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Discussion Tears of the Kingdom and its marketing (or lack thereof) - how do you feel?

Jbone916 said:
Regarding the 6 year dev time people keep throwing around, I think it’s unfair to just forget that 1-2 years of that were probably severely impacted by the pandemic and the lack of preexisting WFH infrastructure at Nintendo. If this game were coming out in 2021, I doubt the reactions would be quite as negative.
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Yeah, probably. But if that were the case, it’d be obvious it’s a pretty big expanded DLC, not a direct sequel per se. The fact that this could be the case it’s a bit worrying because that’s not what they hinted yo us.
 
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Pavolink said:
Worst marketing ever for a 3D Zelda game.
No one has played the game so far, 3 months before release. No demos, no first hand experience, no raw gameplay videos.

It’s like, with every teaser except the first one, they don’t know how to put together some gameplay and cutscenes to make a good a trailer. Some of them feel more like they are forced to show something, and not because they want to show us anything.

That secrecy around the game is absurd. Just show a good 2-3 minute trailer with some sense and it will be good. There’s no need for an entire E3 2016 level of footage, just something that it is good and tell us more about this game.

I really hope this approach never comes back. And anyone who wants to go blind can just avoid watching any footage and everyone will be happy.
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Yep. To be honest I prefer to go blind on story elements than without knowing how the game will play. So if they showed some gameplay and no story I'd be happier.
 
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Honestly I think it was perfect. I'd been saying it since the direct was announced, that they were only gonna do another teaser, and that's exactly what we got.

I'm very happy about it because it shows they know what the appeal of BOTW was for the core fans- the sense of wonder you get in discovering everything yourself. Think about what we knew about BOTW before it launched - some of the systems involving the sheikah slate and the layout of the great plateau. Virtually nothing else.

We didn't know about the story, we didn't know about the layout of the rest of Hyrule, I'm pretty sure we knew OF the divine beasts but not much about them besides the fact that they existed. We didn't know shit about any of the towns, NPCs, quests, etc. It was all brand new to discover.

They want to repeat that here, just show the bare minimum of what the game is about, teasing a few new things every time but holding back that vast majority since finding that out is what makes the game so great.

I'm a fan.
 
I wouldn’t mind the low-key approach had they given us something meaty to see what’s new. Like, what’s the hook? To me, watching that trailer yesterday, some of those scenes could have been ripped from BOTW.

I know there is more going on than meets the eye but some morsel of what that entails would be nice.
 
ITSMILNER said:
I wouldn’t mind the low-key approach had they given us something meaty to see what’s new. Like, what’s the hook? To me, watching that trailer yesterday, some of those scenes could have been ripped from BOTW.

I know there is more going on than meets the eye but some morsel of what that entails would be nice.
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The sky land stuff with toga Link is clearly the hook. I'm guessing it acts as one massive interconnected shrine.
 
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There was no point competing with the BotW trailer, so I'm super happy to learn almost nothing about the game before launch.

However, the trailer didn't do much to get me excited. I won't go as far as the BotW DLC comments, but yeah...who knows how it will turn out.
 
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As I said in another thread, the only marketing mistake was having the September 2022 trailer. If that trailer and yesterday's trailer had been combined into one longer trailer people would be hyped to the moon on the same footage.
 
BassForever said:
As I said in another thread, the only marketing mistake was having the September 2022 trailer. If that trailer and yesterday's trailer had been combined into one longer trailer people would be hyped to the moon on the same footage.
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That is ... actually a quite fitting thought. Yeah, they should've done it this was and just have a little name / date drop in September 2022.
 
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As a sequel to one of the most popular and beloved games of all time, it's gonna do gangbusters no matter what. This is not like 2017 when Nintendo desperately needed to hype up a new console with BOTW as the only major launch title. Only thing that might put a damper on sales is if the game itself is a disappointment (poor reviews, bad word of mouth, etc.).

