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Breath of the Wild How replayable is BotW?

Sheikah_Witch

I just really like botw
Joined
Apr 8, 2019
Location
Sweden
So I was thinking about this the other day, as the eventual reveal of the sequel is dawning upon us.

Some games people are wary of playing through games because it might overstay it's welcome, or you might get too familiar with it. It's a common opinion that you 'rob a game' if you play it too much, that it gets worn out for you.

Some games, on the other hand, are endlessly repayable because if it's genre, or it's nature.

But I want to specifically talk about BotW. What do you think? Do you come back to BotW often, or at all? Do you consider it a replayable game?


Here's my take:
I'm about to dive into BotW again. It will be the twentieth time I'm gonna do the Plateau and the four shrines and get the glider. But I never get bored of it, it will always be magical to me. It will always feel like that unforgettable first time.

Somehow BotW doesn't feel like the aforementioned opinion for me. From the plateau, you can make such a different type of playthrough and it makes every playthrough unique: Do a shrineless run, do a run where you just goof, do a run where you go straight to Ganon. There's so much there and so many ways to play. I look upon all 19 of my previous playthroughs with fondness, and I remember every single one of them, and they're all slightly different from one another.
 
As someone who plays for story, BotW isn't very repayable for me, especially since the game let's you rewatch the memories whenever you want.

Not much happens during BotW, there's just a lot of information of events orbiting Link's present situation. So, I haven't once replayed BotW...

However, much like The Wind Waker, I can and have spent countless hours in its world. I can lose myself in the wilds of Hyrule because it looks amazing and as a big Zelda fan it is always nice to exist in the current version of Hyrule.

I've put 500hours into the only BotW I've started and while I still don't have any desire to replay the story in a new file, I still spend most of my Switch time playing BotW, existing in Hyrule.

So I guess I'm in the middle; I don't feel as if it's replayable in terms of story but it is infinitely playable as a Zelda fan who can accept the new direction the series has taken.
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Location
England
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Absolute unit
I have done two playthroughs and I think that is gonna be it for me.

The first playthrough I really didn't like certain aspects of the game and it annoyed me a lot. I really didn't like the direction. I played for story and the story was crap, and the gameplay was oftentimes annoying. At the time in my life I played it things were miserable anyway and it just made them worse that a game I had been excited for was a letdown.

I never thought I would have the desire to play again. However I did go for it a second time, motivated by the fact I knew BoTW 2 was coming and it had Ganondorf (my favourite character). I wanted to see what hints in the first there were as to what could be in store. BoTW 1 never felt like it was meant to be the end, there was no buildup or urgency. Ganon felt unsatisfying as it was just a cloud turned goop monster that you can clobber to death with sticks. To know that this wasn't the real Ganon and was just another more powerful phantom is more satisfying, and so is the whole game of BoTW when you look at it as serving as an introduction to this new world which is not just a one off and forget about it sort of thing.

With my second playthrough I already knew what I was getting into and was able to find more enjoyment in the good things without being constantly dissapointed by the bad. Yes the weapons still broke and link still had less stamina than an old chain smoking granny with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. But on the plus side I didn't need to accidentally discover mechanics hours into the game when they should have been taught immediately. I knew of course how do flurry rush without finding a shrine which was supposed to be a tutorial but is actually doable after a billion other shrines rather than being in the tutorial area :fpalm: And I knew how to shield surf without coming across a random guy by a tree.

Still these are minor compared to my complaints with the storytelling. BoTW's storytelling is bad. It's got some nice quirky characters like Bolson, Sidon, Big Daddy Dorephan, Purah and Paya but the actual plot sucks and there is no development. There is so much potential that was missed. You can't develop a story when the player is allowed to finish it at any time. They tried to make up for this with the memory idea. And it would have been fine if not for the fact that almost every memory was a contender for the most boring cutscene in all of gaming. Complete non events with characters that were one dimensional. The handling of storytelling needs to be corrected in BoTW 2.
 

Jirohnagi

Braava Braava
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Soul Sanctum
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Geosexual
I did two playthroughs, one of normal mode and the other master and it's a versatile game yer free to pick your own path after the plateau however it really doesn't have much replayability beyond the plateau as it quickly devolves into a big ole fetch quest of shrines and seeds, which lets be honest is the meat of the game, the divine beasts would be the bread of it and the final boss some butter, i think the game can be replayed but it'd be alot harder to keep going along with it.

