Great vid, B. I wouldn't hate to see this Hyrule again after a huge timeskip, maybe see how it truly puts itself back together with time, but dear lord do I hope that this iteration of Zelda and Link get a break after two whole games of world ending shenanigans.
@@BMask The Legend of Zelda: Happy Home Designer. They've already got the Animal Crossing composer, why not go all the way? (Insert RDR2 house building song here)
@@BMaskngl, a hyrule city builder is like a dream game Even better if its "Nintendo city skylines". Making mario castle towns, DK jungle villages, Metroid space stations, Kirby towns, Pikmin gardens, splatoon cities, etc.
I get that the idea was to make it so that, no matter what dungeon you did first, you weren't interrupting the flow of the main story, but this is completely undone by the fact you can collect the tears out of order anyway. It's all a bit muddled.
It was impossible for Tears of the Kingdom to have the same impact on me that Breath of the Wild did. It was such a relief to see Zelda really get that spirit of adventure back after so many games had missed the mark, for me at least, with restrictive, heavily tutorialized, boring formulaic adventures. I'd resorted to get the similar feeling from various open world and fantasy action games like Dark Souls, Shadow of the Colossus and Skyrim instead. Breath of the Wild went above and beyond and took all that Zelda charm in a direction I really liked, even if some good stuff was lost along the way - especially when it comes to dungeons and bosses, which are certainly part of that feeling of "adventure" I'm looking for. Tears of the Kingdom, by being so similar in terms of looks, mechanics, shrines, memories, long dead sages/champions, narrative beats, the whole setting... I think the zonai took the cake for me. "Hey, remember that ancient technology from before? Here's an even more ancient one. This time it's green instead of blue". Having a new main villain two floors down who's like the real version of that old villain, I dunno about that either. I think that's a pretty silly concept. The new elements didn't always work for me either. I was dreaming up bigger, more fantastical sky islands and exciting underground dungeons in my head - not smaller platforming challenges up above and another largely open landscape down below. It just didn't have that same impact for me, even if a lot of the things in here are much welcome improvements. It's great to have more enemy types and bosses that feel properly unique, the NPCs have a lot of charm and of course Ganondorf is a much more compelling villain than Calamity Ganon ever was. I suppose there's nothing that special about his depiction in this game, but at least there's a character there, compared to Calamity Ganon being just some sort of monster. Once I got back in the groove I had a lot of fun exploring Hyrule all over. The Gerudo segment was also a big highlight for me, I think the whole Zombie thing they did with the gibdos was inspired. Much better than going back and forth from the zora town to the zora spring, full of mud. But yeah, I dunno if every part of the fusion worked out. I felt a lot more annoyed by the narrative in this game than in BOTW for example. I wanted to know what happened to Zelda, so I followed the tears early. As a result, Link knew where Zelda was for almost my entire playthrough, and it was pretty sad. Then I gotta mine her for upgrades to my shirt, and I can't tell any of these dunces who wonder where Zelda is what's actually going on. Feels bad man. It's still a really nice game to get, and certainly the standout for me this year alongside Street Fighter 6, but I don't think there's a substitute for turning things on their head again. A brand new style, a different sort of setting, and a more compact sort of game - I think that's what I'm in the mood for after two games of massive open world physics-based freedom.
Spirit Temple is actually locked until you get the mask from thunderhead island, and thunderhead island doesn't really function until you do the quest below. So it's still a LITTLE gated.
Yep. This video covers some of my frustrations with TOTK. IMO it feels like a sidestep OVERALL with some improvements but also some new places it falls short compared to BOTW.
Yeah, and you need a bunch of hearts to get through the door right? But I'd had it in my head it was a last thing and it wasn't, so it just kind of contributes to the overall question of structure. Still liked it a lot though.
@@BMask I agree. I actually blundered my way through the rain PRETTY EARLY in the game (I think having done one sage?) and got to the doors. It was pretty funny at the end of the game being able to just use the shrine to get right back there... but also a little anticlimatic.
Absolutely not. All you have to do is stumble blindly to the door with enough HP to open it. I did spirit temple as my first dungeon, before I even know what a sage was.
It would actually be somewhat poetic if this particular Zelda end in a trilogy Breathe of the Wild- The start of the Switch, where everything was new and innovation felt limitless with much potential to come Tears of the Kingdom- The system's midpoint, where we see the boundries of what the switch can do. Yet with enough persistance and dedication, fuse what was innovative with what is more familiar. Keeping the fundamentals and expanding on them. A 3rd game near the End of the systems life cycle, seeing all it could do yet still showing us the few cards it has in its sleeve to dazzle and excite us, leaving a legacy, no *legend* , that none will forget in thier lifetimes. The only other games that pulled off that feat were the first 3 Mario and Crash games that I can remember.
it is possible. This game alluded there were outside domains (Sidon's wife), so a third game might actually explore outside of Hyrule, although they can create a narrative where Hyrule gets invaded by the outside, and reuse the map...If so they best changed something about Hyrule or fans might just get bored doing this a 3rd time. They should also not make Zelda disappear again, maybe have her as a playable character you can swap out with Link cuz whatever reason they are traveling together, it would be something new for sure.
@@stunseed8385 honestly i doubt they could pull it off a 3rd time unless they RADICALLY changed the map, i.e. removing one of the domains entirely, maybe it gets nuked idk
I believe we are near the end of the swtich's life cycle so it seems pretty unlikely that they'll get another zelda game out before the next console releases
I would love for this to be a trilogy. Botw and Totw succeeded in making me super emotionally invested in this iteration of Link/Zelda and in the world itself. But no more kill the cutie, PLEASE. These two babies have been through enough.
I love this Hyrule, but I would REALLY like to see it at the height of it' s power: No ruins, no destroyed villages - everything nice and clean. I wouldn' t mind a 3rd game in it.
Tears of the Kingdom should be commended for lots of things, but to me the most shocking part about it is that I've spent literally an hour trying to think of some manner to express my appreciation for it via comment to no avail. This game is so good that it shut me up. I *need* these people to do it again. I've not felt this way about anything in a very long time.
This game had me writing a 13 page video script (I've never even made a video of that type! All my videos prior were for inside jokes with friends or school) about just one specific topic about it and then scrapping it and likely needing to start over because I just can't seem to say enough. It's magical what we as people are able to create, and even though perfection it's possible it's just like damn, real people made this game. My apologies to those who see all these superfluous comments about how great the game is and don't feel the same, but I'm happy that I personally connect to the game that way.
I think Tears of the Kingdom shows why you should stick with one core gameplay choice rather than splitting up priorities. The thing that made the game fun for me was the exploration and freedom to do whatever I wanted. As soon as I was railroaded into the main content, I found it poorly balanced and pretty boring, especially since the openness to do things in any order led to each segment feeling exactly the same. I also feel like the story was extremely lacking in several areas (Like the ancient sages having no names or faces). What I generally want out of a Zelda game is a story I can fall in love with even if it's not the deepest one out there, but both BotW and TotK have been a real let down in that department for me. I really think TotK would have been less disappointing to me if they had gotten rid of most of the story beats and left more up to the imagination.
@@wichiewamirez5599 That's pretty much my point, the journey is by far the best part of the game (which is fine) but the destination is so lack luster by comparison that it (for me) brings the whole experience down. Like, building up my power is fun, I enjoy going through the world, but when I get to the culmination of my efforts, it's such a let down that it kills all my hype. After I completed the whole depths, all the shrines, and the main story, I had no desire to finish the rest of the content in the game, because now that I've completed the game, I have nothing to work towards, and that's a problem for me. I think most people who love this game don't have this issue, but the fact that they put such a focus on the story and that it was such a let down, for me it feels appropriate to critique
Story was a let down for me to, only because it raised my expectations in certain areas, but ended up sorely lacking in the end. It reminded me that, yes, this was a safe story written for a Nintendo game.
