Link will be taking to the skies on May 12, 2023!
February 17, 2023 8:14 AM   Subscribe

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom [Official Trailer #2] [Official Trailer #1] [First Look/Teaser] “After years of waiting, Nintendo finally pulled back the curtain a little more on what fans can expect from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. A snazzy new gameplay trailer revealed a ton, including a world that’s more than just a reskin of the one from Breath of the Wild. It starts with an unknown voice calling on its minions to destroy the world, followed later on by Zelda warning Link that he might not be table to take on the new threat poised by the strange zombified demon who sure bears a resemblance to Ganondorf from earlier Zelda games. Plus there’s Link riding a hot air balloon, tractor, and more. Previous trailers made it clear that Link will be taking to the skies in much of Tears of the Kingdom, both in terms of teleporting up to floating islands and making use of a new glider to cover long distances. The hero of time also sports a new magic glove this time around which augments some of the physics-based abilities from the first game and even includes a flamethrower mode.” [via: Kotaku]
posted by Fizz (77 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
Folks, it looks fun as hell and I cannot wait.
posted by saladin at 8:16 AM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]


Ok but can we pet the dogs in this one
posted by oulipian at 8:18 AM on February 17, 2023 [11 favorites]


...magic glove? I was SURE it was a Sheikah prosthetic limb!
posted by mittens at 8:19 AM on February 17, 2023 [3 favorites]


Also, the main baddy's voice kind of sounds a lot like the king from BoTW to me.
posted by saladin at 8:19 AM on February 17, 2023


The latest trailer showcases Link on some kind of hover-board/quad/thopter. It looks like Link will be able to craft certain mechanical parts on to pieces of wood/material and if they've expanded the physics-tool-set to include a kind of garage tinkerer type of thing, we're going to see some wild-ass creative shit!! I am stoked!!!
posted by Fizz at 8:19 AM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


well.. I guess I have to buy a Switch now
posted by curious nu at 8:21 AM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


The dedication to atrocious voice acting is... something.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:21 AM on February 17, 2023 [7 favorites]


Yay so excited! The red lighting look of the monsters after the volcano is great. I like that they've doubled down on the cel shading.

It's crazy to me no one else has made a game quite as good as BotW. Plenty of open world games but none have quite captured that 9 year old nostalgia for Link, the adventure hero.

If you're looking for something to play to tide you over though, Immortals Fenyx Rising is worth your time. It was rightly cricitized for being a BotW clone when it came out but that's not all a bad thing, right? And it has its own comic voice. The gameplay finds its own way after a few hours and all in all a very satisfying game.
posted by Nelson at 8:22 AM on February 17, 2023 [5 favorites]


The dedication to atrocious voice acting is... something.

The great thing about this game is that you can set the vocal langauge to Japanese and their voice actors are SOOO much better. But to each their own.
posted by Fizz at 8:22 AM on February 17, 2023 [9 favorites]


Ok but can we pet the dogs in this one

If you feed the dogs in Breath Of The Wild, they'll guide you to some small, hidden treasures nearby.
posted by mhoye at 8:23 AM on February 17, 2023 [3 favorites]


I can't wait. I'm also so so so curious to see how this game revisualizes Hyrule. From the trailers, we already know we'll be spending a lot of time in the sky, and possibly underground (dungeons?).

But I'm genuinely curious if the actual Hyrule "land" map will be the same as the one in the first BOTW, or if it will be compromised or scrambled in some way because of [insert whatever disaster or evil force that Link must ultimately surmount]. My favorite part of BOTW was discovering new places on the map, but maybe it doesn't matter if the land map is different, because there will be so much else to do? I feel a little silly asking this, because maybe Hyrule is just supposed to be Hyrule, but it feels like a valid point to ponder.
posted by nightrecordings at 8:31 AM on February 17, 2023 [3 favorites]


It starts with an unknown voice calling on its minions to destroy the world

If that ain't Matt Mercer, it's the world's greatest Mercer impersonator.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 8:31 AM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]


Does anyone know if they took out the weapon decay system or at least tweaked it so my inventory isn't 17 swords in various states of decay because it really stressed me out and made me not fully enjoy a game I otherwise really enjoyed so here's hoping.
posted by kbanas at 8:32 AM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]


I think durability is here to stay. I'm in the minority that thinks it's a great thing because I feel like the game developers wanted us to embrace something temporary and to always be on the lookout for weapon variety and type.

