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i didnt realize this video was an hour long until about 10-15 minutes in, but that just makes it even better bc this is an absolute treat mr spaceman, good stuff
In regards to it feeling like enemies ranking up faster: if you haven't found out yet, this is because unlike in BotW, in TotK, you gain extra "rank up" points after defeating enemies if you used perfect dodges/flurry rushes or parries, performed headshots or don't get hit. So if you're regularly playing competently against enemies, they definitely will rank up faster than in BotW.
One of my most memorable experiences in TOTK was stumbling onto the spirit temple way before I was supposed to in the main quest. All the NPCs at lookout landing were like, "We need to find the last sage!.. Wait, you've already done that? Uh, okay, well... we also need to find the master sword- you mean you have that too?! Why didn't you tell us?!!" The game totally lets you do things in the order that YOU want, and that's awesome.
OMG i loved finding the spirit temple early, not even realizing that it was a part of the main story. i only finished two main dungeons before deciding i wanted to explore some cool corner of the map i hadn't yet- only to *accidentally* discover a huge chunk of the main game without being pointed to it! what a cool game
@@SSukram_ if you need a certain amount of hearts the game didn't communicate that at all. Unless you mean the door, which I did have enough hearts for.
Caves can be found easily by taking a picture of a blupee or the bubblefrog and sensing for that instead of shrines, the blupees are found by the entrance of each cave. There are so many little things like this in the game that absolutely change how you play and explore.
@@Isuream6331 I usually set it to blupees so I can specifically find the cave entrance, since the bubbulfrog is not necessarily going to be helpful in finding the cave
This game solidified BOTW/AOC/TOTK's Princess Zelda as my favorite version of the character. Learning how she was living her life in the time between BOTW and TOTK establishing a research team and a school (the details of her time as a teacher and how she bonded with the kids are so adorable) and how she ultimately puts everything literally on the line for her kingdom really resonated with me emotionally.
Everything you said is true. Spirit Tracks Zelda is the best Zelda because she can possess Phantoms. Same reason Mineru is best girl. Mechs are just the coolest
@GeneralOlde I think it also helps that she has actual personality traits, a pretty believable amount of anxiety in both games, and desperation to make an impact but is also like a massive history nerd dork with an arc to go through and decisions she decides to make on her own, not just following a designated plot line other characters tell her about (which is the main thing preventing me from liking SS Zelda more).
you can get the froggy armor upgraded to level 2 by a great fairy to get the permanent no slip buff, that way you will literally never slip again, even when jumping
As someone who didn't play BotW, I felt like the tutorialization was sufficient and didn't overstay its welcome, except when it came to the bullet time bow thing. I don't think I ran into a single tutorial for that and I got pretty stuck on the Water Temple where it's (kind of) required.
I believe there isa shrine for that but you might not have gone there yet. It had something to do with a ball dropping and you had to dive at just the right time and snipe the trigger for the ball hole
I think I'm in the majority with saying that yes, I noticed that the story is in many ways extremely similar to BotW... but it just feels stronger, more emotionally resonant, through taking more time with setup and payoff. Like how Zelda's sacrifice is set up and paid off over multiple scenes instead of just "oh and now Zelda went and did this thing" like in BotW. Setting up the dragon at the beginning of the game, then telling us "how to become dragon" through the Mineru flashback, then Rauru setting up that there must be a reason Zelda is here, all while the game has been misdirecting you to think Zelda is in the present doing shady stuff in each region, and the echo of Zelda's voice saying "Link, you must find me" looking to *right* after the real dragon has briefly appeared, yet misdirecting you to thinking she's talking about going to Lookout Landing - there's a lot of detail to love, here! And there's several ways you can figure out the story's main twist. Either by watching the memories or by piecing together things through exploration and finding the dragon on your own. I did a combination of both, meeting the Light Dragon after watching the 4th memory and getting a strong sense that I knew what was going on, without being sure. It created great tension, as I waited and waited for the reveal. There's also great ludonarrative moments like how when you finally catch Zelda in the end, you're DOING IT as the player instead of just watching a cutscene. My hands were shaking a little, it was such a good moment.
Great video overall! I do disagree a bit with you on the classic dungeon take. Simplifying classic Zelda dungeons down to just puzzles is reductive, I think. They were unique settings that were usually themed in various fun ways through music, and environmental design, as well as puzzles and monsters to fight. I do think the dungeons in TOTK were more like classic Zelda dungeons, but overall they still kinda just felt like parts of the over world, rather than a separate setting within the world. Also, I feel like classic dungeons had more variety, two of the TOTK dungeons were just more sky islands. Whereas in like, Twilight Princess, one of the dungeons is a sky island, another is a wintery mansion, another is an ancient temple, another is a burial ground, etc etc. I just think there's definitely more to these dungeons than completing puzzles, especially when the shrine setting gets boring fast.
Here's my take on it. Zelda dungeons have always had three key components: - Micro puzzles about accomplishing short-term goals (e.g., "how do I use my new boomerang to open this locked door?") - Macro puzzles, usually about navigation or manipulating the dungeon itself (e.g., "how do I manipulate the water levels in the Water Temple to get where I need to go?") - Aesthetics in the design and placement of the dungeon in the world (e.g., Arbiter's Grounds feeling like a literal tomb/trial grounds and not just a random building) There's other stuff, like memorable boss battles, but those are the big structural ones. The most memorable dungeons in Zelda are the ones that do a good job at all three things, or excel at one in particular. The Sandship in Skyward Sword comes to mind: good micro puzzles on a room-to-room basis, good macro navigational puzzles with using the one available time crystal, good aesthetics of being on a literal ship and doing some ship things. The Divine Beasts in BotW did a great job at micro and macro puzzles, but the aesthetics suffered for being same-y looking chambers with the same bland color palette and the same style of boss each time. The temples in TotK had great micro puzzles and great aesthetics, but there weren't really macro puzzles tying them together (with the possible exception of navigating with the mine carts in the Fire Temple).
Obviously, this is gonna be my game of the year but there's plenty I wish they did differently. Most of my major Issues with ToTK at this point though come down to UX issues with how you use the sage abilities (Sidon's Water Shield has a decent amount of utility but it's super held back by having to run up to him) and how enemy variety wasn't really expanded enough to fill out the game's world well enough. I also wish there were fewer but longer shrines. Basically combine shrines of similar concepts to make a large shrine similar to ones like Shrine of Power or Blue Flame in BoTW where it's a more substantial mini dungeon with a core theme that escalates in complexity over time. Instead we have a ton of fun but very short shrines that are often just 2 or 3 basic puzzles often with the first puzzle feeling more like a tutorial for how something works than anything. Still good but it's not quite scratching that dungeon itch super well. Also great job on this review, Captain! One of your best videos yet.
Im one of the few people who played Tears without playing botw, but the building and physics mechanics were so intuitive, it was as easy and fun as playing w legos
20:42 "also, you will never need to do that" there's a shrine that needs you to do that to unlock it, actually. As for Link being famous... yeah no. Dude is anxious as *heck,* he'd rather just be in the background. Regarding Sidon's ability? With his ability, Zora weapons become the actual best weapon class in the game. Double damage, both base and fuse, while you're wet, which the water shield counts as, without the fuse durability malus Gerudo weapons have. Sure, not the strongest weapon _period,_ that comes from, iunno, molduga jaw glued to the scimitar of the seven while in ganon cosplay, but that thing always looked like something out of a lego kit to me, not a big fan.
Link has Tony Hawk Syndrome. There’s so much, “wow, you have the same name as the Hero,” and “what a coincidence, Zelda’s chosen swordsman has the same name!”
@@Ross516 all the parents and grandparents naming their kids after the legendary hero who saved the world would explain why all the heroes have the same name. Heck, that's even Linkle's backstory. Her grandmother _really_ wanted to have one of the heroes be descended from her, and she noticed that they were all named Link, so she figured it was a prerequisite and named her child(ren) and granddaughter accordingly
the connection between ganondorf and calamity ganon imo is that calamity ganon formed time and time again from ganondorfs eternal hatred while he was sealed which is why its the Hatred and Malice Incarnate and why none of it actually looks anything like ganondorf, its just his uncontrollable rage that would unleash from his living corpse time and time again
Based "the Comet Observatory was boring and empty and Starship Mario was way better because it didn't waste your time" opinion haver Yes, this was my takeaway
51:02 the Geoglyph quest, which is a main quest, takes you to the forgotten temple, which shows you the order of the Geoglyph on the wall of the room that shows you their place on the map
That’s cool, except nothing tells you that the geoglyphs are arranged in order. Some, like me, might be focused on the map and not even realise the geoglyphs are on the wall at all
@@Isuream6331Impa literally tells you it. Like, either play the game and then complain, or don't play it and don't complain. Don't not play the game and then complain, it's pathetic.
@@EliteCPR Have you not heard the countless stories of people who did the geoglyphs out of order? They are the same colour as the regular wall, it’s extremely easy to miss. Also, once again, nothing indicates they have an order
FYI a maxed out horse IS faster than a zonai car. The zonai car is just cooler and you're not slaving away cooking for the Horse God 🤓. Otherwise great vid EDIT: Lego's, also if you get the froggy armor and level it up twice it gives you the ability to climb without slipping
It depends on your car build. If you make something insane, like attaching a sideways balloon to the back to catch the blasts from a backwards-facing cannon, the recoil from its physics-breaking ridiculousness can send you launching across the Central Plains at ludicrous speed.
