*** Zelda: Breath of the Wild ***

[megalomanic]

I've been savouring it, taken it slow but have played a lot. Playing completely blind as I want to experience everything for myself first hand. For a game like this, just reading about tips and general content is a spoiler for me.

I finished the story last weekend. My stashes are all fully expanded (~440 seeds found), but I've still got some Shrines to find (have full stamina, but still 4 hearts short), 7 quests left to locate and complete, armor to upgrade, compendium to finish.

I'm actually a big fan of the Witcher 3, I can accept it has it's mechanical flaws, but immensely enjoyed the characterisation and writing. The plot was perhaps nothing special but the game was very well moulded around it's storytelling; I enjoyed helping people with their problems not knowing what outcome it would bring or if I could even trust them, the personalities were so highly varied and believable to me.
Usually I'm not a fan of realistic visuals in video games, it's always that weird 'uncanny valley' feeling that completely puts me off, but even with all it's mechanical jank the Witcher 3 was one of few narrative driven games to ever truly immerse me.

Zelda BotW is a very different beast, exploration (something that the Witcher 3 didn't do too well) is the focus which everything is built around, and I can't think of a game that does it better. The world is just so well designed to accommodate that drive and feeling of adventure.
I don't want to read back through this thread just yet for your opinions as I still want to avoid content spoilers/secrets/tips while I finish up playing, but I wasn't especially disappointed by any particular aspect of the game myself.
I would have liked more challenge from the core loop, it got a bit too easy too quickly and I wish there were more challenging puzzles too. Creative thinking is rewarded which is really satisfying, but I'd have liked a little more problem solving in there. There are some great Shrines, but also a handful or dull or repeated (i.e. combat) ones.
Quests generally fun and quite varied, some of the Shrine quests where especially good.
A couple of niggling issues with the combat but it's really fun and feels solid. Again it got a bit too easy too quickly (Bombs were too powerful early on!), rewarding creativity again but at the expense of mechanical or problem solving challenge, perhaps a necessary evil in part - again it comes back to 'exploration' being the focus here.
I actually really liked what they did with the story. I feel it was a clever approach as to not have the narrative conflict with the exploration aspect of the game too much and instead compliment it - finding the memories was exciting for me and directly rewarded exploration. I felt the actual plot was a nice change as was the narrative being even more focused on Zelda this time around. I feel it was a little light on interesting characters (or the development of the good ones) and the sense of urgency was a bit lacking in the 'present time', perhaps Ganon should have gotten stronger in some way as you explored more and got stronger yourself. Regardless, this is an issue many open world games face and it's not an easy thing to tackle, especially given BotW is so exploration focused and so vast. Also the lore that's there is great, but there wasn't quite enough of it I felt.

It's easy to point out things that could be improved, but that's also exciting due to how large and ambitious the game is in the first place knowing the potential is there to go even further. I think it's easy to take for granted what the game does well and the compromises that were made to make it all work and feel connected. I feel BotW opens up new potential for the genre and I think many open world games will take inspiration from it in the coming years. There's a reason this game is lighting up game design communities right now.

If I had to score it I guess I'd put it at around a 93 or 94/100. It's definitely among my favourite few Zelda games personally too, perhaps only second to OOT even.

I'm happy to hear that the next Zelda game will also be an "open air adventure", hopefully means we don't have to wait another 5 years lol. Looking forward to the DLC later this year though!.

 

[Yaayuh!]

I think i prefer BotW to Ocarina of Time......

It's simply brilliant. Game of the year for me.

 

[Syph]

I love OoT, but I think that's because I was about 14 when it came out and I look back on it very fondly - the drama, the graphics, the atmosphere, the story and especially the music. However, I don't find myself drawn to replay it ever because it's of its time, not even just graphically. I've loved each subsequent game more, with perhaps the exception of Wind Waker (which I loved at the time, but I would rate lower now). My only real criticism of BotW is the lack of some of the dungeons and temples, otherwise I think it's absolutely fantastic. Technically, it's brilliant.

 

[megalomanic]

Yeah, probably because I've spent so much time playing BotW it's easier to be critical and nitpick right now, with more time to reflect on the experience I think it'll begin to rank higher for me.

OOT is probably the most grounded/'complete' game I've played, but I was more engaged by BotW overall.

I finally found the last Shrine last night (which I didn't realise was the last one until I'd done it) after several hours exploring. I had taken 20 mins to mark many points of interest on my map to check out and eventually came across it. Felt good when the planning paid off

 

[Hiijinx]

I love open-world games like the Elder Scrolls etc but have never played a Zelda game in my life so lack any sort of nostalgia - recon will someone like me enjoy this game?

 

[Plainsong]

Definitely.

 

[ricky1981]

There's plenty of fan service but it's a stunning game even if you've never played Zelda before.

 

[Skidder]

I love open-world games like the Elder Scrolls etc but have never played a Zelda game in my life so lack any sort of nostalgia - recon will someone like me enjoy this game?

I've never played zelda other than perhaps an hour on N64. Total convert it's ace.

