The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

[Fruitality]

Like many many others, I am just living my life waiting for the release of Tears of the Kingdom.



What are your thoughts on the trailers and new gameplay mechanics shown so far? Keen to Nuts n Bolts your way to saving Hyrule?

Who's up for arguing about weapon degradation again?

Personally I hope they add a button to let Link sit on the ground. There was too many cosy campfires in Breath of the Wild and it always annoyed me that you couldnt sit next to them.

[breakfastcowl]

Very appreciative of them making a whole game around a favorite aspect of the original; namely, finding high places and flinging myself off of them.



Also? the sheer amount of thirsty posts and fanart for rehydrated Ganondorf has been awe-inspiring.

[HPRshredder]

Looking forward to it, but still a little worried. Less so than I was before. I'm mostly excited to see what comes after BotW/TotK. To see where the series goes after this. What the art style will be like. What the world might be like.

[TandyQ]

I’m really curious to see how well the Nuts n’ Bolts of it all fits into the typical gameplay flow of Zelda. Will it slow things down too much? Will it be a hassle finding the right parts to build a vehicle you want in the moment? How common are all of these parts going to be in the world?

Very excited for a new Zelda regardless!

[turnwrighthere]

I wasn't really excited until the recent trailers. I was curious about it before, but now it has my attention. I know nothing about Zelda lore, so I'm just here for whatever they have to say

I never finished the first, but it was like a delicious meal where I ate my fill and left very satisfied.

[Fruitality]

I absolutely loved BOTW. I played until I discovered all the Shrines and got the green Hero's outfit - about 120 hours I think. I never went back and played through it again, but I'll frequently listen to the amazing OST.

I’m really curious to see how well the Nuts n’ Bolts of it all fits into the typical gameplay flow of Zelda. Will it slow things down too much? Will it be a hassle finding the right parts to build a vehicle you want in the moment? How common are all of these parts going to be in the world?

Very excited for a new Zelda regardless!

This also concerns me about the new mechanics. There were a lot of people who really enjoyed the weird glitchy nonsense that you could do in BOTW with flying machines etc, but it never interested me. I wonder to what extent you can play through TOTK using 'standard' Zelda techniques if you cbf building a vehicle or combination spear/club?

Would be nice if there was a way to easily reconstruct items you've built previously, so you don't have to run all over to rebuild a dope car or weapon that you like.

Looking forward to it, but still a little worried. Less so than I was before. I'm mostly excited to see what comes after BotW/TotK. To see where the series goes after this. What the art style will be like. What the world might be like.

Also a super interesting point. We were expecting a sequel to BOTW, but what next? I think they're still going to release a few 2D Zeldas inbetween - but do you think there will ever be a return to a 'traditional' 3D Zelda that isn't a remake? If they do, I wonder what they could do to change up the formula?

[radamadah]

I have ignored all the game play trailers and rumors, and am hoping to keep it that way, haha. (I don't know what Nuts N Bolts is and don't tell me lol).

I do hope the shrines are a bit more varied, both in aesthetics and in depth; they all looked samey, and I wish some of them were larger, a.k.a. more like dungeons from previous titles.

I think the weapon degradation mechanic wasn't that good, as I ended up having a bunch of weapons that were really cool but I didn't use, because I was "saving it for when I needed it" and that eventuality never occurred. I hope they provide ways to "refresh" a weapon, as Fruitality mentioned.

I wonder about sequels to both Zelda & SSB - they both went maximalist, what with having enormous scope/content. I think the only way forward with a fresh title is to shrink down, have something small & tightly focused.

[Fruitality]

It's here!

These new Hand powers just feel like straight-up cheating. I just unlocked Ascend and then realised I could just move those big floating blocks around and climb them and then just zoom myself through the bottom of a mountain straight to the top!

I'm still working my way through the starting area, but loving being back in the BOTW-verse again. It's cool how familiar this game feels after not playing BOTW for years, with the new powers just giving a refresh to the puzzle mechanics.

