A Big, Long Zelda Rant

[@BanditGames]

Sorry for the rambling... I hope something made sense in this video! Are you still playing Tears of the Kingdom?

[@Burger385]

Hi

[@IMAidenWaters]

Ben a while mnb

[@Yamooski7]

Kind of, the map gets pretty boring tbh

[@xandoryuu555]

Yeah boy!

[@Yamooski7]

You mentioned that in a recent vid right?

[@sophitiaofhyrule]

BotW: Link has amnesia TotK: Everyone has amnesia except for Link

[@someuser9168]

Best summary of the game

[@Michael-zl9de]

Couldn't agree more

[@StuCheeks]

Let's just say TOTK is Link's dream while he's in his 100 year sleep in BOTW.

[@nabilian2145]

@@StuCheekscan’t be anything other than this

[@BlackHand531]

The characters that you have to meet in the game remember you. The only thing that's weird is the lack of shika tower explanations.

[@mothra6652]

It's ironic how the great sky island is one of the biggest sky islands while the great plateau was the smallest region in breath of the wild

[@nabilian2145]

The biggest sky island is equivalent to the smallest place on the map basically

[@andimari9194]

Yeah I’m honestly shocked there’s no other sky islands that large. Tho I guess you could say the dungeons count

[@nabilian2145]

@@andimari9194 the dungeons are boring

[@NicTube]

@@andimari9194 Well, the only thing you could also consider for that would be the lightning islands above Faron Woods. But still, two of them is a veeeery small amount

[@ShadowWizard224]

@@nabilian2145 The Lightning Temple was cool and the buildup for the Wind Temple was great.

[@tylercuperus288]

What I love about a link between worlds is that you can do all the dungeons in your own order but the story is linear and great but you are given so much freedom

[@Gump1405]

Future 3D zelda games should just be a link between worlds in 3D. It balances the traditional Zelda and more opened Zelda perfectly without sacrificing the dungeons, items and story.

[@Diogo_7237]

Exactly what I was thinking you can make a non linear Zelda game with a linear story.

[@Gump1405]

@@Diogo_7237 yeah and classic dungeons too. Some of the shrines even have small keys why they don't use them in dungeons is a mystery to me. Items like the hookshot are missed and should return.

[@turtleanton6539]

​@@Gump1405yes indeed

[@torchiyaki9104]

I started this game 3 days ago and I really enjoy the feedom you are given. I think I got around a thousand rupees before the first temple

[@BorbMcGorb]

The weird fear of connecting the games (even BotW to TotK) that seemed present in TotK just seems baffling to me considering how Twilight Princess showed you can do such a thing to wonderful effect, even fleshing out a previous Link in the process.

[@benforth5486]

This is my biggest complaint. I love the new sandbox feel. But, the HUGE disconnect to the previous games when it comes to dialogue and story, was so disappointing. They never explained a lot of things from BOTW. Like dude, WTF is with the furies?!?!?

[@LilacMonarch]

@@benforth5486 *furries But yeah the disconnect from even BotW despite being a DIRECT SEQUEL is atrocious. It's not that hard to come up with decent reasons for the changes that happened. "Oh the sheikah stuff just randomly vanished for no reason" is so stupid and worst of all it's not even in the game, literally had to get it from an interview just to answer the most obvious question everyone playing the game will have

[@idoxially]

@@benforth5486They built a whole arc for link and zelda in botw, then threw it all aside. Forget link and zelda's friendship, forget the champions, forget link's memories, forget the calamity! That's what they thought making this new game. Wtf.

[@Azillia]

​​​@@idoxiallyi dont think they were trying to forget about the calamity, theres many many references to the calamity if you played There's the monuments zelda created for the "souls lost to the calamity" Theres still one gaurdian on top of hateno tech lab, although i definitely get how its stupid that 99% of the rest of the sheikah technology just "vanished " Also, the old champions moved on, this is a new story, they dont need to be in this game

[@cherubin7th]

Yes, how much would a "hi link long time no see" have hurt new comer? Not at all.

[@ultimateblade3767]

I think one of my biggest issues with tears of the kingdom, and with breath of the wild to a lesser extent, is it's treatment of the Master Sword. It's always been one of the most iconic swords in gaming, and the game just kinda nerfs it into the ground as much as is plot convenient.

[@mr.awesome6011]

I'm okay with that. Making the Master Sword weaker raises the stakes because that once reliable tool to save the day simply won't cut it alone this time and you have to use all of your other resources to figure out how to fix it. And as far as how it's balanced in gameplay gives the incentive to use other weapons. Not every Zelda game needs to be collect three of instert relics here, find the OP weapon to beat the bad guys and swing it around for five or six more dungeons. The point of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom for that matter was to shake the series up in many ways. This is simply one of those changes

[@RetroGoosen-ux8ty]

If you like the fact that the master sword sucks stop calling it “The Master” sword. I really don’t care that people keep lying to themselves about the lack of thought Nintendo puts into the lore of these games because once I discovered glitches and msgnotfound I’ve been on airplane mode ever since. If weapon durability was such a good system I would be using other weapons instead of the legendary msgnotfound a proper reward for a hero. It’s like yall are saying one thing but naturally nobody likes weapon durability they want that op legendary sword back and I will swing it in every dungeon from here to kingdom come 😂.

[@SufficientSpells]

Kneads* it into the ground

[@stanstanstan2597]

It’s just stupid that the same sword that vanquished evil for untold millennia, several times defeating evil with the entire Triforce on its side, gets tired after the guardians and SHATTERS against mummy Ganondorf because he has a little poo rock.

[@SufficientSpells]

@@mr.awesome6011 shoulda just not let you have it then.

[@dhinkakmed]

TotK Sage abilities are garbage. BotW Sage abilities? - Press and hold Jump button for BIG jump - Press and hold Attack button for BIG area attack (that doesn't miss) - Hold shield button for THREE guaranteed protection from anything hits. - Fuckin Die? Get Rezzed Idiot. But that's not all! Mipha then cooks ya dinner, packs your lunch, kisses your forehead and feeds you a hearty meal packed full of extra hearts! What do you get in TotK? Chase around mindless ghosts to... - Glide boost - Mining button - Lightning arrow (that can miss) - One Yiga windblade/protection from 1 attack (but not both!) - Ride a Robot with 3 things attached

[@kidkilla11alex]

Yes, and it is so hard to activate them. You have to run up to them to activate their ability

[@Jdudec367]

They really aren`t garbage. Yeah and all of those are useful abilities.

[@Pabliski577]

I'll never forgive Riju's lightning arrow man, it's the thunder element, give her a teleport or something

[@jonathanwilliams1271]

@@Jdudec367 They really are comparatively.

[@Jdudec367]

@@jonathanwilliams1271 Eh....not really tbh

[@neil9687]

I'm being honest- I miss the Majora's Mask kind of Storytelling that is heart-melting yet heart-breaking so so much. I want to feel included into the world, and the characters and all the main & substorys. Very nice video btw! I loved it.

[@rareosts5752]

Majora's Mask is my favorite game and Link isn't included in the world, you are fundamentally mistaken. The whole point is isolation, everybody suffering on their own, he comes in and can help one, but everyone else is not seeing him, TotK more "inclusive" with Link, so much more, so that as an argument, it's a bad one

[@neil9687]

@@rareosts5752 i know what you mean and you are totally right, but what I meant to say is that I love the core function of the sidequests, which is that you bring happiness to the people of termina for the last time and therefore it does include you, sort of.

[@matthewmozingo_1225]

I agree! Majora’s Mask is truly one of a kind. It will always be in my top three Zelda games. It has some of the most interesting and memorable characters in the series. They all feel so real, in how they react to the events happening around them. We get to see their goals, their fears, their regrets, and we can empathize with them. Very few Zelda games have such well developed characters and I think that is what makes this game so unique, and what is missing in the newer games.

[@Jdudec367]

@@matthewmozingo_1225 I dunno...I look at it and looking at the main quest...the characters don't seem that more memorable then later games. Seeing characters react to events and stuff like that isn't lost or anything. I mean a lot of Zeldas have well developed characters, heck BOTW gave us the best developed version of Zelda. So I don't see how it's missing from the newer games.

[@matthewmozingo_1225]

@jaydenc367 The new games do still have some pretty interesting characters. What I meant though, is that none of the games made since Majoras Mask have done characterization quite as well as that game, in my opinion.

[@handsoaphandsoap]

I cannot fathom why they thought that “the Sheikah technology just kinda vanished” was a reasonable explanation, especially as there’s a very reasonable theory sitting right there. It makes sense that the Sheikah technology just got disposed of by the survivors of the Calamity, after all they were actively being attacked by guardians and the divine beasts for about a 100 years. It makes sense that they didn’t want to see much of it after what they went through, but I guess the canon reason now is that “it just kinda vanished”, truly riveting storytelling.

[@LilacMonarch]

Yeah that one blew my mind. Are they THAT incompetent at storytelling? Or is some suit actively squashing creativity like they did to Paper Mario?

[@handsoaphandsoap]

​@@LilacMonarch I think it's probably the case that they had some ideas that they wanted to work with but the worldbuilding of BotW didn't fit with those ideas so they just ignored it altogether, but they couldn't NOT make it a BotW sequel and therefore not capitalize on its success. Most likely, they started development on TotK meaning for it to be a standalone game which is typical of the series but higher ups demanded they make it a sequel.That would be my theory at least.

[@Megalania1]

Honestly I had a idea it would have been nice if they included a kind of sheikah grave yard/junk yard near the lab in the north east region next to the sheikah lab Robby was located at during botw where it was full of disposed sheikah tech such as all the guardians but broken up into scrap to be used to make new stuff e.g the sky view towers but i don’t know how the writers made a terrible explanation and just said it all vanished 💀

[@MegaMaster1021]

is it really that hard to say that "oh they're being dismantled" and placing deconstruction sites of the divine beasts around the map and shit but no saying they vanished is so fucking lazy of an excuse

[@SirAlexanderr]

@@handsoaphandsoapit actually started as a breath of the wild dlc I read in an interview. They had too many ideas tho and ended up stretching it to fit a game.

[@cjclementine434]

I’ll tell you, when Ganondorf name dropped Rauru in that opening scene I friggin exploded I was so hype for the lore connection. My heart is broken.

[@bebe1facio]

I remember geeking out the same way telling my friend who was playing at the same time as me (he started playing Zelda with botw) that I thought ganon knew link from the past life/lives he fought him since he knew Rauru from oot. I was so excited for how the story would play out from that alone. But then we got what we got and I was soooo disappointed

[@CoreyRossRTC]

Right?!

[@BloomT24]

Same here

[@skywrd_]

​@@bebe1faciosame, like a gut punch

[@sardinha158]

My brain hurts, cuz they could have done such a cool story linking (laugh) this game with the older ones, but nop! Like there was no reason to gaslight us into thinking the story was something really cool and interligated with other games just too ignore everything and make a lamer one. The story in Zelda games are at it's best when they connect with each other, just makes all the lore even more interesting and add cool things and new meaning to other things. Now with Botw and Totk we have a lame story with lots of iconic names thrown around for no reason and with no maning, just so sad. I like these games, but it's sad what they've done with the legacy.

