Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

[ZinogreVolt]

On 3/28/2023 at 10:51 AM, ZinogreVolt said:

I'm hoping that you can "store" Ultrahand builds or something since I can quite easily see repeated vehicle/contraption building getting very time-consuming. 

Previews have confirmed this to be the case! You just need the correct materials on-hand. The skill "Autobuild" will let you do it:

[Sonicka]

The previews really make this out to be something quite incredible - we have a literal sandbox of fun for the users here.

A primary feature (especially for all those islands) that seems key is on working out just how TF you can get to or cross over to each one of the floating islands and finding solutions in the madness of experimentations. 

Nintendo may as well have called this Tools of the Kingdom instead with the versatility on offer. 

[Sonicka]

Can’t believe this actually turned up a day early (for once with my pre-orders).

So far, amazing (and incredibly cinematic).

Time to get diving into this world. 

[ZinogreVolt]

Been playing it on a legally obtained(tm) copy for a while and I am impressed at how much more restrictive the game is, while still keeping to the freeform nature of problem solving that defined Breath of the Wild. Shrines in particular feel much tougher, but maybe I'm just not used to the new powers yet.

[Sonicka]

I've just made it to the surface - and woooow - skydiving is totally going to be my new favourite thing. This is what I always wanted from Skyward Sword (we got there 10 years later). That opening scripted shot with the title card really gave me chills just the original did as link set foot into the wild too. They know how to set a scene. 

I agree @ZinogreVoltthat they've doubled down on restrictions whilst somehow making this feel even more open. The entire landscape is a giant puzzle to solve and I love it.  I think it's most felt because they had to remove literally everything Link gained in BOTW (story purposes do account for this of course so it's ok), but the loss of the original 4 runes and the abilities gained from the champions is felt in particular  because they became a natural extension of his move-set. 

However... these four new abilities (and I'm going to guess more come later?) could well surpass them given time and practise. The Ultrahand ability is already a much better version of Magnesis since now you can pick up everything and not just metal. Fuse I am finding to be a surprising amount of fun (I lol'd when I made a railcart shield), and Ascend and Recall are going to be monumental in helping traverse Hyrule. Also - the lack of no longer having infinite bombs for crack rocks and surfaces has been instantly negated now that you can smash through surfaces by making a Rock Hammer or something similar - this also lends itself to making mining through surfaces and caves as being pretty fun.

But, the new powers so far feel like excellent additions (even if they take a little while to get used too), I can already feel it beginning to click into place though and have some wicked ideas for fusions already beyond building 10 tree length bridges lol.

I also agree that the first few shrines on "Tutorial Island" compared to the BOTW equivalent are certainly harder, but this is also because the abilities are much tougher to understand conceptually than the original four were - so they have to push the player more to get us to see how these can be used. It is interesting that they basically repeated The Great Plateau again (in a sense...) though, but when a tutorial system works as well as this and is enjoyable - then it makes sense. 

Also... what they did with the map... I mean, if people were concerned that Nintendo were calling it in with a reused world then they'll be in for a surprise by what they actually pulled out of their hat terms of new content, scale and variety. I just can't fathom that this is even on a single switch cart - and how is it that the world loads up on the hardware in just over 5 seconds compared to the original game? What wizardry is this?
 

[ZinogreVolt]

Playing on a proper copy now, managed to snag Link's duds without a guide.  

 

lmfao I also completely take back what I said about this game being more resistant than BotW, it actually might be worse off. Ultrahand -> Rewind -> Ascend lets you skip a LOT of puzzles.

[ZinogreVolt]

Tears of the Kingdom story/area spoilers:

Spoiler

Holy fucking cow, everything about the Construct Factory and the Spirit Temple was just incredible. The buildup, from the dangerous journey to/through Thunderhead Isles, to having to do another vitality check against the door, to actually getting there and finding out you have to go all the way down into the depths. The incredibly well-designed factory and surrounding area itself (the right leg depot put me off guard, it's one of the few areas in the game to try and trip you up - what the game tricks you into thinking is a way forward is actually an Ascend point that straight up takes you back to the surface world). The reveal that where you're headed is actually the Spirit Temple, and the whole ensuing boss fight that's basically a cagefight between you and a giant mech. Then there's the whole mystery of who the mysterious voice is that you're even helping during all that. It's possible that other parts of the story tell you about her, but as someone who was deliberately doing their damnedest to avoid the main story path and just explore, I was honestly kinda blown away how the game effortlessly ended up guiding me into such a cool event. This might be the peak open air dungeon design so far, what a brilliant moment.

 

[Indigo Rush]

Light Gameplay/Location/Enemy spoilers

Spoiler

Futzed around the Colosseum area trying to do a side-quest and got jumpscared by lightning Gleeok in the most hilarious way. 

I literally just turned a corner towards the entrance and it was just standing there, the name and health bar immediately shows up, the music kicks in and I audibly scream "OH GOD" and my under-leveled self ducks behind the outer corner of the entrance and drink a stealth elixer while lightning shoots out of the entrance. 

