I didn't even know about hover-bike moped until after my first playthrough. I don't look things up so I don't spoil the experience. The exploration still felt very unsatisfying. In BotW, there was a sense of structure, like how the Shrine in Kakiriko led to a great fairy spring, which led to a fork in the road for more things to accomplish. TotK was a massive checklist where the 60th shrine I found taught me how to shoot an arrow.
@@TheLeetCasualGamer Nah that's facts tho. I felt like the devs for BotW created the world in such a way that you felt like you were discovering stuff on your own but they had planned for most "adventures" with really well crafted world
I think that's a symptom of reusing the same world as botw. Even if they had changed a lot of stuff up (which, imo, they didn't) the overall pathing of the world was designed for botw. The path to Zora's domain in botw was great, but to differentiate totk they just sort of threw a bunch of rocks in the way and added a path that goes on top of the surrounding cliffs. But its so obvious that this path just exists so that there's a new "intended" way to get to the domain. It doesn't feel like it naturally flows with the landscape. Another example of this is the path to Rito village. Totk very clearly wants you to go north around the forgotten temple and through the snowfields to get to the village. This works fine, but you can't even see Rito village while you're going there. Meanwhile in botw, the hills and paths were placed in a way that almost always framed the giant pillar of Rito village in the distance, which gave you a good sense of your progress. The world in totk was just designed for a different game with a different "intended" order/path, so most of the time it doesn't feel like there is that same clear sense of direction that was present in botw.
Breath of the Wild stayed fresh despite its repeated shrine and koroks because the way you interacted with the game was through the environment. You had a limited inventory of weapons and food, but at the end of the day you had to deal with the weather, the rock formations, the trees, and so on in order to progress. It was a careful balance. Tears of the Kingdom and Echoes of Wisdom break this balance by giving you items that allow you to ignore the environment that you can summon at any point from your inventory. You can just use the same Darknut echo or the same rocket shield to get over everything. In Breath of the Wild, if you could stasis launch of a tree everywhere, it would break many shrines. But you can't stasis launch off a tree in shrines because you don't have the ability to pull a tree out of your inventory. It's also not available to you in Death Mountain because there are no trees in a volcano. They tried to block pulling out Zonai devices in Tears of the Kingdom's shrines, but you can just walk in with a rocket shield you fused outside. I don't think freedom itself is the problem in the sense that you have the ability to do these things is not problematic. I think the issue is that the player always has access to every mechanic regardless of the level design. That kind of defeats the whole purpose of a game. Imagine if you could, on any square of a chess board at any time, just summon a queen. That's basically what Tears of the Kingdom lets you do.
Yeah that's a really interesting point, I feel like contending with the geographic "puzzles" of BotW was a lot of fun, but in TotK there is basically none of that
The creation system needed a more advance mode. Like it was nearly impossible to do simple things, like place a fan in the exact angle you wanted, or make anything symmetrical. Having to try to make work benches out of spikes to put things together helped, but good luck getting 2 fans symmetrically placed on your creation, let alone attempting anything more complex without wasting an hour simply because the game doesn't want to let you put things on right.
You can tell you've spent a lot of time prepping the channel, and it's paid off well! Love your takes in this vid. In my opinion I can see the pros and cons in both. I love being able to explore an open world but in a lot of ways it doesn't feel as rewarding as exploring a much more structured world in something like Wind Waker for instance. I hope they keep both going in the future honestly, but unfortunately I wouldn't bet on that become a reality. On another note I just finished up Echos of Wisdom and I feel that game had the PERFECT mix between structured and non-structured. Really enjoyed the spin on that one. Not sure if you've had a chance to play / finish it, but I would be interested to hear your take on it. Anyways great video dude, love your style and I've got a feeling I'm gonna enjoy this channel for a long time. Keep it up man!
Thank you man, I really did have a vision when I created the channel, glad that's coming through. And yeah I do feel tho like Nintendo is balls deep in this Zelda is freedom concept. EoW is SOOOO much better tho when it comes to balancing that freedom and zelda formula. I'm working on a video for it actually. Originally it was gonna be part of this video but honestly it was like 20+ min long in total and I felt like I needed smtn a little more digestable as the first video.
Yeah that’s a good point, don’t want your first video to be too much of a time commitment since nobody would have any past experiences with your channel. Can’t wait to see future videos though! I used to have a Zelda channel before I switched to a game dev channel so I’m always down to find new Zelda channels popping up. And your editing style and personality seem super genuine. Good luck with the channel, hope it blows up!
I had a very similar experience. I used the goblin glider to get everywhere. For me, I feel like I explored less than in BOTW because I'd see something I wanted to get to and just fly over everything else to get there. In BOTW, it was much easier to get sidetracked by every little thing and explore, because between my current location and my destination there were a hundred things closer that I could see on the way.
All we couldve had was a linear story with linear dungeons. And to keep freedom experience add 3 or 4 hidden dungeons that you can find at any time. We can still have a open world but make it better to explore than just korok seeds and outfits we already paid for in botw. You coupdve added heart pieces to find. Music boxes that you can find and lets you put a classic zelda song when you explore the open world, loftwings to tame and mount, and good sidequest
Honestly a lot of this is very true, I didn’t like Totk on release since every solution I came up with was the exact same, how do I get over there: catapult. How do I transport this korok to his friend: catapult.
hey, first of all great video! really high production quality for a channel of this size. ive seen that a lot of the criticisms around this game revolve around it being too free - when you can do anything the way you want to, many people will probably just pick the most efficient way, which will just make the game too easy. i just wanted to share my thoughts on this because i dont consider myself that creative of a person, and yet i would still consider this to be the best game i ever played. maybe its because im a teenager who played this game over the school holidays with endless free time - but i found that even when i knew the "best way" id still choose to do it some other way because i just wanted to see what would happen - and many times it did work out, and thats where the game's "a-ha" moments came from, for me. i feel like this game and its predecessor, but especially so for totk, were really meant to be played when you had a lot of time; if you had all the time in the world, you dont feel like youre "wasting" any time, and can fully open yourself up to try all possibilities, just for the sake of it.
That's a really great point actually. When I played BotW I was still in high school, with the portability of the switch I was basically playing that game endlessly. With TotK I was a whole ass adult with a full time job and could only play the game for maybe 1 or 2 hours at a time. I had to be efficient with my time. Thank you as well for the kind words. New Videos every Wednesday so enjoy :D
Great first video, well-branded channel, rocking the timestamps too - you know what you're doing, this channel will grow! Happy to be your 18th sub bud :)
Dude thank you so much for the kind words. I was really going for a high quality product, so hearing that really motivates me. When you edit you watch the video like a million times so I was already sick of it when I posted 😂 Next video is out next week, it's gonna be a banger wahoo
@@Woaley Oh yeah, I'm a small gaming tubester myself so I know the feeling. You really start to wonder if the video was even good as you endlessly watch it on the editing floor haha. Well take it from me, you're definitely ahead of the curve, putting in that extra effort is what will blow up your channel and set it apart. TH-cam is a quality > quantity game. Pumped for the next one 👏
ToTK has a target audience dedicated to the sandbox player who is creative and some of the things people have made are quite incredible but it would have been nice if it wasnt a Zelda game but a new IP that was about a massive sandbox that you can do what your heart desires. I know the formula was getting stale for Zelda over the last 3 decades (geez) and if you work at Nintendo, I'm sure you would be getting tired of making the same formula over and over again but Zelda's biggest strength to me is item based progression. Whereas Metroid games are about ability based progression, Zelda games always have this amazing "aha" moment when you get a new item like say the Hookshot and your brain puts two and two together to all the hookshot targets you have seen across the game world up until the point you got the Hookshot. That feeling is Zelda to me. BotW and TotK don't have the item based progression so I never got that "aha" moment. Now for BotW I did feel accomplished when i finally found my way to where i wanted to go and thats where BotW succeeds in having exploration based progression but as you have said in the video, TotK loses the reward for exploration as once you figure out the "optimal" way to progress you can use it in almost every situation. To those people who enjoyed TotK, thats great and if you got to fully utilise the tools the sandbox gave you then I'm happy but I really wish it was a new IP instead of a Zelda game.
I just finished it, with the power of way too many resources. Over 150 arrows and 50 bombs etc. Both TOTK and Elden Ring, I didn't like that there is no real point in exploring the world and finding all the good stuff. At least the shrines were useful in TOTK, in Elden Ring they all gave useless spirit ashes and what not. I hope Nintendo will figure out open world.
I can really agree to a lot of the points made its a problem i have with a lot of open world sandbox games aswell, where my creativity to do stuff is not big enought to warrant my own attention, i did spend a lot of time in this game, but it was mostly because im a completionist and wanted every shrine and every dephts flower light thing done (the shrines are so worth it, they are soo good in this game) this is also a thing where one of my fav open world rpgs really shines, which is fallout new vegas the game starts you with the main quest which leads you directly to new vegas, BUT to get there you could take the direct route, which is filled with way too strong enemies or you take the other route where you completely circle around the map and take in nearly every location you could find its just such a little thing to control where the player goes und what the experience should be, while not taking the ''freedom'' away, i could just take the shorter route, but it will be very hard. this kind of thing made me play through the whole game. unlike fallout 3 or 4, where i just walked kinda aimlessy through the map and taking the route towards the main quest just felt wrong or not really thought about although going back to totk, i still really enjoyed my time, and the sandbox elements can be really fun, rewinding objects, going through walls and ''crafting'' your own weapons felt really good.. the ultrahand on the other hand (ha), felt just way too clunky, i think it really worked in shrines and thats about it
Wow thank you for this really insightful response. I absolutely love Fallout New Vegas for the same reasons you described. There's something about open world's that are crafted with "soft" limitations on your freedom, that make it so that the stories you create feel very organic and personal, but were probably planned by the devs all along, who are much smarter than me lmao. I'm actually posting another video about open world stuff next week (won't say much else to not ruin the surprise) so if you like this vid, subscribe :D
Yeah. The best part of BotW was fighting my way up to Zora's Domain while the constant rain kept me from climbing. Every other divine beast never limited me as much as that and thus was a let down. The game should have leaned into that. Give me all this freedom and abulities, take them away, and force me to complete an actual dungeon to open up the world again.