[@thijsdeboer6968]

The sky being so empty is so weird to me. When you look at the 2021 E3 trailer, which is where the sky islands were first introduced, there are lots of islands in places they aren't in the game. So it's clear they went through multiple iterations and ideas for the sky islands and at the end they narrowed it down to just this? According to one interview, they took almost an entire year to polish the game and they didn't have a small team to create new interesting islands, or to put some new stuff in the depths? It's just so baffling

[@omensoffate]

It’s a concept trailer with false advertisement

[@thijsdeboer6968]

@@omensoffate That is indeed what it seems to be, looking back now. I just didn't expect that from a team as dedicated as this.

[@Ornithopter470]

Adding content is really hard. Would more copy-pastes be good enough? Or would that just serve to make it feel even more monotonous.

[@thijsdeboer6968]

@@Ornithopter470 That's true. Adding interesting content is difficult. I think a couple more islands, even if they are all similar, would've been a bit better, but not much. The thing that I don't like is that alot of the islands have the same shape. So many of the islands with shrines on them are that cross shape with the launcher on top. I think just changing the shape of some of them would've helped alot with the monotony.

[@alondrisabel]

its depressing if we compare these sky islands to skyward sword sky islands

[@Maria-lb5uq]

Tears of the kingdom just left me with a general feeling of emptiness. For me Zelda was this piece of media i could dive into at the end of a long day. It felt rich in lore that was connected across timelines. You couldn't quite figure everything out but the mystery and storyline was just part of it. I wanted nothing more than to once more immerse myself in this world and feel that childlike wonder of being in a quest larger than life - where you were quite literally an agent of the goddesses. This game felt like it just discarded that specific melancholic atmosphere of a zelda storyline in exchange for gameplay gimmicks and i am afraid we're never getting it back.

[@N3207H05]

if we just take the totk story for itself my biggest prob is that that there is no real story you play. you just find out what happened, it just tells you ganondorf is evil and he will come back...which is basicly what you already knew after the first sequence. in the present nothing happens, up until the point you actually face him.

[@Dionysos_____Alters]

Exactly and there is no impending doom or threat. Ganondorf just sits down there and doesnt even come out. Sucks

[@eggon_1345]

There is that thing with The zelda you chase around, I spoiled myself early but that would have been something for a lot of people

[@sukitron5415]

Basically nothing has changed between the start of TOTK and the end, Hyrule is still destroyed, there are still evil people running around in the Yiga, Zelda was a human at the start and then she's a human at the end, Link got his arm back, the story has basically no consequences. The zonai are completely irrelevant and change nothing

[@c4m1l0ch4]

I also think it's kinda funny that the only one who got any sort of character focus / development was Master Kohga if you really think about it. The Yiga Clan questline was a highlight for me personally.

[@adrigl3371]

It’s so weird that they picked seemingly random aspects of the game to have continuation, that acknowledges the previous game, while the rest pretends that you are not playing a sequel. Oh no, little Timmy will feel bad because he didn’t play the previous game and he will feel out of the loop, let’s alienate everyone else that played the previous game so he don feel that way… such an weird decision, I can’t even.

[@highdefinition450]

​@adrigl3371 like it's literally a sequel, it's advertised as such. who tf plays a sequel without playing the first one and expect to understand everything, it's so weird man

[@nabilian2145]

@@adrigl3371exactly what I was saying but Nintendo has so many brain dead loyal servants who create fantasies to justify why it’s not continued

[@markigirl2757]

@quiktaxshawnyeah next time I’m not gonna resist looking at spoilers and rewatch a review of the game before I buy it. First time I said this about a Zelda game 😅

[@schnek8927]

@quiktaxshawnNo assuming by nintendo needed. Fans of botw/totk WILL keep buying what they’re selling anyway. They’re the most mindless consumers ever. They praise the most mundane shit imaginable as the second comming of christ... ”Wow! I can’t believe they gave this npc a basic idle animation, nintendo sure is spoiling us! Woah! I can walk from one corner of the world to the other without a loading screen, just like in games made 30 years ago! Nintendo are revolutionizing the industry yet again!” *U N I R O N I C A L L Y . . .*

[@Vivian-Luna]

36:54 that’s exactly what I thought!! I remember waiting with my sister to play the game and we were excited when things looked like they were connecting! I was like: “the imprisoning war from Link to the Past?!” “Rauru from OOT?!” “Ganon knows us?? Is this the same guy we’ve been seeing since OOT?!” You don’t understand how HYPED we were thinking we was connecting all the dots 😭

[@TakumiJoyconBoyz]

Totally same on all points. I went from hyped to hyper disappointed.

[@timrosswood4259]

Am I the only one who always assumed that totk was going to have a completely new incarnation of Ganondorf?

[@thephalange8630]

Oh man, TOTALLY. I actually ran into tears in random order and pretty early on into the game, I knew pretty early on that Zelda went to the past and that she turned into a dragon and what not, I was so angry that the memories weren't just programmed to show us the whole thing in order, because while the symbols themselves represented parts of the memory, the locations really didn't matter. They could have still just put them all in order, but okay, that's a rant for a different time. Why I mentioned the memories is, that I found out that this isn't the Ganondorf we knew before, so my second thought was "OMG! WE ARE TRAVELLING BACK IN TIME TOO, THAT'S HOW HE KNOOOOWS US!!!" Which made sense, there is not a single Zelda title with time travel introduced where we didn't get to travel back in time ourselves, so... I got excited for that, but nope. He just knew we were Link, because fake king fake Rauru fake Zonai (they were described differently in BotW) told him a guy named Link would come for him one day. Oh, please! 🤦🏻‍♀️

[@crunchysalmons]

it’s so tantalizing because it’s like a remix of all the zelda lore we know; -the sky islands were raised to protect link (like skyloft was raised to protect hylians) -Zonai rauru has a strong connection to the temple of time (like how human rauru is said to have built the temple of time) -the imprisoning war is EXTREMELY similar to the war hylia fought to imprison demise, even down to the demon king almost winning -ample references to OOT (throne room scene, twinrova, the separated state of the gerudo tribe from the hylian kingdom) there’s many more examples but rly this game makes me think so hard about the lore but there’s literally no answers because the zelda team don’t care about creating a cohesive narrative

[@erikn.9180]

the oruborus and the islands lifting in the sky while also having these connections to old zelda games like rauru really made me believe my theory that timeline wise after totk it will go into skyward sword creating a timeline loop which explains all references to other games in botw and how we are able to find them even tho they are different timelines. Also seeing ganon spawning alot of monsters in fits the skyward sword prestory and there were so many points were it fit

[@amilisom]

Nice shot. My issue, in addition to the points already made, was how the main quest lacked depth and content. When I first discovered the spirit temple in the depths, I was blown away with what it was going to be. I hoped it would be a crazy dark underground dungeon like in previous Zelda games. All I got was an okay boss fight. Remember in Twilight Princess when you had to defend the carriage with the dying Zora as they traveled across the map? Remember when you wake up as a wolf in a strange dungeon with a strange person? (I could go on) Why couldn’t there have been stuff like that in TK?

[@firenze6478]

Because everything must be ‘open.’

[@SkippytWalrus]

​​​@@firenze6478I know man. Before I'd seen what they had to show for BOTW I was really excited for an open world Hyrule with bustling towns and beautiful music and spots where you could just accidentally bumble into a difficult dungeon (like og LoZ as someone stated). When I found out it was a post apocalyptic setting I kinda felt my heart sink. Oh well, my expectations were to high, I guess. And after TOTK, I wish the open era of Zelda would just be over now.

[@supermagma]

Remember when you wake up on a giant island floating in the sky, with a new arm that can change the environment?

[@amilisom]

Oh definitely, my favorite part of the game ;)

[@firenze6478]

@@SkippytWalrus me too

[@biinerfiiner]

Too, I feel like Nintendo never asks themselves "Why did the players love/hate (previous game) so much?"

[@thelastbrickbender2139]

Honestly I was so hyped the entire start of the game, the opening was ridiculous, the sky island felt great to explore, maybe not great plateau level, but still really fun and that first leap back to the surface and the short journey to a new hylian settlement, it felt fresh and interesting and then you get there and it’s like, here are four regions, you need to help with their own problems to call upon sages, in whatever order of your own choosing and I was like “Oh no”

[@donn4life]

They also were like "Look it's Zelda" and I'm like "Hmm it's probably not Zelda" and then they were like "Look it's Zelda" another 4 freakin times and I'm like "WELL NO I DON'T THINK THAT'S ZELDA". And then they say "Hey! Remember those 5 times you thought you saw Zelda??" "N--" "WELL IT WASN'T ZELDA HOW ABOUT THAT WOOW!!" and I'm like "................. Wait, she was a puppet Zelda...?? That could have worked as an idea! This game really only reaches about 3/10 of its potential doesn't it? And also, YES I KNOW IT WASN'T FREAKIN ZELD@#%#$^&@#$&!". I stopped after two of the regions though. I don't find it enjoyable enough to spend more time in and already having found all the tears and basically already knowing how it ends with Ganon just waiting for you somewhere for some reason instead of tramping Hyrule and the other 2 regions just being about the same as the other two while not letting me get Zelda back any quicker.

[@red-hn5iy]

@@donn4life Yeah, the game just feels like a scam, they knew Zelda fans would buy it no matter what and didn't really put much effort into it at all. I really ain't hyped at all for the next Zelda game

[@mooktendo7725]

Yeah, this was exactly my thought process playing through TotK as well. BotW felt so fresh to me, but aside from Ultrahand and fuse, TotK feels anything but that.

[@Dr.Succ0]

@@red-hn5iywell it’s not entirely fair to say you’re not excited for the next, you’ve seen nothing of it, and I’m sure they’ve learned ALOT from tears of the kingdom, I’d honestly be okay with a third installment (done right) to flesh out the story if possible… but if not I have hopes the next Zelda game will be the middle ground between what newcomers and old timers want.. just for the love of heck make it all make sense that alone keeps fanbases alive

[@LtCdrXander]

Yeah at this rate I think they should make the next game a top-down classic Zelda style game, maybe even go the retro graphics route. Something to make me interested in Zelda again.

[@yuukimikaru4496]

Man one thing that reaaaaally killed it for me was the almost exactly same cutscenes everytime you saved a sage, like in all the games there's always a beat that sort of repeats itself (such as the maidens in LTTP) but this is diferent, 4 times we get basically the same dialogue from the sages (like legit its the same scene with the 4 sage with same lines in same order and exactly the same), same empty white smoky room, same memories of the ganondorf fight just from a diferent pov BUT THEY STILL SAY THE EXACT SAME THING... sigh... idk but it just felt so awfully lazy

[@turtleanton6539]

Indeed it is. And still no voices

[@pointystories582]

For me it was two things: The masks the ancient sages wear, is a straight up admission that these are not characters. Don't even think for a second, that we could be bothered to include emotional stakes for these faceless people's deaths. The other was the floating Labyrinths: So, we have some ancient Zonai voice talk to Link directly (happens with Sheikah voices a lot in BotW, but essentially doesn't happen in TotK). Is the ancient voice finally going to give any answers about the Zonai at all?...and... no, it's giving me Phantom Ganon armour... armour from an OoT mini-boss, which these Zonai never interacted with, a being from a time unknown to their history and right here, right now there IS a Phantom Ganon running around Hyrule, but he doesn't get mentioned at all in relation to this armour. OK Nintendo, if you say so.

[@yuukimikaru4496]

Yee, feels like they took the idea of re using to a whole diferent level, lets re use the map of the surface for the depths, lets re use the map from the old game again, lets re use the same cutscene everytime you save a Sage...

