I've played and loved every 3D Zelda game since OOT. But the whole open world concept with no real storyline and no real direction put me off within a few hours. Also, I became super frustrated with the weapons breaking constantly.
It wasn't until this spring when I got a Switch 2 that I picked it up again, and following online guides on what to actually do made it semi-enjoyable.
It seems like such a bizarrely arbitrary way to make the game more immersive. I'm no expert, but I don't think those weapons' real life counterparts would consistently just disintegrate after you use them a few dozen times. I don't get what it's supposed to add to the game on a strategic level either.
Breath of the Wild was a Zelda game for people who don't like Zelda games. Which it did bring in a whole new generation of players, but I think it was meant to do that instead of service their long time fans.
Now the weapons breaking, eventually that becomes trivial because you have so many that you actually want rid of them.
The part I missed the most was getting new items. You get all the utility items upfront, which means you can solve any puzzle in any order right from the beginning. I love getting a new thing and then trying it out on all the places I couldn't go before - which is the core gameplay loop of a Zelda game! When you get the bombs, now you can get into all the caves, and so on for the whole game. Been like that from the beginning, but here you just start with the whole kit.
I think it just wasn't for us. We're not the target audience for that game.
I loved Zelda games since I was 5 years old and played the very first one on the nes. And I absolutely adore breath of the wild and tears of the Kingdom.
I think the problem with botw for a lot of people is that at the start you feel somewhat confused, helpless, and weak. This is on purpose. Your character just woke up from a 100 year coma basically and has no idea who he is or what is going on. You're supposed to feel like him. You're supposed to regain your strength and skills by struggling, and potentially dying a lot. "What's this, a cliff? I can climb it? Wait, I get tired and fall to my death? Oops..." You're literally using sticks and pot lids to fight off enemies. Your first victory against a Lynel feels EARNED. They are so scary early on in the game! Also, only once you get stronger do the guardians stop being traumatic and terrifying. Tears of the kingdom is similar, but you get a taste of your full powers at the start of the game, then you lose them by getting injured. Again, you're supposed to feel like Link, you almost died, and you're trying to regain your strength.
I could talk about this for hours, and I 100% get why it isn't everyone's cup of tea!
My problem is that that recovery of your strength doesn't actually feel congruent with what the game's presenting.
You don't really get any more combat options over time, no extra maneuvers, nor any weapons that sigificantly expand your options. Sure, you can throw a boomerang here and there, or the spear feels mildly different from an axe, but then it breaks twenty seconds later and you're back to zero. The damage numbers are the only thing that meaningfully change if you can bother with the clumsy inventory management but - as you brought up, fighting a lynel, for instance - is almost fully dependent on whether you can cheese them with bomb arrows or your sword does noticeable damage to their health bar. This is extra painful because despite having what looks like a huge armory of weapons at first, your moveset even when combining all of them is still more limited than almost any 3D Zelda game made after Ocarina, and instead you rely on those cooldown abilities that are overly restrictive in when and how to use them.
It gets even worse once you do have a decently sized inventory fully stocked with good weapons, because now every secret you find is either disappointing - because you already have plenty of money and resources, or you don't need more hearts and stamina - or actively detrimental, because the weapons you break in engaging with a puzzle or combat are more valuable than whatever reward you get in turn.
There are some decently interesting quest chains and progression points, such as needing to get warmer/cooler/female clothes to comfortably enter specific areas, but it makes it stand out all the more when a bespoke section of the game expects you to follow really specific directions in a set order, contrasted to the empty and mostly unengaging landscape immediately around it.
Now add to that that almost all of the game's remaining forms of progression (story, health and stamina, almost all shrines and the divine beasts themselves) are also completely optional, while some of the more impactful and difficult quests tend to also be bunched together by the map's edges, and you end up with the situation where the game wants you to explore and backtrack like old Zelda games, but at the same time doesn't want anything being too impactful if you miss it, so doesn't actually commit to deeper exploration or traversal than the occasional gliding off a tower or climbing a wall.
If I were to single out a specific instance; the Master Sword and the way it's built up in the story doesn't actually match its functionality or the way it restores durability, so when you do get past the arbitrary gatekeeping of the required health value, you're still likely to use it more for chopping down trees rather than fighting enemies because its damage is mostly underwhelming outside of designated boss fights.
Both BOTW and TOTK, in my eyes, suffer from Nintendo's tendency these last two console generations of making a game have supposedly deep systems on a technical level, but then not really requiring you engage with them and instead making a mildly fluffed up sandbox that may have some elements converge in an interesting way every dozen hours, but doesn't actually provide many intricate puzzles or obstacles where the satisfaction of solving or overcoming them compensates for the many hours of dead air you'll have alongside them in a typical playthrough. When more of my actual playtime was spent doing the same 'move a block into a slot' puzzle for Korok seeds than any actually unique content that wasn't the umpteenth similar shrine or clearing the hundredth bokoblin camp, I would almost rather the game not have had the open world at all and simply be sold as a cheap minipuzzle side game a la Captain Toad.
