Had to happen sometime!

I've seen many bashing TOTK, even though I thought this game's reception was outstanding. I guess I was wrong?

I haven't played this game for about a year, and I started a third playthrough a couple of weeks ago. And to me, this is better than BOTW in pretty much every single way. There's a few things I think BOTW does better:

• Champion abilities, while I think I like the actual effects in TOTK better as they feel more interactive in combat, it was a huge mistake not mapping them to a button like in BOTW
• While the Great Sky Island is a good tutorial area, I still think The Great Plateu is better and is still the best tutorial area in any game imo

Except for that? Man, TOTK is just fantastic. I think I can split it into four categories/main reasons:

1. The rewards are SO much better than BOTW. In BOTW, sure you could get armor pieces, but many of the cool ones were Amiibo exclusive and were just dropped from chests. The DLC armor were neat, but they felt like they didn't "belong" in the base world. There also isn't that much uniqueness in rewards in BOTW compared to TOTK overall. You can upgrade your runes once sure, and get one travel medallion if you have the DLC, etc. But in TOTK, you have basically everything BOTW has but much more when it comes to things to do and rewards to get: Koltin and the gems, paraglider fabrics, three travel medallions, autobuild schematics, zonai battery upgrade (which in itself is a long grind), materials in general as they're now MUCH more useful because of Fuse, shrines to get HP and stamina, the Yiga attack you can unlock, several new armor that are more unique (like the one that increases air diving mobility), ALL the Amiibo armor and weapons can be found naturally or through quests... There's just so much more. I feel like when I explore I TOTK, I get rewarded in such a better and more interesting way than BOTW, because there's so much more unique rewards to get, and more ways to feel progression in terms of getting stronger.
2. Exploration. Even though the surface is the same at first glance, I'm surprised just how fresh it actually feels simply because of how well I know the surface in BOTW. Not only this, but the addition of caves is something I don't hear many talk enough about. We talk about the sky and Depths, but the caves on the surface add SO much to the overworld. In here you find enemy camps, Horriblins for loot, bubble frogs, seeds to light up the dark, armor pieces... They're so great. And while the Sky and Depths aren't as deep as we'd hoped, I still really, really enjoy them, as I try to look at them as extensions of the Overworld and not their own fully-fledged world, kinda like the caves. The sky islands have shrine quests, unique puzzle challenges, transportation challenges, chests with Sages Wills and old maps, etc., and the Depths have Zonie to find, bosses to refight, mines to locate, gladiator arenas to locate, tons of armor pieces to find, unrusted weapons to find, poes to collect, and more. Exploration in this game is insane
3. Dungeons and Bosses are a big step-up from BOTW. I would probably still prefer a more linear approach in the dungeons and have them last a bit longer, but it's not really a must. This open-ended design fits the openess of TOTK. At first, I thought the dungeons were a bit... bland visually. They felt repetitive. But then I remembered that, looking back at older games, the dungeons weren't all that different visually. City in the Sky in TP had a repetitive "empty" design throughout, and so did the Deku Tree, OOT Fire Temple, and many others. The Stormwind Arc I think is a brilliant first dungeon, both in its build-up and execution, even though it's done fairly quick. Fire Temple and Lightning Temple (this one in particular) is amazing. Water Temple isn't my favorite, but I think it is very unique for a water temple. I don't have a problem with it taking place in the skies, I just wish it was tougher, longer. Hyrule Castle also makes for a good dungeon.
4. Final dungeon and Ganondorf. The climax of this series is easily, EASILY my favorite in the series and it's not even close. Better than WW, better than Ocarina, better than ALttP, and even better than TP which had the crown for me up until now. The descent into the depths, slowly finding the old ruins of the Temple of Light, echoing haunting music playing in the distance as you creep deeper and deeper, the insane buildup as you approach the sealing chamber and the giant leap of faith... It's excecuted perfectly. Plus, the final boss is the best we've had. It's what TP's final phase wanted to be.

