Відео

Everything above 20$ for some half*ss roms is a complete scam

Because they have Stcokholm Syndrome when Nintendo always does things to make you know they hate you with every fiber of their being. And they will say it very loud and clear. But do these people care? Nope they still buy Mario even though it's the same game from the NES era just with new mechanics and a coat of pain ontop of the billions of layers it's already been using for years.

Afraid to take risks? Literal the whole concept of Echoes and playing as Zelda is a huge risk.

I sadly, sadly have to wholeheartedly agree with your thoughts. I was really looking forward to this entry. Dungeons?! Linearity?! All that I needed after these 2 massive last two entries. But not only lacks this game imagination and soul, it also lacks the magic I felt with other Zelda entries. As a first time player of Links Awakening in the remake, I was hooked from start to finish. I cared about the characters, enjoyed listening to their dialogues, had some nuts to solve in the dungeons… and with Echoes of Wisdom? I skip the dialogue, I run past chests since I know it will be another useless potato. This game has no real identity, even in its gameplay aspect. The dungeons are SO boring, give you no challenge, the puzzles being so easy… it is a shame because I think leaning more into a less combat focused experience could have given Zelda more of a character as well. Being more methodical in comparison to link. Being faced with deep and complex puzzles and dungeons. Instead, we got a mish mash of all sorts of things… a bit of combat? Sure, but don’t make it complex. The echo mechanic? Cool but make sure you put in so many that they loose their meaning. Crafting? Yes of course, but make sure it gives almost no interesting benefits. Man I‘m so disappointed with this game and I really think for a lot of people being a game out of the Zelda franchise is enough to give high scores. There are nice ideas here, but it lacks a coherent vision

Im sorry for your loss

Hot Jake: Tears of the Kingdom is a good game. XD

I LOVE ROCK PENCIL!!!

As expected from a leech that suck the titis of awful videogame journalists. Keep it up, your mediocrity and surely will land you a job writing garbage for the likes of Kotaku you love so much.

Just finished this game today and hearing your thoughts have spurred some of my own. Decided to write them here as a long comment: This game certainly does feel like an echo. It haphazardly throws together those elements that were fun in the classic games, but doesn't have anything new to say about them. It lacks a voice of its own. Being Zelda gets reduced to something trivial, when it could have been this big revelation after 30+ years of Link. Huge missed opportunity there. Totally agree that the way Zelda plays resembles Link too much. At that point, why have Zelda be playable at all? Makes me feel like they’re only using Zelda to have the game be known as “the one where you play as the princess” rather than sincerely exploring the concept of a playable Zelda. Imagine the game that could have been: the typical hero, Link, fails to defeat Ganon. Big time. No subsequent resurrection, the symbol of courage is gone forever. Is Hyrule just going to sit there and take it? Someone has to pick up the Master Sword. A ghost Link tells Zelda to become the new hero, even though she believes it's not her destiny. She could cite the previous heroes of Hyrule across history as examples, all of them being swordsmen, all of them named Link. Ghost Link could tell her something like “the spirit of the hero” lives on even though he does not, and that she’s got to stop rigidly believing in destiny. Zelda steathily recovers the Master Sword from Ganon’s fortress, but it won’t accept its new wielder. When she picks it up, it actively hurts her to use it. As in, RECOIL damage! This is way more fun than a timed magic meter. You’d have to pick the right fights and rely on heart drops to stay alive. Because of this, Zelda’s living in fear for her life most of the game, and as the player, you’re stressed out as well, having to keep an eye on your health. Zelda uniquely DOESN'T have a blank expression when fighting bosses (instead she looks very nervous), and considers every boss battle victory a fluke. Also, Zelda holds the sword differently from Link and doesn’t perform that same spin attack. She’s forming her own identity as the new hero in a way we haven’t seen before, so she has all-new sword moves. As you progress through the game and do heroic deeds, the Master Sword hurts you less and eventually, it no longer hurts Zelda at all - marking a point in the story where Zelda has truly become the hero, and for the player, no longer being as cautious about your health as you had been during the whole game. The courage Zelda feels in the story corresponds directly with the courage the player feels in enemy encounters now. To have the player immerse themselves into the role of Zelda, through story and gameplay, you’ve gotta show her struggles. Make it different from Link’s. Please! To me, would actually justify having a playable Zelda. Who knows? We may very well see another game with playable Zelda in the future. It’s possible this game was holding a lot back. Above all else, I just want to see full confidence in the vision next time, as in, don’t let the player revert back to Link whenever they want. No more relying on the past so much :)

This is an excellent video and review. Thank you for articulating so precisely the flaws and lack of depth in this game. I didn't even buy it. It's the first Zelda game I skip, and I wish Tears of the Kingdom would have been the first. Just by looking at the trailers and a bit of gameplay, I knew this game was relying too much in familiarity and recycled assets. This video is so satisfying because i knew there were many things off that I couldn't put it into words. I feel truly grateful for your effort and passion. I hope someday Zelda may shine once again.

