Topic: Why do people like Zelda: Breath of the Wild so much?

Because it's awesome and beautiful and I like it.

@Chaotic_Neutral 60 hours is a lot of play time. I’d say it’s way more than what most Zelda games take to beat, or even complete.

It's like the people who complained about Animal Crossing not having enough content. Then you ask them how many hours they put into it and they say "oh, 200+ but that's not the point". I mean, it kinda is....

@skywake well to be fair, 200 hours in animal crossing is probably below average 😅

@AshleyGamer1995:

Of course the early games are still good; in many ways better, and I played BOTW as my very first Zelda game, so that should give you some indication of my esteem for them.

BOTW is very engrossing, engaging, and most importantly, accessible: as a total stranger to the series, it made me a fan.

To quote Austin Powers, however: "Having said that, I do have some thoughts."

My next entry was Link's Awakening (Switch) and I loved the dungeons. I loved that it took me a couple of passes to figure out how some piece of the puzzle clicked into the overall whole, how each one had a varied and unique look (including some fun minibosses like the Stalfos), and I especially loved the boss fights. Going back to BOTW, the Divine Beast dungeons are incredibly simple by comparison. Even if one considers all the shrines mini-dungeons, these are usually fairly inconsequential.

Skyward Sword was my next entry, and it hit a satisfying middle ground between linear exploration but truly opened-up dungeons. Both it and Link's Awakening have what I (and many other more qualified fans such as yourself who have played most entries as opposed to only three) consider to be some of the series' top-tier dungeons.

With regards to his different color outfit: perhaps it comes of BOTW being my entry game, but this is not a big sticking point for me. Yes I do prefer his green outfit, but I won't gripe about it now being blue. The breakable weapon system is, however (no pun intended) broken: I am not averse to weapons being able to be broken, but they need to last a lot longer.

My hope and my prayer is that TOTK addresses these concerns: bigger and more complex dungeons, longer-lasting weapons (if not outright invincible ones as you suggest), while also keeping the open world. All this to say: yes, the older games are still relevant. In fact, they have arguably never been more so, and Eiji Aonuma & Co. would do well to remember this (as I have no doubt that they will).

ACNH has been played 720 hours on our Switches, according to the user stats!

That's still less than BotW (a whopping 845) though, and that doesn't even count the times its been played on the Wii U or on emulators with mods.

For what it's worth, Fire Emblem Three Houses is a very distant third at 315 hours, and I tend to think of that game as the one that's a massive time sink.

@Eel 60 hours is nothing for me to sink into an open world game.
Elden ring took me closer to 200 hours to 100% and I still go back and play with friends, I am not even going to look at my open world Assassins Creeds or Skyrim playtime 🤣🤣

I am, however, refusing to do "Trial of the Sword". It's too hard.

Maybe, but a lot of this playtime is walking and climbing through empty landscapes. Early Zelda games may be shorter, but I think the proportion of actually exciting playtime is higher, because interesting events are more densely distributed in the smaller game worlds.

BotW is the first game in 20+ years I'd class as one of my all-time favourites.

I think I would've enjoyed it anyway, but I started playing during lockdown and continued until recently - all during a time when I was largely stuck in the house and not able to get out and about in the countryside and mountains like I'd planned to (something I did a lot before the first lockdown). I'm trying shorter games at the moment but might look for another similar experience (Xenoblade, The Witcher III, Skyrim).

I never thought exploring a game world could feel anything like real life, but I got the same kind of feeling at times. Early on I especially enjoyed walking along Hyrule's coast, and it reminded me of the Hebrides in Scotland (where I've hiked on about 30 islands).

I love the freedom of being outdoors in an open space where I can go almost anywhere, and BotW gave me a similar sense of freedom and awe. I believe my mental health would've been worse without that.

You not played Twilight Princess?

I guess you mean the hyrule field in Twilight princess. Like the hyrule field in Ocarina of Time, it IS rather empty, but it is much smaller than all the empty areas in BOTW taken together.

@chipia no, I mean, the huge journeys that were needed to get anywhere in the game, resulting in a disjointed map