Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Spoiler free discussion)

Yeah…. You better just do it…. :wink:

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My daughter is mostly about taming all kinds of horses. She also finds out glitches to lead her horse into deep water and stuff. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Very mild spoiler – I found it neat that the horse I registered in my previous BotW savestate was still registered now in TotK :relieved:

Really like it so far! Hopefully the difficulty of the monsters doesn‘t diminish so wuickly after a few hours of gameplay like it does in BotW

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Man my kid keeps hogging the Switch, and i cant get any serious length of time in. . For those who have said that they didnt really like BOTW, for me it didn’t initially click, and the controls and design choices were a little bothersome. However at about 3-4 hours something clicked and I vividly remember saying a loud to myself, while alone, this is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played. I’ve only done that for 3 games. BotW, Elden Ring, and Red Dead Redemption 2 (although all GTAs and RD1 I totally felt the same way and those also rank high in all time list). So I hope those who didn’t get pulled into BotW, will experience that same “click”. Maybe it just takes a little longer for some.

Come to think of it I also had that reaction to Metal Gear, Golden Eye, and the first Zelda on N64.

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Much like a good novel

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It‘s great to hear all of you who have kids share their experiences with the game. It makes me really happy that this extremely complex game seems to connect with children as well. Leave it to Nintendo to make a giant open world game that kids can enjoy as well on their own terms. The building elements sure helped a lot with that, smart move I‘d say.

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Hahaha ! It was so long time ago :sweat_smile: So I guess it was Ocarina of Time (my favorite) !
Thanks for the reminder :content:

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Ocarina of Time was SO amazing! I remember playing that as a kid, getting to the Temple of Time after the three stones, thinking i was going into the end game only to find out the game was just getting started.

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It was pure genius indeed !

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That was amazing, and you just reminded me all about that! Plus, getting the horse was one of the coolest moments in my life up to that point. Well that and seeing that the grenades in Golden Eye left smoke behind. I insta bought an N64 after playing it at Toys R US for 3 minutes. The car would have to wait!

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If it worked this way, you’d have to have a way to deselect it the you weren’t doing multiple actions.

Went to

location

Kakariko

tonight, so good.

The rose coloured goggles still haven’t worn off. I seriously love smashing rocks in this one - feels like I’m back to the old link to the past days.

It’s one thing they’ve really nailed here: secrets - it’s what Zelda is all about. In BOTW almost every curiosity was met with one thing - a Korok. Now they’re just one thing in a mix of so much else.

I can’t believe every turn you make there’s something else begging for your attention. That Zelda team must have really worked their asses off. It’s mind bending how big and stuffed full this thing is. And sometimes I look at the map and I’ve gone nowhere, but because you’re playing in multiple dimensions it takes longer to cover.

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It really is. I started going northwest to do a quest. I spent three hours getting to my destination because I keep getting sidetracked by cool things. I must say that I’m not finding as many Koroks as I expected - I must be really bad at finding them compared to BotW.

Came in without crazy expectations - absolutely blown away. It surpasses BotW in many different areas several times over. I would say I run through games pretty quickly as a completionist; the world here is massive. Haven’t started the main story yet and I am on day 4 of nothing but exploration. Have about 50 hours in so far I think.

I think this game is equal parts more difficult and more rewarding for people who know how to do something really well. Biggest thought of mind I have while playing, is that compared to BotW, where there were lots of moments where I said to myself “It’s over? I wanted more of this” this gives that “more” and delivers so far ahead.

Also in the context of Zelda as a series, I think this matures the formula like no other. It’s funny, because when I was playing BotW I thought it’s going to be hard to go back to traditional Zelda, now it would be hard to go back to BotW. I don’t know how they do it but kudos to the developers for continuously raising the bar. So unbelievably fresh.

TotK feels to me like a Zelda remix. Feels like Master Quest to vanilla Ocarina of Time also in many ways.

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Personally speaking, the exploration is in a grey area to me.

Yeah, the constant getting distracted by things to explore is a fun moment.

On the other hand, there are countless moments where you’re juggling the stamina bar wandering around large empty spaces- those moments feel boring and tedious. ESPECIALLY the frigid tundras(i REALLY hate that score- the scenery and the music feels lifeless and monotonous. I absolutely hate that area :grinning:)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the world feels a smidgen too big. If it could have been reduced 10-15%, personally speaking, I think that would balance the necessary wandering and adventurous exploration.

I don’t like the area itself, but I absolutely love the music.

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I don’t like feeling lonely when I’m alone :disappointed_relieved:

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It’s great how the primary control scheme is unchanged from BOTW.

I played the first two shrines worth of TOTK on my own, and then the next day, I hung out with my 12 year old while he got the game started.
We both played botw.

Starting out in TOTK, Link finally meets an enemy that’s noticeably a little harder than anything we’ve seen so far.

I took cover and pecked at the thing with arrows until it died. (After it killed me once when I went at it head on).

When my son, who has not touched botw in months met this enemy, he expertly charged in head on and took the think out with a “flurry rush?” In like 3 seconds… kids are amazing.
I’m having to purge borderlands controls from my brain I keep hitting the wrong button for jump, and pressing down on the left stick to run.

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I’m having a stressful couple of days, up hopping between floating ruins to climb up into a sky area—I’m being vague on names to avoid spoilers.

It’s a mixture of relentless snow, and the fear of falling off and losing hours of progress. Yet still I’m enjoying it. I’ll be happy when I make it to wherever the hell I’m supposed to be going so I can get back to a sunnier spot and do some shield surfing.

Have Fuse now and moved further along Sky Island then. Mild spoilers for this tutorial area ahead.

Summary

I feel a bit overwhelmed by what the game is throwing at me with three completely new powers so far and then a lot of Zonai device stuff and mechanics on top of that. It’s a bit hard to keep track of all of it. I guess once I‘m in the normal game I‘m glad I have all the tools at my disposal to have the free roaming experience I loved so much in BOTW. But there were moments where I wished they came up with some solution for giving me stuff at bigger intervals.

The caves and the glowing monsters in them already feel like something quite new. Totally different vibes from BOTW. Interesting music in the caves as well. Even gives me slight Metroid vibes. The shrines also feel a bit more Zelda-y already, though I can’t say why exactly that is.

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