So far, my biggest takeaway from Tears of the Kingdom is how Nintendo just casually made Breath of The Wild, one of the highly rated games of the last decade, seem like a vertical slice. I genuinely don't think I can go back to BOTW without a good reason
"Casually" in comparison sure. But development for botw started in 2011 and finished in 2017. 6 years between start and finish. Totk was 7 years of development, yes I'm counting the extra year of testing in 2022/2023 (2017-2023). Both botw and totk were started immediately after the previous release. I dont think casual, lazy or any such words should ever be used when describing either games.
I started replaying botw immediately after finishing totk, and despite me having nearly 2,000 hours in that game already, it's still incredibly fun and totk in no way replaces it. Both are incredibly fun and great games, but botw still has plenty reason to return to it just for it's simplicity, theme, atmosphere, and world building alone. Both will stand the test of time in my opinion and are best played together as one complete experience. I actually kind of hope that they are both included as one in a game compilation for later systems after the switch.
I love how lightroots not only apear in the exact same spot on the map as shrines, but also share the same name as its respective shrine but spelled backwards
The depths map is also basically just a height-inverted version of the overworld, so you can use the overworld map to traverse unmapped bits of the depths (but not perfectly. I use it mostly to make sure i don't hit a cliff on my way places lol). I knew about the shrine/lightroot location connection, but i didn't realize the name thing. I thought it was disappointing that the names seemed to have nothing to do with each other but looks like i was mistaken lol
One of the most impressive things about it to me was that, unless I just somehow completely missed it, the depths weren't advertised at all, and were a MAJOR 'oh holy crap, this game is huge' moment for me. That and they're terrifying, lol.
I was terrified about the dark areas in BOTW. The dark Depths had me yelping. Frox life bar appears?? What’s a Frox?!?! King Dodongo on steroids!!! 😢😢😢😢
They were shown for a brief 10 seconds in one of the trailers, but no one knew what the footage depicted. Many people saw it as a confirmation of caves finally appearing, but no one realized just how big of a cave they are.
Yea, and the Guardian Armor set which was ridiculously cool. But yea, I was looking for Kass references, or a 'version' of him _everywhere._ Except, if you count Penn to be his 'replacement'. I mean, strangely enough in a way - I _don't_ miss him because of how he was so integral to foiling any opportunity Breath had for a plot since _all_ he led to were shrines. But , I'm not sure why but he was curious about the Zonai and We never seemed to get closure in TOTK.
The Depths honestly give me a big of a Dark World vibe. Especially once you realize just how similar but different they layout of the Depths are compared to the surface.
It is the "exact" layout. Everything is mirrored, height-wise: Mountains become pits, canyons tall ridges...and all those impassable top-to-bottom walls are where the water (lakes, rivers) are. Once you know how the Depths work, you can expect the layout without having any lightroot active. It made exploring both intriguing and something I could plan. Absolutely amazing work there.
Side note, in the original telling of the Imprisoning War Ganon was sealed in the Dark World right? Well he is in the depths now… its interesting to think about. Lol
I know they are rather simple, but leading the charge with a ragtag army of irregulars was a huge flavor win, finally Link is at the forefront of the common peoples defense, there can be no doubt that he is THE Hero, not to just the player, but everyone in the world.
The fuse system also makes the master sword more interesting once you get it. And I like how it maintains a distinct aesthetic with fusions without sacrificing gameplay versatility.
totally agree. I like how fused weapons turn the master sword in to like a neon green digital pattern. I thought that was so wicked. That being said, I was actually hoping the Master Sword could have more techniques at its disposal. For instance, we've always had the sword beams, but what about using the Master Sword to access certain areas? Or use it to activate large Zonai constructs to fight for you. Or even use it to destroy some portions of Gloom in the depths to reveal hidden areas. Perhaps the earthquake technique could have been used to use the Master Sword beam like an underground black or something. Utilizing the Master Sword in other ways would have been so very satisfying.
For me, the Rito are the best thing about TOTK. I absolutely love Rito Village and how free it is after you complete Tulin's questline. The adults are tall and graceful and the kids are super cute and energetic. Tulin himself is so unreasonably adorable, but an absolute headshot factory in battle and I love him. Hands down my absolute favorite people in Zelda.
Fun fact about the Wind Temple: I got to it and "completed" it before I ever reached Rito Village. It took me a while to realize I needed Tulin, but once I had him I was able to go straight there and rush through no problem. The fact that I could do all that is amazing.
I almost did the same thing. I explored the whole mountain and started the platforming segment, but looked up and realized there was actually a LOT to get through and thought "Maybe I'll save this for later, I'll go activate the skyview tower and get to Rito Village and then go to bed". I probably would have had an even more confusing time trying to solve it without Tulin than I did with Tulin lmao.
@@Clevername22726 Well, in regards to the Wind Temple it is a very long climb up there. I think it is great that we can progress that far up the dungeon before needing to get into the main questline to finish it. Once you unlock Tulin's ability it is just a matter of teleporting back up there, so that previous progression with the shrines and teleports were not a waste. Plus, the vast majority of players will visit the Rito before finding the way to the eye of the storm, so you would have to go out of your way to reach the Wind Temple without having gone the main route where the quest starts.
What I also like is that I never needed a guide to find all the shrines. Just explore all sky islands, look around the surface, and find any hidden surface shrines using lightroot locations from the depths
I needed a guide for one single surface level shrine puzzle. The one with the rotating shadow. And also, I couldn't even find a quest-giver for Thundra Plateau. I knew there was a cave inside, and I didn't want to look up a guide for it, so I just waited until I found the guy who gives you the instructions for it. Played 150+ hours, didn't find him, beat the game. Only 9 quests out of 200+ that I didn't complete
The only shrines that are actually hard to get are in the sky. My last shrine, that I actually had to actively think to locate, was on Thunder Isles. I wanted to go on the endgame gauntlet with full hearts and all the quests completed, so I didn't have the thunder cleared there, so I just guessed that there was more to this cloud than just Dragonhead island. It was so fun navigating this location with no way to see anything! I can't believe that you're supposed to clear them up first.
Gleeok going from a kinda standard boss fight in Zelda 1 to becoming the scariest creature to face in Tears of the Kingdom made me so happy. I remember seeing the trailer where it first showed them on the bridge. It made me feel the joy I felt when they brought the Lynels back that were only ever in the 2D Zelda games
One thing I adore about totk is they revamped the whole combat shrine idea and made some in the dark or some stealth missions with numerous enemies instead of one and it can actually teach you how to deal with most enimies in the game considering they usually are found in larger groups than botw
Surprisingly enough I've actually been itching to play BOTW while I've been going through TOTK! I think, though part of BOTW being barren is something that required improvement for the sequel, that Hyrule being so empty really added to the feeling of 'damn, Ganon tore this world apart and I'm alone'. At the same time, seeing the world come alive in TOTK was such a joy. I knew the sequel was gonna be amazing but wow I still felt so blown away. It's rly interesting to see how they compare, and I have a feeling that whenever I feel the want to return to a quieter, somewhat simpler Hyrule I'll be going back to the first game. Awesome video!
One thing I _don't_ like is the lack of diversity in the depths (and the sky islands too). Almost every location has the same fauna and design, even in the deserts and snowy areas. The only area that has a visual difference and environmental hazard to accommodate it is Death Mountain... though I guess the Korok Forest also has its own unique trees too, but that alone doesn't add much.
I feel like the depths were so much missed opportunity. Imagine the depths but with various biomes. massive mossy caverns, icy cliffs, Large lava areas, flooded cities, ect.
I kinda agree and kinda disagree. There was definitely at least SOME variety in both, examples for the sky islands being thunderhead and lightcrest (I think that’s the name?) and for the depths you have all of the tree groves and the lava areas both beneath death mountain and hebra peaks. So even though I agree they could have done more, I still think the sky and more so the depths were enjoyable and interesting
@@senatorpineapple8149 They were the most enjoyable part of the game in a lot of ways... which means it also would have been even better with more biome variation. Not saying they were _bad_ (well... the sky islands were kinda lackluster tbh) but that they could have been _way better._
not to mention they massively nerfed Death Mountain by removing the lava pools and making Goron City below the burn zone. in botw, you were literally on fire going to death mountain. in totk, you just......keep walking without any threat. totk is just so much easier and simpler of a game; it's not even close. there's no challenge element to totk at all.
I went to Lurelin super early as I heard the word “pirates” and sprinted there at top speed. I had to to use a stealth tactic to defeat the enemies because they could all two-shot me and I had a blast figuring out a route to tackle it. It was so rewarding and it really set a tone for the rest of my play through.
The Depths gives me massive Subnautica vibes with how dark and terrifying it is, the strange fauna, and the feeling of terror wondering what is in the darkness.
something i did by COMPLETE accident was discover the wind temple before i started the rito's story. i was so obsessed with exploring and platforming through the airships i had NO idea i wasn't supposed to be there yet. the inclusion of a sky world and the chasm have, and even the WELLS have added so much to the world of breath/tears that sometimes i forgot how much there is now. i have to remind myself i can actually GO INTO THE WELLS NOW because i was so used to that not being possible in botw.
I skipped the airship by taking a flying platform to the height limit and paragliding there ot at least I almost did until I got distracted by that king gleeok island on the map
My man I got amazing news for you, next to one of the stables there's a well with a well enthusiast in there, she also pays you for knowledge of each wells location
My favorite change between BotW and TotK is in narrative dissonance. In BotW, you were told that Zekda is weakening and couldnt hold back Ganon much longer. It gave the feeling that time you spent doing sidequests or shrines directly put Zelda in more peril. In TotK, however, Zelda disappears and you're left with the mystery of where she went, which also has the upshot of feeling into the exploration aspect of these two games
Well no... Ganon is still in the current time line and what the heck is he up to while you are building machines with a dick? It's exactly the same. Last time it was zelda in peril, this time the more you waste time the more Ganon can accomplish
Interesting, cause I felt the opposite. In BOTW your main goal is to defeat Ganon. You know that he is in Hyrule Castle, so you can go to him at any time. But because you are so weak you will likely die trying, and Link has to become stronger. This makes everything you do in the game relevant. Completing shrines, freeing divine beasts, doing side quests to get rewards and finding koroks to expand your inventory. You are not delaying the fight with Ganon - you are training for it. Whereas in TOTK, your main goal is to find Zelda. This would work fine if you found hints to Zeldas whereabouts while exploring and doing main quests, but this is not the case. (SPOILER) It becomes super obvious after the first dungeon that you are chasing a fake Zelda. At that point you are just completing the main quests so that the game can eventually tell you where to find Zelda, not because the main quests actually help towards your goal. I much prefer BOTWs approach.
What's cool about the depths is that it's an exact mirror of the over world topographically. You can go see for yourself that if you flip back and forth between the surface and depth map, you'll see they're the same except that all the mountains on the surface are valleys in the depths, and vice versa. I thought it was an extremely clever way to save time making an entirely new map.
@@nxi8792 yeah, I actually used that to find all the shrines and lightroots. Another cool thing is that the lightroot names are the shrine names backwards, so if I couldn't find a shrine, then I could use the lightroot to look up a guide.
Yeah, that’s actually how I make my way around in dark areas of the depths, you can more easily judge which way to go based on height and possible water sources
They had 5 years to develop the game They reused the botw map You'd think they'd be doing an interesting Map for the depths No, only one biome and its the map flipped upside down So you'd think they'd make a lot of things on this Map No the same ennemis as the surface exept the frox, no shrines, almost no quests, no interesting things to find Nintendo has become even lazier than monjang 5 years for botw 1.1
I loved the sidequests associated with Lurelin village. I set my paraglider fabric to the village's pattern and plan to keep it that way and fast travel there constantly for the rock salt spa treatment and free food as the village savior. Building the houses with Bolson, getting the water race course set up? So amazing!
I still like that whole side quest, but I’m a little disappointed with how easy actually rebuilding the village was. All you have to do is get some rice and logs, then do some simple ultra hand puzzles. After the first bit, it felt less like I was rebuilding a village and more like I was doing a shrine. Tarrey Town felt much better in this aspect because progress was slower and much more meaningful, having to do physical labor to get all the wood and then go find more people to help with building. I get that it shouldn’t be quite as much work with lurelin because weren’t not building from scratch, but it should have been more that just putting a few logs in a hole.
@@awakencorn4516 I mean, fair, but at the same time, I was thanking the devs when I realized I didn't need to do the build Link's house questline again for anything beyond the foundation. That concept scared me more than anything in the depths just because of the idea that I'd need to gather the resources to rebuild a village that big.
The only thing that genuinely bothers me thus far is when you try and build your own house; Granté is litterally walking around behind or in front of you instead if staying at his stand, and hes an obstacle that interferes with the house blocks when you try qnd place them down.
