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BotW has ruined my gaming. :(

kunonabi

Member
OoT is a risky one though, what if it turns out that BotW has ruined an all-time classic for you?



Honestly there was little to no will involved for me. There was a turning point at which I saw one duplicate activity too many (the big cube mazes, I think?) and it felt like I'd peeked behind the curtain and seen how the magic works, after which my experience became a downward spiral into "ehh I need to rush down hyrule castle and finish up before I never play this again".

I had that same moment when the dragon on the snow mountain ended up just being another shrine. I thought I was going to earn some cool relic, spell, or discover an entrance to a secret dungeon. Than I went in the first divine beast and my enjoyment of the game basically died right there.
 

BANGS

Banned
I always have a shell shock after playing awesome games, but BotW? lmfao I couldn't wait to finish and move on...
 

kaczmar

Member
Not even kidding. After playing BotW earlier this year, a game that I personally feel is one of the best games I have ever played and certainly the best game in modern times, I am now struggling to play other games.

Horizon DLC - played 20 mins. Can't find the motivation to continue.
Monster hunter World. Played 5/6 hours. Can't find the motivation to continue.
Assassins Creed origins. Played 3/4 hours. Can't find the motivation to continue.

To say nothing of my backlog. Divinity, Darksiders HD, Fallout 4, MGS5 etc. Can't find the motivation to play or continue them from where I left off.

Then, last night. The final smack in the face. God of War. Played about 2 hours. It's obviously a highly polished game and a lot of love has gone into it. But the linearity of it just makes me go, ugh....
I'll keep playing but I'm not enthusiastic as I should be.

Nothing compares to BotW now. Nothing i'm playing sinks its teeth into me as much as it did. Nothing make me feel like I did walking, running and floating around that wonderful, beautiful world.

I feel like I've been jilted by the perfect woman and I can't find someone as amazing as she was. And heaven knows I'm miserable now. Fuck you BotW. I HATE YOU! :_(

I know how you feel. You just need to keep pressing on and find a new series to get hooked into.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
Not even kidding. After playing BotW earlier this year, a game that I personally feel is one of the best games I have ever played and certainly the best game in modern times, I am now struggling to play other games.

Horizon DLC - played 20 mins. Can't find the motivation to continue.
Monster hunter World. Played 5/6 hours. Can't find the motivation to continue.
Assassins Creed origins. Played 3/4 hours. Can't find the motivation to continue.

To say nothing of my backlog. Divinity, Darksiders HD, Fallout 4, MGS5 etc. Can't find the motivation to play or continue them from where I left off.

Then, last night. The final smack in the face. God of War. Played about 2 hours. It's obviously a highly polished game and a lot of love has gone into it. But the linearity of it just makes me go, ugh....
I'll keep playing but I'm not enthusiastic as I should be.

Nothing compares to BotW now. Nothing i'm playing sinks its teeth into me as much as it did. Nothing make me feel like I did walking, running and floating around that wonderful, beautiful world.

I feel like I've been jilted by the perfect woman and I can't find someone as amazing as she was. And heaven knows I'm miserable now. Fuck you BotW. I HATE YOU! :_(

There are definitely certain games that make me just stop wanting to play games because they were SO GOOD. Usually this only lasts for a couple days for me. BotW, Persona 5, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy - usually my favorite franchises do this. I get so invested, so enraptured in their world that I just have to take a breather for a few days.

I suggest you do the same. Read some books, go to MTG nights, or even try other things like dancing or cooking classes. Give it time and your *spark* will return.
 

Zannegan

Member
I remember reading a similar thread after The Last of Us came out. I think certain games just resonate with certain people so well that everything else feels like an anticlimax. It's not all that abnormal and, I think, applies across multiple media (books, movies, etc.). If you're really not enjoying other games then just stop playing and go do something else. You'll normalize after a while.

Usually, I try to play (watch, read) something radically different as a palate cleanser after I finish an epic game (movie, book).
 

Pejo

Member
I didn't even finish the game. It was great for the first half, until shrines get really old and the weapon breaking ruined it for me (since I'm a hoarder and packrat in all games). I still to this day wish they had a setting to turn off weapon breaking, even if it's on NG+.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
Weird, if anything the weapon breaking has helped the game's tremendous longevity for me. Because there's nothing more irritating than managing vast inventories in a game, to the point where almost none of the things you've acquired even have any use anymore given that they're all superseded by stronger items. With the weapon breaking, I have to keep a constant rotation as I battle, and I often end up using strange or weaker weapons in a fight just to preserve something else, which keeps battles more varied instead of narrowing into just one super-loadout and coasting from there.
 
