Zelda: Breath of the Wild is already one of the highest rated games (On Metacritic) of all time

[McFuzz]

I specifically haven’t been folowing this, despite being an avid Zelda fan, but open world Zelda terrifies me, despite the fact that I was going to get it either way.

I am going to study it when I go home from work today to see if it is as good as people say it is and use Horizon Zero Dawn, another exploration adventure open world RPG that came out this week, as a direct point of reference. I have a lot to say about THAT game, but I’d best not spill it yet; just in case Zelda is committing the same crimes.

I just thought it was quite interesting, especially considering how Nintendo recently handled Star Fox and Metroid Prime, but it may just be people upvoting a classic franchise because they added a sandbox. I hope that, as time goes on, reviewers become better equipped to critique sandbox games because at the moment they don’t seem to study the inclusion of a sandbox to the same existential level that I ponder it lol.

Feel free to discuss sandbox games or Zelda in this topic. Oh, also Switch. Did you get one? I just got this on Wii-U

[James_Ran]

My last Nintendo System was a normal Wii; Last Sony system was PS3; my main system is my Windows PC.

The last Zelda game I played was Twilight Princess which I still have yet to beat. I have too many of them to catch up on but it gets harder for me to focus on lengthier games compared to before.

I think one good thing is that the new Zelda might be nicer to play on and off briefly from what I heard in a video review. So that is kinda nice at least.

I probably won’t end up playing it for a long time though until I get things in order over here with everything I am currently doing.

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Let me know how it is when you are ready in case I decide to give it a chance sooner than later since I’d have to buy the system for it.

Thanks for sharing~

[McFuzz]

Well I have been playing it pretty much nonstop all week, and whilst there are some issues with it (Notably, soundtrack and framerate is a little subpar), Nintendo have absolutely shattered the expectations I had for it going in.

Comparing Zelda to other mainstream sandboxes, namely Horizon Zero Dawn in this example, Zelda absolutely blows it out of the water. Like, let’s use the game’s progression for example.

Progression:
Z: After the tutorial they basically say “Alright. Off you go. Finish the game at some point, seeya!”. And your quests are to investigate the 4 McGuffins or you can just go beat Ganon whenever you’re ready. You don’t even need to finish the main story. You can go anywhere you want after that point.
There are no player levels, the game is working on a Player Strength progression rather than Avatar Strength. This means you can tackle any challenge at any point, since they pretty much give you the tools off the bat.

HZD: After a predictable, 4-5 hour long first act, the game basically looses you into the world. Except not really. There are roadblocks that require you to complete quests in order to continue.
Not only that, but they start you in the very bottom corner of the map, and then after that a lot of the early game is walking down this one valley.
There are player and enemy levels, meaning you have to mill about and do things in the starter area before you’re capable of taking on tougher enemies. This, obviously, restricts freedom (But that’s what these sandbox games are secretly about anyway! ;D)

I could write down every comparison and consider the differences between them, but it’s probably not going to reach a lot of people. Basically, core Zelda fans are mad because it’s not Ocarina of Time 2.0, but it’s about as comfortable as an open world game can be, which is exactly why I’m going to be playing it for months. As far as content is concerned, I feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface

[James_Ran]

Thanks, Sam.

That is a pretty good description to steer people in either direction whatever way they want to go. I’ll be going down the Zelda path when it comes to it.

People tend to be irritated with change, and sometimes rightfully so. Some companies might turn something from great to goop, but I’m happy to hear we don’t (hopefully) have to run milk to an npc on a timer!

I think I heard that the game is suppose to run better on the Switch, but I’m not really sure. I don’t like the sound of the soundtrack being subpar because that has always been one of my favorite things among the Zelda games.

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After I move in a few weeks, I might hook up my Wii again to play Twilight since you wanna gloat about Breath of the Wild!

Please update if they have any fishing in the game.

Keep enjoying it~

[McFuzz]

There’s no fishing, lol. You can just swim in the river and pick up fish though xD

[James_Ran]

Hey, that’s an alternative at least!

I always love the ability to fish in games like Zelda: Ocarina or Breath of Fire series or even just some fishing games like my first one on Nintendo called Blue Marlin. I played that one so much back in the day.

Would you recommend a Switch over a Wii-U? I usually don’t like to buy a console just for a game or two, but I think the Switch might be nice to have to relax with it somewhere instead of from a chair. I can’t play on a tv if my head isn’t looking directly at it.

[McFuzz]

If you don’t have a Wii-U already and really want Zelda, I would recommend getting a Switch. Whilst the Switch, to me, seems pretty bare bones as far as games are concerned, the Wii-U is pretty much considered to be dead at this point, with no games coming out for the system. There is, however, no current alternative to play Wii-U games such as Wonderful 101, which is in my opinion an instant timeless classic.

The switch, at least, might have some games coming. If not having a high or consistant framerate is a deal breaker, though, you might not find Zelda on the Switch appealing, as there seems to be pretty frequent frame dips. Playing on the handheld eliminates these, but using the TV at times is somewhat shocking they didn’t try anything to minimize the issue. The game’s draw distance, for instance, is WAY more than it needs to be, but I guess that’s part of the selling point of this game and they didn’t want to risk it. But hey, I’d rather a couple pop-in trees than cut-out frames.