Breath of the Wild Did BotW cross the collectathon line?

[Spirit]

Collectibles in games can often keep us coming back for more, theyre best for lazy days when you dont wanna get into something too deep.

They can lengthen a game and give some light entertainment. Many games have many collectibles but some games like Assassin's Creed and now BotW have a heady collection count for relics, treasures and all things scattered about ths world that can be picked up for rewards.

But did Breath of the Wild cross a line with 900 Korok seeds and a few hundred photographs for the compendium for little to no reward?

How do you feel and where do you think the line is for volume and reward for collectibles?

 

[Fraxinus]

I don't have an issue with there being 900 korok seeds. I get it, having the requirement being half that in a massive overworld can be somewhat justified. The golden poop for all 900? Eh. The problem is, that's all there is. If there were other things to do aside from just koroks, even if there are still 900 of them, that would be acceptable. Other Zelda games had hidden secrets in their overworlds, but in BotW, all of those secrets are korok related. Since all your heart containers are linked to shrines, and there aren't other things to find except an occasional chest with rupees, there's not really a drive to explore much. Heart containers were one of the big things that inspired exploration for me in past titles, and with other hidden secrets like treasure charts or whatever, you feel more worthwhile.

As far as the compendium goes, I like the compendium. I did it for myself to have nice picture entries and stuff so I really couldn't care less that the "reward" is useless, because the true reward is having a selfie with Calamity as a compendium entry, duh.

I think it's not so much about the reward as it is how well executed the two "collect-a-thons" are. Koroks are getting stale, and the process is tedious but the actual puzzles are alright. But overworld is oversaturated with them and nothing else. Compendium is fine. I can see people not enjoying the compendium, but I liked completing it.

 

[Azure Sage]

I don't have an issue with how BotW did it. I'm used to the reward being nothing but a little award on your collection screen; Monster Hunter does a LOT of that. But the process of getting that award is fun and reward enough, and honestly I feel the same about BotW. 900 of anything is a massive undertaking, especially without the use of a guide, and let's be real here, the sense of accomplishment you get from video game achievements is something I'm certain is almost universally shared with gamers. I have no problem with that sense of accomplishment being the true reward itself. I can understand that 900 is too massive of a number for some, but I do think they designed the system pretty well. Even if there isn't much else to discover in the world besides koroks, exploration in and of itself is rewarding and fun, especially in this game.

 

[Jirohnagi]

BOTW screwed it majorly, it was in fact my biggest complaint. Fine have multiple collectithons and killithons but for gods sake give us something at the end that makes it worth while, be it super cheesy armor or something. But a freaking Medal? or useless key item? really? what a pile of ****.

Not being funny but you don't even need korok seeds AT ALL, once you've gotten decent armor you can just pick up more weapons as you go easily, does it matter if you can't pick up that sword currently? No because the chances are high you'll freaking get a better one quite literally down the road.
Weapons break often enough that unless you're not fighting or run from everything you don't really get a filled inventory. Hell even the Master Sword doesn't take a slot it creates a new one specially for it.

The compendium was nice and it's own reward as it gave background info on monsters, plants and fauna in the game, yes you got a crappy photo for it at the end but to be honest you can just buy them from what's his face in purah's lab.

The monster killing kinda annoyed me why can't we get armor based off those bosses? or better yet Horse armor make it goddamn worthwhile to use them. The crappy medals annoyed me so damn much. You don't get crap from 100% completing the map bare yet another crappy trophy. What's the point?

 

[athenian200]

I'm honestly not sure that there's a problem with it. I mean, granted, it would have been nice to have a little more variety and more tangible rewards for everything you collect... but I wouldn't say there's just too much to collect.

All the stuff you can collect is optional, but I think that completing a long quest to collect things is its own reward in a way. Only serious completionists are likely to get everything in a game anyway. So it's a good thing that nothing particularly essential is tied to such an arduous quest, or else other people who don't want to do all those things would complain about having to do something so tedious.

I'm saying, the way the game is arranged, only people who want something more to do after getting all the essentials have to do these quests at all. And if you're the type of person that likes gathering stuff or completing additional quests, you'd probably do them whether there's a reward or not. The people who don't like doing them can still get everything they want out of the game without doing it. To me, it seems like a win-win scenario.

