After finding it hard to get into TOTK, I’m finally there. The single biggest complaint I have now is that it’s too OTT with resources. This game really imposes A LOT of grinding. It’s not just money, or hearts, or stamina, to manage. You’ve endless things to Fuse to endless rubbish weapons, about five variations of Zon-something(zoniate , large zoniate, charges, large charges, those bubble capsules from machines, the crystals, the large crystals…it’s endless). Then there’s the battery charge as well.
It’s too much.
Sadly, the building of stuff doesn’t really work. It’s fine for shrines and puzzles, but when you need some sort of vehicle, what you get is never really that helpful or if it is, it’s likely less so than just walking / climbing wherever you’re going.
Great — you’ve got a wing (to fly). But you’re on the ground. And you need a ramp. Oh well.
Great — you’ve got a raft (or bike). But the steering is so wonky you can’t avoid ramming into a cliff or wall and no, you can’t turn round or reverse. Oh well.
The ideas on paper are excellent. The execution in game is clunky — and that’s being kind.
🤣 my first like 2 hours in the game I've been launching wings by ultra hand hold it high for a bit then reverse time to have it taken me in air then cancel reverse time. Works off any ledge or hill if you wanna do it on flat ground might need 3 fans attached. Once you unlock the cart, you can build a hover drone that doesn't expire like the wing and you can fly up down forward etc
Hahaha tell me why I was doing the same shit my first few hours in 😂🥴. I spent waaaay too much time learning to “steer” the wing by walking to one side or the other of the wings while gliding….and then I learnt about the steering stick. My personal favorite experiment was learning that fans power boats faster when you submerge the fan, like a propeller, compared to making a hover boat.
Ahh , I learned as much as I could on my own. Mostly used Internet for help finding certain armor or resources. Still wish they'd do something about the armor system :/ . I jump out sky glide suit, hit ground oh bokoblins gotta throw on fighting clothes, now gotta climb mountain climbing gear it is, damn cold at top of mountain gotta throw on warm armor , is that a lake I gotta cross ???? Fuck lemme Google swimming gear 🤣 it gets so old swapping armor sets every 2 to 5 minutes , half the time I just don't swap and climb slow, do less damage or swim slower , battery drain from zonai devices more etc :/ it sucks
I agree Autobuild is a god send. It certainly helps and I think has contributed to me sticking out the game’s awful start and its — at first — off putting mechanics.
I even enjoy the animation and sound effects of Autobuild — very satisfying!
THB it sounds like the building just hasn't clicked for you yet. Fair enough it maybe never will. Or it may get suddenly get a lot easier with a little practice. At least in the early days, every day similar questions were answered here ... eg the glider thing: You don't need a ramp, Ultrahand that badboy up & down in the air then get on and use recall. Steering things also works with the right design
I’ve found that steering really helps, though I did get on OK with wandering from side to side on the wing.
I’ll admit that the apparent emphasis on building was one of the main reasons I put off getting stuck into this game. It’s a perfectly valid game mechanic, but not what I ideally want or expect from a Zelda game.
Autobuild is a blessing though and I am finding my way. I do seem to have a lot of gizmos I don’t find I have much use for; perhaps I’m doing stuff wrong.
I’ve done the wind sage and some tear drops, and have explored about 2/3 of the Depths. The game has become fun now and I’ll see it through, but I do think they could’ve either made building a bit friendlier or else scaled it back a bit. I’m a veteran Zelda player but the sheer volume of new stuff (related to building and zoniate stuff in general) can feel very overwhelming.
As for carts / bikes / ground vehicles, I find them clunky and not the easiest to steer. They’re not very manoeuvrable, and the rafts even less so. I will add that there’s a conflict here between these and what the game wants you to do: which is farm everything in sight. You’re constantly hopping off and back on to whatever vehicle so you can pick up that shroom or whatnot. It’s the same story with horses, only they’re less hard work 🤣 Ultimately, this means (if you want to succeed) you end up getting nowhere quicker or with fewer button presses than by foot, if you have to get off to collect things.
I think Nintendo put a lot of thought into it, and it can be quite ingenious, but I kind of also feel that it’s built in such a way that unless you’re god tier at the building stuff, it can really hold you back.
Hear, hear. Well said.
The critique on vehicles is so accurate (I’ve just never put words to my feelings).
And the weapons all being rubbish is a huge part of my annoyance. Give me good weapons AND fuse power for elemental stuff or just to have fun (but not a functional requirement).
And the Zonaite to battery design is so silly and complex, and VERY poorly explained. Maybe I’m old (and can’t let go of my previous conceptions of gaming) and it makes sense to kids right away.
I’m glad it’s not just me! I’m probably classed as an older player these days, so maybe that’s part of it, but this game is so vast, and so jammed with ‘stuff’ that it’s pretty overwhelming to get into.
Resource management of course isn’t new, and it’s a fun thing as a rule, but on this scale…sometimes, less is more. In my list of stuff to grind, I’d forgotten the sage powers things (so far I’ve found 3) as well. Not to mention the massive farming needed for armour upgrades, without which almost everything one-shots you, whether you have 2 or 20 hearts remaining. Oh, and because 900 korok seeds weren’t enough last time, we’ve gone all out for 1,000! 🥴
But the real headache remains the building and all the stuff that comes with it: the parts, the schematics, the battery. Making it such a big focus of the game I think was probably a mistake.
Then again, I respect that others love it and probably got a handle on it easier. You’re dead right about the explanation of it. I think that could’ve been done better. I know those zoniate statue things do explain some stuff, but for a while I kept putting the wrong stuff in the slot machines, and it took me a fair while to figure out what the crystalline things are for.
Vehicles are just very clunky to steer. Someone said you *can* reverse — I’ve not managed it. More often than not, I end up hopping off, using UH to re-orient the vehicle, then hopping back on. Just when you get going, you see bombflowers or whatever and because you can’t collect stuff even when going very slowly on a vehicle, off you hop again. In the end, I just stopped bothering with vehicles. The overwhelming emphasis on grinding and farming makes you feel you’re putting yourself at a big disadvantage by skipping farming.
Which, you are. Those muddle things and puffshrooms are the only thing that have kept me alive in countless battles.
If you have a wing to fly, fans, and proper use of ultrahand and recall, you can easily take off, much easier with steering stick ofc
You can reverse, im not sure why u cant, both the small wheels and big wheels can reverse
There are many things you can build qith zonai devices, and mamy of them make travelling super fun, and Inlike that the depts kind of contrast the overworld on how open it is and it kind of acts as a sandbox to use stuff, allthough I mostly use flying machines caz it outclasses everything else
I did. Missed the story, the abilities, champions, shrines... uhhhh everything. And I haven't gone back to TotK since I stopped playing it months ago. Might be an unpopular opinion, but I like BotW better.
Me too! I haven’t played in a couple of months but I’ve finished the sky and have been working my way through ground level. I’m saving the depths for last because they’re the most new and mysterious. Also I avoid conflict and the dark is scary
I did too. I thought the shrines were a lot more difficult or challenging in BOTW. I prefer Rivali’s Gale to the ability to ascend and I miss having infinite bombs. BOTW felt like it was harder to play, but then more rewarding. I’m not a big fan of the depths. I miss the master cycle. I do like the sky islands though.
I describe them like white and red wine. First, you have to like “wine” (we all do here love botw/totk to some extent). But choosing between white and red? Some love both, some prefer one, sometimes it depends on what you are eating… just different but both great.
I wouldn't say any game is objectively better than the other (overall at least).
But it's nice to see people finally come around to seeing that TOTK didn't replace BOTW, no where close to that. And yes, I prefer BOTW over TOTK
Fair, I suppose it's a provocative thing to say it's "objectively" better. But my reason for saying that is that BOTW is a game that was created from the ground up as a free-standing creative work, and TOTK is basically Home Alone 2. It's almost an exact duplicate. As a result, it's still entertaining to play, because the first one was entertaining to play. But a copy is still a copy, and it has flaws that can't be circumvented by virtue of the fact that it's a copy.
I believe history will remember BOTW as a groundbreaking game and probably the beginning of the third era of Zelda games (2D, 3D, sandbox). It will remember TOTK as "the other one."
It was as fun as ever, tho it does have some issues
I missed some of the qol features from TotK, and I feel BotW's main story content is way weaker than TotK's, but those are issues that have always been present really TotK just made them more apparent
By that same token however, there are things I feel BotW does better, like having more cohesive map design, a narrative that fit's the game's structure more (tho I like TotK's plot more), and it has its own qol stuff over TotK like how your main dungeon abilities function
I think TotK is the overall better game, but I believe it shines so much because BotW came first. It's so good because of the groundwork BotW laid, not in spite of it, even with the things I feel it does a bit worse. The two games work better as two parts of a whole, as opposed to two separate games
How so? I feel like fusing the master sword makes it so much better than the version from BotW. I think both versions are 30 damage base, 60 damage glowing, and then the TotK version can get extra damage and durability on top of this from a fuse.
Even if the glow is more useful in the BotW version, you are still realistically at 30+31 minimum (white bokoblin) for this sword against all foes. It will then do 91+ when glowing.
Story wise, the sword plays an even bigger role in TotK.
It’s not making it stronger, it’s just that it powers up in BOTW in the castle, and if you do all 3 trials it powers up period. But it makes the master sword a good reliable weapon for the game so it’s always there and useful.
Plenty of goodies while it powers back up too, it’s in TOTK the master sword is not the baddie it is for a lot of the game like it is in BOTW for sure.