Personally, the less I know about it, the better. I'm actually purposely downplaying my expectations to be in the best possible position to have the game blow my mind come May.

Hopes and dreams tend to breed discontent, imo.
 
I honestly appreciate it, because if anything the lack of info makes it easier to wait for. It lets me focus on other stuff to play until it comes out. :LOL:
 
Skittzo said:
Honestly I think it was perfect. I'd been saying it since the direct was announced, that they were only gonna do another teaser, and that's exactly what we got.

I'm very happy about it because it shows they know what the appeal of BOTW was for the core fans- the sense of wonder you get in discovering everything yourself. Think about what we knew about BOTW before it launched - some of the systems involving the sheikah slate and the layout of the great plateau. Virtually nothing else.

We didn't know about the story, we didn't know about the layout of the rest of Hyrule, I'm pretty sure we knew OF the divine beasts but not much about them besides the fact that they existed. We didn't know shit about any of the towns, NPCs, quests, etc. It was all brand new to discover.

They want to repeat that here, just show the bare minimum of what the game is about, teasing a few new things every time but holding back that vast majority since finding that out is what makes the game so great.

I'm a fan.
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They showed a lot more for BOTW. And a bunch of gameplay (what I want to see from Totk) segments until the release. By this time near release we had the following for BOTW:

06/2014 Reveal trailer
12/2014 Gameplay Demo 1
11/2015 Small Teaser
06/2016 Name reveal
06/2016 Gameplay Demo 2
12/2016 Gameplay Demo 3
 
Yeah I don't know why people keep comparing TotK trailers to BotW trailers when the big difference between the two was that BotW had extensive gameplay demos 8 months before release during which the core structure of the game and its systems were explained.
 
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I wonder why he was wearing the champion's tunic for almost the entire trailer, I thought they'd move away from it to clearly differentiate from botw
 
I had some time to reflect now after the trailer showed and I came to the conclusion that the marketing is actually really on spot:
The general idea that I get after the trailers is that the game will be all over the place, in a literal and figurative way of speaking.

Mechanically we see a lot but we also see chunks of land everywhere, we're in the air, we're under the ground, we're in the past (?), we're in the present. it's a mess! The kingdom is in a dire state as well so thematically they're on spot.

Now that we have a general feeling for the setting(s) of the game, we will of course get a focus on other aspects at a later date.

I have 0 doubts about the game so far, the trailers have not convinced nor kept me away from it in fact I already know I am going to play it.
I do not need more marketing segments to convince me to play it, I am invested in the Legend of Zelda as a series.

But I go into the game expecting a experience which is similar to BotW albeit expanded upon, I do not expect to be wowed like I was wowed with BotW's first showing, but hey... all trailers up to this point could be a set-up for the next now, we will not know until later.
 
It feels like they're marketing this game as the DLC it started out as instead of the next big mainline Zelda that's been in development longer than any Zelda game ever.

Which makes me worry that this game is gonna feel like BotW DLC that will in no way justify its 5.5 years of development
 
Skittzo said:
The difference being BOTW itself heavily informs how this game is going to play, so they don't need to demo the gameplay nearly as extensively.
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That's the reason why people like me are worried. If they aren't showing maybe the gameplay will be almost the same.
 
TanookiTom said:
what a premature hot take. smh...

We will get a dedicated Direct. People should be aware by now how information tend to trickle out for Nintendo games. This was just another very cagey trailer. I am not worried one bit about the TotK marketing efforts and people should reign in the extreme black and white / doom and gloom thinking finally.
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They've had ample opportunity to prove otherwise at this point. Your take reminds me of all the Splatoon 3 copium that people were huffing, desperately hoping that Splat 3 was anything more than just an expansion pack to Splat 2. They were wrong.

If Nintendo had more substantially new gameplay features to show with TOTK? They would've been shouting about them by now. The game comes out in 3 months. The game is finished and there isn't anything earth shattering that they're hiding at this point. We pretty much know what the game is gonna be, it's a glorified expansion pack to BOTW; and Nintendo are not hiding this fact. It's time to accept what the game is, and to stop pretending that it's anything more than what Nintendo are saying that it is with everything they've shown.
 
