Tears of the Kingdom - An Extensive Critique
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 พ.ค. 2024
- An extensive look at what has recently become one of my favorite games ever made.
Click here if you want to help support what I do:
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The Majora’s Mask Video That I Was Talking About, Watch It: • Majora's Mask: The Ult...
00:00 Intro
04:19 The Core of Tears of the Kingdom
56:30 The Surface, Skies, and Depths of Hyrule
01:23:29 Interacting With Hyrule
01:48:11 Side Quests, Shrine Quests, and Side Adventures
02:06:59 Temples
02:29:33 Shrines
02:37:50 Bosses
02:46:52 A Sensational Ending
03:03:52 Conclusion
#Zelda #tearsofthekingdom #totk #breathofthewild2 #botw2 #retrospective - เกม
The Majora’s Mask Video That I Was Talking About, Watch It: th-cam.com/video/lX_eSg6NWu4/w-d-xo.html
Also, an extra special thanks to Matt Rawlins, who joined as a channel producer after the video was uploaded!
The Evermeans are actually new enemies, not just the Yiga in disguise. I thought the same thing when I read that notebook, but then I picked up some bananas that were placed in front of some smaller perfectly stationary trees that then poofed into clan members. I think that's what the book was referring to.
interesting... I never came across that, just the notebook.
@@TheRealNintendoKidProbably for the best. Don't trust random bananas 😅
34:30 actually, evermeans ARE new enemies, the yiga notebook is in reference to the tree traps with the banana in between
great video! this channel is underrated, definitely a subscription
Never been so glad to be wrong in my life
Nice to see a lengthy video doing all of this game's strengths and weaknesses justice. I'd have to say that I agree with everything you said!
One of my favorite channels talking about my favorite game?! And its 3 hours long!? I've been blessed 🙌 thank you
I'm not much of a lore theorist or timeline fanatic, but the biggest issue I had with this game's ancient sages was the lack of names or faces. They had the Divine beast masks, sure, but because there's nothing to them past that, it really highlights the same-y nature of their cutscenes.
I agree that the Wind Waker sages were functionally the same as in TotK, essentially plot devices with no real personalities aside from regret and a wish to find their successor. But being from OoT races, that descend into the new races found in the Great Sea, gave a really interesting idea of what kind of evolutions happened over the ages between the games. The names being reminiscent of characters from Ocarina was a nice touch, too.
As well, the instruments they played, and the songs played on them, gave them more thematic depth. Especially when I realized that they were playing the game's opening theme, giving that more meaning. The harp being Skyloft Link's instrument was also a nice touch to connect the sky peoples of both games.
The violin never comes back up in the world of Zelda. However, the cutscene of Makar and Fado playing their duet to empower the Master Sword made me want to play it myself, and kicked off my lifelong interest in playing music more generally. Tying this back to that game's opening theme, it also made me appreciate the incorporation of memorable music in the games and the power that playing it can have in a fantasy setting.
This video was recommended to me and I have to say, you did a fantastic job! From the editing, to the knowledge regarding the music, all beautifully put together! It was refreshing to hear a positive take on the game 🙌🏻
The new giant horse is obviously the baby of Zeldas horse and Ganondorfs horse. Its the same size as Ganondorfs and the Color of Zeldas.
"people aren't viewing it as a standalone"
ITS A SEQUEL
It's okay if you think it doesn't work as a sequel, but to never think about it in any other context is kinda lame imo. I'd say this about any sequel in any context.
I think it's a valid thing to say given that people do this with Majora's Mask all the time
@@SuperCameraGuBrothersthe problem I have is it feels like it fails both as a standalone and as a sequel. It fails as a standalone because it is far too similar in world and structure to feel genuinely distinct from botw, and it fails as a sequel because it ignores the events of botw and does not even attempt to explain what happened to the sheikah tech that defined that game. While majoras mask shares certain assets with ocarina of time, it works as a standalone game because it has a completely different structure, completely different tone and story to tell, and a completely different world to explore.
Majoras mask is a sequel in the sense that it happens directly after oot in the story and shares a few characters. Totk, on the other hand, feels like a sequel to botw in the same way that splatoon 3 is a sequel to splatoon 2. It's less a continuation of a story and moreso a remix of another game with shiny new features. The game is certainly an improvement on botw in nearly every way, and thus it is hard to call it a bad game, but the games feel so similar that they feel almost interchangeable. Much like there's not much reason to return to splatoon 2 after splatoon 3, I dont see a reason to play botw after playing totk. This cannot be said for majoras mask and ocarina of time.
The only thing Majora's Mask adds from a gameplay standpoint are the transformation masks, similarly to the major additions in TotK being Ultrahand, Fuse, Ascend, and Recall. Otherwise, it has very similar gameplay to Ocarina. The masks don't go so far as to disassociate. It honestly does feel like a remix outside of the map to me.
@@SuperCameraGuBrothers Id say the time loop is a pretty major gameplay change that also adds to the game's tone and themes, which are different from its predecessor. The story, dungeons, and world are what made old 3d zelda games, and these all feel quite different between oot and mm in my opinion.
In contrast, the new gen zelda games live on their open world. For me, and I believe many others, exploration and discovery was the main thing botw had going for it. When you release another open world game with a nearly identical open world, the games are going to feel very similar. And it's not just the open world that's similar. Once again, the main questline consists of going to four towns on the map (and more importantly the same 4 towns) and fixing their problems by completing dungeons that consist of activating a number of terminals scattered around.
@@SuperCameraGuBrothers I posted a pretty long reply but it seems like TH-cam might have decided it's not going to show it.
Essentially, MM has time loop, along with diferent story, world, and dungeons, which I consider to be the most important parts of old 3d zeldas. New gen zeldas are more about their open worlds, exploration, and discovery, which did not feel very different from botw
So happy to find someone who sees this game the way I do. I'm an original Legend of Zelda fan 38 years old my first game was Zelda on the gold cart NES. Tears of the Kingdom is the best game in the series
Same, on several accounts. First game I can remember was Contra, but my first Zelda was #2, and I played it before I really knew how to read fully.
