Support NeoGAF

[Pejo]

I disagree with OP. You don't need all those points on an image to show what's wrong wtih BotW. This one sums it up succinctly, imo.

My biggest gripe with BotW was the fact that exploration was absolutely meaningless in the long term. You search and explore the whole world, but there is never a payoff. Weapons breaking is honestly the cause for me personally. There's just no fun in going through those dungeons when the reward is a heart piece at best and a weapon that breaks in 15 hits instead of the usual 10 at worst. Hell, you break way more gear fighting the robots than you get back from them.

Anyways, the context for the image, in case you didn't do it, is that when you collect all of the korok seeds, you get a pile of shit. Worthless endeavor, just like 90% of BotW's exploration.

 

[Rikkori]

All the Nintentardos will swarm you like their wife's boyfriends swarm her, but you're 100% on point.

If this were a Ubi title it'd get a (deserved) 6/10 and be endlessly mentioned like "oMg le uBisOft fOrmuLa, le wAtcHtOweRs".

 

[Shodan09]

Everything in that picture is correct.

However, it's still one of the best games ever created.

 

[TheMan]

I have to agree that the weapon degradation system was straight ass, it kind of turned me off a lot of the time.

 

[Soodanim]

"grossly inferior", Lol stop coping. The original is only better in a couple of things.

Botw is better, no question about it. Even the AVGN didn't like Majora's Mask.

I think the claim being contested by multiple people is evidence enough that there is a question about it.

BotW2 has some substantial changes to make before it gets me interested, because I'm not interested in another empty world and fragile weapons. Even just the reward weapon after each Ganon being unbreakable or at least on a recharge timer like the Master Sword would have been a massive improvement. What we got were just trophies to stick on a wall and never use again because the re-forging costs were stupid.

Majora's Mask is rich with content. A lot of people prefer a more condensed experience than what BotW offers, and MM is a great example of that. At the bare minimum it's a better Zelda game, even with its time reset mechanic. I'd rather return to the dawn of the first day than not be able to climb at all without abusing the system because yet again it's raining.

 

[StateofMajora]

Definitely

Numbered scores never did any game justice but this is an somewhat accurate assessment of the degradation of the average review scale. In the end everyone's scale was different you can't sum a game up with a number.

For fun, given the bottom scale i'd give BOTW a 3, or the higher part of bad. It's got bare bones level design with little payoff for exploration and frustrating busy work, but it looks pretty doing it (character design aside, which is bad).

I disagree with OP. You don't need all those points on an image to show what's wrong wtih BotW. This one sums it up succinctly, imo.

My biggest gripe with BotW was the fact that exploration was absolutely meaningless in the long term. You search and explore the whole world, but there is never a payoff. Weapons breaking is honestly the cause for me personally. There's just no fun in going through those dungeons when the reward is a heart piece at best and a weapon that breaks in 15 hits instead of the usual 10 at worst. Hell, you break way more gear fighting the robots than you get back from them.

Anyways, the context for the image, in case you didn't do it, is that when you collect all of the korok seeds, you get a pile of shit. Worthless endeavor, just like 90% of BotW's exploration.

A shiny turd perfectly sums up the game.

 

[fallingdove]

I liked Breath of the Wild alright. From my perspective, the Nintendo sheen consists of mostly well crafted presentation and above average controls. Factor in nostalgia and you regularly produce unwarranted hype and high review scores. If you take a look at the sum of all of their parts - modern Nintendo games are usually unremarkable.

 

[MiguelItUp]

I think BOTW is a very good game. Not a great game, but a solid 8/10.

As a Zelda game? It sucks.

I agree with this for sure. BOTW felt good and did some really cool things. I played a ton of it, but at some point I just put it down and didn't pick it back up. I think it's primarily because there were/are other games that did what it was trying to do and did, but better IMO. Well, and as a Zelda game, it just felt like it was lacking in some departments, so I lost interest.

 

[ssringo]

I've thought Zelda games (and Nintendo in general) were mediocre since around the GameCube era.

