Tears of the Kingdom Lore Is Not Interesting

I don't know why I said it came out 10 months ago. Obviously it has not.

"Somehow, the Sheikah technology disappeared."

We had 6 years to gaslight ourselves into thinking the developers care about the lore as much as the players do

It’s honest crazy that wind waker connects to ocarina of time better than totk connects to botw

What drives me crazy is that TOTK's story is, literally verbatim, BOTW's. Evil invades Hyrule, the king gathers skilled individuals from the four tribes to assist him, they fail, and then Link cleans up the mess years later. IT'S LITERALLY THE EXACT SAME STORY.

It was so dissapointing how the first teaser back in 2019 seemed so story focused and nothing in the game even came close.

In an interview, one of the creators was asked outright what happened to the Sheika technology. He said that after Calamity Ganon was defeated, it all sunk back into the ground and the citizens of Hyrule shrugged as they were "used to seeing" weird things. I feel that sums it up the lore problem perfectly.

I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece of a story in this game, but I at least expected it to be consistent with breath of the wild. I never got immersed in the TotK world because the story and world building were so poor that I was completely taken out of the world every time some important npc didn’t recognize me, or some major landmark changed, or the game acted like I had never did something that I did many times

It makes me so upset that such a poorly named mcguffin like Secret Stones replaced the Triforce's role in the story

BotW's mysterious approach to its world, such as all the ancient civilisations and that mysterious Zonai tribe from the Faron region really had me hooked because of how deliberately vague things were kept. It's so strange that they rewrote the Zonai into this ancient high-tech godlike race of creatures, and retconned the faron tribe into an afterthought

If they wanted to make a game where the NPCs don’t recognize Link at all, they should have just sent Link waaaay back into the past. It also would have been a good excuse to revamp the map COMPLETELY. And the story could have been much more interesting since there would have been an active villain instead of just having Ganondorf sitting, waiting to take his L.

15:41 They were able to use old saved data from BotW like your stabled horses, It could've been so cool if they also used the save data from BotW to affect how npc talk to you. Say you completed Hateno, as a returning player they'd greet you as Link, asking how've you been or whatever. As a new player you'd be treated as a stranger. Wouldn't have solved all problems but could have been better.

"They didn't think of it and they don't care", best summary of TotK tbh.

One of the things that stung the most on my first playthrough was Harth talking about Tulin's wind gust ability. He says, quote: "And the way he can create winds at will? That's a trick I've never even heard of anyone else pulling off". As if Harth and all of Rito Village weren't huge fans of Revali in the last game, who was renowned for his archery as well as his creation of Revali's Gale. And how the Champions' arms were themselves cheapened in this game by 1) having them be used by the ancient Sages in the cutscenes of the Imprisoning War, and 2) having them be made by and for just about anybody, less so with the Lightscale Trident and Urbosa's arms, but the Boulder Breaker being used as a test of smithing skills and the Great Eagle Bow being casually remade after Teba gives his to Tulin makes them feel CHEAP and NOT AS SIGNIFICANT as they felt in BotW. These are no longer personalized weapons unique to the Champions who wielded them (and who are specifically mentioned in the item descriptions), they are heirlooms that have been wielded by EVERY generation since the founding of Hyrule. We got all of this new Zonaite gear in TotK, WHY IN THE WORLD could we not have had a new set of unique Sages' weapons?? And why do certain armor pieces and weapons from BotW have totally different origin stories now??? 11:13 Hudson is about the only NPC in Tarrey Town that still knows Link. When we first get there and walk in on him and Rhondson arguing, he says "look who it is! It sure has been a while. You know, thanks to you, Tarrey Town is doing real good". Kapson, the elderly Zora who was around 100 years ago and who knew/knew of Link because of his status as a Champion and his relationship with Mipha/Zora's Domain, who was brought to Tarrey Town by Link in BotW, *doesn't fucking know him in TotK for some reason* 16:55 "even though every piece of evidence that they had put so far seemed to point to that" "Subversion for subversion's sake! Best you didn't see THAT coming!!"

TotK is a game that entirely engrossed me for the 2 weeks after it was out. While playing it i thought i was playing my goat game. But then i finished it and it had no staying power whatsoever.

Another gripe I have is the insistance of the permanence of Draconification. Mutliple times they state it is a forbidden act that is permanent. I understand recall can undo it by time magic logic but it feels so cheap. Their is no actual sacrifice; the ending being all happy go lucky felt unearned. Other example like wind weaker and Twilight princess has bittersweet endings because it stick with its internal lore and storytelling. Wind Waker we get attached to the King and we get sad when he drowns which fits the thematic element of moving onward. Twilight princess, Midna leaves because of the consequences. Ganondorf's proxy war basically ruined Twili and Hyrulean relations. Midna leaves and we feel sad.

I was treated as an insane person by my friends for hating TOTK's lore. Thank you for this video. I feel far less insane now.

Another weird part of the game that I know the developers had to literally turn a blind eye is during one of the side quests at the school where the teacher is literally recapping events of BOTW, with Link standing there, yet they do not acknowledge he did all the things in BOTW, they just gloss over it.

The retconning of botw is really what peeves me. The present day story in botw was very light, so it’s not like there was so much backstory between link and bolson, for example, that it would have been confusing to newcomers if they knew each other. Also there are a ton of random npcs in lookout landing that know you, that you never met in botw. So why do so many npcs that you should know, not know you?I really just cannot understand why.

When I first heard Ganondorf talk about Rauru in the opening cutscene, I was floored because I thought Nintendo was taking it in the direction that this Ganondorf is still the same guy from Ocarina of Time, it's just been thousands of years of the same cycle and all of it is bleeding together for him at this point. Was disappointed when it was just a new dragon goat man.