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Other Games / Re: Tears of the Kingdom
« on: August 31, 2023, 06:30:43 pm »Quote
Great review!Thank you very much! I sure spent more time on it than I should have! I also loved your review, which basically inspired me to try to write this one. And I've enjoyed reading all of the comments throughout this thread really.
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...getting the final shrine on Thunderhead...Oh right, I see. Yeah I don't know, I'm not sure if there is a good solution here. If a shrine is not reasonably accessible from the get go, should it be clear that they can be made more reasonably accessible later? Not sure. I find this less troublesome than the similar paraglider issue, because at least the shrine in Thunderhead is pretty much impossible to see until you clear it up. One could argue that some of the frustration arose from outside information (location of the shrine) being only partial information, whereas the game counted on you having no information... I guess? It's an apologist's viewpoint for sure.
Let's see, what are some more specific points I missed earlier?
-TOTK shrines are better than BOTW ones on average, largely thanks to ditching combat copies for fun little mini-Eventides. It also feels like better pacing to have a cute little engineering puzzle in a shrine than to come across a korok while exploring who needs a car. I do miss the few larger ones from BOTW, as GendoIkari points out. I enjoyed most all of the crystal ones. Favorite, and wife's favorite, was whirlpool.
-Caves and wells are great. Searching for them specifically can feel a little tedious, but I don't hold this against the game at all. And coming across them naturally while exploring was wonderful.
-Labyrinths, yeah the first one was awesome but the repetition was a bit of a bummer, especially the identical bosses at the ends.
-I didn't talk about Recall before. A wonderful addition, feels like something a good indie game would build itself around completely. I wish it got used more, but it's still amazing the first time you realize your goofy airplane that crashed and rolled down the hill CAN in fact be rescued, and in the most awesome way possible. Adding the snapping of the fingers, what a touch.
-The sages' shadows, yeah I wasn't a huge fan. Works well thematically, but eh, I pretty much agree with everything GI already said here (and many others I'm guessing). I had them all off the majority of the time.
-The sages themselves, well they were okay. The AI is what we might call 'passable' when it's just the one of them, and the game does a reasonable job of keeping the focus on your own gameplay. But this comes at a steep immersion price, where the sages sometimes have teleportation powers, and other times can't follow you. I think I preferred sections where they were flat out honest and were like, "I can't follow you there." Or in Sidon's case, "Let's split up so the game doesn't have to fail to portray me goofing around with these floating water balls."
-The Depths was a great concept, but could've used some more set-pieces and visual variety to spice things up over the long haul. I think it'd be more fun to not be able to see the gloom in the dark, but I can understand why they wouldn't do this. Did anyone actually use the upgraded miner's clothes down here? What a neat idea! It's too bad I imagine most people have no need for it by the time they get it.
-Special shoutout to Muddlebuds, which are my wife's favorite things. In BOTW her favorite thing was to go to Retsam Forest and pick sunshrooms. I'm pretty sure it was literally her most visited spot on the map. In TOTK, her favorite thing is to wander in the Depths and pick Muddlebuds, and then use them on camps. We were joking that they should have programmed in an animation of Link pulling out a chair and a bag of popcorn while the enemies all kill each other.
-The finale was great. I loved the approach, I loved the fights, and I even loved the final phase which really sells the idea that you are working together with Zelda to pull off something neither of you could accomplish on your own. Also ties the gameplay back into all the skydiving you've been doing throughout the game, which is a nice touch. I like the ending too. I do wish the people in the present mattered more. I thought that Impa and/or Purah would play a part in helping to turn Zelda back. Not sure how to do it without having many multiple endings though, based upon how much of the story you did.