EXACTLY. That was one of my fav moments too. TotK had very few of these limiting moments that really challenged you to think. I did the Wind Temple in TotK first and so I didn't have any of the Zonai upgrades or parts, so slowly making my way up to the eye of the storm was so fun and engaging.
@Woaley I basically had to force myself not to bust out the zonai parts once I got to the point in the game when you have over 10 of everything. I love the open worl design, but it should only be completely unlocked after defeating Ganon.
@zachweyrauch2988 Same. I remember how trivial Revali's Gale made traversal and lo and behold. I'm actually glad that Yunobo didn't rehash Duruk's Protection as it made combat too easy. Of course Sidon's power was completely useless.
I love botw and totk but I have no problem admitting Totk missed the mark especially in regards to exploration… No new towns or meaningful locations was pretty disappointing The sky and depths could use like at least 2 towns with new undiscovered tribes… The story is whatever But despite that I found joy playing through Totk, I find the new gameplay mechanics much more interesting than botw. I just don’t want this map reusing sequel anymore the sense of excitement and exploration was completely butchered
Yeah I def enjoyed TotK, but it was such a massively disappointing sequel in my eyes. There was so much room to make this the very best Zelda game ever and they fumbled so hard.
It wasn't really the freedom for me, it was how empty the sky and underground levels were. There were no real cultures and villages there. It was almost traveling to the same spots as BOTW again and doing missions. I did enjoy the game but wasn't half as invested in it like I was with BOTW
Yeah I agree, second time around the open world just wasn't as interesting. Sky was filled with the same 3 quest objectives and the Depths (besides the initial oh shit moment I had the first time) literally got nothing else.
@@zachweyrauch2988 Yeah definitely exists in some capacity in BotW too. I think it's not as bad cause you kind of have to abide to the world physics right, so when you saw a mountain you still have to ask "How the hell do I get up there". I think the sequence to Zora's Domain is a good example of this. In BotW it's an intense and dangerous path where you can't climb cause of the rain, in TotK that same scenario would be hoverbike time haha.
@@Woaley That's kinda my whole criticism. It's supposedly open world but very clearly funneled toward zoras domain then around the map. I'm kinda old at this point for a gamer (34), but I played a lot of zelda as a kid. Almost every game that came out before skyward sword (I had already moved away from nintendo). What we lost to make the world open was a curated story with gated access to areas. This means characters can actually develop the plot because you can't talk to them until you've done other things. In BotW, any character interaction could be the first thing someone does. That's why they're almost all just weird fetch quests. Have you ever tried to play majoras mask? To me, that's the pinnacle of older zelda. The world is wildly interconnected, and the quests are incredible.
Having a similar issue in Echoes of Wisdom right now, where there are some Swiss army knife summons that are a little too generally applicable. Great first video, cool seeing my random clips used to punctuate a point.
@@PyrenZero This video was actually going to include EoW but tbh it ran to like almost 20 min so I cut it. Prob gonna be it's own future video. Thanks for the clips they were great haha
i agree with you wholeheartedly about totk-- it's really a drag trying to 100% that thing (not including koroks). i've got 2 save files, and really what's the point exploring the depths if you've got the hoverbike? walking is for chumps lmao. honestly, besides the menu issue with the echoes, eow REALLY did it for me??? i started getting into zelda with botw and have tried to learn as much as i can about almost every installment, playing tp and sksw myself, backseating a friend playing LA, and finishing like... half of albw (i'll get through it eventually). my girlfriend and i just started ww hd and i'm really excited to see how it holds up to the praise i've heard. all that to say i really liked eow's approach to mixing classic and modern zelda, which was a breath of fresh air after how disappointing totk was on every level. the issues i had were so minimal in eow, despite just needing to get good for a few parts. it doesn't seem like it'll have much replay value for me tho, which makes me sad. anyway, good video! when u said it was your first one i was kinda shocked (i'm not the kind of guy that reads descriptions before watching something lol). your intro animation is super cute, i love it. who did it for you? also, i did watch to the end. canoodle :> edit: also THANK YOU for adding real captions and not just letting yt auto-caption 😭 so rare to see nowadays
CANOODLE YES. You're a real one. I agree with your comments EoW. It was actually originally planned to be part of this video, but the length stretched to like 20+ min and I thought it'd prob be better to stick to one idea for now. Def on my schedule though I got a lot to say about it. My intro was made by a guy on Fiverr called C Widyanto.
even with all that freedom you have in totk i just play totk how i enjoy im not taking the building aspect like it has to be done every single time you do something like climb a mountain or traversal in general im not even using the zonai as much i know its there i just don’t use it i play totk same way as i played botw and i absolutely love it for me its just all the things i was missing in botw packed in totk more things to explore denser areas more weapons(fuse mechanic) so for me i love totk way more than botw but i totally get your point very nice video keep it up!
Yeah I think playing the game without the Zonai building actually makes it better in some ways. I think being able to build anything and have an unlimited amount of resources (especially early on) breaks the game. My first temple was the wind temple and I climbed it without zonai tools, just what was around. It was really intense and fun, I think the limitation def improved the experience.
I didn't even finished the game, just went out with "freedom" and took what's important, the most OP weapons to literally insta kill mobs then I got bored after getting there since I know the upcoming bosses will have no challenge.
everybody always going round saying you can get anywhere with the hoverbike obviously there will be a most efficient solution to any system but you cant criticise the system for allowing the hoverbike if you didnt come up with it yourself which, of course, nobody did, everybody just used reddit thats like criticising a movie for having the ending spoiled because you were too lazy to stop the youtube autoplay kinda your own damn fault you brought this upon yourself son where is the guy that came up with the hoverbike and actually was smarter than the ultrahand system complexity was able to handle cause i doubt its one of the random dudes who make the totk bad because hoverbike videos and it sure aint me
i respect the point though, theres a fine margin to hit where freedom and creativity eventually stops because you get hit with that “staring at a white canvas now what” effect because theres too much freedom. that point is just somewhere else for every one though, thus game design hard et cetera i loved totk
@@MerlinSpace You bring up a really good point actually. I def didn't discover the hoverbike on my own. But I feel like in a lot of ways I was using less efficient versions of it already in my playthrough. Most of us are chronically online so it's like impossible to avoid information spreading like that LOL. I also need to sleep GN 😂
This is really good. I come from a generation where we did have to make our own fun, so that's the only place where I break in agreement with you. But you're on point about the laziness in development. It's still game of the year for me though 😅 Nice video!
@@LatteXP Yeah I get you. The game really is like a toy you can play. For people that like that stuff it's probably one of the best things ever made lol
@Woaley that's a great way to describe it. That said, I can see the Zonai builds a bit frustrating and not worth bothering with if you're not the creative type. Plus resources, yikes!
I wish we would have...both... i really liked the sand boxy jank of totk but i will definitly agree that it dappend the amazement at exploration that botw brought and that i loved so much. Yet i would agree that from the stand point of the classical zelda formula aka constructed adventures and puzzles totk is probably the worst "zelda game". I wish that moving forward a"zelda game" will have one of the two (three?) meaning
@@yeahmansoul Yeah I think if this game had just dialed in a bit with unique dungeons and scenarios while pulling back a bit of the free building, maybe leaving a lot of it to endgame, it would have been better (for me)
Hey there! I came from reddit, yet this is very, very well made. Bravo! I'll follow your journey, and I hope you have a good day!..kanoodle? Is that how you write it?
If you're willing, could you elaborate on why you feel the story of Tears is better than Breath? I think that's a wild take, I've just never seen anyone explain why.
@@ChiPandaAndKeegan I really don’t see what’s wild about that take. Seems to be the more popular opinion from what I’ve seen. For both games, the bulk of the main story takes place through memories. Botw had a very bare bones plot. Basically, the calamity is coming for a long time, then it arrives and we don’t see much, and then that’s it. Most of it focuses on Zelda’s insecurity, which is okay but it’s not much of a plot. Totk has an actual evolving plot, and still managed to have moments of emotional impact. We also got to see more of the pivotal moments in Totk. In Botw, the champions and King all die off screen, and even the moment Zelda seals the calamity in the past is shown in this very brief and vague way (even though it’s non canon, Age of Calamity unironically tells a much better calamity story than Botw did). In Totk we get to see Sonia’s death, the fight with Ganondorf up to the moment Rauru has to sacrifice himself, Zelda’s sacrifice. Also the antagonist is significantly better, as was the final confrontation. Calamity Ganon was kinda underwhelming, just mindless evil for no reason (if Botw is all you’re going by). It retroactively becomes more interesting if you infer that it was Ganondorf’s power and malice leaking out and becoming a force of nature, but that would be Ganondorf (in other words, Totk) carrying the load. I like how Totk felt like it came full circle, with the Ganondorf destroying the Master Sword at the beginning, but then it coming back and striking him down at the end. And how Link failed to catch Zelda at the start, but caught her at the end. I like the contrast between Zelda becoming a dragon for the good of everyone else at the expense of herself, while Ganondorf became a dragon for his own selfish desire to destroy. Botw didn’t really have things like this. It was mostly a straightforward rescue the princess and beat the bad guy story. Also, the mini stories at each region were much better in Totk. In Botw it was all basically the same. Divine beasts running wild and must be stopped. Can barely even be called a story, more like a battle. In Totk, the stories were a lot more varied at each region. There was even lore to uncover about each race, and we had to figure out what was causing the problems and how to combat it. Each new sage got a bit of a character arc of their own as well.
