A (Mostly) Positive Review of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 

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The gamespot guy trashing skyward sword and giving it a 9.1 is absolutely hilarious

i didnt realize this video was an hour long until about 10-15 minutes in, but that just makes it even better bc this is an absolute treat mr spaceman, good stuff

26:17 "why don't you raytrace some bitches" has got to be one of the funniest insults I've ever heard

Caves can be found easily by taking a picture of a blupee or the bubblefrog and sensing for that instead of shrines, the blupees are found by the entrance of each cave. There are so many little things like this in the game that absolutely change how you play and explore.

One of my most memorable experiences in TOTK was stumbling onto the spirit temple way before I was supposed to in the main quest. All the NPCs at lookout landing were like, "We need to find the last sage!.. Wait, you've already done that? Uh, okay, well... we also need to find the master sword- you mean you have that too?! Why didn't you tell us?!!" The game totally lets you do things in the order that YOU want, and that's awesome.

In regards to it feeling like enemies ranking up faster: if you haven't found out yet, this is because unlike in BotW, in TotK, you gain extra "rank up" points after defeating enemies if you used perfect dodges/flurry rushes or parries, performed headshots or don't get hit. So if you're regularly playing competently against enemies, they definitely will rank up faster than in BotW.

"Given that central hyrule was...you know." You can say "like detroit" nobody will blame you

For anyone looking for a lesson in what "committing to the bit" really means, the entire Korok Space Program segment is a masterclass

This game solidified BOTW/AOC/TOTK's Princess Zelda as my favorite version of the character. Learning how she was living her life in the time between BOTW and TOTK establishing a research team and a school (the details of her time as a teacher and how she bonded with the kids are so adorable) and how she ultimately puts everything literally on the line for her kingdom really resonated with me emotionally.

you can get the froggy armor upgraded to level 2 by a great fairy to get the permanent no slip buff, that way you will literally never slip again, even when jumping

Everybody all about Purah but nobody taking a glance at Rauru. I mean, look at the midriff on that man! 😤

As someone who didn't play BotW, I felt like the tutorialization was sufficient and didn't overstay its welcome, except when it came to the bullet time bow thing. I don't think I ran into a single tutorial for that and I got pretty stuck on the Water Temple where it's (kind of) required.

“Insert cash or select payment type” 😂😂😂

44:53, bullet time is the "intended" solution here

when you talked about the music and then never said anything about the wind temple bosses theme 😭. that shit is so fire

I think I'm in the majority with saying that yes, I noticed that the story is in many ways extremely similar to BotW... but it just feels stronger, more emotionally resonant, through taking more time with setup and payoff. Like how Zelda's sacrifice is set up and paid off over multiple scenes instead of just "oh and now Zelda went and did this thing" like in BotW. Setting up the dragon at the beginning of the game, then telling us "how to become dragon" through the Mineru flashback, then Rauru setting up that there must be a reason Zelda is here, all while the game has been misdirecting you to think Zelda is in the present doing shady stuff in each region, and the echo of Zelda's voice saying "Link, you must find me" looking to *right* after the real dragon has briefly appeared, yet misdirecting you to thinking she's talking about going to Lookout Landing - there's a lot of detail to love, here! And there's several ways you can figure out the story's main twist. Either by watching the memories or by piecing together things through exploration and finding the dragon on your own. I did a combination of both, meeting the Light Dragon after watching the 4th memory and getting a strong sense that I knew what was going on, without being sure. It created great tension, as I waited and waited for the reveal. There's also great ludonarrative moments like how when you finally catch Zelda in the end, you're DOING IT as the player instead of just watching a cutscene. My hands were shaking a little, it was such a good moment.

