Thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom

 

    After 200 hours, I have finally defeated Ganondorf and rolled the credits on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Like Breath of the Wild before it, I experienced a wide range of feelings on the experience this game provides. For a game this massive, there are absolutely going to be times I am more engaged than others, but perhaps the most astonishing thing is that I can't think of many times I didn't enjoy what I was doing? And even though everything I have to say about this game isn't going to be positive, I think the fact that the game rarely feels like an "open-world checklist" when completing quests and finding collectibles speaks to the incredible achievement this game is.

     So let's start out by talking about how this game builds on the foundation, literally and figuratively, of BOTW. First and foremost, the map is the same. If you, like me, played BOTW, this fundamentally changes how you engage with the terrain. The mystery of what could be around a corner is gone, replaced by the mystery of what changed. Personally, I find this inherently less interesting. I ran into the same issue with A Link Between Worlds in 2013, which re-used the map of 1991's A Link to the Past. One of my favorite things to do is explore, and the excitement of a new Zelda game often centers around the excitement of exploring a new world. But where BOTW was, more than anything, about the joy of traveling across a massive world and unraveling its secrets, TOTK is more about what you are actually doing moment-to-moment in that world. While that weakens my favorite thing about BOTW, I do think it is more of an improvement than a detriment. It's just a shame we couldn't have all these improvements and a new map.

    There sure is a lot to do though. I would say one of BOTW's biggest weaknesses is that the world of Hyrule doesn't feel "lived in". There are not enough character-driven side-quests, and the characters themselves don't really comment on the state of the world. The villages and people feel spread out and isolated. Some parts of the map feel empty, like they lack any purpose other than to hide a Korok or two. And the rewards for exploring (Koroks, equipment) are worth far less late in the game than they are early on. These issues specifically are much, much better in TOTK. NPCs can be found all over Hyrule. There are far more questlines and characters can be found reading the newspaper and commenting on the world at large. The incidental characters and dialogue is just so much richer, and does a better job engaging you with the world than before.

 

The quests were so much better this time

 

    Regarding the rewards, now that weapons all start out weak until you attach an upgrade to them, there is rarely a time when opening a chest feels like a waste, even late game. Weapon durability still sucks, but it sucks less now. Trying different combinations of weapon attachments is fun, and it's always a nice surprise when a combination nets you a special ability or high stat. Now that there is only one type of arrow, it is easier to stay stocked. Attaching items to arrows is exhilarating, and "bullet time" while airborne is much more lenient as well. Activating a Flurry Rush is still really tough for me though. After 400+ hours in both games, I still don't have the timing down. I wish it were more forgiving.

    So, back to the map. Calling it "the same" is, I'll admit, just a little disingenuous. But even though the explorable area has nearly tripled in size, not everything new is as interesting to explore as the base map in BOTW was. The real star here are the Caves and Wells. In the first game, caves were small rooms, but now they can be whole labyrinths. The excitement of finding a hole in the wall/ground to explore is the closest I got to the excitement of diving into BOTW's Hyrule while playing TOTK. You'd think the star of the show would be the Sky or Depths, but honestly? The Sky is far too sparse. And until you have a basic flying machine and plenty of batteries, it is also incredibly tedious to explore. After trying to get around to a few islands, I gave up until near the end of the game after I had built a hover bike and could get around easily and quickly. The Depths, meanwhile, are mostly combat focused. Exploring the Depths felt like exploring the least interesting sections of BOTW's map. There aren't any Koroks, very few NPCs, and the only worthwhile reward for your exploration (excluding Main Quest events) is battery upgrades, which take a tremendous amount of work to upgrade. There are enough chests with rewards to allow for a fair amount of upgrades without having to farm ore, but whether you're exploring, fighting bosses, or mining, upgrading your batteries is far more work in the early hours of the game than it should be for how much you use batteries. I think for people who like combat and survival-focused experiences, the Depths will be more engaging.

 

I could do without this area tbh

    Regarding the new abilities in TOTK, I would argue that every individual ability transforms the way you engage with the world and mechanics in a more meaningful way than every ability in BOTW combined. Fuse simplifies arrows while expanding their potential; it makes every weapon in the game potentially worthwhile, improving late-game rewards and softening weapon durability. Ascend allows for more verticality to puzzles and exploration, while giving an easy quick exit in caves or under structures. Recall, and ability I initially thought to be a worse version of Stasis from BOTW, shocked me at its versatility. Now I can't imagine wanting Stasis back. Finally Ultrahand, and by extension Autobuild, is the central mechanic of the game. The ability to stick things together to build a machine as complex or simple as you like to solve puzzles and navigate the world is incredible. The feeling of building a war machine with guns and lasers and taking out enemy encampments is just as empowering as cheesing a puzzle by constructing a Long Bridge™. What's more, you are constantly using all of these abilities, so after a few hours of play, there aren't abilities you forget you have. I rarely said, "Oh, right, I can Ascend here", because I was constantly using Ascend. Compare that to Cryonis from BOTW. Do you remember Cryonis? It's okay to admit you don't.

