Finally a positive video about this game! Not that i'd let other peoples opinions on something sway my own, but all the negative videos i've seen about TOTK have been making me question whether or not I had a shitty taste in games. I totally understand that it has its flaws and shortcomings, but sometimes I think in the pursuit of enjoying something to its fullest its ok to look past those things, especially when, bottom line, I came out satisfied. Also extra thanks for the lengthy video, great for drawing to!
People becoming more comfortable with expressing their opinions after a never ending barrage of postive totk videos and being told "they're wrong" is not a bad thing tho. It's such a good thing now that people are now comfortable being able to say "hey I dislike this game and what it did", but acting like there weren't so many positive videos and people weren't hostile to those who disliked it is a bit disingenuous. As for why you're seeing em more often now, it's because of the youtube algo. You watch one video, and more will start popping up. Skitty's video was a really a breakthrough for people being able to express their opinions, but it also leads to more people making videos with their problems with the game and then the youtube algo will spiral. Remember, these are THEIR opinions, not your opinions. If you like a game, you like. Don't question if you "have shitty taste in games", but don't dismiss them as just "negative totk" vids too. If anything it's good we can have a balance of positive and negative opinions on a piece of media like TOTK. Enjoy the game to the fullest, but reconize their opinions are also their own too and what may not break the game for you does break it for them.
@@ConductorElcrest oh yeah dont get me wrong I agree! My comment wasnt meant to be taken too seriously to be completely honest. I actually appreciate and watch those critique videos (which is exactly why I keep getting shown them haha) and no I don't think I have a shitty taste in games, lol that was more of a sarcastic comment than anything. I get how tone can get misconstrued over text. But regardless, I personally wasn't seeing positive videos, obviously doesn't mean there weren't any. It seems I'm not the only one either. I was just expressing that I was happy to finally see some positivity myself is all! I suppose its more of a reflection on myself that I have to understand everyones opinions on a game before I can enjoy it fully. At the end of the day, people can like what they like and not like what they don't. I think its great that theres a variety of opinions on something I like. And I think critique is necessary to get better games which ultimately benefits all of us!
@@lolablue8668 I think the biggest thing is it's normally a cycle where positive videos overwhelm the feed at first, making people who dislike certain aspects of a game/dislike a game very uncomfortable as they're not properly allowed to share their opinions. Then once hype dies down we get into the cycle of "now I can finally speak my mind" and then people start being able to speak their mind as well, and then it rolls around to more positive videos starting to come back again to defend a game. I wish there was a middle ground where even at a games launch we could have a healthy enviorment where people are allowed to express their opinions without fear of backlash, and then a year later express opinions without getting backlash. Er... Hope I worded that right lol I do agree with you! Critique is very necessary to get better games! I may have my fair share of complaints with TOTK (just using it an example cause well... It is the game the video talks about lol), but I have a lot of things I love about it too! As long as nintendo is able to hear both sides I can't wait to see what they fix and what they improve in the next big 3d Zelda! ... Bring back remote bombs please nintendo LOL
@@ConductorElcrest yess agree. Tbh I feel like alot of the people i see critiquing it are as passionate as the games diehard supporters, because its often coming from a place of loving this franchise and wanting to see it reach its full potential. And yeah the honeymoon phase is very real ESPECIALLY with zelda games. It really is like the same cycle every time a new one comes out which is funny lol. I just feel lucky to be here at a time theres such a cool game franchise and a huge thriving community around it as well.
There's no such thing as having shitty taste. You like what you like. I may not be a fan of this game but I can respect the fact that people do like this game a lot. Whether something is good or bad is up to each individual.
Why is it that every time someone makes a positive totk video, nearly all the comments just crap on the game despise the video. I've seen so much hate for this game that I've actually seen people get angry at the color of the grass. THE LITERAL GRASS!
What? People are seriously getting mad over the color of grass please tell me you’re joking especially when it’s because totk is better than botw even when that’s true cause let’s be honest totk makes botw look like a demo when compared to totk so it’s stupid to even try to compare the two when it’s obvious witch one is the better game between botw vs totk the sequel is the better one obviously botw is by no means a bad game far from it but compared to totk it feels empty and this is coming from someone who put stupid amount of hours into both games and fun with both games
@@mattsultimategamingandrevi8249 I agree, but a lot of people personally like botw more bc it was there first zelda game and they feel like they need to defend it against much better games, bc they don't want another game to be "better" than the game they're attached to.
@@elizabethweaver5478 Not being better than BotW is far from a failure for the game. It's pretty rare for sequels to surpass their predecessor, much more when that predecessor is one of the best and most highly acclaimed games of all time. I personally prefer TotK, but BotW has a novelty and appeal that never could've been replicated so I can totally see people prefering it.
The lightning ability does make sense when you consider how lighting functions during storms. Lightning is attracted to metal objects, so Riju can use the metal arrowhead as a focal point to aim the strike. I still agree that the ability could have been implemented better though
@GohTheGreat seems pretty safe to assume they are likely made from the same type of metal as other weapons in the game. The only other options would be stone, which would be silly if the Hylians have knowledge of metal working, or some unknown material that no other Hylian weapon uses
They have so many options to better implement the sage abilities: - Get rid of 'map' on the radial wheel, and put the abilities there, so it's 12 options instead of 8. - Have Riju as a 'fuse item' for arrows. - Have Yunobo select-able when quick-swapping weapons - Have Sidon select-able when quick-swapping shields Then have Mineru be the only one to behave like a horse when whistling, Yet through their 1 year of polishing the game (and now however long after release), they went with having to run up to followers and pressing the button you use to interact with basically everything in the game.
I like TOTK and BOTW a lot, but when I was just starting out with TOTK and seeing all the new things or how the story has progressed in aspects big and small I kept getting the feeling like "ooooh they made this game for me". I love TOTK because I fell in love with the world and characters and Zelda as a franchise in BOTW. They are to me parts of a whole and I can't pit them against one another. People being so publically negative about the game I personally found so compelling has been greatly demoralizing and so seeing you talk about why you love this game (and yet voicing criticism that many players share, me included) makes me happy. TOTK is not flawless but it is still an absolute gem of a game. And even though for some people the game was "over" after they beat it on release, it still lives in my head rent free and I'm glad I'm not alone in this. Great video :)
Exactly my experience. It's tailored for a very specific audience. I'm not delusional and say the game does objectively fail in a lot of important ways, but damn did I personally have a great time with it. It's like Skyward Sword, has a lot of flaws but also has its audience it appeals to.
Personally it's more that Ascend is the least interesting ability of the bunch. Ultrahand, Fuse, Recall and even Auto-Build is more interesting to me than being able to go directly up short distances
Thank you for making this video, I love seeing people talk about their thoughts of ToTK in depth. It truly does mean a lot more than you would think, at least for me. I can't believe it's already been more than a year since this game came out. I still can't find how to put into words what it makes me feel.
I played this game over 150+ hours, thoroughly enjoyed it. No reason to feel anything but gratitude and awe for the Nintendo team who made this amazing game. I can not wait to see what they cook up next.
People really need to stop with BOTW vs. TOTK debates. Even tho TOTK is the better game IMO you can't deny that Zelda team set out on a mission to explore AS much as they could within open-world Hyrule. These games are ONE story in the chapter of Open-World Hyrule and I wish people can appreciate that perspective more. The amount of creative freedom via Ultrahand and all the Zonai builds was not something I thought I'd fall in love with but it turned out to be a game changer!
And since totk barely connects to botw and ignores most of that game's story, I do not think that they are one continuous story. That's what I hoped for and not what we got
@@prettyoriginalnameprettyor7506also nigga why do i find u under EVERY vid regarding tears of the kingdom, positive or bad. like i get u dont like the game but damn bro u dont have to argue with EVERYBODY who actually likes tears of the kingdom. expression of opinion is fine, but when it gets to the point where you are actively seeking out/looking for these vids to bash on ppl who actually likes the game, i feel like thats past tge "expression of opinion" point. but oh well🤷🏽♂️ u do u man
@@prettyoriginalnameprettyor7506they are connected stories. In the TOTK concept book, a festival took place after the events of BOTW with link in his original outfit. The calamity is mentioned so many times.
honestly this game is probably my favorite ever, everything you said, but honestly to me? the world feels less empty, and as such, worthy of exploring every inch. also i love the depths i just fly around in there for hours lol. what a video, wow
I understand the common complaint of the Depths feeling too samey, but I don't know if it's just the amazing atmosphere or the alien look of the place, I occasionally head down there on my 100% file to fly around and just get blown away by the view. There's something so appealing about exploring and slowly conquering this pitch black monster hub spanning across the whole map.
I've been playing the legend of zelda games since the first ever release. People complaining about the game being too open or people saying they miss the traditional formula makes no sense to me. Considering the original games were never intended to even be linear in the first place. The zelda games were always intended to be driven by player choice and freedom. The "Traditional" formula people are talking about didnt begin until ocarina of time. Which while yes it had a sort of hub world, it was mostly linear. Dungeons just had secrets and some extra paths but thats it. As the series continued, the games scope just got bigger and bigger which was the obvious evolution of the series. To me tears of the kingdom is the game ive always wanted. A grandiose adventure in a huge open world where i choose where i wanna go and what i wanna do. With a world that feels alive and lived in. With immersive intricate details. I feel like this game was made for people like me. Where i can spend 100s of hours maybe even thousands because its a game thats design to be played whatever way i desire. I spent 100s of hours in these games just having fun and immersing myself in these worlds. Especially tears of the Kingdom. Idk maybe im alone in this but ive never found a single thing i disliked about this game.
Im sure both breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom will stay with us fans for a long time, they both have their own amazing charm and theme. I remember being so happy that I was able to experience playing botw when it first got out thinking “I wish I could play this game for the first time forever”. TotK made me feel so excited and curious the entire time. Breath of the wild is so nostalgic and even cozy in my opinion, while tears of the kingdom is more complex and emotional with even more exploration. Thank you for your amazing review, I wholeheartedly agree with the topics and opinions you shared. I hope this video will get the views and appreciation you deserve!
In botw they say that 10000 years ago 4 champions used the divine beasts and that those beasts were named after warriors from the past. Those warriors are assumed to be the sages from Raurus time. They don't name them so you can make that distinction. That's why they wear masks that look like the beasts. They aren't modeled after the divine beasts but instead the divine beasts are modeled after the sages. The sages names ARE Rudania, Medoh, Ruta and Naboris.
@Raykushi another kinda cool theory. You know how you said link's sage ability was the yiga technique? So there's a bunch of random diary entries that say that links flurry rush and bullet time are actually canonical. It's not just a game mechanic, it's his actual champion or sage ability. Some of those logs say they witness link in combat and in the blink of an eye an enemy goes down almost as if time slows down. Thought that was kinda cool.
I don't think one could conclude that the ancient sages were those warriors. Yes, in BotW it was written that way with the beasts and the names. Then they could have used the names in the same way - which they didn't. The masks wouldn't be a clear indication for me. For me this has more of a chicken/egg paradox, as I don't think we know exactly when the Shika built the ancient technology in relation to TotK.
Not sure about them being named after the ancient Sages because I'm sure devine beast Vah Naboris, Vah Rudania and Vah Ruta ate explicitly named after Nabooru, Darunia and princess Ruto from OOT. However I'm sure that it's true that the devine beasts were modeled after the ancient Sages masks.
This is a super fair review of the game and might be the one that aligns with my view of it the most that I've seen. It has some healthy criticisms sprinkled in while also not letting them take away from the monumental feats this game accomplished, and watching it really brought me back to my time experiencing the game and reminded me of the exact feelings it gave me and the reasons I hold it in such high regard. I especially appreciate you pointing out how much more goes on in the present than in BotW cause that's something I don't see talked about nearly enough. I love the theme of community that persists throughout the game and how fitting it is for a kingdom healing from an event as devastating as the Calamity. The NPCs take a much more active role in helping your quest and the rest of the kingdom, and engaging with them always lets you enjoy some of the fruits of your labor. Your assistance in Hateno Village's political debate leads to the creation of Cheese and Sun Pumpkins to use in meals, and your assistance with the school earns you a free garden to grow crops of your choice; your assistance in rebuilding Lurelin Village leads to its people offering you their hospitality in exchange with free meals, free stays at the inn and input on a new tourist attraction; most obvious of all, your assistance with the 4 regions against their phenomena earns you their Sage as an ally for the upcoming final battle. It excels at the type of storytelling only possible in a video game by making you experience first hand the kingdom's newfound growth. I do have some extra points I'd like to touch upon below: A neat observation I made regarding the new mechanics is that they can essentially be seen as a watered down power of the developers themselves. Ultrahand and Fuse allow you to create objects such as bridges, vehicles and weapons yourself and Ascend literally started out as a dev tool. Where most games have a path layed out for you to solve, this game allows you to build that path yourself. It's such a brilliant way to depict this game's design philosophy, and it makes sense within the lore on a meta-level since the Zonai are descendants of gods. The Water Temple does kinda have a lore reason for its existence, as it's stated by the Ancient Zora Sage that it's the source of the pure waters of the Lanayru region. This is further exemplified by the fact that the sludgefalls all land in one of the area's natural water sources. I can see how having the Waterworks as the Temple would've made for a cooler Water Temple aesthetic, but I think it was mostly done this way as sludge falling from the Sky feels much more apocalyptic than the alternative of a glorified pipe leak. As is, the area can be seen as a sort of fountain from heaven, and it's easy to see how the waters of such a place being polluted would have such devastating effects on the land below. It's a bit of a strange piece of lore for the region's waters to come from a floating structure, but I do quite enjoy what they do with it. I'm actually pretty disappointed that the sludge flowing through Wellspring Island doesn't transform into water upon defeating Mucktorok as I remember gushing during the climb about how gorgeous the place would look with water flowing through. It seems you didn't notice the weakness of the Gibdo nests. Their purple core lights up while they're in the process of spawning Gibdos, and this is the only time they're able to be destroyed. This is why the nests in the Queen Gibdo arena couldn't be destroyed until the fight; they hadn't been spawning Gibdos yet. It is also possible to use Bombs to blow them up. Mineru's spirit never actually resides in the owl mask. I can see why you would come to this conclusion since that's the moment she starts talking to you, but after the Seized Construct fight, we see her spirit exit the Purah Pad and fly into the secret stone as it fuses with her construct, meaning she's been there with Link the entire time. This raises the obvious question of why she didn't just emerge sooner and guide Link to her construct when he got the Purah Pad like she planned, and I do wish this was better explained, but I have a decent theory. Essentially, although Mineru can seperate her spirit from her body, she can't communicate in spirit form directly without the power of a secret stone (how else would it even be able to amplify her power lol). This didn't pose an issue as she had built herself a new body to house her secret stone, but Ganondorf's corruption of that construct body cut her off from the stone and prevented her from being able to communicate until a new body began to be constructed for her and she could tap into a small amount of the stone's power (this would make sense as she communicates much more clearly during the boss while they're right next to the stone). As for how previous spirits could communicate with Link, I'd simply chalk it up to them having a connection with him such as the Champions having known him in the past and Rauru's body essentially being fused with his. I think this is also a good time to point out how genius the details surrounding Mineru's quest are outside of that one hiccup. Of the 5 Phenomena Purah calls attention to, the only one not caused by Ganondorf is the Kakariko Ring Ruins, and thus were it not for him, that would've been the first place Link explored and it would've started him on the quest to access Mineru's stone and construct just like she initially planned. With that in mind, it's easy to see how much the Demon King's influence really did screw up her plan. Sorry, I really didn't intend for my comment to be this long, and I guess I now have a slight understanding of what you went through with this video. 🤣I do hope I was able to add some solid value to this conversation.
@speedude0164 I do actually know about the Gibdo nest weakness. I still had weird issues with hitboxes tho :p Your comment was a great read though. Thanks so much!
@@Raykushi Interesting, I've rarely had such issues with them. Maybe the hitboxes just end a bit sooner than the visual indicator would have you think. I'm glad to hear that! It's surprisingly hard to find civil discussions about this game's merits on UA-cam so I try explaining my views in the clearest way possible in hopes it can catch on with others that feel a similar type of way. Funny enough, your explanations about the theme of addiction in the Goron City quest actually made me appreciate it much more than just "haha Gorons on drugs". It does a good job showing how much a society can be negatively impacted by addiction.
@@speedude0164 Thanks! like I said, I don't even know if it was intentional, but the fact the region's themes can be interpreted that way is interesting.
So happy to see some positivity about this game going around, it is definitely currently a victim of the Zelda love/hate dynamic that seems to happen to most games. Many of the people asserting that BOTW is the better game were hating on it a year after its release as well. Same thing will happen with EOW in a few days. In five years these will all be considered the best of the series if past trends are to play out again
I remember ToTK being praised to high heaven on Twitter during it's first month and then we started to see this contrarian influx of "it's good but...is it??" and I was losing my mind lmao
The "Zelda cycle" seems like an intuitive concept and there is some truth to it, but I also think it's a very convenient excuse brought up to discredit more easily parts of the fandom people don't relate to. I'm curious what makes you think that many of the people preferring BOTW were hating it before. There are all sorts of profiles who played Zelda before BOTW or not, liked BOTW or not, liked TOTK or not, and many different tier lists anyone could make for any number of preferences... Personally, playing them back-to-back as well as other Zelda games in the past year, I know that we've had enough time for some people to form clear, fleshed out opinions that have no particular reason to change in years to come. Old Zelda is amazing, archaic in some areas but has things that could still be used in the open world. BOTW has become a classic that was never going to please everyone, but incredibly important for the series and successful thanks to its bold and clear focus. TOTK will always be impressive mechanically for what they achieved, full of exciting concepts, but their focus took away from the execution for most of its world building and story telling.
Using the Zelda cycle to discredit negative opinions is very reductive. Sure, there are some opinions that are like that, but there are also valid opinions about the flaws of the game. Just because the game is popular doesn't mean the people who didn't like it have bad reasons for not enjoying it.