I agree with your thoughts on BOTW/TOTK's version of Princess Zelda, particularly about how she deserves a second chance at life after all she endures and gives up. It's honestly heartbreaking but beautiful. She makes an impactful decision this time not because she was forced to but rather of her own volition and due to her love for Link and Hyrule. I don't think she would have ever made the decision if she had stayed cooped up at any given shrine praying to the goddess to unlock her powers and hadn't pursued her interest in Hyrule's history, people, and wildlife, all of which gave her an appreciation for the land and everything it had to offer. Nor do I think she could have done it if she hadn't come to better understand and love Link, who ended up being one of her last remaining connections to her past. She's the first version of Princess Zelda I've really LOVED, and I've been a Zelda fan since Ocarina of Time. BOTW and TOTK are very much her story.
Beat the game with 115 hours on the clock, did quite a lot of side content. Didn't do a single band/fairy quest by chance, didn't unlock a single great fairy, and hearing the bit about the song expanding makes me sad I never pursued it further. I knew how to go about unlocking great fairies I just figured I'd wait until I needed it, but eating in a menu is pretty OP as it is. I like little details like the background music growing due to finishing a quest, looking forward to going back to do that questline now.
Something that I realised after you mentioned that Zelda acts as an analog for these games and how they fit into the series, is that logic can also be applied to the core thematic ideas as well. Tears' many motifs of fusion (most notably that of the past and the present) represent how the game attempts to incorporate many ideas from the series' past onto the foundational design principles of BOTW. also you can fling Koroks into space with a bunch of rockets 10/10
@@BMaskyeah I kind of watched this video in two parts and so kinda forgot you already made this point earlier in the video, silly me. Still interesting how much of the game is dedicated to that philosophy however, something I didn’t quite appreciate enough without the input of this video, so props to that.
Very few complaints about this game, some personal, some not. The one thing that I am shocked, that not one really mentions is the Princess Carry at the end. The last time Link held Zelda in a more "romantic" sense was Zelda II. Kissing behind the curtains. Skyward Sword heavily implied the romance with the writing and facial animations. However Link only ever touched Zelda when she was released from the amber seal and when she "knighted" him. I know it will never happen, but dear lord the "will they, won't they" schtick is beyond annoying in this game.
@@BMask All I want is a hug or hand holding. Or just verbal acknowledgement. If the game's story is going to start it, I expect the game's story to finish it.
@@BMask Just a personal thing really. I dislike stories that waste my time with plot points that go no where. If there's no stated ending, why even have it to begin with you know?
I don't feel my time was wasted. Their relationship, in detail or not, is just a flavour within the greater concept, which is resolved. It's cool people want to see them go to drive in movies together and it's heavily implied there'll be at least one more outing, but I don't think they have to spell it out if they don't want to, and just give us the agency to decide for ourselves if it really matters. I can dig it.
Although I am hyped for this game, I think your video made me realize that games like these are not going anywhere and I can wait to experience them myself. Back to Bloodborne I go!!
Master Kohga seems to Foreshadow locations of the next games like falling down the chasm in botw hinting at the depths could the next location be space!?
Comment for the algorithm, but I just wanted to say that I found Tears of the Kingdom an even grander experience than its predecessor, and it only endeared me to this world even more. If I had any complaints, it would be that they never explain what happened to all the old Shiekah technology, like the Guardians and the Divine Beasts. I'm hoping they address that stuff in the inevitable DLC (along with giving me the ability to complete my health bar), and maybe give me back Revali's Gale and the Master Cycle while we're at it? Other than that, I just wanted to say that the last shrine I completed in the list was the one where you drive through the obstacle course, and I just found that fitting. Closing it out with a Warthog Run of sorts. Neat.
I read a comment that I really enjoyed which was pretty much: The shrines and towers went back beneath the ground because Link beat Ganon and people of hyrule dismantled all the Shieka tech because that shit would have been very traumatic even if it was still friendly (the guardians genocided everyone and the Beasts were terrors on the land where many of their heroes met gruesome deaths). As for the champions' powers, now that Ganon's dead they're all at peace and have moved on, so they're not helping you anymore. It's not like the game acts like they never existed, Mipha gets a statue and Riju mentions Urbosa.
You can actually whistle to call your sages back to you mid combat. It's the first thing I tried, while many players don't know it's even possible despite 100 hours of playtime. It's funny how even the minor flaws people perceive are unique from player to player.
16:16 "just after"? SS came out in 2011, BOTW was in 2017 ....wow in retrospect, yeah that doesn't feel like a lot of time at all but, like, I was there
So if we have a Zelda that gives up her self to save the world (20:22) and deserves a new second shot at her own life, I can't help but think of an elf boy who was robbed of his childhood in an earlier game with a great experiment as the follow up. Now, I'm not expecting a Zelda led Majoras Mask like companion piece to the duo of BotW and TotK but I'd not be against seeing what such a crazy experiment would bring. There are no expectations or preconceived notions as to how such a game should play so no restrictions on how wild the deviations and experiments could. No matter where it does, wilder or more classic it will be interesting to see how things shape up in future titles
I think they would do well to have a dynamic story telling system. Where- like a dungeon master- the game’s narrative emphasizes certain events according to what you’ve done
@@BMaskyeah I think the cumbersome activation is a necessary evil considering how powerful these abilities are, and short their cool downs are-but it does get annoying, especially if you accidentally activate them as you’re looting. It would’ve been nice to have some menu when press down on the d-pad, which allows you to activate sage abilities (and whistle as well), similar in appearance to the rune radial.
Yeah completely agree, like I love their utility so i'd love them to do this again, but a little streamlining next time around would make all the difference. Thanks for the heads up though, I'll be going back in for more so at least I have an extra trick to try now!
19:31 Ganondorf's motivations in TOTK is completely different in the original Japanese version: Ganondorf hated the Zonai for being arrogant about the fact that they descended from the gods. He looked down on Rauru, thinking he is vain and did not deserve to rule, and thought that the world had lost its original courage from before the Zonai came in. He wanted to be an actual authentic king and return the kingdom to its original glory, as opposed to letting Hyrule be run by beings who play at being gods and settle down to reign over everything
@@BMask The English version does allude to the original version with a few lines, but still doesn't piece it together fully and what lines that did make it into the said-English version ended up coming across as a generic villain speech
@@KaminoKatie Don't know if I fully agree. As mentioned there's a lot being said in the way they chose that conveys the same feeling, even if it's not a 1:1 translation. It's not quite Ganon saying all rice balls are hamburgers.
Great Video, Mr. Bandicoot. Personally, I like how what the gloom represents in gamplay. It's dangerous to stand in, but not immediatley. It takes a second for the effect to take place. So smart players can run through it without being effected. However, inexperienced players can still avoid it. Either way, all players have to follow the gloom to reach the goal: Ganondorf. The closer a player gets to that goal, the more dangerous the gloom becomes.
The story execution still really bothers me. It worked better in BotW, but it felt like TotK wanted to have its cake and eat it too by having a linear flow, but still be discoverable openly in any order. Luckily, I knew which order to watch them because there was a clue in the room with the big stone map. Of course, not everybody would pick up on that. Watching the memories out of order in BotW didn't ruin any reveals because the big reveal was already presented to you in that Hyrule fell into ruin from the Calamity. TotK tries to present a mystery that can be easily spoiled/sullied because you explored a glyph in the wrong order. Not to mention the 4 occasions where you're bombarded with the same information about how the 4 [nameless] sages were beaten in the past. At least we got to learn who the champions were in BotW. I feel like so much of the champions' legacy just got forgotten along with the Sheikah tech that got nearly retconned from existence.
Still waiting for the desperate house wives video b-mask. It’s the only reason I subscribed and I’m starting to think it may all be some elaborate gag.
