In Defence of Zelda TOTK's Graphics | Show of the Weekend

[@Michael_Lindell]

CONTENT WARNING: This video contains Graphic Depictions.

[@DragonSamurai182]

They could have chosen LITERALLY any other way to get to the top of that statue…

[@IdentifiantE.S]

@@DragonSamurai182This is why the game is insane you can do everything how you want !

[@abuslume4169]

11:25

[@BogeyTheBear]

Mature content (as it is from a normal adult man).

[@Marshade]

​@@abuslume4169LOL

[@rickimaru915]

As you touched on, I will always maintain that a strong graphical style trumps graphical fidelity. It can be cool to see what new generations of hardware can do in terms of graphical fidelity, but games that strive for realistic graphics always end up looking dated when the next generation comes around, whilst games with a strong graphical style that isn’t trying to look realistic will generally maintain their aesthetic appeal

[@stuartmorley6894]

100%. There's a terrible focus on graphical fidelity ATM and it's ridiculous. A game like Mirror's Edge still looks great now, other games pushing a realistic style at the time now look rubbish.

[@joeycoe85]

@quentinnash7194I REALLY wish someone else would take a stab at that particular art style. It’ll be an Indy developer that gets around to it, I’m certain. It’s too much a BRILLIANT concept to leave alone. I believe the respect and admiration for OKAMI in the gaming community has prevented ANYONE from attempting it. Which is a SHAME.😊

[@Angel_Bob_]

oh yea like wind waker ^_^

[@kunimitsune177]

Yes and no TOTK will always be ugly

[@AscendantOat]

I've been playing TotK alongside Genshin and this really rings true. Genshin's built to run on phones from 2017, but its heavily-stylized environments are gorgeous and outshine much more intensive games. TotK's more natural, "realistic" landscapes show the Switch's age and feel quite bland in comparison.

[@patrickj]

Speaking of the darkness in the depths, I really love how it's actually pitch black, it adds so much to the immersion and the feeling of actually discovering a long forgotten world.

[@Dollightful]

Link's new skill being used exactly as Nintendo intended 11:20 😂

[@premiumheadpats4150]

Glad I wasn't the only one paying attention. 🤣

[@AkumakoCross]

Yet another occasion of two totally unrelated channels I watch crossing paths…

[@tealeaf3200]

You know someone had to do it at some point, if it wasn't Luke, it would've been Mike lol

[@ComradeCatpurrnicus]

I use Ascend all time, even for really short upwards distances. It's not that I hate the climbing exactly, but there are some obnoxious things about it. For instance, while it makes sense from a reality point of view, I really wish you could do a quick 180 degrees pivot in air after letting go of a wall to kind of bounce off of it. Instead, I usually just plummet down.

[@MrMathGames]

@@ComradeCatpurrnicus While on a wall, hold down on the L-stick and push X. You'll jump away from the wall rather than just drop down.

[@katfromthekong414]

Luke wrapping up his passionate presentation on why TotK's current art style is brilliant with the words "I cant wait for the HD remaster" had me in stitches 🤣🤣

[@MetalmcBiff]

I think Ellen and Luke have misunderstood the idea of draw distance, although they are very close! Draw distance, as the name indicates, is the distance at which an object is drawn on screen in a game-engine. That is what causes pop-ins, etc, as the draw-distance threshold is passed by the player. Not being able to make out geometric detail in a distant object or landmark, is instead tied to the LOD (Level Of Detail) which can scale with distance, simplifying objects that are far away. If Tears of the Kingdom had a generally short draw distance as Luke and Ellen suggest, you wouldn’t wonder what the thing on the horizon was, because you wouldn’t have seen it to begin with. Thank you for attending my TED Talk.

[@davidmcgill1000]

And old games hid their terrible draw distance with fog, which defined an entire generation of 3D games. Good luck convincing modern gamers to accept that.

[@awkwardghosties1113]

youd hope gaming content creators working in the field for a decade would know what the basic words mean smh lol

[@palmtree1958]

personally i interpreted it that they were talking about both, and not using 'draw distance' to refer to the level of detail, but rather mentioning it and then discussing both points collectively as things of note in the game

[@MetalmcBiff]

@@palmtree1958Perhaps you are right! Still, if someone interpreted what Ellen and Luke said the way that I did, hopefully my explanation helped clear up some of the terminology.

[@TheBigbum1974]

Ever since Wind Waker, Nintendo has A) Shown they Do NOT Care what you think of their graphical choices. B) Had their graphics vindicated by time.

[@templarw20]

Right? Look at the first Xenoblade game. The remaster for Definitive Edition fixed the wonky faces. That was it.

[@katfromthekong414]

Ellen: "Oh no, I'm still in my pyjamas from this morning!" Luke: "Big win!" Couldn't have said it any better 😂

[@bast713]

It DOES look very Ghibli-esque! I love the strong style and beautiful colors.

