I Was COMPLETELY WRONG About TotK's Reused Map

Go to buyraycon.com/arlo for 15% off sitewide! Brought to you by Raycon.
I spent years worrying about the fact that Tears of the Kingdom was going to reuse the same map from Breath of the Wild. It just seemed like a bad idea to me. Turns out I was wrong!
If you like what I do, please consider supporting me on Patreon!
/ arlostuff
TWOOTER: @ArloStuff
This video was edited by the lovely Kane!
/ farfetchdreviews
"Reloaded Installer #11" by LHS.
/ @lhschiptunes

[@ArloStuff]

PINNED COMMENT O'CLOCK Go to buyraycon.com/arlo for 15% off sitewide! Brought to you by Raycon.

[@Cliffordlonghead]

Kk

[@Cliffordlonghead]

First

[@Cliffordlonghead]

Awesome video

[@Cliffordlonghead]

K K

[@Cliffordlonghead]

I K😊

[@warriorseamonkey1693]

TOTK is like walking into your house, and every room is in the same location but you have all new furnature and things, and a whole brand new basement

[@Sean-xc9im]

"what the hell happened to the attic"?

[@oliver-04]

And rent is 70$ a day

[@infinite1up389]

And there's korok poop everywhere

[@warriorseamonkey1693]

@@Sean-xc9im Theres a bunch of tiny little attics you can find that werent there before

[@kimberlywright6109]

It’s like reading a favorite book or watching a favorite tv show for the first time again.

[@tex9419]

the fact that nintendo was somehow able to keep the entirety of the depths a complete secret leading up to the games launch is a small miracle in and of itself, and just made that first dive down a chasm that much more incredible edit: well i guess i have a new most liked comment lol

[@megastarwarsrocks99]

Unless you saw it in a KZbin video first

[@PunsandPixels]

Yeah them protecting this stuff before release as strictly as they do is something I really appreciate. Also the hands. Man the first time reaction to those is classic and I couldn’t have had that if it had leaked

[@UltimatePerfection]

And the fact that you can travel directly from sky islands, through regular map and into the depths seamlessly, without any loading screens on such limited hardware as Switch is, that's even more amazing. I can't imagine how many sleepless nights software engineers at Nintendo had to spend to optimize it. Like, yeah, they had a test run in the form of BOTW, but we're talking about a game that essentially added two new maps (sky & depths) on top of what was in the BOTW (just ground). Not to mention that the game is gorgeous and you really need to work really hard and have a lot of bad will to find a place where it looks bad.

[@triggerhappy4199]

So theoretically totk is more than 10 years old in development due to botw setting a foundation for it

[@Goombearl]

Technically, they showed it for like 2 seconds in one of the trailers, but it would be almost impossible to tell what it was.

[@ashleykettle343]

Most developers would be too nervous not to show everything about their game. So the fact that Nintendo just flat out didn’t mention The Depths is crazy. They have such confidence in their product and faith in their community. It’s awesome, truly.

[@emisor9272]

There's also the fact that the entire world went on its head when botw came out so it was expected that journalist would keep the hype up about the sequel no matter how little they showed

[@ChaddyFantome]

For real. When i jumped down there for the first time and realised there is a whole underground, I was poppin' off. I was like "they fuckin did it! They didn't even have to but they did the thing!"

[@speedude0164]

No matter how lackluster some of the trailers seemed, I could never fathom being worried about a Zelda game. I didn't need anything but that title to know this game would be a masterpiece. Building that level of trust with your fanbase isn't something most franchises can do.

[@holyelephantmg8838]

What were they supposed to do, just show link gliding through pitch black towards an orange dot?

[@a_person4742]

​@@holyelephantmg8838or the mines with old/ new armour, the coliseums, the boss arenas, the gerudo graveyard, the blupee den, the 2 dungeons, the springs, the bargainer statues, the new mini bosses etc.

[@PiercingSight]

My favorite change is that they moved the arc of the sun across the sky. In BotW, the sun was in the north at noon. In TotK, it's in the south. So even if you're in the same exact place, the different lighting will make the environment feel subtly different, even if it's exactly the same.

[@switchprocontrollersplatoo7240]

Dude that’s actually so cool and smart, I love that

[@goese868]

i hate it, it literally makes no sense and is never explained.

[@SKy_the_Thunder]

@@goese868 It's a world where a scorching desert borders an arctic region, giant chunks of rock float effortlessly in the sky, an absolutely massive underground cavern existed right next to the ocean without leaking water in over the eons, and the moon randomly turns red and revives monsters every couple nights... The sun's angle in the sky changing over time is far from the weirdest thing here.

[@goese868]

@@SKy_the_Thunder yeah but those things have a purpose. What the hell is the purpose of changing where the sun is. It's effort for nothing.

[@SKy_the_Thunder]

@@goese868 It's literally one setting in the engine. And the purpose is probably somewhere between "fixing" the sun's position for players in the northern hemisphere and achieving a certain lighting atmosphere.

[@nathantaylor4942]

Came for the cute blue monster commentary, left with an existential dread lingering from the "how many more Zeldas will we play before we die?" question.

[@lracseroom8286]

That part made me roll my eyes actually. Dude wants faster development cycles AND new versions of Hyrule/ assests AND wants it faster. He seems like a childish wanker. This will be my last video of his as I've realized I don't like or respect the man behind (fittingly) the muppet. He's *literally* like a child screaming "MORE" and "NOW" over and over again. The irony is that his review of the game is taking so long that he should call it: "Too late. No one cares."

[@colegillgrass3373]

And the unfortunate answer is not enough.

[@nathantaylor4942]

@@lracseroom8286 You seem fun.

[@david_03.13]

I honestly don't mind them taking 5 years to develop these games, but I would love to see Nintendo develop new 2D Zelda's again. I mean, there's a lot of discussion in regards to how BOTW (and TOTK too really) differ from the original Zelda formula, and I think that making 2D games would give them an opportunity to satisfy those who really enjoy that og formula (I include myself there lol) while also just giving us more games while we wait for the big ambitious 3D games.

[@ogelsmogel]

Yes, I've already been contemplating this question. And there's maybe 5-6 more Zelda games in it for me, if I'm lucky! So... I'm going to enjoy them as much as possible and I better not die right before one of them launches!

[@FutaYuuta]

I just wish there were more sky islands. It's the coolest part of the game and it's so tiny.

[@fuzzydude64]

The first one is a great size. One of those over a few more regions with lots of smaller ones in between would have been great.

[@jumponeverything]

Absolutely, also a lot of them seem to be very copy paste. The great sky island was so cool but then there's no reason to go back except koroks and there's no where else in the game like it

[@greenmenace9666]

I wish there were more islands too. I guess I can see the logic behind not having as many. If there's more large islands, then it could turn into a huge umbrella and it's "not realistic" and could inhibit the view. I still want more sky islands.

[@crimsonsea9985]

I theorize that in the DLCs (assuming we get 2 like Botw) we'll get one dedicated to the depths with new areas, bosses and other stuff. And we'll get one for the Skylands with more sky islands with unique layouts and bosses.

[@glitchy000]

And the easiest thing to add in DLC.

[@geebu26]

I think one thing you missed about the reuse of old map is how you explore it. Now that you have ultrahand and ascend you can do things you previously can't do to the old map

[@HarmonicWave]

Yeah, and if it had been a totally new map then people would have been saying, "Man, I wish I could have used this cool vehicle I built back in Breath of the Wild, that would have been sweet."

[@ChrisMorray]

Or adding sleds and minecarts to your shield to make shield-surfing more viable in the world too.

[@mrlborges]

Always fun to be inside a cave and ascend whithout paying attention to the map to see where you'll emerge.

[@lazyryan3766]

Sleds and mine carts? You don't need a minecart to grind the rails, and a slab of raw meat that had an ice fruit thrown at it is the best thing to fuse to your shield for shield surfing.

[@thassalantekreskel5742]

It's amazing how small the Great Plateau feels now, isn't it?

[@dored85]

The depths are not only the same map, but an inverted version of it. Like, the big mountains on the surface are big holes on the depths. It's pretty cool.

[@axiezimmah]

I never even noticed, that's awesome. The light roots are on the place of shrines though and they are the same name but backwards

[@honeybell4403]

All rivers on the surface are the walls of the depths as well. It's literally like a dark world type thing

[@charliez077]

It's really cool at first but it also gets really boring and repetitive after a while The Depths are WAY too big given how little diverse content there is - they should have made it much smaller or added more diverse stuff, more dungeons a town... etc.