Finally was able to watch this (just rolled credits at over 120 hours). I enjoyed Tears a lot, probably more than Breath by a good bit. What really got to me were the dungeons being a mixed bag (seriously, cut like 50 of the shrines and put those puzzles/dev time into six or so *solid* dungeons). That said, for the next game I have two major thoughts. One, quality over quantity. Smaller scale world (like Majora, central hub and handful of areas around it), with the level of polish Breath and Tears have been given. Two, please hire a new voice director and/or punch up the script. Performances and overall story should be given more care. Great video!
Definitely have loved this game, but will say, the fact that well, throughout the phantom story stuff, there's no real chance to point out the basically obvious until after the proper confrontation, since it was connected to 5th dungeon stuff after you beat it, personally made my time during the chase in hyrule castle more annoying than anything (then again I was also one of those people, who delayed actually doing to story stuff for a long bit, only venturing into one after rediscovering the master sword and then later getting all the dragon tears, so, I can't quite be one to whine due to that) This game did get me to appreciate yunobo a lot more though, especially after completing the goron story, and him pointing out the discrepancy between the zelda he saw and mysterious sage of time in the memory bit Edit: Also, I can safely say that until the reveal from the memories and getting the master sword, that I would not have suspected the identity of the dragon, and honestly my first guess was rauru, somehow having his body taken on a form of a dragon despite his hand containing ganondorf
@@tamagothchic It's a good one too, very rare for Nintendo to lift the curtain like this and they've been doing bits and pieces of the same with Tears already.
can somebody remind me where the cutscene at 10:52 comes from? with zelda holding links hand? I beat the game and feel like i dont remember seeing that. I have done all the memories (even though that doesn't seem like a memory cutscene)
Botw and totk are fantastic, but I definitely hope the next Zelda game isn’t a sequel again. I hope for a smaller map if they keep the next game open world.
I'd say every odd frustration I have with totk and botw stems from the same philosophy that makes its best parts shine. Nintendo's obsession to make the gameplay purely diegetic and rarely context sensitive points to an experience we don't see often get in games at this scale. Charismatic details like Link having to physically hold ingredients to cook rather than relegating it to a simple menu is probably how we got sore spots like the fuse mechanic having to be awkwardly done in gameplay, or the champion abilities working on proximity. I'm willing to bet Nintendo had sensible answers to these mechanics at the drawing board but needed to contort them to work with the design philosophy going forward. I find this rather endearing after the fact and it kinda makes me nostalgic for a time when game design wasn't so standardized. So many mechanics that would be streamlined in menus today being woven into the chemistry system that botw set the groundwork for.
I acknowledge the intentions, but I still think I need to hold them accountable for the results, in the hope we get better ones down the line. And Tingle.
I think it was impossible for any game to live up to the amount of hype that tears of the kingdom was receiving. I think it sort of speaks to a nasty part of the pathology of hardcore fans of any franchise, but games in particular: unreasonable expectations getting higher and higher for each new release. I’m nervous that it might lead to some people not liking the third game. We’ll see, I guess.
From what I am seeing, this feels more like an expansion then a sequel, story still lacks and the game is still fun since it did sprinkle some Nuts & Boltz in it's DNA
Nah. I think a lot of people were worried about that, but it is really not the case. This is honestly more iterative than most sequels, with major overhauls in mechanics, world, and even just their approach to the game.
6:31 through 7:44 - Not sure "buck wild" is the term I'd use to describe what people are doing with this system, I think the better word is.....terrifying. That this system has that much freedom and flexibility that you could create vehicles and war machines that defy even the game's limitations. It's just overwhelming what this system can do.......and at the same time I also feel a great swelling of pity for every Breath of the Wild knock off that now comes out post TofK. Not bad for a Nintendo switch game running at 30 fps, am I right gaming community? 12:41 - Oh yeah speaking of how terrifying this game's sense of freedom is.... 14:11 - That bit of frustration aside, it is damn impressive that on top of the terrifyingly complex vehicle system this game also manages to have real time combat with up to five AI partners at your beck and call. After this I feel even FF7 Rebirth is gonna have its work cut out for them. 14:42 - Yeah this inventory interface was just crap. 19:17 - Ironic indeed. He saw himself as a king above all who knows better than everyone, yet he was too much of a primitive ape to see the world had evolved beyond him. And worse, he was willingly let himself become a mindless animal out of petty spite towards the "mortal" that beat him. Pathetic. 19:55 - Oh yeah, Zelda becoming a fucking dragon. That was a fun twist.....even though I learned about it after I already got the Master Sword, me thinks I wasn't suppose to have it yet XD And before I actually finished the four sages half of the main plot so the Imposter Zelda twist wasn't even a twist anymore. Shit it wasn't much of a twist to begin with, minute I came across the "rings" in Kakariko Village it was obvious something was up. Man the people of Hyrule are just too damn trusting...
I mean, Zelda's never been consistent on lore. A few hints and easter eggs, sure, but it's always been loose. Felt perfectly in keeping so the game could be received well as a standalone experience, even as a direct sequel to another game.
Nintendo: Guardians weren’t bad enough, what do we do now? Nintendo Devs: Let’s give them three heads, not let you reflect the beams, let them fly, shoot fireballs, give them way more hp, and not be one shot by ancient arrows!
Actually I feel the gloom spawn are the replacement for the guardians with the gleeoks being a new thing entirely, a new boss. Not a great comparison. The gloom spawn are a normal enemy like guardians but also have their own music that plays and are the enemy out of all the normal enemies that symbolizes the main bad guy, which is the gloom and the summoned army of Ganon's, including his puppet Zelda. Like the main enemy for botw was the malfunctioning divine beasts being controlled by calamity ganon, the guardians were also constructs that were corrupted.
One of the major criticism of BotW and Totk is that Most of the story happens through flashbacks and I think that is to some degree because of the limitation of the hardware. So Hopefully the next adventure will have Link take more part in the story as it unfolds. I would still like to see a story that can be completed somewhat out of order, but I think the next story won't give you the ability to jump to the end as quickly.
I don't think it's a hardware limitation at all. It's the nature of committing to freedom but still wanting a story to tell. Each flashback can be experienced in thousands of different variations because of the freedom, you can't account for that many variables so Link or any character in the present can't be involved otherwise it just gets too messy.
@@KaminoKatie having not played Elden Ring I can't speak on that but Horizon's open world isn't even close to how open and free form BOTW and TOTK is. You can literally do anything in any order in Zelda without restrictions, Horizon has an open world but it's main story and progress structure is entirely linear
@@KaminoKatie Some forms of gameplay are better suited to crafting a better narrative. It's easier to tell a story when you have complete control over what a player does, in a sense that's limiting gameplay to tell a story. Unless you want a completely freeform game like Zelda to only release once every 20 years, a compromise has to happen for the narrative because you can't account for every variable each player might take. Good gameplay and good narratives are indeed mutually exclusive because the more you shift the dial in one direction the other suffers. Doesn't mean linear games are bad in the gameplay department, it's just understanding what compromises have to be taken to find the balance that's right for the game you want to make. Uncharted games don't have bad gameplay but you are limited in what you can do in said gameplay because there's a story and experience they want to tell.
the character stories for the 4 main plots were incredibly boring, compared to breath of the wild, and i am wholly surprised you didnt talk about the games complete lack of ackknowledging breath of the wild happened except for one little sidequest. we dont even know what happened to the divine beasts really. as a sequel to the story it is very underwhelming. as well, the lack of guardians in the overworld make it feel much more empty, the green fields of hyrule are designed to be chased on, so they feel pointless
I just found it the same as the wind temple, five simple puzzles and done, but the ancient cistern, even as someone who didn’t like Skyward Swird, just sticks with me a lot more for its visuals and central gimmick.
