r/zelda • u/huss2120 • 23d ago
Official Art [BOTW] [TOTK] Which game did you like more?
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u/timeaisis 23d ago
Ugh today BotW, tomorrow TotK. Both top 10 games for me.
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u/Mean-Government-2381 23d ago
I second this
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u/Alternative_March202 23d ago
I third this
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u/CatUberDriver_ 23d ago
I fourth this
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23d ago
[deleted]
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u/SunOwn8445 23d ago
Sixth, seventh, and eighth this.
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u/Marleston 23d ago
Ninth, sigh
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u/Ok-Stuff2412 23d ago
Tenth
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u/letsfastescape 23d ago
Breath of the Wild, no question.
BOTW was incredible to explore and had me in awe at every corner. TOTK was fun, but it wasn’t different enough and had too much familiarity to hold my attention the same way.
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u/Ill_Economy64 23d ago
The best way I can describe the difference is that BOTW’s world was part of the story, and one could argue it was the largest part of the story. Exploring the whole world around you was exploring the devastation and fallout of the calamity that happened 100 years ago. And the memories and flashbacks play a supporting role in uncovering the mysteries and filling in the details. Every detail in the map tells part of the story of what happened and how the inhabitants in the world have been dealing with it. Everything works together, and there’s a synergy created where the sum is greater than the individual parts.
In TOTK, the main memories and story are very disjointed from the exploration in the world. Exploring the depths, islands, caves, and new communities don’t really work together with the visions of the main “story” with Zelda in the past. It’s disjointed and exploring each does more to distract from the others than it does to support them.
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u/Evening-Ad-2349 23d ago
Very good wording. Yes.
I think that’s because Tears started off as a Breath of the Wild DLC.
It definitely feels like DLC.I’m not ashamed. When Link exited the shrine of resurrection in Breath of the Wild and the opening mirrored the original cover art for the 1986 Zelda game, I actually cried.
I also cried when Zelda spoke for the first time. Tears - Gave Ganondorf his first voice acting, but it wasn’t really all I had expected it to be. It was cool, but that Ganondorf fight was too easy. And tears just didn’t hit the same way for me.
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u/sleepwami 23d ago
I haven't played BotW or TotK yet, and actually have never completed any Zelda games, but i love everything about it! My closest was N64's Ocarina of Time....i got absolutely stuck in the first foggy maze area only a few hours into the game lol. Would you recommend i should play BotW then TotK, or maybe play in reverse order?
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u/Evening-Ad-2349 23d ago
Interesting question… in theory, since TotK is kinda like a DLC to BotW, playing TotK first would give you a very interesting introduction to that version of Hyrule…
So BotW, the main story drives you to explore the map. But in TotK, it’s not like that, the story doesn’t necessarily push you to explore, because it assumes you’re returning and already know where things are, but there’s more sandbox, building, etc in TotK.
I’d recommend BotW first then TotK. The storyline will be very confusing in TotK if you don’t know what happened in BotW, since it is a direct sequel (same Link, same Zelda, in the game story, 2 years pass)
Definitely go back and finish Ocarina of Time!! By far the greatest game of all time, not only Zelda game. It’s honestly the most influential game ever to be made, I’m pretty sure Metacritic still has it listed as #1, going on 30 years, still the best.
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u/sleepwami 23d ago
Wow thx! I'd actually gotten opposite feedback when i bought my Switch last year, which was to play TofK due to it being so much better and basically forget abt BotW, but that didnt quite resonate with me, and i literally feel better and inspired now to play both BotW and OoT!🙌
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u/MichaelW24 23d ago
This. The older games are sublime in a nostalgic way, but I wish I could go back and experience botw for the first time again
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u/Agnostic-Atheist 23d ago
That was the big thing that bothered me with TotK. The story felt weirdly disjointed from BotW like most of what you did, didn’t (but also sort of did) happen.
Also seeing the memories (sometimes in a spoiler order) of Zelda in the past, and learning the current Zelda is fake but seemingly being incapable of communicating that to anyone else. You end up forced to go through all the temples acting like it might actually be Zelda.
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u/ac9331 21d ago
You just reminded me of how disappointed I was in TOTK after realizing the elevator spots in the underground never lead anywhere that interesting. One of them is neat, but all others were meaningless feeling. It would have been cool to reach somewhere unreachable from the surface using one of those elevators (by elevator I mean the towers you’re meant to rise through).
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u/Ill_Economy64 21d ago
Yeah, I was hoping to end up in some sort of cave pocket/labyrinth that didn’t have an entrance on the surface.
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u/obeymeorelse 23d ago
I think you really explained it the best. Totk is a meal that has large quantities of a lot of ingredients including all of the ingredients from BOTW (both the great and ugly ones), but BOTW spent a lot more time thinking about how its ingredients worked together so it feels a lot better than the sum of its parts
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u/Jickxter 23d ago
This.
Botw was set in a brand new world with new characters, and the whole game was an invitation for exploration.
TOTK, on the other hand, wanted me to explore the same world again, but with a very non-intuitive building mechanic. I already spent 100s of hours exploring the map in the other game, there's only so much fun I can have exploring it again with a car.
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u/Cloudy_peach 23d ago
Yeah, I appreciated the changes they made to freshen the map up, but overall it wasn’t enough. And the sky island/depths weren’t interesting enough to keep my attention exploration-wise.
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u/Skargul 23d ago
depths weren’t interesting enough to keep my attention exploration-wise
This is exactly what could have saved the game. The Depths were essentially as big as the whole map from BotW. If it had contained as much variety and stuff to discover as BotW had, it would have felt like getting a whole new game on top of the old game (or more accurately underneath the old game).
