How Zelda: Breath of the Wild RUINS Tears of the Kingdom

[@Dylonic]

Which game is better? Tears of the Kingdom or Breath of the Wild? Lemme know!

[@mybrainscream]

totk

[@kathleent4291]

I agree, if given which game to just mess around in I go back to botw

[@Fiucha8893]

Both are absolutely amazing games, but if I had to put one game over the other, I would say that Breath of the Wild is slightly better than Tears of the Kingdom.

[@VariableFoxx]

@@mybrainscreamWhen I play ToTK, I get bored after 5 minutes. Just my opinion though

[@scarmucci1918]

TotK. Full stop. TotK does EVERYTHING better. Better story. Better dungeons. And by far better game mechanics. The sage abilities suck - but otherwise TotK is definitely and definitively the better game.

[@Fiucha8893]

I've heard people say that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are two games that mutually ruin each other: Tears of the Kingdom makes Breath of the Wild look like a demo and Breath of the Wild makes Tears of the Kingdom look like a DLC.

[@Zeziliath]

Totally. Like, why pick up BOTW again after TOTK? I get that many people who prefer BOTW still play it, but for me i dont see much reason. I’ll just miss the building and the abilities anyway.

[@elijahyoung4355]

Yea botw has way better exploration then totk in my opinion but totk has better general gameplay in terms of puzzles, combat, etc.

[@Zeziliath]

@@elijahyoung4355 well i honestly think thats up for debate though! Personally, i prefer TOTK over BOTW in terms of exploration too. Botw seemed very empty, and especially after TOTK, i mean no sky islands and no depths!! It just feels weird “knowing” its all there!

[@elijahyoung4355]

@@Zeziliath yea i like botw exploration better because of the way you traverse the world. Especially on your first play through just relyingon running,climbing,gliding, and horses to get around. It just felt paced out very well and made the world feel big. In totk you have so many ways to cheese traversal like ascend, towers, and vehicles like the hover bike. Im not saying those additions are bad because they are good and fun it just made the exploration abit worse and less wondrous to me while also taking away the challenge of traversal/exploration. Having less speed in botw lets me take in the world more were as in totk you can travel really fast and miss alot of things.

[@Zeziliath]

@@elijahyoung4355 i once again completely understand your point of view, yet again i do not feel the same. To me the sense of exploration increased when i could add my creativity more towards exploration. Although, i had to make a rule for myself as to not just fly over all of Hyrule. So your point definitely stands, I had to give myself rules in order to still take in everything. And I get that some people don’t have that discipline if the game basically begs you to skip half the traveling.

[@mybrainscream]

i think its because when you first explore hyrule in botw its magical but because in totk you have already explored hyrule. i think that if totk was first you would have the same feeling.

[@youdontknowme9184]

What if you started with totk? Does botw still retain that feeling or does it lose it?

[@mybrainscream]

@@youdontknowme9184 idk

[@alibabaschultz352]

@@youdontknowme9184 Botw is a work of art, and a timeless masterpiece. Totk is a silly game, fun for a while.

[@Jdudec367]

I disagree in TOTK it still feels different enough really.

[@Jdudec367]

@@alibabaschultz352 Nah TOTK is a work of art and a masterpiece too, it has more to offer and do really.

[@WabbleDude]

I think that one factor that makes TotK less replayable than Breath of the Wild is - like you said, how vast and expansive it is - but also how ease of exploration requires a much bigger grind than BotW. In BotW, if you want to get around quickly, you can use a) a horse, b) Revali's Gale, or c) the Master Cycle if you have the DLC. In TotK, if you want to get around quickly, you can use a) a horse, or b) Zonai devices. But those zonai devices require battery packs. Battery packs require zonai crystallized charges. Those can either be collected from Yiga compounds or by processing charges you farm from zonai constructs. So you need to grind in the depths at Yiga camps or grind in the overworld/sky islands by taking out zonai enemies. The depths are much more efficient, but if you want to survive in the depths, you need recipes with Sundelions. Those are best found in the Sky islands, as are the actual zonai devices you'll be using from the gotcha machines. You could also grind to level up your armor, but the grind for that is much more daunting in TotK than BotW. And there's also so much armor to choose from, so leveling up every piece of armor you want takes even more time. The genius of the design of TotK is that the different areas - sky islands, overworld, and depths, become easier and more efficient to explore the more you explore the other areas. Sundelions help with the depths. Charges help with zonai devices, getting you from main story location to main story location easier. The game actively encourages you to explore every nook and cranny to get the most out of it. This makes a first playthrough really engaging, but a second playthrough feel much more time consuming.

[@Kruegernator123]

The Depths are a pain to explore too. Considering its terrain is just the surface but inverted, there are tons of canyons and impossible to scale walls everywhere.

[@Smfsableye]

I actually think this setup lends more to a second playthrough- where you chart out your path for greatest efficiency rather than wandering around aimlessly with little reward.

[@samlippincott2181]

I also don’t like TOTK compared to BOTW. I think it’s because the story doesn’t feel as grand as it could be. For me knowing that TOTK is a sequel to BOTW makes it feel that they ignored things that happened in BOTW. Like for example, where is all of the guardian technology and divine beasts? It feels that they just ignored the previous game story wise. Guardian technology could easily be written off as an attempt to replicate Zonite technology or something along those lines. They could’ve dismantled the divine beasts as they were major threats to the people of Hyrule. It feels like wasted potential story wise. While I love the gameplay of TOTK I get pulled out of the immersion of the game whenever bad story beats occur.

[@kelseyhorton8514]

It was kind of jarring how much they ignored events and the tech of BOTW. I waited the whole game for it to be explained, and nothing.

[@gustavojoserodriguez7475]

​@kelseyhorton8514 i think it explains a lot on Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity ..

[@Jdudec367]

@@kelseyhorton8514 I mean we got some stuff

[@Jdudec367]

The story does feel pretty grand though. Nah they really didn`t ignore things that happened in BOTW. The guardians and divine beasts were shut down for obvious reasons. They didn`t ignore the previous game story wise. They did dismantle them. It really isn`t wasted potential story wise. The story beats aren`t bad though.

[@zeddessell]

@@Jdudec367 The Guardians and Divine Beasts were never shut down, nor were they ever dismantled. That is a fan theory that has since been disproved by Nintendo themselves. The official, canonical explanation for their disappearance, as given by the game's Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, is that they magically vanished on their own after Calamity Ganon was defeated, as their purpose was complete. This contradicts their lore from Botw, which states that they were originally created 10,000 years ago to combat an earlier incarnation of the Calamity, so the official lore implies that they should have disappeared way back then since THAT's when they actually fulfilled their original purpose.

[@Altreer]

I have had the exact same feeling. Here is a metaphor that I've come to: Classic Zelda games are like scaling an epic mountain, with each dungeon and item being another step higher. Breath of the Wild is more like a leisurely stroll in a park: multiple paths and you feel like you can take your time enjoying nature. Tears feels like taking a jog on a treadmill. You can set different speeds, but after doing a lot, there isn't as much of a sense of progress. After all, you can spend three hours wandering the depths and only really come out with some light roots and enough Zonite for a battery cell or three. I agree that it just feels overwhelming. I've played Breath 6 times to completion by now (all shrines, but not all Korok seeds), but I've only done the same for Tears once, despite giving it a good college try two more times, I just start feeling like it is work as opposed to exploration.

[@Reaktron88]

I’ve played botw like 3 times and TotK once. I can still see myself replaying BotW but not TotK

[@Matthew_Murray]

The main part where I think TotK fails to meet BotW is its story. The story in TotK is really good, but it is written for a more linear style of Zelda. It doesn’t really fit into the gameplay style of BotW whose story perfectly worked with the games structure.

[@Kruegernator123]

I agree with that sentiment. In terms of the story narrative overriding the gameplay, TotK is less free than BotW.

[@JeepSec]

I agree with you completely, if I had to pick one, it would always be BotW, even though TotK is an incredible game. Most of it for me is purely subjective, and based on my life at the time I played each game. With BotW I definitely came at it from the other direction - while you experienced it at 13, I experienced it at 47. At the time I found myself suddenly unemployed after working in the same field for 20 years, and unemployment in middle age is frightening and ugly. I knew I would find another job, but I also knew due to the nature of my work that it would be at least 6 or 8 months, and that's if I was lucky. I had just gotten a Switch and was anxious to dive in, having been a Zelda fan since the NES days when I was in high school. I figured I'd spend some of my down time playing BotW, and wow, did I ever. I basically cloistered myself for a couple months and did nothing but play this game. The many, many hours of gameplay were amazing, but just as amazing was simply living in that world. Some days, instead of actual gameplay, I would go back to the woodcutter's cabin, don the warm doublet and chop some trees. Some nights, I would go to the beach east of Lurelin out by the Kah Yah Shrine, build a fire, and just sit (crouch) on the beach under the night sky. The wide open spaces, the incredible soundtrack, the lonely but beautiful atmosphere - the game was exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it. TotK was amazing, and I have countless hours in it as well, but I really can't imagine anything ever being able to top my memories of playing BotW, exactly when and under the exact circumstances I played it. It's not just a cherished gaming memory for me, it's a cherished memory, period.

