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StarTopic The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom |ST| Linkin' Parts (Please Tag All Spoilers)

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I've been exploring the Depths a lot in the last days and I've found some cool tricks when fighting Frox:
  • When it tries to eat you, throw a bomb in it's mouth. If you're having trouble aiming, you can shoot a bomb-arrow for more precission.
  • When you get on it's back, it will try to shake you off after a while. Try to get on the highest part of his back, jump and glide towards it's tail using the parachute. Frox will shake it's tail and launch you up high into the air without taking any damage. After this, Frox will look upwards and open it's mouth, to try to eat you as you descend. You can drop a bomb on it's mouth, or use bullet time to shoot a normal arrow into its eye (it's looking up so this makes its eye a really easy target). Any of these will stun it again, so you can safely land on its back, whack another ore deposit and start the whole process again.
  • Blue Frox is slippy, so you may find it difficult to climb to its' back. You can use a spring-shield (I'm always carrying at least one of these), rocket-shield, bomb-shield or any other method to gain height and land directly on its' back.
  • I haven't tried this, but I guess that if you have a bomb-shield and you activate it (by entering shield surfing) on the right spot on the Frox's back, you may be able to destroy most of its Zonaite deposits in one go.
  • There is always a lump of 6 or so Zonaite deposits close to where the Frox is roaming, be sure to look for them!
 
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I'm pretty sure I'm well over 100 hours at this point, though I haven't check my time. Still tons left to do but all of the main quests are done and I have my teleport ready right by what I'm 99% sure is the point of no return, which i found at least a week ago haha. Think I might finish the story and probably come back and do some more exploring at some point, but gonna put the game down for a while for sure.
 
I'm taking my sweet ass time with this game, but I'm getting more and more curious to see what the ending part is all about.
 
The brilliance of this game cannot be understated.
The way the three layers of the world work is simply masterful.
First you have the Hyrule, the main dish of the game. This is where you're going to get distracted with all the content. NPCs, quests, shrines, koroks, games, caved, wells, towns.

Then you have the Sky Islands. And here is the brilliance of the game. Many people wanted for sky islands to be larger, but imo this would go against the point of them. Sky Islands is all about navigation and traversal. The challenge in them is how to get up there and how to go from on island to another. This is why most shrines require you to carry the green rock from island to island. By having huge islands you undermine what makes them unique compared to Hyrule. Otherwise it would be just a second Hyrule with the difference that it's in the sky.

And finally the Depths. The Depths are all about negative space. It's about few key locations hidden in larger empty areas. Again some people want the Depths to be as content-rich as Hyrule, but similarly to the Sky Islands that would make their addition moot. The purpose of the Depths is to push forward in the dark, not to happily explore like Hyrule. It's about seeing a fade Lightroot in the distance and trying to reach it. It's the concept of negative space 101.

Nothing in this game seems to be added for the sake of it. Everything serves its purpose and it's absolutely brilliant.
 
Enpsty said:
The Depths are all about negative space. It's about few key locations hidden in larger empty areas. Again some people want the Depths to be as content-rich as Hyrule, but similarly to the Sky Islands that would make their addition moot. The purpose of the Depths is to push forward in the dark, not to happily explore like Hyrule. It's about seeing a fade Lightroot in the distance and trying to reach it. It's the concept of negative space 101.
Click to expand...

I disagree.
I like negative space. I think it is very important in a game. I never understood people that said BotW is too empty.
There could have been just grassy fields between the great plateau and hyrule castle, without any enemies or camps, and it would be fine for me just to traverse it for minutes on a horse.
The point is that you see interesting stuff everywhere on the horizon (Death mountain, a colosseum, a glowing mountain, dual peaks, hyrule castle, etc) and it is rewarding to go to these places (new enemies, new biomes, new fauna+flora, new npcs with side missions, shrines, etc).
I even think Hyrule overworld is too densely packed with stuff to do in some places. In TotK even more so.

But this is just lacking in the depths. There are a some interesting things but most of them are copy&pasted way too often, so they loose a lot of meaning after a while.
No reason to repeat that - in itself pretty cool and interesting - gameplay loop of pushing through the darkness 120 (!!) times.
Do it 15 times like the towers on the surface, in smaller, more handcrafted areas, offer cool challenges and nice rewards and make exploration more memorable this way.
Otherwise it is just negative space between your current location and not much to do/find.
That's a problem.