Obviously, this is gonna be my game of the year but there's plenty I wish they did differently. Most of my major Issues with ToTK at this point though come down to UX issues with how you use the sage abilities (Sidon's Water Shield has a decent amount of utility but it's super held back by having to run up to him) and how enemy variety wasn't really expanded enough to fill out the game's world well enough. I also wish there were fewer but longer shrines. Basically combine shrines of similar concepts to make a large shrine similar to ones like Shrine of Power or Blue Flame in BoTW where it's a more substantial mini dungeon with a core theme that escalates in complexity over time. Instead we have a ton of fun but very short shrines that are often just 2 or 3 basic puzzles often with the first puzzle feeling more like a tutorial for how something works than anything. Still good but it's not quite scratching that dungeon itch super well. Also great job on this review, Captain! One of your best videos yet.

Thank god this video is short I don’t have time for hour long reviews

Im one of the few people who played Tears without playing botw, but the building and physics mechanics were so intuitive, it was as easy and fun as playing w legos

51:02 the Geoglyph quest, which is a main quest, takes you to the forgotten temple, which shows you the order of the Geoglyph on the wall of the room that shows you their place on the map

the connection between ganondorf and calamity ganon imo is that calamity ganon formed time and time again from ganondorfs eternal hatred while he was sealed which is why its the Hatred and Malice Incarnate and why none of it actually looks anything like ganondorf, its just his uncontrollable rage that would unleash from his living corpse time and time again

FYI a maxed out horse IS faster than a zonai car. The zonai car is just cooler and you're not slaving away cooking for the Horse God 🤓. Otherwise great vid EDIT: Lego's, also if you get the froggy armor and level it up twice it gives you the ability to climb without slipping

This might be the first time I've seen someone who shares pretty much the same opinion on traditional dungeons as me. There are quite a few vocal Zelda fans out there who seem to feel that having long, traditional dungeons is an absolute make or break for the series, but I feel similarly to you here - they were decent and I never disliked them, they were sometimes fun and memorable, but they were often something I felt I needed to "get out of the way" to continue my adventure. I'd sometimes finish a dungeon and feel more of a relief that it's over than a feeling of excitement or accomplishment. The heart of the series for me has always been about traversing and exploring the overworld. I remember in my teenage years when I was closely following the development of an upcoming 3D game, one of the biggest talking points was always how big the overworld would be this time around - "I heard rumours that TP's overworld will be 5x the size of Ocarina of Time!" etc. Teenage me only *dreamed* of exploring an overworld as big as the one in TotK.

Climbing in rain is *almost* not a problem depending on how far you're going. The slip is always after four steps so jump *at* the 4th step and you don't lose as much of your progress. This takes stamina but also who doesn't max out stamina first lmao

20:42 "also, you will never need to do that" there's a shrine that needs you to do that to unlock it, actually. As for Link being famous... yeah no. Dude is anxious as *heck,* he'd rather just be in the background. Regarding Sidon's ability? With his ability, Zora weapons become the actual best weapon class in the game. Double damage, both base and fuse, while you're wet, which the water shield counts as, without the fuse durability malus Gerudo weapons have. Sure, not the strongest weapon _period,_ that comes from, iunno, molduga jaw glued to the scimitar of the seven while in ganon cosplay, but that thing always looked like something out of a lego kit to me, not a big fan.

Great video overall! I do disagree a bit with you on the classic dungeon take. Simplifying classic Zelda dungeons down to just puzzles is reductive, I think. They were unique settings that were usually themed in various fun ways through music, and environmental design, as well as puzzles and monsters to fight. I do think the dungeons in TOTK were more like classic Zelda dungeons, but overall they still kinda just felt like parts of the over world, rather than a separate setting within the world. Also, I feel like classic dungeons had more variety, two of the TOTK dungeons were just more sky islands. Whereas in like, Twilight Princess, one of the dungeons is a sky island, another is a wintery mansion, another is an ancient temple, another is a burial ground, etc etc. I just think there's definitely more to these dungeons than completing puzzles, especially when the shrine setting gets boring fast.

this game and BotW reminds me when I was little the created the most absurd stuff with LEGOs. It was incredible

Based "the Comet Observatory was boring and empty and Starship Mario was way better because it didn't waste your time" opinion haver Yes, this was my takeaway

totk was my first zelda game (shocking, i know) and I can confidently say that the sky tutorial section did an AMAZING job at teaching me the basics of the game. It had the perfect balance of telling me what to do, and letting me do my own thing. I caught on to all the other game mechanics within an hour of landing in hyrule. This is a phenomenal game.

