Zelda BOTW - Am I missing something?

I thought it was absolutely brilliant. All of my favourite games seem to involve an element of non-linear exploration. I found the game far more challenging than any of the previous Zelda games and the world was very rich. It wasn’t just a bunch of trees in the distances, there was ALWAYS something there. My only real criticisms are:

- Only four dungeons and only two that were really good (camel / elephant).

- Very underwhelming finish / ‘good ending’.

Massively overwhelmed by the positives though.

Gripes for my play through:

The parry mechanic is almost never explained and yet it’s key for beating some enemies no sweat (like the lynels). I didn’t use it at all, because I forgot about it. Some people seem to have known all about it the whole way through so I guess I just missed something.

Korok upgrade man is a bit too hidden. He was pretty much in the last dozen squares of the game that I hadn’t explored! I guess I was just a bit unfortunate.

Similarly, the guy that helps you find the photograph spots.... if you miss speaking to ONE GUY in a village you are stuffed! Admittedly, he is there is a ‘talk to me’ manner but I ran passed him as I couldn’t be arsed.... I was tearing my hair out and then it appeared there is a simple way of sorting the photograph hunt!

I wished the shrines had a bit of aesthetic variety.

There was a build a village thing?! What?!
 
Nope I'm with you OP, I put 25 hours into it and I just couldn't get on with it thought it was massively overrated. It's not a bad game but I would struggle to say I enjoyed those hours.
 
I really like the game but I have to agree with others in that I really dislike the weapon breaking system. I think its how quickly it happens which annoys me the most, you can literally sometimes swing a club twice and it breaks...... If it was 20 to 30 I wouldn't mind but if you pick up a cool looking weapon you want to enjoy using the thing!!!
 
The weapon breaking mechanic is poor, definitely. I'd like to see it return for the sequel, but with a tweak. Split weapons in to two categories; "Common" and "Speacial". Common weapons have durability ratings based on the material they're made from. But they break, as per the first game. Special weapons don't break, but are damaged instead, and need to be repaired. This way, you still have to scavenge for weapons. But there's no concerns about wasting that amazing weapon you just got for completing that dungeon.

I'd also like to see voice acting. And more engaging stories. If they want to stick with the same "Save the Princess, Save the World" formula they've used for most LoZ games, fair enough. But can we at least have some more engaging side quests and sub plots? From a narrative point of view, BOTW was very dull.

But I loved the game world. I found it very intuitive. It rewards curiosity and a willingness to try new things. I can understand the grumbles here though; maybe an "Advisor Mode" would help?

A comfortable 8/10 for me. My favourite LoZ to date.
 
Same as you OP, tried many many times waiting for the moment something clicked and it never happened. I think the major gripe was just that despite being a vast open world it just felt lifeless and well, not that interesting. There were a few cool places I came across but it was too far and inbetween. I didn't really like the muted colours and it felt a bit sluggish.
I actually enjoyed it way more when I played it on PC with 60fps and a different colour filter, it actually felt more alive jsut from how it looked.
 
I enjoyed my time with it. Did all four beasts, and most of the other content. Got up to the castle. And didn’t bother to finish it. Just felt like I got my money’s worth up to that point. :)
 
I can sympathise. I didn't "get it" immediately either. In fact I stopped playing it for a while. Then persevered and it became one of my most memorable gaming experiences in a long time. From a nostalgic perspective, nothing will ever capture the feeling when playing Ocarina of Time for the first time in my youth but as a responsible father of 3 now, I have fond memories of squeezing in a couple of hours every night whilst everyone was asleep upstairs :cool:
Since finishing the story and getting a chunk of shrines, I just naturally stopped playing it. I don't ever plan to go back to it. I never went back to Ocarina of time. Some memories need preserved as they are and BOTW has a special place in my memory.
 
Nitefly said:
I thought it was absolutely brilliant. All of my favourite games seem to involve an element of non-linear exploration. I found the game far more challenging than any of the previous Zelda games and the world was very rich. It wasn’t just a bunch of trees in the distances, there was ALWAYS something there. My only real criticisms are:
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My problem was that it was just trees in the distance. The only exploration I really enjoyed were the island challenge and the maze in the tundra because they were either unique or offered lasting rewards. Finding a shrine lost its appeal very quickly and finding a new weapon you know will inevitably break 3 minutes after using it isn't rewarding.
 