Skittzo said:
The difference being BOTW itself heavily informs how this game is going to play, so they don't need to demo the gameplay nearly as extensively.
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Sure, but they should at least demo it a bit. Show us whether this game is just "BotW with more stuff." Cause, right now, that's literally all we've seen. Just the same gameplay formula but with some new (and many old) enemies, some new traversal methods, and a bunch of random additions to the game world.
 
It’s fine. People reacted the same way to GOW last year then calmed down when they released a hype trailer a month before the game.
 
Dcubed said:
If Nintendo had more substantially new gameplay features to show with TOTK? They would've been shouting about them by now. The game comes out in 3 months. The game is finished and there isn't anything earth shattering that they're hiding at this point. We pretty much know what the game is gonna be, it's a glorified expansion pack to BOTW; and Nintendo are not hiding this fact. It's time to accept what the game is, and to stop pretending that it's anything more than what Nintendo are saying that it is with everything they've shown.
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Is this a joke post? Its so fully detached from reality and knowledge about Nintendos usual marketing procedure.
 
Dcubed said:
They've had ample opportunity to prove otherwise at this point. Your take reminds me of all the Splatoon 3 copium that people were huffing, desperately hoping that Splat 3 was anything more than just an expansion pack to Splat 2. They were wrong.

If Nintendo had more substantially new gameplay features to show with TOTK? They would've been shouting about them by now. The game comes out in 3 months. The game is finished and there isn't anything earth shattering that they're hiding at this point. We pretty much know what the game is gonna be, it's a glorified expansion pack to BOTW; and Nintendo are not hiding this fact. It's time to accept what the game is, and to stop pretending that it's anything more than what Nintendo are saying that it is with everything they've shown.
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again this is just pure conjecture and nothing more. As I have said and will say again: Nintendo very frequently is cagey about their games just up to their release (and sometimes even then a lot remains unsaid and for people to discover). This has been increasingly the case in recent years. Not sure what the takeaway should be from comparing this game to Splatoon 3 - an online multiplayer shooter?

It's indeed time to stop pretending for people to speak as if things are fact, when it's really just them making assumptions borne out of frustration.

What has Nintendo even said that the game is other than the sequel to Breath of the Wild?
 
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Plum said:
Sure, but they should at least demo it a bit. Show us whether this game is just "BotW with more stuff." Cause, right now, that's literally all we've seen. Just the same gameplay formula but with some new (and many old) enemies, some new traversal methods, and a bunch of random additions to the game world.
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If i were to be snarky, i could say you just described GoW Ragnarok and everyone was/is hyped about that one. ;]

Even in the case it was just "BotW, but with a bit more", which i feel we should all agree to this not being the case, it still wouldn't mean it's going to be a bad game.

I really would love to know where this skepticism comes from, after all we're talking about a game from the Zelda team. The same team that for their last game just went and completely changed the whole gameplay loop of a series that is over 35 years old and which basically had the same core gameplay of it's 3D entries for almost 25 years (1998 OoT release).

I really wanna know how some come to the conclusion that, yep, that is the team to have no more ideas and just went and made BotW 1.5 with floating rocks.
 
I think the trailers sucked but I am glad the trailers are sucking because I want to see as little as I can before launch.
 
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I didn't like the trailer, but...

I don't believe for a second that after playing TOTK, any of us will think "DLC" comments were justified.

Can it have the same impact as BOTW? No way. But it's going to be a good game full of cool stuff to do.
 
I'm hoping to be proven wrong on may 12th, but I'm legit worried that this game won't be as good as the average 3D Zelda game tends to be. Was a hard sell for me from the get go re-using the same world though so I've been worried even before the game started getting teased.
 
