Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Seems very likely that BotW was their biggest budget Zelda so far though.

Of course, budget per game rises every generation. The newest entry usually has the biggest budget. That doesn't say anything about the game though.

Ok, well controlling for gameflation, I bet it's still their biggest budget Zelda. Maybe even their biggest budget game overall.

@MegaTen @Octane While I would definitely prefer a smaller world (maybe even just half of BotW) and a fusion of BotW style and classic Zelda for the next game, I still think there is WAY more content in this game than in previous games. For example, I finished Wind Waker in about 35 hours. The lack of an Adventure log doesn't make me want to search through the game for the few side quests in the game, so that's about it for Wind Waker. Twilight Princess probably took me a bit longer, maybe 40-45 hours or so, but I didn't really have a desire to return to it (were there any major side quests in that game? I just remember lots of mini games). Ocarina is my favorite Zelda, but I only spent a total of around 60 hours in it, including time spent getting the Biggoron Sword, just going through the world, and playing some mini games.

In Breath of the Wild, on the other hand, I have spent 120 hours so far and still counting. The side quests are interesting and fun. True there are the "fetch me x items" quests, but there are plenty of other side quests with a small story or context attached that are pretty fun. Plus there are finding shrines, and shrine quests. And more than any Zelda game before, exploring on your own for the sake of simply discovering something new is rewarding in and of itself. So there's plenty of content, they just need to improve the main story and character development.

@rjejr Interesting. Your praise makes me curious, I guess I might as well check Hyrule Warriors out before I sell my Wii U. After all, it doesn't seem like it'll come to Switch.

@shadow-wolf I've completed the game, and clocked in at around 120 hours. Other Zelda games are around 50-60, Skyward Sword was a bit longer. Anyway, I still feel a lot of time is spend walking in BOTW, so game overall doesn't feel as dense content-wise.

I can live with another ''open air'' Zelda game, provided they bring back the themed dungeons (preferably in a smaller world), along with unique boss fights, key items, and a sense of progression. Ditch the climbing, it ruined any sense of linearity in the game, or limit the climbing in some way. Make intractable memorable characters, because nearly all of the interesting characters existed in flashbacks.

@shadow-wolf Can't recall what I said about Hyrule Warriors but it is 1 of my favorite games on Wii U. Some caveats I'd like to make - I don't like Zelda games normally and I don't like difficult games, I like games that let me kick butt on everything in my path. I also like story driven straight forward games w/ branching paths more than just kicking butt for no reason. And HW did have a lot of options for the money, besides the story w/ branching paths it had all of those little maps and some challenges. I did buy the season pass but I can't recall how much use I got out of it. Playing as a huge monstrous Ganon was fun for a bit, that might have been only in the DLC. Game also had options in that different players w/ different weapons played differently but it wasn't overwhelming, I don't like micromanagement, just variety. I do think it played pretty well too, but then again I like simple button mashing, I'm not one for quick time events and rhythm games, I'm not quick and I have no rhythm. But there was a little variety along w/ the constant button mashing to mix things up a little bit. It wasn't deep and it wasn't complicated, it was just fun and a little interesting.

That's why I handle the discs myself, tiny undeveloped kindergarten goers with their small grubby fingers are the last ones to come near my games and systems.

My dad once left my brother's Injustice PS3 disc on top of the Xbox 360 (to watch a movie on the PS3). It stayed there for a day or two until we noticed it.

I don't know if it was just the heat emitted by the console, or the magnets in the hard drive, but the Xbox fried the disc.

We never got to see the end of that game. A true tragedy.

@Tsurii All thirteen-year-olds are idiots. I've been there.

Teenage idiocy comes in different forms, don't worry.

@Tsurii Oh, don't worry. All my discs still work and are scratch free!

NO

@MegaTen yea nothing is more important than content.. there are some games that have great graphics and are a joy to play but maybe the actual content isn't great enough to make you want to go back to it...
alternatively i have been playing River City Ransom on NES since i was like 6 years old.. every couple years or so ill think about the game and go fire it up on the emulator because it's just so fun..
Same with Final Fantasy 6 (3 when i bought it on SNES back in the day)... I've put in over 1000 hours into that game in my life.. played through it over 10 times over the years 80+ hours a play through

https://mobile.twitter.com/gypsyOtoko/status/915037635663425536

Thanks to Matt for translating the article. Basically it describes their thought process and how they went about designing the game. I thought it was worth posting here.

@rjejr How was the story, was it decent? It does include Ganondorf though, I do miss having him as a villain in the Zelda series (he hasn't appeared as humanoid Ganondorf since Twilight Princess)

@Octane Idk about the climbing. I loved how you could interact with the environment through climbing. I would keep the climbing but add more unclimbable surfaces to create linearity.

@shadow-wolf The story was typical - let's get everybody together across dimensions to fight the common enemy - trope but I liked it better than the other Dynasty Warriors type games which to me dont' even have a story. At least this one had the Zelda aesthetic w/ music and such. So it was't a good story, but it moved stuff along w/ some cut scenes scattered here and there. I like a cut scene every now and again.

@shadow-wolf Just limit it. Keep a climbing separate from stamina and give climbing its own fixed time limit without being able to upgrade it. So there's always a maximum distance you can climb. No climbing food or gear either. That way it's much easier to control where the player can and cannot go.

There's no need to alter the climbing mechanic. There was only one area in the game Nintendo felt it needed to be more restrictive, and they accomplished this using the pre-established in-game phenomenon of rain. It was a perfect, organic way of directing the player in a certain direction.

Climbing ruined quite a few moments for me. I approached both Spring of Power and Courage from the wrong side for example, and I completely missed the intended way. Game design doesn't work if you can go literally everywhere.