I don't like the limitations on how many rooms you have to buy and the fact that in order to connect your house and have a roof you have to buy unnecessary rooms. I have a stair and open roof in order to fit 2 extra equipment rooms 😢
The house building has so many little problems and limitations that for me its probably the most flawed part in the game, but Ill take that, because ive still somehow obsessed over it for 10+ hours trying to cheat the janky system to get what I want. Its that compelling, despite the fact that unlike the rest of the game, I could make a long list of much needed improvements.
There is even smaller improvements like how the races help defend Lookout Landing when you complete the dungeon. I especially found it fascinating how the Rito soldiers flew around Lookout Landing up above in real time. Not even BoTW had NPC’s react like this and it helps ToTK feel so much more alive for this reason.
TotK is exceptionally great at making Hyrule feel like a completely new unexplored world. Even after hundreds of hours in BotW. Never in my entire first playtrough did I even have the slightest feeling that I was in the same Hyrule as I have been for the past five and a half years. Nintendo truly outdid themselfs with this one. This game delivered on so many levels. Its almost kind of scary how quickly BotW, after dominating Zelda and the switch for all those years, is overthrown by a game that has just reached its third week of release.
Its still feels like an improved Botw tho and not a new zelda experience like every game before. Totk is basically a big expansion bolted on to botw, making botw obsolete. Something we never seen in any other 3d zelda where all games were different from eachother.
Yeah, it definitely felt like a new experience Like, even when you visit a familiar place in the game, there's always something new into it that makes it feel different each time and that's what I love about the experience with TotK 😊
@@dante19890 I love how you feld the need to comment this twice to make your point. There are only 4 replies under my comment we saw your opinion already. Nothing wrong with your own opinion but this is kinda forced lol
Just someone here saying the fuse ability actually made me excited about weapon breaking. Now a weapon breaking means I get to try out a new combo. So what before was a frustrating experience is now an exciting opportunity. The game makes sure to always leave plenty of bases around so you are rarely going to be without a weapon. I also appreciate that it appears i can get through most mini bosses with having very few weapons break. A frustrating thing about fighting Lynels in BOTW was going through 4-5 melee weapons and getting 2-3 in return. Hardly felt worth it very quickly.
yes exactly my thoughts!! i dont mind breaking weapons in totk for the same reason. difficult enemies are rewarding to kill because they drop powerful materials i can use for fusing. fighting monsters doesnt feel like as much of a chore.
Agreed, in TotK a weapon breaking is an opportunity for a new one! The main exception to this for me is when breaking rock walls, especially the double-strength blue ones. Sure, they often drop boulders and claymores so that you can create new rock hammers, but the process is so tiresome. Especially in the early game when you don't have multi-shot bows and bomb flowers are still quite precious.
Tbh I found the sage cutscenes really similar. Since they have to be designed to be done in any order, link has to sit through an explanation of how secret stones work even if you’ve been told 2 times already
lol compare this to the story that botw lays out with the champions that perished. from the four botw cutscenes we learn: >ravioli's pride making him hate on link because he knows he's not as strong >gerudo warrior queen feeling responsible for ganon because he was a gerudo >goron coward embracing his warrior spirit and no longer being ridiculed by his elders and community >zora princess secretly loving link and making a power move by basically proposing and offering him the entire kingdom; somewhat being uneasy towards zelda because link likely loves her while zelda "hates" link and not to mention >zelda fails to unleash her powers and basically gets everyone killed (including link) and has to deal with the fall out there's an incredible amount of story with lots of character motivations and interactions AND flaws before even getting into the DLC cutscenes. the totk cutscenes teach us that: >tulin is a rito and he had an ancestor who fought with zelda in the imprisoning war >yunobo is a goron is he had an ancestor who fought with zelda in the imprisoning war >riju is a gerudo and she had an ancestor who fought with zelda in the imprisoning war >sidon is a rito and he had an ancestor who fought with zelda in the imprisoning war the only character who gets a fleshed out cutscene is mineru, and honestly given how we don't get anything really about her *before* we kinda don't care who she is and there's a good chance you know she's just some dead poe before you even get to the spirit temple. i mean......botw is much better in that regard. it's a better story and it's told much better.
The shrine shown at 12:51 in the video (the one where you make your own death roombas) cemented totk as one of my favorite games ever. nothing had made me laugh or feel that kind of childlike joy when playing a game in so long- and to top it off, totk has A TON of those moments. it’s honestly such a great game in every aspect
I feel like I accidentally made my experience so much better by not fixing the 4 regions problems till I was 80+ hours in and had done about 113/152 shrines which made exploring the areas after I had gone so long with the endless blizzard, sandstorm, sludge, and addicted gorons so different as I was used to the terrible conditions that once they cleared and I could see and explore so much easier it brought a whole new perspective to the world I was exploring
I'm currently at the same point. Done so much with barely resolving the 4 main race quests. I've started to do them now partly because I'm running out of other things to do, lol.
This is one of the more accurate descriptions I’ve heard (as compared to my own experience, anyways). BOTW felt very peaceful overall with just a handful of really tense moments where I was like “oh crap, I’m about to die.” But TOTK has maintained that feeling, that edge of your seat tension, for the whole 40 hours I’ve been playing so far. In BOTW I felt like just cruising around you’d find enough resources naturally to keep you armed, clothed, and fed adequately to continue cruising around- but in TOTK after every other enemy encounter I find link huddled by a fire fusing sticks together for safety and wagering whether or not it’s time to eat the last apple yet. The simplest way I can describe it is that BOTW had a huge map full of a small variety of enemies who want to kill you, but in TOTK the map itself feels like it is trying to kill you. There was very little, if any “how will I get to that?” in BOTW, you just cook a bunch of stamina replenishing foods and start climbing, but in TOTK I’m baffled about how I’ll get to some of the sky islands and every minute underground leaves me not just baffled as to how I’ll reach the next dim flicker, but just what the heck that dim flicker actually is. In BOTW after an hour you realize the map has the same enemy encounters, secrets, bonuses, etc just clone stamped all over the map, but in TOTK after I think I’ve seen it all I stumble upon something like an underground cemetery and have to wonder what if any significance it holds as a monster I’ve never seen pops out and kicks my butt.
>There was very little, if any “how will I get to that?” in BOTW, you just cook a bunch of stamina replenishing foods and start climbing, but in TOTK I’m baffled about how I’ll get to some of the sky islands lol two fans and a steering stick come on. two fans and a steering stick puts link anywhere in the game, literally. in a shrine? ultrahand combined with recall. that's it. that's how you do every puzzle; there's not a single one in totk that cannot be solved in this manner. botw doesn't let the player cheat lol except for windbombing, which takes skill and precision.
I'm glad you mentioned the lumber hauling segment of rebuilding the town because honestly that was one of the absolute best and most memorable parts of the game for me, it was this nailbiting adventure over bridges with my cobbled together car actually made out of logs and it was so organic and just FUN.
Idk about ALL the mistakes but it definitely remedied a lot of the complaints of the first one and this beautiful game (honestly more like beautiful piece of art) will make games think differently and change the landscape altogether.
Doing the Rito dungeon sparked up some emotions that I haven't felt in video games in a while. I felt a bit of despair, anxiety not knowing what's next, but excitement and a bit of nostalgia. Everything leading up to it felt important, even the damn atmosphere. I was blasting the AC and didn't realize I wrapped up in a blanket because Link was out here in a literal tundra. It felt like fighting Cynthia in Pokemon Platinum all those years ago, like the first time trying to beat Fatalis in Monster Hunter etc. All this in the palm of my hands! I'm simply blown away by all this and I'm honestly just frozen in thought by how on Earth could they even top this?!
One of the things i love most about totk is how you really feel like you have an impact on the world, for example, rito village, sure. The main quest completion does get rid of all the snow, but the thing i noticed more is that all the villagers could come back whitch really made me feel like i did more, and every town is like that, except its not just main quests, it often feels like even the most random side quests really impact the world, so ive been trying my best to fix the world after evil tried to destroy iy and its arguably as much fun then the main story
I just recently finished the wind Temple and found my way to goron City (I'm focusing mostly on story only for my first playthrough), and I can already tell that to the kingdom is leaps and bounds above breath of the wild 💯 At this rate, it could easily be my personal game of the year 🤩
I remember in Botw, I loved Lauren village so much, that on my second play through, after completing the platue, I beelined straight to there and decided that would be the place to start out, I even had a head canon that link was raised in that village, and how after finding and completing the first shrine, he went out to discover the rest of Hyrule. In totk, it was a tough decision at first, but then I finally decided that Lauren village would be the last destination, as to show how much link has grown, only to revisit his home land to show the people he’s grown up with how much he has changed after his very long journey. Much to my surprise, joy, terror and relief (it would’ve been awful if I had made the decision to start there like I did in the first game.) after completing all sage temples and defeating Kohga, and finally deciding that I would go to Lauren village, only to find that pirates had ransacked the town. It made for an even more awesome head canon, link comes back after traveling hyrule only to find out that, while he was gone, pirates had taken over his home village, so as a test of strength and skill from his journey, he takes the village back from the pirates by himself, rebuilds the village, temporarily leaves the land of hyrule to set sail to the island in the distance to finally put an end to the pirates. Needless to say, the experience of having such a ridiculous head canon was what made this moment so fun and memorable for me.
@@ZaItan1 no, thank you, I do plan on becoming a writer cus I love coming up with new ideas, so hearing how you guys loved my small head canon for a game I enjoyed playing on the side gave me the kick I really needed to continue the grind with my original works lol.
I think another thing that helped this game's temples is their lead-up. They all had a pretty meaty questline you had to follow to get the needed new companion, find the dungeon etc
Not all of them, but a significant amount. What we really need now is for the community to get together and push out videos discussing improvements that can still be made. Nintendo seemed to be listening to complaints in the wake of BOTW, so I'm hoping that they'll do the same for TOTK.
Yeah like the clunky gameplay with sage abilities! Having their activation linked to an ai that runs around makes it a complete interruption to even think to use them unless they’re conveniently close enough, though having shorter cooldowns than BotW champion abilities is nice in concept Otherwise they’ll spend 20 seconds holding their weapons to block against a chuchu slowly crawling on the ground- the ai isn’t really making ideal combat decisions In this sense, TotK made a lot of improvements, but also created new issues that I haven’t seen people discuss in video essay format quite yet
@@bonyeni Mainly I've seen that addressed in short clips where Tulin managed to blow things off the edge when you're spamming A to collect them. I have been trying to think how they could be implemented better, and have at least concluded that it isn't quite so simple. They've used pretty much every button on the controller already, so it isn't as simple as adding a new button to the control scheme. You could theoretically add your companions as a rune on the L trigger radial wheel, but then you'd either have to slow down gameplay by opening a menu to choose the correct companion like the menu they use for autobuild, or have four separate runes added to the wheel. Perhaps they could make it that holding A and then hitting L opens a radial menu with just the companion abilities? It's definitely something that should be critiqued, I'm just not certain how best to address the issue. The other thing that comes to my mind is that they really need to at least add a Favorites menu to the D-pad inventory. The Most Used option covers a lot of things, but it isn't a lot of help when you find something new that you want to use, and it just so happens to be at the end of every sorting option.
@@AzariahWolf for sure! I’ve seen memes discussing the ever-useless map shortcut on the ability wheel that could potentially have a much more useful ability in its place I really appreciate your perspective too, going into solution-based thinking instead of just “guys, problem!” But I think it could be simply addressed just like how the last game handled these abilities; can have them active or inactive: -Urbosa’s fury (lightning in tandem with attack) came from a charged attack- which could include charging a bow strike in this game as well -Daruk’s protection came from blocking your shield- same could be done with Sidon’s shield and maybe have a period of time after where it stays active/ converts to water tandem attack when you release the block -Revali’s gale came from holding down the jump button then releasing, though this could be a bit hard to mesh with Tulin’s horizontal gust, maybe some button that is obsolete in mid-air that could be repurposed, like the sprint button unless it has a function I’m forgetting; as for ground scenarios, I can’t yet think of something but I never use it anyway, I mean a fan-style weapon serves the purpose with absolutely no cooldown (though blowing sand piles when I don’t have a fan weapon is a different story) -Mipha’s Grace doesn’t have an equivalent, though Mineru’s style wouldn’t benefit from the same style as BotW’s champion abilities anyways except maybe making the whistle call feature more effective than already is -Yunobo’s already somewhat automized when on a vehicle but people don’t like that so there could be some step during construction to make a designated thing for Yunobo (which could be excluded by choice, idk very rough dumb idea anyway) and maybe he doesn’t need much of a change there, unless there is some seamless way to blend it to attacks; maybe a coordinated attack command button of sorts where any next swing would send him in that direction like with Sidon’s ability in a sense (yet another potshot idea)
@@bonyeni i feel like adding a hold menu for whistle to be a radial menu is good. Whistle is only used for horse and to call the sages, why not just add the specific sages there. Sure, it'll still use A to activate the abilities, but at least it shouldn't give the player trouble just to go to a specific one. I absolutely prefer it to be like botw's tho, each abilities on specific button is a lot faster in combat.