@@BMask Fair enough. I just really enjoyed their take on a different kind of "floaty" for a water temple that also mitigated a lot of the restrictions of a typical water temple. I'll also admit I didn't play Skyward Sword, so it was more fresh for me.
@@bowen13 the floaty aspect was definitely cool and I love the idea of an open water temple in the sky, but it’s why I say it still feels like an experiment at this point. Boss was excellent though, love that wobbly boy
@@BMask It would definitely be interesting to see them expand on the idea even further. The sky area overall feels like it might get some DLC with how sparce it is comparatively
i had the mineru experience early, and it messed with the story. i went there thinking "oh maybe the clouds will push me away or it will prevent me from seeing something im not supposed to" but then it just revealed the whole mystery and i got this late game spirit early on. i wish it had come later
At some point, Nintendo needs to pick a direction for the series and commit. This will mean letting go of some past staples to give more breathing room for new ideas. Dungeons (in their current form) might be the first thing to go. Feels like they’re there just to keep people happy.
Can't say that I'm not disappointed with the new course Zelda is charting. I bounced off of these two games entirely, not enjoying the gameplay loop, the weapon degradation, or the sparse overworlds, and I can't stand minecraft-like/g-mod-akin "do it yourself" building/crafting gameplay. The franchise I used to love is going in a direction I can't follow, and it breaks my heart.
Calling the overworlds sparse feels like a disservice especially in this one. Honestly I was consistently surprised with just how many engagements were thrown in the world every few miles or so, notably moreso here with the addition of caves and far meatier spread of sidequests.
What I think a lot of players don't realise with the 'new style' dungeons is that functionally speaking they are just like traditional ones with just 2 main differences. 1) you don't get a specific item partway through the dungeon you are then required to use to progress and also to defeat the boss. 2) you can approach each section of the dungeon in any order that you want providing you can reach it. The "five or 4 locks to access the boss" thing is functionally exactly the same as needing to complete every area of a traditional dungeon in order to get the boss key to open the door to the boss. A traditional dungeon will gate you with a number of small keys and item requirements to proceed. You need all of them + the "item/ability" to "unlock" the boss. These new dungeons require you to access locks/terminals (equivalent to small keys) and in TotK you are required to use your companion's abiltity to proceed (instead of a dungeon-gained specific weapon/item). This really is the only difference. You can approach getting the "small keys" in any order you want, in order to access the "boss key" aka go fight the boss you previously could not access. Once you wrap your head around this, TotK has taken the more freeform version of "dungeon" that BotW had and brought it functionally back up to a "traditional" dungeon with a bit of extra freedom worked-in :)
I wrapped my head around this fine, but the fact is one feels one way and one feels another, and the other isn't quite as satisfying. Whatever the facts, the feeling is something that I think can continue to be improved on.
I am so glad so many people are having a great time with the game, but personally I hated it. This is coming off a fresh, completely half-assed bum-rush of the game. I absolutely adored BOTW, and it blew me away, though when I was done, I was completely done. This game was very familiar, maybe it's my depression talking but everything felt so... laborious. Nothing sparked the joy in me that botw once captured.
I think you captured everything I adored about the game perfectly. I will say, while the trek to Ganondorf near the end was nowhere near a dungeon, the atmosphere was INCREDIBLE. Seeing the message “The Light of the Sages cannot reach you here” made me audibly gasp in fear, and recognizing the sequence from the beginning of the game was the cherry on top of the pretty terrifying sundae. What they can do next to top this, I don’t know. An absolute masterclass of gameplay and exploration.
I am sorry, B-mask. This is another video I have to save until I have played/watched the source material. However, I will like it and leave this comment as engagement. May the Force Be With You or some shit.
Hmmmm, comments feed the algorithm. Yummy. But yeah, BOTW was great, I really liked it, and then I think TOTK was in some part a greater condensation of those original concepts. Really taking from and doubling down those IMM SIM vibes
Man, I have the exact opposite opinion. BOTW's Zelda had real texture and conflict as a character, which made me invested in her growth. TOTK's Zelda feels so dumbed down by comparison. She's a passive observer for most of the memories, and her only real act of agency (if you can call it that, since she had no other choice and was brought to that era against her will) is to be the sacrificial uwu maiden again but with even more suffering. It's so gross and misogynistic, to the point where she becomes a non-entity you have to hit to farm parts to upgrade your outfit. Really searing indictment of how Nintendo treats her in general; she's treated like a thing and not an actual character. We don't see her utilize any of her interests or intelligence to formulate a plan to help Link stop Ganondorf. Nope, her goddess powers are all that matters, and she has no self-worth outside of sacrifice. TOTK's story is a strong contender for worst Zelda story ever.
I felt that was the point. The character was locked into a decision and deserved to be pulled out of it, in contrast with the story that came before. I felt a lot and got quite invested, if that makes me complicit with the heavy accusations you started throwing out then so be it.
i went in absolutely expecting the "fish people" line and i was not disappointed
It honestly gets me every time...
Dude, spoilers
@@VICTORZITOSSthey were in last game
Legends say that this game was developed purely so that B Mask would release another video. We thank those brave Nintendo employees for their service
Great vid, B. I wouldn't hate to see this Hyrule again after a huge timeskip, maybe see how it truly puts itself back together with time, but dear lord do I hope that this iteration of Zelda and Link get a break after two whole games of world ending shenanigans.
Third game, no enemies, Link and Zelda building Houses in Hyrule, let's go
Urban Fantasy Zelda would be an interesting take on the series. That's all I'm gonna say.
@@BMask The Legend of Zelda: Happy Home Designer.
They've already got the Animal Crossing composer, why not go all the way?
(Insert RDR2 house building song here)
Instead of another Hyrule Warriors, they should make a City builder spinoff-sequel. lol
@@BMaskngl, a hyrule city builder is like a dream game
Even better if its "Nintendo city skylines". Making mario castle towns, DK jungle villages, Metroid space stations, Kirby towns, Pikmin gardens, splatoon cities, etc.
The biggest symbol of my personal single problem with this game is the post-dungeon cutscenes. Just...why on earth are they the same thing every time
I get that the idea was to make it so that, no matter what dungeon you did first, you weren't interrupting the flow of the main story, but this is completely undone by the fact you can collect the tears out of order anyway. It's all a bit muddled.
It was impossible for Tears of the Kingdom to have the same impact on me that Breath of the Wild did. It was such a relief to see Zelda really get that spirit of adventure back after so many games had missed the mark, for me at least, with restrictive, heavily tutorialized, boring formulaic adventures. I'd resorted to get the similar feeling from various open world and fantasy action games like Dark Souls, Shadow of the Colossus and Skyrim instead. Breath of the Wild went above and beyond and took all that Zelda charm in a direction I really liked, even if some good stuff was lost along the way - especially when it comes to dungeons and bosses, which are certainly part of that feeling of "adventure" I'm looking for.
Tears of the Kingdom, by being so similar in terms of looks, mechanics, shrines, memories, long dead sages/champions, narrative beats, the whole setting... I think the zonai took the cake for me. "Hey, remember that ancient technology from before? Here's an even more ancient one. This time it's green instead of blue". Having a new main villain two floors down who's like the real version of that old villain, I dunno about that either. I think that's a pretty silly concept. The new elements didn't always work for me either. I was dreaming up bigger, more fantastical sky islands and exciting underground dungeons in my head - not smaller platforming challenges up above and another largely open landscape down below.
It just didn't have that same impact for me, even if a lot of the things in here are much welcome improvements. It's great to have more enemy types and bosses that feel properly unique, the NPCs have a lot of charm and of course Ganondorf is a much more compelling villain than Calamity Ganon ever was. I suppose there's nothing that special about his depiction in this game, but at least there's a character there, compared to Calamity Ganon being just some sort of monster.
