The Sequel Nobody Understands | A "Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" Video Essay

Lots of people seem to misunderstand exactly what it is Tears of the Kingdom is trying to do. People call it "DLC" just because the main overworld is reused, but I would argue that this game pushes open world conventions into an entirely new realm.
I borrowed a song from Zame:
• "Embracing One's Duty"...

[@dessdev8404]

TW SA: The year botw came out, I was raped. The game was a huge part why I survived. I needed a world to get lost in. I struggled so hard with the fact, that the friends link had were dead and you couldn't change that in the end, like I couldn't change what happend to me, but it helped me to deal with this feeling. When totk came out, i was no longer the helpless 15 year old girl. I told people about what happend, I feel so much better and don't want to die anymore. In a sense i fought back against the calamity in my head, like the people of hyrule against the calamity ganon. To see that sidon, tulin, riju and yunobo didn't give up and got stronger, was the thing i needed to see. Even if the others are dead, link can still help them, and in the end, they help him too. There is always something to keep going, keep fighting and evolve. The defeated feeling after botw, after i realised i can't change the death is gone and replaced by afeelng of hope, because of how the world in zelda anf link are healing. They can't change what happend, but they can keep going... and so can I. These games mean so much to me in a sense I could never explain and I'm happy to see that there are other people who enjoy the kind of sequel totk is. Thanks for the video

[@HayatoSenseiDark]

I'm so sorry to hear about that, but I'm glad to hear you've been able to move beyond it. Thank you for sharing. :)

[@deeb13243]

I feel immense sorrow for that terrible happening. As a fellow girl, even thinking about such an occurrence ravages my mind, and I could not imagine the horrors of going through it. I think your comment is utterly beautiful, and shows so much about the power of hope. Hope is the strongest combatant of sadness, fear, and probably almost ever negative emotion I can think of. And your comment is truly inspiring as to the power of it. Thank you for writing such a powerful message.

[@RoSoliTaire]

I'm so glad you're able to get back on your feet and now stronger than ever. It's amazing how fictional works can help us cope and survive. As someone who's has been through depression in my younger years, it was books that I cling to to survive. Particularly, it was Lisbeth Salander's character in the Millennium trilogy that I drew my strengths and inspired me to go on. Thank you for sharing your experience and hopefully more fictional works can help people who are going through trauma.

[@epicgamner1139]

i am so sorry that that happened to you. Im glad that these games helped you in any way and i hope that you continue to heal and go on with your life. I hope you're okay, or at least as ok as you can be

[@gamsougher3574]

botw was my ptsd recovery game too, and totk felt satisfying for a lot of the same reasons that you’ve said here. glad you’re well

[@B-ot2xx]

This theme is also reflected in the music, much more orchestra. The main “Field (Day)” theme you hear while walking around now has woodwinds to accompany the lonely piano. Because Link isn’t alone anymore, and Hyrule is healing.

[@guyWSonicpicture]

Holy shit I never paid attention to that, so nice

[@Perroden]

I really don't like the music in both these games and iv always loved Zelda music. But playing botw my brain just auto tunes if off and I pay no attention.

[@diegomora7608]

@@Perrodenyou think that you don’t pay attention, but every time you hear it you known where you are

[@Perroden]

@@diegomora7608 no i completely tune it out. My brain dosnt even register music is playing 99% of the time. I didn't even know that was possible. That's how much i dislike it.

[@Pajarocaro]

LOOK! a Totk video that´s not over an hour long!

[@julienossola]

Thats actually sad, considering its a "video essay". Its like reading a one paragraph essay

[@sleepdeep305]

@@julienossola Brevity is a virtue you know.

[@StarlitWitchy]

​@@julienossolano I hate how long all these videos are. It's so refreshing to have something be to the point

[@moosesues8887]

@@julienossolawe do not got time for that brah

[@The1andonlysharpshooter]

@@moosesues8887following them for multiple days is a nice way to watch them. If ur just sitting and watching it can be easy to get tired of. Id rather do other things. But maybe my attention span got nuked because four years ago I could sit and watch a 2 hour one.

[@higurashikai09]

The characters and community in TotK is definitely a big part of the sequel. Having the setting change would remove so many characters from BotW.

[@thebluerodriguez4085]

There's no need in going to another entire location, but at least don't leave, f example the ancient temple completely desolated from any content, just added the sages room and leave 90% of the place empty.

[@frissoramon2742]

​@@thebluerodriguez4085thats a single place on a gigantic map. And its not "just the sages room", its the place where you can see the locations of the geoglyphs. The sky islands have chests that gives you maps to treasures in the depths. The depths have lightroots to give you locations to the shrines on the surface. The towers on the surface gives you easier ways to get to new sky islands. The game is insanely huge, and everything is connected. As much as i love breath of the wild, i could not force myself to 100% that game. Just running around until the sensor beeps to indicate a new shrine. With tears of the kingdom, i managed to do every shrine, lightroom, and found every cave, all by myself. Every corner of the world gives you things to do. Tears of the kingdom is better than breath of the wild in almost every aspect. Something that no game (aside from maybe Elden ring) managed to do since 2017.

[@PoyosoDG]

I remember hearing people say that Tears of the Kingdom would have been better to them if they hadn't played Breath of the Wild first, but I've always thought it was better to play BotW first since the whole point of TotK to me is seeing what has changed from before.

[@Smfsableye]

Really good point. Ideally I think you should go for a light story-only playthrough of BotW then dive into TotK.

[@FlagPoleJumper]

​@@Smfsableye When I first played BoTW, I played most of the game by just exploring. I wore clothes as little as possible (besides the headband because I thought it made me look like macho man randy savage, lol), I had only 3 hearts and min stamina, and I had a blast. When TotK was around the corner, I did a full play of BotW and was very happy that I did. All of those memories being fresh inhanced the experience for me as far I'm concerned.

[@thelastbrickbender2139]

Playing botw probably ruined totk for me, being so excited for the sequel to finally release and expand on the story and then it just doesn’t, the events of botw are essentially forgotten about, the characters are more bare bones than anyone in botw ever was, Zelda is essentially a different character altogether and Ganondorf is an even more uninteresting and one dimensional villain than the calamity, there’s also no explanation for anything that happened, in botw we knew where the tech came from, what happened to its creators, why it was hidden, how the Sheikah we know emerged, at the same time we know absolutely fucking nothing about the Zonai, where they went, why their stuff is in the depths, how the ruins on the surface came about, why they chose to ally with Hyrule, fucking nothing

[@TreyChannel]

That's the whole reason why it makes some of us wish we didn't play BOTW first. Some characters developed and aspects of the world did change. I'm not saying it has to change entirely, but that alongside how it seemingly feels like the events of BOTW just don't seem to matter. Answers to inconsistencies are an unsatisifying "it just went away!" in interviews outside of games. Characterization is so flip floppy that someone like Sidon is fine, but then you get to Zelda fir exanoke and it's kinda disappointing to see either a regress or just ruined. Still love the game but there's a reason people say that. I'd trae me not being bothered by why some people act the way the way they do, or general inconsistencies with just having never seen them prior so I won't even think about it. Though for what it is worth, the changes are nice. World evolution is what I wanted, I don't need it to be in a new setting. Let's just take the writing a bit more serious

[@TreyChannel]

@@Smfsableye I did this and it just made me wonder why I bothered because hardly any of it mattered lol

[@MulliganSnicker]

“In Castlevania you’ll be fighting Dracula” *Shows footage of Metroid*

[@Jakoren]

They're both apart of the "Metroidvania" genre, so close enough.

[@billyboleson2830]

@@Jakorenonly some of them are like that

[@thesporkguy]

@@Jakoren “house cats and tigers are both felines so same thing…”

[@carmanwillis7537]

You've said everything I feel about this game! And I am so happy to see that people are still feeling this way a year later after seeing so many "I'm disappointed" video essays.