[@saycap]

@@charliez077Using a script to flip the map and auto generate it was probably an intentional decision made to save money and time. I don’t agree with smaller areas (adding something like elden rings rivers would have been pretty lame tbf) but they should have used custom modeling tools to make a new underground by hand, and fill it full of unique stuff to find. Very important that it still spans the entire map, but a network of huge caverns would have been good. But yeah, I agree it gets very repetitive when you know how it works. Plus, most of the rewards are some dumb reference items or clothing so finding things gets pretty stale. The airbike is a blessing when banging out the last of the depths

[@its_saber1525]

​@@saycapbro 💀 Elden Ring rivers are top map design in all of gaming because it rewards curiosity. It's not like totk that says "YO LOOK AT THIS PLACE YOU CAN EXPLORE" Instead, it's hidden inside a forest or just a random structure off in the middle of nowhere. You think it's just a dungeon but instead a huge new unique level with unique enemies, bosses and weapons to find Finding Mogh was so freaking awesome. It felt like I was genuinely rewarded for exploring everything, I can't say that for totks depths

[@dingledorf887]

I thought the chasms were just a new bottomless pit to avoid so imagine my shock when I Jump down a chasm for shits and giggles expecting the classic bottomless pit death only to end up in the Depths

[@ADreamingTraveler]

When I jumped into one of those holes I thought it was just another small cave area to explore. I go down and I'm wondering why the hell it's so dark in here so I keep running around exploring...and then it just never ends. I just thought maybe it was a slightly bigger cave than the other caves. I feel stupid though because I actually got lost in the depths and was trying to figure out how to make my way back up after 20 minutes and didn't realize you could just teleport out by swapping to the ground map lol

[@Raumanzo]

That is awesome! I wish I was brave enough to experience it like that! lol

[@bdmatsterrr]

I didn't even jump in a chasm, I discovered the whole thing with wells, jumped down a random well and suddenly I was in pitch black, found a nearby lightroot then looked at the map and had the crazy realization

[@louiseb3146]

@@bdmatsterrr The same thing but found the root after several hours. And I was really early in my playthrough ^^

[@cameronwilsey9334]

I found a stalhorse on my first trip to the depths and spent well over an hour running around on it till I got it stuck in a hole cause it was dark

[@roryreviewer6598]

What’s really strange to me is that I found that the simple act of starting the game from lookout landing/central Hyrule instead of the Great Plateau, plus the additional/altered landmarks, gave me a completely different perspective on the layout of the land, to such a degree that I found myself lost many times despite being so familiar with the world in BOTW. I found myself constantly checking my location on the map and thinking “OOOHH this is around the Zora area” or whatever it was cause I couldn’t tell just from walking around.

[@Anna-dd4rh]

Same! Thank god for the map in the LL shelter. Couldn’t even remember where Tarrey Town was lol

[@trendingtony]

Big facts

[@sadudas11]

With all of the old sheikah towers missing, I realized how much I used them to get a general sense of direction. That bit threw me off too even though I didn’t think it would have.

[@crazykim]

@@sadudas11 That and the areas on the map you unlock by the towers not being necessarily the same, or split up in some cases, made me confused a lot initially.

[@Mariwend]

My collective 2,000 hours of botw didn't allow me that experience.

[@sorio99]

It was so cool, seeing even super minor characters, like Calip and Magda, getting actual character development. Like, seriously, I’m so happy they didn’t skimp on the NPC’s.

[@allautumn888]

yeah like i noticed the kids from botw grew up into preteen looking ppl in totk. I thought that was so cute to see new npcs that looked different but were the same people.

[@Mariwend]

Calip got development? Always seemed like a prick to me.

[@genderenigma8276]

Hudson has a child. Link wingman'd enough for a child to exist now.

[@tea9047]

seeing Loone move on from the guardians to obsessing over the great skeletons was pretty great, i also remembered that hylian couple in rito village where the wife wanted baked apples, and ran into the husband with a different girl. seems like those two got a divorce. the npcs definitely make the world feel so lively

[@theoaremevano3227]

Was worried at first too, because at the start they kept yammering tutorials and repeating information at me.

[@Lobotobro]

I personally hadn’t touched BotW since I originally played it on release, and I think the long span of time since then managed to make going through Hyrule in TotK still feel fresh in it’s own way. It felt like walking into a town you hadn’t been to for years, and get a warm feeling when you see a cafe you used to visit a lot back in the day (if that makes sense)

[@holyelephantmg8838]

nostalgia

[@julio1148]

Same for me! Yes I recognized general points of interests and had a vague sense of where things were, and I loved that sensation

[@appleplorp9883]

A cool thing is for me I played botw for the first time about a month before totk released and even jumping straight from botw to totk with basically no wait inbetween the new additions and changes still managed to make totk feel new and fresh so its not just the timespan between botw release and now

[@KopfdesRiesen]

I had the same experience. I remembered bigger points of interest but I couldn’t remember where. I could remember the biomes but it always felt like i was playing totk blind. I prefer it a LOT over botw 60-70 ish hours in

[@derekhandson351]

I played BOTW and TOTK back to back and I wasn't disappointed

[@Salty_Bass]

Totk's map is like the town you grew up in but moved away and returned years later. Some things are the same but a lot has changed.

[@BIGBMH]

When I jumped off the Great Sky Island and made it to the ground, it really felt like finding myself back at home in a weird way. But like you said, a home that has changed with time. The excitement to discover the both the new and the evolved familiar was very special.

[@Enigma2Me]

Yep, like the biggest house in the town suddenly being elevated 200 feet up, and it turns out the entire town was built on top of another town buried and forgotten.

[@Spotto26]

You sum it up perfectly

[@TheKeybladeKeeper]

And revisiting places really did feel nostalgic, in a way

[@azophi]

@@Spotto26 That's because it takes place years later lol

[@hannahappa]

When I saw the depths for the first time and realised how big it was - I was immediately overwhelmed and got too scared to touch it again for quite a bit

[@RhythmGrizz]

Same

[@AlphaladZXA]

I still haven't been down there much and it's been over 50 hours

[@grimmick9446]

Same I've got a couple light roots marked and some key areas for story. But I don't even have auto build and I'm 100 hours and am on the last 2 story missions.

[@RacingSnails64]

Their size is staggering, but the thing that kept me from exploring them for a bit was the lightseeds. I find them kinda clunky. I didn't want to have to toss them around all the time, but I guess I got over it lol.

[@wet0wl]

I saw one of the wall boarders and assumed there was just a bunch of separate large caves. So then I turned around.

[@Izuku_]

One of the most fun things about TotK is going to a place where there used to be a certain secret or Shrine in BotW and finding out what they ended up putting there instead

[@lordbreadbug414]

There’s a singular tree- the only one for a while around- south of the Northern Lomei Labyrinth that housed a Korok in Breath of the Wild. In Tears of the Kingdom, that tree grew up into a larger tree and had a different type of puzzle. Something as small as that was enough to make my day.

[@TheJadedJames]

Yeah, I found myself specifically going to certain locations to learn what happened to them. “What happened to the Great Plateau?” was one of my first big questions.

[@goese868]

yeah what's with the weird stripping of all sheikah technology in TOTK?

[@z.amelius]

​@@goese868 It's so weird. Not even just that it's gone, that no one remembers it.

[@goese868]

@@z.amelius when i first played and i got to the shrine of resurection i thought this game wasn't connected to botw, it's just so poorly explained.

[@MegajsX]

Realizing the way the light roots in the depths connected to the shrines was pretty crazy. It fixed one of the biggest issues in hunting down shrines especially when you only had a few left to find and at the same time it gave you points to find more light roots in the depths to help you explore

[@dashalpha]

I think I lit up maybe 2/3 of the depths before the "ah ha" moment where I realized on my own that the lightroot and shrine positions were the same. Probably because I started the depths mostly in areas I hadn't visited up top yet. Would have made early lightroot hunting and shrine hunting far earlier, though honestly it would have made it also feel more like a collectathon chore than exploration.

[@JoelJoel321]

I'm so glad the game basically leaves you to figure that out on your own. Same with "Oh, the inaccessible areas are the water areas on the surface" and "The canyons in the depths are the mountains on the surface". So clever.

[@connors.8618]

Idk, that realization took a lot of fun out of shrine hunting for me. It introduced a pretty rote and repetitive gameplay loop for me. It also just underscored the fact that they reused the same hyrule map for me. Like “you already explored this map before, so you might not want to do that again, so we’ll just tell you where all the shrines are.”

[@jherboss2516]

Honestly I like the sense of familiarity with the world in totk. It changes the vibes from "exploring a post-apocalyptic hyrule" to "Running around int a world that is being reconstructed." I think it's especially true since movement is easier so it's actually quite easy to visit all the populated areas. It changes the vibe of the game to match the setting, while still having the depths as this mysterious unknown.

[@Sean-xc9im]

I think it's very under appreciated when a masterpiece of a map like BotW is allowed to really breath and expand. not only that, but re-meeting certain characters and locations that are totally different is just such a joy.

[@QuantumConundrum]

Post-apocalyptic hopelessness is done so much, I really like the reconstructing as you describe it. It's also very different than the fallout version of the idea of 'rebuilding', and in a fantastic way.

[@RacingSnails64]

I loved seeing Mubs in Lookout Landing. And I love how every town is different in some way. Stuff like that makes the world feel fresh and lived in. I find that traversal isn't much easier though, which can make the reused map feel like a chore sometimes. I'm so used to these fields and hills, and hiking can be just as slow and trudging as BOTW. You don't always have a sky island checkpoint to glide from and I'm still getting the hang of vehicles. Horses remain very committal and clunky as well. It made reactivating all the watch towers pretty irritating for me. I wish we had a few already activated for us, and had to help repair the rest. It would've helped make exploring the new world just a tad more expedient for me.

[@ignazioacerenza9881]

But the upheaval kinda throws that into the trashbag. The world is basically ground zero for a catastrophe again. I don't seea world reconstructed but rather a world coming together to face another apocalyptic scenario. Zora Domain hasn't changed for the better, for example. They have the same structures but now they have to deal with sludge?

[@uponeric36]

Love that Hudson Construction are treated like low key heroes with super natural building skills too. Hyrule could be completely rebuilt by the next sequel if they really get to work 😂

[@DanGamingFan2846]

"Arlo is awesome!" "Arlo peaked in 2019!" "Hey!" I just love that gag when echoes somehow repeat the opposite of what you said.