@@Waluigi7891 Maybe we just value different things in our stories. Tears of the Kingdom's story left me feeling empty, and I believe Breath of the Wild's still holds up to be one of the best in the franchise. Reacting to your ideas, yes, both stories mostly take place through memories. Breath succeeds in that structure while Tears fails. In Breath, the memories do not provide context for the plot. The plot has already been given to us by King Rhoam--Hyrule failed to defeat Ganon and now Link, 100 years later, is their only hope. Our mission is to Destroy Ganon. Getting all the memories have nothing to do with our final goal. The memories, therefore, only act to give us context in regard to character, not drive the player forward. By contrast, our goal in Tears is to Find Princess Zelda. The memories (or Dragon Tears) are not supplementary to the main quest. To solve of the mystery of finding Zelda, it is now made completely advantageous to collect all the memories. While Breath lays its plot all out on the table at the beginning, Tears tries to create an air of mystery that I think ultimately falls flat mostly due to the gameplay philosophy of open-air Zelda's freedom. The fact you can get any memory out of order in Tears cheapens the plot. Reveals such as Sonia's death can feel confusing and carry no weight if the player ends up exploring the southeastern region of the map first. And in regards to Tears' active plot (what's happening in the present) it all revolves around Puppet Zelda stringing you about until you've completed all the dungeons. Even if you've sussed through the memories that Zelda is indeed the Light Dragon and not the girl you're chasing in the present, Link has no choice but to play along in the facade of chasing after a fake Zelda for the sake of the plot. Every dungeon in Breath, instead, continues to build on the main quest: Destroy Ganon. Link is motivated to help free the Divine Beast not just because he's helping people, but because the Divine Beast he knows will in some way actively help weaken Ganon. Tears is functionally the same--collecting the sages will save you trouble of fighting Ganondorf's army by yourself, but that reward is unclear, leaving Link's only solid motivation for doing the dungeons to be finding Zelda, a Zelda the player could have already discovering is fake. And I know you've seen all the memes about the Sages. It's been done to death. But the Sages in contrast to the Champions, really have no contest. The Champions are named, faced characters who effect Link and Zelda in both past and present. Daruk is a good friend of Link's. Mipha, an old flame. Revali, Link's rival. Urbosa, a surrogate mother to Zelda. In the present, the Champions inspire and matter to the communities and characters of the present. Teba is a father who will not rest until his home is safe, wishing he could be as powerful as Revali. Yunobo carries the power of Daruk, but lacks the courage to use that power to help his people, something he eventually learns. Riju is young, and worries about not living up to the expectations of her mother and Urbosa, especially in a time of distress when Naboris stirs awake. Sidon and the Zora are the only ones who were still alive in the time of the Calamity. They remember Link. They remember Mipha. Sidon wants to live up to the greatness of his beloved sister, and even many of the elders despise Link, blaming him for letting Mipha die, something they later grow out of when Link helps calm Ruta. Calamity Ganon is a far more interesting villain than Tears' depiction of Ganondorf. And this is again what I mean by "Maybe we just value different things in our stories." Ganondorf commits evil acts with flimsy motivation. He says "Because that is what a king must do." And that's about the extent of understanding why--something I just think is too vague to have any weight. Rauru is stupid for letting Ganondorf close to his kingdom after he attacked them. Even Zelda is stupid for not realizing "Ganon" is in Ganondorf's name after previously fighting Ganon for 100 years. And outside of Rauru and Sonia, there's no other mentioned casualties in the Imprisoning "War". Calamity Ganon does not just commit evil acts. It is Evil Incarnate. It was cunning to take control of the Sheikah technology and laid waste to Hyrule. We witness the horrifying image of Castle Town in flames. Thousands died. Calamity Ganon is a captivating concept to me. In the century past, it is a looming terror. Zelda constantly worries she'll run out of time, and she does. Zelda fails her people. They all die because of her. The Champions all fail to defeat the Blights. Link fails to win the battle. All of our heroes are helpless in the face of an insurmountable force of nature. In the present, Calamity Ganon serves as a reminder of that failure. Link, Zelda, and the Champions' spirits, are all still around. Ganon is a representation of lingering grief and regret. Link's quest through the destroyed Hryule is a reminder that all things heal. Nature can heal, people can heal. There can be peace after the world is destroyed. Link effectively frees the ghosts of the champions from their chains of regret. And he does the same with Zelda, freeing her from a nebulous battle with Evil Itself, a grief she literally struggled against for 100 years. I do love the concepts Tears bring to the table. Zelda being the Light Dragon. Link finally catching Zelda at the end. I was peeing my pants when Rauru was telling Ganondorf that Link was coming for him like a badass. I think it's all cheapened by the resolution being a deus ex machina of Zelda's sacrifice being reversed and her not even remembering being a dragon for thousands of years. Link even gets his arm back. There's no scars from the battle. As epic as the final boss is, it just falls flat for me when the proceeding story lacked the same weight that Breath's did. Even Link in Tears feels like a major downgrade. He just running about in Tears, and he has no effect on the memories of the past, whereas in Breath he is a very active character in the past. Breath has one of the best iterations of Link, that builds on the trope of the Chosen Hero. The reason Link is put in this position of Champion is simply because he holds the Master Sword. He was able to pull it from its resting place, meaning he is the hero of legend--simple as that. Revali's rivalry with Link is due to the fact that Link's qualifications for the role of Champion is just picking up a sword. Revali had trained all his life to become as powerful as he had. His arrogance is certainly a flaw of his, but one can understand that his frustration is reasonable, when Link's position of power was effectively handed to him because of mysterious magical myths and things. Zelda herself even questions Link's authority to weild the Master Sword, asking Link if he can hear the voice inside the sword. Zelda eventually comes to love Link, and we know through her diary that Link has opened up and spoken to Zelda in their time together. Link understands his position of authority was handed to him. He questions himself even, and chose to bear the burden of responsibility in silence. Sorry for the yap sesh, I didn't really much argue why Breath is better--but I hope you can see why I value that story far more than Tears'. I just love everything about Breath and jump at the chance to talk about it.
@@ChiPandaAndKeegan Totk hit a lot harder, and got me far more invested, than Botw did. You didn’t really explain why Botw works with the memory format while Totk does not. What you did was recount the storylines for me, which is unnecessary, and doesn’t explain anything. Especially since you then basically say the memories are irrelevant to the story in Botw. Is that superior storytelling to them being a key part of the narrative? I disagree, and you didn’t make any real argument for it. If it’s because they can be viewed out of order, Botw has the exact same problem, so this either isn’t a legitimate complaint, or it’s a shortcoming they both share. Either way it’s a bit hypocritical to only criticize Totk for this, while completely absolving Botw, and this double standard is something I see a lot with those saying Botw is better. I’d say it’s actually worse in Botw because one of the memories right in the middle of the story is in the final area of the game, meaning you are almost guaranteed to find it out of order on a normal play through. Meanwhile the final two memories (before the secret 13th), are far more accessible and likely to be found very early. Also, the memories are far harder to locate going just off of snapshots, especially if you aren’t familiar with the landscape. You’re more likely to find them by random chance, so they are likely to be found in a completely random order. Totk, meanwhile, has all of the memories in more accessible areas, it is easier to locate them, and you are told the order in game. It’s far easier to get them in the correct order on a casual play through. Also, the most pivotal one, Zelda becoming a dragon, actually is locked to being the last one, unlike Botw. And is it good to have the entire narrative front loaded, and then you’re left to just run around the rest of the game with no real plot development until the very end? I don’t think so. Where’s the discovery? Where the new development along the way? Botw was lacking in that, while Totk was not, even ignoring the memories. In Botw, your activities in each region somewhat advance the overall plot, thin as it is, but there isn’t much of a plot in each region, and what little there is, is borderline identical. Also, the threat each region faces is, again identical, and not very compelling. In Totk, we have variety. Each region has a distinct evolving plot of its own, independent of the greater narrative, and still fits into the overall plot neatly. The stakes feel higher because while the divine beasts are an external threat that can be overcome with enough might, you can’t defeat any of the crisis in Totk with just a swing of the sword. For the Rito and Goron, their very way of life has been upended and their societies are barely hanging on. The Gerudo are in such dire straits they had to retreat underground. For the Zora we actually see much of their territory transformed by pollution. You have to figure out what’s causing things and figure out how to combat it. Botw has none of that. In Totk we get some previously unknown lore on most of them, while Botw doesn’t really delve into their culture or history much. The character development is significantly more pronounced in Totk, especially with Sidon and Tulin. In Botw, Sidon and Teba had no character arc, and Riju was minimal. Yunobo was the only one that felt like he really had development. We also got to know the Sages more than we got to know the Champions, even with Champion’s Ballad. We get a few cutscenes with the champions, and still barely know anything about them besides their surface level personalities, aside from maybe Mipha. We get far more with the Sages. Sorry, but I just don’t know how you say the Sages don’t live up to the champions, when the opposite is the case. Only way is if you’re heavily relying on Age of Calamity. Even if Ganondorf’s motivation is flimsy (in the context of the series it’s not) it’s still more than the Calamity. Ganondorf’s motivation isn’t “that’s what a kind must do,” that’s just a line he said to Link. His motivation is to gain power and impose his will on everyone and everything. Maybe that’s too generic for you, but just evil and destruction for the sake of it isn’t? Doesn’t add up. Also, it’s heavily implied he is the source of the Calamity, so doesn’t that automatically make him more compelling if you think the Calamity itself is compelling? You say the calamity was cunning. Okay, but so was Ganondorf. He attempted a direct attack, failed, deduced what he had to do to win, and manipulated his way into a position to accomplish it. The threat from Ganondorf felt more looming, because during the entirety of Botw we know the calamity is contained. We need to get to it eventually, but it isn’t something that could strike at any moment like Ganondorf. We also know where it is, while Ganondorf is hidden. Also, we see manifestations of Ganondorf all over the map in the form of gloom hands and phantoms. He feels like his reach is everywhere, while in Botw it’s almost entirely contained to the castle and Hyrule field. Zelda DID make the connection between Ganondorf and the calamity, she specifically mentioned his name gave her pause, and she warned Rauru about him. As for Rauru allowing him close, a character making a poor decision is not poor writing. It made sense for his character, and it’s actually how war works quite often. Link following after a false Zelda makes sense, even if he knows she’s fake. I mean, what stronger lead is there than someone impersonating the one you’re looking for? And he was combating the threat in each region anyway, which she was always connected to, so it would be odd to NOT pursue the fake Zelda. If you consider Totk having no scars, then neither did Botw. The destruction happened in the past in both stories, but in the present things mostly wrapped up rather nicely. In Botw we lose the King and champions in the past, but we don’t lose anyone in the present. In Totk we lose Sonia and Rauru in the past, but again nobody in the present. Also, there were other casualties in the imprisoning war, we hear them talking about what Ganondorf has conquered in one of the memories. In Botw we free the spirits of the champions, but something similar happens with Rauru, Sonia, and Mineru. You didn’t explain why Totk Link is a downgrade, and it’s just wrong to say he had no effect on the past. When the past sages realize they can’t win, Rauru decides to put absolute faith in Link with his final act, and Zelda sets up her centuries long plan with Link as the key. Even without a way to communicate with him directly, she does what she thinks is an irreversible dragonification trusting him to take care of the rest. And sure, a lot of stuff happens before Link’s influence on past is felt, but I don’t really see that as a problem and you didn’t explain how it is. Just because Link is the player character doesn’t mean he’s the only important one, or he HAS to be directly involved in everything. It was Zelda’s story. Zelda is the deuteragonist, and Botw’s memories were honestly also more her story than Link’s (Heck, even Age of Calamity was her story, so maybe that’s just how it is with this iteration of the pair). In both games, she set up the situation Link would find himself in and had faith that he would handle the rest. And Zelda in Totk feels like she has more agency, is more active than passive. In Botw she was forced into her role, then backed into a corner and had to hold the calamity in a stalemate. In Totk, she fought against the threat directly, then she went about setting up her long term plan. We also see in the present that she’s initiated several projects across Hyrule to aid in the recovery. She feels like a proper leader now. All that said, I don’t think Botw is bad. I rather enjoyed it, but Totk is just an upgrade in so many ways. I don’t care if people prefer Botw, but too often the criticisms of Totk feel exaggerated to the point I have trouble taking them seriously. I have a few complaints of my own, so it’s not like I’d automatically dismiss any criticisms, but these video essays almost always frame it as Botw is an unparalleled masterpiece while Totk is pure garbage. Almost never do I see something more measured like “I prefer Botw, but Totk is decent as well.”
