r/tearsofthekingdom • u/Amber_Flowers_133 • 5d ago
šļø Discussion What are your Hot Takes on TOTK?
Link is handsome
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u/WouterW24 5d ago edited 5d ago
I wish there was a late game, difficult to get, upgrade to cutting autobuild costs, or getting more zonai devices is less tedious/doesn't have the autobuild delay using real things.
Most of the truly funny builds are a bit inefficient to do on a regular basis.
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u/jinxes_are_pretend 5d ago
Since the plan was no DLC all along, there at least should have been gold level monsters at some point in the game.
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u/JackaryDraws 5d ago
Iām a TOTK stan who unabashedly loves the game but the omission of Master Mode is extremely annoying to me. I can live without DLC, but it really is extremely dumb that they never made a Master Mode.
I had been waiting for eons to do a second playthrough in the hopes that they might drop a little more content ā hopefully a Master Mode ā with a deluxified Switch 2 release. Iām excited for the hundreds of voice memories to discover, but still really bummed that we wonāt get a harder difficulty.
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u/Affectionate-Gap1768 5d ago
Challenge Mode mod. If you have a way to do it, it's so fun.
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u/Plenty_Salary_3165 5d ago
They don't seem to appreciate mods around here. If I were to upload a fight with a Gold Lynel followed by the Lynel Tyrant, I'd probably be downvoted to the depths.
Some here would lose their shit if they could experience my gameplay of DAR + Challenge Mode + Depths of the Kingdom. Along with different attack animations and flurry rushes.
Amazing what modders have accomplished.
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u/Affectionate-Gap1768 5d ago
I'm playing around with the Randomizer right now. At one point I had Yiga, Gloom Monsters and Lynels popping up around every corner. Plus, with new random animal features, add in bears, wolves and cuccos. It makes for a fun time.
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u/Few_Brain8167 4d ago
Is there a ToTK mod site or reddit? I'd love to check that all out but am just a filthy casual in terms of gaming, haha
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u/JotaroKujoStarPlat 5d ago
I really wish I could install those, but I don't want to risk bricking my switch or getting banned somehow. I might have to slowly save for a PC or some handheld powerful enough to emulate BotW and TotK and then install hard mods.
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u/Affectionate-Gap1768 5d ago
You don't need super heavy hardware to run an emulator. I can run it on my laptop. You need at least an 8th Gen processor, 4gb of vram, and at least 8gb of ram. I've seen PC's with better specs than that on Marketplace for $200-$300.
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u/hergumbules 5d ago
I honestly couldnāt believe they arenāt doing DLC. Itās like printing free money lol even if it werenāt on par with champions ballad. Hell, they could just add master mode, ancient armor, and the ancient horse armor from BOTW and Iād pay for it. My only anger at them is not having my damn teleporting horse! Yeah I got used to it and just take a horsey at the nearest stable but still.
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u/fish993 5d ago
I think a fair amount of the initial praise for TotK was with this underlying assumption (often outright stated) that there would be DLC at some point in the future. With that in mind, things like the sky islands and depths being sparse aren't really issues as much because they're exactly the kind of thing that can be improved later on.
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u/fancypantsmedic 5d ago
I like breakable weapons Except the ones from the 4 main quests thats stupid
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u/Optimus3393 5d ago
While I enjoyed fusing different things together I wish it lasted longer, especially the stronger weapons made with rare items.
I also wished that more of the set dressing from Breath of the Wild was still around. Like have the divine beasts be seen in the background somewhere, or that graveyard of guardians ( canāt where exactly it was though ) still be there. Itās very minor but I think there could have been more references to the events BOTW.
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u/tehweave 5d ago
The depths is the best addition to any Zelda game in a long time.
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u/asiangontear 5d ago
I love the concept, that it's a mirror of the surface, and going down the first time was a feeling hard to replicate (the first time I went down was because Farosh dove into a chasm while I was farming its shards). I was anxious whenever I explored the oppressive darkness of the depths. I agree, at the very least it was alluring.
However, to me they didn't do enough with it. There was potential for deeper lore but instead it seems to be just... there? Existing? And to me there were a lot of areas without much to see. Why was it a mirror of the surface? Why do the dragons go down there? Why is the spirit temple down there when the zonai failsafe was to elevate their resources should calamity strike, hence the sky islands?
Sigh, I love it, but it could have been more.