[@YoshiAteTooManyYoshiCookies]

To be fair, both people like this and people who think it's a bad sequel make some good arguments, so it's pretty reasonable to say that it's not an objectively good or bad sequel and that it mostly is about opinion.

[@56ty_]

@@YoshiAteTooManyYoshiCookiesnever heard a good argument from a totk hater honestly. I swear they sound like flat hearters most of the time.

[@56ty_]

Yeah… I honestly believe those are just clickbait. Like, it’s so easy to ride the drama. What proves it is the content is all copy pasted and really only amplifies the toxic argument from the usual vocal minority. “The story sucks”, “the sky islands and depths are empty”, “the dungeon suck”.

[@mistertagomago7974]

@@56ty_ Those are valid reasons not to like the game. Sounds like the games biggest issues are just really blatant, I mean how is it weird for people who dont like the game to have similar reasons for not liking it? Honestly whats toxik is assuming everyone who dislikes the game is just doing it for clout or to be toxic.

[@56ty_]

@@mistertagomago7974 everyone is either expecting botw or Oot. Even my granny could come up with very basic and surface level reasons why totk is different from those games. So yeah. It’s just a trend everyone and their mama is jumping on for easy clicks. It’s funny cause there are reasons to criticize the game yet no one wants to put in the effort and come up with a well thought out critique

[@chooongusbug724]

Ive sat with Tears of the Kingdom for over a year now, and honestly? Tears of the Kingdom is one of the greatest games ive ever played, it took what i loved about BotW and turned that up a couple notches while fixing almost all of my issues i had with BotW (either in ways i didnt expect like Fuse and weapon degradation or something as small as giving me the option to drop a weapon when i open a chest). TotK is one of those games that i think, over time, people will start to appreciate a lot more. This game had crazy expectations put on it that it could never live up to (kinda like Majora's Mask in that regard). And with Echoes of Wisdom taking pages out of Tears of the Kingdom's book? I think the future of Zelda looks very bright, these creative player driven experiences are awesome and ultimately what Miyamoto had envisioned originally with the very first Zelda...Aonuma and Fujibayashi where able to realize it

[@minecrafter3448]

That’s the thing though. It had crazy expectations that it DID meet. Do you remember the first 3 months after this game launched? Everyone loved it. The Zelda cycle is an unfortunate thing though, people now pretend it didn’t. It’s essentially perfect, any criticism I’ve seen of it completely falls flat.

[@chooongusbug724]

@@minecrafter3448 You miss the forest from trees, it met my expectations and then some. But some people were getting ridiculous with their wild theories and those expectations led to people being upset TotK wasn't what they wanted instead of looking at the game for what it actually is. That is part of the Zelda cycle too, so I don't know why you're trying to argue with someone who loves the game and it's very apparent with my comment

[@minecrafter3448]

@@chooongusbug724 Just trying to add the conversation. Sorry, I’ve got a year of pent up hatred for these “people” that are inevitably going to make enough noise to make the next game worse. (I’m of course talking about 3D Zelda, the next 2d game looks like a clever fusion of the new and old styles)

[@chooongusbug724]

@@minecrafter3448 they aren't gonna be able to make enough noise lol. Echoes of Wisdom follows what TotK set up, that open ended creative gameplay. Zelda is gonna keep going the route of BotW/TotK and I'm very glad to see they're trying this with 2d Zelda also. A complete change to my favorite series isn't a bad thing at all

[@minecrafter3448]

@@chooongusbug724 not so sure. if the overwhelming praise for totk had continued, echoes of wisdom may have fully embraced the open world style. The 3d game after totk could have been just as open as totk but with underwater exploration, but that’s unlikely now. Nintendo listens to criticism, at least they have during the switch generation. They don’t care if it’s right or wrong, they listen.

[@mattfarmer7867]

I think I may know one of the reasons that people like BOTW more than TOTK. BOTW's main emotion is this sense of melancholy loneliness. The world is largely empty of people (with exceptions, of course), Zelda is basically dead, and the world is destroyed. But there is still this beautiful world to discover, despite it all. So the whole game has this bittersweet feeling. And bittersweet is a very powerful emotion. But ToTK isn't bittersweet. The world has rapidly healed, your friends are everywhere, and you're never lonely. It's not bittersweet, it's triumphant. And that's fun in a new way, but it's never going to have that lasting impression that melancholy does.

[@HayatoSenseiDark]

Well said!

[@goldenninja9053]

To be honest, I like the tone of TOTK more. BOTW having that bittersweet feel was amazing, but I'm loving the fact that things are growing up again in TOTK, and that might honestly stick with me.

[@mattfarmer7867]

@goldenninja9053 Yeah it's definitely a fun bright feeling, despite how dark the game might tend to think it is. I still like BOTW more, but I love them both.

[@konpulsiv]

I'm so glad this video exists! Like, I totally get the critics and how many people were expecting different things than what we got. To me, it was so healing to revisit a growing Hyrule, where people found and created community and resilience. I love that Link isn't alone on his journey this time, even though Tulin blew so many items into the abyss, Yunobo exploded into my face a million times, I randomly activated Ryju in the dumbest situations, etc. Just like real people, they got on my nerves sometimes, but in the end I was so glad they stood by my side and made the road feel less lonely.

[@Sivanot]

But how is Hyrule visibly growing, though? We don't see any major rebuilding efforts in the world besides Lookout Landing, which isn't really rebuilding so much as dropping a new location on existing ruins. Why didn't we do any building to help people in a game where a big focus is on being able to build things?

[@R.A.M_Games]

@@Sivanot there’s a whole side adventure of avenging the lurelin village after it’s destroyed by moblins. A side quest where you have to find someone to rebuild the bridge leading to the rito village. Gerudo village is destroyed when you first revisit it and comes back to life once the lightening temple is complete. I do think the game could’ve had more quest that dealt with creating a whole new villlage like terry town, but it’s not like nothing in the game is being rebuilt after the destruction of the upheaval

[@Sivanot]

@@R.A.M_Games The only one I can agree with there is the Lurelin village one, and from your description that still isn't even what I'd wanted to see in the game. You have to find someone else to rebuild the bridge to a village full of people who can fly. Despite having an entire construction crew in your arm. It sounds like Gerudo Village just pops back up after the lightning temple, with no other assistance from Link. I'm never going to say that someone is wrong for liking a game. But I don't think it's arguable that Nintendo delivered a highly inferior product than what we all know they could have made.

[@R.A.M_Games]

@@Sivanot see this is the problem with Zelda discourse rn. OP was expressing how much he loved the the different races coming together in the world building and the story, you respond by questioning the validity of that statement, I give a free examples of it happening within the story and gameplay, you you still complain because “its not what I wanted in a game about building” which it’s not just a game about building and was never promised to be a game just about that. there’s a lot of valid criticism to be had with TOTK and the Zelda series as a whole, however we as a fandom need to stop confusing projecting our wants(especially wants that were never promised to begin with) with the valid criticisms.

[@Sivanot]

@@R.A.M_Games I never said the game was just about building, but it's undeniably a big part of what people were excited for in the game once it was shown. Nintendo presented a very cool method of constructing things, in a double post-apocalyptic setting, and didn't think it would be fun to actually use it to advance the setting at all. I am not coming at this from a means of "i want this, it isn't there, therefore bad" I am describing something that makes the game objectively worse than it could have been with marginal extra effort on the part of the devs. This is only one complaint as well, and not even a major one, there are many more valid concerns surrounding TOTK.

[@TanikaNuva]

I’m so glad to see that someone on the internet sees this game in the same way I do!

[@jetsguy226]

Same! I was worried I was the only one!

