The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

[Ronnie]

51 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

The game comes out in 3 months, it's finished, it's done, and Nintendo aren't trying to hide what the game is at this point.

There's nothing Earth shattering that they're hiding.  If there was any real massive game changing new mechanic in play here? We would've seen it by now.

It's time to accept that the game is exactly what Nintendo are showing and exactly what they're saying it is.  Just like what Splatoon 3 was to Splatoon 2? This is just a glorified expansion pack to BOTW.

Let's revisit this post at the end of May shall we?

Making bold statements as if they're facts again, only to be proven wrong again? Can I kindly suggest you play the game, then assess what's new and compare it to other games like Majora's Mask. You've zero evidence that "proper dungeons" aren't in this game, let alone all the other baseless and premature claims.

Edited February 9, 2023 by Ronnie

[darksnowman]

38 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

The game comes out in 3 months, it's finished, it's done, and Nintendo aren't trying to hide what the game is at this point.

There's nothing Earth shattering that they're hiding.  If there was any real massive game changing new mechanic in play here? We would've seen it by now.

It's time to accept that the game is exactly what Nintendo are showing and exactly what they're saying it is.  Just like what Splatoon 3 was to Splatoon 2? This is just a glorified expansion pack to BOTW.

If it was finished it'd have been out for Christmas and Fire Emblem Engage would have been pushed to Easter.

A cookbook app on the slate and weapons and shields that don't shatter might be earth-shattering enough for a lot of people who just enjoyed spending hours on end in BotW.

TotK doesn't look as stunning because we've been there and done that in BotW so it's easy to get ahead of ourselves and think we know what to expect. So far what I'm seeing is that even though the world might be reused (as we knew), it looks like it's going to be game on because it seems the story has impetus this time, there's something new in every clip, there's places in the sky, there's catacombs. The hand thing. The Dragon Quest Golem. If you want to think of it as Mario Galaxy 2 or something, that's fine and absolutely no bad thing. Neither is Splatoon 3—it's excellent. But hey, keep going bonkers over the same two Advance Wars games being rereleased as if it's the biggest megaton there could ever be.

There will be TotK Directs in the run-up to release, then a Treehouse and even that won't cover everything. This isn't the Wii U; no one needs to be sold on it like they did with BotW so Nintendo can tailor the gradual reveal schedule as they want. This might be a Nintendo that's playing it safe and rolling in dough but I don't think they've spent all these years cobbling together a glorified expansion pack. Remember how fast the turnaround was on Majora's Mask and what they delivered there? Now multiply that up for TotK.

[Ronnie]

My biggest takeaway from the trailer is that the game looks enormous. You have the whole land based Hyrule, that’s not only clearly been expanded/changed, but more importantly re-contextualised by all of Link’s new abilities. Then throw in underground stuff and what looks like a huge amount of sky islands, and massive looking ones at that. 

I’m someone who loved the novelty and innovation of the divine beasts (including the battles to get into them) but obviously I can appreciate people want traditional dungeons back which is fair enough. Nintendo don’t get enough credit for listening to what fans want. They’re constantly listening to feedback and implanting it into re releases or sequels. I’d be amazed if traditional dungeons aren’t back but the point is, we just don’t know yet. 

Like @darksnowman says, they’re in the envious position of not needing to reveal everything to sell people on the game. Everyone’s going to buy it anyway. 

Also as a side note, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some time travel/dual world shenanigans going on, broadening the scope of the game even more. 

Edited February 9, 2023 by Ronnie

[killthenet]

Yeah, I think @Dcubed is jumping the gun a little bit, insinuating from a two minute trailer that there aren't any proper dungeons in the game. I agree with you that there probably isn't a groundbreaking central mechanic that they're still keeping under wraps but there isn't really any indication either way about dungeons from the very little we've seen so far. 

Along with the lack of dungeons, one of my main gripes with BOTW was the lack of energy variety and unique boss encounters so I'm happy that they seem to have addressed those to some extent, though hopefully there are a many more of each that we haven't seen yet 

Besides the terrible English voice acting I think yesterdays trailer was great, really looking forward to getting my hands on TOTK - don't really need to see anymore now, I assume they'll have a dedicated direct closer to release but I'll probably avoid it and try and go media blackout from now on

[Sheikah]

The game comes out in 3 months, it's finished, it's done, and Nintendo aren't trying to hide what the game is at this point.
There's nothing Earth shattering that they're hiding.  If there was any real massive game changing new mechanic in play here? We would've seen it by now.
It's time to accept that the game is exactly what Nintendo are showing and exactly what they're saying it is.  Just like what Splatoon 3 was to Splatoon 2? This is just a glorified expansion pack to BOTW.

