My Amazed and Overwhelmed Early Impressions of Tears of the Kingdom

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These are my early impressions of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. This game is...something else.
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This video was edited by the lovely Kane!
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"Reloaded Installer #11" by LHS.
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[@ArloStuff]

PINNED COMMENT KERPOW Use my code ARLO to get $5 off your delicious, high protein Magic Spoon cereal by clicking this link: sponsr.is/magicspoon_arlo

[@kaboomer]

🍪

[@edmondn.7343]

👌

[@thedraftingax5963]

I’ve eaten this stuff before and I need to eat more of it as well as all the other different flavors too

[@p_e_a_r_s_e660]

Drew gooden didn't like it

[@zerorequiem42]

Looks good. I was going to try it since I am diabetic, but your promo code doesn't work with a subscription plan.

[@kaboomer]

Such a powerful move by Nintendo to literally add an entire underground system and not mention it once in promotions

[@mrrodriguezHLP]

The surprise to me is that the sky islands are the SMALLEST part of the game. My blood pressure and pulse are elevated anytime I go into the Depth. And the caves are scaring me with how long a couple have been. I spent an hour spelunking one cave alone.

[@centurosproductions8827]

@@mrrodriguezHLP The Great Sky Island being the biggest one feels like a slight miss. Sky islands are cool. We could have had so much more. But yes, Depths are spooky and fun. I think I've killed more worldbosses there than anywhere above ground at this point. It was especially bad the one time when I dove down a hole directly onto a frog, and then it somehow bounced me so high I left and re-entered the Depths, creating another autosave in the middle of the fight (the *first* autosave was just as it had begun to aggro me...).

[@adamchristopher6917]

Powerful move? It's an outright flex.

[@vudoan2834]

I mean you could already kind of figure it out when they introduced Ascend as one of the main abilities, it's like "What do i even use this thing on? - A ceiling - Where is there usually a ceiling? - In a building or a cav- ohhhhhhh so that's why"

[@davidcurtis8427]

Does it really add that much though. There's nothing really down there

[@thekingcoltonious]

A VERY small thing that makes a HUGE difference to me, is the loading screen. It's no longer a minimal thing with tips. It actually shows where you are on the map

[@ki7roy]

yup i rly like that, keeps u in the moment and makes u think “ok i’m gonna head this way once i’m done loading” such a small thing but still cool

[@chiquita683]

Its too zoomed in to be useful though

[@dog8438]

Yeah I love it. Now I'm surprised more games don't do something similar.

[@Fanafranky]

Oh yeah absolutely, also we just got a really bright HDR TV and the BotW loading screens were absolutely blindingly bright on there 😅 the spacing feels much better now, and the map is a great addition, especially when you warp and see it move from one place to another!

[@TROBassGuitar]

I like how your icon disappears when you've loaded to show you teleported to wherever

[@Tyxaar]

I remember when I first jumped into the Hyrule Field chasm I thought it'd be a cool small cave to explore with maybe some goop monsters. I literally went "Wait... WHY AM I STILL FALLING?" and had a moment of terrified awe when I first got to the depths and realised that it covered the entire map.

[@commonviewer2488]

I first discovered the Depths by jumping down a well, and suddenly found myself falling through space

[@spaceperson613]

​@@commonviewer2488That's a *Deep* well

[@mboyce44]

I love watching Arlo very quickly solve a puzzle that stumped me for half an hour, and then make a raft that can't even float. Seeing how everyone approaches this game has been amazing

[@Ashanmaril]

Hah, yup for me it was 7:57 I could not figure out what to do there so I ended up making a giant bridge of wheels and platforms with the ball on the end and leaning it against a wall so I could grab it on the higher ledge it needs to be, detaching it, and placing it in the hole to open the gate

[@7PhoenixAshes]

​@@Ashanmaril I was stumped by this exact puzzle too! Eventually I just Ultrahand-dragged it up and used the wheels to keep it from sliding backwards.

[@gabriellacipriani7845]

I attached the ball to the sliding platform, ultra hand dragged it to the top and let it fall back down, and then reversed time and ultra hand grabbed the ball when it moved up to the top 💀

[@Ashanmaril]

@@gabriellacipriani7845 reverse time is so OP, I use it to levitate myself and break tons of shrines

[@The_Ajna]

​@@Ashanmarildude same I just ended up leaving lmao

[@madeofexplodium]

i feel like the isolation and loneliness of botw was thematically an important part of that story, and the vibrant, thriving world you get to explore in totk is your reward for saving the day

[@Draezeth]

It's weird though, how little TotK references BotW. Nothing about the Calamity, nothing about Link's feats, no Divine Beasts... What's *up* with that?

[@basherblast]

​@Stubadub because nintendo is considering there are people who probably haven't played botw, so they purposefully avoided making direct references to the story of the game, as to not ruin the plot of the game for the people who played totk first

[@moagerdome3991]

​@@basherblastyeah but still feels weird that all this tech that survived for 10k year disappeared in the span of 2 or 3 year max

[@BintonGaming]

@@Draezeththere are layers to this. for one thing, a lot of time has passed between games and society is moving on from the calamity the best they can. secondly, most characters in totk are not seen by the player until after the plot kicks off so it makes sense for them to mostly be concerned with the new problems when talking to them. also, every major character that met link in BOTW adores him in TOTK, meaning they definitely remember what he did and how capable he is to tackle new problems (especially Zelda! she really despised Link for various reasons in BOTW but she loves him in TOTK) average citizens seem to just be trying to live life and focus on the now.

[@BintonGaming]

@@Draezethegarding the absence of the Divine Beasts and other ancient tech from BOTW, its very likely that citizens of hyrule had absolutely no trust in the tech after ganon so easily hacked into it and caused 100 years of suffering to the kingdom. i can totally see them eradicating all of it. however, as you said, they never talk about it so theres no way to know.

[@huckle2733]

I think what makes the world feel so alive is how the devs don't isolate the player from the NPC's nearly as much in this game. in BOTW the world really felt like it was always waiting for you to do something, because it was, but in this game the world feels like it would still turn without Link just fine. Most NPC's (if they even recognize you) are just like "oh hi Link", towers are implied to be used by others as well, townspeople fight monsters, etc whereas breath of the wild really felt like you were steve from minecraft, like you were the only one who interacted with the world but in this game it feels so so so much more like the NPCs aren't statues

[@themascorat]

I think the part that really made me realise how alive this world feels is when a quest made me make something to travel with an npc, the interaction with them is a huge upgrade with BOTW.

[@celmaestro]

its SUCH an improvement from the first game. i ran into a monster den and just started clearing it out when i realized there were hylians that showed up to help me. idk if it was that specific den but it turned out i accidentally started a side quest

[@dog8438]

Very good point. I think the emptiness worked well for what BOTW was trying to do but I'm glad they switched up the vibe in this game.

[@soltandvinegar]

It makes sense, too! It really feels like in BOTW the Hylians were all just kind of fed up of the constant cycle of monsters. They were just used to living in the wild and fending for themselves and just feeling generally hopeless. But it really feels like in this game, Zelda and Link have restored the Kingdom's spirit.

[@surfboy87]

YES! I was trying to figure out why this world feels sooo much more alive than BotW and you explained it perfectly

[@EdmistenSound]

I firmly believe this game would’ve been impossible without the foundation of Breath of the Wild. Like, could you imagine a dev team, even one as skilled as this one, trying to make Tears of the Kingdom from the get go? I’m telling you it is impossible, or at the very least extremely unhealthy.

