One of my favorite games that I never want to play again. When I originally played Breath of the Wild, it was a truly special experience. The sense of exploration and discovery was unlike any game I had played prior. That first blind playthrough was something special, which is a double-edged sword. I usually don't replay games so that isn't something that would really affect me but this game sticks in my mind. Breath of the Wild does not hold up on subsequent playthroughs because you can only play a game for the first time once. However, I believe there is more to how I feel beyond that.
I jumped into each DLC as they came out but never finished them. With each DLC that came out, I was having an increasingly less enjoyable time. Maybe if I played them from the beginning of a fresh save file, things may have been different. But then that leads to the first problem of not being able to play the game blind again. The DLC doesn't feel like it should be played from an existing file, but to enhance a new playthrough. But enough about the DLC itself, whenever I jumped back in, the experience felt hollow and the things to do were tedious. These were feelings that I never felt in my initial 100+ hour playthrough of the base game.
These were all feelings that I felt in Tears of the Kingdom and made me look back on how I actually feel about Breath of the Wild. I have around 50 hours in Tears of the Kingdom and this feeling of hollowness crept in far sooner than its prequel. After the honeymoon phase wore off, I just felt bored with it; copy-pasted activities, Ubisoft towers, and resource gathering. All of these things that I criticize in other games, but I didn't criticize in Breath of the Wild. It made me reflect on Breath of the Wild and wonder how would I feel if I played it for the first time now.
Would I have gushed about it as much as I did when it was new, I don't know. Maybe the hype of getting a new console, that at the time was being scalped to high hell, carried my enjoyment, again I don't know. Another thing that is worth noting, is that this is the first Zelda game I finished. I played many prior but this was the first one to get me to finish, why? Again, I don't know, my feelings are so cloudy on this title. All I know is that Breath of the Wild is one of my favorite games that I never want to play again.
P.S. Weapon durability is fine, you're just too attached to some generic weapon that you'll replace in the next ten seconds.
I jumped into each DLC as they came out but never finished them. With each DLC that came out, I was having an increasingly less enjoyable time. Maybe if I played them from the beginning of a fresh save file, things may have been different. But then that leads to the first problem of not being able to play the game blind again. The DLC doesn't feel like it should be played from an existing file, but to enhance a new playthrough. But enough about the DLC itself, whenever I jumped back in, the experience felt hollow and the things to do were tedious. These were feelings that I never felt in my initial 100+ hour playthrough of the base game.
These were all feelings that I felt in Tears of the Kingdom and made me look back on how I actually feel about Breath of the Wild. I have around 50 hours in Tears of the Kingdom and this feeling of hollowness crept in far sooner than its prequel. After the honeymoon phase wore off, I just felt bored with it; copy-pasted activities, Ubisoft towers, and resource gathering. All of these things that I criticize in other games, but I didn't criticize in Breath of the Wild. It made me reflect on Breath of the Wild and wonder how would I feel if I played it for the first time now.
Would I have gushed about it as much as I did when it was new, I don't know. Maybe the hype of getting a new console, that at the time was being scalped to high hell, carried my enjoyment, again I don't know. Another thing that is worth noting, is that this is the first Zelda game I finished. I played many prior but this was the first one to get me to finish, why? Again, I don't know, my feelings are so cloudy on this title. All I know is that Breath of the Wild is one of my favorite games that I never want to play again.
P.S. Weapon durability is fine, you're just too attached to some generic weapon that you'll replace in the next ten seconds.
É um jogo incrível, não tenho nada para reclamar além do habitual dos jogos da Nintendo... ABAIXA OS PREÇOS DE TODOS OS JOGOS E TRADUZEM TODOS ELES NINTENDO! PORRA NINTENDO! SÓ MALUCO QUE ACHA NORMAL PAGAR EM UM JOGO EXCLUSIVO DE QUASE 7 ANOS ATRÁS DE VOCÊS PELO MESMO PREÇO DE UM JOGO ATUAL! NÃO SOU UM DOS SEUS FÃS QUE FICAM CHUPANDO OS COGUMELOS DO MARIO E FICA FALANDO QUE VOCÊS SÃO MARAVILHOSOS PELO POUCO QUE VOCÊS FAZEM PELOS BRASILEIROS! ATÉ A SONY E A MICROSOFT É MELHOR NESSAS COISAS DO QUE VOCÊS, NINTENDO!!!
