Video: One Year Later, Our Video Team Share Their Thoughts On Zelda: TOTK

Loved it in the moment but it felt so glaringly similar to BOTW, from the memories, story, combat, exploration loop... the new abilities were awesome though.

My son was playing TotK and I had a rare urge to play it again. I resisted because of my backlog, but it really is a phenomenal game.

It will never hold the same importance as BotW.

I loved it, but I really want to play an enhanced version on switch 2. The blurry graphics, the mediocre performance and the loading times when you fast travel were an issue for me.

@jedgamesguy
Felt like it was playing it too safe with those rather than them using them to surprise the players with twists and deviations, the only shocking memory is the final one you unlock after viewing the rest of which unfortunately comprise mostly of characters just sitting around talking with only brief glimpses into the conflict with Ganondorf.
Combat still revolves too much around whittling down the massive health bars of the higher level enemies and you encounter those types far more frequently than in BOTW. You do have lots of options due to fuse at least but the basic melee combat could have used something to make it more dynamic.
Exploration sees some big improvements though you have a ton of options for moving around you aren’t limited to putting up with stamina management climbing like in BOTW, from rocketing up with shields to using rewind to make floating platforms exploration is one of the biggest things TOTK is willing to break out of its BOTW comfort zone about.

@SalvorHardin I've not played much of TotK so dont know if its in there, but combat something like Dragons Dogma might be good for large bosses, where you can climb onto them and attack specific areas i.e. each large enemy has HP for each limb etc. Again not sure if something similar to that is already in there, but think it could work well to freshen it up
On top of that as an idea, if you could pick up heavy objects and hurl them at enemies for specific area damage, i.e. hurl a rock at a large enemys leg to cripple them and make them hobble to reduce their speed, making it easier to take them down

TotK didn't give me that same sense of wonder as BotW did. TotK introduced lots of new features and a modest amount of improvements, but it feels more like a huge BotW expansion than a completely new game.

@SalvorHardin My issue with the memories in TOTK is that the story isn't remotely interesting enough to work as well as BOTW's. Also, this kind of story doesn't work out of order, so I found out the big twists early on, which ruined the whole thing. It's a shame, because Ganondorf stole every scene he was in, even though he and Link had nothing to really work with. For that reason I'd welcome a linear Zelda game with a linear story, one that actually works.

@PinderSchloss while that is certainly true for its place in videogame history, on a personal note TOTK is far more important as it’s the first Zelda game my children were able to play independently of me. 😊 Together we’ve played Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening and BOTW. They were all old enough when TOTK released to tackle it on their own. We’ve all had vastly different experiences with it, and it will always be extra special to us.

I spent 5 months and hundreds with my initial play through of TOTK, and was incredibly satisfied. I intentionally used no warps, and did not fill in the map during my run as I wanted to explore and get lost in the world all over again. I've got ideas for when I go back for a 2nd play through but I'm not itching to go back and replay TOTK for a very long time.

Having just finished it last week I loved it even more than BOTW in a lot of ways. Which is weird because the game felt like the biggest post-game content ever made, as if I was playing past the ending of BOTW. Maybe because the story was so silly and forgettable, and the sages so childish it all felt like kids playing make believe after the adults did their thing.

It'll probably go down as one of my favorite Zeldas in terms of gameplay, and least favorite in terms of story.

Oh come on guys. Of course exploring the same world again will not give you the same feeling. I do get that. However, the gameplay improvements, the better integration of Zelda elements, the dungeons, boss battles, better story, the epic final boss... Everything about To Totk to me is far superior that Botw.

I am still playing through and I have to admit the sense of wonder is ever present. The depths are still one of the best takes on the Dark World ever. And this story feels more fleshed out than other Zeldas not in the Wild Trilogy. Brava Nintendo, Brava!

I’ve basically finished a second playthrough, just farming to get fierce diety set maxed, and almost have full hearts. Then I’ll stomp ganons face again. Second time through was no better or worse, but I found BOTW better the second time. Sadly that comparison will always loom over TOTK’s legacy. It’s a great game but the lesser sibling

For me, it's the greatest game of all time, because it captures that childlike wonder of "where does this path go?" and "what happens If I do this?" in a way that no other game has done before.

The story beats were great as well and I loved the fact that you could experience them out of order. Sure, the scenes with the sages got a little repetitive, but that's the compromise they had to make for giving players so much freedom.

Also, the last time I played BOTW, was back in late 2017, so the map didn't feel too familiar 5 years later. Re-exploring the world, to see what had happened to some of my favourite places, like the Great Plateau, was genuinely exciting.

I’ll never forget May 12th 2023 and the launch of Tears of the Kingdom. Over the three months that followed, I didn’t once touch my PS5 or Series X and played literally nothing else, accruing more than 290 hours in the game, comfortably eclipsing the 225 that I have in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I simply adored the game and, at the time, proclaimed it the greatest video game ever created.