For me i think it wouldnt bother me as much if not for nintendo fans being copium FIENDS. They cant even handle the idea that [modern game] isnt the best game ever made. Then the next game drops and suddenly opinion flips. Looking at you most of all pokemon fans
@@xx4444xxDOTexe Yeah lol, some people have been commenting taking my opinion personally, like I'm not just some guy out of like 20 million people who bought this game 😂😂
@@Woaley "I'm a vocal minority and think I know what Zelda is when in reality? I don't and Zelda is a game series that's always been changing" not to mention how Miyamoto said that BotW and TotK best capture his original vision for the series...I say again, I'm glad the dorks who only played the 3d games and need their hand helds by annoying side characters are the vocal minority 😘
@@Woaley "there's a reason people like Zelda" Not quite. There's LOTS of reasons people like Zelda, which is why the series is hugely popular, and yet no one quite agrees on what makes Zelda Zelda.
@@karmabeast Certaintly right about that, everyone loves it for different reasons. To me, Zelda is all about the unique characters, sense of adventure, and awesome dungeons with items and puzzles in them. That's what it's been for a long time. I think a mixture of the new formula and the older dungeon and world progression would be pretty much the perfect game to me.
Maybe this game is objectively better than BotW when it comes to gameplay alone, but I think everything else about this game is garbage compared to BotW. Even though TotK is better gameplay wise, I don't play Zelda for good gameplay, I do it for story. And this story is so awful, I think with some time I could write a better story for a sequel to BotW than Nintendo. I've never seen so much lack of thought or care for not only the previous installment, but the entire Zelda timeline and lore as a whole. They seriously went in and surgically contradicted and reconnected everything that was established previously. You can't possibly fit this sh*t game in with the rest of the series story-wise without coming up with some crazy head canon explanation. And the actual story they give is a complete insult to everybody's intelligence. ("Secret stone? Demon King? x20). Say what you want about BotW's story, but at least it's story made sense, was successful at making you care, did not insult your intelligence, and had deep and relatable characters (Revali being the deepest imo). Calamity Ganon being a sheer force of nature with no thoughts was infinitely more interesting than generic ass Ganondorf with his stupid smile. Zelda somehow not piecing together that Calamity Ganon=Ganondorf, Link not talking when it's his job to tell people that the Zelda they see is an imposter, Rauru being the first king of Hyrule when there is literally no evidence of Zonai anywhere in Skyward Sword, Ganondorf somehow showing up and then being sealed in the past but for some reason showing up in Ocarina of time/Wind Waker/ Twilight Princess? Hyrule Kingdom looking like how it is in Breath of the Wild in the past, somehow reshaping itself to look the way it does in the other Zelda games, then reshaping again to look the way it does during BotW. I could go on. Nintendo said that the past in TotK is after the other Zelda games, but so far in the future that all the inconsistencies make sense somehow. Which by the way, that is the laziest excuse for sh*t writing that I've ever seen, and yet it still doesn't make sense. If it's so far into the future that previous games aren't remembered, then why is there a zora mural in BotW that tells everyone who Ruto is? How does the Royal family know to continue naming the princess Zelda if they don't remember the past games? You can't maintain tradition without remembering the past. So this excuse is crap. Nintendo clearly doesn't care about the story of these games anymore so why should I? Also Canoodle
First off, wow, thank you for such an in-depth and thoughtful comment. I started this TH-cam channel partially cause I wanted to talk about the things I loved and hear what people thought. And for making it to the end of the video ;) Honestly the story in TotK had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. But they literally placed it in an alternate universe from BotW which is crazy to me. No continuation of the Shiekah tech or malice at all. The Divine Beasts are gone, which like are you fr THEY LITERALLY TOOK HALF OF GANONS HP in BotW. "Demon King? Secret stone?" was so infuriatingly bad. Like seriously "secret stone" what is this kindergarten? At least name it something like Sacred TEAR idk. Fundamentally, my core problem with TotK is that it's just a second try of BotW. Instead of building on everything BotW accomplished, we got an alternate reality scenario where, yeah they did some things better, but ultimately lost the spirit of the first game. And I'm sorry Hyrule is not that compelling a second time around after you've spent 200 hours in it with BotW. Real shit tho, I played TotK to about 120 hours, truly I like the game. But damn, imagine BotW with traditional Zelda dungeons and a bit more linearity. Imagine if they had figured out how to incorporate items like the hookshot or smtn. The game would've been INSANE. It looks like Nintendo has decided Zelda is about freedom, so I don't see this changing for years to come. EoW proved this is the formula moving forward. I don't hate it, I like it, but I don't love it.
@@WoaleyAnd that's the moment when I decide I'm completely done with Zelda. I'm glad that you are a bit more forgiving to Nintendo, but I can't forgive them or bring myself to feel anything besides hate towards their new direction. It's such a shame too story-wise. They remade Skyward Sword on the switch just before Tears of the Kingdom, so I was convinced that the story would connect to Skyward Sword somehow. Bring the story of the series full circle and have Demise (the one responsible for all the other games happening) play a major role. Perhaps have Link and Zelda discover his curse/grudge and spend most of the game trying to find a way to break it to prevent Ganondorf from ever returning. Malice feels like such a foreshadowing to Demise playing a role later, so the missed opportunity is off the charts. Maybe after managing to break the curse, we could get to see what Ganondorf is actually like when he is no longer under the effect of its influence. So many golden ideas for Nintendo to make this the best story ever, but they want "Secret Stone? Demon King?". And they want the goat furries, which granted, Rauru is very hot and I would totally smash, but he represents the missed opportunity that is Tears of the Kingdom.
@@ApashePelican I love open world games, they're probably my favorite genre. I like this game and BotW is probably my favorite game of all time. Elden Ring, GTA, Fallout etc. are also up there in my fav games of all time. I didn't like TotK's overly free SANDBOX experiences like this because I had to make up a lot of my enjoyment and felt like that came at an expense to other aspects of the game as it tried to accommodate to the janky building system.
@@WoaleyAh geez another btow was better video. Hot take! Nah bruh tears is superior. There's certainly valid criticisms to be had about world building and how simple the hover bike is for noobs to cheese everything yet still it still beats tf out of botw. What I would have done differently however is have a dungeon unlock the zonai tech and have that dungeon have a secret dungeon inside it that houses the 5th sage.
@@-Titania TotK is better in almost everyway fosho, but since I already played BotW it was just too much of the same, and like I said, not a big builder. Yeah that's a good idea as far as the progression, would go a long way I think.
@@-Titania I agree with Woaley. From a technical point, yes it is better. I think that the main mechanic of the game just isn't for everyone. I'm also not creative enough to make giant mechs and have them work. Different strokes for different folks.
@@merica.noughsaid1672 nah even from a philosophical standpoint botw was supposed to be a free world yet world progression and travel was grueling at times and at best could be made easier with a horse unless you beat the ENTIRE dlc and get the master cycle. By then you don't need it. But tears after getting the glider it's ON. you can go underground check out the skys and the land is plentiful with traversal resources. It's the most freedom Zelda's ever had
"whats over there?"
A korok. Always.
😂😂
I didn't even know about hover-bike moped until after my first playthrough. I don't look things up so I don't spoil the experience.
The exploration still felt very unsatisfying. In BotW, there was a sense of structure, like how the Shrine in Kakiriko led to a great fairy spring, which led to a fork in the road for more things to accomplish.
TotK was a massive checklist where the 60th shrine I found taught me how to shoot an arrow.
@@TheLeetCasualGamer Nah that's facts tho. I felt like the devs for BotW created the world in such a way that you felt like you were discovering stuff on your own but they had planned for most "adventures" with really well crafted world
I think that's a symptom of reusing the same world as botw. Even if they had changed a lot of stuff up (which, imo, they didn't) the overall pathing of the world was designed for botw.
The path to Zora's domain in botw was great, but to differentiate totk they just sort of threw a bunch of rocks in the way and added a path that goes on top of the surrounding cliffs. But its so obvious that this path just exists so that there's a new "intended" way to get to the domain. It doesn't feel like it naturally flows with the landscape.
Another example of this is the path to Rito village. Totk very clearly wants you to go north around the forgotten temple and through the snowfields to get to the village. This works fine, but you can't even see Rito village while you're going there. Meanwhile in botw, the hills and paths were placed in a way that almost always framed the giant pillar of Rito village in the distance, which gave you a good sense of your progress.
The world in totk was just designed for a different game with a different "intended" order/path, so most of the time it doesn't feel like there is that same clear sense of direction that was present in botw.