[@grassina3]

Seriously, I completed the wind temple first and I was so excited and pumped for the rest of the game after that. Then surprise surprise I completed the water temple and it was… the exact same cut scene. I just shut off the game after that for a while. I couldn’t understand why tf it wasn’t even a bit different. No new information, no new clues. It felt like I wasn’t making any progress through the game cause I wasn’t actually learning anything each time I completed a temple.

[@welltaco1833]

I was extremely hyped at the intro it’s probably my favorite part I thought it would connect with ocarina as you said but that isn’t the case unfortunately

[@Claego]

That feeling of "something is wrong with this game but I can't describe exactly why I feel that." is precisely why I am a subscriber. You put in the work to experience what I experience and explain the why. Thanks.

[@eddiedead2702]

My biggest fear with this series is that Nintendo will see the sales numbers of TotK and say "Yep! This is good enough" and we just get more of, THIS...

[@hubblebublumbubwub5215]

Considering how much time and effort went into these games, and how well they sold, that's probably how things will be for the forseeable future. They're not gonna sacrifice the open world and physics shenanigans.

[@eddiedead2702]

@@hubblebublumbubwub5215 it's not the open world or physics that bother me. It's the trading good dungeons for shrines and permanent items for breakable weapons that bothers me. There's a lot to like about nu Zelda. All they have to do is take what worked in the newer games and mix it with the classic formula

[@hubblebublumbubwub5215]

@@eddiedead2702 As for the dungeons, they'd basically have to create two games in one. Considering it took them 6 years to make a TotK, I don't think it's realistic to expect that. The open world and physics bother you indirectly because that's where all the development resources go.

[@MarshallTheArtist]

@@hubblebublumbubwub5215They could just make the games smaller. These ones were way too big and empty and repetitive.

[@hubblebublumbubwub5215]

@@MarshallTheArtist They could, they should, but most likely they won't. We might not like it, but they have a winning formula.

[@JJMomoida]

I'm actually surprised how little play the Triforce has had in both BOTW and TOTK. Like, I don't think it's entirely non-existent, but I was surprised to see it didn't play a large role in the story.

[@frewtlewps1152]

My theory about the Triforce’s whereabouts is either Zelda has the entire Triforce, or the Triforce pieces are in the Secret Stones.

[@cesarsuarez7538]

My theory is that they don´t give a shit.

[@firenze6478]

@@cesarsuarez7538this is the likely answer. It will sell regardless so why give a 💩 outside of nostalgic callbacks to try to sucker in old fans.

[@musicalsaber6433]

@@cesarsuarez7538 blunt but I feel that too honestly

[@mjesus850]

@@cesarsuarez7538 yeah the only thing nintendo has to do now is just open world, everything else is an afterthought at this point

[@AllyJ1141]

Thank you... I felt SO bullied online whenever I talk about TOTK's short coming, but now I feel like is a safe space. Im not gonna rehash, because Bandit already covered most of my gripes but it is just frustrating... I had such high hopes for Tears... I really REALLY hate to say it but Tears turned out be such HUGE disappointment for me 😮‍💨😮‍💨

[@AhhhAh-qv6rc]

You are so oppressed

[@destinyhntr]

Agreed. I waited so long for this game because Breath of the Wild was the closest to a 10/10 for me in terms of Nintendo. Then I started TOTK and immediately hated it. I really wanted to love it, but just found myself frustrated rather than having fun. I'm not going to pay to be annoyed by a game.

[@stavrosbegetis2173]

You're not alone. Botw > Totk

[@nosferatu488]

keep crying

[@tebbix]

Bro it is insane to me that one of the greatest games of our generation get this kind of takes, it is up there with Elden Ring, BOTW, GoW, etc. and still

[@Galfubo]

We need a new weird Zelda game like Majora’s mask or Links awakening. Anyway that was a nice shot.

[@LinktheCommunistWaifu]

Yes I agree.

[@opticalsalt2306]

Yeah! A lot of the fans are 100% craving that, honestly anything more traditional would be a fever dream for me personally, we can hope.

[@natesamadhi33]

But then it would [allegedly] scare the kiddies away and Nintendo wouldnt make a bajillion dollars. We must do what the shareholders tell us & be as generic as possible.

[@ceel4223]

Doubt it would happen

[@fruitgum9619]

i knooow, id do anything for a new zelda game similar to majoras mask and twilight princess but im sure that wont happen

[@tjmixmasta]

Totally agree with all of your points. I feel this game had a lot of sprawl, in both landmass and gameplay types, but not a lot of cohesion. Like, it's cool that I can make a Go Kart, but I don't think that it jives with the broader narrative. It's cool that I can bop around in the sky, but there isn't much there to add to the story or describe the world Link's traversing. I've been replaying Skyward Sword and Majora's Mask recently, and while the games are nowhere near as mechanically rich, they feel much more seeped in lore and the worlds feel so much more lived in.

[@tjmixmasta]

(also, Nice Shot!)

[@psychopath682]

One thing that pissed me off in particular was a part of the cutscene where it's "revealed" that the Zelda we were following is actually ganondorf the whole time (The one before fighting multiple phantom ganons). For a brief second ganondorf creates an illusion where hyrule castle looks like it looked in the past. This technique is not used anywhere else. It's not interesting, because we all know that link would never fall for that trick. At this point everyone also knows that it's not Zelda, so it's also not interesting in that way. And not even Ganondorf seems to have faith in this technique and stops the act very quickly. This whole scene has no tension, has no substance and no stakes. It's entirely without purpose. So why is it in the game anyway? For the trailer. This scene is in the trailer and edited in a way that you could get the idea that Link is in the past. And if Link is in the past he would also be more involved in a the story. It suggest way more than it actually was. It lets you theorize in crazy direction. To generate more hype. And that's what bothers me. To have a scene solely for the purpose of pretending to be deeper than it is. To pretend to be interesting, instead of just being that way in the first place.

[@thephalange8630]

Didn't even think about that, but what you're saying makes actually sense!

[@BioAlpha5]

yeah that bugged the hell out of me.

[@Cheesehead302]

If there's one thing they HAVE perfected, it's making some of the best video game trailers lmao. Out of context, it LOOKS like they were actually going to respond to fans that were clamoring for a better narrative, but nope lol.

[@xdrghmkl]

The whole "you know I'm not Zelda, but we're gonna pretend that you don't" thing bugs me in everything else, too. I could tell that she was either brainwashed, controlled, replaced by a Yiga or *something* just by reading dialogue from random NPCs before I found any of the tears/memories because it just made her sound so out of character. The Yiga thing wasn't even too far off. "Link! Save me! I'm trapped in a cage!" "...Seriously? Uhg...fine...let's get this over with." "Yes! You fell for it!" "Not really..." Anyways. I put the game down and haven't gotten to where it'll let the other characters figure out that it's a fake Zelda. And one of the reasons I put it down...was because I kept getting annoyed. "That is *obviously* not Zelda! So step aside and let me do my thing!" Yeah, I've attacked way too many NPCs over this. The players know it's not Zelda. *Link* knows it's not Zelda. Link is capable of explaining things instead of being unable to communicate. The game just doesn't let us say "that's not your princess, so just let me get things done". And then I saw the cutscene you talked about (through videos, since I put the game down) and I just... Uhg...I couldn't. I wanted to enjoy what I saw, but I just couldn't. It was pretty and whatever, but it was just like..."no, thank you. Skip this, please".

[@someuser9168]

Facts

[@Anonymous_Individual]

I will say, Majora’s Mask was one of the cooler challenges to obtain. A gauntlet of the toughest enemies the game has to offer for the item that negates all enemy encounters is a great idea. Regarding Hyrule Warriors in general, they have surprisingly strong OC villains. Cia and Astor are particular standouts. Nice Shot!

[@Just_Shaun]

Don’t forget Sooga, it’s devastating that he was wiped off the face of hyrule. He was such a good parallel to Kohga.

[@iceneko9170]

cia and lana are really interesting characters that im sure lots of people (myself included) would love to see return in some way. they're very memorable indeed.

[@yunuss58]

I think Cia is awful and the story too. But Volga is peak

[@micahbarrus8406]

... Somehow koei tecmo has made better stories for Zelda games than the actual Zelda team. In a game about hacking and slashing waves of enemies.

[@micahbarrus8406]

Koei Tecmo having better stories and characters (mostly) than the actual Zelda team is kinda wild to think about. Sooga's sacrifice had more meaning than anything in Totk because it had weight and meaning to the other characters. There's nothing like that in totk and I'd argue it's better than anything in botw.

[@Leonkennedy19992]

It felt cool hearing ganondorf mentioning "is this the hero rauru was placing faith" my smooth brain thought he thought it was link from ocarina because one of the sages that took care of link during the timeskip was named rauru

[@firstlast3313]

Yeah exactly. Why in the world did they name the goat guy rauru and then just make him a different species with a different story

[@skywrd_]

​@@firstlast3313at this point it's like they're just trying to mess with us

[@beardalaxy]

@@skywrd_ i feel that way too, but i know it's not actually the case. they aren't trying to mess with us on purpose. they are, however, chucking in random crap for nostalgia bait.

[@NicTube]

Well, Sonia's name might be a reference to Saria as well (which would make sense, Sonia and Saria are both the only Sages that are of Link's species in their respective games). Also the other Sages are kinda similar species-wise as well, no? Haven't completed OoT, so no guarantee on that from my side ​@@firstlast3313

[@leobe2104]

They've always named new npcs and places after npcs from older games, Impa for example

[@ashiiu12]

finally, zelda youtubers are speaking out about completely valid complaints and glaring issues with totk, love to see it

[@rareosts5752]

These exact points have been parroted since the release, as have your kind of comment. It's amazing the loop you're stuck in

[@ashiiu12]

@@rareosts5752 i see you havent been on twitter

[@mokarokas-1727]

@@rareosts5752 - Except no, Zelda niche youtubers have been very lenient so far. Maybe you're talking more in general, which "your kind of comment" does not. If you're going to be a negative Nancy, at least make sense. =)

[@nabilian2145]

@@rareosts5752and the exact same “Zelda totk is SO good” has been parroted by Nintendo’s loyal servants

[@Sicarius089]

If only they could've done it when Nintendo tried it the first time round with botw.

[@Epic2kartworks]

When you realize that the development time between skyward sword and BOTW was shorter than the time between BOTW and TOTK.. man it hurts. On the topic of skyward sword, totk really made me respect it's story, dungeons and just unique areas within its world. TOTK really is all shrines and koroks with some clothing thrown around

[@OnionChoppingNinja]

True that. Unpopular opinion: I appreciate Skyward Sword despite all it's major flaws but who does a valiant effort to make a meaningful contribution to the lore more then the Switch game's sandbox that seemingly attempts to throw 30 years worth of lore in the trash.

[@DavidStowers-o7k]

When I bought Skyward Sword HD for the Switch, I did so for ONE reason. That I wouldn't get the aneurysm with the controls that the Wii version gave me. So everything seemed fine until i reached the point in the game that requires Link to get a sword and that's where I gave up and returned the game to my local CEX for a store credit slip. Being FORCED to use an analog stick (As opposed to pressing a button, for which my brain has been HARDWIRED since 1990.) as my principal combat mechanic, WELL FUCK THAT!

[@xSilentZeroXx]

@@DavidStowers-o7k What did you expect? You can't possibly rig one digital button to slash in eight directions, stab forward, *and* be held upward to charge power. Ocarina of Time came close, but it only achieved three of the eight directions and charging power was for something else. You sound mentally ill. How did wiggling/pointing a tiny stick give you an aneurysm, anyway?

