I have some thoughts on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
This review covers the Nintendo Switch 1 version, with a section at the end for the Switch 2 Edition.
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This video was edited by the wondrous Kane!
With assistance from @soitssparkie
Additional footage credits:
@FightinCowboy
Dark Souls –
@SlippySlides
Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Main Title Without Logo) –
@CentralZelda
Zelda: Ocarina of Time –
@kmarkow_totk
Best Totk Builds: Link’s Huge Pirate Ship –
@KeithBallardGaming
Monster Hunter Rise –
@ZeldaMaster
Zelda: Twilight Princess HD –
Zelda: Skyward Sword –
@LongplaysHD
Zelda: The Wind Waker –
@ThornyFox
How to Take Yunobo ANYWHERE in Breath of the Wild –
@Zeldudes
Zelda: Skyward Sword HD –
@glp
Zelda: Breath of the Wild Champions’ Ballad Ending –
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I'll keep this pinned comment updated with any other thoughts I'd like to add.
I'm being told that Aonuma's assertion that TotK would be "darker than Majora's Mask" was either a mistranslation or taken out of context. If so, my bad.
I wish I had mentioned how despite the much larger enemy roster, nothing in this game ever really replaces Guardians. They were the quintessential, iconic enemy you face again and again before you can eventually best them. I liked that.
I know I blabbed about how disappointed I am with this new Ganondorf for like an hour, but I wish I'd focused a bit more on how this being a brand new reincarnation (which was recently confirmed) retroactively makes Calamity Ganon less interesting. I know the idea that it was Ganon getting tired of reincarnating was also perhaps a mistranslation and not necessarily canon, but I'm of the opinion that that was precisely why Calamity Ganon was so interesting.
I think having challenges where we're given a limited, specific collection of resources would have helped the game immensely.
I mention dynamic resolution scaling in the Switch 2 Edition section and say that it's no longer present. I actually don't think this is true; what I really meant to say is that the game doesn't have to employ it so aggressively and obviously anymore to keep things running.
I didn't notice until I had to watch the whole review several times in a row during the home stretch, but man, anyone want to count how many times I use the word "dramatic?" LOL
On the subject of the simple "hoverbike" that most people seem to use regularly to address the late game traversal issue I mentioned: Honestly I think it's just the fact that it takes resources that stopped me from auto building stuff like that. I thought that if I built them as often as I wanted them I'd run out of zonaite in no time, so I did it sparingly. It seems I may have misjudged though! If I go back to the game (most likely to keep searching for light roots) I'll have to use them more.
I wasn't sure if I should get the game half a decade ago
Arlo, just want to say how appreciated this review is. We’ve been waiting for this and it was so worth it! Thank you for the effort on this movie of a review!
The caves might have been my single favorite addition to TOTK. Either that or Ascend. Hard choice, they went so well together
On traversal, did you never make a hoverbike? It solves every problem you listed
I can't believe he did not mention the phase 2 health bar! The simple bar getting out of bounds was so hype for me
Nothing positive about this game can make up for the levels of annoyance, disappointment and frustration I have for Tears of the Kingdom. What we had in Breath of the Wild was a lot more unique and interesting for a new reality for Zelda.
Like you said yourself, Link’s Fuse power now just makes you look like a weirdo with randomly glued together garbage items. They could’ve made the Fuse similar to merging items to remake the iconic weapons from the last game. And these abilities weren’t as simple/helpful as the powers of BotW. Everything was just better executed in Wilds. It’s just a fact for me. On top of that, even the story is 100x better.
Also, you say you wanted that “one extra” ability to move faster? I guess you never built the game breaking and ruining AIR BIKE (Two fans and a control stick)
Bruhhhhhhhhh
Did Arlo partly use AI to write this review? It feels unnecessarily verbose at times
I have been struggling with my opinions and emotions about this game since playing it immediately upon launch. Within the first 27 mins of your review, you have expertly highlighted and articulated those same opinions and emotions beautifully. I’m all in for the remainder of the breakdown but WELL DONE so far and thank you so much!