How it is implemented feels exactly like the opposite of that for me:
Enpsty said:
Nothing in this game seems to be added for the sake of it. Everything serves its purpose and it's absolutely brilliant.
Click to expand...

They don't give good enough reasons for why this layer has to be as big as Hyrule.

At launch I heard several (media) people saying 'this game is more than twice as big as Breath of the wild and they kept it a secret, it's crazy".
It hyped me up as well, when hearing it in the non-spoiler thread from people who played the leaked game.

Now I feel that is exactly why they included it this way. To somehow value it as true sequel with hard numbers.
Don't get me wrong, I see why this game is a true sequel. The mechanics are crazy and I love the care they put into all the caves/wells/temples and parts of the sky islands. I still enjoy exploring those after 200 hours of playtime right now.
The depths don't reflect that same amount of care and effort, in my opinion.
Quantity over quality in this case and I really don't like it.
 
correojon said:
I've been exploring the Depths a lot in the last days and I've found some cool tricks when fighting Frox:
  • When it tries to eat you, throw a bomb in it's mouth. If you're having trouble aiming, you can shoot a bomb-arrow for more precission.
  • When you get on it's back, it will try to shake you off after a while. Try to get on the highest part of his back, jump and glide towards it's tail using the parachute. Frox will shake it's tail and launch you up high into the air without taking any damage. After this, Frox will look upwards and open it's mouth, to try to eat you as you descend. You can drop a bomb on it's mouth, or use bullet time to shoot a normal arrow into its eye (it's looking up so this makes its eye a really easy target). Any of these will stun it again, so you can safely land on its back, whack another ore deposit and start the whole process again.
  • Blue Frox is slippy, so you may find it difficult to climb to its' back. You can use a spring-shield (I'm always carrying at least one of these), rocket-shield, bomb-shield or any other method to gain height and land directly on its' back.
  • I haven't tried this, but I guess that if you have a bomb-shield and you activate it (by entering shield surfing) on the right spot on the Frox's back, you may be able to destroy most of its Zonaite deposits in one go.
  • There is always a lump of 6 or so Zonaite deposits close to where the Frox is roaming, be sure to look for them!
Click to expand...
does this trick work on all Frox variation?
 
Amazing game, I'm just over 100 hours in and gearing up for the endgame.

Major spoiler for something after the 4 regional phenomena:

I think my favorite part so far has been the construct factory. The puzzles to move the arms/legs through weren't completely new ideas, but they were charming and very well executed. I loved the detail/variety in the 4 factory areas. And to the story, it's chilling to think of all this activity down there in the depths under hyrule. The pieces before and after were just right too. And I wasn't really expecting any of it. I did find the factory in the depths earlier but it just looked like another abandoned spot.

Question about armor. I'm farming amber to upgrade the hylian armor to the highest level and planning to wear that to go fight ganon. But in BotW I felt like the ancient armor was the best one to have for the castle. Is there a go-to armor set I should be finding or upgrading instead of the hylian? If so, any hints on generally where to look? I do have the full depths and evil spirit sets, but haven't upgraded them as much. I also have one piece of barbarian armor but don't remember anything about where I got it.

Oh yeah, and any tips for where to find the hylian shield? I thought it was in the royal secret passage, but it was not.
 
Horror Kid said:
They don't give good enough reasons for why this layer has to be as big as Hyrule.
Click to expand...

It's because the depths mirror surface Hyrule. For every point of interest in Hyrule, there will be something mirrored in the depths (even if it's just alluded by the terrain), so it's cool to go look for those places down there. For example, mountains in Hyrule will almost always have mines and lots of ore deposits in the depths.
 
Leo said:
It's because the depths mirror surface Hyrule. For every point of interest in Hyrule, there will be something mirrored in the depths (even if it's just alluded by the terrain), so it's cool to go look for those places down there. For example, mountains in Hyrule will almost always have mines and lots of ore deposits in the depths.
Click to expand...
Yes, I got that.
I think it is a bit of a gimmick and honestly I am sure it was done this way to cut down on development time.
But I envy everyone who feels that this is compelling world building.
I mean it, I really wish I would feel that way.
 
