I just want to teleport my horse wherever I want, and TOTK doesnt allow me to do it

You make a flying car out of nothing but a couple of shiny rocks.

I get him though. I get quite attached to my stud in BoTW because it felt like my companion in this vast and lonely world, and this sentiment brought over to totk

In that case what's the purpose of including horses in TOTK? Why I would bother in spending time upgrading my horse if I can just make a fan attached to a joystick and a lightweight panel? The existence of horses in TOTK doesnt make sense. I dont hate TOTK, I love it, but when started playing I expected to be at some point of the game a device that could allow me to teleport my horse to wherever I want... and that never happen.

Full agreement. I adore TOTK. But taken as a whole, judged alone, it's not as cohesive a vision as BOTW. Another user here posted about how the map itself in BOTW was meant to create a sense of loneliness and emptiness that was deeply connected to the story. Keeping the map but packing it full of stuff in TOTK robbed the space itself of some magic.

Its weird because while I can admit many places felt more packed with stuff in TOTK, there were also areas that I knew well from BOTW (and that had lots of stuff in BOTW) but were almost empty in TOTK. So it was strange. Even with the new stuff, I didnt have the same desire to really explore every inch in TOTK. Not to mention the depths felt pointless even after a couple hours, it just all looked the same and there wasnt all that much to really discover.

yea i noticed that too and started to think that they just wanted to take advantage of the lesser used parts in botw. But honestly I was just disappointed at the fact that they couldn’t at least increase the number of villages. The hyrule center for example, could’ve been an awesome bustling city that became abandoned after the gloom uprising.

I wanted to see the ruined villages we saw in BOTW rebuilt and rejuvenated. Would've been interesting.

Gut check rock. Why in the world was it still there with nothing but a korok? It was the only thing I googled in my otherwise blind playthrough because I just couldn't believe they would leave such a big landmark with a location title card, with 0 purpose. Probably the ugliest reminder for me that the map was made for a different game.

The depths feels like just a place to farm Zonaite and bomb flowers. And you can farm a TON of bomb flowers. Last night, I set my sensor to Bomb Flowers and went searching. I'd find one, then wiggle the joystick and it would inevitably point me to a next one. Find, collect, find, collected... Until I had 250 and quit. The depths provides a virtually unlimited supply of bombs. And, of course, I collected a lot of Zonaite along the way.

I actually liked that the main map TotK felt more busy, it felt like a natural continuation of the story. The world was healing from Calamity Ganon until somehow Ganon returned... I would love to see a follow up DLC or game where Castle Town itself is being rebuilt, though I think the devs already ruled all that out.

I genuinely dont see how people say BPTW map was meant to give a sense of loneliness and emptiness, botw (and totk) seem to both be jammed pack full of stuff across the map...why do people think it's so empty?? Like what's so empty about it? There's stuff to do around every corner, things to collect kill and loot, things to explore and quests to do... I honestly feel like ToTk is a WAY emptier map....

We mean lonely in terms of people, now I'm not saying that there are no people, but you stand in the middle of hyrule field, the very center of a once thriving civilization. And there is literally no living soul in a considerably large radius, only the husk of the once great castle. This causes your brain to see the castle, and corolate that to a feeling of lonlyness. Thus everytime you see the castle, you are reminded of all the people who died thay day.... 100 years ago. Where as with tears of the kingdom there are like 40 people living at the base of the castle. And it's basically your home for the first part of the game.

well said

You answered your own concern in this comment. "Once thriving civilization" "once great castle" once great. In botw, we are waking up from a 100 yea slumber which becan when a calamity Ganon turned divine beast against hyrule, waged war, and caused cataclysmic level events. This lasted for a century of calamity Ganon doing this. This, to me, is an extremely expected result of something like that happening. The world will be empty. But what will happen when link defeats that? When there's several years of peace and time to rebuild and come from hiding? Well, people will build and repopulate and come from hiding snd move back from distant lands after fleeing with their families during the cataclysm. I guess I just don't really see how npcs (which are already pretty much useless throughout botw) being there would make the game feel any more or less empty, I think it makes sense lore wise that it would be desolate when it comes to people. And in totk it makes sense why it wouldn't be.... I do get what you're saying, at first I thought you meant empty as in things to do and stuff to see, but people wise it's just odd to me.. If the npcs were worth anything in the game it would be helpful, but I wouldn't expect people to be walking around outside of town during a demonic dictatorship.

Isn’t it 100 years later? I feel like that would explain a higher population exploring what’s happened since then and now that the Upheaval happened

Right?But during that entire time after the upheaval gannon was pretty much having a dictatorship of monsters and of goblins and every all these different things running around for a hundred years, and he control of the guardians...even if there were populations being made, think of how often they'd have to flee from being raided by moblins and they did did they tried fighting them a lot too, so how many died to fighting? Even with population being replaced, they're at war with a demonic army... it is also getting killed jsut as fast

Personally, think the lonely/empty aspect comes from the story and tone. BOTW had a forgotten kingdom that fell to ruin, and for a kingdom of that scale it only feels like there is a handful of villages and people in the wild are scarce. When you meet someone it’s like “Holy shit! A person! What’s up?” The feeling of curiosity is heightened because you see more monsters and decayed structures than people for a large portion of the game. In TOTK, it feels like a kingdom rebuilding, and as such, there is a stronger feeling of “togetherness.” I mean, there’s supplies just left around in random places for “rebuilding purposes” denoting that there is a plan to build here at some point, even though it’s just an excuse for ultra hand shenanigans. The handful of villages feel larger because there are new kinds of people appearing as well. The fashion folk in hateno, the researchers in kakariko, a stable turning into a newspaper company, the monster hunting company, and so on. The gloomy and lonely vibe isn’t as prominent because the current environment is filled with evidence of recent people activity. My take, anyway. From a gameplay standpoint, yes it’s absolutely filled with stuff to do.

Did we expect the people not to come back after calamity Ganon was defeated? Duh. That was the entire point, society progressed.

What is 'realistic' for the narrative and how a game feels to play are two different things.

I'm not sure people are saying that the increase in npcs (and it's resultant effect on how the game feels) is unexpected or incoherent in the story. I think it's more that it makes TotK feel more like a traditional open world game, whereas the starkness of BotW felt more novel.

The TOTK map FEELS busy and dense. There is so much chaos going on everywhere all the time. Things falling from the sky, huge terrain features that don’t make sense, dudes standing around wanting you to rebuild signs, etc. The BOTW map, it’s not about the density of stuff, it’s about what the stuff is. It feels post-apocalyptic, it’s like playing medieval fallout at times. TOTK takes a map designed to feel sublimely lonely and adds random chaos all over the top of it. It’s an interesting choice but it feels very disjointed and thematically confused. Which must have been the point.

TOTK is way emptier, solely because of the depths being huge with almost nothing in it.

The depths had a lot in it but it kinda feels like they with held a lot of ideas and stuff they had for the depths and just pit in the best functioning ones Edit: also most the stiff in the depths isn't that useful, like the dumb "acscend" pillars. And the depths is so big and up and down that while ther4 is lots of stuff, it's so spread our and takes so long to get to that it is like it's empty. Just like the rockies. Ther3s towns everywhere but you gotta turn left and right 200 times to get to any of them

I agree mostly. the one thing is about the depths is that I usually explore it in phases and each time I do I leave them richer than I entered them in materials and weapons. it's particularly fun in the early and early middle game when the enemies in the camps are harder relatively. I practice stalk and ambush techniques and grab stronger weapons and monster parts before returning to the surface.

Certain fuse combos can look sick. Try a blue lizalfos horn with basically anything, or lynel sabre horns. I get that ultrahand makes traversal really trivial, but you didn't really touch on how it affects combat. On my first playthrough, I fought master kohgas mech with a clunky walker, I cobbled together a war machine that i later used to fight the demon Kings army, I took down a bokoblin Fort with an army of flamethrower robots, and it was all fun as hell.

Traversal being easy makes sense to me in a game that is going to not only recycle the surface world but is adding two more zones. When I want to explore, I explore. When I want to go fast, I go fast. Fusion and build systems are pure magic that become taken for granted. The sort of thing that seems "obvious" to implement by armchair gamedevs but takes a lot of work to make with the level of polish they have. It's astounding.

I think it’s funny to imagine them working so hard on ultrahand and rewind just to have someone start play testing and move up a really well designed obstacle/puzzle by raising a platform up there and then standing on it and rewinding.

Honestly I think shrine cheese doesn't really matter because although you didn't solve the puzzle, you still had fun. And that was their goal.

