It's about the actual storyline, so be careful:
I really enjoy the game, even more than BotW but why... WHY? Why bringing up Zelda's story part via memories whilst making the actual order COMPLETELY OPTIONAL?! I collected the first dragon tear - it was okay seeing how Zelda travelled into the past. I was really interested to see more of it. Then I collected the next one in the Hebra region only to see how Ganondorf turned into the demon king. I don't have to explain how crappy that is, right? I purposely avoided ANY KIND OF SPOILER in terms of STORYLINE throughout the 6 years only to get randomly "spoiled" by the freaking game itself. It's like watching John Wick, seeing how his dogs got killed only to randomly jump to the point when Wick killed that bastard who killed the dog. It was just like that. Thanks whoever thought it's absolutely not necessary to include a linear storyline. What a genius. This shit already heavily bothered me in BotW, yet they learnt nothing from it.
First flight was janky as hell but I had the biggest smile on my face when I did this lol.
@Sentinel @EmperorKinyagi
First flight was janky as hell but I had the biggest smile on my face when I did this lol.
@Sentinel @EmperorKinyagi
Alright so I’ve visited the depths, done about a dozen shrines, done some general exploration and engaged with the people at lookout landing. Here are my general thoughts so far:
If you would’ve told me that just one year after Elden Ring, I would already experience a video game that would surpass it, I would have called you insane but Tears of the Kingdom is that fucking game.
I was not the biggest Breath of the Wild fan as you all know. It was a top 5 Zelda for me, but “best game of all time,” this shit was certainly not. It wasn’t even the best Zelda for me. I enjoyed Breath of the Wild’s open world, sense of exploration, and breakable weapon systems adding diversity to combat (I think I was the only one who enjoyed this lol), but I criticized the game for its Shrines feeling completely unmemorable and blending together, it’s lack of theme’d dungeons, and the game overall just feeling really “safe” and like it took very few risks.
With Tears of the Kingdom, I swear to Zonai Rauru, these motherfuckers read my posts and crafted a love-letter me specifically. I spent 6 hours, on the fucking tutorial for this game. The Fucking tutorial. And I loved every second of it, I felt like I was actually taking my time to understand the game systems and mechanics and not just rushing through the tutorial just to get it over with. With Breath of the Wild’s tutorial, I felt like I was just learning a bunch of shit I could’ve figured out for myself, and it lasted way too long. Like, I could’ve figured out weaponry and exploration and such a huge tutorial just felt like it was prolonging my real adventure.
With Tears of the Kingdom’s tutorial, I felt like learning how to apply all of these crazy powers to build and interact with the game’s systems was extremely engaging in and of itself. Like I said on @Sentinel ‘s profile, I was shocked at how much I love the crafting and building system in this game, because it takes what would otherwise be boring and vanilla exploration and makes it into a highly impressive process on it’s own.
In Elden Ring, I find a dagger and am told to bring it to someone. So then a dagger pops into my inventory, changing nothing about gameplay, and then I just walk over to an individual and press talk. It’s not fun, it’s just busy work. With Tears, I’m told to re-unite a helpless backpacking Korok with his friend, and am immediately met with three different equally viable and engaging ways to transport him to his goal. Do I build a vehicle and drive him? Do I built a plane and fly him? Do I just grab him with ultra hand and carry him? Do I have to build some device to get him over a chasm? This shit is so amazing lol, I haven’t felt like I’m “doing busy work” like in other open world games, I feel like the exploration has become an entirely new process itself. I’m not just walking or riding a horse from place to place, I’m strategizing on the best and most efficient way to get from point A to point B.
I’m not sure how I can look at other open world games after Tears of the Kingdom…exploration in this game is just so far beyond what I’ve ever experienced.
Now the shrines in Breath of the Wild just felt like random puzzles scattered around the game world for no reason. Like the developers came up with these cool puzzles and just scattered them around everywhere because this is Zelda and that’s just what you do.
In Tears, even the shrines themselves have their own lore reason to exist, even if I don’t know what that is yet. Their roots extend far down into the depths which seem to imply that the Zonai were trying to explore the depths, which is consistent with some of the other bizarre questions being raised about the depths themselves.
