• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.

Spoiler TotK non-spoiler spoilers |Q&A| The wait is maddening

  • Thread starter Deleted member 2
  • Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I already knew that we can bring horses from botw to totk. Question is can we bring epona too? And is there other bonuses?
 
Dragoncaine said:
Sounds like today's patch improved docked and handheld performance a lot. Any more news on that front? Has anyone here watched streams and could confirm?
Click to expand...

In what ways? I feel like I’ve seen many questions around performance and most (all?) go unanswered. Would be nice to hear what the current state is, at least relative to Breath of the Wild.
 
I don’t even know how to mark this spoiler, so I’ll just say up front this question is regarding an aspect of the “world” that would almost certainly be considered a spoiler to most who have avoided all leaks or aren’t currently playing the game/watching streams, so click at your own risk:

How much visual variety can we expect in the underground?
Is there a loading screen when traveling from the surface to the underworld?
 
Beard said:
I don’t even know how to mark this spoiler, so I’ll just say up front this question is regarding an aspect of the “world” that would almost certainly be considered a spoiler to most, so click at your own risk:

How much visual variety can we expect in the underground?
Is there a loading screen when traveling from the surface to the underworld?
Click to expand...
not sure on the first, and no loading screen
 
Beard said:
Have you seen any of the underground areas? If so, what’s your general impressions?
Click to expand...
It looks atmospheric as fuck to be honest. Definitely meant to evoke unease relative to the main world.

Spores floating around, weirder flora, and it’s actually dark
in the sense that not being able to see becomes part of the exploration loop as you find/make light sources

I’m not holding my breath for a bunch of biome diversity down there, but at least what’s there has a thick atmosphere. The OST is one thing I haven’t spoiled myself on so I hope it captures it well, but I can’t comment on that aspect
 
I have few questions regarding the world and the new areas if someone knows about it

Do you we know how high is it to the highest island according to the map coordinnates ? Are there a lot of them ? Are they big ?

Is there a town underground ? Are there different types of landscapes in the underground or is it the quite the same ?

How many new monsters are in the game excluding the bosses ?
 
0
Dark Cloud said:
I like hearing from people who didn’t like BotW as much say they really like TOTK.
Click to expand...
I think Breath of the Wild was neat, but Tears of the Kingdom seems to tickle the right bones for me in regards to what I missed in BotW. I know almost nothing still which is great (other than official trailers and some of the questions I asked) but otherwise a lot will be a good surprise :D.
I am inclined to listen to the soundtrack but maybe I should keep it a surprise for once XD
 
What would you guys think about art direction in TOTK? Enemy design, character design, map and location design, boss design, do you think they delivered?
Non spoiler answers please
 
So I very intentionally haven't touched BotW since finding out this game was re-using the map, but does any save data carry over? Is there stuff I can do in BotW to impact TotK? I think the only things I haven't done are get all Korok seeds and finish the Master Sword trials.
 
Selarmor said:
So I very intentionally haven't touched BotW since finding out this game was re-using the map, but does any save data carry over? Is there stuff I can do in BotW to impact TotK? I think the only things I haven't done are get all Korok seeds and finish the Master Sword trials.
Click to expand...
As far as I know only sounds horses and the picture you get from the end of the DLC carries over.
 
For someone who prefers the leaner side of Zelda stories like ALBW, LA, MM and OoT to the grand and epic, yet overly wordy and (to me) convoluted side like BotW, but mainly SS and TP - where does TotK fall? More of that, or has the storytelling been streamlined?

TotK looks very "maximalist" from what I've seen so narratively I'm anticipating another Lots Of Big Words Salad. :p
 
manfromthedam said:
For someone who prefers the leaner side of Zelda stories like ALBW, LA, MM and OoT to the grand and epic, yet overly wordy and (to me) convoluted side like BotW, but mainly SS and TP - where does TotK fall? More of that, or has the storytelling been streamlined?

TotK looks very "maximalist" from what I've seen so narratively I'm anticipating another Lots Of Big Words Salad. :p
Click to expand...
This is literally the first time I've seen someone call BotW "overly wordy and convoluted" and I'm probably not the only one.
 
