I'm sorry BOTW, but Eventide Island, Hyrule Castle, and Trials of the Sword are WAY better than your crud temples and dungeons

GigaBowser

GigaBowser

The bear of bad news
This is Switch's best game but oh boy were those dungeons and temples ever crud.

The best part of the game was actually fighting Lynels, Eventide Island, Master Sword Trials and Hyrule castle.

Yes my friends that's right, these levels of the game force you to SURVIVE, and aren't just some dumb tacked on puzzles.

www.ign.com

Stranded on Eventide - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Guide - IGN

Stranded on Eventide is one of the 42 Shrine Quests in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Successful completion of this shrine quest reveals the hidden
www.ign.com www.ign.com
 
Yeah, I think it's agreed amongst a lot of people that love BOTW otherwise that the dungeon suck. Four in total with no feeling of progression as you do them in any order, all with the same theme and a literal handful of enemies in each, and a variation of the same boss at the end. Absolute worst parts of the game. Some of those mechanics were cool like the elephant trunk but it wasn't enough.
 
The dungeons are fine mechanically, their problem is that there are very few of them and they are all samey looking.

The shrines range from bad to mildly interesting.

Overall, i agree with the premise of the OP.
 
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nkarafo said:
The shrines range from bad to mildly interesting.
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GymWolf said:
It is well known that dungeons and copy paste shrines were crap.
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I actually really didn't mind the shrines at all considering they took about 10 minutes each. Felt like really nice little puzzles/arenas to break up the overworld.

Then again I didn't care about the weapon breaking either so maybe I'm in a minority of fans on that.
 
Fake Surprised Season 8 GIF by Friends
 
AV said:
I actually really didn't mind the shrines at all considering they took about 10 minutes each. Felt like really nice little puzzles/arenas to break up the overworld.
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The problem is they were too many of them with a lot being filler.

It would be better if they were only around half of them, keep the best ones, make them a bit bigger and have a few different visual and music themes.

I liked the overworld but i don't get the constant need of "filling it" to the brim. The korok seeds, especially, was the worst part of the game. They only needed to be 1/3 as many, at most.
 
AV said:
I actually really didn't mind the shrines at all considering they took about 10 minutes each. Felt like really nice little puzzles/arenas to break up the overworld.

Then again I didn't care about the weapon breaking either so maybe I'm in a minority of fans on that.
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They were nice for the first 10 times.
 
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nkarafo said:
I liked the overworld but i don't get the constant need of "filling it" to the brim. The korok seeds, especially, was the worst part of the game. They only needed to be 1/3 as many, at most.
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This again I didn't mind but I imagine if you were a completionist it would be miserable getting all 900. I didn't even attempt it, went for 120/120 shrines, I'd say you could cut just 20 of those and it would feel better.

What I'd love TotK to do is bake more unique stuff into the overworld. So much of the groundwork was already done with BOTW that I hope they've had the time to make more unique looking stuff, a real fire temple inside a volcano, a real frost temple atop a mountain etc. Probably going to be let down as I bet everything is "shadow themed" or whatever.
 
AV said:
This again I didn't mind but I imagine if you were a completionist it would be miserable getting all 900.
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I'm actually a completioninst, yes. I also have huge OCD i think. These korok areas would always get in the way. They were everywhere and i could not resist doing them.

But once i realized they are so many and it's not worth getting them, i stopped at around half of them.

I feel like the game was made for people who don't explore much. That's maybe why they added so many koroks/shrines, because even if they missed most of them they would still find enough to do some decent progression. I don't like that kind of game design. I prefer to explore a lot before i find something interesting. That makes whatever i find even more interesting. Where's the fun if i see something "interesting" every 10 steps i make? It literally stops being interesting after the 100th thing i find.
 
BotW has the worst dungeons and boss fights in Zelda history. The 2D games managed to be better in this regard, nevermind the incredible 3D titles spanning the N64 up to Wii.
 
The four "dungeons" and shitload of shrines were definitely the worst part of the game, along with the copy/pasted overworld.

Wait, what is left then ?
 
A few of the shrines would have been fine. Say, 50 at most.