The only people that really lose are the ones that like the idea of getting rewarded for collecting a lot of random stuff. That's a small minority of gamers, because the rest would rather get the rewards without a long quest, or else would probably do the quests for the sake of completion. It's those few people that fall in between who would be disappointed.

Nintendo has them for people that want them, but also catered to people who don't like them by allowing you to bypass them without much penalty.

 

[Dio]

Such a waste of resources. Instead more efforts should have been put towards meaningful story content rather than more useless seeds and shrines which only a few individuals would want to waste such time out of their lives doing.

 

[Turo602]

Putting another 400+ korok seeds than required was really cheap. I get that the world is massive and they wanted to give everyone a chance at discovering enough to upgrade their inventory. But couldn't that have been remedied by a map? After finding a certain amount, they should have just given Link a map with the location of the rest. Same thing with the giant enemies Kilton wants you to kill. All their locations should have been put on a map with the ones you already defeated being marked. Also, why the hell wasn't their a cookbook in Breath of the Wild? You could have been unlocking recipes as you experiment and discover them and be able to view them permanently and not just so long you have the food in your inventory.

 

[misskitten]

I engage in and enjoy collectables as long as I find them useful. The main game where I really loved the collectables was ALBW, the Maiamai were not only adorable, but the rewards for finding them were worthwhile up through the last one. Koroks fail this in BotW simply because they outstay their usefulness. It's like hunting down Skulltulas in OoT, at the very most I made it to 50, most often I didn't even go that far, because the rewards stopped being useful at that point. With the Koroks I've made it to almost 100 in my second game (which is more than in my first), I would love to find more, but I'm not engaged enough in hunting them down to focus on it. Finding all 120 shrines for me was fun, finding all the outfits was fun, upgrading them all is a fun process I'm still engaged in. The Korok seeds not so much.

I don't mind the compendium one, I haven't completed it, but I like having access to everything, and I especially appreciate that it's also something useful to have. I've used the upgrade Sheika sensor plenty with those pictures. The compendium became a reward during the game as you found an easier way to track down what you were looking for.

 

[DarkestLink]

Korok seeds are the single laziest thing I have ever seen in a game...but they're not the only problem. There's too much grinding in general. And while it's at its worst with BOTW, it didn't start here.

People complain about rupees being underused in past games, but I liked it. Grinding isn't fun and I always saw rupees as a way of supporting newbie players and younger players who needed help with the game. They were simply a crutch that seasoned gamers didn't need. Their use became more necessary in TP, but because it was for a sidequest (and another sidequest showered you with rupees anyway), this didn't bother me as much. It became worse in SS, worse still in ALBW, and has reached rock bottom with BOTW.

And along with this, we have materials. I was so happy when I thought it died after tWW, but unfortunately it resurfaced in PH. It returned in ST, and became significantly worse in SS. Now it's just...unbearable in BOTW. It's how you get your armor upgrades which are fundamentally more important than hearts.

The whole game seems to be mostly grinding. Grinding for Koroks, grinding for materials, grinding for money. That's all you really do in BOTW's overworld until you find a shrine or a divine beast. And it takes away the magic too. I remember how wowed I was when I first discovered a Stone Talus--AN ACTUAL MINI BOSS IN THE TUTORIAL! HOLY ****! That was so cool! And even the second and third time, it was cool to find these...but...I needed money. So...I started to kill them each blood moon. I'd keep track of their locations...and farm them. This turned from an exciting discovery and boss fight into tedious grinding. And it's the same with the dragons too. It was so cool running into them, never expecting it, not realizing they had schedules and thinking it was just pure chance that I had found them. But nope...they have a schedule...which the game expects me to farm. These elements turned from something cool and special to just "Oh, it's one of those. Time to farm it."

I can't believe this treasure/collection system has lasted so long. It should have died with TP's release and stayed dead.

 

[the8thark]

But did Breath of the Wild cross a line with 900 Korok seeds and a few hundred photographs for the compendium for little to no reward?

Not at all. The fun in collectathons is the collecting, not the reward. The reward is only a token. A reminder of all the fun you had collecting.
If anyone plays collectathons for the reward and not the fun in collecting then they will not have a fun time.

 

[MW7]

I don't think you can have too much. I didn't collect all the Korok seeds, but I am sure some people appreciated having such a large amount to collect. I appreciated that you don't need even half of them to receive every useful reward for collecting them.