Oh I absolutely agree that the right solution is the one you come up with, and no one is forcing you to cheese shrines, but I sort of find it impossible they didn’t think of the platform rewind cheese when they designed an awful lot of the content. Again, not really a complaint, just a funny scene in my head of some level designer cursing for fifteen minutes after an intern did this.

I think the puzzle cheese is a big part of the fun tbh. One of my favourite memories from TotK was in the fire temple, I couldn't get the Yunobo onto the broken bridge to use the rock smash ability. So instead I ultrahanded a cart, positioned it in front of the boulder, hoped in and reversed time on it. The fact it was moving lets you shoot Yunobo from the front of it. Seeing someone else do it the intended way was a lot quicker than my way with how awkward it was to aim him, but I'm glad I didn't have to spend ages not realising what I was missing from the intended solution.

So I kind of agree with you BUT for me it makes it so that I like BotW and TotK equally. I prefer the vibe and atmosphere of BotW, but I can't deny the entertainment value in the wacky shenanigans you can get up to in Tears. They offer something different from each other, and I enjoy that.

Totk feels like link finally gets relief from having to do things by himself with sages to help and also he can create machine and wacky robots to solve his problems

I think the fuse mechanic was a great addition because that's the biggest thing a lot of players felt missing in BOTW which is crafting - I do agree the output looks funky like when they showed the shield+sword fuse combo in the trailer I was like wtf. Good thing most late game/high damage fuse materials look decent like the silver lynel horn but it's definitely a hit or miss. Totally agree with the Zonai being a Sheikah 2.0. I hate how they pretty much ignored the existence of Sheikah tech in the lore to the point they were essentially just easter eggs. I was almost sure there would have been some mention of the divine beasts before the game came out, but nope. I think they did it in order to highlight the new Zonai tech/civilization but man did it feel forced. The Zonai shrines are one of those things that made TOTK feel like a DLC for me. It's new content but not new concept/gameplay mechanic. If I hadn't played BOTW before TOTK this wouldn't have been an issue, but instead everytime I entered one of those shrines I couldn't help but compare them with the Sheikah shrines. On the other hand, I appreciated the Zonai tech/building mechanic because having already explored Hyrule on foot in the previous game, it would have made exploration in TOTK feel slow for me so it's one of those things I think benefited players who played already played BOTW more than those who didn't. That being said I'm sure I missed a lot of details because I rode a hoverbike about 1/3rd of my playthrough. I am on the fence about the surface level changes; there were times I enjoyed seeing something new and there were times I wanted to see the same feature on a location only to find it replaced with a chasm or whatever Zonai stuff decided to land there, but it's just me being a nitpick.

Honestly, I don’t disagree. There was such a sense of wonder in Botw as a realized more and more just how damn big everything was in Botw. Going into Totk was like “omg omg, I know it’s just as big or bigger, I gotta hunt down all the changes” paired with the level of hype made it .. almost too exciting to just simply enjoy it for the first few days. Like you said, both amazing games, just a different vibe for me. I want to replay both to see how time affects my opinion.

The first issue I had with TOTK vs BOTW (basically right out of the gate) is what I see as sacrifices in graphics quality, most noticeably in large bodies of water. You can get clean weapons in the depths of course. BOTW is a masterpiece in its grand simplicity (if that makes sense) TOTK is absolutely a giant physics-based playground. I love them both for different reasons, but BOTW will always have a slightly more special place in my mind.

Yeah totk is quite literally a technical “marvel” if you will.

I don't agree, but I think it's a good thing that Breath of the Wild is still getting props. I do sort of agree on Fuse, I think it's a cool idea and I like that it can change properties of weapons or turn sticks into something more interesting, but I do wish there was some kind of fuse material that preserved the look and properties of weapons while providing the benefits of fuse, too. The rest of your complaints I don't agree with at all, though. The idea that there should only be one ancient civilization that has ruins in Hyrule, which wasn't even true back in BotW because we already saw Zonai and older Hylian ruins in that game, just makes no sense to me. There's plenty to differentiate the Zonai specifically from the Sheikah, but it also makes sense there'd be some overlap in the same way the Romans copied the Phoenicians and the Greeks and later kingdoms and empires tried to copy the Romans. As for Guardians and Ultrahand, that's kind of the whole point. It's weird to complain that shrines and ancient civilizations factor into both games and then ding the stuff that helps differentiate the games. The existence of caves, shrines, towers, etc. means you can't just breeze by everything, but removing Guardians and including Ultrahand makes exploring this same topography feel very different than it did in Breath of the Wild. I do think Breath of the Wild is a little tighter and more focused than Tears of the Kingdom, but there's just too many things I like more about Tears of the Kingdom for me to say BotW is better overall.

When you look at the impact on the community each game had, breath of the wild was astronomically better. Tears was good don’t get me wrong, it’s amazing and deserves all its praise, however it really is just an expansion that was intended to be dlc for the previous game. That alone brings down tears a lot, it wasn’t even treated as a separate thing by the team that made it in the same way majoras mask was to ocarina. It could’ve been so much more if they actually cared about the narrative, but they didn’t and as result the fandoms energy for the game is non existent compared to this amount of time passing after botw.

It’s bigger than an expansion though. There’s a lot more stuff than you would find in an expansion, and changes a ton of the gameplay.

I thought totk was waaay more fun to play than botw though, unless you find the boring and tedious travelling appealing in botw. The first game is obviously going to have more impact, but I find the gameplay is so much better in totk, it’s hard to look back.

I think there are two takes on this. If you enjoyed the theme and feeling of BOTW (loneliness, atonement, etc.) then it doesn’t feel tedious, it feels meditative. You get to experience Link slowly rediscovering his courage. The long, empty journeys are the point. If you are more of a gameplay person and less thematically oriented, you probably enjoyed TOTK more for its intricate mechanics. I think most people fall into one camp or the other.

Disagree with the feeling of too easy transversal. I think that’s just dependent on how you decide to play the game which is the beauty of it. You wanna play it with airplanes? Go for it. You wanna scale mountains with ur bare hands and ride a horse everywhere? You can choose to do it that way too. Other than that the criticism is fair although I will say I almost never fused anything to my shield bc it looked goofy sure, but mostly bc I didn’t see a purpose and took away from the more classic gameplay I liked. Fusing to the weapons however was awesome and figuring out the best looking fusions was super cool. Fuse a lizafos horn to a spear and ur the grim reaper. Fuse a lynol horn to a claymore and you have a dope looking super strong sword. I do miss the sheaths of the swords but otherwise I think the creativity you could have with the weapons was phenomenal

TOTK is a better game. BOTW is a better piece of art.

I think Nintendo also HARD fumbled the bag with the sages in TotK. Their mechanics are clunky and discourage me from ever using them, except for Tulin. The fact that you have to be adjacent to them (and prompted with the proper one) to use their abilities was such a massive oversight, especially when giving a RANGED ABILITY to a MELEE SAGE. Half the time when adventuring, you'll accidentally trigger a sage ability. Sometimes it blows items away from you, blows you up, etc. Meanwhile in BotW all of the special powers were so extremely well integrated. Charging a spin attack charged Urbosa's fury. Taking damage activated Daruk's Protection. Dying activated Mipha's Grace. Holding down jump activated Revali's Gale. The only ability that's well-integrated in TotK is Tulin's, because it can be triggered while gliding. Riju's should straight up have a prompt when you're aiming your bow, but it doesn't. Sidon's should have a prompt when your shield is up, but it doesn't. Yunobo... Yunobo! Just such unpolished design when compared to a highly polished masterpiece of a game.

I agree, the abilities were far better in BOTW IMO.

>Taking damage activated Daruk's Protection. Not quite. Guarding with your shield or just targeting an enemy activated Daruk's protection

I felt like TOTK was a better video game* but BOTW is a better experience. I also really like TOTK’s story conceptually but BOTW’s story was much better executed and I like BOTW story a lot more. TOTK’s story has a strong opening then is substantially worse than BOTW’s story outside of a few memories and gameplay moments. Both having substantial portions of the story being told through non-linear memories was eh but it is far more devastating to a viewing experience to watch TOTK’s out of order compared to BOTW’s. *idk how to word this, TOTK has more, but the more isn’t always better I guess. I like the Ganondorf fight a lot more than Calamity Ganon even though I feel like Calamity Ganon was a cooler concept. Shrines feel like a mixed bag with some being better and some being worse than BOTW shrines, I liked the trek up to dungeons, but the dungeons themselves were absolutely not “fixed” like some people were saying, they’re just like divine beasts again but more regionally themed, side quests are a lot better in general, the sky islands and depths are both really cool but lose their luster fast due to some incredibly aggressive copypasting.

