Hello there, Commonwealth Realm here. And this video contains no main quest or story spoilers, so don't worry if you haven't beaten
or reached too far into the game. Is Tears of the Kingdom harder than any
Zelda title at least since Ocarina of Time? That is the question. After all,
nothing beats Zelda II. But even then, it really depends on
how you define difficulty, since if you go straight for the hardest locations
and enemies unprepared, or without upgrades in this game,
then you will be screwed. That is unless you can dodge
pretty much all incoming attacks. On the other side, there are just so many ways
in this game to become overpowered, but it all requires time. So be sure to leave a like, subscribe and
press that notification bell, as we are going for 2023 likes, and let's point out to you what makes this game hard and what helps you overcome said challenges. As in this game, it is very much poison
and how to counter this poison. For mosts people, the issue will be
dodging or deflecting incoming attacks. And in this case, I have a few suggestions for you. The first one are good old fairies. Early on in the game, these will fully replenish you as you probably don't have much more
than 5 hearts anyway. Though there is a little twist with the fairies this time as they are not at the Great Fairy fountains, but rather in small bodies of water
on the Sky Islands. In other words, if you don't explore the Sky Islands properly,
then prepare to die a lot more. But later on in the game, you will need
fairies plus cook. And it doesn't end there, as upgrading or
building new heart containers through pieces of hearts outside of taking down
dungeon bosses, was far more cryptic and tied to mini-games or hard to reach
in past Zelda games. While in Tears, you just need to beat shrines
which by the way are far easier to solve and definitely bypass than they were in
Breath of the Wild. Especially blessing shrines which most
often come down to bring this entrance stone to this place. But even the ones you have to enter
have so many options. Case and point, the annoying on rails shrine. When you get to this section, you are supposed to make
a balancing Ultrahand build with Zonai parts. Well instead, just fuse a rocket to your shield,
paraglide, and move on. Just remember to do it before you enter the shrine as you cannot fuse Zonai items
from your inventory inside. I wonder why... as rocket shields are just so OP
in the shrines of this game. After all, they replace Revali's gale, and you couldn't use
Revali's gale in Shrines in Breath of the Wild. If vertical platforming is involved, you can even
combine three arm powers. First, Ultrahand, then Recall, and then Ascend. You can even fuse all your materials inside, so if
a puzzle with a target is frustrating you, then just fuse a bomb flower to your arrow
and be done. It is just that the game only teaches you to fuse once
in the first fuse shrine on Great Sky Island, so remember to be creative. Including in caves where you will need
hammer like fusions to break your way deeper without wasting
precious bomb flowers. But back to the Shrines of Light. If you use your imagination, then the Shrines of Light
or the path to more heart containers and stamina vessels, is far easier
in this game than Breath. Which was already easier than pieces of hearts
in past Zelda games. Locating shrines is also far easier than in 2017, thanks to the depths as the light roots
or map towers here, are located right below shrines
on the Surface or Sky. Brilliant game design, especially since
you can easily set your mini-map to the layer you desire by pressing minus, and then
switching to the layer of the map you want. So simple and efficient. And there are more reasons to explore the depths,
as they are packed with rewards. From multiple valuable chests, materials
at the roots of trees, and enemy and even boss loot. You can also easily stock up
on very useful bomb flowers, puff shrooms and muddle buds even within
the first 10 hours of the game. And fusing materials to your weapons or shields is just such an overpowered mechanic in so many ways. Lynels, the hardest non-boss titled enemies
in the game, are hard, but with enough puff shrooms fused to your shield, you can actually take them down surprisingly easily. Well, unless they use a bow.
And this is the thing: if you think traditional Zelda when facing poison,
well then, you will be poisoned, but if you have the antidote,
well then you end on top. And with it, fuse the enemy horns to gain even stronger
and more durable weapons. Naturally, the developers want us to explore
most of the areas they poured their heart, sweat and time into, but with easy vertical and later
horizontal maneuverability, you can progress through much of the map far easier. Take the caves for instance. If you get stuck or
cornered by enemies, then just Ascend, and who knows? A whole new adventure
might begin from where you end up. Challenges and possibilities to overcome them. In Tears of the Kingdom, there are just
so many alternatives to attack or walking all the way back unlike in past Zelda titles. But if you decide to fight, or are forced to
in the case of bosses, then you are certainly screwed if you don't
have enough hearts. Not necessarily as puff shrooms exist,
and the same goes with _____, and against these foes outside of shrines, you can use your entire arsenal of both
materials and Zonai items. Plus cook, and if you explore caves, you will sooner
or later find a hearty truffle or even two. These cooked up are worth their value
in gold in the late game and against the hardest bosses when
you have 20 or more hearts. Naturally, in combination with fairies.
But don't cook them, as an open-air and open-depth game, Tears of the Kingdom has just so many ways
to overcome even the biggest of challenges without OP fusions, and to beat the game, you barely need to spend money
outside of Death Mountain. More on that soon. You only need to think outside the Breath of the Wild
and traditional Zelda box. Are the new enemies terrifying and have
returning ones been buffed? Absolutely, but there is no reason to panic,
as you have everything you need from your exploration of the depths,
including collection of poes, surface, caves in these, and the Sky
where you find the shrines. The Sky is the peaceful layer most of the time. Here, you find lifesaving fairies,
but also a crucial newcomer. Sundelion. Cook up these flowers for gloom resistance, and then you can explore the depths
and gloom-covered territories without as easily breaking your hearts. In this game, by taking your time and
building your character, Link becomes a monster to monsters
in all three layers, especially if you fuse strong with strong,
and follow the Penn press questline. And this cannot be understated. Unlocking fairy fountains through music rather than
rupees this time to upgrade your gear, is another example of why it is easier to
advance in Tears than Breath. If you put 100 hours into this game
on shrines and dungeons alone, then the final challenges will be no challenge
for you at all. And this is the beauty of Tears of the Kingdom:
it is as difficult as you decide it to be. Want to rush through the game? Be ready
for the toughest Zelda experience. But if take your time, your opponents
will fall on your sight. Modernday Zelda, everyone, where you
are the master of your experience, and have endless possibilities,
but also responsibilities, which can be overcome through
endless combinations. In other words, early on, this is the hardest
Zelda in the 3D era, and if you rush to the end of the main quest and story,
then yes, you will have a hard time, which isn't a bad thing after waiting 4 years
to take on this challenge. And when you think of it, the number of ways
to replay this game are absolutely nuts, but we will go over that in future videos. For now, I will just conclude that this game
of holding hands, but not handholding you to solutions
and endless combinations, is not the hardest Zelda if you play it the way
the development team in Kyoto intended. And if you upgrade your batteries by
collecting enough Zonaite plus larger Zonaite and building
energy-efficient vehicles, then getting around these maps will be
easier than anything else. Even in the depths, just attach a bright bloom flower
to your vehicle instead of Zonai light to use less battery. While you don't need to spend rupees
on costly tunics, or at least more than one part,
when you can fuse. Just fuse a ruby to your shield in Hebra
plus get one additional attire. Hint: get this one on Great Sky Island, as it is free,
and then fuse a sapphire to a shield when entering the Gerudo
section of the map. The only exception is the lava interiors
of Death Mountain, but as we have seen from the trailers,
its exterior, or more specifically, the entirety of this province,
is no longer covered in lava, and because of it, doesn't require
any sort of special clothing. Plus each Octorock here can repair
one of your strongest weapons or shields for every Blood Moon cycle. There is more you can also do to preserve
what you have fused to your weapon and/or shield in Akkala. All real-time and Rupee savers. In other words, what we have here is best of
Breath of the Wild's solutions to extreme climate with innovations and improvements to the overall
design of the different provinces. It goes without saying: Tears of the Kingdom is a mechanical monster
where the player is in control. And yes, gloom hands, they don't like electricity, so keep your Topaz or just wait,
and eventually, you will destroy them. And sometimes, if you can climb a straight wall,
then they cannot follow you or even grab you, and will simply give up. Alright. Now before we move on,
the winners of our launch giveaway: Winner of Zelda OLED, Osvaldo Vargas. Winner of Pro Controller, Sayed Uddin. And the winner of a copy of Tears of the Kingdom
is Nathan Van der Heide. Congratulations, and hope you enjoy the
dungeons of this game! Speaking of dungeons, the ones in the game. No main quest spoilers as we will only show
footage from the final trailer. Are they as hard to solve or beat
as, say, in Skyward Sword, Twilight Princess, The Wind Waker, Majora's Mask,
and Ocarina of Time? Absolutely not. They are a combination of the divine beasts
and traditional dungeons with far less enemies and bigger challenges
thrown your way. But what about the bosses? Are they harder than
in Breath of the Wild and past Zelda games? Some, definitely, but it also depends on how
you use your partners, how well-equipped, and most of all,
dressed you are, along with upgrades. If you have waited too long to go through the
dungeons, well, then you will crush them. In fact, the hardest bosses in this game
are found in the open-maps. And yes, we are definitely pointing to Gleeok here. And that is my conclusion. This game is not Elden Ring or
Zelda II in difficulty, even without knowing how to Flurry Rush, or using amiibo for strong items
and tunics, and so on. And if you combine, I would say
it's even easier than Majora's Mask. After all, that one had a timer. But what are your thoughts on the difficulty
of Tears of the Kingdom? Share them in the comment section down below. If you haven't already, then be sure to leave a like,
subscribe and press that notification bell. And last but not least, a big thanks to you
for watching until the end, and to all our patreon.com/commonrealm patrons
for their support. A special shoutout goes to our Royal Producer,
Charles Szasz. You all rock! And please enjoy one or both
of these two awesome videos!
