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@Chopsworth
What are you talking about? Totk has even more animal species than BotW.

I love it how someone actually appreciates the so-called "emptier" world of BotW. Of course, it's not really empty. The only people saying that are those who've already played 500 hours and have done everything there is to do in the game and suddenly wonder why there's no content.

No game has endless amount of content.

BotW felt a lot like TotK when it was released. There was always some distraction to filll traveling distances. Although I have to say TotK multiplies this almost to the point of overwhelming.

I love both games because despite sharing the base surface map, they still feel like different games and TotK has not made BotW unrelevant.

BotW really feels more "pure" in many ways. The weapons are traditional swords and spears instead of fused ninja katanas and monster horn clubs, basic armor sets are easier to get, and it has enemies such as the Guardians that evoke their unique blend of panic while your riding on your horse instead of mowing enemies down with some weird contraption.

Most importantly, BotW has easier controls including the runes which differ a lot from TotK's skillset. You learn everything that's needed quickly and there won't be misclicks after that. I've played TotK for 70 hours at least and I still press the wrong button at times when I try to change the ability or open the quick materials menu.

I've heard some people saying that the world of BotW doesn't feel "alive" enough. This is bollocks. The lighting and particle effects and the animations of the flora and fauna certainly makes it feel the most living open world game there is. TotK feels exactly the same with the difference there is more population. Is nature not alive if there are no people?

All in all, I can't really say which game is better. TotK has a lot better story, though. Then again, the simple premise of BotW dresses the game as it should.

But goddamnit the Zelda fans. Nothing's ever good enough. Either the game is too empty or too full. Too linear or too open. Now I hear people wondering how it took Nintendo 6 years to create TotK. Just for the info, the mechanics alone are complex enough to leave your mediocre game developer baffled and there is SO MUCH CONTENT I have no idea how they could've done it in less time. And all that with basically zero bugs or glitches.

Normal people seem to appreaciate the new Zelda games a lot better than the so-called fans. Somehow BotW and TotK have managed to get people who normally wouldn't touch a video game completely hooked. That alone is quite a feat.

The spirit temple from TotK is the best dungeon ever. Obviously, the "road to the temple" is part of the experience, otherwise the temple would have nothing more than the boss.

But that spirit temple road... it forces the player use almost every zonai item and the puzzles involving them are at the same time hardest and most genius puzzles ever in the series. All in all, completing the temple took just as long as the longest old school Zelda dungeon. Difference is, it's a lot more fun because you can solve the puzzles in various ways.

I have no idea why some people would prefer old school dungeons. Their replay value is just so bad because the puzzles have only one solution. That makes replaying them tedious.

Besides, pushing blocks on buttons is dated design. Today we have millions of indie games copying the old school Zelda dungeons.

I doubt any studio would be able to copy TotK, though. The possibilities and the mechanics with the zonai stuff and Link's abilities are just too complex.

Edit: which game in the series has the worst dungeons? I'd have to say Wind Waker.

I knew this would be bad from the beginning.

I don't see why they would not release them on Switch. Would it make sense to skip the best selling console?

Then again, even if they come I'd likely skip. I have a feeling my gaming hobby will end for a long time after I've finished Tears of the Kingdom. It was the game I have waited for 6 years and so far has been worth it. I don't think any game will be able to top it in a long, long time. Could take decades, just like in the case of OOT.

Well, maybe I could get Metroid Prime 4 if it comes to Switch, but after that I don't see anything interesting in the horizon.

I just completed this whole road to the spirit temple and I have to say these were the best puzzles I've ever seen. Other open world games feel stupid in comparison.

TotK has left me completely awed so far from the story to the puzzles and mechanics and I have no intention of hurrying to the finish.

TotK has the best story out of any Zelda game (so far at least, haven't yet completed it), and it has so much better sidequests compared to BotW.