I loved BotW and am currently replaying on Master Mode which actually makes combat a bit more enjoyable but I can still enjoy other games. I played Horizon like most of us right before Zelda and while Zelda blows it's out of the water, Horizon is still awesome to boot up.

I think the only thing BotW ruined for me was older 3D Zelda games. Previously I was only a fan of the 2D games growing up (LttP LoZ LA) but I played through whatever new entry came out. I tried to replay OoT last summer and just couldn't do it, it felt so linear and boring. I doubt I'll ever be able to go back to those games because they made the series so linear and bloated with all the pointless collectables.
 

Zimmy68

Member
I've played through BOTW more times then I would like to admit.
But after the 2nd DLC (which I didn't finish), I haven't picked it up or thought about it once.

I was able to enjoy AC:O, GOW, and Far Cry 5 and never said, "how dare you make a game that isn't BOTW!?!?!"
 

camelCase

Member
Take a break , big deal. Go play tetris for a week and I bet you'll come back to the third person action open world gumbo
 

Vawn

Banned
Ever since the first NES Zelda (which is still the most magical gaming experience I have ever had), I've thought of Zelda games in two equal parts - Overworld and Underworld/Dungeons.

BoTW has the best overworld exploration in the franchise, but its greatness ends there. Dungeons are basically nonexistent. The Shrines and Guardians are uninspired.

Having everything from the start allows some cool exploration in a nonlinear sense, but ruins my motivation to keep exploring. The entire game really comes down to finding dozens and dozens of items to upgrade your health or stamina.

On top of that, the menu system and controls are clunky as hell. The game was clearly meant to be designed around the Wii U gamepad (aka Shiekah Slaye), but that all was removed for the game to run the same on Switch.

The weapon breakage system isn't just annoying, its flat out horrible. I get the idea in theory, but I got no satisfaction from finding new weapons that were bound to break shortly after I swing them the first time.

I see BoTW more as something like the original Assassin's Creed. There is definite potential to build a special game from this foundation eventually, but it isnt there yet.
 
Felt a little bit the same when I tried playing Horizon after BOTW. Felt very limited, cumbersome and uninteresting. God of War was different enough to work, but the best antidote was playing something completely different, in my case Titanfall and Gears.
 

Virex

Banned
I really enjoyed Breath of The Wild. But, when I finished it I was glad it was over so I could move on to better games. BoTW was really good but not nearly as good as a lot make it out to be. OP if you can't enjoy anything else after BoTW then I suggest looking for a new hobby because between when it came out and up until now. There are dozens of games that are better. I still suggest a new hobby
 
Disagree and I have BotW as my all-time number 1 (a game finally overtook the original Half-Life after 19 years!!).

BotW is It's own thing. Any third person action game with good combat is already very different to BotW and worth experiencing. Horizon Zero Dawn being a good example: combat is a joy in that game (while exploration is obviously nowhere near BotW)

I did take a break from gaming after the high of BotW. Completing it took about a month and a half and there were quite a few sessions that went to sunrise; I need a prolonged come down after such a high.
 
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DonF

Member
BotW is good, but not industry changing good. I mean, look at horizon, has better bow combat, god of war, better combat too. The thing that BotW does right is world building and exploration. I think that the combat of BotW is soooo basic. It gets the job done, but thats it. I never felt it was a huge challenge. I've seen people doing awesome stuff with the combat, but its not Dark Souls or even God of War, which btw is awesome. try it on give me a challenge difficulty. Now, you could drastically change your games by trying something like rocket league or I don't know, enter the gungeon. I loved Enter the gungeon, its so fast and different.
 

Makariel

Member
Every time I'm done with a Souls game I need a few months to recover. At the moment I'm in a post-Battletech depression. Don't really feel like playing the sandbox any longer before the promised major update comes along, but somehow can't bring myself to start something else.
 
You should probably play an entirely different kind of game. Like a strategy game, or a puzzle game. You won't be reminded of Zelda by lackluster mechanics and limited freedom this way.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
I have a theory that there are a couple of different kinds of players here, a division which partially explains the polarized reactions to BOTW (Camp A: best open world game ever; Camp B: meh). But nailing down the distinct differences between these camps is a bit tricky.

