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Tears of the Kingdom is a boring game

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Can't say I really enjoyed my time with it.

Easy and dull combat, shit controls when it comes to gluing stuff together, same map as the sequel for the most part and tons of boring chores in the open world, like the damn koroks or that dude that needs help with his sign so it doesn't fall. And the music sucks.

For me, it's the laziest Zelda sequel, ever. Here's hoping the do something different for the next one.
 

Lunarorbit

Gold Member
I'm sure I'll pay it again but I agree with op. Played about 3 hours and bounced off of it. Sure I'll get into it more if I give it another go but the new areas seemed empty.
 

Silver Wattle

Gold Member
People bought so hard into the hype they were deluding themselves into believing the game was some giant revolution in gaming, doing things no game has ever done before, they were like apple fanboys turned up to 11/10.

And yet here you are; free to do just that.
I got a temp ban for a nothing burger of a comment shortly after the game launched.
 
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Drake

Member
I hate building in games, so I had no interest in this one despite really enjoying BOTW. I have a feeling this one won't stand the test of time like a lot of other Zelda games.
 

ShaiKhulud1989

Gold Member
Tried it 5 times. 2 on switch and 3 on PC with better rendering and resolution.

It's not clicking with me and maybe that's my problem. From BOTW sequel (and I've sinked like 300+ hours into it over the years) I've wanted more variety in locations, more worldbuilding and quests, more story and more nuanced combat. And new locations and biomes too. And god, no Korok seeds, tedious shrines or other silly collecting for the sake of collecting.

What I've got was the same overworld with two very forgettable and samey underground and sky levels. TOTK feels like overall the same game with the same sets of problems and tedium, with Nuts'N'Bolts glued to it to justify the fullprice. It just doesn't feel like a sequel to me, in old days that would've passed as and Expansion Pack or something like that. Bigger than DLC but way less than an actual new release. And huge reason is because I'm just no into this building and manipulating stuff, especially with annoying and delayed controls even with better controllers like dualsense via Ryujinx.

But then again, maybe it's just me and I really jelly for people who are genuinely enjoying the game.
 

MujkicHaris

Member
Didn't play TOTK but BOTW features some of the best environments ever made in 3D, purely talking about aesthetics. Textures are amazing too. It blew me away, similar to how Dragon Quest VIII on PS2 broke new ground in non realistic rendering.
But other than beautiful aesthetics, the game doesn't offer that much in terms of originality. Shrine puzzles are too easy, NPCs are cringy and super basic, story/quests awful and lack any sort of depth and intrigue, exploration becomes dull quickly. The only reason I did explore some parts is to examine it from a technical perspective.

It seems like TOTK and BOTW were made for people who are new to gaming and it's their first time experiencing open world mechanics. Can't see how someone who played video games for more than a decade can give BOTW a perfect score. More like 7/10.
 
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Tams

Gold Member
People bought so hard into the hype they were deluding themselves into believing the game was some giant revolution in gaming, doing things no game has ever done before, they were like apple fanboys turned up to 11/10.


I got a temp ban for a nothing burger of a comment shortly after the game launched.

For this?

Zelda does nothing new, the developers just invested time and effort into making the physics a gameplay mechanic, again nothing we haven't seen before.

Most developers want to control the gameplay experience to the nth degree, and any kind of freedom for the players is seen as a hassle by the developers so they restrict, reduce or remove interesting gameplay mechanics such as physics.


@mod: how the fuck is this post console warring? It's on topic and I'm not shitting on Nintendo by saying the game doesn't do anything new, if anything I'm praising Nintendo for focusing on the physics where other developers restrict physics.

Well, you ain't on the ban list. Looks it was just a warning, albeit a silly one.
 
Breath of The Wild was a superb game. Easily one of the greatest games we've had since 2017. So much thought and polish went into the game that often when replaying it I am still discovering new things and telling myself "I can't believe they thought of that".

Tears of The Kingdom to me feels like Zelda meets Roblox/Minecraft and I'm not sure it's the direction I'd take, but Nintendo seems to have bet big on it and the sales data speaks for itself.

I prefer BOTW over TOTK but that's me.
 

Madflavor

Member
The funniest think about TotK was some journalists and fans claiming that it wasn’t like BotW and was very different.

I mean sure they’re visually identical, gameplay is the same, and recycles assets, animations, sounds, and music. But it’s different you see. You can build things, and dungeon design sucks a bit less dick this time.
 
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BlackTron

Gold Member
Especially TotK, it's pretty wild that a game of that size, and with those physics can be on the Switch at all.

