The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - May 12th, 2023

[HanSolo]

I thought I was a genius

 

[HanSolo]

Need sleep but I could have played this non stop if fatigue wasn't a factor. My god I'm still not even done with the tutorial area and three new abilities unlocked the kind of sandbox freedom that has amounted to this most fun I've had with my switch in a long long time. It's not a major spoiler but I wanted to share an experience

Spoiler

so the dungeon where you unlock the ascend ability is up at the highest point of the sky island chain and...I don't know what the right way to get up there was since it's on top of a plateau with unscalable cliff faces in the freezing cold and I never saw the spicy peppers in the area to make cold resistance food. So I built four fires in strategic areas, chopped down every tree I could and made an 8 log "ladder" that I could prop up against the plateau to climb up to the top. Basically the game said "you can't climb here" and I said "f*** you, I'm climbing". And then, because there was another elevation you can't climb to get to a chest with cold resistance pants, I grabbed my makeshift ladder and used it again.

I really get the sense that in doing this, I might have missed something important but it was still me thinking outside the box to solve a problem and I had a blast doing it.

I do have one gripe though. When you're in ability mode, the game grinds to 12-14 FPS and its pretty ugly. It's not the end of the world for me but it would've been nice if they smoothed things out a bit.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Got it on my porch this afternoon. Going to start playing it tonight once my son falls asleep.

Managed to completely avoid spoilers for the past 2ish months aside from a single screenshot that didn’t show much, so I’m pumped to hopefully be surprised by a lot of things.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

I was stuck at a mechanic shop most of today. The game was delivered right before I got home. And then I had to make dinner. Now I'm spending time with the GF. I won't get to play it til tomorrow. JEEZ how terrible.

JK.

Though I am jealous of those who got to play today.

 

[Blitzkrug]

This game is enormous.

Hyrule is around the same size as it was in the first game. The underground is god damn huge although i haven't found much of note down there yet.

And then there's more stuff in the sky beyond the tutorial area.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Just played from about 8:30 pm to 2:50 am without even really realizing it. Oh yeah, this is going to be a dangerously fun time sink. Also damn glad I kept my eyes away from promo material and leaks the past few months. Only scratched a tiny area and uncovering surprises left and right.

 

[Speyer]

I snatched an early copy because an employee of my local electronics store put up the game for sale to soon. Unfortunately I am a bit disappointed. For a game that was in development for over 6 years, I feel like Nintendo did only the bare minimum to address the flaws of the first part. There are still way to few dungeons and in terms of quality they still don't compare to those of most of the earlier games in the series. Enemy variety is also pretty much a joke for an open world title this size. The overworld also still feels very empty. There is not that much to do besides shrines and collecting korrok seeds. And I already did that in 2017. The game succeeds in some other areas but I don't think all those perfect score reviews have it completely right.

 

[Andrei79]

This is so good. Wanted more BotW but they added so many features and things to explore.

 

[tacogeoff]

Do you need to play the first one to play the new one? or is it a completely different story?

 

[Speyer]

Do you need to play the first one to play the new one? or is it a completely different story?

No. Maybe you could look at a story recap of the first one on youtube. I think you would get much more out of part two, if you have never played the original one since a large part of the map is almost the same anyway. I would expect a lot of redundancy if you intend to play both titles back to back.

 

[tacogeoff]

No. Maybe you could look at a story recap of the first one on youtube. I think you would get much more out of part two, if you have never played the original one since a large part of the map is almost the same anyway. I would expect a lot of redundancy if you intend to play both titles back to back.

nice. i was kind of worried about playing them back to back for that point exactly. thanks for the reply.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Some of the stuff I'm seeing on Reddit is ridiculous.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Some of the stuff I'm seeing on Reddit is ridiculous.

Explain please

 

[Emperoreddy]

Explain please

People are building some crazy stuff

 

[The Crypto Guy]

People are building some crazy stuff

Ohhh, thought he meant they were bashing the game.

 

[Blitzkrug]

love the difference in creative expression;

People on reddit; let me build an automated cannon that destroy my enemies

me: look at how smart i am attaching this shitty piece of wood to a fan and riding it across the river

 

[Emperoreddy]

Ohhh, thought he meant they were bashing the game.

Oh there is that too. Mostly truezelda that can't stop whining this isn't Twilight Princess 2

 

[JimmyApples]

Easily the most creative game I’ve ever played - there’s a hundred ways to do everything and none is wrong.

I loved the BotW story. I’m not far enough into the game to compare the two yet.

This definitely feels like BotW 2.0. Definitely some improvements, but also feels like I’m playing the same game which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

 

[SuperScript29]

Do you need to play the first one to play the new one? or is it a completely different story?

You don't really need to play the previous game. Games like this are more about the gameplay and less about the story.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

I'm having a difficult time not playing this during work hours.

 

[Emperoreddy]

This game is absurdly big

 

[HanSolo]

This game is absurdly big

Yeah I've hardly touched any of the starting quests once I got off the initial sky island. Just been mapping the surface and depths as much as I can and it's kind of overwhelming how big this map is taking all of it together.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I haven't really left Hyrule Field yet. I did a bunch of shrines, opened up the tower in the south of the field, used that to explore a new group of sky islands where I found another shrine, an interesting puzzle boss, and some cool items (also finally found rockets), including one that I'm not sure what it does.

Also did a couple side quests, cleared some forts, and visited the depths which is equally huge.

I'm only now heading towards the the first stable on the way towards the Rito.

I need to find Hestu too.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

I think I finished the Rito main story quest late last night. But who knows, maybe I'll have to return. I suck at combat, so when I'm going from point A to point B, I stay on the outskirts and avoid most enemies. Though I did come across a fort that had an enemy in full armor -- and got lucky.

Things I haven't done that were mentioned above: find Hestu, go to the depths, explore Hyrule field.

I am significantly more invested in this story than BOTW's. Some time ago I made a prediction as to what's going on (even before TOTK had a name) and it's looking like I may be correct. Gotta go collect those tears and do the main quests ASAP so I don't get it spoiled.

 

[Gardner McKay]

This game is absurdly big

I think that was to be expected. Being able to reuse a lot of the assets from the first game allowed them to develop the game in a different way. I don't think it is a bad thing either. I wish more games created future titles that built off an initial game so they don't spend so much time on world creation and more time on story and creating an immersive experience.