TOTK 1 Year Later - A Discussion with Zeldatubers 

Thanks for showing the speaker names. Helps a lot in a big group discussion like this.

I 90%love tears. There are things I wished they’d done or done better, but the part I loved the most was the side quests. I loved the theme of “hands” and helping people all over Hyrule-helping Hateno’s people find common ground, rebuilding Lurelin, helping Mattison before her journey. That’s why Totk is either my favorite or second favorite game. (Majora’s Mask being my favorite)

When they decided to make the Zonai a ""big"" part of the story, they unleashed a beast far hungrier than they were ready to feed.

it’s crazy this game is already a year old. i remember being absolutely feral at school, not being able to wait to get home and play it 🫡

Loved being a part of this!!! Thank you for having me on!

Thanks again for having me, Capt. It was a pleasure to share my thoughts with others for over 3 hours. Don't hesitate to invite me again, I love group chats.

3 hour Zeldatuber discussion? We’re feasting!

Such good timing, I have to make a 3 hour long drive for a work trip tonight! Can’t wait to listen!

Monster Maze blew my mind bringing up that Skyward Sword had real time healing. I've played Skyward 3 times and never put it together that botw basically took a step back in that regard.

I think Don makes a good point - I think the games in the future would really shine if they made the map have more regional variation, not just in environment, but in what you can do there and how you go about doing it.

Ive been replaying botw recently and even though its a lot simpler i find that feels a lot more put together than tears. The only thing id say i feel missing is the ascened ability

that point at 1:29:38 about the Master Sword is good… that the in-universe function of conquering the dungeons and shrines would be to repair and power up the damaged sword. I had a similar thought about Link’s arm, that we would be working to heal Link throughout the game (which is true, but it turns out it’s Rauru’s arm 🤷🏻‍♂️), but tying that idea to the Master Sword would’ve been really satisfying 👍

"Tears of the Kingdom is still a good game. It maybe far from the game you wanted it to be, but it's still a good game." YEAAAAAAAH. That's been the Legend of Zelda in a nutshell for me. Good quote, lol

I graduated from college the day before TOTK came out. Literally couldn’t care less about my degree, I was too excited to play the game 😂

I can't get enough of totk discussions. I wish we got a free master mode dlc

I think it's kind of obvious that dungeons were removed from the depths. My guess is that it's three dungeons. I think the story was revamped to change who the sages were and we were actually missing three more sages. It also appears that there are specific open blank areas in the depths for three dungeons.

Here's a weird idea for how the master sword could have been built up throughout the game. If the broken fragments of the sword fell through time with Zelda, and she caught the biggest piece, but the rest were scattered and somehow ended up in various holy sites to recover, Zelda still performs her sacrifice, powering up the greatest piece to the extreme, but you can collect the other fragments before the point it's possible to retrieve the main one, and attach them to restore the sword. Then, there's good reason to use fuse on the sword to make it usable while it's still incomplete, and you can keep it with you the entire time, and you can boost its durability with each collected fragment, keep the running out of energy thing, at least until you obtain the final piece from the Light Dragon which should super power up the sword. Giving it infinite durability, and very high attack, but then add the caveat that normal monsters killed by the master sword are removed from existence, like the ancient arrows in BoTW. Thus, using it against normal enemies costs you the potential loot. The idea of keeping the Master Sword the entire game, and making it better by rebuilding it with the sacred energy infused shards of it is, such a cool thing, I think.

I think my problem with ToTK was that I personally got so hooked on finding all of the Tears after I found the first. So within a few hours of playing the game I had seen a majority of the story. After that it felt almost empty in a way? Seeing the changes to some areas, and the new enemies were interesting, but I felt like I was more going through the motions of beating dungeons until the final portion down in the depths for the final battles.

Thanks again for having me, it was fun talking with you all! ^^

Hi. I am not a long time Zelda fan. BotW was my first full Zelda game. After playing it and TotK for over 500 hrs each I have had a great time with them. Since I do not have the history or attachment to "old" or "true" dungeons I would be very intetested in Don or Daniel making a video or series of videos taking what was in these 2 games and showing or describing how they could be turned into "real" dungeons. For Don I suspect this might be a single video. Daniel as the "dungeon guy" could probably do this as a series over time analysing each one and providing a detailed build for redesigning them. I listened to the part in this video where everyone talked about things they missed in dungeons but I had a bit of a hard time putting together how to put those things into the BotW or TotK worlds. Thank you to all for this great 1 year discussion.

will I watch a 3 hours video about my favorite game just for the sake of it? yes.

I think Zeltik said it best... TotK is a disappointing Masterpiece. On the one hand, It's one of the best video games ever conceived, it is a technical marvel, and the amount of thoughts and thoroughness put in every design of every detail is just mindbogglingly impressive to me. Every system and every mechanic interacts with each other, the interactivity matrix for gameplay ingredients must have been a nightmare to document. It's extremely addictive, when i pick it up to play i just can't drop the controller and am transported out of the standard space-time continuum. The story in itself, if considered as self contained, is much more interesting and epic than previous games. It's filled with memorable moments, epic set pieces like never before, quirky and fun characters. It has never before seen levels of freedom for a puzzle and exploration focused game. On the other hand, as a long time Zelda fan, i was disappointed with the lack of cohesion with the previous games' lore, the fact that it's too easy to brute force through puzzles, with the lack of progression (new items) in new regions and dungeons, with the lack of depth of new areas (Sky islands and depths) and with the way the narrative is transmitted (Finding a linear narrative in a broken order, not being involved in the main narrative, etc.). TotK is one of the best video games ever made from a technical and design standpoint and it perfectly accomplishes what it sets out to do, giving the Player and unprecedented amount of freedom and creativity in a living world with gameplay mechanics, narrative and world design all perfectly supporting and enhancing each other.... BUT, and it's a BIG BUT... in art, "perfection" is not necessarily what resonates the most with anyone. A plain circle is a "perfect shape", but a painting of a plain circle, as perfect as it may be, will not give me the same range of emotion as something less perfect, more chaotic and representing more various ideas and feelings. It's the beauty of subjectivity. TotK is a Masterpiece and a standout achievement in technical design, game design and level design... but i don't love it as much as previous games because of what it is at its core regardless of how well produced and integrated everything in it is. I hope we get more streamlined Zelda games in the future, with a more restrained approach to narrative and Level Design. Even though i know, Aonuma has no interests in going back to the traditional Zelda formula.