[@apieceofcoffee]

Great video! I'm so glad someone else is feeling what I've been. I haven't been playing much of TOTK because...well, I'm bored. I restarted the game after finishing the story to get the dup glitches back (full time jobs and life responsibilities) and I'm bored. I don't have the time or passion to go back in. I don't want to nor have time to grind. And I absolutely do not like how Nintendo's patches made it very clear "THIS is how we want you to play" in a game that's supposed to be part of the greatest open-world engines. I yelled in frustration when I had to jump through useless hoops to get the paraglider, there's so much slow exposition progress, blocked areas that required mandatory quest completions to access (ringed ruins), I'm overwhelmed with the amount of tasks and game mechanics to use for them, Link is the most blandest of all versions with no sign of any emotion during interactions and emotional cutscenes, and so much more. There's a lot that's improved on (I love exploring caves and wells), but I'm enjoying BotW way more.

[@musicalsaber6433]

There is actually a way to get the ascend shrine first, there's a whole pathway that goes along opposite side of the snow area, you can even get the battery on that alt path.

[@joeb7631]

Both games are phenomenal, 10/10. I adore the gameplay mechanics in TotK. There are countless solutions to every problem and coming up with an idea that actually works is so satisfying. The nostalgia for BotW is real, but TotK gets the edge for me

[@Fiucha8893]

For me, Breath of the Wild is a 10/10 while Tears of the Kingdom is a 9.5/10. They're both two of my favorite games of all time. Both are masterpieces.

[@Octoo88]

I have done all shrines, light roots, sky islands and caves and it was so much fun… but it felt like it lack something… there was soo much good stuff but most of the great stuff was only found in the main quest while it botw it was found by walking in a random direction. Also totk was lacking in immersion for me. The exploration in botw was a reward within itself while in totk it feels like they have to reward you with something for exploration. And it was also lacking in charm… one of my favorite moments from totk was following a chicken in kakariko and that might sound childish but it reminded me of the charm that botw had. Also Eiji Aonuma doesn’t hate the older style of Zelda, he was the one who directed them, he just finds the new Zelda better. I assume he also sees the issues that the new Zelda has and is trying to find ways to fix them, I think he know that the new Zelda formula is a work in progress.

[@apoplexiamusic]

One also has to understand that if you've been making the same type of game for almost 20 years, you kinda want to put a radical fresh take on the formula.

[@blues4509]

​​@@apoplexiamusic I think it's a shame that they didn't just let someone who obviously grew tired of making Zelda games make something new (similar situation with Sakurai and Smash Bros). Then put someone else as the producer of Zelda going forward (like how Aonuma replaced Miyamoto with OoT). This way Zelda as we knew it wouldn't have to die and Aonuma would be able to make games he's passionate about albeit with it being a new series. I don't think this would be much of a loss either since the Zelda iconography is not what makes Botw and such great, the gameplay itself does.

[@wrymehexin3885]

Breath of the Wild is definitely better. No hate to Tears of the Kingdom but I easily love BOTW more

[@hikawagetsbitches]

same

[@JtheSkater-fo3py]

Me too

[@garoozies914]

BOTW is the better game. It’s focused and cohesive, a tight gaming experience that still manages an impressive scope. Totk is iterative in the worst way possible. Its trying to be a BOTW clone while also trying to be a linear Zelda game while also trying to be a building sandbox. Except it misses the mark in each of those categories. Everything about TOTK feels cluttered and tacked on, both literally (ie the ugly af fuse weapons) and figuratively (ie the entire dragon tears quest line). TOTK is a game that only manages to reach any height by standing on BOTW’s shoulders. Whereas MM refused to be iterative and live in OoT’s shadow. It did its own thing and offered a completely new gaming experience.

[@Easternromanfan]

How is botw more cohesive and tight than tears? No. Tears is not trying to be a botw clone. It's trying to be a botw sequel. It takes several mechanics of botw and improves upon them massively. Ultra hand is a far superior magnetize in terms of its execution and usability for a quick example. Also no, tears is not trying to be a linear Zelda. It's taking inspiration from the prior entries for its dungeons, but the design philosophy of botw is still clearly there. Why? Because you said so? Nonsensical. Tears makes botw look like a tech demo. I am currently replaying breath and the game feels empty after tears for several reasons. Ultra hand fundamentally changes the way you approach puzzles for the better. It provides multiple solutions to the problem. The map density of quests in totk is much better as well. They are also of superior quality with the pirates being a particular stand out.

[@samf.s.7731]

I love this comment, it's like you've read my mind

[@AverageBurgerboy]

Watching a Dylonic video is like eating Kellogg's Frosted Bran cereal with condensed milk

[@Takejiro24]

It's sweet? Like.....diabetes inducing sweet?

[@warspite1494]

The problem I personally always had between both games is that familiarity that has just enough but a bad distinction a lot similar to "I loved making this story but what would be better is if I split it into 2 different ones and leave the holes up to the readers minds and not bother proof reading some of it at all". Yeah I had fun but it doesn't feel as complete as I hoped. Yes I am aware of the circumstances the game had originally lol

[@roastbeefy0weefy]

Am I the only one that thinks BOTW looks better?

[@Chronoflation]

No. The frame rate alone makes me like how BotW looks more. Not to mention the designs for the shrines and whatnot. Shiekah tech is just more visually interesting than Zonai tech.

[@Determi9r]

They literally look exactly the same

[@Chronoflation]

@@Determi9r Frame rates are different, there are some different effects, and there are some new area types in the Sky and Depths, not that those really added all that much to the games. It's more subtle artistic differences, despite the art styles being the same

[@Easternromanfan]

​@@ChronoflationBoth frame rates have dips

[@Chronoflation]

@@Easternromanfan I got worse dips in TotK, except for Kokiri Forest. That was worse in BotW, at least I remember that one being worse. They may have been roughly the same there

[@MetaGamingDojo]

you forgot to mention the exclusive giga chad *"nintendo switch shirt"* in botw. totk doesn't have that shirt so it won't never be better than botw😂

[@tas-mania7950]

My experience with TOTK was speedrunning a bunch of shrines and building a Zonai device to get back up to the sky islands, because I was under the impression that the paraglider was up there and I had somehow just missed it? (I started the first quest with Purah but then never finished it, AKA, no paraglider) After searching the Great Sky Island for AGES and obviously not finding the paraglider, I used another Zonai device to fly over to the thunder isles (because it looked cool) pushed the doors open, started the Mineru quest/dungeon (that was my first dungeon) and watched the two memories revealing exactly what happened to Zelda… This was all in my first 8 hours of gameplay. By 10 hours (after finding the paraglider) I found dragon Zelda and pulled out the Master sword. So, yeah, first time playing TOTK was a really weird experience for me 😅

[@joshdieckmann595]

Breath of the Wild was my favorite video game until I played Tears of the Kingdom. That said, I still love BotW and will be playing through it for a 9th time this year before my next (and 3rd) TotK run. I feel like the negatives you mentioned in TotK make sense, and some of them I can agree with. Even so, I still believe it's overall the superior game. BotW is a comfy game for me because of the impact it had on me at the time I played it, right after release. That won't ever change, and I should always be able to go back to it whenever. But TotK blew me away so much with the insane amount of stuff you can do, the ridiculous flexibility of the Ultrahand power, and all the extra cool stuff to do that I will definitely be returning to it more over time.

[@jtn81x]

Only small children watch the same movie over and over or play the same game over and over. Move on, experience something else.

[@supderolc]

Oh my god, when I was watching thought this video had at least a couple 10k views to realise that you have 223 subscribers and only 7.8k views. You deserve so much attention this video is so well put together. Keep up the good work.

[@viktorthevictor6240]

I think botw has a better overall concept and gameplay loop. Totk is kinda all over the place. Even though I LOVE the new abilities, it's just not fun going through every single cave, every single light root etc. The sky islands are so few and small, the depths are a bunch of copy pasted content, and the surface is barely any different than before imo. Of course totk has more things to offer, but botw is more streamlined to me. Once you get over the initial high of going to the sky, depths and building cool vehicles, the game kinda falls apart if you ask me. Caves get boring. Depths get boring. Islands get boring. The worst part is that it's so similar to botw. Still shrines, still towers, still memory cutscenes out of order (but much less interesting to locate this time), still four main dungeons in the same regions as before and with the same themes, still koroks. It's the same game with more added on top of it. The question is if that's enough to warrant a sequel. If I had to pick one of these and get rid of the other, I'd pick Breath of The Wild.