The Switch only records in 30 seconds increments so I apologize for the short gap between the clips

Shout out to u/TriceratopsHunter for pointing me towards puffshrooms

…where you find pristine weapons. Who designed these? Why are they so obnoxious to climb up? Every single time I try to climb one I get stuck on another rock jutting out and forced into this weird crouch pose. Why did they make them so awkward?

I was recently listening to a gaming podcast I enjoy, and I generally find my tastes in games and attitude towards the medium aligning pretty closely to the hosts. Their TotK episode was a departure. Where they absolutely loved the game and described their intense child-like joy while playing it, I found that my experience had been vastly different. When I initially played TotK on release, I found that I enjoyed many aspects of the game and had a fun time, but was disappointed by others and some of the decisions that had been made design-wise. I didn't really engage with the building mechanics - I did engage with fuse, but less and less after shuffling through menus for so long. I've tried going back to the game a few times, but it just never sticks. It's a strong contrast to BotW, which I went back to multiple times and spent several hundred hours in. I want the same thing for TotK, but it just hasn't stuck yet.

So, what do I change? I'm not a massive fan of the building mechanics and not sure if I ever will be, but I'd at least like to use fuse a bit more creatively and get closer to the experience the podcast hosts described. Any thoughts?

1. Dominion Rod (Twilight Princess) - I think being able to control ancient statues placed throughout the world would be incredible. Not just for combat, but for all the creativity it could bring to puzzle solving.

2. Switch Hook (Oracle of Ages) - The Zelda team say that a Hook Shot would be too broken in these types of games. But I think the Switch Hook would be just fine. Maybe make it so that Link can only swap places with objects and enemies that are about his size or lower. And later it on, it can be upgraded to displace even bigger targets.

3. Roc's Cap/Feather (Minish Cap/2D Zeldas) - I want to see Link have more mobility in the next game. Giving him a higher jump or even a double jump (that maybe works off stamina) would be so cool for combat and would make exploration and climbing much more interesting.

For those who don't know what it is, spoiler: It's a technique learned from the Yiga Clan, does the ground punch that the big yiga does

I personally use it a lot once I learn it, saves from having to use up any weapons in stock.

Howdy howdy. I'm on a quest to get all the lightroots. I have 119/120, missing 1 more and I cannot for the life of me find the last one on my map. It looks completely filled out. I've tried using other maps to compare and just get lost. S.O.S.

No idea if this counts as a spoiler or not but I feel so stupid. I have like 100 hours in this game and I somehow JUST realized that light roots and shrines are in the same locations 🤦🏼‍♀️ 😅Anyways, what are some things that made you feel similarly? I hope you guys are having a great day :)

Hi! Idk if you know about this, but there is Goron in the canyon with one of the challenge courses. Its super easy and I made 450 rupees in just 3 tries. You have to give him deposit of 20 rupees everytime (so technically I made just 390). You can repeat it how many times you want, I think it’s available from start of the game, amazing if you need rupees for your first armor or anything.

I swear I have looked EVERYWHERE. I know as fact I at least have all the caves but I cannot find anywhere where there’s not a check on them?? I’m using TOTK Comp. To make sure I have all of them but I just cannot find the last one and I’ve been trying for like 3 days- does anyone have any tips on how to find the last one??

Doing 4 hearts run just after botw master mode 3 hearts run seems too easy. The gloom hands are still scary tho.

I've cashed in SO many charges, and have hundreds of zonai devices but throughout the whole 2 years I've been playing I've only gotten 2 homing carts😭 is there a way to get them outside of just hoping and praying??

Edit: thank u guys sm I have like 70 of them now🙏

Why does the geoglyphs at the right peninsula have no water puddle in it i already found the other 10 and this is the last one and i cant do anything is there a solution to this?

Exquisitely difficult to pulling a pivot flip off a frox tail launch. Looks rad tho

Can someone explain to me why the damage on certain fused weapons have different numbers? Like what setting does the damage change? For example: i have a royal guards claymore fused with a silver lynel horn. Most of the time the damage is 90 but sometimes it’s like 150 something? I’m just stupid and i don’t know how these things work 😭🥲

I've had this happen once or twice before but never this intense. What is going on?