[@Jdudec367]

Only cause of some delays really...COVID sucks, also the last year was just extra polish so...yeah. No TOTK has a story and a lot more locations and unique areas and stuff to find and see, also unlike SS it's sky isn't empty and actually has stuff in it. That's not even mentioning other stuff like the depths. So no TOTK isn't all shrines and koroks with some clothing thrown around.

[@Jdudec367]

@@OnionChoppingNinja It didn't attempt to throw the lore in the trash though.

[@someuncreativeusername3290]

I can't tell you how cathartic it feels to have someone finally put all my frustrations with TotK into words, after struggling to do so myself for months. Here are some more "complaints" I have: 1. Mipha is the only champion that actually gets acknowledged in the main story. We walk right past Daruk's statue and Revali's landing, and noone bats an eye. If I remember correctly, the real Thunder Helm doesn't even appear in the game, only the copy made by the Yiga. So Urbosa's memorial is just gone. Plus, all of their legendary weapons are now suddenly mass produced. It takes something away from these wonderful characters. 2. I feel like Hyrule's surface has become super cluttered with things like construction equipment and fallen sky islands. I get that a common complaint about BotW was that the overworld often felt too empty, but I don't think that was the right way to go about it. They just gave us a bunch of stuff that ruins the scenery (yes, I care about the games' scenery), and isn't very useful for gameplay. 3. It makes sense that they didn't just reuse all shrine placements from BotW, but that makes a lot of them very inconvenient for fast travel. The best example is the one in Zora's Domain. In BotW, it was right in the middle of town. In TotK, you first have to climb up a ladder/waterfall to get there. 4. I don't like how they handled the Lord of the Mountain. In BotW, it was this this fantastical encounter, with huge build up and an amazing (if largely useless) reward. Now, you drop an apple in a bowl and it shows up to tell you where the nearest caves are. 5. I personally think the Gloom Hands are a far worse enemy than the Guardians were. With Guardians, if you have the timing down, you can beat them with just a pot lid. But the fight is still tense, because you know screwing up means instant death. Meanwhile with Gloom Hands, if you get too close and don't have an elevated spot to shoot arrows from, you're basically done for since they keep chain-grabbing you. Encounters with Gloom Hands definitely feel super cool, but gameplay wise I just think they're lacking. 6. If they're not planning to release DLC, why didn't they include gold enemies in the base game?! 7. Nice shot.

[@Prince_Sidon]

Sounds like you just wanted literally everything from BOTW in TOTK. I mean, get it get that BOTW is a great game ; but some things just need to be laid to rest and replaced with other things. The only thing I didnt like was Sidon being engaged. That was not cool!

[@TheSockDragon]

For the fifth one I found using an elemental weapon (Attaching a dragon horn or something) worths well! Especially ice, it freezes them in place and makes it a lot easier

[@PlayPodOG]

THEY ARE REBUILDING HYRULE. HOW DO YOU NOT EXPECT CONSTRUCTION.

[@someuncreativeusername3290]

I don't think it's that I want everything from BotW to return in TotK. I can still go back and play BotW, it's not going anywhere. I just feel like some of the things that we got as replacements aren't as good as what they replaced. I don't want the same thing again, I want something different that's just as good. Also, I need to rephrase: My problem isn't about Hyrule being under construction, it's about how useless those supply depositories feel. In the early game, I found using a horse to be more convenient, and in the late game, you can just build a more efficient Zonai device. I never used them, and I feel there are too many of them, but that's just me personally.

[@TheSockDragon]

@@someuncreativeusername3290 what I do is I just use the storage deposits to make random crazy machines for fun, I keep trying to make a plane that works and its nice that they are there, but I do see what you mean about them feeling a bit useless

[@Leonkennedy19992]

So your telling me that the small gap of 2 years nintendo created a whole new world, characters, gameplay, artstyle, dungeons, story, bosses, and enemies jumping from majoras mask to windwaker on a new videogame system but current nintendo took 6 years just to add a little floating islands and the same looking underworld.

[@ACW-dn9wb]

Unfortunately thats the reality of things. And its worse considering the Depths is literally a copy and paste of the overworld since its just an inversion. At this point I'm just waiting for what else modders come up with since they've done so much more with that time (TOTK Master Mode)

[@strawberrymins]

This

[@Jdudec367]

6 years for entirely new phsyci systems, changes to a giant open world, new characters gameplay, story, dungeons, bosses, and enemies, etc, while they had to deal with covid delays too and the last year was pretty much just extra polish, meanwhile WW is well....kinda rushed really.

[@Jdudec367]

@@ACW-dn9wb It isn't worse and the depths isn't a copy and paste it looks and is pretty different it just has the same layout.

[@ACW-dn9wb]

@@Jdudec367 6 years for an old reused physics system in a reused world from BOTW, crappy NPCs doing crappy NPC things and getting in your way constantly, mid story, bad dungeons that only look the part, etc. Covid delays is a bad excuse for a game thag already 90% done with mostly digital stuff not needing to be in an office to complete but can be done at home. Sure WW was rushed, but the combat, story, enemies, and characters were all leagues better than what we got with TOTK and in less time. The amount of effort put in to WW is much more than in TOTK.

[@calistacraft6684]

I really would’ve liked to see more towns or more developments going on… or maybe us to be able to build up towns like the Tarrey Town quest in BOTW… because I felt that hyrule should be recovering from the calamity right? What about the thing that Zelda said about Zoras domain at the end of BOTW? We never got answers or a continuation of that.

[@kit76149]

Sidon's diary says she visited. No mention of Vah Ruta, but they did go visit Zora's domain after botw.

[@nabilian2145]

@@kit76149wow that really justifies everything

[@mjesus850]

nintendo and aonuma dont have to, theyre fully down the low effort just make a huge open world and let players walk around and gawk at shit gameplay. its honestly a shame how much these games are sucked off just because they "innovated" and by innovated i mean straight follow the open world shit every company has already done. the wasted potential of these games can only be realized by players like us that understand how it was

[@VexieVex]

I'm only halfway through this, but listening to you has given me so much relief. I thought I was just being wrong in how I felt about this game after the first week of nonstop playing. The disappointment I started to feel as I finally got over the extreme excitement in having another Zelda game to play. The mechanics were great, but so far everything you've talked about I fully agree with. Mind you I definitely enjoyed the Depths far better than the Sky. It reminded me of the Dark/Mirror world and Lorule of LttP/LBW to a point. Yet I know why I enjoyed it better even if the content was same, because there was more to explore compared to the Sky. They promoted Sky so much that realizing it was so little and not even a speck or hint to possible SS islands still there as much as the Zonai's own was sad.

[@Matthew10950]

I am also happy to not feel like the only one who wanted more.

[@tumultuousv]

Dlc will come. Watch it get announced at the game awards when it wins goty

[@benjj.]

​@@tumultuousv💀

[@tumultuousv]

@@benjj. Rip

[@benjj.]

​@@tumultuousvwe both wanted to see it happen man trust hahaha

[@June26A7]

Nice Shot! As for other series, I would recommend the Xenoblade games, I feel that it is a series that is very good for theorizing, and I does a good job of having a continuity between games that makes sense, unlike TotK. Edit: Made the o and t in TotK lower case and fixed the spelling of recommend

[@dfre102]

I second this. Would love Bandit videos on the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise

[@kuks0453]

Bandit making theories on Xenoblade would go so hard tbh

[@linkalot7415]

Yesss xenoblade is the best :)

[@cristianoducceschi3547]

Xenoblade imo is the best series on the switch, the gameplay is incredibly addicting, the stories are absolutely phenomenal and so are the characters, the lore is outstanding and the exploration is on an other level, seriously i had more fun 100%ing the xenoblade 3 dlc in 30 hours than all my time in botw and totk

[@June26A7]

@@cristianoducceschi3547 IKR

[@undeadpixel2770]

They should have included several very large sky islands like the tutorial, that are basically "dungeons," Gotten rid of the shrines, and then just strewn the heart containers and stamina upgrades throughout the landscape in Hyrule, thus encouraging exploration of a familiar place.

[@kami4242]

Nobody was willing to criticize BOTW and that is exactly why we got the same game all over again. Same structure, same ability progression, same combat/cooking/upgrade systems, temples are just better themed Divine Beasts, telling the story through discoverable cutscenes, etc. It also doesn't help that IGN put out an article after TOTK came out listing the 10 best Zelda games of all time and ranking TOTK and BOTW as #1 and #2 respectively because I guess Zelda is at best when it's a sandbox game. I guess we don't need well designed puzzle box dungeons that give you cool new abilities as you progress through the game. Nah, just give them all to you from the start. Apparently we also don't need a story with a shred of agency and with a villain who is present for more than the beginning and end of it. But IGN's article is what Aonuma and his team will see EDIT: Nice shot btw

[@Shiny.Sparky.Boi.69]

i mean totk is too close to being a top tier game it makes me depressed, just let the player play through the story, make a large sky island area like the great sky island for each region, make the depths have elements from above but twist them and make them weird a lot to make it more, make the game scarier, implement zelda more, and make ganondorfs plot more meaningful, and maybe fill the depths with more interesting secrets, if they worked hard for a bit more than 7 years from mid 2017 to end of 2024, they could have released the game for the nintnedo switch 2 WITH MARIO on top. But you still have to thank nintendo for trying harder than GameFreak. I say nintendo should take around 8 years to make the new zelda game high quality and of course more advanced to release on 2032, when the console after switch 2 releases, but they do the BOTW/TWILIPRIN style and release on the old at that point of the future switch 2 and the new console

[@Kitth3n]

I disagree. literally everyone complained about the divine beasts and how fast the weapons broke. I think people forget but it was kind of a divisive game when it came out. A lot of people did hate it. A lot of those people changed their minds over the years, to be fair. Same happened with skyward and windwaker.

[@Guy-cb1oh]

@@Kitth3n That's ridiculous. Only a handful of people at the time even dared to give any criticism and those that did got doxxed or death threats for even mild lukewarm criticism. It's only within the last couple of years that people have been comfortable in giving BOTW the biting criticism it so richly deserves.

[@blackchickiedee7]

Agreed. Not that BotW was terrible but it felt lackluster or like something was missing. And I can say from experience, when I mentioned my problems with the game people went ballistic 😅 Aonuma and his team tried the same song and dance and I'm glad I'm not the only one this time around to express my issues with the game. But instead, people at Nintendo are probably going to listen to IGN's shallow praises and continue with this sandbox mess. Even in the most recent interview, the person who conducted it didn't even ask hard, non-bias questions and Aonuma basically said older fans are nostalgia blind for wanting "restrictive" games to return. People are literally eating up this "look, I can go through ceilings" gimmicky mechanics and don't want to admit TotK wasn't all that great. I'm just glad it didn't win Game of the Year because it wasn't deserved

[@radaf4429]

I'm going to describe a certain Zelda game to you and you try and guess what it is. First you get the sword, then you get the shield, then you get bombs, then you get the bow, then you get the hookshot, then you beat Ganon. Notice how I just described almost every single Zelda game? This is why I am baffled by people that want this style of progression to come back. It is beyond stale at this point. Zelda team woke up noticed that under this system, the point of the game with the most potential was the end, because that's when Link has all his abilities and the player has to think about which one to use. Giving all of the items to Link at the beginning of the game was the best thing they've ever done.

