The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

Stasis + almost feels like a bit of a cheat, but man **** those Lynels so much. They deserve the cheese.

[Valdarez]

Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but there's a lot that's not done well in this game. If it weren't a Zelda game, I question whether it'd would have received a 10 rating across the board.

First, I will say that thus far, I've encountered ZERO bugs, and that's pretty darn refreshing. I'm beyond tired of playing games with bugs that show up right away. Zelda has been 100% solid thus far. To the best of my knowledge, not one bug yet. Awesome.

Graphics are decent, not great by any measure, except perhaps Nintendos. The fighting mechanics suffice, but they aren't great. I'm actually surprised we didn't see more here.

On the negatives, or my wishlist, however you'd like to view it, there are a few. The Shrines are far too simplistic and solved within minutes. I wish they were more of a challenge. In addition, I wish they would have included a map, somewhere, to allow us to find things, whether it be shrines, or keys in shrines, etc, ala classic Zelda games.

The weapons constantly breaking sucks. I don't get why they included it. It just doesn't add to the game. They have enough weapons / diversity that they didn't need to introduce this to the game.

The rain, and the lightning, suck. I mean 100% suck. How is taking off armor and weapons to not get struck by lightning fun? And sliding down walls when it's raining, how is that fun? I can't even begin to tell you the number of times I was somewhere and needed to climb and couldn't because it was raining. No way to avoid it. No way to overcome it. You either sit and wait, or warp somewhere else. It sucks, and this alone has ruined many of my gaming sessions in the game. If I weren't so far in, and hadn't already invested a slew of hours, I'd likely quit playing Zelda I'm so sick of the rain interfering. I'm writing this right now while I await the rain to stop in game so I can climb up for yet another Shrine.

Ultimately the game feels like a standard RPG grind. All I've done thus far is hunt shrines to get hearts (on the 2nd row now). With basic frighting, simplistic shrines, frustrating rain, it just hasn't been what I would call a great experience overall. Perhaps it will get more interesting when I turn back to the main story line quests.

[ComfortablyLomb]

Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

I think the game is gorgeous looking. "Decent" graphics? C'mon. This game is beautiful to look at.

[Bard]

Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

I think the game is gorgeous looking. "Decent" graphics? C'mon. This game is beautiful to look at.

I took at least 10 screenshots last night just loving the look of the sunset in front of Link.

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[ricky24]

Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

I think the game is gorgeous looking. "Decent" graphics? C'mon. This game is beautiful to look at.

Only way I can see that viewpoint is if you don’t like cel shading graphics in general.

[XtremeDunkz]

Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

Still love the game but do hope the next installment goes back to a deeper dungeon experience.

[Valdarez]

Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

I think the game is gorgeous looking. "Decent" graphics? C'mon. This game is beautiful to look at.

Graphics are blocky and lacking in detail. Line of sight, with detailed terrain is limited. When compared with what current gen consoles are producing today, it’s easily several steps behind. It looks good for what it is, which is dated. It’s hard to look at games like Uncharted and Dragon Age on PS4 and then Zelda. There’s just no comparison.

[Valdarez]

Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

Still love the game but do hope the next installment goes back to a deeper dungeon experience.

Couldn’t agree more. I don’t get near the enjoyment from walking/exploring a massive world as I do exploring/overcoming a dungeon.

There are a lot of little things in the game that were done well. Tree chopping, shield surfing, grass cutting, creature catching, etc. Letting a horse drive while on a path is especially nice. I’ve been wanting this in Sandbox games for over a decade. Can’t believe Nintendo, and of all games, Zelda is where I first find it. These are ultimately little things though, and overall, Shrine hunting and monster killing has been a grind. Inability to climb in the rain is driving me insane...

[dbeth]

Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

Couldn’t agree more. I don’t get near the enjoyment from walking/exploring a massive world as I do exploring/overcoming a dungeon.

There are a lot of little things in the game that were done well. Tree chopping, shield surfing, grass cutting, creature catching, etc. Letting a horse drive while on a path is especially nice. I’ve been wanting this in Sandbox games for over a decade. Can’t believe Nintendo, and of all games, Zelda is where I first find it. These are ultimately little things though, and overall, Shrine hunting and monster killing has been a grind. Inability to climb in the rain is driving me insane...

You do realize that there is a shrine it always starts raining when you approach, I hope. It forces you to alter your thinking and route to get to it because of the rain.

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[Bard]

Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

Finished the beginning shrines finally after a lot of just exploring. I also really want to figure out how to get on that big tree next to the one where you have to use the magnetic usage to make the bridge. There are a few chests on there! My wife and I were trying to be strategic, and even tried to light it on fire haha.

