some notes, since i get a handful of the same comments nearly every day: 1. yes, you can hear some mouth sounds during the beginning of this video. it won't be an issue in the future and it goes away ten minutes in. 2. zelda being taller than link is a win for gay people because link and zelda are lesbians. i will not be taking further questions at this time. 3. it seems that you _can_ find pristine weapons even if you didn't break the unfused variety. we only know this because of datamining. i maintain that the game never explaining how this system works is still poor design 4. yes, i have heard of elden ring. i don't plan on playing it in the immediate future but it's on my list 5. when i talk about link being “disabled” i am referring to the initial event where he loses his arm. the rauru arm is basically a prosthetic 6. my pronouns are they/them thank you all so much for watching! i can't believe the extent to which this video blew up (going from 100 subs to nearly 20k in less than two months is something i wasn't prepared for) and i'm so thankful for the (mostly) positive response! be on the lookout for more in the future, there's plenty on the way 😸
I will say that technically speaking Elden Ring may actually be one of the worst fromsoft games. There are some sketchy things Elden Ring does that one of its predecessors did (Dark Souls 2) that were taken out of subsequent games, (Namely input reading by Godskin Apostle,) as well as a bunch of other not so great things that Elden Ring has that the other games don’t. In my opinion Elden Ring doesn’t feel entirely finished and/or as fine tuned like the other games did. I think to really understand why a lot of people have issues with it, you have to play DS1, Bloodborne, and DS3 to really get a feel for why things seem off in Elden Ring. There’s a certain level of polish those other games have that Elden Ring doesn’t. I’m not trying to take a dook on the game it does a lot of things that I really like and I also want to add that the DLC feels a lot better than the main game. I didn’t really mean to rant but I think a lot of people tend to overlook the things in Elden Ring that make it uncomfortable to play.
@skittybitty do you mind telling us why you don't plan to play ER anytime soon? It has become such a phenomenon and basically ubiquitous with modern classic gaming.
One of the very first NPC's you meet at Lookout Landing tells you that they're taking refuge there after their home was destroyed when Lurelin Village was raided by pirates. When I first heard that, I was SO intrigued to see theses new pirate enemies and headed straight for Lurelin. I get there and find out the "pirates" were just Bokoblins. Not even special, unique Bokoblins that wear pirate outfits or anything. Literally the exact same Bokoblins you can find everywhere else.
I imagined Gerudo pirates like Majora's Mask, or Skeleton pirates like in Skyward Sword or the Oracle games. I was quite upset. Well, at least the ship was original... Then I ran into the same ships all over the map 😐
@@labrynianrebel The Skyward Sword Pirates are actually ROBOT Skeleton Pirates, the Oracle ones are just plain old regular skeletons. Both of which are infinitely more interesting than Totk's Bokoblin Pirates that actually aren't even pirates.
@@netweed09 You want to know what in Hyrule I was expecting? PIRATES. I was expecting PIRATES. The game literally told me there would be PIRATES, and so I expected there to be PIRATES. Instead I got ordinary, generic Bokoblins. Not even special pirate Bokoblins, no. The exact same Bokoblins you can find in every other part of the game. As in, 100% identical. Literally copy-pasted. Other Zelda games were able to do pirates just fine, what's Totk's excuse?
Its so infuriating that the zonai LITERALLY just take the place of the sheika JUST for the sake of a slightly different aesthetic, and the sheika just get absolutely dropped. dont get me wrong, like their designs, but its such a conceptual retread instead of expanding what’s already there that its infuriating.
But it's kinda like an origin story for them, yea? I thought the whole point was to show that these familiar ideas are all connected and yet also unique
I wouldnt even mind, if the zonai didnt feel like a direct downgrade from the sheika, both lorewise and designwise. The sheikatechnology was integrated into their culture in such an interesting way that wasnt really explored in totk
SAME I was so excited for a game where the focus would be on magic versus technology, and writing wise why does a supposedly powerful, magic species use technology in the first place?
@@Jdudec367 cause necessity is the mother of invention, the reason that magic societies don't use technology is because there is no need. When you compare the original concept of shiekah and Zonai, you have a group of people who seem to have forsaken their magic for superior technology, as shown by the fact that the yiga are more powerful than the average shiekah, and those two societies are very different, with different priorities and capabilities. The zonai were supposed to be powerful, magic users but there was no talk of them having advanced technology, and there doesn't seem like a need or a reason why except for in-game mechanics. We don't know how they figured out their machines, and the storytelling around it is weak. Why did they build cannons when they can blast through things with huge beams of light? And besides magic in TOTK is such an untapped potential, literally, because the main zonai relic, the secret stones, make innate abilities stronger. Why weren't they focusing on that instead of building cars? Their priorities don't make sense and we will never get answers because Nintendo doesn't care
i am SO GLAD to hear someone else say they should have sent Link to the past. I HAVE BEEN SHOUTING THIS FROM THE ROOFTOPS. It could have solved SO MANY PROBLEMS the game had, SO EASILY!! ANDDD it would have actually put you, the player, into the meat of the story instead of just being an observer, again. it's so depressing to think about the missed opportunity here. there are some good fanfics tho...
Any recommendations? I had a lot of issues with BotW but I did love the characters and I wanted to try TotK but…seems like a waste of money. So, fanfic!
The sound effect for when important information is on-screen is honestly such a smart idea for these longform videos that a lot of people just listen to that I can't believe I haven't seen it done before.
Honestly yeah, it's catchy enough to grab my attention for really fun points but subtle enough that it's not jarring. I've seen it done occasionally done in other video essays but it doesn't usually meet the mark like this or appear so consistently
The one fix I still stand by is that Link needed to get send to the past instead of Zelda. That way the whole overworld could be different. In fact we could’ve had dungeons that were dilapidated in Breath. We could’ve kick it with Rauru as a partner or whatever.
@@KC-tw1wdhow about swallowing the stone to get back and rescue Zelda. We get to play as a fucking dragon and demolish Ganon. Sacrificing ourself for the greater good. Making it more emotional and impactful.
I really thought Rauru was going to be the partner character of this game during the tutorial. Then the tutorial ends, Rayru f*cks off and then I'm just standing there like "w8, where are you going? _COME BACK GOAT HUSBAND!!_ 😢
An interesting thought could have been changing the past by defeating ganon there as link could potentially have changed the future as well, even better if link and Zelda went to the past together, both as playable characters. Imagine beating ganon, making it back to the present, and seeing a restored Hyrule that was never destroyed by the calamity, but Link and Zelda still remember the events of breath of the wild so Zelda see’s her dad or something and gets to apologize or something emotional happens or idk, something. Lots of somethings. That COULD create a host of issues itself mind you, but would have been very interesting I feel
I remember when apparently the devs claimed this game was supposedly going to be "darker" than Majora's Mask, and I'll give them credit; making an entire copy-pasted sub area so dark you can barely see a damn thing definitely classifies as being "darker" than Majora's Mask.
that quote was misinterpreted and circulated uncritically by many actually, the devs did not actually say that. doesn’t make it any less disappointing though
@@skittybitty Yeah, as soon as they announced they were gonna use Ganondorf again I knew immediately they were just gonna rehash the same exact plot again with the "I'm evil and power hungry" which is fine. but we already had Ganon in the first game, so they could at least try to do something different with a new villain this time around.
Realistically, I don't know why anyone believed that when the devs said it. The only reason Majora's Mask was so dark and weird was because that game was rushed and made under completely different circumstances than any other Nintendo game. (It's also the best Zelda game and they weren't going to top it no matter how good TOTK could have been)
Having the jingle sound effect is an awesome idea that I wish more reviewers do!!! I often like to listen to these reviews while doing something else but it can be super annoying if I turn and look at the screen and see important edited notes flashing in screen. It makes me think that i have to watch the whole thing so having a cue letting me know I have to look at the screen is great!
It was satisfying to finally hear I wasn't the only one who thought "Zelda, you don't think GANONdorf has anything to do with CALAMITY GANON?? "Ganon" is not a common name, even in Hyrule, which I'm sure you know, Zelda, since you're a goddamn historian in these games, but even then, it's not like he was called "Calamity Dave" and when you met "Dave" in the past, you thought "huh, weird coincidence, but I wont assume because the name Dave is pretty common" LIKE ZELDA, YOU LOOKED AT ONE MURAL AT THE BEGININNG OF THE GAME AND INFERRED THE EVENTS OF THE IMPRISONING WAR, WHY DID YOU NOT HAVE THIS AMAZING DEDUCTION WHEN HEARING THE NAME "GANONDORF"????!?!?!?!
What upsets me more about this is that in BotW, when Zelda is expositing on the identity of Dark Beast *GANON* , she explicitly states that this great evil has taken many incarnations for a great deal of Hylian history. If Urbosa also acknowledges the history that *GANON* once lived as a Gerudo man, then surely Zelda should figure that this suspicious Gerudo man named "GANONdorf" might have a connection with the red-haired, superpowered, evil mummy that she encountered in the present, as well as the Calamity *GANON* that she spent 100-ish years fighting? (who's humanoid forms, mind you, also have red hair like GANONdorf) I suppose Zelda didn't want to jump to conclusions or was worried about changing the present too much, and just being in the past is changing the present by a great deal anyway. Maybe she *does* know about the whole "Ganon" connection but really is trying not to interfere too much until the last moment. Maybe she doesn't want Link's time period to end up all screwy, I don't know...
I mean tbf she likely didn't know that Calamity Ganon used to be a gerudo and a similar name alone isn't enough to deduce that they are the same person. Well the mural painted a pretty clear picture, some guy having a similar but not the same name isn't enough to make a good deduction.
@@lexfordjackenstiresirjacke2082 I mean eh...Zelda may not have known that Ganon used to be a Gerudo though or was named Ganondorf. I am pretty sure she just didn't know they were the same person and having red hair and similar names alone doesn't confirm it.
@@mr.j3rs3yAnd while it is indeed funny. It comes at the cost of complete emersion destruction on the same level as Mickey Mouse saying “Say fellas, did somebody mention the door to darkness.”
it did freak me out on my first reaction in-game, before my friends started memeing about it when they found the memory/online memes. i wasn't expecting such an uncanny expression
hi skitty, just wanted to leave u this comment to tell you that this video has been on a loop in my apartment for almost 3 months now. something about your editing, your voice, your presentation of your arguments scratched an itch in my adhd brain. it’s been of so much comfort to me and trust and believe I have forced all of my friends to watch it too. thanks for all the hard work you put into this
There is NO WAY this is your FIRST EVER video essay. I loved your presentation, humour, analysis, and editing! your channel should be at LEAST 70$ on the switch shop tbh Truly rthe Breath of the Wild of video essays about Tears of the Kingdom.
"TOTK is the first game to make me feel bored and overwhelmed at the same time. There is so much to do in this world, and absolutely none of it matters." Wow, you explained my exact feelings in such a concise way that I never even considered. As someone who also adored BOTW and played through it twice yet couldn't even bring myself to finish TOTK, this video was so cathartic. Absolutely incredible work, and it's amazing that this is your first longform video. I can't wait to see what else you make in the future!
my thoughts for the game almost immediately after beating it were pretty similar. "They created a big world with all these things to do, but nothing that's actually worth doing." Whole game is just a huge timewaster.
Saying that finally put my thoughts about this game to paper. Playing it I was always thinking there was always doing something I should be doing but looking back it was all worthless. From all the caves/islands/zonaite mines and everything, the game simultaneously has so much do to and yet nothing at all.
How incredible is it that in a video that's 3:25:11 long, I came across your comment at exactly the 2:31:11 mark? I literally started reading these words as they were being spoken. Aside from having to share this, I completely agree with everything said.
@@carnage0685 the one thing I hate about BOTW is the underground cave and the abilities Link has. It seems like it’s trying to be Minecraft now. Also they got rid of my favourite power cryonis. I don’t care if you can make a actual boat or even flying boat now. I liked the more simple powers of BOTW
A link between worlds and tri force Heroes both came out in between skyward sword and botw!!! I can understand disregarding tfh but ALBW is a wonderful game and deserves recognition. I was quite confused in the video when they said that Skyward sword was the direct predecessor to botw to be honest.
I knew the editing in the video was top tier but I was sold when I looked in the bottom left and saw the background tracks being listed as they start playing jeez you went ALL OUT for this
@@netweed09 yeah it would have been cooler to see a temple where all the lost sheikah tech dissapeared to or something, and honestly, any character from the memories should stay in the memories
Boo. What could possibly be better than a giant underground rideable robot companion? Imho the best reward in the entire franchise. Mixing things up a little with that quest was a high point
@@netweed09 literally the pot calling the kettle black, look at the rest of your seething in this comment section. you abuse the caps key like nintendo has abused your sense of taste
God the Sage speeches thing was such a mood. The way they repeat it almost entirely word for word. I had been initially excited for the Gerudo Ancestor because ya know... the fact that Ganondorf is... ya know... Gerudo... the King of the Gerudo. There was even Gerudo WITH Ganondorf in one of the Zelda Memories AND YET- All we get is one SINGULAR throwaway line about Ganondorf being King of the Gerudo- a fact she REFUSES to elaborate on. And that's it. It feels like it would have been such an easy thing to give them like... even just a PARAGRAPH 3-5 sentences to give us any information about the culture, the environment ANYTHING about the Ancient World and yet that was still too much worldbuilding for them apparently
Urbosa acknowledged that Ganon was once Gerudo, but someone who literally knew Ganondorf when he was alive couldn’t elaborate even a bit. This game’s story is a joke
Yep, finished the video, as cathartic as I thought it'd be. A few more complaints: - Reused music in all major towns. A microcosm of the game's much larger issue of the world being designed for a different game's mechanics. They wrote the music to fit the vibe of BOTW's towns, changed the towns, and then left the music. Hateno is the worst offender - there's so much modernisation happening, and yet it's still the same sweet rural town melody. The tone is mismatched. - Tulin screeching every single time you want to get a gliding boost. Way to completely ruin the vibe of peacefully soaring through the serene skies. - I tried so long to explore the ruins in Kakariko, continually getting kicked out by the asshole guarding it, before realising that you had to wait for the story to give you permission first. The game hands you this intriguing mystery, but inexplicably reverses on the game's entire philosophy, locking this one piece of content behind the linear progression of the story, despite these games having trained you to think that's never the case. - This one might be my own stupidity, idk, but I was not aware that you could upgrade your battery, for an embarrassingly long time. For a game inundated with dozens of unnecessary tutorials, I wish they'd have forced me to do that just once. - In the post-credits cutscene, they all swear to continue protecting Hyrule and ensuring eternal peace. It's SUCH a tease for post-game content. During that scene, I was like, "oh, there's gonna be a post-game, THAT'S where all their effort went, I finally understand." Then it kicked me back to before the final boss. I sighed, closed the game and never opened it again lol
I remember criticising TotK for being an overpriced DLC when it first dropped, and so many Nintendo fans kept comparing it to Majora and Ocarina. They may use the same engine, but they are completely different stories with a completely different gimmick. The denial at the time was insane like come on.
Still can’t believe the game doesn’t end with Link smiling and shedding a tear, breaking his lifetime of putting on a brave face and bookending the whole tears of the kingdom thing. Great video!
I actually do like Link's characterization in Breath of the Wild but he's much more bland in ToTK. I agree that either at the end or after the light dragon cutscene he should have broke down and cried, even for a moment before collecting himself. He JUST got Zelda back, and now she's gone again, possibly forever. He should have a reaction to that and it's strange that he doesn't.
Yeah there was work done to justify it in BotW, but for me it’s one more thing that says TotK isn’t a *narrative* sequel. Its just more game, in a mod sense.
@@owonapikinsby the same token, link has always been an insert for the player. and whatever i was feeling at that time more than made up for what link wasn’t expressing: i was crying and i was role playing as link.
I love how Breath of the Wild is an anti-apocalyptic story. You wake up in essentially the post-apocalypse. The king is dead, the palace is in ruins, and it's been so long that even the horrible monsters that ended the world are just collecting dust. You scavenge whatever resources you can, and see what you can do to try and help. But beyond all that, the world is beautiful. The people seem to be doing alright. And based on your memories, the kingdom had tons of problems. The champions all hated each other, Zelda wasn't ready to take on her role as protector, and the king couldn't really help her. You get the sense, imo, that while the kingdom was destroyed, and that is sad... maybe that was just inevitable. Maybe the world is better off having moved past that. In particular, I like the tone of all the memories. Whenever the characters are happy, you feel sad knowing that it's all going to end. And when they're criticizing each other, you get the feeling that this never could have lasted to begin with. To me, killing Ganon is more about tying off the loose end. You still need to rescue zelda and end Ganon, but you don't have any hope of restoring the kingdom to what it once was. But maybe you can make it into something better. Tears of the kingdom feels like it kinda gives up on that. Lets obsess even more over the past and bloodlines and old kings.
I think I should’ve known that the fanfics where Zelda choses to throw away the title of Princess and work to making Hyrule better under a democracy were never gonna happen but… man. It really was disappointing to realize this franchise can’t even see the flaws in the things it also seems to condemn.
The champions didn't all hate each other...? Did they? I thought they got along okay enough for the little we saw. Daruk seemed chill and Mipha seemed ok with everyone. I am not sure about Urbosa and Revali as Urbosa seemed to care about Zelda the most.
@@Vivigreeny25 On the one hand, that *sounds* like an interesting concept. On the other, where would the people of Hyrule realistically get the idea of Democracy from? Even in our own world, it took thousands of years if not more for any functioning Democratic system to emerge, and our world doesn't have a bloodline of rulers who possess demonstrable proof of a very literal Mandate of Heaven.
i will forever be mad about the nerfed mastersword, literally the blade of evils bane bathed in the light of a dragon for more than 10,000 years and it has less durability and damage than the mastersword from botw? crazy as hell
@@ZiggyPalffyLA mhm! It loses its sparkle and will never get bonus durability again. If i could fix the mastersword id just give it infinite durability, and the fused items would have their own durability so that the mastersword can act as an extremely powerful jack of all trades tool.
One thing I will never forgive nintendo for is doing literally nothing cool with the Akalla Citadel when it could have been a dungeon rivaling the dark atmospheres and prowess of those in twilight princess. I am personally betrayed by this decision to fill it with tight meaningless caves that do not reflect the sheer size of the architecture implied by the exterior and lore.
@@scrappy2082 The fact that "Age of Calamity", a game which story is literally a poorly written "fix fic", does a better job at world building and narrative than "Tears of the Kingdom" has to be one of the biggest fails in Nintendo's history.
The fact that this started with them wanting to make a love letter to BOTW and ended with them making a three hours hate letter to TOTK is kinda poetic
@@prizmovr8817 I mean, it's not something I'd do (I think, who knows), but I choose to take it lightly or jokingly like with the comment cause it's not my life so who am I to judge or criticize
Is it unhealthy? People have made much longer media analysis videos on youtube. What’s the difference between making an analysis on something you love or hate when it comes to mental health? passion goes both ways
To be fair, Zelda does witness Link getting his hand gloomed, so maybe she talked it out with Rauru and they set up the whole thing so it would help him in the future? Idk, that's the only plausible explaination
If Ganon hadn't cut Link's arm off, there wouldn't be a game, because either Ganon would've been defeated in the first 10 minutes or Link would've died. Remember, this is a Link who did all 120 Shrines in BOTW. Plus, Rauru could always give Link his Light Sage powers the same way the Champion's did in BOTW. He's a ghost, remember. He can just do that.
I know I’m the only one who cares about this but why can’t Zelda games ever have an “epilogue” overworld? No story or quests needed, but ever since OOT I hate loading into my save file and being in an eternal state of about-to-fight-the-final-boss. The world is saved, SHOW ME!
Fun Fact: TOTK doesn't use the same engine as BOTW. Its actually a new engine that simply ported over existing assets. The new engine is used in a few other games too but TOTK does not reuse the BOTW engine contrary to popular belief
@@skittybitty the graphics engine is new too. Us in modding community is unsure if it’s an evolution of the lunchpack engine (BOTW) but they seem to have migrated all shaders and materials to a new rendering pipeline which is why some visual effects such as ambient occlusion in the grass and reflections work differently in Tears of the Kingdom. Very bizarre to us that they even changed to a new graphics engine. It’s the same one Splatoon 3 and Super Mario Bros Wonder uses.
@@EDMIRE Is it possible that this new engine (Along with COVID) is responsible for why TotK turned out the way it did unlike Majora's Mask? A new engine explains why the game took so long.
I think it's clear they're trying to establish a new mythos for the kingdom. I was a bit butthurt they quietly replaced Din, Nayru and Farore with a singular goddess but by now I'll just quietly accept whatever new arbitrary elements they decide to invent or bring back for whatever stories will come out. They will arbitrarily change things again after a few more games.
genuinely who cares if "shrine island" has a shrine lmao thats such a non-issue. thats like being upset that "hyrule field" is called "central hyrule" despite the fact that it has hyrule field. it's just a name who cares it doesn't affect anything. the island of Cyprus is called that IRL because people used to get a lot of copper from there back in roman times, even though thats not what cyprus is famous for anymore. sometimes placenames stick for thousands of years just because thats what people have always called them. why would an island be called "shrine island", in botw if all the shrines just miraculously appear out of nowhere when you leave the shrine of resurrection? the island presumably had no shrine prior to that, yet is still called shrine island. Could be that the island has been called that since time immemorial and it was just by chance that a shrine appeared there in botw? these things can be easily explained with 20 seconds of critical thinking instead of just looking for nonsense to whine about
@@link3895 The fact that there WAS a shrine there in BOTW makes me even more upset. I was ready to find the same shrine again by solving some kind of puzzle. But no. It's just gone. And that made me sad.
Me absorbing all the passionate “I didn’t like totk” videos because I feel the exact same way yet do not have the energy to put together a 3 hour video myself, condensing all of my points.
I've done the exactly same thing haha. Every single video I've watched is so good too, because I keep going "UH HUH!!" and "YEAH RIGHT?!?" bc they keep saying the same exact things that annoy me with the game. 😂
I know, right? Nintendo could've either hid the fused bits like they do with the MasterSword and make them mystically glow with some Zonai glyphs...oooor go the extra length of making custom weapon models for each fuse instead of, imo rather lazily, sticking them to the end of whatever weapon. The fuses may be somewhat ok-ish with shields, but some of the weapon fuses look outright hideous...like fusing the FierceDeity sword to the Biggoron Sword, which also clips through the floor when stored on your back. xD
First, I just want to say, for someone's very first video essay, this is fucking *phenomenal.* You should absolutely do more of these; you did a great job at writing and structuring it. As for TotK itself, it's funny that you call it a "second draft," when to me it almost seems like this is the *first* draft, and BotW was the sequel. If you think about them in that order, it makes a shocking amount of sense. - People didn’t like having to fuse each individual arrow, so now there are dedicated arrow types again. - People didn’t like the goofy monster parts being the only way to upgrade weapons, so now weapons as a whole are stronger and more durable. - People didn’t like the nameless bland ancestor spirits, so now each one has a ton of personality and has a personal connection to Link, Zelda, and their descendant. Completing a dungeon even has extra weight now, because you're avenging your comrades and defeating the creatures that killed them. - People didn't like the copy/paste cutscenes that all give the same information, so now each one has character development for the ancient hero. - People didn't like how bland the temples were and how they just kinda materialize out of nowhere, so now each one is a rad as fuck mecha kaiju that you get to partially control. - People didn't like the way that Zelda didn't have much agency, so now her whole plotline is about her struggling with it. - People didn't like the empty Depths, Sky Islands, and Shrines, so now the former two are removed entirely to focus on improving the content in the main map and having fewer empty shrines. - People could break the game too easily with vertical movement options, so most were removed. - People’s most commonly made creation was a motorcycle, so this time there's an honest-to-god motorcycle in the game that outclasses every other form of travel. Like seriously, there's a bewildering amount of stuff that feels like it must have come first, because it's such an obvious step down from BotW.
