I played it for 150+ hours on Wii U and then bought it again for Switch and played it another 100+ hours there.
I can understand why some people might not like it though. I was just in the right mindset. I loved exploring the world, discovering new things all the time, finding shrines, solving environmental puzzles, and everything else. It was just a perfectly zen experience, whether at home on my TV or just on the bus passing time.
My one and only complaint about BotW is the low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low weapon durability.
The durability isnāt a big deal once you get better weapons later on. But I just viewed weapons as I ordinarily view ammo in shooters - donāt get precious about them, use whatever you find fun, and youāll quickly find replacements for whatever breaks.
I find I enjoy BotW the most when I remember I can just back out of the temple or wherever and just go back to exploring. If it werenāt for the combat, the motion controls, the rain, any sort of timing-related puzzle, and accidentally clicking in the left stick and crouching in a tense moment, Iād be having a fair amount of fun.
I would be curious to see some numbers on how many people who love BotW were already fans of the Zelda games vs coming in cold. I think I rented the first two NES games once each about 30 years ago, but thatās pretty much the extent of my direct experience with the series. I wonder how much nostalgia plays into this.
Pretty sure you already brought this up in the BotW thread ages ago, where a bunch of people who love the game said they had little prior Zelda experience.
Personally Iāve played many and always liked them well enough. But they were nothing like this one.
Itās also kind of an insulting/egotistical idea: āI didnāt like this thing, so those who did must be blinded in some wayā
It was brought up in this thread as well, not six months ago.
In my case, I had quite a few Zelda experiences (played a bit the first one, almost to the end the SNES one and the GB one) but I was really disappointed in those games, and I think Breath of the Wild is one of the favourite gaming experiences of my life.
I liked the feeling of near total freedom without urgency, the grass moving around Linkās steps, the tight nature of the combat, having to change weapons all the time to have slightly different experiences ā and the joy of throwing a nearly useless one, weather being something else than mere cosmetic and having to wait out the rain or the thunderstorms, not having to go online ever to look for help because of some obtuse silly thing, having different actual feelings toward various regions, looking at my horse coming from the distance, the creepyness of his god, the mostly absent soundtrack.
I really enjoyed the limitations imposed. I really mean it, as I am easily frustrated in games, and they werenāt strangely the source of any such frustration. Itās a very personal experience in that way, and I can easily understand the major split between people absolutely loving the game and some really disliking it ā there seems to be really little middle ground.
Certainly didnāt mean it that way. I was more wondering if there was some contexts or history that Iām missing. I donāt think itās a bad game, or that other people are wrong for loving the hell out of it. I just wish I was getting the same amount of joy from it that they do.
Well okay then! :)
Certainly I think nostalgia can help enhance the enjoyment of something. Familiar things are comforting, itās a thrill becoming reacquainted with loved characters and places in new contexts. And particularly hearing renditions of classic sounds, or subtle callbacks to old musical scores can give chills.
But youāre talking about not much getting into a bunch of basic mechanics. I donāt think thereās really much context or history that would help with that. People just like different stuff.
@Left_Empty there does a better job describing a lot of what I love about it than I ever could.
Some people are explorers and some people simply are not. If you fall into the explorer category, youāre probably going to love Breath of the Wild. If you like to be led around by the nose, itās likely not going to work for you.
The gameās only goal is āDefeat Ganonā and even thatās a choice you can make because if you never beat him, you can still explore until youāve seen it all except the place he resides.
I thought you were talking about Skyrim until you named Breath of the Wild.
I bought this game on Friday.
But it wasnāt for me. My niece was turning 9, and my brother was getting her a Switch along with Super Mario Odyssey, so I got Breath of the Wild despite his objections (he hates open world games, and likes being led by the nose). His daughter loves Minecraft on the Xbox One though, so I think sheās got the explorer in her, and I think sheāll enjoy this. I could be wrong though, since Iām shooting blind. I havenāt actually played it.
Kids almost always āgetā Breath of the Wild because their curious nature drives them. Iām sure sheāll dig it.
I whole-heartedly agree thatās where the game is at itās best. I still find the combat and just about anything with the motion controls to be frustrating, but when I just ditch that and go off exploring, the world, art, and sound really shine.
Having spent more time with it now, I think one of the big reasons I bounced off it my first three attempts is that when I encountered a friction point (a certain combat encounter, shrine puzzle, etc) I would beat my head against it and just get irritated. Now I just move on to something more fun elsewhere. Also, in retrospect, I just picked one of the least visually interesting areas to explore right away.
I agree. I would have absolutely been in love with this game as a kid. It makes me a little sad that I canāt appreciate it for what it is instead of thinking how bored I am wandering aimlessly around a world that feels so empty.
Anyone playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 on switch? Itās getting good buzz on my twitter list
Iām a weirdoā¦I love exploring, but donāt like open-world stuff.
Thereās a thread!
Glad you enjoyed it! Donāt rule out starting over again. I loved BoTW. Itās probably my all time favorite game, though it took two attempts for it to sink in its teeth. My daughters love it, too.
I think I need to do that if I go back. I probably only played for 10 hours and havenāt accomplished that much. I have no recollection what I did.
When last I checked, the prevailing wisdom was to not trust/buy any third party docks for the Switch for concerns of bricking the Switch or general compatibility issues.
Is that still true? Have there been any provably safe third party docks released? Itās pretty much impossible to find Nintendo docks anymore.
Target has them still in store lots of places.