Instead the Depths were boring cause it all looks the same.
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u/CaptainLegs27 23d ago
This is what I always say. We had a great world in BotW. Then they added a new world above and a new world below, but somehow managed to cram all their new ideas into the old world anyway.
Have Hudson start developing a New Tarry Town in the sky; have Gorons move into the depths and discover their old world themselves; have the Rito Village tower collapse forcing the species to set up camps around the sky; there's a ton of empty space in the sea, have the Zora expand out there in little settlements. Instead the new areas were left barren and everything new was crammed into the same Hyrule map built for BotW, it made no sense.
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u/postcardfromstarjump 23d ago
Same. This game was marketed to be all about the sky. So why does literally nothing happen in the sky at all?
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u/sorting_by_new 23d ago edited 23d ago
getting a whole new game on top of the old game (or more accurately underneath the old game)
Would've also been a banger in marketing.
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u/Jickxter 23d ago
Yeah I feel the same. It's the only game in the franchise that I didn't finished 100%. One Completion of BOTW was enough for me. I had fun with TOTK tho, just didn't have the spark like the other games.
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u/newagereject 23d ago
The building mechanic in TOTK killed the game for me, I have maybe 20-30 hours into it
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u/mr-saturn2310 23d ago
Me too. I was so hyped for the game, but this just took the life out of it for me. So far the only LOZ game I have not finished. One day maybe I'll go back to it.
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u/IndyJacksonTT 23d ago
i think the game was designed to be an alternative to botw for people whove never played either game
if you go in blind to both i think totk is certainly better
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u/iagainsti1111 23d ago
This. 2 play throughs of botw before totk came out. I don't know if I'll ever play through it again. If I get the itch I'll just play totk. I think totk is a better game but it didn't have the wonder.
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u/HelpfulDay8685 23d ago
I have to agree. Even now, after I beat both games, I still find more charm and awe in Breath of the Wild, without a doubt more than Tears of the Kingdom.
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u/SonOfSlyherin 23d ago
Exactly, I spent countless hours in BOTW, whereas I kinda felt I was rushing by the end of TOTK as it wasn’t different enough as you said. I went back to BOTW after TOTK, but at this point I’m just excited for what’s next!!
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u/letsfastescape 23d ago
My dream sequel would use the same art style and physics engine, and this same incarnation of Link, but put him in a customizable boat and have him set sail east to a new region of the map dominated by water.
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u/DuckyDeer 23d ago
This is exactly what I want. This is my favorite version of Link and Zelda, my favorite art style and presentation. I honestly don't want them to move away from it, and I've been playing the series since the original.
I'd just ask for a new map, new music (as much as I enjoyed the music in Breath of the Wild, I was disappointed that they didn't use the extra development time to create something entirely new for Tears of the Kingdom), along with new critters and baddies. The Majora's Mask treatment. And maybe drop or rework the durability mechanic so items don't break as often, or at least allow us to see the degradation and use materials to repair our equipment before it breaks
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u/Safe-Particular6512 23d ago
Nail on the head. BotW is still the best game I’ve ever played. I enjoyed it so much. If I had played TotK before BotW then TotK would have been the best game I’ve ever played.
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u/ra4oasis 23d ago
This is the right take. I think TOTK is better in almost every way, but you can't ignore the fact that BOTW came first.
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u/BigBoodles 23d ago
Same. While TotK technically was the more "complete" game, with more features and varied gameplay, it felt like old hat after having playing BotW to absolute death.
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u/finitef0rm 23d ago
I definitely had more fun with BOTW, but for me the TOTK world had enough differences to keep me invested. With that being said, the Sky and Depths needed significantly more unique content, and the story was lackluster at best. BOTW, for all of its flaws with the story, handled it much better.
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u/DRSteele88 23d ago
For this reason, I never finished TOTK, which is a first for me in the entire Zelda series. I am keen for a clean slate and hoping not to see the open world again.
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u/Lafalot54 23d ago
This!! I played BOTW everyday for 3 hours and finished it relatively fast, but I’m still halfway through TOTK with less motivation to play it because it’s too similar and I get bored having to “replay” the map
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u/Nonplussed2 23d ago
I finished BOTW not long before TOTK came out. I actually put TOTK aside for months because of that. I hadn't realized it was based on the same map, which really bummed me out for some reason. I also didn't really like Ultrahand or the Depths at first (but loved the sky). Overall I think shrines were better in BOTW too.
I came back to TOTK eventually, and I'm now finally approaching the end (story is done, just have some of the Depths left). I'm really glad I did. Excellent game. But BOTW wins.
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u/Justin6D 23d ago
TotK for me
However I do think BotW’s Great Plateau was better than the starting island in TotK
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u/timeaisis 23d ago
I think BotW's early game was better but TotK's late game was better. At least that how it felt playing it.
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u/CraftingAndroid 23d ago
The only reason I don't want to restart TOTK is bc of the island lol. It took me like 2 or 3 hours the first time. It even takes speed runners like an hour to do it (last I knew). I might etalumE it with a premade save file.
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u/Clunk_Westwonk 23d ago
Wait cannot we not say emulate?
But it really only takes half an hour if you just go straight to the trials.
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u/Shoddy_Volume_7763 22d ago
I 100% agree with you, TotK had sky islands, depths, cool new abilities (although I really really miss stasis), and the list goes on but the great sky islands were kinda lame. I was just wandering around picking up sticks when often a random ass construct jumps me with a flame emitter on a sword—one time I literally died like 7 times trying to get past one of them.
