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[Dusk Golem]

Disappointed to hear about the voice acting.

Same. (I think, may be completely fine to me.) I just hope a certain princess sounds alright.



It's a completely different thing if you know that basically the entire world has nothing really worth exploring for.

If it means anything, not all the voice acting is terrible, just some of it. Other bits are fine, and some of it I'd say is even great. But it's very uneven. The direction also feels weird in places, which I think is more on Nintendo than on the actors in some cases. Like... You know those Bolded words in Zelda games? The ones that are a different color? I don't know why, but whenever those show up, the actors do really weird delivery on them, and I can't help but think Nintendo had a hand in that since it's pretty consistent and kind of jarring.

Some of the voices are just... Something, though.

Sounds good to me, open space isn't inherently a bad thing.

Trust me, I know what you mean, but I think this is a case where it's a bit more widespread than you might think until you sort of see the game world in a more extended way. It's so hard talking about this without showing it or going into details, but the problem isn't there's some of this, it's that there's maybe a bit too much bareness in places. I think it in the long run may be the game's biggest flaw. The easiest comparison is the Ocean in Wind Waker, but this does have more to do than that, but it's also much much bigger than WW's ocean. Now I actually liked Wind Waker's Ocean, so I'm not saying this as a purely negative thing, just people should expect big open empty spaces, not consistently but there's quite a few pockets of this about. The game is kind of split into a lot of different pockets in its design, IE, this is the mountain, this is the big open space, this is the lush detailed place, etc. Sometimes there's spread points of interest, but there's a lot of footwork to be done in the game for certain.

 

[VanWinkle]

Does the UI scale for the handheld? Watching some of the videos, I was thinking about how the UI elements during gameplay seem like they would be really small on a 6" screen.

 

[arlucool]

Mmm... I usually spot some mounted Bokoblins on those "barren" areas, and that's clearly intentional: You need large, open spaces for horse combat. Some Koroks hide in those places, too. So, like anything in this game, it demands close attention from the player.

 

[Kthulhu]

It's just there's more than you might expect. It's a bit hard to express without seeing it on a larger scale, but there's some tightly detailed pockets were there's a lot to do, and then there's a lot of just large masses of land with sparse details that attract the eye.

It's certainly not a game killer, but it's also definitely noticeable. And I don't doubt some of the big open areas have deeper secrets, but there's a surprising amount of... Well, barreness.

I haven't seen the whole game, but from what I have seen it so far seems like there's a pretty even 50/50 split of areas that are lush full of content and areas with very little to do in except go through. That's hardly an accurate percentage for the whole game since obviously I probably have only seen a small fraction of what the game has to offer, but there's definitely merit to the "barren" comment, I'd say as a comparison the lusher areas have more to do than Twilight Princess for example, but there's nowhere in Twilight Princess that's as big and barren as some of the places in Breath of the Wild.

You're basically going to 100% need a horse or something in this game because there's a loooot of big empty spaces. Like more than you probably think. It's not the biggest problem in the world, but it's definitely noticeable and pretty consistent.

By barren sometimes it's quite literally just long stretches of nothing but fields without trees or monsters or anything. Maybe a rock occasionally. and the thing is there's a lot more areas like I just described than you might think until you see it in motion.

BUT there is a lot to do, yes. Some occasional very interesting landmarks to make your way too, and again some pockets are littered with stuff to do. Which is why it's not the biggest issue. It's not a consistent thing, but it's definitely more abundant than I imagined.

As long as it's not FFXV, MGSV, or Ubisoft levels I'm good. How is it compared to those?

 

[NewGame]

I like large empty spaces to explore though. You can't have 'The breath of the wild' in a backyard. We need to wrangle horses and charge freely across the open plains.

TP had really bad empty spaces because there was nothing of interest in them, in BotW there's bugs and animals to catch, plants to pick, treasure to find, mobs to slay and harvest.

And some other things... That have come up in the spoiler thread that I can't say here. :X

 

[LotusHD]

As long as it's not FFXV, MGSV, or Ubisoft levels I'm good. How is it compared to those?