[@watershipup7101]

Agreed

[@TROBassGuitar]

Lol like the Grinch

[@martinwoodrome6588]

​@@TROBassGuitar Grinch: I'm an idiot!!! Echo: You're an idiot!

[@shinykitsunelive]

Why am I starting to see you everywhere?

[@thearcanian5921]

It was the double "Hey!" that got me.

[@HogSlopp]

i love that the 5 or so year time skip rlly does feel like it happened with all the developments in the world

[@BoyProdigyX]

Time passed at the same rate for us and for the game... Pretty cool!

[@wildbard4112]

Ngl it was shocking for me. I was like, "woah it's all so different and yet the same"

[@brotbrotsen1100]

The dude who married a gerudo in Botw now has a 7 year old child, so i guess 7 years past

[@wildbard4112]

@@brotbrotsen1100 I think she's actually 5

[@HogSlopp]

@@brotbrotsen1100 oh damn so longer than i thought

[@darthmarth87]

I think with Totk taking so long its important to remember that whole covid thing really set game development back, for example the producer of FF16 said it set them back at minimum 6 months, honestly I wouldn't be surprised if zelda lost a year of productivity

[@ADreamingTraveler]

Yeah I would not be surprised if the game was meant to come out 2 years ago

[@V1Salvo]

⁠@@ADreamingTravelerit WAS meant to come out 2 years ago. It was supposed to come out in 2021.

[@speedude0164]

On top of that, the entire final year of development was spent just patching out bugs with the new mechanics. I know the reuse of the world probably saved them a lot of time since the Sky and Depths aren't quite as fleshed out, but without COVID and likely without mechanics that are this demanding from a programming standpoint, I doubt the next Zelda will take nearly as long.

[@Scion3881]

One of my favorite parts so far, was just randomly stumbling into a massive cave. I kept finding more and more rooms and couldn’t believe how huge this cave was. It almost felt like its own game.

[@SomeYouTubeTraveler]

After the early quest to talk to the guard captain below Hyrule Castle, instead of teleporting back to Lookout Landing, I decided to explore the castle bits that were still on the ground. I wound up finding the "Exit" to the Royal Secret Passage or whatever that was supposed to have its own quest much later down the road and be entered from the other side down at the Landing. XD So there's me with 4 hearts, crappy weapons, having to face down a Shock Like and then a Stalnox, barely scraping by with enough weapons and stones to fuse to break through all the rock walls, and picking up the guard armor set all along the way, finally meeting the horned statue at the end and ascending up into Lookout Landing. It was the most awesome 2 hours of Zelda dungeoneering I'd played since the traditional dungeons of the past, or maybe something like Skyrim... just a long, straightforward gauntlet of difficult fights and resource management, and I agree, such long and packed caves really do often feel like their own games!

[@thedapperdolphin1590]

Too bad there’s usually nothing worth finding in those outside of an occasional shrine or one of those monsters you kill the the one quest. Breakable weapons take away any sense of discovery.

[@alextaylor1760]

I’d love to see a comparison of the size of all the combined cave space compared to the map, I bet it matches or is larger than all the sky islands combined

[@takeyourheart3030]

I did the same thing and ended up in fricken Hyrule Castle after wandering around for forever. 😂

[@chillstoneblakeblast3172]

@@thedapperdolphin1590 What are you talking about? Fighting a boss for their Fuse material is really nice. Most of my best weapon were from bosses I fought in caves. I could have tried finding more on them in the surface, but Cave exploration was fun

[@DiglettsOtherHalf]

The fact that Tarrey Town was still there was all I could ever ask for.

[@jarlwhiterun7478]

Tarrytown* It's not a town filled with Terry's.

[@hoodiesticks]

​@@jarlwhiterun7478 Tarrey Town* Though it kinda is a town where you tarry a while on your journey.

[@Skrimshady]

Yeah it was pretty Awe-son, right?

[@wpaunan]

Wouldn’t it been hilarious if it WAS a town full of Terrys?

[@ThornyFox]

​@@jarlwhiterun7478 It's not filled with Terry's? We'll see about that ;)

[@PrincessPetch24]

My favorite part of the game is restoring places like Lurelin Village or Gerudo town. So rewarding.

[@clarkside4493]

Reminds me of how it felt to revisit Kanto in Gold/Silver/Crystal. It's not just the same map, it's the same map several years down the line.

[@selfiegek]

I loved this part of the 2nd gen games, and was incredibly disappointed that they didn't follow the same path with the 3rd gen. It was like, "okay, I finished exploring Hoenn. I want to go back home, now!"

[@retroransom]

That's a great analogy

[@HyponMixhog]

Black and White 2 as well

[@goese868]

@@retroransom yeah but at least gen 2 had its own map. Analogy kinda falls appart when you think of it like that lol.

[@lillith7257]

This is a pretty terrible analogy, Kanto was empty and more of a boss rush in GSC. The changes in comparison to this are so minimal it's insulting, but compared to actual Kanto? That should have made people angry not being something they bring up all the time.

[@dazzdazzle8758]

I actually didn't know about the depths for a long time into my playthrough. then one time when me and my bf were calling and playing totk at the same time he's like "have you jumped into a chasm yet" and i was like "no i thought it would hurt me if i jump in" and he got my live reaction "wow this is deep WAIT HOLY SHIT IS THIS HELL WORLD?? IS THIS THE NETHER???!? TOTK NETHER!!!!?? HELL WORLD!!!"

[@songarakram]

I have a weird sneaking suspicion that using the same map was a lot harder than Nintendo expected. Trying to fit new concepts into an old world is astronomically difficult from a game design standpoint. I think that Nintendo won't do it again.

[@mli3083]

From a programming and graphics perspective it makes things much simpler

[@Kyle_116]

Doubt that's the case. Let's not forget, COVID shutdowns and stuff started to happen less than a year after TotK was announced, as it was announced during the E3 2019 Direct. There is also the fact that Aonuma said in an interview that game was effectively done one full year before they released it, they just held off release and polished for that one extra year. So the effective development turnaround between BotW and Tears was five years, four once you factor in COVID slowdowns that affected every developer in the world. Then you also have to factor in they likely didn't just start production on Tears immediately (Champion's Ballad came out end of 2017, so they didn't start till 2018 at the earliest) and the turnaround gets even shorter.

[@TheDapperDragon]

I mean, they didn't do it now. There's nothing new here.

[@paulj6805]

Nah man, I completely disagree. This game is only possible because it was built on the back of another game. It's genuinely one of the greatest things ever made and one of the highest rated and most well received games of all time. I don't think they'll shy away from this strategy if it makes sense in the future. But I also don't think theyll make another game with the same base map again. The next game will probably have a new style and map but probably gonna use a similar engine and structure.

[@paulj6805]

​@@TheDapperDragonyou are mentally handicapped if you genuinely believe that.

[@DiegoreSCL]

at 12:16 we can see Arlo casually wasting one of the most powerful items in the game on a common enemy. I screamed.

[@thorne3827]

Usually it's Arlo's editor's footage that we're seeing

[@MrKogarou]

@@thorne3827 True, though at least it made a cool clip in a video watched by hundreds of thousands of people. And... I haven't used a single one of these items, even though I've beaten the game, because if the enemy is strong, I *want* the items they drop.

[@DiegoreSCL]

@@thorne3827 even worse

[@Meteorite_Shower]

Well, they're renewable, much like many 'unique' weapons, so even if it is a bit wasteful, I don't think it's that much of an issue. Use what you want, I say.

[@MXALOVE]

The magic of the game for me was going back to the same locations and seeing what changed, helping the locals rebuild, and since the shrines were do much better and more interesting, im actually gonna do all the shrines now. It's just a better experience.

[@iinathaniii2]

The first time I dove into the depths I had no idea they existed and I immediately landed by what I now think was a yiga clan hideout where I was being blasted by a Lazer in the pitch black, and it seemed so hard/scary that I didn't go down again for a very long time

[@BoyProdigyX]

I first went down the "tutorial chasm" (Central Hyrule) and STILL I was too terrified until I felt I had to do the quests related to the Depths. Learning there were Lightroots under the shrines made it doable, knowing where the "lightswitches" were haha

[@whysitthat3515]

One of the first times I went to the depths, I basically landed on top of an Obsidian Frox and I actually screamed

[@Sebby_Nineteen]

@@whysitthat3515 Let me guess, in Akkala? ;)

[@PuglyWont]

One of the first things I did in the game was go back to The Great Plateau... and did the bring me my eyes quest.... and by accident did my first Yiga Clan encounter... I had no idea what this game was anymore. Successfully doing the quest (skipping over the intended introduction) hooked me on the depths. Turned out pretty nice, because there's a ton of bomb flowers to find down there!

[@DumplingDoodle]

my first experience with the depths was the great plateau quest. crazy introduction.

[@okapi_q]

Everyone was saying “I’ve already explored this map, why would I want to do it again with small changes” and I’m like, how could you possibly remember every location in botw. The world is massive.

[@technic1285]

I've walked it a lot. A _lot._ I still remember most of the map and I haven't started Tears yet.