Once I got back in the groove I had a lot of fun exploring Hyrule all over. The Gerudo segment was also a big highlight for me, I think the whole Zombie thing they did with the gibdos was inspired. Much better than going back and forth from the zora town to the zora spring, full of mud.
But yeah, I dunno if every part of the fusion worked out. I felt a lot more annoyed by the narrative in this game than in BOTW for example. I wanted to know what happened to Zelda, so I followed the tears early. As a result, Link knew where Zelda was for almost my entire playthrough, and it was pretty sad. Then I gotta mine her for upgrades to my shirt, and I can't tell any of these dunces who wonder where Zelda is what's actually going on. Feels bad man.
It's still a really nice game to get, and certainly the standout for me this year alongside Street Fighter 6, but I don't think there's a substitute for turning things on their head again. A brand new style, a different sort of setting, and a more compact sort of game - I think that's what I'm in the mood for after two games of massive open world physics-based freedom.
Feel a lot of this for sure- and glad to see your comments on here again!!
Nintendo will innovate in the third game by letting Link perform Tony Hawk Pro Skater combos while shield surfing
Spirit Temple is actually locked until you get the mask from thunderhead island, and thunderhead island doesn't really function until you do the quest below. So it's still a LITTLE gated.
Yep. This video covers some of my frustrations with TOTK. IMO it feels like a sidestep OVERALL with some improvements but also some new places it falls short compared to BOTW.
Yeah, and you need a bunch of hearts to get through the door right? But I'd had it in my head it was a last thing and it wasn't, so it just kind of contributes to the overall question of structure. Still liked it a lot though.
@@BMask I agree. I actually blundered my way through the rain PRETTY EARLY in the game (I think having done one sage?) and got to the doors. It was pretty funny at the end of the game being able to just use the shrine to get right back there... but also a little anticlimatic.
Absolutely not. All you have to do is stumble blindly to the door with enough HP to open it. I did spirit temple as my first dungeon, before I even know what a sage was.
@@StardustSauce I mean, I didn't have anywhere near the required HP to open it when I first blundered across it... so...
Comment to feed the hungry algorithm and I'll be back when I finish the game
Same
here’s a comment, have fun avoiding spoilers
so true
Sages shouldve really been on the map slot of the radial menu then select which one you want to use
Oh definitely.
It would actually be somewhat poetic if this particular Zelda end in a trilogy
Breathe of the Wild- The start of the Switch, where everything was new and innovation felt limitless with much potential to come
Tears of the Kingdom- The system's midpoint, where we see the boundries of what the switch can do. Yet with enough persistance and dedication, fuse what was innovative with what is more familiar. Keeping the fundamentals and expanding on them.
A 3rd game near the End of the systems life cycle, seeing all it could do yet still showing us the few cards it has in its sleeve to dazzle and excite us, leaving a legacy, no *legend* , that none will forget in thier lifetimes.
The only other games that pulled off that feat were the first 3 Mario and Crash games that I can remember.
it is possible. This game alluded there were outside domains (Sidon's wife), so a third game might actually explore outside of Hyrule, although they can create a narrative where Hyrule gets invaded by the outside, and reuse the map...If so they best changed something about Hyrule or fans might just get bored doing this a 3rd time. They should also not make Zelda disappear again, maybe have her as a playable character you can swap out with Link cuz whatever reason they are traveling together, it would be something new for sure.
@@stunseed8385 honestly i doubt they could pull it off a 3rd time unless they RADICALLY changed the map, i.e. removing one of the domains entirely, maybe it gets nuked idk
@oranberry maybe it gets a regional fenomena type thing but link couldn't help so they just died
I believe we are near the end of the swtich's life cycle so it seems pretty unlikely that they'll get another zelda game out before the next console releases
I would love for this to be a trilogy. Botw and Totw succeeded in making me super emotionally invested in this iteration of Link/Zelda and in the world itself. But no more kill the cutie, PLEASE. These two babies have been through enough.
I love this Hyrule, but I would REALLY like to see it at the height of it' s power: No ruins, no destroyed villages - everything nice and clean. I wouldn' t mind a 3rd game in it.
Tears of the Kingdom should be commended for lots of things, but to me the most shocking part about it is that I've spent literally an hour trying to think of some manner to express my appreciation for it via comment to no avail.
This game is so good that it shut me up.
I *need* these people to do it again. I've not felt this way about anything in a very long time.
This game had me writing a 13 page video script (I've never even made a video of that type! All my videos prior were for inside jokes with friends or school) about just one specific topic about it and then scrapping it and likely needing to start over because I just can't seem to say enough. It's magical what we as people are able to create, and even though perfection it's possible it's just like damn, real people made this game. My apologies to those who see all these superfluous comments about how great the game is and don't feel the same, but I'm happy that I personally connect to the game that way.
@@zachking1740 Best of luck with the video. May it teach and edify!
I think Tears of the Kingdom shows why you should stick with one core gameplay choice rather than splitting up priorities. The thing that made the game fun for me was the exploration and freedom to do whatever I wanted. As soon as I was railroaded into the main content, I found it poorly balanced and pretty boring, especially since the openness to do things in any order led to each segment feeling exactly the same. I also feel like the story was extremely lacking in several areas (Like the ancient sages having no names or faces). What I generally want out of a Zelda game is a story I can fall in love with even if it's not the deepest one out there, but both BotW and TotK have been a real let down in that department for me. I really think TotK would have been less disappointing to me if they had gotten rid of most of the story beats and left more up to the imagination.
If you’re not rabbit trailing, you’re not playing the game right. The journey is more valuable than the destination in this game.
@@wichiewamirez5599 That's pretty much my point, the journey is by far the best part of the game (which is fine) but the destination is so lack luster by comparison that it (for me) brings the whole experience down. Like, building up my power is fun, I enjoy going through the world, but when I get to the culmination of my efforts, it's such a let down that it kills all my hype. After I completed the whole depths, all the shrines, and the main story, I had no desire to finish the rest of the content in the game, because now that I've completed the game, I have nothing to work towards, and that's a problem for me.
I think most people who love this game don't have this issue, but the fact that they put such a focus on the story and that it was such a let down, for me it feels appropriate to critique
Story was a let down for me to, only because it raised my expectations in certain areas, but ended up sorely lacking in the end. It reminded me that, yes, this was a safe story written for a Nintendo game.
I agree with your thoughts on BOTW/TOTK's version of Princess Zelda, particularly about how she deserves a second chance at life after all she endures and gives up. It's honestly heartbreaking but beautiful. She makes an impactful decision this time not because she was forced to but rather of her own volition and due to her love for Link and Hyrule. I don't think she would have ever made the decision if she had stayed cooped up at any given shrine praying to the goddess to unlock her powers and hadn't pursued her interest in Hyrule's history, people, and wildlife, all of which gave her an appreciation for the land and everything it had to offer. Nor do I think she could have done it if she hadn't come to better understand and love Link, who ended up being one of her last remaining connections to her past. She's the first version of Princess Zelda I've really LOVED, and I've been a Zelda fan since Ocarina of Time. BOTW and TOTK are very much her story.
Beat the game with 115 hours on the clock, did quite a lot of side content. Didn't do a single band/fairy quest by chance, didn't unlock a single great fairy, and hearing the bit about the song expanding makes me sad I never pursued it further. I knew how to go about unlocking great fairies I just figured I'd wait until I needed it, but eating in a menu is pretty OP as it is. I like little details like the background music growing due to finishing a quest, looking forward to going back to do that questline now.
Something that I realised after you mentioned that Zelda acts as an analog for these games and how they fit into the series, is that logic can also be applied to the core thematic ideas as well. Tears' many motifs of fusion (most notably that of the past and the present) represent how the game attempts to incorporate many ideas from the series' past onto the foundational design principles of BOTW.
also you can fling Koroks into space with a bunch of rockets 10/10
Which is why I mentioned the election!!!
