My biggest problem with the game is how the sky islands and the depths feel like incomplete concepts. For the sky, it could’ve had more large sky islands like The Great Sky Island. For the depths, it could’ve been smaller and more jam packed with interesting discoveries like ancient Zonai cities, mini dungeons, possibly unearthing the Sheikah towers and Divine Beasts. Maybe you could find new Gloom powered Guardians down there.

@Raddish-IS-Radd

Жыл бұрын

Yeah the unground and sky islands should have been reversed have condensed mini dungeons with the underground, but have old enemies and stuff return The sky islands should be more big and actually interesting the great sky island is good but why isn't 1 sky island the size of the great one? The sky islands were so heavly advertised when they don't really have that much interesting going for them they're too condensed and formulaic and the underground has the problem of being too boring and open for me actually care and try to revisit any location that isn't a mine

@gamersinger5118

Жыл бұрын

Frewt Lewps11 Got to consider the limitations of the old Switch hardware. All things considered what is in the game is beyond impressive considering what system it is running on. I don't know how they could have optimized such a game any more than they did.

@Raddish-IS-Radd

Жыл бұрын

@@gamersinger5118 it's amazing for the hardware but underwhelming for the player even then I don't think the switch would have exploded if they added a couple sky islands that were actually the size of the main one, if they can make an entire new map under hyrule even if it is underwhelming they can do a couple with sky islands

@gamersinger5118

Жыл бұрын

@@Raddish-IS-Radd Lot's of things I can consider about this game but underwhelming was not one of them as it was such a massive improvement in almost every way to an already incredible game with Breath of The Wild. But to each their own I suppose. No matter how amazing any game is you can always wish that it had more of something. Just goes to show that no game has it all. And never will. This is why no perfect game is possible.

@timballisto

Жыл бұрын

@@gamersinger5118 Bloodborne has it all.

"I don't see improvement here, I just see more of it" exactly the problem with totk!!!

The depths.... ugly, boring, spinning.

I have a problem with the cut scenes at the end of each temple. It's so boring that they're all saying the same thing word for word. It's a poor reward for completing the temple.

So good to hear some criticism. I enjoyed it, but was overall very disappointed.

Totk is a major disappointment for me, glad I'm not alone in that

Every concept for the open world is just that, a concept. I can think of hundreds of ways to iterate on them and yet the game just doesn’t. I feel they were so focused on fuse and ultra hand they didn’t care enough about the world.

Add at least one city to the sky islands, and it already would be cool. Add some more stuff to do there, and it wouldn't be so pointless. The same could be said about the underworld - imagine, if there was a village(not abandoned, but fully functional village with it's own culture), add a secret guardian boss that somehow survived, and is now lurking underground, searching for the next victim. Add at least one new village to the overworld, at least something. If all of this would be in the game, it would've been a 10/10 experience for me. Though instead, i found myself missing BotW during my time with TotK. It feels more like a parallel universe than a sequel, to be honest. The game is definitely not bad. I enjoyed it, but still...

I feel very similarly about the game. It's really fun but it's not all it could be. I am especially bothered by the people I hear saying that this is the direction games need to go in, that it's not puzzles or scenarios with solutions, but challenges with goals that you can overcome however you want within the freedom modern systems allow. I really struggle with that, especially as a person who puts a lot of narrative weight on the design of a situation.

I feel that the reuse of the same Hyrule would’ve been great had there had been a new land to explore on top of that. The depths aren’t that, the sky islands most definitely are not that. I had worries when I saw that this game only had 2 more gbs on file than BotW, and my worries were warranted. It doesn’t feel DIFFERENT enough from BotW… there are many different THINGS and different gimmicks from BotW, but the overall game is not distinct from BotW at all, moreso an extension of BotW, which is not what I expected after paying $70 and waiting 6 years for this game - the same amount of time that BotW was created, tinkered, and perfected in. I love BotW, it’s my top 3 favourite video game of all time and ruined practically all other 3d video games for me for many months, so it’s not the BotW formula that I dislike. What I dislike is making me do that exact same formula all over again… that lacks charm. I already did this, and I loved BREATH OF THE WILD for it. Just because I loved it in BotW doesn’t mean I’ll love playing BotW again and again and again forever and ever in every video game I play. And I don’t love it in totk. We are in the same land, the memories are the same, the progression system is the same, 90% of the enemies you will fight are the same bokoblins, lizalfos, moblins who fight in the same way they did from BotW with an added headbutt, the way you engage with combat is the same (could they not have created a singular new weapon type in 6 years outside of sword, big sword, or spear???), the koroks are not only back but are once again the same, the map you run around in is the exact same topography, we have the same Shrine-> hearts/stamina to get stronger… it feels more like a large BotW expansion rather than it’s own unique new Zelda title. I’ve never seen Zelda do this in it’s history. I’ve honestly never seen any other game triple AAA gaming series do this in its history after a more than 3 year wait for the next installment. I really don’t like this. I didn’t watch any trailers after the 2022 title reveal and wasn’t prepared to run around the same Hyrule. I was pretty much shocked when I found out that was the case.

@charliez077

11 ай бұрын

I agree with you 100%. For 2 weeks or so I felt like a crazy person bc I mostly loved BoTW (9/10 for me) and was super hyped for ToTK but the copypasta Hyrule, empty Depths and just SO much recycled content left me very disappointed. ToTK = imo 6-7/10 game and bottom 5, maybe even bottom 3 Zelda

@SailorCheryl

11 ай бұрын

Thank you guys. Exactly my impression. I have never been so disappointed about a Zeldagame... Never did a sequel Copy&paste so much like this game and I cannot understand how that took them 6 years. They "upgraded" BotW to a sandbox game, which took them a lot of effort, time they should have invested into unique gameplay. It annoys me so much that this game got all those overhyped reviews. Bad decision...

@avo.avocado

2 ай бұрын

I wished the upheaval actually had an effect on the land, that way the map would feel at least slightly newer. Imagine Gerudo desert but now broken up into massive islands will sand falling off the edge from one island to another. Or the upheaval’s earthquakes cause death mountain to erupt. This seemed like such a clear direction to take the game I really wonder what the devs were doing that took 6 years

@FullyOnVolks

Ай бұрын

@@avo.avocado I see it now after all this time: Nintendo were lazy

It's kinda funny, because, Breath of the wild is so much better in almost every way, but I think it's going to take a time for people to realize that because of the hype.

