Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom devs explain why it was a much bigger overhaul than you’d think
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom devs explain why it was a much bigger overhaul than you’d think
by Turbostrider27
39 Comments
respondin2u
Here’s hoping a New Game + is available soon as a DLC. I want a master mode for this game.
blank_isainmdom
What did the story team do for six years? What did the people who should have been thinking ‘er, shouldn’t there be a second act?’ do for six years while these lot worked on the physics!
shamaster23
I wonder if Link will revert to being Lefty in the next game.
freezersnowcone
I can’t lie and say I wasn’t slightly disappointed when I found the set up was similar in nature to BOTW, but the new runes added and implemented is some of the most impressive programming I’ve seen. Especially with the Switch’s system. The amount of hours it must have taken to be able to pull all of those systems off with little to no issues is a standard setting achievement.
gummyworm21_
Well, it felt like the a dlc.
echoess84
>your soup is now safe
Thanks, now I can break the pot looking for some rupees
PocketTornado
The gameplay in TOTK is more next gen than most Ps5/XBox Series X games out there. The things you can do with all that freedom is mind blowing.
DragapultOnSpeed
It was a good game, just extremely disappointing. I wouldn’t mind them reusing hyrule if the sky islands were larger and had more to do. But the sky islands were kind of pathetic, ngl.
Depths were cool for the first hour, then got boring quickly. If they made different biomes in the depths, it would have been so much better
IndependenceNo2060
The physics overhaul in TOTK is mind-blowing, truly next-gen! I just hope for more story depth in the future.
mech23
I don’t doubt it was massively more challenging to engineer than it looks. But to me that’s the problem. The ratio of time spent on a technical masterpiece to the time of fresh player experiences is way too big. Would’ve rather not had all the insane ultrahand stuff if it meant no new Zelda world for 12+ years
BueKojiro
He’s just confirming all the same reasons why it still feels like a $70 DLC. Like he basically confirmed that all of their work was just making a more complicated and sophisticated physics engine.
The thing is, that’s really cool for a first game idea. Like sure, make a brand new game where the idea is that it has multiplicative systems that facilitate fun interactions in the world.
But as the idea for a *sequel* to a game that *already did that???* That’s what’s so wild to me. You had a great system and kind of an empty world. The exceedingly obvious answer to what to do with a sequel was to fill that world with interesting, curated content. Make more kinds of things, etc. It’s astonishing to me that their best idea was just to redo all the groundwork they already did for the first game.
Jumpyer
People who say this is a DLC of BotW didn’t play the game, I’m sorry. TotK did everything right for a sequel
Cal_Takes_Els
Don’t have to explain shit to me, I saw the work.
shredmiyagi
I was skeptical before playing, but many hours into Tears, I am convinced Nintendo’s the best at this.
peeweeharmani
It’s impressive for sure, but for what I personally enjoy in Zelda games it missed the mark. Ultrahand is a feat in engineering, but I don’t particularly enjoy building machines, so a large game mechanic (and a significant amount of the development time) went in to something I’m not interested in. I know that’s just me, but I’m guessing a lot of Zelda fans would have preferred more fleshed out landscapes (sky/depths) and time spent on a lore-rich story instead. Hopefully for the next game they can balance the exceptional programming they’re known for with a game that hits the mark consistently across the fan base. TotK really is exceptional though, I don’t mean to complain about it.
100yearsLurkerRick
I have never hated a Zelda game more on my life.
Likezoinks305
Tbh I would’ve rather had a new map and completely new gameplay loop + story rather than just barebones version of it with emphasis on sandbox tool kit
I hate building shit. I want an immersive narrative with pretty graphics – not a build a bear simulation
AncientDaedala
It’s really disappointing that the priority was physics. With Breath of the Wild, people always assumed that the next game would focus on dungeons, story, and address other complaints, like enemy variety. Instead, Tears of the Kingdom largely doubled down on Breath of the Wild’s questionable design choices.
It’s impressive on a technical level, but I can’t blame anyone for saying it feels like DLC. Too much of the gameplay progression and story structure is outright copied from Breath of the Wild, to the point where it doesn’t feel like six years were spent coming up with new concepts.