[@louisharkna9464]

I'm glad you guys brought it up, TOTK reminds everybody why QA is so important when developing a AAA title. Gamefreaks needs to re-learn this if they want to continue Pokemon's success. Actually, all the major video game publishers need to look at this and feel shame at their own practices.

[@ledumpsterfire6474]

What? You mean you DON'T enjoy being a full release alpha tester on a game you've paid $70 for? What could possibly be wrong with a crowdsourced QA model where you pay them to do their job for them?

[@_7thSage-9405]

The graphics have been improved, and considering all of the systems that have to run simultaneously to pull off Link's new powers, it's amazing that Tears of the Kingdom runs as well as it does on the Switch.

[@Sussurbark]

I felt like TOTK was only limited by its hardware, it is truly incredible what the devs did with what they had. I think there are no excuses for the tragedy that was pokemon, because Pokemon Arceus made it work.

[@patrickj]

It ain't a good excuse, but it's the time constraint. They're flinging out those mainline Pokémon games on a schedule, while the Zelda team just took the time they needed to polish. Regarding Arceus, they were in development at pretty much the same time by different teams, so I feel like Scarlet / Violet could not really profit much off of what was learned during Arceus' development.

[@nicodoe6181]

pokemon games today literally only exist to introduce new pokemon and regions so that the anime can introduce them and sell merch of them. the pokemon company literally doesnt care about the games beyond what new content they can provide for the anime, tcg and merch. i really dont think we'll ever again see a good pokemon game that has a lot of time put in unfortunately

[@bustinarant]

​@@nicodoe6181even just a legitimate emulator on the switch you would think could be the bare minimum. So we could go to the good regions lol

[@Howitchewstofeel5gum]

Eh, Arceus frequently looked like a Gamecube game while still struggling with framerate, pop-in etc. It wasn't the total and utter disaster that Sc/Vi was, but it wasn't good, either.

[@kami_in_the_skye]

Another thing to note about the Pokemon comparison: Not only did TotK receive at least a couple more years of (knowing GF/TPC, likely far more fully staffed) development time, its primary map already existed. There's a lot of updates & additions to the surface, of course. But having such an important part of the game be pre-built probably allowed them to put a lot more of their already vastly superior resources into getting every last ounce out of that aging hardware than if they were starting from scratch.

[@KaitouKaiju]

The thing is that same map was brand new in breath of the wild which was equally impressive

[@unknowable4147]

I dont really mind TOTK graphics- the experience and inspiration in the areas make up for it to me

[@patientallison]

Minor nitpick: What yall are talking about is level of detail, not draw distance. Draw distance is when an object completely stops rendering at a distance. Level of detail is when it gets replaced with a lower detail version.

[@DrBrangar]

I will always go to bat for a strong art style over just fidelity. Like, I love GoW and HZD looking gorgeous in their realism, but that pursuit is kinda hollow when the next step is just go "moar realism".

[@Actuallyadogperson]

Honestly I don’t really care too much about graphics performance. It’s not as obviously bad as Pokemon Scarlet can be, and sure, I’ve had it chug when playing tears of the kingdom every now and then, but it’s not so bad it’s spoiling my enjoyment of the game at all. The art style is beautiful and a bit of occasional sub-par (in the grand scheme of things) performance isn’t going to ruin my immersion.

[@kadosho02]

TotK is marvelous. Love what it is capable of, atmosphere, environments, and beyond. Love the animation, world building, sky, land, and depths.

[@Angel_Bob_]

The Switch's processor architecture was developed in fuckin 2012 and the SoC came out 2015. The graphics are about as good as they can possibly be on such old hardware, which is actually very impressive as far as optimization goes. Agree with you that graphical style lends itself to looking good at this level of detail as well, just like Wind Waker. Gotta say that I'm delighted by its performance running on my 1080Ti PC, emulating it. BotW and TotK both look so... perfect with just little less aliasing, a bit further draw distance and running at 60 fps. Sooooo smooth and pretty it's unholy. Sometimes I catch myself just staring at the clouds for minutes at a time in these damn games

[@kirbyrawstorne]

Yeah, 100% agree. It just goes to show that where you have a solid and well designed game you don't need photo-realistic graphics, and that having photo-realistic graphics doesn't make your game good on its own. Great video, more pls :)

[@TheGRavist]

In my honest opinion.... this is running on a Tegra chip... the fact that nintendo got it to even run this as good as it does now is nothing short of a miracle.... especially with the infinite amount of contraptions people make....

[@notoriousbmc1]

The fact they're partly cell shaded helps, as it ages well. But I only have a switch lite, so it can be a little rough round the edges.

[@HaralHeisto]

The Switch Lite isn't any slower than any other - and games generally perform better in handheld rather than docked mode (as the screen is 720p, but it outputs 1080p when docked). In fact, the lite is marginally faster (and quite a bit cooler and more energy efficient) than the launch day Switch as you've got the same updated Tegra chip that the OLED model did.

