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What would it take for BotW 2 to become your new favorite/least favorite Zelda game?

thePlinko

What’s the character limit on this? Aksnfiskwjfjsk
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We already have threads on what we do and don't want to see in BotW2, but lets take it a bit further.

Most of the things we want or don't want come from our experiences from previous titles, so even if BotW had those things it most likely still wouldn't beat them. What would BotW have to do to beat out those games for you?

In order for BotW2 to become my favorite Zelda title it would have to beat out both WW and MM, which is no small order. The best way it can achieve this is to play on the strengths of both BotW and more traditional Zeldas. BotW had the basis of a good thing going on in it, its just that it was bogged down by mechanics that were either not fleshed out enough or were just bad in general. BotW 2 needs to keep its openness, but completely ditch the things that made it suck such as the weapon system and stamina. Replace those with a more classical approach to the item and dungeon system, flesh out some of the other things in the game, and you have one of the best titles ever. Like I said it'd be difficult to beat out my current favorites, but if they play their cards right its more than possible.

On the other hand, if Nintendo did absolutely nothing to fix the numerous issues with BotW. If they sold us the exact same game with a different story and maybe a new mechanic. that would probably be my new least favorite. like it or not, BotW was a massively flawed game. Aounuma could change nothing because people bought the last game so they must like it. This would admittedly most likely be a pretty good game, but if they didnt even attempt to change things for the better I would dislike the game on on principle.

The thing that really scares me is that both of these situations are equally likely.
 

Mamono101

生きることは痛みを知ること。
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Most favourite: would probably have to be nothing like BotW. I’m in the minority with this game, but it really never captivated me or provided me with any intrinsic or extrinsic motivation to keep playing. Still haven’t finished it even though I’ve had it since launch.

Least favourite: keep it open world, with all the current annoying mechanics like weapon breaking, slippery climbing when raining, getting killed by lightning, no clear direction on where to go. Exploration is good, but wandering around aimlessly “just because” has never been something I’ve liked in a game.
 

Azure Sage

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There is very little about BotW that I don't like. Extremely little. My complaints about the game are mostly little stuff. So it would take a hell of a lot for BotW2 to surpass it. Fortunately, considering its based on the game that is my favorite game in existence, it has good chances. It needs to improve on things like the weapon and armor system (I don't care about weapons breaking, but I want more weapon types for sure or at least do really cool stuff with that arm thing), it needs to have Zelda as a companion that you can fight and solve puzzles with like in Spirit Tracks, and I really hope to see a really solid connection between BotW's overworld and all the new areas.

In short, it would have to take everything that made BotW amazing (which was pretty much everything), and make it better. Difficult, but promising.
 

Sheikah_Witch

I just really like botw
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To be BotW but bigger, better, more badass.

I see it as a complete impossibility that anything with the BotW framework could possibly be worse than, say, Spirit Tracks. It would be if the game was buggy and unplayable, I guess.
 

PoeFacedKilla

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If they added the 7 temples of the sages (really just temples) and a bunch more towns (each with Elder Scrolls levels of quests, like actually getting to know each town and be able to solve its conflicts and problems within the community) it would actually probably be my favorite game of all time. Tho I want more Gerudo lore!

if they just give us BOTW2.0 with only a few new areas and fail to make Ganondorf an actual villain with understandable motivations it would probably be my least favorite as BOTW left so much to be desired. I want an Open World Hyrule but I want it to be a Kingdom not a post-apocalyptic world where people are on the verge of extinction.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

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a much more structured narrative for starters, thing is though is that the open endedness of botw wasn't really my thing, and there's no way they're going to backpaddle from than in the sequel

maybe if they can find a good way to merge the two somehow? either way, I would have to like it more than the gamecube games [my current favorites], and none of the zeldas that came after have quite gotten there yet [though majora's mask is up there as well]

EDIT: I completely overlooked the least liked part; I sincerely doubt they'll do anything to make me dislike it more than the oracles games, but if they doubled down on what I didn't like about botw then it could be my least favorite of 3d ones, who knows
 
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twilitfalchion

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An actual, well-thought-out story, with meaningful, developed characters, for one. Zelda games have almost always lacked both of these, disappointingly enough. Even the most story-rich Zelda game, MM, lacked any meaningful characters beyond Skull Kid, and maybe Tatl. Nintendo certainly has the financial capability to hire writers to craft a deep narrative for one of their best-selling series. There's no good reason why they shouldn't.

Beyond that, for BotW2 to become my new least favorite Zelda game, it'd have to implement some forced awful gimmick controls or something like that. Gimmick controls are why games like PH, ST, and SS are all tedious or frustrating to go back to or even play through for the first time for many. They just don't have the same level of user-friendliness that a traditional sticks-and-buttons setup does, which is why games like WW, TP, and OOT are all much more easily replayed, and likewise easily played for the first time by newcomers.
 