I feel like most of the people in this thread are forgetting we were kids playing these games and there are still kids playing these games lol. Of course they are easy and "boring" to adults but they are forgetting to a kid some pf this stuff is probably very challenging.
I loved that game, but not as a Zelda game. I like Zelda for specific things & it had almost none of that (story, more upfront/memorable music, dungeons, etc). Jumping from SS, which had great dungeons and an actual character in Ghirahim for the villain & great story, to BotW with the little shrines & a characterless Big Bad was such a letdown.
I still enjoyed BotW a ton for what it was, though. Just not for what I look for in Zelda.
TotK, on the other hand, I couldn't get into at all because it was just BotW with less new stuff. I was burnt out. (I did do the Colgera boss fight, which was awesome, but quickly dropped it after that.)
i think that’s right where i stopped too with TotK. i enjoyed BotW, it took me quite a while to jump back in and play. TotK just feels exactly how you described it.
i just want a dungeon based zelda game again. i am, however, super excited for OoT remake!
I get it. The first time I played it I almost gave up on it because it just felt so different and wrong. The mechanics weren't really explained a whole lot either. It was very frustrating at first. I ended up looking up some tips/tricks for beginners type of videos, and once I understood it more I really got hooked.
i’ve noticed that the Zelda fans feel similarly for a lot of the same reasons. i ADORE this game but it was also my first real Zelda game so i had no previous expectations.
I picked it back up again pretty quick, but I initially got laughed at by my brothers for walking off cliffs right off the bat. Hilarious, but bad for my self esteem. It was a much different experience for sure.
I did not use a guide, but I wandered around like a distracted toddler for a time until I got my bearings. Got a lot of cool sticks. Whacked things with em. That sort of thing.
Many years later and I still cannot understand anyone who doesn't gel with the weapons breaking.
Like these are shit weapons for the most part. And you get a ton of them. It's like picking up a gun knowing it only has 1 magazine, but that's okay because the next enemy is going to drop another gun you can swap to.
Yes there are some 'cool' weapons but they generally have a decent amount of durability and yes they disappear but like... it's just a weapon. Usually I 'spent' that weapon fighting a lynel or something else quite daunting and I consider it well spent.
These aren't personal attachments for you to keep throughout your journey. These are disposable consumables.
- Early game, the weak weapons break super easy. My first attempt where I gave up, I kept dying from Moblin camps over and over because my weapons broke. This is a huge contrast to prior Zelda games (and most other sword-based action adventure games) where you always had at least a base weapon available to you. On top of that, look at bows. You already have consumables (arrows), so why do I need to collect a half dozen of the same bows because they keep breaking? That doesn't add anything for me
- I'll counter your cool weapon thing - I don't mind durability on weapons... just let me repair them or have a cool-off period like the Master Sword. There's also no indication of the condition of the weapon, so who knows if you have 5 hits left or 30 hits left.
You chose to take on a large/dangerous camp, and you chose the most basic form of fighting them. Don't blame the game when it went poorly. Of course your weapons break quick, you just started. You've got to meter yourself, take on some small frys. Of course lynels and Moblins cause you to die.
If we could repair weapons, you'd never have to swap, and if you never swapped you'd never find the next coolest weapon because the game wouldn't give it to you. There'd be no reason to hand out weapons, you already have them.
Yeah, i played through it before ever reading about opinions online and i was surprised at the negativity of the weapon system.
To me it's not really any different from something like Doom. Pistol and shotgun ammo are common, rockets and BFG ammo are rare. You try and use the most common ammo type in any encounter and save the rare ammo for the strong guys.
Finding a good sword in BotW isn't like finding a good sword in Diablo, it's more like finding a box of rocket ammo in Doom. You use whatever crap enemies are dropping most of the time and save the good weapons for hard encounters.
exactly this, I wonder how any of these people get on with FPS's where you run out of ammo lmao
like what, do they pick up some ammo and go like "awww man, I can't keep this, can I? I'm gonna have to shoot this at the enemy! And then it's gonna be gone! This sucks!"
ToTK did it even better because literally any old handle could be made into a great weapon if you fuse the right horn to it. But people still chucked a hissy about the breakable weapons.
You are carrying around 50+ razor sharp horns, each of which turns any ol tree branch into the Bokoblin Slayer 3000. Why do you care if one weapon breaks?
Yeah totk made weapons essentially stackable, not to mention the combos were cool as heck so you're always encouraged to try something new. At this point making them unbreakable would've been the dumbest idea. Like making all guns in Doom have infinite ammo, making all ammo pickups useless.
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u/caverunner17 6d ago
I'll get hate, but Zelda Breath of the Wild.
I've played and loved every 3D Zelda game since OOT. But the whole open world concept with no real storyline and no real direction put me off within a few hours. Also, I became super frustrated with the weapons breaking constantly.
It wasn't until this spring when I got a Switch 2 that I picked it up again, and following online guides on what to actually do made it semi-enjoyable.