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

I really enjoyed breath of the wild. Such a chill game. I love it when Nintendo does something a bit different with the Zelda series. I think my favourite games in the series are a link to the past and skyward sword, but breath of the wild is definitely a very close 3rd. It has a unique atmosphere to it.

I think it's the combination of the subdued soundtrack, the climbing mechanics and the great lighting which really make it memorable. I think it's got the 2nd best art direction in the series after windwaker.

Man.. the Trolls are rampant or something. BOTW was a innovation and something Fresh that carried the Switch to the forefront but alot seems to want to dismiss this but have nothing else better to offer or develop a better Game. So I dare you to make a better game then BOTW in the time it took from concept to release but I bet you couldn't do it. I love how we got alot of quarter back COUCH potato but they themselves couldn't come up and make a better game. So before you think you can do better why not make a better game. But I know you all are bark but nothing to backup those claims.

@SwitchForce That's such a silly argument. Your enjoyment of a product as its consumer has absolutely nothing to do with how well you could craft a similar product. Are you saying that we shouldn't have reviewers or critics of any sort if they can't make food, films, cars, or video games as well as their creators can? Because that's the implication I'm reading, and it doesn't make any sense.

@Markiemania95 What's silly is those thinking they can do better as Couch potato revisionists. Like I said if you can do better then do so stop whining. They are mole NintenDoomed Fandom why else would they say this so long after the release already. They can't come up with anything better so what would you do but whine. So pull your pants up and do the work and make a better game if you can - stop being a Revisionists. They got the Awards and you didn't so trying to be revisionists changes nothing.

@SwitchForce Relax, deep breath, sit down and take a sip of a beverage (non alcoholic), just because someone doesn’t see the game as a 10/10 doesn’t mean you should take it personally because you like the game. You said that BOTW was innovative, which is something that gets thrown around everywhere but what I never see are the reasons WHY it is so innovative and such a flawless game, so I’ll ask you, why is it so innovative?

@SwitchForce Don't get me wrong, I'm not whining nor am I a 'revisionist' - BotW is possibly my favourite game of all time, but OP didn't say anything disrespectful or factually incorrect, so I'm not sure why you're getting so worked up about an opinion.

@NNGaming900 I just consider BotW innovative on the Zelda formula, not so much as compared to other world games. I'm sure that's not what all the reviews think, but that's my take. Since you mentioned Fallout, my view is BotW is a fresh take like going from Fallout 1/2/Tactics to 3. The lack of puzzle-laden central dungeons was a let down, but it made story sense not to load each divine beast with them. I'm guessing that was the trade off and idea behind the shrines all over. The weapon durability actually made me change my typical Zelda play style; I went from always charging in to gauging whether I really needed to start a fight, or go around. It's just my opinion, of course, but when I look at the totality of the story presented, it makes sense that right out of the chamber Link is fighting from a disadvantage. He was defeated by Calamity, and it had all that time to run rampant. It has more of a Twilight Princess or Majora atmosphere than Wind Waker or Skyward, which is why I like it.

@SwitchForce Dude, the OP isn’t a troll. Most people have managed to keep the discussion reasonably level-headed even if they hold the game is a very different regard from the OP. The OP didn’t love the game, as many people did. But you have to be looking for a fight to believe they’re trying to troll anyone.

Quick question, hypothetically, say I do develop a game, how do you tell if it is better than Breath of the Wild? Clearly you would not be able to voice an opinion because you have never made a game right? How does one decide what is better? How do people improve without feedback?

Not to mention, people are not trolls for having a negative opinion.

I don't know if you are including me in that comment or not, but if you are, I think that is the first time I have ever been accused (gasp) of the horrible crime of not liking Nintendo and thinking they are a failing company. Surprise, people can criticise Nintendo and like them at the same time. Heck, we criticise because we care.

Believe it or not, looking back in retrospect, we can clearly look at a game without hype, and with the knowledge we have from playing the game render an opinion on it which may be different from our initial opinion. I enjoyed Breath of the Wild, and the OP did too. That does not mean that we cannot notice areas which we perceive as flaws, or areas to be improved. I have put 275 hours into the game over two play-throughs. That is a lot of time to be able to analyse the game and form an opinion. And I say these things because I want the next games to be better. I really want BOTW2 to be even better than BOTW, so my opinions are merely my thoughts on how a sequel could improve.

