How Breath of the Wild was BETTER than Tears of the Kingdom: PART 2

[@zeltroid]

Simple question, which game did you enjoy playing more??

[@John6-40]

BotW...but only because it was first. I truly believe TotK was superior in most ways.

[@DoamBot]

BotW but that's because after I learned how to fly its all I did in ToTK. In fact Ibgot settled in a number of builds that just ended up draining the fun in the long run.

[@paczka695]

TotK

[@William_shorts100]

botw

[@William_shorts100]

@paczka695 have you even played botw? if not try it

[@fortnitejake850]

I don’t know how to explain it but breath of the wild was just so magical the first time. I hate to say it but reusing the same map may have been a mistake 😢

[@John6-40]

Imagine how great TotK would've been, if it was the first game that came out in 2017 with the Switch.

[@TheArchitect097]

Totk is very clearly the better game in every way. People think BotW is better because it was new. That's true. Tears wasn't as exciting, but it's so much better. No problem liking BotW more for the experience, but also no problem saying totk is a more fleshed out game.

[@tumultuousv]

It's really not a mistake. It was supposed to be a quicker sequel but the pandemic slowed things down. It does just fine with what it's doing. You'd complain there wasn't enough content if they did a new map and just made it as empty as botws

[@John6-40]

To me, TotK was far superior, yet gave me less excitement, because I'd already explored that Hyrule. TotK had FAR better sidequests, slightly improved "dungeons", better characters, a FAR more compelling story and ending, better boss fight, etc. But TotK is the 2nd game. BotW had that "Nintendo magic" of exploration to it that TotK lacked because it came 2nd.

[@officalatom4055]

My sentiments exactly

[@SenderBender63]

Haven’t played all of the game but I think botw still has better side quests, it just has more highlights instead of ‘bring 15 logs’ or ‘fetch 20 fireflies’ to do a escort mission. Botw story is also better imo but I don’t think either of them loves or dies based off the story. Bosses are also very mixed as Folgers and marbled gohma are easy as pie and the octorok boss is one of the most annoying in the series

[@nashito6436]

Botw progression was also more mastered than tears because they made you spawn at the south of the map, and the center is almost inaccessible because of gardians, so, it sort of turn the map into a circular map where you chose between left or right, and at the top, akala is a step up in the player progress against gardian, allowing him to finally go to the center of the map freely, i haven't seen a that deep level design on tears (also the region with elimith village is made to be an extension of the tutorial, where you are still learning new stuff without realising it's still a form of tutorial)

[@nerce]

They made Majora's Mask in a year, in a cave, with a box of scraps! What a shame they messed TotK so badly.

[@tumultuousv]

Bruh. Game development was much shorter back then. They ALSO crunched there employees back then and it was not healthy. Not a great comparison. Scope was massively different as well. And not like Majora's new map was all that impressive. Totk had more new content than Majora's mask did also. What exactly is your argument

[@nerce]

​@@tumultuousv MM is a better game lol

[@fierybird]

Going back to play botw after playing totk makes it feel so empty and copy + paste. I really enjoyed botw (probably more so than totk at the start) but going back to botw makes me only want to play totk

[@alejanoelallen1952]

Music for the divine beasts was sooooo good.

[@zeltroid]

Yeah, whats sad is I think it was as good (if not better) in TOTK, but it's changing so often, that I honestly can hardly remember much of it.

[@TheLeetCasualGamer]

This section describes the problem with TotK. A lot of it feels so video gamey. Why do the temples exist, so link can go through them. Why did large locals like the Ice dragon area and the pitch black ruins get replaced with towers, because Link can launch himself from these areas. BotW leaves you to question these enviroments as well as them feeling natural. The limit of where you could go depending how much stamina you invest in also designed paths that led you to discover shrines. If TotK maybe was set into past Hyrule instead, they would have freedom to design the map more unique to TotK gameplay. More complexity with exploring with the Zonai devices and more creativity with dungeons.

[@dariobattistini1489]

👏👏🙏🙏

[@ura4321]

I was expecting to find the ancient ruins of Skyloft playing TOTK.

[@zeltroid]

Yeah, that would have been so cool!… and sad 😂

[@PatricksCrazyPlace]

I was not a huge fan of the divine beasts in BOTW, so when I saw themed dungeons again in TOTK, I got excited. Then I realized how dosgustingly easy they were. No joke, except for maybe TOTK's Fire Temple, Id say all the dungeons in TOTK are easier than Inside the Deku Tree from OoT, a dungeon designed to be easy as hell to get us used to the game. TOTK's Fire Temple is the only one I had to apply any kind of brain power to solve. All the rest I probably beat in 10 minutes or less each.