Open world exploration will never be more fun
One of the best games of all time
Simply amazing, the game is so good I was motivated to collect all 900 kooks for 100% completion. My favourite game of all time.
In this game the simple act of being around the map is something I already enjoyed so much.
At first I was a little overwhelmed by all the paths I could take and all the things to do, but I decided to turn the shrine detector off, and just pick the path that felt more interesting at any given time. That made it for me, I ended up manually checking every corner, talking to every character and doing every shrine and side quest. The only thing I didn't complete was the koroks.
It's such an incredible game, all the music is art, the colors and textures and animations simply make me happy to witness. The world is full and the things to do fun, entertaining and varied.
I ended up knowing the map completely, I could orient myself in seconds, and I happily journeyed through the same place time after time because I was doing the things as my interest peaked, instead of doing the things that were closer by.
This is one of the few games I have played with my partner backseating me, and it is a fond memory for both of us.
At first I was a little overwhelmed by all the paths I could take and all the things to do, but I decided to turn the shrine detector off, and just pick the path that felt more interesting at any given time. That made it for me, I ended up manually checking every corner, talking to every character and doing every shrine and side quest. The only thing I didn't complete was the koroks.
It's such an incredible game, all the music is art, the colors and textures and animations simply make me happy to witness. The world is full and the things to do fun, entertaining and varied.
I ended up knowing the map completely, I could orient myself in seconds, and I happily journeyed through the same place time after time because I was doing the things as my interest peaked, instead of doing the things that were closer by.
This is one of the few games I have played with my partner backseating me, and it is a fond memory for both of us.
I got the switch in 2017 when it came out and the first game I got was this one. This is a masterpiece period, the open world was vibrant and fun with unique mechanics and physics an amazing sandbox experience that I’ll never forget. From the characters to the soundtrack this game all around is amazing and I could never regret the countless hours I have put in this world.
A game that kinda got lost in the background. Obscure the moment it hit store shelves. To be honest, I doubt very many people have even heard of this game, much less played it. But I encourage you to give it a go ---- we're talking a Switch hidden gem here. You venture forth as main character Zelda on a fantasy adventure where the main goal is to take deep, calming breaths. It's pretty wild.
why does everyone wanna fuck the fish
Beautiful.
From the makers of the best tasting apples, comes the best tasting orange. Lucky for me, I like oranges too.
There are a lot of ways to go on an adventure. You can loosely follow the trail laid before you, you can do everything the helicopter parent of a tour guide tells you to, or, like in 1986’s The Legend of Zelda, you can go wherever you want, however you want, consequences for getting lost be damned.
2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild aims to be like that original Zelda that started it all.
This is one of my favorite Zelda games of all time. It has so much going for it.
Its Hyrule is enormous and exploring its massive expanse is an adventure all its own. It is SO much fun to go from one place to another. The ability to climb and glide is truly what makes exploration so satisfying, if you can climb high enough, you can go anywhere.
And the beautifully rendered places you can go are pocked with civilization. Hylians, Sheikah, Gorons, Gerudo, Koroks, Zoras, and (to the bafflement of people who care about the lore of the series) Rito, all continue to live after the apocalypse that Hyrule suffered a hundred years ago. And these beautifully designed people are as charming and interesting as ever. You can spend an in game day walking around any of the villages and watch a single person’s daily routine. Every creature, every plant, every item is so thoroughly considered that the game has a paragraph of lore for each of them in the Hyrule Compendium. But you only get that lore by taking a picture first, so you’re asked to employ a fair level of scrutiny to all these lush locations you explore. You will be rewarded with people to talk to, plants to learn about, and even plant people to do minor puzzles for. So, so many plant people…
Some of those villages sell armor and clothing to help you traverse Hyrule. There’s clothing for hot weather, cold weather, really hot weather, armor for fights, armor for avoiding fights, it’s great. There’s even a crossdressing outfit, which I feel was a cultural touchstone, if only because it awakened something in so many people. I love customizability and Breath of the Wild gives us that in spades. Everyone’s Link will now look different from each other because it’s YOUR Link wearing your favorite clothes.
You can even take the plants you’ve foraged and used them to dye your armor, further adding to the customizability of your Link. And despite being unable to name your Link, it is more Your Link than ever before.
There is truly so much to see and so much to do.
Exploration is the most important thing in the game, maybe to the detriment of other aspects of it.
It’s entirely possible that my love for this game would not diminish in the slightest if there wasn’t any combat. But, for better or worse, I think the controversial combat system is thematically, a crucial part of it.
Breath of the Wild is a game about how nothing lasts forever. Great kingdoms will fall. Valiant heroes will die. Your weapons will break. You must accept this fact of the world and press on to save it nonetheless, because the here and now is worth saving. Breath of the Wild is a game about letting go.
The weapon degradation is the most poisonous aspect of the goal of letting go. It goes against everything the Zelda series has done before. Every cool elemental weapon you find has an expiration date, which makes some players prefer not to use them, so that they last longer. But the game wants you to learn to let go. Use it and lose it and move on. You’ll find another fire sword, there’s dozens of them and they always come back.
Now personally, I don’t hate the weapon degradation of Breath of the Wild. Every early fight is tense, and the act of throwing an almost-broken weapon at an enemy to deal double damage when the weapon breaks is very satisfying. And since most enemies have a weapon already, you’re always close to a replacement.
My problems with the weapon degradation comes in at the endgame. By this point, enemies have gotten stronger and become serious damage sponges. Even the most minor enemy, the lowly Bokoblin, has a silver variant with enough health to cost you at least one weapon. At the very least, this forces the player to get creative and start killing monsters in more…thrifty ways. Back stabs deal more damage so be sneaky. Enemies that end in “blin” can’t swim, so get them into deep water. Shocking an enemy makes them drop their weapon so you can snatch it and run. You can also just wear a disguise and avoid combat altogether if you want.
Eventually, you’ll start marking down where good weapons are and returning to them whenever there’s a Blood Moon that resets Hyrule to its base state, and you can pick those weapons up again. So now you don’t have to be thrifty, but then you have a steady enough flow of weapons that you might as well just have unbreakable weapons.
The degradation system is fine, but it really only shines in the early game. And Breath of the Wild knows this, because the Eventide Island shrine challenge takes all your weapons and armor away. You’re back to square one, and it’s great. I remember a lot of people rightfully hyping up Eventide Island, but it’s kind of just the Great Plateau again. The system needed something to justify itself in the endgame.
My real problem with the weapon degradation system, the actual beef I have, is something I will not waver on, and it is that the Master Sword degrades too. You have to work hard for the most iconic sword in video games and it still breaks on you? Sure it comes back after a bit but I have to wait? Really? Would making the Master Sword an unbreakable but average damage weapon be such a game changer? Maybe. But I would have liked it more.
But there is so much more to Zelda games than the combat so I will move on.
Unfortunately, the Zelda-ness of Breath of the Wild is perhaps a bit estranged. Four visually indistinct main dungeons and 120 micro-dungeon Shrines make up the main trials of the game and I have no real qualms outside of everything looking samey for the main dungeons, the Divine Beasts. The bite sized shrines peppering the massive world is a pretty genius way to have a Zelda game this big. It’s a great way to get players exploring more of the map, and I respect that. 120 is a little excessive though.
Those shrines test not just combat, but your knowledge of a part the game I haven’t brought up yet, the Runes. Essentially half of the dungeon item equivalents of Breath of the Wild, the Runes are very interesting in how they let you manipulate the world. Magnesis is a particular favorite of mine, but upgrading Stasis to make it freeze enemies turns it into a vital ability. The Cryonis rune is a little less flashy than the others, but the ability to cross rivers with it makes it no less important.
To fill out the arsenal of tools, you get an ability from beating each of the Divine Beasts, and they’re all useful but Revali’s Gale, which can help you get higher faster, is by far the best of them. Revali isn’t my favorite champion but you gotta hand it to him.
