Talking Point: How Long Does Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Take To Beat, Really?

I enjoy the game even if I don't finish. Finishing is the joy of the game. Take Acreus I am slowly playing and collecting just finally got to the quest for the 4 Noble Pokémon.

Unless you dedicate the rest of your whole life to play this game exclusively, you will not find all the Koroks without a guide. Don't bother.

@KateGray - On a scale of 1-10, how disappointed were your parents when they found out you didn't even beat the final boss?

I've always considered a game beaten when the credits roll. Thankfully I don't ever feel the need to complete a game to 100% completion to consider it "finished". Some games are just nightmares for completionists. I myself can't imagine trying to find all the Korok seeds 😂

In my philosophy, the game is done when I finish the main quest, because that's traditionally how the game is structured. The main quest IS the game.

I know there are many, many games that defy this tradition and offer extensive quests to complete afterwards, NG+ and all the little "achievements", but I don't have time for that. I'm pretty sure the last time I really dug in and explored optional missions, DLC and the like after finishing the main game was Fire Emblem: Awakenings.

In fact, the really honest answer to the second question is "when the next game I want to play comes out", because there are a lot of games I want to play and only so many hours in the day.

I never finished BOTW for that exact reason. I think I sunk 125-ish hours into meandering around Hyrule, moved on to something else that came out, never went back. IIRC I beat three of the Divine Beasts, never saw the inside of the castle.

All shrines, divine beasts are required for me. Usually while I am doing that I do the side quests anyway.

I was playing but And I never finished but as soon as I heard they were releasing skyward sword on the switch I vowed to never play a zelda game again.

I have never finished it. I'm 90 hours in. All beasts beaten, terry town built, I'm riding the big horse with all towers unlocked, I could still hunt down seeds and shrines and the collect the armors and then beat Gannon I guess. But I just don't enjoy fighting the machines all that much. Idk.. it may be finished to me.

A game feels finished when you're done with it and have no need to play it anymore. Simple as that. Personally, I don't consider myself to have finished a game until the credits roll as a minimum, if it's that kind of game.

@Medic_Alert 100% agree. I rarely finish games and I'm not disappointed in myself or the game if I don't finish it. As long as I enjoyed whatever time I put into a game that's all that matters to me.

@JasmineDragon lol I bought the game on my wiiu and never even opened it. Then double dipped on the switch to finally play it during pandemic last yesr. So I feel you. Lol

I feel like "beating" BOTW is, completing all the shrines minus DLC, raising all of the towers, completing all of the Divine Beasts, gathering all of the memories and obtaining the Hylian Shield and Master Sword. Then playing Hyrule Castle and defeating Ganon. That's the full game. If you know what you're doing it can be done in 50-60 hours. Although I have logged over 300 hrs in total between the Wii U and Switch versions.

Open world games like Breath of the Wild are difficult to measure for average time to beat. Everyone is going to play differently and the more options you have on how you approach the game and overcome obstacles, the higher that variation is going to be. Then every person playing has differing levels of experience, patience, ability, etc.

Like, I generally consider a game beaten when you beat the final boss and the credits roll. For me with Breath of the Wild, that was around the 90 hour mark. I unlocked the entire map, did a bunch of sidequests, cleared the Divine Beasts, and beat all the shrines. But like you said, you can make a beeline straight to the castle and roll credits in a half hour. Then there are others who refuse to roll credits until they've completed every single thing there is to complete. And how far one goes to complete before the final boss depends on the game, too. What about games with really meaty post-games that comprise half or more of the actual game itself? What I'm saying is that an average time to beat a game doesn't make a whole lot of sense when you start to deconstruct what it actually means. To me, anyway.

I had put it down for years because the open world was overwhelming me. I finally decided to finish the fight earlier this year. I clocked in at 35ish hours. I do have a desire to go back and finish some more shrines… but so. many. games

Eh, difficult to measure. I'm at about 300 or so hours, if not more. That's down to playing Normal Mode very slowly, meticulously combing the environment for shrines and side quests; then starting all over again on Master Mode with self-imposed rules, like not using teleports. I did "beat" the game at around 240 hours, which is when I was satisfied enough with my Normal run (which included maxing out my preferred gear and completing most of the DLC content) to actually go fight Ganon. But is that really being "done" with a game when I still have stuff to do? What about games like Bayonetta, where the Normal play through is just a tutorial for Hard? Or Star Fox 64, where the whole point is to "finish" the game dozens and dozens of times, trying out different routes and high-score runs?

It took me a little over 300 hours to 100% it (with all the DLC too). I did use a guide for the Korok seeds, but you won't catch me feeling bad about that.

A game is finished when the credits roll, but that doesn't mean you're done playing or done all there is, like postgame content.

