The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Breath of the Wild 2)

[CyberCubed]

I finished the main story. The 4 main dungeons are closer to "classic" Zelda dungeons but still not quite the same. A large step up from the 4 beasts in Breath of the Wild though.

I have done about 60 Shrines, apparently there's over 150 in this game, lol. It's going to be difficult to find most without using a guide.

There's also over nearly 200 sidequests with everything combined, which is pretty insane for a Zelda game. There's both Side Adventures and Sidequests this time, so they add up to a lot. And besides that you just have to explore the whole map.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I finished the main story. The 4 main dungeons are closer to "classic" Zelda dungeons but still not quite the same.

There's still only 4 dungeons in the game??!

[CyberCubed]

Well that's not quite it, there's 4 main dungeons for each of the tribes again (Zora, Rito, Gerudo and Goron). Then there's Hyrule Castle again, a dungeon of sorts in the sky, something to do in the depths, and then the final area.

But the 4 are the closest to classic Zelda dungeons.

[CyberCubed]

I finished the game last week at 125 hours, doing all 152 shrines, all 60 Side Adventures, all 139 sidequests, all Shrine Quests, found all pieces of armor/outfits, and about 30 Koroks.

I'm done, thank god.

[Dpooly84]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I finished the game last week at 125 hours, doing all 152 shrines, all 60 Side Adventures, all 139 sidequests, all Shrine Quests, found all pieces of armor/outfits, and about 30 Koroks.

I'm done, thank god.

Congratulations! Damn I haven't even started yet lol

[CyberCubed]

Also forgot to say I also lit up all 120 lightroots in the Depths. That took some damn time.

[Storm Eagle]

Since this is Zelda-related, The Skyward Sword Link amiibo and Bokoblin amiibo have gone up for pre-order at Best Buy's site and have a release date of July 7th. If you need any of them, see if you can catch them.

[Storm Wolf]

Am I the only one who just doesn't care for the building mechanic? It's cool for puzzle solving, but I just find it more trouble than it's worth.

Also....why can't we craft arrows? If I can merge a mushroom to a stick why can't I merge flint and sticks to get a bundle of arrows.

I'm such a bad shot I'm constantly scrounging for arrows and eyeballs.

[Mad Dog McMutt]

Originally Posted by Storm Wolf

Am I the only one who just doesn't care for the building mechanic? It's cool for puzzle solving, but I just find it more trouble than it's worth.

Also....why can't we craft arrows? If I can merge a mushroom to a stick why can't I merge flint and sticks to get a bundle of arrows.

I'm such a bad shot I'm constantly scrounging for arrows and eyeballs.

I haven't played the game yet, but the crafting mechanic just doesn't sound appealing to me at all. It almost sounds kind of bothersome.

[Storm Wolf]

Originally Posted by Mad Dog McMutt

I haven't played the game yet, but the crafting mechanic just doesn't sound appealing to me at all. It almost sounds kind of bothersome.

Honestly, I try to avoid it as much as possible. Initially I thought it would be a fun way to "cheat" and get to certain places faster, but I quickly realized it didn't work like that for me. Most of my creations fell short of what I needed them to do and handled worse than the horses.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Storm Eagle

Since this is Zelda-related, The Skyward Sword Link amiibo and Bokoblin amiibo have gone up for pre-order at Best Buy's site and have a release date of July 7th. If you need any of them, see if you can catch them.

Do they do anything in-game for BotW 2?

[RaphaelinSTL]

I beat the main story about a few weeks ago, and I was pretty emotional after it wrapped up. Fantastic experience with this game, and I loved every minute of it.

[XERO]

This was probably my favorite game this year that I ever gotten to play. That ending sequence still gives me chills on an emotional level.

I haven't gotten fully invested in a game since God of War Ragnarok.

[Prowler]

I got the game when it came out nearly 3 years ago. I set it aside after putting about 15 hours into it. It felt too much like BOTW with the crafting mechanic being the only apparent difference between both. Also, I beat BOTW in 2021 since I started it in 2020 during the pandemic. So, I guess, in 2023, my memory of BOTW was still rather fresh and I couldn't enjoy TOTK properly.

Got back into TOTK within the last several weeks, and honestly, I'm appreciating it more and more as I progress in it. It's not just the crafting mechanic that's new, but the game adds wells, caves, the depths and, of course, sky islands. The crafting mechanic also adds different challenges to the shrines, making them fresher. And I prefer the Zonai aesthetics to the Sheikah ones. The Zonai devices are cool once you start "getting" them.

It's the same map as BOTW, sure. But things are much more different than you'd think they would be. I was unfair in basically dismissing this game as glorified BOTW DLC. No, it's not DLC... it's a direct sequel, kinda like Majora's Mask was to Ocarina of Time. Even though TOTK uses the same map as its predecessor, the people, the situations, the missions, etc. are all quite different. I was skeptical when I heard that TOTK was going to have the same map as BOTW, but even though it does, it doesn't feel like you're doing BOTW all over again.

I remember being perplexed at the people who preferred TOTK to BOTW, but honestly, I cannot imagine going back and replaying BOTW in the future. The "wow factor" of discovering stuff as you explore the map just doesn't hit twice.

I haven't gotten to any of the dungeons yet, so I can't speak about them. I'm about 30-35 hours into the game. I think it's time I head for my 1st dungeon soon.

I can tell it's going to be a top 10 Switch game, alright.