Speaking of FFXV, one thing I hated about that game was how the weapons and items and what not were all these shiny blue or red lights. You had no real way of knowing if it was worth checking out, and they usually weren't tbh. Certainly helped me appreciate that Zelda actually shows you what you're considering picking up.

 

[Spinifex]

A recent scene from one of the streams sounded great to be honest.

People call serviceable voice acting 'terrible'. I consider the (English dub) voice acting in all recent Ghibli movies as 'serviceable', from what I've heard in the trailers etc, I would consider this game also fits under the serviceable category.

 

[ultracal31]

As long as it's not FFXV, MGSV, or Ubisoft levels I'm good. How is it compared to those?

Seconding this question as I found both FF and MGS world itself lacking

 

[Kthulhu]

Speaking of FFXV, one thing I hated about that game was how the weapons and items and what not were all these shiny blue or red lights. You had no real way of knowing if it was worth checking out, and they usually weren't tbh. Certainly helped me appreciate that Zelda actually shows you what you're considering picking up.

That was a bit irritating, yes.

Seconding this question as I found both FF and MGS world itself lacking

I cut FFXV and MGSV some slack, as MGSV's world was fun during a mission but boring and pointless every other time, while FFXV had a fucked dev cycle so who knows how it could've turned out given a proper one.

Ubisoft knows better though. They have too much experience to keep making crap worlds.

 

[LotusHD]

FFXV had a fucked dev cycle so who knows how it could've turned out given a proper one.

Eh I dunno, outside of neat monster designs, there wasn't much else to do. Sidequests were utterly lacking too. I feel like if they had that time, they'd fix up the story, but not much else. Though I guess those dungeons were mostly cool. Except for the fact that you couldn't freaking save in them.

 

[Marvie_3]

This guy gets it.

Some game worlds are just nice to exist in, and BoTW more than likely has one of those.

The little bit of BOTW I saw being played at Nintendo NY over the weekend made me feel like it's going to be a fun game to explore outside of anything story/side quest related. Friday can't get here soon enough.

 

[NewGame]

If you're getting a digital copy of Breath Of The Wild on the WiiU, you can pre-purchase and pre-load the game onto your system and it will be ready to play at 12:00 midnight.

Simply go to the store page here and scroll down to "Digital Edition". Right now it says 'Coming Soon' but it should change into a pre-purchase option eventually.

Stay hyped.

 

[Neoleo2143]

Seconding this question as I found both FF and MGS world itself lacking

The variety in this game kinda embarrasses both of them. You get map markers in this game but they only point so much, you get lead by some of the best signposting I've ever seen in an open world game more often than not. NPCs actually give you directions. NPCs actually travel around the world and actually talk about their lives. There's a good fast Travel system. It's not really an issue if you've got a horse and those easily come by.

 

[Nickle]

Trust me, I know what you mean, but I think this is a case where it's a bit more widespread than you might think until you sort of see the game world in a more extended way. It's so hard talking about this without showing it or going into details, but the problem isn't there's some of this, it's that there's maybe a bit too much bareness in places. I think it in the long run may be the game's biggest flaw. The easiest comparison is the Ocean in Wind Waker, but this does have more to do than that, but it's also much much bigger than WW's ocean. Now I actually liked Wind Waker's Ocean, so I'm not saying this as a purely negative thing, just people should expect big open empty spaces, not consistently but there's quite a few pockets of this about. The game is kind of split into a lot of different pockets in its design, IE, this is the mountain, this is the big open space, this is the lush detailed place, etc. Sometimes there's spread points of interest, but there's a lot of footwork to be done in the game for certain.

...That still sounds really good to me, I actually like distinct separated areas. One of my favorite things in gaming is the anticipation as you slowly approach a new area from a distance, I don't mind the travel time.

