For BOTW, the main question you ask from the start is "Who am I?" and also "What happened to Hyrule?" You learn the answers to these questions over time as you journey across the land and remember things about your past. The answer to "who am I" is "I am the chosen hero," and the answer to "what happened" is "We failed to save everyone." When you learn that, the goal changes from "go and do the quests because the old lady said to" to "Do what you couldn't do back then and save everyone."

In TOTK, the question is "Where the heck is Zelda?" and it's not your question, it's everyone else's. All the NPCs want to know where she is and you're just kind of standing there while everyone discusses it. And then the game throws you an early game side quest where they tell you exactly what happened to Zelda, and then you just have to putter around for 99 years and watch everyone run blindly towards Fake Zelda while you just follow them without saying anything until the final hour.

And then they force you to listen to the exact same spiel about the Imprisoning War, 4 separate times, without changing a single word. Whereas in BOTW, you get to learn about the Champions and who they were and their relationship to you, and explain the Calamity to you in one cutscene.

Plus, they don't expand on anything from BOTW in TOTK. Link and Zelda are just living perfectly fine in society despite having basically been dead for a century. And instead of expanding on the Sheika mythos, they just try and pretend they never existed and put the Zonai in their place as the Ancient Precursor Race with all the Ancient Technology That's Been Lost To Time.

Forever keep you safe 🪶

But quick post about some of my favourite random things in the new Zelda voice files.

-Revali canonically taking zelda to the hotsprings on his back (using the excuse he could only take one person as a reason to leave Link behind) and acting as her guard all day because she was too stressed and he wanted to help her relax???? This is so fucking wholesome what.

-Vah Medoh being the hardest Divine Beast to control out of all of them but Revali picking it up really quickly and Zelda commenting that it's because he trains harder than anyone she's ever met and has an incredible work ethic.

-Zelda also talking about how Revali's gale is amazing and he's the only one who can do it - but saying that it's not even the reason why he's so incredible.

-The Rito are master woodworkers! They make near everything out of wood and apparently are extremely impressive in how they transport lumber in the air.

-The Rito also make the most high quality fabrics and garments in the land and they're popular everywhere. Zelda's coat was her mothers and was brought in Rito Village.

-Rito fight in the air in groups in a way no other race does, they're very communal fighters for the most part.

-Vah Medoh is apparently suprisingly lightweight. Zelda worries that it will crush Vah Medoh's perch but apparently that's not a realistic concern because it doesn't weigh all too much. It's also implied that the spire was Vah Medoh's perch ten thousand years ago too - it's not just a coincidence that it's shaped that way.

-Daruk asked Zelda to remove an entire stable. It's implied it's because that's where all the unhomed working dogs live.

-Daruk is too modest/shy to talk about the giant stone carving of his head in Goron City.

-Alongside rocks, Gorons really enjoy eating boiled eggs?

-The Gorons also gathered a lifetime suply of lizards for Zelda when she ran out of fire-proof elixer which is so wholesome.

-Vah Ruta lowered it's trunk in greeting the first time it met Mipha as if she were an old friend.

-The Hylians and the Zora have a long history of cultural exchange dating back LONGER than ten thousand years ago!

-King Dorophan fights with his fins rather than a weapon because he's so powerful.

-Zora's domain is home to extremely talented metal workers. Mipha's statue is made of metal, and she was extremely embaressed by it being in the center of the Domain and kept asking her dad to move it somewhere out of the way lakjshdfhjk. Omg that's why they moved it up to the mountain help. It's what she wanted.

-The Zora make everything out of a water-resistant ore - even their books so they can be read in the water!!

-The Zora also have super uncomfortable Hylian beds in their inn because they sleep in the water and have no idea what it is that Hylians want out of a bed.

-The mountain was a super popular place for young Zora to show off their bravery by jumping off it before the Lynel moved in. The only Zora willing to go up there was baby Sidon who Mipha kept telling to stay away from it but he'd get an excited glint in his eye like he was gonna do it anyway.

-Zelda's mother was sickly and prone to illness yet made the perilous trek to Gerudo Town frequently dispite the wild and life-threatening tempreture changes and dangers of the desert. Wonder why that was?

-Karakara Bizaare was created specifically to trade with male travelers, since they're not permitted within the town. It used to be extremely crowded.

-Sand seals evolved from aquatic creatures. Also Urbosa trained Zelda to ride one!

-The Gerudo are master jewelry makers and beleive the precious stones to absorb sunlight and energy and to repel evil. Because of this they wear as much jewelry as possible.

-Urbosa's shield and scimitar were made by a jewler rather than a blacksmith.

-Urbosa also requested a stable be built on the borders of the desert so that the young Gerudo leaving home for the first time have somewhere to stop and prepare for the rest of their travels.

-The warm doubtlet you get from the king at the start of BoTW was Zelda's.

-In Luralin, they beleive the Goddess statue to be the Goddess of fishing.

-Link wouldn't let Zelda climb the mountain to the matchmaking lake because he said it was 'too steep' and she notes that it's suspiciously overcautious of him.

-Zelda brought the five scarves she made for the Champions and Link to be dyed at the dye shop in Hataeno Village, and they were dyed using silent princess flowers to get the royal blue colour.

-It's suggested that malice forms in places that harbor negative energy,

-The Sheika were banished from Hyrule, that's why they moved to Kakariko Village hidden in the vally.