Read Mixed User Reviews for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Switch

Razv

Mar 3, 2017

7

Not as good as the critics make you think it is, but overall a pretty good game. The story is not excellent, the combat could use some more polishing, but the world created is simply marvelous.

Captiosus

Jul 26, 2017

7

I grew up playing Legend of Zelda. The first game on NES was one of the first games I saved my allowance and mowed neighbors yards to buy. With exception to Skyward Sword, I have enjoyed all of the mainline console entries (and many of the handheld entries) of the Zelda franchise. So when I finally got my Switch, and thanks to the overwhelmingly positive reviews, I was stoked to pop inI grew up playing Legend of Zelda. The first game on NES was one of the first games I saved my allowance and mowed neighbors yards to buy. With exception to Skyward Sword, I have enjoyed all of the mainline console entries (and many of the handheld entries) of the Zelda franchise. So when I finally got my Switch, and thanks to the overwhelmingly positive reviews, I was stoked to pop in Breath of the Wild.

30 hours of gametime later and I'm woefully bored. Let me be succinct: This isn't a Zelda game. Sure, it has the location and character names, the stylization, the same old "beat Ganon"/Triforce story, but don't let that fool you. The core of the game is a mediocre open world collectathon.

If I were to mention a game where you have to collect hundreds of items to upgrade your inventory, health, and stamina, have multiple in-game currencies for items and other upgrades, and have to climb towers to unlock area map information while using a scope to identify landmark points of interest, you'd think I was talking about an Ubisoft open world game. Except that's precisely what Breath of the Wild does.

BotW takes this penchant for collecting further by almost becoming a survival game. Gone are the days of buying/finding jars, buying potions in shops (or from witches!), finding hearts in containers, or keeping fairies in jars. Now it's all about hunting animals for meat, gathering insects, enemy parts, ores, herbs, spices, and other ingredients and then cooking. Endlessly cooking - and there are HUNDREDS of different materials. The materials themselves give paltry benefits (if any at all) but cooking them turns them into feasts and exilirs. Unless you go look up a strategy guide for what ingredients you need, the cooking process is all experimentation. In the 30 hours I've played thus far, I wouldn't at all be shocked if I've spent a third of that in front of a fire.

It doesn't end with just cooking. Weapons and shields have paper thin durability so you're constantly breaking weapons even in the most basic of fights. This requires constant carrying of extra gear in order to swap when your weapon, bow, or shield inevitably breaks. You must also carry different sets of elemental resistance gear because if you wander into an area that's too cold or too hot and don't have enough resistance from gear or potions, you can DIE from exposure as it reduces your health as a damage over time effect. And just to remind you that they're going for realism, basic actions can become more difficult with various weather conditions (e.g. climbing while raining means you'll slide down a lot and have to start over).

"But the shrines", I can hear people saying. Sorry, these Shrines are a very poor imitation of what previous Zelda game dungeons had been. They're often only one or two rooms with little to no challenge. Take ten of them and mash them together and you'd be close to having a proper Zelda dungeon. Quantity (and there are many, again, see "collectathon") doesn't equal quality.

I don't know what this game is. It looks and sounds like Zelda but it plays like a sub-par mashup of open world games from Ubisoft, Rockstar, and Bethesda. Stylistically it looks great and despite the occasional frame drop, I enjoy looking at the game and visiting its locales. But the combat, the constant need to be a hunter/gatherer and cook, the open world fluff and the snorefest Shrines.. it's all just so dreadfully boring.

It's not a 9 or 10, nor is it a 0 or 1 game. It falls squarely in the middle. On some level, it pains me to rate this so low as it's clear they put a lot of effort into it; However, this is an example where going to a western RPG open world style fundamentally changed the core of what made the franchise and not in a good way.… Expand

B-Knock

Mar 20, 2017

7

Absolutely awful English voice acting. Pure garbage. The game is great, but the deal breaker was Zelda's fake British accent, which was pure garbage. It would have been fine if it was not forced. Absolute worse ever! Please don't buy this game and save your money for a quality Nintendo title that respects gamer's ears. The game is great but the terrible voice acting just sucks the life outAbsolutely awful English voice acting. Pure garbage. The game is great, but the deal breaker was Zelda's fake British accent, which was pure garbage. It would have been fine if it was not forced. Absolute worse ever! Please don't buy this game and save your money for a quality Nintendo title that respects gamer's ears. The game is great but the terrible voice acting just sucks the life out of the game because it just sucks so much. It was unnecessary. Nintendo bent over for stupid fan boys demanding voice acting in a game that didn't need it. Pure garbage. I give it a 10/10 for game play, but I can not get past the stupid English voice acting its so awful I just wan to go jump off a damn bridge, or smash my head into a concrete wall. Seriously!… Expand

vincesz

Mar 26, 2017

7

I dunno what it is about zelda games that makes every 'professional reviewer' think they have to give it a 10.

This game is solid, it's tight, it's good but it's not a 10. Props to Nintendo for taking chances with the same old formula. It really felt like for the past 20 years they've just been trying to recreate the magic of Ocarina of Time and failing. Now they've finally figured outI dunno what it is about zelda games that makes every 'professional reviewer' think they have to give it a 10.

This game is solid, it's tight, it's good but it's not a 10. Props to Nintendo for taking chances with the same old formula. It really felt like for the past 20 years they've just been trying to recreate the magic of Ocarina of Time and failing. Now they've finally figured out that it's about trying to do something completely different.

The combat is the biggest change here. They have an item system with durability rolled in so weapons and items are all temporary. There's no more 1 sword, 1 boomerang, etc. You get tons of swords and boomerangs. Makes it that much more special when you find the master sword.

The game is also hard. I used to rarely if ever die in a Zelda game. I died a few dozen times in the first couple of hours alone in this one. It's more like Dark Souls than the typical Zelda. They also realized that getting items like the bow and bombs and all that is really boring so they made them super easy to access right from the get go.

The game has been refocused on exploration with the new climbing system, which is really the only true innovation in the game. Almost every terrain is climbable. It adds a new dimension to the exploration that has always been a Zelda mainstay.

The puzzles are fun but not too challenging, pretty typical to the Zelda series. They did try for different ideas in this new game with spatial problem solving which I appreciate. The dungeons seem to have taken a few pages from the Shadow of the Colossus book.

One of the coolest, most thoughtful additions is that the last boss is accessible probably less than an hour from the start of the game. And you can go try your luck too! A really cool idea and it was very well implemented.

So with solid combat, great exploration, and good puzzles why is it a 7? The game just has too many noticeable flaws.

The voice acting is terrible. Everyone is gonna complain about it, it's truly God-awful. I wish I could just have silence and read text but there's no option to do that. What a shame...

Second, the graphics. They're bad. I get that Nintendo never cares about graphics and while the art is beautiful, these textures are worse than games from 7 years ago. I almost want to say I've seen better texture work in games like Gears of War 1 from 2006... That's just unacceptable. Being 2-3 years behind is whatever, being more than 7? Give me a break.

Third, music. I hate it. They tried to make the whole thing into a Miyazaki movie. The music just doesn't fit at all. You don't need symphonic music for everything with little cutesy piano pieces. It just doesn't fit the action or what's happening on the screen at all. I just never get that exhilarating feeling during action sequences because of how low-key and mellow the music is for fighting. I never felt like any of the zones had music that fit the mood or the atmosphere. It really detracts from the experience very very noticeably.

Lastly, the open world concept was just not done well. There's not enough here to warrant exploring an open world. There are only so many moblin camps you can clear out before it gets boring and old. While some of the environmental puzzles and enemies (like stone monsters you have to climb on) can be fun, the novelty wears off. Eventually it dawns on you that you're completing little mini-games. Where other games made their side quests deep and immersive (a la Witcher 3, Skyrim etc) this game's side quests are fairly bland and unimpressive.

The game is fun, if you're gonna buy a switch you probably already have it. If you're debating whether you need to buy a switch for it: pass.… Expand

DukeJon

Dec 27, 2017

7

First time playing a Zelda game and now I'm several days in, I am beginning to wonder where this great game is everyone's been talking about. The world is very large, but dull and empty. Not much variety in terms of enemies. NPC characters are like something out of a game that was released 20 years ago; limited interaction and no voiceover dialogue. Link is a boring character : in otherFirst time playing a Zelda game and now I'm several days in, I am beginning to wonder where this great game is everyone's been talking about. The world is very large, but dull and empty. Not much variety in terms of enemies. NPC characters are like something out of a game that was released 20 years ago; limited interaction and no voiceover dialogue. Link is a boring character : in other games I can completely customise my avatar, in this game I get to choose what trousers to wear and that's pretty much it. Physics is fun but inconsistent; I can chop down a huge tree but my axe swings through the supports of an archer tower without harming it. I can climb better than spider-man but I'm a baby in the water. Crafting is essentially limited to cooking only. Weapons break after two hits which means I just avoid mobs where possible, and even when I don't the battles aren't interesting. Shrines are like puzzle games you might download for free on a smartphone. Music is forgettable. Story is like something out a children's fairytale.

Yet there are so many 10/10 reviews flying about and this game is touted as not only one of the best releases this year, but possibly the best RPG of all time. I am guessing people have obviously not played Deus Ex, Mass Effect, Witcher, Fallout, Dark Souls or any of the Elder Scrolls games.

It's a good game, but no more than that. If it didn't have Zelda in the title, and wasn't carrying a new console by Nintendo, I don't think many people would have paid much attention to it.… Expand

Camitic

Apr 4, 2017

7

I am a huge Zelda fan make no mistake and Breath Of The Wild isn't a bad game but its not the best Zelda game either.
The open world at first blew my mind i thought wow.........but after the alluring shine reality sunk in and I began to dislike certain aspects of the game.
The weapon durability system is the biggest one and I wasn't quite sure what the aim was with that.I becameI am a huge Zelda fan make no mistake and Breath Of The Wild isn't a bad game but its not the best Zelda game either.
The open world at first blew my mind i thought wow.........but after the alluring shine reality sunk in and I began to dislike certain aspects of the game.

The weapon durability system is the biggest one and I wasn't quite sure what the aim was with that.I became increasing annoyed at having to change weapons mid-fight. The stamina wheel which made sense with climbing annoyed me when sprinting. The shrines......I get needing to make a system to upgrade our hearts/stamina but the shrines felt more of an annoyance then a challenge to overcome.

However the story is fantastic. The climbing aspect is great I loved and with the rain causing climbing to be an issue it added a lovely dynamic to the game. The physics of the game overall are quite brilliant and work well in a open world game.

Overall a good solid Zelda game that attempted to break from certain traditions which I respect.… Expand

ShadowofZexa

Oct 25, 2021

7

Breath Of Wild is a great game, no doubt about it. However the game feels way too different from other Zelda games and feels worse because of it. The combat in Zelda hasn't been amazing but it worked in this game it's very difficult since the game wants have good reaction time to pull off attacks that do a lot damage. That's okay but having to do this a lot since your weapons in this gameBreath Of Wild is a great game, no doubt about it. However the game feels way too different from other Zelda games and feels worse because of it. The combat in Zelda hasn't been amazing but it worked in this game it's very difficult since the game wants have good reaction time to pull off attacks that do a lot damage. That's okay but having to do this a lot since your weapons in this game don't do too much damage. There is also no way to upgrade your weapons to make them do more damage. One issue in this game that is almost a dealbreaker at times is your durability of your weapons they feel like sticks and break very easily. There is also no way to upgrade your weapons making for a lot of weapon hunting and inventory management which is very slow and boring.
The story is pretty good but not amazing like in Skyward Sword, The graphics look amazing and I love the way Nintendo made the visuals in this game. Another thing I do like the use of voice acting in the game and it's a welcome edition to the Zelda series. Overall Breath Of The Wild is good blueprint for BOTW 2 that I believe can be an amazing game if they improve on it's flaws.… Expand

ultraviper

Nov 29, 2017

7

A bit overrated. There are sooo many things in this game that seem to have no purpose other than to annoy the player. Not being able to climb in the rain. Climbing being so slow. Having to constantly change clothes when you enter different temperature zones. Having to go through so many steps to cook things. Weapons being so fragile. Inventory for weapons being so small. Lots of annoyingA bit overrated. There are sooo many things in this game that seem to have no purpose other than to annoy the player. Not being able to climb in the rain. Climbing being so slow. Having to constantly change clothes when you enter different temperature zones. Having to go through so many steps to cook things. Weapons being so fragile. Inventory for weapons being so small. Lots of annoying little cutscenes. Find a shrine: cutscene. Enter a shrine: cutscene. Finish a shrine: cutscene. They're skippable after the first couple seconds, but there's 120 shrines in the game, so you'll be pressing that skip button a LOT… Expand

RDonnell

Nov 22, 2021

7

Good game, Innovates but technically a failure. The art style will be eternal and will scale well in future but clearly the game is not being done justice. This 30fps 1080p nonsense is just that. This is a masterpeice of art constrained to an underpowered platform. I would give this game 9/10 if it were on a better gaming platform that could enable 4k/60. Byt Nintendo are so jealous andGood game, Innovates but technically a failure. The art style will be eternal and will scale well in future but clearly the game is not being done justice. This 30fps 1080p nonsense is just that. This is a masterpeice of art constrained to an underpowered platform. I would give this game 9/10 if it were on a better gaming platform that could enable 4k/60. Byt Nintendo are so jealous and greedy they continue to persist on only allowing you to see the true art of a game many years later. The HD Skyward Sword release is a perfect example of this crime!… Expand

Dark_D3s7r0y3r

Aug 22, 2017

7

I'm using the scale of 1-10 where 5 is average, 7 is very good, and 10 is a game that's perfect, no flaws or frustrations to be had during my entire experience. As in, there is absolutely nothing I can say that I think would improve the game. So rating it a 7, I think this is a very good game. If you have a Switch, definitely pick it up, you'll probably have a good time regardless of theI'm using the scale of 1-10 where 5 is average, 7 is very good, and 10 is a game that's perfect, no flaws or frustrations to be had during my entire experience. As in, there is absolutely nothing I can say that I think would improve the game. So rating it a 7, I think this is a very good game. If you have a Switch, definitely pick it up, you'll probably have a good time regardless of the things you may not like about it.

Let's start with the good. The world is ENORMOUS and you really feel it. Seeing a mountain off in the distance that you have to run to before you can fast travel to has that grand feeling of wonder and exploration. The world feels alive and active, as well, with different weather patterns, events, and collectible flora and fauna to use in cooking and upgrades. Cold areas require special gear not to freeze to death, and hot areas require special gear not to die of the heat. Some areas rain frequently, some areas have thunderstorms that make it a bad idea to carry metal weapons around, some have sandstorms and blizzards and rolling blankets of fog that obscure your vision. It all makes each visit to an area that much more unique, since there will likely be a different weather forecast each day.

The art style is stunningly beautiful. It's as if they took cartoon drawings and directly translated them 1:1 into a game. It really speaks for itself.

The story is very compelling. Throughout the game, I genuinely wanted to know more about Link's past and was interested in learning more about all the people he met along the way. And with an entirely non-linear path (it's totally possible to beat the final boss from the get-go without breaking anything), the journey feels like it's my own unique pathway through the game.

I absolutely love the horse capture/training system in this game. Finding the perfect horse, registering and naming them, and forging a bond with them as you ride all feels surprisingly natural, and makes each horse you train feel special and personal. Though I'd prefer if patterned horses weren't arbitrarily worse than solid colored horses...

And now let's look at a few negatives, starting with the obvious durability system. The issue isn't having weapons to fight with, the issue is what the durability system brings to the table. Which is just making you pause mid fight to switch to the same weapon you were just using just for it to break again in the same fight because Lynels have a billion health and weapons don't. Previous Zeldas did just fine without a bizarrely hamfisted durability system, and Breath of the Wild would have lost nothing if they gave you less frequent, incremental upgrades rather than a mountain of weapons to break. In fact, it would have made combat, hitting stasised objects, and archery minigames actually fun to experiment with instead of just dreading having to break that one weapon you found because the game says so.

Draw distance, framerate, and resolution are all terrible due to the Switch's extremely limited processing power. I'll frequently find myself missing distant items or enemies simply because the game can't draw them from more than a moderate distance away, and in areas filled with visual effects the framerate plummets from its already sub-standard 30fps. It's sad to see such a grand idea for a game limited so severely due to only being released for underpowered hardware. While the Switch is a great mobile system, it certainly doesn't make a very good modern home console. But I digress.

Rain is also a big pain to deal with. If you need to climb somewhere and it's raining, you may as well just plop tour controller down and go make something to eat while you wait it out. And if the rain lasts for more than one weather segment, you could be sitting around doing nothing for minutes. I don't understand why they decided to add in this bit of realism instead of weapons that realistically didn't shatter into dust after a handful of encounters (or one big encounter).

There are a few puzzles that force motion controls. These same puzzles also give what you're controlling a significant delay. It basically feels like shouting instructions at someone across the room to do something that requires a deal of precision with how unresponsive it is. Not at all fun to deal with.

And finally, there are also puzzles that require precise player movement. The issue with this is that on top of Link not immediately moving as you instruct him, the Switch's joycons don't give nearly the level of precision required for these puzzles to not feel like a chore. I guess I just need to shell out another $70 on a pro controller...

Again, this is a great game, but I seriously fail to see how it gets perfect 10's. The intro area in particular almost made me quit the game right then and there because a cliff I had been climbing for the past few minutes decided to eject me off the edge of a platform I had just climbed onto. But I am glad I stuck with it.… Expand

kuehnau

Mar 3, 2017

7

Well the day is finally here for the Nintendo Switch and Breath of the Wild. After all the fanfare and hype, was it worth the wait?

I'd like to start off by saying that all of the 0 out of 10 reviews don't seem fair. But I think that's sort of the price you pay for having such a well known brand and franchise, it brings out the worst in people. With that being said, those reviewsWell the day is finally here for the Nintendo Switch and Breath of the Wild. After all the fanfare and hype, was it worth the wait?

I'd like to start off by saying that all of the 0 out of 10 reviews don't seem fair. But I think that's sort of the price you pay for having such a well known brand and franchise, it brings out the worst in people. With that being said, those reviews aren't wrong, even if the scores appear to be.

Going into Breath of the Wild, based on just the online reviews and videos alone, I was expecting one of the most epic Legend of Zelda games to date, unfortunately that really isn't the case and previous entries in the game series end up faring better in comparasion.

I think one of the bigger issues stem from the fact that the developers lost sight of the core game when they started moving it into "open world" territory. The developers became more engrossed in that concept than what really makes a Zelda title a Zelda title to begin with.

When compared to other games in the franchise, the selection of enemies is shallow compared to what we usually come to expect from the series. Generally these games tend to have a wide selection of enenmies that change based on the dungeon and region of the game. With Breath of the Wild, we are seeing a lot less unique enemies and instead a lot of re-colored or re-skinned enemies as a direct result. This wouldn't be horrible if it was expected, like with titles such as Dragon Quest. But in a Legend of Zelda game, it's a bit of a disappointment.

The story isn't nearly as grand as it has been in the past. And while I haven't actually beat the game yet, I have found myself not nearly as invested or interested as I would have from previous titles in the series. A lot of times it feels as though the story element of the game was tacked on as an afterthought.

The game play is also equally shallow when compared to other games in the franchise. Yes, there's a lot of weapons you can collect, but considering their frequency of appearance and the fact many of them will break over time, they are really underwhelming. None of them feel nearly as powerful or epic as you'd expect from a Zelda title. Remember all the neat tools you'd get in other Zelda titles? Nonexistent. Don't expect to find cool tools such as the hook-shot, it doesn't exist. I think this is one of the things that hurts the game the most.

There are no heart pieces. Rupees are still in the game, but not in the same capacity as other Zelda titles. Instead you'll need to actually work to earn Rupees, you'll need to make and sell things in what appears to be an active economy and for whatever reason, it doesn't feel as if it fits properly with the overall theme of Legend of Zelda.

There's a severe lack of music in the game. It's still there, but it doesn't feel as grand as it did in previous entries of the game. I see what they were trying to go for with the music, but it doesn't feel the same.

As far as the technical specs go, the game looks good for what it is, there is no complaint there. But if people recall, there was some complaints about slow downs for the game, which apparently were reported to be fixed. But lo and behold people are still reporting slow downs on Breath of the Wild. This doesn't really surprise me as a release day title, but that doesn't make it any less disappointing. Folks are reporting that the switch can get pretty hot when played for extended peroids, so it makes me wonder if the game is suffering from the system physically slowing down due to the system becoming too warm, like how a tablet game will under perform on a Android tablet.

So, what's the final verdict? It's a Legend of Zelda title in name only, it doesn't feel like a proper Legend of Zelda game at it's core.… Expand

Subject98

Jul 24, 2020

7

At first it seemed very promising, and they got pretty much all of the gameplay mechanics down very well, but after several dozen hours of playing it I came away feeling like this is just good ground work laid down for an even better game in the future.

I've heard so much about how this is the best open world game and that it fixes all of the problems that have plagued the genre forAt first it seemed very promising, and they got pretty much all of the gameplay mechanics down very well, but after several dozen hours of playing it I came away feeling like this is just good ground work laid down for an even better game in the future.

I've heard so much about how this is the best open world game and that it fixes all of the problems that have plagued the genre for years... and I couldn't disagree more. It fell into pretty much all the same old habits. The world may be huge, but aside from the main quest locations, the rest of the world is just filled with samey, borderline copy/paste material. Again it's fine at first but it starts to feel like you're never seeing or doing anything new after a while. There are lots of enemy camps, NPC stations are almost always the same horse ranch again and again, puzzles to get collectibles like the korok seeds repeat dozens of times.

There are certain key areas of the map with unique events, but most of these I found pretty boring if not aggravating in some way. There's that big featureless maze box in one corner of the map, the lost trial and error woods, and the Yiga Clan Lair which is a forced stealth section with instant failure if you're spotted, just to give a few examples. Most of these side places that should have been interesting didn't make me very happy.

Another example of reused assets is the shrines. I'm actually on board with the idea of these, since the world is so big it makes sense to have a lot of smaller mini dungeons dotted around the map, but I still felt they managed to botch this to a degree. They all have the exact same big blue cube look to them no matter which region they're in, and at least a third of them are empty except for the reward, or just put you in a combat challenge with the same enemy with slight variation in what weapons it carries.

That brings me to my next example, the enemy variety. 80% of what you fight are moblins or lizalfos with color palette swaps. You go to one side of the map, red lizards. Go to the other side, blue lizards. Even mini bosses are the same everywhere you go too, either the fat pigs, the stone golems, or the man-lions you don't ever want to fight anyway because they kill you in one hit and tank 50 million damage. Hell even the main bosses at the end of each proper dungeon just feel like a variation of the same boss. Would it have killed them to put some more variety of foes in here? The world certainly is big enough! (Past Zelda games with 1% the map size had more content, and I'm talking about unique content, not copies.)

To add insult to injury, after completing each main dungeon, the difficulty in the world increases by populating the world, not with new enemy types, but more of the exact same ones with different colors that now take a dozen hits to kill rather than a few. They don't function any differently, or challenge you in any way, it just makes combat more tedious and eventually I started ignoring enemy encounters out in the world whenever possible.

I don't think BOTW is a bad game, I just don't see how it's any different from the medium standard of what open world games are like, except not having quest markers. They can do better than this.… Expand

revillo

Apr 11, 2017

7

This is an enormous game that functions well as a casual handheld experience. Pick it up whenever and kill a few hours running around its theme park mmo style world. Solve a few shrine puzzles, clear out some monster encapments, finish a quest, see what's on the other side of that mountain etc. It's your run of the mill RPG experience, but with stunning draw distances that let you seeThis is an enormous game that functions well as a casual handheld experience. Pick it up whenever and kill a few hours running around its theme park mmo style world. Solve a few shrine puzzles, clear out some monster encapments, finish a quest, see what's on the other side of that mountain etc. It's your run of the mill RPG experience, but with stunning draw distances that let you see clear across the gargantuan map, and somewhat novel climbing and paragliding mechanics that help you get around.

It's easy to be blindsided by the scale of the game, but after spending a few dozen hours grinding through it, I'm finding myself a little baffled by the perfect scores. The essentials here are weak, from the dark-souls-for-children combat mechancis, the ability to heal yourself whenever in the middle of combat with essentially limitless potions, puzzles that telegraph their solutions so blatantly you don't feel much reward in completing them, and maybe worst of all, an awkward, gaping void where a story ought to be.

There's fun to be had for sure, especially when you find some novel way to play in Breath of the Wild's coherent but gimmicky physicsy sandbox, it's just that little charming quirks don't add up to a deep gaming experience. The expertly polished, pitch-perfect game design i've come to expect from the series appears to have peaked with Twilight Princess. I'm genuinely happy Nintendo is flexing their engineerig muscle and taking some big risks with a change to the formula, but I hope they make a smaller, more concentrated map next time and fix this game's clunky controls and shallow components.… Expand

Juras

Mar 8, 2017

7

Most overratted game i ever played. Just good game, nothing more. Journalism this days is joke. Graphics is outdated (i do not care about Switch tech power, its almost price of PS4 Pro), art design isn't my style but ok, music no memorable, Zelda VA is terrible. Part where Zelda shines is "gameplay", so many possibilities and mechanics from other games in "one pack". But its not enough toMost overratted game i ever played. Just good game, nothing more. Journalism this days is joke. Graphics is outdated (i do not care about Switch tech power, its almost price of PS4 Pro), art design isn't my style but ok, music no memorable, Zelda VA is terrible. Part where Zelda shines is "gameplay", so many possibilities and mechanics from other games in "one pack". But its not enough to be perfect game.… Expand

shundog

Apr 10, 2017

7

The princess has no clothes! There, I said it. A good game, but not great, and nowhere near perfect.

Before I get into the negatives, I will mention one positive: the art. The art in this game is truly amazing. It's unique and refreshing in a time where most games strive too look as realistic possible. I had mixed feelings about it when I saw it in trailers, but after playing theThe princess has no clothes! There, I said it. A good game, but not great, and nowhere near perfect.

Before I get into the negatives, I will mention one positive: the art. The art in this game is truly amazing. It's unique and refreshing in a time where most games strive too look as realistic possible. I had mixed feelings about it when I saw it in trailers, but after playing the game, I absolutely adore it.

The landscapes are also impressive. They are enormous and well designed. However, I can’t help but feel that they are over-done. A lot of the world, while beautiful, feels rather empty. I think that the open world concept works very well, but the world itself could have easily been 1/2 to 1/3 of the size. There world is seriously HUGE -- it's bigger than that of most MMOs. A lot of the areas don't even have dungeons, which makes me wonder what purpose they serve.

My biggest complaint about this game is the weapon durability system. I think it is a decent idea, but one that is poorly implemented. It’s kind of hilarious to complete a dungeon and be rewarded with a weapon that breaks after a few swings… like thanks, I guess? It makes finding epic weapons feel like crap. I also find it laughable that bows have such low durability when you already have ammo to deal with. As if ammo wasn’t tedious enough! There needs to be more unbreakable weapons and the durability on breakable weapons needs to be increased by at least 10x.

As for the shrines, the vast majority of them are way too easy or short. Heart pieces were better.

Dungeons are in the same boat as shrines. There are only a handful and they are extremely easy, especially when compared to the dungeons in the previous titles. They are all very short, contain few enemies, have the same aesthetic, and rely on the same gimmicky rubrics-cube-map mechanic to complete (which I did not find challenging at all). Also, the bosses are pathetic -- I beat most of them in 1 shot, some without even taking damage. Dark Souls it is not. Overall, the dungeons in this game are a HUGE letdown. The Great Deku Tree in OOT feels epic in comparison to some of them (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration, but still). They feel like an afterthought. In past Zelda games, dungeons have always been the focus with the overworld being just a means to get you from one dungeon to the next, but in this game, it is the opposite -- the overworld is the primary focus and the dungeons are just... there?

The inventory and cooking systems are also atrocious. I could go into great detail about why they are so bad, but I’d rather not waste my time.

So all in all, it’s enjoyable, but I don’t understand all of the 10/10s. I think most of them are fueled by nostalgia and the hardware its running on (the Switch really is a great console). It's funny that most of the 10/10 reviews will list off several negative things about the game, but still give it a 10/10. I also find the difference between the user score and crictic score to be very suspect... Ultimately, it looks like Zelda, brings back some fond memories, but at the end of the day, feels more like a cheap thrill than the real thing. It’s a good game on it's own, but it's standing on the shoulders of giants and in comparison, looks rather insignificant. Definitely the worst 3D Zelda game to date.… Expand

Jorchking

Oct 7, 2020

7

A ver, como videojuego es muy bueno y largo. Pero cuando uno califica un juego es en su totalidad, y la verdad hay cosas que no puedes dejar pasar por alto:
- Port mediocre: Se supone que este era el gran plato fuerte del inicio de Switch. Es un juego que fue trabajado para Wii U pero la Switch ni siquiera puede mantener 30fps estables... Ni hablar de los bajones por debajo de los 20fpsA ver, como videojuego es muy bueno y largo. Pero cuando uno califica un juego es en su totalidad, y la verdad hay cosas que no puedes dejar pasar por alto:
- Port mediocre: Se supone que este era el gran plato fuerte del inicio de Switch. Es un juego que fue trabajado para Wii U pero la Switch ni siquiera puede mantener 30fps estables... Ni hablar de los bajones por debajo de los 20fps cuando estamos en los bosques o hierba alta.
- El Joy-Con drifting es donde más molesta es en este juego. Simplemente insoportable. Este juego drena la batería como una sanguijuela. No llego ni a las 3 horas con este juego.
Ahora lo que más critico del juego, quizá, es la ausencia de grandes desafíos y de una historia bien construida. La verdad es que en ambos puntos es donde más flojea el juego. Se nota la falta de mazmorras y lo de los Santuarios, lugares totalmente vacíos, no representan desafíos memorables ni de gran altura. La historia está ahí, más como excusa que como otra cosa, no tiene mucho peso para decir verdad. Y salvo por uno o dos personajes (Sidon y Mipha) se siente mucho hueco aquí.

La banda sonora está bien, y en cuanto a físicas y mundo el juego sobresale mucho. Pero siento que al juego le faltó algo más desafíos, los Centauros los sentí más desafiantes que el jefe final que fue un chiste para ser sincero. Pero en ningún momento sentí que este fuera más sobresaliente que otros juegos como Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Majora's Mask y, muchísimo menos, Ocarina of Time.
El juego está bien, lo empaña bastante el port, y diría incluso que tuve mejor experiencia jugándolo en emulador. Pero así y todo no es un juego que vuelva a tocar, ni un juego que me ha encantado como tal. Sólo espero que Breath of the Wild 2 lo repiense y vuelvan las mazmorras y los desafíos.
7/10.… Expand

Gecko300

Mar 11, 2017

7

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I'll some this up in one sentence.
This is a great game, it's not a great Zelda game.

Lets start with THE GOOD:
-The open world aspect IS fun, exploring the world and wanting to know what's just over that next ridge is thrilling. (However this does wear thin pretty fast .... see bad.)
-The combat is probably better than it has ever been; rather than enemies being mostly a nuisance that you just thwack away at...these enemies take some timing, potions and skill; especially in that early-mid game. It's not dark souls/witcher but it's V.Good for Zelda.
-The artistic design is nice and never gets stale to look at. It's a far cry from the drab and dreary OoT or Twilight princess.
-It's different...hell that might be a bad or a good thing but I'm putting it in the good. Zelda has been doing the same thing for 30 years and it's nice to see them try something else.

THE BAD:
-The story, I'm not asking for greatness in a Zelda game, however it was so cool in OoT when you pull out the sword and fly forward in time...In link to the past when you go to the dark world. Where is THAT here? It feels like I'm playing half the game most the time...with all the coolest and most fleshed out characters left 100 years in the past!
-The "dungeons." These are embarrassing to say the least, why even keep these hollow shells of their former renditions in the game? Just try something different. Instead we are left with what essentially comes down to 4 larger shrines that take all of 10-15 minutes to complete with 0 difficulty and 4 end bosses that fight/look almost identical.
-The sidequests, 90% of these SUCK SO MANY EGGS. This is basically about an effort/reward type deal. Minor spoilers but one person wants me to go searching high and low for rare ingredients or a super rare weapon and rewards me with JUST 100 Rupees!!! (Which I could get in 3 minutes from grabbing all the apples in a town and throwing them in a pot.) With heart/stamina containers given out for completing the shrines and the breakable weapons it almost makes the sidequests completely pointless.
-Which goes back to exploring...I used to search in Zelda games because you are looking for that hidden quest that leads to a heart piece or some rupee's for a bag upgrade. But with nothing to really upgrade other than armor it's kinda worthless other than just enjoying the beautiful world.

THE UGLY
-The music: for a series that is known for it's beautiful music...this game is severely lacking in it. A few musical cue's here and there and a bit of fight music. The rest of the time enjoy the dead silence and the sound of Links sword banging against his shield.
-The faaaaarming. Ok the most farming I've personally ever done in a Zelda game before this is about 30 mins farming in Majoras mask for the biggest wallet upgrade. But in BotW my God...to upgrade all the armor would take hundreds of hours of just running around following the bleeping and picking up fish/mushrooms/guts/butterfly's. I think I've already put in over 15 hours of solid farming for armor upgrades.

Again this review may come off as negative but it is a beautiful and fun game.
However take out the useless side quests, crappy farming and kinda not worthwhile exploring and you're left with maybe 12 hours of main quest line for a mediocre story.

It might be harsh...however if they continued to improve on this formula + did the classic 2D Zelda for a handheld console. I think I'd be in heaven.… Expand

NikoBocce

Dec 4, 2018

7

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Breath of the Wild is Nintendo's swing at the open world genre, using one of their most recognizable IPs "The Legend of Zelda". In terms of scope and size Breath of the Wild is Breathtaking (Pun Intended), the dynamic locations, cultures, and areas are truly something to be admired and praised. BotW also includes several callbacks OoT in locations and music. The gameplay is also a step forward, opting for a controversial yet innovative durability system for the weapons, shields, and bows. The graphics and art style are also unique and look great for a handheld experience. The story also has many moments that are tear-jerking and emotional. As an adventure game BotW works on many levels, innovating from the traditional Zelda gameplay and tropes.

However, BotW is not free from criticism as there are numerous flaws that appear the longer the game goes on. The first glaring issue is the music, from a series that has created some of the best soundtracks in the industry; BotW opts for a more minimalist approach and in my opinion, it doesn't work at all. While older Zelda games have memorable jingles and melodies, BotW comes off as boring and lethargic. That's not to say the entire soundtrack is garbage, some battle scores are quite good. It's just that a large amount of the soundtrack is unforgettable and lacks in character. The story while admirably non-linear in its approach, is also lacking on several levels. It seems that most of the impactful moments in the story happened 100 years before Link was awoken at the beginning of the game. Some characters are interesting, and Link's dead girlfriend is certainly worth a mention. However, the cast of characters presented here are a step back from the other past titles in the series. This brings me to my largest critique the overworld. BotW's progression system is based on shrines which are scattered across Hyrule, there are 120 in total. The issue with these shrines is that they all look the same in design. Instead of a colorful thematic dungeon design, these shrines are aesthetically the same and after 5-6 of them, they begin to feel like an absolute drag. With this large interesting landscape, the lack of things to do and activities inhabiting it, turns the large expansive world of Hyrule into one large, uninspired, sandbox. While that might seem a little harsh, I do believe that this game and concept is one that should absolutely be built upon. There is a 10/10 game hidden somewhere inside here, I'm just not seeing the perfect masterpiece everyone else is.… Expand

Methanol

Jul 29, 2017

7

Breath of the Wild is not a Zelda game anymore. They've changed so much and made things worse.
It could have easily be a real 10/10, if they just had sticked to the original Zelda formula.

Pannon

Sep 20, 2018

7

I am really stumped by the 10s and raving reviews. I am a big Nintendo fan and I did play zelda on SNES. Now that was a long time ago. ..Anyway, as I said, I'm not sure which game the 10 scorers and the review magazines playing or they maybe played, but not 40hrs or more. As other stated, there is a lot of running around in the big nothing. There are a lot of vast empty space with nothingI am really stumped by the 10s and raving reviews. I am a big Nintendo fan and I did play zelda on SNES. Now that was a long time ago. ..Anyway, as I said, I'm not sure which game the 10 scorers and the review magazines playing or they maybe played, but not 40hrs or more. As other stated, there is a lot of running around in the big nothing. There are a lot of vast empty space with nothing and the cartoonized graphics hides the shortcoming of the Switch. It just can't render too much at once so they had to use extremely low quality textures in the game. Then, as I said, big grassy fields, rocky hills and flats with nothing beside grass hoppers and some birds. A lot of walking around. I'm disappointed by not having a cave or a dungeon to go monster hunting. The 1-shot one kill flower pottery (guardians) and some other 1-hit kill monsters are just super annoying and the most annoying have to be the always breaking weapons. Button mapping can be a pain. I constantly end up hitting sneak (left thumb stick down) while fighting and Link drops the shield cover and it's a dead sentence with one of the stronger monsters. The other is the "lock on" way to continuously hold the top left trigger. Why can't we just click once and be locked on? Why make it a painful experience? And as I said, the sneak -on/off is just super annoying, especially on the original controller. I heard the pro-controller sold separately is way better controller and strongly recommended for this game. But now...I have to cash out another $60 for it? That would make this game the most expensive game I have bought in years. The enemies are repetative also. Sitting by the fire, it's a rinse-repeat of approaching their camp sneaking, let loose some arrows to the one standing on the guard towers and then either pick them off with the bow or go into a melee. You gonna do this over and over and over...with a sort of increasing difficulty, but essentially the same thing. I am playing this game on an extra wide monitor, but nintendo doesn't support this format I think. The game is stretched like the monitor, but the quality of the resolution suffers greatly, not to mention I am not a fan of applying this cartoon skin over the 3D graphics. I'm just not, especially with the low quality textures and low quality polygon models. The game looks at least 10yrs old really, but again, the Switch just can't handle it, hardware-vise, it was already obsolete when it came out.
So anyway, the game can be fun, some fights can be exciting and some items can be interesting. But there is no way this game is a 10. 7 is the max..which is "slightly better than average", otherwise you have played this game a few times already, if you played the Farcry series or Assassin's Creed etc. it'll feel awfully a deja vu, right from the first mission you get.
Play it an enjoy it, but I don't think everyone is gonna finish this game entirely. It can get very boring and pointlessly time consuming.… Expand

starki11er

Apr 30, 2023

7

Despues de 6 años que se puede escribir de este juego?
Si bien no es excelente, se ha repetido tanto que es una joya, un caliz perdido, un cambiador de vidas que la mentira se convierte en verdad indiscutible, los compradores han hecho tan propia la IP que al decir que el juego no es perfecto lo defienden con uñas y dientes mas que su propia familia.
la nula variedad de enemigo, laDespues de 6 años que se puede escribir de este juego?
Si bien no es excelente, se ha repetido tanto que es una joya, un caliz perdido, un cambiador de vidas que la mentira se convierte en verdad indiscutible, los compradores han hecho tan propia la IP que al decir que el juego no es perfecto lo defienden con uñas y dientes mas que su propia familia.
la nula variedad de enemigo, la falta de piezas memorables de koji kondo, armas de cristal, enemigos esponjas, espacios tan vacios, nulos calabozos son algo que no se pueden pasar por alto.
sin embargo la experiencia de la exploracion es lo que es un punto de inflexion para la franquicia que atrajo a propios y extraños.… Expand

Juhiz

Mar 8, 2017

7

Technical hiccups pull you out from the experience. It´s a shame that Nintendo can´t make their first-party games run smoothly on their new platform..Still this is the best modern Zelda-game. If i exclude nostalgia and fanboyism from the equation, personally i think that critic-scores are a bit too high. If I have to choose between Zelda BOTW and Horizon ZD. I would personally pick HorizonTechnical hiccups pull you out from the experience. It´s a shame that Nintendo can´t make their first-party games run smoothly on their new platform..Still this is the best modern Zelda-game. If i exclude nostalgia and fanboyism from the equation, personally i think that critic-scores are a bit too high. If I have to choose between Zelda BOTW and Horizon ZD. I would personally pick Horizon - Zero Dawn.… Expand

ANeuhouser

Mar 17, 2017

7

To give an impression of play time have completed 74/120 shrines and unlocked all of the towers.

The negatives: - Quest and character depth are pretty minimal compared to something like The Witcher. - Enemy variety is also lacking there are 12 enemy types (Lynel, Hinox, Molduga, Talus, Bokoblin, Moblin, Lizalfos, Wizzrobe, Chuchu, Keese, Octorock, Guardians) and they are all seenTo give an impression of play time have completed 74/120 shrines and unlocked all of the towers.

The negatives:
- Quest and character depth are pretty minimal compared to something like The Witcher.
- Enemy variety is also lacking there are 12 enemy types (Lynel, Hinox, Molduga, Talus, Bokoblin, Moblin, Lizalfos, Wizzrobe, Chuchu, Keese, Octorock, Guardians) and they are all seen throughout the map, just recolored or with a different elemental power in different areas.
- Weapons degrade too quickly, most weapons are not durable enough to kill a single one of the tougher enemy types without breaking (White Wokoblin, Blue Moblin, Black Lizalfos, Lynel, Hinox, Molduga, Talus)
- Tougher variants of common enemies (White Wokoblin, Blue Moblin, Black Lizalfos) don't fight any differently than their weaker counterparts, they just have their damage and health cranked way up. Most of these units can be easily knocked down in a few hits but then you have to sit there breaking weapons on them for ~30s until they die.
- There are only 4 real dungeons in the game, they are all quite small, and all have the same type of puzzles.
- Too many "____'s Blessing" shrines that have no puzzle inside of them.
- Occasional stuttering when playing in docked mode.

The positives:
- Nostalgia, nostalgia in spades.
- It's a pretty good take on the standard ubisoft open world game. Towers unlock portions of the map but unlike a ubisoft game the towers do not then litter your map with icons. Exploration is key in finding everything.
- The exploration mechanics are great, The paraglider and climbing mechanics make traversing the map quite fun.
- There is weapon and armor variety well beyond any other LoZ game.
- Combat presents a greater challenge than other LoZ games and taking down the miniboss monsters (Lynel, Hinox, Molduga, Talus) scattered around the map is very rewarding.
- Smooth frames and no stuttering when playing in handheld mode.

Overall it's a pretty decent open world game with some shortcomings but a good amount of fun.… Expand

rushiosan

Jul 26, 2017

7

A beautifully crafted world, with engaging combat and lots of small details, hurt by lack of substance where previous installments succeeded. Breath of the Wild often feels too big or too ambitious for its own good. Some important aspects were left aside in favor of picturing a vast, lively Hyrule, and while they undoubtedly achieved that, this Zelda entry felt lackluster at times - bossA beautifully crafted world, with engaging combat and lots of small details, hurt by lack of substance where previous installments succeeded. Breath of the Wild often feels too big or too ambitious for its own good. Some important aspects were left aside in favor of picturing a vast, lively Hyrule, and while they undoubtedly achieved that, this Zelda entry felt lackluster at times - boss fights, enemy variety, story, dungeons, music. Although all of these aspects have memorable moments in the 50h main quest, they never reach the quality level of its predecessors.… Expand

GK0

Mar 13, 2017

7

Really good game - great graphics, the music is fantastic, the story is good, but the stamina bar location is kind of irritating and the fact that weapons break literally every 10 seconds during combat is so incredibly stupid. Weapon durability systems are garbage and should stay in the trash heap of design choices where they belong.

bennibop

Mar 8, 2017

7

Good game not great and not one of the best Zelda games. The game has 4 dungeons and 100 shrines (mini dungeons) all of which are very easy and pose no challenge unlike previous instalments. Finding new Vistas and the sense of exploration can be great but getting there in the first place can be repetitive and frustrating as you are unable to climb when it is raining (which is the mainGood game not great and not one of the best Zelda games. The game has 4 dungeons and 100 shrines (mini dungeons) all of which are very easy and pose no challenge unlike previous instalments. Finding new Vistas and the sense of exploration can be great but getting there in the first place can be repetitive and frustrating as you are unable to climb when it is raining (which is the main mechanic for getting anywhere.)

The games framerate is awful, probably the worst I have seen since Just Cause 3 and it can impact on the game and definitely does on the immersion. I have also seen issue with physic where the game seems to stutter (perhaps due to switch cartridges.) Considering this is a Nintendo game it is very surprising as they have always prided themselves on high quality software.… Expand

pinball123

Mar 8, 2017

7

Was not the biggest fan early on and I thought the world felt a bit empty and felt abit mmo style in it's encounters, after another 10 hours I'm finding I enjoy it much more than my original impressions. The shrines work well at adding a hook and I've been surprised they haven't gotten too dull. I am hoping the frame rate can be improved with a patch because it can chug at times. I stillWas not the biggest fan early on and I thought the world felt a bit empty and felt abit mmo style in it's encounters, after another 10 hours I'm finding I enjoy it much more than my original impressions. The shrines work well at adding a hook and I've been surprised they haven't gotten too dull. I am hoping the frame rate can be improved with a patch because it can chug at times. I still prefer the earlier zelda games but this is solid but a bit over rated at the moment.… Expand

elterrible

Sep 2, 2019

7

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I really wanted to love this game, I Really did! However, I found there was too much open space and not enough tasks or actions to fill out the adventures.

Also, what there is to do, is incredibly repetitive at times. Literally, shine after shrine had only small variations at best and in many ways it was a lot like the telephone game, where the variation of the shrines change slowly as you advance through them.

Another thing that I found clever and also annoying were the elements... Lightning always got you if you had any metal on at all! Cold would kill you if you didn’t have a torch or a jacket (a jacket that your buddy gives you only after you’ve struggled to complete most of the early tasks in the opening portions of the game.

Honestly though, I didn’t find the load times to be too bad, but I did find that Zelda was a serious battery killer for the original switch and that also lead to some frustrations as I typically played the switch when I was out on the road (Maybe I’ll play it again on the new switch and see if some of my frustration goes away with the improved battery life).

Now, if you’re a Zelda fan from the way back, you will likely give this game 1 or 2 points higher than I did, but for me, Super Mario Odyssey is the best game on the platform. So, with that said, if you weren’t all that into early versions of Zelda, you should probably look at other games before buying this, or you might hate the switch.… Expand

smahlt

Apr 19, 2017

7

I felt compelled to write an honest review because everything else is either "10/10 OMG IT'S ZELDA" or "LOL NEVER PLAYED IT BUT 0/10".

I've played nearly every Zelda game. It is my favorite game series, and OoT is my favorite game of all time. I generally only hate on Zelda when it has something annoying getting in the way of the fun (such as Skyward Sword's and Phantom Hourglass'sI felt compelled to write an honest review because everything else is either "10/10 OMG IT'S ZELDA" or "LOL NEVER PLAYED IT BUT 0/10".

I've played nearly every Zelda game. It is my favorite game series, and OoT is my favorite game of all time. I generally only hate on Zelda when it has something annoying getting in the way of the fun (such as Skyward Sword's and Phantom Hourglass's controls). This game is not amazing. It is a solid open world game with no particular strengths or weaknesses (other than having a giant world with nothing in it, but that's expected at this point). The story is standard Zelda fare, the graphics are great, the music is good when it's actually playing, and the controls are solid, though the mapping takes a little getting used to.

Don't buy a Switch just for this game. Play it on your WiiU if you have one, or just wait until there's more reasons to buy a Switch.… Expand

sarisa

Aug 17, 2019

7

I spent nearly 300 hours with this game and all DLCs. And all has been said about this game already.

So just to recap: It's typical good AAA game of our times, but poor Zelda game. Period. Imagine "Link to the past" overworld without dungeons moved to modern 3D aesthetics. That's exactly this game. Good exploration game, poor in terms of being Zelda game. "Forget all you know aboutI spent nearly 300 hours with this game and all DLCs. And all has been said about this game already.

So just to recap: It's typical good AAA game of our times, but poor Zelda game. Period.
Imagine "Link to the past" overworld without dungeons moved to modern 3D aesthetics. That's exactly this game. Good exploration game, poor in terms of being Zelda game.

"Forget all you know about Zelda game..." - I thought that was just marketing. Oh boy... No, they were just honest with us.

And all these 10/10... Really? How can you give 10/10 score to a game that was intended to have mini map on gamepad, but eventually had this feature disabled on the release (remember 2014 wii u demo? Just compare). Meaning automatically that current BoTW cannot be perfect right now, because we have seen better "more perfectish" BoTW with minimap on youtube! Logic? Who cares.

Right, "Big N" will sell anything with right marketing. In my opinion Zelda has gone simply in wrong direction. With BoTW, our good old Zelda just made transition to another polished corporate product without soul. That's prolly what modern consumer expects, but not necessarily Zelda fan. All what made this game so unique was lost with this release "like tears on the rain".

7/10 is a real score here.… Expand

franknbean

Mar 26, 2022

7

This was my first Zelda game and first nintendo game in years. I enjoyed it but it didnt blow me away the way I was expecting based on the hype. The lack of dialog made it hard for me to get into the story. Everything was "100 years ago.....". The world is mostly empty and filled with the same few enemy types. Combat is limited with basic swing sword, or shoot arrow. Enemy difficulty isThis was my first Zelda game and first nintendo game in years. I enjoyed it but it didnt blow me away the way I was expecting based on the hype. The lack of dialog made it hard for me to get into the story. Everything was "100 years ago.....". The world is mostly empty and filled with the same few enemy types. Combat is limited with basic swing sword, or shoot arrow. Enemy difficulty is weird. The lynel's are tougher than ganon. Every now and then you'll run into one of the basic goblins that can one hit quit you. The grind and treasure hunt to find weapons and armor wore thin at the end.… Expand

slugfest321

Mar 16, 2017

7

TO start im coming at this as someone who has never finished a zelda game and the las zelda game i played before breath of the wild was wind waker. ive probably put 25 hours int botw now and can say i like the game and its a good game but it has its problems for me. The shrines feel too easy and short as well as never reaching that wow this is cool moment, the weapon durability is aTO start im coming at this as someone who has never finished a zelda game and the las zelda game i played before breath of the wild was wind waker. ive probably put 25 hours int botw now and can say i like the game and its a good game but it has its problems for me. The shrines feel too easy and short as well as never reaching that wow this is cool moment, the weapon durability is a nascence but i dont feel its a massive downside to the game. another problem for me is the lack of truely cool places to discover outside of quests like ive never come across a cave thats keeps getting deeper n deeper full of enemies n cool scenery leading to a cool reward. It does get boring time to time runing in the open spaces of botw but so does any open world game however despite the negatives the game does keep me engaged and is a fun game so for me i give it a 7/10… Expand

DinoBeam

Oct 27, 2019

7

Ocarina of Time had a highly emotional story and ending, with weaving themes about the loss of childhood and growing up to see the 'real world', the dark adult world. I just finished Botw and feel nothing, because the writing was quite terrible. The moment to moment game play has that "do one more thing" addiction to it, but overall this is one of the most overrated games ever made, aOcarina of Time had a highly emotional story and ending, with weaving themes about the loss of childhood and growing up to see the 'real world', the dark adult world. I just finished Botw and feel nothing, because the writing was quite terrible. The moment to moment game play has that "do one more thing" addiction to it, but overall this is one of the most overrated games ever made, a glorified tech demo… Expand

TsukasaHiiragi

Mar 3, 2017

7

Sadly, the Zelda fanboy army and obvious paid reviewers are giving this game an artificially high rating whilst in truth it isn't *that* good, there are many glaring issues right now, and the game does get repetitive after about 20 hours in, especially after grinding shrines/temples over and over for little reward.

BotW would have been better if you didn't get all the tools andSadly, the Zelda fanboy army and obvious paid reviewers are giving this game an artificially high rating whilst in truth it isn't *that* good, there are many glaring issues right now, and the game does get repetitive after about 20 hours in, especially after grinding shrines/temples over and over for little reward.

BotW would have been better if you didn't get all the tools and equipment you need within pretty much the first 20 minutes to an hour into the game. The gameplay is also questionable, with strange difficulty spikes basically saying ' you shouldn't be in this area yet ' so you die in one hit, whilst you don't lose anything you can lose durability since your weapons don't last forever and eventually you're going to need to craft items and especially potions.

The crafting elements aside, the game is a psudo mixture of Dark Souls meets Skyrim? The game can be brutally difficult at times, and have a nice balance the next - whilst this isn't neccessarily a bad thing, I'm sure it could cause some player frustration.

Whilst I think its a good opening title for the switch, the 90+ and especially 100s are all vastly over-rated scores, and shouldn't have scored that high. Sure this game is good, but it isn't that 'great' but its a worthy title to hold the Zelda name.… Expand

Vidicus

Mar 18, 2017

7

An expected and average adventure, but with Zelda name. But beware the fanatical Nintendo fans if you say anything not positive. Many games already do everything Zelda does. But for the Nintendo console, it is a good RPG, but that also says how low expectations are on a Nintendo console. It is a must buy if you bought the Switch, what choices do you have really?