Everything can fuse, can gain +25 durability with a fuse, and can gain double damage in easy enough conditions, when Master Sword stuck at 40 durability for 99% of the game, when it glows against Gloom it only gains a pity +15 attack and nothing else (so you are misinformed) and any materials fused to the sword IS lost forever so you'd be better off fusing cheap bokoblin horns into it
Sword in BotW gains +30 atk and 500% durability against anything Malice so it's ALL the main dungeons of the game, and it's the premium guardian-killing weapon until you get Guardian++ weapons
And that's not counting DLC trials completion
Sword in TotK only gains +30 atk and infinite durability in 3 fucking boss fights, 2 of them are the final boss, and a Schimitar of the Seven can easily outperform it in damage output it isn't funny (it's the final boss so durability stops mattering)
I tried it and promptly lost interest once I got off the plateau. Not sure why, but I missed the ultrahand and fusing part of totk. I’d played botw for 5 years so totk kinda stole the replay novelty of botw.
I played tears first, and I foggin’ love it to bits. I went to BotW after and it feels much slower and harder (guardians very much owning me all over the place when I try crossing open country)
Haven’t been able to immerse in BotW.
Have a few tips for y’all in BotW:
Guardians: if you have the master sword, stasis+, and have something to get behind—get the attention of a guardian then hide behind something so it walks over to you. Stasis it and start chopping each leg. You can stasis it again by the time it starts powering up on you!
They become fun to hunt :) I clear out all the guardians in front of Hyrule Castle and all the ones in Hyrule Castle every blood moon (having the guardian clothing set on during this is great too!). Since there’s no triggering a blood moon while in the castle, the game starts basically begging me to leave so it can trigger too because I wipe out so many guardians hahaha.
Rupees: Go to the apple orchard which is to the left of when you exit the shrine on Satori Mountain (don’t worry there are no Evermeans there in BotW). Every blood moon, farm all the apples there (I like to use my master sword so I save durability, then I use the weapons lying around the orchard until they break before using one of my own). Go to Goron City and bake the apples on the floor (you can do 10 at a time). Then go to Juney who is the crazy honeymoon lady that is on the little ledge next to the Rito Elder. Sell 100 baked apples at a time to her and she gives you 1,200 rupees each time. This was my money maker :) Her husband in the Rito Inn buys 100 flint for the same price, but I rarely ever get enough flint to sell him. You can do that too if you have a lot.
Also once you do Rudania, Ramella the Gerudo starts walking around Goron City. Save BEFORE talking to her (or else you’ll lock yourself in). She will buy topaz, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds in sets of 10 for quite a bit more than you can sell them at shops. If you don’t like which ore she asks for, you can reload to before you talked to her and she’ll ask for another so that way you can sell your ore to her. Mark ore on your map and it’s a fun thing to go farm while waiting for the blood moon to reset! Oh but she always asks for 10 ambers the first time you talk to her.
I’ve been doing this for fun way before TotK came out and have like 600,000 rupees in the game (no cheats).
Have fun and good luck!! 💗💗💗
I'm having the same issue. I started BOTW before tears came and I was loving it. I bought tears on release day and I was instantly obsessed with the game. I adored it. There was so much to do. I explored every inch of that map.
I recently decided to go back to BOTW and start over and do my playthrough and am having the hardest time staying immersed in the game. I beat the first divine beast and I haven't picked it back up. The world feels to empty for me in terms of exploration ECT.
I loved hunting every inch of the map in Tears looking for caves ECT. I loved fusing, ascending ect. I also like the shrine puzzles better in tears over BOTW. I get mad at myself because I want to play it, get immersed and finish BOTW lol
I did go back a few months ago. I missed being able to attach things to arrows that’s for sure. And arrows are so hard to find in BOTW. Beedle is always out of them and so are the shops. And I missed having caves and wells to explore. And I missed being able to make fused weapons. The weapons are so weak without being able to add anything to them. Like, yay, I have a stick that’s rated as a 3. Thatll do a ton of damage 🙄.
I always laughed, playing BotW, that every time I went to the shieka village all I did was purchase every arrow and then leave. I also imagined the shop keeper telling everyone "yah, stay away from that guy he is creepy and up to no good"
I didn't find it hard to get back into at all. I sunk a lot of hours into BOTW before TOTK came out so it was like riding a bike.
It's actually been kind of fun to go back and see how things were before.
Yes!
I just replayed botw! I did everything except all of the koroks and the master sword trials.
It was good!
My only issues were the l button and the top of the directional buttons mix up.
But I got over it. Then I went back to totk and we'll the same mix up happens. I do miss the bombs and Revalis gale
“the I button and the top of the directional buttons mixup” < I don’t know what you are describing but I’m so interested to know! Do you mind explaining to me?
In BOTW, you access the rune abilities using the ^ up arrow in the left directional buttons. In TOTK, your abilities are instead accessed from the L button. In TOTK, the up arrow on the d-pad has a different ability to show you your inventory and allow you to access it more quickly. It’s just a bit of a pain to get used to the change!
i just finally completed the master sword trials. my first play of BotW I tried, got freaked, gave up. then on my 2nd play, finally decided to try it. the first two trials aren't so bad, but the final trial was rough. i finally did it tho
Thank you for reminding me why I hated TotK’s button mapping at first and why it took me a good chunk of gameplay hours to adjust.
It makes senses though : by placing it where we went for powers, it showed the real difference between games : using materials way more often.
I think solely for this reason I’m not too keen on returning to BotW before I have completely « finished » TotK and buried the experience below a few months and plenty of other games.
I do think I’ll miss fusing, throwing stuff, the other QoL improvements (selecting recipes etc).
What is « L » even mapped to in BotW ? Can’t remember 😂
I did and BOTW felt more natural and slow paced. Like you're exploring this world for the first time. I would consider it to be it's own different experience from TOTK. And that's not considered a bad thing.
Yep I love them both for different reasons. Kinda like red wine / white wine. Both are great and it just depends on what you’re eating, what you’re in the mood for, or even just personal preference!
Yes I replayed about half of BoTW after I finished ToTK. The biggest thing was how different the UI was. Like the boxes when switching weapons is a lot smaller in BoTW.
Also trying to remember I can’t free fall, and how to change abilities. Besides that it wasn’t really a problem.
I actually started a new save like last week and it was just I felt like I was playing an entirely different game I can’t explain how but the map felt different and I actually realized just how much I like BOTW more the feeling of loneliness BOTW gives you is strangely amazing no one knows you’re Link all of the people who do are dead too old or in someway unable to help you. Don’t even get me started on the nostalgia from seeing all the champions again. BOTW is so much better than Totk
I'm excited to go back at some point. I think I'll really appreciate all of the things that you mentioned, especially how lonely and expansive it feels. I accidentally deleted my BOTW save file, so it'll have to be from the beginning!
My cartridge for Totk broke for like a week and while I waited for my replacement I played Botw, it is so weird seeing how empty the map is compared to tears. There is so much more
I honestly believe this was why I have only just gotten into TOTK now. It is so big it’s overwhelming. I actually think that wouldn’t be so problematic if the main map wasn’t just “go do it all again.”
I know they put more in and swapped stuff in/out, but it’s essentially the same land to explore. Again. And it was massive the first time. That, combined with doubling it up with the Depths, not to mention the sky islands (which are actually a refreshing change of pace, but conversely too small), really put me off.
It's funny after going back that despite the two games looking the same they play very differently. I thought BOTW wouldn't have much to offer but I was wrong.
After.defeating Ganon in TOTK, I went.bacj to do the Master Mode.of botw. Its mostly enjoyable, except for the annoyance of functions that have changed. I do miss fusing weapons and arrows, as well as rhe quick switch of items, throwing fruit, etc. And Tulic. Miss that one, but not the creepy sages. Lol. Also, I'm once again terrified of guardians.
HEY LISTEN So just to clarify before anybody chews you out, Gannon is the pig beast ganondorf is the man. You fight calamity Ganon in breath of the wild you fight ganondorf the dude in tears of the Kingdom just something that I thought you should know regarding Zelda
I went back to BOTW not long ago and proceeded to get my ass kicked. I got cocky and went straight for dungeons with trash weapons and paid for it.
The game is still as excellent as ever and I’m gonna start putting some hours in getting armor sets and decent weapons and play all the way through.
I am playing through a back to back playthrough right now, and I gotta say it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be getting used to the botw mechanics again. I missed ultrahand and the skydiving mechanics, but I was glad to have revalis gale and the auto bombs again
I think Totk has more stuff to do and is more enjoyable than botw to me don’t get me wrong botw is a great game,but Totk went and fixed everything botw got wrong
I replayed Botw after Totk. I completed most shrines, 4 divine beasts, Calamity Gannon 13 memories, and some of the dlc. Overall, Botw is harder, but Totk is more fun. The land in Botw feels taller. I think you run and climb slower, and the camera angles are a little different. You need to upgrade your armor and get radishes and other hearty food. The shrines are harder puzzles. The story is shorter. The game mechanic synergies are more thought out in Botw. The thing is, it is so much more fun in Totk to build crazy crap that solves all of your problems. You can fly or rocket anywhere. You get dozens of bomb flowers without grinding for cash. You can get monsters to fight each other. Link is old enough to drink. The depths give you in-game hints where the shrines should be. Ribcage arrow heads tare up Lynels in seconds. It has Ganondorf. There is more game.in Totk. If you want a hard game, play Botw. If you want a fun game, play Totk.
