#mooostly minor gameplay spoilers because I don't want to go too deep on my first post in literal months

[twilight-amber]

So, I’ve spent the past few weeks doing basically nothing but playing Tears of the Kingdom... and I’ve gotta talk about it a little. This is your warning that I will probably be posting about spoilers going forward, so do be careful if you’re trying to avoid that! 

I have a lot of thoughts about this game and somewhat mixed feelings, but on the whole I think it’s a very impressive game. Some more specific thoughts below the cut:

One thing that’s made me very happy so far: WE HAVE CHEESE NOW.

No, but seriously, I think the recipe system in BotW was a whole lot of fun and I’m so glad they expanded on it in TotK with new ingredients and recipes, plus there’s that new recipe system that records them for you! I’m this close to making a list of all the new recipes I can get my hands on, and I’m probably actually going to make a post for that soon. 

One thing that made me mad: okay if I’m being honest there’s a lot of things. But starting at my most petty, WHY did they nerf the Rito bows?? They’re supposed to be the archers, so if anything their bows should be more powerful! The bows wouldn’t even decay because they’re not made of metal so what is the justification here?? I want my base-20-damage Falcon Bow back! 

(With that being said, I’m so glad they let us have replica Champion weapons from the getgo while giving the original weapons to NPCs who don’t have to worry about weapon durability - it’s a great way to ensure that I (and many others, I’m sure) will actually use them.)

One thing that made me sad: Dinraal’s new path doesn’t go through Tanagar Canyon. 

This one’s partly personal, because Dinraal was the first dragon I ever saw as I was first crossing through the canyon in my initial playthrough of BotW, so I’ve always personally associated her with that area. But there’s also the fact that if I’m remembering correctly, it’s mentioned during the Champion’s Ballad that Dinraal has followed that path by Rito Village for so long that she’s considered a guardian spirit of the village, not to mention the fact that she’s a part of the trials that were created for the Rito Champion an entire 10,000 years ago, suggesting that she has inhabited that region for a very, very long time. And now she just... doesn’t?? 

This is just one of many changes in this game that felt just slightly disrespectful to the lore established in BotW, but it’s the only one I haven’t seen anyone else make note of yet, so here I am.

(Plus, her new path feels... a bit boring compared to the other two? Naydra and Farosh each do a proper loop through a section of Hyrule, but Dinraal just covers the same arc on land and then in the Depths. Now this is mostly outweighed by the fact that you can ride the dragons now and I’m absolutely ecstatic about that, but it was a little bit of a letdown realising she was just going back the way she came once she got out of the Depths...)

Still, with that being said... 

One thing that filled me with glee: you can ride on the dragons! I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time just hanging out with them since I heard about this, and I’m probably going to spend a whole lot more time doing it in the future, too. It’s so much fun.