[@KoenRH2803]

To me it’s just that ToTK just has content for the sake of content. A problem botw had but is much worse in ToTK. Very repetitive. But the worst sin these games commit imo is that every god damn thing is so based on a formula, with little to no surprises, in a game that’s supposed to be about exploration and wonder. The way the game rewards you, the way shrines are almost robotic, the way they insist on dungeons working with switches. Even the story beats are like a predictable formula. Everything has a system, which is the antithesis for adventure. It’s mind boggling to me that that is the way they want to go with these games. It made it so it felt like after finishing the intro and the first dungeon, I basically had experienced everything the game had to offer and what was left was the same experience in a different skin a few times over

[@zaeranos]

Interesting video. The most interesting part I think are the aspects why you think BOTW is better than TOTK, are the reasons why I think TOTK is better than BOTW. I love the slower part in the beginning with Zelda. Each time I leave the cave in BOTW I think: "I go back to bed. I'll see you in another 120 years". Just wandering around is not my idea of a fun time. I love that you have to work to get the glider and follow the main story some more. It makes it that if I go out of the world I am missing something. Something that could make life easier and better. It is more in line with the older games, where you would come across an obstacle that you need to earn the key to solving first. I think the story of TOTK is much better than BOTW, mainly because in BOTW the story is not existent. There are no stakes, there is not much for the player to rescue. The world is in a new status quo for decades. I also hate that you have to find the barely visible pixels, that represent notes and books in order to get some more in-depth knowledge. For the rest BOTW are some incoherent cut-scenes. TOTK is far more involved with its story. The stakes are higher and I am far more invested. However because the story is so much better, it also highlights how incompetent Nintendo still is in making a good open-world game. Because you can do many things out of order, it means that the story has to account for it. Even if it means you have to write some lines that no-one will ever see unless they take a very remote and obscure route through the game. With that said I think it is better to have a bad story, than no story at all. In BOTW I think the world is rather bland and empty. In my opinion it is actually devoid of character. While in TOTK I think the world is far more alive, even though many activities are still repetitive. But BOTW was very repetitive as well. The world is far more shook up and you just have more things to see and do. In TOTK I never had an area in the world that I would forget visiting. In BOTW there are several areas I do not remember what is there at all. I just see on the hero's path that I visited the same outcropping, value or whatever multiple times. Still I cannot tell you what is there to find. There is one aspect that BOTW is better at than TOTK. BOTW is better at engaging the player in puzzles. Many challenges have multiple solutions, but are still limited. In TOTK you have so many solutions to a single puzzle, that in the overworld 1 very simple and easy to execute solution, is the answer to 80% of the challenges. In TOTK you need to have some self imposed rules to make the challenges more engaging. In the end though, when I want to replay a Zelda game on the Nintendo Switch, I pick up either Link's Awakening or Skyward Sword. BOTW and TOTK just don't cross my mind for replaying ever.

[@Fiucha8893]

The part where you say that the puzzles in Tears of the Kingdom need self-imposed rules to be engaging is so true. I played most of the shrines and the dungeons with self-imposed restrictions because I think that I'd enjoy that more than just mindlessly cheesing everything. And I think I made the right desicion.

[@apoplexiamusic]

I agree that these two games aren't made for replaying. They're really made for playing once and doing everything you can do before getting tired of it. TOTK is almost the only game i played in 2023. I put 200 hours into it and haven't explored all of the Depths, because besides farming for Zonaite and bombs and the occasional Yiga camp i take out with a few arrows, and the Master Koga fights, it's a very long and boring map to explore. The overworld is great because there is so much to do at pretty much every step you take, but it also gets to be too much because you get distracted like 20 times when traversing it for one korok puzzle, or sidequest. The discoveries i made on my own were really gratifying, but there is so much to do that to increase efficiency i looked up walkthroughs so many times. I have a full time job, a relationship, music projects and pets to take care of, which leaves me with little spare time and i neglected a lot of time i could have spent making music or other things playing TOTK. And while most of it was incredibly fun it is also incredibly repetitive and it's gonna be a while before i actually get the nerves to go though the whole ending fight. I chose to watch the spoilers to determine whether or not i would go through the whole game and while i really want all those hearts i'm only missing 6, i don't know if i want to do the remaining 13 or 14 shrines. I know i won't max out my battery, probably just the first half which i'm almost there. I know i probably won't find all the lightroots unless i go on 3 or 4 other long hoverbike rides. I don't really care for all the other side content anymore because i've already done a version or 2 of every quest in the game. Edit: see how i didn't mention the frickin Koroks... ugh. I started BOTW for the first time on Friday and i really like how immediate the intro is compared to TOTK. i also like the runes and their simpler use cases. The shrines look much more interesting visually and i came across one that almost felt like a small dungeon! I've made my way pretty directly to Kakariko, then Hateno and then the Rito kingdom, but i've ventured a bit into central Hyrule, trying to activate the Tower and getting my ass handed to me and trying to get to a shrine i could see far off from Hateno that turned out to be a really tough battle against a Guardian that i almost beat but couldn't get past his final attacks. And i'm really enjoying it, even the only ways of traversal are foot, horse and glider, it is more relaxing to explore.

[@fatalwaffle1715]

I like BOTW and TOTK the same amount.

[@toristeunebrink5705]

I think the problem isn’t that there’s more content, the problem is that there’s content like every 5 steps. The thing I love about BOTW is the sense of freedom. I could go hunt monsters if I felt like it, or I could just laze around doing dumb things. With TOTK because the content is so tightly packed together I can’t just walk around. There’s so many groups of monsters it’s no longer a relaxing scenic walk, I have to decide if I want a 2 second walk or if I want to fight and that makes me personally feel very boxed in. Even though there’s new things to explore like caves and stuff, it feels less like exploring and more like mini fight after mini fight after mini fight after mini fight. If they had left more space in between all the new content it wouldn’t have felt that way. Also the depths feel like a weird fish bowl. The plants feel fake and the only thing living down there is monsters and a couple bugs. It feels pretty lifeless and i’m a little disappointed

[@thebuckeyegamer7443]

Actually I think I’m the odd one out here. I personally enjoy breath of wild much more, because of playing tears of the kingdom. I got a better understanding of the former because of the latter and have learned to appreciate both games more

[@stoicchampion]

Both games were amazing in their own ways. TotK does have a busy world, but it's in sharp contrast to BotW. TotK is set at a point in time where the world has been rebuilt to splendor and is now dealing with a new fresh Calamity. TotK's world is supposed to be busy, just like BotW world is supposed to be mostly empty but filled with monsters. I don't understand why people got so upset about the memories being out of order. There are stories that jump around in time and do flashbacks to explain things, so watching a memory revealing Ganondorf killing Sonia before you saw the memory introducing who Sonia is really didn't matter to me. As far as the Imprisoning War being retold 4 times, sure they could have been more creative with varying those cutscenes, but you really get most of the unique character development from the Regional Phenomenon quests associated with that Sage before you even set foot in the associated temple. They simply just ended with getting the Sage caught up to speed on the Imprisoning War conclusion which unfortunately led to some slight redundancy. Again, I didn't mind this. The concept is cool enough that I can stomach watching it 4-5 times from each Sage's perspective. ToTK did double down on grindy collections and completionist type things, but the player doesn't have to do them, just like the player didn't have to do side quests or even do the divine beasts in BotW. Sure, I can understand feeling the pressure to complete everything in the game, but if you truly like the game for what it is, you'll either play the parts you enjoy and let the game go, or you'll exercise the patience required to complete the game 100% in a timeframe that works for you. My personal thoughts on the subject. Thanks for taking the time to make this video and share your thoughts on TotK.

[@TheHeroOfHyrule881]

As someone who beat every shrine twice (normal and master mode) beat every divine beast twice in normal and in the illusion realm and got the Master Cycle twice I will still go back to BOTW before TOTK. I’m not going to waste 1,000 hours of my life exploring to find stuff I already have in BOTW. All of the new maps was cool, until I realized just how massive they are and how long they would take to explore. I also didn’t feel the connection to the characters like I did in BOTW

[@aedaniammx7559]

Honestly, for me, it’s just more boring to play TotK. The stuff it does have feels too similar to BotW; same shrines with the same rewards, same Koroks in similar puzzles, similar overworld, etc. Plus the things it does have new feel… undercooked? The depths and sky especially feel way too empty, the lightroots are just shrines with no puzzle and get trivialized by vehicles alongside the entire map exploration deal, the dungeons are cool but do feel very similar to Divine Beasts when you’re actually doing them, it’s just… it doesn’t make enough of an identity for itself. Conceptually it’s great, but in execution it just doesn’t give enough of a reason to play it imo

[@DrawingSpiffily]

I like botw over totk because totk feels like bloatware. Botw is lean and smart with how it conveys trying to find info about Link’s past and friends, getting redemption, and enjoying the ride. Totk is ‘been there, done that’ plus. The zelda plot is great and the rest feels like extra fluff. The extra characters are mostly unlikeable or just there. It’s like the world’s story is set aside for the hand mechanic and the rest of the game kowtows way too hard to said hand powers. There’s no reason to explore the depths, for example. What’s down there? Costumes and mining. Who wants to play Zelda to spend hours mining? Noone. And costumes aren’t really a good carrot on the stick. That leaves a whole 1/3rd or more of the world as mindless. The koroks are everywhere and in your face. Also not important. The sage powers are in the way and don’t incorporate with Link (ignoring Tulin, who's bonus gift is to blow your items away). Everything else is ‘do this so you can use your hand powers to glue stuff together’ without any real back story or character involvement. Even the shrines are forced, where they’re mostly interesting puzzles on botw and ‘rauru’s blessings’ on totk. For the record, I’ve gotten all the shrines on both games and completed all character quests. Not ambitious enough to mindlessly find all koroks, though.

