily explains why Rauru and Sonia don't know about any of this stuff.
Oh neat! Sorry, I just have no faith in Nintendo when it comes to writing lol, but this is cool. I'm very impressed with Aonuma given all this context. Thank you for the detailed and respectfully delivered explanation :)
@@ThrillingDuck Sorry if I came across as disrespectful
@@lukejones7164 I wasn't being sarcastic! You're good lol.
Nintendo was following a timeline pattern when they released wind waker, but they never mention that the original Zelda on the NES was even part of a timeline, it was when skyward sword came out when people started their theories of an official timeline by breaking down the events of ocarina of time, I remember some random youtuber released the split timeline theory way before Hyrule Historia, and then I notice Nintendo just copy paste that timeline into the book, this is why when they mention breath of the wild was going to connect all of the split timelines, it was all show, because all they did was screw everything that happened before, this is a new game, ohh look singer Lulu from majora's mask is mention in a radom stone writing, what a slap in the face, BOTW was a good game, but it was a bad Zelda game
One wonders if a vast open world is really the right path. A smaller more condensed map with better side-quests and a more engaging plot might be better than vast treks between objectives.
I haven't played TOTK just yet. Watched the first 25 minutes and really interested. Gonna have to bookmark this and come back after I play it.
twilight princess is freakin masterpiece. im so happy it was the first zelda i played. I wrote a 5 page essay on it for school and only read through one page before everyone was looking at me like wtf .
I wish Twilight Princess was my first Zelda game instead of my tenth because I found nothing revolutionary about it. Good game, but lackluster Zelda game
It's so goated it has its own manga
I would take 100 bigoron sword quests over the worthless items in breat of the wild and tear of the kingdom
Damn son
Same. Chests are meaningless in TotK because it’s nothing permanent. You get a weapon or items to put on your weapon, but to get to the chest, it costs those same resources. Using and breaking weapons to get to the chest. So just skip the gameplay loop and keep what you have, it’s exactly like you got in the chest and got the items if you just don’t burn through them to get the chest.
genuinely excellent review, i was surprised to see such a high quality video from a relatively small channel. keep up the great work!
Thanks a lot! I really appreciate it :)
Nice to see a video that's critical of the game in a logical fashion instead of just being a temper tantrum. Enjoyed the view! 😁
Thanks a lot! Glad you did :)
“Overrated” *somehow not a temper tantrum*
@@RenSako the fact that you disagree/don't like his opinion doesn't automatically make it a tantrum, lil bro. Give the Internet a break, might I recommend touching some grass?
@@RenSako Do you even know what a temper tantrum is? The tone and presentation of his argument, would be the main indicators of a temper tantrum... and because he was level headed and gave logical examples of his personal issues with the game, he most certainly, was NOT having a tantrum. I do take issue with him talking as if aspects BotW, make it "objectively" a better game, because clearly, it always comes down to individual tastes. ...So I would concede that thrillingduck289, can't technically try to argue that the game is "objectively overrated", because ratings are subjective in nature. However, that's a nitpick and there does seem to be a strangely odd tendency for people to have double standards with the Zelda series. I think if the community's collective sentiments surrounding "good" and "bad" issues from past Zelda games were to be gathered up, we would start to create an objective argument that TotK, is indeed... Overrated by the community. I believe internet culture in general, is the culprit behind this, because people want likes and positive attention, so fewer people, truly speak their own minds (That and some people have no thoughts of their own, so they parrot other people's talking points like bots)... But whatever. They don't have to, when you also have great videos like this. Helps to give the less brave or creative of us, a decent step into the public conversation! 😁
@@j.enantiodromia3940 Exactly. This is one of the only "negative" review videos I've been able to stomach. I thoroughly enjoyed BOTW. It was the primary reason I bought a switch. Put about 90 hours into it, and by that point, I'd had my fill. Absolutely great game, glad I played it. I've put over 200 hours into TOTK and still play it, because from a personal standpoint, they fixed a lot of the gripes I had with it's predecessor. Do I personally think it's the better of the 2? I do. But, that shouldn't suggest I think it's completely flawless, couldn't do some things better, nor do I think it's beyond being criticized in an analytical way. Hence why I liked this video. He had valid criticisms, and approached things in a logical, level-headed manner instead of devolving into "Nintendo not do wat I want so IZ BAD!" like so many other reviews out there. If more people could get on board with the idea that most things are subjective, and to not take differing opinions as a personal attack, shit would be a lot better around here 😅😅
As someone who loved TotK, finished it 100% and is in his second playthrough, you review was spot on. From someone who loves the asthetics of BotW's weapons, the worst part of TotK was how ugly a lot of fused weapons look, and even the coolest fusions were still no match to BotW weapon design. No fused elemental weapon will be as cool as the Great Flameblade or Frostblade. Even the Master Sword is not as cool as before since it shows the fused material when swinging it,'which I don't like. The fact that fused swords don't have sheats make the problem even worse. As you said, even low levels swords such as a Traveler's Claymore looked incredible cool in BotW. In fact, the main reason I will play BotW again in a near future is to able to use cool weapons again.
