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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild |OT3| Your Free Time is Badly Damaged

I am going for 100% but I am not sure if I can do 900 seeds

Yeah, no 'true' finish for me on account of the seeds. I plan to finish the shrines, memories, and side quests before calling it a day. I'm about 70+ hours and I think I've completed the same number of shrines. Two divine beasts to go and about half of the memories.
 
For all the talk of "I want classic dungeons back!" I actually don't think that's the right move. I think the problem is people keep trying to frame Breath of the Wild as traditional 3D Zelda with a much bigger Hyrule field instead of accepting that the structure is fundamentally different on every level. I get why people like dungeons, but plopping in the dungeons from say, Twilight Princess and calling it a day runs against the design philosophy of the game. A large, gated area distinct from the overworld with a comparatively specific path, gated behind unlockable items conflicts with the open nature of BotW. The Divine Beasts feel more like a concession in that regard, but even then the approach is far more open than past dungeons and there's no item gating for access and completion as there was in the past. Hyrule Castle is frequently cited at the best approach going forwards, but then you wind up deeling with the extremes of BotW's formula where you can literally just do a couple "super jumps" and glide right to the boss room.

Again, I get why people are so attached to dungeons and I don't think they should be abandoned outright. But I do think they'll need to be drastically rethought going forwards because Breath of the Wild but with the Forest Temple plopped in isn't going to work, IMO.

Yep.
 

KayMote

Member
I had a super fun day with this game!
After finishing it after 200 hours of gameplay, yesterday I now approached the game with a different objective:

I set a countdown of 7 hours and started a completely new file (on a different profile of course): basically I gave myself exactly 7 hours to wander through this world and collect as much stuff as possible. The rule was: after exactly 7 hours I had to head to Ganon's Castle and fight him with the equipment and inventory that I had up until that point.

It was really fun and tough to manage my run! In those 7 hours I mainly focused on getting as many hearts as possible and so I managed to beat 20 shrines and even one dungeon (the Rito one, which was the shortest and gave me a faster way of navigation in addition to the precious heart container). In terms of the main quest I made my way to Kakariko and Hatano to meet Hetsu for a few more weapon slots (I think I bothered to find around 20 Koroks) and to buy the soldier's set which I even managed to upgrade once - that really saved my life in the final fight! I was also really lucky with my route - I didn't plan anything out, basically just wandered around from shrine to shrine, but I got some precious weapon drops and the most important thing for the final boss: quite a lot of bomb arrows! I also had to keep an eye out for A LOT of food, because I knew I would probably need to heal a lot at the end and that was the one thing that really payed of! Final boss was pretty hard, but definitely managable!

I had so much fun again - this felt like its own small self-contained adventure! I guess next thing on the list for me would be a 3 heart run where I would directly run up to the castle after leaving the plateau! I love this game!
 
You can harvest a lot of wood & flint for free with bombs.It's everywhere.
You can see the rain coming and have plenty of time to find a place to make a fire.
The game warns you and give you the possibility to skip it, but yet it's the game fault you refuse to do so ? Yes it is reaching.

You would think after being annoyed by the rain over and over, people would start learning how to deal with it instead of whining and saying to the world how inept they are at the game.
So what? If you can harvest a bunch of stuff and skip it, what is even the point of it? It's just tedious bullshit. There's nothing challenging about it, theres no gameplay to it, it just makes you waste time with more loading.

People know how to deal with it, they just think it's a bad mechanic.
 
For all the talk of "I want classic dungeons back!" I actually don't think that's the right move. I think the problem is people keep trying to frame Breath of the Wild as traditional 3D Zelda with a much bigger Hyrule field instead of accepting that the structure is fundamentally different on every level. Whereas in the past the meat of the game was the dungeons and everything else was glorified connective tissue, this time it's the world that's the real star of the game.

I get why people like dungeons, but plopping in the dungeons from say, Twilight Princess and calling it a day runs against the design philosophy of the game. A large, gated area distinct from the overworld with a comparatively specific path, gated behind unlockable items completely conflicts with the open nature of BotW. The Divine Beasts feel more like a concession in that regard, but even then the approach is far more open than past dungeons and there's no item gating for access and completion as there was in the past. Shrines are segregated from the overall world, but then there's a big difference from a 5-minute challenge room and being locked away from the open world for an hour. Hyrule Castle is frequently cited at the best approach going forwards, but then you wind up dealing with the extremes of BotW's formula where you can literally just do a couple "super jumps" and glide right to the boss room.