This is just stupid incoherent nonsense. Zelda is talking to npc, she waves her hand when dhe is explaining things. Its just YOU don’t hear whats being said. Secondly, npc praise zelda for the work she did saving them including her father the king and even at the end of the game LINK himself turns and points to zelda as the one who saved them. Ill say to you what miyomoto said to illumination when they tried to inject girlboss BS into peach in the mario movie. “No no mario is the hero”. So ill say yo you “no no LINK is the hero”. Link is the point of the “legend” of zelda. Her legend is about a hero who came to save hyrule. Zelda was never meant to be the protagonist. She is and will always be the support character for link who is supposed to represent the player.

You have a very interesting perspective and you have a lot to say, but your thing about NPCs not doing anything interesting is true of basically every Zelda game. Most of the stories lack substance. If you look at developer interviews, it started as a game where you play as Link and nobody was using the echoes power during playtest. So they made you Zelda to take the sword and bow skills away after a year of development. I think a lot of your complaints are founded in the fact that they didn't start with a game where you play as Zelda. But they also stem from wanting a deeper story experience from Zelda games. I think Echoes of Wisdom makes some great strides, and I firmly believe it has the spirit of Zelda games in it. I do think it's, perhaps, a bit flawed in its execution.

I think your perspective has put to words some of my feelings regarding the game, though I wouldn’t consider myself as pointed or accusatory as you or others regarding the decisions of the developers. But what the game lacks for me is a sense of cohesion, or closer to your words, identity. Between the story, the tone, and the music, they’re all serviceable but it does lack flavor. I’ve been on a 2D Zelda romp leading up to this game, and it weirdly reminds me of the Minish Cap the most. Both games have absolutely gorgeous visuals, with their main mechanics expressed in isolated dioramas of the overworld and both have an expressed interest in talking to NPCs for a 2D Zelda, either for connecting kin stones, which give you secret rewards or in the side quests, which give you, well, rewards. And yet, though both have a connective central idea (changing perspectives and “stolen away”), I don’t think they push those enough for them to mean more than a solid adventure. Honestly, when playing Minish Cap, I also found it to be very derivative. The art style is based on Wind Waker (despite having no canonical relation), most human NPCs are directly taken from other games in their original designs, and it takes place in your classic Hyrule (which I think is notable because Link’s Awakening and the Oracle games that came before all took place in different lands). You’ll see this in Echoes of Wisdom as well, as you mentioned. The art style choice especially tripped me up when it was first announced because the Link’s Awakening remake was praised for its toy-like models being representative of a dream. Applied to Echoes or Wisdom, people have pointed out that it’s representative of a toy box, which fits aspects of the gameplay, but doesn’t particularly enhance the experience in the same was as Link’s Awakening. And the wildest thing for me to be disappointed about in Echoes of Wisdom was them reusing the butterflies from Link’s Awakening, since their abundance in the latter was representative of them being symbols of dreams, specifically the transition between the “real world” and a dream or vice versa. But despite my gripes, knowing that I had similar thoughts with Minish Cap, or even how the DS games were handled, I am pretty firmly off the boat of “Nintendo doesn’t know how to make Zelda anymore.” Especially since I’m in the apparently rare perspective of *loving* Tears of the Kingdom while feeling conflicted regarding Echoes of Wisdom, while being a long-time Zelda fan. For its occasional hiccups in execution, I still find TotK to be incredibly resonant with the feelings it bakes into the environment, the story, *the music.* Just compare the way Zelda’s Lullaby triumphantly blares in heroic horns, staying present as TotK’s main theme takes the reigns in its final boss compared to its use in the final boss of EoW or how it’s used in the whole game really. There is meaning, there is emotion, there is flavor in TotK that keeps me thinking about it positively and definitely keeps me from being cynical about the series, alongside what I had mentioned about EoW not being particularly new in this. On the same dimension as EoW, I think Link’s Awakening and A Link Between Worlds are 2D Zeldas that I think offer more of that flavor, with LA’s playful weirdness and existential draw and ALBW’s classic, heroically brassy tone, and how you witness the antagonist’s plight by exploring and experiencing Lorule for yourself. I also find it kind of telling that everyone I’ve seen who has praised the story of EoW always uses the word “lore,” and discusses its implications to the Zelda universe, rather than, well, the actual story. And for all that I don’t even hate the game!! Or dislike it!! I think it’s good!! It was a Hyrule worth exploring, it feels undeniably warm and cozy in a way I find authentic because the structure of the world and its visuals just ooze with care, which you could say contrasts with the chaos of the still world. Jabul Waters is one of my favorite environments in a Zelda game, ever, and I’d go back there just to swim around. I weirdly love it when the game embraces a childlike innocence as well, especially through Tri. It crops up quite a few times, and that’s as close to a flavor I feel with this game, especially with the established toy box elements. And for some reason I found myself crying at the end of the game? Even though I knew it wasn’t *that* sad. It’s pretty easy to make me tear up, and I knew the direction it was going, but calling back to a piece of dialogue that actually stuck out to me earlier in the story made me a little weak for whatever reason. And that’s not even mentioning the gameplay, the dungeons, the bosses, etc., which I think are pretttyyyy gooooood. It’s a game I want to embrace in a warm hug and would definitely replay, rather than one that inspires me or truly resonances with me. I miss the feeling of playing it, honestly. A game that feels better in my hands than in my brain I guess. Don’t agree with everything in the video, but I appreciate your discussion and clear passion for these topics as always. Anything that gets me to type up a think piece in the comments without making me frustrated gets a like from me.