@@BMaskyeah I kind of watched this video in two parts and so kinda forgot you already made this point earlier in the video, silly me. Still interesting how much of the game is dedicated to that philosophy however, something I didn’t quite appreciate enough without the input of this video, so props to that.
Very few complaints about this game, some personal, some not.
The one thing that I am shocked, that not one really mentions is the Princess Carry at the end.
The last time Link held Zelda in a more "romantic" sense was Zelda II. Kissing behind the curtains.
Skyward Sword heavily implied the romance with the writing and facial animations. However Link only ever touched Zelda when she was released from the amber seal and when she "knighted" him.
I know it will never happen, but dear lord the "will they, won't they" schtick is beyond annoying in this game.
Hey that's their business!!
@@BMask All I want is a hug or hand holding. Or just verbal acknowledgement.
If the game's story is going to start it, I expect the game's story to finish it.
@@davidwhidden9337 I think we'll be okay haha
@@BMask Just a personal thing really.
I dislike stories that waste my time with plot points that go no where. If there's no stated ending, why even have it to begin with you know?
I don't feel my time was wasted. Their relationship, in detail or not, is just a flavour within the greater concept, which is resolved. It's cool people want to see them go to drive in movies together and it's heavily implied there'll be at least one more outing, but I don't think they have to spell it out if they don't want to, and just give us the agency to decide for ourselves if it really matters. I can dig it.
The way I clicked on this as soon as I finished Tears of the Kingdom
Although I am hyped for this game, I think your video made me realize that games like these are not going anywhere and I can wait to experience them myself. Back to Bloodborne I go!!
Don't worry, you'll have way more fun in Bloodborne. Good hunting, hoonter ✨
@@LunaVictoria9 Thank you Luna!! 😊
Great video B-mask.
(Also I would not mind more on The Legend Of Zelda game reviews)
really well written analysis
Master Kohga seems to Foreshadow locations of the next games like falling down the chasm in botw hinting at the depths could the next location be space!?
I can't believe I JUST finished my own first playthrough, only to checks my subscriptions and see this.
Comment for the algorithm, but I just wanted to say that I found Tears of the Kingdom an even grander experience than its predecessor, and it only endeared me to this world even more.
If I had any complaints, it would be that they never explain what happened to all the old Shiekah technology, like the Guardians and the Divine Beasts. I'm hoping they address that stuff in the inevitable DLC (along with giving me the ability to complete my health bar), and maybe give me back Revali's Gale and the Master Cycle while we're at it?
Other than that, I just wanted to say that the last shrine I completed in the list was the one where you drive through the obstacle course, and I just found that fitting. Closing it out with a Warthog Run of sorts. Neat.
I read a comment that I really enjoyed which was pretty much: The shrines and towers went back beneath the ground because Link beat Ganon and people of hyrule dismantled all the Shieka tech because that shit would have been very traumatic even if it was still friendly (the guardians genocided everyone and the Beasts were terrors on the land where many of their heroes met gruesome deaths). As for the champions' powers, now that Ganon's dead they're all at peace and have moved on, so they're not helping you anymore. It's not like the game acts like they never existed, Mipha gets a statue and Riju mentions Urbosa.
You can actually whistle to call your sages back to you mid combat. It's the first thing I tried, while many players don't know it's even possible despite 100 hours of playtime. It's funny how even the minor flaws people perceive are unique from player to player.
Probably that’s what replaced WolfLink 😢
The mask B back!
16:16 "just after"? SS came out in 2011, BOTW was in 2017
....wow in retrospect, yeah that doesn't feel like a lot of time at all but, like, I was there
Damn I completely memory holed the length of that gap
@@BMask that's cause 5 years is normal for this series lmao
@@catsoup9870 truuuuuue
So if we have a Zelda that gives up her self to save the world (20:22) and deserves a new second shot at her own life, I can't help but think of an elf boy who was robbed of his childhood in an earlier game with a great experiment as the follow up. Now, I'm not expecting a Zelda led Majoras Mask like companion piece to the duo of BotW and TotK but I'd not be against seeing what such a crazy experiment would bring. There are no expectations or preconceived notions as to how such a game should play so no restrictions on how wild the deviations and experiments could.
No matter where it does, wilder or more classic it will be interesting to see how things shape up in future titles
What a beautiful Nintendo Switch game!!!! All Nintendo Switch games should be made with such quality!!!! 👍👍👍👍
Them koroks have it comin
I think they would do well to have a dynamic story telling system. Where- like a dungeon master- the game’s narrative emphasizes certain events according to what you’ve done
Whistle to get your sages to come back to you.
REALLY?! I can't decide if that's smart or patronising to them lmao
@@BMaskyeah I think the cumbersome activation is a necessary evil considering how powerful these abilities are, and short their cool downs are-but it does get annoying, especially if you accidentally activate them as you’re looting. It would’ve been nice to have some menu when press down on the d-pad, which allows you to activate sage abilities (and whistle as well), similar in appearance to the rune radial.
Yeah completely agree, like I love their utility so i'd love them to do this again, but a little streamlining next time around would make all the difference. Thanks for the heads up though, I'll be going back in for more so at least I have an extra trick to try now!
You're a very good youtuber
19:31 Ganondorf's motivations in TOTK is completely different in the original Japanese version:
Ganondorf hated the Zonai for being arrogant about the fact that they descended from the gods. He looked down on Rauru, thinking he is vain and did not deserve to rule, and thought that the world had lost its original courage from before the Zonai came in. He wanted to be an actual authentic king and return the kingdom to its original glory, as opposed to letting Hyrule be run by beings who play at being gods and settle down to reign over everything
I think that’s pretty close to the translation. Ganon sees things as being better his way regardless, but is forced to use their gifts to evolve.
@@BMask The English version does allude to the original version with a few lines, but still doesn't piece it together fully and what lines that did make it into the said-English version ended up coming across as a generic villain speech
@@KaminoKatie Don't know if I fully agree. As mentioned there's a lot being said in the way they chose that conveys the same feeling, even if it's not a 1:1 translation. It's not quite Ganon saying all rice balls are hamburgers.
I don't care who Nintendo sends, I am not buying a Switch
Great Video, Mr. Bandicoot.
Personally, I like how what the gloom represents in gamplay.
It's dangerous to stand in, but not immediatley. It takes a second for the effect to take place.
So smart players can run through it without being effected.
However, inexperienced players can still avoid it.
Either way, all players have to follow the gloom to reach the goal: Ganondorf.
The closer a player gets to that goal, the more dangerous the gloom becomes.
The story execution still really bothers me. It worked better in BotW, but it felt like TotK wanted to have its cake and eat it too by having a linear flow, but still be discoverable openly in any order. Luckily, I knew which order to watch them because there was a clue in the room with the big stone map. Of course, not everybody would pick up on that. Watching the memories out of order in BotW didn't ruin any reveals because the big reveal was already presented to you in that Hyrule fell into ruin from the Calamity. TotK tries to present a mystery that can be easily spoiled/sullied because you explored a glyph in the wrong order. Not to mention the 4 occasions where you're bombarded with the same information about how the 4 [nameless] sages were beaten in the past. At least we got to learn who the champions were in BotW. I feel like so much of the champions' legacy just got forgotten along with the Sheikah tech that got nearly retconned from existence.
Still waiting for the desperate house wives video b-mask. It’s the only reason I subscribed and I’m starting to think it may all be some elaborate gag.
If only i could write a good script faster 😩
Also desperate for Desperate.... 🙂
Finally was able to watch this (just rolled credits at over 120 hours).
I enjoyed Tears a lot, probably more than Breath by a good bit. What really got to me were the dungeons being a mixed bag (seriously, cut like 50 of the shrines and put those puzzles/dev time into six or so *solid* dungeons).