The rest of that development time (it's not just copy and paste, they did need to do some designing the puzzles) would have been better spent hiding away secrets. Obscure areas and secret areas with some NPCs that have interesting short mini quests/stories.

Instead while hidden and hard to reach areas at least had a Korok seed, many of those could have had something a little more interesting as a reward for finding it.

The worst thing about BotW was it felt rather dead at the end of the day in most places.
 
I much preferred the approach in OoT personally, I was excited to see the themes of each dungeon and loved the puzzle mechanics. I didnt enjoy the 'dungeons' in BoTW and they were a huge aspect of what I lioved in previous Zelda games
 
Korok seeds offering no worthwhile reward to players for their time and commitment, are like the embodiment of Nintendo themselves.
 
It's almost like the game is so much more than the "dungeons". The approach to the dungeons themselves is inevitably amazing every time.

Seriously, this criticism has been beaten into the ground like four years ago and it's even less legitimate than the one about weapon durability. It's your fault for expecting dungeons like the ones in previous Zelda games when the whole game is anything but. You have this huge playground full of amazing stuff to discover and still all you can think and talk of is the dungeons, dungeons, dungeons.
 
I join the BOTW review club. For me the worst thing is the scarcity of enemies... No more different enemies by color... No more enemies that if it is brown is the weak one, that if the blue color is stronger and it is in a snowy area.
 
I didn't mind any of that. The 4 main dungeons were shit, but that's what, 2% of the total playtime?

My main problem with the game was the lack of challenge once you get out of the tutorial area.
Still had fun with the game, but imo it could have been much better just by having a better healing system.
 
They made it more about site seeing. Beautiful locations that would make any hardcore Zelda fan cry. The dungeons and temples were meh. It's a hipsters Zelda game.
 
Wow...

You know people get really pissy when I call out BoTW as being like an Ubisoft game, one of the key issues is the feeling of repetitiveness and the shrines/dungeons are a great example of this generic filler content.

Outside of the Master Sword DLC, I really didn't enjoy my time with it. Its funny because in many ways it feels like a less refined Shadows of the Colossus, but with less intresting bosses if you can call them that, the world feels almost as empty outside the generic Ubistyle filler crap like collect 100 seeds etc.
 
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cireza said:
The four "dungeons" and shitload of shrines were definitely the worst part of the game, along with the copy/pasted overworld.

Wait, what is left then ?
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The random encounter repeated 200 times?


Anyway, I disagree. For how disappointing they may have been compared to older Zelda games, the dungeons were STILL one of the highlights of the game in the end.
 
TintoConCasera said:
I didn't mind any of that. The 4 main dungeons were shit, but that's what, 2% of the total playtime?

My main problem with the game was the lack of challenge once you get out of the tutorial area.
Still had fun with the game, but imo it could have been much better just by having a better healing system.
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Exactly, I expected the best challenge in the final battle.

Then there are times when I wish I could face him without the help of characters that would lower Ganon's health by half.

Even then I have the feeling that by really knowing the mechanics of the game, you can beat Ganon to dust.
 
AV said:
I actually really didn't mind the shrines at all considering they took about 10 minutes each. Felt like really nice little puzzles/arenas to break up the overworld.

Then again I didn't care about the weapon breaking either so maybe I'm in a minority of fans on that.
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I liked the shrines and I got use to the weapon breaking aspect...but still it is not my favorite part of the game. If anything, the Master Sword should have been one where you didn't need to worry about it but they made it so that the sword loses its charge!
 
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As someone who was pretty much fed up with the old dungeon format by the time Ocarina of Time came out in the late 90's, I actually quite liked the dungeons in BotW. That they all had the same vibe is something I can easily forgive as it makes sense storywise.

To me, BotW is the breath of fresh air the Zelda series so deperately needed, after almost 15 years of so-so games with the same old formula.
 
Yeah it needed more dungeons like the ones in Twilight Princess with distinct looks and themes. The Divine Beast ones were sub par IMO.

Agree that Hyrule Castle was great to fight through and the game needed more enemy strongholds like that one. The temples all had the same look and music which made them less interesting over time the course of the game.
 