Breath of the Wild stayed fresh despite its repeated shrine and koroks because the way you interacted with the game was through the environment. You had a limited inventory of weapons and food, but at the end of the day you had to deal with the weather, the rock formations, the trees, and so on in order to progress. It was a careful balance. Tears of the Kingdom and Echoes of Wisdom break this balance by giving you items that allow you to ignore the environment that you can summon at any point from your inventory. You can just use the same Darknut echo or the same rocket shield to get over everything.
In Breath of the Wild, if you could stasis launch of a tree everywhere, it would break many shrines. But you can't stasis launch off a tree in shrines because you don't have the ability to pull a tree out of your inventory. It's also not available to you in Death Mountain because there are no trees in a volcano. They tried to block pulling out Zonai devices in Tears of the Kingdom's shrines, but you can just walk in with a rocket shield you fused outside.
I don't think freedom itself is the problem in the sense that you have the ability to do these things is not problematic. I think the issue is that the player always has access to every mechanic regardless of the level design. That kind of defeats the whole purpose of a game. Imagine if you could, on any square of a chess board at any time, just summon a queen. That's basically what Tears of the Kingdom lets you do.
Yeah that's a really interesting point, I feel like contending with the geographic "puzzles" of BotW was a lot of fun, but in TotK there is basically none of that
Biggest issue with the cluttered menu is that its a endless scrolling line. Why can't we get a full size menu?
Fr man, or some kind of hotbar for the ones I want. I imagined a hotbar/scroll wheel would've made this 10 times more fluid.
The creation system needed a more advance mode. Like it was nearly impossible to do simple things, like place a fan in the exact angle you wanted, or make anything symmetrical. Having to try to make work benches out of spikes to put things together helped, but good luck getting 2 fans symmetrically placed on your creation, let alone attempting anything more complex without wasting an hour simply because the game doesn't want to let you put things on right.
Yeah, I eventually accepted my creations would be ugly 😭😂
@@Woaley It's not even just about ugly. If you're trying to make mechanisms, you kinda need your parts aligned, or it doesn't work very well.
You can tell you've spent a lot of time prepping the channel, and it's paid off well! Love your takes in this vid. In my opinion I can see the pros and cons in both. I love being able to explore an open world but in a lot of ways it doesn't feel as rewarding as exploring a much more structured world in something like Wind Waker for instance. I hope they keep both going in the future honestly, but unfortunately I wouldn't bet on that become a reality.
On another note I just finished up Echos of Wisdom and I feel that game had the PERFECT mix between structured and non-structured. Really enjoyed the spin on that one. Not sure if you've had a chance to play / finish it, but I would be interested to hear your take on it.
Anyways great video dude, love your style and I've got a feeling I'm gonna enjoy this channel for a long time. Keep it up man!
Thank you man, I really did have a vision when I created the channel, glad that's coming through.
And yeah I do feel tho like Nintendo is balls deep in this Zelda is freedom concept. EoW is SOOOO much better tho when it comes to balancing that freedom and zelda formula. I'm working on a video for it actually. Originally it was gonna be part of this video but honestly it was like 20+ min long in total and I felt like I needed smtn a little more digestable as the first video.
Yeah that’s a good point, don’t want your first video to be too much of a time commitment since nobody would have any past experiences with your channel.
Can’t wait to see future videos though! I used to have a Zelda channel before I switched to a game dev channel so I’m always down to find new Zelda channels popping up. And your editing style and personality seem super genuine. Good luck with the channel, hope it blows up!
@@HeuzyGameDevYT Hell yeah man thanks. And I'ma be posting all kinds of gaming stuff, but mostly Nintendo cause I'm a fanatic 😂
I had a very similar experience. I used the goblin glider to get everywhere. For me, I feel like I explored less than in BOTW because I'd see something I wanted to get to and just fly over everything else to get there. In BOTW, it was much easier to get sidetracked by every little thing and explore, because between my current location and my destination there were a hundred things closer that I could see on the way.
@@merica.noughsaid1672 Yeah that's true, you really had to pay attention in that game cause traversal wasn't as easy
All we couldve had was a linear story with linear dungeons. And to keep freedom experience add 3 or 4 hidden dungeons that you can find at any time. We can still have a open world but make it better to explore than just korok seeds and outfits we already paid for in botw. You coupdve added heart pieces to find. Music boxes that you can find and lets you put a classic zelda song when you explore the open world, loftwings to tame and mount, and good sidequest
Honestly a lot of this is very true, I didn’t like Totk on release since every solution I came up with was the exact same, how do I get over there: catapult. How do I transport this korok to his friend: catapult.
Yeah, the more creative solutions are kinda a waste of time when something simple achieves the same result.
hey, first of all great video! really high production quality for a channel of this size.
ive seen that a lot of the criticisms around this game revolve around it being too free - when you can do anything the way you want to, many people will probably just pick the most efficient way, which will just make the game too easy.
i just wanted to share my thoughts on this because i dont consider myself that creative of a person, and yet i would still consider this to be the best game i ever played. maybe its because im a teenager who played this game over the school holidays with endless free time - but i found that even when i knew the "best way" id still choose to do it some other way because i just wanted to see what would happen - and many times it did work out, and thats where the game's "a-ha" moments came from, for me.
i feel like this game and its predecessor, but especially so for totk, were really meant to be played when you had a lot of time; if you had all the time in the world, you dont feel like youre "wasting" any time, and can fully open yourself up to try all possibilities, just for the sake of it.
That's a really great point actually. When I played BotW I was still in high school, with the portability of the switch I was basically playing that game endlessly. With TotK I was a whole ass adult with a full time job and could only play the game for maybe 1 or 2 hours at a time. I had to be efficient with my time.
Thank you as well for the kind words. New Videos every Wednesday so enjoy :D
Great first video, well-branded channel, rocking the timestamps too - you know what you're doing, this channel will grow! Happy to be your 18th sub bud :)
Dude thank you so much for the kind words. I was really going for a high quality product, so hearing that really motivates me. When you edit you watch the video like a million times so I was already sick of it when I posted 😂
Next video is out next week, it's gonna be a banger wahoo
@@Woaley Oh yeah, I'm a small gaming tubester myself so I know the feeling. You really start to wonder if the video was even good as you endlessly watch it on the editing floor haha. Well take it from me, you're definitely ahead of the curve, putting in that extra effort is what will blow up your channel and set it apart. TH-cam is a quality > quantity game. Pumped for the next one 👏
ToTK has a target audience dedicated to the sandbox player who is creative and some of the things people have made are quite incredible but it would have been nice if it wasnt a Zelda game but a new IP that was about a massive sandbox that you can do what your heart desires.
I know the formula was getting stale for Zelda over the last 3 decades (geez) and if you work at Nintendo, I'm sure you would be getting tired of making the same formula over and over again but Zelda's biggest strength to me is item based progression. Whereas Metroid games are about ability based progression, Zelda games always have this amazing "aha" moment when you get a new item like say the Hookshot and your brain puts two and two together to all the hookshot targets you have seen across the game world up until the point you got the Hookshot.
That feeling is Zelda to me. BotW and TotK don't have the item based progression so I never got that "aha" moment. Now for BotW I did feel accomplished when i finally found my way to where i wanted to go and thats where BotW succeeds in having exploration based progression but as you have said in the video, TotK loses the reward for exploration as once you figure out the "optimal" way to progress you can use it in almost every situation.
To those people who enjoyed TotK, thats great and if you got to fully utilise the tools the sandbox gave you then I'm happy but I really wish it was a new IP instead of a Zelda game.
I just finished it, with the power of way too many resources. Over 150 arrows and 50 bombs etc.
Both TOTK and Elden Ring, I didn't like that there is no real point in exploring the world and finding all the good stuff. At least the shrines were useful in TOTK, in Elden Ring they all gave useless spirit ashes and what not. I hope Nintendo will figure out open world.
@@cherubin7th I feel you. Next video I talk a bit about what you are mentioning, goes live tmrw :D
I can really agree to a lot of the points made
its a problem i have with a lot of open world sandbox games aswell, where my creativity to do stuff is not big enought to warrant my own attention, i did spend a lot of time in this game, but it was mostly because im a completionist and wanted every shrine and every dephts flower light thing done (the shrines are so worth it, they are soo good in this game)
this is also a thing where one of my fav open world rpgs really shines, which is fallout new vegas
the game starts you with the main quest which leads you directly to new vegas, BUT to get there you could take the direct route, which is filled with way too strong enemies or you take the other route where you completely circle around the map and take in nearly every location you could find
its just such a little thing to control where the player goes und what the experience should be, while not taking the ''freedom'' away, i could just take the shorter route, but it will be very hard.
this kind of thing made me play through the whole game. unlike fallout 3 or 4, where i just walked kinda aimlessy through the map and taking the route towards the main quest just felt wrong or not really thought about
although going back to totk, i still really enjoyed my time, and the sandbox elements can be really fun, rewinding objects, going through walls and ''crafting'' your own weapons felt really good.. the ultrahand on the other hand (ha), felt just way too clunky, i think it really worked in shrines and thats about it
Wow thank you for this really insightful response. I absolutely love Fallout New Vegas for the same reasons you described. There's something about open world's that are crafted with "soft" limitations on your freedom, that make it so that the stories you create feel very organic and personal, but were probably planned by the devs all along, who are much smarter than me lmao.
I'm actually posting another video about open world stuff next week (won't say much else to not ruin the surprise) so if you like this vid, subscribe :D
Yeah. The best part of BotW was fighting my way up to Zora's Domain while the constant rain kept me from climbing. Every other divine beast never limited me as much as that and thus was a let down. The game should have leaned into that. Give me all this freedom and abulities, take them away, and force me to complete an actual dungeon to open up the world again.
EXACTLY. That was one of my fav moments too. TotK had very few of these limiting moments that really challenged you to think.
I did the Wind Temple in TotK first and so I didn't have any of the Zonai upgrades or parts, so slowly making my way up to the eye of the storm was so fun and engaging.
@Woaley I basically had to force myself not to bust out the zonai parts once I got to the point in the game when you have over 10 of everything. I love the open worl design, but it should only be completely unlocked after defeating Ganon.