@curtisdupree4430

9 ай бұрын

Absolutely. I can’t believe how many people are saying that TotK “fixed” BotW or made it obsolete or like a tech demo. BotW is by far my preferred game.

@lukejones7164

7 ай бұрын

Tears has better combat, bosses, Shrines and enemies to fight. And Ultrahand is a better mechanic than the abilities of the Sheikah Slate

@Luizanimado

7 ай бұрын

@@lukejones7164 no way. The bosses on TOTK are extremely easy, they just stand there waiting for you to attack them. The shrines in BOTW are a fun puzzle, on TOTK they are super simple, just build something to get to the end, the challenges are so easy. I like the mechanics on TOTK, but they all feel complicated, everything involves slowly open the menu to do something, the mechanics on BOTW was a lot more creative and simple to use.

You were far nicer on your critique of the game than me. If I had to describe the game in a single word it would be, tedious. I found fusing every weapon a chore, endless menu opening, constant rationing of monster parts debating if I should fuse it to a weapon, or use it to upgrade armor, or sell it to buy the insanely over priced armor sets. Using the zonai machines, especially in the beginning, I was always worrying about battery charge. Building things in general felt like a chore, grabbing an item, moving it to another, turning it the right way, hoping it would line up just right. Just to use it for a minute or two. I didn't care for the sages abilities either. For one thing, it's less impactful when it's someone else's ability. And it was annoying constantly chasing them around just to use them, not to mention a visual eyesore watching a blue ghost disappear and reappear. I was tired of the shrines after finishing BotW, I was certainly sick of them by totk. The caves were all the same, scrap piles littered hyrule everywhere you turned and sky blocks making the lanscape uglier, the identical cutscenes for the sages, the same hit four switches for the dungeons as the divine beasts, the list just goes on and on. I'd give it a 4/10 on a good day.

@EidasMusic

Жыл бұрын

Agree with you completely. I didn't like any of the new additions to the game. IMO Breath of the wild is way better.

@charliez077

11 ай бұрын

@@EidasMusic Agreed. I was SO hyped for ToTK but while BoTW legit was a kinda groundbreaking game ToTK rides on its coattails so much it's not even funny. 95% copypasta Hyrule is a massive disappointment, Depths are great at first and very boring/repetitive after a couple hours, Sky is way emptier than I hoped, Caves are cool until they aren't and you get just a Bubulb anyways... I wanted a NEW game, ToTK feels 80% old, 20% new.

@kingkrysen

11 ай бұрын

​@@EidasMusicagree BOTW shits all over TOTK

@Six666Xis

11 ай бұрын

Not to mention you still cant swim or dive underwater 😅😅😅

@A2forty

9 ай бұрын

Disagree with you completely. Not saying you can't hate it but I found the game very different. The background might be similar but the details are very different.

I love your comment section. You've amassed a fairly understanding group of people, and while that group of people isn't huge, it's not small either. All of these comments (at least in the first 2 hours of this video being uploaded) Are understanding, well spoken, and kind. I love finding corners of the internet where a bundle of people have found solace and joy critiquing and picking apart the things we like, why we do or why we don't. You've created one of those comfort corners. Good job and good video. I'm always excited to see what comes next! Also I was the 69th like. Nice.

@FullyOnVolks

Жыл бұрын

So true, so refreshing. I’m tired of opinions being met with unthinking responses just because people are behind anonymity.

@marioandultrachap

Жыл бұрын

​@@FullyOnVolks lol nice to see you here too I guess your binging these kinds of videos lol

@marioandultrachap

Жыл бұрын

It's not huge but I believe it'll get bigger overtime the game is in honeymoon phase right now. Once you play through the game you'll realize more and more it's pretty much the same game you played and it's not as great as you originally thought it was.

@FullyOnVolks

Жыл бұрын

@@marioandultrachap lol i promise you I’m one of the biggest Zelda fans bro, I can’t just watch my favourite gaming series go down without a fight! Gotta make our voices heard

@marioandultrachap

Жыл бұрын

@@FullyOnVolks yeah well its not like Nintendo gives a damn about what we think I gave up on that a long time ago. I'm just curious on how many other feel this game wasn't worth a 6 year wait. Lol

OMG thank you soo much for this video! I love tears of the kingdom and i am happy that the whole internet seems to love this game even more. But i feel like there is a lack of negative discussion about the game. I personally absolutely agree that this game misses some of the wonder that exploring breath of the wild had. I 100% agree with the whole first half of your video its great you perfectly summerized my feelings about this game into actual arguments. Again thank you for that, now i dont feel as alone liking breath of the wild more or at least some aspects of it. I wish you great luck with you youtube channel.

I like TotK a lot, but I agree, that it has some flaws. Tbh, I don't like all the mechanical stuff.. at all. I still explore Hyrule and the depths like i did in BotW on foot or on horseback. All these High Tech stuff does not feel right in a world like Hyrule. I like to watch others build interesting and completely bonkers vehicles or machines to kill enemies, but I think I'm old school and like it that way. Btw, I miss the Guardians.

You make a valid point. There is certainly an abundance of elements at play within Tears of the Kingdom. I remember hearing someone describe Breath of the Wild's Hyrule as a serene and peaceful realm, where nature has re-established its dominion and the occasional disruptions of Koroks, Guardians, hidden secrets, or undiscovered shrines, served as intriguing diversions. Conversely, Tears of the Kingdom presents a significantly altered version of Hyrule, where every aspect within one's field of vision is magnified and intensified, resulting in a visually overwhelming experience ~ and I couldn't agree more with your observation regarding the shifting of the game's focus, which ultimately detracts from its coherence. As you accurately stated, Breath of the Wild's primary objective of defeating Ganon was straightforward and readily apparent. Its simplicity was akin to a focused beam of light capable of igniting a sheet of paper when focused through a magnifying glass. However, the task of "finding Zelda" in Tears of the Kingdom, despite its seemingly straightforward nature, proves to be notably broad. Zelda remains elusive, her whereabouts concealed, thereby introducing a substantial shift in the overall atmosphere of the game, impacting its pacing and contributing to a pervasive sense of overwhelming stimulation throughout the gameplay experience. In my opinion, this video stands as the pinnacle of critiques for Tears of the Kingdom (until of course, someone decides to produce an absurdly extensive 6-hour breakdown of the game 😭). I really hope that this video reaches the broad audience it deserves.

cant watch until about 90 hours from now but wanted to drop a comment and say, at a base level, i felt similar feelings to what the intro describes :) anyway congrats on the vid!