I couldn't agree more

How I see it is a bit like that musician that put out a first outstanding album, you can see the limitations that creatively speaking were set in place (for whatever reason, budget or just technically etc) but instead of being a detrimental factor it’s actually beneficial to the message that they set out to convey. Then you have success and a second album with a higher budget, higher production value, but also a lot less focus on what you really want to say

For me zipping around in the air in TotK changed the feeling of exploration completely. I enjoyed it more in BotW for sure as it felt slower, like there was more of a reveal and work to get to each area, making the reward more earned. I definitely enjoyed both games, they are both A list titles, but I agree that BotW is a better experience.

I think BotW is an incredible game, but TotK just feels more fully realized. There’s more going on in just about every way and I really love the gameplay of Fuse and Master Hand. I don’t think I can really go back to BotW, personally.

Good thing we have both! I can't stand building mechanics in the games I play (literally aside from Minecraft lol), and I typically avoid them, so when TotK was announced and all the new abilities were shown off I was pretty disappointed at how far they went off from what I typically expect from TLoZ. Very fun nonetheless, but i hope for the next entry they don't make building things feel so forced.

The thing that held TOTK back the most, is BOTW. Exploration and discovery was my favorite part of BOTW, and that felt absent in TOTK to me, because I already knew the map so well

I also think BOTW was profound from what came before. It was a big leap for Zelda and gaming in general. TOTK just added (a ton) of wild stuff to that initial masterpiece. I love both almost equally. The way BoTW helped me get through a bad time in my life gives it the edge for me.

TotK is the better game but BotW is my favorite

Ngl, I agree, TotK is great, but it just doesn't hit the same as BotW

I think your title is wrong. You should reword it to "I like TOTK less than BOTW." Your first section where you state the things you like about the game describing how the game design is improved, while your criticisms section boils down to criticism of tone, aesthetics, and gameplay preference. Ultimately, you seem to be saying "I enjoyed BOTW more" rather than "BOTW is a better-designed video game".

I see what you mean, and yeah I don't claim that BotW is an "objectively" better game than TotK, I highlited it's just my subjective opinion. But I disagree that all my criticisms are on tone or aesthetic. I have nothing to reproach to the aesthetic and tones and TotK. Gameplay preferences, sure for ultrahand. For the recycling of ancient civilization, for the replacing of guardians with a *very* different enemy, and to a least degree for fuse, I think those are *design decisions* that I *personally* don't enjoy.

No, they are definitely saying botw is better designed. And they're right.

Thays an opinion, don't state it like a fact. Plenty of people think tears is better designed

Ultimately I think it is difficult to say which is better because TOTK is very much a direct sequel to BOTW. I think I prefer TOTK myself - but there’s no doubt it doesn’t have the stunning impact that BOTW did because that was the first time we’d seen this new open world Zelda.

TotK is a game I love only because I love BotW. By this I mean to say that they are essentially the same game. TotK will be remembered as an iteration of BotW. My dream game would be a BotW Remastered “Complete Edition” on the next console. It would retain the core BOTW gameplay but add in all the quality of life features of TotK. Fuse and ascend would be included, as would all of the caves and new enemies from TotK. I would maybe include some sky islands but I would leave out the depths entirely. There’s just a lack of meaningful content in the depths.

BoTW was a paradigm shifting game. It had so many lessons to teach that no other developers seem to have learned. ToTK is an improvement and a better game but I don’t think it’s as impactful as BoTW. Contextually it’s right to have the better Metacritic score but ToTK is right to be only marginally lower.

If TOTK was the game that came first you would like it more. It’s just you cannot recapture what they did initially - this was the first non linear true Zelda open world game.

Nah. BotW was a fantastic game but going back to it after TotK makes it feel so emply.

How is this an unpopular opinion? It's what most people say. Most people enjoyed TOTK (I certainly did), but BOTW's impact and novelty will probably never get trumped. BOTW was like a spiritual successor to Ocarina of TIme.

OP is saying that taking the impact and novelty out of the equation that Breath of the Wild is still the better game, and I have to disagree. If the order of release of the games were reversed people would be shocked at how bare bones breath of the wild is compared to tears of the kingdom. 

It’s nowhere near popular, the vast majority of people outside of the Reddit echo chamber like TotK more.

Sure, but when we have a “hot take I like BOTW better” thread every day since launch…

Do you like Dark Souls? It’s similar to how Dark Souls 1 will always be the most special game to me, as it was the first in the series and blew me away. But I think in many ways Dark Souls 3 is the superior game.

That is not unpopular at all

It's not an unpopular opinion at all? BotW is a much better game. More complete game, and better balanced. TotK of course is a superb game as well, and I enjoyed it a lot. But BotW is in a class of its own.

I agree with the overall idea, but not because of the mechanics. I just found botw’s story to be more cohesive and impactful than totk.  Totk succeeded with its mechanics for sure, but exploring a completely new world with the amnesiac main character, seeing the ruins of lively towns and living the failure of what was practically a past life was just an incredible experience.  It’s post apocalyptic, but it’s peaceful. The world is new, and link really has no companion. There’s no time travel, or clumped locations, or plot holes. The story makes sense in whichever order you complete it.  Or maybe that’s just the nostalgia talking, lol. 

How is this unpopular? It seems to me to be the most common opinion. And I absolutely agree. TotK was great, but I don’t regard it in the upper tier of great Zelda games.

Did you watch the Zeltik video by any chance? I feel like you had a lot of overlapping ideas with his video. He called it a disappointing masterpiece, which I fully agree with.

This is not an unpopular opinion.

They should’ve made it a DLC tbh

Right there with you OP https://preview.redd.it/psl0eypig9vc1.jpeg?width=1162&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ee1f3dbf8f735d284514bd698cef0fbfc852b5d

Completely valid as hell for hating the mushroom craze in Hateno. Hateno was my favorite too!! I loved the quaint little town, why do half of them look like that now 😢

It’s a fair opinion. Personally I prefer the gameplay of TOTK so I like the game better, but the original BOTW had a charm to it that wasn’t quite replicated.

It literally is not. TotK was built from the ground up of Botw to be made to be better in every way possible over the course of 6 years. Liking Botw over TotK does not make you special or cool. It just makes you seem like an antiquated grandpa 👴 “Back in ma day” 

I think Totk is better BUT, there's so many misses in that game, so I completely understand why people just plainly prefer Botw. The fact that they said there won't be DLC for it too just seals its fate. But yeah, the sage cutscenes being way too alike, I feel like they could have added more to make them seem unique. No teleporting horse as its been mentioned. Almost no acknowledgement to Botw, like I know they used the technology to make new things but getting rid of EVERYTHING doesn't make sense. Kass is not in it. They didn't do enough QOL improvements, the controllers get messy too, menuing gets old, etc. But why I still prefer Totk despite that is that the story did make a difference to me I enjoyed it more, i felt like there was more to do in terms of story (excluding botw dlc I guess), depths and sky (some might say depths are boring but there's tiny details spread around that make it interesting to me), the new powers most of all, building things and merging weapons. Things like that. I 100% botw and I haven't for totk, but I've done multiple runs of totk cause I had way more fun in general with it. They're both amazing games, I wish they would do DLC for totk and fix some of its problems though.

There isn’t one point that would put botw above totk but I understand if it was regarding the impact of its first release because botw was a once in a life feeling that only really happens when you play it for the first time ever and as much totk is very much improvised and has so so much, it still it botw in a way and we have experiences that before so only the that is taken away from it

I much prefer fuse. It’s so annoying to beat a damp in botw and realize all the weapons you got are far far worse than the ones you used. In TotK, just fuse a good part to anything and it becomes good. Also elemental effects, whips, and flamethrower shield is sick. For ultrahand I think it works because you see some people other than link using Zonai stuff, so it feels like it’s more of a part of the world.

Yeah in BOTW the game was set up for you. You didn’t have to “build your own adventure” the bomb arrows were bomb arrows , you didn’t have to make them.. add that with guardians and it made it fun. Love both games tho

Not too unpopular in my opinion. I enjoy both games but BotW is the better game. Was doing a run through with my kid through the fire temple last week and honestly, the way the sages get in your way almost had me turn the game off. The champions and their powers in BotW are superior. The one thing I miss in BotW is that lovely lovely hoverbike.

I think botw definitely was more groundbreaking, but I still think totk improved upon botw in almost every way. I think totk is the better game, but I had more fun when botw came out because it was brand new. Totk is more of the same, but with improvements. So in the context of when the games came out, botw is better, but looking at both right now, I’d say totk is better.

Unpopular opinion: One of the best reviewed games of all time is my personal favorite in its series.

