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[SLoWMoTIoN]

All the Nintentardos will swarm you like their wife's boyfriends swarm her, but you're 100% on point.

If this were a Ubi title it'd get a (deserved) 6/10 and be endlessly mentioned like "oMg le uBisOft fOrmuLa, le wAtcHtOweRs".

TBF Ubisoft games play like shit.

 

[TransTrender]

The picture in the OP is completely valid.
OOT is a better game, but my spring with BotW was really something else.
10/10

 

[Andyliini]

The Zelda cycle in full effect again, I see.

 

[Marvel14]

There is no such thing as a perfect game that is universally loved.

But BOTW produces something new and outstanding: personalised and self crafted experiences that are unique to each player. How you approach bad guys, how you use physics, whether you focus on koroks, shrines, story or Divine beasts as your primary motivation as you progress, which areas you traverse in what order, whether you relie on horses, gliding or fast travel and many more things besides. There are no rails and no preset path you have to follow. Spotting something new in the environment and going to see what it is as primary motivation for player choice is a game changer in game design.

Sure enemies are repetitive and weapon breaking is not for everyone but it stands as an incredible achievement for what it does well.

 

[Animagic]

Sure, it is heavily exaggerated, but not wrong.

-The world is huge, yet it feels like you get a korok seed or a shrine most of the time as a reward which is repetitive, uncreative and makes exploration significantly less fun (atleast for me). It doesn't help that the shrines all have the same design. Seriously, you can count the exceptions of substantial rewards with one hand which is just sad for an exploration driven game.

- the bosses all look the same too which is correct.

-the story is not terrible, but it's not great either. Most of it already happened so it doesn't connect to you, the player, directly and you can't interact with it in any way other than watching little movies. The story in the present is, aside from the Zora and Gerudo one maybe, very lackluster and boring. There are no plot twists and the whole story is presented to you from the old man after you beat the Great Plateu.

- lacking enemy variety is true as well.

- the dungeons and shrines feel indeed, very similar to each other. Be it Divine Beasts or Shrines, sadly.

I think these are all valid critic points against BOTW and I seriously hope BOTW2 will fix all of them. BOTW is a great game, but it has many flaws that can be dramatically improved upon.

It’s my favorite Zelda game, but I understand.

 

[Dampf]

It's about as interesting as your imagination allows. If you aren't imaginative and creative it won't seem like much, when I started to fuck around with the world and physics I started to realize there was a depth I wasn't considering.

Go on YouTube and you'll find a wealth of videos of people doing some crazy things with the boulders and physics of the game, it's game breaking in some cases. I've seen people fly half way across the map by riding a flying boulder. Thats just the tip of the ice-berg.

Edit: Included some crazy things you can do with the physics







Low skill floor required to get around and have fun with the game.... HUGE skill ceiling to truly break the world to your advantage

That is fun and all, but I want different things in Zelda games.

I want touching, interactive story lines.

I want epic boss battles.

I want complex uniquely themed dungeons that really require me to think.

I want more music.



BOTW failed to deliver in these key aspects and thus, it's not a good Zelda game for me. I don't care if I can use a boulder to fly across the whole map if the game does not have what I love about the Zelda series.

 

[martino]

That is fun and all, but I want different things in Zelda games.

I want touching, interactive story lines.

I want epic boss battles.

I want complex uniquely themed dungeons that really require me to think.

I want more music.



BOTW failed to deliver in these key aspects and thus, it's not a good Zelda game for me. I don't care if I can use a boulder to fly across the whole map if the game does not have what I love about the Zelda series.

i really hope botw 2 time spend mostly on content means they will bring back that too

 

[Majukun]

I still wonder why we get this kind of hot takes when it has already been explained several times that no videogame website or printed magazine ever considered a 10/10 the perfect game.

yes, botw has a lot of issues
yes, it's still one of the best games i've ever played
no it's not the best Zelda ever made.
yes you are perfectly free to not like it...i don't like tons of games that get almost all 9 and 10 nowadays

EDIT: also, yes, complaining about breakable weapons in BOTW it's as stupid as complaining about stealth in MGS.
You are free to not like it, but the game is built around it and it's 10 times better than what it would be otherwise because of it.

