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Breath of the Wild Why I didn’t like Breath of the Wild.

Joined
Aug 21, 2020
Location
In 0y-0x-0z
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Male
I think the main game is pretty ok. The problem is the DLCs.
-The Chest items : To me, getting the full barbarian set was the most fun and time spending thing i did in botw.
I needed to go to each 3 labyrinths to get each 3 pieces.And here we are getting the Phantom set that can be obtained right after
beating the tutorial area.It has the same attack buffs.But no effort went in getting it(other than the money)

-The Master Cycle Zero : The Master Cycle Zero is a small flaw to my idea.It can be obtained by completing the champion's ballad which
does take effort considering that has some difficulties to even start it.


However,the master cycle zero completely throws the horse and stable system since the cycle and go almost anywhere.
I guess the horses have chance since the Ancient Horse armor does come with the DLC.


- The Fully Powered Master Sword : Same with the Cycle,The True Master Sword is overpowered.
It can kill most things in a few hits(compared to others) Even if it breaks,It recharges in 10 mins.
This over throws the other items,only using it during the 10 mins.
 
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MapelSerup

not actually Canadian
Joined
Feb 19, 2020
I think the main game is pretty ok. The problem is the DLCs.
-The Chest items : To me, getting the full barbarian set was the most fun and time spending thing i did in botw.
I needed to go to each 3 labyrinths to get each 3 pieces.And here we are getting the Phantom set that can be obtained right after
beating the tutorial area.It has the same attack buffs.But no effort went in getting it(other than the money)

-The Master Cycle Zero : The Master Cycle Zero is a small flaw to my idea.It can be obtained by completing the champion's ballad which
does take effort considering that has some difficulties to even start it.


However,the master cycle zero completely throws the horse and stable system since the cycle and go almost anywhere.
I guess the horses have chance since the Ancient Horse armor does come with the DLC.


- The Fully Powered Master Sword : Same with the Cycle,The True Master Sword is overpowered.
It can kill most things in a few hits(compared to others) Even if it breaks,It recharges in 10 mins.
This over throws the other items,only using it during the 10 mins.
Once you’ve beaten the DLCs, you’ve probably already beaten the game. I think the rewards are supposed to be overpowered. As with Phantom Ganon, yes, that is an issue, but most people completed the game before the DLC; plus, anybody playing blind is very unlikely to find it.
Note that I don’t think the DLC is perfect either, I just think it’s flawed for different reasons.
 
Joined
Aug 28, 2020
Sadly, for three years I have been trying to make this Zelda game work, and it always just ends up frustrating me to the point of quitting, and this time I am done for good. The worse part is that there are very few places I can go to talk about this because the fanboys online will crucify me.
Gamefaqs being the worst of the few places I have visited.

I did not go into this game wanting to be disapointed, but here I am.


Anything I can say about what I don't like about the game has been said already by people that are prob much better at descibing their issues with the game better than I can.
 
Joined
Nov 29, 2021
Gender
Male
A bit late to the party here, but I've been replaying BoTW and while I do very much enjoy some aspects of the game like the exploration, I'm constantly shaking my head at many of the design decisions Nintendo made, and all the missed opportunities with the game systems that could have made things so much better. To put a more positive spin on this old thread, I'll post some suggestions on what Nintendo could have done instead to make things better.

Probably my single biggest annoyance with the game is the breakable weapons. Like has already been said, it just makes combat annoying, and makes no logical sense that a royal sword forged by the best blacksmiths in the land can't survive more than a couple of fights and turns to dust when it breaks. What I would have done instead is to keep the weapon durability, but significantly increase it across the board. When weapons break, they don't poof into nothing, but turn into a broken weapon that can still do some nominal damage, and also be repaired if you happen to like that weapon. I would also add weapons shops to all the towns where you can buy (why nearly every town has an armor shop, but weapon shops are nowhere to be found makes zero sense), repair and upgrade weapons to make it easy to use whatever weapon you like best. I would also add more legendary weapons that are indestructible and have interesting abilities like the master sword, like maybe a spear that returns to your hand after being thrown or a hammer that stuns enemies around you after hitting the ground. Maybe also give Link some disarm moves he can use in combat, even when not wielding a weapon so if he drops his weapon or it breaks, he can disarm an enemy and take their weapon. For bows, if we can have infinite bombs, it makes far more sense to have an energy bow that shoots infinite energy bolts, and could be a nice later game weapon.

