The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

[mmmark]

I’m not much in due to illness but I thought I’d get the ball rolling.

 

Firstly I thought they couldn’t recreate that wow moment from botw. The one so many have done themselves, before and after. But they absolutely nailed it.

 

The first part and exploration I’m in love with as much as I was before. With some new twists and mechanics that you don’t have your hand held and guided through. Just you have this now. Go experiment, or don’t. Go there now, or don’t.

 

The tutorial guys are so sweet and humble. I want to know more about them.

 

I hope for a quick recovery so I can proper deep dive into Zelda again. It’s back in a big way and I couldn’t need it any more. 
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

[one-armed dwarf]

I'm not much in due to pesky sleeping, got two of the thingygummis you need to get at the start. The intro area is pretty well done. It still does that great viewpoint-oriented form of exploration, albeit your viewpoints are few and far between in the sky island at the start. Maybe a way of easing into things, instead of hiding things around corners, hills and valleys it's hidden beneath the clouds

 

Main thing I can say is since turning it off I keep thinking of things I want to do in it. Mostly cool/evil things involving creative ways to explore and kill things at once using the physics of the world. Just have to get back in and unlock the stuff to do that, and get into the map proper

[radiofloyd]

I’ve just had a quick go on it as well. Playing in Japanese, my first time playing anything of this size in Japanese, although it’s not a super text heavy game. I don’t study or take lessons anymore, so this is the next best thing.

 

What I played was bringing flashbacks of a lot of games, Breath of the Wild obviously, but also Nier and Sekiro for some reason. So far it’s been straightforward. I didn’t venture far off the beaten path. Found my first korok seed.

 

The first game was kind of a love letter to Zelda (and Skyrim I guess). I’m curious what this will be.

[Manicm]

I’ve actually played some of this, I’ve done the intro and first 30 mins, it’s good to be back!!

[Metroid66]

Definitely got that 'let's just have a quick look over there before I close this session...' thing about it.

 

I got on at half ten this morning and closed out at quarter past three. I only jibbed it then because of stupid work. Bastards.

 

Everything I wanted and more. 

[HandsomeDead]

I've done enough that I'm off the initial area and can explore Hyrule and I did wander off into an area I'm not ready for.  It's been really chill mostly.  The times it wasn't was getting a bit of choice paralysis when weapons break.  I've not got used to having a plan B when that happens.

 

I've kinda enjoyed the new crafting stuff so far.  There was certainly a time I feel like I tricked the game messing around with it.  I'm looking forward to playing more anyway.

[radiofloyd]

Spent another two hours on it there. I like it a lot. It starts off different to Breath of the Wild. I feel like BotW started with more combat, Tears of the Kingdom starts with more exploration. Using the Ultra Hand is fun. I made a nice log raft and then manager to toss my sail into the water… The game has a very nice colour palette (it needs one, given the limitations of the Switch). Also, you can feel the fingerprints of Monolith Soft. Playing this is making me want to rip open my copy of Xenoblade 3. 
 

Time will tell if this game can live up to expectations in a way that Elden Ring couldn’t.

[Metroid66]

1 hour ago, radiofloyd said:

Playing this is making me want to rip open my copy of Xenoblade 3. 

Don't, if like me you like playing in a big telly. Zelda looks fine, Mario looks better, but Xenoblade 3 looks like utter shite. You can't see what's going on in even the most basic battle.

 

When Ninty do a 4k machine it will be one of the first games I play.

[one-armed dwarf]

It's a very slow opening I think. I had a lot of fun in the sky island but was glad to leave, but then when you 'touch down' you still don't have your glider which you really do need to feel 'complete'. So I ended up skipping cutscenes cause it was getting to be a bit of a faff tbh, and it's not what I'm here for. But once I got the glider back I had a great time, but from the outset I would say I prefer BOTW's "GTFO out there and kill Ganon" approach to this. I suppose though this game is a lot more complex with its systems, and there was greater concern here to have a more slow-paced onboarding. They don't hold your hand, but they make sure you see enough stuff at the beginning that it will stick in your brain for later, I think.

 

I'm playing it as I did BOTW which is to vaguely make my way in a certain direction. Except last time I went northwest, this time it's north east. Cause an NPC made it sound like a good idea

 

It's fun to go into areas you're underlevelled for and kill them with environment interactions. It's dangerous but exciting, hylian pine nuts ftw. I don't know how people have issue with the breakable weapons in these games tbh, they throw so many weapons at you and different ways to deal with stuff. If anything I need to break more of my weapons

 

Just random early game combat footage, not spoilers. The inventory UI in these games still leaves a bit to be desired with the left->right back and forth for the thing you're looking for. At least they have a sort by 'most used' function when looking for arrow attachments, that's nice. Archery is a lot of fun now cause everything is ammo, and has stacked effects. Firebombs, flashbangs, freeze etc

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

I've not come up yet with some really clever fusion ideas, or superhand constructions. The building aspect of the game looks like it would take a while to be fluent in.