[@dtox316]

Tears is far better for me. I cannot play botw after playing totk

[@SylvesterMcMonkeyMcBean-we6fn]

Tears of the Kingdoms story is incredible, but the way it’s told is awful. I think tears of the kingdom would have been easily the best Zelda game if they used the same story, but just had link get transported to the past WITH Zelda. They could even use the same dungeons because they exist in the past( except for the water temple which they could just use the ancient waterworks) if this happened they wouldn’t have the depths or sky islands(except small areas for the fire and wind temple) but I think that’s an easy sacrifice considering it would basically be a Majoras Mask situation, it’s essentially a parallel world of the hyrule we know and love, and seeing how things have changed, and how the technology has evolved, would be way more interesting if link could actually explore that world that we only got a brief glimpse of. And the story would be so incredible if Link experienced it in real time with Zelda and all the others. They could even do some cool back to the future stuff, where they have to FULLY defeat ganondorf in the past so he never came back in the future. Which now that I think of it would undo the first calamity too lol.

[@Ophmar4]

A lot of people said that they wouldn't return to BotW after TotK. Having played BotW lately, I feel like it is far superior to TotK. I don't feel TotK really improves on much (if anything). The progression is sloppy, the overworld changes are awkward, the dungeons are blander than ever, the copy/pasting is far more pronounced, layers of tedium have been added, the puzzles can be cheesed way more than in BotW, ... I could go on. TotK also manages to completely ignore aspects fans have been begging for to the point where the devs effectively remade BotW with dumb vehicles. Everything is so vast and without substance. TotK has no identity and it polutes BotW with its existence. I'll return to BotW, I'm done with TotK. I wish I'd never bought it, but I was reassured by all the "trust the devs". Wanting my Zelda fix, it was an auto-buy for me. Never again... The next Zelda title will be met with extreme scrutiny and scepticism on my part.

[@B-ot2xx]

This is the definition of “you problem”

[@hyperklathos]

I'm definitely one who preferred BotW over TotK. There is something about the profound emptiness of the original that just feels comfortable. I remember that I would boot up BotW and just kind of vibe in it. I'd walk the same path over and over again just because it felt nice. Doing that in TotK feels like a chore because there are so many bad guys in between places.... Also they totally ruined Hateno Village and anyone who disagrees can fight me on that.

[@BlueFireDrakka]

My one major gripe with TotK is the dragon tears questline and story feels so disconnected from the rest of the game, and all they really had to do was make it that rather than travelling from one glyph to the other in any order they drop in chronological sequence after you complete major story points and find the previous tear drop Considering they are basically Zelda's messages in bottles sent through time and not an amnesiac triggering his memories from going to places of significance to him, such as where he basically died. Also when you find out that Zelda Dragon'd herself you should be telling Purah and the rest of the sage Crew so we can have the oh nooooooo why Zeldaaa followed by a our first priority is kicking Ganondorf in his moobs before we look at seeing if there is a way to un-dragon Zelda Or you have a small questline trying to use recall on her but Link just isn't powerful enough to do it on his own so when Rauru and Sonia boost him up to do it at the end you know how Zelda was restored. Tears has better gameplay But Breath of the Wild has a better story

[@chambeet]

I agree that BotW is the better game. Tears advanced it, but disappointed me more, whereas I was very rarely disappointed in BotW. The achievement of making the majestic world of BotW was BotW’s achievement, whereas the Depths and Sky Islands were frequently just copy-and-paste affairs.

[@milesbowen9433]

The people who like TOTK more than breath of the wild like the sandbox mechanic more than they like the exploration of BOTW. I personally was more impacted by exploring a huge new world in BOTW than the new physics and mechanics of TOTK

[@ALookInto587]

I do see what you‘re saying. This is kinda what happens to me when I try to play Elden Ring now. I just go to dark souls 3 instead. Because it is shorter, I know what to do and I just like it more. And while I have played through BotW multiple times, I only played through Totk once. I still prefer stork though I think… the Fusion and Ultrahand mechanics are absolutely awesome, the combat feels better even when fighting normal enemies and the „huge amount of stuff to do“ leads to me actually just being happy to explore the same map (with slight changes) again. I was genuinely worried that the map would be too boring for me. But they did great with all the changes they made (except Hateno, oh WHY did they have to ruin Hateno). Another thing that I also disliked personally was the „build your own house“ thing. Not only because it was super limiting for no reason, but also because it never looks nice, just ok. I really enjoyed the house buying quest in Botw, where you were on the outskirts of a serene village, with a nice house some small trees and a nice atmosphere. In Totk it feels like I just got hit by the industrial revolution and was pulled out of me cottage out of the Middle Ages. It was so tedious in Totk, I actually duped to have enough rupees to just buy everything. And that brings me to another point: glitches. BotW had some amazing movement glitched which became second hand for many fans over the past 6 years. Sprintwhistling where you can run without loosing stamina, or Windbombing (the coolest traveling Method in any Zelda game), which were just not there in Totk. I was actually pretty bummed out by that. I know that there are ultrahand glitches for even faster movement, but it just does not feel as satisfying. Still after all this. I would say that my 1 Playthrough only Totk was still more fun than my roughly 5 Playthroughs of BotW and I honestly can just say that it‘s because fighting and exploring finally felt „worth“ something. In BotW you explored and explored and all you could find was either a Korok or a shrine with a weapon that you might have fused 30 hours before then. When you fight enemies, the only „looser“ is you. Because whatever cool weapons you have, we’ll you‘re about to lose some. In totk, whenever you explore, the enemies you find give you materials to fuse new stronger weapons when you want and whatever weapon you have is neither cool nor special, because it is recreatable. It can still look cool though. And whenever I went to explore I found something that had good rewards (like caves) where I could trade it to the goblin man who wanted to become a big ol spirit. Idk. I just had a great time with it. Hopefully you have the time to some day play it for a longer while, perhaps your opinion would change. Or maybe not, it‘s your thing after all. Good video!

[@Fiucha8893]

My experience was similar. Before playing Tears of the Kingdom, I was afraid that the game would be too similar to Breath of the Wild to be enjoyable, and it kinda felt like that at first. When I was at the Great Sky Island, I felt like I was just doing the Great Plateau again. But I decided to not give up, and I started to see the changes in the world and the characters and all the new stuff to do, to the point that the more I played Tears of the Kingdom, the more different it felt from Breath of the Wild. Sometimes I would think to myself "Wow! Does this game really use the same world from Breath of the Wild? It doesn't feel like it!" I was really surprised, the game completely surpassed my expectations. I still prefer Breath of the Wild, thought.

[@benjthewhite]

I personally prefer TOTK. Prior to the games release, Botw was my fav game of all time, and I often just tried to ignore its flaws. I was nervous that TOTKs reused map will make it feel like the same and while nothing will compare to my first run of Botw, I was shocked and pleased by how much new stuff there is to explore. The caves and wells were so cool and unique, the sky islands, while not as many as I hoped, are really cool with their puzzles. Plus, I was so shocked and excited by the depths. The new mechanics also make the game unique, ultrahand was awesome for making cool gadgets, ascend is something I wish I had irl, recall has gotten better the more I play, and fuse has really helped the combat. While I loved Botw combat, once you get guardian stuff, that’s the best in the game and no unique spins. With TOTK, the different attributes such as knights gear doubling on 1 heart or gerudo gear being very powerful but fragile made combat so much more fun, and making your own weapons feel unique. As for the story, while I understand it could end up being out of order, it worked perfectly on my run and I was really invested and devastated when Zelda turned into a dragon. Plus let’s face it, the ending of TOTK is infinitely better than Botw

[@JoshVentura1]

Oddly, I feel the same pressure. I found myself thinking, somehow even just getting all the Koroks in this game feels harder; the size really is staggering. And I think it's because BotW forced me to relax and enjoy the show, while TotK gave me a hoverbike. I do feel as though I just wasn't forced to rest in TotK the same way as in BotW; I let it get too overwhelming, until it just isn't, which makes it hard to pick back up. I really like the way you reveal where the caves are, but I think I need a little more direction there, too.

[@Smfsableye]

Yeah, BotW felt zen whereas the TotK world felt low-key monster-infested. There weren’t as many moments where you just take in a sunset or stroll through a beautiful field. That’s the one strength the sky Islands had over the rest of the game.

