#totk storytelling confusing

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I love totk, love it with all my heart. But even I feel a bit disappointed with a lot of the aspects.

The one that gets me the most is just, the Zonai in general?

When I think back to botw, I remember all the wild and exciting theories and thoughts about what the Zonai could be.

I remember theories that they were some iteration of the Kokiri because the spiral symbols were similar, and a lot of the structures were in forests. I remember everyone being so sure that they were a warlike race because the Barbarian Set were found exclusively in the Lomei Labyrinths. Everyone was wondering what the owls, boars and dragons meant to them.

Then we actually get to see the Zonai, the big mystery of botw and there's just.

Nothing.

All we learn is: there’s 2 of them, they had advanced tech, and they had magical macguffins.

It feels so hollow knowing there was so much potential for another race to be introduced to the Zelda universe and we essentially get Sheikah 2.0 with some Mesoamerican vibes.

We don't even learn anything about them as a race, like where the rest of them went or how they were accepted so easily as rulers or why they're called "Secret Stones" when it seems like everyone knows what they are.

The only real upside to this total lack of info is that it lets people with actual creativity create headcanons and fits without having to worry about being canon compliant.

Just rings hollow.

Yeah, I absolutely feel that. I think the Zelda theorists, and I both include myself and say this with all the love in the world, tend to overhype the specificity of things that tend to remain vague in Zelda (and sometimes that vagueness is great, because it's exactly what fuels us next!), but.... I have to agree that Zonais really didn't deliver on that aspect for me either.

To be frank, I was never super into Zonai lore (because I was never super into BotW lore, but it's really on me and not at all a criticism or anything, the community and I missed each other on the hyperfocus moment), but I got super interested to see the Mesoamerican vibes going on in this game to the point where, when Nintendo dropped the Gameplay trailer and I got... honestly pretty underwhelmed (like design wise that sounded great and fun but it kind of cemented the sort of playground direction they were going with, and it got me pretty worried about other aspects, namely the story :) ), I decided to spoil myself with the leaked artbook just to give me... something to latch onto I guess? Because I really wanted to get excited! And the Mesoamerican vibes did the trick: I got super curious about what that could mean, what the Zonais would bring to the table culture-wise, what sort of cool legends involving them would be investigated, etc... Also it just wasn't a kind of setting that Zelda ever really explored (and still has not, in my humble opinion), so it kind of quieted down my worries of having a game that looked so similar to BotW in terms of artistic direction, to the point where I became afraid it wouldn't have anything different to say (which... ended up kind of being my final opinion, unfortunately).

I think the Zonais both lost a lot of their mystery while not really clarifying anything? I kind of would have loved them to remain otherwordly figures, almost? Or maybe to just have hints of a culture that would be very different to Hyrule's, instead of basically the same thing but with robots and things fly around also --I would have loved deeper implementation of Mesoamerican mythos or cultural elements, instead of it remaining.... kind of a costume, honestly? Like, what even is zonai culture, beyond the automation (which was already kind of the Sheikah's thing anyway?) Where do the stones come from? Where are the other zonais? I'm not asking for direct answers, but just enough vagueness, murals, legends, ancient spirits to set the theorists' brain on fire. The Depths would have been amazing to hint at more (and doubly so for the Sky Islands), but right now, in spite of having spoken to two different live (kind of) Zonais, I still have zero idea what their deal is. They could have been hylians and nothing would have really changed.

So, yeah! Agreed! And sorry for the late ask aaa

#asks #tloz #totk #totk critical #totk spoilers #zonai #thanks for the ask!! #the last part being why I really do not buy the whole “mesoamerican coded” reading of totk #because?? #like if I dress up as a native american for a party it doesn't make me native coded it just makes me rude #I would love for them to actually be mesoamerican coded (in a good rich interesting way) #and invoke the complexity of their power structure their religious practices their economical exchanges... make chocolate super valuable!! #or for ganondorf to be this invading force mirroring the spanish invasion #(given the gerudos in oot loosely referenced the invasion of spain that could be interesting too) #like then sure!! #but here it's just...ganondorf is the underdog power-wise!! so the comparaison doesn't go anywhere!! #plus he was the one living in Hyrule first! the game establishes this!! nobody asked the game to do this but it does anyway!! #anyways!!! sorry!!! #got a little offtrack here oopsi oopsi #totk storytelling confusing

[ezlo-x]