Regarding the discussion at 1:16:48 onwards, I think the repetitiveness of BotW/TotK's design warrants a full deep dive. I agree with Monster Maze that while there was repetitiveness in BotW, it didn't bother me as much as it did in TotK. I think the reason for this difference is the level design and they way you interact with the world. BotW's runes only allow so much interaction, so while you may find the same enemies and structures everywhere, you don't find the same environments and you are really constrained by how you can use those environments to your advantage. The weather, rain, steep cliffs, snow, lots of uneven terrain, these factors all completely change how you engage with the repeated content. In TotK, it's a lot easier to circumvent any of these obstacles since your abilities allow you to be completely untethered to the environment. The vehicle building breaks a lot of the inherent level design. I think if zonai device capsules didn't exist and you could only use ultra hand on the resources immediately around you, the repetitiveness would be much less of an issue. But I think there's more to say about why this repetitiveness is there to such a large extent. I think there's at least two reasons: 1) The development team is so huge that in order to maintain the consistency of the product there are agreed-upon standards for developing different kinds of content in the game so that they automatically cohere with each other. 2) They want players to understand what they can expect from exploring a certain area so they visually code everything with the reward they can expect to obtain. That's why you never just find a spirit orb out in a cave or in the forest, there has to be a blessing shrine because a shrine must always be associated with spirit orbs. If spirit orbs could be found just anywhere, then players would explore too many tiny crevices. This was fine in old Zelda with pieces of heart and gold skulltulas but in a Hyrule this big, players need more guidance on which parts of the environment are actually meaningfully interactable. But I think TotK goes too far with readability and it gets to a point where it undermines any sense of surprise, particularly in the late game. Knowing what you're going to find before you engage with it is an idea that sounds good on paper but I think the Zelda team should reexamine to what extent all content needs to be this readable. It's okay to have a few hidden things that require more nuanced engagement with the environment. Or at the very least different kinds of cues could result in the same reward, kind of like the Korok puzzles but for literally every other collectable/currency in the game.

Fantastic video! Had to watch it over the course of a few days but it was absolutely wonderful hearing all of the diverse opinions and thoughts about the game, both on its own and in comparison to not just the rest of the series but to gaming a whole. I really hope you're able to gather creators like this again for group discussions again in the future! I loved the first one you made (as you might recall... :p) and this has been just as much a fantastic listening experience.

Dude you've been killing it lately with your videos! Great discussion yall :D

This is so wholesome and entertaining at the same time. Thanks so much for this Capt, you're killing it!

A great panel! Great conversation. Thanks Capt!

I had to stop watching unpredicted videos and theory videos. I had to see what to expect from TOTK. Made the right choice because I LOVED the game.

I loved ToTK. I played it non-stop for months, taking my time to beat it while trying to complete nearly all the side quests as possible before fighting Ganon. However, my biggest overall gripe is the storytelling. For as epic as they made the story to be, there are too many elements that were lazily explained away and inconsistencies from its direct predecessor. While Nintendo may never prioritize story over gameplay, I do hope they take better care to at least do more then handwaving away mysterious elements or plot points in the next game.

You guys really hit home for me at around 1:24:30 with the comparison of shrines/koroks to the skultula quest and similar things in past games. Without going super far into it (I have a tendency to get carried away, I'm pretty passionate about this topic), I'll just say that Botw was at the time pretty much my all time favorite game. Tears was similarly blowing me away in the first week as I explored the extent of Ultrahand mechanics, but eventually I've almost completely flipped up on it. The more time I put into it, the more apparent and aggravating so many things in the design philosophy became to me. So with that out of the way, on that comparison. Something I'd like to add about it is this: shrines/koroks being your only reward is by far one of my biggest problems with the game, the repetition becomes mind numbing at a point. Like, at a certain point in the game, I want to "move on to more substantial content," like, side quests, in depth dungeons, stories, or whatever else. The problem is, other than a couple of side quests that I can count on pretty much one hand, there's just nothing worth while. And that's the problem for me. In an open world game where it is arguable more important to fit in more interesting content, there is instead what I perceive to be less than even the N64 games. Thus the comparison: shrines and koroks are mostly another version of the skultula quest, that have a much less unique reward than that quest, but also, and most importantly, instead of just being a side quest, THEY ARE THE MAIN CONTENT IN THE GAME. Obviously, you're meant to spend only as much time collecting these things as you want, then move onto the end of the game. But that just doesn't cut it for me. In games this big with worlds that are meant to immerse you, I want to spend 100s of hours getting distracted and messing around with optional stuff, furthering quest lines or discovering interesting details. So it's kind of a pickle when I've done like 30ish shrines, flown to light roots and am already at the point starting to feel the mindless grind. Talking about the side quests, most are just helping a guy fight a monster or solve a really simple problem, which honestly, even something that simple is fine, but I want to have some kind of substantial world building or story happen within it. The mayor thing? The master khoga thing? Pretty solid quests. But the amount here don't really cut it for me unfortunately. Which brings me to this last topic: games like Fallout, Skyrim, etc, I agree that I'm kind of tired of them at this point. I feel like Starfield kinda proved that they are a little bit past their time in a lot of ways: with that said, there are elements of these games that are great. The main thing: the side quests. The gameplay of these games is super basic, looting and killing guys, there are a lot of map markers which can definitely pollute the experience. But the side quests here are the star of the show. It doesn't matter if you just started playing the game, or you are 100 hours in, you ALWAYS have any number of side quests to tackle. And, while the gameplay and objectives of these are often basic, you meet memorable characters, witness interesting storylines, and in general feel like you're experiencing SOMETHING. Imagine that that multitude of narrative was injected into this game's world? Now, you aren't just rewarded with an extra inventory slot or heart container for each spot you go to on the map, you're rewarded with an interesting story sequence. Really deep into my playthrough, I was practically dying wanting something to do in the world. But like I said, the answer was only do the next shrine. But okay, say that they still want to stick to this "hands off" narrative approach, where there isn't really much in the way of defined side stories. Well, in that regard, gameplay intrigue and just pure content should be the focus. I think the mistake here was spending so much time refining Ultrahand, which, in fear of going on a tangent about it, I'll just say I think is mechanically amazing but gives you little to no incentive to engage with it meaningfully 99 percent of the time. And, while it's inherently cool just how well it works and what's possible with it, at the end of the day, at a point, I just wanted to get along to exploring and overcoming challenges within the world. So yeah, cool in concept, limitless possibilities, but by the end of my playthrough all I was thinking was that they spent way too much time refining what at the end of the day is a mechanic meant to be messed with and largely forgotten about on a standard playthrough. This lead to skimping on the reused map, the sky islands, and the depths in terms of the unique content that they all offer. And for here, this is the comparison I'll use. Elden Ring's lore largely takes a back seat like most of the souls games (it's there if you look for it), and it is 100 percent intended and normal for a person to go through the entire game with no idea what the heck is going on in the story. Side quests are really simple, just like Tears side quests, and cutscenes are few a far between. So then, how does this game exceed in my opinion just by focusing on pure gameplay in a similarly huge world? By shear uniqueness of content and inherent intrigue. Sure, a lot of people side the reused bosses in Elden Ring as one of its biggest flaws, but in my eyes comparing this game to Tears of the Kingdom is like night and day difference to me. Apart from instances of boss reuse in optional areas, you have literally dozens of unique bosses in this game, all with their own interesting designs, multiple moves to the point where you still see new moves on repeat playthroughs, multiple regions that have their own consistency with region specific enemy types, environmental hazards, and structures. On top of all this, instead of opening treasure chest after treasure chest of the same repeated items, throughout the world you'll find 100s of weapons with their own special gimmicks, designs and move sets, in addition to other specialized help items like ashes of war to alter weapons and spirit ash summons to assist you. And then you can also find upgrades for those things as well. I'd also like to add that discovering and fighting new enemies always has an inherent appeal to me (this applies in Tears as well, it's just... after like 10 hours exploring you've likely seen every possible enemy), and you are rewarded with each encounter by being able to level up and spend runes. In contrast, at a point in Tears I realized: hold on, why am I even bothering engaging enemies anymore? I had a stock pile of all the best weapon parts, so at that point, why engage with the repeated enemy camps? I could only logically break even at best or lost out at worse. Soooo that was one less thing that I wanted to do in a game where I was running completely thin on content. But continuing on, all of that stuff, and on top of that, I feel like the game also manages to make progression more satisfying while still maintaining an almost fully open environment. Despite all of the ways you can go and optional encounters you can do, there is still a significant path of progression in the game that will take you through giant enemy fortresses, required bosses, and puzzles on every play through, and I'm honestly tired of pretending that is a bad thing. One example here is the dectus medallion- a collectible that you need in order to pass through a gate that takes you to another part of the world. How you obtain this item is hinted at in the game, and there is another way that you can get through without that item by doing something else. This progression requirement doesn't feel like it is gating you off from experiencing the world, because even if you aren't able to find your way through immediately, there is so much to do in that section of the world anyway. And the game has a few different places like that, and what happens when you go into those places? You get the grand reveal of the world map pulling back, and you see the scale of the world and content increase right before you're eyes. Anyway, what I'm saying is, SOME gating of progression is nice. In this case, I was constantly trying to guess just how massive the scale was here, and it kept 1-upping my expectations. So, in conclusion, either of those two options are what I saw as some of the main things missing from this game. Either they expand the narrative with interesting side stories, or they just go all out on trying to make an abundance of pure, unique content. I have so many other problems with this game that I've come to realize, but the lack of either of those things is what absolutely killed it in the end for me. I could excuse the mundaneness of the shrines and the in my opinion really broken combat if either of those options was fleshed out. But as it stands, other games just do what Tears does for me but more. With that said, the open world format is absolutely a good direction for the series. It just comes down to them listening to fan feedback again. I mean, that's what made Botw such a huge hit to begin with for a lot of people, the fact that they responded directly to criticisms of Skyward Sword. So I was kind of hoping this game would fix common criticisms of Botw, but they instead seemingly doubled down on a lot of the problems. So yeah, I want the next game to have a more interesting form of progression and more substantial content, to some extent they got a way with it this time (though a lot of people are criticizing it now) but I think a third game in a row with the same shrine and korok seed type formula just isn't going to cut it even for people that don't really have a problem with this game as it stands. It'd just be too much repetition.