It blows my mind how many of the "zelda tubers" just hate this game so much and wanted it to be an Ocarina formula game. I wouldn't mind a few of the things from older games back, but I say they need to take even more inspiration from Zelda 1 with the dungeon placement in the world and how you have to actually find them, and nobody gives you specific directions to them. They got the freedom and exploration down, but they gotta work on some of the specific things you can find. The new stuff is great, but there's a lot that still feels repetitive because. Regardless though, it's a ton of fun to play.
I honestly don't think the new abilities belong in Zelda, but they don't "hurt" it either. And I say the people whose experience was "ruined" by them abused them, and that's on the people who did it, not Nintendo.
Another great review. I personally consider TotK the 5th best Zelda game (behind BotW, Majora, Worlds and Ocarina in that order) but I mostly agree with your review.
I always forget how quality your retrospectives are… also, I guessed you played at least a lil music from your cover song vids (hilarious) but this is the most I’ve enjoyed hearing a game reviewer talking about a soundtrack. Good shit
Honestly i appreciate this video a lot. Its nice to watch someone be really critical of TOTK and also watch someone be very complimentary. Its helped me word my own feelings about the game very well
About story, what's annoying is that all criticism tends to be bundled together while some of us have pretty reasonable observations. It's interesting that despite questioning overall criticism about lore, you provide very good criticism that adds up to why the setting and delivery could be unsatisfying.
Story was never a primary focus of Zelda, but such a sequel was never a thing either so expectations adapted to this occasion. The creators *do* care to make a story as we still see today, for better or worse they accommodated for the timeline by setting BOTW far after previous games but they *did* decide to make a straight sequel to their world building of highest production value yet (and as a smaller case, they did capitalize on the Great Calamity setting in an alternate timeline spin-off). To me it seems natural people would expect a more straightforward continuation, and it's not like the creators providing a (still respectable) justification of their design process erases countless other franchises who can perfectly bridge story arcs. That's fine, but neither side is an absolute.
Also we may find hypocrites that complained about BOTW and now pretend otherwise, but since 2017 people like me have been defending BOTW typically against conflation of a story with its presentation. The latter was objectively sparse and more in the background of exploration, but what it told was perfectly respectable and had great lore elements even if detached far in the future or previous lore. In this video you share the sentiment that non-linearity also worked better.
TOTK suffers from several things with its scope and in-between familiarity, that includes inheriting BOTW's many references that allowed us many speculations, without expanding on those. Even with its own setting though, it started with signs of potential connections but cut these hopes short. Having a rebooted kingdom is fine, though if they keep repeating these wild changes of perspective on time scales, it may degrade the point of even referencing ancient lore. The added layers have shallow implications of the Zonai being everywhere at some point, without developing much else about them.
I can understand the criticism against under-developed ancient sages, though at that point it's not high enough on my list of complaints to care as much. Again it's a matter of viewing BOTW/TOTK as a different standard when it comes to production value. People interested in that have been patient, anything could be told, and what we get is often the safest, shortest bit of presentation imaginable. What regularly shocked me was how good the characters and scenes looked, and they barely did anything with it. Like Ganondorf's soldiers or freaking Koume and Kotake. 😮💨
Regarding repurposed BOTW DLC armor, not only did we have those for 6 years and it felt underwhelming as reward for an already limited sense of discovery, but it felt like random lore placeholders as if to say "yeah these are replicas, or the original maybe, who knows! congratulations on finding something in this _mysterious_ map". No matter the real motivation and how they justify not focusing on lore too much, this cheapens immersion and the desire to keep exploring.
I didn't think too much of Zelda turning back in the end because... whatever. But any justification could work in any direction, that's the magic of a series that pulls time travel on the regular 😄 It would have been impressive to just own it to close this arc. It would have made for a great connection if referenced in a future game (if they cared for it).
I can respect that they want to do separate things, but maybe they should cut things clean instead of sending mixed signals to people hyped about what they won't do anyway. Maybe it's a very particular case as a straight sequel, next time can be much more its own thing but still, the way they struggled to balance difference/familiarity bled into many aspects of the game.
This is by far the most reasonable criticism regarding the story and world of Tears of the Kingdom that I've seen.
"Alternate timeline spinoff" the misinformed critic essayist says... confirmed *non canon* in the _official japanese The Legend of Zelda timeline page_ reality says. That said i wholeheartedly agree with the essay written above so here's a like. 👍🙂
@@SuperCameraGuBrothers There are many more such reasonable critics across the spectrum within the Zelda community if you dig enough through the myriad of complains one may easily find across the many critique videos on TH-cam showing how strong the love for this game truly is despite it's superficial flaws as pointed out by mkjj above and many others in the fandom. Wathever reason fans at large have to hate on this game i'm happy to find positive in depth perspectives like yours to counter such criticism.
@@javiervasquez625 Hey! Seems like if I complain enough I'll invoke you, must be magic 😁 Yes I know your view on canonicity or automatic lack thereof, however no issue either way in that context, I really brought it up as an extra indication that they care about the setting enough to build from it, rather that do one game and toss the whole thing away. I wonder if they'll do a HW in TOTK's backstory or some intermediary period... I can see how it would rub the wrong way by adding lore some wished was in the main game, but it could just be fun.
@@mkjjoe Hi buddy! 👋😜 Seems about right especially when you seemingly attempted to spread misinformation like the notion that a plothole ridden, Lore breaking, narratively contrived, fanfiction powered third party Musou game was ever intended as a canonical chapter within the already convoluted mess that is The Legend of Zelda's timeline. Wether they "care about the setting" to the point of unveiling development on a followup surrounding an "alternate" take on the events depicted in Tears of the Kingdom i find highly unlikely for such a scenario to ever happen in the coming future given the 1 year gap since the game's release with nothing but utter silence on Aonuma and Nintendo's part for them to suddenly reveal another plothole ridden, Lore breaking, narratively contrived, fanfiction powered third party game to "build up" from it's predecessor with even more plot contrivances and complete disregard for narrative coherence all in favor of sheer entertainment and spectacle over narrative coherence and substance.
