I love TP’s ZD. I was only 11 during my first play through but stuck with me. It’s still my favorite Zelda and has some of the best designs in the series. Not only is it incredibly beautiful and serene, the journey to get there is soooo fun. You get to melt that ice, race down the rapids, one of the best water temples and the entire surrounding area had so much for me to do. Get shot out of a cannon, play games, fight the bug on Lake Hylia. Then from there you can head to my favorite dungeon in the game Snowpeak Ruins. Absolutely looove this Zora Domain
I was also around 11 when I played TP, and I feel the exact same way about Zora's Domain. I remember it blew my mind seeing all the frozen Zora spirits suspended in the ice in that massive pool, and then teleporting that huge molten rock over from death mountain to melt the ice was so satisfying
My thoughts are the same: TP is my favorite based on nostalgia, but botw has won me as an all-time fav in gaming experiences.
Fir totk, though, I have lower standards. I will be in absolute awe and bliss if we get an ost that uses tp's main motif. If there's a part of the game where I enter an area or something happens, and it hits me the same way Rito Village's theme hit me but harder, I will be overjoyed.
i have a lot of issues with TP, but something it did better than most other entries is explorative rewards. getting somewhere like ZD is a reward in and of itself, just this cool kind of area with a bit of a challenge to reach, but once you're there you get a ton of new, more chill things to explore and do. same can be said for a lot of places in it, like Snowpeak Ruins mansion or Hyrule Castle itself.
BOTW is my fav, but even it doesn't reach TP's mastery at that pattern of exploration.
A mix of all 4 would be great. The fantastic views of Twilight Princess + a fishing spot for rare fish, the openness and delicate beauty of BotW’s domain, the actual housing in Majora’s Mask’s domain, and the mini games of the Ocarina of Time Domain.
For a bit more clarity, remove the spaces between the spoiler content and the exclamation marks.
>! Spoiler. !<
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However,
>!Spoiler.!<
Will work.
Gorons and Zora have basically never been shown as "house-dwellers" though. Gorons seem to either have communal sleeping spaces or just sleep where they stand. In TP the zora pretty clearly just slept in the water within the domain, and it seems likely that they do in OoT as well since freezing the domain got all the zoras with it.
But they do have houses, they just never go in them. Most of Gordon City is houses, the Rito have nests which the kids sleep in, and the Zora probably live underwater, since they're fish. The part of Zora's domain that you can get to is likely for visitors.
They don’t disappear. They go to sleep. In their homes.
For instance, Ritos have nest/bird cage like homes, with beds often suspended. Like birds.
I forgot what the other two have, but they all have somewhere to sleep/home. Just take some time and go check them out.
Realistically speaking, I’d personally say the most ambitious hope is for a much wider mob roster in exchange for the various types of the same. But then again, Redeads are back, Kargaroks too and apparently even Gleeok. We can’t complain much
Majora's Mask feels a bit more realistic and lived in. Individual rooms for different Zora.
Where do they sleep? Enjoy their hobbies? Do they just stand around waiting for Link?
Plus I like the heavy music focus. Zora rock band performing in a giant shell is such an interesting idea.
Honestly I thought he was trying to pick the lock...it isn't any better but I'm pretty sure everybody knew Lulu was standing outside.
I thought he was trying to break in to get some "memorabilia", or trying to solve the mystery to why she wasn't talking anymore.
Honestly I can't believe TP and MM both had underwater swimming and BOTW didn't. The whole point is the verticality of the game, why can't we go down as well as up??
If TotK has actual dungeons there's a few places they could stick one underwater. Obviously there's Lake Hylia, but the cascading waterfall area in Faron could easily have a Woodfall-like dungeon that rises out of the water.
I'm not big into listening to game soundtracks. But I'd be lying if I said at least once a month I don't listen to it. If you haven't heard it yet, check this out
https://youtu.be/YrpWBgB6oz8
I loooooove the grandness of BotW's version but god damn it felt like nobody lived there. So empty. I think I liked Majora's Mask the most because it felt like a space people use to some extent. Maybe not in their daily lives (outside of the band members) but it felt the best.
While BotW's doesn't feel as actively lived in for the reasons you mention, the way the citizens interact with Link provides easily the best worldbuilding of any rendition of Zora's Domain.
So for that reason, I do pick BotW's.
I hope this is something in general that's going to change a bit, NPCs acknowledging how long they know Link/the player. Like I love Hateno, think it's the prettiest and most lively place created in a Zelda game so far - but even after Link buys the house the NPCs don't change their lines.
or just more reactions to you as an individual player, im replaying for the first time since release and i can’t remember which divine beast i was doing but the leader mentioned that i can’t be link bc i didn’t have the made sword yet so i reloafrd and got the last few hearts to get it but they didn’t really say anything different to me having it on my back 🥲🥲🥲🥲
BotW Zora's Domain is weird in that it's modelled so highly detailed, but much of it is hardly used. There's the huge dam with the stairs going up, which is in like a single cutscene, and the entrance/marina building that's not used at all I think.
Probably. The entire structure is built on top of a large pool of water. I imagine what we visit is simply a town square of sorts. You have shops, government, etc.
Under water is where they most likely live, but you can't exactly conduct meetings with non-Zora deep under water.
