Soapbox: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom’s Incredible Opening Is One Of Nintendo’s Best
Soapbox: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom’s Incredible Opening Is One Of Nintendo’s Best
by No-Drawing-6975
27 Comments
Frostymagnum
It…It really isnt. You follow Zelda around for a while and she just mentions “oh wow this was a thing I remember from my Studies!” a bunch of times. Oh and “this is from the even *more* ancienter days of hyrule before even the calamity stuff maybe?”. Then the game starts with an ultra long tutorial. Breath of the Wild had a far superior opening
adsfew
I think Breath of the Wild was stronger overall (if anything, just for that sensation when you first look upon the land around you–all just waiting to be explored).
But Tears was still pretty great in its own right. Starting the game with like 35 hearts and 5 stamina wheels, you just knew shit was going to happen to make you reset and I think it got very compelling once the *figure* started to reanimate.
Witch_of_Dunwich
I really didn’t enjoy the beginning of BOTW. Being dropped in to a world with supposed amnesia / no memory is boring and done to death. This, combined with little / no story turned me off for ages.
TOTK however has blown me away: exploring a creepy dungeon when the upheaval take place, falling from sky islands, all these new powers – massive improvement for me over BOTW in every single way.
Tempest753
The tutorial island is another masterpiece. The opening sequence? Meh, it’s medium.
Ne0guri
You can’t beat BOTW – TotK is amazing buts it’s still essentially BOTW at its core.
Sans-Mot
Minor spoiler for those who have not play yet:
>!Link got Samus’d lol!<
myjumboeggs
If I didn’t know ahead of time what to expect with Tears of the Kingdom that intro would have made me not play it, honestly. It was so slow and boring walking with Zelda for forever, the cutscene was fine, and then you had the slog of the first sky island relearning everything. It was bad.
musical_bear
For all the creativity that BOTW and TOTK have, it bums me out how they’re not willing to play with the extremely tired trope of “Link and girl, girl disappears for entirety of the game.” Clearly it’s not a hard, fast rule they’re forced to follow by higher ups because Majora’s Mask doesn’t use this formula. But virtually every other game in the series does, including the two switch titles.
They’ve been bold enough to change virtually every other Zelda staple pretty substantially; why are we still being chained to these incredibly predictable, boring “stories?” Wow, Zelda’s gone, got to find her, and Ganon’s here. Since when has Zelda been as derivative as Mario in the story department? (Well, technically it usually is, but why is it STILL this way?)
Would it have killed them to have both Zelda and Link as playable characters? Or any other infinite variations that don’t involve “saving the girl” for the umpteenth time?
And look TOTK is awesome but this story stuff does bother me. There is SO much creativity in this game. I’m not asking for Shakespeare, just do literally ANYTHING different next game, please?
(This is loosely related to the game intro. I agree with others calling it poor. It’s neat to have a cold open like this, but it’s frustrating how there is absolutely nothing creative or exciting about it. The only thing I like was done well was the tone / mood / buildup to finding Bowser, I mean Ganondorf).
jmastadoug
The first cut scene after the little intro part was so fucking good. I had to replay the start to watch again lol
Dorangos
I think TotK is a much, much better game, like holy crap. But the opening is not better than BotW.
cheggster12
As someone who works in retail, this game was the craziest launch I’ve ever seen
behemothbowks
Imo the intro to BotW is literally the only thing that it did better than TotK
tequila_greg
I think it did a great job of setting the tone for the game. TotK feels like a darker Hyrule after the first few hours. The Gloom, Hyrule castle floating above the sky, the Underworld etc. In my opinion, compared to the opening sequences of other Zelda games, which are just cutscenes, having you in control, walking deeper into the unknown, and just the stark contrast of 90% of everything that was BOTW (hyrule castle in BOTW is the closest thing) TotK’s opening sequence gripped me in a way soooo many games miss the mark on.
sdlemonade
The opening cutscenes in TOTK were way more epic (and even slightly terrifying) than BOTW.
Farmerben12
To me it doesn’t get better than Majoras Mask opening sequence.
iamdisgusto
TotK had a very “meh” opening. I wish I could forget playing BotW so I could start it up for the first time again, so far I haven’t felt that way about this new one.
MrLeHah
To say its one of the best is only a hot take
TaZe026
Botw had a much better opening hour.
firelf93
As someone who never played breath of the wild. I should do that first right?
Ikeelu
I am really loving the game, but man Nintendo has a big graphics problem right now. I just came from playing Cyberpunk on Overdrive and Jedi Survivor on Epic with Ray tracing. Going to think game after was a bit rough. It’s gotten easier to play and get used to it, but I do wish the graphics were better. Seeing the 4K 60 FPS PC emulator videos make me see how much better it could look if Nintendo updated their hardware. I really hope a Switch 2 that is backwards compatible comes out sooner rather than later especially with such hand helps really taking off..either that or Nintendo finally selling PC ports too.
rp_361
ITT: the opening is trash, actually
SmoothieBiscuit456
The part where it shows Links hearts deplete was so cool
Jaysyn4Reddit
No it wasn’t. It was very, very forced feeling.
The actual game is great though.
an4x
I don’t know if I am playing the same game as some of the commenters and critics based on what they are talking about.
After spending some time on Friday I thought this might be the best Zelda game ever. Which is saying a lot.
By the end of the weekend I think it is on the shortlist, if not the absolute summit, of greatest games of all time for me.
I was blown away in orders magnitude I didn’t think was possible.
Alon945
Ehhhh I think the opening drags tbh – definitely not one of their best. BOTW had a better opening. Metroid dread is way better in that regard
That being said the game really goes after the tutorial island
povitryana_tryvoga
Opening was fine, nothing to write about on the game industry scale, but good by Zelda standards, it had suspense and good direction. Tutorial was “is this another Botw?”, main game is “Yea it is”. Now I have a game I don’t have initiative to play, yay.