[@notoriousbmc1]

@@HaralHeisto good to know. It's just when I see youtube clips from the game, on my tv, I kind of wish I could play it on a big screen. It still runs & looks good

[@HaralHeisto]

@@notoriousbmc1 Most streamers and lots of YT content producers will be running the games on emulators - even a modest gaming PC will run games like TOTK at a locked 60fps in places where the switch struggles to reach 20

[@eternalfailure4081]

I feel a bit disconnected from this because I am so old. I do remember the massive leap when consoles went HD with the PS3/xboxwhatever making wii/ps2 graphics look SO OLD. I also follow Matt Mcmuscles with his "what happened" series that showed the leap was too much for many smaller studios. However, the latest leap, which seems to revolve around 60fps is lost to me. I only have a switch and an ancient PC, I grew up in the 80s when games could easily have less than 10fps if too much happened. This doesnt seem (to me personally) as "the next step" but some weird thing the kids are obsessed with. I have the BOTW on WiiU looks pretty. I'm sure TOTK looks amazing too.

[@abydosianchulac2]

When I first heard about the framerate focus I was a serious WoW player, and I couldn't understand why anyone would complain about the 30 fps my laptop maxed out at because it was still smoother than cinema film. I sorta understand the input lag argument from first-person shooter players, but like the financial firms with ever-faster internet connections to the stock market that cadre will never be happy unless they can get an input in nanoseconds before their opponent.

[@tarekmoneimsaid]

I feel the same. I'm in my late thirties, also have a Switch and a PC that was high end in 2014 and still relatively good today. I don't understand the kids obsession today on not just what's considered "ultra realistic" graphics, but also AAA games. Everytime an indie game is shown with an artistic, 2D or pixelated style, they relentlessly mock it ("ok, now show us a _real_ game", "is it 1998 again?", etc). Gameplay, fun or originality, it seems, are not factors when it comes to what they consider to be good games. It seems that the only things that make them happy are the same boring cookie cutter games from the same big publishers that only care about money and would literally drain their bank accounts dry if they could get away with it.

[@PLAYER_42069]

It's not something only "kids are obsessed with". Increased graphic fidelity and frame rate (reduced input latency and response time) can make even a stylized game like TOTK, better. If you've seen TOTK emulated on PC at 4K, 60fps, you know what I'm talking about. Not to be presumptuous, but you've probably never experienced a game at more than an inconsistent 30fps, so you don't know how much better the experience can be, let alone at 120fps, or greater. If hardware didn't advance, we'd still be playing games like Pong, from the original Atari 2600. The push for higher fidelity graphics and frame rates is why we can have VR because that technology demands consistently high frame rates in order to trick your brain into believing you're in a 3D volume, or you can become physically nauseas. Also, 30fps is bare minimum for full motion video on PC because it doesn't have real motion blur (not the kind most games have in settings) that allows it to look smooth at that level. This is why even casual gamers expect games to be close to 60fps to maintain the bare minimum of consistency of full motion on LED monitors versus CRTs which is another aspect of how we experience entertainment (displays) and will continue to advance as well.

[@tarekmoneimsaid]

@@PLAYER_42069 Higher frame rates, yes, I can understand. Higher fidelity, however, is a double edged sword. The games that used to blow our minds 10 years ago look like rubbish today, and so will the games we play today. I remember much more fondly the quirky games that were fun and had awesome gameplay than the generic FPS games with "amazing graphics" at the time. I like Fear much more for its high paced action coupled with its time bullet and good AI over the CoD series with their set pieces, regenerative health and infinitely respawning enemy fodder. Besides, the point is moot when, to be played at 4k, console games need to cap the frame rate to 30 FPS, bar some very rare games (and many studios that promise a 4k/60FPS are actually lying, it's not native but upscaled 4k).

[@abydosianchulac2]

@@PLAYER_42069 I've looked for and now seen some videos online of TotK emulated at 4k, 60+fps, and it looks bad. Like, plastic, The-Hobbit-movies-at-60fps-where-you-can-see-the-prosthetic-textures bad. Worse, since frames are being added in the sounds don't fully align with their visual cues, making the experience feel even more artificial. Were the game designed for it, maybe it could work, but as it is it looks ridiculous.

[@Howzee87]

Great discussion on the graphics of TotK. Pretty much exactly how I feel about it too. Glad you don’t shy away from bringing up its limitations and downfalls. Is it perfect? No Is it beautiful? Absolutely! How is it possible on the Switch? Magic

[@_inSight__]

That "fresh air" feeling you get from the recent Zelda games is how I feel about Elden Ring. I hate going through the effort of starting up my console and waiting for a game to boot up, but once I'm in the Lands Between, I feel more or less alive.

[@mmobofficial]

My biggest takeaway from this was that Walt Disney was flopping his weeny all over his parks

[@loley975]

My biggest and one of the very few gripes I have with the game is how foggy it is. At times, especially when it is night, you can't see anything and it looks really ugly.