The Legend of Zelda, in its purest form, is some guy with no idea where he is or what he's doing being given a sword and told to save the land from a seemingly indomitable evil.
That's right: Dark Souls is the best Zelda game of the last twenty years.
the interesting thing about it for me is that i agree that tears of the kingdom feels stale, but going back to breath of the wild never does for me. odd.
"unconsciously gravitate to solutions" shouldn't be your first attempt 🤷 if you choose the cheap solution you know you don't enjoy, I can't blame the designer for that. They built in a game genie to help if you needed it, and made the majority of puzzles simple enough to not need them. So enjoy the puzzles by doing them, don't put in 100+ hours of bypassing them then blaming the designer. I miss LttP and linear Zelda personally.
i have a really big hype for this sequel "they will improve and fix the problems from BOTW, they will give us proper dungeons and a good story i thought"… boy it was so difficult to accept that i didnt like the new game. i didnt finish all the shrines, didnt find al koroks i was just doing pointless things and the temples were lame. The building thing was nice the first 10 hours then it was just tedious chores
I feel like TotK is a game that could reach cult classic status if it was open to being modded. (I know someone is probably modding it but the average person cannot run those mods). After all, if you have an ocean that is as deep as a puddle, all you need is depth
Skylands are more than just "something to do", slowing down, listening to the music, and looking below gives you a true sense of wonder, pause, being and accomplishment. It's the Ghibli effect, it's magic.
After three hours of arlo glory I only have two words: well said
i was literally just thinking last week "why can't i find arlos totk review" lmao
Been waiting on this one! Loved seeing all the contraptions you had in the background gameplay XD
49:11 finding the ruins of Skyloft was my biggest desire. It didn't need to have actual ruins, but just the Islands themselves would've been so cool.
Thank you, Arlo!
I hate to say this because Arlo obviously put a ton of work into this, but… this is easily his worst review. He literally says multiple times "I dont know how i feel about this game".
Well, thats kind of the purpose of a review: to tell the viewers how you feel about it. And the more in depth you can be about your explanations, the better the review.
I dont know if he felt pressure from the community, and that contributed to the "conflicted" feelings, or if he genuinely doesnt know how he feels. But either way, it makes the whole thing feel a bit pointless.
Sorry Arlo. Im still a big fan, and will always check your videos out.
In terms of the Zonai, yes it is a whole other new group. But much like the Rito I find myself asking, where did they come from? Did they evolve from a race we already know?
My own head cannon with loose evidence is that they used to be the twilight, and by extension the "interloper" clan. Still need to make my video exploring that concept.
I never really had a chance to play BOTW so I started with TOTK. Absolutely loved it. So much of the complaints I see from fans just seem to come from the fact that they played BOTW first so the reused map and everything doesn't give that same feeling that BOTW did for the first time. But nobody considers all the people who never played BOTW and are starting with TOTK.
1:31:57 Combat isn’t better/more complex in the Wild games, it’s actually simpler. Most of your weapons are gonna be one and two-handed weapons which have the same 3-hit combo. WW/TP had more sword moves than that and they weren’t just “attack” it would be a roll attack to hit their exposed backside or the helm splitter for enemies aggressive from the front. You might have some extra weapons now like bomb arrows or wands or a mechanic like flurry rush/mid-air arrow move but they really don’t change how you approach enemies in the grand scheme of things. You go up to any enemy, start whaling away until you inevitably have to dodge, potentially triggering a flurry rush and then just do it again. It’s neat to hit a Hinox in the eye and attack it when they fall out of the skeleton versions, but that only happens with very few enemies and there’s only “one” kind of moment like this for the ones that do.