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balgajo said:
That's the reason why people like me are worried. If they aren't showing maybe the gameplay will be almost the same.
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We've already seen plenty of new gameplay features though, I feel like maybe people have forgotten that. We've seen sky islands, phasing through rock, reversing time on an object, flying on gliders and full-on hovercrafts, caves, we had a patent about extremely intricate aerial combat...

All in all we've seen a hell of a lot of new stuff, the reason it doesn't feel like it is because it hasn't been presented coherently in a single "list" which, again IMO is a good thing.
 
Johnzyboi said:
It’s fine. People reacted the same way to GOW last year then calmed down when they released a hype trailer a month before the game.
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Bonejack said:
If i were to be snarky, i could say you just described GoW Ragnarok and everyone was/is hyped about that one. ;]
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Personally I do think it's different here, in that Ragnarok had the promise of a proper conclusion to a deep and emotional narrative. Even if that game were exactly the same gameplay-wise as its predecessor (it wasn't by far), it would still have that crucial hook of "the conclusion to Kratos' Norse adventures." TotK doesn't really have that, because outside of some fun characters, story has never been the 'crux' of why people play Zelda games.

Bonejack said:
Even in the case it was just "BotW, but with a bit more", which i feel we should all agree to this not being the case, it still wouldn't mean it's going to be a bad game.

I really would love to know where this skepticism comes from, after all we're talking about a game from the Zelda team. The same team that for their last game just went and completely changed the whole gameplay loop of a series that is over 35 years old and which basically had the same core gameplay of it's 3D entries for almost 25 years (1998 OoT release).

I really wanna know how some come to the conclusion that, yep, that is the team to have no more ideas and just went and made BotW 1.5 with floating rocks.
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Where did I say I think it's going to be a bad game? Thinking that a game might disappoint =/= thinking a game is going to be bad. Especially in a series as revered as Zelda.

Nor did I say that they had no ideas. They clearly do, but the issue is that "more ideas," is not enough to remove any potential disappointment. As you said, the series had a similar gameplay loop for a while... but even when it was at its most iterative it still had new ideas. That and, well, they mostly all had entirely new aesthetics and worlds - something that we know TotK doesn't have.

And the skepticism comes from two areas:
1) The marketing so far having a bunch of cool new stuff, but nothing that truly binds them together to show that this is a "new experience." All we've seen is Link doing the same stuff he did in BotW, but with new gadgets. Which is fine, but again it's not what people were really expecting.
2) A bit of general cynicism towards Nintendo as a whole. This is a personal thing to me, but it's definitely there.
 
I think people have short memories and forget the pre-release cycle for BotW was filled with the same "I haven't seen x, y or z so this is all the game is going to be" "they're emphasizing this in the trailer so the game will focus heavily on this at the expense of other elements" "this just looks like a bigger emptier Twilight Princess" etc.

Nintendo are being stingy with what they're showing but I think they've earned the benefit of the doubt.
 
Serif said:
I think people have short memories and forget the pre-release cycle for BotW was filled with the same "I haven't seen x, y or z so this is all the game is going to be" "they're emphasizing this in the trailer so the game will focus heavily on this at the expense of other elements" "this just looks like a bigger emptier Twilight Princess" etc.

Nintendo are being stingy with what they're showing but I think they've earned the benefit of the doubt.
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Exactly. It's a repeat of the same marketing style for a game where self discovery is paramount to a good player experience.

They know what they're doing.
 
I would argue the marketing hasn’t really started yet. About a month out from the game is when it will really ramp up with the final trailer & possibly a dedicated Direct/Treehouse with it. As it is now, these two teaser trailers are about equivalent to what movies do now with small teaser trailers then the big one later.
 
Serif said:
I think people have short memories and forget the pre-release cycle for BotW was filled with the same "I haven't seen x, y or z so this is all the game is going to be" "they're emphasizing this in the trailer so the game will focus heavily on this at the expense of other elements" "this just looks like a bigger emptier Twilight Princess" etc.

