Elden Ring vs Tears of the Kingdom

Elden ring vs tears of the Kingdom will likely be one of the biggest debates in gaming for the next few years while these are both one-of-a-kind open world games that are clearly at the top of their class the question of which one is better doesn't have such a simple answer so was Nintendo able to top fromsoft's latest Masterpiece or will Elden ring continue its Reign Over the genre for years to come let's find out on average a human being will live for about 80 years if every decade I chose the two best games that came out in that time span for the next 60 years I would be lucky to find just one that would invoke the same feeling that this did thank you foreign of all of the one-of-a-kind moments I had when playing Elden ring this one wouldn't even break the top 10. Elden ring is just that good we see at its core Elden ring is a game about doing two things exploring and overcoming impossible odds let's start with that first one exploring an Elden ring feels genuine that's the best word I can use to describe it exploration in most games like this is about talking to someone opening your map finding the marker that they just placed and making your way to it but this isn't really exploration right you're just going from place to place with a world around you in fact you could imagine the gameplay in an open world game like this would be pretty similar to a game without a massive world around you since in both cases you're just going from point A to point B you might as well be walking down a hallway because despite the fact that you have this massive world around you it doesn't actually matter this is what sets Elden ring apart you're given a general direction to go thanks to the grace sites which act as rest Points each one points in the direction of the main objective but crucially it doesn't tell you anything else so now instead of a map that looks like this with a clear point a being where you are and point B being where you want to go you get a map that looks like this now instead of being one clear goal that you head towards you've got a general direction to go in effectively opening up everything north of this point including the Subscribe button the tunnel vision of go to this point on the map is completely removed and is instead replaced with go this way and see what you find but stop because there's a huge caveat here the only way this could possibly work is if Elden ring was an extremely dense world if it was packed to such a degree that it would be possible to find things without the game pointing them out to you unfortunately that's exactly what it is you'll constantly find things to distract you like fortresses and caves and dungeons you'll see a massive castle in the background but it's neither part of the skyline nor a backdrop for some narrative set piece no that castle is a fully fleshed out area with enemies bosses and items to collect those items vary in value depending on your build but they're all going to be useful for someone and it's in finding these different items that you can build a character completely unique to you more on that later the adventures you can have in this game are near Limitless and you'll often find a cave or a monument that'll lead you on a multi-hour long adventure through catacombs underground lakes and ancient structures and that's what really sets exploration in Eldon ring apart While most games will have an NPC that sets you off on an adventure Elden Ring's Adventures are powered purely by your curiosity and willingness to explore part of why Eldon ring is such a rare game is because of its almost unfathomable ability to master multiple different aspects of gameplay because as brilliant as Elden Ring's world is it actually may not even be the best part of the game eldenra's combat is among the best I've ever played and that's not just because it's challenging or satisfying but let's talk about that since it is a big part of what makes this combat so special so it all comes down to the simple idea that this game isn't fair it's not trying to be nor is it supposed to be while most games will aim to make you feel like some Unstoppable God or a legendary hero Elden ring aims to make you feel hopeless and overwhelmed you're supposed to be some lowly Underdog who has no business fighting the things you do let alone beating them but that's what makes the game so satisfying you'll go into a dungeon avoid traps defeat enemies that Ambush you and finally make your way to a boss who's bigger stronger and faster than you are it's in defeating this boss that you get a feeling far greater than you would have if the game just handed you the Win It Feels So satisfying because it's almost like you took that win for yourself you were the underdog you weren't supposed to win but you did it anyway in spite of the odds that were stacked against you and this is reflected in the gameplay Elden ring certainly isn't the only game that makes you fight enemies that are stronger than you but it is one of the few games that actually reflects that idea in the gameplay you know these bosses are stronger than you not because someone told you how menacing they were but because you the player experienced it first hand now this system is far from perfect and there are videos a bit longer than this one that go into detail as to why but generally speaking this one-sided combat can lead to some of the most rewarding feelings you'll get in any game you can play but this is just the first half of why combat and Elden ring is so good the second half comes in build diversity and customization available to the player in the same way that no two snowflakes are alike no two Elden ring playthroughs will be either the reason for this is varied but one of the main contributing factors is where you choose to go as I mentioned earlier the rewards for dungeons are extremely varied so maybe in one playthrough you'll find a fireball spell that you can't use yet because you don't have enough