The "What are you playing now?" Thread

[foucault87]

I havent gotten totk yet. Is this just botw2 or is it a real Zelda game? I already didn't like the direction botw went and I hope we aren't going further down this path

 

[Marcus]

I havent gotten totk yet. Is this just botw2 or is it a real Zelda game? I already didn't like the direction botw went and I hope we aren't going further down this path

What do you mean by a “real” Zelda game? Something like Ocarina of Time or Wind Waker?

If you didn’t like BOTW you’re probably not going to like TOTK.

It’s BOTW with a bunch of new elements thrown in that expand exploration and combat even further. It is very, very easy to stray off the path and get completely lost, but that’s actually part of the fun.

I wasn’t crazy about BOTW but I’m having a blast with TOTK, oddly enough.

 

[foucault87]

What do you mean by a “real” Zelda game? Something like Ocarina of Time or Wind Waker?

If you didn’t like BOTW you’re probably not going to like TOTK.

It’s BOTW with a bunch of new elements thrown in that expand exploration and combat even further. It is very, very easy to stray off the path and get completely lost, but that’s actually part of the fun.

I wasn’t crazy about BOTW but I’m having a blast with TOTK, oddly enough.

Hmm. I liked botw as a game well enough but it didn't really feel like a Zelda game. I can deal with some of the gameplay changes even though I think degrading weapons was a bad change.

What really bothered me was two things. First, how absolutely terrible the dungeons were. Zelda's puzzle based dungeons were always what made the series for me and was their defining feature. Only the last one in botw felt like a classic dungeon. The shrines tried to replace quality with quantity and failed hard imo. Second, was the lack of tools. I liked going thru dungeons and getting items to clear trials like clawshot, rod of pacci, Goron mask etc. Sounds like totk kind of fixed that?

On a smaller note, I thought making like 6 unique mobs was a pretty boring change as well. But thats also a minor complaint.

BOTW was a great game if I ignored the fact it was in Hyrule and featured characters from Hyrule. Feels like they just dumped all the things that made Zelda Zelda to make another generic open world game. Sounds like TOTK just did that better? I will probably still get it soon but its somewhat disappointing to hear they are moving further away from the core of Zelda

 

[Jack Brickman]

What do you mean by a “real” Zelda game? Something like Ocarina of Time or Wind Waker?

If you didn’t like BOTW you’re probably not going to like TOTK.

It’s BOTW with a bunch of new elements thrown in that expand exploration and combat even further. It is very, very easy to stray off the path and get completely lost, but that’s actually part of the fun.

I wasn’t crazy about BOTW but I’m having a blast with TOTK, oddly enough.

Traversal is a lot quicker early on due to your new abilities. Especially once you get the glider back.

 

[Man Called X]

I finished Disco Elysium earlier today. Easily made it into my top ten all time. What a great fucking game. Kim Kitsuragi was a truly wonderful character, and one of the best video game sidekicks ever. I assume I got a relatively good ending. Solved the case, discovered a new species, recruited Kim to join Station 41, and helped a group of teenagers open up a drug lab in an abandoned church. Textbook superstar cop shit.

Seriously one of my top 5 games of all time

 

[Jack Brickman]

Seriously one of my top 5 games of all time

It was unbelievably good. I can't wait to replay it with a totally different build. I know the main story beats are all going to be more or less the same, but the path to get to them will be completely different in many cases. I think I'm going to be an average American cop in my next run. AKA a dumb racist meathead.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Fusing a spear to a spear in Tears of the Kingdom effectively makes you a god against normal enemies. They can't even get withing five feet of you.

 

[eChameleon]

The hoops you have to go through to get a date in Rune Factory 5, my goodness.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Hmm. I liked botw as a game well enough but it didn't really feel like a Zelda game. I can deal with some of the gameplay changes even though I think degrading weapons was a bad change.

What really bothered me was two things. First, how absolutely terrible the dungeons were. Zelda's puzzle based dungeons were always what made the series for me and was their defining feature. Only the last one in botw felt like a classic dungeon. The shrines tried to replace quality with quantity and failed hard imo. Second, was the lack of tools. I liked going thru dungeons and getting items to clear trials like clawshot, rod of pacci, Goron mask etc. Sounds like totk kind of fixed that?

On a smaller note, I thought making like 6 unique mobs was a pretty boring change as well. But thats also a minor complaint.