I agree with you that games do not need to be running at 32k 200fps with ray tracing on to be enjoyable. However, IT IS a legitimate complaint when the game cannot even maintain 30 fps consistently. Dropping from 30 fps to 20 is VERY noticeable and can make many people motion sick
Fun fact, you actually get the same exact amount of propulsion regardless of how many rockets you use so there's never any need to use more rockets outside of weight distribution!
If you use the floaty rocks you find near sky islands multiple rockets will give you more momentum, but after 4-5 you pretty much go the same distance even if you add more.
totk was my first zelda game (shocking, i know) and I can confidently say that the sky tutorial section did an AMAZING job at teaching me the basics of the game. It had the perfect balance of telling me what to do, and letting me do my own thing. I caught on to all the other game mechanics within an hour of landing in hyrule. This is a phenomenal game.
I saw someone talk about the BotW menus/UI being designed for the WiiU where you always had a menu open on the pad, and then they had to adapt that to the Switch because they were too far in development to change it. I feel like when they were working on TotK, they were using the same engine and everything, so they had to adapt it again to these new systems. If they built a whole new game (which would have taken a lot more time/money) I think the menus would have been better.
Climbing in rain is *almost* not a problem depending on how far you're going. The slip is always after four steps so jump *at* the 4th step and you don't lose as much of your progress. This takes stamina but also who doesn't max out stamina first lmao
The fact that Ganondorf talks like a Dragon ball Z villain, and doesn’t have much screentime is my story nitpick The fact that the elemental attack up armour only activates their abilities when it’s hot/cold/stormy and offers NO protection to said elements is my gameplay nitpick
I think the elemental armor thing is just balancing. You get a very powerful weather based buff but you have to suffer the effects of said weather. Risk and reward. Besides you can also use other means to mitigate the downsides or just eliminate them entirely
This might be the first time I've seen someone who shares pretty much the same opinion on traditional dungeons as me. There are quite a few vocal Zelda fans out there who seem to feel that having long, traditional dungeons is an absolute make or break for the series, but I feel similarly to you here - they were decent and I never disliked them, they were sometimes fun and memorable, but they were often something I felt I needed to "get out of the way" to continue my adventure. I'd sometimes finish a dungeon and feel more of a relief that it's over than a feeling of excitement or accomplishment. The heart of the series for me has always been about traversing and exploring the overworld. I remember in my teenage years when I was closely following the development of an upcoming 3D game, one of the biggest talking points was always how big the overworld would be this time around - "I heard rumours that TP's overworld will be 5x the size of Ocarina of Time!" etc. Teenage me only *dreamed* of exploring an overworld as big as the one in TotK.
I must disagree with your position on the opening, I thought the opening was excellent, it provided a stark contrast to botw, set up atmosphere and stakes, and gave the player a moment to soak up the eeriness and hype of finally being able to play through the very first look of the game back in 2019
You know when it comes to weapon durability, I feel like you were really reductive when approaching why people dislike it. Personally it represents to me a fundamental difference between what the developers are trying to do and what I like about video games, open world games, and about the other Zelda games too. It's not just "wah wah, my weapon broke" it's "nothing I find is truly special and enduring". In like Skyrim, when I find something special, that item becomes an enduring memory of the experience of finding that thing. That type of permanence and growth is very important to me in video games, it's a mechanical display of how my actions matter to this world and a reminder of how I got to where I am. The ephemerality of these games robs these individual items and experiences of long-term importance and significance, it makes it so that it feels like nothing I find or accomplish matters. Everything you find in the other Zelda games matters, it's permanent evidence of your accomplishment and your continuously growing skillset. And not just items, but every ability and tool and discovery is an enduring thing that makes a show of how far I've come. To me, what was important about Zelda was not the adventure of it, it was the progression of it. That's what I loved about these games that is just so severely scaled back to make room for this do anything you want sandbox. I understand what people like about it, it's kind of sad that I cannot get that same courtesy in turn when I express what I dislike about it. Maybe the old formula was stale, but to me that wasn't a reason to throw it out, it was a reason to enrich it. This is why Twilight Princess endures so much in my brain, because it was the step in that direction that no other game continued.
@@LineOfThy Yeah, again, that's the problem. Seriously did you not read what I said at all? Why do you think I do not understand this, or that it would even be relevant if I didn't?
ToTK somehow did the impossible which was keep me fully engaged for a solid 95 hours which to some might sound like chump numbers but to me is an actual miracle. I'm someone who usually wraps up a game around the 50-60 hour mark because I start to feel myself getting burned out (especially if it's open world) but this game I only made myself complete so I wouldn't have to dodge spoilers every time I wanted to watch a video talking about it.
TOTK is held together with black magic and duck tape. I'm constantly amazed that my Gen 1 switch doesnt blow up or melt in my hands when i whip out a complex creation.
Plus you needed to throw water to it first, I got there like "I need something to slow it down, do I ha...oh", used bullet time and felt like a genius lol
27:35 the enemy scaling system from BOTW was slightly changed for TOTK and you will encounter better weaapons and stronger enemies sooner if you are more "skillful" when defeating enemies (parry, flurry rush, headshot, perfect fight).
I feel like I missed something huge with this game. I played botw for 170 hours, did all the shrines, found a reasonable 500ish korok seeds. Was very thorough and loved a lot about it. But I just didn't get it in tears. Like I spent the whole game trying to find the new content and found almost nothing. Enemy variety is almost worse considering there's no guardians anymore and most of the enemies added are throwaways that aren't engaging whatsoever. There's some high points doing the main 4 dungeons here and there but doing them feels like you're rushing through the game because of how short and unsubstantial they are to the bigger picture. I visited all the main towns and did their shallow side quests, did about 65ish shrines, found enough koroks to have comfortable inventory space. Visited most of the sky islands and filled out about 80% of the depths. And felt like the sky peaked during the tutorial and the depths were almost entirely empty. (With the only substantial rewards in the depths being almost all DLC or amiibo costumes from the first game). Just felt like I was going through the motions in a way that it didn't feel like playing BotW. 60 hours in I just kinda went and finished the game because what was there even left to do? Grind out materials for more fairy upgrades? Do another 50 shrines for no reason? Find another 40 samey caves to get more shiny frog snowflakes to trade in for an outfit I won't even wear? Idk botw felt like they tried really hard to avoid the pitfalls of the open world genre. They made the act of roaming around the landscape into THE POINT of the game. Shifting the focus off of that with tears makes sense as it's the same world and exploring it again in a sequel is just lame conceptually...But it puts the focus onto the kind of shallow ubisoft-style content you always see out of the genre. BotW felt like a very smart subversion of the genre, Tears feels like it's playing into everything BotW tried so hard to avoid. And the major stand out mechanics that are seemingly what made the game take so long to make, didn't really do much for me. Feels like the building was more for viral marketting and a boatload of largely shallow shrine puzzles that feel more like tech demos for the idea than anything actually integral to the game's design. Banjo Nuts and Bolts had a way more expansive and intuitive vehicle creator and the game as actually designed entirely around them. Tears I rarely found making a vehicle or contraption actually optimal or even helpful. Outside of course the many times where they give you the pieces to make a very specific vehicle and you just kind of...do it. Which is just as shallow of a puzzle design as OOT's *move sun block into the sun* mindless "puzzles" for me. BotW was made because they kept mindlessly magnifying issues with the old formula with each game. And I feel like they're already doing that with this new formula. Like 'Oh some people felt uninterested in the minimalistic music, dreadfully dull shrine aesthetics, and empty overworld gameplay with nothing but shallow content copy pasted everywhere? The sequel will feature the exact same music note for note, another batch of over 100 shrines, the same map but even emptier now that guardians aren't a thing, and an entire second map that's got even less going on, with new sidequest of *help guy keep his sign up* 85 times, or *jump into 58 wells*, or *transport 150 koroks from point A to B*. And now that monster parts are more important let's make you grind for tons of very specific ones to level up your armor instead of just charging money and letting you get that money from any source because botw was an open world game all about everything you do having value but we already forgot why botw was good so let's just make it tedious this time to pretend the 6 years of dev time were worth it. Good video tho. Wonder how common it is for someone like me to have really like botw and thoroughly disliked tears. I just don't think "Wow can't wait to see how many different ways I can glue the same handful of objects together" when I think *Zelda game that took 6 years to make*.
I feel the exact same way. To add on, totk also feels like way more time is spent doing simple things (like puzzles) due to ultrahand. Plus, the fact that ultrahand is far and away the most used mechanic in the game also makes it get old sooooooo fast. In botw I felt like all four abilities were better balanced and used mostly equally throughout
thank you for your service king like, really, ive been watching your vids since your splatoon 2 weapon vids, its amazing seeing you and your channel grow :)
You may not be able to pet the doggies but sometimes when you stand in front of them and spin in a circle they will do it too and its very cute when they do (I don't know what criteria needs to be met to make them do it tho ;_; )
One small note on rain: If you do all of the side quests for the newspaper, you will get a full clothing set that, when powered up by the Great Fairies by 2 levels, will nullify all slipping on surfaces.
