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[Wvrs]

I have a lot of love for Zelda. OoT was the seminal game of my childhood and I've played almost every entry in the series.

I recently picked up a Switch due to having more free time and finally gave BOTW a spin. I knew going into it that I might have some problems, but pushed through.

The first few hours were fun. The world is beautiful and I liked the freeform nature of the gameplay.

But this barely felt like a Zelda game to me. A lack of dungeons that Shrines and Divine Beasts can't hope to begin to replace and a lack of interesting story and characters.

I feel zero motivation or investment the entire time, got more and more annoyed with the lack of respect for my time this game has (and for reference, I have two playthroughs of TW3 with over 100 hours each) and eventually did the bare minimum of Shrines I needed to get the Master Sword, finished off the Divine Beasts and went into fighting Ganon feeling absolutely nothing. After dealing the final blow I zoned out.

I really hope BOTW2 improves a lot or I guess I'm done with 3D Zelda. For now I'll go play Link's Awakening and try to wash this bad taste out of my mouth.

 

[MagnesG]

I have a lot of love for Zelda. OoT was the seminal game of my childhood and I've played almost every entry in the series.

I recently picked up a Switch due to having more free time and finally gave BOTW a spin. I knew going into it that I might have some problems, but pushed through.

The first few hours were fun. The world is beautiful and I liked the freeform nature of the gameplay.

But this barely felt like a Zelda game to me. A lack of dungeons that Shrines and Divine Beasts can't hope to begin to replace and a lack of interesting story and characters.

I feel zero motivation or investment the entire time, got more and more annoyed with the lack of respect for my time this game has (and for reference, I have two playthroughs of TW3 with over 100 hours each) and eventually did the bare minimum of Shrines I needed to get the Master Sword, finished off the Divine Beasts and went into fighting Ganon feeling absolutely nothing. After dealing the final blow I zoned out.

I really hope BOTW2 improves a lot or I guess I'm done with 3D Zelda. For now I'll go play Link's Awakening and try to wash this bad taste out of my mouth.

Don't bother, you will still be complaining when you "finished" BOTW2.

 

[Tschumi]

I have to say I'm with you. But I haven't played enough to really give an opinion. I think I just preferred the more hand-hold'y, partially linear nature of earlier titles like TWW.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

I agree, one of the most boring "rpg" I ever played. And to think people were debating is Red Dead Redemption 2 or BOTW better lol. I honestly thought people were joking when they started comparing the two.

 

[MarkMe2525]

Couldn't this be put in one of the other 236 "I didn't like BOTW" threads?

 

[ParaSeoul]

What did you think of Ocarina of Time?

 

[Kuranghi]

Its total marmite, I was in fully from when I saw the treehouse footage. I spent like 10 hours on the plateau, the game was like a drug for me, I couldn't wait to get free time to play it again, exploring was the business. I have many issues with the game, but they are all blasted into a fine dust by how much I loved just exploring every nook and cranny.

Maybe this will only make sense to Britsh people but its got that "easter egg hunt in the garden when you were six" feeling about it, seeing an egg in a difficult spot working out how you'd get to it, admittedly chocolate eggs are a slightly better reward than a literal piece of shit.

 

[Wvrs]

What did you think of Ocarina of Time?

I love all the 3D Zeldas, even Skyward Sword. My favourite is Majora's Mask.

If BOTW2 puts in a good storyline, real dungeons and doesn't rely on wasting my time so much, I'll love it. Even BOTW I enjoyed to an extent, just that I was so done with it when I wasn't even halfway through.

I hate completionism, collecting, upgrading etc. so I knew I might not like it going in, but it's still disappointing.

 

[Kuranghi]

What did you think of Ocarina of Time?

No manual jump button and I hate the guy blocking the path to the deku tree, what a sliding cunt, 3/10.

 

[jigglet]

I loved everything about it except the fact that all the major dungeons had an identical aesthetic.

 

[BlackTron]

Yeah pretty much. The game demands too much time investment for what you get out of it.

It's an okay game but a really insultingly bad Zelda. I also was ready for the LA remake after it let me down.

Unfortunately, Zelda is about more than just having a big impressive world to explore and things to find and collect. The controls are also a wacky mess.

 

[DaleinCalgary]

It's pretty boring

 

[Ryu Kaiba]

You needed to make a thread to tell everyone YOU didn't like it as though that's a unique take.
Well thanks mate, this was very important for us to hear.

 

[Rien]

Yeah it wasn’t all that good IMO.

