I can only afford the time to play one of them, which one should I play?
Many YouTubers seem to prefer BotW. But most reviews say TotK improves nearly everything.
I prefer easier combat and less complexity. Is there one that would be more enjoyable for me?
Totk is like an actual game, while BOTW is merely a tech demo.
I simply do not understand how anyone can prefer BOTW to TOTK.
Really? I think I sunk 100 hours into BOTW. I would also go with TOTK all things being equal, but I never felt like BOTW was a tech demo.
Well over 300 hours in BotW here, loved it. It feels a lot more “grounded” in comparison to totk, which feels a lot more “sandboxy” at times. Both great games, just different vibes
I would also say, there were a TON of times in TotK where they riff on previous things from BotW. A lot of the enjoyment I got was the subversion of expectations. In the lead up to the game we all thought they just copy/pasted the map to save time but they actually did a TON of work to it, and it’s very interesting and nostalgic to retread over places that have changed so much.
I would guess your best bet is playing them in order, altho it’s probably fine either way
The caves alone are impressive. They didn’t just add them, they carved out where all the water comes out of the landscape and made those caverns too.
I played a little of BotW after and i was curious if a waterfall had a cave in TotK. Turns out it has an entire system attached to it. And they did that across the entire map.
I kinda agree with you to some extent. At the time my general reaction was something like: “everything it does, it does wonderfully. But I wish it did more”.
When TotK came out, my first impression was “I guess I’m never playing BotW again”. Mostly because they kind of overlap with each other in many aspects.
But I still thought BotW was a great game, before TotK existed.
From the comments, I guess some people prefer the emptiness. I, on the other hand, like having things to do. TOTK has so much to do. It also tells the story way better. BOTW was amazing when it was new, but it didn’t hold my attention for more than 30 hours. There wasn’t enough quests, no reason to explore the map other than the sake of seeing what was there (which was nothing 90% of the time), and even the combat was not quite as good because the powers were uninteresting and nothing Zelda games hadn’t done before along with the fact you go through weapons like popcorn so most combat just ends up being throwing your bombs at them.
TOTK fixed everything that was wrong with BOTW. It has so much stuff to do, and I don’t just mean the boring-ass shrine puzzles. The powers are interesting, the building aspect is super fun, there is even more map to explore, it’s easier to get around and there are reasons to explore it, quests up the wazoo, weapons last a bit longer and you can craft your own or just make a tank or something which is awesome, etc. It makes BOTW look like crap by comparison, even after being blown away by BOTW initially.
See my answer above for my personal take on this. TotK is a bigger, longer game with far more things to do, but in filling the delicate emptiness that’s at the heart of BotW, they also made TotK… mundane. Greater, by most metrics. But mundane.
When I played TotK, I enjoyed myself a lot, then moved on to the next item on my pile.
When I played BotW, I experienced something unique, and it stuck with me since.
EDIT: Folks, maybe don’t downvote OP just because you disagree with them? They opened an interesting discussion and I for one am glad for it.