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[Laieon]

TotK is great but I burned out right about where I did in the last game. Finished the temples, started to feel the same lack of reward from exploration, put it down and haven't picked it back up in a month. Will get around to finishing it soon.

I've been at the point where I'm ready to fight Ganondorf for a good month or two now but just can't be bothered to actually go do that. I've gotten all that I really want to out of the game and feel the same way about it as I do BOTW; it's fun, but I don't like this new formula as much as I did the one the series had pre-SS, and ALBW is still the best non-linear Zelda we've seen.

Lol at comparisons with Spider-Man. I liked the first one and will pick up the sequel tomorrow but honestly, Spider-Man is a game that you play for 10 hours and forget about. Zelda is a game that you play for 100+ hours and can’t stop thinking about. There’s a difference.

Spider-Man is a game I've gone back and replayed a few times now because it's short, sweet, and immediately fun. BOTW and TOTK are games I've spent 200ish hours in collectively, but ultimately find pretty forgettable and are the definition of "one and done" to me because realistically I'm never going to go back and play these things because I don't find them to be very fun until you get a few stamina upgrades. I replay OOT, WW, and other Zelda titles every few years, but these just ain't it to me.

BOTW/TOTK have me questioning what it means to be a fan of something.

 

[Buggy Loop]

It is pretty weird that development of Breath of the Wild took 6 years and development of this took 6 years when they had so much work they could re-use from Breath of the Wild.

They basically stripped the abilities of BOTW and started with something way more complex and potentially way more game breaking. It’s a totally different beast to balance too. On top of making the traversal to sky or to caves thoughtful so that gamers have to think about, the antithesis of majority of open worlds.

Map is almost all remodeled in some way.

Not sure what peoples expect with that kind of workload, this isn’t a coat of paint ala Miles Morales.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

It is pretty weird that development of Breath of the Wild took 6 years and development of this took 6 years when they had so much work they could re-use from Breath of the Wild.

As many others have pointed out, the gameplay systems and physics used in the game no doubt took an incredible amount of time to fine-tune and get right. Not to mention from a volume perspective the content of the game exceeds the content of BotW and none of the dungeons or shrines are re-used. And the map itself is significantly altered.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

Spider-Man is a game I've gone back and replayed a few times now because it's short, sweet, and immediately fun. BOTW and TOTK are games I've spent 200ish hours in collectively, but ultimately find pretty forgettable and are the definition of "one and done" to me because realistically I'm never going to go back and play these things because I don't find them to be very fun until you get a few stamina upgrades. I replay OOT, WW, and other Zelda titles every few years, but these just ain't it to me.

BOTW/TOTK have me questioning what it means to be a fan of something.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I've platinumed Spider-Man on PS4 but you'd have to put a gun to my face to force me to play through it again.

 

[PendekarRajawali]

If a developer needed more time to make a game perfect then I would have no complaints.

 

[Neo_GAF]

Well it took Insomaniac 5 years to make 3 spidermans, Nintendo should have take less then 3 to make TotK since they are using 90% of BotW assets.

no one will care about spiderman tomorrow.
zelda is built to last.

 

[ArtHands]

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I've platinumed Spider-Man on PS4 but you'd have to put a gun to my face to force me to play through it again.

Yah my copy of Spider-Man 2 is coming tomorrow but let's admit it that these Spider-Man games are just rehash unlike TOTK.

 

[FoxMcChief]

They should have added another 2 years to work on the story and voice acting

Sounds like a personal hang up on your end if it bothers you to read. And the amount of story was just fine.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Yah my copy of Spider-Man 2 is coming tomorrow but let's admit it that these Spider-Man games are just rehash unlike TOTK.

Of course, but that’s not a bad thing. Not that I’m saying you meant it that way.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Tears of the kingdom is consistent with breath of the wild and you are seeing traditional dungeons and temples return.

 

[Arsic]

Yes. Ignore Covid restrictions and how much worse it was in Japan during the development cycle.

I’m sure that had nothing to do with it taking 6 years.

 

[Interfectum]

TotK was being made during COVID and they also gave it a year's worth of polish. Not sure what the issue is here... they released a GOTY contender, a game that sold millions and a nearly bug free banger. Of all games to complain about, you choose this one? lol?

 

[mitch1971]

'I'm sick of games releasing buggy. Take your time and release it when ready!!'

'Six years to make a game! SIX!! Than's insane, Geremy!!'

 

[Evil Calvin]

Especially since it's more of the same with just some underground stuff added and a few new mechanics added. Very underwhelming.

 

[InterMusketeer]

It is disappointing how similar TotK is to BotW, and how little they improved on the first game's flaws. They focused so much on the building that many of the other aspects felt underbaked. Seeing how we used to get entirely new games with new assets, maps, dungeons etc. in the same amount of time, it's hard not to feel like this glorified expansion doesn't stack up. I'm sure things took longer due to covid and everything, but that doesn't really change my feelings on the game itself.

 

[K' Dash]

it's a miracle the game can be played from start to finish without breaking. As a developer myself, I'd give anything to see the code and how the hell they implemented some of the shit they pulled off.

 

[charles8771]

Look how much time took to develop Skyward Sword from 2011

 

[AJUMP23]

If you want to make a game, you must first create the universe.

 

[KXVXII9X]

Coming from BOTW, I definitely enjoyed TOTK a lot. It was a great improvement in terms of mechanics, first of all. I still don’t know how they managed to run the insane Ultrahand mechanics on the Switch, but imo that’s the game’s most powerful achievement.

They also improved storytelling, and a better effort to have themed dungeons, though never at the level of the pre-open world games.

I definitely don’t think this game was DLC as some people claim, but I also don’t think it should have taken 6 years. Probably 3 at most.

They reuse the map (sky islandsq are very small, underworld doesn’t have many quests or much to do), the format is the same (beat 4 temples northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest), same graphics. I’m tempted to believe it took them as much time because of the new mechanics.

All in all, I beat the game at around 70 hours, missing some sidequests, but I don't plan to touch it again. I’m ready for what’s next, but hoping they reduce the scale this time around so they can make real themed dungeons connected to the story such as in OOT or MM.

I don't think you understand just how complex some of the new physics and added mechanics were to pull off and just how much QA testing the game probably had to go through. Nintendo First Party games are heavily polished. It is one reason Super Mario Wonder looks as good as it does. It didn't really have a set time frame and polished every nook and cranny. There is a lot of attention to detail that is easily overlooked. You only really notice it when they are absent.

I do, however, hope the next Zelda game is a more focused and shorter experience with more story that still implements some of BotW/TotK's physics-based gameplay.

 

[Meifu]

So they added a an entire map on top and below the world, wtf u smoking bruv

 

[Skelterz]

Enlighten us, how long should it have taken?
There’s almost double the content in terms of explorable space not to mention the changes made to the “Chemistry” engine. I’ve never minded waiting for a quality product if more people were patient they’d be a lot less threads about broken games and broken promises.

 

[AMSCD]

Coming from BOTW, I definitely enjoyed TOTK a lot. It was a great improvement in terms of mechanics, first of all. I still don’t know how they managed to run the insane Ultrahand mechanics on the Switch, but imo that’s the game’s most powerful achievement.

They also improved storytelling, and a better effort to have themed dungeons, though never at the level of the pre-open world games.

I definitely don’t think this game was DLC as some people claim, but I also don’t think it should have taken 6 years. Probably 3 at most.

They reuse the map (sky islandsq are very small, underworld doesn’t have many quests or much to do), the format is the same (beat 4 temples northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest), same graphics. I’m tempted to believe it took them as much time because of the new mechanics.

All in all, I beat the game at around 70 hours, missing some sidequests, but I don't plan to touch it again. I’m ready for what’s next, but hoping they reduce the scale this time around so they can make real themed dungeons connected to the story such as in OOT or MM.

Did you forget about COVID op?

 

[Paltheos]

I think TotK is way better than BotW on every level but coming fresh off of BotW made me question what some of the team was really doing. Level design is, let's face it, mostly the same. The above world is barely there and the underworld stuff is flat out horrible imo. It's the worst part of the entire entry to me.

Other than that, I love the game and think the creation bits are just so nice. While not a DLC, it does feel like the foundation was already set and they just worked on that. I really just wish we got more to explore that wasn't the underground.

Different strokes. I agree on the overworld being kinda plain by comparison but I enjoyed the underworld. Most of my favorite time with TotK was in figuring out where and how to reach the next illumination tree, navigating the dark and managing my resources while climbing/traversing. It was a fun time. My friend agrees with you and partly because he noticed that all the underground vines' positions coincide with shrines on the overworld.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Everyone's entitled to their opinion. I'm not thrilled that it took Nintendo that long to put out a sequel, but I also think they released one of the greatest games of all time, so I'm kind of ok with it. I'd prefer these incredible games not take as long as they do to make, but if it means every few years I'll get a unique, incredible experiences, I don't mind waiting for my Tears of the Kingdom's or Baldur's Gate 3's.

Different strokes. I agree on the overworld being kinda plain by comparison but I enjoyed the underworld. Most of my favorite time with TotK was in figuring out where and how to reach the next illumination tree, navigating the dark and managing my resources while climbing/traversing. It was a fun time. My friend agrees with you and partly because he noticed that all the underground vines' positions coincide with shrines on the overworld.

I'd bet a lot of people are outright ignoring the underworld. It's pretty daunting and kinda scary if you aren't prepared and some people just don't want that stress I guess. It took me almost 15 hours or so before I felt brave enough to explore it again and I'm glad I did. Once I kind of understood the cadence of how the underground is supposed to go, I loved exploring it.

 

[diffusionx]

It took the time it took, and like most devs, they were affected by the global shutdown. I don't see why this matters.

 

[Phase]

Super Mario 64 took only 3 years and it was nuts at the time. I think ToTK is good but I agree it should not have taken 6 years when they already had the BoTW framework.

 

[Fbh]

Maybe 4 or 5, but 3 would have been awfully fast.
Yeah it recycles a lot of content but it also adds a lot of new one and adds one of the most fun physics based mechanics in a big open world to date, all on ancient hardware while feeling very polished. Lots of open worlds don't offer even a fraction of the interactivity of the world of TotK and yet they are often very buggy and broken at launch.

TotK is great but I burned out right about where I did in the last game. Finished the temples, started to feel the same lack of reward from exploration, put it down and haven't picked it back up in a month. Will get around to finishing it soon.

Yeah I feel similarly, though I did finish it.
The main quest is solid, they improved the story (though it's still meh), the temples are way more fun than the divine beats, the bosses are better and the new physics based mechanics are awesome.

But personally I still find the open world part of the game lacking, there's still a lot of fetch quests, most of the rewards feel unrewarding (I swear I got stuff like meals, fruit and vegetables as a reward for like half of the quests) and the gear system is annoying

 

[Danjin44]

I’m pretty making physics base gameplay work and make it fun and without breaking and on Switch can takes time.…..game development is just not about making graphics.

 

[TaroYamada]

Probably down to covid like some said, otherwise, yes. It's effectively a large expansion to BotW with a lot of reuse. I question the $70 price tag as well but it's been available pretty cheap since then if you hunt deals, I just picked up a second copy from gamefly for $30.

 

[daclynk]

it shouldnt have taken 6 years. Probably 3 at most

 

[conpfreak]

I understand that people question the iterative approach with TotK, but it's a much better game than BotW ever was. More devs should do this instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every time they release a new entry. My only real issue was the music reuse on the main map, which should have been rearranged rather to literally using the same tracks. The game was probably mostly done a year or so ago, but Nintendo sat on it because BotW became an evergreen and didn't see the need to drop a sequel. So dropping the game at the typical end of life drought period made more sense.

 

[Moses85]

One word

COVID

 

[Tg89]

Lol - one of the highest rated, most critically acclaimed and commercially successful games in years, will probably win a ton of GOTY awards with the only real competition being BG3 (another game that took plenty of time to dev and was in EA for a lot of that). "They should have made it faster".

We already know they spent a year basically debugging it. It came out with basically 0 bugs which is almost a miracle given the amount of systems present and synergizing with each other. Meanwhile most devs are out here releasing broken games that aren't half as complex and not even bothering to patch them. That alone should be celebrated.

Secondly, do we even have anything concrete on how much of the other 5 years were in full, all hands on deck, development cycle? My understanding was always that at least a year of the time was them basically having a small team dick around on potential DLC for BOTW before they even considered making a sequel. Nintendo is also one of the outliers that isn't insistent on releasing sequels as soon as possible after a successful game. This isn't Ubisoft with a yearly Assassin's Creed entry.

6 years seems fine. Even if we disregard the end result and the fact that half of the dev happened during COVID. These sequels don't always need to be pushed out the door as soon as possible.

I mean the Elden Ring DLC is allegedly coming 2 years after the original game. I'm not gonna sit here and say "wow it took them two whole years", I'm going to go play more of one of the greatest games of all time.

 

[Astral Dog]

I believe COVID delayed development for
1+ year

 

[SiahWester]

The pandemic probably pushed it back some. I agree though, it doesn't seem right that we waited 6 years it.

 

[Tg89]

I understand that people question the iterative approach with TotK, but it's a much better game than BotW ever was. More devs should do this instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every time they release a new entry. My only real issue was the music reuse on the main map, which should have been rearranged rather to literally using the same tracks. The game was probably mostly done a year or so ago, but Nintendo sat on it because BotW became an evergreen and didn't see the need to drop a sequel. So dropping the game at the typical end of life drought period made more sense.

I'm gonna go the other direction and say I don't understand these people at all.

They reinvented the franchise with BOTW. It was possibly the most critically acclaimed game we'd seen in years and wildly successful commercially on top of that. People that think they should immediately pivot from that are kind of stupid. There's plenty of new stuff coming out as it is, most of it sucks, I'll happily take iteration on a great formula alongside those - especially when they clearly didn't even realize half of their vision on the first go. This isn't some case of a new mediocre Assassin's Creed game coming out every year, this is a monumental game getting an extremely well realized sequel six years after the fact. From a creative perspective it makes little sense to immediately move on from the idea, from a business perspective it's borderline moronic.

 

[MiguelItUp]

It's really easy to have opinions on things without being a part of the project. I'm sure there are plenty of reasons why it happened. It's not that it "shouldn't have" taken that long, it's that it took as long as it needed to. This isn't Nintendo's first rodeo.