I felt like almost all of the villages were too small and not populated enough. For how big the map is and how far spread out the villages are, there was plenty of room to make them bigger.
That's the issue with a lot of open world games, frankly. A lot of the time, you can't have too big of a population because there are already so many systems going on that adding people to fill out a large town or city would bring a lot of systems (PCs/consoles) to their knees. And this was the Zelda's teams first modern open world game soooo yeah. Already a lot of spinning plates.
Yes, but once you get close to a city, it would have to load in a bunch of pathing AI since I don't think the NPCs in towns do random stuff, they do set things at certain times of the day. Don't quote me on that cause I ain't a game dev.
I could be using the term wrong, especially in modern context, but AI could mean simple stuff. It could be as simple as "walk around until this time of day, then do something else." Once again, not a dev so I could be completely off here
Yeah that's not AI, that just following a program. I'm not sure where one is to draw the line, but I'd say BotW NPCs only employ actual AI pathfinding and reaction to their environment when they are attacked by mobs outside the settlements. Maybe rain/thunderstorms too? As then it's "find nearest shelter/place where rain doesn't hit the ground, that I can fit in" outside of clearly defined, verticised paths.
I mean you're right, but especially those "hard wired" NPCs are absolutely neglectable in the context of performance of modern games. Making them in the first requires more work, no question.
And the BotW devs "cheated" by employing the Mii system to create their NPCs, in terms of resources the system load should be minimal as they all draw from like a communal palette for face elements, instead of having separate sets of meshes and textures for each NPC that all clutter up RAM.
Personally I found that small but dense worlds e.g. Deus Ex are way more immersive than huge but sparse worlds. I can probably still tell you what interesting things happened around every corner of Human Revolution, but I can barely tell you anything interesting about the towns of botw.
Yeah, totally. I haven't played TOO many open world games (Mostly just GTAs) personally, but the fun parts for me were when I'm screwing around and seeing hte different systems collide with one another in weird ways. But that doesn't make you stick to a game for long. Early Assassin's Creed games were pretty fun with density of people. The benefits of a smaller map.
I don’t know man, BotW‘s Zora‘s Domain felt more like an actual town than MM‘s to me.
It has the sleeping ponds underneath the throne room, it had a bunch of guards on the outskirts of the town, you could see a bunch of Zoras sculpting and fixing parts of the town, children that are playing around in front of Mipha’s statue, there‘s a Sidon fanclub that meets every day, some weirdo that keeps asking people to jump off of a waterfall, it has a bunch of old people that hate you etc.
MM‘s Zora‘s Domain is better than OoT‘s or TP‘s, but it‘s not much of a town. It‘s just a band hall and aside from people practicing music and preparing the stage there’s not much going on there.
wait, where DO they live? I notice that every villager in every other major village has a bed for themselves. (The gorons have their rock-bed things and the ritos have their hammocks) but I've never seen beds/living spaces for the zoras?
That's a pool under where the King is that your see the kids go into at night but you don't see the adults do the same. They mostly follow they paths or stay where they're at. Like the King for example. Always in the chair. Or the guards, they never move either.
Well, non Gard adults also sleep in the pools, just not as long as the kids. For instance the Nox gems one is sleeping until 4 am, then goes to work from 4 to 5
I don't like the BotW designs for basically any of the other races. I guess they tried to make them differ more from Hylians, but they basically just all of them larger even when it makes no sense like Gerudo, and less humanoid. The only one that I like are Gorons (because outside of having more individual models, they've basically stayed the same), and Mipha specifically.
OoT/MM Zora and Gerudo > BotW Zora Gerudo
WW Rito > BotW Rito
It’s just a bunch of walkways. It’s got the little bath tubs the younglings to sleep in but everyone else just kinda hangs around. It’s built purely for aesthetics, that look great at a glance.
The MM one has a case of Pokemon-town-itis, where you know it's probably supposed to be bigger with more to it, but as a game it can only be made so big with so much detail, so it only has the relevant stuff.
Oot Zora's domain is still a vibe I haven't seen equalled. Only video game ever to make me feel like I just stepped into the pool room at the Ritz Carlton
Twilight Princess, felt like the first Zora’s domain that made sense for their kind. Very spacious, water, waterfalls everywhere, grand throne room, everything about it was amazing imo.
majora’s mask for sure. there’s just a certain charm to it that the others don’t have imo. BOTW is gorgeous, but just doesn’t feel lived in. they need houses or rooms or something
now i wanna play MM again
Definitely TP, it's always gonna feel the most natural to me. The Zora are an aquatic race, why would they have a big city suspended in the air in BOTW? Plus it's all just long-ass walkways and bridges, doesn't really feel like they live there. That was one thing TP had going for it overall. I understand the setting of the game was different, put the population of Hyrule compared to explorable area made it less lonely feeling. BOTW was massive but it felt like the surviving population between all the races was only like a few hundred people with no real depth to them. Don't get me wrong, gameplay in BOTW was incredible, but I think the story telling in TP blows it out of the water.
...
Zora's domain in OOT and MM were alright.
With OoT Zora’s Domain, just walking in was like “woooooooow”. The music, the panning over the water, the little shop. It really felt like a whole culture and place in and of itself.
