The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

pixelburp · 13-05-2023 6:51am

Only pottered about that first Sky Island, but was like sitting back in a familiar, comfortable chair.

One thing I'd forgotten that I think doesn't get mentioned about these games: the vibe, as the kids like to talk about. It's so chilled, it's bordering on cosy. The music obviously is the most obvious aspect, but all the ambient sounds, even the UI haptics and audio FX or response are just so gentle, calming even. I just don't feel stressed playing these games; they're perfect for unwinding.

The Nal · 13-05-2023 8:06am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120589985#Comment_120589985

Ultra hand needs short sharp presses as opposed to a long presses on the dpad Ive discovered.

Grassey · 13-05-2023 8:34am

Also has anyone managed to build or do anything useful or creative (very) early on with those stations with wooden planks and wheels scattered around?

Basic wagon, fans on back, dragon wheel things, fire things for aesthetics, and a korok mounted on the front to hurtle uncontrollably along to his mate. 🤣

The Nal · 13-05-2023 8:49am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120590102#Comment_120590102

Yeah I fast tracked that little bollix aswell

SuperBowserWorld · 13-05-2023 9:08am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120589993#Comment_120589993

Yup, that's the real beauty of BOTW and hopefully (most of) this game.

jj880 · 13-05-2023 9:14am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120589827#Comment_120589827

When you get to Hyrule you are pushed in a certain direction. So of course I went the opposite way to look at a few shrines. They look mind bending for sure but hopefully more abilities will make things clearer.

johnny_ultimate · 13-05-2023 9:36am

BotW had the previous best ‘tall mapping tower in open world game’ but the ones in this are better again.

Retr0gamer · 13-05-2023 9:44am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120590258#Comment_120590258

Yep they are so much fun. The thing about open world Zelda is that the towers don't turn the game into icon hunting but turn the game into an orienteering sim.

Played loads of this yesterday. The opening sky island is massive. When I hit Hyrule I explored a bit but was really missing the paraglider so followed the story until I got it. Whole world has opened up now.

pixelburp · 13-05-2023 9:48am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120590258#Comment_120590258

The sheer satisfaction of climbing, followed by the reward of a new area to explore, were a gaming experience borderline peerless.

johnny_ultimate · 13-05-2023 9:52am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120590282#Comment_120590282

Without going into specifics of how these ones work, they’ve kind of inverted that experience to quite delightful effect 😅

Mr.Saturn · 13-05-2023 10:23am

Don’t think anyone is going to be grumbling about enemy variety this time, I’ve gotten decked by all manner of novel monstrosity.

CastorTroy · 13-05-2023 10:37am

Just picked up my luggage tag today. Though they forced me to take a small weird tasting card as well.

Listening to the radio in the car and they played Eurovision winner Why Me and the opening with the piano tinkling made me think of BotW. Who knew they ripped off a Eurovision winner? At least Ted and Dougal ripped off a b-side.

Retr0gamer · 13-05-2023 10:39am

It's amazing that it's been 7 years since botw and we are still getting absolute open world dreck like red dead 2 and the Sony and Ubisoft games. It really should have been a wake up call to these companies and yet here we are 7 years later and another Zelda game is showing them up.

Hell the only open world game I've played that took mechanics from botw on boards was sonic frontiers of all things.

Retr0gamer · 13-05-2023 10:40am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120590356#Comment_120590356

Yep the bestiary is excellent so far. I'm just hoping the end game isn't too damage spongey.

Grassey · 13-05-2023 1:18pm

I spent ages trying to get a crystal from 1 sky island to another with only the stuff I had in capsules.

Wing thing with fans and balloons and burning sticks and I have up after 30 mins of falling off to my doom 🤣

I'll be back when I get rockets 😉

Mr.Saturn · 13-05-2023 1:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120590884#Comment_120590884

Just discovered which ones were the rockets entirely by accident. Luckily was able to fish my creation out of the river.

Just did the Fixed Device shrine. The game’s a glorious troll of a thing.

RainInSummer · 13-05-2023 1:58pm

That Sinakakawak shrine: An Uplifting Device had a pleasantly simple way out in the end. When you have so many tools at your disposal it's hard to avoid over thinking.

Retr0gamer · 13-05-2023 2:03pm

I looked at my phone last night and it was 12:40. Decided I needed to stop playing but had to see what was just over that hill.

Next time I looked it was 02:40. Going to be a few days of grumpy retr0gamer on work for the next few weeks. I'm shattered this morning and decided to not bring the switch with me for the weekend as I've played enough!