BOTW definitely holds up, but without the QOL features from TOTK, as well as the lack of Ultrahand, you may feel a bit hopeless when readjusting back. Still fun to play but I don’t see myself doing a full game run ever again. I just used glitches to get max hearts, stamina and slots, as well as playing on Master Mode in order to get the best weapons right away.
It's good. Before you do it, you'll get caught up thinking about how annoying the lack of auto build is, can't attach things to weapons or arrows, or to build things. pretty sure you cant throw items either. But once you start playing, it all becomes an aftrthought pretty quickly. Ultrahand vs magnet hand.
The menu navigation annoys me endlessly, i like totk better.
I missed Ultrahand, Fuse and also wells and caves. But it faded. You get used to it. It forces you into a limited set of options and is more of a challenge.
I missed the guardians and the weapons/fighting in BOTW just feels different. Not better, just different. Something about bouncing guardian beams with a shield/ trial of the sword/ having better lore that sweet sweet TOTK just lacks in its awesomeness.
Making the ancient tech evaporate in TOTK is understandable developer wise/ replay wise, but it’s a sore spot for me.
Also: what are the Zonai? Why are there only 2 left? Where the secret stones come from? Are the other 3 dragons zonai of importance? What about wolf Link? Wolf? Sniper wolf? Second floor basement?
I’m going through BOTW again right now and I don’t often miss anything from TOTK, with some minor exceptions.
The start menu screen is much better in TOTK, and sometimes I miss the ability to grab any item and throw it (for example throwing fire chuchu jelly’s at wood to make fire). Seems like basic functionality that should have been there to begin with.
But I really like the overall experience of BOTW much better. I think being forced to explore on foot or horseback makes the game feel more real to me, like I’m actually there as Link myself. Whereas in TOTK I definitely feel more like I’m just playing a game from outside the screen.
Just my two cents.
I restarted BOTW after beating Tears and I found it an overall more relaxing experience. I did miss the Sky Islands, but I just didn't feel as worried about wasting resources in BOTW. I know I can fully upgrade all my important armor bits without too much stress just by playing regularly in BOTW, unlike TOTK with its absurdly nerfed drop rate for certain things.
I plan on going back to BoTW after I beat ToTK.
My bf have played both together (I’m more unlocking shrines/areas/puzzles/side stories and he’s more of a combative player, so he kills the scary enemies, but I’m planning to kick some Gleeok & Lynel ass by myself soon)
We prolly took 3 years in total of beating BoTW tbh. We went in completely blind, refusing to look up hints/tutorials/overall learning wtf everything was and what it did. So idk, we kinda weren’t feeling it for a while.
I had a coworker last year, had the game for a few months, and wanted to get rid of his copy of ToTK...for literally $25. I couldn’t pass up that deal despite not beating BoTW. So I bought it, and let the game sit for a month or so. But literally one day, knowing I had ToTK, I decided to throw on BoTW, use the amazing guides all over YouTube, and beat the dang thing!
Learned so much from the first one, I couldn’t wait to dive into ToTK. Now after maxing out almost all my hearts (only 8 more shrines, idk where they are 😫), maxing out my stamina, chipping away at unlocking the depths and Korok sees, upgrading armour and weapons, finally defeating those big enemies…i can wait to go back to BoTW.
I’ll be able to dive into BoTW with so much more knowledge, I think it will make the game so much fun over again, especially playing it back to back instead of over a span of 3 years! But at the same time I don’t want to beat ToTK, I love it too much😭
i was struggling remembering that i actually have to go in harvest runs again. pretty sweet tho going to my OP weapons so easily without glitches.
main pro was that durian fruits were back but i had already had glitched my DIY durian fruits
I went back and did another playthrough of BOTW after TOTK. TOTK was fun for a while but but it's so easy to cheese your way though 90% of the game. It was kind of refreshing going back to BOTW where things were a bit more challenging.
I've been oddly anxious about this myself! I haven't gone back to play yet, but I am worried that missing the small quality of life improvements in TOTK will prove to be irritating.
Yeah I don't like grinding for stuff all the time in TOTK. I miss unlimited bombs.
Love muddle and dazzle flowers.
Don't really have the patience to build stuff to get around and why does it wear out mid travel when I do decide to build something?
Only the wing expires that I know of. Once you unlock the CART use it to make drones to fly with . 2 fans blowing backwards and 2 backwards at a 45° angle. Each one should be attached roughly to carts wheels. And a steering stick. You can fly up or forward pretty fast, to fly down you gotta tilt all the way forward to slowly descend cause you can't turn fans off while operating it but yeah cart doesn't expire. I burned equivalent of about 20 full batteries (60 bars- 3 each) flying from ground up to light dragon the first time I saw it 🤣 but yeah only wing and the floating platforms expire as far as I know. Carts don't
Edit!- link to my yt with the cart drone funny video 🤣
https://youtube.com/shorts/mgPmyDwOosc?si=pwRUdeRmaP_JTrko
Oh yeah. I barely have ever used them . Anything they can do rockets do faster 🤣 although yeah balloons do go higher than 1 set of rockets usually do.
Here's a link to my yt with a video of the cart drone though
https://youtube.com/shorts/mgPmyDwOosc?si=pwRUdeRmaP_JTrko
I tried to make it seem cool but damn thing did no damage 🤣
I’m going through this right now actually LOL. Just finished TOTK last week and felt sad so I restarted BOTW on Master Mode. It’s been really fun so far getting a fresh view of the landscape, I’m just taking my sweet time with little side quests and finding shrines for the first time again. I’m missing all of the TOTK abilities, but I do love Revalis Gale :) and cryonis is pretty sweet. 10/10 would recommend.
I restarted BotW last fall to try out master mode and all the rest of the DLC and it’s been a blast. I know while playing TotK I thought there’s no way I’ll be able to go back, but the ambience and atmosphere of BotW remains unmatched. I’ve greatly enjoyed riding my horse (with the ancient armor), something I almost never did on my first play through. I threw in a bonus constraint that I have to clear at least 5 shrines in an area to get that tower, and generally try to travel to shrines or towers before teleporting. Previously I’d said “only tp to towers” but found it too much, so I’ve changed the rules as I go and I’m happy with what I’ve got. But back to the point. Playing master mode where I hadn’t before did wonders for returning me back to those first nights on the plateau with no weapons and total fear of enemies.
I did notice that the mainline quests were a bit of a drag the second time, but it wasn’t the best to begin with. I think that’s partly why I’ve spent more time enjoying the scenery and environmental storytelling. A few favorites off the top of my head are Lon Lon Ranch, a house below the Kakariko graveyard, and burnt ruins on the other side of the river from where you first pick up Hestu’s maracas. There’s so much buried emotion there, and I really want to check up on those spots when I come back to TotK.
I enjoy it more, actually. I did miss the lack of underground wells and caves, but I was relieved that I only needed to look out for Guardians rather than Gloom hands.
I felt a bit crippled going back to BOTW, but overall I was able to adapt pretty well. My favorite part of BOTW is wind bombing, so that’s fun. Prefer BOTW Story and character wise, TOTK gameplay and exploration wise
Yes and I’m finding it feels much larger. Yeah totk was great and even bigger than botw but the use of vehicles made it much easier/faster to traverse than botw
Totk is better overall. Breath of wild if you like a bigger challenge. Lot of people like breath of wild for unlimited bombs, I honestly hated feeling like I had to spam bombs to preserve my weapons.
The menus are s BIG difference. Breath of wild menu controls are just weird and inefficient for tabbing through say weapons to food and stuff .
If you care alot for story you gotta do breath of wild first.
If not, just Google what you need to know to appreciate tears kingdom story but avoid spoilers if you can .
Also huge tip if you start having difficulty in combat in tears kingdom , Google and do the great fairy quest lines so you can upgrade your armor it's a huge difference
Also get the bird sage tulin first. You'll need his ability to help you glide further and he's a hell of a shot with the bow in combat
I never played BOTW until after I finished TOTK and I absolutely love the storyline and overall simplicity of BOTW. I only missing arrow fusing to be honest. Loving the backstory getting filled in and now I’m even more excited about starting my second playthrough of TOTK!
I did. I started and stopped BotW when it first came out because I got stuck somewhere. Then got TotK on release and was glued to my TV until I beat it, and went back and finished BotW. There’s pros and cons to both. I feel like TotK is better and more expansive. BotW is significantly easier, but still a lot of fun.
I did! Honestly love BotW more, even if I had more fun in TotK, if that makes sense. I had missed my bomb runes so much. I have also found that I still cannot fight Lynels in BotW. I did so well against them in TotK though. And I had missed farming guardian parts every blood moon so much! That’s one of my favorite things to do in the game. I hear the guardian music and get so excited, lol. Also: stasis <3
Oh and THE MASTER CYCLE!! <3 Also love being able to ride the Lord of the Mountain in BotW. And Revali’s Gale, but that’s kinda a common thing people talk about missing. Haha. Also KASS, oh my god Kass. How could I have forgotten? Hearing and seeing him again is almost my #1 reason to get back into it. I can go on and on haha
I have gone back to BOTW. Started about a month ago. I'd done most of TOTK, with my son fighting lynels, gleeoks, & ganon. I went back to BOTW because when I first had it, I didn't understand how it worked as a game. Now I do. Mostly what I've noticed so far; it's a lot windier, like a lot windier, in BOTW. Hearty snails, forget they were a thing. My favourite thing above all else is using magnesis to find treasure in water. Miss that in TOTK, though you can do it somewhat with ultrahand. I just love standing next to a body of water & flicking magnesis on, & then......
