Zelda: BotW (my reaction + spoilers)

[RIP-Felix]

When I first got BOTW I played through the tutorial section and got to Kakarioko village where I got 2 main quests. I realized that the game was going to be more of a time commitment than I had to give at that moment, so I tabled until I had more time to give it the attention it requires...which turned out to be a mistake.

I've been on vacation for the last few weeks and brought the switch along. I brought 1 game and 1 game only! Breath of the Wild. I wanted to force myself to commit to the game and explore its environments while I explored Hawaii at the same time. Both have complimented and enhanced the other! So mission accomplished.

However, having now finished the main story and defeating Gannon (yet again), I have some gripes I need to air. Spoilers incoming!

It had been many months since I tabled the game. long enough for me to forget you could lift gates with Cryonis! That stumped me on Devine beast Vah Ruta (elephant). It's needed to extract the map which gives you control of the trunk position. That's critical to reaching the control pads. So not realizing I could open the gate, I assumed there would be something that later opened the gate. After getting stuck and searching everywhere for a solution,, I had to look up a walkthrough. Once I saw you lift the gate with a block of ice I felt like I would never have figured it out otherwise. The tutorial section explained how to do this, but I had forgotten by the time I got to this beast. Lifting a gate in water with cryonis is just a bit too unintuitive IMO for a dungeon you must complete to progress the game. Its fine for a side quest or optional puzzle. It's just too easy to forget you have that ability to make it mandatory. I'm sure I'm not the only person to have been stumped by that. Regardless, I would have been more likely to remember had I started from scratch and recently completed the tutorial. So I did that to myself too. But I'm getting ahead of the story a little.

On the plane I had time to kill so thats when I got really stuck in. I've head good things about BOTW and wanted to like it really bad...but after 4 hours of getting cheap slaughtered around Hyrule, I had to rage quit!

First, this is a T for teen rated Zelda themed Elder Scrolls game. That's not a bad thing, its just Bethesda's thing. It felt like a rip off TBH. A good one, though! I like how they drop you into a large open world and let you decide how to proceed. Its a nod to the OG Zelda and captures that same sense of exploration and frustration. My first 5-6 hours were the hardest. After the opening tutorial section and getting the main quests (devine beasts and memories) I got lost. There was no clue as to which beast or area to go first and I ended up wandering into an area with monsters too powerful for me. It felt cheap getting killed over and over again without any warning that I shouldn't go that way...but that's the double edged sword. Sure I felt frustrated, but I had done it to myself. Nintendo isn't holding your hand, leading you along a linear path where you gain skills, equipment, and hearts gradually. You need to figure it out and rethink your approach. That's what happened to me on the plane.

When we landed in Hawaii I felt like BOTW was going to be a disappointment. Luckily it was the only game I brought, so I couldn't give up. And that was intentional!

Our first night on the island we went up to Kilauea to see the glow of the recent erreruption.

It wasn't the glow of the lava that made it special. I've never seen the sky so clear. I think it's the second time in my life seeing the milky way and I don't think I've ever seen it so clearly. It was cold too. The wind was whiping and eating through my sweater. The juxtaposition of lava and bitter cold, with more stars than I've ever seen in the sky was what made it amazing.

We spent the next week exploring the big island. And in my down time I explored Hyrule, choosing locations that mimicked the microclimate on the island. Hilo was wet, rainy, lush tropical forest. It paired nicely with devine beast Vah Ruta and the Zora. Kona is dry deaset like, paired nicely with Gerudo valley. Volcanos national park in the daytime, death mountain at night! It's the perfect game to compliment a trip to Hawaii (that's the name of the big island).

I'm really glad I stuck with the game and only brought 1. Its been fun, made all the better because of where I was while playing it!

However...these are my serious gripes with the game.

