Question: I am about 30 hours into the game, didn’t really play BOTW, where is the music??! I don’t really understand the reviews saying the music is so great, there barely is any. Same tune for all the stables, some decent ditties in the villages and then just piano notes the rest of the way!
I loved my playthrough of this game, but as much as I admire how the game innovates on open world conventions, its disappointing how it also falls victim to some of same issues.
The primary problem is bloat. There is a masterpiece 70 hour game in here, but to do everything requires 150 hours + and playing at this length reveals that large world to be constructed of repeated content.
I got sick of helping out those Koroks find their friend, securing Bolson construction signs, returning the missing crystal to the shrines, exploring the almost identical caves and wells, stumbling along yet another yiga clan/bokoblin camp, etc…
These were really cool the third time you stumbled across them, but after 10 times it just starts to feel uninteresting and I didn’t think my exploration was yielding much unique content.
The main story quest and a lot of the side quest were fantastic and some of the best content ever in a Zelda game. I really like the character design and interactions and I always looked forward to the tear cutscenes at the geoglyphs. The story is more intriguing than most Zelda games of recent memory.
But there needs to be a better marriage of sandbox Zelda with Link to the Past Zelda. Why can’t we also have some lock and key dungeons, and clever puzzles that can only be solved one way.
But primarily I’d like to see the team scale back the experience and focus on making more bespoke content. The industry in general needs to scale back these open world experiences, otherwise these games are going to become even more of a slog to complete.
Overall, Tears of the Kingdom is definitely worth experiencing but it just isn’t worth experiencing in its entirety.
@NotTelevision See, Koroks aside (transporting them to their friends truly is a tedious waste of time), I'm absolutely in love with the scope and density of this open world, where you can find something new around every corner, but the main story content is, IMO, really weak, and despite having already dropped more time on this than I ever did in BotW, I find myself losing motivation to actually progress the story.
I didn't feel that way in BotW. I loved the build-up to the divine beasts in that game, and especially slowly uncovering the memories of what happened between Link and Zelda prior to the start of the game. It provided structure to my experience with the game. But since I'm not invested in TotK's main story content, my experience doesn't have that sort of structure to it.
I just rolled the credits. For years and years now I have had a top 4 favorite games of all time with many options but no definitive choice for completing a top 5. After this, I definitely now have a top 5, the only question is how far up the list TotK falls. Had to wait to see if the ending would live up to the rest of the game, and it certainly did (although I think it has the same problem as BotW in that the FINAL final part was way too easy, especially compared to the final boss up to that point). I still have a few mysteries that I couldn't figure out that I guess I can just go look up now, but I was kind of done with just running around doing random things as much fun as it was for awhile (my Switch says I played for 105 hours, although I don't know how many of those were just letting it run and I wasn't actually playing). I honestly wasn't sure going in how I would feel about it because I'm generally not a "creating" kind of guy in video games and the Ultrahand/Fuse stuff seemed to be the major difference from BotW, but even though I didn't really do much creative stuff with those, it was still an amazing experience. Although I still hate Hestu for hiding in plain sight for so long.
Question: I am about 30 hours into the game, didn’t really play BOTW, where is the music??! I don’t really understand the reviews saying the music is so great, there barely is any. Same tune for all the stables, some decent ditties in the villages and then just piano notes the rest of the way!
Yeah, the horse stable music gets... annoying, I think it's too loud, espeically later when the maestro guy sings "yaah yah yah yahh" etc.
Otherwise, I can't relate to "where's the music?". There's real orchestral music for enviroment transitions from surface to depths, from sky islands to surface, shooting from towers, dragons, bosses, when enemies notice you (lynels may have their own music?), shrines, dungeons, the castle, snowy freezing envirnoment, desert environment, the depths, sky islands, geoglyph cutscenes, dungeon quest story cutscenes. Each of the four regional phenomena villages have their music (rito, zora, gerudo). I'm sure I'm leaving things out. I could see the argument that some of it is subtle, but it's there.
I didn't feel that way in BotW. I loved the build-up to the divine beasts in that game, and especially slowly uncovering the memories of what happened between Link and Zelda prior to the start of the game. It provided structure to my experience with the game. But since I'm not invested in TotK's main story content, my experience doesn't have that sort of structure to it.
Yeah I agree. In Breath it had a clear goal of get that nasty Calamity fella with everything supporting that goal whilst Kingdom Sad feels like everything is a just side quest in a sandbox like the depths don't a purpose despite being a big part of the game.
@Ralizah@jump I don't think I can give BotW a fair grade because I never got all of the memories, but I feel the exact opposite. I felt like BotW had this end goal visible from the start, and that was all you were doing. Everything else was just side stuff. In TotK, I purposefully avoided doing the Regional Phenomena for a long time because I thought it was going to be just do those and then go defeat Ganon like it was with the Divine Beasts in BotW (it's been awhile since I played it so maybe there was more? but it feels like that's all there was), but once I finished the Phenomena, it just kept going! There was more and more and I loved it. Maybe it wasn't all necessary (if you don't defeat Kohga in the depths, does he actually give Ganondorf a major weapon at the end? I'm guessing not, but that would be awesome) but it was still fun and added to the story. I found a lot more structure to TotK's story vs. BotW's that was mostly non-existant. Again, maybe I'd feel different if I had actually found more than 2 or 3 memories, but that is yet another place where it just felt unimportant and tangent in BotW whereas the geoglyphs felt super important and necessary in TotK and I enjoyed finding them, even if they were not technically necessary.