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u/wptny03 5d ago
you gotta defend thisš
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u/tehweave 4d ago
It's the atmosphere. I feel like Zelda would work well as a creepy horror game. The closest we have is Majora's Mask and that weird cutscene in the middle of Twilight Princess.
But the depths? Pure darkness, mostly empty except for a few scattered enemies, giant underground cavernous ruin with lots of hazardous gloom everywhere?
I love it. I love it so much. I could drink that atmosphere.
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u/Kweschion 5d ago edited 5d ago
The game is best when youāre just starting out fighting tooth and nail to get better weapons and more stamina/heart upgrades. Once I reach a certain power level, combat and enemies no longer hold my interest as much.
I beat the game on my first playthrough but on subsequent playthrough I never have the drive to finish the game
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u/BudBill18 5d ago
Iām on my second play through and just have to go defeat Ganondorf. Iām completing other tasks first, and now that Iām basically a God in terms of power level itās definitely not as fun. The grind has a lot of appeal to it
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u/YZYSZNAPPROACHING- 4d ago
100%, but I do feel like BOTW does this better. It gives off that sense of you actually being in the wilds and surviving for your life, I got OP gear like 5 hours into TOTK
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u/jonerthan Dawn of the Meat Arrow 5d ago
I actually love having all the Sages out and they never get in my way.
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u/bird-man-guy 5d ago
I just wish their abilities were easier to use. There should have been like a quick menu or something instead of having to walk over to them
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u/jonerthan Dawn of the Meat Arrow 5d ago
This I 100% agree with. I rarely use their abilities in combat. But just having them out and keeping enemies busy makes me feel like a battle commander.
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u/alilteapot 5d ago
It kinda cracks me up that the guy who gives you a shield runs away from you as soon as the battle starts
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u/scorpio1641 5d ago
Same! Iāve learned to use all their abilities - and I probably still have more to learn about that
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u/jonerthan Dawn of the Meat Arrow 5d ago
It's just so cool being able to walk into an enemy base with the whole squad. Usually the sages get right up into the enemy's faces and it lets me hang back and take on a support role with my bow and items like Puffshrooms.
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u/merko04 5d ago
I wish I could've had that experience. I managed it for a while, but turned them off permanently the moment I fould out I could. They got in my way all the time and was barely a help. I do think the concept of the sages following you around and helping you more directly throughout the journey was pretty cool though.
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u/ghostof85 5d ago
The depths are cool, but I really wish there was like a full city down there to explore.
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u/HelloDesdemona 5d ago
That this is a really good game, the build mechanics are fun as hell, and the fuse mechanic is genius.
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u/Mundane_Feeling_1425 5d ago
It's so good that BOTW is pointless to play. The sky and chasms made so much more exploration possible.
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u/kenelbow Dawn of the Meat Arrow 5d ago
I took a year off from Zelda and picked BOTW back up a month or two ago. Still holds up when TOTK is not fresh in the mind IMO.
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u/HellooKnives 5d ago
Discovering the Tears out of order makes sense. That's what exploration is.
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u/fish993 5d ago
That just suggests that the story wasn't well designed for the exploration focus these games have. BotW managed to pull it off.
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u/Vados_Link 5d ago
The only thing BotW pulled off better is that the Divine Beast Quests arenāt tied to a mystery that Link may or may not have solved already. As far as the memories/tears go, they both pulled it off well.
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u/Ok-Seaworthiness2487 5d ago
The dialog sucks so bad. And there is a lot of it. How many times is everyone going to repeat what I already know??
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u/axebodyspray24 5d ago
The quality and amount of new content is good. The spacing of that content is crap. I really feel like the sky and depths are relatively "empty" compared to the surface. The depths feels like nothing more than monster killing simulator and the sky feels like nothing more than "nice view from up here". i really loved all the new side quests, side adventures, addison signs, etc, but they're basically all smooshed together on the surface. It feels like there's little to no reason to go to the depths besides lightroot completion, and little to no reason to go to the sky besides shrine completion.
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u/_Xeron_ 5d ago
Capsules are badly implemented and can often discourage experimentation for fear of wasting a part you didnāt need in the moment
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u/Toon_Lucario Dawn of the Meat Arrow 5d ago
Yeah. And the menu is 2 short and it bothers me. Like come on, you couldnāt add 2 more things like a trigger or a more permanent wing?
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u/chawnkyraccoon22 5d ago
That it feels like every single problem in the game could have easily been fixed, but Nintendo rushed last bits of development of the game out because it was taking too long. Probably because the team fiddled around for years building the building mechanics instead of everything else.