Very good video. You said a lot of the things I said in my review, so I'm glad I'm not the only one who wants to defend the game (while also criticizing aspects of it). Happy to hear that you had a good time!

Fun fact, you actually get the same exact amount of propulsion regardless of how many rockets you use so there's never any need to use more rockets outside of weight distribution!

I saw someone talk about the BotW menus/UI being designed for the WiiU where you always had a menu open on the pad, and then they had to adapt that to the Switch because they were too far in development to change it. I feel like when they were working on TotK, they were using the same engine and everything, so they had to adapt it again to these new systems. If they built a whole new game (which would have taken a lot more time/money) I think the menus would have been better.

44:52 You can just use your bow in mid air to activate bullet time

I agree with you that games do not need to be running at 32k 200fps with ray tracing on to be enjoyable. However, IT IS a legitimate complaint when the game cannot even maintain 30 fps consistently. Dropping from 30 fps to 20 is VERY noticeable and can make many people motion sick

21:19 For those who haven't watched Avatar, that is his actual name.

thank you for your service king like, really, ive been watching your vids since your splatoon 2 weapon vids, its amazing seeing you and your channel grow :)

ToTK somehow did the impossible which was keep me fully engaged for a solid 95 hours which to some might sound like chump numbers but to me is an actual miracle. I'm someone who usually wraps up a game around the 50-60 hour mark because I start to feel myself getting burned out (especially if it's open world) but this game I only made myself complete so I wouldn't have to dodge spoilers every time I wanted to watch a video talking about it.

The fact that Ganondorf talks like a Dragon ball Z villain, and doesn’t have much screentime is my story nitpick The fact that the elemental attack up armour only activates their abilities when it’s hot/cold/stormy and offers NO protection to said elements is my gameplay nitpick

Always love your videos! And the way you put all your thoughts together so smoothly, like a lego master

D... did my mind just get tricked into watching a full hour video without getting distracted? You are quite impressive.

I love the constantly changing splatfest shirts

The whole "korok space program" sketch was one of the funniest things I have seen on youtube

Thank you for bringing up the wealth of indy Zelda-likes out there. There's a definitely devs willing to help scratch that old itch, but I wonder if people end up passing them up just because they don't have the brand name attached. Is it linear dungeon crawlers with item based progression and musical puzzles they crave? Or are they really just that invested in the dude with a green hat?

By far my favourite review of the game so far. Entertaining, humourous and very fair points all around.

yo i just wanna say your scripting is amazing cause i never expected some of those sentences to come out of any human's mouth LOL. great video!!

Incredibly based. I agree with everything said in this video. It's a breath of fresh air to see someone who sees the game the way I do.

For the spinning thing in the water temple, I was trying to use the reverse time thing to get it to freeze, but eventually I just ended up doing what you did. My sister used bullet time to shoot it, which seems a lot easier than the mess I went through.

Easiest way to find cherry blossoms is enduro carrots on the shrine finder. But the tundra cherry tree is on the very far left mountain pass if you're looking at the map.

TOTK is held together with black magic and duck tape. I'm constantly amazed that my Gen 1 switch doesnt blow up or melt in my hands when i whip out a complex creation.

The rant about the most common zelda critques fhat aren't really critiques but are instead a reflection of nostalgia at the end was really funny amd was all that needes to be said LMAO

5:27 You earned my respect just from this statement 😎

Captain posted, day improved.