@@keihaii true! That does sound a whole lot better Especially when in combat I go on overall shape and when Tulin and Riju are both similarly sized I get a bit confused at times but having an organized menu would help a lot
Short answer: they listened to the community. “We want conventional dungeons” They added them “We want old characters and items to return” They returned “We’re tired of climbing in the rain” They added armor for that “There was so little armor sets, and the cool amiibos are too expensive” *literally added every amiibo/dlc item* “Those minecart flying machines are too hard to operate, and I can’t even balance them” *literally makes transformers that can fly, walk and float*
@@JohnnyYeTaecanUktena My list is very long : Their is no memorable music for me. I don't like the breaking weapons system. (still the same in TOTK even so in this video he try to deny it) I don't like the cooking stuff. The rain was just obnoxious to me. (this one have a cloth for it) Their are no true dungeon. (the dungeon in TOTK are way to easy, i have watch video of them, and it's an insult to old zelda in dungeon to me) All the shrine have the same design, they felt souless for me. (same in TOTK) The fact the story is optional, i don't like it. (almost the same way in TOTK) I love metroidvania way, the fact in this game you have everything at first, killed the metroidvania. (and the power that those other give you, are not game breaking, they are just little trick). (same in TOTK) The fact that for me, looting was useless, since every chest are either crafting i don't care, food, weapons that will break, or rupee that i have way to much. (same problem with TOTK) With that in mind, i didn't find it rewarding to explore because of that. All the sidequest seems souless as well to me. The fact in this game, the bestiary was very little, even so the world was huge. I prefer to have a clear direction, instead of having to roam around to find anything to do. The fact you pass way to much time in the inventory searching, craft, eating etc. I will an other thing, for some reason, even after hours of playing BOTW i still had trouble with the control, normally with every other game, i manadge to master it, for some reaosn not this one. for TOTK he praise way to much the dark side, i have watch gameplay and people playing it... it's mostly EMPTY with NOTHING to do, and SOMETIME big ennemy lurking, that is all.
Unfortunately for all the "fixes" there are just as many new problems. The rework of the champion system into the sage system makes the powers INCREDIBLY clunky and unintuitive. Picking up items only to accidentally activate Tulin and blow all your precious items off a cliff, having to chase down the various NPC's mid-fight to activate their abilities, it's a VAST downgrade. Fusion is clunky, I don't know why they didn't make it so you could fuse components onto weapons from the menu instead of having to hold, drop, THEN fuse onto weapons. They had 6 years to streamline this and didn't. It's way too easy to miss the great fairy fountain questline, I see streamers who beat the game without armor upgrades, much to the detriment of their enjoyment, quite regularly. Honestly... I feel like Breath of the Wild is better at this point.
You can repair weapon durability, by giving a rock octorock (found in death mountain) your weapon you want to repair, and it gives a new weapon modifier. (diffrent to in breath of the wild where they un rust the weapons making them shiny again, they dont get rid of the gloom on the weapons or anything)
for me, one of the biggest tells for me liking TotK more than BotW is that after playing BotW for 300 hours completing everything i was interested in, the thought of starting a new file was not appealing in the slightest. i was interested in Master Mode once the DLC came out, but never went through with it. however, with Tears of the Kingdom, my literal first thought upon coming back to the title screen after the credits rolled was "man, i want to play this again." even now, roughly 150 hours of playtime in, i'm fully intending on starting over once i finish up this file, which is an experience i NEVER had with BotW. fantastic game, easy contender for GOTY, even if it still has some of that classic BotW jank haha
@@GuthixLives Good point. I kind of want to start a new file already even though I am not finished with my initial playthorugh. There are only a handfull of games that I've played more than once. Portal 2 is definitely topping that short list. Others are Portal 1, OOT, MM, SM64. Oblivion and Sekiro. Not to say that I will actually be replaying TotK, but I at least want to currently.
>never made it thru master mode >never did master mode master sword trials >never did master mode champions ballad >quite literally missed out on the majority of the game you need to restart botw lol. the first camp you come to and realize you can't puffshroom or autobuild a death roomba you'll shit your pants lol. the first guardian that forces you to parry or die you'll probably die. there's nothing like that in totk.
Personally I like the wind temple the best because of the atmosphere. I liked the water temples boss the best (not because it was hard, because it was mechanically interesting), the lightning temple has the best puzzles and the fire temple is the most like a traditional zelda dungeon (I think)
I think the fire and water temples were the worst because they were the most exploitable by hoverboards. The puzzle of learning to fly is going to be solved in the overworld eventually, because of the sky islands. Having flying be the easiest way to get to solve puzzles in those dungeons was a bad idea imo
One thing I found hilarious, is that I just happened to come across the fifth temple, I already finished 3 and was just starting the gerudo quest and stopped to explore a little in the air and I flied right into this huge storm cloud, and somehow found my way to a shrine and a huge door which led to the next temple, I wasn't even looking for it, so I ended finishing that one before doing the gerudo one today, kinda curious how you were gonna learn about this one, since I just happened to stumble upon it lol.
You get a quest to find it once you meet with Purah after clearing the other 4 temples, you go to Paya, and do a series of puzzles to dispell the cloud
i stumbled upon it too! i had completed one temple and decided to get more shrines and explore the map some more before i continued. one of the stable workers at lakeside stable got me curious about the thunder cloud so i went to investigate, expecting to find a shrine quest or something, and i was so shocked when "MAIN QUEST" appeared! i decided to leave that quest alone and come back later as i found the depth enemies too tough though lol
Honestly, Breath of the Wild feels harder to 100% complete because you don't know where they are located without a guide, but in tiers of the kingdom once you get all the lightroots which took me a few hours you will know all the shrine locations on the surface which makes it too easy, and all the shrines in tiers of the kingdom are too easy, breath of the wild just feels more time consuming and more hard, tiers of the kingdom even has weapons that are insane in tiers of the kingdom, not to mention the glitches
YES YES YES, I missed your content so much, no, i missed you Brett. Those 2 weeks felt so empty with out your insightful baratone musing about what ever your chose to give attention too. In all seriousness, i really love your content and hope you are doing well for yourself and aren't pushing yourself too hard. Take easy when you need too, we can wait for you l, and I'll be sure not to miss gou too much. Take care fellow.
while the sky islands are pretty spread out, it’s the spread out nature that makes them fun trying to figure out how in the hell i’m gonna get to some of them (particularly the gerudo sky archipelago. i definitely don’t have enough charges to get up to them yet, but that hasn’t stopped me from trying.)
Urgency is really something that drove me to finish the 4 main area's quest first. The sludge, snow, and sandstorm problem made me feel really bad for the people living there, so I gotta solve that first. But in a way my affection is definitely influenced from playing BoTW first, so i have some sort of empathy for the characters in the story.
I spent 10 hours trying to change the dye on my glider. I kept going to haneto, finding a quest, getting distracted, going to the dye shop, and finding yet another quest
The fact this game took one of my favourite games of all time and made it look like a tech demo shows exactly why this has took the spot for my number one favourite game. I’ve never had so much fun with a game before.
Something that really helped enemy variety in my eyes, was the fact that every tier of enemy has a unique drop. Where before, the Red, Blue, Black, and Silver bokoblins all had the exact same drops(excluding weapons), now they all have something different to bring to the table.
@@Idontevenknowman779 I'm aware, and I'm grateful that totk added many more enemies. But in my personal experience, giving unique drops to each tier of enemy gave me more of a reason to seek out stronger monsters, and made fighting them more fun- where in botw I kinda avoided them.
I think the side quests in Botw are a lot more interesting than in totk, and for one reason: the characters are more diverse. As someone who played totk first, I was genuinely surprised to find out how much more life the characters in botw had. Npcs are more fun to talk to because you can see an actual personality, while in totk it feels like they all act mostly the same, with a few exceptions. Even link’s dialogue options have more personality
link's dialogue choices in botw gave him a personality, which is incredible since the entire game is link having no idea who he is, but forming himself back up from the expectations of others he meets (some who fully understand who he is, others who do not but definitely know about link). link's dialogue in totk really round him back into the boring character he's always been. botw is by far the most expressive and dynamic link in all of zelda imo. he's just out there in the world. for most of the game, he's not really even "link", he's just a dude with a horse riding around defeating monsters and picking apples. it's just a completely different vibe and going back to it, totk just misses the mark.
This is a really well done video. Just discovered your channel but it’s super good from what I’ve seen (this and a couple other videos). Also you sound a lot like KingK. Which did surprise me when I initially started watching the video.
The worst thing about this game is that the exploration was toned down. If the game had a completely new map to discover it would have been a 10/10 masterpiece for me. I liked the tutorial since it had a completely new area to discover but when I got back down to the surface I was kind of bored because it was mostly the same as Botw. Thankfully the game had a couple of tricks up its sleeve.
The best part of this game is the traveling on foot got toned down. If the game had less gliding, and only your feet and the horses it would have been a 6/10 slog for me. I liked the tutorial since it was so significantly better than the Great Plateau was but when I started gliding down to the surface from sky island shrines I realized exploring the game was going to be enjoyable this time. Thankfully Breath of the Wild came out first so they could make adjustments and cut down on the boring traversal for this one!
I do love Tears Of The Kingdom but I connect with BOTW more because I personally love the vast more desolate world. Traveling from place to place was such a zen experience that I was consumed with a feeling of being a wandering ronin. I also love the simplicity of BOTW, while I do enjoy building things from time to time in TOTK I did find myself kind of sighing when I see a river and I needed to build a boat to cross. Creativity is great and welcomed but when it is so in ur face so frequent it kind of diminishes the allure but I do still adore TOTK don't get me wrong.
i’ve seen so many different solutions for carrying that wood to lurelin village. I found it fun to make use of the horse-ultra hand mechanic but i’ve also seen making cars, rockets, carrying with ultra hand, and of course making a battle machine with them and bringing them over to the village
Part of me feels like they set out to make TotK to begin with, realized about halfway in that it was going to take waaaay too long to make the game and make it work right, and decided to put out a beta prequel version that was botw.
The only genuine problem with Tears of the Kingdom I can truly find is how the Sage powers are activated, which can be an easy fix with a QoL update that adds additional control options that are quality of life updates, making them less useless and bothersome.
I can’t wait for you to start talking about the themes of this game down the line, your story analysis of BotW was excellent and the reason I subscribed. So far the most consistent through line I’ve noticed is doing what you can to make life better for future generations, and honoring the sacrifices that past generations made for you. But I’m eager to see what you have to say about it.
I loved going back to zoras domain. From seeing the new statue, going to mipha’s court, hearing her subtle theme come on as i enter. The world building for the environment is amazing
I can see your point indeed. Definitely. One issue though. I couldn’t afford ToTK. But NOW I have it. And yes, your points make more sense now that I’ve beaten the main storyline.
one last thing i wanna talk about regarding enemy variety is how many new ways they fight you; they wear armor, make-shift weapons and in general facing the same type of enemy doesnt necessarily mean the encounter will be the same
One of my biggest complaints about BotW was the weapons breaking too quickly. TotK does lower the standard by decaying all civilised weaponry with gloom, but that just makes it all the more frustrating to me because I don't want to fuse monster parts to sticks in case I need those monster parts to upgrade armour.
actually, even with the fusion durability bonus, several weapons in totk *break far faster than that they do in botw*. this is because durability is *reduced* in totk to push the fusion mechanic.
Liking for the video and the use of the Spirt Tracks soundtrack! One of the first Zelda games I played and I think a very underrated game, especially for the soundtrack
I dunno about all of them, but most. Still miss traditional dungeons, although stuff like the fire temple was really close. Some more area-specific enemies would’ve been great too, not just in dungeons, but in the depths and the Sky Islands in general. We only get constructs in the sky and these super simple one-attack frog things in the depths, I wish there was at least one more complex enemy specific to the depths
I agree the sky islands were not as interesting as the depths, and I keep feeling there was a missed opertunity of adding a town in the sky. Dlc could definitely remedy this though!
I feel like they held back on the sky islands a little for DLC, since it would be quite easy to just add more . "oh something happened and more islands appeared in the sky".