Wether there'll be more HW games in the future i'm fairly certain the next game in the series won't be specifically centered on TotK as per Aonuma and Fujibayashi's statements regarding their "moving on" from the Era of the Wild combined with Nintendo's complete silence as to the future of the Zelda franchise.
I'm so glad to hear that this is your favorite Zelda game. It's become mine too, after it dethroned Link to the Past. Breath of the Wild couldn't quite do it, that one was my second favorite behind Link to the Past.
It’s second only to Majora’s Mask to me. Zelda sequels are so rare but so kino
It finally took 1st spot from WW on my personal list. Only took'em 20 years, lol.
I've seen several people online complain that although the Wild games are good, they aren't really Zelda games. While I certainly wouldn't go that far, I will admit that Breath of the Wild had a very different feel than the classic 3D Zeldas and hardly ever made me feel nostalgic for them in its gameplay setpieces. Tears of the Kingdom to me felt like the Zeldafication of Breath of the Wild; it struck such a great balance of sticking to the open world formula while still striking a similar feeling to the classic games. A great example of this in my playthrough came on the Great Sky Island. I had just activated the terminal in the Room of Awakening, seen the gears start turning to my left and had a passing thought that those could lead to a cool use for that new ability to rewind time. I then proceeded through the island while completing all the Shrines and learning about the new abilities up until reaching the Temple of Time where Zelda gave me Recall. Rauru told me about the existence of a 4th Shrine that was previously hidden so I fast traveled to the nearest location to where the Shrine was, and as soon as the loading screen ended and I realized where I was, I remembered the gears and immediately knew what to do. It felt like something straight out of a classic 3D Zelda, and it was the moment I knew this game and I would get along just fine.
I loved my first play through. But honestly had no desire to replay it just because I’ve seen so much of this Hyrule. But I must say you helped a tone here in renewing my appreciation for this game and what it is. Thanks. Going to start a fresh the weekend!
I feel it's fitting to watch this in the wilderness on the TH-cam app on my Switch! I hope my battery lasts!
Cool channel! Love the premier 🍿
Thanks for the video, this is awesome!
On the topic of upgrading the battery: Once you do fully upgrade the battery you unlock a shop where you can just buy Zonai parts directly.
I still went back a couple times to play Breath of the Wild. The first one feels like such a small game in comparison, it's weird.
Oh. I missed an entire section of the game. I didn't know there was a quest leading up to dragon head isle. I just flew there found a mask right away and put it on a pedestal then I was underground
Sorry for 2 comments I split watching this into two days :)
I adore this game! Oddly enough, I'd say the only really disappointing part to me was the house building. It gave very little options, and I could not fit rooms together with as much freedom as I would have liked. Kinda limited the design if you didn't want have the rooms exposed to the elements. I feel like giving us an option to fill in floors and ceilings where there are gaps, and giving us to ability to choose which walls should stay or go would really expand the building design capabilities. It was also a shame that windows didn't seem to be an option. The houses look kind of depressing from the outside without them 😢
All these things could've been given to us in a DLC. We could've also gotten more room slots and more colours for the outside (I love green but it kind of blends in with the hills around. Would have been nice to have all those colour options we see with Bolson/Hudson buildings). I was kind of holding out for that... but no, apparently a DLC is not on the cards 😭
P. S. Granteson did not have to follow us as we built. Why does he not just stay at his booth?! He got in the way more times than Lara Croft's butler does in the Tomb Raider house levels. Where's a handy freezer when you need one?
not trying to "self promote" or "scalp views" or whatever, I don't give a crap about any of that, my channel is nothing... but I do have a video of the house I built on my channel with every utility/storage room, plus a gallery and fish pond with nothing exposed. It's just a short walk from just outside the door into the house and around the interior, just a quick showcase, if you will. I was trying to hurry because you can only capture 30 seconds at a time on the actual Switch.
While it's not super detailed, and there's no commentary explaining anything, it might hopefully help you figure out how to cram it all together.
I'll also attempt to briefly explain here...the bottom floor is 2 square rooms side by side with the foyer, paddock, interior stairs, and shield, bow, and weapon storage rooms around the perimeter. Then for the second floor I connected my gallery to the stairs so that the green exterior wall is blocking the upper part of the half of the staircase that connects to the first floor. a third square room nests in the corner created by the gallery and staircase. Then the bedroom, kitchen, and prayer room go around the perimeter of the square room. The kitchen ends up on the opposite side of the staircase from the gallery and is kinda split in half where the square meets the prayer room. You can use the full kitchen, but when you go in there and look toward the rest of the interior, you'll see the green exterior wall of the prayer room blocking half of the opening.
Hopefully this helps, if it still matters to ya enough to go back and rebuild the house.
I swear your cadence had me questioning if this is a secret big Joel 3rd or more channel, really well done though, definitely a future rewatch❤
you know, youtube has been recommending me 2+ hour rant videos that really dig into why people dislike this game, and i've been eating them UP. clicked onto this video sort of expecting the same thing, intending to save it for tomorrow and put it on in the background while i play some other game, but now i'm sitting down and watching it entirely invested since i needed the surge of positivity.
Thank you for this video, I really appreciate your channel. Tears of the kingdom is an amazing game
I love Majora's mask! I low-key love ToTK too! I prefer it way more than BotW.
Just what I need when Im working through the night instead of playing Zelda. Everything else is criticizing it and then the comments are insanely negative to probably the greatest game ever made.
BOTW blew every other game out of the water. Then this did the same to BOTW. An incredible achievement.