I love this game 

 

[Sonicka]

Absolutely crapped my pants when I found a new cave (I love that there are now caves as well as the underground), I saw a shrine and then...

Spoiler

Those mother******* handmine like creatures like in Doctor Who creeped out of the earth to murder my ass.

Game experiences like this are amazing. 

[Indigo Rush]

25 minutes ago, Sonicka said:

Absolutely crapped my pants when I found a new cave (I love that there are now caves as well as the underground), I saw a shrine and then...

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Those mother******* handmine like creatures like in Doctor Who creeped out of the earth to murder my ass.

Game experiences like this are amazing. 

Spoiler

I'm usually pretty brazen with video games but those things creep me right the f*** out. I think this version of the Floormaster was last seen in Wind Waker and I may have some trauma to unpack LOL

 

[Sonicka]

2 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

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I'm usually pretty brazen with video games but those things creep me right the f*** out. I think this version of the Floormaster was last seen in Wind Waker and I may have some trauma to unpack LOL

I went to bed after dealing with them (and when I say dealing... I mean running away and climbing up the walls as they tried to grab me), the music is so unsettling and still don't quite know how to feel about them. 

Spoiler

...ahh Floormasters! Yes, thank-you I completely forgot their name. It's been such a long time since Wind Waker and all I could think of was the Proto Daleks. Both are Murder machines all the same. ^^; 

 

[ZinogreVolt]

1 hour ago, Sonicka said:

I went to bed after dealing with them (and when I say dealing... I mean running away and climbing up the walls as they tried to grab me), the music is so unsettling and still don't quite know how to feel about them. 

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...ahh Floormasters! Yes, thank-you I completely forgot their name. It's been such a long time since Wind Waker and all I could think of was the Proto Daleks. Both are Murder machines all the same. ^^; 

Spoiler

You think the Floormasters are bad NOW? Try successfully killing all of them and see what happens.

 

[Tornado]

 

 

 

 

 

It also amuses me a bit that when people aren't building tanks that can do kickflips puzzle solving by the playerbase has turned into something like how everything in Scribblenauts could be solved with a gun and/or a jetpack.

[StaticMania]

5 hours ago, ZinogreVolt said:

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You think the Floormasters are bad NOW? Try successfully killing all of them and see what happens.

That happens when you kill them in general?

[ZinogreVolt]

22 hours ago, StaticMania said:

That happens when you kill them in general?

From the looks of it, yes.

 

Spoiler

The weapon drops you get from Phantom Ganon are very strong, even pre-fuse. So they're worth doing.

 

[Indigo Rush]

Spoiler

Entering the Lightning Temple wearing the traditional hero's cap while holding a torch and walking into the dark depths of the halls and realizing the dungeon has 8 floors is the exact vibe that I have been missing from Zelda for ages. This was a perfect moment. 

 

[ZinogreVolt]

Got the Master Sword, some light thoughts on the sequence (no story spoilers) below:

Spoiler

Holy fuck. 10/10 moment, by far the best and most unique Master Sword sequence in the whole series for its setup, storytelling implications, and visuals. The fact that I stumbled upon it by accident, failed to get it the first time, and then had to form and execute a plan just to reach it again makes it my favorite easily. Top tier moment not just for the game, but for Zelda as a whole.

 

[KHCast]

Honestly, while the game is certainly better than botw, I still find myself feeling about the same as I do about Botw. It’s a good game, fun enough, but personally nothing really “wowed” me outside its story. I’m still not a huge fan of some of its fundamental mechanics, and while new things are introduced here to mitigate those issues, they’re still there and for me at least, still broke the pacing at times. I liked the crafting mechanic, that was a fun addition for sure that let me get wild with my imagination. Also I loved the soundtrack for this experience. It definitely made everything feel much more grandiose 
 

Outside that, while I appreciate the return of Temples, I think they still lost a little bit of their charm (gameplay wise I mean) due to the open world mission structure of the game presenting the possibility of any of the temples being the players first. they’re amazing set pieces, and have awesome atmosphere to each of them, but I found myself going “oh that was it?” when the boss showed up. I definitely wished for a little more meat to them. 
 

i enjoyed the story a lot more than it’s predecessor, however 

Spoiler

I should have figured they would learn hard into the time travel, especially after age of calamity. Can’t say I was too on board with that.

I liked the characters more here than botw, but I think out of the three games, I still enjoyed the characters and story overall of age of calamity more. You got to see more interaction between the side characters with eachother there vs here. Also, didn’t really care for the ending here won’t lie.

 

Overall, I certainly enjoyed my time with TotK. Probably if I had to score it a good 7.5 or 8. There are other more traditional Zelda games still up in my top zelda games. This style of Zelda, I just don’t really think is all my thing personally. There are things I like, and things I don’t like, and the things I don’t like are core features to this interpretation I don’t see changing anytime soon. 
 

i think that one review I saw awhile back made a decent point that while this game is definitely better than botw, it kinda in a lot of ways invalidates playing the first one. The only game I felt like going back to after playing this, was Age of Calamity lol

[ZinogreVolt]

I got the boxart outfit after about 60 hours of play. Who knew the most annoying part was doing five whole sidequests just to lower my freaking hood...?