@@samuraipanda851 Yeah, I feel like at the beginning since you're so limited it's not as bad, but when you got like 100 rockets and fans I mean 😂
I went backward. I went for the bird first. It seemed coolest.
The jump power undid basically every environmental hazard. It was pretty bogus.
@zachweyrauch2988 Same. I remember how trivial Revali's Gale made traversal and lo and behold. I'm actually glad that Yunobo didn't rehash Duruk's Protection as it made combat too easy. Of course Sidon's power was completely useless.
Great points and great thorough explanations and elaborations. Fully agree with what you've said.
Thank you for the kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed. New videos every Wednesday so subscribe to not miss them :D
I love botw and totk but I have no problem admitting Totk missed the mark especially in regards to exploration…
No new towns or meaningful locations was pretty disappointing
The sky and depths could use like at least 2 towns with new undiscovered tribes…
The story is whatever
But despite that I found joy playing through Totk, I find the new gameplay mechanics much more interesting than botw.
I just don’t want this map reusing sequel anymore the sense of excitement and exploration was completely butchered
Yeah I def enjoyed TotK, but it was such a massively disappointing sequel in my eyes. There was so much room to make this the very best Zelda game ever and they fumbled so hard.
It wasn't really the freedom for me, it was how empty the sky and underground levels were. There were no real cultures and villages there. It was almost traveling to the same spots as BOTW again and doing missions. I did enjoy the game but wasn't half as invested in it like I was with BOTW
Yeah I agree, second time around the open world just wasn't as interesting. Sky was filled with the same 3 quest objectives and the Depths (besides the initial oh shit moment I had the first time) literally got nothing else.
totally agree with you dude
Im gonna go ahead and say that BotW had the same freedom paradox.
It might be more of an exploration paradox.
@@zachweyrauch2988 Yeah definitely exists in some capacity in BotW too. I think it's not as bad cause you kind of have to abide to the world physics right, so when you saw a mountain you still have to ask "How the hell do I get up there". I think the sequence to Zora's Domain is a good example of this. In BotW it's an intense and dangerous path where you can't climb cause of the rain, in TotK that same scenario would be hoverbike time haha.
@@Woaley That's kinda my whole criticism. It's supposedly open world but very clearly funneled toward zoras domain then around the map.
I'm kinda old at this point for a gamer (34), but I played a lot of zelda as a kid. Almost every game that came out before skyward sword (I had already moved away from nintendo).
What we lost to make the world open was a curated story with gated access to areas. This means characters can actually develop the plot because you can't talk to them until you've done other things. In BotW, any character interaction could be the first thing someone does. That's why they're almost all just weird fetch quests.
Have you ever tried to play majoras mask? To me, that's the pinnacle of older zelda. The world is wildly interconnected, and the quests are incredible.
Having a similar issue in Echoes of Wisdom right now, where there are some Swiss army knife summons that are a little too generally applicable. Great first video, cool seeing my random clips used to punctuate a point.
@@PyrenZero This video was actually going to include EoW but tbh it ran to like almost 20 min so I cut it. Prob gonna be it's own future video. Thanks for the clips they were great haha
Wow this is your first video? Awesome. Keep Going!
Thank you man, next video is up next week. I got a lot planned
@Woaley Glad to know! If you keep this quality in editing and writing, you'll get your boom soon 😁
Great first video! Keep up the good work! New subscriber here
Thank you brooo, next week's video is gonna be a banger
i agree with you wholeheartedly about totk-- it's really a drag trying to 100% that thing (not including koroks). i've got 2 save files, and really what's the point exploring the depths if you've got the hoverbike? walking is for chumps lmao. honestly, besides the menu issue with the echoes, eow REALLY did it for me??? i started getting into zelda with botw and have tried to learn as much as i can about almost every installment, playing tp and sksw myself, backseating a friend playing LA, and finishing like... half of albw (i'll get through it eventually). my girlfriend and i just started ww hd and i'm really excited to see how it holds up to the praise i've heard. all that to say i really liked eow's approach to mixing classic and modern zelda, which was a breath of fresh air after how disappointing totk was on every level. the issues i had were so minimal in eow, despite just needing to get good for a few parts. it doesn't seem like it'll have much replay value for me tho, which makes me sad.
anyway, good video! when u said it was your first one i was kinda shocked (i'm not the kind of guy that reads descriptions before watching something lol). your intro animation is super cute, i love it. who did it for you? also, i did watch to the end. canoodle :>
edit: also THANK YOU for adding real captions and not just letting yt auto-caption 😭 so rare to see nowadays
CANOODLE YES. You're a real one. I agree with your comments EoW. It was actually originally planned to be part of this video, but the length stretched to like 20+ min and I thought it'd prob be better to stick to one idea for now. Def on my schedule though I got a lot to say about it.
My intro was made by a guy on Fiverr called C Widyanto.
Wonderful video!
@@Trollsquad57 Thank youuuuu
even with all that freedom you have in totk i just play totk how i enjoy im not taking the building aspect like it has to be done every single time you do something like climb a mountain or traversal in general im not even using the zonai as much i know its there i just don’t use it i play totk same way as i played botw and i absolutely love it for me its just all the things i was missing in botw packed in totk more things to explore denser areas more weapons(fuse mechanic) so for me i love totk way more than botw but i totally get your point very nice video keep it up!
Yeah I think playing the game without the Zonai building actually makes it better in some ways. I think being able to build anything and have an unlimited amount of resources (especially early on) breaks the game. My first temple was the wind temple and I climbed it without zonai tools, just what was around. It was really intense and fun, I think the limitation def improved the experience.
I didn't even finished the game, just went out with "freedom" and took what's important, the most OP weapons to literally insta kill mobs then I got bored after getting there since I know the upcoming bosses will have no challenge.
Yeah being able to obliterate everything gets old fast.
6:54 Am I just dirty minded or does that look like a…
You're right buddy...
Woah, super insightful my guy
everybody always going round saying you can get anywhere with the hoverbike
obviously there will be a most efficient solution to any system
but you cant criticise the system for allowing the hoverbike if you didnt come up with it yourself
which, of course, nobody did, everybody just used reddit
thats like criticising a movie for having the ending spoiled because you were too lazy to stop the youtube autoplay
kinda your own damn fault you brought this upon yourself son
where is the guy that came up with the hoverbike and actually was smarter than the ultrahand system complexity was able to handle
cause i doubt its one of the random dudes who make the totk bad because hoverbike videos
and it sure aint me
he right about the menus though horrid stuff
i respect the point though, theres a fine margin to hit where freedom and creativity eventually stops because you get hit with that “staring at a white canvas now what” effect because theres too much freedom.
that point is just somewhere else for every one though, thus game design hard et cetera
i loved totk
i really need to sleep 😂
@@MerlinSpace You bring up a really good point actually. I def didn't discover the hoverbike on my own. But I feel like in a lot of ways I was using less efficient versions of it already in my playthrough. Most of us are chronically online so it's like impossible to avoid information spreading like that LOL. I also need to sleep GN 😂
This is really good. I come from a generation where we did have to make our own fun, so that's the only place where I break in agreement with you. But you're on point about the laziness in development. It's still game of the year for me though 😅 Nice video!
@@LatteXP Yeah I get you. The game really is like a toy you can play. For people that like that stuff it's probably one of the best things ever made lol
@Woaley that's a great way to describe it. That said, I can see the Zonai builds a bit frustrating and not worth bothering with if you're not the creative type. Plus resources, yikes!
I wish we would have...both... i really liked the sand boxy jank of totk but i will definitly agree that it dappend the amazement at exploration that botw brought and that i loved so much. Yet i would agree that from the stand point of the classical zelda formula aka constructed adventures and puzzles totk is probably the worst "zelda game". I wish that moving forward a"zelda game" will have one of the two (three?) meaning
@@yeahmansoul Yeah I think if this game had just dialed in a bit with unique dungeons and scenarios while pulling back a bit of the free building, maybe leaving a lot of it to endgame, it would have been better (for me)
Hey there! I came from reddit, yet this is very, very well made. Bravo! I'll follow your journey, and I hope you have a good day!..kanoodle? Is that how you write it?
YESSS HAHAHA YOU'RE THE FIRST KANOODLE COMMENT. Thank you for the kind words sire :D
Nah, totk makes botw obsolete. It's significantly better in nearly every way. Including the story. There's no contest.
@@Waluigi7891 The vibes are just better in BotW idk what to say 😂
If you're willing, could you elaborate on why you feel the story of Tears is better than Breath? I think that's a wild take, I've just never seen anyone explain why.
@@ChiPandaAndKeegan I really don’t see what’s wild about that take. Seems to be the more popular opinion from what I’ve seen.
For both games, the bulk of the main story takes place through memories. Botw had a very bare bones plot. Basically, the calamity is coming for a long time, then it arrives and we don’t see much, and then that’s it. Most of it focuses on Zelda’s insecurity, which is okay but it’s not much of a plot.
Totk has an actual evolving plot, and still managed to have moments of emotional impact.
We also got to see more of the pivotal moments in Totk. In Botw, the champions and King all die off screen, and even the moment Zelda seals the calamity in the past is shown in this very brief and vague way (even though it’s non canon, Age of Calamity unironically tells a much better calamity story than Botw did). In Totk we get to see Sonia’s death, the fight with Ganondorf up to the moment Rauru has to sacrifice himself, Zelda’s sacrifice.
Also the antagonist is significantly better, as was the final confrontation. Calamity Ganon was kinda underwhelming, just mindless evil for no reason (if Botw is all you’re going by). It retroactively becomes more interesting if you infer that it was Ganondorf’s power and malice leaking out and becoming a force of nature, but that would be Ganondorf (in other words, Totk) carrying the load.
I like how Totk felt like it came full circle, with the Ganondorf destroying the Master Sword at the beginning, but then it coming back and striking him down at the end. And how Link failed to catch Zelda at the start, but caught her at the end. I like the contrast between Zelda becoming a dragon for the good of everyone else at the expense of herself, while Ganondorf became a dragon for his own selfish desire to destroy. Botw didn’t really have things like this. It was mostly a straightforward rescue the princess and beat the bad guy story.