[@coolguychecker7329]

In a ask the developer interview, Fujibayashi said they were confident Tears of the Kingdom would recapture the feeling of playing Breath of the Wild for the first time. This was specifically in response to fans feeling like they wanted to play Breath of the Wild for the first time again. But I think you're also right in the sense that how they recaptured that feeling is revealing about what they thought were the key elements of playing Breath of the Wild for the first time. Everything you pointed out was the key ingredient for them even in Breath of the Wild, but the novelty of the exploration may not as been as defining for them as it was for us. It's similar to how Skyward Sword cut out a connected world and relegated it to a vehicle section. It revealed a schism between how they thought of Zelda and how fans thought of Zelda. I think there are a lot more fans on their side this time around, but I'm a little disappointed that they didn't emphasize the raw exploration of Breath of the Wild as a key feeling of playing that game for the first time.

[@camerowilliams1692]

"Majora's Mask was the sequel to Wind Waker, and Ocarina of Time was the prequel to Phantom Hourglass" .....

[@chooongusbug724]

Jokes are hard

[@christianhodgkinson6969]

Technically, he's not wrong

[@HDGamerofficial]

@@christianhodgkinson6969he is, Majora’s Mask isn’t a sequel to WW😅

[@user-sf3ns6ed3g]

Sounds about right

[@christianhodgkinson6969]

@@HDGamerofficial normally yes, but keep in mind in the beginning of wind waker it retells the ending of OOT, and Ganondorf broke from his seal some unspecified time after or while the Hero of Time was in Termina

[@TheDevastator619]

I was expecting this comment section to be littered with “nuh uh!” Great essay and it feels nice to be seen for how I also viewed the game. Still have some qualms with the games, but I still love it.

[@goldenninja9053]

Oh trust me, there are some people replying to others here that are doing that, but they don't seem to have any evidence that they're right, so who cares lol.

[@Tulinx]

I love this essay/video, TotK isn’t about discovering new places, (even though you have the depths and sky for that), it’s about revisiting your favorite locations to see what’s changed.

[@xerohh]

The thing is barely anything changed in your favourite locations 💀 Hardly any difference

[@cephalopodgaming6665]

This video perfectly encapsulates everything I’ve felt about Tears of the Kingdom in my time playing. I’ve even used the “returning to your hometown” metaphor myself before! Thank you for making sense of the game’s identity in a condensed way

[@weatherman1504]

It is a very rare and beautiful thing to see a video about TotK that isn't talking smack about the game and talking down to the enjoyers of it. Thank you, and keep up the good work.

[@TomCat05t]

The first time I watched a video dunking on TotK, I asked myself, "Wait, does this mean I haven't been having fun playing the game?" This man gets it. 👍

[@ViviBuchlaw]

You caan enjoy something that has flaws, or you may not find them to be flaws. Just because other people dislike something doesnt mean you also need to. But hopefully their videos got you to think critically about the game. I wasn't satisfied with it, but if you were, more power to you! I think that, when looking at it analytically, we must agree that there is a non-insusbtantial group of people who dislike it, and that ought to be respected and considered. Likewise, I think the inverse is also true

[@williamwolfe962]

Just because people like The Room and have fun watching it doesnt mean its a blockbuster

[@omegalilbchass8270]

If I say I have fun playing 1-2 switch does that make the game less objectively flawed? No. It's possible to enjoy a mediocre game

[@The1andonlysharpshooter]

@@ViviBuchlaw I wish I had your way with words.

[@DJx2410]

@@ViviBuchlaw you summed it up perfectly, I love totk and would even go as far as saying its my fav game, but I like to listen to ppl that don't like the game cuz I think its important to acknowledge when something has flaws. I think its valid to like, even love the game for what it is and I also think its fair to dislike it for what it is/isn't. but I don't like when ppl force their opinion whether they like it or not

[@illuminate4]

“a proper narrative sequel” sums it up perfectly

[@Perroden]

🤣😂🤣 no

[@iloosion2419]

except the npc's forgot u and about the calamity which nearly killed them all. good NARRATIVE sequel for sure

[@ViviBuchlaw]

Proper narrative sequels have cohesive narratives and are...sequels?

[@thelastbrickbender2139]

No, just no

[@goldenninja9053]

Ignore the dummies who haven't even paid any attention to the actual dialogue here. Sure, some characters did kinda forget what Link did, but if I remember right, quite a bit of time has passed between BOTW and TOTK, so some things are bound to be forgotten.

[@CreativelyJake]

what i thought upon reflecting on TOTK, was that the way they approached the game was to make it a re-do of botw. a remix, if you will. they had zonai stuff planned since the beginning of the darn trailer for "zelda wii u" but well, they didn't go for that stuff. they went hard into sheikah tech but now, the gameplay and story function of everything sheikah is replaced with everything zonai, in a sense it does mean that... the game kind of has to try hard to shoehorn itself into being a game that remembers that the other game happened: as in, where did the guardians go? why is malice now gloom? i dont think thats necessarily a BAD thing but its just. honestly i think i wouldve gladly accepted it being touted as a remix rather than a sequel, since to me it very much feels like "if we had more time, technology, and had different ideas for botw, this is what we would've done" like... demon dragon ganon briefly looks like calamity ganon in that one cutscene, and i think thats a nod to how this is a different take on calamity ganon. i think if you took out the slim few mentions of the prequel, being BOTW, it'd still stand well as a game. but it DOES have a unique spot in standing as a world that you re-experience after you've experienced a hyrule that existed in a drearier state in BOTW. so in that sense, yeah, stuff like hateno does make it a great sequel. the ways that you can see the world has grown... that time has moved on... that is what makes it a unique experience as a sequel. but in terms of the primary story, they definitely didn't focus too hard on making it a sequel, but... im sure plenty of that was out of wanting it to be able to stand on its own, and be a fun and engaging story for people who hadnt played BOTW. a good example of that i think is tulin. tulin is... almost nonexistent in botw, so both people who have played botw and who havent played it, are generally on the same page when experiencing his story. overall i love totk, and i think its an interesting combination of being a "remix game" and a sequel in the sense that its expanded upon the world, and uses the prior experience of botw to enhance its own world like it wouldnt stand as well alone if they entirely touted it as a remix. the tone of the world in general sorta relies on botw having happened: the calamity having been cleared up and saved, and civilization rebuilt ...but again, i also think that sometimes, sequels are developed with the mindset of "lets re-do what we did, with different stuff this time" instead of "how can we follow up on the story elements we created in the first game?" if they had done the latter, we'd have gotten an in game explanation of malice (not gloom) and how dead-ganondorfs malice created calamity ganon. or a different approach to zonai stuff, instead of it being "fundamentally this takes the role of sheikah stuff but its more interestingly designed" ...now time to actually watch the video

[@brevanlipscomb680]

Bless you. This is the exact kind of content I was trying to find when the negativity towards TotK started becoming more prevalent. Is it a perfect game? No. But I think a lot of the negativity comes from coming at it with expectations for something that it’s not, and you sum that up fantastically.

[@mackerel6099]

This was always what I loved about totk! It feels like an old sequel film where they made the first one with a banger cast and no franchise plans but the first one did so well they green lit another one. It has all the same jokes as the first but slightly different (totk will have players complete similar side quests for the same character), and the setting is basically the same but there’s a new one in there too (sky and depths). Those movies always had the same thing as the first but w a twist and that’s what totk did and I love it for that

[@_S1712]

Very noice, I'm currently playing TOTK and the explanation about your video about the sequel thing and the nostalgic effects of the game is real. Good job!

[@Tamara-tg3ho]

i gasped in the middle as you got to the main point and my guy you made me cry at the end.For me,you hit the nail in the Coffin.Thats what Totk is for me.A sequel,a proper sequel.Thank you.

