The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - May 12th, 2023

[S E P H]

This game is absurdly big

Does it feel as empty as the first one did? That was honestly the biggest gripe I had of BotW.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Does it feel as empty as the first one did? That was honestly the biggest gripe I had of BotW.

Always feel like there is something to do around the corner

 

[Blitzkrug]

After putting a good amount of time in i think i can formulate some thoughts;

- Love the fuse mechanic. Weapons still break a ton but after a few hours you're essentially carrying a bunch of stuff you can turn into a decent powered weapon with the snap of a finger. Much prefer this over BOTW.

- The world feels a bit more lively. Lots of random NPC events scattered about with shrines, caves and the occasional block falling from the sky to take you up. Lots of big ugly enemies scattered around. I saw a big ass three headed dragon sitting on a hill and i assume i probably want to avoid that for the time being.

- Shrines are once again fantastic. i've only found 32 but i feel like these ones compel you to play with physics more and require you to think outside of the box. This goes really well with how problem solving seems to be way more opened ended/no wrong answer type stuff in comparison to BOTW.

- The depths seem...interesting? I'm sure there's more to it but i haven't found anything particularly interesting/important in my couple trips down there.

- The zonai tool stuff is fun. Gives you an additional tool for traversal/tackling problems.

Really well made game and it's insane you can have something be so open ended and still feel cohesive. easily GOTY and i'm not even close to being done.

 

[Emperoreddy]

The fuse mechanic is low key a great design choice because now your monster loot has way more uses so its worth going to battle more often, especially enemy camps with more powerful enemies.

Also let's me turn any shitty stick into a good weapon, so worrying about breaking things doesn't matter.

 

[Blitzkrug]

The fuse mechanic is low key a great design choice because now your monster loot has way more uses so its worth going to battle more often, especially enemy camps with more powerful enemies.

Also let's me turn any shitty stick into a good weapon, so worrying about breaking things doesn't matter.

My favorite thing about the fusing are the "yes this is just two things stuck together" motif.

Lizafos tail on a stick? 30 damage. Garden hoe stuck to a pitchfork? Sure why not.

Basically this in game form;

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Putting an unhealthy amount of time into this nightly. Gonna bite me in the ass at some point, but having a good time. Those mad lads actually kept the world fun to wander around in with enough changes to be fresh. And that's not even mentioning the new stuff.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I'm finding it's actually better to follow the main quest earlier then maybe you would in BOTW.

It opens up quests that lead to some important abilities/items.

Spoiler

finishing one of the 4 main objectives opens up a quest that gets you the autobuild skill and opens up another quest that gets you the Hero's Path and Shrine sensor abilities for your purah pad. Hero's Path was a DLC ability from BOTW I found super useful in showing me places I haven't been to yet

 

[HanSolo]

I swear, watching others who are farther along than me and seeing their ultrahand builds I've put off everything to try to maximize my zonai charge meter. My best build so far is a simple three fan, one steering control set up that let's me get good height or distance but lacks the ability to turn around or land properly. But there's so many things I want to try.

I said it earlier but these new abilities with a bigger and altered map along with new mechanics, for me, makes everything worth the price of admission. Yeah in many ways the game's got a lot of the same systems and purpose, but the potential for pure sandbox fun is on another level and that's before I've really sunk my teeth into the story and sidestories. Unquestionably the most fun I've had with any game on the system, and the replay value of coming back and messing around with built machines of war is so high.

 

[HanSolo]

I'm finding it's actually better to follow the main quest earlier then maybe you would in BOTW.

It opens up quests that lead to some important abilities/items.

Spoiler

finishing one of the 4 main objectives opens up a quest that gets you the autobuild skill and opens up another quest that gets you the Hero's Path and Shrine sensor abilities for your purah pad. Hero's Path was a DLC ability from BOTW I found super useful in showing me places I haven't been to yet

Spoiler

you can find autobuild without the prerequisite quest. I found the cutscene just exploring the depths

 

[Emperoreddy]

f*** the Gloom Hands. Ran away like a bitch in my first encounter

 

[Andrei79]

I can't believe this game runs on the switch. The art direction is so good that you wouldnt know this runs on a decade old chipset.

f*** the Gloom Hands. Ran away like a bitch in my first encounter

Bomb or ruby arrows from a height, you'll dispatch them pretty quickly. Beat my first at 3 hearts. The reward is pretty interesting.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I can't believe this game runs on the switch. The art direction is so good that you wouldnt know this runs on a decade old chipset.