I personally loved EoW. It far surpassed my expectations and stands alongside some of the best 2D Zeldas imo. However, I really appreciate this video for challenging some of my own thoughts of the game. One point I must push back on is your qualm with bind. Perhaps I don't fully understand your criticism, but it seems you wished for more of a narrative moment to underpin acquiring this ability. While many items/abilities throughout the Zelda series have heavily tied into the story, many don't have as much explanation. TotK's ultrahand which, correct me if I'm wrong, you didn't have an issue with had about as much justification for existing as echoes and bind. Much of this is subjective preference but I don't need as much of a story reason for abilities to exist especially if they're mostly there for fun gameplay mechanics. And presumably the Tris had echoes and bind as a means to repair rifts. (I do think the golden goddess sanctions were a missed opportunity to give us more magical abilities akin to the magic in Ocarina of Time, and this would have been a narratively impactful ability as well since Zelda seems to be the only one who can communicate directly with the goddesses.) All that to say, while I don't necessarily agree with everything you said, I appreciate how well thought your points are.

I think when there is an outcry over a female protagonist in a new game and things of that sort, it's often people being wary of such characters because lately there's been a lot of works where inclusion and identity politics came with a badly written story or an unfun game attached, and then when valid criticisms arose, everyone who was feeling negative got lumped in together with bigots and it's absolutely exhausting to go through that over and over again. Iirc, when Control was announced, people on the internet were annoyed too, because of the female protagonist, but then the game came out, people played it, it was good and suddenly vast majority of that vanished.

honestly i agreed with you 100% when i watched the trailers, but i had so much fun playing the game that i can't complain too much

I agree with everything you said. I think the game is really missing its own identity. Everything feels like I already did the exact same thing in another zelda game before. Same overworld, same races, same characters. Everyone acts like you would expect them to act. It really feels like this is a fan game made only with references from existing parts and without an own creativity

Forgive me, this is a very stupid video. The game was supposed to have Link as the main protagonist, and it was a later switch when they couldn't get people to use the echoes mechanic when Link had a sword and shield. People asked for the familiar, and they got the familiar. If you think that's wrong, check the sales of final fantasy 16 and write an essay about that failure.

Given the last few entries, I honestly don’t expect great storytelling from Nintendo any more. What I got from TOTK is that Nintendo prioritized mechanics over story. I was yelling in frustration when every region’s champion story played out identically. (You’d think by the 4th time Link hears an ancient sage, he’d bother to explain to his friend what’s happening.) To be clear, I think both games had some good story elements - but both of them left me somewhat unsatisfied. My reaction has been to accept them for what they are. The game play is truly a joy, even if the story doesn’t quite do it for me. There’s other games *ahem BG3 ahem* that fill that story gap for me. Would it be amazing if Nintendo gave us an amazing story? Of course! But expanding my horizons beyond Zelda means that I’m not that bothered that the game isn’t a 100-% perfect match for me.