[@zachsteiner]

I completely agree. I think it’s sometimes a really smart move to recycle assets and game engines for this reason.

[@robertvanek1933]

Breath of the Wild walked so Tears of the Kkngdom could soar. Without Breath of the Wild being such a departure from traditional Zelda, I don't know if the team could have honed in on what people wanted from an open world Zelda like this. Like BOTW changed almost everything about Zelda, and TOTK brought back some core elements that people missed Without bringing back things people didn't like about traditional Zelda.

[@Nanoqtran]

Personally I believe that BotW was essentially what they created when they hit the development block. They weren't exactly sure how to tie all the systems together so a lot of the systems in BotW are standalone (like powers not really interacting with each other). It took the release of BotW and the Ideas from the community to finish up that last step of tying everything together. Everything in TotK feels synergistic. I would call BotW a "Beta" similar to how Beta minecraft felt like it was already a complete game.

[@aTerraxia]

@@Nanoqtranto use the Minecraft analogy, I think its more like BotW being like vanilla Minecraft and TotK being like the Cliffs and Caves update. Like I feel like the cliffs and caves update was the version of Minecraft they wanted to make from the get go. But they didn’t have the resources or know how to get there at the time.

[@PhantomShadow224]

Yeah. First games in a new style are always rough. my friend refers to it as First Game syndrome. At least with sequels, assets can be reused to save devs time and make room for a bunch more new things.

[@TimeBucks]

This game is incredible

[@bharatlalverma8522]

Nice

[@ghost....tmc287]

Very good

[@MuhammadRizwan-ym3iz]

nice

[@nishatanwani6460]

It was great and amazing and overwhelmed to see.

[@positivedisha05]

👍

[@SaltySparrow]

They added MULTIPLE LAYERS to the map. I went into a well expecting a small cave and WELL WAS I SURPRISED. This game is out of control AMAZING.

[@dog8438]

Yeah fr. I saw a cave with some gloom around it and jumped in thinking I'd find a chest or something. Then I was literally falling for at least like 10 seconds straight thinking "wtf did I just do" lol. I'm so glad that area of the game wasn't spoiled for me.

[@BuffPomsky]

@Duck sameeee, really tried hard not to watch anything until i played a decent amount. I love everyone's first reaction to the depths hehe

[@deathsyth8888]

"Oh look, a cave... It's pretty big. Wow, it's really big... Wait, how big is this cave? And it's still going... No way... Is this as big as the regular map!? This is unreal. Amazing!"

[@JazGalaxy]

This is actually an old NES trick from Final Fantasy 3 and Dragon Quest (revealing a second map under/above the first map)

[@davidchidester5463]

The first well I jumped down threw me off so bad. I was like, oh OK Nintendo I see how it is.

[@jacobtrost5048]

Finding out that the Depths was an entire extra map and not just a couple of big caves was insane

[@Dharengo]

I know I'm probably weird for this but I had this inkling. I didn't know per se, but when I found out it was more like "oh!" instead of "no way!".

[@catjayp]

I mean, technically its just the overworld, but underground, if you look at a shrine in the overworld and go to the depths map, there will be a lightroot there, and the rivers are at the same place,

[@mublysnubly3407]

@@Dharengo ...

[@the_Acaman]

​@@catjayp the depths are upside down tho. The rivers are mountains and the mountains are canyons or lakes down there

[@benl5481]

Something from my first impressions of the game that I LOVE is that all the shrines feel like they teach you how to use your build-y things so that on the overworld you have more ideas! A wonderful difference to Botw where a lot of the shrine's puzzles could never apply to exploring the overworld.

[@Evan-wv4hz]

Agreed. I’ve left so many shrines being like “wait I can do that”?!?!?

[@Mr._Sherwood]

Likewise, I love how shrines feel like they're teaching you about the game's mechanics in a hands off way without actually telling you anything, it's quite clever all things considered.

[@digitalon01]

I noticed that myself. They seem to be strategically located in specific parts of the world to teach you how to overcome obstacles in the area. I particularly was thrilled when I found out what attaching a rocket to my shield would do. It's so much fun!

[@oliverbooth2872]

@@digitalon01 hell yeah. I did that shrine just before finding the place in the overworld you need it

[@affsteak3530]

My first impression of the Depths was primal, terrified screaming. I was also overjoyed my horses carried over from BotW ❤

[@nunyabiz7699]

This.... Yes. I LOVE that they did. I am not gonna Lie. My last playthrough of BOTW I grew attatched to them. To see them come back. Including Ganon's And Zelda's Horses. AWESOME.

[@Jomnomify]

Your comment made me chuckle because now I'm picturing you screaming uncontrollably loud at your TV when you're walking around the depths

[@garagavia]

wait your horses carried over?

[@jdickinson6862]

Yes, so long as you are playing on the same switch and profile that has your breath of the wild data, your horses will port over

[@unlikepaladin]

If you completed the DLC the Champion’s picture in Link (now Zelda’s) house also carries over!

[@headfangs]

I love how much more involved all the NPCs are, even minor side quests feel more interactive and fleshed out

[@5Geass]

Same! I was telling my friend(that didn't get the game yet) that a bit ago!

[@logan317b]

After visiting Hateno VIllage I couldn't agree more

[@jasonstephens6109]

It's like link and zelda taking out Ganon and bringing peace back to the world, they see them as heroes and are now inspired and are willing to follow them into battle because they trust them.

[@ngwoo]

I love how much valuable information comes from non-sidequest NPCs too. Talking to random people is actually meaningful.

[@brodify4322]

@@ngwoo yeah that’s so true, I got the location of 3 amazing pieces of clothing because I talked to a random NPC on my way to Hebra near the backend of the Forgotten Temple. SO COOL!

[@TGtornadoe]

I really appreciated that the npc’s were already actively fighting back against the monsters instead of sitting on their hands, waiting for Link to come back and do everything.

[@danandtab7463]

that reminds me, I noticed in this game that my HORSE was fighting the monsters while I was backed off trying to reload my hearts. like a Fallout 4 dog.

[@juliajohnson2285]

I love that part too. In BOTW you got the sense that society had backed into these safe corners where they could hide from the conflict, but I get the feeling in TOTK that the people have found their courage and hope again. It’s so cool to see, makes me feel hopeful about our own world.

[@gregmasciola3332]

This time I'm letting the other people do most of the fighting before I step in.

[@aidankeys8534]

@@juliajohnson2285 I wonder if in the in between time, like when that newspaper was first set up, the quote "Courage need not be remembered, for it is never forgotten." got spread to the masses.

[@mjc0961]

I don't because they weren't. They even tell you "go 'help' the monster hunting parties" but when you find them they literally stand around and do nothing until you join them. Useless cowards. And even when you do go help, the leader hangs back on his horse while his men run in with farming tools instead of weapons. Absolute dickhead, made me wish I could attack other people and not just monsters.

[@lukelewis7940]

An awesome 180 I find is arrows are PLENTIFUL, rightfully so as there are dozens of ways to use arrows with materials now rather than the 6 types previously

[@hinamiravenroot7162]

I've never been short of arrows in Botw except bomb and ancient ones. In Totk I never have more then 20 regular arrows on me, despite using them waaaaay more sparingly than in BotW. 😮😮

[@Mr._Sherwood]

Yeah, one thing I'd find in BoTW is that I'd have tons and tons of the elemental arrows because they're somewhat situational, and would constantly be running out of regular arrows, but they're so plentiful here that it's a nice change of pace, especially since it gives you a good buffer to let you screw around with various attached materials.