50 hours according to Howlongtobeat.com

In all seriousness, I've never actually played BOTW but I've always seen it like Minecraft: do what gives you happiness and nothing more. If you want to go straight to the final boss and disregard everything else, that's completely fine. If you want to take your time and just explore the landscape put in front of you, that's also fine.
Games are meant to be enjoyed in a variety of different ways so no one should ever say there's a 'definitive' way of playing something. I loved Lego Marvel Super Heroes as a kid and a lot of the time me and my sister used glitches to get under the map and play hide and seek. It wasn't an intentional method of playing the game but we still loved it all the same.

In short: just play for however long you want. Simple as that really.

By the time I was done playing and decided to "beat" it, the final two fights were little more than a cinematic to wrap up a little plot. It was sure cool to see a huge Gannon out in the field, but it wasn't exactly a sense of accomplishment. I think I really "beat" it when climbing and fighting Lionels became easy. The rest was just plot.

It's hard. I spent 200+ hours just messing around and doing quests as they came. That's the thing that makes BOTW so amazing. Everyone will unlock memories in different orders, at different skill levels. It really is an adventure formed by the choices you make. There are whole sections I did not do (No dragon hunting for this guy). But my journey was filled with memorable gaming experiences and when I finally found the last memory I went after Gannon. That was my story. And it was 200 hours long.

Getting the 'true ending' was enough for me. I messed about a little after that with side quests, but I was pretty much done. Amazing game!

I spent over 300 hours, and considered it completed after all shrines, divine beasts, DLC, and memories were completed before defeating Ganon. Generally I consider a game finished when the credits roll. How on earth a completionist could do all I did in 88 hours, plus all koroks is beyond belief.

I really like the poll answers, I could pick just what I thought, now if every poll had these good of answers.

Finishing the game to me is doing the four divine beasts, beating ganon and doing all the shrines. Completing it would be to upgrade all your armour sets, get all the koroks and do the kilton monster medals (edit: also completing the map, there are some locations which don't even have korok seeds). I've actually done all the koroks and kilton but not the armour sets on my OG file, and probably never will.

When I replayed it in master mode during the pandemic I "finished" the game by these rules. Can't remember if I did the trial of the sword in master mode? Might have done... but definitely got the master cycle. In the end it's up to you what you consider done. You could even challenge yourself to open every single chest. Though some are glitched unfortunately

To me, "to finish" a game is to get to the credits, but that's also when you finish the main quest so I couldn't distinguish between those two options.

I mean, in Zelda the main quest is to beat Ganon and save Zelda, if you do that in 30 min or 200h who cares. (But I doubt anyone playing the game for the first time would do it in a short time.)

However, for a game to "be finished" (to me I see a difference between to finish and to be finished), that's totally subjective in most cases, but should be agreed by most that if you've 100% a game then yes it's finished. But still, some games have high replayability by other means and are they thus ever finished? At least you as a person are not finished with them (you still say you've finished the game, but you're not finished with it).

BotW to me took maybe 180 hours but I did the full story and explored the map to find all shrines etc before almost reluctantly realising I was out of things to do and then went to beat the final boss.

And to me, I could never say to someone I've finished a game and not having beat it, but I CAN say I'm finished with it. Peace.

They usually say when the credits roll but some games have some significant post game story such as dragon quest 11. It's hard to explain but to a gamer you just "know" when you feel like you've completed a game.

For breath of the wild some may count just beating the final boss as completing it, but for me I had to do all the sub bosses and side quests before I was happy

There are games like Atelier Firis where you can role the credits and get all the new game+ unlocks by going to bed and sleeping though your initial time limit, or games like Atelier Ayesha where no matter what you do all the problems driving the plot get solved, and if you mess up someone else just dose it (because ya know like ... maybe more then one person is interested in the world not ending? Just a thought). "Beat that game" would be a really odd thing to say in that type of situation.

I only hear "Beat the game" from Western studios who make narrative driven games with clear endpoints. In SEA where New Game+ has been a staple for some time already, it's been "seen the credits" for a while now. I think Nintendo has even switched to this in English statements.

@UltimateOtaku91 came here to say this exact thing — DQ11's post game "third act" took me slightly over 50 hours, there's so much that gets wrapped up, and significantly changes the initial ending!

Another one that took it even further was Bravely Default 2, but I won't go into details as I don't want to spoil it for anyone

BotW remains the greatest game I have ever played and whilst I hope (expect) BotW2 to deliver (build upon) the experience, I am actually most excited for what will follow.

BotW2 I suspect will deliver a similar experience overall due to the limitations of the Switch hardware. It will build upon all the greatness of BotW, and hopefully sprinkle some new elements on top (dungeons please! Boss fights please!) But ultimately, it's the next Zelda game on the next hardware that has me very excited.