That said, for the next game I have two major thoughts. One, quality over quantity. Smaller scale world (like Majora, central hub and handful of areas around it), with the level of polish Breath and Tears have been given.
Two, please hire a new voice director and/or punch up the script. Performances and overall story should be given more care.
Great video!
I love you B
I ain't ever gonna stop lovin you.... B
Love you too friend 🙌
Definitely have loved this game, but will say, the fact that well, throughout the phantom story stuff, there's no real chance to point out the basically obvious until after the proper confrontation, since it was connected to 5th dungeon stuff after you beat it, personally made my time during the chase in hyrule castle more annoying than anything (then again I was also one of those people, who delayed actually doing to story stuff for a long bit, only venturing into one after rediscovering the master sword and then later getting all the dragon tears, so, I can't quite be one to whine due to that)
This game did get me to appreciate yunobo a lot more though, especially after completing the goron story, and him pointing out the discrepancy between the zelda he saw and mysterious sage of time in the memory bit
Edit: Also, I can safely say that until the reveal from the memories and getting the master sword, that I would not have suspected the identity of the dragon, and honestly my first guess was rauru, somehow having his body taken on a form of a dragon despite his hand containing ganondorf
Which GDC is that with the West and East Coast? I need to get a handle on the fusing of the two philosophies.
@@tamagothchic It's a good one too, very rare for Nintendo to lift the curtain like this and they've been doing bits and pieces of the same with Tears already.
Good stuff 😎
can somebody remind me where the cutscene at 10:52 comes from? with zelda holding links hand? I beat the game and feel like i dont remember seeing that. I have done all the memories (even though that doesn't seem like a memory cutscene)
Very early on, just as you're about to head to the surface after the tutorial island.
Good video :)
definitely felt more refined and packed than botw. but after beating it i am starting to miss the older style of 3d zeldas
I’ve been experiencing the game vicariously through those who could play the game at this time.
Botw and totk are fantastic, but I definitely hope the next Zelda game isn’t a sequel again. I hope for a smaller map if they keep the next game open world.
I guess I’m not watching this until i finish the game
I'd say every odd frustration I have with totk and botw stems from the same philosophy that makes its best parts shine. Nintendo's obsession to make the gameplay purely diegetic and rarely context sensitive points to an experience we don't see often get in games at this scale. Charismatic details like Link having to physically hold ingredients to cook rather than relegating it to a simple menu is probably how we got sore spots like the fuse mechanic having to be awkwardly done in gameplay, or the champion abilities working on proximity. I'm willing to bet Nintendo had sensible answers to these mechanics at the drawing board but needed to contort them to work with the design philosophy going forward.
I find this rather endearing after the fact and it kinda makes me nostalgic for a time when game design wasn't so standardized. So many mechanics that would be streamlined in menus today being woven into the chemistry system that botw set the groundwork for.
I acknowledge the intentions, but I still think I need to hold them accountable for the results, in the hope we get better ones down the line. And Tingle.
I think it was impossible for any game to live up to the amount of hype that tears of the kingdom was receiving. I think it sort of speaks to a nasty part of the pathology of hardcore fans of any franchise, but games in particular: unreasonable expectations getting higher and higher for each new release. I’m nervous that it might lead to some people not liking the third game. We’ll see, I guess.
I think it REALLY helped that Nintendo didnt over market/ show the game
Like the depths were never shown in any marketing
I’ve yet to play the game but that will not impede my consumption of the masktent
From what I am seeing, this feels more like an expansion then a sequel, story still lacks and the game is still fun since it did sprinkle some Nuts & Boltz in it's DNA
Nah. I think a lot of people were worried about that, but it is really not the case. This is honestly more iterative than most sequels, with major overhauls in mechanics, world, and even just their approach to the game.
6:31 through 7:44 - Not sure "buck wild" is the term I'd use to describe what people are doing with this system, I think the better word is.....terrifying. That this system has that much freedom and flexibility that you could create vehicles and war machines that defy even the game's limitations. It's just overwhelming what this system can do.......and at the same time I also feel a great swelling of pity for every Breath of the Wild knock off that now comes out post TofK. Not bad for a Nintendo switch game running at 30 fps, am I right gaming community?
12:41 - Oh yeah speaking of how terrifying this game's sense of freedom is....
14:11 - That bit of frustration aside, it is damn impressive that on top of the terrifyingly complex vehicle system this game also manages to have real time combat with up to five AI partners at your beck and call. After this I feel even FF7 Rebirth is gonna have its work cut out for them.
14:42 - Yeah this inventory interface was just crap.
19:17 - Ironic indeed. He saw himself as a king above all who knows better than everyone, yet he was too much of a primitive ape to see the world had evolved beyond him. And worse, he was willingly let himself become a mindless animal out of petty spite towards the "mortal" that beat him. Pathetic.
19:55 - Oh yeah, Zelda becoming a fucking dragon. That was a fun twist.....even though I learned about it after I already got the Master Sword, me thinks I wasn't suppose to have it yet XD
And before I actually finished the four sages half of the main plot so the Imposter Zelda twist wasn't even a twist anymore. Shit it wasn't much of a twist to begin with, minute I came across the "rings" in Kakariko Village it was obvious something was up. Man the people of Hyrule are just too damn trusting...
Breath of the Wild 3: There’s No Breath in Space
You may want to check your mic. The plosives were coming in kinda strong and it was a little distracting from the video.
You just made me realize the stable theme is saria's song
Epona's song :)
@@yamizureyx Yup, though Saria's song does feature, albeit very, very briefly...
@@BMask Ah, didn't realise, I'll take another listen! Love your videos, man.
@@yamizureyx Thanks! If you want to hear where it and a couple other songs are, cook a few meals and have a listen to Link as it happens.
I have no interest in playing this game, but I'll listen to Bane talk about it.
I wasn't a fan of how this was a reboot of the franchise throwing the old lore out.
I mean, Zelda's never been consistent on lore. A few hints and easter eggs, sure, but it's always been loose. Felt perfectly in keeping so the game could be received well as a standalone experience, even as a direct sequel to another game.
Play Gravity Rush 2.
Nintendo: Guardians weren’t bad enough, what do we do now?
Nintendo Devs: Let’s give them three heads, not let you reflect the beams, let them fly, shoot fireballs, give them way more hp, and not be one shot by ancient arrows!
Actually I feel the gloom spawn are the replacement for the guardians with the gleeoks being a new thing entirely, a new boss. Not a great comparison. The gloom spawn are a normal enemy like guardians but also have their own music that plays and are the enemy out of all the normal enemies that symbolizes the main bad guy, which is the gloom and the summoned army of Ganon's, including his puppet Zelda. Like the main enemy for botw was the malfunctioning divine beasts being controlled by calamity ganon, the guardians were also constructs that were corrupted.
One of the major criticism of BotW and Totk is that Most of the story happens through flashbacks and I think that is to some degree because of the limitation of the hardware. So Hopefully the next adventure will have Link take more part in the story as it unfolds. I would still like to see a story that can be completed somewhat out of order, but I think the next story won't give you the ability to jump to the end as quickly.
I don't think it's a hardware limitation at all. It's the nature of committing to freedom but still wanting a story to tell. Each flashback can be experienced in thousands of different variations because of the freedom, you can't account for that many variables so Link or any character in the present can't be involved otherwise it just gets too messy.