[@ricky.t.1658]

No, botw is much much much better written than totk. Totk is just the same plot with a different ancient civilization and new power ups, botw is about the details you slowly discover about the past, you slowly fall in love and sorrow Mipha, you slowly understand and respect Revali, you look up to Daruk, you cry about Zelda and her suffering, you forgive Roahm, you slowly discover a destroyed world and you fall in love again with it to the point you really want to save it and correct the mistake you made in the past. In totk it’s the same exact plot but this time we only have one or two interesting arcs who are Rauru and maybe Mineru but they are still super plain compared to any character before them. Zeldas sacrifice is not as strong as it should be bc we already know she is able to do that for the man she loves as she already did in the previous game. Also the lore is straigh non-existent, we know nothing about the zonai or the secret stones, we know nothing about the fucking antagonist and why he does what he does when he is literally the most important character at this point and still literally plays no role in the events of his own story, this makes the story incredibly superficial and empty which makes it impossible for the player to connect to a deep level with anything. We have to talk also about some incoherences like the fact that no one sent the master sword back in time as Zelda simply discovered it in the main island while Link sent it bc he saw a magical light in front of him, that makes it look like it was a fucking divinity who did that, also how could Zelda sent her magic to link without sending him her secret stone, and the most important, ¿HOW THE HELL DID ZELDA BECAME HUMAN AGAIN? This is exactly how not to write a soft magic system. Not add the horrible narrative structure robbed from botw and we get the worst 3d zelda main storyline. Sorry but I can’t stand people saying totk story is better just because the characters use cooler like dragonification or bc they think Rauru really is the first monarch of any Hyrule. Sorry but I can’t.

[@LoudWaffle]

Agreed, I feel like it shouldn't bother me this much since it's not like Zelda stories have ever been the focal point, but for how well BotW pulled off its storytelling, the absolute mess that TotK is just feels even worse in comparison. For the most part, looking deeper into the world and story in BotW was rewarding. It wasn't deeply complex or anything, but almost all of it made sense and was told through environmental storytelling. TotK drops the ball on all of that - from acting like half of the previous game's events didn't happen, from not explaining extremely important and simple questions like "where'd all the Sheikah tech go?" or "where did the sky islands come from?" And so many other things along those lines. I can regonize that TotK improved on MANY of BotW's shortcomings, but in all the areas that actually made me emotionally connect with the game, it's just a disappointing step down.

[@B-ot2xx]

Wall of text

[@LoudWaffle]

@@B-ot2xx and?

[@amandaslough125]

​@@B-ot2xxReading is good for you.

[@luckkydevil]

I find my self playing BoTW when I want to break a game and I find myself playing ToTK when I want to actually play a game and have fun doing just that

[@luckkydevil]

This isn’t to say that I prefer one over the other just that each game has something that brings me back to both

[@xybeptek3648]

BOTW was the first game I had played since the late 90's. I bought it simply because it was top of the charts #1 and I was looking for something to reintroduce me to gaming. I put in 1,450 hours in this game, absolutely 100%ing everything I could, 999 of everything in my inventory, etc etc. I LOVED this game. I'd say obsessed, really. But, once TOTK came out, I have only returned to BOTW once or twice, for just an hour or two. TOTK took over and I haven't felt a desire to look back. Maybe because, again, I maxed out everything possible and there is nothing left to do. My lynel killing record in BOTW was 13 seconds. TOTK is less than 5 seconds. ALL about the fuse baby!!

[@seth_erroth249]

37 here and gamed since NES. I can relate. Zelda is my favorite game, but totk to me is "Beautifully Overwhelming". Gotta play it in small sessions. 😅

[@scottgoins4844]

The only real reason to retread the same Hyrule would have been to expand upon the story and add depth to the lore, and while Tears is a mechanically superior game, it absolutely failed on the storytelling aspect.

[@davidalfredsson5561]

I agree with the main story being great but told in a bad way and the feel of BotW lends itself more to replaying it. But...I absolutely love the sidequests in ToTK

[@AstroSamuraiX]

I was thinking about this topic last week , kinda scary to see this video in my recommendations but still , great video. I think you nailed the point , Botw is a more peaceful game.

[@JrTroopa]

I have one major disagreement, TotK's weapon system is not better than BotW's, it's significantly worse. It takes everything that sucks about the weapon durability system and amplifies it. In BotW, when you break a weapon, you pick up a new one to replace it. Done. In TotK, when you break a weapon and pick up a new one, you need to fuse something to it, which is a PROCESS. Swap to the new weapon, open the menu, drop the fusion material, swap to the fuse power, use fuse, swap back to whatever power you were using before.

[@Easternromanfan]

"A process" dude it takes like 5 seconds most of the time

[@SuperZeve]

The Champion abilties, the Champion abilties, the Champion abilties.

[@Kruegernator123]

The CHADpions

[@Skip6235]

Hearing this grown-ass adult say he was 13 when Breath of the Wild came out makes me feel ancient. I was 13 when Wind Waker came out. . .

[@Ghost-Toast819]

the worst thing for me is to have mechanics from totk and then go back to botw without those mechanics ( like the diving in the air) is sorely missed since i too find myself going back to botw far more. i consider it the better game too.

[@danknados]

I think the reason why I return to botw more than totk as botw has a better feel and nearly all the good glitches in botw haven't been patched out. Like I can get to 999 fairies from a new save in botw in like 1 and a bit hours minus the plateau while doing all the glitches to do that in totk takes way longer. Also in botw it's much easier to travel around with blss and windbombing/BILs while totk has the hoverbike and pocket rocketing but pocket rocketing is much harder to perform on the latest version while botw you can do everything I mentioned on the latest version. Or Maybe I just love performing glitches too much.

[@4it8r]

My opinión is totaly the same, once y defeated Ganondorf, I didn't knew what to do because all of the things that are in the game. But last week I went back to the game and completed all the srines and the underground but now I have the same problem that at the start 😢

[@ZubiForce]

I think BOTW is a MUCH better game than TOTK, more does not equal better. BOTW builds around its world in a measure way, while TOTK just adds things on top of it en mass for the sake of it and ruins it. Tiers of a kingdom is just a choir, specially if you have plaid BOTW.

[@DjastinFaiht]

I have the opposite problem. But I also played Tears first since I got a switch only the day before Tears came out and I only started playing Botw after Tears. I didn’t get through it. I returned to playing several weeks of Tears after getting through the four animals

[@ninjaraptor003]

It’s called a nostalgic bias. The same thing happens with people who grew up with Ocarina of Time. My nostalgic Zelda game is a link between worlds and I play that game multiple times every year

[@amandaslough125]

BotW is just made better though lol. It's an entirely purposeful and cohesive experience. And doesn't have such sinful menuing.

[@Smfsableye]

Yeah I agree, people were getting burned out by BotW as well and we like to forget about that. TotK at least did a better job of making different parts of the game world feel genuinely different.

[@mrsdsparky]

I feel like BOTW had magic to it. Totk just has things to do.

[@Cyberskullxx]

My question is why did they take the guardians away, they could have used that for canon.

[@domin8tion651]

I hate how games nowadays are so focused on story because it honestly kills its replayability and a lot of its gameplay potential if we want a story we will watch a movie

[@EPMTUNES]

I prefer botw. I don't know what it is, but totk kinda bored me pretty quickly WAY earlier than BOTW ever did (id argue botw hasnt even bored me yet)

[@zachnewby4739]

I love Totk gameplay wise, but I feel Botw handled story and wirld building better.

[@timothyd3608]

BotW is better in almost every way, in my opinion. Better music, more unique ambiance, just enough not to be overwhelming and most importantly, it was new.

[@IlustraLilian]

I haven’t got to the champions yet in BotW, but I don’t like the Sages in TotK. Tulin is at least useful.

[@ReapeX]

@5:01, @5:28 I believe you can get there, I remember making a tree ramp and carefully climbing it. I don't remember using the Ascend ability that you used.

[@ricekrispies1917]

Imo, yes, Totk is the bigger and shinier game but there is barely enough FRESH content to compensate that size. I would of rather have been overwhelmed by interesting options than "I've already seen this in Botw" options. Much of it is horrwndously recycled: DLC rewards, Story format and likenesses, mechanics no one liked or just really needed improvement (koroks, shrines, etc), retconned throwbacks (I love easter eggs, but the way the story was written was with the intention to imitate Botw and previous games' successes. Not hold it's own. Cheap nostalgia on a plate instead of exploring and expanding on new original ideas, lore, characters, even the game mechanics had some misses imo). If you want to make a game feel lived in, you have to fill it. But not with "stuff". With intention. With unique qualities that combined naturally create layers and substance to a game. And imo, tho I recognize the vast emptiness of Botw, the beauty of it is in its subtlety, this desire to know what's around the bend, what new things can be found or explored in a world we had never before seen. Yes, I think Tears tried to do this, but it didn't work. Working on an existing map has some to do with it (although I think HAD THEY FILLED IT correctly it wouldn't have felt so awful. They also had two other maps c'mon), but I also just think it's because they didn't make any of the new stuff interesting enough to keep our attention. Seen one cave, one sky island, one section of the depths... you've prqcticwlly seen at least 80-90% of it's entirety. Because a lot of it is just the same...