I think the execution site in Twilight princess can also possibly have had Hylian architecture before Ocarina of time as there is a sage for the Gerudo and the Spirit temple also has Hyrulean symbols. The execution site is the place where the mirror of shadows is kept and watched over by the sages. Ganondorf was both a leader and an enemy of the Gerudo, one of Rinkuto's theories about the spirit temple was Twinrova had pretended to be the Goddess of the sand as the statue of the goddess inside the temple has an evil face that hides the witches' rooms. So it is possible that Twinrova and other evil Gerudo belonging to her and Ganondorf's group have changed Gerudo structures while manipulating the rest of the Gerudo from the shadows. Other structures were probably still more related to the Gerudo religion and spirituality instead of being related to Twinrova, the demon tribe and dark magic. The execution site in Twilight princess has some murals with symbols and what looks like a longhaired figure wielding a trident which could be related to evil dark magic wielding Gerudo or just be something the developers didn't put much thought into or just something from Four swords adventures' writing that made an appearance (because one of the people who worked on that game(I can't remember if it was one of the writers) also worked on Twilight princess). TP did have some stuff(in the Japanese text) that the Zelda team either have or have not forgotten about like the Oocca being the ancestors of the Hylians(Hylian culture not born in Skyward sword's eras nor did the name Hylian appear anywhere other than the Hylian shield) and the creators of Hyrule kingdom and TP Hyrule's temple of time.

This game brings out so many strong reactions it’s amazing. Some people really think this game isn’t good at all except for maybe some technicals and many think it’s one of the best games ever and everything in-between. It’s such an interesting game to talk about because of this and it’s also interesting to people watch and see what people focus on. Some people can’t get over certain choices they don’t like and throw it out. Others are people that can look at many different decisions and layers and be awed by some of it and wish different choices were made in other areas. And some people totally go with what the developers were going for - incredibly fun and innovative gameplay. It’s almost hard for me to make a decision where I come down on this game. It basically matters what things I focus on. It’s almost like I can become any fan depending on the day. I could give this game anywhere from a 6-10 depending on my mood or focus. It’s one of those things I’m glad it exists in the world even if I wish the story and combat was handled somewhat differently. This game I could see standing out in its own way many years from now. Depends on if they take a lot from this game for next game or if they don’t take that much. The gameplay and music is truly special and I think will be things to remember.

Always love to listen to these

I love this in depth discussion!!

2:22:02 I agree. It is way cooler to call them The Stormwind Ark, Construct Factory, Lost Gorondia. They do have those subtitles in the game, but having them start with FIRE TEMPLE in the big font felt like they were just trying to flaunt that they are more similar to old dungeons.

