Why Tears of the Kingdom's Empty Space is So Important
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- čas přidán 26. 06. 2024
- In this Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom analysis, let's talk about how the game's use of space differs from Breath of the Wild, and why that matters.
Tried to keep this totally spoiler-free, but this game is all about gameplay stories and discovery, so viewer discretion is advised.
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That new Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, sure is special. That said, with the scope of its new powers requiring players to fundamentally examine the world around them differently, the relatively empty space that came to so define its 2017 predecessor Breath of the Wild, ends up taking on a whole new purpose. If BotW's space felt like a response to the open world genre as a whole, then TotK's space feels like a means of allowing the player to adapt to Aonuma and team's new vision for the series-empowering all players to craft their own adventures through gameplay and mechanics. Let's talk about it in this analysis/review of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom!
My previous video on Zelda, Why Breath of the Wild's Empty Space is So Important - • Why Breath of the Wild...
0:00 - The daunting new rules of Tears of the Kingdom
2:43 - Teaching those rules takes time
5:17 - Tears of the Kingdom gives you the space to learn
6:53 - How Tears of the Kingdom inspires players to tell their own stories
9:12 - Outro
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Text intro animation by Isaac Holland - / drazgames
#tearsofthekingdom #breathofthewild #zelda - Hry
One of this biggest improvements over BotW is the number of NPCs. There are so many more and they feel so much more interactive. Talking and hearing things about the current goings on, or them hinting about nearby encounters. It's so much more rewarding to talk to people now.
That, and the overhaul to the quest system, are welcome changes. It's so much easier to follow the quests that you're tracking in the game, and they're a lot less vague this time around.
You can really feel that they've taken many of criticisms people had about BotW and improved on them, despite the immensely positive reception the first game had. I tend to avoid calling games "perfect", but it seems like they're trying really hard to push into the territory of what one might call perfection.
yes! no game is perfect. but a game can *feel* as close to perfection as possible, and thats always something to celebrate. the all or nothing mentality hurts lots of games that are fun but not perfect. which misses the point of games being played primarily for funm
people have made it that you *shouldnt* enjoy a game thats not perfect. its insane
oh the best thing is getting rumors about one of the misko treasures... that could be made a quest in some games, and few are quest still in this, but just getting an info from unmarked NPC, a rumor and then finding it is so much more rewarding : D
my 4YO nephew wanted to play Zelda but i didnt want him ruining my TOTK save so i booted up BOTW for him, I was REALLY surprised about how much less shrines there were. I put a shit ton of hours into BOTW and looking at the shrine locations compared to the map on TOTK was crazy.
This game created a new fear for me. Fear of receiving a new quest while being on a Quest. It takes a lot of effort in this game to stay focused on one thing that is on the other side of the map without being distracted from your goal.
@@Sam-qd8fyI believe that's called ADHD. and you should probably get that treated.
my favorite thing in Tears so far has been making a minecart shield on accident during the first few hours of the game, then later realizing that shield surfing on it lets me travel for further distances than regular shields. now I keep at least one in my inventory at all times because of how fun it is
Those kinds of happy accidents have been possibly my favourite part of the experience so far.
Back in BotW, i always upgraded my weapon stash, because Shields were in general useless and you didnt burn that many bows.
In TotK, i struggle when i have to decide to upgrade my Weapon Stash or Shield stash.
There are so many usefull shields, like a Flame Thrower shield to light camfires or enemies, a Cannon shield to brake rocks, a sufter shield to shield surf, a fan shield to both blow things and fly better, or a mirror shield to blind enemies during the day, or a lazer shield, or frost shield, or spring shield, or bomb shield, or most importantly for me, the rocket shield.
Shields do so much more then just block now, and i love it.
you can do the same w a sled or the zonai cart. so much fun
wait till u try shield surfing on a minecart rail w a minecart shield
@@tipperr You dont need the minecart to surf the minecart rail, you can do it with any shield.
It also works on most rails, even the shrine once.
Tony Hawks Hyrule skater is real!
Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are just very....relaxing experiences for me. Id imagine anyone watchign me would be bored out of their mind but there is just something very calming about these games, idk if its the sounds or the gameplay or what
Until you are calmly exploring a peaceful green area and suddenly you encounter those freaky hands 😱
@@PunsandPixelsfuck those hands!!!! I hate them
@@PunsandPixels yeah then it’s not so peaceful
@@PunsandPixels I was scared so shitless first time hands popped up next to me...
I saw someone (I think it was Luke from Outside Xtra) say BotW was a very Princess Mononoke game, but those hands definitely felt like the boar in Princess Mononoke.
I only just finished with the opening area, I have to say that it is absolutely brilliantly designed in how it subtilly guides the player and teaches them the full extent of thier abilities.
Agreed, and it was so immersive, I kept forgetting there was an entire world below me to explore still (let alone the other sky islands). This game is simply amazing. This is one of the times where the hype is not only correct, but actually underestimated how good it actually turned out to be.
I realised how different the games are when I fell to the ground and felt, lost but free. I had to completely rethink traversal, I can't just cryonis spam across every lake or river anymore
Yeah, it's wild how fully it gets you to rethink the rules of the world.
