Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

[JB]

One issue I do have with it is Korok seeds again. Disappointed there isn’t a better/new way of expanding your inventory, rather than having to repeat the same four or five puzzles hundreds of times.

[Dodgyknees]

This was fun

[Risso]

Mental! I'm enjoying and going round opening up the Skyview towers at the moment. Have hardly touched the main quest line, as I quite like just travelling round. I'm finding it not quite as unforgiving as I recall BOTW being, as that seemed to have more bad ass enemies that would one shot you early on, than this has.

[Dodgyknees]

42 minutes ago, Risso said:

Mental! I'm enjoying and going round opening up the Skyview towers at the moment. Have hardly touched the main quest line, as I quite like just travelling round. I'm finding it not quite as unforgiving as I recall BOTW being, as that seemed to have more bad ass enemies that would one shot you early on, than this has.

Same here, totally this.

My partners 8 year old has taken hold of my Switch, and it’s such a joy watching him learn to solve puzzles! I can’t play atm - but watching him play is worth it

[JB]

Hmm. Just done my first “dungeon”…

Spoiler

The Wind Temple. What a disappointment. That was just the same as a divine beast, even down to the terminals to find in order to activate something.

Definitely nowhere near big enough to be considered a dungeon, with a cool looking but ridiculously easy boss.

Dungeons, and seeing what Nintendo could do with them with this engine, were what I was most excited about with this game so feeling a bit deflated now as that was rubbish.

[Risso]

On 19/05/2023 at 23:56, JB said:

Hmm. Just done my first “dungeon”…

  Hide contents

The Wind Temple. What a disappointment. That was just the same as a divine beast, even down to the terminals to find in order to activate something.

Definitely nowhere near big enough to be considered a dungeon, with a cool looking but ridiculously easy boss.

Dungeons, and seeing what Nintendo could do with them with this engine, were what I was most excited about with this game so feeling a bit deflated now as that was rubbish.

Spoiler

Quite agree, it's the first one I've done and I thought it was lazy and rubbish. Lods of repetitive climbing/bouncing and the actual temple was ridiculously easy. Two of the turbines needed nothing more difficult than opening a door.  I'll be honest, so far this isn't a patch on BOTW. I think they've spent a huge amount of time on the creating vehicles mechanics and sticking stuff together, and not enough on the actual game. I hate the underground section as well. BOTW felt a lot more challenging early on, and there seemed to be a lot more mobs around, with better variety as well. The dungeons on Skyward Sword were 100 times better than this.

 

Disappointed so far, might not actually bother carrying on with it.

[Dodgyknees]

Honestly I love it, I’m having a ball. I have zero expectations for dungeons.

[jim]

I absolutely adored BOTW and couldn’t put it down from the fist minute.
I just can’t get into this one. Still in the tutorial and it’s all a bit meh. Hoping its just be a it hasn’t opened up yet.

[JB]

8 hours ago, Risso said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Quite agree, it's the first one I've done and I thought it was lazy and rubbish. Lods of repetitive climbing/bouncing and the actual temple was ridiculously easy. Two of the turbines needed nothing more difficult than opening a door.  I'll be honest, so far this isn't a patch on BOTW. I think they've spent a huge amount of time on the creating vehicles mechanics and sticking stuff together, and not enough on the actual game. I hate the underground section as well. BOTW felt a lot more challenging early on, and there seemed to be a lot more mobs around, with better variety as well. The dungeons on Skyward Sword were 100 times better than this.

 

Disappointed so far, might not actually bother carrying on with it.

I never thought I’d say this about a Zelda game but same here. 

Bit of a rant and perhaps mildly spoilery: 

Spoiler

It’s just Breath of the Wild again but without anywhere near as much of the excitement that came from exploration and discovery, given that the overworld is largely the same.

They’ve come up with one or two cool new ideas and just repeated and repeated and repeated them. I loved building stuff with ultra hand the first hundred times. Now, not so much. Fusing weapons adds nothing when the results are nearly always the same. Weapons now seem to break even more quickly so you don’t get much time to enjoy anything you’ve created.

It’s a huge game but it’s also hugely repetitive. There’s almost too much to do but 90% of it is pointless copy and pasted busy work. Caves and wells are just boring padding.

Returning enemies and their attacks are exactly the same as BotW. I was looking forward to seeing what was new about fighting a Lynel but it was completely unchanged and I beat it without taking a hit. Most new enemies I’ve come across, despite looking quite cool, are easily defeated with one or two hits.

Even the (pretty poor) story is told through flashbacks found at glowing locations on the ground again.

I haven’t seen anything to convince me that the sky islands are anything other than filler. I’ve been down to the depths once and it was a pain in the arse and added nothing to the game. Had no reason to go back.

There’s genius in there but it’s surrounded by a hell of a lot of filler. Seems like a really missed opportunity and letdown so far.

