- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Controversial gaming opinion: video games are good.
What are controversial gaming opinions you have?
TotK is an enlightened 'I don't care' regarding lore. This forum should be especially equipped to appreciate them shucking the chains of established canon to enable the experience they want to create.
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
Frankly I don't generally go into Zelda titles expecting timeline references at all, and the game was fun, so any inconsistencies didn't bug me. In the end the Devs set out to make fun games first, and timeline of events a very distant second. Best we generally get is little Easter egg reference to past titles.
Vyslanté
The self is a prison
- Location
- European Union
I don't care about continuity lore with the general zelda franchise, but I do care about not owning up to being a direct sequel.
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
While I think this is somewhat true of the earlier games, I think it's worth remembering that back in the 2000s people often came away with the impression that the Master Chief could casually flip an inverted main battle tank back onto its tracks lol. Notably one of the reasons why people didn't like the introduction of ADS to the series was that it impacted on their view of the Master Chief's superhuman abilities, in that they took it as being reflected in how he could use any weapon on the move without any penalties at a constant speed of about 75% of Usain Bolt's best ever sprint (really).
Something that stands out to me about this is how difficult it can be to judge things in video games, especially in first person games. Speed, or the perception of speed, in games is heavily influenced by things like the size of the environments, how it looks, and especially FOV. It's common for people to think that Halo 3 is slower than CE and 2, but they are actually the speed, it just appears slower because 3 has a narrower FOV. This is on top of how MLG Halo 3 set base movement speed to 110%, reinforcing the perception that it was slower, but as far as I know this was just because the game had more mid-size maps than the previous two.
Anyway, that was then, and as the franchise has gone on it has given the players more abilities, culminating in Halo 5, a game with superspeed rocket peeking, crazy slide mechanics, the ability to crash through solid walls, punches with area of effect shockwaves, etc. This was pretty controversial as it turns out lol
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Also starting from Reach they've included assassination animations that would make Kratos nod approvingly. I still can't get over the 'stick knife in back of someone's head then TONY JAA FLYING KNEE it entirely inside their skull' lol, it's unhinged
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The problem for Halo is that most super soldier traits already exist as well mainline traits for protagonists that are explicitly ordinary unaugmented humans. Master Chief has a super high tech shield that can take bullets, but Cowadooty dude can just... take a couple rounds to the chest and be fine five seconds later. Ditto for things like running or sprinting while firing weapons large enough to be stationary crew operated affairs with a modicum of accuracy. The only thing that stands out as obviously superhuman compared to typical FPS protagonists is the whole casually fast flipping vehicles like they're made of cardboard.
Personally I kind of liked the 'slow' but tough and powerful in-game depiction of Spartans even if it doesn't align with lore. It gave a different feel from other FPS games that emphasize cover and evasion with headshots being the name of the game. It gave combat a bit more of a 'battleship' slugfest feel. Halo wasn't just the shooty man game, it was about grenades, melees, and vehicles, with in many cases infantry shooting being one of the less effectual tools.
Personally I kind of liked the 'slow' but tough and powerful in-game depiction of Spartans even if it doesn't align with lore. It gave a different feel from other FPS games that emphasize cover and evasion with headshots being the name of the game. It gave combat a bit more of a 'battleship' slugfest feel. Halo wasn't just the shooty man game, it was about grenades, melees, and vehicles, with in many cases infantry shooting being one of the less effectual tools.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
When I think of games that actually do make the player feel like an unstoppable super soldier, a few that come to mind are:
Metroid: Zero Mission, after you get the fully powered suit. Going from being helpless against the space pirate troopers to plowing through dozens of them effortlessly never gets old.
Doom Eternal, weirdly enough despite how fragile you are in the game. You just have so much firepower at your disposal.
Warframe, though I haven't played much of it, almost goes without saying.
Metroid: Zero Mission, after you get the fully powered suit. Going from being helpless against the space pirate troopers to plowing through dozens of them effortlessly never gets old.
Doom Eternal, weirdly enough despite how fragile you are in the game. You just have so much firepower at your disposal.
Warframe, though I haven't played much of it, almost goes without saying.
Grey Rook
Genuine Nerd
- Location
- The Quantum Foam
I wonder if Guncaster counts. With most or all of the upgrades, you can rip through entire hordes of monsters without even slowing down.
Possibly Alpha Protocol, at high levels. Stacking stealth and pistols allow you to to just negate both human guards and electronic stealth, and gun down bosses in one or two barrages.
Earth Defense Force 6 might count at high levels when playing as the Wing Diver or Fencer. Going from the crappy starting guns and accessories to the late-game ones make a huge difference, and not just in the amount of damage they put out.
EYE: Divine Cybermancy, for all its jankiness, might count considering the amounts of firepower you can pick up.
Prototype 1, 2 even more so. Saints Row 4. Vanquish. Advent Rising might count. Shadow Warrior 2 with enough grinding item crafting or playing on easier difficulties.. Timeshift.
Oh right, Turbo Overkill probably counts.