Some questions I still haven't seen fully answered anywhere:

1. Is the Triforce utilized in the story and to what extent (without major spoilers).
2. In terms of towns/settlements, has anyone discovered what the extent of rebuilding allows? Can you rebuild towns/settlements? Repair the castle and castle town? Single houses?
3. Any evidence that Nintendo might release an expansion pass to this game?
4. How good is the story? Is Ganondorf as a villain fleshed out well? How does the story compare to BOTW? Better or about the same in terms of quality? How much "more" story is there compared to BOTW?
5. With the game map being like more then twice as big as BOTW, my fear is that the game world will feel even more empty then the original game. Does there feel like there is enough new content here to make the entire map feel worth exploring?
6. How much better do you feel Tears of the Kingdom is as an overall package compared to Breath of the Wild?
7. Are there any quality weapons that AREN'T crafted items? In the footage all the weapons look degraded and rusted out but do you eventually find awesome weapons that aren't degraded or do you have to make everything if you want something stronger?
8. What are those giant green glyphs for?
9. Anyone find a fishing rod yet? lol.
 
Last edited:
Dardan Sandiego said:
This is literally the first time I've seen someone call BotW "overly wordy and convoluted" and I'm probably not the only one.
Click to expand...
For BotW it's mainly the writing style - so much of it feels like fluff. SS and TP have this fluffy writing as well, and also a lot of it.

My hope is that they wrote a more interesting story in a more concise way, something the examples I gave succeeded at.
 
manfromthedam said:
For BotW it's mainly the writing style - so much of it feels like fluff. SS and TP have this fluffy writing as well, and also a lot of it.

My hope is that they wrote a more interesting story in a more concise way, something the examples I gave succeeded at.
Click to expand...

I get what you're saying. The other games you mentioned have just about as much depth to their story as Breath of the Wild, but far leaner execution.

That said, I personally think they've aged better not because I prefer that style of storytelling, but because Nintendo doesn't have the capabilities, and/or isn't willing to invest in storytelling in Zelda in a way that its AAA contemporaries do. So when they do try, it just feels kind of bad? I'd rather they take the quiet and mysterious approach to story rather than a cheap and amateur one.

Very curious how I'll feel with Tears of the Kingdom. I do enjoy Monolithsoft's capabilities in that space with the Xenoblade games, even if it can be a bit camp or 'anime' as some say, and it seems they're only increasing their footprint on the Zelda development. The Champion's Ballad DLC cutscenes were shallow but very fun, and a step up from the base game. I hope they're an indication of the quality here.
 
Last edited:
Ignored this thread for a bit but I heard about things I'm really curious about

Is it true that BotW/TotK are a hard reboot for the timeline? Yes/No/It's complicated
 
Paxie said:
Ignored this thread for a bit but I heard about things I'm really curious about

Is it true that BotW/TotK are a hard reboot for the timeline? Yes/No/It's complicated
Click to expand...
Its complicated. I’m sure some will try to squeeze it in, but it’s absolutely clear they didn’t care about fitting it in
 
Phendrift said:
Its complicated. I’m sure some will try to squeeze it in, but it’s absolutely clear they didn’t care about fitting it in
Click to expand...

Admittedly I'm trying to not get too into the weeds on spoilers, but none of the arguments I've seen for why it must be a reboot seem very good. It fits in with the other games just fine from what I've seen.
 
One last question for me - can I get any confirmation that the art book leak didn’t cover a vast amount of the contents of the game Nintendo didn’t officially reveal?
 
manfromthedam said:
For someone who prefers the leaner side of Zelda stories like ALBW, LA, MM and OoT to the grand and epic, yet overly wordy and (to me) convoluted side like BotW, but mainly SS and TP - where does TotK fall? More of that, or has the storytelling been streamlined?

TotK looks very "maximalist" from what I've seen so narratively I'm anticipating another Lots Of Big Words Salad. :p
Click to expand...
Bro called the best Zelda story one of the leaner ones.

How are MM and OoT lean on story?
 
Ryuji said:
One last question for me - can I get any confirmation that the art book leak didn’t cover a vast amount of the contents of the game Nintendo didn’t officially reveal?
Click to expand...
In hindsight, the artbook touches on a lot of unrevealed content. As in, you'll be able to look back at a good chunk of content from the game and be able to say "oh that's what that artbook page was referring to"

But as someone who looked at the artbook quite a bit I wouldn't really say it covered or spoiled much of that. It really just touches on it
 
So it seems that most if not all amiibo exclusive items and outfits can be found in the world even with just the base game. Additionally some items have had their name and description updated to fit in better. Ex:
The Twilight Bow was renamed to the Dusk Bow and its description changed from
"A bow used by the princess who fought the beasts of twilight alongside the hero. It's said to contain the spirits of light's power. It fires arrows straight and true, as if beams of light"

to

A bow that's been in the royal family for ages. Said to have been used by a princess who fought beasts of twilight. It forcefully fires long-range arrows." Probably still just references but the dialogue changes do feel deliberate imo and might have some implications.
 