[HandsomeDead]

I agree that the opening area is a bit more tutorial-y.  The Plateau in BotW was too but it's like that was more of a natural microcosm of the whole game to play about on before the wider world opens.  It's not overbearing or anything but BotW opening was particularly bold.

 

 

I went north east (was on my way NE but got sidetracked) and well

 

Spoiler

I did a load of stuff in the Goron's area and I am at the Fire Temple.  It looks to be a real arsed Zelda dungeon but you can't recover damage you've taken in the underworld so I'm gonna leave it until I have more hearts.  I only have 5 atm and I've been dieing loads.

 

[one-armed dwarf]

It's not blowing me away like BOTW did, though I didn't expect that. But in many respects I think it's a lot better, sort of a GoW Ragnarok situation (except I like this a lot better than Ragnarok). 

 

They really force you to learn the different interactions between elements, weapons and environments. The shrines could sometimes be tedious in BOTW, but here each one is very interesting so far* and they all play a part in socialising environmental, traversal and battle mechanics/interactions. 

 

So far there's no flab, I think. I'm still not completely sure about the vehicle stuff maybe, but I'm not good enough at it yet

 

*(Name of shrine I'm thinking about)

 

Spoiler

Proving Grounds Intermediate: Nouda Shrine

 

[OCH]

I destroyed the Master Sword!?

AKA "it ran out of power"?

 

So I thought to myself, ok >spoiler free< it will just be a low power back up weapon that surely can't break, right???🤨

 

I have this. I'll post pics and things later (It's been a rough couple days). So far, it's ok. As mentioned above the shrines aren't obnoxious, as in BOTW. The new mechanics are more integral and less gimmicky (no marble madness mini-game, yet). I do seem to be at a loss how to get upto the third shrine on the snow peak. I'll give it another look tomorrow.

[mmmark]

10 hours ago, OCH said:

I do seem to be at a loss how to get upto the third shrine on the snow peak. I'll give it another look tomorrow.

I was stuck here too for a moment as I only had wooden weapons until I saw 

Spoiler

An axe shaped rock I fused with to make an.. axe. Chopped down two trees and attached them end to end to form a ramp up.

 

Apparently there’s also a clearing in the ice you can use to just climb up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

 

[OCH]

It's funny, one of the shrines (the second one, I think?) you were supposed to craft a makeshift platform on rails to carry you to the exit. I didn't do that. Instead, I cobbled together all the flat platforms in the shrine and made a giant bridge to the exit. 

 

The main reason why I was at a loss (and ended the session) was I'd run out of the Very necessary cooking ingredients, to keep you going in the cold. I made two initial recipes that worked. Then I basically ran out of peppers.

Spoiler

Spent too long fighting those two, very intimidating Like-Likes

 I must admit, I really like the fused weapons. Tapped into my inner Kilik with a boulder on a long stick😄

[mmmark]

I was in the same situation but kept warm by setting grass on fire using my flame attachment on a stick 😆 There’s so many work arounds it’s awesome. 

[OCH]

12 minutes ago, mmmark said:

There’s so many work arounds it’s awesome. 

Funny you should say that. This is how I got around it...

 

Spoiler

Start camp fire in the middle of floaty platform. Attach two propellers and just fly up the shrine!

I'm now considerably further than that. Made a +20 fused weapon, by exploring somewhere I clearly wasn't supposed to be yet. Five heart containers and on my way to start the four "proper" quest areas.  I've done a ton of other stuff besides. So far, this game is clicking with me a lot more than BOTW did. 

[mfnick]

1 hour ago, OCH said:

So far, this game is clicking with me a lot more than BOTW did. 

Interesting. Any reason in particular do you think? 

[OCH]

I can't quite put my finger on it yet. There is an atmosphere to this one that BOTW lacked this early. Plus, the whole fusion thing does completely offset the degradation system. The only "normal" weapon I've used so far would be the stone axes you receive to chop down trees.

The one minus so far, was the VO of Zelda. Really didn't do it for me.

[mmmark]

I keep forgetting to fuse stuff like a chump. I guess it’s hard to shake off the 200hrs of botw. But when I do it’s like oh yeah this is a fucking game changer. 
 

It’s so nice they transferred over your horses at the stables from botw too. And I stuck on pro hud immediately. It should be default imo. 

[one-armed dwarf]

I've done so much fusing lol.

 

Was up until 1am trying to kill this Lynel, got the fucker eventually 😠

 

(Lynel fight, no real spoilers)

Spoiler

 

One fun thing I noticed about the puff mushrooms, is that the smokescreen they produce blows with the wind. So if you pay attention to the way the grass is blowing you can make pre-decisions if you are trying to approach things stealthily and use it as moving cover. Hard to rely on but another sign of just how well implemented the clockwork nature of this game is, you don't get this systemic cohesiveness in other open world games, at least not modern ones.

 

Main difference between this and BOTW IMO @mfnickis it has a bit more structure, more direction early on. More importantly though I think it teaches the player how to play the game way better than BOTW. It's also not purely a kind of wanderlust game like BOTW is, moment to moment in each area it's always introducing new mechanical gimmicks