[@cherubin7th]

totk is the first Zelda that I just get myself to keep playing. Everything in this game feels so pointless to do and is only about leveling up, but nothing makes you see something new and cool, like the caves look all the same, underground looks all the same, I discovered most of the sky quickly and now only the scores are left to do. The stories before the 4 temples were awesome. Temples were too simplistic, some shrines where more intense. Shrines are good puzzles, but they are just quick puzzles and nothing is going on here really. No drama outside the main story. Like wow pirates attacked the village, only to be standard overworld enemies and the people didn't seem to care about that. The best non main story boss was at the bottom of Korok forest, because he permanently died and the reward was not just a consumable, but instead you saved the forest. This is what I like, not just consumables or level ups and thats it.

[@TheSteelFenix]

I hadn't seen the game in that way. I was starting to think like the people that say it's a dlc, and I didn't want to accept that. But this point of view made me remember that's not true. Good video.

[@lubtearts8985]

One of my favorite games ever

[@doublecomplex4741]

This is a solid argument. i think some people understand that its a sequel, but disagree with its narrative direction. Either way, I enjoyed watching your take. I personally didn't begin BoTW until 2021, so my experience with the time perspective was different than most people's probably would be. Looking forward to the movie and future releases!

[@ultimatedumbass4640]

Agreed. It's not that people don't understand how sequels work but rather they didn't find the new content for this sequel to be that substantial which I kinda agree on tbh. The storytelling wasn't the best either imo. But I did have more fun with this game. Might be because I played BotW in 2020 and didn't feel anything from the world so TotK's changes made things a little interesting.

[@ViviBuchlaw]

To anyone who agrees with this video, and or doesnt understand why ToTK is so Hated, might I recommend Skittybitty's video on it, because its _the_ most in depth, thorough and high quality video on the subject. Tell me your thoughts once you've finished it! 😊

[@Xf3rnaPlays]

3 hours to tell me how bad a game Is based on subjectivity? Why do you guys waste your time like this? If you want to tell a game it's bad, and totk Is objectively, just watch a playthrough and follow the story, it's not that hard, i don't need 3 hours of yapping about how bad It Is to only say "i still love the game" at the end. These people are the worst, just say the game sucks and It bored you to no end. You won't hurt anybody, it's a game, not politics.

[@ViviBuchlaw]

@@Xf3rnaPlays What? Where did you get that from? Where in the video did you hear "I still love this game"? Though there are parts of the review that are of course subjective, IE you may perfectly well disagree, a non insubstantial portion of the video is objective analysis, of which cannot be gotten though just watching a playthrough. Any given playthrough might not do the dungeons being discussed, so it wouldnt help in a discussion of those. Any complete enough playthrough is longer than 3 hours, and far less useful Its 3 hours long because it's a thorough analysis of every single part of the game, and there's not a wasted second. Sure, you can say it bored you, which tells someone the what of their opinion, but nothing as to the why. I'd argue ToTK can be a very interesting game to watch, as a playthrough may only present parts that look good, cut out tedious things, or show things that appear fun to play but arent actually. Afterall, the reason why let's plays arent copyright infringement is BECAUSE what hing and playing are different. But neither is equivalent to literary a analysis. For that, you'd have to argue that hundreds of years of literary criticism and analysis is bad, actually, and that they should've left it at "thing bad" which is surprisingly anti intellectual I'm suprised that, after I suggested a specific video, you decided you not only didnt need to see it, but already know what it is and why I'm talking about it?

[@Xf3rnaPlays]

@@ViviBuchlaw i've seen countless videos arguing why the game sucks, i don't need another one to add in the pile. I've had my fair chance with totk, clocking in 150 hours, and i think through and through the series is dead and this game it's the absolute rock bottom this franchise has ever gotten (CDI games excluded). That's it. From one of my favourite series to being utterly murdered by stubborn decisions of a game director that has no clue where to take the series from here. And echoes of wisdom Is the last nail in the coffin of real, true top down Zelda. I've never felt so betrayed in the gaming industry ever, and i bought cyberpunk 2077 day one!

[@ViviBuchlaw]

@@Xf3rnaPlays Okay...uh, you realise my initial comment doesnt apply to you? In fact, I explicitly stated that it's for people who agree with this video and dont understand why people dislike ToTK. That doesnt describe you, so...why are you commenting?

[@Shonen_Shadow]

Personally for me I ended up playing BOTW much later than most people and everyone kept hyping up how good it was and when I finally played it I was actually kinda disappointed I felt like everything in the game was too generic none of the items or weapons felt special, the Divine Beasts all felt the same and the bosses felt very uninspired compared to the zelda games that came before it but after playing Tears of the Kingdom I absolutely loved it it fixed all of my issues I had with BOTW and then some I truly don't understand how people can say it's just a "DLC" it is so different and has way more content and fun mechanics compared to BOTW

[@Maria-mk1bb]

I dont wanna be a contrarian but idk i dont see it the places being different isnt all that interesting, the depths are just mediocre is just combat encounters with enemies that you already fought in a combat system with no single core issue truly adressed because honestly once the novelty of fuse runs out tge weapons just last as much as people say the weapons on botw last and with the additive of having to spend resources or others weapons for them to be useful and also they look like garbage made by a neantherthal as the cherry on top. The proving shrines are good but the rest are even worse because theyre super easy to break and the cristal ones are nothing special, so the core parts of the game are more or less the same and even worse in some ways, the fact that the sages or the temples amd the story arent mentioned on the video already speaks for itself, and to contrast your hometown allegory i left mine because ir sucked to live and had to come back some years later and yknow besides some changes at the end of the day its it still is the same place wich perfectly encapsulates my feelings with the game and why i dropeed it before being even a 1/4 done through it.

[@No-by7wu]

This is such a great video. I love finally seeing a video that’s so well thought out

[@SayisSaying]

Hit the nail on the head so eloquently and concisely. I really don’t know what people wanted from this game besides what we actually got. My only personal issue with either game is clunky UX design. But tears of the kingdom really is a fantastic sequel and I very much enjoy interacting with all the citizens of hyrule.

[@Zythryl]

I think wanting characters whose actions match their wants, and their knowledge at a given time, is a reasonable expectation. It wasn’t delivered.

[@mettapollweaxd9682]

All excellent points comprised in almost 13 minutes. Such a great video, I enjoyed it a lot! Please keep it up👏👏👏👏

[@bigfootapologetics]

Well said! I think the story themes (as mentioned in one of the recent interviews) of "connection" tie into the growth you mention perfectly; everything from Link's final catch to the teamwork we see between characters to the idea of connecting things with Ultrahand to the literal hand icons brings this world together beautifully.

[@Slicent]

Thank you bro, I feel like no one understands this game but you really explained it

[@bigoldturkey]

Bro you deserve more subs. Quality is insane.

[@michaelrosa700]

Loved this! Super well done!

[@gamerrrdude4405]

“This is just a proper narrative sequel like how movie installment do with their stories” That’s… exactly what the problem is! Same goes for other games on other consoles with things like realistic graphics and walking simulator missions. VIDEO GAMES ARE NOT MOVIES! There was nothing in this game that couldn’t have been DLC over time. Even if they needed to release multiple expansion packs

[@chooongusbug724]

"there is nothing in this game that couldn't have just been DLC" you really aren't that bright, huh?