DemandWooden8642
The worst part of the game is the intro honestly. It’s a bit too long for what it is.
It’s only when you get to Hyrule that progressively little by little the world hit you,.
27 Comments
It…It really isnt. You follow Zelda around for a while and she just mentions “oh wow this was a thing I remember from my Studies!” a bunch of times. Oh and “this is from the even *more* ancienter days of hyrule before even the calamity stuff maybe?”. Then the game starts with an ultra long tutorial. Breath of the Wild had a far superior opening
I think Breath of the Wild was stronger overall (if anything, just for that sensation when you first look upon the land around you–all just waiting to be explored).
But Tears was still pretty great in its own right. Starting the game with like 35 hearts and 5 stamina wheels, you just knew shit was going to happen to make you reset and I think it got very compelling once the *figure* started to reanimate.
I really didn’t enjoy the beginning of BOTW. Being dropped in to a world with supposed amnesia / no memory is boring and done to death. This, combined with little / no story turned me off for ages.
TOTK however has blown me away: exploring a creepy dungeon when the upheaval take place, falling from sky islands, all these new powers – massive improvement for me over BOTW in every single way.
The tutorial island is another masterpiece. The opening sequence? Meh, it’s medium.
You can’t beat BOTW – TotK is amazing buts it’s still essentially BOTW at its core.
Minor spoiler for those who have not play yet:
>!Link got Samus’d lol!<
If I didn’t know ahead of time what to expect with Tears of the Kingdom that intro would have made me not play it, honestly. It was so slow and boring walking with Zelda for forever, the cutscene was fine, and then you had the slog of the first sky island relearning everything. It was bad.
For all the creativity that BOTW and TOTK have, it bums me out how they’re not willing to play with the extremely tired trope of “Link and girl, girl disappears for entirety of the game.” Clearly it’s not a hard, fast rule they’re forced to follow by higher ups because Majora’s Mask doesn’t use this formula. But virtually every other game in the series does, including the two switch titles.
They’ve been bold enough to change virtually every other Zelda staple pretty substantially; why are we still being chained to these incredibly predictable, boring “stories?” Wow, Zelda’s gone, got to find her, and Ganon’s here. Since when has Zelda been as derivative as Mario in the story department? (Well, technically it usually is, but why is it STILL this way?)
Would it have killed them to have both Zelda and Link as playable characters? Or any other infinite variations that don’t involve “saving the girl” for the umpteenth time?
And look TOTK is awesome but this story stuff does bother me. There is SO much creativity in this game. I’m not asking for Shakespeare, just do literally ANYTHING different next game, please?
(This is loosely related to the game intro. I agree with others calling it poor. It’s neat to have a cold open like this, but it’s frustrating how there is absolutely nothing creative or exciting about it. The only thing I like was done well was the tone / mood / buildup to finding Bowser, I mean Ganondorf).
The first cut scene after the little intro part was so fucking good. I had to replay the start to watch again lol
I think TotK is a much, much better game, like holy crap. But the opening is not better than BotW.
As someone who works in retail, this game was the craziest launch I’ve ever seen
Imo the intro to BotW is literally the only thing that it did better than TotK
I think it did a great job of setting the tone for the game. TotK feels like a darker Hyrule after the first few hours. The Gloom, Hyrule castle floating above the sky, the Underworld etc. In my opinion, compared to the opening sequences of other Zelda games, which are just cutscenes, having you in control, walking deeper into the unknown, and just the stark contrast of 90% of everything that was BOTW (hyrule castle in BOTW is the closest thing) TotK’s opening sequence gripped me in a way soooo many games miss the mark on.
The opening cutscenes in TOTK were way more epic (and even slightly terrifying) than BOTW.
To me it doesn’t get better than Majoras Mask opening sequence.
TotK had a very “meh” opening. I wish I could forget playing BotW so I could start it up for the first time again, so far I haven’t felt that way about this new one.
To say its one of the best is only a hot take
Botw had a much better opening hour.
As someone who never played breath of the wild. I should do that first right?
I am really loving the game, but man Nintendo has a big graphics problem right now. I just came from playing Cyberpunk on Overdrive and Jedi Survivor on Epic with Ray tracing. Going to think game after was a bit rough. It’s gotten easier to play and get used to it, but I do wish the graphics were better. Seeing the 4K 60 FPS PC emulator videos make me see how much better it could look if Nintendo updated their hardware. I really hope a Switch 2 that is backwards compatible comes out sooner rather than later especially with such hand helps really taking off..either that or Nintendo finally selling PC ports too.
ITT: the opening is trash, actually
The part where it shows Links hearts deplete was so cool
No it wasn’t. It was very, very forced feeling.
The actual game is great though.
I don’t know if I am playing the same game as some of the commenters and critics based on what they are talking about.
After spending some time on Friday I thought this might be the best Zelda game ever. Which is saying a lot.
By the end of the weekend I think it is on the shortlist, if not the absolute summit, of greatest games of all time for me.
I was blown away in orders magnitude I didn’t think was possible.
Ehhhh I think the opening drags tbh – definitely not one of their best. BOTW had a better opening. Metroid dread is way better in that regard
That being said the game really goes after the tutorial island
Opening was fine, nothing to write about on the game industry scale, but good by Zelda standards, it had suspense and good direction. Tutorial was “is this another Botw?”, main game is “Yea it is”. Now I have a game I don’t have initiative to play, yay.
The worst part of the game is the intro honestly. It’s a bit too long for what it is.
It’s only when you get to Hyrule that progressively little by little the world hit you,.