 

[Fredrik]

I agree with many of those points... But it’s still one of my all time favorite games and my most played game on Switch. Everything else on the console pales in comparison. After finding all shrines and done the DLC and stopped playing the game I’ve stopped turning on the Switch as well. I’ll start it again once BOTW2 is out.

 

[Arun1910]

I literally bought a Switch for this game.

Then sold both a week later. Could not get into it.

 

[royox]

The world is big as fuck and has plenty of stuff to derrail the player when it's going from A to B to complete any main quest....but it has no "quest markers" so let's say it's an empty world with nothing happening lol.

The most fun I ever had in a sandbox game, messing around with the physics to travel or reach places is the best feeling.

 

[iorek21]

Immortals Phoenix Rising is better

 

[RoadHazard]

The criticisms are valid, and yet it's the most fun game I've ever played. The positives just far outweigh the negatives for me, and I didn't feel tired of the game even after having played it for 175 hours and done everything except for getting all seeds.

I can't explain exactly why I loved it so much, it's just a combination of things that made it feel like a truly wonderful experience.

 

[daveonezero]

Yeah most fun I've had for a few 100 hours. I played on Master Mode my first time. Cooking and weapons meant something for a long time.

Sorry that the progression system wasn't to your liking. I truly enjoyed sneaking around, slowly compiling better weapons. After getting some items slots and stamina you slowly get stronger and more durable equipment.

A few dozen hours in you have too many good weapons than you know what to do with.

It totally broke the traditional "get better" equipment gameplay mechanic and made everything mean something all the way to the late game.

The world itself and looking around was the reward in itself.

 

[e&e]

It’s on sale now, gonna buy it again! Thanks for the reminder!

 

[WildBoy]

I spent 415 hours in breath of the wild. Collected every single Korok Seed and completed every side quest and shrine. It's the game that pushes so far past other open world games I can only think that people who don't like it either dislike being abandoned and told to fend for themselves or have really really really bad taste in videogames or took the wrong lessons from the good ones they have played... It's unfathomable to me that this is anything but a masterpiece. And the greatest thing is it's a masterpiece that has glaring flaws that can be improved upon.... Insane. Everyone else is playing catch up to it and a sequel is on the way...

 

[Umbasaborne]

I think the world sucks.bland looking, empty, Not much in the way of interesting dungeons or cool places fo find. Wind wakers great sea was more interesting to explore. No cool monsters or dragons. Botw is a great game, but its world was not a strong point.

 

[Ferdinandthecowfish]

If this were a Ubi title it'd get a (deserved) 6/10 and be endlessly mentioned like "oMg le uBisOft fOrmuLa, le wAtcHtOweRs".

Except that Ubi made a BOTW clone that was actually good. A solid 8/10 whereas, BOTW will always be a 6/10.

 

[Arun1910]

Except that Ubi made a BOTW clone that was actually good. A solid 8/10 whereas, BOTW will always be a 6/10.

Have to agree despite getting tired of the Ubi formula. Immortals was a nice hidden gem for me last year.

 

[TheAmazingSpiderMan]

BOTW was ok meh, I enjoyed twilight princess the most after OOT.
I agree with everything the picture states lol, dead empty world, I don’t know how it got this many 10s only god knows

 

[OldBoyGamer]

No game can ever get 100% of the potential audience so I can see why a percentage of people didn’t get on with it. But for me? One of the greatest games ever made.
The crafting of every system and mechanic to work together to achieve such balance was frankly unique. I can’t think of any other game that has achieved that.

plays like a dream. The game world hooked me from the get go. Exploring in BotW is so compelling. I’ve never enjoyed just exploring as much as this. Loved the characters too and situations yiu found yourself in. Loved the puzzles (although I did need help with them because.. I’m shit at puzzles).

it’s not perfect by any means but bloody hell it’s pretty close for me.

 

[StateofMajora]

There's something to be said about people liking a clone of this game more than the original lol.

Good grief. I'm afraid that Nintendo will focus on the praise for botw instead of its criticisms. I hold no hopes for the sequel, though i'd like to be presently surprised. After it, I hope we get a traditional 3d Zelda again. It can be larger than Twilight princess, but no open world please.