I'm going to go out on a limb and speculate that Camp B has more completionists, who actually care (clearly, by my tone, I can't understand why anyone would care) if they have found every single item in a game and put it into its proper slot in some running master inventory. For these people, breaking weapons and the moon cycles etc must be frustrating, whereas I love these features and hope they remain in all sequels. Another distinction possibly comes down to your speed of play; I tend to pause and just enjoy the details in every new area, and actually get a bit irritated if too many explicit missions and quests are shoved in my face immediately. I suspect Camp A has more of these slow players who like the game world to invite you into little areas - a river here, an odd patch of forest there - and that Camp B doesn't tend to enjoy wandering for the joy of wandering / discovery unless some tangible achievement or item is at stake.
 
Not even kidding. After playing BotW earlier this year, a game that I personally feel is one of the best games I have ever played and certainly the best game in modern times, I am now struggling to play other games.

Horizon DLC - played 20 mins. Can't find the motivation to continue.
Monster hunter World. Played 5/6 hours. Can't find the motivation to continue.
Assassins Creed origins. Played 3/4 hours. Can't find the motivation to continue.

To say nothing of my backlog. Divinity, Darksiders HD, Fallout 4, MGS5 etc. Can't find the motivation to play or continue them from where I left off.

Then, last night. The final smack in the face. God of War. Played about 2 hours. It's obviously a highly polished game and a lot of love has gone into it. But the linearity of it just makes me go, ugh....
I'll keep playing but I'm not enthusiastic as I should be.

Nothing compares to BotW now. Nothing i'm playing sinks its teeth into me as much as it did. Nothing make me feel like I did walking, running and floating around that wonderful, beautiful world.

I feel like I've been jilted by the perfect woman and I can't find someone as amazing as she was. And heaven knows I'm miserable now. **** you BotW. I HATE YOU! :_(

What I noticed is that your post is negative.

You are saying that nothing compares to BotW without discussing the merits of BotW that you can't find in the other games. In other words, you could have saved time by saying "BotW is GOAT, everything else suxxxxx (extra x'es for effect)," and we would still be in the same place in terms of knowing why you like it so much more than other games.

So please, fill in the blank.
 

Vitacat

Member
I can relate, TC. BOTW became my GOAT and nothing seems as good to me now. But, I do still enjoy lots of other games, especially other genres like RPG, fighters, shmups etc.

I will say that it made it hard for me to get into GOW. I've tried to love that game, but it's so artificially limiting (whereas BOTW gives incredible freedom), it feels like a game from 2 gens ago. I don't get the love it gets. For me it's a B game with excellent graphics and production values. And it's not because of the adult-child dynamic, heck my other GOAT is TLOU. I just find the game boring TBH. Thankfully I bought it physically so I can resell it.
 
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Kenpachii

Member
Move into a new genre. That's what i did and enjoy every minute of it.

Give some RTS a try like they are billions.
 

jadedm17

Member
First post is the winner.

Personally I understand : After Ori and the Blind Forest I longed for more strong single player games, and the sense of progression, wonder and beauty was top notch. I'm at the literal end of Horizon and haven't beat it, and after a two day binge of God of War haven't gone back; On a similar note I finished both Tomb Raiders within a week of getting them. I have gamer ADD and can relate : I crave single player but get bored and go back to Fortnite almost every night. I say don't worry about it and just find and enjoy what you like.

Related : Hollow Knight is scratching that Ori itch I've had for years.... You know, until Ori 2.
 

Bryank75

Banned
That bad, eh?

Yeah, I gave up after the 3rd haunted robot made of rock that works with magic.... the voice acting was spectacular though, I don’t know how TLOU 2 will surpass it.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
What really killed it for me was the lack of dungeons. They all seem to have the same formula. I expected extra dungeons and more to do. Shrines were cool, but they had the same concept in them. Granted I wanted to see and do everything when I first played it. I didn't let that put a stop to my enjoyment of the game.

I wanted more dungeons like OOT, Twilight Princess, or even Skyward Sword. I wanted different bosses.

I felt like I was in a painting or a piece of art looking off in the distance. I eventually finished it and put it down.

For me, OOT had better music. I wouldn't have made a single complaint back when I played it. Now I feel like there should have been more to do.

I played the entire game on my Wii U gamepad.

I have played a handful of games ever since. They all served a purpose. Be that science fiction in Prey to open world hunting in Monster Hunter to exploring Norse Mythology in God of War.

I feel like BotW is the best game in terms of exploiting the formula, but I can't say it replaced OOT in my memories. You could argue the gameplay is light years better than any other Zelda game and you're right.

Chrono Trigger is my favorite JRPG, but I'll put Lunar, FFVI, and many others in the mix. I have had more enjoyment with Dark Souls than I have had with FF in over 10 years and XV is huge. It surely is a staple game in the franchise, but it didn't sour my taste in other games.
 

radewagon

Member
The weapon breakage system isn't just annoying, its flat out horrible. I get the idea in theory, but I got no satisfaction from finding new weapons that were bound to break shortly after I swing them the first time.

