Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

@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.

It’s never going to happen but I find it strange botw already has most of the mechanics necessary for a Battle royal game.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika How so?

@TeaCatherine gliding, shooting (bows), big map, cosmetics with color variations. I thibk Nintendo could easily make a serviceable Battle royale with Botw’s assets. Put a focus on ranged combat remove time slow down, rework the eating system and remove some enemies from the map and boom

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika Ah, right, I wondered which mechanics you meant, thanks.

@TeaCatherine it’s not happening though nintendo would release an Ao mario dating sim before they allowed for a Zelda Br to exist even as a TOTK mode

I think we'll get a proper trailer and more information at a special Direct during January or February. I first was expecting at E3, but E3 is in June (I think) while the game is already out in May. Maybe Pikmin 4 will be at E3 2023 (and Metroid Prime 4).

@Henmii I feel it's more likely we'll get info in a normal direct in February.