In Breath of the Wild, here is the Kingdom of Hyrule. Why is it here? We don’t know, that’s not important. Here’s some ruins, why do they exist? Who cares, they’re just here for you to explore.
In Tears, we are actually starting to explore the history of Hyrule and why it exists as it does, and how it came to be and why. This is the shit we needed in Breath of the Wild, one of the best things you can do in world building is explain why your world exists as it does, and in Tears I feel like I’m on an quest to uncover some greater mystery as to why the Kingdom exists as it does. In Breath of the Wild, there really was no mystery, it was just “here’s Hyrule. It’s destroyed because Ganon, just like in every other Zelda.” Idk, to me the mystery and world building in this game are absolutely amazing so far.
Speaking of the mystery and exploration, I absolutely love the side characters in this game. I really didn’t care too much for the side characters in BOTW, I’m really not sure why but it felt like they were just there and I really didn’t care. I think it’s because in Tears, these characters seem to have an active presence in the world and are actively helping you in your journey moreso than in BOTW. They investigate the chasms, they investigate Zelda, they go on Monster hunts, they communicate with outside provinces, they are so much more active than the relatively static side characters in Breath of the Wild.
Speaking of the depths, holy. Fucking. Shit. Best moment of exploration and discovery I’ve seen from Zelda…maybe ever. These motherfuckers actually built an entire underworld under the Fucking Kingdom, and then had the balls to make it completely pitch black so it felt like you were trekking into the complete unknown and have no idea what horrors are lying in wait. They even made the enemies [permanently] sap your healthbar to make exploring this place feel ten times more tense. I’ve only discovered three light roots so far but got damn, I felt like I was trekking into Zelda hell. And the hints of a ruined civilization down in the depths? Holy shit.
As if the beautiful sky islands weren’t enough, Nintendo also had the gargantuan balls to give us Zelda hell. Freaking brilliant.
My only legitimate criticism of this game so far, my only one, is that they should’ve cut flurry rush. Flurry rush made combat in Breath of the Wild feel boring and monotonous, they legit should’ve just dumped it in the trash for this game. I cannot understand why they included it and I myself hope to never use it.
Otherwise…got damn. Tears may legit be the best Zelda game ever for me.
@EmperorKinyagi @Sentinel @Buusatan94 @Toby D. Dog @Nikuzi etc etc etc
If you would’ve told me that just one year after Elden Ring, I would already experience a video game that would surpass it, I would have called you insane but Tears of the Kingdom is that fucking game.
I was not the biggest Breath of the Wild fan as you all know. It was a top 5 Zelda for me, but “best game of all time,” this shit was certainly not. It wasn’t even the best Zelda for me. I enjoyed Breath of the Wild’s open world, sense of exploration, and breakable weapon systems adding diversity to combat (I think I was the only one who enjoyed this lol), but I criticized the game for its Shrines feeling completely unmemorable and blending together, it’s lack of theme’d dungeons, and the game overall just feeling really “safe” and like it took very few risks.
With Tears of the Kingdom, I swear to Zonai Rauru, these motherfuckers read my posts and crafted a love-letter me specifically. I spent 6 hours, on the fucking tutorial for this game. The Fucking tutorial. And I loved every second of it, I felt like I was actually taking my time to understand the game systems and mechanics and not just rushing through the tutorial just to get it over with. With Breath of the Wild’s tutorial, I felt like I was just learning a bunch of shit I could’ve figured out for myself, and it lasted way too long. Like, I could’ve figured out weaponry and exploration and such a huge tutorial just felt like it was prolonging my real adventure.
With Tears of the Kingdom’s tutorial, I felt like learning how to apply all of these crazy powers to build and interact with the game’s systems was extremely engaging in and of itself. Like I said on @Sentinel ‘s profile, I was shocked at how much I love the crafting and building system in this game, because it takes what would otherwise be boring and vanilla exploration and makes it into a highly impressive process on it’s own.