@@Raykushi Well yeah. because back when it first launched any person who even disagreed with it being better than BOTW was told they were wrong... It makes sense now, that with skitty's video, people are a lot more comfortable sharing their thoughts on TOTK if they're negative. It's not contrarian, it's legit people finally being able to share their opinions without being hushed instantly. Of course some do go too far, but like... Come on, we went through this with BOTW too where any negative opinions of it were hushed at launch. People are just more comfortable sharing their opinions on the game now.
@@ConductorElcrestno one did this though, no one was "silenced" for thinking BotW was better than TotK at launch... What? BotW fans just got salty most people didn't agree that BotW was flawless and lost their minds when people pointed out, "yeah TotK was what I wanted out of BotW" 🤷♀️
This reminds me of why this is my favorite game, though that slot didn't have much competition for me. The story, the music, the new exploration of a world I've been in, so much was so awesome, and I played for a month straight without ever touching the internet to experience it all blind. Yes that meant I never really touched the zonai devices cause I'm much more a "strong weapon smackdown!" kinda person, but it was awesome regardless. Especially the sidequests. It made me go back to BotW with a glitch to get the master cycle early and have fun playing through the game with that (made my second playthrough a ton of fun). I felt TotK was perfect my first playthrough. Upon a second one with a sort of challenge ruleset, the flaws did become more apparent, but overall they're not that bad. Nothing is a gamebreaker. Everything is really good. And now this video is making me wanna replay it again, but I'm caught up in the midst of another project XD There's been so much hate for the game recently, and I can kinda understand some of it, but it doesn't change the fact that the game is really hecking good. Its really nice to see a positive video on it, especially one that four hours long (dang I really just watched all that.) Also, Ganondorf terrified the heck out of me from the beginning of the game, so the gauntlet of enemies and the moment where the "sages power couldn't reach you anymore" made it so much more terrifying. I was so sweaty in that final boss. Awesome game, awesome video, people need to calm the heck down with the hate train.
There's a channel called Good Blood that just released a video discussing the game design philosophy of Zelda and how BOTW and TOTK are the greatest example of what the first game was meant to be. I always felt that way even before someone posted about it. This is their masterpiece according to the way they create game worlds.
I am so glad people are finally coming out and saying “actually, totk is an amazing game in its own right, even if it has its problems” because of the amount of hate it’s been getting over the last year. I’m a totk lover, and it frustrated me so much when people were only releasing videos of how much they hated totk or “why totk is not a good game”. Like yeah, as a sequel it fails in a lot of aspects. But what if, for a moment, you remove it from the context of being a sequel… it’s an amazing game, albeit with flaws.
I think it's an interesting sequel in the context of zelda games because I don't think we've seen a game in zelda that is direct sequel that takes place in the same world. We have sequels like Majora's Mask and Spirit Tracks which clearly take place around the same time but none of the previous game's elements are present. I think it was cool seeing how things have changed from the previous game. We don't usually get that in zelda titles.
People have been releasing both extremes and everything in-between since release. For those with pros and cons to express, saying how good something is can be pretty succinct, while explaining a flaw or "what could have been" takes a bit more effort. I think that being a sequel really amplifies that because sure we could just forget context and hype and just enjoy the moment, but many of these reviews are naturally looking at the bigger picture. Many of them do remind that there are high highs, but again, nothing exists in a vacuum. I can understand that it is frustrating to see views drastically opposed from ours trend and find some success, but that has been true on both sides. The latest being that skittybitty diatribe, and now it seems we got the opposite to restore balance if it trends a bit ^^ (I haven't watched this one yet).
tell ya what , then you can remove the context of me having needed to pay 100$ for this re-releas of the same game misleadingly being called a sequel , and i'll agree with you that tokt is an amazing game....
It still works great as a sequel imo. We all know they made it so it could he played before BotW and still understood, but what are we really losing from this? A few moments of Zelda going "this man birthed the monster that ravaged my era", Tulin going "I hope I can make the Champion Revali proud"? We can pick up on these sorts of things alone without the need to mention them, so it's a more than worthy trade off. As such, when you spot the moments yourself, this game's story is amplified by BotW in many ways. Extra weight is added to the villain by having him be the cause of mass destruction across multiple eras and getting to destroy him for good. Tulin, whom I mentioned earlier, gets to overcome what was essentially Revali's only weakness. Sidon begins to get over a fear instilled in him by the loss of his sister. Riju and Yunobo show a noticeable increase in confidence since their last appearance. The world as a whole is so much more organized and the NPCs take a much more active role in the conflict, indicating how much the kingdom has healed and evolved following the end of the Calamity. These are small ways in which the game uses its sequel status to create a stronger over-arching narrative than it otherwise could've.
This is the first POSITIVE review of TOTK that ive seen. And its so refreashing because when i played it i knew it was my new favorite game in the series. As a person who wasnt as much of a fan of botw as others were, it was so refreashing to see nintendo do something different with their open world concept, and i feel thats something a lot of people miss.
I didn't even make this video to "defend totk" or anything. I had begun writing the script 2 months after it's release, when reception of the game was still overwhelmingly positive, but ended up putting it off for a few months. After I'd come back, it was after many videos and think-pieces came out about how bad the game was. In that way, I'm glad this video got delayed like it was, because many people like yourself have commented that they really appreciate the more positive perspective after all the pessimism about the game.
@Raykushi i do feel it's a good perspective to have on the game. Because it is such a GOOD game. The reviews it's received are really unfair because what totk added compared to what botw is so massive it's hard to under look. I know for me I love this game, and I'm so excited to go back and play it again (I think this video sparked my hyper fixation). LOL, thank you for such a good review where I don't feel upset watching!
I find it interesting how there are people who look for positive reviews only find negative ones and there are those who want to find some negative reviews can only find positive ones. For example on Skittybitty's video I found a lot of commenters thanking them since they only saw praise with no critiques. Just something I noticed. (Personally I've seen a lot of positive and negative reviews since the game first released).
@@Nova-gh5yrshe is so extremely annoying that whole time felt like she was finding reasons to dislike it and she makes it seem like absolutely NOTHING was added which if you actually compare the two that is fundamentally just not true. I don’t see how $70 is any problem when breath of the wild(for the whole package) is $80 and that’s not even accounting for gear that is just not available unless you have an amiibo.
Who said otherwse. A bunch of edge lords that's who. TotK rules. I bet a lot of the people who crap on it are the same crowd who says Souls games are 'perfectly fair' lol
@RP-mp4ow Criticism that comes from a place of hate. Usually picking out things that aren't really problems and making a bigger deal of them than they are. They aren't trying to be honest or impartial
I'm glad you enjoy the game so much. It was interesting hearing someone talk about it positively even if i don't necessarily agree with it. I Even decided to pick the game back up and give it a second shot after dropping it after about 20ish hours when it first released. I still have too many problems with the game to say i enjoyed my time with it, even this second time around, but im glad you and others think positively about it. This was a nice watch
I thoroughly enjoyed this review. Many reviews I've seen tend to not go into any depths as to why they like or dislike, totk especially when the review is negative and when it is hour long reviews. Some critiques I saw were disingenuous. For example one hour long review I saw was someone saying botw's runes, movement, and combat was better...because of unintentional glitches and exploits...and literally had a whole section dedicated to "Jank" between the two games. It felt it was doing both games an injustice because it gave the impression if botw didn't have the jank it does, that person wouldn't have enjoyed botw as intended and also take for granted the improvements totk had to the things mentioned above. Suffice to say, this review was refreshing and the critics felt rather valid. It's honestly amazing that you pushed through such a long video mostly alone. Legitimately takes dedication, but considering totk is such a great yet complex game with both perfections and flaws, it definitely warrants time for detail. Great video!
Great video! One thing, those Gibdo spawning towers can only be destroyed at their weak spot during the specific animation when they are about to spawn more gibdos. Black cracks form around the purple spot and that’s when you shoot an arrow with riju’s lightning. You can’t just shoot whenever.
I actually do know about that. I meant to put that on screen as a disclaimer because I forgot to mention it when I was recording, but forgot to do that too. Go me. But yeah, I still had problems with the Gibdo towers weak point hitbox on the initial playthrough. Not so much on the second though, but I didn't want to remove the complaints from the notes I took when doing the first playthrough, so I mentioned it anyway :P
I love tears of the kingdom, but they could’ve done so much more in certain areas, like the depths/sky and elaborate on some things. I don’t like how all the sheikah tech (and my cool divide beast bike I rightfully earned) just “disappeared” with no explanation. And I know this is probably a nitpick but I hate how most of the dlc armor from BOTW still isn’t upgradable. It kinda made sense from the first game since it was just DLC but since you can get them here like any other armor sets why can’t I upgrade them like any other armor sets?
3:13:07 Thing is, because a lot of players want the Master Sword, and because it's between the first and second intended regions and on the road to Goron City, I think a lot of players will stumble upon the Deku Tree early on. Personally, this Phantom Ganon was the first one I ever defeated. You're right that it's underwhelming following the 1v5 at Hyrule Castle with these guys, which is why I really don't think the intended order is to come here after that quest. Them directing you here is more of a failsafe just in case you hadn't done it yet.
Returning to Lookout Landing after receiving Tulin's Vow actually seems to point you in three directions. When you arrive, there is a Goron who appears to be asking Scorpis for directions to Death Mountain -- it's a single dialogue cutscene (where they are literally giving directions) and then they're gone. This is also when returning to Josha introduces you to Tauro, who immediately returns to Kakariko Village, then she points you toward the quest where you will encounter Master Kohga for the first time.
If BotW is the modern day OoT, then TotK is the modern day Twilight Princess. Much like TP back in the day, the community is extremely divided over TotK. The fans LOVE it and say its better than its predecessor, while the haters write it off as an edgy reskin of (OoT/BotW) that took WAY too long to make.
When it came to finding caves, I set my camera sensor to blupees and had a much easier time finding them. Thank you for singing the games praises. I've seen so many videos popping up trying to get hate clicks by claiming the game is "actually awful".
They’re not trying to get «hate clicks.» It is what they mean, people can have different opinions. I LOVE totk but I still agree with most of the points made in those videos. Totk isn’t near perfect but it doesn’t have to be perfect to be an awesome game.
This game would’ve been waaaay better if you played as Zelda in the past, worked at being a powerful sage and afterwards (when she failed) play as link to finish the job! It could be enough to be a separate game tbh
This is the best totk long review I have ever seen, well listened too while at work, but still it was incredible. I feel like it matches my feelings on this game better than any other review I have seen. Just for the improved combat and boss battles alone I like totk better than BOTW, and I loved how you actually get to do cool stuff with the sages. I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment that the memories in BOTW made me wish I was playing through what happened in the past instead of just seeing the memories of it.
I didn't engage with the depths until I had explored the sky and most of the overworld and I had never seen a Lynel even after completing the four main areas. At first I was disappointed they hadn't returned, but I remembered I had seem in cutscenes and held out hope. Discovering tons of them in the depths and immediately remembering how to perfectly dispatch them from BOTW was one of my favorite moments
@@Raykushi theyve done this with like EVERY zelda game too thats what i love 🐈 phase 1 (when it comes out): "this is revolutionary. best game ever." phase 2 (after at least 2 months): "this is the worst piece of garbage ive ever played. [insert previous game in the franchise] was better." phase 3 (when the next game comes out): "this was revolutionary. best game oat. ive always loved this masterpiece."
Regarding the targeting of Riju's lightning, I assume the reason they have you shoot an arrow is to take advantage of the attraction lightning has to metal. Riju can aim in the general direction of her target, and the arrow head attracts the lightning to fine-tune her aim. Of course the real reason is to give you a way to control her attack, but I think using arrows makes sense based on the real-world behavior of lightning and metal (despite it being loosely applied). And I assume the devs intended players to think this because they implemented this behavior with the lightning that occurs in the world and with electric elemental attacks. To be fair, its a bit of a stretch since I don't think arrows attract lightning from storms, but the principle is the same.
3:22:53 its the secret stone of light and its dusk or dawn so its not that bright outside so its logical to assume that ganondorf was able to se bright light emitting from Rauru and up close later he deduces that it was his glowing secret stone that did this. Also it seems possible that ganondorf has some knowledge of the existence of secret stones because the sage of fire knows what they are when Rauru show them.
hey at 45:00 you mention that the frog set cant jump in the rain but if you upgrade each piece at a great fairy twice the set bonus is unslippable and even allows climbing on icy surfaces.
Yeah! Someone actually mentioned that and it blew my mind. I'm kicking myself for not knowing, actually. I'm gonna have to make a pinned comment with some of the addendums lol
@@Raykushi Also thank you so much for this video! The TOTK hate that started popping up was really bumming me out. I kept seeing video after video about it and from some of my favorite creators. I get some of the criticism but it seamed over blown for a game thats as wonderful as TOTK. I have put in 300 hours and have 100% it and I think like you said its now my favorite game.
Just found this video, and in a current climate (at least in the form of youtube videos) that seems pretty negative on the game, this is such a refresher and something I needed. TotK is my favorite game currently. Like, BotW is already one of the greatest games ever and Tears just clears it on nearly every level outside of the fact that it's not the first one. And while that first time experience is a strength of BotW absolutely worth cherishing, I equally value Totk in how it was able to innovate. With the inclusion of the new abilities, Zonai Devices, the Sky Islands & the Depths, it somehow recaptured and even surpassed the magic of the first game, which I would have thought impossible. I can't really even call myself a Zelda fan, at least in the traditional sense; BotW was the only other Zelda game I had played, and yet the whole ending with the dragon fight, diving down to catch Zelda, & the music, it was all so emotional. I was tearing up just from you recounting it lol. I guess I'm a fan now 🤣 I gotta give props to your script and editing because somehow a 4 hour video was really easy to watch, it flowed really well. Thanks for making this! P.S I am so with you about how much better the combat and item usage is in this game. Really glad you brought up the cross pollination of items as well in how collecting stuff on the Islands aids you in exploring the Depths and vise versa. Everything is so interconnected, its a design marvel. Also, the Sky Islands are my happy place, I don't mind at all that they are kind of bare, they evoke that quite, lonely but calming tranquility and meditative mood that the first game had, and in this game with a more bustling Hyrule, I really value a space for that. And that skybox & music UGH let me live on the Great Sky Island please 😂
Never have I seen a video where litteraly everything said perfectly matched my thoughts. this was was a phenomenal video. its so nice to see a video which praised all the elements of this game that no one seems to talk about. i loved how you always gave proof to support your arguments too. Im so glad I finaly found someone who felt the same way about this games story, I agree it is MUCH better than BOTW (I wonder why no one else seems to agree?). Anyway great video
Thank you!! I don't think I see people say that the story in BoTW specifically is better. Usually they talk about how BoTW is a better game overall. My guess as to why people feel that way is because BoTW and it's world were extremely new at the time, everyone was discovering this kind of game design for the Zelda series for the first time. It's really THAT feeling people are attached to, not necessarily the game itself.
@@Raykushi That a great point and makes a lot of sense. I think for most people there is just no reliving that experience of playing the first game for the first time. I’m just really lucky that I had that same feeling for ToTK too.
It would make sense that the castle is desserted if the population has declined enough. Maintenance on a something so big would take up a lot of time and resources that would be better spent elsewhere.
There is one idea that I had that I really wish they would've added into this game. That being... Dark Link. But not like a typical Dark Link kind of boss... no, no, there would only be ONE of this guy on the map at any given time. And he would be following your Hero's Path data from Breath of the Wild. If you happen to run into him, it's a fight to the death (where he has anything you would've had at that point). If you don't, then you don't.
Thank you so much for your analysis of this amazing game. So many videos analyzing Totk are usually spent talking about Totk doesn’t do anything new or different from botw, or how they seemingly just reused the same world with very little changes. And while everyone has the right to their own opinions, I think they miss what this game is trying to do, to expand on what botw did and do something that, while similar to what came before, makes the creativity players displayed in botw dial it up to an 11. I have seen a video where someone legitimately creates with zonai devices what I liken to a power rangers megazord or a Gundam mobile suit solely meant for destroying your enemies. While not everything will necessarily be a hit, I think what limits a lot of people’s opinions is that each every Zelda game has to match what is considered the gold standard of the series, Ocarina of Time. Now don’t misunderstand me, I love Ocarina of Time and consider it to be one of the greatest games ever made, both from what it objectively did for the video game industry and my love for its gameplay, themes and characters. But I think what a lot of fans miss is that the Zelda team loves to innovate and try something new that they haven’t done before, even in a sequel like Majoras Mask. The Zelda formula as it’s often called was there for a reason, but over time the team and the community realized that the formula was limiting what Zelda could be, as anyone who is familiar with Skyward Sword knows what I’m talking about. (Note: I love Skyward Sword in what it does well so any fans don’t come after me plz!) That’s why Botw exists, so the team could redefine what Zelda itself means, and try something vastly different from what people were accustomed to. And while there were issues in Botw that were due to the games open ended gameplay philosophy, that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved, as Totk did improve most of them, though granted not all of them. That’s why I’m okay that Aonuma said that they weren’t returning to the old formula, because I want to see what the team can come up with next. So thank you for giving this game a fair chance and listing its successes and stumbles, because I think that’s how games can be improved, by acknowledging what works and what doesn’t.
@SiriusGalilei I think the best way to springboard off some of the stuff you said is to share my distaste when people say "totk is a good game but it's not a good zelda game". That implies a certain restriction in gameplay based on previous games. People thought Mario 64 wasn't a real mario game because it wasn't a 2D platformer. Now, no one would dream of saying such a thing. I think people will think the same of open world zelda in the future.
