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[Digital Foundry] The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Is It Really 'Too Big for Switch'...?

brian0057

Banned
Most people are praising the game’s performance and polish though, you are probably just imagining things.
It's more that people are dismissing it because they wanted Nintendo to spend Germany's GDP into the graphics of the game as they hit you over the head with the old "damn, I wish this was on much better hardware" pablum.
It's like people willfully forget that they're a for profit company that wants to make the most money while spending the least possible amount.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
It's like people willfully forget that they're a for profit company that wants to make the most money while spending the least possible amount.
People get that, but then? What does it actually mean agreeing with that being the case? Do you expect people to be less angry or more angry?

I think the game seems to be a worthy sequel like Majora’s Mask was for The Ocarina of Tine before it, but a lot of people have not seen all the content it has (nor DLC’s)… the $10 price increase of the sequel does sting I will admit it… with the voucher and the digital copy you can at least avoid that bit for now as the price of vouchers has not been increased.
 
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Corndog

Banned
People get that, but then? What does it actually mean agreeing with that being the case? Do you expect people to be less angry or more angry?

I think the game seems to be a worthy sequel like Majora’s Mask was for The Ocarina of Tine before it, but a lot of people have not seen all the content it has (nor DLC’s)… the $10 price increase of the sequel does sting I will admit it… with the voucher and the digital copy you can at least avoid that bit for now as the price of vouchers has not been increased.
Don’t you have to pay for online to get the voucher deal?
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Don’t you have to pay for online to get the voucher deal?
Touche, yes, yes you do. You do get DLC’s for no additional cost on most of their big first party games and NES, GBA, SNES, Genesis, and N64 games out of it too at the same cost (NSO + EP or just NES, Genesis, and SNES for pure NSO)… with some cloud save storage thrown on top…
 

Corndog

Banned
I’m still going to get it regardless of the tech stuff. It’s not dropping in price anytime soon 😢

Yeah, that’s fair. I don’t mind if fans can look past the flaws. It’s not a deal breaker, but the double standards are driving me insane.
I think people go in knowing the switch is not a powerhouse. It also shows there is more to games than just fancy graphics. That’s something several big developers could learn from.
 

PeteBull

Member
Wow, this is simply awful. Look at this shit seriously. No progress in 6 years.





And the outside world is copy-pasted. You can hardly tell the difference when they compare the game to BotW.

10/10

Its not game's fault/devs fault, blame nintendo who in middle of 2023 got their console(handheld) thats as powerful as 1/3rd of xbox one, that was considered underpowered even back at launch in late 2013. Even best looking game on the system will look worse from avg game from last gen, simply coz powergap is humongous.
 

brian0057

Banned
People get that, but then? What does it actually mean agreeing with that being the case? Do you expect people to be less angry or more angry?
This being the internet, I expect people to just ignore it and become as angry as they were always meant to be.
They can "shoulda/coulda/woulda" all they want. It's not gonna change the fact that the game is available in the platform it currently is.
The can either "emulate" it or play in on hardware. Bitching about it is a waste of bandwith and energy.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
This being the internet, I expect people to just ignore it and become as angry as they were always meant to be.
They can "shoulda/coulda/woulda" all they want. It's not gonna change the fact that the game is available in the platform it currently is.
The can either "emulate" it or play in on hardware. Bitching about it is a waste of bandwith and energy.
The argument “they are a for profit company that wants to make money without spending money, accept it” was and is still sounding like a blank check to one side and a “consume! shut up and consume” request to the other though.

I do agree that the game is available on a platform it is available for, 🙄, but people that note the higher price and 6 years of development (reusing a not insignificant layer of work done for BotW already) do have a points they can vote with their wallet but I think it is not just pointless whining if they talk about it. Depends on how yes, that too.
 
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Astral Dog

Member
i really dont get why ppl give nintendo a pass over this, making a copy paste of a game. im kinda sad because i was especting this game on a new hardware, or to be exact a proper home console. gonna keep waiting another 6 yrs i guess.
I haven't played it yet, but people seem way focused on Tears of the Kingdom using the same 'map' as criticism
Gamers got used to Zelda games always changing drastically its artsyle,world design etc.every game in the SD era that a direct sequel is hard to accept.

but Tears of the Kingdom adds so much more to Breath of the Wild it couldn't have been made without it,instead of reinventing the wheel they completed the experience ,people wanted a proper story, bosses and dungeons in Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom adds them while also changing the way you explore the map

Breath of the Wild was unfinished because it was merely part 1 of the 'story', there was no point in starting from zero when they could build a complete set with the assets and characters they already had and worked on for years,the Zeld team likely planned this before finishing Breath of the Wild that it was going to have a direct sequel

Basically they just divided 'Breath of the Wild' into parts
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Wow, this is simply awful. Look at this shit seriously. No progress in 6 years.





And the outside world is copy-pasted. You can hardly tell the difference when they compare the game to BotW.