[@michaellawood4791]

I think you pretty much nailed all of the reasons people like me prefer Breath. The world and all of its elements were designed around the game they wanted to make. In Tears' case, it's the opposite: they were forced to design the game around a pre-existing world and structure. It really did NOT benefit.

[@J0J0Jetz]

Agreed. Breath of the wild was very deliberate in its game design as well. Invisible limitations placed on the player make the game’s first 20 hours incredible. You can go anywhere, however, it takes time, planning, and good pathing. Totk eliminates any traversal challenge because you can simply utilize sky towers or devices to get where you want instantly. Botw will be remembered as a top 3 Zelda game while totk will be remembered as, by far, the worst 3d Zelda.

[@John6-40]

If it's remembered that poorly, it will only be due to the fact that it came out 2nd. It improved on BotW in SO many ways. It just lacked the "magic" of exploration that is KEY to Zelda games and what motivated Miyamoto in the first place...because we already explored that Hyrule. But I thoroughly believe that had TotK came first, it'd be even more highly regarded than BotW, which I came to call "Breath of the Empty", for it's boring sidequests and ultimately empty landscape. TotK improved on those things.

[@paczka695]

Maybe by you, TotK is one of the highest rated games of all time by both users and critics. You are in the minority.

[@Physicalchemistry15151]

The 2nd best selling Zelda game by a longshot will not be remembered poorly. It helped saved a declining series that was on its way to irrelevancy had it not adapted to what gamers want

[@J0J0Jetz]

@paczka695 ipad kids grow up eventually

[@zeltroid]

@Physicalchemistry151151 Using sales as a measure of how the game is remembered is a little shaky. That requires some context. For one, any Zelda game sold on the Switch has a massive handicap because there’s more Switch owners. It’s like if a Zelda game got sold on an iPhone… sure, it might outsell everything, but that’s an accessibility thing rather than a favorability thing. The other thing is that A LOT of people purchased TOTK because it was a sequel to BOTW… but again, they doesn’t mean they all loved it. For example, I bought TOTK and was EXTREMELY disappointed in the lack of solid intricate Temples. Based on what I’m seeing on the internet on a regular basis, there’s a lot of people who bought Tears, weren’t thrilled, and are now questioning if they want the next one. Time will tell how it ages, but I’m just saying that sales alone don’t tell the whole story.

[@CriticalEnjoyer]

Breath was like an excellent first few seasons of a show while Tears was the messy later seasons where the creators ran out of ideas so they threw anything and everything at the audience.

[@soulbot119]

I wish I could argue with this, but it's totally accurate. Introduce a new character and spend 10 episodes resolving his side quest.

[@TheArchitect097]

Except what you're describing is actually a good thing when it comes to gameplay rather than TV writing. A TV writer can cram a bunch of nonsense in with no effort. Instead, here we have an absolute endless sandbox of razor sharp, rock solid tested gameplay. They did way more than they had to, and it all just works. I don't know what there is to complain about. I can't imagine the person that wants to replay BotW over totk. I'd feel extremely limited playing BotW and would just want to switch. Yeah, BotW laid an amazing groundwork, but I'll never play it over totk.

[@soulbot119]

I feel like a hypocrite for saying this, but what made BotW endlessly fun for me was the glitches. After 2 regular playthroughs I got into speedrun strats and it made the game *so* much fun. Every time a speedrunner came out with a new glitch or strat it was a new challenge to try, and it led to weeks of fun trying creative new ways of traversing the map and beating the shrines and divine beasts. Whistle sprinting, fall damage cancelling, bullet-time bouncing, shield clipping, item duping, durability transfer, essence duping, rupee duping, infinite ancient parts, early Master Sword, BLSS, the list goes on and on. That shit is *fun.* And after you beat the game glitchless two or three times, you feel like you're entitled to some native cheat codes and/or physics exploits, which can make any game infinitely replayable. In TotK they did everything they could to prevent us from immediately cheesing the game and floating across the map wriggling a bomb and defeating Ganon in our underwear in under 22 minutes, and I can't blame them for it. They didn't really have a choice. But for me personally, I got bored nearing the end of my first playthrough, and I never wanted to pick it back up again. I'm sad to admit that to myself, because the sheer escape value of the Zelda franchise is what keeps me coming back to replay previous titles. And after being able to endlessly exploit the physics in BotW to shorten your run in the most hilarious and creative ways, I have to say that I'm let down by the fact that we can't do any of that stuff in TotK. Does that make me a bad LoZ fan? Probably.