[@patrickj]

I get how annoying that can be at times, but I still like it for it's realism, especially as you're able to light areas up, or pass the nighttime at a fire.

[@PLAYER_42069]

As many have stated, having a non-photorealistic art style will help keep a game from looking dated, but if the game can also perform at a high frame rate (or even consistent one that is lower), then this will also help keep the game relevant for years to come. There's footage of TOTK being emulated on PC running at 4K, 60fps. This just makes a good game even better as far as input latency and graphic fidelity even if it's stylized like Zelda, is. So, I hope the push continues for both increased graphic fidelity and frame rate even for more stylized games like TOTK.

[@danielfarrugia5492]

I really enjoyed this week's discussion of graphics - it really highlights the difference between the pursuit of photorealism and fidelity, verses artstyle and, frankly, just being beautiful! A great little discussion (so, Luke, yes, more than ok! )😂

[@ventedbus4917]

12:42 Mr Mime Cage fight?

[@laurasaurus7399]

I haven't had the pleasure of playing totk yet but I did recently pick up the ezio collection and let me tell you the graphics in assassin's creed II do not hold up so the whole having a specific artstyle instead of photo realism is a really good point

[@mairimacfarlane7198]

I love the visuals of TOTK but I have noticed a distinct loading time when leaving the abyss on while riding the dragons. I think the game is expecting you to go from the abyss either by teleport which has a loading screen or through ascend which can disguise loading time.

[@patrickj]

It also happens on the way down, if you're diving in fast, instead of normal speed falling. The game will chug and even pause for a sec at times. Basically just shows that they've disguised what could have actually been a loading screen pretty well.

[@wonkybomb1865]

I really like the art style of the last 2 games. It’s a style that you can come back to 10 years from now and would still be good. The more realistic a game tries to be just makes graphics age horribly fast when the next best thing comes about.

[@frodobaggins7710]

I really enjoy the way the way TOTK looks, and I've not really noticed any pop in or low-poly looking textures. And even if I did, I'd soon be distracted by the tech wizardry Nintendo have pulled, because I've seen some mechanics in this game which have boggled my mind in terms of how you would get game code to work that way

[@fadhelfarras1175]

in other words, the dev team understand the limitations of the Switch, and managed to take it as an advantage

[@aeloswindrunner]

I think people are too hung up on graphics when art style is more important. Graphical power will age way worse than a game with a solid artistic vision. One of the best looking games I've ever played is Spiritfarer, it's absolutely beautiful and will remain so years down the line

[@k-sherry]

Graphics are not that important, how a game is stylised and the general art direction are what make games look great. Totk isn't a graphical powerhouse but has a great cohesive art direction.

[@jonesymeow9487]

I agree. My only issue is when the switch struggles and can't keep 30fps. Jittering really takes me out of the game.

[@k-sherry]

That's fair enough, it hasn't really bothered me but I totally understand your point

[@majuuorthrus3340]

I will say that Tears of the Kingdom is so fun, it doesn't really need to have the Fanciest Graphics. Which is why I'm playing games. If I wanna look at something pretty, I'll go to an art gallery. Also TotK makes BotW feel like a tech demo, it's really expanded.

[@ely7019]

I really am quite fond of the art direction for TotK (and BotW). The bit about how they're doing as much as they can given the hardware limitations reminds me of say, PS2 graphics (and how they still can look amazing today) or the little tricks used on older consoles like the N64 (Mario Party using CRT TV blurriness to their advantage). I'd def. prefer low render distances and not-as-detailed textures over games that tend to be super realistic but only use dull brown/gray/black colors, haha.

[@thesquishedelf1301]

TotK is one of the few games I’ve ever played where I will stop in the middle of things just to swing the camera around muttering “it’s so pretty!!!”. The art direction and lighting inside the shrines is absurdly good. E.g. shrine rails are gold metal with a sheath of green and white stone/plastic on the sides and corners, with _writing all along the rail._ It’s a brilliant example of designing with detail rather than just “I have more polygons and more lightbeams!!1!” Getting floored by the art direction is more valuable to me than consistent frame rate in safe towns or draw distance for side quests.

[@dmolmalowski]

> lighting The lighting is gawdy

[@thesquishedelf1301]

@@dmolmalowski not taking the obvious bait, but I see where you’re coming from with that. Lighting in the sky islands gets pretty gawdy for sure. But the shrines are actually very pretty, much more so than BotW’s.

[@awkwardghosties1113]

as a paying consumer i expect my games to look good and play good. nintendo games arent cheap and they are always full price, so im sorry if i hold them to the same high esteem they seem to have of themselves. you might be satisfied with a beautiful powerpoint presentation, doesnt mean we all should have such low standards.

[@thesquishedelf1301]

@@awkwardghosties1113 you can’t be serious with that. That’s obvious bait. Zelda and Mario are pretty damn far from a “PowerPoint presentation”. Fuck, most AAA games are _more_ boring than a PowerPoint presentation and deserve that criticism more. *cough Forspoken cough modern assassins creed cough cyberpunk cough most of bethesda cough* I could go on.