 

[kunonabi]

It's bottom 5 for me of all Zeldas. I at least enjoyed it in the beginning before all the games really become apparent. The side characters are also great even if all the side quests are rubbish.

 

[fart town usa]

It can take a while to really connect with the game.

For me it was around the 40 hour mark, but even then I had put the game down for about 2 months. When I came back to it I wasn't sure if I would stick through it but eventually I became a tank and the game became a shit ton of fun. I really enjoyed it but I totally understand if some people don't like it. It took like 70 hours for me to finish it and I still have like 8 shrines left to do and tons of other side quests.

 

[Aroll]

I love all the 3D Zeldas, even Skyward Sword. My favourite is Majora's Mask.

If BOTW2 puts in a good storyline, real dungeons and doesn't rely on wasting my time so much, I'll love it. Even BOTW I enjoyed to an extent, just that I was so done with it when I wasn't even halfway through.

I hate completionism, collecting, upgrading etc. so I knew I might not like it going in, but it's still disappointing.

While I do respect this, I have to point out that "wasting your time" is complete optional. That's the beauty of BoTW - it can be as time wasting as you want it to be, or not. You can literally go from main objective to main objective without stopping. You can literally jump off the GP and go straight to Calamity Ganon and beat him. Or you can fully explore the world, learn about the history of it's people and individual characters (the ones you claim are boring - it's interesting as every single character in the world has a story and a background that you learn about only if you put in the time. You know, like getting to know a person) and try to do a bunch of side quests.

I think the major thing that's off-putting for many compared to old Zelda games isn't just the lack of big dungeons, it's how the story is told. Because for all the claims that "breath of the wild's story is so weak" - it's actually one of the more in-depth stories in the series. Not to the level of Skyward Sword and it's 5+ hours of cutscenes, but the story has a ton of depth to it. The problem is, unlike prior games, it's not spoon fed to you. You mentioned this before, you said maybe it's the fact it's not linear - and I think that's really affecting your enjoyment of the story - because to fully grasp the story you do have to be willing to explore and read and learn. Unlike prior games, that just forced it upon you. Making every decision you make simply irrelevant. But that's how linear games work. They spoon feed the story to you. Some LOVE that, and there is nothing wrong with that. Not every Zelda game has been that way - but most of the ones people remember fondly have as the ones that were that were basically just the first two zelda games and then botw.

To that degree, BoTW 2 isn't going to do much for you. While I do think the story will be more spoon fed than the first game, because we can't argue LInk lost his memories again, a lot of things are still going to need to be discovered by the player. They sold 25+ million copies of a Zelda game. Unthinkable 5 years ago. 10 mil even felt like a pipe dream for Nintendo. They are not going to abandon the massive audience they just created by going back too far. I don't think dungeons are done - and I do think we will have some better than the divine beasts this time. Still, Nintendo can clearly see that what they were doing stagnated, so now they are doing something new.

for better or worse. For me, it's for the better. As BoTW is what the series could have been, if they kept the openness of the original two games this whole time.

 

[SegaShack]

I agree but Skyward Sword is also trash. Love the other 3D Zeldas though.

The weapon swapping thing was what killed it for me. Felt like an item management simultor.

I love the first Zelda, so don't need a linear game to enjoy it. BOTW wasn't for me.

 

[rob305]

BOTW was a great game but not a real Zelda game. I still had a great time with it but I do prefer a more linear Zelda games with a clear path and story, especially with dungeons and proper items that you need to progress

 

[TintoConCasera]

I really liked it. Only things that were missing imo were actual dungeons/caves to explore, making exploring the world far more rewarding than it is, and a difdiculty curve that made some sense.

 

[AJUMP23]

I think it is one of the greatest games ever made. And while there is not a traditional dungeon with puzzles there are a 100 mini dungeons with puzzles and combat rooms. Only major issue is weapons break too easily. Incredible game.

 

[Wvrs]

While I do respect this, I have to point out that "wasting your time" is complete optional. That's the beauty of BoTW - it can be as time wasting as you want it to be, or not. You can literally go from main objective to main objective without stopping. You can literally jump off the GP and go straight to Calamity Ganon and beat him. Or you can fully explore the world, learn about the history of it's people and individual characters (the ones you claim are boring - it's interesting as every single character in the world has a story and a background that you learn about only if you put in the time. You know, like getting to know a person) and try to do a bunch of side quests.