The Depths being a mirror for what's above reminds me of ALTTP Dark World, I personally love it. Once you get it into your head that you don't need to explore every square metre of the Depths and only focus on the points of interest it becomes really compelling even after 50-100 hours of gameplay, imo.
 
browneyes84 said:
The Depths being a mirror for what's above reminds me of ALTTP Dark World, I personally love it. Once you get it into your head that you don't need to explore every square metre of the Depths and only focus on the points of interest it becomes really compelling even after 50-100 hours of gameplay, imo.
Click to expand...
This is what I did. Focused on light roots and points of interest. Traversing form A to B in creative ways.

I loved it, but if I had trudged through all of it in darkness walking from point to point, I would have probably just stopped going down there.
 
Horror Kid said:
Yes, I got that.
I think it is a bit of a gimmick and honestly I am sure it was done this way to cut down on development time.
But I envy everyone who feels that this is compelling world building.
I mean it, I really wish I would feel that way.
Click to expand...
What is a gimmick in this context and why does it matter that it was probably done to cut down dev time? The reason it’s as big as the surface is because it mirrors it. Like that’s the entire point. Exploring one helps you explore the other. That’s not a gimmick, that’s a pretty fundamental feature

No one is saying it’s compelling world building. They’re saying the interplay between layers is compelling gameplay
 
I liked the traversal in the dark in general.
It emphasizes climbing again, something that get's a bit deemphasized in the overworld in TotK.

My problem is that you open the map after you activate a lightroot and you look at everything and you immediately know what's to find and there are just very very few surprises after a while:

  • hundreds (?) of these small mining sites with a few monsters
  • arenas for (mini-) bosses I already fought
  • randomly placed Zonai device platforms
  • middle-sized mines with a copy & pasted layout and a treasure chest (with DLC gear of BotW in it)
  • yiga clan hideouts. those would be cool, if not done in a few seconds - really, most of the time I glide into a base, shoot one arrow in slow motion and that's it

There are highlights like the story areas, labyrinths, mining sites with Master Kohga fights, brethren statues and some others, but those are few and far between.
And it is all embedded in an environment that does look very samey when lit up, except the lava areas.

As a more curated, shorter experience, I think it would complement the surface very well with it's different aesthetic and gameplay loop.
This way it becomes a chore, at least for someone like me who wants to uncover the whole map in a Zelda game. But maybe that's on me. :)

Jencks said:
What is a gimmick in this context and why does it matter that it was probably done to cut down dev time.
Click to expand...

The gimmick is inverting the verticality values and placing a lightroot at each shrine location.
I think we don't have to call that genius (I have read and heard that several times), if it was just done to be more time/cost-efficient.
I mean, it's fine. i know that even Nintendos Zelda team has its limitations. So yeah, maybe it doesn't matter much. That aspect of the game is just disappointing to me.
 
Horror Kid said:
I liked the traversal in the dark in general.

My problem is that you open the map after you activate a lightroot and you look at everything and you immediately know what's to find and there are just very very few surprises after a while:

  • hundreds (?) of these small mining sites with a few monsters
  • arenas for (mini-) bosses I already fought

  • middle-sized mines with a copy & pasted layout and a treasure chest (with DLC gear of BotW in it)

There are highlights like the story areas, labyrinths, mining sites with Master Kohga fights, brethren statues and some others, but those are few and far between.
And it is all embedded in an environment that does look very samey when lit up, except the lava areas.

As a more curated, shorter experience, I think it would complement the surface very well with it's different aesthetic and gameplay loop.



The gimmick is inverting the verticality values and placing a lightroot at each shrine location.
I think we don't have to call that genius (I have read and heard that several times), if it was just done to be more time/cost-efficient.
I mean, it's fine. i know that even Nintendos Zelda team has its limitations. So yeah, maybe it doesn't matter much. That aspect of the game is just disappointing to me.
Click to expand...
You haven't explained this at all. Is there some kind of stipulation that a decision made for cost/time reasons can not also be a smart one? Because that's exactly what I would classify this as. And other posters have explained themselves quite well on this point. It think you just can't shake the feeling that they were being lazy.
 