Again, I get why people are so attached to dungeons and I don't think they should be abandoned outright. But I do think they'll need to be drastically rethought going forwards because Breath of the Wild but with the Forest Temple plopped in isn't going to work, IMO.

I wouldnt have a problem with true dungeons in this game tbh. But I am not for gated items. Gated items fucking suck in a game that is open world like BOTW. A lot of the shrines in BOTW have concepts that could easily be full dungeons. The
electricity puzzles
for example could be a full themed dungeon imo. There is nothing wrong with big dungeons in open world games. Just no gated items. That concept sucks if it isnt a tightly woven experience like ALttP. I find it so daunting in the other titles because ot just makes exploring the world worse because you wont have items to see things. So you are better off just rushing through dungeons to get items
 

Cuburt

Member
With
Revali's Gale
I don't have an issue scaling most mountains come rain or shine.

Even without it the whole idea of finding cover to camp and wait out the rain is so freaking immersive. BOTW is all about these emergent systems working together to make a place that feels alive, and not just a series of checkpoints.

I'm basically in end-game mode, so rain never stops me since I just brute force it if I need to.

I think I would like to have seen rain been able to be something you could use to your advantage a bit more so really not be something that is mainly a burden/annoyance. If maybe enemies became more conductive of electricity in the rain or maybe more areas that puddle to cryonis in the rain or something. Even if you could summon thunderstorms like the Wizzrobe or if you can manipulate the weather with music like in past Zelda games.

It was an awesome feeling getting the
Thunder Helm since you feel like you have some control over something with great power that you were at the mercy of all game,
but I would have like to see them go a bit further with those sorts of ideas.

That being said, having spend hours trying to search for stuff in thunder storms, sand storms, and snow storms where you aren't just at the mercy of the elements, but your visibility sucks, it really makes you appreciate the clear weather so much more and soak in the beauty as well. Just to peer out at a rainbow in a dawn after a crazy stormy night is breath-taking. Even being up in the mountains, I find that the frustration of not being able to see far in a snowstorm is cancelled out by being on a peak in the early morning where it is clear and you can see for miles. You really can't appreciate the good without getting some struggle as well.
 
How is that reaching?

I've seen people complain about the rain like others complain about a bad camera or unresponsive controls in a lesser game. Same tenor. I consider that a reach.

That's not to say complaints about the rain are unwarranted. If you don't like it, you don't like it. I didn't really have an issue with it
until I hit the Akkala region lol.
To my eye, it's a relatively minor complaint. I enjoy the rain and its effects as an immersive element of the world but to each their own.

*Good stuff*

Basically, this.
 
You know, before I got the game I was worried that I would hate the weapon durability stuff. And early on, it was a bit annoying. But at the point I am now, I'm practically drowning in good weapons. Any chest I open is likely going to have a Royal or elemental weapon. It's good that I have the choice to take that if I want, but most of the time the 10+ weapons I'm already carrying are better.

If anything is the problem, it's the small starting inventory space and the steep price of upgrades. I think if they had been a little more lenient there, the weapon durability would be a complete non-issue from the start.

Side note about the rain: I'm impressed with how well the game actually manages to understand what surfaces should be "slick" or not. Like if you're climbing up a cliff face, it won't be slippery if there's a rock outcropping above you blocking the rain. And even the smallest overhead coverings will be enough for you to build a fire without it getting put out. Really well done. It would have been so much easier for them to just say, "Well, it's raining, nothing works, you're fucked."
 
I'm basically in end-game mode, so rain never stops me since I just brute force it if I need to.

I think I would like to have seen rain been able to be something you could use to your advantage a bit more so really not be something that is mainly a burden/annoyance. If maybe enemies became more conductive of electricity in the rain or maybe more areas that puddle to cryonis in the rain or something. Even if you could summon thunderstorms like the Wizzrobe or if you can manipulate the weather with music like in past Zelda games.

