DonJorginho
Banned
I love Zelda games, I remember my days playing through Twilight Princess as a kid and then discovering classics like OoT and Majora's Mask, I still reminisce on the days I spent experiencing Wind Waker with my older sister on her Gamecube and being amazed by the artstyle and world. I should have been all over BOTW, but it never resonated with me leading up to launch, I was sick of the Open World genre and nothing of this game reminded me of that charm I fell in love with as a child, reviews were glowing and fan reception was some of the most positive ever seen, yet on launch I decided to pick up just Super Mario Odyssey and never picked up BOTW, it just didn't interest me and I saw the reviews as your typical overexaggerating for when a series switches up it's formula.
The years that followed I saw BOTW win many GOTY awards, as well as receive praise from not only my friend groups but the entire gaming world alike, yet I still felt no willingness to give the game a go, I watched gameplay but it never quite gripped me, people asked me of my thoughts of the game and I used to lie and be like "oh yeah it's good" without even putting the cartridge into my Switch and giving it a go, I was just too ashamed to admit I hadn't given a game that seemed like the second coming of Christ a chance rather immaturely. I watched countless reviews from people I trusted and saw people I respected in forums wax lyrically about how special this game was, yet I laughed it off and saw it as Zelda meets Ubisoft Open World Template.
Boy was I wrong.
You may remember I recently picked up a Wii U after selling my switch last year, and after seeing so much praise for it, I decided to finally give this game a chance, I let the seller know I would likely return it the next day as I doubted it would grab me, I had walked into this game expecting to gloat about how right I was and how I was ahead of the curve for my judgement on this game, but now 7 hours in, this is shaping up to be one of, if not the greatest games I have ever had the joy of playing.
No game has ever given me this sense of freedom, this level of trust from the developers to truly do whatever you choose to, whilst giving you all the tools to achieve the goals the game sets out in a rewarding manner without making it too easy or too challenging. The game didn't click at first, but it was about halfway through the Great Plateau when I was looking for a way to traverse the cold to get to a shrine, I had tried many methods, failing almost everytime, when I read the description of the Spicy Peppers I picked up earlier, and it clicked to me what I had to do. I found some Bokoblins around a cooking pot and decided to experiment with some cooking after I had killed them all (only a few deaths to a blue fucker halted my cooking session). I then threw some ingredients into the pot and boom, a meal that offered me cold resistance, I felt a sense of accomplishment as I surpassed the point where I would die almost everytime on my journey to the shrine and felt proud of my development from aimlessly walking into my demise time and time again to start with to successfully reaching the shrine using my own intuition, without any in your face game tips or offers to make the experience easy for the user.
This is a very minor example of the freedom the game offers the player, I have taken on enemy encounters in so many unique ways, experimenting with the physics systems, my weaponry and rune abilities as well as seeing how enemies react to certain situations, watching a Hoblin throw his friend at me in a last ditch aim to kill me when he was low on health made my jaw drop, the AI isn't next level in some ways with how enemies will just forget about you when feet away and dance like idiots or not see you when you're in clear view only to spot you when you're hiding, but when it works as intended, it really shows and makes the player sit up and take note.
I have heard many frustrated players rant about the breaking weapons and was expecting to hate that aspect with myself being a very big anti-survival game kinda person, but I adored how the weapons breaking made you have to think on your feet and look for smarter solutions, to experiment with other weaponry or look for things in the environment you could use to gain an advantage for yourself. It was just magical thinking "can I do this?" to laugh and say as if they would be that clever and then low and behold, it would actually work as I wanted it to. Yes other games have handled aspects of BOTW better with their games, but this is such a great amalgamation of all the big hitters in the Open World genre, and for Nintendo's first real foray into this genre, it is a home run of a title they have delivered.
The Wii U has it's issues performance wise but the framedrops have been few and far between for me and the game has an artstyle which really covers up blemishes of the system's age or crappy textures/resolutions. I do wish the gamepad was made more useful as looking at early footage this was definitely the case before they made the devs seemingly remove these systems to not allow it to overshadow the port for the new and shiny switch, but such minor annoyances don't stop me from loving this game for what it has been so far, a fucking masterpiece.
I regret not picking this up earlier, being so naïve and childish with my unjustified dislike towards this game for no reason seemingly, I wish I had the head on my shoulders then that I do now to give this game a chance, as this has been without a doubt so far, one of the best gaming experiences of my life.