Possibly Alpha Protocol, at high levels. Stacking stealth and pistols allow you to to just negate both human guards and electronic stealth, and gun down bosses in one or two barrages.
Earth Defense Force 6 might count at high levels when playing as the Wing Diver or Fencer. Going from the crappy starting guns and accessories to the late-game ones make a huge difference, and not just in the amount of damage they put out.
EYE: Divine Cybermancy, for all its jankiness, might count considering the amounts of firepower you can pick up.
Prototype 1, 2 even more so. Saints Row 4. Vanquish. Advent Rising might count. Shadow Warrior 2 with enough grinding item crafting or playing on easier difficulties.. Timeshift.
Oh right, Turbo Overkill probably counts.
Yeah, Tears isn't even it's own game, it's a crappy rehash of Breath of the Wild with a crafting system as the justification for existing.
It's not "enlightened", it's just bad. It's beat-for-beat the story of Breath of the Wild with the characters and circumstances changed around, which they marketed as being a sequel. It's not a sequel. It's a worse version of a game I already bought from them. They replaced Sheikah with Zonai, added an overcomplicated crafting system, and made us do a few more shitty dungeons with bad boss fights in order to progress to a worse version of fighting Ganondorf.
It's only not unequivocally the worst 70 bucks that I ever spent because I made the mistake of purchasing Starfield.
- Location
- The Old Dominion
Tears of the Kingdom has certainly its issues though it seems to be a love-hate thing given people seem to either enjoy or hate it with a unholy passion.
I can't say Tears of the Kingdom one of my favorite Zelda games and I found the gloom hands to be vastly more aggravating than any other Zelda enemy I can recall in the entire franchise.
For my part I think the only direct Zelda Sequel that I loved every much as the game that came before it was Link's Awaken which I loved as much Link to the Past which remains my favorite Zelda game of all time while I really didn't care for let's say Majora's Mask or Phantom Hourglass.
I'd say it was perhaps because I didn't play Majora's Mask or Phantom Hourglass when they came out but that is also true of Wind Waker, and I view Wind Waker as one of my favorite Zelda games up there with Link to the Past, Link's Awakening and Ocarina of time which were all games I played when they came out.
I remember having the version of Ocarina of Time which had the original fire temple them that got removed from later versions.
I can't say Tears of the Kingdom one of my favorite Zelda games and I found the gloom hands to be vastly more aggravating than any other Zelda enemy I can recall in the entire franchise.
For my part I think the only direct Zelda Sequel that I loved every much as the game that came before it was Link's Awaken which I loved as much Link to the Past which remains my favorite Zelda game of all time while I really didn't care for let's say Majora's Mask or Phantom Hourglass.
I'd say it was perhaps because I didn't play Majora's Mask or Phantom Hourglass when they came out but that is also true of Wind Waker, and I view Wind Waker as one of my favorite Zelda games up there with Link to the Past, Link's Awakening and Ocarina of time which were all games I played when they came out.
I remember having the version of Ocarina of Time which had the original fire temple them that got removed from later versions.
- Pronouns
- He
Can't see how Tears of the Kingdom can be called DLC for Breath of the Wild when I own Tears and don't own BotW and it still works.
- Location
- Georgia, US
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Respectfully this is unhelpfully pedantic, when people say that x is a DLC of y they're not saying it's literally an extension of the game. They're commenting on the perceived derivativeness of a game.
I have no stake here and being similar is by no means inherently bad but no one gains anything by ignoring (or misunderstanding) what very common phrasing means.
Age of Empires 2: Age of Conquerors in the original form, worked just fine without Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings. You wouldn't have Age of Kings content but the Age of Conqueror's content would work. Dawn of War: Soulstorm, and Dawn of War: Dark Crusade will both function just fine with no other Dawn of War stuff. It's called "Standalone Expansion". It's not weird.
I mean, jokes aside on the whole "Tears of the Kingdom is just a DLC/Expansion Pack of Breath of the Wild" since it recycles a lot of the same content from BotW, TotK still isn't that. It's a standalone game that you purchase separately, and as far as I remember the two games have zero important direct interaction that comes about from owning both, just minor stuff like "you can transfer over your horses from your BotW save file".
Tears of the Kingdom isn't a DLC, or an Expansion, or any of that, it's a 70 dollar game all of its own. There's plenty of room to argue on whether it's worth that 70 dollar price tag, or how derivative or recycled content the game is, or even just the usual game stuff of "is the gameplay good/improved from BotW or not" and "how enjoyable is the story", but you can absolutely play both games separately with zero connection to each other or requirement to have played or own the other one, and owning BotW doesn't add any content in the way your example would add Age of Kings or Soulstorm content stacks with their standalone expansions.
I for one don't mind at all that ToTK firmly establishes that it and BOTW are meant to be their own continuity with no real connection to other games in the series.
I do not like how much it refuses to actually engage with the fact that it's a direct sequel and tries to rehash and ignore BOTW as much as it possibly can to the point where you could be forgiven for not realizing it at all as all the sheikah stuff vanishes while everyone acts like it never existed (Why are you so excited about a camera existing like you've never seen one before when you've had and used one before Zelda?) and you only get a few references you have to go out of your way to hunt down.
I do not like how much it refuses to actually engage with the fact that it's a direct sequel and tries to rehash and ignore BOTW as much as it possibly can to the point where you could be forgiven for not realizing it at all as all the sheikah stuff vanishes while everyone acts like it never existed (Why are you so excited about a camera existing like you've never seen one before when you've had and used one before Zelda?) and you only get a few references you have to go out of your way to hunt down.
- Location
- Russia
It can be argued that they're doing the same thing that Final Fantasy does. Just endlessly reusing the same names and toys and gods and monsters instead of inventing completely brand new ones for every game, just less... uh... elegantly.
Part of the problem with that though is it's already what Zelda's been effectively doing with most games. The majority of Zelda games are just "somewhere in the Hyrule timeline idk, here's a Ganon or a Ganondorf, there's a Link and Zelda and Triforce". Occasionally one or two games are chained together with direct connections, but otherwise you could argue that the games are disconnected or their own worlds, the way most Final Fantasy games are disconnected and their own worlds that just happen to have some shared elements like "that's Cid over there, the world has Moogles and Chocobos, and there's a Big Dragon Summon named Bahamut".
But Tears of the Kingdom feels like it's taking the worst of both worlds, where pretty much everything of the characters and world make it clear it's a direct sequel... and then for some reason purging a bunch of elements without explanation, meaning it makes less sense as a direct sequel despite being set on the exact same world map. Anyone that isn't an important character from the first game suddenly doesn't recognize Link so I guess he just didn't do any of their sidequests, basically all the Sheikah tech from the Guardians to the Divine Beasts are just handwaved away with little explanation other than "idk all stopped working and we cannibalized them into new map towers"... iirc Tarrey Town, the place you practically built yourself from the ground up going around helping and recruiting everyone, is still built except now everybody you personally knew and interacted with just forgot who Link is entirely, I guess.
It's just a strange, baffling sort of sequel that's taking an unhelpful middle route, instead of committing entirely to either "this is a direct sequel with a world you already saved before" or "this is an entirely new game where everyone just happens to look like people you know". At least when they did that in Majora's Mask, Termina being a bizarre reflection of Hyrule was a thing so it makes sense why all these familiar characters don't recognize Link in the least.
(Anyways despite all that I still had a blast playing Tears of the Kingdom and will probably replay it again at some point, it do be fun)
- Location
- Australia
Zelda Tears Of The Kingdom Director on the Series' Timeline and How They Approach it
An Ultrahands off approach
Morganite
Happiness is a large book.
- Location
- Dynamis - Firefly Alley
Re: Ocarina of Time's level of popularity/enjoyment in the modern era, I would note that it seems very popular in the rando scene, which has got to count for something...
Though personally I feel like it's a game that really suffers if you're playing it on a controller that isn't at least a decent facsimile of an N64 controller.
-Morgan.
Though personally I feel like it's a game that really suffers if you're playing it on a controller that isn't at least a decent facsimile of an N64 controller.
-Morgan.
- Location
- Bloomington, IN
The 3DS remake is unironically the best way to play it. Controls work just fine, uses the dual screen to great effect in terms of making item usage and navigation more convenient, fixes the core problems with the Water Temple despite not actually changing anything about it, and, unlike the Majora's Mask remake on the same system, they didn't mess with anything that didn't need to be messed with.
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- Singular They
Personally, I have never seen that definition of the phrase "X is a DLC of Y". I do not know where this definition is considered "very common".
Usually "X is a DLC of Y" is used in the direct, obvious way, with allowances for "DLC" to include "expansions" (and "standalone expansions"): "Sunbreak is a DLC of Monster Hunter Rise", "X4: Kingdom End is a DLC for X4: Foundations", "the Shrek map pack is a DLC for Powerwash Simulator", and so on.
For the case of Tears Of The Kingdom, the phrase I've heard most often is "TotK should be a DLC for Breath Of The Wild". As in the commenter wishes TotK to have been a DLC, rather than its own game. The reasonings I've heard include the alleged lack of variety, thus justifying a lower price as an "add-on" rather than a "full game". There were also comments wishing to carry on the unlocked mechanics of BotW, rather than starting from scratch again.
I have never heard of the "very common phrasing" definition you say. I can believe it may be common in some specific discussion areas, but I do not think it is universally "very common".
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- Singular They
That seems like it would get very confusing very quickly.
- Location
- Georgia, US
- Pronouns
- He/Him
No, it would not.
There's something way more appropiate to liken TotK to than DLC: Tears feels a ton like a big fancy overhaul mod for BotW.
It's a full game's worth of awesome new content and mechanics, but you can clearly see the bones of what it was built from everywhere and its halves frequently clash awkwardly.
It's a full game's worth of awesome new content and mechanics, but you can clearly see the bones of what it was built from everywhere and its halves frequently clash awkwardly.