I'm not sure if I'm missing something. I'm with the bird companion and trying to get to the cloud but there's sky structure I can't reach? How do I get up there?
The opening area of BOTW may be much more naturally open, but the TOTK abilities also require much more explanation. Grasping the mechanics and physics and behaviors of Ultrahand alone requires way more time than "look, it's a bomb."
Curious to see if the 10 from Edge and a possible 10 from Brad from EZA, boost it to 97 MC and 98 OC overall.
either use Ascend in the correct spot or jump on one of those ships if it's there.
This is why I liked the botw tutorial better. And it isn't cause we know there is an entire world below, botw's tutorial was like the rest of the game but in a smaller area and easier enemies.
The difference to me was that botw just kinda threw you in there and did not hand hold you other then bare minimum (and you could easily skip even that) where as totk's tutorial felt a lot more handheldy and linear (there was an obvious path you were funneled through). It felt like maybe they got a lot of criticism for people getting too confused at the start of botw and that was their correction for it.
I mean I guess it's fine but it had me worrying the rest of the game was going to be that funneled as botw's intro felt like a mini botw and I was worried might be the same with totk with the intro being a small version of the rest of the game.
One of the criticisms of BotW that I jive with hardest is that it went a little too story light, so I think the opening of TotK being more narrative heavy is a welcome and direct improvement on that.
It's not just a tutorial, it's a story tutorial.
It's not just a tutorial, it's a story tutorial.
Don't know why you would think the rest of it works ld be like the tutorial, everything pointed towards it not. But mostly the tutorial is there because theechsnicsbare way more complicated than they were in botw, in which one of the main ones was just bomb
One thing I want to revisit from the Digital Foundry review, they mention that the game uses low quality FMV for many cutscenes and they are very noticeable. I can honestly say I haven't noticed and couldn't tell you which cutscenes are FMV and which games are real time in game. It all looks good to me.
Something I didn't get on the tutorial island was the area around the third shrine, I came out of the cave and followed the path up, didn't spot an obvious way to the shrine and went down the other side of the mountain area. I came out at the bottom on one side of the river with a korok seed the only thing and spotted a construct on the other side of the river with a whole load of pre made rafts. I had to make my own to get over there but the game seemed to be insinuating that I should have come from that side first.
Which didn't make sense, because I don't see how I could have ever have come from that side first :/
Which didn't make sense, because I don't see how I could have ever have come from that side first :/
I came from that side first. Winding up next to that construct is basically the normal/obvious path if you choose to do that shrine second rather than third; it's a straight path directly from the Temple of Time steps. If you came from the other side because you did the other shrine beforehand, you don't need to cross the river to get to the shrine, so there aren't rafts.
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The blood moon cinematic is noticeably worse than in game cutscenes. Otherwise, I havent noticed other fmv either but maybe they appear later in the game.
Yeah, high-saturation reds rarely ever do well when being compressed for FMV, and this video is almost nothing but!
The entire scene where you first see
Ganondorf (is that is name here?) awaken
This is what I love about Botw/totk you can play these games for years and still find things. Reply value is super high compared to the prior Zelda games.
Someone asked my impressions and I decided to also share here, because why not. "Loved the Rito section. Love the underground. Rage quit two shrines. Got murdered by a tutorial robot. 10/10."
It's interesting because I don't know if "replay" value is the right word for me. I don't think I would want to play the game again but it is something I might want to open back up and mess around with on my save file again.
I tried restarting BOTW and found it hard to go back to low hearts and stamina and to build up everything again.
It's weird review. Seems like the reviewer didn't like it because it didn't hand hold and was too open ended. 🤷🏽♂ To each their own I guess.
ER is cheating! If you combine the PC and Xbox reviews it would be lower.
nah, it'd need like 15 or 20 straight 10/10s to get to 97 MC. Maybe even more
edit: Did the math. Would need about 25 further 10/10s, assuming equal weight
The Boston Globe took an interesting tack with their writeup on the game, and had it done by a music critic. She has some really cool observations about the way the action and the music intertwine and inform one another:
www.bostonglobe.com
I think tustorial works better
In ‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,’ you compose your own adventure - The Boston Globe
A video game is nothing without a player, and in this game, the music is in you: both you as Link, and you holding the controller.
www.bostonglobe.com
I think tustorial works better
The Boston Globe took an interesting tack with their writeup on the game, and had it done by a music critic. She has some really cool observations about the way the action and the music intertwine and inform one another:
In ‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,’ you compose your own adventure - The Boston Globe
A video game is nothing without a player, and in this game, the music is in you: both you as Link, and you holding the controller.
