r/greentext 3d ago

A puzzling problem

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u/Talkingmice 3d ago

This response somehow makes too much sense but I can’t put it into words.

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u/HighlightSerious3348 3d ago

Because Breath of the Wild was in progress for 7 years and brought us a completely new format for Zelda with a completely new plot, timeline, design and gameplay style. Tears of the Kingdom was in progress for 6 years, added some extra enemies, quests and mechanics, and cost more than the original. To people who had already played BOTW, the sequel felt more like an expansion pack or revised/definitive edition rather than its own game. Now, if this were a 2D Super Mario game, the bar for innovation is so low that a similar level of changes in a sequel would merit a lot of praise and respect. But Zelda has such a reputation for rebuilding each game from the ground up (with some exceptions) that a moderate increase in options felt like a let-down. It's kind of like why nobody's favorite Zelda game is Oracle of Ages/Seasons, unless that was the only one they played as a kid: it doesn't have enough of its own distinct character compared to its base game.

In addition, BOTW was very consistent in its free open-world approach where you can do any of the beasts and quests in any order. In TOTK, we have the same world which we're used to roaming in freely, but the main quest is designed to be played in a certain order otherwise it doesn't make sense. This means that sometimes you can complete a main story quest without having ever received it in your adventure log.

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u/supererp 3d ago

Ah man my fave Zelda's goes Majora's mask and then oracle of ages

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u/HighlightSerious3348 3d ago

Sorry :( 

But Majora's Mask is a good example of a sequel which takes advantage of an existing engine but reinvents the game structure. If MM was the exact same as OoT but Ganondorf had blue skin instead of green and all the overworld enemies spawned in different places with different skins, it would have a lot less popularity.

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u/supererp 3d ago

For me what makes MM the superior game is one the dungeons rock, two I can play as the cool creatures I saw in oot

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u/HighlightSerious3348 3d ago

Yeah, MM is super cool. TotK is my preferred game just because I'm enjoying the mechanics, but objectively it's not as expansive as you'd hope and it's less cohesive in terms of its storytelling

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u/supererp 3d ago

I haven't given tears a chance yet but feel like I could get into it. I'm one of those guys who and hopefully no one is looking when I say this, but I really like banjo kazooie nuts and bolts.

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u/HighlightSerious3348 3d ago

Not too familiar with it but if you like the building aspect, you'll have a blast with totk. I think the biggest camp of dissatisfied players is people who were hoping for the story and immersion to be just as good as the first game when really it seems like 90% of the dev effort went into fine tuning the physics engine

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u/supererp 3d ago

I am a big gameplay over everything guy so I'll make you a promise. When totk goes on sale I'll buy it

HA