[@Sqwivig]

I'm so happy that arrows are easier to find in this game 🙏 Thank god I was so sick of trying to buy them or risk going to dangerous areas to possibly find more. TOTK is much more generous with arrow drops and it has made playing the game a lot more fun. Now I don't feel the need to hoard my materials like I did in BOTW.

[@sinteleon]

@@hinamiravenroot7162 Tip: break ALL the crates.

[@YouTube]

caves, underground world exploration, intuitive puzzles, oh my! the wonderful world of TOTK

[@ConanKelleher]

KZbin commenting on an Arlo video omg

[@Adam-rp7wz]

wowie it’s youtube

[@perriwinkleiii5361]

Can't believe I'm this early to a KZbin comment

[@drankFoD]

Who runs this KZbin account

[@thatvisiblemanoverthere3182]

No way KZbin itself actually commented☠️☠️

[@sliceofpi2768]

After playing Tears of the Kingdom for the past few days, I finally realized why this game took so long to develop. It feels absolutely endless both in scope and possibilities, which is crazy to me because I didn't think Breath of the Wild's mechanics could be pushed much further. Boy how wrong I was.

[@zerorequiem42]

It really is massive. I've played 10-12 hours and haven't really left the starting chunk of hyrule smh.

[@Nicholasryan17]

I just constantly come across things that make me go "what, they added THAT to the game?!"

[@cameronsalmon1314]

You constantly get sidetracked because you keep getting distracted from all the crazy stuff you see and discover.

[@eves9570]

Ninten Big Brained

[@brandonmalone1893]

Yea but sometimes I just wanna play the damn game. It seems like it's just alot of wondering doing nothing. Everytime I try and go somewhere, I'll run out of the food I just cooked or the arrows I just bought. Before I can even find a town or somewhere to go to find something to do. It gets to be rediculous. It's starting to seem like it's just a bunch of walking around with no real goal. I'm sure you may walk around and say "they put that in the game?" But did you really do anything? Or did you find anything worth finding after another hour of walking around? I've played quite a but it's starting to get more frustrating than anything. You travel all these long distances just to run out of shit you need and have to go find more arrows, cook more food...climb more shit. With no real purpose...I love open world games. It's just not hooking me in that much. You gotta have some structure or it's justs boring. The intro was excellent. And since then I'm like where the fuck do I go? So I'll pick a direction and go and it feels like I don't find anything to do. Is there anything to do? I love elden ring. It doesn't have much of a story. But I was hooked on that game. So it's not lack of story. And people can't say 'you create your own story...I know all about that. This game just seems empty so far. Sure I've had occasional fun moments. But I just wanna get somewhere and do something. It's becoming increasingly frustrating

[@lydia1634]

My husband and I are playing together... because neither of us wants to spoil the other, plus we have limited time. Last night, we went into the depths for the first time. We did the initial quest to find the first statue...and then we kept going. It was amazing. We had such a cool adventure. My husband, who's a professional game designer, could see how the particular quest we ended up in was crafted, but it felt so organic and personal, like we had this experience no one else has had. I can't wait to play again.

[@gregmasciola3332]

I felt the same way about the main over world. I could recognize some landmarks from far away, but while I'm exploring, I don't even feel like I've been there before.

[@halfalligator6518]

It's because it was so bloody big the first time around. You may have been to every general area, but probably not the same places exactly. It was such a vast land, I think it makes sense to re-use it and simply add more interesting things. It's hardly like we spent ages in each and every single area since they often just acted as "go betweens".

[@joshwhite5730]

@@halfalligator6518I did as I have over 200 hours in botw

[@CoenBijpost]

Man, the first time I actually found out there was a third layer to the map, my mind exploded. This game is so incredibly imaginative. And the oppressive silence and darkness of the depth gave me goosebumps the first hour or so. Brilliant moves by Nintendo.

[@billybobbobson3797]

I didnt go underground for quite some time. I was entirelyhs poiler free going into ToTK. not evena trailer. I didnt know it was a thing. i thought if i fell in id die lmao.

[@StartouchArts]

The Depths instills a very primal fear of the dark that few games can manage. The absolute pitch darkness, unknown factor, danger, and how draining it is of resources makes going down into the Depths terrifying.

[@Oscarsome]

Not to mention the music. Makes me a little nervous lol

[@catjayp]

@@Oscarsome the scariest part of the depths is the hand monsters that are in the depths and overworld. The music makes them so much more scary.

[@EXPeepik]

​@@catjayp is there like a quest to do with them? Cus i found one group in a cave (the same one in the video in fact) and i was so confused when i killed them

[@catjayp]

@@EXPeepik I dont know, all I know is that they are scary and creepy

[@frenchbloo]

@@EXPeepik there is, but you want to go korok forest for that

[@GentlemanGamer94]

One small thing I really appreciate about TOTK so far; there are arrows EVERYWHERE! I remember always running out and having to buy more in BOTW. Now though? I find em in crates and boxes everywhere, so I always have a good number to work with! Which be quite nice 😁

[@N3o3k8]

I wonder if it feel like (unless I've not found them) there are more due to fusing, no need to have all types of arrows, just 1 type that you fuse to be whatever you need

[@Carcosahead]

But the bows tho, they last longer than a horny teenager in his first time 😂

[@fight_and_die1573]

@@CarcosaheadI swear the master sword dies after like 4 hits in this game, it lasts for way less than i remember

[@DAPHNEBLU]

​@@fight_and_die1573if you fuse the master sword with a strong horn then it will last actually longer than it did in botw.

[@Draylin41]

The only detractor I'll add to that is sometimes I'll find arrows in a treasure chest rather than something I'd find useful. Like I get fusing replaces a lot of things but kind of miss some of the fun elemental weapons I used a ton in BotW. Maybe I'm not deep enough into the game yet to find them though. Only played for like 30+ hours now...

[@Vaskalen]

A little late to the show to say this, but I feel this is something that needs to be said. The sky of Tears of the Kingdom feels to me like how Skyloft from Skyward Sword SHOULD have felt! At least, that's how I feel so far.

[@CoolBeanSoup]

Agreed! Also, the skydiving, too!

[@tumultuousv]

Yes but... the sky islands don't feel good enough for tears of the kingdom. They should've been in Skyward sword. They should've been better in this game

[@adamsilver2960]

I love that there is so much storytelling going on through all NPCs. It feels like they give real substance to the world, making exploring even more fun!

[@nunyabiz7699]

Yes but.... Im still running out... T_T Then again I have gone Oliver Queen and Use my Bow for EVERTHING. LOL

[@Dani_1012]

I finally got a switch and the game so when I stumbled upon the river village before reaching the ruins of hyrule castle I beamed so hard when I saw the merchant walk arrive after five minutes! I thought the npc were just going to stand there emoting until you talked to them but when I saw this one arrive and resemble real world scenarios I smiled and knew this was going to be a phenomenal game. It's my first Zelda game in years, and even though I have three more in my menu I can't stop spending all my game time on Zelda, hours pass by without me noticing or getting tired, I was in awe when finally landing on Hyrule and seeing the view of the plains, a game had never left that impression before

[@mtoffo2275]

I don't think anything will ever beat the discordant sound when you enter the depths for the first time and you realize there is a second, dark Hyrule underneath the old one, you truly get the feeling you are entering a noxious, forbidden, alien-looking place that has been opened up by something that is hideously evil

[@AmandaBee]

the music as you go down there is SO good

[@asc3nded397]

One of the most fun surprises I've found so far is that your horses from BOTW carry over to TOTK. That genuinely blew my mind when I discovered that on launch day. I know from a technical perspective its not that impressive but I just did not expect that at all and its such a fun detail that really shows how they've gone out of their way to make this game amazing. There was no reason why they had to do that but they did it anyway and that is great.