[@digitalomen2013]

I love this game so much. Literally just got my tears of the kingdom oled yesterday, and I'm in awe. Such a good game, for mechanics and visuals.

[@GhostKitten69]

Every time BotW or TotK has some minor graphical glitch like a tiny, slightly shifty texture, I tell it not to pull some Scarlet/Violet nonsense. So glad the cliff faces Link climbs don't shift around like the ones in Paldea.

[@dallydaydream]

Feelling very validated that Luke's reaction to "still in pajamas" was "big win", since I'm cosied up in my PJs taking part in the Bug-Catching Tourney in Animal Cross today ^_^

[@Eckister]

I experienced these comparisons when I picked up Ghostwire: Tokyo (GWT), coming in from Cyberpunk 2077 (CP77): the framerates are significantly different. Where GWT would experience framerate spikes, CP77 would provide a smooth experience. I guess it depends on how the game handles objects and rendering (in one word "resources"). It was also completely fascinating to me, since GWT has a LOT fewer objects in the world than CP77, yet has more issues with managing them. *eh* sometimes I am glad that I don't actually understand videogame development, lol

[@coaltowking]

One of the best things about Zelda's graphics is that you get a lot of contrast between bright colors and greys. You never have those moments like a lot of games where you get messed up by an enemy you didn't see because they blend in with the background.

[@waterinmyotter6245]

Always feels weird when Ellen and Luke actually talk about video games on Show of the Weekend 😂

[@matwilliams8012]

I prefer games to take a non-realistic, less state of the art graphic approach as it stops then looking dated after a year or so. Wind Walker is STILL one of the most beautiful games ever made thanks to its art style.

[@keatsiannightingale]

Totk looks amazing. On top of that the gameplay and what you can do in the game, the extents on which you can go, the immense hours you can spend there just exploring everything it is incredible. A top looking game with lacking gameplay, story, etc means nothing to me, I always prefer to have fun and enjoy myself with a more complete game in all aspects. The QA that went into totk is a merit on its own, it shows great respect not only for the game but for players, too. They want to deliver the best thing possible.

[@nutthistory]

Just saying there is a way to see Zelda in 4K with great draw distance 😉 "Like a Steam Deck!" Well Luke and Ellen.....

[@nitej_]

Bro the steam deck barely keeps up at 20fps during fights or in busy areas. It will reach 30fps during exploration, but right now, the switch runs the game better than steam deck

[@Malsypoo]

@@nitej_ you running it on Ryujinx or YUZU? Cos YUZU currently runs leagues better, not just FPS, doesn't have those weird texture squares everywhere or just not rendering certain land meshes. Also smoother shader caching

[@CantankerousDave]

12:45 - that’s a quality recreation of David Byrne in the Talking Heads’ music video for “Once in a Lifetime.”

[@spiffymarc]

Good discussion. BotW was a Wii U game, and runs fine on that hardware, so I suppose it's both impressive and unsurprising that TotK can run on the decade-old chip in the Switch. And it does look fantastic, especially in handheld. The performance issues are what typically bum me out, considering how intense the combat can get. When the framerate dips get me killed, I'm wishing for a Switch 2! Higher-res graphics would be a bonus but really I just want that locked 30fps.

[@kingdice2578]

13:33 I feel called out, I was in my pjs until 5pm yesterday played my TotK and I had to be in work at 6

[@joeycoe85]

Honestly, the PROGRAMMING for this game must have been a nightmare. There SO MANY possibilities to account for, and it’s just about bug-free. Even the PLANNING phase must have been intimidating.

[@abydosianchulac2]

As someone equally removed (emotionally and temporally) from both the Zelda and Pokemon series at this point, with hopefully equal amounts of bias towards both, I'd have believed it if you'd told me TotK and Scar/Viol were for consoles at least one generation apart. (In a way they are: Scar/Viol could easily be reduced back to the Gameboy and still have all the same functional elements, but good luck having a Link's Awakening-equivalent Zelda game with 800 fusible items and the flexibility of the ultrahand system.) TotK's caverns impress me most of all, actually. Yes, it's mostly darkness, but so much of the light there is is player determined. The game doesn't have ray tracing, but it still has to decide how light bounces off the surrounding surfaces based on where _you_ put the light sources. Maybe I'm showing my age, but that's royally impressive to me.

[@revshad4226]

i really wish there was a console only version of the switch that allowed it to perform better. but honestly nintendo has never made a "pro" version of there consoles. the closest they ever did was the GBA to the GBASP

[@RevanAlaire]

One thing I have seen mentioned by game devs, but not by many gamers or game outlets is that ray tracing can potentially mess up the lighting in game scenes which are usually as meticulously planned as in live action.

