Should we be able to beat BotW2 in thirty-five minutes or less?

[Sheikah_Witch]

One thing that baffled a lot of people before BotW's release was that you could beat the game without finishing the story. After the tutorial area, go straight to the final boss.

This, of course, set the speedrun community on fire. To this day, the WR for BotW is about thirty minutes.

Even though BotW2 might not have similar opportunities to mess with the physics as much as you could do with the Stasis rune, would you want a similar 'go to the final boss anytime'-setup for BotW2?

 

[Spirit]

I really hope not.

Being able to go to the final boss first makes things feel inconsequential. I know it's the latest fad in the open world/player choice movement but it is trivialising the rest of the content in the game.

Final bosses should be something to work towards, not a free pass to the credits if you're good enough.

I want the journey in BotW2 to feel necessary, being able to go straight to the final boss negates the journey so I hope we can't.

 

[Deus]

Having the last boss available to fight right away limits the type of story you can tell and it was to BoTW's detriment. You can't evolve the world throughout the game or have anything happen of consequence in the plot e.g twists because if the final boss is always available to fight nothing in the plot can be of consequence. And in BoTW I felt this. It felt meaningless.

In OOT having Ganondorf take over after the third dungeon couldn't be done if he had been available to kill from the beginning. You cant reveal a true main antagonist as a plot point like in TP if he is already available to kill from the beginning.

I therefore hope this ability to kill the final boss right away never returns in Zelda. It made for the worst storytelling in the 3D series for sure which is well known for its usually simple yet meaningful and well told storylines.

 

[Dizzi]

You need story to know why big boss is bad!!

 

[BlackWolf//WhiteAngel]

The final boss shouldn't be available immediately if you're going for a story game like Zelda is. I get they were going for that free roam feeling but this was a bit much.
Off the top of my head I'd probably have it to where Ganon was sealed not only by Zelda but also the champions somehow. Essentially he'd be sealed and Link would need to use all four champion powers to undo it.

 

[CraftyLuminaryObject]

The fact that the final boss could be approached from the get go didn't change my experience with the game. I still completed all the divine beasts and never felt any less threatened by what lay within the castle as a result. In fact I felt an extra level of tension as I never really knew if I was ready for the final boss or not. In any Zelda game prior you can be fairly confident that you can take down the final boss regardless of how many sidequests or item upgrades you've completed, because the main game would ensure that you were given at least the minimal amount of tutorial and items necessary to get the job done. Never before in the series history did I consider the possibility the fact that the final boss may actually defeat me to the point that I'd need to backtrack and improve my arsenal, but Breath of the Wild did.

I still beat Ganon first try. It wasn't a spectacularly difficult battle but the fact that it was my choice whether or not to take him on piled up a level of responsibility that made me dread it the whole time, and in that regard it was a success in my eyes. I get that some people may have concerns with story and such but from what I experienced I thought there was enough there to necessitate the conflict. Even skipping straight from the plateau to Ganon gives you backstory of the world, an introduction to the villain and a motivation for defeating him. However I'd be willing to wager there were very few, if any, gamers who truly did this on their first playthrough. Maybe a few Day 1 speedrunners clambering for an early world record.

I think I've touched on this in another post before, but glitches exist in other Zelda games that allow you to get to the final boss exceedingly quickly. The existence of such glitches does not alter the experience of those who don't want to exploit it. In the same way, despite me never wanting to go straight to Ganon in BotW, I'm glad that a method to do so exists for those that would want to play the game in such a way. I appreciate that level of freedom and hope that games in the future find bigger and better ways of using this technique alongside others that would facilitate more in-depth stories and character development.

 

[Jirohnagi]

God no, i hated that in BOTW made the entire game inconsequential, they'd just spawn all 4 bosses in before fighting the "calamity" and it just rendered the entire world pointless. Hell it made the ending of the game pointless the final boss was weak as hell as a consquence of being able to go straight to him.

Personally i wish they'd give us an option to refight bosses in say shrine of resurrection (like how in OOT3D resting in Child links bed will let you boss rush) and actually make it so the final boss is it as in the game doesn't just reload right before the final boss and act as if nothing happened and give us some goddamn post game

 

[Moe the Moblin]

good speedrun length but it should be through hecka glitches not minimal content

 

[NHawk]

I dispute the statements about the world evolving. The final boss was different depending on how the world evolved. You got all 4 blights plus the final boss if you went straight there. As you explored and conquered divine beasts the final conflict changed.

Also entering the castle and climbing to the top was a challenge enough. I found that when I went into certain areas and was underprepared I was more motivated to explore. I have no problem with the developers opening a final challenge early on, but make it difficult to achieve, and change the experience based on how someone plays the game.

Speed runners are always going to look for an exploit. They want a different experience. They want to find glitches and exploits in order to get to the end fast and generally find that story gets in the way.

 

[Azure Sage]

It didn't affect my feelings on the game in the slightest, because you don't have to do that. Complaining that you can do this is the same as complaining about difficulty level options in games. There's no one holding a gun to your head and making you play the game that way. I really liked that you could try to challenge yourself to take on the final boss that early. Building up your arsenal to your liking and thinking creatively to succeed is a big part of what makes BotW so much fun. I did a playthrough where I avoided every shrine, tower, and beast possible and limited myself only to melee weapons. The run consisted of me wandering the world building up my collection of weapons to prepare myself for the boss gauntlet. That was a lot of fun. It was still a meaningful experience even though the only story bit I did was the final boss. There's still plenty of great and meaningful content you can do other than the final boss, so calling the rest of that inconsequential just because there's no set order in doing them is kind of short-sighted in my opinion. A game is a lot more than its story.

 

[RetrospectGreg]

No, I want more proper build up this time.

 

[PoeFacedKilla]

Itd be cool if they could deconstruct this trope. For instance you can go straight to fight mummy ganondorf or you can hit a few shrines (or their equivalent) to build up hearts and stamina but when you get to the raised Hyrule castle and you beat mummy ganondorf he is revealed to have the triforce of power: which he uses to raise seven towers (actual dungeons) that give him the power to revert to his normal form (not mummified) and kidnap Zelda before kicking link out the door. Then he is really OP and you have to find seven sages and conquer the seven temples to actually beat him. That way you kind of get the best of both worlds.