[@Lucens_Luna]

i believe the reason fuse is a separate ability is because with it you dont have to select the material with a cursor unlike ultrahand, so you if you had to use ultrahand to fuse itd be a lot harder to quickly make weapons mid combat. its a small reason but i think its justified

[@Nadfin]

It would still work the same since using ultrahand doesn't use the y or zl buttons. They could have made so that you press l to activate ultrahand, then either a to pick up a material, y to fuse to weapon, or zl to fuse to shield. The difference would be pretty minimal, I think

[@jakuth99]

Listening to this is really making them saying “we made TotK because we had too many ideas for BotW DLC” click into place. Because it does feels like DLC or like the 7 year time skip in ocarina of time, and I feel like they wouldn’t have had to cut much to make this fit as post game dlc

[@BailiwickVideos]

Yes… I made one of those “glourified DLC” Reddit posts while we were getting drip fed trailers and got completely blasted for it. I hate to say I was right because I didn’t want it to be this. Oh well! Here’s to the next 6 years of waiting!

[@mr.awesome6011]

It's not DLC. Just admit it's become trendy to hate TOTK all of a sudden because it's not "muh traditional Zelda"

[@Randomperson-rk7xl]

​@@mr.awesome6011I think you are wrong. I played only BOTW and TOTK and even i agree that this game has a lot of flaws. People started to talk about it right now because the honeymoon fase is over. And you won't be immediately blasted by saying that you don't like the game as much as the other people that praise it.

[@marielcarey4288]

​@@mr.awesome6011and the same pointless response... just give up fragile zelda fanatic, the people have a point.

[@jakuth99]

@@mr.awesome6011 I actually like TotK vastly more than traditional Zelda games lol. My point was that the devs admitted TotK came about because their plans for BotW DLC got to big in scope and it shows

[@sahatalam892]

Nice shot! A passionate creator like yourself letting out your concerns is appreciated as a louder voice speaking up for many peoples opinions. TotK's lore implications, or the lack thereof, were extremely disappointing. Maybe the next game can actually give us an interesting story to live through. We've had enough ruins, we need a bustling castle town again.

[@RecusantGaming]

I feel so validated regarding my opinions of TOTK. I was disappointed regarding the copy paste nature and story. I had beaten botw and it felt like i was doing it all over again. Thank you for sharing. Also nice shot btw.

[@sambajane]

"he's already mad" at 40:28 had me howling with laughter

[@highdefinition450]

really descibes his character well tho lol

[@matthewmozingo_1225]

Nice shot! I really agree with what you said about the world not needing to be so big. With Tears of the Kingdom, it seems like they went with quantity over quality, adding more of everything from botw in addition to the new mechanics. I was just replaying the remake of Link’s awakening and I was impressed by how big the map felt. It is probably a quarter of the size, but it feels so big because you can’t access the entire map at first, and you gradually unlock more as you progress and get items from dungeons. That game also had a much more compelling and emotional story despite being pretty detached from the gameplay. I would really like to see more of that in the future.

[@matthewmozingo_1225]

Also, I know that Nintendo’s current design philosophy is that the story takes a backseat to the gameplay and mechanics, but I don’t think that was always the case, and I don’t think they should continue this way. As a Zelda fan, I couldn’t care less about performance, or visuals, of gimmicky gameplay. I’d even stick with a game that was borderline unplayable if it had a strong, compelling, and emotionally investing story.

[@kingkrysen]

​@@matthewmozingo_1225exactly bro a good story and a good soundtrack go a long way in my book

[@kingkrysen]

@therealgirl3295 ikr but they seem intent of keeping the open world formula as long as they give us an awesome story, characters, and music everything will be Gucci lol

[@matthewmatthew981]

They had the brilliant idea of putting caves and "The Depths" darkness into some of the islands in the Great Sky Island and then never repeated that idea anywhere else in the game. They should have called it "The Only Sky Island" because most everything else in the sky just feels like an extension of it.

[@linksel3034]

for me Tears of the kingdom kinda feld meaningless, it was like: Go explore these copypaste skyisland, the generic underground, or the same old overworld. Like in Twilight princess as an example there were so many places and people that I had an emotional attachment to, but in totk it felt lonely and meaningless, tho I might be projecting reallife into this

[@mjesus850]

exactly how i felt. no heart pieces, no items, no actual side quests. the people saying well its a biggg open world dood and its innovative are so fucking delusional and wouldnt know a good zelda game if it slapped them. there was reason to explore and it actually felt meaningful like you said in the old games. now its just big flashy open world and you walk around and gawk at random fucking scenery

[@MylesKillis]

@@mjesus850how is it not innovative and how is any modern Zelda game innovative?

[@schnek8927]

@@MylesKillisHow is doing nothing new being innovative? Totk is just an amalgamation of the most popular trends of the last few decades, all done poorly.

[@mjesus850]

@@MylesKillis lets see its not innovative especially in the open world department theyre late as hell on that one and they cant even give it a good effort becacuse they know drones will lap it up. the only innovative point ill give you is the physics system, thats about all i see. also how is any modern zelda game innovative? most of the games always try some new concept, change almost everything how the game looks plays while keeping the base concepts in tact. totk was the only zelda game where they barely innovated which i really dont care, i want the game to be fun not oh it was innovative. my bad i didnt make my point above clear, im basically saying the whole focus on innovating is just dumb imo. i just want a actual good crafted open world with old zelda game concepts intact, i think thats the best for both sides of the fandom right now

[@opus1114]

Totk's new skills are genius and it's one of the most impressive technical achievements of game mechanics. The problem is everything else in the game only exists to demo these mechanics. It's the greatest tech demo booth, but that's where it ends. It even feels like Hyrule has been gentrified by Nintendo to make space for Zonai amusement park. AND there is not even a single Zonai npc in the overworld!

[@nabilian2145]

The game mechanics are nothing special it’s just sticking objects together

[@EliEngbretson-bq5ot]

@@nabilian2145yes but those objects can interact with each other and the world it’s not just sticking stuff together

[@nabilian2145]

@@EliEngbretson-bq5ot yeh I’m the same world against the same enemies

[@EliEngbretson-bq5ot]

@@nabilian2145 I think what nintendo was going for in Totk was taking BOTW and adding more game on top of it. Like they kept the world, combat, and structure of the game but added 4 new abilities (fuse and ultrahand are completely different imo,one is used for combat while the other is… ultrahand), 152 new shrines, 5 new dungeons, and I don’t even know how many new side quests to the game (the puzzles in which were way better in my opinion). It has the same format as BOTW, just with more stuff to do. They took BOTW and made it 2.5 times longer (which is referring to the combined lengths of BOTW and Totk). It’s a really interesting idea for a sequel that I don’t think has ever been done before. They also did more on top of that by adding new enemies, weapons, the sky islands, and the depths. Those things alone do not justify the $70 price tag, but that’s really the game was supposed to be. It’s supposed to be more of what we already had in BOTW, and the new additions are there on top of that. That’s not even mentioning how the new abilities completely change how you approach the game. I think that this game is worth its price, but this is just my opinion and it’s OK if you disagree. Elden Ring is still better.

[@EliEngbretson-bq5ot]

Jesus Christ I got carried away, I wrote a whole essay.

[@drewzi2044]

The adventure from Zoras domain to the sky island dungeon is amazing. Probably my favourite experience in both games. Everyone complains about the dungeons, but they did a great job connecting the ground adventure to the boss keep. For me the dungeons include the adventure to get their and if you think of it like that, the dungeons are actually huge and integrated into the world.

[@MajorasWrath1]

You are stupid

[@omensoffate]

“Dungeons”. All of them were terrible

[@eyrthren]

The biggest problem to me is that the path to the dungeon is better than the dungeon itself.

[@KuR58]

All I'm asking for is a balance between a good story (actually happening and developing as you play, not fragments of cinematics of past events) , good dungeons and good items. We don't need to reinvent the wheel every single time. Runes, then ultrahand. It's good, great even. But I want a good mix of both open world elements and that "survival" and rpg elements like items/inventory management while not sacrificing the more traditional, linear story progression and dificulty progression of previous Zeldas and that make Zelda Zelda.

[@JesseDeShazo]

Nice shot 😂 I hear you and I think you’re right on a lot of points. One thing I love though is revisiting places and seeing how it’s changed and/or developed. Especially the caves and the wells. But it would have been so nice if they tried a little harder to make it a more seamless story transition. I can forgive the upheaval doing some things even though it’s a little extra, but completely making characters forget about you and forgetting about the Sheikah tech is hard to forgive…and those copy paste cutscenes.

[@nabilian2145]

Literally the smallest changes have been added for simple people like you to walk around and ooze at them

[@JesseDeShazo]

@@nabilian2145 I hear you!

[@gracebres]

I recently visited the lightining temple and personally I wish we had the gerudo vai armor too. It would be such a nice surprise for someone to do it without it and discover that you could just enter the town without.

[@linktheplayer3]

The fact that the first sequel story in years we got that actually takes place in the same land as the original had this messed up of a story made me so disappointed and after third dungeon I just had to take a break, the first Zelda game I just didn’t feel like finishing (nice shot btw)

[@NeedsMoDakka]

43:29 "Shiekak tech just up and disappeared" Oh ok so for some reason emperor palpatine's back, sure ok

[@NeedsMoDakka]

Also tbh it feels like the whole story is KH2 Goofy gets konked in the head (you don't catch zelda) and now you're all intrigued because AAAAAA NOOOOO GOOFY (mission: find zelda) but then goofy shows up after a really long fight [TWO HUNDRED HOURS OF NOTHING AND SHITTY OUT-OF-ORDER CUTSCENES] and you realize Goofy was fine the whole time (dragon)

[@Jdudec367]

Nah this one actually makes sense tbh

[@Jdudec367]

@@NeedsMoDakka two hundred horus of nothing? You were visiting dungeons and sages and the cutscenes aren't that bad and eh...Goofy wouldn't be fine if he's a dragon then

[@ACW-dn9wb]

​@@Jdudec367The dungeons are just as crappy as thr ones in BOTW. Better looking but evern worse since it has no interactive environment gimmick to move the divine beast around this time. And the cutscenes arent bad? Cope much Jayden? "Demon king, Secret Stone?" x5 😂

[@ACW-dn9wb]

​@@Jdudec367No it doesnt. Its litery just disappeared without in-gMe explanation. And noone took efforts to look for them or even mention them once. Nintendo just said its "purpose was served" but that not true esithe bc Ganondorf is still beneath the castle and the ancient weapons (Guardians being too dangerous) the swords and other tech would be very helpful. Plus their purpose wasnd "served" before with all the other Calamities prior, why is it "served" now when another would just appear again in another 10000 years? No explanations, just answers that make no logical sense from Nintendo if you think for +5 secs, and sheer cope from people like you Jayden.

[@valzorscaleskin7986]

I am 10:14 into the video and I don't know if you mention this yet, but Stasis should have come back. Giving the items momentum BEFORE the Stasis wore off and go flying is what I wanted to have back!

[@hollowshield2315]

maybe its just because I've gotten used to very difficult, souls like games, but I truly feel like the dungeons in botw and totk just felt very... empty. like you weren't crawling through a dungeon or ruined temple; you were exploring a large, fairly empty area where the only interesting thing was a glorified button. sure, most of the other zelda dungeons weren't very difficult, but they still felt engaging and focused, with a large sense of scale and indiviuality. edit: nice shot :)

[@infinitecurlie]

I don't play souls games (I just suck at them hahaha) but I completely agree. They know how to make good dungeons, they could have placed some restrictions (like they can only use fuse) to still make it challenging. I cheesed my way through the fire temple and just went oh no. This is pretty boring.