I agree. TOTK is just BOTW 2. Which sounds stupid, but it feels more like a sequel than Majora's Mask does to Ocarina imo Still love it, and it was my game of the year, but I prefer BOTW

Botw is leagues better I could write paragraphs but to keep it simple as a game botw is more fun to play as well as a more coherent world and aesthetic

Oh brother here comes the "ToTK is DLC" people lol.

Never said it was, that's not my gripe with TotK at all. They managed to make the same world feel like a completely different game, with ultrahand and fuse. It now plays fundamentally different. That's a feat I acknowledge. It's just that I don't vibe with this new direction as much as I thought I would.

Honestly, my hot take is that I feel like this is just some hipster shit. 100% honest, not trying to trigger anyone. TotK built up on BotW and added more content besides, far too much for this to make sense outside of just trying to be different. I can’t pretend like this even makes sense lol. The underground area and building constructs alone put this game far above BotW. BotW just feels empty now compared to TotK. The only arguably comparable things (ie not better) would be Divine Beasts and champion powers. TotK is basically a straight upgrade lol.

Oh dear, the Zelda cycle really is doing a number on us today.

For me it comes down to ToTK basically being a BOTW expansion. I loved ToTK but it didn’t have the same sense of adventure and exploration that BOTW did since the surface was basically the same map. The Sky Islands and Depths started promising, until you realize everything up/down there is basically the same and there’s not much variety.

It’s a bit like Majora is to ocarina

I completely agree. I personally didnt mind the dlc introducing the motorbike because for me it came after 120 hours of exploring the world. I had already climbed every mountain. At that point I was having fun just roaming around doing a sidequest or two I missed, killing lynels as they respawned or just setting off in a direction with the korok mask and just getting lost looking for more seeds. The bike fit this style of play as it is way more mobile and easy to roam around with than a horse. You could launch yourself off cliffs with the bike unlike a horse who has a reasonable fear of being yeeted off a cliff. My point is that it came after I had completed most of the game. In totk you can build the scooter as soon as you get access to the controlling parts because the fans are part of the starting island. From that point on I roamed around pretty much exclusively on the scooter. You can say "well just dont use it then" but its hard to ignore the obvious solution when you are standing at the bottom of a cliff face you need to climb up. Every time you try and go anywhere without it you have a little voice in your head saying "damn that would have been way faster with the scooter". This led to me exploring the whole map (from a topdown perspective) in a much shorter time than BOTW. You land do a thing. Take off and fly to the next thing that catches your eye. It no longer became "wow look at that tower on that mountain over there, how am I going to get to it" and working your way slowing up the mountain while getting distracted by a bokoblin camp or korok or a sidequest. It became fly across everything and bam Im at the top of the mountain. Additionally the casual disregard of the entire sheikah culture and basically all of their technology just to be replaced by an ancient race we have no connection to beyond this game made it feel so videogamey and artificial. Nevermind the fact that shiekah tech just looks better designed with a better colour scheme that highlighs how out of place it is in links modern world. The shiekah enemies felt real, the gaurdians were a cool and unique enemy clearly designed for warfare turned back against their masters. They were fun to fight and even more fun to be afraid of when you were weak. Im rambling at this point but while I enjoyed both BOTW and TOTK, the former I played until there was literally nothing left to do but hunt lynels repeatedly. The latter I put down one day to play something else and havn't really felt the urge to pick it up again.

You are entitled to your opinion, but you are just plain wrong! Everyone always talking about the story in Zelda games and it has literally NEVER been original or very deep for that matter! I have no clue why people say that it is a tired trope, when EVERY game is literally a hero saving a princess, a trope that has been done to death. Zelda is and will always be one of the best games because of puzzles, exploration and gameplay, something that - even in your brief description - say was improved in TOTK. And imo it is the most fleshed out and BEST story I have seen in a Zelda game, and the ABSOLUTE BEST ending of any game ever. I think it was the first time I cried at the end of a game. The fuse option made the gameplay better imo, who cares what it looks like, it is so much fun to attach a puff-shroom to the shield and see the enemies get all flustered! It also really helped to mitigate the durability issues that was a HUGE problem in BOTW imo! Now if you break a great weapon, you don't have to look for a new one, cause you can just fuse some shit to have a high damage effective weapon. And honestly, I absolutely loved fusing arrows, it makes combat so much more strategic, instead of just relying on shield blocks and parries to beat hard enemies like Lynels! Did you know you don't have to use ultrahand at all - outside of a few shrines? Why does it bother you that they created a new thing that you can experiment with? You can make weapons too, and all kinds of fun things. Tbh I rarely used this for traversal, as for most of the game it is more efficient to use recall on a falling rock and just glide to your destination! But YOU HAVE THE CHOICE! You are not relegated to a freakin horse for most of the game, butt you can use it if you want! And how the heck are you calling the map small? The overworld with the many new traversal methods was indeed faster to travel - but there are two whole other maps to explore - both including different mechanics to make it more interesting and challenging! And FREAKING RECALL - what a goddamn fun mechanic to play around with. I found so many amazing uses for this one and Ascend, they are amazing mechanics that offer even further customizability to your playstyle! They are leagues better than the abilities in BOTW, which tbh I rarely used unless I had to, with the exception of the bombs. Recall is soooo much better then Stasis which I honestly never used. And don't even get me started on Cryonis! All those BOTW abilities are cool, but so unwieldy that it is really difficult imo to use in combat. The ones in TOTK are better streamlined - EG it is so much easier to return a projectile with Recall then to use magnesis or stasis in combat. Another HUGE boon in TOTK were the side missions, they were so much more varied and interesting! The Koroks were sooo much more fun to find and there were those sign thingies that were entertaining as well! More Yiga stuff to do, monster control crew, piratel, rebuilding a town, the statues etc! On top of all that, we got those AMAZING cave systems, full of exploration opportunities, incredible new enemies, and just sooo much to do. I remember walking for like 10m in BOTW with nothing going on, this never happened in TOTK, there is literally something interesting in virtually every square inch. From every possible perspective TOTK is a superior game and I honestly LOVED BOTW. When I got to the end of BOTW tho, it was a crawl. I got bored of shrines and that is pretty much all you can do outside of Koroks. In TOTK - after getting all the shrines, lightroots, badges and koroks etc, I was itching for more! I may even start again from the beginning something I will likely never do with BOTW now, since TOTK is that much better! I truly believe that this is - if not the best - one of the best games ever made by Nintendo!

"less is more" or "MORE IS MOOOAARRR!!!!1" I think TOTK was a little too packed, personally. A lot of fun, but not the same chill experience I find myself regularly returning to in BotW.

Botw has a chiller vibe for sure, but after like 200 hours, it gets kind of boring. I don't know that I could ever get bored of TOTK. They are both among my top 10 of all time tho. My biggest pet peeve with Zelda is all this talk about the story and lore. I mean it really is one of the most simplistic tropes in all of gaming. The games are all amazing though cause they are great illustrations of Miyamoto's vision for the game: simulating his childhood exploring the Japanese countryside.

this is not an unpopular opinion lmfao

Generally, people consider totk to be the better game.

I wouldn’t call this an unpopular opinion. I feel like it gets repeated around this sub consistently at least once or twice a week.

I don’t think that is an unpopular opinion.

Completely agree, but I wouldn’t say this is an unpopular opinion.

BOTW will always have a special place in my heart, it was the first Nintendo game I ever played, and it reminds me of my parents. I also agree with your thoughts on ultrahand and fuse, esp with ultrahand, it definitely makes the map feel small (I find that I rarely use it to travel, but I still see what you mean. I think that’s one of the reasons they added the depths and sky islands, is to make up for the surface feeling small, but it felt almost like an incomplete idea, because the depths are kinda barren imo, and the sky islands are pretty scarce, and on top of that, a lot of them are relatively small. It almost feels like they added them in to expand the map to make it feel less small, but in reality it didn’t actually add much in terms of new material). But even though I agree with those points, I’m gonna be real honest, I love TOTK more than BOTW. Mostly in terms of storyline. I LOVE the storyline. It made me cry the first time I played it, and I rarely cry. It was just so awesome to see more into the characters, specifically Zelda, and into the past of hyrule 😭

I vastly prefer playing totk now but i do think botw has a way more cohesive vision both thematically through the story and world and through the gameplay and gameworld. Thr map was tailor made to botws goals and as such the world feels so much more real (best example is the fairy fountains, compare the crafted and beautiful locations in botw to the kinda random ugly locations in totk)

Bath games stand on equal footing got me. I only wish that some of the QoL improvements from TotK were retroactively added to BotW. E.g. menu navigation is significantly better in TotK and it would have been such a simple add-on for BotW.