@@Raykushi i remember when Twilight Princess came out people didn’t like it because of the overly long introduction before the first dungeon and the apparent linearity of the game. But now I see a lot more people praising it in what it does well, especially with how it crafted one of the best character stories in Midna or the increased focus on swordplay with the sword skills. I’ve even seen some praise for Skyward Sword for how it handled the character of Groose or the memorization of areas for use in the sacred realm challenges. I think what many negative initial reactions to certain games in the Zelda series have in common is often to two particular parts, the differences in gameplay from previous titles or the similar storyline in many of the games, usually being saving Zelda, stopping the villain or getting to the triforce or whatever macguffin the game has. I think what many initial reactions miss is the environmental or character storytelling the games do, or how the main story influences gameplay. In Twilight Princess Link is initially attempting to save the children from Ordon village who were kidnapped being the start of his adventure rather than being called by the Great Deku tree like in Ocarina, or how Skyward Sword Link is on his journey to save Zelda, but often being too late to reach her before she leaves for the next location, or Wind Waker link attempts to save his sister but realizing that jumping in without being fully prepared is foolhardy. I love the character stories from Totk, from the two characters in Hateno village trying to stand for what they believe is the right path for the village to go but both secretly agreeing with the others ideas, or how there is one Zora female who seems to have a crush for Sidon apart from Yona and yearns for him from afar, or how the one guy in Kakariko is keeping you from the the one ruins because he secretly hopes to become a famous researcher himself, thus happily following the fake Zelda’s orders to keep others from the ruins, hoping to make the discovery himself and get all the credit. I think that is where Zelda storytelling excels, from the environmental storytelling and the small character moments, because you feel like you get to view intimate moments of these characters lives as they are just trying to live their lives like we do, beyond the fantastical adventures. And often the gameplay is itself reflecting the games themes and philosophy, which while it might not shine the best at times, there are times where it is beautiful. I think while I wouldn’t disregard many of their complaints, hindsight is 20/20 and time I think will make many appreciate this game for what it does well.
“totk is a good game but it’s not a good zelda game” is such an annoying and obviously untrue gotcha and i am speaking as the foremost authority on totk hating
@@skittybitty shut up and go somewhere else. Just because you’re not clever enough to appreciate what was actually added doesn’t mean other people cant
Wow, this was monumental...This was truly the most in-depth and comprehensive look at Tears of the Kingdom I've seen. You were careful not to compare it to Breath of the Wild too often like most reviewers have done, except of course where it was necessary, as Totk is very derivative, you gave credit where credit was due, even as someone who admitted that you enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom, you didn't shy away from mentioning it's shortcomings or missed potential, you even did a great job near the end giving a synopsis of the story, characters and themes. I can't believe I watched the whole thing, I mean, I watched it over a three day period, but still... I agreed with you on just about every point with this game, even though I acknowledge and understand people's grievances about the game, I don't share them. It took me eight months to complete Tears of the Kingdom, and I have to say, I enjoyed every moment. I agree that there was a lot of missed potential with the sky, we could have had whole ancient Zonai civilizations up there, if more of the islands could have been as grand as the great sky island and had different motifs for each reason, we could have truly gotten something special. In terms of gameplay, Tears of the Kingdom expanded on and perfected the mechanics of Breath of the Wild, one of the forst things that stuck out to me in Botw, besides of course, the huge, beautiful open world, was how much more of an emphasis there was on combat. Fighting was never really something I thought much about in most other 3d Zelda games, it was there, and I enjoyed the fights, but there were never really moments where I felt like I had to be careful about how I approached each enemy encounter or thought "shoot, I might die here if I'm not careful", they were kind of an afterthought and usually pretty easy, but in botw, you always have to be careful about how you're going to handle a group of enemies, especially when it's early in the game and everyghing can kill you in about two hits once you leave the plateau. There's no experience points system, instead, your growth as a player feels natural, you'll get stronger weapons and find materials for Link as you fight and explore, you'll learn enemies' attack patterns and be able to telegraph for a perfect dodge to flurry rush or shield bash them, where before, you were getting killed by guardiand every few minutes, after a while, you'll be parrying their lasers like it's nothing. I loved Botw's combat, and Totk perfected it with the fuse mechanic. Tears of the Kingdom is as great of a game as Breath of the Wild, and I think for a lot of people, that's the problem; it's only as good as Breath of the Wild, even though it adds to and perfects mechanics established in Botw, it's reuse of the same Hyrule feels too much like retreading old ground and forces one to draw constant comparisons to the original game, so much that they don't feel like they can call it a sequel. To me, I didn't mind revisiting this Hyrule, I was actually excited to, yeah, we spent seven years exploring this Hyrule, we know it front to back, but returning to it in Totk felt like returning to your old stomping grounds from when you were a kid. How are your old friends you used to hang out with? What's new with the old neighborhood? I wanted to see how the old world I spent so much precious time and connected with had changed, and to some extent, we did. We get to see this world that was so ravaged by the Calamity begin to heal, Hyrule starts to come together. I heard that Eiji Aonuma said he wanted hands to be the theme for this game, specifically hands clasping together, and from Hyrule's citizend piecing a broken, delapitdated kingdom together, to Link grabbing Zelda's hand at the end, succeeding at the finale where he failed in the start, you really get what he was going for. Totk's story really feels like it both mirrors and expands on Botw's in many ways. Link doesn't feel forlorn in Hyrule anymorre, he's regained his memories and fulfilled his purpose as a hero, he can call this place home now, but now a new threat emerges that requires his courage to save this kingdom once again, Zelda isn't tied to the immense responsibility of awakening her sealing power anymore, but the sacrifice she makes by undergoing draconification to restore the Master Sword so that Link can defeat Ganondorf is no less serious. Gone is the mindless Calamity that brought Hyrule to ruin a century ago, we find that this monstrosity was merely an apparition, an amalgamation of the power, malice and hatred of Ganondorf, this is not an unconscious monster, this is a man with dark ambitions, he is a fearful king who weilds great power, and is frankly, a much more interesting antagonist than Calamity Ganon, and this game gave us the best fight with him yet, even better than Twilight Princess, in my opinion anyway. For all it's shortcomings, Tears of the Kingdom is still a legendary game, it might not have the benefit of being the first like it's predescesor, but I still loved it nonetheless, and your review certainly did it justice, thanks so much for making this.
It's interesting how some of the issues pointed out by other critiques are less impactful on your enjoyment or downright viewed as positive aspects by you. For example, you mentioned how the connection between lightroots and shrines make shrine hunting much easier and how that is something amazing, while I've seen another person mentioning it as a negative because it trivializes the careful exploration that would be required for it, and THAT is what they thought would be amazing if the lightroots didn't "ruin" it. I, myself, would side with you on this particular example. Not that I think it's a huge deal, but I prefer the convenience of having that option over some annoying careful combing I had to do to find some of the final shrines in BOTW.
Hey, thanks for the comment ^^ You can find most shrines on the surface with enough gumption so I don't think the lightroots trivialize anything. People often complain that there is nothing to do in the sky/depths and then in the next breath complain about a function they DO perform. I like that the Depth's can be used as a tool in that way - interplay between the 3 world layers is already pretty rare, so this was a clever way to add more and the game would have been worse off without it.
I would agree with the whole “Zelda turning back to a human” point IF, and I could be wrong, I didn’t see what Nintendo was doing. One of the first things I noticed when talking about totk and botw was each games theme in color. Breath of the wild is mostly associated with the color blue and tears of the kingdom is mostly associated with the color green. Now what else are those two colors mostly associated with in the Zelda games? If you guessed right then it’s the triforce(blue=triforce of wisdom, green=triforce of courage)If Nintendo is planning on using the same engine then most likely the next big Zelda game would take place in the same hyrule except most of the art represents red(triforce of power) and maybe have the triforce be officially introduced in the wild era. That could be a great excuse to have ganondorf back even after dying since it’s not the first time a version of ganondorf was killed just to be resurrected by someone. I don’t think Nintendos done with this Zelda yet
1. They said officially they were done with games in this world. 2. I don't remember a lot of emphasis on the color blue in BotW 3. Even if that was the case, Red would be Ganon- so you couldn't make a game with a perspective focusing on the villain. (Well YOU could, but not Nintendo. Well NINTENDO could, but not for Zelda)
@@Raykushi Well worth the effort dude, I'm only just now finishing it and it's been a joy to listen to your takes on one of my favorite games. Great to have in my ear while I'm at work.
Phenomenal review! Honestly agree with a majority of what you said. TOTK is my fav game of all time and while I understand it’s flaws, I can’t by any means call it bad and it’s sad there are a lot of people who think it is. I just can’t not enjoy the game while I play it, and sunk 300 hours in to my first 100% play through
Rarely do I ever watch a video of this stature to the end but this time it was different. This review was so engaging, understandable, hilarious at times and heartfelt that I had no problem sitting through this behemoth of a video. It was a great watch! Thank you for the countless hours spent crafting this insightful review🙏🏼
Totk is a great game. But personally I am still very disappointed in many aspects of it. I'm glad it seems like many people enjoyed it much more than I did. There is a lot to like. But for me it just didn't hit the points I wanted it to. I won't list all my gripes, but the sheer sudden disappointment I felt when I realized that every single cutscene after the dungeons are all the same, was kinda the beginning of the end for me. Not a deal breaker or anything, nothing in this game really is bad enough to make me not have at least enjoyed my playthrough. It's not one thing, but a combination of different gripes that add up to me just being disappointed in the final product. Overall it's a great game, but personally I prefer many of the older games, and yes that includes Botw.
I respect this so much! I personally loved the game but I really appreciate seeing someone admit they didn’t really love it, while also admitting they know it’s objectively a good game.
genuinely, glad ToTK was able to give you a four hour essay's worth of passion. whether you are heralded or codemned for your opinions, that's a lot of work. respect ...I got halfway through my playthrough before giving up, and by now I've seen enough of the remaining story content on YT to be satisfied with my decision. I was never thrilled with the vehicles and building, but I do concede that it was fun in the moment-to-moment decision making and experimentation. the sky is great but lacking, the depths is....mindless, but fun in a 'checking off boxes' kind of way. but I'm so exhausted of Wild Era quests and storytelling. I wanted to stick it out for some of these characters, but the rest of the writing just drags the whole production down. and I can write my own essay on Ganondorf, so the less said here, the better. I'm looking forward to Echoes of Wisdom, and if we still have one more game coming in the Wild Era or if something else, either way I just. hope we get something different. hope that strict adherence to this 'open-air' formula will be as harshly criticized as sticking to the other old formula was.
A recent interview before Echoes of Wisdom released, the developers talked about being in a bootcamp together brainstorming ideas to make the story work for Echoes of Wisdom. So I'm pretty sure they heard the message from fans who did not like how they handled the stories of BotW and TotK. We can only hope they can improve in the next 3D game, but personally, I am not holding my breath. I just moved on to other series to give me the stories and lore I want.
I just want to say I respect the heck out of you for making this. Personally, I genuinely can't stand Tears of the Kingdom, especially because the writing is so poor. But I'm a Zelda fan boy at the end of the day, and I wish more fans of this game could give convincing thorough reasons for why it's good instead of smugly declaring my expectations were wrong, or complaining that people don't like it to begin with. This is exactly what I've been wanting. Civil, passionate discussion of this game and not hostility over a difference in opinion or endless whining that more people are starting to be negative over it. Thanks man, this was a wonderful video. I hope you keep this up.
That's so nice of you! Yeah, while I can be quite good as describing why something is bad, I think it's much better to talk about why something is good - both have their merits of course! Your sentiment seems to be shared among many of the other comments - I'm really glad the positivity in this review was refreshing to so many people, because it was damn refreshing to me, lol
how the fuck is the main girl turning into a dragon and it being extremely emotional and impactful, showing how selfless she is, and doing it for the greater good, and raises a whole conversation about how the three other dragons got turned into dragons in the first place and introducing a new race bad writing i don’t understand
@@jinsoulnoodles Well, the thing is, you can't just name scenes that tugged on your heartstrings and call that good writing on its own. Believe me, that moment was impactful for me too. It was beautifully animated and acted. But everything leading up to it is poorly done. Everything is one coincidence leading to another, and more so characters like Rauru and Zelda herself being almost willfully ignorant to the threats right in front of them. The dragon wasn't even earned. The "foreshadowing" was a hamfisted declaration of how the story would unfold with bad expositional dialogue. And everything in between is vapid nonsense where characters accomplish nothing and do nothing. The story didn't even have the balls to commit to the dragon. They reversed it the second they got the chance, and everything was returned to the status quo without so much as batting an eye. It's hard to get invested in the implications of the dragon when the story isn't interested in exploring anything it implies aside from the surface level. Not the dynamics of the Gerudo with Ganondorf going off the rails. Not the Sheikah Technology disappearing without a trace. Not the real emotional side effects of being a dragon for several thousand years. Not even the Zonai as a whole. You can't just introduce a new race and expect everyone to be impressed. The Zonai had so much potential given how they were portrayed as barbarians and mages who worshiped animalistic versions of the Triforce's virtues. But that wasn't built upon. Instead they opted for a recolor of the Sheikah down to even the same shrines and advanced technology, only introduced two members one of which doesn't even have an original name or purpose, and didn't do anything worth getting invested in beyond their mere existence. Only to muck up the chronology with them "founding Hyrule". Even if it's a "new Hyrule", with how little influence they seemed to have left behind and the fact that this was never set up or developed in the story itself, it isn't earned or satisfying. It's cheap.
@atlasroyale5294 Unfortunately, the story is just not one of Zelda teams concerns right now. Maybe ever, Nintendo as a whole is more of a toy maker. They only care about the fun that can be had from gameplay. Which I prefer, as games aren't movies, but if you like stories in games, it's not finna happen rn ;_;
@@lpstweetytv5242 I get that, but it's never stopped them before. I need only point to almost any other Zelda game, specifically the 3D ones, to prove that gameplay centered philosophy can still create great stories. (I personally didn't have fun with the game either, but that's me). I don't think there's any legitimate excuse for why TotK was so especially bad in this regard.
I am 170 hrs with this game now but only at the beginning of the 2nd temple. I will revisit this video when I am more than 50% of the game to avoid the spoilers hopefully not in years. Anyway, TOTK is the best game ever created. I hope someone could do a side by side comparison with other most reputed games. The more you compare this game with other games, you will find out the most criticized aspects of this game exist in all other most reputed games, but not an issue for other games at all, and the more you will realize how superior TOTK is. Except for the story, whether you like a story or not is simply 100% subjective. TOTK is meant to be fun and the best gift for the most curious and creative players. BTW the engine of TOTK is redesigned from BOTW. TOTK may not be your favorite game, but hope you all can still enjoy this fantastic game. 5:17
I disagree on quite a few points, and was overall disappointed by totk (despite loving certain things), but this is an incredible video!! You were very fair and in-depth, and I enjoyed watching the whole thing!
So, a couple of note I had while watching. The frog armor does make you slip proof if you get the set bonus. Also, you could get the fangs, scales, claws, and horns from the dragons in botw. The only new one is the spike. Other than that, I’ve absolutely loved this video.
Yeah, I've been corrected about the frog thing alot lol. You sure about the dragon parts though? I know about scales and horns, but claws and fangs I don't remember. Thanks though! Really appreciate it!
@@Raykushi Yep. You just have to be precise about shooting the dragon on the claw and mouth for those parts. I think they were used for some upgrades to the “of the wild” set of armor.
It's a comment section so maybe I didn't have to treat this like a school essay assignment, but I hope at least some people will read this and reply with their own perspectives. Also, I haven't written an essay in forever, so I apologize if it's bad. I believe Tears of the Kingdom is a masterpiece, but it's still disappointing. SPOILER WARNING I loved Breath of the Wild, probably would be THE game I'd take on a stranded island. It has its flaws, but that's expected for a game like BotW. It was never really done before, especially by Nintendo. When they decided to make a sequel to my favorite game, I was so happy. I was theorizing what they could do for the story, or how Link or Zelda would get through it. When I finally got the game, my first playthrough was super fun and I loved finding out if my theories were right, and I loved absolutely every bit of the game,, but I noticed some problems when it came to the story the sky, and the depths. The main thing almost everyone was waiting to see in this game was the sky islands, myself included, so you could imagine my disappointment when I found that there was barely any sky islands. At least, barely any islands that actually did something. They were only there for the occasional shrine, and maybe some loot, but that's it. There's only 3 actually interesting islands in the game for me, those 3 being a random island where you fight the King Gleeok, the Great Sky Island, and the Thunderhead Isles above Faron, but there's not really anything to do there after you've already been there. There's no other big islands or islands with cool boss fights, just shrines. I still did find exploring them to be fun, and I like the shrine puzzles, but I wish there were more islands around with more stuff to do. I actually like Zelda's story, as it's actually interesting and important to the entire game, only problem I have with it is that sometimes you get a tear in the wrong order and it makes things a bit confusing, but it follows the same exact thing BotW did, so it gets a pass. I won't give them a pass for how bland the rest of the story was. The main thing here is the Sages that give you the secret stones and tell you about their perspective of the original Ganon fight way back when. The first time I heard it, it was super cool, and I liked to hear about what actually happened, but then you hear it for a second time, It's still cool, but you've already heard it. Then a third, it gets boring to hear. Then a fourth, and it's just gotten stale. Then you hear it for a fifth time and a sixth, and it's just hard to not skip the cutscene. I know it was made this way for gameplay reasons, but they could have changed the dialogue a bit so it's actually worth hearing every sage. There was almost no mention of the Depths by Nintendo, so when everyone got the game, everyone was surprised, especially with how big and mysterious it all was. I loved exploring the creepy dark depths every time I go down there, and I don't have much to complain about. I think there's a few quests, and you get to refight the four regional bosses after you beat them in their dungeons, which is super cool, and there's a cool Lynel arena where you fight waves of Lynels, which is also really fun. You can explore and find armor sets for the Amiibo armors from BotW, which was a little annoying that my Amiibos didn't mean much anymore, but it was still cool. At least nobody is missing out on that. The biggest thing I loved about the Depths was just the whole atmosphere. It felt like I was playing a horror game. The music was perfect for the mood, and so was the actual design of the depths. Everything was dark, kind of like it was dead, but not really. I loved that there was Gloom everywhere, cause it showed that Ganon has actually taken control over a lot of the depths, even all of the monsters down there. I think the only thing I can complain about is that after a while, the Depths is just a little bland. Everywhere you go is the exact same thing except maybe a structure or two, but it all looks the same, and it spans over the entire map, so it's just the same thing but everywhere. I think the positives out weigh the negatives when it comes to the depths. The bosses in this game were amazing. They were all really cool and I loved every one of them. I loved the way they game all of them a mechanic to defeat them, like you had to dive through Colgera, or use water to weaken Mucktorok, or use recall to throw Ghomas rocks back, or use lightning to defeat Queen Gibdo. I don't think there's a single bad thing I can say about the bosses, other than the final boss, Ganon. He's hyped up to be the ultimate fight, he's literally called "The Demon King" and he's supposed to be this all powerful Demon guy. He even shattered the Master Sword with no effort, but when you actually fight him, you melt through his health like its butter. I do like how later in the fight, he flurry rushes your flurry rush, and he uses different kinds of weapons, and I also like how he does a lot of damage, even destroying your hearts so you can't heal. I liked the final part when he becomes a dragon too, it was amazing. Overall, the game is really, really good, but it's also kind of bad. The story was good, but was kind of bland sometimes. The Sky Islands were cool, but they were kind of useless most of the time. The Depths were almost perfect, but they got stale after a while, and the Bosses were amazing. Ganon was well written and his boss fight was cool, but it ended way too quickly. It was an amazing experience all the way through, but it was still a little disappointing.
i do agree with you that yunobo had a lot of missed potential and it’s annoying he just went straight back to his old self. however i do think he does get character growth by actually becoming more useful in caves with smashing rocks, and therefore finding his strength but yeah i get it.