[Sonicka]

Presumably I might finish this game by the end of the year. 70 hours in and still only completed the Wind Temple of the main objectives. XD

This games sidequests and distractions are very deep, sometimes literally. I’ve been trying to get to Death Mountain to help the Gorons for about 30 hours now but the lure of exploring the Sky and the Depths, or hell… the main overworld with the new caves and wells keep pulling me towards them instead. 

It is crazy how this game makes BOTW feel so empty in comparison - and I gave that game hundreds of hours of my time and loved its wilderness, that game had loads of things to do which I enjoyed. But the sequel? It destroys that game entirely. 

That being said, it doesn’t invalidate BOTW, that title has its own path, story World, and traversal mechanics that set it apart differently. It’s just obviously not advisable to play TOTK first since it does things better in numerous ways, and has new traversal systems and gameplay mechanics that flesh things out further should you spend time with them (Ultrahand, hello!)

I’m also finding that one of the chief benefits to this being a direct followup (and playing BOTW first), is that you think you know the world… but you don’t - however the world remembers who YOU are. That’s the bit that’s a little bit magical to me. All those actions you took in the previous game with mainquests & sidequests are why half the citizens know you (and why Tarry Town exists) in the first place.

If you play TOTK first you’ll miss a lot of these cute moments as its a unique experience to revisit a world that already remembers you as “The legendary swordsman”. We never get that in Zelda games. 

Also horses, it keeps your horses from your BOTW save. THANK YOU Nintendo! Smart move. 
 

 

[ZinogreVolt]

I finished the game after 70 hours of play and loved it. It's perhaps the best Zelda game in my eyes, though for my money I think it measures up exactly where BotW did. By all accounts, it is a deeper, richer, longer, and fuller version of that game's formula. The quests are better, the dungeons are better, the exploration is better, and the mechanics are more involved. Some aspects of the game such as enemy variety, I see as a straight upgrade. Gleeok is one of the best damn bosses in the whole series, to a point where I'm honestly surprised they made it 100% optional.

That being said, a part of me feels BotW is mostly just as good because of how much more tailored that fundamentally was at expressing its core ideas. Even the game's lesser amount of content is a point in its favor, because having less to do adds to the game's rich sense of loneliness - making events where you run into NPCs or a new town feel like a bigger deal. Of course, your mileage may vary on how successful that was to you.

I also think BotW's story and themes completely blow Tears out of the water. It was by no means perfect, but who on the storyboarding team thought it was okay to have the Imprisoning War explained to me five whole goddamned times with no meaningful differences? BotW's script has its share of repetition (mostly with the Divine Beasts), but at least that game was working in favor of resolving arcs or storylines that felt more expressive and meaningful. It's somewhat disappointing in Tears of the Kingdom's storyline since (aside from some nice exceptions like Tulin and especially Sidon), it feels like Tears is mostly an upgrade in ways that are largely video game-y. That is important, but BotW as an open world game got so much more right than just gameplay, that it's disappointing that Tears didn't further expand upon that for its main narrative. Although side quests feel greatly enhanced and generally do a better job making the world feel more interconnected and less isolated - which makes sense as Hyrule has begun to heal post-Calamity.

The Depths and the Sky Islands were both fantastic additions - and although I understand that the Great Sky Island was meant to give you an overview of all of the game's mechanics, it gave me very much the wrong impression on what the Sky Islands are actually like. Having them be sparse and small actually did a good job adding to that feeling of adventure for me, and it made navigating the Sky Islands (especially when just going up) feel appropriately perilous to me.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

125 hours of gameplay and I am finally done with Tears of the Kingdom, properly knocking out my time with Breath of the Wild by a country mile. 

So, where to start? Well, to preface this, I'll go with the fact that I am not the biggest fan of Breath of the Wild. I played it, I enjoyed most of my time with it, I got burnt out by it, and by the end, I always just felt like while it's a good game, I just wasn't seeing the masterpiece everyone else was. There was a lot of flaws and just generally 'annoying' things that got me with BOTW, stuff that seemed placed there without much thought if it was particularly fun or not to deal with. The rain basically making it that you can't climb stuff for lengths of time, the confusing Divine Beast dungeon designs, yes - the weapon durability, repeat shrine designs, how repetitive it ultimately just became, etc.

It's not to say BOTW was a bad game by any means, I did enjoy a lot of it, but I do feel it's a game where the more and more you play it, the more it loses it's lustre and it's quirks start to grow tiresome. 

So it all amounted to the question - how would Tears of the Kingdom go? Would Nintendo be Nintendo and just double down on BOTW's aspects, and assume they're perfect? What about all the rumours that TOTK was just a lazy map reuse? Was it just going to be more of the same?

More so going towards - no. In spite of the game leaning a lot on BOTW in it's opening hours, I think TOTK is a substantial improvement over BOTW in most important areas. 

