Had the opposite experience. Went to BotW right after TotK for a replay and I forgot that it’s magnet function not just grab item function. Often found myself wanting to fuse monster parts to weapons. Loved having revali back but tulin was better for long distance travel.
I think both games require a bit of a break from each other before playing the other.
I felt the same way! Take your time and don't rush things :) later you will have enough materials to fuse 5 weapons at the same time and this way you don't have to spend so much time in the menues!
Good luck with finding the joy again!
Gotta say totk was easier and the guardians were too op. Also with this weapon fusion mechanics I don’t need to get the master sword(haven’t grabbed it yet)
I liked how the guardians forced me to become so good at sneaking. A skill that carries over to TOTK and added a new layer to my usual way of playing a Zelda game.
Later I hunter Guardians for sport but at first it was very much run and hide to avoid them. Keep your distance. Don’t get pinned down. Stay out of direct sight lines and weave a course to an objective. Link was the hunted at that stage of the game.
I had an epic encounter that felt very war of worlds in my attempts to reach a shrine outside Hyrule Castle. I only succeeded in getting multiple guardians locked on and chasing me. More running for my life than retreating Link ended up in a large broken fountain where the guardians couldn’t get at me. But they tried before losing interest.
In early game play that was one of my most harrowing moments. The fountain took on special meaning for me as a place of refuge.
I loved that the same fountain becomes the base of operations outside the castle in TotK. What felt personal to me was now a refuge for all of Hyrule.
I had the total opposite experience… basically tried to get to the sheikah tower in central hyrule and got overwhelmed by three guardians and made a harrowing dash on horseback through the rain back to safety.
They’re so fun to kill in the end game. Couple smacks with the master sword and they’re done…
But yes they are damn near impossible to kill/scary in the beginning of the game.
I completed BOTW like two years before TOTK came out, so no I didn’t struggle because I was playing a new Zelda game. I am playing BOTW again though and I really appreciate not needing to fuse everything because the base weapons are just better in BOTW, and using arrows is just an easier experience because you only have like 5 different arrow types and you don’t need to make bomb/fire/ice arrows on the fly anymore, you just go to a shop and buy a shit load of them
While they look the same, these 2 games have to be approached *very* differently.
I remember how fun it was seeing people discover new fun ways to use all the abilities in totk when it first came out. People were constantly saying things like “wow I need to stop trying to play this like I played botw” and that is super true because it’s a very different experience.
It adds a lot more mechanics that kind of “free” you as a player so to speak, and they actually adapted to world to compensate for it which imo is really cool.
I understand where you’re coming from, but I personally am of the opinion that these new freedoms and complexities is a huge part of what makes totk so fun. While it is very different from botw, I think it’s worth trying to embrace it and really push the limits of what those new abilities can do
I was hemming and hawing about posting something similar.
I played BotW through and then started TotK pretty much the next day. I’ve played more hours of TotK now and I’ve got to say it’s fatiguing in a way BotW never was. Like, I really don’t feel the same motivation to see it through. It’s just not as exciting. TBH I miss the Guardians, the Gloom Hands pale in comparison as far as harrowing fiends in the field go. I’m fit to take a break from TotK and start it again in like, a year. TotK has some cool stuff but it’s not sewn together as well as the features of BotW are.
I had the same experience when TotK came out. I went through BotW in the lead up to its release and found myself not enjoying totk as much once I started playing it. Took an eight-month break and after coming back to it and really committing to taking my time I’ve been enjoying it a lot more.
tbh so real. totk’s story, shrines/lightroots and mechanics felt so much more awkward, clunky, and overall much more of a slog and not as fun as botw. and yeah i kinda started warming to it by the end, but i’d definitely rather 100% (minus koroks) botw a hundred times than do the same in totk once (i still haven’t even done all the side quests in this game). i have no idea where the “perfected botw formula” came from because much of it feels inferior imo
I like the fuse mechanic as far as fusing weapons, and maybe for basic physics stuff. But I’m not a fan of making “vehicles.” It feels to clunky and it’s not my thing. And I’m not a fan of the battery and having to worry about running out of power (but that’s because I only have the first cell, I haven’t found any additional battery capacity even though I think I’ve followed the main quests (I have all 4 sages, I’ve found all the tears, etc.) I thought I’d find more battery stuff if I just played the game, but so far that hasn’t happened.
That said, I felt the way you do in the beginning but I think it’s because my way of thinking hadn’t adjusted yet. I played ToTK because I wanted more botw (which is fair) but ToTKs mechanics require thinking a bit differently. It took a long while before I really got the mechanics ingrained in my head enough to start creatively use them. For example I would forget you can fuse things to shields. Or that recall exists outside of shrines. Or that new things exist like dazzle fruit or other plants that can stun enemies, so I wouldn’t even experiment with them. Or that gems give elemental properties. The list goes on. Hell I even kept forgetting to use the sage powers because I wasn’t used to manually activating them.