I can imagine the complaints that these abilities and runes replace the dungeon item toys from previous Zeldas, and I am absolutely hurting for a hookshot here, but all of these tools are useful in many situations. There is no Spinner equivalent here. There’s no Gust Bellows. Maybe it makes me a bad Zelda fan but I think that’s a fair trade.
I would be an even worse Zelda fan if I said I didn’t like this game’s Princess Zelda. I like just about every character from this game, but Zelda is the mvp. This pouty bookworm with the big eyebrows joins the ranks of all the top tier Princess Zeldas, right up there with the one from Ocarina of Time and the one from Wind Waker and yeah I’ll say it, the one from Spirit Tracks.
I think I like this one best though.
The memory cutscenes in this game flesh Zelda out so much more than we’ve ever gotten before. This game even makes us think of Zelda when we see a certain flower in the wild, a simple collectible item, because we’re told it’s her favorite. It’s a little thing but it goes a long long way. Trust me.
Before I wrap this up, I want to talk about the DLC, which adds a few extra story beats, an upgrade to the Master Sword (but not an unlimited durability), a motorcycle (lmao) and a more classic-style Zelda dungeon (which I ultimately forgot about). It also adds Master Mode, which makes every regular enemy one level stronger than they normally are, as well as adding a new Gold level for the strongest of enemies, and then gives every enemy regenerating health.
On the one hand, I welcome Master Mode’s added challenge and additional replay value to a very long game. On the other hand, Master Mode shows us how ironically fragile the durability system can be. It becomes mathematically unviable to fight large groups of enemies. This is where I learned that campfires are actually your best weapon. Trapping an enemy into standing on a campfire will make them slowly die, saving your weapons for more important fights. I think that’s a cool thing that this game allows, but avoiding combat at all costs is a bit of a problem. Of course, this is Master Mode, and not the base game, where this isn’t quite as necessary. I still would have liked the ability to increase durability at a fairy fountain or blacksmith for a sum of rupees. You CAN do this with a particular Octorok, but it requires a lot of time and luck so I just don’t bother.
I have beaten The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild three times. Once on regular mode and twice in Master Mode, one of which I only used spears as my weapon (it wound up being a lot easier than I was expecting it to be). I never 100%-ed any of those playthroughs because when I found out what the reward for helping all the koroks was, I lost interest. But I can proudly say that first playthrough was a 99% completion playthrough. I played this game so much it ruined my first set of joycons.
I love Breath of the Wild.
And I recommend it to anyone, just learn to let go.
There are a lot of ways to go on an adventure. You can loosely follow the trail laid before you, you can do everything the helicopter parent of a tour guide tells you to, or, like in 1986’s The Legend of Zelda, you can go wherever you want, however you want, consequences for getting lost be damned.
2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild aims to be like that original Zelda that started it all.
This is one of my favorite Zelda games of all time. It has so much going for it.
Its Hyrule is enormous and exploring its massive expanse is an adventure all its own. It is SO much fun to go from one place to another. The ability to climb and glide is truly what makes exploration so satisfying, if you can climb high enough, you can go anywhere.
And the beautifully rendered places you can go are pocked with civilization. Hylians, Sheikah, Gorons, Gerudo, Koroks, Zoras, and (to the bafflement of people who care about the lore of the series) Rito, all continue to live after the apocalypse that Hyrule suffered a hundred years ago. And these beautifully designed people are as charming and interesting as ever. You can spend an in game day walking around any of the villages and watch a single person’s daily routine. Every creature, every plant, every item is so thoroughly considered that the game has a paragraph of lore for each of them in the Hyrule Compendium. But you only get that lore by taking a picture first, so you’re asked to employ a fair level of scrutiny to all these lush locations you explore. You will be rewarded with people to talk to, plants to learn about, and even plant people to do minor puzzles for. So, so many plant people…
Some of those villages sell armor and clothing to help you traverse Hyrule. There’s clothing for hot weather, cold weather, really hot weather, armor for fights, armor for avoiding fights, it’s great. There’s even a crossdressing outfit, which I feel was a cultural touchstone, if only because it awakened something in so many people. I love customizability and Breath of the Wild gives us that in spades. Everyone’s Link will now look different from each other because it’s YOUR Link wearing your favorite clothes.
You can even take the plants you’ve foraged and used them to dye your armor, further adding to the customizability of your Link. And despite being unable to name your Link, it is more Your Link than ever before.
There is truly so much to see and so much to do.
Exploration is the most important thing in the game, maybe to the detriment of other aspects of it.
It’s entirely possible that my love for this game would not diminish in the slightest if there wasn’t any combat. But, for better or worse, I think the controversial combat system is thematically, a crucial part of it.
Breath of the Wild is a game about how nothing lasts forever. Great kingdoms will fall. Valiant heroes will die. Your weapons will break. You must accept this fact of the world and press on to save it nonetheless, because the here and now is worth saving. Breath of the Wild is a game about letting go.
The weapon degradation is the most poisonous aspect of the goal of letting go. It goes against everything the Zelda series has done before. Every cool elemental weapon you find has an expiration date, which makes some players prefer not to use them, so that they last longer. But the game wants you to learn to let go. Use it and lose it and move on. You’ll find another fire sword, there’s dozens of them and they always come back.
Now personally, I don’t hate the weapon degradation of Breath of the Wild. Every early fight is tense, and the act of throwing an almost-broken weapon at an enemy to deal double damage when the weapon breaks is very satisfying. And since most enemies have a weapon already, you’re always close to a replacement.
My problems with the weapon degradation comes in at the endgame. By this point, enemies have gotten stronger and become serious damage sponges. Even the most minor enemy, the lowly Bokoblin, has a silver variant with enough health to cost you at least one weapon. At the very least, this forces the player to get creative and start killing monsters in more…thrifty ways. Back stabs deal more damage so be sneaky. Enemies that end in “blin” can’t swim, so get them into deep water. Shocking an enemy makes them drop their weapon so you can snatch it and run. You can also just wear a disguise and avoid combat altogether if you want.
Eventually, you’ll start marking down where good weapons are and returning to them whenever there’s a Blood Moon that resets Hyrule to its base state, and you can pick those weapons up again. So now you don’t have to be thrifty, but then you have a steady enough flow of weapons that you might as well just have unbreakable weapons.
The degradation system is fine, but it really only shines in the early game. And Breath of the Wild knows this, because the Eventide Island shrine challenge takes all your weapons and armor away. You’re back to square one, and it’s great. I remember a lot of people rightfully hyping up Eventide Island, but it’s kind of just the Great Plateau again. The system needed something to justify itself in the endgame.
My real problem with the weapon degradation system, the actual beef I have, is something I will not waver on, and it is that the Master Sword degrades too. You have to work hard for the most iconic sword in video games and it still breaks on you? Sure it comes back after a bit but I have to wait? Really? Would making the Master Sword an unbreakable but average damage weapon be such a game changer? Maybe. But I would have liked it more.
But there is so much more to Zelda games than the combat so I will move on.
Unfortunately, the Zelda-ness of Breath of the Wild is perhaps a bit estranged. Four visually indistinct main dungeons and 120 micro-dungeon Shrines make up the main trials of the game and I have no real qualms outside of everything looking samey for the main dungeons, the Divine Beasts. The bite sized shrines peppering the massive world is a pretty genius way to have a Zelda game this big. It’s a great way to get players exploring more of the map, and I respect that. 120 is a little excessive though.
Those shrines test not just combat, but your knowledge of a part the game I haven’t brought up yet, the Runes. Essentially half of the dungeon item equivalents of Breath of the Wild, the Runes are very interesting in how they let you manipulate the world. Magnesis is a particular favorite of mine, but upgrading Stasis to make it freeze enemies turns it into a vital ability. The Cryonis rune is a little less flashy than the others, but the ability to cross rivers with it makes it no less important.
To fill out the arsenal of tools, you get an ability from beating each of the Divine Beasts, and they’re all useful but Revali’s Gale, which can help you get higher faster, is by far the best of them. Revali isn’t my favorite champion but you gotta hand it to him.
