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Discussion Will Tears of the Kingdom make Breath of the Wild unnecessary ?

Will Tears of the Kingdom make Breath of the Wild unnecessary ?


  • Total voters
    189
I see a lot of people guffawing at this idea, but this happens for tons and tons of games with sequels. One example is the Super Smash Bros franchise. Barely anyone plays Brawl anymore, because Ultimate does almost everything it does but better. However, Melee is still extremely popular, because it offers a type of competitive gameplay that is unmatched today.

I actually do think that BotW will still become obsolete to a lot of people who enjoyed it, because a lot of people liked aspects of the game that are simply going to be bigger and better in TotK. A ton of people loved BotW because of the exploration, and TotK is going to have more things to explore. Some people loved the combat, physics, and movement: TotK is going to have more weapons, more things to interact with, and lots more movement abilities.

On the other hand, some people really enjoyed things like the shrines, overworld puzzles, divine beasts, towns, music, etc. To these people, BotW will still be worth going back to like any other Zelda game.

As someone who found barely any of BotW's content to be compelling, I really doubt I will ever play the game again if TotK is has superior dungeons, side quests, puzzles, items, shrines, combat, story, enemy variety, and more. Apart from the world being reused and potentially being less interesting to explore, I can't think of a single aspect of TotK that could possibly be worse then BotW (to me).
 
No, what does this even mean? It's a different game. Zelda II didn't make Zelda I obsolete. Is this your first experience with a sequel?
 
Nope. It will have something botw won't, and things missing from botw as well, for the better and worst.

Would be surprised if the sequel sacrifices some non-linearity for a more cohesive story.
 
A huge, huge part of what made BotW so special and unique was all the Sheikah stuff - the Slate, the towers, the Shrines, the story and lore, the Yiga Clan, Divine Beasts..

TotK is removing ALL of that, replacing it with its own distinct flair and take on that overworld.

So BotW will still be unique and special, at least to me.
 
I think anyone expecting to find 95% of the play experience of exploring BOTW inside TotK, as if TotK is just an expansion tacked on above it, is unlikely to be correct. BotW offers its own take on survival, starting with nothing and incrementally discovering the magic of a fallen Hyrule piece by piece. Even if the same Hyrule is within TotK, you aren’t going to experience it in the same way.

Link Between Worlds uses roughly the same map as LTTP but key differences in traversal, abilities, items, stories and dungeons mean that all knowledge of LTTP does for you in LBW is offer a comforting familiarity of where the areas are. Conversely, if you go from LBW to LTTP, it doesn’t help you that much at all as the layout of Hyrule isn’t a big secret, it’s given to you on a map at the start.
 
BotW was an astonishingly great gaming experience the first playthrough. Easily the best I have ever experienced.

BotW was also an astonishingly ordinary and boring gaming experience the second playthrough. I abandoned it very quickly.

It's a very strange thing... but all the things I loved from BotW were the sense of adventure and exploration. None of that existed the second time... and let's be honest. The exploration was rarely rewarded.

I don't think TotK will be the same. I think Nintendo will apply the same core gameplay, sure, but they will layer in all the reasons to play the game again, on top of that. At least that's what I would do, and hope they are doing!

So my answer to OP is a no in terms of TotK rendering BotW pointless - because BotW already rendered itself pointless - but I'm voting yes because I have high hopes that TotK will be the one that gets a revisit in the future.
 
I see a lot of people guffawing at this idea, but this happens for tons and tons of games with sequels. One example is the Super Smash Bros franchise. Barely anyone plays Brawl anymore, because Ultimate does almost everything it does but better. However, Melee is still extremely popular, because it offers a type of competitive gameplay that is unmatched today.

I actually do think that BotW will still become obsolete to a lot of people who enjoyed it, because a lot of people liked aspects of the game that are simply going to be bigger and better in TotK. A ton of people loved BotW because of the exploration, and TotK is going to have more things to explore. Some people loved the combat, physics, and movement: TotK is going to have more weapons, more things to interact with, and lots more movement abilities.

On the other hand, some people really enjoyed things like the shrines, overworld puzzles, divine beasts, towns, music, etc. To these people, BotW will still be worth going back to like any other Zelda game.

As someone who found barely any of BotW's content to be compelling, I really doubt I will ever play the game again if TotK is has superior dungeons, side quests, puzzles, items, shrines, combat, story, enemy variety, and more. Apart from the world being reused and potentially being less interesting to explore, I can't think of a single aspect of TotK that could possibly be worse then BotW (to me).
I don't think multiplayer-focused games are comparable to singleplayer ones like Zelda in this regard, especially when talking about something relatively iterative like Smash. In particular the assumption that a game will be better due to being bigger and further developing in mechanics isn't really true, take Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 for example where the fanbase is mostly 50/50 in terms of which game they prefer despite 2 being basically a more refined take on the concept.

It's possible that TOTK will be content-filled and with much deeper combat and a more touching storyline and some mind-bending mechanics and I bet you in that case a lot of people would still prefer the relative simplicity of BOTW over it, it's just how sequels go.
 
BotW was an astonishingly great gaming experience the first playthrough. Easily the best I have ever experienced.

BotW was also an astonishingly ordinary and boring gaming experience the second playthrough. I abandoned it very quickly.

It's a very strange thing... but all the things I loved from BotW were the sense of adventure and exploration. None of that existed the second time... and let's be honest. The exploration was rarely rewarded.

I don't think TotK will be the same. I think Nintendo will apply the same core gameplay, sure, but they will layer in all the reasons to play the game again, on top of that. At least that's what I would do, and hope they are doing!

So my answer to OP is a no in terms of TotK rendering BotW pointless - because BotW already rendered itself pointless - but I'm voting yes because I have high hopes that TotK will be the one that gets a revisit in the future.

This is my fear for its legacy. There is clearly an emerging group splitting off from the vast majority who loved the game who have turned against it. And I understand it to an extent. The magic of the first playthrough is particularly impactful in this case. I'd be curious to see a poll of those who consider the game great asking how much they've replayed it. I've replayed and consider it great, but I appreciate the game in ways others don't.

Still, I don't think the game should be dismissed completely because of it. That first experience happened and wasn't illusory. And Zelda often tries to teach us the importance of recognising that things can't last forever.

I don't think multiplayer-focused games are comparable to singleplayer ones like Zelda in this regard, especially when talking about something relatively iterative like Smash. In particular the assumption that a game will be better due to being bigger and further developing in mechanics isn't really true, take Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 for example where the fanbase is mostly 50/50 in terms of which game they prefer despite 2 being basically a more refined take on the concept.

It's possible that TOTK will be content-filled and with much deeper combat and a more touching storyline and some mind-bending mechanics and I bet you in that case a lot of people would still prefer the relative simplicity of BOTW over it, it's just how sequels go.

I think it comes down to a reductive view that games are nothing more than an assemblage of plug and play components rather than crafted wholes. Just adding more components on its own changes the whole.

It's almost like mixing paints. Gee, this yellow sure is nice. But if I add a touch of blue it'll be better because there will be that great yellow plus some awesome blue. In fact, what you get is yellowy green. And that might be an awesome yellowy green. You might even like it more than yellow. But it's no longer yellow and so only yellow can be appreciated for its yellowness.
 
I don't think multiplayer-focused games are comparable to singleplayer ones like Zelda in this regard, especially when talking about something relatively iterative like Smash. In particular the assumption that a game will be better due to being bigger and further developing in mechanics isn't really true, take Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 for example where the fanbase is mostly 50/50 in terms of which game they prefer despite 2 being basically a more refined take on the concept.

It's possible that TOTK will be content-filled and with much deeper combat and a more touching storyline and some mind-bending mechanics and I bet you in that case a lot of people would still prefer the relative simplicity of BOTW over it, it's just how sequels go.
Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 have totally different levels, and levels are the main appeal of platformers. TotK is going to be a much more iterative sequel then most singleplayer games because it reuses the same overworld, and tons of players enjoyed BotW primarily because of the overworld. Again, I'm not saying that everyone will feel like BotW is obsolete, but it'll be a lot more people then normal for a Zelda game.
 
I may not return to it, but I don’t think it’ll make it obsolete. I’d guess that with navigation being focused on a single plane, and it’s scope being inevitably much smaller, it’ll feel substantially different; Perhaps more intimate and humble than the almost god-like self-insert of Tears of the Kingdom.

I think Trinen mentioned that TotK will have it’s own distinct identity. I know it was a commentary on comparison to Majora’s Mask, but I trust it to be true relative to Breath of the Wild as well.
 
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Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 have totally different levels, and levels are the main appeal of platformers. TotK is going to be a much more iterative sequel then most singleplayer games because it reuses the same overworld, and tons of players enjoyed BotW primarily because of the overworld. Again, I'm not saying that everyone will feel like BotW is obsolete, but it'll be a lot more people then normal for a Zelda game.
More iterative than most single player games? I don't think reusing the same general overworld means that in the slightest, especially when they'll be adding on a lot to it and likely changing things up. Never mind that I don't see Nintendo just going with BotW but better when it's taking 6 years to make and Zelda games are generally not as iterative as other single player series
 
Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 have totally different levels, and levels are the main appeal of platformers. TotK is going to be a much more iterative sequel then most singleplayer games because it reuses the same overworld, and tons of players enjoyed BotW primarily because of the overworld. Again, I'm not saying that everyone will feel like BotW is obsolete, but it'll be a lot more people then normal for a Zelda game.
From what we sow many places in the overworld changed and the shrines are missing. It looks way more different than the changes between ALttP and ALBW for exemple. Of course this one is a 3D game and not a bird view game, but still.
 
BotW is a modern classic, there is nothing that can devalue the game.

Its the other way around, people will want to go back to BotW because of TotK. Especially if Nintendo updates the game for Drake and have it run 4k/60 or something on Drake.
 
This is my fear for its legacy. There is clearly an emerging group splitting off from the vast majority who loved the game who have turned against it. And I understand it to an extent. The magic of the first playthrough is particularly impactful in this case. I'd be curious to see a poll of those who consider the game great asking how much they've replayed it. I've replayed and consider it great, but I appreciate the game in ways others don't.

Still, I don't think the game should be dismissed completely because of it. That first experience happened and wasn't illusory. And Zelda often tries to teach us the importance of recognising that things can't last forever.



I think it comes down to a reductive view that games are nothing more than an assemblage of plug and play components rather than crafted wholes. Just adding more components on its own changes the whole.

It's almost like mixing paints. Gee, this yellow sure is nice. But if I add a touch of blue it'll be better because there will be that great yellow plus some awesome blue. In fact, what you get is yellowy green. And that might be an awesome yellowy green. You might even like it more than yellow. But it's no longer yellow and so only yellow can be appreciated for its yellowness.
the game is still beloved as hell. The reality is that folks who don't love/like it as much are pretty much whats left because they didn't have a Zelda game they enjoyed for the last few years compared to the people who have if you get what I mean.

Not to put down criticism for the game but I know people in real life who hail it as the best game ever or their favorite game with a consistency I don't really saw that often before BotW.

There is legit discussions to be had about the games flaws (line every game ever) but I think folks who were disappointed are just that much louder. You see it with every BotW thread. Go start a positive BotW thread and I can assure you that familiar faces will pop up to play the game down. Which is totally fine but the bigger picture is that people love the game overwhelmingly. The sequel wouldn't be this hyped up if it wasn't.

Also it is quite funny to rate games by their replayability because the impact it had was still the same wasn't it?

In my case I loved getting in different locations after leaving the plateau to change it up or with different conditions like 3 hearts / no stamina etc.

BotW gives you so many ways to play the game it is easy to change it up. More so then any Zelda before it arguably.
 
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BotW is a modern classic, there is nothing that can devalue the game.

Its the other way around, people will want to go back to BotW because of TotK. Especially if Nintendo updates the game for Drake and have it run 4k/60 or something on Drake.
exactly
 
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I feel like if this game is going to focus more on the story/lore and dungeons like we expect then it won’t offer the absolute freedom that Breath of the Wild does. That freedom is so integral to entire game design of BotW that the two games might end up completely different if TotK is de-emphasising that.
 
I feel like if this game is going to focus more on the story/lore and dungeons like we expect then it won’t offer the absolute freedom that Breath of the Wild does. That freedom is so integral to entire game design of BotW that the two games might end up completely different if TotK is de-emphasising that.
I would like to quote Aonuma:

"You know, I can’t speak to what other people, other companies will do in their own games, but I think for me, especially just in terms of the Zelda series, the incredible freedom that this game offers you and how well that’s been received…to me, it means that freedom, that level of freedom is something that needs to be maintained in Zelda games going forward. My eyes have been opened to how important that is.”

Tears of the Kingdom will still offer a certain amount of freedom. It won't be as extreme as BotW I guess but I don't think that we will go back to a story focussed game.
 
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Did Link Between Worlds make Link to the Past unnecessary, just because it’s based on the same map? No.
If I have to choice what game to play again, I’d choose ALTTP before, so I hope -expect- this new game has more content than BOTW.
 
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This makes me sad. When TOTK comes out, expect a lot of "this is what BOTW should have been" and "BOTW was always just a tech demo" discourse. And this is not coming from day 1 haters.



One of Commonwealth Realm's main objections is that the story is missable. He is quite indignant about it. The thing is though, the missable elements he refers to aren't missable. They're skippable but not missable. It's not like missing a gossip stone because you didn't have the Mask of Truth. There is no way to miss getting the twelve pictures unless you choose to ignore what is directly told to you. So if you don't recover all the memories, that's because you chose not to.

And as for some memories being in hard to find locations, it's an exploration game. Consider the challenge of finding the memories part of the difficulty. There's more to difficulty than just boss fights.
 


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