Breath of the Wild How would you make BOTW a better game?

[DustinApproximately]

List things you would change as well as things you would add, or even things you're not sure why they did.

I loved the game but I can't help thinking how much better it could've been considering we were gifted the best overworld in the series.

1. I think they got way too shrine happy. After getting the divine beasts quest I thought that was simply one of the main quests and there would be dozens more. Sadly I was mistaken. I kept waiting for my first true dungeon to appear only to find out we were given 4 divine beast puzzles and the rest shrine city. There were like 12 pieces of the map to fill in and having a dungeon in each piece of the puzzle, and maybe only 60 shrines instead would've been incredible.

2. Why put the Hyrulian shield in the last section of the game? I'd love to hear the reasoning. In addition, I was a bit disappointed in the master sword losing its energy so quickly and only really being effective in the last castle.

3. Better runes. Boomerangs, slingshots, and all those other side weapons reaaaaally would've been nice. Yeah I know there are boomerangs but I'd have loved one that easily comes back to you.

4. The different forms of Ganon got repetitive. I'd have loved more boss variety, i.e., Windwaker.

5. The music. Good in parts, severely lacking in memorable tunes in a lot of other parts.

6. More random events. All there was really was the occasional town folk getting beat up on, shooting stars, and not a whole lot else. The world is enormous and could've benefited greatly from it.

Just a few off the top of my head. Don't bash me too hard, but I'd really love to hear everyone else's opinions.

 

[MW7]

I very strongly agree with your first point. I loved the game, but I wish there were a greater number of and lengthier dungeons. Also a good number of shrines are combat shrines and blessing shrines attached to a sidequests. I'd like the game better if combat shrines didn't exist. Very early in the game they were challenging, but after obtaining better equipment, they become a complete joke. It doesn't help that all combat shrines are virtually identical. The three levels of difficulty are actually not that different once you learn how to fight. The sidequests tied to blessing shrines could have existed just as sidequests. The puzzle shrines themselves are all excellent. There's just a lot of filler.

One little thing that drives me nuts is how rain stops you from climbing. I've been stuck on a cliff when it rains, and I literally set the controller down and left for five minutes to wait out the rain. Several other times the rain stopped me from doing what I'm doing, and my options are to wait in real time or do something else. That's completely ridiculous. How did that mechanic not get removed from the game? It's the opposite of fun.

I think this is easily the best Zelda game of this millennium, but there are still some really questionable design choices.

 

[misskitten]

Only thing that has really bothered me in terms of the rain is when I'm doing one of those tasks where I need to transport a flame and it starts to rain in the middle of it. I'm grateful for the lamps along the way to light up, but honestly, couldn't there just be a lantern item we could use so that we don't need to go find a place to sleep away the rain so we can continue the task? I don't mind rain making climbing more difficult, because it makes sense. But if you were to transport fire, wouldn't you use a lantern?

 

[Jnaejnae]

There is already dlc confirmed for a 5th main dungeon and a new difficulty setting. So this is what I personally want besides that.

1) A counter that shows EXACTLY how many uses an item has. That would just be good info to have, most games with item durability have this feature.
2) A magical instrument that can change weather, wind, time of day, and summon your horse from an infinite distance away. This should in turn fix rain.
3) Add fun items from previous Zelda games like bombchus, hookshot, hoverboots, deku nuts, and gust bellows.

edit: and one more
4) I bought a house and was disappointed that the flower expansion was purely cosmetic from what I can see. I want a real gardening mechanic, like a field behind my house where I can plant any plant I find and harvest useful ingredients like a hearty durian. It would also give more use to acorns and apples as they would grow into trees.

 

[Spirit]

Hmm...

1. Better stable features
- we should be able to rename, sort and release horses.

Spoiler

The first horse i wrangled wasnt very good but he survived the whole game (because i rarely ever used horses in this game), later i got the white stallion and the giant horse, yet because my first horse was at the top of the list i had to use him to fight Ganon with his crappy boost count. Would have been better on the white stallion. I also named the white stallion Milla, then in a cutscene Zelda says he is a male horse and i cant rename him.

2. There needs to be a way around the rain. Ive not tried it but it'd be good if the climbing gear negated the slipping or at least half of the distance. Ive died a couple of times because of the rain, there was a time it started while i was swimming and i couldnt pull Link out of the water because he kept slipping back into the water until his stamina ran out.

Im okay with most other things. The weapon breaking is a little annoying and made me skip so many fights because i dont want to break the good gear i have, but there's no real way to get around that without changing the entire game i guess.

A proper first person mode that wasnt a hud heavy camera or sheikah slate would be nice too.

 

[Dio]

Graphics- I don't like the look of the game, there are a lot of parts where the texturing is unsightly

Story- This game is more focussed on messing around in the world rather than the story it tells. If you prefer messing around in a big world to being told a great story then I can see why this is such a good game for people. For me however I prefer story to take priority and I find this game tries at almost every turn to distract you from it. Not only that but the story isn't well written or thought out. Other games have done a lot better.

Music- This game has a few decent original pieces but does not stand out in comparison to other Zelda games nor does its soundtrack come even close to that of FF15 or Witcher 3.