My one problem with TotK is how cumbersome it is to use the sages' abilities. I find myself only having Tulin's Vow active and only bother with the others in very specific circumstances. That or I'll have number 5 active
my biggest gripe are the cutscenes. I feel like I watched the same cutscene like twenty times. They repeat the same information over and over again. The worst ones are the one at the end of every temple. They are exact copies of each other with some words mixed around. Few of the story related cutscenes feel unique. I wish you were told what order to watch the dragon tears. Would of added more suspense to some major plot points. The Japanese VA is 10/10
@@dr.happyfuntimes1214 the weapons are ammo, they are there to be used, and you use them because you can and eventually a story quest or a more permanent collectible will necessitate their use. getting caught up on trying to preserve one weapon for its combat abilities is like getting upset that your bullets are destroyed after you shoot them, which makes no sense when ammo is infinite.
Not even in the slightest. Firearms in games reward accuracy, particularly if there is location based damage. Firearms in games also often reward selecting the best one for the encounter at hand, which might not be the most damaging, and they emphasize resource management. Then there is the fact that firearms in games often reward doing those while moving to avoid damage, or changing how you behave depending on distance from the enemy. BotW and TotK are much more shallow, making it more efficient to always use the most powerful option, and don't reward accuracy, because a miss doesn't cost durability/ammo. Flurry rush through jump timing, or a parry, work regardless of the weapon and are, at best, the equivalent of strafing. No, looking at it like a gun and the weapons as bullets does not solve the problem, because the system is more shallow than even Wolfenstein 3D. It's not rewarding, so it doesn't matter that there will always be another piece of junk weapon and who cares if the weapon breaks. It's boring and tedious, and that's before you factor in the constant opening of menus and quick menus. At least guns in games have different handling characteristics, reward accuracy, reward strategy (even if minimally). The closest TotK or BotW get to that is when you are using a bow.
I wish people would stop saying it fixed "all" the mistakes. Because three of the biggest complaints about the order final still stand. Weapon durability is still a pain in the arse, except now you have the additional hassle of fusing, the music is nearly identical, and the temples are almost identical in role and length to the divine beasts.
Music could be easily fixed by letting you listen to classic themes on the purah pad which could even be discovered as collectibles. Feel like weapon durability would be better if only fused materials broke and you kept base weapons, especially legendary weapons. That way you are still encouraged to farm monsters, but get to keep weapons. The dungeons weren’t great, but they were immensely better than the divine beasts
I wanted to go see the Great Plateau. It took me a week. I knew I wanted to get there, but I accidentally completed a ton of shrines and other side activities before I remembered why exactly I had set that red pin there.
Aside from my INTENSE joycon drift and lack of understanding of basic game mechanics (such as shield jumping, flurry rushes, etc), one of the biggest reasons I didn’t like botw is probably because I got bored of just wandering aimlessly for what felt like forever. I remember the memories quest was especially bad because everything kind of looked the same, so trying to figure out where these places are by a single photo, or even after searching up their location on a map, was very difficult. It’s great to hear that that problem has been fixed in the new game, and now that I have better controllers and have watched a lot of videos so that I know how to actually fight besides just swinging my sword whenever I can, I’ll definitely play totk. Just as soon as I have a switch again…
I agree with almost every point, except the shrines. I've heard this aspect praised by other content creators, so I accept that I may be the odd one out, but it still feels bizarre, since I feel as unambiguously that TOTK's shrines are blatantly inferior to BOTW's as you feel the other way round. The vast majority of TOTK shrines are mindnumbingly easy. Playgrounds for the game's physics engine perhaps, but hopelessly undercomplex as challenges, whose entire approach is readily obvious from the moment you step foot in them if not spoiled to death first by their title. A significant (and much more sizeable than in BOTW) other portion are blessing shrines, which more often than not had me disappointed that bothering to complete a barebones overworld puzzle apparently merited the reward of a withheld shrine puzzle. The basic combat tutorials are also divided up amongst even more individual shrines than necessary. The only type of shrines that are consistently rewarding as experiences, which I dreaded at first but came to appreciate given the competition, are the Proving Grounds shrines.
I feel even the easier ones are still valuable because they all can potentially teach you something new about how the powers, devices, and physics engine can interact.
It would be nice if the shrines were a little bit longer. I think they're more fun than BOTW's since the runes are more fun to mess with, but it does feel like they cut back a lot with them. There's a lot of "oh that's the end already?"
Hard disagree, I completed all the shrines in BOTW and I'm not so sure I will be able to do it this time because I find the shrines a LOT more challenging this time around.
@@kingboobs20 It really depends on how you're completing the shrines in each game both of the games have ways of cheesing them botw windbomb and totk is finding loopholes with the ultra hand and rewind ability but in both cases doing them as intended can be pretty hard ( varies from shrine to shrine ) botw case: the shrine at rito village ( haven't found enough totk shrines to think of a good one)
Not mention you can throw items, also if you get to upgrade the runes like in botw, I really hope you’ll be able to pocket items with ultra hand or just increase the amount of pieces you can attach together.
Tears of the Kingdom feels like the devs read every single complaint regarding BotW and fixed them all. Beyond what you mentioned there’s even small fixes like full inventory. Now this game does create its own new problems too. But my biggest one is that by focusing so much on trying to be a better BotW it loses some of its own identity. And regarding weapon degradation, I think fuse helps this not by increasing durability, but by giving you more opportunities. Each weapon broken is a chance to try a new combination. Overall good analysis! Keep up the good work!
Easy shrines??????? Some I had to look up because I didn't understand what I was supposed to do. That's hasn't happened in TOTK. All the shrines are easy because you have more options to do things
The depths ARE as big as the surface. They match the surface almost perfectly, the surface shrines matching up with the light roots one for one, the z coordinate being almost the same on the surface but negative in most places, and also where there is water on the surface there are ceiling high walls in the depths
turning the tests of strength shrines from botw into proving grounds was a MAJOR upgrade. in tests of strength, it usually consisted of one (1) guardian scout in a big room that had a huge health pool and ate through weapons. each fight was practically similar aside from slight mechanical changes such as having to use cryonis to have them slam themselves into pillars to stun them. practically once you've seen one, you've seen them all. what i love about proving grounds is that they're extremely unique and interesting. each proving grounds shrine has a different layout, number of zonai constructs wielding different weapons, and usually multiple ways to complete the challenge. stripping away your weapons, armor, and consumables and only giving a set amount of weapons and items to use makes you have to think more critically about how to face the challenge. one of my favorites had to be a shrine that had many zonai constructs with bows atop a platform being held up by two supports surrounded by water. one of these was breakable using something that could break rocks. neuron started firing!!! as i battled other zonai constructs from below, i saw that there were spike balls that i could fuse to a weapon to make a hammer. i couldn't attack the stone support directly, i had to throw my weapon. once i did, all the constructs came crashing down into the water, killing them instantly. i think that had to be the biggest hit of dopamine i've ever had in this game
Hi FatBrett, Thanks for making this video. I completed BotW in preparation for TotK and I've been actually hating it, just because of how similar it is to BotW and how used I am to the map and enemies already. I've been having a hard time enjoying it, but I think you've kind of talked me into giving it another shot.
the depths are awesome, and are the same size as the overworld, but after a while, once I learned that the water areas in the overworld match the impassable walls in the depths, and that the heights in the overworld is inverted in the depths, it becomes a bit too easy to traverse, and half of the time I did not even need the glow plants to illuminate the way to the light roots. also with weapon durability you can now restore your weapon's durability with the rock octorocks. where they used to turn rusty weapons into fresh gear, they now can also restore the weapon to full durability.
On the contrary the shrines to me in TOTK are so so so much easier in my opinion, bc the potential to cheese the entire thing is almost limitless given the new abilities
You can really feel the 6 years of development in this game. As you said, the world is much bigger, much denser, but it's also so much more dynamic. NPCs and enemies have a much wider range of behavior and many enemies often even have a combat plan tied to the layout of the den they are set to spawn in, making enemy encounters much more interesting. I'll never forget seeing a Moblin carry a reinforced club with a spike ball attached to it and think "Ohh, so even these kind of objects can be fused to a weapon?" I'm not used to a game mechanic allowing this many possible combinations. Ascend feels more like a developer shortcut than a game mechanic with how ridiculously open-ended it is. I'm waiting for the day someone makes a fully-functional, Turing-complete mechanical computer out of Zonai gadgets and random world items.
You also forgot to mention the lack of Music in breath of wild game was so quiet half the time it literally put me to sleep I'm glad tears of the Kingdom change that aspect as well.
So far, my biggest takeaway from Tears of the Kingdom is how Nintendo just casually made Breath of The Wild, one of the highly rated games of the last decade, seem like a vertical slice. I genuinely don't think I can go back to BOTW without a good reason
"Casually" in comparison sure.
But development for botw started in 2011 and finished in 2017.
6 years between start and finish.
Totk was 7 years of development, yes I'm counting the extra year of testing in 2022/2023 (2017-2023).
Both botw and totk were started immediately after the previous release.
I dont think casual, lazy or any such words should ever be used when describing either games.
Honestly, the only reason I would go back to BOTW is Second Wind. Or for nostalgia, but I get enough of that from SW. That's about it, really.
I started replaying botw immediately after finishing totk, and despite me having nearly 2,000 hours in that game already, it's still incredibly fun and totk in no way replaces it. Both are incredibly fun and great games, but botw still has plenty reason to return to it just for it's simplicity, theme, atmosphere, and world building alone. Both will stand the test of time in my opinion and are best played together as one complete experience. I actually kind of hope that they are both included as one in a game compilation for later systems after the switch.
The only reason i would play again is because of glitches, they made me really like the game
@@FierceDeity35 preach
I love how lightroots not only apear in the exact same spot on the map as shrines, but also share the same name as its respective shrine but spelled backwards
I feel dumb now lol
Really?!
@@TegridyGenetics Yep. I've tested it and everything after noticing the location similarities. This should make shrine/lightroot hunting way easier.
OH MY GOSH YOURE RIGHT
The depths map is also basically just a height-inverted version of the overworld, so you can use the overworld map to traverse unmapped bits of the depths (but not perfectly. I use it mostly to make sure i don't hit a cliff on my way places lol). I knew about the shrine/lightroot location connection, but i didn't realize the name thing. I thought it was disappointing that the names seemed to have nothing to do with each other but looks like i was mistaken lol
One of the most impressive things about it to me was that, unless I just somehow completely missed it, the depths weren't advertised at all, and were a MAJOR 'oh holy crap, this game is huge' moment for me. That and they're terrifying, lol.
They weren't advertised which is crazy
I was terrified about the dark areas in BOTW. The dark Depths had me yelping.
Frox life bar appears?? What’s a Frox?!?! King Dodongo on steroids!!! 😢😢😢😢
They were shown for a brief 10 seconds in one of the trailers, but no one knew what the footage depicted. Many people saw it as a confirmation of caves finally appearing, but no one realized just how big of a cave they are.
There were hints of it, but nothing that specifically could be pointed out as part of the depths rather than a rather large cave.
I kept seeing pits in the ground and going "What's that?" after a bit I worked up the courage to go down there and I was mind blown
The only thing i truly miss from botw was Kass. I loved randomly hearing him play in the distance as i was roaming around.
Really hoping we hear that sweet accordion in the DLC
as a hardcore revali fan, i cant stand to see tulin using his skill!! it makes me feel so bittersweet!!! i miss revali!!!!!!
@@EnderPanReignsHah, Ravioli is dead
Kass 😭😭
Yea, and the Guardian Armor set which was ridiculously cool. But yea, I was looking for Kass references, or a 'version' of him _everywhere._ Except, if you count Penn to be his 'replacement'. I mean, strangely enough in a way - I _don't_ miss him because of how he was so integral to foiling any opportunity Breath had for a plot since _all_ he led to were shrines. But , I'm not sure why but he was curious about the Zonai and We never seemed to get closure in TOTK.
The Depths honestly give me a big of a Dark World vibe. Especially once you realize just how similar but different they layout of the Depths are compared to the surface.
It is the "exact" layout. Everything is mirrored, height-wise: Mountains become pits, canyons tall ridges...and all those impassable top-to-bottom walls are where the water (lakes, rivers) are. Once you know how the Depths work, you can expect the layout without having any lightroot active. It made exploring both intriguing and something I could plan. Absolutely amazing work there.
Side note, in the original telling of the Imprisoning War Ganon was sealed in the Dark World right? Well he is in the depths now… its interesting to think about. Lol
Fuck yes
I hope DLC will have more story that actually explains the depths because I feel it was once the original Hyrule at one point
@@josuelafountaine5147 the Depths is likely all that is left of Lorule/Sacred Realm, and is now physically in our Realm.
