Zelda

[jimmy jazz]

Specifically Tears of the Kingdom.

Anyone got it yet? Thoughts?

This and Breath of the Wild look like masterpieces but I haven't played any of them because I'm not buying a Switch just for two games.

How good are they?

@Key @Mrs. Waffles @Guybrush

[Lexi Darling]

I played BOTW when it came out, but it was pretty daunting for someone like me who is both intimidated by open worlds and gets a bit neurotic with breakable weapons and limited inventories. The old Zeldas felt so much safer, haha. But I guess that is the point this time around.

Anyway, around early 2018 I had a big bonding experience watching Mr. Waffles play through the whole game over a few months (we didn't live together at the time so it took a while, haha). It's a beautiful game, but I'm still really a bit out of my comfort zone in open world games. So I guess it depends on how much you're into exploration-heavy games where you can free roam and do anything.

My sentimental favorite Zelda is actually Link's Awakening, which I first played back in 1995 when I got my first Game Boy for Christmas. They did a remake version of it for the Switch, so if you're into 2D Zelda it's an absolute gem worth picking up if you do get one.

As far as I know the mister is holding off on the new one for now, we've got a budget to stick to at the moment. But I'll let you know what he and I think of it when we get around to it!

[jimmy jazz]

GTA is open world and obviously I like that but I do like storylines and jobs. I played Wind Waker on the Gamecube and loved it but never finished it.

This new Zelda has absolutely shit hot reviews.

[SGR]

Breath of the Wild, in my personal opinion, is massively overrated. Boring, empty-ish open-world. Weapons constantly breaking. Low variety of enemies (from what I remember, Ocarina of Time had twice the number of unique enemies as this big open-world Zelda has). No traditional Zelda dungeons (replaced instead by 'Shrines' which all mostly look the same and involve various different puzzles in a pretty enclosed area). And the boss fights are lacking in quantity, design, or uniqueness. Unlike some open world games, I just don't feel much incentive to explore. It's not like Fallout 3 where you'd discover vastly different locations with interesting characters and rewarding sidequest. It's not like The Witcher 3 where it brings along some incredibly interesting and heartwrending subplots. It's not like Elden Ring where you get incredible spells or weapons (I mean, sometimes you do get weapons, but they're temporary since they're breakable). Unless you get enjoyment purely out of wandering around and exploring to test the limits of the game, I'd personally pin Breath of the Wild's exploration as drab and unintersting.

I can't speak for Tears of the Kingdom, haven't played it. But from what I've seen, it looks mostly like BotW with maybe the addition of traditional dungeons. And Breath of the Wild got a similarly fervent critical response. If you want to play a great open world game, play Elden Ring. It has everything that triggers dopamine hits for me that Breath of the Wild doesn't. I feel that sometimes Nintendo games get treated with kid gloves by critics.

[SGR]

My 3D Zelda Ranking would probably be as follows:

1. Ocarina of Time
2. Majora's Mask
3. Twilight Princess
4. Wind Waker (another overrated one - the thing I hate about this one is how boring it can be to need to travel between islands with that same damn music track playing over and over - and I despise that right before you reach Ganon to beat the game, you need to go on a massive annoying fetch quest for triforce shards)
5. Skyward Sword
6. Breath of the Wild

[jimmy jazz]

I've got OOT on my laptop but haven't played it cos the graphics are 90s standard.

[jimmy jazz]

I have just seen you can get remastered versions of OOT and MM, but it's on Nintendo DS. Why don't Nintendo just put them on Steam or make a way to play it on TV? I don't want to play in some shit tiny screen!

[SGR]

This isn't a jab at you or anything, but I know you're older than me and I find it funny that you're hung up on the graphics of the game. And I grew up with the game.  To be fair, I do find it hard to go back farther than the games I grew up with, due to how ugly many of them look - but I'm talking NES and Atari and games of that age. But when I boot up the original Resident Evil on PS1, I feel right at home.

Personally, I'd suggest you give the original Ocarina of Time a chance on emulation. Its graphics may be a bit outdated, but the critical praise it's received over the years is very well deserved in my eyes. It's the game that captured my imagination as a kid and made me fall in love with the series. It's still a world that you can get lost in - a world that is completely absorbing. And it doesn't have all that busy-work bullshit that so many open world games have. The dungeons are top tier in design, the sound effects and design are amazing, the enemies/bosses/and characters are absolutely charming - and the overall experience of it is utterly top-shelf. There's hardly a wasted minute in the entire game.

[jimmy jazz]

No jabs taken, I will get round to it. I've never heard a bad thing said about the game. Everyone I know loves it so I imagine it is immense.

[SGR]

There's probably things you could conceivably criticize it for - but it does so many things right, that I can't even remember a bad thing about it. Well...then again, there is the obtuse design of the Water Temple. When I was a kid, I needed to enlist the aid of an older brother of a friend of mine to figure out what to do. An adult should probably be able to figure it out though. The plus to playing that instead of BotW is that you'd get to hear the completely kickass soundtrack that to my ears is miles ahead of the rather yawn-inducing floral ambiance that pervades most of BotW's soundtrack.