Horror Kid said:
I liked the traversal in the dark in general.
It emphasizes climbing again, something that get's a bit deemphasized in the overworld in TotK.

My problem is that you open the map after you activate a lightroot and you look at everything and you immediately know what's to find and there are just very very few surprises after a while:

  • hundreds (?) of these small mining sites with a few monsters
  • arenas for (mini-) bosses I already fought
  • randomly placed Zonai device platforms
  • middle-sized mines with a copy & pasted layout and a treasure chest (with DLC gear of BotW in it)
  • yiga clan hideouts. those would be cool, if not done in a few seconds - really, most of the time I glide into a base, shoot one arrow in slow motion and that's it

There are highlights like the story areas, labyrinths, mining sites with Master Kohga fights, brethren statues and some others, but those are few and far between.
And it is all embedded in an environment that does look very samey when lit up, except the lava areas.

As a more curated, shorter experience, I think it would complement the surface very well with it's different aesthetic and gameplay loop.
This way it becomes a chore, at least for someone like me who wants to uncover the whole map in a Zelda game. But maybe that's on me. :)



The gimmick is inverting the verticality values and placing a lightroot at each shrine location.
I think we don't have to call that genius (I have read and heard that several times), if it was just done to be more time/cost-efficient.
I mean, it's fine. i know that even Nintendos Zelda team has its limitations. So yeah, maybe it doesn't matter much. That aspect of the game is just disappointing to me.
Click to expand...
I actually think that putting a Lightroot under a shrine is a genius move, since it works both ways. It helps you find lightroots since many of them are hidden due to the lack of light and the geography, but it also helps you discover shrines that you have missed. I mean there's no point to connect them, but someone in the dev team thought of that and it's a brilliant idea. It's in line with the famous Miyamoto quote "a good idea doesn't just solve one problem, it solves multiple problems at the same time".
Now the inversion of the Hyrule geography in the Depths is definitely something made to save time, but I don't think it's detrimental to the enjoyment. In fact most people including me wouldn't have noticed that if not reading it somewhere online.
 
I interpret the depths design less as a way to save time and more of an evolution on the dark world in 3D. Nintendo have for the longest time wanted to have scenarios involving a two world structure where both sides affect the other in major and minor ways with overlapping design that builds into a grander puzzle.

In my case, I see the depths as an evolution of your cartography skills in upper Hyrule. Interesting landmarks there are navigational hints in the depths to avoid aimless wandering.
 
Jencks said:
You haven't explained this at all. Is there some kind of stipulation that a decision made for cost/time reasons can not also be a smart one? Because that's exactly what I would classify this as. And other posters have explained themselves quite well on this point. It think you just can't shake the feeling that they were being lazy.
Click to expand...
I think it is lower effort than BotW's world and everything else they added in TotK, yes.
I don't want to call it lazy because they did so much else and I am pretty sure they did what they could in the time they had.

It might be a smart one, but I think it was a decision with other options available.
They went for a layer as big as Hyrule as opposed to taking what they have and do smaller, more curated areas with it (without doing any additional art assets etc).
And I question that decision. Additional content would be awesome of course, but I mainly think the depths should just be cut down severely in size.


Enpsty said:
I actually think that putting a Lightroot under a shrine is a genius move, since it works both ways. It helps you find lightroots since many of them are hidden due to the lack of light and the geography, but it also helps you discover shrines that you have missed. I mean there's no point to connect them, but someone in the dev team thought of that and it's a brilliant idea. It's in line with the famous Miyamoto quote "a good idea doesn't just solve one problem, it solves multiple problems at the same time".
Now the inversion of the Hyrule geography in the Depths is definitely something made to save time, but I don't think it's detrimental to the enjoyment. In fact most people including me wouldn't have noticed that if not reading it somewhere online.
Click to expand...

It probably is brilliant from a developer perspective, but the world-building suffers from it, imo.
That's just how I feel. I don't care too much for cross-referencing shrines/lightroots on both layers, even if I did it myself a couple of times.
Lessens the mystery while finding the remaining ones.
 
