MiinU
Since: Jun, 2011
04/09/2020 00:00:00
I must say, that of all the reviews/critiques I've seen of BotW so far, this seems to be the most balanced and fair one I've come across. Kudos.
About the only thing I can add is, The Champions Ballad adds more content to the Great Plateau and the overworld, in general - with 16 new shrines and plot relevant cutscenes.
As for your final point, about ways it could be better, I suspect that Aonuma feels the same way because the direct sequel is currently in development. Odds are we'll see improvements over the original.
I wouldn't mind failure so much, if I didn't fail so much.Leave a Comment:
With Great Power...
Well, I'm late to the party.
The story is, amnesiac hero Link wakes up 100 years after great disaster, and must go discover what happened and stop evil from rising again. Not a bad setup in theory; mystery and exploration can be engaging parts of a story. In practice, however, key characters will infodump much of the particulars early on, so there's not as much rewarding exploration-based storytelling as you may expect. Regardless, Hyrule is beautiful and fantastical, teeming with colorful environments, creatures, and people. But most of the main characters are rather one-note.
The first gameplay twist is that while previous Zelda games incrementally introduce new tools and mechanics over the course of the game, Breath of the Wild presents most of the mechanics at the beginning tutorial area. And while they are elegantly designed to be easy to learn, difficult to master, the sheer number of gameplay aspects can still overwhelm novice players. I would advise them to take it slow, follow the game's guiding cues, and don't be afraid to use a guide.
The second twist is that once you finish the tutorial area, the WHOLE world can be accessed. Walk, climb, glide wherever you want. Hyrule is packed with meaty challenges and puzzles, and there's all sorts of mind-prodding ways to tackle them. I enjoyed the diversity and versatility of the game's mechanics, and how many contexts they were applicable in.
But these twists pose a second weakness: since most of the mechanics and the world open up at the beginning, there's less room for evolution and escalation. And once you get a handle on it, you start to see how things repeat themselves. Look no further than the 120 shrine puzzles, which are cleverly designed, but often repetitive and don't tell much of a story beyond "the ancients left a test." More memorable are the quests that integrate their challenges with the environment. The minstrel Kass comes to mind. Some of these quests end in a shrine that straight up gives you the prize because the journey was sumptuous enough.
It's strange that despite how much I loved the game, I kept thinking of ways it could be better. I suspect that speaks to its incredible potency. There's greatness at its core, but I'd argue there's still room for dynamic escalation of gameplay and exploration.
And time. Once you fully explore certain areas, like the Great Plateau, there's little reason to go back, save find what you missed or gather resources. Wasted space. But there is one obscure game from the 90s that used a world-changing event to simultaneously open up the map AND incentivize returning to familiar, time-worn places, and in doing so told a story. I think it was called something like "The Myth of Hilda: Flute of Chronology." Perhaps a lesson can be learned here?
...Nah, that sounds dumb.