 

[Lozjam]

No. Because it's like the Mystery Seeds in LA, in that there are vastly more collectables than there are a reward. And that's a good thing.

Korok seeds are the single laziest thing I have ever seen in a game...but they're not the only problem. There's too much grinding in general. And while it's at its worst with BOTW, it didn't start here.

People complain about rupees being underused in past games, but I liked it. Grinding isn't fun and I always saw rupees as a way of supporting newbie players and younger players who needed help with the game. They were simply a crutch that seasoned gamers didn't need. Their use became more necessary in TP, but because it was for a sidequest (and another sidequest showered you with rupees anyway), this didn't bother me as much. It became worse in SS, worse still in ALBW, and has reached rock bottom with BOTW.

And along with this, we have materials. I was so happy when I thought it died after tWW, but unfortunately it resurfaced in PH. It returned in ST, and became significantly worse in SS. Now it's just...unbearable in BOTW. It's how you get your armor upgrades which are fundamentally more important than hearts.

The whole game seems to be mostly grinding. Grinding for Koroks, grinding for materials, grinding for money. That's all you really do in BOTW's overworld until you find a shrine or a divine beast. And it takes away the magic too. I remember how wowed I was when I first discovered a Stone Talus--AN ACTUAL MINI BOSS IN THE TUTORIAL! HOLY ****! That was so cool! And even the second and third time, it was cool to find these...but...I needed money. So...I started to kill them each blood moon. I'd keep track of their locations...and farm them. This turned from an exciting discovery and boss fight into tedious grinding. And it's the same with the dragons too. It was so cool running into them, never expecting it, not realizing they had schedules and thinking it was just pure chance that I had found them. But nope...they have a schedule...which the game expects me to farm. These elements turned from something cool and special to just "Oh, it's one of those. Time to farm it."

I can't believe this treasure/collection system has lasted so long. It should have died with TP's release and stayed dead.

In my first playthrough of BotW. I literally didn't do any grinding.

I just went through the game completely naturally, I didn't go grind enemies, I just killed ones I came through naturally. And I had a great time.

I didn't grind out Korok Seeds either, I just picked up ones I saw throughout the game while doing other tasks.


Many people assume that with a "collectathon" you need to get literally everything but you don't. If you found something that was tiring or bull****, you don't have to do it. And I think that is where BotW vastly succeeds. If you don't like grinding, don't like Korok seeds. You don't have to do it at all and you can still have a great time with the game.

 

[the8thark]

Many people assume that with a "collectathon" you need to get literally everything but you don't. If you found something that was tiring or bull****, you don't have to do it. And I think that is where BotW vastly succeeds. If you don't like grinding, don't like Korok seeds. You don't have to do it at all and you can still have a great time with the game.

@Lozjam is totally correct here. Collectathons are not forcing the player to collect everything. The game just gives you the option should you choose it, to collect everything. Even getting all the inventory slots unlocked is only 441 seeds worth. I just hit that number a few days ago. Even then those inventory slots are not required at all. It's all set up for the player to look for as many or as few seeds as they want to.

 

[DarkestLink]

It's "optional", but it's also the bulk of the game. Say I start a new playthrough and say "OK no grinding!" well...that means I'm only going to upgrade my armor once at best, which takes up the majority of how the player progresses. Can't do any sidequests since nearly all of them involve grinding. No Korok seeds either. At this point, I've practically started a challenge run.

 

[Lozjam]

It's "optional", but it's also the bulk of the game. Say I start a new playthrough and say "OK no grinding!" well...that means I'm only going to upgrade my armor once at best, which takes up the majority of how the player progresses. Can't do any sidequests since nearly all of them involve grinding. No Korok seeds either. At this point, I've practically started a challenge run.

I'm not saying "don't collect Korok Seeds". I'm saying you don't have to grind.

Like I said, I didn't do any grinding. I upgraded a select favorite of my armor and equipment, I explored and got shrines, and I had a ton of fun.


After my first run, I had done 64 shrines, collected 40 Korok Seeds, did two fairy fountains, all of the memories, and all of the divine beasts for a 90 hour playthrough. I didn't do any grinding, I just naturally explored the world, and picked and chose where I went.

You don't need to grind in BotW. I was completely fine, and I was prepared enough to do a lot of which the game wanted me to do.