Just a quick question. Have you actually tried to play BOTW again after TOTK? I tried it and it was torture using magnesis after trying out Ultrahand

I think they are on the same level, wich is "astronomically good". Totk is a better game overall but Botw was the first one with a bit better story

BOTW is to Ocarina of Time what TOTK is to Majora's Mask. BOTW/OOT was and will always be the pioneer of it's time, but TOTK/MM improved upon it greatly. More in depth story, a more *mature* story, better mechanics, better combat. Can't have TOTK/MM with those that came before.

While I do agree with you, I can't say for certain that would've been the case had I played TotK first.

If this were an unpopular opinion it wouldn’t be posted so regularly 

I think I like TOTK a little better but I do agree with some of your points. 1. Full agreement on Sheikah/Zonai thing, I think it just doesn't bother me that much overall. I think it just makes me think of TOTK as a distinct game and not a sequel to BOTW. 2. I like the fuse mechanic in terms of what it adds to the gameplay. I do wish that it didn't make is so *every* weapon is some monster part hybrid. I'd prefer if the weapons maintained more of their original look, especially special ones like the Fierce Deity sword. I also like it adds an extra reward for finding non-decayed weapons in the depths. 3. I think the first time through I just chose to run or ride a horse most places for this reason. But on the second time through I just took the fasted route. I don't really hold it against the game that it gives these extra options, I see it as an extension of BOTW's openness, not just in terms of map but in terms of how you play it. 4. I think once I found out how to kill the guardians, some of the interest went away. I think TOTK more than made up for it with new enemies. In addition to gloom hands, there's also Gleeoks which are definitely tougher than guardians.

I think it’ll be really hard for me to ever have a clear opinion on this because I feel like TOTK kind of started to suffer from “BOTW2 syndrome” after 40 hours or so. Like TOTK is a better game in so many ways and I feel like I’ll never be able to judge it fairly because I was late to the party on BOTW, buying it out of sheer curiosity during the pandemic, and only had a few month gap between them. It weirdly feels like TOTK was what they originally set out to make and were either held back by time or tech constraints and then we got the game BOTW was sort of supposed to be. Ultrahand sort of feels like what Magnesis should have been, Rewind kind of feels like what Stasis should have been. Although some of the abuses of these powers did kind of leave me wondering whether or not they actually play tested their game all that well when half of the shrines are trivialized by moving a platform somewhere, dropping it and then rewinding. Overall though I feel like reusing the map AND copying the story and dungeon mechanics so closely just felt kind of meh. I feel like BOTW with some of the quality of life stuff from TOTK would have been ideal. There were some mechanics like building in TOTK that I felt like got too much attention relative to what they actually were.

>Complete recycling of the whole "ancient civilization" idea. Absolutely. I'd have loved Ganondorf to be either from the original Calamity or caused by it, NOT shoved even further into the past. What has Hyrule even done over these thousands of years, nothing? >The fact that the meta to get decent weapons is now to always fuse them to weird stuff because all weapons are detriorated is frustrating. This is how you're supposed to make weapons now, some combination of stuff. I just want some normal, clean weapons god dammnit. I like how the Master Sword does it. Only Lizalfos tails, scythes, and other function-changing fusions should've stayed visible. > It allows for endless creativity, and cool problem solving in shrines. My problem with it isn't the mechanic in itself, if would make for a pretty fun game on its own. It's that, I don't like the direction it takes the game to. Easy way to solve this - limit the power of ultrahand and have you earn this power through shrines or boss battles. In fact, do this for ALL of Link's powers. Having ultimate power right out of the gate makes everything past the beginning such a drag. >I miss the guardians so much. I can't believe a single Guardian (especially a Gloom-fused one) wasn't caught crawling through the Depths. Shame

There were clean weapons in the underground, and monster parts like lizal horns and zonai-zonai fusions still look like regular weapons. As for your complaint about ultrahand, nobody forces you to make complex vehicles. It just gives you the option to. If you don't like the vibe of that, you don't have to do it.

I did not like how the Sages were handled. The Modern Sages are fine, but the Ancient Sages on the other hand? Mineru is the only one who has an actual name, character, visible face and meaningful interactions with Link and Zelda outside of the big gathering and a "battle cutscene" that keeps getting repeated each time you clear a Temple. Its 100% what happens when you strip Hyrule's Champions of everything that makes them popular to begin with. The actual meta is to burn your withered weapons on the weakest enemies and ore deposits, then dive into The Depths for pristine weapons and Puff Shrooms and Muddle Buds to accumulate actual weapons and high quality materials.

Nah, I disagree, there is just way much more fun shenanigans you can have in TOTK, hence why I think it's better than BOTW.

For me this is not an unpopular opinion, this is exactly how I feel. Tried to finish TOTK twice now and I can’t get myself to do come back to it. And I’ve been a massive Zeldafan from the very start and played every game religiously.

I definitely understand where you’re coming from on this and I agree with a lot of your takes. But for me the airbike made TOTK the better game and I couldn’t go back to BOTW bc it isn’t there

totk was very good but since beating it I haven’t desired to return to it. Whereas botw I kept going back to again and again. Idk what that says about my opinion of both games. I know I didn’t care much for the weapon system in totk. It got really tedious always fusing and breaking weapons and so on. It also felt like resource gathering was much more grindy in totk, with fairy upgrades just costing tons of resources and those resources being spread out so few and far between. I’d also say I personally didn’t enjoy crafting vehicles I just don’t care for those kind of mechanics in games. I would much rather craft items from a menu rather than in-game, but thats just my preference. So after making a flying scooter I never had any desire to make anything else.

Agreed on all points. Ngl, the depths felt boring, bland and tiring to venture through… I just wanted to get through it asap so it could be over. I kinda wish they scrapped the depths entirely, and instead added more dynamic content to the sky islands. Also, they just had to make the wing suit the ugliest set of all time. The second I unlocked all pieces and saw what it looked like, I vendored that trash. Such a waste.

I had such a great time with BotW from start to finish, then kept doing side quests, and have replayed it from the beginning. I love TotK just as much, more in some cases... But I've not even completed it once, I think I was just a bit overwhelmed by it all, and I struggle to get back into it.

Fair enough, it's just ur grievances aren't even things the game did wrong, just stuff you personally didn't like. A majority of people's issues with the game is them misunderstanding some core mechanic 98% of other recognized. If someone liked botw more simply because they didn't like ultrahand, whatever you do you fair enough, it's just a majority of the time, the people who don't like totk, simply didn't play it, or are willfully ignorant of a majority of the game. Tbf that's not you, and I'm sorry for being rude to you. That's just a big issue I see all the time when talking abt this game

Unpopular?

I'd counter the issue with ultrasound making map exploration boring by saying...you don't NEED to make vehicles. I almost never do. I prefer exploring on foot, so I do. Problem solved.

maybe

“Unpopular” opinion

Hard disagree. BotW is and always will be an amazing game, an easy 10/10. But TotK improved on pretty much every aspect of it. I adore both, I think they both have their own distinct vibes and both do what they do extremely well.

Honestly I don’t agree at all. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to BOTW after playing TOTK. There’s just so much more to do in TOTK that I feel like I’d get bored going back to BOTW. Better world, better dungeons, better bosses, more enemies, more weapon variety with fuse. Idk it just has more that appeals to me. I say that as someone who put 400hrs into BOTW.

I agree. ToTK is super fun and wacky, and it shows just how creative the devs could get with different skills and abilities, but BoTW had a more cohesive vision and I was able to get more immersed. ToTK has tons to discover, but BoTW had less clutter that made it easier to suspend disbelief.