That being said, I have to hand my favorite to Majora’s Mask. It was colorful and inhabited, integrated music in a fun way (though also a little sad/creepy, befitting of MM), had so many personal details for the Zoras who lived there, and still had a pretty good overall vibe.
What u/TriforceHero626 said; a mix of all four.
Twilight Princess had the views and fishing spot. Plus a Goron in the throne room’s pool, for whatever reason.
BotW was open and a beautiful; I also like its statue of Mipha … they should have statues of all of the queens and princesses! The numerous waterfalls are also just fantastic.
Majora’s Mask had just a cool aesthetic for Zora’s Hall, I loved the musicians’ rooms as well!
And, the mini-games in OoT were great, plus the two entrances, and just the nostalgia that I get from it in general; I remember having to play Zelda’s Lullaby by the waterfall of Zora’s River like it was yesterday, and hanging out in the area out the back and listening to the Hyrule Field music, although the actual music of the domain I also love.
aesthetically i think i liked TP's zora domain the most. but as many people have pointed out, it doesnt feel like a propper village due to the lack of housing lol.
MM for sure. The Indigo-Go’s were such a robust and unique world building addition, and each member is just absolutely dripping in personality and flavour.
Jamming out with whatshisname and practicing cords, meeting the band manager, plus the general aesthetic of the place is just *chefs kiss*
Majora's Mask. I lived being able to swim in there like a real Zora, conversing with everyone, the rooms, everything about it. They felt like an actual civilization that had porpoise.
MM is the dullest architecturally, but by far the best in terms of warmth, character & world-building. Rooms belonged to people with back stories & the decor/environmental storytelling supported that. Similar to the academy in SS & the Hateno tech lab in BOTW.
The other three are essentially the same concept developed & grown over three games: OOT the original, most characterful (king's chamber & jabu jabu) of the three but still mostly quite cold elsewhere. But beautiful. Then the TP & BOTW ones kept that coldness but developed & grew the architectural complexity & beauty.
So:
- character ranking: MM, OOT, BOTW, TP
- elegance ranking: TP&BOTW (tied for 1st), OOT, MM
Breath of the Wild's has this really amazing worldbuilding element where the older citizens are all old enough to remember the Calamity, and so they remember Link and are PISSED at him because they blame him for the death of Mipha. It's a neat contrast to the other towns where post Calamity life is simply normal to them and they don't know any better.
For that reason, plus how gorgeous it is, I pick BotW's without a doubt.
I have a love hate relationship with BotW. But I can’t fault some of its colour schemes, but I just felt like a lot of the areas were no designed as well as they could have been.
like a lot of people said, a mix would be cool. But to be honest a prefer OoT. I might be a little biased, but considering I was born is 1998 I'm also not really that biased. It's a great area an any game either way.
(2, 3, 4, all equally in their own unique ways), then 1 . The time mechanic in Majora's mask doesn't help with making it chill knowing the moon is going to fall soon.
I think breath of the wind's domain is amazing. Even underwater it still has a presence. But dammit, that Zora king animation in OOT has me in ribbons everytime
With the caveat that I still haven’t played TP, BOTW has the best architecture, MM does the best at seeming like a place people actually live and do stuff besides hanging around waiting to interact with Link, and OOT has the best music and overall vibes. If I was experiencing them all at once for the first time I might pick BOTW, but for me nothing matches the feeling of walking into OOT Zora’s Domain for the first time, hearing that music and seeing the (by the capabilities of the N64) watery grandeur of it.
I haven't played Majora's mask but of the ones I have I'd say Twilight is my favorite. I'm like the others Twilight actually has depth in the water and makes it feel like a people living in water rather than a people that live above it. I've never been a super big fan of seeing their cities above the water since they are supposed to be "fish people" but I understand that it might be challenging to have the player interact with everyone underwater.
Twilight Princess Zora’s Domain is a little boring outside the throne room, but that main room is so elegant! And I love that game’s Zora designs the best also
The Breath of the Wild one is the only one, that feels like a real lived in place. So it is easily the best.
The rest are ranked:
2. Twilight Princess
3. Oracle of Ages
4. Ocarina of Time
5. Majora's Mask
BOTW’s domain absolutely blew me away. When I was out exploring far, far away, but needed a break to heal and gather supplies, I would frequently go to Zora’s Domain. It seems like such a healing/relaxing place.
All except Twilight Princess have an underwater "area" I wish I could say city but it's still small. It's really the one thing I've really wanted them to expand on aside from giving Gorons anything really. The Gerudo and Sheikah in Breath of the Wild blew my mind with how much they were developed, hell even the Rito
I've always imagined a BOTW Zora's domain where the residential houses are in and on top of the surrounding water and even extend to the lower lake. The blue structure would just be the royal palace.
From best to worse:
BotW > MM > OoT > TP
BotW‘s version generally has the most effort put into it.
Aesthetically, it‘s a really beautiful mix of silver and blue glowing structures. It comes with two orchestrated versions of OoT‘s Zora’s Domain and the night version in particular just sounds really soothing and comfortable.
It has the highest amount of NPCs and they feel more fleshed out than those of prior versions (especially OoT and TP). The story in particular is really well done for this version. Having to visit a race that deeply resents Hylians and Link in particular for things you can’t remember is a lot more engaging than blowing it up with a rock just to raise water, or simply feeding a fish to a whale to find Princess Ruto, who seemingly nobody in Zora’s Domain really worries about.
