User Review Nintendo Switch Updated

Review cover The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom [unofficial, spoiler free] (Nintendo Switch)
User Review

Product Information:

  • Release Date (NA): May 12, 2023
  • Publisher: Nintendo
  • Genres: Action Adventure

Game Features:

Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative

Review Approach:

With all the hubbub about TOTK reviews, and seeing that I played the game myself, I decided to release my own user review.
Nintendo has followed up their 2017 platinum title with a sequel. The game is getting near perfect reviews, but is that all hype?

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Formula

If you played Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom will feel very similar (at least at first). You take the role of Link, knight protector of Zelda - princess of Hyrule. Not to give away too much, but you will find yourself alone (again) in a large world in search of friends. The blueprint sketched out for Breath of the Wild has largely gone unchanged. Solve shrine puzzles, collect korok seeds, defeat enemies and collect new weapons before your old ones all break. Fans of older Zelda games (myself included) may have to accept this is just how Zelda is now.

(Am I the only one who still has hopes for a proper 2D Zelda on the Switch?) 

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Gameplay

The nuts and bolts of combat, manipulating objects and travel have not changed much. Yes there are now flying machines, but the sail cloth remains king. The gameplay is fun, and this game introduces a difficulty curve unknown to Zelda games since the era of the NES. I found myself dying, a lot. (I suspect Aonuma has been playing games from the Souls series). The combat difficulty is a welcome change for the most part, but can feel cheap at times. Once you have been "one shotted" 4 or 5 times in a row - fun stops and resentment begins. The puzzles are easy, and rarely require much thought to solve. Although not very challenging, the puzzles consist of goofy physics play that CAN be fun (in small doses). I found myself skipping shrines about half way through the game as they were not very compelling. The addition of a large sky and underworld sections to explore adds a lot of extra content (for those who like that sort of thing, not required). 

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Story/Plot

Nintendo is known for their deep, well thought out story lines. Characters are rarely two dimensional. You're often guessing until the last moment how all the loose ends will come together. JK LMAO. This is a Zelda game, what do you expect? You're a knight who saves a princess from the big baddy with green skin. That's it right? Actually...I was surprised to find that's not all there is to this game. TOTK is not afraid to get weird. Like Majora's Mask before it, TOTK (a rare direct sequel to a console Zelda game) is not afraid to take risks. Don't get carried away, the characters remain one dimensional video game tropes - but there is more than meets the eye upon starting up the game.

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Presentation

This is a switch game. The console runs a mobile chip from 2015. Don't expect this to stack up to a PS5 game, or even a PS4 game. But does that matter? The cartoony style that keeps the Wind Waker looking pristine over 20 years later is at play. The game is gorgeous, and barring some slowdowns, runs great. Ultrahand in particular (object manipulation) can feel slow and clunky, and sometimes falling too fast from the sky leads to a few second loading pause, but otherwise the game runs like a well oiled machine. Somehow I experienced less slowdowns than in BOTW (no more stuttering in Karkiko village - WOOT!)

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Conclusion

When I started playing this game it somehow felt lesser than its predecessor - the world felt empty and the plot seemed dull. But I soon realized that the story is deeper, the gameplay tougher, and the world larger. This game is a giant sandbox, and that can feel daunting at first. But once I really took ownership of plotting my own direction, the layers started to unfold. Combat can feel a little cheap sometimes, and puzzles can be a snore, but overall the game is a must play for any fans of the adventure and openworld/sandbox genres. 

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Verdict

What I Liked ...
  • Massive game map
  • Challenging difficulty curve
  • Well developed plot
What I Didn't Like ...
  • Large parts of the map feel empty
  • Combat unforgiving at times
  • No handholding (like at all)
8
Gameplay
With endless opportunities for exploration, creativity, and an emphasis on nonlinear gameplay - it can be a struggle to put the game down. Puzzles unfortunately are easy to solve, and most of the game's difficulty comes from combat (which can feel unforgiving at times).
9
Presentation
This is a switch game, but the cartoony art style almost hides the fact the chip in this system is ~8 years old. There are slowdowns in this game, just like in its predecessor - but somehow they seem less frequent. The world is beautiful, and the depths (underworld) in particular are gorgeous (when you can see them).
9
Lasting Appeal
With an engrossing story, a trove of shrines, side quests, and what feels like a nearly endless map at times - it's hard to imagine not picking up this game from time to time after initial completion. Somehow crafting crazy hoverships and flying machines still hasn't gotten old.
8.5
out of 10

Overall

If you like exploration, tough combat, and plotting your own path you will be well pleased to find that here. Puzzles can feel dull at times, and parts of the world can feel empty - but the sheer breadth of what's available here and the compelling story make this game well worth the purchase.
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RichardTheKing
Fans of older Zelda games (myself included) may have to accept this is just how Zelda is now.
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Which is what I honestly fear, for this series; it used to be amazing, with an incredibly solid and fun foundation, with each new game adding their own unique touches to (even if some of those touches were...incredibly detrimental...like with Phantom Hourglass/Spirit Tracks' stylus-only gameplay and Skyward Sword's motion controls, Pouch, and stamina).

Now it's just yet another open-world survival-esc game, with the stereotypical weapon fragility and limited stamina and lack of direction and resource grinding (and the less normal temperature mechanic). What's so special about this anymore?
Nothing, that's what. It's lost its spark - its heart and soul. It's nothing more than a massive waste of time. It's wholly unappealing and worthless.
There's better open-world games to play through - go play Ghost of Tsushima, or Assassin's Creed Origins or even Skyrim (with fan patches).

The combat difficulty is a welcome change for the most part, but can feel cheap at times.
Click to expand...
The incredibly fragile weapons and shields don't help with this, whatsoever. No, they're a major detriment, that should've been removed after BotW revealed just how revolting a mechanic this is.
Or, at the very least, allow us to repair collected stuff. At least greatly increase durability counts, or add ways to negate durability loss.
Instead, nothing. Exactly as downright awful as BotW, except now you can fuse things together. Greeeat.
Hylia damn it.

Honestly, this is a 6 or 7 to me; giving it an 8.5 just feels way too generous for something so massively flawed and uncaring of the player's time and patience.
 
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LittleFlame
RichardTheKing said:
The incredibly fragile weapons and shields don't help with this, whatsoever. No, they're a major detriment, that should've been removed after BotW revealed just how revolting a mechanic this is.
Or, at the very least, allow us to repair collected stuff. At least greatly increase durability counts, or add ways to negate durability loss.
Instead, nothing. Exactly as downright awful as BotW, except now you can fuse things together. Greeeat.
Hylia damn it.
Click to expand...
I always liked the weapons breaking in botw it didn't happen overly frequently with higher tier weapons and it kept the combat more engaging as you can't just rely on the same thing over and over again.

What it comes down to I think is if you didn't like BOTW you're probably not gonna get your mind blown by TOTK
 
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Reactions: x65943
x65943
"It's wholly unappealing and worthless."

I would disagree there as someone who basically worked, slept and played this game for the past 2 weeks

And as to your other point - the item durability doesn't bother me at all, especially since you can combine items in this game with ultra hand and make suitable swords whenever and wherever you want

And about PH/ST/SS I beat all those games and truly feel the motion controls and stylus greatly added to those games (unpopular opinion I know)
 
x65943
You say the game is a 6 or 7 but did you beat it or even play it longer than 20 minutes?

The start is slow
 
Review cover
Product Information:
  • Release Date (NA): May 12, 2023
  • Publisher: Nintendo
  • Genres: Action Adventure
Game Features:
Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative

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