The best thing this sequel achieved is make me wanna play botw again..

I am SO glad it's not just me! TotK is a great game, and it deserves to be praised for it's technologic achievements, for sure- but I walked away from the whole experience this week feeling like it was a solid 8 out of 10 instead of the 11/10 seemingly everyone is hyping it up to be. I'm especially pleased that you brought up how the more linear story causes a lot of unwanted friction between it and the non-linear game it's parked across, because the linearity of the story extends to the main quest it's tied to, and I think that might be the biggest reason for some of the more frustrating moments I experienced in my playthrough. Being able to freely explore one moment, and then being completely restricted the next 'because its a main quest', feels horrible. Similarly, being able to complete some main story objectives out of sequence COMPLETELY undercuts the tension of the narrative when it finally catches up to you. It sometimes felt like TotK's designers wanted the game to be more linear, but were held back by virtue of 'needing' this game to be as open as BotW - which means that a lot of it falls weirdly and unsatisfyingly in-between. it ends up feeling like some of the things they added in TotK add more problems to the 'open world Zelda' experience than they solve.

@koolgamerryes8122

11 ай бұрын

Right, because before in BotW there was no linearity, which made people annoyed, and now that its(kinda) more prevalent like people had wanted, you people are still complaining about it. The whole point of this game, is that YOU decide how you play it. It *Does Not* have to be linear, if you don't want it to be, Hell, you can find the memories BACKWARDS if you so chose, that's the whole point of freedom. And you say its disorienting when "Being able to freely explore one moment, and then being completely restricted the next 'because its a main quest', feels horrible." Nobody is forcing you to follow the main story, The memories don't suddenly just play once your in the vicinity of them, you have to actively look for the tear in order to play it. And you can literally just skip the cutscenes altogether and watch them later, when it isn't "Interrupting the flow" of your experience. Or you can literally just skip it all, and ignore the memories/tears.

@jackoyster1270

11 ай бұрын

@@koolgamerryes8122the problem with this idea that you can just skip the cutscenes is that you don’t really know that the first time. Like the original commenter mentioned, you can easily get story spoilers by simply choosing the wrong tear to go after. The criticism this game is getting for its story isn’t because it’s linear, but rather because the developers didn’t do a good job transitioning the story into an open world. They wanted to do the same as memories in botw while at the same time responding to the criticism the story got in the last game. However, they still fell into the story pitfalls that game had. It’s hard to have story elements that pay off when you have to look up the correct order of tears to ensure you don’t get spoilers. Yeah I know impa tells you, but she just disappeared for me and I couldn’t find her. Not only that but the tears locations didn’t correlate to the memories themselves, it just felt like running around random places to get pieces of a story that wasn’t that amazing to begin with. Botw wasn’t much better but you really can’t blame the audience for wanting a more linear story, and telling them to just not experience the story if they don’t like how it’s delivered is a completely moronic idea that doesn’t allow for discussion and doesn’t actually solve the issue.

I love this video so much and it's finally a break from all the praise I see about it while not being senseless. I loved Breath of the Wild and preordered TotK but it just feels so disconnected and objective-based. I thought the story would be more linear and an interesting take on the world but it feels more like a BotW mod than a sequel. There's definitely too many currencies to keep track of and seemingly a lack of actual story comprehensiveness ad a standalone title and disconnect as a sequel that left the game feeling less like an experience and more of a checklist

@samseltoter560

11 ай бұрын

You are 100% right. It feels just like an overhaul mod that someone made in one month. The story had so much potential but it was told in a horrible way.

I feel this video. So often TotK gives but also just falls flat or takes away. Like the pop-up item menu is great to have, but it's implemented horribly being just 1 super long, single line list of all of the items in your inventory. Who the heck thought it was a good idea to make the inventory take 20+ seconds to scroll across after 20 hours of play?

5:56 to 6:29 is perfectly described how I have felt this whole time. I've seen people who just climb the walls or just build the hover bike that everyone uses to skip the whole fire temple or rocket shield up everything and sure it feels good the first time but I think you are ultimately making the game less interesting and really boring playing this way. The fact I had to restrict myself on cheese and either do the intended way or use different zonai devices or blocks for a different solution because the meta way is so often dry. I think being creative makes the game so much better but I feel like people will fall into the trap of the boring meta and get tired on the game really quickly. I think Nintendo should of made some slight restrictions especially inside of dungeons where there's basically zero and inside shrines which stop zonai devices being spawned but you can still smuggle stuff onto shields and weapons then just walk in. It's basically the well known phase from developers saying we need to protect the players from themselves and its a rule for a very good reason.

@SailorCheryl

11 ай бұрын

So true. The firetemple is the best example and therefore the reason why people love it or hate it. I did it the intended way, was stuck a Lot and loved it the most. Nintendo really failed in designing the dungeon too open with no restructions. They Had one year to polish and did not notice?

Exactly - well said! "Tears of the Kingdom is good but it ultimately falls short of excellence!"

@wingzero2348

11 ай бұрын

Exactly. £70 DLC 😂

@moosesues8887

11 ай бұрын

It is 70 dollars huh 🫠

Yeah. This game has many flaws. Everything is just so tedious and chore, I had to give up on it.

To preface all the negativity I am about to spew, I loved Tears of the Kingdom, played it basically nonstop for two weeks so know this comes from the place of love. I have a lot of grievances with this game, as mentioned in this video I really resonated with what you said about exploration being changed. I saw Jon from GVG quote it as TOTK being about skimming over the map while BOTW was about exploring it. I need to force myself to not use waypoints to recapture that same wanderlust and I don't like that. I feel much less attached to Hyrule in TOTK vs BOTW. I also think the depths has a lot of wasted potential. It's just far too empty, which I understand is kind of the point but save for the few quests in there it just feels like I have no reason to fully explore the depths past the few key locations that have gear. The open ended nature to puzzle solving also disappoints me, it feels like I'm being actively discouraged from engaging in puzzles the way they were meant to be solved, which in most cases are arguably a more satisfying puzzle, and instead I cheese it. It just makes a lot of content feel like filler when I don't have to engage with it. With regards to the side quests however, I have to disagree. Many of the side quests in the game I feel are far more memorable than any quest in BOTW. Retaking, then rebuilding Lurelin, the Hateno Election, all of the Stable Trotters quests, the depths Yiga quest, really just all of the Yiga quests, the Zelda Rumor quests, etc. etc.. that is not to say all the quests are good... personally I think BOTW had far more engaging shrine quests, but either way I enjoyed a lot of the side content. All of these problems, however, just make me really curious for what the next title is going to be. I really hope it isn't going to be another 6 years (I don't know if TOTK was good enough for waiting 6 years), but it looks like it might be. I just don't know what direction they could go in at this point. If they drop all the mechanics from this game but do the same open world format and don't do something even more insane, which would take even LONGER to develop I can't help but think people would find it disappointing. I guess we'll see.