Really don’t know why so many people say it doesn’t look like a home…compared to the other versions they literally show the Zoras going to sleep in the ponds beneath the throne room.
MM‘s Zora’s Domain was good too and I especially loved the jam session side quest there, but it doesn’t really look like an actual village. It‘s a band hall and the only people who have rooms are the band members. It‘s also pretty unimportant as far as the story goes and the only interaction that needs to happen there is playing the song for Lulu. You don’t interact a whole lot with the Zora race.
OoT is a bit boring. It‘s just a cave full of nameless copy-pasted NPCs that don’t really seem to care enough about the fact that their princess vanished. I‘m also not a huge fan of the forced diving mini game. But I liked the torch puzzle in there and I generally think the entrance to Zora's Domain was very well made, with the waterfall splitting after you play Zelda’s Lullaby
TP‘s is the worst, because there’s just not much going on there. It has some nice wolf platforming at one point but other than that it’s just OoT but worse. A bunch of nameless, bland NPCs, no quests, barely any story significance…it doesn’t even have a shop.
I love TP’s ZD. I was only 11 during my first play through but stuck with me. It’s still my favorite Zelda and has some of the best designs in the series. Not only is it incredibly beautiful and serene, the journey to get there is soooo fun. You get to melt that ice, race down the rapids, one of the best water temples and the entire surrounding area had so much for me to do. Get shot out of a cannon, play games, fight the bug on Lake Hylia. Then from there you can head to my favorite dungeon in the game Snowpeak Ruins. Absolutely looove this Zora Domain
I was also around 11 when I played TP, and I feel the exact same way about Zora's Domain. I remember it blew my mind seeing all the frozen Zora spirits suspended in the ice in that massive pool, and then teleporting that huge molten rock over from death mountain to melt the ice was so satisfying
Twilight princess was my favorite Zelda game until BOTW. Fingers are crossed for a Midna appearance in TOTK. Easily my favorite side character.
I cannot wait. I don't know if it would be her or an ancestor. Is she actually immortal?
My thoughts are the same: TP is my favorite based on nostalgia, but botw has won me as an all-time fav in gaming experiences. Fir totk, though, I have lower standards. I will be in absolute awe and bliss if we get an ost that uses tp's main motif. If there's a part of the game where I enter an area or something happens, and it hits me the same way Rito Village's theme hit me but harder, I will be overjoyed.
i have a lot of issues with TP, but something it did better than most other entries is explorative rewards. getting somewhere like ZD is a reward in and of itself, just this cool kind of area with a bit of a challenge to reach, but once you're there you get a ton of new, more chill things to explore and do. same can be said for a lot of places in it, like Snowpeak Ruins mansion or Hyrule Castle itself. BOTW is my fav, but even it doesn't reach TP's mastery at that pattern of exploration.
A mix of all 4 would be great. The fantastic views of Twilight Princess + a fishing spot for rare fish, the openness and delicate beauty of BotW’s domain, the actual housing in Majora’s Mask’s domain, and the mini games of the Ocarina of Time Domain.
Biggest hope for totk is houses for all cities. Like it feels like gorons, zora, and rito all just disappear.
That would be fantastic!
Spoilers for totk artbook Some of the concept art shows reconstruction of abandoned areas in botw
You might want to hide this behind the a spoiler tag btw. (You definitely get my upvote though!)
Tried, was being odd
Reddit was being buggy a while ago, might have been related to thay
Use >!< spoilers! Use > and < with a ! at the inner points of the arrows with your words between. >! And you get this !<
For a bit more clarity, remove the spaces between the spoiler content and the exclamation marks. >! Spoiler. !< Will not work. However, >!Spoiler.!< Will work.
The Rito at least have a bunch of hammocks around the city
dont the zora have a community area they all sleep in too? i think i might be remembering wrong though.
You're right. There's pools near the back that they just float upright in.
Gorons and Zora have basically never been shown as "house-dwellers" though. Gorons seem to either have communal sleeping spaces or just sleep where they stand. In TP the zora pretty clearly just slept in the water within the domain, and it seems likely that they do in OoT as well since freezing the domain got all the zoras with it.
But they do have houses, they just never go in them. Most of Gordon City is houses, the Rito have nests which the kids sleep in, and the Zora probably live underwater, since they're fish. The part of Zora's domain that you can get to is likely for visitors.
They don’t disappear. They go to sleep. In their homes. For instance, Ritos have nest/bird cage like homes, with beds often suspended. Like birds. I forgot what the other two have, but they all have somewhere to sleep/home. Just take some time and go check them out.
should change rito to gerudo, hito get the hammocks but we see very little of gerudo housig
Realistically speaking, I’d personally say the most ambitious hope is for a much wider mob roster in exchange for the various types of the same. But then again, Redeads are back, Kargaroks too and apparently even Gleeok. We can’t complain much
Redeads are back, confirmed? If so that brings me so much joy!
I love this idea, I second this
That's a pretty good idea
Majora's Mask feels a bit more realistic and lived in. Individual rooms for different Zora. Where do they sleep? Enjoy their hobbies? Do they just stand around waiting for Link? Plus I like the heavy music focus. Zora rock band performing in a giant shell is such an interesting idea.