Honestly I've been feeling a bit down on the game lately. Like you said it's not a perfect game (cus nothing is, obviously) and I have been letting some of the issues I have with it sour my overall perception of it. This video helped me refocus on the far, far more amazing things that I love about it. Literally about to go grab my switch and jump back in. Thanks
Same, I’ve watched so many reviews shrouded in negativity considering this game, and while I agree with their points, I didn’t like that my opinion about the game overall was being warped because of a few negative points I agreed with, this vid and vids like it which praise totk help me appreciate the game more simply, I wouldn’t have put over 120 hours into it if I didn’t like it.
@@connorsanders7546 well put. Criticism is important, but sometimes I have to remind myself to turn the critic part of my brain off and just have a good time
I just started playing skyward sword again after beating Tears and man I miss the linear game play crammed to the brim with an engaging story and an overworld that are extensions of great dungeons. Also key items that can be upgraded with monster parts
it's an amazing zelda. I really don't know why a lot of people trash it. it has the best story, the best dungeons, some of the best bosses in zelda, one of the most well designed overworlds(albeit, a little basic) and some of the most effective reuses of an overworld I've seen. reused each area 3 times, and each time they changed the way you played through it in a way that was fun and engaging.
@@MG-mh8xpThe iffy motion controls, empty sky areas, annoying companion character (thought she was fine but talked too much) and the dungeon/boss recycling were the major reasons I seen. They had to create a new Wii mote just to get accurate controls back then. Now that it's on the switch we got the amiibo fast travel controversy to gripe about. Feature shouldn't have been locked behind paid "dlc" after charging full price for the game. I don't hate Skyward sword but it was definitely a one and done Zelda game for me. It definitely had it's moments and story beats but the other parts just dragged it down for me.
@@deet917 the motion controls were absolutely fine for the most part. It was the best the wii had to offer. The sky isn't as empty as people say it is, and there was only one boss that they really "reused" and each time, the imprisoned was changed up. There's also Girahim, but he was completely changed each fight as well.
"Enjoy the game now before in 6 months to a year when all the internet think pieces come out telling you it was bad, actually" You were off by about 2 months. Either way, this still aged like fine wine 🍷
Totk is probably my favorite 3d zelda game, and might be my favorite zelda game overall (previously minish cap). I don't mind 3d zelda going forward like this but im still holding some hope we will at least see 2d zelda games using more of the old formula, if they even get made anymore lol.
I understand that good graphics aren't everything but having a good framerate is a good thing and when the game struggles to stay at a consistent 30 thats a issue this is also a criticism for the switches outdated graphics cause at this point theres litterally phones which are smaller than the switch that are 3× more powerful
@@brucelee3343 well thats what I said. but even back than there were phones still more powerful I got the switch at launch. I remember fortnite was big back than so around 2018 when Fortnite came out on the switch i got it cause all my friends were playing it. Anyways I took my switch to school and my friends were playing fortnite so I decided to join them they were playing the game on their iPhones and I know they didn't have the latest iphones they probably had one like a generation behind the newest one at the time at most (in 2018) and they were getting 1080p 60fps and the graphics themselves were on par with the switch version maybe even better on their iphones while I was getting 30fps and 720p. So anyways Powerful phones have been around for awhile
@@whomstedery The switch was likely being made with a chip that was made in 2015. Even if an iphone was one generation earlier than in 2018 it's using something that was 2 years later than what the Switch was using. I remember during this time, phone chip tech was advancing really fast, so 2 years was actually quite a big gap of time. It's also likely that fortnite was not built with Nintnedo switch's hardware in mind when it was made. I don't know how Unreal Engine interacts with the Switch's system. There may be things in there that can interfere with Unreal Engine, that you may have to change the settings more than just making it more low res. That's what I think anyways. You're free to disagree. That said though, I do wish the Nintendo Switch was more powerful so we can have smoother gameplay. Graphics wise, I don't really care, haha. I can play something that looks simple as long as the gameplay is fun for me.
@@brucelee3343 the switch was the first Nintendo console that could natively support unreal engine 4 and 3 i know that for sure cause it was talked about alot when the switch first came out cause the wii u was really hard to port to
@@whomstedery I see. Well, I don't know why the game has to run at such low res and frame rate then, haha. Maybe it's just the chip is much older than anything after 2018 so it's just much weaker. Just cause something can natively support something, doesn't mean it will run well on it.
Easiest way to find cherry blossoms is enduro carrots on the shrine finder. But the tundra cherry tree is on the very far left mountain pass if you're looking at the map.
If you talk to Impa after completing all the tears of the dragon, she will talk to you about the ancient tapestry - and she explains that the calamity was the attempt of a revival of ganondorf in the form of pure malice (hence why dark beast ganon is called 'hatred and malice incarnate').
Im still a little on the fence about how i feel about BotW. There are things i love about it and things i dont... That said, Tears of the Kingdom fuckin ruled. I had a blast with it. I am very interested to see what the devs will be able to do on stronger hardware too. It's a miracle Tears ran as well as it did on the switch
Thank you for bringing up the wealth of indy Zelda-likes out there. There's a definitely devs willing to help scratch that old itch, but I wonder if people end up passing them up just because they don't have the brand name attached. Is it linear dungeon crawlers with item based progression and musical puzzles they crave? Or are they really just that invested in the dude with a green hat?
I absolutely love this game, but I still prefer traditional Zelda. I genuinely love going through dungeons, grabbing keys, getting dungeon items and exploring unique dungeons and fighting unique bosses. I don't want this to be the norm for the series. I also don't agree with the "Good game but not a good Zelda game" take but the bit about it emulating the openness of the original Zelda game doesn't really work since it's the ONLY game in the series to be open before BotW (maybe a Link Between Worlds). Every following game was linear and what would later be considered "traditional." Froggy Armor upgrade bonus makes you immune to slipping while climbing in the rain.
i know you were being hyperbolic but what is so "tasteless" about appreciating a classic zelda dungeon where you have to go through a series of linear challenges to progress through a tightly designed level? wouldnt it be awesome to have an open world zelda where you are free to do whatever you want in the overworld but also have more restrictive and linear dungeons where you get served a very particular and meticulously crafted meal so to speak. i feel like we could have the best of both worlds this way. i mean imagine if bob-omb battlefield had the star right where you begin but also a cannon at the top of the mountain which just shoots you back to the start of the level. thats kinda how a lot of the puzzles in this game feel like and thats awesome how many ways there are to reach the goal. but is it really so hard to understand what makes a linear level fun? you were trying way too hard to be all smug and funny at the end there.
For the spinning thing in the water temple, I was trying to use the reverse time thing to get it to freeze, but eventually I just ended up doing what you did. My sister used bullet time to shoot it, which seems a lot easier than the mess I went through.
I have a lot to say about this game, which probably speaks to its quality and importance in the overall game world. I think it's generally a pretty divisive game, it just happens to be capturing the zeitgeist of modern gaming so perfectly, that most people that still play and enjoy video games regularly are going to like it. For me, it simply did not hit. I found the building frustrating, the combat outright bad, the shrines were fun at first but quickly became extremely boring, and I just didn't feel motivated to explore at all. I feel like the nature of the weapon degradation and how rare armor is made rewards feel almost useless like 60% of the time. My pre-fuse weapons were almost always better than the weapons I would find in chests, so I didn't really see the point in going for them eventually. I usually tried to, because I chronically needed arrows, but it was a constant cycle of disappointment. Idk what to tell the people that love this game, they seem so upset that some people just don't vibe with it. Sorry I suppose.
Legos. I enjoyed Zelda TOTK but I didn't enjoy the abilities as much as I enjoyed BOTW's. I know it's a me thing when the main point of the game is a burden for me which is building stuff. I founf building stuff cool in sections when it was meant to be or directly hinted or implied whereas in the overworld I found building boring. It breaks the pace for me, I don't like life simulators, Animal crossing or Minecraft and I felt this game was Zelda Minecraft in a big chunk. Fusing is enemies dropping a weapon and then you gotta go the item and fuse it, so you gotta stop everytime you want a new weapon, building is cool but I'd rather be moving and I know ou have the fast-building thing but I don't enjoy going for Zonaite so it's painful for me anyways, Recall is lit tho. Sky is overly repetitive and The underground is... even more and dull to play in... The most fun part was the surface actually for me and I felt kinda disappointed given that the sky was heavily promoted? Anyway, enjoy your games Edit: I forgot to mention I LOVED the lore scattered all across the world
I managed to seqeunce break a ton on my second playthrough of the Great Sky Island, but I wound up getting lost and assuming I'd skipped a shrine only to go through it the proper way and find out that my skip had actually worked causing me to waste even more time than if I'd just followed the intended path. Not overly intuitive.
The voice acting was definitely the weakest part of the game, like stepping on a pile of Legos. But I guess that might be just the English voice acting, partially because NoA refuses to unionize the English voice production.
You really could have trimmed down the amount of "wait-s" and "hold on-s" but a good video nonetheless. It's interesting to see the things you like about it are the ones I dislike, such as the partner Korok missions.