Actually, if it is raining, thunder arrows, on impact (don't remember if you have to hit an enemy or the ground or both) the arrow will release a discharge of electricity that that will shock all near by enemies, and your self if your not careful/ too close (visual effect similar to the electric lizard guys when they unleash a discharge). I believe it also does this if the thunder arrow hits a metal object.
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
I've seen people complain about the rain like others complain about a bad camera or unresponsive controls in a lesser game. Same tenor. I consider that a reach.

That's not to say complaints about the rain are unwarranted. If you don't like it, you don't like it. I didn't really have an issue with it
until I hit the Akkala region lol.
To my eye, it's a relatively minor complaint. I enjoy the rain and its effects as an immersive element of the world but to each their own.

For me the rain just got tedious once I was at a point of being tired of the game.

Once I was already tired of the boring (to me) traversal and just kind of forcing myself to keep exploring to see what I missed (and to not have my Switch gathering dust), yeah it's annoying to be climbing a big mountain and have it start raining and then have to waste time waiting it out or going somewhere else (if there's no where close by to make a fire) instead of where I was wanting to go.

It's one of those things that's probably a benefit to people who love the world, are completely enthralled by exploring it and spending well over 100 hours in it as it adds immersion to their adventure and exploration. But it's just another frustrating, time-wasting barrier to those already off put or tired of all the traversal and just wanting to get to where ever the hell we were wanting to go as quickly as possible.
 

Koren

Member
But I do think they'll need to be drastically rethought going forwards because Breath of the Wild but with the Forest Temple plopped in isn't going to work, IMO.
I'm not sure I understand why it wouldn't work... How the game would have been different if the four beasts had been replaced by four older-style dungeons, let alone not working at all?

There's nothing challenging about it, theres no gameplay to it
I think there is gameplay to it. Plently of things to handle differently in rain, especially with thunder. I would welcome clear skies sometime over the Hebra mountains (it's a shame there's always hazze there), and maybe a complete set of mountain gear should make you immune to sliding, but I'm fine with the weather system.
 
For me the rain just got tedious once I was at a point of being tired of the game.

Once I was already tired of the boring (to me) traversal and just kind of forcing myself to keep exploring to see what I missed (and to not have my Switch gathering dust), yeah it's annoying to be climbing a big mountain and have it start raining and then have to waste time waiting it out or going somewhere else (if there's no where close by to make a fire) instead of where I was wanting to go.

It's one of those things that's probably a benefit to people who love the world, are completely enthralled by exploring it and spending well over 100 hours in it as it adds immersion to their adventure and exploration. But it's just another frustrating, time-wasting barrier to those already off put or tired of all the traversal and just wanting to get to where ever the hell we were wanting to go as quickly as possible.

I can see where you're coming from, even if I can't relate myself. Would you put your displeasure concerning the rain on the same level as the examples I cited? If so then I'll concede I underestimated how much people hate the rain in this game.
 
I think there is gameplay to it. Plently of things to handle differently in rain, especially with thunder. I would welcome clear skies sometime over the Hebra mountains (it's a shame there's always hazze there), and maybe a complete set of mountain gear should make you immune to sliding, but I'm fine with the weather system.
Lightning is different than just the rain. Lightning actually has you avoiding trees that can catch fire, metal objects that can electrocute you, water bodies that can electrocute you, and you can actually use it as a weapon against enemies. There are actual penalties and uses for it that make sense. What does the rain do? Make some rare stuff show up and make shield surfing better, can't use fire stuff, and you can't climb for shit? Not particularly interesting is it.
 
Again, I get why people are so attached to dungeons and I don't think they should be abandoned outright. But I do think they'll need to be drastically rethought going forwards because Breath of the Wild but with the Forest Temple plopped in isn't going to work, IMO.

I don't see why the big open world can't have dungeons worked into the big open world and I didn't think the shrines or Beasts were some kind of great substitute. I get what you're saying about the game design, but for me the world was much too big and I don't find joy in just running across huge fields and snow fields that go on forever-- that's just not great world/game design for me. Had the Divine Beasts been longer, had more enemies, maybe a mini-boss, and more boss variety than Blight Ganon, that would be fine.