Breakable weapons remove the sense of reward you get from a dungeon or shrine. "Oh look, the last 20 minutes of puzzle solving and all I get is a mediocre sword that'll break in less time than it took me to complete the puzzle to get it." On the other end of the spectrum, sometimes you get a great weapon, but wont use it in fear of breaking it and not having it when you need it! So it stays in your inventory perpetually unused. And yes, that did happen to me. My Royal Claymore with attack up +16 giving it a total of 68 damage never gets used. Even when I defeated Gannon. I just used the Master Sword, because it's the only weapon that doesn't break...instead it looses all its power for 10minutes before recharging. In the meantime it does 0 damage. Grrr! I hate the system of breakable weapons. Its one less thing they have to reward you with in a dungeon. I want a fulfilling reward! A good unbreakable bow with special ability, or a rock hammer that does fire damage, or a spear that does lightning damage. One special unbreakable weapon that is awarded as prize for completing a dungeon. Perhaps something that imparts a special ability needed to unlock previously unreachable places, like shrines.

Speaking of shrines. That's gripe #2. What's with the spirit orbs redeemable at godess statues for heart containers or stamina vessels? Cut out the godess statue and just give me heart pieces or stamina vessels depending on the type of challenge. I don't like how religious praying at a godess statue and exchanging spirit orbs is. Its a middleman that removes the sense of accomplishment after completing a shrine. I want a heart piece and 1/4 more life, now! Or a stamina vessel and 1/6 more stamina, now! Not later. And I don't like being faced with making a decision about it. To each their own, but I don't like feeling like I should have gone with more stamina vessels instead of heart containers, or visa versa. Just give me one or the other. It'd make me want to find all the shrines! As it is, I'm not motivated.

Thats the crux of the breakable and spirit orbs. They remove motivation.  The rewards aren't fulfilling like collectibles in other Zelda games. That has killed my desire to complete all the side quests, shrine quests, and buy the DLC.

Dungeons? Big void! Shrines are like mini dungeons. Too small to qualify, but the only thing that reminds me I'm playing an adventure puzzler. The devine beasts are the real dungeons. And they are fun, employing a different mechanic to solve the puzzle. But IMO they are too short, not enough enemy's, no mini-bosses, and they lack theming, or special powers giving them a uniqueness over the other 3. OH YEAH...AND THERE ARE ONLY 4!  OoT had 12! 3 as a kid 9 as an adult. BoTW is severly lacking dingeons! The side quests and shrines feel like padding to make up for the lack of dungeons.

I get that Nintendo wanted to create an open world where you could visit any devine beast and complete it in any order. That there is no wrong way to play. But they gave up that sense of accomplishment you get when you beat a dungeon and are rewarded with a special item that grants passage to other areas and dungeons. The surely could have added 2-4 more dungeons that require certain abilities/items to reach. They did it a few times. For example, Korgu Chideh Shrine is on an island you can only reach with enough stamina. So either you need to use elixirs or have extended your stamina wheel with stamina vessels to reach it. Once you get there, they take all your items away and force you to complete the challenge with only what you find on the island. This is my favorite shrine and exactly kind of strategy I'm talking about. There needs to be more of this, where you need a rock hammer, power glove, special ability only awarded after another challenge to access. And the reward needs to be more substantial than just another spirit orb! That was my biggest gripe with this island shrine. It was hard to get to, took a long time to complete, and the reward was the same 1/4 heart container or stamina vessel as any other shrine that takes 2s to complete. The reward didn't compensate me fairly for the time commitment.

Money is another problem. Its needed to buy armor to access areas of the map you can't reach because its too hot or cold. I like this aspect, but selling mushrooms, rocks, fruit, animals, whatever you oickup along the way is annoying. You need these ingredients for cooking and upgrading armor. But rupies aren't dropped by enemies as very often, and there aren't enough treasure boxes wit rupies. The primary way of paying for needed items is selling these rocks and ingredients. So you need to farm them. However, I do feel like they did a pretty good job of balancing this. Its not egregious farming. Its just not really needed because you can complete the whole game without much more than completing the 4 devine beasts and Gannon. You have to pull the master sword, so you need enough hearts (I think? It may be that you have to come close to death and stop, not sure. I stopped with 1/4 heart left and it came away. So it may just test your willingness to let go. I only did it the once). Point is, once I defeated Gannon and saw the end credits I didn't feel the need to keep playing. I had barely completed very may side quests, shrine quests, or the other main quest (forgotten memories). I sure there is more to the game and maybe hidden extras if I push toward 100%, but the incentive to do so is gone now. I don't need more hearts or stamina vessels to reach a higher goal. It just feels like grinding for the sake of grinding at this point.