Lorule is another universe, It wouldnt make sense.The depths is just whats under hyrule nothing too complicated
I know they are rather simple, but leading the charge with a ragtag army of irregulars was a huge flavor win, finally Link is at the forefront of the common peoples defense, there can be no doubt that he is THE Hero, not to just the player, but everyone in the world.
But that happens only a handful of times and the game lags evertime...
The fuse system also makes the master sword more interesting once you get it. And I like how it maintains a distinct aesthetic with fusions without sacrificing gameplay versatility.
totally agree. I like how fused weapons turn the master sword in to like a neon green digital pattern. I thought that was so wicked. That being said, I was actually hoping the Master Sword could have more techniques at its disposal. For instance, we've always had the sword beams, but what about using the Master Sword to access certain areas? Or use it to activate large Zonai constructs to fight for you. Or even use it to destroy some portions of Gloom in the depths to reveal hidden areas. Perhaps the earthquake technique could have been used to use the Master Sword beam like an underground black or something. Utilizing the Master Sword in other ways would have been so very satisfying.
I learned a term this day.
I learned a term this day.
wait you can fuse the master sword????????
@@nileprimewastaken yes, u can fuse like other wepons too...
For me, the Rito are the best thing about TOTK. I absolutely love Rito Village and how free it is after you complete Tulin's questline. The adults are tall and graceful and the kids are super cute and energetic. Tulin himself is so unreasonably adorable, but an absolute headshot factory in battle and I love him. Hands down my absolute favorite people in Zelda.
I used my ancestors spirits to level up Tulin. Dude is out here capping moblins left and right
@@lp6702sv I didn't even know you could level them up!
Where's kass tho
Don't forget ace reporter Penn!
I love rito but I'm a Gerudo fan all the way haha😂 I mean it's filled with women and you're the ONLY man.
Fun fact about the Wind Temple: I got to it and "completed" it before I ever reached Rito Village. It took me a while to realize I needed Tulin, but once I had him I was able to go straight there and rush through no problem.
The fact that I could do all that is amazing.
Bro I did the exact same thing 😂😂😂
Why even let you do that if you need to get something out side the dungeon anyways
Water temple Sidon-less will be my greatest achievement
I almost did the same thing. I explored the whole mountain and started the platforming segment, but looked up and realized there was actually a LOT to get through and thought "Maybe I'll save this for later, I'll go activate the skyview tower and get to Rito Village and then go to bed". I probably would have had an even more confusing time trying to solve it without Tulin than I did with Tulin lmao.
@@Clevername22726 Well, in regards to the Wind Temple it is a very long climb up there. I think it is great that we can progress that far up the dungeon before needing to get into the main questline to finish it. Once you unlock Tulin's ability it is just a matter of teleporting back up there, so that previous progression with the shrines and teleports were not a waste.
Plus, the vast majority of players will visit the Rito before finding the way to the eye of the storm, so you would have to go out of your way to reach the Wind Temple without having gone the main route where the quest starts.
What I also like is that I never needed a guide to find all the shrines. Just explore all sky islands, look around the surface, and find any hidden surface shrines using lightroot locations from the depths
I needed a guide for one single surface level shrine puzzle. The one with the rotating shadow. And also, I couldn't even find a quest-giver for Thundra Plateau. I knew there was a cave inside, and I didn't want to look up a guide for it, so I just waited until I found the guy who gives you the instructions for it. Played 150+ hours, didn't find him, beat the game. Only 9 quests out of 200+ that I didn't complete
The only shrines that are actually hard to get are in the sky. My last shrine, that I actually had to actively think to locate, was on Thunder Isles. I wanted to go on the endgame gauntlet with full hearts and all the quests completed, so I didn't have the thunder cleared there, so I just guessed that there was more to this cloud than just Dragonhead island. It was so fun navigating this location with no way to see anything! I can't believe that you're supposed to clear them up first.
Gleeok going from a kinda standard boss fight in Zelda 1 to becoming the scariest creature to face in Tears of the Kingdom made me so happy. I remember seeing the trailer where it first showed them on the bridge. It made me feel the joy I felt when they brought the Lynels back that were only ever in the 2D Zelda games
"scariest creature" ok lol.
@@goese868 one of the scariest creatures* lol
@@goese868
Gleeok are significantly more powerful and frightening than Gloom Spawn.
One thing I adore about totk is they revamped the whole combat shrine idea and made some in the dark or some stealth missions with numerous enemies instead of one and it can actually teach you how to deal with most enimies in the game considering they usually are found in larger groups than botw
that along with removing all your gear so you're on a more even playing field.
Huge agree, those are great
The tests of strength from botw were alright, but the proving grounds are amazing
Agreed. The tests of strength in BotW felt more like DPS checks rewarding learning at the cost of gatekeeping your progression.
Surprisingly enough I've actually been itching to play BOTW while I've been going through TOTK! I think, though part of BOTW being barren is something that required improvement for the sequel, that Hyrule being so empty really added to the feeling of 'damn, Ganon tore this world apart and I'm alone'. At the same time, seeing the world come alive in TOTK was such a joy. I knew the sequel was gonna be amazing but wow I still felt so blown away. It's rly interesting to see how they compare, and I have a feeling that whenever I feel the want to return to a quieter, somewhat simpler Hyrule I'll be going back to the first game. Awesome video!
Completely agree
Thank you for stating exactly what was on my mind.
I just received all 30 heart containers in Breath of the Wild and I only need to discover 3 more shrines 🙏
One thing I _don't_ like is the lack of diversity in the depths (and the sky islands too). Almost every location has the same fauna and design, even in the deserts and snowy areas. The only area that has a visual difference and environmental hazard to accommodate it is Death Mountain... though I guess the Korok Forest also has its own unique trees too, but that alone doesn't add much.
"I could be wrong but I believe that diversity is an old old wooden ship that once sailed during the civil war era" Ron Burgundy
I feel like the depths were so much missed opportunity. Imagine the depths but with various biomes. massive mossy caverns, icy cliffs, Large lava areas, flooded cities, ect.
I kinda agree and kinda disagree. There was definitely at least SOME variety in both, examples for the sky islands being thunderhead and lightcrest (I think that’s the name?) and for the depths you have all of the tree groves and the lava areas both beneath death mountain and hebra peaks. So even though I agree they could have done more, I still think the sky and more so the depths were enjoyable and interesting
@@senatorpineapple8149 They were the most enjoyable part of the game in a lot of ways... which means it also would have been even better with more biome variation. Not saying they were _bad_ (well... the sky islands were kinda lackluster tbh) but that they could have been _way better._
not to mention they massively nerfed Death Mountain by removing the lava pools and making Goron City below the burn zone. in botw, you were literally on fire going to death mountain. in totk, you just......keep walking without any threat. totk is just so much easier and simpler of a game; it's not even close. there's no challenge element to totk at all.
I went to Lurelin super early as I heard the word “pirates” and sprinted there at top speed.
I had to to use a stealth tactic to defeat the enemies because they could all two-shot me and I had a blast figuring out a route to tackle it. It was so rewarding and it really set a tone for the rest of my play through.
Same here. Except when I killed the boss bokoblin link overswung and hit an explosive barrel, killing me. Then I had to do it again.
I spent my first night after finishing the prologue in Lurelin, with old school trial and error
The Depths gives me massive Subnautica vibes with how dark and terrifying it is, the strange fauna, and the feeling of terror wondering what is in the darkness.
Gloom armored lynels 😩
how are moblin and bokoblin reskins or monolithic biome any interesting?
@@shebaloso #1 hater can’t just appreciate more free content
@@darkcut2056fym free bro the game is $70 bucks
something i did by COMPLETE accident was discover the wind temple before i started the rito's story. i was so obsessed with exploring and platforming through the airships i had NO idea i wasn't supposed to be there yet.
the inclusion of a sky world and the chasm have, and even the WELLS have added so much to the world of breath/tears that sometimes i forgot how much there is now. i have to remind myself i can actually GO INTO THE WELLS NOW because i was so used to that not being possible in botw.
I skipped the airship by taking a flying platform to the height limit and paragliding there ot at least I almost did until I got distracted by that king gleeok island on the map
My man I got amazing news for you, next to one of the stables there's a well with a well enthusiast in there, she also pays you for knowledge of each wells location
@@deadboyo2773
She was in literally the very first well I went into lmao
All but one mistake...
WHY CAN'T WE PET THE GODDAMN DOGS, NINTENDO?!?!?!
Make an ultrahand hand, big hand = big pet
Maybe there will be a DLC where you have to beat all of the 152 shrines without dying to unlock the ability to pet dogs
There is no dlc@@RedEquus
My favorite change between BotW and TotK is in narrative dissonance. In BotW, you were told that Zekda is weakening and couldnt hold back Ganon much longer. It gave the feeling that time you spent doing sidequests or shrines directly put Zelda in more peril. In TotK, however, Zelda disappears and you're left with the mystery of where she went, which also has the upshot of feeling into the exploration aspect of these two games
Well no... Ganon is still in the current time line and what the heck is he up to while you are building machines with a dick? It's exactly the same. Last time it was zelda in peril, this time the more you waste time the more Ganon can accomplish
Nah. It still the same story path layout. 😂😂😂
Wake up, tutorial, then go after the 4 beasts or aka temples then the final boss. Same old beat to beat.
@@kg888 #truth
@@kg888did you even read what he said
Interesting, cause I felt the opposite. In BOTW your main goal is to defeat Ganon. You know that he is in Hyrule Castle, so you can go to him at any time. But because you are so weak you will likely die trying, and Link has to become stronger. This makes everything you do in the game relevant. Completing shrines, freeing divine beasts, doing side quests to get rewards and finding koroks to expand your inventory. You are not delaying the fight with Ganon - you are training for it. Whereas in TOTK, your main goal is to find Zelda. This would work fine if you found hints to Zeldas whereabouts while exploring and doing main quests, but this is not the case.
(SPOILER) It becomes super obvious after the first dungeon that you are chasing a fake Zelda. At that point you are just completing the main quests so that the game can eventually tell you where to find Zelda, not because the main quests actually help towards your goal. I much prefer BOTWs approach.
What's cool about the depths is that it's an exact mirror of the over world topographically. You can go see for yourself that if you flip back and forth between the surface and depth map, you'll see they're the same except that all the mountains on the surface are valleys in the depths, and vice versa.
I thought it was an extremely clever way to save time making an entirely new map.
That and the shrines match up with all the light shrines. Well not all of them but alot
@@nxi8792 yeah, I actually used that to find all the shrines and lightroots. Another cool thing is that the lightroot names are the shrine names backwards, so if I couldn't find a shrine, then I could use the lightroot to look up a guide.
Yeah, that’s actually how I make my way around in dark areas of the depths, you can more easily judge which way to go based on height and possible water sources
They had 5 years to develop the game
They reused the botw map
You'd think they'd be doing an interesting Map for the depths
No, only one biome and its the map flipped upside down
So you'd think they'd make a lot of things on this Map
No the same ennemis as the surface exept the frox, no shrines, almost no quests, no interesting things to find
Nintendo has become even lazier than monjang
5 years for botw 1.1
@@girahimar2122 you know nothing about game design and it shows.
I loved the sidequests associated with Lurelin village. I set my paraglider fabric to the village's pattern and plan to keep it that way and fast travel there constantly for the rock salt spa treatment and free food as the village savior. Building the houses with Bolson, getting the water race course set up? So amazing!
THERES A RACE COURSE THERE!!! I gotta go do that!!!
I still like that whole side quest, but I’m a little disappointed with how easy actually rebuilding the village was. All you have to do is get some rice and logs, then do some simple ultra hand puzzles. After the first bit, it felt less like I was rebuilding a village and more like I was doing a shrine. Tarrey Town felt much better in this aspect because progress was slower and much more meaningful, having to do physical labor to get all the wood and then go find more people to help with building. I get that it shouldn’t be quite as much work with lurelin because weren’t not building from scratch, but it should have been more that just putting a few logs in a hole.
@@awakencorn4516 I'm all for the Bolson superpowered construction honestly but I see what you mean 😊
@@awakencorn4516 I mean, fair, but at the same time, I was thanking the devs when I realized I didn't need to do the build Link's house questline again for anything beyond the foundation. That concept scared me more than anything in the depths just because of the idea that I'd need to gather the resources to rebuild a village that big.
@@ethanrussow9262 Absolutely incredible game and I'm surprised it's so high quality to this degree... Insta kills most other AAA titles😂
The only thing that genuinely bothers me thus far is when you try and build your own house; Granté is litterally walking around behind or in front of you instead if staying at his stand, and hes an obstacle that interferes with the house blocks when you try qnd place them down.
not if you put him in a cage.
Just put him in a cage. It’s not like he doesn’t deserve it.