I think people are "complaining" about the lack of traditional dungeons because these didn't scratch the itch they were looking for, and some adjustments, more variety, more length, more content in general in these dungeons probably would have. I think I'm more or less having trouble with this train of thought that the open world focus clashes with having dungeons, because the game still had dungeons and over a hundred shrines. It's just that, again, for some of us, they weren't wholly satisfying and I have no interest in that kind of layout.

I hope this is the one and only Zelda with all those shrines and just four kinda short and aesthetically samey dungeons. I don't dislike the Divine Beasts, I thought they were pretty cool actually, but had there maybe been a few more and what I went over above, you wouldn't be hearing any complaining from me. And with a world that big, again, I don't see how having "traditional" dungeons organically worked into it would be some kind of issue or clash.

edit: also on your point about things being "gated," they don't have to be gated at all. You can work a dungeon into the world just like the shrines. Not everything about the dungeons or traditional style has to be the exact same thing, myself and others just wanted more complex, labyrinthine dungeons worked into the world. Personally when I think of open world Zelda this huge, having four small-ish and visually repetitive dungeons isn't at all what comes to mind. Like I said the Beasts were cool, they were just lacking for me when it came to several aspects about them. Address that, and I'd be disco :p
 

pringles

Member
Lightning is different than just the rain. Lightning actually has you avoiding trees that can catch fire, metal objects that can electrocute you, water bodies that can electrocute you, and you can actually use it as a weapon against enemies. There are actual penalties and uses for it that make sense. What does the rain do? Make some rare stuff show up and make shield surfing better, can't use fire stuff, and you can't climb for shit? Not particularly interesting is it.
Rain makes lightning weapons more effective, makes stealth easier, creates water puddles that can be used for various purposes etc.
It also affects enemies, for example enemy archers with bomb arrows aren't very effective in rain.
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
I can see where you're coming from, even if I can't relate myself. Would you put your displeasure concerning the rain on the same level as the examples I cited? If so then I'll concede I underestimated how much people hate the rain in this game.

Everyone is just bothered different amounts by different things. But no, I wouldn't put it at the same level as bad controls, bad camera etc. throughout a game as that ruins the whole game.

I'd put it at the same level as bad camera in certain situations in a game though--like the shitty camera in indoor areas in Gravity Rush 2. As those are just moments here and there throughout long games that get annoying, but not something that hampers the whole game or most of the game.

Like I said, my main issue is I just keep playing when I should have just stuck to my plan of doing the four beasts, tracking down the memories I missed with guide, just doing whatever I stumbled across along the way and beating Ganon and being done with it.

Exploration for it's own sake just doesn't do enough for me in any game, so by keeping playing the pet peeves I had with the game are just more glaring than when it was fresher and I was still motivated by wanting to do those things and beat the game. I'm just one that needs structure and purpose to keep enjoying games, outside of pure gamplay ones like racers and what not anyway. Sandbox, make your own adventure stuff just doesn't do much for me.
 

Zautruche

Banned
So what? If you can harvest a bunch of stuff and skip it, what is even the point of it? It's just tedious bullshit. There's nothing challenging about it, theres no gameplay to it, it just makes you waste time with more loading.

People know how to deal with it, they just think it's a bad mechanic.

Yes we have all read "I hate the rain because it forces me to go through a load screen to skip it" and not countless "I hate it when it start to rain while I'm climbing". Are you really going to entertain the idea that almost everyone watch the weather forecast in BotW and make a fire to skip the rain ?

With your same insane logic, hearts and stamina bars are also tedious (you can just restore them to full with one cooked durian/endura carrot that you can use them when the game is paused, after you wasted your time cooking using even more menus).
So we have no challenge, no gameplay to it, and a waste of time.



Rain is a difficulty spike/immersion mechanic. You can't use fire and bomb arrows, shock weapons are more powerful. Climbing is more difficult, surfing is easier. How can you call that "no gameplay to it" ?
Rain is a gameplay mechanic, you can hate it all you want it won't change that.
 
Lightning is different than just the rain. Lightning actually has you avoiding trees that can catch fire, metal objects that can electrocute you, water bodies that can electrocute you, and you can actually use it as a weapon against enemies. There are actual penalties and uses for it that make sense. What does the rain do? Make some rare stuff show up and make shield surfing better, can't use fire stuff, and you can't climb for shit? Not particularly interesting is it.