And the game does give you a ton of options even, when your weapons all break, you still have your rune bombs to throw in a pinch. But I realize this isn't suited for everyone and their playstyle.
posted by Fizz at 8:36 AM on February 17, 2023 [8 favorites]


If you feed the dogs in Breath Of The Wild, they'll guide you to some small, hidden treasures nearby.

It's known that these treasures aren't even placed in the game world until you feed them. It's completely a dog pro quo.
posted by JHarris at 8:40 AM on February 17, 2023 [8 favorites]


I know you aren't supposed to pre-order games, but, uh, I definitely pre-ordered this.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 8:48 AM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


I am with kbanas, part of the thrill of the previous games was finding sick-ass weapons and keeping them shits. Going to the smith and getting that sword hammered UP. These weapons, in BoTW, are they made of Doritos?
posted by BlunderingArtist at 8:49 AM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


Well crud. I moved recently and can't find my Switch. Don't make me tear this place apart!
posted by djeo at 8:49 AM on February 17, 2023


I've fed the dogs steak, I've fed the dogs apples, I have given the dogs so much love, yet they never lead me anywhere.

I'm SO EXCITED about this game that I've already taken the day off from work and told my family that the Switch is MINE that day.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:51 AM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


I have several hundred hours in the game and haven't tackled a divine beast but I'm part way through the water/elephant beast. But maybe I'll FINALLY do that. Only a few months left.
posted by Fizz at 8:52 AM on February 17, 2023 [5 favorites]


I mislaid my copy of BotW and haven't found it in over a year. I guess when this comes out I can stop looking and just play the new one :)
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 8:55 AM on February 17, 2023


I would buy this straightaway if I wasn’t sure that a new Nintendo platform might be out by the end of the year.
posted by my-username at 8:56 AM on February 17, 2023


The dedication to atrocious voice acting is... something.

set the vocal langauge to Japanese

I can't emphasize this enough. The English voice talent in BotW is very cringe, and ever since I've changed the language to Japanese, it's made the game much more enjoyable - when one of my Champion powers regenerates, I get a great little vocal blurb that I can't understand and don't really need to, but the emotional register is on point.
posted by rocketman at 8:59 AM on February 17, 2023 [7 favorites]


I think durability is here to stay. I'm in the minority that thinks it's a great thing

You can be president of that club, Fizz, and I'll be the secretary. The weapon durability is an amazing mechanic. Especially learning that some of the sick-ass weapons aren't super durable (I'm looking at you, Royal Guard's sword), so you need to be mindful of how you use those weapons - it's good to keep some lower-tier weapons on hand for dispatching Chuchus and Red Bokoblins.

Plus it forces you to think about how you go into battle. Otherwise I'd charge in with a Master Sword at the ready and slay everything in sight. Knowing the sword will wear out, I'll tackle a camp of enemies much more strategically. Look for bomb barrels I can use. Evaluate the high ground so I can rely on archery to pick off sentries. Seek out obstacles so I might draw off an enemy at a time. Wear my stealth armor and wait for night to bring a sneak attack.

I get that not everybody finds that as satisfying, but for me it makes the game rich and endlessly playable.
posted by rocketman at 9:09 AM on February 17, 2023 [10 favorites]


I think durability is here to stay. I'm in the minority that thinks it's a great thing

You can be president of that club, Fizz, and I'll be the secretary.


Are you accepting applications for treasurer
posted by pullayup at 9:25 AM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]


I would buy this straightaway if I wasn’t sure that a new Nintendo platform might be out by the end of the year.

I honestly feel like they'll hold off on this until next year, mostly because Switch sales are super strong and the chip shortages have mostly been dealt with their upstream vendors. But who knows with Nintendo, they love to surprise!!
posted by Fizz at 9:25 AM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


I've fed the dogs steak, I've fed the dogs apples, I have given the dogs so much love, yet they never lead me anywhere.

Three apples in a row, friend! Treasure awaits.
posted by that's candlepin at 9:33 AM on February 17, 2023 [8 favorites]


I don't know if it was the designers' intention but my experience of BotW was learning that any game that gave me finite, breakable weapons but infinite bombs immediately became a game about playing bomb pranks on bokoblins.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 9:34 AM on February 17, 2023 [18 favorites]


I've fed the dogs steak, I've fed the dogs apples, I have given the dogs so much love, yet they never lead me anywhere.

