Gaming Skepticism for BotW

[Maximilious]

Me personally as a huge Zelda fan, love this game as a game, but am having a hard time enjoying it as a Zelda title. The story just feels a bit too lacking to me compared to the recent past few titles in the series. Through the gameplay it is great discovering ruins, and I keep trying to recall where the placement of some may line up with past Zelda titles (ie. the huge tree in the middle of a lake NW of the great plateau tower), but I agree with OP that there is very little substance to this game.

Don't get me wrong, Nintendo delivered an amazing game with BotW, but I think they spent a bit too much time working out their new physics engine and not enough time delivering on the story or improving other aspects (ie. enemy variety - Lizalfox, Bokoblins and Moblins. And the scattered "bosses" - Guardians, Lynel, Talus, Hinox and Molduga. But that's only 9 in total, 15 including bosses, seems bit light for a game of this scale). Discovery is great, but it doesn't do much for multiple playthroughs because you can only discover something once.

It does make me interested in where they will go for the next title though.

Spoiler

One example I can think of is that the Triforce is basically forgotten by all inhabitants of Hyrule in this game. The only REAL reference we have is in the final cutscene with Zelda vs. Ganon where it shows up very briefly. Even Zelda doesn't reference it, she knows she should receive "some blessing" from the gods, but doesn't know what that blessing even is.

Maybe they could have put more in the game so I wouldn't already be waiting for the next title. I'm sure the DLC will not be giving me the story content I would have liked from this game.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Me personally as a huge Zelda fan, love this game as a game, but am having a hard time enjoying it as a Zelda title. The story just feels a bit too lacking to me compared to the recent past few titles in the series. Though the gameplay it is great discovering ruins, and I keep trying to recall where the placement of some may line up with past Zelda titles (ie. the huge tree in the middle of a lake NW of the great plateau tower), but I agree with OP that there is very little substance to this game.

Don't get me wrong, Nintendo delivered an amazing game with BotW, but I think they spent a bit too much time working out their new physics engine and not enough time delivering on the story or improving other aspects (ie. enemy variety - Lizalfox, Bokoblins and Moblins. And the scattered "bosses" - Guardians, Lynel, Talus, Hinox and Molduga. But that's only 9 in total, 15 including bosses, seems bit light for a game of this scale). Discovery is great, but it doesn't do much for multiple playthroughs because you can only discover something once.

It does make me interested in where they will go for the next title though.

Spoiler

One example I can think of is that the Triforce is basically forgotten by all inhabitants of Hyrule in this game. The only REAL reference we have is in the final cutscene with Zelda vs. Ganon where it shows up very briefly. Even Zelda doesn't reference it, she knows she should receive "some blessing" from the gods, but doesn't know what that blessing even is.

Maybe they could have put more in the game so I wouldn't already be waiting for the next title. I'm sure the DLC will not be giving me the story content I would have liked from this game.

I heard they'll be adding some new floating dungeons which will be much harder than the divine beasts, hopefully that also means they'll be longer. It could be exactly what's needed to have a decent amount of story content in the game, as there isn't nearly enough of it now.

 

[sarkwalvein]

I heard they'll be adding some new floating dungeons which will be much harder than the divine beasts, hopefully that also means they'll be longer. It could be exactly what's needed to have a decent amount of story content in the game, as there isn't nearly enough of it now.

The DLC has dungeons? Interesting.

 

[DeslotlCL]

Me personally as a huge Zelda fan, love this game as a game, but am having a hard time enjoying it as a Zelda title. The story just feels a bit too lacking to me compared to the recent past few titles in the series. Though the gameplay it is great discovering ruins, and I keep trying to recall where the placement of some may line up with past Zelda titles (ie. the huge tree in the middle of a lake NW of the great plateau tower), but I agree with OP that there is very little substance to this game.

Don't get me wrong, Nintendo delivered an amazing game with BotW, but I think they spent a bit too much time working out their new physics engine and not enough time delivering on the story or improving other aspects (ie. enemy variety - Lizalfox, Bokoblins and Moblins. And the scattered "bosses" - Guardians, Lynel, Talus, Hinox and Molduga. But that's only 9 in total, 15 including bosses, seems bit light for a game of this scale). Discovery is great, but it doesn't do much for multiple playthroughs because you can only discover something once.

It does make me interested in where they will go for the next title though.

Spoiler

One example I can think of is that the Triforce is basically forgotten by all inhabitants of Hyrule in this game. The only REAL reference we have is in the final cutscene with Zelda vs. Ganon where it shows up very briefly. Even Zelda doesn't reference it, she knows she should receive "some blessing" from the gods, but doesn't know what that blessing even is.