Thank you! And YES, the Master Sword showing the fused item when swung gave me more aggravation than I care to admit lol.
I agree. I personally don't like the new damaged look of totk weapons compared to their botw counterparts. So after I finish totk I'll return to botw.
@@Clover573 The original designs are also in TotK, you just have to go out of your way to find them.
@@paulrance5445They are, but they are much weaker than their BotW counterparts, which makes them useless without fusing, and by fusing them, they lose their unique design
This review was like "this game is kinda Meh ... but it's fucking incredible"
Nintendo used to care about the timeline. Every single NIntendo-developed game in the series was a direct sequel or prequel to another one (except the first one, obviously), and aside from one major continuity error between Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past (which is the reason for the arbitrary-seeming third timeline split), there was consistency, care and reverence for the previous titles and their stories. Tears of the Kingdom just threw that away like it was worth nothing. It looks at the 30 years of accumulated lore and only sees a sources of lazy, nonsensical references that completely break immersion. Why is the sword Ganondorf used in Twilight Princess in the Typhlo Ruins at the end of a questline about the sages? There is no reason. It doesn't make sense. Tears of the Kingdom doesn't respect the story of its predecessors, it only cares about what names, items and monsters it can copy from them so we can all do the Leo pointing meme. By the way, the reason that the timeline published in Hyrule Historia was so similar to the prevailing fan theory is that the fan theory was logically constructed from in-game evidence, that is to say it was mostly correct. I can't believe you're taking the similarity of Historia's timeline with the prevailing fan theory as evidence that Nintendo copied its homework instead of the more likely explanation that the fan theory was just correct. I mean, you can construct 90% of the timeline just by following which games are prequels and sequels to which others. It's what the fan theory did, and it's what Historia did with a few arbitrary choices as to where to slap the non-Nintendo titles.
Agree to disagree. Honestly, I don't think Nintendo ever cared about the timeline. Why are the sages in Twilight Princess these weird ghost people with detached heads? Ganondorf's botched execution was supposed to take place within like weeks of the Hero of Time leaving Hyrule, yet the "sages" seen in that flashback could not be more detached from the sages in Ocarina of Time. As for the Historia timeline, I believe the fans logically constructed it because they care, and Nintendo copied their homework. I believe this unironically, because frankly it's completely in character with their general regard for continuity across almost all their IPs. I get that you believe the fan theory just matched the official one because it's logical, but personally I think you're overestimating the company lol.
@@ThrillingDuck I mean I can prove that Nintendo has always been thinking about the timeline, for instance here's an excerpt from an interview they gave in 2002 just before the release of Wind Waker. Q: Where does The Wind Waker fit into the overall Zelda series timeline? Aonuma: You can think of this game as taking place over a hundred years after Ocarina of Time. You can tell this from the opening story, and there are references to things from Ocarina located throughout the game as well. Miyamoto: Well, wait, which point does the hundred years start from? Aonuma: From the end. Miyamoto: No, I mean, as a child or as a... Aonuma: Oh, right, let me elaborate on that. Ocarina of Time basically has two endings of sorts; one has Link as a child and the other has him as an adult. This game, The Wind Waker, takes place a hundred years after the adult Link defeats Ganon at the end of Ocarina. And here's one from 2007 about Twilight Princess: -When does Twilight Princess take place? Aonuma: In the world of Ocarina of Time, a hundred and something years later. -And the Wind Waker? Aonuma: The Wind Waker is parallel. In Ocarina of Time, Link flew seven years in time, he beat Ganon and went back to being a kid, remember? Twilight Princess takes place in the world of Ocarina of Time, a hundred and something years after the peace returned to kid Link’s time. In the last scene of Ocarina of Time, kids Link and Zelda have a little talk, and as a consequence of that talk, their relationship with Ganon takes a whole new direction. In the middle of this game [Twilight Princess], there's a scene showing Ganon's execution. It was decided that Ganon be executed because he'd do something outrageous if they left him be. That scene takes place several years after Ocarina of Time. Ganon was sent to another world and now he wants to obtain the power... There are also plenty of other quotes about how Ocarina of Time was supposed to be a prequel to A Link to the Past depicting the Imprisoning War and other connections between games. You don't need these quotes to be able to tell that these connections exist, they're evident from in-game information, manuals and promotional material. The quotes just prove Nintendo cared about the timeline. And again, every Nintendo-developed game was a prequel or a sequel. All that the official timeline in Historia did is lay out those explicit connections in one place and slot in the non-Nintendo games where they best fit. It's really not that far-fetched. AoL was a sequel to the original with the same Link; ALttP a prequel to the original; LA a sequel to ALttP with the same Link; OoT a prequel to AlTtP; MM, TP and WW were all sequels to OoT following up on different aspects of that game's ending (MM having the same Link), PH was a sequel to WW and ST a sequel to PH; then came ALBW as another sequel to ALttP; and finally SS was a prequel to everything. That's all the games made by Nintendo. Every one of those connections is clear just from the relevant games, and the only discontinuity is that ALttP is not coherent with OoT's sequels, hence having to make up the downfall timeline thing to justify that one moment of carelessness in 30 years of games. Nintendo did care, or at least they used to. Tears of the Kingdom is resolute to stamp out any substantial connection to the old games. Ganon's origin, the Triforce and the very Kingdom of Hyrule have been retconned to remove any traces of the old games. If there is a reference to a previous game, it is vapid and meaningless. It's an old tunic in a chest in the depths, or a weapon from a previous game offered as quest reward that doesn't make any sense. It's true that Nintendo doesn't care, but they used to. PS: The sages in Twilight Princess are not the same people as the sages from Ocarina. Nabooru, Ruto, Darunia, Saria and Impa wouldn't even have been awakened as sages in the Child timeline. Also in Ocarina the sages are strongly implied to have died before awakening, so it's likely that the twilight Princess sages are also dead and they look like ghostly old men because they literally are ghosts and this form is just how they look in the physical world.