And zelda’s pictures in botw makes more sense because you’d vaguely recognise the areas since you would’ve explored the area before, like geoguesser sort of
I really don't see how BOTW is like a sequel at all. -Which removes arrow types and depth and variety of weapons, are you implying that BOTW would be the kind of sequel that waters stuff down? -Except they really aren't stronger or more durable, no weapon in BOTW is as strong as the strongest weapon in TOTK especially with fuse, and frankly again especially with fuse they aren't more durable. People loved fuse it would make no sense to get rid of it. Also without fuse then getting weapons in chest wouldn't feel as rewarding anymore when they can't be used to craft stronger better weapons that would be even more useful for you. -that kinda makes sense as a argument...except now it just feels like they replaced their descends in terms of screen time really. And completing a dungeon really doesn't have more weight as you still save people for defeating the bosses in the dungeons in TOTK too. -Eh you get other cutscenes that have character development for the modern champions in TOTK too though. And not all of the cutscenes have the champions develop in BOTW to be fair mainly just Revali and Mipha really. -Yeah no they are more bland in BOTW especially aesthetically and they really don't materialize out of nowhere they have reasons for being there. Said mecha kaiju cause the dungeons to have repetitive aesthetics though and with them all having the ability to partially control them leads to some more repetitive puzzles and some less variety of puzzles with a good amount of them just focusing on moving the divine beasts around. Are you sure making the dungeons worse is something BOTW would do as a sequel??? -I mean no she did have agency in TOTK and was doing her own thing and plan too. - Eh those really weren't empty and a lot of people liked those even if there were complaints and your argument doesn't make any sense at all when the content is worse in the main map in BOTW and there isn't fewer empty shrines there is just less shrines (empty and full) period which really isn't an upgrade. -Yeah not true vertical movement options doesn't break the game at all...even then BOTW could broken a LOT more so again what you say just doesn't make sense when you actually stop to think about it. -Hoverbike not motorcycle and you only get the motorcycle REALLY late into the game like arguably a bit too late really unlike the Hoverbike which is clearly superior and if BOTW is the sequel then the only reason the motorcycle is the best travel option is because they got rid the better travel options. So once again not a good argument for BOTW being a sequel or at least clearly not a good sequel. I disagree nothing really felt like it came first tbh., eh nah TOTK is better tbh and that's not even mentioning stuff like the bosses and comapring them between games since TOTK took the criticism of the bosses in BOTW and actually gave them unique interesting designs and made them all more unique really.
This video was somewhat therapeutic. I got round to playing this game recently. I put it off cos I was concerned I wouldn't like it...and I didn't. Granted I haven't played nearly as long as you but, I really really did not enjoy this game. I'd go as far to say it's my personal least favourite Zelda game. I think the biggest disservice this game does it make the open world Zelda formula seem tired and played out, two games in. Playing this game made me nostalgic for the classic formula. I'd argue what made BOTW work was the sense of wonder. This game was doomed as soon as they decided to re-use the same Hyrule imo. I was hopeful Nintendo would pull it off but, it really did not change the game enough. I felt so sad and empty inside playing this game. It was hard to come to terms with cos I really do love Zelda and it was bizarre having to force myself to play . I'm still hopeful for the next 3d Zelda but, they really really need to focus on making the next game feel fresh and distinct.
I dunno if I can QUITE say TotK is my least favorite Zelda (Skyward Sword exists), but it's certainly second-place at the very least. It's EASILY my most disappointing Zelda game, probably even one of my all-time biggest gaming disappointments.
@@maliciousbugman SS was my least favourite prior but, at least it has it's own identity and it's unique. I appreciate it for offering it's own experience.
Skyward Sword marked the downfall of the Zelda series imo and the series has stagnated and become mid-tier ever since. Eiji Aonuma switching roles from director to producer really affected the quality of the games that followed Twilight Princess. I also think it's the reason it's the last actual GREAT Zelda game; it was the last game Aonuma actually directed. I don't think he makes for a good producer, going by most Zelda games post-TP being mediocre. There's also one single person to blame for all modern 3D Zelda mediocrity: Hidemaro Fujibayashi, the guy who directed Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom. He doesn't seem to get what makes Zelda games...well, ZELDA. I think all three range from either bad (TotK), mediocre/bad (SS), or just fine at best (BotW). I know it's a hot take to think BotW is just "okay", but I would take any traditional 3D Zelda game over it ANY day (except for SS lol).
@@SuperSweatyPocari skyward sword is fantastic though, as are the oracle games which were also directed by fujibayashi. botw was an overcorrection in response to skyward sword, and they have yet to really internalize what worked there and synthesize it with the exploration based gameplay of the open air titles
Honestly i am a huge fan of TOTK and rnjoy playing it and will probably not enjoy watching this. BUT, i will commend you because this clearly had a lot of love and work put into it. And i appreciate how people who hated the game will feel heard when watching this video. This doesn't feel like some unfair hitpiece. It doesn't feel like someone who played for two hours and concluded that it was bad. This feels like someone putting in the time and effort to see why they hated it and explain their points in a good manner. Maybe one day i'll watch it but for now, i offer my respect to you. May future Zelda games fit your tastes much better.
Another Issue about the story regarding link's utter lack of emotion. A huge part of the main story in BOTW is that link has been trained to not show emotion and how being resurrected is helping him heal and be an actual person. I could be reading into that too much but it truly feels like that. So the fact that they had link display LESS emotion than when he was LITERALLY RESURRECTED WITH NIGH COMPLETE AMNESIA It truly makes me wonder if they even cared about making a sequel at all or if they just wanted to make a game to fuck around with the engine.
Especially link not even giving the slightest reaction to zelda turning into a dragon. Like bruh. he doesn't even need to say anything, just show his expression. Skyward sword did it perfectly when zelda seals herself in the temple
I mean he has some emotion, I don't see the issue really. How does he have less emotion? And I mean...being resurrected even after that as a Knight he doesn't show a lot of emotion publicly. They did care about making a sequel clearly otherwise the story wouldn't be about a follow up to the events of BOTW.
@@LilacMonarch I mean he did care. He didn't have the biggest reaction at first but we did see a reaction and after everything is over you can see how reliefed he is really.
Yeah it's absolutely baffling how Link is so expressive when cooking and eating... but when it's about his supposed GF he's less expressive than a rock. For goodness sake, Nintendo could've made him yell "Zelda!" out loud during the final skydive...but no.
@@avon_c6199 exactly, like botw link could get away with the lack of emotion cuz of the amnesia but there is absolutely no excuse for this game, ESPECIALLY when we learn at the end that link canonically loves zelda but apparently couldn't give a shit that she's now an immortal dragon ???
@@jmurray7721 How far off base would I be to assume that we didn't get any of that in terms of showing actual affection and love the way us westerners understand it, cause the japanese might have an issue with showing it that publicly so they didn't do it for their own sake?
@@avon_c6199 honestly all i wanted was for link to shed a tear or at least look a little upset instead of a blank slate. i remember the look of distraught he had in skyward sword which was done infinitely better than totk
The newspaper is a new addition to TotK. It wasn’t established in BotW- and I mean that literally- it didn’t exist. The newspaper had only just recently become a normal thing for the lives of the Hyruleans, so it’s not at all a stretch that some people wouldn’t have it as part of their daily routine yet. Plus on top of those points, Link in BotW/TotK isn’t a showboat; he’s very reserved and only cares about Zelda and her duties. The people know that Zelda has a personal knight, but Link doesn’t put his face out there because he doesn’t have anything to prove to others. The newspaper stall owner herself didn’t even recognize Link right away (I’ll admit my memory on that may be spotty). The only people who recognize Link are those who are closest to him and Zelda. He’s not a celebrity; he doesn’t want to be. He only wants to be with Zelda and protect her. Now, if there’s another sequel and the people still don’t recognize him then I’d call bs. Surely at that point they’d have a picture of Link in the newspaper considering he worked FOR the newspaper. But photography is still a relatively new technology in this Hyrule, and it’s not publicly available either.
@@CosmicTornado1 you can see at least one person at every stable reading the newspaper, also a lot of link’s interactions with npcs will beg to differ from your theory
I agree with you. Something that itched me is that the new lore conflicts with ITSELF, not just breath of the wild. We’re told multiple times that the Zonai lived in the sky, that those games were played by the Zonai, and all that. And yet, the memories show no sky islands? And the Temple of Time construct tells you that the islands were lifted up by the Zonai long ago to help link when he wakes up. SO WHICH IS IT? I took this to mean that the Zonai lived in the sky AFTER the islands were raised, but this raises so many conflicts and questions. So the Zonai sacrificed their entire way of life just for link thousands of years later? Ok, fine. So the Zonai society we explore in the present ISN’T the one seen in the memories. That’s disappointing but whatever. So I assumed that the Zonai we see is in the memories are early Zonai civilization. BUT THEN RAURU IN ONE OF THE MEMORIES TALKS ABOUT ANCIENT ZONAI CIVILIZATION AND HIS ANCESTORS? WTF. And yeah where IS all the sheikah tech from Botw? AND WHY CANT I TELL ANYONE THAT ZELDA IS A PUPPET DESPITE SEEING THAT IN THE MEMORY.
I dunno what makes you think they were lifted up to help Link but if the Temple of TIme was on the ground then this is before they made the Sky Islands. So with that fact in mind I don't see how that's a contradiction, it's just a earlier part of their timeline. I don't know how they did it just for link specifically, they did it for their own way of life. Technically it is the same society. Well from what we know Rauru is one of the founders of Hyrule itself, this means that if he has ancestors who were part of said Zonai civilization the Zonai civlization itself predates Hyrule which makes it even more ancient. Shiekah tech is somewhat here, a lot is gone though, and the answer varies. Guardian stuff was cleaned up and the divine beasts are inactive now and weren't really needed. I would argue that with Puppet Zelda you don't really know everything about that yet until Hyrule Castle where it's all explained and revealed more.
@@aiworldfutures Technically there is three Zonai at first, if again they go to the sky islands after the memories then there are clearly other Zonai they just didn't show themselves and we know they also built mines and did other stuff too.
This video does such an insanely good job at putting all of my frustrations with ToTK into words. I've been putting it on every time I eat and I'll be finished with it in approximately 7 more lunch breaks. Great job!
My least favourite thing about Tears of the Kingdom is that it just isn’t saying as much as the other Zelda titles. Ocarina of Time is about aging and explores that theme through its time-travelling mechanics. Majora’s Mask explores existential dread and death through the moon and time management mechanics. What made Breath of the Wid so captivating to me was what the world meant - that, even after the apocalypse, the world will never really end, just be retaken by nature, an endless cycle of life. Tears of the Kingdom’s world just doesn’t feel like it has that thematic layer which made the other games so engaging, it’s world doesn’t really say anything and neither do it’s mechanics.
Windwaker give me that too (more than botw). The whole kingdom is under the ocean and these people are just living their lives on the scarce land available.
I disagree it says something and is about bonds and how they truly build a kingdom and are what matters, it's multiple people who help build Hyrule in the game after all and it's bonds that help out both Link and Zelda in the past and the present and how even when there are people that are gone those bonds and connections are still there, hell with Rauru Link is even able to bond objects together too so that bond literally ties in to the gameplay mechanics too. I disagree it has that thematic layer which made the other games so engaging, it's world does say something and so do it's mechanics which also say what the Zonai were truly capable of.
@@Jdudec367 I guess there are elements of that but they aren’t the crux of the gameplay, unlike the unique mechanics in both Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask respectively, and those ideas just feel extremely under-developed.
One other nitpick I had that is so small and minor compared to the COPIOUS other problems this game has, is the term Secret Stone. It sounds silly to me, like something a kid would make up for a game of pretend or something. You know what would sound better and keep the vibes? Sacred Stone. I could probably think of a dozen more, but that's just the first thing that came to mind every time without fail.
This game is cringe encanated, there were moments in this game I straigh up wanted to cry out of cringe like when the whole gang comes to Hyrule castle and face phantom Ganon and Ganondorf speaks like he was a badie from a Christmas movie from the early 2010, or when the gang speaks together after that and it’s so freaking family film behav or when Ganondorf says “how can a kid defeat me”. ☠️ it doesn’t even look like a Zelda game at some points
@@skittybitty The localizers directly translated it from the Japanese word, 秘石 (hiseki); 秘 meaning "secret" or "hidden", and 石 meaning "stone" or "rock".
@@ZellyTheFangirl *don’t tell anybody about my stone, link. It’s a secret. That’s why I wear it on my neck, wrist, hand or other easily seen body part*
As a lover of classic Zelda, BotW didn't endear itself to me like it did for a lot of other people, so regardless of how awesome the trailers made it look and the promise of actual dungeons I decided to skip on TotK which just seemed like on paper would be a glorified expansion that would end up costing _more_ than the original. Even saying that, I'm still mad at how much of mess TotK turned out to be based on this video. It took six years for this? Really?
I keep pounding at the gates of nintendo HQ asking for a ganon who wants power to end the reincarnation curse that hes been driven to madness by but they keep ignoring me
also: putting on my Corporate Thinking Conspiracy Hat, i think this IS an unfinished game unfortunately. Nintendo would have continously justify its development on things like story, continuity, and with 6 years gone by already I think the shareholders were like "Well we need Product so out it goes!" I think botw had so much love put into partly because it was the switch's flagship game, and to the Investor/Stock Shareholder Overlords, the investment by the devs was justified by a greater profit (new game system, amiibos, dlc, merch, etc) which is why a shitty sequel thats running solely on the clout of the first game is a tale as old as time
@@kennapinkponyclub It's a very unflattering (but not undeserved) epitaph for Tears of the Kingdom: they managed to make a direct sequel that took *_six_* years to make, with mass world/asset reuse, feel rushed.
i hate to be a complete 🤓 but... Ganondorf has only ever reincarnated one actual time in the series lmao, the one in 4 Swords Adventures is the only Ganon that outright said to be a reincarnation, every other ver is just the same guy from OoT or him being revived from the dead
The arguments that all shrines should be easy because they can be encountered in any order it absolutely stupid imo. When I played BOTW one of my first 10 shrines was one of the "major test of strength" shrines (it was the one on an island on the bottom right of the map that gives you the climbing gear). It took me hours to beat because I had very low level equipment and wasn't familiar with the games combat system and forced me to think creatively with my strategy (using all my weapons, arrows and buffing myself with dishes). Because of this, it ended up being one of my most memorable gaming moments of all time and one which I still remember fondly to this day, not in spite of its difficulty but because of it.
Also like, if you run into something that's too challenging aren't you supposed to leave and come back later? Isn't that the entire point of it being open-world so that you can choose what to do and when you do it?
Ok I already commented here but I had to come back to show my appreciation for all the hard work you put into this video by sharing my favorite parts: -The “getting back with my ex was only the second worst sequel” - Editing the “secret stone??? Demon king???” Clips back to back -Playing the guardian piano theme which blew any argument about “which was more scary: the hands or the leggy bois” out of the water -The “duh” enunciation on obviously evil “Zelda” -Calling the Purah Pad “Zelda’s iPhone” -The emoji on “I want to smash the demon king” -Adding GameGrumps clips -Making the distinction between a “world in a video game” and “a video game world” -A SHRINE SPREADSHEET?!?!? All the research you did for the shrine section really -“Link, this edible ain’t shi-“ -“Link is not a character. He just looks sexy and gender” -“Tells her that the batteries in her wii mote are nearly depleted” -Pointing out how stupid Ganondorf’s meme face is -The constant reiteration of TOTK being $70 -Putting relevant quotes up on the screen (holy research batman) -Pointing out how since Rauru’s arm is relevant to literally EVERY MECHANIC IN THE GAME, it’s basically luck (aka lazy writing) that Link lost his arm in the first place -Whipping out the Japanese translation to point out how malice “grudge” makes more sense than the randomass change to gloom -Calling Skyward Sword’s Slumbering Zelda her “resin project” -Always taking the time to appreciate TOTK’s godly soundtrack -Pointing out how TOTK Zelda suddenly doesn’t nerd out anymore in the memories -Pointing out how lame it is that Link just magically gets his arm restored -“Mysterious voice #957” -PUTTING THE SONGS THAT YOU USED IN THE BOTTOM LEFT AND DESCRIPTION SO WE KNOW WHAT THEY ARE -Calling out the awful UI when trying to fuse or drop or throw anything -Taking the time to explain details to those that may not have played TOTK -Suggesting that a button be added to “equip set” if you have all the armor pieces (why is that not in the base game) -“The writers peace-ing out after they finished totk’s story in one afternoon” -“The things we love about TOTK don’t come from the game, they come from us” (what a LINE) -“Hell hath no fury like a Zelda fan scorned” (real) All this to say, fuckin superb. May you get everything you ever want in life
omg this is my favorite comment i’ve received so far i think. it makes me so happy when people notice all the little details and stuff i put in hahaha ❤
Headcanon: Link didn't even lose his arm to Ganondorf. It was injured, discolored, but would have been ok. Rauru just took it, so he could give Link his to make him powerful.
I disagree about Link's arm getting restored. It was still freaking me the fuck out after hours and hours of this game that I'm running around with another dude's arm. The way how it was restored sucked, though.
From the first time that I booted up TOTK, I knew that it was *just* a BOTW sequel. The game felt unfinished and weirdly empty, despite how overstimulating it was. I struggled with properly wording these thoughts, so I thought that I just didn’t “get it.” This video was so validating and made me feel like I wasn’t the odd one out for thinking that TOTK wasn’t anywhere near as good as BOTW. You killed this video, I sat through the whole thing and was engaged the entire time.
Fun fact: in the Japanese version of the game, Ganondorf is actually a bit more explicit about what happened to the Zonai civilization. He uses the term "horobu", which roughly translates to "to perish" or "to be annihilated" (the character 滅 means "destruction"), and even offers his condolences. This pretty much confirms that the Zonai went extinct, and even implies that they were killed en masse in some sort of cataclysmic event, which makes it all the more frustrating that the English translation left it ambiguous. FANTASTIC video essay, by the way. I thought something was wrong with me because I wanted to stop playing only 50 hours into TotK, and you nailed pretty much everything that bothered me about it. I'm really glad to know that I'm not alone in this. Ah well...all I can hope for now is that Echoes of Wisdom will be able to bridge the gap between traditional and modern Zelda and give the wise Princess of Hyrule the solo game she deserves. :)
Yea let's hope; I just have to wait for the gameplay reviews of Echoes of Wisdom to come out first before I buy. I learned my lesson with TOTK to never pre-order anything anymore, no matter how good the trailer makes it seem.
Wow, knowing that....! Doesn't actually improve the narrative... Like... At all. Sorry, but it's still quite ambigous. I know it's tempting to blame the English translation after the blunders of BotW, but you are basically reading too much into the Japanese text here. It's still just as poorly written in Japanese.
@@XanderVJ How? It gives more insight into what happened. The same thing happened happened with BOTW's narrative where the original Japanese one gives more insight into Link's thoughts which was lost in translation.
"Since we're all gonna die, there's one more secret I feel I have to share with you: I did not care for Tears of the Kingdom." - "What? how can you even say that?" "Didn't like it." - "But skitty it's so good! It's like the perfect Breath of the Wild!" "This is what everyone always said. Whenever they say it's like: *Oh my-"* - "Eiji Aonuma, Hidemaro Fujibayashi, I mean, that guy worked on Skyward Sw-" "I know, I know." - "MANAKA KATAOKA!!!" "Fine. Fine. Fine composer, _did not like the game."_
@@LenamLorbington I'm kind of dissapointed the "it insists upon itself" part wouldn't have worked as well as the start, because TOTK really does insist upon itself. So much so it invalidates BOTW
You can feel that it's a DLC idea that got too out of hand, as that's core to most of its problems of having no identity and no soul behind it. I personally don't think this format is sustainable, either. I'm hoping they'll return to focusing on focused design instead of grandeur, but I'm not holding my breath.
I don't see that, it's like the third Nintendo sequel that reuses assets that was originally dlc/expansion. Same with it supposedly not having a identity or soul, I mean it's identify is as Botw's sequel with the Zonai and stuff in it.
With the head honcho of Zelda questioning on why people like the past design and basically saying that the open air style is better, I don’t think they see worth in returning to the old format, I think that Botw is a soft remake of the first Zelda and it fitted for it to be open world like the original Zelda, but TotK has a problem of being undercooked and over ambitious and because of the Mario like type of the design they put on the cooking it made a mess in so many ways, they sould’ve made a focus on storytelling instead of making a tech demo (in my opinion), man it was weird when the third memory I saw was of Sonia’s death, also I wish there was a character to Ganondweeb, also why does he look like an Samurai? It’s like a random ass Samurai got lost in the middle of the desert for no reason, there is Zero precedent for why Ganondweeb is a Samurai, is he Otacon from MGS and watches anime? Did he think that a sword that barely uses any metal was optimal? Did he made some designs for clothes and decided on using them? Why does everyone on hyrule in the past use robes, robes and more robes? Is that a cultural thing? Why is it still medieval time hundreds of thousands of years ago? Like it may look asteca but the asteca were really recent in human history, so why doesn’t it feel like there was any progression from TotK’s past to Botw’s or TotK’s present? Did the writers have an impossible task and hastely made a skeleton story with nothing but space instead of interesting stuff?
Well, this game sold super well. And the devs see no reason to go back to the normal Zelda formula.... So... yeah, don't hold your breath... ... OF THE WILD! Waka waka!
@@justanothershrimp1908 The Zelda devs have a tendency to overcorrect over backlash. The backlash to Wind Waker's cartoony cel-shaded art style lead them them cancelling Wind Waker 2 and created the grittiest, dullest color palette Zelda game in Twilight Princess. The backlash to Twilight Princess using waggle controls and being too dark lead to Skyward Sword bringing back the cel-shading and using proper motion control sword combat. The backlash to Skyward Sword being too motion control and linear lead to Breath of the Wild being completely open world with only motion control for aiming bow and arrows. The backlash to BotW bad dungeons and weapon durability lead to TotK attempting to have better dungeon designs and creating fuse to address weapon durability. And now, the backlash for TotK is mainly focused on dungeons still being bad and the story being disappointing. The next game will probably overcorrect again and their solution is the entire game is just a big dungeon and every character will be voiced and never shuts up.
Software dev here-whenever folks bring up the “year of polish”, and I then consider that there are zero staff writers credited for TOTK’, I’m forced to conclude that said year was much more likely spent adding the (reduced quality & quantity) “side quests” and the other various copy paste content scattered throughout the map. I’ve watched the team‘s GDC ‘23 talk, and while what they managed to accomplish in a mechanical sense required nothing less than truly exceptional engineering (and all running on what’s essentially a homebrewed NVIDIA SHIELD on TOP of that!). However, based on their talk, it’s clear that they weren’t fixing issues with implementation during that final year-but that initial implementation & debugging did demand the absolute lion’s share of development effort before that extra year (they had to convert EVERY OBJECT / PROP into a physics object hoLY FUCKBALLS [but as a dev holy shit what poor project planning why would you ever move forward if that’s what would be needed]). Like, it feels like they plugged in the main story and then went, “oh shit this thing is way too empty” and begged for another year so they wouldn’t get ripped to shreds. And then execs went “okay but we’re charging $70 now” When I first saw that Ascend was originally a debugging tool they used while making the caves that was added in as an ability, a legit pit formed in my stomach. It’s cool, sure, but if you’re digging through your dev tools for “variety in gameplay”, that strikes me as extremely slapdash and/or nonexistent guidance for overall design.
