Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

@meleebrawler The horseback combat wasn't half as good as Twilight Princess, though. The boar-riding bulblins and bulblin archers are much better designed horseback enemies than the normal horse-riding bokoblins (they can't keep up with Link). And even more basically, only the spear has a charge attack from horseback, and that is completely devoted to knocking enemies off of their horses and ending the mounted fight. They took out the ability to spin attack or use items like bombs and the boomerang from horseback.

I like the towns and side quests much better than the Witcher 3's, and some of the shrine quests are alright as well. The game's joke-y tone just serves it a lot better, whereas Witcher 3's 'morally gray' self-seriousness, slow travel speed, and difficult, janky combat only serve to make you want to stop playing. Zelda is like "Eavesdrop on these people and go find this thing" whereas The Witcher is all "my husband is a werewolf, kill him maybe. But should you!?!?" It's just pointless dramatizing for non-existent characters. Breath of the Wild does much better with its actually very quirky cast and non-choice-based sidequests (how games used to written before everyone got the open world itch).

Ending spoilers now.

@FGPackers What i get is you say you cant compare both because in one the sidequests are important in the other they arent. I think your right.

Still the genre doesnt change the fact that you do pretty much the same stuff. Killing and getting stuff.
If the Shrines were quests that would be a difference. They are completly different from witcher. I know there are quests to open shrines. But they mostly consist of finding the ball and placing it. Or doing other generic stuff.

Your right the physics engine is a point in the quests you can argue with which is better in Zelda compared to witcher. But thats my point you can compare them they arent that different.

@DarthNocturnal uh I don't remember that.

I do know that the heart meter looks full if you get all the normal un-linked game hearts, and then it expands with the two extra hearts you get during the linked game.

So you have a full meter, get another heart and then it looks like you're missing one, but it's just because the hud shrinked to make space for the extra column of hearts.

Every open world game has monotonous generic fetch quests. It's important to look past those in order to see the good ones. As an example, I quite liked going on a search and rescue mission to find a man's wife. It not only did a good job of showing the personalities of two very minor average joe characters, but also did some good world building all at the same time. All of a sudden you now know that the Zora fish for sustenance, and you now also know that the rain from the Divine Beast wasn't just a bunch of sprinkles, people were in legit danger of getting hurt or killed because of it.

It's those Anju and Kafei kind of quests that build up the world and make a game fun to play.

I honestly love the side quests in this game. They both are fun (majority of the time) and I believe they add character and depth to the world. I also lump shrine quests (ones in which you have to find the shrines) and side quests together. Spoilers for some Side Quests! ( I wont mention any shrine quest though). There are so many quests I still easily remember. Some highlights for me include the side quest where you follow a love message in a bottle and see the cute but weird interaction between the "buff" hylian and small zora, the quest in which there's that gerudo in gerudo town whom is addicted to hydromelons despite you giving them some wild berries, the cute but awkward interaction between the hylian and gerudo at the love heart shaped pond and how the hylian tries to skimp out on the reward, and my favourite side quest being from the ground up in which you literally build a town and create a community from all the races of hyrule. By creating this community not only do you gain more quests and shops, but you give a purpose to those you've met along the way. I remember going "Aha, I know just whom you want!" several times. Not to mention the best music of the game, in which each race adds a different component to the music of the town. It also just gives hope to the player for a revived Hyrule with all its races once again interacting with one another rather and living in peace together. Idk, but i feel like these quests gave depth to the characters in the world and really gave the feeling that they're people just trying to live. Some are silly but some are serious and I feel like the reward you get isn't loot, but rather the stories you learn and the depth added to the world and characters by doing so.

@Tarvaax Every open world game has them, but not every open world game is chock-full of them.

Unless we're talking about Fallout: New Vegas, yes, they all are. To the brim. The Witcher series, Assassin's Creed, and especially Bethesda games. I really wish they'd get Obsidian to help them with EVERY Fallout title. Heck, even TES would greatly benefit.

@Tarvaax I'm not saying they don't have a lot of them, but they have plenty of other quests that are interesting.

@DarthNocturnal I guess they did it that way so people playing the normal playthrough didn't feel like the hud looked weird and empty.