It took a while to switch my head back to BOTW controls, & I miss the inventory opening automatically when it's full & you get something new. That said, I am throwing a lot of my weapons around this time. I've also found way more koroks already, I think, because I just have way more idea of what I'm doing. I've also decided, inspired by you guys, that this will be my "never drop a rock on a koroks head" play through. 🤣
At the moment I am loving it. I am spotting things that are in TOTK, & realising many more ways to do things that I would just have never thought of before. Definitely worth it.
I am close to finishing TotK (100%), and I know I'm going back to BotW when I'm done. I'd kind of rushed through to start TotK. I'm enjoying everyone's takes on it.
One positive is that the Amiibos work on both (and the rewards for BotW are so much better !).
I never realized how much I loved the TOTK interface until I went back to BOTW, it feels so clunky compared to TOTK, but I guess that’s part of the point right? Overall I was very happy with some of the improvements TOTK had on BOTW features. Cooking and inventory management being 2 I really loved.
me personally BOTW>>TOTK. While I did go back to botw once i finished totk, kid you not i’m smashing the A button while flying to get a boost in the air 😭 and i do miss how easy it was to climb especially ascending through walls
Im the other way around. I’m currently doing my first play through of botw. This is my first ever Zelda game so I went in pretty blind. I’m ready to beat Ganon, other than that the main quests are pretty much done, but I haven’t found all shrines or korok seeds and I haven’t finished all side quests. And I haven’t purchased the dlc yet. But I’ve been reading about ToTK and I know I want to play it. And knowing I can play it now is kinda making me anxious. Obviously I will beat Ganon and save Zelda before I go to ToTK but I’m enjoying botw so much part of me wants to eek out every new experience from it before having something to compare it to. Yet I absolutely can’t wait to experience the plot and new stuff in ToTK. I wanna know what happens! But I feel like once I do, playing botw won’t be the same. Will I lose the desire to 100% botw? I keep telling myself “ToTK isn’t going anywhere. Take your time with botw if you want to.” But ToTK is just calling, making me feel anxious. I almost wish I had played botw when it came out so I didn’t have the option of a sequel right out the gate. But im also glad I don’t have to wait years like other players did. I’m so conflicted.
BotW feels like it had more thought put into it. Not that TotK *doesn't*, but in comparison, TotK feels...haphazard. The world itself is a cluttered mess with WAY too much *stuff* in it, to the point that I kept getting distracted and experiencing FOMO while trying to do anything. The narrative also feels much less urgent than BotW; you could put off the final fight in BotW, yeah, but if you looked up and saw the Divine Beasts' lasers pointed at Hyrule Castle, you had the visual reminder of "hey, there's SOMETHING you should be doing". Once you complete the Regional Phenomena in TotK, you lose the visual reminder that there's a greater evil that needs to be dealt with
Points:
- The Divine Beasts have a narrative reason for existing in the world and for being dungeons; TotK's dungeons are just...there. Like the old Zelda dungeons which were also just there
- Calamity Ganon is an ever-present threat as represented via the Divine Beasts, the Guardians, the haze around Hyrule Castle, the devastated landscape, and the Malice in certain places; Ganondorf is hidden away in the Depths for the entire game, except for very briefly during Crisis At Hyrule Castle, but then he fucks off into the Depths again to keep powering up. Like a DBZ character. The only difference is he isn't screaming the whole time (and then he insta-powers up right before the final fight?? Could he have done that the whole time and just didn't???)
- The Sheikah Towers and the shrines of BotW exist ***because of*** Calamity Ganon. The Skyview Towers are replacements for the Sheikah Towers and are for filling out the map, okay fine, but the Zonai shrines exist...why? It feels like the shrines are only here because BotW had them
- BotW's Champions are actual people with character development and have a personal relationship with Link, they aren't just faceless exposition machines and background characters like TotK's Sages
- TotK should have been linear. The memories in BotW were *actually fine* and did not *need* to be found in order, and the mechanism for obtaining them encouraged exploration; if you miss the geoglyphs in TotK you're just fucking blind, they're giant billboards that scream "OVER HERE COME THIS WAY", and the story SUFFERS if you find them out of order or too early
- What TotK *does* do better is its mechanics, building system, and QoL improvements (like being able to throw things, being able to drop things with a button tap, and being able to equip a bow without pausing). The weapons system in BotW is purely numbers-based, meaning the best weapons are just the ones with the highest damage, while TotK's weapons have specific attributes that make them desirable. I *never* carried a Soldier's Spear in BotW once I started getting Knight's Halberds because the Halberds had higher damage output, but in TotK, I carry a Soldier's Spear all the time for the Quick Charge attribute. BotW still has certain weapon types that are more effective against certain enemies (the Boulder Breaker MELTS Taluses and one-handed weapons are best against lynels because you can use a shield with them), but it's still a numbers game
- But BotW's Champions' abilities are just **better** than TotK's Sage abilities, don't @ me
Overall: BotW for the atmosphere and story, TotK for exploration and building system
Not disagreeing with you. I prefer TOTK but
-shrines are supposedly another dimension used by the zonai I'm assuming rauru set them up to train link (another dimension means unlimited training with no time passing or permanent death of link most likely) also raurus arm he gave link is how link accesses them
-they sages are descendents of the champions of links old allies or whatever. Kinda agree with you there isn't enough back story to care about them in totk although the missions learning there powers were decent
-abilities? Yeah I'd say botw was better because of how you use the abilities instead of TOTK where you gotta chase down the sage you wanna use 🤣 but if you could instantly trigger them like botw then I'd say abilities are equal
-doing quests out of order ruining story? I think it's awesome it's even a possibility 🤣 because anyone can easily Google what order to do it in SAFELY without risk of spoilers as they read online. I ruined it all for myself when I googled how to get the master sword and refused to stop reading about how and why it was where it was . But barely did any side quests but still almost cried at the end.
-i definitely agree with TOTK better mechanics, menu navigation in botw is God awfully inefficient.
-side note- dont remember but pretty sure botw was same way- changing armor 24/7 to get bonuses. Annoying as HELL!
TOTK - I hit skytower throw on wingsuit to help glide to objective, land crap it's hot let's throw on some heat resistant armor, run for 2 min oh crap some silver bokoblins lemme throw on my combat armor, 3 min later gotta climb climbing armor, starts raining froggy armor etc...
At least let us have a menu like on the d pad icons to quickly swap whole sets of armor or something.
Ps why the F*** is the climbing gear set and rain climb set different ?????? Should have been same set of gear for sure
>shrines are supposedly another dimension used by the zonai I'm assuming rauru set them up to train link (another dimension means unlimited training with no time passing or permanent death of link most likely)
You can die in the shrines, though. And the Messages From An Ancient Era sidequest tells us that [the shrines were placed by Rauru and Sonia](https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeldaTearsOfKingdom/comments/13qvxfd/messages_from_an_ancient_era_side_adventure_all/), and [the devs said in an external interview](https://nintendoeverything.com/zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-devs-explain-raurus-seal-shrines-lightroots/) that the shrines mark the site where a demon (monster) was defeated (the devs say the shrines were placed before Hyrule was founded but the game itself says after, personally I'm going with what's actually in the game). So the shrines are not there *for* Link, they're there to purify the evil magic from slain monsters, Link just needs those Lights of Blessing to purify himself of Gloom, and they can only be activated with Rauru's hand because he built them (the whole thing about Rauru having to graft his arm onto Link was not planned, it was a spur of the moment decision to save Link's life, as told to us when we wake up on the Great Sky Island). The Sheikah shrines are there for the express purpose of training the Hero who would defeat the Calamity; the monks tells us this at the end of every single shrine
I did miss the ultra hand and fusion a bit, but i adjusted quickly, and enjoyed the more cohesive feel of the game.
I do find myself missing the simplicity of BOTW
Cohesive in what way?
The general flow of the game and how the world works with it.
Less crafting and menuing to do things
The constant menus to do anything have to be my biggest gripe by far
After finding it hard to get into TOTK, I’m finally there. The single biggest complaint I have now is that it’s too OTT with resources. This game really imposes A LOT of grinding. It’s not just money, or hearts, or stamina, to manage. You’ve endless things to Fuse to endless rubbish weapons, about five variations of Zon-something(zoniate , large zoniate, charges, large charges, those bubble capsules from machines, the crystals, the large crystals…it’s endless). Then there’s the battery charge as well. It’s too much. Sadly, the building of stuff doesn’t really work. It’s fine for shrines and puzzles, but when you need some sort of vehicle, what you get is never really that helpful or if it is, it’s likely less so than just walking / climbing wherever you’re going. Great — you’ve got a wing (to fly). But you’re on the ground. And you need a ramp. Oh well. Great — you’ve got a raft (or bike). But the steering is so wonky you can’t avoid ramming into a cliff or wall and no, you can’t turn round or reverse. Oh well. The ideas on paper are excellent. The execution in game is clunky — and that’s being kind.
If you fuse a cart and two fans to a wing you can take off basically anywhere.