@SailorCheryl

11 ай бұрын

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Already agreeing with this 3 minutes in. Honestly a point I hadnt thought of is how easy it is to get around from the sky: it removes the kind of reverence BOTW had for its world, its all accessible so quickly either by gliding from high up or building a thing and flying there asap. The numbers game adds to this too, the world isnt about the wonder lust of exploring its about collecting 40 gems so you can maybe buy a hat with it - BOTW's korok seeds specifically made fun of this kind of game design by giving players a piece of shit for being stupid enough to treat seeds like they needed to be collected.

Dude the shrines sucked honestly and not because you can cheese them. It was because they were easy, and took no intelligence to complete. It's ridiculous how easy some of them are and almost half of them the "puzzle" is just finding the shrine and opening a chest.

a better title would've been 'The Fortnitification of Zelda'

I can understand how overwhelming the game might feel by giving you so much space to solve puzzles, not limited only to shrines, but some of the actual dungeons: In the fire temple youre encouraged to use the mine caet system to navigate it, but I decided to use rockets fused onto my shield to go faster and higher. Same with the watet temple, as it is a small zome where your speed gets limited I found it was more effective to use rocket shields combined with the sky armor to sort of fly over everything at mach speed, making it so I never had to engage with the water bubbles. BUT then you notice how fun and engaging the system can be. Ill admit I cant be bothered to build korok shawarma machines or giant mechas that shoot lasers, but I appreciate the game gives the player the chance for it, and besides, I love the traversal possibilities the system brings to the table much more: I love the rocket shield, but the shield dusing goes beyond that, like fusing a wing to it and activating bulltet time from a normal jump, or the rocket in conjunction with the glider for a better Tulin gust, even the skateboards you can make, from minecarts, zonai wheels and even butter. I know the puzzles can feel disappointed sometimes, but its within the spirit of the game, to let you enjoy this adventure, YOUR adventure however you see fit. I didn't know you could just bomb the pads in those ball puzzles unyil you pointed out, and nevertheless the game lets you do it! I feel the real puzzle is not the intented solution, but just how many there are besides that one, its what Zelda has always encouraged its players, to think outside the box, ever since the very first game. So yeah, I understand your points, completely valid, but I have to disagree.

@rezarfar

9 ай бұрын

Yeah i read everything you just wrote and I'm gonna have to disagree with you, it's down to opinion, the stuff you found to be fun, like the building and the puzzles, i found to be janky and brain dead. It's definitely down to opin, my opinion is, this game isn't nearly as good as BOTW.

Dude I would kill for a portal game where the portal gun was just the ultrahand and you had to build doodads. That, or another Zelda game that wasn't open world. I had my fun with tears of the kingdom but I am definitely sick of huge landscapes with entirely too long traversal times and awkward implementations of mechanics. I like the toolbox I was given for the sandbox I was dropped into, but at some point, I stopped wanting to dig around the sand and just wanted to progress the video game. I did a good amount of side content, did all the main story content, and just walked away feeling satisfied with my unique little solutions to things, and frustrated by kind of everything else. I mean the depths in particular really sucked the fun out of exploration for me, spending hours trying to walk around and climb up a wall that I can't walk around or climb up, only ever wasting that time because I couldn't see. That and the fact that I did just fly everywhere with the sky towers, a process that just involves holding forward towards your desired location for minutes and minutes, yeah it sucked. Everything that wasn't combat or puzzle solving was complete and utter busywork or a foregone conclusion stretched out to its absolute limit for the sake of not wanting link to fly faster.

Good take

TotK is basically BotW directors cut

The consequence of not doing the puzzle correctly is that you feel a little stupid. I appreciate that that choice exists instead of forcing players to look up a shrine’s solution once they run out of ideas.

@ValentinRobert

Жыл бұрын

Yeah I've had a couple times where I knew I cheesed (not only in shrines but also in temples), only to suddenly get it much later elsewhere while doing something else and having a good laugh about how silly I was.

Nice vid, tho I must say that I don’t think the possibilities of exploits in the shrines is a bad thing, I have a personal challenge to beat every shrine (except these tutorial ones or items gone ones) on a non intended way. Also no idea the bombs worked on the ball pads, I built a long stick and attached the ball at the end to press it against the pad you showed in the video

@ThatDangDad

Жыл бұрын

oh my god, genius

@UsernameyMcUsernameFace

Жыл бұрын

Hilarious

@davidduitsman4916

11 ай бұрын

I didn't even think of that or the bomb either if I'm being honest. I did that shrine completely differently than both of you which I think is pretty cool and makes the game more fun.

They have butchered the overall style and atmosphere...its like they got everything we knew and loved about the Zelda atmosphere and burried it under the Temple of time ruins...the only aera that screams Zelda. Whats with ditching Classic fairytale feel with robots and mechanics..lazers mixed with prehistoric art...where is the magic? Where is the Heart? Less is more!!. Do you agree?

@kingkrysen

10 ай бұрын

I agree 💯

@5:24 HA! That's a pretty funny comparison.. kudos for that @11:12 I'd argue that THAT is not the case at all! Nintendo designed EVERYTHING in this game to be unnecessary (which I hate), so nothing can really have any weight. Most content is repeated infinitely (from Koroks, to Shrine's approach, to narrative structure and even its delivery). The only narrative moment that does, is completely undermined by its resolution (which isn't even a special ending you can unlock).. It's an entire game of "nothing matters", because Nintendo is afraid that Players could miss things. FromSoft has made story/side quests completely miss-able and some are completely impossible to figure out on your own! And some of them are REALLY important or memorable!! The fact that Nintendo was forced to change (with BotW), and everyone told them that TotK didn't need to shows a disrespect to the craft and the players. They'll only innovate when they cut of their pie is affected. And that's the worst of all.

