Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Thread

Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
Legacy
Jul 18, 2009
19,570
4,374
118
I finished my second temple - the goron/fire one - and while the whole thing was designed for me to path myself across minecart rails I pretty much climbed my way through about 80% of it without using the rails at all. On the one hand it's neat that this is just possible, but on the other I feel like this temple wasn't designed very well for me to just circumvent it like that.

Also, while I enjoyed the post-Boss scene between Tulin and the Sage in my first temple, the one between Yunobo and the Sage in my second temple was virtually the same exact cutscene, which retroactively makes the first one less interesting. I'm assuming Nintendo did this because you can get to the temples in any order you want, so in order to not confuse anyone each of these cutscenes needs to virtually be indentical. But it robs these moments of any identity now. I'm guessing the final two will just be the same scene with the Sage showing the A.I. companion what happened with Ganon in the exact same way. Which makes my motivation for completing them not too high now.

And a similar issue BotW had is that Ganon is a non-presence. He's an actual villainous character now, but we only get to see him in flashback cutscenes.
 

Kyrian007

Nemo saltat sobrius
Legacy
Mar 9, 2010
2,564
647
118
Kansas
Country
U.S.A.
Gender
Male
I finished my second temple - the goron/fire one - and while the whole thing was designed for me to path myself across minecart rails I pretty much climbed my way through about 80% of it without using the rails at all. On the one hand it's neat that this is just possible, but on the other I feel like this temple wasn't designed very well for me to just circumvent it like that.

Also, while I enjoyed the post-Boss scene between Tulin and the Sage in my first temple, the one between Yunobo and the Sage in my second temple was virtually the same exact cutscene, which retroactively makes the first one less interesting. I'm assuming Nintendo did this because you can get to the temples in any order you want, so in order to not confuse anyone each of these cutscenes needs to virtually be indentical. But it robs these moments of any identity now. I'm guessing the final two will just be the same scene with the Sage showing the A.I. companion what happened with Ganon in the exact same way. Which makes my motivation for completing them not too high now.

And a similar issue BotW had is that Ganon is a non-presence. He's an actual villainous character now, but we only get to see him in flashback cutscenes.
I am looking forward to that temple. Working on my backwards shieldsurf rail-slide/fan shield combo
 

Samtemdo8

Elite Member
Legacy
Apr 25, 2020
1,501
608
118
Country
Private
My honest review of this game

Ultimately the same kind of game as BOTW, stronger narrative/villain.
But gameplay wise I feel its less "streamlined" compared to BOTW
Back then I had Bomb Arrows
Now I have to attach Bomb Flowers onto my arrows
Requiring me to pause the game each arrow shot
And a lot of things like that exists in the gameplay
Like now there's a step to get through with things you want
No flame/frost/lightning weapons?
You make it now with body parts of monsters that has fire, ice, lighting properties

It just feels like to do and get things has a bit of a tediousness to it, like an extra step I have to do that I didn't have to in the first game.

I will say that the finale of this game is GOTY alone
 

sXeth

Elite Member
Legacy
Nov 15, 2012
3,301
675
118
My honest review of this game

Ultimately the same kind of game as BOTW, stronger narrative/villain.
But gameplay wise I feel its less "streamlined" compared to BOTW
Back then I had Bomb Arrows
Now I have to attach Bomb Flowers onto my arrows
Requiring me to pause the game each arrow shot
And a lot of things like that exists in the gameplay
Like now there's a step to get through with things you want
No flame/frost/lightning weapons?
You make it now with body parts of monsters that has fire, ice, lighting properties

It just feels like to do and get things has a bit of a tediousness to it, like an extra step I have to do that I didn't have to in the first game.

I will say that the finale of this game is GOTY alone
I'd also rather solve the same recycled "spot the difference" puzzle then build the same identical car I've built 80 times already to get a Korok Seed. At least the first takes like two seconds.


But yeah, my takeaway is that maybe Nintendo could make a decent Trailmakers/Scrap Mechnic clone, but it feels weighed down by the Zelda looked at that way. And the Zelda half (third? quarter?) feels like its obnoxiously slow paced and disjointed by all the wannabe survival/engineering game thrown alll over.

Its not so much they took out the more designed dungeons and metroidvania (which might as easily be called Zelda-like) elements classic to the series. Its that they replaced it with doing 900 repeating tasks ad infinitum.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

hanselthecaretaker

My flask is half full
Legacy
Nov 18, 2010
8,738
5,905
118
It’s almost like they took the criticisms of weapon durability and said, “Ok how can we take people’s minds off this but still keep it in the game?”
 
Last edited:

wings012

Elite Member
Legacy
Jan 7, 2011
853
305
68
Country
Malaysia
I don't own a Nintendo console so I haven't been keeping track of things, but looks like Tears of the Kingdom is basically open world Besieged now?
 

Kyrian007

Nemo saltat sobrius
Legacy
Mar 9, 2010
2,564
647
118
Kansas
Country
U.S.A.
Gender
Male
My honest review of this game

Ultimately the same kind of game as BOTW, stronger narrative/villain.
But gameplay wise I feel its less "streamlined" compared to BOTW
Back then I had Bomb Arrows
Now I have to attach Bomb Flowers onto my arrows
Requiring me to pause the game each arrow shot
And a lot of things like that exists in the gameplay
Like now there's a step to get through with things you want
No flame/frost/lightning weapons?
You make it now with body parts of monsters that has fire, ice, lighting properties

It just feels like to do and get things has a bit of a tediousness to it, like an extra step I have to do that I didn't have to in the first game.