Ik it's 1000% a me thing but I love having to individual arm arrows It has the same feeling as an active reload mechanic in a shooter Also feels like a way to make spaming special arrows a bit less convenient
It's funny because I'm only annoyed by it outside of battle, like I like to see the amount of what I'm using every time, feels like I'm managing my resources even though I have over 100 of everything
I'm tired but have some main counterpoints: Original Zelda isn't as open as BOTW . Original Zelda had item based progression, areas you can only access with items you get in dungeons and you need to finish some dungeons before others. If you didn't play OG Zelda you probably felt for BOTW marketing campaing. For a lot of people, myself included, shrines have nothing to do with dungeons. Dungeons aren't about solving random puzzles with no context. They are about the layout, the traversal, the different enemies you don't find in the overworld and lore implications. They feel like an adventure. I can't feel creative if what it takes for me to solve a puzzle is attaching a rocket to a shield. And I will not waste my time trying to be creative if the challenge doesn't require it. While I have nostalgia for some 3d Zelda games I played Wind Waker for the first time after my thirties and near BOTW. For what I like about games Wind Waker was vastly superior experience. Don't agree that Zelda isn't about story when you have games like Oot, MM, WW and TP. They have depth, weight, the subtext is rich, and know when to avoid dumb exposition. They knew how to connect with some lore elements without looking awkward or trying to retcon stuff. While I dislike the way the story is told in BOTW/TOTK I think that the drop in quality began with SS(which I played before WW btw). And it's not about traditional being better or not. It's about different gameplay priorities. Some people just can't stand old style dungeon. I, for example, can't stand mining Zonaite because I want to use an item. Or doing a random puzzle with no context because I need a spirit orb. Or needing to interact with repetitiveness of korok seeds because I need inventory space.
The rant about the most common zelda critques fhat aren't really critiques but are instead a reflection of nostalgia at the end was really funny amd was all that needes to be said LMAO
52:52 Actually, Tauro has been ridiculously popular among the gay community to the point where just about every gay NSFW artist under the sun has done Tauro content. You've just not seen it.
57:52 I will never stop saying this. YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE EVERY SAGE ABILITY EQUIPPED, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO TURN THEM ON ONLY WHEN YOU NEED THAT ABILITY SPECIFICALLY
Dangit now I'm just thinking about how cool a Legos Zonai set would be... Surely after all those Mario sets we deserve a cool Zelda one, right.... right??
I took a break from playing TotK to watch this video but pausing at ~12 mins in to avoid further spoilers since I only started a couple weeks ago and am pretty early in the story. Sure there are times when I am annoyed by things in this game but I also am just as deeply obsessed as I was with BotW. I am amazed at how they've managed to take all the familiar things and make them new and exciting to explore again. I love jumping down wells!!!
I feel like Zelda are worth more if they have a better story, gameplay can be great all it wants but having a boring story only makes a game half memorable.
I think most people struggled with that shrine (myself included) cause in the beginning you have a ton of building shrines back to back because the devs wanna make sure that you understand what you can do and how you can do it and that is one where you have to manage more elements and physics stuff but after that is all downhill. Re: Dungeons I'm with you there. I used to like them and look back at them with nostalgia but playing some of them now can be miserable especially after botw/totk, they bring the pacing of the game to a crawl, some are too obtuse, meandering and overcomplicated just for the sake of one upping themselves. I for once appreciate the linearity and simplicity of the shadow temple after the water. Methinks totk stroke a good balance between the theme, size and open endedness.
I love dungeons in all Zelda games, though I get stuck in most of them and can't solve them on my own, they all give a feeling of stepping on an ancient place, or you are the only one who can fix the situation at the moment
Totk is my first Zelda game and it's so fun and addicting, to the point where I tried to use ascend in other games (splatoon and sunbreak) Also made me cancel my order on wolf link amiibo cause... reasons
As someone who started with BOTW cause…I got spoiled pretty quickly and just watched the story. The tutorial is pretty good to me, I got distracted numerous times just grabbing weapons cause I already know that stuff is gonna break easy peasy. Like they focused more on the new mechanics cause that is some creative mode shiz. Tbh Link being slow was like something I was okay with cause I play games where each area had hella long loading screens. So the fact I could *move* while managing my stamina kept me sane… until I realized the free arrow thingey required stamina.
We know it has been at least 7 years 9 months because of Maddison daughter of Hudson and Rhonson is 7 years old and if you speedrun the tarry town quest line and the honeymoon night events where the first night and you killed ganon right after the union of Hudson and Rhonson, then 7 years and 9 months are the minimum amount of time or if Maddison was born the day of the union it would still be 7 years making link and Zelda 125 years and X+125 years respectively.
regarding the purah pad camera plot hole, the camera function wasn't available when you were first given it and the only surviving pictures are the ones taken before the upheaval. just a guess but the camera function was probably lost somehow when zelda travelled to the past, meaning that she couldn't use it
I’ve come to the personal conclusion that for Totk, it’s my favorite game to play casually. I’m doing a no paraglider run right now and it’s been a blast. Did you know that you take no fall damage when riding on the rocks that fall off sky islands? It was something I got to learn through trial and error. When I find a chasm, I can ride one of those rocks to the bottom. I’m one of those types of people that likes to set my own challenges in games, so it works out for me. But I am in the camp of people who think its story is kinda crap. The repetitive champion scenes offer nothing, and I generally cared mostly for botw’s environmental story telling. Totk has a few spots of interest, but areas like the depths are super bare, and the sky islands generally don’t tell much story either.
The problem with the performance has nothing to do with if the game can run at 200 fps or have ray tracing or anything. It's that just playing the game, the framerate can dip down to like 20 fps, which is super annoying and jarring. This is coming from somebody who doesn't have anything more powerful than switch. It's like you were trying to piss people off by saying that their opinions are invalid because you don't agree with them, which you do multiple times in this video by the way. I do miss the old Zelda games Astro, I miss the fun items and real puzzles (rocket shield go brrr), and yes, even the small keys. Nintendo can at the very least bring back 2d zelda (there seriously hasn't been a new one since triforce heroes!) but until then, you're entitles to your opinion, but wish you wouldn't trash on the opinions of other people :(
Honestly wasn't the biggest fan of BoTW - the annoying way that they scale combat combined with the generally boring sidequests made me end up coming to find it thoroughly meh - so i dien't plan on playing totk at all. Dunno if I will, but the insights from this video were interesting. Solid Captain Astronaut vid
I do actually miss traditional dungeons though-I like the “puzzle box” style and layering upon layering of the puzzles. To each his or her own, though!
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Sorry I use Ecosia
how about *no* (also legos)
What's the background Music at 57:33 ?
You're advertising chinese spyware. Literally. Opera's parent company is Chinese, and in China, it is law that all corporations that are headquartered in China must give the Chinese governement access to all user data the company has. And OperaGX not only has the most barebones privacy settings possible, but it being closed source (like most browsers.) means we can't really know what data it is sending to Opera's servers. And on top of that, its performance is awful. It consumes more ram than chrome, because it is just chrome with extra bloat! Like most browsers (with the exception of safari and firefox), it's just built on chromium, which is basically just a stripped down chrome browser to then build a browser on top of.
i didnt realize this video was an hour long until about 10-15 minutes in, but that just makes it even better bc this is an absolute treat mr spaceman, good stuff
I just about finished the vid and didn't even realize it was an hour
Bro me too 🤠🤠
Bruh that was an hour!?
auby pfp!!😮
@@LuminoX688 thanks, i drew it myself
In regards to it feeling like enemies ranking up faster: if you haven't found out yet, this is because unlike in BotW, in TotK, you gain extra "rank up" points after defeating enemies if you used perfect dodges/flurry rushes or parries, performed headshots or don't get hit. So if you're regularly playing competently against enemies, they definitely will rank up faster than in BotW.
That's actually really cool wow
That’s… freaking genius.. omg
The gamespot guy trashing skyward sword and giving it a 9.1 is absolutely hilarious
One of my most memorable experiences in TOTK was stumbling onto the spirit temple way before I was supposed to in the main quest. All the NPCs at lookout landing were like, "We need to find the last sage!.. Wait, you've already done that? Uh, okay, well... we also need to find the master sword- you mean you have that too?! Why didn't you tell us?!!" The game totally lets you do things in the order that YOU want, and that's awesome.
OMG i loved finding the spirit temple early, not even realizing that it was a part of the main story. i only finished two main dungeons before deciding i wanted to explore some cool corner of the map i hadn't yet- only to *accidentally* discover a huge chunk of the main game without being pointed to it! what a cool game
I found the spirit temple first and the game wouldn't let me even start the mask escort
@@mafiaboss3077 yeah because you didn't have enough hearts
@@SSukram_ if you need a certain amount of hearts the game didn't communicate that at all. Unless you mean the door, which I did have enough hearts for.
@@mafiaboss3077 oh I don't know why it didn't work for you then, probably a bug
Caves can be found easily by taking a picture of a blupee or the bubblefrog and sensing for that instead of shrines, the blupees are found by the entrance of each cave. There are so many little things like this in the game that absolutely change how you play and explore.
WHAT
It’s better to assign the sensor to Bubbulfrogs instead, as not every cave has a blupee
@@Isuream6331especially when you want to find a cave you haven't explored yet while backtracking.