 

[Kreen101]

All of those criticisms against BOTW are valid, and it is not a perfect game, but what it does well is so good, and it succeeds in so many more ways than it fails, that it still remains one of my favorite games of all time.

 

[Deanington]

What made it good for me was the art direction and charm. Its a beautiful game to travel through.

 

[Nemesis Prime]

For those that consider BOTW a great game, what do you think it does better than the modern Assassin Creed games?

To me, BOTW does nothing better. In the Creed games there's an actual story, the graphics are incredible and diverse, and you're actually rewarded for your exploration with unique items that DON'T break. I get that you can play with the physics and tackle some situations differently in Zelda, but I can hang off Zeus' dong and slide down a pyramid in Creed.

I'll tell you what modern Assassins Creed does better, story, and graphics. For me personally those are two of the least important things I look for in an open world action RPG. Especially considering the AC story not being that interesting anymore, and the graphics comparison is irrelevant considering the differences in hardware.

 

[WildBoy]

I think the world sucks.bland looking, empty, Not much in the way of interesting dungeons or cool places fo find. Wind wakers great sea was more interesting to explore. No cool monsters or dragons. Botw is a great game, but its world was not a strong point.

This is a troll post surely.... bland looking? And empty? This isn't the Skyrim thread.

 

[Umbasaborne]

This is a troll post surely.... bland looking? And empty? This isn't the Skyrim thread.

Not a troll post, skyrims world is 100 times more interesting to explore despite the fact that its grey and snowy. Lots of cool dungeons, dragons, caves, monsters, animals, keeps, towns, and cities, even underwater exploration which botw does not have, Interesting npc interactions. Ive spent 150 hours in breath of the wild, ive spent almost 600 in skyrim and id choose to explore skyrim over botw hyrule 100 percent of the time. Botw hyrule objectively has more large swaths of empty space than skyrim does. Skyrim is densly packed, botw is just empty. Good game still, but I'm not dying to go back to it.

 

[Redlancet]

Tried to like the game for hours, leaved it bored

 

[Nemesis Prime]

Not a troll post, skyrims world is 100 times more interesting to explore despite the fact that its grey and snowy. Lots of cool dungeons, dragons, keeps, towns, and cities. Interesting npc interactions. Ive spent 150 hours in breath of the wild, ive spent almost 600 in skyrim and id choose to explore skyrim over botw hyrule 100 percent of the time

There's zero interactivity with the world, one is completely static and the other is dynamic. One feels like a real world with rules and physics and the other doesn't.

I don't want to say one is superior to the other, I love Skyrim and it does its job wonderfully. But lets not be silly here. BOTW I can climb walls and mountains, I can start fires, I can play around with the physics, manipulate the environment such as cutting trees, making platforms, creating rafts, moving rocks and boulders etc... There is ZERO interactivity with Skyrim.

 

[balgajo]

The highs of the game are really good. But in the end it's didn't do that much for me. I'd need a lot of things back from the old formula. Imo, when talking about 3d Zelda, Oot, MM and TP are still better than BOTW.

 

[Umbasaborne]

There's zero interactivity with the world, one is completely static and the other is dynamic. One feels like a real world with rules and physics and the other doesn't.

I don't want to say one is superior to the other, I love Skyrim and it does its job wonderfully. But lets not be silly here. BOTW I can climb walls and mountains, I can start fires, I can play around with the physics, manipulate the environment such as cutting trees, making platforms, creating rafts, moving rocks and boulders etc... There is ZERO interactivity with Skyrim.

I agree that botw has better physics and mechanics. But from a world perspective skyrim is more interesting to me, its more fun to explore. Id love a game that had zeldas movement and Skyrim's world density, and location variety (meaning dungeons, cities, castles, towns, and monsters, underwater exploration)

 

[SpongebobSquaredance]

The fact that a near 4-year-old game still gets this much discussion on a hardcore nerd forum (truth is, most people even in the gaming scene don't spend their time here or on Reee) speaks volumes on its relevance.