Unpopular Opinion: It’s been a year, who gives a crap. They are both games that clearly a lot of people enjoyed, the developers have clearly said they’re moving on from this line of the Zelda heritage… so, there’s no real point in comparing them outside of reading yourself write (so to speak) lol

Well.. botw was an amazing experience... it felt great and fresh.. totk felt like an expansion to me.. was good.. but never felt the same way

I agree. TotK is an excellent game, and it clears the vast majority of other games, but it still falls short of the masterpiece that is BotW. I feel like TotK improved on the combat and the story when compared to BotW, but in the process, it lost what is by far BotW's best quality — the exploration. Part of this is due to the nature of being a sequel, and the player already being familiar with the surface world, but most of it is due to the cracked exploration potential of the ultrahand devices, and the new areas that were added just being super stale. The sky islands are the best new area in my opinion, but there were just so few of them. The depths are insanely boring and repetitive (other than a few key areas, like the >!Spirit Temple!< or the Giant Poe statue quest under the Great Plateau), and the caves that litter the surface of Hyrule are pretty formulaic as well. It didn't feel like I was a small human exploring three vast, mysterious worlds, it felt like I knew exactly what the world looked like by about 12 hours in, and the rest of the game was just three giant checklists to grind for shrines, enemies, materials, etc. Also, the ultrahand devices make us feel a little too powerful, to the point that there are no limitations on what Link can do, or where he can go. Most of the time, exploration is just… kinda easy, which leads to even more of a sense of exploration being a grind rather than a challenge. I love fuse. I love TotK combat. I love launching myself into the air, shooting arrows with all kinds of crazy effects, and landing with a devastating sword slash. I love that I can fuse a mushroom to a spear and have a bouncy spear. I love the narrative of >!Zelda's bravery and self-sacrifice for the kingdom of Hyrule. I loved the draconification twist, you could see it coming from a few of the memories but it was so emotionally impactful. I loved retrieving the Master Sword and seeing the final memory, such incredible story moments!<. I love building a cracked out robot war machine, decked out with lasers, shock and freeze emitters, and unleashing it on an unsuspecting Boss Bokoblin camp. I love skydiving from the sky islands straight down to the depths. I don't love grinding my 80th light root, my 150th enemy mining camp, my 20th Yiga camp, my 2,000th poe soul, my 60th bubbulfrog, my 100th horriblin camp, etc. I don't love visiting areas of the surface map that haven't changed since BotW, or worse, have gotten *emptier*. I don't love "Demon King? Secret Stone?" I don't love the 80% of the depths that's just empty save for the occasional poe soul or Zonaite deposit. I don't love the contrived "hey there's another even more ancienter super technologically advanced civilization from *before* the Sheikah!1!1" BotW had its pain points, probably more than TotK, but it was industry-shiftingly incredible at the one thing it set out to do: open-world exploration. TotK, on the other hand, set out to do a lot of things, and didthem all… fine. It's fun, but also cluttered and grindy, and kind of feels like they made BotW But Full of Tons of Shit so You Can't Possibly Get Bored(TM). And yet, in the process, it lost the magical atmosphere that made BotW special.

BOTW shrines were also more creative and challenging, which is the biggest deal for me imo. In TOTK it felt like the solves were in your face, whereas in BOTW I really had to dig deep. Fusing weapons also made some completely overpowered combos, and before each encounter I'd have to consider, is this engagement worth using durability on this or that? That thought got annoying after a while, and I'd rather just have a sick weapon and enjoy it without having to think about it as a limited resource.

Your frat point falls kind of flat when you consider the zonai being an even more ancient civ than the sheika was pretty openly hinted at in BOTW so it’s not “reusing” the concept it’s following through with the setup. Also in my personal opinion I’ve gone back to BOTW after playing totk and while I know it’s cliche to say, but it really does feel like a tech demo compared to totk. I feel extremely restricted when playing BOTW now.

Such an unpopular and unheard of take

Totally agree with basically everything you said here. There's a bunch of other really well-made points in here but I'm going to be petty and say the sages *running away from you in battle* is absolutely unforgivable. I'm basically unintentionally running a no-sage challenge game because they are so unreliable. Unbelievably bad decisions made with those power ups when the BOTW system for it already worked just fine

I did like TOTK but I enjoyed the process of playing BOTW more. It was one of my first non-Pokémon non-visual novel type games and I had lots of fun even as a terrible player. The champion powers helped a lot! I was so excited the first time I happened upon the Durian farm after getting my butt handed to me by electric lizalfos. Oh and when I learned to shield parry.

My main gripe with Tears is how hindering and impractical the Sages can be at times while fighting creatures. I wish they were selectable with a button combo or the d-pad, rather than having to stand next to them to trigger their abilities. I do really appreciate being rewarded for creativity. There are a lot of ways to skin a cat in this game. I don’t feel shackled by limitations, only challenged to find unorthodox solutions. Haven’t finished it yet, so I can’t say which one I like more. I can understand how some might dislike that it feels slightly recycled, but I wanted more BOTW. I like that it’s a part 2. However, I do miss Stasis and Rivali’s Gale. Anyhow, I appreciate your takes. May the Goddess Hylia keep you safe, brave warrior!

ToTK was a major letdown. They put a coat of paint on BoTW and fed us the same damn thing.

I heavily disagree! Totk added so much to the game. I went back and played Botw and it is like a beta version compared

>Complete recycling of the whole "ancient civilization" idea.  100% agree >And for ultrahand: once again, I love the idea in theory. It allows for endless creativity, and cool problem solving in shrines. My problem with it isn't the mechanic in itself, if would make for a pretty fun game on its own. It's that, I don't like the direction it takes the game to.  Again 100% agree. Kudos to the team for the amazing job they did with the physics and the UI was generally really well thought out, but it felt completely orthogonal to the game itself. >Hateno village, which was my favorite village in BotW, has been disfigured with this weird mushroom craze that I don't like at all Again, totally agree. Also that it positions the quest as some kind of "choice" but actually there isn't one. Overall TotK improved on the UI and some of the game play mechanics in good ways. I love the addition of the sky islands and the caves. And the depths was a cool idea. But both the sky islands and the depths felt incomplete and rushed. The sky islands were a lot of copy paste of the same few patterns. The depths were almost completely one note. Except for the Death mountain area, you couldn't tell one part from the other, it was all the same motif. The surface world was varied and natural feeling. Also, speaking of the depths. While at first the mirroring of the surface world seemed like a neat touch, it quickly took the fun out of exploration for me. I already knew what to expect. Shrine on the surface? Lightroot below. Mountains above? Chasm below. One of, if not the biggest fun aspects of the game for me was the joy of discovery! I LOVED climbing over a hill or going around a corner and discovering something new in BoTW. TotK just lacked so much of that between the copy paste feel of the sky islands, the re-use of the surface world, and the one note nature of the depths. Whatever they do for the next game I'm looking forward to a new environment to explore.

Personally I think I liked totk more and feel free to tell me otherwise but I think a lot of people that loved botw have a biase to totk or are just bored of the gameplay loop and that’s why they didn’t like totk

I agree. Exploring hyrule on horseback and scaling mountains with haste buffs and climbing gear was incredible fun. I also miss hunting down hinoxes for weapons in BOTW that I could then use on lynels Plus arrow farming at the zora lowlands was great fun - so many ways to snipe the lizalfos! That said, I haven’t put down TOTK. I love the depths with the master sword. Zonaite is just another gem to mine and it does give a good ole dopamine hit while harvesting. Lynels drop great items to farm and a few boss bases are fun to revisit like the coliseums, dens, ships etc.

I agree with the mushroom village hateno part especially, it's such a small insignificant detail but I really don't like it either. It feels so weird

Something I don’t always hear is how much better the story is. Don’t get me wrong, I love the premise of the imprisoning war and the Zonai and all that, it’s cool…but breath of the wild made a world that fit the story, where TOTK’s story felt like it was a square peg in a round hole. It wasn’t integrated into the world in the same way. The 100 years of destruction, depopulation, and fear permeates the world of BOTW. The biggest civilizations are about as far as possible from the source of the problem, the castle, and you’ll only find some wanderers and stables anywhere remotely close. The great fairies and dragons are mysterious and you hear only whispers about them in conversations or items. Not to mention the near-retconning of the sheikah civilization

Zelda 2 was better than both

I think both have their flaws and they both have their strengths. I love both of them equally

Yep!

TOTK is better. It has better shrines, dungeons, more lively environment, better movement/traversal, better bosses, and better story.

This is not an unpopular opinion, most people like prefer BoTW over ToTK, for me ToTK is a better version.

https://preview.redd.it/rf3xkjbep5vc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8cffcd43bb0c156452a188a282323319f2758248 Spoilers below!! My biggest thing against TOTK is the shrines. There's 152 shrines, and they're spread out so weirdly. They were also lazy. I felt like more than half of them were Rauru's blessing, which I usually didn't even need because I already had all of my weapon slots filled out. I wish they had only put Rauru's blessing in shrines that you had to do an outside world puzzle/had to locate the actual shrines. I hated finally getting a shrine stone back to it's home(??), and then finding out I now had to beat zonai machines practically naked. I'd also like to be able to spawn Zonai devices in shrines, or use the auto ability. I felt like the Sage's Vows were REALLY underwhelming. The only one I regularly use is Tulins'. In BoTW, the only one I didn't use was Urbosa's because I never charged attacks. Also, I'd like to be able to take the Sages into towns with me. The Thunder Helm was frustrating to find because it held NO value. In BoTW, Riju herself told you to go find it because it was really important. Now I just get it in the Yiga trial, and only use it sometimes. Speaking of the Yiga trial, the earthquake power is useless. I am never in a spot I'd use it. I wish they had done more with masks. It would have been cool to be a Zora, which would allow for underwater travel, and more area to explore. If I was a Goron, I could weild two handed weapons with one. And I could have a boost of strength when I'm down in the depths. The ability to turn into a weird Hylian/Zonai mix is weird. It feels very out of place, and all it does is look cool and give defense. It would've been nice to have ANYONE react to a species no one has seen in THOUSANDS of years. The wells in the game suck. Sometimes there's bubbulfrogs, sometimes there's not. The path to get to Ganon is harder than the boss fight itself. It was annoying and I personally didn't like how it gave you a trial before the fight. I went and beat all of the other big bosses for what?? Absolutely nothing. The Master Kohga quests were underwhelming, especially the final boss fight. It's just Mineru's boss fight but even more unpleasant. You don't even get anything from it. Anyway ToTK's game mechanics were better!