 

[Branduil]

Open space can be good as long as the game isn't only open space, and it certainly doesn't sound like it is. Shadow of the Colossus is more barren than any Zelda game, but I still enjoyed traversing the world because it had a purpose.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Mmm... I usually spot some mounted Bokoblins on those "barren" areas, and that's clearly intentional: You need large, open spaces for horse combat. Some Koroks hide in those places, too. So, like anything in this game, it demands close attention from the player.

Some of the bigger areas have more to do, like enemy look out towers, a point of interest, wildlife, enemies, etc. But there are definitely patches that are just barren.

I like large empty spaces to explore though. You can't have 'The breath of the wild' in a backyard. We need to wrangle horses and charge freely across the open plains.

TP had really bad empty spaces because there was nothing of interest in them, in BotW there's bugs and animals to catch, plants to pick, treasure to find, mobs to slay and harvest.

And some other things... That have come up in the spoiler thread that I can't say here. :X

There's some really interesting stuff, I know the woes of not saying too much. The Overworld I'm not trying to paint as a negative since I think it has a LOT of good in it, I think it might be one of the overall best overworlds the series has had (which is good as a lot of the game is the overworld), but I do think this is definitely one flaw with it which is a bit noticeable. I actually don't mind bareness... To a certain extent. I think Zelda BotW in some places does bareness right and other places does it wrong though.

As long as it's not FFXV, MGSV, or Ubisoft levels I'm good. How is it compared to those?

I think that question won't be best answered by me, I'll see if someone else chimes in on this since I do expect this complaint will pop up some if it's like what I've seen. I should clarify though that it's not like a game ruiner or close to it, it just stands out since the game feels so well designed in some places I think makes it stand out more, as the case would be. Sometimes I think the bareness is done well, but there's other patches where I think it's a bit much and too barren for it's own good.

 

[unrealist]

GTA series is where I feel it's bare (contrary to popular belief?). I am not sure if anyone feels the same, but dumb AI, and not being able to enter most buildings make the world seem really "barren". Everything and every street looks the same.

It's the shooting and driving across large areas that make it good.

 

[ultracal31]

The variety in this game kinda embarrasses both of them. You get map markers in this game but they only point so much, you get lead by some of the best signposting I've ever seen in an open world game more often than not. NPCs actually give you directions. NPCs actually travel around the world and actually talk about their lives. There's a good fast Travel system. It's not really an issue if you've got a horse and those easily come by.

Ah I dig this.

Thanks for the answer

 

[watershed]

I'm gonna reserve judgement on the VA until I play the game myself. What I've heard so far sounds totally acceptable to me, I'd be surprised if there was anything that made me think "ew" or threw me out of the experience.

 

[BronzeWolf]

I played, it's ok

Spoiler

I have not played it

 

[foxuzamaki]

We're so close yet so far

 

[McNum]

I know it's mostly the Wii U version that's out early, but if any of you have played the Switch version, I have a quick controls question. I think I'd prefer to play it in TV Mode with the Joy-cons split, but do you recommend having them split or or use the grip?

I imagine with the Joy-cons in the grip, the motion control assist for aiming works much like aiming in Splatoon on Wii U, but I'm curious how it works with them split up. Which one does it read, or does it read both?

 

[Dusk Golem]

On voice acting, here's all the talk in the spoiler topic from today on the voice acting, censored and cut out all spoilers. This is in chronological order.

The voice acting so far is pretty meh. Straight up bad in some cases.

The writing doesn't seem great, either, at least from the bits I've seen in the stream. But the bad anime-dub voice acting makes it all the worse. Ah well.

Ah okay, my bad. The voice acting...yikes.

Story seems meh-ish.

****'s voice acting sucks, tbh.

Jesus *****'s voice acting is bad

Not as bad as **** ****'s. It's really amateurish voice acting I would expect from a cheap, budget title. I thought Nintendo were all about quality?

they should have left voice acting out of the game honestly

Nah, it's the 21st century - there's no reason for fully-animated and mo-capped cutscenes to play like silent films.

Nintendo should have done VA a long time ago; however, because they didn't, they'll have to get through the growing pains the rest of the industry already dealt with.