I have a few things I'd like to bring up in addition to what was mentioned, and I'll try keeping each as brief as I can. Translation: I have the privilege of having grown up with both French and English, so upon hearing of what people said about some things being lost in translation, I decided to look into the French version a bit. People have said that Ganondorf's motivation in other languages is to restore the people's fighting spirit that was lost when Rauru took over, and I mostly disagree with that. I think the main motivation is still just wanting to rule by being the strongest, and he was only expressing disappointment that everyone living in peace leads to less of a fun competition for him to get there (it seems to be much better written though). The French version of the Royal Hidden Passage tablet also states that Hyrule Castle itself served as a reinforcement to Rauru's seal, which falls much more in line with what was said in interviews and explains much better how the seal fell apart. Skyloft: I'm pretty sure when the 2021 trailer came out, people pointed out that the island Link was skydiving towards was a reference to Skyloft. That island is definitely the equivalent of the Great Sky Island, but no one has echoed that sentiment since, so I wonder if that's what Fujibayashi was aluding to. It would make sense since that trailer had plenty of other cut Sky Islands like you said. It's such a shame if they did have it in and change their mind, since referencing Skyloft with the tutorial area would've been so perfect after Breath of the Wild's tutorial area was a reference to Ocarina of Time Castle Town. Sages vs Champions: I actually really didn't like that the Champion abilities were tied to Link's moveset, since I'd often find myself wanting to block or charge attack normally without using Daruk and Urbosa's abilities respectively. As such, seeing that I could play how I wanted without a fear of accidently activating the Sage abilities was such a relief. The issue I have with them is less that you have to run over to them and more that the activation button is the same as the button that picks stuff up, and the two can easily overlap. I think it would've been perfect if we had the option to call one to our side individually in order to easily activate the ability wherever. Menus/Preparation: I haven't played Ocarina so I haven't experienced how bad it is in that game, but I feel like it isn't quite the same here both because the menus are really quick to navigate (outside of one particular example that shall not be named) and the sheer amount of stuff you have in your inventory kinda requires it. As far as healing and preparation goes, I think Skyward Sword did it damn near perfectly, and limiting the inventory and having you find a good time to heal yourself in gameplay would work wonders in balancing this more. This was a great discussion, and I gotta say Capt, your channel has been a beacon of light in the rough environment that has been the community discourse at times. It's been difficult to just have fun conversing about the game without a big argument breaking out, and videos like this are a great reminder that healthy discourse still very much exists around here. It does seem to be getting a lot better already, and I think the more the negative sentiment surrounding the game becomes normal, the more people will look back on it and be able to appreciate what's so good about it, like the unrivalled player expression, the epic regional quests, the solid depictions of its themes and the all-time great finale.

Great video, great discussion!

It's been hard to really put my finger on it, but i think my biggest con of TotK is the replayability. With BotW, i spent hundreds of hours exploring this new Hyrule, figuring out and speculating about the lore. In TotK, everything is virtually the same as it was before. Other than 2 areas, the Depths, and the Sky Islands, Hyrule was the same. I respect that they tried to change it up a bit with some caves, but it wasn't enough. It just doesn’t have that appeal to replay it The other one is the apparent lack of respect to the previous lore. With BotW, it seemed a good enough explanation that it was just set 10s of thousands of years into the future. With TotK, it feels like they threw all of that away

The whole skyloft discussion was something I rather have not heard. That would have been so cool and since SS is my favorite zelda these news hurt a lot.

I can't believe it's been a year ago today that TotK finally came out after waiting a few years and the last year of waiting was the hardest, especially the final few months of hype being built up.

the game has the balls to tell you the same story 4/5 times thats not a localization issue

Even with all the flaws man.... I just can't stop praising the game. It changed my life frl. Traveling up above the clouds, buying the game from Florida and back to my state, cosplay with Arachic Tunic and being in public with it too, it truly became heaven like. ❤❤❤ I do see the issue from the game and i accept that it is a great game. No perfect game but I had so much fun i had in a while in a game.

1:37:33 Wait, brain blast. That could have been such a good way to fix the nitpick I have with the in-universe explanation of how Link is seeing Zelda's memories. I get that she literally gave him the ability to RECALL what she went through, but it still felt a bit less natural than BOTW, where Link was unlocking something already in his head. It could have been interesting if going to the memory spots in TOTK actually made Mineru recover a missing memory instead, and then it could "play out" on the Purah pad screen for Link to watch, since Mineru's spirit was inhabiting the technology. She could have had a whole arc of basically being unable to remember who she was or what her purpose in the Purah Pad is at the start (negating the issue of her being too knowledgeable to be unlocked in the early game), but with each memory regained, she becomes more herself, and eventually finally remembers what happened to Zelda. That could have flowed a lot smoother and not left us with as flimsy of an excuse as to why Mineru couldn't speak to us until 3/4 of the way through the main story.

TotK was a game I loved, and then didn't. I took the Friday off, played it at 9pm Pacific Time, and loved the game for dozens of hours. The first ascent to the Wind Temple was amazing. Building and fusing felt great. Discovering the depths blew my mind. So it really sucks that at the end of it all, I felt like it overstayed its welcome. A major part of it definitely has to do with reusing the same map. The other part was my disppointment in how it didn't feel like it was trying to be a sequel. There were many characters and story moments that felt inconsistent. I feel like TotK would've been better if it was not a sequel, but an entirely different story with a different map.

Man I binged the game within 7 days start to finish and loved it. Can't bring myself to pick it back up, whenever I do I have to relearn all the controls.

Here's hoping we get a master mode including with a switch 2 version of Totk. It's the one thing i've wanted to enjoy a second playthrough.

Great video! While I'm not the biggest fan of TOTK, I did enjoy it. It was very interesting to see the differing perspectives on the game. I, like many, seem to have a more mixed but generally positive opinion of it. I feel like I will always hold BOTW a bit closer to my heart because it was the first one I played, though I imagine my opinion will go down a bit when I get around to playing BOTW after playing TOTK. TOTK does make a lot of improvements to BOTW's formula I feel. I feel like part of my mixed feelings towards TOTK that I didn't have as much with BOTW is that BOTW was the first time, so it had some leeway with stumbling about. It is slightly disappointing that six years later some of the same critiques I had for BOTW are present in TOTK. Shrines are still super short. Enemy variety is still kinda eh (it really needs more enemies and more regional enemy variety). The story is told through memories, again, but doesn't use the memory system as well as BOTW did. The story is hyper abridged, which works far worse for TOTK's story as it is trying to build characters and progress a story, which leaves both rather lackluster. (though with cool ideas) Temples still mostly feel like two or three shrines superglued together. (though the leadup to the temples themselves is a large improvement other than the copy pasted "come, come, to me" repeats) Also I was one of the people who was initially super invested in the story so I had the double whammy of watching the memories out of order, watching them too early, and as a result my story experience was far worse than BOTW (which is why I kind of like BOTW's story more). If I were to leave one piece of advice for my past self it would have been to not interact with the glyphs at all until after the Hyrule Castle fight. It kind of sucks to have really enjoyed and be invested in BOTW's story, then hear people say "well Zelda's never had good stories" or "It's called the Legend of Zelda, not the Legend of Link" when you mention that you didn't like TOTK's story or you thought BOTW/TOTK's story was far more interesting than the present day story.

heres a fun idea with the progressive master sword and keeping the light dragon scene: dont return the master sword to the player on the last step. send it back in time and prompt the player to seek the deku tree.

When I left the Great Sky Island it really reminded me of what I felt when I left Pandaria in WoW. I was there at the midnight launch. Same sequence of events: A dopamine hit followed by an immediate deflation once you leave. All the build up just to have to play through the entirety of WoW was a huge letdown for me.