I definitely still stand by that statement, but as the ensuing nine months have passed, I must admit that my passion for the game has cooled somewhat. I do pop back in every once in a while for the odd hour, but I doubt I’ll ever go back for a full second playthrough. Maybe, just maybe, should it ever get a 4K 60FPS update on Nintendo’s next console, but even then, I kinda doubt it. I’d far sooner look back upon those three perfect summer months with great fondness than risk tainting such wonderful memories.

However, one thing is absolutely beyond any shadow of doubt. I’ve never before or since completely and utterly immersed myself in a video game world like I did with Tears of the Kingdom’s Hyrule. And for that, I shall be forever grateful.

I honestly can't compare BotW and TokT. Both are FANTASTIC games that gave me some of the best experiences in my gaming life. BotW was the innovation, TotK the evolution. Both are incredible, and I can't put one above the other.
Perhaps TotK a bit better, mainly because of the story, the main quests and the skills. Man, the skills are way better here than in BotW...

I'm still missing a DLC where you get the best transport ever (a bird like in Skyward Sword would be great).

Are we in the Zelda cycle again?

Disappointing in a few ways. Sky islands and the depths could have been so much more than they were; side quests like the Lorelei Village one could have been so cool with new characters etc. but just amounted to a load of the same enemies occupying it ready for you to kill. Dungeons were better than BotW but still not a return to classic form.

All that said, tons of things that I was overjoyed with that outweigh the letdowns. One of my absolute favorite games of all time, loved it. I still can’t decide if I would put it above BotW for my favorite game of all time since I love both to death for different reasons.

One of the best games ever made. If it had real Zelda dungeons then it would probably be my #1 favourite game.

There are so many amazing things about it but if I had to pick one to talk about, I would say that I loved how it let you make your own Zelda items. Botw was seriously lacking in traditional Zelda items but Totk let you make your own.

I just love this game so much❤️

I read a review that had the best take, in my opinion, of its relevance against the first chapter which stands in the analogy between Mario Galaxy and Galaxy 2 and these two Zeldas. In both cases the team had a lot of ideas that they could not execute in only one game. It's a different take on the same premises, by the same team, in both cases. Mario Galaxy and Breath of the wild will always have the historic merit of being the first, but the sequels are brilliant games on their own.

Yet another comment section filled with loads of negativity about one of the greatest games ever made.

İ have beat it İ found it very hard for me the final battle was hard İ have never played a Zelda game with this hard final battle.
İt was so hard.

İ liked a lot this game but Majora's mask for the first time was different. Majora's mask was beautiful with graphics, characters, gameplay and music.

Ganondorf in Tears of the kingdom was awesome.
Nintendo have made it great.

I just wonder if people feel this way about all games with direct sequels. There’s hardly ever any art changes or grand design merits that makes the game feel extremely fresh. It’s a direct sequel. It was never advertised differently. That doesn’t make it mere dlc. This game in Zelda lore is directly tethered to BotW because of it. I feel like they did a superb job taking something many were familiar with and yet turning it in a way that it did feel different. I enjoyed it a lot. Is Olliolli so different from olliolli 2? Guacamelee to guacamelee 2? Horizon, Spiderman, the list goes on and on but this game receives that criticism alone and I just always scratch my head because nobody calls direct sequel games mere dlc normally. Just kinda weird to me.

BOTW is the game that blew my mind as it was the first fully open world Hyrule that I had always dreamed of playing.

TOTK basically doubled down on this aspect in almost every detail. Sure, we explored an updated and remixed base map in principle, but the scope of game content and where you go and what you see is completely new.

I found it quite smart that this game works as a sequel and an introduction to those that hadn’t played Zelda before as familiar locations were never the same as BOTW, not to mention that they capitalise on this being a world set years after you’ve saved it, the amount of references and callbacks were to BOTW was very much felt in narrative and presence (and even the Korok Puzzles!).

One of My favourite things in BOTW was climbing a mountain to view the scenery, I’m that sort of gamer. To be able to climb the sky's and look out to the entire map as the sun sets amongst the horizon is simply on another level (especially when you can then transition and dive seamlessly into the depths).

It’s a top tier Zelda experience, and I can’t wait to see what maps and ideas they draw up next for me to explore.

Keep digging the TotK grave in the Zelda cycle, I love it when people actually realize this wasn’t that good of a game. Can’t wait for this game to be forgotten in the Zelda mythos and for good classic REAL Zelda to emerge again.

Did anyone else feel like TotK took the BotW world and made it all a little more "game-y"? Like, if people complained that BotW was too boring or that it lacked a lot of gaming conventions, like tons of weapon upgrades or dungeons or caves, TotK was like, "Fine, here's some traditional game stuff to do." I'm currently replaying TotK and it's such a different experience than replaying BotW.