It's not every dog you see, but if you want a list you can click here.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 9:35 AM on February 17, 2023


But who knows with Nintendo, they love to surprise!!

Zeldas developed on the previous system and ported into launch title status for a new Nintendo system are kind of A Thing--BOTW was released for Wii U and Switch, and Twilight Princess was GameCube and Wii. I assume (without evidence) this didn't happen to Skyward Sword because of Wii/Wii U intercompatibility, even though it was released in 2011, the year before the Wii U.
posted by pullayup at 9:36 AM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


The main thing I hope they fix is the menus. I liked Breath of the Wild but at times it felt like I was just constantly going through menus. Change this armor. Eat this. Etc. Etc. So many menus. I'd like to have quick armor switching so I'm not constantly digging through menus every time I go to a new area or meet a new enemy. It was too much.
posted by downtohisturtles at 9:36 AM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


The main thing I hope they fix is the menus.

I agree. The way the menu/inventory is setup is a bit annoying and I never really got used to it, but I'm unsure how they would remap buttons and keep all the functionality of weapon use/battle/gameplay. I guess we'll see.
posted by Fizz at 9:46 AM on February 17, 2023


For those who hate the weapons durability thing: get a pack of amiibo cards! You can only scan them once per IRL day, but since a pack comes with so many, that won't be an issue. Most of them drop loot when you scan them, and the loot usually includes a weapon. Personally, I do like that the durability system encourages creativity (i.e. Bokoblin bomb pranks), but I really did find myself never using my "best" weapons for fear of breaking them. With the amiibo cards, I'm a bit more willing to actually use my weapons knowing that I'm just a card scan away from a decent replacement weapon.

Anyway, I wonder if anything in the sequel will port over from our BOTW saves. Do we start out with a full map if we unlocked everything in our BOTW save? Honestly, I'd be kind of annoyed if the map is mostly the same and I still had to unlock all of it again. Also, like, I bought a HOUSE. I should get to keep that house!! I don't care how busy I am flying around the sky and crawling in dungeons!

Excited to play the sequel, where I will no doubt again spend most of my time faffing around on side quests rather than defeating the big bad. Sorry, Zelda, but this guy needs 40 mushrooms and that guy needs me to find his horse and this child wants to see an increasingly difficult to obtain assortment of weapons, I am BUSY.
posted by yasaman at 10:24 AM on February 17, 2023 [8 favorites]


Yasaman, I'd feel kind of bummed if there was a save state port because it definitely would exclude those of us who beat the game on Wii U, but sometimes them's the breaks.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 10:30 AM on February 17, 2023


So excited for this game, and so impressed/confused about how tight wraps Nintendo has kept on it. I literally just wrote a piece the other day (apologies for the self-link) about how it was one of the most satisfying exploration experiences I've ever had in a game. I know the new one will be taking to the skies, but I hope it still manages to capture that magic of feeling like Hyrule is a living, breathing (albeit super messed up) place.

You can also sign me up for Team Weapon Degredation, as it just gave me more reason to keep poking around, and more reason to come up with ridiculous strategies involving dropping metal boxes from the stratosphere.
posted by Zargon X at 10:34 AM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I'm half hoping that ToTK supports amiibo looting again as well. It's so ez-mode, but since the game doesn't really have difficulty settings, I'm _absolutely here_ for it. Scan a bunch of cards during a morning meeting all week, have fat stacks of consumables for the weekend gaming session.
posted by Kyol at 10:35 AM on February 17, 2023


THOUGHTS!

1. From what little I can glean from the trailer, this looks a hell of a lot like the map from BotW, though maybe scrambled a bit. If I had to place a longshot bet on it, I'd guess that some cataclysm or other knocked a bunch of the land up into the sky such that it has exposed dungeons below the exposed parts of Hyrule.

2. If I understand the Zelda Chronology (which is wild and only kinda-sorta canonical by my understanding but the weird timeline-split from Ocarina doesn't really apply here anyway) then Skyward Sword is the first game in the series timeline and Breath of the Wild currently the latest, with Tears of the Kingdom to be the new latest-in-the-timeline entry. The Islands in the Sky thing here suggests a full-circle nature to the timeline which definitely would complicate things further but also could be very interesting.

