Breath of the Wild Breath of The Wild is bad for the fanbase.

[the8thark]

They aren't generally very good at story writing but that does not decrease the importance placed on story. You only need to read the back of Hyrule Historia to be told of their importance to the franchise.

THis is very true. A good example of this is Doom. Doom's whole story is one line. "Man kills demons spawned from hell". That's it. But it's importance on the game is really profound.

 

[DarkestLink]

Well if Nintendo and Miyamoto (who hates story in games) says it's story focused, then it must be true! All facts pointing to the contrary be damned!

The quality is fine. The characters are well written considering how little time they have and the dialogue is masterful. The problem is the lack of focus and time. The story is often missing several crucial elements because Nintendo can never be bothered to add it in. Story and cutscenes are used only as a last resort to introduce more gameplay. The only game that breaks this rule, ironically, is BOTW that actually has story for the sake of story.

EDIT: Sorry if I came across as patronizing, it just seems weird to make a claim that Nintendo has set the standard for story in video games...and cite Nintendo for this claim.

 

[W1nt3rL0rdK4l1]

I played BotW myself and sadly, i hate it. Especially the end game. I'm sorry but what the ****?!?! We go through all that crap of collecting 900 korok seeds to earn a golden pile of $h1t, our weapons break way too fast or you always have to sacrifice them for some other weapon, and just, despite ALL the trials and challenges most of the 120 shrines give you, the FINAL final boss battle is just a simple "Wait till the weak points glow on his body parts and then shoot arrows of concentrated light ball energy" on horse back, with no real risk of beng hurt since you can easily just run to the side of his flame breath attacks. Even the LYNELS' fire breath was more dangerous than this malice fueled pig idiot! 0/10, worst zelda game, even worse than Zelda II Adventure of Link, use flames to burn to cook a damaging stew from Twilight Princess, and either get a refund or convince some smuck to buy it from you for double what you paid for it. Blech *flips the bird at the game*

 

[TheHeroofTime]

I think the story is fine, but it wasn't very well presented. The memories didn't work so well for me when compared to the in depth and engaging stories of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. I liked the freedom it gave you, but there just wasn't enough story in the actual part of the game you were playing. It seemed like the actual "Zelda game" had already happened, and the memories were just there to give you a glimpse of what that game looked like. I'm really looking forward to Age of Calamity, but I think Breath of the Wild 2 needs to step it up in terms of story. There simply weren't enough fantastical and bizarre things in BotW. I miss things like the Twilight Realm, the City in the Sky, real Temples and dungeons with unique themes, time travel, the Dark World, etc...

 

[Hero-of-Time777]

It has a limited story, no indication of placement in the timeline and seems to disregard established canon.

There seems to be fatigue when it comes to theorising because Nintendo seems to give less and less regard for lore as they put out more games. Fans who in the past have put much effort into theorising (only to have Nintendo give the real explanation usually an underwhelming one)

Nintendo doesn't care about the timeline, regardless of trying to act like they do from time to time. Let's be honest, the timeline thing is bull****; Nintendo only put out that half-assed "canonical" one in Hyrule Historia because fans pressured them into doing it; it was one of the top things fans wanted. Yet they still weren't happy, because anyone with a brain can figure out the games can't co-exist with eachother.
They don't even care about their own lore in the Zelda games. That's why we keep getting new backstories for Link, Zelda, Ganon, etc., and why so many new titles contradict the established "canon" facts of the previous. The Zelda series is meant to be a re-telling of the same story, not a continuation. That's the problem; Nintendo and Zelda fans want it both ways, when it just doesn't work.
Personally, I love how Breath of the Wild ****ted all over the official timeline and previous assumptions about the series. It's refreshing how Nintendo just doesn't care any more about keeping any sort of consistency with their flawed timeline, and is just mixing everything together, letting fans have our own explanations for the BS.
It's pretty much all Nintendo can do at this point, and being honest about their story-telling mistakes instead of constantly trying to excuse them is the best path to take. I think BOTW is the beginning of this new path, and I'm grateful for it.
I disagree with this thread's statement, and think BOTW is doing wonders for both the series' fans and the series itself.

 

[AwdryFan1997]

because anyone with a brain can figure out the games can't co-exist with eachother.

Zelda II? Link's Awakening? Majora's Mask? All of these are definitively sequels to Zelda 1, A Link to the Past, and Ocarina of Time respectively. Wind Waker makes OoT part of its backstory, as well. The timeline was definitely in existence since relatively early on. ALttP was the prequel to Zelda 1, OoT was the prequel to ALttP, TWW was a sequel to OoT (this is the only confusing part of the timeline) and Skyward Sword, as bad as it is, is clearly set before all installments. So don't say they "can't co-exist", especially not in such a dickish and insulting way, because now you look like the one without a brain.

I'm just sick of everyone complaining about the timeline. The split made perfect sense. The only changes I'd make to the official timeline would be to make the Four Swords series a completely separate universe and possibly do the same to ALttP, the Oracle series, LA and LoZ 1 and 2, since OoT has far too many differences from ALttP's backstory, even with Hyrule Historia's retcons.

 

[Mikey the Moblin]

The Zelda series is meant to be a re-telling of the same story, not a continuation.

cringe

 

[AwdryFan1997]

cringe

This old mentality of "timeline bad" is really just stupid at this point, the canon timeline is canon, regardless if Nintendo has really done anything with it lately.

 

[Glom]

All of this hinges on the Encyclopedia. But that's just a bit of fun on the side. If it isn't in the games it doesn't count. And even arguing that, the Encyclopedia points out that its timeline is not definitive anyway.

Really, this series is a collection of loosely connected folk tales. Simple. Often thematic. Legends, if you will. And may the goddess smile upon that.

 

[TofuSheik]

I don't know about bad for the fanbase, but I do wish BoTW had a little more story/character development.