The game would have been bigger than BOTW (not to mention it is) if it had come out 2-3 years later. Honestly it taking 6 plus years to launch as a direct sequel to BOTW really raised expectations and it let down a big portion of the playerbase in that regard.
Also my favourite game, and that doesn’t stop us from make criticism as you expertly done. I’ll disagree with you on the game replacing BOTW though. As you mentioned it yourself, the feelings evoked in each are different. BOTW is very lonely and melancholy which is very different from TOTK. So it’s nice having these different experiences. I also believe that ultrahand substantially changes the experience of the game. I think there’s room to make further use of enhanced physics and “chemistry” libraries generated for this game in the future even without ultra hand, and I hang no doubt the developers must have a big list of “I want to try this” for the next games. I honestly think Nintendo is at their creative peak this generation, and that comes from a long time gamer.
Botw and Totk are my very first Zelda games, and honestly I think I enjoyed Totk way more than botw. I played it a lot more, it had a lot more for me to do in side content that I still enjoyed, and the characters were incredible. I have my own complaints with it, but it is undoubtedly one of my favorite games now
Finally finished the video, that was a long one lol. My only gripe, your ALttP pun... Technically, Zelda would be the "Link to the Past" not Link himself since hes in the present time lol. Gotta say, this was a great watch (had to watch it in bursts because i have ADHD and it gets hard to focus lol) but this video and what you said perfectly encapsulates how i feel about Tears of the Kingdom...The game isnt perfect (nothing is) but that game was a masterpiece and became my favorite game as well. Ive been playing Zelda for a long time, OoT was my first...No game has captured the sense of wonder (not even Breath of the Wild) that Tears of the Kingdom has for me. I think this game having BotW come before it was a benefit... BotW's Hyrule was great but left a lot to be desired. It felt empty, devoid of content and the sense of exploration was lost on me the second I realized i was only going to be met with Korok poo or empty grassy plains. TotK's additions were kind of what i wanted when BotW was first being announced...Caves, sky islands, a dark world type place that mirrors Hyrule, etc. Again, good video. You earned yourself a sub
@@Raykushi thank you for the video, and thank you for putting into words what I cannot lol. Tears of the Kingdom is a wonderful game and I hope more people see this video
It’s kinda interesting that the criticisms you bring up are pretty much the same as the ones you’ll find in videos talking about the game negatively. Except there are considerably less death threats in this comment section lol
I can acknowledge certain flaws while still thinking of the game positively, especially when I try to understand what caused those flaws to exist, and if the time and effort implementing certain fixes was feasible for the developers.
Thank God. The recent totk hate has been so annoying and almost feels algorithm chasing more than like an actual opinion a lot of times. Like omg a sequel is too sequelish! Wtf does that even mean. Of course it is like the original, it's the same characters and in the same world why are you SURPRISED and even disappointed that it's the same map? They even added to it significantly and made time appropriate adjustments! Even the "why doesn't everyone recognize me" thing is annoying. Like honestly 🙄 I see notable figures at my job all the time and don't recognize any of them until I take their id.
on god I think BOTW only requiring 36 or 20 shrines for the Master Sword is good because even if you only focus on the core game to get the true ending, TOTK taking place so long after opens it up to stuff happening off screen. "Why don't i get recognition for building Tarry Town" Maybe they're accounting for players -not- having done everything and instead it got built within that time skip. "Why did Zelda steal my house?" It's entirely possible that Link didn't spend a lot of time in Hateno and actually got a move on with the important stuff since the 20 Shrines thing basically just ask that you do 5 shrines a region or less, and if you stop at nearly every stable and every town, there's almost guaranteed to put you near or at the threshold. So if they stop by there to see Purah and Zelda wants to see how Hyrule has changed, congrats- House. Even if you don't get everything or achieve the true ending, it's still entirely possible for them to do that stuff off-screen, especially considering Link has Hearts/Stamina you can't normally get. It's kinda silly overall, but people talking about everything they did in BOTW being meaningless when Ocarina and Majora exist is absolutely crazy; I don't think there's a single Zelda game where past actions/things you did actually have significance besides if it mattered to the plot, Oracle of Ages and Seasons maybe, but that's just if you've got the cable to connect the two. There's a lot I like about BOTW and less-so TOTK (But only because at this point I've only done one playthrough) but something they both shine at is letting people do stuff in their own way, which somehow became a bad thing.
CaptBurgerson made a fantastic video explaining the whole people not knowing Link situation, and it even made me view it more positively as someone who was never very bothered by it in the first place.
The people not recognizing you thing is different between real life and a story. In real life, people have their own lives. In a story, the writer can write however they want to. So if in the story, people don't recognize Link, it is not because it's realistic for people to forget, it is because the writer chose to have them forget. It's not hard to understand why people playing a sequel to a game would dislike this. It feels insulting for people to forget you. It does not feel good meeting old characters to have them not know who you are after spending time helping them or collecting 900 Korok seeds (most people didn't do this, but seriously, wtf Hestu).
@@ShallBePurified The last section of Capt's video provides solid reasoning for why it was written this way. For example, it would be tiring to start every conversation with "oh hi legendary hero Link" before carrying on with the conversation, it accomadates new players, and it places more focus on the events going on now. The equivalent of an NPC interaction irl would probably last way longer, but here they have to be more selective about the purpose they use it for, so it's possible a lot of characters that are written more ambiguously do recognize him, but just focus on the here and now instead of pointing it out. Several of those NPCs also had dialogue in BotW greeting Link as a stranger, and that dialogue is absent in TotK. I'm giving a rough summary of a few of his points, but I highly recommend watching the video; I think there's a good chance it will help the issue.
You had me dying when you began to talk about goron city lmaoooooooooooo I did everything before purah asked too! haha XD I did watch the entire thing, and I loved it just as much. Bro, I love totk. It was the first open world zelda game I played, and even when I did play botw, I loved totk even more. I love botw, I love totk, I call it Rememberance to Redemption
This video makes me wonder why anyone is being so hateful lately towards this game. This review summarizes everything I feel with this game and it's why it's my favorite game of all time!
Thanks for the comment! I do mention a couple of flaws with the game such as how derivative of BoTW it is. I think that coupled with the fact that compulsive contrarianism has caused people to bandwagon illegitimate or petty criticisms onto the game.
I disagree ascend is replaceable. Do you know how many hard to reach places I was able to get to with ascend? I literally wasted trampolines trying to get to a surface in the sky islands just to realize I had ascend this whole time
It's not totally replaceable - I said it was most replaceable out of the 4 powers in a comparative sense, which it certainly is. Thank you for watching though
Excellent analysis (maybe because I agree across the board)! You’ve got a new sub friend, and hoping for more in-depth analysis of other properties in the future!
Its very interesting seeing fan feedback to new entries in pre-established series especially with Zelda. I seen multiple games being ragged on for a myriad of things even as early as OOT. OOT was ragged on for control issues and being a copy of ALTTP as well as puzzles being piss easy(this complaint was issued for all Zelda games). MM was ragged on for being an uninspired asset flip that was largely a cash grab for things like repeating character models from OOT and that there wasn't enough dungeons. WW was ragged on for its artstyle and sailing downtime as well as not having enough dungeons. TP was ragged on for being an uninspired OOT copy cat as well as having a boring overworld that was mostly size over substance and insane linearity. SS was ragged on for insane linearity and handholding as well as the companion spoiling solutions to puzzles and motion controls. BOTW was ragged on for doing away of most of the traditional aspects of Zelda like lock and key dungeons and item based progression as well as a empty and boring open world as well as the storytelling being ass. Now TOTK is being ragged on for things like barren empty environments like sky and depths, story being ass(this complaint was issued for all other Zelda games) and being an uninspired asset flip that is actively insulting that it exists at all. These are just a sliver of complaints issued for Zelda games but over time when the Zelda game isnt the highlight of the series anymore people notice things about it that they didn't notice due to seeing it for what it is. OOT nowadays is remembered quite fondly for iterating on ALTTP in a successful way as well as the story moments that make it stand out. MM is revered for its side content and the eerie feeling of familiar NPC faces in a different context as well as theming. WW is revered for its openess and the sailing as well as combat, and its excellent artstyle. TP is now revered for the epic feeling hyrule as well as awesome dungeon layouts and the hidden skills of combat as well as Midna as a character. SS is revered for establishing a solid story foundation of the series as well as dungeon puzzles and groose being groose. BOTW is praised for how it told its story and for its system driven nature as well as breaking conventions of what Zelda is. Only time will tell how fans actually feel about TOTK, but i suspect many aspects will be noticed as positives rather than negatives. Aspects like open solution puzzles will be revered with time rather than being painted as an objective flaw, I also suspect the story will resonate more with players over time. Same with puzzles and overall content. In due time Zelda fans will appreciate TOTK more when its viewed for what it is rather than what they wanted it to be. All this to say that the Oracle games are massively underrated and you should play them.
After all I've seen of TotK discourse, the game just has too many amazing things going for it that I cannot bring myself to imagine a timeline in which people are willing to let it rot in the corner forever. In addition, so many criticisms seemed based more on expectations built up from the 4 year long speculation period and less on how they actually impact the game. Having such expectations is totally valid given the little we knew about it at the time, but I think it leads to people missing the point of certain things it was actually going for, or at least seeing them as worse than they are because it goes against what they wanted from the game. Say what you will about Aonuma's comments, but he hit the nail on the head when he said there tends to be a grass is greener mentality. People remember the older games for what they do so well and defend them with their lives, and only remember this game for what it does wrong in their eyes. They want what they don't currently have and it impacts their enjoyment of the experience in front of them. I think this whole thing keeps happening because the games spending time at the center of the community's attention leads to a whole bunch of positive and negative views of it until it fades into irrelevancy, at which point some people look back, remember how much they actually adored it, talk about it online and a new sub-section of the community is created. That's what I see coming to pass with TotK because it can't be denied how many people still hold it in extremely high regard.
@@speedude0164 yea, like I said it's interesting seeing a shift in opinion and it most likely will happen to TotK. I'm not saying that people will suddenly all unanimously agree that the game is perfect but I think many will view it in a higher regard. There is many aspects of the game that alot of people dont really talk about and i think that will change with time and thats okay. I think in time more interesting takes on TotK will come out when the game is older because i remember seeing alot of unique takes on BotW later on in its life cycle. I honestly really enjoyed The Yesh's video on BotW because he shared a stark contrast of opinion to other reviewers and gave me a deeper appreciation for the game as well as areas of improvement that I didn't even notice and this was a video that came out well after the game was out.The opinion shift that surprised me alot was definitely Skyward Sword. People freaking HATED that game and the hate didn't seem to get a lot of push back from Skyward Sword fans, but Nowadays it is revered as a classic and gem on the Wii and a staple on the Zelda series. People's shift in opinion is always interesting to see and I don't think there's anything wrong in shifting opinion. It's just fun to see.
You’re allowed to not like a game but I feel some of the criticisms that this game gets is the most nitpicky discourse I’ve ever seen. I feel like I didn’t play the same game with most of these criticism and most of them felt like it would most definitely be applied to botw tenfold
@@Theunloved1738 yea for sure, I think my big issue with TotK's discourse is that alot of people are reductive to what TotK is and don't really acknowledge improvements made from BotW. I've seen many complaints about sandbox elements in a sandbox game lmao. I also really dislike how people romanticize older titles as if they were flawless to demonize the new entries. It's very frustrating.
@@dairdevil4271 I also hate how for 6 years complaining how botws story was non existent and now all of a sudden “no it actually does have a story you just weren’t paying attention”. Like I literally get whiplash from that. Totk story isn’t the greatest don’t get me wrong, but compared to Breath the story felt way more present and it actually felt like I accomplished something narratively. I would rather have an “ok” story than for the story to just basically not be there.
ngl I’ve been replaying totk a lot, and the worst part about it is just the fps, it’s why I’m pumped for the switch 2, so I can hopefully play the game in 30 fps!
Finally a positive video on a game I love Just watched a 3 hour video on why this game sucks and I can’t wait to finally watch a positive one And a 4 hour video. I’m going to be coming back tho finish this multiple times. I played this game before Breath of the wild. And my first play through of the great sky island is one of my favorite moments I’ve ever had in any video game.
One little thing I liked and idk if it was totally on purpose or not but the Parallel between TOTK and OoT of Ganadorf proclaiming his loyalty to the King- Rauru/ King of Hyrule in OoT but of course it turning out to be a blatant lie just to get close to the royal family. Idk just the scene of him in the palace bowing before Rauru reminded me of the similar scene in OoT History really do be repeating itself
I love how that moment is lowkey a confrontation between Ganondorf and Rauru, as both are well aware of the other's true intent yet are playing along until their opportunity to strike presents itself. Ganondorf subtly challenges Rauru to a battle of wits and warns him of the devastation to come if he loses, and Rauru confidantly affirms that regardless of his own fate, Hyrule has his back.
Finally a positive video about this game! Not that i'd let other peoples opinions on something sway my own, but all the negative videos i've seen about TOTK have been making me question whether or not I had a shitty taste in games. I totally understand that it has its flaws and shortcomings, but sometimes I think in the pursuit of enjoying something to its fullest its ok to look past those things, especially when, bottom line, I came out satisfied.
Also extra thanks for the lengthy video, great for drawing to!
People becoming more comfortable with expressing their opinions after a never ending barrage of postive totk videos and being told "they're wrong" is not a bad thing tho. It's such a good thing now that people are now comfortable being able to say "hey I dislike this game and what it did", but acting like there weren't so many positive videos and people weren't hostile to those who disliked it is a bit disingenuous. As for why you're seeing em more often now, it's because of the youtube algo. You watch one video, and more will start popping up. Skitty's video was a really a breakthrough for people being able to express their opinions, but it also leads to more people making videos with their problems with the game and then the youtube algo will spiral.
Remember, these are THEIR opinions, not your opinions. If you like a game, you like. Don't question if you "have shitty taste in games", but don't dismiss them as just "negative totk" vids too. If anything it's good we can have a balance of positive and negative opinions on a piece of media like TOTK. Enjoy the game to the fullest, but reconize their opinions are also their own too and what may not break the game for you does break it for them.
@@ConductorElcrest oh yeah dont get me wrong I agree! My comment wasnt meant to be taken too seriously to be completely honest. I actually appreciate and watch those critique videos (which is exactly why I keep getting shown them haha) and no I don't think I have a shitty taste in games, lol that was more of a sarcastic comment than anything. I get how tone can get misconstrued over text.
But regardless, I personally wasn't seeing positive videos, obviously doesn't mean there weren't any. It seems I'm not the only one either. I was just expressing that I was happy to finally see some positivity myself is all! I suppose its more of a reflection on myself that I have to understand everyones opinions on a game before I can enjoy it fully.
At the end of the day, people can like what they like and not like what they don't. I think its great that theres a variety of opinions on something I like. And I think critique is necessary to get better games which ultimately benefits all of us!
@@lolablue8668 I think the biggest thing is it's normally a cycle where positive videos overwhelm the feed at first, making people who dislike certain aspects of a game/dislike a game very uncomfortable as they're not properly allowed to share their opinions. Then once hype dies down we get into the cycle of "now I can finally speak my mind" and then people start being able to speak their mind as well, and then it rolls around to more positive videos starting to come back again to defend a game.
I wish there was a middle ground where even at a games launch we could have a healthy enviorment where people are allowed to express their opinions without fear of backlash, and then a year later express opinions without getting backlash. Er... Hope I worded that right lol
I do agree with you! Critique is very necessary to get better games! I may have my fair share of complaints with TOTK (just using it an example cause well... It is the game the video talks about lol), but I have a lot of things I love about it too! As long as nintendo is able to hear both sides I can't wait to see what they fix and what they improve in the next big 3d Zelda!
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Bring back remote bombs please nintendo LOL
@@ConductorElcrest yess agree. Tbh I feel like alot of the people i see critiquing it are as passionate as the games diehard supporters, because its often coming from a place of loving this franchise and wanting to see it reach its full potential.
And yeah the honeymoon phase is very real ESPECIALLY with zelda games. It really is like the same cycle every time a new one comes out which is funny lol. I just feel lucky to be here at a time theres such a cool game franchise and a huge thriving community around it as well.
There's no such thing as having shitty taste. You like what you like. I may not be a fan of this game but I can respect the fact that people do like this game a lot. Whether something is good or bad is up to each individual.