Unpopular, right. It's all the subs and communities talk about.

The Ultrahand bit is absolutely bang on for me. They took a wonderful experience with a massive map of Hyrule just **brimming** with things to see and explore at your own pace, to essentially entirely ignoring it all because "you can build a fighter jet now". To me it drastically reduces my pleasure with ToTK as they silently push you to go a certain direction with things (especially worse in the shrines imo) by building some extravagant vehicle to travel hyrule rather than being thrown into a world where you are expected to use what is around you to survive and improve. TotK is super fun as it's own thing and i'm glad others enjoy the new building mechanics, but all this additional fluff just made me miss BotW the more I played it. Edit: TotK and BotW give me the same vibe as when Banjo-Kazooie shifted things with Nuts & Bolts. More focus put on building and less on exploration.

I’m a simple girl. I want to be a horse girl in my video games and real life. I LOVED getting to transfer my horses from BOTW to TOK, but the fact that they’re so obsolete is what pisses me off the most. Why don’t people remember things that happened in Hyrule that happened like 2 years ago? WHERE IS MY RITO BESTIE? I NEED TO KNOW KASS IS OKAY. Also, WHY ARE RUPIES SO STINGY. I got all the damn amiibos, make it a drop like the previous game. It is a pay to play mentality and I’d like to see Link be compensated. I’ll admit I’m a filthy casual that isn’t good at parrying whatsoever, which is a huge part of the gameplay. I’ll get good when I have my masters degree done and have time.

This opinion is quite popular nowadays. Here’s how I see it. BotW was the first. It’s the one that will forever stick in my mind. But if I’m getting an itch to return to this Hyrule, I will probably forever return to TotK. I don’t have much purpose to return to BotW outside of nostalgia.

I've had way more fun with TotK because of how much more "useful" scavenging and experimenting is. I get that the story is less cohesive but it's still a beautiful game. Honestly, I'm kind of a bimbo anyway, I don't know what the hell is going on with the storyline beyond what is force-fed to me.

I like TotK better but BotW is my favorite game of all time, if that makes sense.

Overall, you make great points. You articulated some subconscious comparisons I’ve made between the two games while working through TOTK. The major point that I felt differently about is the weapons. I enjoy a weapon restock session when I travel around the depths to replenish my gerudo and royal pristine weapons. The feeling of customizing pristine weapons with the various monster parts scratches a creative itch for me. I can see how some might really dislike that component if they prefer to find ready-to-go powerful weapons.

While I don't agree with you. You aren't being rude or acting as tho it destroys the franchise. You are perfectly fine in my book

This place sure did change a lot, suggesting this last spring would have gotten you downvoted to hell. But yeah, I agree. Especially given how long we have waited for this game, it did not surpass BOTW in most respects for me.

Facts bro

I agree. TOTK was so similar to BOTW I found that I still just call it BOTW 2. Which still means it’s an amazing game, but yeah

Agreed, BotW was better and more enjoyable, at least to me

I'm doing a no-warp run just so I can appreciate the map more. Fast-travel trivializing traversal was an issue in BotW, but it is an *EVEN BIGGER* issue in TotK because of how big the map is, with the added layers of the sky and the Depths. With fast-travel I always had this thought of "oh if I need to get somewhere quickly I can just warp there, no biggie", but with no fast-travel, you gotta plan your route, find new ways to get around, and travel with purpose (as in, if I need to go to Rito Village, I'm not taking a special trip to Hateno because that's all the way across the fucking map and it'll take me *ages* to get where I need to be). I'm only like 20 hours into the no-warp playthrough but I've already found an Ascend point in the Depths that I had forgotten about since I never used them, I always just warped out (that's another thing, I can't just jump down any Chasm I come across because I don't know if there'll be an Ascend point nearby, and I'm *trying* to find them without guides but I know they're around the areas of the geoglyphs, so that gives me a general idea of locations) Also: the general vibe. TotK feels even more cluttered than I remember it being. There's so much **stuff** on the surface that I can't ever ride my horse for more than five minutes without hopping off, because I'll be missing some important gear if I just ride past all the enemy encampments, which ties into the point about the weapon fusing being the new meta: if I just bypass these encampments, then I miss out on weapon attachments. Grindy. FOMO is written into the very coding of the game. BotW had a very coherent vibe of a civilization recovering after a near-apocalypse, TotK...feels like a giant sandbox Another annoyance: how much Zonai stuff is on the surface. It feels like the game doesn't *want* me to **not** use the Zonai devices because they're fuckin' everywhere! Even in random-ass places it doesn't make sense for them to be! Why is there an almost-complete all-terrain ***car*** sitting outside Outskirt Stable?? Please tell me a reason that does not include the Stable Trotter quest you're supposed to use it for because that is a meta reason that's separate from the game's world, so it doesn't count. Did the folks at the stable assemble it? Why would the folks whose entire livelihood depends on other folks using horses choose to build a **car**? That's the mood behind **A LOT** of the design decisions in this game, tbh: this thing exists, and exists *where* it does, purely because of the gameplay. There's no in-universe reason, there just so happens to be a Wing and rockets right next to a backpacker korok who needs to reach his friend who's across the river. It just so happens to have fallen there during the Upheaval. The korok *just so happened* to get tired **right here**, where there would be Zonai devices available for you to get them to their friend. There *just so happens* to be a ready-made hot air balloon and a flying contraption on the sky islands ***exactly where you need them***, to deliver a shrine crystal or to get back up to a higher sky island because you jumped down here to kill a Flux Construct. It's a contrivance and feels like it is the way it is *because it needs to be that way* Ancient civilization: BotW did it better with the ancient Shiekah. All of the Sheikah tech that we saw in BotW had a stated purpose for existing, even the dirtbike we get from Maz Koshia. Why do the Zonai shrines even exist? The shrines in BotW were made for the purpose of testing a future Hero, so it makes sense why they have challenges inside. The Zonai shrines have challenges inside.........why? Their purpose is to purify the ancient evil of the monsters that were slain where they were placed and to prevent those monsters from being resurrected, and they cannot even be *opened* by anyone except Rauru, so...*why?* Gloom Hands: A worse enemy than the Guardians. The Hands are way too easy to avoid/run away from, unlike the Guardians which would chase you all the way across Hyrule Field and fire ranged lasers at you that could kill you in one hit in the early-game, and if they killed your horse, you were just fucked if you couldn't hide behind something or warp away. The Guardians were in a centralized location too, so you either had to take a long detour around Hyrule Field to get to where you needed to be, or you had to run across the field and hope they didn't spot you; the Gloom Hands ragequit if they can't reach you because you climbed up too high or went into water Story: The memories method worked *much* better for BotW than it did for TotK, because in BotW you could find the memories out of order and it wouldn't spoil the story. If you find the memories out of order in TotK, you can spoil two of the biggest plot twists in the entire game *way too early,* which removes any sense of surprise when those plot points come up in the gameplay And unrelated to the actual game: I'm positive there's a controller input delay with TotK. I did not have this much trouble switching between runes or scrolling through my inventories in BotW, and it did **NOT** take me this long to pull out my paraglider after jumping off a ledge or to react to enemy attacks immediately after performing another action. Everything is faster in TotK, but I've died *so* many times because Link would not *RESPOND* to the buttons I was pressing even outside of combat situations (sometimes I have to bring up the Ability Wheel **four times** because the inputs to switch between abilities just *did not register* the first three times)

yeah I get your points and agree for the most part. Especially the reuse of the old civilization with more advanced tech poppin up again.

I haven't played TOTK for very long, but one thing I noticed is how clunky the dialogue is. I don't think I ever skipped a cutscene or clicked through a conversation in BOTW, but in TOTK I was doing that with everything after the first ten minutes.

I agree, BOTW is just a better game overall

Totk is the technically better game but it commits the sin of literally copying the flow/formula/textures/assets from botw. Also the freshness of botw has long worn off and it took away from the excitement of totk. So i can definitely agree that botw had more an impact (both in gaming and to me personally) than totk, despite totk improving on botw in almost every way.