Thank you for verbalizing this you put into words exactly all the problems I have with this game. I really think Breath of the wild was designed a lot better as a game. I don't think we''ll be talking about Totk for 6+ years like we have with Botw. Im already moved on and wondering what's next for the series.

Every shrine naked is such a good recommendation. As someone who does everything in the intended way i abhor using rockets to cheese thru every puzzle

They should have ditched fusion and ultrahand and made more combat focused changes and improvements.

I have about 30-40 hours played and still loving it. Finding new places and things. However, one complaint I have is the quests and their rewards. Once you’ve explored the castle and can get the best weapons and shields whenever, there really is no reason to do any quests. I have 40k rupees, multiples of the best weapons and bows, and all the armor sets I want. So really other than the exploration aspect, there really is no “point” or feeling of advancement. Oh what’s in that chest at the end of this long cave or dungeon?!? Your 1000th opal…

I agree completely. I really wanted to like Tears of the Kingdom but I just can’t get into it for the love of me. Guess open world Zelda isn’t for me.

I have a lot problems with the tears of the kingdom 😂😂😂

Zelda games are startin to not feel like Zelda games😓

I completely agree. I still haven't finished playing through Breath of the Wild, and after seeing all the cool trailers for this game I was expecting it to replace the original, but I found myself wanting to go back to Breath of the Wild after getting only a few hours into Tears of the Kingdom, and I think you touched on all the reasons for that here.

I feel like this is a safe space where i can share that i didnt like either of ToTK and BotW. Both have their moments, but i found them surprisingly uncompelling and they grew dull pretty quickly.

@kingkrysen

10 ай бұрын

Same but if I have to choose I'll take BOTW anyway over what the hell TOTK was

@curtisdupree4430

9 ай бұрын

It took me a long time to warm up to BotW. Now I love it, although I still prefer other games in the series. TotK is nowhere near as enjoyable as BotW to me.

Beautiful review. Agree with almost everything!

I find this game does less than the bare minimum to earn the player's engagement. The story is recycled but with less character, it introduces two huge areas but they're barren and copy-pasted, it has a bajillion puzzle mechanics but repeats puzzles ad nauseum instead of iterating, the new enemies barely make a dent on the variety problem, it makes you do the armor/korok/compendium grinds AGAIN, then there's shit like Lurelin that clickbaits you into thinking there's going to be a cool new enemy faction only for it to be more bokoblins and lizalfos.

This is an interesting argument that i wonder would be applicable to TTRPGs and their ideas of inventory like spell components etc

I’m sad to here the Yiga are not optional. I thought I stumbled into a secret when I found the start of their side mission during my first 10 hours.

@x46vob

Жыл бұрын

Yiga and Master Sword are optional as far as I know. There are speedruns of the game that definitely skip both. After getting the sages, you're told to "find Ganon" and it's suggested that the Yiga know where he is, but you can go straight to the final boss without that.

Plenty of pros and cons. I do love botw better overall. Better vibe and adventure. Good new game though, plenty of good ideas

This game burned me so badly... BOTW also made me tired because of the repetition and the lack of depth in basic mechanics like combat, but after 100+ hours I decided I should save Zelda, so I did, I never went back to the game, but I was more or less satisfied. The reaction to TOTK was quite different. Unlike BOTW, which I finished satisfied, I couldn't even finish TOTK. I left the game feeling disgusted with all the wasted time.

Honestly your opinion makes sense. Personally the shrines kept me engaged and I don’t think the issues affected me as much as they affected you. But that’s just my personal taste and I do understand how many people might have the same issues.

Wow this video is really good i like totk but i've had my fair share of problems with it especially how story, shrines and stuff are handled you can always cheese something the open world no restrictions is good but without restictions there's no fun, you get a sense victory in other games when you do something the devs didn't intend for you to do, in totk it kinda just feels like an oversite they try to mitigate this with not being able to bring out zonai devices in shrine but what's stopping you from just going outside of the shrine and fusing a rocket to shield, then going in flying over the hazard nothing, and that's the problem there's nothing to stop you. still a good game but like you said it fails to reach excellence

WARNING. SUPER LONG POST. NO TLDR I like watching these videos to keep an open mind about things I like alot but I do disagree with some of your views. Such as the "numbers game" comment. None of the resources in this game act as a problem unless you're really picky about menu clutter. Alot of what makes a "numbers game" bad in different games is that it actively bars players from progression which this game never does outside of side quest. And even still all the side quest make you fetch resources you probably already had alot of, or its something you can easily get. There's a surplus of these resources because the game is non linear and you can take any path you'd like. You don't need every blessing to max your health/stamina, every korok to fully expand your gear, and every bubble gem to buy everything in Koltons shop (thats what they do btw. I also found out end game lol). Even things like pony points i find weird to pount out as a nitpick because it doesn't actively take away from the game and even gives you reason to use the stable system more as it was something I almost never used in botw. I would now take my time to sleep in those stables just to get points so I could expand the horses I collect and use the customizables they give me. Its honestly a cool extra feature. If you get super robotic about it, all you did was point out a gameplay loop. I do this, to gain this, to do this more. Like yeah I explore caves to get bright bloom seeds, to explore depths to get zonite, to power vechicles to explore surface/ depths/ sky etc. But this game does a good job with the sense of adventure that when I collect these things they don't feel like tasks to me and more part of my adventure. But of course everyone sees these things differently. You're critism about the solving puzzles is definetly valid but theres a saying that "you control all the buttons you push". I understand developers have to program games that protects the player from themselves but I just think the discusssion is based too much on player preferences to have a real answer. As the wonder of a linear puzzle is no longer there on a second playthough meanwhile there are an infinite number of ways to do the same puzzle if its free form giving infinite wonders. However an impression can be negatively impacted if the player "harms themselves" by exploiting the puzzle as oppossed to the dev intended method. Again, player usually harms themselves in these subjects as they blame the game despite them being under full control of every button they press. The Quest critism definetely shocked me. I feel like the scope of the game is more realized here than in botw. The divine beast in botw were seen as catostrophies and weapons of mass destruction but then you go the villagers just living under these things peacefully. Like the rito village one just flies around and the zora one just makes it rain (in a city that already loves water mind you). The only threatning one was Naboris, whos threat was that it might just walk and trample upon gerudo town one day on accident. Meanwhile in Totk every village is literally suffering a crisis. A cold storm causing famine, a literal zombie apocalpse with a sandstorm to top it off, and toxic sludge that is destroying an entire city's supply of materials and way of life. Every thing feels far more threatning even if the game still allows you to do everything at your own pace. It comes down to perception because technically the main quest of the game is finding zelda. And all your adventures to different parts of the land are not unrelated as you are indeed venturing the whole world looking for her and just doing good deeds along the way because you're the hero. The same way botw main quest is killing ganon and you're just going though the whole world to get stronger and gain resources to kill him. And even the side quest are a massive step up. They even remade some side quest in botw and remixed them such as the 3 hinox and the 3 massive fossils quest. Yea we have throw aways like oh gimme a fish or make some food, or (alot of) show me a picture. But even still those throw away ones encourage you to discover more about the world. My adventure to take a picture of spectacle rock lead me to discover a massive flame dragon and I'll never forget that. But I find it very interesting how you didn't like the ones with big scopes like the Yiga clan or the ones that give you a better look at the interpersonal lives of the villagers. These quest are fairly lengthy/ in depth compared to a typical jrpg quest of just being a "kill x amout, gather x amount" and you probably just have different values as a gamer compared to others. But even your comment on a box to check off marks feels so odd as the game never tells you how many side quest there are or even where they are. Everything is discoverable. Much like all the other problems you listed. Perhaps this games discovery isn't as appealing to you? The narrative is something I do agree on though. You are wrong though as the game doesn't force you to actually do it. You can skip all the tears. They're just reccomended. There's only two mainquest you have to do to beat the game. Its kill ganon and find zelda. The other "main quest" are just marked as main quest to show how important they are in comparison. You don't need to the the yiga quest as it was a side quest by game definition anyways. And you don't need to find the master sword. Nothing stops you from killing ganon other than the obstacles the final dungeon is gonna present to you. Botw also had main quest that you never had to do. Such as "finding impa", "free the for divine beast", "obtain the master sword" etc. My personal problem with the narrative is the fact that its also recieved in a non linear fashion. It didn't bother me in botw because all of those sequences happened in the past and are long done, and while that its somewhat true now, there is a lot of mystery on what happenend in totk. And recieving some sequences out of order can easily destroy the story narrative. Like I should be able to find out Zelda's fate in my 1st memory. But I got really lucky and experienced it and a somewhat cohesive order. But I know many player have not and I think this arguement is the most legatimate of all. I know a said alot and it was mainly counter argument I do appreciate you highlighting your personal qualms with the game. I do think some of your thoughts were needlessly nitpicky and some were just kinda wrong (like having the find the master sword). Despite that I did like watching it. Left a like. Keep it up