TwEE-N-Toast
It turned out to be nice but really expensive DLC.
walruns
They should have spent the time creating enemies variants, improving fighting mechanics. Ultrahand is cool and all, but gets boring after 2h
undergrounddirt
I’m hopeful that all that work won’t be thrown away and they can use it to expand to a new game and get that figured out quickly.
Meaning they have the physics. They can do A LOT with those physics apparently. Create a new map, better story, etc.
Orangenbluefish
Awesome game and very impressive tech, but honestly I found that after the initial “wow” factor I didn’t actually care about building shit all the time. It quickly just turned tedious and I kinda wish the game wasn’t built around it so much
melancious
I respect them so much for creating something truly special
chuulip
I’ve been playing games for awhile now. As much as I like the old Zeldas and their dungeons and tools for exploration, ToTK felt like gaming as a whole got something very new and refreshing.
Team Zelda could have continued the same formula, but things would feel stale at some point, as other games in the industry were catching up. I remember liking Okami very much, as it played similar to Zelda, but had a fresh coat of paint and music to accompany it. Things were also not as predictable.
The team behind ToTK got devs all around the industry scratching their heads in awe, wondering how they pulled off such a feat. Looking forward to the next big leap in a decade when they have even stronger hardware to back up their visions.
eddaman000
It’s an amazing game. Cherry on top is the final fight when ‘something’ kept going to screen right. I laughed out loud. Nintendo is definitely self aware and wants to subvert expectations.
figureout07
Will the GDC presentation be available online?
Individual_Thanks309
Still felt like BOTW 2.0 with an annoying’ build mechanism.
BlackenedSky27
Anyone found a video of this talk? I’d love to watch it.
armageddon442
I forgot how much this subreddit hates this game lol
bisforbenis
Look, everyone is entitled to their opinion on it as a game of course, but I think anyone who knows programming stuff knows what they did here was ridiculous from a systems design perspective as well as performance for how much they had to load at once doing the sky stuff moving as fast as you can all on Switch hardware
This game’s “runes” had to be an absolute nightmare to bug test
ryann_flood
man im so sick of building shit tho
mc_mc_mc_mc
If they include building as a core component of the next Zelda them I’m out – it just seems to be made for people sharing “wow look what I built” videos rather than a meaningful mechanic. At first I thought I’d adapt, but when I realised builds break so quickly I just resorted to horses for travel and whatever minimal building was required to advance. Hope the next game goes back to the drawing board!
firecape8
I would have preferred more emphasis on the sky mechanics and islands. I loved the first few hours diving into the different ponds of the tutorial area. Then was kind of disappointed to be plopped back into the old Hyrule after the tutorial area.
FlamboyantGayWhore
I loved this duology and I think it’s a bookmark in video game development but i would love for the next entry in the series to be something new, and preferably more dungeons. Shrines are fun but just really not for me
SardauMarklar
I never doubted that the ultra hand crafting system was difficult to make. I enjoyed the game and the new mechanics for about 3 months, but ultimately it needed to have taken place in a different world, a world that would have benefited more from the new tech. I played BOTW for like 5 years and knew every corner of the map. I just wasn’t interested in 100%ing it again, going to the same places, finding more fucking koroks. The Yiga schematics weren’t worth collecting. The caves were barely worth exploring because the rewards were clothing items from the first game. Zonite was a pain in the ass to farm so once I ran out of that, the game became drastically unfun. It was a fantastic 3 months of gameplay, but the Zelda devs made a poor decision to not create a new world for us to explore. The whole point of a Zelda game is exploring.
Striking_Election_21
I still maintain that all they would’ve had to do is mildly tweak the artstyle and 90% of the “same game” conversation wouldn’t exist. It is a *very* different game from BOTW in all but looks.
That said, I will say that it ran into the same problem as BOTW for me, which is that the fun super-creative stuff just wasn’t rewarding enough. You’ll spend all this time jury-rigging a Rube Goldberg killing machine and it turns out to do a fraction of the damage your Silver Boko Sword does. As much as I loved both games I feel like they would’ve been easy favorites of all time for me if just a little more could’ve been done to ensure creativity in combat was more rewarding.
acmilan12345
I’m shocked how many commenters here think Nintendo should return to the old Zelda formula. There are *plenty* of games that use that formula lol.