I feel like BotW is best appreciated if you get all shrines, complete the Divine Beasts, and beat Ganon.
My first playthrough took maybe 60 hours but I didn't get all shrines. I enjoyed the game significantly more when I plaited l played it again and went for all shrines. That took maybe 120 hrs.

I would like to know if anyone actually enjoyed collecting 900 korok seeds.

A game is finished when you get to the end, that is unless it's a Nintendo game.

You see Nintendo see's it's self as appealing to the family first, games for the family to play together. Gamers second. I blame the Wii. Nintendo, when asked 'who is the typical gamer' for the Wii, replied, anyone who can operate a TV remote, including Granny.

They make most of their games easy to finish, which is when the credits roll. So any age or experience level is a winner. Completing the game is for other people.

I finished BotW when the credits appeared. That's my excuse for giving up. There was little incentive to continue. It was getting slightly tedious, and the credits were like the cavelary coming over the hill to save the day. 🤠

I think Botw2 came out to the oven looking worse for wear because Nintendo changed the recipe and now they are trying to patch it up.

If it’s LEGO, I go all the way to 100%. It’s Zelda or Mario, it ends when I beat the boss, but I take my time with it.

As long as you want it to be.

I consider a game finished when the credits roll, but the great thing about gaming is that you dictate the experience, so I'm fine with people saying it's the moment they're personally done with it.

I haven't finished BotW by either measure. I think I've played 15-20 hours and only recently beat the first Divine Beast. I could see myself spending 60-80 hours all said, but anything more than that seems unlikely. I'm partially in that second camp ... It is literally a massive world with nothing to do lol

Cool game, but totally not what I enjoy about Zelda.

I completed the story & champions ballad, didn't try to get all the korok seeds. I could have completed the story quicker, maybe at around 40 hours but, there's so much to do in the game, I think I beat ganon at around 60-80 hours? I spent a good bit of time building up the armor and guardian hunting for parts/cores. Played through the game at least twice. Loved it!

Can't say how long the initial run took.

The thing I found about Breath of the Wild, despite how fun it was on the first go, is that every run after lost a lot of the charm. It became... routine. Predictable. And because the game lacks a lot of real plot, I find every run since to be almost dull.

I hope the sequel rekindles that sense of wonder and magic.

I only played for several minutes when I have the game 5 years ago and I didn't even click with the game at all. Then I sold the game in October 2021 for not having interest at all with BOTW. It was my big mistake to buy BOTW on a whim and I realized I will never like any Zelda games.

I think a game is 'beaten' when the credits roll.
Took me 75 hours to beat botw, did that twice, never 100%ed it though.

I haven't finished it yet.
The battles, with the camera panning around rapidly and endlessly, kicks off my motion sickness.
As much as I "have" managed to complete, I haven't yet risked the end battle, because I know it's going to be a lot of swirling and nausea and .. Bleurgh..
There's other things I can't do in the game, too, but for the most part I can aimlessly wander and explore, and things aren't too bad in general gameplay.

I'm over 350 hours. Which is pretty dang lame considering I haven't beat it yet! But I'm ok with that, because I've really enjoyed my time with it.

I "kinda" look forward to the next one. But I'm worried that I might've explored the map to death already. I do hope there's LOADS more to do in the next one.

For me, game is finished when credits roll. But, if game have another story mode(Arcade Mode), then the game is not fully finished. For example, many modern fightings have Story Mode and Arcade Mode. In some cases(?), plot in Arcade Mode differs from the Story Mode. In UNIEL[cl-r], plot in Story Mode differs from the plot of Arcade Mode, if I don't confuse. Especially, if we take Eltnum's and Akatsuki's stories in Arcade Mode, because they does not appear in Story Mode, only in Arcade Mode. So, if you finished Story Mode in fighting game, and this game also have an Arcade Mode, then the game is not fully finished. Also, do not forget about Mission Mode and some other non-story modes in other videogames. For example, Raid Mode in Biohazard/Resident Evil: Revelations. But, I will not finish these modes/missions. I'm not a completionist.

@moodycat ??? You spent more than 55 hours and didn‘t enjoy the game? As you wrote: „Your time is your own and your time is precious, so spend it how you want and enjoy yourself!“

What do you mean, "tiny idiots"?

i'm done with a game when i feel i'm done with it, which is usually when the credits roll, but occasionally when the game feels too long for its britches/what's left is of no interest (see: dragon quest XI's third act) and occasionally when it's 100%'d (psychonauts series)

that said, despite kneecapping ganon, i didn't get a single one of the memories in BOTW because i completely forgot they were in the game like 10 hours in

I suck at finishing games. I often end up loving the game, then something in my life steal the focus on the game, weeks later I'm not that interested anymore to come back to the game, and a new game comes up that I really wanna play. Repeat.