I don't like the limitations on how many rooms you have to buy and the fact that in order to connect your house and have a roof you have to buy unnecessary rooms. I have a stair and open roof in order to fit 2 extra equipment rooms 😢
Absolutely incredible game and I'm surprised it's so high quality to this degree... Insta kills most other AAA titles
The house building has so many little problems and limitations that for me its probably the most flawed part in the game, but Ill take that, because ive still somehow obsessed over it for 10+ hours trying to cheat the janky system to get what I want. Its that compelling, despite the fact that unlike the rest of the game, I could make a long list of much needed improvements.
There is even smaller improvements like how the races help defend Lookout Landing when you complete the dungeon.
I especially found it fascinating how the Rito soldiers flew around Lookout Landing up above in real time. Not even BoTW had NPC’s react like this and it helps ToTK feel so much more alive for this reason.
TotK is exceptionally great at making Hyrule feel like a completely new unexplored world. Even after hundreds of hours in BotW. Never in my entire first playtrough did I even have the slightest feeling that I was in the same Hyrule as I have been for the past five and a half years. Nintendo truly outdid themselfs with this one. This game delivered on so many levels.
Its almost kind of scary how quickly BotW, after dominating Zelda and the switch for all those years, is overthrown by a game that has just reached its third week of release.
Its still feels like an improved Botw tho and not a new zelda experience like every game before. Totk is basically a big expansion bolted on to botw, making botw obsolete. Something we never seen in any other 3d zelda where all games were different from eachother.
Yeah, it definitely felt like a new experience
Like, even when you visit a familiar place in the game, there's always something new into it that makes it feel different each time and that's what I love about the experience with TotK 😊
@@xion-rosegirl8472 I disagree , it felt like an upgraded botw and not a new experience
Yeah man, it's crazy how new and exciting everything is even though it's the same framework.
@@dante19890 I love how you feld the need to comment this twice to make your point. There are only 4 replies under my comment we saw your opinion already. Nothing wrong with your own opinion but this is kinda forced lol
Just someone here saying the fuse ability actually made me excited about weapon breaking. Now a weapon breaking means I get to try out a new combo. So what before was a frustrating experience is now an exciting opportunity. The game makes sure to always leave plenty of bases around so you are rarely going to be without a weapon.
I also appreciate that it appears i can get through most mini bosses with having very few weapons break. A frustrating thing about fighting Lynels in BOTW was going through 4-5 melee weapons and getting 2-3 in return. Hardly felt worth it very quickly.
yes exactly my thoughts!! i dont mind breaking weapons in totk for the same reason. difficult enemies are rewarding to kill because they drop powerful materials i can use for fusing. fighting monsters doesnt feel like as much of a chore.
Agreed, in TotK a weapon breaking is an opportunity for a new one! The main exception to this for me is when breaking rock walls, especially the double-strength blue ones. Sure, they often drop boulders and claymores so that you can create new rock hammers, but the process is so tiresome. Especially in the early game when you don't have multi-shot bows and bomb flowers are still quite precious.
@@Kryteriathe black ones
@@Kryteriaeven with nobo
Tbh I found the sage cutscenes really similar. Since they have to be designed to be done in any order, link has to sit through an explanation of how secret stones work even if you’ve been told 2 times already
lol compare this to the story that botw lays out with the champions that perished. from the four botw cutscenes we learn:
>ravioli's pride making him hate on link because he knows he's not as strong
>gerudo warrior queen feeling responsible for ganon because he was a gerudo
>goron coward embracing his warrior spirit and no longer being ridiculed by his elders and community
>zora princess secretly loving link and making a power move by basically proposing and offering him the entire kingdom; somewhat being uneasy towards zelda because link likely loves her while zelda "hates" link and not to mention
>zelda fails to unleash her powers and basically gets everyone killed (including link) and has to deal with the fall out
there's an incredible amount of story with lots of character motivations and interactions AND flaws before even getting into the DLC cutscenes.
the totk cutscenes teach us that:
>tulin is a rito and he had an ancestor who fought with zelda in the imprisoning war
>yunobo is a goron is he had an ancestor who fought with zelda in the imprisoning war
>riju is a gerudo and she had an ancestor who fought with zelda in the imprisoning war
>sidon is a rito and he had an ancestor who fought with zelda in the imprisoning war
the only character who gets a fleshed out cutscene is mineru, and honestly given how we don't get anything really about her *before* we kinda don't care who she is and there's a good chance you know she's just some dead poe before you even get to the spirit temple.
i mean......botw is much better in that regard. it's a better story and it's told much better.
@@__._._._._._”so that was the imprisoning war…”
@@__._._._._._
TOTK doesn't have a bad story. In order for the story to be bad, it has to exist in the first place. But there's barely anything there
I love how the map feels both bigger and smaller because of the density and the sheer diversity of everything.
The shrine shown at 12:51 in the video (the one where you make your own death roombas) cemented totk as one of my favorite games ever. nothing had made me laugh or feel that kind of childlike joy when playing a game in so long- and to top it off, totk has A TON of those moments. it’s honestly such a great game in every aspect
I feel like I accidentally made my experience so much better by not fixing the 4 regions problems till I was 80+ hours in and had done about 113/152 shrines which made exploring the areas after I had gone so long with the endless blizzard, sandstorm, sludge, and addicted gorons so different as I was used to the terrible conditions that once they cleared and I could see and explore so much easier it brought a whole new perspective to the world I was exploring
I'm currently at the same point. Done so much with barely resolving the 4 main race quests. I've started to do them now partly because I'm running out of other things to do, lol.
"I have no idea how long it would take to 100% complete it."
*punished Jirard noises intensifies*
Jirard is probably going nuts in his basement playing the game.
He's probably at 200 hours and he's probably barely scratched the surface.
@@FierceDeity35 I technically have 210 hours tough half of that is spend afk due to me tending to leavethe game running
This is one of the more accurate descriptions I’ve heard (as compared to my own experience, anyways). BOTW felt very peaceful overall with just a handful of really tense moments where I was like “oh crap, I’m about to die.” But TOTK has maintained that feeling, that edge of your seat tension, for the whole 40 hours I’ve been playing so far. In BOTW I felt like just cruising around you’d find enough resources naturally to keep you armed, clothed, and fed adequately to continue cruising around- but in TOTK after every other enemy encounter I find link huddled by a fire fusing sticks together for safety and wagering whether or not it’s time to eat the last apple yet. The simplest way I can describe it is that BOTW had a huge map full of a small variety of enemies who want to kill you, but in TOTK the map itself feels like it is trying to kill you. There was very little, if any “how will I get to that?” in BOTW, you just cook a bunch of stamina replenishing foods and start climbing, but in TOTK I’m baffled about how I’ll get to some of the sky islands and every minute underground leaves me not just baffled as to how I’ll reach the next dim flicker, but just what the heck that dim flicker actually is. In BOTW after an hour you realize the map has the same enemy encounters, secrets, bonuses, etc just clone stamped all over the map, but in TOTK after I think I’ve seen it all I stumble upon something like an underground cemetery and have to wonder what if any significance it holds as a monster I’ve never seen pops out and kicks my butt.
>There was very little, if any “how will I get to that?” in BOTW, you just cook a bunch of stamina replenishing foods and start climbing, but in TOTK I’m baffled about how I’ll get to some of the sky islands
lol two fans and a steering stick come on. two fans and a steering stick puts link anywhere in the game, literally. in a shrine? ultrahand combined with recall. that's it. that's how you do every puzzle; there's not a single one in totk that cannot be solved in this manner. botw doesn't let the player cheat lol except for windbombing, which takes skill and precision.
I'm glad you mentioned the lumber hauling segment of rebuilding the town because honestly that was one of the absolute best and most memorable parts of the game for me, it was this nailbiting adventure over bridges with my cobbled together car actually made out of logs and it was so organic and just FUN.
Huh? You know you could find the needed lumber on a nearby hill and just drop it down... right?
Idk about ALL the mistakes but it definitely remedied a lot of the complaints of the first one and this beautiful game (honestly more like beautiful piece of art) will make games think differently and change the landscape altogether.
Description is so true. Totk is so refined & brilliant, it makes Botw look like a prologue.
Absolutely incredible game and I'm surprised it's so high quality to this degree... Insta kills most other AAA titles😂😂😂
@@mingyuhuang8944tbf everyone expected that from this game. Other games this year feel like complete jokes in comparsion.
Doing the Rito dungeon sparked up some emotions that I haven't felt in video games in a while. I felt a bit of despair, anxiety not knowing what's next, but excitement and a bit of nostalgia. Everything leading up to it felt important, even the damn atmosphere. I was blasting the AC and didn't realize I wrapped up in a blanket because Link was out here in a literal tundra.
It felt like fighting Cynthia in Pokemon Platinum all those years ago, like the first time trying to beat Fatalis in Monster Hunter etc. All this in the palm of my hands! I'm simply blown away by all this and I'm honestly just frozen in thought by how on Earth could they even top this?!
the depths are pure genius, the person (or group) who came up with that feature added a whole new way of playing zelda and make TOTK a beast of a game
One of the things i love most about totk is how you really feel like you have an impact on the world, for example, rito village, sure. The main quest completion does get rid of all the snow, but the thing i noticed more is that all the villagers could come back whitch really made me feel like i did more, and every town is like that, except its not just main quests, it often feels like even the most random side quests really impact the world, so ive been trying my best to fix the world after evil tried to destroy iy and its arguably as much fun then the main story
I just recently finished the wind Temple and found my way to goron City (I'm focusing mostly on story only for my first playthrough), and I can already tell that to the kingdom is leaps and bounds above breath of the wild 💯
At this rate, it could easily be my personal game of the year 🤩
I remember in Botw, I loved Lauren village so much, that on my second play through, after completing the platue, I beelined straight to there and decided that would be the place to start out, I even had a head canon that link was raised in that village, and how after finding and completing the first shrine, he went out to discover the rest of Hyrule.
In totk, it was a tough decision at first, but then I finally decided that Lauren village would be the last destination, as to show how much link has grown, only to revisit his home land to show the people he’s grown up with how much he has changed after his very long journey. Much to my surprise, joy, terror and relief (it would’ve been awful if I had made the decision to start there like I did in the first game.) after completing all sage temples and defeating Kohga, and finally deciding that I would go to Lauren village, only to find that pirates had ransacked the town. It made for an even more awesome head canon, link comes back after traveling hyrule only to find out that, while he was gone, pirates had taken over his home village, so as a test of strength and skill from his journey, he takes the village back from the pirates by himself, rebuilds the village, temporarily leaves the land of hyrule to set sail to the island in the distance to finally put an end to the pirates. Needless to say, the experience of having such a ridiculous head canon was what made this moment so fun and memorable for me.
reading this gave me lord of the rings vibes lol
bro that was exciting to read lol-
Love hearing other's personal storytelling and head canon. Thank you
@@ZaItan1 no, thank you, I do plan on becoming a writer cus I love coming up with new ideas, so hearing how you guys loved my small head canon for a game I enjoyed playing on the side gave me the kick I really needed to continue the grind with my original works lol.
I think another thing that helped this game's temples is their lead-up. They all had a pretty meaty questline you had to follow to get the needed new companion, find the dungeon etc
Not all of them, but a significant amount. What we really need now is for the community to get together and push out videos discussing improvements that can still be made. Nintendo seemed to be listening to complaints in the wake of BOTW, so I'm hoping that they'll do the same for TOTK.
Yeah like the clunky gameplay with sage abilities! Having their activation linked to an ai that runs around makes it a complete interruption to even think to use them unless they’re conveniently close enough, though having shorter cooldowns than BotW champion abilities is nice in concept
Otherwise they’ll spend 20 seconds holding their weapons to block against a chuchu slowly crawling on the ground- the ai isn’t really making ideal combat decisions
In this sense, TotK made a lot of improvements, but also created new issues that I haven’t seen people discuss in video essay format quite yet
@@bonyeni Mainly I've seen that addressed in short clips where Tulin managed to blow things off the edge when you're spamming A to collect them. I have been trying to think how they could be implemented better, and have at least concluded that it isn't quite so simple. They've used pretty much every button on the controller already, so it isn't as simple as adding a new button to the control scheme. You could theoretically add your companions as a rune on the L trigger radial wheel, but then you'd either have to slow down gameplay by opening a menu to choose the correct companion like the menu they use for autobuild, or have four separate runes added to the wheel. Perhaps they could make it that holding A and then hitting L opens a radial menu with just the companion abilities?
It's definitely something that should be critiqued, I'm just not certain how best to address the issue.
The other thing that comes to my mind is that they really need to at least add a Favorites menu to the D-pad inventory. The Most Used option covers a lot of things, but it isn't a lot of help when you find something new that you want to use, and it just so happens to be at the end of every sorting option.