[@kevinsaga3525]

What do you mean the closest memory is the Sonias death its literally the farthest one at the bottom edge of the map to the right

[@AesirUnlimited]

We need a third game that merges the two. It’ll never happen. But I still think we need it.

[@mellowanimations7237]

Ever since I got Tears of The Kingdom it's always felt like an alternate universes version of BoTW. Like if BoTW never existed ToTK coult take its place without feeling like I'm missing anything.

[@currentdeadbydaylightplayer]

I actually agree. Also botw had a harder experience. People say totk is harder but is there enemies that can heal and are always a tier higher? No. Also it is more of a classic and new mix of a zelda game. Also its story i like more. After all it doesn't ruin rauru. I dont want to use more time to continue explaining why i prefer botw but there is more

[@anincrediblyuniquehandle]

Honestly, it's hard for me to pick favourites. Breath of the Wild felt so charming and fantastical, and I loved the freedom it gave the player (especially when it comes to speedruns). However, Tears of the Kingdom felt a bit more abstract and not as tightly-knit together as Breath of the Wild, especially when it came to the dungeons and the Zonai (I thought I knew everything about them in BOTW. Boy was I wrong). Also the GIANT Great Sky Island was a problem for me as I felt like it was GIGANTIC for a tutorial area and is honestly the hardest place to navigate in the entire game for me. The both of them have their charms. I did run into the Dragon Tears problem though and picked the Sonia's Death one first :/ Weirdly though, I always felt like there was a huge disconnect between Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild. They both take place in the same world, but for me, it always felt that in Tears of the Kingdom, the Hyrule I was exploring didn't feel like the Hyrule I knew in Breath of the Wild. It feels like the games are too different, ironically, to compare them

[@shaneblackwoodGodbless]

I got my Switch months after it was released. By the way, it was my first game, and now I'm playing it for the third time. I also recently got TTK, and I would agree that the first game is better. The building aspect is a bit overwhelming; everything is about tech now, and there’s little focus on magic.

[@Rihcterwilker]

Honestly, it looks like you just want a sandbox to do whatever you want, not a proper Zelda game.

[@Casual_anime-gaming_enjoyer]

Wow what a prick

[@franek9875]

As one of the few who has played Tears of The Kingdom BEFORE Breath of The Wild I really feel like botw is just like a demo compared to totk, there’s less content in every single aspect, everything botw does totk does better, I guess I don’t have the “sentimental side” about it but that’s just how I see it, I played botw once because I was so curious after all the references I found in totk and I really enjoyed but in 80hrs I was done while on totk I’m on my second gameplay with over 200hrs, it just doesn’t get old it’s amazing

[@kathleent4291]

I’m glad I’m not the only one who was disappointed in totk’s story! I just remember feeling so confused, like was I supposed to do them in a certain order and I messed it up? And then I saw the draconification thing coming a mile away, so when Zelda ate her stone I was just like, yep. I knew in my head this was a big story beat but felt nothing. And when is Gannondorf getting some decent character development? It’s sad that Ocarina of time’s Gannondorf is still the best after all these years!

[@zachnewby4739]

I heard a theory that the game was originally much darker, but got toned down due to the pandemic, and the story hitting to close to home.

[@braydenleaderofthetirkins1143]

The story is better at all. They just made the cutscenes mandatory & more of a focus. The story sucks as it not only contradicts BotW, you know, THE LITERAL LAST GAME THAT CAME OUT & THE PREQUEL TO THIS GAME, but the entire franchise. & they explain Jack shit. Like why are these goats here? Why did they RULE Hyrule? Did they enslave the Hylians that were the previous rulers? Are they Twili hybrids? I’m tired of the Zelda team adding races that have no relation to the existing ones. What are the sacred stones? Why do we need them when the Tri Force IS a sacred stone?? Also, why do people like Tulin SO much?? He has zero character development unlike Riju & Sidon who had to live up to being kings & queens. Tulin isn’t even a leader, his dad, who actually is a great character with development, IS. & Ganondorf is an insult to his previous entries. He has no personality or relationship to previous Ganon’s. & I disagree with you saying the world is filled with things to do. It’s PADDED with things to do. Padding is different than actual content. Having an amber, Zonai charge or BotW dlc clothing item isn’t a fulfilling reward. A new weapon or plot-relevant item or a new animal or monster is worth it. Same with 120 shrines. There’s no soul, just padding corporate puzzles.

[@Red-Marlin]

Tears soured me on its story from the getgo simply because I really wanted Zelda (as in actual Zelda, not the you-know-what) to be in the game for you to interact and go on quests with. The overarching goal of finding her felt more frustrating than anything else, like all the work you did in Breath was for nothing.

[@pico55555]

I always viewed it as one big massive game. TotK feeks like the natural progression of ideas introduced in Breath. Playing them back to back is always my way to go

[@redcrimson1028]

The problem with people that we have had for years is that we all got use to the cliche of always thinking that the 1st is always the best, even though sometimes that isn't the case. Sometimes sequels are better and in zelda case, TOTK is the better game dispite its obvious missteps and missed opportunities. I hate how they had all those years to make TOTK better but Nintendo didn't take advantage, let me explain. The sky islands were a huge let down. Instead of making a whole new world, have major cities and Dungeons up there, they were just pieces of tiny islands with just treasure chests and koroks smh. The depths was cool and little more interesting than the sky islands but they could've had cities down there too, more terrifying enemies and Dungeons down there. They should've done away with the shrines or at least minimized them maybe a handful and replace them all with mini levels and Dungeons instead. The side mission and there rewards were crap and wasn't worthwhile doing. Seriously, who wants to do a cool side mission and your reward would just be a bundle of arrows ar bombs smh? Why not give me exclusive armors, swords and a heart piece instead? The game was also very repetitive to the point that, they had mite as well had made it dlc. Other than tat though, it's still a great game and better than botw.

[@AaronJLong]

It's funny, on launch it was common to hear BotW described as a "tech demo," and not just in terms of the looks as you mentioned in the video, but with the expansion of the game world and how Ultrahand took the focus on physics and how it synergized with the simultaneous focus on player freedom Breath of the Wild brought to the table to what appears to be their logical conclusion by giving you all of these pieces that serve different purposes and the freedom to manipulate them alongside anything else that happens to be nearby and glue them together to make everything from simple bridges and hot air balloons to functional shipping containers capable of taking a horse to Eventide Island or a laser-spewing tank, and everything in between. It seemed that the only common complaint aside from certain aspects that were unpopular holdovers from BotW at the time was that Tears had so much more to offer that players felt that they truly wouldn't be able to go back to BotW and appreciate that game they loved after experiencing the new hotness. Then months passed, and judging by the types of videos coming out opinions seemed to sour on TotK. Definitely not to the extent of something like Starfield, but that new game honeymoon period was definitely over, hype had died down, building hoverbikes and such were no longer mind blowing when players would be doing it over a hundred times over the course of taking in a game of this magnitude, and other such cracks and downsides became more apparent and people were further emboldened to air their own grievances with the game with each new critical video being released and doing rather well considering that the game had seemed almost untouchable not long prior. These weren't just the voices of contrarians, or those that just wanted the pre-BotW formula back, but BotW fans as well that, having taken their time and experiencing what TotK had to offer just found that this new game just failed to click with them the way BotW did to the point that many dipped out well before rolling credits, or had seen it through and may have even still loved their time with it, but in the end they just preferred BotW. And, as someone who grew up with this series and sincerely believes TotK is an excellent game, I get it, and honestly prefer this reality to one in which those early takes about TotK obsoleting BotW had turned out to be true. Despite being a direct sequel to the point of sharing the overworld map layout and many aspects, Tears is a different game that sees how you view and play within that world turn almost completely on its head, not unlike A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds, another pair of Zelda titles I adore, and find the notion that the latter invalidates the former to be short sighted. After all, the games in this series all have their own charm, their own vibe, and their own approaches to keeping things fresh, not all of which will resonate with everyone, but in which anyone could make a compelling case for why any of the official titles going back to the first is their own personal favorite of the lot to this day.

[@TheBasedTyrant]

I feel like a good comparison might be Jak 2 & Jak 3 but I will comment on your more recent followup video about how ToTK ruined the lore after I have watched both.

[@Plumpus3545]

I’d argue that the story is worse. Mainly for characters that felt bland and cookie cutter too me. I do personally think it was time to focus on Link as a character, what’s his story?

[@FallingPicturesProductions]

Link's BOTW story is The Bourne Identity Link's TOTK story is Elon Musk on Adderall being reincarnated in another world

[@badjetgamer8102]

ToTK great sky island shrine "CAN" be beaten in any order but its much difficult to do

[@currentdeadbydaylightplayer]

Also switch shirt. I know it's kind of memey but i actually like the design.