[@gamerrrdude4405]

Still doesn’t warrant the game’s reason for existing even if it needed to be redeveloped. Video games aren’t movies

[@chooongusbug724]

@@gamerrrdude4405 are you insane? BotW was left open ended for a sequel...this is like saying ALBW shouldn't exist and MM shouldn't exist lol

[@gamerrrdude4405]

@@chooongusbug724 By using the same map? They crammed it! The sky and the depths are just as lackluster as the stuff you do on the surface. I don’t want to solve a “puzzle” with a green crystal in the sky if I’ve already done that 10 times on the surface. The depths on the other hand is just large for the sake of being the same size as the standard overworld. I’d personally rather enjoy my time doing something unique instead of walking around for hours just to get by. At least those other games you mentioned have their own artsyles, worlds and actually feel like video games.

[@chooongusbug724]

@@gamerrrdude4405 ...ALBW used the same map too, I think you just got filtered by not knowing what do to or how to tackle the content. And I also feel that if you're gonna complain about the depths being empty, you should also complain about Hyrule itself in BotW being even more empty 🤷‍♀️ what's the point in exploring BotW's Hyrule if all I'm gonna find is Korok poo or a shrine? It has no caves, it's cool landmarks have nothing do do when you get to them and side quests are just grab me 40 pieces of wood and 5000 rupees, then I'll give you 100 rupees. BotW did feel very incomplete and if you look at the Making a Champion book and what they've said about what they wanted in BotW but couldn't do it due to the technical limitations of Wii U, TotK feels like the complete version of BotW but with so much more to it. If anything? BotW should've been delayed so it could've been a Switch exclusive and have the caves, the sky and everything that was supposed to be there from the get go but wound up in TotK. TotK isn't the issue, BotW feeling like a beta is

[@wunderwalze]

The thing about mastery… I kinda felt like I had already achieved that after completing half of the game, especially totk. At that point the enemy camps, mini bosses, sky islands, chest rewards, korok puzzles just keep repeating without getting harder (baddie’s HP and DMG go up but the movesets stay the same). Even the dungeons don’t get more difficult or complex.

[@thelastbrickbender2139]

2:12 and it’s exactly the kind of sequel totk isn’t

[@Wingforth]

Breath of the Wild was my reward to myself for finishing my final semester of art school. On the day I finished school my sister passed away. Breath of the wild instead became part of my grieving process. It was the right game for me at the right moment.

[@HayatoSenseiDark]

Thank you for sharing such a bittersweet memory. I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm glad to hear you've been able to move forward.

[@lauka65]

I played TOTK few month after finishing BOTW. It feels amazing how this new mechanics open to me, with the whole BOTW story fresh entering into TOTK was amazing. Discovering the undergreund and new things, wsa amazing

[@MostAttractiveDudeInTown]

I'll give my two cents about this game as well. I really liked tears of the kingdom. Playing it for the first time felt really great. I really liked seeing the new enemies, playing around with the new abilities and seeing all the changes in the world of Hyrule, both big and small. I loved seeing how the people changed as well. Both mayor characters like the sages, but also minor characters like Hudson and even some random NPCs like Calip. All in all i really liked the game, but to me that feeling faded quickly. I got the feeling i was seeing the same set of monsters everywhere very fast, only a few new additions. The only time i didn't feel this was in the Gerudo desert with the Gibdos. But other than that i felt like no matter where i went I would see the same bokoblins, moblins, lizalfos, horriblins, likelikes, constructs, chuchus and keese. I would have loved to see more biome exclusive enemies. And i don't mean ice variants of existing enemies for snowy areas. I mean something like deku babas in Faron or Darknuts in Hyrule castle and a few ruined structures like a colloseum, Akala Citadel or Fort Hateno. I also felt like I was not challenged, ever. I had one tough fight with a Gleeok and one close encounter with Gloom hands, but no other fight felt like a challange. My most recent death is still at the location of the first Gleeok I ever encountered! Sure I did play botw, so I do have an advantage. But this little new challenge just felt sad. Why don't three Lynels come at me at once in the colloseum? Or at least have some other enemies nearby. Why isn't there something like an enemy camp of bokoblins with a Hinox so they can wake the Hinox up, so you need to be extra careful. Why do all nearby enemies vanish when a gloom hand spawns? Link is now 10 times stronger than he was in breath of the wild, yet the enemies Don feel like they have increased their strength accordingly. The old Enemies haven't changed in any way other than having a horn attack and the new enemies only feel mildly more challenging than anything botw had to offer. Or at least the Froxes, Gleeoks, Gloom Hands and Boss Bokos do. Evermeans, Baby Froxes, Horriblins, Likelikes and Aerocuda are not any more challenging than a bokoblin. And final issue i had was the sky and depths lacking in interesting stuff to do. The only interesting stuff in the sky to me were the two temples, the great sky island and the thunderhead isles. All the other sky islands felt like an afterthought to me. Most sky islands were just kinda empty, they either had a shrine and zonai dispenser or a boss and a treasure chest. But there were no big explorable sky islands other than the four "mandatory" ones. And for being in the sky a lot of them lacked the interesting traversal that should have come with the consept of being a floating landmass. There were few enemies, few animals, very little variety and literally no different biomes in the sky. Genuinely every sky islands has the same gray and yellow color pallet. And there were no NPC's other than in the great sky island. The depths was only slightly better. It at least had the exclusive Froxes and all the enemies dealing gloom damage. And the lifelessnes felt like it may have beem more deliberate, with it being the world Ganon envisions, just darkness and his monsters covering the land. But i felt it could have used a bit more variety in biomes either way and it definitely should have had more types of structures rather than the same mines, colloseums and yiga hideouts copied and pasted everywhere. All in all it was a good game, tho it did end up feeling repetitive quite quickly.

[@HayatoSenseiDark]

I agree with all of this. TotK had *more* enemy diversity than BotW, but BotW didn't have enough enemies to begin with. And it was a little disappointing how little there was in the sky! The stuff that *is* there is good (diving challenges, rock escorts, zonai puzzles), but the good bits are spread out across the entire empty sky.

[@MostAttractiveDudeInTown]

@HayatoSenseiDark Yeah, pretty much. Botw didn't have enough unique stuff. Then for totk they doubled the amount of stuff to find, but also more than doubled the map size. Wich resulted in there being proportionally the same amount of stuff.

[@OliveHugh2]

I don’t usually get ppl who say they agree to 100% on an essay. But with this video I feel that way, thank you for a great perspective I shared even before watching this video

[@StarlitWitchy]

Really nice video!! Loved it!! :)

[@NathanielDowell]

I felt that TOTK was more like an alternate universe sequel to BOTW. There were BOTW characters and locations that had grown and changed, but the total absence of Guardian tech made it seem like they'd swapped out the ancient history of Hyrule from Guardians to Zonai, resulting in a weird feeling of disconnection for me.

[@HayatoSenseiDark]

I do think they should have been a little more obvious with the connections to BotW. A bit of dialogue about the old tech disintegrating unexpectedly would have gone a long way, I think. Zonai and Sheikah histories can coexist, but it's a bit odd that they don't even try to make that connection.

[@PhysicalGeneral]

Your video sums it up perfectly! ❤

[@aterriblesliceoftoast4096]

I personally don’t like that people can’t appreciate that Tears of the Kingdom is literally an improvement over that which came before it (BoTW). Sure, the repeating cutscene dialogue, and the story being a little more shallow than we might’ve hoped. But the actual Lore is awesome, and it’s not hard to find said lore yourself, which is also awesome. Yeah, it isn’t perfect, but seeing the amount of mechanics which went into this game I get why some things either weren’t thought about, or simply cut due to prioritising.

[@kakarikokage2514]

So grateful to see more people who enjoy the game for the same reasons I do. I honestly gave up defending the game and just ignored most videos that began coming out.