BotW was fresh, innovative, and incredible. TotK may have fleshed out the wrong aspect of the game (the physics), but this new formula is still head and shoulders over most games out there.
Icecubemelter
…Can we just have updated hardware already please? I have money. Please take it!
Bunnnnii
Yet nothing is a bigger overhaul/leap than having Zelda actually be playable.
39 Comments
Here’s hoping a New Game + is available soon as a DLC. I want a master mode for this game.
What did the story team do for six years? What did the people who should have been thinking ‘er, shouldn’t there be a second act?’ do for six years while these lot worked on the physics!
I wonder if Link will revert to being Lefty in the next game.
I can’t lie and say I wasn’t slightly disappointed when I found the set up was similar in nature to BOTW, but the new runes added and implemented is some of the most impressive programming I’ve seen. Especially with the Switch’s system. The amount of hours it must have taken to be able to pull all of those systems off with little to no issues is a standard setting achievement.
Well, it felt like the a dlc.
>your soup is now safe
Thanks, now I can break the pot looking for some rupees
The gameplay in TOTK is more next gen than most Ps5/XBox Series X games out there. The things you can do with all that freedom is mind blowing.
It was a good game, just extremely disappointing. I wouldn’t mind them reusing hyrule if the sky islands were larger and had more to do. But the sky islands were kind of pathetic, ngl.
Depths were cool for the first hour, then got boring quickly. If they made different biomes in the depths, it would have been so much better
The physics overhaul in TOTK is mind-blowing, truly next-gen! I just hope for more story depth in the future.
I don’t doubt it was massively more challenging to engineer than it looks. But to me that’s the problem. The ratio of time spent on a technical masterpiece to the time of fresh player experiences is way too big. Would’ve rather not had all the insane ultrahand stuff if it meant no new Zelda world for 12+ years
He’s just confirming all the same reasons why it still feels like a $70 DLC. Like he basically confirmed that all of their work was just making a more complicated and sophisticated physics engine.
The thing is, that’s really cool for a first game idea. Like sure, make a brand new game where the idea is that it has multiplicative systems that facilitate fun interactions in the world.
But as the idea for a *sequel* to a game that *already did that???* That’s what’s so wild to me. You had a great system and kind of an empty world. The exceedingly obvious answer to what to do with a sequel was to fill that world with interesting, curated content. Make more kinds of things, etc. It’s astonishing to me that their best idea was just to redo all the groundwork they already did for the first game.
People who say this is a DLC of BotW didn’t play the game, I’m sorry. TotK did everything right for a sequel
Don’t have to explain shit to me, I saw the work.
I was skeptical before playing, but many hours into Tears, I am convinced Nintendo’s the best at this.
It’s impressive for sure, but for what I personally enjoy in Zelda games it missed the mark. Ultrahand is a feat in engineering, but I don’t particularly enjoy building machines, so a large game mechanic (and a significant amount of the development time) went in to something I’m not interested in. I know that’s just me, but I’m guessing a lot of Zelda fans would have preferred more fleshed out landscapes (sky/depths) and time spent on a lore-rich story instead. Hopefully for the next game they can balance the exceptional programming they’re known for with a game that hits the mark consistently across the fan base. TotK really is exceptional though, I don’t mean to complain about it.
I have never hated a Zelda game more on my life.
Tbh I would’ve rather had a new map and completely new gameplay loop + story rather than just barebones version of it with emphasis on sandbox tool kit
I hate building shit. I want an immersive narrative with pretty graphics – not a build a bear simulation
It’s really disappointing that the priority was physics. With Breath of the Wild, people always assumed that the next game would focus on dungeons, story, and address other complaints, like enemy variety. Instead, Tears of the Kingdom largely doubled down on Breath of the Wild’s questionable design choices.
It’s impressive on a technical level, but I can’t blame anyone for saying it feels like DLC. Too much of the gameplay progression and story structure is outright copied from Breath of the Wild, to the point where it doesn’t feel like six years were spent coming up with new concepts.
It turned out to be nice but really expensive DLC.