@Xyphon22 Are you saying more stuff to do unlocks after completing the four regional phenomena? That's the whole reason I'm dragging my feet on doing the other two regional phenomena.
Keep in mind I assembled mineru's body and got mineru's secret stone. That's where I stopped. And I think those sky islands are still wrapped in thunder storm clouds.
@WoomyNNYes I don't know how much "unlocks" per se as opposed to it always being available if you just happen to stumble upon it, but there are many more Main Quests that unlock for you to do. For example, one of them (perhaps a few) revolve around getting Mineru's stuff that you apparently have already done (seriously, how did you do that? I didn't know that would be possible until after some other things, including getting rid of those storm clouds). But it's definitely not just "Oh, you completed those 4 things? Go defeat Ganon now!"
@NintendoByNature
Imo, Live A Live didn't do it for me. It was fun enough, but it just didn't hook me. It may be different for you- seems a lot of people love that game.
Diablo 3 on the other hand, I had a blast with for a good 30-40 hrs before getting distracted by other games. It can get a bit repetitive, but it's super addicting. Especially if you have someone to play online with. I had a guy at work I hopped on with and we used to crush every night. It was good stuff.
@NotTelevision Overall, Tears of the Kingdom is definitely worth experiencing but it just isn’t worth experiencing in its entirety
I actually agree with this. But I'm of the belief it's not meant to be experienced in its entirety. One can play a game in many different ways. And none of them are "right" or "wrong" if it's what you enjoy. But I don't think the developers designed it around a completionist perspective. They put all those Koroks and signs because it's a massive world and 95% of players will barely see a quarter of them. So you have to make it all prevalent enough that the average player will randomly encounter a certain amount. There may be 20 basic signs but most players will find 3 or 4. There may be 20 intermediate difficulty signs but most players find just a couple. Same for the advanced. It only wears thin if one actively seeks out and engages with all the content. But I think that's a personal choice. Games like this are meant to be your oyster, inasmuch that, if you want to you should, but if you find it wearing thin, don't.
I also think people have romanticized the "lock and key" dungeon and one-dimensional puzzle solutions. Cherished memories of past experiences have a way of convincing us they have more merit than than they really do. One of those, "be careful what you wish for" situations, as you may find what you're asking for isn't as rewarding as you perceive it to be in your mind's eye when integrated with modern game design. I distinctly recall most old dungeons were designed with micro-exploration with only one golden path and bite size sample puzzles. But in TotK, the entire world and everything in it is exploration and puzzle based. So reverting to a microcosm of such design already so dominant would likely feel reductive. That only works when the entire world isn't already doing that, so it's designed to be the reward.
Not to say the older games aren't crazy fun, but I don't think the two design approaches would mix very well. Pizza is good. And ice cream is good. But mix pizza with ice cream... not so good 😀
All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans
God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John
@Xyphon22 I found a lot more structure to TotK's story vs. BotW's that was mostly non-existant. Again, maybe I'd feel different if I had actually found more than 2 or 3 memories, but that is yet another place where it just felt unimportant and tangent in BotW whereas the geoglyphs felt super important and necessary in TotK and I enjoyed finding them, even if they were not technically necessary.
This is exactly my take as well.
I lost interest in the memories after finding about 3 or 4 of them because they were so difficult to track down. I love BotW to death, but I never cared about it's story one iota.
Tears is no Tolkien novel, but I'm 10x more invested than I ever was in BotW. It's still subservient to gameplay, but at least in Tears I actually bothered to find all the memories, and the main story has been far more engaging.
All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans
God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John
It’s gonna be bittersweet when the game ends. It’s already one of my favorite ever and arguably my favorite Zelda game. But I don’t have much left until completion. Then the experience will be over and I don’t really want that to come.
Currently playing: Pokemon Soul Silver, Mario RPG
Enos 1:15
I can definitely agree with the sentiment that, fun though the game is, you probably won't want to do everything.
In all the hundreds of hours I put into BotW, I never bothered getting every last Korok, and there are a few more things in TotK that I'm feeling that way about.
Yeah, I at least wanted to complete all of the Main Quests, and there were some side quests I really wanted to make sure I finished (like saving and rebuilding Lurelin Village, all those people were so sad and I wanted to help them!), but there were still a lot of side quests that I just didn't feel like bothering to do. Tracking down every Korok, shrine, Bubbul gem, and other stuff just seems like an exercise in frustration that I had no desire to do. It was an amazing game, but I was ready to finally see it through to the end.
@JaxonH Very unpopular opinion that will probably get me in trouble, but it not being a Tolkien novel is a good thing to me. I liked the Hobbit just fine, but made it through about 2-3 pages of Lord of the Rings before nope-ing out. Thought it was horrible. Fell asleep during the movie, too.
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