@@felipe970421 No shit, I'm actually impressed with that Aonuma interview, well done. Still doesn't explain the sages of TP being weird ghost people (like ok, the Ocarina sages aren't awakened but who are the ghost people with the severed heads? Why isn't Rauru a ghost person with a severed head, etc), but I agree that TotK shits all over the pre-established continuity.
@@ThrillingDuck I mean if you ask me, the real reason is that Twilight Princess has a very different visual aesthetic to Ocarina of Time, and it omits the Sheikah, Gerudo and Kokiri, so having the sages be closer to their Ocarina design could cause an aesthetic clash and would confuse people people who hadn't played Ocarina. It's already confusing enough how Ganondorf actually obtained the Triforce of Power in that game (but to alleviate that confusion, one of the sages suggests it was divine mischief; he doesn't know about the timelines, and if you don't either you can take that wrong explanation). They're weird beheaded ghostly old men because it's a cool design for a new batch of minor characters that don't need individualized designs. It's easy enough to rationalize an in-universe explanation for their TP look (e.g they're ghosts/astral projections of a group of long dead humans and this is how they manifest outside the Temple of Time), but the true reason is that they thought it was a cool design and it didn't really contradict anything previously established. I just don't think a change in design for a group of relatively minor characters (minor in TP, they're obviously major in OoT) is justification to say Nintendo has no regard for continuity.
@@felipe970421 That’s okay. Play Pikmin 4 and get back to me on that. Anyway I think you’re severely underplaying the TP sages’ clash to support your opinion, but whatever. You already proved your point that somebody on the dev team at least USED to care about continuity. The rest of this is overkill and frankly I’m over it. TP sages are dumb, and don’t look like anything in particular. You yourself said Ganon having the Triforce of power in TP makes no sense, so 🤷🏻♂️ Where you choose to draw the line with headcanon is a little too arbitrary for me to take totally seriously since you seem to use it to just excuse what you feel like excusing where it’s convenient. TLDR timeline used to track more or less, now it doesn’t. We can agree on that much.
33:44 i disagree i don't think the story should always include the sages. even if it does, i don't think they should always follow you in the dungeon either, sometimes it's better alone even just for the vibe. it was cool how they were essentially dungeon items tho. also disagree that the new sage powers were more useful than the champion abilities, those were automatically activated in most cases so i always used them. the sages you have to talk to them lmao it's so bad, only tulin and yunobo come in handy cause they also activate automatically in certain circumstances
I get that, and "more useful" wasn't really the right term - I should have phrased that differently. The Champion powers were more potent, but that also meant they had long cooldown times to compensate. I personally preferred having smaller powers that I could spam frequently, but that's just a personal taste thing. They're not "more useful," I rescind that statement lol.
This game was just annoying to play to me. The combat is so basic boring outdated i cannot begin to understand how people find the gameplay on this game fun and on top the story is so minimal and the delivey of such "story" is so outdated and just not it
No
I have to admit, though I feel not as strong as you did on some points, overall I have my fair share of tedium to endure and as such genuinely agree with your overall verdict.
i hated how link was shirtless at the end like why it's so goofy lmaoo
Honestly when I first saw the teaser in 2019, I thought they were going to make this game dark similar to majora's mask. And Oh wait never mind.
They definitely were until Aonuma got his hands on the project when miyamoto stepped out. Then it became a Minecraft sandbox.
I have to applaud you for your mature review. Your explanations on some disappointments are conveyed clearly, and there's a lot that I agree with. TOTK is objectively better, but the experience is not novel, the exploration is in large part not novel. It creates a sense of "been there done that", not of genuine wonder. Although in the first half of my TOTK playthrough I did feel some wonder from the depths, when it was not lit yet.
I was really expecting new villages and restored ruins for totk but nope. I also was disappointed with the story, it didn’t have continuity to botw. Not a bad game, I do like it, but those small things make a huge difference.
Agreed
Even playing the game through an emulator (I own the game and a switch, calm down.) so I could mod weapons to be unbreakable and it made the game very much enjoyable, but the problems just come from exploration, story and grinding. Tears of the Kingdom is a sandbox, meaning once you learn the best ways of traversal, that's all you're going to use, but in order to create that traversal you have to go to the depths to gather Zonite and it doles that out in such pitiful amounts that you can't engage in that sandbox unless you spend hours grinding out the little monster camps. I'm honestly tired of doing the developer's list of chores before I can enjoy the game properly.