Well that's not exactly right because Nintendo has had some really well voice acted games already. It's just hit or miss with them.

I agree they've already done good work (with Xenoblade and Kid Icarus). It's just that the Zelda team is unproven in this respect. That doesn't mean they shouldn't try, even if this attempt isn't the greatest.

I find it really funny and interesting that out of Zelda, Metroid and Kid Icarus, the latter is the one that managed to have consistently great voice acting in a modern game.

Agreed on voices. I'm sad because I don't want it to take away from an otherwise killer game. Sigh...

There's the talk so far.

 

[NewGame]

There's some really interesting stuff, I know the woes of not saying too much. The Overworld I'm not trying to paint as a negative since I think it has a LOT of good in it, I think it might be one of the overall best overworlds the series has had (which is good as a lot of the game is the overworld), but I do think this is definitely one flaw with it which is a bit noticeable. I actually don't mind bareness... To a certain extent. I think Zelda BotW in some places does bareness right and other places does it wrong though.

Remember that people here who think the world is barren have been exposed to the exact same easy mode, simplified opening the game gives you over and over again; so it's no wonder why they say "Eh, looks kinda boring. Everything I've seen looks easy and samy" -That's all they've ever seen! Why should they know about _______ or _____ or the ______ that comes when ________ or the repeating ________??

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

On voice acting, here's all the talk in the spoiler topic from today on the voice acting, censored and cut out all spoilers. This is in chronological order.














There's the talk so far.

We are only getting voice acting from cutscenes though right? Or am I looking at half life dedication of voice acting?

 

[vareon]

Some of the bigger areas have more to do, like enemy look out towers, a point of interest, wildlife, enemies, etc. But there are definitely patches that are just barren.

Can (and would) you say the open world feels natural? Because a world isn't simply one interesting thing after another, it's also the "downtime" between them, so to speak. As long as it didn't detract from the gameplay, I guess.

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

If you're getting a digital copy of Breath Of The Wild on the WiiU, you can pre-purchase and pre-load the game onto your system and it will be ready to play at 12:00 midnight.

Simply go to the store page here and scroll down to "Digital Edition". Right now it says 'Coming Soon' but it should change into a pre-purchase option eventually.

Stay hyped.

Can we dl the mandatory install now if we're playing with disc? Don't have Wii U with me until Friday.

 

[NewGame]

Can we dl the mandatory install now if we're playing with disc? Don't have Wii U with me until Friday.

Don't think it works like that, sorry.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Remember that people here who think the world is barren have been exposed to the exact same easy mode, simplified opening the game gives you over and over again; so it's no wonder why they say "Eh, looks kinda boring. Everything I've seen looks easy and samy" -That's all they've ever seen! Why should they know about _______ or _____ or the ______ that comes when ________ or the repeating ________??

This is true, if anyone is worried about it being overtly samey, they shouldn't be concerned. The game does have a lot of variety in it. I wish I could word what I mean better, there is a legitimate complaint here about the bareness, but the complaint isn't all consuming or anything and I think the game does more than enough to 'make up for it' if someone felt that strongly on the issue. I actually don't as much, I'm mainly talking about it since I can talk about it and people are asking. It's basically just a flaw in a pretty great game, this game as other flaws but I think it'll provide quite the experience for people and is something I think many will enjoy. I look forward to the sort of 'Zelda Cycle' the games have and see how Breath of the Wild fairs in that regard.

We are only getting voice acting from cutscenes though right? Or am I looking at half life dedication of voice acting?

Some scenes are voice acted, some are just grunts. It's kind of inconsistent. Cutscenes are often what's voiced, but not all cutscenes are voiced, and not all voiced scenes are skipable cutscenes. And I would say not all the voice acting is bad, but some of it really notable is.... Something.

Can (and would) you say the open world feels natural? Because a world isn't simply one interesting thing after another, it's also the "downtime" between them, so to speak. As long as it didn't detract from the gameplay, I guess.