[@tibi_lares]

Popping in late here but personally I very much enjoy this kind of SOTW where there is some discussion about a video game (or a video game topic). The informational aspect as well as the comedic styling is why I subbed to OX in the first place

[@netsoojnomar]

A week after the release of TOTK, and me buying it instantly, I could treat myself to a playstation 5, bundled with GOW Ragnarok. Finaly a game machine capable of producing a 4k hdr image on my 4k OLED, I thought. Tough I really like the PlayStation, and GOW on it, and it really looks gorgeous in its 4k glory.... I still play Zelda most of my time. And it is like Ellen says. I see something vague in the distance and want to go there. It's a joy to play.

[@rivierakid63087]

Interestingly I didn't see a whole lot of slowdown playing TotK myself, even on my 5 year old switch. I was really impressed by how good it looked and how well it ran, all things considered. Then after I finished I started playing Pokemon Scarlet and hoo boy those framerates. Tears of the Kingdom would never. XD

[@gamepassghost]

Luke and his Triforce of caution just might be our iteration of the hero of the time, constantly defending different versions of Hyrule from the barbs of others!

[@Javicelon]

The game doesn’t really struggle to keep pace for me. I haven’t noticed it. I don’t know why or how I’ve managed to make it, but I could have all five companions out mid combat and it will be flowing smoothly as exploring an open field. I finally figured out my storage thing so maybe all the extra room in my storage helps because there’s more room I guess. I don’t know I don’t know how things work like that. But maybe free up some storage if you’re really struggling with the games graphical imitations.

[@juliustausch7377]

I don't think the graphics need to be defended. Cell shaded graphics are a stylistic choice and given the switch's technical limitations, a choice that will keep the game looking great for a long time to come. In fact I find them very refreshing, given all the samey realistic AAA games on the market. Also, they didn't detract from the the more tense scenes or the "horror" elements. My wife and I forever have ganondorfs disturbingly laughing face etched on our retinas.

[@dmolmalowski]

> I find them very refreshing Cell shaded itself is over done. Its dull now

[@juliustausch7377]

@@dmolmalowski I don't think it is, no. At least not to my mind. I haven't been playing a lot of cell shaded games lately.

[@revshad4226]

playing a modded version on PC after having started on my Switch and i cannot express how much better a nearly stable 60fps makes the game. but overall i agree the graphics are good and there is a reason that Wind Waker holds up visually better than Twilight Princess and i suspect that both BotW and TotK will hold up in a similar fashion

[@PinkTuskedMammoth]

wait crap I have to go back up to that giant ball in the sky, I apparently forgot a chest in the bottom of it...

[@RehctubNomis]

Hot take, graphics don't matter as much as everyone makes out. Now, I'm old, started gaming on an Atari 2600 and a BBCB, so that will caveat most of this, but graphics are like the bottom of a pyramid for makes a good game, they have to look good enough to be functional, but that's it, once they're functional, the art style takes a much bigger part than the graphics do. Tears of the Kingdom is the best game I've played in over a decade, it's been honestly emotional in story telling and mechanics, completely engaging, what more could it offer. Dips, pops haven't impacted enjoyment, new consoles don't need trotting out to push gamers to "the next level" on a schedule, bring them out when you can't do what you need to with the current, and TotK shows you can still do that with my day 1 bought Switch. My last playstation was a 3, xbox was a 360, there's no need to buy their consoles as they don't offer anything I can't do on a PC (outside paying developers to not release titles on pc / owning the dev), but I bought a Switch on day one because you know nintendo will be bringing something to the table that a PC can't. (well, at least at the time, now we have steamdecks).

[@darthhodges]

While watching I was remembering how for a while there were devices for laptops that (if you had the right kind) you could plug it in and it added a far more powerful graphics card. It wasn't the most reliable and it was dramatically inferior to a desktop with otherwise identical components but I wonder if Nintendo could make something similar for the Switch. A Pro Dock with superior hardware that would dramatically improve framerates and graphical potential. Compatibility would be a non-issue as it's just the Switch and Switch Oled. It would probably cost more than the Switch itself but I would buy it if they dropped updates for the games I play that would make a difference since I prefer playing on the TV over handheld mode, anyway.

[@ciaralizabeth]

I'm amazed how beautiful this game appears. It makes games like pokemon look ridiculously under cooked.

[@rickerpenor]

I feel everyting looks and feels great in totk. I have not experienced frame rate drops and the occassional pop up doesn't bother me. I don't think a photorealistic Zelda would feel right.

[@melvoid01]

Seems to me that Nintendo would do well to design a new Switch Dock that could have say a memory/ram upgrade or a CPU accelerator if needed to let games like Zelda run at their full potential. No chugging no pop in etc, would be awesome for future games too.

[@kayemm_86]

But it would be too limited by the USB-C port, I think.