[@thearcanian5921]

Ya, I have the Twilight Princess Link amiibo that gives you Eponia. So I spawned Eponia and went to register her, only for the game to load my old horses, so now I have two Eponias. Minor characters you met last game still don't recognise you though. :(

[@losisansgaming2628]

Yeah same here. I went to my usual horse taming spot (dealing peaks stable) because I needed a horse and then I find out I still have my old ones

[@sultanmutschi]

i was so happy to discover that i can travel with my old companions and you can even do more now with them!

[@losisansgaming2628]

@@sultanmutschi yeah one sad thing I learned is that while you keep the horses you don't keep the gear. Meaning I can't have my horse teleport anymore

[@notchmath9642]

Mine didn’t because I played on master mode lol

[@ImpoForrest]

I love the passive NPC moments that just happen while you’re standing around, especially the dialogue bubbles above their head. I was at Hateno village and witnessed the children racing to school around 7:00 am. It was adorable and so unnecessary, but added so much life and realism to the moment.

[@fatherbrain_]

I can’t be the only one who isn’t surprised that the sky islands are a smaller part of the game, they always looked to me like they were gonna be closer to the wind waker’s sea in the sky than an entire new map

[@Dungeon_Dunce2011]

yeah same, I'm really dissapointed with them, but everything else is near perfect (Edit) I read the comment wrong the first time and thought you meant you were surprised, not unsurprised, though I didn't expect it to be a whole other map, but I was hoping that at least 1/8 of the sky covered with islands, not less than 1/20

[@a_cowwithlegs]

@@Dungeon_Dunce2011 I wish we got like one or two more great sky islands

[@Dungeon_Dunce2011]

@@a_cowwithlegs same

Yeah the sky is kinda empty, not many sky islands. The sky islands are great, so it would be cool to have more, especially great sky islands

[@alexandershambrock6643]

Arlo hits this on the head. This game exceeded the hype by wide margins. The abilities, the shrines, the quests, the world, and the quality of life updates are insane.

[@joejoe2658]

the lack of dungeons... or any story... hurry up and make a real zelda game, not a gta sandbox

[@neo5098]

Dude, just let people enjoy themselves, no need to say oh “But it doesn’t have this or this” The game is better then literally anyone expected they added basically 3 worlds as well as so much more.

[@tombstoneslogan2994]

@@joejoe2658 Man made up a fake game then is angry when they didn't deliver.

[@Paradox1012]

​@joejoe2658 but there are though? The story is much more on par with twilight princess and windwakers standards, so I fail to see your point unless you want some kind of plot twist, or hate time traveling (but zelda always did that?) I think you set your expectations to high. The main story takes you to dungeons AND there are optional hidden dungeons AND there are quests/ruins that act like dungeons AND the world in general acts like one big dungeon, let me explain: 1:go to sky islands to get zonai devices (dungeon items) 2: go to depths, get high tier rewards and zonite to upgrade (reward) 3:helps progress to new areas of the game (progression). You clearly haven't played the game bro sorry.

[@TheObiareus]

@@Paradox1012 Yeah I don’t understand the people who say there’s no progression in this game. Sure, your weapons don’t progress much, but everything to do with ultrahand and Zonai devices has a huge amount of progression from the start of the game to the end. I won’t spoil the things I’ve seen people make online with ultrahand, but it’s completely insane how much is possible with it by the end. You also get the Sage abilities by progressing the story, better monster parts for fusing from tougher enemies, and probably more that I haven’t discovered yet. Sure it’s not “number go up” progression like in most RPGs, but to say that Link doesn’t get far more powerful over the course of this game is insane.

[@Evenmoresteven]

The new enemy with all the hands with eyeballs scared the shit out of me the first time I saw it in a cave.

[@blackosprey2219]

That thing technically isn't even new, it's a reworked enemy from previous titles. Still absolutely horrifying!

[@leargamma4912]

Oh god.... wallmasters! Heelllllll no! I'm avoiding those suckers asap

[@kingdancekiller]

@@leargamma4912good luck

[@Ultimabuster92]

I don't know, but somehow i'm really afraid of these things. It's the feeling of... dread. I battled them one time and defeated them but suddenly a phantom ganon appeared (still don't know if they're related, don't want to be spoiled on that either) and killed me in one hit. Ever since then i avoid these things like the plague. Also the whole atmosphere changes when these things see you. Horrifying

[@beezusHrist]

@@leargamma4912 make sure to make hasty elixirs then.... (evil laugh)

[@GoronLink]

That clip of the korok getting stuck under the raft had me rolling. 🤣

[@AmandaBee]

I imagined the "I need to reach my friend!" line being distorted by gurgling noises

[@GoronLink]

LUL 🤣

[@oklywright8886]

“I need to reach my friend!” 😂😂

[@clarenceyax8117]

In a world where a lot of games feel like cash grabs, this game reminds me why I love this medium of art; Because this game IS art! Such a wonderful joy of a game!

[@justyourfriendlyneighborho903]

With games releasing incomplete, full of bugs, and just designed to squeeze as much cash as possible out of people as long as they can get away with it, it's really surprising and comforting to see how much Zelda devs care. They showed it in BOTW and they showed it again for TOTK, I don't know if any game will ever top it in my mind, they just put so luch effort and thought into the game

[@riftshredder5438]

One thing that I really liked is if you have a save file of Breath of the Wild in your Switch, the horses that you already caught and boarded in that game will carry over into this game, so you won't have to go through the trouble of catching new horses if you don't want too

[@megaultrasonic]

Me who played BotW on the Wii U, meaning couldn't transfer my horse: **that meme of the skeleton at the bottom of the pool** I just found another blue white-mane horse and pretended like it was the same one.

[@Girrange]

The joy when I saw my boy Ronnie available in the stable

[@cullenlatham2366]

and now i am realizing my newer switch doesnt have a BotW save file (my day 1 switch is showing its age and i get complaints from family about a loud fan that struggles to keep it from overheating while docked when trying to play in family spaces). Did find it odd that the koroks and hetsu didnt recognize me, but cant confirm if it is related yet, nor what other things carry over.

[@deloreigames8641]

Sadly, that only applies for Normal Mode Horses. All my good horses were on Master Mode which is the one I played the most (100% it)

[@nacho2920]

@@cullenlatham2366 the npcs don’t recognize you even if you have a botw save. it’s super jarring

[@DentyOne]

It's hard to talk about this game without it devolving into giddy gushing. It's just amazing.

[@houserhouse]

I cant believe how much is packed into this game... Zelda devs need to lead the way for all other Nintendo franchises

[@juliajohnson2285]

I feel the same way. It’s my hyperfixation right now and it takes every inch of restraint not to info dump on people.