@lordofthepies

Жыл бұрын

I too am a little confused by the quest argument. While sure, one might consider there being too many quests, but honestly, what else are you going to fill the vast space up with? The previous games solution to this was korok seeds, which were rather in unfulfilling and almost never felt as good as the effort you put in to collecting them. More quests also just fits into the world of totk better. In botw you were picking up the pieces of a ruined kingdom with fractured societies. But now, you've already done that. You have established towns, met characters, and defeated the yiga once before. It makes more sense that totk builds off that and gives the impression that your efforts from the first game have built into flourishing societies in the second one. It also fits better into the theme of totk, where fighting gannondorf is not a one person job but a collective effort

bubbel gem respecter here, I love "gaining buble gem"

The reality is that Nintendo wouldn't have been able to pull out a entirely new game that is more like the older Zelda. Because yes, it's just a big DLC for Breath of the Wild, no matter what you want to believe. The Switch is an underpowered system for the current time and Nintendo's next console (if it will even exist), is still far from reality. With the financial success of Breath of the Wild, making this kind of DLC type release was the no brainer choice. Milk the cow strategy because the craft intensity gameplay remains extremely popular and will both fill the bank until the next installment and satisfy the customers.

Botw and totk are 7/10 games at best

@First-Drop-Studios

11 ай бұрын

No they’re not lol. At least 8 or 9 out of 10

I enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom more than I thought I would but I can't help but feel conflicted on it. The Zonai stuff is so much fun and the abilities are great. Yet much of the new stuff feels undercooked... the Depths are huge but feel like a barren wasteland, and the sky makes Wind Waker's ocean feel like it was bursting with content. Every time you map out a chunk of the sky it's like you have to squint to see what's even there. The dungeons are definitely a step up in presentation from the Divine Beasts, but mechanically very lacking. None of the major elements seemed to reach their full potential. I personally would've sacrificed either the sky or the depths entirely if it meant the other got more satisfying content. It feels like they tried to do both but couldn't deliver on either.

"did we really need an expansion of the stable system?" this kinda sums up my grievances with this game- i've dumped like, 80 hours into totk, beaten the main quest, and i still don't understand many of the decisions that were made throughout (story, gameplay, the whole deal). i just don't get what the priorities were when making this game. some holdovers from botw have been "fixed" when they never needed fixing (eg, pony points) while other things that were in dire need of attention haven't been changed at all (eg the horrible ui and inventory menus). usually if there's stuff in a game i don't like i try to give those elements a fair shake by asking "okay, i don't like this, but what was the though process behind it? can i understand why this decision was made, even if i don't like it?" but so much of totk had me scratching my head asking "what the hell was that about" "it's not as cool if he shoots the man every time" is also a picture-perfect analogy for the puzzles in this game. the joy of cheesing puzzles in older games is the feeling of breaking the mould, but in totk, cheesing puzzles IS the mould.

Great video mate ! 👍

The things that drive me crazy in this game are the pedantically precise ultrahand controls and the fact that you have no access to all the weapons and armor you spent time and resources strengthening in Breath of the Wild.

I don't th9ink I agree with all the need for resource management

You die ALL.THE.FRICKIN.TIME in this game.

Yeah, I gave up on the game. Too many things to gather, and the crafting just feels like another gate to make more things to gather.... Also just not a fan of constructing things that much. I was straight up exhausted to make any progress for things i was interested in. Thrill of exploration was kinda gone for me... It's a cool game, just not my cup of tea.

The big question now is where are they gonna go from here, will the next Zelda game have this type of design or will they reach back to an older time like Ocarina or Majora's and make them that way.

@lukejones7164

7 ай бұрын

Aonuma already made it clear that Nintendo doesn't have any plans on making an older style Zelda game ever again, especially since the entire point of BotW was to address all of the problems and weakness that existed in Classic Zelda.