I’m constantly amazed at how they successfully resolve the tension between my desire to explore and the narrative drive to push forward towards the goal without constantly telling me that it’s something-something-urgent. Natural curiosity and good design lead me towards the goal. It’s amazing.
Enemy variety is massively improved, and you have a reason to fight now: horn hunting. Unfused weapons hit like noodles. Weapons fused to other weapons arent much better. But even a bad weapon attached to a strong monster's horn is a force to be reckoned with.
The game is bloody huge now, with all kinds of little caves and all the islands in the sky and the effects of the upheaval and all.
Shrines are still here, which im fine with, i liked the shrines. I just thought 120 was too many. Koroks are back too which im a lot less happy about, but theres a bunch of new collectibles too so its not all bad.
Stock up on arrows. You will use a LOT of arrows, often without realizing just how fast youre chewing through them.
I look forward to the regional quests, hopefully theres some stuff more in line with the divine beasts, and also some stuff thats even bigger. I wanted dungeons that were more in line with the level of scope that the old games have, but i also dont want the more contained db type puzzles to go away yknow?
one of my biggest problems with botw was the lack of reasons to fight enemies. now in totk i find myself going out of my way to fight enemies for their horns
The sandbox world is genuinely amazing. The amount of creative things I've seen ppl make is mindblowing.
Every time someone mentions how creative the community is, I always think about how that one dude built a literal laser beam satellite and used it to take out a giant dragon.
People*
@@jarlwhiterun7478 CZcams user discovers abbreviations 😱
giant empty game
Real shame they had to sacrifice everything great about pre-BotW Zelda to achieve that
This game is such an incredible marvel of design. So much time and talent must have gone into this and it really shows.
I didn’t think exploring the same Hyrule, with caves, would feel this good. I just like riding my horse and letting her steer along the paths.
Honestly, it doesn't seem like the same Hyrule at all to me. I don't recognize it. There are just so, so many changes.
@@Falcon-um7voNone of the old shrines are even there. It's surprising to see what became of the spots.
This reminds me of slowly travelling through Red Dead Redemption 2. It's another game where I love taking my time, walking instead of running all the time, cooking in the camp, looking at a river flowing by.
Totally!
It’s not even been a week and I’m seeing the most devious fucking constructions built to torture Koroks
10/10 game
I do have to say that the open world/space in botw was a bit annoying, there just needed to be a lil bit more. Thats why its pretty much perfect in TOTK. Exploring the wide open world and finding actual caves that could lead anywhere to wells leading to god knows what. I was just out exploring only 30 minutes after getting back to hyrule from the sky and i found a well. It looked spooky and was covered with what i know now is gloom. I hopped down the well thinking i was dropping into a cave and instead ended up in the depths. I didnt even have my glider at the time, instead i survived by landing in water. What a way to be introduced to the depths. But thats what i love about TOTKs open world.
exploring every nook and cranny is just so satisfying. it fills that adventurous hole i have. totk is pure genius brilliance.
Easily the most fun I’ve had in a sandbox game in a long time. My favorite part about it is how easily you can transition from “I’m going to build a giant death robot” to “I am now going to use this mighty death robot to accomplish a goal” is really remarkable
I like that totk has the option of doing lots of quests and interacting with characters if you want, but also exploring the wilderness too if you want. Botw really only had the exploration option
My favorite part of totk is that the spaces though still very scenic are not empty compared to botw. More than the endless possibility crafting and fusing things, i appreciate that i never felt so much alone in the game. I remember this part of the game where i joined a band of monster slaying group and raided a monster camp. It gives me the feeling that i am actually fighting with allies though npcs, is such a good experience. I havent progressed much in the game as i have work to do but im looking forward to moving forward in the game though slow in my phase but nevertheless very enjoyable.
Its crazy how despite the map itself _technically_ being bigger than it was in botw, the simple fact that you have way more access to multiple forms of transport, and can get high into the air with ease, makes the whole map feel so much smaller... But its also so much more dense compared to before.
I was hesitant about this game at first with the price increase and performance concerns, but it looks like they really knocked it out of the park here. Can't wait to dive in, been craving an open world with this kind of immersion for a while... you can only replay Elden Ring and BOTW so many times lol
Runs great on my PC
I have a pretty old switch and there are times where it chugs along but it's not horrible. The switch just needs an upgrade and hopefully that's coming soon I hope lol. But TOTK is worth the $70. I'm already about 50 hours in (I have no life) and I've just been exploring and just now doing one of the main quests before I go back to exploring again lol. TOTK is massive and...Makes BOTW look like a tech demo lol.
Cant wait to emulate it 👍
Hesitant with the highest rated videogame series of all time? What a "chance" you took.
I got it on the e shop for 60. I was gonna go and get it physical, but I saved a tenner checking e shop lol
There's a reason some people are calling it "[What's that?] the game"
another I've heard is "ADHD in video game form"
Shoutout to the underground where the space prevents you from just b-lining to new light roots every half second.
