Support NeoGAF

[Mythoclast]

Coming from BOTW, I definitely enjoyed TOTK a lot. It was a great improvement in terms of mechanics, first of all. I still don’t know how they managed to run the insane Ultrahand mechanics on the Switch, but imo that’s the game’s most powerful achievement.

They also improved storytelling, and a better effort to have themed dungeons, though never at the level of the pre-open world games.

I definitely don’t think this game was DLC as some people claim, but I also don’t think it should have taken 6 years. Probably 3 at most.

They reuse the map (sky islandsq are very small, underworld doesn’t have many quests or much to do), the format is the same (beat 4 temples northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest), same graphics. I’m tempted to believe it took them as much time because of the new mechanics.

All in all, I beat the game at around 70 hours, missing some sidequests, but I don't plan to touch it again. I’m ready for what’s next, but hoping they reduce the scale this time around so they can make real themed dungeons connected to the story such as in OOT or MM.

 

[NanaMiku]

IIRC they spent a lot of time to debug the game. That's why there's almost no bug/glitch with the Ultrahand.

 

[VideoGameEnjoyer]

What the hell are you talking about? How exactly do they make the same game in half the time?

 

[LordOcidax]

Some people really thinks that make a video game is an easy task…

 

[GigaBowser]

Disagee because it helps them made the best game and OT of all times

 

[FoxMcChief]

They made one of the best games of all time. 6 years is just fine.

 

[dendro]

I don't get this. It took what it took to be this excellent. Or do you think they just slacked off for the other half of 6-years? Or would've you preferred a buggy, unfinished mess (which seems to be an industry trend nowadays)?

 

[kunonabi]

It's less DLC and more of a glass of a glorified Master Quest. Way too much was lifted from botw with only small or no tweaks. Doesn't help that the story has pretty much the same beats and so many of the characters just inexplicably forgot the events of botw.

 

[clarky]

I don't get this. It took what it took to be this excellent. Or do you think they just slacked off for the other half of 6-years? Or would've you preferred a buggy, unfinished mess (which seems to be an industry trend nowadays)?

More companies should try this. Take something already fucking great and then make the next game the same but fucking awesome with bells on.

 

[DryvBy]

I think TotK is way better than BotW on every level but coming fresh off of BotW made me question what some of the team was really doing. Level design is, let's face it, mostly the same. The above world is barely there and the underworld stuff is flat out horrible imo. It's the worst part of the entire entry to me.

Other than that, I love the game and think the creation bits are just so nice. While not a DLC, it does feel like the foundation was already set and they just worked on that. I really just wish we got more to explore that wasn't the underground.

 

[OuterLimits]

Weren't they pretty much finished with the game a year ago and just spent months basically doing QA stuff? It was worth the wait though. Fantastic game.

 

[LakeOf9]

I mean if it took them six years to make it this great, it took them six years. It is what it is. The pandemic definitely added to the dev time too.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Some people really thinks that make a video game is an easy task…

Well it took Insomaniac 5 years to make 3 spidermans, Nintendo should have take less then 3 to make TotK since they are using 90% of BotW assets.

 

[apowhungo]

I definitely enjoyed TOTK a lot
They also improved storytelling
I definitely don’t think this game was DLC
They reuse the map

it's a good game, sheesh you're looking for attention huh

 

[Fabieter]

More companies should try this. Take something already fucking great and then make the next game the same but fucking awesome with bells on.

Insomniac did the same and outlets drop that score because fucking spiderman still plays in new York city with a bigger map and complete touched up assets and stuff.it is what it is.

 

[PonyStation4]

They made one of the best games of all time. 6 years is just fine.

They should have added another 2 years to work on the story and voice acting

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I still see tears of the kingdom as one of the best expansión (no Dlc) in the world of video games.

 

[Ronin_7]

What

 

[L*][*N*K]

I assume you would have made it in 4?

 

[TheSHEEEP]

Is this where people who have opened a game engine once in university proclaim their expertise and say they could've done it in half the time?
Or is this where people without any development experience whatsoever proclaim their expertise out of their asses and say they could've done it in half the time?

Please enlighten me, I tend to confuse these things.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

More time is always welcome.

