What does NMA think of Breath of the Wild?

Flymystical-DJ

Flymystical-DJ

just the Deputy
I'm really curious what people think of this game. This game is the exact opposite of Fallout in a lot of regards but I think it did a lot right and it just as fun. It's also technically post-apocalyptic! So what are your thoughts?
 
Fun.
It has a weird nostalgic feeling of playing with friends when I was a kid. Especially in the open areas.

I feel like shit for selling it when I did. And for what? Some alcohol?
 
It's a big meh. It's fun to play until it overstays its welcome. I don't like the massive world, too much faffing about.
 
I played until they asked me to go take pictures of landmarks to help my memories or something. I found one. None of the angles or distances I tried worked. I gave up.
 
It's pretty good. Actually managed the whole "See that mountain yo ucan climb it" stuff every open world game has claimed and failed at. Weather affects you and the items, dependant on equipment, I particularly like how if you kill a bird in the volcano area or drop raw meat it gets cooked after a bit.
The combat is pretty decent specially compared to the usual Zelda game fare and the art direction is beautiful and ever action has it's own little bit of flavor and charm. 9/10, altho I didn't bother getting all the shrines or the photographs.
 
I enjoyed it on Wii U sadly so I missed the Switch's version. The dungeons were shit.
 
It's fine. Weapons break too quickly and I got fucking annoyed so I just rushed the Master Sword so I could have something that wasn't always breaking. If there was a way to repair weapons somehow I'd be happier with the system. Shrines are fun, bite sized little puzzles that I do honestly enjoy. I had more fun with them than the main open world sections. They remind me of Portal.

I still have to beat it, but I lost a lot of the interest to play after Mario Odyssey came out, which I think is really good. Breath of the Wild was... fine. Kass is the only new character whose name I remember, and that's because accordion bird is best bird.
 
It's ok. My motivation declined rather quickly. I like Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask more. Why? Because they have quite big map sections which are connected to each other so you're getting an impression of an open world but they aren't. BotW however has an real open world map with almost nothing inside them. It's pretty boring and nearly not rewarding to explore them. And as Chromevod said, weapons breaking too quickly and not having a system to repair them is super annoying. I didn't see the whole game because I haven't finished it yet so probably there's more I don't like.
 
Question to those who enjoyed it: Did you play it on the handheld switch or on a big screen?

I gave it a solid 4-5 hours on handheld but got super bored to be honest.

My main gripe is that the world seems empty. Sure, you can climb any mountain but there isn't usually anything up there. I'm going to get stabbed for this but one reason Beth open world is fun, which other developers don't seem to get, is that there is always something hiding in any given cave or alcove or what have you. You will find a bit of lore or a quest or an npc that could tell a story or potentially point you in a direction of a treasure (which always disappoints in TES and Fallout but still).

Open world is not fun just as a big area you have to walk through. At least not for me. Games like Assassins Creed claim "open world free roam!" but it is actually fucking annoying in those games because you just waste time getting to places over long stretches of nothing.

I saw no reason to explore in BOTW and it's not like you could find good loot anyway. Most swords break in like 5 hits.

Also, have to say that I'm kind of over the weird mute NPCs. I never know if I should take what they say seriously questwise or if its just their gibberish.
 
There are a bunch of quests in BoTW actually, and all the shrine locations and overworld puzzles are marked from afar with very clear landmarks, there are also a bunch of hidden events and phenomena, like randomly finding the dragons flying around, nothing directs you to them except your curiosity in reaching them and both of them have different ways to approach them.

I play the switch primarily on handheld mode for everything.
 
I don't like handheld screens that much so I didn't play it like that, but the Wii U does suck.
 
7/10
It was an okay game for me. Tried playing on handheld, but disliked it compared to tv.

The world was pretty as was the art direction, but it was not very well designed. If anything it felt half baked and it was very aimless. The most aimless open world game I've played, reminded me of an open world style dirtbike game I played on ps2 when I was about 9. I never cared about any of the npc's or the story either. It did make strides in gameplay and interactivity that I hope others build on, or try their own versions of. One of the more petty things I didn't like was the whole tablet concept for pictures and navigating. That got on my nerves more than it should have. Another irk was that I felt there were no limits in the game once your stamina was built up enough. You could climb anywhere or fly anywhere just about. There is power in limits and Nintendo missed that here.

I would come across new areas and get excited to see what they offered, but it was always skin deep and pretty empty. There should be more structure to the game like past entries. I activated all 4 of the guardians, built terry Town and then ran around on my own with the dungeons that were very lack luster. I mainly forced myself to do most of this as I kept thinking since it was a Zelda game it must be good! I am just getting jaded or something. My not enjoying the game like past Zelda's was just an attitude problem surely....

I did not beat it. I find it more fun to watch someone play the game as opposed to playing myself.

After playing a lot of open world games I really wish other devs would stop trying to make them as the open worlds they create I think, even when they make good innovations, are still inferior to Bethesda's worlds. Only Obsidian has managed to crack it and FarCry manages to be it's own thing well enough that it doesn't really feel the same so much.

I am not excited for the new one as it seems to be the exact same thing. I'll get it and play it simply because it's Zelda. I never managed to beat Windwaker as a child and since it's my favorite I would really rather they remade (not remaster) that game and keep 85% of it the same with a few new additions. I don't want to buy a Wii U for that so I'll end up just emulating it with maybe Dolphin.

The Elder Zelda Scrolls (but more empty and even less roleplay): Breath of Mediocrity. Bah humbug.
 
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SquidVan said:
You like Skyrim though? :scratch:
Click to expand...
Yeah? That doesn't mean BOTW isn't following the open world trend in a bad way. As I said in my post they did not do a good job of it and I don't want the open world design to spread to other studios or especially long running series that are better without it, even though I like Bethesda's open world formula. I'd rather it stayed a less common design as most studios are bad at it in comparison to Bethesda titles or Obsidian with New Vegas. Nintendo needs to return to Ocarina, Windwaker and Twilight Princess styles in my opinion. Breath of the Wild formula isn't it for me. A large world with big levels to trek through is fine, just not in it's current open world form.
 
Well, correction, Skyrim isn't empty; It's stuffed with repetitious content. At least BotW has the shrine puzzles...
 
I don't mind open world games; I mind small scope, and the compromises developers will make to achieve them under budget.

I also mind a lack of so-called 'fast travel', and poorly implemented fast travel systems.
 
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