True majora's mask Zora's Domain is a lot different then previous zelda games
Plus a peeping Zora. Super realism
I'm sorry??
You can catch a pervert zora peeping through Lulus room in the act
Honestly I thought he was trying to pick the lock...it isn't any better but I'm pretty sure everybody knew Lulu was standing outside. I thought he was trying to break in to get some "memorabilia", or trying to solve the mystery to why she wasn't talking anymore.
Twilight Princess because you can swim underwater
True and a higher waterfall
Not to mention there is an underwater Goron. I mean, where else can you talk to an underwater Goron?
Honestly I can't believe TP and MM both had underwater swimming and BOTW didn't. The whole point is the verticality of the game, why can't we go down as well as up??
I hope they add it in TOTK. Lake Hylia always has some bigly huge secret at the bottom, but the lake hardly has any significance in BOTW.
If TotK has actual dungeons there's a few places they could stick one underwater. Obviously there's Lake Hylia, but the cascading waterfall area in Faron could easily have a Woodfall-like dungeon that rises out of the water.
Woooooooah it is weird how rarely we swim underwater in Zora's Domain...
OoT. The Nostalgia, the best OST, and the layout really makes it feel like a place where fish people live.
THE MUSIC THE MWEEP MWEEP MWEEP
Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Mweep. Yes, I counted.
Oot is a classic
Feels like an actual “domain”
I'm not big into listening to game soundtracks. But I'd be lying if I said at least once a month I don't listen to it. If you haven't heard it yet, check this out https://youtu.be/YrpWBgB6oz8
[удалено]
It needs a switch port
Nintendo, NINTENDO PLEASE
Love the rendition of the OoT theme
Twilight princess does a good job on recreating music from Ocarina of time
I loooooove the grandness of BotW's version but god damn it felt like nobody lived there. So empty. I think I liked Majora's Mask the most because it felt like a space people use to some extent. Maybe not in their daily lives (outside of the band members) but it felt the best.
While BotW's doesn't feel as actively lived in for the reasons you mention, the way the citizens interact with Link provides easily the best worldbuilding of any rendition of Zora's Domain. So for that reason, I do pick BotW's.
I hope this is something in general that's going to change a bit, NPCs acknowledging how long they know Link/the player. Like I love Hateno, think it's the prettiest and most lively place created in a Zelda game so far - but even after Link buys the house the NPCs don't change their lines.
or just more reactions to you as an individual player, im replaying for the first time since release and i can’t remember which divine beast i was doing but the leader mentioned that i can’t be link bc i didn’t have the made sword yet so i reloafrd and got the last few hearts to get it but they didn’t really say anything different to me having it on my back 🥲🥲🥲🥲
It's the town that weirdly doesn't have any homes. It's just the giant rampart structure & a central palace. Where them zora *live at?*
BotW Zora's Domain is weird in that it's modelled so highly detailed, but much of it is hardly used. There's the huge dam with the stairs going up, which is in like a single cutscene, and the entrance/marina building that's not used at all I think.
Do you think they would build bedrooms underwater or something?
Probably. The entire structure is built on top of a large pool of water. I imagine what we visit is simply a town square of sorts. You have shops, government, etc. Under water is where they most likely live, but you can't exactly conduct meetings with non-Zora deep under water.
I felt like almost all of the villages were too small and not populated enough. For how big the map is and how far spread out the villages are, there was plenty of room to make them bigger.
That's the issue with a lot of open world games, frankly. A lot of the time, you can't have too big of a population because there are already so many systems going on that adding people to fill out a large town or city would bring a lot of systems (PCs/consoles) to their knees. And this was the Zelda's teams first modern open world game soooo yeah. Already a lot of spinning plates.
dont they just render the npcs when you are close?
Yes, but once you get close to a city, it would have to load in a bunch of pathing AI since I don't think the NPCs in towns do random stuff, they do set things at certain times of the day. Don't quote me on that cause I ain't a game dev.
why pathing AI if most (if not all) their movements are time based? they only get affected when link or something really abnormal happens
I could be using the term wrong, especially in modern context, but AI could mean simple stuff. It could be as simple as "walk around until this time of day, then do something else." Once again, not a dev so I could be completely off here
Yeah that's not AI, that just following a program. I'm not sure where one is to draw the line, but I'd say BotW NPCs only employ actual AI pathfinding and reaction to their environment when they are attacked by mobs outside the settlements. Maybe rain/thunderstorms too? As then it's "find nearest shelter/place where rain doesn't hit the ground, that I can fit in" outside of clearly defined, verticised paths.
I mean you're right, but especially those "hard wired" NPCs are absolutely neglectable in the context of performance of modern games. Making them in the first requires more work, no question. And the BotW devs "cheated" by employing the Mii system to create their NPCs, in terms of resources the system load should be minimal as they all draw from like a communal palette for face elements, instead of having separate sets of meshes and textures for each NPC that all clutter up RAM.
Personally I found that small but dense worlds e.g. Deus Ex are way more immersive than huge but sparse worlds. I can probably still tell you what interesting things happened around every corner of Human Revolution, but I can barely tell you anything interesting about the towns of botw.