It's one of the most impressive game development feats I can think of, the game is still good and I want to own it. But making some insane programming feats against your own self-imposed hardware limitation (lol) doesn't really fix some serious setbacks in the game that prevent it from beating a title like OOT. It has everything to wrap around the skeleton of a Zelda game to make it awesome, except the actual Zelda at the core. I feel like we are just left with a really excellent game with Zelda printed on the box.

You can easily think TOTK is a better game for myriad of reasons, but Link's Awakening remake would be a "better Zelda". It has much, much more of the action/puzzle dungeon gameplay that defines the series.
 

kunonabi

Member
The funniest think about TotK was some journalists and fans claiming that it wasn’t like BotW and was very different.

I mean sure they’re visually identical, gameplay is the same, and recycles assets, animations, sounds, and music. But it’s different you see. You can build things, and dungeon design sucks a bit less dick this time.
It also completely lifts the plot structure and various story beats to boot. It's just a very expensive Master Quest really.
 

Dr. Suchong

Member
RCsXuDo.gif
 

Hero_Select

Member
People bought so hard into the hype they were deluding themselves into believing the game was some giant revolution in gaming, doing things no game has ever done before, they were like apple fanboys turned up to 11/10.


I got a temp ban for a nothing burger of a comment shortly after the game launched.
What was the comment?
 
Its a far better game, but similar enough to botw that you can get burnt out on it despite that
I agree. I should have stated it ”will not have the impact, and imo, feels like Majora’s Mask to OoT.” Being the launch game, was a huge boon for the Zelda Franchise.
 

Markio128

Gold Member
The breaking point (pun intended) was when I realised I’d broken all of my bows, so had to leave a boss area to return to the main map so I could source some more decent bows (and arrows) before tackling the boss again. Yeah right, fuck that. I can just about get my head around swords and shields breaking, but not bows, not every 5 minutes. And not when you need copious amounts of bows and arrows to beat a boss.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
6 years for a glorified BOTW DLC with tacked on building mechanics nobody asked for and the exact same combat system. This game feels like a gigantic chore. You just get tired of doing shrines over and over again…finding korok seeds….rinse and repeat… The map is huge with the multiple depths, but it’s also empty and dead. I was really excited with the sky island, but when I dropped back down to Hyrule, I suddenly felt like I was just playing BoTW all over again. All of the BoTW burnout came rushing back. I have tried very hard to like this game but it's not for me.
Reading your post feels like a gigantic chore.
I bet building shit would make it more fun
 

GriffinCorp

Member
I think I played it for 4 hours and I felt like it was a chore. BOTW was so much better and I hate the building mechanics in TOTK, it got boring quickly. To me the shrines were easy but they took much longer because they wanted you to turn into Bob the builder.
 
I refuse to believe any person besides super young kids can genuinely be excited to come home and play this shit on the big screen TV. It's ugly, it's bloated, and it doesn't offer anything of substance over BotW which itself was already a massive downgrade from the likes of OoT, MM and WW. It's the most generic, soulless game I've ever played in my life.
 

BlackTron

Gold Member
I refuse to believe any person besides super young kids can genuinely be excited to come home and play this shit on the big screen TV.

It looked good on my old 47" 1080 set, but yeah if the game looks like crap on the kind of TV already firmly planted in most living rooms, not a good look. It was not a pretty sight on the 55" 4k that I got for my dads place. There's not really anything they could have done about the low resolution though. If I had to choose between a 55" TV and a computer monitor to play this game, I'd take the monitor. My brain's circular logic says that if I'm using a monitor, I may as well be emulating it! But if I was doing that, I'd have enough resolution for the TV. Give me Switch 2 and end this suffering Nintendo
 
Since BOTW people were claiming it was some god send of an RPG...the world is literally EMPTY. Then you have developers like CDPR or R* who have a formula that if you walk in any direction 4 minutes, there would be something for you to see or do or get a quest or NPC to talk to. BOTW and TOTK were just barebones with the ultimate insult of respawning enemies for an extra lazy effort.
 
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Dampf

Member
Honestly, one of my biggest disappointments in gaming history. And I was not even hyped for the game to begin with. I just didn't think they would rehash BOTW like that.
Like you still have the exact same formular. Story set in the past, having to find memories again, looking for Shrines sharing the exact same aesthetics, having disappointing dungeons with the 4-5 terminal system again, the exact same armor in the depths and the 4 regions, korok seeds again.. I could go on and on. They improved next to nothing on the BOTW formular and instead doubled down on a gimmick I do not care for which wasted all their dev time it seems.