@mkjjoe

10 сағат бұрын

@@lukejones7164 The point of BOTW was to refocus on the free exploration side that had been increasingly put aside. TOTK is derivative but that formula isn't set in stone. The next game will be open world but there is room for better integration of linear segments and progression. Their goal isn't to be extreme for the sake of it, they take feedback into account and criticism has been stronger with TOTK (rightfully so).

When I played this game it was amazing like everything was nice sure some things felt boring but overall great I just wish I could see. Hyrule where it is normal and where Zelda is free. I think they could do something like splatoon 2 octo expansion where for the secret final boss after you beat it there’s a little kind of memory button at hyrule castle which lets you do the boss again. But just my opinion.

This was a beautifully crafted video with great opinions, voice,script, etc… I can’t believe your this small as channel. Keep this up. And thank you… so much for not ignoring the glaring flaws of Totk and saying stuff I haven’t heard from other people

To me this game, and botw should’ve just been the same game because the problem with tears of the kingdom‘s open world is that not much has changed meaning most of that wonder it’s just not there in the vehicle building is: all but it doesn’t really fit the Zelda series I get it they wanted to try something new but it doesn’t work you can use it to choose every puzzle. Which isn’t a good thing that’s bad game design. All the dungeons were pretty mid another thing I felt was that the underground was just too much. It should’ve just been a regional thing and that gathering weapons underground should’ve just made it also regional instead of just rng this type of game design only fits for party games not an open world game sky islands are cool and all but they do the same thing over and over again at least breath of the wild shrines are more interesting and how to unlock them and even playing in the shrines are a lot better and most of the new stuff they added was just filler to me. It’s a good game not great not perfect and not a masterpiece, and it does not at all fix everything breath the wild filled at in the store. It was OK there’s a lot of plot holes with this game, and the whole story to the series and the sages ai suck in this game as well as our mechanics on that good so they definitely need a lot more work especially the weapon durability they didn’t really fix it even though they were bragging about how they did but yeah, this is pretty much my opinion about the game

Thank you guys. Exactly my impression. I have never been so disappointed about a Zeldagame... Never did a sequel Copy&paste so much like this game and I cannot understand how that took them 6 years. They "upgraded" BotW to a sandbox game, which took them a lot of effort, time they should have invested into unique gameplay. It annoys me so much that this game got all those overhyped reviews. Bad decision...

How does BOTW 2 play? Aka £70 DLC...

@First-Drop-Studios

11 ай бұрын

It’s an insanely good £70 DLC

@wingzero2348

11 ай бұрын

@@First-Drop-Studios ...LOL 😂 It's dg sht...

I don't particularly mind the resource management, and somewhat relatedly I feel like totk is a bit fuller of a world than botw just in terms of density of things to find and do on the map. I personally like that for a bit more engagement, though it does take away some of the more relaxed feeling of botw's exploration, and I wish there was a way to balance the two more. Also agreed on shrines, I feel like botw's had more interesting puzzles, vs totk is just "hey remember this basic mechanic exists? Can you solve two basic steps with it? Done". I overall like totk and it has a firm grip on my completionist heart, but ... I guess that's just it, it really appeals to my sense of finding all the trinkets and doesn't have much more to say than that. Which is fine for what it is, but as you say, could be something more towards excellent.

@wrensview171

Жыл бұрын

Oh one other note that I feel they did do really well but also doesn't bring long-term or replay value is using the familiar setting as a method of making the unfamiliar that much more unsettling. The trees are attacking me, I thought I'd turn around to an octorock but it's a demon monkey on the ceiling, there are portals to hell, and I had A Time for the first several hours... but now I know what all those things are

good point. I think the overall mandatory quests sum up to a fantastic game, but the non-mandatory sidequests are kind of boring. I had more fun with some horizon sidequests that often lead to cool environments

Half of the stuff you claim is mandatory isn't, though. If you don't do the Yiga quest, you lose nothing. You can do the first bit for Autobuild and bugger off, or just not if you hate building. If you don't do the memories, you can either just fly up to the light dragon later... Or not bother and be given the Master Sword for free at the end. And so on. Ironically, almost literally every single complaint you have is a thing that makes me love the game far beyond Breath of the Wild. Especially the sidequests.

Really looking forward to returning to this when I finally get to the game at some point, probably in August, since that's when my birthday is heheh

For me personally what tears of the kingdom is get all three maps so you know where the hell you’re going and of course do the main story. Other than that tears of the kingdom is really nothing zero zilch forget about it you get my point

a lot of the stuff that bothered you is why I think totk worked so well lol. to be clear though, I do think the game has a ton of flaws. I just wasn't bothered by a lot of em. I also think that the story stuff in TotK is about as "mandatory" as the story stuff in BotW, which is to say that it isn't but it is lol Like, I think if you play either game without doing the story stuff or main quest, you are going to feel like it is an incomplete experience.

one thing i disagree with you, the game really wants you to use the items you find in this game as soon as you find them. it will give you some extra so you don't panic, but it does not encourage you to hoard as many of something as you can 'in case you need it in the 100s' if you have good stuff, use it, the game will reward you for it.

It's a very interesting game to talk about, I agree with basically everything here but I still enjoyed the game significantly more than BOTW. Mostly because I finally found the playstyle that works for me (I played with the HUD turned off, never upgraded my inventory, and ignored as much side content as I possibly could). I think the game is generally better about encouraging you to find your own fun due to the fusion and building systems, but does the freedom to ignore the depths excuse the fact that the depths kind of suck? Not really. I'm sure there's a better way to go about making something like this but I have a hard time imagining an open world game of this scale and budget that isn't full of compromises and padding.

Sounds like this game might be like a 7 out of 10, if anyone would be so bold.

@lukejones7164

7 ай бұрын

That's an objectively false take even from the most negative possible viewpoint.

Underrated undersubbed channel

It’s a very tedious game yes, but it’s still really good and the main problem I have is low frame rate and laggy moments when I bring out abilities or weapons scroll. But my theory is they made is so huge and so tedious and added on so many things to do around every corner is so people don’t get sick of it and get bored a month after it comes out because they beat the game and did everything so fast they are already demanding for a new game, so I think they did that on purpose so people take their time

While this is most definitely influenced by the fact tat I only plated BotW after seeing a ton of stuff about it and went into TotK blind I really didn't feel any less of a sense of exploration here. I will agree with you that the depths are a cool thing to discover until you realize there just isn't that much actually interesting down there. Also I think you are heavily underestimating how many shrines in BotW were entirely skip-able just by bomb jumping. If anything the new build mechanics just give you more creative ways to just avoid the actual puzzle. I know that "just don't optimize yourself out of fun" is very much a cop-out answer but if you want to solve the puzzle you can also just decide to do that.

