It’s a new story inside the same game. Same map, same gameplay loop (find shrines, find Koroks, do side quests). I can’t think of another sequel where the entire game takes place in the same map. Majora’s Mask was a sequel with mostly re-used assets, but it got a new map.
The games that do share a map, like Spider-man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, are largely considered stand-alone expansions.
Additional areas aren’t enough to call it not an expansion. Plenty of expansions have more maps in addition to the existing maps. Think TW3: Blood and Wine. Some of it takes place in the old areas, some of it takes place in new areas. It’s still an expansion.
Halo 3: ODST took place solely in a new map. You even play as a new character with an entirely new story with all new characters. It was still a standalone expansion. That was more of a different game than TotK was from BotW.
But I feel like we’re both focusing on the map too much, but that’s not even the main thing that I disliked. That barely even scratches the surface of the issues I had with the game. And to be honest, I don’t find anything inherently wrong with the map. It was the map being largely the same on top of the other things that didn’t change that irked me.
Things I didn’t like about TotK:
Same gameplay loop
Finding and completing shrines are so boring. There are too many, and they are mind-numbingly easy and not engaging at all. They are just a way to artificially pad hours.
Koroks are the same above, but cuter. The fact that so many were in the exact same spot as BotW really, REALLY irked me. It felt so lazy.
Had to get all the same items I literally just got again. Need to get the same outfits again with the same perks. Need to go through the forest again - except now the topology is reversed - to get the same sword again. Yes, you always get the master sword in Zelda games, but could they put the quest somewhere else so it doesn’t feel like I’m just doing the same thing I just did again?
I’m focusing a lot on the negative here, which makes it seem like I didn’t like the game, but I thought it was great. I just thought having both BotW and TotK be so similar took away from how good TotK was, because you do the same things in both games. I wish they would have tweaked more. Just having no shrines and no Koroks and replacing those mechanics with a different way to get hearts, stamina, and inventory space would have made the game 1000x better. Not having the same outfits again would have made the game much better as well.
If they came out with another game in the BotW/TotK series, I would skip it. I’m just not interested in finding shrines for a third time. I miss pre-BotW Zelda games.
Maybe expansion is a better term than DLC.
It’s a new story inside the same game. Same map, same gameplay loop (find shrines, find Koroks, do side quests). I can’t think of another sequel where the entire game takes place in the same map. Majora’s Mask was a sequel with mostly re-used assets, but it got a new map.
The games that do share a map, like Spider-man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, are largely considered stand-alone expansions.
There are at least 3 more new maps on top of the world map, and that been changed a lot.
Additional areas aren’t enough to call it not an expansion. Plenty of expansions have more maps in addition to the existing maps. Think TW3: Blood and Wine. Some of it takes place in the old areas, some of it takes place in new areas. It’s still an expansion.
Halo 3: ODST took place solely in a new map. You even play as a new character with an entirely new story with all new characters. It was still a standalone expansion. That was more of a different game than TotK was from BotW.
But I feel like we’re both focusing on the map too much, but that’s not even the main thing that I disliked. That barely even scratches the surface of the issues I had with the game. And to be honest, I don’t find anything inherently wrong with the map. It was the map being largely the same on top of the other things that didn’t change that irked me.
Things I didn’t like about TotK:
I’m focusing a lot on the negative here, which makes it seem like I didn’t like the game, but I thought it was great. I just thought having both BotW and TotK be so similar took away from how good TotK was, because you do the same things in both games. I wish they would have tweaked more. Just having no shrines and no Koroks and replacing those mechanics with a different way to get hearts, stamina, and inventory space would have made the game 1000x better. Not having the same outfits again would have made the game much better as well.
If they came out with another game in the BotW/TotK series, I would skip it. I’m just not interested in finding shrines for a third time. I miss pre-BotW Zelda games.