13-05-2023 3:19pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120590391#Comment_120590391

It doesn't even need to be a Zelda clone like they tried with Fynx. Just bring in some physics and an open world with a bit of thought put into it where you've got nearby interests while still taking you on your route to your next objective.

Having said that, it is still possible to wander off course. I stuck a fan on one of those floating platforms, skipped over some sections and ended up on the snowy mountain. After brute forcing my way most of the way up (including finding a winding path behind a waterfall) I ended up not being able to progress because I couldn't climb the slippery cliffs. I lost about an hour and had go back on my saves. Which by the way can be risky as I noticed the auto saves will overwrite your manual saves. Wander for too long and you could lose the ability to reset back to before you want a wandering.

srcmtrl · 13-05-2023 3:57pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120588611#Comment_120588611

Fair, although I agree with you. It is amazing, I haven't played a game this long non stop and not been bored in a while. The way everything interacts with each other and how unexpected things manage to happen always makes me laugh, truly amazing. Feels like a true playground whilst also having a good story (from what I've seen so far). I just can't wait to continue unlocking new zonal devices, those things are super fun.

SuperBowserWorld · 13-05-2023 5:32pm

My daughter has the switch and THE game 😒. Which is ok ...

honestly think it's amazing but I definitely have open world burnout. Which I didn't have with BOTW as it was my first open world game and have played a few since. Will clear off a few real world side quests and get to this after the summer.

The decent into Hyrule is beautiful. Finally they got the sky diving right from skyward sword 😁 Hyrule is like an old friend. 😁

Went for a real world walk today. The draw distance was terrible (the old fog trick) and I got anxiety trying to figure out what I needed to build with these trees ...😁😁

Wolverine359 · 13-05-2023 5:42pm

Picked up my collectors edition today after misjudging the opening hours yesterday and arrived at GameStop after they closed at 6pm. Had to pay extra for the CE there but the gold coin looks pretty great so that took the sting out of it. Can’t wait to get stuck into the game when I get a chance.

The Nal · 13-05-2023 5:45pm

I got a gold coin with mine. Binned it

evad_lhorg · 13-05-2023 6:08pm

i Keep forgetting I can fly through ceilings and fuse stuff together.

was in one of the chasms and couldn’t figure out how to get out… forgot I can teleport😂 and I’ve pumped over 200hours into botw.

im finding the building things with ultra hand a little infuriating at times tbh. Don’t seem to be great at realising what I can add to somethin. But when I played Banjo Kazooie nuts and bolts I was useless at that too.

it’s also really hard to go back to no hearts and stamina.

the story seems way better already. The intro was fantastic.

so far I’ve mostly been spending time dying, going from shrine to shrine and the towers to try open up as much of the map as possible. The story can wait.

Andrew76 · 13-05-2023 7:55pm

Finally made it out of the starting area and made my way to that Lookout place. I wouldn’t be as gushing about the game as most folk on here, it’s decent so far but very similar to botw, which I wasn’t a big fan of. A lot of time spent accessing menus to do anything I’m finding. This will be a struggle to stick with tbh.

Sephiroth_dude · 14-05-2023 2:12am

That opening sky island is brilliant!

Spooch · 14-05-2023 8:59am

Ascend doesn't get talked about enough when it comes to the new abilities. It adds a completely new dimension to puzzles and challenges, amazing game design

pixelburp · 14-05-2023 10:03am

Oh my god this game understands ballast. Had my first powered boat and it drifted to the left and got stuck in a fence. Shoot. So I went back to shore and had a look around and at the lake. There were a couple of barrels sitting around the shore.

Hmmmmm. 🤔

So plonked a couple onto the right side of my second attempt at a boat. Chug chug chug, across it toddled to the other side of the shore. not a single tutorial or side character shouting at me how to make a good boat; just a game that gave me the parts and let me figure it out.

Now. Maybe this would be too abstract for a less technically minded player to twig ... but god Nintendo know how to make games.

CastorTroy · 14-05-2023 10:04am

Well have to try and not make that a habit. Started the game at around 6 yesterday evening and stopped at about 3. And going by the progress I've made, this seems like it's going to take a long time to finish.

Still keep getting the controls mixed up. I blame the fact the last few games I've played were on systems where jump was where B is for the Switch.

Spooch · 14-05-2023 10:34am

You can actually change the controls to B to Jump and X is to Sprint

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Comments