On top of that, the new content just straight up sucked. The depths and sky islands were boring and empty. The only saving grace for the game were the beginning, the end and the intro to some dungeons (like Wind Temple).
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
I feel like i'm taking crazy pills when i read people liking botw more than tiktok.

Worse enemy variety
Worse dungeons
Worse bosses
Worse skills (i guess this is arguable)
Worse traversal by a landslide, horses in zelda suck major asses, thank god for having alternatives
Worse puzzles
Worse plot
Worse rewards for completing dungeons
Worse rewards in general during exploration (not by much tho)
Lack of sky island and depth (both undercooked as shit but they are at least a distraction from the samey main map)


I think all the people who prefer botw were just too burned out by the formula because the games feel extremely samey in many aspects.

There is no way botw is a better game, it feels even more like a tech demo after playing tokt.


Hopefully the sequel is gonna fix all the major flaws of both titles.
 
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Hugare

Gold Member
I hated BOTW but I enjoyed TOTK quite a lot

They fixed so much. Traversal sucked in BOTW, so they added Ascend + Towers that send you to the sky + Turin flying boost. Not to mention rocks that you can use Recall to go up and float to your destination.

Weapon degradation sucked, so they added Fuse to let you make weapons anywhere.

The dungeons sucked in variety, so they made some pretty distinguished ones here.

Pacing is also much better than the first game, imo

If anything, TOTK proved how overrated BOTW was with so many fixes. But Nintendo fans will never admit it.
 

Silver Wattle

Gold Member
For this?



Well, you ain't on the ban list. Looks it was just a warning, albeit a silly one.
You are right, my bad, it was a warning for "console warring".
I only brought it up to show that sometimes fair/light criticism of beloved IP can get unfairly punished, likely due to being around the launch time frame and mods being a bit heavy-handed during those periods.
 

kunonabi

Member
I feel like i'm taking crazy pills when i read people liking botw more than tiktok.

Worse enemy variety
Worse dungeons
Worse bosses
Worse skills (i guess this is arguable)
Worse traversal by a landslide, horses in zelda suck major asses, thank god for having alternatives
Worse puzzles
Worse plot
Worse rewards for completing dungeons
Worse rewards in general during exploration (not by much tho)
Lack of sky island and depth (both undercooked as shit but they are at least a distraction from the samey main map)


I think all the people who prefer botw were just too burned out by the formula because the games feel extremely samey in many aspects.

There is no way botw is a better game, it feels even more like a tech demo after playing tokt.


Hopefully the sequel is gonna fix all the major flaws of both titles.
There are definite gameplay improvements in totk but they just mitigate issues and don't really fix them. While I'm no fan of BotW's story, especially the complete shit show of an ending, it at least more organic and in line with the various conventions of the gameplay. Totk provides much shittier context for the rehashed elements from botw. It has the worst version of Zelda, which is saying something considering botw Zelda wasn't that great to begin with, and it does the Imprisoning war yet again and has the lamest take on it yet. Botw at least had squandered potential with its story, totk's story is just scribbles on a napkin written down at the last minute.

If I had to suggest one for somebody to play I'd say totk but I wouldn't blame somebody going the other way if they cared more about the story. Botw at least had fi's which garnered the only emotional response from me in the entire game. Although totk of course just goes and shits on that anyway.
 
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GymWolf

Gold Member
There are definite gameplay improvements in totk but they just mitigate issues and don't really fix them. While I'm no fan of BotW's story, especially the complete shit show of an ending, it at least more organic and in line with the various conventions of the gameplay. Totk provides much shittier context for the rehashed elements from botw. It has the worst version of Zelda, which is saying something considering botw Zelda wasn't that great to begin with, and it does the Imprisoning war yet again and has the lamest take on it yet. Botw at least had squandered potential with its story, totk's story is just scribbles on a napkin written down at the last minute.

If I had to suggest one for somebody to play I'd say totk but not I couldn't blame somebody going the other way if they cared more about the story. Botw at least had fi's which garnered the only emotional response from me in the entire game. Although totk of course just goes and shits on that anyway.
I don't give a fuck about zelda or the lore so there is that, i just thought it was a less shitty story (still terrible but you get the gist).

At least Ganon was cool in this one (even if his boss fight was super easy).
 
