The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has an endgame problem that isn’t unique to it, and Breath of the Wild suffered from the same issue. When it comes to open-world games, creating a satisfying endgame can be difficult. Once the final boss is defeated, there’s generally a lot left to explore, but players more often than not need to use a save file set before the last boss if they want to continue working on side quests or gathering collectibles.
Tears of the Kingdom gives Link new abilities that lead to a variety of puzzle solutions and let players be creative, allowing for the creation of vehicles that can be used to explore Hyrule. Between the Surface, the Sky, and the Depths, there’s no shortage of exploring for players to do, and it’s clear that the Upheaval has hurt the land in ways that will require a lot of time and effort to fix. Yet Nintendo doesn’t capitalize on this situation as much as it could for additional content that could keep players invested in the game even after facing Ganondorf.
While not all players might feel the desire to keep playing after finishing the main quests, it could have been an interesting option to allow players to collect materials and get quests to help rebuild Hyrule, especially Castle Town. This set-up would keep players who want to continue busy, but for those who are satisfied with completing the main quests and moving onto their next game, there wouldn’t be pressure to stick around and help with the effort to rebuild Hyrule. Instead, TOTK falls into the common problem of not offering a chance to experience the game’s world after defeating the villain threatening it.
This isn’t an issue that only affects Zelda games, but it feels more prevalent in open-world games like BOTW and TOTK compared to classic style ones like Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker. Hyrule is generally damaged by the villain that threatened it in that era, and the finale of the game tends to leave players with the promise that now that Ganondorf or the antagonist who took the spotlight this time has been dealt with, the land and people who inhabit it can begin healing. While it provides an adequate amount of closure, it ignores the opportunity for unique endgames that let Link be a hero who keeps helping the world even with the smallest tasks.
The physics in Zelda: TOTK are impressively complex, and that likely took time to develop, then test, and fix any bugs or glitches that presented themselves in the process. That system is added to an open-world map which includes three separate elevations, with the Surface alone being larger than the already massive map of BOTW. Then, there are the dungeons, quests, and memory cutscenes that certainly took no small amount of effort to create and perfect. Players likely prefer that developers focus on the main features of a game rather than extra content for post-game that’s optional.
2023-07-27 16:24:03
Link from screenrant.com
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