Tears of the Kingdom sucks now, apparently

Nuh uh. It’s just a beautifully bad game, or whatever the journalists have said Edit: also say what you want about the game but ultrahand gave us so many funny things in the community

Istg for every TotK content I see, it's gonna be "Totk is bad" "new zelda sucks" "botw was cool"

i still need nintendo to give us a damn open world closed dungeons game. its that simple

The "Zelda Cycle", "Sonic Cycle" and "Star Wars Cycle" are natural byproducts of people having time to critically evaluate media after their honeymoon phases wear off. While TotK is a blast to play for the first 5-6 hours, eventually the cracks in the gameplay loop begin to show and the story becomes more questionable the more you mull it over. It's only natural to compare games and movies to their predecessors and determine what was done better and what wasn't, so I always find it a bit strange when people claim that these types of "Cycles" are odd or unnatural. There's still tons of people out there who love TotK and sing its praise, but of course more negativity will eventually arise the more time people have to properly analyze it.

I find it amazing that a lot of people have gotten tired of the open air Zelda when there’s only been 2 games that use it in comparison to the 5 games that use the traditional formula (not including the 2D games like ALTTP that also has a similar formula) but I think I may have a theory as to why. Zelda games have always been unique in comparison to other games, they’re not quite RPGS their not quite Adventure games their not quite 3D puzzle games. All of it was combined to make Zelda a very unique genre, and while BOTW and TOTK have Zelda elements they’re easily considered as open world games similar to RDR,GTA,Elden Ring, etc. there are so many open world games that it’s far easier for Open Air Zelda to feel tired. Funny enough if and when the series finally merged to two formulas, it should still feel like a Open word game but more importantly it will feel like a Open world ZELDA game. If that makes sense

I think I’m one of the few who played hundreds if not thousands of hours of Botw (to the point of 100% everything) who liked Tears of the kingdom just as much if not more. You could say it’s because it feels like dlc but honestly TOTK is Botw with more stuff and cooler things to do, better dungeons, story and bosses and more to explore. Sure the exploration I got from Botw May never be topped but TOTK just feels like the definitive Botw imo. Honestly the only reason I would recommend people to play Botw first before TOTK is if they are a casual gamer who would be overwhelmed by TOTK, or if they are somebody who likes character and story, and the events of bot could ad more weight to the events of TOTK, but even then I can just tell them to watch the cutscenes then play TOTK

Tears had so much potential I feel like. Nintendo could’ve made it so much cooler if they would’ve learned how to make the game have an actual progressing story. Don’t get me wrong I loved Ganon in totk, but if he was actually doing stuff in Hyrule instead of sitting underground waiting, it would’ve been so much better. I wish they would make link relatable too, like link in twilight princess was perfect and is still my fav version. I rlly wanted totk to have new towns, or new music choice since it was in the same map. If Nintendo would just listen some times, and actually think about how to make a good story for an open world game, totk could’ve been soooo much better. There’s also so many story problems, many wondered why caves and wells, and sky islands randomly appeared while all Nintendo said was “because of the upheaval” they could’ve explained it way more and just using the upheaval as an excuse every time doesn’t work.

As someone whose first Zelda game was Wind Waker, whose original favourite Zelda game was Twilight Princess, and who had played every 3D Zelda game before BotW came out, I really like the open air formula and hope that the Zelda team continues to improve it. My biggest issue with TotK (which I think is a wonderful game btw) wasn't that it was open air but that it reused the map from BotW which made exploration not as fresh (although the caves were fantastic). Had the game taken place entirely within the sky (and by extension had more sky islands) or in a new land, I would probably have almost zero issues with it. I would hate to see the Zelda team drop or entirely change the open air Zelda formula akin to what BotW did with the traditional 3D Zelda formula when we're only two games into it as opposed to five. The open air formula is not what made TotK feel stagnating, it's that it reused the world of BotW which made it feel stagnating

It’s not just a cycle on Zelda. It’s in pretty much every gaming franchise. The Pokémon fandom is particularly infamous. Remember how when Scarlet & Violet released, it was canned for its glitches and Sword & Shield was cut some slack DESPITE them being hated shortly after they released back in 2018? It even extends way back to Pokemon Gen V; which myself and others initially found boring, but now is well-loved

Sometimes I think I'm currently the only person who still loves and enjoys the game 🥲 Perhaps I'm a little biased, because my experience with it was so special... Not only the game but also some great changes in my life when it came out and the game will always be a part of this! But it also took what I loved about BotW and made it even better... Just hits my sweet spot I guess 😅 I see the flaws and I understand why some people dislike/hate about it. But my experience was different, I had so much fun and had this childlike joy and excitement that I haven't had in ages! Don't know why, it just happened... But: Some things really need to be changed for the next game, they can't do this a third time... And I'd love to have some elements of the "classic" Zelda formula back (dungeons with dungeon items, map, compass, small keys and the boss key for example). I hope they can find a perfect balance between both old and new 🤩

I still think the game is incredible, also the motion controls at least aren’t forced on you. Then again, tears is the first Zelda game that I’ve really loved. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good story (I’m a big Dragon Quest fan), but freedom and exploration is something I need to some extent (hence why I hadn’t been into Zelda before). Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

screw the zelda cycle, i already hated Tears of the Kingdom back in may 2023 😎

Okay hear me out: New zelda game world is BotW style, dungeons are traditional and (mostly) linear. Story is traditional style cause new story style SUCKS.

I think that recall was definitely more game breaking then building in tears, and hopefully they bring a little more of what we love if we do get stuck with another open air game

It's not a case of "Zelda cycle" here. The hype for TOTK died down pretty quickly when people started playing it and realized that it's a kind of "soft reboot". Nintendo decided that things from the previous game had magically disappeared (according to the devs themselves), and basically created the same experience again, without building anything significant on top of the previous game (by the way, it's the player's responsibility to build things in the game).

I've seen people say that the open air formula has already gotten more stale than the classic formula ever did. 2 games over 6 years vs more than 10 games in over 20 years? This fandom has some truly insane people.

TotK is a great VIDEOGAME BotW is a beautiful EXPERIENCE Playing TotK and it's mechanics I feel that I'm playing a game but when I play BotW is like I'm living an adventure, even both of them being videogames I have this feeling playing the original

I don’t think there’s any fatigue in the open air formula The problem was Totk reusing the same map There’s fatigue in exploring the same map in over 8 years. Totk is a great game imo but it would have been much better if it was an all new original map. Exploring botw’s hyrule for the first time was the main appeal of botw and that was the novelty that made the weaker dungeons or story more tolerable I love Totk either way it’s just that I kinda understand why people would hate it tbh

When I first played the game, I immediately knew I liked botw better.

I wonder how much the sales of the Zelda series has to do with the consoles. Nintendo home consoles were successively declining in sales every since the Super Nintendo, until the Switch became one of the best selling consoles of all time. The Wii was the outlier, but most of that console's sales came from casuals that were not really into games. Most people who had a Wii were not really interested in stuff beyond Wii Sports, Wii Fit, etc. I can guarantee this because I remember when I was a kid we went to a hotel that had a game room with a bunch of Wiis set up with Mario Party on them. I imagine a huge percentage of the Wii's sales were for stuff like this. Also, Skyward Sword's sales was likely severly harmed from being one of the few Wii games to require the Wii Motion Plus.