To start with - I think the story really does need a big mention. One issue with BOTW I had was the story didn't really click with me, a lot of lore dumps but a lot of the usual pitfalls of Zelda that we let slip by because Nintendo games aren't exactly know for their story, yet this is easily one of the biggest feathers in TOTK's cap. Right out of the gate, the story gut-punches you with some incredibly serious stakes and a dark plotline that spirals all throughout the game, one I argue hasn't been seen since Majora's Mask, and just like in Majora's Mask, those stakes really help to lend a new engagement with the world and characters that actively encouraged much more interaction with the game itself. For a lot of things I was doing, it was because I was both interested and wanted to see how they would play out.

Spoiler

Right from the start, Link losing his arm immediately set the stage for how serious the game's stakes were going to be - making it evidently clear how close Ganon, even in a weakened form managed to nearly kill Link then and there. I don't usually like the trope of 'how do we reduce character back to square 1 again', but making it a direct result of Ganondorf's sheer power and how closely Link came to death as a result of it was both a good way of doing it, and highly encouraging gathering upgrades to shed the gloom from Link and restore his power. 

From there, I thought the game did a really good job of showcasing the dire state that Hyrule has found itself in, and getting you engaged within the Champions' arcs and the various people that inhabit the world. From seeing some of the Champions turned against Link, to seeing some Champions replaced due to the time gap between BOTW and TOTK, to Link's standing among the regions having changed as a result of his actions in BOTW, it was really fun to see how far all of the characters had come, and how Ganondorf was personally messing with their homes in different ways, all to run the clock down so he could rise back to power again. Seeing the mysteries of how he set up each region's downfall, and exploring how to fix them, it was not only much more interesting that the Divine Beasts, but served as great world-building, seeing each of these temples tied to each land, and the different myths that inhibited them all.

Even seeing Ganondorf's evil seep into places like the Korok Forest, turning the Koroks into barely alive zombies, and corrupting it to the point Link can only access it from using the Depths and his new abilities, all leading to a battle with Phantom Ganondorf was really cool, especially given the mystery and mazes from the first game. The Korok Forest in the first game was like a serene, peaceful respite after the challenges you faced finding it, and seeing it in such a corrupt, darkened state is a really cool gameplay-based gut-punch that makes you feel really good for saving it.

But of course the highlight of the story is easily the narrative of the past told through the Dragon's Tears and flashbacks. Seeing the initial downfall of Hyrule, the Imprisoning War, how Zelda tied into it all, the ultimately depressing fate Zelda was served, all so she could save her kingdom in the future, what initially felt like something that was thrown in because BOTW did it became a very good secondary tale being told that served to further highlight how cunning and dangerous this version of Ganondorf truly is, and how everything is falling upon Link's ability to go a second round with him and win out, a aspect that Ganondorf nearly killing Link and taking his arm within the first hour of the game helps further drive home.

And this version of Ganondorf. Holy shit. Easily the coolest version of Ganondorf we have ever seen in my opinion. They struck a really good balance of giving this Ganondorf this kind of respectable cunning to him with how he tries to usurp the kingdom of the past, but go further to show that this Ganondorf is one of the most downright evil, psychotic, and insane variants of the character, truly befitting his name of the Demon King. How he spreads his evil throughout Hyrule and manipulates so many aspects to cause chaos and havoc, his excitement at the idea of having a 'equal' battle with this great swordsman, and his fall to sheer insanity when Link bests him, all aided by Matthew Mercer's excellent performance, if there was ever a Ganondorf who was meant to the biggest destruction of the planet, and something that drives the plot to desperate measures, this one definitely fitted the picture. Really enjoyed it.

Then there's the side plots and adventures that offer a lot of really fun stuff, such as helping chase down leads about Zelda for a newspaper, exploring a ton of mysteries about Hyrule along the way, or the Yiga Clan attempting to lay siege to the Depths, resulting in Link becoming their arch-enemy, all the while Link can get steal a Yiga Clan outfit and go undercover as one of them, and the game even has lines calling Link out for trying to trick them. It's fun, it's really fun. It feels like a proper evolution from BOTW, especially with the voice actors really giving it their A-Game this time.

Then there's all of the gameplay alterations that I found was just great compared to BOTW. The simplified shrine design making the shrines not come off as repetitive, the brand new powers Link attains that offer more or less the same utility as the first game, but also more utility than you'd initially believe, making the Amiibo costumes a optional collectible that you can gather, unlocking all of Link's past designs for use, including new ones like the Link's Awakening set, the fuse mechanic making weapon durability a non-issue more or less, the brand new creations you can make to help you explore all around the various worlds, the sky-diving and Skyview Towers both making navigation a lot more fun, especially when you start unlocking certain Sage Abilities. 

Then there's the new stuff, like exploring the depths for a lot of really good rewards, such as the Poe and Amiibo outfits, or continuing to do the Yiga Clan request. In general, I think the majority of the depths is really well designed, with most Lightroots placed in a really damn tempting way that makes completion hard to resist. Everywhere you go, you're bound to run into lightroots, and it turns into a just one more mentality, as you get to one and spy two or three more off in the distance, tempting you to keep going to unlock more of the map, and when you realise that lightroots and shrines are directly tied to one another location wise, that's when the real fun begins as well. 