Quoted by: ze_
1
Ne0 said:
I already knew that we can bring horses from botw to totk. Question is can we bring epona too? And is there other bonuses?
Click to expand...
Yep to the first question, (you can also spawn her in like normal I think). No idea if anything else carries over.
 
Djehuty said:
Bro called the best Zelda story one of the leaner ones.

How are MM and OoT lean on story?
Click to expand...

I really don't think that they mean 'non-existent' by saying they are lean. I think they mean just that - lean, no fat. The stories are clear and direct and told with only as much dialogue as necessary, and they aren't bogged down by overly wordy or unnecessary dialogue. They're efficient, and also much more to my taste personally, as I really don't think simply having 'more' story is an instant recipe for success if that story isn't told elegantly. Lean is definitely not a negative label.


If you want a really good example of this distinction, Resonant Arc has a great video on the Triangle Strategy demo where partway through they compare the dialogue (and more specifically the amount of dialogue) between the early hours of Final Fantasy Tactics and Triangle Strategy, and I think it's very easy to see how much more clear and concise the writing is in Tactics vs a lot of more contemporary games that are going for a similar style. Tactics is snappier, paced better, and what I would call very lean.
 
DustinWretch said:
I really don't think that they mean 'non-existent' by saying they are lean. I think they mean just that - lean, no fat. The stories are clear and direct and told with only as much dialogue as necessary, and they aren't bogged down by overly wordy or unnecessary dialogue. They're efficient, and also much more to my taste personally, as I really don't think simply having 'more' story is an instant recipe for success if that story isn't told elegantly. Lean is definitely not a negative label.


If you want a really good example of this distinction, Resonant Arc has a great video on the Triangle Strategy demo where partway through they compare the dialogue (and more specifically the amount of dialogue) between the early hours of Final Fantasy Tactics and Triangle Strategy, and I think it's very easy to see how much more clear and concise the writing is in Tactics vs a lot of more contemporary games that are going for a similar style. Tactics is snappier, paced better, and what I would call very lean.
Click to expand...
im going to personally have to disagree with pretty much the entire second paragraph but cool.

but puttign MM and OoT next to LA is pretty bad way of showing the example, cause LA has basically 0 story
 
Those who say Ocarina is lean on story are forgetting this guy.

Kaepora-Gaebora.png
 
manfromthedam said:
For BotW it's mainly the writing style - so much of it feels like fluff. SS and TP have this fluffy writing as well, and also a lot of it.

My hope is that they wrote a more interesting story in a more concise way, something the examples I gave succeeded at.
Click to expand...
My point is that I think most people will disagree with your assessment of BotW so it's going to be difficult to give you a conclusive comparison to TotK. Aside from the two loredumps at the beginning of the game (by Rhoam and Impa) I'd say that most of BotW is pretty sparse in terms of writing.
 
I haven't seen people talking about it : are there any references to Skyward Sword in TotK? People speculated that releasing Skyward Sword HD between BotW and TotK would make sense considering the sky islands.
 
karmitt said:
I get what you're saying. The other games you mentioned have just about as much depth to their story as Breath of the Wild, but far leaner execution.

That said, I personally think they've aged better not because I prefer that style of storytelling, but because Nintendo doesn't have the capabilities, and/or isn't willing to invest in storytelling in Zelda in a way that its AAA contemporaries do. So when they do try, it just feels kind of bad? I'd rather they take the quiet and mysterious approach to story rather than a cheap and amateur one.

Very curious how I'll feel with Tears of the Kingdom. I do enjoy Monolithsoft's capabilities in that space with the Xenoblade games, even if it can be a bit camp or 'anime' as some say, and it seems they're only increasing their footprint on the Zelda development. The Champion's Ballad DLC cutscenes were shallow but very fun, and a step up from the base game. I hope they're an indication of the quality here.
Click to expand...
Yep, Nintendo stories work best when they're informed by the gameplay and written succinctly. Ocarina, Majora and ALBW all have narratives that underscore their gameplay hook. Skyward Sword by contrast tries to tell a conventional story and kinda falls flat, and Breath of the Wild tries to be minimal with it's story but it's narrative ends up meandering in the little time it has.

Side content in BotW in my opinion is often better written than the main narrative.
DustinWretch said:
I really don't think that they mean 'non-existent' by saying they are lean. I think they mean just that - lean, no fat. The stories are clear and direct and told with only as much dialogue as necessary, and they aren't bogged down by overly wordy or unnecessary dialogue. They're efficient, and also much more to my taste personally, as I really don't think simply having 'more' story is an instant recipe for success if that story isn't told elegantly. Lean is definitely not a negative label.


