Although I thoroughly enjoyed totk, I couldn’t really describe it as groundbreaking as botw. And I realized why: botw was all about waking up in a a strange, new environment, exploring, and learning about the life of an expansive environment.
Totk is about loss. The game starts you with everything you’ve fought to earn - the master sword, Zelda’s safety, and full hearts and stamina. An the game wastes no time in systematically stripping you of everything and dumping you in a lost, abandoned land. And when you finally reach the hyrule of your memories, you are bombarded by the chaos in the world you done everything to protect. You’ve lost everything. Zelda, your sword, and even your arm. And each region that enriched us is mostly in ruins, filled with familiar faces struggling to heal from the loss.
Totk is about taking the greatest version of hyrule and destroying what we’ve loved and not even beating the game can restore it.
