Nintendo are being stingy with what they're showing but I think they've earned the benefit of the doubt.
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Don't insult people if you're just gonna ignore massive, crucial differences between the situations you're describing.

BotW's 'Major Thing' was made clear in the very first trailer in 2014: this is an open world Zelda where you can go anywhere and explore freely. Everything after that was simply adding to the core promise of what the game was. So, whilst Nintendo was still keeping a lot to their chest, the reason for why BotW was so special was incredibly clear to everyone.

Meanwhile, we still don't really know what TotK's 'thing' is. Is it the sky islands? Is it the arm stuff? Is it time travel? Is it Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts? We just don't know. Whilst people were concerned about whether X or Y element was in BotW, for TotK people are concerned about whether it actually has that 'thing' that makes it truly special.
 
Plum said:
Personally I do think it's different here, in that Ragnarok had the promise of a proper conclusion to a deep and emotional narrative. Even if that game were exactly the same gameplay-wise as its predecessor (it wasn't by far), it would still have that crucial hook of "the conclusion to Kratos' Norse adventures." TotK doesn't really have that, because outside of some fun characters, story has never been the 'crux' of why people play Zelda games.

Where did I say I think it's going to be a bad game? Thinking that a game might disappoint =/= thinking a game is going to be bad. Especially in a series as revered as Zelda.

Nor did I say that they had no ideas. They clearly do, but the issue is that "more ideas," is not enough to remove any potential disappointment. As you said, the series had a similar gameplay loop for a while... but even when it was at its most iterative it still had new ideas. That and, well, they mostly all had entirely new aesthetics and worlds - something that we know TotK doesn't have.

And the skepticism comes from two areas:
1) The marketing so far having a bunch of cool new stuff, but nothing that truly binds them together to show that this is a "new experience." All we've seen is Link doing the same stuff he did in BotW, but with new gadgets. Which is fine, but again it's not what people were really expecting.
2) A bit of general cynicism towards Nintendo as a whole. This is a personal thing to me, but it's definitely there.
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I'm not going to pretend GoW 2018 / Ragnarok are narrative standouts, far from it, but this is not something for this thread, nor something i wanna discuss at all.

If you can say Ragnarok "isn't by far" having the same gameplay as 2018, then it's just okay for me to say the same about TotK. I couldn't warp into the skies, phase through the ground, build things such as vehicles and weapons and rewind time in BotW after all.
And while i agree that story was definitely a side thing in BotW, you can tell even from the little footage we have seen that it's very possible that TotK might have a bigger focus on the story. And they showed this even with the 2019 announcement trailer.

So your issue is that new ideas aren't enough, yet you say that during it's iterative phases, the new ideas are what kept the games good? Dunno, sounds like a contradiction here. Still, i'd argue TotK has more new ideas than your regular new Zelda game, and possibly the most interesting ones so far.

Also, let me be snarky again ... i can remember that the general consensus for the most acclaimed Zelda game prior to BotW is ... Majora's Mask.
Which, massively reused assets, didn't have a much different aesthetic and kinda just used a "reshuffled" world and new ideas on top?
Dunno, but for me this almost sounds like TotK. Direct sequel, yep. Asset reuse, yep. Not much different aesthetic but still differences, yep. Reshuffled world, yep. New ideas on top, yep.

;]

About generel skepticism, it's okay to have that about Nintendo. And it's definitely okay to have it about some of their teams or partners they work close with, for example Gamefreak.
But the Zelda and Mario teams, imo, deserve to have at least some confidence in them.
 
I think this is great marketing for now. It's not gonna be like this to the end. I hope they keep lots of stuff hidden from us though.

I don't get the dlc talk. Like at all. There are tons of new things already and it's clear there is lots of stuff we don't know. How do you react to other games sequels? Many games are more of the same with little something new. (Which is fine). Are those just dlc? is it the same graphics engine or what makes you think this dlc garbage? I just don't get it.
 
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Plum said:
Don't insult people if you're just gonna ignore massive, crucial differences between the situations you're describing.

BotW's 'Major Thing' was made clear in the very first trailer in 2014: this is an open world Zelda where you can go anywhere and explore freely. Everything after that was simply adding to the core promise of what the game was. So, whilst Nintendo was still keeping a lot to their chest, the reason for why BotW was so special was incredibly clear to everyone.

Meanwhile, we still don't really know what TotK's 'thing' is. Is it the sky islands? Is it the arm stuff? Is it time travel? Is it Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts? We just don't know. Whilst people were concerned about whether X or Y element was in BotW, for TotK people are concerned about whether it actually has that 'thing' that makes it truly special.
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I know what the difference is but the comparison is still valid.

There was a lot of skepticism based on what they chose to show or hide and whether nor not they could actually pull off the open world Zelda concept. Folks were left disappointed by Skyward Sword and weren't sure if BotW could live up to expectations. There were plenty of discussions about if all they've shown of the Great Plateau was really the game and if they could sustain that gameplay loop. There were concerns about lack of NPCs or towns to make the world feel believable beyond a scattering of shrines and monster camps. There were worries that cooking and physics systems would feel overwhelming and make the experience too much like an RPG survival game. There were the same sort of questions asking what BotW's 'thing' is. Survival? Exploration? Puzzles? Combat?

TotK has always been presented as the sequel to BotW for better or worse, we know it's another open world Zelda. I don't think they feel the need to sell people on this concept again like they did BotW, so they're being stingy. The core premise is the same.

I'm a little confused by your question of what TotK's "thing" is. The arm is just a Shiekah slate replacement. The nuts and bolts is just an extension of the jerryrigged contraptions people made from the previous game. They didn't mention anything about time travel. Either way, just like BotW didn't focus on one particular aspect, TotK will be the same way.

For what it's worth, I think the expanded world and active threat of Ganondorf will be a focus, seamless underground and sky. A focus, and not the only focus.
 
I find it slightly frustrating, but only from the perspective of a fan that is desperate to learn more about a game that has been my most hyped for years and is finally almost here. I was admittedly a little disappointed yesterday evening, but mostly because I had hyped myself up for something much bigger. Ultimately though, the pacing of their marketing has been okay. It’s not like they need to sell the audience on buying the game, at this point any marketing is to just build onto an already unseemly high hype train and give people small details to dissect and slowly put together which has been a lot of fun already up to this point.

I don’t want to jinx myself by saying this, but seeing as there will already be a lot of stuff we do know due to the game being based on BOTW, the less we know and can discover on our own first-hand, then that should be better for the overall player experience. (But I know we will have deeper dive gameplay/Treehouse sessions before release anyway)

Also, on a very personal note, I’ll be working abroad with limited internet access during the expected big marketing drops & release window, so I’ll probably end up going into the game relatively dark either way.
 
I think it's weird how much time we spend critiquing the way a corporation chooses to advertise a product we are all going to buy. In a few months, we'll have the game and know what it is. Chill.
 
Bonejack said:
I'm not going to pretend GoW 2018 / Ragnarok are narrative standouts, far from it, but this is not something for this thread, nor something i wanna discuss at all.
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I mean, you referenced Ragnarok as if it were the same thing when it really isn't. Story is a crucial part of those games, whereas for Zelda titles it's really not.
Bonejack said:
If you can say Ragnarok "isn't by far" having the same gameplay as 2018, then it's just okay for me to say the same about TotK. I couldn't warp into the skies, phase through the ground, build things such as vehicles and weapons and rewind time in BotW after all.
And while i agree that story was definitely a side thing in BotW, you can tell even from the little footage we have seen that it's very possible that TotK might have a bigger focus on the story. And they showed this even with the 2019 announcement trailer.
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If there's a bigger focus then they need to show it. Right now, we've seen the same cutscene of Ganondorf waking up and Zelda falling down a hole three times. The few lines presented in the trailer tell us nothing other than Ganondorf is invading Hyrule and we gotta stop him.
Bonejack said:
So your issue is that new ideas aren't enough, yet you say that during it's iterative phases, the new ideas are what kept the games good? Dunno, sounds like a contradiction here. Still, i'd argue TotK has more new ideas than your regular new Zelda game, and possibly the most interesting ones so far.
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I didn't say that, no. I said that when the games were much more iterative, they still had 'new ideas' in each one. Sailing, wolf link, various instruments, etc. Despite this, the core game loop was still very similar in each title, leading to the burnout we saw when Skyward Sword (itself a game filled with new ideas) released. So whilst new ideas for cool new stuff are cool,
Bonejack said:
Also, let me be snarky again ... i can remember that the general consensus for the most acclaimed Zelda game prior to BotW is ... Majora's Mask.
Which, massively reused assets, didn't have a much different aesthetic and kinda just used a "reshuffled" world and new ideas on top?
Dunno, but for me this almost sounds like TotK. Direct sequel, yep. Asset reuse, yep. Not much different aesthetic but still differences, yep. Reshuffled world, yep. New ideas on top, yep.

;]
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I mean, I don't control what the fanbase thinks so... what is the point of this tangent?

Serif said:
I know what the difference is but the comparison is still valid.

There was a lot of skepticism based on what they chose to show or hide and whether nor not they could actually pull off the open world Zelda concept. Folks were left disappointed by Skyward Sword and weren't sure if BotW could live up to expectations. There were plenty of discussions about if all they've shown of the Great Plateau was really the game and if they could sustain that gameplay loop. There were concerns about lack of NPCs or towns to make the world feel believable beyond a scattering of shrines and monster camps. There were worries that cooking and physics systems would feel overwhelming and make the experience too much like an RPG survival game. There were the same sort of questions asking what BotW's 'thing' is. Survival? Exploration? Puzzles? Combat?

TotK has always been presented as the sequel to BotW for better or worse, we know it's another open world Zelda. I don't think they feel the need to sell people on this concept again like they did BotW, so they're being stingy. The core premise is the same.

I'm a little confused by your question of what TotK's "thing" is. The arm is just a Shiekah slate replacement. The nuts and bolts is just an extension of the jerryrigged contraptions people made from the previous game. They didn't mention anything about time travel. Either way, just like BotW didn't focus on one particular aspect, TotK will be the same way.

For what it's worth, I think the expanded world and active threat of Ganondorf will be a focus, seamless underground and sky. A focus, and not the only focus.
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Yes, there were worries about BotW, but - again - we knew exactly what big 'thing' made it different from the very first trailer. The specifics were what people were discussing, but nobody was wondering about how the bigger picture was different, because it was abundantly clear. The opposite is true for TotK. We know many of the specifics; both from our knowledge of BotW itself, and from the various elements shown in the trailers. However we've yet to see the - to use a business term - unique selling point of the game. The connective tissue that binds all of its various elements together. Beyond just, "the sequel to BotW," of course. If the game has multiple focuses, then they've yet to show that adequately. If it's got a single focus, then they've yet to show what it is. Right now, we only have speculation and a general hope backing the idea that this won't just be "BotW but with more stuff."

Which, again, is still gonna be great. I don't think anyone's expecting the game to be bad, or even just average. It's a Zelda game after all. But that doesn't mean it can't disappoint, especially given its massive development life-cycle.
 
EnergyDrink said:
Why do need some people extensive marketing for a game?

And why they need this many month before release?

There will be more info shortly before release, obviously.
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"This many". The game is out in 3 months.

There's playing it close to your chest then there's this nonsense.

At this point I'm actively getting annoyed with the marketing because I don't know if I should be excited for the game or not. Breath of the wild was a game that won me over on the strength of its exploration of the world. Only now, they're possibly reusing the world map at large and they've yet to make it clear in what sense, how the world has changed, what exactly the deal is with the sky islands, what new gameplay mechanics there are (beyond reversing time) or pretty much anything I consider important. I also didn't enjoy the dlc at all because it was just the existing map with some stuff changed, which isn't a great starting point when they are maybe reusing large swathes of land (are they? We don't really know!)

I'm sure the people who salvate over 'lore' are a bit happier but given I could not care less about the overarching story, which are paper thin at the best of times, actively bad at worse (looking right at you, age of calamity), it's hard to build excitement from what they've given us. I'm too old and crotchety to spend days whiling away in speculation threads, just spell it out for me already, please.
 
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I'm not opposed to it because 1- Zelda is a household name where the mainline entries have never been labeled as less than great by the masses and 2- It is Nintendo and they have earned the benefit of the doubt for their big franchises.

Would I like to have more information? Probably. The cryptic trailers though have allowed for amazing discussion threads over the past few years.

And it did work out well for God of War.
 
Bonejack said:
Also, let me be snarky again ... i can remember that the general consensus for the most acclaimed Zelda game prior to BotW is ... Majora's Mask.
Which, massively reused assets, didn't have a much different aesthetic and kinda just used a "reshuffled" world and new ideas on top?
Dunno, but for me this almost sounds like TotK. Direct sequel, yep. Asset reuse, yep. Not much different aesthetic but still differences, yep. Reshuffled world, yep. New ideas on top, yep.
Click to expand...

I wish, Majora is like the most divisive entry in the series.
 
Plum said:
Yes, there were worries about BotW, but - again - we knew exactly what big 'thing' made it different from the very first trailer. The specifics were what people were discussing, but nobody was wondering about how the bigger picture was different, because it was abundantly clear. The opposite is true for TotK. We know many of the specifics; both from our knowledge of BotW itself, and from the various elements shown in the trailers. However we've yet to see the - to use a business term - unique selling point of the game. The connective tissue that binds all of its various elements together. Beyond just, "the sequel to BotW," of course. If the game has multiple focuses, then they've yet to show that adequately. If it's got a single focus, then they've yet to show what it is. Right now, we only have speculation and a general hope backing the idea that this won't just be "BotW but with more stuff."

Which, again, is still gonna be great. I don't think anyone's expecting the game to be bad, or even just average. It's a Zelda game after all. But that doesn't mean it can't disappoint, especially given its massive development life-cycle.
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Honestly my expectations have been set since 2019 that the selling point is "another open-world Zelda". BotW was unique in being the first true HD open-world Zelda so TotK was never going to be unique or be able to market that as its one 'thing'. I mean how have been sequels to other open-world games been marketed? From what I can tell it's usually "this time it's bigger" "new environments" "there's a different story". And that's what we've seen so far. I still think the world is the connective tissue, again, but recontextualized with verticality above and below. Beyond the premise of an open-world, BotW didn't show much connective tissue in its marketing, no mention of Divine Beasts or the various tribes you have to save beyond brief glimpses in a story trailer two months before release, and that's probably what they'll do again.

I think it's fair to be disappointed by them reusing the art style and the world map. And I get it, six years. For what it's worth, I don't think they've done a good job at making it obvious "here are caves" "here are underground areas" "the traversal is entirely seamless", I can tell from analyzing the trailers but it's not made glaringly obvious. If this were a different dev team I wouldn't be this accommodating or apologetic but they've actively documented their process on how they designed countless iterations of BotW's map to make exploration feel fun, so while this game could be a fuck up, the probability of that feels low.
 
Dcubed said:
TOTK is basically a glorified DLC pack for BOTW. That's it. There's nothing more to really show. It's BOTW with a couple of new runes (Time Stop and Drill), as well as a modified BOTW map, some new story cutscenes and an expanded array of constructable vehicles. That's the game.

After roughly 6 years of development? That's enormously disappointing.
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this post has big "botw has no towns!" energy
 
It's been fine IMO. But they need one more trailer before launch, one that has the energy of the January 2017 one for Breath of the Wild. They don't need to show everything but just give that last big push.
 
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