Topic: Breath of the wild extremely overrated or am I missing something?

@damien33ad regardless of what you’d like to call it you are being fairly ignorant with how you’re trying to label something off rather than trying to engage with the real why because of you own opinions is at odds with it.

I’d like to see it as an one off at least and I know of others would too without it being due to “politics”.

@damien33ad I didn't throw any insults at you. What you're describing of you're wrong, here's why is literally what happened.

@damien33ad actually read what I said, saying it’s or being isn’t name calling. I thought I was clear with saying I disagree with you, I could just write “NO! YOU ARE WRONG!!! with no reasoning behind it but that defeats the purpose of discussion.

I stopped reading after the soundtrack complaints. This is the least true problem about BOTW. After Skyward Sword and getting a headache from hearing Skyloft's theme for the 800th time in that game, I cannot tell you how necessary the more minimalist take on music was for the game. Imagine going through the overworld with the same type of catchy, orchestrated music would've made me shut off the sound for large portions of the game (and hearing the battle music over and over is the closest thing I have to a complaint). But the more incidental, subtle music for much of the game was the clear right choice, its a quieter, post-Ganon (for lack of a better phrase) Hyrule with tons of it destroyed.

And the irony is, when it does bring back the more traditional Zelda music...its the best its been in forever! The town themes in particular are real ear worms, and better ones than maybe any Zelda since Twilight Princess (especially since ALBW was largely updated LTTP music). It's one of the best aspects of the game, don't care, y'all are dead wrong on that.

A heart piece is a worthy reward, but a spirit orb isn’t. Ok then....

To me for a critical reception to be valid with the polish and degree of talent behind Zelda, it suggests a flawed opinion or bias to dismiss the final product categorically. So for me I definitely agree that the music probably is among the most objective (?) categories that could be looked at for signs of promise. Bombastic operatic solos/flutes/zambonis can really bring things up a notch, however they have little place in a vast world rife with exploration. Especially when you consider the need /or desire to re-traverse any given areas, where minimalism can contribute to the experience without drawing attention to itself.

There are many more such ways to divide up the game into pieces that lend themselves to more equal judgement. Say the vastness of the world or combat itself which are each too broad yet can be refined to elucidate positive and negative elements. A trivial criticism seems to be that the world is too large relative to the tasks at hand and yes maybe for some people this is true. Still, how many dimensions does a game need to be viewed in as glistening light in order to be worthy of enjoyment? I just think the criticisms are overly simplistic.

The Xenoblade franchise has these big open spaces as well, and it has an epic score for each area which never gets repetitive.
BotW's world is separated in different areas as well. Why not have each area be represented with different music? If the shrines had different themes as well, the music in those also wouldn't get repetitive.

Tons of other big open-world games have proven that music can enhance the experience. Why would Zelda be the exception?

There's more than one way to crack an egg as they say, basically for any particular game the priorities and the emphasis placed across those can differ depending on the kind of experience which was intended. I'm not sure why Xenoblade's methodology needs to be any more or less valid in broad spectrum compared to the Zelda franchise. If you look at the other games in the series music is always a strength, no less so here it just isn't intended to be the primary focus of the area.

Anyway nobody was saying anything about omitting music from the game so I'm not sure where that came from.

I stopped after "i've completed over 140 games and came from RDR" (joking, of course i read through but man...)

@OptometristLime
You said yourself that "big scores" have little place in big open-world games. And all I said that many games in the genre have proven otherwise.

@ThatDancingGamer Whilst I agree with most of what you said, I am going to be that terrible guy and point out that point 4 seemed to disappear into the ether; you just went from 3 to 5 and it feels like a couple of the points was you repeating something you said in a previous point.

I definitely agree about rewards not always feeling satisfying; an unfortunate consequence of the game design. They were so focused on giving you all the tools you need to solve any puzzle in the game from the get go so you could explore where you want, but this also means that the only meaningful reward you will ever get is a spirit orb, as that is the only real way to get more powerful (with either increase of hearts or stamina, which allow you to explore more and tank more hits). Since orbs are purely for getting more powerful, once you feel like you are powerful enough to take on the final boss, you motive for exploring goes flying out the window.

There are armours of course, but never enough incentive to upgrade them as I tend to find they only have niche uses so I just stuck to upgrading one set in particular. Nothing ever gives you a new ability (at least not in the base game, I am aware of DLC, but only two of the items I consider useful and are locked behind DLC so shrug). And don't even get me started on Korok seeds; more inventory for more weapons, but the amount required for the increases grows exponentially to the point where it becomes a drag (even with DLC item).