[@mr.awesome6011]

The main story which includes dungeons is supposed to be on the more easy side since the overworld has enemies that can kill players quick until you power up more. Not every game needs to be a lol hard, grind, die repeat Souls circle jerk.

[@francjirachi]

​@@mr.awesome6011the problem isnt that its easy, but that it is empty and repeated, past zelda dungeons were easy but they had plenty of puzzles and challenges that were memorable and fun

[@opticalsalt2306]

@@francjirachiI’d also say they were laughably small, I loved the music and theming of the dungeons, they 100% took the “we want dungeons” to heart, but their heart was in the wrong place. I just dislike that it follows the same formula, I think 6 locks for each dungeon? That really limits the fun ideas. And the repeated dialogue is stupid. Ok I’m done dogging on the game

[@SombreroPharoah]

And the fact you could just ascend and build bits and basically skip 90% any degree of puzzle in them, made them tooooo easy.

[@kayleelesmeister3477]

Nice shot! I agree with everything you said. You managed to put to words all the things that I was disappointed with but couldn't necessarily put my finger on. I hope that the next Zelda game returns a bit more to the classic formula, and improves the story end of things...

[@CoolSmoovie]

Kinda died inside when I got to the castle in the sky island. I was expecting a enemy fortress. Instead it was empty save for some chests and a shrine

[@senordivinebeast646]

It’s weird because I absolutely loved the gameplay and story set pieces of Totk. It’s prolly my favorite Zelda but still, the way it’s set up leaves little room for theorizing and that rly rly sucks.

[@Faceplay2]

Nope it’s sucked go back and reply the old games they have way better stories.

[@senordivinebeast646]

@@Faceplay2I replay the old Zelda games every year, and I agree they have better stories. All I said was I enjoyed the story set pieces in Totk aka certain locations and events

[@Faceplay2]

@@senordivinebeast646 twilight, princess will always be my favorite. I actually just replayed through the game a few months back I can’t believe how much better Nintendo is at storytelling with that game than they are with the new game. It’s a damn shame twilight princess felt like the final fantasy story tellers helped create the story.

[@infinitecurlie]

​@@senordivinebeast646I get what you mean. There were pieces of the story I really enjoyed like finding out what had happened to Zelda. But it's a shame they didnt construct it better.

[@mr.awesome6011]

​@@Faceplay2Ok boomer

[@fallen12star]

Nice shot!! It's so sad to see how broken hearted all of these great Zelda theorists are. Tears could've been great with only a few minor changes and tweaks. Would love to see Final Fantasy stuff, but I suppose the lore isn't hidden or obscure. For Zelda, I would love to see special items that lock off hidden areas return, with some areas requiring multiple items to reach to serve as "gatekeeping" for progression.

[@mr.awesome6011]

So basically go back to status quo Zelda?

[@RadNinja569]

Kinda like a 3d metriodvania

[@sierra565]

This video is so healing. I can't even express how I feel without sounding super bitter. But you summed it up so nicely, Bandit. By the way, that was a nice shot.

[@RegalCorvus]

the most aggravating thing about totk for me is that the time zelda goes back to doesn't fit into the the pre existing timeline at all, would have been cool if the dragon tears let you play through the story of zeldas part rather than it just being a cinematic, or maybe one of the powers let you swap between link (present) and zelda (past) maybe it could be part of the recall power

[@mon0tony]

I think the part that stings the most is that I thought with six years, longer than any other Zelda game took to make, there was something incredible that they were hiding from us in the trailers and presentations.. but the depths and sky Islands were lackluster, and like you said, slowly broke many hearts. I understand that in breath of the wild the reward was exploration, but there wasn't much to explore in this game. six damn years 😔

[@Axecon1]

6 years, reused assets, and a $70 game. I don't think it's unreasonable to have expected more.

[@mon0tony]

@@Axecon1 100% agree

[@highdefinition450]

lol same i guess covid really slowed thibgs down :/

[@RNGuice]

Six wasted years of all of our lives :/

[@israelwilson4022]

@@Axecon1fr

[@SalazarFanGurl]

I am frustrated how in the first announcement trailer; it was made out to be a long and epic journey beneath the castle and that's not what we got in the final product. Most of those scenes from that first trailer aren't even shown or expanded upon. That part of the story was over in like under five minutes. It was just a tutorial basically. The game starts out with Link and Zelda looking at some statues and wall art and then suddenly they just stumble upon mummified Ganondorf. Um...wat?

[@Corrico95]

Nice shot! Moving forward I think there needs to be blend of the old and the new. Bring back traditional dungeons, and give us three of them (forest, fire, water) but let us tackle them in any order. Maybe after you’ve beaten two of them a cutscene triggers when you leave the dungeon. Then after all three are beaten something happens (lets say Kakariko gets invaded) and you need to deal with that, then four more dungeons open up that you can then again tackle in any order but triggers certain events after a certain number of them are defeated. An open game can still work but I think Zelda shines best when it has at least SOME linearity to it. Also bring back Link’s iconic green tunic with the stupid floppy hat. I hate the champions tunic and want him back in the green.

[@sorry.it.is.I]

Yeah, I want him back in green, too!

[@ridori7376]

Elden Ring does something similar. Everything up to Leyndell can be tackled in any order, you only need to beat 2 of the main bosses to get into the city. Then after you beat the main boss of Leyndell there's a twist in the story and the end game areas open up (which are also generally harder than the earlier areas). There's literally nothing wrong with that structure, I don't get why they're so dead set on absolutely everything being available from the start. It just robs the game from having a greater sense of progression.

[@Kenspiracy664]

Zelden Ring. Gimme gimme

[@pixelpunchyt]

Things Tears of the Kingdom is missing from the rest of the Zelda franchise: - Secret sword skills - Reimagined overworld - Companion character - Other kingdoms - Active intelligent villain or villains - Actions in the overworld having lasting consequences - Musical instrument - Magic (potions, medallions, etc.) - Genuinely difficult final boss - Unbreakable weapons - A story that strongly and obviously connects to the rest of the Zelda lore - Like 9 total dungeons - Emotional manipulation in the music, storytelling, and scenery - Tangible projections of power

[@thomasw9286]

Ngl, half of these things are very dumb. They don't make a game good, or bad. All depends on the type of game you have

[@limewater4074]

Totk lacks emotional manipulation in the music and scenery? Did we play the same game?

[@hannahprivett1638]

You couldn’t be more GODAMN right. 100% agree agree agree these are all the key ingredients the newest Zelda games are missing 👌

[@mjesus850]

they did open world so dont matter, all the sycophants below will scream and cry if you point out the game is shallow as fuck

[@kingkrysen]

Agree just give us old school Zelda again

[@lleytontrainer5729]

I have no idea what to expect from the next Zelda game. I think something smaller, much smaller than the most recent two. Although, I think I would like something similar to Majora's Mask. Not a grand, epic adventure, but something that is what you would call more niche. I'm not sure Nintendo would ever do something like that again, but I personally think it would be cool. But otherwise, Bandit, pretty much what you've said. A return to the older Zelda traditions with the newer game play designs. But definitely something smaller. I really don't want to have to explore a Hyrule that is somehow even bigger than the era of the Wild

[@sorry.it.is.I]

Bigger-but-not-better seems to be Nintendo's thing now, so don't get your hopes up. 😢

[@Omgwhatisthat42]

Thank you for putting all that I’ve been thinking about this game into words. I just want story line in future games. I want things explained. The triforce needs to be incorporated again, it’s literally the symbol for all zelda games. Also, nice shot.

[@DavidMiller-uo6cs]

Nice shot on that Wizzrobe Bandit! Anyway what my biggest letdown was, they had the gruedo helping Ganondorf in the flashbacks but in present hyrule, they are not under his rule anymore. Nintendo could've really expanded on that during the scene with the past gruedo sage, maybe explain why they aren't working together anymore, nope just the same copy and paste scene from the other ones when you meet the past sages after beating a temple. Like they showed a scene where they attacked raru and Co together, they were there when he pledged his allegiance to the kingdom hyrule, what happened after that? I'm sure everyone else including you Bandit, feels the same as me. Why the heck did Ganondorf and the gruedo all of sudden just stop working together considering he was the one male born to them and was their leader. Nintendo really dropped the ball with that part of the story, and had a chance to expand Ganondorf's character if not more than just a little more than what it was in this game.

[@kittenfan7664]

from what we can grasp, the gerudo left him when he started createing monsters. in his shot of him leading monsters to hyrule castle, there are NO gerudo with him.

[@yallneedjesus5465]

Nice shot. Simply put, my entry into the zelda universe was through KZbin lore videos like yours and, simultaneously, starting to play BOTW and so, even though I've never had the experience of the other titles, i was super happy with BOTW, except the weapon durability. I loved most of the exploration and shrines and, while the map systems and the divine beast kind of confused me at first, i ended up loving it even more. So, when i saw TOTK, i was super excited to see how they would continue the story for BOTW as well as super excited to see the way they would close up the story and include actual Ganondorf...... Then, i played the beginning of TOTK, which strictly restricted what you could do, took away all your special abilities, AND stripped away all of the menu so you couldn't even check anything, and i felt like all of the good things of BOTW were taken away. Then, they strip all your hearts and destroy the master sword just so you could restart BOTW but with sky islands and depths? I was so angry

[@josiahrandecker5406]

I totally agree. I was so excited for this game and I literally stayed up all night just so I could get into the story and see what all changed, but there wasn't anything. The beginning was on point and could have been so much more. They could have done a lot with clearing up the timeline and explaining where botw and totk go in the timeline. They brought back Ganondrof and didn't do anything with him. They could have brought back Fi, her sound effect was literally used for the sword. They could have used demise and cleared the curse and do something new. But instead they just threw Zoni all over the place and thought we wouldn't care. And the whole master sword breaking was absolutely crazy considering that nothing has come close to denting it. They had so much potential, but went absolutely no where with it. This is still far from a bad game and I certainly enjoyed every second I had with it. There was just so much missing. Nice shot BTW

[@mr.awesome6011]

BOTW /TOTK are their own timeline because Nintendo doesn't feel like making every Zelda game based around some mostly fan made up timeline. It's been this way since the series inception up until the age of voices getting too loud to ignore on the internet. Ganondorf and by extention Calamity Ganon was the most dangerous and destructive version of Ganon by far. The guy did nothing but bring Hyrule to the brink two games in a row. More than any other Ganon. Demise and Fi were never a factor because Zelda games don't tend to go back to characters that were intended for specific stories. Plus Fi can never wake back up and be sentient as explained in Skyward Sword.and I think the weakening of the Master Sword was a great idea. The once powerful blade of evils bane is not as powerful as once thought and now Link and Zelda have to fight without it and come up with a way to fix the problem while fightingoff Ganon's minions. Gameplay wise it's balanced as such for you to make use of your entire arsenal giving more strategy to battles instead of "OP sword go swing" for the second half of the game. Stuff like this was the point of Breath of the Wild changing the series up in many much needed ways.