It helps in fully fleshing out new mechanics that differentiate game from previous titles.

I don't have Switch (will get SW2) so dunno how these two relate. But always appreciate extra dev time.

Hell, when I play a fully updated GAAS title, they offer so much to do, games made in 3 years simply won't be comparable.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

What the hell are you talking about? How exactly do they make the same game in half the time?

You mean while using pretty much the same map from a title form 6 years ago with the ssme engine? They barely made anything from scratch lol.

 

[clarky]

Insomniac did the same and outlets drop that score because fucking spiderman still plays in new York city with a bigger map and complete touched up assets and stuff.it is what it is.

Spuderman 2 scored higher than 1 as far as im aware. If you're talking about individual outlets then im sure a few had similar criticism for TOTK.

TOTK/BOTW are in a different league to Spiderman anyways imo but thats a different topic.

 

[TexMex]

You should write Nintendo a letter and tell them you’ve discovered a faster way to make Zelda games.

 

[TIGERCOOL]

Insomniac did the same and outlets drop that score because fucking spiderman still plays in new York city with a bigger map and complete touched up assets and stuff.it is what it is.

Spider-man 2 outscored it's predecessor by a significant margin though. BotW and TotK were basically even.

TotK is great but I burned out right about where I did in the last game. Finished the temples, started to feel the same lack of reward from exploration, put it down and haven't picked it back up in a month. Will get around to finishing it soon.

These games are unrivalled in those first 50ish hours though imo.

 

[Kataploom]

You mean while using pretty much the same map from a title form 6 years ago with the ssme engine? They barely made anything from scratch lol.

People say this but the map has changed a lot in many areas, I always wondered where the fuck was I supposed to be until I saw some reference points and realized, like yeah you can check the map but even then they don't look like "just put the map there and added a lego mechanic".

The way you interact with the world changed a lot, you cannot just play it like BOTW and think you're getting the proper experience, you'd be losing on so much new content, traversal ways, etc.

And that's only about the map, everything else required quite a lot of design process, prototyping, testing, iterating, etc. You don't make a game like that by just "changing the story and adding some QOL improvements", if that was the case people would have memed them no end.

 

[StueyDuck]

Remember covid would have added a year or 2.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

You know, any one of us could have come out of our mama’s womb a couple months earlier and lived.

 

[ADiTAR]

Testing new ideas takes time, perfecting it more time.

They added a lot of new stuff, caves, islands, underground. All of this takes time.

Plus there was covid which basically took a year off and also i dont think they immidiatley started working on it when they finished totk.

 

[alucard0712_rus]

Coronavirus?

 

[Fabieter]

Spuderman 2 scored higher than 1 as far as im aware. If you're talking about individual outlets then im sure a few had similar criticism for TOTK.

TOTK/BOTW are in a different league to Spiderman anyways imo but thats a different topic.

Spiderman should be compared to other super hero games so different league doesn't matter imo. Some games are more limited by design that doesnt mean they should review worse when they archive for what they are going.

 

[Lupin3]

I'm sure they could've squeezed the game out way earlier if they really wanted to. But why? They gave us something to wait for, to keep the Switch interesting (for their sake, of course). I'm equally sure they knew what they were doing. And as long as they deliver a great, playable game from day 1, I'm all for waiting a little longer.

That said: Fuck the Depths!

 

[bender]

You should make your own Nintendo with blackjack and hookers.

 

[Trilobit]

Spuderman 2 scored higher than 1 as far as im aware. [...]

Had to make a quick Dall-E of it.

Spoiler: Potato Parker not amused

 

[RoadHazard]

It's an absolutely massive game, one of the most ambitious I've ever played. It makes BOTW look like a prototype. And it really only reuses the base map and the core gameplay, there's SO much new stuff added. It's also ridiculously polished.

In fact I think it's a bit too huge. I'm around 250 hours in and still have quite a lot left to do, including the final stretch of the main story. You beating it in 70 hours means you didn't just miss "some" side quests, you skipped a lot of stuff.

 

[Robb]

From what I’ve read it would’ve taken 5 if they hadn’t spent a year debugging it. You can pretty much do anything, go everywhere at any time, break any gameplay/story sequence etc. etc. etc. Not sure if there’s ever been a game like it at this scale - or at all. With the amount of freedom they give the player it sounds like an insane undertaking that I doubt many, if any, devs would want to take on.

 

[Doctor Hades]

I know it goes against the grain but I bought Tears of the Kingdom and have hardly played it, perhaps 2 hours at most.

The reason is that I found it way too similar to Breath of the Wild, which I played for 50-60 hours on Switch then that again on the PC via Cemu emulation, where the game looks and runs so much better than on the Switch, that is hard to go back to playing the sequel on the handheld. What I saw was fine, impressive even for the limited hardware, but I was disappointed that it all looked so familiar. Yes, I could emulate Tears of the Kingdom on PC and play it on yuku or whatever it is called but I don't feel compelled to as I am currently burnt out on Zelda games. Maybe I'll revisit the game on Switch 2, assuming that it will run on the new console?

 

[CuteFaceJay]

Given the complexity of what was achieved?

They've raised the bar to the point where it becomes the new standard and where we get threads like this cropping up where OP believes it's all just a cake walk to develop these technical achievements.

 

[Banjo64]

Best game I’ve ever played and in hindsight I think 6 years is absolutely right for what they accomplished.

 

[Hudo]

Coming from BOTW, I definitely enjoyed TOTK a lot. It was a great improvement in terms of mechanics, first of all. I still don’t know how they managed to run the insane Ultrahand mechanics on the Switch, but imo that’s the game’s most powerful achievement.

They also improved storytelling, and a better effort to have themed dungeons, though never at the level of the pre-open world games.

I definitely don’t think this game was DLC as some people claim, but I also don’t think it should have taken 6 years. Probably 3 at most.

They reuse the map (sky islandsq are very small, underworld doesn’t have many quests or much to do), the format is the same (beat 4 temples northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest), same graphics. I’m tempted to believe it took them as much time because of the new mechanics.

All in all, I beat the game at around 70 hours, missing some sidequests, but I don't plan to touch it again. I’m ready for what’s next, but hoping they reduce the scale this time around so they can make real themed dungeons connected to the story such as in OOT or MM.

Th game also just fucking worked at launch. Other games need 2 years of patching and a "definitive" edition until they're in the state that was advertised before release...

 

[Bernardougf]

The problem is the length of games.. people only want to do 70+ hours games so it takes forever and/or are too much expensive....the industry for survival has to turn back to 30+ hours games and launch them faster and cheaper...

 

[GymWolf]

The 6 years were probably all betatesting to see if the new skills could break the game.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

What the hell are you talking about? How exactly do they make the same game in half the time?

It’s just typical message board Armchair quarterbacking. Like Nintendo actively decided to take an extra 36 months just to pretend like they were busy and waste all that time and money so someone on NeoGAF could point out that development took longer than they thought it should have.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

Lol at comparisons with Spider-Man. I liked the first one and will pick up the sequel tomorrow but honestly, Spider-Man is a game that you play for 10 hours and forget about. Zelda is a game that you play for 100+ hours and can’t stop thinking about. There’s a difference.

 

[Mowcno]

It is pretty weird that development of Breath of the Wild took 6 years and development of this took 6 years when they had so much work they could re-use from Breath of the Wild.

 

[UltimaKilo]

OP going to fly out to Japan and teach these stupid devs the secrets only he knows. He’s going to be a billionaire soon!

 

[Majukun]

let me get this straight, we always complain about companies releasing incomplete and buggy games, and the one time they took their time to release the best game they could...we complain?

 

[FinalBossWithTheMostPower]

I'm at about 90 hours in and just started reavealing the depths' map. IMO finishing it at 70 seems like a rush job.

Game is so good, that I found every excuse for the last 5 months to not finish it, including FF16 and BG3.

Coming back afterwards has been sublime.

 

[violence]

They’re making fine wine, not soda.

 

[Sorcerer]

There was probably no rush to get it done. I think they released it at the time when they thought appropriate. Very late in the Switch lifecycle so that people would anticipate the next game on new hardware but at the same time not expect it nowhere near that hardware's launch. Nintendo giving themselves years of breathing time on the next game, coming to grips with the new hardware and what it can do. However Nintendo planned it, it obviously worked.