I absolutely cannot wait until the next Zelda game comes out and everywhere you'll see "TOTK was an underrated masterpiece". The irony of fans calling out the Zelda fandom's self-awareness and STILL falling victim to it is hilarious. Like, everyone hated Skyward Sword, until BOTW came out, then SS HD became "the best Zelda game since Twilight Princess."
I guess this is technically my first time experiencing the full discourse on a Zelda game since I only really started engaging with these communities around the time Breath of the Wild came out, but this discourse now has me doubting how much I want to continue engaging with them going forward. You're telling me in 5 years from now people are still gonna be mad about the Sky not being this massive new overworld it seemed to be in the second trailer? That idea will be gone from people's minds by then, and we'll be able to go into the game seeing it fully for what it is rather than what we thought it would be. It's like people are mad at the game just for having flaws after they built it up as the second coming of Christ. I get that it's not for everyone, and certain aspects could've been improved, but this feels like such a huge exaggeration.
@@speedude0164 Unfortunately I'm not really exaggerating. We still hear about how Wind Waker's second half is padded filler, or about the motion controls of SS ruined the combat, or about how perfect of a game Ocarina of Time is and every game should be that. I wish I could say that people don't latch on to the same tired, overused talking points over and over until they get bored, but it rarely happens in any fandom, especially Zelda. Any time TOTK is brought up, there will be some who talk about how subversive it is and how it was "just not released at the right time" and someone else still going on about "copy pasted Depths, story bad, Ultrahand sucks."
@@beneciotheperson I was refering to the discourse being an exaggeration and not your comment. It's so strange to me because looking at the Zelda community discourse would have you believe the game was an utter failure, but then you see several videos from people outside the community that think the game is damn near perfect, going in depth about how well designed the mechanics and gameplay loop are. I can't help but wonder what the reason is for this, and looking at a lot of the complaints, I gotta wonder if the Zelda fandom is trying to judge the game with the criteria of a classic 3D Zelda, much to its detriment. Or maybe it can all just be attributed to the Zelda cycle. Either way, it's good to know I'm not alone in still thinking the game is utterly spectacular. 😅
Literally nobody has said that about Skyward Sword lmao. And people praised Breath of the Wild through its entirety even acknowledging its flaws. Stop making these scenarios in your head.
I wouldn't call a game an "underrated masterpiece", when it doesn't even have an own identity and basically did a "can i copy your homework? Sure, but change it so it's not noticable" as a sequel to said game.
The only thing you can seriously praise Totk for is it's technical feats on the Switch, without it catching fire, aka map size and fuse/ultrahand. That's impressive. Everything else you praise here, you can also praise Botw for and i'm saying that as someone that doesn't like both games as much as others do. Totk even copies Botw in it's whole main quest progression. Wake up at the great Plateau/Sky Island, be told by the ghost of a prior king of hyrule what to do, seek 4 shrines for your abilities, get down from it, go to the new base/Kakariko for more information, go to the 4 villages to solve their problems by doing stuff to get into the divine beast/temple, activate 4-5 panels (which is the exact same thing from Botw actually), beat the boss, get a cutscene (which are the almost exact same ones in Totk) and the champion/sage power (sages being 10x more obnoxious to use than the champion abilities) and now go to the final boss. The only thing that might change up here is seeking Mineru, but she is not a requirement to access the final fight, nothing is really, since it also gives you the option to go to Ganondorf right from the start, just like Botw did. Not even story here makes sense and the memory system even less so, since the random locations can spoil you of what happened, while Botw also told story, but more the interaction between Link and the characters. Even Zelda and the whole team of good guys back in the past are such idiots. Zelda clearly saw the mummy-like creature below the castle having a secret stone and with a bit of thinking you would say "yeah, that's Ganondorf with a secret stone". Instead of warning Rauru of Ganondorf, they rather want to get to know each other, Rauru comes to the conclusion of keeping an eye on Ganondorf, so he keeps him close (close the the power of a secret stone, the thing he clearly desires), he even attacks the borders of the kingdom with Moldugas, but that's fine i guess, Zelda and Sonia make a brilliant plan to spy on the Zelda puppet or whatever that was, which leads to Sonia dying and Ganondorf becoming unstoppable thanks to her secret stone, which is stupid on so many levels, and for some reason, Ganondorf alone is strong enough to beat 6 sages and the king himself without breaking a sweat for some reason. Why is he with one secret stone so insanely powerful, that 7 other secret stone users are nothing against him? Why in the living fuck is Link, without any secret stone power, strong enough to beat him? You can do this without a Master Sword equipped, so that isn't a good enough explanation. Why exactly is the Demon Dragon killable, despite the game clearly saying that those who swallow a secret stone turn into immortal dragons and why does only the Demon Dragon have these weak spots and every other dragon doesn't? For plot, i guess and those 4 words can be used on pretty much everything happening in the story of Totk.
The depths and sky are nothing to really praise either. The depths are yawning emptiness, filled with minibosses you fought already, except for one, and yiga hideouts with blueprints for auto build, most players maybe look at once and then probably never again, while the sky is filled with copy pasted chunks of rocks everywhere, with shrines most of the time being "bring a green crystal to the required location", where you do it once or twice and then you have the solution for the rest already.
Also, shouldn't a sequel build upon it's prequel in a more meaningful way than "Here is the map from the first game again, have fun"? Like, where is all the Sheikah technology? Towers, shrines, guardians, divine beasts? Just, poof, gone. Why does Link not have the champion abilities anymore? Why does nobody recognize Link, even in Hateno, where he is now living in the same house with Zelda, the one you bought in Botw? Why do only Terry Town people recognize him, despite this being a chain of quests you do and most people that casually played through Botw not even seeing this quest being completed probably?
I also saw some people saying it's a what-if timeline of Botw like AoC was, but that doesn't make sense, when the sages clearly know you, Terry Town mostly knows you, Link already has/had the Master Sword and the calamity happened before.