1 of 2 things needs to happen. Either have more enemy variety so it doesn’t get boring fighting the same enemy with it’s one unique interaction, or you have low enemy variety but they have much more variety in how they react. And having the higher tier Hinox cover its eye compared the the lower one is not enough of a difference to make it interesting, especially with how long it takes to defeat. There’s also zero reason to fight more than a few Lynol’s or higher tier ones. They aren’t interesting enough, their rewards aren’t worth it, and the combat system is too basic and Lynol’s being big damage sponges. Sure you could come up with some combo or whatever, IF you sit there methodically and analyze your list of 100 things, never mind scroll through them all. If I want to play a game where I pause between actions, then I’ll play a strategy game where battles are more complex and planning several moves pays off and is satisfying. This is an action game. Asking me to pause constantly would be like playing a racing game but you have to solve a math problem every quarter lap. Like what are we doing? Pick something and commit to it to make it excel in that area. Trying to do too many disparate things just creates a mess, not a satisfying combination.
Hey dog, I'm not gonna hold you, this joint could've been like an hour long. You straight up just rambled for well over 60% of this video contradicting yourself or repeating segments. This script needed minimum like 3 more passes before you recorded this shit.
Agree with almost everything, Arlo. It’s both a masterpiece, but also immensely frustrating the more hours you put into it, and ultimately left me feeling empty and melancholy. Breath of the Wild will always be my favorite of the two. And I prefer Ocarina to both, but greatly respect BotW.
56:40 for me, The First Thing was the damned King Gleeock and The Second Thing was the Construct Factory which I actually found after doing only 2 of the 4 main dungeons because I got curious about Dragonhead Islands and flew up where while the weather was still crappy
This game singlehandedly sapped me of my life long Zelda fan-boy energy. I honestly wish it didn't exist.
IT’S FINALLY CHRISTMAS
Regarding part 2: what broke me was realizing the game reaches a point where it perfectly balances seeking out elite weapon attachments with the cost of seeking them out. Which, mild kudos for at least balancing well, BUT!!! Once I realized that, I actively avoided fights. For a long time I would see a good horn worth attaching to my weapons so I could do more damage, so I dove in. But at the end, I had exhausted the same amount of weapons in the getting.
Once I saw this, it made combat seem useless, and something to avoid.
And I think this speaks to all the aspects that leave you feeling dissatisfied, without knowing why: there's a lot to do, but it doesn't lead to anything important. It's a lot of filler. Good, quality, Nintendo, fun filler. But still just filler. They succeed in filling your time, but when you look back at the end, you have nothing of significance that makes you feel like the time was well spent.
I still love the game, and I think Nintendo is top notch, but the open world Zelda, revisited, feels vapid, and empty.
30:55 Air Trike: allow me to introduce myself…
If totk is "wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle", then this video is an even wider and shallower ocean. After 4 years arlo drops this giant video and his main takeaways are what everyone else said in 2023 except he's mostly just complaining…
i want to share my story with botw and totk. both games i see as perfect pieces of art and it might be because of were i was in life when they came out, when botw came out later that month my friend passed away. 4 days later was my birthday and the day i got my switch and botw. the themes of a world in ruin suffering a major loss hit me on such a deep level that i fear no game could ever do again. then totk came out and it was weird to revisit the world that i had so many heavy emotions associated with it. it also resonated with me at the same level botw did. with the world being rebuilt and having friends to accompany you on your adventure reflected where my life was at the time. rebuilt from a loss and surrounded by people who cared. this is a wildly individualized take on these games but they both mean so much to me for those reasons
Three hours? GOOD!
Regardless of what people tell themselves, zelda is not about exploring. It's just not and never has been. It's about the story. The exploration you experience is in service of the story, it feels powerful and like you are uncovering secrets because you are the hero of this grand story of good and evil who has to explore and find the answers to stopping the evil. Breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom fail in this because you arent exploring in service of the story and stumbling across side quest that tie in both directly and indirectly to the greater story, you are instead just sorta aimlessly wondering around wasting time while the story is just a completely separate thing that you just sorta run into now and then. Zelda is beloved because it has good characters and good stories and it unfolds in a world you need to dig into every corner of to see as much of the story as possible, breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom fail to deliver this in every aspect, tears of the kingdom moves a tiny bit closer to it, but overall they just aren't doing what makes zelda good, it's just a giant playground existing for the sake of existing.