Why is it that every time someone makes a positive totk video, nearly all the comments just crap on the game despise the video. I've seen so much hate for this game that I've actually seen people get angry at the color of the grass. THE LITERAL GRASS!
Yellow grass like dude these guys are absolute trolls
What? People are seriously getting mad over the color of grass please tell me you’re joking especially when it’s because totk is better than botw even when that’s true cause let’s be honest totk makes botw look like a demo when compared to totk so it’s stupid to even try to compare the two when it’s obvious witch one is the better game between botw vs totk the sequel is the better one obviously botw is by no means a bad game far from it but compared to totk it feels empty and this is coming from someone who put stupid amount of hours into both games and fun with both games
@@mattsultimategamingandrevi8249 I agree, but a lot of people personally like botw more bc it was there first zelda game and they feel like they need to defend it against much better games, bc they don't want another game to be "better" than the game they're attached to.
@@elizabethweaver5478 that makes sense everybody has games they like dislike and that’s perfectly fine
@@elizabethweaver5478 Not being better than BotW is far from a failure for the game. It's pretty rare for sequels to surpass their predecessor, much more when that predecessor is one of the best and most highly acclaimed games of all time. I personally prefer TotK, but BotW has a novelty and appeal that never could've been replicated so I can totally see people prefering it.
This video was insane, holy shit 4 hours of a high quality review is just unbelievable. It was so enjoyable to watch, so thank you so much
And thank YOU for saying so!
Seems like a great video to listen to while I finish up my 100% save of the game
The lightning ability does make sense when you consider how lighting functions during storms. Lightning is attracted to metal objects, so Riju can use the metal arrowhead as a focal point to aim the strike. I still agree that the ability could have been implemented better though
The arrows in BOTW have (to our knowledge) no conductive materials on them
@GohTheGreat seems pretty safe to assume they are likely made from the same type of metal as other weapons in the game. The only other options would be stone, which would be silly if the Hylians have knowledge of metal working, or some unknown material that no other Hylian weapon uses
They have so many options to better implement the sage abilities:
- Get rid of 'map' on the radial wheel, and put the abilities there, so it's 12 options instead of 8.
- Have Riju as a 'fuse item' for arrows.
- Have Yunobo select-able when quick-swapping weapons
- Have Sidon select-able when quick-swapping shields
Then have Mineru be the only one to behave like a horse when whistling,
Yet through their 1 year of polishing the game (and now however long after release), they went with having to run up to followers and pressing the button you use to interact with basically everything in the game.
I like TOTK and BOTW a lot, but when I was just starting out with TOTK and seeing all the new things or how the story has progressed in aspects big and small I kept getting the feeling like "ooooh they made this game for me". I love TOTK because I fell in love with the world and characters and Zelda as a franchise in BOTW. They are to me parts of a whole and I can't pit them against one another. People being so publically negative about the game I personally found so compelling has been greatly demoralizing and so seeing you talk about why you love this game (and yet voicing criticism that many players share, me included) makes me happy. TOTK is not flawless but it is still an absolute gem of a game. And even though for some people the game was "over" after they beat it on release, it still lives in my head rent free and I'm glad I'm not alone in this. Great video :)
Ur not alone 😢😂
Exactly my experience. It's tailored for a very specific audience. I'm not delusional and say the game does objectively fail in a lot of important ways, but damn did I personally have a great time with it. It's like Skyward Sword, has a lot of flaws but also has its audience it appeals to.
i’m so offended by people finding ascend useless and their least favourite when it’s my favourite and the one i found the most helpful like tf
Literally exactly why the devs added it. It was a dev tool and then they realized the game was much worse without it
Ascend is way more useful than cryogensis ever was
I literally have a hard time adjusting to other open worlds because of the Ascend ability
bro ive been spamming ascend so much, i dont see how ppl find it not useful
Personally it's more that Ascend is the least interesting ability of the bunch. Ultrahand, Fuse, Recall and even Auto-Build is more interesting to me than being able to go directly up short distances
Thank you for making this video, I love seeing people talk about their thoughts of ToTK in depth. It truly does mean a lot more than you would think, at least for me.
I can't believe it's already been more than a year since this game came out. I still can't find how to put into words what it makes me feel.
Same
I knew going to down a Zelda rabbit hole at 3am would get me a good video.
:D Thank you LOL
It's that kind of video that keeps you awake until 7am (if you get it) :p
So you can actually upgrade the Froggy Armor to the 2nd level and you can jump up the walls even when it's raining 45:09
@@mirandanorman7079 OOOOOH WHAT
I played this game over 150+ hours, thoroughly enjoyed it. No reason to feel anything but gratitude and awe for the Nintendo team who made this amazing game. I can not wait to see what they cook up next.
been seeing a lot of TotK sucks stuff as of late, nice to see something different.
People really need to stop with BOTW vs. TOTK debates. Even tho TOTK is the better game IMO you can't deny that Zelda team set out on a mission to explore AS much as they could within open-world Hyrule. These games are ONE story in the chapter of Open-World Hyrule and I wish people can appreciate that perspective more. The amount of creative freedom via Ultrahand and all the Zonai builds was not something I thought I'd fall in love with but it turned out to be a game changer!
No, people can debate and express their opinions whenever they want. They do not really need to stop
And since totk barely connects to botw and ignores most of that game's story, I do not think that they are one continuous story. That's what I hoped for and not what we got
i look at them as more of a duology personally@@prettyoriginalnameprettyor7506
@@prettyoriginalnameprettyor7506also nigga why do i find u under EVERY vid regarding tears of the kingdom, positive or bad. like i get u dont like the game but damn bro u dont have to argue with EVERYBODY who actually likes tears of the kingdom. expression of opinion is fine, but when it gets to the point where you are actively seeking out/looking for these vids to bash on ppl who actually likes the game, i feel like thats past tge "expression of opinion" point. but oh well🤷🏽♂️ u do u man
@@prettyoriginalnameprettyor7506they are connected stories. In the TOTK concept book, a festival took place after the events of BOTW with link in his original outfit. The calamity is mentioned so many times.
honestly this game is probably my favorite ever, everything you said, but honestly to me? the world feels less empty, and as such, worthy of exploring every inch. also i love the depths i just fly around in there for hours lol. what a video, wow
Thank you so much!
I understand the common complaint of the Depths feeling too samey, but I don't know if it's just the amazing atmosphere or the alien look of the place, I occasionally head down there on my 100% file to fly around and just get blown away by the view. There's something so appealing about exploring and slowly conquering this pitch black monster hub spanning across the whole map.
So true 😢
I've been playing the legend of zelda games since the first ever release. People complaining about the game being too open or people saying they miss the traditional formula makes no sense to me. Considering the original games were never intended to even be linear in the first place. The zelda games were always intended to be driven by player choice and freedom. The "Traditional" formula people are talking about didnt begin until ocarina of time. Which while yes it had a sort of hub world, it was mostly linear. Dungeons just had secrets and some extra paths but thats it. As the series continued, the games scope just got bigger and bigger which was the obvious evolution of the series. To me tears of the kingdom is the game ive always wanted. A grandiose adventure in a huge open world where i choose where i wanna go and what i wanna do. With a world that feels alive and lived in. With immersive intricate details. I feel like this game was made for people like me. Where i can spend 100s of hours maybe even thousands because its a game thats design to be played whatever way i desire. I spent 100s of hours in these games just having fun and immersing myself in these worlds. Especially tears of the Kingdom. Idk maybe im alone in this but ive never found a single thing i disliked about this game.
Im sure both breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom will stay with us fans for a long time, they both have their own amazing charm and theme. I remember being so happy that I was able to experience playing botw when it first got out thinking “I wish I could play this game for the first time forever”. TotK made me feel so excited and curious the entire time. Breath of the wild is so nostalgic and even cozy in my opinion, while tears of the kingdom is more complex and emotional with even more exploration. Thank you for your amazing review, I wholeheartedly agree with the topics and opinions you shared. I hope this video will get the views and appreciation you deserve!
Thanks so much! It's hit 10K, which I'm already happy with, and it's been less than a week. Needless to say that's already got me in a good mood
In botw they say that 10000 years ago 4 champions used the divine beasts and that those beasts were named after warriors from the past. Those warriors are assumed to be the sages from Raurus time. They don't name them so you can make that distinction. That's why they wear masks that look like the beasts. They aren't modeled after the divine beasts but instead the divine beasts are modeled after the sages. The sages names ARE Rudania, Medoh, Ruta and Naboris.
OOOOO
kinda wish they said that though that woulda been sick
@Raykushi another kinda cool theory. You know how you said link's sage ability was the yiga technique? So there's a bunch of random diary entries that say that links flurry rush and bullet time are actually canonical. It's not just a game mechanic, it's his actual champion or sage ability. Some of those logs say they witness link in combat and in the blink of an eye an enemy goes down almost as if time slows down. Thought that was kinda cool.
I don't think one could conclude that the ancient sages were those warriors.
Yes, in BotW it was written that way with the beasts and the names.
Then they could have used the names in the same way - which they didn't. The masks wouldn't be a clear indication for me. For me this has more of a chicken/egg paradox, as I don't think we know exactly when the Shika built the ancient technology in relation to TotK.
Not sure about them being named after the ancient Sages because I'm sure devine beast Vah Naboris, Vah Rudania and Vah Ruta ate explicitly named after Nabooru, Darunia and princess Ruto from OOT.
However I'm sure that it's true that the devine beasts were modeled after the ancient Sages masks.
The sages know the lines they're supposed to say because link watched it 5 times and had it memorized.
@@Jahusaphet but the current sages weren't there to watch the memories of the previous sages vows to rauru, so it's kinda weird lol
This is a super fair review of the game and might be the one that aligns with my view of it the most that I've seen. It has some healthy criticisms sprinkled in while also not letting them take away from the monumental feats this game accomplished, and watching it really brought me back to my time experiencing the game and reminded me of the exact feelings it gave me and the reasons I hold it in such high regard. I especially appreciate you pointing out how much more goes on in the present than in BotW cause that's something I don't see talked about nearly enough. I love the theme of community that persists throughout the game and how fitting it is for a kingdom healing from an event as devastating as the Calamity. The NPCs take a much more active role in helping your quest and the rest of the kingdom, and engaging with them always lets you enjoy some of the fruits of your labor. Your assistance in Hateno Village's political debate leads to the creation of Cheese and Sun Pumpkins to use in meals, and your assistance with the school earns you a free garden to grow crops of your choice; your assistance in rebuilding Lurelin Village leads to its people offering you their hospitality in exchange with free meals, free stays at the inn and input on a new tourist attraction; most obvious of all, your assistance with the 4 regions against their phenomena earns you their Sage as an ally for the upcoming final battle. It excels at the type of storytelling only possible in a video game by making you experience first hand the kingdom's newfound growth.
I do have some extra points I'd like to touch upon below:
A neat observation I made regarding the new mechanics is that they can essentially be seen as a watered down power of the developers themselves. Ultrahand and Fuse allow you to create objects such as bridges, vehicles and weapons yourself and Ascend literally started out as a dev tool. Where most games have a path layed out for you to solve, this game allows you to build that path yourself. It's such a brilliant way to depict this game's design philosophy, and it makes sense within the lore on a meta-level since the Zonai are descendants of gods.
The Water Temple does kinda have a lore reason for its existence, as it's stated by the Ancient Zora Sage that it's the source of the pure waters of the Lanayru region. This is further exemplified by the fact that the sludgefalls all land in one of the area's natural water sources. I can see how having the Waterworks as the Temple would've made for a cooler Water Temple aesthetic, but I think it was mostly done this way as sludge falling from the Sky feels much more apocalyptic than the alternative of a glorified pipe leak. As is, the area can be seen as a sort of fountain from heaven, and it's easy to see how the waters of such a place being polluted would have such devastating effects on the land below. It's a bit of a strange piece of lore for the region's waters to come from a floating structure, but I do quite enjoy what they do with it. I'm actually pretty disappointed that the sludge flowing through Wellspring Island doesn't transform into water upon defeating Mucktorok as I remember gushing during the climb about how gorgeous the place would look with water flowing through.
It seems you didn't notice the weakness of the Gibdo nests. Their purple core lights up while they're in the process of spawning Gibdos, and this is the only time they're able to be destroyed. This is why the nests in the Queen Gibdo arena couldn't be destroyed until the fight; they hadn't been spawning Gibdos yet. It is also possible to use Bombs to blow them up.
Mineru's spirit never actually resides in the owl mask. I can see why you would come to this conclusion since that's the moment she starts talking to you, but after the Seized Construct fight, we see her spirit exit the Purah Pad and fly into the secret stone as it fuses with her construct, meaning she's been there with Link the entire time. This raises the obvious question of why she didn't just emerge sooner and guide Link to her construct when he got the Purah Pad like she planned, and I do wish this was better explained, but I have a decent theory. Essentially, although Mineru can seperate her spirit from her body, she can't communicate in spirit form directly without the power of a secret stone (how else would it even be able to amplify her power lol). This didn't pose an issue as she had built herself a new body to house her secret stone, but Ganondorf's corruption of that construct body cut her off from the stone and prevented her from being able to communicate until a new body began to be constructed for her and she could tap into a small amount of the stone's power (this would make sense as she communicates much more clearly during the boss while they're right next to the stone). As for how previous spirits could communicate with Link, I'd simply chalk it up to them having a connection with him such as the Champions having known him in the past and Rauru's body essentially being fused with his. I think this is also a good time to point out how genius the details surrounding Mineru's quest are outside of that one hiccup. Of the 5 Phenomena Purah calls attention to, the only one not caused by Ganondorf is the Kakariko Ring Ruins, and thus were it not for him, that would've been the first place Link explored and it would've started him on the quest to access Mineru's stone and construct just like she initially planned. With that in mind, it's easy to see how much the Demon King's influence really did screw up her plan.
Sorry, I really didn't intend for my comment to be this long, and I guess I now have a slight understanding of what you went through with this video. 🤣I do hope I was able to add some solid value to this conversation.
@speedude0164 I do actually know about the Gibdo nest weakness. I still had weird issues with hitboxes tho :p
Your comment was a great read though. Thanks so much!
@@Raykushi Interesting, I've rarely had such issues with them. Maybe the hitboxes just end a bit sooner than the visual indicator would have you think.
I'm glad to hear that! It's surprisingly hard to find civil discussions about this game's merits on UA-cam so I try explaining my views in the clearest way possible in hopes it can catch on with others that feel a similar type of way. Funny enough, your explanations about the theme of addiction in the Goron City quest actually made me appreciate it much more than just "haha Gorons on drugs". It does a good job showing how much a society can be negatively impacted by addiction.
@@speedude0164 Thanks! like I said, I don't even know if it was intentional, but the fact the region's themes can be interpreted that way is interesting.
So happy to see some positivity about this game going around, it is definitely currently a victim of the Zelda love/hate dynamic that seems to happen to most games. Many of the people asserting that BOTW is the better game were hating on it a year after its release as well. Same thing will happen with EOW in a few days.
In five years these will all be considered the best of the series if past trends are to play out again
I remember ToTK being praised to high heaven on Twitter during it's first month and then we started to see this contrarian influx of "it's good but...is it??" and I was losing my mind lmao
The "Zelda cycle" seems like an intuitive concept and there is some truth to it, but I also think it's a very convenient excuse brought up to discredit more easily parts of the fandom people don't relate to. I'm curious what makes you think that many of the people preferring BOTW were hating it before. There are all sorts of profiles who played Zelda before BOTW or not, liked BOTW or not, liked TOTK or not, and many different tier lists anyone could make for any number of preferences...
Personally, playing them back-to-back as well as other Zelda games in the past year, I know that we've had enough time for some people to form clear, fleshed out opinions that have no particular reason to change in years to come. Old Zelda is amazing, archaic in some areas but has things that could still be used in the open world. BOTW has become a classic that was never going to please everyone, but incredibly important for the series and successful thanks to its bold and clear focus. TOTK will always be impressive mechanically for what they achieved, full of exciting concepts, but their focus took away from the execution for most of its world building and story telling.
Using the Zelda cycle to discredit negative opinions is very reductive. Sure, there are some opinions that are like that, but there are also valid opinions about the flaws of the game. Just because the game is popular doesn't mean the people who didn't like it have bad reasons for not enjoying it.
@@Raykushi Well yeah. because back when it first launched any person who even disagreed with it being better than BOTW was told they were wrong... It makes sense now, that with skitty's video, people are a lot more comfortable sharing their thoughts on TOTK if they're negative. It's not contrarian, it's legit people finally being able to share their opinions without being hushed instantly. Of course some do go too far, but like... Come on, we went through this with BOTW too where any negative opinions of it were hushed at launch. People are just more comfortable sharing their opinions on the game now.
@@ConductorElcrestno one did this though, no one was "silenced" for thinking BotW was better than TotK at launch... What? BotW fans just got salty most people didn't agree that BotW was flawless and lost their minds when people pointed out, "yeah TotK was what I wanted out of BotW" 🤷♀️
This reminds me of why this is my favorite game, though that slot didn't have much competition for me. The story, the music, the new exploration of a world I've been in, so much was so awesome, and I played for a month straight without ever touching the internet to experience it all blind. Yes that meant I never really touched the zonai devices cause I'm much more a "strong weapon smackdown!" kinda person, but it was awesome regardless. Especially the sidequests. It made me go back to BotW with a glitch to get the master cycle early and have fun playing through the game with that (made my second playthrough a ton of fun).
I felt TotK was perfect my first playthrough. Upon a second one with a sort of challenge ruleset, the flaws did become more apparent, but overall they're not that bad. Nothing is a gamebreaker. Everything is really good. And now this video is making me wanna replay it again, but I'm caught up in the midst of another project XD
There's been so much hate for the game recently, and I can kinda understand some of it, but it doesn't change the fact that the game is really hecking good. Its really nice to see a positive video on it, especially one that four hours long (dang I really just watched all that.)
Also, Ganondorf terrified the heck out of me from the beginning of the game, so the gauntlet of enemies and the moment where the "sages power couldn't reach you anymore" made it so much more terrifying. I was so sweaty in that final boss. Awesome game, awesome video, people need to calm the heck down with the hate train.