That being said while you can do things in game it's fun and end enjoyable but it eventually runs to boredom more often than not
 

Vanessa28

Angel of Darkness
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ZD Legend
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Angel of Darkness
To be honest, I love the game but don't find it replayable. I'm playing it for the sec time but even though it's one of my most fav games I don't see myself playing it over and over again as I did with other Zelda games or games in general.
 

GrooseIsLoose

Slickest pompadour in town
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Skyloft
To be honest, I love the game but don't find it replayable. I'm playing it for the sec time but even though it's one of my most fav games I don't see myself playing it over and over again as I did with other Zelda games or games in general.
I assume it's because of the korok seeds?
 

el :BeoWolf:

When all else fails use fire
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Centaleon
I've played through BotW twice and haven't felt any desire to do it again. Not to say I don't play BotW occasionally. It's still pretty fun but it's pretty much done.
 

Azure Sage

March onward forever...
Staff member
ZD Legend
Comm. Coordinator
I'll be honest, BotW isn't a game I've replayed many times. It's mostly because there's so much content it becomes difficult to get back up to a point of comfort again. Most of my playtime comes from goofing off in completed files. I can and I have spent hours and hours doing that. For me, going back to BotW means making my own fun in the rich overworld.
 
Joined
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Male
I agree with the hosts above.
Botw (even though I haven finished it yet) is not actually replayable. At least not in the immediate time scenario.
I mean I have spend hours & hours into it , at times literally my tongue sticking out while I use the joycon motion ctrlr. to net a ball inside a hole etc ....these are expriences one does not want to repeat very often. But what strikes out is the sweet investment that one can reap after all these sweated out hours- in the existing world.
I don't think I will ever do this for example on another Nintendo classic , super metroid (for example). Here I will start a new game gleefully and storm through the levels till I meet the Mother Brain. But BOTW is different .....I don't want to zoom my way through the levels and neither I am in a rush to meet the final boss.
Having said this , I would definitely like to replay BOTW , say after a good 6 or even 10 years down the line . Just to prickle those memory cells. but not immediately.
My 2 cents
 
Joined
Feb 16, 2020
Location
Ottawa
My wife replayed it around a year after she originally played it, but as its still fresh in my mind probably a year after I finished playing it I have no desire to play it again. I agree with the other posters that its more of a 5-10 year type of replayable.
 

dtc

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planet earth
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Person
Tbh part of the fun on botw is exploring, especially exploring new places. That's why your first botw playthrough is always great, because you have a whole new world to explore. I like exploring on the same file till i have explored everything, since I'd say curiosity is what makes me to still play the game after beating ganon (i dont even have all memories yet lol). However, I wouldnt start a new file unless i got amnesia and forgot all that I played (which actually may not be bad)
 

Quin

Disaster Master
Joined
Dec 26, 2017
Location
Netherlands
Very replayable actually. The combat is at its finest when you have limited resources, so its always fun to start over. The world is also good enough to enjoy reliving again.
I think I've completed the game 5 times by now. 3 times doing all 120 shrines, and 2 times getting all the korok seeds. Yeah I'd say the replay value is pretty high up there and probably highest for any Zelda game.
 

Pen

The game is on!
I agree with the previous speaker. Couldn't have said it better myself! I've had lots of fun relaying BotW. I've played through the game in several different ways such as doing all the shrines a few times, I played the game from start to finish in one day, I've done a Master Mode run, a 3 heart (and by extension no Master Sword) run, and my favourite being the playthrough where I played with the hud turned off and forbid myself from opening up the map screen, so no maps, clocks, weather forecast etc. and by extension no fast travelling either.

Anyway, I'm currently on my ninth playthrough of the game where I intend on taking on Ganon without taming any of the Divine Beasts, so I'm just doing some shrines and stuff to build up my stats before I go to the castle. There you have it! I've definitely had fun replaying BotW. In fact, after my current playthrough is done I think it will be the game I've replayed the most. So yes, I think BotW is quite repeatable. :)
 
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I think the game can only be played once to capture that magical and whimsical feeling of exploration. It truly was amazing, but playing through a second time I find myself bored because I had already done everything the first time.
 

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