Me at like 10:00 pm: “yeah let’s find something to fall asleep to.” Me at 1:28 AM, completely engrossed in this critique: “mmm I didn’t fall asleep but that was awesome.” I agree with so much of what you’re saying and even in your ‘nitpicking or biases’ (which I’m glad you use to INFORM your opinion making rather than trying to create some ‘objective’ distance), you demonstrate an internal consistency to YOUR voice and your passion for the Zelda series as a whole, especially the modern Zelda format, shines through so brightly. Great video. I will be sleep deprived tomorrow but it was totally worth it and dropping a subscription.
idk not really, the zonai didnt do that much. The constructs?? Most of the ancient stuff was built by Hylians following the imprisoning war, even the sky islands
@@EileenLorekeeperAh, the imprisoning war, what a way to retcon the timeline with using some ALTTP had. It could have taken place after the timelines came back together..? But honestly, eh. And of course, “Demon king? Secret Stone?” “Second floor basement? Psycho mantis?”
And it's extra annoying cuz they had an ancient robot-building sky people race in the backstory of Skyward Sword all primed and ready to go.. but apparently the Zonai are an entirely different ancient sky tribe with highly advanced technology that mined special ore in pre-history? It really feels like they wanted to just make people stop caring about continuity and timelines. I'd have been much more interested in Tears' lore if it turned out Hylia wasn't a true goddess, but a Zonai time sage, perhaps the original Zonai.
@@LocalizedBozo I mean, how could we expect timelines to mend? Once you break reality into pieces, those pieces gain their own identity and can’t be repaired. BOTW and TOTK are so far into the future, it could just be that the Zonai just established another Kingdom of Hyrule after the Great Sea receded.
Age of Calamity is worth checking out, definitely does more with its supporting cast. I mean, fuck, it managed to make me emotional about *Master Kohga*
@@micahbarrus8406 Wait what happened to Sooga? I don't know if they wrapped his character up, I think he's playable in the dlc but I never got that yet.
@@Jdudec367 he's essentially the 2nd hand man to kohga as a twin windblade user. He's tough, he's cool, and he's protective enough of his master to sacrifice himself to protect him after Astor betrays then.
@2:14:06 this is arguably more damning since the fact they won't let you take rockets out during shrines means they knew that using rockets to circumvent puzzle solving was an issue and just didn't put work into actually preventing you from doing this, instead they decided on arbitrarily and conspicuously taking a basic mechanic away from you
56:02 I don’t know if anyone’s mentioned it, but here’s my thoughts. BOTW is infamous for reusing content/assets whenever possible to save time. The reason petting dogs wasn’t included is because the developers thought they wouldn’t be able to reuse the animations/mechanic anywhere else. The reason why the bosses erupt into malice instead of gloom when defeated is probably because the stock animations already were colored for Malice, and they didn’t want to spend time retexturing it.
Why'd you have to remind me we can't pet dogs in this game? 😭 The ONE THING everybody was begging for in Breath of the Wild and one of the very first things I tried when I got to a Stable in Tears and Nintendo couldn't be arsed to let us pet. the. fucking. *dogs.* 🙃
@@sfrert2759 Minor asset flips like that are fine but this game is still very lazy in other areas. I personally don't consider boss explosion animations to be particularly deal-breaking.
Personally I like the game of course people can have a opinions will I say theirs problems in tears yes but I feel like they for the most part added more to better explain yes they added more things people hated but they also added thing people like which it was the same with breath it was pretty much equal I also feel like the game isn’t supposed to be flashy per say when it comes to auto build and ultra hand they left that up to people to make it flashy I recently got the game so I’m still on my first run the hover bike is convenient for me yes but I barely use it for a multiple reasons I really only use it to help get more zoni for more battery’s which in turn would allow me to mess around and build stupid things like a army of roombas that can function for more than 2 seconds I loved the Rito area but every other temple and boss can suck it I think what made it special was it was my first temple music amazing low heart and I was freezing constantly I didn’t have the right armor so it was all about being smart about how I moved I’m rambling now but I’m trying to prove a point yes it did a lot wrong but it did a lot right….. EXCEPT THAT STUPID 60 SEC RUN TIME FOR THE WING IF I COULD FIX ONE THING IN THIS GAME IT WOULD BE GETTING RID OF THE STUPID TIMER ON ZONI STUFF IT MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL
Is just the infamous Zelda cycle all over again. My older brother lived through the hate of majora, wind waker, twilight. And now they are considered masterpieces. At the end is just opinions
I was born in jank. One of my first games was Virtual Hydlide on Sega Saturn. None of the 3D Sonic's jank in the games I've played really bothered me (so all of the existing ones except Colours Ultimate). TOTK's jank in the UI, Fuse and especially Ultrahand is in a league of its own. Never have I encountered such obnoxious frustration in a video game. Seriously, if we're going to point at 3D Sonic for minor failings from +20 years ago despite how unique its platforming was, HOW IS THIS BARELY FUNCTIONING BUILDING CRAP ACCEPTABLE? AND EVERYTHING BREAKS LIKE IT'S BEEN PUT TOGETHER WITH DUCT TAPE AND HAPPY THOUGHTS. Plus as you put it, there's just way too much junk in this game, I absolutely hate how padded out current games can be that a 30 minutes to an hour session can feel like you've done nothing of value. Despite having played only about 8-10h before giving up, seeing how the sidequests & shrines rewards got worse makes me feel like I dodged the bullet. It's gonna sound hyperbolic, but those jank issues coupled with how it's just BOTW Electric Boogaloo makes it the least fun Zelda for me, and the unofficial CD-I Remasters of Wand of Gamelon & Faces of Evil are on that list. At least they're brisk & fun(ny) experiences.
2:47:25 Since I agree so much with the larger video I'll just nitpick and say that I actually think this face is unironically creepy and its inclusion furthers the scene, having Ganondorf make this distorted, inhuman expression of pure JOY at seeing Zelda grieve the person he just killed was intended to be horrifying and the developers just didn't account for the internet's enjoyment of G-mod-esque distorted faces like that
i actually experienced that on my first watch. i found it pretty disturbing too. but once i saw everyone else’s reaction to it i was like “oh…it’s just meme fodder”
Ganondorf was not confirmed to know what eating the Secret Stone would DO, as far as I remember, so my conclusion is that he just had a moment like that boy who got mad at his Gameboy and just yanked out the batteries and ate them in impotent rage. This story inspires no respect sufficient to achieve a more dignified interpretation, and so this is what I give.
not to argue with you or anything because i do agree with you on him not knowing that, and me completing the game yesterday was so confused when that part of the cutscene happened but why on earth would he instinctively swallow the secret stone
@@Jerome984 Not for any RATIONAL reason, certainly. 😂 The story that I mentioned in comparison -- about that child who ate batteries out of their Gameboy -- sounds to me like an instance of a wee babe with less practice in regulating their emotions facing intensely frustrating circumstances that enrage them, but that they have no power to change. They just feel the rage, and that pushes them to do SOMETHING, even if it doesn't make sense as a solution. The child in the example was upset because his console cut off in the middle of a long and challenging bit of a game, I think. See also that teenager who went viral for seeming to try to push a remote control into his bum while losing his temper on camera. That's Ganondorf. Some androgynous ephebe -- much foreshadowed, but never properly met -- drops into his chambers (possibly with a squadron of orbiters) and renders all of his extensive preparations void in minutes. He summons reinforcements, but suddenly the room explodes several times in rapid succession. He goes in for close combat, but this twink is a slippery one. Even when he does manage to land a blow, the bottomless bottom just swallows a whole mutton flank from hammerspace and continues undeterred. He tries everything that he's ever considered and then some. Nothing works. This is happening. His rage SHOULD empower him, but his every effort and innovation is fruitless... So the Last King of the Gerudo, having no prior experience with being told a firm "No" by anyone and under immense pressure with nary a hint of leverage to grasp... eats his Gameboy batteries. And his mom has to rush him to the hospital.
The story of the chamberlain mentioned how she often saw Zelda wandering through the palace, but that something felt off about her. The implication here is that Ganondorf was doing some reconnaissance at night, to not just spy on the royal family, but also learn more about the secret stones. This is something that Calamity Ganon did as well. He had these malice eyes all over the world to gather informations. This is presumably also how he made himself familiar with how Sheikah Tech works, since he was using that knowledge in an attempt to recreate a body with their technology. There's also the general fact that Ganondorf is just a lot better at using the Secret Stones in general. He was a very skilled magic use before getting it, which is why he received such a tremendous boost from it, compared to everyone else. This natural aptitude makes it pretty likely that he could've been instinctively been aware of the ability to become even more powerful if he ingests the stone. It's similar to how Zelda was immediately aware of how to use her powers against Calamity Ganon, after she unlocked them.
You might already know this, but I also feel like it's worth mentioning that zero in-house writers are mentioned in the game's credits. The only credited writer is a company called Qualia Writers, apparently best known for their work on smartphone games. I'm pretty sure this is why the writing in the game is so subpar compared to even BOTW (which wasn't my favourite LOZ story to begin with).
@@iamLI3it’s not bad necessarily it just depends on what people think about it while the game will get mindlessly boring after awhile it’s still fun in the beginning to end (again depending on the person)
@@draggonwarrior42 i was bored after doing the main story line for a bit after i got all the shrines, but i then i discovered C R E A T I N G M A C H I N E S O F D E A T H
@viganhoxha8814 your reply got shadowbanned , but i am not counted among those of us i speak of in my comment in full , for i recognized by the time i got to the first wind temple that tokt was bad , so i rushed to beat it from there , in total only wasting about 40 hours of my own life....
This is now the definitive ToTK critique . Writing, editing, takes, all 10/10. Absolutely blown away. Also making your mom the delcatty plush was an adorable touch.
I agree. If you played BOTW, I don’t know how you can’t be disappointed with TOTK. There is way too much recycling of content. 7 years for this? And the story and acting is such garbage. They can and should do better next time. If the next Zelda is set in this same Hyrule it’ll be the first Zelda game I don’t play.
I think you actually missed the most criminal part of the game and I don't blame you because it was a side quest. But the whole "pirates" thing. I went around the world and they talked about pirates. I was freaking hyped thinking are we gonna fight other Hyleans?! Shit sounded so cool. It gave me Wind Waker wonder. But when you go there it's just fucking Bokoblins. Which not only is depressing in itself but also not even believable as a cop out because they do not even have the IQ to be pirates
I was thinking the same thing! How did they build ships? They seem confused by random fish being thrown at them. I get them taming horses maybe stealing carts but building ships? Sailing the sea? Would have been better to have actual Hyliens. Maybe they could be angry that their queen isn't doing anything or rebuilding. They see weak people living in ruins, ripe for some good ole piracy. I mean some people have rupees and gems and weapons. Why wouldn't someone else want to take it away from them in a post apocalyptic world?
perhaps i was lucky , cause that was one of the first places i went to , so it was the first untempered blow of just how bad tokt is before realizing that this was how i was going to be viewing the game.....
Yup, but imagine if the pirates were actually **intelligent** bokoblins; ones that could talk and use sophisticated weapons & strategies. Not only would this have been 100x better, but it would also raise more interesting questions: where did these bokoblins come from? how did they become intelligent like this? Are there more of them out there? Did Ganon make them like this, or was it something else? We would've FINALLY got some interesting developments in this damn game.
THIS !!!! My Highest and last hope for this game which was randomly and unsurprisedly Rolled On !!! I stopped hoping for any improvment after And There wasnt They did not give a shit Or else Play with constructs and machine I really resent them for Sailing A game As Zelda franchise Which was just Nothing Of it.
"Loving the time i spent playing Tears of the Kingdom with my mom isn't loving Tears of the Kingdom, it's loving my mom" this sentence made me start spontaneously crying in the middle of work, excellent video.
@@Zythryl It’s a videogame, not a visual novel, not a text adventure, not an interactive movie. Anything pertaining to the gameplay & design will automatically be of greater importance as that’s the defining feature of the medium.
your anaology to peeling the stickers off of a rubix cube is so accurate! I was watching my brother play this game when it first came out and i couldn't tell what was the intended solution to the puzzle and what was just him dicking around with the abilities until he got something to work. I appreciate that there's a concentration on creative problem solving in botw and totk but solving puzzles the way the designer had in mind is its own type of satisfying, and it feels like totk doesn't reward that.
Going through the whole hebra sky island ascension, skydiving into the cloud, seeing “Wind Temple”, followed by “Wind Temple 1F”, but then hearing “there are still five locks securing the hatch on the deck” followed by seeing them pop up on the map is probably my most disappointing video game experience ever.
This. Top 3 disappointing moments in totk: - when the 5 locks appeared on the map of your first dungeon - when you get your first memory and it ends - when you realize the depths map is mirrored of the overworld also when you beat your second dungeon and the same cutscene plays as the first one. but you already know how similar the quests will be well before then.
@@FunnyAnimatorJimTV I mean, The Depths are like the Dark World, and it being a mirror makes it easier to know where to go. The other two are definitely disappointing though.
@@JacksonVoet Making it easier to know where to go makes it less interesting. The moment you know "oh there will be a mountain over there, then a valley and a lake, and the chest is up there" then it removes all your sense of urgency and mystery, that made the depths so exciting the first time you enter it. Same reason why exploring hyrule in totk is boring. even though the specific contents of goron city are different, even knowing it's general appearance and direction makes it less exciting.
@@FunnyAnimatorJimTV I mean, unlike the Dungeons, navigating the Depths would be much, much more tedious otherwise. Plus, the darkness and overall enemy difficulty makes traversal much better.
Totk feels like a proof of concept disguised as an award winning sequel. Like they put all of their effort into getting some (admittedly impressive) mechanics just right than build a shell around it.
That's pretty much it. If you see the GDC panels they made in 2017 and 2023, you can see they had MASSIVE different priorities for both games. When TotK was released, I was loosing my mind when some people said "TotK makes BotW look like a tech demo", when it's actually the complete opposite. TotK just has more features and mechanics, but there is no synergy nor cohesion whatsoever between them... which is the mark of a tech demo. BotW, on the other hand, while it was still flawed and underdeveloped in certain aspects, it was at least much more focused and cohesive as an experience.
I feel like the robust physics system weirdly often has the effect of holding the game back. I can't tell you how often I spent 15 minutes building a bespoke vehicle for a specific problem, only for it to not work because I didn't account for a slight incline or bump in the road
@@XanderVJ Software dev here (I’ve seen your bona fides in other comments)-whenever folks bring up the “year of polish”, and I then consider that there are zero staff writers credited for TOTK’, I’m forced to conclude that said year was much more likely spent adding the (reduced quality & quantity) “side quests” and the other various copy paste content scattered throughout the map. Like, it feels like they plugged in the main story and then went, “oh shit this thing is way too empty” and begged for another year so they wouldn’t get ripped to shreds. And then execs went “okay but we’re charging $70 now” When I first saw that Ascend was originally a debugging tool they used while making the caves that was added in as an ability, a legit pit formed in my stomach. It’s cool, sure, but if you’re digging through your dev tools for “variety in gameplay”, that strikes me as extremely slapdash and/or nonexistent guidance for overall design.
Another weird piece of environmental storytelling that goes completely unexplained and unacknowledged is that the big sky rocks that dot Hyrule's surface are literally terraforming the land around them. I think it's supposed to be soil falling with the rocks, but it just looks like the ground is turning into the same kind of soil as is on the sky island.
Elden Ring has big ruin pieces scattered throughout the first couple areas that fell down from a floating city--that feels like a much better execution of what you say TotK tried to do
@@Jdudec367 I think I read the original message wrong lol and thought the commenter disliked the particulars of the implementation--I haven't played TotK so I don't have the context
@@Jdudec367 Yeah, the soil immediately around the large, stationary bits of sky rock has the same grass/soil texture as the sky islands. It might be hard to see from a UA-cam video, but you'll see what I'm talking about if you're looking for it.
it never did to be fair, they havent cared about lore consistency/connections between games for a long time idk why anyone would be surprised (or even care themselves) by that now.
No one should care about the god damn story. I'm glad they don't give a crap anymore. The timeline was a mess and I'm glad they've finally stopped trying to fix it and just focus and making an enjoyable game
totk honestly frustrates me so bad with what they did to zelda and her character/arc. for a lot of the reasons you mentioned too. having her absent from the present moments proper does such a huge disservice to her and her character, and the story itself, especially when her and her struggles + agency were the heart of botw's memory cutscenes. i wish we could have spent more time with her in the present game, as herself, not just in the first five minutes of the game 😭 it would have been nice seeing her interact with people now that she was free and able to do as she pleased, and just generally work with the community more? esp since like you mentioned that people love her! like that's great and i like that a lot! i just wish we were actually shown more than what we got. it also would have been interesting to see in game what they've mentioned in interviews with her debating on trying to even restore the kingdom proper itself or not, but that was also a missed opportunity to just. not show it at all in the game. but confirm it in interviews ig?? stuff that should have been in the game but didn't make it for some reason?? she's already had to suffer because of the weight of expectations she's never asked for, to be the perfect princess she felt she wasn't. in botw she strived to assert her own agency, to help in ways that work with her strengths and what she felt she could do, and you see her struggles on full display. the silent princess symbolism with how she was never meant to be stifled and held back in the way she was? the sense she's been yearning for freedom. the princess can only thrive out in the wild?? even if she eventually does come into her own in the end, there's a tragedy in the sense that you're trapped in this prophecy you never asked for, and you SEE and feel her struggle very intimately throughout the memories you mean to tell me she's already had to sacrifice herself for 100 years before in botw (to which they point it out in her character bio in the pause menu? and it's also blatantly stated in creating a champion/master works that she fully intended on sacrificing herself and possibly not even survive, until the great deku tree stopped her and helped her rethink her intentions), had about 5-7 years of freedom and being with link again after 100+ years of anguish over literally everything regarding this, and then gets thrown back to the past to sacrifice herself AGAIN but somehow even worse than before? not to mention like? how would she feel knowing that the entity calamity ganon that caused both her + link so much suffering and absolutely massacred so many people was JUST a precursor to the Even Bigger Bad in the basement? all of that suffering she's had to endure apparently still isn't enough-- like. how would finding ganondorf in the basement affect her own demons when it comes to her knowing/feeling she's failed her people before? to her, all her efforts still probably would have meant nothing because of this, and it's an opportunity for some character building + development that was missed imo. despite her having a technically important role in the plot itself/in the past, i feel like her development as a character got sidelined in a way and just doesn't feel super consistent with botw's characterization of her. and you brought up points i've discussed with friends as well (like zelda would have been geeking out, it would have been nice to actually show it instead of like. telling/implying it in those floating flower text blurb islands, like with "the free spirited zelda" one with zelda riding the construct. hiding this stuff in that just feels very tell don't show imo). like you said, the way they wrote her in this game just doesn't feel like a person, she feels like she got relegated to a plot device which is?? unfortunate as hell and i wish it was handled just a bit differently it's somehow even worse than the century she had to spend holding calamity ganon back, now she has to do the same thing again for a millennia, committing ego death in the process instead? for the incarnation that the team has stated they wanted to humanize, it feels like in this game specifically, who she is as a person just does not matter, it's what she can provide instead. her strengths don't matter, she just has to give up everything. mind, body, soul, everything that makes her, her. again and again and again. the moment of her actual sacrifice feels tragic (and it is), the cinematography of it and the sheer weight of the music and visuals are absolutely gut-wrenching. i remember my jaw was on the floor seeing it and i had to take a couple minutes to just sit in silence JDHSBFJHSD but everything else surrounding it writing-wise muddles it for me in a way, because nobody really seems to question if this is fair to her and how awful it truly is. you see bits of it with mineru and how she vehemently rejects the idea and what its consequences are, but i feel like you still don't see /enough/ of it in general (nor do you see enough of mineru + mineru and zelda's bond on screen). pose the question of this being a wholly good thing. is it really right to have someone be asked to sacrifice themself over and over and over again, don't they deserve something different/more? was it necessary? could there have been another way? or was this inevitable, despite all efforts? this is a tragic, horrific thing to have to go through and you /see/ her in pain and struggling while it's happening, and i think the scene exemplifies the physical aspect of it very well! i just wish narratively if they wanted to stick with the sacrifice theme + plot going for her that there was more meat to it if that makes sense. i think the set pieces are definitely there, i just think that some stuff could have been better explored with it that just didn't feel weirdly inconsistent with her arc in botw but that's just my opinion ^^ i genuinely don't think i'd have as much of an issue with her sacrifice narratively/from a character writing standpoint if they showed more of her deliberating on the decision to do this, something that zelda in botw would question and deliberate her options over. what does she think and feel about doing such a thing? show us more of her trying to do anything other than this, knowing this is a last resort or show /more/ of how she came to this conclusion. show us her trying to work with her strengths that have been established in the game prior? really hammer in the tragedy of the fact that /she tried/ to avoid this at all. make it feel more consistent with botw, the themes and questions her character + arc in that game had posed AND ANOTHER THING TOO i genuinely don't understand why in an interview they just. "yeah the citizens of hyrule just never really cared to look into the mysterious disappearance of the sheikah tech more. they're just gone like a fart in the wind" LIKE YOU MEAN TO TELL ME ZELDA WOULDN'T HAVE CARED?? SOMEONE WHO DEDICATED SM TIME AND ENERGY TO RESEARCHING AND ENGAGING THE SHEIKAH TECH??? SHE WOULDN'T HAVE AT LEAST /TRIED/ TO LOOK INTO IT??? PURAH???? ROBBIE????? ABSOLUTELY NOBODY CARED OR THOUGHT IT WAS WEIRD????? 😭 these decisions are just absolutely baffling to me when it comes to writing a direct sequel all in all i really enjoyed this video and it was a really nice watch, and you bring up a lot of valid criticism to things i couldn't exactly put my finger on when it comes to things like the gameplay and building system itself. i still had fun playing the game but the story definitely irked me a lot, especially with how zelda was treated in this game specifically. even more so when i think of her arc and what it meant in botw, and then think of the ways they could have taken things even further in totk after that 2019 trailer dropped 😭 maybe i expected too much from that 2019 teaser we got but man. idk. i really think she deserved better, i absolutely agree with your points when it comes to her being absent and just the weirdness with her general agency in this game esp coming out of botw. i loved her character and story in botw so it just bothers me when i think about some of the writing choices they made with her specifically in totk i probably missed some aspects of what i'm always thinking about with this bc i have a Lot of thoughts on this specific subject, but i do hope my points make sense though if you see this! i just had to say something since i just don't really see people talk about it enough, and hearing your own points when talking about zelda + how she was handled made me think of my own grievances with this specific aspect of the story. again i think the set pieces are there but i just think that more meat should have been added to it. i definitely have many others issues though and i agree with many of yours too for sure DJKSBJFHJSDB i also have a lot of ideas for my own reimagining of the game i've been writing in my notes app for a while LMFAO We Are Out Here 🤝 i would love to see your take on a reimagining if you make a video on it! SORRY FOR GOING OFF LMFAO props to you if you read all of this bc 🫡 at the end of the day my hot take is that the game should have been a spirit tracks-like adventure where link and zelda were both together again and discovering things and you see them + their relationship develop [more] together in real time, esp after having been apart for so long /hj
ONE OTHER THING I FORGOT TO MENTION but god the way that zelda's written in the moments you mentioned just like "oh idk that name gives me pause..." when you know she absolutely /would/ have put two and two together and probably say something had the team just written it differently and more consistently but again just. more baffling writing choices??? genuinely i don't understand why they try to act like botw has like. no relevance at all, and it hurts SO MUCH of what's going on in the story it makes me insane 💀 BUT YEAH i'm done now thank you for reading my comments and for the heart earlier! :]
@@Asbestos-to3lj absolutely valid! i'm glad you get me! ^^ don't get me wrong i still love her character very much and honestly still connect with her deeply as well (as i'm sure many others do too), and i can absolutely see why people enjoy her in this game too regardless of my own criticism! personally i just wish some writing decisions were different/had some more meat added to what they had going here- like it's not exactly her as a character/herself/hating her (complete opposite omg) i have an issue with, it's more the hand of the writer and ig the meta aspect of it than anything if that makes sense :]
I think why we dislike the dragon element is that, while it is strong in theory, it's ultimately redundant to BOTW Zelda to suffer for an extended period of time. When you strip a lot of the elements down it's following a beat for beat retread of what happens to her in BOTW. And that... feels bad to do to the title character of your franchise? I think they should've made Zelda take over some elements that Raoru got, and by that we mean: Zelda should've been a ghost that helps your throughout your quest, like introducing you on the sky islands. They've already got the champions, it'd be nice for Zelda to do something like that, like Phantom Hourglass! Actually saying that outloud it was the implication that Raoru got dragon'd, but you can finagle it where becoming a dragon kicks your soul out of your body and messes with your memories. Heck, it'd make the memory collection elements sort of neat because it'd be amnesia again, but specifically for Zelda's. Idk! Just! Bleh! We love Zelda as a character! Let her exist as a character! Stop being weird to your most prominent woman character!!
I'm not reading all that because I'm not really that interested in these games but holy christ I respect writing a comment that long. This might actually be the longest comment I've ever seen on youtube. I didn't think you even could write a comment that long without hitting a character limit. wow...
I think the biggest problem with TotK is that Nintendo completely ignored the valid criticism of BotW, like I love BotW but I basically saw it as a great foundation that if improved upon could lead to some of the greatest games ever made. But it seems like Nintendo ignored the complaints against BotW and only listened to the people calling it perfect and basically hung their hats and went "Welp, there's nothing we can do to improve BotW, the only thing we can do when we make a direct sequel is to spend 6 years adding in a bunch of weird new experimental mechanics and change nothing about BotW's core design since it's already so obviously perfect" When it was revealed that TotK would re-use BotW's map, I was initially very hyped, as an avid fan of the Yakuza series (a series well-known for taking advantage of constant asset reuse,) my mind raced with all the potential sidequests, unique dungeons, and stuff they'd be able to add to the world in a sequel now that the heavy lifting of making this giant map and the engine was done, since there's nothing I love more than when game series do that thing where they actively acknowledge the stuff you did in previous games (its a big part of why I love Yakuza, since the games constantly acknowledge stuff that happens in previous games' sidequests in a way that feels super rewarding for people who've played all the games) and was heartbroken to find out what TotK actually used the re-used map for (ie, basically nothing) I think TotK is one of the most headscratching games ever made, I have no idea how Nintendo could be so completely tone-deaf to what fans actually wanted out of a BotW sequel, I really hope that they take a step back and actually look at criticism of TotK because otherwise the next big 3D Zelda will just be a less creatively interesting version of Minecraft
Same here. It bothered me so much that basically nothing you did during botw is acknowledged aside from the main story stuff. The koroks have never seen you, hestu doesn’t know you, and kotlin? (The monster fanatic) has never seen you before. It feels like they want you to have played botw, but also wanted to cater to people who have never played botw.
The funny part is that Nintendo did heed most of the criticism. The weapons being too fragile? fixed with fused weapons. People not using weapons because any fight was not worth losing weapon durability for monster materials? Fixed by monsters dropping horns that make almost every fight a net gain when it comes to resources. Travel being too slow and limited? Fixed with Ultrahand vehicles and constructs. Dungeons not having any personality and charm? Fixed quite well by giving each an identity and even a partner each with their own particularities. The only parts of the criticism that were not taken into consideration are the ones not related to gameplay, which yeah, kinda sucks for some people. But also kinda not, expecting a direct continuation to change everything when it comes to plot and storytelling while also completely changing the gameplay to the point where they had to create entirely new physics systems (they essentially created an audio physics system to handle how sounds travel in the game) is kind of silly. A bunch of people seem to be disappointed that the game didn't do much, but most of those people are honestly kinda stupid, the amount of work in Tears is astounding, every single power Link has would be a pain to implement in an open world game and would be enough to carry a game on its own, Link having 4 gamebreaking abilities and them working as cleanly as they do is absolutely insane.
Nah see, Nintendo actually did listen to BotW's critics: They saw misogynistic gamer dudes whine about Zelda being a "crybaby" and "a b*tch" so for the sequel they got rid of all her flaws and made her a waifu instead of an actual character.
Something I still dont quite get. What did like, Rauru do exactly? Like, he sealed the Demon King, but like, Ganondorf and the rebirth grudge still happened, again and again, it didnt do shit against stopping that we still had the whole Calamity. So is like big ass hog Ganon supposed to just be the Demon King astrally projecting or something? Cause it managed to do WAY more damage than the Demon king and its just like. Im confused. Cause at the end, it just seemed to do the same thing as just killing Ganon
Well this whole time travel thing only happened after Calamity Ganon was defeated so eh..I don't think it would change that. That was genuinely Ganon just a form of Ganon. It stopped him but it didn't kill him.
@@Jdudec367 Still I feel like, since we find the mummy of demon king down there it must be the whole time travel thing affected the pre time travel thingy. My main confusion was like, if the Demon King didnt die, how was ganon reborn to take the form of Calamity? Though the other comments are most likely right in how it was just the demon king angryness taken shape
@@creditsunknown7974 I dunno...has time travel in Zelda really worked like that before? In OOT when Link went back in time and got Ganondorf executed it didn't change the adult timeline did it? I mean...the prior Ganondorf died, the Calamity one though was many years later and eventually became TOTK Ganondorf.
Send this to Aonuma so he can stop shoehorning stupid gimmicks into Zelda games. He did it again with Echoes of Wisdom, which was originally intended to be a Zelda Maker. But in goes Mr. Aonuma and says "This is fun, but you know what would be even more fun? Placing a stair made of copy-pasted beds anywhere you want so you can cheese any platforming or clever level design in the game!" I swear this man has been having his George Lucas moment ever since Majora's Mask 3D. Anyways, amazing video, watched it all during an episode of insomnia. Keep it up!
I played TotK after some pretty traumatic life events, and I’ll always be grateful to it for allowing me to get through that. Seriously, as much as they rightfully get criticized, I adored the depths, and it took my mind off things when I really needed that distraction. But in hindsight, yeah, TotK was really disappointing. The weirdest thing for me was the Dragon’s Tears quest, since I initially thought that it was analogous to recovering Link’s memories in BotW. Then I went to the Korok Forest, got the master sword location from the deku tree, and got the sword. It wasn’t until I talked to my sister that I learned just how much I missed out on by skipping the dragon tears, and she was shocked that I was able to get the master sword without getting all of Zelda’s memories. Maybe it’s on me for skipping that, but I also feel like if the developers wanted me to do it, they should have made it clearer to the player that it wasn’t just a side quest, but actually held huge significance
the games that help us breathe when we feel like we’re drowning are important for that fact alone honestly, i really believe even the shittiest game can be special in that sense (not that totk is the shittiest, i’ve played kawasaki snowmobiles for the wii)
My primary problem is the memories from the tears can be found in any order. When something so critical to the entire story can be done out of order, the entire plot falls on its face. Imagine the people who found memory 10 as their first. The entire story and lead up to what we're doing is ruined. They tried to make a linear story like the more traditional Zelda games with an open world setting and it just failed.
What if they just made it so every time you find a tear you just get the next memory, in order? You found 5 tears, you get memory #5. That would make way more sense to the player, could easily be explained if they need to explain it at all. The only thing is the memory you are watching might not thematically coincide with the geoglyph’s shape that you found it at, but that is such a vague connection. Hardly anyone’s thinking about it anyway, definitely worth the trade off for cohesive story. It’s not like the locations of the glyphs coincide with anything that takes place in the memory like it did in both. It’s like they started to fix it and then forgot
This is a problem shared with botw all the memories are slightly out of the way meaning you need to atleast step off the beaten path to find them. All except the one in the bazaar meaning if you are a shitty explorer you won't find a memory until half way through since this is the one and only memory that's on the main road
@@collincaperton6718 Except the memories aren't needed to understand the story or what Link needs to accomplish in BOTW. They're exactly what they're described as, memories. If you don't unlock a single memory the story remains the exact same. All the memories do is give you context into the relationships between Link/Zelda and the Champions of the Divine Beasts, they don't impact what's happening in the world RIGHT NOW. However in TOTK if you don't unlock the memories on the glyphs you don't get ANY of the story as it all happens in the past (again) and the past is CRITICAL to understanding and accomplishing your mission (find Zelda and defeat Ganon)
I personally liked the random order. When I found one, I would get a piece of the story but not all the context and the mystery continued. That's how I saw it.
Here's something you'll never unsee again... Once Ganondorf is sealed, his secret stone is...sitting...on..his.forehead! It's just sitting there. In a diadem or something. Someone, anyone, could just snatch it off his head. At any time. And he'd be just regular Ganondorf again. We have heroes literally with the knowledge that a secret stone made Ganondorf beyond super powerful...and they leave it with him. It's just dumb.
it really is a shame that Ganondorf hasn't historically had access to a *different* source of power. An *established* source of power. A source of power that is not easily removed from his person. A source of power that grants it's wielder the power of a *GOD.* but it's not like anything of that sort actually exists in the Zelda franchise, right?
@@christopherbravo1813I mean, I see where you’re going, but the triforce of power can also leave him as seen at the end of twilight princess. Not that I’m justifying this stupid decision with the stone
@@anonymousperson1706 The Triforce at this point seems little more than branding for the Zelda franchise at this point. When I realised that Zelda was a dragon (which was at the third memory, Mineru's council), I actually got hopeful and excited, because 'reversing the irreversible ... there is only one way they can do it! OMG the first four dungeons only mark the first half, we'll get the proper Zelda experience having to find the Trifo-' *Sonia and Rauru reverse the irreversible at no cost and it is revealed Zelda hasn't suffered and I waited out the credits for a sappy goodbye for a character I do not care about instead of having meaningful interactions between established characters*
something else that bothered me is the change of the zonai from a barbaric, visceral, mysterious tribe to sheikah (lame version) was SO disappointing. the architecture doesn’t even resemble what it was in BOTW, and i can’t help but think they disposed of the barbaric set in TOTK to sever the connection between BOTW zonai and TOTK zonai. nintendo really missed out in exploring that moral dubiousness and animalistic nature they were building in BOTW. any pre-TOTK zonai theory video gave the zonai much better characterisation than nintendo did in 6 years. honestly, i wish they just based the story as a whole on a zeltik video.
Eh....tbh they were never confirmed to be barbaric or visceral tbh and they aren't exactly the sheikah (nah they are pretty cool really) and they are more magical and well...even more ancient really. I mean it somewhat does resemble what it was in BOTW with the animals and dragon symbols but we barely saw much of them in BOTW at all, I doubt that is why and wait....huh? The Barbarian set is still in TOTK what do you mean? ??? They weren't building that for the Zonai though what do you mean? The Zonai were never confirmed to be morally dubious or have animalistic nature really.
Seriously. I lost interest in this game only a few months after I started playing it. Meanwhile I can replay BOTW over and over again without ever getting bored or losing interest with the story. Totk just doesn’t hold up as well from an emotional standpoint
I was losing interest by the time I was halfway through the main story. Not that I'd say BotW was much better. It shares many of the same glaring issues that TotK either failed to fix or made worse.
I think I cheesed the entire fire temple with wings and ascend. It took me like 10 minutes and I didn't even set foot in half the temple. I stopped playing after that, finally realizing that it wasn't made well. It was right when it came out, so I'm foggy on exact amount of time, but I thoroughly remember being like, "really? THAT'S one of the 4 (I thought) dungeons in this game?!"
The Depths are so bare bones that I honestly believe the theory that they were created later as a response to Elden Ring's underground map. I know Nintendo isn't usually known for directly trying to compete with other developers, but I can't help but feel that after ER garnered the same praise as BotW a year later, there was some degree of "That game had a 2 layered map? Well, we have a 3 layered one now!" put into the decision to add them. Combined with being nearly entirely irrelevant to the story and marketing, "the best kept secret" kinda starts to seem more like "was not part of the first several drafts of the game."
Except Elden Ring didn’t release a year after BotW. ER released in 2022. BotW released in 2017. TotK released a year after Elden Ring, and the final year+ of TotK’s development was strictly for polishing. Sorry, but the idea for the Depths didn’t come from ER.
@@jadimich Wow, I totally forgot BotW came out 7 years ago lol, even with this game being 6 years in development. I'm still sticking with my theory with how nothing the Depths were though. I could totally believe they were made in the last year. I mean, most of it is just the overworld with the z-axis inverted and a single nondescript biome blanketed over it.
@@skittybitty Respectfully, whether you believe it or not is irrelevant. Eiji Aonuma himself is on record as saying that the game was complete in March of 2022 and the final year+ (it released in May 2023) was simply for polishing and making sure the insane physics worked swimmingly. Just look it up.
one of the most damning indicators of how bad this game sucks is how it basically erased the botw fandom’s presence from the internet. ended all desire to make content for it
it’s so hard to care about this world and its lore when you know the creators don’t. forget the overall zelda lore or whatever, strictly within the confines of the open air titles, it’s just so sad
@@skittybitty That is really one of the most damning things about any media. When you see that nobody cared enough while making it. I e.g. can forgive SS's flaws because I still love and effort and charm in that game. It was a good origin story. The dungeons were phenomenal, despite the backtracking (which I didn't mind too much). with TotK? 'lol Zonai contraptions go brrrrr' Also, I hate, hate hate memebait. Good memes occur naturally.
Adhd and OCD brain here. I played tears of the kingdom for over 300 hours. I went through every cave, got every bubblegem, collected every piece of equipment, completely filled the compendium, did every quest, completed all three maps... and when I was done, I felt so empty. TotK made me question why I try to complete the fun out of games, it was just mindless, and I couldn't stop myself. At a certain point I was no longer having fun, but I couldn't let myself move on over thoughts that the true reward was coming any moment
thats funny cuz i have adhd/ocd and i couldnt put more than 2 hrs in bc i instantly knew it was going to be a worthless empty time investment (been there done that)
@@robertsmith7627 nah i just had made the same mistake with other games before and was like "hell nah". BOTW was on the cusp of that but the new-ness of the world, curiosity, story, etc. saved it for me of course this game throws you into shrines and its like hell no not this again *shuts switch off*
Same story here. 140 hours in and if someone were to ask me about what the experience was like, I'd just say most of it was spent either mindlessly fighting monsters, hovering from one location to another, or grinding to get X amount of a material.
"Bored and overwhelmed at the same time" is so well put. In breath of the wild absolutely everything fascinates you and draws your attention, but in this game I could not care less about the absurd number of hudson signs, or koroks, or side quests. Literally nothing in this game draws my attention but then on paper there is an enormous amount of "content"
some notes, since i get a handful of the same comments nearly every day:
1. yes, you can hear some mouth sounds during the beginning of this video. it won't be an issue in the future and it goes away ten minutes in.
2. zelda being taller than link is a win for gay people because link and zelda are lesbians. i will not be taking further questions at this time.
3. it seems that you _can_ find pristine weapons even if you didn't break the unfused variety. we only know this because of datamining. i maintain that the game never explaining how this system works is still poor design
4. yes, i have heard of elden ring. i don't plan on playing it in the immediate future but it's on my list
5. when i talk about link being “disabled” i am referring to the initial event where he loses his arm. the rauru arm is basically a prosthetic
6. my pronouns are they/them
thank you all so much for watching! i can't believe the extent to which this video blew up (going from 100 subs to nearly 20k in less than two months is something i wasn't prepared for) and i'm so thankful for the (mostly) positive response! be on the lookout for more in the future, there's plenty on the way 😸
This was an amazing video :D
Kudos for all the effort you clearly put into it, fellow They/Them Zelink appreciator
THEY/THEM ZELINK LESBIAN PROPAGANDISTS RISE UP
I will say that technically speaking Elden Ring may actually be one of the worst fromsoft games. There are some sketchy things Elden Ring does that one of its predecessors did (Dark Souls 2) that were taken out of subsequent games, (Namely input reading by Godskin Apostle,) as well as a bunch of other not so great things that Elden Ring has that the other games don’t. In my opinion Elden Ring doesn’t feel entirely finished and/or as fine tuned like the other games did. I think to really understand why a lot of people have issues with it, you have to play DS1, Bloodborne, and DS3 to really get a feel for why things seem off in Elden Ring. There’s a certain level of polish those other games have that Elden Ring doesn’t. I’m not trying to take a dook on the game it does a lot of things that I really like and I also want to add that the DLC feels a lot better than the main game. I didn’t really mean to rant but I think a lot of people tend to overlook the things in Elden Ring that make it uncomfortable to play.
@skittybitty do you mind telling us why you don't plan to play ER anytime soon? It has become such a phenomenon and basically ubiquitous with modern classic gaming.
@@NogGonnaMakeIt bc it's long and im a full time college student and also a youtuber apparently
One of the very first NPC's you meet at Lookout Landing tells you that they're taking refuge there after their home was destroyed when Lurelin Village was raided by pirates. When I first heard that, I was SO intrigued to see theses new pirate enemies and headed straight for Lurelin.
I get there and find out the "pirates" were just Bokoblins. Not even special, unique Bokoblins that wear pirate outfits or anything. Literally the exact same Bokoblins you can find everywhere else.
I was expecting some pirate Hylians like in Wind Waker 😭
I imagined Gerudo pirates like Majora's Mask, or Skeleton pirates like in Skyward Sword or the Oracle games. I was quite upset. Well, at least the ship was original... Then I ran into the same ships all over the map 😐
@@labrynianrebel The Skyward Sword Pirates are actually ROBOT Skeleton Pirates, the Oracle ones are just plain old regular skeletons. Both of which are infinitely more interesting than Totk's Bokoblin Pirates that actually aren't even pirates.
@@netweed09 Nobody Likes You.
@@netweed09 You want to know what in Hyrule I was expecting? PIRATES. I was expecting PIRATES. The game literally told me there would be PIRATES, and so I expected there to be PIRATES. Instead I got ordinary, generic Bokoblins. Not even special pirate Bokoblins, no. The exact same Bokoblins you can find in every other part of the game. As in, 100% identical. Literally copy-pasted.
Other Zelda games were able to do pirates just fine, what's Totk's excuse?
Its so infuriating that the zonai LITERALLY just take the place of the sheika JUST for the sake of a slightly different aesthetic, and the sheika just get absolutely dropped.
dont get me wrong, like their designs, but its such a conceptual retread instead of expanding what’s already there that its infuriating.
But it's kinda like an origin story for them, yea?
I thought the whole point was to show that these familiar ideas are all connected and yet also unique
I wouldnt even mind, if the zonai didnt feel like a direct downgrade from the sheika, both lorewise and designwise.
The sheikatechnology was integrated into their culture in such an interesting way that wasnt really explored in totk
SAME I was so excited for a game where the focus would be on magic versus technology, and writing wise why does a supposedly powerful, magic species use technology in the first place?
@@NatetheSensitivePlant Why can't they use both really?
@@Jdudec367 cause necessity is the mother of invention, the reason that magic societies don't use technology is because there is no need. When you compare the original concept of shiekah and Zonai, you have a group of people who seem to have forsaken their magic for superior technology, as shown by the fact that the yiga are more powerful than the average shiekah, and those two societies are very different, with different priorities and capabilities. The zonai were supposed to be powerful, magic users but there was no talk of them having advanced technology, and there doesn't seem like a need or a reason why except for in-game mechanics. We don't know how they figured out their machines, and the storytelling around it is weak. Why did they build cannons when they can blast through things with huge beams of light?
And besides magic in TOTK is such an untapped potential, literally, because the main zonai relic, the secret stones, make innate abilities stronger. Why weren't they focusing on that instead of building cars?
Their priorities don't make sense and we will never get answers because Nintendo doesn't care
For the quality of this video I present the highest honour I can provide: Watching it while eating a meal
I'm literally at the pub right now having a pint and watching this
Long ass meal lol
I watched it on a slow work day 😂
Me, with steak and salad and mash potatoes… utter honor
a 3 hour meal??
i am SO GLAD to hear someone else say they should have sent Link to the past. I HAVE BEEN SHOUTING THIS FROM THE ROOFTOPS. It could have solved SO MANY PROBLEMS the game had, SO EASILY!! ANDDD it would have actually put you, the player, into the meat of the story instead of just being an observer, again. it's so depressing to think about the missed opportunity here. there are some good fanfics tho...
Any recommendations? I had a lot of issues with BotW but I did love the characters and I wanted to try TotK but…seems like a waste of money. So, fanfic!
can’t wait for all the“not tears of the kingdom compliant” fics!
What fanfics👁👁👁👁
THIS WOULDVE BEEN SO COOL SINCE THERE WOULD BE SPACE FOR NEW CHARACTERS WE COULD INTERACT WITH
What would happen with the whole raurus arm situation if that were the case
The sound effect for when important information is on-screen is honestly such a smart idea for these longform videos that a lot of people just listen to that I can't believe I haven't seen it done before.
Honestly yeah, it's catchy enough to grab my attention for really fun points but subtle enough that it's not jarring. I've seen it done occasionally done in other video essays but it doesn't usually meet the mark like this or appear so consistently
Ive only noticed the sound once during the whole video, definitely didnt work for me lmao. Not jaring enough
it reminds me of the chime telling you to turn the page while listening to a book on tape!! super nostalgic, and i appreciate the que to look so much!
Link: My girlfriend turned into a dragon.
Impa: That's rough, buddy.
Fire Emblem: First time?
Smash, next question
@@lookassperal9850to Impa?
Better than a maractus
That's a upgrade
The one fix I still stand by is that Link needed to get send to the past instead of Zelda.
That way the whole overworld could be different. In fact we could’ve had dungeons that were dilapidated in Breath.
We could’ve kick it with Rauru as a partner or whatever.
I’m 100% with you on this. I think putting TOTK in the past would have fixed a lot of its story/NPC/exploration issues
@@KC-tw1wdhow about swallowing the stone to get back and rescue Zelda. We get to play as a fucking dragon and demolish Ganon. Sacrificing ourself for the greater good. Making it more emotional and impactful.
I really thought Rauru was going to be the partner character of this game during the tutorial. Then the tutorial ends, Rayru f*cks off and then I'm just standing there like "w8, where are you going? _COME BACK GOAT HUSBAND!!_ 😢
An interesting thought could have been changing the past by defeating ganon there as link could potentially have changed the future as well, even better if link and Zelda went to the past together, both as playable characters. Imagine beating ganon, making it back to the present, and seeing a restored Hyrule that was never destroyed by the calamity, but Link and Zelda still remember the events of breath of the wild so Zelda see’s her dad or something and gets to apologize or something emotional happens or idk, something. Lots of somethings. That COULD create a host of issues itself mind you, but would have been very interesting I feel
then the development of the game would have taken 6 extra years lol...
