Tears of the Kingdom

Tears of the Kingdom#

The first game that made me want to write something, and actually wrote something

Game Journey#

Started playing the pirated emulator version on May 3rd. (Here, I need to reflect on myself, not only playing a pirated version, but also a leaked version. I will try to buy the official version after I become financially independent in the future.) There were a few days of interruption in between, and I finished Ganon yesterday, which can be considered as completing the game. After finishing, I felt a bit melancholy and wanted to see other people's thoughts by watching videos and browsing forums, but couldn't find any. I had some thoughts while taking a shower, so I decided to write them down.

Thoughts#

Before the Lunar New Year in 2023, I downloaded a bunch of games, but after the New Year, I lost interest in games until I came across "Tears of the Kingdom" in early May, and I couldn't stop playing it, staying up late several times.

Why does this game have such a great charm? I have a few thoughts:

Storyline. To be honest, I could roughly guess the storyline within the first 5 days of playing. But I still think it's a great parody storyline. I really like the relationship between Link and Zelda in this game. Zelda's trust in Link, the trust that transcends time and her own sacrifice, really moved me.
Characters.
- Zelda. The Zelda in this game is truly beautiful. She worked as a teacher at the Hateno School for a while, and her house is still decorated with paintings made by her students. She traveled around the Hyrule continent, and people everywhere have heard of her.
- Ganon. Didn't feel much, even found it a bit funny. The final boss battle was not difficult, even someone like me with poor gaming skills could defeat it in one try. But ten thousand years ago, it was invincible. The boss's declarations didn't feel very impressive either. But it didn't really affect the game. I only found out after finishing that if you die midway, you have to start from the monster army, and I felt lucky that I didn't die.
- Kakariko Village residents. The most annoying village. To be honest, when I played this game, I had the mindset of "I saved the world a few years ago, you don't have to worship me, but at least respect me" in mind. But in this village, I felt like I had a lower status than the ordinary villagers. One villager slept directly on a stone slab and wouldn't let me wake them up directly, I had to find a Life Truffle; and when I just wanted to touch a stone slab, I would be stopped. Not to mention that I tried various methods to enter a certain location but was not allowed. Although I later found out that it was a requirement for the storyline, I still felt very unhappy.
- Hateno Village residents. This village formed a sharp contrast with Kakariko Village, and I felt respected here. The tasks were also interesting to complete.
Relationship with the previous game:
The timeline of this game should be a few years after "Breath of the Wild". It can be considered a sequel. However, the Sheikah technology from the previous game has almost disappeared. This point has been criticized by many old players. Although I have played "Breath of the Wild", I only completed two shrines, and I used cheat codes excessively, which resulted in a poor gaming experience. So I don't have much emotional attachment to the previous game. Therefore, it didn't really affect me.

In addition, this game has also sparked my interest in the entire "Legend of Zelda" series. After learning some related information (watched a few videos), I can now appreciate some of the Easter eggs hidden in this game. I envy those players who got into the series early, how happy they must be.
Music. The most memorable part is the music in the Wind Temple, it's amazing. Although I spent almost an afternoon on the jumping puzzle before entering the temple, it didn't diminish the impact it had on me.

I've said so much above, but I haven't gotten to the point yet. I think the most attractive aspects to me are:

Thoughtful development: While playing, I can feel that the developers have really played the game with great attention to detail. It seems not difficult to achieve this: handy tools, rich text, giving me a feeling that the developers have thought of everything I could think of. But in reality, among the games I have played, only "The Legend of Zelda" has truly achieved this.
Intuitive design. This seems to be the same as the previous point, but I still listed it separately because it's so great. I have always believed that the highest standard of a good design is its intuitiveness. When you get a product, you don't need to read the instructions or ask others, you can just use it. I think that's a great experience. And to achieve intuitiveness, especially in games, developers need to think a lot.
Sense of exploration. I read an article about "Breath of the Wild" that said Nintendo divided a large map into triangles using towers, shrines, and chests. I think that's very reasonable. "Tears of the Kingdom" has strengthened this aspect even more because of the presence of the Bird's Eye Tower. After shooting up into the sky, seeing special terrains, shrines, and Tears of the Dragon, I can't help but have the impulse to explore them one by one. This is what makes it difficult to stop playing, there will always be new points to explore.
Abilities. The abilities in this game are outstanding. Ascending Technique enhances mobility. Remnants Construction enriches the weapon system. The Ultimate Hand is also played in various creative ways. I have always been bad at games, not only do I have poor gaming skills, but my creativity is also average. But seeing various creative ways shared online has been a great joy for me in the past month.
Friendly to players with poor gaming skills. The difficulty design is not high, there are suitable guides, and there are even ways to skip classes, which allows me to better experience the joy of the game.
Technology. I always remember the shock I felt when I learned about the various magical techniques used by the programmers of Super Mario to adapt to the performance of game consoles. The technical prowess of "Tears of the Kingdom" is also very strong. The size of around 16GB is no longer considered large today, but the richness of this game is unmatched by many other games. And there aren't many bugs, except for some duplication bugs, I haven't seen any major bugs that affect the gaming experience.

Now let's talk about the emulator. The emulator's smooth experience today, from the obvious lag, constant crashes, and texture errors when it was leaked, is thanks to the continuous efforts of the emulator developers and maintainers. And in the first few days, the atmosphere in the related communities was very good. Many people shared their settings to enhance the gaming experience. To say something that may not be appropriate, I felt the spirit of the internet in this aspect - helping each other, not expecting anything in return, and continuously researching. That's how I understand it. This can also be said to be one of the things that attracted me to "Tears of the Kingdom".

Conclusion#

Today I saw a sentence that said, "Suddenly understood what a good game is, even watching how its players play is very interesting." It's really well said.