3. More importantly for my enjoyment of the games... let's just say that if you're going to compare a Zelda game to anything, you can only fairly compare it to other Zelda games. But on that scale, Skyward Sword is a mixed success at best. It's ten pounds of good ideas throw into a five-pound-bag of not-great execution for the most part. Breath of the Wild is, of course, pretty damn close to flawlessly executed. If this is able to effectively graft the good ideas from Skyward Sword (including but not limited to overworld/dungeon symbiosis and, obviously, skylands) onto what already works so well about BotW, it could be astounding.

4. I'm excited for hot air balloons and tractors and train tracks. Twilight Princess had for my money the best dungeon design overall of any game in the series, and the most fun dungeon in that was probably "Arbiter's Grounds" with it's track puzzles (and cool boss-battle making use of the tracks.) Bring that to BotW-style gaming yes please!

5. I have to imagine that if this were the case they would have damn well said something by now, but that last bit with Zelda saying "Link, give me your power" or whatever does kind of imply that we might be able to play as Zelda at some point, right?
posted by Navelgazer at 10:35 AM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


does kind of imply that we might be able to play as Zelda at some point, right?

I have big doubts about whether this will happen but I'll allow myself a tiny bit of hope.

That being said....

I WOULD GIVE THEM SO MUCH FUCKING MONEY TO JUST LET US PLAY AS ZELDA AND HAVE A GAME WHERE WE HAVE TO RESCUE LINK?!! ITS ON THE TABLE NINTENDO, ALL THAT MONEY, JUST MAKE IT AND TAKE IT!!!

There's a mod for BotW that does let you play as Zelda but still not the same. I want a full BotW playground with all its physics AND I want the option to dress up Zelda in cool-ass armour outfits!!
posted by Fizz at 10:45 AM on February 17, 2023 [7 favorites]


Navelgazer, on your point 5, I'm pretty sure Zelda is saying, "Please lend him your power." The shot frames Link diving after Zelda into the abyss, his arm noticeably damaged but not magic, so I think the implication is that, at some point, Zelda requests some new character (maybe the strange figure in the engravings that some have speculated is Hylia) grant Link the magic arm power. I doubt we'll be playing as Zelda at all.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 10:46 AM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


Legit just give me a fashion game with Link, Zelda & their Hyrulian friends!! I just want to dress them all up in cool outfits, armours, etc.
posted by Fizz at 10:47 AM on February 17, 2023 [3 favorites]


...magic glove? I was SURE it was a Sheikah prosthetic limb!

In the trailers, it looks pretty clear that this is a Sheikah-tech prosthetic - the same wrapper of the strange "arm" holding our old friend anchored in place in the first trailer - that Link is now wearing over a his own horrifically-malice-burned arm.
posted by mhoye at 10:51 AM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


I want a full BotW playground with all its physics AND I want the option to dress up Zelda in cool-ass armour outfits!!

You're looking for the Linkle mod. A lot of the fanmade outfits involved are amazing.
posted by mhoye at 10:54 AM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


In BotW, my main goals are collecting mushrooms and exploring the map. After at least 100 play hours, I have only freed one Divine Beast - fighting is stressful and I don't want to! (I'm also a terrible gamer and I cannot do moves like "parry" or whatever.) But I enjoy my little side quests and finding Koroks, and I hope I can play the TotK in the same way.
posted by quadrilaterals at 11:12 AM on February 17, 2023 [11 favorites]


Yeah, I really do hope we can just piss off from the main quest and do whatever the fuck we want. That's the best part of BotW, me just deciding, "Today is about collecting mushrooms." or "Let's go climb mountains today!!"

I love just picking a rando place on the map and going to it!! Really hoping the exploration side of things continues to reward people who go off trail!!
posted by Fizz at 11:30 AM on February 17, 2023 [6 favorites]


My kid's been playing BOTW since he was like 2 or 3. He loves to explore and do stuff and any time the combat gets hairy he runs away or if I'm around he gives the controller to me and I'll beat the enemies or die trying, although he's gotten better with the combat over time and for the record I'm not particularly good either. We finished the game a long time ago but he'll still boot up the WiiU and play it every once in a while. We're looking forward to the new game but I'm not sure if I should get it right when it comes out or give it to him for his birthday in July.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:47 AM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


We're looking forward to the new game but I'm not sure if I should get it right when it comes out or give it to him for his birthday in July.