Best game in the series, the only sandbox that just keeps on giving as exploration is its key ingredient and not an afterthought. It isn't designed around doing linear missions in a sandbox and doesn't throw a million trailing missions at your (a.k.a the real Ubisoft formula. The only thing Ubisoft games have in common with BOTW are the towers) disposal. The physics engine alone is leaps and boundaries above the competition. The only thing I want back is dungeons in the style of the older 3D-Zelda games. Then it would near perfect.

 

[Nemesis Prime]

I agree that botw has better physics and mechanics. But from a world perspective skyrim is more interesting to me, its more fun to explore. Id love a game that had zeldas movement and Skyrim's world density, and location variety (meaning dungeons, cities, castles, towns, and monsters, underwater exploration)

I do agree with you, in the actual lore world building its lacking. It takes a very minimalistic approach, and I can see why many would find it bare bones. It's definitely one of the games flaws and would be sick if they improve on that part in BOTW 2

 

[fart town usa]

I understand people not enjoying the game and saying it's barren but it really is a fantastic game worth seeing through if you have time.

My recent experience. Picked it up for the WiiU back in September 2020. Didn't know much of anything about the game, had played it at my brothers for maybe 5 minutes when it first released.

Put in probably 40 hours and was just kind of bored/exhausted with it. Took a month off, played through Wind Waker, Minish Cap, and some other games. Went back to BOTW, still wasn't quite feeling it but stuck with it. Around 60 hours I was an absolute tank and broken weapons, etc didn't bother me one bit. Once the game came together and I didn't have to worry about much, I really started enjoying the hell out it. Took about 80 hours to finish and I still have like 15 shrines left to do. It really is a brilliant game. Best game ever made though? Not a chance. Just a solid game through and through.

TL;DR

Game took me like 50 hours until I really started enjoying it.

edit-

I will say one thing, people who say there isn't a story are just flat out wrong. Things can be missed but if you explore and find all the memory spots, journals, etc you'll be treated to a narrative that has never been done in a Zelda game. Like with other titles

Spoiler

zelda

is the central focus of the story and

Spoiler

her

story arc provides the bulk of the narrative in the game.

 

[fersnake]

love the game i play it like 1000 hrs but i has alot of issues but that was a problem of using a last last gen system. all those points are true.

 

[Sir_Impaler]

Playing it in Master Mode I see it as a pretty cool survival sim honestly. Resources are thin, enemies are harder.

I hated it when I first played it 3 years ago. Just came back to it and something clicked I guess. I’m enjoying it so far.

Granted I’m a Zelda fan in a casual way. Haven’t really played any since N64

 

[Little Chicken]

They absolutely nailed the atmosphere and physics. That's about it.

I hated how every npc in the game, no matter where they lived or who they were, all talked about "something something happened 100 years ago". The actual world building is terrible.

 

[brian0057]

My biggest gripe with BotW was the fact that exploration was absolutely meaningless in the long term. You search and explore the whole world, but there is never a payoff. Weapons breaking is honestly the cause for me personally. There's just no fun in going through those dungeons when the reward is a heart piece at best and a weapon that breaks in 15 hits instead of the usual 10 at worst. Hell, you break way more gear fighting the robots than you get back from them.

You do know that as soon as you leave the Great Plateau, you can go straight to Ganon and finish the game right then and there, don't you?
It's not gonna be easy, but you can do it. Ganon can be as hard or as easy as you want. The only deciding factor is how much exploration you did. The more you explore, the easier he gets.

That's the whole point of exploration: to get stronger in order to defeat Ganon. The heart pieces, the stamina upgrades, the weapons, the divine beasts, the shrines, and the cooking are all in service to that singular goal. They're means to an end, not ends themselves.

As an aside, I don't mind the breakable weapons but I understand if you do.

Also, to those saying this is just as bad as the typical Ubisoft open world with the towers and shit, you're wrong.
You may not like the game, which is fair, but it's objectively superior to them.

 

[jaysius]

Breakable weapons fucked up one of the key elements of the Zelda IP, the excitement of opening a chest.... OMG It's an amazing firesword... that will just fucking break.

You never have that amazing feeling of progress that gaining an item in a Zelda game gives you.