The dungeons as well - my lord, what a complete 180 from BOTW. There's only four proper traditional ones, but each of them are incredibly fun to explore, and are different in their own ways. I also love how the Champions properly join you for them as well and each of their skills are necessary to completing it. I'd say my favourites are probably the wind temple and the fire temple. The wind temple for the call-backs to Skyward Sword and the trek to get to it, and the fire temple for the multi-floored design that requires you to use minecarts and Yunobo's unique ability to change the railings to get you to place to place.

Special mention to the Lightning Temple as well for having you take the boss on outside the temple for a taste of what's to come before you charge in to fight it inside.

In general, it also just feels like a lot of BOTW's world has a really cool, new fresh breath of air placed into it that really rewards playing BOTW for how things have changed between both games, but also exploring the new stuff. Returning to Hateno Village and having a whole side questline about a mayoral election, and two different viewpoints of how the village should be, going to various places and seeing people refer to Link like a old friend for all of the things he helped do in BOTW, using all of the new tools to find new places to go into, and exploring caves and other hidden spots for good stuff.

I think a lot of TOTK's great new additions work on helping changing your mindset about stuff. In BOTW, part of why I really hated the weapon durability system is in a Zelda game, I like to explore and be rewarded for my exploration. In Majora's Mask, I like how if you do side quests, look around, do various tasks and such, it rewards you with unique masks with different abilities, and same for a standard Zelda game. I disliked how in BOTW, you could find chests, do side quests, and explore, find cool weapons, only to be told it'll break within 15 minutes. I know weapon durability is hotly debated between those who like/dislike it, but it was never my cup of tea.

However, TOTK, it just clicked. Between the game having Ganondorf be smart and use the gloom to effectively destroy and wear down every single weapon in Hyrule, making it that there's a inherit worthlessness to all weapons now, and tying it into the story, but also giving Link the fuse mechanic in order to make it that you can create new weapons on the fly as you need them, and with a more or less unlimited supply you can carry wherever you're going, it successfully addresses weapon durability in a way to me that kind of suited both parties. You're supposed to experiment with your weapons, you're supposed to be using fusion and resources to create strong weapons, goofy weapons, utility gear, etc. They might be destroyed, but it's very easy to replace now, on top of a ton of variety within the fusion choices as well.

I also just love how the outfits are utilised this time around. They're used as the bigtime rewards for exploring various caves, and mines within the depths, and they're the perfect incentive to drive you to keep going for more and more. Between the unique utility gear such as the gliding suit, the climbing suit, the miner's suit, etc, and the unlockable outfits from other games, it's really well done, and helps make the chests feel so much more like a reward this time around. 

And I feel like there's a lot of that in TOTK. I know it's not much to just turn around and say "it just clicked", but for a lot of it, the story changes and some minor or major changes did make a lot of it just click in new ways. All the new traverse mechanics, all the new powers Link gets, they both work in tantum to make the world feel more lively, encourage much more exploration, and really make the game pop.

In general, I love how the game's content is handled. It didn't feel like BOTW to me where the majority of content was the shrines, and it meant burn out was rapid. With TOTK, there was always something there I wanted to do. Another tunic set I wanted, another side quest chain I wanted to pursue, more brightbloom roots to find, another shrine in the distance that tempted me because it'd only take two or so minutes to do. 

Whereas in BOTW, I eventually hit burn out and just wanted the game to be done, with TOTK - I kept going, kept finding things I was interested in, things that drove me to keep playing, and when I was done doing all of that, I wasn't burnt out and desperate to stop, I just accomplished everything I was looking to do, and had my fill with the game. I found all the Amiibo outfits, I maxed out my stamina, I hit 20+ hearts, I'd done quite a lot of side quests, I was really to finish things up and move on. It was nice, really. It wasn't burn out, it was just I've had my fill, let's wrap it all up.

---

But...it's definitely not perfect in my opinion. There's quite a few issues I have, both minor and major. 

Starting with the biggest and major one - it truly has to be said - Nintendo did this game a gigantic disservice placing it on the Switch. We've known for years how underpowered the Switch is compared to other systems, and how even Nintendo's first party offerings, as far back as Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was being held back by the technical side of the Switch, but man...it's absolutely terrible what this system does to Tears of the Kingdom.

For such a major first party title, for a game that's got so many good mechanics and fun gameplay as TOTK, regularly dropping to 20fps, if not further below, while being at sub 720p is just not good, especially when Ultrahand and locations like Kakariko Village kills the framerate big time. It's a crying shame that TOTK is so held back by the system it's on, because it's a good looking and well playing game that's just on a console that is not up to snuff. It isn't TOTK's fault, but it really hurts, and it's one of, if not the biggest advocate that a Switch 2 needs some form of performance boosting for older titles, because TOTK deserves to be played better.