As someone who's actually never played Zelda games in the past (but plan on giving OoT 3D a spin) but has ended up giving BOTW a go a week ago, I am actually in love with the game despite usually hating sandbox/open world type of games, I don't even particularly agree with people saying "exploration for the sake of exploration", because I feel like, there is plenty of open space, the amount of little things you end up finding on your journeys, even if it's just a chest with a cool weapon you haven't had before, or your Shrine radar suddenly starting to beep or a few korok hiding spots you find on your way towards some other objective, it all feels like it adds up to a bigger whole and makes both you as a player and Link slowly become more proficient at overcoming challenges or even destroying Guardians easier (I also noticed that the enemies dynamically change color into stronger variants as well as weapons they drop becoming far stronger and more durable), it all adds up into a perfectly cooked up whole that's also really fucking well balanced, when I would hear about a Ubisoft game like AC having "120 shrines, 900 koroks, 20 towers, etc, etc" I would think "holy fuck not this shit again, but here I think in my ~25 hours of gameplay I've already visitted at least 40 shrines without any guides and they feel perfectly paced, both as far as finding them goes OR the actual puzzles inside them (except for the motion ones, jesus christ those usually suck), but yeah, despite all that I love that the TOTK is essentially a better and denser game pretty much all across the board, super excited to giving it a spin eventually. :)
Play the older games. Breath of the Wild game is an okay open world game, but not a Zelda game.
the tutorial island feels like such an improvement off of the directionless Plateau of BotW, I actually learned about what to expect from it's design and of course the Zonai constructs.
I have always loved BOTW but TOTK is just so much better in so many ways, I feel like I am rewarded by exploring and interacting with things way more in this compared to BOTW not to mention that the content in the world feels so much more varied and dense.
Botw blew me away much more than totk did for it's time. Even with the improvements it's not the same exploring the same Hyrule a 2nd time
@@dante19890 You're right. It's not the same exploring Hyrule. It's even better and more lively.
@@MajestiBrown for sure Totk is an improvement in pretty much any way but that's to be expected but it's familiar to a fault
Got here late however your takes are great. Wonderful perspective on this game.
Empty space can truly be so fulfilling. Great assessment video!
Super awesome video. I really enjoyed your analysis.
I really love this! Well done on this video.
I think just the general absurdity and power familiar players and creative players get is insane, and helps drive the feeling of control, like building a automatic tracking orbital strike with lasers.
It's pretty amazing. Its almost like they've just created a world with goals to accomplish, but don't have one way to get there, they just throw you the tools and say figure it out however. I was in a shrine where you had to match a block shape using block pieces to make a gate open. Didn't realize that was what you were supposed to do at first, cause I instead created a ridiculously high set of block stairs at the weirdest angle and then rewound it to launch myself over the wall. The gate never opened but I made it past lol.
I’m finally getting the hang out ultrahand and enjoying these shrines immensely. The amount of times I have no clue if I solved puzzles in the intended way is staggering. Sometimes I’m not even sure there was an intended way and Nintendo just randomly threw some tools down instead. Very satisfying gaming moments
Honestly the amount of shrines I've completed just by building a huge ramp towards the end is amazing. Not sure if it's intentional but I love it
tldr: open space gives you room to build
I appreciate this video being in my feed. It is a lily pad in a sea of videos telling me to FIND THIS OR PLAY LIKE THIS.
No. I need someone to tell me to play with those wagon pieces on the side of the road despite having no means to steer them.
I just went through a shrine that refused to work unless I doubled up on the movement pieces. But I never took that knowledge with me and applied it to my failed builds.
I fell I love with just letting my horse trot along the streets and watching what is happening around me
God this game is massive. I have never thought that this game could recapture the sense of wonder that BOTW had but boy was I wrong.
The sky (despite how small each are) are still fun to explore plus they have a puzzle element to them.
Than there’s hyrule which is pretty much the same but even a BOTW player is still curious to see what has changed, I was one of those players and I’m like “oh I wanna check out hateno village and see what’s up” but not to mention the Caves in hyrule and how that gives you a reason to re explore hyrule and there are lots of caves in this game and apparently 400 cave in hyrule.
Oh and then there’s the Depths which has wayyyy much more to offer than the sky islands imo. It’s literally a second world map and exploring them is soooo fun. The sense of wonder is still there.
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is amazing, having so much fun playing it, super addictive, the graphics are beautiful and colorful, the sky area, underground, surface of Hyrule, the map is massive and a joy exploring it for hours, so much fun and stuff to do, absolute masterpiece 👏👏👏👏
I honestly did not feel like BOTW was empty. It felt like there was always something to grasp my curiosity.
You got a review copy, aye? Congrats! Thanks for the video.
I think I watched that video years ago on the space in BotW. Its an idea that's stuck with me a long time, and I'm surprised I randomly stumbled upon this video.
some places need more trees like in the Gerudo highlands above the snow line
When I played Skyward I felt so much freedom, and the world was huge for me, but then you realize that you were a kid that know nothing about videogames, and notice that SS is not that big, is not that free to explore, the sky islands were really funny to explore and getting treasures based on how many items do u have (Old Zelda item system). Earlier when I played WindWaker it gave me the same vibes, it's just heartwarming to sail far away and not knowing what is gonna happen or what you will find. Later when I studied some videogame design I understood how they can make u feel that way even if there is not too much to decide, and I thought "oh, so this is how it works". Years later when BotW came out it was the same, the game just shockd me, something new and crafted with so much love and passion... allthough I've studied, I've played so many games, I was noticeable older... but it doesn't seems to matter, and before the TotK release I thought that they couldn't make me feel that again, just because BotW did that and you know, we never thought about getting such a different and amazing game. But you also know what happened.
Every Zelda game that is released is able to make me feel like the dumb, innocent and playful kid that I was at 13yo.
I really think that this saga is the most representative and iconic we have in the industry, and not only because of its long list of games, but because each game knew how to reinvent itself at a playable and artistic level, not only influenced by other works, but also establishing mechanics and laying the foundations for the evolution of the video game as a whole, not just for its own genre, not just for Nintendo, but for the video game as a piece of art.
Also I got to mention here the big efforts, contribution and vision of Mr. Satoru Iwata to the videogame industry. RIP master.
I love your voice and i love your accent. Also you are obviously an amazing writer
This is one of the truest sandbox games out there. Most open world games are just large maps where objects and trees are just window dressing. There is little to no verticality and exploration means going to a marker on the map to gather some collectable.
In this game, everything is interactive and you can truly fuck around in a genuine sandbox. You can little glue together objects to make a makeshift car or a rocket. Or fuse together different objects to make a hammer or club. There are islands in the sky and also an entire underground area to explore. The map is not only vast, but it’s also deep.
It’s hilarious that with all the power PS5 and Series X have, no developer ever thought of implementing such high level of interactivity in a game. Everyone is busy focusing on pushing higher resolution or framerates. Whereas Nintendo made an amazingly interactive game on a console that is weaker than my smartphone.
Great conclusion
This feel more like a sandbox game than an exploratory exercise like BOTW, but it works precisely because we know what we can do and explore by having played BOTW, we know there's no particular order in which we could do things, and we know we have freedom, but now we have even more options and contraptions to aid us. We can lose ourselves in the tiniest details and inventions if we wanted to, or we could just play the game in a fairly straightforward manner and still enjoy it. It's a game for anyone.
I thought about your last video on this subject when I got to the Hyrule Kingdom from the sky island.
Bro, it sounds and looks like we played this game the exact same way. I actually have a migraine from how much sense this video makes.
The Great Plateau remains my favorite part of Breath of the Wild because it relies so heavily on not just getting you oriented with the four main abilities you'll have at your disposal, but letting you explore with them as a result. Even other puzzles that don't use them are present, like the memorable moment where you use an axe to fell a tree and create a makeshift bridge (it's a little sad that such a moment is made redundant by the Ultrahand technique).
But once you get the Paraglider, that magic disappears, at least for me, because the exploration becomes a lot more one-dimensional. Find a tall place, climb to that tall place, and then glide to where you want to go. It allows you to ignore that space entirely for the sake of having an easier means of getting there, with your only limitations being stamina (easily recovered by cooking up some Endura items) and the occasional Guardian.
I haven't yet purchased Tears of the Kingdom, but I feel like that problem might still be present. The Great Sky Island looks like a great place to utilize your new skills, but once you get your Paraglider back, how much of Hyrule can be ignored by climbing, or Ascending, to a high-up point and just nonchalantly soaring to your destination? Worse still, will some players use that free-falling opportunity as less of a time to consider how small they are in comparison to everything else and just glide over to Hyrule Castle or wherever else they please?
It's a curious irony, that a game defined by its freedoms shines when given limitations. Maybe that's why I'm so hesitant to start Tears, because I don't want to feel that loss of wonder once again, even if the intention is the exact opposite.
The lack of Cryonis makes going over water a bit more of a hassle.
But honestly, if you are someone that always feel they have to minmax stuff and do it as efficiently as possible, yeah Idk if these games are for you
(SPOILERS)
I'm not entirely sure about this since I haven't tried to play without it but I don't actually think you need to get the paraglider in TOTK, unlike BOTW you don't get the Paraglider as a reward for completing the tutorial area of the game you get it shortly after by engaging in the game's main quest with Purah so as long as you don't engage with that quest you don't need to get it. However having the Paraglider makes things a lot safer and gives you access to areas you wouldn't be able to access without it.
@@Tintelinus you should try throwing ice items (frost fruit, chu chu jelly) at water. It makes a cryonis-like platform.
I had the same worry because I really didn't like BOTW's design but there's so much stuff on the ground level that I don't want to soar past it and there's more traversal methods. There's a new diving mechanic that's super fun and you can make airplanes, drones, boats, jet-skis, hybrid ground-water vehicles, cars, segways...
It's pretty great how they went around fixing BOTW's design problems by working around the mechanics rather than completely discarding stuff.
I get it but honestly, it’s insane. I don’t even like BotW that much but I see what they did with Tears: give you actual tools to basically do anything, instead of using glitches. The new powers seemed totally underwhelming until I learned what other people were doing with them…now I believe. Ultrahand is basically a developer tool, recall is reverse time, fuse makes everything important, ascended let’s you get to high places in a game about flying. With this you can more or less do anything you want. It’s almost too much for my simple brain but yeah, I highly recommend it. Not much of a story fan from BotW but I think they did better here too.
Always good to see a hammer of the gods construction.
It’s taken me a bit to grow to like this game actually. Botw is my fave game because of all that space and how dang relaxing it is. When you first jump down into hyrule you’re near the center of the map, and there’s just so much to do that it’s overwhelming and I felt the map was trying to pull me in so many different directions at once. I’ve just beaten the rito dungeon however and have been exploring the edges of the map more and am finally getting that feeling of just being able to breathe again more and not be so focused on the tons or tasks the game throws at you. I’m still forming my opinion about this game. It’s pretty insane how it can feel so different to Botw using the same map
I have literally the exact opposite opinion as you. 😂 I never liked BOTW because it was so empty, and I love TOTK because of how there's a million things to do in every direction
How did I not know this video existed
I love that with the mechanics, and open ended puzzles, a lot of times, brute forcing and not even doing the puzzle are also viable options
As someone who didn't like Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom is far more enjoyable. The opening tutorial section is so much better in TotK, with actual tutorials instead of an empty landscape.
Also, about 5 hours in, the overworld in TotK actually has quests and people, fighting camps, transporting things, it feels like the living breathing world that BotW didn't for me.
Same! BotW was such an empty boring world that it didn't even deserve being called a "Zelda" game, it just wasn't that great. But with all this new content? TOTK is one of the best Zelda games ever. It's incredible, you can't walk for ten seconds without seeing 3 more things you want to go to.
Video games are all sensory. “The video game equivalent to a sensory depravation chamber” would be to turn the game off.
5:40 NOOOOOOOO MISTER CAR!!!
Greatly said. This is the first time in a while that I've felt that Yahtzee missed the point of the design of a game, and you've put why beautifully.
Every single one of us saw that first supply depo and made an undrivable fan-wagon. Every. One Of us. Universal experience.
I didn't. =/
I've not build a car type vehicle yet. I build wonky planes instead haha
Not me, I knew I could only build a shitty car so I didn't bother making vehicles (outside of gliders since you can control them using your body weight) until I had a steering stick
I didn't either. The boat I made on the tutorial island despawned when I walked a few dozen feet away from it, so I didn't even bother.
Empty? Compared to BOTW, TOTK is extremely densely packed with activities.
In BOTW I'd choose a direction and walk in a straight line until my objective, here I can't take 2 steps without finding a cave, well, a rock falling from the sky so that I can ride it back up, an actually interesting quest, strong enemies that I want to kill to get their materials to make strong weapons...
Even what used to be an empty hill now has a hieroglyph or a group of enemies marching after a bokoblin boss or has a sky island on top of it...
You said, "In BOTW I'd choose a direction and walk in a straight line until my objective."
Odd. I lost count of the times I read reviewers and heard let's players talk about how they constantly got sidetracked by interesting things going from A to B in BotW. My experience was the same.
@@Falcon-um7vo By what? The scenery? There's only shrines and koroks, the sidequests are pretty lame too.
@@night1952 Well, yeah, interacting with the scenery/landscape is a big part of these open worlds, but there were also enemy camps, stables, cabins, NPCs, hidden or half-buried treasure chests, etc. I'm glad I'm not so hard to please like some of you guys are, so I get more enjoyment out of these games than you do.
@@Falcon-um7vo not my fault the landscape is so mundane outside of areas like the rito or zora domains, the jungle area by the south is ok too but I have more magical looking places an hour from where I live than most of botw.
And as I said, the side activities in BOTW are really boring.
@@night1952 like I said, I’m glad I’m not so picky and judgmental about it.
The fact that this game is a zelda game held the sandbox feature back. Imagine if this game was all about co op with sharing features. An actual 3d camera that would float while you build would make the game amazing. Then they could had more time for answering criticism. I feel like they took the safe option when it comes to totk.
Fantastic video, as always!
It was a weird experience for me. For more reasons than I will list here. But the main one was my desire to see what was over there winning out over my desire to build something that actually works. Both desires were very strong, but as I progressed through the game and found the most efficient way to do things, I stopped being as creative. I also barely traveled the actual world of Hyrule, mostly slingshotting up and down from the sky to the depths. I really wish some moments felt more linear for longer periods of time. I think the most linear moments in the game were reaching the Wind Temple and descending beneath the castle, and both times felt too short. I also think the tone of the game didn't match the tone of the intro, which I was honestly disappointed by. The final fight was great, but also too short for how long the game is. I don't know, part of me thinks the most difficult part of this game is deciding how you want to enjoy it, because at times, everything demands your attention. I felt burnt out from trying to figure out the most fun I could have, but also feeling like I just missed something.
I feel you, realized that I was not being playful and creative enough just because I wanted to be efficient. My solution was getting a lot of the stuff that I like (example, I loved the zonai stuff in general but everytime I ran out of battery and I was not able to enjoy my creations), spent a huge amount of hours until I got 4 batteries, that way I pushed myself to be creative again, because there was 1 less problem for me (lack of batt), and also 1 more motivation (being able to fuck around with zonai stuff).
