I can’t think of another pair of games that are so intrinsically tied in terms of mechanical and tonal identity, yet so strangely polarizing for people in terms of their enjoyment. I personally adore Tears and think it’s a really great additive experience from Breath, but evidently a lot of people feel differently.

It’s still the greatest achievement in video game history. To have this kind of thing in something less powerful than a smartphone is nothing short of miraculous. Yet again, Nintendo shows everyone else what is possible.

TOTK has the best opening and ending of any Zelda game, and there's plenty of wow moments sprinkled throughout the midgame. There's some monotonous "I already did this in BOTW" sections in there too, but overall, the game is absolutely fantastic.

I have to disagree with one of your points. TOTK is my favorite game of all time and so much better than BOTW. To each his or her own.

I think instead of taking place in BOTW’s world, it would’ve been really cool for TOTK to take place in the past Hyrule that we see in Zelda’s memories.

This game is amazing. 200 hours later and having completed all shrines, light roots, and side quests it’s one easily one of the best games I have ever played.

Idk, barley new enemies, same mechanic of collecting memories/koroks/shrines. The underworld is all 1 skin, 90% botw reused armor. Did i mention barley any new enemies? The bow is still op

I wish they would actually let us play Zelda's part of the story... her part is much more interesting and offers so much more freedom of creativity than Link's part.

The Depths are kinda lame when you realize there's only like 3 activities down there, the Sky is lame af the only substaintial island is the tutorial, and the overworld, as much as they tried to change it, is still re-used. TotK is unable to capture the same sense of exploration and discovery as BotW because it's so re-used. TotK might technically be better, but BotW was better

I honestly think Totk is my favorite game of 2023, for me at least it surpasses BotW. The story is one of the best Zelda stories ever written, but it’s just presented so horribly. Because the story is linear, it’s conflicting with the freedom you get

For good measure, I revisited Breath of the Wild recently and it really made me appreciate how much of an improvement Tears of the Kingdom is. The big thing is enemy camps and bosses feel more worthwhile to tackle because of how useful monster parts are. Even basic things like the ability to throw items I really took for granted.

Here's my best shot at describing how I feel about BotW vs TotK as Zelda experiences.

For me:

Okay, so I’ve been playing games since 1992, I’m a retro games collector and would considering the SEGA Dreamcast the greatest console of all time. Okay so enough context. Tears of the Kingdom is quite simply the best game I have ever played. The freedom, the SHEER amount of secrets and side quests, the customisation, the story, the fact it has THREE worlds to explore, the soundtrack - it’s nearly absolutely perfect.

For me TOTK is a strange combination of "too little / too much". There's so much stuff to do, that there's a moment where the game looses focus. There are so many things, that most of them lack any impact and become just a checklist. On the other hand, The Sky Islands are "too little". There's a HUGE missing opportunity there. Just copied and pasted islands one after the other. The Depths are AMAZING, but then you realize there's not much to do there. One of the few interesting things done with The Depths is the way you enter Korok Forest. For me, that's one of the most clever uses of ascend combined with the Depths... and the game uses it ONLY ONCE (or twice maybe, I don't recall).

When this launched, I found this game to be less creative, but seeing Alex do a "No Paraglider" run really opened my eyes to how many things you can do in Tears!

Playe BOTW on Wii U. Started up TOTK and was just blown away. Touching down on land in Hyrule was so cool. Wish I could experience it again. Just exploring everywhere and seeing how everything was different. I was so engrossed that I didn’t even realize I didn’t have the paraglider until I jumped off a cliff 😂. Ignored the main quests for months. Just an amazing game. Will be my GOAT for a long time.

Another good mention is the amazing ending sequence. Especially when compared to BOTW. One of the best from Nintendo.

I feel like ToTK just improves on BoTW in every way, I actually went out of my way to do the shrines because the abilities you have are so dang fun to use and the expansions to the world in the sky and the depths were experiences I won’t ever forget. It’s just a sequel to a masterpiece, that’s also a masterpiece.

It’s my favorite! I’m a 31 year old married woman who has never played video games until BOTW came out and now this.