[@georgigeorgiev891]

The beautiful thing about totk is it somehow brought a certain sense of linearity while maintaining total freedom. The sidequests feel amazing and I have seen very few fetch quests. They really make you feel involved. The shrine puzzles feel incredibly well designed and I thought a bit more linear, but watching this now i realise I found alternate paths to some. I also desperately want more of it even though I'm not nearly done. Nintendo come and take my money for dlc.

[@greatestcait]

Finding Tulin during the Rito questline was magical. It honestly reminded me of playing Ocarina of Time as a kid and trying to find out how to get into Dodongo's Cavern or Jabu-Jabu's Belly, or the various things you would need to do in order to access the temples in Majora's Mask.

[@joltx9909]

I love how arlo's early impressions are always longer than IGN's regular reviews

[@faceofbear8024]

Not really a great comparison but i getchu

[@GettinGoofy]

Yep , different people have different formats for content.

[@joltx9909]

@@GettinGoofy Make no mistake, I meant it as a compliment. I like how arlo's videos are more detailed than the average video you can find in most other places

[@GettinGoofy]

@@joltx9909 oh for sure I feel you 100%

[@kendalldunlap1321]

Arlo also rambles a shit ton.

[@mini3mayhem]

So I’m a bit of a nerd, but one of the most impressive things with the game that I’ve noticed so far is the physics. I’m talking specific angles that the flying devices tilt move the device in a reasonable and realistic way, I have no idea how complicated that must’ve been to code but whenever I see stuff like that I’m always amazed.

[@danandtab7463]

and the "chemistry engine" aspect is remarkable too

[@chickenx777]

​@@danandtab7463 what's that? 😅 /gq

[@chickenx777]

every time i'm like "surely THIS can't work! there is no way the game knows what to do with that!" - every single time it does. every. single. time.

[@TheBrazilRules]

@@chickenx777 It is the code that powers the interactions between fire, electricity, metals, wood, grass and other stuff.

[@danandtab7463]

@@chickenx777 it's how certain materials are flammable, can conduct electricity, can become slippery when wet etc. they literally called it a "chemistry engine" when they built the first game

[@dqblizzard722]

I love how free form everything is too. Like you can do the shrine at 8:08 by moving the block all the way up, attaching the ball, going to the top, and recalling it.

[@Zaazaa0]

I personally love how things change not just from the new abilities Link has, but the old abilities he no longer has. Combat without the Bomb rune sort of changes everything for me - normally I'd toss a bomb at a crowd of enemies that was too close together to separate them a bit, but now that any explosions I have access to are a limited resource, I'm not able to do that as easily. And Cryonis kinda trivialized water traversal in Breath of the Wild, so having to figure out how to cross a large body of water without it is really interesting.

[@TheDalisama]

Hudson has so many stashes of wood all over that I can make a boat at pretty much any crossing I come across. The first Zonai dispenser gives you fans, so you shouldn't have any trouble keeping those stocked.

[@christiangraulau8107]

The bosses were really OP in botw especially because you can parry your own bomb blast

[@Codraroll]

Not to mention that the rivers have a running current now, so you can't just swim across them as easily.

[@luke4502]

I find myself really missing the bombs, as well as stasis. It seems like now all the abilities are for traversal, with nothing being applicable for combat other than fuse, which is still indirect.

[@anthonylooyen4855]

I get that but I'm not big on the whole 'Minecraft Redstone' thing going on. I like building things but I'm not big on them being anything other than aesthetic. Bombs and Cryonis just being gone is nearly a deal breaker for me - I don't want to deal with a boat every time I want to do something with water. That just doesn't appeal to me. That makes Zora's Domain and much of the ocean-side areas a lot more of a 'chore,' and are a big reason why I want to go to Gerudo Town first.

[@zjuhn6147]

The original BotW had this almost glossy feel to it, like freshly grown plants after a light rain. TotK feels more like those same plants on a muggy day in late summer, kinda worn in but also squirming and alive. Excellent vibes all around, but the transition really brings the sense of time having past between the two games

[@Chubby_Bub]

This is a really strange but also really accurate analogy.

[@schmity007]

I was just thinking about how much time passed between the games in universe, and concluded probably a few months passed. And this only furthers my conjecture

[@annikalapudas9742]

Very well said

[@mpeanut5066]

I also love how well they pulled off the vibe of the Zonai tech. Somehow feels much more ancient and yet miles more advanced at the same time. They really nailed the whole atmosphere of this game!

[@bad.D]

beautifully put

[@joshthevillager2295]

man...there's SO much to do in this game. i always feel engaged. i'm 15 hours in and i'm still near the middle of the map. i keep getting distracted by wells and falling sky blocks. and the deep dark is like a dream come true... i truly love making anything i want and the shrines so far have been the best thought experiments i've had in a video game in quite some time.

[@isaacddestroy3674]

I feel that Breath Of The Wild has a real charm to it even in spite of what it is lacking and I know I will still be going back to it. Tears hasn’t shaken BOTW’s place in my heart yet.

[@avaliausd.]

I agree that BOTW has its charm, but I think BOTW's charm comes from the same charm that Ocarina of Time had, which is that it's the first one to do something new. OoT was the first 3D Zelda and BOTW was the first open world Zelda. TOTK has overtaken BOTW for me as the best game, but it's primarily because TOTK has an actual story with real lore. BOTW was fun, but the story was severely lacking. I didn't feel like what I was doing mattered as much as in TOTK. BUT I don't say this to insult BOTW because if we didn't get BOTW, we would have never got the masterpiece that is TOTK.

[@isaacddestroy3674]

@@avaliausd. To me the vacancy and the natural state of the world just brings me so much peace. Wandering and exploring, finding that next thing with nowhere to be. That is the magic of BOTW. Tears is very good, but it does feel like there’s just a bit too much going on

[@oldoldmeme]

8:44 Glad to see that even Arlo is engaging in the ancient art of Korok torture

[@ChrisGagner]

And with recall... You can torture them over and over and over. 😂

[@NehiJG]

@@ChrisGagnerperfect 😈

[@nathanbohlig6931]

In BotW, every time I found one under a rock, I would set the rock back down on its head. The cycle of violence continues.

[@CitrusArchitect]

That's Kane 😅

[@johnjarvis7791]

​@@nathanbohlig6931 Set them down? I'd take a step back and chuck the rock at their heads, that's what they get for "Hetsus Gift"

[@shawnthibodeau189]

You can tell from square one in this game that it was a passion project by Nintendo. These developers gave 6 years of their lives to give us this masterpiece. From what I’ve seen, the attention to detail is above and beyond anything else I’ve seen in the industry. This will be game of the year 100%

[@IAmNotASandwich453]

And then theres twitch streamers peeing their pants because it is not 60fps and has no voice acting, smh

[@hinamiravenroot7162]

​@@IAmNotASandwich453 Do not cast pearls among swine and do not watch/support streamers that are big dummies

[@LadyxSky]

I, for one, would happily wait for and sit through a 4+ hour big fat review of this game in a heartbeat.

[@Maxeh]

Something I don’t see people talk about is that these devs are insanely talented, and their future games are going to show that even more. I can’t even start to imagine how far their talent is going to go in the gaming space- anyone who worked on these games has so much respect to their name, it’s crazy. Given enough time and money, they can make basically anything. I wish more studious would take from their notes- that games don’t need to be released every year, as long as you let your devs build something special- it’s worth it.