I do apologise for the ramble-like nature of this post, but this is the first time in so long a game has really amazed me like this and changed my perception on a genre in such a small period of time, I can't wait for my 2 weeks off work starting tomorrow to dive back into this amazing game and see what other crazy shit I can do, places I can discover and experiments I can try.
It is so great when a game proves you wrong huh?
The years that followed I saw BOTW win many GOTY awards, as well as receive praise from not only my friend groups but the entire gaming world alike, yet I still felt no willingness to give the game a go, I watched gameplay but it never quite gripped me, people asked me of my thoughts of the game and I used to lie and be like "oh yeah it's good" without even putting the cartridge into my Switch and giving it a go, I was just too ashamed to admit I hadn't given a game that seemed like the second coming of Christ a chance rather immaturely. I watched countless reviews from people I trusted and saw people I respected in forums wax lyrically about how special this game was, yet I laughed it off and saw it as Zelda meets Ubisoft Open World Template.
Boy was I wrong.
You may remember I recently picked up a Wii U after selling my switch last year, and after seeing so much praise for it, I decided to finally give this game a chance, I let the seller know I would likely return it the next day as I doubted it would grab me, I had walked into this game expecting to gloat about how right I was and how I was ahead of the curve for my judgement on this game, but now 7 hours in, this is shaping up to be one of, if not the greatest games I have ever had the joy of playing.
No game has ever given me this sense of freedom, this level of trust from the developers to truly do whatever you choose to, whilst giving you all the tools to achieve the goals the game sets out in a rewarding manner without making it too easy or too challenging. The game didn't click at first, but it was about halfway through the Great Plateau when I was looking for a way to traverse the cold to get to a shrine, I had tried many methods, failing almost everytime, when I read the description of the Spicy Peppers I picked up earlier, and it clicked to me what I had to do. I found some Bokoblins around a cooking pot and decided to experiment with some cooking after I had killed them all (only a few deaths to a blue fucker halted my cooking session). I then threw some ingredients into the pot and boom, a meal that offered me cold resistance, I felt a sense of accomplishment as I surpassed the point where I would die almost everytime on my journey to the shrine and felt proud of my development from aimlessly walking into my demise time and time again to start with to successfully reaching the shrine using my own intuition, without any in your face game tips or offers to make the experience easy for the user.
This is a very minor example of the freedom the game offers the player, I have taken on enemy encounters in so many unique ways, experimenting with the physics systems, my weaponry and rune abilities as well as seeing how enemies react to certain situations, watching a Hoblin throw his friend at me in a last ditch aim to kill me when he was low on health made my jaw drop, the AI isn't next level in some ways with how enemies will just forget about you when feet away and dance like idiots or not see you when you're in clear view only to spot you when you're hiding, but when it works as intended, it really shows and makes the player sit up and take note.
I have heard many frustrated players rant about the breaking weapons and was expecting to hate that aspect with myself being a very big anti-survival game kinda person, but I adored how the weapons breaking made you have to think on your feet and look for smarter solutions, to experiment with other weaponry or look for things in the environment you could use to gain an advantage for yourself. It was just magical thinking "can I do this?" to laugh and say as if they would be that clever and then low and behold, it would actually work as I wanted it to. Yes other games have handled aspects of BOTW better with their games, but this is such a great amalgamation of all the big hitters in the Open World genre, and for Nintendo's first real foray into this genre, it is a home run of a title they have delivered.
The Wii U has it's issues performance wise but the framedrops have been few and far between for me and the game has an artstyle which really covers up blemishes of the system's age or crappy textures/resolutions. I do wish the gamepad was made more useful as looking at early footage this was definitely the case before they made the devs seemingly remove these systems to not allow it to overshadow the port for the new and shiny switch, but such minor annoyances don't stop me from loving this game for what it has been so far, a fucking masterpiece.
I regret not picking this up earlier, being so naïve and childish with my unjustified dislike towards this game for no reason seemingly, I wish I had the head on my shoulders then that I do now to give this game a chance, as this has been without a doubt so far, one of the best gaming experiences of my life.
I do apologise for the ramble-like nature of this post, but this is the first time in so long a game has really amazed me like this and changed my perception on a genre in such a small period of time, I can't wait for my 2 weeks off work starting tomorrow to dive back into this amazing game and see what other crazy shit I can do, places I can discover and experiments I can try.
It is so great when a game proves you wrong huh?
Last edited: