A lot of people seem to feel that TotK is so much better than BotW, in so many ways, that playing BotW any more would feel almost pointless.
While I can understand that, TotK is truly amazing in almost every way, I find myself missing BotW.
I miss that desolate feeling, the Guardian induced anxiety, and the difficulty of a lot of BotW that I feel is missing from TotK.
BotW and TotK are the 2 sides of a single coin, neither complete without the other.
I’m already looking forward to another playthrough of both games! (only 68% so far on TotK still!)
Honnestly I just bought myself a Switch and I’m just amazed by BotW and am really enjoying it however I do feel like some of the story telling aspect is lacking & I was told that TotK does not disappoint in that department and now I am also even more looking forward to TotK, urgh I love The Legend of Zelda sooo muuuch
Have fun I put 400-500 hours in botw over all my playthroughs and I will playthrough again next year once I finish totk… word of advice, imho it’s best to just play botw nice and slow I rushed my first playthrough and it wasn’t until my second that I discovered sooo much cool stuff I’d missed out on by not exploring that next hill top or seeing what was around that corner…
I haven’t finished TotK yet, but I feel like BotW does some things better in terms on congruence. I’d say TotK is better overall despite this. Both games are great on their own!!
I like both games for what they are. Though I have already forgotten how TotK began, I still remember the moment when I left the shrine of resurrection in BotW. That open world (moment) was incredible. TotK on the other side has a bit more of the original Zelda charme regarding dungeons and the like and I really do love the temples. I am not so keen for the crafting part, but than I just don’t spend too much time on it.
BotW is a cool game, and I had fun playing it.
That fun didn’t last very long though. I got bored pretty quickly. I’m not sure I even have 50hrs in it to this day. I did some shrines and got the divine beasts, but I never felt compelled to 100% or fight Ganon or do any side quests.
It had a cool premise, but there just wasn’t enough stuff to keep me interested, and tbh I think that’s true across the board, bc from what I’ve seen, most of the people who get tons and tons of fun out of it are making their own fun doing stuff like speed running and finding glitches, not just generally playing the game. Those kind of things don’t interest me. If I wanted just a sandbox, I’d play Minecraft or Gary’s Mod or something.
On the other hand, I’m at 100hrs now in TotK. I got all the depths filled out, completed more shrines than I ever did in BotW (and found more than exist in BotW), completed a ton of the side quests (especially the “Side Adventures” ones that I really enjoyed), got all of the old games’ armors and upgraded them fully (except TP), explored lots of caves and wells, etc, etc. I’m doing things in the game, and I’ll keep doing things through this game. Everything is so much more engaging. TotK takes the intricate sandbox world and actually makes it worth using.
Tl; Dr: I dropped BotW whereas I’m actually playing TotK. BotW was a really cool experience, but I’m firmly in the camp of “TotK makes BotW feel like a tech demo.” Do I still have love for BotW? In some ways, but generally no.
I absolutely loved BotW and I think I still do. Played through it again before the release of TotK and did all of the shrines. The gameplay loop can get a bit repetitive, but I absolutely loved exploring the world.
Strangely, the world in TotK feels smaller to me. Maybe I was more easily impressed in 2017, but Hyrule felt huge back then. Due to how much easier you can traverse the world in TotK, it feels a bit less grand. It’s also so jam packed that to me it feels less like a real world and more like a game.
That being said: TotK has a lot of fun stuff that I would probably miss in BotW. The gameplay js much more diverse and I’d probably get annoyed at how much effort it’d take to go somewhere. I think that if you played them for the first time in reverse order, you would absolutely think TotK is the better game.
