• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | Review Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
Blows my mind that there are so many people who've never played a Zelda game before. I guess Nintendo hasn't really been relevant for almost a decade but still, Zelda is like, the grandmother of gaming.
Well I'm a 90s kid but I didn't get a Nintendo home console until the Wii.

I've tried to play Skyward Sword and Ocarina on 3DS but didn't really get into them. But this looks like something special indeed. Now is the time.
 
Blows my mind that there are so many people who've never played a Zelda game before. I guess Nintendo hasn't really been relevant for almost a decade but still, Zelda is like, the grandmother of gaming.

While I gamed a lot when I was younger, I never played a Zelda game. Probably due to the fact that, after having a SNES, my next console from Nintendo was a Wii U. I have since tried to play past Zelda games but none of them have grabbed me. BoTW looks great though and I am excited to play it.
 

squall23

Member
I liked SS and TP differently for different things. But guys, whilst you argue relentlessly over the console Zeldas, the DS abominations sit grinning.

A sequel to Wind Waker.

A sequel to Wind Waker, they said.

The bastards.
Ehh, hate Phantom Hourglass all you want (quite frankly I'm on your side), but Spirit Tracks has a great story to it. It not only gave us a Hyrule leaving the god damn dark ages and into Industrial Revolution, but it also gave us the best version of Zelda the character.
 

MTC100

Banned
I'm getting old, my first home console was the NES, even though the SNES was out at that time already, my parents decided I should start with that, by their logic the NES was easier, because it wasn't the SUPER NES, lol... -in fact the NES had the much harder games compared to the SNES but that's a different story.

I was lucky enough to have gotten The Legend of Zelda and not part II for Christmas after getting the NES for my 8th birthday. The logic was the same still, I got part 1 because Zelda II might have been too hard, lucky me, as Zelda II wasn't really all that great to start with.

I remember having played Zelda I for ages to come until finally completing it with the help of a game guide though(Internet wasn't even a thing back then). Zelda I had that special kind of magic, even as a child I realized that it wasn't just an ordinary game, it had such a catchy Soundtrack and the gameplay was challenging but never unfair. I remember how happy I was when I finally could afford the blue ring that gave Link resistance and made enemies hit for only half the damage. You didn't even get a description of what the ring would do back then and had to find out what you actually gained by purchasing it for the max amount of rupees you could carry.

It was really a fun game, exploring the lost woods and solving it's riddle, finding all the dungeon entrances and gaining new fun items like bombs, the boomerang, bow and arrow, the candle and so on. I have only felt the same kind of excitement with one game after that and that was Ocarina of Time and by all that I've read and seen so far, Breath of the Wild is looking very much like it would be offering an experience that is on par with those past gems.

I wonder how long I can resist on buying a Switch, I still think it's overpriced for what it offers(330 Euro here) at least for only one game, well that one game might be the best in history though...
 

Soph

Member
The positive reviews are just as bad, fucking fan boys

Everything is perfect, best game ever - 10

Everything is shit, worst zelda ever - 1


Without wanting to be a dick about this how can you possibly have calculated the score if you don't know the weighting?

Yeah just as bad! If Users give it a 10 it's a whole 0.2 points from the Critic score, while if they give it a 0 it's 49 times farther away from that critic score. Statistics am I right?

But yeah totally the same, keep dreaming punk.

Edit: Metacritic should start using standardeviations from the critic norm to weed out user scores, people can still give it lower scores this way but it won't turn the whole section into mush.
 
Blows my mind that there are so many people who've never played a Zelda game before. I guess Nintendo hasn't really been relevant for almost a decade but still, Zelda is like, the grandmother of gaming.
People in my family always had Nintendo consoles but I adored my PS1 and all the games I played on that so never made the Switch (har har) and to be honest Nintendo's games never really appealed to me outside of the social aspects of games like Mario Kart (when I was 18 we spent so much time getting wasted and playing it on the Wii) so games like Zelda just avoided my view. I did, however, date someone who had a Wii and I was blown away by Super Mario Galaxy but never got around to getting a Wii or a Wii U.

However I figured it was time to jump in and as a massive fan of open world adventure games this piqued my interest outside of being a Zelda game however I did always know that it was a 'seal of quality' so to speak so I never doubted it.

I couldn't be more excited, to be honest, its crazy because I've also been playing Horizon and that ticks so many boxes for me and I had this feeling of not wanting to put the game down which I've not had for a while and now Zelda comes along and I'm just a bit overwhelmed and feel incredibly spoilt by the industry right now. What a time to be gaming.

Yeah just as bad! If Users give it a 10 it's a whole 0.2 points from the Critic score, while if they give it a 0 it's 49 times farther away from that critic score. Statistics am I right?