     Okay, now that we've discussed the map and the abilities, let's talk Dungeons. The Zelda team knew people generally disliked the Divine Beasts in BOTW, and some of what we see in TOTK is a response to that. Personally, I thought the Divine Beasts were fine within the context to BOTW. But everyone, myself included, does miss the grandeur of traditional Zelda dungeons. In TOTK, the dungeons are, aesthetically, vastly improved over BOTW. Each one looks like a traditional Zelda dungeon, rather than all having the same aesthetic, which was honestly a huge misstep in BOTW. Where the dungeons in TOTK fall flat though, is that they are all the same puzzle: explore and activate terminals to fight the boss. And honestly? BOTW did this better. I do actually think controlling the Divine Beast to open up new sections of the dungeon was a good idea. The only dungeon in TOTK I genuinely liked was the Lightning Temple. Personally though? I just don't think you can make a dungeon work well in a game like BOTW/TOTK. You are given far too much freedom for the kinds of experiences Zelda dungeons offer. Ultimately, you have to create an entirely new kind of dungeon-like experience, and I don't think they've landed on it quite yet. Ascend and Ultrahand also trivialize a lot of challenges, which makes designing traditional spaces even more challenging. Just like in BOTW: the Shrines are great, the dungeons are fine.

 

I wish we got more scenes with Sonia

    Okay, let's start talking about the story. First off, I absolutely do not like the non-linear storytelling of BOTW/TOTK. It makes it impossible for me to invest myself in the intrigue. It's especially frustrating in TOTK where one of the first memories I find is a cutscene of Sonia, dead. I haven't even had a chance to learn about this person. If they change anything at all in the next Zelda game, a return to a linear narrative would be my top desire. Having finished the main story, I just don't feel any connection to the cast and world the way I have with past Zelda games. Another thing they really need to get over is how Nintendo insists on treating Zelda. She always gets side-lined at some point and you have to save her, but why do we keep doing this to her? Why does she have to transform into a mindless dragon for millennia? Why does she have to hibernate for centuries to hold evil at bay in BOTW and Skyward Sword? Is this the only story Nintendo is capable of telling? There is so much good writing throughout TOTK, that it is incredible that the main story manages to be this trite. This might be the worst they've ever treated Zelda. I had hoped that removing the shackles of old Zelda series lore by setting up a new universe would be the boon the Zelda series needed to move forward, but it really does not feel like the writing is moving forward at all. And why is the voice work still this awful? It certainly isn't the fault of the actors, there's a ton of great talent working on this game. The Legend of Zelda is Nintendo's big prestige series, but the voice work has the quality of a game from twenty years ago. It stands out even more playing it after experiencing the shockingly excellent voice work in Octopath Traveler II. There are instances where creative leads at Nintendo have emphasized their importance of gameplay over story, and while I'm not foolish enough to think they do not care about good writing and acting, it is clear that it absolutely is not given the care in that company that it should.

 

Shaped like a friend.

    Moving on.

    Man, this game is huge. There is just an insane amount of things to do. Exploring caves, solving shrines, fixing signs, finding Koroks, helping people... And even though I don't like everything in the game, I never felt like the game was wasting my time the way I have with other massive open-world games. I said when I finished BOTW that it was a game I could play forever. And I meant it! I still love traveling Hyrule in TOTK. It is absolutely a different feeling though. I feel more like I am crossing off a checklist than I did in BOTW because I know how the world is structured this time. I know where the landmarks are, and I am focused on getting there more than I am digging into the terrain. It makes for a very different sort of experience. TOTK feels much more like a toy box than BOTW. And I think for that reason alone, TOTK becomes a game that is more interesting to play in, but less interesting to visit. We'll see how I feel in a year, but right now, the kind of experience I return to my 100% file in BOTW for; roleplaying a hiker, staying at stables and cooking their posted meals, generally unwinding in a fantasy nature; does not feel like an experience TOTK is there to facilitate. I think I will continue to prefer BOTW for this reason.

     This all honestly felt more like me venting than a proper review, but I needed to get all my thoughts out. 200 hours is a long time to be playing one game, and Zelda is my favorite game series. Though honestly, a lot of the game-feel that I adore most about Zelda is not present in these games. They're still great, but I am going to be really bummed if we only continue to get remakes and ports of traditional Zelda games. We should at least get a new top-down Zelda once in a while.

Why not? Here's where I fall on TOTK at the moment.