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

[Xno Kappa]

Just going to quote myself on an earlier post because at this point there’s really nothing else that needs to be said about BotW.

Not sure this is an unpopular opinion.

The game fucking sucks ass lmao. The world is empty as hell, the four shrine dungeons are piss easy, the bosses are all forgettable, the story almost non-existent, rudimentary combat, piss poor enemy/weapon variety, and zero endgame besides killing Lynel reskin #32. Nintendrones will also do the craziest mental gymnastics defending that atrocious durability system.

The barebones mechanic of the world and traveling is dope as hell, but other than that I found it shallow and pedantic.

A game by any other name would’ve been bargain bin fodder within weeks after release.

The sequel is a 100% no from me unless they address these glaring issues.

[Koyangi]

I don't want "full dungeons" if its going to go back to the old, boring Zelda trope of "shoot the big thing in the eye 3 times."

I'd like to see some interesting bosses in those dungeons if they're going to bring them back in the old school fashion. Fuck, go all Zelda 2 on me and give me badass duels or something. Just not another fucking Skyward Sword cycle of "traverse dungeon >> find item >> use said item on the boss to render it weak >> shoot it in the eye 3 fucking times >> a winrar is you!"

Twilight Princess had some very fun, interesting, and unique boss fights. Under-rated game overall imo.

[Andalusian girls]

But yah, other than that my only big complaint was the story. if I can play armchair dev, BOTW really should have taken place during the Great War and this sequel shoulda been what we have as BOTW now. First game being Building relationships with the other heroes, getting to know them, fighting with them, you know, creating emotional attachments to them as allies and friends through a full game of experiences, and ultimately failing and having to watch them die and (possibly) ending the game with your failure to beat Ganon and being thrown in the Recover-Goo would have made the payoff of your revival and defeat of Ganon all that more emotionally satisfying and rewarding, even if bittersweet. But thats not for everyone I guess and just a personal complaint, felt like the Flashback cutscenes we got of the War era were a far far more interesting game idea than what we were playing.

i was mixed on the story. i don't think a big war narrative would work well with Zelda's tone, and thought the central conceit of Link starting out dead + recovering memories of what happened to his friends and to Zelda and what occurred during the war was great, and fit with the post-apocalyptic, minimalist, desolation aesthetic perfectly.

BUT

the actual narrative was i n c r e d i b l y barebones. i just recently replayed Ocarina of Time and it managed a BotW-style post-apocalypse world while also having an actual plot. hopefully 2 will manage something more than hey you're alive go to the castle and save Zelda.

Just going to quote myself on an earlier post because at this point there’s really nothing else that needs to be said about BotW.

The sequel is a 100% no from me unless they address these glaring issues.

i don't disagree re Nintendardos stanning 10/10 for a game with obvious flaws, but reckon BotW also suffered from being a Zelda game. aaaa lottttttt of complaints come from series regulars who hated that it was such a dramatic departure from the Zelda formula. if the exact same game was released and titled as Genshin Impact it would've A) not sold nearly as many copies but also B) not received nearly as much hate from fans who wanted the traditional experience. main issue for them seemed to be it wasn't "real Zelda".

[Karbuncle]

i was mixed on the story. i don't think a big war narrative would work well with Zelda's tone, and thought the central conceit of Link starting out dead + recovering memories of what happened to his friends and to Zelda and what occurred during the war was great, and fit with the post-apocalyptic, minimalist, desolation aesthetic perfectly.

(Read it all just truncating the part im responding to)

While I don't agree that a War-like setting couldn't work in Zelda, I do admit for the Zelda formula, even an open world one, it would require some real elbow grease to make work, much more than I have on hand for a short and quick reply lol. That said, I do agree that the kind of story we got could have been done well, written intriguingly enough, and the pay-off could have been marvelous, its a shame it wasn't really (subjectively, for me) and it felt like Story bits were thrown in as a very late after thought or were given like, no budget at all or something. While narrative hasn't been Zelda's strongest aspect, and I don't expect much, I also hope that they kind of bring their A-game to it in Part 2.

[Kachiko]

Big dungeons don't mean boring boss fights....I can't even...

[Souj]

So was the reveal trailer darker in tone than intended or did Nintendo get cold feet and tell the devs to lighten it up?

[Lucavi]

Big dungeons don't mean boring boss fights....I can't even...

They have in the more recent Zeldas titles. Skyward Sword bosses were a snooze-fest and a chore. Twilight Princess was alright, though.

[Anoat]

BOTW expansion pass is on sale for an all time low on the Nintendo e-shop for $14 if anyone wants it

[Mayareira]

Content-wise, is there anything worthwhile in the expansion pass? Or is it just weapons/armor and similar additions?

[Mythe_Seraph]

The three part master sword quest line with final boss fight that was harder than Gannon. It was the most challenging content in the game but challenge is a bit of a stretch in describing it.

[Xno Kappa]

They have in the more recent Zeldas titles. Skyward Sword bosses were a snooze-fest and a chore. Twilight Princess was alright, though.

Twilight Princess had some of the most memorable boss fights in the entire franchise.

[Koyangi]

Twilight Princess had some of the most memorable boss fights in the entire franchise.

Twilight Princess had some very fun, interesting, and unique boss fights. Under-rated game overall imo.

[Guitarman]

Yeah i've got a lot of love for TP. I got excited when i heard that rumor that Gamestop had promotional material listing TP HD, Ocarina HD and Windwaker HD, but obviously nothings come of it yet. Sigh, someday. Though, thinking about it, I doubt we'll ever get more TP because of Miyamoto.

[Qalbert]

It's possible I heard a different rumor, but the one I saw was a huuuuuge reach. something about Gamestop releasing a new Zelda themed poster featuring artwork from those games and people went "SEE THIS IS PROOF WE ARE GETTING HD ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION"

[Gredival]

The weapon durability would also have been a lot more tolerable if the special weapons linked to the four champions worked like the Master Sword and were free/automatic repairs after a cooldown.

I also agree with AG that the whole flashbacks and re-learning the past was executed really well, but the "optional"-ness of all of that if you just went to fight Ganon right after getting off the plateau made it really weird. Like great execution on a flawed yet original idea.

The dungeons themselves were meh and the Ganon blight fights were forgettable, but the fights to get into the Divine Beast dungeons were great and original.

The shrines were supposed to be a substitute for the low number of dungeons and the shortness of the dungeons, but having to run around the entire world to find random shrines and then run through them was irritating.

[Kirin]

No reason for Nintendo to announce any other remaster or remake collection with SS weeks away. Let's see what happens with the fall direct first. I am taking Aonuma at literal face value when he said no "NEW" Zelda games for 2021, removing the possibility of a 2D entry this year and targeting TP/WW/Whatever for fall 2021 or Jan 2022 with BotW2 Fall/Holiday 2022.

[Qalbert]

Oh I'm not saying it's definitely NOT happening, just that "a poster referenced multiple games confirms HD collection" seemed like quite a leap

[Hitou]

I have a feeling we'll see a 3D Zelda collection like Mario last year. Especially since they did the Game and Watch just like Mario. The collection wasn't announced until late in the year not long before it was released, so the same thing might happen again. As other have said they want the focus to be on Skyward Sword HD first. Seems more likely than just porting the HD versions of WW and TP since those used the touch screen a lot. I can see them having a barebones 64 version of OoT, either the game cube or an altered HD version of WW and TP. I hope they wouldn't use the Wii version cause waggling the sword sucked. And then not Majora's Mask to piss off the same people that hoped for Galaxy 2.

[KuroTsuki]

Delayed to Spring 2023.

Curious if Elden Ring has anything to do with that.

[Andalusian girls]

was never coming this year