[@Scuttlest]

Didn't play ToTK, but the Horse God being replaced with some giant horse is... a decision to make. Sounds like any BoTW vet would see that and say 'What...? Why?'.

[@LinkMountaineer]

All the fairies changed locations, but are still in the game.

[@50zezima]

I actually liked getting that horse. I never experienced the dissappointment he described. Ill admit the horse god was pretty cool but it wasnt really special after you see them the first time and he makes it out to be like the most incredible thing ever. It's actually more tedious than anything to go there to revive your horse if im being honest. The Big Golden Chonkers horse was a really cool find to me and I still use them while exploring on occasion. But it would've been even cooler if they introduced a one time opportunity unique horse that isnt in either game.

[@tumultuousv]

What????

[@tumultuousv]

That's the most nit pick I've ever seen tbh

[@50zezima]

I disagree about the exploration point. I think for example if you were to play both the games for the first time ever. You would more likely enjoy tears of the kingdom more as far as exploration goes. Im still finding so much caves and stuff I never saw before. Of course most of the map I've already explored in BOTW but they REALLY put in a ton of detail and change into every area that deserves recognition. I found this cave that has a cyclops walking around in it that was pretty cool. But this is just my opinion as someone whos played both games and played BOTW first. The Sky islands are really lackluster though and seem kind of tedious same with the underworld

[@jobturkey7418]

Nothing new. Reusing map was lazy

[@tumultuousv]

Goofiest take ever. They literally had two new maps (although not as fleshed out as the surface) they added 120+ caves. Changed up tons of areas. It's literally just the same setting. It's not like they copy pasted botws map and did nothing. Your argument is not good.

[@TylerTheWindWaker]

I like totk more

[@thetearsofthekingdom]

I played 2k hours of both and I will forever like BOTW better than TOTK.

[@facepwnagewtf]

Any improvements TOTK brought to the table for the BOTW formula were minor at best, and none of them solve the core issues with the downsides of BOTW's combat, exploration, rewards, dungeons, etc. In many ways it actively makes things worse. A story that's paper thin which tries to be both linear and open yet fails at both. Plot holes and lore inconsistencies that not only cant follow the established Zelda lore, but cant even stay cohesive with BOTW's lore. Healing items still break the game. Combat is still exhaustingly repetitive and lacking in enemy variety. Shrines are so brain dead easy the only challenge is how long it takes to build the same obvious items needed to solve a puzzle. New area's like the skies and depths that may as well be copy and pasted across their entire explorable regions. Menu scrolling that constantly interrupts combat and exploration, more so than even bOTW already did. A crafting system that admittedly is impressive on a technical level, but realistically trivializes and negatively subverts much of the gameplay with certain repetitive item combinations. With dungeons that overall would be average at best (Lightning) and the worst temple's in mainline Zelda history (Water, Fire). Aside from The beginning up to the end of initial sky Island, the final battle, and a few select side quests and pathways to dungeons there was very little I enjoyed in TOTK despite completing nearly everything aside from Koroks. I really hope the Zelda team takes this formula back to the drawing board and doesn't just make another BOTW but bigger like TOTK.

[@ATroubledGreensLibrary]

The horse god not being in the same location was so bazar to me. It was clearly an important place and to have it be nothing the second time around was just weird.

[@zeltroid]

It's kinda funny to picture it transporting itself to a new home with that giant flower.... like how does that even work? 😂

[@benjthewhite]

I agree on the map points but I just disagree on the dungeons. Sure tears isn’t as good as TP or SS dungeons (Tbf those are high bars) but they have far more unique aesthetics, build up, unique factors, and actual bosses. There was not much build up to boarding the divine beasts, they all looked the same, the puzzles were not unique to region, and the bosses were virtually the same. Whereas in tears the lead up to the wind temple was awesome, and both the fire and lightning temple were awesome. While unconditional I did also like spirit and hyrule castle but yeah water temple sucks

[@agermanmappertyna479]

i played totk before botw and in that view it feels just more filled with more content

[@jonesygrets6029]

Breath of the wild hands down And graphically I think looks way better

[@LinkMountaineer]

With how little each Divine Beast differentiated itself from each other compared to the temples in Tears, it doesn’t make a lot of sense you’d put them over the temples. Bizarre take. You can’t reasonably expect a dungeon to be linear in an open world game. It doesn’t work.