Horror Kid said:
but I mainly think the depths should just be cut down severely in size
Click to expand...
I think rather than cutting down the depths in size I would just improve on it. Add more distinct biomes, add more structures (the mines seem to all have the same model and that’s a bit much), more monsters you can only fight down there, etc.
 
meatbag said:
I think rather than cutting down the depths in size I would just improve on it. Add more distinct biomes, add more structures (the mines seem to all have the same model and that’s a bit much), more monsters you can only fight down there, etc.
Click to expand...
Sure, that would be ideal - but that takes much more time and money. If they could have done that, they would have. I guess.

If you just make each area under a chasm a lot smaller and avoid repeating elements too often, it would be easier to do. At least I think so.
There are these walls from bottom to top in the depths that you can't traverse. Make those areas thicker with tunnels in it and connect the mines with a network of minecart rails (you have to activate first).
Taking a mine cart through long pitch black tunnels from one area to the other could be a really cool experience (there are very short sequences like that in the game).
 
Depths is the most engaging part of the game when it comes to traversal.

It is not a map of “what is that over there”, it is map “how exactly do I get there”, with the most challenging climbs, the whole darkness and some genuinely impassible barriers that you have to figure out how to circumvent (often making use of the mirror aspect to cross-reference).

The first time I was down there, just trudging along and wondering about, I didn’t have that good of a time, but whenever I’m down there with a goal in mind, like treasure spots or the next mine, it is a much more engaging experience.

It is a map less about exploration and discovery and more about traversal and navigation.
 
Horror Kid said:
If you just make each area under a chasm a lot smaller and avoid repeating elements too often, it would be easier to do
Click to expand...
True, but I think that would runs counter to the concept of the Depths being a wide open playground for Zonai devices.

Was going to clean up stuff in Akkala today but whew boy several sidequests got me sidetracked. Gerudo is gonna have to wait a couple more days I think.
 
Speaking of Frox, I really like them but it is weird they didn't just call them Dodongos. The ones in Zelda 1 didn't even breath fire, so the one major difference between Frox and Dodongos isn't even always a difference.
 
0
I really like how the light roots mirror the shrines; shrines can be really hard to find, but lightroots you can figure out the locations of through the dark areas

I'm closer to mapping out the light roots than I am getting all the shrines, and the former will be a big help in finding the latter. Which I never did organically in BOTW! So. It's very useful and fun, for me, since exploring the depths also gives me more batteries and more weapon materials
 
Sander RX said:
Depths is the most engaging part of the game when it comes to traversal.

It is not a map of “what is that over there”, it is map “how exactly do I get there”, with the most challenging climbs, the whole darkness and some genuinely impassible barriers that you have to figure out how to circumvent (often making use of the mirror aspect to cross-reference).

The first time I was down there, just trudging along and wondering about, I didn’t have that good of a time, but whenever I’m down there with a goal in mind, like treasure spots or the next mine, it is a much more engaging experience.

It is a map less about exploration and discovery and more about traversal and navigation.
Click to expand...
That would be valid if we couldn't just fly everywhere with a hoverbike.
 
Did the Fire Temple.

I still feel like the Wind Temple wins in the "lead up" and "boss" categories, but the Fire Temple itself was a big step up over Water and Wind. This is much closer to what I'd want in the open world series, in terms of dungeon standard.
 
Two random things that I found that helped me a lot.
1. When a frox trying to swallow you you don't need to throw a bomb. Just hold it from your inventory and it will be dropped on each own and got sucked in his mouth.
2. A perfect way to blast through boulders is to fuse a canon to a spear and use the throw command. That way you can aim your shots and minimize the risk of getting blasted yourself.
 
MisterSpo said:
Did the Fire Temple.

I still feel like the Wind Temple wins in the "lead up" and "boss" categories, but the Fire Temple itself was a big step up over Water and Wind. This is much closer to what I'd want in the open world series, in terms of dungeon standard.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it had a wow factor that the two sky dungeons just couldn’t have with how it was integrated into the world.

Slowly walking up to it, a massive lost city being illuminated with torches, creepy choir chanting, and just seamlessly walking into it.. I was like yes. THIS is what I envisioned all these years ago when picturing dungeons in an open world

They all have their benefits though. Sky dungeons got amazing leadups with curated level design that the sky allows for.
 
I am so glad that I find all the Armour: classic Zelda game sets goofy-looking cause damn those upgrade costs are ridiculous.