I can imagine the complaints that these abilities and runes replace the dungeon item toys from previous Zeldas, and I am absolutely hurting for a hookshot here, but all of these tools are useful in many situations. There is no Spinner equivalent here. There’s no Gust Bellows. Maybe it makes me a bad Zelda fan but I think that’s a fair trade.
I would be an even worse Zelda fan if I said I didn’t like this game’s Princess Zelda. I like just about every character from this game, but Zelda is the mvp. This pouty bookworm with the big eyebrows joins the ranks of all the top tier Princess Zeldas, right up there with the one from Ocarina of Time and the one from Wind Waker and yeah I’ll say it, the one from Spirit Tracks.
I think I like this one best though.
The memory cutscenes in this game flesh Zelda out so much more than we’ve ever gotten before. This game even makes us think of Zelda when we see a certain flower in the wild, a simple collectible item, because we’re told it’s her favorite. It’s a little thing but it goes a long long way. Trust me.
Before I wrap this up, I want to talk about the DLC, which adds a few extra story beats, an upgrade to the Master Sword (but not an unlimited durability), a motorcycle (lmao) and a more classic-style Zelda dungeon (which I ultimately forgot about). It also adds Master Mode, which makes every regular enemy one level stronger than they normally are, as well as adding a new Gold level for the strongest of enemies, and then gives every enemy regenerating health.
On the one hand, I welcome Master Mode’s added challenge and additional replay value to a very long game. On the other hand, Master Mode shows us how ironically fragile the durability system can be. It becomes mathematically unviable to fight large groups of enemies. This is where I learned that campfires are actually your best weapon. Trapping an enemy into standing on a campfire will make them slowly die, saving your weapons for more important fights. I think that’s a cool thing that this game allows, but avoiding combat at all costs is a bit of a problem. Of course, this is Master Mode, and not the base game, where this isn’t quite as necessary. I still would have liked the ability to increase durability at a fairy fountain or blacksmith for a sum of rupees. You CAN do this with a particular Octorok, but it requires a lot of time and luck so I just don’t bother.
I have beaten The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild three times. Once on regular mode and twice in Master Mode, one of which I only used spears as my weapon (it wound up being a lot easier than I was expecting it to be). I never 100%-ed any of those playthroughs because when I found out what the reward for helping all the koroks was, I lost interest. But I can proudly say that first playthrough was a 99% completion playthrough. I played this game so much it ruined my first set of joycons.
I love Breath of the Wild.
And I recommend it to anyone, just learn to let go.
Breath of the new era!
I remember playing this on release day and not keeping up with the promotional stuff. Went in blind and made it to the top of the dueling peaks before realizing this was the kind of game I always wanted. Repeat playthroughs can’t live up to the initial journey through this world of Hyrule however.
the sequel might be a have better gameplay, but the experience of playing this one for the first time cant be beat. compelling story and visually pleasing, its peak shaking **** emoji
Incredible first draft of what TOTK ended up being the final form of. Never beat and hard to imagine going back knowing how the gameplay has evolved in the sequel.
Lindo
Okay this review is gonna make me lose my credibility (if I ever had one)
I do love The Legend of Zelda series a lot and I remember being really really excited by this new title.
I love the series for different reasons, but if I gotta summarize what are the key aspects of a zelda game I always look for, it may be these 3: fun and addicting gameplay based on item variety and cool combat, challenging and creative dungeon designs and bosses, and enthrilling story full of memorable supporting characters.
I remember the day this game came out: I got it from my cousin, played it for a lot of hours, exploring around and trying to progress through the story, going all out until reaching the final confrontation with Ganon. And for all the game, I found 2 of these 3 key parameters to be really missing.
Don't get me wrong, this title is beloved for a reason: it's a open world that makes you wonder discorevries like no other, able to want you go around the land of Hyrule forever despite the common reuse of enemies and assets. The customization and ability to experiment with the game engines and physichs was so good that they perfected and used as a big selling point in the sequel. The breakable weapons can be annoying and weirdly restrictive at times, but the ability to improvise and use so many more options scattered around gives you enough incentive to move forward, instead of "farming for the best weapons over and over again".