Imo the timeline is very easily explained. The downfall timeline never makes sense, unless if Zelda from Totk is the sole reason why the downfall timeline existed in the first place. Her being sent back in time, helping stop the great gerudo war (the war that happened right before oot that killed Links parents and was the reason why Link from OOT was left at the great deku tree) is what caused the downfall timeline and the botw/totk timeline. I'm taking everything at face value and decanonizing the "minish cap and four sword games" by assuming Ocarina of Time's king and queen were the first King and Queen of hyrule. With Rararu litrally being the same Rararu from OOT but in a human disguise, only telling OOT link vital information. Also before Skyward Sword, Hyrule wasn't established, it was much later after that game The game talks about the "imprisoning war" so often, and I just think at this point taking it face value, that the imprisoning war from totk is just the imprisoning war mentioned in Link to the Past. This would mean that totk ganondorf is the same ganondorf from oot just like WW ganondorf and TP ganondorf which the devs already confirmed he is in a interview. This also makes a lot of sense with how so many scenes from the past have so so so many references and borderline 1 to 1 remakes with OOT scenes, because they are... just in a deviated timeline from Zelda from TOTK appearing The mastersword stuff could literally just be them knowing they aren't able to pull it out of only recently finding it out. And the rito just being retconned into being a unique race earlier
Seriously, I did NOT like having to divert my attention away from the rest of the game as soon as possible just to get to Hateno and do those stupid quests JUST to get the hood down. Should have been a toggle from the start. Instead of a bunch of boring *little* Sky Islands we should have had like four other "Great" Sky Islands that better represented the regions they were hovering over. Last thing: I feel like once you start lighting up enough of the depths it gets real boring down there. The unique locations down there are super small. Why not put like a huge Zonai city under Gerudo Desert? Maybe locations straight out of previous games (in ruins of course) with the old armor sets by the respective location?
Right?! There was so much potential there that just wasn’t capitalized on at all.
@@ThrillingDuck Also I just want to say that this was a fantastic video, dude. I really liked TotK when I played it but there were so many little things eating away at me when I did. The highs are high but the lows are LOW.
@@NelStone1 Thanks so much man! And YES, I couldn't agree more.
I can't bring myself to finish this game. I played for an hour or so every day for 2 weeks before just getting bored because I honestly didn't care for BotW. The first playthrough was amazing, but I tried again and again and couldn't, so when I tried this game I was even more burnt out on the world.
I get that. BotW is definitely best the first time through, and if you're one of the Zelda fans who didn't like it then TotK isn't gonna change your mind, cuz it's exactly the same for all intents and purposes. And I feel extra bad for fans who didn't like BotW because the last "proper" Zelda game y'all received was Skyward fucking Sword, yikes.
Same, totk was a major disappointment. People calling it 10/10 are delusional.
@@TbPl-yg4kk people who have differing opinions aren't delusional. The world doesn't revolve around your take. You found it disappointing but the greater gaming community loved it. If we are being honest here, you're the delusional one.
@@TbPl-yg4kkimagine people having a different opinion to you!
@@archonthaaproducer It's not about the world revolving around my take. It's about the game being objectively mediocre at best. People calling totk a 10/10 game are as delusional as someone hypothetically calling a Totinos pizza a 10/10 pizza. You guys are frantically gulping down shit water and trying to convince each other that you like the taste. I'm sorry I don't buy into your delusion.
I just personally can't get into Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom. I prefer linear, structured games over open worlds, and they just seem to lack a lot of what made me fall in love with Zelda in the first place. I long for a return to the classic Zelda formula.
I hated ultra hand and having to build everything. It never felt like I was building the solution the developers intended. I would just build whatever was easiest to get the job done. Doing a few puzzles with magnesis in BOTW was fine, but having to use ultra hand in every shrine and dungeon was too much.
This is like, the most disappointing amazing game in existence. It is a great game, but at the same time... it really doesn't feel like it was worth waiting 6 years for. When they announced this game in E3 2019, I was really excited to get to explore a new Zelda world once more, or at least a new map, even if it simply takes place somewhere else in Hyrule. Needless to say, the highlights of this game for me were falling onto the Great Sky Island for the first time, plummeting into the Depths for the first time, and then the finale. Not to say the rest of it wasn't good, but I did not get that sense of discovery I got when playing BOTW. Those first two highlights stuck out to me because I felt like I was exploring a whole new world for the first time, and the third highlight was memorable because it was a much cooler finale than the first game. After passing the Great Sky Island and exploring about half of the Depths though... I was getting fatigued again. The vast majority of the underground is coated in the same color palette, except for where the Fire Temple is (another highlight of the game for me was finding the Fire Temple when exploring the cave before finding out it was for a main quest. I was genuinely super excited when I pulled out the Purah Pad and examined that large structure from far away), and then the Sky was ultimately just too small to feel like an impactful part of the game. Then there's one thing I simply don't really get. I understand most of the hype behind this game, heck, even I left it saying that it was an incredible game. But... I genuinely do not get how it is "revolutionary" or a "massive game changer", something along the lines of "something that no other game has done before". It's easy to get caught in the honeymoon phase of a game, but... nah, I simply do not see how this game is revolutionary or especially something that changes the industry. It is certainly impressive how well the physics system works with a bunch of different elements of the game with rarely any glitches present, and I won't deny the amount of work it must have taken to properly code and test every possible item to fuse onto weapons or connect together with Ultrahand, especially in a large open world environment. But... I mean, there are a lot of other games out there that play with these kinds of vehicle building systems with equally impressive physics engines and likely vehicles that are more fun to control, maybe not in a way where it meshes well as a core mechanic of an action adventure game, but still, I don't see it more than a well-executed mechanic that is fun to use at best and an inconvenience at worst. I dunno, the game's great, but I just don't see it as a revolutionary game that changes the industry or even a 10/10 game. It's a fun game that is well-made and had effort put into it, but it honestly doesn't really feel special to me since a lot of my time with it was running around in a slightly modified version of a world I've already explored the vast majority of.