Even the god damn master sword would break and need to regenerate.

Oh yea the shitty bosses, they were awful.

I had fun playing it, but not as much fun as I usually have playing a Zelda game, I had bought Twilight Princess a little after and had far more fun playing THAT, than BOTW.

Also the performance of the game on WiiU was UNACCEPTABLE for many sections, Nintendo you have performance targets, make your FIRST PARTY DEVs adhere to it. Only Nintendo gets away with this bullshit. Any other company the reviews would start at 6 and go down because of this bullshit.

It's fucked up that the next Zelda that we won't see until COVID-19 truly dies or Star Citizen gets out of money beg mode will be a BOTW sequel, which will no doubt have all the same fucking issues, and MORE! Also it'll run like shit on the Switch because it'll be meant to be played on Nintendo's next duct tape gimmick shitbox.


BOTW is not a Zelda game, but it's a project by any other name we wouldn't even hear about beyond it's year of release, and it would NOT have gotten away with all the shitty bullshit it did.

 

[Yoboman]

There's zero interactivity with the world, one is completely static and the other is dynamic. One feels like a real world with rules and physics and the other doesn't.

I don't want to say one is superior to the other, I love Skyrim and it does its job wonderfully. But lets not be silly here. BOTW I can climb walls and mountains, I can start fires, I can play around with the physics, manipulate the environment such as cutting trees, making platforms, creating rafts, moving rocks and boulders etc... There is ZERO interactivity with Skyrim.

Rolling a boulder down a hill is not interesting

 

[MagnesG]

Rolling a boulder down a hill is not interesting

It sure does when it fucks up the whole camp.

 

[MeatSafeMurderer]

I enjoyed my first 20-25 hours of the game...but in the end I just bumrushed Ganon's castle even though I still had a bunch of sidequests and such to do. It just go SOOOOO boring and tedious. Once the novelty of the world runs out you're left with an uninteresting story, the same few enemy types and weapons made of paper that break every 30 seconds. Even the mighty master sword doesn't escape it. It's a solid 6/10 but it's far from perfect and it's nowhere near the greatest Zelda, let alone the greatest game of all time.

 

[MagnesG]

My biggest gripe with BotW was the fact that exploration was absolutely meaningless in the long term. You search and explore the whole world, but there is never a payoff.

Your map is filled and explored= payoff itself.
Fight Ganon that's the endgame from the start.

 

[Nemesis Prime]

Rolling a boulder down a hill is not interesting

It's about as interesting as your imagination allows. If you aren't imaginative and creative it won't seem like much, when I started to fuck around with the world and physics I started to realize there was a depth I wasn't considering.

Go on YouTube and you'll find a wealth of videos of people doing some crazy things with the boulders and physics of the game, it's game breaking in some cases. I've seen people fly half way across the map by riding a flying boulder. Thats just the tip of the ice-berg.

Edit: Included some crazy things you can do with the physics







Low skill floor required to get around and have fun with the game.... HUGE skill ceiling to truly break the world to your advantage

 

[daveonezero]

The problem with all the complaints is you can solve it by just ending the game. For those that want to go out and actually experience the world they can. And that is a unique thing in all games I've played. Nothing else does that. It has systems you can play with and they become rewarding the more you poke at them.

The game just turned everything upside down. It didn't have traditional gate keepers or invisible walls. It didn't have normal weapons.

Even then there are ways to get around the durability. If you mount or sneak attack it doesn't use up the durability and you can kill Lynels all day and amass too many weapons than you know what to do with. In Master Mode this is even better with + stats.

 

[SRTtoZ]

I never finished it but after playing Fenyx Rising I just can’t go back to it.

 

[zcaa0g]

It felt like a polished but never finished Steam early access open world survival game. That's not a complement.

 

[Corgi1985]

Immortals Phoenix Rising is better

It is better, but immortals is still a boring game.

That's how awful BotW is. Not as bad as skyward bored, because few things are, but nintendo gave us BotW and mario odyssey and endless shovelware and that is the legacy of the switch.

 

[Reptars Revenge]

Simple picture hmmmmm