Literally me 😂
There's a channel called Good Blood that just released a video discussing the game design philosophy of Zelda and how BOTW and TOTK are the greatest example of what the first game was meant to be. I always felt that way even before someone posted about it. This is their masterpiece according to the way they create game worlds.
I just know how much effort you put into your videos, the script is great and the clips of gameplay you put in too. Thank you for making these videos
@ceresattheirbest1182 this took a LONG time. It was defo a labour's of love. Thank you for recognizing that!
I am so glad people are finally coming out and saying “actually, totk is an amazing game in its own right, even if it has its problems” because of the amount of hate it’s been getting over the last year. I’m a totk lover, and it frustrated me so much when people were only releasing videos of how much they hated totk or “why totk is not a good game”. Like yeah, as a sequel it fails in a lot of aspects. But what if, for a moment, you remove it from the context of being a sequel… it’s an amazing game, albeit with flaws.
I think it's an interesting sequel in the context of zelda games because I don't think we've seen a game in zelda that is direct sequel that takes place in the same world. We have sequels like Majora's Mask and Spirit Tracks which clearly take place around the same time but none of the previous game's elements are present. I think it was cool seeing how things have changed from the previous game. We don't usually get that in zelda titles.
People have been releasing both extremes and everything in-between since release. For those with pros and cons to express, saying how good something is can be pretty succinct, while explaining a flaw or "what could have been" takes a bit more effort. I think that being a sequel really amplifies that because sure we could just forget context and hype and just enjoy the moment, but many of these reviews are naturally looking at the bigger picture. Many of them do remind that there are high highs, but again, nothing exists in a vacuum.
I can understand that it is frustrating to see views drastically opposed from ours trend and find some success, but that has been true on both sides. The latest being that skittybitty diatribe, and now it seems we got the opposite to restore balance if it trends a bit ^^ (I haven't watched this one yet).
tell ya what , then you can remove the context of me having needed to pay 100$ for this re-releas of the same game misleadingly being called a sequel , and i'll agree with you that tokt is an amazing game....
But the purpose of totk is to be a sequel? You cannot remove that context. It's a good game but could've been so much more
It still works great as a sequel imo. We all know they made it so it could he played before BotW and still understood, but what are we really losing from this? A few moments of Zelda going "this man birthed the monster that ravaged my era", Tulin going "I hope I can make the Champion Revali proud"? We can pick up on these sorts of things alone without the need to mention them, so it's a more than worthy trade off. As such, when you spot the moments yourself, this game's story is amplified by BotW in many ways. Extra weight is added to the villain by having him be the cause of mass destruction across multiple eras and getting to destroy him for good. Tulin, whom I mentioned earlier, gets to overcome what was essentially Revali's only weakness. Sidon begins to get over a fear instilled in him by the loss of his sister. Riju and Yunobo show a noticeable increase in confidence since their last appearance. The world as a whole is so much more organized and the NPCs take a much more active role in the conflict, indicating how much the kingdom has healed and evolved following the end of the Calamity. These are small ways in which the game uses its sequel status to create a stronger over-arching narrative than it otherwise could've.
I don’t really care that this game is BotW+. It’s still really damn fun, and this was a great video covering why that is.
This is the first POSITIVE review of TOTK that ive seen. And its so refreashing because when i played it i knew it was my new favorite game in the series.
As a person who wasnt as much of a fan of botw as others were, it was so refreashing to see nintendo do something different with their open world concept, and i feel thats something a lot of people miss.
I didn't even make this video to "defend totk" or anything. I had begun writing the script 2 months after it's release, when reception of the game was still overwhelmingly positive, but ended up putting it off for a few months. After I'd come back, it was after many videos and think-pieces came out about how bad the game was. In that way, I'm glad this video got delayed like it was, because many people like yourself have commented that they really appreciate the more positive perspective after all the pessimism about the game.
@Raykushi i do feel it's a good perspective to have on the game. Because it is such a GOOD game. The reviews it's received are really unfair because what totk added compared to what botw is so massive it's hard to under look.
I know for me I love this game, and I'm so excited to go back and play it again (I think this video sparked my hyper fixation). LOL, thank you for such a good review where I don't feel upset watching!
I find it interesting how there are people who look for positive reviews only find negative ones and there are those who want to find some negative reviews can only find positive ones. For example on Skittybitty's video I found a lot of commenters thanking them since they only saw praise with no critiques.
Just something I noticed. (Personally I've seen a lot of positive and negative reviews since the game first released).
@@Nova-gh5yrshe is so extremely annoying that whole time felt like she was finding reasons to dislike it and she makes it seem like absolutely NOTHING was added which if you actually compare the two that is fundamentally just not true. I don’t see how $70 is any problem when breath of the wild(for the whole package) is $80 and that’s not even accounting for gear that is just not available unless you have an amiibo.
Who said otherwse.
A bunch of edge lords that's who. TotK rules. I bet a lot of the people who crap on it are the same crowd who says Souls games are 'perfectly fair' lol
This game is nearly perfection! They finally achieved their garden box goal and its a world I always want to revisit ❤
It’s technically the darkest Zelda game why else would you need bright bloom seeds 😎
I've seen so much genuinely bad faith criticism of this game so it's nice to see someone diving deep into why they like it for a damn change
What does "bad faith" mean?
@RP-mp4ow Criticism that comes from a place of hate. Usually picking out things that aren't really problems and making a bigger deal of them than they are. They aren't trying to be honest or impartial
Commenting to boost! You put a lot of work into this and are clearly passionate.
Thank you so much! I appreciate that
A lengthy positive criticism of TotK in 2024 ???? There's no fucking way
Theres a WAY
I loved this game and was SO excited to see a video that wasn't TOTK hate!!!!
frfr
Seriously
I'm glad you enjoy the game so much. It was interesting hearing someone talk about it positively even if i don't necessarily agree with it. I Even decided to pick the game back up and give it a second shot after dropping it after about 20ish hours when it first released. I still have too many problems with the game to say i enjoyed my time with it, even this second time around, but im glad you and others think positively about it. This was a nice watch
Thank you so much
I thoroughly enjoyed this review.
Many reviews I've seen tend to not go into any depths as to why they like or dislike, totk especially when the review is negative and when it is hour long reviews. Some critiques I saw were disingenuous.
For example one hour long review I saw was someone saying botw's runes, movement, and combat was better...because of unintentional glitches and exploits...and literally had a whole section dedicated to "Jank" between the two games. It felt it was doing both games an injustice because it gave the impression if botw didn't have the jank it does, that person wouldn't have enjoyed botw as intended and also take for granted the improvements totk had to the things mentioned above.
Suffice to say, this review was refreshing and the critics felt rather valid. It's honestly amazing that you pushed through such a long video mostly alone. Legitimately takes dedication, but considering totk is such a great yet complex game with both perfections and flaws, it definitely warrants time for detail. Great video!
Thank you for the kind words! This video indeed was a pain to make lol
I can;t decide if Windwaker or Totk are my favorite Zelda games. Totk is goated though, I do not understand the hate for it by some.
The zelda cycle. I love and hate totk at the same time however. I love the gameplay but hate how it’s a sequel and the story doesn’t show it enough
Great video! One thing, those Gibdo spawning towers can only be destroyed at their weak spot during the specific animation when they are about to spawn more gibdos.
Black cracks form around the purple spot and that’s when you shoot an arrow with riju’s lightning. You can’t just shoot whenever.
I actually do know about that. I meant to put that on screen as a disclaimer because I forgot to mention it when I was recording, but forgot to do that too. Go me.
But yeah, I still had problems with the Gibdo towers weak point hitbox on the initial playthrough. Not so much on the second though, but I didn't want to remove the complaints from the notes I took when doing the first playthrough, so I mentioned it anyway :P
I love tears of the kingdom, but they could’ve done so much more in certain areas, like the depths/sky and elaborate on some things. I don’t like how all the sheikah tech (and my cool divide beast bike I rightfully earned) just “disappeared” with no explanation.
And I know this is probably a nitpick but I hate how most of the dlc armor from BOTW still isn’t upgradable. It kinda made sense from the first game since it was just DLC but since you can get them here like any other armor sets why can’t I upgrade them like any other armor sets?
I agree Totk could’ve been more but I can’t say I’m not happy with what we did get. I definitely think it delivered
3:13:07 Thing is, because a lot of players want the Master Sword, and because it's between the first and second intended regions and on the road to Goron City, I think a lot of players will stumble upon the Deku Tree early on. Personally, this Phantom Ganon was the first one I ever defeated.
You're right that it's underwhelming following the 1v5 at Hyrule Castle with these guys, which is why I really don't think the intended order is to come here after that quest. Them directing you here is more of a failsafe just in case you hadn't done it yet.
Returning to Lookout Landing after receiving Tulin's Vow actually seems to point you in three directions. When you arrive, there is a Goron who appears to be asking Scorpis for directions to Death Mountain -- it's a single dialogue cutscene (where they are literally giving directions) and then they're gone. This is also when returning to Josha introduces you to Tauro, who immediately returns to Kakariko Village, then she points you toward the quest where you will encounter Master Kohga for the first time.
If BotW is the modern day OoT, then TotK is the modern day Twilight Princess. Much like TP back in the day, the community is extremely divided over TotK. The fans LOVE it and say its better than its predecessor, while the haters write it off as an edgy reskin of (OoT/BotW) that took WAY too long to make.
i definitely disagree with your take, but this video is super well made and a clear labor of love! well done!
@@skittybitty thanks so much! Really appreciate that
It’s skitty!!
Still no shrine on shrine island. What a waste
When it came to finding caves, I set my camera sensor to blupees and had a much easier time finding them.
Thank you for singing the games praises. I've seen so many videos popping up trying to get hate clicks by claiming the game is "actually awful".
That blupee thing is based. I'm doing that on my next playthrough lol
Whoaaaa I need to try that
While Blupees make it easier to find entrances, you can also use Bubbulfrogs later on to help find the caves you're missing since they never respawn.
They’re not trying to get «hate clicks.» It is what they mean, people can have different opinions. I LOVE totk but I still agree with most of the points made in those videos. Totk isn’t near perfect but it doesn’t have to be perfect to be an awesome game.
This game would’ve been waaaay better if you played as Zelda in the past, worked at being a powerful sage and afterwards (when she failed) play as link to finish the job! It could be enough to be a separate game tbh
I’m starting my 3rd playthrough of this game and yeah, it’s still amazing.
Finally a new "Totk is a Masterpiece" video. These seem scarce
This is the best totk long review I have ever seen, well listened too while at work, but still it was incredible. I feel like it matches my feelings on this game better than any other review I have seen. Just for the improved combat and boss battles alone I like totk better than BOTW, and I loved how you actually get to do cool stuff with the sages. I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment that the memories in BOTW made me wish I was playing through what happened in the past instead of just seeing the memories of it.
Thank you for giving me something to listen to at work! I also really enjoyed your review.
Hell yeah! Any time!
Finally, a video for my confirmation bias
Incredible video, I absolutely love botw and totk but I'm not a huge Zelda fan in general and I think you captured exactly why I love these games
@@helenelareine :D thanks!
I didn't engage with the depths until I had explored the sky and most of the overworld and I had never seen a Lynel even after completing the four main areas. At first I was disappointed they hadn't returned, but I remembered I had seem in cutscenes and held out hope. Discovering tons of them in the depths and immediately remembering how to perfectly dispatch them from BOTW was one of my favorite moments
god finally a positive video, everyones just gonna switchup on this game in 5-10 years and say "i always loved this masterpiece!!!@!!@!"
That's honestly so true people will do that over the WORST games too lmao it's not just a zelda phenomena
@@Raykushi theyve done this with like EVERY zelda game too thats what i love 🐈
phase 1 (when it comes out): "this is revolutionary. best game ever."
phase 2 (after at least 2 months): "this is the worst piece of garbage ive ever played. [insert previous game in the franchise] was better."
phase 3 (when the next game comes out): "this was revolutionary. best game oat. ive always loved this masterpiece."
Regarding the targeting of Riju's lightning, I assume the reason they have you shoot an arrow is to take advantage of the attraction lightning has to metal. Riju can aim in the general direction of her target, and the arrow head attracts the lightning to fine-tune her aim. Of course the real reason is to give you a way to control her attack, but I think using arrows makes sense based on the real-world behavior of lightning and metal (despite it being loosely applied). And I assume the devs intended players to think this because they implemented this behavior with the lightning that occurs in the world and with electric elemental attacks. To be fair, its a bit of a stretch since I don't think arrows attract lightning from storms, but the principle is the same.
3:22:53 its the secret stone of light and its dusk or dawn so its not that bright outside so its logical to assume that ganondorf was able to se bright light emitting from Rauru and up close later he deduces that it was his glowing secret stone that did this.
Also it seems possible that ganondorf has some knowledge of the existence of secret stones because the sage of fire knows what they are when Rauru show them.
hey at 45:00 you mention that the frog set cant jump in the rain but if you upgrade each piece at a great fairy twice the set bonus is unslippable and even allows climbing on icy surfaces.
Yeah! Someone actually mentioned that and it blew my mind. I'm kicking myself for not knowing, actually. I'm gonna have to make a pinned comment with some of the addendums lol
@@Raykushi Also thank you so much for this video! The TOTK hate that started popping up was really bumming me out. I kept seeing video after video about it and from some of my favorite creators. I get some of the criticism but it seamed over blown for a game thats as wonderful as TOTK. I have put in 300 hours and have 100% it and I think like you said its now my favorite game.
Just found this video, and in a current climate (at least in the form of youtube videos) that seems pretty negative on the game, this is such a refresher and something I needed. TotK is my favorite game currently. Like, BotW is already one of the greatest games ever and Tears just clears it on nearly every level outside of the fact that it's not the first one. And while that first time experience is a strength of BotW absolutely worth cherishing, I equally value Totk in how it was able to innovate. With the inclusion of the new abilities, Zonai Devices, the Sky Islands & the Depths, it somehow recaptured and even surpassed the magic of the first game, which I would have thought impossible.
I can't really even call myself a Zelda fan, at least in the traditional sense; BotW was the only other Zelda game I had played, and yet the whole ending with the dragon fight, diving down to catch Zelda, & the music, it was all so emotional. I was tearing up just from you recounting it lol. I guess I'm a fan now 🤣
I gotta give props to your script and editing because somehow a 4 hour video was really easy to watch, it flowed really well. Thanks for making this!
P.S
I am so with you about how much better the combat and item usage is in this game. Really glad you brought up the cross pollination of items as well in how collecting stuff on the Islands aids you in exploring the Depths and vise versa. Everything is so interconnected, its a design marvel. Also, the Sky Islands are my happy place, I don't mind at all that they are kind of bare, they evoke that quite, lonely but calming tranquility and meditative mood that the first game had, and in this game with a more bustling Hyrule, I really value a space for that. And that skybox & music UGH let me live on the Great Sky Island please 😂
Glad to see someone else agree that nice as it is botw can look a bit samey with the colours/look
Never have I seen a video where litteraly everything said perfectly matched my thoughts. this was was a phenomenal video. its so nice to see a video which praised all the elements of this game that no one seems to talk about. i loved how you always gave proof to support your arguments too. Im so glad I finaly found someone who felt the same way about this games story, I agree it is MUCH better than BOTW (I wonder why no one else seems to agree?). Anyway great video
Thank you!!
I don't think I see people say that the story in BoTW specifically is better. Usually they talk about how BoTW is a better game overall. My guess as to why people feel that way is because BoTW and it's world were extremely new at the time, everyone was discovering this kind of game design for the Zelda series for the first time. It's really THAT feeling people are attached to, not necessarily the game itself.
@@Raykushi That a great point and makes a lot of sense. I think for most people there is just no reliving that experience of playing the first game for the first time. I’m just really lucky that I had that same feeling for ToTK too.
It would make sense that the castle is desserted if the population has declined enough. Maintenance on a something so big would take up a lot of time and resources that would be better spent elsewhere.
Also, Zelda just doesn't seem that interested in being a traditional ruler
Gaaawdayum that was a good intro trailer/animatic. Honestly got me contemplating to get back into the game
Thank you! I was really proud of it too.
do it!!!
There is one idea that I had that I really wish they would've added into this game. That being... Dark Link. But not like a typical Dark Link kind of boss... no, no, there would only be ONE of this guy on the map at any given time. And he would be following your Hero's Path data from Breath of the Wild. If you happen to run into him, it's a fight to the death (where he has anything you would've had at that point). If you don't, then you don't.
Thank you so much for your analysis of this amazing game. So many videos analyzing Totk are usually spent talking about Totk doesn’t do anything new or different from botw, or how they seemingly just reused the same world with very little changes. And while everyone has the right to their own opinions, I think they miss what this game is trying to do, to expand on what botw did and do something that, while similar to what came before, makes the creativity players displayed in botw dial it up to an 11. I have seen a video where someone legitimately creates with zonai devices what I liken to a power rangers megazord or a Gundam mobile suit solely meant for destroying your enemies.
While not everything will necessarily be a hit, I think what limits a lot of people’s opinions is that each every Zelda game has to match what is considered the gold standard of the series, Ocarina of Time. Now don’t misunderstand me, I love Ocarina of Time and consider it to be one of the greatest games ever made, both from what it objectively did for the video game industry and my love for its gameplay, themes and characters. But I think what a lot of fans miss is that the Zelda team loves to innovate and try something new that they haven’t done before, even in a sequel like Majoras Mask.
The Zelda formula as it’s often called was there for a reason, but over time the team and the community realized that the formula was limiting what Zelda could be, as anyone who is familiar with Skyward Sword knows what I’m talking about. (Note: I love Skyward Sword in what it does well so any fans don’t come after me plz!)
That’s why Botw exists, so the team could redefine what Zelda itself means, and try something vastly different from what people were accustomed to. And while there were issues in Botw that were due to the games open ended gameplay philosophy, that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved, as Totk did improve most of them, though granted not all of them.