Preach
19:14 This is something people don't bring up often enough regarding the game's difficulty. I was so disappointed they brought back the awfully unbalanced defense system from botw. I don't have as big of an issue with the healing system as the armor defense, because at least with food you can choose not to heal during battle to give yourself more of a challenge. But with the defense the damage you receive is so wildly in inconsistent it's really hard to give yourself a reasonable difficulty level, you're either invincible or die in 2 hits and rarely in between. At least in the depths the gloom damage is dependent on the enemy, that's the only place it's balanced.
Damage input makes 0 sense. Also if everything kills you in 2 hits then that’s somewhat balanced. The game gives you abilities to not get hit once in battle so it’s kinda challenging to play perfect all the time. It’s the same in other RPG’s where enemies just 2 hit. Ghost of Tsushima did the health right imo
from day 1 I was enjoying this game knowing I would start seeing videos like this a few months after when the honey moon phase was over. while I hd a ton of fun exploring the depths and skies i still felt like something was missing
it makes me sad that they don't care about the timeline because most games before botw did fit in together except maybe the four sword games. ss was literally advertised as the first in the timeline, they did care at least a little. i just don't think they're good enough writers to make things fit together so they just rebooted everything in botw. really hate how all the old canon is all lumped together now :((
I like the timeline as a concept. But the one nintendo gives us doesn't work without changing it. Botw, age of calamity, and totk tho can't logically fit on it and they are just their own timeline entirely. But alot of this is something i agree with XD i was so hyped for totk. But i'm bummes that it's a step forward and an immediate step back in design
thanks for talking shit on the zelda fans who moan about twilight princess being the same as oot but on the flip side praise totk. totk is literally the same game as botw and it’s crazy to me that people get mad when you say that 😭😭
I'm so glad someone also feels that way about the weapons. I would much rather have a cool ready-made weapon at my disposal that's able to be improved than be forced to use the fusion mechanic. Also, I had no idea what to do with the geoglyphs, even after meeting Impa.
It’s surprisingly opaque. They want you to go up in the balloon with her at that one specific meeting spot in order to learn that you can see their key spots from high up, but I can easily see anyone who doesn’t arrive at that geoglyph first and is playing blind being completely lost. If I hadn’t been following the suggested temple order I can totally see that happening to me too - one of the perils of stubbornly nonlinear design.
1:04:50 it straight up does though……I’m factual in this statement. It’s retcons all of BOTW Sheika lore, for goat people, not only that it retcons “ALTTP” imprisoning war.
Definitely not a 10/10 game
the same map is a big issue for me. The feeling of a new world full of discoveries its gone in tears.
Except it's not the same map. They added the sky islands and the entirety of the depths (the depths themselves being practically the same size as the surface), and even the surface map was significantly altered as they added around 150 caves, added more than 150 brand new shrines, all of the towers were replaced, new locations were added such as lookout landing and a network of tunnels underneath the castle, and almost 60 wells are now scattered around the world.
@@WhitePointerGaming The map has definitely changed, but they haven't added anything new to explore. There are no new substantial areas added to the game. The depths is just the surface but inversed, and once you figure that out "exploring" the depths loses it's purpose. Not to mention that there isn't anything under there anyways, other than the two dungeons (which are good. however, the depths are massive and the fact that that's *all* there is that is substantial new, not copy-pasted content is sad). And the sky islands are all copy and pasted single shrine puzzles. Once again, other than the three dungeon buildups in the sky (which are probably the best content in the game) and the great sky island (which is kinda cool, i guess), there is nothing new up there. And the overworld has been changed! They've added lots of new random blocks everywhere and a few new towns etc etc. But, my problem with it at least, is that there is nothing new to *explore*. Sure, they added new shrines, caves, and wells. But they are all the same. There is no new area on the map to run around in and explore and find its secrets. And personally as someone who's gotten all the shrines in botw twice, i don't really find it that fun to explore this same map again for a third time. even if the shrines are in different spots. It's the same map.
There are people that play Ocarina, botw and other Zelda games over and over because of how much they love the game. They don't complain about being on the same map. Then the studio makes a new game with the same map and people want to cry about it. So your complaint is that it didn't perfectly recapture the very first time you played botw yet improved on basically everything? If you don't like the game enough to use the same map because the only thing that mattered to you was the feeling of first seeing everything then don't invest in the game.I don't get how people expect the sequel to not take place in Hyrule.