If you want a really good example of this distinction, Resonant Arc has a great video on the Triangle Strategy demo where partway through they compare the dialogue (and more specifically the amount of dialogue) between the early hours of Final Fantasy Tactics and Triangle Strategy, and I think it's very easy to see how much more clear and concise the writing is in Tactics vs a lot of more contemporary games that are going for a similar style. Tactics is snappier, paced better, and what I would call very lean.
Click to expand...
Final Fantasy VI and VII are good examples of efficient writing as well. My go-to example remains Ocarina - maybe it's Miyamoto's direction, but that narrative is incredibly resonant while using relatively few text boxes.
Dardan Sandiego said:
My point is that I think most people will disagree with your assessment of BotW so it's going to be difficult to give you a conclusive comparison to TotK. Aside from the two loredumps at the beginning of the game (by Rhoam and Impa) I'd say that most of BotW is pretty sparse in terms of writing.
Click to expand...
Might be better if I'd drop this because this is derailing the thread, but just to clarify: this is not about the amount of story, but about the way it's told.

BotW has little story, I agree. My point is: the story moments it does have are often squandered by meandering writing. So I'm hoping TotK has a script that's had a few rewrites for clarity.
Djehuty said:
Bro called the best Zelda story one of the leaner ones.

How are MM and OoT lean on story?
Click to expand...
"Lean" as in elegant.
 
manfromthedam said:
Might be better if I'd drop this because this is derailing the thread, but just to clarify: this is not about the amount of story, but about the way it's told.

BotW has little story, I agree. My point is: the story moments it does have are often squandered by meandering writing. So I'm hoping TotK has a script that's had a few rewrites for clarity.
Click to expand...
I understand your point, I just disagree with it.
 
Link's Awakening basically has no story. And I would barely call MM a story based off the 80% of the game I played. I wouldn't even call the writing serviceable in any of the N64 and prior Zelda games. I know people love their Zelda lore but as someone who really doesn't have an affinity to the franchise, the stories are bad to just non existant for me. So reading a game like BOTW which is extremely minimalistic in its story execution is meandering is like LOL wat.

I have a copy of Final Fantasy Tactics on the PS1 that I never played and I know it is heralded for its story but similarly, most FF games are not well written. And the english translations of PS1 and prior games are often bad with a capital B.

Modern games are generally much better written than older generation console games. You'll run into older PC games from the same time frame that had quite good writing but on average I feel like people associate simplicity with better writing.
 
DustinWretch said:
If you want a really good example of this distinction, Resonant Arc has a great video on the Triangle Strategy demo where partway through they compare the dialogue (and more specifically the amount of dialogue) between the early hours of Final Fantasy Tactics and Triangle Strategy, and I think it's very easy to see how much more clear and concise the writing is in Tactics vs a lot of more contemporary games that are going for a similar style. Tactics is snappier, paced better, and what I would call very lean.
Click to expand...
This is a terrible comparison because both games are doing completely different things with their characters and narrative. TS needs the player to have a much deeper understanding of it's world and characters because there are key moments in the game where the player needs to determine the outcome of what the party does by influencing the votes of your allies. FFT doesn't do these things because it's a linear game with a single route. You can prefer FFT to TS (I do, though I think both are great) but they're trying to do completely different things narratively and mechanically.
 
Amadeus said:
I haven't seen people talking about it : are there any references to Skyward Sword in TotK? People speculated that releasing Skyward Sword HD between BotW and TotK would make sense considering the sky islands.
Click to expand...
only knowing the bullet points, and not knowing any dialogue or cutscenes, consider the events of BOTW and TOTK to be the "real" timeline and everything else to be "legend". there are no direct references to Skyward Sword to my knowledge. sky islands are unrelated. just a piece of the "legend" that is now in modern time.
 
So how’s the Voice acting?

Probably the biggest thing that was criticize without much debate for English. Mexican voice acting was top notch tho. Might go spanish after an English playthough down the line.
 
the Era spoiler thread is officially posting story stuff outside of spoiler tags so no more for me I guess.

manfromthedam said:
For BotW it's mainly the writing style - so much of it feels like fluff. SS and TP have this fluffy writing as well, and also a lot of it.

My hope is that they wrote a more interesting story in a more concise way, something the examples I gave succeeded at.
Click to expand...
that's the trouble of writing dialogue that isn't voiced for so long. Nintendo never really knew how to do that.

I'm hoping Nintendo learned a LOT from Age of Calamity. Just how to direct and coordinate VAs (and especially how to score them!!) Matt Mercer seems to be bringing it and Zelda sounds better this time around, at least judging by the trailers.
 
