Breath of the Wild was about the vastness of a world and the solitary self reliance to survive.
Tears of the Kingdom is about supporting and calling upon your friends and banding together. But it is also about letting go. For the characters and for players. The vastness of this world feels overwhelming at times and there comes a point when it is time to put the game down, to decide that your own personal journey in the world has reached an end point.
I did have my reservations about whether TOTK would be enough of a change that going back to the world would not feel stale and they blew away all doubts with those final few trailers that revealed the new powers. They truly made the best open world game to date. I just wish the game design did not feel more punishing to exploring at times. There's many points to forcing a linear path that can be jarring, but with one of the main critiques of BOTW being players felt lost and listless, it is an understandable change. My feelings on TOTK are complicated and it will always have this comparison to whether it is better than BOTW. I don't know if that is a conclusion I could ever come to. In the years since BOTW it feels like only a few games truly understood the depth of what made it special, and none did it better. It should be no surprise to anyone that Nintendo was the only one that could come along and do it better then.
Despite what may sound like having negative opinions of this game, I think it is fair to say that the best parts of this game have left me speechless and only a future me will find those words. This is a game I will come back to many times, to once again wander around in its verdant playground.
Tears of the Kingdom is about supporting and calling upon your friends and banding together. But it is also about letting go. For the characters and for players. The vastness of this world feels overwhelming at times and there comes a point when it is time to put the game down, to decide that your own personal journey in the world has reached an end point.
I did have my reservations about whether TOTK would be enough of a change that going back to the world would not feel stale and they blew away all doubts with those final few trailers that revealed the new powers. They truly made the best open world game to date. I just wish the game design did not feel more punishing to exploring at times. There's many points to forcing a linear path that can be jarring, but with one of the main critiques of BOTW being players felt lost and listless, it is an understandable change. My feelings on TOTK are complicated and it will always have this comparison to whether it is better than BOTW. I don't know if that is a conclusion I could ever come to. In the years since BOTW it feels like only a few games truly understood the depth of what made it special, and none did it better. It should be no surprise to anyone that Nintendo was the only one that could come along and do it better then.
Despite what may sound like having negative opinions of this game, I think it is fair to say that the best parts of this game have left me speechless and only a future me will find those words. This is a game I will come back to many times, to once again wander around in its verdant playground.