Kreeeee said:
It’s not just you.

It falls flat in a lot of areas that Zelda typically does well in (dungeons, music, memorable characters, weapon progression) so if you’re a fan of Zelda you might not like this version.
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I've completed Link to the Past about 10 times now, and had several runs of Ocarina of Time. This is the only game that's made me consider buying a Switch. Hrm, worrying.
 
Narj said:
I've completed Link to the Past about 10 times now, and had several runs of Ocarina of Time. This is the only game that's made me consider buying a Switch. Hrm, worrying.
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It’s one of my favorite games of this generation, it’s just a very poor Zelda game.
 
The story in BOTW is to make your own story, the game can be finished in about 30mins if you want to. There is nothing to stop you to go straight to the final dungeon actually. The game isn't a point to point story beat, the story is made by the player, the fun is play it when everyone else was and the conversation about "I was just walking here and saw this giant!" etc. You make your own story.

Or you can skip everything.
 
Raymond Lin said:
The story in BOTW is to make your own story, the game can be finished in about 30mins if you want to. There is nothing to stop you to go straight to the final dungeon actually. The game isn't a point to point story beat, the story is made by the player, the fun is play it when everyone else was and the conversation about "I was just walking here and saw this giant!" etc. You make your own story.

Or you can skip everything.
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Exactly this
 
I didn't get on with the game the first time around, like you I hated the breakable weapon mechanics, that really put me off.

But I stumbled on an article about how they approached the game differently, before I would try and fight every enemy, thus leading to broken weapons, but with a new approach of only fighting when absolutely necessary, changed the game for me.

It became a game of discovery, which the world imo was made for.

I went from really disliking the game, to thoroughly enjoying it by just changing my plays style, it might work for you?
 
ralv585 said:
I didn't get on with the game the first time around, like you I hated the breakable weapon mechanics, that really put me off.

But I stumbled on an article about how they approached the game differently, before I would try and fight every enemy, thus leading to broken weapons, but with a new approach of only fighting when absolutely necessary, changed the game for me.

It became a game of discovery, which the world imo was made for.

I went from really disliking the game, to thoroughly enjoying it by just changing my plays style, it might work for you?
Click to expand...

Yes I might give this a try, thanks. I do enjoy the combat it's just a shame there seems little variety in enemies and then your new favourite weapon breaks forcing you to use a rake or club or something.
 
Oh and arrows are your friend, get as many arrows as you can possibly afford!

Also, play with the bombs and other powers you have, you don't always have to use traditional weapons.

I tried to think of the way Link might have thought, waking up with no memory, I doubt you would try and go out and kill everything!
 
It's funny, I'm usually very anti open world games. I get bored and lose interest fast and would much rather play something linear and story-heavy. But BOTW and Death Stranding, which are both polarising, grabbed me and I loved them.

For me, I think the reason I liked them so much was that the world wasn't just there to get through, to reach a town or city or whatever on the other side. The world of BOTW is the game. Exploring it, finding new things, discovering shrines, etc is a game in itself. I rarely wanted to fast travel playing BOTW (I can't even remember if it was an option?), whereas in most open world games I fast travel as much as possible.

Many people's complaints seem to be about combat / weapons, but I've got tired of combat heavy games and prefer ones where combat is less of a focus. As someone suggested above, I mostly ran around or past enemies where there was no need to fight, so I never had that frustration. And then, where there was a Bokoblin camp I wanted to take out, they were a lot of fun to strategise and work out how best to pick them off.
 
There's nothing to really get. It's an overhyped game because a lot of Nintendo fanboys dominate the conversations at many outlets, that in turn drives the conversation online towards that particular opinion of the game and then the majority repeat and reinforce the message because they don't want to appear like they don't "get it" + they're sheep + they don't want to incur the rage of the rabid fanbase either (you can see these 'gangs' for rockstar, sony, cdpr etc as well; outlets are also afraid of these groups).

It's an okay game with a sandboxy gimmick held further back by a weak platform. Don't get me wrong I understand why some people really enjoy it but its status is way oversold as this 10/10 GOTY GOTG GOAT GOMG game which it just isn't.
 
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