I think Zelda games have always had this balance of storytelling and gameplay it always confused me when ppl said “Zelda is more about gameplay” which sure but I think it means that there is always a gimmick that makes the game. The story rlly is there to keep you engaged with not only the gameplay but also yknow the story. Some of Skyward Swords dungeons were a bit of a drag to me but I was already hooked on the story that I wanted to see what happened next. So I persisted to the very end of the game and had fun and engaged on a fun story. (Do i got issues w sksw lore yes but that’s a story for another day)

Here comes TotK, its fascinating how I was able to record my live reaction through posts on here. From Wind to Fire temple and the first three dragon tears i was engaged on what was happening. That was until I reached that one dragon tear where everything just fell apart for me. And I sighed i was like “no this game is fun and I’m going to continue on playing,” but then it slowly felt like a drag to me to continue. Things started to feel less fun to engage with. My friends insisted to get dragon tear memories from 6-8 so I dragged my feet to the locations they were at and boy. Did I completely lost all motivation to continue playing. At this point I was just sad that this is how it was going I immediately knew where the story was going. The gameplay could only do so much to keep me going when I could be replaying botw for the 5th time.

That’s why I believe that tloz games especially post-oot games have a balance with story and gameplay

#disabling rbs cause i dont want this to be spread around #ik this makes no sense im just rambling at this point #txt

[grooviestsadpapaya]

i went down a rabbit hole of your au like a month ago and I still have brainrot from it like holy crap man I think about it everyday I literally start kicking my legs whenever I see an update why am i like this

but anyways, the various species in your au have caught my interest for a while. Since I’m assuming this takes place somewhere after totk I’m wondering how the other races have come back into play (like the zonai, twili, etc)

also is bestir actually a reincarnation of demise in this au or did he just coincidentally end up with the triforce of power?

luckily for you I am also starved of human interaction :)

First of all aw :] tanks <3333

I’m glad you like my little guys! The Twili live in the depths of Hyrule, supersuper deep underground, alongside the Shadows and some weird flora and fauna. Zant rules over them, using the brutality of the Shadows to act as like a uhhh. Really shitty law enforcement system. They typically get to around 13 ft tall and 115 lbs on average (they are super light). They can communicate in secrecy via the intensity and rhythmic flashing of their bioluminescence. Kinda like uhh if you’ve read Wings of Fire they’re like Seawings. They have a similar lifespan to Zoras, if not longer. Here’s a sketch if you don’t know what they look like, I don’t post about them a lot. They usually have livestock and live vegetarian lifestyles due to frequent food shortages. The way they got into the depths (I refer to them as the Chasms in soh, jsyk) is a spoiler so :] I cry everytime

So the Zonai are a bit spoiler-y if I talk about them too much but they are like. The opposite of the Twili. They are very technologically sophisticated and independent but not very agriculturally advanced and live in the sky. Instead of fearing Kargaroks like the people of the surface do, they worship them. They live alongside the ooccoo. Yeah, the tiddy birds. I gotta design them too. Damn.

The Kokiri and Koroks live alongside one another, the Kokiri acting more like guardians of the forest rather than peaceful inhabitants. They look hella scary but are generally kindhearted and pure. They are… also spoilery.

And yes Bestir is an incarnation of Ganondorf! Instead of falling into the divine influence of Demise, he favors Din because that’s just what his moms taught him. Idk it’s confusing I’m not great at storytelling

#art #zelda au #soh #soh txt #soh ask #soh twili #thanks for the ask! #my art

[xx-ingie-xx]

I'm so glad you're back! I was afraid something bad happened and I'm relieved to find out that it wasn't the case. A few months have passed since the release of TOTK, so the hype has went down and now I would like to read your opinion of the game. What are your favorite parts about it, what are the things you disliked and how would you rank this game with the rest of the 3D Zelda games?

Aw, thank you! Yeah, I'm sorry I post so infrequently. I'm hoping that will change once I start working on the Fortitude revision again. Finishing Forgotten has been such an uphill project for me. But I'll be so glad I didn't leave it unfinished.

My thoughts and opinions about TotK are below (emphasis on my opinions--I don't expect everyone to agree with me, and that's ok!).

Three things I enjoyed:

THE MUSIC. The soundtrack is amazing, especially the growing dynamics as you progress in certain areas. It has a psychological effect, and I found it really intense in the best way.

THE TEMPLES. I was very happy to see a return to more traditional Zelda dungeons. WAY more fun than the divine beasts, and I liked having the sages assist! Gave me TWW vibes.

Better NPCs and sidequests. Maybe it's just me, but it felt like the Zelda team put some extra love into creating the NPCs and all the quests that come with them. I've had more fun with them than I did in BotW - which had way too many simple fetch quests.