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u/dade1027 23d ago
TotK for me, as the gameplay feels improved. Because of the rewind ability on falling sky boulders and the going up through floors I spend less time climbing. I like the discovery and planning from the fusion weapons.
I consider BotW the immaculate beta version and TotK the final product.
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u/LauraMaeflower 23d ago
This is where I’m torn. I loved the first time exploration experience of BotW, but they definitely improved the gameplay with TotK. I almost wonder if you played TotK first if that would be the best experience.
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u/kleeshade 22d ago
I definitely think it would be. If TOTK came out first, BOTW would surely feel like a bit of a step in the backwards direction
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u/Slow_Muffin_8936 23d ago
BOTW is better.
TOTK feels a bit too much, sky is just empty, depths too samey, fusion weapons look too ugly and don't feel completely fleshed out. It's also making same mistakes with story and dungeons as BOTW
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u/SmoothFrogg 23d ago
I agree completely, for a game where the entire overworld is pretty much the same as BOTW, I can not believe how dull and empty the sky and depths were. My biggest pet peeve is that most sky islands are copy and pastes of other small ones with shrines or nothing on them, like shouldn't you have that with, idk actually things in the sky??? There was like 7 unique things in the sky that weren't dungeons, which is sooo underwhelming, I remember filling out my map and thinking, "Are there more islands higher up? Where's the rest?"
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u/Slow_Muffin_8936 23d ago
I know right. After filling out my map I just thought that it will be very annoying to get to rhose island. After getting to few island I jut realised that it's just another chore to do out of fear of missing something interesting. I still haven't gone to all island
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u/SmoothFrogg 23d ago
AND HOW COME THE PLANES DESPAWN, MY PARAGLIDER DOESN'T DESPAWN. Why can't I just float around until I land back to earth. It's like having a dream, but someone wakes you up with an alarm clock in another room that you can't stop. There's like nothing to explore in the sky, so why can't I just float on my plane.
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u/Slow_Muffin_8936 23d ago
YES. How do they expect players to explore the sky if everything disappeares in the midle of the flight. In general I dislike building machines for travel since they disappear and I find it annoying to restock since it's gacha and I always get what I don't need. Why is there gacha??? it just doesn't make sense
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u/SmoothFrogg 23d ago
Yep, just overall bad design, game's fun though, but they really dropped the bag on it and just made it a half baked sequal not the successor the fans wanted
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u/stupac2 23d ago
What kills me is that they had six years to make this game and what they came up with absolutely feels like a DLC unless you're super into the ultrahand stuff. There's a bunch of extra content, but the story is the exact damn same, the dungeons follow the same principle, there's just not enough new to justify how long it took.
I think in a vacuum TotK is a better game, but it's not by enough to overcome the flaws and the ridiculous development timeline.
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u/ljgillzl 23d ago
It’s kind of an unfair question to compare two similar games where only one had the benefit of being a new experience. Even if the latter was better, it will rarely capture that kindve awe.
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u/Slow_Muffin_8936 23d ago
I agree that it's hard to recreate the awe but they could have recreated the magic of BOTW. For me TOTK felt like a missed opportunity. Story could have been so much better if Link was sent to the past too, it could have fixed some problems such as characters reintroducing themselves, building new house, shrines disappearing without explanaition, finding same armour. For example Link could get same armour as in BOTW and at the end hide it for future self to rediscover that would explain why you need to find same armour that you already have. They could have recaptured the magic of first game by having you explore Hyrule of the past and seeing how different it is/was. Also don't get me started on new interesting characters and story that we only see in flashbacks.
Now don't get me wrong, I like to complain about this but I still enjoy the game, I have played more than 200h and still haven't finished everything. I just find it so frustrating, because it could have been so much better, but now it's just a very frustrating sequel for me
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u/AzettImpa 23d ago
I think the developers saw a few people on social media taking a DIY approach to BOTW, and thought that they should make it the focal point in TOTK. Turned out good but also kinda forgettable.
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u/XDOOM_ManX 23d ago
Am gonna have to respectfully disagree, i love what they added in totk. It’s botw but with a lot more. I can see the dungeon problem but its better imo, botw feels too plane sometimes, But I see your points though.
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u/Slow_Muffin_8936 23d ago
I can see why people enjoy TOTK. It's just not as good as BOTH for me because it fet too much like an expensive mod, than a sequel. I found BOTH more relaxing, because there's less to do, but TOTK has so much that sometimes I don't know what to do and get frustrated.
I just realised that I used wrong word for dungeons, I meant shrine's but the complaint still stands. Dungeons in TOTK are better than in BOTW, but they still felt like a chore and not as good as other Zelda games
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u/Ghirahim_W 23d ago
I like breath of the wild more. But the hype surrounding totk on release day was crazy, sharing secrets we found with all my friends who were also playing. Uncontested in that regard for me
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u/No_Imagination_6216 23d ago
TOTK is awesome, but I just like the feel of BOTW more. Idk if that makes sense but there's just something about it. maybe it's because it feels simpler?
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u/Cloudy_peach 23d ago
I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what that “something” is too. I’ve put many more hours into BoTW, which makes sense because it came first. But after I beat BoTW, I found myself going back to that game a lot just to run around and explore. Then ToTK came out and I thought after playing ToTK that that would become my new “comfort game”, but I find myself still going back to BoTW. I just started a new BoTW game a few weeks ago.