I remember when apparently the devs claimed this game was supposedly going to be "darker" than Majora's Mask, and I'll give them credit; making an entire copy-pasted sub area so dark you can barely see a damn thing definitely classifies as being "darker" than Majora's Mask.
that quote was misinterpreted and circulated uncritically by many actually, the devs did not actually say that. doesn’t make it any less disappointing though
@@skittybitty Yeah, as soon as they announced they were gonna use Ganondorf again I knew immediately they were just gonna rehash the same exact plot again with the "I'm evil and power hungry" which is fine. but we already had Ganon in the first game, so they could at least try to do something different with a new villain this time around.
Realistically, I don't know why anyone believed that when the devs said it. The only reason Majora's Mask was so dark and weird was because that game was rushed and made under completely different circumstances than any other Nintendo game. (It's also the best Zelda game and they weren't going to top it no matter how good TOTK could have been)
@@soulkibble1466 I mean reusing him does't mean he wil be the exact same and yeah his plan does change and differ in TOTK.
@@soulkibble1466ehh, we didn’t really fight ganondorf in botw, we fought the malice that came out of ganondorf
Goated for putting in a "look at the screen dumbass" jingle for people like me.
maybe i just forgot but i didnt hear the jingle once lol
@@tylerandari12It's there. Here's an example.
39:20
@@tylerandari12 There were a couple times where i had to do a double take to make sure i heard it(sometimes i didn't).
Having the jingle sound effect is an awesome idea that I wish more reviewers do!!! I often like to listen to these reviews while doing something else but it can be super annoying if I turn and look at the screen and see important edited notes flashing in screen. It makes me think that i have to watch the whole thing so having a cue letting me know I have to look at the screen is great!
stealing this :)
It was satisfying to finally hear I wasn't the only one who thought "Zelda, you don't think GANONdorf has anything to do with CALAMITY GANON?? "Ganon" is not a common name, even in Hyrule, which I'm sure you know, Zelda, since you're a goddamn historian in these games, but even then, it's not like he was called "Calamity Dave" and when you met "Dave" in the past, you thought "huh, weird coincidence, but I wont assume because the name Dave is pretty common" LIKE ZELDA, YOU LOOKED AT ONE MURAL AT THE BEGININNG OF THE GAME AND INFERRED THE EVENTS OF THE IMPRISONING WAR, WHY DID YOU NOT HAVE THIS AMAZING DEDUCTION WHEN HEARING THE NAME "GANONDORF"????!?!?!?!
What upsets me more about this is that in BotW, when Zelda is expositing on the identity of Dark Beast *GANON* , she explicitly states that this great evil has taken many incarnations for a great deal of Hylian history. If Urbosa also acknowledges the history that *GANON* once lived as a Gerudo man, then surely Zelda should figure that this suspicious Gerudo man named "GANONdorf" might have a connection with the red-haired, superpowered, evil mummy that she encountered in the present, as well as the Calamity *GANON* that she spent 100-ish years fighting? (who's humanoid forms, mind you, also have red hair like GANONdorf)
I suppose Zelda didn't want to jump to conclusions or was worried about changing the present too much, and just being in the past is changing the present by a great deal anyway. Maybe she *does* know about the whole "Ganon" connection but really is trying not to interfere too much until the last moment. Maybe she doesn't want Link's time period to end up all screwy, I don't know...
Rest in peace Zelda's brain cells
I mean tbf she likely didn't know that Calamity Ganon used to be a gerudo and a similar name alone isn't enough to deduce that they are the same person. Well the mural painted a pretty clear picture, some guy having a similar but not the same name isn't enough to make a good deduction.
@@lexfordjackenstiresirjacke2082 I mean eh...Zelda may not have known that Ganon used to be a Gerudo though or was named Ganondorf.
I am pretty sure she just didn't know they were the same person and having red hair and similar names alone doesn't confirm it.
@@Jdudec367 if the dudes name was "john", I'd pay that explanation
The animators spent their emotion budget on gannondorf's face and didn't have any left for link.
That laughing face was priceless though XD. Some G-Mod ass shenanigans going on there!
@@mr.j3rs3yAnd while it is indeed funny. It comes at the cost of complete emersion destruction on the same level as Mickey Mouse saying “Say fellas, did somebody mention the door to darkness.”
@@Arceve Smash Announcer: Failure
it did freak me out on my first reaction in-game, before my friends started memeing about it when they found the memory/online memes.
i wasn't expecting such an uncanny expression
You know resident evil 8 expression at 500% mod, that face of ganondorf feel like that.
hi skitty,
just wanted to leave u this comment to tell you that this video has been on a loop in my apartment for almost 3 months now. something about your editing, your voice, your presentation of your arguments scratched an itch in my adhd brain. it’s been of so much comfort to me and trust and believe I have forced all of my friends to watch it too. thanks for all the hard work you put into this
thanks so much for watching!
sanest adhd chatter
There is NO WAY this is your FIRST EVER video essay. I loved your presentation, humour, analysis, and editing! your channel should be at LEAST 70$ on the switch shop tbh
Truly rthe Breath of the Wild of video essays about Tears of the Kingdom.
omg thank you so much!
We need a video on why the hell they got rid of Kass with no explanation whatsoever
kass will be unpacked in the autisticut (it’ll release within six months depending on how heavily edited it is)
@@skittybittyholy I love the phrase Autisticut
I hate Kass I’m glad his corny bird ass is gone
I _really_ thought Kass would be the core of story DLC. It'd even mirror his significance with BOTW's DLC 🙃
@@skittybittyAutisticut is the greatest thing ever, holy
"TOTK is the first game to make me feel bored and overwhelmed at the same time. There is so much to do in this world, and absolutely none of it matters."
Wow, you explained my exact feelings in such a concise way that I never even considered. As someone who also adored BOTW and played through it twice yet couldn't even bring myself to finish TOTK, this video was so cathartic. Absolutely incredible work, and it's amazing that this is your first longform video. I can't wait to see what else you make in the future!
my thoughts for the game almost immediately after beating it were pretty similar. "They created a big world with all these things to do, but nothing that's actually worth doing."
Whole game is just a huge timewaster.
Saying that finally put my thoughts about this game to paper. Playing it I was always thinking there was always doing something I should be doing but looking back it was all worthless. From all the caves/islands/zonaite mines and everything, the game simultaneously has so much do to and yet nothing at all.
How incredible is it that in a video that's 3:25:11 long, I came across your comment at exactly the 2:31:11 mark? I literally started reading these words as they were being spoken.
Aside from having to share this, I completely agree with everything said.
Honestly, ToTK was the only Legend of Zelda game i played and I didnt even finish it lol
And I didnt really feel interested in doing side quests
@@carnage0685 the one thing
I hate about BOTW is the underground cave and the abilities Link has. It seems like it’s trying to be Minecraft now. Also they got rid of my favourite power cryonis. I don’t care if you can make a actual boat or even flying boat now. I liked the more simple powers of BOTW
SS -> BotW = 1,946 days
BotW -> TotK = 2,247 days
There was a longer wait for TotK than there was for BotW. This still hurts me.
To be fair, COVID happened so that might’ve been a big factor for the wait
That's crazy, the wait for BOTW felt much longer to me
it’s funny that it took that long and it’s still lazily half baked
A link between worlds and tri force Heroes both came out in between skyward sword and botw!!! I can understand disregarding tfh but ALBW is a wonderful game and deserves recognition. I was quite confused in the video when they said that Skyward sword was the direct predecessor to botw to be honest.
@@wildsage00 ALBW is such a good game, I wish it was talked about more
I knew the editing in the video was top tier but I was sold when I looked in the bottom left and saw the background tracks being listed as they start playing jeez you went ALL OUT for this
And FOR FREE
@@bakedbeananimationi mean you CAN give me money if you want….. (this is a joke)
Purah being a sage never even crossed my mind but now i realize just how much better that would be then just reusing mineru
@@netweed09 yeah it would have been cooler to see a temple where all the lost sheikah tech dissapeared to or something, and honestly, any character from the memories should stay in the memories
YEA LIKE WHAT REAL PURPOSE DOES PURRA HAVE
Boo. What could possibly be better than a giant underground rideable robot companion? Imho the best reward in the entire franchise. Mixing things up a little with that quest was a high point
Honestly I dunno...Mineru was pretty cool too. Purah would be a interesting Sage though and the Mech could make sense for her too really.
@@netweed09 literally the pot calling the kettle black, look at the rest of your seething in this comment section. you abuse the caps key like nintendo has abused your sense of taste
God the Sage speeches thing was such a mood. The way they repeat it almost entirely word for word. I had been initially excited for the Gerudo Ancestor because ya know... the fact that Ganondorf is... ya know... Gerudo... the King of the Gerudo.
There was even Gerudo WITH Ganondorf in one of the Zelda Memories AND YET-
All we get is one SINGULAR throwaway line about Ganondorf being King of the Gerudo- a fact she REFUSES to elaborate on. And that's it.
It feels like it would have been such an easy thing to give them like... even just a PARAGRAPH 3-5 sentences to give us any information about the culture, the environment ANYTHING about the Ancient World and yet that was still too much worldbuilding for them apparently
but have you considered that secret stone demon king imprisoning war??
Urbosa acknowledged that Ganon was once Gerudo, but someone who literally knew Ganondorf when he was alive couldn’t elaborate even a bit. This game’s story is a joke
I sorta think it KINDA makes sense from a Prophetical destiny standpoint for nintendo to do that but like IDENTICAL is foul
Yep, finished the video, as cathartic as I thought it'd be. A few more complaints:
- Reused music in all major towns. A microcosm of the game's much larger issue of the world being designed for a different game's mechanics. They wrote the music to fit the vibe of BOTW's towns, changed the towns, and then left the music. Hateno is the worst offender - there's so much modernisation happening, and yet it's still the same sweet rural town melody. The tone is mismatched.
- Tulin screeching every single time you want to get a gliding boost. Way to completely ruin the vibe of peacefully soaring through the serene skies.
- I tried so long to explore the ruins in Kakariko, continually getting kicked out by the asshole guarding it, before realising that you had to wait for the story to give you permission first. The game hands you this intriguing mystery, but inexplicably reverses on the game's entire philosophy, locking this one piece of content behind the linear progression of the story, despite these games having trained you to think that's never the case.
- This one might be my own stupidity, idk, but I was not aware that you could upgrade your battery, for an embarrassingly long time. For a game inundated with dozens of unnecessary tutorials, I wish they'd have forced me to do that just once.
- In the post-credits cutscene, they all swear to continue protecting Hyrule and ensuring eternal peace. It's SUCH a tease for post-game content. During that scene, I was like, "oh, there's gonna be a post-game, THAT'S where all their effort went, I finally understand." Then it kicked me back to before the final boss. I sighed, closed the game and never opened it again lol
This whole video is a pinboard where everything surrounds a post-it note with the words “70 United States Dollars” sharpied on there
literally
im the 70th like on this comment. How ironic.
I'm so tired of it. Dragons Ligma 2 released on PC in the state it was in for ONE HUNDRED CANADIAN DOLLARS for the BASE GAME.
I remember criticising TotK for being an overpriced DLC when it first dropped, and so many Nintendo fans kept comparing it to Majora and Ocarina. They may use the same engine, but they are completely different stories with a completely different gimmick. The denial at the time was insane like come on.
@@pokemonultraz1262 There is no irony involved in that. What you mean is a coincidence.
secret stone??????? demon king!!!!?!?!?!???????
Psycho mantis?
Metal...Gear???
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones?!?!?
You're that ninja.......
so that was the imprisoning war............
Still can’t believe the game doesn’t end with Link smiling and shedding a tear, breaking his lifetime of putting on a brave face and bookending the whole tears of the kingdom thing. Great video!
I actually do like Link's characterization in Breath of the Wild but he's much more bland in ToTK. I agree that either at the end or after the light dragon cutscene he should have broke down and cried, even for a moment before collecting himself. He JUST got Zelda back, and now she's gone again, possibly forever. He should have a reaction to that and it's strange that he doesn't.
Yeah there was work done to justify it in BotW, but for me it’s one more thing that says TotK isn’t a *narrative* sequel. Its just more game, in a mod sense.
That’s why the best versions of Link are either Toon or CDI.
*Yes I’m serious*
@@owonapikinsby the same token, link has always been an insert for the player. and whatever i was feeling at that time more than made up for what link wasn’t expressing: i was crying and i was role playing as link.
The worst part is boundary break showed us that he smiles off screen and we can't see it at the end
I love how Breath of the Wild is an anti-apocalyptic story. You wake up in essentially the post-apocalypse. The king is dead, the palace is in ruins, and it's been so long that even the horrible monsters that ended the world are just collecting dust. You scavenge whatever resources you can, and see what you can do to try and help.
But beyond all that, the world is beautiful. The people seem to be doing alright. And based on your memories, the kingdom had tons of problems. The champions all hated each other, Zelda wasn't ready to take on her role as protector, and the king couldn't really help her. You get the sense, imo, that while the kingdom was destroyed, and that is sad... maybe that was just inevitable. Maybe the world is better off having moved past that.
In particular, I like the tone of all the memories. Whenever the characters are happy, you feel sad knowing that it's all going to end. And when they're criticizing each other, you get the feeling that this never could have lasted to begin with.
To me, killing Ganon is more about tying off the loose end. You still need to rescue zelda and end Ganon, but you don't have any hope of restoring the kingdom to what it once was. But maybe you can make it into something better.
Tears of the kingdom feels like it kinda gives up on that. Lets obsess even more over the past and bloodlines and old kings.
I agree! totk feels so tonally different from botw that it basically spits all over it.
I think I should’ve known that the fanfics where Zelda choses to throw away the title of Princess and work to making Hyrule better under a democracy were never gonna happen but… man. It really was disappointing to realize this franchise can’t even see the flaws in the things it also seems to condemn.
The champions didn't all hate each other...? Did they?
I thought they got along okay enough for the little we saw. Daruk seemed chill and Mipha seemed ok with everyone. I am not sure about Urbosa and Revali as Urbosa seemed to care about Zelda the most.
@@marissa336 yeah ur right. really the only ones with beef were ravioli and 🔗
@@Vivigreeny25 On the one hand, that *sounds* like an interesting concept.
On the other, where would the people of Hyrule realistically get the idea of Democracy from?
Even in our own world, it took thousands of years if not more for any functioning Democratic system to emerge, and our world doesn't have a bloodline of rulers who possess demonstrable proof of a very literal Mandate of Heaven.
i will forever be mad about the nerfed mastersword, literally the blade of evils bane bathed in the light of a dragon for more than 10,000 years and it has less durability and damage than the mastersword from botw? crazy as hell
Isn’t there a glitch that its durability is permanently nerfed after the first time you fuse it?
@@ZiggyPalffyLA mhm! It loses its sparkle and will never get bonus durability again. If i could fix the mastersword id just give it infinite durability, and the fused items would have their own durability so that the mastersword can act as an extremely powerful jack of all trades tool.
@@seerai-42 of all the things they “fixed” in the game, this was never one of them. Shows you their priorities
The Master Sword being destroyed in the beginning of the game really set the tone for where the Zelda franchise is going.
Not good.
@@QuothTheRavenclaw11:(
One thing I will never forgive nintendo for is doing literally nothing cool with the Akalla Citadel when it could have been a dungeon rivaling the dark atmospheres and prowess of those in twilight princess. I am personally betrayed by this decision to fill it with tight meaningless caves that do not reflect the sheer size of the architecture implied by the exterior and lore.
i appreciate Age of Calamity for having a few levels set inside it, its pretty cool seeing it from the inside despite how simple it is
Same! I spent so long slamming my head against the entire structure because SURELY there's more than just 1 cave there! Right?
@@scrappy2082 Age of Calamity is what stoked my hope for anything cool at all! 😭
And that it is JUST a cave, when it’s supposed to be a citadel. It would have been much better and cooler to explore a Hyrule Castle-like fortress.
@@scrappy2082 The fact that "Age of Calamity", a game which story is literally a poorly written "fix fic", does a better job at world building and narrative than "Tears of the Kingdom" has to be one of the biggest fails in Nintendo's history.
The fact that this started with them wanting to make a love letter to BOTW and ended with them making a three hours hate letter to TOTK is kinda poetic
Love the term "hate letter"
Not really. If anything it's kinda deranged and unhealthy to put hundreds of hours, literally days of your life into something you hate.
@@prizmovr8817 I mean, it's not something I'd do (I think, who knows), but I choose to take it lightly or jokingly like with the comment cause it's not my life so who am I to judge or criticize
@@prizmovr8817you obviously didn’t watch the video lol
Is it unhealthy? People have made much longer media analysis videos on youtube. What’s the difference between making an analysis on something you love or hate when it comes to mental health? passion goes both ways
There is a MAAAASIVE difference between a puzzle with multiple solutions and puzzles with a skip button
portal vs "open-world physics sandbox" yeah
If Ganon hadn't cut Link's arm off, Rauru would have done the needful and dismembered him
Or he jsut gives Link a 3rd arm 😂
@@primesonic4459 I love and hate that mental image, thank you
To be fair, Zelda does witness Link getting his hand gloomed, so maybe she talked it out with Rauru and they set up the whole thing so it would help him in the future? Idk, that's the only plausible explaination
If Ganon hadn't cut Link's arm off, there wouldn't be a game, because either Ganon would've been defeated in the first 10 minutes or Link would've died. Remember, this is a Link who did all 120 Shrines in BOTW. Plus, Rauru could always give Link his Light Sage powers the same way the Champion's did in BOTW. He's a ghost, remember. He can just do that.
SAAAAR DO NOT REDEEEM THE TRIFORCE NOOO
I know I’m the only one who cares about this but why can’t Zelda games ever have an “epilogue” overworld? No story or quests needed, but ever since OOT I hate loading into my save file and being in an eternal state of about-to-fight-the-final-boss. The world is saved, SHOW ME!
Fun Fact: TOTK doesn't use the same engine as BOTW. Its actually a new engine that simply ported over existing assets. The new engine is used in a few other games too but TOTK does not reuse the BOTW engine contrary to popular belief
i meant the graphics engine, i know the physics are different
@@skittybitty the graphics engine is new too. Us in modding community is unsure if it’s an evolution of the lunchpack engine (BOTW) but they seem to have migrated all shaders and materials to a new rendering pipeline which is why some visual effects such as ambient occlusion in the grass and reflections work differently in Tears of the Kingdom. Very bizarre to us that they even changed to a new graphics engine. It’s the same one Splatoon 3 and Super Mario Bros Wonder uses.
@@EDMIRE programming stuff obviously isn’t my strong suit haha
@@EDMIRE Is it possible that this new engine (Along with COVID) is responsible for why TotK turned out the way it did unlike Majora's Mask? A new engine explains why the game took so long.
@@Acecard-jl2pyi mean maybe but that doesn’t explain why it’s so poorly written. the writers and programmers are different teams
My least favorite thing about both games is NO TRIFORCE. You know, the entire McGuffin that explains the existence of Hyrule in the first place?
They briefly acknowledge it in BotW and like ONCE with a throwaway line in TotK. Which somehow makes it worse IMO.
I think it's clear they're trying to establish a new mythos for the kingdom. I was a bit butthurt they quietly replaced Din, Nayru and Farore with a singular goddess but by now I'll just quietly accept whatever new arbitrary elements they decide to invent or bring back for whatever stories will come out. They will arbitrarily change things again after a few more games.
And rubbish music.
@@MAYOFORCE pretty sure this duology exists outside of the main series as it introduced a bootstrap paradox as its full plot
The fact that there is no shrine on shrine island just breaks me now that you point it out
I looked for a shrine there for over an hour before I realized there wasn't one 😅
Like- It's called SHRINE island, at least put one on it?????
....because there's a shrine on it in Breath of the Wild and it was called Shrine Island then as well.
genuinely who cares if "shrine island" has a shrine lmao thats such a non-issue. thats like being upset that "hyrule field" is called "central hyrule" despite the fact that it has hyrule field. it's just a name who cares it doesn't affect anything. the island of Cyprus is called that IRL because people used to get a lot of copper from there back in roman times, even though thats not what cyprus is famous for anymore. sometimes placenames stick for thousands of years just because thats what people have always called them. why would an island be called "shrine island", in botw if all the shrines just miraculously appear out of nowhere when you leave the shrine of resurrection? the island presumably had no shrine prior to that, yet is still called shrine island. Could be that the island has been called that since time immemorial and it was just by chance that a shrine appeared there in botw? these things can be easily explained with 20 seconds of critical thinking instead of just looking for nonsense to whine about
@@link3895 The fact that there WAS a shrine there in BOTW makes me even more upset. I was ready to find the same shrine again by solving some kind of puzzle. But no. It's just gone. And that made me sad.
They went to make breath of the wild 2 but ended up retconning the entirety of botw without at least actually committing to retconning botw
Me absorbing all the passionate “I didn’t like totk” videos because I feel the exact same way yet do not have the energy to put together a 3 hour video myself, condensing all of my points.
Same I didn’t like the game either which sucked. I’m getting validated :’D
I've done the exactly same thing haha. Every single video I've watched is so good too, because I keep going "UH HUH!!" and "YEAH RIGHT?!?" bc they keep saying the same exact things that annoy me with the game. 😂
It's time bois, our silence can remain no longer.
A friend of mine described this game as "uncanny valley breath of the wild". Truer words have never been spoken.
surprised you didn't have a section on how freakin' ugly 90% of the weapon fusions are. that shit bummed me out when i first saw it.
you’re so right it’s in the autisticut dw
@@skittybittywill there be a way to watch just the extra content from that cut or will it be integrated into the existing video?
@@ZiggyPalffyLA i will make it so that both are options
@@skittybitty awesome, thanks!
I know, right?
Nintendo could've either hid the fused bits like they do with the MasterSword and make them mystically glow with some Zonai glyphs...oooor go the extra length of making custom weapon models for each fuse instead of, imo rather lazily, sticking them to the end of whatever weapon.
The fuses may be somewhat ok-ish with shields, but some of the weapon fuses look outright hideous...like fusing the FierceDeity sword to the Biggoron Sword, which also clips through the floor when stored on your back. xD
First, I just want to say, for someone's very first video essay, this is fucking *phenomenal.* You should absolutely do more of these; you did a great job at writing and structuring it.
As for TotK itself, it's funny that you call it a "second draft," when to me it almost seems like this is the *first* draft, and BotW was the sequel. If you think about them in that order, it makes a shocking amount of sense.
- People didn’t like having to fuse each individual arrow, so now there are dedicated arrow types again.
- People didn’t like the goofy monster parts being the only way to upgrade weapons, so now weapons as a whole are stronger and more durable.
- People didn’t like the nameless bland ancestor spirits, so now each one has a ton of personality and has a personal connection to Link, Zelda, and their descendant. Completing a dungeon even has extra weight now, because you're avenging your comrades and defeating the creatures that killed them.
- People didn't like the copy/paste cutscenes that all give the same information, so now each one has character development for the ancient hero.
- People didn't like how bland the temples were and how they just kinda materialize out of nowhere, so now each one is a rad as fuck mecha kaiju that you get to partially control.
