TotK is in a weird position where it is hard to recommend that someone star with BotW if they have not played it already because there's so much redundancy, it's hard to imagine playing them without a huge break inbetween and I think many would simply rather pick one and be done with it.

But so much is developed for returning players - towns and NPCs in particular are simply not written for first impressions, even though they tried a little bit by having many of the NPCs somehow not recognize Link. Tarrey Town seems like nothing but a half baked oddity viewed without context from the first game. Kakariko is no longer the hidden ninja village awaiting the hero to support him in his quest, its' current residents almost entirely preoccupied with a bunch of rocks that fell out of the sky and accommodating the tourists and researchers they have attracted.

Many overworld gimmicks or attractions are also removed because, well, most of us already did them, generally replaced by several more scattered elsewhere, which is good but also leads to many parts of the world losing the purpose they were originally designed for, making those areas feel a bit hollow.

It comes across like a sequel and an enhanced super turbo rerelease of BotW at the same. It's almost like the Ultimate/G/portable/ versions of older Monster Hunter games where it's like, yeah, certain things are missing or diminished but there's very little reason to play the original now - except, in TotK's case, many things about it hardly function if you have not.

Ultimately I come to the conclusion that if someone is practically certain they will not want to play two versions of BotW, they should just start with TotK, because it's all around better. Otherwise, one should really play BotW and treat TotK as a second playthrough (or second quest, master quest) that they may have to put off for 2, 3 years.

Yeah I'm gonna eat it as someone who was hyped for this game - it's just a fucking remixed version of BotW. It barely qualifies as a sequel. Majora's Mask - THAT was a sequel. But you still have to play both to experience it properly.

@LittleTom The gameplay loop being more or less identical combined with the story not really mattering makes it feel like less than it actually is. They added a lot of stuff, but most of it feels like it doesn't matter because you're still using those new toys to do basically the same thing. The Depths is the only part where things actually feel meaningfully different enough for the game to not just be DLC. Mind you I really enjoy exploring the Depths, but the sky doesn't feel very consequential and the main overworld feels samey. It's a really good game, but I feel like it's going to wind up being less memorable than a major Zelda entry should be because of how much it blends together with BOTW.

@ArdainianRight @LittleTom the few things rememberable is the drug lord arc in goron city and Fujoshi's huffing massive amounts of copium over your best friend getting married to a woman

@luithe @ArdainianRight @LittleTom "How the FUCK can two guys like and respect each other without engaging in constant interracial poop sex? This is BULLSHIT!"

@ChristiJunior @ArdainianRight @LittleTom the funniest ones I saw from a Fujo was complaining about him falling in love with his wife while growing up written on those tablets which specifically says it comes from his words
Basically complaining it's an overused trope even though she's the reason why he's a Chad and not sulking around like post cell saga Vegeta
All in all, basically saying "how dare this man fall in love with a woman who actually stayed in touch with him from childhood and lifted him to his best after his big sister died!"

@ChristiJunior @ArdainianRight @LittleTom going through it now and holy crap they all wanted her to be an abusive wife/villain in disguise
The amount of copium and seething is too much
Well that's enough of that, time to get more puff puffs in dq1

@luithe @ChristiJunior @LittleTom It's disturbing how desperately some people want a fictional fishman to be gay, but it is typical of this type to live in a fictional world with little to no grounding in reality.

@ArdainianRight @luithe @LittleTom The people screeching for gay representation in Nintendo games are genuinely terrible people. One great example was all the faggots crying about Male Byleth's S-Support with Alois being platonic - these fucking niggers deadass wanted Alois to kick his wife and daughter to the curb, just to buttfuck a guy who's half his age, and who he views as an adoptive baby brother.

Garbage people.