The Mario game that was Ocarina of Time's N64 counterpart, Mario 64, has aged MUCH more poorly in comparison due to it's completely wonky ass camera and the fact that it's a platforming game that is much more reliant on perfectly timed jumps and maneuvers.

[Lexi Darling]

Oh man the Water Temple, I first got to that part when I was 10 and I got stuck and didn't end up beating the game until I was like 13.

The Forest Temple music is my favorite OOT track, so haunting but kind of beautiful in its own way.

[SGR]

Oh man the Water Temple, I first got to that part when I was 10 and I got stuck and didn't end up beating the game until I was like 13.

The Forest Temple music is my favorite OOT track, so haunting but kind of beautiful in its own way.

Oh damn wow - yeah, I didn't have the patience for the Water Temple - I'm real glad I had someone who already did it to help me through it. It wasn't like I had easy access to the internet back then to figure it out myself either. Way different from today when you can look anything up instantly.

But yeah, the music in the game slaps the entire way through.

[DJChameleon]

My 3D Zelda Ranking would probably be as follows:

1. Ocarina of Time
2. Majora's Mask
3. Twilight Princess
4. Wind Waker (another overrated one - the thing I hate about this one is how boring it can be to need to travel between islands with that same damn music track playing over and over - and I despise that right before you reach Ganon to beat the game, you need to go on a massive annoying fetch quest for triforce shards)
5. Skyward Sword
6. Breath of the Wild

SGR with the wild hot takes. Sir! There is no way in hell that Breath of the Wild should be ranked 6. Toss Twilight Princess down there. I was bored to tears with Wind Waker and never completed it. I didn't touch Skyward Sword and I refuse to waste time with Twilight Princess.

Breathe of the Wild is a system seller. Well it was for me. I bought the launch edition of the Switch along with Breathe of the Wild. It took some getting used to with the breakable/crafting weapons thing but after that it was a breeze. The one downside that was missing was the classic dungeons but they made up for it slightly with all those mini temple things I forgot their official name. Also the boss battles were insanely large in scope and took some interesting mechanics to get down pact. I can't wait to jump into Tears of the Kindgom. I love that they start you off up in the sky and you explore a bit before heading back down to the map that is supposed to be similar to BoTW but with some changes. I think there might be dungeons added but can't confirm yet. I even bought a special edition Zelda Switch just for TotK. If you like open world games you'll definitely like BoTW it's worth getting a Switch for even if you don't want to throw money for the full priced switch you can get a Switch Lite but idk it's a tinier screen.

Also didn't take you for a graphics over gameplay person. It seems to be younger generations that are mainly focused on that. I'm more into gameplay/plot than I am with graphics especially if you grew up on 8 bit games. Aren't you older JJ? Who were you on MB btw? I'm sort of curious. If you don't want to post that info in public just DM me.

[SGR]

SGR with the wild hot takes. Sir! There is no way in hell that Breath of the Wild should be ranked 6. Toss Twilight Princess down there. I was bored to tears with Wind Waker and never completed it. I didn't touch Skyward Sword and I refuse to waste time with Twilight Princess.

Breathe of the Wild is a system seller. Well it was for me. I bought the launch edition of the Switch along with Breathe of the Wild. It took some getting used to with the breakable/crafting weapons thing but after that it was a breeze. The one downside that was missing was the classic dungeons but they made up for it slightly with all those mini temple things I forgot their official name. Also the boss battles were insanely large in scope and took some interesting mechanics to get down pact. I can't wait to jump into Tears of the Kindgom. I love that they start you off up in the sky and you explore a bit before heading back down to the map that is supposed to be similar to BoTW but with some changes. I think there might be dungeons added but can't confirm yet. I even bought a special edition Zelda Switch just for TotK. If you like open world games you'll definitely like BoTW it's worth getting a Switch for even if you don't want to throw money for the full priced switch you can get a Switch Lite but idk it's a tinier screen.

Also didn't take you for a graphics over gameplay person. It seems to be younger generations that are mainly focused on that. I'm more into gameplay/plot than I am with graphics especially if you grew up on 8 bit games. Aren't you older JJ? Who were you on MB btw? I'm sort of curious. If you don't want to post that info in public just DM me.

Totally fair. I recognize that my opinion on it is the outlier. Most people love Breath of the Wild - I just don't. It doesn't satisfy the itch for me that other Zelda games do. The other things it tries to achieve are done better in other games (at least for me).

Kind of curious why you don't like Twilight Princess - it's a great game in my eyes. The only criticisms I could really levy against it are that the graphics and art style are kind of monotone - a lot of dull, dreary, dark and grey (doesn't have the visual/color variety of something like OoT or MM or even BotW) and that the beginning section of the game is WAY too long.

Agreed with you though that in most cases, graphics are the least of my concerns with games. The game, first and foremost, needs to be fun to play.

[Guybrush]

GTA is open world and obviously I like that but I do like storylines and jobs. I played Wind Waker on the Gamecube and loved it but never finished it.

This new Zelda has absolutely shit hot reviews.

Wind Waker is actually the last Zelda game I played (and finished). I generally like Nintendo games, but haven't owned a Nintendo console since my SNES.

Like you said, Im not buying a Nintendo for one or two titles I'd like to play 🙂

A Link to the Past (for SNES) is my favorite, but then I haven't even played the latest ones.