[@theredblooper]

I played 12+ hours over the weekend and I feel like I've only scratched, like, 1 percent of the content this game's got. I'm both excited and nervous as heck to spend the next several months fully immersed in this game world.

[@MrDdeded]

Less

[@novarender_]

Less

[@juice3287]

@@novarender_less what? hours or content? i'm just confused

[@Chillaxorita]

1% based on 12 hours would mean it's a 120 hour game. Make it like 0.5% and I would agree.

[@Grindelsire]

@@juice3287 probably like “say less” which is basically agreeing

[@JP-dz5oj]

The depths are absolutely one of my favorite additions, both because it doubles the exploitable area of the map and it shares some features with the surface. Where there are rivers and lakes on the surface, there are now giant impassable walls, where there is lightroot in the depths, there is a shrine on the surface, which has actually helped me locate a bunch of shrines.

[@Nicholasryan17]

Wait WHAT

[@LetsShitPost]

@@Nicholasryan17 The names of the Shrines are the names of the light roots, just backwards.

[@infinitecurlie]

Me too! I love the depths so much. When I'm in the overworld or sky I'm itching to go back to the depths. 😂

[@promienodrzutowysamuel790]

Excuse me WHAT

[@TROBassGuitar]

It always creeps me out when that horn blares when you reach the depths

[@jotana_ch]

One of my favourite parts is how freely you can do the shrines. I saw you solving that one shrine and was like: ah that is what they wanted me to do.(the one where you need to Spinn the plank with a wheel. I just cheased it up there with turning time back and ultra hand. I still have no idea how some other shrines we’re supposed to be done.

[@ADreamingTraveler]

It really is one of the most brilliantly designed games I've ever played.

[@nxi8792]

I'm still in aww. How just how did they get this to run on a switch is amazing. On top of that with no performance issues and I've yet to see a bug. An absolute masterpiece

[@BlaizeTheDragon]

Yeah I can't say i've had the game chug nearly as bad as what he demonstrated and i've ben playing a good 30 hours so far. Granted I played it more after the 1.1 update so maybe that fixed a lot of it.

[@DaniZeros]

The underground area is SCARY. The pitch black environment, the music, the fact that if you get hurt, you will probably not recover and thus, the pure fear of getting hurt, the dark ambient music... Oh, god, the music. Love the place. Very scared of it, though

[@lukew1383]

I had no clue it was going to be so expansive. I went down a hole randomly on the Great Plateau while I was just tooling around and thought "why not" and jumped down, expecting to find a small cave with maybe a treasure chest or something else trivial. My first hint was "holy crap, I sure am falling for a long time". 5 HOURS LATER, I'm still looking for the edge of the cavern, I've traveled all the way under the Gerudo Desert, I'm almost out of those light producing seeds (I got about 130 of them in the caves of the sky island I started on), and my paltry 5 hearts has been whittled down to 2 for at least 3 of those 5 hours. Every fight was a life and death struggle, those damn Yiga jerks are here, and on one of my random flights into the gloom trying to reach the faint light of one of those roots, I landed in a freaking LAKE way too far away from the shore and DROWNED. Needless to say, I was surprised.

[@PaperFlare]

I'm hyped by the idea that this Ganon is the strongest he's ever been. His mummy farts were powerful enough to corrupt the guardian tech and bend it all to his will, summon monsters throughout the land, and even manifest his will as the blights. And now, when he's finally freed for real? He basically rips the planet asunder and corrodes all metal in Hyrule as a flex. I seriously can't wait to see more of him.

[@DuelingPeaks]

Mummy farts 😂

[@Vaquix000]

Ganon is and always has been an easy boss. When I know Ganon's the villain in a zelda game there's no sense of threat since I've kicked his ass so many times. At least in the previous game it seemed different than the pig ganon or the human ganondorf - it seemed to be a version of ganon that was just so pissed off he couldn't even think, just a monster. He didn't say his usual boring generic lines he just crawled around and wanted to kill you. But this ganon is just the same human ganon we've already seen over and over... so it's an even more bland threat than last time.

[@LunaBeth97]

I really appreciate how they reset link while also making ganon seem even more terrifying. It reminds me of the last of us 2 (even though I don't love that game) where I knew going into it that Joel had to die as reckoning for his actions in tlou and that we were playing as Ellie. I just didn't expect his death to be that brutal and it set up that villain (I always forget her name) really well. In botw, ganon was terrifying as you could always see the destruction he caused no matter where you went but there was a degree of separation as we didn't experience his initial destruction firsthand and only got snippets of it through memories. This time we're witnessing it firsthand and I literally said "oh shit" several times because he just seemed like this unrelenting force of darkness that is so powerful he was able to cause so much destruction while not even being at full strength initially. He also seems actively vindictive this time around. Like, even though calamity ganon was pure evil and caused so much destruction it seemed almost like he was just a passive force of nature where the destruction was caused just by virtue of him existing kind of like a tsunami. But this time it's like he holds a grudge for us previously defeating him and actively wants to harm people through his actions. I'm still at the very beginning of the game and have only seen old mummy farts ganon so far. But it really sets up the point where we actually need to play the game and spend all this time getting strong enough to have a chance at defeating him. Botw did really well in setting up this mindset that we NEED to do everything we can to defeat him to a point where I felt the need to complete every shrine before I stepped foot in the castle. However, the actual boss fight was so easy that it undid that build up a bit so I really hope that it's better this time around.

[@shlop1904]

@@Vaquix000 we've seen ganondorf a total of 5 games, and in skyward sword it was TECHNICALLY demise who isn't ganondorf, so make that 4 games. I understand being tired of pig ganon i means he can be pretty boring but every version of ganondorf we have gotten has been different, so i disagree with you calling him bland this time

[@GiroKuluBOWSER]

​@@Vaquix000 thats bait

[@colddoornobgames]

I lost it when Arlo attached the korok to a boat and it flipped over. This game is amazing and I can’t wait to explore more

[@stevenseufert2520]

From underwater: "I have to get to my friend!"

[@DauntlessDH]

It's so cool being able to recapture that magic I felt when I first played Breath of the Wild. No game has been able to since, and I was beginning to think that maybe I was just becoming a cynic that couldn't be wowed by games anymore. Turns out Nintendo is just the only company capable of outdoing themselves.

[@Emmazeldalover2525]

Arlo is genuinely the only person i trust to watch an early game review. i’ve been so sensitive for spoilers i can’t even go on my socials anymore because i don’t want to see enemies i haven’t encountered yet. It feels nice to finally see some content i actually know i’m safe watching

[@khristianseaward5454]

Same! This has been the only Zelda Video I have watched since the final trailer videos. Arlo is great with spoilers and I am often recommending to friends

[@Graphomite]

For real. You always know going into an Arlo video that you are 100% safe of spoilers. I appreciate that.

[@nyahnyahson523]

​​@@khristianseaward5454 watched reviews the day before launch and it was insane. One outlet had a ludicrous amounts of just random spoilers, and even a "non-spoiler review that just has stuff from the trailers" review I watched had. *Major* content that hadn't been shown.

[@Cyruseh]

Not to be a shill but skillup is another great reviewer that always has great takes and is my go to

[@XXsecondstory]

Facts, I watched some videos on launch day that were supposed to be spoiler free and Arlo's is the only one with only footage from the first 3 hours.

