Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

@VoidofLight I think Nintendo is doing what they normally seem to do with Zelda games and showing very little. I appreciate that but at times it can be worrying, we saw Skyward Sword art like years before the first trailer.
I just want that big reveal soon, at this point if it isn't the February direct (I would bet on it being there) then there are only two possibilities. Delay or Zelda Direct.

@FroZtedFlake Given they committed to a date this time, I doubt it'll be delayed. They don't ordinarily give specific dates to games unless they're sure they'll release on that timeframe. The only way it'd get delayed is if something horribly wrong were to happen.

@VoidofLight Those were my thoughts, I think they've delayed it enough and that delay-specific trailer seems like too much for it to get changed again, especially since after that trailer they gave a specific date. I think they're too careful to delay it again.

On another note, has anyone noticed how different these trailers are from most Zelda games? They seem to be leaning more into the mystery. Plus, the fact that they showed off a mysterious evil Ganondorf guy and the sky-world that's very similar to Skyward Sword first really is making me think this game could be much more story-oriented. If you look back at most of the older trailers, they're very much gameplay focused.
Story and lore-expansion are the things I most want more of out of the Zelda series so I'm actually really hoping this is true.

@FroZtedFlake I definitely think this game’s story will be a lot more involved. Nintendo seems to be enjoying the drip-feed of smaller reveals, but the overall plot and point of the game is still a complete mystery, even just 5 months away

OK, but here's the REAL question about the game: Will they still allow us the option to swap the jump button to B?

That was one of the first changes I made in BotW (along with switching the HUD to "pro" mode, which I also hope they retain an option for). B for jumping just feels so much more natural to me. I'd be curious to see the results of an informal poll on here of how many people made that change as well.

My hope for TOTK or the next Zelda is they make puzzles play a much bigger role. My favorite game of all time remains Ocarina of Time and among its many strengths is how fun doing/getting to dungeons was. It was fun getting stuck and figuring out what to do. Subsequent 3D Zeldas couldn't recapture this because the puzzles/progression felt too similar to OOT. And BOTW has, imo, probably the worst puzzles in the series. Sure, the runes were neat but the puzzles that relied on them were easy to the point of being a chore to complete. What I want to see is something like the game the Witness, where there are many challenging puzzles that are interconnected spread across the world. When you inevitably get stuck, you aren't gated out of the critical path as in a linear game, but instead you go elsewhere to do something you can do or find clues help find a solution. Elden Ring did the same thing but for combat. You get stuck on a boss, you go elsewhere and come back even more powerful. Zelda games aren't known for their combat; TOTK shouldn't emulate a Fromsoftware game. It needs to lean into what made Zelda standout from other 3D action games: the puzzles. And make them feel fresh and challenging as they did when I first played OOT.

@Zilock I wasn't all that disappointed in the puzzles of BOTW, but I think the quality varies way too much. On one hand you have shrines that might as well just be walking up to receive the spirit orb due to how easy the puzzles are, and I'm not talking about the shrine quests where you literally walk up to the monk after completing the quest. And then on the other hand, you have shrines like the two on top of the dueling peaks, where you have to match the patterns of both. The hint about the stars was cryptic enough that I actually had to pause and think about it for a minute. While the solution is quite simple, its the cryptic nature of the puzzle and having to think outside the box that I crave in my Zelda games. If they lean more into that style of puzzle for TOTK, I would be very happy. Also having more extended puzzles where a concept can evolve and vary is for the most part missing in BOTW. I think proper dungeons are the simple and effective solution for this.

My number 1 wish for TOTK is that they improve the awful broken healing system from BOTW.
You shouldn't be able to spam hundreds of healing items in the middle of combat, which makes you almost invincible once you've collected enough of them. It kills almost all challenge in the combat. I'm still confused how a game that is generally so well designed can have such a bad healing system.

For the next Zelda game they should limit the number of healing items you can carry to a small handful like in earlier Zelda games, and healing should happen in realtime instead of the pause menu.

I mean its pretty clear to me that it started as a system where you couldn't pause to save (I'm pretty sure their early gameplay demonstration back in like 2014 showed that off) but then it stopped being a Wii U exclusive so they threw that away.

I do agree that was a bad idea, but I admit I also would've taken an absurd amount of time to kill even one Lynel if they didn't make that change so I can't complain too much. (I know because...I took an absurd amount of time the one time I killed a Lynel without pausing for healing items, and that was when I had way more practice with them)

I've recently been replaying dishonored 2 and the timepiece mechanic (essentially a lens through which you see a different time) has got me thinking a similar concept may be implemented in TOTK. I won't go down the rabbit hole of how TOTK may or may not involve time travel. But at the very least Link has a Zonai arm, a tribe who vanished long ago according to the lore, so Link quite literally has a hand (or arm) in the past. And let's not forget the sky island connection to Skyward Sword, a game which introduced timeshift stones. This evidence, as well as the fact the game is reusing BOTW's overworld has got me thinking it's a real possibility. Perhaps instead of the dark world, you gaze into a zonai ancient era and as in Dishonored 2, you can manipulate events in the past to change the future. The big caveat to this theory is that it would be a massive technical feat to pull off. I know I'm grasping at straws, but I'm so desperate for information at this point...GODAMMIT NINTENDO JUST PUT US OUT OF OUR MISERY AND RELEASE A TRAILER

I get your point and to an extent I agree, but it was so helpful during the godforsaken Thunderblight Ganon boss fight. That half-killed me trying to get it done.

That's right, but that's because Thunderblight Ganon is a poorly designed boss. As joseph anderson explains in his excellent review, the attack where Thunderblight charges at you with high speed cannot be reliably dodged, so you will inevitably take damage and thus need some healing items.

But they shouldn't fix a flawed boss fight by adding a flawed healing system. Instead they should have fixed Thunderblight`s attack patterns so that the player can consistently dodge it.

Hmm, just for cloud saves, or will TotK use online in some way?

Multiplayer...perhaps? Probably not, but who knows.

@Magician There's no way the Switch can handle sky islands, botw overworld and another playable character. Most likely this is for the expansion pass.

With Tears of the Kingdom coming so late, I'm guessing the next console gen won't launch with a zelda, and we may have to wait 2-3+ years after that console's launch to get a new zelda.

Since new hardware was cancelled, that means the version we get may likely have compromises, like BOTW had on Wii U. (forgive my pessimistic view)

@Magician My guess would be there's some sort of minigames which you can submit high scores to online leaderboards like the jump rope and volleyball minigames in Mario Odyssey.

@Magician
Maybe you can play as zelda in multiplayer

@Magician At most, just a message sending feature. I feel like this is more likely just a promotion for online, rather than an actual feature.

@Magician Eh, I'd say there's absolutely no chance of multiplayer as whilst it does say Nintendo Switch Online, it also more importantly says 1 player for each mode, sure, they could be saving a multiplayer mode announcement for a trailer but I don't think so.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika How so?