Look, if Totk would have been it's own game without Botw existing before it, this would be something completly different. But with the way it is, i can't see by the life of me, how this game is worthy enough to be a 10/10 masterpiece now or ever in the future. Otherwise, developers could just grab themselves any game, make it exactly the same and add 2-3 things to it. If people enjoy Totk, by all means, that's completly fine and i'm happy some people can, but it's not even close to being one of the best games ever made
My biggest disagreement is on Gloom's approach, I feel like putting puzzles would have taken away of what the place was meant to be, a constant decent into darkness with no pause. The only change I would make is put the entrance in the royal hidden passage instead of the castle chasm
1:38:40 Actually Upgrading all 3 pieces of the Froggy Armor to at least level two, unlocks the slip proof ability. That way, it doesn’t fully disregard your reason to do the quest to obtain it!!!
If the game had the option to have a harder difficulty it wouldve been S+ tier as a game.
There are so many items and armors and strategies which make certain environments survivable or certain enemies beatable.
However link is so OP that most items are usueless and you can just use a small selection of items, armor, and weopons to complete every area and then just stack a bunch of meat skewers to make healing cheap and easy and you dont even really need warm or cold armor.
Amazing game. Loved every minute. But the combat is way more fun and engaging when you purposefully use no armor or weak armor paired with a weaker weapon. Otherwise youll just destory every enemy without ever needing to parry or block or flurry. Such cool mechanics that are rarely used even in early game
I played Breath of the Wild first and when I played Tears of the Kingdom it was interesting to see how the areas changed. I love how open and free the entire over world was from the sky islands to the surface to the depths. For the first 50 hours of gameplay I didn’t do a single dungeon and instead just wondered and explored the islands and depths, uncovered over 60 shrines, activated all the towers, upgraded gear equipment and armor, activated over 20 lightroots, and completed many side quests all before even attempting any dungeons at all. The first dungeon I ended up doing was the water temple 😂😂 I ended up at Zoras domain well into the game and I thought it would be a good time to get back to the main objective and story lol but that’s how free and open the world truly is. Breath of the Wild has a more well balanced story but Tears of the Kingdom has superior gameplay, abilities, and fighting mechanics.
Finally a long form critique from another intrinsically motivated player! I’ve never been able to relate to a lot of the critisisms because it just doesn’t vibe with me. Really nice to see someone who looks for the same things as me review this game, I immidately went to your channel and added a lot of your older videos to watch later
Amazingly well done. I haven't found yet a reviewer or retrospectiver (is that a word?) whose thoughts and feelings are so similar to mine. The more negative bits of this game are just so easy to head canon away. I always think of Rauru not as someone who knows everything about the stones, but rather just the keeper of them. He leaves the more mundane bits of lore and knowledge to his sister - he can't really be bothered. I love how Sonia has to nudge him out of his bored sleepiness as Zelda is going through her crisis.
Anyway, I cannot imagine the amount of work and energy going into this. Thank you so much.
You really should use Zonaite to get crystalline charges you get plenty from the various bosses and its more fun that way
One point of correction to what you say at 10:35, the robots in skyward made the robots and factories, and they were originally made by lanayru the thunder dragon. You interact a lot with both the robots and lanayru in that game
No idea how I forgot about that one robot that has a crush on Fi either
Hyped
Playing through totk on your second time after becoming extremely familiar with the abilities and what you can do in the game just makes the game all the more enjoyable on your second playthrough
It does, but now I'm also tempted to cheese things a lot more.
30:53 I never thought of the bomb-shield! Reminds me of Majora's Mask!
I think the Depths sucked, and I wish there were more Sky Islands. And I think the revival of Zelda just didn’t feel earned, when the game could’ve ended on a more somber note instead of ‘yay happy ending’.
- That being said, the game is still phenomenal, it’s one I have enjoyed and will continue to do so.
It still improves in a lot of areas on BOTW, and 90% of what’s new is amazing, be that game design of the stunning serenity or the Sky Islands.
Did it have the same feeling as BOTW for me? No, not quite. But at times it came close, despite reusing the same overworld.
After a few real days ago, i wish occasionally eclipses were a rare but possible weather event in the game (maybe a blood eclipse 😅? Not sure how but I'd like it to do special effect lol)
A thought: What if the solar eclipse replaced blood moons? That would be way cooler visually imo
I love this game because I love exploring. I can't do it in real life due to multiple severe disabilities, so this game is my only opportunity to do so. (I've never played BOTW.)
Not gonna lie as soon he said "Canon Event" at 1:30:16 all i heard in my mind was the theme if you know you know.
The way Zelda returned at the beginning of the game is kind of explained with how you head canon it. Mineru says it's thanks to Link
I’ve watched just over 40 minutes of this, but alas I can watch no more.
I haven’t finished the game yet & if I venture any further into this very well produced & narrated video then I may well give away story points & spoilers for myself.
I’ve enjoyed it so far & it’s nice to hear someone shine a light on the positives instead of fully focussing on the negatives for a change.
Yes the game is flawed, we know, but things aren’t beautiful because they are perfect, & they aren’t ugly because of the are flawed.
TOTK is beautiful in spite of its flaws, & those who refuse to appreciate beauty because of flaws… well, I feel sad for you, because you may well miss out on some of the most beautiful things in your life, because of your obsession with perfection.
I’ll save this vid & I look forward to coming back to it once I’ve completed the game.
Great job btw
I find it so funny to me that everyone has been complaining about the repeating cutscenes about the demon king, because my ADHD lack of object permanence made me forget they say the exact same thing every time. So my terrible memory just appreciates the refresher so I’m not as annoyed as nearly anyone else about the repetition 😭😭 I didn’t even know they say the same thing until my friend pointed it out to me
A level-headed criticism talking about fair points about the "actual game" and not "what could the game be?... Sign me up!!
I'll never personally understand how people can favorite these Zeldas over the other titles. And as you can probably tell from the tone, I very much disagree with the assessments here. I think it's more fair to call this a review than a straight up critique, as your criticisms were a very minor part of this; most of it was just glazing the game.