That’s why I’m okay that Aonuma said that they weren’t returning to the old formula, because I want to see what the team can come up with next. So thank you for giving this game a fair chance and listing its successes and stumbles, because I think that’s how games can be improved, by acknowledging what works and what doesn’t.
@SiriusGalilei I think the best way to springboard off some of the stuff you said is to share my distaste when people say "totk is a good game but it's not a good zelda game". That implies a certain restriction in gameplay based on previous games. People thought Mario 64 wasn't a real mario game because it wasn't a 2D platformer. Now, no one would dream of saying such a thing. I think people will think the same of open world zelda in the future.
@@Raykushi i remember when Twilight Princess came out people didn’t like it because of the overly long introduction before the first dungeon and the apparent linearity of the game. But now I see a lot more people praising it in what it does well, especially with how it crafted one of the best character stories in Midna or the increased focus on swordplay with the sword skills. I’ve even seen some praise for Skyward Sword for how it handled the character of Groose or the memorization of areas for use in the sacred realm challenges.
I think what many negative initial reactions to certain games in the Zelda series have in common is often to two particular parts, the differences in gameplay from previous titles or the similar storyline in many of the games, usually being saving Zelda, stopping the villain or getting to the triforce or whatever macguffin the game has. I think what many initial reactions miss is the environmental or character storytelling the games do, or how the main story influences gameplay. In Twilight Princess Link is initially attempting to save the children from Ordon village who were kidnapped being the start of his adventure rather than being called by the Great Deku tree like in Ocarina, or how Skyward Sword Link is on his journey to save Zelda, but often being too late to reach her before she leaves for the next location, or Wind Waker link attempts to save his sister but realizing that jumping in without being fully prepared is foolhardy.
I love the character stories from Totk, from the two characters in Hateno village trying to stand for what they believe is the right path for the village to go but both secretly agreeing with the others ideas, or how there is one Zora female who seems to have a crush for Sidon apart from Yona and yearns for him from afar, or how the one guy in Kakariko is keeping you from the the one ruins because he secretly hopes to become a famous researcher himself, thus happily following the fake Zelda’s orders to keep others from the ruins, hoping to make the discovery himself and get all the credit.
I think that is where Zelda storytelling excels, from the environmental storytelling and the small character moments, because you feel like you get to view intimate moments of these characters lives as they are just trying to live their lives like we do, beyond the fantastical adventures. And often the gameplay is itself reflecting the games themes and philosophy, which while it might not shine the best at times, there are times where it is beautiful. I think while I wouldn’t disregard many of their complaints, hindsight is 20/20 and time I think will make many appreciate this game for what it does well.
“totk is a good game but it’s not a good zelda game” is such an annoying and obviously untrue gotcha and i am speaking as the foremost authority on totk hating
@@skittybittyshut the hell up. Stop shitting on everyone with a different opinion than you
@@skittybitty shut up and go somewhere else. Just because you’re not clever enough to appreciate what was actually added doesn’t mean other people cant
Wow, this was monumental...This was truly the most in-depth and comprehensive look at Tears of the Kingdom I've seen. You were careful not to compare it to Breath of the Wild too often like most reviewers have done, except of course where it was necessary, as Totk is very derivative, you gave credit where credit was due, even as someone who admitted that you enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom, you didn't shy away from mentioning it's shortcomings or missed potential, you even did a great job near the end giving a synopsis of the story, characters and themes. I can't believe I watched the whole thing, I mean, I watched it over a three day period, but still...
I agreed with you on just about every point with this game, even though I acknowledge and understand people's grievances about the game, I don't share them. It took me eight months to complete Tears of the Kingdom, and I have to say, I enjoyed every moment. I agree that there was a lot of missed potential with the sky, we could have had whole ancient Zonai civilizations up there, if more of the islands could have been as grand as the great sky island and had different motifs for each reason, we could have truly gotten something special. In terms of gameplay, Tears of the Kingdom expanded on and perfected the mechanics of Breath of the Wild, one of the forst things that stuck out to me in Botw, besides of course, the huge, beautiful open world, was how much more of an emphasis there was on combat. Fighting was never really something I thought much about in most other 3d Zelda games, it was there, and I enjoyed the fights, but there were never really moments where I felt like I had to be careful about how I approached each enemy encounter or thought "shoot, I might die here if I'm not careful", they were kind of an afterthought and usually pretty easy, but in botw, you always have to be careful about how you're going to handle a group of enemies, especially when it's early in the game and everyghing can kill you in about two hits once you leave the plateau. There's no experience points system, instead, your growth as a player feels natural, you'll get stronger weapons and find materials for Link as you fight and explore, you'll learn enemies' attack patterns and be able to telegraph for a perfect dodge to flurry rush or shield bash them, where before, you were getting killed by guardiand every few minutes, after a while, you'll be parrying their lasers like it's nothing. I loved Botw's combat, and Totk perfected it with the fuse mechanic. Tears of the Kingdom is as great of a game as Breath of the Wild, and I think for a lot of people, that's the problem; it's only as good as Breath of the Wild, even though it adds to and perfects mechanics established in Botw, it's reuse of the same Hyrule feels too much like retreading old ground and forces one to draw constant comparisons to the original game, so much that they don't feel like they can call it a sequel. To me, I didn't mind revisiting this Hyrule, I was actually excited to, yeah, we spent seven years exploring this Hyrule, we know it front to back, but returning to it in Totk felt like returning to your old stomping grounds from when you were a kid. How are your old friends you used to hang out with? What's new with the old neighborhood? I wanted to see how the old world I spent so much precious time and connected with had changed, and to some extent, we did. We get to see this world that was so ravaged by the Calamity begin to heal, Hyrule starts to come together. I heard that Eiji Aonuma said he wanted hands to be the theme for this game, specifically hands clasping together, and from Hyrule's citizend piecing a broken, delapitdated kingdom together, to Link grabbing Zelda's hand at the end, succeeding at the finale where he failed in the start, you really get what he was going for. Totk's story really feels like it both mirrors and expands on Botw's in many ways. Link doesn't feel forlorn in Hyrule anymorre, he's regained his memories and fulfilled his purpose as a hero, he can call this place home now, but now a new threat emerges that requires his courage to save this kingdom once again, Zelda isn't tied to the immense responsibility of awakening her sealing power anymore, but the sacrifice she makes by undergoing draconification to restore the Master Sword so that Link can defeat Ganondorf is no less serious. Gone is the mindless Calamity that brought Hyrule to ruin a century ago, we find that this monstrosity was merely an apparition, an amalgamation of the power, malice and hatred of Ganondorf, this is not an unconscious monster, this is a man with dark ambitions, he is a fearful king who weilds great power, and is frankly, a much more interesting antagonist than Calamity Ganon, and this game gave us the best fight with him yet, even better than Twilight Princess, in my opinion anyway. For all it's shortcomings, Tears of the Kingdom is still a legendary game, it might not have the benefit of being the first like it's predescesor, but I still loved it nonetheless, and your review certainly did it justice, thanks so much for making this.
I read the whole comment and I appreciate every word! I put a lot into this project and I'm glad you appreciate that.
@@Raykushi Thanks! I can definitely tell you outdid yourself for this, I really do appreciate it!
It's interesting how some of the issues pointed out by other critiques are less impactful on your enjoyment or downright viewed as positive aspects by you. For example, you mentioned how the connection between lightroots and shrines make shrine hunting much easier and how that is something amazing, while I've seen another person mentioning it as a negative because it trivializes the careful exploration that would be required for it, and THAT is what they thought would be amazing if the lightroots didn't "ruin" it. I, myself, would side with you on this particular example. Not that I think it's a huge deal, but I prefer the convenience of having that option over some annoying careful combing I had to do to find some of the final shrines in BOTW.
Hey, thanks for the comment ^^
You can find most shrines on the surface with enough gumption so I don't think the lightroots trivialize anything. People often complain that there is nothing to do in the sky/depths and then in the next breath complain about a function they DO perform. I like that the Depth's can be used as a tool in that way - interplay between the 3 world layers is already pretty rare, so this was a clever way to add more and the game would have been worse off without it.
I would agree with the whole “Zelda turning back to a human” point IF, and I could be wrong, I didn’t see what Nintendo was doing. One of the first things I noticed when talking about totk and botw was each games theme in color. Breath of the wild is mostly associated with the color blue and tears of the kingdom is mostly associated with the color green. Now what else are those two colors mostly associated with in the Zelda games? If you guessed right then it’s the triforce(blue=triforce of wisdom, green=triforce of courage)If Nintendo is planning on using the same engine then most likely the next big Zelda game would take place in the same hyrule except most of the art represents red(triforce of power) and maybe have the triforce be officially introduced in the wild era. That could be a great excuse to have ganondorf back even after dying since it’s not the first time a version of ganondorf was killed just to be resurrected by someone. I don’t think Nintendos done with this Zelda yet
1. They said officially they were done with games in this world.
2. I don't remember a lot of emphasis on the color blue in BotW
3. Even if that was the case, Red would be Ganon- so you couldn't make a game with a perspective focusing on the villain. (Well YOU could, but not Nintendo. Well NINTENDO could, but not for Zelda)
As this is my first zelda game, I loved the crap out of it. So when I saw the negativity, I was really confused
5:48 "After only 2 months on the market at the time of writing this script"
Me, eyeing the video release date: 👁️👄👁️
Yeah this took me like 8 months LMAO
@@Raykushi Well worth the effort dude, I'm only just now finishing it and it's been a joy to listen to your takes on one of my favorite games. Great to have in my ear while I'm at work.
Phenomenal review! Honestly agree with a majority of what you said. TOTK is my fav game of all time and while I understand it’s flaws, I can’t by any means call it bad and it’s sad there are a lot of people who think it is. I just can’t not enjoy the game while I play it, and sunk 300 hours in to my first 100% play through
Rarely do I ever watch a video of this stature to the end but this time it was different. This review was so engaging, understandable, hilarious at times and heartfelt that I had no problem sitting through this behemoth of a video. It was a great watch! Thank you for the countless hours spent crafting this insightful review🙏🏼
Thank you!!!!
And yes, it was COUNTLESS hours, this really took me a long time so I appreciate it.
Four hour video as to why Tears of the kingdom is amazing?
Ehh I’ve got time
Totk is a great game. But personally I am still very disappointed in many aspects of it. I'm glad it seems like many people enjoyed it much more than I did. There is a lot to like. But for me it just didn't hit the points I wanted it to. I won't list all my gripes, but the sheer sudden disappointment I felt when I realized that every single cutscene after the dungeons are all the same, was kinda the beginning of the end for me. Not a deal breaker or anything, nothing in this game really is bad enough to make me not have at least enjoyed my playthrough. It's not one thing, but a combination of different gripes that add up to me just being disappointed in the final product. Overall it's a great game, but personally I prefer many of the older games, and yes that includes Botw.
I respect this so much! I personally loved the game but I really appreciate seeing someone admit they didn’t really love it, while also admitting they know it’s objectively a good game.
genuinely, glad ToTK was able to give you a four hour essay's worth of passion. whether you are heralded or codemned for your opinions, that's a lot of work. respect
...I got halfway through my playthrough before giving up, and by now I've seen enough of the remaining story content on YT to be satisfied with my decision. I was never thrilled with the vehicles and building, but I do concede that it was fun in the moment-to-moment decision making and experimentation. the sky is great but lacking, the depths is....mindless, but fun in a 'checking off boxes' kind of way. but I'm so exhausted of Wild Era quests and storytelling. I wanted to stick it out for some of these characters, but the rest of the writing just drags the whole production down. and I can write my own essay on Ganondorf, so the less said here, the better.
I'm looking forward to Echoes of Wisdom, and if we still have one more game coming in the Wild Era or if something else, either way I just. hope we get something different. hope that strict adherence to this 'open-air' formula will be as harshly criticized as sticking to the other old formula was.
A recent interview before Echoes of Wisdom released, the developers talked about being in a bootcamp together brainstorming ideas to make the story work for Echoes of Wisdom. So I'm pretty sure they heard the message from fans who did not like how they handled the stories of BotW and TotK. We can only hope they can improve in the next 3D game, but personally, I am not holding my breath. I just moved on to other series to give me the stories and lore I want.
I just want to say I respect the heck out of you for making this. Personally, I genuinely can't stand Tears of the Kingdom, especially because the writing is so poor. But I'm a Zelda fan boy at the end of the day, and I wish more fans of this game could give convincing thorough reasons for why it's good instead of smugly declaring my expectations were wrong, or complaining that people don't like it to begin with. This is exactly what I've been wanting. Civil, passionate discussion of this game and not hostility over a difference in opinion or endless whining that more people are starting to be negative over it. Thanks man, this was a wonderful video. I hope you keep this up.
That's so nice of you! Yeah, while I can be quite good as describing why something is bad, I think it's much better to talk about why something is good - both have their merits of course!
Your sentiment seems to be shared among many of the other comments - I'm really glad the positivity in this review was refreshing to so many people, because it was damn refreshing to me, lol
how the fuck is the main girl turning into a dragon and it being extremely emotional and impactful, showing how selfless she is, and doing it for the greater good, and raises a whole conversation about how the three other dragons got turned into dragons in the first place and introducing a new race bad writing i don’t understand
@@jinsoulnoodles Well, the thing is, you can't just name scenes that tugged on your heartstrings and call that good writing on its own. Believe me, that moment was impactful for me too. It was beautifully animated and acted. But everything leading up to it is poorly done.
Everything is one coincidence leading to another, and more so characters like Rauru and Zelda herself being almost willfully ignorant to the threats right in front of them. The dragon wasn't even earned. The "foreshadowing" was a hamfisted declaration of how the story would unfold with bad expositional dialogue. And everything in between is vapid nonsense where characters accomplish nothing and do nothing. The story didn't even have the balls to commit to the dragon. They reversed it the second they got the chance, and everything was returned to the status quo without so much as batting an eye.
It's hard to get invested in the implications of the dragon when the story isn't interested in exploring anything it implies aside from the surface level. Not the dynamics of the Gerudo with Ganondorf going off the rails. Not the Sheikah Technology disappearing without a trace. Not the real emotional side effects of being a dragon for several thousand years. Not even the Zonai as a whole.
You can't just introduce a new race and expect everyone to be impressed. The Zonai had so much potential given how they were portrayed as barbarians and mages who worshiped animalistic versions of the Triforce's virtues. But that wasn't built upon. Instead they opted for a recolor of the Sheikah down to even the same shrines and advanced technology, only introduced two members one of which doesn't even have an original name or purpose, and didn't do anything worth getting invested in beyond their mere existence. Only to muck up the chronology with them "founding Hyrule". Even if it's a "new Hyrule", with how little influence they seemed to have left behind and the fact that this was never set up or developed in the story itself, it isn't earned or satisfying. It's cheap.
@atlasroyale5294 Unfortunately, the story is just not one of Zelda teams concerns right now. Maybe ever, Nintendo as a whole is more of a toy maker. They only care about the fun that can be had from gameplay. Which I prefer, as games aren't movies, but if you like stories in games, it's not finna happen rn ;_;
@@lpstweetytv5242 I get that, but it's never stopped them before. I need only point to almost any other Zelda game, specifically the 3D ones, to prove that gameplay centered philosophy can still create great stories. (I personally didn't have fun with the game either, but that's me). I don't think there's any legitimate excuse for why TotK was so especially bad in this regard.
I am 170 hrs with this game now but only at the beginning of the 2nd temple. I will revisit this video when I am more than 50% of the game to avoid the spoilers hopefully not in years. Anyway, TOTK is the best game ever created. I hope someone could do a side by side comparison with other most reputed games. The more you compare this game with other games, you will find out the most criticized aspects of this game exist in all other most reputed games, but not an issue for other games at all, and the more you will realize how superior TOTK is. Except for the story, whether you like a story or not is simply 100% subjective. TOTK is meant to be fun and the best gift for the most curious and creative players. BTW the engine of TOTK is redesigned from BOTW. TOTK may not be your favorite game, but hope you all can still enjoy this fantastic game. 5:17
just finished the video and am sad it's over, fantastic review and great video. The edit you did in the Sonia part killed me, great job with that 🤣🤣
@@ItsRainingBloodIsHeCrying thank you lol it was kinda foul but I had to :3
I disagree on quite a few points, and was overall disappointed by totk (despite loving certain things), but this is an incredible video!! You were very fair and in-depth, and I enjoyed watching the whole thing!
Thanks so much! I really appreciate that! I put a lot of work into it lol
@@Raykushi I can tell! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Thanks for a positive review! I needed to see one pop up after a while!
So, a couple of note I had while watching. The frog armor does make you slip proof if you get the set bonus. Also, you could get the fangs, scales, claws, and horns from the dragons in botw. The only new one is the spike. Other than that, I’ve absolutely loved this video.
Yeah, I've been corrected about the frog thing alot lol.
You sure about the dragon parts though? I know about scales and horns, but claws and fangs I don't remember.
Thanks though! Really appreciate it!
@@Raykushi Yep. You just have to be precise about shooting the dragon on the claw and mouth for those parts. I think they were used for some upgrades to the “of the wild” set of armor.
It's a comment section so maybe I didn't have to treat this like a school essay assignment, but I hope at least some people will read this and reply with their own perspectives. Also, I haven't written an essay in forever, so I apologize if it's bad.
I believe Tears of the Kingdom is a masterpiece, but it's still disappointing.
SPOILER WARNING
I loved Breath of the Wild, probably would be THE game I'd take on a stranded island. It has its flaws, but that's expected for a game like BotW. It was never really done before, especially by Nintendo. When they decided to make a sequel to my favorite game, I was so happy. I was theorizing what they could do for the story, or how Link or Zelda would get through it. When I finally got the game, my first playthrough was super fun and I loved finding out if my theories were right, and I loved absolutely every bit of the game,, but I noticed some problems when it came to the story the sky, and the depths.