But yeah totally the same, keep dreaming punk.
Doesn't he more mean that most user scores are people either trolling a game they haven't played with a '0' or giving a game they haven't played a '10' because they've already decided they liked it before launch because its Zelda and/or Nintendo?

The real question is: who actually cares or even pays attention to user reviews?
 

TLZ

Banned
You're upset about the frame rate/performance of the Switch version, yet you say you'd rather stick with the Wii U version, which runs even worse?

I'm not excusing the frame rate or saying you shouldn't be upset, but everything we've heard about the Wii U version paints it as, comparatively, running like total shit. I'd think if anyone wanted to play it, especially someone concerned about the performance, you'd want to stay with the 'definitive' version on Switch. Right? I mean, you've played both so I'd guess you know better than I do but the Wii U version sounds just abysmal from what I've read.

The switch docked version plays exactly like the Wii u version for me, except in higher res. So if someone has a wii u and buying a switch only to play Zelda docked i think its pointless IMO. Switch portable is a different story though, almost flawless.

I really wish the docked version was as good as the portable version. I don't know why it isn't.
 

MTC100

Banned
So many fanboys giving it crap scores on MC now. Sad. Really sad.

Check them by on one(by clicking their name), often they only have 1 review on their accounts and that one is a 0 for Breath of the Wild, just lol.

This guy took the time to even downvote the WiiU version:

111grkjc.jpg


-But has no reviews for anything else what so ever. It's funny how salty some People are that Nintendo finally got back in the ring, funny and sad at once, cause those idiots will never play this gem and will be playing their cinematic crappy games forever :) -or perhaps they will grow up someday, but that's wishful thinking I guess
 
Check them by on one(by clicking their name), often they only have 1 review on their accounts and that one is a 0 for Breath of the Wild, just lol.

Even worse, I saw some of them with just 3 ratings: 0 for BOTW Switch, 0 for BOTW Wii U and 10 for HZD.

Fanboy salt at its finest.
 

PrimeBeef

Member
Check them by on one(by clicking their name), often they only have 1 review on their accounts and that one is a 0 for Breath of the Wild, just lol.

This guy took the time to even downvote the WiiU version:

111grkjc.jpg


-But has no reviews for anything else what so ever. It's funny how salty some People are that Nintendo finally got back in the ring, funny and sad at once, cause those idiots will never play this gem and will be playing their cinematic crappy games forever :) -or perhaps they will grow up someday, but that's wishful thinking I guess
And just like MC did with all the Nintendo trolls giving HZD a 0, those will get removed.
 

Lylo

Member
The negative users' reviews on Metacritic are hilarious, Nintendo must have spent a huge load of money to buy 63 very positive reviews...
 

Mohonky

Member
The negative users' reviews on Metacritic are hilarious, Nintendo must have spent a huge load of money to buy 63 very positive reviews...

Nintendo was actually going to release a 4K HDR OLED Switch with an inbuilt projector in the back so you could play it on the go or use the inbuilt projector to show it at 150", but they decided they were going to spend the budget on Zelda reviews instead.
 

Soph

Member
Doesn't he more mean that most user scores are people either trolling a game they haven't played with a '0' or giving a game they haven't played a '10' because they've already decided they liked it before launch because its Zelda and/or Nintendo?

The real question is: who actually cares or even pays attention to user reviews?

Gee, I'm naive enough in thinking some of these "user" reviews are actually amateur reviewers that received a copy. If that's not the case I'll take it back.

I need more coffee, thinking is too hard.
 
Check them by on one(by clicking their name), often they only have 1 review on their accounts and that one is a 0 for Breath of the Wild, just lol.

This guy took the time to even downvote the WiiU version:

111grkjc.jpg


-But has no reviews for anything else what so ever. It's funny how salty some People are that Nintendo finally got back in the ring, funny and sad at once, cause those idiots will never play this gem and will be playing their cinematic crappy games forever :) -or perhaps they will grow up someday, but that's wishful thinking I guess


I have been seeing this statement several times in this thread and I am just here asking myself when did Nintendo stop making some of the industry's best games because I dont think they ever left or stopped.

Have their consoles lost appeal for many folk? Sure. But their games are just as awesome as they ever were.
 
Doesn't he more mean that most user scores are people either trolling a game they haven't played with a '0' or giving a game they haven't played a '10' because they've already decided they liked it before launch because its Zelda and/or Nintendo?

The real question is: who actually cares or even pays attention to user reviews?


Exactly, it's not about what score is more accurate, it's about rating a game you haven't played based on some urge to defend or attack it on principal alone.

Giving it a ten because the all the reviewers did is obviously pointless.
 

Soph

Member
Exactly, it's not about what score is more accurate, it's about rating a game you haven't played based on some urge to defend or attack it on principal alone.

Giving it a ten because the all the reviewers did is obviously pointless.

