I feel like a minority here, but I think BotW is a great game but its sequel isn't that great. Most of the content in TotK felt like padding to me. Nintendo's idea of making a bigger and better sequel was to add a few more things to it (caves, a couple new enemies) and then just shotgun spray those things all over the map and call it new content. I had gotten so sick of fighting the same bosses over and over again while filling out my map. Ultrahand/Fuse are neat ideas, but they crack the game's balancing into pieces and make a once too easy game even easier. Adding to this is these excessively broken consumables like Muddle Buds or Puff Shrooms that destroy any semblence of challenge that the game once had, and you can find hundreds of those things in the Depths so you'll never run out. I have a laundry list of other problems with the game but the reason why I liked BotW so much was because it felt novel and new, it felt like a superb attempt to reinvent the formula and with a little bit of fine tuning, a sequel would probably be an outright stunning game. But to me, TotK felt like a safe retread of BotW and it didn't do much to stand out. It just felt like BotW again, but bloated. Still waiting for a proper sequel to BotW personally, so I'll see it in another 6 or so years I guess lol.
You guys do realize that reporting on these is essentially painting a huge target on these projects, yes? This is at best nefarious and is practically tattling on these harmless projects to Nintendo when you put the spotlight on them. You aren't on the fans' side when you do this, you are on Nintendo's. Please stop.
I really don't mean to sound rude, but we've been getting all of these OoT soapboxes and I just don't see the point. It just seems to me like the writer/writers are, forgive the usage of the term, fanboy-ing at this point. I get that we all have our favorite games that we love to death (I sure do love me some OoT, too), but coming here every day just to see these takes over and over praising the heck out of one game that's nearly 30 years old just seems out of place and a bit self-indulgent to me. I wouldn't mind it so much if it were also other Nintendo games that get praised, since this is a Nintendo website and not strictly a Zelda one. I guess my request would be to give some other series and games from Nintendo some love, heck maybe even some of their 2nd parties, instead of constant OoT worship. The game has a sterling 100 on Metacritic and regurgitating this praise like no one's ever said it before really doesn't do it for me. Again, no offense meant, but just a suggestion.
@DaniPooo I have some personal grievances with the game, including the depths offering too little in terms of content, so even the inclusion of that surprise didn't amount to much in the end for me. All of the stuff you find there is simply reused bosses and enemies, with some crystal and Zonaite farming sprinkled in. It's not great content tbh and it feels like padding. The only "cool" stuff you can find down there is just amiibo outfits from BotW. In fact, this game should have had more original outfits put into it in general. I'm not sure why they were such sticklers for reusing old outfits, but it feels kind of lame that they had 6 years worth of development time and they wouldn't even give us very many new outfit designs.
Even though that's not even half of the issues I take with TotK, I do still think it's a decent game. I certainly don't share the article writer's sentiment of it being "peerless in its wonder," as I thought the big wow moments in Elden Ring kind of objectively dwarf TotK's (especially if you played BotW), and this isn't even me fanboying or anything. Elden Ring had better dungeons, a better underground area, better incentives for exploration and quest completion (most of the time), way better boss fights (obviously), and better combat. I don't think Elden Ring would have existed without BotW's influence though, so credit where it is due.
Yeah, I don't believe that they did not take any inspiration from Elden Ring. They also act like they invented the design behind modern open world, when there were very distinct inspirations taken from Ubisoft games for botw, such as the sheikah towers, which they reused again in totk. Another thing they borrow is just the sheer grindy-ness that other open world games have, whether it's the long walks to the points of interest, the amount of farming that you have to do for upgrades, or the complete lack of enemy variety in the first game that makes it feel like fighting is a grind in itself. Under thorough examination, the only innovations that botw brought to the table were quite frankly the slate powers. TotK's main gimmick has been pointed out by many to have taken heavy inspiration from Nuts and Bolts.
Comments 105
Re: Poll: So, Do You Prefer Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Or Tears Of The Kingdom?
I feel like a minority here, but I think BotW is a great game but its sequel isn't that great. Most of the content in TotK felt like padding to me. Nintendo's idea of making a bigger and better sequel was to add a few more things to it (caves, a couple new enemies) and then just shotgun spray those things all over the map and call it new content. I had gotten so sick of fighting the same bosses over and over again while filling out my map.
Ultrahand/Fuse are neat ideas, but they crack the game's balancing into pieces and make a once too easy game even easier. Adding to this is these excessively broken consumables like Muddle Buds or Puff Shrooms that destroy any semblence of challenge that the game once had, and you can find hundreds of those things in the Depths so you'll never run out.
I have a laundry list of other problems with the game but the reason why I liked BotW so much was because it felt novel and new, it felt like a superb attempt to reinvent the formula and with a little bit of fine tuning, a sequel would probably be an outright stunning game. But to me, TotK felt like a safe retread of BotW and it didn't do much to stand out. It just felt like BotW again, but bloated.
Still waiting for a proper sequel to BotW personally, so I'll see it in another 6 or so years I guess lol.
Re: PC Port Of Zelda: Link's Awakening Offers HD Visuals And 120fps Scrolling
You guys do realize that reporting on these is essentially painting a huge target on these projects, yes? This is at best nefarious and is practically tattling on these harmless projects to Nintendo when you put the spotlight on them. You aren't on the fans' side when you do this, you are on Nintendo's. Please stop.
Re: Soapbox: Ganondorf's Villainous Intro In Ocarina Of Time Is One Of Gaming's Best
I really don't mean to sound rude, but we've been getting all of these OoT soapboxes and I just don't see the point. It just seems to me like the writer/writers are, forgive the usage of the term, fanboy-ing at this point. I get that we all have our favorite games that we love to death (I sure do love me some OoT, too), but coming here every day just to see these takes over and over praising the heck out of one game that's nearly 30 years old just seems out of place and a bit self-indulgent to me. I wouldn't mind it so much if it were also other Nintendo games that get praised, since this is a Nintendo website and not strictly a Zelda one. I guess my request would be to give some other series and games from Nintendo some love, heck maybe even some of their 2nd parties, instead of constant OoT worship. The game has a sterling 100 on Metacritic and regurgitating this praise like no one's ever said it before really doesn't do it for me. Again, no offense meant, but just a suggestion.
Re: Soapbox: Six Months Later, Tears Of The Kingdom's Sense Of Wonder Is Still Unmatched
@DaniPooo I have some personal grievances with the game, including the depths offering too little in terms of content, so even the inclusion of that surprise didn't amount to much in the end for me. All of the stuff you find there is simply reused bosses and enemies, with some crystal and Zonaite farming sprinkled in. It's not great content tbh and it feels like padding. The only "cool" stuff you can find down there is just amiibo outfits from BotW. In fact, this game should have had more original outfits put into it in general. I'm not sure why they were such sticklers for reusing old outfits, but it feels kind of lame that they had 6 years worth of development time and they wouldn't even give us very many new outfit designs.
Even though that's not even half of the issues I take with TotK, I do still think it's a decent game. I certainly don't share the article writer's sentiment of it being "peerless in its wonder," as I thought the big wow moments in Elden Ring kind of objectively dwarf TotK's (especially if you played BotW), and this isn't even me fanboying or anything. Elden Ring had better dungeons, a better underground area, better incentives for exploration and quest completion (most of the time), way better boss fights (obviously), and better combat. I don't think Elden Ring would have existed without BotW's influence though, so credit where it is due.
Re: Random: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Devs "Too Occupied" To Play Elden Ring
Yeah, I don't believe that they did not take any inspiration from Elden Ring. They also act like they invented the design behind modern open world, when there were very distinct inspirations taken from Ubisoft games for botw, such as the sheikah towers, which they reused again in totk. Another thing they borrow is just the sheer grindy-ness that other open world games have, whether it's the long walks to the points of interest, the amount of farming that you have to do for upgrades, or the complete lack of enemy variety in the first game that makes it feel like fighting is a grind in itself. Under thorough examination, the only innovations that botw brought to the table were quite frankly the slate powers. TotK's main gimmick has been pointed out by many to have taken heavy inspiration from Nuts and Bolts.