Elden Ring completely changed how I played Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

i didn’t expect to be sucked The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom So early. I’ve spent most of my 50 hours plowing through the depths and taking out the Yiga clan, tearing through bokoblin camps as I explore the game’s overworld, and getting away from any Frox or Flux constructs. I refuse to walk away. It’s a whole different way than the way I play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the WildA play style so different that it initially surprised me.

My newfound confidence is at least partially thanks to Link’s new skills, especially Fuse, which lets me add items and weapons, like adding bomb flowers to arrows or affixing elemental crystals to swords. but the true culprit may be the hours i spent with eldon ring Last year, and how that game completely changed my perspective on open world games with terrifying enemies.

I initially delayed playing breath of the wild As of 2018, it was saved for a 14-hour flight to Taiwan to see family—at which point it was declared 2017’s Game of the Year, along with Play Gamez. Apparently the game was accessible even to newcomers – a statement that foolishly made me think it would be easy. I was really scared, unable to use the same strategies I’ve historically relied on when playing open-world games, as I historically do with most RPGs: I usually use one-on-one combat. preferring to rely on stealth traits instead. I choose the Thief or Ranger classes – the ones that let me backstab and steal, or shoot from a safe vantage point. In Skyrim, I max out Stealth, Pickpocket, Archery, and Magic. I rob, steal, let the Atronach do its dirty work, and then I sell the stolen goods for a profit. In Divinity: Original Sin 2I play as two characters, one classified as a ranger and the other as a rogue.

After the years I’d wandered like a scared rat in the bowels of various fantasy cities, breath of the wild felt vast and empty, and yet full of random and unpredictable hazards. I ran across a field only to encounter a camp of Chuchus or Bokoblins. When I faced them, my weapons broke, and I hesitated to use my bow and fire with the five arrows I ever managed to get my hands on. The coming of night was worse, bringing with it skeletal foes, some of whom put themselves back together after I scattered their bones into the air. It felt like I was running to nowhere, fighting off random creatures that were breaking through with sticks. Every time I got comfortable with the weapon I was using, I suddenly had to find a new one.

Thankfully, I powered through those first few hours, collected my paraglider, left the Great Plateau, and made my way into the game’s vast open world. this is when breath of the wild A little more clicked for me, becoming the kind of adventure I could easily put hundreds of hours into. I climbed mountains, jumped ledges, and found hidden passageways. But even though I got hopelessly sucked into the game, I only really fought enemies when it needed to, and even then, I sometimes just gave up. Bokoblins let me down time and time again. I stopped to talk to strangers on the trails as I ran into the Yiga clan.

I kept expecting the game to get easier – and yes, questing got easier as I increased my stamina wheel – but even with more hearts, the combat continued to get harder, outrageously so. I’d try to dash past enemies, but I’d panic when groups of them ran towards me, and fast-travel elsewhere to get out of the fight. And though I made my way through some Divine Beast temples, I didn’t pay attention to the boss fights. I didn’t have much incentive to mess with them; The entire game map was available regardless, and I could spend countless hours uncovering its secrets. Sure, beating the boss would reward me with powers and story information, but I could live without those things.

Image: Nintendo EPD / Nintendo

Suffice it to say, while I loved breath of the wildI didn’t play it again in the lead-up tears of the kingdom, I left tears of the kingdom Assuming I’ll enjoy it just as much breath of the wildWhich means, up to a level, and then I’ll call it a day – I was ready to live through others’ tales of taking down Lynell or Stone Talus. Instead, I drowned for hours tears of the kingdom Immediately; It finally just clicked. About 20 hours in, and my weapons cache is filled with deadly zonai-powered swords and shields, along with ungodly combinations of different equipment. Far from being afraid of the depths, I dived headlong into every ditch I could find, sometimes running around in pure darkness because I didn’t feel like wasting the bright blooming seeds.

I thought of the many hundred hours I spent with eldon ring, and how much it influenced my approach to open-world games with challenging combat systems. Some of it was a pure display of aesthetics and texture: I already loved a silent protagonist, but eldon ringThe vast open spaces and diverse climate of the U.S. helped me to love the solitude of such exploration. But eldon ring Ultimately making me a video game player who runs headlong into danger, rather than one who runs away from it or creeps into the background.

Part of this is thanks to the placement of bosses on the game’s world map. Although eldon ringThe map is also quite open, with many of the game’s bosses at important chokepoints – and it was clear what advantages I would have in killing them. I wanted the payload of runs to be in quantities that would otherwise be difficult to obtain. more than that, eldon ring Gave me what I jokingly call “video game nihilism,” meaning it forced me to embrace my character dying over and over again. eldon ring The bosses are so difficult that you have to be okay with it, and more than that, you have to accept that some (many) of your attempts are purely instructional, more fact-finding than victory overcoming.

dying in eldon ring, is also incredibly fun. The moment your virgin ass tastes death, “You’re dead” floats across the screen as you watch your character stab knights, or a giant lobster, or a pack of wolves, or some bird in the legs. enjoy watching. eldon ring My appreciation for the weird little dudes who make you want to die. And tears of the kingdom is absolutely overflowing with strange little friends, including members of the Yiga clan, whom I now call “the bitches who want to kick your ass clan”—specifically Master Kohga and his many vehicles—and whom I now i like to fight

Thanks For This Paradigm Shift, I’m Ready To Throw Myself At Bosses tears of the kingdom Just to find out what their deal is. I’m less frustrated when a boss totally reads me because I know that each attempt teaches me something new – a new attack pattern to exploit, a new material to use to fuse. Sometimes it teaches me that I’m just not strong enough, and that’s useful too. (Or, if I’ve wasted a precious material in a boss fight and determined it’s not worth it, I can just accept death and restart the fight.) This one Absolute delight to finally, for the first time, have silly attack boss Bokoblins and their cronies who take formations, or the cool phase of a difficult Flux Construct fight, or to stumble upon the Evermen and take them out with one good blow of an axe. .

I’ve even found failure more fun playing tears of the kingdom, My Xoni device experiments have exploded, thrown me in unfortunate places, or not worked at all. Link is a bleak comedy to die for tears of the kingdom, Sometimes I see a Vizrobe cheering on his corpse, or watch his body fall off a cliff as he screams his signature aaaaaah Falling Death Screams. A “Game Over” screen comes up, and when I return to the game, the map marks where I died, with a red X labeled “RIP”. Laugh out loud Lmao.

Because I’m finally facing these bosses, I have stronger weapons, more arrows, and better armor. I’ve also expanded my stamina wheel and added more hearts by completing shrines – but the kit I finally have makes me feel more powerful as I fight my way through Hyrule, be it sky, surface or in depth. I fought Colgera and was rewarded with a new power. It feels incredibly, mind-numbingly stupid. of course i never got the good equipment breath of the wild, I ran away from any enemy that could have brought them down. and I have eldon ring Lastly thank you for making me realize that I can face these threats head on.