[@HeisenbergFam]

My condolences to speedrunners who will shed tears speedrunning Tears of Kingdom

[@themangastand8475]

Why? It's already at an hour

[@guillaumeinjjuz1744]

F the speedrunners.. they ruin they game experience by playing the game the wrong way

[@onilink134]

My condolences to 100% speedrunners' sleep schedules

[@idkwhattohaveasausername5828]

People are already beating it in like an hour lol. I spent at least 3 on the beginning sky island just messing around with the psychics

[@idkwhattohaveasausername5828]

@@guillaumeinjjuz1744 there’s no wrong way to play this game. That’s kind of the point.

[@TheAmazingDolph]

For me it wws extremely rewarding to see the hyrule you fought for propsper, even if the big bad has caused some setbacks. Feels like ive earned this hyrule.

[@zoloegaming]

The game is beyond a Masterpiece. It's truly incredible, so far. I've beaten the Wind Temple, and so far, there's really compelling story content as well.

[@gamer3ed484]

I feel like in a lot of ways, this game is the perfect fusion between the very open and free style that BOTW had, and the more linear and set style old Zelda’s had. There’s so many times playing this game where I got little bits that reminded me of old games. The dungeons, the more weird and wacky NPCs, the wider variety of classic enemies reimagined for this game, and so on and so forth. BOTW still excels in a couple areas, but TOTK excels in many of the ways BOTW lacked, and it’s impressive that the Zelda team can make such staunch improvements in only one sequel.

[@juliajohnson2285]

I totally agree. I feel like this is more of a guided open world. You can do almost anything you want in any order; but you can’t just approach Ganon immediately- there’s stuff you gotta do before finishing the game, you just don’t know what exactly. I love BOTW’s complete open ness, but I feel the more guided aspect of TOTK has given it a more comprehensive story.

[@gamer3ed484]

@@juliajohnson2285 yeah. I could totally understand why someone might prefer BOTW, but as someone who’s second favorite Zelda game is WW, I adore the more guided aspect this game has in some areas.

[@FeverDVA]

I find it so overwhelming but then I remember we’re not getting another one for years so we have time everyone. Go at your own pace and have fun 😊

[@Levi-ld4tx]

Enjoy this without thinking about the future. This is a unique experience

[@IHitTheWater]

frick man i have already played 50 hours and it came out on friday, guess this is my own pace eh?

[@wardskidoedels512]

Something that I personally found amazing was that all your horses from BoTW can also be used in this game!

[@ajlucky0076]

Yep, I loved bringing back my steed

[@diggsj0536]

the deep dark blew my mind. i had absolutely no idea this was in the game and seeing the map i had my jaw dropped. the enemy variety in this game is CRAZY. i ran into some really freaky stuff and was just laughing at every game over because they went ALL OUT with this game and i appreciate everything so much!!!

[@joehayes8795]

It’s honestly blowing my mind how quality the moment to moment gameplay is. I really love this game

[@houserhouse]

Fr. Loading times seem to be just as long as BotW. Dunno how they pulled that off- these developers are at the top of their game

[@yamz1156]

Everytime i remembered that i was actually playing Tears of the Kingdom i got a boost on happiness it’s crazy good

[@adamzk8762]

Fr

[@resonatingwinds]

I was really happy I decided not to look up anything about the game before playing, because the first time I found the Depths I was in awe - like there's an entire other world down there!

[@thebuccaneersden]

TotK is like falling in love again, when you didn't think it was possible and you weren't expecting it ❤

[@rg03500]

The moment I realized just how massive this game is was when I first made it to the underground chasms.....they're absurdly huge to the point it's hard to wrap my head around them

[@midnightbloomofeorzea7182]

An easy way to think of the layout of the Depths is as almost the inverse of the surface. Hills and mountains are valleys and vice versa, water is impassable walls, and Lightroot are in the same spot as shrines

[@krispaiton6425]

For real.. i needed to rest a bit cause i got overwhelmed when i tried to explore my first chasm thinking it's just like a straight narrow cave with some forks here and there. But damn..

[@chris_wizzudz]

@@midnightbloomofeorzea7182 Fun fact about the Lightroots: their names are the reversed spelling of their shrine counterparts. I just realized this today after having already done like 30 of them, and I was blown away despite how small of a detail it was.

[@fiddlemyfoddle6374]

The Ultrahand is so much fun and so open to interpretation. Even just watching Arlo's footage, there are some things that I didn't even think of. Like building the hook with a grabbable wall? I built a platform. Building a cover for the pots while it's raining? Duh. Why didn't I think of that?!

[@mjevans4321]

So much love was put into this game and you can feel it.

[@edwardson4963]

Like you stated. Botw really feels like a prototype for totk. They really filled out the world more and refined a bunch of stuff they did on the first one. Ive had people ask me if they need to get the first one to get more of a understanding. I tell them just get totk and you are set. As the first one was just a open world with new things to do with the story being what happened after link got knocked out.

[@nikkothegoblin]

This game has turned out to be one of the most cohesive collection of mechanics and world design choices I've ever seen. It's so incredibly fun and rewarding to engage with almost every single aspect. You get the idea very quickly just how big and dense the world is, I'm going to be playing for hundreds of hours still discovering things once again. One of if not the most "uncompromised" visions in gaming. I'm sure there's a lot that hit the cutting room floor but man it all works so well

[@calebferreira7964]

Underrated comment here! I’ve always been somebody who really appreciates game design cohesion at the core of a game (over elements such as story and aesthetic), and I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a massive spread of incredible core mechanics together as cohesively as is in Tears of the Kingdom. It’s got all of the boundary breaking progression/discovery of BoTW, the climbing/gliding system, the resource gathering/cooking system, the clean puzzle/level design of many areas, the NPC variety and side quests, and the physics engine/elemental interactions. All of this is totally and completely expounded on through TotK’s multi-tiered world, Zonai device system, and new core abilities, which perfectly adds to the previous set of mechanics. It’s just hard to believe how cleanly each system compliments the next, and it makes the game feel endlessly engaging

[@MegaCrazyGuy1000]

My favorite small thing so far is how the world gradually changes and evolves over time. People come and go and move around in the towns and it makes it feel more alive all around

[@larryhendrickson5377]

I love the freedom they offer to deal with any challenge. If I don't feel like fighting, I can build something to by pass the fighting and sneak into a tower. It has an ultrahand grip on my attention

[@hollowayraulie1422]

Watching all of these ultrahand fails is so funny and validating like ok I’m not the only one having trouble adjusting to this

[@garfreeek]

I've never taken so many pictures! Today's monstrosity was especially bad... But I got there!! 😂😂

[@jonasholm-mw5bn]

Not only is the underground the same size as the surface, the light spires are directly under a shrine and the name is backwards. I didn’t notice it myself, but zeltik mentioned it. I forget I have accent so many times, especially in wells

[@stevenseufert2520]

What kind of accent do you have when you're down a well?

[@jonasholm-mw5bn]

@@stevenseufert2520 maybe it’s ascend then. At least that ability that let you go through ceilings

[@stevenseufert2520]

@@jonasholm-mw5bn It is ascend. I was just playing with you. I'm just disappointed that I didn't come up with a good pun when I asked about it.

[@emh.1178]

I just hit a part of the story that has me feeling every single emotion known to man and also some new ones. I LOVE THIS GAME

[@dutchletters]

You can throw the lightbloom seeds, Arlo. Hold R as if throwing your weapon, then press up button/ up on D pad. Select lightbloom seed and let it fly. It’ll light up when it lands.