BOTW was a great game if I ignored the fact it was in Hyrule and featured characters from Hyrule. Feels like they just dumped all the things that made Zelda Zelda to make another generic open world game. Sounds like TOTK just did that better? I will probably still get it soon but its somewhat disappointing to hear they are moving further away from the core of Zelda

Personally, I think the issue was that the Zelda formula had grown stale. Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword were both aggressively mediocre entries in the series, and you had to go back to Wind Waker, which came out in 2002, to find a truly amazing Zelda experience on a console.

Breath of the Wild did toss out some stuff I loved about Zelda, namely the tight dungeon design, but completely reinvented the series and pushed the open world genre forward. Elden Ring isn’t as good as it was without the ideas it borrowed from BotW.

There were things I disliked, such as weapon durability. The issue I had is that degrading weapons discouraged you from using your best weapons, and also from picking fights with weaker enemies, as you’d just break decent weapons and be rewarded with shittier ones. Also, traversal was fun at first, but could become tedious, and it was infuriating when it started raining mid-climb and just completely fucked you over.

Tears of the Kingdom mostly fixes those two issues. The fuse ability lets you turn any low level weapon into something decent, and all the monster parts you collect from fallen enemies can be fused to weapons or arrows to make them more powerful, or add elemental effects. Ascend also makes traversal quicker and easier, along with the ability to fuse things to your shield to give you some quick air time.

 

[Chris]

I need to get back to playing games on release so I can join the discourse. Here I am playing Elden Ring a year later. A year from now it’ll probably be Zelda.

 

[foucault87]

Personally, I think the issue was that the Zelda formula had grown stale. Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword were both aggressively mediocre entries in the series, and you had to go back to Wind Waker, which came out in 2002, to find a truly amazing Zelda experience on a console.

Breath of the Wild did toss out some stuff I loved about Zelda, namely the tight dungeon design, but completely reinvented the series and pushed the open world genre forward. Elden Ring isn’t as good as it was without the ideas it borrowed from BotW.

There were things I disliked, such as weapon durability. The issue I had is that degrading weapons discouraged you from using your best weapons, and also from picking fights with weaker enemies, as you’d just break decent weapons and be rewarded with shittier ones. Also, traversal was fun at first, but could become tedious, and it was infuriating when it started raining mid-climb and just completely fucked you over.

Tears of the Kingdom mostly fixes those two issues. The fuse ability lets you turn any low level weapon into something decent, and all the monster parts you collect from fallen enemies can be fused to weapons or arrows to make them more powerful, or add elemental effects. Ascend also makes traversal quicker and easier, along with the ability to fuse things to your shield to give you some quick air time.

This is good to hear. I will get to totk soon. Looking forward to it

 

[Chris]

Sounds like this is the format for the series going forward so, get used to it

 

[Jack Brickman]

The Wind Temple was fucking rad. Absolutely loved the boss fight, even if it wasn't difficult at all. It was pure fun.

The temple itself probably wasn't as long as the dungeons in some earlier games in the series. I think it took me about an hour to get through it, plus another hour to make the climb to actually get to the temple. You get a sidekick with a special ability for both segments, though, which gives the feel of dungeons from pre-BotW Zelda games.

I'm still wrapping my head around Link's abilities in this game. There are occasionally very simple solutions to puzzles that I take far too long to figure out simply because I'm overthinking it. And no doubt sometimes I solve things in a manner that was very much not intended but still worked.

 

[J_J]

Today I learned that, if you fuse a rocket to your shield, you will shoot a few hundred feet in the air when you try to block an enemy attack.

Have you tried using your shield on the rails making it like a skateboard?

It’s very impressive on what you do in this game and so many things you find.

 

[J_J]

The Wind Temple was fucking rad. Absolutely loved the boss fight, even if it wasn't difficult at all. It was pure fun.

The temple itself probably wasn't as long as the dungeons in some earlier games in the series. I think it took me about an hour to get through it, plus another hour to make the climb to actually get to the temple. You get a sidekick with a special ability for both segments, though, which gives the feel of dungeons from pre-BotW Zelda games.

I'm still wrapping my head around Link's abilities in this game. There are occasionally very simple solutions to puzzles that I take far too long to figure out simply because I'm overthinking it. And no doubt sometimes I solve things in a manner that was very much not intended but still worked.

I probably have played at least 8-10 hours and I haven’t even played the first temple. There’s just too much to explore and I ended up getting stamina and keep going further outside the realms. Gliding and going through the rings like Pilotwings fast skydiving style or I even created a plane that sends fire bombs like Star Fox style.

I heard someone created a robot that shoots cannonballs. It’s crazy what people are creating.

I will definitely go after the first temple this weekend. Good to know the dungeons are fun especially bosses too.