[@MatthewCSnow]

What I was personally impressed by TotK engine was all the physic interactions that you can do in the game. Never since the original Source engine and the force unleashed, I was impressed by the amount of physic in the game

[@EhurtAfy]

Tears of the Kingdom is stunning running through Yuzu emulator on PC. 2x resolution and anti-aliasing. It's not quite to the level of Breath of the Wild running on CEMU emulator. Breath of the Wild running 60fps 4k on CEMU with reshade filters and screen space reflections is quite literally one of the best looking games I've seen. I also use Linkle 3.0 mod which adds Linkle, but also a bunch of Age of Calamity outfits, extra content basically

[@awkwardghosties1113]

its stable is it?

[@EhurtAfy]

@@awkwardghosties1113 Yes, Tears of the Kingdom is very stable for me. Maybe one crash every four hours or something like that. The game auto-saves and I manual save often so it puts me back very little when that happens. I also have Dropbox cloud saves on everything. As for Breath of the Wild maxed out on CEMU, it's extremely stable, best way to play the game. I have an RTX 3090 graphics card, so yeah that's a big advantage, but Breath of the Wild ran very well on my previous GTX 1080 also

[@TheFiddleFaddle]

I think my biggest graphical/gameplay issue is the lack of precision of the scope when using it with tilt controls at a distant target.

[@littlefurnace]

I guess in a roundabout sort of way it's a similar idea to how monsters in horror are scarier before you see them. Things are always better when you let your brain fill in the blanks, and particularly in a game that's very much about exploration but where you spend a lot of time with a bird's eye view of everything, I think it keeps the player curious in a way that encourages exploration. I mean, it's not like every Bethesda release isn't wildly celebrated in spite of the fact that it's just built out of a million bugs in a trench coat, so Nintendo aren't the only ones. That being said, it's not the first time that Nintendo has released a game that has serious issues with draw distance, pop-in and frame rate. If they were a third party game studio making the best of the available hardware I would be a bit more sympathetic, but they know very well the capabilities of their own hardware, so it's pretty disappointing.

[@BogeyTheBear]

In order for art to be engaging, it has to be incomplete. Paintings don't move, and songs don't have visuals. But a painting conveys action, and music evokes imagery. It's the audience who supplies the missing element. Give the audience _everything,_ you leave nothing for them to figure out and they simply absorb rather than engage.

[@awkwardghosties1113]

@@BogeyTheBear really pushing it to justify muddy LODs 😂

[@iulus6851]

My back pain flared up immediately when Ellen called the Switch a ‘very old console’ :’)

[@windofhorus666]

Reminds me of Silent Hill and the celebrated use of the fog to cover that lack of draw distance. Makes you kinda glad the game did have those restrictions otherwise we wouldn't have the final product we got all those years ago

[@L-92761]

As someone who just recently got into BOTW it is staggering how they got so much game on such a console it’s right up there with Gta 5 on the ps3

[@ghostderazgriz]

I didn't know this was a needed discussion. I thought everyone that enjoyed games of lower graphical quality understood that artistic charm trumps 4k fidelity. However. I disagree the draw distance thing matters. Games with high draw distance can still have mystery and a sense of adventure.

[@jokiyatrott5316]

2 things, Charles Lee montage 😂😂 and Luke the ganondorf death joke brought me to tears 😂😂😂😂😂

[@Shannonnr]

Ellen having me second guessing my Xbox console knowledge

[@himbo_noa]

BotW STILL looks amazing, TotK looks awesome. people complaining about the graphics ffs

[@willyum3920]

I don't really know what the argument about draw distance is but I'm reminded of the absurd view from the top of the sky scraper in GTA San Andreas when OXBox played the remake.

[@johnbeam8401]

In the strictest possible sense, human eyes also have a draw distance, and it is usually less than that of the Switch. People are just spoiled on overclocked GPUs. Real eyes don't see 5 miles away. Edit: In that sense, Tears draw distance creates a deeper realism. If only you could play Link in first person. The cell shading would be the only unrealistic part of the visual presentation. Aside from the fantasy world full of horned monsters, of course.

[@zephilia1]

Guests should have to sing the theme song when Luke isn't there.

[@shadowcat1606]

TotK, like BotW before it, is an absolutely gorgeous game. And in my opinion, "not looking pretty" and "not looking photorealistic" are not the same thing and i wish more people would come to realize this. Plus, the fact that they made TotK look pretty in its distinct art style will, most likely, make it look still pretty in a decade, whereas games that look stunning in a photorealistic way today will loose their luster once hardware has improved enough. Think about Wind Waker... still as pretty today as it was on its release and it kept its prettiness due to its time-less cel-shading style. Is it technically perfect? No. Were the Switch-Hardware less limited, they could have improved it a lot, especially in terms of things like the framerate. However, i also thing that, considering the limitations of the Switch, it's also kind of a technical masterpiece. Now... here's hoping that for once, Nintendo's next console will have contemporary hardware power. Imagine what they could do then.

[@neolexiousneolexian6079]

11:15 Oxtra: "Good luck the Switch!" -Me: Thanks!- -Wait, what?

[@AngelBeatYunara]

TOTK is such a gorgeous game!

[@laser8389]

2:15 is that Tingle in the skylands?

[@DavidCowie2022]

Speaking as someone who owns a PS4 and a Series X and whose only experience of TOTK is a few clips on KZbin ... I think it looks great, and I would happily play a game that looks like that on my more powerful consoles. Regarding Luke's remarks about colour: us humans have great colour vision, and it's always good to see a game taking advantage of that.

[@lannstarr35]

considering the chipset used in the Nintendo switch is a decade old at this point the graphics are impressive

[@lannstarr35]

but all of that does not make up for potato graphics and extreme graphical errors

[@sacrilegiousboi]

Nice Xbox on reference also that's a crazy name for a channel like a voice activated command as a channel name lol

[@nunyabiz7699]

So the entire Graphics debate as a whole has always been a bit frustrating to me. on one hand Graphics are important. If a game LOOKS horrid even great game play struggles to redeem it. On the other hand we have a relatively small portion of the gaming world that places such a high demand on graphics that In the past and now and most likely in the future studios have prioritized graphics over almost all else to the point that while a game looks good its full of bugs, needs a 1/2 size game patch day one, overloads and crashes systems or Games, Fails to institute proper save file protections. Ect. We see so many graphicly beautiful games that come out half baked or buggy or not finished because of not only deadlines but because so much of the final work is spent on just makeing sure the Graphics are polished so its 60 FPS and 4k even if that means your character Glitches out every 5 seconds. And honestly. Again. Its a small portion of the gaming world that have set graphics and looks and specs above all else but the impact has been massive on majior games. TOTK not only shows that a non Graphic Super power can pretty much Destroy the competition but that taking extra time to give a great COMPLETED game Goes a long way. Its pretty much flying in the face of the "Have to be cutting edge graphic" Concept (as well as poorly aged "Single player is dead") idea that a lot of studios have gotten as well as disproving the notion that if you take more than 1 year to make a game no one will want it. Hope the Whole industry paid attention. 6 year wait. Out dated hardware. Pretty but basic graphics. Reused map. "Kiddie" Game design. Basic Story. 9.6/10 Game of the year and quickly becoming one of the best games commercially and critically of all time. Breaking all of Nintendos own records.

[@zulubunsen9067]

About the "raytracing can get in the bin" bit: I think it's a bit the other way around, a good lighting system can make a game seem better than just raw fidelity. I'm not even a big proponent of raytracing, lacking the hardware for it and only experiencing it via Teardown, and it doesn't even need to be raytracing (though it does the best job). But a game with low texture quality and good lighting looks much better than one with 4K textures and flat lighting. As a lesser example, Half-Life Source, however problematic it is can look very pretty in places. Good desing is still more important, but a good lighting system can be an incredible boost.

[@awkwardghosties1113]

agreed. lighting is key in a visual medium. the popularity of 2d pixels held back development of better visual technologies, our obsession with resolutions and making big number go bigger created this stagnation in approaching realism that is only recently being pushed past at an end consumer level. raytracing is still in its infancy, simulated realistic lighting is the way to realism. gamers and youtubers like to say how old games that looked great for the time 'not holding up' are so misguided. we can accurately achieve fidelity comparable to reality very easily these days and have been for a while, gone are the days of counting polygons lmao.

[@MaxxSea]

So many other games put graphics over gameplay and could only dream of being as complete as TotK. Remember SW battlefront 1-2, the Order 1886? Gameplay over graphics as all things should be.

[@akaviri5]

I don't agree with the defence of the limited draw distance as something encouraging exploration. You obviously wouldn't be able to see every detail of a far away point of interest even with your real world eyes, so there is always a reason to get closer. If anything, a better draw distance would show you more interesting things to go and see. (of course I'm not blaming the developers, a greater draw distance on this hardware would bring the framerate way down)

[@FIamestalker]

If you really want to freak out your Switch enter the Depths (preferably by one of the few gloomed wells) and cross the point where the game unloads the surface while going down, and then right after that point go back up the same way you came (probably by climbing the walls). The game completely freezes (apart from the loading symbol) for more than 10 seconds as it desperately scrambles to load the surface again

[@IW4523]

I feel like the biggest thing is this is a huge game, vertically and horizontally and has more people and interaction that Breath of the Wild and yet it isn't a buggy mess which a lot of "photo realistic" open world games are

[@alexixeno4223]

11:27 excuse me excuse me... you not even going to talk about this guys? you use THIS clip and dot even talk about it? XD love it

[@joshconfer209]

It's 9/10 for me with points only taken away for the occasional harsh lighting transitions. The high sun just drains the depth from the character models.

[@sleepytime999998]

What Luke really wants is a Pokemon AR/VR game, where he can ride a robotic rodeo bull while seeing himself atop a Charizard.

[@tarekmoneimsaid]

11:40 exactly. Game Freak had the perfect excuse (the Switch isn't powerful enough), until TOTK came out and blew it out of the park.