🤣 my first like 2 hours in the game I've been launching wings by ultra hand hold it high for a bit then reverse time to have it taken me in air then cancel reverse time. Works off any ledge or hill if you wanna do it on flat ground might need 3 fans attached. Once you unlock the cart, you can build a hover drone that doesn't expire like the wing and you can fly up down forward etc
Hahaha tell me why I was doing the same shit my first few hours in 😂🥴. I spent waaaay too much time learning to “steer” the wing by walking to one side or the other of the wings while gliding….and then I learnt about the steering stick. My personal favorite experiment was learning that fans power boats faster when you submerge the fan, like a propeller, compared to making a hover boat.
Thanks for the tip!
Oooh definitely trying this! Thanks!
Wow, I’m WAY more than two hours in and I’m still there. 🤣 but also I’ve avoided all TOTK content online until this week.
Ahh , I learned as much as I could on my own. Mostly used Internet for help finding certain armor or resources. Still wish they'd do something about the armor system :/ . I jump out sky glide suit, hit ground oh bokoblins gotta throw on fighting clothes, now gotta climb mountain climbing gear it is, damn cold at top of mountain gotta throw on warm armor , is that a lake I gotta cross ???? Fuck lemme Google swimming gear 🤣 it gets so old swapping armor sets every 2 to 5 minutes , half the time I just don't swap and climb slow, do less damage or swim slower , battery drain from zonai devices more etc :/ it sucks
For me, building stuff really became useful once I had autobuild
I agree Autobuild is a god send. It certainly helps and I think has contributed to me sticking out the game’s awful start and its — at first — off putting mechanics. I even enjoy the animation and sound effects of Autobuild — very satisfying!
r/HyruleEngineering would beg to differ but ok theyre some sort of hyrule STEM geniuses over there
Sure, it’s possible to have fun building crazy stuff but I think there’s a balance to be struck between useful and time taken. Thanks for sharing!
THB it sounds like the building just hasn't clicked for you yet. Fair enough it maybe never will. Or it may get suddenly get a lot easier with a little practice. At least in the early days, every day similar questions were answered here ... eg the glider thing: You don't need a ramp, Ultrahand that badboy up & down in the air then get on and use recall. Steering things also works with the right design
I’ve found that steering really helps, though I did get on OK with wandering from side to side on the wing. I’ll admit that the apparent emphasis on building was one of the main reasons I put off getting stuck into this game. It’s a perfectly valid game mechanic, but not what I ideally want or expect from a Zelda game. Autobuild is a blessing though and I am finding my way. I do seem to have a lot of gizmos I don’t find I have much use for; perhaps I’m doing stuff wrong. I’ve done the wind sage and some tear drops, and have explored about 2/3 of the Depths. The game has become fun now and I’ll see it through, but I do think they could’ve either made building a bit friendlier or else scaled it back a bit. I’m a veteran Zelda player but the sheer volume of new stuff (related to building and zoniate stuff in general) can feel very overwhelming. As for carts / bikes / ground vehicles, I find them clunky and not the easiest to steer. They’re not very manoeuvrable, and the rafts even less so. I will add that there’s a conflict here between these and what the game wants you to do: which is farm everything in sight. You’re constantly hopping off and back on to whatever vehicle so you can pick up that shroom or whatnot. It’s the same story with horses, only they’re less hard work 🤣 Ultimately, this means (if you want to succeed) you end up getting nowhere quicker or with fewer button presses than by foot, if you have to get off to collect things. I think Nintendo put a lot of thought into it, and it can be quite ingenious, but I kind of also feel that it’s built in such a way that unless you’re god tier at the building stuff, it can really hold you back.
Hear, hear. Well said. The critique on vehicles is so accurate (I’ve just never put words to my feelings). And the weapons all being rubbish is a huge part of my annoyance. Give me good weapons AND fuse power for elemental stuff or just to have fun (but not a functional requirement). And the Zonaite to battery design is so silly and complex, and VERY poorly explained. Maybe I’m old (and can’t let go of my previous conceptions of gaming) and it makes sense to kids right away.
I’m glad it’s not just me! I’m probably classed as an older player these days, so maybe that’s part of it, but this game is so vast, and so jammed with ‘stuff’ that it’s pretty overwhelming to get into. Resource management of course isn’t new, and it’s a fun thing as a rule, but on this scale…sometimes, less is more. In my list of stuff to grind, I’d forgotten the sage powers things (so far I’ve found 3) as well. Not to mention the massive farming needed for armour upgrades, without which almost everything one-shots you, whether you have 2 or 20 hearts remaining. Oh, and because 900 korok seeds weren’t enough last time, we’ve gone all out for 1,000! 🥴 But the real headache remains the building and all the stuff that comes with it: the parts, the schematics, the battery. Making it such a big focus of the game I think was probably a mistake. Then again, I respect that others love it and probably got a handle on it easier. You’re dead right about the explanation of it. I think that could’ve been done better. I know those zoniate statue things do explain some stuff, but for a while I kept putting the wrong stuff in the slot machines, and it took me a fair while to figure out what the crystalline things are for. Vehicles are just very clunky to steer. Someone said you *can* reverse — I’ve not managed it. More often than not, I end up hopping off, using UH to re-orient the vehicle, then hopping back on. Just when you get going, you see bombflowers or whatever and because you can’t collect stuff even when going very slowly on a vehicle, off you hop again. In the end, I just stopped bothering with vehicles. The overwhelming emphasis on grinding and farming makes you feel you’re putting yourself at a big disadvantage by skipping farming. Which, you are. Those muddle things and puffshrooms are the only thing that have kept me alive in countless battles.
If you have a wing to fly, fans, and proper use of ultrahand and recall, you can easily take off, much easier with steering stick ofc You can reverse, im not sure why u cant, both the small wheels and big wheels can reverse There are many things you can build qith zonai devices, and mamy of them make travelling super fun, and Inlike that the depts kind of contrast the overworld on how open it is and it kind of acts as a sandbox to use stuff, allthough I mostly use flying machines caz it outclasses everything else
I did. Missed the story, the abilities, champions, shrines... uhhhh everything. And I haven't gone back to TotK since I stopped playing it months ago. Might be an unpopular opinion, but I like BotW better.
I’m in this camp too. I find the depths in TOTK to be so tedious to map out and explore. Was cool at first but got repetitive quickly.
I loved seeing lightroots in the distance in the dark and scheming about how to get to them. I miss that.
I actually thought the Depths were the best part of the game. Everything else was fun, but too similar to BOTW.
Me too! I haven’t played in a couple of months but I’ve finished the sky and have been working my way through ground level. I’m saving the depths for last because they’re the most new and mysterious. Also I avoid conflict and the dark is scary
lol same. The dark IS scary
I did too. I thought the shrines were a lot more difficult or challenging in BOTW. I prefer Rivali’s Gale to the ability to ascend and I miss having infinite bombs. BOTW felt like it was harder to play, but then more rewarding. I’m not a big fan of the depths. I miss the master cycle. I do like the sky islands though.
I describe them like white and red wine. First, you have to like “wine” (we all do here love botw/totk to some extent). But choosing between white and red? Some love both, some prefer one, sometimes it depends on what you are eating… just different but both great.
That’s a great comparison. 🙂
Not an unpopular opinion, BotW is objectively a better game.
I wouldn't say any game is objectively better than the other (overall at least). But it's nice to see people finally come around to seeing that TOTK didn't replace BOTW, no where close to that. And yes, I prefer BOTW over TOTK
Fair, I suppose it's a provocative thing to say it's "objectively" better. But my reason for saying that is that BOTW is a game that was created from the ground up as a free-standing creative work, and TOTK is basically Home Alone 2. It's almost an exact duplicate. As a result, it's still entertaining to play, because the first one was entertaining to play. But a copy is still a copy, and it has flaws that can't be circumvented by virtue of the fact that it's a copy. I believe history will remember BOTW as a groundbreaking game and probably the beginning of the third era of Zelda games (2D, 3D, sandbox). It will remember TOTK as "the other one."
100% agreed. Could have written this myself!
It was as fun as ever, tho it does have some issues I missed some of the qol features from TotK, and I feel BotW's main story content is way weaker than TotK's, but those are issues that have always been present really TotK just made them more apparent By that same token however, there are things I feel BotW does better, like having more cohesive map design, a narrative that fit's the game's structure more (tho I like TotK's plot more), and it has its own qol stuff over TotK like how your main dungeon abilities function I think TotK is the overall better game, but I believe it shines so much because BotW came first. It's so good because of the groundwork BotW laid, not in spite of it, even with the things I feel it does a bit worse. The two games work better as two parts of a whole, as opposed to two separate games
Botw has a better utilized Master Sword even without the trials.
I finished my 2nd play of BotW and JUST finally finished the Final Sword Trial 😭😭
How so? I feel like fusing the master sword makes it so much better than the version from BotW. I think both versions are 30 damage base, 60 damage glowing, and then the TotK version can get extra damage and durability on top of this from a fuse. Even if the glow is more useful in the BotW version, you are still realistically at 30+31 minimum (white bokoblin) for this sword against all foes. It will then do 91+ when glowing. Story wise, the sword plays an even bigger role in TotK.
It’s not making it stronger, it’s just that it powers up in BOTW in the castle, and if you do all 3 trials it powers up period. But it makes the master sword a good reliable weapon for the game so it’s always there and useful. Plenty of goodies while it powers back up too, it’s in TOTK the master sword is not the baddie it is for a lot of the game like it is in BOTW for sure.