Going to get the paraglider now, and finally move on.

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[Valdarez]

Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

You do realize that there is a shrine it always starts raining when you approach, I hope. It forces you to alter your thinking and route to get to it because of the rain.

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I’m not finding this to be true at all. There are most definitely locations on the map where rain is used in place of invisible barriers. Recall a mountain I was trying to climb and I finally realuzed it wasn’t going to let me climb it. Rain would start every time I hit a soecefic location. With regards to the shrines, it simply appears to be random. Rain has always stopped and I’ve always been able to continue. Just have to sit there and wait, which is in no way fun. Rain just has a bad habit of starting every time I’m somewhere I need to climb, whether I am near a shrine or not. I haven’t hit the top right of the map, where it is hot. Maybe it doesn’t rain there?

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

Graphics are blocky and lacking in detail. Line of sight, with detailed terrain is limited. When compared with what current gen consoles are producing today, it’s easily several steps behind. It looks good for what it is, which is dated. It’s hard to look at games like Uncharted and Dragon Age on PS4 and then Zelda. There’s just no comparison.

Those games aren't nearly as interactive and open either. Uncharted is beautiful, but it's still a fairly linear game with controlled setpieces.

I have no idea how much time I've spent with the game (maybe 60 hours?), but I'm constantly amazed at the breadth of the world that Link is tasked with to explore. Everything interacts logically to the point that the whole world feels like a multifaceted puzzle to solve and play with. It is refreshing to play an open world game where the world itself is as much a character and obstacle as the enemies that fill it. The weather affecting player health and movement is amazing to me. Interacting with the world to collect resources and finding multiple paths to a single location is wonderful. Never has a game world felt this completely open and non-linear to me.

Even after spending a solid thirty minutes snowball bowling nothing has felt like a grind to me. I am constantly getting lost in the world and wanting to explore what is around the next corner or bend trying to find shrines, korok seeds, or whatever else may be hiding. Sure, some of the shrines has been simplistic, but there are some that are legitimately head scratching or a general pain in the *** to solve. Some instances come over you like, "Duh! That was so simple once I figured it out." The Divine Beasts act as small temples to solve and the interactivity of their great mechanisms acts an additional layer of solving.

Still, I agree with others that miss the puzzle solving dungeons of those old temples. Overall I think it's a more than fair trade off, but considering how wonderfully everything was designed in this game I can only imagine how great those temples would have been. As another trade-off the anime art style will not appease everyone. Overall the graphics are artistic and beautiful to me. There are some limitation (namely draw distance), but nothing affects the experience to me nor hinders the game in any glaring way.

[Valdarez]

Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

Those games aren't nearly as interactive and open either. Uncharted is beautiful, but it's still a fairly linear game with controlled setpieces.

Uncharted has historically been linear (though the last was somewhat open world), but Dragon Age definitely isn't. I personally don't view linear games as a bad thing. Linear games provide a more cohesive experience and lend themselves to better story telling, and for people with limited time to play, the opportunity to experience a game/story in a reasonable time frame.

I have no idea how much time I've spent with the game (maybe 60 hours?), but I'm constantly amazed at the breadth of the world that Link is tasked with to explore. Everything interacts logically to the point that the whole world feels like a multifaceted puzzle to solve and play with. It is refreshing to play an open world game where the world itself is as much a character and obstacle as the enemies that fill it. The weather affecting player health and movement is amazing to me. Interacting with the world to collect resources and finding multiple paths to a single location is wonderful. Never has a game world felt this completely open and non-linear to me..

The world is definitely part and parcel of the puzzles to solve. I'm surprised you find the weather amazing. I find it annoying as it ties in with the rain / lightning which just irk the hell out of me. At least with the heat/cold there are multiple ways to overcome it, either through eating food or wearing different armor, versus the rain, where the gamer is literally given no way to overcome the challenge other than to give up or sit and wait. While on the topic of food, couldn't they have come up with a better mechanism to remember recipes? Why do I have to grab each food item, every single time, too cook it? Once I learn a recipe, why can't I simply select from the recipes I can cook? Little things like this make the came more arduous than necessary.

Even after spending a solid thirty minutes snowball bowling nothing has felt like a grind to me. I am constantly getting lost in the world and wanting to explore what is around the next corner or bend trying to find shrines, korok seeds, or whatever else may be hiding. Sure, some of the shrines has been simplistic, but there are some that are legitimately head scratching or a general pain in the *** to solve. Some instances come over you like, "Duh! That was so simple once I figured it out." The Divine Beasts act as small temples to solve and the interactivity of their great mechanisms acts an additional layer of solving.