[@lolitsleo]

@@mr.awesome6011 The timeline is not “fan made”. You can literally find interviews of the developers talking about the timeline shortly after the release of most games. The developers’ words prove you wrong. They always had the intention to make a cohesive story with lore. The biggest proof is in the second Zelda game literally being called Zelda 2 in Japan. After Zelda 2, they had interviews where they stated that they made Ocarina of Time to be the prequel to AlttP, then after Ocarina of Time, they made Wind Waker, PH, ST, MM, and TP which all had clear connections to Ocarina of Time that were spelled out to us. I can list more games that are very clearly connected by in-game text and developer interviews but you get the point by now.

[@vadoslink446]

@@lolitsleo The developers somewhat considered when the games take place in correlation to each other, but they definitely didn't have the intention to make a cohesive story with lore. The games are full of retcons and contradictions and they constantly drop certain ideas on a whim. The Master Sword lore in AlttP for example was completely obliterated by SS and the Triforce rule about it splitting when someone with an unbalanced heart touches it was completely missing when Ganon claimed it in AlttP.

[@rpgswithwe]

​@vadoslink446 yeah because a LTTP was made prior to Ocarina of Time, which is when they decided to care about the series story. Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, just about every single game after Ocarina of Time takes great care when it comes to meshing with the overall story

[@vadoslink446]

​@@rpgswithwe The thing is, that Miyamoto was already talking about a timeline when AlttP was out. They cared enough about the overarching story to pay attention to how the games would relate to each other. But just like now, they always made up some stuff as they went along and either changed, dropped or retconned certain elements if the story of the individual game requires it.

[@linklegend7536]

Dawg its so good to see alot of zelda content creators really talk about the issues with this game now. I feel like I was going crazy when the game came out and everyone praised it to the heavens. I just hope nintendo still cares about good stories in some ways and take this feedback to heart. Also nice shot

[@samueltitone5683]

If good stories from Nintendo are what you’re looking for, might I recommend Xenoblade Chronicles in these trying times?

[@linklegend7536]

@@samueltitone5683 oh dont worry I consider the xenoblade games as one of the greatest trilogies in gaming LOL

[@ShallBePurified]

@@samueltitone5683 It's funny seeing him say that TotK feels like bad fanfiction writing, when Future Redeemed released earlier this year to show Xenoblade fans good fanfiction writing lol. It was so unreal seeing them talk about past events using proper nouns and directly showing us cutscenes to tie the whole story together. It amplified my disappointment in TotK in how unwilling they were to connect to any games beyond references, even with BotW itself. It felt like they were too scared to alienate new players to TotK they didn't want to make anything canon or have any meaning, and that is disappointing to fans.

[@doll1457]

Nice shot. I want new villains. As much as I love Ganondorf, I don't think they know how to handle his character anymore. We've had good games without him (Spirit Tracks was great and I will die on that hill) and I would love to see what else they can come up with.

[@Agueybana1978]

Don't forget about ALBW (Yuga is the main antagonist), MC, ST, MM, etc.

[@Sir_Adam]

@@Agueybana1978 Yuga is somewhat lame. I haven't played it but what about Minish Cap with Vaati?

[@Agueybana1978]

@@Sir_Adam I was establishing Yuga as the antagonist since, Ganon was in the game but only serving as a vessel for Yuga.

[@daxernsthenobody]

​@@Agueybana1978wasn't Yuga just Ganondorf's Lorule counterpart?

[@Agueybana1978]

@@daxernsthenobody he's more of the opposite of Impa to me.

[@KingSlendy]

As a Zelda fan for over a decade… I'm very sad, about BOTW and TOTK, because I liked BOTW when I first played it, but the more time that passed the more flaws I kept seeing, it's a game that lets me down, because it's a good game, but it's not the Zelda that I fell in love with. And now seeing TOTK is just basically the same thing, with sprinkles over it… it pains me, and now I'm worried the next Zelda is gonna be BOTW 3.0. I just miss the cool dungeons, amazing stories, clever puzzles

[@LessThanErik]

I fully agree! It’s not that I dislike the games, I just think the old ones were better. I probably miss the old dungeons and stories the most. Hopefully they move away from the breath of the wild formula in the future, at least a little.

[@madikays]

I’d love to see progression similar to Twilight Princess. Mostly linear with a large open hyrule area that you can interact with differently based on how far you’ve progressed in the game. I miss the claw shot and other weird tools you were required to have to progress the story. And I agree with what you said toward the end; I don’t need a giant map. Quality over quantity

[@buh2604]

Agree!! The progresion in Twilight Princess felt so rewarding 💘

[@rileymerino6340]

I played the whole game thinking I miss weird tools 😔 And the fact that both of the last two games give you almost all the skills you can use within the first 45 minutes. It was so cool going back and using the grappling hook at outset island to discover a whole labyrinth underneath. Interactive is cool-return value is cooler and botw and especially totk really struggle in that department.

[@MissingScrew27]

I've heard so many people complain about linearity in twilight princess but its simply not true , theres so much stuff on the hyrule fields where im just like " what how can i do this " until i come back with the right item and it all makes sense

[@radaf4429]

"I'd like to see the same thing they've done for 35 years."

[@madikays]

@@radaf4429 I’m burnt out on every new game needing to be open-world exploration. I was simply saying a hybrid would be nice, like in TP. It’s not an overdone structure and it would be a breath of fresh air to have some linear structure back.

[@Yukielia]

I watched the whole thing. I understand a lot of your frustration too. What I want to see is real traditional dungeons, better story that's not found in bits or pieces from the past, and the items from previous Zelda games too. Also Triforce where did that go?

[@sorry.it.is.I]

Yes, please!

[@Gamer1288]

Zelda is implied to have it. The Memory that you get when you draw the Master Swords shows you that.

[@GerardMenvussa]

Well, good news for you: there's about 16 Zelda games that do just that. Go play these and let other people enjoy new stuff

[@Gamer1288]

@@Yukielia That Comment wasn't Mine, it was @GeraldMenvussa.

[@Yukielia]

@Gamer1288 oops, thanks for letting me know, fixed 😊.

[@kalas_x3]

I feel the problem is Ninty felt that Skyward Sword's problems was a combination of both it's linearity AND heavy focus on story & lore. So they made BotW & TotK be the total opposite, focusing 90% on gameplay, 5% on story, & 5% on lore. Ninty effectively regressed back into thinking that story & gameplay can't coexist without one taking a backseat to the other with these LoZelda games.

[@mjesus850]

and whats funny is their focus on gameplay is mashing b, spraying arrows at gleeoks, and walking around a barren unfulfilling world to gawk at the environment

[@richardhambel648]

Some additional problems with TOTK: -Epona, the green tunic, and the Hylian shield are inconsequential. You can 100% the entire game without ever seeing Epona, wearing a green tunic, or picking up a Hylian shield despite them all being in the game, a Zelda game -Boomerangs are inconvenient and next to useless -No hookshot, bombchus, empty bottles, heavy boots, hammer, flying boots, pegasus boots, etc -Lets you carry too many healing items -No underwater anything at all -Worst dungeons in the franchise for 3D Zelda games -Not enough dungeons -No new weapon types -You suggested this but didn't say it outright: no new map; same map as BOTW -Non-rewards for anything outside of unlocking new sages. Korok seeds are only a good reward until you need 16 for the next slot. Bubbulgems are literally useless if you have Majora's Mask, which I found by accident before I even knew what Bubbulgems were for, because Majora's Mask nullifies all the masks you get from collecting Bubbulgems -Grindy upgrade systems (I noticed they even doubled the amount of gems you need to fully upgrade a green tunic) resulting in hundreds of hours of grindplay -There are no lore secrets that are revealed via exploration. 99% of exploration yields a korok seed or bubbulgem. Like, exploring some runes will teach you nothing about those ruins -The lightroots have no lore/backstory or even purpose outside of letting you see your way around. You find them all and it gives you nothing. The medal does nothing as far as I can tell. -The Depths have no lore/backstory or purpose besides housing a couple temples and letting you semi-re-fight bosses. I say semi because you are battling them in this dark cavern instead of the actual temple boss room -The Depths are not only empty and pointless, but they are in fact the same world map copy/pasted again just they inverted the elevations -The game never guides you toward finding the sage vows. I got the full ending and all shrines before I even knew these existed in the game. -The game also never guides you toward seeing the memories. I just happened to miss Impa, and never even heard the term "geoglyph' until I had beaten all the dungeons and discovered the Memories menu and had to google how to find memories in this game. I feel like it should be impossible to accidentally miss the entire story in a game -It has Lon Lon Ranch but no Malon or Talon. Missed opportunity to have the player repair the ranch and Malon and Talon move in. Then this could be how you get Epona -Ganondorf's loooong health bar looks silly and fails to intimidate when it's in a game with fixed health bar lengths that don't depend on the enemy's amount of health. Lynels have the same health bar as red bokoblin, so why should the player suddenly care about how long a boss's health bar is? Also it being off center makes it look like a bug in the game I had other problems. But, it's been months now since I played TOTK. I can't fully remember the smaller issues so I'll leave it at that.

[@thewannabegamer9]

I completely agree with you. On everything really. TotK could’ve been so much more. But yeah, what you were saying about the future, they just need to go back to their roots before they can truly move forward with something new. Bring back storytelling that yourself as Link goes through. When I think about some of the best storytelling in Zelda, I honestly look to Twilight Princess. Your actions, as a player, matter in that game. *You* rescue the Zora. *You* purge the land of Twilight. *You* follow Zant and Ganondorf all the way to their ends. *You* save Midna. Not someone else in a flashback scene that you watch; it is *you.* And really, it doesn’t just happen in Twilight Princess, but almost every other Zelda game except BotW and TotK. If you don’t do anything - if you don’t watch the little flashbacks - nothing changes, nothing matters. I’m tired of not actually being in the story. Anyway, nice shot. And Happy Thanksgiving! I’m excited to see what you’re going to be doing in the future.

[@mr.awesome6011]

You do most of this stuff throughout TOTK. such as stopping a sudden cold snap in Rito Village, a heatwave with sandstorms and gibdo sightings in the desert and tainted rocks that are turning the Gorons aggressive. You're following clues about Zelda and Ganondorf and where to find her and how to stop him with the memories. I'm not a big fan of them coming back either but they accomplish this nonetheless. And of course BOTW and TOTK aren't like other games because that was the point of these games more sO BOTW. To change the series' conventions up from an almost 20 year status quo.

[@vadoslink446]

Huh? also venture into the Depths to discover Ganon's corpse. rescue the races of Hyrule by dealing with the regional phenoma and Divine Beasts. are the one who finds where the Master Sword is and rips it out of a dragon's head in the sky. save Zelda and dive after her. You're completely ignoring the majority of the main quest and act as if only the Tears/Memories exist. I also think TP is a horrible example for a good story. Link is just Midna's sidekick. Ganondorf comes completely out of nowhere and only has one interaction with Link throughout the entire game. Zelda, unlike BotK, barely even does anything.

[@Raddish-IS-Radd]

​@@mr.awesome6011but they change it up very poorly which is why people constantly mention the old way plus the threats in totk aren't that threatening oh no brown goop is gonna land of the Zora village but ofc nobody seems to be all that worried and are operating fine enough

[@theoaremevano3227]

Yeah, separating Link from the story has this effect of making returning to the regular world from a cutscene showing something happening (in the past), feel like a let-down, because you realize none of those events will matter in the time you're playing through. You're still just cleaning up.

[@Decapitationtrain]

Funny your example is the game where Link is Midna's sidekick

[@MCraven120]

The secret stones are pretty much just the triforce at home. Nintendo's trying to replace something with actual lore and meaning behind it with some random color coded mcguffins we'll probably never hear of again after totk.