@@oranjesus49 I would do that in chunks. Spend a couple hours shrine hunting, and then I would color any outfits I got, and then I’d clear more of the map, and then I’d do a temple. Anytime a part of the game started to burn me out, I moved to something different. It still felt like checking boxes. I didn’t feel pressured to do things like I would in different games with copy paste quests, but I was still compelled to compile lists of things to complete, rather than just exploring like I did in BotW. TotK doesn’t feel like exploration is the most important thing in the game. It seems the most important thing is how you choose to prioritize your own adventure, rather than being taken on an adventure.
@@_inSight__ Yes, there is not much paths created, BotW felt less free to solve stuff on different ways, from shrines to exploration. I also think that is something about you, I didnt felt that urgency to do certain stuff, I just prepared myself with a lot of resources so I was able to explore and doing dumb things just for fun.
Besides that... the BotW experience was unique, even Nintendo isnt able to give us the same feels again, and they know it, so they try make new stuff to get us surprised again
nice one
Yes
Thank you for this video! Thank you for your time and your work :D
Ah the zelda video is the second one of yours I ever saw after the Persona 5 one, time flies!
It really, really does.
I feel like you understood the appeal of this game much better than I did. I desperately want to like this game, but I just don't care about the building system. I tried to get the same satisaction out of exploration that I did from BotW, and I just can't with the recycled surface map and tripping over filler content and bland caves and enemy encampments every 20 yards. I've never been more disappintment with a game release in my life.
Ironically, TotK inundates the map with copy/paste objectives and caves and wells that undercut any desire I have to explore the world like I did in BotW. They negated what set BotW apart from most other open world games.
So it's Minecraft/KSP1/Lego racers for a new generation?
If BOTW allowed players to explore freely then ToK allowed players to fuck around with the the new mechanics and still have fun.
I would say that I’m a maniac, when it comes to ultra hand, but not compared to this guy 😂
Greatest game ever made
It's not like the environment is that much bigger? There's like 2.5x the land area!
This guy sounds like the guy who makes the learning to do CZcams videos
Why do totk gameplay looks so much better in youtube than on the switch itself?
probably bc the footage captured is in tv mode (1080p) and looks better on a smaller display. if you play it on the switch that same 1080p will inevitably look worse on a big tv. even if you play in handheld it is being rendered at 720p at most.
cool
Ambient games are fun
I can easily see myself playing 2, 3 or 400 hours in this game.
Love your videos, could you make one on Monster Hunter World and it's environments, I feel there's a lot to them that people don't realize and just don't talk about
Shout-out to my boy Joseph Anderson
gross
shout out to mediocre writers
Shoutout to Jacob Geller, more like.
At least choose a better writer if you’re going to do this.
I wish I could use Hero’s Path once every 24 hours.
I love this video, and this game, but we gotta stop saying the map is the same. It is not the same 😂
THANK YOU. I'm getting so tired of the people saying this is "BotW 1.5" etc. Not sure if they're just trolling or seriously that bad at evaluating the game.
I can't stand it when people call the game "empty" like they want it to be a cluttered Ubisoft collectathon instead.
rather spend my money on the upcoming Oxbow album
even though i did buy the game… MAN THEY GOT ME AGAIN
God I am excited for that album
@@WritingOnGames thin black duke is my favorite record of all time
The fact this game came out with some of the most complex building mechanics in recent memory, double the size of the original map (counting the underground and sky islands it might be triple the size?) , filled with physics that in any other game would be extremely buggy(i have 12 hours in the game and have yet to find a bug related to physics objects and the building), and on top of that the game is in an actual complete state is a small miracle.
i dont know how they managed to make such a tight experience, this game and Elden Ring should be major examples of how to release complete, expansive open world games
I just wish there was a dedicated throw item button instead of having to press R and then select the consumable, and also wish there was a way to cook multiple dishes at once.
It would be great if you could pre-craft arrows.
W
Empty space, or as its also known, negative space, is important in any piece of art, it emphasizes the other parts of the piece and helps brake it up and order it.
That is why a where is waldo page looks cluttered and unestetchic, but a van goth painting is regarded as art.
Why Bach is a master while fastest midi compilation is not.
And in this case, why Far Cry 6 is forgotten, but we still talk about Breath of the Wild, and why Tears of the Kingdom will last in our minds for decades.
I saw a lot of gameplay of this game now and I feel like DIgital Foundry lied about the performance. It's not great.
It really isn't. Seen a lot of people talking about how "everyone gives Nintendo a pass on performance" and the like, but I feel like I've honestly seen just as much talk about how the Switch is just not the place for a game of this scale. Really wish it ran better.
Absolutely. I think a definitive edition of some sort on their next console is a move they should make. It’s quite poor at times. Botw only had bad hiccups in the Korok forest and a few other instances. This game, it’s very easy for it to get overwhelmed and for frame rate to drop. Devs clearly did the best they could with the tech they had so it comes down to Nintendo and their need to release something more powerful if they want to continue creating these ambitious games. As for reviewers, they need to be more fair and give other studios the same pass they give Nintendo
I didnt have any issues with the game on my switch, so i am sad to hear that some people are disappointed with the performance :/ my framerate dipped once in my 150 Hours of playtime. That was when i was fighing some soldiers with a troop of hylian citizens
Empty space works if at the end of it there's something worthwhile and engaging, which often times in BOTW there wasn't. TOTK does better than BOTW with variety at least.