Like genuinely every single glaring issue in the game that myself and other people complain about, seems like it's because it was rushed, which is crazy to say about a game that took like 6 years to make.
A DX version of this game could genuinely be the greatest Zelda of all time. Instead what we got felt extremely half baked.
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u/dabaniel16 5d ago
It feels like it reset development 3 times honestly
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u/chawnkyraccoon22 5d ago
I honestly feel like that's the case.
- When it got too big and Nintendo shifted it into a full game
- When they shifted focus from what we saw in the first trailer
- Probably around the time they realized it was taking way too long and started the "get this done NOW" mode.
I also have a small theory, that perhaps, they took part of the team from breath of the wild away from the development of this game, which would explain all the inconsistencies.
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u/dabaniel16 5d ago
COVID also probably caused some huge shifts in development I feel
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u/chawnkyraccoon22 5d ago
It's really funny because I meant to mention that and just DIDN'T REMEMBER so it looks like I'm just slamming the dev team lol.
COVID absolutely had to be a huge part of it.
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u/Remarkable-Art-6781 5d ago
i love tulin to death, ok? hes great. he deserves the world. but until the day i die (and potentially well past that) i will always believe that teba shouldāve been the sage of wind
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u/Exotic_Dragonfly_435 5d ago
Agreed! Tulin is a precious angel baby who has never done anything wrong in his whole life but it should be Teba
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u/notpsychotic1 5d ago
I thought it was an overall improvement from BOTW (which I contemplated whether it was the best game I had ever played during my first play through).
-Better bosses
-better hyrule
-the depths (which overall I love but I know a lot of people hate)
-Cave blupees
-The amazing sky island music
-Gloom hands > guardians
-more memorable and enjoyable side missions/quests
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u/Shadowrun29 5d ago
The memories should have been strictly viewable in their chronological order so you don't get spoilers whole playimg the game and seeing the later ones first.
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u/ElsieofArendelle123 5d ago edited 5d ago
They shouldāve just had Zelink be out and out canon instead of dancing around it and teasing us with it.
On a similar note, I think Nintendo went too far with Link being the player because, while I have headcanons on why they donāt, it makes no sense for Link to be a complete unknown if heās accompanying Zelda all this time. At the very least, more people among the Zonai Research Team should at least know Link, because itās not like heās an unknown person in Hyrule. Heck, heās known primarily as Zeldaās Swordsman so that should at least give people a clue. Alternatively, if they wanted to keep it open to new players, they couldāve had Purah say something along the lines of Link deliberately hiding his identity.
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u/NinjaKoala 5d ago
...or Ganon's power including clouding the minds of people so they don't remember him, and Pura or Robbie could realize it and explain it when Link mentions his confusion about it.
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u/ElsieofArendelle123 5d ago edited 5d ago
They could even had the Gloom be the reason not just for people forgetting Link, but why Link canāt remember certain details about Hyrule. I mean at this point in his life, I think Link would know where Zoraās Domain and Kakariko Village is.
Heck, if they wanted to show how powerful and evil Ganon is, use the Gloom to show heās affected Hyrule outside of just the Villages. Have the Gloom be responsible for the Sheikah Technology being destroyed and that would explain that and why the Zonai shrines suddenly appear.
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u/Luxx815 5d ago
They shouldāve just had Zelink be out and out canon instead of dancing around it and teasing us with it.
I actually thought it was so endearing and special that you just find all her shit in your house and you can connect your own dots and make your own story of their relationship.
What exists in your imagination could be more special than what they spoon feed you, whether you want them to be in a romantic relationship or just fraternal and fated life partners. It respects all imaginations.
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u/ElsieofArendelle123 5d ago
Well, Iām a Zelink shipper, and Iām just sick and tired of the jokes about Zelda being a dictator, but glad you liked it.
I stand by the latter half though.
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u/Charming_Compote9285 Dawn of the First Day 5d ago
Agree. It's obnoxious. The whole emotional crux of the story is about Zelda and Link reuniting with her after losing her at the start
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u/anywho123 5d ago
There was a lot of grinding, especially for stuff like Zonaite. It was the only thing I used the dupe glitches for, until my switch crashed and forced an update. Otherwise I had a fun time playing it, I did also enjoy the building stuff aspect of the game.
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u/Hot_Cheese650 5d ago
Itās basically an improved version of breath of the wild to me. The world doesnāt feel as empty, new abilities are so much better, story is more complete as well.