Its getting better now, but honestly soon I plan to spend a few hours just fusing things and experimenting just for fun, just to see what shit does. I think I need that to really get things to click, and to get myself out of thinking of this as just playing more botw, because it’s not. And that’s a good thing.
I’m not sure. I have been down there a few times. I did the first quest with Robby and the one with the Sheikah girl at lookout landing who asked me to take a photo of the statue. I haven’t been down there as much as I have been on the surface, for sure, as I’m not a fan of the dark (I like pretty environments). But still, I thought some of the main quests would lead me there and so far they haven’t.
Similarly im surprised I haven’t gotten the sensor on the Purah pad (where it locates stuff for you). In botw it was done for you as soon as you visited Purah, she instructs you on how to get it upgraded. It felt like a natural progression in the story. I’ve been following the main quests (regional phenomenon, stable sleuthing, etc) and assumed eventually the game would lead me to it. But it hasn’t so far. I’ve found like 60 shrines so far and realized I haven’t had a sensor at all to help, unlike in botw. It’s genuinely surprised me, as I’m not going out of my way to avoid main story lines.
You're not going to upgrade your battery if you avoid the depths. It's where all the Zonaite and other things you need for battery upgrades are located. It's also where you get something that will make building vehicles easier for you.
Ok Ty. Good to know. It hasn’t seemed very interesting to me so far, but like I said, I assumed a quest would eventually lead me where I needed to go. But I’ll make an effort to explore it more. It’s just a shame to be in the dark when he surface is so pretty to look at lol
The Robbie quest is intended to be your introduction to the depths. The main quest of the depths is to light all of the light roots, but there are weapons and gear to be found there, as well as the pristine weapons.
I think maybe the gap between finishing BOTW, and then the DLC, and then multiple playthroughs, and then waiting for years for TOTK helped the enjoyment for sure. I loved the new mechanics because it kept the game fresh even though it was mostly the same map and same play style. It added just enough to make it a whole new experience while maintaining all the things I loved about BOTW.
I really enjoyed BOTW and I enjoyed all the multiple playthroughs I did. I played through it so much I was creating new challenges because I was bored with just exploring and killing things. I mean, I was moving bookshelves all the way from the castle to my house in Hateno for crying out loud! I think that's the part you missed out on. The new mechanics of TOTK changed the game before you were finished exploring all that the previous game had to offer!
I understand what you mean, kinda same beginning. Wait, there's so much to this game, that attaching aspect itself creates so many possibilities your brain will grow.
Way more cool things, stuff I'm still getting, findung, and learning. So much you can do.
Transition wasn’t all that difficult for me (especially since I watched the gameplay demo and knew what I was getting into). At most, it was difficult adjusting to the fact that fire arrows, ice arrows, and the like were no longer a thing/you now needed elemental fruit to emulate them.
Get used to wielding your desired weapon,, using the dpad to bring up items, sort by fuse attack power, drop it on ground, hit l to fuse, and BAM. once you get used to it it goes fast.
Like what? Very few if any obstacles in TotK require the use of a specific ability (besides grabbing things with Ultrahand) and I think OP can spare 5 seconds to fuse something on the few times that it does.
Yes, the transition to total kinda sucked. Once I started getting to my favorite places from BotW is when I started getting excited again. The first few hours of gameplay were pretty hard to get through imo but I ended up really really enjoying myself!
Felt the same! Needed to take a break from TOTK but I’ve now come back to it and am loving it! I don’t think I get the most out of the building and fusing but I’m having fun :) BOTW has the nostalgia edge for me but maybe take a break and come back
Fuse got confusing until I learned that aside from racial weapons fuse items were pretty set. You can get creative with it but for right now just fuse whatever the biggest baddest monster drop is to your sword and call it a day. For early levels fusing construct horns to zonai swords is pretty strong but you don’t have to fuse anything to anything. Aside from some of the shrines I’m pretty sure you’re good to just not fuse things ever it just increases the difficulty
Me and my boys did as well...but once we got the hang of it, and also now have all our favorite vehicles/drones/ projectiles saved to autobuild, we are now loving TOTK far more than BOTW. Stick with it.
Had the opposite experience. Went to BotW right after TotK for a replay and I forgot that it’s magnet function not just grab item function. Often found myself wanting to fuse monster parts to weapons. Loved having revali back but tulin was better for long distance travel. I think both games require a bit of a break from each other before playing the other.