In that regard, the gameplay and exploration is incredible...... but the rest of the things I love about a Zelda game got kinda sacrificed in the process:
If dungeons once where important world building assets, full of complex mechanics and cool menaces, now they are turned into the samey monotone sets of corridors and enemies..... sure you can break those dungeons with the game physics and you can solve a "puzzle" in more that one way because of it, but in all honesty I miss the more refined puzzle solving of older titles..... the dungeons are also cool in concepts (being some ancients mechanical beings used as guardians of the land) but I kinda wish they did more with that and gave a little more variety to the whole bunch.
And the story, one of the things I love the most about a zelda game.... is basically already finished: you wake up from a long slumber only to find out that all of your friends are dead, the evil resurfaced, and the only big ally you have left is fighting for her life as you go around and cook frogs and apples..... I kinda wish you will be able to... you know... actually live the story the game is trying to tell, instead of discovering it with bits and pieces. I feel like other videogames, like most of the Dark Souls titles, are able to introducing you into and already messed up world while still making you feel part of the narrative, in a way, something that I kinda wish this game did better. There are some fun characters like Sidon, RIju or the Yiga clan, but overall I felt a bit of... emptiness in the narrative of Breath of the Wild.
You are free to enjoy it of course, these are the best versions of Link and Zelda for many reasons, but it's just not for me.
Overall, I feel BOTW has many reasons to be considered an amazing game, but FOR ME PERSONALLY it's not able to translate well a lot of the mechanics that made me love the series in the first place, creating a new type of experience thhat in my opinion goes a bit too far from classic zelda titles.
I guess I just prefer the execution of titles like Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess or Wind Waker, I dunno..... so seeing this often considered "the best game of all time" is something I will entirely disagree.
I do love The Legend of Zelda series a lot and I remember being really really excited by this new title.
I love the series for different reasons, but if I gotta summarize what are the key aspects of a zelda game I always look for, it may be these 3: fun and addicting gameplay based on item variety and cool combat, challenging and creative dungeon designs and bosses, and enthrilling story full of memorable supporting characters.
I remember the day this game came out: I got it from my cousin, played it for a lot of hours, exploring around and trying to progress through the story, going all out until reaching the final confrontation with Ganon. And for all the game, I found 2 of these 3 key parameters to be really missing.
Don't get me wrong, this title is beloved for a reason: it's a open world that makes you wonder discorevries like no other, able to want you go around the land of Hyrule forever despite the common reuse of enemies and assets. The customization and ability to experiment with the game engines and physichs was so good that they perfected and used as a big selling point in the sequel. The breakable weapons can be annoying and weirdly restrictive at times, but the ability to improvise and use so many more options scattered around gives you enough incentive to move forward, instead of "farming for the best weapons over and over again".
In that regard, the gameplay and exploration is incredible...... but the rest of the things I love about a Zelda game got kinda sacrificed in the process:
If dungeons once where important world building assets, full of complex mechanics and cool menaces, now they are turned into the samey monotone sets of corridors and enemies..... sure you can break those dungeons with the game physics and you can solve a "puzzle" in more that one way because of it, but in all honesty I miss the more refined puzzle solving of older titles..... the dungeons are also cool in concepts (being some ancients mechanical beings used as guardians of the land) but I kinda wish they did more with that and gave a little more variety to the whole bunch.
And the story, one of the things I love the most about a zelda game.... is basically already finished: you wake up from a long slumber only to find out that all of your friends are dead, the evil resurfaced, and the only big ally you have left is fighting for her life as you go around and cook frogs and apples..... I kinda wish you will be able to... you know... actually live the story the game is trying to tell, instead of discovering it with bits and pieces. I feel like other videogames, like most of the Dark Souls titles, are able to introducing you into and already messed up world while still making you feel part of the narrative, in a way, something that I kinda wish this game did better. There are some fun characters like Sidon, RIju or the Yiga clan, but overall I felt a bit of... emptiness in the narrative of Breath of the Wild.
You are free to enjoy it of course, these are the best versions of Link and Zelda for many reasons, but it's just not for me.