I was waiting for the "but..." to come for so many sections because this was labeled a critique, only for the issues to apparently not be actual issues for you. That's fine, but you can't really call it a critique when you're saying every "fault" you can think of is actually not a problem at all and actually still enjoyable. You clearly do have a different outlook than I and many others, because we don't hesitate or sugarcoat it when we call the new additions barebones and barely worth the 6 year wait. The Depths and Sky are lackluster and so disappointing for us. There's many more of course but I don't feel like being here a while.
I'm glad you can really enjoy the game enough to call it your favorite in the series, but for a lot of us this was the most disappointing and least impactful.
Critiques don't necessarily have to be negative to be considered a critique. It's a synonym for analysis, regardless of negative or positive connotations. And to be fair, I did warn you at the start that the video would be this way.
(Apologies if this comment comes across too snarky or condescending)
@shyguyrocks1 Womp womp
Bro spent more time yapping than enjoying a video. If you don't like it you can just watch a different video
Finally a good review. The constant "let’s pretend the game only consists of flaws" has gotten pretty tiresome.
Saving my place 53:00
it amazes me how different people rate the game completly different what is for one person a good sequel with some flaws can be a dissapointig overpriced dlc for another person. i personally really enjoy the game despite its flaws but i will never understand how one could have such wrong expectations for a sequel on the same console which originaly started of as an dlc. like what did these people excpect this game to be. great review
I think the biggest issue was just the decision to have the majority of the story take place in the past. There is too much of a jump from Dorf attacking Hyrule, to Swearing Fealty, to turning traitor. It doesn't allow for the story to build. Much like when a kid tells you a story, It feels jumbled and unconnected. There are some really cool moments though, and the ending is STILL even with all the issues, maybe my favorite in the series.
Fair enough. I hope the story next time around takes place mainly in the present, as it would likely avoid the issues this game had with how it told its story
Top notch mate
Great video!!
I keep having to listen to this in pieces, so I'm probably gonna leave some more comments in the future. I can't watch this in one sitting, I just don't have the time.
Anyway... I LOVED the companions and most of their abilities(Sidon's was kinda lackluster and situational, or maybe I'm just not smart enough to figure out enough situations for it not to feel that way to me). Tulin's was by far the most useful but also the most potentially frustrating at times. Everybody already knows that though. I loved having them follow me around and help fight things. Tulin again, being the most useful here because he would randomly snipe enemies in the face all the time, sometimes in rapid succession. This was also sometimes frustrating cuz he'd take a shot before I could, and I'd just waste an arrow. Oh well...
I don't quite understand though why they did it with the blue ghost versions of them as opposed to just having them follow you. You could argue because they all have their duties in their communities I guess. Or maybe the ghosts are just less taxing on the system to render. Either way, I felt that was a slight negative. The biggest problem I had with the companion system though was trying to chase down and then activate the right one at the right time. You could whistle to them like your horse, but there wasn't any way to call a specific one to you. I get what you're saying about not being able to just use them immediately whenever, but that would have made them a lot more useful, and there is still the cooldown anyway. But I wouldn't want them to take away actually having some version of your friends following you and fighting with you because that was an awesome new vibe for Zelda.
I feel like they're mostly just ghosts because they wouldn't have the same movement options as Link. The path to the Fire Temple was designed with Yunobo in mind, but he can't really climb steep cliffs or Ascend out of caves. I also would've loved for the real Sages to follow me around and be like a whole Xenoblade party, but oh well.
This was such an amazing video... for the past couple of months, my feed has been filled with videos being extremely critical towards totk and while a good amount of said criticism is justified, some of those just felt like people just wanted to dogpile on totk or join some sort of hate train towards the game. Seeing someone have a more positive opinion and sharing it here feels refreshing. The only thing I was surprised about was that you didn't say anything about the last cutscene with Zelda, Link the whole gang and Purah visiting the skyisland to say their goodbyes to Mineru. I feel like this would've neatly wrapped up the last chapter of your video.
Regardless, this is still an impressive piece of work, thank you for creating it 😊
I genuinely laughed when they screwed up the timing for the vow, I can't believe I forgot about that cutscene
I've both respectfully disagreed and agreed with complaints people have addressed about the game, but it's really bothering me how toxic the fandom is currently. So many people make wild assumptions about the true motivation for others disagreeing with them, and they get outright manipulative at times. I've seen several videos expressing disappointment where commenters say they feel insane for being disappointed, and I see several videos expressing love where commenters say they feel crazy for loving the game, and that's a very bad sign.
On a more positive note, I do really like that last cutscene. I think we should've gotten one more Dragon Tear that showed Zelda and Mineru bonding while working on her construct as that would've made her passing hit harder, but it is nice having the last of Hyrule's founders and the Ancient Sages witness a bright future for Hyrule after everything she went through and entrust it to the new princess and Sages.
Love your thumbnails
All i gotta say, im more curious about a hyrule warriors sequel, that plays like a zelda game but with fundamentally MORE than totk.
I think that BOTW had a stronger story than TOTK. The story itself was rather straightforward but it was backed up by this amazing environmental storytelling. TOTK misses those (or "leaves room for player expression" as you say; too much expression can be and is usually a bad thing). Speaking of expression, the sages are way more bland here compared to their counterparts in BOTW. Again, you can say that a player can characterize them but with that argument in effect, I can imagine anything unreasonable (for example, Rauru implanted tiny magical creatures using his Zonai stones into the old sages which then gets transplanted into the new sages whenever a boss is defeated and a new stone is obtained; this is what causes the sages to mindlessly obey their host i.e. the chosen one).
I am willing to agree with anything but the story when it comes to TOTK. The story is definitely more complex here compared to BOTW but it is definitely not portrayed well here. It feels even sparser.
Thank you, you yourself nitpick it just a minute later lol This game just didn't characterize its characters and story as well as some of the other entries. It is not even about the complexity of this story at this point.