Now, I have had a good time despite all of this. Its just I don't think I'll continue to 100% the game. And with just 4 dungeons + Gannon it feels too short! Feels like half a game really. Maybe the expansion pass DLC helps with that, but I'm a little disappointed in the core game that ships on card. It took awhle to get going, was fun while it lasted, and ended too soon. It could have been better and I hope Nintendo fixes the issues I had with the game in the sequel.

 

 

[ClassicGMR]

I'm probably doing myself a disservice but I never played beyond the tutorial.

I had Skyrim first for my Switch so upon booting BotW - almost right off the bat - I was thinking "the controls aren't organic and the game doesn't feel right". It's because I kept expecting Skyrim controls and mechanics. I made a conscious effort to get past it but I just could not.

I have tried at least twice more to get into the game but I just can't. This is a game I probably won't ever play. Sad, but true since it still is considered one of the best games for the console and has great reviews.

[tthurman]

I'll probably be shot for saying this, but I never saw the draw to the Zelda games dating way back to the NES version.  I kept trying, but never "Got it".  I gave my copies away!  I recall my NES version was gold, but I don't know if that's of any significance or if it was just some sort of bling back in the day.   

This was obviously in my younger days, but I even had years of Nintendo Power magazine / Computer Gaming World / PC Gamer (CDROM days)  that I ended up pitching in the recycling bin to free up space, a regretful move now.

Fast forward to 2011 and a old friend of mine called to let me know he had found his old boxed NES and was giving it away, but knew I was into retro games.  Something he had bought and rarely played before storing it away, so I grabbed it....all he ever had was the original with one controller and the Mario/Duck Hunt cartridge and the light gun that he had since misplaced. 

 

Maybe I should pick Zelda up again............naahhhhhh 

[RIP-Felix]

On 11/11/2021 at 5:09 AM, ClassicGMR said:

I'm probably doing myself a disservice but I never played beyond the tutorial.

I had Skyrim first for my Switch so upon booting BotW - almost right off the bat - I was thinking "the controls aren't organic and the game doesn't feel right". It's because I kept expecting Skyrim controls and mechanics. I made a conscious effort to get past it but I just could not.

I have tried at least twice more to get into the game but I just can't. This is a game I probably won't ever play. Sad, but true since it still is considered one of the best games for the console and has great reviews.

I still enjoyed the game and recommend giving it the chance it deserves, but it definitely takes getting over an entrance barrier. That could have been avoided with a more linear path until the controls were figured out. I fought with the controls for the first 8-10 hours before getting used to them. Use the pro controller! Luckily you don't have to use the quicklime event system to defeat enemies unless you want to. I like that they don't force you into it. But the world was too open too soon and they intentionally give you another quest to confuse you and to get you lost. I understand that's intentional, to recreate the OG Zelda formula, but it was too much too soon.

I can see why people might say it's one of the best games for the switch. But that reason has to be they haven't played other zelda games.

BotW failed to live up to it's full potential for me. For example, without spoiling, there are 3 labyrinths scattered about the map which have a prize at the end. They are just mazes...period. No enemies, no puzzles, no creativity beyond the maze itself. They do make it harder than just looking at the map to solve it, but only just barely. From the top down it looks like you can't go certain ways, because there are passages through the stone walls from the ground level you can't see from above. But by looking at the map and having enough stamina to climb the walls, you can make short work of the maze.

That's the catch 22 of BotW IMO. Because you can go anywhere at any time it breaks some puzzles. Had I found the Labyrinths earlier, before accumulating enough stamina to climb over the walls, then they would have been more challenging. But even then I would have felt they were missing an opportunity to be special. They need more inspiration! I envision Labyrinth (1986) or Pan's Labyrinth (2007). The prize at the end is okay as far as BotW prizes go, but it doesn't make me feel like I need to get it next time (if there is a next time). The prizes don't feel important. So the other missed opportunity was the lack of a big pay-off at the end that would make the labyrinth desirable to visit. As it is the lack luster prize is only worth the trouble because it was wasn't much trouble to begin with. The mazes were a cool idea, that left so much on the table. Missed opportunity! A shame, really.