Christo750 said:
I'm hoping Nintendo learned a LOT from Age of Calamity. Just how to direct and coordinate VAs (and especially how to score them!!) Matt Mercer seems to be bringing it and Zelda sounds better this time around, at least judging by the trailers.
Click to expand...
If Age of Calamity and Mercer's interpretation of Ganondorf is what we have to hope for I'm definitely team "let's not do cutscenes at all actually".
 
Gotdatmoneyy said:
Modern games are generally much better written than older generation console games. You'll run into older PC games from the same time frame that had quite good writing but on average I feel like people associate simplicity with better writing.
Click to expand...
Well-written classic PC games tangent:
did you ever play the classic Gabriel Knight games? I played the New Orleans a while ago, and while that game is ancient by gaming standards, that writing and voice acting hold up so incredibly well. That's a good example of a game going for an elaborate, voice-acted narrative and nailing it... back in the '90s.

For more gameplay-driven titles like the Zeldas and Marios of this world I mainly want the story to a). add context and flavour and b). get out of the way. If they also get something resonant in there, like ALBW did, it's golden to me.
Christo750 said:
that's the trouble of writing dialogue that isn't voiced for so long. Nintendo never really knew how to do that.

I'm hoping Nintendo learned a LOT from Age of Calamity. Just how to direct and coordinate VAs (and especially how to score them!!) Matt Mercer seems to be bringing it and Zelda sounds better this time around, at least judging by the trailers.
Click to expand...
ENG Zelda has improved tremendously. I might prefer her over the Japanese one. Don't think the other English voices work particularly well for me though.
catonkatonk said:
If Age of Calamity and Mercer's interpretation of Ganondorf is what we have to hope for I'm definitely team "let's not do cutscenes at all actually".
Click to expand...
I wouldn't mind cutscenes without voice acting - that's one area Skyward Sword did very well.
 
Last edited:
manfromthedam said:
Well-written classic PC games tangent:
did you ever play the classic Gabriel Knight games? I played the New Orleans a while ago, and while that game is ancient by gaming standards, that writing and voice acting hold up so incredibly well. That's a good example of a game going for an elaborate, voice-acted narrative and nailing it... back in the '90s.

For more gameplay-driven titles like the Zeldas and Marios of this world I mainly want the story to a). add context and flavour and b). get out of the way. If they also get something resonant in there, like ALBW did, it's golden to me.

ENG Zelda has improved tremendously. I might prefer her over the Japanese one. Don't think the other English voices work particularly well for me though.

I wouldn't mind cutscenes without voice acting - that's one area Skyward Sword did very well.
Click to expand...
As a big fan of the GK games, I think you have a very bias view of the writing/acting in those games, especially GK2.



Unless your brain is wired to "Japanese thing with English dub = bad" I'm not sure how you can straight face say any of the performances from BotW 1 or what we've seen in TotK are worse then the average performance in GK2.

We're also talking about at most 15 minutes of voiced lines across all of BotW (wouldn't be surprised if TotK doubles that to 30 ooh) compared to 9 hours of footage of people talking/acting. Even if I agreed that BotW's performances were bad, I'd rather 15 minutes of bad performances the hours and hours of it.
 
BassForever said:
As a big fan of the GK games, I think you have a very bias view of the writing/acting in those games, especially GK2.



Unless your brain is wired to "Japanese thing with English dub = bad" I'm not sure how you can straight face say any of the performances from BotW 1 or what we've seen in TotK are worse then the average performance in GK2.

We're also talking about at most 15 minutes of voiced lines across all of BotW (wouldn't be surprised if TotK doubles that to 30 ooh) compared to 9 hours of footage of people talking/acting. Even if I agreed that BotW's performances were bad, I'd rather 15 minutes of bad performances the hours and hours of it.
Click to expand...

The one I played was Sins of the Fathers, the pixel art one. Might've been wrong to assume that was the only one set in New Orleans.
 
manfromthedam said:
The one I played was Sins of the Fathers, the pixel art one. Might've been wrong to assume that was the only one set in New Orleans.
Click to expand...
The original casts some legendary actors like Tim Curry and Mark Hamill in lead roles, and the third even has Jennifer Hale in a major role. Of course this makes the contrast with the weaker performances more glaring in those games. It's a shame the GK games couldn't find that perfect mix of mechanics and acting since GK1 is extremely dated design wise, GK2 has weak FMV acting, and GK3 is extremely cumbersome with infamously bad puzzles (see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_hair_mustache_puzzle , yes a puzzle so bad it has it's own article).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
This thread has very specific rules in regards to spoilers and spoiler tags. Please read them in the OP before posting. Breaking these rules will result in a temporary or permanent threadban.


Back
Top Bottom