Then again I'm currently trying to find 15 Captain Horn IIs which, at this point in the game, is like finding 15 needles in a city-wide haystack. So I'm still messed up with that armour grind.
 
Plum said:
I am so glad that I find all the Armour: classic Zelda game sets goofy-looking cause damn those upgrade costs are ridiculous.

Then again I'm currently trying to find 15 Captain Horn IIs which, at this point in the game, is like finding 15 needles in a city-wide haystack. So I'm still messed up with that armour grind.
Click to expand...
For me, green tunic is boring af in these games. Im like, I spent 15 prior games in it, why the hell would I wear it in this one when there’s so much better looking stuff :p

If you’re upgrading the zonaite armor like I am, I’m doing that same grind. There’s a captain construct 2 just north of hills of baumer and south of riverside stable if you’re looking! Also one in the Proving Grounds: Flow shrine, which you can loot once every blood moon if you’ve already beaten it once. Probably more in some other proving grounds but that’s only one of two that I’ve done.
 
Phendrift said:
For me, green tunic is boring af in these games. Im like, I spent 15 prior games in it, why the hell would I wear it in this one when there’s so much better looking stuff :p

If you’re upgrading the zonaite armor like I am, I’m doing that same grind. There’s a captain construct 2 just north of hills of baumer and south of riverside stable if you’re looking! Also one in the Proving Grounds: Flow shrine, which you can loot once every blood moon if you’ve already beaten it once. Probably more in some other proving grounds but that’s only one of two that I’ve done.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip!

Yeah I am upgrading the Zonaite armour. It's more interesting than the Hylian Armour with the same defence stats + the energy bonus. Can also mix and match it with other armours. Though I might not worry about getting all of it to max now I'm at Level 2/3/2 on the armour. Find that it makes the game too easy if I can just tank every hit from everything. Same reason why I haven't upgraded the Knight's set much..
 
Plum said:
Thanks for the tip!

Yeah I am upgrading the Zonaite armour. It's more interesting than the Hylian Armour with the same defence stats + the energy bonus. Can also mix and match it with other armours. Though I might not worry about getting all of it to max now I'm at Level 2/3/2 on the armour. Find that it makes the game too easy if I can just tank every hit from everything. Same reason why I haven't upgraded the Knight's set much..
Click to expand...
Yeah same here, feels like a good “canon” armor since it’s Zonai themed, good stats and looks awesome too.

It’s been a rough upgrade so far though because I think my overworld has leveled up and lower tier enemies have been replaced, so finding lower tier captain constructs and soldier II’s is harder lol. I’m swimming in Soldier IV horns, so I’m anticipating the last tiers to actually be easier.
 
Just imagine Totk's underground rich and diverse as Hollow Knight's world.

That would take another three years of work I know. My point is that the depths are huge as the overworld but we have only the magma section as a unique environment. There is only one kind of unique enemy, the little frogs. Cmon. Where are the insects? The spiders? Really, the underground could've been another kind of game, but they really prefered quantity over quality.
 
Giancarlo said:
does this trick work on all Frox variation?
Click to expand...
I've tried it on regular and blue ones. I want to say that I've also used it on the black ones (can't remember their name now) but I'm not 100% sure. I see no reason why it shouldn't work, they all seem to share the same AI.
 
0
You know, discussions of ToTK made me realize that visual variety actually matters very little to me. Stuff like lack of enemy variety and the singular Depths biome just don't really register as problems to me.

Maybe it's just that the game overall is so chock full of variety in gameplay and feel that the lack of variety in certain areas doesn't really matter when I'm playing

Not saying it's not a valid criticism of the game, just that it's not applicable to me
 
Enpsty said:
The brilliance of this game cannot be understated.
The way the three layers of the world work is simply masterful.
First you have the Hyrule, the main dish of the game. This is where you're going to get distracted with all the content. NPCs, quests, shrines, koroks, games, caved, wells, towns.

Then you have the Sky Islands. And here is the brilliance of the game. Many people wanted for sky islands to be larger, but imo this would go against the point of them. Sky Islands is all about navigation and traversal. The challenge in them is how to get up there and how to go from on island to another. This is why most shrines require you to carry the green rock from island to island. By having huge islands you undermine what makes them unique compared to Hyrule. Otherwise it would be just a second Hyrule with the difference that it's in the sky.

