I’ve recently found that big (mostly open world) games tend to overwhelm or even intimidate me. I’m a big fan of the Rockstar games and absolutely adored Breath of the Wild, but my playthrough of Tears of the Kingdom has been a bit rocky from the get-go.
As soon as the game let me explore all of its content and released me from the tutorial island, I was able to roam the lands of Hyrule freely as I once did in Breath of the Wild, but I’ve come to a sort of paralysis. I feel like there’s such an enormous amount of content to see that I’m constantly anxious to unintentionally skip content or to not make the most of my experience. I did not feel like this back in Breath of the Wild, and I’m not really sure why. I did, however, have this same sense of FOMO when I first played Skyrim. That game also made me feel like I was constantly missing stuff which left me kind of unsatisfied.
This is not a big problem and all of the games I listed are great games. I’m posting this because I unconciously took a two week break from ToTK in order to alleviate that feeling but when I came back to the game today and still felt the same, I thought of posting here and maybe hearing your opinions on this thing.
Have you ever felt the same in big open world games? Do you feel like this in more linear games with multiple endings? (I do) Do you think I’m an overthinker and should just rock on? Looking forward to your comments!
Is “Quest tools” something available in the game itself, or is that something different entirely?
And it’s a bit hard for me to talk about series progression because I haven’t played in chronological order. I did A link to the Past, the original NES, then Twilight Princess(wii), BotW, then A link between worlds(3ds), ocarina of time(switch emulation), and am currently having a difficult time getting into Majoras Mask(3ds remaster).
I don’t know if it’s the 3ds format or the game itself that’s giving me trouble getting into it. I couldn’t put Ocarina of Time down and it’s throwing me off with MM. i figured it might have been just going straight from one to the other so I told myself I’d beat Pokémon X and then Fire Emblem Fates(going through other series generations I skipped out on), and try again. X is down and FE:F is underway, so I’ll find out eventually.
I can say while I enjoyed the shrines of BotW - I’d have rather had fewer yet more detailed and larger dungeons instead. I never really felt lost in BotW. I wasn’t a big fan of the Fire Emblem style weapon durability, nor the crafting - But Star Ocean 2 really is the only game I’ve truly enjoyed crafting.
I wouldn’t say that the series has progressed to Mainstream like games like Call of Duty did where the formula has gotten bland and they try to appeal more to new players than veterans. But it definitely doesn’t have the same heart as the original or ALttP, or even Ocarina of Time.
~Elder Scrolls~ edit Elden Ring was, to me, a fantastic Zelda game. Though I have yet to beat that as well.
I hope my incoherent ramblings made some sense of an answer to your question.