In Elden Ring, I find a dagger and am told to bring it to someone. So then a dagger pops into my inventory, changing nothing about gameplay, and then I just walk over to an individual and press talk. It’s not fun, it’s just busy work. With Tears, I’m told to re-unite a helpless backpacking Korok with his friend, and am immediately met with three different equally viable and engaging ways to transport him to his goal. Do I build a vehicle and drive him? Do I built a plane and fly him? Do I just grab him with ultra hand and carry him? Do I have to build some device to get him over a chasm? This shit is so amazing lol, I haven’t felt like I’m “doing busy work” like in other open world games, I feel like the exploration has become an entirely new process itself. I’m not just walking or riding a horse from place to place, I’m strategizing on the best and most efficient way to get from point A to point B.
I’m not sure how I can look at other open world games after Tears of the Kingdom…exploration in this game is just so far beyond what I’ve ever experienced.
Now the shrines in Breath of the Wild just felt like random puzzles scattered around the game world for no reason. Like the developers came up with these cool puzzles and just scattered them around everywhere because this is Zelda and that’s just what you do.
In Tears, even the shrines themselves have their own lore reason to exist, even if I don’t know what that is yet. Their roots extend far down into the depths which seem to imply that the Zonai were trying to explore the depths, which is consistent with some of the other bizarre questions being raised about the depths themselves.
In Breath of the Wild, here is the Kingdom of Hyrule. Why is it here? We don’t know, that’s not important. Here’s some ruins, why do they exist? Who cares, they’re just here for you to explore.
In Tears, we are actually starting to explore the history of Hyrule and why it exists as it does, and how it came to be and why. This is the shit we needed in Breath of the Wild, one of the best things you can do in world building is explain why your world exists as it does, and in Tears I feel like I’m on an quest to uncover some greater mystery as to why the Kingdom exists as it does. In Breath of the Wild, there really was no mystery, it was just “here’s Hyrule. It’s destroyed because Ganon, just like in every other Zelda.” Idk, to me the mystery and world building in this game are absolutely amazing so far.
Speaking of the mystery and exploration, I absolutely love the side characters in this game. I really didn’t care too much for the side characters in BOTW, I’m really not sure why but it felt like they were just there and I really didn’t care. I think it’s because in Tears, these characters seem to have an active presence in the world and are actively helping you in your journey moreso than in BOTW. They investigate the chasms, they investigate Zelda, they go on Monster hunts, they communicate with outside provinces, they are so much more active than the relatively static side characters in Breath of the Wild.
Speaking of the depths, holy. Fucking. Shit. Best moment of exploration and discovery I’ve seen from Zelda…maybe ever. These motherfuckers actually built an entire underworld under the Fucking Kingdom, and then had the balls to make it completely pitch black so it felt like you were trekking into the complete unknown and have no idea what horrors are lying in wait. They even made the enemies [permanently] sap your healthbar to make exploring this place feel ten times more tense. I’ve only discovered three light roots so far but got damn, I felt like I was trekking into Zelda hell. And the hints of a ruined civilization down in the depths? Holy shit.
As if the beautiful sky islands weren’t enough, Nintendo also had the gargantuan balls to give us Zelda hell. Freaking brilliant.
My only legitimate criticism of this game so far, my only one, is that they should’ve cut flurry rush. Flurry rush made combat in Breath of the Wild feel boring and monotonous, they legit should’ve just dumped it in the trash for this game. I cannot understand why they included it and I myself hope to never use it.
Otherwise…got damn. Tears may legit be the best Zelda game ever for me.
@EmperorKinyagi @Sentinel @Buusatan94 @Toby D. Dog @Nikuzi etc etc etc
I agree with alot of this, I didnt really like BotW that much but this game feels like it pretty much made everything i didnt like about it into really good content, the game is super dense with tons of stuff to do and it never feels empty like BotW often did. The story here is way better and the way the NPCs are reactive to stuff going on is super awesome. The depths is the most insane shit ever, its crazy how they just didn't market it at all when its literally the size of the main overworld, just wild stuff. Top tier game