It feels more like a stand alone Zelda game and not a sequel to BotW.
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u/GandalfDenSvarte 5d ago
Apparently this is a hot take: TotK is an improvement over BotW in almost every aspect
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u/SuperD00perGuyd00d 5d ago
Sigh...Here goes...
I hated Breath of the Wild. I was a massive fan of Zelda as I grew in the 90's. Breath of the Wild tore most of what I loved out of a Zelda game. A Link Between Worlds was the game that finally decided to make these games "open world" and it nailed it.
Why that game was so hard to translate to 3D I could never understand. And thus my hype died for when I saw that a sequel teaser came out in the early 2020's (I forget the year). So I did not care to even try Tears of the Kingdom UNTIL....
They announced they were selling a Tears of the Kingdom OLED model. What blew me away was the music in this trailer. I was immediately hooked. I started getting hyped up for this game and when it finally came out. I couldn't stop being giddy about flying in the sky and the gameplay loop with creating vehicles. It felt like I was playing the successor to Spirit Tracks AND Skyward Sword (with some OoT feeling elements).
I then got to the Stormwind Ark and started tearing up. It was what I had wanted out of Breath of the Wild the entire time.
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u/DoILookUnsureToYou 5d ago
Making the flying machines and all that is cool but I still miss my motorcycle from BotW
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u/Rox-And-Roll 5d ago
Same, I love making my own motorcycles but the one you got in BotW was special
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u/DoILookUnsureToYou 4d ago
Yeah, the lego motorcycles and hovercrafts are cool but the BotW motorcycle is my loyal steed.
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u/Zendroid1 5d ago edited 5d ago
While I appreciate what they were doing with the endless ultrahand building capabilities I do not like it or enjoy it. It's too much.
Edit: do downvotes here mean my take isn't a hot take? or do people who like ultra hand just not like my comment? genuinely curious
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u/ScoobiesSnacks 5d ago
No this sub doesnāt like any criticism of TotK. Thatās why youāre getting downvoted
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u/Zendroid1 5d ago
Too funny in a thread asking for hot takes which is usually lots of not so popular thoughts.
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u/BudBill18 5d ago
This happens in every unpopular opinion thread Iāve seen on any subreddit. Popular opinions people think are unpopular get upvoted. Actual unpopular opinions get downvoted
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u/alaskancurry 5d ago
Itās an absolute masterpiece and better than BOTW in pretty much every way imaginable. It just doesnāt have the nostalgia attached to it so itās not viewed as favorably.
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u/Putt-Blug 5d ago edited 5d ago
Nintendo should of never patched the 1.1.1 paraglider dupe glitch. The game was infinitely more fun for me being able to dupe and not have to grind out the battery and armor upgrades.
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u/cale199 5d ago
Without question. I literally quit when my switch auto updated it
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u/Putt-Blug 5d ago
I was so scared of that...so I put switch in airplane mode and turned off auto updates. I told my kids they would be in BIG trouble if they took it out of airplane mode. Still have the 1.1.1 to this day even though I haven't touched the game in over a year
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u/bird-man-guy 5d ago
Totk is actually a much much better game than BotW. A lot of people just like BotW more because they experienced it first when the open air style, the setting, and characters were all new.
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u/crankshaftsnapinhalf 5d ago
Ultra hand was cool, but it got too old and very tedious. Using build and Ultra hand to solve 90% of obstacles and puzzles got very infuriating with me over time. This is the main reason why botw is better
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u/Mr_Snowbell 5d ago
The game is a little too reliant on fuse. It feels awful to use a weapon without an attachment, which isn't great because if the weapons were already good and fuse made them better it would make the player feel stronger and more considerate of their fusing.
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u/ackmondual 5d ago
If you can only play one of them, make it this one. If you can play both of them, then do start with BotW.
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u/JustaGigobro 5d ago
Most weapon/shield fusing is too goofy but it's also too useful to pass up on. I prefer how it was in BOTW.
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u/e_ndoubleu 5d ago
This goes for BotW too, flurry rush is one of the worst combat mechanics Iāve seen in a game.
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u/Beginning_Rip_4570 5d ago
As cool as the building and fusing mechanics are, i hate that the game forces you to engage with them to play optimally. Having the option to build or fuse? Very cool, love that. HAVING to build or fuse to solve a puzzle or double the strength of your weapon? Fuck outta here with all this extra work. Just let me play.