It's kind of funny to envision somebody playing a game that they hate, and actively looking around every wall and corner for something to falsify and misconstrue. I have, with some few exceptions, made a habit of avoiding games that I found overly taxing or to be trivial and stupid. That has as much to do with me not liking to waste time as with how plentiful the game selection is for us nowadays (on Switch especially). Usually a type of post like this would be generated with some degree of genuine feeling behind it so as to garner feedback on the community of how to better receive a game (i.e. play better).

I didn't like it either due to the weapons that break and having to craft recipes. VERY annoying and tedious... it made it a chore to play for me, honestly... I hope BOTW 2 does away with that. I also disliked the minimalist music. Very boring compared to the classic tunes found in Ocarina of Time and the other Zeldas.

Maybe he was giving the game a chance. Some games are growers and don't click with you instantly so it's not a good idea to instantly dismiss.

I agree, when I read this topic through there are some good and valid points, and since BoTW is a potential very time consuming game. Certainly for a completionist. And as much as I love BoTW, having over 200 hours in it, there are just some hideous repetitive tasks and annoying gameplay decisions like the fragility of weapons and rainy conditions with the almost impossible climbing in it. And I agree with TS about 10/10 games. A game will be never perfect. And I am 100% agree on the growing into games aspect. I always have to grow into open world games. I.e. Xenoblade 2 took me a few sessions of a couple of hours over a course of a month or two, only then I came into the story and played it for 250 hours in only a few weeks.

I am just on of those type of players who have to grow in a game. But maybe because I am slowly but surely becoming an old fart... 🤣

@OptometristLime I feel like your comment is assuming that everyone who dislikes something about the game hates the game which both you and I know is not true. There may be some, but not everyone and even if they do, at least they are giving the game a chance and are more confident about why they dislike/hate the game. Most of the criticisms aren't even that hard to find, so it's not like people are wasting energy finding something to complain about.

For me personally, when I criticise this game, I do it out of hope that the sequel will be even better, rather than some misguided spite to end the series. I love the Zelda series; my personal worry was that this game in its attempt to rethink Zelda conventions, removed too much of what made it Zelda in the first place.

@damien33ad Well, no. I appreciate that you don't enjoy the game, and that's fine, as far as that goes, but in terms of audience engagement, critical AND audience reception, and especially in terms of sales, BotW has completely revitalized the series.

Like it or not, BotW is the new OoT of the series.

I wonder if you guys/gals actually understand the meaning of the word "objectively". Most people feel like playing the game does not feel like a chore and they enjoy it greatly, yet you claim the game is objectively not that great? It's fine that you and others like you don't like it, but don't pretend like you're being objective, just because you dislike something most people like.

@ThatDancingGamer Did I go against any of your other points? I can't be bothered to go through your wall of text which seems to be mostly made up out of minor complaints. BotW is not a perfect game, no game is, but it's far from an objectively bad game as well. Which was my point. I could make a list of things that are great about BotW, but in the end, most of it would still be subjective, just like most of your list.

It's funny how we're necro'ing a post from May....

Going back to the OG's comments, though, it misses two big marks. The comparison to Elder Scrolls misses that BotW is more or less a reboot of Zelda 1. Which also predates most of those Elder Scrolls games. Arguably most of the "open world" games copied from and expanded upon Zelda, not the other way around. And criticism that it doesn't have the setpiece dungeons and story.....Zelda 1 had little more story than "stop Gannon" plus the lore in the booklet. Even Link to the Past had some great moments of telling a story, but mostly let the story into the backdrop. It wasn't until Ocarina (which was itself built on Link to the Past's formula) and the repeated attempts to duplicate it that we got "the Zelda formula" younger gamers are used to. At the time, a lot of people were unhappy at leaving the "open world" type structure (before that was a phrase) of the NES games. I still think of Ocarina onward as "the new type series."

So this game went back to the roots, to build the original vision with modern tech rather than being strapped to 8 bit pixels. What it did miss was deep dungeon crawls which the original had and BotW skipped out on. It doesn't have to be Aonuma style puzzle dungeons. Miyamoto Zeldas didn't really have puzzle dungeons, just labyrinthine mazes with minor puzzles. In an era where "reboots" are common, it shouldn't need to be explained too much that BotW is a Zelda reboot that goes back to the very original early 80's design and asks "how do we make this modern?" - it's not meant as a continuation of the Ocarina sub-series that was largely entirely different. It's meant to be a new start from the beginning. And minus the deeper dungeon crawls, it does that exceedingly well. But the Ocarina era is really just that, a sub-series that ran from 1996 to around 2011 with Skyward Sword which sold like hot garbage, and then a long period of nothing until the reboot revitalized the series.

Obviously people who are listing OOT and it's closest relatives as the primary lens through which they view Zelda are going to come away disappointed. It isn't supposed to be like those games. It's supposed to be like the original. And it is.