All right then, my bad.
 

noshten

Member
Games like the Witcher 3 took several updates before having stable frame rate or less glitches on both console or PC. If a dev is serious about having a positive relationship with the people who buy the game - you do like CD Projekt and continue to update the game while also working on the additional content.
I can forgive a bit of inconsistency at launch but do expect games that provide DLC in one form or another to eventually be much better than the original. To me it seems Nintendo is focusing on the way games work on the Portable first and foremost but I do expect that in about an year Zelda BotW with the additional DLC content will be different. The good thing is Nintendo have seemingly hit it out of the park with the launch - so the DLC needs to be pretty substantial and I'm thinking there are several ways the game's core mechanics can be expanded.

Splatoon, MK8, SMM really provided the blueprint for how you substantially improve the game without paying huge amounts. In the case of Splatoon and SMM the updates were free.
There is virtually limitless possibilities regarding the type of additional content Nintendo can provide to BotW, the only limit is what more can you run on the hardware.

It's still amazing to me that a game like BotW is something you'd be able to play on the go, It's truly the best game to kick off the Switch's launch while also being the farewell to the Wii U.
 
This thread is hilarious

The game is so universally praised that there are literally no reviews to complain about so you guys are looking for user reviews to complain about?

Never change GAF
 

PrimeBeef

Member
They actually do that?
Early on the user MC was around 6.8 with a ton of 0s. It now sits pretty close to the critic average at 8.5. In the HZD thread it was mentioned MC cleans up obvious troll scores. Not sure if that is true. It could have been from a ton of 10s just to get the score up as well.

I don't pay attention to reviews and scores. Haven't since OG Gamepro was around, but the HZD/BotW stuff has been a facinating watch and read.

Damn it! Finish installing already so I can play.
 

PrimeBeef

Member
Are you serious? I don't find any userscore trustworthy at the moment, whether it's a 0 or 10, considering it just got released, but you'd rather remove dissenting opinions entirely? You can't just remove outliers like that.
You can remove outliers that say I haven't played the game. I'm just here to give it a zero. Go (my console). Which there is plenty of.
 

CHC

Member
There is literally no reason to even think about Metacritic user scores, let alone try to have any kind of discussion about them.
 

MTC100

Banned
I have been seeing this statement several times in this thread and I am just here asking myself when did Nintendo stop making some of the industry's best games because I dont think they ever left or stopped.

Have their consoles lost appeal for many folk? Sure. But their games are just as awesome as they ever were.

Nintendo stopped being relevant with their WiiU, which was a disaster. Only 14 Million units sold over all. Look at Starfox on the WiiU it was widely criticized for its bad controls, Nintendo wanted it gimmicky and still thought that people would enjoy the experience. They built games around the control scheme, look at skyward sword, it sold badly, not because it was a bad game but because they pushed motion controls on it, just to have them.

When they developed Breath of the Wild they realized that they didn't even need the WiiU Gamepad for it, they realized this game would work just fine without any "LOOK AT THE CONTROLLER" Signs on your TV like many WiiU Games have. With the switch Nintendo is finally back to the roots, they won't mess up their main titles anymore, Mario Odyssey will most likely work without any gimmicky controls.

They still have their motion control Wii-Mote lookalikes with the two switch controllers but they will use them for dedicated software like 1-2-Switch rather than on their main IPs. We are finally cured of Motion Controls pestering great Nintendo Games.

Also: Nintendo is bold now, they understand that they can be successful if they reinvent the genres a new, like they did with Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time. The Nintendo we see now is the one that created some of the best 3D games back in the N64 days that still pass the test of time. -Too bad the old Rare isn't hanging around to join the party :(
 

Gaminar

Banned
Just an observation or call it my opinion... the mostly middle aged 30 year old men playing this game living out nostalgia in front of their eyes see these same inconsistencies in other games and take away points in reviews. But because the name "Zelda" is tied to it... I feel like the hyperbole and myopic vision is just way too much.

No game is perfect.
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
Nintendo stopped being relevant with their WiiU, which was a disaster. Only 14 Million units sold over all. Look at Starfox on the WiiU it was widely criticized for its bad controls, Nintendo wanted it gimmicky and still thought that people would enjoy the experience. They built games around the control scheme, look at skyward sword, it sold badly, not because it was a bad game but because they pushed motion controls on it, just to have them.

When they developed Breath of the Wild they realized that they didn't even need the WiiU Gamepad for it, they realized this game would work just fine without any "LOOK AT THE CONTROLLER" Signs on your TV like many WiiU Games have. With the switch Nintendo is finally back to the roots, they won't mess up their main titles anymore, Mario Odyssey will most likely work without any gimmicky controls.