On top of that, I think one of the biggest downsides compared to BOTW is TOTK's difficulty balancing was not particularly enjoyable to me at all, honestly. From quite early on in the game, as early as the Great Sky Island, enemies are capable of killing Link within one to two hits, and even as you continue getting more heart containers, getting better clothing, getting more armour, and upgrading yourself, it is still not a irregular occurrence to see enemies take off 4-7 hearts within a single hit. Even more insane is bosses typically are balanced much better, leading to a uneven scenario where most bosses will only dish out 3 hearts of damage to Link in a hit, while bog standard moblins you see from the second you land in Lookout Landing can take off much more.

This was pretty frustrating to me because for the higher tiered upgrades and especially by the time you go for the Amiibo outfits, the resources you need to upgrade them at a Great Fairy Fountain would require a lot of grinding. Which meant yeah - while I was able to go and get outfits I really loved, like the Fierce Deity outfit (complete with sword), the Hero of Time set, the Dark Link gear - I just straight up couldn't use them because their upgrade resources was higher tiered, rarity stuff that would require a lot of grinding to get up to a usable degree.

Meanwhile, the Hyrule Gear you can buy from most shops as soon as the game starts is the easiest to upgrade, and the only one most people will have up to scratch within the late game. The end result to me was there's a lot of fun, neat, interesting outfits to find for Link in the open world, but the difficulty balancing meant the only ones I ever used was the utility ones (IE - heat resistance, ice resistance), or the Hyrule Armour so Link wouldn't be taken out in a single hit or two. While high risk gameplay like this might be fun for others, it just isn't my cup of tea. I would've preferred a much better difficulty balance with enemies. 

I also think overall, gloom wasn't a particularly fun mechanic to deal with in the end. While the story purposes of the gloom corrupting Link and drawing his power away was a interesting one, and it does do a good job of incentivising the finding of Lightroots in the Depths, it just ultimately ended up a frustrating mechanic that made me run past any enemies I could get away with, because having Link's hearts permanently destroyed became frustrating on top of the difficulty scale of enemies. 

I don't think I had much of a issue with Gloom until the final battle where...

Spoiler

...IMO, the final fight with Ganondorf is a very cool idea, being a one on one duel with Ganondorf, who uses Link's own skills and attacks against him, including perfect flurries, and even Link's charged attacks with various weapons. But making it that Ganondorf can just whittle away Link's health one heart at a time - and making Link go through two gigantic armies of enemies, plus three Ganondorf fights, all inflicted with gloom effects, and then making it that Link cannot go back to the open world before the Ganondorf fight was just a cheap move. Even if you made sure to stock up on Sunny meals before entering, the blindside of the army barrage mixed in with the three difficult fights just felt annoying, and frankly cost me a hour of time since I ultimately had to revert to a older save to go back, grind more sunny meals, and do it all again.

The Demon Dragon is also a really cool spectacle of a boss fight, but does run into the Calamity Ganon issue of being pretty easy all things considered, especially when the first three phases were incredibly skill-driven and challenging, making you be on point with arrow shots and perfect flurry to counter Ganon. But still, it's a better spectacle fight, even compared to BOTW's fight.

I also think while the story is very good in this game, and very engaging, and that I honestly prefer this game's freedom, compared to BOTW (IE - TOTK does keep the freedom of letting you do as you want when you want, but does lock off certain quests to unlock requirements, basically meaning there is a little more of a structure to it, compared to BOTW, for people who like having a bit of guidance), there's some parts where it's freedom kind of hurts it:

Spoiler

Specifically, with the reveal of the false Zelda. Much like the memory quest and Master Sword in Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom has the Dragon's Tears, a quest that has you go throughout Hyrule, finding various glyths, and discovering tears that reveal portions of the past to Link.

As I said, these flashbacks are very interesting, more so than BOTW's flashbacks IMO - but the flashbacks has major reveals within them, major reveals that significant chunks of the game's plot and mystery actually hangs on. A large chunk of the mystery features Zelda running around, causing havoc in Hyrule, spawning monsters to attack regions, being directly responsible for the Goron's additions to the Marbled Rock Roast, etc. Is Zelda corrupted by Gloom? Is she under Ganondorf's control? Is there some larger scheme here? 

If you were to do the story in the intended order of quests, it's the regional quests>followed by the Hyrule Castle quest (where it's revealed Ganondorf created a puppet Zelda)>Fifth Sage>Master Sword>Destroy Ganondorf. 

However, if you opt to do the Dragon's Tears, which is the easiest means of finding the Master Sword - and is the easiest quest to find, as Impa is located very shortly outside of Lookout Landing, the game unceremoniously reveals that there was a fake puppet Zelda used to get close to Queen Sonia to kill her and take her secret stone for Ganondorf, and the game further reveals Zelda is actually the Light Dragon roaming the skies.

Later on in the game, after Link is intended to know Zelda is a fake, he starts to explain the actual cause of the false Zelda to others, people taking Link at his word for his heroics. 

However  - during the regional quests, despite Link knowing the truth about everything, Link stands idly by as the various Champions think Zelda is actually running around, causing chaos and havoc to all of the different regions, wondering what it all means, and it just makes Link look pretty stupid all things considered.