And finally the Depths. The Depths are all about negative space. It's about few key locations hidden in larger empty areas. Again some people want the Depths to be as content-rich as Hyrule, but similarly to the Sky Islands that would make their addition moot. The purpose of the Depths is to push forward in the dark, not to happily explore like Hyrule. It's about seeing a fade Lightroot in the distance and trying to reach it. It's the concept of negative space 101.

Nothing in this game seems to be added for the sake of it. Everything serves its purpose and it's absolutely brilliant.
Click to expand...
Brilliant post :)

I think this is why I can sit down, play for several hours and not get tired of it. After doing some quests on the surface, I may dive into the Depths and go through a completely different experience, then jump to the skies to cash in my crystal charges and solve some traversal puzzles, then dive down to the ground and do some Korok hunting...If the skies and Depths had been just more of Hyrule it would've just been too much, but this way you find different experiences in each of them, while at the same time they each work as palate cleansers for the others.
 
takriel said:
That would be valid if we couldn't just fly everywhere with a hoverbike.
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I've had many scenarios where I need to traverse between layers that have been the most engaging of the depths for me (and the post you're quoting mentions the same), so not exactly.

Further, using a hover bike is a choice that robs you of the benefits of exploration (eg. poe collecting, material gathering, so forth). It's a trade off, just like complaining that in a platformer (eg Kirby) you can fly over parts of the level. Sure, it works. But someone who cares about completion etc. won't do it.
 
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I find the Depths were very interesting at the beginning of the game for two reasons. First, they were so mysterious and brimming with discoveries that it felt like exploring the world in BotW all over again, but obviously spookier. This environment embodied the kind of eeriness I felt from the 2019 E3 trailer, it definitely gave the most "Majora's Mask" vibes since MM itself (at least for me). Second, I think exploring the Depths interstitially proved to be the best. Running around the over world, paragliding to sky islands, and then lighting your way to light roots gave a lot of variety in terms of traversal, keeping exploring very fresh, even dozens of hours into the game.

The problem I had with the Depths though, is that you can't explore a significant portion of it just by going down into the Depths interstially, the Depths is its own thing and in order to significantly explore the depths you have to spend a long time down there. After spending a long time down in the Depths, it does definitely become a bit repetitive. I think Nintendo understood this though, and vaguely suggests to only explore points of interest in the Depths, however the sheer size begs more thorough exploring sometimes, which I believe is why some people find it too repetitive. I think the game does understand this too though, and constantly nudges us to use/build vehicles in the Depths.
 
NabiscoFelt said:
You know, discussions of ToTK made me realize that visual variety actually matters very little to me. Stuff like lack of enemy variety and the singular Depths biome just don't really register as problems to me.

Maybe it's just that the game overall is so chock full of variety in gameplay and feel that the lack of variety in certain areas doesn't really matter when I'm playing

Not saying it's not a valid criticism of the game, just that it's not applicable to me
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For me it’s definitely made me realize that I care way more about boss variety than just regular enemies.

The overworld main being Bokoblins and their variants, caves mainly being horriblins and like likes, sky islands mainly being constructs is all fine for me. Especially with the variety of different behavior and weapons they have.

But bosses are supposed to be climactic and memorable and that’s where BotW really hurt for me, and what TOTK fixed in spades with doubling the amount of overworld boss types, actual unique dungeon bosses, and just a general increase in the complexity, scope and gravitas of many of its new boss fights.
 
The writing in this game is SO charming, I want to speak with every NPC. Maybe it's recency bias, but I'm sure it's a step up from BOTW.

I'm probably half way through the game (2 dungeons, 75 shrines) and finally heading to the southern areas, and man, Hateno Village is just a delight. Kakariko was a little meh, but Hateno ❤️ lovely place, and fun little side quests. Looks beautiful when it's golden hour and clear skies.
 
One of my favorite things about the depths-surface relationship is the fact that the depths use what was water on the surface as a barrier, naturally transforming some water-surrounded areas on the surface into little segmented mini dungeons in the depths

Like the Rist Peninsula, Tingel Island string, Skull Lake…
 
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