6 ms·

Zelda Breath of the Wild exceeded my expectations completely. I played it years after it came out and was gobsmacked by how good it was. A strange mixture of p

Zelda Breath of the Wild exceeded my expectations completely. I played it years after it came out and was gobsmacked by how good it was. A strange mixture of pleasant, mildly challenging, big and awe inspiring world.

ArtWomb 6y ago
Nintendo Direct streams constitute a master class in building hype ;)
- majewsky 6y ago
  It was really sad to see the absence of Nintendo Directs this year. One can only hope they're saving up some big announcements for 2021.
city41 6y ago
I've deleted my save on it two times now. Each subsequent play through was about 100 hours and I discovered new stuff each time. Truly one of the greatest games ever made.
lisardo 6y ago
This one. Zelda Breath of the Wild has the best meta review ever given to game. It's worth buying a Nintendo switch for this game alone.
bluejellybean 6y ago
I picked up a switch exclusively for this game, I only just got off the first little island, so far it's very much living upto the hype. I'll find myself slow walking the area and just exploring more than anything else. Considering all of the games one could play during a pandemic, this was a perfect fit for me.
- beegtone 6y ago
  Same, but a couple of years ago to pass time after a pretty harsh dirt bike accident. My adult gamer daughter thought it was hilarious when I'd get excited about milestones like pulling the master sword.
benrbray 6y ago
Ok, I guess I'll bite. To me, BotW feels more like a game engine and less like a game. My biggest issues: > Content sparsity. Like many open world games, most of Hyrule just feels dead to me. Towns aren't as populated and lively as OoT / WW / MM, the main reason being that there aren't as many overlapping storylines that have you return to the same location as you progress through the game. The game basically encourages you to clear a region and never return. The random encounters are repetitive. > The shrines, what the heck were they thinking?! It feels like Nintendo hired a bunch of interns that year and needed to give them something to do. All the shrines were clearly made in a generic level editor. Felt really out of place to me. > Most of the music in BoTW is quiet and subdued, unlike previous entries in the series. This is good for setting a certain tone, but it's less effective unless there's some flashier music to contrast with. To me, the lack of music made the game feel even emptier. > Shallow combat mechanics, even compared to other entries in the series like OoT. Just mash buttons until enemy dead. Armor / weapons don't really matter beyond the stat boosts and occasionally some elemental matching. Guardians / Lynels require some strategy, but once you figure out the tricks it's not hard to brute force those too. I had fun playing, for sure. It just doesn't rank very highly on my list. I'm looking forward to BotW 2, where hopefully they'll use their game engine to make a great game!
- mattnewton 6y ago
  I had the opposite experience running around though, it felt very satisfying to just go "what's that over there" and run into totally skippable content like dragons, simple korok seed puzles, tracking down shooting stars landing in enemy territory, finding and riding the lord of the mountain, watching enemy bokoblins try to hunt a wild boar, solving the puzzle of how to get a shrine to appear, snowboarding, landing on a far away island and taking down the slumbering cyclops that rules it, goron golfing with giant rocks, etc etc. It's like a big yard where you can go anywhere and there is something delightful tucked in everywhere. I think the sparsity of people is deliberate, it's post apocalyptic where most travelers you encounter are probably assassins from an enemy cult. In general I felt like it was the result of a very different game approach than something like cyberpunk, where they added small things to the game one by one while making sure they meshed and were polished to a mirror finish.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
I'd agree with that. I first played it on an emulator to see what the fuss was about... for long enough to beat it, the DLC, and all the quests. I kept telling myself I'd buy it and a Switch if only there were a way to transfer my save. Then I got a Switch for Christmas last year (I didn't ask for one, they just sprung it on me), and proceeded to buy and play through the game in its entirety again.

ArtWomb 6y ago

Nintendo Direct streams constitute a master class in building hype ;)

majewsky 6y ago
It was really sad to see the absence of Nintendo Directs this year. One can only hope they're saving up some big announcements for 2021.

city41 6y ago

I've deleted my save on it two times now. Each subsequent play through was about 100 hours and I discovered new stuff each time. Truly one of the greatest games ever made.

lisardo 6y ago

This one. Zelda Breath of the Wild has the best meta review ever given to game. It's worth buying a Nintendo switch for this game alone.

bluejellybean 6y ago

I picked up a switch exclusively for this game, I only just got off the first little island, so far it's very much living upto the hype. I'll find myself slow walking the area and just exploring more than anything else. Considering all of the games one could play during a pandemic, this was a perfect fit for me.

beegtone 6y ago
Same, but a couple of years ago to pass time after a pretty harsh dirt bike accident. My adult gamer daughter thought it was hilarious when I'd get excited about milestones like pulling the master sword.

benrbray 6y ago

Ok, I guess I'll bite. To me, BotW feels more like a game engine and less like a game. My biggest issues: > Content sparsity. Like many open world games, most of Hyrule just feels dead to me. Towns aren't as populated and lively as OoT / WW / MM, the main reason being that there aren't as many overlapping storylines that have you return to the same location as you progress through the game. The game basically encourages you to clear a region and never return. The random encounters are repetitive. > The shrines, what the heck were they thinking?! It feels like Nintendo hired a bunch of interns that year and needed to give them something to do. All the shrines were clearly made in a generic level editor. Felt really out of place to me. > Most of the music in BoTW is quiet and subdued, unlike previous entries in the series. This is good for setting a certain tone, but it's less effective unless there's some flashier music to contrast with. To me, the lack of music made the game feel even emptier. > Shallow combat mechanics, even compared to other entries in the series like OoT. Just mash buttons until enemy dead. Armor / weapons don't really matter beyond the stat boosts and occasionally some elemental matching. Guardians / Lynels require some strategy, but once you figure out the tricks it's not hard to brute force those too. I had fun playing, for sure. It just doesn't rank very highly on my list. I'm looking forward to BotW 2, where hopefully they'll use their game engine to make a great game!

mattnewton 6y ago
I had the opposite experience running around though, it felt very satisfying to just go "what's that over there" and run into totally skippable content like dragons, simple korok seed puzles, tracking down shooting stars landing in enemy territory, finding and riding the lord of the mountain, watching enemy bokoblins try to hunt a wild boar, solving the puzzle of how to get a shrine to appear, snowboarding, landing on a far away island and taking down the slumbering cyclops that rules it, goron golfing with giant rocks, etc etc. It's like a big yard where you can go anywhere and there is something delightful tucked in everywhere. I think the sparsity of people is deliberate, it's post apocalyptic where most travelers you encounter are probably assassins from an enemy cult. In general I felt like it was the result of a very different game approach than something like cyberpunk, where they added small things to the game one by one while making sure they meshed and were polished to a mirror finish.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago

I'd agree with that. I first played it on an emulator to see what the fuss was about... for long enough to beat it, the DLC, and all the quests. I kept telling myself I'd buy it and a Switch if only there were a way to transfer my save. Then I got a Switch for Christmas last year (I didn't ask for one, they just sprung it on me), and proceeded to buy and play through the game in its entirety again.