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BotW will go down as one of the greatest games of all time and there are so many lesons in that. You will find plenty of people who say it's too easy. And it is

by jmyeet 2y ago

BotW will go down as one of the greatest games of all time and there are so many lesons in that. You will find plenty of people who say it's too easy. And it is easy. But that's one lesson: players generally don't want "hard". A lot of people just want to chill out in video games. What makes BotW is so memorable is how it makes you feell. And a big part of that is the world. Even just standing in a grassy plain with the wind blowing the long grasses has a better sense of being alone (while still being wondrous) that I can think of pretty much any game. I'm not a Japanophile by any stretch. Kinda the opposite, actually. Dig beneath the surface and there are a lot of problematic things in Japan and Japanese culture. Anyway, I have no issue with what inspiration the designers used or what they were mimicking. That's kind of irrelevant because you can do that well or badly. I don't think the world is so great because of Japanese archeology or even in spite of it. It is interesting to see their inspiration but for anyone in the gaming space, just remember that what makes a lasting game is the emotional connection.

floundy 2y ago
BOTW (and most Switch-era Nintendo titles with high marks) will go down as some of the most overrated games of all time. You'd think Nintendo fans have never played an open world game prior to BOTW with how they crow about it.
- lubujackson 2y ago
  Not sure where all the rating hate is coming from, but Nintendo always gets high marks from the amount of polish in the gameplay and design. The biggest thing BOTW accomplished was taking the "you can go anywhere, basically" approach from the original NES Zelda and translated that to an open world game far better than any game previously. Most open world games gate players hard with obvious gated entry to areas. BOTW integrated natural progression in a much more thematic way. The destructable/interactable environment was also a big innovation that only a few other games had attempted at the time. You can argue the shrines were repetitive or the fighting too easy but that is complaining that the game isn't what you want it to be and not looking at it for what it is and who it is for.
- mjamesaustin 2y ago
  Your impression of BOTW doesn't line up at all with how it has been received by both fans and critics. One of the things I love about BOTW is that the world is very intentional and uses altitude as a significant and important feature. Compare this to so many other open world games where "content" is strewn about everywhere and your choices as a player are meaningless because you'll find the same bland crap whichever way you run.
  - floundy 2y ago
    I don't care, I don't need my opinions to match the majority. The bias of critics is obvious and has been analyzed to death, and the bias of fans is equally obvious. Very few people who aren't already Nintendo fans would bother to spend money on a Switch.
    - jmyeet 2y ago
      Speak for youself. I didn't grow up playing Nintendo games. I didn't even know anybody growing up with a Nintendo. I think the first (and only, prior to the Switch) Nintendo experience was buying a Gameboy Advance to play Mario Kart (briefly). I bought a Switch solely to play Breath of the Wild. I regret nothing. You seem to rail against "majority think". I've encountered this many times. There are a lot of people who take the contrarian view basically because it's the contrarian view. That's actually worse than the alleged "majority think" because these people think their contrarianism is somehow virtuous. There was really no reason for you to reply to my comment. It added nothing. All you really said was "I don't like BotW" and "I don't like Nintendo". Ok, that's fine. But you couched it in language like "overrated", like that's some objective standard. It's just your opinion. You may want to examine why you're so hostile and quick to present your opinion as fact. For your sake.
      - floundy 2y ago
        [flagged]
- ranger207 2y ago
  IDK, I thought BOTW's implementation of an open world was far better than, for example, Skyrim's
jgon 2y ago
I thought that this video essay was a pretty eye opening take on what I had been struggling to articulate about BOTW: https://youtu.be/RNCCKABmHO8?si=fFX6z_ZnCSBDNpio https://youtu.be/RNCCKABmHO8?si=fFX6z_ZnCSBDNpio Basically, BOTW is "poetry" because it is heavily vibes based, at a time when a lot of games are "story" based. My most memorable moments of BOTW are exactly what you described, standing on plateau watching the sunset, walking towards hyrule castle in the rain, finally ready to face Ganon and the zelda theme starts to play, etc, etc. Not specific story reveals but the moment to moment feelings that originate organically from the world and the unscripted interactions and events occurring within it.
- marknutter 2y ago
  I remember being brought to tears standing on a hillside in TOTK looking at a double rainbow across the valley as rain came down while the sun was shining. Despite its dated graphics, it somehow manages to feel more immersive than even the most impressive current gen titles out there.
- Izkata 2y ago
  I don't really get the quiet moments people seem to comment on the most, but I do have some memorable adventuring moments - like the first time I paraglided across the chasm in the upper left of the map, I turned the camera around to see how far I dropped and there was a GIANT DRAGON (Dinraal) right behind me. I'd seen Farosh in the distance without knowing what it was, but that jump scare was the first one I'd seen close up and didn't yet know they don't attack you.
- wodenokoto 2y ago
  My 2 cents: TOTK perfected the exploration part of BoTW and completely failed on the story part. So many times during TOTK I was thinking to myself "Are you still talking?" and the main quests are extremely clunky. I think its in Lanayru Region main quest where you are just acting like a walkie talkie walking back and forth between two people. But then you have the quest for the tears and memories. You end up in a temple with an old stone map, that you can take a picture of, and then match the roughly outlined map with your own to figure out where to go and explore next. That is so much more fun than following a red dot and an arrow on a map like every other game! Exploring the depth was also a lot of fun, although I felt it was too big to explore completely. But I've read that many things in BoTW and ToTK is not meant to be 100%ed, which is also a design attitude that goes against hardcore players.
marknutter 2y ago
The feeling I got when entering each of the unique towns in BOTW are memories I will cherish until I die. They nailed the art direction, music, and soundfx so damn well in that game it's an artistic masterpiece in my opinion.

