Gaming Skepticism for BotW

[Noctosphere]

– Nintendo has done away with dungeons that have a particular theme

This means the dungeons are not Fire/Ice/Forest/whatever themed. There are at least 4 main dungeons in the game, aside from the 120 shrines. As far as speculation goes, the 4 massive machine beasts are going to be the dungeons of the game, particularly derived from footage inside massive dungeon-like structures, which are far bigger than shrines, and matching footage depicting the said 4 machine beasts in trailers matching with the map, which after translated, the border spoke of the Sheikah's folly. The dungeons are corrupted Sheikah superstructures, such as the giant bird airship you saw in the "Life in the Ruins" trailer, which is one of them.

One thing that was shown in the Switch presentation was smaller settlements, like the horse stable settlements, and the encounters with hylians fighting off monsters (similar to things like thug encounters in TES games). And the large open space was heavily utilized when one of the Treehouse players was trying not to get utterly wrecked by a guardian. Open spaces can be incredibly dangerous if the enemy you're fighting warrants seeking cover. There's likely many more systems and layers to the game that have yet to be revealed. Even 4-dungeon Zelda games had way more than 4 "dungeons".

Your concerns for the most part are valid, though. Meaningful loot is an important aspect to any kind of game revolving around exploration. Being that the team behind this game is largely a younger developer force, we're definitely going to be in for a lot of things that may have never been considered part of the Zelda "experience" before. It's going to get weird.

4 dungeon?
i hope its only the first part of the game...
remember that most 3d zelda game are two part based
oot : young part, finding the stone, adult part, freeing sage
Tp : shadow cristals part, mirror of twilight part, ending part(two dungeon in that part, twilight palace and hyrule castle)
SS : Finding Zelda part, forging the skyward sword part, i never finished it though so idk if theres a third part like in TP.
i didnt finished MM and barely begon WW so idk about them.
I hope the four dungeon thing is only one part of the game, and i mostly hope it will have two or three part like others 3d games

 

[SirAileron]

Majora's Mask started the 4-dungeon standard of Zelda. Wind Waker only had 5 major dungeons. Skyward Sword had 6 dungeons, with a dungeon re-visitation. By and large, 3D Zelda games have had far fewer dungeons than 2D Zelda games. Ocarina of Time had the absolute most of any 3D Zelda game to date.

Also, while Wind Waker and Majora's Mask had so few dungeons, they had overworld "puzzles" that were the quests that led to actually reaching dungeons, similar to Skyward Sword. Given the latest story trailer, BotW will have a lot of this.

 

[Noctosphere]

Majora's Mask started the 4-dungeon standard of Zelda. Wind Waker only had 5 major dungeons. Skyward Sword had 6 dungeons, with a dungeon re-visitation. By and large, 3D Zelda games have had far fewer dungeons than 2D Zelda games. Ocarina of Time had the absolute most of any 3D Zelda game to date.

Also, while Wind Waker and Majora's Mask had so few dungeons, they had overworld "puzzles" that were the quests that led to actually reaching dungeons, similar to Skyward Sword. Given the latest story trailer, BotW will have a lot of this.

well, actually, twilight princess is the one with the most dungeon, ex equo with Zelda I, with 9dungeon. 3 for shadow cristal+4 for mirror of twilight + palace of twilight + hyrule castle.
also on second though, alttp had 11 dungeon iirc

 

[SirAileron]

Ocarina of time:
Child - Deku Tree, Dodongo Cavern, JabuJabu
Adult - Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow, Spirit, Ganon's Tower,
Mini-dungeons - Bottom of the Well, Ice Cavern.

Again, only counting against the 3D games.

 

[Noctosphere]

Ocarina of time:
Child - Deku Tree, Dodongo Cavern, JabuJabu
Adult - Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow, Spirit, Ganon's Tower,
Mini-dungeons - Bottom of the Well, Ice Cavern.

Again, only counting against the 3D games.

youre right, i wasnt counting those two mini dungeon

 

[Deleted User]

Even if theres still dungeons, point remains that 4 is a pitiful number for the biggest zelda game ever

 

[osaka35]

I worry about the lack of structure and depth are being replaced with breadth and amounts as well.

But

all we've seen is the premise and examples of how to play the game. I'm personally just hoping they're preventing spoilers and they want to guarantee that sense of discovery and exploration.

 

[Subtle Demise]

Sounds like The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Pain.

 

[Patxinco]

I've choosen myself to stay back of big gampelay videos, nowadays seems that you must see EVERYTHING of the game to actually buy it, then let me tell you guys something:

Were is the fun in doing this?
Do you remember the last time you had fun finding something you thought you were the only one to have found it?

You could get dissapointed, of course, but you could find a gem, and think about those idiots who haven't bought it just for the gameplays.

I've already preordered, ofc, if anyone was thinking of it xD

 

[osaka35]

The Shrines honestly are the most disappointing aspect of the game to me. Instead of making real dungeons (I know real dungeons are probably coming but the rumor is only 4 and that's not nearly enough for the biggest Zelda game ever)
(EDIT: Actually there AREN'T ANY LMAO http://nintendoeverything.com/aonuma-on-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-development-shrines-art-style-more/)
Sure theres 120 or something of them but think about what they are and watch gameplay of them. Its go in, solve one stupidly easy puzzle and get whatever the reward is. That's no supplement for enemy filled dungeons with tough puzzle segments and finding the right way to go at a given time and figuring out layouts and getting new key items.

from the link: "Shrines are very different from those of previous Zelda, though some are much larger and have a boss at the end similar to traditional dungeons"

 

[Deleted User]

from the link: "Shrines are very different from those of previous Zelda, though some are much larger and have a boss at the end similar to traditional dungeons"

We'll have to see these "bigger" shrines but I highly doubt any of them will be as complex as a real dungeon from any other game.