- People didn't like the way that Zelda didn't have much agency, so now her whole plotline is about her struggling with it.
- People didn't like the empty Depths, Sky Islands, and Shrines, so now the former two are removed entirely to focus on improving the content in the main map and having fewer empty shrines.
- People could break the game too easily with vertical movement options, so most were removed.
- People’s most commonly made creation was a motorcycle, so this time there's an honest-to-god motorcycle in the game that outclasses every other form of travel.
Like seriously, there's a bewildering amount of stuff that feels like it must have come first, because it's such an obvious step down from BotW.
And zelda’s pictures in botw makes more sense because you’d vaguely recognise the areas since you would’ve explored the area before, like geoguesser sort of
I really don't see how BOTW is like a sequel at all.
-Which removes arrow types and depth and variety of weapons, are you implying that BOTW would be the kind of sequel that waters stuff down?
-Except they really aren't stronger or more durable, no weapon in BOTW is as strong as the strongest weapon in TOTK especially with fuse, and frankly again especially with fuse they aren't more durable. People loved fuse it would make no sense to get rid of it. Also without fuse then getting weapons in chest wouldn't feel as rewarding anymore when they can't be used to craft stronger better weapons that would be even more useful for you.
-that kinda makes sense as a argument...except now it just feels like they replaced their descends in terms of screen time really. And completing a dungeon really doesn't have more weight as you still save people for defeating the bosses in the dungeons in TOTK too.
-Eh you get other cutscenes that have character development for the modern champions in TOTK too though. And not all of the cutscenes have the champions develop in BOTW to be fair mainly just Revali and Mipha really.
-Yeah no they are more bland in BOTW especially aesthetically and they really don't materialize out of nowhere they have reasons for being there. Said mecha kaiju cause the dungeons to have repetitive aesthetics though and with them all having the ability to partially control them leads to some more repetitive puzzles and some less variety of puzzles with a good amount of them just focusing on moving the divine beasts around. Are you sure making the dungeons worse is something BOTW would do as a sequel???
-I mean no she did have agency in TOTK and was doing her own thing and plan too.
- Eh those really weren't empty and a lot of people liked those even if there were complaints and your argument doesn't make any sense at all when the content is worse in the main map in BOTW and there isn't fewer empty shrines there is just less shrines (empty and full) period which really isn't an upgrade.
-Yeah not true vertical movement options doesn't break the game at all...even then BOTW could broken a LOT more so again what you say just doesn't make sense when you actually stop to think about it.
-Hoverbike not motorcycle and you only get the motorcycle REALLY late into the game like arguably a bit too late really unlike the Hoverbike which is clearly superior and if BOTW is the sequel then the only reason the motorcycle is the best travel option is because they got rid the better travel options. So once again not a good argument for BOTW being a sequel or at least clearly not a good sequel.
I disagree nothing really felt like it came first tbh., eh nah TOTK is better tbh and that's not even mentioning stuff like the bosses and comapring them between games since TOTK took the criticism of the bosses in BOTW and actually gave them unique interesting designs and made them all more unique really.
@@Jdudec367it's not litterally, I disagree but I understand what he's saying
@@timohara7717 Ok I still diagree though tbh.
@@Jdudec367 fair
This video was somewhat therapeutic. I got round to playing this game recently. I put it off cos I was concerned I wouldn't like it...and I didn't.
Granted I haven't played nearly as long as you but, I really really did not enjoy this game. I'd go as far to say it's my personal least favourite Zelda game.
I think the biggest disservice this game does it make the open world Zelda formula seem tired and played out, two games in. Playing this game made me nostalgic for the classic formula. I'd argue what made BOTW work was the sense of wonder. This game was doomed as soon as they decided to re-use the same Hyrule imo. I was hopeful Nintendo would pull it off but, it really did not change the game enough.
I felt so sad and empty inside playing this game. It was hard to come to terms with cos I really do love Zelda and it was bizarre having to force myself to play . I'm still hopeful for the next 3d Zelda but, they really really need to focus on making the next game feel fresh and distinct.
thanks for watching!!!
I dunno if I can QUITE say TotK is my least favorite Zelda (Skyward Sword exists), but it's certainly second-place at the very least. It's EASILY my most disappointing Zelda game, probably even one of my all-time biggest gaming disappointments.
@@maliciousbugman SS was my least favourite prior but, at least it has it's own identity and it's unique. I appreciate it for offering it's own experience.
Skyward Sword marked the downfall of the Zelda series imo and the series has stagnated and become mid-tier ever since. Eiji Aonuma switching roles from director to producer really affected the quality of the games that followed Twilight Princess. I also think it's the reason it's the last actual GREAT Zelda game; it was the last game Aonuma actually directed. I don't think he makes for a good producer, going by most Zelda games post-TP being mediocre.
There's also one single person to blame for all modern 3D Zelda mediocrity: Hidemaro Fujibayashi, the guy who directed Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom. He doesn't seem to get what makes Zelda games...well, ZELDA. I think all three range from either bad (TotK), mediocre/bad (SS), or just fine at best (BotW).
I know it's a hot take to think BotW is just "okay", but I would take any traditional 3D Zelda game over it ANY day (except for SS lol).
@@SuperSweatyPocari skyward sword is fantastic though, as are the oracle games which were also directed by fujibayashi. botw was an overcorrection in response to skyward sword, and they have yet to really internalize what worked there and synthesize it with the exploration based gameplay of the open air titles
Honestly i am a huge fan of TOTK and rnjoy playing it and will probably not enjoy watching this. BUT, i will commend you because this clearly had a lot of love and work put into it. And i appreciate how people who hated the game will feel heard when watching this video. This doesn't feel like some unfair hitpiece. It doesn't feel like someone who played for two hours and concluded that it was bad. This feels like someone putting in the time and effort to see why they hated it and explain their points in a good manner. Maybe one day i'll watch it but for now, i offer my respect to you. May future Zelda games fit your tastes much better.
Another Issue about the story regarding link's utter lack of emotion. A huge part of the main story in BOTW is that link has been trained to not show emotion and how being resurrected is helping him heal and be an actual person. I could be reading into that too much but it truly feels like that. So the fact that they had link display LESS emotion than when he was LITERALLY RESURRECTED WITH NIGH COMPLETE AMNESIA It truly makes me wonder if they even cared about making a sequel at all or if they just wanted to make a game to fuck around with the engine.
Especially link not even giving the slightest reaction to zelda turning into a dragon. Like bruh. he doesn't even need to say anything, just show his expression. Skyward sword did it perfectly when zelda seals herself in the temple
They just saw botw sold really well and decided to replicate it's success in a very uncreative way 😕
I mean he has some emotion, I don't see the issue really. How does he have less emotion? And I mean...being resurrected even after that as a Knight he doesn't show a lot of emotion publicly. They did care about making a sequel clearly otherwise the story wouldn't be about a follow up to the events of BOTW.
@@LilacMonarch I mean he did care. He didn't have the biggest reaction at first but we did see a reaction and after everything is over you can see how reliefed he is really.
@@thirdwheel9938 Nah they made a follow up with the story and it was something.
3 hours of listening to Fiona from adventure time complain about tears of the kingdom. I love it
oh she’s the va? Learn something new everyday
@@KyeXGamernope it’s not me haha they’re making a joke
@@MacenW wrong. skitty.
@@edgehead2695 BASED skittygender
@@skittybitty 🤝
link's (non) reaction to zelda turning into a dragon made me wanna throw away my switch 💀
😂😅😅
Yeah it's absolutely baffling how Link is so expressive when cooking and eating... but when it's about his supposed GF he's less expressive than a rock.
For goodness sake, Nintendo could've made him yell "Zelda!" out loud during the final skydive...but no.
@@avon_c6199 exactly, like botw link could get away with the lack of emotion cuz of the amnesia but there is absolutely no excuse for this game, ESPECIALLY when we learn at the end that link canonically loves zelda but apparently couldn't give a shit that she's now an immortal dragon ???
@@jmurray7721 How far off base would I be to assume that we didn't get any of that in terms of showing actual affection and love the way us westerners understand it, cause the japanese might have an issue with showing it that publicly so they didn't do it for their own sake?
@@avon_c6199 honestly all i wanted was for link to shed a tear or at least look a little upset instead of a blank slate. i remember the look of distraught he had in skyward sword which was done infinitely better than totk
“Buckle your fuckle” and “It’s primetime for Shrine time” are now in my regular vernacular.
THANK YOU FOR POINTING OUT THE NEWSPAPER. Since it exists, there is ZERO reason why Link wouldn’t be known by every face in Hyrule.
And penn, a rito who literally works for the newspaper, doesn’t know who link is…
I mean he's known but not every one knows what he looks like that would involve him being in pictures
The newspaper is a new addition to TotK. It wasn’t established in BotW- and I mean that literally- it didn’t exist. The newspaper had only just recently become a normal thing for the lives of the Hyruleans, so it’s not at all a stretch that some people wouldn’t have it as part of their daily routine yet.
Plus on top of those points, Link in BotW/TotK isn’t a showboat; he’s very reserved and only cares about Zelda and her duties. The people know that Zelda has a personal knight, but Link doesn’t put his face out there because he doesn’t have anything to prove to others. The newspaper stall owner herself didn’t even recognize Link right away (I’ll admit my memory on that may be spotty).
The only people who recognize Link are those who are closest to him and Zelda. He’s not a celebrity; he doesn’t want to be. He only wants to be with Zelda and protect her.
Now, if there’s another sequel and the people still don’t recognize him then I’d call bs. Surely at that point they’d have a picture of Link in the newspaper considering he worked FOR the newspaper. But photography is still a relatively new technology in this Hyrule, and it’s not publicly available either.
@@CosmicTornado1 you can see at least one person at every stable reading the newspaper, also a lot of link’s interactions with npcs will beg to differ from your theory
@@CosmicTornado1 Exactly I agree with you completely there.
NO SHRINE ON SHRINE ISLAND
Its ridiculous. Did you know the game costs 70 dollars xD
you mean eventide island? im pretty sure there is one in the pirate's hideout on the back of the island in a cave.
I wanted to upvote, but the number...
@@LentelSoupthe one with no pirates?😂
I agree with you. Something that itched me is that the new lore conflicts with ITSELF, not just breath of the wild. We’re told multiple times that the Zonai lived in the sky, that those games were played by the Zonai, and all that. And yet, the memories show no sky islands? And the Temple of Time construct tells you that the islands were lifted up by the Zonai long ago to help link when he wakes up. SO WHICH IS IT?
I took this to mean that the Zonai lived in the sky AFTER the islands were raised, but this raises so many conflicts and questions. So the Zonai sacrificed their entire way of life just for link thousands of years later? Ok, fine. So the Zonai society we explore in the present ISN’T the one seen in the memories. That’s disappointing but whatever. So I assumed that the Zonai we see is in the memories are early Zonai civilization. BUT THEN RAURU IN ONE OF THE MEMORIES TALKS ABOUT ANCIENT ZONAI CIVILIZATION AND HIS ANCESTORS? WTF.
And yeah where IS all the sheikah tech from Botw? AND WHY CANT I TELL ANYONE THAT ZELDA IS A PUPPET DESPITE SEEING THAT IN THE MEMORY.
And then - if the latter interpretation is correct, how is that possible if Rauru and Mineru are the only Zonai left? Where are the sky islands???
I dunno what makes you think they were lifted up to help Link but if the Temple of TIme was on the ground then this is before they made the Sky Islands. So with that fact in mind I don't see how that's a contradiction, it's just a earlier part of their timeline.
I don't know how they did it just for link specifically, they did it for their own way of life. Technically it is the same society. Well from what we know Rauru is one of the founders of Hyrule itself, this means that if he has ancestors who were part of said Zonai civilization the Zonai civlization itself predates Hyrule which makes it even more ancient.
Shiekah tech is somewhat here, a lot is gone though, and the answer varies. Guardian stuff was cleaned up and the divine beasts are inactive now and weren't really needed. I would argue that with Puppet Zelda you don't really know everything about that yet until Hyrule Castle where it's all explained and revealed more.
@@aiworldfutures Technically there is three Zonai at first, if again they go to the sky islands after the memories then there are clearly other Zonai they just didn't show themselves and we know they also built mines and did other stuff too.
@@Jdudec367 Have you completed the temple of time challenge at the top of the building? The construct explicitly tells you this
@@aiworldfutures That all the islands were raised to help link? No I haven't yet.
This video does such an insanely good job at putting all of my frustrations with ToTK into words. I've been putting it on every time I eat and I'll be finished with it in approximately 7 more lunch breaks. Great job!
- made about a minute worth of videos
- returns year later
- 3 hour essay on why TotK sucks ass
- gigachad theme intensifies
Autism. Sadly.
@@user-zx1ur
Autism is Chad when used Right
@@user-zx1ur more like happily, i'm eating this up
@@user-zx1ur many such cases!
@@user-zx1urautism is when someone doesn’t like overhyped trash
My least favourite thing about Tears of the Kingdom is that it just isn’t saying as much as the other Zelda titles. Ocarina of Time is about aging and explores that theme through its time-travelling mechanics. Majora’s Mask explores existential dread and death through the moon and time management mechanics. What made Breath of the Wid so captivating to me was what the world meant - that, even after the apocalypse, the world will never really end, just be retaken by nature, an endless cycle of life. Tears of the Kingdom’s world just doesn’t feel like it has that thematic layer which made the other games so engaging, it’s world doesn’t really say anything and neither do it’s mechanics.
Windwaker give me that too (more than botw). The whole kingdom is under the ocean and these people are just living their lives on the scarce land available.
And it was really close to saying something about connection and helping each other but never fully accomplished this theme
I disagree it says something and is about bonds and how they truly build a kingdom and are what matters, it's multiple people who help build Hyrule in the game after all and it's bonds that help out both Link and Zelda in the past and the present and how even when there are people that are gone those bonds and connections are still there, hell with Rauru Link is even able to bond objects together too so that bond literally ties in to the gameplay mechanics too. I disagree it has that thematic layer which made the other games so engaging, it's world does say something and so do it's mechanics which also say what the Zonai were truly capable of.
@@kingbaba1309 I mean it does accomplish it tbh.
@@Jdudec367 I guess there are elements of that but they aren’t the crux of the gameplay, unlike the unique mechanics in both Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask respectively, and those ideas just feel extremely under-developed.
One other nitpick I had that is so small and minor compared to the COPIOUS other problems this game has, is the term Secret Stone. It sounds silly to me, like something a kid would make up for a game of pretend or something. You know what would sound better and keep the vibes? Sacred Stone. I could probably think of a dozen more, but that's just the first thing that came to mind every time without fail.
i believe it’s a localization thing. secret stones are a common fantasy thing in japan iirc, the translators just really dropped the ball
This game is cringe encanated, there were moments in this game I straigh up wanted to cry out of cringe like when the whole gang comes to Hyrule castle and face phantom Ganon and Ganondorf speaks like he was a badie from a Christmas movie from the early 2010, or when the gang speaks together after that and it’s so freaking family film behav or when Ganondorf says “how can a kid defeat me”. ☠️ it doesn’t even look like a Zelda game at some points
@@skittybitty The localizers directly translated it from the Japanese word, 秘石 (hiseki); 秘 meaning "secret" or "hidden", and 石 meaning "stone" or "rock".
@@Kruegernator123 well yes, i knew that haha, im fluent in japanese
@@ZellyTheFangirl *don’t tell anybody about my stone, link. It’s a secret. That’s why I wear it on my neck, wrist, hand or other easily seen body part*
As a lover of classic Zelda, BotW didn't endear itself to me like it did for a lot of other people, so regardless of how awesome the trailers made it look and the promise of actual dungeons I decided to skip on TotK which just seemed like on paper would be a glorified expansion that would end up costing _more_ than the original.
Even saying that, I'm still mad at how much of mess TotK turned out to be based on this video. It took six years for this? Really?
I keep pounding at the gates of nintendo HQ asking for a ganon who wants power to end the reincarnation curse that hes been driven to madness by but they keep ignoring me
also: putting on my Corporate Thinking Conspiracy Hat, i think this IS an unfinished game unfortunately. Nintendo would have continously justify its development on things like story, continuity, and with 6 years gone by already I think the shareholders were like "Well we need Product so out it goes!"
I think botw had so much love put into partly because it was the switch's flagship game, and to the Investor/Stock Shareholder Overlords, the investment by the devs was justified by a greater profit (new game system, amiibos, dlc, merch, etc) which is why a shitty sequel thats running solely on the clout of the first game is a tale as old as time
@@kennapinkponyclub It's a very unflattering (but not undeserved) epitaph for Tears of the Kingdom: they managed to make a direct sequel that took *_six_* years to make, with mass world/asset reuse, feel rushed.
i hate to be a complete 🤓 but...
Ganondorf has only ever reincarnated one actual time in the series lmao, the one in 4 Swords Adventures is the only Ganon that outright said to be a reincarnation, every other ver is just the same guy from OoT or him being revived from the dead
Theres no way for ganon to know about the cycle of reincarnation though, the only ones to know about it are SS link and maybe SS Zelda
Glad to find another redeem ganondorf enjoyer may we one day have our day
The arguments that all shrines should be easy because they can be encountered in any order it absolutely stupid imo. When I played BOTW one of my first 10 shrines was one of the "major test of strength" shrines (it was the one on an island on the bottom right of the map that gives you the climbing gear). It took me hours to beat because I had very low level equipment and wasn't familiar with the games combat system and forced me to think creatively with my strategy (using all my weapons, arrows and buffing myself with dishes). Because of this, it ended up being one of my most memorable gaming moments of all time and one which I still remember fondly to this day, not in spite of its difficulty but because of it.
people like to have challenges!
Also like, if you run into something that's too challenging aren't you supposed to leave and come back later? Isn't that the entire point of it being open-world so that you can choose what to do and when you do it?
@@nicke5801 also it is quite literally called: “MAJOR test of strength”
lol i had that experience somewhat myself😂😂
Ok I already commented here but I had to come back to show my appreciation for all the hard work you put into this video by sharing my favorite parts:
-The “getting back with my ex was only the second worst sequel”
- Editing the “secret stone??? Demon king???” Clips back to back
-Playing the guardian piano theme which blew any argument about “which was more scary: the hands or the leggy bois” out of the water
-The “duh” enunciation on obviously evil “Zelda”
-Calling the Purah Pad “Zelda’s iPhone”
-The emoji on “I want to smash the demon king”
-Adding GameGrumps clips
-Making the distinction between a “world in a video game” and “a video game world”
-A SHRINE SPREADSHEET?!?!? All the research you did for the shrine section really
-“Link, this edible ain’t shi-“
-“Link is not a character. He just looks sexy and gender”
-“Tells her that the batteries in her wii mote are nearly depleted”
-Pointing out how stupid Ganondorf’s meme face is
-The constant reiteration of TOTK being $70
-Putting relevant quotes up on the screen (holy research batman)
-Pointing out how since Rauru’s arm is relevant to literally EVERY MECHANIC IN THE GAME, it’s basically luck (aka lazy writing) that Link lost his arm in the first place
-Whipping out the Japanese translation to point out how malice “grudge” makes more sense than the randomass change to gloom
-Calling Skyward Sword’s Slumbering Zelda her “resin project”
-Always taking the time to appreciate TOTK’s godly soundtrack
-Pointing out how TOTK Zelda suddenly doesn’t nerd out anymore in the memories
-Pointing out how lame it is that Link just magically gets his arm restored
-“Mysterious voice #957”
-PUTTING THE SONGS THAT YOU USED IN THE BOTTOM LEFT AND DESCRIPTION SO WE KNOW WHAT THEY ARE
-Calling out the awful UI when trying to fuse or drop or throw anything
-Taking the time to explain details to those that may not have played TOTK
-Suggesting that a button be added to “equip set” if you have all the armor pieces (why is that not in the base game)
-“The writers peace-ing out after they finished totk’s story in one afternoon”
-“The things we love about TOTK don’t come from the game, they come from us” (what a LINE)
-“Hell hath no fury like a Zelda fan scorned” (real)
All this to say, fuckin superb. May you get everything you ever want in life
omg this is my favorite comment i’ve received so far i think. it makes me so happy when people notice all the little details and stuff i put in hahaha ❤
The “this edible ain’t sh-“ actually made me audibly laugh
Headcanon: Link didn't even lose his arm to Ganondorf. It was injured, discolored, but would have been ok.
Rauru just took it, so he could give Link his to make him powerful.
The Game Grumps clips are always appreciated 😂
I disagree about Link's arm getting restored. It was still freaking me the fuck out after hours and hours of this game that I'm running around with another dude's arm. The way how it was restored sucked, though.
From the first time that I booted up TOTK, I knew that it was *just* a BOTW sequel. The game felt unfinished and weirdly empty, despite how overstimulating it was. I struggled with properly wording these thoughts, so I thought that I just didn’t “get it.”
This video was so validating and made me feel like I wasn’t the odd one out for thinking that TOTK wasn’t anywhere near as good as BOTW. You killed this video, I sat through the whole thing and was engaged the entire time.
Fun fact: in the Japanese version of the game, Ganondorf is actually a bit more explicit about what happened to the Zonai civilization. He uses the term "horobu", which roughly translates to "to perish" or "to be annihilated" (the character 滅 means "destruction"), and even offers his condolences. This pretty much confirms that the Zonai went extinct, and even implies that they were killed en masse in some sort of cataclysmic event, which makes it all the more frustrating that the English translation left it ambiguous.
FANTASTIC video essay, by the way. I thought something was wrong with me because I wanted to stop playing only 50 hours into TotK, and you nailed pretty much everything that bothered me about it. I'm really glad to know that I'm not alone in this. Ah well...all I can hope for now is that Echoes of Wisdom will be able to bridge the gap between traditional and modern Zelda and give the wise Princess of Hyrule the solo game she deserves. :)
Yea let's hope; I just have to wait for the gameplay reviews of Echoes of Wisdom to come out first before I buy. I learned my lesson with TOTK to never pre-order anything anymore, no matter how good the trailer makes it seem.
Yeah.... it won't
Wow, knowing that....! Doesn't actually improve the narrative... Like... At all.
Sorry, but it's still quite ambigous. I know it's tempting to blame the English translation after the blunders of BotW, but you are basically reading too much into the Japanese text here. It's still just as poorly written in Japanese.
@@XanderVJ How? It gives more insight into what happened. The same thing happened happened with BOTW's narrative where the original Japanese one gives more insight into Link's thoughts which was lost in translation.
@@XanderVJ, it's not 'reading too much into', it's just... reading.
"Since we're all gonna die, there's one more secret I feel I have to share with you: I did not care for Tears of the Kingdom."
- "What? how can you even say that?"
"Didn't like it."
- "But skitty it's so good! It's like the perfect Breath of the Wild!"
"This is what everyone always said. Whenever they say it's like: *Oh my-"*
- "Eiji Aonuma, Hidemaro Fujibayashi, I mean, that guy worked on Skyward Sw-"
"I know, I know."
- "MANAKA KATAOKA!!!"
"Fine. Fine. Fine composer, _did not like the game."_
☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️
Out of all the amazingly funny/informative comments on this video, mine was the last I expected to be pinned 💀
@@shame2189i rotate the pinned pretty regularly. this one took me out though
It *insists* upon itself!
@@LenamLorbington I'm kind of dissapointed the "it insists upon itself" part wouldn't have worked as well as the start, because TOTK really does insist upon itself. So much so it invalidates BOTW
You can feel that it's a DLC idea that got too out of hand, as that's core to most of its problems of having no identity and no soul behind it. I personally don't think this format is sustainable, either. I'm hoping they'll return to focusing on focused design instead of grandeur, but I'm not holding my breath.