The main thing almost everyone was waiting to see in this game was the sky islands, myself included, so you could imagine my disappointment when I found that there was barely any sky islands. At least, barely any islands that actually did something. They were only there for the occasional shrine, and maybe some loot, but that's it. There's only 3 actually interesting islands in the game for me, those 3 being a random island where you fight the King Gleeok, the Great Sky Island, and the Thunderhead Isles above Faron, but there's not really anything to do there after you've already been there. There's no other big islands or islands with cool boss fights, just shrines. I still did find exploring them to be fun, and I like the shrine puzzles, but I wish there were more islands around with more stuff to do.
I actually like Zelda's story, as it's actually interesting and important to the entire game, only problem I have with it is that sometimes you get a tear in the wrong order and it makes things a bit confusing, but it follows the same exact thing BotW did, so it gets a pass. I won't give them a pass for how bland the rest of the story was. The main thing here is the Sages that give you the secret stones and tell you about their perspective of the original Ganon fight way back when. The first time I heard it, it was super cool, and I liked to hear about what actually happened, but then you hear it for a second time, It's still cool, but you've already heard it. Then a third, it gets boring to hear. Then a fourth, and it's just gotten stale. Then you hear it for a fifth time and a sixth, and it's just hard to not skip the cutscene. I know it was made this way for gameplay reasons, but they could have changed the dialogue a bit so it's actually worth hearing every sage.
There was almost no mention of the Depths by Nintendo, so when everyone got the game, everyone was surprised, especially with how big and mysterious it all was. I loved exploring the creepy dark depths every time I go down there, and I don't have much to complain about. I think there's a few quests, and you get to refight the four regional bosses after you beat them in their dungeons, which is super cool, and there's a cool Lynel arena where you fight waves of Lynels, which is also really fun. You can explore and find armor sets for the Amiibo armors from BotW, which was a little annoying that my Amiibos didn't mean much anymore, but it was still cool. At least nobody is missing out on that. The biggest thing I loved about the Depths was just the whole atmosphere. It felt like I was playing a horror game. The music was perfect for the mood, and so was the actual design of the depths. Everything was dark, kind of like it was dead, but not really. I loved that there was Gloom everywhere, cause it showed that Ganon has actually taken control over a lot of the depths, even all of the monsters down there. I think the only thing I can complain about is that after a while, the Depths is just a little bland. Everywhere you go is the exact same thing except maybe a structure or two, but it all looks the same, and it spans over the entire map, so it's just the same thing but everywhere. I think the positives out weigh the negatives when it comes to the depths.
The bosses in this game were amazing. They were all really cool and I loved every one of them. I loved the way they game all of them a mechanic to defeat them, like you had to dive through Colgera, or use water to weaken Mucktorok, or use recall to throw Ghomas rocks back, or use lightning to defeat Queen Gibdo. I don't think there's a single bad thing I can say about the bosses, other than the final boss, Ganon. He's hyped up to be the ultimate fight, he's literally called "The Demon King" and he's supposed to be this all powerful Demon guy. He even shattered the Master Sword with no effort, but when you actually fight him, you melt through his health like its butter. I do like how later in the fight, he flurry rushes your flurry rush, and he uses different kinds of weapons, and I also like how he does a lot of damage, even destroying your hearts so you can't heal. I liked the final part when he becomes a dragon too, it was amazing.
Overall, the game is really, really good, but it's also kind of bad. The story was good, but was kind of bland sometimes. The Sky Islands were cool, but they were kind of useless most of the time. The Depths were almost perfect, but they got stale after a while, and the Bosses were amazing. Ganon was well written and his boss fight was cool, but it ended way too quickly. It was an amazing experience all the way through, but it was still a little disappointing.
Bro think he Scott the Woz
@@Crimson-fk7nw She Scott on my Woz
Ladies and Gentlemen I present you the 2024 Awards of Yap
(yet I can see where your getting at)
@@StarLink64 She game on my awards
i do agree with you that yunobo had a lot of missed potential and it’s annoying he just went straight back to his old self. however i do think he does get character growth by actually becoming more useful in caves with smashing rocks, and therefore finding his strength but yeah i get it.
I dont have to agree with other opinions. Both botw and totk are near and dear to my heart amazing
The game would have been bigger than BOTW (not to mention it is) if it had come out 2-3 years later. Honestly it taking 6 plus years to launch as a direct sequel to BOTW really raised expectations and it let down a big portion of the playerbase in that regard.
Also my favourite game, and that doesn’t stop us from make criticism as you expertly done. I’ll disagree with you on the game replacing BOTW though. As you mentioned it yourself, the feelings evoked in each are different. BOTW is very lonely and melancholy which is very different from TOTK. So it’s nice having these different experiences. I also believe that ultrahand substantially changes the experience of the game. I think there’s room to make further use of enhanced physics and “chemistry” libraries generated for this game in the future even without ultra hand, and I hang no doubt the developers must have a big list of “I want to try this” for the next games. I honestly think Nintendo is at their creative peak this generation, and that comes from a long time gamer.
I’m watching this video just because it’s positive. I stopped watching so many Zelda content creators because they just kept shitting on it.
dw theyll be making videos when the next big zelda game comes out saying its the best game ever
Botw and Totk are my very first Zelda games, and honestly I think I enjoyed Totk way more than botw. I played it a lot more, it had a lot more for me to do in side content that I still enjoyed, and the characters were incredible. I have my own complaints with it, but it is undoubtedly one of my favorite games now
Finally finished the video, that was a long one lol. My only gripe, your ALttP pun... Technically, Zelda would be the "Link to the Past" not Link himself since hes in the present time lol.
Gotta say, this was a great watch (had to watch it in bursts because i have ADHD and it gets hard to focus lol) but this video and what you said perfectly encapsulates how i feel about Tears of the Kingdom...The game isnt perfect (nothing is) but that game was a masterpiece and became my favorite game as well. Ive been playing Zelda for a long time, OoT was my first...No game has captured the sense of wonder (not even Breath of the Wild) that Tears of the Kingdom has for me. I think this game having BotW come before it was a benefit... BotW's Hyrule was great but left a lot to be desired. It felt empty, devoid of content and the sense of exploration was lost on me the second I realized i was only going to be met with Korok poo or empty grassy plains. TotK's additions were kind of what i wanted when BotW was first being announced...Caves, sky islands, a dark world type place that mirrors Hyrule, etc.
Again, good video. You earned yourself a sub
Thank you so much! I really appreciated this comment
@@Raykushi thank you for the video, and thank you for putting into words what I cannot lol. Tears of the Kingdom is a wonderful game and I hope more people see this video
Thank you for making this video. Nice to see other people also enjoy this amazing game
a 4 hour video? is it christmas already? Great video btw!! 😍
@@caneshuga thanks so much!
It’s kinda interesting that the criticisms you bring up are pretty much the same as the ones you’ll find in videos talking about the game negatively. Except there are considerably less death threats in this comment section lol
I can acknowledge certain flaws while still thinking of the game positively, especially when I try to understand what caused those flaws to exist, and if the time and effort implementing certain fixes was feasible for the developers.
Thank God. The recent totk hate has been so annoying and almost feels algorithm chasing more than like an actual opinion a lot of times. Like omg a sequel is too sequelish! Wtf does that even mean. Of course it is like the original, it's the same characters and in the same world why are you SURPRISED and even disappointed that it's the same map? They even added to it significantly and made time appropriate adjustments!
Even the "why doesn't everyone recognize me" thing is annoying. Like honestly 🙄 I see notable figures at my job all the time and don't recognize any of them until I take their id.
@@dragontears 100% agree
on god
I think BOTW only requiring 36 or 20 shrines for the Master Sword is good because even if you only focus on the core game to get the true ending, TOTK taking place so long after opens it up to stuff happening off screen.
"Why don't i get recognition for building Tarry Town"
Maybe they're accounting for players -not- having done everything and instead it got built within that time skip.
"Why did Zelda steal my house?"
It's entirely possible that Link didn't spend a lot of time in Hateno and actually got a move on with the important stuff since the 20 Shrines thing basically just ask that you do 5 shrines a region or less, and if you stop at nearly every stable and every town, there's almost guaranteed to put you near or at the threshold.
So if they stop by there to see Purah and Zelda wants to see how Hyrule has changed, congrats- House.
Even if you don't get everything or achieve the true ending, it's still entirely possible for them to do that stuff off-screen, especially considering Link has Hearts/Stamina you can't normally get.
It's kinda silly overall, but people talking about everything they did in BOTW being meaningless when Ocarina and Majora exist is absolutely crazy; I don't think there's a single Zelda game where past actions/things you did actually have significance besides if it mattered to the plot, Oracle of Ages and Seasons maybe, but that's just if you've got the cable to connect the two.
There's a lot I like about BOTW and less-so TOTK (But only because at this point I've only done one playthrough) but something they both shine at is letting people do stuff in their own way, which somehow became a bad thing.
CaptBurgerson made a fantastic video explaining the whole people not knowing Link situation, and it even made me view it more positively as someone who was never very bothered by it in the first place.
The people not recognizing you thing is different between real life and a story. In real life, people have their own lives. In a story, the writer can write however they want to. So if in the story, people don't recognize Link, it is not because it's realistic for people to forget, it is because the writer chose to have them forget. It's not hard to understand why people playing a sequel to a game would dislike this. It feels insulting for people to forget you. It does not feel good meeting old characters to have them not know who you are after spending time helping them or collecting 900 Korok seeds (most people didn't do this, but seriously, wtf Hestu).
@@ShallBePurified The last section of Capt's video provides solid reasoning for why it was written this way. For example, it would be tiring to start every conversation with "oh hi legendary hero Link" before carrying on with the conversation, it accomadates new players, and it places more focus on the events going on now. The equivalent of an NPC interaction irl would probably last way longer, but here they have to be more selective about the purpose they use it for, so it's possible a lot of characters that are written more ambiguously do recognize him, but just focus on the here and now instead of pointing it out. Several of those NPCs also had dialogue in BotW greeting Link as a stranger, and that dialogue is absent in TotK. I'm giving a rough summary of a few of his points, but I highly recommend watching the video; I think there's a good chance it will help the issue.
3:07:45 The latin american dub is amazing. I recommend people check it out, especially if you understand Spanish.
You had me dying when you began to talk about goron city lmaoooooooooooo
I did everything before purah asked too! haha XD
I did watch the entire thing, and I loved it just as much. Bro, I love totk. It was the first open world zelda game I played, and even when I did play botw, I loved totk even more. I love botw, I love totk, I call it Rememberance to Redemption
@KulaMedli the crack epidemic bit, I was proud of. I was snickering the whole time I was editing it LOL
This video makes me wonder why anyone is being so hateful lately towards this game. This review summarizes everything I feel with this game and it's why it's my favorite game of all time!
Thanks for the comment!
I do mention a couple of flaws with the game such as how derivative of BoTW it is. I think that coupled with the fact that compulsive contrarianism has caused people to bandwagon illegitimate or petty criticisms onto the game.
I disagree ascend is replaceable. Do you know how many hard to reach places I was able to get to with ascend? I literally wasted trampolines trying to get to a surface in the sky islands just to realize I had ascend this whole time
It's not totally replaceable - I said it was most replaceable out of the 4 powers in a comparative sense, which it certainly is. Thank you for watching though
@@Raykushi no for sure. I can’t say I miss revalis gale when ascend is just that on crack
Excellent analysis (maybe because I agree across the board)! You’ve got a new sub friend, and hoping for more in-depth analysis of other properties in the future!
*sweats profusely* I'll try to deliver lol
I like that triangle strategy intro music, you’re a man of increasingly great taste
I was waiting for someone to finally recognize the triangle strategy song :P
That game is excellent, holy cow.
Its very interesting seeing fan feedback to new entries in pre-established series especially with Zelda. I seen multiple games being ragged on for a myriad of things even as early as OOT. OOT was ragged on for control issues and being a copy of ALTTP as well as puzzles being piss easy(this complaint was issued for all Zelda games). MM was ragged on for being an uninspired asset flip that was largely a cash grab for things like repeating character models from OOT and that there wasn't enough dungeons. WW was ragged on for its artstyle and sailing downtime as well as not having enough dungeons. TP was ragged on for being an uninspired OOT copy cat as well as having a boring overworld that was mostly size over substance and insane linearity. SS was ragged on for insane linearity and handholding as well as the companion spoiling solutions to puzzles and motion controls. BOTW was ragged on for doing away of most of the traditional aspects of Zelda like lock and key dungeons and item based progression as well as a empty and boring open world as well as the storytelling being ass. Now TOTK is being ragged on for things like barren empty environments like sky and depths, story being ass(this complaint was issued for all other Zelda games) and being an uninspired asset flip that is actively insulting that it exists at all. These are just a sliver of complaints issued for Zelda games but over time when the Zelda game isnt the highlight of the series anymore people notice things about it that they didn't notice due to seeing it for what it is. OOT nowadays is remembered quite fondly for iterating on ALTTP in a successful way as well as the story moments that make it stand out. MM is revered for its side content and the eerie feeling of familiar NPC faces in a different context as well as theming. WW is revered for its openess and the sailing as well as combat, and its excellent artstyle. TP is now revered for the epic feeling hyrule as well as awesome dungeon layouts and the hidden skills of combat as well as Midna as a character. SS is revered for establishing a solid story foundation of the series as well as dungeon puzzles and groose being groose. BOTW is praised for how it told its story and for its system driven nature as well as breaking conventions of what Zelda is. Only time will tell how fans actually feel about TOTK, but i suspect many aspects will be noticed as positives rather than negatives. Aspects like open solution puzzles will be revered with time rather than being painted as an objective flaw, I also suspect the story will resonate more with players over time. Same with puzzles and overall content. In due time Zelda fans will appreciate TOTK more when its viewed for what it is rather than what they wanted it to be.
All this to say that the Oracle games are massively underrated and you should play them.
After all I've seen of TotK discourse, the game just has too many amazing things going for it that I cannot bring myself to imagine a timeline in which people are willing to let it rot in the corner forever. In addition, so many criticisms seemed based more on expectations built up from the 4 year long speculation period and less on how they actually impact the game. Having such expectations is totally valid given the little we knew about it at the time, but I think it leads to people missing the point of certain things it was actually going for, or at least seeing them as worse than they are because it goes against what they wanted from the game. Say what you will about Aonuma's comments, but he hit the nail on the head when he said there tends to be a grass is greener mentality. People remember the older games for what they do so well and defend them with their lives, and only remember this game for what it does wrong in their eyes. They want what they don't currently have and it impacts their enjoyment of the experience in front of them. I think this whole thing keeps happening because the games spending time at the center of the community's attention leads to a whole bunch of positive and negative views of it until it fades into irrelevancy, at which point some people look back, remember how much they actually adored it, talk about it online and a new sub-section of the community is created. That's what I see coming to pass with TotK because it can't be denied how many people still hold it in extremely high regard.
@@speedude0164 yea, like I said it's interesting seeing a shift in opinion and it most likely will happen to TotK. I'm not saying that people will suddenly all unanimously agree that the game is perfect but I think many will view it in a higher regard. There is many aspects of the game that alot of people dont really talk about and i think that will change with time and thats okay. I think in time more interesting takes on TotK will come out when the game is older because i remember seeing alot of unique takes on BotW later on in its life cycle. I honestly really enjoyed The Yesh's video on BotW because he shared a stark contrast of opinion to other reviewers and gave me a deeper appreciation for the game as well as areas of improvement that I didn't even notice and this was a video that came out well after the game was out.The opinion shift that surprised me alot was definitely Skyward Sword. People freaking HATED that game and the hate didn't seem to get a lot of push back from Skyward Sword fans, but Nowadays it is revered as a classic and gem on the Wii and a staple on the Zelda series. People's shift in opinion is always interesting to see and I don't think there's anything wrong in shifting opinion. It's just fun to see.
You’re allowed to not like a game but I feel some of the criticisms that this game gets is the most nitpicky discourse I’ve ever seen. I feel like I didn’t play the same game with most of these criticism and most of them felt like it would most definitely be applied to botw tenfold
@@Theunloved1738 yea for sure, I think my big issue with TotK's discourse is that alot of people are reductive to what TotK is and don't really acknowledge improvements made from BotW. I've seen many complaints about sandbox elements in a sandbox game lmao. I also really dislike how people romanticize older titles as if they were flawless to demonize the new entries. It's very frustrating.
@@dairdevil4271 I also hate how for 6 years complaining how botws story was non existent and now all of a sudden “no it actually does have a story you just weren’t paying attention”. Like I literally get whiplash from that. Totk story isn’t the greatest don’t get me wrong, but compared to Breath the story felt way more present and it actually felt like I accomplished something narratively. I would rather have an “ok” story than for the story to just basically not be there.
ngl I’ve been replaying totk a lot, and the worst part about it is just the fps, it’s why I’m pumped for the switch 2, so I can hopefully play the game in 30 fps!
I died so many times fighting the seized construct. It was so hard.
Finally
a positive video on a game I love
Just watched a 3 hour video on why this game sucks and I can’t wait to finally watch a positive one
And a 4 hour video. I’m going to be coming back tho finish this multiple times.
I played this game before Breath of the wild. And my first play through of the great sky island is one of my favorite moments I’ve ever had in any video game.
I hope you enjoy it when you finish it haha
One little thing I liked and idk if it was totally on purpose or not but the Parallel between TOTK and OoT of Ganadorf proclaiming his loyalty to the King- Rauru/ King of Hyrule in OoT but of course it turning out to be a blatant lie just to get close to the royal family. Idk just the scene of him in the palace bowing before Rauru reminded me of the similar scene in OoT
History really do be repeating itself
Considering Ocarina of Time is about time, it's fun to poetically think of child Link and Zelda peering into the future from that window.
I love how that moment is lowkey a confrontation between Ganondorf and Rauru, as both are well aware of the other's true intent yet are playing along until their opportunity to strike presents itself. Ganondorf subtly challenges Rauru to a battle of wits and warns him of the devastation to come if he loses, and Rauru confidantly affirms that regardless of his own fate, Hyrule has his back.