My next biggest frustration is the climbing system, and how it interacts with the weather. Honestly I think that allowing Link to climb anything from the start was a huge mistake on Nintendo's part. It makes progression gating vastly more difficult when Link can pretty much go anywhere right from the start and results in poor game progression for exploration, and they also have to nerf climbing (make it slow and use a lot of stamina) since it's available from the start. Rain is used as a gating mechanic in Zora's Domain for the quest, but this interaction with the weather system as we all know results in a lot of wasted time where you have to literally sit and do nothing for 5 or 10 minutes while you wait for the rain to clear with no way to speed things up. This is just bad game design. What I would do is to heavily restrict what Link can climb at the beginning of the game (trees and some rock surfaces for example), with climbing gear being an item that unlocks the climbing ability we have now, and it can be upgraded to allow climbing in rain and on ice. Additionally I would like to see something like the song of storms (the ocarina songs in OoT were awesome) which can quickly change the weather between clear and rain (for those bugs/plants that only come out when it's raining, and also to make stealth easier). There's a ton of other weather-related missed opportunities, like different temperatures at different times of day and in different weather, warm clothes not actually making you overheat in warm areas, and more gradual transitions between temperatures instead of an invisible line between comfy and suddenly freezing/roasting to death (which is super immersion breaking). Death mountain also feels silly, like heat resist gear doesn't actually do anything despite it being hot enough to set you on fire, you just need one piece of flame resist gear and suddenly your whole body is magically flame resistant. Maybe have some areas higher up the mountain where you need special magic armor to not burst into flames, but having all of Goron city in the middle of an inferno (that everyone just casually shrugs off) makes zero logical sense. Sure it could be hot there so you need clothes that keep you cool, but spontaneous combustion should be limited to less visited places.

Another big disappointment is the (lack of) items and the poor rune balance, and all the missed opportunities. The runes are basically our items, and the bomb rune especially makes zero sense and causes a lot of problems for progression. Because bombs are infinite, they need to be super weak to give players a reason to use the rare and fragile weapons. OoT solved this problem nicely with bomb flowers near puzzle areas where bombs were needed so the player had infinite explosives for the puzzles without breaking the game. There could also be an item like a giant hammer (which we have lots of precedent for) which can smash things a bomb would normally be needed to break. Instead of a bomb rune, one that would have made a LOT more logical sense and been more useful would be some kind of fire rune for igniting things (including enemies). Right now it's actually quite clunky to light things on fire. Unless you have a flame weapon, you need to drop a flint (with potentially wonky physics so it could roll away from what you're trying to ignite) and incur weapon damage to start a fire which is stupid. The other runes aren't nearly as bad, but both cryonis and magnesis feel like massive missed opportunities. When I found that stasis could stop enemies briefly, I expected cryonis to be upgraded to freeze enemies, but unfortunately this is just another missed opportunity. Magnesis could allow for disarming enemies at a distance, and maybe even gain electrical elemental damage. To round out the elemental runes, maybe we could also have a light rune that works as a light that doesn't take up a hand slot, and could be upgraded to stun enemies around Link like a Deku nut flash. Also, what happened to the hookshot?!?

Dungeons are another disappointment. The shines get really old really fast. I like them for the fast travel waypoint aspect, but the actual puzzles are mostly lazy gimmes, annoying physics/motion control messes, or repetitive combat challenges with only a handful of actually interesting ones. Keep the waypoints in the world, but either ditch the shrine puzzles entirely or reduce the number and make them more interesting and theme them to the region they're in (so the shrines on death mountain will be Goron shrines with their architecture inside for example). Add a lot more themed dungeons (with items!), the divine beasts all feel too much the same.