I have a hard time separating ToTK with BoTW. I really didn't love BoTW similarly to how people feel about ToTK. In an odd way, it makes me feel pretty defensive of ToTK even though Im still not very fond of it either. I think the mentality of zelda is so BoTW focused and ToTK is just stuck in that muck. Im very much ready to be beyond this current era of zelda

RU-vid lets you stream longer than 12 hours, but doesn’t keep beyond the first 12 hours in the video recording

I think the lens in which TotK is critiqued is very unique among the other Zelda games in that it is a direct sequel with the most retentions. MM repurposed many assets from OoT to make a different world with the same Link, PH has different mechanics that came with the different console. But TotK? A sequel world, same gameplay, just years later. Which means that for many people, myself included, their experience will be shaped by its nature being a continuation of BotW. Many of my negative feelings of TotK’s attributes stem from the fact that it had already been done in BotW, where it was far fresher and novel. Coupled with the long wait time, and I tend to when comparing my experiences, BotW’s is more fondly remembered than TotK.

Wait, you can dive through Colgera? I was not aware. My arrow substitute was just carpet bombing bombs/chu jellies from above.

*reads video title* Oh? *sees video length* OH????

This would make totk the best: 1. Make at least sky 7 islands like the first islands. 2.get rid of the depths and make more intricate and detailed long rich caves. Imagine, tons of shiki gadgets under old roots and leaves, large fire torches, more water falls, quick sand, lava and more characters and goals in the caves.

In regards to what Pixel was saying about the Lomei Labyrinths, they are indeed castle ruins. ローメイ城跡 (Rōmei jōseki) ローメイ (Rōmei) = anagram of 迷路 (Meiro), the word of Maze 城跡 (Jōseki) = castle site; ruins of a castle the Kanji used is the same as in Hyrule Castle ハイラル城 (Hairaru-jō)

I was so hyped when Ganondorf's seal was broken, and he KNEW Link & Zelda. So I thought at first that this is Ocarina of Time Ganondorf. Imagine my disappointment when it was time travel shenanigans. >_> 😐

Another factor contributing to the story seeming better in different languages is the voice acting. The translation is ok, but its so much more interesting because of the voice acting being done passionately and with interest

Meanwhile in Florida, spring is long over and we are currently neck-deep in pre-summer.

I only ever get upset when I see people complaining with over the top or unfair complaints. Such as “it wasn’t perfectly what I dreamed it would be, so therefore it objectively sucks.” If people have solid reasons they didn’t like it, I find that fine. Everyone on this video, at least that I’m subbed to, has only offered the second kind of stuff. And most have, healthily, not focused only on TOTK once it became average or flawed.

imagine how people that dont like botw or totk feel took 6 years after ss for the next major zelda game to come out that being botw 6 years after that we get the double dip that is totk and it will likely be another 6 years before we get another ATTEMPT at a good main zelda game we did get great games between ss and botw with albws and tfh but then between botw and totk we got... age of calamity and cadence of hyrule not even secondary games like ablws and tfh

Honestly, what fascinates me the most about modern Zelda discourse is how a lot of the criticisms of Previous Games - criticisms that brought us to Wild and Tears in the first place - have been more and more glossed-over as those Previous Games' fans have grown up and entered the discussion as adults. (Which I say and mean in the most respectful way possible, mind you!) To put it another way, all the people who grew up with Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword and hype 'em up nowadays... they really, *really* don't understand just how damaging the attempts at storytelling are to the overall experience. The stories don't exist in a vacuum, and when you really look at the impact they have on their respective games, you start to realize how deep the cracks run. Like, I was in high school when TP came out and I enjoyed it, but after a while, it just fell out of my mind. Any time I thought about replaying it, I remembered how much of a slog the early-game is, and how much pointless filler there is between the actually fun/important bits. The annoying escort mission, being abruptly thrown into that horseback monster encounter, every Tears of Light segments. It took the release of the randomizer for me to finally replay it, over a decade since I'd last touched the game - and surprise surprise, when you choose the options to remove all of that filler, the moment-to-moment gameplay feels great. Controls are good, combat's smooth, exploration is nice (setting aside the fact that I got a mega-easy seed), etc etc. TP would genuinely be a much more appealing game if all that aforementioned filler had been trimmed. And when you consider that 90% of Midna's early screentime comes from the Tears of Light sections, that kinda exemplifies my point about the storytelling. I like Midna, she's a really great partner, but is building up a single character-arc really worth torpedoing the game's initial pacing? Are the later sections of the game really worth slogging through that early stuff? For a lot of people (including some friends of mine, one of whom never even made it to Lakebed), the answer is "no". Skyward Sword suffers even worse from that because it doesn't even have the benefit of good controls. I spent three hours playing SS way back when, and two of those hours were spent turning the game on and off, constantly adjusting the position of the sensor bar, because "please god I hope the controls feel functional this time". Add onto that the overabundance of cutscenes, reuse of a lot of areas, and the lack of cohesion to the overall game world, and it's not exactly hard to see why so many people took issue with it back in the day and still take issue with it now. (The fact that the game is still, like, a 7/10 speaks to how high-quality Zelda is as a franchise lol) I remember watching a lot of Lets Plays back in the day when I gave up on the game, and everyone's emotional journey was the same: excitement/optimism that was slowly worn down until by the end they were just happy that it was over. SS certainly has bright spots, of course, but they're... well, they're just that: bright spots. Bright spots in an otherwise messy, flawed game. The fact that the HD remasters (of both games) could only slap band-aids on their problems rather than fixing them outright speaks to how fundamental their problems are. A large part of why Wild/Tears succeed for me where those other games failed is because they have a far more cohesive and well-realized world to play the game in, which I think is a lot more important to Zelda than people give credit for. It's one of those things I've genuinely considered writing an essay or making a video about - which really says something, considering I haven't made a video in a zillion years. :U

Love the game. I have more hours in it than Botw. I’m not sure why, even though I agree the story is flawed and it was clunky at times, it was just as fun for me.

about the pausing look at it this way pausing for ITEMS in ocarina of time wasnt a problem because you had 3 item buttons that you could swap items to in ocarina of time pausing only became an issue when you needed to swap the BOOTS botw and totk doesnt have item buttons and has about 90% more armors and weapons to swap out just another example of nintendo actually fixing problems in their games and then making things worse in a sequel game albw did open world better then totk and botw oot3d fixed the pausing issue while botw and totk made it worse

Oh god yes PLEASE this game needed a favorites list. There were just so. many. things. in the inventory A favorites list for every sub inventory, even. A bow fuse favorites list and a weapon fuse favorites list and a main menu favorites list.

there's alot here that i can second. one opinion i have a different opinion one might be the ascend ability, i'm not a fan of it, even if the devs used it as a means to solve a certain issue, it felt like a lazy solution to implement into the game. and to begin with, Link obtaining these abilities from Raurus Arm feels weird to begin with, since we don't really see him use these abilities at all. we have Sonia able to Rewind Time, but iirc there's no explanation why this ability transfers over to Link. if we include the Sages Clones into the pot, we do receive pretty much one ability from every Stone-Holder, but again, no clear reason why Rauru and Sonias Skill are part of Link and the other 5 Sages need to be activated beforehand. furthermore, the purah pad clearly using shiekah technology when pretty much all of shiekah tech has been removed from TOTK for no apparent reason, adds to that. as for the dungeons, i feel a lack of Plot utility. We learn from a Past Memory that the surviving Ancient Sages want to provide support for the Hero Link, but that in itself still doesn't explain what, for instance, the Wind Temple is all about, what's the intent of it has been, and how it should have supported their respective race, or Link in the future. I'm also clueless about the functionality behind the Temples, and their control rooms, aka, boss rooms. How exactly would these help the Hero in the future in his Battle against the revived Ganondorf is something that i'm failing to understand, in stark contrast to the divine beasts who were machines made to provide firepower support to the Hero. i also would have liked the Water Temple to be either below in Lanayru's Great Spring, or Pristine Sanctum, instead of a place in the sky, since that hardly holds any connection to a Water Source for me. if that's truly the water source for the Zoras domain, or the whole of Hyrule even, shouldn't we have learnt about it to some extend in BOTW? lastly, the very early announcement of no dlc following for this game made me loose interest quite fast. even a pure mastser mode to add a reason to replay the game with new challenges has been gone. if it had not been for the 1 year anniversary causing videos to pop-up on my youtube suggestions, i, as well as many gamer friends of mine, would have totally been oblivious to the first birthday and we all share the opinion on how oddly it is to already have moved on from this game.

Some peoples obsession with canon, is becoming very much a detriment to gaming communities. I have my own headcanon regarding BOTW/TOTK, which ties all the games & maps together, despite their major differences, resulting in my enjoyment of all the LoZ media remaining solid. Basically the map for BOTW/TOTK is & was always the true representation of Hyrule with the rest of the games as LEGENDS or campfire tales. When people tell stories they embellish details e.g the ocean coastline area is the basis for WW & PH. Things like that besides the obvs. It also helps to explain why there has not been any real technological/societal advancement over thousands of years

TotK's world gives me a very strange and eerie feeling exploring it, but not in a way that feels intentional. It's like this version of Hyrule is almost the one I remember from BotW, but wrong in a bunch of strange ways. The Divine Beasts being gone with no one ever mentioning what happened to them or even reacting to their absence. Old characters not recognizing Link when I go up to talk to them, even when they really should know him. Some of the cave interiors just not matching up at all with what the exterior structure suggests (looking at you Akkala Citadel.) I was actually interested in the idea of revisiting the same Hyrule 5 years later and seeing how it had changed, and sometimes that was done well, but far too often the history established in BotW felt sidelined by whatever new thing TotK was doing. I felt like the game kept telling me to stop caring about the ancient Sheikah or the Divine Beasts because that was what the last game was about, it's Zonai time baybee! But I DO care about that stuff, and it's part of the 10,000 years of history that BotW is built on. Without that stuff it just feels a little more hollow to me.

23:35 I DID THE SAME THING!!!!! I’m STILLLLLL ANGRY about it!!!! Uuuugh!!

Haven't played totk since release, i stopped playing during the tutorial, cause something just wasnt clicking. Wasnt really sure why it was. Interesting to hear what other people have problems with in the game.

I have come here to be uncivil and eat apples, and I'm all out of apples!

In my opinion, TotK is like KH3, both games are fun to play, but they feel very underwhelming

Omfg your idea for the ms, ugh. That would've been amazing. :/

everyone craps on oot for being too easy because things like hearts and fairies are too easy to get whats the difference between carrying around a fairy along with a handful of potions vs botw link caring around a metric fuckton of edible materials? the difference is that botw enemies hit harder so you have to pause and eat a shit ton of stuff its not harder its more tedious then anything

I love tears of the kingdom and think it’s a great game but the only thing I had a problem with was the story. I think the story ideas of the zonai and Zelda going back in time and everything was great ideas but the way they presented it just wasn’t it. I feel like it would have been better if link and Zelda had gone back in time to relive those events and then the world would have been different enough being in the zonai iteration of hyrule. But other than that I absolutely loved the gameplay and music. I still say it’s a solid 8.5 9/10 game

OMG HORSE!!!

for me TOTK is the GOAT game idc idc, thank you 4 the content guys 😍😍

My take away from someone whose played the franchise for 30 years. Open world is great. It’s what Zelda fans always wanted and they should definitely keep it going forward..However botw/totk seemed to fail me in almost every other aspect. Despite what the developers believe Zelda is known for its story and dungeon design. Dungeons were non existent in my opinion. I get they wanted to try an open air dungeon concept but it just didn’t work. Never felt like I entered a dungeon. The abilities made any design irrelevant. No keys no puzzles no mid dungeon boss. Both games required only 5 switches to flip to fight the final boss which were marked on the map. Totk bosses were fine for a Zelda game but the dungeons themselves were in my opinion terrible. I know a lot of people will say the dungeon “build up.” But the build up isn’t the dungeon. And the build up for dungeons is for the most part in some degree in other Zelda games. They needed traditional style dungeons with the build up. They needed more dungeons. They needed different cutscenes upon completion. And traditional weapons within those dungeons. The story telling imo was atrocious both games were identical in yet another aspect. We need a present time story not memories. It worked better for botw but I still feel like Nintendo sold us short. Shrines are monotonous. Regardless of what they do. Why can’t we get fewer mini dungeons that are more in depth. Zelda has had some great mini dungeons that don’t seem like copy and paste. The side quest were un meaningful compared to side quests of previous games. I felt no connection to any npcs like I have before. There are many more examples. I just hope they find a way to merge both new and old. We do not want a linear world but we do need a linear story in a open world.

(also see Nintendo's community post)

this game does not feel like it came out a year ago. what the hell.

Bro honestly the Zelda fanbase has always had these reactions, I don’t think it’s gotten more toxic. Every 3D game gets its honeymoon phase until we notice its flaws, except OOT and MM where the online comm didn’t really exist yet. I mean, who here remembers the WW cartoon art style controversy?

Oh my

The sheika technology thing was solved. I'll explain, zelda goes back into the past knowing the future. She makes the tapestry of the future in botw that we see of the ancient hero. The sheika tech existed and was ancient because she brought the shieka slate to the past. Using that they made the shrines for botw link. The timeline Is a closed loop that fixes itself

Both sides have their little regurgitated talking points, but it's important to remember that disagreement isn't toxic, name-calling and threats are.