@@quantrindic5488 the difference, is that those other Zelda games were not about exploring the map. People aren't replaying them to explore, they're playing them to replay the story, the dungeons, etc. BOTW, the main gameplay was exploring. it's what you did. even if you focused on the main story, most of your gameplay time was still spent exploring, gathering shrines, koroks, and fighting enemies out in the wild. Also, I have replayed BOTW multiple times and found it just as fun as the first time I played. However, this is a sequel, where you expect something new. TOTK should have taken BOTW's map and drastically altered it. Maybe there should be new towns full of Hylans everywhere, and maybe the zonai islands could have altered the landscape in meaningful ways. But they didn't do that. They added new shrines, koroks, caves, and wells, but nothing new to actually explore. And that, kills the game for me
Lmao this is some serious horseshit. Almost everything in the game is different in a serious fashion. It being technically the same locations means next to nothing, because they’re all changed, nearly beyond recognition in most cases.
Great video but some stuff about Ganondorf I wanna point out: - He was always called the Demon King in the Japanese versions of OoT & TP. "Great King of Evil" and "Dark Lord" are just English translations. He was also called the Demon King in ALTTP when he's Ganon. In the Japanese version of WW, he states that the Master Sword was what kept his Demon Tribe sealed or stuck. - I'm not sure why people say Ganondorf is a reincarnation of Demise. I do see the similarities in Ganondorf's 2nd form and Master Sword weakness and the fact that they both have a love for demons, darkness, and chaos but other than that, I've never seen it stated. (Its important to note that the speech in English got kind of butchered). Maybe it makes more sense to say he's a successor to Demise rather than him being the reincarnation (Especially when Demise's consciousness is inside the Master Sword) or even worse (Demise is "possessing" or "puppeting" Ganon which I can't believe people still believe that) - Ganondorf in the Japanese version of ToTK states that his disappointment in the world is because its filled with cowardly weaklings who value peace and states that in his old days, people still had their strong sense of fighting spirit (I'm not Japanese expert so you can watch the video made by QuestWithAaron about him or learn Japanese yourself). So when he rehydrates, he states that he'll be the one who shape the world and return it into its right form (Darkness, endless wars, forcing everyone to fight or die, etc) One more thing; there is an interview with Fujibayashi where he says that there are "multiple possibilities" as to what that "1st Hyrule" is. He's suggesting it could be that the kingdom is destroyed and had to be rebuilt, repurposed, etc but take that with a grain of salt. I don't wanna force you to care about the lore haha. They do state that they "consider the timeline but only to an extent" because they don't want to be "too restricted" on the games & stories they make (Even tho I find the story of ToTK to be very disappointing)
I stand corrected! To answer your one question though, people say that Ganon is a reincarnation of Demise because of his curse at the end of Skyward Sword. He swears that “an incarnation of his hatred and malice” will pursue Link and Zelda through the ages (that may not be 100% verbatim, but it’s close). Technically it’s “his hatred” that’s reincarnating I guess, but most ppl (myself included) cut out the middle man and just consider Ganon his flat out personal reincarnation, because the idea of the emotion/grudge itself reincarnating seems a bit silly lol.
sad you didn’t mention revenge on the koroks 💔(really well made review though!)
I feel like the combat wouldn't have lost much without weapon degradation. You would still be able to use a variety of weapons, they would just be weaker and not breaking after three hits. I probably would have slogged through BotW then, it just doesn't feel like a Zelda title to me.
I get that. That’s actually one of my biggest issues with TotK - it just doesn’t feel like Zelda to me a lot of the time.
What burns me out about this game is that the world is too open with NOTHING on it. Sure there are shrines and enemies every now and then but that isn't appealing to me. There's no points of interest to find and interact with, where are the small villages and getting small side quest? Where are random people traveling and giving you side quests? I've been going through the game and only found 3 side quests so far, and they were all chores. Open worlds are supposed to be interacted with, not just traversed.
Well you’d probably hate botw then lol
@@romanallgeier4661 the problem is that we already DID THIS in botw in the SAME WORLD
@@FullyOnVolks It's not the same world though. There are a lot of changes, and I'm still finding them.
@@TheRealNintendoKidThe reused map retoric kinda falls on its own back doesn't it, though the video has some very true and valid points, I don't feel the map is one of them. Wether the map itself is in base the same, I am, like you, still finding lots of new things arround that have changed, and you have two other maps to compensate too. For example, I was so lost in Eldin since the fact that the lava had solidified, efictively reshaping part of the region, complitely blocked my botw memories from helping me get arround.
