Zelda: Breath of the Wild [WU,NX]

N00b said:
That's funny because I feel the other way round.

I got my switch yesterday and played Zelda for about 7 hours straight. I did two towers, the tutorial area and seven shrines. I liked how the tutorial was handled and the freedom you have. I did not like the (mini-)shrines, they feel pretty shallow, and the world as such. It really feels empty and even paltry. I fought a ton of enemies, opened a dozen chests, only to find some fire arrows, crafting stuff or weapons that will break after, say, 10 hits. What's the point? There is somehow no sense of achievement, of progress, of development. Maybe it gets better with time. But right now I feel like something is missing compared to earlier Zelda games.

On the other hand I played Ghost Recon Wildlands beta through and liked it much better. The story and missions had a certain drive to it. Upgrading and trying out new equipment was a lot of fun. I had a blast trying out a lot of different strategies. And I had a sense of purpose and progress that I'm missing with Zelda.
Click to expand...

Not empty as in there is nothing there. Empty as in it's pointless and doesn't have a reason to be there. Like take Ark: Survival Evolved, for example. The map is just filled to the brim with dinosaurs everywhere. Too many. There's so many creatures packed into so little space that it's ridiculous and ends up feeling empty and purposeless because of it.

Zelda feels more alive. And while everything doesn't have a purpose, it feels like it has a purpose. You run into a meadow and instead of seeing a bajillion (exaggeration) creatures in it, there's a fox. And if it see's you it scurries away, and if it runs into another fox which can't see you it tells the other fox, "danger approaches" and they both run away. Or you come to a clearing and all that's there is a group of monsters around a campfire with no other creatures in sight. It feels "right." Like this is how it should be. There shouldn't be a bunch of random creatures roaming around just feet away from what looks like a hunting or raiding camp.

Rather than the Prince of Persia/Assassin's Creed method of climbing things where you jump from ledge to ledge and can only climb things where the developer wants you to despite it looking like you can climb other places (a lot of this in HZD, saw people die trying to jump to something that looked climbable but wasn't), it has something that feels more natural and organic. You can climb virtually anything...as long as your stamina holds out. Climbing thus ends up feeling purposeful rather than empty (you can only climb here or here). Not to mention that weather conditions affect you dynamically.

I guess a better way for me to have described it is the world feels alive. It feels like this "could" exist in as much as a fairytale world could exist.

Regards,
SB
 
N00b said:
Maybe I have become too analytical wrt video games. See, my first video game was Pong. I played that in the seventies on my cousin's console (I forgot the brand). My first console was the Atari 2600. I have played a ton of games in my life. I have thought many hours about game design and I suffer from "Been there, done that".

I have played all the non-handheld Zeldas since OoT. Completed most of them with all hearts. And I played many of the newer handheld Zeldas. And so far I loved all of them.

I think one of the major strengths of the series has been communication with the player. The old games keep you motivated and curious. For example you don't usually find new gear or abilities, you have to earn them through challenges, e.g. by progressing in a shrine. And then you have to use your new weapon or ability to finish the shrine, sometimes in creative ways. And you need to finish certain shrines in order to progress in the game. It's very motivating. That's why every Zelda game so far has worked well. Plus most Zelda games had some open world mechanics wrt side quests.

Compare that to BotW. The game really tosses you a couple of runes in the first four shrines, each of which you can solve in five minutes. And none of these runes have much use in the starting area. The game seems to tell you "Whatever, man. I don't really care what you do. Go take a hike." I don't think that's good game design.

With BotW I'm not really sure what's my motivation? The story? So far it's pretty simplistic even for a Zelda game. The game mechanics? There don't seem to be any really challenges here. The big world? Yeah, it's pretty big. But so far the rewards are pretty small and not so motivating, so that might a well turn out to be a chore. Cooking recipes? Yeah, right. Exploration? That's surely nice, but it only goes so far.

Maybe it get's better as you play. I sure hope this won't be the Force Awakens of Zelda.
Click to expand...
Maybe this one should have being Link's awakening reimagined instead of Legend of Zelda reimagined ?
 
Figured out how to cook things last night, so managed to do all the shrines and get the parasail. Slightly daunted now by the size of the blank spaces on the map..... :)
 
Silent_Buddha said:
Not empty as in there is nothing there. Empty as in it's pointless and doesn't have a reason to be there. Like take Ark: Survival Evolved, for example. The map is just filled to the brim with dinosaurs everywhere. Too many. There's so many creatures packed into so little space that it's ridiculous and ends up feeling empty and purposeless because of it.

Zelda feels more alive. And while everything doesn't have a purpose, it feels like it has a purpose. You run into a meadow and instead of seeing a bajillion (exaggeration) creatures in it, there's a fox. And if it see's you it scurries away, and if it runs into another fox which can't see you it tells the other fox, "danger approaches" and they both run away. Or you come to a clearing and all that's there is a group of monsters around a campfire with no other creatures in sight. It feels "right." Like this is how it should be. There shouldn't be a bunch of random creatures roaming around just feet away from what looks like a hunting or raiding camp.

Rather than the Prince of Persia/Assassin's Creed method of climbing things where you jump from ledge to ledge and can only climb things where the developer wants you to despite it looking like you can climb other places (a lot of this in HZD, saw people die trying to jump to something that looked climbable but wasn't), it has something that feels more natural and organic. You can climb virtually anything...as long as your stamina holds out. Climbing thus ends up feeling purposeful rather than empty (you can only climb here or here). Not to mention that weather conditions affect you dynamically.

I guess a better way for me to have described it is the world feels alive. It feels like this "could" exist in as much as a fairytale world could exist.

Regards,
SB
Click to expand...

While you cannot climb everywhere in FFXV, I also appreciated the fact that it was not full of monsters everywhere, while that was seen by some as an "empty world". I agree with you that having lots of "white space" contributes to make the world more believable and life like. After all in real life you only see lots of animals packed together in a Zoo, which is not natural at all!
 
FFXV did a pretty damn fine job with its open world indeed. Besides the "white space" (incredibly important methinks), what won me over was the incredible amount of character the artists put into the place. They didn't just pluck in a bunch of variations of houses and shacks everywhere. Instead they built a city with a power plant at the top into the mountain mountain. The distances felt believable as well. I really liked how long some of the tunnels were. This is in stark contrast to your average Ubisoft open world (that is not Assassin's Creed) which tends to be technically sound or even impressive, but almost comes across like it was procedurally generated. All rolling hills, nonsensical roads and the occasional body of shark infested of water.
 
After much practice I finally have shield parries down to a fine art. It's cool that you have to adjust your timing reaction dependant on your distance from the Guardian. :yes: Now if I could just master Perfect Dodge I'd be unstoppable!!! :nope:
 
Pressure said:
I suck at combat against harder monsters. Plain and simple heh. Suppose I have to find that practice shrine again ...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm absolutely terrible at dodging but I can parry a Guardian laser blast so have been seeking revenge on every Guardian that forced me to sneak around the sonofabitch at 100m. All those bastards are now dead! :yep2:

I just brute forced my way through one boss fight (the end of Vah Ruta) and mercifully that was doable. No time for dodging I'm just going to smack you over and over with my big sword, screw your attack plan!

The moment any battle requires me to dodge I will die. :runaway:
 
WOW

Switch vs Wii U vs PC emulator

0k2n1q62nsky.png


guess

:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:
 
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saw a video and wow, this game is really what we expect from all open world games out there! Man, why does nintendo make weird hardware which feels really hard to buy. Maybe I should find a used WiiU or something but damned Nintendo doesn't even bother about India which means heavily overpriced stuff unless one travels to US and buys it.
 
@RenegadeRocks same with Indonesia :(

Nintendo should completely abolish region locking just like Microsoft. Not the weird half-assed "region free".

So at the very least, buying digital goods from various regions will be easier.
 
Pressure said:
I suck at combat against harder monsters. Plain and simple heh.

Suppose I have to find that practice shrine again ...
Click to expand...
If you do find that shrine and it still does the tutorial, please post its' name here.
I generally avoid fighting, and when I need to fight, I go in with bravery and hearty food as opposed to, say, skill.
Not a problem really, so far, but once difficulty is tightened a notch or two, I will probably get punished for my barbarous fighting style.
 
Getting a 3ds xl for a pretty low price(around $100). Feel like getting it to play Ocarina, Majora and a Link between worlds. Atleast I will have some Zelda in my life.
Searched about wiiU but it's priced like a nuke around here -_- so can't really go for it. Can get a Wii for cheap for old zelda s but the damn thing is 480p and has no hdmi out !!! Had totally forgotten that! Man does Nintendo make weird hardware !

Sent from my SM-N920G using Tapatalk
 
Entropy said:
If you do find that shrine and it still does the tutorial, please post its' name here.
Click to expand...
Do you mean the multiple 'test of Strength' shrines with Guardian Scout enemies? I've come across a few of these of different difficulties - a Minor Test of Strength, a Moderate Test of Strength etc. They seem to reset after a while although they only give out one orb each - the first time you beat each.
 
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