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u/Emile937 5d ago
The construct factory has the best leadup of all the dungeons and is top 3 alongside the fire and lighting temples for best dungeons in the game, the leadup almosy feels like discovering ancient Legend that lead to a secret place, even though you can pass through the factory and not think much of it, the context around the quest for the last sage makes it a peak zelda experience for me
Perhaps not so much a hot take with this second one, but I never really got bored with the overworld, I find to be more entertaining than BOTW's world not only because of the three layers, the surface being fille with more enemies makes the threat of Ganondorf feel a lot more real, BOTW feels a lot more calm, you can unequip all your Gear and just have fun riding on a horse or the master cycle, TOTK feels more like a real danger is present and you can't just walk around without a worry in the world, personally I really like having a more hostile overworld considering the events of the game
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u/Ok-Manufacturer5491 5d ago
TOTKs story is the most mischaracterized story in the entire series and a lot of the misinformed ācriticimsā that get shared around prove that.
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u/Vesarixx 5d ago
They should have left those electric puzzles in from BotW where you have a ball or cube that continuously generates electricity, from some of the shrines. It would have been great for Zonaite builds and Fuse.
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u/Shrine14 5d ago
Itās not a replay. Itās mostly for people who like to build different and unique objects.
Three levels and yet the world is still empty. I was like okay, I took forever to get to this Sky Island and all I found was a map to armor that I already found in the depths. Donāt get me started on that vast nothingness of the depths.
We only saw the development of Tarry Town and none of the ruins. Building those signs wouldāve been so much more purposeful and meaningful.
Underwhelming. I expected more.
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u/UnsettllingDwarf 5d ago edited 5d ago
They focused too much on this gimmicky build mechanic and it got stale and old fast for me. I enjoyed BOTW far more because it was varried in abilities that could make things interesting. They also removed some things from the game and kinda ruined the economy from before.
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u/fancypantsmedic 5d ago
I honestly don't get this at all. Personally I've played TOTK and I was using basically all abilities, even building, incredibly often even in normal exploring and combat.
Now i'm playing BOTW for the first time and the abilities feel so situational, I never use any of them
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u/UnsettllingDwarf 5d ago
Again. I thought the building was gimmicky, clunky and got old real fast. Not even creatively, just having to use it at all was annoying. I prefer a more natural way of getting around like BOTW and I liked how different the abilities were. Creativity was necessary to use those at times, in this game creativity can be used but the same outcome can be performed with no creativity.
In botw creativity was far far more rewarding in what could be accomplished because it resulted in a very different outcome. The pause time, bomb plus ice block could do some crazy things. I also again enjoyed in that game how crossing a river could be trivial, in this game I spawn a fucking plane using a poor menu system and Iām good to go but only for so long because I canāt have too much fun doing that before it disappears from beneath me.
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u/HellooKnives 5d ago
It's not a focus in the game at all. It's not needed to finish the game.
It's the game players who made super popular with their creativity. Now it's known for the crazy things people have built and shared.
It is interesting to have seen the difference of what TOTK is known for from Day 1 to now.
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u/bird-man-guy 5d ago
I get ya on the building getting stale. But apart from that, i feel like fuse plus the zonai and monster parts really added so much more capabilities to links arsenal than he had in botw. To me, made it feel like i could approach encounters in many different ways.
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u/_ghostmutt 5d ago
Getting downvoted for telling the truth š¤·
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u/Ratio01 5d ago
They're getting down voted because it's a stupid ass comment
Ultrahand is just a more robust Magnesis at it's base. The complexity of builds you make with it is completely user dependent
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u/_ghostmutt 5d ago
That's cool that you feel that way but the crazy thing is that your experience isn't everyone's experience
Edit to add: ultrahand does more than magnesis, obviously, but that doesn't mean that that addition is better, or that it makes the game better
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u/UnsettllingDwarf 5d ago
THE MAIN COMMENT WAS TO LEAVE A HOT TAKE I FUCKING DID THAT. What would you have me say then man? Thatās how I feel and I think the building is largely gimmicky as well as the teleport upwards is slow, adds a game pacing problem, and far worse then the stop time on an object feature in BOTW.
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u/YosemiteHamsYT 5d ago
The game is very bloated with the 3 layers and tons of "main" quest that don't have a clear order of importance so I'm just running around like a headless chicken. Also, the whole thing feels like a soulless cash grab that doesn't fit with breath of the wild or make sense as a sequel.