[@Thirteen13551355]

Hyrule in BotW is thought-out. Hyrule in TotK got stuff added with the incentive of adding things.

[@danielf9251]

I think Breath of the Wild is was more impactful to the series as a whole since it was a new iteration of hyrule. The story and characters were also interesting. I do think Breath of the Wild has some flaws. Lack of enemy variety is the biggest offense. Blight Ganons and Calamity Ganon being an absolute pushover and weakling. Tears of the Kingdom is a sequel to Breath of the Wild. Its not supposed to reinvent the wheel. Thats what a sequel is. It added far more enemies, unique bosses, and actual challenging final boss fight with some character. There are connections to these games if you really look into it and when people say noone remembers link are exagerating. The only offense is Hestu not remembering.

[@shiethegal]

As I've gotten older, I've come to admire more simplicity in games. Simple stories, simple gameplay, short completion times, etc. Obviously simplicity isn't the only thing I look for in a game, if that were the case I'd stick strictly to Atari 2600 games, and I still enjoy games from series such as Metal Gear Solid where the stories are quite complex, but the gameplay is still simple enough to wrap your head around. Basically, I appreciate games that set out to give you their intended experience without bloating itself to extend game time. That said, Tears of The Kingdom is more bloated than a lactose intolerant man after downing a gallon of milk. Nothing in this game fells satisfying to do. The physics system, while impressive, is a chore to work with and I die a little bit inside when it's required for progression. The new maps they introduce are a chore to navigate, one spread out so thin that you need to fly for literal minutes to get to any points of interest, the other so dark you can't see an inch in front of your face without using a copious amount of brightbloom seeds, and you NEED to navigate the depths to collect enough Zonite you can get a battery worth a damn. The changes to the existing map feel they were made navigation more tedious for those returning from BOTW, such as the bridge being out at Dueling Peaks Stable so you can't easily register a horse if you're on the opposite side of the bridge, or the Lost Woods which is actually impossible to navigate now if you don't think to first explore the, once again, tediously dark depths area underneath the woods. The Paraglider is much more tedious to unlock now. Where before you just got it at the end of the tutorial, now you have to treck a good amount of ground after the tutorial to get to the area where you're supposed to get and get a pretty lengthy cutscene where a character explains to you what you what happened in the game literally a minimum of half-an-hour ago when you started the damn game. And you really SHOULD get the paraglider as soon as you can because doing just about anything else beforehand can potentially get you stuck in a high up area, like me when I decided to the hieroglyph quest with Impa and got stuck in a balloon high of the ground with no safe way down other than to teleport to a shrine I had already completed. Yes, at least I had an option, but it shouldn't have been my ONLY option in a game that puts so much emphasis on player's choice. Oh, speaking of Shrines, there's to god damn many of them. This was a complaint in BOTW as well, but I felt that shrines in that game were varied enough that I never had a problem with the number of them, I even enjoyed the Test of Strength shrines everybody seems to hate because I genuinely enjoy the combat in these games. The shrines in TotK aren't nearly as varied, a good chunk of them are just "escort the crystal to the designated area to win your prize" and that's it. I genuinely got sick of seeing Rauru's Blessing shrines pop up because I rarely felt I earned it, like FFS all I did was enter a cave. Then there's the shrines that are just Outset Island again. The Outset Island quest on BOTW was novel because it was the only shrine like that in the game, where it takes away all your weapons and armor you got up to that point, bringing you back to square one. It was so navel that a whole DLC was designed around the concept while putting you in a gauntlet of increasingly difficult challenges. Having multiple shrines in the sequel that play out in near the exact same way that Outset Island did takes away some of the novelty imo. And do I even need to mention the combat tutorial shrines? Their mere existence is laughable. Like it's so obvious the took the one combat tutorial shrine that existed in the last game and slpit it apart in this game to artificially increase the shrine count. Even with all my issues with the shrines, my dumbass still did them all because I wanted the Hero's Aspect because I wanted what I thought would be the best armor in the game and it's easily the most unique armor set in the game. (Also I may be a furry ._.) It ended up not being worth it because of how uncanny it looked, it seemed unfinished because THE FACE DOESN'T ANIMATE. I still had to upgrade it as well, which meant _GRINDING_ for dragon parts, a process that they made far more tedious in this game than the last. In BOTW, dragons appeared in specific areas of the map at certain times of the day, so you could just set up a campfire near their spawn and consistently change the time to when they show up and get your dragon part. It was still kinda tedious, but it was efficient and not very time consuming. In TOTK they changed the dragons so that they're persistent on the map and alway moving, making it a pain to find and get to them in the first place. Not only that, but you can only get one dragon part from them every TEN MINUTES. That's right, if you desperately want to upgrade your Hero's aspect, as well as the othe armor sets that require dragon parts for upgrades, you have to park your ass on each of those dragons flying in the sky and do NOTHING for ten minute intervals between collecting each part. That's far to long to wait, especially when you need, at minimum, three of each part for each of the upgrades. That's not where the item collection tedium ends either, so many of the quests in this game are god forsaken fetch quests. The "collect 20 bear asses" quote has never been more appropriate than for TOTK. The Lurelin Village quest is probably the most egregious. After you clear the village of pirates (which itself is already disappointing because the "pirates" are just the same bokoblins you've fought everywhere else in the game) in order to rebuild, you have to haul multiple bunches of wooden logs to the site, nothing exciting or interesting, just haul wood. It's boring, but I still did it because I try care about these fake villages in my video games, and it arguably wasn't worth it because by the end the village looks the exact same as it did in BOTW and all I got in return was the Wind Waker lobster shirt which just dlc recycled from the last game. TL;DR This game is so tedious and bloated it gives Donkey Kong 64 a run for its money. As a sequel to BOTW it had a chance to cut down on that games tedium, but it instead made it SO MUCH WORSE. A more appropriate title for this game would've been The Legend of Zelda: TEDIUM of the Kingdom. It's, frankly, the worst sequel Nintendo ever could have made to BOTW, and I'm not happy to say that. I just hope that the next 3D Zelda actually learns from the flaws of both TOTK and BOTW, because if the next game is revealed and it just looks like the last two games, but again, I might just swear off of 3D Zelda for a while.

[@MegaHope99.]

Every now and then history repeats itself The strange phenomenon is that people would USUALLY hate the sequel then love the first. But I see what you're saying.

[@givmi_more_w9251]

The whole Zonai story line is dumb. They should have tied it back to the First Calamity, and explore the ancient Sheikah culture. We could have had some shenanigans back then that caused the near-apocalypse 10000 years later. TotK story sucks ass, even though the core idea of destroying and restoring the Master Sword is kinda neat, they could have woven in both aspects from Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword, instead Skyward Sword fits nowhere in the timeline (but of course we need Fi's farewell and jingle as nostalgia bait). The memories in BOTW worked, they weren't spoilers no matter which order you viewed them in, because we know from the beginning where it all ends, this is just piecing together what happened. In ToTK, as soon as you see 'Mineru's council' you know what's going to happen. One less Zelda in the present, but one more Dragon with a blonde mane. Hmmmmmmmmm. They could have made the past playable, with Zelda as a second protagonist. But noooooo. Also, TotK is full of continuity errors, Link and Zelda had NO character development (around 3-5 years passed (going from how old Mattison appears) and they are still like this? Neither of them seem affected by what happened in BOTW. Zelda was supposed to be really in love with him. Does that just not matter anymore?). I don't mind the reuse of the map at all, because I love the universe. I also liked the depths, the sky was a bit meh. Tying it back to the original Skyloft would have been cool, but SS is fucked in that timeline anyway, so ... They could have told an awesome story, deepen the lore of the calamity, but no, we needed another race for furries to wank to and awesome building mechanics so players can build funny figures with flamethrower dicks. Congrats Nintendo, as flawed as BotW was, it was an awesome premise, and you pissed it away. PS: The 'Link doesn't speak' meme needs to die. He speaks to people all the time via textboxes, give him some voice acting in the cutscenes, him giving Zelda the silent treatment is so uncomfortable to watch ffs. You can still keep him sparse with his words. PPS: No shade to the composers or the artists. The Zonai shrines and the aesthetic is beautiful, and the soundtrack overall is solid. Sadly, no proper temple themes and the boss music is as lame as the boss itself. But I imagine the composers delivered what was wanted from them.

[@amandaslough125]

Okay so fun fact. The Temples had themes. They just played parts of the instruments the more switches you triggered. Layering more as you go. And then turned them off again before the boss. It's supposed to be engaging and dynamic music but it's used _terribly_ because the temple itself doesn't change. They could've just done a passive temple theme and an active one while in combat that transitions smoothly. The storage space could've been used to add more overworld music (where it freakin matters). I hate it.

[@TheWiicube]

I like Breath of the Wild because it has a original story. Tears of Kingdom's story is just a remix of Ocarina of Time. Its not an all time story. Just a revised version of Ocarina of Time.

[@all-stargamingentertainmen1157]

Ngl...I want a ZELDA LED GAME...like a smash bros zelda...where she knows magic but can transform into sheik be a ninja and have a different set of abilities.