@@AzariahWolf for sure! I’ve seen memes discussing the ever-useless map shortcut on the ability wheel that could potentially have a much more useful ability in its place
I really appreciate your perspective too, going into solution-based thinking instead of just “guys, problem!”
But I think it could be simply addressed just like how the last game handled these abilities; can have them active or inactive:
-Urbosa’s fury (lightning in tandem with attack) came from a charged attack- which could include charging a bow strike in this game as well
-Daruk’s protection came from blocking your shield- same could be done with Sidon’s shield and maybe have a period of time after where it stays active/ converts to water tandem attack when you release the block
-Revali’s gale came from holding down the jump button then releasing, though this could be a bit hard to mesh with Tulin’s horizontal gust, maybe some button that is obsolete in mid-air that could be repurposed, like the sprint button unless it has a function I’m forgetting; as for ground scenarios, I can’t yet think of something but I never use it anyway, I mean a fan-style weapon serves the purpose with absolutely no cooldown (though blowing sand piles when I don’t have a fan weapon is a different story)
-Mipha’s Grace doesn’t have an equivalent, though Mineru’s style wouldn’t benefit from the same style as BotW’s champion abilities anyways except maybe making the whistle call feature more effective than already is
-Yunobo’s already somewhat automized when on a vehicle but people don’t like that so there could be some step during construction to make a designated thing for Yunobo (which could be excluded by choice, idk very rough dumb idea anyway) and maybe he doesn’t need much of a change there, unless there is some seamless way to blend it to attacks; maybe a coordinated attack command button of sorts where any next swing would send him in that direction like with Sidon’s ability in a sense (yet another potshot idea)
@@bonyeni i feel like adding a hold menu for whistle to be a radial menu is good. Whistle is only used for horse and to call the sages, why not just add the specific sages there. Sure, it'll still use A to activate the abilities, but at least it shouldn't give the player trouble just to go to a specific one. I absolutely prefer it to be like botw's tho, each abilities on specific button is a lot faster in combat.
@@keihaii true! That does sound a whole lot better
Especially when in combat I go on overall shape and when Tulin and Riju are both similarly sized I get a bit confused at times but having an organized menu would help a lot
Short answer: they listened to the community.
“We want conventional dungeons”
They added them
“We want old characters and items to return”
They returned
“We’re tired of climbing in the rain”
They added armor for that
“There was so little armor sets, and the cool amiibos are too expensive”
*literally added every amiibo/dlc item*
“Those minecart flying machines are too hard to operate, and I can’t even balance them”
*literally makes transformers that can fly, walk and float*
to bad i can't enjoy this new era of Zelda, i hated BOTW and i will not buy TOTK even after watching this video.
@@Goudlock why?
@@JohnnyYeTaecanUktena My list is very long :
Their is no memorable music for me.
I don't like the breaking weapons system. (still the same in TOTK even so in this video he try to deny it)
I don't like the cooking stuff.
The rain was just obnoxious to me. (this one have a cloth for it)
Their are no true dungeon. (the dungeon in TOTK are way to easy, i have watch video of them, and it's an insult to old zelda in dungeon to me)
All the shrine have the same design, they felt souless for me. (same in TOTK)
The fact the story is optional, i don't like it. (almost the same way in TOTK)
I love metroidvania way, the fact in this game you have everything at first, killed the metroidvania. (and the power that those other give you, are not game breaking, they are just little trick). (same in TOTK)
The fact that for me, looting was useless, since every chest are either crafting i don't care, food, weapons that will break, or rupee that i have way to much. (same problem with TOTK)
With that in mind, i didn't find it rewarding to explore because of that.
All the sidequest seems souless as well to me.
The fact in this game, the bestiary was very little, even so the world was huge.
I prefer to have a clear direction, instead of having to roam around to find anything to do.
The fact you pass way to much time in the inventory searching, craft, eating etc.
I will an other thing, for some reason, even after hours of playing BOTW i still had trouble with the control, normally with every other game, i manadge to master it, for some reaosn not this one.
for TOTK he praise way to much the dark side, i have watch gameplay and people playing it... it's mostly EMPTY with NOTHING to do, and SOMETIME big ennemy lurking, that is all.
@@Goudlock Sounds like you don't have to play TotK because you've already "played" it.
@@Goudlock so you looked up everything about the game and figured it was bad instead of actually playing it?
Unfortunately for all the "fixes" there are just as many new problems.
The rework of the champion system into the sage system makes the powers INCREDIBLY clunky and unintuitive. Picking up items only to accidentally activate Tulin and blow all your precious items off a cliff, having to chase down the various NPC's mid-fight to activate their abilities, it's a VAST downgrade.
Fusion is clunky, I don't know why they didn't make it so you could fuse components onto weapons from the menu instead of having to hold, drop, THEN fuse onto weapons. They had 6 years to streamline this and didn't.
It's way too easy to miss the great fairy fountain questline, I see streamers who beat the game without armor upgrades, much to the detriment of their enjoyment, quite regularly.
Honestly... I feel like Breath of the Wild is better at this point.
Only three problems? Man I think your just mad
@@catsdogswoof3968they just love to hate this game
You can repair weapon durability, by giving a rock octorock (found in death mountain) your weapon you want to repair, and it gives a new weapon modifier. (diffrent to in breath of the wild where they un rust the weapons making them shiny again, they dont get rid of the gloom on the weapons or anything)
"every 20 steps I got distracted" sums up my entire totk playthrough
“If you hated weapons breaking in BOTW then you’re gonna hate it in this game.”
Me equipping my unbreakable molduga master sword.
Me with my unbreakable Frost Gleeok master sword:
for me, one of the biggest tells for me liking TotK more than BotW is that after playing BotW for 300 hours completing everything i was interested in, the thought of starting a new file was not appealing in the slightest. i was interested in Master Mode once the DLC came out, but never went through with it. however, with Tears of the Kingdom, my literal first thought upon coming back to the title screen after the credits rolled was "man, i want to play this again." even now, roughly 150 hours of playtime in, i'm fully intending on starting over once i finish up this file, which is an experience i NEVER had with BotW. fantastic game, easy contender for GOTY, even if it still has some of that classic BotW jank haha
Definitely no difference between 300 hours and not wanting to play anymore and 150 hours and still wanting to play lol
@@GuthixLives Good point. I kind of want to start a new file already even though I am not finished with my initial playthorugh. There are only a handfull of games that I've played more than once. Portal 2 is definitely topping that short list. Others are Portal 1, OOT, MM, SM64. Oblivion and Sekiro. Not to say that I will actually be replaying TotK, but I at least want to currently.
>never made it thru master mode
>never did master mode master sword trials
>never did master mode champions ballad
>quite literally missed out on the majority of the game
you need to restart botw lol. the first camp you come to and realize you can't puffshroom or autobuild a death roomba you'll shit your pants lol. the first guardian that forces you to parry or die you'll probably die. there's nothing like that in totk.
Personally I like the wind temple the best because of the atmosphere. I liked the water temples boss the best (not because it was hard, because it was mechanically interesting), the lightning temple has the best puzzles and the fire temple is the most like a traditional zelda dungeon (I think)
I think the fire and water temples were the worst because they were the most exploitable by hoverboards. The puzzle of learning to fly is going to be solved in the overworld eventually, because of the sky islands. Having flying be the easiest way to get to solve puzzles in those dungeons was a bad idea imo
One thing I found hilarious, is that I just happened to come across the fifth temple, I already finished 3 and was just starting the gerudo quest and stopped to explore a little in the air and I flied right into this huge storm cloud, and somehow found my way to a shrine and a huge door which led to the next temple, I wasn't even looking for it, so I ended finishing that one before doing the gerudo one today, kinda curious how you were gonna learn about this one, since I just happened to stumble upon it lol.
They have stuff in place to tell you about it if you don't get it before the 4 main sages.
You get a quest to find it once you meet with Purah after clearing the other 4 temples, you go to Paya, and do a series of puzzles to dispell the cloud
i stumbled upon it too! i had completed one temple and decided to get more shrines and explore the map some more before i continued. one of the stable workers at lakeside stable got me curious about the thunder cloud so i went to investigate, expecting to find a shrine quest or something, and i was so shocked when "MAIN QUEST" appeared! i decided to leave that quest alone and come back later as i found the depth enemies too tough though lol
@@victoronnie That's awesome :)
Honestly, Breath of the Wild feels harder to 100% complete because you don't know where they are located without a guide, but in tiers of the kingdom once you get all the lightroots which took me a few hours you will know all the shrine locations on the surface which makes it too easy, and all the shrines in tiers of the kingdom are too easy, breath of the wild just feels more time consuming and more hard, tiers of the kingdom even has weapons that are insane in tiers of the kingdom, not to mention the glitches
Yea but being easy is probabaly better than being tedius
YES YES YES, I missed your content so much, no, i missed you Brett. Those 2 weeks felt so empty with out your insightful baratone musing about what ever your chose to give attention too. In all seriousness, i really love your content and hope you are doing well for yourself and aren't pushing yourself too hard. Take easy when you need too, we can wait for you l, and I'll be sure not to miss gou too much. Take care fellow.
while the sky islands are pretty spread out, it’s the spread out nature that makes them fun trying to figure out how in the hell i’m gonna get to some of them (particularly the gerudo sky archipelago. i definitely don’t have enough charges to get up to them yet, but that hasn’t stopped me from trying.)
Hey man this video got me hooked on your channel or even just this video, Great job Keep making things like this! def subscribed
Urgency is really something that drove me to finish the 4 main area's quest first. The sludge, snow, and sandstorm problem made me feel really bad for the people living there, so I gotta solve that first. But in a way my affection is definitely influenced from playing BoTW first, so i have some sort of empathy for the characters in the story.
The main story and dungeons are better than BotW, but still miles behind the standard for 3D Zelda. Hope they eventually find their way back.
I spent 10 hours trying to change the dye on my glider. I kept going to haneto, finding a quest, getting distracted, going to the dye shop, and finding yet another quest
The fact this game took one of my favourite games of all time and made it look like a tech demo shows exactly why this has took the spot for my number one favourite game. I’ve never had so much fun with a game before.
Something that really helped enemy variety in my eyes, was the fact that every tier of enemy has a unique drop. Where before, the Red, Blue, Black, and Silver bokoblins all had the exact same drops(excluding weapons), now they all have something different to bring to the table.
But it’s the same enemy throughout the entire game…
@@Idontevenknowman779 I'm aware, and I'm grateful that totk added many more enemies. But in my personal experience, giving unique drops to each tier of enemy gave me more of a reason to seek out stronger monsters, and made fighting them more fun- where in botw I kinda avoided them.
I'm a hundred hours in and I'm only like 47% through the game.
I think the side quests in Botw are a lot more interesting than in totk, and for one reason: the characters are more diverse. As someone who played totk first, I was genuinely surprised to find out how much more life the characters in botw had. Npcs are more fun to talk to because you can see an actual personality, while in totk it feels like they all act mostly the same, with a few exceptions. Even link’s dialogue options have more personality
link's dialogue choices in botw gave him a personality, which is incredible since the entire game is link having no idea who he is, but forming himself back up from the expectations of others he meets (some who fully understand who he is, others who do not but definitely know about link).
link's dialogue in totk really round him back into the boring character he's always been. botw is by far the most expressive and dynamic link in all of zelda imo. he's just out there in the world. for most of the game, he's not really even "link", he's just a dude with a horse riding around defeating monsters and picking apples. it's just a completely different vibe and going back to it, totk just misses the mark.
This is a really well done video. Just discovered your channel but it’s super good from what I’ve seen (this and a couple other videos).
Also you sound a lot like KingK. Which did surprise me when I initially started watching the video.
The worst thing about this game is that the exploration was toned down. If the game had a completely new map to discover it would have been a 10/10 masterpiece for me. I liked the tutorial since it had a completely new area to discover but when I got back down to the surface I was kind of bored because it was mostly the same as Botw. Thankfully the game had a couple of tricks up its sleeve.
The best part of this game is the traveling on foot got toned down. If the game had less gliding, and only your feet and the horses it would have been a 6/10 slog for me. I liked the tutorial since it was so significantly better than the Great Plateau was but when I started gliding down to the surface from sky island shrines I realized exploring the game was going to be enjoyable this time. Thankfully Breath of the Wild came out first so they could make adjustments and cut down on the boring traversal for this one!
It litterally does bruh go finish the tutorial
First week of the game for me was: GSI > LL > S. Hyrule Sky Arc > E. Gerudo Sky Arc > S. Lomei Castle Top Floor > Depths(4 Days) > Save Gerudo.