This might be the worst youtube video I have ever seen

the game is a masterpiece and is the best zelda game we've gotten since ALBW. I'm glad you're not in charge of the franchise.

Great read of the problems with the story and narrative that this game is trying to sell. I somehow now feel a bit strange, as gameplay-wise I did enjoy the game and found the dungeons and puzzles a pleasure to go through. I actually almost never used the Swordfighter form perhaps subconsciously to make it a more unique experience than "just another game where you play as Link". This read makes me want to examine more of my motivations behind enjoying games. Maybe with this video I learned that while a good story might be a great addition to a game, if the gameplay is enjoyable, the story could be flawed but I personally wouldn't mind. I guess thats fair considering some of my favorite games like Tetris, Warioware, or Balatro aren't exactly story heavy anyway. But yes, always enjoy hearing your close reads, Jake and through it, I learn to appreciate games as literature more!

Liking this because I highly value critical assessment of games as media we participate in, but I do not agree with the ultimate message of your essay. A significant focus of this critique seems to lie in the narrative of the game and how mechanics serve that, but considering that Zelda as a franchise has been shifting to the spirit of the original Legend of Zelda, I'd argue that the narrative is never about the characters in the story, but about the player. Zelda is not what matters in these proceedings, what matters is that a player handling her will create their own stories and memories from how they choose to interact with this world and its inhabitants. The impact of receiving new tools is not in how it changes the world of the characters, but in the player when they realize how it opens up possibilities that weren't there before. It's true that both narrative depth and game design depth CAN exist, and do in multiple games, but I don't judge the designers and directors of this game for not engaging in that depth much in the same way I wouldn't judge a children's book for lacking the depth of more adult stories. I will agree though that familiarity does impede the design, in factors like not letting the player name the character or forcing the player to turn into Link to progress. Those are very real vestiges of classic Zelda that the developers were not brave enough to remove, because those are the ones where there was a direct clash with the direction of the game. Those are to me the real markings of the Pose that is inevitable in a "product" from a corporation more concerned with bottom line than with artistic intent. But I find that at its core the game design is still entertaining and valuable enough that those impediments don't detract from what I find to be a sincere, joyful experience of a game.

Need a literary analysis of all 3 Xenoblade games from you more than I need air

You have a real knack for putting into words what I feel but can't quite explain. There were elements of the EOW story I liked. I found many of the characters charming, especially the dekus. I liked the mid-game shift of the King being saved and Zelda being able to be open about who she is. I liked the central idea. I appreciated some of the darker elements the story went for. But ultimately, it really did feel like a hollow experience. I've been clamouring for a return to classic elements for over a decade, and we did get some of that return, but it felt like the soul was missing. Like when you're out in town and you see some good window dressing, but then you walk in and there's almost nothing in the shop. For me the element where this is most apparent is the music. There are many musical allusions to old Zelda motifs, and they all feel incredibly hollow and forced. The music sounds like it was written by someone going through the motions, starting with a list of classic Zelda motifs and working backwards to make something serviceale out of them. The little overture of Zelda's lullaby you get in the overworld after the halfway point sounds downright *terrible*; the main theme was already an obvious reference to Zelda's lullaby with the main LOZ theme thrown in for good measure, so there was no need to not only make it so explicit, but make it sound so terrible. But it's a Zelda game and Zelda games should have these references, so they did. It's style without the substance. It just feels like the Zelda team aren't interested in making Zelda games anymore. They're instead interested in doing their sanbox crap through the medium of the Zelda brand. The pre-release interviews talk about how the devs were adding this and that story element to make it feel like Zelda, and it doesn't seem to occur to them that that's not how this should be done; the *Zelda* of a Zelda game should feel organic, coming from a place of passion, but with Tears and especially Echoes it feels manufactured, coming from a sense of obligation. For all the depth added by the sanbox mechanics and open worlds, Zelda games just feel hollow these days. But the saddest thing to me isn't just that the Zelda team aren't interested in making Zelda game anymore. It's that they don't even seem to understand what made their own games great. What makes a great Zelda game isn't the existence of the Master Sword, or the inclusion of Gorons, or another new remix of the main LOZ theme, or playing tennis with energy balls against Ganon, or mountains to the north and deserts to the south, or the existence of a second world based off the primary one, or the bit at the end of the story where the companion leaves. Those are Zelda tropes that I'm bored of and ready to move on from. What made Zelda games great was the sense of going on a grand adventure, of not knowing what was in store, of unlocking new tools that opened up new exciting possibilities, of entering a grand dungeon you were going to spend a good chunk of time exploring and solving. I don't think the Zelda devs really appreciate that. I'm bored of fanservice, especially when the fanservice serves the function of covering up shallowness. Echoes made a lot of steps in the right direction, in terms of dungeon design, in terms of unlocking the dungeons in stages, in terms of having areas of the map blocked off until later in the game. But ultimately, it was just a hollow experience.