[@ShadowWizard224]

Breath of the Wild had a superior story with better shrines, characters, and side quests. The four champions all had interesting backstories and Kass was by far the greatest character in the entire game. He was way better than Penn. I would even argue that Breath of the Wild had better dungeons. We have seen water and fire temples before and they have been done much better than Tears of the Kingdom but at least Breath of the Wild had a unique concept where the dungeons take the form of a giant animal that fits its environment and navigating the entire beast made room for some interesting atmosphere and puzzles. The shrines in Tears of the Kingdom were annoying as hell especially the cave ones and Rauru should be a preacher with how many blessings he gives. The actual shrine puzzle should be harder and more challenging than actually finding the shrine itself. The four champions are superior to the sages in every way possible. When it comes to side quests and side adventures I honestly think that Breath of the Wild has it beat. I had a lot more fun doing side adventures in that game than I did with Tears of the Kingdom which a lot of them seem absolutely pointless. If you were to rank all of them side by side Tarrey Town from Breath of the Wild would be at the very top. Exploring the world, especially the depths, isn’t really all that rewarding because the game makes you grind out the tedious depths and all they reward you with is the same outfits and clothing from Breath of the Wild. It was lazy on Nintendo’s part and not very good in my personal opinion. Breath of the Wild soundtrack is vastly underrated and even though Tears of the Kingdom has some new music on it’s own it still for the most part borrows the music from its predecessor. Breath of the Wild has one of the most beautiful and underrated soundtracks in the entire series and I will DIE on that hill. Lastly, the dungeons in Tears of the Kingdom have pleasant atmosphere and vibes but if you really think about it they are not very good as well when it comes to gameplay. Water Temple is by far the worst dungeon in the entire series and it makes the Divine Beasts look like master pieces. Wind Temple is just a smaller and easier version of a Divine Beast. Navigating the rail carts in the fire temple was annoying and most people will end up cheesing it. And the spirit temple doesn’t even count because its just a list of chores you have to do leading up to the actual dungeon which only leads to a boss fight that really wasn’t that good. As a matter of fact you can literally cheese all the dungeons with autobuild which makes them 10x easier to begin with. The only decent temple was the lightning temple and even that was short as hell. In conclusion I think Tears of the Kingdom has good moments but Breath of the Wild was more impactful and more well balanced with better characters, shrines, side quests, and overall story.

[@elijahlapret1612]

I wish there were less shrines and less korok seeds. And less caves...and less wells. Instead make them feel more special and good quality

[@obits3]

I’m actually playing BOTW now after first playing TOTK, so I can give a perspective without any nostalgia. In my view, the games fit together well to fully flesh out Hyrule. BOTW is the horizontal axis and TOTK is the vertical axis. I don’t think TOTK is designed to play like a better BOTW. Instead, it would be more accurate to say they took the BOTW “map” and carefully interwove another “game path” with two new maps through the BOTW map. This is perfect for both new players (like myself) and people who’ve spent seven years in BOTW. New players will likely skip over a lot of the base Hyrule map because of sky warping and towers. Then, when they pick up BOTW after enjoying TOTK, they will find all those skipped places due to the nearly constant ground level movement in BOTW. On the other hand, experienced players wouldn’t want to retread old paths from the last seven years, so they get the stuff needed to play the new game path in TOTK. Being a sequel, TOTK also does a lot of heavy lifting to improve story and characterization. Zelda in BOTW is a late teen while TOTK Zelda is at least mid 20’s. TOTK is a story about the next generation taking on leadership. Without TOTK, Zelda’s character arc feels incomplete. Also, the english voice acting is also greatly improved in TOTK. Everything from Zelda’s sacrifice to the final battle with Ganondorf as a warrior king is voiced crazy good. In the “last catch,” scene, I actually misread the button command and felt as surge of emotion diving again to catch up and save Zelda. The TOTK storytelling really hits hard in ways I have yet to see for BOTW’s base game. Probably doing the Champion’s DLC this weekend, so we’ll see if the extra backstory really pulls at the heartstrings the same way TOTK did.

[@BGrimmart]

I hate you😂 You made me realize how old I am when you said BoTW was a childhood game for you

[@FafliXx]

I think the main problem is that TotK is not different enough. On it's own, it's the better game by far. But since BotW came first, TotK feels a bit hollow. When they first announced that it would use the same map, I was excited. How would they fill the world with new things that shake it up, and make it fun to discover all these landmarks anew? Well, for the story related places, this was great... for everything else, it was either just a gateway to a new part of the map (like a chasm or cave entrance), or it was essentially empty. Maybe the slapped a side quest in there like the stable photos. Even Terry Town felt underdeveloped, and that got a mini game and side quest with a cutscene. If I had known they would struggle to make most of the world feel alive and full packed because of this, I would have joined the people who were mad about the map being reused before release. A new map would have fixed this. But I actually can't go back to BotW. The core gameplay is just worse. No Ascend, no Fuse, no Ultrahand... it feels so clunky to play compared to TotK. The only think I miss is the Master Cycle Zero and old Champion abilities because clicking A to activate the Sage abilities sucks.

[@itssimplyjeff1]

Idk i think you have nostalgia glasses on. Its why wind waker is my fav game. Played it at 13 IMO falling into the depths the first time without knowing about it was a great moment, very similar to the great platue moment in botw, possibly better. I was scared to explore the depths for a long time and it was pretty creepy & dark. Totk really did make botw feel like a tech demo to me. I dont there are any moments in botw that still give me a "wow" feeling other than that first play thru TOTK opening & ganondorf revealing the extra long life bar will always be really cool. Bosses in TOTK are also have so much mote aura. Totk all around the better game. Doesn't mean botw isnt good but the love for it, is prob just nostalgia glasses 😂. I think in 10-15 years people will realize how much of a masterpiece totk is.

[@Banjo404]

I got totk like 3 days after launch I was so hyped when I booted up the game I thought the prologue was amazing but once I got to the temple of time and Raru introduced me to the shrines is where my expectations dropped like common another great plateau? now dont get me wrong I absolutely loved the great plateau in the first game I got botw in 2017 when I was 8 and probably spent about a month on it because it was my first open world/ zelda game so I was just learning everything. that month was probably my favorite time playing a zelda game because I played it with my dad and sister but was still relived when it was over. So when I found out the great sky island was the same thing I was rlly disappointed and just kinda rushed through it not really taking it in because I had done it all before. once I landed in lookout landing I had hope again because "ooh new town" and people knowing who link was made the world feel so much more alive. the first temple I did was the wind temple and after completing it I just kinda gave up, I felt so overwhelmed with the game but at the same time that feeling of aliveness was already gone because it felt nothing had changed on the overworld map there were barley any sky islands and the depths were way too hard early game and on top of the all the characters felt really stale compared to botw, so I stopped. a few weeks ago I picked the game back up and just tried to enjoy it and I have I got the master sword freed korok forrest finished the water temple and fire temple and now just have to finish the sand temple but I still find myself booting up botw and even though ive 100% the game (besides korok seeds im not insane) I still find myself having more fun.

[@PotassiumIsDumb]

Nah In totk you can make big mechs the depths is pretty easy because it’s was easier to get stronger weapons early game.

[@yeahtbh.161]

8 year olds don't know shit. Your wall of text is impossible to read.

[@Poefred]

My problem isn't just that there's too much content, there's too much genuinely F tier content. BotW avoided the open world genre's trappings by making the fun part, the bit that's usually boring in other games. Exploring the landscape IS the appeal. But when it's the same land, the focus is shifted to being all about the new content that exists specifically to justify the game's existence. If you're on land, you're looking for caves, which are quickly repetitive and have extremely poor rewards. Then there's abyss, which artificially doubles your length playing the game, while featuring very little new content, as well as pitiful rewards for engaging with it. Then there's the sky, which peaks in its tutorial, every other sky island is smaller and feels samey. Loved botw, tears of the kingdom is so genuinely bad it makes me forget they were onto something with the first game.

[@kitecorbin3914]

I played Breath of the Wild so much that it took me a year after the release of Tears of the Kingdom for me to even pick it up (even though I bought it on release). It was hard for me to get into it, for the reasons mentioned here. It was very forced feeling in the beginning. But ... now that I have played it, I will absolutely say that I enjoy Tears of the Kingdom A LOT more than BOTW. And it's due to what I find enjoyable in video games: grinding. My favorite thing to do in BOTW was fighting all the lynels and collecting their guts. But after selling enough lynel gut elixirs, I had max rupees and no reason to keep grinding lynels. I just kept all their guts in my inventory for no reason, all maxed out bows and everything. In ToTK, I can collect A LOT more weapons like the lynel bows by having all of the bow, shield, and weapon rooms in my house. Plus more than that, since I can fuse them together and keep double. I really love the fuse ability because I am a hoarder in video games (you don't want to see my Skyrim hoard, lol). So yeah, for me, it has to be Tears.