I think tustorial works better
Such a great / fascinating review (also I thought I was the only person who noticed link humming old themes!) She's basically reading the game through the tradition of like 19th/early 20th century romantic composition (she doesn't say it, but the motif elements she's describing are stuff you encounter in like Wagner or Mahler while the more atmospheric expressionist moments are, as she says, straight out of Debussy.) I love stuff like this; also it shows how much more interesting reviews can be if they deviate from the checklist/score/consumer reports style and engage with the game as an aesthetic object/experience.
I just read it and whilst there's some decent explanations in there, a lot of it is written with all the tact and subtlety of an angry Reddit comment:
For something that's meant to be put on Metacritic it's just so laced with paragraphs like the above that it's hard to take it in the good faith that another 7/10 review of the game might deserve. It'd be like if a positive review went on a three-paragraph long tangent on how "Old Zelda sold like shit so clearly nobody wanted it and anyone who liked it is lying." Sure... what has that got to do with the game itself? It's a weird aside that only makes sense in the context of the reviewer's personal gripes with other people's opinions. Any which way, it shouldn't be hard to see why slurs (even those commonly heard by Brits like myself and James) in a review for a game rated for literal 12 year olds is a bad idea.
It's just not a good review, even if I have no doubt that it's reflective of their personal opinion on the game itself.
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par for course for a Sterling review to me. 🙄
stopped taking their opinion in good faith on reviews for almost a decade now.
even that opening paragraph is excessive and absurd. lol
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I'm early on and essentially just finished the tutorial to where I'm now free to go where I want.
Loved the intro. Ganon was very intimidating, and it's interesting to play as a Link that is already a well-known hero. Most of the time he's saved the world but still unknown.
The game's systems seem much more complex than the last game's, so I won't begrudge the starting island dragging a bit. My god the glider makes such a difference.
Really cool how they repurposed Hyrule Castle area. If the rest is like that it'll be very interesting to see the differences.
I don't recall the lip syncing being great in the first one, but I've been finding it distractingly off during voiced parts. A little disappointed there.
So far I very much get the sense the game is very very dense with lots of things to see and do. Excited to see what there is.
Loved the intro. Ganon was very intimidating, and it's interesting to play as a Link that is already a well-known hero. Most of the time he's saved the world but still unknown.
The game's systems seem much more complex than the last game's, so I won't begrudge the starting island dragging a bit. My god the glider makes such a difference.
Really cool how they repurposed Hyrule Castle area. If the rest is like that it'll be very interesting to see the differences.
I don't recall the lip syncing being great in the first one, but I've been finding it distractingly off during voiced parts. A little disappointed there.
So far I very much get the sense the game is very very dense with lots of things to see and do. Excited to see what there is.
Yikes. Not everyone has to like the game and everyone is entitled to their opinions, but yeah, these quotes are definitely Reddit-tier. Still love Sterling, regardless.
User Banned (2 Weeks): Misgendering
I didn't think it was a good review.
But I am sure his opinion makes sense to some people who are turned off to something in the game or are just not having fun with it.
When I was 15 I thought 2001 Space Odyssey was straight garbage and Ace Venture was comedy genius. It was a horrible opinion at the time but it was also correct for how I felt about the movies.
it seems the 7/10 knocked it down to 95 on metacritic, will probably pop back up with some more higher scoring reviews. I can understand where they are coming from given that they weren't a huge fan of BOTW.
It takes a lot more to bring a score up than to bring it down. We'll see.
I expected Steph would feel the same about it as BotW: liking it but not loving it (seriously, 7/10 is not a bad score).
I disagree with most of their reasons for not liking it, and I think their argument about how "no one has ever thought 'this would be more fun if my weapons broke'" really holds any water just because a lot of things in video games (or any media really) are often something you didn't know you wanted. I'm sure many people weren't begging for an open world Zelda game before BotW, but that was received really well.
Regardless I hope they don't get a bunch of harassment over this, but of course knowing the internet like 50 shitty tweets were out there in the time it took for me to type this post.
Indeed. It's not a bad score, and the logic of "breakable weapons = 7/10" is at least consistent. Its a snarky sort of review, but you do get to see some of their more serious thoughts after reading past the snark and it's not just a vague review. I respect it, and echo the "Nobody should bother them what-so-fucking-ever" sentiment, they get enough garbage from jerkwads already.
The absolute hard-on that they have against weapon-durability honestly continues to baffle me.
I listened to their podcast this week and they spent a good chunk out of over fifty minutes of discussing TOTK going on about it. They're so hung-up on that statement of: "No one ever said a game would be more fun if my weapons break" that they can't even begin to imagine how narrow-minded that statement is.
It's like saying: "No one ever said this food would taste better if it set my mouth on fire" in regards to spicy foods. Like, you're valid if you don't like spicy foods. Lots of people don't. But there's a whole plethora of reasons why other people like them and why certain dishes are spicy.
