#tulin is always a win tho

[lunian]

I feel bad that I don't use Sidon's summon in totk at all, he is just... there, being pretty and using his spear sometimes

but when I realized that four people walking with me is A CROWD, I needed to make a choice and Sidon didn't win for just being pretty 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

A BETRAYAL, SHAME ON ME SHAME

[zelda-photography]

TotK Dungeon Thoughts!

Finally finished the first four main dungeons. Whether there's more or not, I'll find out, but I thought I'd make a quickly little post on my general thoughts.

More details below, but up here I'll say: It feels like you were 'expected' to complete them Rito-Zora-Goron-Gerudo (very gently tho). However, I think for the most satisfying route, I'd go Goron-Rito-Zora-Gerudo (if nothing else Goron first).

Rito and Tulin

The game pushes you in the direction of the Rito very strongly when you start the game, and I decided to do them first. Over all, a pretty good choice as you run into a lot of good things on the way.

The story itself, I like! I like that you arrive in Rito Village and only the kids are left, really already telling you a lot about what's going on. I like that Teba was left behind because he's the new chief, rip the old Chief. It also makes me very happy how excited Tulin was to see Link, really showing that Tulin looks up to Link. Tulin having wind powers shows that that was not just a Revali thing, just that he was extremely skilled with his own, and I very much like that.

Tulin's power itself is distinct from Revali's Gale. I miss Revali's Gale because of how useful it was to get around, but it also did makes things a little too easy at times, and Tulin's power feels more in tune with the game as it is, as being able to push yourself through the air is useful. Easily the power I use the most of the sages.

The trip up to the Wind Dungeon is a lot of fun. It just barely doesn't overstay it's welcome, and about halfway through there is a shrine so that you can take a break. Over all, it was a lot of fun, though I was hoping that the flying ships we'd seen were going to appear more in the other places in the sky.

The Wind Dungeon itself is, well, it's fine. It's more distinct in style than the divine beasts, which I like, but I did also like the how the divine beasts you could manipulate things. It's give and take, though, and I get that. What mostly bugs me is how every element felt isolated; solving one part of the dungeon did not help me solve another, and that really bugged me, especially since I had a lot of trouble with a couple of the locks (mostly because I'm dumb but that's besides the point).

I like the boss! It felt really good to dive right through the week points, or to be smart enough and a good enough shot to shoot out the weak points from beneath the boss. It also has you utilize Tulin well enough when you need to dodge the boss.

This was my first dungeon, so the ending cutscene with the previous sage was very good and interesting, and I loved that you get to have a shade of the sage to help you fight! It really captures how one of the themes of Tears of the Kingdom is how much Link is not alone.

Goron and Yunobo

Climbing Death Mountain always sucks a little because I hate the armor, but at least the Gorons live in a place where you don't die trying to reach them, so that's a win in my book. The goron quest line is easily my least favorite, hence why I suggest doing it first. I'm also going back and forth on how much/what I'd change.

I think the marbled rock roast is, ugh, fine I guess as a plot point? The biggest problem to me is that the plot lines of the rest of the regions feel very personal, and make you really really worried about the well being of those there. I'm not not concerned for the Goron, but I could definitely be more concerned.

I'm also undecided on how I feel about Yunobo with the mask. When Yunobo first showed up and was mean, I wanted to punch is teeth in. But also, what an interesting take on the character, where over the years he got maybe a little big in the head over his company and his status, and how it's time to bring him down to earth again. The mask breaking off and him being nice again, I was happy to see my nice friend again, but also he was more or less the same as when I'd last seen him.

The up Eldin Volcano sucked, I totally didn't understand what I was supposed to do with the monster on top of the volcano at first, which made it a little frustrating at first. The mini battle itself was fine enough, though, and flying on the machines is always fun.

Going through the Depths to the Fire Dungeon sucked. I wasn't a huge fan of that, it just felt like padding. Why not put me there just right away?

The Fire Dungeon, like everything else, was fine I guess. I like rails and minecarts a lot, but a lot of the tracks felt too short honestly to be much fun, and sometimes I'd give up navigating them and just straight up climb the sides of the buildings to get where I needed to go. The boss fight, on the other hand, i thought was really nice! It felt good to put Yunobo's power to so much use, it flowered pretty well, It felt both challenging but also like I was prepared for it.