Otherwise, it's pretty much like BotW, except more complex and with a lot more content. Some could argue it could be even be a bit too complex and overwhelming to its own good, and prefer the more simplistic approach of BotW.

I want to finish TotK 100%, and that does not mean collecting all korok seeds, I just meant doing all the other side adventures/ quests etc., before deciding whether it's better than BotW or not.

@ArcticEcho
Skyrim has better world than BotW? Now that is the worst joke I've ever heard. The world has barely any variety and since the physics engine doesn't exist it feels just a backdrop instead of a place you can touch like in BotW. All I remember is brown and white. Compare that to BotW's rainbow of colors. Also, it's an older game and simply looks worse in every single aspect.

You say neither game has particularly good graphics, but I don't give a ***** about graphics because graphics are just tools to create visuals. And BotW has stunning visuals. I'll give you an example. Find an image of Link riding a horse somewhere in BotW, and then find a similar image of the "Dragonborn" or whatever idiotic cliche name it had riding the horse somewhere in Skyrim. The difference in visuals is evident (even though it's hard to say which image from Skyrim is even from the base game because of all the mods and hacks the fans have slapped over the product).

You say Skyrim has "more towns and actual places to go." First of all there are not that many towns in Skyrim either, and they all look almost the same. You couldn't argue BotW's towns look or even feel similar without lying.

As a side note, the towns in BotW have different soundtracks. If I remember right, Skyrim's main theme plays everywhere and it's that constant, "epic" song that plays even when nothing's happening. Talk about defeating the purpose.

As for " Skyrim has more places to go", this is vague and I have no idea what you mean by places in addition to towns. Caves? Well, BotW have shrines and Divine Beasts. In both games the areas look similar with each other.

As for Skyrim having a better story... well, I can't say BotW's story was the best, but it was still better than Skyrim's. Seriously, can we agree they're both quite barebones: Skyrim: Kill a dragon. BotW: Kill Calamity Ganon.

However...

The actual lore written in those books in Skyrim is annoying and badly written just like every single character and self- similar NPC in the game. It makes me not care about anything that happens. This is a fatal flaw and destroys the entire narrative.

The only real problem in BotW's simple story is the voice acting that was occasionally bad. But in comparison to Skyrim... well, whoever thought it was fun to make every guard sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger and repeat the stupid Arrow in the Knee joke. And there are just a few voice actors voicing all the characters. Hell, I actually thought I'd give Skyrim a point for voice acting but upon remembering how horrible it was... point off and point to "rather not have full VA" to BotW. At least all the voiced characters have different voices here and some of them are actually pretty good, like the King and the Deku Tree.

Finally, you say Skyrim has "multiple playstyles" in comparison to BotW. The best thing is I don't even have to answer to this.

Skyrim was rated well in it's time because of the "look, dragons in 3d open world setting" hype. BotW surpassed all other fantasy open world games in 2017 when it was crowned as the "new blueprint".

Maybe we should argue again when the next Elder Scrolls game comes out. Then it should have the edge over Tears of the Kingdom. However, I'm pretty sure it won't get similar praise because of Bethesda's incompetence in comparison to Nintendo's main team.

But we'll see.

@MrMichaelJames
I did watch videos of BotW with 4k resolution and 60fps. To me it looked almost the same. Besides, you can always use that argument. Wow, I wonder how God of War would look when played with a proper PC, 12k and 250 fps!

I'm just playing Majora's Mask. I think it runs at 25 fps and the graphics are N64 level... and hell, I like it more than the 3ds version which remade the graphics. It simply has better visuals. A good example is the expression of the moon which was ruined in the remake.

Therefore, I no longer talk about graphics at all. I talk about visuals. I think BotW and TotK has the best visuals of this generation, ps5 and xboxwhatever games included.

Another good example is Xenoblade 3. The visuals are just awesome. Some things just look so vast and all...

I say this now and here. Stop being ridiculous, people. Graphics are nothing but tools to create visuals. So, from now on everyone who is in his right mind should start talking about visuals when referring to the look of a finished game.