It looked good on my old 47" 1080 set, but yeah if the game looks like crap on the kind of TV already firmly planted in most living rooms, not a good look. It was not a pretty sight on the 55" 4k that I got for my dads place. There's not really anything they could have done about the low resolution though. If I had to choose between a 55" TV and a computer monitor to play this game, I'd take the monitor. My brain's circular logic says that if I'm using a monitor, I may as well be emulating it! But if I was doing that, I'd have enough resolution for the TV. Give me Switch 2 and end this suffering Nintendo
To be clear, I played it on a 27" monitor and it still looked atrocious. Emulation with resolution boost would only go so far. I just find it to be a genuinely ugly looking game in terms of art direction and underlying technology. Something similar is Fortnite in terms of art direction but that game looks incredible with lumen and nanite, even at the same resolution. It's the Switch combined with a very generic open world copy pasted game design that hurts it so much.
 

Ristifer

Member
BotW (and its dlc/sequel) are the most borring overrated games of all time with Elden Ring in a close second .. at least ER I can understand, it gave an opportunity to the challenged to finally play to completion a Souls game since it was ridiculously easy by Souls standards.
Brace Yourself Here We Go GIF by MOODMAN
 

Mortisfacio

Member
BotW was definitely better. I currently have no plans of ever actually finishing TotK. Got bored, put it down and that's where it'll stay. Wouldn't call it a terrible game, but it's the worst 95+ metacritic game I've played.
 

Dr. Wilkinson

Gold Member
I have tried very hard to like this game but it's not for me.
That’s your problem right there. “Trying to like” a game? What does that even mean. You either like it or you don’t. Come back to it in a few years with a fresh set of eyes. It’s certainly a great game. But no one is forcing you to play it. Go play something you’re vibing with.
 
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BlackTron

Gold Member
To be clear, I played it on a 27" monitor and it still looked atrocious. Emulation with resolution boost would only go so far. I just find it to be a genuinely ugly looking game in terms of art direction and underlying technology. Something similar is Fortnite in terms of art direction but that game looks incredible with lumen and nanite, even at the same resolution. It's the Switch combined with a very generic open world copy pasted game design that hurts it so much.

Art direction was definitely not an issue for me in TOTK or BOTW. If anything it was working overtime covering up other problems.
 

Mortisfacio

Member
That’s your problem right there. “Trying to like” a game? What does that even mean. You either like it or you don’t. Come back to it in a few years with a fresh set of eyes. It’s certainly a great game. But no one is forcing you to play it. Go play something you’re vibing with.

This is not universally applicable for everyone, though. Uncharted 4 for example I "tried to like" and it's kind of necessary in my opinion. The first half of the game is pretty boring as far as actual gameplay goes, but once "At Sea" chapter hits the game really takes off and is great. Sadly, that's halfway through the game, so I'd have never made it there if I didn't "try to like it".
 

Dr. Wilkinson

Gold Member
This is not universally applicable for everyone, though. Uncharted 4 for example I "tried to like" and it's kind of necessary in my opinion. The first half of the game is pretty boring as far as actual gameplay goes, but once "At Sea" chapter hits the game really takes off and is great. Sadly, that's halfway through the game, so I'd have never made it there if I didn't "try to like it".
It’s just not for you. And that’s fine. 🤷‍♂️. Not everyone is going to like every game.

There’s plenty to choose from. Why waste time on one that you have to invest hours in “trying to like it”.
 
I feel like i'm taking crazy pills when i read people liking botw more than tiktok.

Worse enemy variety
Worse dungeons
Worse bosses
Worse skills (i guess this is arguable)
Worse traversal by a landslide, horses in zelda suck major asses, thank god for having alternatives
Worse puzzles
Worse plot
Worse rewards for completing dungeons
Worse rewards in general during exploration (not by much tho)
Lack of sky island and depth (both undercooked as shit but they are at least a distraction from the samey main map)


I think all the people who prefer botw were just too burned out by the formula because the games feel extremely samey in many aspects.

There is no way botw is a better game, it feels even more like a tech demo after playing tokt.


Hopefully the sequel is gonna fix all the major flaws of both titles.
I don't even think what you have listed is even true, however BoTW clears ToTK for me because it seems more focused on what you goal should be. Like I remember in BoTW, if you needed to scale a mountain but you didn't have enough stamina, you would leave , explore more, level up and come back. In ToTK, you could just cheese and build some plane or just ascend if possible. So yea, you could say the skills are better in ToTK, I wouldn't debate that. But I don't think it makes it more fun for the user, at least for me.

In the same vain, I think the building is just very unfun and a chore. I get this will be polarizing, some will love some will hate, but the building is by far the worst aspect of ToTK. I hate this type of mechanic in all games (like I don't think someone could pay me to have to play Minecraft). I don't find fun in spending 15 mins to build a car, plane, w/e to have it last 20 seconds.
 
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