I think the major thing that's off-putting for many compared to old Zelda games isn't just the lack of big dungeons, it's how the story is told. Because for all the claims that "breath of the wild's story is so weak" - it's actually one of the more in-depth stories in the series. Not to the level of Skyward Sword and it's 5+ hours of cutscenes, but the story has a ton of depth to it. The problem is, unlike prior games, it's not spoon fed to you. You mentioned this before, you said maybe it's the fact it's not linear - and I think that's really affecting your enjoyment of the story - because to fully grasp the story you do have to be willing to explore and read and learn. Unlike prior games, that just forced it upon you. Making every decision you make simply irrelevant. But that's how linear games work. They spoon feed the story to you. Some LOVE that, and there is nothing wrong with that. Not every Zelda game has been that way - but most of the ones people remember fondly have as the ones that were that were basically just the first two zelda games and then botw.

To that degree, BoTW 2 isn't going to do much for you. While I do think the story will be more spoon fed than the first game, because we can't argue LInk lost his memories again, a lot of things are still going to need to be discovered by the player. They sold 25+ million copies of a Zelda game. Unthinkable 5 years ago. 10 mil even felt like a pipe dream for Nintendo. They are not going to abandon the massive audience they just created by going back too far. I don't think dungeons are done - and I do think we will have some better than the divine beasts this time. Still, Nintendo can clearly see that what they were doing stagnated, so now they are doing something new.

for better or worse. For me, it's for the better. As BoTW is what the series could have been, if they kept the openness of the original two games this whole time.

I think you're right to a certain extent but I guess the rewards offered in terms of plot and character were too thinly spread for me, I didn't feel like galloping across an empty field for hours just to unlock a 2 minute cutscene.

I actually ended up watching the memories etc. on YouTube to try and get some extra plot but they weren't satisfying for me and I crave the spoonfed adventure of older games. I prefer linear games over open world nine times out of ten but games like TW3 or Elder Scrolls are still able to hook me in, sadly this wasn't.

My hope is that Nintendo spinoff Zelda into "~of the Wild" into its own series and still give us an OoT-alike once in a while. I do think they could easily blend the two concepts into the greatest Zelda of all time but you're right that from a commercial standpoint, it doesn't make sense to.

 

[V4skunk]

I think it's one of the better Zelda games.
Weapon durability never bothered me because you always are getting better weapons from monsters.

 

[onnextflix5]

Its one of best games of all time, but not a great zelda game, its like open world game with a zelda skin, hope they go back to making zelda games one day.

 

[JimmyF]

I think it's one of the better Zelda games.
Weapon durability never bothered me because you always are getting better weapons from monsters.

I feel the same, it's easy to disarm enemies since you have infinite bombs at your disposal.
Also if you know spots that spawn strong weapons you can mark them and go back to them after a blood moon.

 

[zweifuss]

Is the "I Don't Like Thing - OK' meme still a bannable offense? Want to post it but don't want to get banned.

I loved this game personally, and I didn't realize that it was missing so much from traditional Zelda until I went on message boards and started reading what other people thought about it. It was just such a breath of fresh air to the franchise that it really needed. I just wanted to roam around and explore, and all the shrines were super fun, especially the ones where you had to use gyroscope stuff to move a big ball around. So many good memories from this game. I played it so much that I put off Horizon Zero Dawn for 4 years (until it was free on PSN). I love the design aesthetic too, very cool look for Zelda, I think they finally got it right. Zelda's voice acting was quite terrible though, that is what stood out for me, it sounded like a man pretending to sound like a woman (like the Monty Python sketches). Can't wait for BOTW2!

 

[ripeavocado]

Wind Waker and OOT are vastly superior, it's not a very good Zelda, very overrated.

 

[Aroll]

I think you're right to a certain extent but I guess the rewards offered in terms of plot and character were too thinly spread for me, I didn't feel like galloping across an empty field for hours just to unlock a 2 minute cutscene.

I actually ended up watching the memories etc. on YouTube to try and get some extra plot but they weren't satisfying for me and I crave the spoonfed adventure of older games. I prefer linear games over open world nine times out of ten but games like TW3 or Elder Scrolls are still able to hook me in, sadly this wasn't.

My hope is that Nintendo spinoff Zelda into "~of the Wild" into its own series and still give us an OoT-alike once in a while. I do think they could easily blend the two concepts into the greatest Zelda of all time but you're right that from a commercial standpoint, it doesn't make sense to.