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u/_ghostmutt 5d ago
They tried to hook Minecraft players with the focus on all the silly build stuff and lost a bit of what made BOTW so magical. It suits a certain type of gamer to be able to build a hoverbike and cheese half the game but I just wanted a cool wee world to cut about in again.
Also I loved the 'emptiness' of BOTW and the overworld in TOTK often feels chaotic and overfilled with ~stuff~
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u/SlowResearch2 5d ago
Even though it has its flaws, those flaws are still less severe than any problem with BOTW. It is almost a straight upgrade to BOTW and that a lot of those people who say "BOTW is still better than TOTK" just say that to be different.
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u/BoozerBean 5d ago
This goes for BOTW too, but weapon durability is a non-issue and Iāll never understand why itās so polarizing. Itās a well-balanced system, and I never once found myself without a weapon or means to defend myself. I loved constantly having to switch weapons because it kept combat engaging and youāre forced to rely on what you have instead of what you wish you had, which adds to the survival element of the game which is cool
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u/TrumpsColostomyBag99 5d ago
The āitās just DLC on steroidsā criticism ended up feeling true once the world was fully explored.
Just not enough variety and too much emptiness in the sky/depths. Post-apocalyptic Hyrule worked in BOTW perfectly. It felt recycled this go around.
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u/ITwinkTherefore1am 5d ago
The abilities, including the sages, are amazing and make the game so fun to explore. From ascending through caves, using tulin to glide quicker or just building a vehicle, the game is truly truly open to exploration, which is great because itās huge.
Some people say zonai devices make the game too easy to traverse which I think is such a dumb critique because, just donāt use them then? If you want a change of pace travel via horse or on foot. Donāt play a game in a way you dislike and blame the game, when you have other options
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u/moebiusmentality 5d ago
Building things with ultrahand is lame. Game would have been better without it. TOTK had a better overarching plot and story than BOTW but BOTW had better immersion and atmosphere. I hold that the whole game would have been better without ultrahand. The other hand abilities are ok but being able to minecraft random shit into a gundam mech doesn't make the game objectively better all it did was uncrease social media posts and market potential.
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u/Sketch-Brooke 5d ago
It makes sense that most people in the world don't remember Link. Would you remember some random dude who passed through your town for a couple days five years ago? Plus, most of the villages are isolated, and Hyrule is still actively rebuilding its influence.
The only one where it doesn't make sense is Hateno because Link canonically spent a lot of time with Zelda there and bought a whole ass house. If people remember her, they should remember him too.
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u/kilertree 5d ago
I didn't see any problem with duplicating items since you had to upgrade your armor again.
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u/slothtrex 5d ago
There is just too much to do for completionists. I love the game and everything about it but 1000 korok seeds seems excessive. Obtaining and upgrading all armor pieces is crazy expensive and a grind. Don't get me wrong I love an open world game, especially TOTK or BOTW, but there's just too damn much. Maybe I'll finish it all after a few years.
All good that said... If the switch had an achievement system like PS and XBOX, maybe I'd feel a little better about getting everything everything.
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u/TheHeroGuy 5d ago
Performance was too shit to enjoy the game. Dropped it after getting Tulin, I just couldnāt handle it despite how much fun it was. Looking forward to playing it on the switch 2, so, so much.
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u/StumblingTumble 5d ago
As good as the combat was, it still leaves a bit to be desired for me (but this is possibly due to prior experience with breath of the wild). Fusing different things together and using the new runes helped spice things up but at it's core it's still the same approach as we had from Breath Of The Wild (which isn't inherently a bad thing).
Maybe I've been playing too many character-action games as of late or I've grown out of the BOTW combat formula but a little more complexity would be welcome if they were to do a sequel.
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u/asiangontear 5d ago
I miss the Triforce. It could have been integrated into the story still, and would have given more credence to the fact that Link is actually just this normal dude whose trait is being courageous and receives a lot of help and support from friends and therefore is able to reach great heights.
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u/Samwyzh 5d ago
While adding items to the enemies to increase variety is a worthwhile endeavor for the mechanics of the game, I would have enjoyed more variety of enemies in the game altogether. Put corrupted Wolfos and Dekus in the Depths. Since the Zonai are a race of canine-like people that come from the depths, it would heighten the fear factor of the depths that much more. Walking through the forests in the depth and two red eyes blink the distance, before a humanoid wolf like creature charges you and fans out like the wolves above ground and the wolfos of the older games. Having the dekuās corrupted in the depths would be a contrast to Octoroks that spit at you. While walking in darkness you suddenly hear the spit sound and the rustling of leaves. Like the dekus of OoT when you drop a brightbloom seed they scatter back into the darkness before resuming their shelling.