Also, the mini stories at each region were much better in Totk. In Botw it was all basically the same. Divine beasts running wild and must be stopped. Can barely even be called a story, more like a battle. In Totk, the stories were a lot more varied at each region. There was even lore to uncover about each race, and we had to figure out what was causing the problems and how to combat it. Each new sage got a bit of a character arc of their own as well.
@@Waluigi7891 Maybe we just value different things in our stories. Tears of the Kingdom's story left me feeling empty, and I believe Breath of the Wild's still holds up to be one of the best in the franchise.
Reacting to your ideas, yes, both stories mostly take place through memories. Breath succeeds in that structure while Tears fails. In Breath, the memories do not provide context for the plot. The plot has already been given to us by King Rhoam--Hyrule failed to defeat Ganon and now Link, 100 years later, is their only hope. Our mission is to Destroy Ganon. Getting all the memories have nothing to do with our final goal. The memories, therefore, only act to give us context in regard to character, not drive the player forward. By contrast, our goal in Tears is to Find Princess Zelda. The memories (or Dragon Tears) are not supplementary to the main quest. To solve of the mystery of finding Zelda, it is now made completely advantageous to collect all the memories. While Breath lays its plot all out on the table at the beginning, Tears tries to create an air of mystery that I think ultimately falls flat mostly due to the gameplay philosophy of open-air Zelda's freedom.
The fact you can get any memory out of order in Tears cheapens the plot. Reveals such as Sonia's death can feel confusing and carry no weight if the player ends up exploring the southeastern region of the map first. And in regards to Tears' active plot (what's happening in the present) it all revolves around Puppet Zelda stringing you about until you've completed all the dungeons. Even if you've sussed through the memories that Zelda is indeed the Light Dragon and not the girl you're chasing in the present, Link has no choice but to play along in the facade of chasing after a fake Zelda for the sake of the plot. Every dungeon in Breath, instead, continues to build on the main quest: Destroy Ganon. Link is motivated to help free the Divine Beast not just because he's helping people, but because the Divine Beast he knows will in some way actively help weaken Ganon. Tears is functionally the same--collecting the sages will save you trouble of fighting Ganondorf's army by yourself, but that reward is unclear, leaving Link's only solid motivation for doing the dungeons to be finding Zelda, a Zelda the player could have already discovering is fake.
And I know you've seen all the memes about the Sages. It's been done to death. But the Sages in contrast to the Champions, really have no contest. The Champions are named, faced characters who effect Link and Zelda in both past and present. Daruk is a good friend of Link's. Mipha, an old flame. Revali, Link's rival. Urbosa, a surrogate mother to Zelda. In the present, the Champions inspire and matter to the communities and characters of the present. Teba is a father who will not rest until his home is safe, wishing he could be as powerful as Revali. Yunobo carries the power of Daruk, but lacks the courage to use that power to help his people, something he eventually learns. Riju is young, and worries about not living up to the expectations of her mother and Urbosa, especially in a time of distress when Naboris stirs awake. Sidon and the Zora are the only ones who were still alive in the time of the Calamity. They remember Link. They remember Mipha. Sidon wants to live up to the greatness of his beloved sister, and even many of the elders despise Link, blaming him for letting Mipha die, something they later grow out of when Link helps calm Ruta.
Calamity Ganon is a far more interesting villain than Tears' depiction of Ganondorf. And this is again what I mean by "Maybe we just value different things in our stories." Ganondorf commits evil acts with flimsy motivation. He says "Because that is what a king must do." And that's about the extent of understanding why--something I just think is too vague to have any weight. Rauru is stupid for letting Ganondorf close to his kingdom after he attacked them. Even Zelda is stupid for not realizing "Ganon" is in Ganondorf's name after previously fighting Ganon for 100 years. And outside of Rauru and Sonia, there's no other mentioned casualties in the Imprisoning "War".
Calamity Ganon does not just commit evil acts. It is Evil Incarnate. It was cunning to take control of the Sheikah technology and laid waste to Hyrule. We witness the horrifying image of Castle Town in flames. Thousands died. Calamity Ganon is a captivating concept to me. In the century past, it is a looming terror. Zelda constantly worries she'll run out of time, and she does. Zelda fails her people. They all die because of her. The Champions all fail to defeat the Blights. Link fails to win the battle. All of our heroes are helpless in the face of an insurmountable force of nature. In the present, Calamity Ganon serves as a reminder of that failure. Link, Zelda, and the Champions' spirits, are all still around. Ganon is a representation of lingering grief and regret. Link's quest through the destroyed Hryule is a reminder that all things heal. Nature can heal, people can heal. There can be peace after the world is destroyed. Link effectively frees the ghosts of the champions from their chains of regret. And he does the same with Zelda, freeing her from a nebulous battle with Evil Itself, a grief she literally struggled against for 100 years.
I do love the concepts Tears bring to the table. Zelda being the Light Dragon. Link finally catching Zelda at the end. I was peeing my pants when Rauru was telling Ganondorf that Link was coming for him like a badass. I think it's all cheapened by the resolution being a deus ex machina of Zelda's sacrifice being reversed and her not even remembering being a dragon for thousands of years. Link even gets his arm back. There's no scars from the battle. As epic as the final boss is, it just falls flat for me when the proceeding story lacked the same weight that Breath's did.
Even Link in Tears feels like a major downgrade. He just running about in Tears, and he has no effect on the memories of the past, whereas in Breath he is a very active character in the past. Breath has one of the best iterations of Link, that builds on the trope of the Chosen Hero. The reason Link is put in this position of Champion is simply because he holds the Master Sword. He was able to pull it from its resting place, meaning he is the hero of legend--simple as that. Revali's rivalry with Link is due to the fact that Link's qualifications for the role of Champion is just picking up a sword. Revali had trained all his life to become as powerful as he had. His arrogance is certainly a flaw of his, but one can understand that his frustration is reasonable, when Link's position of power was effectively handed to him because of mysterious magical myths and things. Zelda herself even questions Link's authority to weild the Master Sword, asking Link if he can hear the voice inside the sword. Zelda eventually comes to love Link, and we know through her diary that Link has opened up and spoken to Zelda in their time together. Link understands his position of authority was handed to him. He questions himself even, and chose to bear the burden of responsibility in silence.
Sorry for the yap sesh, I didn't really much argue why Breath is better--but I hope you can see why I value that story far more than Tears'. I just love everything about Breath and jump at the chance to talk about it.
@@ChiPandaAndKeegan Totk hit a lot harder, and got me far more invested, than Botw did.
You didn’t really explain why Botw works with the memory format while Totk does not. What you did was recount the storylines for me, which is unnecessary, and doesn’t explain anything. Especially since you then basically say the memories are irrelevant to the story in Botw. Is that superior storytelling to them being a key part of the narrative? I disagree, and you didn’t make any real argument for it.
If it’s because they can be viewed out of order, Botw has the exact same problem, so this either isn’t a legitimate complaint, or it’s a shortcoming they both share. Either way it’s a bit hypocritical to only criticize Totk for this, while completely absolving Botw, and this double standard is something I see a lot with those saying Botw is better.
I’d say it’s actually worse in Botw because one of the memories right in the middle of the story is in the final area of the game, meaning you are almost guaranteed to find it out of order on a normal play through. Meanwhile the final two memories (before the secret 13th), are far more accessible and likely to be found very early. Also, the memories are far harder to locate going just off of snapshots, especially if you aren’t familiar with the landscape. You’re more likely to find them by random chance, so they are likely to be found in a completely random order.
Totk, meanwhile, has all of the memories in more accessible areas, it is easier to locate them, and you are told the order in game. It’s far easier to get them in the correct order on a casual play through. Also, the most pivotal one, Zelda becoming a dragon, actually is locked to being the last one, unlike Botw.
And is it good to have the entire narrative front loaded, and then you’re left to just run around the rest of the game with no real plot development until the very end? I don’t think so. Where’s the discovery? Where the new development along the way? Botw was lacking in that, while Totk was not, even ignoring the memories.
In Botw, your activities in each region somewhat advance the overall plot, thin as it is, but there isn’t much of a plot in each region, and what little there is, is borderline identical. Also, the threat each region faces is, again identical, and not very compelling.
In Totk, we have variety. Each region has a distinct evolving plot of its own, independent of the greater narrative, and still fits into the overall plot neatly. The stakes feel higher because while the divine beasts are an external threat that can be overcome with enough might, you can’t defeat any of the crisis in Totk with just a swing of the sword. For the Rito and Goron, their very way of life has been upended and their societies are barely hanging on. The Gerudo are in such dire straits they had to retreat underground. For the Zora we actually see much of their territory transformed by pollution. You have to figure out what’s causing things and figure out how to combat it. Botw has none of that.
In Totk we get some previously unknown lore on most of them, while Botw doesn’t really delve into their culture or history much. The character development is significantly more pronounced in Totk, especially with Sidon and Tulin. In Botw, Sidon and Teba had no character arc, and Riju was minimal. Yunobo was the only one that felt like he really had development. We also got to know the Sages more than we got to know the Champions, even with Champion’s Ballad. We get a few cutscenes with the champions, and still barely know anything about them besides their surface level personalities, aside from maybe Mipha. We get far more with the Sages. Sorry, but I just don’t know how you say the Sages don’t live up to the champions, when the opposite is the case. Only way is if you’re heavily relying on Age of Calamity.
Even if Ganondorf’s motivation is flimsy (in the context of the series it’s not) it’s still more than the Calamity. Ganondorf’s motivation isn’t “that’s what a kind must do,” that’s just a line he said to Link. His motivation is to gain power and impose his will on everyone and everything. Maybe that’s too generic for you, but just evil and destruction for the sake of it isn’t? Doesn’t add up. Also, it’s heavily implied he is the source of the Calamity, so doesn’t that automatically make him more compelling if you think the Calamity itself is compelling? You say the calamity was cunning. Okay, but so was Ganondorf. He attempted a direct attack, failed, deduced what he had to do to win, and manipulated his way into a position to accomplish it.
The threat from Ganondorf felt more looming, because during the entirety of Botw we know the calamity is contained. We need to get to it eventually, but it isn’t something that could strike at any moment like Ganondorf. We also know where it is, while Ganondorf is hidden. Also, we see manifestations of Ganondorf all over the map in the form of gloom hands and phantoms. He feels like his reach is everywhere, while in Botw it’s almost entirely contained to the castle and Hyrule field.