Story is pretty bad IMHO. The ending especially is completely anti-climactic and largely disappointing. I miss the awesome credits scene from OoT showing how the world thrived after the defeat of Ganondorf and Link returned to his childhood. We got none of that, and it makes the ending feel like a huge letdown. Like others in here said, Ganon doesn't really feel like a threat given that all the little towns seem to be getting along just fine in the 100 years since the calamity, and nothing really changes over the course of the game to indicate a growing threat. If we want to keep the post-apocalyptic Hyrule theme (I'm personally not a fan, I much prefer the setting of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity), then maybe have it so that Zelda was successful in sealing away Ganon and herself in some kind of time jail where time was moving extremely slowly (to explain Zelda not aging) with a giant stasis bubble around the castle so only a few minutes have passed in 100 years. As she starts to grow weak sustaining this field, she calls out and wakes Link, and we get the intro tutorial we have (with some improvements so we actually have a better idea of how to play the game). Upon completing the tutorial and activating the Sheikah towers, the stasis bubble collapses and Ganon's malice is again released into the world, with Zelda being trapped in the castle and dangerous monsters spawning everywhere and guardians reactivating. Most of the story would proceed as we have it (hopefully with better dungeons) and maybe more exposition/cutscenes explaining what happened in the years since the calamity, and some semblance of progress as regions become safer as Link frees divine beasts (which instead of training on Ganon immediately start hunting down guardians/monsters in the meantime to make the areas safer) and other quests to meaningfully improve the plight of the people. Just before the final boss fight Link would be reunited with Zelda, and she would support from the sidelines in the first phase (even if just giving moral support) and use the light arrow like we have now. After defeating Ganon there would be an epilogue, and the world would be changed (not just a save right before and that's it). The castle would be free of Ganon, and people could be seen around the castle rebuilding while Link goes off to finish side quests and defeat the remaining monsters in the world (including freeing divine beasts which would still be controlled by malice if not already freed) and there would be a few new endgame sidequests to keep things interesting (like how after defeating a divine beast in a region new quests open up).

Water areas are also another huge disappointment and missed opportunity. I really enjoyed the iron boots and underwater content in OoT and TP, and all of that has been removed to the point that Link can barely swim now, with no ability to go underwater at all. To fix this I would remove the stamina requirement from swimming (it could allow for sprinting in water, but you don't drown the instant it runs out, just tread water for a second to catch your breath), allow Link to dive and swim underwater (especially with the Zora armor equipped, which could also let him breathe underwater, and maybe also have some elixirs that provide water breathing as well), and add some underwater content with shrines and dungeons.

The in-game "economy" also frustrates me. However, unlike earlier Zelda games where money was easy to get to the point of being largely meaningless (except in TP where the magic armor gave your rupee hoard some gameplay value) BoTW has simultaneously removed the classic ways of obtaining rupees (cutting grass, smashing pots/barrels/crates) while also dramatically increasing the need for them between the extremely expensive consumable items (arrows especially) and large amounts needed for quests and buying armor. This leads to a ton of grinding exploits like snow bowling (how does this guy even stay in business with all the rupees he gives out?!?), which is just boring, tedious gameplay. My solution would be to make rupees more common in the world (maybe not in grass, but monsters should regularly drop them, and they should be more commonly found in crates/chests) and also have more repeatable quests in towns to earn them besides just a few people who will buy items at better than usual prices after a quest. Maybe also have a bank or some kind of investment questline that can provide consistent long-term income once it's set up/completed to help Link afford the more expensive endgame stuff.

My final beef with the game is progression in general. Early game is brutal. The game tells you almost nothing and gives you terrible weapons and armor, and many enemies can kill you in one hit. However, once you figure out the game systems with armor and especially cooking, the game becomes trivial to the point of being broken. It's entirely possible to facetank a silver mane lynel with no skill once you get sufficiently upgraded armor and have enough hearty food and weapons. This leads to the worst combination of a game that's super frustrating and punishing up front, but gets boring at the end (and why we have DLC quests that remove all your items to actually provide a challenge). My solution to this is to do more progression gating. Make obvious beginner areas with easier enemies, and have warnings (like how Navi would let Link know if he was going somewhere dangerous without the right gear) and rebalance the combat damage and armor systems (maybe even add armor durability so it can break if it absorbs too many hits and needs to be repaired), and don't allow Link to change armor or eat during combat (potions with a cooldown could work during combat).

Anyways, that turned out to be a lot more wordy than I intended, but every time I play the game I wish someone would make a total conversion patch to fix some of these glaring issues.
 
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Joined
Nov 29, 2021
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Male
I get it, I'll check the date more closely after using search to find an appropriate thread. Sorry to trigger you guys and bring on your wishes of ill will.
 
Joined
Nov 29, 2021
Gender
Male
So will you stream playing botw or will I have to wait for a recording to drop or what
My home internet is way too slow for streaming, and I don't have video capture equipment anyways so it will be a long wait for a recording. Not that you would want to see me stumbling through the game and grumbling about some of the dumb developer decisions while I mercilessly exploit the cooking and armor mechanics to make up for my lack of skill.
 

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