The problem I think is that you (and it's not your fault. Games have trained this into our minds) expected the cut scenes to be "the story". While the cutscenes do fill in some gaps in Link's past - that's all they do. They aren't actually the brux of the story in the game, which is what makes how they did story in this game so different. There is an entire world and history and character development and grander scheme going on, if only you want to discover it. But there is a reason I said it requires reading and sidequests. Because it all adds together to create a very in depth story. Too much emphasis is put on those cutscenes by gamers, but that's not their fault.

The Witcher 3 and Elder Scrolls likely appealed to you because the story is still mostly spoonfed to you. The only one where it wasn't exactly, was the first game where again, the main character didn't have his memory. But notice how barely anyone even talks about the first Witcher game. By the time Witcher 3 happened, who Geralt was is full set in stone, as is the world he's playing in. Much of the story is still told through side quests that you don't even realize are side quests. Same is true in SKyrim. The biggest difference here is that from the word go, a very heavy story event happens and keeps unfolding in the opening hours. Unlike BoTw, where you just are told to wake up. Then you have no idea what the hell is going on. Which is basically how the first witcher game started. So each subsequent direct sequel to BoTw is going to have more and more spoon fed story from the get go, assuming Nintendo does another one after BoTW 2.

But anyways, we all enjoy different things and that's the beauty of gaming. While I don't think you should expect a single "3D" Zelda game moving forward for a long while that does what the old games did, just for commercial reasons alone - I don't think top down Zelda games are down and if I had to guess, Nintendo and Grezzo have a new top down Zelda game in the works right now. So, traditional Zelda will live on, just through top down games imho.

 

[Vagswarm]

I wasn't the biggest fan of it either, although I only played through it once. Got up to the desert and just lost interest. Really wasn't expecting the praise to be as high as it was, but it's possible I missed whatever made it great. It wasn't a bad game by any means though. There were a lot of frustrating parts from what I recall.

Will have to play it again some day. Already have a massive backlog.

 

[Spukc]

 

[p_xavier]

The first hour of BotW is OMGWTFBBQ this is the most amazing thing ever than after you leave the first section, you get to feel how empty, repetitive, boring the game is along with horrendous breaking wepons. Twilight Princess HD is my favorite Zelda game with Ocarime of Time 3D as a second. I loathe BotW.

 

[Cutty Flam]

Is the "I Don't Like Thing - OK' meme still a bannable offense? Want to post it but don't want to get banned.

I loved this game personally, and I didn't realize that it was missing so much from traditional Zelda until I went on message boards and started reading what other people thought about it. It was just such a breath of fresh air to the franchise that it really needed. I just wanted to roam around and explore, and all the shrines were super fun, especially the ones where you had to use gyroscope stuff to move a big ball around. So many good memories from this game. I played it so much that I put off Horizon Zero Dawn for 4 years (until it was free on PSN). I love the design aesthetic too, very cool look for Zelda, I think they finally got it right. Zelda's voice acting was quite terrible though, that is what stood out for me, it sounded like a man pretending to sound like a woman (like the Monty Python sketches). Can't wait for BOTW2!

Yeah same I didn’t realize the game’s flaws much until after completing it and many posters here explained why they were disappointed. It’s still an excellent game though. It did revive the franchise and give the fanbase hope for great Zelda games again since TP and SS were kind of lackluster entries in a lot of ways. It even became my third favorite Zelda game

But it does lack that magic Zelda feel in many ways as well. I feel like there is more craft put into secrets in games like OoT, MM, TWW, and even TP compared to BotW. BotW and SS needed more attention to detail in that way by the developers. And of course, Zelda without traditional dungeons was a very bold move. I love the exploration, the freedom, and the four Divine Beasts but they were not the same at all compared to having traditional dungeons like those found in OoT or MM. They add so much to the games when done right that it was almost foolishly bold to even consider leaving them out in return for more exploration. Divine Beasts > SS dungeons though. I’ll take them over SS’s any day. There was a lot of copy and pasting with the Shrines as well, I think they should have offered a bit more there as well even though there are 120 of them. Exploring even just half of Kakariko Village alone in Ocarina of Time, is a much better gaming experience than the Shrines in BotW to me. So they definitely need to reconsider much for the sequel if they want to impress even the biggest of fans

 

[ViolentP]

I'm a LttP man myself.

 

[Scotty W]

So many magic moments in this game.

 

[Arimer]

I agree in some ways and in others don't. My most hated 3d is majora's mask. I thought BOTW was good for what it is but i seriously disliked some of the systems. Weapons breaking being the main one for me. I don't want ot continually have to farm weapons I found it boring and tedious. But some of the other changes were great. I think if they keep iterating on the idea it might be amazing.