Three things that didn't do much for me:

The Zonai tech. It's fun to use, and I do appreciate how utterly amazing the development/coding is, especially considering the Switch's hardware limitations. However, I would be very tired of Ultrahand by now if not for the Autobuild ability, and even then my interest is mild at best. Also, it did not feel "Zelda-ish" to me. I don't think driving cars or shooting rockets belongs in a Zelda game. In fact I ignored the Zonai tech whenever possible. I would often walk instead of building a car, simply because it felt more "Zelda-ish" to do so.

Mediocre voice acting. I'm relieved to say Ganondorf was fairly good. The rest not so much. If Nintendo isn't willing to hire more expensive more esteemed VAs for a flagship franchise like Zelda, I'd rather they didn't do it at all.

Zelda's story. Don't get me wrong, I was very glad to see her play a stronger, amazingly brave and selfless character. The thing I'm not happy about is that she was once again separated from Link throughout the entire game. Is it really too much to ask that they work together side by side? *sigh*

Three things I strongly disliked: (warning: ranting ahead)

EMOTIONLESS LINK. I cannot express how much I hate this. Even if I put aside my love for Link as a character and my wish for him to express himself, I still think this blank-faced avatar approach is awful. It does not allow me to see myself as Link (which I believe was their intent) because I have feelings and he doesn't, seemingly. If anything, it had the opposite effect. I found It distracting and cringey and infuriating to watch Link react to everything with determination, confusion, or that stupid blank expression. There are some emotionally charged scenes in this game, and they fall very flat because of Link. At least, they did for me. UGH.

Non-linear storytelling. It's highly restrictive, disjointed, and the impact depends on the order in which players obtain certain cutscenes. Please, Nintendo, no more.

The Zonai. I'm not a fan of most furry character designs, and Rauru is particularly strange, so it was immediately off-putting to me. I also strongly dislike the idea of them founding Hyrule and being "like gods" to Hylians. It's all very vague, and I don't understand how any of it works with past Zelda lore, especially when Hylia is so important in BotW. It's like they scrapped everything sacred in Zelda lore (the golden goddesses, Hylia, etc.), and replaced it with the Zonai. Meh, I'll stick with the old lore, thanks.

Also, a furry being married to a Hylian is also very off-putting to me. I don't know how that works, I don't want to find out, and I have no interest in learning more about Rauru or Sonia. Their fates had zero emotional impact on me, so I didn't get much out of that part of the storyline.

I could go on, but I'll stop there.

As far as rankings, I would place TotK with BotW because they are very similar. Here's how I rank the 3D Zelda games:

OoT/MM

BotW/TotK

TWW

SS

TP

So yeah, didn't love it, didn't hate it. Like with BotW, I'm very frustrated by all the untapped potential. As an avid Zelinker, I see the entire arc of BotW and TotK as an epic story of love, loss, bravery, and sacrifice. Link and Zelda both mirror and complement each other in so many ways, and I love the creative potential in that.

I also love the limitless exploration in both games - it keeps me interested for hours. But when the next Zelda game is revealed, I'd like to see a new formula, preferably a more classic one.

#TotK #Zelda #Tears of the Kingdom

[fire-plays-totk]

Not sure if it's just something I dislike from a storytelling perspective or if it's just something I find deeply tragic about TOTK, but isn't it fucked how the same misfortunes tend to follow Link and Zelda? TOTK Link is gravely injured and gets stuck in a stasis to heal him before he wakes up weakened and confused, with the weight of the world on his shoulders again. TOTK Zelda is stuck trying to figure out some way to help and ultimately comes to the conclusion she must sacrifice herself. Like we've done this before??

Except in BOTW everything feels like a direct consequence of the reincarnation cycle. How Link was forced into knighthood as a child and how Zelda is expected to harness her sealing power only because of her bloodline. Hell, even how Ganon has warped into this terrifying force of nature and lost any shred of humanity. Everything is a result of thousands of years of the same song and dance over the triforce and it directly impacts these three characters arguably much more than their predecessors. So I guess it's a little lame that TOTK's reason for all the same things happening again is kinda just "Shit sucks I guess. Boom. Time travel."

#tears of the kingdom #totk #totk spoilers #tears of the kingdom spoilers #This is a little rambly and doesn't have a cohesive point but I just need to ramble #I just think TOTK is trying to rely more on past Zelda tropes (including ones present in BOTW) than telling it's own story ig? #Like BOTW was incredibly solid thematically and it will make me feel things for years. TOTK... less so #It's almost as if it's lacking a true sense of identity. Which is hard when you're a sequel but certainly possible #In a way I really wish they had just... made an entirely different game in BOTW's engine rather than a direct sequel at times