@@Isuream6331 I usually set it to blupees so I can specifically find the cave entrance, since the bubbulfrog is not necessarily going to be helpful in finding the cave
Yep, I have set it as the Bubbulfrog to locate caves, though I will start setting it up as Blupees as users say to find cave entrances
This game solidified BOTW/AOC/TOTK's Princess Zelda as my favorite version of the character. Learning how she was living her life in the time between BOTW and TOTK establishing a research team and a school (the details of her time as a teacher and how she bonded with the kids are so adorable) and how she ultimately puts everything literally on the line for her kingdom really resonated with me emotionally.
Everything you said is true.
Spirit Tracks Zelda is the best Zelda because she can possess Phantoms. Same reason Mineru is best girl. Mechs are just the coolest
I agree! She's wonderful. I love the detail that she became a school teacher in Hateno so much
@GeneralOlde I think it also helps that she has actual personality traits, a pretty believable amount of anxiety in both games, and desperation to make an impact but is also like a massive history nerd dork with an arc to go through and decisions she decides to make on her own, not just following a designated plot line other characters tell her about (which is the main thing preventing me from liking SS Zelda more).
"Given that central hyrule was...you know."
You can say "like detroit" nobody will blame you
26:17 "why don't you raytrace some bitches" has got to be one of the funniest insults I've ever heard
For anyone looking for a lesson in what "committing to the bit" really means, the entire Korok Space Program segment is a masterclass
you can get the froggy armor upgraded to level 2 by a great fairy to get the permanent no slip buff, that way you will literally never slip again, even when jumping
As someone who didn't play BotW, I felt like the tutorialization was sufficient and didn't overstay its welcome, except when it came to the bullet time bow thing. I don't think I ran into a single tutorial for that and I got pretty stuck on the Water Temple where it's (kind of) required.
I think one shrine teaches it but I'm not sure.
I believe there isa shrine for that but you might not have gone there yet. It had something to do with a ball dropping and you had to dive at just the right time and snipe the trigger for the ball hole
I mean, while I did do bullet time, couldn't you recall it? Anything that moves/rotates can be recalled.
Bro I didn't know about bullet time until the final boss of botw where it's required
@@squidbro6635 wouldnt it just recall at the same rotary speed? unless you time it correctly
I think I'm in the majority with saying that yes, I noticed that the story is in many ways extremely similar to BotW... but it just feels stronger, more emotionally resonant, through taking more time with setup and payoff. Like how Zelda's sacrifice is set up and paid off over multiple scenes instead of just "oh and now Zelda went and did this thing" like in BotW. Setting up the dragon at the beginning of the game, then telling us "how to become dragon" through the Mineru flashback, then Rauru setting up that there must be a reason Zelda is here, all while the game has been misdirecting you to think Zelda is in the present doing shady stuff in each region, and the echo of Zelda's voice saying "Link, you must find me" looking to *right* after the real dragon has briefly appeared, yet misdirecting you to thinking she's talking about going to Lookout Landing - there's a lot of detail to love, here! And there's several ways you can figure out the story's main twist. Either by watching the memories or by piecing together things through exploration and finding the dragon on your own. I did a combination of both, meeting the Light Dragon after watching the 4th memory and getting a strong sense that I knew what was going on, without being sure. It created great tension, as I waited and waited for the reveal. There's also great ludonarrative moments like how when you finally catch Zelda in the end, you're DOING IT as the player instead of just watching a cutscene. My hands were shaking a little, it was such a good moment.
Gotta say, watching Zelda turn into a dragon in the final memory gave me CHILLS (despite guessing earlier that she indeed was the dragon)
Everybody all about Purah but nobody taking a glance at Rauru.
I mean, look at the midriff on that man! 😤
Great video overall! I do disagree a bit with you on the classic dungeon take. Simplifying classic Zelda dungeons down to just puzzles is reductive, I think. They were unique settings that were usually themed in various fun ways through music, and environmental design, as well as puzzles and monsters to fight. I do think the dungeons in TOTK were more like classic Zelda dungeons, but overall they still kinda just felt like parts of the over world, rather than a separate setting within the world. Also, I feel like classic dungeons had more variety, two of the TOTK dungeons were just more sky islands. Whereas in like, Twilight Princess, one of the dungeons is a sky island, another is a wintery mansion, another is an ancient temple, another is a burial ground, etc etc. I just think there's definitely more to these dungeons than completing puzzles, especially when the shrine setting gets boring fast.
Here's my take on it. Zelda dungeons have always had three key components:
- Micro puzzles about accomplishing short-term goals (e.g., "how do I use my new boomerang to open this locked door?")
- Macro puzzles, usually about navigation or manipulating the dungeon itself (e.g., "how do I manipulate the water levels in the Water Temple to get where I need to go?")
- Aesthetics in the design and placement of the dungeon in the world (e.g., Arbiter's Grounds feeling like a literal tomb/trial grounds and not just a random building)
There's other stuff, like memorable boss battles, but those are the big structural ones.
The most memorable dungeons in Zelda are the ones that do a good job at all three things, or excel at one in particular. The Sandship in Skyward Sword comes to mind: good micro puzzles on a room-to-room basis, good macro navigational puzzles with using the one available time crystal, good aesthetics of being on a literal ship and doing some ship things.
The Divine Beasts in BotW did a great job at micro and macro puzzles, but the aesthetics suffered for being same-y looking chambers with the same bland color palette and the same style of boss each time.
The temples in TotK had great micro puzzles and great aesthetics, but there weren't really macro puzzles tying them together (with the possible exception of navigating with the mine carts in the Fire Temple).
when you talked about the music and then never said anything about the wind temple bosses theme 😭. that shit is so fire
They went crazy with the Dragon Roost theme. One of the high points of the game for me.
44:53, bullet time is the "intended" solution here
Obviously, this is gonna be my game of the year but there's plenty I wish they did differently. Most of my major Issues with ToTK at this point though come down to UX issues with how you use the sage abilities (Sidon's Water Shield has a decent amount of utility but it's super held back by having to run up to him) and how enemy variety wasn't really expanded enough to fill out the game's world well enough. I also wish there were fewer but longer shrines. Basically combine shrines of similar concepts to make a large shrine similar to ones like Shrine of Power or Blue Flame in BoTW where it's a more substantial mini dungeon with a core theme that escalates in complexity over time. Instead we have a ton of fun but very short shrines that are often just 2 or 3 basic puzzles often with the first puzzle feeling more like a tutorial for how something works than anything. Still good but it's not quite scratching that dungeon itch super well.
Also great job on this review, Captain! One of your best videos yet.
Im one of the few people who played Tears without playing botw, but the building and physics mechanics were so intuitive, it was as easy and fun as playing w legos
20:42 "also, you will never need to do that" there's a shrine that needs you to do that to unlock it, actually.
As for Link being famous... yeah no. Dude is anxious as *heck,* he'd rather just be in the background.
Regarding Sidon's ability? With his ability, Zora weapons become the actual best weapon class in the game. Double damage, both base and fuse, while you're wet, which the water shield counts as, without the fuse durability malus Gerudo weapons have. Sure, not the strongest weapon _period,_ that comes from, iunno, molduga jaw glued to the scimitar of the seven while in ganon cosplay, but that thing always looked like something out of a lego kit to me, not a big fan.
Also tbh like obviously the situation is different, but with any famous person or royalty, can anyone name any of their guards? I doubt it
Link has Tony Hawk Syndrome. There’s so much, “wow, you have the same name as the Hero,” and “what a coincidence, Zelda’s chosen swordsman has the same name!”
@@Gloomdrake if you think about it, Link is also probably in actuality a super popular Hylian name too
@@Ross516 all the parents and grandparents naming their kids after the legendary hero who saved the world would explain why all the heroes have the same name. Heck, that's even Linkle's backstory. Her grandmother _really_ wanted to have one of the heroes be descended from her, and she noticed that they were all named Link, so she figured it was a prerequisite and named her child(ren) and granddaughter accordingly
the connection between ganondorf and calamity ganon imo is that calamity ganon formed time and time again from ganondorfs eternal hatred while he was sealed which is why its the Hatred and Malice Incarnate and why none of it actually looks anything like ganondorf, its just his uncontrollable rage that would unleash from his living corpse time and time again
Based "the Comet Observatory was boring and empty and Starship Mario was way better because it didn't waste your time" opinion haver
Yes, this was my takeaway
51:02 the Geoglyph quest, which is a main quest, takes you to the forgotten temple, which shows you the order of the Geoglyph on the wall of the room that shows you their place on the map
That’s cool, except nothing tells you that the geoglyphs are arranged in order. Some, like me, might be focused on the map and not even realise the geoglyphs are on the wall at all
The statue shows the order as well?? Dang I may be blind
How are you supposed to know this? The obvious thing to focus on is the big thing in the center of the room. Really could’ve made this clearer
@@Isuream6331Impa literally tells you it. Like, either play the game and then complain, or don't play it and don't complain. Don't not play the game and then complain, it's pathetic.
@@EliteCPR Have you not heard the countless stories of people who did the geoglyphs out of order? They are the same colour as the regular wall, it’s extremely easy to miss. Also, once again, nothing indicates they have an order
FYI a maxed out horse IS faster than a zonai car. The zonai car is just cooler and you're not slaving away cooking for the Horse God 🤓.
Otherwise great vid
EDIT: Lego's, also if you get the froggy armor and level it up twice it gives you the ability to climb without slipping
It depends on your car build. If you make something insane, like attaching a sideways balloon to the back to catch the blasts from a backwards-facing cannon, the recoil from its physics-breaking ridiculousness can send you launching across the Central Plains at ludicrous speed.