I will say that the finale of this game is GOTY alone
Often times making a system more customizable and functional adds a bit of tediousness. Yeah, you have to pause to attach a bomb flower to an arrow now. But now there's about 10x the amount of things that can be combined with an arrow. I'm particularly enjoying the muddle bud. One takes out an entire group of enemies, leaving only one weakened tough one... provided you hit that one with the arrow.

And making the weapons, yeah it adds an extra step. The benefit is, more customization. In BotW, if I needed a shock weapon and wasn't carrying one... I was screwed. Now, carry the right random junk and you can make whatever junk you pick up any kind of weapon you need. Not carrying an axe and need to cut down a tree? Just fuse a stick to a sharp rock. Mining and don't have a hammer? A cheap sword and a rock does the trick just fine. Need it to be a sword again, no problem.

Yeah, TotK added a step here and there. But it entirely removed "not being prepared for whatever given situation" from the equation.

Which is good, but brushes up against my biggest criticism. It's a little too easy. The first time I accidentally encountered a Frox in the depths... I killed it. That should have been like the first time encountering a boss monster in BotW, run away or get stomped on. I did run from the first Gleeok I encountered. But I hadn't yet gotten any flame retardant gear, and just standing there I was taking damage. But I did have cold resistant gear. So the first time I encountered a frost Gleeok... it nearly got me but I took it down. It is just a little too easy to break the difficulty curve of TotK.
 

XsjadoBlayde

~it ends here~
Apr 29, 2020
3,216
3,354
118

Who doesn't like cheap, quick n easy mobility air-scooters? Tho seeing screenshots of people with like hundreds of energy bars (rounded up to the nearest hundred) really hits home how goddamn slow I am at progress in this game, with still the measly default 3 dangling impotently betwixt me easily-distracted person.

1685451490547.png

A design for an airbike in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has become hugely popular for its simplicity and ease of use.

Traversing the vast space of Hyrule (and the Depths) can be a bit of a slog on foot or horse, but one vehicle has easily solved this problem.

The airbike, as demonstrated by YouTuber Uncle Dane, only requires two fans and one steering stick, which can be easily gotten from Zonai Device Dispensers or found scattered about.

Uncle Dane shows how to build to the airbike with Ultrahand, and the angles can be a bit fiddly. Lay one fan down so the blade side is on the ground (so the fan would propel itself itwards if turned on). Position the steering stick in between you and the fan, face it towards you and then angle it 45 degrees upwards. You then need to glue the steering stick to the fan as centrally as possible, and at the top of the outer rim. One glued on, it should stand up by itself and not be tilting to one side. Stick the second fan to the front of the steering stick so that it's facing downwards like the first one. Then Bob's your uncle! Or Dane, I suppose.


The finished airbike as viewed from the side.

It might take a while to create the airbike correctly, but once you've done so you can easily recreate it from the history of Autobuild. The airbike flies straight and doesn't need a ramp to propel itself upwards. It steers very well too, meaning it's a great tool to get yourself somewhere quick. It only needs three components, so it'll cost you a cheap nine zonaite to create with Autobuild if there's no fans or steering sticks nearby.

After that, you'll probably want to increase your batteries so you can travel long distances. I'm going to make one of these when I play later today. Sorry Tulin, you've been superseded by the airbike.

If you're into tinkering with bigger vehicles, one Redditor has discovered you can use a Zonai portable pot as a ball and socket joint, which makes driving over rocky terrain much smoother. For more engineering inspiration, there's a fan-made Zelda DIY site dedicated to sharing builds.
The video conspicuously absent from article;
 

Eacaraxe

Elite Member
Legacy
May 28, 2020
1,592
1,233
118
Country
United States
It’s almost like they took the criticisms of weapon durability and said, “Ok how can we takes peoples minds off this but still keep it in the game?”
To me, it feels like the hardest core, most elaborate, troll in gaming history.

"Oh, they didn't like weapon durability? Fine, not only are we keeping it but we're giving weapons even less durability, and elevate it to the point of a core game mechanic and major plot point. And, we're getting rid of infinite, on-demand, bombs. But we'll make weapons repairable, fusions hilariously overpowered, and give the player the ability to build weaponized Zonai devices to the point they never actually need to swing a weapon in the first place."

Endgame Link honest-to-god feels like the most overpowered video game protagonist I've played since Morrowind. Excuse me while I go literally one-shot another silver lynel. If you know, you know.
 

Kyrian007

Nemo saltat sobrius
Legacy
Mar 9, 2010
2,564
647
118
Kansas
Country
U.S.A.
Gender
Male
I had been entirely avoiding watching any youtube videos or reading any articles related to TotK. But I've been through enough of the game that I lifted that to just avoiding story spoilers. And was totally blindsided by one feature some people have been really taking for granted. One of the big (and few) disappointments, is the lack of continuity between TotK and Breath of the Wild. I bought a HOUSE in BotW, and apparently off-screen gave it away and it isn't mine anymore. Basically everything is like this, nothing you did or had in BotW has any effect on TotK. As far as I was concerned, this was a huge missed opportunity.

And then I watched a video of someone showing off some ultrahand builds... and they made a random comment that seemed to imply that all the horses from their stable in BotW, were all back and available in TotK. Which is ridiculous, right? Well, they probably got a reviewer copy and it still had a feature that they left out of the actual release or something like that. Nobody else got to keep all their horses... right?

Welp, looked it up. Nope, mine just glitched and locked that out. Just about everyone else got their horses back, it just never happened for me. And apparently the fix is... delete all TotK saves and start over. Which of course, I'd never do just for some silly horses...

Actually. Yeah, I will do that eventually. Not because I care about the horses. But because once I finish TotK, I'll want to play it again anyway.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan