Source
r/patientgamers•
hyperlancer

Been replaying Zelda: BOTW lately. I forgot how quickly time melts away with this game.

I wasn't a patient gamer in 2017 when BOTW came out, and bought it along with my Switch on day 1. I played it, loved it, and moved on. I even bought the DLC pass during my time with it, but ultimately never ended up playing it by the time it actually released. I usually wait longer than 2 years to replay games, especially ones as massive as BOTW, but a couple weeks ago I kept getting the urge to pop it in again. In my ongoing effort to not spend money on games, I decided to start a new file.

Since I had already purchased the DLC, I decided to try out Master mode to keep things fresh during my second visit to Hyrule. I was honestly expecting to maybe put a few hours in, get my quick fix to satisfy that inner voice, and move on to something else. 30+ hours later, that is certainly not the case and I'm just as addicted to it as I was my first time around.

I continue to be amazed at what Nintendo crafted with this game. It's the only "open world" game that actually feels completely open, and everything you do actually feels meaningful. Almost every other game in the genre has followed the Ubisoft formula of giving you endless busy work to do, and a map littered with icons. It gets to a point where you're looking at your mini map more than the actual game environment. BOTW doesn't do that. Once you have the tower unlocked for a region, you actually have to use your eyes (!) to mark a couple interesting things on your map, then just glide down and explore to your hearts content. I find shrines to be fun and rewarding, and they never get stale to me. Even when you're not finding shrines, you can collect food/monster parts for cooking and armor upgrades, find great fairy fountains, raid an enemy camp, etc, and none of it gets boring IMO.

The level of polish is also unmatched for a game this ambitious. In all of my 100+ hours with it I have yet to find any real bugs in the game. I had a single time when an NPC at a stable was standing crooked. Compare that to any Bethesda game where you're likely to see something funky within the first 30 minutes. What makes this even more impressive is that your character model can touch or interact with nearly every damn pixel in this massive world. It's one of those rare games where objects and physics can interact in countless different ways, and if you think "I wonder if this will work", it most likely will. In Fallout 4, if your character walks into an object the wrong way, be prepared for your game to crash or some insane (yet usually funny) glitch to occur.

I'm truly surprised how re-playable this game has been for me, how much I'm still discovering for the first time, and how much I'm thinking about it when I'm not playing it. Master mode has been a fun challenge and adds a layer of strategy to fighting, and finding all the DLC goodies has been fun too (I don't like how OP Majora's Mask is though).

I have a feeling I won't be very patient with the recently announced sequel whenever it comes out.

Posted Jul 12, 2019, 2:19 PM UTC

5118
buster2Xk•

That last bit about physics and objects interacting is a huge part of it. Sure, a fire sword is cool... but setting the grass aflame to cause an updraft which allows you to glide into the air and slow-motion shoot your enemies with your bow? That feels awesome when you figure it out, and it's just a bunch of separate mechanics working together in a way that you need to figure out on your own.

This is the key to sandboxes if you ask me. Not a long checklist to fill out. A wide variety of interesting mechanics to combine to see what happens.

24
Morpheus_52•

I've watched a lot of let's plays for Breath of the Wild. If I had the money I'd probably buy a Switch just to play it. It seems gorgeous and reading what you wrote makes me wanna try it even more.

7
GabooEE•

Hopefully you get to experience this game one day. It's truly a pure joy of fun to play. Maybe check out the new switch lite that's coming out in September that's $200. I have a friend who is dying to play some switch games and they can't wait to pick up the lite.

6
Lokta•

Before Breath of the Wild, I had never played a game that made me think, "If this is the only game I play on this console, that's okay." Breath of the Wild made me feel that way. I accept that not everyone LOVES the game and I can see where they are coming from. But I have not felt the sense of child-like wonder playing a game that BOTW gave me in a very long time.

For your sake, I hope you get to experience it one day.

3
TheAerofan4•

Yeah I regret doing that because now I don’t really want to buy it and play it myself. But I didn’t have a Switch at the time I watched them.

2
smelltheglove-11•

You don't have to have a Switch, get a cheap used Wii U. Game still looks fantastic.

2
msp26•

You can always emulate it

1
TrailFeather•

I just can’t get over the durability mechanic. Feels so bad to finally get a good weapon that you’re straight-up afraid to use in case something bigger turns up, so you just hit everything with sticks. Combined with limited space for weapons, and no way to repair - ugh.

I really, really wanted to love this game, but that single design choice just killed it for me. Like potion hoarding, the game.

3
hyperlancerOP•

I don't inherently dislike the durability system, as I think it's good to force the player to not get comfortable with one weapon and stick with it the whole game. I do agree though that they took it a bit too far. It would be nice if I could kill more than a few enemies before it shatters on me. Maybe also limiting it to certain damage would have been better too. For example, if I'm using a woodcutter axe solely to cut down trees, it shouldn't take damage. Likewise, if I'm using a sword to do that, it should wear out. Hopefully they improve on it in the sequel.

2
TrailFeather•

Anything that helps fix that ‘too good to use feeling’; I was so annoyed the first time I got a good sword and it broke because I pulled a few too many basic enemies.

2
Basic_enthusiasm•

How is master mode? Id like more of a challenge, but not sure if I want to spend the money.

2
hyperlancerOP•

It's been fun for the most part. The most difficult change to get used to is that enemies start regenerating their health if you aren't constantly dealing damage to them. Each enemy has also been upgraded to their next color rank. It's a lot tougher to cheese them to death with things like bomb spam. In some situations your weapons will be useless, and it's more beneficial to either sneak, run past, or bomb them off a cliff and out of your way.

Aside from master mode, the DLC adds some great new content and I think it's worth the price IMO.

1
fatherofraptors•

You really liked the Champions Ballad DLC? I thought it was insufferable and uninspired. It's like "Here, I know you just did 120 shrines, but here's 12 more, just as generic, and also you're fighting those bosses again, just less weapons and armor".

I didn't even find it challenging? It just felt like more grindy stuff lacking personality.

I am really excited for the sequel though, for what it's worth!

2
hyperlancerOP•

I haven't actually gotten to those yet, but for the rest of the DLC I've really enjoyed Master mode, Trial of the Sword, and some of the really useful items like the Travelers Medallion and Korok mask. I was disappointed to learn though that those 12 champion shrines don't give you spirit orbs, and therefore you STILL can't max out both hearts and stamina.

1
fatherofraptors•

Ah yeah, I forgot that all that was part of the season pass. Sure, I enjoy the Trials and the extra little items a ton too! Just when I think DLC, I thought of the second part only that came later, the Champions Ballad. It's a pain man.

1
cinnapear•

Wait til you play Ocarina of Time

1
hyperlancerOP•

I've loved OoT since the day it released, but BOTW ended up de-throning it as my favorite 3D Zelda.

8
TheNakedOracle•

Tbh BOTW felt very Ubisoft to me. I kinda like Ubisoft, so that wasn’t a deal-breaker for me, but still. It’s a collectathon with towers. Limited enemy variety. Almost everything in the game is a shrine or a korok seed - and the korok seeds are pretty copy / paste. Climbing is a pain in the ass after a while, especially if you don’t know to look for the climbing gear. The side quests are mostly pretty forgettable. And as much as some people adored having to find everything yourself, I found it a bit irritating. Rather than exploring organically I found myself obsessively combing the map like a cartographer worried I’d miss something essential. I get that you can experiment a bit with the physics, but you can do quite a bit of experimentation in Far Cry too if you have a little imagination.

I do think it’s a pretty good game, overall, but I suspect that the perception of the developer and the franchise writ large factor heavily into how beloved the game has become.

1