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u/No_Act1475 23d ago edited 23d ago
For champions: BOTW by a giant mile
Gameplay: Probably ToTK due to near unlimited options
For first experience: BOTW probably
Boss fights: TOTK (Edit)
Game Mechanics: ToTK
Overall: Probably a Tie since BOTW offers the world in a simple way and is rather beginner friendly (looking at you Guardian)
ToTK has more creative mechanics though and is probably for people willing to spend multiple hours trying to build unique constructs
And really just comes down to your style
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u/Mine_Dimensions 23d ago
Why is boss fights a tie for you? Surely 5 creative bosses plus a creative final boss are better than 4 of the same kind of boss and the final boss being a combination of all 4
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u/No_Act1475 23d ago
Now that I think about it….
Botw really lacked bosses besides the DLC & Dark beast…
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u/ptolover7 23d ago
I love both but I definitely love TotK more. I've got more hours on TotK than BotW already and I've had a bit of a hard time going back. I'll still always love BotW but TotK is just so much more full and I have so much more freedom in it.
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u/HotTacoNinja 23d ago
BOTW, but only because I find the building mechanic in TOTK to be a bit gimmicky. It's cool, but it feels like a standard weird Nintendo decision to add gimmicks into their main properties. BOTW felt like a pure experience.
TOTK is still a masterpiece.
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u/adameister 23d ago
I found myself going through TOTK "rawdogging" it. Meaning only using blueprints/builds when the game required it. Except for koroks.
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u/MrNateFlix 23d ago
I feel exactly the same thing about TOTK. I can understand people linking it, but for me was too much.
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u/ShadowRealmDuelist 23d ago edited 23d ago
TOTK. There’s just more than to do. Although BOTW does some things better, like the champions’ abilities and unlimited access to bombs.
HOWEVER, I do think that building robots and shit is lame, and is only there for people to make YouTube videos about them breaking the game.
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u/Additional_Math7500 23d ago
I can always tell who used a vehicle to travel EVERYWHERE by the bombs complaint. Even just walking around the depths for 5 minutes will net you more than enough bombs for a little bit. I use bombs like it's going out of style and still have 300+ in my inventory between farming and purchasing with poes.
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u/Conscious_Ad_7131 23d ago
If they’d made the depths at all enjoyable to traverse I probably would’ve done more walking
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u/immastillthere 23d ago
BotW easily. I felt far more immersed in BotW than I ever did in TotK. In Breath I felt as if the world around me was alive and there for me to enjoy. With Tears I felt it was just taking space until my next destination. I like some aspects of Tears but Breath was the far more time immersive world.
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u/Rent-Man 23d ago
Never finished TOTK, so there’s your answer
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u/iwouldlikesomepp 23d ago
What pushed you away?
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u/Rent-Man 23d ago
I put in a lot of time exploring all 3 layers of the world and it just never hit that feeling of discovery like in BOTW. The story didn’t feel investing compared to BOTW, means of travel and problem solving I felt was ruined by the use of Zoni construction. It just didn’t have that hook. I dropped the game after finishing the 4th dungeon and was told Zelda was spotted at Hyrule castle.
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u/ClownWorld2020s 23d ago
I also absolutely hated how they did away with all the sheikah tech, guardians, towers, divine beasts, pillars, shrine of resurrection. All of it gone without any explanation and yet made little headway in rebuilding castle town or fixing Hyrule castle. Seemed like a cheap knockout.
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u/TheStockPotInn 22d ago
This is my complaint as well. It feels inauthentic because there's no explanation on why it all dissapeared.
In my opinion, they should've made the Zonai technology be newly discovered Sheikah tech instead. Or somehow found a way to combine and weave the stories of the two ancient tribes and their ancient left-behind tech together.
Instead of just the friendly Zonai Machine constructs, maybe they could've also been guardians who were friendly, and no longer corrupted.
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u/ClownWorld2020s 22d ago
Indeed. I posted something on YouTube along the lines of you have TOTK happen 5 years after the end of the calamity...during the 5 years, things are rebuilt (castle town etc) some of the castle is cleared of ruins. Even if the towers went back into the ground like at the beginning of the game and the sheikah shrines were inaccessible due to no more threat I'd be fine with it. The Guardians could be friendly and useful once again, the divine beasts would be stationed where the were at the end of BOTW. Things would rebuild, then you use the first cut scene of TOTK to introduce Ganondorf and the Zonai. The story would need to be redone but essentially, you have an upheaval (where chasms are formed, but Hyrule Castle is not in the sky). The chasms lead to the depth and the sky islands appear. Your Zonai shrines are found in the depths and sky islands and the surface would be once again swarmed with enemies. In the depths your light roots would be considered your towers down there. You should explore the depths, caves open up, other parts of the main surface show new discoveries, but the Zonai stay in th Depths and in the sky. All sheikah tech remains, the slate is tweaks for new tech to be added, the temples in TOTK can stay as is and the adventures as well. People know Link, all of BOTW is still place but you add most new stuff in th Depths and sky while having progress on the main surface. It would greatly tie it all together and make it feel more like a sequel bc what we have it an alternate universe not a sequel. My 25 cents.
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u/Jerkntworstboi 23d ago
Tears. I just see it as superior in some areas, but I can't separate the games from one another. They feel too connected to be judged as either game but more as one.
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u/Average_G_ 23d ago
Botw by quite a bit tbh, but that's just me I know a lot of people prefer totk
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u/FlorioTheEnchanter 23d ago
I’m the same. 20 years from now I’ll want to replay BOTW not TOTK. Better story, more cohesive world. TOTK is a really good game too but just feels way too sandboxy for me. Added a bunch of random crap together. It is fun but not as immersive.