10/10

seth meyers GIF
 

L*][*N*K

Banned
People reference SkillUP and DF reviews as a “I am not playing this game due to their reviews” and they love Tears yet the same people are still arguing
 

Disco Dave

Member
I think it was the combination of (a) nobody mentioning coverage of the game on any DF social media platform (usually they will at least throw out that they're testing game XYZ if it isn't day and date, (b) his ultra-pissy defensive attitude when people asked him about it, and (c) the fact that Richard covered it with no inputs from the team, the boss isn't usually doing these analyses anymore. All of which again is for a game that is likely going to be top 3-5 for sales in 2023. It doesn't really matter but it was a pretty bad misstep for a site that has been pretty spotless in terms of coverage and depth over the years.
It's worth adding that Hogwarts Legacy launched on PC with relatively few issues. Given that Alex Ballaglia has been critical of PC ports launching in poorly optimised states and been lambasting developers, it speaks volumes that he has ignored this game completely.

The difference between Linneman and Battaglia is that one felt the need to give a pathetic excuse on Twitter and put on a shocked Pikachu face when called out on his bullshit.
 
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I think people go in knowing the switch is not a powerhouse. It also shows there is more to games than just fancy graphics. That’s something several big developers could learn from.
That’s silly. People have known long before the switch released, that games are more than fancy graphics. That isn’t a new or difficult thing to grasp. And yet, I see forums swamped with people who drone on and on about it. However, this purity testing doesn’t seem to be present when every other platform is discussed🧐
 
It exists in almost no other AAA game. Minecraft and Teardown are the other ones with advanced physics and world simulations. Games like The Witcher, Elden Ring, or Horizon are a farce compared to even BOTW. TOTK simply embarrasses them in that department.
Your limited selection of games you're using as an example proves my point.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
Regarding map reuse... They seem to barely reuse the geometry because there are so many changes even in the map that yeah, I don't even consider it the same anymore... It's way crisper too, those complaining are bragging about not playing a game yet complaining about things the game isn't lol
 

fersnake

Member
btw that´s not a sequel. spiderman ps4 release it on 2018 on ps4 iirc and miles was 2 yrs later on ps5 wich has better graphics for obvious reasons. Now ToTk had 6 yrs development right? so now with spiderman 2 we all are gonna compare it to the previous one that's the way it is.
 

Tams

Gold Member
isn't it kinda sad that the most advanced open world game of today is on a handheld that's most likely less powerful than the phone you have?

kinda says a lot about how most AAA games are designed these days :/

In a way, it artificially recreates the conditions when computing was much more limited and developers had to be much more clever and creative.
 

Tams

Gold Member
btw that´s not a sequel. spiderman ps4 release it on 2018 on ps4 iirc and miles was 2 yrs later on ps5 wich has better graphics for obvious reasons. Now ToTk had 6 yrs development right? so now with spiderman 2 we all are gonna compare it to the previous one that's the way it is.

Mate, there's more to games than just graphics.

And if you'd bothered to watch the video, you'd have found out that Nintendo EPD have done quite a bit of impressive graphics work on it.
 

lachesis

Member
I'm actually pretty impressed how the frame rate is holding up well. I am still in the beginning, but it seems to be running quite well. Of course, I would have loved 60fps at full 1080p.

Thinking about running this on the small CRT that I have downstairs. :D
 

LakeOf9

Member
Skyward Sword launched on Wii in 2011.

Got its first port/remaster on Switch in 2021.

Nintendo can be weird. Hopefully they’ll do a port though, would be a shame if it was stuck on Switch for years.
Unlike Skyward Sword, people actually like this one
 
Nintendo doesn't make a lot of mistakes, compared to the competition, but it might have been one to not release this game with a new console. Another way to look at it though, is their high level of confidence in the Switch hardware. I mean there's clearly a reason why Valve copied the Switch
 

Tams

Gold Member
Nintendo doesn't make a lot of mistakes, compared to the competition, but it might have been one to not release this game with a new console. Another way to look at it though, is their high level of confidence in the Switch hardware. I mean there's clearly a reason why Valve copied the Switch
On the other hand, there are over 125 million Switches out there.

It's a hell of a lot easier to get people to part with 50-70 of their currency than 350-400.
 
Is it just me or is this game ridiculously washed out? Especially when there is any fog during the daytime. Playing this on an LG C1 and it doesn’t look good. Similar to MH Rise before tweaking the settings but I can’t find a brightness setting for this. Am I missing something obvious?
 

Woopah

Member
Nintendo doesn't make a lot of mistakes, compared to the competition, but it might have been one to not release this game with a new console. Another way to look at it though, is their high level of confidence in the Switch hardware. I mean there's clearly a reason why Valve copied the Switch
To me it says Nintendo is confident in having enough software for launch of Switch 2, and wants Switch to avoid the end of life droughts that other Nintendo systems had.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
It’s pretty incredible what they can do with the hardware, but they are obviously at their limit here. Just think they are doing all this with 4gigs of ram. If the next Nintendo console is even on par with a ps4 it will be a huge leap for Nintendo themselves.
 

Nocturno999

Member
Is it just me or is this game ridiculously washed out? Especially when there is any fog during the daytime. Playing this on an LG C1 and it doesn’t look good. Similar to MH Rise before tweaking the settings but I can’t find a brightness setting for this. Am I missing something obvious?
I assume you are playing a Switch game @ 4k. That's why I play mine on a 1080p monitor and games look great. Still my TOTK copy hasn't arrived yet.
 
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