Don't worry, as I touched on above the overworld I think in an overall sense is one of the best in the series from my early thoughts and analyzing, the barren complaint is hardly consuming, it's just notable. The world is gorgeous, there's a lot to do in it, just it's a bit spread apart sometimes. I think the world could've done with being a -bit- smaller, but don't worry too much about it being a world worth exploring or not. Something the game gets done well is making an engaging fantasy world, it's one of the game's biggest strengths. Comes together most of the time in design, audio, and yes, things to do.

The barren complaint is hard to talk about with exemplification, when people play the game or see more I think they'll understand more this complaint, but know it's that, a complaint, a flaw, but hardly a game ruiner. I'd honestly say the English Dub is a bigger issue than it.

 

[vareon]

Don't worry, as I touched on above the overworld I think in an overall sense is one of the best in the series from my early thoughts and analyzing, the barren complaint is hardly consuming, it's just notable. The world is gorgeous, there's a lot to do in it, just it's a bit spread apart sometimes. I think the world could've done with being a -bit- smaller, but don't worry too much about it being a world worth exploring or not. Something the game gets done well is making an engaging fantasy world, it's one of the game's biggest strengths. Comes together most of the time in design, audio, and yes, things to do.

The barren complaint is hard to talk about with exemplification, when people play the game or see more I think they'll understand more this complaint, but know it's that, a complaint, a flaw, but hardly a game ruiner. I'd honestly say the English Dub is a bigger issue than it.

Many thanks!

 

[ultracal31]

I'd honestly say the English Dub is a bigger issue than it.

I think I can handle that, god knows I gave MGSV a pass despite its many shortcomings

 

[KingBroly]

The number of Nintendo games with voice acting can probably be counted on 1 hand. Not including narrations (Kirby's Epic Yarn, Smash, etc.) mind you.

Let's see...
- Kid Icarus Uprising
- Mario Sunshine
- Breath of the Wild
- Xenoblade Chronicles
- Xenoblade Chronicles X

So...5 games. And they peaked at XC so far. No other Nintendo game has had voice acting. Ever. We should just close the book on this topic and never re-open it again because Nintendo is so amateurish at it.

 

[Lupin the Third]

The number of Nintendo games with voice acting can probably be counted on 1 hand. Not including narrations (Kirby's Epic Yarn, Smash, etc.) mind you.

Let's see...
- Kid Icarus Uprising
- Mario Sunshine
- Breath of the Wild
- Xenoblade Chronicles
- Xenoblade Chronicles X

So...5 games. And they peaked at XC so far. No other Nintendo game has had voice acting. Ever. We should just close the book on this topic and never re-open it again because Nintendo is so amateurish at it.

Super Mario Advance was like 50 percent vocal utterances so I think that should count.

 

[DecoReturns]

The number of Nintendo games with voice acting can probably be counted on 1 hand. Not including narrations (Kirby's Epic Yarn, Smash, etc.) mind you.

Let's see...
- Kid Icarus Uprising
- Mario Sunshine
- Breath of the Wild
- Xenoblade Chronicles
- Xenoblade Chronicles X

So...5 games. And they peaked at XC so far. No other Nintendo game has had voice acting. Ever. We should just close the book on this topic and never re-open it again because Nintendo is so amateurish at it.

Fire Emblem has voice acting. Including the two console games for GC and Wii. The narration for Radiant Dawn is pretty great tho. The cutscenes...well YouTube it.

 

[OricWindstar]

The number of Nintendo games with voice acting can probably be counted on 1 hand. Not including narrations (Kirby's Epic Yarn, Smash, etc.) mind you.

Let's see...
- Kid Icarus Uprising
- Mario Sunshine
- Breath of the Wild
- Xenoblade Chronicles
- Xenoblade Chronicles X

So...5 games. And they peaked at XC so far. No other Nintendo game has had voice acting. Ever. We should just close the book on this topic and never re-open it again because Nintendo is so amateurish at it.

Star Fox? Metroid Prime 3?

 

[Pineconn]

And Metroid: Other M.