[@Sam_T2000]

I don’t remember all the little details of the _BOTW_ map, but I remember all the big, awe-inspiring parts 🤷🏻‍♂️ when I revisit a location now, it’s just like I’m playing a video game and making sure I get all the collectibles, and not really exploring a magical land, like how it felt in _BOTW_ 🤷🏻‍♂️ I like seeing a more fleshed-out, living and breathing version of Hyrule, but still… I’ve been there before. I would’ve much preferred the game to take place in the distant past… the terrain could be the same, but all the structures, vegetation, inhabitants could be entirely different. imagine if that place east of the Castle with the giant tree stumps was a thriving forest with enormous trees, maybe with Rito or Ewoks living in tree houses?

[@hawkeyemihawkgettingmoneylord]

​@@Sam_T2000 i made the mistake of replaying botw thinking they would change the map a whole ton. Boy was i wrong they could have added a lot more stuff.

[@Cosplaythief]

I loved the nostalgia and I was happy that I still remembered where the spring of courage, wisdom and power were. XD

[@cheke_hs]

Not only that, but the map has SO many changes to the point that some areas are borderline unrecognizable. Death Mountain probably being the best example of this.

[@Couldnt_Be_Bothered]

I have never felt nostalgia quite like walking back onto the great plateau. It was such a beautiful moment just to relieve that section.

[@JoelJoel321]

And then to find out what was beneath the goddess statue... So cool.

[@Adeseo]

I can’t blame you for not realizing how great revisiting places and seeing what people had been up to would be. One of the major improvements in this game is how all the inhabitants feel like they’re living real lives and doing things and making plans outside of what link is doing. I couldn’t have anticipated feeling wonder at revisiting places before because the people in the first game were pretty static, unmoving and not really changing. So when I pictured revisiting places, I kinda just pictured people continuing to just kinda exist. What makes this game so exciting is that all the people are up to new things based on what’s happened previously. It’s the key ingredient, in my opinion

[@Swiftbow]

I ran into an NPC who's part of the Monster Hunting team who gave me a LYNEL horn. Respect.

[@Adeseo]

@@Swiftbow exactly! Like that seems so small, but just feeling like you’re a part of a bigger force fighting to fix the world (even if you’re the main, most influential part) feels cool

[@cleverman383]

"all the inhabitants feel like they’re living real lives and doing things and making plans outside of what link is doing" you've got to play majora's mask, friend

[@theapexman7405]

Arlo peaked in 2019 had me rolling on the floor, few people can make fun of themselves wholesomely. You are one of those legends among men!!

[@manojlds]

Arlo is not human

[@Draezeth]

Monsters*

[@Yisrael_Teshuvah]

Is he a man or a muppet?

[@darellcarrillo]

The backhanded compliment 😂

[@leoflow2290]

​@@Yisrael_TeshuvahIs he a manly Muppet or a Muppet of a man?

[@Manimal14]

Within the first 10 mins of landing in Hyrule, i was kinda confused because something was different, i just couldn't figure out what

[@blackdust7353]

Probably because you land close to the middle of the map and start exploring from a point, where you weren't in Botw. I mean, when would you have ever gone from Hyrule Castle to where the Great Plateau is? It always was the other way around. That's why it felt so different, while not being different in the most parts

[@Radiogumdrop]

Even seeing the new designs for the bokoblins was jarring. The new horns made them look so weird at first but now I can’t imagine them with their tiny horns in BOTW

[@psuedonym9999]

Well, for starters, landing i Bottomless Pond instead of Bottomless Bog. Seriously, that alone, even after seeing Zeldatubers note that change, made me think "this wasn't here before!". The absence of Guardians also made Hyrule Field feel strangely safer.

[@moej6014]

For me it was the fog/haze. That bothers me a bit, but I'm getting used to it.

[@immensemelon7708]

Simply changing the starting location from the lower left of the Great plateau to the upper center of Hyrule field changed the experience so much for me. Especially because they completely changed the field from just a guardian fest to an actual location to explore.

[@ludmilagratzmelo7138]

And the weirdest thing is that I used to know every little corner of that old map, but things have changed a lot in the 5/6 years that have passed, and it was fascinating to see that world that I helped to save -alongside zelda ofc - getting rebuilt by everyone, so many people were fighting for it. And I'm not gonna lie, I felt so lost with all the changes that it was a huge relief to find a familiar place. I felt safe, even if the place was different. What an amazing sequence and game ❤

[@DeckKnight]

My favorite addition was the underground passage between Lookout Landing and Hyrule Castle. It's a callback to Link to the Past and wasn't necessary to put in. But it's there, and it takes about 90 mins to fully explore, almost like it's own dungeon. Even had a Stalnox as a sort of boss in the middle. It's one of those details that is just beautiful.

[@Logicalleaping]

doing that early on and being rewarded with the knights amour was awesome. Just wish it didn't make me use a gazillion bombs - certainly taught me to fuse rocks to rusty claymores found in the rocks.

[@jaceyates6315]

and the way they make you unearth the Stalnox is such a fun touch

[@dirkmon97]

@@LogicalleapingThat itself may have been the intended lesson. You're so likely to explore that before finding renewable/plentiful sources of rock-breaking, so it teaches you that it's ok to put something slapdash together. That room will open up again later.

[@glitchy000]

@@LogicalleapingBuild an excavator with a spike ball on a wheel on the end of a spear.

[@henryolsen8232]

Hearing the idea of surface-depths correlations makes it almost seem like lazy design to quickly create a new area, but I can’t bring myself to see it that way. It’s ingenious and works so well

[@DragonPanda131]

It did however destroy the creativity of placing the shrines in the overworld a ton.

[@Hyperencrpted12345]

I like it because if you explore the depths before the surface, you have an easier time with the surface because you learn the shrine locations whereas if you explore the surface before the depths, you have an easier time with the depths because you learn lightroot locations.

[@spindocks]

@@DragonPanda131what a strange take? the shrines are placed in far better areas this game

[@DragonPanda131]

@adam yeah but half of them were blessing shrines and it was extremely disappointing. I love this game to bits but that is so many blessing shrines.

[@Terracafe172]

@@DragonPanda131I preferred that because the challenges were in the overworld rather than in the shrine itself. One of my least favorite parts of botw was how much of a chore the shrines became and in this I never felt like a shrine was too annoying to accomplish using the overworld for puzzles also made for more options in solving the shrines. There were maybe two blessings in the entire game where I thought that it could have been a regular shrine but other than that I think they made the right choice

[@justincroft794]

The depths completely blew my mind. I was literally slackjawed in astonishment as I realized the scope and scale of the game. That moment where I said to myself, "Money well spent." The world felt very fresh even though the map was the same, with new quests and new faces everywhere. Plus, seeing the familiar faces in this direct sequel was refreshing and fun. I love what they did with this game. It is seriously fantastic, and I've never had a game hold my attention like this game has.

[@KairuHakubi]

there's something truly eerie about knowing the whole world is above you, and being unable to see.. the bottom. the ceiling. It's so pitch black and the ceiling's so high, lighting it up isn't gonna happen. and then in the occasions when you go super high up, there's a fog effect to hide it a little better... but then you see stalagmites, and you realize this is totally unique. it reminded me of Minecraft's 'Nether' in that we've gotten used to this open sky and bedrock below, and now there's a bedrock ceiling too. a seemingly infinite expanse of UPPER LIMIT.

[@Swiftbow]

@@KairuHakubi I rode a dragon through the Depths and plonked some seeds on the ceiling. They didn't light up much, lol. It was just too big!

[@KairuHakubi]

@@Swiftbow man it took me SO many dozens of hours to finally see a dragon going into the depths, it's crazy that they do that. And seeing them underground, floating around this vast sky, just barely glowing enough to get through the intense dim dankness, realizing that there is enough space UNDER THE GROUND to allow profoundly massive things to exist.. Man nevermind all the crazy Zonau technology, I think the real engineering accomplishment in this world is that what we think of as the ground can be THAT THIN and still support the weight of.. the ground. It should be like a 5 minute trip down each chasm, logically, but it's pretty brief.

[@schnek8927]

Watching nintendo fanboys desperately attempting to justify being ripped off is... bizzare... It’s like you don’t even believe your own lies and have to force them out, but you still do it.

[@gamerskingdom4897]

​@@schnek8927or we liked and amazing game

[@ChaddyFantome]

I was also worried about the same map being used but holy shit, so much was changed and added, it actually isn't even close to a problem. It's like going to your favorite amusement park and finding out every ride and attraction is changed somewhat and a bunch more attractions and vendors were added.

[@platinum3497]

This is one of the reasons Pokemon Black and White 2 are one of my favorite games too! Just to see how the world and characters have changed is in two years was really fun to see. Same with Tears of the Kingdom!

[@rockmanraiden6627]

I had that feeling going playing Gold or Silver and returning to Kanto.

[@Uknown76]

I'm replayng both games rn pokemon black and white is simply incredible

[@thedapperdolphin1590]

But they barely changed the world in TotK

[@youtubesucks1821]

Gen 5 was the worst, I've never played 7 but apparently that one sucked too

[@glitchy000]

That’s it! I kept saying Final Fantasy X-2 or XIII-2 but, no, it was HGSS and BW2.

[@shpladau]

This little monster puppet measuring his time until death in the unit of Zeldas is grim but also on brand.