 

[osaka35]

We'll have to see these "bigger" shrines but I highly doubt any of them will be as complex as a real dungeon from any other game.

I agree, there probably won't be huge huge dungeons. I'm assuming a lot of the "grunt work" done in dungeons, though, will be done in the overworld. And maybe the dungeons will be more puzzle focused? I dunno, can't wait to find out though.

 

[xile6]

Ah idk.
Alot of the videos i have seen state that they where early gameplay or demo modes that where strip down of AI and stuff to not give away the game.
It being open and you being able to go anywhere doesnt really change alot. It just gives your more freedom and i am willing to bet there will be alot of side missions.
But the game will still have a story to move it alone.

But we will have to see when the game comes out.

 

[Noctosphere]

What I wonder is how will you get heart container then?

 

[xile6]

What I wonder is how will you get heart container then?

That i dont know. Maybe after beating a boss or finding it at the end of a side quest.
Tons of questions and it should all be answer in 36ish days.
Or a bit sooner if someone gets a review copy.

 

[hcrguy55]

***DISCLAIMER*** I have not kept up to date with all the BoTW news, so everything I post is all assumptions/speculation. Also, tldr pt2

I have a feeling the "open world" will have more to it then a bunch of randomly placed camps in it with a few guardians thrown in there. I also have a feeling (more hope than anything) that there will be more NPC interaction in this game than in any other. There probably won't be metropolitan style areas but, I'm guessing there will be lots of small villages, towns, or even camp sites. This game seems to take place far after whatever events took place, and that's why I think we'll see more settlements throughout the world vs having one major town or village in each zone. That and exploration seems to be one of the main themes in this game which also led me to this conclusion. Don't look too much into the hours of video footage because in reality, it's just the same thing over and over. Content was left out and the players intentionally made sure not to go too far out of a specific area.

In terms of horses, I think they will play a bigger role in the game than what we've seen. We know horses have stats, so maybe we'll need certain horses for certain trips? We also know the enemies can ride them as well. Maybe wild horses will be harder to obtain as the game goes on due to other NPCs going out and taming them or maybe the enemies will raid stables and steal horses or something.

The shrines, I think, are going to be great. I've seen some videos of a couple shrines where they, like you stated, didn't take but 5 minutes to complete. I personally think the shrines are more puzzle oriented than anything else. The Portal games pulled this off quite well and I think that's a good example to use. There is confirmation that there will be boss battles in some of these (Link fighting the sword guy in the trailer, I believe, is one of them). I believe, like Portal, that these will become progressively longer and more challenging. I think that some of these shrines will already be 'activated' (red instead of being blue) where they will be more in line with a traditional dungeon and have monsters / bosses inside. Unlikely but that would be neat.

In terms of level of difficulty, are heart containers confirmed in this game? Ever since the announcement of cooking, I would think they'd leave heart containers out of this game (or at least limit it) to force people into hunting/gathering/cooking. If they go the traditional route where you have 2 rows full of hearts and on top of that have the ability to add additional hearts through food, that seems like it'd be too easy, imo. In the demos, Link gets one shotted pretty quickly from some of the mobs, especially the guardians. If there are heart containers, at least that's a good sign to know Link actually takes a good amount of enemy damage vs the 1/4 deal like in other games. I know this is still early on in the game with little armor but still. I hope that level of difficulty is there.


This isn't a day 1 purchase for me because my free time is limited due to work at the moment but, I honestly haven't been this excited for a Zelda game since OoT so I'm really trying to give this game the benefit of a doubt, if I even used that in the right context..

Oh one last thing. If we're given the freedom to do whatever we want, I really hope we have the ability to burn the Deku tree down. Just sayin

 

[Maximilious]

– Nintendo has done away with dungeons that have a particular theme

Dude, spoiler tags.

To OP's point on horses in the world, the horses all have different stats, and I can see the player reaching a point where they may want a new horse rather than calling the one they've taken from the stables. And perhaps the player is far away from a stable with no horse after a warp, they can easily tame a new horse for faster travel around the world.

On the "lack" of dungeons, the whole map is a giant dungeon. With only 4 bosses and 5 main dungeons, this means there's a lack of heart pieces to be given from them (if they even drop heart pieces in this title).

This game is going back to Zelda 1 where you have to blow-up every rock surface, and burn every bush to find the secrets held within. This is why the players will want to search the enemy camps. This is why the players will want to climb that cliff. This is why players will want to explore the world. Or not. The choice is everyone's to make.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

I don't particularly remember that but if that was said, it's not the case anymore. All sorts of interviews came out yesterday and pretty much confirmed everything I predicted/talked about here.

They did say that there would be large shrines with boss fights, though

Dungeons are there, they just aren't calling them "dungeons" anymore

 

[Spidey_BR]

I think they've put lots of horses and stables to showcase this specific feature in the last demo, after the January 12th presentation.
About the omnipresence of Bokoblins, that's just a way not to spoil the other creatures and enemies in the game.

I'm pretty hyped and certain that Nintendo won't mess with Legend of Zelda. That's their most valuable and cared franchise, even though Mario makes most of the money, Zelda gets the best developers and care.
I'm just a little worried about Shigeru Miyamoto, ever since Iwata's passing he's being out of the spotlight. I hope he's fine. I mean, besides delivering Firefox Zero, which sucks, he's being MIA.

 

[MagnesG]

http://nintendoeverything.com/aonum...the-wild-development-sidequests-freedom-more/

It pretty much satisfies my skepticism.