Oh, and not all development studios are Nintendo- level at making visuals. Even if they have better graphical tools to work with for a better hardware, the end result may not look as good visually compared to TotK for example. It's all about how various graphical elements compliment each other in a finished product. That's why the fan- made "realistic 4k" version of BotW looked like crap compared to the original.

@ArcticEcho
BotW does everything better than Skyrim. It has more enemy variety despite it being the fact people complained, you can do more than walk and swing your sword, like runes with all the numerous stuff you can do with them, gliding, actual good horse riding, shield surfing, etc. The game world is actually interactive in so many ways instead of being just a coulisse, it has better visuals and animation by landslide, better controls by a landslide, a lot more weapons and gear that has other purposes than just to give you better stats, better npcs instead of the generic ones in Skyrim... The world of BotW is more alive because of the awesome animations of the more numerous wildlife, particle and light effects and that swaying grass and the better looking day and night cycles, then the obvious one, you can climb anything so it's even "more" of an open world, there are so many puzzles and they are physics based instead of the few boring puzzles in Skyrim's caves and in BotW there are also puzzles in the overworld, then there's the chemistry engine allowing various mechanics. Etc. I would have a lot more to say but I'm tired of doing this list.

Now, what does Skyrim have over BotW. Maybe the sidequests are a bit better? But then again, sidequests are just an afterthought in BotW, not the main meat. The crappy rewards pretty much proves the point.

BotW became the new blueprint for open world games after its release and for a good reason.

I still haven't got the game because Finland has the worst post office of all time. They sent the preordered game almost week ago and still waiting.

*****.

It's not gonna stay on top. There's only 60 something reviews at the moment. They will add more and I predict it will drop below top 3, unfortunately. Same thing happened to Elden Ring. These kind of news shouldn't be published before it's certain all reviews have been added.

It's annoying how some people keep on parroting about fps. Here's some news: F Zero X for N64 was running 60 fps. I played WoW in 2007 with 120 fps. When I played BotW in 2017 I didn't complain it's "just" 30 fps. It's more like a standard for games like that.

Bottom line: it's not like 60 fps was some kind of new standard. Actually even most movies run at 24 fps. They have made some movies running 60 fps but it makes them look somehow cheap, like a TV movies.

The best games I've ever played have ran at 30 fps. It doesn't make a game any better to just add fps after fps. Stuff like this only matters if there are constant, severe dips. Minor dips don't even matter. Slowdown could at times look even cool.

I hope this stupid conversation about fps would just end.

@MrLinkTathapast
TotK is almost 3 times bigger than BotW with 2/3 being new landmass (or at least that's what I've heard). As for the rest of the "sameyness", I don't think people care. The engine is good so why not reuse it in new ways. People didn't mind Majora's Mask either even though it used the same graphics, UI and other stuff from OOT.

@Cronodoug
You know, it was kind of strange (or rather just crazy) but before TotK was released I ended up in some deep corner in the web where people were planning to devalue and "fall of Nintendo" with means of propaganda

At any rate, I wouldn't worry about metacritic's user reviews because they're not worth anything.

@Mauzuri
Oblivion... yeah, a great game. You can walk, swing a sword and cast a spell. There's the entirety of its gaming mechanics. Well, technically you can ride a horse but it's laughable as everyone knows.

The world of Oblivion is just a coulisse with no interactive elements, and the NPCs are at the same time generic as hell and look like they came from a horror movie... ugh, I can never forget the character creation.

As for Witcher 3, it's just as clumsy as if the developers had a hard time programming stuff like walking around. Once again the world is just a stage with no interactive elements. Go from icon A to icon B and through endless amounts of boring dialogue. "But oh wow, the trees are swaying in the wind!" It's like the "Oh wow a dragon!" moment from Skyrim, a game that is just slightly better than Oblivion.

These games are not in the same league with BotW, as we can see from the ratings and most lists out there.

The point is, the quests in BotW are just side content. Whoever thought they're the main meat of the game can't see the forest for the trees. It's like wondering why Metroid Prime doesn't have any quests where you move from point a to point b and complaining about it.

@NinjaNicky
You're not gonna like TotK either then. It will most certainly have large sweeping vistas just like the previous game. This time it's even worse, though, because you're gonna have to cross empty spaces of air. Sounds boring, right?

It would certainly be better if there was a flying puzzle or NPC in every square inch of air. I mean, who needs to see beautiful sunsets? I'd rather look at a whole mess of stuff floating on the entirety of air space. The floating islands just don't cover enough area.

You can apply the same great design idea to every square inch of land and underground areas the game offers.

I'm glad themed dungeons are back. I was getting so tired of people demanding them in a whining manner.

@PlasmaticSnake
You should read the list of people who were involved compiling the list from the bottom of the CQ's article.

@Cashews
Ha, go for it. I'll be waiting forever.

@Cashews
Also, you say that GQ is hardly a bastion of journalism. Did you not read the article? This is what it says:

"List was compiled with the help of 239 experts from the games industry (from a total of 300 invites), including developers, directors, writers, streamers, and journalists."

So, it may be true that GQ itself is a weird site to do a list like this, but they managed to get the results from a huge of amount of known people in gaming industry.

@Cashews
If you have a conspiracy theory then you should be able to prove it. So, give me the evidence?

Every time a Nintendo game tops some list people say Nintendo paid it.

Witcher 3 shouldn't even be on the list. It's a generic, clumsy dialogue simulator where the open world has no interactivity and no other purpose but to move your character from one point to another. And Tetris... really. It's there just for the sake of being the first puzzle game like that or something but in that case they could've filled the top 10 with old games.

As for BotW, it's number one because from the point of game design it's hard to beat. The developers know this and that's why they rate it so high.

That was classy With all the ads outside and these tv ads... feels like TotK is the biggest game ever.

Hmm, great. It's far from a common theme and that makes me interested. Also, the Imprisoning war? Wasn't that the OOT story? Or maybe it happened later in some timeline, dunno.

@Big_Round_Robin
Don't worry. The game barely holds your hand at all. I heard it's actually very hard since you have to figure everything out by yourself.

@Sequel
That was a problem with people who played BotW and after grindind Korok seeds in the end game for days or weeks, they said it was disappointing.

It's like they forgot how good the actual game is. Finding all the korok seeds is just for maniacs and it may start to give impression that the whole game is like that- empty with dull little puzzles.

When they start a new game they're like WHAT? Was the game really this good? There are so many shrines and towns and other stuff... I remembered it was a korok seed collecting simulator.

What geniuses. Of course the game is empty after you've done everything

@MrHonest
You're wrong. Many pirates have already played the leaked version through and all of them say it's a real sequel and that only idiots would call it a DLC. They say that in terms of quality the game is like BotW x3.

Some of them have even rated the game. It's mostly 9.8 - 9.9. Some of them would give it like 13/10. If that was possible! So, almost perfect or more than a masterpiece. We'll see what the official reviewers say about it.

Castlevania Judgement is severely underrated. Because of the superb music and cast, the single player mode is very fun to play through with almost every character. It's more than can be said of most fighting games.

Also, Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness both have series' best atmosphere and music after SotN. A problematic camera can't ruin these good games completely.

Finally, Harmony of Dissonance is better than Aria. Better main character, more interesting level design and better music if you have proper speakers.

@Martijn87
Uh, yeah? The main story was "destroy Ganon" but there was also a lot of flashbacks explaining how the situation got to that point.

BotW was like a modern version of the very first Zelda with a minimalistic story. I have no doubt there's more in the sequel.

So, they have created the game's showcase in just a few months after hearing about the Fuse ability in TotK. The ability itself has to be a lot more limited in the copycat and same goes for the whole game.

Sounds like a worthy game to challenge TotK which was in development for 6 years and made by the best developers in the world...

"Metroidvania", "Dark Souls- like"... jeez, I feel like every other indie game could be described like this these days. I've tried some Metroidvania's such as Axiom Verge (terrible), Oni and the Blind Forest (boring) and Hollow Knight (pretty good but I doubt I never replay it again).

Truth is, Metroid is still the king of the genre with Dread. Would be nice to see a new, modern 2d/ 3d Castlevania game in the vein of Symphony, but I suppose that's not possible.

@Gorlock
I'm not revealing anything, but according the leakers TotK is like the best open world game ever. And we now live in a post BotW and Elden Ring times. Someone even stated that our hype is not nearly enough. The game will be a lot more than most of us may expect.

My twitter account was banned after some phishers hacked it

@6thHorizon
After watching the leaks those people start complaining the game wasn't surprising enough.

I hope there aren't a single dungeon in the game. I'm so tired of hearing the whining "boo- hoo we want a million old school dungeons with boring been there done that mechanics"...so I'll be enjoying the salt of all those people if there are no dungeons at all.

As for me, the dungeons have always been the most boring part of any Zelda game especially if there's only one way to solve the puzzles. Would be great if all the "dungeon" content and puzzles were seamlessly on the sky and underground layers of the overworld.

Also, the framerate has better not be stable at all times. I want salt. SALT!

@Sourcecode
They literally said in a preview you can skip the whole damn crafting part of the game if you don't like it and play it just like BotW. It's probably a lot harder and a lot boring that way, but at least you can!

We don't care because the Switch has the best games.

Besides, CoD is for little kids.

@Max_the_German
I suppose you can't watch movies anymore either? Almost all movies have a framerate no greater than 24 fps

I remember playing WoW back in the day. The fps was always something like 120. I had absolutely no problem playing BotW after that.

The previews don't really add any new info to Aonuma's gameplay demo. Which is good.

Results of the poll proves that most of us are 40 somethings.

People want Zelda games to be little cult classics for dumb Nintendo fans who "don't know better", rather than being huge AAA king of the open world games like BotW and most certainly TotK.

It's salt from people who don't even play Nintendo games.

@Picola-Wicola
I don't know what you count as proper but the Gleook is obviously an overworld enemy boss, similar to Hinox and Talus in that respect.

Goldmary. She felt like a real narcissistic person. I ended up marrying her (the hell's wrong with me)

Oh, and Yunaka. Loved her act.

My least favorite? Rosado. The visual design is just way too off putting.

My favorite sidequests are the ones I made up myself by adventuring.

@Sonicka
Xenoblade 3 ends in timeloop. This could well be another round of the loop after the group has defeated Z and ended up back in their past. It was suggested something had changed for the next loop, since Noah heard Mio's flute.

You give Zelda to illumination and "Excuuuuse me princess" gets real.

I don't like where this seems to be going. Does every game have to have a happy ending? I loved the bittersweet timeloop ending of XB3! It's my favorite rpg ever.

Also, Z calling Alvis his God? Well, I suppose it makes sense since they're both kind of A.I:s and Alvis is a step above him, but Z is my favorite villain out of any game and it looks like this is devaluing him. Maybe he even joins the heroes :S

I think I'll just skip this DLC. Maybe I read the plot conclusion from Wikipedia or something. If I don't like it I just pretend it doesn't exist.

I have a feeling Hollow Knight has reached a level of popularity where Silksong gets its own direct.

As for me, I'm not that interested. Hollow Knight was a good game and I enjoyed playing it through once, but I haven't returned to it since. Probably still getting Silksong because the developers are expected to deliver a great game.

@SmashBall35
BotW is one of the best games ever, but...

I'm glad we haven't seen anything about Yunobo yet. His voice acting was really bad, like from a cheap cartoon.

BotW trailer is the better one. Probably the best trailer I've ever seen.