I don't see that, it's like the third Nintendo sequel that reuses assets that was originally dlc/expansion. Same with it supposedly not having a identity or soul, I mean it's identify is as Botw's sequel with the Zonai and stuff in it.
With the head honcho of Zelda questioning on why people like the past design and basically saying that the open air style is better, I don’t think they see worth in returning to the old format, I think that Botw is a soft remake of the first Zelda and it fitted for it to be open world like the original Zelda, but TotK has a problem of being undercooked and over ambitious and because of the Mario like type of the design they put on the cooking it made a mess in so many ways, they sould’ve made a focus on storytelling instead of making a tech demo (in my opinion), man it was weird when the third memory I saw was of Sonia’s death, also I wish there was a character to Ganondweeb, also why does he look like an Samurai? It’s like a random ass Samurai got lost in the middle of the desert for no reason, there is Zero precedent for why Ganondweeb is a Samurai, is he Otacon from MGS and watches anime? Did he think that a sword that barely uses any metal was optimal? Did he made some designs for clothes and decided on using them? Why does everyone on hyrule in the past use robes, robes and more robes? Is that a cultural thing? Why is it still medieval time hundreds of thousands of years ago? Like it may look asteca but the asteca were really recent in human history, so why doesn’t it feel like there was any progression from TotK’s past to Botw’s or TotK’s present? Did the writers have an impossible task and hastely made a skeleton story with nothing but space instead of interesting stuff?
Well, this game sold super well. And the devs see no reason to go back to the normal Zelda formula....
So... yeah, don't hold your breath...
...
OF THE WILD! Waka waka!
@@justanothershrimp1908 The Zelda devs have a tendency to overcorrect over backlash. The backlash to Wind Waker's cartoony cel-shaded art style lead them them cancelling Wind Waker 2 and created the grittiest, dullest color palette Zelda game in Twilight Princess. The backlash to Twilight Princess using waggle controls and being too dark lead to Skyward Sword bringing back the cel-shading and using proper motion control sword combat. The backlash to Skyward Sword being too motion control and linear lead to Breath of the Wild being completely open world with only motion control for aiming bow and arrows. The backlash to BotW bad dungeons and weapon durability lead to TotK attempting to have better dungeon designs and creating fuse to address weapon durability. And now, the backlash for TotK is mainly focused on dungeons still being bad and the story being disappointing. The next game will probably overcorrect again and their solution is the entire game is just a big dungeon and every character will be voiced and never shuts up.
@@ShallBePurifiedThat would be the funniest shit ever
Software dev here-whenever folks bring up the “year of polish”, and I then consider that there are zero staff writers credited for TOTK’, I’m forced to conclude that said year was much more likely spent adding the (reduced quality & quantity) “side quests” and the other various copy paste content scattered throughout the map.
I’ve watched the team‘s GDC ‘23 talk, and while what they managed to accomplish in a mechanical sense required nothing less than truly exceptional engineering (and all running on what’s essentially a homebrewed NVIDIA SHIELD on TOP of that!). However, based on their talk, it’s clear that they weren’t fixing issues with implementation during that final year-but that initial implementation & debugging did demand the absolute lion’s share of development effort before that extra year (they had to convert EVERY OBJECT / PROP into a physics object hoLY FUCKBALLS [but as a dev holy shit what poor project planning why would you ever move forward if that’s what would be needed]).
Like, it feels like they plugged in the main story and then went, “oh shit this thing is way too empty” and begged for another year so they wouldn’t get ripped to shreds. And then execs went “okay but we’re charging $70 now”
When I first saw that Ascend was originally a debugging tool they used while making the caves that was added in as an ability, a legit pit formed in my stomach. It’s cool, sure, but if you’re digging through your dev tools for “variety in gameplay”, that strikes me as extremely slapdash and/or nonexistent guidance for overall design.
Me at like 10:00 pm: “yeah let’s find something to fall asleep to.”
Me at 1:28 AM, completely engrossed in this critique: “mmm I didn’t fall asleep but that was awesome.”
I agree with so much of what you’re saying and even in your ‘nitpicking or biases’ (which I’m glad you use to INFORM your opinion making rather than trying to create some ‘objective’ distance), you demonstrate an internal consistency to YOUR voice and your passion for the Zelda series as a whole, especially the modern Zelda format, shines through so brightly.
Great video. I will be sleep deprived tomorrow but it was totally worth it and dropping a subscription.
omg haha go to bed! thanks so much for watching
Nitpicks are just what people who disagree with you call your examples. Nitpicks are usually separate issues that add up to a big issue.
They gut any and all interesting lore or questions the player may have by making the answer to every question be "The Zonai did it"
idk not really, the zonai didnt do that much. The constructs?? Most of the ancient stuff was built by Hylians following the imprisoning war, even the sky islands
@@EileenLorekeeperAh, the imprisoning war, what a way to retcon the timeline with using some ALTTP had.
It could have taken place after the timelines came back together..? But honestly, eh.
And of course, “Demon king? Secret Stone?”
“Second floor basement? Psycho mantis?”
And it's extra annoying cuz they had an ancient robot-building sky people race in the backstory of Skyward Sword all primed and ready to go.. but apparently the Zonai are an entirely different ancient sky tribe with highly advanced technology that mined special ore in pre-history?
It really feels like they wanted to just make people stop caring about continuity and timelines. I'd have been much more interested in Tears' lore if it turned out Hylia wasn't a true goddess, but a Zonai time sage, perhaps the original Zonai.
@@LocalizedBozo I mean, how could we expect timelines to mend? Once you break reality into pieces, those pieces gain their own identity and can’t be repaired. BOTW and TOTK are so far into the future, it could just be that the Zonai just established another Kingdom of Hyrule after the Great Sea receded.
No not every question.
Age of Calamity is worth checking out, definitely does more with its supporting cast. I mean, fuck, it managed to make me emotional about *Master Kohga*
Sooga is a better written character than anyone in totk, which is a low bar.
@@micahbarrus8406 Wait what happened to Sooga? I don't know if they wrapped his character up, I think he's playable in the dlc but I never got that yet.
@@Jdudec367 he's essentially the 2nd hand man to kohga as a twin windblade user. He's tough, he's cool, and he's protective enough of his master to sacrifice himself to protect him after Astor betrays then.
Kohga was the GOAT in Age of Calamity. Seriously they made him have a FREAKING CHARACHTER ARC
@@micahbarrus8406 I know but dang...so he really did die huh? : (
@2:14:06 this is arguably more damning since the fact they won't let you take rockets out during shrines means they knew that using rockets to circumvent puzzle solving was an issue and just didn't put work into actually preventing you from doing this, instead they decided on arbitrarily and conspicuously taking a basic mechanic away from you
56:02 I don’t know if anyone’s mentioned it, but here’s my thoughts.
BOTW is infamous for reusing content/assets whenever possible to save time. The reason petting dogs wasn’t included is because the developers thought they wouldn’t be able to reuse the animations/mechanic anywhere else.
The reason why the bosses erupt into malice instead of gloom when defeated is probably because the stock animations already were colored for Malice, and they didn’t want to spend time retexturing it.
people have said this and it’s a little embarrassing that i hadn’t even considered that it was just asset flipping
@@skittybitty It should be embarrassing for the Zelda Team for being so lazy.
Why'd you have to remind me we can't pet dogs in this game? 😭
The ONE THING everybody was begging for in Breath of the Wild and one of the very first things I tried when I got to a Stable in Tears and Nintendo couldn't be arsed to let us pet. the. fucking. *dogs.* 🙃
@@sfrert2759 Minor asset flips like that are fine but this game is still very lazy in other areas. I personally don't consider boss explosion animations to be particularly deal-breaking.
@@tbnwontpop8857 But using the same world without doing real changes to make it worth it almost 80$ dollars here in Mexico is deal-breaking.
Wow this plush toy certainly has some articulate opinions
@@mandarinsandclementines2997 500th like on this comment W but also im not that type of person
Finally, the last of the anceint civilized minecraftians are expanding their reach
@@timohara7717 what do you mean?
Personally I like the game of course people can have a opinions will I say theirs problems in tears yes but I feel like they for the most part added more to better explain yes they added more things people hated but they also added thing people like which it was the same with breath it was pretty much equal I also feel like the game isn’t supposed to be flashy per say when it comes to auto build and ultra hand they left that up to people to make it flashy I recently got the game so I’m still on my first run the hover bike is convenient for me yes but I barely use it for a multiple reasons I really only use it to help get more zoni for more battery’s which in turn would allow me to mess around and build stupid things like a army of roombas that can function for more than 2 seconds I loved the Rito area but every other temple and boss can suck it I think what made it special was it was my first temple music amazing low heart and I was freezing constantly I didn’t have the right armor so it was all about being smart about how I moved I’m rambling now but I’m trying to prove a point yes it did a lot wrong but it did a lot right…..
EXCEPT THAT STUPID 60 SEC RUN TIME FOR THE WING IF I COULD FIX ONE THING IN THIS GAME IT WOULD BE GETTING RID OF THE STUPID TIMER ON ZONI STUFF IT MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL
Is just the infamous Zelda cycle all over again. My older brother lived through the hate of majora, wind waker, twilight. And now they are considered masterpieces. At the end is just opinions
To be fair "I'd like to smash the Demon King" was pretty funny
Undoubtedly the best thing that came out of the game.
i mean i would too
I want to too
I did, but ran out of stamina.
@@rowantic6539 what a glorious opportunity! Go get more spirit orbs!
I was born in jank. One of my first games was Virtual Hydlide on Sega Saturn. None of the 3D Sonic's jank in the games I've played really bothered me (so all of the existing ones except Colours Ultimate).
TOTK's jank in the UI, Fuse and especially Ultrahand is in a league of its own. Never have I encountered such obnoxious frustration in a video game. Seriously, if we're going to point at 3D Sonic for minor failings from +20 years ago despite how unique its platforming was, HOW IS THIS BARELY FUNCTIONING BUILDING CRAP ACCEPTABLE? AND EVERYTHING BREAKS LIKE IT'S BEEN PUT TOGETHER WITH DUCT TAPE AND HAPPY THOUGHTS.
Plus as you put it, there's just way too much junk in this game, I absolutely hate how padded out current games can be that a 30 minutes to an hour session can feel like you've done nothing of value. Despite having played only about 8-10h before giving up, seeing how the sidequests & shrines rewards got worse makes me feel like I dodged the bullet.
It's gonna sound hyperbolic, but those jank issues coupled with how it's just BOTW Electric Boogaloo makes it the least fun Zelda for me, and the unofficial CD-I Remasters of Wand of Gamelon & Faces of Evil are on that list. At least they're brisk & fun(ny) experiences.
from a developing standpoint, Ultrahand is actually well put out, it's actually surprising the team managed to make it work that well
2:47:25 Since I agree so much with the larger video I'll just nitpick and say that I actually think this face is unironically creepy and its inclusion furthers the scene, having Ganondorf make this distorted, inhuman expression of pure JOY at seeing Zelda grieve the person he just killed was intended to be horrifying and the developers just didn't account for the internet's enjoyment of G-mod-esque distorted faces like that
i actually experienced that on my first watch. i found it pretty disturbing too. but once i saw everyone else’s reaction to it i was like “oh…it’s just meme fodder”
Ganondorf was not confirmed to know what eating the Secret Stone would DO, as far as I remember, so my conclusion is that he just had a moment like that boy who got mad at his Gameboy and just yanked out the batteries and ate them in impotent rage.
This story inspires no respect sufficient to achieve a more dignified interpretation, and so this is what I give.
not to argue with you or anything because i do agree with you on him not knowing that, and me completing the game yesterday was so confused when that part of the cutscene happened
but why on earth would he instinctively swallow the secret stone
@@Jerome984 Not for any RATIONAL reason, certainly. 😂 The story that I mentioned in comparison -- about that child who ate batteries out of their Gameboy -- sounds to me like an instance of a wee babe with less practice in regulating their emotions facing intensely frustrating circumstances that enrage them, but that they have no power to change. They just feel the rage, and that pushes them to do SOMETHING, even if it doesn't make sense as a solution. The child in the example was upset because his console cut off in the middle of a long and challenging bit of a game, I think. See also that teenager who went viral for seeming to try to push a remote control into his bum while losing his temper on camera.
That's Ganondorf. Some androgynous ephebe -- much foreshadowed, but never properly met -- drops into his chambers (possibly with a squadron of orbiters) and renders all of his extensive preparations void in minutes. He summons reinforcements, but suddenly the room explodes several times in rapid succession. He goes in for close combat, but this twink is a slippery one. Even when he does manage to land a blow, the bottomless bottom just swallows a whole mutton flank from hammerspace and continues undeterred. He tries everything that he's ever considered and then some. Nothing works. This is happening. His rage SHOULD empower him, but his every effort and innovation is fruitless... So the Last King of the Gerudo, having no prior experience with being told a firm "No" by anyone and under immense pressure with nary a hint of leverage to grasp... eats his Gameboy batteries. And his mom has to rush him to the hospital.
Source for "Batteries" story:
THATS LITERALLY WHAT I WAS THINKING ABOUT
The story of the chamberlain mentioned how she often saw Zelda wandering through the palace, but that something felt off about her. The implication here is that Ganondorf was doing some reconnaissance at night, to not just spy on the royal family, but also learn more about the secret stones.
This is something that Calamity Ganon did as well. He had these malice eyes all over the world to gather informations. This is presumably also how he made himself familiar with how Sheikah Tech works, since he was using that knowledge in an attempt to recreate a body with their technology.
There's also the general fact that Ganondorf is just a lot better at using the Secret Stones in general. He was a very skilled magic use before getting it, which is why he received such a tremendous boost from it, compared to everyone else. This natural aptitude makes it pretty likely that he could've been instinctively been aware of the ability to become even more powerful if he ingests the stone. It's similar to how Zelda was immediately aware of how to use her powers against Calamity Ganon, after she unlocked them.
You want classic zelda dungeons, eh? How about… 142 caves?
And the funniest part is that all of those caves get outdone by the DS Zelda Games… Not to bash those great games, they have actual puzzles.
You might already know this, but I also feel like it's worth mentioning that zero in-house writers are mentioned in the game's credits. The only credited writer is a company called Qualia Writers, apparently best known for their work on smartphone games. I'm pretty sure this is why the writing in the game is so subpar compared to even BOTW (which wasn't my favourite LOZ story to begin with).
This video could net you more than 70 dollars in ad revenue, so in a way you got your money back!
but not the hundreds of hours of each of our lives wasted playing this really bad game.....
@@iamLI3it’s not bad necessarily it just depends on what people think about it while the game will get mindlessly boring after awhile it’s still fun in the beginning to end (again depending on the person)
@@draggonwarrior42 hard disagree
@@draggonwarrior42 i was bored after doing the main story line for a bit after i got all the shrines, but i then i discovered C R E A T I N G M A C H I N E S O F D E A T H
@viganhoxha8814 your reply got shadowbanned , but i am not counted among those of us i speak of in my comment in full , for i recognized by the time i got to the first wind temple that tokt was bad , so i rushed to beat it from there , in total only wasting about 40 hours of my own life....
My red flag is - I love listening to people passionately complain for hours on end.
Especially when it's about smth I know nothing about
I feel like the passion that drives people to talk about how sorely disappointed they were in something makes the best long form videos
This is now the definitive ToTK critique . Writing, editing, takes, all 10/10. Absolutely blown away.
Also making your mom the delcatty plush was an adorable touch.
I agree. If you played BOTW, I don’t know how you can’t be disappointed with TOTK. There is way too much recycling of content. 7 years for this? And the story and acting is such garbage. They can and should do better next time. If the next Zelda is set in this same Hyrule it’ll be the first Zelda game I don’t play.
I think you actually missed the most criminal part of the game and I don't blame you because it was a side quest. But the whole "pirates" thing. I went around the world and they talked about pirates. I was freaking hyped thinking are we gonna fight other Hyleans?! Shit sounded so cool. It gave me Wind Waker wonder. But when you go there it's just fucking Bokoblins. Which not only is depressing in itself but also not even believable as a cop out because they do not even have the IQ to be pirates
I was thinking the same thing! How did they build ships? They seem confused by random fish being thrown at them. I get them taming horses maybe stealing carts but building ships? Sailing the sea? Would have been better to have actual Hyliens. Maybe they could be angry that their queen isn't doing anything or rebuilding. They see weak people living in ruins, ripe for some good ole piracy. I mean some people have rupees and gems and weapons. Why wouldn't someone else want to take it away from them in a post apocalyptic world?
perhaps i was lucky , cause that was one of the first places i went to , so it was the first untempered blow of just how bad tokt is before realizing that this was how i was going to be viewing the game.....
Yup, but imagine if the pirates were actually **intelligent** bokoblins; ones that could talk and use sophisticated weapons & strategies. Not only would this have been 100x better, but it would also raise more interesting questions: where did these bokoblins come from? how did they become intelligent like this? Are there more of them out there? Did Ganon make them like this, or was it something else? We would've FINALLY got some interesting developments in this damn game.
THIS !!!!
My Highest and last hope for this game which was randomly and unsurprisedly
Rolled On !!!
I stopped hoping for any improvment after
And
There wasnt
They did not give a shit
Or else
Play with constructs and machine
I really resent them for
Sailing
A game
As Zelda franchise
Which was just
Nothing
Of it.
@@sun.t5441 brony what happened to your comment formatting??....
"Loving the time i spent playing Tears of the Kingdom with my mom isn't loving Tears of the Kingdom, it's loving my mom" this sentence made me start spontaneously crying in the middle of work, excellent video.
@@RazorfistHidesComments like your grandad was, laying in his coffin
Nintendo gave too much power to the design team instead of writer/lore team.
At least it’s a good thing the former is far more important for this medium
@@kinobabbleI’m not so sure about that.
@@Zythryl It’s a videogame, not a visual novel, not a text adventure, not an interactive movie. Anything pertaining to the gameplay & design will automatically be of greater importance as that’s the defining feature of the medium.
In my opinion, it depends on what they want to focus on, and I think here they cared more for immersion than the writing or the story
Tho I think writing is very important for something that wants to tell a story, which is what impressions the cutscenes give me
your anaology to peeling the stickers off of a rubix cube is so accurate! I was watching my brother play this game when it first came out and i couldn't tell what was the intended solution to the puzzle and what was just him dicking around with the abilities until he got something to work. I appreciate that there's a concentration on creative problem solving in botw and totk but solving puzzles the way the designer had in mind is its own type of satisfying, and it feels like totk doesn't reward that.
Going through the whole hebra sky island ascension, skydiving into the cloud, seeing “Wind Temple”, followed by “Wind Temple 1F”, but then hearing “there are still five locks securing the hatch on the deck” followed by seeing them pop up on the map is probably my most disappointing video game experience ever.
Everything about this comment is true - so much yes
This.
Top 3 disappointing moments in totk:
- when the 5 locks appeared on the map of your first dungeon
- when you get your first memory and it ends
- when you realize the depths map is mirrored of the overworld
also when you beat your second dungeon and the same cutscene plays as the first one. but you already know how similar the quests will be well before then.
@@FunnyAnimatorJimTV I mean, The Depths are like the Dark World, and it being a mirror makes it easier to know where to go. The other two are definitely disappointing though.
@@JacksonVoet Making it easier to know where to go makes it less interesting. The moment you know "oh there will be a mountain over there, then a valley and a lake, and the chest is up there" then it removes all your sense of urgency and mystery, that made the depths so exciting the first time you enter it.
Same reason why exploring hyrule in totk is boring. even though the specific contents of goron city are different, even knowing it's general appearance and direction makes it less exciting.
@@FunnyAnimatorJimTV I mean, unlike the Dungeons, navigating the Depths would be much, much more tedious otherwise. Plus, the darkness and overall enemy difficulty makes traversal much better.
Totk feels like a proof of concept disguised as an award winning sequel. Like they put all of their effort into getting some (admittedly impressive) mechanics just right than build a shell around it.
That's pretty much it. If you see the GDC panels they made in 2017 and 2023, you can see they had MASSIVE different priorities for both games.
When TotK was released, I was loosing my mind when some people said "TotK makes BotW look like a tech demo", when it's actually the complete opposite. TotK just has more features and mechanics, but there is no synergy nor cohesion whatsoever between them... which is the mark of a tech demo. BotW, on the other hand, while it was still flawed and underdeveloped in certain aspects, it was at least much more focused and cohesive as an experience.
I feel like the robust physics system weirdly often has the effect of holding the game back. I can't tell you how often I spent 15 minutes building a bespoke vehicle for a specific problem, only for it to not work because I didn't account for a slight incline or bump in the road
@@XanderVJ Software dev here (I’ve seen your bona fides in other comments)-whenever folks bring up the “year of polish”, and I then consider that there are zero staff writers credited for TOTK’, I’m forced to conclude that said year was much more likely spent adding the (reduced quality & quantity) “side quests” and the other various copy paste content scattered throughout the map.
Like, it feels like they plugged in the main story and then went, “oh shit this thing is way too empty” and begged for another year so they wouldn’t get ripped to shreds. And then execs went “okay but we’re charging $70 now”
When I first saw that Ascend was originally a debugging tool they used while making the caves that was added in as an ability, a legit pit formed in my stomach. It’s cool, sure, but if you’re digging through your dev tools for “variety in gameplay”, that strikes me as extremely slapdash and/or nonexistent guidance for overall design.
Another weird piece of environmental storytelling that goes completely unexplained and unacknowledged is that the big sky rocks that dot Hyrule's surface are literally terraforming the land around them. I think it's supposed to be soil falling with the rocks, but it just looks like the ground is turning into the same kind of soil as is on the sky island.
Elden Ring has big ruin pieces scattered throughout the first couple areas that fell down from a floating city--that feels like a much better execution of what you say TotK tried to do
What do you mean exactly is unexplained or unacknowledged? It's just rocks falling, nothing more. It doesn't look like the same kind of soil does it?
@@minerman60101 How do they?
@@Jdudec367 I think I read the original message wrong lol and thought the commenter disliked the particulars of the implementation--I haven't played TotK so I don't have the context
@@Jdudec367 Yeah, the soil immediately around the large, stationary bits of sky rock has the same grass/soil texture as the sky islands. It might be hard to see from a UA-cam video, but you'll see what I'm talking about if you're looking for it.
So little of BoTW’s environmental storytelling retroactively matters or makes sense/is trustworthy now
it never did to be fair, they havent cared about lore consistency/connections between games for a long time idk why anyone would be surprised (or even care themselves) by that now.
