OpenTube

Tears of the Kingdom is Overrated

ThrillingDuck

78,963 views

Warning: Opinions Inbound. Anyway, is it even a real Thrillingduck video if it isn't over an hour long? C'mon.

00:00 Intro
2:40 Ocarina of Time
4:27 Skyward Sword
5:38 Breath of the Wild
9:43 TotK Map
11:46 Twilight Princess
14:20 Critiquing Mechanics
21:00 Petty Critiques
23:32 Exploration
30:27 TotK Positives
36:14 Spoiler Warning
36:34 Yiga Clan
38:34 Mineru
40:28 Majora's Mask
46:18 TotK Atmosphere
47:58 Narrative Critique
58:04 TotK Finale
59:14 TotK Ganondorf
1:01:49 Outro

As usual, all footage is borrowed from other channels. Links below:

TotK Early Game B-Roll:
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom ...

BotW Memories:
All 18 Memories In Order - Zelda Breath Of...

Twilight Princess HD Cutscenes:
TPHD CS 09: Meeting the Princess

Majora's Mask 3D HD:
Zelda Majora's Mask 3D 100% Walkthrough 10...

Ocarina of Time 3D HD:
Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D 100% Walkthrough ...

Ganondorf's Execution HD:
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD ...

Twilight Princess Hylian Shield:
Zelda Twilight Princess HD - 100% Walkthro...

Skyward Sword Hylian Shield:
How to Get the Hylian Shield in The Legend...

Calamity Ganon:
Video

Skyward Sword HD Gameplay:
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Review

TotK Master Sword Pull:
【Zelda: TOTK】 Master Sword Cutscene (1080p...

TotK Boss Fights:
https://www.youtube.com/@BossFightDat...

Seized Construct and Mineru Awakens:
Scourge of the Spirit Temple Siezed Constr...

Mineru in Overworld:
Video

TotK Ganondorf Phase 1 and 2:
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom - Ganondorf Epi...

TotK Cutscenes:
https://www.youtube.com/@hyruleminute...

Great Sky Island Cutscenes:
Zelda totk great sky island all cutscenes

Mr. Aonuma Presents:
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom ...

Nintendo Treehouse TotK Footage:
Nintendo Treehouse: Live - The Legend of Z...

Regional Attire:
How to Get All Champion Weapons - Zelda Te...

Light Dragon Farming:
How To Farm LIGHT DRAGON Parts In Tears of...

TotK Hylian Shield:
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Hylian Shiel...

BotW Divine Beast Battles:
ALL DIVINE BEASTS BATTLES! | The Legend of...

BotW Great Plateau:
Why Breath of the Wild’s Great Plateau Is ...

Sheikah Runes:
The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild Gam...

BotW Boomerang:
Zelda Breath of the Wild - Hero's Shield &...

BotW Weapon Showcase:
[Zelda Breath of the Wild] Easy Weapon Loc...

Depths Footage:
How to Conquer THE DEPTHS. The Legend of Z...

Lowering the Hood:
The Worst Thing About Tears of the Kingdom

BotW Hyrule Castle:
[Zelda Breath of the Wild] Hyrule Castle E...

TotK Great Fairies:
How To Unlock All Great Fairy Fountains & ...

TotK B-Roll:
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom ...

BotW B-Roll:
The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Re...

Arriving at Lookout Landing:
Meet Purah - Tears Of The Kingdom - (6)

20 Comments

@highdefinition450 3 years ago

the geoglyphs should have given you the story chronologically no matter which one you found imo

@ray3435 3 years ago

Link doing flips in Majora's Mask is really one of the greatest features in Video Game history.

@highdefinition450 3 years ago

hated how draconification just had no consequence in the end lmao

@alariaaurora8456 3 years ago

Honeymoon phase is over baby

@Aeleas333 3 years ago

Reusing the map really ruined it for me, especially since the depths and sky islands were for the most part so disappointing.

@felixputz5190 3 years ago

I wish i could've enjoyed Mineru as much as you did. She really needs to deal more dmg ..

@Knimbleyx 2 years ago

Twilight Princess is amazing!!!! 😭 I legitimately am always surprised that it received so much critique.

@hanselthecaretaker 3 years ago

The first TotK brainstorming session was probably like,

“Soooo, Zelda…what number are we one again?”

“Twenty, I think?”

“Wow a milestone entry. Well, what can we do differently this time?”

“…Have we talked to the engineers in the basement yet?”