They should have spent the time creating enemies variants, improving fighting mechanics. Ultrahand is cool and all, but gets boring after 2h
I’m hopeful that all that work won’t be thrown away and they can use it to expand to a new game and get that figured out quickly.
Meaning they have the physics. They can do A LOT with those physics apparently. Create a new map, better story, etc.
Awesome game and very impressive tech, but honestly I found that after the initial “wow” factor I didn’t actually care about building shit all the time. It quickly just turned tedious and I kinda wish the game wasn’t built around it so much
I respect them so much for creating something truly special
I’ve been playing games for awhile now. As much as I like the old Zeldas and their dungeons and tools for exploration, ToTK felt like gaming as a whole got something very new and refreshing.
Team Zelda could have continued the same formula, but things would feel stale at some point, as other games in the industry were catching up. I remember liking Okami very much, as it played similar to Zelda, but had a fresh coat of paint and music to accompany it. Things were also not as predictable.
The team behind ToTK got devs all around the industry scratching their heads in awe, wondering how they pulled off such a feat. Looking forward to the next big leap in a decade when they have even stronger hardware to back up their visions.
It’s an amazing game. Cherry on top is the final fight when ‘something’ kept going to screen right. I laughed out loud. Nintendo is definitely self aware and wants to subvert expectations.
Will the GDC presentation be available online?
Still felt like BOTW 2.0 with an annoying’ build mechanism.
Anyone found a video of this talk? I’d love to watch it.
I forgot how much this subreddit hates this game lol
Look, everyone is entitled to their opinion on it as a game of course, but I think anyone who knows programming stuff knows what they did here was ridiculous from a systems design perspective as well as performance for how much they had to load at once doing the sky stuff moving as fast as you can all on Switch hardware
This game’s “runes” had to be an absolute nightmare to bug test
man im so sick of building shit tho
If they include building as a core component of the next Zelda them I’m out – it just seems to be made for people sharing “wow look what I built” videos rather than a meaningful mechanic. At first I thought I’d adapt, but when I realised builds break so quickly I just resorted to horses for travel and whatever minimal building was required to advance. Hope the next game goes back to the drawing board!
I would have preferred more emphasis on the sky mechanics and islands. I loved the first few hours diving into the different ponds of the tutorial area. Then was kind of disappointed to be plopped back into the old Hyrule after the tutorial area.
I loved this duology and I think it’s a bookmark in video game development but i would love for the next entry in the series to be something new, and preferably more dungeons. Shrines are fun but just really not for me
I never doubted that the ultra hand crafting system was difficult to make. I enjoyed the game and the new mechanics for about 3 months, but ultimately it needed to have taken place in a different world, a world that would have benefited more from the new tech. I played BOTW for like 5 years and knew every corner of the map. I just wasn’t interested in 100%ing it again, going to the same places, finding more fucking koroks. The Yiga schematics weren’t worth collecting. The caves were barely worth exploring because the rewards were clothing items from the first game. Zonite was a pain in the ass to farm so once I ran out of that, the game became drastically unfun. It was a fantastic 3 months of gameplay, but the Zelda devs made a poor decision to not create a new world for us to explore. The whole point of a Zelda game is exploring.
I still maintain that all they would’ve had to do is mildly tweak the artstyle and 90% of the “same game” conversation wouldn’t exist. It is a *very* different game from BOTW in all but looks.
That said, I will say that it ran into the same problem as BOTW for me, which is that the fun super-creative stuff just wasn’t rewarding enough. You’ll spend all this time jury-rigging a Rube Goldberg killing machine and it turns out to do a fraction of the damage your Silver Boko Sword does. As much as I loved both games I feel like they would’ve been easy favorites of all time for me if just a little more could’ve been done to ensure creativity in combat was more rewarding.
I’m shocked how many commenters here think Nintendo should return to the old Zelda formula. There are *plenty* of games that use that formula lol.
BotW was fresh, innovative, and incredible. TotK may have fleshed out the wrong aspect of the game (the physics), but this new formula is still head and shoulders over most games out there.
…Can we just have updated hardware already please? I have money. Please take it!
Yet nothing is a bigger overhaul/leap than having Zelda actually be playable.