@Tarvaax Youre right but the balance is still important. For every nice one you get 10 "why should i care"
ones.

Also found a nice zora quest. SPOILERS ahead in case it doesnt work.

[spoiler]The girl still likes him. No one really changed their attitude about each other. The thing i want to say is though they both live in other worlds and kinda lie to each other they come to like each other. Like the mermaid tale gone right. You know the Dam took the Zoras almost all of their element away but its still important so that both worlds dont become one or the other. Land or Water. No one really wants to be alone forever. And so they overcome this obstacle(s) that makes it possible to meet in the first place. Now the overcoming of differences and still let the other be oneself continues. Its called love and lasts forever because both worlds (zora and humans) are endless and no one will be able to eat the other. And why would they want to^^ This quest is just so much genius and loveable. My number one in this game so far.[/spoilers]

That's pretty silly considering there would be no way for the developers to copy a game that hadn't been released yet

I love the side quests in this game. I've played boatloads of open world games, and looking back at games like Final Fantasy XV, Dragon Age Inquisition, Far Cry 4/Primal, GTAV, Watch Dogs 1/2... those games' Side quests seem unbearably dull in comparison.

That was one of the first things I noticed about Zelda was how high quality and fun it's side quests are. Even little things like finding out what a young girl's favorite insect is, and her older sister freaking out because she's scared of bugs... it's the personal touch that you just don't see very often and other games. No... in FFXV there was just some old drab bug loving lady who would send you on 3 mile fetch quests for five red frogs, then you'd come back and she'd say some 2 sentence response and ask you to bring 10 blue ones more, to the point you just throw your hands up in frustration and say I can't even do this. There's no point. I'd rather run around and explore.

Not to say I've done every single side quest in Zelda (yet) but I have yet to reach that point of frustration and boredom that I have with almost every single other open world game out there.

@Nicolaison That's exactly why I like the second fight more — it was a much more impressive set piece despite the grody malice texture all over Beast Ganon. The music and Twilight Princess aesthetic + the new cloud and grass animation is just too good. I love the engraved boss chamber before, but I was really disappointed how throwaway Calamity Ganon's design seemed while still feeling too similar to all of the dungeon bosses. The short weakness was fine for difficulty, but it was really hard to read and I would have preferred just a simple item weakness. And the final boss using the same music as the other boss fights is just a tremendous letdown. I also wanted to fight in the high tower of Hyrule Castle, or even in the Twilight Princess-looking throne room where Zelda challenged him 100 years ago.

@JaxonH Yeah that one was cute.^^ But you only mentioned mediocre games at least in the sidequest department. I dont even remember sidequests in GTA V? Werent they all main quests? The mainquests were so much better though. You havent played Witcher 3? You seem to at least play open worlds. Seriously try it. Really deep and emotional side quests as far as i remember.

So yeah Witcher 3 SPOILERS ahead regarding one side quest.

And this is why ill never see Zeldas quests as anything else as childs play. I watched some animes and realised in one that i was watching 12 year olds falling in love and going to school. Yeah...
Sad thing is in other animes people behaved the same though it was their last school year.
This is the way i see Zelda quests. Theyre cute but at least i cant live by only getting sugar.

@Jhena
Yes but Witcher 3 seems to be the one and only game anyone can ever mention that's actually got good side quests, and I'm listing the ones that don't (or at least aren't as good or memorable as Zelda) which is pretty much every other game I've played.

@Jhena The problem is that you're describing the Witcher books, not anything that was actually shown or even well explained in the game itself. I'm sure there's plenty of good Zelda fanfiction stories as well, but that doesn't improve the story in the actual games.

@JaxonH Theres a reason many mention it. You know the cover of Blood and Wine ( the dlc of witcher 3).
Look it up it says it all^^

And your repeating my point. You only listed mediocre games because you didnt play one of the best ones if not even the best.

@Haru17 It was its even told in the loading screens^^
If you didnt read the books before you will most likely read them after.

@Haru17 Sry got it wrong a little bit. Just looked it up. Almost 2 years not played dont forget. Its only told in the ingame books which youll find many of and in the mission itself.