For the past few days, I’ve been on the fence about doing a new playthrough of Breath of the Wild. I did my og playthrough back in September 2023, but I didn’t take my time with it. I finished Tears of the Kingdom back on September 10, 2024. I took my time with the game and loved it. If I do end up doing a new playthrough of BOTW, it’ll feel weird. It’s like going back in time. Plus, I know everything now. In my og playthrough I had no clue about the story. Now I’m like a living encyclopedia about all of the lore. Part of what made TOTK so memorable was the fact that I went in spoiler free. Please help!
A lot of people say Totk has so much to offer and why bother going back to play Botw, but I liked Botw's story more than it's successors. I don't know what it was, but I felt more of a connection with the first games story.
Maybe it's because totk is pretty much just the same map like some kind of expansive dlc. Maybe totk had too much going on it felt convoluted and bloated instead of just focusing on a little bit instead of a whole lot.,
Maybe it's because botw/champions story felt more personal and you got to really know everyone who Link left behind. It's sort of like Xenoblade 1 and 2. Both are great games, but 2 wins over for me because the characters were so dynamic it made the journey more memorable wheras Shulk and gang felt kind of wooden at times. I felt the same way about Zelda and her companions. We really didn't get to know them. We just watched little clips that were scattered all over the world and there wasn't any order you needed to see them in. Wheras in Botw it didn't matter if you got Revali's or Mipha's memories first. Because it wasn't a linear story/device. It was about the characters. It works so well in botw I don't know why they thought a linear story needed to be done the same way in totk, because it's just bad writing. If they wanted it that way still, they should've had it where each memory drop you found would go in order 1-2-3-4-5 instead of 6-9-2-1.
Or who knows maybe it's because I played it first. But yeah to me Botw still stands up really well despite its age and how it feels more lacking compared to totk. I think it's worth returning to and playing for the story and taking your time so you can enjoy the cast.
I prefer BOTW to TOTK but I probably would still find it hard to go back to BOTW.. I just think TOTK improved and polished so much gameplay
however I'm saying that as someone who played BOTW first - I still think it'd be worth playing and very enjoyable, I feel like you almost can't have one without the other