The game is full of side quests from all villages and random people walking around. What are you talking about? In total it has 23 main story quests, 139 side quests and 60 side adventures. Completing the Labyrinths alone is at least 6 hrs gameplay... and that's just one of many complex shrines/quests which reward you greatly. Gunning for bone proficiency was one of the most fun and rewarding parts of the game for me, and that's just a sliver of the game in its entirety. It also has a total of 136 armor pieces, a completely different use for monster parts which incentivises engagement with enemies + a completely new approach to farming items (i.e. do I sell my parts, or keep them for fuzing? Which parts should I prioritise? What armor should I focus on getting to optimise my use of weapons/playstyle?), also a whole new building mechanic with 27 different zonai devices which you can use to build mechs, planes, boats, farming tools; almost anything you can imagine. Then you have to level up your battery and complete quests + defeat enemies to get the zonai armor and level it up to make the most of your creations. The game is so full of life I became overwhelmed not knowing where to start and which direction I should take. It sounds like you played the game for like 5 hours then just quit lol
The sky islands were few and far between and the majority of unique things to find were just orbs to upgrade your Spirit crew. The depths were full of nothing but Amiibo items from the previous game. The abilities are far worse due to the fact you have to run up to the companion and press A, you can’t get it to work the second you need it to work. The story is almost nonexistent. How did Calamity Ganon play into the past, why didn’t Zelda warn of Calamity Ganon and it could have been avoided? Why doesn’t Link ever tell anyone what’s going on after he knows about Zelda turning into a dragon? There’s no difference from when you have no clue where Zelda is, and when you know she’s the dragon, nothing is different and you can’t tell a soul. After talking to someone, the screen goes black and they’re gone. Like really? I can’t even see them walk away? No just cut to black time and time again. Shrines again!? Completely reusing shrines, kokiri puzzles, and the same map but yet it took 6 years to make the game? This game was a huge disappointment for me. No other game series could get away with these faults. Imagine if Elder Scrolls 6 came out and it was set in Skyrim and took place right after Alduin was defeated. And also you couldn’t do dragon shouts anymore, you had to run to the Dragonborn and press A on him and then he would shout. But hey you can glue things together…. I just can’t understand how people weren’t completely disappointed by this game.
Ok I finished the video and some things I disagree with you on are: 1. Ganondorf's design is one of the best, but his character and motivations are not delved into at all and it left me really unsatisfied. He just wanted to dominate hyrule because he wanted to. I felt like Ganon of windwaker and twilight had so much more complex motivations and goals. Idk he just felt like an evil villain for evils sake, which was a big complaint about Ganon in both that he lacked depth and was just evil embodied. 2. While the sage abilities are useful, I much prefer the design and convenience of Botw's champion abilities. The champion's abilities were fluidly incorporated with natural button movements like jumping, charging attacks, shielding, taking damage. I found myself rarely using Sidon or Riu's abilities outside of their respective temples. The other two are more useful but can get in the way of other actions when they automatically jump into their position. Overall, I did not enjoy having to chase them down to use the ability, but I liked having them on the field. 3. Mineru was one of my least favorite features. I just realized that I didn't even include her in my rant about the sage abilities because she's so forgettable to me. I found gameplay with the mech to be slow, clunky, unresponsive, and in conflict with the way the rest of the combat is set up. I also HATE how you can't just jump off of it like a horse or literally any other thing you can mount in the game. You have to like prompt it to dismount and then Mineru stops and crouches down and you have press a second button. She is too slow for me to use in combat and much like with the rest of the zonai devices, the scope of her capabilities are so limited by the depleting batteries.
OH also I did not enjoy when they turned Zelda back into a human because they made SUCh a big deal about how the transformation into a dragon is irreversible. That gave so much weight to Zelda's sacrifice and changing the rule so quickly at the end with no explanation as to how they were able to do that felt like poor writing. They wanted to have their cake and eat it too.
These are all totally fair preferences and opinions (including the dragon). And I actually agree with some of them. Wind Waker Ganon remains the most well-written one, but I’m personally fine with an archetypical irredeemable cartoon villain for Ganon so long as he has a good design and fight, simply because Zelda is an ancient series built on archetypical tropes, and I think that sometimes you need the occasional serving of like a good vanilla to make more interesting flavors and concepts stand out. Also I have no arguments with the Champion powers being better implemented in a number of ways, I just enjoy being able to spam the abilities in TotK rather than waiting on a 10 minute cooldown. But I agree that their handling with the way you have to cue them up kind of sucks massive ass lol. Anyway thanks for watching and for the lengthy comments! These conversations are really what I make these videos for :)
I'm like halfway through he video but so far I agree with a lot of what you're saying. Mind you this wasn't my opinion in the first few months of playing the game. I was in love and obsessed with it and enjoyed it so much but now I find myself just bored trying to explore anymore since I've finished the main quest. It's too repetitive to engage me. For whatever reason, I have this feeling to play older Zelda games. We have THREE games using the same map, aesthetics, story beats AND characters. Botw, AoC, and Totk. I love these games but I think I'm just ready to move on to something new again in Zelda. I really hope the next game isn't just TotK but with a new map. Not EVERY new Zelda game has to be open world haha
"Tears of the Kingdom is Overrated" but he still gives it a 10/10 lol
See the followup video "What Does 'Overrated' Mean"
the only complains I had about the previous titles was wind waker, I thought it was a bad idea to have goofy graphics when the game cube had very amazing releases like resident evil 4, but when I played the game, I really enjoyed it, because I thought they were going to remove the master sword and the triforce, but then I was blown away when I beat the tower of the gods, and it made me finish the game, when I saw how the master sword breaks at the beginning of TOTK they basically said, screw that blade forged by the gods, mechas and minecraft is trending now so forget about the lore and build stuff...look how they massacred my boy
Oot got me into video games. I stopped playing games at around 15, 8 years later botw was the game that got me back into video games ❤
Botw 9/10 Totk 6.5/10 (considering 6 years of development it oculd have been leagues better)
how can you give it a 10/10 after all that, jfc only zelda gets a pass like this. shit sucks. for me it's an 8 MAX if i'm feeling generous, just the amount of menuing for me would keep it from being a 10, it's fine for games like rpgs but this is an action adventure game, i shouldn't have to always interrupt the action. people complain about the iron boots in oot but everything in this fucking game is so much worse than that. having to open the menu for every single arrow is the dumbest shit i've seen in a long time lmao.
