I played BotW a lot, and really loved it. I feel like the beginning of the game was relatively easy compared to TotK, I died a few times trying out things, discovering the game and possibilities ; in TotK I died a lot and still do even with good gear and armour (1*-2* armors, 30-40+ damage weapons). You could say it’s skill issues and I would agree with you as I am not a pro player and play games once a week maybe, however I feel like the difficulty curve is far greater in TotK. That has affected how I view the game to the point that sometimes I think I dislike it (even though the new powers are the best thing they could have added, with the verticality of the world) ; that might also have to do with the much darker ambiance of the game, which can feel frightening (to me) to the point going underground is hard.
Is it just me? Should I just “git gud”?
I think it’s definitely harder, but it also gives you much more tools to work with.
I finished the game without realizing you could upgrade your armor, so I just ate a lot of buff food and healed myself up a lot.
I agree, the early game is definitely harder in ToTK than in BotW. The vibe feels a bit similar to Noita, IMO, in that the odds are stacked against you, and you offset the disadvantage by making liberal use of as many overpowered combos as you can think of.
Anyways, my advice is really just that. Find good combos, and spam the hell out of them. One easy thing to do is to burn chuchu jellies to create red chuchu jellies. Then, fuse them onto arrows to create incendiary arrows. Great for dealing with crowds, and the explosion radius isn’t as big as a bomb flower, so there’s less chance of you accidentally killing yourself. Red chuchu jellies’s function similarly to fire fruits, but I just find that it’s easier to get a ton of red chuchu jellies.
If you’re in snowy areas, you can also shoot down some icicles and fuse them onto spears. That freezes any enemy that it hits, which is good if you get surrounded easily. You can also collect ice fruit/white chuchu jellies to make freezing arrows.
In general, you get way more arrows in ToTK than in BotW, so your playstyle will naturally need to lean a bit more into long range combat to make effective use of your resources
Here’s a couple other interesting interactions you can take advantage of:
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find (or ultrahand) a heavy object. Drop it onto the enemy.
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wind staggers enemies. If you find an enemy charging up an attack, take out a guster and blow wind at the enemy
The initial sky island is as easy as the beginning of BotW. The initial constructs are easy to defeat (a few hits with a branch, and they’re gone).
I think by the time you jump to the surface, you’re expected to know how to fuse weapons. This will give you an advantage, and makes enemies easier to defeat. But if you don’t fuse weapons and play the game like in BotW, it becomes really hard, since enemies are designed to be attacked with stronger, fused weapons.
The depths adds another layer, as there you find resources that will make defeating enemies extremely easy: bomb flowers, muddle buds and puffshrooms are extremely useful when used strategically. As long as you avoid large enemies and bosses, the depths difficulty level is not hard. But again, you need to use fused weapons.
The main point, in my opinion, is understanding the new mechanics you can use, and play the game using them, and not like you played in BotW. It’s really a different game in a lot of aspects, specially combat.
Edit: Oh, I almost forgot: in TotK, you have the help of the sages avatars. Contrary to BotW, this game is designed to play with them, and not completely alone. A lot of people just dismiss the avatars and go alone against enemies, but this game is designed to have them around you almost always. If you’re not using them, try summoning them and having them by your side always. They help a lot.
I think the sages are the biggest thing here. The bad guys don’t typically do the thing that games like Assassin’s Creed bad guys do where your may have a gang of events but they’re roughly taking turns coming at you. In TotK, they’re just all over you constantly and the most effective way to keep that heat off of yourself is via the sages.
I feel like the beginning of the game was relatively easy compared to TotK
Wow, I had the invert experience. Game gets easier with time.
I felt the same at the very begining, however I missed like the first NPC and explored the whole sky island without unlocking shrines. Afterwards, I did the water temple first and had a hard time both with the boss there as well as the mud thing before you even get to the dungeon. Kind of sabotaged myself there twice in a row, the remainder of the game felt quite easy.
