The Lizalfols, Octoroks, and Wizard enemies all involved much more variety from what I’ve experienced.
I don't remember those, maybe the octorok. I remember the horse guys, goblins, laser things, and I think some bird-like enemies perhaps?
What I did was I started by heading towards Kakariko Village, and then got distracted by everything else on the way there.
How'd you know where it was and exactly how to get there? I don't remember being told, I don't even remember a hint, unless it was vague. Could be misremembering.
Again, based on all that I’ve played and mentioned, there was much more.
Let's say you really are finding interesting discoveries. Okay. I just got unlucky and managed to play for a decent amount of time and find nothing, somehow. I can accept that. But even then it has to come down to how you perceive the rate of unique things you find, because while I can accept that I missed the supposedly cool stuff--ALL OF IT--what needs to then be the case is that you found cool things at a slow rate but felt like it was every step of your journey.
Because when it comes down to it, again, we played the same game. I covered a decent chunk of land. That can't be dismissed. Everyone may have different experiences and playstyles which lend to discovering things at different rates, and maybe ours were very different, but in the end it's still the same map with the same content, and if what I explored was any indication of how much is out there to find, it's not much.
The only other explanation is that Nintendo poorly distributed the points of interest so badly that the areas I went into had nothing, and the ones you went into had all the worthwhile content. No matter how we look at it, this is a problem with the game. It should be impossible to feel like the map is empty, even if it's not, because you distribute points of interest properly to avoid that.
Because the first few things they mark on the map are meant as waypoints to the interesting landmarks, of which vary depending on the part of the world.
I don't remember them doing that, maybe the map sucks or something. What probably happened is I went to explore in the open world out of curiosity like I've done in other open world games, and was punished for it.
Said opening part also didn’t feel any longer than some other beginning parts in other Zelda titles.
It felt the longest out of any of them, except TP, which is literally molasses. Guess it might depend on what you qualify as an opening area though.
So correct me if I’m wrong, butit sounds to me like you went across Hyrule Fields, got attacked by a few Guardians (which aren’t invincible by the way), then headed into the Lanayru Wetlands, and then gave up.
I was in some icy mountains too, and a deep valley. Maybe that's both still part of Hyrule Field, idk. Since I fought some goblins in tree forts i assume I was in a forestry area, but maybe that's also part of Hyrule Field. Either way, it was a lot of exploration, if it's a relatively small amount then that just speaks to how big the world is, which is cool, but they needed more stuff in it.
That, and the Champion abilities that you get from completing the main quests, which give you a free Revive, a super high jump, a few auto parries, and a lightning summon.
That, and the way all the abilities allow for experimentation which is encouraged, beyond just set places where you are intended to use one specific gadget like in prior games.
Summoning lightning sounds cool, that's one more ability then. Wouldn't really call a receive an ability. Maybe high jump but it sounds super optional.
It’s more that I find the freedom to be great not just because it’s freedom, but because it is encouraged by the enemy encounters and level designs themselves.
Definitely not the enemies I fought. Most just charged at you no different than in OoT.
One, and only one, notable setup existed that I saw. There was a boulder set above an incline where if it fel it'd crush some goblins. Well, I killed them without even noticing it. I reloaded to try to kill them in a more fun way using it, but they'd notice me and disperse. I tried it once more and it missed them. I think I finally got the trap to work, which seems to be Nintendo trying to hand you an obvious, easy one as a teaching moment, but it wasn't very good.
The game honestly feels like it needed more time in the oven.
In that game and BOTW though, you’d be missing out on getting the required number of items to actually progress or see yourself become stronger if you just stuck to the easy ones.
Maybe, but it still fundamentally makes Stars feel less important to make them available everywhere. Similar to dungeons being replaced by shrines. Now maybe people like stumbling over Moons every 2 seconds, okay, I can't argue that you can't prefer that, but I'm still right by logic that they're objectively less interesting and important because of the principle of scarcity and such.
Dungeons as the end game content. This from the guy who gave up eight hours in.
That's because Nintendo either had insignificant content to fill the world, OR had enough but poorly distributed it. If you watched that WW video I linked to illustrate how even less content can feel like more you'd understand game design better. Pacing is very important, BotW failed that (unless you expect everyone to play the same way in an OPEN WORLD game that tries to push the idea of freedom).
Heck, the last level, Hyrule Castle, does have many of the hallmarks of a dungeon. As are things like the Yiga Hideout and the giant mazes.
I watch lots of gaming videos, and no, they don't. Consensus is, and by every in-depth review I've seen, the closest either new Zelda gets to a dungeon is TotK. They have some things similar to dungeons but they're still missing key things. I think it was maybe AntDude who best broke them down, I'll see if I can find the video but he goes over the similarities and differences, and I agree they're only dungeon-esque, not by any means a replacement for them.
But it’s also objectively correct that the game still works well thanks to how the overworld and such are designed, along with several areas of interest.
My experience says otherwise, you want to dismiss it because it wasn't your experience, but it's valid. I'm not nearly alone in these critiques.
Honestly, knowing that you didn’t get very far into the game does explain a lot.
Supposedly BotW takes about 50 hours to beat on average if you're just playing through it. I played over 5 hours, but under 10. I should've experienced about 10% of the game. If that's not a good enough amount of time to see the good stuff it's a flaw in the game, not me not giving it enough time.
Maybe even less, as it takes a good while before the seas become accessible in WW (forced stealth mission in the beginning)
That stealth section is probably the game's biggest flaw, especially since it's so early on. It's tolerable the first time through but is a replay killer tbh, and isn't very fun. I'm able to criticize my favorite Zelda, you don't seem able to criticize BotW at all. It's perfect by your estimate in every conceivable way. Your only minor concession is "it'd be nice to have dungeons", but you're adamant it does not need them and is perfectly fine without them.
You can't paint me as the unreasonable one here when you defend everything everyone hates about BotW, even its fans often admit they're flaws despite not ruining the game for them. You make excuses for low enemy variety, for breakable weapons, for the dead open world, for the lack of music, for the story (what story?!), etc.
I'm in the camp that believes it was a good but pretty flawed controller (tiny D-Pad and C-Stick really hold it back) but if there's one thing it did right it was the octagonal analog notches. I think N64 had them too but GCN is where it really began to benefit from that design, what with games like Monkey Ball and Smellee needing proper precision to get the best out of. I don't think it should have been something that all competing brands should have adapted, but more like if it was just a Nintendo design choice that stuck around.
To me the only flaws were not having a 2nd Z button and the dpad being a bit too rigid and small (not ideal for fighting games, worked for everything else basically).