 

[jviggy43]

Generally speaking, how are the bosses? Ive been on ultra lock down and havent watch nearly anything about this game so im so out of the loop.

 

[BeeDog]

This game looks sooooo gooooood. Too bad circumstances would never allow me to nab a new console to be able to play this.

The only criticism I could level at this game thus far is (1) the shaky framerate even on Switch, and (2) the more glaring one, the dreadfully ugly font used for pretty much everything. I don't know what Nintendo thought there, if they wanted to go for "functional" they still could've selected something more aesthetically pleasing.

Still, that's my biggest complaint so far, which in itself is telling )

 

[Emitan]

The number of Nintendo games with voice acting can probably be counted on 1 hand. Not including narrations (Kirby's Epic Yarn, Smash, etc.) mind you.

Let's see...
- Kid Icarus Uprising
- Mario Sunshine
- Breath of the Wild
- Xenoblade Chronicles
- Xenoblade Chronicles X

So...5 games. And they peaked at XC so far. No other Nintendo game has had voice acting. Ever. We should just close the book on this topic and never re-open it again because Nintendo is so amateurish at it.

????

 

[SinCityAssassin]

I'll judge for myself these voices. I don't expect them to be great, but I've heard worse shit.

 

[vareon]

The number of Nintendo games with voice acting can probably be counted on 1 hand. Not including narrations (Kirby's Epic Yarn, Smash, etc.) mind you.

Let's see...
- Kid Icarus Uprising
- Mario Sunshine
- Breath of the Wild
- Xenoblade Chronicles
- Xenoblade Chronicles X

So...5 games. And they peaked at XC so far. No other Nintendo game has had voice acting. Ever. We should just close the book on this topic and never re-open it again because Nintendo is so amateurish at it.

Blanketing these under "Nintendo games" is a bit pointless, I think. They are made by different teams with different genres aiming for different goal. The "Nintendo games" have varying emphasis on voice acting which is why the result varies.

 

[KingBroly]

Star Fox? Metroid Prime 3?

The less we talk about Star Fox Assault the better.


Prime 3 I legitimately forgot about. Haven't played it in a long time.


I also haven't played much Fire Emblem.

 

[Speely]

I can deal with mediocre voice acting in my video game. More to the point, I certainly don't expect a conservative company like Nintendo to go all out and create the most massive yet dense open world game ever created and, at the same time, rival the best video game voice acting in the biz.

In America especially.

At some point we have to respect that a game this huge with myriad localizations might have some duds. But maybe some people play Zelda for the voice acting. I won't judge that.

 

[DecoReturns]

I'll judge for myself these voices. I don't expect them to be great, but I've heard worse shit.

If it's Kingdom Hearts 1 caliber. I'll be fine with that.

doesn't mean they shouldn't improve tho.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

If it's Kingdom Hearts 1 caliber. I'll be fine with that.

doesn't mean they shouldn't improve tho.

Never said they shouldn't.

 

[Speely]

All I really care about is Zelda's VA, and she sounded great in the presentation trailer.

 

[Oddish1]

The number of Nintendo games with voice acting can probably be counted on 1 hand. Not including narrations (Kirby's Epic Yarn, Smash, etc.) mind you.

Let's see...
- Kid Icarus Uprising
- Mario Sunshine
- Breath of the Wild
- Xenoblade Chronicles
- Xenoblade Chronicles X

So...5 games. And they peaked at XC so far. No other Nintendo game has had voice acting. Ever. We should just close the book on this topic and never re-open it again because Nintendo is so amateurish at it.

Does Eternal Darkness count? Or Disaster: Day of Crisis? or Codename: Steam?

 

[DecoReturns]

Never said they shouldn't.

Sorry, didn't implied you saying that. Was just leaving my personal opinion.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

Does Eternal Darkness count? Or Disaster: Day of Crisis? or Codename: Steam?

No, Yes, No.

 

[Oddish1]

No, Yes, No.

Really? I could see the argument against Eternal Darkness, but what about Code Name: Steam? Is there just not a lot of voice acting?