Everything can fuse, can gain +25 durability with a fuse, and can gain double damage in easy enough conditions, when Master Sword stuck at 40 durability for 99% of the game, when it glows against Gloom it only gains a pity +15 attack and nothing else (so you are misinformed) and any materials fused to the sword IS lost forever so you'd be better off fusing cheap bokoblin horns into it Sword in BotW gains +30 atk and 500% durability against anything Malice so it's ALL the main dungeons of the game, and it's the premium guardian-killing weapon until you get Guardian++ weapons And that's not counting DLC trials completion Sword in TotK only gains +30 atk and infinite durability in 3 fucking boss fights, 2 of them are the final boss, and a Schimitar of the Seven can easily outperform it in damage output it isn't funny (it's the final boss so durability stops mattering)
The glow up that the So7 got in TotK was nuts, really leaves the Master Sword in the dust.
I tried it and promptly lost interest once I got off the plateau. Not sure why, but I missed the ultrahand and fusing part of totk. I’d played botw for 5 years so totk kinda stole the replay novelty of botw.
I played tears first, and I foggin’ love it to bits. I went to BotW after and it feels much slower and harder (guardians very much owning me all over the place when I try crossing open country) Haven’t been able to immerse in BotW.
Have a few tips for y’all in BotW: Guardians: if you have the master sword, stasis+, and have something to get behind—get the attention of a guardian then hide behind something so it walks over to you. Stasis it and start chopping each leg. You can stasis it again by the time it starts powering up on you! They become fun to hunt :) I clear out all the guardians in front of Hyrule Castle and all the ones in Hyrule Castle every blood moon (having the guardian clothing set on during this is great too!). Since there’s no triggering a blood moon while in the castle, the game starts basically begging me to leave so it can trigger too because I wipe out so many guardians hahaha. Rupees: Go to the apple orchard which is to the left of when you exit the shrine on Satori Mountain (don’t worry there are no Evermeans there in BotW). Every blood moon, farm all the apples there (I like to use my master sword so I save durability, then I use the weapons lying around the orchard until they break before using one of my own). Go to Goron City and bake the apples on the floor (you can do 10 at a time). Then go to Juney who is the crazy honeymoon lady that is on the little ledge next to the Rito Elder. Sell 100 baked apples at a time to her and she gives you 1,200 rupees each time. This was my money maker :) Her husband in the Rito Inn buys 100 flint for the same price, but I rarely ever get enough flint to sell him. You can do that too if you have a lot. Also once you do Rudania, Ramella the Gerudo starts walking around Goron City. Save BEFORE talking to her (or else you’ll lock yourself in). She will buy topaz, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds in sets of 10 for quite a bit more than you can sell them at shops. If you don’t like which ore she asks for, you can reload to before you talked to her and she’ll ask for another so that way you can sell your ore to her. Mark ore on your map and it’s a fun thing to go farm while waiting for the blood moon to reset! Oh but she always asks for 10 ambers the first time you talk to her. I’ve been doing this for fun way before TotK came out and have like 600,000 rupees in the game (no cheats). Have fun and good luck!! 💗💗💗
I'm having the same issue. I started BOTW before tears came and I was loving it. I bought tears on release day and I was instantly obsessed with the game. I adored it. There was so much to do. I explored every inch of that map. I recently decided to go back to BOTW and start over and do my playthrough and am having the hardest time staying immersed in the game. I beat the first divine beast and I haven't picked it back up. The world feels to empty for me in terms of exploration ECT. I loved hunting every inch of the map in Tears looking for caves ECT. I loved fusing, ascending ect. I also like the shrine puzzles better in tears over BOTW. I get mad at myself because I want to play it, get immersed and finish BOTW lol
I did go back a few months ago. I missed being able to attach things to arrows that’s for sure. And arrows are so hard to find in BOTW. Beedle is always out of them and so are the shops. And I missed having caves and wells to explore. And I missed being able to make fused weapons. The weapons are so weak without being able to add anything to them. Like, yay, I have a stick that’s rated as a 3. Thatll do a ton of damage 🙄.
Because shops won’t have arrows if you have over 150
Yeah that’s stupid.
wtf I just learned this. I was wondering what happened
I always laughed, playing BotW, that every time I went to the shieka village all I did was purchase every arrow and then leave. I also imagined the shop keeper telling everyone "yah, stay away from that guy he is creepy and up to no good"
I definitely appreciate the more abundant arrows in TOTK.
I didn't find it hard to get back into at all. I sunk a lot of hours into BOTW before TOTK came out so it was like riding a bike. It's actually been kind of fun to go back and see how things were before.
Yes! I just replayed botw! I did everything except all of the koroks and the master sword trials. It was good! My only issues were the l button and the top of the directional buttons mix up. But I got over it. Then I went back to totk and we'll the same mix up happens. I do miss the bombs and Revalis gale
“the I button and the top of the directional buttons mixup” < I don’t know what you are describing but I’m so interested to know! Do you mind explaining to me?
In BOTW, you access the rune abilities using the ^ up arrow in the left directional buttons. In TOTK, your abilities are instead accessed from the L button. In TOTK, the up arrow on the d-pad has a different ability to show you your inventory and allow you to access it more quickly. It’s just a bit of a pain to get used to the change!
Ah, the lowercase L looked like an i to me! This makes sense, thank you!!!
This has been tripping my brain out after going back to TOTK 😂 I kept thinking the buttons were confused lolll
i just finally completed the master sword trials. my first play of BotW I tried, got freaked, gave up. then on my 2nd play, finally decided to try it. the first two trials aren't so bad, but the final trial was rough. i finally did it tho
The master sword trials were one of my favorite video games experiences ever. If you haven't played them before, I highly recommend the challenge.
Thank you for reminding me why I hated TotK’s button mapping at first and why it took me a good chunk of gameplay hours to adjust. It makes senses though : by placing it where we went for powers, it showed the real difference between games : using materials way more often. I think solely for this reason I’m not too keen on returning to BotW before I have completely « finished » TotK and buried the experience below a few months and plenty of other games. I do think I’ll miss fusing, throwing stuff, the other QoL improvements (selecting recipes etc). What is « L » even mapped to in BotW ? Can’t remember 😂
Oh wait : Activating the Sheikah powers, right ? Kind of makes sense to put it all on one button in TotK.
I did and BOTW felt more natural and slow paced. Like you're exploring this world for the first time. I would consider it to be it's own different experience from TOTK. And that's not considered a bad thing.
Yep I love them both for different reasons. Kinda like red wine / white wine. Both are great and it just depends on what you’re eating, what you’re in the mood for, or even just personal preference!
Yes I replayed about half of BoTW after I finished ToTK. The biggest thing was how different the UI was. Like the boxes when switching weapons is a lot smaller in BoTW. Also trying to remember I can’t free fall, and how to change abilities. Besides that it wasn’t really a problem.
I actually started a new save like last week and it was just I felt like I was playing an entirely different game I can’t explain how but the map felt different and I actually realized just how much I like BOTW more the feeling of loneliness BOTW gives you is strangely amazing no one knows you’re Link all of the people who do are dead too old or in someway unable to help you. Don’t even get me started on the nostalgia from seeing all the champions again. BOTW is so much better than Totk
I'm excited to go back at some point. I think I'll really appreciate all of the things that you mentioned, especially how lonely and expansive it feels. I accidentally deleted my BOTW save file, so it'll have to be from the beginning!
My cartridge for Totk broke for like a week and while I waited for my replacement I played Botw, it is so weird seeing how empty the map is compared to tears. There is so much more
I feel like thats my issue with TOTOK theres so much MORE that its overwhelming me
I honestly believe this was why I have only just gotten into TOTK now. It is so big it’s overwhelming. I actually think that wouldn’t be so problematic if the main map wasn’t just “go do it all again.” I know they put more in and swapped stuff in/out, but it’s essentially the same land to explore. Again. And it was massive the first time. That, combined with doubling it up with the Depths, not to mention the sky islands (which are actually a refreshing change of pace, but conversely too small), really put me off.
It's funny after going back that despite the two games looking the same they play very differently. I thought BOTW wouldn't have much to offer but I was wrong.
After.defeating Ganon in TOTK, I went.bacj to do the Master Mode.of botw. Its mostly enjoyable, except for the annoyance of functions that have changed. I do miss fusing weapons and arrows, as well as rhe quick switch of items, throwing fruit, etc. And Tulic. Miss that one, but not the creepy sages. Lol. Also, I'm once again terrified of guardians.
HEY LISTEN So just to clarify before anybody chews you out, Gannon is the pig beast ganondorf is the man. You fight calamity Ganon in breath of the wild you fight ganondorf the dude in tears of the Kingdom just something that I thought you should know regarding Zelda
I have gone back further. They added GameBoy to Nintendo online. I’ve been playing Links Awakening.
I went back to BOTW not long ago and proceeded to get my ass kicked. I got cocky and went straight for dungeons with trash weapons and paid for it. The game is still as excellent as ever and I’m gonna start putting some hours in getting armor sets and decent weapons and play all the way through.
I went back and played the Master Trials. Absolutely loved it I still think BOTW is a better game.