Rain (and thunderstorms for that matter) make it harder for enemies to detect you, and easier to sneak up on them. It prevents enemies from setting their weapons on fire (as well as you). Makes the enemy encampments that uses bomb arrows easier to deal with (bomb arrows can't explode in the rain). Thunder arrows will release a large discharge when they hit an enemy (and maybe the ground, can't remember which one it is) which can shock near by enemy, as well as your self, if you aren't careful. Liking the rain or disliking/ hating it, I believe, comes down simply to your play style. If it interferes too much with someones play style then they are probably not going to like it. Personally, I don't love or hate it. It's simply there. Depending on the situation, I might curse it (when I'm trying to cook), or I might be thankful for it (like when I'm dealing with a large group of enemies and I am trying to sneak up on them and kill them all stealth like).
 
Everyone is just bothered different amounts by different things. But no, I wouldn't put it at the same level as bad controls, bad camera etc. throughout a game as that ruins the whole game.

I'd put it at the same level as bad camera in certain situations in a game though--like the shitty camera in indoor areas in Gravity Rush 2. As those are just moments here and there throughout long games that get annoying, but not something that hampers the whole game or most of the game.

Like I said, my main issue is I just keep playing when I should have just stuck to my plan of doing the four beasts, tracking down the memories I missed with guide, just doing whatever I stumbled across along the way and beating Ganon and being done with it.

Exploration for it's own sake just doesn't do enough for me in any game, so by keeping playing the pet peeves I had with the game are just more glaring than when it was fresher and I was still motivated by wanting to do those things and beat the game. I'm just one that needs structure and purpose to keep enjoying games, outside of pure gamplay ones like racers and what not anyway. Sandbox, make your own adventure stuff just doesn't do much for me.

You know, I've read a lot of your criticisms regarding this game over the last few days and I've really appreciated hearing your perspective. I obviously don't share your particular gaming tastes (I'm not much for overly linear, narrative-focused games as of late) but your impressions seem genuine, well-reasoned, and offer insight into a particular gaming mindset that's not at all uncommon. It sucks that BotW didn't click with you as much as it did with me. Hope the next Zelda has more of what you're looking for without losing what I like so much about this one.
 
For all the talk of "I want classic dungeons back!" I actually don't think that's the right move. I think the problem is people keep trying to frame Breath of the Wild as traditional 3D Zelda with a much bigger Hyrule field instead of accepting that the structure is fundamentally different on every level. Whereas in the past the meat of the game was the dungeons and everything else was glorified connective tissue, this time it's the world that's the real star of the game.
You are absolutely right. I've been saying this for a while. BotW isn't meant to be a bigger version of Ocarina. It's a different game altogether. I can see why people like and miss Ocarina style Zelda, but personally I've had my fill of it and I'm glad they tried something different.

It's also worth mentioning that if this game had a larger number of bigger dungeons, it would be a much bigger game that would have required a lot more time and money to make. It's not like we got any less dungeon-y content in this game. If anything we got more. It's just distributed differently.
 

psyfi

Banned
Dungeons have always been the least exciting aspect of Zelda for me, but I really missed proper dungeons in BOTW. Part of it is that I want better rewards from exploration in general, and stumbling across a totally hidden dungeon would be amazingly satisfying. I see no reason they couldn't fit into a world design like BOTW.
 

jariw

Member
Lightning is different than just the rain. Lightning actually has you avoiding trees that can catch fire, metal objects that can electrocute you, water bodies that can electrocute you, and you can actually use it as a weapon against enemies. There are actual penalties and uses for it that make sense. What does the rain do? Make some rare stuff show up and make shield surfing better, can't use fire stuff, and you can't climb for shit? Not particularly interesting is it.

Rain allows you to walk very close to enemies and prey without them hearing that you're there (without potion or clothing). Rain makes it easier to kill an enemy without another enemy noticing it. It fills pools of water that makes cryonis applyable in wider areas. It makes some animals required for upgrades much much more frequent. Rain makes electric arrows extremely efficient.
 

Koren

Member
I won't argue in terms of gameplay for rain, people have done it well...