I literally posted about this in a PushSquare thread the other day, so I'll just copy what I posted there.

The thing I appreciate about the game is how it recontextualizes open world game design. Among other things:

• It's the only open world game I've played where the main narrative is structured around the idea of an open-ended, exploratory game, and I appreciate how it functions as a sort of tour guide of Hyrule. I've never seen a game offer the main story up as an optional reward for engaging with the game before, but it addresses the irritation I've always felt with open world games, where it feels like there are the canon main story bits, and then a bunch of dicking around that conflicts with that.
• To elaborate: the 'simple' story also works well with the structure of the game. You have one goal: to exterminate Ganon. That's it. And almost everything you can do in the game contributes to that goal by making you stronger in some way. Since the entire point of the game (both narratively and gameplay-wise) is to become more powerful in order to strike down the enemy who has ruined Hyrule, this means the game is completely lacking in the sort of ludonarrative dissonance that plagues other open world titles. The story IS your adventure, and every adventure is unique. It's a completely different vibe from The Witcher, Skyrim, and other more traditional open world games.
• To continue on that theme, the game features a highly advanced mix of physics and gameplay systems that contribute to make the world itself feel like a living place. TW3/Skyrim/AC/HZD/etc. feature big, open spaces you run through to get to the story bits. They're largely linear experiences at their core that are bloated with tons of side-content and make you walk across empty expanses everywhere in order to feel like you're going on a journey or exploring. The difference with BotW, the reason it feels so alive, is this: EVERYTHING is interactive. You need to wear appropriate clothing to survive. You can use your environment to defeat large groups of enemies. You can solve puzzles or just about any situation by using your own intelligence and initiative, even if it's not the way the designers might have gone about it. Not only does the game feature a million different paths around Hyrule, but it trusts the player to find the best solution to almost any problem. I've never seen such a level of respect for the player before. It's like the polar opposite of when I'm playing a Naughty Dog game, where the game will funnel you through a glitzy series of scripted events, but I'm largely numb and detached as the controller shakes and Nathan Drake/Joel/whoever does crazy stuff with little to no input from me. A lot of games are like that, honestly. I'm never detached from BotW. The game trusts you to play it in a way that works for you.
• The simple act of moving from A to B in BotW is SO satisfying, and that's not usual for a Zelda game. Games in this series tend to restrict everything by locking down your movement so that you can't even climb a simple cliff without finding some tool in the bottom of a dungeon. I get that it organically structures a largely open environment into a linear experience, but it also leads to a lot of lost time and, frankly, just doesn't feel as fun to play. BotW wants the player to enjoy their exploration of Hyrule. More importantly, though, the fun navigational methods have an important gameplay purpose: they enable the player to follow their curiosity. Being able to climb or glide almost anywhere means the player is free to engage with the world as much as their heart desires, instead of being railroaded onto a path of scripted encounters that is the same for everyone.
• This has been mentioned before, but I appreciate how the game de-emphasizes maps, icons, and guided waypoints, and the sort of mindless exploration they encourage, in favor of exploration guided by constant engagement with the world around you. I've never played an open world game where I spent so much time studying the lay of the land and trying to figure out the best method of getting from Point A to Point B. In addition, there is almost always something on the horizon drawing you to it, silently helping to guide the player. It's very cool.
• I appreciate how there are puzzles EVERYWHERE in this game, which rewards the vigilant and makes you subconsciously query everything you see. Additionally, I like how the shrines feature physics-based puzzles, which is something new to the series. And, really, outside of Portal, how many games have physics puzzles? Not many. I hope Nintendo continues building on this new approach.
• The Divine Beasts... OK. They could be better. But they're promising. I really, really like the idea of dungeons where the entire thing is one big puzzle that you're trying to solve. I was never a fan of Zelda's traditional dungeon design, which often feels like a bunch of random challenges and puzzles thrown together in order to pad out a section of the game that, at bottom, doesn't really have much to it. Maybe give them a fire theme or something, and add in a boss that's nothing once you figure out his gimmick, and you're good to go. Ugh.
• On the topic of bosses... again, execution could be better, but I like the idea, which, I think, was to add more Souls-like enemies in terms of challenging the player. And this is one of the few issues caused by the open design: because the developers wouldn't know how far a player has come by the time they get to a boss, they didn't know how tough to make them. I think, in future games, they either need to do away with bosses entirely (the large enemies you find throughout Hyrule feel more like proper bosses than any of the Ganon clones, lol) or structure bosses so that you only encounter them after doing a certain number of things, so that the developers can balance the fights properly.
• The OST gets a bad rap, and I won't hear of it. It has quite a bit of non-ambient music, and one of the largest soundtracks overall in the series. But the developers clearly wanted the player to feel a sense of calm and peace when exploring the lands, so they decided to go with gentle piano riffs when nothing in particular is happening. There's no reason for the soundtrack to kick off when you're just foraging for food or poking around to indulge your curiosity. In terms of how it changes in response to context, and in terms of the overall quality of the compositions, I'd say BotW easily has the best soundtrack in the series.

