Legend of Zelda thread - Lorefags GTFO!

I have about fifteen hours into the game so far. With Breath of the Wild, the thing I enjoyed the most was wandering around and exploring. So in that vein, I've been advancing the story a bit (probably for an impure reason which is that I know in video games the developers tend to lock abilities behind early story barriers) but otherwise I am wandering around. It has been an extremely rewarding experience because I like to see how familiar places have changed. To that end, reusing the existing world and fleshing it out was a very good call from the development team.

This probably also lends credence to the concept of "if you didn't enjoy the first game, you aren't going to enjoy the second" and I also remember that there was a large minority of people that did not find Breath of the Wild particularly engrossing on the exploration front. But at least for me, I really liked the way Breath of the Wild handled its exploration and Tears of the Kingdom offers more of the same but with the added twist of being in a familiar place that has undergone some significant changes. It is also neat to see characters I recognize and to see what they are doing and/or how they haven't really changed at all (which is played to comedic effect).

Overall this experience is a very unique one as far as I can tell. Not many other games come to mind that lean so heavily into the concept of a familiar world that has continued moving along in your (the player's, not the player-character's) absence. It is good stuff.

The added variety of enemies was sorely needed, along with the changes to the game's weapon systems. Making materials/ingredients more useful in general gameplay is something I have had more fun with than initially expected. And oddly enough I've not been using the ultrahand feature as much as I thought I would. This will likely change, especially as I get more charges for my belt. But I like that the ultrahand is simply an augmenting factor and not necessary to enjoy the core of the game's exploration and discovery.

If there is one thing that I do not like, I think it is... well this may be spoilery, so I'll obscure it:

I find it pretty jarring that a ton of characters have no clue who Link is. There have been plenty of occasions in Kakariko and Hateno villages especially where Link is treated as a total stranger and I don't find that very believable. The stuff Link did for Kakariko village stands on its own and not only is he a property owner in Hateno, but he's done work for almost every family AND Princess Zelda lives there with him. Why are they all talking to Link like it is the first time they've met? Weird.

As well, I find the sky tower thingies to be questionable. Okay so you guys tore down all the old towers and then also built these new giant towers in some environments that I would classify as extremely hostile? Well... I've got some questions then. Namely why have you expended so many resources and man hours into building lookout towers while completely neglecting the reconstruction of Hyrule Castle Town, which is ostensibly the seat of power for the Kingdom of Hyrule. Seems like your priorities aren't exactly in the proper order here.

I know time travel has already been introduced into the story, so I am ready for some bullshit time travel swicheroo shenanigans, but that's usually a lame way to explain away a massive civic undertaking that completely neglects your capital. Given that this is a Zelda game and moreover a Nintendo game, I'm willing to look past a wonky story as long as they made the rest of the game good, which it seems like they have. At least it isn't a teenage high school melodrama... I mean a Final Fantasy game.

They are not very large issues and do not relate to any specific gameplay/mechanical problems, but they are persistent story and theming issues that I am constantly reminded of as I play. Overall I am really liking Tears of the Kingdom. The gameplay is fun and interesting, the world is unique and offers an extremely rewarding sort of personal gratification through its exploration that I have never really experienced before and the story is mostly interesting and nonoffensive. I can understand why this game has reviewed as well as it has. But I can also understand why it is divisive among some segments of gamers.

My recommendation is that if you liked Breath of the Wild, you'll have spent your money well on Tears of the Kingdom. And if you are on the fence about buying Tears of the Kingdom, you should strongly consider getting the game. There's a lot of good stuff here and I wouldn't get too mired in the negativity. I forget which reviewer does it this way, but their 10/10 score is listed as "essential" and not "perfect". And I think Tears of the Kingdom is essential if you own a Switch.

Have fun!
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xXx: State of the Union said:
Two weeks and like dozens of pages and TotK niggies couldn't convince me it was worth it, then Pissmaster comes in here and just slaps his dick on the table.
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For the past couple of days I have not seen any spoilers on twitter excepts for mechs and warcrimes against the Korok.

 
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I enjoyed the gameplay and all the wacky building stuff but I lost interest when I explored the entire map and didn't find a single divine beast, sheikah tech other than what purah made, nothing from botw other than the map and characters
This entire game has a weird aura around it that I couldn't really put my finger on it, like as if we're playing an alternate timeline to botw (maybe tied in to Age of Calamity? I didn't play it)
 
Back me up! said:
For the past couple of days I have not seen any spoilers on twitter excepts for mechs and warcrimes against the Korok.

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There's a lot of korok warcrimes. Cooking them over a spit roast, crucifying them in several different ways, sticking rockets on them and firing them at the moon. I think there's a video compilation
 
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xXx: State of the Union said:
Why wasn't Nintendo showing shit like this? This actually kind of sells me on the game.

Nintendo does what Kojima won't. Give me a Metal Gear in an open world.
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For what it's worth, it takes some serious autism to build stuff that big, scouring the world for all the right parts and getting them all to work right, all within TotK's fiddly framework for building that's full of wonky problems. I attached four wagon wheels to a plank, then attached a board to the back, mounted two fans, activated the fans, and it just didn't budge for no discernible reason. Then I attached the fans and a steering wheel to a random wagon trailer that looked sort of like this:
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and that worked as a little car, but it didn't go very far until the battery wore out (batteries regenerate slowly), and wasn't very fast anyway. I'm surprised you can go as far as building an entire mech. I hope the game actually saves things you build from session to session.
 
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xXx: State of the Union said:
Why wasn't Nintendo showing shit like this? This actually kind of sells me on the game.

Nintendo does what Kojima won't. Give me a Metal Gear in an open world.
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Cause after seeing what 100% pure uncut Japan Austim can do this is gonna be most people's ToTK experience:



Better to let people find the joy of making stuff on their own instead of "WHY CAN"T I DO THAT!?!?!?!".
 
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Back me up! said:
Better to let people find the joy of making stuff on their own instead of "WHY CAN"T I DO THAT!?!?!?!".
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I mean, maybe, but instead of buying the game for $70 dollars and coming away disappointed, I instead spent the past 2 weeks months entertaining myself by prattling on about how this game is glorified DLC to piss off Nintendo consoomers.

I mean, they still made their money but none of it was my money so it was still a loss.
 
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Playing a game called A Reckless Disregard for Gravity about 15 years ago (holy shit) has prepared me for all of the diving challenges. They cannot stop me. I will collect every hug and kiss.

This game is awesome, by the way. You can get it remastered really cheap and have hours of fun.
 
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