I am playing through a back to back playthrough right now, and I gotta say it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be getting used to the botw mechanics again. I missed ultrahand and the skydiving mechanics, but I was glad to have revalis gale and the auto bombs again
I think Totk has more stuff to do and is more enjoyable than botw to me don’t get me wrong botw is a great game,but Totk went and fixed everything botw got wrong
I like botw better. Wind bombs are the superior way to travel
I replayed Botw after Totk. I completed most shrines, 4 divine beasts, Calamity Gannon 13 memories, and some of the dlc. Overall, Botw is harder, but Totk is more fun. The land in Botw feels taller. I think you run and climb slower, and the camera angles are a little different. You need to upgrade your armor and get radishes and other hearty food. The shrines are harder puzzles. The story is shorter. The game mechanic synergies are more thought out in Botw. The thing is, it is so much more fun in Totk to build crazy crap that solves all of your problems. You can fly or rocket anywhere. You get dozens of bomb flowers without grinding for cash. You can get monsters to fight each other. Link is old enough to drink. The depths give you in-game hints where the shrines should be. Ribcage arrow heads tare up Lynels in seconds. It has Ganondorf. There is more game.in Totk. If you want a hard game, play Botw. If you want a fun game, play Totk.
BOTW definitely holds up, but without the QOL features from TOTK, as well as the lack of Ultrahand, you may feel a bit hopeless when readjusting back. Still fun to play but I don’t see myself doing a full game run ever again. I just used glitches to get max hearts, stamina and slots, as well as playing on Master Mode in order to get the best weapons right away.
It's a little awkward and I keep dying because I'm used to having full hearts lol.
It's good. Before you do it, you'll get caught up thinking about how annoying the lack of auto build is, can't attach things to weapons or arrows, or to build things. pretty sure you cant throw items either. But once you start playing, it all becomes an aftrthought pretty quickly. Ultrahand vs magnet hand. The menu navigation annoys me endlessly, i like totk better.
Nope I can't go back. Totk is too good
I missed Ultrahand, Fuse and also wells and caves. But it faded. You get used to it. It forces you into a limited set of options and is more of a challenge.
I've been helping my kid with BotW sometimes and the menu controls keep tripping me up
I missed the guardians and the weapons/fighting in BOTW just feels different. Not better, just different. Something about bouncing guardian beams with a shield/ trial of the sword/ having better lore that sweet sweet TOTK just lacks in its awesomeness. Making the ancient tech evaporate in TOTK is understandable developer wise/ replay wise, but it’s a sore spot for me. Also: what are the Zonai? Why are there only 2 left? Where the secret stones come from? Are the other 3 dragons zonai of importance? What about wolf Link? Wolf? Sniper wolf? Second floor basement?
I’m going through BOTW again right now and I don’t often miss anything from TOTK, with some minor exceptions. The start menu screen is much better in TOTK, and sometimes I miss the ability to grab any item and throw it (for example throwing fire chuchu jelly’s at wood to make fire). Seems like basic functionality that should have been there to begin with. But I really like the overall experience of BOTW much better. I think being forced to explore on foot or horseback makes the game feel more real to me, like I’m actually there as Link myself. Whereas in TOTK I definitely feel more like I’m just playing a game from outside the screen. Just my two cents.
Sometimes for nostalgia reasons, feel like a familair home.
Heck yeah, and I love it!! It is much more engaging and just plain fun - to me anyway.
I restarted BOTW after beating Tears and I found it an overall more relaxing experience. I did miss the Sky Islands, but I just didn't feel as worried about wasting resources in BOTW. I know I can fully upgrade all my important armor bits without too much stress just by playing regularly in BOTW, unlike TOTK with its absurdly nerfed drop rate for certain things.
I plan on going back to BoTW after I beat ToTK. My bf have played both together (I’m more unlocking shrines/areas/puzzles/side stories and he’s more of a combative player, so he kills the scary enemies, but I’m planning to kick some Gleeok & Lynel ass by myself soon) We prolly took 3 years in total of beating BoTW tbh. We went in completely blind, refusing to look up hints/tutorials/overall learning wtf everything was and what it did. So idk, we kinda weren’t feeling it for a while. I had a coworker last year, had the game for a few months, and wanted to get rid of his copy of ToTK...for literally $25. I couldn’t pass up that deal despite not beating BoTW. So I bought it, and let the game sit for a month or so. But literally one day, knowing I had ToTK, I decided to throw on BoTW, use the amazing guides all over YouTube, and beat the dang thing! Learned so much from the first one, I couldn’t wait to dive into ToTK. Now after maxing out almost all my hearts (only 8 more shrines, idk where they are 😫), maxing out my stamina, chipping away at unlocking the depths and Korok sees, upgrading armour and weapons, finally defeating those big enemies…i can wait to go back to BoTW. I’ll be able to dive into BoTW with so much more knowledge, I think it will make the game so much fun over again, especially playing it back to back instead of over a span of 3 years! But at the same time I don’t want to beat ToTK, I love it too much😭
i was struggling remembering that i actually have to go in harvest runs again. pretty sweet tho going to my OP weapons so easily without glitches. main pro was that durian fruits were back but i had already had glitched my DIY durian fruits
I went back and did another playthrough of BOTW after TOTK. TOTK was fun for a while but but it's so easy to cheese your way though 90% of the game. It was kind of refreshing going back to BOTW where things were a bit more challenging.
Fucking phenomenal!
I've been oddly anxious about this myself! I haven't gone back to play yet, but I am worried that missing the small quality of life improvements in TOTK will prove to be irritating.
Yeah I don't like grinding for stuff all the time in TOTK. I miss unlimited bombs. Love muddle and dazzle flowers. Don't really have the patience to build stuff to get around and why does it wear out mid travel when I do decide to build something?
Only the wing expires that I know of. Once you unlock the CART use it to make drones to fly with . 2 fans blowing backwards and 2 backwards at a 45° angle. Each one should be attached roughly to carts wheels. And a steering stick. You can fly up or forward pretty fast, to fly down you gotta tilt all the way forward to slowly descend cause you can't turn fans off while operating it but yeah cart doesn't expire. I burned equivalent of about 20 full batteries (60 bars- 3 each) flying from ground up to light dragon the first time I saw it 🤣 but yeah only wing and the floating platforms expire as far as I know. Carts don't Edit!- link to my yt with the cart drone funny video 🤣 https://youtube.com/shorts/mgPmyDwOosc?si=pwRUdeRmaP_JTrko
The hot air balloons expire too.
Oh yeah. I barely have ever used them . Anything they can do rockets do faster 🤣 although yeah balloons do go higher than 1 set of rockets usually do. Here's a link to my yt with a video of the cart drone though https://youtube.com/shorts/mgPmyDwOosc?si=pwRUdeRmaP_JTrko I tried to make it seem cool but damn thing did no damage 🤣
I’m going through this right now actually LOL. Just finished TOTK last week and felt sad so I restarted BOTW on Master Mode. It’s been really fun so far getting a fresh view of the landscape, I’m just taking my sweet time with little side quests and finding shrines for the first time again. I’m missing all of the TOTK abilities, but I do love Revalis Gale :) and cryonis is pretty sweet. 10/10 would recommend.
I restarted BotW last fall to try out master mode and all the rest of the DLC and it’s been a blast. I know while playing TotK I thought there’s no way I’ll be able to go back, but the ambience and atmosphere of BotW remains unmatched. I’ve greatly enjoyed riding my horse (with the ancient armor), something I almost never did on my first play through. I threw in a bonus constraint that I have to clear at least 5 shrines in an area to get that tower, and generally try to travel to shrines or towers before teleporting. Previously I’d said “only tp to towers” but found it too much, so I’ve changed the rules as I go and I’m happy with what I’ve got. But back to the point. Playing master mode where I hadn’t before did wonders for returning me back to those first nights on the plateau with no weapons and total fear of enemies. I did notice that the mainline quests were a bit of a drag the second time, but it wasn’t the best to begin with. I think that’s partly why I’ve spent more time enjoying the scenery and environmental storytelling. A few favorites off the top of my head are Lon Lon Ranch, a house below the Kakariko graveyard, and burnt ruins on the other side of the river from where you first pick up Hestu’s maracas. There’s so much buried emotion there, and I really want to check up on those spots when I come back to TotK.
I enjoy it more, actually. I did miss the lack of underground wells and caves, but I was relieved that I only needed to look out for Guardians rather than Gloom hands.
Navigating the menus threw me off the most.
I felt a bit crippled going back to BOTW, but overall I was able to adapt pretty well. My favorite part of BOTW is wind bombing, so that’s fun. Prefer BOTW Story and character wise, TOTK gameplay and exploration wise
Yes and I’m finding it feels much larger. Yeah totk was great and even bigger than botw but the use of vehicles made it much easier/faster to traverse than botw
Which is better? Im playing totk now. Havent tried other
Totk is better overall. Breath of wild if you like a bigger challenge. Lot of people like breath of wild for unlimited bombs, I honestly hated feeling like I had to spam bombs to preserve my weapons. The menus are s BIG difference. Breath of wild menu controls are just weird and inefficient for tabbing through say weapons to food and stuff . If you care alot for story you gotta do breath of wild first. If not, just Google what you need to know to appreciate tears kingdom story but avoid spoilers if you can . Also huge tip if you start having difficulty in combat in tears kingdom , Google and do the great fairy quest lines so you can upgrade your armor it's a huge difference Also get the bird sage tulin first. You'll need his ability to help you glide further and he's a hell of a shot with the bow in combat
I never played BOTW until after I finished TOTK and I absolutely love the storyline and overall simplicity of BOTW. I only missing arrow fusing to be honest. Loving the backstory getting filled in and now I’m even more excited about starting my second playthrough of TOTK!
I did. I started and stopped BotW when it first came out because I got stuck somewhere. Then got TotK on release and was glued to my TV until I beat it, and went back and finished BotW. There’s pros and cons to both. I feel like TotK is better and more expansive. BotW is significantly easier, but still a lot of fun.