Honestly I've been feeling a bit down on the game lately. Like you said it's not a perfect game (cus nothing is, obviously) and I have been letting some of the issues I have with it sour my overall perception of it. This video helped me refocus on the far, far more amazing things that I love about it. Literally about to go grab my switch and jump back in. Thanks

Totk is probably my favorite 3d zelda game, and might be my favorite zelda game overall (previously minish cap). I don't mind 3d zelda going forward like this but im still holding some hope we will at least see 2d zelda games using more of the old formula, if they even get made anymore lol.

I must disagree with your position on the opening, I thought the opening was excellent, it provided a stark contrast to botw, set up atmosphere and stakes, and gave the player a moment to soak up the eeriness and hype of finally being able to play through the very first look of the game back in 2019

My Lego inventions I made during kindergarten can finally do something. I loved the final Boss it just made so much sense with the gameplay and story.

Absolutely banger of a video, that hour just flew by

Good to know that I’m not the only one who doesn’t play Zelda for the dungeons. Good video.

i agree with ur point about like the visuals, but the frame rates taking a hit whenever like 5 effects are happening is super annoying

If you talk to Impa after completing all the tears of the dragon, she will talk to you about the ancient tapestry - and she explains that the calamity was the attempt of a revival of ganondorf in the form of pure malice (hence why dark beast ganon is called 'hatred and malice incarnate').

lmao @ the dunkey reference at 4:50. Perfect Also 22:23 Furdinand von Aegir? Brilliant

I managed to seqeunce break a ton on my second playthrough of the Great Sky Island, but I wound up getting lost and assuming I'd skipped a shrine only to go through it the proper way and find out that my skip had actually worked causing me to waste even more time than if I'd just followed the intended path. Not overly intuitive.

That one note about tradition really puts things into perspective 1:04:12

I really love your videos man, thank you very much. Keep up the good work !

Im still a little on the fence about how i feel about BotW. There are things i love about it and things i dont... That said, Tears of the Kingdom fuckin ruled. I had a blast with it. I am very interested to see what the devs will be able to do on stronger hardware too. It's a miracle Tears ran as well as it did on the switch

I remember the first time i played a videogame. The world was so stunning and all the mechanics were so cool. I didn’t feel that feeling years afterwards until the great sky island. That was the only time i felt that sense of wonder again.

Best (and probably accurate) thumbnail ever

27:35 the enemy scaling system from BOTW was slightly changed for TOTK and you will encounter better weaapons and stronger enemies sooner if you are more "skillful" when defeating enemies (parry, flurry rush, headshot, perfect fight).

You really could have trimmed down the amount of "wait-s" and "hold on-s" but a good video nonetheless. It's interesting to see the things you like about it are the ones I dislike, such as the partner Korok missions.

Incredibly based video. Thank you. Captain Astronaut returns with only the correct opinions.

I just started playing skyward sword again after beating Tears and man I miss the linear game play crammed to the brim with an engaging story and an overworld that are extensions of great dungeons. Also key items that can be upgraded with monster parts

@40:20 that was a masterful setup 😂

One small note on rain: If you do all of the side quests for the newspaper, you will get a full clothing set that, when powered up by the Great Fairies by 2 levels, will nullify all slipping on surfaces.

I took a break from playing TotK to watch this video but pausing at ~12 mins in to avoid further spoilers since I only started a couple weeks ago and am pretty early in the story. Sure there are times when I am annoyed by things in this game but I also am just as deeply obsessed as I was with BotW. I am amazed at how they've managed to take all the familiar things and make them new and exciting to explore again. I love jumping down wells!!!

You may not be able to pet the doggies but sometimes when you stand in front of them and spin in a circle they will do it too and its very cute when they do (I don't know what criteria needs to be met to make them do it tho ;_; )

damn I think you fit my Erick Wright niche, I found you at a great time

That "Zelllllll" sound like today Shorts collab ALSO WAITING FOR WAWE 5 Review

Amazing video, I agree with you on most points, I genuinely think it's the best game I've ever played, I really hope it gets dlc in the near future. Btw do you mind opening the cowboy shirt a bit more 🥴

Here's another question for the theorists: Is there a connection between the Zonai and Spirit Tracks' Dragon Train?