I do actually finish some games a years after buying, though, for some reason.

That said, conceptually for me, not every game has an ending, it needs one or more campaigns/stories to have an ending. So when the campaigns/stories are over, the game is finished. Every other optional activity I consider as post-game content. So online, often competitive games are never finished, unless you consider the servers being shutdown as an ending.

"Finished" or "completed" is subjective. It depends on the individual or group and their goals, not to mention the type of game. The finish line may be to merely unlock all modes. Or reach the end credits after the main story wraps up. Or even to 100% the game!

...That said, I've poured 165+ hours into BotW and the DLC lol.

It's been ages but I think I passed the 50 hour mark at the very least when I beat it. There was a lot of stuff which I just missed, like my friend told me there was an island that makes Link go naked and you need to survive. Seems pretty interesting but what can you do, way I see it if I don't find something then it wasn't worth finding at all.

Multiply the difference by 15 if you want to talk about Age of Calamity's case. An average playthrough of the story takes roughly 20 hours to complete. Getting "100% Map Completion" takes less than 100 hours. Being a completionist takes about 350 hours or more.

I was on 385hrs before deciding it was time to face Ganon. “Hurry Link!” “Be right there … ooh a squirrel.”

I mean I’ve beaten botw 4 times already, one on wiiu, and three times on switch one of those was on master mode. Never gotten all the korok seeds, I find that task too tedious

Took me about 70 hours, I kept playing after that and then reset my save file and did it all again after a year

I finished the game in about 70 hours. It was very fun and had a bunch of good moments, but I have no desire to go back to it. I’m not a masochist so I’m not going for Koroks, and the memories were always hard for me to find. I honestly much prefer Age of Calamity.
In regards to the finishing question though, a game is over when you say it’s over. Video games are meant to be played and enjoyed to your desires.

For me it took about 10 hours until I realized i wasn't enjoying it at all. Forced myself to get to about 20 hours but I doubt I'll ever touch it again as it's just...not very good. I know it's such a horrible opinion but beyond the blind fanboyism, it's a very bland and empty world.

Immortals Fenyx Rising is infinitely better in every way except graphics, and those don't matter.

@zool

Only Nintendo?

So if you play a game in the Atelier series where you get the credits and a "good" ending even if you fail or miss your time limit, that's still beating the game even though they are meant to be replayed (keeping some upgrades) until you can meet all your goals in time?

Or one of the many dungeon crawlers that actually track a "times beaten" stat that used for unlocks is over when you beat it the first time?

How about Hades, designed from the ground up to be beaten multiple times, even after you finish the main "story"?

NieR:Automata? The real "plot" in that game is only discovered after you play though AT LEAST 3 times.

How about Civ (or any 4x game)? Beat it on one map with one civilization and you've "beaten" it?

I could go on ..

It's absolute not a Nintendo only thing. It's MUCH more common with Japanese developers, sure, but there are still tons of examples where completing the game, finishing the story, and seeing almost all the content is nothing close to "beating the game" from dozens of western developers.

So if you go by "until the end screen", then a ton of games "end" before the even get started. If you go by "seen 100% of the content", then it is unlikely a single person as "beaten" BoTW even after 5 years, and almost a sure thing no one has "beaten" Skyrim after 15 years.

I believe "beating" a game is defeating its final boss. If you've "won," someone or something has to have lost. If I put a game down after completing half of its levels, then I haven't beaten it. However, I may very well have enjoyed that time, despite not reaching the conclusion. That said, everyone should feel comfortable playing as much or as little as they want. Definitely do not play just for the sake of beating a game.

Once my sword broke, I sold it.

75 hours. That was enough time to complete most of the shrines, unlock all of the memories, go through all of the major dungeons, grind for some late-game Guardian gear, and save the princess. It was a magical 75 hours, and I wouldn't have wanted to spoil it by spending countless more searching for a bunch of then-useless korok seeds.

Some games I consider beaten when the credits roll, and some I go for 100% completion on. It really just depends on the length and design of the game. A short game with significant endgame rewards for doing everything is worth spending extra time on. Whereas, with some 80 hour JRPG, I'm probably never going to go back and try for different endings or complete everything.

I would argue that you never truly finish a good game. Instead you come back to it just to live in that world for a bit. Great gameplay mechanics on their own can be quite cathartic.

I must have finished Secret of Mana over a dozen times and yet I will happy just dally around the Ice Country or Upper Land just because I like the music and game mechanics.

BOTW has a wonderful roleplay aspect where you can move in to Hateno Village and just go out gathering resources for the village. In many ways it becomes a Hyrulian Animal Crossing!

The entire racing genre is based on the idea of chasing better lap times in a never ending cycle. I often boot up Forza Horizon 1 on the 360 just to have a drive around the map.