[Dan]

Ultrahand is freaking awesome, but Ascend definitely worries me a bit. I felt that a big part of BOTW was the satisfying feeling of climbing up somewhere by discovering the right route or upgrading your stamina a bit, but I guess Ascend makes sense as since it seems like TOTK is gonna be a lot more vertical than its predecessor.

The new Zonai theming and atmosphere is a massive upgrade to the Sheikah theming from the previous game IMHO. The shrines in particular are super super cool and the music is so pretty.

[malyzar]

I really enjoyed BOTW, but didn't have a strong urge to go back and have been mostly ignoring everything about TOTK. UNTIL I randomly caught some of HPRshredder's stream last night. The game looks incredible. A lot more variety than I was expecting.

Spoiler

A whole dark, hostile, underground world to explore??

Way into it. It's very high on my wishlist now.

[breakfastcowl]

Put all $51 of my tax return *haha* towards it yesterday and gave it a whirl. Have only just started fusing shit but already it's in that same soothing/exhilarating zone I had with the first. Yes.

[andrewelmore]

I've been having a weird experience with this game where it feels like I'm *only* running into situations that I'm not yet equipped to handle, which has made any kind of progress very difficult. Last night I auto saved in a cave where I kept getting spawn killed by a boss so many times the game gave up and stopped spawning the boss lol.

Also I feel a weird pressure to come up with the most abstract and creative solution possible to every problem but that's entirely self imposed. I do feel like there are just a few too many elements at play though. This game is a LOT to keep track of.

[breakfastcowl]

^ I think I could very easily stumble into a similar mode (haven't even gotten into temple of time yet), but random experimentation and a horizon-spanning sense of "eh...whatever works" is a salve for me and my rusty BotW skills. I am definitely not Thinking With Ultrahand and such yet, but I often forgot my special abilities in the first game, too, and just kinda sand-boxed my way throughout. Helps that I kinda like the climbing and falling and getting sidetracked. Oh, huh...... I'm not trying to beat anything yet, I just realized.

[HPRshredder]

Put a good number of hours in (maybe 15-20?), so time for some first impressions:

It's decidedly less comfy than BotW. Definitely has a bit of a "cluttered" feel to it. The enemies are quite sponge-y but I've been getting around that by fusing powerful monster parts to the weapons. They made it so it's really just about impossible to get a strong weapon on its own outside of the gloom sword I've gotten two of now. They really want you to use the fuse mechanic.

So, Fuse is fun. And I like the weapons I've been making with it, but it's a little tedious at times with all the menu navigation.

The Depths are where I've spent most of my time probably so far. Have been loving pushing on and feeling low on resources and finding poes and poe merchants. The sky feels a little disappointing? Every island I visit just feels very sparse. I've been using them more as I would a tower in BotW to glide off of. I still need to try to make it to the tops of some taller ones though.

I've only done 4 shrines so far outside of the starting ones. I unlock them all when I come across them, but I think I've just gotten into the habit of skipping them from my replays of BotW.

Game feels packed full of "stuff", and I feel a little overwhelmed by it at times. It doesn't feel endless; but it does try and overload you a bit I think if you let it.

Still too early for me to speak definitively about it. There are so many things to do when you make it to the surface that I think people's experiences with this one will differ more wildly at the start than breath of the wild. I'll probably try and tackle a dungeon soon. But before that I still need to do a hunting/gathering session and cook some stuff to help me survive lol.

The views from the sky are gorgeous. The views from the ground are a bit busy. Overall the game feels really weird to me. Maybe I'll get used to the odd feeling. But it does feel odd.

[Dan]

It's decidedly less comfy than BotW. Definitely has a bit of a "cluttered" feel to it.

I had the exact same feeling when I first started it up. The Great Plateau in BOTW was really serene and cozy, and the rest of the world had a "just woke up" kind of vibe to it.