Zora and Sidon

Seeing Zora's Domain all swamped in shit water was a shock and I love how shocking it was and how upset it made me to see the place in such a state. I was immediately invested in finding out what had happened to cause this and how I could help. The statue in Zora's domain with Link and Sidon is great (even if I was worried at first where Mipha's had gone) and SO FUNNY to see it and meet Sidon's fiancee right afterwards.

I like that Yona gets a mantaray head - it immediately sets her off as different from most of the other Zora, and she and her attendents have different armor than the Hyrule Zora. She's a little simplistic as a character, but over all I like her. I another small detail I like is that the child Zora are playing in the water in the throne room, and that room seems to be some of the cleanest water, and I like to imagine that was on purpose. We also see here that healing is magic many Zora have, which I like, but also that it seems hard for them.

Sidon trying so hard to heal as much water as he can, and be the only one putting his life on the line so no one else dies like Mipha, was just so good. It's great set up in BotW, and pay off here of how traumatizing of an experience that was. Again, I like that Yona got to be like 'I know you, Sidon, and I know youre trauma, and I know what you want to and should do in this situation, so do it'.

Getting to the dungeon was so fun! The floaty jumping was a little weird at times, but over all I loved it and gave the path such a distinct feel, a lot like the path to the Wind Dungeon.

The Water Temple was the easiest in my opinion (none of them were overly hard, but this felt really quick to me) (also the Lightning Temple is a close second) ((ALSO ALSO some of that can probably be attributed to me just getting more used to the game and the kind of thought processes it asks of you)) but I thought the way it worked was pretty good. The boss was also very funny, as you were totally set up to expect a like like and instead got the weirdest octorock you've ever seen, and you're pushed to use Sidon's power in a way that feels very natural, though I haven't used it much after this dungeon tbh.

Gerudo and Riju

Going through the desert and seeing the Gerudo Town so destroyed was devastating. This was also where the gibdo were introduced, a suitably creepy enemy for such a scary thing going on. However, they don't stun you. This makes some sense since they show up in such hoards, but also takes away a lot of the scariness of them, and they're almost laughably easy to beat after they've been hit by some kind of elemental attack. Again, I was immediately concerned and wanted to do whatever I could to help the Gerudo. I like that you didn't have to really sneak in (except at first) because you've earned their trust by now and these are extenuating circumstances.

Buliara is one of my fav characters (she was really important in a fanfic I was working on where a new Gerudo male was born) so getting to see her and her specifically vouching for Link absolutely made my day. I like that the Gerudo are utilizing the underground bunker - in general, I love all the times in the game emergency things like that are broken out because these are hard times. Riju, a little older now and training hard, but not frustrated or feeling (at least not acting like) she thought she wasn't good enough was great. She wasn't hitting the mark, but she seemed just focused on training until she could.

The way to the Lightning Temple was okay, It wasn't bad but it wasn't note worthy, although I did like that you got to see the boss before you actually fought her. The best part was when Link had to help defend Gerudo Town from the gibdo. I'm not sure I did actually put together the best plan, but I felt like I helped, and getting the spoils afterwards made it even better.

The temple was a bit weird to navigate, and I'm not even sure I solved everything the way it was 'supposed' to go, but I did it so hey, what more can you ask for. The boss was pretty good, although she was, like, very bug like, and I think it made you kind of go 'oh, the gibdo aren't humans, they're bugs' which further makes them a little less creepy in my opinion.

General/Final Thoughts

Over all, I thought the dungeons felt a lot more like Zelda dungeons than the divine beasts did, and I like them well enough. I wish they were a little trickier, but also I wasn't overly bugged by them being too easy. Each dungeon felt very distinct, which I loved, and you never think you're in one place over the other.

Honestly, my biggest problem is with the Sages. I wish we 1) got names for them or learned more about them and 2) I wish the little cutscenes were a little more distinct.

The end of each dungeon goes: here's the sage, the sage was in the fight and won, Sage of Time told them to recreuit their descendent, wow didn't the Sage of Time look like Zelda? I understand this is because you could visit any dungeon in any order, but I think they would've, like, shown the Sage was in charge of something specific, show more of how the war impacted them specifically, something or anything to make that part more distinct.

Uh, so yeah, I like them, I think they're mostly an improvement over BotW (they both have pros and cons, though, and there are defo things that BotW did better than TotK). Let me know your thoughts about the dungeons if you want! (without spoiling anything past them please ^-^)