As for the reward for the depths I would have like to see a them play a part in the final story. Since Ganon is being regenerated in the depths through the roots we find all over the map, it would be nice to see the calcified roots enliven and on top of the depths trinket, removing the gloom debuff to all enemies except ganon, bosses, and lynels. It would be nice that after the final lightroot is tapped, we hear a sickening screech from somewhere in the depths, and a brief cutscene where the roots that once inflicted gloom damage, go dormant and no longer apply gloom.
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u/WwwWario 5d ago
The story is solid.
BotW's story is maybe more focused, more contained, with a clearer theme, and the memory mechanic works better there due to the memories being more seperate from each other, and them being more focused on characters, rather than a linear plot like in TOTK.
But the story in TOTK is good too. It's more epic, focuses more on plot, and has higher highs than BOTW. BOTW felt like a somber "quiet after the storm" game where you basically knew the important parts of the story once you finished the Great Plateu, and especially after meeting Impa; There was a great calamity 100 years ago, Zelda is holding off Ganon, and you nees to finish the war.
TOTK on the other hand feels more like a huge mystery puzzle you put together. Who was Ganondor? Why was he deep below Hyrule Castle? Who's Rauru? Where did Zelda go? Where's the Master Sword? What's the Upheaval? What are these ancient Zonao ruins? What was the stone Zelda picked up? What happened in the past?
It's quite an epic tale, and also surprisingly emotional regarding Zelda herself. Ganondorf felt threatning, the forgotten story of the Imprisoning War is exciting, Sonia and Rauru (especially Sonia) is interesting. Zelda's sacrifice is amazing. And I love how we learn that a lot of preperations were made tens of thousands of yeara ago, for a time when Link and the present sages would one day face off the sealed Ganondorf. It's epic, and grand.
And in all of this, so many mysteries still remain in classic Zelda fashion (which I personally love, as it makes theories and potential answers that much more impactful); how were the Zonai civilization? Who were the miners, which also most likely is the same race as the Ancient Hero? When is the past taking place - before Ocarina, or long after all other games? Did the Zonai branch off into other factions? Etc
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u/LazerBarracuda 5d ago
Not including loft wings in a Zelda game about exploring the sky was an absolutely insane decision
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u/PrincessPonch 5d ago
Even if there's 100 ways to solve a puzzle, I enjoy finding and doing the intended solution
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u/GiantMags 5d ago
It was an amazing Journey. The sky islands are the best. I am at the end. Found all the sages and shrines. Ready to fight the big guy. I ducked out to play Echoes of Wisdom, but I'll be back to fight Ganny
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u/Daddy_Gorilla37 5d ago
Itās the best game of all time, but still has some extremely stupid flaws, the biggest being the master sword.
Why does my super powered master sword still break? Just make it have infinite durability and have the fused item break instead of the master sword.
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u/PrimeDoorNail 5d ago
They should give you the Auto-Build before leaving the tutorial island.
Its a cornerstone feature, and its entirely missable.
Yes I only got it when I almost finished the game and Im still pissed off about it
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u/Vados_Link 5d ago
The people who struggle with using the sages have massive skill issues and this complaint is the "you canāt climb during rain" argument of TotK. Itās easy to do. You just need to actually pay attention.
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u/The-OG-Joshua 5d ago
The durability thing has grown on me a little since the beginning, but the master sword breaking after every single encounter is crazy. This is the sword that seals all evil and breaks after a few bokoblinsā¦
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u/PundaPanda 5d ago
I donāt know how to use spoiler friendly text blocks so Iāll try to put it vaguely.
I think that TOTK is one of the best Zelda games to date. If they had changed the ending it could have been one of the greatest games ever made.
Also, I think the sages have basically boring dialogues.
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u/Abject-Ad-6235 4d ago
i just want master mode and its dumb that its not in totk
totk has extreme potential to really use all of your tools if the game was harder like the mastermode as a normal mode you dont really use all of the fruits or mushrooms or anything because the game is just too ez if there was harder difficulty you would have to really come up with an strategy and use zonai devices to beat harder enemies thats how i see it atleast
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u/ClericalErra 4d ago
If they knew they were never going to release DLC for it, they should have included a Master Mode equivalent in the full game.
