Seriously! BotW USED to be the definitive open world game, but after Elden Ring it feels like child’s play.
I mean, sure, it you get a big kick out of experimenting with the physics engine of the game- thats one thing that BotW has that Elden Ring didn’t bother with(imo, justly so)
I pre-ordered TotK, but I’m willing to bet that it will feel like a pretty bland game(like Amnesia Rebirth after the legacy of The Dark Descent)
I hope I’m wrong
Ive made my issues with ER well known, so I’ll just praise it here…
The lore is absolutely righteous. Thats one area in which BotW was comparably, yes, child’s play. BotW’s story was like the back of a cereal box compared to ERs tome. And all the different weapons and incantations. Sooooo rich. Im watching this now, grumpy af Zelda doesnt come anywhere close to this.
I’m not much of a lore guy when playing games. I only really pay attention to it when it’s either shoved in my face(ie: a story) or if I know the story beforehand and I’m playing it to follow along to experience it for myself.
As far as exploration goes, hotdang did Elden Ring pump up what BotW presented(mysteries and secrets can be ANYWHERE!) and pump it up with steroids(im not even talking about difficulty) to compare BotW’s shrines with Elden Ring’s crypts and tombs and whatnot- its unjustifiable to call them both mini-dungeons.
Granted Zelda has a significantly more puzzle based gameplay than FronSoftwares cluster of gameplay mechanics, and I favor puzzle based gameplay over combat, but I rarely felt as satisfied finishing a shrine as I did finishing a ER mini-dungeon.
Even the main dungeons of ER, scratched my combat averse satisfaction over BotW.
Compared to dungeons from the N64 games, the dungeons felt like they came close to being phenomenal, but never really knocked it out of the park.
I think the ONE THING that BotW did phenomenally well was chasing memories/finding DLC shrines- that was the one element of the game that really shined.
Lining up environment clues and find the glowing spot to unlock a new memory in the slate.
Granted, at the time, BotW was more like a exploration endorphin ride of being delighted with each pleasant discovery.
Personally speaking, and I’m assuming I’m in the minority, I think the rest of BotW’s gimmicks need to be severely revamped- if they’re trying to recapture the appeal of the first game in TotK.
I think they will do something interesting probably… they haven’t done a zelda in the same engine in a long while I don’t think, but often when nintendo iterates but they often come up with some great stuff when they aren’t focused on getting a new engine together.
In the modern era, as far as I’m aware, they’ve only done that for Majora’s Mask and most of that games inspiration came from their persona time crunch to capitalize on the success of OoT.
Sure, they were able to focus their energies on other elements of that game in that year.
The massive amount of time/effort that went into TotK either means it was used to make it the best game ever or they were doing janitorial work on the game to make it not a steaming pile of nonsense.
Given that this is a music forum, im assuming the latter concept isn’t a foreign one(plz tell me it isn’t just me…thats done this…multiple times…)
Yeah Majora’s Mask is really wild imo, once you got a bit deeper into it, it becomes really fun… early game in it can be pretty frustrating. The portable zeldas are all pretty amazing also, some of the best imo and often are basically reusing an old engine of sorts. I think part of it is also just nintendo gave the developers more freedom to do some odd things on the portables.
I gotta say tho. What a fantastic teaser image. Its so intriguing!
Like, the warmest most wonderful part of starting out Elden Ring was looking at that big beautiful tree towering over everything. And now, its just desolate decrepit pathetic landmark to what was before.
Man! I WISH I were better at this game 
The lore is one thing in FromSoft games, but the art direction is what really does it for me. Just amazing.
Ok.
Can anyone help me develop a love for crafting/consumables?
Crafting in games in general just seems like a bit of a grind, and maybe it’s the miserly Scot in me, but in all FromSoft games to date I have always held on to those precious consumables for when I REALLY need them.
And then never end up using them…
Maybe the odd moss clump here and there. But it’s definitely not part of a play style.
Now that crafting is a much bigger feature in ER can anyone help spur my interest in it? Tips etc.?
In a game where death/respawning and repetition are part of the fabric, using a one off, non-replenishing item just doesn’t seem to click for me.
I am about 40hrs in. Have gathered plenty craftable materials and got quite a few cookbooks, but made nothing so far.
Feel like I’m missing out.
I played through the game hoarding materials and then occasionally using vast numbers of crafted items to help get past tricky enemies, or just bits that I found annoying (bloody skeletons). The only other FS game I’ve played was Bloodborne and I thought the items were easier to come by and to make use of in ER
I have constantly bypassed crafting in Elden Ring with one exception when in Stormveil where I spammed that grafted monster thing with arrows before I fully embraced git gud mentality 
or at least just levelled up and returned to tough areas overpowered.
Crafting can make a huge difference though I just couldn’t be arsed with it. Some of the videos with folk skelping bosses after various potions and the likes are great to watch.
I’m largely with you on this, but check out some of the perfumes. Plus gold and silver pickled fowl feet are very useful. That’s about all I make haha.
So its not just me then.
Thought I was going to get hit with a deluge of “How are you not crafting? That’s like half the game…”
It’s always worth crafting the bolus items, super handy to pop on the start bar quick select. And the freezing pots are super useful, especially when you get invaded. 380 frost damage regardless of stats is not to be sneered at.
For me it’s because I’m a faith build on my main. So there’s an incant for a lot of the ground covered by craftables. And even if the consumable gives you say +5% more of X than the spell, it’s still easier for me to cast and not have to farm stuff.
Crafting becomes a lot more appealing as a non magic user!
Like the freeze pot mentioned above though, there will always be useful stuff that isn’t quite covered by spells, that could probably also help us haha.
Crafting is super annoying. I usually bought the craft books when vendors would sell it, because why not?
I’d horde materials whenever they came about.
If I ran into a difficulty wall, I’d check the crafting inventory to see what I could make. And try them on enemies/bosses.
But honestly, crafting as a mechanic is super boring and it really takes the glimmer out of finding something I can pick up when exploring the dungeon. “Oh…a melted mushroom…okay”
The only benefit for each item was in hindsight, but I cannot be bothered to internalize how each individual material impacts each creation.
For the life of me, I don’t know why crafting became a staple in the modern era of games.
Its always been a shoulder shrug for me
I’m in the same boat. But… I do love how excited and nerdy Reddit’s From pages get in the first few weeks or couple of months after a game comes out. Folk just go to town with this shit and find so much out for themselves.
I’ll regularly return to Elden Ring for years I reckon but nothing will top those first two months post release. When I do jump into an ER session it’s actually incredible to think how quickly the grandness and wonder of the game became normalised. It’s probably the main reason I look at other games and think “meh”
When you venture into an area for a first time and get hit with a vista or a huge statue of something that you don’t know what it is, but know is deeply embedded in the lore it’s just incredible. Hard to imagine any other game developers coming close to that at the moment IMO.
Started playing Elden Ring shortly after release last year and had fun with it but got stuck at Fire Giant and Mohg and took a really long break from like July up until a few weeks ago. For some reason I started watching speedrunners on Twitch and it made me really miss the world of the Lands Between and I had an itch to play again. The break definitely did me some good! Having a lot of fun again – killed Mohg a few days ago and finally beat the goddamned Fire Giant last night. Also, Bloodhound’s Fang +10 is a pretty messed up weapon!