I think a lot of people talk about not liking the plot in this game when what they're actually talking about is the method of storytelling. Because, let me be frank: Zelda games don't tell good stories. The "stories" in these games are just there to structure a sequence of setpieces, dungeons, and boss fights into a coherent whole. It's almost always very rote and gamey: "Find the [insert McGuffins] to save the world/stop [insert big bad guy]." Nintendo made the (imo) wise choice to move away from this sort of very archaic design and instead build an experience designed to make open exploration as fun as possible.

To be clear: I get why some people don't like it. And the game definitely isn't perfect. As a very 'new' experience, it's rough in a lot of ways. It's building the foundations of a new sort of open world game, and a lot of little issues pop up when you do that. Personally, I'd like to see them introduce a recipe book, a fishing rod (and fishing system in general), and get rid of the Ubisoft towers in the sequel. Also, increase the enemy variety and change up the bosses. I don't want the breakable weapons to go, though. I think that aspect of the game is well-balanced, and I especially appreciate them more after playing open world games with TONS of lootable weapons that clog up your inventory, but which you find it hard to part with.

But it's a fresh, wonderfully absorbing experience, which is why it's still my favorite big game this gen.

@HobbitGamer Yeah I agree that it can be considered quite innovative in terms of Zelda games and it is a pretty solid game overall. Regarding the relation Fallout, it lacks the many ways in which you can do certain quests and the huge verity you have with interacting with NPC players, that’s probably my favourite thing about Fallout but it certainly is similar to Fallout and Skyrim. I would actually disagree with it being similar to Majoras Mask and Twilight princess and say it has more of a resemblance to Wind Waker if any due to the art style and huge open world exploration (granted most of the open world is just water in Wind Waker). It is certainly a good game but my problem is that it lacks the puzzles and story like you also mention, so since those are the two main features of Zelda games (or even adventure games in general), I just don’t see how it can be even close to a 10/10 game.

I don't get why people keep saying BOTW lacks story for a Zelda game, all of the Zelda games are barebones on story.

Eh, I dunno. BoTW is indeed a masterpiece, so I wouldn't say it's overrated in the slightest. I could explain why it's a masterpiece, but I'd just echo stuff that's already been said by the likes of @Maxz and @Ralizah (to an extent for the latter, as you'll see below).

Just because a game is a masterpiece though, doesn't mean that it's perfect.

BoTW's soundtrack I think is lacking and is easily the worst in the series, or at least among the Zelda games I've played. I fully understand what they were going for with the ambient music, but I found that roaming around Hyrule and hearing a sudden piano rip (or whatever they're called) kinda broke the immersion of... you know, mindlessly exploring a vast Hyrule and doing whatever you want to do, not to mention some of the environment sounds (not all, of course) tended to be obnoxious, in all honesty. The not-so-ambient music (battle music, town music, etc) in BoTW doesn't really pack a punch for me as well. They sound good and get their point across (Guardian battle music, anyone?), don't get me wrong, but they're not as memorable as music from the past Zelda games. Hopefully BoTW2 has at the very least a dedicated Hyrule theme.