What makes it stand out like a sore thumb is later parts of the game does account for if you finished quests earlier (IE - If you have the master sword prior to the Fifth Sage quest, when you finish it and Mineru joins you, she immediately comments and commends you for having obtained it. Same for Purah, who has several lines of dialogue if you finish certain quests before you speak with her. 

And later, the intended quest has it be a major plot beat that Ganondorf was using the puppet Zelda and Link's memories to lure him into a trap, making it seem like a big plot revelation that's meant to hit Link where it hurts, and make it more personal between him and Ganondorf, but ultimately, it just makes Link look pretty silly for running into eight or so traps within Hyrule Castle, before Ganondorf pulls a big 'gotcha' that the player was probably aware of hours earlier.

Similarly, the champions' quests have this issue too, where upon finishing each quest, you get the same dialogue and cutscene of a former champion explaining everything about the Imprisoning War, which amounts to the same five minute cutscene with slightly different angles, and that's about it, something that again could've been accounted for if the player had seen one already by giving a abridged version to the other champions.

Then to go a little more into the minor problems I have, I do still feel like there's gameplay aspects to the game that are only there to just be more annoyances than anything else, and didn't have enough to really address it. The rain system honestly still blows, and even if you take the time to get the Rainy outfit, a lengthy side questline in of itself, the outfit actually doesn't negate it, only making it less of a chance Link will slip off (and he still does quite a lot of the time).

The sky islands ultimately didn't add a ton IMO. Some of them were fairly fun to explore, such as the two tied directly to the regional temples (The Wind and Water islands, retrospectively, which has a lot of climbing, anti gravity and paragliding to different spots), but ultimately, I don't think the Sky Islands really had much to them, following the Great Sky Island. 

The depths are fun to explore for the most part, but the need for blightbloom seeds can get very tedious after awhile, especially since you do need to wait some time for them to regrow in the usual spots. On top of that, some of the lightroots can be downright annoying to try and get to, not helped by the low visibility of the depths.

I also think there's a minor problem with the map and waypoint system. It's fine for the majority of the game, but there's times where it wants you to find certain NPCs around the map, and even though the game isn't making it a secret where they are, the waypoint will just remain locked on the person you just spoke to, making it effectively worthless as a waypoint. And while it's fine for the riddles of the game (IE - a chunk of the Zora Domain quests relying on figuring out riddles and puzzles), it's pretty annoying when it's just simply the game wanting you to go talk to a random NPC and making you waste time trying to find them.

Finally, it's also pretty lame that all you get for completing them all is a worthless trinket item, basically - especially since completing all of the Shrines does give Link a unique outfit for the trouble. Farming for poes can also be a bit too time-consuming IMO, although the outfits you can get for doing it are really good (Dark Link and the BOTW tunic). I think it still would've been a good idea to add a final reward for completing all of the depths however, considering how much of a time-consuming job it is.

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For all of my problems though, I just can't deny I really enjoyed my time with TOTK, so much more so than BOTW. I didn't put near 130 hours into it because I was forcing myself to the finish line, I did it because there was always something else on the horizon that made me wanna keep going, always another collectible or cool find that incentivised me to go for it. The story engaged me, the world-building hit a lot better compared to BOTW, it made me wanna do more side quests and pursue more collectibles. 

I don't think it's a perfect game, frankly - I could jump between a 8.5 or a 9, depending on what day you asked me and how I was feeling about the game at the given time, and reflecting more on the pros and cons at the given time, and I certainly don't see myself going back to TOTK in a long, long, long time, but I thought it was fantastic, a welcome and wonderful improvement on BOTW in more or less every major way. If this was the last big Switch game, it would be a welcome send-off (although it isn't).

But if this is the send-off to the BOTW world, I would be satisfied. It's a excellent conclusion and really does a good job of telling a plot about Link going up against possibly the most chaotic end of the world evil that the series has had since Majora's Mask. I don't really know if there's much else that could be really explored in this Zelda timeline following TOTK, but if there isn't, I'm pretty happy and satisfied, all things considered. 

[Sonicka]

Crazy to say that 130 hours in and I’ve only just finished my 3rd temple (water)…

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…Or fourth, considering I unintentionally unlocked the 5th Sage well ahead of time - this felt like it was supposed to be late game so I imagine I’ve accidentally skipped a lot of stuff here when I stumbled onto a cloudy and windy Dragonhead Isle and fell into the right location that set that path in motion. 

I think that’s my only gripe with this game compared to BOTW. That game had a real freedom element of doing whatever you want without the consequence of it impacting the quest line too much - but the downside was of course a sheer lack of urgency to the present day story.

I think I’m in a familiar feeling @Ryannumber1gamer(I tried to avoid elements of your post as I’ve not finished the game) but whilst TOTK goes full in with the tale (complete with emotional beats), there seems to be a narrative path intended for the player… yet you can still go about it how you want. But because no major questline references or changes around what you do… this makes the game feel disjointed in places.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m super impressed with how much interconnectivity IS happening in the game already - but when the Main Quests don’t align based on what the player chooses to do it makes Link look a little foolish in certain scenarios. 

on the side of the map, I was very cautious about TOTK, as I’ve spent about 360ish hours in BOTW over two playthroughs. But I’m still bewildered in how they expanded the Map so that it doesn’t feel familiar in ways you’d expect, and I don’t mean vertically with the sky isles and the depths but with how much denser the base gameworld feels with caves and wells, or the remixed areas full of new issues and regional problems. There are hundreds of new secrets to find that could never be found in BOTW. 

