I truly, truly wish I could give this game 5 stars. It does so much so incredibly right, but it just has a couple too many flaws. It's still incredible though. Let's talk about those flaws.
1. The dungeons and shrines have very little visual variety.
2. The dungeons really could benefit from some more self contained puzzles, like the other zelda games.
3. The side quests are almost all terrible. "Rushroom Rush" can go lock itself in a burning building
4. It isn't very replayable. The core gameplay loop revolves around discovery, and that doesn't really happen on multiple playthroughs.
Ok, now onto the positives.
I tend to measure a game's quality based on the memories I have with it. If there are moments in a game that I think back to and remember fondly, then the game probably succeeded. Breath of the wild has so many moments it honestly astounds me. I'm pretty sure that the map of breath of the wild is more condensed than any other video game ever. Each corner, every crevasse hides something, it took two years of combing through the world for me to feel like I had done it all. The world lends itself so naturally to discovery because no matter where you go there's something to find. The physics system gives you so much freedom that you can kill enemies with random stuff just lying around. The world is beautiful and robust and natural, that some locations I don't thing I'll ever forget. The game I'd flawed, but what it does right is so right that I can't really fault it.
1. The dungeons and shrines have very little visual variety.
2. The dungeons really could benefit from some more self contained puzzles, like the other zelda games.
3. The side quests are almost all terrible. "Rushroom Rush" can go lock itself in a burning building
4. It isn't very replayable. The core gameplay loop revolves around discovery, and that doesn't really happen on multiple playthroughs.
Ok, now onto the positives.
I tend to measure a game's quality based on the memories I have with it. If there are moments in a game that I think back to and remember fondly, then the game probably succeeded. Breath of the wild has so many moments it honestly astounds me. I'm pretty sure that the map of breath of the wild is more condensed than any other video game ever. Each corner, every crevasse hides something, it took two years of combing through the world for me to feel like I had done it all. The world lends itself so naturally to discovery because no matter where you go there's something to find. The physics system gives you so much freedom that you can kill enemies with random stuff just lying around. The world is beautiful and robust and natural, that some locations I don't thing I'll ever forget. The game I'd flawed, but what it does right is so right that I can't really fault it.