Honestly playing Skyward Sword before Totk is probably what ruined the sequel for me. Seeing a great story in a Zelda game that worked well with the mechanics was great and then I played Totk. Sure its mechanics were amazing but the story felt awful and I hated how it felt like it refused to acknowledge it was a sequel.
the zora domain shrine sucks ass man i agree the placement sucks, tarrey town as well
great video! unlike you, i didn't play botw until a few months before totk came out, so i really really felt that slog you mentioned when it came to re-exploring the surface. i almost entirely ignored any parts of the surface that weren't visibly different from botw when i was first exploring the map, choosing to instead focus on getting all the lightroots and sky islands. it felt like a chore to climb hebra, lanayru, death mountain, etc. explore faron, the gerudo desert, the gerudo highlands, etc. for the second time in the last six months. but once i actually started doing that, i realized that they didn't just recycle it, they spent that six years filling in density, putting literally hundreds of side quests and NPCs with new dialogue in every corner of the map, and it was when i discovered that that i felt completely overwhelmed by the sense of scale and looming time investment i would need to actually reexplore this place fully. the thing that kept me going was the new mechanics, the new weapon system allowing me to make something uniquely my own and absolutely terrifying, the building, the zonai machines, the hoverbike, the glider wings, the cannon shields, the rocket shields, tipping my arrows with hover platforms to stop falling anywhere i wanted, and then using rockets to reposition those platforms and get some amazing photography. i think if i had played botw in 2017 and then put it down for that whole gap of time, this game would've been much more fresh and exciting, but i simply wasn't a zelda fan back then, and hadn't fallen in love with that gane until i begrudgingly played it in preparation for this game. i adore this game, it feels like hyrule is so much more alive in this one, the NPCs are more dynamic, the story is actually happening to link and not just an expo dump about what happened 100 years ago from a dead guy in the tutorial area. there are only two major issues i take with this game: 1. i don't get to talk to my fish wife. 2. sexy goat man has humanoid feet instead of hooves. taking those flaws into consideration, i have no choice but to dock it 8 points, 2/10, borderline unplayable
Lol great comment. I’m glad the series is still drawing new fans - Zelda is so ubiquitous that sometimes I legitimately forget that not everyone who plays videogames plays Zelda. Your opinions are totally valid and I genuinely wish I felt TotK felt as fresh to me as it did to you. Thanks for watching!
Thank you for this. I 1000000% agree.
BotW was like a piece of meat with a delicious new sauce on it, but people had slight complaints about the meat-to-sauce ratio. TotK appears to be the same dish, but with 5 times the sauce.
I PRAY that the next Zelda game will focus on being more liniar, i am absolutely tired of the open world aspect of BotW and TotK by now especially when the world is just being reused again... We need a Zelda OoT/TP 2.0
I have a couple theories regarding timeline stuff: It seems to be the same Ganon, i mean look at his face when the name Link is given, he knows that name. Hyrule is being rebuilt during Rauru's time after god knows what kind of war went on, the tri-force seems absent thanks to it. It isn't before the time of Skyward, but way, way, WAY after Twilight Princess, or even the Windwaker games. The Zonai might be Twili's distant descendants, that weird green energy and architecture seems on brand with them.
>tokt is overrated >dude almost only complains about the serious flaws of tokt for an hour >still gives it a 10/10 (while also calling botw the transcendent masterpiece) -.- ................
#500? Commenter #500? It’s your turn for the followup video explaining that you don’t know what the word “overrated” means: kzhead.info/sun/hLuvlrqQipNop58/bejne.htmlsi=jAd62axYNltMkA2a
@@ThrillingDuck ok thanks i can't wait to disagree with you there too , and then to subsequently gush with agreeing with you over portrait of ruin o: ....
@@iamLI3 lol
I disagree with your take on TotK, but that's only because I am a different person, with different preferences, play-style, different points of nostalgia, etc. The way that you explain your own unique perspective is so fair and goes to show how we can all have different opinions of things becuase we are, surprise surprise, different people. I loved BotW and I doubly loved TotK. I do think both games are a bit too big and can become tedious towards the end, but that's only because of a tendency to want to do everything, which you don't HAVE to do. ABsolutely huge fan of TP as well.
and still no Hook Shot