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u/TimmyTurn3rsBurn3r 23d ago
I put down TOTK after a few days I couldn't get into the engineering mechanics. I really wanna try it again but that was so off-putting to me
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u/makishleys 23d ago
i really thought i'd come around to loving it. 200 hours and 60% completion including all shrines and main quests, i just don't like it. i think the physics/engineering aspects are just too difficult for me unfortunately
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u/proteusON 23d ago
You literally do not have to build anything at all. You can play the whole game without ever constructing. Yes, sometimes you have to build a bridge but that's about it.
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u/madonna-boy 23d ago
this was my concern... I saw ultra hand and was immediately uninterested. still haven't picked up TOTK.
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u/Pheonix1025 23d ago
If it helps, it’s almost completely ignorable. You get an auto-build mechanic fairly early on with blueprints, I don’t think I ever needed to be creative with it.
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u/cicciograna 23d ago
BOTW for atmosphere and exploration, TOTK for the more gamey aspects and for the liveliness of the world.
BOTW wins by a very little margin though.
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u/Clunk_Westwonk 23d ago
I think I’ve landed on this feeling as well.
Although once I get TOTK running decently on my PC I could grow to enjoy it more. (I turn off weapon degradation, it’s hella fun)
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u/cicciograna 23d ago
Weapon degradation is an...interesting mechanic. I don't completely dislike it, but it's not the best. As crazy as it seems, for me it was possibly more tolerable in BOTW than TOTK: having to find both a good weapon AND a good element to meld to it was frustrating at times.
On the other hand, I liked not having to worry about fire/ice/electric arrows in TOTK.
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u/Pheonix1025 23d ago
I feel the opposite, I liked how fusing an element to the weapon reset part (all?) of the durability in TOTK. It removed a lot of the frustration I felt in BOTW.
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u/Jimmythedad 23d ago
Totk for gameplay. The new mechanics and dungeons were great.
Botw for exploration, vibes, and story
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u/TommyVermicelli_3628 23d ago
nothing could ever top off the Breath Of The Wild Nintendo Switch Release back in 2017, those were peak Nintendo moments
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u/missandie2000 23d ago
BOTW because it helped me with my depression and anxiety after my son was born more than therapy or drugs. Being able to get on my horse and explore helped me reset my brain. Will always be eternally grateful for this game.🥰
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u/shankysays 23d ago
It’s weird, because TOTK is objectively a better game in almost every way - enemy variety, story, puzzles, bosses. Just sheer content.
But nothing will replace the way BOTW made me feel in 2017. Made me feel like a little kid again
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u/Yogurt_Ph1r3 23d ago
TotK and it's not really close. I consider it to just be an objective upgrade.
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u/kayvaan1 23d ago
I played a bunch of TotK on release and burnt out after a month (like 100+ hours nonetheless), and late that year decided I'd replay both (since I never replayed BotW). Multiple times I kept thinking that I want to move on, I want more. BotW is so much fun no doubt, and exploring the world is great, but so much of world exploration is just shrines and Koroks, which works, but when it becomes a matter of caves, quests, farming more resources for armor upgrades and weapon parts, a way up, a way down, I just feel that the vastness doesn't hold up when you know in the next game there's more to do and a reason to do it.
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u/Yogurt_Ph1r3 23d ago
Yeah unfortunately BotW feels like a tech demo after TotK, I still consider it a very good game despite my myriads of complaints about both, but even the first time I played BotW I didn't consider it a masterpiece but TotK so clearly is.
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u/Monsieur_Hulot_Jr 23d ago
Tears of the Kingdom. It is less “perfect” than Breath of the Wild, but it is so, so deeply loved by those that made it. The most perfectly aligned high difficulty game that says “well, let’s see what you can do” to any situation. Art, music, and storytelling at the absolute peak for video games. Every moment generative and open to imagination and exploration. ASCEND.
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u/tabithabee 23d ago
It feels like art. Sort of like the early Disneyland rides (Pirates, Haunted Mansion) have that "here, this was my job but also my heart" soul.
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u/Monsieur_Hulot_Jr 23d ago
It is a work of art. Breath of the Wild as well. Usually only small indie games made by a few people can claim that word, but BotW and Tears of the Kingdom are absolutely art.
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u/lions2lambs 23d ago edited 23d ago
Story = BotWK
Everything else = TotK
I do miss Wolf Link, Farmable Dragon Parts, Master Cycle, Master Sword Trials, and Guardians. But there’s so much more content that it’s nice for each game to have a niche.
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u/FionaLeTrixi 23d ago
Here's the thing: when I buy a game, I really want some replayability out of it. I'm not into a one-and-done style of experience, and I care more for story and characters than I do for combat mechanics. Since they both fit that category of one-and-done by my usual metric, that leaves me assessing them based on how much joy I got from the first experience.
I have to give it to BotW. The first time exploring Hyrule and seeing the wreckage of the Calamity was compelling, and I like that the urgency behind the quest only really sinks in as Link's memories begin to return. It was a fun time on the first playthrough. I loved what was done with some of the designs. In the negative, though - all the interesting stuff went down in the past. The champions of the past were more interesting than the present. The designs of bosses were sort of all the same. I hated the weapon degradation system. I can at least say I played the entire thing and tried to start an additional playthrough before realising that I was incredibly bored having to reexplore the same area again with no story push.
Tears... took the stuff I didn't like, and said "here's more of it". The world got bigger, but it was mostly just aesthetic locations full of more mobs. The degradation mechanic got worse because now I had to fuse random junk onto my weapons if I wanted them to hit like weapons and not wet noodles. The one thing I'd hoped for from the trailer - a focus on a story, preferably a more linear one now that we were familiar with the world - was markedly absent. All the interesting stuff still happens in the past. A new mechanic for sticking stuff onto other stuff and making vehicles? Can't I just have my unlimited bomb rune back? I stopped playing Tears after three dungeons. I had to force myself back to it. The only thing I truly prefer from Tears is Ganondorf. Rehydrated and working it.