[@UmatsuObossa]

I never once thought the same map was gonna be a problem because A Ling Between Worlds was the same Hyrule as A Link to the Past, but didn't feel identical. Just familiar enough to be nostalgic and know where you are, but still fully worth re-exploring. I assumed it'd be the same here

[@kirasant]

My only complaint about the depths is I wish there was at least one town down there. Maybe all constructs? Or gorons cut off from their cousins above? Maybe an evil town of yiga? And more plot down there. The depths are super cool but plot wise you don't need 90% of it.

[@lemonfry26]

I just wish there were like 3 or 4 more sky islands that were as big and interesting as the Great Sky Island. The smaller clusters just kinda felt the same. I also wish there were more interesting things to see in the Depths. Different biomes or even towns where some sort of monster people live. The game is still absolutely massive and you have to admire the sheer scale of the whole thing.

[@BroskiWhy-ev9uu]

Maybe will get it on dlc

[@Krakenjackz]

I wish we had more big sky islands, there is definitely room for more. Eldin is such a large area and it has like 5 tiny islands with virtually nothing on them. I wouldn't want the whole sky cluttered with them, but for sure having more would be great

[@ConsciousCloud]

Totally agree especially about having more big sky islands. I recently found one fairly big one and was pleasantly shocked. I thought I'd accidentally ran into a temple at first but it was just a pretty decent sized island even if not as big as the starting area. And yes I really wished there were little monster towns or communities in the Depths too. I kinda was wondering if I would run into the Subrosians actually, the hooded race of people that live underground in the Oracle games. That certainly would've been cool. I do still very much enjoy the Depths though but would've liked more variety since it is still around the same size as the surface map.

[@Cheesehead302]

My idea was it would be cool if there were an underground civilization of those Mogma guys from Skyward Sword. It would make sense, and it would give that area desperately needed complexity beyond the repetitiveness.

[@leoschautvideos]

These two things that you mention bother me so so so much, that I just can't love this game.

[@joffles6516]

I’m just disappointed there’s more of the depths than the sky, the first couple hours in the great sky islands were the most fun I had in the game. The rest is still fun, but I just loved the zonal robots and the atmosphere and puzzles and design of the sky islands. Meanwhile the depths are fun but there isn’t much to do down there. They should’ve made more sky islands and less underground

[@lightdarksoul2097]

I think it's just well sky islands means there is more sky than island while underground you have to be basically as big as the surface since it's just underground

[@christiangraulau8107]

To me the great sky island kind of just felt like botw DLC, then when I got onto the surface it felt like a new game

[@RacingSnails64]

Agreed. The Sky Islands are the best part. They feel so fresh and new. I would GLADLY buy DLC that adds several more Great Sky Island areas to the game :)

[@durpanda123]

The sky islands were extremely underwhelming for me. Most of them were basically just the same stuff. I would have loved for there to be bigger clusters like the great sky island all over the place with different themes and biomes, more use of rails and verticality. They have some amazing premises with the sky gameplay but didn't take it far enough I think.

[@lixielabs]

​@@durpanda123 Would a denser sky region be worth the tradeoff in shadows? It'd be a lot darker on the surface and you wouldn't see as much of the sky down there.

[@jacksonwilliams5399]

I think a lot of the changes to the world was really cool, like coming home to see what your town is doing. But exploring the sky island and the depths has been my favorite part of the game.

[@maximelepage7664]

"There's not going to be that many Zelda before we die, at this rate" Arlo, you broke my heart today with the truth..

[@eric1911a1]

That's why i appreciate romhacks, personally.

[@Megarobotsquadron]

the best description of this was that it feels like returning to your home town after years of being away. It may not be the same kind of discovery, but it's a different, meaningful version of discovery

[@jarlwhiterun7478]

Terrible analogy.

[@wokeupinapanic]

@@jarlwhiterun7478 You’re either trolling or being sarcastic and failing. As someone that grew up and moved away from the 3rd largest town in my state, that has since turned into the 3rd largest city and 2nd fastest GDP growth of any city in the US, this is EXACTLY the same F’ing thing. I come back home every 3 or so years, and a lot of it is familiar, some of it is gussied up or modified, there’s a lot of new shops everywhere, and the main skeleton is recognizable, but still eerily different. The traffic patterns and street lights are different. That building that took up an entire block is now luxury apartments and million dollar condos. This neighborhood is new, hey there’s a new restaurant where that crappy one used to be and it’s actually really great… This is quite literally what it feels like to explore TotK’s Hyrule. It’s the exact perfect analogy.

[@cvspergaming]

@@wokeupinapanic you definitely dont care about this but that Jarl dude had a negative response to one of my comments on a completely unrelated video that was a sports podcast and to randomly come across him again in this comment section on a random comment i chose to look at is so wild lmaoooo

[@TerrapinTales]

The biggest issue with the “but 2 extra levels to the map!!” argument is that the Depths are fairly boring, and there aren’t enough Sky Islands that aren’t copy/pasted or literally just random rocks with nothing to do on them. Sometimes MORE isn’t as great if the majority of it is “meh” (quantity over quality). But I suppose that is subjective; I do feel that if you didn’t play BOTW, some of these things will probably matter less to you.

[@ramonmujica3193]

Makes sense. BotW's map was so big that it included all the biomes you could have in a Zelda game. Even if they made a new map, it would just be "so now Lake Hylia is going to be a little bit more to the east and there's going to a be a swamp here instead of a forest which is now were a swamp was." and it's not like previous Zelda game's maps were already similar (usually having a Lake Hylia in the south-east, desert on the west (unless it's mirrored like in TP) and so on. My only problem with TotK's reused map was that I was still finding Koroks in the same way I was in BotW. They should have made the Korok "puzzles" different from the previous game and some were but most Koroks are just hiding under rocks in places were I wouldn't be surprised they used to be hidden under rocks in BotW. I do like the caves.. best part of TotK. More than the sky islands and the Depths. I would have preferred they rebuilt Hyrule town instead of building lookout landing just outside but they had their reasons. More new towns would have been cool, they could have replaced some of the stables. Maybe even an underground Goron city with a different ethnicity of Gorons (Ice Gorons?) That would be cool. Maybe have non-construct villages in the depths with some "evil" inhabitants... I'm asking for too much, I know there are limits to what they can put in the game but games like this spark my imagination, the future may hold better games and I have no problem with reusing this Hyrule yet again if they keep adding stuff. Maybe this same Hyrule but far enough in the future that Hyrule town/castle is completely rebuilt and pretty big.. a Zelda version of New Donk City.

[@Brando2301]

ToTK makes BoTW feel like an insanely large and beautiful tech demo. I never thought this game could outdo that game, and how wrong I was

[@BananaReidy]

Honestly its a good thing to be proven wrong when something blows our expectations out of the water.

[@blueylewis9419]

Wait until 2030 when people are saying "blops of the bloop makes totk feel like a tech demo"

[@Luizanimado]

nah, BOTW still is a lot better, TOTK is just a bunch of Copy and past content

[@zacharybecker8228]

botw made botw feel like a tech demo

[@meikaishi]

​@@Luizanimadolmao

[@brodytwitty1173]

Tears of the kingdoms map is honestly one of my favorite maps in all of gaming, it has a vast hyrule with unique little quests, a beautiful sky islands that have fun puzzles and a huge underground that provides so much lore implications and good treasures, overall I love this game lol

[@chiquita683]

Casual

[@CuCuKM]

​@@chiquita683yes and? Casual gaming is fun

[@brodytwitty1173]

@@chiquita683 I’ve done all shrines and completed the depths dude

[@broshi1752]

It’s a hard map to top. One of the greatest video game worlds ever made and you double the size and things to do? Insane

[@thedapperdolphin1590]

To me, it’s same over-world from the first game, sky islands that are few in number and copy pasted, and big empty depths.

[@LG22475]

I initially had the exact same fears when the game came out. However the point that sold me was when I traversed the depths for the first time. I still can't believe how huge the map is now.

[@gregorywolfeii9071]

The map seemed cool at first, but it got old kinda fast. I wish they had done more in the sky and that the caves and underground weren’t all so samey. Was disappointing to learn the tutorial area was the largest sky island. If the game had taken half the time to complete, it might be more palatable. Makes you wonder what took so long on this version. Also disappointing there’ll be no DLC. Seems like that would have been a great opportunity to add more in the sky in particular.

[@AJWEXIST47]

Fr I wanted my big giant wind fish in the sky

[@zakkonieczka6811]

Rediscovering Hyrule has been one of the most enjoyable parts of the game for me. It seems so different yet so familiar and that nuance is so impressive

[@ejthenobody]

I will always love the fact that Tears of the Kingdom did the Yakuza and Kamurocho thing of revisiting the main place you were in for all of the last game, except now time has passed so you can see how things have changed between this game and the last game. And that love is in no small part due to the fact that, when I'm running around this version of Hyrule, I'm constantly remembering things from my playthroughs of Breath of The Wild and I'm like "Oh my god, I know this place!" And at the same time there's so much new stuff everywhere and things have changed so much I'm just wowed and frickin' floored at all of it, all the time. Running into characters and folks I knew from BotW has also felt very special to me just because...Well, I loved a lot of the characters, so seeing them again, in some cases now all grown up- or about the same except doing something else, just makes me incredibly happy.

[@ejthenobody]

Oh also, for me personally, I kind of love seeing familiar places that are relatively the same. Feels like running through my old stomping grounds and I weirdly enjoy it. Sometimes a little familiarity in all the newness is nice.