Early birthday gift!!
posted by Fizz at 12:10 PM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


we might be able to play as Zelda at some point, right

We play as Zelda in every game. Zelda is the boy.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 12:12 PM on February 17, 2023 [9 favorites]


There's about a 0% chance that we won't get him something else on his birthday if we give him Tears of the Kingdom when it comes out. Not that there's anything wrong with getting him 2 birthday presents.

Also if you want to play as Zelda there's always the muso game Hyrule Warriors. It's definitely not BOTW but the graphics sure do look like it.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:16 PM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


Also, you can play as Zelda in the Crypt of the Necrodancer spinoff, Cadence of Hyrule! It's a fantastic game that I actually like more than some canonical Zelda games.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 12:18 PM on February 17, 2023


You can feed the dogs APPLES to get them to lead you to treasure? I've been wasting perfectly good steak on them!
posted by happyfrog at 12:27 PM on February 17, 2023 [3 favorites]


I would like to play this now please.
posted by fleacircus at 12:44 PM on February 17, 2023


> Three apples in a row, friend! Treasure awaits.

brb
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:01 PM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


It starts with an unknown voice calling on its minions to destroy the world

If that ain't Matt Mercer, it's the world's greatest Mercer impersonator.


I had somehow never made the connection between the two before, but that voice immediately made me go, "Wait, is that Gangplank?" Matt Mercer's certainly done a lot of video game voice work.
posted by mstokes650 at 1:13 PM on February 17, 2023


I WOULD GIVE THEM SO MUCH FUCKING MONEY TO JUST LET US PLAY AS ZELDA AND HAVE A GAME WHERE WE HAVE TO RESCUE LINK?!! ITS ON THE TABLE NINTENDO, ALL THAT MONEY, JUST MAKE IT AND TAKE IT!!!

A finger on the monkeys paw curls.

Nintendo has amply demonstrated they cannot be trusted with such things. It feel like dumb luck that they managed to make Samus Aran a leading lady by blindly copying Alien's scenario and plot, and they had to make that a secret gender reveal. Not that the West is much better on average.

On the plus side, Forbidden West's DLC is coming up in April a month before Tears ships.
posted by pwnguin at 1:24 PM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


Magic glove? Powerglove, certainly?

It's so bad!
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 2:03 PM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]


OK I know they're all good dogs but uh I already knew that ax was there. Still! Thank you, dog. I hope you enjoyed the apples.

I, too, really want to be able to switch between outfits faster. Maybe if I could store my top four favorites somewhere? Stealth pants and shirt and Korok mask, go-faster swimsuit, rock climber in my Axl Rose bandana, full stealth outfit. I, too, am just a simple mushroom gatherer and don't need to switch into my armor all that often. I played through once during peak pandemic and got as far as the big battle, got partway through, and stopped there and headed back out. Now I'm on my second playthrough and am attempting to do it all without ever touching a horse.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:17 PM on February 17, 2023


I found that the dogs that lead you to treasure in Breath of the Wild do so when you give them any food, including single apples, but other sites say three food items. Apparently the food is not completely necessary. Each dog has a friendship score that increases from feeding it or just hanging around it, and when its invisible meter fills completely it'll lead you to the (now placed) treasure chest. The key to knowing you're making progress on befriending the dog is the pink cloud that appears around its head. It's the same one that appears when you're taming a horse. All of the treasures that the dogs lead you to seem to require the Magnesis rune to find. Look for a part of a treasure chest sticking up out of the ground.

Before BotW came out, I was still talking about how the original Legend of Zelda was still in many ways the best one, because it didn't telegraph its secrets, had an air of mystery around it, its overworld wasn't so blatantly lock-and-key in construction, and it didn't make dungeons such a large part of the game. Basically, everything that was in Tevis Thompson's Saving Zelda essay. Breath of the Wild, to me, seemed almost as if Nintendo had read all of those complaints about where Zelda games had been going and decided to address every single one. In Japan, they even used the font from the original game's box art as the location announcement font.

Something about making very large games like BotW is, you start to run out of meaningful ways to reward the player. Even typical Zelda games, before BotW, started reaching a point where they had so many things hidden in them that they ended up diluting their rewards. Most Zelda games require you to find four Heart Pieces to get another Heart Container. Twilight Princess makes you find five. Yet, they also strive to cater to players who don't go through finding everything. The Zelda design philosophy is, players who find secrets should be helped in the game, and players who spend time tracking them all down are moving the game's difficulty away from the enemies and bosses and choosing to instead get it from exploring the game world, and that's okay! But if every secret awarded a heart piece, players would have many many heart containers at the end, unless they were diluted far beyond even five per heart. And most Zelda games already give out way too many rupees to be meaningful by the end.