Degradable items- I didn't like breakable shields in SS and I certainly don't like them in this game. Nor do I like the unrealistic level of weapon degradation and destruction. I would have this feature removed entirely.

Also the Master Sword has gone from being one of the most powerful weapons to what it is now. If I were Ganon I'd be more fearful of link flailing a ****ing tampon around than the MS.

Dungeons- I really like the way dungeons are handled in this game but I would like the traditional themed dungeons back as well.

 

[Azure Sage]

Honestly there is only one thing I would change and that's the addition of optional companions. They could have taken how the Wolf Link amiibo works and applied it to characters like Prince Sidon, without needing amiibo. I would have loved to be able to invite people to join me in an adventure around Hyrule, and I was kind of hoping for that after seeing random encounters in the trailer.

That's the only thing. I disagree with you on most everything else, especially the part about the game's music, which is some of the best in the series imo.

 

[LinksASleeping]

I don't know if it would make the game better or not, but I would like a way to repair weapons/shields. Certain materials could be required, and not all weapons/shields could be repaired everywhere.

This might make the game too complicated, but it could be interesting. Let me know what you think.

 

[Zemini]

1. Many more dungeons with their own theme, monsters and atmosphere. I am looking for all of the main dungeon sub varieties such as temples, palaces and labyrinths. This would require more heart/stam slots obviously.

2. More monster variety - such as Dark Nuts, Iron Knuckles and real dungeon bosses.

3. Magic meter - another way to upgrade your Link. Magic can be used for special abilities and recharging the MS or special arrows. So much could be done with that.

4. End game mode. After you beat it, there is still story to tell and stuff to do. Perhaps rebuild Hyrule?

5. Save slots for characters!

6. All legacy equipment added to the game and not gated by Amiibo. Would like to see the green hilted wooden sword for example. If link wore it, it should be available.

 

[the8thark]

I'd have loved more boss variety, i.e., Windwaker.

That game lacked boss variety. Puppet Ganon is a repeat. The boss that is Andross (from Starfox) is a clone. Boss variety is not a strong suit of Wind Waker.

This is how I'd improve the game.

1. Have more towers - Having the towers like Xenoblade Chronicles X node system for exploration would have been better.

Or you could do the following:

2. Have no towers - Use the Shrines to show the area of the map around each shrine like the nodes to in Xenoblade Chronicles X. I think the number of shrines in the game is fine and actually a good thing.

3. Make special arrows into runes - The still cost an arrow but you don't have to find bomb arrows or whatever anymore. It's strange how you can't find bombs in the world (you can only use virtual rune bombs) but you can find real bombs attached to arrows. You'd have to find the shrines that gave these rune arrows. Also the rune arrows would have a decent cooldown on them to prevent them being spammed. I do think having no magic meter in this game is a great thing though.

4. A better save system - Firstly you'd have more than 1 save file. Secondly you'd have hard saves separate from autosaves. So your hard saves are not scrolled off and lost if you get too many autosaves.

5. A shop that can upgrade weapons - Like give bows zoom aim or weapons more damage and shields more durability or whatever. Upgrade your bows, shields and melee weapons in lots of different ways. Of cause you'd not be able to repair them as breakable weapons is what this game is all about. But being able to better prep yourself for one of the game's 5 dungeons or other tough areas by upgrading gear would be cool. Knowing the upgraded gear will eventually break makes you a little more choosey in how much you upgrade this gear.

6. Have the game percent complete and similar things in the game before you beat Ganon - Obvious this one, but many of us want to do as much as we can before we beat Ganon. This information would help us a lot. Not having it till we beat the game is a shame.

7. Fishing - With a fishing rod. Because this game needs even more things to do

 

[Leons]

I'm new to Zelda Informer, but I'll reply anyway. My biggest beef was honestly the story. It was to me at least, ridiculously short, and just felt so simple, and the characters felt really I don't know unmemorable compared to other Zelda games. I really liked the voice acting, I just wish there was more of it, then rather just for the one hour worth of cutscenes, in some ways I almost kind of wish everything was voiced... especially Kass and his songs. I also am not sure about how much I like the royal family in this game... they made them almost like scientists rather than rulers............it was interesting but came off a little weird in a series that has been mostly midevil fantasy until now....I also wish the setting wasn't post apocalyptic I would have much rather explored a Hyrule in it's heyday rather than a ruined one......

I don't mean to rant, I enjoyed this game I really did, it was probably one of the best games I'd ever played, but I still feel that it could have been so much better in so many ways....

 

[Jamie]

Better story, more runes, bigger dungeons.

 

[Lynel]

There needs to be a way around the rain.

yeah, the rain can eat my ass. half the game is climbing around, yet it's raining half the time.

at least some armor that negates it or something

**** rain


and **** horses. that demo last year they were going on and on about how smart they were now... nonsense, they still suck dick. just like in twilight princess. i never use the ****ing things.

 

[Fraxinus]

 

[misskitten]

You can offset the rain by finding shelter and light a fire and just wait it out by sitting to morning or the next morning, but yeah, it's very inopportune, lol