55:24 Mediocre ... english voice acting in botw? This is the first time I am listening to this argument. I knew that people did not like Zelda's VA because of that british royalty accent. But this is a new one.
The voice acting feels very stiff in that game compared to this one, if that makes sense. Also I don't think TotK has a more complex story, it's not much more intricate than previously. I will agree that it isn't told as well, but it's still really compelling to me in spite of that. I can see why you prefer BotW though
@@SuperCameraGuBrothers I personally found both of them to be the same; atleast, my brain didn't find it significant enough :p BOTW's story is as simple as an calamity rising again. The mere presence of having a character who can think and feel, as opposed to having a force of nature, as your main villain will make your story more complex.
I personally liked BOTW's story for its consistency. I only appreciated it after rewatching the same scenes in order four or five times. It gave me a sense of "it all adds up" while simultaneously feeling ominous and mysterious. TOTK just doesn't have that but yes, even without any of those, we can resonate with it because the story itself is better. I may change my stances though; give it a few years and I will start liking it more and appreciating it for what it is instead of what it could have been.
Fair enough. I kind of like the parallels between these two stories, but that's just a me thing. And not to get into too much of an argument over this, but I think the only reason Tears' story feels more complex is because it wasn't told that well. Breath of the Wild gives you the story at the start of the game, leading to more context and detail finding, which is a lot simpler compared to the mess that is going through TotK. At least, that's how I see it.
Also, thanks for your respectful disagreement, it was quite refreshing
2:13:58 WAIT THAT’S POSSIBLE?
Edit: 2:19:19 THAT WAS ALSO POSSIBLE? 😭😭😭😭😭
Literally insane
i can't believe it, another actually fair totk review! i really hope that yours and zeltik's videos are able to set an example of how to actually talk about this game
I thought breath of wild was a good game, but not great. So many things held it back, although to be fair I played it years after it came out, and the formula had been improved.
Tears of the Kingdom I got at release and loved it. It improved on pretty much everything. I think you described it well. There is always something to do, and that is why I play games. To have fun. Running around the world for lengths of time trying to find the fun isn't fun. I enjoyed this video. You've earned my sub, not to see what else you have.
Unbelievable job with this video!!
Your explanation of how zelda gets turned back is still just magic
Recall IS magic and IS the magic they allude to being used to turn her back
It's explained magic and not some vague "it just happened" magic, which is the difference.
@@SuperCameraGuBrothers Mineru specifically calls out the time magic
I feel like the problem with that is that it's too vague. Sure it's time magic, but how it undoes something that's been drilled into your head that's impossible only for "light and time magic" is a little underwhelming. How did that light and time magic undo it? I guess it's a problem for me because there is clearly thought into how Zelda is turned back, but they don't actually explain it beyond the basics of what we already saw. The player is forced to look into it, which is clearly a problem because there have been a lot of people I've seen who consider it a cop-out because they didn't do any digging and took it at face value. Explaining it beyond the basics of "light and time magic" would go a long way in smoothing out the ending. Hope this helps better explain my point
@@SuperCameraGuBrothers I haven't seen the video yet so sorry if something I say here was already addressed. I see everyone talk about what Mineru says about light and time when trying to understand the draconification reversal, but no one ever talks about Zelda's comment after she wakes up: she was sleeping, but was woken up when she felt something like a warm, loving embrace. I dunno about you, but that description to me sounds exactly like when Zelda awakened her light power in Breath of the Wild, only this time, it's her spirit being awakened from a body of pure light power, and it happens due to Link's love for her instead of her love for him. Rauru and Sonia's powers would've served as a bridge for Link's will to reach Zelda since she shares the same light and time powers they have. It feels so obvious in hindsight that I'm shocked it took me so long to think of it, but it certainly could've been conveyed better if that's really what they were going for. My idea would be to vaguely bring up the Breath of the Wild moment either when Sonia and Zelda are talking in memory 8 or when you talk to Impa in her house after getting all the glyphs. They can make some kind of warm, loving embrace metaphor in that moment, and therefore we can connect it to that much more easily when Zelda says it at the end.
@speedude0164 I never thought of it like that
Finally! You are the first person I have found that says mainly good things about this game. Tears is probably my favorite LoZ game to be released and I've been feeling disappointment at the community for the massive negativity surrounding it. Does it have it's issues? Hell yeah! But name a Zelda game that doesn't, I'll wait. This is a good game with a good story, and all it asks of the player is 'What do you want to do?'
In my opinion if you ruin the game for yourself that's all on you. You choose if you want to skip things or get things out of order, as the game does a good job of pointing you in the direction it recommends you do things. You choose if you want to collect all the things or not. You choose to make things easy or hard. Everything in this game is your choice and as such everything that happens becomes your fault.
man im glad with this vid dude. honest criticism but also the credit it deserves. imo. one of my gripes was of course lore continuation of previous entries, but one thing I consider a missed opportunity was the Water Temple.... like.. it was alll there.... and then you go up in to the sky towards... well a plateau..
the ancient zora waterways, if fleshed out, would've been the ideal, and I mean ideal location for the water temple and a nice nod to both ocarina of time aesthetically and even the ancient cistern from skyward sword. the music was awesome... and then its was over in like 2 seconds..
but all in all this turned out to be the only game to mirror the feeling I had as a kid playing ocarina of time the first time.
great vid man💯
I honestly feel like the only reason the Water Temple is in the Sky is because the visual of sludge falling to Zora's Domain from above makes the situation feel much more dangerous as opposed to a glorified pipe leak. I'm fine with it in that regard, but it would've been really cool if you had one dungeon in the Sky, one in the Depths, one on the Surface and one in a cave.