The weapon degradation in BotW solved two problems, that of finding a reward for players that didn't make the whole rest of the game permanently easier, even if only very slightly, and they gave the player something that they could find that would tend to always be cool. I really don't like talking about games in terms of "dopamine hits," like they were Skinner Boxes, but I don't think most people appreciate how difficult it is to keep rewarding a player for exploring in a game with thousands of hidden secrets to find, while also keeping it accessible to players who don't want to explore so much.
posted by JHarris at 2:19 PM on February 17, 2023 [12 favorites]


We got a Switch for Christmas and I lasted a couple of days maybe before I went out and got BoTW, a game I'd wanted since it came out. It did not disappoint.

I am not in any way a gamer. The Switch is the first current-gen console I've had since Super Nintendo. The last Zelda games I played were A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, both of which I recently replayed with my 9-year-old son. We got BotW and played alongside one another. Sometimes he'd watch me do stuff to see how to do things and then do them on his own; other times he'd get ahead of me.

Anyway, I'm just about done the game. I completed the last of the 120 shrines today, finished all the Divine Beasts, and have almost finished all of the side quests. (No, I'm not going for all the Korok seeds. No way.) What a blast it's been. I've loved the game from the get-go—the sense of exploration, the multiple ways to approach many / most challenges, the fact that you can just get a house and live your life foraging mushrooms if that's what you like. It's brilliant. I think I've been putting off fighting Ganon because I don't want to feel like it's over (even though I know I can keep playing afterward.)

I'm very excited for the new one. I'm a bit nervous that the sense of exploration will be lost if it is the same map, but hopefully the skies add a whole new layer to the world. I wouldn't find saying goodbye to quests where you have to collect dozens and dozens of some object. But I've already pre-ordered it and am honest-to-goodness contemplating taking release day off work to play. (My boss would understand—she recently started playing BoTW too and we often compare notes in our weekly 1:1 meeting.)
posted by synecdoche at 3:36 PM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]


Also: please, please let us pet the doggos.
posted by synecdoche at 3:39 PM on February 17, 2023 [3 favorites]


Is there a game like the SNES Zelda that may be a sequel in spirit? I just want a good top down action RPG with dungeons and end bosses and stuff.
posted by alex_skazat at 5:11 PM on February 17, 2023


alex_skazat, if you haven't played the Switch remake of Link's Awakening that's the closest I've found. An excellent top down Zelda but given a graphic overhaul. I prefer that style of Zelda too even though BotW was fun. Also I've been playing Minish Cap on the Game Boy Advance section of Nintendo Switch Online that recently got released (requires the upgrade plan) and it scratches that itch as well. I hope others have suggestions too as those are both actual Zelda.
posted by downtohisturtles at 5:24 PM on February 17, 2023 [3 favorites]


alex_skazat, you ought to try Tunic. Very old-school Zelda style action with an incredible level of discovery.
posted by Zargon X at 5:42 PM on February 17, 2023 [5 favorites]


It looks like Link will be able to craft certain mechanical parts on to pieces of wood/material and if they've expanded the physics-tool-set to include a kind of garage tinkerer type of thing, we're going to see some wild-ass creative shit!!

Moblin Space Program!
posted by kaibutsu at 6:45 PM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]


Tunic is a great suggestion.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 7:22 PM on February 17, 2023


Is there a game like the SNES Zelda that may be a sequel in spirit? I just want a good top down action RPG with dungeons and end bosses and stuff.

If you haven't played A Link Between Worlds on 3DS, you really should play it. It is a direct sequel to A Link to the Past, its version of Hyrule is quite similar!
posted by JHarris at 8:43 PM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


You may also like Minish Cap, on GBA, which is mostly the traditional 2D Zelda style. There's also Link's Awakening, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, of course.
posted by JHarris at 8:45 PM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]


By the way! If you're considering getting Tears of the Kingdom digitally, and at least one other $60 Switch game in the next year, and are already a member of the Switch Online service, then you might want to consider paying $100 for two Switch vouchers since TotK is eligible. Tears is going to be $70, so you'll be saving $30 all together!
posted by JHarris at 8:52 PM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]


Basically, everything that was in Tevis Thompson's Saving Zelda essay. Breath of the Wild, to me, seemed almost as if Nintendo had read all of those complaints about where Zelda games had been going and decided to address every single one.