This right here. It's telling that in a Zelda game, I was most excited when I opened a chest that had rupees in it.

I sometimes wonder about Nintendo Fanboyism. Is it like with gambling, where some people are just really really susceptible to what it offers up? I can't think of any reason why a game like BOTW would be so heavily praised. It's good, yeah, but it's nowhere near as amazing as some people think it is. I mean, OP said it ruined future gaming experiences and he listed the new God of War as one of those experiences. To me, that's just crazy impossible to understand.

To me, BOTW is a successful proof of concept. It had good ideas, but I'm more excited to see where Nintendo takes the series after having learned from all the mistakes they made.
 
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-MD-

Member
Funny, for me it was the complete opposite. I played a ton of it for weeks, and then I just stopped.

Yeah I never even finished the last 2 pseudo dungeons and the final boss/area, I went hard for 2 weeks, put in like 70 hours and just bailed.
 

Halo0629

Member
You're better off waiting for the next zelda. For me the game is good and I have probably clocked in 100 hrs in the game, but still it's no witcher 3.
 

Imtjnotu

Member
I am actually having this issue as well. The mechanic where my weapons keep in breaking annoys me. Beautiful world but rather empty. No idea where I am going or what I am doing.

After 10 hours or so I found out about the horse stables.
i am literally on the same boat. the weapons mechanic has broken this game for me
 

nkarafo

Member
I am actually having this issue as well. The mechanic where my weapons keep in breaking annoys me. Beautiful world but rather empty. No idea where I am going or what I am doing.
This is what i love about this game. Imagine yourself waking up in a world like this, without remembering anything. And slowly figuring things out as you explore, with minimal hand holding. That's the best part of this game for me.
 

Fox Mulder

Member
I'm loving Horizon right now and feel I'd love BotW too given what I've heard about it. I just don't have the console.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
Yeah I never even finished the last 2 pseudo dungeons and the final boss/area, I went hard for 2 weeks, put in like 70 hours and just bailed.
I'm glad I'm not crazy. I've always been a Zelda fan, and the game is incredible, don't get me wrong. I think it got to a point where it just felt like a grind to me. The story wasn't incredibly captivating. it was just, you know, standard Zelda things for the most part.
 
Honestly, I'd be of the same opinion as you OP if BotW had an actual narrative and story. It was such a frustrating game for me to experience as it had all of the elements to become my favourite game of all time.... buuuut the dev team chose to omit the story element (which is a crucial component of a game to me). I was gutted. I loved the art style, the premise, the characters, the gameplay, the shrines, dungeons & puzzles. I sunk a tonne of time into it but it just left me with a sense of a "missed opportunity" and it felt a bit hollow. It's not up there with the core Nintendo classics for me but it was damn close and still a fantastic piece of game design. The Great Plateau section of BotW was as much of a "next gen" moment to me as any of the Sony or MS first party titles in this console era. I code indie games in my spare time and I felt completely belittled by how well that introductory first five hours of the game were designed and implemented. Amazing.

It's such a shame that the story didn't complement the remainder of it. I hope that they look to resolve that issue with the next Zelda title.
 
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I won’t go so far as to say that it’s ruined gaming for me as a whole, but it’s definitely changed my perspective on open world games. Horizon felt horribly limited in scope right after playing BOTW.
 

Lanrutcon

Member
Played 2 hours of BOTW. Didn't get it. Meanwhile, I can sit down with Skyrim, Dragon's Dogma or Dark Souls and just disappear for days.

To each their own.
 

Dibils2k

Member
i thought it was extremely boring, didnt make it past the first hour

its so far behind other games while doing new stuff but in the end it just feels like a game from the past
 
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DavidGzz

Member
I like it but it's not even in my top 30 games of all time. Definitely, no Dark Souls, which did ruin other games for me for a time.
 
Didn't like BOTHW at all. Dropped it after 5 hours. I love Zelda games and i appreciate the effort to give complete freedom to the player but full freedom is something that must be done correclty in my opinion and in this Zelda wasn't. Without giving true motives to the player to keep playing your game becomes tedious and boring real quick.

Without mentioning other problems, like lackluster story, swallow characters and many more.

Obviously my humble opinion.
 

cireza

Member
I played the game quite a lot and enjoyed it, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. This game never motivates you in doing anything. You could actually ignore pretty much everything and still beat the game. So the developers decided to force the sanctuaries upon the player, and make them the only way to get stronger (with the equipment upgrade). So here you go, 120 sanctuaries, 40 of which are the same battle each time, another 30 which are simply a chest to open.