[@skilarbabcock]

There's something so much more satisfying this time around as well. I wasn't a fan of Botw from a gameplay standpoint. But totk expanded, revised, and now it actually feels like a Zelda game despite having the new formula

[@omicron3012]

I can understand the nostalgia from players for whom Breath of the wild was a big part of their childhood. The feeling of going back to a place you have spent so many time exploring as a child to see how different, yet familiar it is must be magical, akin in a way to the feeling we experienced in Ocarina of Time, going back as adult Link to someplace we visited as child Link. However, giving you a set of glowing green lego blocks and awkward abilities doesn’t make up for the broken beyond repair gameplay loop, the underwhelming dungeon experiences, the boring, tedious and repetitive side content, the completely forgettable cast of characters with even less personality than a Deku stick and the complete lackluster story. This game will live in Zelda history as the sequel we didn’t need. The sandbox that stretched too far. With Echoes of Wisdom, they appear to be going back to a more traditional formula, albeit with small and fun elements of creativity and openess that is now part of Zelda's DNA, whether we like it or not. And after a year of dread, I finally have hope they can strike that delicate balance between a linear adventure with prevalent story and puzzle experiences and non linear exploration.

[@HayatoSenseiDark]

I agree it did have its flaws (and I'm hoping they strike a better balance in the next game), but I do enjoy its gameplay loop a lot. I liked the sidequests, and I liked the new options for traversal and combat. I like how Tears of the Kingdom is much more dense and populated that BotW, but I can see how it comes across as bloated and tedious to someone who isn't already enjoying it all. I hope Echoes of Wisdom brings you everything you're looking for!

[@omicron3012]

@@HayatoSenseiDark Yes, I like how they really tried to improve on BotW's shortcomings. It's too bad they ended up causing more problems trying to fix the previous ones. Despite that, people enjoy the freedom the game provides which is a good thing. So far so good for Echoes of Wisdom. I am curious to see more of it.

[@omicron3012]

@@HayatoSenseiDark By the way, nice profile pic. I'm a huge fan of Soren in the Ike FE games ^^

[@vaati.etrenia]

Not a good narrative sequel, the Calamity is forgotten, sheika tech disappeared never mentioned, everyone forgot you. Exploration? Yes, you go in every town adn everyone has forgot you, quests? I like quests, but just do quests to get 100 rupees, random items, shrine, i already did that shit in botw i don't wanna do it over again, in the same world. Weapons, they're even worse, the durability is shit, why would you combine a rare items with a stick or sword that breaks after 5 hits, you can't see the hp of enemies and they have more than in botw, deals more dmg. The main quest? Just explore and you know that this isn't real Zelda, yet everyone thinks that, the dungeon... Mid... Shrines are bad, same thing as botw but different architecture, too much Koroks seeds, just let don't talk about it Depths are empty Sky islands, not much, uninteresting The zonai things are pretty much useless, not really that useful in game especially since the components aren't infinite and are annoying to get, the battery is also a pure hell to max out

[@graenovember]

thank you for this video. ik everyone is entitled to their opinion but i played botw for the first time during the pandemic. after that, totk came out as soon as i finished my first botw playthrough. i didn’t understand what 2015 botw players meant that they didn’t feel the same/didn’t like totk as much bc it’s the same hyrule. i, who recently played botw and came out of that experience, had so much fun with totk and seeing how hyrule changed and became better after botw’s events. it was so nice to see how the hyrule has become more of a community after all those “years”. tbh, i don’t really put much stock in the “feeling of exploring hyrule the first time.” i didn’t feel anything special playing botw because it was my first ever zelda game, and the world felt too empty and lonely for my tastes. maybe that’s why i liked totk much more too in terms of the world. I like the feel of community in totk and change, much more than the lonely post-apocalyptic hyrule of botw.

[@rickthebas]

Beautifully put

[@dietomh8682]

Majora's mask secuel to wind waker? My boy is high

[@JQuelin7]

Something that helps me with the feeling of adventure is disabling the ‘-‘ button so I can’t use the map or fast travel

[@speedude0164]

I always talk about how the evolution of the land of Hyrule was the highlight of the game's story for me and the reason I was always in support of them reusing the map, but something else you mentioned that doesn't get talked about enough is how the game treats your evolution as a player. Most people are gonna go into the game with a general idea of how it controls and they're not gonna have any issues taking down a regular Breath of the Wild enemy, but they now have a whole lot of new mechanics to get the hang of and the enemies themselves come in new variants and have new tricks up their sleeves. You can play the game with only the abilities you carried over from Breath of the Wild (in fact I plan to for a challenge run at a later date), but you'll have a much harder time doing so because of how both the enemy and the terrain has evolved; taking advantage of the new tools at your disposal is how you're gonna get the edge this time. Tears of the Kingdom isn't a new adventure that failed to recapture the wonder of Breath of the Wild; it's a new chapter in that same adventure and an evolution of it, and the gameplay reflects that so well.

[@KingDueceND]

I’ve been playing Zelda since the early 90’s and while I understand people enjoy what they like, this game is incredible by itself, as a sequel, and as a Zelda entry.

[@Shyka.]

Thank you for this beautiful video

[@julienossola]

Amazing video, a bit to short, but I liked everything you said. Thank you!

[@rGGdom]

You are correct in your logic and take of TotK. But because of those very same reasons is why I argue that this game is not better than BotW. Notice the enphasis the developers put in tools and mechanics that help us "break" the world, wich is the entire opposite of what Breat of the Wild did with all of its restrictions. To mention one example, in BotW you had to climb to get to the top of a mountain. TotK doesn't want you climbing anymore, every single mountain has now debris for you to ascend. And that's in case you don't want to build a machinery to get there in a even easier manner. I argue that the developers did this because they knew the world - even with its new additions - felt repetitive and soon enough, boring. So now the fun moves from exploring (wich is a staple and foundation brick in all of Zelda titles) to breaking things... wich it can be fun and was fun in its own way, sure, but to me is not a very Zelda-like type of fun, to me exploration and discovery are key to this franchise.

[@ACEDonnell]

Man I wish I enjoyed totk as much as other people

[@themoviecritic1092]

Sorry you don't like it as much but it seems you're not alone in that regard

[@aaronwynn8114]

The re-using of the map with slightly different active spots is like the second playthrough in the OG game

[@Radd33]

Finally someone who gets it, there are so many youtubers who get hung up on the whole "it's not a totally new game" thing, and they complain about the story as if that was ever the strong point of botw, this is a proper sequel, and it's done in probably the best way a direct sequel has ever been made.

[@kevinalley5854]

Very well done and composed beautifully. Truly enjoyed the explanation and you nailed what it means for me anyway.

[@gamsougher3574]

the last part 😭 it’s so true. like i started a new totk save on a new profile a few months ago and really wanted the champion’s photo from the botw dlc on the profile in totk. so over like a week i went back to botw and just. played the entire game and the dlc from memory. i had like 5 hearts and used amiibo stuff and stuff on the main quest path only. it was exhilarating, and fun, and then going back to totk after was great too!! it’s rewarding and empowering to understand these games and this world so thoroughly. that’s exactly why botw got me through the times it did-it gave me a world i could understand, and master, and love. a world that felt like it loved me back, despite all the tragedy. and in totk we see that world grow, just how we did, and it’s beautiful. and it’s why i can’t really see totk as anything other than a gift. also, fantastic music choices :)

[@deadinside-iq2ry]

This feels somewhat subjective, which is fine but i wouldnt word it as if its the reason everyone plays. I played botw to immerse myself in a world. getting stronger was my last priority. I actually intentionally put self imposed limitations on myself bc i felt TOO strong. i wanted to do the same thing with the next game but from the start i tried hunting down every shrine I could find and 100% them for the reward (which i eventually looked up and realized i didnt want at all) . I even used the really op hover bike for the depths. it was a terrible mistake that ruined my experience with the game. that on top of my griped with the story telling lead to me having a significantly worse experience with totk compared to botw. I however do agree that what drives exporation in totk 2 is the curiosity of what has changed. you were onto something with that one.

