Opinions of this game inherently invite comparison to its direct predecessor, and while TOTK may be technically superior to the last game, containing essentially everything it had and more, not to mention being largely darker in tone (which many people count as a plus), I still have a soft spot for, and have to give the edge in enjoyability to, BOTW.
Don't get me wrong, it's certainly a solid game and I had fun with it, but it just didn't grip me with the same level of novelty and desire to explore as Wild did. And I wasn't on the "this is just BOTW DLC" bandwagon at all. In fact, most of the fun I had was back on the surface again, rather than the sky islands, which felt rather sparse and repetitive beyond the tutorial group and one or two other areas, or the depths, which didn't do much for me at all beside put me in a dour mood (maybe the point, but not much fun to me). But the surface definitely did feel like a map created for another game that was just slightly remixed for another iteration of the same routine. I experienced several instances of "This is where such and such was, but now it just feels oddly empty and out of place," or "That's a strange spot for that shrine or tower; it ought to be over there where that spot clearly designated for a shrine or tower is." And I had little interest in repeating the same grind to farm mostly the same materials, in addition to new ones, in order to acquire and upgrade mostly the same armor all over again (had no hesitation making use of the dupe glitch), or in finding every collectable, or in stopping frequently to soak up the beautiful vistas, or in exploring every nook and cranny of the map, as I did with the last game. At one point, I even had to take a few months break from playing, as I got burnt out with a feeling of sameness about half way through the game.
For my money, I suppose what might've made me enjoy it more is if they'd scrapped the depths altogether, spent that time further updating the surface and sky, and changed up the gameplay loop a bit more, since it essentially is just BOTW in new clothes, with a few added bells and whistles. But sometimes less is more, and I personally don't find it superior. I certainly wouldn't call Wild the beta test for this game. I'd sooner call Tears a rehash.
Summed up, if I call BOTW a 10/10, I'd probably rate TOTK a 7 or 8. By no means bad, just not the same level of spectacle that the former was. Not for me, anyway. Maybe if I hadn't maxed out my time with BOTW, or if Tears was my first foray into this particular world, I'd feel differently.
I love the weapon swap option, but am kind of shocked it only works at chests and not when you find weapons (much more frequently) elsewhere in the game, like those lying around all over the place. Unless I'm blind...
Also, they should allow fusion within the inventory menu.
@Gwynbleidd @Bizzyb No microtransactions, and anyone can get the DLC's by either buying the deluxe edition or purchasing them after the fact for the standard edition. The various DLC packs will be releasing in a few waves every couple of weeks up to May 4th. The only caveats in regards to any "exclusivity" are that a couple of the DLC packs will be available to pre-purchasers of digital versions of the game on day one, while everyone else will need to wait until later dates to acquire them, and that the "Classic Obi-Wan" character (modeled after the older mini-fig look) is exclusive to digital version purchasers. Everything else will be available to all players as it is released.
@Scapetti He comes with the Season One pack. Grogu is a companion character to him, so the first entry in that list should actually read "The Mandalorian (with Grogu companion character)". It's not you
Having followed the development of this game closely since its announcement and as a frequent visitor of its Reddit page, where no ounce of info goes missed, I can probably help shed a little light on some of your guys' questions.
First, @KateGray the Classic Characters will look (and possibly behave) as they did in the old Complete Saga game, as opposed to their new appearances in this game. Also, you might want to adjust the list to reflect that the Mandalorian himself is included in The Mandalorian Season One pack, with Grogu as a companion character. We can't have little Grogu just wandering around all by himself!
@StarPoint @blindsquarel They're just character packs; no additional level content has been announced (at this point, anyway).
@Reyren The only difference should be in performance and visual quality; no content differences have been alluded to.
@HolyGeez03 No microtransactions have been announced for the game. The DLC character packs are the only additional paid content that the public knows of at this point. The game is fairly different than past Lego games, though, with attention paid to more advanced combat and so forth, but it'll still likely hold the same family-friendly Lego game spirit as past iterations, so you may want to wait for reviews and more gameplay footage if you're on the fence.
@TDRsuperstar2 The deluxe edition contains all of the listed character packs, just not all of the few physical/digital/pre-order exclusive characters, depending on how exactly you ordered it.
@Slinkoy1 If you've never played BOTW before, I would advise against that plan.
Without spoiling any of the plot, if you dive into Age of Calamity without first having played BOTW, you'll be missing a ton of context, will lack relevant familiarity with certain characters and gameplay mechanics, and some things may not make any sense at all or miss the intended impact.
Age of Calamity is only as much of a prequel to BOTW as Days of Future Past is to the original X-Men trilogy movies, where prior knowledge is expected in order to enjoy the intended experience. It's not nearly as cut and dry as "what happened 100 years before the events of BOTW" makes it sound like.
I urge anyone who's interested to play these games in the order of release.
You mentioned that things like spin, fade, and draw are easier with button controls than with motion controls, but are such actions still POSSIBLE with latter? I've been hoping for motion controls similar to those found in Wii Sports Resort's golfing, where the twist of your wrist and curve and velocity of your swing affected such things. Can you elaborate any more on how Mario Golf's implementation compares?
For us, this will primarily be a family game with casual players, so yes, we'll be using the motion controls. I just hope they're (at least) as sophisticated as those of Wii Sports Resort's golfing, where the twist and strength of your swing actually have an effect on the ball, as opposed to inputing those parameters via button-presses beforehand and the act of swinging the joy-con merely behaving as a swing activation switch. It's hard to tell from the video what the case may be. I wish Nintendo would post a video going more in-depth into the actual functionality of the motion controls.
For those unclear on this (and with the lack of marketing so far, I don't blame you), this game isn't just a remaster or repackaging of the previous games.
It's being built from the ground up on an entirely new engine, first developed for this game, and will feature all new content.
The majority of the game will be covered in an open-world, free roam style in which you can travel to any part of the Star Wars galaxy featured across all nine core movies, in any order that you choose. The 45 "levels" will primarily be focused on specific battles and other key events from the movies, several of which supposedly to be points not featured in the original games.
Additionally, the new engine will feature new mechanics, such as full 360 camera control, over-the-shoulder aiming perspective, more complex combat than previous games, and more interactive Force powers.
The game is reported to contain somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 characters and creatures, with around 300 of them playable. There are something like 24 explorable planets/moons/Death Stars (more or less every setting in the movies), each with side-quests and secrets to discover. There will also be random space encounters in the free-roam atmospheres of the planets where you can take on capital ships that, once defeated, can be boarded and explored as well.
The game is also being developed for the new XBOX and PS systems.
Considering all of that, it should be clear that this isn't "just another" LEGO game, or a simple rehash of the previous games in the series, and make it more understandable why delays have happened, especially given the circumstances of the past year.
So it was perfectly fitting of BotW's Zelda, who felt she was precisely those things during the events of the past, struggling desperately to find that goddess part within herself.
Now if she still spoke with that tone after mastering her powers, I might share the sentiment.
I sure hope it won't adversely affect TT Games or Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, one of my most anticipated upcoming games... Remember what happened to Lucas Arts and 1313 after the Disney acquisition? :/
Has it been confirmed (or is it safe to assume) that the DLC version will contain ALL of the new in-game features of the Plus release (i.e. should the DLC essentially make previous versions of Mania identical to the physical version of the game)?
Comments 16
Re: Review In Progress: Mario Kart World (Switch 2) - The Perfect Introduction To A New Console Generation?
@raymond23 Can't you just do VS mode races and set them up to run traditional style laps around the courses?
Re: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Celebrates First Anniversary With Special Artwork
Opinions of this game inherently invite comparison to its direct predecessor, and while TOTK may be technically superior to the last game, containing essentially everything it had and more, not to mention being largely darker in tone (which many people count as a plus), I still have a soft spot for, and have to give the edge in enjoyability to, BOTW.
Don't get me wrong, it's certainly a solid game and I had fun with it, but it just didn't grip me with the same level of novelty and desire to explore as Wild did. And I wasn't on the "this is just BOTW DLC" bandwagon at all. In fact, most of the fun I had was back on the surface again, rather than the sky islands, which felt rather sparse and repetitive beyond the tutorial group and one or two other areas, or the depths, which didn't do much for me at all beside put me in a dour mood (maybe the point, but not much fun to me). But the surface definitely did feel like a map created for another game that was just slightly remixed for another iteration of the same routine. I experienced several instances of "This is where such and such was, but now it just feels oddly empty and out of place," or "That's a strange spot for that shrine or tower; it ought to be over there where that spot clearly designated for a shrine or tower is." And I had little interest in repeating the same grind to farm mostly the same materials, in addition to new ones, in order to acquire and upgrade mostly the same armor all over again (had no hesitation making use of the dupe glitch), or in finding every collectable, or in stopping frequently to soak up the beautiful vistas, or in exploring every nook and cranny of the map, as I did with the last game. At one point, I even had to take a few months break from playing, as I got burnt out with a feeling of sameness about half way through the game.
For my money, I suppose what might've made me enjoy it more is if they'd scrapped the depths altogether, spent that time further updating the surface and sky, and changed up the gameplay loop a bit more, since it essentially is just BOTW in new clothes, with a few added bells and whistles. But sometimes less is more, and I personally don't find it superior. I certainly wouldn't call Wild the beta test for this game. I'd sooner call Tears a rehash.
Summed up, if I call BOTW a 10/10, I'd probably rate TOTK a 7 or 8. By no means bad, just not the same level of spectacle that the former was. Not for me, anyway. Maybe if I hadn't maxed out my time with BOTW, or if Tears was my first foray into this particular world, I'd feel differently.
Re: Feature: 26 Tweaks That Make Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Better Than BOTW
I love the weapon swap option, but am kind of shocked it only works at chests and not when you find weapons (much more frequently) elsewhere in the game, like those lying around all over the place. Unless I'm blind...
Also, they should allow fusion within the inventory menu.
Re: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Apparently Has The Biggest File Size Of Any First-Party Switch Release
@Liam_Doolan The file size has been decreased to 15.9GB on the game's eShop listing.
Re: Mirabel's Door Knob Will Be The Key To Unlocking 'Encanto' In Disney Dreamlight Valley
Re: Video: TT Games Talks About 'Building The Galaxy' In LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
@Gwynbleidd @Bizzyb No microtransactions, and anyone can get the DLC's by either buying the deluxe edition or purchasing them after the fact for the standard edition. The various DLC packs will be releasing in a few waves every couple of weeks up to May 4th. The only caveats in regards to any "exclusivity" are that a couple of the DLC packs will be available to pre-purchasers of digital versions of the game on day one, while everyone else will need to wait until later dates to acquire them, and that the "Classic Obi-Wan" character (modeled after the older mini-fig look) is exclusive to digital version purchasers. Everything else will be available to all players as it is released.
Confusing, I know.
For more detailed info, see:
https://www.gematsu.com/2022/03/lego-star-wars-the-skywalker-saga-character-collection-season-pass-detailed
...and:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LegoStarWarsVideoGame/comments/t9qi1f/to_preorder_or_not_to_preorder_a_simple_guide_for/
Re: You'll Have To Pay To See Baby Yoda In LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
@Scapetti He comes with the Season One pack. Grogu is a companion character to him, so the first entry in that list should actually read "The Mandalorian (with Grogu companion character)". It's not you
Source: https://www.gematsu.com/2022/03/lego-star-wars-the-skywalker-saga-character-collection-season-pass-detailed
Re: You'll Have To Pay To See Baby Yoda In LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Having followed the development of this game closely since its announcement and as a frequent visitor of its Reddit page, where no ounce of info goes missed, I can probably help shed a little light on some of your guys' questions.
First, @KateGray the Classic Characters will look (and possibly behave) as they did in the old Complete Saga game, as opposed to their new appearances in this game. Also, you might want to adjust the list to reflect that the Mandalorian himself is included in The Mandalorian Season One pack, with Grogu as a companion character. We can't have little Grogu just wandering around all by himself!
@StarPoint @blindsquarel They're just character packs; no additional level content has been announced (at this point, anyway).
@Reyren The only difference should be in performance and visual quality; no content differences have been alluded to.
@HolyGeez03 No microtransactions have been announced for the game. The DLC character packs are the only additional paid content that the public knows of at this point. The game is fairly different than past Lego games, though, with attention paid to more advanced combat and so forth, but it'll still likely hold the same family-friendly Lego game spirit as past iterations, so you may want to wait for reviews and more gameplay footage if you're on the fence.
@TDRsuperstar2 The deluxe edition contains all of the listed character packs, just not all of the few physical/digital/pre-order exclusive characters, depending on how exactly you ordered it.
Re: Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Has Now Shipped Over 4 Million Units
@Slinkoy1 If you've never played BOTW before, I would advise against that plan.
Without spoiling any of the plot, if you dive into Age of Calamity without first having played BOTW, you'll be missing a ton of context, will lack relevant familiarity with certain characters and gameplay mechanics, and some things may not make any sense at all or miss the intended impact.
Age of Calamity is only as much of a prequel to BOTW as Days of Future Past is to the original X-Men trilogy movies, where prior knowledge is expected in order to enjoy the intended experience. It's not nearly as cut and dry as "what happened 100 years before the events of BOTW" makes it sound like.
I urge anyone who's interested to play these games in the order of release.
Re: Review: Mario Golf: Super Rush - A Solid Swing, But Par For The Course
@ThomasBW84 Thanks for the reply!
It's a shame they didn't make it as sophisticated as Wii Sports in that regard. I can only hope they might improve it in future updates...
Re: Review: Mario Golf: Super Rush - A Solid Swing, But Par For The Course
@ThomasBW84 Thanks for the honest review.
You mentioned that things like spin, fade, and draw are easier with button controls than with motion controls, but are such actions still POSSIBLE with latter? I've been hoping for motion controls similar to those found in Wii Sports Resort's golfing, where the twist of your wrist and curve and velocity of your swing affected such things. Can you elaborate any more on how Mario Golf's implementation compares?
Re: Poll: Will You Be Using Motion Controls In Mario Golf: Super Rush?
For us, this will primarily be a family game with casual players, so yes, we'll be using the motion controls. I just hope they're (at least) as sophisticated as those of Wii Sports Resort's golfing, where the twist and strength of your swing actually have an effect on the ball, as opposed to inputing those parameters via button-presses beforehand and the act of swinging the joy-con merely behaving as a swing activation switch. It's hard to tell from the video what the case may be. I wish Nintendo would post a video going more in-depth into the actual functionality of the motion controls.
Re: LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Has Been Delayed (Again)
For those unclear on this (and with the lack of marketing so far, I don't blame you), this game isn't just a remaster or repackaging of the previous games.
It's being built from the ground up on an entirely new engine, first developed for this game, and will feature all new content.
The majority of the game will be covered in an open-world, free roam style in which you can travel to any part of the Star Wars galaxy featured across all nine core movies, in any order that you choose. The 45 "levels" will primarily be focused on specific battles and other key events from the movies, several of which supposedly to be points not featured in the original games.
Additionally, the new engine will feature new mechanics, such as full 360 camera control, over-the-shoulder aiming perspective, more complex combat than previous games, and more interactive Force powers.
The game is reported to contain somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 characters and creatures, with around 300 of them playable. There are something like 24 explorable planets/moons/Death Stars (more or less every setting in the movies), each with side-quests and secrets to discover. There will also be random space encounters in the free-roam atmospheres of the planets where you can take on capital ships that, once defeated, can be boarded and explored as well.
The game is also being developed for the new XBOX and PS systems.
Considering all of that, it should be clear that this isn't "just another" LEGO game, or a simple rehash of the previous games in the series, and make it more understandable why delays have happened, especially given the circumstances of the past year.
Re: Nintendo Drops The Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Launch Trailer Ahead Of Release
@Mr_Persona "it sounds so petty and weak"
So it was perfectly fitting of BotW's Zelda, who felt she was precisely those things during the events of the past, struggling desperately to find that goddess part within herself.
Now if she still spoke with that tone after mastering her powers, I might share the sentiment.
Re: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Is Reportedly Up For Sale
I sure hope it won't adversely affect TT Games or Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, one of my most anticipated upcoming games... Remember what happened to Lucas Arts and 1313 after the Disney acquisition? :/
Re: Gallery: Sonic Mania Plus Is The Version Of Sonic Mania You've Always Wanted
Has it been confirmed (or is it safe to assume) that the DLC version will contain ALL of the new in-game features of the Plus release (i.e. should the DLC essentially make previous versions of Mania identical to the physical version of the game)?