It's almost as if trailers are just meant to give you a taste of the game and not show you everything there will be in the game...

I do find this criticism odd though, given that main Zelda titles have suffered with being too conserved in terms of gameplay for a number of generations now, up until BOTW. These complaints were never coming in before, it's just that you don't particularly like BOTW so want big changes (or at least a return of standard dungeons).

If this were a game very similar to say Twilight Princess with traditional dungeons I'd imagine you'd be very pleased if the game looked more or less like DLC with little new in it.

[Dcubed]

30 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

It's almost as if trailers are just meant to give you a taste of the game and not show you everything there will be in the game...

I do find this criticism odd though, given that main Zelda titles have suffered with being too conserved in terms of gameplay for a number of generations now, up until BOTW. These complaints were never coming in before, it's just that you don't particularly like BOTW so want big changes (or at least a return of standard dungeons).

If this were a game very similar to say Twilight Princess with traditional dungeons I'd imagine you'd be very pleased if the game looked more or less like DLC with little new in it.

This is the most iterative a Zelda sequel has ever been, by far.  And I'm including the Oracles games in that assessment.

Even if I liked BOTW (which I don't... at all), I would still be tremendously disappointed in what I'm seeing here.  It shows a startling lack of creativity and innovation from a development studio that is famous for constantly breaking the mold and redefining the industry.

Meanwhile, Pikmin 4 looks absolutely stunning and filled with concepts and ideas new to its respective series; despite being a sequel itself.

BOTW With New Hat is tremendously disappointing from a developer like Nintendo.

Wind Waker played nothing like Majora's Mask, which plays nothing like The Minish Cap, which plays nothing like Twilight Princess, which plays nothing like Phantom Hourglass, which plays very differently from Spirit Tracks (despite itself being an asset-reuse sequel), which plays nothing like Skyward Sword, which plays nothing like ALBW, which plays nothing like BOTW... TOTK however? There's very little new here to seperate it from BOTW (not even a new world map!), and Nintendo have failed to demonstrate what makes it stand out from its predecessor; with only 3 months to go before release.

Quite frankly? I expect better from Nintendo.  I hold them to a higher standard, and this just isn't up to that standard I hold them to.

Edited February 9, 2023 by Dcubed

[MindFreak]

See, I found the Pikmin 4 trailer boring and a lot of more of the same. I enjoyed the Zelda trailer, it gives a lot of tidbits about the story and the new stuff without giving it all away. 

I think that the entire sky section is more dungeon-like, as is the underworld. And they need to shake the ground a lot because most of us have already spent hours in that world. 

Edited February 9, 2023 by MindFreak

[Sheikah]

This is the most iterative a Zelda sequel has ever been, by far.  And I'm including the Oracles games in that assessment.

Even if I liked BOTW (which I don't... at all), I would still be tremendously disappointed in what I'm seeing here.  It shows a startling lack of creativity and innovation from a development studio that is famous for constantly breaking the mold and redefining the industry.

Meanwhile, Pikmin 4 looks absolutely stunning and filled with concepts and ideas new to its respective series; despite being a sequel itself.

BOTW With New Hat is tremendously disappointing from a developer like Nintendo.

Wind Waker played nothing like Majora's Mask, which plays nothing like The Minish Cap, which plays nothing like Twilight Princess, which plays nothing like Phantom Hourglass, which plays very differently from Spirit Tracks (despite itself being an asset-reuse sequel), which plays nothing like Skyward Sword, which plays nothing like ALBW, which plays nothing like BOTW... TOTK however? There's very little new here to seperate it from BOTW (not even a new world map!), and Nintendo have failed to demonstrate what makes it stand out from its predecessor; with only 3 months to go before release.

Well let's see what the reviews say. BOTW has been done once, seems mad to flush the game of the generation down the toilet and start fresh. Sometimes you do give fans what they want, it obviously just sucks for you as you didn't like BOTW.

 

Also the Pikmin reference is a bit weird to me, every Pikmin game feels very similar and you more or less do the same thing. I'd much rather they be reviving other series instead of doing a Pikmin 4.

