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Breath of the Wild So I have this friend, see...

Magolor04726

Hum dee doo
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Eagleland
A friend of mine (K_Waluigi) really doesn't like this game (or AoC for that matter). He says that if you just take the LoZ characters and whatnot out, it's literally any other open world game.

... he has a point, but I still really enjoy the game. And in the defense of the game, I say, "Be that as it may, it's not like Super Mario Bros. 2, which started out withOUT Mario and crew and was just some standalone game." (If you didn't know, Super Mario Bros. 2 was originally a game titled Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic in Japan and was rebranded with Mario characters as the main quartet for America.)
The point is, is that (I don't think) this was the case. It started out as a Zelda game and wasn't intended to be anything else. (Of course, I could be dead wrong, and if I am, please let me know lol.)

His despise for AoC is linked to this game as well. He says it just doesn't make sense at all and isn't possible (which is a similar additional argument he has for BotW, that the Rito and Zora can't exist in the same time period, to which I say, "If Terrako can time travel, perhaps that's what happened with the Zora/Rito. Time travel.").

But that being said, I'm just curious to see what you guys think of both games' impact on the series.
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

wah
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I think you could make that argument about any Zelda game. If you take all the Zelda characters out of Ocarina of Time, it's just another adventure game.

Now here's my AoC

I love the premise of Age of Calamity. When they announced a prequel for BotW, I found the idea uninteresting. We learn every key point of the pre-BotW narrative in that game. There isn't much ground to cover that turns it into a story worth charging another $60 for.

But then the trailer comes out and suddenly AoC has gone from being just a BotW prequel to being a full on Terminator story. It's a machine with knowledge of a doomsday future being sent back in time to avert that future, inadvertently advancing parts of it while at the same time saving thousands of lives. It comes out of total left field and I dig it. The only things I'd change about the plot are its place being relegated to some alternate timeline even though that's just what Zelda does, and its connection to BotW 2. Make BotW2 end with Link and Zelda sending Tarrako back in time. The future is saved, but they cease to exist as a result.
 

Magolor04726

Hum dee doo
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Mar 30, 2020
Location
Eagleland
I think you could make that argument about any Zelda game. If you take all the Zelda characters out of Ocarina of Time, it's just another adventure game.

Now here's my AoC

I love the premise of Age of Calamity. When they announced a prequel for BotW, I found the idea uninteresting. We learn every key point of the pre-BotW narrative in that game. There isn't much ground to cover that turns it into a story worth charging another $60 for.

But then the trailer comes out and suddenly AoC has gone from being just a BotW prequel to being a full on Terminator story. It's a machine with knowledge of a doomsday future being sent back in time to avert that future, inadvertently advancing parts of it while at the same time saving thousands of lives. It comes out of total left field and I dig it. The only things I'd change about the plot are its place being relegated to some alternate timeline even though that's just what Zelda does, and its connection to BotW 2. Make BotW2 end with Link and Zelda sending Tarrako back in time. The future is saved, but they cease to exist as a result.
I suppose practically ANY mainline game, but the reason they're mainline games is that the company has made characters that are dear and near to our hearts.

If you take all the Zelda characters out of any Zelda game it would be just an empty world
(Gah, there's no "Thinking" reaction.)
 

Uwu_Oocoo2

Joy is in video games and colored pencils
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This reminds me of a conversation I was having with a friend at church on Sunday. He started botw recently and felt like the game only really feels like a Zelda game because it tells you it's a Zelda game. We came to the conclusion that, if you were to take all the Zelda out, botw could stand as it's own game. It probably wouldn't be as popular as it is being a Zelda game, but it still would have done well. I feel like we forgive it for a lot of it's flaws simply for the fact that it is a Zelda title, and maybe we should judge it more critically.
But as it is, botw is a solid Zelda title. Some things in it don't make a lot of sense (like op mentioned with the Zora and Rito coexisting). However, it almost feels like a love letter to the Zelda series while still being new and different enough to stand out. I also enjoyed AoC. The story was out there, but I had a lot of fun with it. And because it's a side game and it's canonocity is ambiguous at best, I think we can forgive it for taking some creative liberties. Was it more of a botw game than a Zelda game? Yes. But it was a pretty dang good botw game.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

Mr. SidleInYourDMs
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I think you could make that argument about any Zelda game. If you take all the Zelda characters out of Ocarina of Time, it's just another adventure game.
sounds like his point is that botw is so dissimilar to a Zelda game that it could be any other open world game, whereas if you took out the "zelda" from say Twilight Princess, it'd be a Zelda clone b/c it has that formula
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

wah
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sounds like his point is that botw is so dissimilar to a Zelda game that it could be any other open world game, whereas if you took out the "zelda" from say Twilight Princess, it'd be a Zelda clone b/c it has that formula

I guess that brings it back to the same old talking point I circle back to: is having such a strict formula in every game actually a good thing?
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
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I can tell your friend is an alpha chad from his opinion and of course I agree with him on his take on BoTW.

If you changed the character designs and names of everyone in Ocarina of Time it would still have been great. It was groundbreaking and although not even the first Zelda it actually set the bar for the series and everything since has tried to emulate its greatness.

BoTW however I feel gets a free pass with a lot of things because of the Zelda name and characters. Take them all out and you have a mostly standard ubisoft style open world game but with a sandboxy feel. Without the name it would have been nowhere near as popular as it is.

Haven't played AOC so I can't comment on it.
 

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