Didn't look like there was a thread for this already, so I figured I'd start one.
Let me start by saying I've been a lifelong zelda fan going all the way back to the original NES zelda. Naturally, I picked up BotW as soon as I could on release day (for the Wii U, since that's what I currently have), and could not have been more hyped from all the raving reviews it had been getting.
Brace yourselves: this is going to be a wildly unpopular opinion, but I just cannot get into this game. I HATE that I feel this way, because everyone else is hailing it as one of the greatest games of all time, and I feel like something is wrong with me for missing what the magic is.
Here are some of my major gripes with the game so far. I should note that I'm about 15 or so hours in, and the last major story point I finished was visiting the laboratory area (can't remember the name) with the little girl who upgrades your Sheikah slate.
- Weapons break far too easily. Not only is this annoying, but it makes me hesitant to use cool new equipment. What's the point of finding some sweet ass lightning sword in a shrine if you never want to use it because you know eventually it will break? At the very least I think weapons should last longer, but it also would have been nice if there was a feature for you to maintain / upgrade them when they got weak instead of just losing them altogether.
- Cooking. This whole feature was implemented very poorly in my opinion. First off, the process is extremely tedious. Maybe it's just my playing style, but the pattern for me has usually been go out and do some exploring, gather dozens of monster bits / plants / etc, come across a pot, and them spend an annoying amount of time bouncing between the inventory screen and the cookpot as I cook it all up. The whole process always feels more like a chore than an opportunity for creativity, and the random variations in the dishes I end up creating don't seem all that exciting or even all that useful in practice. For instance, I might cook something that restores my stamina bar and refills 4 hearts, but I'll probably just end up using it to refill my health during a sprawl with some really hard enemy and completely ignore the stamina boost. Another problem with cooking is the fact that there is no way to store recipes for a dish after you've eaten it. This kind of defeats the whole purpose of recipes in the first place. If I make a really awesome dish that I'll want to cook again and then eat it, I'm SOL; hopefully I've remembered the recipe by heart.
- It takes too damn long to get places. I'm constantly coming across huge stretches of land which are extremely tedious to traverse considering you can only sprint for a couple seconds at a time. Climbing is even worse. I found a bandana which claims to boost climbing speed, but I barely seem to notice a difference when wearing it. There was one section in which I did find a horse I could ride, but the controls felt really awkward and I'm not sure horses will always be available (perhaps there is a way later on in the game to summon a horse or something like that, though). Note that I am only referring to exploration of new areas here; I realize you are able to teleport around to shrines / towers once you've visited them.
- The story has got to be the most cookie-cutter, boring, un-inspired re-hash of any Zelda game in the series. I know the story is not the major focal point of Zelda, and it's expected that each entry in the series is going to converge in some way around the fact that Link must defeat Ganon to save Hyrule, but I didn't expect the story to be almost word-for-word right out of the gate "Link, you must go kill calamity Ganon and save Hyrule, you're our only hope!". I would think that a game which is bold enough to do so many other things differently than its predecessors would at least come up with a more dynamic plot.
- What is with all these stupid fetch quests? I've been getting them left and right. "Go out and collect X amount of firewood". "Go and get me X number of grasshoppers". Do people find this sort of thing fun? I just don't get it. It feels like such a chore to me, and I have absolutely zero motivation to try and complete them. Not only are the fetch quests lame, but most of the other ones have been pretty stupid as well. Play tag with the little kid in the village? All I had to do was run up to him and press the talk button. Not very interesting.
- This may only be an issue with the Wii U version of the game (or maybe I'm just dumb!), but I can't seem to get an intuitive grasp on the controls. For instance, I still find myself pausing briefly when trying to remember how to select and throw a bomb.
Those are just my main technical concerns with the game. In addition to all that, something I've come to learn about my personal taste in video gaming after getting BotW is that I don't enjoy massively open world games like this. I get too overwhelmed with all the possibilities and never know what to do. I'm sure there are people who live for this sort of thing up and could go for days climbing, exploring, collecting mushrooms / critters, etc., but sadly I just don't think that's me. Despite this, I really don't want to give up on this game just yet. There's so much content I've yet to experience that I feel like if I keep playing long enough I'll finally "get it". However, I still find myself having to force myself to play the game instead of doing so out of enjoyment or excitement.
I expect I already know the answer to this, but how do the rest of you feel about this game? Is there anything that changes later on in the game that might invalidate some of my concerns?
Let me start by saying I've been a lifelong zelda fan going all the way back to the original NES zelda. Naturally, I picked up BotW as soon as I could on release day (for the Wii U, since that's what I currently have), and could not have been more hyped from all the raving reviews it had been getting.
Brace yourselves: this is going to be a wildly unpopular opinion, but I just cannot get into this game. I HATE that I feel this way, because everyone else is hailing it as one of the greatest games of all time, and I feel like something is wrong with me for missing what the magic is.
Here are some of my major gripes with the game so far. I should note that I'm about 15 or so hours in, and the last major story point I finished was visiting the laboratory area (can't remember the name) with the little girl who upgrades your Sheikah slate.
- Weapons break far too easily. Not only is this annoying, but it makes me hesitant to use cool new equipment. What's the point of finding some sweet ass lightning sword in a shrine if you never want to use it because you know eventually it will break? At the very least I think weapons should last longer, but it also would have been nice if there was a feature for you to maintain / upgrade them when they got weak instead of just losing them altogether.
- Cooking. This whole feature was implemented very poorly in my opinion. First off, the process is extremely tedious. Maybe it's just my playing style, but the pattern for me has usually been go out and do some exploring, gather dozens of monster bits / plants / etc, come across a pot, and them spend an annoying amount of time bouncing between the inventory screen and the cookpot as I cook it all up. The whole process always feels more like a chore than an opportunity for creativity, and the random variations in the dishes I end up creating don't seem all that exciting or even all that useful in practice. For instance, I might cook something that restores my stamina bar and refills 4 hearts, but I'll probably just end up using it to refill my health during a sprawl with some really hard enemy and completely ignore the stamina boost. Another problem with cooking is the fact that there is no way to store recipes for a dish after you've eaten it. This kind of defeats the whole purpose of recipes in the first place. If I make a really awesome dish that I'll want to cook again and then eat it, I'm SOL; hopefully I've remembered the recipe by heart.
- It takes too damn long to get places. I'm constantly coming across huge stretches of land which are extremely tedious to traverse considering you can only sprint for a couple seconds at a time. Climbing is even worse. I found a bandana which claims to boost climbing speed, but I barely seem to notice a difference when wearing it. There was one section in which I did find a horse I could ride, but the controls felt really awkward and I'm not sure horses will always be available (perhaps there is a way later on in the game to summon a horse or something like that, though). Note that I am only referring to exploration of new areas here; I realize you are able to teleport around to shrines / towers once you've visited them.
- The story has got to be the most cookie-cutter, boring, un-inspired re-hash of any Zelda game in the series. I know the story is not the major focal point of Zelda, and it's expected that each entry in the series is going to converge in some way around the fact that Link must defeat Ganon to save Hyrule, but I didn't expect the story to be almost word-for-word right out of the gate "Link, you must go kill calamity Ganon and save Hyrule, you're our only hope!". I would think that a game which is bold enough to do so many other things differently than its predecessors would at least come up with a more dynamic plot.
- What is with all these stupid fetch quests? I've been getting them left and right. "Go out and collect X amount of firewood". "Go and get me X number of grasshoppers". Do people find this sort of thing fun? I just don't get it. It feels like such a chore to me, and I have absolutely zero motivation to try and complete them. Not only are the fetch quests lame, but most of the other ones have been pretty stupid as well. Play tag with the little kid in the village? All I had to do was run up to him and press the talk button. Not very interesting.
- This may only be an issue with the Wii U version of the game (or maybe I'm just dumb!), but I can't seem to get an intuitive grasp on the controls. For instance, I still find myself pausing briefly when trying to remember how to select and throw a bomb.
Those are just my main technical concerns with the game. In addition to all that, something I've come to learn about my personal taste in video gaming after getting BotW is that I don't enjoy massively open world games like this. I get too overwhelmed with all the possibilities and never know what to do. I'm sure there are people who live for this sort of thing up and could go for days climbing, exploring, collecting mushrooms / critters, etc., but sadly I just don't think that's me. Despite this, I really don't want to give up on this game just yet. There's so much content I've yet to experience that I feel like if I keep playing long enough I'll finally "get it". However, I still find myself having to force myself to play the game instead of doing so out of enjoyment or excitement.
I expect I already know the answer to this, but how do the rest of you feel about this game? Is there anything that changes later on in the game that might invalidate some of my concerns?
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