But horses still are a pain to move around and you can project the vehicle anywhere if you have the zonaite, which you do in most cases
A lot of the solutions to problems are bandaid fixes you need to actively fix and chose to do instead of just being better and it’s sad
I agree with you that games do not need to be running at 32k 200fps with ray tracing on to be enjoyable. However, IT IS a legitimate complaint when the game cannot even maintain 30 fps consistently. Dropping from 30 fps to 20 is VERY noticeable and can make many people motion sick
Fun fact, you actually get the same exact amount of propulsion regardless of how many rockets you use so there's never any need to use more rockets outside of weight distribution!
Hah hah, we wasted hundreds of rockets!
If you use the floaty rocks you find near sky islands multiple rockets will give you more momentum, but after 4-5 you pretty much go the same distance even if you add more.
“Insert cash or select payment type” 😂😂😂
Just watched this video and that got me rolling.
totk was my first zelda game (shocking, i know) and I can confidently say that the sky tutorial section did an AMAZING job at teaching me the basics of the game. It had the perfect balance of telling me what to do, and letting me do my own thing. I caught on to all the other game mechanics within an hour of landing in hyrule. This is a phenomenal game.
I saw someone talk about the BotW menus/UI being designed for the WiiU where you always had a menu open on the pad, and then they had to adapt that to the Switch because they were too far in development to change it. I feel like when they were working on TotK, they were using the same engine and everything, so they had to adapt it again to these new systems. If they built a whole new game (which would have taken a lot more time/money) I think the menus would have been better.
Climbing in rain is *almost* not a problem depending on how far you're going. The slip is always after four steps so jump *at* the 4th step and you don't lose as much of your progress. This takes stamina but also who doesn't max out stamina first lmao
Thank god this video is short
I don’t have time for hour long reviews
The fact that Ganondorf talks like a Dragon ball Z villain, and doesn’t have much screentime is my story nitpick
The fact that the elemental attack up armour only activates their abilities when it’s hot/cold/stormy and offers NO protection to said elements is my gameplay nitpick
I think the elemental armor thing is just balancing. You get a very powerful weather based buff but you have to suffer the effects of said weather. Risk and reward. Besides you can also use other means to mitigate the downsides or just eliminate them entirely
I really liked cheesy evil ganon. The healthbar growing off to the right made me laugh but also my inner 8 year old was like "that is so badass"
This might be the first time I've seen someone who shares pretty much the same opinion on traditional dungeons as me.
There are quite a few vocal Zelda fans out there who seem to feel that having long, traditional dungeons is an absolute make or break for the series, but I feel similarly to you here - they were decent and I never disliked them, they were sometimes fun and memorable, but they were often something I felt I needed to "get out of the way" to continue my adventure. I'd sometimes finish a dungeon and feel more of a relief that it's over than a feeling of excitement or accomplishment.
The heart of the series for me has always been about traversing and exploring the overworld. I remember in my teenage years when I was closely following the development of an upcoming 3D game, one of the biggest talking points was always how big the overworld would be this time around - "I heard rumours that TP's overworld will be 5x the size of Ocarina of Time!" etc. Teenage me only *dreamed* of exploring an overworld as big as the one in TotK.
I must disagree with your position on the opening, I thought the opening was excellent, it provided a stark contrast to botw, set up atmosphere and stakes, and gave the player a moment to soak up the eeriness and hype of finally being able to play through the very first look of the game back in 2019
this game and BotW reminds me when I was little the created the most absurd stuff with LEGOs. It was incredible
You know when it comes to weapon durability, I feel like you were really reductive when approaching why people dislike it. Personally it represents to me a fundamental difference between what the developers are trying to do and what I like about video games, open world games, and about the other Zelda games too. It's not just "wah wah, my weapon broke" it's "nothing I find is truly special and enduring".
In like Skyrim, when I find something special, that item becomes an enduring memory of the experience of finding that thing. That type of permanence and growth is very important to me in video games, it's a mechanical display of how my actions matter to this world and a reminder of how I got to where I am. The ephemerality of these games robs these individual items and experiences of long-term importance and significance, it makes it so that it feels like nothing I find or accomplish matters. Everything you find in the other Zelda games matters, it's permanent evidence of your accomplishment and your continuously growing skillset. And not just items, but every ability and tool and discovery is an enduring thing that makes a show of how far I've come. To me, what was important about Zelda was not the adventure of it, it was the progression of it. That's what I loved about these games that is just so severely scaled back to make room for this do anything you want sandbox. I understand what people like about it, it's kind of sad that I cannot get that same courtesy in turn when I express what I dislike about it.
Maybe the old formula was stale, but to me that wasn't a reason to throw it out, it was a reason to enrich it. This is why Twilight Princess endures so much in my brain, because it was the step in that direction that no other game continued.
Point is, weapons in ToTK aren't supposed to be special _or_ enduring. They're just that. Weapons.
@@LineOfThy Y-Yeah, that's the problem. Did you read everything I said?
@@nikidelvalle not problem is point
@@LineOfThy Yeah, again, that's the problem. Seriously did you not read what I said at all? Why do you think I do not understand this, or that it would even be relevant if I didn't?
ToTK somehow did the impossible which was keep me fully engaged for a solid 95 hours which to some might sound like chump numbers but to me is an actual miracle. I'm someone who usually wraps up a game around the 50-60 hour mark because I start to feel myself getting burned out (especially if it's open world) but this game I only made myself complete so I wouldn't have to dodge spoilers every time I wanted to watch a video talking about it.
TOTK is held together with black magic and duck tape. I'm constantly amazed that my Gen 1 switch doesnt blow up or melt in my hands when i whip out a complex creation.
44:52 You can just use your bow in mid air to activate bullet time
Plus you needed to throw water to it first, I got there like "I need something to slow it down, do I ha...oh", used bullet time and felt like a genius lol
27:35 the enemy scaling system from BOTW was slightly changed for TOTK and you will encounter better weaapons and stronger enemies sooner if you are more "skillful" when defeating enemies (parry, flurry rush, headshot, perfect fight).
I feel like I missed something huge with this game. I played botw for 170 hours, did all the shrines, found a reasonable 500ish korok seeds. Was very thorough and loved a lot about it. But I just didn't get it in tears. Like I spent the whole game trying to find the new content and found almost nothing. Enemy variety is almost worse considering there's no guardians anymore and most of the enemies added are throwaways that aren't engaging whatsoever. There's some high points doing the main 4 dungeons here and there but doing them feels like you're rushing through the game because of how short and unsubstantial they are to the bigger picture. I visited all the main towns and did their shallow side quests, did about 65ish shrines, found enough koroks to have comfortable inventory space. Visited most of the sky islands and filled out about 80% of the depths. And felt like the sky peaked during the tutorial and the depths were almost entirely empty. (With the only substantial rewards in the depths being almost all DLC or amiibo costumes from the first game).
Just felt like I was going through the motions in a way that it didn't feel like playing BotW. 60 hours in I just kinda went and finished the game because what was there even left to do? Grind out materials for more fairy upgrades? Do another 50 shrines for no reason? Find another 40 samey caves to get more shiny frog snowflakes to trade in for an outfit I won't even wear?
Idk botw felt like they tried really hard to avoid the pitfalls of the open world genre. They made the act of roaming around the landscape into THE POINT of the game. Shifting the focus off of that with tears makes sense as it's the same world and exploring it again in a sequel is just lame conceptually...But it puts the focus onto the kind of shallow ubisoft-style content you always see out of the genre. BotW felt like a very smart subversion of the genre, Tears feels like it's playing into everything BotW tried so hard to avoid.
And the major stand out mechanics that are seemingly what made the game take so long to make, didn't really do much for me. Feels like the building was more for viral marketting and a boatload of largely shallow shrine puzzles that feel more like tech demos for the idea than anything actually integral to the game's design. Banjo Nuts and Bolts had a way more expansive and intuitive vehicle creator and the game as actually designed entirely around them. Tears I rarely found making a vehicle or contraption actually optimal or even helpful. Outside of course the many times where they give you the pieces to make a very specific vehicle and you just kind of...do it. Which is just as shallow of a puzzle design as OOT's *move sun block into the sun* mindless "puzzles" for me.
BotW was made because they kept mindlessly magnifying issues with the old formula with each game. And I feel like they're already doing that with this new formula. Like 'Oh some people felt uninterested in the minimalistic music, dreadfully dull shrine aesthetics, and empty overworld gameplay with nothing but shallow content copy pasted everywhere? The sequel will feature the exact same music note for note, another batch of over 100 shrines, the same map but even emptier now that guardians aren't a thing, and an entire second map that's got even less going on, with new sidequest of *help guy keep his sign up* 85 times, or *jump into 58 wells*, or *transport 150 koroks from point A to B*. And now that monster parts are more important let's make you grind for tons of very specific ones to level up your armor instead of just charging money and letting you get that money from any source because botw was an open world game all about everything you do having value but we already forgot why botw was good so let's just make it tedious this time to pretend the 6 years of dev time were worth it.
Good video tho. Wonder how common it is for someone like me to have really like botw and thoroughly disliked tears. I just don't think "Wow can't wait to see how many different ways I can glue the same handful of objects together" when I think *Zelda game that took 6 years to make*.