Find a shrine, solve a shrine. Find a shrine, solve a shrine (when it actually has to be solved, many the act of finding them is solving in and of itself). Grind. And those shrines are simple. There was only one I had to look up for help and it was the first shrine at the top of the double / twin peak shrines where the balls had to be placed based on the layout of the other shrine. I don't know how many hours I have in now either. Likely 80+ if I had to garner a guess, and why I'm unwilling to simply walk away from the game. I'm not blindly walking through the world. I just don't have the time. After about 30 hours in I realized I'd never solve the game if left to my own wonderings. At that point, I started using an interactive map online to locate shrines and go straight to them (as best I can). Really wish they would have included maps to find shrines in the game. The locator is nice, but a map with a semi-location, would have been a great aid, and given gamers more control over finding things. Without using an online map, I can't imagine how long it would take to find everything. I have yet to do the Divine Beasts, though I've seen them all now. I've gotten the first row of hearts and a couple hearts into the second row now, and I have 2 full circles on the stamina.

Feel like I sound more negative than I am, as the game is rock solid, and not one bug in sight, which I appreciate more than words can say. However, there is a long list of things I wish they had done better (maps, recipes/cooking, rain/overcoming, fighting/weapons, shrines/challenge, odd mixture of text + random voice overs, etc) and I genuinely don't believe that with any other name than Zelda this game would have received as many 10s/perfect scores because of those things. At the end of the day though, of it all, it's simply the rain that frustrates the hell out of me too often. When you have a 30 minutes session to play, and you spend a significant amount of time sitting waiting for the rain to stop, it's simply not fun.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

Uncharted has historically been linear (though the last was somewhat open world), but Dragon Age definitely isn't. I personally don't view linear games as a bad thing. Linear games provide a more cohesive experience and lend themselves to better story telling, and for people with limited time to play, the opportunity to experience a game/story in a reasonable time frame.

Oh I know. My point was that Uncharted can afford to put more assets into graphic quality and fidelity since they control more of the experience and don't have nearly as much going on in the background. I haven't played Dragon Age, but I would venture to make the same point considering how many different systems interact with and impact the player and the world in Zelda.

The world is definitely part and parcel of the puzzles to solve. I'm surprised you find the weather amazing. I find it annoying as it ties in with the rain / lightning which just irk the hell out of me. At least with the heat/cold there are multiple ways to overcome it, either through eating food or wearing different armor, versus the rain, where the gamer is literally given no way to overcome the challenge other than to give up or sit and wait. While on the topic of food, couldn't they have come up with a better mechanism to remember recipes? Why do I have to grab each food item, every single time, too cook it? Once I learn a recipe, why can't I simply select from the recipes I can cook? Little things like this make the came more arduous than necessary.

As far as I know rain only affects climbing. While it is irksome it is still possible to overcome by jumping after so many motions. All other weather effects can be overcome multiple ways - whether it be via food, elixirs, or clothing items.

I think it would be nice to have a notebook in the game (or on the slate) to make notes with or add recipes to. Without it I've been writing down on scratch paper the recipes I want to remember. Honestly, though, the most effective recipes seem to be the most simplistic ones.

Find a shrine, solve a shrine. Find a shrine, solve a shrine (when it actually has to be solved, many the act of finding them is solving in and of itself). Grind. And those shrines are simple.

All games are repetitive in nature - especially open world games. I would find the game to be a bit of a grind, too, if I was forcing myself to find all the shrines and utilizing outside information to find them just to find them all.

Feel like I sound more negative than I am, as the game is rock solid, and not one bug in sight, which I appreciate more than words can say. However, there is a long list of things I wish they had done better (maps, recipes/cooking, rain/overcoming, fighting/weapons, shrines/challenge, odd mixture of text + random voice overs, etc) and I genuinely don't believe that with any other name than Zelda this game would have received as many 10s/perfect scores because of those things.

I'm not a Zelda expert, but I have to acknowledge how much they added or changed to the basic formula to expand the world of the game. They went outside the box of the series incorporating things most open world games won't even bother touching. There are risks taken not commonly associated with established IP's. Somehow they manage to balance the traditional feel and nostalgia of the series while also adding in many new elements and I think that is worthy of the praise the game has garnered.

I've told this to several people when talking about the game, but those elements on paper are seemingly "deal breakers" or uninteresting to me. Cooking? Battling the weather? Managing weapons? Yet, somehow it works and works logically. It amazes me everytime I play how well everything is incorporated both in logic and function.

[Tomba]

Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/WiiU)

after 275 hrs Im down.

I do have the dlc but do not like how its stuck behind a difficulty wall/ paywall of sorts....

They added content but tis way overly more difficult than it should be


Still think its just an amazing game. But for me the core game not dlc are where it shines