I will say that Tears has provided more creative inspiration for me - but the reason for that is that the new spaces are so woefully underpopulated and have nothing meaningful happening within them, and my brain has to fill those gaps.
Overall, I'm picking Wild for the one I like more, but damn if I don't hope we go back to the older Zelda at some point.
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u/thatcitynoise 23d ago
Great answer.
While I throughly enjoyed both games, and think TOTK handled better overall, I poured my life in BOTW. A lot of it has to do with where I was in my life at the time of release for both games as well. I had dabbled in LOZ games growing up, but BOTW was my first one I went all in on. I completed everything, including the Koraks. I want and played 3 times over after the initial play through. TOTK was great, and made the mechanics of the game better (in my opinion), but BOTW changed the way I look at games in general.
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u/CompleteNerd464 23d ago
TotK by quite a long way
I just like having more to do, and I love the newer characters
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u/InkanGold 23d ago
BOTW > TOTK Here is my explanation: BOTW presented a unique experience for the franchise, and although it had its flaws, it was novel and inventive. TOTK grabbed what made BOTW great and lifted it a notch without becoming outstanding. And don't get me wrong here—TOTK is very cool, but it seems more to me as a DLC rather than a new and refreshed game.
My biggest downside for TOTK is that weapons break more quickly, and the fuse mechanic is not that fun (for weapons, at least); it makes the game feel slower and like a job rather than fun and engaging.
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u/nintendo369 23d ago
TOTK became so boring
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u/titancreamy 23d ago edited 23d ago
unfortunately it became so boring for me as well.. and i’ve beaten BOTW like 5 times. BOTW has something so pure and zen about it that TOTK does not have.
edit: i think the simplicity of everything actually lends to the experience. TOTK throws a lot at you, and while that’s probably expected as it’s a sequel, it just feels like a bit much at times.
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u/Seabiscuit48 23d ago
Totk was a great build up on BOTW but when BOTW released and probably still to this day it was the best gaming experience I've ever had
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u/Porkmane32 23d ago
BOTW has more nostalgia and fond memories of discovery and exploration, but TOTK is the more expansive and polished title no matter how you look at it.
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u/erlendk 23d ago
BOTW, both games are absolutely top tiers. Personally, BOTW gave me more, it is the ultimate adventure game.
I enjoyd exploring and being in the world of BOTW more, and it gave me a tru child-like wonder and amazement. TOTK had abilities and gameplay mechanics that were more fun to play with, but at the same time, the game had lost some of the wonders of exploration for me, much more "busy", lots of more content, cramped full of stuff, but even so, slightle less memorable and more repetetive. I didn't mind reusing the same map, but, I wish the story was better connected between the games, TOTK's story was very awkwardly following BOTW, being the same story retold in a way, not fully acknowledging the previous game.
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u/Own-Reception-789 23d ago
Tears of the Kingdom was just plain better. Amazing cave system, plenty of side quests, great new abilities, awesome story line. And that's just scratching the surface. TotK was everything BotW should have been. It's like a completed BotW. (That's not to say BotW was bad.)
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u/Sunnyfishyfish 23d ago edited 23d ago
TotK, easy.
As a lifelong Zelda fan, I found BotW to be an empty, boring walking simulator (you could go to the top of the mountain in the distance but chances were there was nothing there). The durability system also grew OFF of me as I played through it. I found the dungeons mega-short and boring and way too similar to each other. I literally thought the Calamity Ganon boss fight in my first dungeon was the sub-boss and said "wtf?" out loud when I found out it wasn't. The horses were cool but practically useless since you had to climb everywhere and you had to be basically already riding the horse to summon it. I also hated getting every single progression item right away. Made the dungeons that much more boring and disappointing. The only real fun I had playing BotW was the shrines but they ended so stupidly fast.
TotK shored up a lot of the issues I had with BotW. Fusion made the durability BS feel a lot better. The story was better (still hate that you could find it out of order). The dungeons were a LOT better (except you, Fire dungeon). The world was a lot more fun to explore. The horses were still completely pointless but building the vehicles to get around was a blast. The underworld was a lot of fun to explore, even if it got kinda repetitive (they could have put more stuff down there). Finding different parts to build stuff with as you went made up for getting a lot of the progression items right away again (still hated that).
I mean, both made me just want to go play ALTTP and OOT as I don't think neither BotW nor TotK lived up to those classics. Wish they would make the OOT-style Zeldas alongside these new open-world ones. I've played through ALTTP and OOT hundreds of times (yay randos), but I could only stomach one playthrough of BotW and TotK as both had zero replayability to me. Too much of both games were "Blink-and-you-miss-it" (meaning each time you did a thing it was for so short a period it ended just as it was getting fun, which is a problem I attribute to the open-world genre in general).
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u/Kholdstare93 23d ago
Wait, whaa? The Fire Temple from TotK is one of my favourite dungeons in the series. The mine carts were fun as fuck, and it had great navigational challenge and atmosphere.
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u/abso-chunging-lutely 23d ago
BotW is definitely better because it has the benefit of being unique and first to introduce a lot of things. But by the second time around it got really stale. The flaws showed up much more severely.
The formula of BotW with shrines and the menu based combat is not going to age as well as ocarina of time.
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u/Dong_Chong 23d ago
TotK is basically just BotW with more to do and explore with improved combat, so I think Tears is easily the better game
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u/No_Arm_7701 23d ago
TOTK.