Faith so you choose to level that up now you've unknowingly set yourself down a path that'll make it easier to wield not just faith-based spells but weapons as well perhaps because of this you'll choose to go all out and make a full Mage set but maybe before you do this you find a sword that benefits from strength as well as faith and so instead of being a pure Mage you're more inclined to build something akin to a Red Mage from Final Fantasy where you utilize different types of magic while using a sword I think you can probably see how varied this customization can get just through one small choice but the brilliant part is that just about every build is viable and can get you through the game in your very own personalized way the combat of Elden ring is special not just because of the overwhelming odds you face but the near infinite tools at your disposal that you can use to conquer them but it is important to consider that Elden ring isn't going to be for everyone first and foremost it's a hard game game I mentioned this earlier but the game is very deliberately unforgiving it's not gonna be a walk in the park and just about everything that moves can pose a threat if you let your guard down however there is something that I haven't mentioned yet the story now just like with the difficulty this is actually going to be a positive for some but there may be just as many if not more who dislike this method of Storytelling Elden Ring's story is told in a very hands-off sort of way it's easy to get a very surface level idea of what's going on but when it comes to the finer details things can get a bit more difficult to understand I often found myself doing things in this game and having no idea what I just did or why I did it and that was fine for me because understanding the story isn't why I played Elden ring if neither the difficulty nor the story are a problem for you however then Elden ring will be a near Limitless experience that you'd struggle to consider anything less than a 10 out of 10. tears of the Kingdom should not exist it does things that really shouldn't work things that just shouldn't be possible and it seriously pays Credence to the theory that Nintendo is practicing black magic under their headquarters breath of the wild was such a Marvel of game design in large part due to its physics system when you're covered in water fire can't burn you and extremely high temperatures wooden weapons will catch fire and you can't use bomb arrows they explode via this fuse meaning the contents have to heat up to ignite and when you're in an area where everything is always scorching hot then it makes sense that a bomb Arrow would instantly explode the moment you remove it from whatever bottomless pocket Dimension link stores all his stuff in you could make entire videos on the physics system of this game alone without even mentioning anything else that made it special six years ago breath of the wild stood out so much next to its contemporaries because of this brilliant physics system and its all-encompassing freedom it's a wonder then that tears of the kingdom is such a direct upgrade that you could say tears of the kingdom is to breath of the Wild told what breath of the wild was to open world games when it released when people say tears of the kingdom is a free game they're not just talking about the fact that you can go anywhere they're talking about the fact that you can imagine a solution to a problem in your head and it just works if you see an icy Ravine where the bridge has gone out and the walls are too slippery to climb you can just cut down six or seven trees stick them together and make a bridge when I was a teenager I would spend hours in Gary's Mod just messing around and seeing what kind of things I could build or how the physics engine would work in different situations tears of the Kingdom brings back that feeling while also being a massive open world game with a grandiose story Lively towns and Villages and colorful characters that populate them so again tears of the Kingdom should not exist but this game isn't just about what you can do in the open world it's about what you can find as well tears of the Kingdom has a world that is arguably even more populated than that of Elden ring I found it genuinely difficult to go more than a few seconds without seeing something that I wanted to travel to however as much as you could argue tears of the kingdom is a game about exploration more than anything I believe it's a game about creativity it's a game that presents you with constant problems that you're asked to think outside of the box to solve I'm hesitant to show even one of these puzzles as a large part of the enjoyment of this game comes from that moment where the solution you came up with actually works but considering there are literally hundreds of them I'm gonna spoil just one to show you what I mean so there are these towers in game that you can use to launch yourself into the air gain a map of the area and Survey the terrain however they're not all easy to access some of them like this one will have something blocking the door like Thorns these Thorns are usually removed by burning them but it's raining when you reach this tower now if you look around the area you'll notice that there are some wooden planks and some beams so you could actually fuse them together build a roof to cover the thorns and then burn them away puzzles like this that exist throughout the world remind you that the only thing standing between you and everything this game has to offer is your imagination you can logically figure out how to solve anything get anywhere and that's what gives this game a true sense of freedom but let's go back a bit what can you actually find in tears of the Kingdom well scattered across the world are these more dedicated puzzles called shrines Each of which boasts some of the most creative and enjoyable challenges I've ever seen in an open world game they're able to do this by perfectly designing the