I hope this is the one and only Zelda with all those shrines
I'm not sure you can ditch the shrines without replacing them by something similar, or the world may seem emptier, though...

edit: also on your point about things being "gated," they don't have to be gated at all. You can work a dungeon into the world just like the shrines.
And you can have dungeons that interact with the outside world a lot... I mean, it's not new, a lot of dungeons in Zeldas have you in the outside world in the middle of a dungeon. It's just a matter of not having just one castle...
 
You are absolutely right. I've been saying this for a while. BotW isn't meant to be a bigger version of Ocarina. It's a different game altogether. I can see why people like and miss Ocarina style Zelda, but personally I've had my fill of it and I'm glad they tried something different.

It's also worth mentioning that if this game had a larger number of bigger dungeons, it would be a much bigger game that would have required a lot more time and money to make. It's not like we got any less dungeon-y content in this game. If anything we got more. It's just distributed differently.

See my problem is I thought the world was unnecessarily large and I think some of that space could be taken up by dungeons. I mean, this game is absolutely massive. That's just not an excuse to me at all. The world size shouldn't compromise this stuff to me. It's just backwards to me.

I'm not sure you can ditch the shrines without replacing them by something similar, or the world may seem emptier, though...

So make it smaller. If you reduced the size of the world by 30% it would still be ridiculously massive.
 
I think the shrines ARE a good substitute for dungeons, because they all feed into that same motivation to explore, whilst still balancing the puzzle elements of the game by spreading them out. I do think they could be much harder and area themed. Having 6 or 7 big dungeons to find sounds like some motivation-killing stuff once you know where they are - which shouldn't be too hard given how big and sprawling everybody wants them to be.

Let's say they do big dungeons. What else is driving the player to search all over the map that worth replacing shrines for?
 
I think the shrines ARE a good substitute for dungeons, because they all feed into that same motivation to explore. Having 6 or 7 big dungeons to find sounds like some motivation-killing stuff once you know where they are - which shouldn't be too hard given how big and sprawling everybody wants them to be.

Let's say they do big dungeons. What else is driving the player to search all over the map that worth replacing shrines for?

A smaller world filled with more and larger dungeons would be more satisfying to me than what we got here. It doesn't have to be so damn big. But maybe that's just where my opinion differs, I don't need a world this large. I really just don't care for it.
 
See my problem is I thought the world was unnecessarily large and I think some of that space could be taken up by dungeons. I mean, this game is absolutely massive. That's just not an excuse to me at all. The world size shouldn't compromise this stuff to me. It's just backwards to me.



So make it smaller. If you reduced the size of the world by 30% it would still be ridiculously massive.

I'm the opposite. Half way through the game and I'm finding my self thinking, "I thought this would be bigger." Of course that is not me calling the game small. That being said, I have really enjoyed this game.
 
A smaller world filled with more and larger dungeons would be more satisfying to me than what we got here. It doesn't have to be so damn big. But maybe that's just where my opinion differs, I don't need a world this large. I really just don't care for it.
I want it to be even bigger. I love it.
 
Looks good. Sounds good on my speakers. Makes weather feel like it actually matters.
Weather already matters in the game. Rain could be more interesting.

Yes we have all read "I hate the rain because it forces me to go through a load screen to skip it" and not countless "I hate it when it start to rain while I'm climbing". Are you really going to entertain the idea that almost everyone watch the weather forecast in BotW and make a fire to skip the rain ?

With your same insane logic, hearts and stamina bars are also tedious (you can just restore them to full with one cooked durian/endura carrot that you can use them when the game is paused, after you wasted your time cooking using even more menus).
So we have no challenge, no gameplay to it, and a waste of time.

Rain is a difficulty spike/immersion mechanic. You can't use fire and bomb arrows, shock weapons are more powerful. Climbing is more difficult, surfing is easier. How can you call that "no gameplay to it" ?
Rain is a gameplay mechanic, you can hate it all you want it won't change that.
Are you going to honestly believe that you delivered some enlightening knowledge about how to avoid rain to people criticising it? People know how to do it.

You're not making much sense here with this comparison.