Overall, I feel BOTW has many reasons to be considered an amazing game, but FOR ME PERSONALLY it's not able to translate well a lot of the mechanics that made me love the series in the first place, creating a new type of experience thhat in my opinion goes a bit too far from classic zelda titles.
I guess I just prefer the execution of titles like Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess or Wind Waker, I dunno..... so seeing this often considered "the best game of all time" is something I will entirely disagree.
fun for the first 10ish hours then when youve explored most of the world it gets extremely boring. tried to play this shit 2 times and I was more dissapointed the 2nd time cause I made it further.
This is the best game of its decade.
Why did I play this on the Wii U
was my first zelda game and i have sunk HOURS into this.
replayed it a billion times, (consistently get stuck in the same spots) and it stays fun.
i really wish more switch games tried to replicate how this game looks because it is so pretty. like it is very odd to me how this game looks so good but the newer pokemon games look very bad.
this is easily my favorite (and what i think is the best) open world game, as it gives you almost no direction, but you still never get lost. there are INFINITE fast travel points and that is VERY nice to have.
overall this is a huge stepup for nintendo, as this doesn't feel like any other nintendo game. very fun very awesome i like it :D
replayed it a billion times, (consistently get stuck in the same spots) and it stays fun.
i really wish more switch games tried to replicate how this game looks because it is so pretty. like it is very odd to me how this game looks so good but the newer pokemon games look very bad.
this is easily my favorite (and what i think is the best) open world game, as it gives you almost no direction, but you still never get lost. there are INFINITE fast travel points and that is VERY nice to have.
overall this is a huge stepup for nintendo, as this doesn't feel like any other nintendo game. very fun very awesome i like it :D
I wouldn't play this game for the first 82 months it came out bc I was too scared of hurting the horsey's.
6 stars if I could.
I did end up hurting many horses.
6 stars if I could.
I did end up hurting many horses.
I played this game when it came out, it became my favorite game and I'm sure it will always be my favorite game.
kinda overrated in my opinion. kirby difficulty bosses, unnoticeable soundtrack, and goofy story. besides allat reall good and amazingly polished
i wish i could play this game for the first time again
Zelda needed a change and what a change we got. Yeah it's got its flaws and there's not a whole lot of "Zelda" in here but the joy this game has given me vastly outweighs any problems I have with it. 7 years later and still the best game on the switch.
Ainda é o jogo de mundo aberto perfeito, mesmo após 7 anos.
I did not try and find every single shrine or korok seed. Pretty fun
my Breath of the Wild experience was pretty much split in two :
- the first big chunk of my playthrough happened the year I got my Switch, in 2018. I essentially spent most of my time just wandering around and discovering the whole map by foot. I didn't try to do anything in the main quest except maybe see Impa, I mainly wanted to discover more of the world and I eventually conquered all of the map's Towers without having done a single Divine Beast and not that many shrines (I sucked ass at puzzles).
- the second chunk I did end of 2022/beginning of 2023 cause I was hype for TOTK but still hadn't finished BOTW. I then reimerged myself into the game, locking in to do all Divine Beasts, a good number of shrines, get the Master Sword and beat Ganon.
I think what encapsulates this game's qualities is the fact I had the same amount of fun and discovery for both of these chunks, played years apart. what a game.
- the first big chunk of my playthrough happened the year I got my Switch, in 2018. I essentially spent most of my time just wandering around and discovering the whole map by foot. I didn't try to do anything in the main quest except maybe see Impa, I mainly wanted to discover more of the world and I eventually conquered all of the map's Towers without having done a single Divine Beast and not that many shrines (I sucked ass at puzzles).
- the second chunk I did end of 2022/beginning of 2023 cause I was hype for TOTK but still hadn't finished BOTW. I then reimerged myself into the game, locking in to do all Divine Beasts, a good number of shrines, get the Master Sword and beat Ganon.
I think what encapsulates this game's qualities is the fact I had the same amount of fun and discovery for both of these chunks, played years apart. what a game.
as much as I love totk, I didn't feel the magic botw made me feel, this game is amazing