I feel bored to walk in a 3D scenario.

zelda is a game that lasts 5 minutes for me and I give up. That's why I don't buy games from this franchise, nor any Mario in 3d. To be "exploring" the scenery, walking around without anything happening that would risk me taking a game over......these games are not for me. They are very boring to me.

But..answering the poll:
When I beat the main quest! Only the main quest matters to me.

I like the answer "When i'm done with it!" cause it's indeed a very subjective thing, some games I'm just glad to have enjoyed the story if it was good, others I'll want to have reached the end and collected all the collectibles in it but not necessarily do all the little side challenges that leave you with no extra abilities in the game, or that just unlock a trophy/achievement, etc... and others I will always feel I'm not done with unless I have done and seen absolutely everything. It varies from game to game and depends largely on how engaging the content actually is.

I played and beat both Castlevania Lords of Shadow games recently, for the first time, and felt the need to collect all the upgrades for my character but not to do all the little challenges with it cause I couldn't get into the actual fighting parts of the game, I just enjoyed the story, scenery and exploration so I stuck to those part I enjoyed the most and suffered through the rest to reach the ending in both. I consider that I'm done with those, on my own terms.

However, I could never consider that I "beat" the game if I didn't at least reach the ending. I could consider that "I"m done with it" but not that I've beaten it. And I couldn't NOT beat it if I enjoyed it, games I'd feel I'm done with without seeing the ending would be games I feel were terrible. But not great games like BOTW.

Finish normal mode + all korok , Shrine over 200 hours
and restart the Master mode 3 hours gameplay i give up

Why is the author of this article talking about having beat a game but not having beat the final boss?? That doesn't make any sense at all. The absolute minimum to say you beat the game is that you must have actually beat the game lol.

Though of course with games like this where there's plenty of content besides simply getting to and beating the final boss, you can have beat the game while still missing out on a bunch of the content of the game.

50 hours might be the average time to play through the game well enough to be able to beat Ganon, but it's obvious most people play the game for much longer so that they can experience a significant amount of the game content rather than missing out on a lot of the game.

Like in Mario Odyssey I beat the game after like 27 or 28 hours, having already collected a good amount more moons than I needed to to beat the game, but then I doubled my play time to 60hrs getting more moons until I got to the point where only the harder ones are left, at which point I felt that I had experienced enough of the game to say that I got the whole experience, which doesn't require 100% it. BotW beating may be ~50 hrs, while getting the full experience of the game might be 100 hrs, while 100% might be 200 hours, and those players who just like to explore the world will play for even longer.

I say seeing the credits means beating the game, but completing the game is clearing any important quests (As long as they aren't tedious, so yes to all the shrines in botw but no to clearing the pokedex). 100%ing is something i do after completing, and then only if I enjoy the gameplay enough to want to see every bit of it.

@HeadPirate I see where you are coming from with Hades and the like, but there is a fine line between that and say, setting the amount of stars needed in Super Mario 64 to trigger the credits, and games like Hades designed to keep starting over.

For example are the Shrines in BotW put there to all be beaten or are they there so that you will discover enough depending on the area of map you cover?

I fully respect your decision about not wanting to see the ending, even if it kind of really weirds me out. That's like putting down a book at the penultimate chapter or turning off a movie 15 minutes before the credits, but to each their own.

@moodycat If you didnt enjoy the game... why would you spend so much time in it???
Truth to be told, when I was kid in the late 80´s, and you just have to play the few NES games you got, I finished lots of games I didn't really like... (Friday the 13th, Fester Quest, The Karate kid, etc)

I saw the credits roll at about 200hrs.. but I went back to complete a few things after that… and I STILL never got those last 45 koroks…..

@BrazillianCara
I agree but will say that the finale was anticlimactic.

Everything but the tiny idiots.
I have no interest in following a guide to reach 100%, and certainly won't be finding them all on my own.

I think I put in about 90 on my first save, but that included doing all the shrines and getting the master cycle (I never bothered with the Trial of the Sword). However, the idea that you "haven't really played" the game if you didn't get all 900 korok seeds is just about as ridiculous as claiming the average person could beat it by running straight to Gannon with 3 hearts.

It’s still too many for most people, but at around 450 or so korok seeds all inventory slots will be open. If I ever replay the game I’m going to reach this point and stop

been playing since day 1, and i still havent done everything. Working on a 100% run rn, too much fun

I think it took me around 90hrs in total to get to the end credits. I got most of the towers and explored a fair amount of the map in that time, but those Korok seeds They can do one!

It didn’t keep me gripped throughout (I took some time off from it for a year or so) but it was a good gaming experience overall.