Can't believe it's already been a year! I remember counting the months and days after it was delayed in 2022. Even if it didn't quite live up to all my expectations, for me personally it was worth the wait. As of now, my second favorite Zelda game and second favorite game ever (behind OOT). Things I liked: Better and more unique dungeons and bosses, better abilities, excellent amount of creativity and freedom to approach problems/exploration, more things to see and do, a (in my opinion) good core story with some pretty great moments. Things I disliked: Not a ton of variety in the depths and sky islands, non-linear storytelling causes logic gaps, too many gimme shrines, weapon durability is still annoying, ending a bit too deus ex machina. Really cool and interesting discussion with lots of different and valid viewpoints. As someone who only got more ingrained in the Zelda community over the last few years, it's tough to say if I think the fandom is more divisive or not. I'm inclined to say yes just because of how different these games are than pre-BOTW and understandably, not everyone likes this direction. I also understand how Aonuma's comments, while not as incendiary as some have made them out to be, would frustrate those who don't like open-world Zelda. And while the community as a whole seems very nice, there is an unfortunate amount of folks who look down on those who like TOTK and vice-versa. Either you're not a real Zelda fan and someone who's never played the older games, or you're out of touch and blinded by nostalgia. More nuanced discussions like these are really nice to see because it's not a zero-sum situation.

what is he saying? they leaned all the way into the history, just not the history YOU wanted.

Did Jesse quit youtube?

My daughter turned 1 on the 12th :)

I think I’m like 80-85 positive bout the game. My biggest criticisms are that shrines are overall too simple or less creative than botw ( partly due to new abilities being too powerful). I expected to explore the land on the sky islands while it was more fun figuring out how to travel among them. Also, I desperately NEED more details bout the past, the vanished technology, the dragons and particularly The depths. Actually just replayed it a week before the anniversary and the game is just SO GOOD. Simply running and flying around made me like the world more and more. Glad I didn’t think a lot of criticisms mentioned in the vid were that significant otherwise I would enjoy it less haha.😂

im not gonna lie i can not disagree more with most zelda youtubers and commenters, like to a degree that i am shocked and in one of those "i can not even believe so many people hold opinions i think are this bad" type of situations.. i was butthurt and i mean really butthurt about no dlc but other than that i thought and still think this was the best zelda game ever made in almost every way and especially blows botw out of the water in every way, so much that i have had zero want to go back to botw at all. yea i mean i just dont get it, i very very heavily disagreed with bandits criticism of totk and was stunned to see the majority of the community i hang out in most of the time agrees with him. Also, i can agree to disagree on most things but when i get really annoyed is hearing from the subset of people that just played through the main story and are giving an opinion on it.. like i am sorry but if you arent someone who wants to go do all the side quests, get all the armor and upgrade it, collect everything you can, get super strong weapons with great fuses then this was never the game for you and i personally feel like its insane i have to say that. thats the only thing i am like line in the sand, not budging on. everything else, im just shocked they feel that way and thats about it. Don't get me wrong though i feel damn good and justified when looking up the critic scores and tears has 10s almost across the board so i really don't feel like I'm in the minority i actually feel the opposite(97 opencritic, 96 metacritic, 10 ign, 10 meristation, and so on), but it is a real shame to see the zelda youtube scene is like the one group that just didn't like this game for some reason. my theory is that people didn't want to accept botw was a very clear attempt at a "lore soft reboot" but i could be wrong just really seems like thats where most of their issues are coming from. I'm going to stop typing now i was just really shocked, annoyed by a bit of it, but mostly just shocked by the reactions in this and bandit's video. only small complaint i have about the actual video is i wish you wouldve had some (from the vast majority) that loved the game so they could push back on some of these opinions feel like the theory community might be becoming a bit of an echo chamber. Not that you didnt do a good job pushing back just feel like someone who loved the game wouldve really pushed hard on some of these things. Edit: Just heard that guy say he accepted the game was a soft reboot and was in the opposite camp because if it and now i feel more confident than ever in my theory. if there's anyone who hasn't accepted botw and totk were reboots gotta find acceptance for it eventually.

These are a lot my thoughts on the game a year later. Did all the shrines, got all the lightroots, got all the armor, all the memories. Coming back to the top and seeing all I wrote. I'm so sorry for anyone that sits through all of this. tl;dr: There is a lot of great stuff here but it's bog down by ambition in a way that I feel like they need someone outside of the team to come in and say "no, cut that out, you're spinning too many plates at once and you've already dropped some." After Breath of the Wild, I took the time to play through the entire series (minus the multiplayer Zeldas) and I came to the conclusion that the franchise needs an editor. They desperately need to have someone come in and tighten up the things you can do and the plot points because the Zelda team's instincts always seems to add more stuff to do or add another layer of complication to the plot to continuously build up stakes when the stakes were already sufficiently built up. Skyward Sword was the absolutely WORST with it's pacing but the franchise has had pacing issues since the very beginning (probably could have cut down on dungeons to save memory on the cart for other things like dialog and whatnot. I recognize that I only played the english version of these games so some of my issues could be a translation issue with the first game). The story also suffers from being half a good story and half a bad story. The stuff that Zelda has to go through makes you feel terrible for her but the people around her are fucking stupid as shit and choices just don't make any sense. Then you have the stuff with Link where you see more people than ever before and you feel like Hyrule is finally connected with itself and healing and then another disaster befalls the land but instead of isolating themselves like before they actively take part in the world and are trying to figure stuff out for themselves. Granted, they still are incompetent and need Link for everything (which is still a major problem with these games) but at least they're putting in effort. And the sage stuff is just so fucking messy but you can see some interesting meat on the bones there (Zelda franchise to the letter, amirite?). But some of the side quests in this game are some of the strongest in the franchise. Majora's Mask is the only game that had side quests that made you feel like what the main quest was doing was very important and the rest of the franchise kinda lacks that until TotK. The vehicle crafting stuff is perfection. I'm amazed still that the Switch can handle all the different combinations of things and not burst into flames. I also LOVE that they solved my core issues with the durability but in a way that I didn't ask for but really love. Fuse is so cool and really helps lean the player into whatever playstyle they want to adopt further for combat. I do think that the game suffers from having way too many fucking items and that's a problem from BotW as well. Armor upgrading is WORSE this time aorond because some drops are too rare. So even if you have a favorite set you use all the time, it can be hard to get the stuff you need for later upgrades. UI is inexcusable for me. I gave them leeway in BotW because you can tell they wanted to incorporate more tablet features into the UI but had to scrap it early when the choice was made to be on Switch as well as Wii U (they need to stop doing this with Zelda games. The game suffers with both instances of this happening). But now that TotK was soley on Switch, they could have done work to make it make more sense and prevent players from making mistakes like accidently throwing their weapon when they go into a quick menu, or add more sorting options or a favorites list or something. OR they could have allowed the players to fully customize their controls within the game which is a problem Nintendo has always had with all their games. Open world is also big but cluttered with stuff. I know Nintendo kinda doesn't want you to do it all but instead of keeping it like it was in BotW, numbers-wise, they added MORE shrines THEN added all the stuff in Depths and then extra stuff in the sky. It's honestly too much and I feel like it's approaching the problem that other open world games have had for decades where the extra bits you do don't ever feel meaningful enough to do it. And Nintendo, once again, doesn't want you to do it all so they give you a piece of shit for all those korok seeds you can get in the game. Music hasn't missed in the franchise since Zelda 2. And even in that game it had a killer dungeon theme. Speaking of dungeons, I did sort of like the newer dungeons vs the Divine Beasts from BotW. I do like the Gerudo one the most in the game and the others ones aren't AS good but also the act of getting to the dungeons are way better than than the lead ups to the Divine Beasts. You really do feel like you're working together with the secondary characters. In BotW, there was def an epic feeling to it as you dealt with the defense systems of the Divine Beasts but they kinda felt like "on-rails" moments. TotK does a better job hiding how linear your progression is, I felt. So, at the end of it all, I believe TotK is my favorite Zelda game still (I haven't replayed it so my feeling might change but I'm still not interested in going back right now, so that might say something about the game) but it does have some MAJOR shortcomings I can't overlook. You can also see how much this team has learned and there are some really strong character moments here. This is probably the strongest characterization of Zelda (the character) has ever seen in the franchise and you really do feel like you're in a Hyrule in recovery. But some GOD DAMN are the characters dumb as rocks, there is no one competent in this world UNLESS they're a main character and that's a shame with how much you feel like the people care this time around. I also hope they scale things back for the next game because I don't want a bigger Zelda game again, it's too much to handle for the team and for players.