They still have their motion control Wii-Mote lookalikes with the two switch controllers but they will use them for dedicated software like 1-2-Switch rather than on their main IPs. We are finally cured of Motion Controls pestering great Nintendo Games.

Also: Nintendo is bold now, they understand that they can be successful if they reinvent the genres a new, like they did with Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time. The Nintendo we see now is the one that created some of the best 3D games back in the N64 days that still pass the test of time. -Too bad the old Rare isn't hanging around to join the party :(

Yep. That and consolidating development to one platform are the two things I really like about Switch. Not enough for me to buy into it early as someone who dislikes portables and finds it overpriced/underpowered as a console. But those two things will be big reasons why I may/likely will end up with one despite not liking the hybrid concept due to limitations as a console only user.
 
Just an observation or call it my opinion... the mostly middle aged 30 year old men playing this game living out nostalgia in front of their eyes see these same inconsistencies in other games and take away points in reviews. But because the name "Zelda" is tied to it... I feel like the hyperbole and myopic vision is just way too much.

No game is perfect.

Do you believe that no game should ever get a 10/10?
 

MTC100

Banned
Just an observation or call it my opinion... the mostly middle aged 30 year old men playing this game living out nostalgia in front of their eyes see these same inconsistencies in other games and take away points in reviews. But because the name "Zelda" is tied to it... I feel like the hyperbole and myopic vision is just way too much.

No game is perfect.

Some reviewer even said plainly that the game would be one of the best new IPs IF it wasn't called Zelda and had different assets.

Without wanting to be a dick about this how can you possibly have calculated the score if you don't know the weighting?

Like I said it's just the average rating without any weightings(like gamerankings would handle it) and it's still above 97.5, however only slightly. I don't think a 99 is possible at this time, even if there are some 10s coming in from lesser known magazines, they most likely wouldn't be able to drop the score down to 97 either though. -However I guess it's more likely for Zelda to reach 97 instead of 99.
 
-Too bad the old Rare isn't hanging around to join the party :(

Seeing how Nintendo worked with the guys behind Friendshapes to get Snipperclips made, I'd really like to see them work with Playtonic.

I'm still looking forward to Yooka-Laylee but I get the feeling it's being held back by being an indie budget title. Imagine Playtonic working on a sequel with a larger budget and guidance/polish from Nintendo. It'd be the dream.
 
Just an observation or call it my opinion... the mostly middle aged 30 year old men playing this game living out nostalgia in front of their eyes see these same inconsistencies in other games and take away points in reviews. But because the name "Zelda" is tied to it... I feel like the hyperbole and myopic vision is just way too much.

No game is perfect.

The witcher 3, Bloodborne, and mass effect etc all launched with critical acclaim and all had severe technical issues.

A 10 doesnt mean a game is perfect. It means that to the reviewer the faults of the game far outweighs its issues.

This thread is really the first time I have encountered this zelda bias nonsense.

Believe what you will though.

This is coming from someone who started the series with LA, thought TP was meh and skipped SS entirely. Loved ALBW though. One of the best games ever for sure.
 

Gaminar

Banned
Do you believe that no game should ever get a 10/10?

There is not one game in my library of the 25+ years of gaming that is a 10... perfection is also subjective for many. I can't talk for anyone else. What matters is the experience and journey. I've been blown away by games like Shadow of the Colossus to LOZ: The Minish Cap with their interesting narratives or contextual worlds but they are confined by the limitations of:

a) their hardware
b) limited set of actions

Whether the choice of these limited set of actions is a caveat to the creator's imagination is another story... I take them as they are.

Anyway, I guess I'm treading towards extreme idealism where the A.I. has extremely intelligent beings and the physicality of the world mirrors ours (with the creator's own creativity, reality and context thrown in).

The witcher 3, Bloodborne, and mass effect etc all launched with critical acclaim and all had severe technical issues.

A 10 doesnt mean a game is perfect. It means that to the reviewer the faults of the game far outweighs its issues.

This thread is really the first time I have encountered this zelda bias nonsense.

Believe what you will though.

This is coming from someone who started the series with LA, thought TP was meh and skipped SS entirely. Loved ALBW though. One of the best games ever for sure.

Although I really liked Bloodborne, I had no idea of its story narrative which although builds up the mystery of the game also took away from it. Also the ambient occlusion is horrible.

An opinion opposite to yours sir, is not nonsense. I have yet to play the 2 best games out now as an example and will reserve judgement when I do play them. But for those who do have these games :) have fun my friends!
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
If you don't give anything a ten on some strange principle, then you're just operating on a nine point scale where your nine is the equivalent of everyone else's ten and should be considered a 100% score. There is no objective score by which to measure games. All reviews can only ever be comparative - how enjoyable is this compared to other experiences? If BotW leads the field in that respect, even in the face of framerate drops, that is a 10 (for that reviewer).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom