Tears of the Kingdom First Impressions

[vanguard333]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Not surprised there wasn't a real final dungeon, but still a bit disappointed. Ganondorf himself was pretty basic, felt pretty much just like fighting a Phantom Ganon, only you need to rely more on shield bashing than flurry rushing. I think someone said something about boss damage being poorly scaled compared to regular enemies and it's very much true. The normal moblins and lizalfos before him felt more threatening. The final phase was cool as a set piece, but felt too basic in terms of gameplay.

 

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You're right I'm fine with Zelda being restored, but in regards to Link's arm, the obvious best thing to would be to take away Rauru's arm and not restore his own so Link becomes a lefty again!

 

I understand your disappointment; it would've been nice to see a proper final dungeon.

I agree that boss damage is poorly scaled for most bosses. For Ganondorf, however, I think he makes up for it because of the types of damage his attacks inflicts, with some of his attacks inflicting gloom and some of them

Spoiler

outright erasing heart containers so not even sundelion meals can restore them.

With regular enemies, I have a million meals and food items for recovering damage, whereas, for Ganondorf, even at his easiest, he's still a battle of attrition.

 

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That would've been nice, though it would've been cruel to only get a left-handed Link at the very end of the game. I just hope that Link will be left-handed in the next game since the next game won't be reusing assets.

By the way, what did you think of the Demon Dragon boss fight?

 

[Etrurian emperor]

While its a shame that Zelda's story again takes place entirely separately from Link like in the last game, and I'll remain grumpy they didn't make her playable in some form, it still nice that Zelda is depicted as a character with a lot of agency. She isn't just sitting on her butt waiting for Link to come find her. The Flashbacks reveal she had her own adventures and even did her fair bit of fighting. While doing the journalism quest line its also apparent that Zelda is doing a  lot for Hyrule. She's engaging in Hyrule's affairs on anything from researching to raising kids and animals or giving cooking advice. Apparently she's very good at it and the people respect her lots for it. Researchers take her advice even when (they think) she told something silly like fighting monsters in their underwear, the kids she teaches seem to like her a lot, and people generally gush over her.

[vanguard333]

On 6/29/2023 at 4:33 PM, Etrurian emperor said:

While its a shame that Zelda's story again takes place entirely separately from Link like in the last game, and I'll remain grumpy they didn't make her playable in some form, it still nice that Zelda is depicted as a character with a lot of agency. She isn't just sitting on her butt waiting for Link to come find her. The Flashbacks reveal she had her own adventures and even did her fair bit of fighting. While doing the journalism quest line its also apparent that Zelda is doing a  lot for Hyrule. She's engaging in Hyrule's affairs on anything from researching to raising kids and animals or giving cooking advice. Apparently she's very good at it and the people respect her lots for it. Researchers take her advice even when (they think) she told something silly like fighting monsters in their underwear, the kids she teaches seem to like her a lot, and people generally gush over her.

Spoiler

You're right; she isn't sitting on her butt waiting for Link; she's flying around on her belly waiting for Link.

Jokes involving spoilers about Zelda's role in the story aside, I agree. It is a shame that Zelda once again isn't adventuring alongside Link, but it is really nice that she has a lot of agency and is making impactful decisions entirely as a result of said agency, and it is nice that, everywhere you go in Hyrule, you can find that Zelda has been doing a lot for Hyrule before the upheaval.

Regarding those researchers,

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When I came across them and they insisted that Zelda told them to explore in their underpants, I figured that Phantom Ganon in disguise as Zelda told them that to get them killed. I was really surprised when it turned out that Phantom Ganon had nothing to do with it and it was entirely a result of those researchers being idiots.

 

EDIT: I've seen a lot of people point out that Ganondorf in this game, after becoming Demon King Ganondorf, resembles Demise a lot more than previous versions of Ganondorf did. I have no doubt that the main reason for this is that this is the first version of Ganondorf in a game made after Skyward Sword, but, if you think about it, there is also a really cool in-universe reason for it:

The original Ganondorf gained power by obtaining the Triforce of Power: an external source of power left behind by the three golden goddesses. Possessing a piece of the Triforce ironically made him more Hylian by giving him pointed ears. This Ganondorf, however, gains power through a Zonai Secret Stone, which is outright stated to be a power amplifier: it takes a person's innate powers & abilities and amplifies them dramatically. For Rauru and the Sages, the powers amplified were their respective magical abilities; for Ganondorf, the abilities that would be amplified would be his powers as an incarnation of Demise's hatred, so it makes perfect sense that the stone makes him more like Demise.

Edited July 6, 2023 by vanguard333