by jmyeet 2y ago

floundy 2y ago

BOTW (and most Switch-era Nintendo titles with high marks) will go down as some of the most overrated games of all time. You'd think Nintendo fans have never played an open world game prior to BOTW with how they crow about it.

lubujackson 2y ago
Not sure where all the rating hate is coming from, but Nintendo always gets high marks from the amount of polish in the gameplay and design. The biggest thing BOTW accomplished was taking the "you can go anywhere, basically" approach from the original NES Zelda and translated that to an open world game far better than any game previously. Most open world games gate players hard with obvious gated entry to areas. BOTW integrated natural progression in a much more thematic way. The destructable/interactable environment was also a big innovation that only a few other games had attempted at the time. You can argue the shrines were repetitive or the fighting too easy but that is complaining that the game isn't what you want it to be and not looking at it for what it is and who it is for.
mjamesaustin 2y ago
Your impression of BOTW doesn't line up at all with how it has been received by both fans and critics. One of the things I love about BOTW is that the world is very intentional and uses altitude as a significant and important feature. Compare this to so many other open world games where "content" is strewn about everywhere and your choices as a player are meaningless because you'll find the same bland crap whichever way you run.
- floundy 2y ago
  I don't care, I don't need my opinions to match the majority. The bias of critics is obvious and has been analyzed to death, and the bias of fans is equally obvious. Very few people who aren't already Nintendo fans would bother to spend money on a Switch.
  - jmyeet 2y ago
    Speak for youself. I didn't grow up playing Nintendo games. I didn't even know anybody growing up with a Nintendo. I think the first (and only, prior to the Switch) Nintendo experience was buying a Gameboy Advance to play Mario Kart (briefly). I bought a Switch solely to play Breath of the Wild. I regret nothing. You seem to rail against "majority think". I've encountered this many times. There are a lot of people who take the contrarian view basically because it's the contrarian view. That's actually worse than the alleged "majority think" because these people think their contrarianism is somehow virtuous. There was really no reason for you to reply to my comment. It added nothing. All you really said was "I don't like BotW" and "I don't like Nintendo". Ok, that's fine. But you couched it in language like "overrated", like that's some objective standard. It's just your opinion. You may want to examine why you're so hostile and quick to present your opinion as fact. For your sake.
    - floundy 2y ago
      [flagged]
ranger207 2y ago
IDK, I thought BOTW's implementation of an open world was far better than, for example, Skyrim's

jgon 2y ago

I thought that this video essay was a pretty eye opening take on what I had been struggling to articulate about BOTW: https://youtu.be/RNCCKABmHO8?si=fFX6z_ZnCSBDNpio https://youtu.be/RNCCKABmHO8?si=fFX6z_ZnCSBDNpio Basically, BOTW is "poetry" because it is heavily vibes based, at a time when a lot of games are "story" based. My most memorable moments of BOTW are exactly what you described, standing on plateau watching the sunset, walking towards hyrule castle in the rain, finally ready to face Ganon and the zelda theme starts to play, etc, etc. Not specific story reveals but the moment to moment feelings that originate organically from the world and the unscripted interactions and events occurring within it.

marknutter 2y ago
I remember being brought to tears standing on a hillside in TOTK looking at a double rainbow across the valley as rain came down while the sun was shining. Despite its dated graphics, it somehow manages to feel more immersive than even the most impressive current gen titles out there.
Izkata 2y ago
I don't really get the quiet moments people seem to comment on the most, but I do have some memorable adventuring moments - like the first time I paraglided across the chasm in the upper left of the map, I turned the camera around to see how far I dropped and there was a GIANT DRAGON (Dinraal) right behind me. I'd seen Farosh in the distance without knowing what it was, but that jump scare was the first one I'd seen close up and didn't yet know they don't attack you.
wodenokoto 2y ago
My 2 cents: TOTK perfected the exploration part of BoTW and completely failed on the story part. So many times during TOTK I was thinking to myself "Are you still talking?" and the main quests are extremely clunky. I think its in Lanayru Region main quest where you are just acting like a walkie talkie walking back and forth between two people. But then you have the quest for the tears and memories. You end up in a temple with an old stone map, that you can take a picture of, and then match the roughly outlined map with your own to figure out where to go and explore next. That is so much more fun than following a red dot and an arrow on a map like every other game! Exploring the depth was also a lot of fun, although I felt it was too big to explore completely. But I've read that many things in BoTW and ToTK is not meant to be 100%ed, which is also a design attitude that goes against hardcore players.

marknutter 2y ago

The feeling I got when entering each of the unique towns in BOTW are memories I will cherish until I die. They nailed the art direction, music, and soundfx so damn well in that game it's an artistic masterpiece in my opinion.