I feel the exact same way. To add on, totk also feels like way more time is spent doing simple things (like puzzles) due to ultrahand. Plus, the fact that ultrahand is far and away the most used mechanic in the game also makes it get old sooooooo fast. In botw I felt like all four abilities were better balanced and used mostly equally throughout
thank you for your service king
like, really, ive been watching your vids since your splatoon 2 weapon vids, its amazing seeing you and your channel grow :)
My Lego inventions I made during kindergarten can finally do something.
I loved the final Boss it just made so much sense with the gameplay and story.
You may not be able to pet the doggies but sometimes when you stand in front of them and spin in a circle they will do it too and its very cute when they do (I don't know what criteria needs to be met to make them do it tho ;_; )
One small note on rain: If you do all of the side quests for the newspaper, you will get a full clothing set that, when powered up by the Great Fairies by 2 levels, will nullify all slipping on surfaces.
That and the Glide Set are both amazing and will make thing so much easier, and both don't need that much for the upgrades
21:19 For those who haven't watched Avatar, that is his actual name.
Honestly I've been feeling a bit down on the game lately. Like you said it's not a perfect game (cus nothing is, obviously) and I have been letting some of the issues I have with it sour my overall perception of it. This video helped me refocus on the far, far more amazing things that I love about it. Literally about to go grab my switch and jump back in. Thanks
Same, I’ve watched so many reviews shrouded in negativity considering this game, and while I agree with their points, I didn’t like that my opinion about the game overall was being warped because of a few negative points I agreed with, this vid and vids like it which praise totk help me appreciate the game more simply, I wouldn’t have put over 120 hours into it if I didn’t like it.
@@connorsanders7546 well put. Criticism is important, but sometimes I have to remind myself to turn the critic part of my brain off and just have a good time
I just started playing skyward sword again after beating Tears and man I miss the linear game play crammed to the brim with an engaging story and an overworld that are extensions of great dungeons. Also key items that can be upgraded with monster parts
it's an amazing zelda. I really don't know why a lot of people trash it. it has the best story, the best dungeons, some of the best bosses in zelda, one of the most well designed overworlds(albeit, a little basic) and some of the most effective reuses of an overworld I've seen. reused each area 3 times, and each time they changed the way you played through it in a way that was fun and engaging.
@@MG-mh8xpThe iffy motion controls, empty sky areas, annoying companion character (thought she was fine but talked too much) and the dungeon/boss recycling were the major reasons I seen. They had to create a new Wii mote just to get accurate controls back then. Now that it's on the switch we got the amiibo fast travel controversy to gripe about. Feature shouldn't have been locked behind paid "dlc" after charging full price for the game.
I don't hate Skyward sword but it was definitely a one and done Zelda game for me. It definitely had it's moments and story beats but the other parts just dragged it down for me.
@@deet917 the motion controls were absolutely fine for the most part. It was the best the wii had to offer. The sky isn't as empty as people say it is, and there was only one boss that they really "reused" and each time, the imprisoned was changed up. There's also Girahim, but he was completely changed each fight as well.
"Enjoy the game now before in 6 months to a year when all the internet think pieces come out telling you it was bad, actually"
You were off by about 2 months. Either way, this still aged like fine wine 🍷
Totk is probably my favorite 3d zelda game, and might be my favorite zelda game overall (previously minish cap). I don't mind 3d zelda going forward like this but im still holding some hope we will at least see 2d zelda games using more of the old formula, if they even get made anymore lol.
I understand that good graphics aren't everything but having a good framerate is a good thing and when the game struggles to stay at a consistent 30 thats a issue this is also a criticism for the switches outdated graphics cause at this point theres litterally phones which are smaller than the switch that are 3× more powerful
sure, but those phones came out recently. not 7 years ago.
@@brucelee3343 well thats what I said. but even back than there were phones still more powerful I got the switch at launch. I remember fortnite was big back than so around 2018 when Fortnite came out on the switch i got it cause all my friends were playing it. Anyways I took my switch to school and my friends were playing fortnite so I decided to join them they were playing the game on their iPhones and I know they didn't have the latest iphones they probably had one like a generation behind the newest one at the time at most (in 2018) and they were getting 1080p 60fps and the graphics themselves were on par with the switch version maybe even better on their iphones while I was getting 30fps and 720p. So anyways Powerful phones have been around for awhile
@@whomstedery
The switch was likely being made with a chip that was made in 2015. Even if an iphone was one generation earlier than in 2018 it's using something that was 2 years later than what the Switch was using. I remember during this time, phone chip tech was advancing really fast, so 2 years was actually quite a big gap of time.
It's also likely that fortnite was not built with Nintnedo switch's hardware in mind when it was made. I don't know how Unreal Engine interacts with the Switch's system. There may be things in there that can interfere with Unreal Engine, that you may have to change the settings more than just making it more low res.
That's what I think anyways. You're free to disagree.
That said though, I do wish the Nintendo Switch was more powerful so we can have smoother gameplay.
Graphics wise, I don't really care, haha. I can play something that looks simple as long as the gameplay is fun for me.
@@brucelee3343 the switch was the first Nintendo console that could natively support unreal engine 4 and 3 i know that for sure cause it was talked about alot when the switch first came out cause the wii u was really hard to port to
@@whomstedery I see.
Well, I don't know why the game has to run at such low res and frame rate then, haha.
Maybe it's just the chip is much older than anything after 2018 so it's just much weaker.
Just cause something can natively support something, doesn't mean it will run well on it.
Easiest way to find cherry blossoms is enduro carrots on the shrine finder. But the tundra cherry tree is on the very far left mountain pass if you're looking at the map.
there is also a map of all the positions in the stable near the great plateau.
If you talk to Impa after completing all the tears of the dragon, she will talk to you about the ancient tapestry - and she explains that the calamity was the attempt of a revival of ganondorf in the form of pure malice (hence why dark beast ganon is called 'hatred and malice incarnate').
Im still a little on the fence about how i feel about BotW. There are things i love about it and things i dont...
That said, Tears of the Kingdom fuckin ruled. I had a blast with it. I am very interested to see what the devs will be able to do on stronger hardware too. It's a miracle Tears ran as well as it did on the switch
Thank you for bringing up the wealth of indy Zelda-likes out there. There's a definitely devs willing to help scratch that old itch, but I wonder if people end up passing them up just because they don't have the brand name attached. Is it linear dungeon crawlers with item based progression and musical puzzles they crave? Or are they really just that invested in the dude with a green hat?
I absolutely love this game, but I still prefer traditional Zelda. I genuinely love going through dungeons, grabbing keys, getting dungeon items and exploring unique dungeons and fighting unique bosses.
I don't want this to be the norm for the series.
I also don't agree with the "Good game but not a good Zelda game" take but the bit about it emulating the openness of the original Zelda game doesn't really work since it's the ONLY game in the series to be open before BotW (maybe a Link Between Worlds). Every following game was linear and what would later be considered "traditional."
Froggy Armor upgrade bonus makes you immune to slipping while climbing in the rain.
i know you were being hyperbolic but what is so "tasteless" about appreciating a classic zelda dungeon where you have to go through a series of linear challenges to progress through a tightly designed level? wouldnt it be awesome to have an open world zelda where you are free to do whatever you want in the overworld but also have more restrictive and linear dungeons where you get served a very particular and meticulously crafted meal so to speak. i feel like we could have the best of both worlds this way. i mean imagine if bob-omb battlefield had the star right where you begin but also a cannon at the top of the mountain which just shoots you back to the start of the level. thats kinda how a lot of the puzzles in this game feel like and thats awesome how many ways there are to reach the goal. but is it really so hard to understand what makes a linear level fun? you were trying way too hard to be all smug and funny at the end there.
For the spinning thing in the water temple, I was trying to use the reverse time thing to get it to freeze, but eventually I just ended up doing what you did. My sister used bullet time to shoot it, which seems a lot easier than the mess I went through.
yo i just wanna say your scripting is amazing cause i never expected some of those sentences to come out of any human's mouth LOL. great video!!
I have a lot to say about this game, which probably speaks to its quality and importance in the overall game world. I think it's generally a pretty divisive game, it just happens to be capturing the zeitgeist of modern gaming so perfectly, that most people that still play and enjoy video games regularly are going to like it. For me, it simply did not hit. I found the building frustrating, the combat outright bad, the shrines were fun at first but quickly became extremely boring, and I just didn't feel motivated to explore at all. I feel like the nature of the weapon degradation and how rare armor is made rewards feel almost useless like 60% of the time. My pre-fuse weapons were almost always better than the weapons I would find in chests, so I didn't really see the point in going for them eventually. I usually tried to, because I chronically needed arrows, but it was a constant cycle of disappointment. Idk what to tell the people that love this game, they seem so upset that some people just don't vibe with it. Sorry I suppose.
Incredibly based. I agree with everything said in this video. It's a breath of fresh air to see someone who sees the game the way I do.
By far my favourite review of the game so far. Entertaining, humourous and very fair points all around.