Maybe they could have put more in the game so I wouldn't already be waiting for the next title. I'm sure the DLC will not be giving me the story content I would have liked from this game.

You shouldnt have said that, now the fanboys will shit on you.

 

[Maximilious]

I heard they'll be adding some new floating dungeons which will be much harder than the divine beasts, hopefully that also means they'll be longer. It could be exactly what's needed to have a decent amount of story content in the game, as there isn't nearly enough of it now.

I believe they stated one new dungeon with story content, and we're only shy of 3 hearts from max, so probably 8 new shrines and one "big" dungeon. They are releasing it later this year so perhaps that is enough time for them to get some good story content in. We'll just have to wait and see!

 

[RowanDDR]

The best music is all about the notes that aren't played, and maybe the best open world game is about the battles that aren't fought? Personally when I started the game, I gazed into the beautiful distance and thought to myself "I bet there will be a tedious battle every 2 minutes that will interrupt what I intrinsically want to do - explore, for the sheer joy of exploration." Luckily for me, as you say, there are times when you can wander around for periods of time without hitting any major battles. Few and far between battles give them more meaning I think. If you love battles, play Hyrule Warriors instead, its basically a "bullet hell" Zelda game. As for pointless, arent all games pointless, in a sense?

Lack of traditional dungeons.. not something I even noticed until you pointed it out. The entire overworld has duneon elements - puzzle, battle, fights, whatever. The divine beasts are sorta dungeons arent they? All 4 of them..

 

[SouzetsuAerir]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I very much enjoyed the direction taken with BotW. I pirated the game on Wii U to demo it for a bit to see if I'd enjoy it and shortly after tracked down a Switch and the game.

After reading the OP I felt you already had your opinion very much set in stone and was determined to not be proven wrong. We're humans and we are all guilty of it.

 

[Kioku]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I very much enjoyed the direction taken with BotW. I pirated the game on Wii U to demo it for a bit to see if I'd enjoy it and shortly after tracked down a Switch and the game.

After reading the OP I felt you already had your opinion very much set in stone and was determined to not be proven wrong. We're humans and we are all guilty of it.

There's nothing to be guilty of. His opinion is as valid as anyone else's. Personally, I agree with some of it. If you don't, that's fine too.

 

[Retrojunkies]

i know this wont come as a shocker to some peeps on here, but i find this to be far from the ratings its received and actually wonder if nintendo paid these people giving it full 10/10 or 5/5 reviews.

the game is rather boring, continues the usual nintendo trait in being very repetitive in which even worse than previous zelda games, it literally has barely any story to it, weapon system just spoils the game, its not what i would consider open world/air adventure when all you do is run aimlessly around a massive (overly large) map finding shrines.

the actual story based levels (divine beasts) are very short and if you wasnt forced to find shrines to gain enough hearts to take gannon on, this game in theory could be completed within an hour or two.

because all you do is do shrines to gain enough hearts, enable divine beasts then take your fight to gannon the side missions have no worth to the game at all, neither do the memory locations because they dont give anything the player cant figure out for themselves.

 

[Futurdreamz]

The DLC has dungeons? Interesting.

FLOATING dungeons. I don't give a shit about how good they are, but it's going to be so fucking cool looking up and seeing a fortress or something floating over your head.

 

[MagnesG]

Zelda titles always tried to break its convention as long as it brought out pure fun. Some will love it, some will despise as the changes are not for their tastes.

Regarding BOTW, 100% they would try new ideas for their next title, or even completely overturn the mechanism. This is the reason they could manage to maintain its prestige for one of the best video games series, by constantly trying to evolve.

People who cannot enjoy the game the way as it is, well sucks for you. Maybe try your luck for the next title? Haha might as well create your own game eh for your own satisfaction?

 

[Retrojunkies]

FLOATING dungeons. I don't give a shit about how good they are, but it's going to be so fucking cool looking up and seeing a fortress or something floating over your head.

wonder how well users will love dlc when their 32GB gets full or have nintnedo allows users to put dlc on the external sd card but then why not the most crucial thing called game saves.

i swear how can they claim innovation when things that are run of the mill is not thought of.

 

[sarkwalvein]

wonder how well users will love dlc when their 32GB gets full or have nintnedo allows users to put dlc on the external sd card but then why not the most crucial thing called game saves.

i swear how can they claim innovation when things that are run of the mill is not thought of.

All of my digital games are in my 64gb uSD card.
Why won't it let you also put DLC there?

 

[Retrojunkies]

All of my digital games are in my 64gb uSD card.
Why won't it let you also put DLC there?

never know, but then its to point that if dlc can be put on external memory, why not the option to copy save data.

i mean imagine putting all those hours finding all shrines, kokiri seeds and side quests and your console has a fault or dies?