[@Cosplaythief]

I agree. When I visited some places that were changed I was like "oh wow where's the Gerudo Canyon stable?" or "I remember getting murdered in that part of the map" or "where's the Lynel?". There's just something about nostalgia that makes things feel good. But if I had replayed BotW right before TotK it might have felt a lot less pleasant.

[@ejthenobody]

@@Cosplaythief True, true. I last played Breath of the Wild like...Back in maybe 2020? 2019? Ages ago.

[@CeadusSunblaster]

I wouldn’t even mind if they went back to this Hyrule a third time. I’ve spend so much time with these characters already, that i really want to know what comes next for them. And there’s plenty of opportunities to add something new to explore, while keeping the old world that’s grown on the players. Tears of the Kingdom already hints that there’s more outside of the borders of Hyrule. Or how about a dark version of Hyrule (like Lorule). That’s something I’d really like to see.

[@tumultuousv]

If they do a 3rd game they would need to do a wind waker esc thing with the sea and underwater exploration. Idk if they'd reuse hyrule again though unless it was like 20 years in the future and things were built up again. Might final get to play as a link who's older. Or possibly playable zelda this time. I'm fine with a trilogy.

[@GedanJ]

We got the prequel warriors, botw and sequel totk, i wonder what the next zelda will have in store

[@TheJadedJames]

I would love it if Nintendo pulled a Red Dead Redemption 2 with the Hyrule map. Let us go north of Akkala. Start the game up there and let players have the holy **** revelation that they can return to Hyrule again, but it is going to be totally different

[@quibquiberton4184]

The Upheavel should have much more dramatically changed the world map. I imagined massive craters carved into the landscape, exposing all sorts of interesting horrors. At least 80% of the original world is the same. The Depths aren't very interesting, and the Sky Islands aren't very substantial. Instead of taking time to add a wealth of new, interesting content to a largely reused map, they apparently focused all their development time on finetuning the physics for Ultrahand. I find myself being asked to complete a lot of tedious fetch quests, and the main story is repetative and aimless. Also, does anyone really care about seeing what most of the characters from BotW have been up to? I played BotW at launch, absolutely loved it, and I don't remember almost any of these characters. BotW's character writing is absolutely not one of the reasons I enjoyed that game so much. I thought TotK would be my game of the year, but I don't think I've ever been this disappointed in a game.

[@dampflokfreund]

Yeah, it seems Arlo was leaning a lot into the honeymoon phase. I bet he thinks very differently about this game now.

[@quibquiberton4184]

@@dampflokfreund Yeah, I'm expecting his eventual review to be pretty mixed. He seems to recognize many of the flaws of TotK in this video already.

[@jimmysaldana8706]

Yeah pretty much how I feel now too, pretty sad

[@livixxxhimym]

Caveat to the caveat - I LIKED some places being familiar. I was already connected to this world, and with so much change and exploration, the stuff that was just 'the same' honestly felt weirdly refreshing? It was like coming home in a way, like 'ah i recognise this'. The thing with BOTW at the end was I always felt a little unsatisfied, like I wanted Link to be able to live his life after saving the entire world. The issue with BOTW is the divine beasts literally shoot lasers over the map reminding you of Ganon at all times. In TOTK, once you resolve the phenomena it's a lot easier to just exist in Hyrule for a while

[@thelonecabin2433]

The concept of revisiting a place in a game in the future has fascinated me for a long time and is, in my opinion, pretty underused. Super metroid reuses part of tourian both to let you see what happened after, and also to show that this game would be on a scale far larger than the original. Metroid prime reuses the Frigate Orpheon to show the consequences of previous events. An indie game I will always praise for using this idea in the best way I've ever seen (aside from TotK) is Rain world and its DLC in particular. You essentially play through the campaigns as a bunch of different characters on the same map, but at drastically different points in the timeline, allowing the devs to experiment with weather shifts, decay, technological collapse, and the stories they could tell. As a player you get to actually see the story beats you might've only read snippets about, and even witness incredible events far in the future that were previously only implied would happen. TotK is much less bleak than rain world, but seeing the continuations of the characters stories, be they important characters like the sages, or tiny NPCs like the little girl at the stable finally being validated after previously being convinced that there were people in the sky, is just incredible to see. We even get to see all of the build up to this point in time play out through the memories in the game. It's just such a great idea and even though I was skeptical that TotK would fully pull it off it definitely has.

[@CrazyDW00]

Revisiting major locations like Rito Village or Zora's Domain really gave me this sense of "I'm back! Hey guys, what have I missed? What's changed!". It was so exciting

[@whysitthat3515]

I’m loving all these separate TOTK videos. A lot of channels make multiple videos and it feels like they’re milking the game for content, but each of your videos feels purposeful and thought-out. Keep ‘em coming!

[@PaulSmith-pe1kh]

Revising the beloved world and characters with so many changes is indeed magical. And Zelda giving herself is truly the birth of the name the legend of Zelda. What a beautiful story.

[@glitchy000]

You know, TotK after everything is the only true Legend of actually Zelda.

[@FlackNCoke]

It kind of amuses me that with Zelda’s convoluted chronology there have been several games that people thought was THE legend of Zelda, and it just keeps changing. First it was the first game. Obviously, self explanatory. Then the second game is like “Hang on, actually there was another earlier Zelda and she’s in a magic sleep, and THAT’S the Legend of Zelda.” Then A Link to the Past is like, “Actually the Legend isn’t ABOUT Zelda, it’s about the Imprisoning War and the Golden Land.” Then Ocarina of Time is like, “No no no, forget all that shit, THIS is THE Legend of Zelda! First in the timeline, no question about it, we’re never going back on this.” Then Skyward Sword is like, “Actually THIS is the Legend of Zelda, but really it’s the Legend of Hylia, but she reincarnated as Zelda so yeah…” And now Tears of the Kingdom is like “That might have been the legend originally, or not, who knows, but time travel shenanigans and magic stones going into orifices means that the new Legend is about THIS Zelda, whether it makes sense with the previous games or not!”

[@Mightylcanis]

​@@FlackNCoke Nintendo has *never* cared about the timelines, if they did then the timelines would make more sense, and there wouldn't be so many oddities between games. The Hyrule Historia is just to bait more fan theories.

[@ollygons]

Zooming your map out for the first time in the depths and seeing the sheer scope of it all definitely had me super excited, which is why it's a shame there's just not a whole lot of meaningful content down there. Don't get me wrong I really like the depths and the music and everything but I find myself enjoying exploring the caves more tbh

[@hawkeyemihawkgettingmoneylord]

Same feeling i was dumb founded after i realized theres a whole map down there. But when i found out there was barley anything down there i got really disappointed. Its just 1 big biome 1 unique enemy type no towns no type of race down there. I mean its cool you can fight bosses again but none of the boss fights were particularly fun anway.

[@Stupididiot-ci5gf]

@@hawkeyemihawkgettingmoneylord Honestly, the Yiga stuff saves the depths for me. Chasing around Master Khoga, trying to find the ways in from the surface, and just generally raiding the Yiga forts to see what wacky invention they came up with this time was so fantastic!

[@dsur5547]

Personally the emptiness in the depths makes finding the unique and interesting stuff more impactful and meaningful. I would always get excited when I saw a coliseum or giant mine. And when you went to important landmarks they had unique stuff too. Satori mountain and the arbiters grounds in gerudo both have unique things in the depths. And the fossils on the surface have skeletons underneath them. Finding the construct factory just out of nowhere was one of the best moments of the game and it wouldn’t have hit so hard had the depths been more full

[@marcoasturias8520]

To me, just going after the light seeds is fun enough. It's pretty cool to brave the darkness and have no idea of what's in front of you... Though I bet it'd get wary in subsequent playthroughs. ... The arenas are cool tho

[@amaryllis0]

@@marcoasturias8520 It was fun when I didn't know exactly where the lightroots were going to be, and when I was under the illusion I needed to light the way. After playing for a bit, you realise you can just run through the darkness (because gloom is a joke) straight to the next predicted location underneath a surface shrine, and all the joy of exploration is lost

[@HHGamingOfficial]

Your sponsor ads are actually clever and rather enjoyable. You do a great job as a KZbinr and I'm happy to see how much you've grown and improved over the years. Forever fan Arlo!

[@CrazyDW00]

Jumping into that first chasm was the ultimate "screw around and find out" moment, and yet instead of a goofy death, you get a mind-blowing discovery about the sheer scale of the game! I couldn't stop smiling

[@0_Cardboard_0]

it’s been almost 4 years since the last installment in Arlo’s “COMPLETELY WRONG” series

[@Draylin41]

While I'm loving TotK to bits there's still a few urksom decisions they made with it. Yeah, you get to interact with a ton of the characters from the last game and see what's changed with them but there is very little mention of some of the finer details of BotW's story. To my knowledge, there is only a handful of times the Calamity is even talked about and no one I've found in the game has said anything about where all that Shieka tech went that used to be all over the countryside. Obviously, they didn't want to have to recap the whole thing, but it felt like they could have done more to connect the lore between the two games without it being overly confusing to newcomers that didn't play BotW.

[@mjc0961]

Yeah I feel like at least the Divine Beasts would be useful in this scenario so if someone could explain where they went so I can go get them that'd be great.