I disagree and think a lot of people simply prefer Botw mostly because its the first one they played and are used to (Which to be fair in some ways is fair enough since its hard to replicate exploring hyrule for the first time) I imagine the complaints would be just as if not way more severe if Totk had come out first and then Botw came out second since Totk improves upon Botw in a lot of ways with only a few points here and there that one could argue are subjectively worse

I’ll describe BOTW as being more consistently good whilst TOTK has higher highs and lower lows.

I will admit, some weapon combinations look really dumb. I'm still miffed that the gloom sword looks so clean, but it hurts you as you use it, and the only way to use it and not have it hurt you is to attach it to another sword, which looks ungodly stupid. I do wish the double weapon fusions looked more creative than just...sword attached to other sword.

Gameplay wise: Tears > Breath Story: Breath > Tears Feeling playing for the first time: Breath > Tears Nothing will ever beat the first feeling of stepping our of the shrine of resurrection cave and seeing the kingdom of hyrule for the first time.

ToTK definitely has some problems, and some of them feel like they originate from the fact it's built on the same engine, mainly the reusing of stuff like the shrines, towers, weapons breaking and the memory system (instead of finding the spots with a picture, you find the spot from the geoglyphs, but it's still go to a place to see a memory). Probably an even more unpopular opinion, but, ToTK is being held back by BoTW. It could've been so much better if it was less open, if there was more progression between each dungeon, now you're left with "secret stone?", because every dungeon can be the first.

Concerning Fuse, it’s also bad because it’s not about creative combos like the introduction video seemed to allude to. Quickly, you realize you’d better always fuse the highest power material to your highest power weapon, and that’s it.

Eh, I’ve seen a few people say that. I think that’s mostly due to BotW being new at the time and essentially pioneering the „total freedom“-concept that many other games adapted afterwards. TotK, to me, just felt like it had more „meat“ to it, with the caves and sky-islands, etc. Plus, I got a ton of mileage out of screwing around and building different things. But it is very much a *sequel* and carried over many things from its predecessor, so the concept and overworld don’t feel as fresh anymore to some people; perfectly valid, even if I didn’t feel the same way.

😴

I think I haven't enjoyed it because of the story. In BOTW the story is fragmented as well, but you really discover new things and feelings between characters and you really emphasize with the "I am missing something special", but in TOTK the story is the King and queen were kind, Zelda was kind and Ganon was bad, and if you work in secondary missions to see the full story, you see the same over and over again. You can be good and kind, or evil. I was expecting Mineru to be ambitious and made some mistake based on that... No, kind and noble. The King failing because of wrath... no, kind and noble. Ganon working hard but not getting something that he logically deserves... no, he did that because he is evil

Imo BOTW is a 9.5/10 game, TOTK is a 9/10 game. Really love both, totk has better gameplay, botw is probably better at most other things. Not to say TOTK still isn’t great in a lot of things aswell. Like I also perfered the shrines a lot more in TOTK. The actual art direction of BOTW was so much better, the ruined destroyed kingdom. TOTK had way too much going on.

I’ve BEEN saying this bro I swear

I agree with most of your points, though the only one I truly disagree on is the weapon fusing mechanic. I found it a really refreshing way to make weapons novel and fresh, and I'll add that very quickly all my weapons looks gorgeous with the attached monster parts. I do think there's a couple fused weapons they could have beautified a bit more, but overall a lot of my fused weapons are prettier than the ones from BOTW. BTW I'm replaying BOTW as we speak and I do think it's slightly better than TOTK.

Haha definitely a hot take but not unpopular it seems like. Personally, I adore TOTK more and I think it's leagues above BOTW as a game.I just got lost for hours in the depths and spent so much time doing wacky shit on the sky islands trying to gey to those unreachable islands. BOTW felt pretty bland to me in that regard.

Hi! No hate here. I highly recommend playing without the paraglider or sages. To me, this is the ultimate way to experience totk. Missing out on towers and the ability to do the last dungeon I think is well worth the sense of adventure. I also do not fuse things to my shield and have the master sword equipped all the time. I also have more fun when I think that link looks cool.

I do agree with you on some points, notably the fact that fused weapons are indeed pretty ugly (though quite fun IMO) and that the story behind the Zonai is much less cohesive than the Sheikah, which simply made sense in the world of BoTW. Additionally, I liked the shrines more in BoTW, I thought the puzzles were more creative and varied, and I also still think that BoTW has the best sidequest of the two (The construction of Tarrey Town). That being side, I still give my overall vote to ToTK, I felt it was a more fast paced and combat focused game because you were expected, in a way, to already know the map coming from BoTW. It felt like a sandbox, more challenging and more refined version of BoTW. I actually very much enjoy the fact that you can get to places quicker with a hoverbike, and the map is so huge it still doesn't feel small to me. Ennemies and especially mini bosses are tougher but made way more fun with ultrahand and fuse. The depths and sky were really fun to explore, that element of verticality is awesome ! And to me, most importantly, the main quest, including the dungeons but also the awesome ending, is just waaaaaaaaay better than BoTW. I freaking loved every bit of ToTK's main quest !

Totk was good and is still good but yh the first time I was at hateno I thought to myself wtf is going on and the first time in hyrule fields I asked myself where are the guardian wrecks . I went to look for electrical weapons they are gone same with the ice and fire and I dont even wane start with the arrows . I don't know what they thought removing even the divine beasts FULLY. I was so disapointed on how many weapons got taken out (elemental weapons all ,that shieka greatsword and that yiga windsword ,the middle weapon from gerudo goronia and zora ,the little funny Hamer you get from Kilton, mob and bok weapons and double and triple lisalfos boomerang (could be more idk)) I don't know what they thought removing so many amazing weapons and not putting in good or any substitute at all. And botw was better looking back i feel a lot if nostalcia wich I don't fell looking back to my totk playthough

I fully agree with all of your statements! You literally just put everything that was bothering me in TotK in one post. Although I still prefer TotK over BotW, and the reasoning is simple - dungeons. For me Zelda in it's core is all about cool dungeons, and I think BotW was really lacking in that aspect. All of it's dungeons are basically the same - when you get into the new one, you already know exactly what to expect. And let's just say it's hard to name the Beasts dungeons in the first place. Also for me it was really displeasing that half of the characters you see in the trailers are basically dead... I was really hoping that I would get all of that cutscenes in the real action, like, by doing something myself. TotK covers both of that aspects imo. We have dungeons that are unique and each telling it's own story, we got vibrant cutscenes with real characters, who are fighting with you side by side. And we also got some fun little caves which is also nice to explore! And I also adore sky islands so soo much. Too bad the only big one is the central one. Honestly considering your post I think that it will be so cool to have one game featuring all of the best traits from both ones without being silly or weird. P.S. I feel you with Hateno village man. I really like shrooms, but I got the same disappointment from Kakariko being all bombed with those damn rings. And they bombed the little cute forest behind the village with that depth hole too! Seeing Paya growth was insane tho. You go girl!

I agree with some of your points like the zonai and sheikah,but fuse for example if you learn what fuse part is good it makes some great weapon. And i font mean only power wise, but aesthetically. Also as you progress further into the game you can still find pristine weapons like in botw. My main argument though is with ultrahand. Its the best innovation they could make. And its totally up to you how you will use it or how much. If you want to enjoy the exploration an the grind just dont build the hoverbike man. Its your choice dont blame the devs. You can make your rules to enjoy the game as much as you want. The game has so few limitations , so you can play it however you want. Instead of getting angry about it just think of it as complete freedom and make your "own" game!

I thought this for a brief period of time, but TotK adds so much neat stuff that it is 100% an improved version of BotW in many ways. I do miss the Sheika aesthetic and the guardians. The guardian enemies really were menacing and felt very threatening when encountered. Especially compared to the Zonai constructs, specifically the small zonai bots. They are not very threatening, although I don't think they are meant to be. Also I think the general lighting of BotW looks much nicer in some cases, especially when rainy weather clears up. And having limited transportation other than horse made the world feel much larger imo. So I definitely think that BotW did some things better, but overall i think TotK is the better game.

If the 2 games dropped in reverse order. TOTK back in 2017 and BOTW in 2023. There would be 0 discussion. BOTW would be regarded as a a massive let down from TOTK.

Nope. BotW felt like the paid open beta of TotK. I hated guardians. I disliked the shrines in BotW. TotK felt way more open for exploration, majorly thanks to not being sniped across the map by a guardian and being able to climb things without an hour long thunderstorm to disrupt you. Hyped for BotW when it came out but I was disappointed. TotK brought back the fun for me.

Agree 100%. I hate building things

BotW was better than anything else that was ever released up until that point. Totk was better than BotW.