puzzles around the abilities of the player so let's talk about those Link in this game has four main abilities Ascend Ultra hand fuse and Rewind Ascend allows you to jump through flat surfaces and appear on the other side Ultra hand is basically the force it lets you carry things and move them around fuse goes hand in hand with ultra hand and lends a hand in handling the handy Contraptions that you build it lets you stick things together and finally rewind allows you to reset an object back to where it was and in a stroke of pure genius this rewind can be stopped at any moment along the timeline it's these abilities that work to together to create anything you could possibly imagine from a plane that sails through the skies to a hot air balloon that you short-sightedly decided to make out of wood equally they allow you to interact with the world in ways that no other game has been willing to do and who could blame them I mean with the Ascend ability alone you now have to think about how every single flat ceiling in the entire game is designed because there is no limit to this ability and I'm not exaggerating here I once used this ability in a cave and popped out on top of a mountain if this was the only ability at your disposal this game would be one of the most unique games out right now but with this plus Ultra hand and Rewind and fuse here's what the kingdom stands in a class by itself as one of the most unusual yet genius open World Games we've ever seen and this brings us back to the way that shrines are able to be designed the amount of variety found in the problems these shrines present to you are matched only in the number of potential Solutions the game is all about using these four new abilities along with your creativity to engineer your own key to whatever lock stands in your way I'm going to show a small portion of this dungeon right here if you don't want to see that skip to this time on the screen but that's just one part of why shrines are so special see throughout the world you'll find these dungeons they act as more expansive puzzles that expertly take some of the ideas from surrounding shrines and put them into a concentrated Gauntlet this is almost like an invisible reward for exploration as now you'll already understand some of the concepts presented to you in the dungeon before you even take a step inside of one now the fact that I've spent this much time highlighting the gameplay may lead you to believe that there's no story here but that's not quite the case it's just that the gameplay is so much better that I feel the focus should be on that kind of like with Elven ring however there is a critical difference here that you're gonna want to pay attention to the storytelling and tears of the kingdom is far more straightforward than that of Elden ring by the end of the game you'll have almost no questions it's a grand adventure and the game wants you to feel like the hero of the story as a result this world is filled with characters in life contrary to Elden Ring's World which very deliberately feels like a world that's dying this isn't to say one is better than the other just that the worlds and stories these games have almost mirror each other in that one focuses on telling a grand adventure of the hero link and the other focuses on telling your story as the tarnished who defied the odds against this world that was actively trying to stop you at every step of the way the last thing I want to talk about is the combat which will perfectly lead us into the potential negatives of this game combat in tears of the kingdom is great it's Unique in the same way that breath of the Wild's combat was there are infinite solutions to the puzzles in traversal and the combat is no different if there's a walking Fortress with a weak point that you're struggling to reach you can light the grass on fire create an updraft and land on top of it you can freeze an enemy and then shatter them and the bosses act almost like moving puzzles that you have to solve in real time this combat certainly isn't going to win any awards and it's pretty undeniable that Elden Ring's combat is a lot better but crucially it's also a lot harder it's not uncommon that you'll spend over an hour on a boss in eldenrick that'll probably never happen in tears of the Kingdom again this isn't an inherent positive or negative on either side it's just an important aspect of the gameplay that you've got to consider so which one comes out on top well I think the answer is already pretty obvious if you've watched the past 10 minutes of this video these games are both one of a kind but more than that they're so clearly built for two different types of people Elden ring feels like an oppressive game that doesn't want you to win while tears of the Kingdom feels like this wide open playground where you're the hero of this Grand Adventure if you want to challenge one of the most unique settings I've ever seen and probably the best combat system of any open world game play Alden ring just keep in mind the difficulty and the hands-off style of Storytelling on the other side of the coin you've got a game about pure creativity a game where the only thing that could possibly limit you is your imagination if the idea of this Grand Adventure with Limitless distractions and options sounds more appealing and combat isn't a priority to you go for tears of the Kingdom but I think the most important thing that we often forget in these conversation is that we wouldn't even be having them if these games weren't both as great as they are so while the question of which game is better can hold a convoluted mess of an answer that changes depending on what you look for in a game anyone regardless of preference should be able to pretty easily see how special both of these games are foreign

Channel: mhswoocer

Views: 171,574

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Id: JQEKE8APY7U

Length: 15min 49sec (949 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 06 2023