Doing a sanctuary or fighting enemies can bu summed up by : use some weapons to gain some weapons. Everything is pointless in this game. I don't know if I am good at explaining this feeling, but this is definitely what I feel when I play it. Never came back to the game after I finished it.
 
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FCKAFD

Member
i tried it but it kinda felt like an walking simulator where i had to switch weapons every couple of seconds ...and most enemies looked the same :/
i love OoT but this one didnt click for me :(
 

OldBoyGamer

Banned
What I noticed is that your post is negative.

You are saying that nothing compares to BotW without discussing the merits of BotW that you can't find in the other games. In other words, you could have saved time by saying "BotW is GOAT, everything else suxxxxx (extra x'es for effect)," and we would still be in the same place in terms of knowing why you like it so much more than other games.

So please, fill in the blank.

No point in discussing merits of BotW - just read above to see the polarized views. I could talk about any single feature or mechanic and I'd get 50 people teling me why that mechanic is shit and 50 telling me they loved it too. So what's the point? And besides. This post is more about the idea that a game can tick boxes for an individual to the point where they struggle to enjoy other games and the things that come with that.

When I originally wrote the post, I genuinely didn't know it was a thing - but a few people above have said it happened to them on other games. Awesome!

It's not even that everything else sucks. I know that those games are good. heck, I completed HZD and loved it - it's the DLC I can't be motivated to play. I'm shocked that BotW can have had such an impact on mepersonally to the point where other games seem of lesser value.

An interesting idea by some people though - to play something completely different like an RTS. I might give that a try - I've got Total War Warhammer 1 waiting for me, so....
 

joe_zazen

Member
This right here. It's telling that in a Zelda game, I was most excited when I opened a chest that had rupees in it.

I sometimes wonder about Nintendo Fanboyism. Is it like with gambling, where some people are just really really unacceptable to what it offers up? I can't think of any reason why a game like BOTW would be so heavily praised. It's good, yeah, but it's nowhere near as amazing as some people think it is. I mean, OP said it ruined future gaming experiences and he listed the new God of War as one of those experiences. To me, that's just crazy impossible to understand.

To me, BOTW is a successful proof of concept. It had good ideas, but I'm more excited to see where Nintendo takes the series after having learned from all the mistakes they made.

I think the massive hype might have hurt the game for some folks. You get told it is revelatory and the greatest of all time, so you go out and spend $380 (or more if you ebayed during the shortages), only to find out, yep it is an open world action adventure rpg and that it didn't change your life.

At least now you can have mediocre or negative views of the game without getting shouted down.
 

joe_zazen

Member
No point in discussing merits of BotW - just read above to see the polarized views. I could talk about any single feature or mechanic and I'd get 50 people teling me why that mechanic is shit and 50 telling me they loved it too. So what's the point? And besides. This post is more about the idea that a game can tick boxes for an individual to the point where they struggle to enjoy other games and the things that come with that.

When I originally wrote the post, I genuinely didn't know it was a thing - but a few people above have said it happened to them on other games. Awesome!

It's not even that everything else sucks. I know that those games are good. heck, I completed HZD and loved it - it's the DLC I can't be motivated to play. I'm shocked that BotW can have had such an impact on mepersonally to the point where other games seem of lesser value.

An interesting idea by some people though - to play something completely different like an RTS. I might give that a try - I've got Total War Warhammer 1 waiting for me, so....

Is it fair to say you want other games to make you feel the way botw did? or is it just a nuts and bolts feature checklist thing? If it is feelings, well you probably wont get that if you have a history with Zelda that stretches to your childhood.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
This right here. It's telling that in a Zelda game, I was most excited when I opened a chest that had rupees in it.

I sometimes wonder about Nintendo Fanboyism. Is it like with gambling, where some people are just really really unacceptable to what it offers up? I can't think of any reason why a game like BOTW would be so heavily praised. It's good, yeah, but it's nowhere near as amazing as some people think it is. I mean, OP said it ruined future gaming experiences and he listed the new God of War as one of those experiences. To me, that's just crazy impossible to understand.

To me, BOTW is a successful proof of concept. It had good ideas, but I'm more excited to see where Nintendo takes the series after having learned from all the mistakes they made.
Speaking from my soul mate. I'm baffled as well. Like, how is the korok seed farming so much different or better than clearing hideouts in ACO? Both are copy & paste tasks with little to no reward. Why is one called cumbersome and boring and the other claimed to be such a masterpiece of game design? I really want to understand.
 
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