I was "done" with BotW in about 150 hours, I'd decided I'd done all I wanted quest wise, but I knew there was a lot more I "had" to do that wasn't neccessary - and I'm still slowly just plugging away at all that to this day. A game is done when you decide, and if anyone tells you you're doing it wrong, either ignore them or call them out for how wrong they are in trying to tell you how to enjoy your experience.

Been too long but I'm pretty sure I was 150+. A game for me is beaten when I beat the main campaign and the credits roll. If I have time, I will try to 100%, but I just don't have that kind of time anymore... Unless the extras are so fun I keep going anyway.

I haven’t played since the dlc all released and beat entire game on master mode, about 100 hours for that one. I will never find all the seeds but I did start a replay on the 5year anniversary the other day. Only thing I am doing is collecting memories and getting master sword. If I finish 1 or all 4 divine beats , we shall see.
Still one of the best games ever.

@zool

I think that just comes down to the mindset of the target audience and the goals and conventions of the studio.

I'll go back to GUST because you can see the difference SO clearly in the Atelier series. Before they were translating and making them for English audiences, the games were built heavily around endless repetition and playthroughs. It was impossible to "win" your first time, and getting every ending required 5+ playthroughs of the same content. I think at that point all the "secrets" and all the crazy hard to trigger events were meant to be part of the core experience. That's just what JRPG fans expected. You haven't "beaten" the game until you see them all.

When you look at Ryza though, the first game released with the west in mind, that's all but gone. There is still some "post game", but for the most part it's a narrative experience with a start and finish and you get the whole thing in one playing. In that game, I think the secrets you can't find until you spend a second playthrough maxing out everything are NOT part of the core experience, and you beat the game by making it to the end your first time.

As the barriers between a "Japanese" and "English" game have all but disappeared I think most studios have moved toward non-committal. I know people in Japan who would be so baffled at how you could possible say you "beat" BoTW without 120 shrines and 900 seeds they would just stair at you blankly expecting a punchline, while most of my friends in the west who have defeated the final boss say they "beat it" and no one argues. Nintendo and other developers uses phrases like "after seeing the credits" to show they respects both play styles, in my opinion.

I like to explore the world and play side quests until it starts to feel repetitive. Then it‘s time to beat the crap out of the boss and let the credits roll.

I played BotW on the Wii U. Now, 5 years later, I think of playing it again, explore the world again and maybe find little stories or details, I missed before.

I think BotW is finished when you beat the game after you've found all memories and get the extra cutscene after credits.

I still can't believe BotW is 5 years old.

For me it's: Completing all main quests (NOT DLC ones) - beat the final boss - watch the credits.
And there is no way to knowhow long it took me to beat the game. That's five sears ago and I started a new game numerous times to try different things, take different paths and so on. All in all, I think I'm around 700 hours total.

@moodycat some serious contradiction in your comment. Telling people time is precious and enjoy yourself yet you spent a huge amount of time playing a game you didn’t enjoy….

@UglyCasanova
I never heard anything about "empty worlds" in games like Shadows of the Colossus or Elden Ring. I wonder why that is? 🤔

@philwhite
You can't sell weapons in Breath of the Wild.

Spent 150h mainly exploring and mucking around. I did the boss battle after finding the last shrine and then was done with the game. Missing 70 little idiots but I don’t care about them. I still have the DLC to finish. Saving it for just before BoTW2.

I dislike this concept of "beating" a game. I suppose it makes sense with games that are intentionally hard and unfair, but a game like BotW isn't an enemy to pummel into submission. And I do think that you're done with a game when you're tired of it, whenever that may be.

BotW is one of the best games ever made and one of my favourites of all time, but I think I've played it enough now. I can't picture myself playing Super Mario 64 or Ocarina of Time again either, even though they are both masterpieces. At some point, even the greatest of games becomes humdrum and playing it feels like going through the motions. So I'm happy to just leave the majority of those little wooden [expletive]s under their rocks for all eternity.

@HeadPirate I guess my view is mainly from the Nintendo console, I am less knowledgeable with other games. But with Nintendo, the main mission in a Mario game is to rescue Peach, job done, roll credits. If the game is good enough or has some incentive to continue playing, gamers will carry on. But just to go back into the game to collect say, all three coins on one level for no additional reward is not always appealing.

To collect all 900 seeds in BotW just to say 'I've collected the seeds' when in fact you have just followed a walkthrough guide does seem somewhat pointless, well to me anyway. 🙃

BotW beat me in about ten hours. After the hundredth weapon broke, and I had no idea where I should be going, I gave up…

I still found some parts of the game very clever, and loved the look of the world, but for me it was too frustrating

@Bondi_Surfer
You should try different ways to get rid off enemies. Later on you will discover, that you have TO MANY weapons in your inventory and you'll need to throw away a weapon to make room for a better one.
Also there are not really place were you "should" go. Just look for suspiciously or interesting looking landmarks and just explore.

Still working on shrines and seeds and side quests... I will probably call it done when the new one comes out. Until then the adventure continues...

I finished BotW in 27hrs, that was doing the story. To me, credit rolling or main quest is finishing the game.

Yet if you want to do more you can in a game like BotW, that's the great thing. Also, why I like how backloggery has different levels like finished, completed, mastered.

@zool

I feel ya, but I even in that narrow field of view I'm not sure I can agree.

Mario Odyssey opens up 3 new worlds in the post game and Archivist Toadette offers a ton of rewards, so it's not just going back and collecting power moons for the sake of power moons.

In Super Mario 3D World not only do you unlock three new worlds (Star, Mushroom and Crown) with several new levels each, but you unlock Rosalina as a playable character, while Bowser's Fury offers a secret boss and Archivist Toadette Side Quests.

Pokémon is a post game cantered franchise at it's core, with new areas, new Pokémon to catch and new trainers to overcome when you beat the main game going all the way back to Red/Green.

You get the credits for "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" after playing for 14 days, and it's only after seeing them you get the Island Designer app! Heck, there is a strong argument the game hasn't even STARTED until you get that, and you see the credits after the tutorial.

16 new Boos to get in Luigi’s Mansion 3, Mission Mode and the new Captain Olimar mode in Pikmen 3 ... and so on.

As a Japanese company making games with the Japanese audience in mind, Nintendo has always needed to focus on repayable games with strong staying power after the credits because that market demands it, while given there HUGE footprint in the west, they also know they need to offer the cathartic and achievable "ending" that market demands. You can find both in a lot of titles. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a play style where you rush the credits and never go back, and Nintendo will give you that if it's what you want ... but that doesn't mean strong post game content isn't a focus.

Haha, and just as a side note ... it's just not part of gaming culture to use a guide to track down collectables in Japan. I mean obviously people do it, but for the most part, the people who WANT to go back and do that are the same people that not only shun guides completely, but turn off quest indicators, map markers, and any other aids like that whenever there is the option. Personally I think they are nuts, but everyone should play games the way they enjoy them, obviously.

I'm 110 hours in, and I've only completed one divine beast. I'm enjoying wandering and often explore off-map without unlocking the towers when they're right there. I'm at the stage now where I'll start ticking off more divine beasts though - the second will be done shortly. Thanks for the Tarrey Town reminder too - when I came across that part, it brought back memories of Terranigma, my favourite all-time game. So I want to finish that side-quest.

As to when a game's beaten, I'd probably say the main quest. I don't care about collecting everything, although I'm finding the collectable side of things more interesting in BotW than I did on Mario Odyssey.

I think I finished BOTW in about 215 hrs at a meandering pace, looking for shrines and soaking in a truly special game. I actually held off going after Ganon for quite a while, but my girls were getting impatient to see the story end!

So I “finished” it, but not 100%. They rushed me so much I never got around to finishing Tarry Town! I have to do so before BOTW2 arrives. And I never even dipped my toes into Master Mode.

In general, for me, a game is “beat” when you reach the ending screen, and complete most of the critical tasks that compel you to keep playing - it varies by game.

@masofdas I like your way of thinking about it - finished/completed/mastered. Probably the last time I tried to 100% complete or master a game was the NES/SNES era, before I had a steady backlog of games begging me to move on and play.

Nowadays, forget it! I’m so blissfully drowned in new games I’m lucky if I even “finish” 30% of them. They have to sing to my soul to keep me entranced long enough.

There are many things you could miss by just beating the main quests btw.

For me though the game are beaten when you don't want to play anymore. I replayed normal mode x2 and master mode x1, not including pure speedruns playtime, then I stopped having an itch to play it (for now), I might have clocked in around 350 hours minimum.

@Teksetter yep, at the moment playing Triangle Strategy which I will do once and be my story.

Some might play again and do the other choices etc

@masofdas
Triangle Strategy is one of those games that I know I’d enjoy but I just won’t let myself buy it due to lack of time & having fallen harder for other games. We just can’t play ‘em all! 🤷🏻‍♀️

It looks great though, and I hope you have fun with it!

@BullishAnt Ha! Me too! Let's have a race to see who can not start playing it first!

Whats so important about how long it takes to finish this game? If all you're only interested in how quickly you can finish this epic adventure, you've missed the objective in the creation of this game.

@moodycat Hey thanks for the explanation - I respect your honesty there. It’s good that you are aware and been able to address the problem. Kudos to you. I feel I had a little of what you experienced too but then I had children and my gaming time is so limited now I make sure I’m only playing something I’m enjoying.

I have a hard time continuing to play a game once I've seen the end credits roll, but there are many exceptions, usually if there is some kind of post game story to be discovered.
When I played breath of the wild i purposefully avoided the main quests for a long time because I knew that would be the end for me (and sure enough I moved on shortly after beating Ganon)

In the second poll, what’s the difference between the first two? I voted with the assumption that the credits don’t roll until the main quest is finished. So those are both my choice I guess… I so have sympathies toward the 100% faction though.

100% completion in 16 hours 48 minutes.

My general rule is: keep playing as long as you’re having fun. For BotW, that was 250+ hours. For Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, it was 3 hours.

It was after about 200 hours, doing all the shrines and the side quests, farming and killing hordes of enemies, a thought crept to mind; "Zelda might be getting annoyed with me wandering around Hyrule". Then I decided that it was time to whoop Ganon's behind.

I did all the quests, shrines, and upgrades for Link's equipment. Then did all the content for the DLC. I also did a fair amount of wondering in the world just because. I didn't get all the seeds however just got enough seeds to get all important rewards. Then decided to finish the game. Using a paper map with all the general locations of the shrines and some guides online to help find some of the trickier upgrade material I finished all of the above with 120+ hours on the clock.

I'm definitely a completionist. To me, getting 100% on a Zelda game is paramount. And on a massive game like Breath of the Wild that means acquiring and upgrading everything that's registered on the menus. That means:

1. All Shrines (including all chests inside shrines; the game checks that).
2. All Korok Seeds.
3. All Divine Beasts.
4. All Side Quests.
5. All Map Checks.
6. All DLC.
7. Unlocking all Fairies + Malanya.
8. Getting the Molduga, Stone Talus and Hinox Medals.
9. Scoring the max EXP possible for maxed out enemy upgrades and weapons (it took me hours waiting for blood moons to kill 10 Moldukings).
10. Getting the Dog Treasures near each Stable.
11. Getting the Horse parts from minigames.
12. Getting one set of each Armor and upgrading it to maximum.
13. All photos (I can buy some of them).
14. Upgraded runes.
15. Do the Hateno House and Tarrey Quests.
16. Making sure I get each possible overworld item that shows up on the menu (at least one of each).

The only exception to this set of rules is scouring the overworld for every single treasure chest, buried or otherwise. That would be unfeasible.

Also, the only Amiibo I got was the Wolf Link I used to unlock the Cave of Shadows on Twilight Princess HD. I'm not going to spend another 100 hours to max out new armor parts for Amiibo I have no interest in buying. Even I have a limit.

Having said that, Breath of the Wild not a Zelda game I'm about to tackle again any time soon. I played it four times. Twice on the Wii U; twice on the Switch (both regular and master quests on each case).

It's way easier for me to replay something like Wind Waker HD or Ocarina 3D, or even an old 2D Zelda title, since the games are still packing with content without being time sinks. An Ocarina playthrough lasts 12 hours tops, even with extraneous content like fishing the Hylian Loach.

If by "beat" you mean get bored senseless of it, than 30 hours. Actually beating it for posterity took around double that. Disappointing game, and barely a Zelda game either. A direction I do not want to see Nintendo go in again.

Over 400 hours of messing around, three times by now.

The idea of only playing BotW for 50 hours and feeling like you'd 'beat' the game lol. At 50 hours you will have barely scratched the surface. Even that 188 hours 100% number is so short.

I'm at 90+ hours, one divine beast defeated (might be hitting up a second soon) and still have a large portion of the map I haven't even touched, and a good bit more of the map I have quickly gone through but haven't really 'explored' and I've gone through just under half the shrines and I think I'm getting close to 200 Korok seeds. Not that I plan on 100%'ing the game, but I figure I'll work on actually beating the game once I feel I have fully explored the world.

I figure I've got a least another 100 hours until I've explored the whole world and beaten the divine beasts along the way and done the things that come with fully exploring the world and really gotten the full experience of the game. So I expect to beat the game I'll be at over 200 hours, without bothering to 100% it, but with bothering to get the full game experience. I don't plan on searching for every shrine though I figure I'd at least like to get 100 of them, and definitely have no interest in getting every korok seed but I figure I'll probably end up with like half of them as I continue exploring.

BotW feels like a 200-300 hours game. 200 hours if you just want to get the full game experience but don't care about 100%'ing, 300+ hours if you actually want to do every little thing (which means you're likely following a guide once you get late into the 100% so you're not searching around endlessly for those last few shrines or those last 100 Korok seeds haha). Anything under 100 hours and you missed the game haha. Anything under 150 hours and you didn't get the full experience.

And this is said as someone who has only played a handful of games to 200 hours in my entire life, and I've never spent 200 hours, or even 100 hours, on a single player story game before. But BotW demands that sort of play time to get through the whole game (and it's a blast playing it the whole time)! So even at under 100 hours right now BotW is already my longest played 'single player story' game ever, and I'm still definitely in the first half of my playthrough.