Zelda DID make the connection between Ganondorf and the calamity, she specifically mentioned his name gave her pause, and she warned Rauru about him. As for Rauru allowing him close, a character making a poor decision is not poor writing. It made sense for his character, and it’s actually how war works quite often. Link following after a false Zelda makes sense, even if he knows she’s fake. I mean, what stronger lead is there than someone impersonating the one you’re looking for? And he was combating the threat in each region anyway, which she was always connected to, so it would be odd to NOT pursue the fake Zelda.
If you consider Totk having no scars, then neither did Botw. The destruction happened in the past in both stories, but in the present things mostly wrapped up rather nicely. In Botw we lose the King and champions in the past, but we don’t lose anyone in the present. In Totk we lose Sonia and Rauru in the past, but again nobody in the present. Also, there were other casualties in the imprisoning war, we hear them talking about what Ganondorf has conquered in one of the memories. In Botw we free the spirits of the champions, but something similar happens with Rauru, Sonia, and Mineru.
You didn’t explain why Totk Link is a downgrade, and it’s just wrong to say he had no effect on the past. When the past sages realize they can’t win, Rauru decides to put absolute faith in Link with his final act, and Zelda sets up her centuries long plan with Link as the key. Even without a way to communicate with him directly, she does what she thinks is an irreversible dragonification trusting him to take care of the rest. And sure, a lot of stuff happens before Link’s influence on past is felt, but I don’t really see that as a problem and you didn’t explain how it is. Just because Link is the player character doesn’t mean he’s the only important one, or he HAS to be directly involved in everything. It was Zelda’s story. Zelda is the deuteragonist, and Botw’s memories were honestly also more her story than Link’s (Heck, even Age of Calamity was her story, so maybe that’s just how it is with this iteration of the pair). In both games, she set up the situation Link would find himself in and had faith that he would handle the rest.
And Zelda in Totk feels like she has more agency, is more active than passive. In Botw she was forced into her role, then backed into a corner and had to hold the calamity in a stalemate. In Totk, she fought against the threat directly, then she went about setting up her long term plan. We also see in the present that she’s initiated several projects across Hyrule to aid in the recovery. She feels like a proper leader now.
All that said, I don’t think Botw is bad. I rather enjoyed it, but Totk is just an upgrade in so many ways. I don’t care if people prefer Botw, but too often the criticisms of Totk feel exaggerated to the point I have trouble taking them seriously. I have a few complaints of my own, so it’s not like I’d automatically dismiss any criticisms, but these video essays almost always frame it as Botw is an unparalleled masterpiece while Totk is pure garbage. Almost never do I see something more measured like “I prefer Botw, but Totk is decent as well.”
amavi confeci numquam iterum sustuli
@@DarkAngelEU Real
i super agree so so true brother
Canoodle!!
@@Scott_G my man
For me i think it wouldnt bother me as much if not for nintendo fans being copium FIENDS. They cant even handle the idea that [modern game] isnt the best game ever made. Then the next game drops and suddenly opinion flips. Looking at you most of all pokemon fans
@@xx4444xxDOTexe Yeah lol, some people have been commenting taking my opinion personally, like I'm not just some guy out of like 20 million people who bought this game 😂😂
"old good, new bad" I'm glad these dorks who only played the 3d games are the vocal minority 🥰
I like this game, but yeah there's a reason people like Zelda. Completely stripping a lot of that identity is going to make people unhappy.
@@Woaley "I'm a vocal minority and think I know what Zelda is when in reality? I don't and Zelda is a game series that's always been changing" not to mention how Miyamoto said that BotW and TotK best capture his original vision for the series...I say again, I'm glad the dorks who only played the 3d games and need their hand helds by annoying side characters are the vocal minority 😘
@@Woaley "there's a reason people like Zelda" Not quite. There's LOTS of reasons people like Zelda, which is why the series is hugely popular, and yet no one quite agrees on what makes Zelda Zelda.
@@karmabeast Certaintly right about that, everyone loves it for different reasons. To me, Zelda is all about the unique characters, sense of adventure, and awesome dungeons with items and puzzles in them. That's what it's been for a long time. I think a mixture of the new formula and the older dungeon and world progression would be pretty much the perfect game to me.
Maybe this game is objectively better than BotW when it comes to gameplay alone, but I think everything else about this game is garbage compared to BotW.
Even though TotK is better gameplay wise, I don't play Zelda for good gameplay, I do it for story. And this story is so awful, I think with some time I could write a better story for a sequel to BotW than Nintendo. I've never seen so much lack of thought or care for not only the previous installment, but the entire Zelda timeline and lore as a whole. They seriously went in and surgically contradicted and reconnected everything that was established previously. You can't possibly fit this sh*t game in with the rest of the series story-wise without coming up with some crazy head canon explanation. And the actual story they give is a complete insult to everybody's intelligence. ("Secret stone? Demon King? x20). Say what you want about BotW's story, but at least it's story made sense, was successful at making you care, did not insult your intelligence, and had deep and relatable characters (Revali being the deepest imo).
Calamity Ganon being a sheer force of nature with no thoughts was infinitely more interesting than generic ass Ganondorf with his stupid smile. Zelda somehow not piecing together that Calamity Ganon=Ganondorf, Link not talking when it's his job to tell people that the Zelda they see is an imposter, Rauru being the first king of Hyrule when there is literally no evidence of Zonai anywhere in Skyward Sword, Ganondorf somehow showing up and then being sealed in the past but for some reason showing up in Ocarina of time/Wind Waker/ Twilight Princess? Hyrule Kingdom looking like how it is in Breath of the Wild in the past, somehow reshaping itself to look the way it does in the other Zelda games, then reshaping again to look the way it does during BotW. I could go on.
Nintendo said that the past in TotK is after the other Zelda games, but so far in the future that all the inconsistencies make sense somehow. Which by the way, that is the laziest excuse for sh*t writing that I've ever seen, and yet it still doesn't make sense. If it's so far into the future that previous games aren't remembered, then why is there a zora mural in BotW that tells everyone who Ruto is? How does the Royal family know to continue naming the princess Zelda if they don't remember the past games? You can't maintain tradition without remembering the past. So this excuse is crap.
Nintendo clearly doesn't care about the story of these games anymore so why should I?
Also Canoodle
First off, wow, thank you for such an in-depth and thoughtful comment. I started this TH-cam channel partially cause I wanted to talk about the things I loved and hear what people thought. And for making it to the end of the video ;)
Honestly the story in TotK had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. But they literally placed it in an alternate universe from BotW which is crazy to me. No continuation of the Shiekah tech or malice at all. The Divine Beasts are gone, which like are you fr THEY LITERALLY TOOK HALF OF GANONS HP in BotW. "Demon King? Secret stone?" was so infuriatingly bad. Like seriously "secret stone" what is this kindergarten? At least name it something like Sacred TEAR idk.
Fundamentally, my core problem with TotK is that it's just a second try of BotW. Instead of building on everything BotW accomplished, we got an alternate reality scenario where, yeah they did some things better, but ultimately lost the spirit of the first game. And I'm sorry Hyrule is not that compelling a second time around after you've spent 200 hours in it with BotW. Real shit tho, I played TotK to about 120 hours, truly I like the game. But damn, imagine BotW with traditional Zelda dungeons and a bit more linearity. Imagine if they had figured out how to incorporate items like the hookshot or smtn. The game would've been INSANE.
It looks like Nintendo has decided Zelda is about freedom, so I don't see this changing for years to come. EoW proved this is the formula moving forward. I don't hate it, I like it, but I don't love it.
@@WoaleyAnd that's the moment when I decide I'm completely done with Zelda. I'm glad that you are a bit more forgiving to Nintendo, but I can't forgive them or bring myself to feel anything besides hate towards their new direction.
It's such a shame too story-wise. They remade Skyward Sword on the switch just before Tears of the Kingdom, so I was convinced that the story would connect to Skyward Sword somehow. Bring the story of the series full circle and have Demise (the one responsible for all the other games happening) play a major role. Perhaps have Link and Zelda discover his curse/grudge and spend most of the game trying to find a way to break it to prevent Ganondorf from ever returning. Malice feels like such a foreshadowing to Demise playing a role later, so the missed opportunity is off the charts. Maybe after managing to break the curse, we could get to see what Ganondorf is actually like when he is no longer under the effect of its influence.
So many golden ideas for Nintendo to make this the best story ever, but they want "Secret Stone? Demon King?". And they want the goat furries, which granted, Rauru is very hot and I would totally smash, but he represents the missed opportunity that is Tears of the Kingdom.
This seems like an asinine take... you just don't like open worlds and you're blaming the game for it
@@ApashePelican I love open world games, they're probably my favorite genre. I like this game and BotW is probably my favorite game of all time. Elden Ring, GTA, Fallout etc. are also up there in my fav games of all time.
I didn't like TotK's overly free SANDBOX experiences like this because I had to make up a lot of my enjoyment and felt like that came at an expense to other aspects of the game as it tried to accommodate to the janky building system.
@@WoaleyAh geez another btow was better video. Hot take! Nah bruh tears is superior. There's certainly valid criticisms to be had about world building and how simple the hover bike is for noobs to cheese everything yet still it still beats tf out of botw. What I would have done differently however is have a dungeon unlock the zonai tech and have that dungeon have a secret dungeon inside it that houses the 5th sage.
@@-Titania TotK is better in almost everyway fosho, but since I already played BotW it was just too much of the same, and like I said, not a big builder. Yeah that's a good idea as far as the progression, would go a long way I think.
@@-Titania I agree with Woaley. From a technical point, yes it is better. I think that the main mechanic of the game just isn't for everyone. I'm also not creative enough to make giant mechs and have them work. Different strokes for different folks.
@@merica.noughsaid1672 nah even from a philosophical standpoint botw was supposed to be a free world yet world progression and travel was grueling at times and at best could be made easier with a horse unless you beat the ENTIRE dlc and get the master cycle. By then you don't need it. But tears after getting the glider it's ON. you can go underground check out the skys and the land is plentiful with traversal resources. It's the most freedom Zelda's ever had