I disagree that the side quests didn’t get better. Maybe you’ve only played some of the less interesting ones, though.

Wait, what do you mean there are no corners to hide surprises around? What about the cave systems under the whole map? They hide way more stuff than BotW ever did, including like 15% of the shrines and a lot of the gear sets. I don't think giving us higher places to glide from is comparatively that big of a factor. I actually think I did more paraglider exploration in BotW where there are still towers everywhere, but I'm not looking for cave entrances that are easier to see from the ground.

I appreciate this video a lot. Through it I can see a different kind of player. While I disagree with much of what’s here, it’s fascinating to watch someone face the same situations but come away from them with a whole other feeling. I value that. It’s kinda odd how some of it is just factually wrong though, for example you don’t have to do any Yiga clan stuff for the main narrative. Enjoyed the watch though!

No 1 dungeon in 12 years and skyward sword was a shit game because they focussed to much on the motion controls, man i miss a good zelda magic game pls give me a stonetower temple feeling again

It’s crap. BotW wasn’t great either, but at least it was new and exciting. This is just a copy paste of that game with Nuts and Bolts vehicle building. So disappointing.

@First-Drop-Studios

11 ай бұрын

I’m sorry but you must’ve only played for like 15 minutes. It’s way more than just nuts and bolts vehicle building

@SuperJamPlays

11 ай бұрын

@@First-Drop-Studios I have obviously played for more then 15 minutes. I didn’t say it was just nuts and bolts vehicle building, I said it was a copy / paste of BotW with that vehicle building. I mean, come on, it’s really not all that different from BotW outside of that.

@First-Drop-Studios

11 ай бұрын

@@SuperJamPlays well, it has 4 infinitely better dungeons, more interesting gameplay with fuse and ultra-hand and an insanely well designed final boss. It’s similar to breath of the Wild but not to the point where it’s crap. The depths is fun to explore and it’s new. Along with the sky islands having some cool shrine puzzles and mini bosses.

The feeling you describe a out the game is similar to what I've been feeling, but for entirely different reasons. I find the game *too* compelling. I've finally been able to put it down, bit it hooked me to a degree I haven't felt in a long time. It's economy is perfectly balanced to keep you playing, and always have something to do when a resource runs out. The side quests are trivial, but able to point you in directions you might not have thought of. The narrative, while not great, still moved me to a point where I wanted to chase Zelda and find her. I've grown to have a love hate relationship with this game. It might be one of the most polished games I've ever played, but it is also like a drug to me and I don't know if I should consume more.

Hey, every single complaint in this video was on-point. I recently returned to the game and found how I could enjoy it, but it mostly involved coming to terms with two things: 1) the game has a ton of problems and 2) it's within my power to avoid dwelling on them. It's a game with higher highs and lower lows than just about any other Zelda game, and if nothing else, that's fascinating.

This game is a sidegrade while they wait to put the really great ideas into the next system.

I appreciate the fact that you aren't just mindlessly hating on the game, and that you're giving good points and examples, but who tf is being worried about their silver bokoblin horns???

In interviews, the developers said quite a lot that they had all these ideas after BotW, but it was too much for DLC. And I think that they just kind of built a game around it without really considering why BotW worked so well, which was that it was _all_ new. It was a direction that Zelda had never seen, and, as you elaborate on, arguably one which was new for gaming as a whole. At the same time, I don't think they could have recycled BotW's Hyrule without the game just being "here's some new goodies, go have fun." So, for what the game is trying to be, I think it was the only real approach they could have taken. But for the series as a whole, I think it's time to change things up again.

you make valid point's, but as a gamer who likes grinding things i think bigger is better. Genrally. Great job though, your quite a linguist.

Me personally I love tears just as much as I did breath of the wild but I can definitely understand why some people have some issues with it cause let’s face it at the end of the day you’re never going to be able to please everyone not everyone likes the same thing be it video games or movies or anything that’s what makes us all unique it would get boring really fast if everyone liked the same thing all the time 😂

Thanks for not being one of the people that call this game an absolute failure or a complete mess. I love TotK, and I understand your points and agree with most. TotK truly is a great game, but it is undeserving of a 10/10. Other people I’ve watched claim that the game is a disastrous failure, which is not true at all. I’m glad to see a more optimistic video about this game’s shortcomings, only talking about the games real blunders except for nit picky details. Thanks for that. Oh yeah also I can’t get this out of my head: you sound like you’re being held at gunpoint at the end of the video it’s hilarious

Aonuma already made it clear that Nintendo doesn't have any plans on making an older style Zelda game ever again, especially since the entire point of BotW was to address all of the problems and weakness that existed in Classic Zelda.

Name at the beginning should really have read "Harry - Hater / Wrong"

@VideoGamesAreBad

11 ай бұрын

lol good one

The interesting thing about the comments sections for video essays on Tears of the Kingdom is that they seem to have an unintentional "mod mentality," where they tend to mostly agree with the video maker. In the case of your video, it seems like folks have some gripes with the game. However, I've watched other KZreadrs making videos about how Tears of the Kingdom is a masterpiece, and even folks who didn't like or didn't play Breath of the Wild were saying Tears of the Kingdom is beyond-amazing! ...Maybe the solution is as simple as "The video maker did a great job presenting his or her points," and I happen to be on the side of "Tears of the Kingdom is currently my favorite video game... but even a masterpiece can have flaws." Thank you for doing a good job of making sure that you can still like the game, but don't have to like every part of it.

I disagree about depths. Their are lot of things to do in depths. The biggest thing is pristine weapons, many schematics and hidden items to find in depths. Just because you found an big empty field in depth doesn't mean it is actually empty because that's present in surface as well like a big hyrule field. Depth are dark and that's the attraction this time because we already accustomed to the way surface work. Also this progression style, their is lot more variety not just shrines and tower like before. So progression doesn't actually feel samey like you said. This time shrines are just another one of thing to do not the main secrets to find actually.

I had a far better time exploring Tears of the Kingdom than Breath of the Wild because the reality that there was little substance to the discoveries set in fairly early with BotW. It was serene and beautiful, to be sure, but it felt empty and hollow in a variety of ways. By contrast, it took about 100 hours before I felt like I had seen most of what Tears of the Kingdom had to offer, and even then I had some of my favorite discoveries past that point.