Bomb or ruby arrows from a height, you'll dispatch them pretty quickly. Beat my first at 3 hearts. The reward is pretty interesting.

Nintendo is really good at finding ways around hardware limitations in a way a lot of other developers can't for some reason.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

I feel this is going to be a much bigger time sink for me than Elden Ring. There's just so much to do and ways to approach obstacles.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

I'm 15-20 hours in and I don't even feel like i've scratched the surface. With the new additions the map is even more massive than before, there's so much to do.

This game is legitimately hard in spots, too. You WILL die.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

I'm doing the Goron main story quest now. And I think I skipped a good part of it by climbing and such.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I've only just started the Rito storyline only after a certain world boss that was sort of on the way absolutely wiped the floor with me

 

[GKJ]

If I were to get this game, would I need to play the last one, or any previous to that to make it worth my while?

 

[Jovavic]

If I were to get this game, would I need to play the last one, or any previous to that to make it worth my while?

I haven't played it yet, but I believe the story continues from Breath of the Wild...don't know if there's like a recap before you start Tears, I'm sure there's a youtube video that recaps the high points.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

If I were to get this game, would I need to play the last one, or any previous to that to make it worth my while?

I haven't played it yet, but I believe the story continues from Breath of the Wild...don't know if there's like a recap before you start Tears, I'm sure there's a youtube video that recaps the high points.

No need to have played BOTW. And YouTuber Zeltik has an hour long recap of you want to watch. Can always go 2x speed like I did.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

If I were to get this game, would I need to play the last one, or any previous to that to make it worth my while?

No, the story isn't the focus of these games and each game's story is pretty independent anyway.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Man everything about the Rito quest line was so cool, just getting to the temple was awesome.

Temple worked similar to the divine beasts but with a theme, music, and rotating gimmick.

The boss though was so f***ing cool. Music was the best part

Spoiler

remixed version of Dragon Roost Island. Holy shit

Rad as all hell

 

[Emperoreddy]

No need to have played BOTW. And YouTuber Zeltik has an hour long recap of you want to watch. Can always go 2x speed like I did.

Nintendo also put out an official story recap too.

 

[HanSolo]

I'm 15-20 hours in and I don't even feel like i've scratched the surface. With the new additions the map is even more massive than before, there's so much to do.

This game is legitimately hard in spots, too. You WILL die.

Yeah I've completely disregarded the actual story and am stuck farming zonaite to upgrade my battery and building all kinds of things while still trying to map out the depths and sky islands and do shrines here and there. I've incidentally started a couple main story quests but haven't progressed in them at all.

It's interesting to note that with me getting around everywhere faster on a two fan hover bike, I'm finding that my gathering and inventory management is taking a hit and I often find myself cooking food with scraps because I'm not exploring the world on the ground enough. So as fun as it is to fly around hyrule, the game kind of does force you to do traditional exploring a bit. Or be extra judicious with your health bar.

 

[Emperoreddy]

The surface and sky has plenty of cooking foods, depths not so much, but the three materials you do find down there (bomb flowers, puffshrooms, and muddlebuds) are some of the most powerful things you can attach to an arrow.

Puffshrooms make fighting Talus really trivial

I think the shrine puzzles are multiple steps above BOTW. Some great feelings of accomplishment after solving quite a few of them.

The best ones generally involve building.

 

[Dr John Carlson]

Agreed on the shrines. I also find Talus are light work when you can ascend through their head and just start wailing away on their health from on top of them without much risk of getting hurt.

This may just be a 'me' thing, but I actually preferred how BOTW was more difficult to explore. It's very easy in TOTK to find a rock falling from the sky, recall it, and suddenly you can glide nearly all the way to the next tower. There was definitely more of a sense of accomplishment in BOTW where you had to trek over vast expanses of land to uncover more of the map.