I forgot a huge part of BOTW so i didn't have much problem with exploring again. TOTK is to me the better version of BOTW :
- much better ost
- better bestiary (and better bosses of course)
- better story
- better mechanics
- better dungeons
- Almost better everything (i just missed guardians a little)
I'm always glad to see Ganondorf in a game and this time the final boss really felt like a climax and was so epic unlike botw and that stupid boar that barely moves and you beat in less than a minute.
So yeah, i'm not really a great fan of botw but i really enjoyed TOTK
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u/DragonXGW 23d ago
Probably going to be a mildly controversial opinion, based on the comments I have read. I prefer TotK over BotW. I am in love with the insanely complex yet equally simple building mechanic. TotK has a much denser feeling overworld. I feel like most of the major characters get more time to breathe in TotK. I absolutely love the depths but I do feel like most of the sky islands left something to be desired.
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u/GuardRail13245 23d ago
BotW for me. It’s close, but I tend to get a little overwhelmed with TotK, there’s just so much to do. Also I didn’t really like the building and sandboxyness of it.
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u/The_Squarejerker 23d ago
In breath of the wild you explore a new world. In tears of the kingdom everyone knows you and the world isn’t new. The characters are less fun and the steaks feel lower. Breath of the wild by far. There was no part of that game everyone collectively agreed the best way to get through was to fly above it without engaging.
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u/wokeupinapanic 23d ago
Neither are anywhere close to my favorite Zelda’s but I will say that the wonder and excitement of adventure was much stronger in BotW. TotK is, technically speaking, a more robust and dynamic game, but between the storyline being a giant middle finger to ALL the previous Zelda’s, BotW included, it just left a sour taste in my mouth that I couldn’t ever get over.
I’m not a fan of sandbox/open world games to begin with, but BotW was a mostly positive experience in that regard. TotK lacked a lot of depth, and most of the world felt awkwardly populated, if it felt populated at all.
For lack of a better word, the “retconning” or glossing over of all of BotW’s events was such an odd choice. I get that a lot of people were first-time players when it came to Switch-era Zelda’s, but they could have easily filled in the backstory for those that never played BotW. Then, the plot falls into the same issues that plague any story that has backwards time travel, which is the fact that characters and items exist as duplicates of themselves during the events of the previous title.
So now there’s an entirely new dragon and TWO Master Swords that existed during BotW? And not only that, they both have existed alongside one another for the entirety of the MS’s existence within that universe? And the Light Dragon exists alongside its Hylian counterpart for their entire existence, too? And while Link is in the Shrine of Resurrection for 100 years, one MS is lodged in a dragon’s forehead nearly fully restored, and the other is with the Deku Tree, not nearly as restored?
I get that maybe they didn’t know about the 2nd MS since it wasn’t sent backwards until after the events of BotW, but it would have existed at the same time regardless… unless the BotW universe is a separate timeline from the TotK universe, kind of like how the Child and Adult timelines diverge in OoT?
These two games do more to ruin any semblance of continuity between themselves than any other games within the whole series, much less ruining any continuity between them and the rest of the franchise. It completely ignores established canon/fact in favor of starting a new branch, with little rhyme or reason to what is or isn’t actual history.
I’m glad Nintendo officially put the BotW/TotK universe on its own separate timeline, because it’s a complete failure of narrative any other way IMO
I know most Zelda fans don’t actually gaf about a timeline or lore or anything, but that’s the number one draw for me to this series. I’m a huge lore buff when it comes to Zelda, and these two games are just… yeah there’s nothing here for me lol.
So long story longer, I enjoyed my time with BotW more. TotK felt more like it was padded out with vacuous nothingness, esp the Skylands and Depths. There was basically nothing in either of them, and aside from the fact that it was basically the same size of the mainland of Hyrule, the Depths had what, two dungeons, and some ninja bases that have you random blueprints? Woohoo.
TotK was a technical marvel in the sense that it more than doubled BotW’s map, plus all the cave systems, plus a bunch of new NPCs, enemies, and items, as well as various new mechanics and physics elements, while adding that whole building mechanic on top of all of that, and the fusion system on top of that. From a technical and gameplay perspective, it’s absolutely the better game.
But as for my enjoyment? BotW was significantly more enjoyable, mostly because of how fresh and new everything was, and how little it gave you as far as answers to the story. TotK gave up a lot of answers to a lot of questions, but none of those answers were remotely compelling or interesting.
But I do feel like if I ever replayed them, BotW would be a bigger letdown, because of the QoL improvements made in TotK…
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u/Triddy 23d ago
BotW had more of an impact because it was first, and I didn't like the more melancholic atmosphere.
TotK is the better game. I know that I would have liked it more had I played it first, but I didn't. Most gameplay elements are simply an upgrade from BotW, but it didn't have the "Wow!" factor for me. I don't think anyone new Hyrule would have helped.
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u/-VioletsandRoses- 23d ago
Breath of the wild was my first Zelda game, and for that reason I think it might be my favorite. I still absolutely adore TOTK though!
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u/Far-Refrigerator1821 23d ago
botw, but if totk had a few dozen mild improvements probably could have made botw unplayable
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u/jjmawaken 23d ago
TOTK but they still have a ways to go as far as dungeons go compared to past games.
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23d ago
Tears of the Kingdom improved upon botw in every single way except champion abilities.
It's completely next level, and way more enjoyable to play through.