@monovision566 3 years ago

Imagine the exact same intro as TOTK, only Rauru doesn't keep Link from falling. Link falls and follows Zelda into an abyss of time and space, distorting everything, into a new Dark World. He fights through a new and dangerous world to find her... Meanwhile, you also play as her, with her different abilities, struggling to find him... Back and forth between them you traverse some similar areas (in different ways) along with different ones, only to discover in the mid game that the dilation of time (of their mere seconds apart) in the fall amounted to their arriving to this world a few thousand years apart. And not only that, but if they can't be united in the work they do in this world, they will never be able to both restore it to peace and reunite with each other.

It's not difficult to tell a better story. Nintendo for some reason simply doesn't want to. It's been this way for decades. Storytelling for them hasn't evolved much since the 1990s.

@drewspencerpenrose2003 3 years ago

Glad to hear the complaint about weapon aesthetics. I felt that pretty strongly, but it felt like I never heard anyone else talk about it. Late game I only ever used fuse combos that look cool, and never touched those stupid pinecones again.

@tristanshaw2906 3 years ago

So refreshing to see people who aren't blind to the big flaws of this game. I don't wanna say it's bad or anything exactly, but I was very let down tbh. Great Video!

@pacnat_9069 2 years ago

Your speech on Twilight Princess having an incredibly strong identity was SO cathartic to hear omg thank you 🔥💕

@jenniferv8055 3 years ago

"I have to do this again so I can get strong enough to actually experience the new story content in this recycled world" is probably the best way to describe how I felt about this game put in one sentence 😂and yeah what you said after about the exploring feeling more like a grind, so much agree! I felt kind of alone in not being over the top enthusiastic about this game. But more and more people seem to finally pick apart some of the lackluster bits. I haven't finished the video yet, but liking the essay a lot. You back up your arguments with examples and it's interesting to follow

@dreamscometrue900 3 years ago

What did it for me was:
they set up a whole new concept for the game, more story, a big war in hyrule, the land has to unite the mystery of zeldas disappearance, all these new features and locations.
Then the fire they gave me, the excitement and appreciation for this game quickly fizzled out and it was back to being BotW without a real purpose for being so.
I get why BotW feels a bit storyless (in my opinion) , because that’s the point of the whole game, you need to explore. But TotK has no reason for it after the story is complete.
Also without the first glitches of farming I would not have been where I am in the story
I still love it, but did it really gave me those big feelings? Maybe at first but they rapidly switched to indifference

@2001gamingfan 3 years ago

Minor spoilers but, Worst part about both botw and totk is how much of a joke the stories are, you don't play through a story you go do a digital history lesson with the memories and both games have underwhelming endings just to make it worse. Great video

@MyChannel-od3pf 3 years ago

There should have been a level in tears of the kingdom where the purah pad lost connection and your abilities get disabled, allowing for one more traditional zelda dungeon.
One bonus tradition linear dungeon in the depth (maybe shadow temple) like this would've been great.

@janesdead6802 1 year ago (edited)

The double standard between TP and ToTK criticism is SO TRUE!!! I hadn't even considered the hypocrisy between the reception of both but Twilight Princess is a whole new outfit that used some of the same cloth as OoT where ToTK is the same outfit as BotW with some extra Swarovski crystals glued on.

The gameplay may be similar but the world and the characters and the story and the adventure and it's themes are all different

Edit: "ToTK doesn't shit on that but sure tries to" I think this describes much of the game. Especially it's reuse of ideas and cutscenes from OoT and ALTTP

@brandonbernard1570 2 years ago

Elaborating on your point about the unintuitive new shrine placements, a lot of the areas of TotK feel a lot more awkward and pointless since they were once setpieces in BotW but aren't anymore. Areas like the big field near Fort Hateno or the North Mine of the volcano feel so much more empty now that the piles of guardians and lava are removed. What once felt like significant areas designed for a lot of players to encounter became weird in-between areas that only exist out of obligation.

@Your_Native_Mothman 2 years ago

Honestly playing Skyward Sword before Totk is probably what ruined the sequel for me. Seeing a great story in a Zelda game that worked well with the mechanics was great and then I played Totk. Sure its mechanics were amazing but the story felt awful and I hated how it felt like it refused to acknowledge it was a sequel.

@meleeludens 3 years ago

16:00 god i feel so validated here. I adored my 'travelling knight' aesthetic in BOTW, but in TOTK i feel your weapon strength is inversely proportional to its aesthetics. Sticking a giant bokoblin horn on the end of a metal pole just looks horrible to me