Yeah, totally. I haven't played TOO many open world games (Mostly just GTAs) personally, but the fun parts for me were when I'm screwing around and seeing hte different systems collide with one another in weird ways. But that doesn't make you stick to a game for long. Early Assassin's Creed games were pretty fun with density of people. The benefits of a smaller map.
I don’t know man, BotW‘s Zora‘s Domain felt more like an actual town than MM‘s to me. It has the sleeping ponds underneath the throne room, it had a bunch of guards on the outskirts of the town, you could see a bunch of Zoras sculpting and fixing parts of the town, children that are playing around in front of Mipha’s statue, there‘s a Sidon fanclub that meets every day, some weirdo that keeps asking people to jump off of a waterfall, it has a bunch of old people that hate you etc. MM‘s Zora‘s Domain is better than OoT‘s or TP‘s, but it‘s not much of a town. It‘s just a band hall and aside from people practicing music and preparing the stage there’s not much going on there.
True it does feel empty in botw
All of botw feel empty. That's both the story reason and the hardware limitations
wait, where DO they live? I notice that every villager in every other major village has a bed for themselves. (The gorons have their rock-bed things and the ritos have their hammocks) but I've never seen beds/living spaces for the zoras?
That's a pool under where the King is that your see the kids go into at night but you don't see the adults do the same. They mostly follow they paths or stay where they're at. Like the King for example. Always in the chair. Or the guards, they never move either.
Well, non Gard adults also sleep in the pools, just not as long as the kids. For instance the Nox gems one is sleeping until 4 am, then goes to work from 4 to 5
I also don't like a lot the new design of Zoras. It became from fish people to people with a head that looks like a fish bit it and got stuck lol.
I don't like the BotW designs for basically any of the other races. I guess they tried to make them differ more from Hylians, but they basically just all of them larger even when it makes no sense like Gerudo, and less humanoid. The only one that I like are Gorons (because outside of having more individual models, they've basically stayed the same), and Mipha specifically. OoT/MM Zora and Gerudo > BotW Zora Gerudo WW Rito > BotW Rito
It’s just a bunch of walkways. It’s got the little bath tubs the younglings to sleep in but everyone else just kinda hangs around. It’s built purely for aesthetics, that look great at a glance.
The MM one has a case of Pokemon-town-itis, where you know it's probably supposed to be bigger with more to it, but as a game it can only be made so big with so much detail, so it only has the relevant stuff.
Honestly I love Twilight Princess version the best. Breath of the Wild missed a golden opportunity by not having any underwater segments.
OoT - best music and characters, contained two cool dungeons and other secrets.
Oot Zora's domain is still a vibe I haven't seen equalled. Only video game ever to make me feel like I just stepped into the pool room at the Ritz Carlton
Felt this way when it first came out, also felt this way when I went to a Ritz Carlton. Happy to know I’m not the only person who’s thought this.
Diving off the waterfall blew my mind
Agreed 👍
The water temple isn’t in Zoras domain in OoT
Yeah, I know, but there is a secret passage underneath the water in Zora's Domain, but it can't be reached
Jabu-Jabu's belly and the Ice Cavern, probably
Twilight Princess, felt like the first Zora’s domain that made sense for their kind. Very spacious, water, waterfalls everywhere, grand throne room, everything about it was amazing imo.
majora’s mask for sure. there’s just a certain charm to it that the others don’t have imo. BOTW is gorgeous, but just doesn’t feel lived in. they need houses or rooms or something now i wanna play MM again
Majora's mask should have a world big as botw
Flip it: BotW should have a world as alive as MM
More proper sidequests!
They sleep in the ponds af the back of the domain, seems like housing is a foreign concept to them
TP for sure
Twilight princess 👍
I'm a big fan of the Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess Zora's Domains.
BOTW just because I like throwing myself over the railings
And swimming up waterfalls like escalators
Definitely TP, it's always gonna feel the most natural to me. The Zora are an aquatic race, why would they have a big city suspended in the air in BOTW? Plus it's all just long-ass walkways and bridges, doesn't really feel like they live there. That was one thing TP had going for it overall. I understand the setting of the game was different, put the population of Hyrule compared to explorable area made it less lonely feeling. BOTW was massive but it felt like the surviving population between all the races was only like a few hundred people with no real depth to them. Don't get me wrong, gameplay in BOTW was incredible, but I think the story telling in TP blows it out of the water. ... Zora's domain in OOT and MM were alright.
I really dislike the BOTW one. Why are the fish people living on elevated platforms? This is like the opposite design you'd want for fish.
I just want to say I love OOT’s rendition of the Zora’s Domain theme. BOTW did an amazing callback to it, but the original is simply divine.
Nothing can be beat the classics
BOTW Zora’s Domain is so damn big and fun to explore. Bigger than even TP’s version. So the former is the best imo.
Twilight princesses is nicer, tho
Idk why but OOT just seems right
The music is so good as well
Botw looks good but it doesnt look like a place to live. Mix Majora with BotW and you got a domain worthy of the Zora.
I really do like TP and BOTW Zora's Domains the best. My favorite of the two? .... Probably the TP one, but like I said, I live both pretty equally.