[@ninjya_bakon]

That was spot on. “Breath of the wild feels like a tech demo now”. Those were my exact feelings that I didn’t know how to put into words. Breath of the Wild’s vast emptiness is no more; Tears of the Kingdom has almost “too many things to do”. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just that when I’m trying to complete a quest; it takes me triple the time because there’s always something to do on the way lol

[@MOORE4U2]

That's the mark of a good sequel. It's small and niche, but Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan felt like a tech demo for OTO2 with all the quality of life and visual fidelity added to that game. I got that same feeling when I played this game. Everything feels like Breath of the Wild, except so much more content, such deeper gameplay, so many ways to diversify the things that felt same-y. I've played one dungeon so far. Without spoiling anything, EVERYTHING about it blew BOTW out of the Mount Crenel Mineral Water. Everything about the Divine Beast most analogous to this dungeon felt like such a TOY. The circumstances, the buildup, the payoff, and especially the boss were just so much BIGGER in TOTK.

[@syannejohnson6545]

⁠@@MOORE4U2omg I COMPLETELY AGREE. That first dungeon area just blew BOTW out of the water. I don’t think I could go back to the divine beasts. The whole time i was just think “wow that’s so cool” or “they brought back this mechanic??!” or “what do I do now?” So good. The story is just great this time around so far. I cannot wait to keep playing.

[@Vaquix000]

Breath of the Wild ALWAYS felt like a tech demo... This is basically the game in its finished state. Which I still don't care for, I don't play zelda for sandbox minecraft experiences with either pure silence or a relaxing piano jingle plays.

[@eric1911a1]

Yeah, I might have a hard time going back to BotW after playing this, myself!

[@isaac10231]

I think BOTW will still hold up very well after this game but it's crazy how high the bar is now.

[@magicpotato2161]

The new abilities are all great but man do i miss stasis and remote bombs

[@chiquita683]

Rewind does stasis

[@dugganater]

Bomb flowers are classic Zelda though. The bomb rune was useful and all but bomb flowers are so classic. It feels great to have them back.

[@bestmanalive99]

Bomb flowers are common enough to just either grab more in the depths or you can buy them with poes from that statue next to Josha in lookout landing.

[@cullenlatham2366]

@@bestmanalive99 but they are also so common that i am always out of them because mining and combat. XD

[@patricioart4301]

I used to use bomb for everything in BotW. I feel so helpless now!

[@sapeboble100]

looking back on it now i feel silly for ever being worried about the reuse of the map. obviously they have added so much with the sky islands, caves and the depths, but also just the changes due to the upheaval or even just new characters or other storylines, makes the “old” map so fun to explore as well. i have played so much over the last few days and i’m still overwhelmed with all stuff i want to get to right away!!!

[@JackBuckeye]

I remember seeing the performance issues and thinking to myself, "That's nothing," as literally two weeks earlier, I had witnessed firsthand the travesty that was the launch of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

[@InMaTeofDeath]

So far my favorite shrine just had a ball several stories high and the expectation was to guide it down the path in the room with plenty of obstacles. Yet what I noticed was the one and only thing blocking the ball from taking the direct path to the end was the huge drop which had a section of bottomless pit wide enough that you couldn't just move it over with the ultrahand. So my solution was lets see how much air a bomb arrow will give it. And with ONE try it not only easily cleared the gap but it bounced off the back wall then rolled right into the hole I couldn't believe it.

[@forksarefree]

This game is quickly becoming my favorite of all time, which is massive considering all of the games I've played over the years

[@Drstrange3000]

Same haha. I was only expecting to like it a bit more than Zelda BotW, but the more I play, the more amazed I am. I can't put the game down. That never happens to me anymore.

[@sidnew2739]

Already happened here!

[@sketchfluff5471]

So far, it seems like there isn’t enough sky islands though. I do think reusing Hyrule and having a whole underground is awesome, but man, I love those sky islands.

[@LampP0st]

I accidentally stumbled upon the final area/boss fight and it was sure an experience can't wait to try it for real.

[@peterfoxon5498]

Its probably just me but i really like the sound effects in this game. Fron selecting different abilities to the melodies when you complete a shrine. There all just so satisfying

[@ma7hzz406]

Not to mention when link is humming classic zelda tunes when cooking. That one detail is incredible.

[@SashaFesti]

The music too

[@llipecruz]

This game deserves every praise it has. I never thought that they could outdo themselves. I didn’t finish the game yet, but feel like they did it.

[@wolfsk1n]

It took me until the volcano to find out there's an underground world, because I didn't realize you could jump into the gloom holes I encountered earlier! That was amazing, because the volcano entrance was very cool with me not realizing there's that whole new depth (no pun intended) to the game

[@jceggbert5]

8:10 There are a couple shrines that start with a large climb with Ascend. I definitely didn't enter them, go "Hmm, definitely can't get up there yet", and leave.

[@Edustaja]

I've been playing this and imagining Arlo's reactions to everything

[@Light23K]

You’re just as hooked on Arlo as TOTK which is OK.

[@Prime_Rabbit]

The hype totk got started feeling so big, it was setting the game up to fail like so many other games before .... Then totk released and i realized that it was so much more than the hype could have been. Truly an amazing game. I feel the same wy as arlo, botw is going to be hard to go back to

[@nateythecutie]

When I first entered the depths it was out of curiosity, so I saved my game jumped in and went to a light root... After the map revealed I Instantly reloaded the save I created b/c of how staggered I was at the sheer size of the area and was just like "I'll wait for a quest to direct me where to go down there...."

[@sidnew2739]

I am totally BLOWN away! They managed to not only top my favourite game of all time, they ...well, I lack words for it... Pure joy, from second one.

[@Poldio]

One of my favorite thing playing this game is going back to places we made an impact on in BOTW. I ran to Terry Town to see how much the village we built before has expended. It makes me so happy. And seeing everyone and them acknowledging knowing us and our past together is great

[@LagiacrusHunter]

This game is literally everything I could have hoped for in a sequel, and far more than I could have imagined. For reference, I've gotten all the towers, tears, and finished the situation with the Rito, and there is still SO MUCH left to do, learn, explore. Every new town and landmark is both familiar and completely different, and I love everything about it.

[@filletmignon5221]

Just like how in Elden ring I found all the map frags I could at first

[@bubblybridget56]

I've been playing so much the past few days and it totally is overwhelming! i love it so much but it's just so easy to get distracted or totally forget about something because there's too much going on hahah

[@ade1174]

I got my butt kicked at the beginning in the depths, but now I'm loving them. I love the more strategic planning you need to take gloom, darkness, and more enemies into account.

[@andykegs5584]

The shrine you showed at around the 8 minute mark, I wondered why they gave you a wheel. Now I understand! I just attached the ball to the sliding thing, ultrahanded it up to the top, climbed up there and the recalled it. Afterwards I was like what was the point of the wheel and now I see how they wanted me to do it 😂😂😂

[@Iffondrel]

Ohhh I connected some platforms to lay on top of the little ledges and just used ultrahand to drag it up towards me when the bridge was long enough. My way feels so basic now 😅

[@pinguman13]

@@Iffondrel I did this basic way too 😂😂

[@Graphomite]

I love how cheesable the shrines are.

[@Zm4rf]

Yeah I had no clue what the heck they wanted from me so I just cheesed it too lmao

[@benjabby]

I attached the board to the block and the wheel to it sideways so that the wheel ran along the rail itself, completely ignoring the middle section.