[@ACW-dn9wb]

Sigh, its so true. And thats what makes it even sadder.

[@jakuth99]

As far as the story, I wasn’t let down until afterwards. I was willing to accept that they rebooted the story, because frankly the Zelda timeline is way too complicated as is. But when the director implied that this was a separate Hyrule and ganondorf far into the future, it felt incredibly half baked. Like, they have it in the same chronology but completely unrelated to anything else?

[@XanderVJ]

Forget about the old timeline. Even the connection between TotK and BotW alone is wonky at best.

[@mr.awesome6011]

They changed their minds between games because Nintendo has never truly cared about timelines in Zelda. These games weren't designed with that in mind. And they only ever mentioned it because the fans cared a lot and they decided to humor them. It's too much work trying to piece this whole thing together and keep it consistent moving forward so Nintendo wanted to just put their focus on making good games and just decided to make BOTW/TOTK it's own separate timeline.

[@MaxenceBerrier]

​@@mr.awesome6011it's actually false. Play any Zelda game, in order of release, and you can recreate the timeline. Actually that's what people did. People made many timelines, theorizing all over the place about where the games went. Many timelines were weird ans didnt make sense, but some managed to put almost all games in the right order, at the exception of the third timeline. I dont understand how people forgot that even before hyrule historia there already were stpry connections

[@vadoslink446]

@@MaxenceBerrier You can't. The games already had a huge amount of retcons and inconsistencies by the time OoT came out. Literally nothing in the games ever pointed towards the existence of the downfall timeline...which btw conveniently houses all of those pre-OoT games that they couldn't fit anywhere else. Heck, when Hyrule Historia revealed the official timeline, Link's Awakening was placed after the Oracle games. The official Zelda website later changed this and now LA takes place before them. The timeline is bullshit and only exists to set up a very vague ruleset for Zelda stories and lore. It's not meant to be a complex set of stories with the focus of building a nuanced and believable world.

[@jakuth99]

@@mr.awesome6011they didn’t make it its own timeline. Not only did Anouma say BotW takes place after all the other games without determining what timeline it’s in, but the TotK director said in an interview “actually it’s possible Hyrule was destroyed and rebuilt again and the hyrule in the duology is another Hyrule”

[@jackiemay147]

ToTK feels like a mod for BoTW. Soooo similar in terms of combat, towers, shrines, temples and Korok seeds. It just feels like they took BoTW and made the temples slightly different, made the shrines slightly different, etc. Yes, I know there are caves, depths, and sky islands. But the gameplay is just way too similar. It’s genuinely insulting that Majora’s Mask was made in one year but ToTK was made in 6??? That’s just infuriating because MM is the better game imo by far and reused WAY less than ToTK used from BoTW. If there wasn’t a Zelda IP on this, I would’ve assumed it was created by some random studio pumping out a generic open world game with the only goal being to make boatloads of money.

[@LilacMonarch]

Exactly my feelings. MM is a much better sequel

[@thorsteinnorman7133]

It's a funny thing... The gameplay started exactly where I was in the over-world when I last stopped playing. Nice shot! "said in the Wii Sport Resort voice"

[@mynappyaphro]

Nice shot! I feel the same way about a lot of what you talked about. I've been a life long Zelda fan since the very first one. TotK just didn't do it for me. It's the first game in a long time I had to take a break from and come back to complete. Just want to be a key player in the story again. And as much as I love Gannondorf, it time to move away from him for the sake of having him

[@MollyWiseViola]

Firstly, I love how much thought and time you put into your opinions and I think it’s great that you’re sharing them about a series you like! I have a differing view about the weapons-I think what weapons breaking taught me is that I SHOULD always be using my strong weapons because another good weapon/fuse item is always around the corner (or I know where to go or what monsters to fight to get more).

[@DanSutherland]

While this is true, and the correct way to use the system, it also shows just how much the game is willing to waste your time to go make another weapon that is likely very similar to what you already use. In BotW I found i think a Royal Greatsword on top of a tower early game and just kept coming back because most of the other weapons were garbage in comparison. I also found the bullet time arrows actually to be OP once I got used to that system, so things like boomerangs that should be interesting alternatives were just kinda annoyingly clunky. There was a video by razbuten, Fixing Breath of the Wild's Biggest Problems, that goes over some good points and ideas about the system. If all I'm going to do is go back to the same locations for the same weapons to just have them break, it just feels like an extra grind/chore to do especially when the game is as large as it is. In the early to mid-game the system is genuinely interesting but late game the mechanic overstays it's welcome. It also prevents the game from having more interesting uses for weapons outside of combat in the way traditional Zelda items do. Puzzles and mechanics are shallow because if your items break, you halt progress/soft lock the player. Full disclosure: I haven't played TotK yet, so I don't really know what it's like, but it looks like it carries *many* of the problems BotW had. And I haven't been able to go back to BotW as it is. I'm sure I'll play eventually but I still feel burned out from BotW's formula.

[@Orion_Santana]

100% agree. I have never been so unmotivated on a Zelda. I can’t even find the enthusiasm to finish it

[@stardewserenity]

I felt the same way but I did finish it. However, after I finished the game I felt empty and not accomplished or rewarded. I also have no desire to ever replay the game like I do with past games. I don't like BOTW as much as other Zelda games, but I think the story in BOTW was much more put together and the gameplay was an interesting addition to the series. I actually have a desire to replay BOTW too unlike TOTK.

[@Odinsday]

@@stardewserenity Even though TOTK is a better put together game than BOTW, especially with how versatile ultra hand can be, there is something that BOTW has that TOTK just doesn't. The atmosphere and story just mesh together so much better in comparison to TOTK. Not to say that TOTK doesn't have similar moments of atmospheric brilliance like when you first go to Rito Village or when you obtain the master sword, but BOTW just felt like a more consistent package to me.

[@Linklex7]

I couldn’t even finish BOTW. The problem is these two games are under this weird illusion of being about options and choice when in actually they’re the most restriction Zelda games of all time with no real option or choice

[@randykoger4646]

I just gave up about 10 hours in. It’s soooo pointless and boring.

[@samueltitone5683]

Another KZbinr I enjoy watching made the point that listening to other people complain about things you don’t like can be cathartic. I think that’s how this video makes me feel. After being shouted down for months about how I’m wrong and how TotK is actually an 11/10 masterpiece that solved world hunger and brought about peace on Earth, I finally feel heard. Thank you.

[@stabby7194]

I would definitely like to see more content like this. Having a scripted rant is good in some ways, but I feel like you have a lot more depth when you’re unscripted. I also like where you want to take the channel. I’m here for the interesting theories about games I like. It’s really refreshing to see someone else who appreciates the universe of Zelda properly articulate how bad totk was. Thanks for that, and nice shot btw.

[@tBOGGgle]

They should have given a completion reward in the game that unlocked the shiekah slate and old abilities that you could talk to an npc to switch between like Purah or something instead of just dropping those mechanics altogether

[@ChaosNew]

Hehehe, they removed rmthe bombs so we would run out of resoruces and forcefully had to fuse rocks to keep progressing in the areas with bombable rocks just to obtain, you guessed it, a shrine or two and breakable weapons 😂

[@mylem6234]

I want them to make things a bit more linear and traditional dungeons. They can keep the open world but this time no memory bullshit, I want to experience the story in real time.

[@H-TownGamer]

Agree I want Zelda back. its been two games and fans are tired

[@rudani7563]

exactly i was so disappointed when they did the same exact shit with the time just watching cutscenes from the past like wtf

[@ShootFirstSev]

Nice shot! Honestly you summed up pretty well the unspoken dissatisfaction I've felt playing TotK. I don't feel the same zest I did for BotW and honestly went back and replayed Wind Waker and Twilight Princess and for all their linearities they were awesome games. It's more than just gameplay, and Nintendo has to realize that.

[@aclassicusername2174]

Nice Shot! What worries me most about Tears of The Kingdom is how successful it was. I'm really sick of having these massive 100+ hour games and really miss the (relatively) smaller experiences of previous Zelda games. I'm also bothered that its 1 character per dungeon, meaning characters won't stick with the player through multiple areas and dungeons. I want characters that you remember, and characters that will have noticeable arcs throughout the game. Groose, Midna, and Tetra are all great examples of characters who do this, and I feel that even Fan Favorites like Sidon and Riju aren't nearly as successful as they could be.

[@em.b3rr]

nice shot also my heart SOARED at the first 20 minutes of the game, what an amazing opening. my heart then abruptly SANK when i saw how empty the sky was, and the return of the same old same old shrines

[@nico-tendo261]

Nice shot, couldn’t agree more. Thought fi was gonna make an appearance and have alot of tie in to skyward sword now that the origin of hyrule was a focal point in trailers as well as sky islands. I was really hopping some kind of sky loft ruins would be explorable too

[@sketchfluff5471]

I totally agree! That would be so cool! I’m one of the rare that love most everything about Skyward sword haha

[@Dd-fb2tj]

Apparently it was meant to be....read the new dev interviews, they were going to include it but decided against it ....for some reason

[@ZYCKORL]

Perfect explanation of mine and many others feelings on the game i wish they focused on the sky far more than in the final product since the sky was plastered in all of the marketing

[@jmnstuff]

About the part of listening to fans. This goes all the way back to OoT where they speculated about two timelines. It wasn't originally intentional but it's how we landed with TP.

[@stavrosbegetis2173]

The only thing I like about TP is how it used a separate child timeline to reboot Hyrule. Once it got flooded in Wind Waker I thought Hyrule was forever underwater and Phantom Hourglass' story would have been the norm

[@gregvs.theworld451]

Sheikah technology: "I must go, my planet needs me!" Note: The Sheikah technology died on its way to its home planet.

[@layneaicjerry]

Nice shot! I need a more linear story. I want it to be like TP, where you are going after Zant this whole time, then you find out Ganon was behind it all. Like we traverse the surface level and beat 8 temples to beat one guy, THEN you find out that Ganon was behind it, and THEN the depths open up and you fight new temples, new problems on the surface arise. That would be epic! Require me to go back and forth to progress the story, have some consequences.

[@particulasdecaos]

Nice shot! I had and keep having these same feelings of disappointment about this game since I started playing it but because my boyfriend and everyone were hyping about it I thought I was very wrong or biased. Now I realize that the game saga I love the most was treated in this careless way. I hope they indeed listen to us this time. Take care

[@firestarex3544]

The Zelda team has had two chances now to make sky worlds and have both times failed miserably. I would have just preferred them making a game entirely set in the sky so that we would have had Great Sky Island quality everywhere else, like how Wind Waker focused on the sea. It's something I've really craved in gaming since Skyward Sword opened up the possibility to me, and it is so incredibly frustrating to get advertised exactly that and then have the rug swept from under me yet again. I think my biggest problem with TOTK though is its lack of identity. Every Zelda game in the series has managed to feel unique from one-another despite sharing the same formula, however TOTK tries so hard to be everything at once that it really has no strong identity or theme of its own. It's barely even a sequel to BOTW, in fact it's more of a requel or redo if anything.

[@marioandultrachap]

Then keep in mind this game took 5.5 to 6 years to wait. Like its reasonably understandable that we should of gotten more and better than what we got but it seems like they spend most of that time working on the building mechanics which is something literally nobody asked for. Thats not what made breath of the wild great. So they work on that and rush everything else when it should of been the other way around. Working on things that made the previous game great which was exploration, world building, and story telling then expanding upon that but unfortunately that wasnt goal.