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Bowsette Plus-Ultra

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I dunno if it would become my least liked Zelda game, but the quickest way for a Breath of the Wild sequel to lose my interest would be to give it a standard Zelda plot. The last thing I want after Breath of the Wild took steps towards something actually interesting is for the series to regress to Link being a mute dumbass, Zelda being vaguely mystical and largely absent, and Ganon showing up and growling during the final 8% of the game.
 

Dio

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If they take the story seriously this time and make it the focus of the title along with delivering story focused side quests and removing weapon breaking it would have the potential to become my favourite.

BoTW felt a bit sandboxy for my liking. It had a vast world to explore without enough meaningful payoff for me. If you find getting a seed or another disposable weapon to be fulfilling I can understand your enjoyment but I'd rather have some plot progression or character progression as reward for exploring than mostly junk. They can have that stuff as well I just want more story stuff.
 

Chevywolf30

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Dio I like that point. I havent actually played BotW yet, but one of the reasons I'm shy about it is because I'm not sure about the sheer open world having much story to it. I doubt anything can top TP for me, but never say never.
 

Mikey the Moblin

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we still know so little about botw2
I think for people like me and plinko who are big fans of the established formula the outlook isn't so good
HOWEVER
we know they're keeping the engine so that's already a good sign for people who like botw. one of the reasons the game is so fun is the seemingly limitless potential for interactions between objects in the world. Just copy-pasting the shiekah slate tools from botw should be avoided imo. I wouldn't be opposed to the shiekah slate completely replacing key items in the traditional sense and in that way having botw2 evolve into more metroidvania-style gameplay, keeping the open world but giving a more coherent sense of progression. I also think the shiekah slate tools are uninspiring in use and scope (at least as far as what's intended) compared to the creativity of item usage we've seen in past installments, particularly wind waker. Some of the tools cough cough cryonis feel like a plug in a hole caused by the stamina system and frustrating swimming mechanics. I'd rather see them rework the stamina expenditure and swimming speed to get rid of an otherwise useless tool. If they're keeping the exact same overworld (which iirc they are) then a hookshot shiekah slate tool is LOOOOONG overdue. Being able to single out enemies to pull them toward you and being able to quickly climb smaller cliffs would be great changes to the game. If botw2 has a focus other than the divine beasts and champions, it would make sense to drop the powers they gave, including revali's gale. The overabundance of "Things at the Bottom of Small Bodies of Water" also highlights the lack of iron boots in botw.

obviously give real dungeons

the other problem I have with botw is the story, and while story is kind of a tradeoff with emergent gameplay, they could have done much better. The DLC did a better job of fleshing out the champions as people, but telling the story through flashback cutscenes is doing a disservice to the narrative power of video games. We know for a fact that the story will be more of a focus since the zombie body thing that people were so hyped about was clearly happening in the present, so the story will at least be serviceable. What I'd like to know though is if they can manage to refine the world storytelling to the point that Dark Souls or Metroid can do. I was thinking about why the world is so sucky and I decided that botw just does a terrible job of showing vs telling. Compared to the two series I mentioned above, there's almost nothing you discover about the world. The best NPC in the game is the girl with the dead mom who has no idea how to deal with loss and grief. We need more of that. Running around and finding cutscenes of events that already happened feels so clinical and detached. Sneaking peeks at people's journals is hardly better. To experience botw's story, you have to STOP PLAYING BOTW. That completely throws away any unique storytelling possibilities that video games are so good at.

I get that some people don't play games to experience a story, which is fine, but a good story just makes a game better and can help make the gameplay smoother and more intuitive. Botw fails at this where nearly every other zelda game succeeds. That's what's so frustrating to me about the paradigm shift.

so yeah I look forward to seeing some gameplay and stuff but this might be the first zelda game I don't play asap lol

as for RPG elements
they're fine as implemented in botw, I think the lack of smithies really hurt enjoyment of the game. When you find a cool new weapon like the elemental weapons or a high powered one it ends up in that awkward RPG spot of not wanting to use it for fear of losing it. The master sword also renders most weaponry obsolete, and to fix this they just made you not able to use the master sword for however many minutes. (For someone like me that means just don't fight enemies until your cooldown is back up but eh.) There's a place for this kind of scavenger-style gameplay (namely Trial of the Sword- big fan of that), but it's at odds with the RPG-style gameplay that the rest of the game sets up. I honestly think the proper move is to just get rid of weaponry options and stick with master sword/hylian shield. Keep costumes though, Triforce Heroes was awesome for the costumes and they were alright in botw too. It might look really weird though, but if it had to be between keeping the old weapons system and costumes or getting rid of both, getting rid of both is 100% the correct decision every time objectively no argument. With a bit of time they could probably find a cleaner solution and that'd be cool to see.

finally collectibles
yes collectibles are an integral part of the zelda formula and it's always neat how they can usually be traded in for upgrades of some kind
but please... no more korok seeds...
I get that you're not supposed to find all of them but everything about it sucks
collectibles in a game like botw should be much more significant, like spirit orbs
finding all of them is a challenge, but definitely doable, and it's really hard to miss the ones you come across

if somehow nintendo was able to put their head on straight I could easily see myself enjoying botw2 despite it not being a true zelda game
 

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