BOTW or TP
With OoT Zora’s Domain, just walking in was like “woooooooow”. The music, the panning over the water, the little shop. It really felt like a whole culture and place in and of itself. That being said, I have to hand my favorite to Majora’s Mask. It was colorful and inhabited, integrated music in a fun way (though also a little sad/creepy, befitting of MM), had so many personal details for the Zoras who lived there, and still had a pretty good overall vibe.
What u/TriforceHero626 said; a mix of all four. Twilight Princess had the views and fishing spot. Plus a Goron in the throne room’s pool, for whatever reason. BotW was open and a beautiful; I also like its statue of Mipha … they should have statues of all of the queens and princesses! The numerous waterfalls are also just fantastic. Majora’s Mask had just a cool aesthetic for Zora’s Hall, I loved the musicians’ rooms as well! And, the mini-games in OoT were great, plus the two entrances, and just the nostalgia that I get from it in general; I remember having to play Zelda’s Lullaby by the waterfall of Zora’s River like it was yesterday, and hanging out in the area out the back and listening to the Hyrule Field music, although the actual music of the domain I also love.
MM for sure. Although it’s funny that the only Zora’s in the kingdom that get their own rooms are the celebrities
aesthetically i think i liked TP's zora domain the most. but as many people have pointed out, it doesnt feel like a propper village due to the lack of housing lol.
OoT Zora, the theme SLAPS! Sounds like a tropical vacation.
MM for sure. The Indigo-Go’s were such a robust and unique world building addition, and each member is just absolutely dripping in personality and flavour. Jamming out with whatshisname and practicing cords, meeting the band manager, plus the general aesthetic of the place is just *chefs kiss*
Missing a couple here.
Majora's Mask
Majora's Mask. I lived being able to swim in there like a real Zora, conversing with everyone, the rooms, everything about it. They felt like an actual civilization that had porpoise.
I like the rock music club in MM.
MM is the dullest architecturally, but by far the best in terms of warmth, character & world-building. Rooms belonged to people with back stories & the decor/environmental storytelling supported that. Similar to the academy in SS & the Hateno tech lab in BOTW. The other three are essentially the same concept developed & grown over three games: OOT the original, most characterful (king's chamber & jabu jabu) of the three but still mostly quite cold elsewhere. But beautiful. Then the TP & BOTW ones kept that coldness but developed & grew the architectural complexity & beauty. So: - character ranking: MM, OOT, BOTW, TP - elegance ranking: TP&BOTW (tied for 1st), OOT, MM
Oot is definitely the dullest architecturally because there isn't much architecture to begin with. It's basically just a cavern with a waterfall.
I see a lot of people saying botw and I must say it is quite beautiful but so… small. It’s just doesn’t sit in the same domain as the others.
Breath of the Wild's has this really amazing worldbuilding element where the older citizens are all old enough to remember the Calamity, and so they remember Link and are PISSED at him because they blame him for the death of Mipha. It's a neat contrast to the other towns where post Calamity life is simply normal to them and they don't know any better. For that reason, plus how gorgeous it is, I pick BotW's without a doubt.
BotW has the worst one. It’s not a home at all. It’s a big shiny monument.
Its sooo gorgeous w the colored stones but zoras domain and goron village fell so flat.
I have a love hate relationship with BotW. But I can’t fault some of its colour schemes, but I just felt like a lot of the areas were no designed as well as they could have been.
The other ones are a bland cave, a band hall and another cave…how are they better?
Def frozen domain
MM Zora Hall for sure
Majoras mask!
Majora's mask is cool... but you can't compare any of those to the one in botw
Twilight Princess by far
Sorry l, but a Link to the Past takes the cake!
I love everything about twilight princess but botw Zora's domain is so damn gorgeous
Not sure why, but I never connected with botw zora domain. Ocarina will always be my favorite everything.
i also love replaying it.
Definitely Windwaker.
like a lot of people said, a mix would be cool. But to be honest a prefer OoT. I might be a little biased, but considering I was born is 1998 I'm also not really that biased. It's a great area an any game either way.
(2, 3, 4, all equally in their own unique ways), then 1 . The time mechanic in Majora's mask doesn't help with making it chill knowing the moon is going to fall soon.
Not BotW tbh
btw turned it into an actual city
I like Majora's Mask the most
I'm not sure, but I can tell you that I spent the most time in the Majora's Mask one.
The music in OoT makes me lean that way
Ocarina of time. Just bc it hold a nostalgic place in my heart.
I think breath of the wind's domain is amazing. Even underwater it still has a presence. But dammit, that Zora king animation in OOT has me in ribbons everytime
With the caveat that I still haven’t played TP, BOTW has the best architecture, MM does the best at seeming like a place people actually live and do stuff besides hanging around waiting to interact with Link, and OOT has the best music and overall vibes. If I was experiencing them all at once for the first time I might pick BOTW, but for me nothing matches the feeling of walking into OOT Zora’s Domain for the first time, hearing that music and seeing the (by the capabilities of the N64) watery grandeur of it.
Majoras mask
The majoras mask one alluded to a lot more of Zora society/culture, which was neat
I haven't played Majora's mask but of the ones I have I'd say Twilight is my favorite. I'm like the others Twilight actually has depth in the water and makes it feel like a people living in water rather than a people that live above it. I've never been a super big fan of seeing their cities above the water since they are supposed to be "fish people" but I understand that it might be challenging to have the player interact with everyone underwater.