And really that’s because BOTW was an empty wilderness (by design) …and I loved that. But TOTK feels like a fully realised world that is lived in thanks to your efforts of the first game - the quests are far more interesting and the amount of adventures you could have without thinking about the main quests are astounding. 

This isn’t even getting into the technical magic of how they got the physics and powers to work the way they do in this title. It’s unbelievable some of the things I’ve accomplished just because I hoped it would work. And then when I push past that limitation and experiment to break the boundaries it’s even better (and often hilarious).

I’m any case, I best get back to it. I still got the Gerudo region to explore, 50 odd shrines left - and probably another 4 dozen distractions along the way.

[Danj86]

I just realized that I could've also done an in-depth run through of my playthrough and thoughts of TotK. But going in, I am heavily biased as this game was released on the precipice of the first anniversary from hell. Last year, my Dad, my Hero, my Best friend was diagnosed with Liver Cancer. When I say that, I don't mean three people, he was all three of those.

My point is, I needed a distraction and Tears of the Kingdom provided more than enough.

It really is something when Nintendo tends to underpower their consoles, yet manage to put so much content in their games. I just watched a video which pointed out something rather interesting. In the past, movies had to work within limitations because CGI wasn't a prominent thing back them. Jaws is famous for it's production problems, they worked around those problems and created a classic of the ages. Now I don't know if these limitations could translate into better games, but Balan Wonderworld certainly needed it. 80 costumes, a good number of them being repeated. Imagine how much more creative you could've been if you reduced it to 20, then allow a costume to do multiple things because kids aren't that stupid.

So my point which I got quickly sidetracked from was that I wasn't expecting TotK to practically double its map and content. Keeping the Depths a secret was a genius move. When you first stumble upon the Depths, you're both figurately and literally in the dark. I never would've guessed the map down their was the same size as Hyrule and apparently, Skyrim did that first. Though having a second map of Hyrule is actually nothing new when you consider A Link to the Past. It was also interesting that some ideas that came from Breath of the Wild concept art, made it into Tears of the Kingdom. If I recall correctly, art of Hyrule castle being raised with Ganondorf standing upon it was featured in the BotW Art Book along with concepts of Link with arms powers, his arm looking much more mechanical.

I've got this far and still haven't talked about me experience in the game.

I wanted to do as much as possible on my own, so I wouldn't watch any TotK videos and avoid any and all topics about it.

Now....I wonder how many players fell off the tutorial island? I was doing pretty well until I had to use the glider. Having to orient yourself to adjust it's curve and speed is impressive, I heard other prominent developers praising or being stunned by the work that must've taken place to code something like that, for one specific item. You really got the feeling that TotK was inspiring other devs and I think that can only be a good thing.

Anyway, I forgot to get off the glider and veered heavily off course. You also don't start with the BotW glider so jumping around carelessly was not an option. You only respawn if you fall off the island, I thought I might've skipped the tutorial of be forced to watch Link plummet to his doom.

I probably shouldn't describe my entire playthrough, it added up to a significant number of hours. But this post rather clumsily shows what the game does. It gives you so much to do in such a large world that you are very easily distracted and diverted to do something else. I've heard many players express taking their time reaching the temples because of this reason. I was no different.

It's true that I found the Master Sword and Mineru out of order and might've effected the narrative a little, but I didn't care. I found the conversation with Purah when she finally notices the Master Sword and Mineru pretty funny. I didn't find it strange that I was walking into an obvious Zelda trap at the castle. At the time, I had no idea where Ganondorf was, so I figured we might learn his location through this confrontation. In hindsight, it was blindingly obvious. Holy crap, when you do down their, it is creepy as fudge.

The story was much better in my opinion and while I do like the way BotW and TotK approach things, I feel like this kind of format would've work in a ticking clock style plot. Such as in Majora's Mask and the threat is ever present and constantly progressing. Though that is my assumption, these devs might find a way to make it work and I think in most Zelda games involving Ganondorf, he's just waiting for you to arrive. I figure that's because his goal is conquest and not destruction.

I think I enjoyed the sign puzzles the best. The Temple variety was a welcome return and so was the more interesting bosses. You can still immediately challenge Ganondorf the second you reach Hyrule and while BotW had you do a rather nasty gauntlet, TotK is much, much worse. It all makes sense why the Temple prizes are what they are when you consider the final act. They aren't useless like most AI NPCs either. At least, in my playthrough.

I'm running out of things to say. I'm just super thankful that TotK came out when it did. I wont give it a score because I feel those are rather outdated and don't really offer any insight into a games quality. I'd recommend the game to players that enjoy freedom and quest variety, but if you want a complex story with many twists and turns, you probably wont be interested in TotK.