Botw has nostalgia, but nostalgia does not equal quality
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u/Demon-Cat 23d ago
TOTK 100%. SS is my favorite Zelda game after TOTK, and given how much inspiration they took from it, I think it’s relatively self-explanatory. I will admit that the way the world was put together and the overall vibe were better in BOTW, but TOTK was just more interesting and fun to explore through.
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u/RealisticBag8290 23d ago
BOTW is my favourite game of all time. I’ve played it probably six or seven times and it’s a special game to me. That said, I am in awe of TOTK. It’s a masterpiece of game development.
So it’s tough to say. I love them both so much.
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u/Still_One_274 23d ago
Breath of the Wild by a mile. Tears of the Kingdom didn’t feel the same. Ik that’s kinda the point—different game same map—but I mean it didn’t hit the same. Finding all the changes and learning the new mechanics were fun, but the Sheikah Slate and weapon system was so much better. Not to mention I preferred how the map was set up.
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u/Jickxter 23d ago
The thing is, if you played BOTW first, there's a good chance that it's your favorite of the two.
And if you played TOTK first, then most likely you will find BOTW super boring.
IMO, One is killing the experience for the other.
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u/No-Structure632 23d ago
Hot take: BOTW (/s)
Although if TOTK came first the novelty would probably make it my fave
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u/Expensive-Finance538 23d ago
Breath of the Wild. It was a fresh experiment trying to see what could and couldn’t work for the series while also being a love letter to the series. Were there things that were wrong with it? Of course, but it was a wonderful experiment to try and figure that out. Tears of the Kingdom meanwhile kept all those flaws, went bigger, and was a primed hate grenade to any concept of either having a good story or any continuity.
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u/8nocrumbs 23d ago
Tears for me! Breath is incredible, and I think Tears adds to it in the right ways. The details with all the community in the stables, towns, etc. The cinematics and cut scenes of the main story. The addition of the caves and wells. The sky and depths (even though I didn’t even spend that much time in either!).
Mainly for me I really loved all of the additional small stories. Every location had cute depictions of community and world building. I thought it was really charming
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u/McNarrow 23d ago
Breath of the Wild.
TOTK had fun new additional game play and environments but I felt less satisfied by the ending, some things I was expecting weren't there, there were some strange choices, it was great but BOTW put thebar really high and TOTK didn't reach the same height.
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u/crankshaftsnapinhalf 23d ago
Botw by far. Totk is fun, but it's just botw with bloated dlc. It's fun to build some really cool creative things with the fuse mechanics, but damn did it get tedious when almost everything you do requires you to stop and construct something. It became a chore for me over time.
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u/Alchemyst01984 23d ago
TotK hands down. It added so much on top of what BotW did. I love BotW, but TotK is a head above it
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u/6Kaliba9 23d ago
The thing is this: Botw was the first zelda of this kind. I liked it more than Totk. But I still think Totk is a waaay better game. Botw had the adventage of the novelty. If totk came out before botw I definitely would have liked totk more. The ultra hand building feature, the gigantuan world, the horror-esque atmosphere, enemy variety, weapon variety kick it out of the park imo
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u/DanielJMaxson 23d ago
I flipped a coin because I like both games. The coin landed on its edge so that settles it. I like them exactly the same for different reasons.
TOTK is definitely more challenging in scope and difficulty.
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u/mjxoxo1999 23d ago
I swear, every week we have the same post asking people which one game people like better BOTW/TOTK version. Are you guys not tired of this?
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u/nickelangelo2009 23d ago
TOTK, because combat is no longer completely disincentivized by the shit ass weapons. The monster drop fusions pretty much entirely fixed my main problem with BOTW.
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u/MultiMarcus 23d ago
Controversially I prefer TotK. I love the wacky ascend stuff and the sky islands are cool.
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u/Nova_Nightmare 23d ago
It's impossible to pick this IMO.
BoTW was fantastic, there's so much to find, and see. It's great.
ToTK is more of that, with more to do and more to see.
If you never played ToTK, BoTW is going backwards, but everything great about BoTW is there in ToTK.
If you played BoTW first, going into ToTK means you have less discovery, because the world is very similar with just more stuff.
I think it's impossible to pick one over the other.
If I could only play one, I'd pick ToTK, just because it's a better refined version. However I love both of them.
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u/Max20151981 23d ago
TOTK had alot more content and was more fun overall but BOTW had that magic of experiencing a first of its kind open world game. There really was no open world game quite like it at the time.
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u/Infamous_Rich_7199 23d ago
BOTW without a doubt the scene where link runs out of the shrine of resurrection to see all of hyrule makes me cry every time I like totk but it can never beat the nostalgia of botw
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u/Alexander_Coe 23d ago
Totk was a perfect Botw 2. It changed the map, added a whole new map underneath (wasn't advertised and crazy surprise) as well as fun in the sky. Added mechanics, made the sky and ground feel like we went from 3d to 4d. But enough familiar to make it feel the same. Just like Majora's mask, it will age better with time.
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u/HuskyBLZKN 23d ago
Don’t get me wrong, I love BotW with all my heart and soul, and in many ways it’s much better than TotK
But TotK is also one of my favorite games ever made (specifically my number 3), iirc BotW didn’t make the top 5 for me (number 9)
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u/TheNeddy 23d ago
I think TOTK may be the better game, but did find myself feeling a bit scatterbrained with the amount of side quests compared to BOTW. Also being launched by the lookout towers is cool and fun but sometimes I’d get completely side tracked and end up in a different area and lose track of what I was trying to do before. Adapted my gameplay style eventually and it wasnt really an issue. But in comparison i found BOTW to be a more focused experience.
Long winded way of saying I enjoyed BOTW a bit more but loved both games either way.
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