@Qwiff pretty much my sentiments - like yourself I hadn't been back to Hyrule since I beat the DLC, which would have been about 5 years ago, so I felt compelled to re-explore to see what had changed (a lot) and to refamiliarise myself with everywhere. I did get lost a few times! To add to that, I now had the depths, sky islands, wells and caves to explore...

@jedgamesguy I did the same thing and also ruined the whole story for myself. I wish the game had not allowed you to view them in randomized order. It worked really well for BOTW but terribly for TOTK. I think my overall feelings toward TOTK would have been more positive if that hadn't happened.

@Yoshif3 BOTW/TOTK were far too successful for them to abandon this new convention of Zelda. BUT, I do genuinely yearn for some classic Zelda adventuring as well.

The AA/Indie scene often takes care of this itch for me these days however, so it's understandable that Nintendo don't want to go backwards and compete against clones of their own legacy.

Still, I really wouldn't mind some more remasters of their classic ranges (or that dang HD WW/TP double pack that's been rumoured for 3+ years).

I guess I'm in the minority, as I love the have. I beat the game last year at about 195 hours, which I clicked up really quickly, in only like 10 weeks, them I put the game aside, and view I play it a little here and there between other games, and I'm now up to 235 hours with tons left to do. I probably be working on it for a couple more years.

My feelings about TotK can be summed up in one word: disappointed. It's still a good open world game, and an ok Zelda game. And this may be my fault, but it didn't live up to the hype.

Most of the new features were disappointing.

The Great Sky Island was an impressive tutorial area, but outside of the two dungeons there isn't much else in the sky except a few copy and pasted archipelagos.

The Depths is interesting and atmospheric at first, but repeated trips reveals how empty and barren the place is. The entire plane exists just to justify the grind for zoniate to fill the energy well.

The Ultrahand was not something I personally wanted, or would want, in a Zelda game. It was fun at first, but quickly became repetitive and tedious.

Not to forget how clunky the menu navigation is, how awkward the sage abilities are to use, how they wrote a linear story for a nonlinear game, what happened to the ancient Sheikah technology, who stole all of Link's wardrobe or why no one remembers what Link did a few years ago in BotW.

There were some improvements to the game. The new dungeons in ToTk are better than the ones in BotW. I like how the sage abilities had a short cooldown between single uses, instead of a long cooldown after the third usage. It was nice to see a little more enemy variety.

TotK was the first Zelda game that I have only beaten once. Most Zelda games I have beaten multiple times, sometimes restarting the game immediately after beating it. Within the first year of BotW's release, I beat the game three times: once normally, once on hard mode, and once as a three heart run. One year after TotK's release, I've beaten the game once, and I still have no desire to replay the game.

This is a good discussion. I'm in the running for biggest fan of TOTK on earth, so it can be hard to listen to even minor criticisms, yet I can understand where people are coming from.
I'd like it if there were larger sky islands, if there was a town in the sky, another in the depths, if the land of Hyrule had all new topography. But I'm still overwhelmed by how amazing the game is, as it is.
I'd say my 3 best moments in the game are gliding on a wing the first time, getting on a dragon the first time, and stumbling in the dark and happening upon a piece of armor that provided some light (and wonderful decorative and useful lights balls on each arm!). And that's saying nothing about the joys of elevator rails, the rail jets they make possible, and fast electric vehicles that make the world incredibly fun to play around in.
I cannot wait to play TOTK at a decent frame rate! (Hopefully soon if I can get it set up on my laptop, and it runs decently on the elderly 3 year old laptop I've got!).
Today I've been watching videos and looking at the many, many things I stored on my Switch. So, so many TOTK pics and videos. So many funny or amazing ones.
TOTK is pure videogame brilliance, and supremely unlimited fun.

I love Zelda, I have Zalda tattoos, and I think BotW is the best game if the past 20 years; however, for me TotK was repetitive, easy, too big, no sense of discovery, baby easy dungeons, awful bosses, easy puzzles, The Depts were bland and the Sky Are felt tacked on. Using the sane map felt there was no sense of discovery. For me it felt like generic Assassin's Creed than a Zelda game.

To me BotW was Zelda + open world + Nintendo's take on the survival genre. I really thought when TotK was approaching that it would be Zelda + open world + Nintendo's take on Minecraft, which it kinda was but they stuck the survivalist stuff in there also. Personally I feel like this was a missed opportunity to really make TotK stand apart from BotW, by eschewing the stamina meter and moving the focus from surviving the land to mastering the land. As it was they tried to do it all and imo felt really bloated as a result. Still very good game tho, just think it would have been so cool to give both games a very unique identity rather than have the sequel be the same but more.