Topic: Please explain me why Breath of the Wild got so many high scores

@Operative2-0
Can't have a female character in a game without these dumb as hell debates coming up that's for sure. The gamefaqs messageboard for Breath of the Wild was a complete mess for a while (same with Horizon, Injustice 2 and Mass Effect: Andromeda).

@NEStalgia I mean, of course Space Zelda is a must have. I've already offered my series to Nintendo (they are yet to respond - in fact, most of my game ideas are rejected, including Kirby's Adventure in Fetish land, Metroid - Samus Beach party, and Luigi's Murder mansion).

I guess I take your point that franchise entries do affect reviews, rightly or wrongly. It is fair that a sequel that copies the previous game note for note probably won't get as high a review even if the first game was ace due to originality though the reviewer should also account for newcomers to the franchise but... inevitably it would get marked down.

I think the Call of Duty thing isn't 100% the full story - Infinite Warfare was the culmination of a slow move toward futuristic combat that spanned multiple entries and sales had been starting to dip before that so the game didn't innovate but continue down a road that was becoming more and more crowded. Titanfall 2 had a similar future setting and also bombed financially compared to expectations. The move back in time with COD was decided at least 2-3 years ago based on the drop in sales. Who knows, if Infinite Warfare had been the first after say Modern Warfare 2 or 3, it might have fared better. That is a change in player tastes with a particular sub genre.

@Rudy_Manchego I can tell that first statement is untrue. There's no way a Japanese entertainment company would reject the idea for Metroid: Samus' Beach Party. 80% chance they'd pick up Kirby's Adventure in Fetish Land too. I mean they actually had Senran Kagura officially in a Direct. HD Rumble flan and all....

Somewhat true with CoD, but IW really tipped the scales. I mean they were dabbling in near-future for a while. Modern enough settings with advanced theoretical weapons, etc. The leap to "CoD Space Soldier" was kind of jarring. I'm curious to see where the WWII throwback goes, but that's a genre even more saturated than future soldiers. They're retreating to a safe place in hopes that the era is their problem, when reality is CoD, like Guitar Hero, is probably in desperate need of an indefinite retirement after being milked annually for too long. But IW really just put it over the top and turned a big chunk of the remaining audience off. After a decade of WWII games non-stop, I'm wondering how big the demand for that is at this point.

Titanfall, I think expectations were too high, the game never had a unique "brand" behind it, and it was released as "another" online focused shooter amid a wave of other online focused shooters that had more established brands. I'm not sure the take away is that sci-fi themes don't sell so much as fairly generic military hardware games with an online focus are beyond saturated and only the more known brands can succeed.

There's a certain hive-mind mentality that's been built up over the years in the gaming community that 'Zelda game = 10/10'. And while many Zelda games absolutely deserve 10/10 and are unquestionably among the best of all time, Nintendo could put out Ninjabread Man, reskin it with Zelda characters, put Zelda in the title and certain sites/publications would probably automatically dole out a 10/10, 'cos Zelda. Just look at Skyward Sword (I'm only joking...)

Or Link between worlds

Sorry for bumping this thread (I've been doing that for quite a few of the BotW threads today lol), but I think this thread mentions an important point. I don't remember in recent memory any game that commanded perfect reviews so consistently from so many people. It frankly feels worth investigating why that happened.

Cause BotW is not a perfect game. Story is incredibly weak, a terrible antagonist who acts evil simply because it's the antagonist, and more. But for all of its faults, it manages exploration amazingly well. So many aspects are well thought out, like combat, cooking, crafting, and more. There are so many nuances that add complexity to the experience, yet aren't overwhelming because they are explained and experienced by the player. Add voice acting, easily the most developed version of Zelda (the character) yet, a variety of locations and shrines, and it's understandable IMHO why it got so many 10/10s even though it isn't perfect.

10/10 doesn't mean "perfect." I don't know why people find this so difficult to understand.

Also, Calamity Ganon doesn't need motives. It's not even a proper character: if anything, it's an ancient, almost mindless force of evil.

Story (what is there, at least) is uncharacteristically good for a Zelda game, but narrative isn't really the focus here.

I prefer judging a game for what it is versus what it isn't.

@shadow-wolf A lot of review sites, including this one are upfront about 10/10 not equating perfection. You can probably find criticisms even among those who gave such scores if one bothers to read, they just happen to be incredibly minor or nitpicks in their minds.

I think its awesome and I'm really enjoying it... But... I'm not a fan of the fantasy genre at all so i big part of the appeal is lost on me. I like real world (GTA) or Sci-fi (Mass Effect) games. Also I think some of the puzzles in Zelda are frustrating to the point that they pull me out of the game. I want to run, jump, fly, and collect. When I get stuck for days in a place like Divine Beast Vah Naboris it really kind of kills the game for me. I don't enjoy that part of the game.

That said there is enough there to get beyond those points and I probably still consider it like an 8.8.

I'm a Newbie of Breath of the Wild. I have never played Zelda games before, not a Zelda fan but BotW kinda interesting a bit for me. Even i'm a Newbie, can I still enjoy this game in Slow pace ? I mean i'm not in rush to play in Hardcore style (Beat very Though Bosses, Hunting for Specific enemies, Explore the Shrines). I think I can leveling up the Link slowly, enjoy the Beautiful Environment, Cooking & Gathering materials, get involved into certain Events, have fun with Magnetize, etc.

Maybe because its an open world collectathon for zelda for the first time... id rate the game in the 7s actually cause im burnt out on open worlds and i prefer the classic Zelda formula.

I probably played 30-40 hours before I just got completely bored. I can appreciate why people like it though. It's a well crafted game, but it's a little too much of a departure from the Zelda formula for me. Truthfully, open world games are things I don't always have time for. I never finished Skyrim either. Don't get me wrong, these are fun games in their own right, but the huge world feels kind of empty and boring after a while. It doesn't help that I like to complete every part of a video game if I can. BotW is too big, too time consuming and too much of a 'running simulator' for my taste. I've already had my share of this flavor of gaming. Despite this, I'm always happy to see a Zelda game get high marks and make a lot of people happy.

10/10 because it is what Zelda needed, a breath of fresh wild.. erm, air.

We have what? Around 15 Zelda games with the same old formula, and only 3 with an open world!

The open world worked wonderfully in all 3 openworld Zeldas:
TLOZ, Wind Waker and Breath of the Wild.
There were 17 years between TLOZ (1986) and Wind Waker (2003) and 14 years between WW and BotW.

Long story short: If you haven't played through the 15 classic "formulaic" Zeldas, you've no right to want a 16th formulaic one or deny fans of openworld-Zelda-games a 4th openworld-Zelda. Keep it fair and balanced, you damn Ganondorfs. Joking aside, Aonuma confirmed it already, he's going to produce the next Zelda as well, and it will be openworld again, and it also might have multiplayer.

There are many games out there that's like they have high scores for granted. Both you and the reviewers know they will get a high score even before the reviewers themselves have a chance to try them. Zelda is one of those game franchises. I don't think one can do much more other than deal with it. I'm not a big Zelda fan, but in my opinion Breath of the wild is the least game in this series that would deserve a high score since it is by far the most bland, generic and shallow. I myself would give a perfect score only to Twilight princess but I can understand other people giving perfect scores to some other episodes too, that they liked more than me because of personal taste. This time is different in my opinion. But it seems that "Zelda" name still can count on its power no matter what.

I believe the 'perfect' scoring is another example of review and meta critic scores having very little merit.

To me, and some review sites, a 10/10 score is close to perfect. 5 is average, 6 above average, 7 pretty good, 8 really good, 9 outstanding, 10 perfect.

However, a lot of reviewers and sites shift these scores up a notch so that a 7 is really an average game. Not complaining or arguing the merit of either but they are different. The number becomes arbitary since everyone uses their own review metric. Without any standardisation, the final number is going to be flawed.

I think things like meta critic scores (or Rotten Tomatoe scores for movies for example) aren't great for media. I like to read reviews, find sites or reviewers I trust and then read the content of their reviews. To me, BOTW is a high 8 or possibly low 9 (basically a really great game) but then I see 5 as average. Reducing any game to one number score is really doing a disservice to games.

I have read in particular one review for Breath of the wild in an italian site that was so stupid, shallow, full of nothing but nonsensical babbling that a simple number score would have been less a disservice than the entire review. It was almost comical, for sure it was pathetic. The problem is the tradition that has been established of some names that have become untouchable in the gaming industry.
People don't even see the real game in those cases, they just see what they want to see and praise it no matter what, and reviewers simply are afraid to give an objective score to such games. And often probably they don't even want to because reviewers too are people in the end, and they too like to praise those untouchable games like everybody else do.

Zelda has become a sacred cow in the last couple of decades, and as such, is very difficult to criticize. I think it was (at least, until BotW) something you either loved or hated - its most obvious flaw (the stiff linearity of item - dungeon - item - dungeon - where the **** do I go overworld section) being also the single element that set it apart from other action/adventure games. It's a catch 22.

The Zelda fanbase is also particularly annoying when interacting with people who have limited experience with Zelda. Suggesting that Link could jump, or could be voiced, or any other change to some conventions established 25 years ago on SNES, will often result in public humiliation because "you don't understand what makes Zelda, Zelda".

So, Zelda has become something like SHMUPS or fighting games - games that the press doesn't dare criticizing anymore, because what makes them what they are is a long process of minor changes to a number of very old formulas. Therefore, they are always mostly judged on presentation, controls, functions and quantity of the content - the basic stuff.

@spizzamarozzi Link is one the most competent character of the medium with a variety of actions unmatched. That was always the point of the Zelda games. Having a multi tools character and build a smart level design around him. Complaining about his lack of variety of actions makes no sense when it's the specificity of the Zelda series. Especially if you compare him to other gaming characters with less variety of actions.

Because it's just that awesome. Even my girlfriend's 10-year old at home is totally in love with it, talks about Zelda more than even Minecraft (which is by far the most popular game for all kids at his school), which is a pure joy for me as a Nintendo geek.

I love the freedom and expansiveness. With the limited amount of gaming time I have in my life I feel this is the perfect game for me to have fun with in many years to come.

I love open world games, the kind of games I dreamed of as a kid where you could play around and interact in a complete world and do things how you like it. I loved GTA 5 because of that open world style even though the real world style and unappealing attitude of that series isn't my cup of tea at all. Now I

Agreed. As a man who has played since 1988, i dreamed of open world for years, now its here. 10/10