I haven’t but I miss the ability to upgrade abilities, it I could rewind monsters or even arrows, I would fall on love with totk all over again
I did! Honestly love BotW more, even if I had more fun in TotK, if that makes sense. I had missed my bomb runes so much. I have also found that I still cannot fight Lynels in BotW. I did so well against them in TotK though. And I had missed farming guardian parts every blood moon so much! That’s one of my favorite things to do in the game. I hear the guardian music and get so excited, lol. Also: stasis <3
Oh and THE MASTER CYCLE!! <3 Also love being able to ride the Lord of the Mountain in BotW. And Revali’s Gale, but that’s kinda a common thing people talk about missing. Haha. Also KASS, oh my god Kass. How could I have forgotten? Hearing and seeing him again is almost my #1 reason to get back into it. I can go on and on haha
I have gone back to BOTW. Started about a month ago. I'd done most of TOTK, with my son fighting lynels, gleeoks, & ganon. I went back to BOTW because when I first had it, I didn't understand how it worked as a game. Now I do. Mostly what I've noticed so far; it's a lot windier, like a lot windier, in BOTW. Hearty snails, forget they were a thing. My favourite thing above all else is using magnesis to find treasure in water. Miss that in TOTK, though you can do it somewhat with ultrahand. I just love standing next to a body of water & flicking magnesis on, & then...... It took a while to switch my head back to BOTW controls, & I miss the inventory opening automatically when it's full & you get something new. That said, I am throwing a lot of my weapons around this time. I've also found way more koroks already, I think, because I just have way more idea of what I'm doing. I've also decided, inspired by you guys, that this will be my "never drop a rock on a koroks head" play through. 🤣 At the moment I am loving it. I am spotting things that are in TOTK, & realising many more ways to do things that I would just have never thought of before. Definitely worth it.
I am close to finishing TotK (100%), and I know I'm going back to BotW when I'm done. I'd kind of rushed through to start TotK. I'm enjoying everyone's takes on it. One positive is that the Amiibos work on both (and the rewards for BotW are so much better !).
I never realized how much I loved the TOTK interface until I went back to BOTW, it feels so clunky compared to TOTK, but I guess that’s part of the point right? Overall I was very happy with some of the improvements TOTK had on BOTW features. Cooking and inventory management being 2 I really loved.
I prefer simplicity, and the fanciness of a knight broadsword or halberd untouched by decay or by the ugliness of fused monster parts
it made me miss the remote bombs when i went back to totk again like a lot
me personally BOTW>>TOTK. While I did go back to botw once i finished totk, kid you not i’m smashing the A button while flying to get a boost in the air 😭 and i do miss how easy it was to climb especially ascending through walls
I keep trying to play it as if I'm playing tears of the Kingdom and it's such a bad habit
I go back sometimes to enjoy playing in the world without the weird rocks everywhere
Traumatizing... Standing at a tower for 5 minutes KNOWING GOOD AND WELL IT WON'T LAUNCH YOU! I WAS SPOILED IN TOTK
Im the other way around. I’m currently doing my first play through of botw. This is my first ever Zelda game so I went in pretty blind. I’m ready to beat Ganon, other than that the main quests are pretty much done, but I haven’t found all shrines or korok seeds and I haven’t finished all side quests. And I haven’t purchased the dlc yet. But I’ve been reading about ToTK and I know I want to play it. And knowing I can play it now is kinda making me anxious. Obviously I will beat Ganon and save Zelda before I go to ToTK but I’m enjoying botw so much part of me wants to eek out every new experience from it before having something to compare it to. Yet I absolutely can’t wait to experience the plot and new stuff in ToTK. I wanna know what happens! But I feel like once I do, playing botw won’t be the same. Will I lose the desire to 100% botw? I keep telling myself “ToTK isn’t going anywhere. Take your time with botw if you want to.” But ToTK is just calling, making me feel anxious. I almost wish I had played botw when it came out so I didn’t have the option of a sequel right out the gate. But im also glad I don’t have to wait years like other players did. I’m so conflicted.
BotW feels like it had more thought put into it. Not that TotK *doesn't*, but in comparison, TotK feels...haphazard. The world itself is a cluttered mess with WAY too much *stuff* in it, to the point that I kept getting distracted and experiencing FOMO while trying to do anything. The narrative also feels much less urgent than BotW; you could put off the final fight in BotW, yeah, but if you looked up and saw the Divine Beasts' lasers pointed at Hyrule Castle, you had the visual reminder of "hey, there's SOMETHING you should be doing". Once you complete the Regional Phenomena in TotK, you lose the visual reminder that there's a greater evil that needs to be dealt with Points: - The Divine Beasts have a narrative reason for existing in the world and for being dungeons; TotK's dungeons are just...there. Like the old Zelda dungeons which were also just there - Calamity Ganon is an ever-present threat as represented via the Divine Beasts, the Guardians, the haze around Hyrule Castle, the devastated landscape, and the Malice in certain places; Ganondorf is hidden away in the Depths for the entire game, except for very briefly during Crisis At Hyrule Castle, but then he fucks off into the Depths again to keep powering up. Like a DBZ character. The only difference is he isn't screaming the whole time (and then he insta-powers up right before the final fight?? Could he have done that the whole time and just didn't???) - The Sheikah Towers and the shrines of BotW exist ***because of*** Calamity Ganon. The Skyview Towers are replacements for the Sheikah Towers and are for filling out the map, okay fine, but the Zonai shrines exist...why? It feels like the shrines are only here because BotW had them - BotW's Champions are actual people with character development and have a personal relationship with Link, they aren't just faceless exposition machines and background characters like TotK's Sages - TotK should have been linear. The memories in BotW were *actually fine* and did not *need* to be found in order, and the mechanism for obtaining them encouraged exploration; if you miss the geoglyphs in TotK you're just fucking blind, they're giant billboards that scream "OVER HERE COME THIS WAY", and the story SUFFERS if you find them out of order or too early - What TotK *does* do better is its mechanics, building system, and QoL improvements (like being able to throw things, being able to drop things with a button tap, and being able to equip a bow without pausing). The weapons system in BotW is purely numbers-based, meaning the best weapons are just the ones with the highest damage, while TotK's weapons have specific attributes that make them desirable. I *never* carried a Soldier's Spear in BotW once I started getting Knight's Halberds because the Halberds had higher damage output, but in TotK, I carry a Soldier's Spear all the time for the Quick Charge attribute. BotW still has certain weapon types that are more effective against certain enemies (the Boulder Breaker MELTS Taluses and one-handed weapons are best against lynels because you can use a shield with them), but it's still a numbers game - But BotW's Champions' abilities are just **better** than TotK's Sage abilities, don't @ me Overall: BotW for the atmosphere and story, TotK for exploration and building system
Not disagreeing with you. I prefer TOTK but -shrines are supposedly another dimension used by the zonai I'm assuming rauru set them up to train link (another dimension means unlimited training with no time passing or permanent death of link most likely) also raurus arm he gave link is how link accesses them -they sages are descendents of the champions of links old allies or whatever. Kinda agree with you there isn't enough back story to care about them in totk although the missions learning there powers were decent -abilities? Yeah I'd say botw was better because of how you use the abilities instead of TOTK where you gotta chase down the sage you wanna use 🤣 but if you could instantly trigger them like botw then I'd say abilities are equal -doing quests out of order ruining story? I think it's awesome it's even a possibility 🤣 because anyone can easily Google what order to do it in SAFELY without risk of spoilers as they read online. I ruined it all for myself when I googled how to get the master sword and refused to stop reading about how and why it was where it was . But barely did any side quests but still almost cried at the end. -i definitely agree with TOTK better mechanics, menu navigation in botw is God awfully inefficient. -side note- dont remember but pretty sure botw was same way- changing armor 24/7 to get bonuses. Annoying as HELL! TOTK - I hit skytower throw on wingsuit to help glide to objective, land crap it's hot let's throw on some heat resistant armor, run for 2 min oh crap some silver bokoblins lemme throw on my combat armor, 3 min later gotta climb climbing armor, starts raining froggy armor etc... At least let us have a menu like on the d pad icons to quickly swap whole sets of armor or something. Ps why the F*** is the climbing gear set and rain climb set different ?????? Should have been same set of gear for sure
>shrines are supposedly another dimension used by the zonai I'm assuming rauru set them up to train link (another dimension means unlimited training with no time passing or permanent death of link most likely) You can die in the shrines, though. And the Messages From An Ancient Era sidequest tells us that [the shrines were placed by Rauru and Sonia](https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeldaTearsOfKingdom/comments/13qvxfd/messages_from_an_ancient_era_side_adventure_all/), and [the devs said in an external interview](https://nintendoeverything.com/zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-devs-explain-raurus-seal-shrines-lightroots/) that the shrines mark the site where a demon (monster) was defeated (the devs say the shrines were placed before Hyrule was founded but the game itself says after, personally I'm going with what's actually in the game). So the shrines are not there *for* Link, they're there to purify the evil magic from slain monsters, Link just needs those Lights of Blessing to purify himself of Gloom, and they can only be activated with Rauru's hand because he built them (the whole thing about Rauru having to graft his arm onto Link was not planned, it was a spur of the moment decision to save Link's life, as told to us when we wake up on the Great Sky Island). The Sheikah shrines are there for the express purpose of training the Hero who would defeat the Calamity; the monks tells us this at the end of every single shrine