I love falling. It reminds me of Skyward Sword. Where I would fall as long as I could before flying with no destination on my Loftwing. I feel so at home back in the sky
Maybe its just me burning out from games in general but after a couple hours i just feel tired of the open-ness already, i feel like i tend to miss more than gain from how open the game is because i just fly across lands instead of slowly traversing on ground.
I’ve already had to google things because i was meant to find them but didnt because of the way i chose to travel or get through. Any side missions just seem like extra work for little reward too.
I just dont think this kind of game is for me. Dont get me wrong i had fun at the start, but nowhwre near how much other people seem to have.
I think you are burned out by open world games specifically. Maybe try some indie games, there are some true gems that are not as giant and give you a good evening of fun. Sometimes the smaller scale of a game is more comforting than having 10 million possibilities. I feel we generally are burned out by too many options nowadays and need to take a step back sometimes.
Well, then change the way you travel. No one's forcing you. Problem solved 🤷🏼♂
@@Falcon-um7vo Well of course noone is forcing me but then i would be going out of my way and playing 'worse' on purpose just to get more out of the game, its similar to Elden Ring in that aspect.
The game has an extremely basic story, lacks voice acting 90% of the time even in main quests where its most important, and Link basically has no personality whatsoever. The gameplay is literally all it has, and sure it can be fun at times, but in the end it just plays like every other open world game.
I just don't understand all the praise it gets. If i was 10 years old or i just dont play much games, i could see myself enjoying this game as much as people say, but i dont see it .
@@Onyx474 It's kind of overrated and a 7/10 game, just like basically all dumbed-down JPN open world games, but half of this just sounds like contrarian bullshit lol. Why are leaguef@gs like this? I guess if you've been playing such a shitty game for 12 years, you don't know a decent one when you see one LOL.
FYI "I just don't understand" basically just means "I'm not smart enough for empathy" LOL.
I felt a similar way after a couple hours of playtime, exploring every nook and cranny I can check. The overabundance of things to collect and baddies to fight, grew tiresome.
So instead I changed focus from exploring every area. Now I'm following the main quest line, or a side quest of interest. Still get distracted during my journey, but I feel like there is a more linear progression. It has rekindled my joy again. Horse-back riding plains was a peaceful venture, while parachuting around net me new discoveries I couldn't tell from staying on the ground. Rarely do I ever stick to the initial destination. I'm trying!
Another thing I've decided on is to accept that I, the player, may not explore and know every inch of Hyrule. It is simply too massive! But that also means there will be new discoveries to be had throughout my play session.
It's a simple change towards approaching ToTK, but it has helped me out a lot! How about you reframing your approach too? Perhaps a break from the game will do you good instead, or just play a different title then return to TOTK later. If all else still doesn't light anything in you, it may be best to just drop TOTK. No need to stick around if it is not fun, yeah? Heck, no need to do the above if you seek something else in a game not present in BOTW. Like a compelling narrative.
Yet when death stranding did it better people didnt like it
I was actually thinking about Death Stranding a few days ago. The abilities and mechanics (specifically) in TotK reminds me in some ways of the tools given to you in Death Stranding, especially those given to the player as options for traversal, ascending up steep cliffs and mountain faces.
Nah, hating on Death Stranding is just the trendy thing to do, and people want to fit in. People who actually played it usually love it.
Tbh Totk was more of a big expansion than a new Zelda experience.
Idk, i dont have a Wii
yeah I'm staying with the Dreamcast until something better comes out
I love thinking like a Zonai
So negative space matters because if Nintendo didn’t waste enough of our time with boring waiting simulator between A and B we can’t pretend the game is big as easily? It really goes to show we spend more time waiting in these games then actually playing a original Zelda game.
It is incredible how much I loathe both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Its actually rather shocking. Pretty much all design decisions annoy the hell out of me. Be it the endless distances you have to walk, the lack of music during that travel, the music during the travel when it DOES play, the combat being incredibly easy etc.
But the biggest gripes I have with the game are progression and story.
Progression, or rather lack thereof annoys me to no end. The most meaningful upgrades you get are armor, health and stamina. Two of which are gained through shrine completion which are the equivalent of a candy crush level, about as hard and about as long. It doesnt really matter to me that you can solve them in several ways because I am only going to solve them once. I have no reason to replay them, I have no reason to revisit them. Ideally I find the most optimal solution to the shrine. Regardless I wont be spending more than perhaps 5 minutes pers shrine, if even that long. Your powers are almost all unlocked from the start, you are not doing anything to get them, you just have all of them from the start. Great.
But what about energy cells, you need them to fuel your contraptions, surely those are meaningful. When I play Zelda the last thing I want to do is play Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts aka building a car. So no energy cells are not a meaningful upgrade to me. And to be clear this is the issue, the game wants me to do something I do not want to. There is a lot of that in this game for me.
Weapon durability is another great example. Whats the point of it? Well it encourages you to try out weapons you ordinarily wouldnt use and creates fun and dynamic situations! No it doesnt, all it does is make me farm an inventory of top tier weapons, use them up and then farm them up again. So the game literally wastes my time, reacquiring the weapons I want to use.
