Aruji

3y

finished all dungeons. last quest took me about 5 hours.

butch22

3y

the problem with the music is its over too fast cause the dungeons too damn short

Chilla

3y

You ever wondered what Chilla thinks about Tears of the Kingdom? Find out below:

Now that I've played Tears of the Kingdom for like 170 hours (call me the Sage of Time) and beat the main objectives and done a lot of exploring and side-quests (of course not everything but enough to feel like I've got a good idea of how I feel about the game overall), I think it is time to share my thoughts:

Breath of the Wild was the reason I bought a Nintendo Switch in 2017. The Switch was just a means to an end: The means for me to be able to play Breath of the Wild. Over the years I've replayed Breath of the Wild several times and accumulated about 760 hours in total since 2017 and it is currently one of my favourite games (if not my favourite) of all time.

Tears of the Kingdom builds upon Breath of the Wild's world and adds more depth, more intricacy, more content, more of everything alongside some quality of life improvements and abilities that grants an unprecedented level of freedom to interact with the world. You can create (Ultrahand), combine (Fuse), conveniently ascend through objects above you (Ascend) and reverse an object's movement (Recall). All of these abilities are then used in some very clever, satisfying puzzle solving segments, and in your own creations and when you manipulate objects in your surroundings.

Even with these new mechanics and their creative use, one of the things that had me really intrigued was the glimpses of backstory (The Dragon's Tears) that you can unlock throughout the game. The story of what happened to Princess Zelda after the beginning of the game (which I will not spoil) had me very fascinated from the start and did not leave me disappointed when I learned the whole truth about what had went down.

Tears of the Kingdom is objectively a great game, and while I do respect what it brings to the table, it was not as fresh or impactful or important as Breath of the Wild was to me when it came out. Tears of the Kingdom is a welcomed sequel and continuation for those of us who liked Breath of the Wild, but it does not have the impact (to me) that a "once per generation" game has (which is what we usually get with major 3D Zelda games). Usually we only get one major 3D Zelda release per generation, and each of the games are vastly distinct from the previous game in all aspects - art style, graphics, world, mechanics, story, feel, and a completely new Link and Zelda from a completely different time.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Splatoon 2 are the first party Nintendo games I’ve played the most on Nintendo Switch. Just like Breath of the Wild got a sequel on the same system, so did Splatoon 2, and to me, the sequels to both of these games have the same underlying trait: They are somewhat redundant to me. I loved Breath of the Wild and I loved Splatoon 2 and put a lot of time into them, so playing their sequels, on the same console, with the same graphics and overall feel is like feeding a mouth that is already is full. I appreciate the food but my stomach is full of the same kind of food so I'm not enjoying it as much this time around.

Conclusion: Tears of the Kingdom is a welcomed, creative, expanded, more intricate - but somewhat redundant - continuation of Breath of the Wild. I am more interested in the next console generation game in the franchise - what art style they will go for, what the world will be like, what mechanics it will include, how Link and Zelda will look, how the new animations will look and feel like.

DS2

3y

nice writeup Chilla, in a way I am glad I didnt play botw enough to become intimately familiar with that world because things here are still feeling fresh (about 50 hours in so far so still lots to do and see, however). what did you think about the depths? do you feel like that was a worthy additional setting for this game or did it not add much to the game?

Chilla

3y

Cool man. My thoughts on the Depths is that it was definitely a massive, welcomed surprise. Before Tears of the Kingdom released I did expect us to be able to explore underground to some extent based on hints in their trailers and marketing, but I was not at all expecting the Depths to be as big as the overworld. I spent a lot of time down there as soon as I initially got there because it had me very intrigued to find out what on earth was lurking down there. I think it's a cool optional place to explore for some optional gains/items to discover, but perhaps a bit barren at times. A lot of time is spent just running around lighting up the areas, collecting Spirits and beating enemy camps.

butch22

3y

the problem with the music is its over too fast cause the dungeons too damn short

Q3D

3y

I think my main issue with this game is that the brand new things are honestly pretty underwhelming, sky islands and depths are great in the beginning but once you've gone past the initial discovery you notice a lot of patterns in there.

A lot of the sky islands are pretty much copy pasted with minor variations in the challenges you have to go through.

The depths are great when you're figuring out how they work but once you do it's pretty much just "go to light root look for mines on the map to get cool stuff" and you're pretty much just going in straight lines from point a to point B without much thought put into it

Ironically the most exciting part of the game for me is the surface map and how they repurposed some areas, the new caves are my favorite part of the game.

I'm not too mad though it was tough being the follow up to BOTW and it's still a fantastic game but I think it doesn't really capture that same feeling at all

Q3D

3y

Scratch that actually my main issue with the game is WHERE TF IS KASS!!!!

mishima

3y

Penn ain’t it

butch22

3y

story better tho which is a big plus for me

butch22

3y

worst part is the 20 fetch quests you get after beating a dungeon

MattM

3y

Yeah I only played through BOTW once, all the way back in 2018. I never replay games, don't have the time or the will for it anymore at 30 years old lmao.
I did play BOTW to almost full completion, got all the shrines, main quests, almost all the side quests, all the DLC, my save had like 150 hours in it.

Guess that's why I really don't feel like a lot of y'all, this game a massive improvement over BOTW, imo.

I only did like 2 temples and I'm already like 60 hours in, haven't even explored half of the depths or sky islands, I think, and I'd already rate it over BOTW, tbh.

A lot of s*** that irked me about BOTW got fixed here. It still does feel a bit like a chore to explore everything, but I feel like this game rewards the exploration a lot more than BOTW did, simply cause there are more things to collect or see here.

Just my two cents.

Also, Wind Waker still the GOAT Zelda and the GOAT game period

Q3D

3y

Yah it's alright tbf I don't really care for the story in this one or in botw either for that matter

Why Yesterday

3y

I feel like the problem is the flashbacks hold no weight since Link isn't in them and they can't have like immediate stakes bc of the gameplay loop.

I liked the "stories" before each dungeon a lot more. (Though 2-3 of the cutscenes were really cool)

Elric

3y

Fr as I get older one full playthrough is enough, no matter how good the game is

UIP

3y

naaa the real GOATs are replayable as hell. like Elden Ring