[@drovethedrill711]

Wow.... what an excellent video! Your perspective on the game and its intentions struck me as extremely obvious, but only after hearing you share it.... like when we draw a blank on a word we wanna use and someone else calls it out. Every point you made was something I felt when playing the game, but I lacked the clarity to describe it. Thanks for calling out the words for me!

[@HyperfixationStation]

This is a great video! Although for me, the reason I kept going back to replay botw wasn't to get better at the game, it was to replay in new ways -- trying to re-experience the discovery in new ways. I'd play without the map, or by starting in different places, etc. So for me, totk could've had a lot more to discover and rediscover, especially in the sky, which I was hoping would have more variety, like the Great Sky Island set us up to expect. Still, a great game, and the curiosity to revisit locations DEFINITELY drove a lot of my excitement! :D

[@HyperfixationStation]

oh, and hi, Tulin!

[@HayatoSenseiDark]

I would've loved 3-4 more "Great Sky Island" areas.

[@samnelson6509]

THANK YOU! You put my thoughts about Tears of the Kingdom into words perfectly! Pretty much since the release of the game I've seen way too many people hating on it and it was honestly really upsetting because I absolutely love the game. Thank you so much for making this video!

[@felixmiguel4627]

Idk chief, a lot of what you said could be said about a lot of games. And personal stories doesn't make the game better, it's just nostalgia. The problem is that Nintendo markets the game as a tribute to creativity. The game has a lot of options, sure, but the game almost never makes you struggle, thus , there's no challenge. The game is fun tho.

[@HayatoSenseiDark]

I think what makes TotK stand out for me is the fact that most sequels actively choose to take place in a new location. TotK chose to revisit the same location *on the same hardware*. It evokes a unique flavor of nostalgia for its predecessor that most sequels can't accomplish.

[@williamwolfe962]

Everything you said in the video was true, but I don't think that 'nobody understands' this. The argument is that Nintendo failed to deliver these things you and most people recognize they were aiming for. They said this was a 70 dollar experience (the most expensive switch game, the first to jump to this price), but the game did things like, every reward in the depths was reused amiibo armor or copy pasted every dungeon cutscene. They reused the memory cutscene format for the story but this ruined a lot of peoples experience of it, because you can see the ending twist way too early. They said the dungeons were like traditional dungeons again, but this was only surface level and failed again to scratch any sort of well designed dungeon itch for a lot of people. They made the UI worse than BotW, tweaking it a bit to make a couple things like cooking better but making other parts like arrows much worse so that the gameplay is very start and stop as you scroll through 100s of items. They had less shrine quests than the original game even though they had more shrines total, and more of the shrine quests they did have led to empty reward shrines. I think your hometown revisit analogy is kind of apt. As a kid you remember fondly playing on that playground, but now 20 years later its rusty and overgrown and nobody bothered to repaint it or fix the cracks in the sidewalk that are now glaring and everybody trips on them. Just because the kids CAN still have fun on that playground, and parents who used to play there still have fun playing with their kids there, doesnt mean it doesn't need some work. Ultrahand and fuse are beyond impressive, but it really seems like they focused almost solely on those new abilities and failed imo to do enough changes to the rest of the game to fill that 6 year wait.

[@alwf905]

Totk is my favorite game currently. But I think it would’ve been elevated if they had the depths be smaller but with more concentrated stuff to do.

[@danieljackson561]

I wanna love this game, but i cant. This game should be called tears of the lost potential. I only ever felt this was a zelda game at the beginning up to were he drops in the water. The colgera fight, and when the lightning thing clears the storm clouds in the sky. Most of what they improved on was bland which sucks because there is so much potential. It doesnt make sense why it took 6 years to make this game.

[@madnessarcade7447]

Or maybe u just didn’t understand the point

[@madnessarcade7447]

Because of all the content and lore and unique mechanics

[@danieljackson561]

@@madnessarcade7447 how did I not understand the point?

[@savien6401]

While i do agree on the zonai devices (and i dont know if its just me) but controlling the vehicles like the cars feel so clunky and terrible that i dont use them. I mostly make flying vehicles

[@whisperedflame6952]

TOTK is best seen as a part 2 to BOTW and not as an entirely new sequel imo.

[@OhayouEdboy]

I would absolutely agree with you... If anything changed in any meaningful way. It feels like such a half hearted attempt at a sequel all things considered because almost none of the negative aspects of BOTW were fixed. The world is barely changed at all. The lore is in shambles. The dungeons are better, but I wouldn't label any of em as "good". Enemy variety is still lacking. The depths are boring and empty. The menuing is considerably worse. Shrines are still lame and forgettable. Combat is still a bit jank. The Champion Avatar summons are all terrible and lackluster replacements for what was available in BOTW. And it's all topped off in a world that most players had fully explored already and a half baked story that actively hurts the lore and history established by the first game (Nevermind the entire Zelda timeline). If the game took place entirely in the sky then that would've made the lack of real improvements more tolerable because at least at that point you would've been in a totally new environment to explore. Instead, they likely spent the past 5+ years of dev time on the crafting system that ultimately doesn't do much, because most puzzles can be solved with such basic solutions and being creative only uses up more resources and often just wastes more time. I don't doubt that the devs gave it their all, but I think they spent their time focusing on the one thing that didn't need to be improved on or added: the physics/Fuse. And they gave us a mediocre product as a result... for $70! You can enjoy the game, it's fun for what it is, but don't assume that people who don't like it or have genuine criticisms towards the game just don't understand it. This doesn't feel like a sequel just cuz it uses the same map. It just doesn't feel like a sequel in general.

[@g-man7322]

This described the feelings I had with TOTK 10000%. I always had this idea in the back of my mind when playing the game and when watching the countless hours of critiques (good and bad) of the game. All of them had points I agree with and points I disagreed with or at the very least could see the argument for, but I always felt like something was off with those critiques.You hit the nail on the head with this video perfectly put into words what I felt. Thank you for that!!

[@Henry.1905]

You can't believe how reliefed I am hearing this, I love this game so much and everybody is ranting about it while I think "I like it". Oc you can't relive BOTW but you can revisite BOTW with these entry and get a new perspective on EVERYTHING. I love this Video. Thank you really much

[@PebblesOTB]

I love building zonai devices, it's very different with that and the depths and sky

[@MaybeLater002]

Great video!

[@painuchiha2694]

Great video I’m still on the camp hyrule hasn’t changed enough and tbh it wasn’t ever gonna be enough. I prefer a new map but I still love totk and think it’s somewhat under appreciated

[@christiansenator]

Pretty soon into playing TotK I realized both that I was playing it like BotW and that I was failing. I wasn't building or fusing, just slowly exploring and clunkily walking around. Mostly climbing. Climbing isn't necessary in TotK, instead it encourages lateral and creative thinking. It gives us the same map but challenges us to play it a completely different way

[@CaptBurgerson]

Incredible work on this video! And HOLY CARP it’s your first one too?? GG honestly

[@mr.v1792]

Capt ur also a genius!

[@user-sf3ns6ed3g]

I fully agree with your take. You hit the nail on the head about TOTK creating a new feeling of discovery based on what’s changed in the world which I think was equally as impactful as exploring Hyrule for the first time as this time, I have an emotional connection with the world and characters. My only gripe with the game is how similar to BOTW its structure was, especially since they told a linear story with the memories yet still gave you the ability to watch them out of order, resulting in spoiling yourself early

[@senordivinebeast646]

In a time where this game seems to have a cloud of disappointment around it from many people, you did a great job of explaining how truly wonderful it is. Awesome video!