[Ike]

Wait, the collectors edition is £120? Might make my decision to skip it easier. It’s already sold out at Shopto.

[Ronnie]

59 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

It shows a startling lack of creativity and innovation from a development studio that is famous for constantly breaking the mold and redefining the industry.

again, WTF?

Phasing through solid matter?

Free-falling aerial combat?

Sending objects back through time?

Sailing on giant stone birds?

Among the no doubt dozens of other cool ideas in the game itself?

It's laughable that you're bemoaning a lack of creativity and innovation from a game that you haven't even played yet, let alone one that's months from release.

59 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Meanwhile, Pikmin 4 looks absolutely stunning and filled with concepts and ideas new to its respective series

LMAO. I loved the look of Pikmin 4, I can't wait to play it, but a new Pikmin that can freeze and a dog you can ride? THAT is "filled concepts and new ideas" and gets a pass but the above Zelda stuff doesn't?

6 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

a development studio that is famous for constantly breaking the mold and redefining the industry.

You champion breaking the mould and redefining the industry but when they do just that with BOTW, you do nothing but complain about it?

(Meanwhile up-resed ports of 20+ year old DS games are the greatest thing since sliced bread)

Edited February 9, 2023 by Ronnie

[Ronnie]

Would really appreciate if anyone spots the Collector's Edition in stock somewhere in the UK, if you could PM or ping this thread please! 

[Julius]

Don't think this has been mentioned in this thread yet, but Tears of the Kingdom will have the largest file size of any first party Nintendo Switch game to date, at 18.2 GB. 

Quote

As spotted by Reddit user Bob (below) and confirmed on the Nintendo eShop, the base file size of Tears of the Kingdom comes in at 18.2 GB.

While this is still a small number in comparison to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series games, which can often use upwards of 100 GB of storage, it's enough to put Tears of the Kingdom atop the list of first party Switch games.

Breath of the Wild was once the largest first party Switch game by a long shot at 14.4 GB, though other Nintendo first party titles have since brushed shoulders with it such as Xenoblade Chronicles 3 at 14.38 GB and Fire Emblem Engage at 12.68 GB.

Still think it's pretty incredible just how much Nintendo optimise their games and squeeze the file size down, can't begin to imagine the unholy 60 GB mess this game would be if made by someone like Ubisoft 

Also, I wonder if this is part of the reason for the price increase to $70 over in the US? We've had games larger than 16 GB before on the Switch, sure, but as Nintendo's first game over that size, maybe having to mass produce larger cards on a scale no-one has really had to for the Switch so far could be part of the reason for the price increase? Especially considering that they've already stated that this isn't a sign of things to come – so could be down to something like file size/card capacity? 

[Julius]

Also @Ronnie and anyone else looking out for the Collector's Edition, it looks like Amazon UK have just added their page for it here, though it's not available for purchase just yet. It does have a Spanish main image, mind you...but it's also the only such listing on Amazon UK atm. 

Worth keeping an eye on for sure, because if that is the page they'll be using, got to imagine it'll be on sale in the next few days, if not today 

[Ronnie]

4 minutes ago, Julius said:

Also @Ronnie and anyone else looking out for the Collector's Edition, it looks like Amazon UK have just added their page for it here, though it's not available for purchase just yet. It does have a Spanish main image, mind you...but it's also the only such listing on Amazon UK atm. 

Worth keeping an eye on for sure, because if that is the page they'll be using, got to imagine it'll be on sale in the next few days, if not today 

Thank you! Been refreshing that page for the past hour  

[Ronnie]

From https://www.instagram.com/p/CocmhdNIXtH/

[Julius]

Would be neat if this were a tease for playable Zelda...

(also Jon's response )

I'm leaning towards the side that they're hiding something about TOTK, and something like playable Zelda would make a lot of sense to keep hidden away until launch. That'd be a mic drop moment for sure. 

I also think if we do get a playable Zelda that they're absolutely setting themselves up for a hell of a lot of backlash unfortunately, as it wouldn't be the first time people got upset over playing as someone not in the marketing for a game 

[Julius]

Collector's Edition back in stock at GAME:

@Ronnie 

EDIT: in case that Twitter link is as broken for me as it is everyone else: https://www.game.co.uk/en/m/zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-collectors-edition-2732228

Edited February 10, 2023 by Julius

[Ronnie]

Got one from them thanks very much! Though the email confirmation was completely blank 

[Ronnie]

38 minutes ago, Julius said:

I also think if we do get a playable Zelda that they're absolutely setting themselves up for a hell of a lot of backlash unfortunately, as it wouldn't be the first time people got upset over playing as someone not in the marketing for a game 

If Zelda was playable, and ResetEra was the whole world (shudder), TOTK would win every GOTY going just for that fact alone. Seriously though, I think the vast majority would welcome a playable Zelda as long as her gameplay was fun and maybe not a massive focus.