 

[AXD]

I agree with some of the comments on here, it’s not as exciting as botw was. Still a fun game though. I hope it gets better as I progress.

still can’t be bothered making vehicles every time, I prefer exploring on foot.

[Dodgyknees]

25 minutes ago, AXD said:

I agree with some of the comments on here, it’s not as exciting as botw was. Still a fun game though. I hope it gets better as I progress.

still can’t be bothered making vehicles every time, I prefer exploring on foot.

There’s an “auto build” upgrade where you can recreate previous builds. Saves time.

[Risso]

I'm really struggling to muster much enthusiasm for this. Think at one temple I'm done tbh.

[Dodgyknees]

8 hours ago, Risso said:

I'm really struggling to muster much enthusiasm for this. Think at one temple I'm done tbh.

Man that’s a shame. I am still loving it - but I’m switching between this and the new Kirby game - which is also super fun.

[JB]

I’m enjoying some aspects of the game but I did the Fire Temple last night and it was the worst, least fun thing I’ve ever done in a Zelda game. Truly awful design. Yunobo also kept standing in the way so there were times that I couldn’t even see what I was doing, or he wouldn’t keep up so I’d have to backtrack to get him to use his power.

And once again, it’s not a dungeon and it’s not massive. Not sure why the developers lied. It’s a shame as the approach to it made it look really cool. 

Pretty gutted about this game after looking forward to it for so long and after how much I enjoyed the opening few hours. I’d hoped it would clear up some of the issues I had with BotW but instead it’s doubled down on them. Quantity over quality. 

[mark359]

Just ordered this. £45 on prime right now so decided to go for it! 
Ideally wanted digital version but I will take the discount instead 

[Risso]

On 27/05/2023 at 09:36, JB said:

I’m enjoying some aspects of the game but I did the Fire Temple last night and it was the worst, least fun thing I’ve ever done in a Zelda game. Truly awful design. Yunobo also kept standing in the way so there were times that I couldn’t even see what I was doing, or he wouldn’t keep up so I’d have to backtrack to get him to use his power.

And once again, it’s not a dungeon and it’s not massive. Not sure why the developers lied. It’s a shame as the approach to it made it look really cool. 

Pretty gutted about this game after looking forward to it for so long and after how much I enjoyed the opening few hours. I’d hoped it would clear up some of the issues I had with BotW but instead it’s doubled down on them. Quantity over quality. 

The Wind Temple sucked, so if the fire one is even worse, I think that vindicates my decision. Shame, but I haven't picked this up in days and it's not really calling me back to do so. The underground area is awful, and it sounds like the temples are shit again.

[Risso]

There's too much that isn't any fun in this game. Eg the main idea of the vehicle building which is tedious beyond belief, and also the underground area which is awful. The fact that it's essentially the same world as BOTW means you don't get the same sense of freedom exploring a new world, either. Personally I think the glut of 10/10 reviews were all massively previous, it's not, it's 7/10 at best. The temples really do suck balls. Appreciate that not everybody will see it the same way.

[JB]

Agree with nearly all that. I’m enjoying it enough to carry on at the moment but it’s around a 70:30 chore-to-fun ratio. The 10/10 reviews don’t seem to be in tune with player feedback and I don’t think it will ultimately be as well regarded.

Despite its size, it’s a really lazy game imo. They’ve followed the BotW template to a tee to the point where some gameplay elements are exactly the same.

My biggest issue with BotW was how repetitive it was and that it seemed like the same handful of areas copy-and-pasted again and again. This game has doubled down on that. Wells, caves, the depths, even the sky are all filler. The overworld is too familiar to generate much excitement and enemies still attack and are defeated in the exact same ways.

Shrines are instantly forgettable and there are no genuine highlights gameplay-wise. 

Spoiler

The Gerudo town siege could have been very cool but fell really flat. I was prompted to build barricades for the gates which had somehow moved out of the way once the attack started, then it was over in two minutes. Gibdos in OoT were actually fairly challenging but now defeated with a single arrow. Resident Evil 4 did an infinitely better siege set piece in 2005.

Lightning Temple started off promisingly but descended into the same Divine Beast-esque rubbish. Again, it’s even worse considering that Nintendo made a much better desert temple 25 years ago.

Also, I’m a bit of a sucker for a good story and this one is rubbish. The same cut scene after each temple and Link chasing ‘Zelda’ around, despite having done all the memories that show that she was actually transported into the past and became the Light Dragon. It also seems to be retconning everything that’s come before.   

Ultimately, they seem to have hung their hat on ultra hand, with the game around it an afterthought. It’ll generate millions of YouTube videos, though, so maybe that was the plan.

 

 

[Chindie]

It's a very, very, very polished rom hack of BotW.

[AXD]

I’m starting to look at it as the second phase of botw, which was originally the intention.

many Zelda games have you play the same world two times after some event which slightly alters the world. Alttp, OoT, TP, all had you do the same overworld twice.

the element of surprise is less, but I still enjoy exploring the world all over again. Haven’t done too much in the main story line though.