And to think I thought the whole, 'The other Tri restore The World by creating ECHOES to replace it' thing would be important; Cause We've seen how easily Zelda can dismiss All Her Echoes, & what happens when You run out of echo triangles; But no, there's never any issue with restored areas;

thank u for putting it into words, i was so worried id b the only one poo-pooing this game. I mean, saying something is an average 5/10 that doesn't do anything special isn't exactly poo-pooing but to gamers and especially nintendo people it absolutely is perceived as such this "pose" concept is an issue with a lot of nintendo writing, and this game is a prime example I feel like what I want from Zelda will never actually come from Zelda Anyway, the best Zelda game where you play as Zelda that came out this year is STILL Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore

I haven't heard a negative review of this game yet, but now that you point it out, I think I see the flaws and do wish there was more creativity in the developer's choices of game mechanics

I don’t know. Zelda games have always had to walk the tightrope between doing new things while retaining some sense of core identity. The fact that some people might agree with Jake and others think EoW is too different in the ways they feel are most important speaks to this difficulty. The developers themselves bring this up in that four part interview. Personally, I think Zelda as a protagonist does feel distinct from Link, at least from a gameplay perspective. I don’t think the game would work if you just swapped out Zelda for Link. Nor do I think EoW is merely a poser. However, I am a little fatigued of Hyrule as a setting with all the familiar races and regions. I am hopeful that the next big 3D game will offer up something a little more unique after spending so much time with BotW’s version of Hyrule.

it's because they put a WOMAN as the main character. go WOKE go BROKE nintendo...

Couldn’t agree more

You sound bit too angry in the video, the frustration is very noticeable and i understand it too, but it makes it bit hard to listen to if we hear you talk in that passive-aggressive tone for 13 minutes straight. Otherwise i liked the video and you’re 100% right that they failed to make this game about the princess and let her be her own character and shine. But the criticism point towards some other aspects of the game feeling too familiar or playing it safe could be applied to majority of the franchise and is nothing exclusive to this entry or bad per se, it’s part of the identity of the series after all to have familiar elements. This being the reason why people like the game, that it is a Zelda game through and through like the rest of the bunch. Even if it fails being a bad first Princess Zelda game, it still delivers on most other fronts. I hope Nintendo gives us another Princess game one day and manages to make it HER game.

Thanks for the review Jake! I always enjoy these videos because you bring such a unique perspective to the table. I feel like watching your videos has helped me become a more critical thinker and appreciate the small, finer details in these games. Keep up the good work!

NGL, it was kinda giving that energy since it was revealed

Thanks! (I was the one who requested this video)

Out of curiosity, would you say this is the only Zelda game that does this? Or if examining previous entries in the franchise, especially sequels, would you feel the same way about them? Genuinely curious, great work as always Jake.👍🏻

Oh this is an interesting take and in hindsight I think you are right. To be fair, fans of Nintendo kinda hate change so I wonder if Nintendo just played it safe just in case the game didn't do well. I think it would be cool to see her thoughts in future titles though.

I wouldn't say I'm a nintendo fan, as far as I know the word fan stems from the word fanatic, which I'm not. Did I own various Nintendo devices growing up? Yes, did I spent plenty of hours with them? Yup, guilty as charged. I enjoy the handiness of the nintendo switch, but rarely had any fun with their first party games. If could have what the steam deck offers in the format of the switch? It would be an instant "shut up and take my money" moment.

Nintendo fans sensitive really what about PS Xbox and PC fans who are ganging up and bulling Nintendo gamers their the sensitive ones

One of my favorite parts of this stream is that about 8 or 9 times the camera zooms in on a buff dude who just starts screaming and powering up, and Jake would say every time "Ooh, what's he doing" and then the buff dude would turn blond and continue fighting as before. As someone who is very much not in the know of DBZ, it was very funny to witness.

It's still insane they charge $90 for Breath of The Wild...

yeah sure steinberg

These games weren't developed in isolation, they were developed collaboratively, by a pretty small team