My first Zelda was the OG on NES, but I wouldn’t consider myself a hardcore fan because I’ve skipped over some of the major titles that are fan favorites. Going into TOTK I wasn’t that hyped, I liked BOTW a lot, but I had the mindset that m’eh I’m kind of over this iteration of Zelda. At any rate I still got TOTK day one and it ended up being my favorite Zelda game of all time. To me it makes BOTW feel like a rough draft, and any complaints I have about it are very minor. I loved the storyline and it was the only Zelda game that actually made me care about the character of Zelda.

I can confirm that Spanish (Latin America) makes the narrative far more engaging. I bet it helps in other languages too, but it certainly does not improve the story. Listening to Zelda's conversations in the past will make you care waaaay more, but Ganondorf's role in the game is still underwhelming.

The game quality is undeniable, however it did not satisfy anything I wanted out of it. For me, I dislike it the most due to it hurting the legacy of Breath of the Wild. Since it is BoTW 1.5 it essentially makes it so there is no reason to play BotW over TotK mechanically. This is too bad to me because in my opinion BotW was better than TotK. Also, as a gamer who puts story above everything else, this did nothing for me. I wanted SO much more. I wanted a story on par with like Skyward Sword again. Got BotW 1.5 instead.

It's really hard for me to take seriously people that act like the story and lore of TOTK are massive step downs compared to previous Zelda games. It is pure nostalgia to be propping up OoT so much while putting TOTK down in terms of story and lore. I'm going to be honest, so much of the good "lore" of the older games is attributed to people as children using their imagination on low-poly textures. Which is GOOD. Works of art should inspire and enable people to think further than what's actually presented in the game. The problem with a lot of older fans though, is they don't want to use their imagination for the newer games. This can come down to them being older and just not wanting to put the time/effort into it. Which is fair enough. But then it becomes annoying when they spread online day and night how there's nothing to "ponder" about these new games, there's no "lore", it's all "soulless" etc. All because it's harder for them to experience the child-like whimsy and fantasy of their youth, when they had less problems in life and more time to devote to stuff like this. I guarantee you, something as simple as an empty room in the Depths is captivating the imaginations of children everywhere, and ten years from now when they grow up to become content creators, we're going to be showered with endless videos and discussion on all the cool things they theorized from the world of TOTK/BOTW, using the nuggets from the games as a springboard. That's how it's always been, and the cycle will repeat. And whatever Zelda game is coming out then will be trashed by those same content creators for failing to capture the "soul" of BOTW/TOTK, much like how "RU-vidr theorizers" of today just write off the entirety of TOTK because they don't want to put more effort in delving in-depth into it like they did with the games they grew up on.

The writing and more importantly, the localization in English is pretty much as bad as BotW. And BotW completely changed characterizations.

Personally, TotK was a disappointment. Not because it is bad, but because everything I like was stuff BotW already did, and everything I didn't like in BotW was either the same or a little more annoying. I genuinely didn't like the story, but that's the only thing I actively disliked.

TotK is the best Zelda ever made. It made the previous best Zelda (BotW) almost entirely unplayable.

Ok so I have a few things to say here. First yes the menu system totally sucks if you try to use everything you have available to you all the time. While I do think you should be able to do so comfortably, the game gets soooo much better if you do not. Examples of this would be picking one thing to fuse to your arrows before the fight starts and sticking to it until that fight ends. Same goes for healing. I treat healing as if it does have to happen in real time. So if I can’t beat the fight without healing I just die and try again. I think the idea of adjusting your play style to set your own difficulty is kinda what Nintendo was going for here and honestly it works for me. Next thing is the dungeons. I grew up on the original Zelda for the NES so what I really want from dungeons are basically underground mazes full of monsters. Dare I say a monster maze 😉 the only real puzzles in those dungeons were navigating the dungeon itself without getting killed. That being said my favorite “dungeons” in tears of the kingdom were the labyrinths and also just the depths themselves. To me the regional phenomenon quests were good story beats but not really dungeons. I’m good with those pretty much as they were for what they were. The only thing I would have enjoyed more would have been enemies in the labyrinths, and maybe some kind of tunnel/ room system in the depths with keys and locked doors n stuff. I love the open sandbox of both breath and tears. I haven’t put down TOTK since it came out and I’m still on my first play through. I completed the story months ago and honestly I don’t need relive it again. For me it’s just satisfying to exist in Hyrule and play the game “on hard” Make your own rules if it feels to easy. Thanks for all the Zelda content I truly do appreciate this community.

I feel a bit guilty of being drawn into arguments - even accidentally sparking them from time to time. Sometimes I'm very good at noticing and just stepping away, but sometimes I go a couple of rounds before I think - what am I doing here? Is there any positive point in going on like this? And when I do that, I usually just say to the person, look, let's agree to disagree, we're just annoying each other. Sometimes I have to block them if they insist on being mean, but I would rather have discussions over an echo chamber - even if I can get entrenched and stubborn. I really enjoyed this video - lots of good points in all respects and I like the voices, going to check out the channels for sure - very interested in seeing that mega stream of Twilight too! I unfollowed a couple of RU-vidrs not because they didn't think TotK pooped rainbows and butterflies, but because of the WAY they took against it. It was almost like they'd gone into it wanting to be disappointed. One of them even said that they weren't going to do TotK videos but then did a whole series of them. So I thought, I can't be doing with that nonsense, I'm already behind on my Zeltik. And I just bounced. Interestingly, I have a blazing beacon of disagreement with Zeltik - namely he thinks the Forgotten Temple is the Sealed Temple, and I think the Forgotten Temple is the Skyward Temple of Time. He's still my favourite Zelda RU-vidr, though.