Another thing that I will say I wasn't keen on were the... ahem, Divine Beasts, or BoTW's take on dungeons. Rita is the only one that comes to mind only because it actually had a good dungeon theme... and I got stuck for a bit on it as well. Otherwise, BoTW's "dungeons" were pretty much ho-hum for me, from their design, to their puzzles, to their "bosses." I know the dungeons in the past Zelda games had a bad rep for being too unoriginal (lol I don't understand that argument, but hey... the internet makes weird arguments anyway), but at least those dungeons were distinct from one another and had some great boss battle fights as well. If it were up to me, I'd place some of the Shrine puzzles in the Divine Beasts to make the latter more appealing, seeing as the Shrine puzzles were more fun to take on than whatever the Divine Beasts threw at us.

Otherwise, though... BoTW is by far one of the most well-designed games I've ever played in my entire life, and the attention to detail every where you go is out of this universe, let alone this world. Like I said, you can refer to other user's comments on why BoTW is amazing for what I think.

But BoTW is not overrated. I think the general consensus of its current rating is near perfect.

@jump What? Most Zelda games are mostly known for having a very compelling and developing storyline as the game goes on, the story is one of the main things about the Zelda games.

I disagree, it has a compelling and developing story compared to say Super Mario but in their own right not really. They all pretty much amount to save princess after collecting some things.

They are basic but it works for Zelda games and there’s nothing wrong with that.

@jump But they all have different versions of saving Zelda and defeating gannon, hence why it’s the legend of Zelda, it’s a story being told in different ways. Most would agree that the story is one of the main selling points to most Zelda games, for example - Wind waker and Ocarina of time start out with you having no clue right away that you have to save Zelda, they both start you off with a smaller quest(s), whilst having sub plots along the way with the story and gradually developing, whereas BOTW’s story is pretty much just “you’ve been sleeping for 100 years now you must go and get ready to defeat Gannon”. Also, there are a few Zelda games like Majoras mask that have an entirely different storyline formula in general.

I Agree, Breath Of The Wild Is Not As Good As Every One Says. I Always End Up Getting Board Whenever I Play The Game! So I Agree!

I still disagree. It being a different Link doesn’t really change how the story is deep or compelling in the individual games.

For the complaints about a more basic story in BOTW your description of WW and OOTs storyline actually sounds identical to BOTW lol.

@jump Each to their own but like I said, many consider the story to be one of the main factors to a Zelda game. The different Link wasn’t what I was referring to, you mentioned the fact that all Zelda games have you save Zelda so my point was that the different variation of the story which leads up to you saving Zelda, after all it is the legend of Zelda and legends are often told in many different ways. I’m also not sure how the description I gave of Wind waker and Ocarina of time are identical to BOTW when I gave the reasons as to why they are different. BOTW just tells you right away that you’ve been sleeping for 100 years and now it’s time to prepare and defeat Gannon, most other Zelda games have much more going on in the story.

You're right if you're willing to boil everything down to its bookends: Ganon rawr get Triforce defeat Ganon yay.

But that's no fun if you do that to all your entertainment experiences. You can do that practically with anything. Matrix=computers rawr Neo save yay.

Simple, yea? But willfully ignoring everything in between.

I think morseo that earlier Zelda games did much more to establish characters and settings than BotW. To me, BotW is mostly full of filler space: there's that mountain top where I found a Korok seed, and that slope where I rolled that boulder that one time. Yea, you have some cool places. I LOVE how they did Zora's domain and the Gerudo areas and Sheikah Village. But if I think back to my (admittedly paltry) 100 hours in BotW, what sticks with me? Any characters? I don't know... even the four heroes or whatever are pretty bland to me. Hyrule Castle itself? I guess?

But in other Zeldas you had really fleshed-out worlds that just oozed character. I mean, come on. Link's Awakening. Who's gonna forget Marin and Tarin and the Animal Village and BowWow and even those two kids just throwing the ball back and forth on your way down to the beach...dang, now I wanna go play LA again lol

So, for me, BotW was just too big for its own good and in the end was largely...meh. The other games are tighter experiences all the way around and did more to establish various facets of story.