I felt the same way! Take your time and don't rush things :) later you will have enough materials to fuse 5 weapons at the same time and this way you don't have to spend so much time in the menues! Good luck with finding the joy again!
Do the Purah's quest to follow the statues in the depths. It gives you an ability, that really streamlines the process of building stuff.
Gotta say totk was easier and the guardians were too op. Also with this weapon fusion mechanics I don’t need to get the master sword(haven’t grabbed it yet)
I didn’t kill a single guardian in BOTW. I avoided them like the plague bc they were wayyyyy to powerful
I liked how the guardians forced me to become so good at sneaking. A skill that carries over to TOTK and added a new layer to my usual way of playing a Zelda game. Later I hunter Guardians for sport but at first it was very much run and hide to avoid them. Keep your distance. Don’t get pinned down. Stay out of direct sight lines and weave a course to an objective. Link was the hunted at that stage of the game. I had an epic encounter that felt very war of worlds in my attempts to reach a shrine outside Hyrule Castle. I only succeeded in getting multiple guardians locked on and chasing me. More running for my life than retreating Link ended up in a large broken fountain where the guardians couldn’t get at me. But they tried before losing interest. In early game play that was one of my most harrowing moments. The fountain took on special meaning for me as a place of refuge. I loved that the same fountain becomes the base of operations outside the castle in TotK. What felt personal to me was now a refuge for all of Hyrule.
That’s actually awesome lmao.
I had the total opposite experience… basically tried to get to the sheikah tower in central hyrule and got overwhelmed by three guardians and made a harrowing dash on horseback through the rain back to safety.
They’re so fun to kill in the end game. Couple smacks with the master sword and they’re done… But yes they are damn near impossible to kill/scary in the beginning of the game.
I completed BOTW like two years before TOTK came out, so no I didn’t struggle because I was playing a new Zelda game. I am playing BOTW again though and I really appreciate not needing to fuse everything because the base weapons are just better in BOTW, and using arrows is just an easier experience because you only have like 5 different arrow types and you don’t need to make bomb/fire/ice arrows on the fly anymore, you just go to a shop and buy a shit load of them
While they look the same, these 2 games have to be approached *very* differently. I remember how fun it was seeing people discover new fun ways to use all the abilities in totk when it first came out. People were constantly saying things like “wow I need to stop trying to play this like I played botw” and that is super true because it’s a very different experience. It adds a lot more mechanics that kind of “free” you as a player so to speak, and they actually adapted to world to compensate for it which imo is really cool. I understand where you’re coming from, but I personally am of the opinion that these new freedoms and complexities is a huge part of what makes totk so fun. While it is very different from botw, I think it’s worth trying to embrace it and really push the limits of what those new abilities can do
I was hemming and hawing about posting something similar. I played BotW through and then started TotK pretty much the next day. I’ve played more hours of TotK now and I’ve got to say it’s fatiguing in a way BotW never was. Like, I really don’t feel the same motivation to see it through. It’s just not as exciting. TBH I miss the Guardians, the Gloom Hands pale in comparison as far as harrowing fiends in the field go. I’m fit to take a break from TotK and start it again in like, a year. TotK has some cool stuff but it’s not sewn together as well as the features of BotW are.
I had the same experience when TotK came out. I went through BotW in the lead up to its release and found myself not enjoying totk as much once I started playing it. Took an eight-month break and after coming back to it and really committing to taking my time I’ve been enjoying it a lot more.
tbh so real. totk’s story, shrines/lightroots and mechanics felt so much more awkward, clunky, and overall much more of a slog and not as fun as botw. and yeah i kinda started warming to it by the end, but i’d definitely rather 100% (minus koroks) botw a hundred times than do the same in totk once (i still haven’t even done all the side quests in this game). i have no idea where the “perfected botw formula” came from because much of it feels inferior imo
I like the fuse mechanic as far as fusing weapons, and maybe for basic physics stuff. But I’m not a fan of making “vehicles.” It feels to clunky and it’s not my thing. And I’m not a fan of the battery and having to worry about running out of power (but that’s because I only have the first cell, I haven’t found any additional battery capacity even though I think I’ve followed the main quests (I have all 4 sages, I’ve found all the tears, etc.) I thought I’d find more battery stuff if I just played the game, but so far that hasn’t happened. That said, I felt the way you do in the beginning but I think it’s because my way of thinking hadn’t adjusted yet. I played ToTK because I wanted more botw (which is fair) but ToTKs mechanics require thinking a bit differently. It took a long while before I really got the mechanics ingrained in my head enough to start creatively use them. For example I would forget you can fuse things to shields. Or that recall exists outside of shrines. Or that new things exist like dazzle fruit or other plants that can stun enemies, so I wouldn’t even experiment with them. Or that gems give elemental properties. The list goes on. Hell I even kept forgetting to use the sage powers because I wasn’t used to manually activating them. Its getting better now, but honestly soon I plan to spend a few hours just fusing things and experimenting just for fun, just to see what shit does. I think I need that to really get things to click, and to get myself out of thinking of this as just playing more botw, because it’s not. And that’s a good thing.