I absolutely love this game, but I still prefer traditional Zelda. I genuinely love going through dungeons, grabbing keys, getting dungeon items and exploring unique dungeons and fighting unique bosses. I don't want this to be the norm for the series. I also don't agree with the "Good game but not a good Zelda game" take but the bit about it emulating the openness of the original Zelda game doesn't really work since it's the ONLY game in the series to be open before BotW (maybe a Link Between Worlds). Every following game was linear and what would later be considered "traditional." Froggy Armor upgrade bonus makes you immune to slipping while climbing in the rain.

The solution to the 44:58 puzzle is using bullet time, which I also didn't get until looking it up

regarding the purah pad camera plot hole, the camera function wasn't available when you were first given it and the only surviving pictures are the ones taken before the upheaval. just a guess but the camera function was probably lost somehow when zelda travelled to the past, meaning that she couldn't use it

tauro is truly peak character design and i barely hear anyone talking about him. fml (which stands for "fuck me ltauro")

Legos. I enjoyed Zelda TOTK but I didn't enjoy the abilities as much as I enjoyed BOTW's. I know it's a me thing when the main point of the game is a burden for me which is building stuff. I founf building stuff cool in sections when it was meant to be or directly hinted or implied whereas in the overworld I found building boring. It breaks the pace for me, I don't like life simulators, Animal crossing or Minecraft and I felt this game was Zelda Minecraft in a big chunk. Fusing is enemies dropping a weapon and then you gotta go the item and fuse it, so you gotta stop everytime you want a new weapon, building is cool but I'd rather be moving and I know ou have the fast-building thing but I don't enjoy going for Zonaite so it's painful for me anyways, Recall is lit tho. Sky is overly repetitive and The underground is... even more and dull to play in... The most fun part was the surface actually for me and I felt kinda disappointed given that the sky was heavily promoted? Anyway, enjoy your games Edit: I forgot to mention I LOVED the lore scattered all across the world

It took me until just now to realize all the points he made about the underground. The dark world parallel, Shrine names backwards. I did however know of shrines above matched shrines below.

This dude is funny AF like always. Always enjoy your videos. I'm still looking for any kind of in game explanation for how any why they would completely dismantle a bunch of well built towers just to build new more shoddy rickety looking ones instead. And where did all those broken down Guardian husks go? Who would spend the manpower to hunt down every single one in the world and where did they put them?

As soon as I saw the, "Quick Review, Very Short", I audibly whispered, "Bastard."

50:29 KH music plays and I die of laughter

'why don't you go ray-trace some bitches' literally spat my coffee everywhere thanks Cap'n

Dr. Mr. Cody Showdie jump scare

LEGOSSSS Capn u so funny. Love your vids. Great takes and your costume change game is on point

better idea for sage abilities have them fight like normal but map their button inputs to actions you do in the game. Tulin and Riju when you are aiming your bow press a toggleable button to activate (keep tulin the same while gliding), Sidon when swinging the sword or shielding press a togle button, Yunobo when running around can be toggled and aimed with the camera. Mineru can be when backflipping and press a toggle button and she appears in front of you from the sky (titanfall style) press the same button to have her retreat. It would make fights so much more dynamic instead of having to run to each unit. They would not run up to you but flash over orb style btw for cool effect.

IDk hwow how to to complement you enough for how many times you brought up Yoshi. he's my fav mario char.

you need to make it longer I was almost finished but it ended

I love the death roombas

16:01 I never thought about just putting a steering wheel on those blocks wtf... 48:03 ... and neither did I thought about that either...

Stupendous video I really enjoyed the comparison to the Lego Indian Jones games

Ik it's 1000% a me thing but I love having to individual arm arrows It has the same feeling as an active reload mechanic in a shooter Also feels like a way to make spaming special arrows a bit less convenient

TOTK is like legos,, I still don't know what I'm doing, but I love it