Tears of the Kingdom - First Impressions


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This game is going to take up a lot of my time

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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom came out a couple weeks ago and I have been playing it pretty much since launch and I have been enjoying it so far. One thing that I have noticed is that this game is A LOT larger than Breath of the Wild. I have no idea how long this game is going to take me to finish. All I know is that it is going to take a very long time.


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The game starts off a few years after the events of Breath of the Wild. Zelda and Link are in some cave trying to figure out what this weird red substance is that is covering stuff and causing people to get sick. They find some mummy dude in the cave that comes to life and steals all the hearts from Link.


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Then after he reduces Link's hearts down to the starting three hearts like all the other Zelda games, he casts some spell that causes Hyrule Castle to float up into the air.


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Then of course Zelda falls down into a chasm and disappears. Then that is where the game pretty much starts. Zelda is lost. Hyrule is in chaos again and it is up to Link to fix it all and find Zelda.


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So now let's talk about the game and if it is any good. Well, of course the game is good. BoTW was game of the year when it came out and this game is pretty much BoTW on steroids. I am pretty sure that this will win game of the year. It is one of the most highly anticipated games of the last couple years and so far, Nintendo has delivered.


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First, let's talk about the graphics. Well, it is a Nintendo Switch game and it looks pretty bad and dated. When I am playing the game on my TV, I think the game looks like shit, but when I take the Switch out of the dock and play handheld, then I am reminded why it looks so bad. The Switch is pretty much a mobile system and I don't really consider it a console at all.


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I really hope that Nintendo makes a new console soon because the graphics on the Switch just don't compare with anything anymore. But with all that said, graphics aren't that important for this game. It looks pretty much the same as BoTW and I loved that game. The art style is pretty cool, but as I play, I can't help but get Elden Ring vibes while I am out exploring and it makes me wish that this game could look like Elden Ring. A Zelda game with realistic graphics would be pretty amazing, but I guess we need to keep waiting for something like that to happen.


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Combat is very similar to BoTW, but you get a new fuse ability that lets you fuse items from your inventory to your weapons, allowing you to make some pretty cool combinations. Weapon durability was something that I hated in the first game, but I don't hate it as much in this game because weapons can be found laying all over the place and you can customize those weapons by attaching whatever you want to them.


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So far the story has been pretty cool. There seems to be a lot more emphasis on story with this game and there is a lot more cut scenes with spoken audio, which is nice because there is a shit load of reading in this game. It would be cool to have voice acting for everything in a Zelda game, but I think that is another thing that we will have to wait for.


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I have been playing off and on for a couple weeks now and I dont think I have even scratched the surface to this game. There is so much to do that it can get overwhelming at times. One of my favorite things to do in these games is to just explore and find the shrines. Shrines give you items to exchange for hearts or stamina upgrades, but they also act as fast travel points that let you move around the map easily, which comes in handy because this game's map is massive. There is the normal ground level map like BoTW, but there is also a sky map and depths map that are the same size as the ground level. Ya, it is huge.


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If you are a Zelda fan and you enjoyed BoTW, you will love this game. I have been really enjoying the game and exploring. There are so many games coming out in the next few months, but I don't know how long this one is going to take, which means those other games will have to wait until I save the princess and restore balance to Hyrule.



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19 comments
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The game is awesome. Looks great. A friend of mine is playing and streaming this game, saying: TOTK is getting me back in requiring coffee to function. lol.

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It is a pretty great game that will definitely take up most of your free time. I've just been wandering around lately looking for shrines. I really need to work more on the quest lines.

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When I am playing the game on my TV, I think the game looks like shit

This is why HIVE reviews are so much better, don't the shit... say it!

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Too many people sugar coat things when doing reviews. I just hope that Nintendo releases a console that can at least compete with the graphical power of the consoles we have now. They are lagging behind.

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Damn lol that is one huge map if it has a sky and depths level too. I only played a little bit of BotW on my friends Switch but now I kinda wish I had my own lol. The game looks awesome and from what I hear it's a very worthy sequel. Have fun man!

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It's been pretty good so far. I just saw that Diablo 4 released, so hopefully this game can keep me away from getting that one too soon.

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lol yeah I just got Diablo myself

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A new version of zelda, it is truly beautiful to see how they improve more and more the old games, I remember that you could play zelda from the emulator "Project 64" and then appeared for pc, until now that has also appeared on the PlayStation, truly beautiful story so extensive and quite understandable.

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There are a lot of people playing the game on PC using emulators and the game is supposed to run a lot smoother on that than using the Switch. Hopefully Nintendo announces a new console soon with some updated graphics.

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I just finished it a few days ago, it is undoubtedly one of the most important releases of this year, not only for the name, but for what they have managed to create, I share the opinion that while you explore, it gives you Elden Ring vibes, I felt the same the first hours and even when I saw my first 3-headed dragon haha.

It's crazy, such a huge world that at no time manages to feel boring or repetitive, at least for me. Every puzzle, riddle, mini story and even the occasional side story, is interesting and encourages you to know more, it's a video game so well done, it's a pleasure. Except for the graphics, that can't be denied xd.

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Nice man. How long did it take you to finish? I am not sure how many hours I have put into the game. I only play for a couple hours a day. My nephew beat the game pretty quickly after it released and I am sure he was putting in 8+ hours a day on it.

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It took me about 45 hours but it could have taken me much longer, I had to put the gas pedal to the metal after spending 30 hours exploring and doing side quests, because I have other things to do and I didn't want to leave the game without finishing the story 😅. I'm sure I left a few side quests undone and treasures undiscovered.

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The game looks good man, like you said it probably looks terrible on a huge screen and that's normal because it's designed for a small device. Nintendo has to find a solution to this now.

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I am hoping that they will announce their next console soon. The Switch seems to have been around forever.

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It's a great game but I don't know if its better than BOTW. The constant building in the shrines gets old. I'm pretty sick of putting fans on boards and launching shit off with varying levels of accuracy. You got to have an ounce of creativity to build the better types of things so when you lack that and you got the creativity of a brick wall you end up with everything on a stick. Anyways, fairly satisfied I was able to secure pants early in the game.

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I dont mind the building. It is actually pretty fun trying to find ways to make all these things work together. I have no idea how some people come up with the stuff they build. I use YouTube to find a lot of stuff in this game though because I dont have time to explore every inch of the world like some people do.

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I haven't looked up anything to try and figure it out. It's a hard play while playing the BOTW at the same time. The inventory system trips me up.

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I've never played Zelda before, but this looks so good. I'm still looking for a way to play it on my PC. I found the link to the game+switch emulator, but my PC keeps deleting it due to potential risk and I'm kinda scared to turn off Windows Defender -_-

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It's BoTW on steroids???? Oh shiiiiit :D I haven't even finished BoTW cos I don't wanna finish it just because I want to keep on playing it hahaha. I have forgotten about it for now but I guess I will have to pick up my switch again and play.

I got quite excited at the beginning with Zelda being there (in the hopes of it being a playable character or just something else maybeeeeeee???? it's 2023) because what could go wrong, right?. But of course she fell and we have to save her again. 🙄

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