 

[SpongebobSquaredance]

That's how awful BotW is. Not as bad as skyward bored, because few things are, but nintendo gave us BotW and mario odyssey and endless shovelware and that is the legacy of the switch.

 

[Sweden85]

The topic-starter is spot on

 

[Sir_Impaler]

i really hope botw 2 time spend mostly on content means they will bring back that too

Honestly I don’t know how they can do the sequel and not go this route. BotW feels like a testing bed of sorts even now as I play it. Seeing what new mechanics really stick and others which either need more work or should be abandoned.

That’s my idea at least. Whether Nintendo does that or not is another story

 

[Bladed Thesis]

But the physics man.......

 

[farmerboy]

Game is great, definitely has that epic feel about it.

But those issues and the graphical downgrade would have hurt any other game. Nintendo always starts with a 2 point advantage.

Probably would've given it an 8 or 9 myself. Which is still a great game.

 

[Terenty]

It's both amazing and sad that the best Zelda came out in 91

 

[CharlieTuna]

It's a good game, great even, but i don't think it stacks up with the best in the series (OoT), and it is nowhere near the level of the other great games of its gen, like The Witcher 3 (which admittedly is a very different game, and the comparison kinda sucks).

 

[MagnesD3]

Exploration might be the best in gaming buttt it’s weapon system fails spectacularly and it’s dungeons/bosses are very weak compared to other zeldas, so yeah it’s very overrated but also very good.

 

[Cutty Flam]

There are some great critiques of BOTW in this thread, just having skimmed over. It’s my 3rd favorite still, because as one poster has said, the highs of the game are extremely high, but I think there is MASSIVE room for improvement. Which is why I think BOTW’s sequel is going to be an automatic classic in the series. Instant classic. I’ve been keeping tabs on the series very closely since OoT and I think it’s going to happen with this next one on the strength of Fujibayashi and Aonuma leading the project

But to get back to the topic, there is plenty to criticize, but there is also a lot of work that I would say is exceptional

What I think the next title should improve upon is this:

-More villages, towns, cities, etc.
-More NPCs with in depth problems that offer sidequests that are interesting, varying in complexity, and that add to the adventure and story in meaningful ways
-More music, more musical themes. Ambient sounds and little notes and tunes are an excellent idea but they will never replace what a full score of music can do for a video game. Or any work in entertainment for that matter. Music can connect everything and has the potential to create unforgettable moments in gaming when paired with the right moment whether it be a skirmish, boss fight, in a cutscene. There should be more of it
-Include dungeons, mini-dungeons, temples
-Bring back grottos
-Writing for NPCs should intertwine a bit more with the overall story of the game. Add at least a handful of NPCs that have something to say about past events, or future, or an item and have powerful storytelling behind what the NPCs has to say
-More quality, less quality. I love BOTW, but if I weren’t such a huge fan of the series, I doubt I could have played for as long as I have and will
-Bring back items and have their usefulness be shown all across Hyrule / plenty of opportunities to make use of the items

It’s a lot to ask for, but BOTW, as great as it is, did sacrifice a lot in the name of exploration and making a return to freedom to adventure anywhere in the overworld as seen in games like TLoZ (NES) and AoL: Zelda II (NES)

After games like The Legend of Zelda: OOT and The Legend of Zelda: MM, fans are still waiting for the day Nintendo delivers another masterpiece I think. BOTW is no masterpiece, but it is an outstanding entry that revived the series in a lot of ways IMO

 

[Guardian's Light]

The franchise was stuck in a rut of trying to iterate on the same Ocarina of Time formula: use namesake object to puzzle solve in the world and revisit the same themes with a fresh coat of paint. Oh, and a rotating list of the same old Zelda tools too. Here you go.

Breath of the Wild took it back to its roots: a freeform adventure where you can be as thorough or as minimalistic as you wish, with all of the necessary puzzle-solving tools given to you within the first few hours. It is the best 3d Zelda title in my opinion.

100% agree, the only thing that isn't ok with the game, is that there are too many aspects that make the game too machinous

Too easy to break weapons, almost impossible to climb when it's raining, that fucking stamina meter, a terrible controlling horse make frustrating an otherwise great game, risible enemy variety, repetitive shrines mechanic and no dungeons

Without all of these features and some other thing, or at least without the wannabe realism, would have been a 20/10 game, but as of now I think is a little overestimated