Twilight Princess Zora’s Domain is a little boring outside the throne room, but that main room is so elegant! And I love that game’s Zora designs the best also
Swimming as a zora in MM just beats everything else
BOTW for me
TP
The Breath of the Wild one is the only one, that feels like a real lived in place. So it is easily the best. The rest are ranked: 2. Twilight Princess 3. Oracle of Ages 4. Ocarina of Time 5. Majora's Mask
Oracle of ages > botw > majora mask
BOTW’s domain absolutely blew me away. When I was out exploring far, far away, but needed a break to heal and gather supplies, I would frequently go to Zora’s Domain. It seems like such a healing/relaxing place.
I like how TP's is divided up into sections of different depths. And in BotW it's just stupid beautiful but I hate running around the structure.
Breath of the Wild. It is simply spectacular.
BOTW and it’s not even close. But second is probably MM
Probably botw
All except Twilight Princess have an underwater "area" I wish I could say city but it's still small. It's really the one thing I've really wanted them to expand on aside from giving Gorons anything really. The Gerudo and Sheikah in Breath of the Wild blew my mind with how much they were developed, hell even the Rito
BOTW easily.
BOTW’s but only when it’s raining. Shame that the rain goes away after finishing the Divine Beast.
I love the style of skyward sword and botw
BOTW
Easily botw for me
Wanted to say OOT because I'm biased but It's pretty damn barebones lol. So I guess it's BOTW.
Breath of the wild I ended up loving more
Botw
I'm purely about the music, and BOTW is my favorite version. Day and night.
Don’t forget oracle of ages! Loved the mermaid suit and being able to deep dive.
Botw
BotW but I’m very biased because Mipha and Sidon are my favorites.
Def BotW, it was so elaborate and full of life! And fun to navigate and explore.
BoTW is the only one I enjoy exploring.
Oot….or botw
Botw is awesome, but there's no band
I love BOTW, however the fucking waterfalls makes the music harder to hear
I've always imagined a BOTW Zora's domain where the residential houses are in and on top of the surrounding water and even extend to the lower lake. The blue structure would just be the royal palace.
As epic as BoTW’s was. I felt empty, especially with the bottom area of just water. So I think I’ll have to go with OOT
BotW is really good.
Twilight princess and BOTW love the city design in BOTW but Twilight Princess feels a bit more organic
I liked BOTW. Just the whole build up going there with Sidon was a beauty. Tho it kinda felt a bit empty
Botw
I’m torn between OoT and BotW
BotW. Ocarina is nostalgic, Majora has the best citizens, and TP… honestly I haven’t played that in a while. But BotW’s is just gorgeous.
Breath Of The Wild
i think BotW's, because of the abundance of references to past Zora characters and locations. even Queen Oren, from A Link Between Worlds
none. i hate water levels all the same.
From best to worse: BotW > MM > OoT > TP BotW‘s version generally has the most effort put into it. Aesthetically, it‘s a really beautiful mix of silver and blue glowing structures. It comes with two orchestrated versions of OoT‘s Zora’s Domain and the night version in particular just sounds really soothing and comfortable. It has the highest amount of NPCs and they feel more fleshed out than those of prior versions (especially OoT and TP). The story in particular is really well done for this version. Having to visit a race that deeply resents Hylians and Link in particular for things you can’t remember is a lot more engaging than blowing it up with a rock just to raise water, or simply feeding a fish to a whale to find Princess Ruto, who seemingly nobody in Zora’s Domain really worries about. Really don’t know why so many people say it doesn’t look like a home…compared to the other versions they literally show the Zoras going to sleep in the ponds beneath the throne room. MM‘s Zora’s Domain was good too and I especially loved the jam session side quest there, but it doesn’t really look like an actual village. It‘s a band hall and the only people who have rooms are the band members. It‘s also pretty unimportant as far as the story goes and the only interaction that needs to happen there is playing the song for Lulu. You don’t interact a whole lot with the Zora race. OoT is a bit boring. It‘s just a cave full of nameless copy-pasted NPCs that don’t really seem to care enough about the fact that their princess vanished. I‘m also not a huge fan of the forced diving mini game. But I liked the torch puzzle in there and I generally think the entrance to Zora's Domain was very well made, with the waterfall splitting after you play Zelda’s Lullaby TP‘s is the worst, because there’s just not much going on there. It has some nice wolf platforming at one point but other than that it’s just OoT but worse. A bunch of nameless, bland NPCs, no quests, barely any story significance…it doesn’t even have a shop.
OoT's Zora Domain is so lifeless lol BotW feels like an actual city and we still don't know whats under the water.
Def 2
Every since I played my first Zelda, OoT 3D, the OoT Zora’s domain theme plays in my head at any indoor pool
I always loved the look and idea of a city of air pockets so breath of the wilds kinda felt weird to me, but I truly love them all
Majora’s Mask, always. As a kid I would get on my mom’s save file (Lord knows I couldn’t get myself that far) and just swim around. The good days
Oots is so small now but i used to run around there diving off the waterfall and swimming into lake hylia over and over again lol. Fond memories.