[@philharwood9971]

I think if I played TOTK as my first Zelda game, or without BOTW I would have liked it much more. TOTK is too many high and low points for me. I prefer BOTW

[@ryukishi8492]

TotK is an objective improvement in most ways. The advantage BotW has is that it was new

[@Inferno594]

I just can’t understand how people prefer botw, i try to but totk was better in every single way even tho botw was my first zelda game ever and i loved it all i prefer totk by miles

[@LawHeartfillia]

my view. TOTK is the better game IF you havent played BOTW. I couldn't finish TOTK though as the map bored me after already exploring it for 100's of hours in BOTW

[@Aikobos]

I'm not a huge fan of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Garry's Mod. I just want to play The Legend of Zelda, not build crap. Give me some real dungeons.

[@tumultuousv]

Yawn.

[@gotwobag7876]

Hello!! 😊😊

[@silver4732]

Tears of the kingdom was better because you can create stuff and it and in breath of the wild you can't create anything

[@lRedBaronl]

Tears of The Kingdom became a game about creating stuff similar to Minecraft. That’s not what Zelda is supposed to be about. TOTK is a good game just not a good Zelda game

[@lancegambit9851]

The creating stuff element in Totk is cool but my main problem with it is that there really isn't much to do with all the things you can build. Sure they do make for fun says to traverse hyrule but none of the enemies really require building massive vehicles. Whish there were some missions where you have to defend towns from hordes of monsters using zonai tech.

[@tumultuousv]

huh

[@_lalapop]

tears had a couple of legendary moments like the final battle, colgera, hebra ascent and descent to the wind temple, pulling out the master sword, the first time you go down into the depths and the defense of gerudo town I also feel like the overall gameplay loop in tears is much more engaging because of the freedom they give you, whereas botw is pretty one note when it comes to combat but when it comes to anything else, this game was a major flop in my opinion. the story is famously dogshit, the dialogue feels extremely childish and downright stupid (somehow even moreso than botw), the sky is completely empty (and they had the nerve to market it as the biggest addition), the depths are so goddamn awful that they look procedurally generated, and the temples (which they also marketed as a return to form...) are horrible what stings the most for me is how the stupid new lore is and how it breaks the timeline. hard disagree on the music being worse though

[@forrestegan]

Once again, I feel BotW was much better than TotK…just my opinion (and that of many others).

[@BigAlvideos101]

BoTW isn't better than ToTK though- it's worse- MUCH worse!

[@d3va383]

I completely disagree on the dungeons. Tears does a much better job. Actually different aesthetics, slightly better enemies, genuinely good bosses that can compete with some of the best bosses in the series. I 1000% disagree with the music in the Divine Beasts, but that's just personal preference I guess. Also, the Lightning Temple despite not being one of the best temples in the series, it is definitely better than some of the worst dungeons in the 3d games. I think overall TOTK sort of improved upon everything, but they rely too much on BOTW and the game doesn't try to diverge from BOTW's Formula. BOTW being original makes it a better game,

[@William_shorts100]

so relatebell

[@Scott_Silver]

No Tears of the Kingdom is better because it has temples

[@MaikDreijer]

Bro Divine Beasts are NOT living creatures LOL

[@skc4188]

Sigh... yet anither TOTK slander video KZbin recommends to me for no reason. Ergo, yet another press to the dislike button

[@zeltroid]

@@skc4188 It’s not though. You clearly didn’t watch the video, because it’s simply about the ways Breath was better, but as I mentioned, I’m doing the same with Tears and the ways it was better than Breath 🤦‍♂️

[@skc4188]

@@zeltroid Ohhh... sorry. It's just that I saw so many of those videos (including videos which now say BOTW was good and TOTK wasn't) that I grew too fatigued with that kind of negativity. It's nothing new when it comes to Zelda, sadly. It's been a constant with every newly-released Zelda game

[@zeltroid]

@@skc4188 No worries! Yeah, it definitely feels like a trend. Im certainly a more traditional Zelda fan, but I did really enjoy Tears. Just wish the Temples were a little more complex. It will be fun to talk about the ways Tears was better in upcoming videos though :) Anyway, hope you have a happy New Year!