 

[Amatsubu]

This game is amazing, it's the first title I've ever played that has truly nailed the sense of scale of its world. The artstyle is beautiful and the fact that you can go anywhere greatly adds to the immersion. The mountains aren't just a background and you really feel like you're covering significant distances. The amount of detail is staggering: the physics, temperatures, means of, traversal, puzzles, weather etc. The world doesn't feel static.

It really might just be the pinnacle of open world games. And it's so much fun to play, something that many games with "mature" stories and average everything else completely lack (with a couple of notable exceptions).

 

[Kreeeee]

There's plenty of fan service but it's a stunning game even if you've never played Zelda before.

I'd say this is the most standalone Zelda since the first one, partly because there is pretty much no story.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I wouldn't say there's no story as such but there certainly isn't much that developed over the course of the game because everything you see happened in the past so the story in minute 1 is the story 100hrs in, just depends on how much of the memory you unveil.

Then again, Zelda's story are pretty basic as always, like the story in Mario are fairly simple. I see Zelda's main strength is the game play. As opposed to the Witcher which has great cinematics and story but the combat is average.

 

[Amatsubu]

I'm playing BotW and replaying Witcher 3 at the same time and I have the same impression I had when I first played it: the story is not even that good considering it's supposed to be the main selling point of the game. It's pretty shallow and disjointed with lots of padded out segments. The game has nice encounters and some clever dialogues/consequences but that doesn't equal a great story. I'm still somewhat enjoying it but I doubt I'll be able to finish it again.

Zelda's plot is very rudimentary but it's not the focus of the game, it just moves the gameplay and exploration along, and those aspects are a lot stronger than Witcher's.

 

[Kreeeee]

Sorry but there is no way you can argue there's a story here at all

It's also not needed.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Sorry but there is no way you can argue there's a story here at all

It's also not needed.

Of course I can. There is a story, the story of a failed hero lost memory and now 100 years later to redeem himself.

No story is no name person fight no name enemy with nothing in between. From a traditional point of view it is thin plot on the groun but as I stated before, Zelda is never thick on plot, it's not mass effect or Witcher series, that's never what Zelda is.

It's just not the forced route that other games it takes you, the point is that you make your own story in this game, it's open adventure to its fullest.

 

[Kreeeee]

Er... Ok then.

 

[Minstadave]

Even as a long term Zelda fan the story in BoTW is just terrible. Feels like after making a great engine and world to explore they went "crap, we need some generic zelda filler to flesh this out.....mmmm slept for a bit, lost your memory, got to go get the bad guy - that'll do fine!"

The lack of dungeons is a real low if I'm honest. The DBs are really underwhelming, they should be a real high point but they're not. The shrines are pretty tedious after a while. The villages are boring and feel cut and pasted and the side quests are no better.

Still enjoyed the game, don't get me wrong, but it's got plenty of flaws.

 

[Nitefly]

Sorry but there is no way you can argue there's a story here at all

It's also not needed.

It does HAVE a story, it's just rather underwhelming compared to the rest of the game, with hindsight. I was fairly intrigued to see where it was all going.

Spoiler

It's unfair to say it's 'wake-up and get some beasties' when for the first three or so hours you had only met the king and were off to find impa - it wasn't immediately obvious what you would go on and do... not what would happen at the lighthouse etc

Anyway, I think the ending confirmed the 'overarching story' was dissapointingly shallow, so I would agree with comments to that effect, but there was quite a lot of 'lore' they fleshed out for the purposes of the world, which is part of the 'story' I suppose.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Zelda's stories are never great to begin with, plus it would be impossible to really intertwine a story into an open world game as open as this. Let's imagine there is a great story, an amazing one, but then you can also go straight into the boss fight in the first hour of game play. The "story" would make no sense.

Or if you do go visit all the story part around the map, because you can do it in any order, it won't unfold like your typical story do, so now you have to think of a story that can unfold in any order to the player, and a story that can be as flexible as if it doesn't get revealed at all and still let the player play the game because if you have to make these certain check points to unfold different part of the story, the game won't be as open as this.

Something has to give, besides, I like the gameplay, i think we agree the game play is fantastic. I am fine not having a story like Mass Effect, if you give me a choice of which one I rather have, i'd have the game play over great story. Sure it's good to have both but we got just 1, and it's my preferred one.

 

[Kreeeee]

Majora's mask had a very nice main story and loads of side stories along with it.

 

[megalomanic]

The lack of dungeons is a real low if I'm honest. The DBs are really underwhelming, they should be a real high point but they're not. The shrines are pretty tedious after a while. The villages are boring and feel cut and pasted and the side quests are no better.

I feel they made the right choice to do away with traditional Zelda dungeons for this game and scatter puzzles across the world instead (the Shrines). Aside from the repeats, my only real problem with the Shrines was they were not quite challenging enough generally. There is variety, and plenty of clever and interesting ideas, but I didn't often enough have to stop and think about what I was doing.

The DB's were a high point for me personally. The concept was cool and operating parts of them to solve the puzzles was satisfying, loved the 'grand' feeling of being inside them too. I do wish they were a little more complex/challenging (not necessarily bigger), especially the Goron and Rito one. The bosses were certainly a little underwhelming for me though.

I'll have to completely and respectfully disagree with you on villages, BotW's villages are easily my favourite of any Zelda game. All of them felt very unique and natural to me, and the thing with Tarrey was cool.