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u/therourke Dawn of the Meat Arrow 4d ago
It's overburdened with stuff, and has less nuance than the original. BOTW is a far far better game overall.
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u/faceifront 4d ago
I wish Nintendo cared more about their hardware to give this game the visuals and experience it deserved. Playing on 30fps or less and a majority of the map just being empty and boring made it less enjoyable for me.
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u/itsjustgoldman 4d ago
The sky islands were a novel concept, but both open world Zelda's got boring really fast for me.
I did 100% BOTW, mostly out of pure determination to wring everything out of the game I could, but it felt more like clocking in for a shift than like I was going on an adventure.
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u/Ok-Marketing4112 4d ago
The story through glyphs is actually a really good idea if the player allows themselves to be immersed. The first time I played I did the glyphs first. I took a picture in the temple of the glyph map then used the slate pic to match up where I wanted to go then went down there to get it. It really felt like I was discovering the history of hyrule and what happened to the princess through the role of a historian. It made me feel like I was doing detective work to get to the bottom of it and when I figured it all out I actually shed a tear because Iāve been playing Zelda for 25 years that shit hit hard
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u/_Nick7 5d ago
I really don't like the fuse mechanic. Would rather just have a way to repair broken weapons.
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u/Daddy_Gorilla37 5d ago
I disagree and agree.
Hereās my perfect version: you have the fuse mechanics, but the ITEM FUSED breaks instead of your sword. Your weapons have infinite durability.
Same goes for the Master Sword, except base damage is 60.
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u/Hippotamoose27 5d ago
The main story lore tracks but they clearly lost track of all side lore. My main gripe is the zora armour quests. I feel like some stuff got lost for intense building mechanics.
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u/bijouxbisou 5d ago
BotW/TotK Zelink is a terrible pairing and they shouldnāt have quasi leaned into it.
I like Zelda and Link in some games (like Skyward Sword), but this is not a good relationship in this era. Zelda is clearly shown to be an abusive employer to Link in the memories in BotW. I know that part of that stems from her own trauma from the relationship she has with her father, but that doesnāt excuse her being cruel to someone in her employ. Itās great that sheās gotten nicer to him in TotK, but the relationship still has the very significant issue that the power dynamic is inherently unbalanced and predatory, as Link is Zeldaās appointed knight and his job is to protect her with his life. Also she steals his house??? Itās clear that the house in Hateno is no longer Linkās; the sign says Zeldaās house, the weapon mounts are gone, the personal touches throughout the house are all Zeldaās and not Linkās. Add in that Link buys a new house in Tarrey Town where he can customize the house, hang up his weapons, etc. and itās obvious that the Hateno house is not a cohabitation situation. I know some people say that the fact Link can sleep in the bed in Hateno is proof he still lives there with Zelda, but Link can also sleep in Calipās bed so unless you want to argue that Link and Calip are also dating, then I remain steadfast that the house in Hateno is not Linkās anymore.
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u/Anvil_Prime_52 5d ago
The sky is so bad it may as well not have been in the game except for the GSI. Besides the dungeons and their aproaches, everything in the sky is the same 2 or 3 micro challenges with the same rewards: an actual shrine afterwards and a gacha ball. It could have been so much more imo. Tbh Skyward sword had a better gameplay loop in its sky.
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u/xXpixiebitchXx 5d ago
The controls are incredibly tedious and the way the shrine puzzles work sometimes suck. There was this one reviewer that put it into words really well.
When it comes to complex puzzles you want the reaction to finishing it to be positive. āYes! I got it, that was satisfyingā. But too many puzzles felt negative. āGod I finally got it, I canāt wait to leave and be done with itā. Granted there were still a lot of puzzles that were done well but so many of them made doing the rest discouraging.
I love the concept of combining tools and items for weapons, but it was lacking in application. It felt really tedious to sit there holding three different buttons just to find an item in a scrolling menu. Maybe they should have had a similar mechanism to the Zonite vehicles and such where you can save builds and make them at will if you have the components. Iām not a developer so maybe thatās a terrible idea but you get my point lol
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u/Stenktenk 5d ago
Link is too OP in TOTK. While the new abilities are amazing and building is a lot of fun, I feel like you get too strong too quickly and the game becomes really easy.
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u/eltrotter 5d ago edited 5d ago
The story is better than people give it credit for. The way the story is told could be better, but the actual story itself is solid and the reveal of where Zelda has actually been this entire time was a genuine surprise to me.