TotK really makes Switch feel dated

[VAMatt]

SvennoJ said:

What I miss in TotK is music to enhance the landscape. Matching the environments with music is a powerful way to have a place make an impression. I just got back last night, too tired to play. Tonight I'll explore more of the depths. It's great, but can't deny some good music while exploring, fading in and out now and then would enhance the landscape. It's not for nothing that the original Mario games are so recognizable with just a few notes heard nowadays.

Anyway that's not a limitation of the hardware. But I do kinda feel less effort is being put in to music for handheld games. But that migh just be my perseption as I generally don't play on a handheld. It's just that BotW and also Mario Odessey didn't leave any music impressions on me.

I agree that they could have done more with the music in Tears of the Kingdom. It just doesn't appear to have been a big focus for the developers.  Or, maybe they thought it was better this way.  I feel like I would prefer some cool music in appropriate circumstances, but I can't really judge something that doesn't exist. So, maybe the developers made a good choice. I don't know. 

One thing I do know is that I don't love the sound of Link's footsteps. That's an issue I have with many Japanese games though. They often sound like the character is wearing wooden shoes and walking on a hard surface, when they appear to be wearing something soft and walking in grass.  I find it to be very immersion breaking in some games. It is not that big of a deal in TTOK, but it ain't great.

I don't think any of this sound stuff has anything to do with limitations of the hardware though.  They are either conscious design choices, or areas that the developers decided not to worry about.