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I've just realised that I never touched the DLC despite 100%'ing the main game, I should do that soon

Anyway on topic, the Dungeons were fine but not like other Zelda dungeons, taht was the main issue
 
Agree with you OP. Evertide was probably the high point if the game for me. That was awesome. However, I don't think what you are saying is a "hot take" or really new news. I think most people would agree lol.

As for the shrines, I never understood people complaining about them being "Copy/paste". If you mean the textures than sure. They are 100% the same throughout. More variety on the skin or theme of them wouldn't hurt, however I felt they never felt the same. Puzzles were different throughout. Can only really remember a couple that were the same, like the combat ones for example. My only real complaint with them are some are too easy. I don't need everyone to be super challenging but some were just too simple.
 
Nah.

Eventide Island is a neat idea I'll grant you, even though it can be figured out quickly and is kind of a cheap challenge when you think about it since it basically just asks you to temporarily start over.

Hyrule Castle was really disappointing for me after all the hype. I didn't feel like it was a test of my skills, abilities or powers of deduction in the way the shrines were. The fact that so much of it can be easily skipped only compounded my disappointment.

Amazing game otherwise.
 
I hope this is the main area TOTK is focusing on because BOTW was the worst in the series at this.
Shrines were ass too , such a step down and theyre such a big % of what the game is
 
Sentenza said:
Anyway, I disagree. For how disappointing they may have been compared to older Zelda games, the dungeons were STILL one of the highlights of the game in the end.
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I found them very disappointing. No enemy at all, except for the final boss, that is always this more or less copy/pasted thing each time. Because you do the game in any order, they killed any effort at offering a decent challenge in terms of combat inside the dungeons. They simply completely skipped this, because why even try lol ? These dungeons are glorified puzzles with a copy pasted boss.

Game started being good at Hyrule Castle. Well yeah, after all, this is the place you are supposed to visit end game with a strong character, so the developers had a better idea of the level of challenge they could set there. Of course you can rush to the castle at the very beginning, and make 99% of the game irrelevant as you are going to pick up very powerful weapons super early.

What a mess of game-design this game is. People enjoyed it, had a ton of fun with it and I am totally fine with this. But it is a mess. This is like Sonic Frontiers or FF XV, more or less. These games succeed at being good, fun games in the end, so maybe that this is the most important.
 
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While I agree that those are some of the most fun in the game, that doesn't mean the rest was bad, the dungeons to me were good enough, just maybe to same-y looking but that doesn't discredit them from being good
 
I loved the shrines. That being said I would still rather have some traditional dungeons
 
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Yeah the Divine Beasts (and boss battles) were shit.

Breath of the Wild main point was finding shrines with puzzles across the world map, but those could have been improved visually as well(for example, have 4 or 5 different themes depending on the area. (lava shrine, grass ruins, ice cave, sand etc)

A big area of improvment for Tears of the Kingdom, since we know Nintendo are good at making awesome Zelda dungeons
 
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The shrines seem to be a compromise for no dungeons.

But wait, you are talking about dungeons.... Which were those? You mean the beasts? Because I really do not like those.
 
I played on mastermode my first play through. It was a survival game.

I'm still not good at combat 200 hours played.

I think BoTW did items and progression in a new way. It would be cool if they expanded on the things you mention OP and do some dungeon preparation to get upgrades or something.
 
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belmarduk said:
Eventide Island was one of the most fun parts of BoTW. Thanks for reminding me, Op! Gonna replay it!
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Yes my friends, this is my main point. People are saying my thread idea is rehashed but they don't understand that my thread idea is actually revolutionary.

I'm not just saying the temples and dungeons are crud (or whatever you call it "shrines and beasts") I'm saying they should scrap dungeons and cruddy puzzles in Zelda altogether and just have areas like Eventide, Sword Trials and more STRUCTURES like Hyrule Castle to explore and fight in.

I just went through the thread and tried to like everyone's post who agreed with me.

oh_i_get_it_chris_farley.gif
 
Those things just had the same copy paste "puzzles" and 2 enemy types that the rest of the game had.

At least the dungeons felt like a proper Zelda game for a short second.

If I have to hit a stupid stone ball into a hole one more time in the sequel its gonna be quit/Uninstall
 
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