Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

BOTW bashing seems popular on this board, so I thought I might add my misgivings about the game. Common complaints are the story, the lacklustre dungeons, side quests, shrines using the same aesthetic and breakable weapons. All these, in my opinion, are valid apart from weapons breaking which I didn't personally find bothersome and it forced you to use different weapons, adding variety to the gameplay. It's areas of the game that are rarely criticised where most of my qualms arise however. First off, the shrines are trivially easy to the point of being a chore to complete. The last Zelda game to be anything close to challenging in the puzzle department was Twilight Princess. Everything since I have steamrolled through. BOTW takes this to an insulting new low. Second is not so much a criticism as it is a rebuttal of a common point of praise for the game - its so called interactivity elevating it above other open world games. Sure you can climb things, cut down trees and use runes. But none are particularly fun apart from the runes, and even then there aren't enough of them and feel limited in their use. Games like Minecraft, Divinity 2 and even Skyrim presented options to the player at a greater volume and that were more interesting. Third, and perhaps my biggest grievance is the world itself. The art style of BOTW is very nice and at its best it feels like I'm playing a Miyazaki movie, but I can't help but feel its held back by outdated hardware. Many textures, especially on mountains and rockfaces, look dubious. Red dead redemption 2 and my favourite open world ever realized, Toussiant from the Witcher 3, are so much more vibrant and detailed that I found Hyrule bland by comparison. 30-40% of the map (the ice, fire and desert regions) also feel boring to explore given how much asset reuse is present. Now with all this being said you'd think I hate the game, but I'd still rate it an 8.4/10. Overrated imo but by no means bad. I think the physics based combat is very fun and exploring hyrule was still a joy, however I can't overlook what I perceive as serious flaws with the game that bring it down from its touted masterpiece status for me at least.

This is the complete opposite of my experience with both games.

I liked the shrines. They served the dual functions of waypoints in the landscape as well as providing the puzzle element to the game. Sure, there's some filler but the sheer quantity of them adds up and there are a few really well crafted ones. The standard of the DLC shrines is way better, bar a couple of obvious exceptions, which suggests that time might have been a factor.

The divine beasts were a little disappointing, although I'd think they're best compared to the final door puzzle and boss fight of a traditional Zelda rather than the entire dungeon as, by that stage, you've typically also explored a region's shrines to get to them.

I'd think that the dream ticket would be a game with the overworld of Breath of the Wild that, alongside shrines, also contained as many individually themed and complex dungeons of the sort that you'd expect in a traditional Zelda game.

If that's what they're doing for Tears of the Kingdom, it'd go a long way towards explaining why it's taken so long.

I agree that the DLC shrines were much better than those in the base game. I'd take 20-30 Champion's Ballad style shrines over 120 mini ones anyday. This brings to mind another area where Tears of the Kingdom could improve which is fun and meaningful side activities. If future titles incorporated 30 or so "mega quests" of the quality and variety of the Master Sword Trials, Tarrey Town Quest and Eventide Island instead of boring fetch quests then we're easily into GOAT territory.

I feel like I'm kinder to the Divine Beasts then a lot of people were. Yeah, they didn't live up to big Zelda temples, but I found them to be very interesting and novel and cool to solve for what they were. I think if the next game just makes them a bit more different from each other, and adds like one other thing (possibly taken from how past Zelda dungeons worked) to make them feel like a larger part of the experience, you're probably good.

But to be fair, it is also awkward that it has less focus on them than even the Majora's Mask temples (the sidequest Zelda), despite being a vastly larger game.

I just want dungeons with unique bosses and themes to them, that's all.

@kkslider5552000 That is the result of pretty much the whole game's content being optional and completable in any order. It'll be interesting to see how Pokemon Scarlet/Violet approaches this.

@Grumblevolcano I mean, not really. A Link Between Worlds did it's dungeons in any order, and they still had their own unique themes, puzzles, and storylines. BotW's dungeons just kind of failed because they felt like the interiors were soulless carbon copies, and the bosses were pretty much similar to one another. Even though I get what they were going for, I feel like they could still do actual legitimate dungeons in an open world game.

Ok, let's be honest here though. The Divine Beasts are a tiny portion of BOTW. ALBW's dungeons is almost like half of ALBW, even more if you go by content not taken exactly one-to-one from LTTP. Not too shocked the latter put vastly more priority with dungeons than the former, to say the least.

@VoidofLight There's still a sense of linearity in ALBW even though you do have some choice in the order you do things. You have to go to Hyrule Castle first, you have to beat the first 3 dungeons after leaving Hyrule Castle before you can access the Dark World, etc. Meanwhile in BotW there's a start point (exiting the Shrine of Resurrection) and an end point (defeating Ganon in Hyrule Castle), what else you do and in what order is completely up to you with no limits.