There are ways they could have done this that would make sense and that would serve progression. For instance they could have had a blacksmith that combines two weapons together to make a new one, new moveset, different stats, that can also be upgraded, until it can no longer break. Simple resource drain in exchange for progression, simple stuff.
Nothing about weapon durability is fun or engaging and the fusion system is a band aid at best.
Sidequests are almost all inconsequential and offer you a Ruby as a reward, wohoo, its not like I can get 200 in less than 10 minutes if I need to. Or award me with a weapon that takes 10 hits to break, also wohoo, totally worth my effort. All the while traveling through a world that feels too big to be traveled without boredom setting in. But what about enemy camps, they are everywhere, surely thats something to do? What for, a Ruby, a shield? None of which are meaningful or really helpful? Why waste resources fighting a group of enemies to at best get my resources back? Because combat is fun? No not really. Combat is very floaty, the riposte window is odd but manageable, one of the combat mechanics actually breaks your weapon faster (flurry of blows) and overall the fact that you waste your resources (weapons) to effectively gain nothing for your effort, maybe 50 rupees, or you know an Opal etc.
You do not gain experience from fighting enemies and the rewards for fighting them are almost all inconsequential, so there really is no reason to do it.
Let me be clear, I am aware that the issue I am having is that the game is literally not for me, the game wants me to do things and have fun with things that I do not want to do and that I do not gain enjoyment from.
So thats it about progression, what about the story? Surely thats a saving grace? Eh yes and no. Yes because the story told is a compelling, albeit simplistic one, no because the way it is conveyed is just horrendous. It was already bad in BotW that Link essentially lost his memories and all the "cool" shit happened in the past and we get to see some cutscenes of that "cool" shit but to go and repeat the same thing for TotK is just ugh.
How am I supposed to care about the story when I am not involved? I do not participate in the events shown, all the things that happened with Ganondorf etc do not happen to me, I do not do anything. It is the equivalent of finding a journal in a TTRPG of an adventurer describing his epic adventures that you the player are not ever going to experience. Meaning its not great.
Not to mention that the conclusion to Zelda's story can be seen from a mile away, even after hearing the first couple of sentences of Ganondorf in the beginning and Zelda disappearing, I knew this was going to be a time travel plot. I dreaded every memory because I knew exactly what was going to be done. It was annoying, it also doesnt help that I hate time travel plots.
If I were to sum up the experience of playing and completing this game its this: annoyance.
This feels like the pinnacle of emergent gameplay. And yet, there are edgy losers review-bombing the score of the game.
3rd
Gmod
My only problem with TotK (and BotW to an extent) is when does it stop being a "Legend of Zelda" game (hang on, lemme finish) and become more a... potentially over-sized Hyrule Sandbox? My issues with big dumb open worlds aside, if the whole point of the game is like what you described here, doesn't that adjustment in experience so far outside the parameters of what came before make it into something almost wholly different?
For me, Yes, absolutely. Just like Warriors of Hyrule is a Zelda game, without being properly "Legends of," both BotW and TotK are so different from everything before, that they seem more like a spin-off series, rather than another main entry.
I know I'll be mostly alone in this, but it's now happened to two different franchises I enjoy - this and, much to the detriment of its franchise identity, Assassin's Creed - and it's a little frustrating that NO ONE seems to be talking about it. Just plowing on as if HUGE departures are just the series naturally evolving and doing new things, instead of complete reinventions that don't feel like the same series.
The thing is these series have to evolve they cant stay the same forever, assassins creed was incredbly stale after revelations and needed to go in a new direction badly. Zelda i would say not quite so stale but thats because it releases much less frequently however i would argue based on 20 ish hours in TOTK so far the story is much more centre stage over BOTW and it is very much a classic zelda feel there is no doubt this is a true zelda game the sandbox aspect is very optional most of the time and only adds to the experience when you want to get into it.
@Marcorix I literally said that I understand that the games have to evolve... My point was that these are complete reinventions and not just simple evolutions. So, thanks for proving why I know I'm in the minority.
I've played Zelda games since the original in the 80s all the way to TotK. I don't feel like I'm playing a different series now than I was in previous years. To me, they're all good. The only disappointing title to me was Majora's Mask because of the whole time limit mechanic. Ugh. So glad they never revisited that, and I hope they never will.
I think it was a necessary evolution and Zelda was always going to become more open, similar to the blueprint of the original game. Zelda world came from the idea of miyamoto stumbling upon and exploring caves in his youth. I think these last two games match that spirit much more than the more linear games. Think zelda was always screaming for an open world entry and even Wind Waker and TP had some early “open world” elements baked into them to a much lesser degree
Oh I absolutely agree that they could have removed the "Zelda" from the title, changed the player character, and just called it "Breath of the Wild" and "Breath of the Wild 2" and no one would have thought of it as a Zelda game. It's a completely different genre from games like ALttP and OoT. Hopefully the success of the Link's Awakening remake will bring us more "Classic Zelda" games.
As for Assassin's Creed, yeah, the modern games are nothing at all like the Ezio games, it's very disappointing.
I loved BotW, but Im not anywhere near as thrilled with TotK. I think it might be less the game's fault and more my own mindset at the time. Im just not in the right place mentally for this game.