[Cube]

It's crazy that they're selling a tenner's worth of cheap tat for £50 and calling it a collector's edition. You used to get more than that in a £60 edition of a game.

[Julius]

15 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

If Zelda was playable, and ResetEra was the whole world (shudder), TOTK would win every GOTY going just for that fact alone. Seriously though, I think the vast majority would welcome a playable Zelda as long as her gameplay was fun and maybe not a massive focus.

Oh yeah don't get me wrong, I'd totally be for it, and like you say, I think the vast majority would be too. I think it would be a great and very natural way to shake things up with us returning to a Hyrule we already know – I've said it before, but playing as Zelda and maybe having a skill tree for her magic, helping rebuild (well, hard to say after this latest trailer...seems like we're kind of heading towards a post-post-apocalypse kind of deal ), and having her journey be the main focus at ground level, with Link's focus in the skies and underground, would be the smartest way I think to make Hyrule feel fresh: by changing the eyes we experience it through.

I guess it's the very vocal minority I was talking about, because they're the same folks that had issues when it happened in other games previously  (can't exactly name them even all these years removed because I wouldn't want to spoil them!)

8 minutes ago, Cube said:

It's crazy that they're selling a tenner's worth of cheap tat for £50 and calling it a collector's edition. You used to get more than that in a £60 edition of a game.

So I think it looks like a nice CE, but it's pretty crazy to me just how much of a step down it is compared to the CE for Breath of the Wild (and even then, over here didn't we get a totally borked CE for BOTW anyways?). 

There seems to be a lot of that these days, unfortunately. I was looking at the Deluxe Edition for Jedi: Survivor the other day and other than having what I think is a much cleaner aesthetic to its case, the only differences for £20 are...some in-game skins? Compare that to Fallen Order which came with behind-the-scenes content, which I was totally in for, and it's another big step down. 

Kind of tempted by the Deluxe Edition for Final Fantasy XVI though, I won't lie. That black box with the silver Phoenix and Ifrit looks clean as hell! 

[Ronnie]

44 minutes ago, Julius said:

So I think it looks like a nice CE, but it's pretty crazy to me just how much of a step down it is compared to the CE for Breath of the Wild

Personally I'll take an art book for Tears of the Kingdom over a plasticky statue of the Master Sword any day. The rest is more or less comparable with the US CE for BOTW, maybe a slight step down but no big deal. 

43 minutes ago, Julius said:

Oh yeah don't get me wrong, I'd totally be for it, and like you say, I think the vast majority would be too. I think it would be a great and very natural way to shake things up with us returning to a Hyrule we already know – I've said it before, but playing as Zelda and maybe having a skill tree for her magic, helping rebuild (well, hard to say after this latest trailer...seems like we're kind of heading towards a post-post-apocalypse kind of deal ), and having her journey be the main focus at ground level, with Link's focus in the skies and underground, would be the smartest way I think to make Hyrule feel fresh: by changing the eyes we experience it through.

I can't tell if Nintendo UK are teasing because they know something or they're genuinely just a social media channel that knows not much more than the rest of us. We'll see I guess. Would be fun and another point of difference for the game.

Edited February 10, 2023 by Ronnie

[Glen-i]

Zelda's consistently been more fun to play as then Link whenever she's playable. Both Hyrule Warriors, Cadence of Hyrule, Smash. Her batting average is pitch perfect!

[killthenet]

I would absolutely love if Zelda is playable, seems a bit rubbish to reduce her to a damsel in distress again - BOTW at least made her an active participant in the plot, even if it was an excuse putting her in stasis, she still had a role to play in defeating Ganon. I won't hold my breath for Nintendo actually doing it though, seems like they would have hinted at it more if it was actually going to happen.

Wasn't she holding the Sheikah slate in the original teaser anyway?

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, killthenet said:

Wasn't she holding the Sheikah slate in the original teaser anyway?

Yeah, and that's why the runes aren't usable by Link. It's their excuse for not having them return.