@@speedude0164 yeah no exactly, story and threat wise its a logical decision, and I still think aesthetically it's really cool. but its not a dungeon/temple, especially in comparison to what the ancient waterways were. imagine if they'd gone a little more water temple and ancient cistern up there, with enterable chambers instead of one little cove where one of the reels is hidden. couple of layers on the inside you know? basically the only dungeon that gave the feel of being "inside" was the lightning temple. loved to walk around slowly through it with a torch which made it really dang atmospheric. rest of them, tho cool in looks ( and I love the fire temple for special reasons, me still thinking it is old Goron city + fire temple from OoT) are nearly all mostly outside y know what I mean? when I jumped into the waterways I was kind of awestruck, then I heard the music and the sweet little reference to the Faron theme from Skyward Sword, which was the forest/water location, it just had me in another " this game man...." trans XD.
I really figured activating that pedestal on the tower was a way forward through the dungeon, but that was it for the waterways in relation to the water temple 🤣of course you can go back later and the water is drained, which gives it another chamber and that's cool, but that is basically my gripe with the game.. the rewards feel ... unrewarding at some point. you know its either an armor piece, or a bundle of arrows or something like that. both botw and totk missed that special " opening chest and find new key item" moment.
alright enough writing 🤣🤣
@@gregpl9363 I'm sorry, I know this is really random, but I just discovered this comment again and noticed what you said about the Skyward Sword Faron Woods theme and my mind is blown. I felt like I had heard that bit from the Waterworks theme somewhere before, maybe in Vah Ruta's theme, but I definitely hadn't thought of that. That's such a cool reference.
I won't lie, I know dlc shouldn't always be a thing but I feel it was a mistake, ignoring the collectable amibos being hard to get but gave nothing worth having, the lack of dlc kinda killed the game for me, the dlc in BOTW was a breath of fresh air in an already amazing game, there was alot of space they couldve spent time filling with it in totk, ive still not finished totk and I hate that
The biggest thing for me is the lack of Master Mode
Very good, fledgling
Although I think this game is nothing more than a massive disappointment that I never see myself playing more than the one time, I can really appreciate your views on things
Love the video 😀
Tears of the Kingdom is already a timeless classic! Great video by the way...
Hiyo
Just beat it and loved it. Yes it was tough.
Almost 2K views already?? I hope this video blows up like your BotW one, cause you definitely deserve it!
Ah, thanks for the early warning that you're going to just put your head in the sand and pretend the game is near flawless
You're welcome
It was certainly better than botw.
@@chrisj320ac3 oh absolutely
But BotW was already deeply flawed and TotK didn't do a whole lot to fix it, instead just adding its own flaws.
But it is still better than BotW overall.
@@chrisj320ac3 Only if you haven’t played Breath of the Wild. Otherwise I wholeheartedly disagree. Tears cannot exist without BOTW. I still really enjoyed it. But it definitely doesn’t have the same wow factor for returning players. It’s sort of unfair to compare the two. One was built completely from scratch, whilst the other developed what that game had, with 6 years to do it in.
It’s essentially doing what we did in the original game, but there’s just more of it (shrines, Koroks, etc).
And as mentioned above, almost all of BOTW’s flaws still exist in TOTK. Some instances, such as the Sage abilities and Dragon’s Tears are objectively downgrades to their BOTW counterparts.
I’m curious to hear your opinion, on why exactly it’s better, though!
@@coyy9106Because technically, and I mean the literal technical aspects of the game, it was able to take a 6 year old console that was already considered low tier to its counterparts when released, and was able to push the boundaries of what you're able to do in an open world game, period. Doing things that superior consoles haven't even done on far better technology.
it's clear to everyone what the strengths and weaknesses of this game are. the problem is that the defects fall very heavily on those who are Zelda fans and don't care much about the merits. having been very disappointed with totk I still appreciated the changes in the missions of the 4 regions, but the fact that the sky, the underground and the dungeons are so bad has completely destroyed my positive feelings. especially because after 6 years it is not possible that the content of the game is only that of the first 5 hours repeated everywhere. I don't care much about vehicle construction when it comes to going from empty spot "A" to empty spot "B".
I just love revisiting places from botw and see how they changed
Finally someone who loved totk as I did
A Totk critique from someone who truly seems to love this game? Finally!
I'm sick of Totk critiques where they relentlessly hate on this amazing game, so thanks for the breath of fresh air here.
Like 90% of videos deepthroat the game but nitpick a handful of issues
@@linkkicksu I am an abstaining man, good sir
@@linkkicksu That's what they all say. "I love this game, but it has some serious issues", "The game is the greatest game of all time, but that doesn't mean there aren't some problems", " flawed masterpiece". What bullshit, the game is overrated as hell. To me its a terrible game, and its equivalent to Disney's Star Wars in that it is an already established and beloved franchise that gets ruined by garbage.
But Disney didn't even try with Star Wars
PROPAGANDA
Sure
So people can't have their own opinions?
@@CaptainGandalfSkywalker32Not if it isn't for the common interest of my gigantic brain the size of Jupiter (not an egocentric narcissist btw, just a regular one)
Nobody cares. There's too many of these
I care, and as the center of the entire universe, that's all that matters
I hate this game. It was more of the same thing with no mystery. The depths was a joke and sky island just an island with nothing. Who said we needed a bigger world?
Exactly
That's just wrong..
To each their own. I found it incredible and had so much fun exploring 😊 and I will not lie, some of the story beats really hit me in the feels.
It's a shame you didn't like it though. Perhaps you will the next game. I expect they'll make it purposefully very different. They normally do when not dealing with a sequel
@@jessicaable5095 I just felt the game should’ve been DLC. I put in 750 hours in BOTW. When I got to TOTK it was great the first 10 years after that it was all down hill. I hope to like the next one. I usually like all Zelda games.
10 hours*
It’s the worst 3D Zelda game. Breath of the Wild didn’t feel like Zelda at all, and this one is even even worse.
Its the worst Zelda game because it wasn't what you wanted? It seems like you can not like this game because of bias, am I right?
Skyward Sword's reception is one of the main reasons Botw exists. The last "true" Zelda people hated caused the shift in direction.