[@PatchyDragon]

@@mjc0961 Looking at what happened to the Akkala tech lab and how it looks like all its tech abruptly vanished and it collapsed in on itself, my guess is that most of it suffered some kind of accelerated decay in the time between games. Like it had existed 10,000 years in an untouched state, and after using its energy up to destroy Ganon-... All that time caught up at once or something. (Or maybe it turned into blue mist like the elders at the shrines last game?) This'd explain why there's gaping holes in some places, like the shrine of awakening, and possibly why some geological features feel a little-... off or sunken. (The Great Plateau looks a little deflated and shorter in this game, but that could just be me misremembering.) This doesn't explain why the skyview towers, purah pad, or so on still use obviously ancient tech, but I'm betting the Sheikah and researchers had something to do with that.

[@nduncalf]

Funny enough, that's actually (mostly) an English only issue. The JP script has Purah talk about how they decommissioned the old Shiekah tech (makes sense, the fact it was compromised was why the Calamity happened), and used the ideas as a basis for their new tech, the towers and pad. For some reason that was left out of the English script.

[@RacingSnails64]

I miss the Sheikah towers tbh. I think TOTK actually could've gotten away with reusing them. Instead of these new watch towers, what if a few Sheikah towers are active for us at the start, but we had to repair the rest?? I think that would've been better.

[@coolterra8491]

​@@nduncalfI feel like I remember purah talking about reusing the towers.

[@lenlordofknowledge]

The familiarity of BotW’s Hyrule in TotK became my downfall in the best ways possible. Not only did I almost start crying when I saw Sidon again because I love him so much, but in particular when I tried to go to the Great Plateau [mild map spoilers?] and I saw the Old Man’s hut taken over by the Yiga and all the shrines replaced with chasms and a Gloom Hand in the Forest of Time, it sent me reeling. [spoilers end] It actually invested me more in the Yiga storyline since they took over a place of of nostalgia and comfort in my eyes, and I needed to put a stop to what they were planning. It was such an amazing move to me, and now I’m searching every corner of the map to see what else is out there

[@KeithGrant]

I was surprised to find how much this changed my gameplay. In BotW, when I got a tower, then spent hours in that region exploring every nook and cranny before I moved on and found another tower. In TotK, even with the changes, there was still a lot of, "eh, I know what's here" and went and activated nearly every tower before circling back and spending any significant time in any one spot. I still miss the feeling of exploration from the original, but I also appreciate that this game gives a different type of experience altogether. This is a better game on the whole (it makes BotW feel like a mere tech demo)... but I can't help but wonder how different this game would hit if I hadn't played BotW first. Would it feel like both experiences at the same time?

[@cullenreeves3108]

One of my favorite touches is when you are in the library. What used to be magnesis doors are just doors that can be ultra handed and it’s such a nice little nod to the exploration of the first game to find some of those nooks still there.

[@broshi1752]

What’s insane to me is that I was thinking they’d have to do way more with the map than they did to keep me satisfied, and they sure showed me wrong. I didn’t think they’d be able to squeeze a new game out of the same map but after playing so much TotK I’m fully convinced they could make yet another with the same map and still keep me interested!

[@LPTheGas]

In keeping with how TotK presented the sky islands as the major new area to expand the map but kept the more substantive depths secret, I'm picturing trailers where Link starts out running around same old Hyrule for the third time, but then sets out to sea, so the pitch is the promise of revisiting good old Wind Waker sailing... but what the trailers keep hidden is a whole other major landmass (maybe... Termina?) and/or a parallel world in the vein of Lorule or the Twili realm.

[@ShenaniganSync]

They probably could but man I hope the next game has a new world lol I'm ready to move on from this version of Hyrule and these characters. I want a new take on the series

[@luckyrockmore2796]

Think it be kool to keep that Hyrule but have the new adventure take place in the land to the West that can be seen but not reached.

[@ninjashot37]

​@@LPTheGasI would love the botw format in Termina. Bonus points if they keep the time limit moon system. How would that even work?

[@Cheesehead302]

@@ShenaniganSync I made a really long comment under this video, but yeah, I'm right there with you. I think this was a fine sequel, but by the end of getting all shrines and light roots, I'm ready to pack it up and move to a new world, with new characters, new themes, new art style, and new locations. Especially with how repetitive and lame the story was here, I'm reeeeally ready to move on.

[@philosophicaljay3449]

Look, I get that the idea of The Depths is one with potential, but when it is empty and filled with just the same thing every 100 feet, it becomes a boring waste of potential. That is what The Depths is, a boring, repetitive, waste of potential. The Sky Islands are also so few and samey that it doesn't seem like they make up for the reuse of the overworld. The tutorial area is the best Sky Island, and it is just a worse Great Plateau. Sure, the caves are interesting, until you realize that they are essentially the same experience every time. Once you have been in a few caves there is practically nothing new to see in other caves.

[@anthonymanuel55000]

Yea I agree the depths do get boring and repetitive. I was gonna try and get all the light roots but I don’t know if I want to now

[@clam6254]

one of my greatest joys in totk has been going to my favourite locations in botw and seeing what’s different, and i’ll be honest: the feel of every place in totk, whether it’s visually the same or not (most of the time i’ve realised it looks different too), is completely different to that of botw. the fountain of wisdom, kara kara bazaar, satori mountain, hell even places like hyrule field all feel and look so different, at least to me. i don’t know how they did it, maybe it’s because the game starts at hyrule castle so you’re adventuring from a whole new perspective, but holy shit it works to resell me on open world zelda and feels so unique from botw

[@Parker402]

Lol at the end of the ad read "Arlo peaked in 2019" echo

[@marianamora4203]

I get so turned around sometimes. Like I get so confused because some places feel like they're in a slightly different spot. The world just feels BIGGER. I didn't think that was possible using the same map.

[@HarmonicWave]

It actually makes me feel great to go around and explore the same Hyrule, because even just starting at the bottomless pond near Lookout Landing makes it feel different, and it's not an area that I spent a lot of time around in BotW. Then I run across familiar places from different directions and in a different order, and when I see certain areas it's like coming back to my home town after living somewhere else for a while. It kind of reminds me of Back to the Future II where he goes back to 1955 again and sees himself and what happened in the first movie but from different angles as an outside observer.

[@germin9784]

I'm still unsure how to feel about the map. The surface map has changed too much for me to not want to explore it, but still too little to get enough enjoyment about looking in every nook and cranny. Especially when I found the easiest way to find shrines, I suddenly had less drive to go to every forest, hill and ruin. The sky map is a bit too empty for me. I kinda wish there were more sky islands, although traversal between them would have been too easy so idk what the right idea would be. The underground map was vast and very unexpected, but there's not too much in it. I feel like more could have been done with the maps. I am enjoying the game however, just a little less on the exploration side though

[@FreakinSweet1987]

This video made me realize that Aonuma kind of lied. Aside from a dehydrated Ganon, nothing about TotK was "dark" whatsoever. It was as lighthearted as BotW was.

[@LloydTheZephyrian]

I mean, you got Ganondorf killing someone ON SCREEN with a single punch to the back and Zelda sacrificing her sense of self just to restore the Master Sword. Then there's the concept acts of deception Ganondorf sets up throughout a large chunk of the main story. The Zora are suffocating with the mud in their waters (oh, and their king is on the brink of death), the Rito are freezing and starving with the blizzard, the Gorons got addicted to what may as well be crystal meth, and the Gerudo were forced into a shelter due to the Gibdo and the sandstorm, struggling to survive. I wouldn't say BotW was ever all that light-hearted, either. Certainly not super dark, but it was more... meloncholic in its tone. Also, that game had the destruction of Hyrule, the effective loss of Link for a century, and the world was thrown into an apocalyptic state. The people of Hyrule, for the most part, accept the star Hyrule is in as the status quo because that's all they've known.

[@FreakinSweet1987]

@@LloydTheZephyrian Eh, I still didn't feel anything was even close to Majora's Mask or Twilight Princess in dark tone. Those moments don't amount to much worse than most other Zelda games.

[@Tomanomanous]

While it was fun to do the temple puzzles, I can't help but miss the feeling of horror I receive from the dungeons of the older 2D Zelda games (A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening). The music and overall ambience of those dungeons really give you a feeling that what you're facing in its depths is terrifying and that you're somewhere where you're not supposed to be. It gives me an unease when I enter them. If they'd gone in that direction with the temples of Tears of the Kingdom, (for me anyway) it likely would've helped and made the game feel more dark for me. The music and ambience of the temples was very "oh you're here, that's fine.". I want to feel like I'm going to be encountering some eldritch terror when I enter a Zelda dungeon.

[@LloydTheZephyrian]

@@FreakinSweet1987 To be fair, my first Zelda was Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom definitely came off as much darker to me.

[@IDK3679.]

This annoyed me alot.

[@asc3nded397]

I totally agree, when exploring this game, one of the most exciting things for me (and something I didn’t even consider until playing for the first time) was anticipating which cool locations from BOTW I would go check out next and see how it’s been changed. Right when I got off the Great Sky Island, I immediately was thinking of all the cool places that I just couldn’t wait to revisit. Kakariko, Hateno, the Great Plateau, Hyrule Castle, the Yiga hideout, etc were all incredibly exciting to come back to and see how things have changed.

[@ghostoxide9603]

I think my issues is that instead of improving on BOTW, the new mechanics made it worse more often than not. I didn't mind weapon durability in BOTW, it made me try new weapons so mission accomplished. TOTK adding fusing which is fun, but the novelty wore off quickly and I just started adding whatever had the highest attack power. It didn't really improve the durability, it just added another layer that ultimately serve no purpose. The champion abilities also suffer from BOTW to TOTK. In BOTW I was able to use any champions ability easily and intuitively. TOTK nerfed the champion abilities but also made them much more difficult to access in battle. That said, I've dumped a TON of hours into the game and will dump many, many more because it's fun. And that's all that really matters

[@onegrapefruitlover]

The world in TotK feels like so much more “alive” to me. It has lots of different things happening, characters having developed, so many stories to be told, so many familiar faces that we can have updates on and so forth. And the storytelling omg Everything feels a lot more interesting and involved once you’re immersed in the story and that’s by far my favorite part of this new game. I loved BotW and I couldn’t imagine a sequel living up to it, but they made an even better game and I’m absolutely thrilled.

[@monkeyheist]

It’s actually funny you mention that they said it would be dark back then because I was just thinking about that the other day and I really don’t think the final product is actually all that dark. Sure, it’s pretty dark, you know, visually… in the depths. But nothing in the game is on MM or TP levels for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great game, I love it, but I kinda wish they followed up on that claim.

[@connorb237]

Ganondorf being resurrected at the beginning set a high bar. That was pretty creepy and well done. But the game hasnt even approached that bar since then.

[@cloverbiird]

ive watched your videos for a while, and on top of being very well written and entertaining, the puppetry is something i dont think people talk about enough. its pretty damn good, never have i thought of your voice belonging to anything other than the funny blue guy. hes a fun character you play well. you should be proud!

[@tagerex4250]

What puppet?

[@Gloomdrake]

Are you implying Arlo is fake?

[@cloverbiird]

@@Gloomdrake oh damn wait ur right

[@jonasking9587]

I can't stop playing the game and can't stop thinking about it. What it did for me was make combat meaningful. I want to use monster parts for a bunch of different things, so I want to fight monsters. And man, I'd move to Hyrule in an instant. Monsters and all. I love exploring this world.

[@squeakboy3666]

SERIOUSLY, i find myself marking down places where horriblins and elemental lizalfos spawn just so i can grab their horns when i'm running low. even weaker monster parts have uses outside of elixirs, like how construct horns can be exchanged for zonai parts at gachapon machines and bokoblin horns are perfect for fusing to arrows since i always have so many on hand

[@ArtfulCam24]

I think a lot of people forget that they were doing dlc throughout 2017. So production of TotK was from 2018-2023. 5 and a half years at most.

[@nickn271]

The first 40-60 hours were amazing. Then I noticed I was exploring the new areas but they were exactly the same as the other areas. And I’m not even talking about the ground. The depths were uniformly designed throughout, the ground was just shaped differently. So after exploring half of the depths I was no longer exploring to explore. I was just filling in the map. I knew no secrets except for a new pair of pants in a chest awaited me. However, TOTK is a vast improvement over BOTW. I got greater enemy variety which BOTW was lacking. Still missing real items and better dungeons that aren’t “go to the five McGuffin terminals.”

[@Logicalleaping]

I know the dungeons were so close all they had to do was not mark where all the locks were on the map instantly. At least the direction the team is taking is the right one, in 2 more games we'll have ocarina styled dungeons again lol. I agree with the items as well, dungeons items feels like such a massive part of the Zelda series thats missing, the hookshot would of really worked in this game as well.

[@tumultuousv]

Idk man. I found plenty of new areas even after 130 hours in the depths. Maybe it was to collect stuff or fight or mine. But that is literally just the gameplay loop.

[@nathanwanlass3083]

When I initially hit the depths, I was awestruck, but after exploring quite a bit of it, I kind of wish they would have done more with it. It’s pretty empty, although I love the idea

[@mimesforcrimes8393]

Thats the whole point though The Depths is a place where life can just barely survive, except for a couple immortal beings like Blupees, or those infected with Ganondorf's Malice.

[@illuvitarv5]

Dont give them ideas in the next one theyll make it into the dark world and way too much to explore

[@droson8712]

I wish they had more biomes in the depths like they had the lava biome

[@461weavile]

DLC?

[@SkywardShoe]

@@mimesforcrimes8393 I mean sure, it's thematically appropriate, but it's not very interesting from a mechanical perspective. There is a whole lot of ground to cover down there but not very much to do while covering that ground. While the scope is impressive, they probably would have been better served making the Depths smaller and giving more variety, like lots of sand that has fallen into the Gerudo Depths or a huge lake below Zora's Domain. Death Mountain Depths has tons of lava and some unique structures and it is easily the best part of the Depths. Would have been great to see some other more thematic areas down there.

[@matthewcates2337]

Man, I used to think it was ToTK’s map that disappointed me. I think it’s that essentially the things you can do in each region (even the new ones) is the same as in BotW, which sucks. Basically, you’ve got shrines, Korok seeds, and four dungeons. It feels to me like the updates are superficial. It’s basically the opposite of what was awesome about Majora’s Mask

[@Frysbear]

100% my favorite thing about it is how they built on all the NPCs. It was so fun seeing people that I remember thinking were cool, but only had a few unique dialogue options, be in this game and actually do stuff. The NPCs all feel so connected to the world and it makes exploring the same places again so fresh. I could not wait to go to lurelin village which was one of my favorite spots in BOTW to see what had changed. and in most instances I have not been disappointed. I have spent a lot of time in each of the towns. The caves are also cool. and the underground is mind blowing at first. My biggest gripe is just that the underground feels like they could have made it more interesting if they hadn't felt the need to make it match the overworld and be one BIG open space. if the underground was instead like... a bunch of mini dungeons, and each one was a bit smaller, but also more designed in the vein of a dungeon, I think that would have made more of a lasting impact on me. Overall though, I think mostly because of the NPCs and sidequests, I feel more immersed in this game than BOTW. And that is pretty crazy to me.

[@kinghadbar]

I’m getting the formula now. Arlo worried about something? It’ll be great. Arlo optimistic about something? It’ll eh.

[@BrendanJSmith]

Watch Pikmin 4 only be 3 hours worth of gameplay.

[@mjc0961]

And Arlo super duper excited for something like Metroid Prime 4 = game becomes the big new vaporware joke.

[@LPTheGas]

@@mjc0961 Maybe the real Metroid Prime 4 was the remaster we played along the way.

[@markercrayon457]

What about Metroid dread? I feel like he was pretty excited for that and that game is high key the best 2d Metroid

[@dpackerman4203]

@@markercrayon457 absolutely loved Metroid Dread. It was my first Metroid game and it single handedly got me to play more Metroid games and now I’m a fan of the franchise.

[@MrLinkDay]

When I just went down from the sky the first time and started some quests, went in to a secret passage that I just thought was a little thing in my way, I got so surprised after spending more than 4 hours in a mini dungeon that had secrets and stuff to find. Not to talk about the dephts, that blew my mind.

[@artisticpieceoftrash4044]

I also think Nintendo made the right choice reusing the map. I completely agree with your point about revisiting the villages and settlements, because i connected with all the characters so much and couldn't wait to see what they were up to! I remember getting so so so SO excited seeing the new character art for sidon, riju, and tulin, because i loved them so much in the original story and couldn't wait to see them again!!! The idea of having fresh dialogue and interactions between them and link made me even more restless for the game to come out! One thing that i think you did touch upon a little in this video, but not as much as i would've, was the sheer change in environment between the two games. Like, sure, a bunch of the places and geography were left the same, but alot of things changed as well! Like the new paths to Goron city (which entirely makes sense without the lava, and excited me greatly) and the Gerudo desert (which was surprising, but made me appreciate how much the game devs tried to give us fresh gameplay), and things like the ring ruins over Kakariko! It was so exciting to see that so much had changed, and i was IMMENSELY glad that the shrine locations weren't at all the same, giving me an opportunity to go high and low all over the world searching for them.

[@HNIC_Neochilds]

That closing... waiting then....hmmmm 91 years. Thank you Arlo for brightening the day with you hilarious videos and perspective

[@HeisenbergFam]

Arlo is one of the few KZbinrs who can make me watch ads, the "Arlo peaked in 2019" echo being different is golden

[@thearcanian5921]

Ya, I always watch his Raycon ads because he has fun with them and they are not just ad reads. What really got me was the double "Hey!" after the 'echo'.

[@tristanneal9552]

The "OH" in the ad read was inexplicably hilarious to me 😂. Also, fitting setting for a video discussing the depths.

[@cledgefenrir5681]

I gave a like just for that alone.

[@zacharytaylor2676]

I highly enjoyed playing Breath of the Wild and finding locations which clearly referenced locations from other Zelda titles (not only about locations referencing characters by their name, but also their looks). I sometimes even went back to the original game and took a look at them or searched for videos which compared locations, examples include, but are not limited to: 1. Ocarina of Time: Castle Town and Temple of Time > Great Plateau 2. Ocarina of Time: Lon Lon Ranch > Hyrule Field, Farm Ruins 3. Skyward Sword: Skyview Spring > Akkala, Spring of Power 4. Skyward Sword: Large goddess statue / Sealed Temple > Hebra, inside the Forgotten Temple 5. Twilight Princess: Arbiter's Ground > Gerudo, Arbiter's Ground I always loved it when in sequels you could return to some areas you explored in the games before, so I was actually quite hyped about revisiting the same Hyrule and find out how it has changed in Tears of the Kingdom.

[@lesbananes671]

Imo, the ONE trick Nintendo missed in making this feel like a new game and not BOTW+ was reusing the music from the original game. New music could have given the same world a very different feel.