In his 2017 “game of the year” reviews, he said “Zelda found its courage. And despite faults, it gets the main thing right: that sense of being in a world. Contingent, tangible, beautiful. An adventure.
Now if they’ll just lean into the rain, build a real underworld, & finally do right by Zelda herself.”

I can see the first two of those in the trailer, and I’m hoping for the third.
posted by mhoye at 9:29 PM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]


I'll second Tunic! It's great, with some really fantastic exploration and discovery mechanics.

It definitely has some pretty tough fights, which I think some players bounce off of. But it's a great game.
posted by kaibutsu at 10:56 PM on February 17, 2023


I'm on the 4th playthrough. Met this NPC who told me you can lure fish with certain properties by throwing food with these properties into the water. I've read so much about the game and watched that (ongoing) "Things you didn't know about BotW" and I never knew this before.

BTW maybe my favorite tidbit from that was that the Zora names are made up of Japanese solfege syllables and this goes into their theme songs.

As for details I also enjoyed this in-depth technical analysis of the BotW engine. For example that isn't a skybox but they emulate actual Fresnel / Mie scattering making the sky look blue. Playing in 4k is so great
posted by yoHighness at 11:30 PM on February 17, 2023 [3 favorites]


There's an indie RPG named CrossCode that has seven giant Zelda-style dungeons. Outside of the dungeons, it's very much not Zelda, but they're very good dungeons.
posted by Merus at 1:39 AM on February 18, 2023 [1 favorite]


The weapon breaking mechanic was so frustrating, my son stopped playing. I tried to get past it and it annoyed the crap out of me, too.

Neither one of us got out of the starting area. We traded the game to a friend.

There are so many gaming options nowadays that we don’t have to bother with something that has a frustrating mechanic, we can just go play something else. We aren’t limited to just the Switch, and there are dozens of open world games out there that are beautiful and fun to explore.

If the new game has the same annoying mechanic, I’ll give it a pass. I’ve played several of the Zelda series over the years, but I’m not going to grind through a frustrating game design problem to experience the new one.
posted by Fleebnork at 5:58 AM on February 18, 2023 [1 favorite]


> Met this NPC who told me you can lure fish with certain properties by throwing food with these properties into the water.

Ha -- that's one of the tips on the loading screen that you probably tune out. I haven't tried it, myself.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:14 PM on February 18, 2023


BOTW is easily the best game I've ever played. Nothing else even comes close. I've played through to 100% in normal mode except for the Korok seeds and the Master Sword challenges (which I tried to do multiple times, but when you're a couple hours in and then you die and have to start over from the beginning, it's hard to find the motivation after trying a few times.) I've also played Master Mode and beaten it, but not 100%ed it.

The thing about weapons breaking is that it's an awesome mechanic, it just forces you to play differently from a game that doesn't treat weapons as expendables. Once you start hoarding away the best weapons for special occasions and using commonly found weapons for most things, it's a fantastic mechanic and is one of many reasons the game stands up to hundreds of hours of play (I've got, maybe 700 hours in it, but haven't played recently.)

I've preordered the new one and can't wait. It looks awesome and it's fundamentally the same team of developers who made BOTW.
posted by MythMaker at 1:44 PM on February 18, 2023 [2 favorites]


Thank you for the game recommendations, everyone, and the discussion regarding weapon degradation. While I find it annoying from (I guess) a purist standpoint, your points about its benefits have warmed my heart.
posted by BlunderingArtist at 5:43 AM on February 22, 2023 [2 favorites]


One thing the Master Sword Challenges and Tunic have in common: you need to look really carefully at your environment to realize that the reason you think you're playing a Soulslike is that you don't know you're playing a puzzle game.
posted by mhoye at 6:14 AM on February 22, 2023


By the way! If you're considering getting Tears of the Kingdom digitally, and at least one other $60 Switch game in the next year, and are already a member of the Switch Online service, then you might want to consider paying $100 for two Switch vouchers since TotK is eligible. Tears is going to be $70, so you'll be saving $30 all together!

In Canada it's $133 for the voucher but TotK will be $90 so a pretty good deal to get that and some other game that's never discounted. I think I'll use it to finally get Smash Bros.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:03 AM on February 22, 2023


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