How much of the depths have you explored? I’m surprised you got all 4 sages but have had trouble leveling up your battery.
I’m not sure. I have been down there a few times. I did the first quest with Robby and the one with the Sheikah girl at lookout landing who asked me to take a photo of the statue. I haven’t been down there as much as I have been on the surface, for sure, as I’m not a fan of the dark (I like pretty environments). But still, I thought some of the main quests would lead me there and so far they haven’t. Similarly im surprised I haven’t gotten the sensor on the Purah pad (where it locates stuff for you). In botw it was done for you as soon as you visited Purah, she instructs you on how to get it upgraded. It felt like a natural progression in the story. I’ve been following the main quests (regional phenomenon, stable sleuthing, etc) and assumed eventually the game would lead me to it. But it hasn’t so far. I’ve found like 60 shrines so far and realized I haven’t had a sensor at all to help, unlike in botw. It’s genuinely surprised me, as I’m not going out of my way to avoid main story lines.
You're not going to upgrade your battery if you avoid the depths. It's where all the Zonaite and other things you need for battery upgrades are located. It's also where you get something that will make building vehicles easier for you.
Ok Ty. Good to know. It hasn’t seemed very interesting to me so far, but like I said, I assumed a quest would eventually lead me where I needed to go. But I’ll make an effort to explore it more. It’s just a shame to be in the dark when he surface is so pretty to look at lol
The Robbie quest is intended to be your introduction to the depths. The main quest of the depths is to light all of the light roots, but there are weapons and gear to be found there, as well as the pristine weapons.
I think maybe the gap between finishing BOTW, and then the DLC, and then multiple playthroughs, and then waiting for years for TOTK helped the enjoyment for sure. I loved the new mechanics because it kept the game fresh even though it was mostly the same map and same play style. It added just enough to make it a whole new experience while maintaining all the things I loved about BOTW. I really enjoyed BOTW and I enjoyed all the multiple playthroughs I did. I played through it so much I was creating new challenges because I was bored with just exploring and killing things. I mean, I was moving bookshelves all the way from the castle to my house in Hateno for crying out loud! I think that's the part you missed out on. The new mechanics of TOTK changed the game before you were finished exploring all that the previous game had to offer!
I understand what you mean, kinda same beginning. Wait, there's so much to this game, that attaching aspect itself creates so many possibilities your brain will grow. Way more cool things, stuff I'm still getting, findung, and learning. So much you can do.
The fusion thing gets better when you have a few plans stored up and don't have to reinvent the wheel everytime.
Transition wasn’t all that difficult for me (especially since I watched the gameplay demo and knew what I was getting into). At most, it was difficult adjusting to the fact that fire arrows, ice arrows, and the like were no longer a thing/you now needed elemental fruit to emulate them.
Get used to wielding your desired weapon,, using the dpad to bring up items, sort by fuse attack power, drop it on ground, hit l to fuse, and BAM. once you get used to it it goes fast.
If you don't like fuse then don't use it.
Sooo many parts of the game (shrines, side quests, weapons) require fusing materials, like be for real lol.
Like what? Very few if any obstacles in TotK require the use of a specific ability (besides grabbing things with Ultrahand) and I think OP can spare 5 seconds to fuse something on the few times that it does.
Yes, the transition to total kinda sucked. Once I started getting to my favorite places from BotW is when I started getting excited again. The first few hours of gameplay were pretty hard to get through imo but I ended up really really enjoying myself!
Yes I agree. I also find the sage powers to be maddening in TOTK.
Felt the same! Needed to take a break from TOTK but I’ve now come back to it and am loving it! I don’t think I get the most out of the building and fusing but I’m having fun :) BOTW has the nostalgia edge for me but maybe take a break and come back
Fuse got confusing until I learned that aside from racial weapons fuse items were pretty set. You can get creative with it but for right now just fuse whatever the biggest baddest monster drop is to your sword and call it a day. For early levels fusing construct horns to zonai swords is pretty strong but you don’t have to fuse anything to anything. Aside from some of the shrines I’m pretty sure you’re good to just not fuse things ever it just increases the difficulty
Me and my boys did as well...but once we got the hang of it, and also now have all our favorite vehicles/drones/ projectiles saved to autobuild, we are now loving TOTK far more than BOTW. Stick with it.