@@JT5ingh The Horizon series and Elden Ring proves that you can have a compelling and linear story in an open world game
@@KaminoKatie having not played Elden Ring I can't speak on that but Horizon's open world isn't even close to how open and free form BOTW and TOTK is. You can literally do anything in any order in Zelda without restrictions, Horizon has an open world but it's main story and progress structure is entirely linear
@@JT5ingh Great gameplay and great story should not be mutually exclusive things
@@KaminoKatie Some forms of gameplay are better suited to crafting a better narrative. It's easier to tell a story when you have complete control over what a player does, in a sense that's limiting gameplay to tell a story. Unless you want a completely freeform game like Zelda to only release once every 20 years, a compromise has to happen for the narrative because you can't account for every variable each player might take. Good gameplay and good narratives are indeed mutually exclusive because the more you shift the dial in one direction the other suffers. Doesn't mean linear games are bad in the gameplay department, it's just understanding what compromises have to be taken to find the balance that's right for the game you want to make. Uncharted games don't have bad gameplay but you are limited in what you can do in said gameplay because there's a story and experience they want to tell.
the character stories for the 4 main plots were incredibly boring, compared to breath of the wild, and i am wholly surprised you didnt talk about the games complete lack of ackknowledging breath of the wild happened except for one little sidequest. we dont even know what happened to the divine beasts really. as a sequel to the story it is very underwhelming. as well, the lack of guardians in the overworld make it feel much more empty, the green fields of hyrule are designed to be chased on, so they feel pointless
Queen Sonia bro….
Skill is- oh nevermind carry on.
I'm surprised you didn't like the water temple; I think it's one of the best water temples in any game ever.
I just found it the same as the wind temple, five simple puzzles and done, but the ancient cistern, even as someone who didn’t like Skyward Swird, just sticks with me a lot more for its visuals and central gimmick.
@@BMask Fair enough. I just really enjoyed their take on a different kind of "floaty" for a water temple that also mitigated a lot of the restrictions of a typical water temple. I'll also admit I didn't play Skyward Sword, so it was more fresh for me.
@@bowen13 the floaty aspect was definitely cool and I love the idea of an open water temple in the sky, but it’s why I say it still feels like an experiment at this point. Boss was excellent though, love that wobbly boy
@@BMask It would definitely be interesting to see them expand on the idea even further. The sky area overall feels like it might get some DLC with how sparce it is comparatively
Saying it’s the best water temple is like saying it’s the shiniest turd out of all the other turds
Dammit, I know you had to finish this to get back to editing so you can feed the ravenous patreons but I have not, see you in another 100 hours or so
i had the mineru experience early, and it messed with the story. i went there thinking "oh maybe the clouds will push me away or it will prevent me from seeing something im not supposed to" but then it just revealed the whole mystery and i got this late game spirit early on. i wish it had come later
i think you gonna like undergrads
Zelda
I think it was very brave of Nintendo to have their finale tie in so nicely to One Piece's Wano arc, that was some excellent cross-promotion
bump
krill issue 🦐
I like this
@@BMask Big McThankies from McSpankies
did you play this on emulator?
Nope, got hit with joycon drift near the end too
@@BMask thanks for the answer footage looks great so i was just wondering gonna watch it after i beat the game
@@Kikiriam Oh thanks! I have a new capture card and it's been doing wonders, glad it looks good in the vid!
At some point, Nintendo needs to pick a direction for the series and commit. This will mean letting go of some past staples to give more breathing room for new ideas. Dungeons (in their current form) might be the first thing to go. Feels like they’re there just to keep people happy.
FiSh PeOpLe
Pish Feople
Can't say that I'm not disappointed with the new course Zelda is charting. I bounced off of these two games entirely, not enjoying the gameplay loop, the weapon degradation, or the sparse overworlds, and I can't stand minecraft-like/g-mod-akin "do it yourself" building/crafting gameplay. The franchise I used to love is going in a direction I can't follow, and it breaks my heart.
Welcome to my experience with Ratchet
Calling the overworlds sparse feels like a disservice especially in this one. Honestly I was consistently surprised with just how many engagements were thrown in the world every few miles or so, notably moreso here with the addition of caves and far meatier spread of sidequests.
What I think a lot of players don't realise with the 'new style' dungeons is that functionally speaking they are just like traditional ones with just 2 main differences.
1) you don't get a specific item partway through the dungeon you are then required to use to progress and also to defeat the boss.
2) you can approach each section of the dungeon in any order that you want providing you can reach it.
The "five or 4 locks to access the boss" thing is functionally exactly the same as needing to complete every area of a traditional dungeon in order to get the boss key to open the door to the boss.
A traditional dungeon will gate you with a number of small keys and item requirements to proceed. You need all of them + the "item/ability" to "unlock" the boss.
These new dungeons require you to access locks/terminals (equivalent to small keys) and in TotK you are required to use your companion's abiltity to proceed (instead of a dungeon-gained specific weapon/item). This really is the only difference. You can approach getting the "small keys" in any order you want, in order to access the "boss key" aka go fight the boss you previously could not access.
Once you wrap your head around this, TotK has taken the more freeform version of "dungeon" that BotW had and brought it functionally back up to a "traditional" dungeon with a bit of extra freedom worked-in :)
I wrapped my head around this fine, but the fact is one feels one way and one feels another, and the other isn't quite as satisfying. Whatever the facts, the feeling is something that I think can continue to be improved on.
This game bangs. Very good. I love it so much. It makes BOTW feel like the WiiU game everyone forgot it was
I think im the only one who enjoyed nuts n boltz 🤣🤣🤣 totk hit that odd nostalgia button upon my first build
I am so glad so many people are having a great time with the game, but personally I hated it. This is coming off a fresh, completely half-assed bum-rush of the game. I absolutely adored BOTW, and it blew me away, though when I was done, I was completely done. This game was very familiar, maybe it's my depression talking but everything felt so... laborious. Nothing sparked the joy in me that botw once captured.
Skill issue. Should we put the tea on?
One sugar or two
I think you captured everything I adored about the game perfectly. I will say, while the trek to Ganondorf near the end was nowhere near a dungeon, the atmosphere was INCREDIBLE. Seeing the message “The Light of the Sages cannot reach you here” made me audibly gasp in fear, and recognizing the sequence from the beginning of the game was the cherry on top of the pretty terrifying sundae. What they can do next to top this, I don’t know. An absolute masterclass of gameplay and exploration.
Hm yes very interesting very interesting comment for the algorithm and all that, women can become dragons yep remember that from sex-ed.
hi, sorry, bye.
Comment to feed the algorithm, i will watch after work and social obligations. (Dont give a damn about spoilers, lol)
I can't watch because of the spoilers, but I love the channel so may this comment boost your engagement, b-mask.
The DLC for this game is going to be INSANE
I am sorry, B-mask. This is another video I have to save until I have played/watched the source material. However, I will like it and leave this comment as engagement.
May the Force Be With You or some shit.
Hmmmm, comments feed the algorithm. Yummy. But yeah, BOTW was great, I really liked it, and then I think TOTK was in some part a greater condensation of those original concepts. Really taking from and doubling down those IMM SIM vibes
Algorithm
Man, I have the exact opposite opinion. BOTW's Zelda had real texture and conflict as a character, which made me invested in her growth. TOTK's Zelda feels so dumbed down by comparison. She's a passive observer for most of the memories, and her only real act of agency (if you can call it that, since she had no other choice and was brought to that era against her will) is to be the sacrificial uwu maiden again but with even more suffering. It's so gross and misogynistic, to the point where she becomes a non-entity you have to hit to farm parts to upgrade your outfit. Really searing indictment of how Nintendo treats her in general; she's treated like a thing and not an actual character. We don't see her utilize any of her interests or intelligence to formulate a plan to help Link stop Ganondorf. Nope, her goddess powers are all that matters, and she has no self-worth outside of sacrifice. TOTK's story is a strong contender for worst Zelda story ever.
I felt that was the point. The character was locked into a decision and deserved to be pulled out of it, in contrast with the story that came before. I felt a lot and got quite invested, if that makes me complicit with the heavy accusations you started throwing out then so be it.