@kkslider5552000 I agree, and have always thought it odd how much hate the Divine Beasts receive. Yes, them and the bosses within all LOOKED the same, but they were different otherwise. And I liked how they were essentially like four gigantic puzzles. I guess if you're the kind of person that likes Oracle of Seasons more than Ages then that might not appeal to you as much, but I loved it. I just want more than four.

I'm a weird person in that BOTW does absolutely nothing for me and I tried it for 5 hours from a friend giving me their copy. I didn't find it fufilling to play, I heavily dislike the weapon breaking system and it's boring. Doesn't help that shortly after this I got told by quite a few people and an old streamer community that, "You don't really enjoy it until 20 hours." which is just...what? That's a terrible way to even pitch anything to anyone! Then the icing on the cake of me simply saying that it isn't a game made for me and getting a reply of, "Well you're not playing it properly." just made me dig my heels into the ground of outright disliking it lol.

@kaisu Yeah which is why I'm glad I never bought it lol. It's apples and oranges in that I'm more intrigued by an 'open world' design like in Nier Automata more because it just feels like it's bursting with personality rather than the bland BOTW style to me. I give games 5 hours now or maybe 10 hours if it's a JRPG and if I'm not feeling it, then I'm not gonna continue playing it.

I actually really like/enjoy the brand new weapons Splatoon 3 introduced to the series.

I remember playing the Tri-Stringer and Splatana Wiper during the Splatfest World Premiere and feeling only one emotion: crushing disappointment. The Stringer was as slow as molasses, couldn't paint to save its life and felt damn near impossible to actually get a kill with while the Splatana felt like whacking someone with pool noodle most of the time, never really getting the chance to use its OHKO whatsoever. I dropped them almost as quickly as I started them to focus on my loves from 2 (Aerospray/Dualie Squelchers my beloved) and thought it would be the exact same when the game finally came out.

Fast forward to today and those two classes are arguably some of my most played out of all of them. I still have issues with the both of them (such as Stringers painfully miniscule shot hitbox and Splatana's tap swipes feeling a bit unresponsive at points) but between learning how to properly utilise the two mentioned previously in addition to the absolutely busted stats and kits of the Reef-Lux 450 and Splatana Stamper? Suffice to say they've gone up in my good books considerably (the Splatana Wiper is actually my most played weapon as of now, with a 10.7% use rate according to SplatNet).

I've been trying out the Splatanas and they're really fun! Since the pre release splatfest was limited time you weren't given much opportunity to experiment with the new weapons. The thing that has been most surprising is that I've finally started enjoying using rollers! I hated using them in Splatoon 2 but since I gave them a shot in 3, I've discovered I'm actually quite good at them. Going back into Splatoon 2 I've got a new appreciation for them and decided to go back and unlock the Hero Replica Roller.

@Grumblevolcano It's true that BotW just lets you do anything at any time, and I... sort of hated that? Like I'm all for an open world Zelda, but a lot suffered while they left it completely open. ALBW had a perfect amount of freedom with the dungeons and stuff that made the game replayable, and I don't see why they can't end up just doing that but with a bigger map and more side stuff to do. Sure, there's a "dungeon order" but it's less restrictive than being told you have to do every dungeon within a specific order, and it actually gives the game some semblance of story other than "Wander around empty world endlessly and collect cutscenes that happened so long ago with characters who died."

After some play, I felt less impressed by Battle system of Paper Mario The Origami King as it felt I have to think in rush to allign the enemies before fighting.
I prefer Color Splash and Sticker Stars battle system as it felt like FF VIII style in term of using the ability cards and the Things summon.

The combat for origami king, tbh, wile it wasn’t really a good system compared to previous entry’s, it could be satisfying, and enjoyable from time to time, but the dialogue, the characters, (Even with the limit they had) were so fun and enjoyable, it made it all worth it. But I haven’t gotten to 100% the game, when I do get to that who knows when, I will probably have different opinions, but as of now, I love that game, surprisingly.

Never thought I’d read someone preferring sticker star and color splash to origami king in terms of combat. Well, origami king is admittedly an acquired taste, but the fundamental issues with the other two really dampened my enjoyment, even though I finished both.

Then again, I say that as someone who finished all three of those and couldn’t even drag myself through the classics yet, even though those get praised to the high heavens, so who am I to judge, haha. Still want to play the original, thousand year door and super but just never got the motivation to see it all the way through. Loved origami king, a fun adventure all the way with a lot of charm.

I've played all of the Paper Mario games, but the only one so far to maintain my interest from start to end has been TTYD. Based solely on how far I am in the other games, Origami King would be second favorite Paper Mario game. I stopped playing in Bowser's Castle and have yet to return to finish the game. Usually, I end up feeling there are better games to be playing, new and old, and that if I want a grand Mario adventure experience there are the better Mario & Luigi games. TTYD had the benefit of the Mario & Luigi series not being a series at the time, otherwise I might not have seen that game to its end either.

Generally, Paper Mario feels too slow and uninvolved, and I think future games should completely commit to the adventure genre rather than trying to hang on to what's left of its former RPG identity.