[@spacefacecadet]

Are you sure you need a machine to make those horses useless 😂

[@Linkard]

It cant be a narrative sequel if the villagers and many important characters don't even remember you. The game is filled to the brim with examples like this that make it a nightmare when it comes to ludo-narrative dissonance as well. Don't even get me started on the story. I might find it worse than botw.

[@thesporkguy]

To say no one understands this game comes off as quite self-important, regardless of how many rightfully agree with the statement. This video did not address the actual criticisms people have with the game. It only provides Nintendo PR talk on the mechanics before an Oprah Segment on how many feels it gives us. I loved TOTK to death but I had to overlook so many glaring issues to do so. I guess I should’ve known the moment you did your Zelda continuity joke at the beginning that you didn’t care about the lore issues etc, however it directly contradicts your claim that this was a truly forward facing narrative sequel, when all but a couple NPC’s in game even remember link, resetting most your narrative progress from the get-go and the producer’s terrible reasoning for the old shrines, towers and guardians being removed from the overworld. And no one ever disliked the new(and vastly improved)features and mechanics in the game. A section on that was not necessary to prove people’s misreading of the game’s approach. People instead did not like that we were given rehash material such as the Koroks again(with Hestu not remembering us), recycled dlc as a reward system, poor but not broken interface implantation and a somewhat empty sky map - even though it was the most hyped part of the TOTK’s promotional material. Again I loved the game, but this video needed a little more of an unbiased approach to it, as many of us were willing to shelve our feelings and emotional investment long enough to go into the experience with a more rational take on the entry, as beautiful as it was as a whole or not.

[@HayatoSenseiDark]

I appreciate your thoughtful comment. I've seen a lot of people arguing that recycling Hyrule was the main issue with this game, and that this game was built from the start on a faulty concept. My goal with this video was to push back against that specific idea. I don't think it's bad that they used the same map, or any of the reused concepts for that matter. I think this game struck a unique balance by recontextualizing the elements of BotW, and my goal was to defend that. The mechanics weren't *just* good; they specifically make Link better at navigating the world around him, which helps make Hyrule feel fresh. I might not have articulated these points well enough. I do agree with you, though. This game has many flaws that I didn't bring up. Other essays have already done a great job digging into those points, and I also didn't think they were relevant to my *main* point, so I didn't see the need to rehash them. Perhaps it does come across as having bias, but I also wasn't aiming for a perfectly unbiased review. Instead, I wanted to capture the underlying emotions that managed to make the game resonate with people, and I do think I accomplished that. Again, thank you for your thoughtful comment. This kind of critical feedback is important to me.

[@commenter5901]

There are still so many stories that could be told in this version of Hyrule. Like, where did the other 3 dragons come from (assuming they were Zonai who swallowed their stones)? How did the Duelling Peeks mountain split? Where did the hole in Hebra summit come from? What happened at the Breach of Demise? I want to know the story behind Thundera Plateau, how the 8th heroine's sword ended up at the top of the Gerudo Highlands, and the history of the Forgotten Temple. We only have glimpses or theories of some of the events that took place in these locations, but each of them could contain their own stories and lore.

[@HayatoSenseiDark]

Yeah, I do think they could have explored more of the lore that BotW hinted at. On the other hand, I think it's fun to leave certain mysteries unsolved (like a sword in the highlands).

[@astraadams1692]

very cool video essay, totk definitely gets too much hate, but... does anyone know the song at 8:12? i heard it recently in something else (mod for a game that rewrote the entire narrative and changed music & graphics) and i thought i was tripping for a sec. thank you

[@astraadams1692]

nevermind he responded to someone else. Aquatic Ambience - Donkey Kong Country

[@ZeldaEastWest]

Finally, someone who gets it. Phenomenal video. Subbed.

[@AidenFerguson-kd9td]

It’s to easy tho. The early game is hard, but it gets easy so fast after that.

[@HayatoSenseiDark]

Is it getting too easy, or do they just make Link too strong? I agree they could have added more challenging areas!

[@Ray-dl5mp]

The ending is a great challenge for a Zelda game. Near perfect for how the game plays. I give Nintendo a lot of credit for that.

[@Sam_T2000]

nah dawg, it’s hella DLC. the reused map _is_ a big part of it, but it also didn’t do anything to change or push the gameplay formula forward… it just gave us some cool new toys, and sent us back to the same sandbox. …and honestly, even if the world map _was_ completely different, the experience of exploration and discovery would’ve been severely stifled by the ability to spawn a hover bike any time you want 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@goldenninja9053]

You'll never win in making your argument actually convincing. Sad you never learned a year later lol. It's a full on sequel. Deal with it kid.

[@Sam_T2000]

@@goldenninja9053 - it doesn’t give us a new gameplay formula on the same map, it doesn’t give us the same gameplay formula on a new map… it just gives us some new toys to okay with in the same sandbox… that’s why it’s DLC. it’s just like the actual DLC _BOTW_ got… just bigger. in that, you got some new Shrines, some new story, and at the end you got a motorcycle… in _TOTK,_ you get a ton of new Shrines and semi-dungeons, a new (and inferior, IMO) story, and a whole new vehicle system… and you also got some new map to explore, but it’s not nearly as developed and filled-out as the original map. it’s DLC… it’s really expansive and elaborate and well-priced DLC, but DLC nonetheless.

[@OfficialOshawott-uv4pv]

Good video. Tears of the Kingdom really does feel like an evolution of Breath of the Wild in so many ways

[@HDGamerofficial]

I agree with basically all of this, BUT I completely understand the Zelda fans (myself included) feel conflicted with this game, it’s an incredible experience to play through and I’m happy I got to experience it, I’ve come back to the game multiple times to try and complete more of the map percentage and screwed around like I’ve done many time in Botw. But when it comes to aspects like lore, it was a real let down, they basically said “every other game doesn’t matter, this one has separate lore to the rest of the series ok bye” which feels like a slap in the face to long time fans. I personally love all the changes in the overworld and I hope tons of people see this video be everything said is GREAT, but I can understand why people have made hour long video essays on this game cuz it truly is conflicting 😅

[@R.A.M_Games]

@@HDGamerofficial see this is where we as older fans got TOTk confused. Tears did not “throw out previous lore out the window” it has done what every other Zelda game lore has done: gave us some answers while leaving us with more question. That and the lore continuity within TOTK is presented mainly through side quest, NPC, or the world building and is not the center main focus of the story. Now if that is a problem I completely understand but that’s a separate issue vs feeling like the lore continuity doesn’t exist at all in the game.

[@DonutSwordsman]

It surprises me people don't get the cycle of exploring makes you stronger. A flow between underworld, overworld, and mid helps you explore each faster as you get boons of eaches items.

[@JoeForrestart]

I love this take on TOTK, a great view of the direction they took. But, its a bit odd to can the game a narrative sequel, when it almost ignores entirely the events of BOTW and certain characters don't even remember Link. I suppose this helps people who didn't play BOTW to get invested, but does undercut a lot of your connection to the world when no one remembers what you did, a loads of things have changed without explanation. My main question has always been, why isn't Zelda Queen and so only Princess? That makes no sense 😂

[@Gnidel]

She's not married. You have to watch Shrek for educational purposes.

[@HayatoSenseiDark]

Here are the reasons I've come up with: 1. Hyrule is focused on rebuilding. They don't have a central government, so they haven't gotten around to coronating Zelda. 2. After 100 years without a royal family, the Hylians don't feel the need to make Zelda their Queen. She retains her "princess" title out of respect. 3. Zelda doesn't necessarily *want* to be Queen. She loves the people of Hyrule, but she doesn't see herself as "above" them. She chooses to live in Hateno, after all. And Hateno already has its own mayor!

[@pedro15305]

Very good video, every spoiled Zelda fan should watch it to understand what this game is trying to do and how phenomenal it is