THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM (Final Thoughts) - Happy Console Gamer

i bought breath of the wild in 2018 to help with depression. after i beat it 4 times in a row my neice and nephew came to visit. i showed the game to my neice but my nephew took a liking to it. i decided to mail it out to him and when he learned it was coming he printed out a map of hyrule. sent me a video of him holding the game cause he was so happy. then he had a zelda themed birthday party years later, hes 13 and sends me a picture of him outside a gamestop holding a copy of zelda TOTK

I'm not a gamer at all. I own a Switch that I bought for my kids, that honestly went untouched for many years. The videos and hype for this game caught my eye, so I decided to buy it and see if I could get any enjoyment out of it, fguring I'd play it twice then never touch it again. 2 months later, me and both of my kids are all 200+ hours in each, we talk about Zelda nonstop, share build ideas, glitches, techniques on fighting Gleeoks etc. It's the best video game i've ever played. I've completed 3 temples, have.3 sages, have all the skills, 45,000 rupees, 46 bombflowers, a full closet of armor and outfits etc. I've never loved a video game like this ever.

It's not just one of the best Zelda games, it's one of the best games Nintendo has ever made.

This game literally took over my life when it first came out. I could not put it down and that feeling is something that doesn’t come often.

I think it’s incredible that this game is “too much”. People are going to be playing this 10 years from now and finding brand new stuff.

I was 30 hours in when I unfortunately suffered a pretty severe heart attack, and now, a couple of weeks later, I'm finding it a bit hard to get into the game again. But I'm sure this will change in a bit. The game is freaking amazing!!

This game is a profoundly different experience depending on so much factors. It is overwhelming at times, agreed, but for me, it's a fantastic experience. I'm roughly 60 hours in and I love TOTK as much as BOTW, which is my favorite game of all time (I'm 45, been playing games for 40 years, give or take!). It's a solid 10/10 for me.

I felt the same way two days in. Then I came across the Royal Hidden Passage and that was just an awesome exploring experience.

For me, this is a game that I will probably pour hundreds of hours into it. The only frustration I have had is the breakable weapons, but as you said in my exploration, I’ve been able to address that by making better weapons. I’m a gamer who wants his money’s worth. So I tend to explore and do side quests before I tackle main missions so I can have longer with the game. Unless I get to a point where I need a main mission to advance to a point. I already have 100 hours on it. I have done maybe 3 main missions, dozens of side quests and the rest has just been exploring, discovering the awe of it all. AND I have only been into the depths ONCE for 1 side mission. I now live on my own and at 50 years old, regardless of what people may think, I will be playing this constantly for many months. The longest game I have ever played and put the most hours into was Elden Ring right now at 668 hours, but I have not beaten and/or discovered everything in it yet. Tears of the Kingdom, I think I can top Elden Ring just because of my approach to how I play. Nintendo, I salute you (I still have not beaten BOTW yet either) but TOTK is probably my favorite game of all time already. I can’t get enough of it.

This is the first game in years that I have died a lot in. It is a rather challenging game until you get your armor upgraded, and then it becomes easy cheesy. But at first I was frustrated until I started to explore, and the story cutscenes blew me away. I legit cried tears at some parts. easily a 10/10.

70 hours and I’m still exploring. Savoring every moment. This is a masterpiece I’m enjoying slowly.

So crazy how spot on you got it. I had the same overwhelming moment (only about 10 hours worth of moment haha) and the way I got out of it was by refusing to walk anywhere. Figured out how to tame a horse and ended up finding a stable to register it. From that point on I was a lot happier with the game because I felt like I was actually achieving something. Good vid man, new sub.

Totk is a generational masterpiece. I was also frustrated at first until I realized. The game isn’t meant to be full explored and beaten in a week. It’s built to be explored for months and months. Once I realized that I started taking my time with every part, every town, every location. Slowing it down.

I had a similar experience to you where for 20 hours I wasn't following the main story at all and while I had a lot of hearts and stamina realised I needed to start mainlining. Once that happened I managed to find the spoiler endgame character like 40 hours before I was supposed to. The game is insane with the freedom it gives you.

I'm glad you brought up how overwhelming this game can be at the start, I haven't seen many reviewers talk about that. I was actually anxious for a while when I started playing because I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of things you could do. I ended up doing the same thing of focusing entirely on shrines at first, which helped a ton. Here's some things I wish I had done sooner when I was starting off that might be helpful for anyone who's just starting the game (mild quest spoilers, no story spoilers): • Don't immediately run off the moment you exit the tutorial area. Stay on the main quest for just a little bit, you'll unlock the paraglider. • Follow Josha and Robbie's quests for a while, you'll get the shrine sensor as a reward among other things. • Complete the Rito Regional Phenomenon, it's a very long quest but the reward is incredibly helpful for exploration and combat. • Make heavy use of the stamps on your map screen and develop a key for it. If you can't or don't want to do something yet, put a stamp on it and now you won't forget where it is. • Use weapon fusion on monster parts and Construct parts to turn common sticks and decayed weapons into actual decent weapons.

It's truly remarkable how bug free it is. Hopefully other softhouses are taking note. Other than graphics these games are super complex, so no excuses for others developers.

I can definitely see what you're saying about feeling overwhelmed or feeling like you've not gotten anywhere. I'm still working through Breath of the Wild and felt similarly until I started making a point to tackle the shrines and then the Divine Beasts. Now I feel like some of the limits have been broken and I can do whatever. Can't wait to play TotK, I'm so glad it proved to be fantastic to you, Breath of the Wild is a tough act to follow!

Setting longer term goals for yourself helps avoid that initial frustration. I followed in game quests until I ended up in the depths. At first I thought it was just a dungeon for that side quest but when I found out it was a whole map, I just had to explore it. Then after that I had to explore the skyview towers. That took me to the Rito village and I had to explore the dungeons. I found the lucky clover and then I had to explore the stables. Along the way there were always landmarks and caves and monster camps I had to explore. I had bigger goals but everything along the way I wanted to see and 200 hours later the game is still gripping me. It's amazing!

so glad you made this video, because as a dad Im so busy and Ive also been finding Tears to be overwhelming. you've inspired me to keep at it!

This game is an absolute masterpiece. 10/10. Game of the Year.