I do love Tears Of The Kingdom but I connect with BOTW more because I personally love the vast more desolate world. Traveling from place to place was such a zen experience that I was consumed with a feeling of being a wandering ronin. I also love the simplicity of BOTW, while I do enjoy building things from time to time in TOTK I did find myself kind of sighing when I see a river and I needed to build a boat to cross. Creativity is great and welcomed but when it is so in ur face so frequent it kind of diminishes the allure but I do still adore TOTK don't get me wrong.
i’ve seen so many different solutions for carrying that wood to lurelin village. I found it fun to make use of the horse-ultra hand mechanic but i’ve also seen making cars, rockets, carrying with ultra hand, and of course making a battle machine with them and bringing them over to the village
Part of me feels like they set out to make TotK to begin with, realized about halfway in that it was going to take waaaay too long to make the game and make it work right, and decided to put out a beta prequel version that was botw.
The only genuine problem with Tears of the Kingdom I can truly find is how the Sage powers are activated, which can be an easy fix with a QoL update that adds additional control options that are quality of life updates, making them less useless and bothersome.
Not all of them, there’s still the story being told through memories, and the “dungeons” being incredibly short/small
But it did improve a lot
The memories are vastly improved, at least. The story is more interesting, and you don’t have to play Where’s Waldo to find them.
@@lukaswithakay that’s very true
I can’t wait for you to start talking about the themes of this game down the line, your story analysis of BotW was excellent and the reason I subscribed. So far the most consistent through line I’ve noticed is doing what you can to make life better for future generations, and honoring the sacrifices that past generations made for you. But I’m eager to see what you have to say about it.
I loved going back to zoras domain. From seeing the new statue, going to mipha’s court, hearing her subtle theme come on as i enter. The world building for the environment is amazing
I don't know why but the euphoria I got bringing those logs over and helping rebuild Lurelin village. It was just so rewarding
Just did that quest line, it was awesome. Bolson is a great character
I can see your point indeed. Definitely. One issue though. I couldn’t afford ToTK. But NOW I have it. And yes, your points make more sense now that I’ve beaten the main storyline.
one last thing i wanna talk about regarding enemy variety is how many new ways they fight you; they wear armor, make-shift weapons and in general facing the same type of enemy doesnt necessarily mean the encounter will be the same
Replaying BOTW, and while I’m not missing most of the mechanics, I do miss all the cool cave/well explorations.
One of my biggest complaints about BotW was the weapons breaking too quickly. TotK does lower the standard by decaying all civilised weaponry with gloom, but that just makes it all the more frustrating to me because I don't want to fuse monster parts to sticks in case I need those monster parts to upgrade armour.
actually, even with the fusion durability bonus, several weapons in totk *break far faster than that they do in botw*. this is because durability is *reduced* in totk to push the fusion mechanic.
Liking for the video and the use of the Spirt Tracks soundtrack! One of the first Zelda games I played and I think a very underrated game, especially for the soundtrack
I dunno about all of them, but most. Still miss traditional dungeons, although stuff like the fire temple was really close. Some more area-specific enemies would’ve been great too, not just in dungeons, but in the depths and the Sky Islands in general. We only get constructs in the sky and these super simple one-attack frog things in the depths, I wish there was at least one more complex enemy specific to the depths
I agree the sky islands were not as interesting as the depths, and I keep feeling there was a missed opertunity of adding a town in the sky. Dlc could definitely remedy this though!
Yeah,they could have added more stuff to do,not just some puzzles,shrines,armors and flying
I feel like they held back on the sky islands a little for DLC, since it would be quite easy to just add more . "oh something happened and more islands appeared in the sky".
My one problem with TotK is how cumbersome it is to use the sages' abilities. I find myself only having Tulin's Vow active and only bother with the others in very specific circumstances. That or I'll have number 5 active
One thing I noticed pretty quickly was how much the adventures tab was filling up, and how much more scrolling it takes to find certain ones.
my biggest gripe are the cutscenes. I feel like I watched the same cutscene like twenty times. They repeat the same information over and over again. The worst ones are the one at the end of every temple. They are exact copies of each other with some words mixed around. Few of the story related cutscenes feel unique. I wish you were told what order to watch the dragon tears. Would of added more suspense to some major plot points. The Japanese VA is 10/10
It tells you what order in the forgotten temple which impa guides you to after the first memory
If you look at the weapon system like a gun in any fps you will not be bothered anymore.
Why?
@@dr.happyfuntimes1214 the weapons are ammo, they are there to be used, and you use them because you can and eventually a story quest or a more permanent collectible will necessitate their use. getting caught up on trying to preserve one weapon for its combat abilities is like getting upset that your bullets are destroyed after you shoot them, which makes no sense when ammo is infinite.
Not even in the slightest. Firearms in games reward accuracy, particularly if there is location based damage. Firearms in games also often reward selecting the best one for the encounter at hand, which might not be the most damaging, and they emphasize resource management. Then there is the fact that firearms in games often reward doing those while moving to avoid damage, or changing how you behave depending on distance from the enemy. BotW and TotK are much more shallow, making it more efficient to always use the most powerful option, and don't reward accuracy, because a miss doesn't cost durability/ammo. Flurry rush through jump timing, or a parry, work regardless of the weapon and are, at best, the equivalent of strafing.
No, looking at it like a gun and the weapons as bullets does not solve the problem, because the system is more shallow than even Wolfenstein 3D. It's not rewarding, so it doesn't matter that there will always be another piece of junk weapon and who cares if the weapon breaks. It's boring and tedious, and that's before you factor in the constant opening of menus and quick menus. At least guns in games have different handling characteristics, reward accuracy, reward strategy (even if minimally). The closest TotK or BotW get to that is when you are using a bow.
I wish people would stop saying it fixed "all" the mistakes. Because three of the biggest complaints about the order final still stand.
Weapon durability is still a pain in the arse, except now you have the additional hassle of fusing, the music is nearly identical, and the temples are almost identical in role and length to the divine beasts.
Music could be easily fixed by letting you listen to classic themes on the purah pad which could even be discovered as collectibles.
Feel like weapon durability would be better if only fused materials broke and you kept base weapons, especially legendary weapons. That way you are still encouraged to farm monsters, but get to keep weapons.
The dungeons weren’t great, but they were immensely better than the divine beasts
Not to mention the sage abilities are worse, and the hand... abilities are overpowered and kind of one dimensional
I wanted to go see the Great Plateau. It took me a week. I knew I wanted to get there, but I accidentally completed a ton of shrines and other side activities before I remembered why exactly I had set that red pin there.
Aside from my INTENSE joycon drift and lack of understanding of basic game mechanics (such as shield jumping, flurry rushes, etc), one of the biggest reasons I didn’t like botw is probably because I got bored of just wandering aimlessly for what felt like forever. I remember the memories quest was especially bad because everything kind of looked the same, so trying to figure out where these places are by a single photo, or even after searching up their location on a map, was very difficult. It’s great to hear that that problem has been fixed in the new game, and now that I have better controllers and have watched a lot of videos so that I know how to actually fight besides just swinging my sword whenever I can, I’ll definitely play totk. Just as soon as I have a switch again…
Why is everyone lying to themselves on this game so hard
The lurelin village side quest was so fun and satisfying to do. Easily one of the best in the series
I agree with almost every point, except the shrines. I've heard this aspect praised by other content creators, so I accept that I may be the odd one out, but it still feels bizarre, since I feel as unambiguously that TOTK's shrines are blatantly inferior to BOTW's as you feel the other way round. The vast majority of TOTK shrines are mindnumbingly easy. Playgrounds for the game's physics engine perhaps, but hopelessly undercomplex as challenges, whose entire approach is readily obvious from the moment you step foot in them if not spoiled to death first by their title. A significant (and much more sizeable than in BOTW) other portion are blessing shrines, which more often than not had me disappointed that bothering to complete a barebones overworld puzzle apparently merited the reward of a withheld shrine puzzle. The basic combat tutorials are also divided up amongst even more individual shrines than necessary. The only type of shrines that are consistently rewarding as experiences, which I dreaded at first but came to appreciate given the competition, are the Proving Grounds shrines.
I feel even the easier ones are still valuable because they all can potentially teach you something new about how the powers, devices, and physics engine can interact.
It would be nice if the shrines were a little bit longer. I think they're more fun than BOTW's since the runes are more fun to mess with, but it does feel like they cut back a lot with them. There's a lot of "oh that's the end already?"
Hard disagree, I completed all the shrines in BOTW and I'm not so sure I will be able to do it this time because I find the shrines a LOT more challenging this time around.
@@kingboobs20 It really depends on how you're completing the shrines in each game both of the games have ways of cheesing them botw windbomb and totk is finding loopholes with the ultra hand and rewind ability but in both cases doing them as intended can be pretty hard ( varies from shrine to shrine ) botw case: the shrine at rito village ( haven't found enough totk shrines to think of a good one)
Not mention you can throw items, also if you get to upgrade the runes like in botw, I really hope you’ll be able to pocket items with ultra hand or just increase the amount of pieces you can attach together.
great video!! Suggest this for people on the fence of playing/buying TOTK!
Tears of the Kingdom feels like the devs read every single complaint regarding BotW and fixed them all. Beyond what you mentioned there’s even small fixes like full inventory.
Now this game does create its own new problems too. But my biggest one is that by focusing so much on trying to be a better BotW it loses some of its own identity.
And regarding weapon degradation, I think fuse helps this not by increasing durability, but by giving you more opportunities. Each weapon broken is a chance to try a new combination.
Overall good analysis! Keep up the good work!
Easy shrines??????? Some I had to look up because I didn't understand what I was supposed to do. That's hasn't happened in TOTK. All the shrines are easy because you have more options to do things
The depths ARE as big as the surface. They match the surface almost perfectly, the surface shrines matching up with the light roots one for one, the z coordinate being almost the same on the surface but negative in most places, and also where there is water on the surface there are ceiling high walls in the depths
turning the tests of strength shrines from botw into proving grounds was a MAJOR upgrade.
in tests of strength, it usually consisted of one (1) guardian scout in a big room that had a huge health pool and ate through weapons. each fight was practically similar aside from slight mechanical changes such as having to use cryonis to have them slam themselves into pillars to stun them. practically once you've seen one, you've seen them all.
what i love about proving grounds is that they're extremely unique and interesting. each proving grounds shrine has a different layout, number of zonai constructs wielding different weapons, and usually multiple ways to complete the challenge. stripping away your weapons, armor, and consumables and only giving a set amount of weapons and items to use makes you have to think more critically about how to face the challenge.
one of my favorites had to be a shrine that had many zonai constructs with bows atop a platform being held up by two supports surrounded by water. one of these was breakable using something that could break rocks. neuron started firing!!! as i battled other zonai constructs from below, i saw that there were spike balls that i could fuse to a weapon to make a hammer. i couldn't attack the stone support directly, i had to throw my weapon. once i did, all the constructs came crashing down into the water, killing them instantly. i think that had to be the biggest hit of dopamine i've ever had in this game
Hi FatBrett, Thanks for making this video. I completed BotW in preparation for TotK and I've been actually hating it, just because of how similar it is to BotW and how used I am to the map and enemies already. I've been having a hard time enjoying it, but I think you've kind of talked me into giving it another shot.
the depths are awesome, and are the same size as the overworld, but after a while, once I learned that the water areas in the overworld match the impassable walls in the depths, and that the heights in the overworld is inverted in the depths, it becomes a bit too easy to traverse, and half of the time I did not even need the glow plants to illuminate the way to the light roots. also with weapon durability you can now restore your weapon's durability with the rock octorocks. where they used to turn rusty weapons into fresh gear, they now can also restore the weapon to full durability.
On the contrary the shrines to me in TOTK are so so so much easier in my opinion, bc the potential to cheese the entire thing is almost limitless given the new abilities
Both are the same in difficulty tbh
You can really feel the 6 years of development in this game. As you said, the world is much bigger, much denser, but it's also so much more dynamic. NPCs and enemies have a much wider range of behavior and many enemies often even have a combat plan tied to the layout of the den they are set to spawn in, making enemy encounters much more interesting. I'll never forget seeing a Moblin carry a reinforced club with a spike ball attached to it and think "Ohh, so even these kind of objects can be fused to a weapon?" I'm not used to a game mechanic allowing this many possible combinations. Ascend feels more like a developer shortcut than a game mechanic with how ridiculously open-ended it is.
I'm waiting for the day someone makes a fully-functional, Turing-complete mechanical computer out of Zonai gadgets and random world items.
You also forgot to mention the lack of Music in breath of wild game was so quiet half the time it literally put me to sleep I'm glad tears of the Kingdom change that aspect as well.
Lurelin Village was my first side quest and i LOVED IT. I spent almost 10 hours trying to save it because i only had 4 hearts.