To be quite honest, I doubt people are using fire and bomb arrows all that often to begin with even outside the rain, nor are they having much problems with snipers who cant aim for shit, so this sounds like pretty bland thing to bring up, and shock weapons are already powerful, so whoop-de-doo? I never said the rain isnt a gameplay mechanic, I said there's no gameplay in reference to avoiding the rain, unless you consider flint and wood gathering or teleporting to a bed or a camp to wait it out gameplay and not just plain tedious busywork. What I did in fact say about the rain being gameplay is that it's a bad gameplay mechanic.

Anyway, we clearly disagree with the implementation of it, so if you enjoy it, more power to you.
 
See my problem is I thought the world was unnecessarily large and I think some of that space could be taken up by dungeons. I mean, this game is absolutely massive. That's just not an excuse to me at all. The world size shouldn't compromise this stuff to me. It's just backwards to me.



So make it smaller. If you reduced the size of the world by 30% it would still be ridiculously massive.
Sure, and that would make the game more like past Zelda games. Again, I can understand why people would prefer that, but personally I'm happy they tried something as different as they did.

I look forward to them experimenting with the size and density of the world in the future. Maybe they will make a smaller game. Personally, I really like the balance they struck with BotW. I think it's a great size. But I'm open to trying other things too.
 
I think a good way to put it is that I just prefer moments of focused game design. When I'm in a shrine or Divine Beast or one of the sub areas like say the mazes in the woods or whatever, I'm having a lot more fun as there's actually more immediate objectives for me to work through. I'm more engaged in those instances than when I'm out running across fields. I don't have a problem with that really, just that I could use less of that and more of the aforementioned. During that stuff I feel like I'm playing something with actual design focus and that's simply what I prefer.

I think the world could be a lot smaller and STILL be a huge thing of beauty.

Sure, and that would make the game more like past Zelda games. Again, I can understand why people would prefer that, but personally I'm happy they tried something as different as they did.

Experiment away. I'm not criticizing these things because they're different, I'm criticizing them on their own merits and I don't want change just for the sake of it- if there were more Beasts, they had different looks, more varied bosses, more enemies within, a bit longer, etc we wouldn't be having this conversation because I did like them overall. Just found them lacking in many ways.

I'm not upset because it's different, I'm critical because for me it just wasn't legitimately as good.
 

Burny

Member
What I did in fact say about the rain being gameplay is that it's a bad gameplay mechanic.

So is night and day. How dare the game do make things depend on the ingame time? Player should always be able to take on and solve each and every quest! No silly world building should get into the way.

I remember going to Zoras Village without stamina upgrades or climbing gear in constant rain and still being able to climb half the mountain while avoiding much of the preset, monster riddled path. It only ever took a couple of seconds to make out viable paths that where doable without too much climbing. Sounds to me like overdramatizing the rain's effects. You people make it sound like it was some insufferably annoying thing outright preventing you from playing the game. It's a cool world mechanic for me that I have no control over and which requires me to rethink an approach in very rare occasions. Which takes all of three seconds.
 
I enjoyed the Divine Beasts in this game, but I think the next game could more or less replace them with more traditional dungeons and you'd get a different but equally enjoyable experience (more enjoyable for some). I'd keep the shrines but build them around a different set of abilities (e.g., hookshot instead of or in addition to bombs, magnesis, etc.)

That said, I'd still prefer if the dungeons remained optional like the Divine Beasts. In fact, it would be cool if they rethought the 3-stone structure of past Zelda games. Instead, have the dungeons be standalone adventures, with their own histories, storylines, characters and villains. You could arrive at a town where a cult-like faith has brainwashed a majority of the residents and choose to suss out the source of the evil--a mad priest esconced in a giant stone temple hidden deep in the forest/atop a mountain/under a lake--and go on a mini-quest to extinguish it and cleanse the town. Or you could ignore it completely and go on your merry way. But you'd miss out on some badass armor/weapon/ability that would make the fight against the Big Bad a lot easier.

With the base they've built with BotW, I could foresee Nintendo doing something like this for the next game.
 

Xemnas89

Member
I like the idea of the shrines and I want something similar in future games but I'd rather have that stuff found in cave systems and underground caverns and make them feel like a more natural part of the world. Also the next game should go even further with the freedom by allowing you to plow your way through the environment Mincecraft style. Let me mine my way through those mountains.
 
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