To add to this, Monolith made Xenoblade X, one of the largest open world games out there (I think still to this day) in 4 years, and then the last year of that they were already starting work on Xenoblade 2, which took around 3 years, then they remastered the first game with a complete visual overhaul and ported it to their new engine (not a small amount of work, the Xenoblade X onward engine is completely different, Xenoblade 1 used standard Nintendo tools while their HD engine is from the ground up using Criware intermediary tools), and then they finished Xenoblade 3 2 years after that, announcing it months before release even. This isn't even including doing all this while half the company outsourced work to Splatoon, Animal Crossing, Smash Bros, Skyward Sword AND BotW, and of course they did 25 hour expansions for both Xenoblade 2 and Xenoblade 3 in less than a year. Nintendo has no excuse when they are being BTFO by their own subsidiary. They made Torna, Xenoblade 1 remaster and Xenoblade 3 PLUS the 25 hour expansion all in the time it took for TotK to release.
It's just Havok physics, the work would just be in tweaking the forces. I could get physics stuff like that being hard a decade or two ago, but not really anymore. All the objects have pretty standard collision, and the only constraints are non-rigid, its the same sort of constraints KSP uses for rockets. At most I can see work being done to optimize collisions and stuff, but considering how fast things vanish into thin air seems like there isn't much room to work with. I also think the fact the game had a day 1 patch after the game supposedly having a year of polish is suspect. Someone else argued it was some malicious thing to punish pirates, but I don't see them doing that, and Metroid Prime Remastered was finished years ago and that didn't get any patches.
Ascend is super simple, just check the space above the player for room then do an animation and move upwards to the specified position, rewind is probably more complex than a lot of the physics stuff. It requires tracking and saving the position of every physics object around the player for a pretty long time, probably lots of ways to optimize that though, and I assume they batch connected objects together, would have to check, I haven't played the game since May since I just found it boring. Probably in a similar vein to how Demos in Source work, or replays in Halo
Those were still the early days of 3D, and the N64 was pretty limited in a few ways, primarily cartridge space. I'm no programmer but I imagine that on average more actual work went into building 3D games than today. Either way, the disparity in quality and development time simply is too big to chalk up it just being more complicated now imo.
Maybe but I don't think anyone here hates TotK, it's just such huge missed potential, that seems to be the common sentiment. Even if it's good you can admit that, just objectively. That's what really disappoints me is how it could've been a real step forward, think what LttP was to LoZ, how it took that formula and fixed every problem and then added so much new.
There's even people who like BotW here who aren't thrilled that TotK is so bare bones. This isn't even about the direction they're taking Zelda in, it's what they're doing in that direction which is underwhelming. I think you said you wouldn't care if BotW3 reused the same gameplay and another modified version of the map, but a lot of people are going to find that lazy and repetitive to the extreme if they do, which would not surprise me.
The only possibility that make sense, assuming it wasn't just troubled development, is holding it back for a planned Switch Pro which was heavily rumored but might have been cancelled for whatever reasons.
Nigga, Xenoblade 2 looked like a fucking PS2 game in places. Of course, Monolith's pace is truly exceptional and to be praised. But they are the exception. Its them, Fromsoft and absolutely nobody else who puts out quality games like that. A much better comparison would be the 3D Mario team which is going to end up taking even longer to release their sequel (they did help on the Capt. Toad and SM3DW ports, as a mitigating factor.) Or, outside of Nintendo, groups like Santa Monica Studio putting out two Gods of War in 5 years or Bethesda going 7 years between Fallout 4 and Starfield, id going 4 years between Doom and Doom 2.
Lol. What developers are scratching their heads?
None of these are really "scratching their heads". You made it sound like the physics was so complicated, other developers couldn't figure out how Nintendo got it to work. Most of these people are just saying the game is polished and well-designed. I don't think there's any question that most games Nintendo puts out are fairly polished. I think most people just find it a bit unbelievable it took six years of polishing a game built on a previously existing engine and world map to get it to the point it's at.
First one is the only actual programmer in there, second one is a cinematic animator and writer, not an actual dev, third and fourth are a bunch of indies
The UI is so much worse. I hate the new wheel of powers when BOTW was handled the same as quick select weapons. It reeks of poor design.
Lmfao, the same dogshit company that keeps reusing fucking everything, leaves all their games since demon souls half baked and unfinished and can't seem to make a decent ai?
All the weapons are rusted as an incentive to push you to fuse and grab non-rusted ones from the depths. There are no good weapons on the surface as all break very quickly even when fused, so have fun exploring the BOTW sized map you can't actually see.
Exploring the depths actually was very fun, a great part of the game.
Personally never got it. The Depths are annoying to explore to me due to the darkness. Even without that element it is one layout with nothing but enemy camps and the occasional Yiga stronghold or Zelda outfit. There just isn't much worthwhile content down there. I can understand enjoying the navigation through the dark, but it was just annoying to me.