No one should care about the god damn story. I'm glad they don't give a crap anymore. The timeline was a mess and I'm glad they've finally stopped trying to fix it and just focus and making an enjoyable game
@@rendismowerto2481 The timeline matters when you make a SEQUEL.
totk honestly frustrates me so bad with what they did to zelda and her character/arc. for a lot of the reasons you mentioned too. having her absent from the present moments proper does such a huge disservice to her and her character, and the story itself, especially when her and her struggles + agency were the heart of botw's memory cutscenes. i wish we could have spent more time with her in the present game, as herself, not just in the first five minutes of the game 😭 it would have been nice seeing her interact with people now that she was free and able to do as she pleased, and just generally work with the community more? esp since like you mentioned that people love her! like that's great and i like that a lot! i just wish we were actually shown more than what we got. it also would have been interesting to see in game what they've mentioned in interviews with her debating on trying to even restore the kingdom proper itself or not, but that was also a missed opportunity to just. not show it at all in the game. but confirm it in interviews ig?? stuff that should have been in the game but didn't make it for some reason??
she's already had to suffer because of the weight of expectations she's never asked for, to be the perfect princess she felt she wasn't. in botw she strived to assert her own agency, to help in ways that work with her strengths and what she felt she could do, and you see her struggles on full display. the silent princess symbolism with how she was never meant to be stifled and held back in the way she was? the sense she's been yearning for freedom. the princess can only thrive out in the wild?? even if she eventually does come into her own in the end, there's a tragedy in the sense that you're trapped in this prophecy you never asked for, and you SEE and feel her struggle very intimately throughout the memories
you mean to tell me she's already had to sacrifice herself for 100 years before in botw (to which they point it out in her character bio in the pause menu? and it's also blatantly stated in creating a champion/master works that she fully intended on sacrificing herself and possibly not even survive, until the great deku tree stopped her and helped her rethink her intentions), had about 5-7 years of freedom and being with link again after 100+ years of anguish over literally everything regarding this, and then gets thrown back to the past to sacrifice herself AGAIN but somehow even worse than before? not to mention like? how would she feel knowing that the entity calamity ganon that caused both her + link so much suffering and absolutely massacred so many people was JUST a precursor to the Even Bigger Bad in the basement? all of that suffering she's had to endure apparently still isn't enough-- like. how would finding ganondorf in the basement affect her own demons when it comes to her knowing/feeling she's failed her people before? to her, all her efforts still probably would have meant nothing because of this, and it's an opportunity for some character building + development that was missed imo. despite her having a technically important role in the plot itself/in the past, i feel like her development as a character got sidelined in a way and just doesn't feel super consistent with botw's characterization of her. and you brought up points i've discussed with friends as well (like zelda would have been geeking out, it would have been nice to actually show it instead of like. telling/implying it in those floating flower text blurb islands, like with "the free spirited zelda" one with zelda riding the construct. hiding this stuff in that just feels very tell don't show imo). like you said, the way they wrote her in this game just doesn't feel like a person, she feels like she got relegated to a plot device which is?? unfortunate as hell and i wish it was handled just a bit differently
it's somehow even worse than the century she had to spend holding calamity ganon back, now she has to do the same thing again for a millennia, committing ego death in the process instead? for the incarnation that the team has stated they wanted to humanize, it feels like in this game specifically, who she is as a person just does not matter, it's what she can provide instead. her strengths don't matter, she just has to give up everything. mind, body, soul, everything that makes her, her. again and again and again. the moment of her actual sacrifice feels tragic (and it is), the cinematography of it and the sheer weight of the music and visuals are absolutely gut-wrenching. i remember my jaw was on the floor seeing it and i had to take a couple minutes to just sit in silence JDHSBFJHSD but everything else surrounding it writing-wise muddles it for me in a way, because nobody really seems to question if this is fair to her and how awful it truly is. you see bits of it with mineru and how she vehemently rejects the idea and what its consequences are, but i feel like you still don't see /enough/ of it in general (nor do you see enough of mineru + mineru and zelda's bond on screen). pose the question of this being a wholly good thing. is it really right to have someone be asked to sacrifice themself over and over and over again, don't they deserve something different/more? was it necessary? could there have been another way? or was this inevitable, despite all efforts? this is a tragic, horrific thing to have to go through and you /see/ her in pain and struggling while it's happening, and i think the scene exemplifies the physical aspect of it very well! i just wish narratively if they wanted to stick with the sacrifice theme + plot going for her that there was more meat to it if that makes sense. i think the set pieces are definitely there, i just think that some stuff could have been better explored with it that just didn't feel weirdly inconsistent with her arc in botw but that's just my opinion ^^
i genuinely don't think i'd have as much of an issue with her sacrifice narratively/from a character writing standpoint if they showed more of her deliberating on the decision to do this, something that zelda in botw would question and deliberate her options over. what does she think and feel about doing such a thing? show us more of her trying to do anything other than this, knowing this is a last resort or show /more/ of how she came to this conclusion. show us her trying to work with her strengths that have been established in the game prior? really hammer in the tragedy of the fact that /she tried/ to avoid this at all. make it feel more consistent with botw, the themes and questions her character + arc in that game had posed
AND ANOTHER THING TOO i genuinely don't understand why in an interview they just. "yeah the citizens of hyrule just never really cared to look into the mysterious disappearance of the sheikah tech more. they're just gone like a fart in the wind" LIKE YOU MEAN TO TELL ME ZELDA WOULDN'T HAVE CARED?? SOMEONE WHO DEDICATED SM TIME AND ENERGY TO RESEARCHING AND ENGAGING THE SHEIKAH TECH??? SHE WOULDN'T HAVE AT LEAST /TRIED/ TO LOOK INTO IT??? PURAH???? ROBBIE????? ABSOLUTELY NOBODY CARED OR THOUGHT IT WAS WEIRD????? 😭 these decisions are just absolutely baffling to me when it comes to writing a direct sequel
all in all i really enjoyed this video and it was a really nice watch, and you bring up a lot of valid criticism to things i couldn't exactly put my finger on when it comes to things like the gameplay and building system itself. i still had fun playing the game but the story definitely irked me a lot, especially with how zelda was treated in this game specifically. even more so when i think of her arc and what it meant in botw, and then think of the ways they could have taken things even further in totk after that 2019 trailer dropped 😭 maybe i expected too much from that 2019 teaser we got but man. idk. i really think she deserved better, i absolutely agree with your points when it comes to her being absent and just the weirdness with her general agency in this game esp coming out of botw. i loved her character and story in botw so it just bothers me when i think about some of the writing choices they made with her specifically in totk
i probably missed some aspects of what i'm always thinking about with this bc i have a Lot of thoughts on this specific subject, but i do hope my points make sense though if you see this! i just had to say something since i just don't really see people talk about it enough, and hearing your own points when talking about zelda + how she was handled made me think of my own grievances with this specific aspect of the story. again i think the set pieces are there but i just think that more meat should have been added to it. i definitely have many others issues though and i agree with many of yours too for sure DJKSBJFHJSDB i also have a lot of ideas for my own reimagining of the game i've been writing in my notes app for a while LMFAO We Are Out Here 🤝 i would love to see your take on a reimagining if you make a video on it!
SORRY FOR GOING OFF LMFAO props to you if you read all of this bc 🫡 at the end of the day my hot take is that the game should have been a spirit tracks-like adventure where link and zelda were both together again and discovering things and you see them + their relationship develop [more] together in real time, esp after having been apart for so long /hj
ONE OTHER THING I FORGOT TO MENTION but god the way that zelda's written in the moments you mentioned just like "oh idk that name gives me pause..." when you know she absolutely /would/ have put two and two together and probably say something had the team just written it differently and more consistently but again just. more baffling writing choices??? genuinely i don't understand why they try to act like botw has like. no relevance at all, and it hurts SO MUCH of what's going on in the story it makes me insane 💀 BUT YEAH i'm done now thank you for reading my comments and for the heart earlier! :]
I still really love Zelda in totk but I have to agree here
@@Asbestos-to3lj absolutely valid! i'm glad you get me! ^^ don't get me wrong i still love her character very much and honestly still connect with her deeply as well (as i'm sure many others do too), and i can absolutely see why people enjoy her in this game too regardless of my own criticism! personally i just wish some writing decisions were different/had some more meat added to what they had going here- like it's not exactly her as a character/herself/hating her (complete opposite omg) i have an issue with, it's more the hand of the writer and ig the meta aspect of it than anything if that makes sense :]
I think why we dislike the dragon element is that, while it is strong in theory, it's ultimately redundant to BOTW Zelda to suffer for an extended period of time. When you strip a lot of the elements down it's following a beat for beat retread of what happens to her in BOTW. And that... feels bad to do to the title character of your franchise?
I think they should've made Zelda take over some elements that Raoru got, and by that we mean: Zelda should've been a ghost that helps your throughout your quest, like introducing you on the sky islands. They've already got the champions, it'd be nice for Zelda to do something like that, like Phantom Hourglass!
Actually saying that outloud it was the implication that Raoru got dragon'd, but you can finagle it where becoming a dragon kicks your soul out of your body and messes with your memories. Heck, it'd make the memory collection elements sort of neat because it'd be amnesia again, but specifically for Zelda's.
Idk! Just! Bleh! We love Zelda as a character! Let her exist as a character! Stop being weird to your most prominent woman character!!
I'm not reading all that because I'm not really that interested in these games but holy christ I respect writing a comment that long. This might actually be the longest comment I've ever seen on youtube. I didn't think you even could write a comment that long without hitting a character limit. wow...
I think the biggest problem with TotK is that Nintendo completely ignored the valid criticism of BotW, like I love BotW but I basically saw it as a great foundation that if improved upon could lead to some of the greatest games ever made. But it seems like Nintendo ignored the complaints against BotW and only listened to the people calling it perfect and basically hung their hats and went "Welp, there's nothing we can do to improve BotW, the only thing we can do when we make a direct sequel is to spend 6 years adding in a bunch of weird new experimental mechanics and change nothing about BotW's core design since it's already so obviously perfect"
When it was revealed that TotK would re-use BotW's map, I was initially very hyped, as an avid fan of the Yakuza series (a series well-known for taking advantage of constant asset reuse,) my mind raced with all the potential sidequests, unique dungeons, and stuff they'd be able to add to the world in a sequel now that the heavy lifting of making this giant map and the engine was done, since there's nothing I love more than when game series do that thing where they actively acknowledge the stuff you did in previous games (its a big part of why I love Yakuza, since the games constantly acknowledge stuff that happens in previous games' sidequests in a way that feels super rewarding for people who've played all the games) and was heartbroken to find out what TotK actually used the re-used map for (ie, basically nothing)
I think TotK is one of the most headscratching games ever made, I have no idea how Nintendo could be so completely tone-deaf to what fans actually wanted out of a BotW sequel, I really hope that they take a step back and actually look at criticism of TotK because otherwise the next big 3D Zelda will just be a less creatively interesting version of Minecraft
Same here. It bothered me so much that basically nothing you did during botw is acknowledged aside from the main story stuff. The koroks have never seen you, hestu doesn’t know you, and kotlin? (The monster fanatic) has never seen you before. It feels like they want you to have played botw, but also wanted to cater to people who have never played botw.
Ironically the trailers for the new 2D game are kinda reminiscent of Minecraft LMAO
The funny part is that Nintendo did heed most of the criticism.
The weapons being too fragile? fixed with fused weapons.
People not using weapons because any fight was not worth losing weapon durability for monster materials?
Fixed by monsters dropping horns that make almost every fight a net gain when it comes to resources.
Travel being too slow and limited?
Fixed with Ultrahand vehicles and constructs.
Dungeons not having any personality and charm?
Fixed quite well by giving each an identity and even a partner each with their own particularities.
The only parts of the criticism that were not taken into consideration are the ones not related to gameplay, which yeah, kinda sucks for some people. But also kinda not, expecting a direct continuation to change everything when it comes to plot and storytelling while also completely changing the gameplay to the point where they had to create entirely new physics systems (they essentially created an audio physics system to handle how sounds travel in the game) is kind of silly.
A bunch of people seem to be disappointed that the game didn't do much, but most of those people are honestly kinda stupid, the amount of work in Tears is astounding, every single power Link has would be a pain to implement in an open world game and would be enough to carry a game on its own, Link having 4 gamebreaking abilities and them working as cleanly as they do is absolutely insane.
Nah see, Nintendo actually did listen to BotW's critics: They saw misogynistic gamer dudes whine about Zelda being a "crybaby" and "a b*tch" so for the sequel they got rid of all her flaws and made her a waifu instead of an actual character.
@@imatiu Just because something has a lot of effort put into it doesn't mean it's good
Something I still dont quite get.
What did like, Rauru do exactly? Like, he sealed the Demon King, but like, Ganondorf and the rebirth grudge still happened, again and again, it didnt do shit against stopping that we still had the whole Calamity.
So is like big ass hog Ganon supposed to just be the Demon King astrally projecting or something? Cause it managed to do WAY more damage than the Demon king and its just like.
Im confused. Cause at the end, it just seemed to do the same thing as just killing Ganon
Yeah Calamity ganon is basically a super powerful fart of malice from ganondorf.
Be goated
Well this whole time travel thing only happened after Calamity Ganon was defeated so eh..I don't think it would change that.
That was genuinely Ganon just a form of Ganon.
It stopped him but it didn't kill him.
@@Jdudec367 Still I feel like, since we find the mummy of demon king down there it must be the whole time travel thing affected the pre time travel thingy.
My main confusion was like, if the Demon King didnt die, how was ganon reborn to take the form of Calamity? Though the other comments are most likely right in how it was just the demon king angryness taken shape
@@creditsunknown7974 I dunno...has time travel in Zelda really worked like that before? In OOT when Link went back in time and got Ganondorf executed it didn't change the adult timeline did it?
I mean...the prior Ganondorf died, the Calamity one though was many years later and eventually became TOTK Ganondorf.
Send this to Aonuma so he can stop shoehorning stupid gimmicks into Zelda games. He did it again with Echoes of Wisdom, which was originally intended to be a Zelda Maker. But in goes Mr. Aonuma and says "This is fun, but you know what would be even more fun? Placing a stair made of copy-pasted beds anywhere you want so you can cheese any platforming or clever level design in the game!"
I swear this man has been having his George Lucas moment ever since Majora's Mask 3D.
Anyways, amazing video, watched it all during an episode of insomnia.
Keep it up!
Have I ever played TOTK? Nope.
Have I even played BOTW? Nope.
Did I watch all 3 hours of this video? Yep.
Random stranger I beg you, PLAY BOTW
I played TotK after some pretty traumatic life events, and I’ll always be grateful to it for allowing me to get through that. Seriously, as much as they rightfully get criticized, I adored the depths, and it took my mind off things when I really needed that distraction. But in hindsight, yeah, TotK was really disappointing. The weirdest thing for me was the Dragon’s Tears quest, since I initially thought that it was analogous to recovering Link’s memories in BotW. Then I went to the Korok Forest, got the master sword location from the deku tree, and got the sword. It wasn’t until I talked to my sister that I learned just how much I missed out on by skipping the dragon tears, and she was shocked that I was able to get the master sword without getting all of Zelda’s memories. Maybe it’s on me for skipping that, but I also feel like if the developers wanted me to do it, they should have made it clearer to the player that it wasn’t just a side quest, but actually held huge significance
the games that help us breathe when we feel like we’re drowning are important for that fact alone honestly, i really believe even the shittiest game can be special in that sense (not that totk is the shittiest, i’ve played kawasaki snowmobiles for the wii)
My primary problem is the memories from the tears can be found in any order. When something so critical to the entire story can be done out of order, the entire plot falls on its face. Imagine the people who found memory 10 as their first. The entire story and lead up to what we're doing is ruined.
They tried to make a linear story like the more traditional Zelda games with an open world setting and it just failed.
What if they just made it so every time you find a tear you just get the next memory, in order? You found 5 tears, you get memory #5. That would make way more sense to the player, could easily be explained if they need to explain it at all. The only thing is the memory you are watching might not thematically coincide with the geoglyph’s shape that you found it at, but that is such a vague connection. Hardly anyone’s thinking about it anyway, definitely worth the trade off for cohesive story. It’s not like the locations of the glyphs coincide with anything that takes place in the memory like it did in both. It’s like they started to fix it and then forgot
@@stvmthey could make it so that the next glyph doesn’t appear until you’ve unlocked the memory of the previous glyph
This is a problem shared with botw all the memories are slightly out of the way meaning you need to atleast step off the beaten path to find them. All except the one in the bazaar meaning if you are a shitty explorer you won't find a memory until half way through since this is the one and only memory that's on the main road
@@collincaperton6718 Except the memories aren't needed to understand the story or what Link needs to accomplish in BOTW. They're exactly what they're described as, memories. If you don't unlock a single memory the story remains the exact same. All the memories do is give you context into the relationships between Link/Zelda and the Champions of the Divine Beasts, they don't impact what's happening in the world RIGHT NOW. However in TOTK if you don't unlock the memories on the glyphs you don't get ANY of the story as it all happens in the past (again) and the past is CRITICAL to understanding and accomplishing your mission (find Zelda and defeat Ganon)
I personally liked the random order. When I found one, I would get a piece of the story but not all the context and the mystery continued. That's how I saw it.
Here's something you'll never unsee again...
Once Ganondorf is sealed, his secret stone is...sitting...on..his.forehead!
It's just sitting there. In a diadem or something.
Someone, anyone, could just snatch it off his head. At any time. And he'd be just regular Ganondorf again.
We have heroes literally with the knowledge that a secret stone made Ganondorf beyond super powerful...and they leave it with him. It's just dumb.
it really is a shame that Ganondorf hasn't historically had access to a *different* source of power.
An *established* source of power.
A source of power that is not easily removed from his person.
A source of power that grants it's wielder the power of a *GOD.*
but it's not like anything of that sort actually exists in the Zelda franchise, right?
@@christopherbravo1813I mean, I see where you’re going, but the triforce of power can also leave him as seen at the end of twilight princess. Not that I’m justifying this stupid decision with the stone
@@anonymousperson1706 TBH I'm pretty sure the Triforce of Power left Ganondorf because he was literally about to die.
@@christopherbravo1813 true
@@anonymousperson1706 The Triforce at this point seems little more than branding for the Zelda franchise at this point.
When I realised that Zelda was a dragon (which was at the third memory, Mineru's council), I actually got hopeful and excited, because 'reversing the irreversible ... there is only one way they can do it! OMG the first four dungeons only mark the first half, we'll get the proper Zelda experience having to find the Trifo-' *Sonia and Rauru reverse the irreversible at no cost and it is revealed Zelda hasn't suffered and I waited out the credits for a sappy goodbye for a character I do not care about instead of having meaningful interactions between established characters*
something else that bothered me is the change of the zonai from a barbaric, visceral, mysterious tribe to sheikah (lame version) was SO disappointing. the architecture doesn’t even resemble what it was in BOTW, and i can’t help but think they disposed of the barbaric set in TOTK to sever the connection between BOTW zonai and TOTK zonai. nintendo really missed out in exploring that moral dubiousness and animalistic nature they were building in BOTW.
any pre-TOTK zonai theory video gave the zonai much better characterisation than nintendo did in 6 years. honestly, i wish they just based the story as a whole on a zeltik video.
gonna start a petition for zeltik to become an official story writer for zelda honestly
Eh....tbh they were never confirmed to be barbaric or visceral tbh and they aren't exactly the sheikah (nah they are pretty cool really) and they are more magical and well...even more ancient really. I mean it somewhat does resemble what it was in BOTW with the animals and dragon symbols but we barely saw much of them in BOTW at all, I doubt that is why and wait....huh? The Barbarian set is still in TOTK what do you mean? ??? They weren't building that for the Zonai though what do you mean? The Zonai were never confirmed to be morally dubious or have animalistic nature really.
The zonai went from savages to gods to the founders of the 2nd kingdom of Hyrule
Finally I feel justified in my losing interest in this game
Seriously. I lost interest in this game only a few months after I started playing it. Meanwhile I can replay BOTW over and over again without ever getting bored or losing interest with the story. Totk just doesn’t hold up as well from an emotional standpoint
I was losing interest by the time I was halfway through the main story.
Not that I'd say BotW was much better. It shares many of the same glaring issues that TotK either failed to fix or made worse.
I think I cheesed the entire fire temple with wings and ascend. It took me like 10 minutes and I didn't even set foot in half the temple. I stopped playing after that, finally realizing that it wasn't made well. It was right when it came out, so I'm foggy on exact amount of time, but I thoroughly remember being like, "really? THAT'S one of the 4 (I thought) dungeons in this game?!"
I beat TOTK, then forgot I had beaten it.
I mean you don't really need to justify not enjoying something
The Depths are so bare bones that I honestly believe the theory that they were created later as a response to Elden Ring's underground map. I know Nintendo isn't usually known for directly trying to compete with other developers, but I can't help but feel that after ER garnered the same praise as BotW a year later, there was some degree of "That game had a 2 layered map? Well, we have a 3 layered one now!" put into the decision to add them. Combined with being nearly entirely irrelevant to the story and marketing, "the best kept secret" kinda starts to seem more like "was not part of the first several drafts of the game."
i have a theory that’s along similar lines that’ll be in the autisticut of this video so defo keep an eye out
Except Elden Ring didn’t release a year after BotW. ER released in 2022. BotW released in 2017. TotK released a year after Elden Ring, and the final year+ of TotK’s development was strictly for polishing. Sorry, but the idea for the Depths didn’t come from ER.
@@jadimich no shot the year of polish thing is true, there’s just no way
@@jadimich Wow, I totally forgot BotW came out 7 years ago lol, even with this game being 6 years in development. I'm still sticking with my theory with how nothing the Depths were though. I could totally believe they were made in the last year. I mean, most of it is just the overworld with the z-axis inverted and a single nondescript biome blanketed over it.
@@skittybitty Respectfully, whether you believe it or not is irrelevant. Eiji Aonuma himself is on record as saying that the game was complete in March of 2022 and the final year+ (it released in May 2023) was simply for polishing and making sure the insane physics worked swimmingly. Just look it up.
one of the most damning indicators of how bad this game sucks is how it basically erased the botw fandom’s presence from the internet. ended all desire to make content for it
it’s so hard to care about this world and its lore when you know the creators don’t. forget the overall zelda lore or whatever, strictly within the confines of the open air titles, it’s just so sad
@@skittybitty That is really one of the most damning things about any media. When you see that nobody cared enough while making it. I e.g. can forgive SS's flaws because I still love and effort and charm in that game. It was a good origin story. The dungeons were phenomenal, despite the backtracking (which I didn't mind too much).
with TotK? 'lol Zonai contraptions go brrrrr' Also, I hate, hate hate memebait. Good memes occur naturally.
Adhd and OCD brain here. I played tears of the kingdom for over 300 hours. I went through every cave, got every bubblegem, collected every piece of equipment, completely filled the compendium, did every quest, completed all three maps... and when I was done, I felt so empty.
TotK made me question why I try to complete the fun out of games, it was just mindless, and I couldn't stop myself. At a certain point I was no longer having fun, but I couldn't let myself move on over thoughts that the true reward was coming any moment
thats funny cuz i have adhd/ocd and i couldnt put more than 2 hrs in bc i instantly knew it was going to be a worthless empty time investment (been there done that)
@@aestheticdump-li7xe you had a time machine?
"Mindless" is the perfect way to describe this game, I felt the same.
@@robertsmith7627 nah i just had made the same mistake with other games before and was like "hell nah". BOTW was on the cusp of that but the new-ness of the world, curiosity, story, etc. saved it for me of course
this game throws you into shrines and its like hell no not this again *shuts switch off*
Same story here. 140 hours in and if someone were to ask me about what the experience was like, I'd just say most of it was spent either mindlessly fighting monsters, hovering from one location to another, or grinding to get X amount of a material.
Sheikah tech disappearing its literally a reverse case of "Somehow Palpatine has return:
"Bored and overwhelmed at the same time" is so well put. In breath of the wild absolutely everything fascinates you and draws your attention, but in this game I could not care less about the absurd number of hudson signs, or koroks, or side quests. Literally nothing in this game draws my attention but then on paper there is an enormous amount of "content"