Legos. I enjoyed Zelda TOTK but I didn't enjoy the abilities as much as I enjoyed BOTW's. I know it's a me thing when the main point of the game is a burden for me which is building stuff. I founf building stuff cool in sections when it was meant to be or directly hinted or implied whereas in the overworld I found building boring. It breaks the pace for me, I don't like life simulators, Animal crossing or Minecraft and I felt this game was Zelda Minecraft in a big chunk.
Fusing is enemies dropping a weapon and then you gotta go the item and fuse it, so you gotta stop everytime you want a new weapon, building is cool but I'd rather be moving and I know ou have the fast-building thing but I don't enjoy going for Zonaite so it's painful for me anyways, Recall is lit tho.
Sky is overly repetitive and The underground is... even more and dull to play in... The most fun part was the surface actually for me and I felt kinda disappointed given that the sky was heavily promoted? Anyway, enjoy your games
Edit: I forgot to mention I LOVED the lore scattered all across the world
I managed to seqeunce break a ton on my second playthrough of the Great Sky Island, but I wound up getting lost and assuming I'd skipped a shrine only to go through it the proper way and find out that my skip had actually worked causing me to waste even more time than if I'd just followed the intended path. Not overly intuitive.
The voice acting was definitely the weakest part of the game, like stepping on a pile of Legos. But I guess that might be just the English voice acting, partially because NoA refuses to unionize the English voice production.
it's the english voice acting, i played the game in french and it was pretty good
You really could have trimmed down the amount of "wait-s" and "hold on-s" but a good video nonetheless. It's interesting to see the things you like about it are the ones I dislike, such as the partner Korok missions.
i agree with ur point about like the visuals, but the frame rates taking a hit whenever like 5 effects are happening is super annoying
Incredibly based video. Thank you.
Captain Astronaut returns with only the correct opinions.
D... did my mind just get tricked into watching a full hour video without getting distracted?
You are quite impressive.
Ik it's 1000% a me thing but I love having to individual arm arrows
It has the same feeling as an active reload mechanic in a shooter
Also feels like a way to make spaming special arrows a bit less convenient
It's funny because I'm only annoyed by it outside of battle, like I like to see the amount of what I'm using every time, feels like I'm managing my resources even though I have over 100 of everything
I'm tired but have some main counterpoints:
Original Zelda isn't as open as BOTW . Original Zelda had item based progression, areas you can only access with items you get in dungeons and you need to finish some dungeons before others. If you didn't play OG Zelda you probably felt for BOTW marketing campaing.
For a lot of people, myself included, shrines have nothing to do with dungeons. Dungeons aren't about solving random puzzles with no context. They are about the layout, the traversal, the different enemies you don't find in the overworld and lore implications. They feel like an adventure.
I can't feel creative if what it takes for me to solve a puzzle is attaching a rocket to a shield. And I will not waste my time trying to be creative if the challenge doesn't require it.
While I have nostalgia for some 3d Zelda games I played Wind Waker for the first time after my thirties and near BOTW. For what I like about games Wind Waker was vastly superior experience.
Don't agree that Zelda isn't about story when you have games like Oot, MM, WW and TP. They have depth, weight, the subtext is rich, and know when to avoid dumb exposition. They knew how to connect with some lore elements without looking awkward or trying to retcon stuff. While I dislike the way the story is told in BOTW/TOTK I think that the drop in quality began with SS(which I played before WW btw).
And it's not about traditional being better or not. It's about different gameplay priorities. Some people just can't stand old style dungeon. I, for example, can't stand mining Zonaite because I want to use an item. Or doing a random puzzle with no context because I need a spirit orb. Or needing to interact with repetitiveness of korok seeds because I need inventory space.
I love the constantly changing splatfest shirts
Good to know that I’m not the only one who doesn’t play Zelda for the dungeons. Good video.
The solution to the 44:58 puzzle is using bullet time, which I also didn't get until looking it up
The rant about the most common zelda critques fhat aren't really critiques but are instead a reflection of nostalgia at the end was really funny amd was all that needes to be said LMAO
52:52 Actually, Tauro has been ridiculously popular among the gay community to the point where just about every gay NSFW artist under the sun has done Tauro content. You've just not seen it.
16:01 I never thought about just putting a steering wheel on those blocks wtf...
48:03 ... and neither did I thought about that either...
5:27 You earned my respect just from this statement 😎
TOTK is like legos,, I still don't know what I'm doing, but I love it
57:52 I will never stop saying this. YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE EVERY SAGE ABILITY EQUIPPED, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO TURN THEM ON ONLY WHEN YOU NEED THAT ABILITY SPECIFICALLY
Tauru and Sonia are basic. The real thirst is for Cece. Legos.
Dangit now I'm just thinking about how cool a Legos Zonai set would be... Surely after all those Mario sets we deserve a cool Zelda one, right.... right??
I took a break from playing TotK to watch this video but pausing at ~12 mins in to avoid further spoilers since I only started a couple weeks ago and am pretty early in the story. Sure there are times when I am annoyed by things in this game but I also am just as deeply obsessed as I was with BotW. I am amazed at how they've managed to take all the familiar things and make them new and exciting to explore again. I love jumping down wells!!!
I feel like Zelda are worth more if they have a better story, gameplay can be great all it wants but having a boring story only makes a game half memorable.
I think most people struggled with that shrine (myself included) cause in the beginning you have a ton of building shrines back to back because the devs wanna make sure that you understand what you can do and how you can do it and that is one where you have to manage more elements and physics stuff but after that is all downhill.
Re: Dungeons I'm with you there. I used to like them and look back at them with nostalgia but playing some of them now can be miserable especially after botw/totk, they bring the pacing of the game to a crawl, some are too obtuse, meandering and overcomplicated just for the sake of one upping themselves. I for once appreciate the linearity and simplicity of the shadow temple after the water.
Methinks totk stroke a good balance between the theme, size and open endedness.
I love dungeons in all Zelda games, though I get stuck in most of them and can't solve them on my own, they all give a feeling of stepping on an ancient place, or you are the only one who can fix the situation at the moment
“You know what else is tradition?” Killed me
tauro is truly peak character design and i barely hear anyone talking about him. fml (which stands for "fuck me ltauro")
Totk is my first Zelda game and it's so fun and addicting, to the point where I tried to use ascend in other games (splatoon and sunbreak)
Also made me cancel my order on wolf link amiibo cause... reasons
As someone who started with BOTW cause…I got spoiled pretty quickly and just watched the story.
The tutorial is pretty good to me, I got distracted numerous times just grabbing weapons cause I already know that stuff is gonna break easy peasy. Like they focused more on the new mechanics cause that is some creative mode shiz. Tbh Link being slow was like something I was okay with cause I play games where each area had hella long loading screens. So the fact I could *move* while managing my stamina kept me sane… until I realized the free arrow thingey required stamina.
We know it has been at least 7 years 9 months because of Maddison daughter of Hudson and Rhonson is 7 years old and if you speedrun the tarry town quest line and the honeymoon night events where the first night and you killed ganon right after the union of Hudson and Rhonson, then 7 years and 9 months are the minimum amount of time or if Maddison was born the day of the union it would still be 7 years making link and Zelda 125 years and X+125 years respectively.
regarding the purah pad camera plot hole, the camera function wasn't available when you were first given it and the only surviving pictures are the ones taken before the upheaval. just a guess but the camera function was probably lost somehow when zelda travelled to the past, meaning that she couldn't use it
Captain posted, day improved.
I’ve come to the personal conclusion that for Totk, it’s my favorite game to play casually. I’m doing a no paraglider run right now and it’s been a blast. Did you know that you take no fall damage when riding on the rocks that fall off sky islands? It was something I got to learn through trial and error. When I find a chasm, I can ride one of those rocks to the bottom. I’m one of those types of people that likes to set my own challenges in games, so it works out for me.
But I am in the camp of people who think its story is kinda crap. The repetitive champion scenes offer nothing, and I generally cared mostly for botw’s environmental story telling. Totk has a few spots of interest, but areas like the depths are super bare, and the sky islands generally don’t tell much story either.
'why don't you go ray-trace some bitches' literally spat my coffee everywhere thanks Cap'n
I'm so happy that im not the only one who found the weapon durability complaint to mostly be obnoxious whining
That "Zelllllll" sound like today Shorts collab
ALSO WAITING FOR WAWE 5 Review
That one note about tradition really puts things into perspective
1:04:12
The problem with the performance has nothing to do with if the game can run at 200 fps or have ray tracing or anything. It's that just playing the game, the framerate can dip down to like 20 fps, which is super annoying and jarring. This is coming from somebody who doesn't have anything more powerful than switch. It's like you were trying to piss people off by saying that their opinions are invalid because you don't agree with them, which you do multiple times in this video by the way. I do miss the old Zelda games Astro, I miss the fun items and real puzzles (rocket shield go brrr), and yes, even the small keys. Nintendo can at the very least bring back 2d zelda (there seriously hasn't been a new one since triforce heroes!) but until then, you're entitles to your opinion, but wish you wouldn't trash on the opinions of other people :(
Honestly wasn't the biggest fan of BoTW - the annoying way that they scale combat combined with the generally boring sidequests made me end up coming to find it thoroughly meh - so i dien't plan on playing totk at all. Dunno if I will, but the insights from this video were interesting. Solid Captain Astronaut vid
I do actually miss traditional dungeons though-I like the “puzzle box” style and layering upon layering of the puzzles. To each his or her own, though!