Tazcat2011

Oct 21, 2017

7

The reviews for this game are ridiculous, there are too many glaring flaws to merit a 10. The music, which is usually epic in past games, is all but missing here. There is no real story, no major dungeons, and the weapon durability is awful. Getting better gear is almost a slap in the face as you know it will break sooner than later. Why there is no repair mechanic in this game is aThe reviews for this game are ridiculous, there are too many glaring flaws to merit a 10. The music, which is usually epic in past games, is all but missing here. There is no real story, no major dungeons, and the weapon durability is awful. Getting better gear is almost a slap in the face as you know it will break sooner than later. Why there is no repair mechanic in this game is a baffling design choice. How this game gets a pass for bad mechanics is amazing. This is the most UN-Zelda, Zelda game ever and surpasses Skyward Sword for worst in the series. The game is beautiful and exploring is fun though, I do enjoy just heading off and seeing what I can find. I would have enjoyed this more if it were a new IP, im convinced this game started life as something new and someone at. Nintendo demanded it changed. It is 7.5-8 tops. So many claim this is the best open world design ever, they are wrong. This game doesn’t do anything that hasn’t been done in other games and in some cases others have done it much better.… Expand

Noxispike

Mar 6, 2017

7

The sceneries looks amazing. Beautiful landscapes really makes the whole game a fantastic piece of art. BUT, as this is a more action focused game, with occasional framerate drops, what we have right now on both switch and wiiU are not the best performance suitable for action games where milliseconds of frame drops can affect gameplay greatly.

I'm personally not a fan of the overlyThe sceneries looks amazing. Beautiful landscapes really makes the whole game a fantastic piece of art. BUT, as this is a more action focused game, with occasional framerate drops, what we have right now on both switch and wiiU are not the best performance suitable for action games where milliseconds of frame drops can affect gameplay greatly.

I'm personally not a fan of the overly large but empty map, while interesting to explore, it's frustrating to know how much of the land I've not visited, and how much time it would need for me to 100% explore the world.

Overall, other than the performance and map design, this is a solid game, 9/10
With framerate locked at 30fps, as an action rpg, it hurt the gameplay experience 8/10
With occasional framerate drops for no apparent reason sometime, this is not a well optimized game, 7/10

Hope future patches can make improvements to the game's performance, and add more meaningful content to the mostly vast map.… Expand

otakuloser

Mar 30, 2017

7

I love the Zelda series, especially LttP, OoT,and MM, but I guess I just don't like survival/exploration-based open world games as much as everybody else seems too. Also, that weapon durability system is plain stupid.

MagiCPSG

Sep 20, 2019

7

I had a good time with Zelda BOTW but in the same time I have been disapointed by poor interest of the fighting (mobs and bosses...), it didn't make me feel i'm living and adventure, much more a free open world on which i can play with physics and a puzzle game hidden on various places of the open world. Anyway, it's a very good game but not the one i've expected.

posthuman

Aug 30, 2019

7

Good looking game with some interesting mechanics, but for someone like me who likes to explore and experiment a lot, the loading screen time just killed the joy from the game.

lefix

Mar 15, 2017

7

The game has several flaws, which makes all the 10/10 reviews very questionable. The story is rather poor. The world isn't as "alive" compared to most other AAA open world games (Witcher 3, Fallout 4, Horizon) we have seen lately. The move to open world/survival/dark souls is an interesting direction, which has both it's pros and cons. There are however lot's of lovely details in this gameThe game has several flaws, which makes all the 10/10 reviews very questionable. The story is rather poor. The world isn't as "alive" compared to most other AAA open world games (Witcher 3, Fallout 4, Horizon) we have seen lately. The move to open world/survival/dark souls is an interesting direction, which has both it's pros and cons. There are however lot's of lovely details in this game and the gameplay is mostly fun.… Expand

Hooker21

Mar 28, 2017

7

Tired of shrine grind after 50 hours and 0 story progression. Meaningless side quest.
Just don't belive all the prise, It's nothing special. You won't loose anything.

Braduk

Sep 15, 2017

7

Breath of the Wild is a decent and mostly fun open world game, but it is missing a lot that would make it a good Zelda game in my eyes.

-- For starters, it suffers a lot of the problems that a lot of other modern open world games do, where the content is stretched out quantity > quality type content. Skyrim has a lot of dungeons with copy-pasted aesthetic and radiant repeating questsBreath of the Wild is a decent and mostly fun open world game, but it is missing a lot that would make it a good Zelda game in my eyes.

-- For starters, it suffers a lot of the problems that a lot of other modern open world games do, where the content is stretched out quantity > quality type content. Skyrim has a lot of dungeons with copy-pasted aesthetic and radiant repeating quests for example. A good chunk of Breath of the Wild's content comes from having 100 shrines with a copy pasted aesthetic, fighting the same enemy outposts, and having 900 koroks to find (a task that, really, no one finds fun and is really tedious). This is the bulk of the overworld's content. So it ends up feeling kind of lacking. Especially when, other than a handful, the shrine puzzles are really easy and not that in-depth, and when you have 100 of them and only a handful are somewhat difficult, that's not a good ratio.
Another a problem that comes from it being open world is how barren the overworld feels at times. You go through large expanses of just, emptiness, too large of expanses, even. And there's really no places to explore or discover other than shrines and koroks. There aren't any unique secret or interesting areas to find. It's just, well, kind of bland.
The point being the actual content that is in the game is just overall not very engaging, innovated, or unique, despite what everyone claims.
-- Outside of the problems that come from it being open world the other main issue is how much it lacks of core Zelda aspects and mechanics. Dungeons have always been a very big part of the series, especially dungeons where each one has its own theme. Breath of the Wild only has four dungeons and all of them share the same theme amongst them. In addition to that, all the dungeons are also really easy and not memorable at all.
Along with reused dungeon aspects comes the fact that the bosses are all literally the same. They're all aspects of Ganon and other than different elements behave the same. This is a big downside in a series where boss fights have always been a focus, as well, and the series has a lot of memorable and unique bosses in it. Breath of the Wild does not have that. Another memorable part of the series is the OST. Most of the time playing Breath of the Wild is spent with no music outside of a few clicks of a piano, the OST is really only in towns and other similar places, which is a shame, really.
-- The last and probably most impacting missing series staple is having a large variety of equipment and items at your disposal. Breath of the Wild has tons of breakable weapons to use, but they all bubble down into one of four categories, and outside of combat melee weapons there's not that many different items in the game. There's no hookshot or pegasus boots, two items that'd make for VERY good later game upgrades, there's no ball and chain which would have worked perfectly with the combat system, there's a lot of series staple items missing and it really is a shame, because it would have helped liven up the gameplay having more toys to play with. Instead Breath of the Wild has probably the least amount of items in it out of any 3D Zelda game.
-- Breath of the Wild does some things right. The story is good, though the story is also not there that much. The characters are for the most part also good. The new species designs are great and other than looking washed out at times the game has a decent art style. But there's so many flaws in the game and there's so many elements of a good Zelda game missing that it boggles me that it has such perfect reception from the masses, and it's disappointing that there's so much missing when the base idea has so much potential.… Expand

Kirahategod

Mar 14, 2017

7

This game looks pretty fresh, but gameplay is poorly balanced. Each weapon is made of literally glass and breaks after 5-15 hits. No matter how you insist about being "openworld rpg" it does not making it better rpg, its only making it more empty, it breaking the flow of the game, and if some games, like skyrim or witcher 3 builded arround this concept wisely, here i feel it a bit empty, aThis game looks pretty fresh, but gameplay is poorly balanced. Each weapon is made of literally glass and breaks after 5-15 hits. No matter how you insist about being "openworld rpg" it does not making it better rpg, its only making it more empty, it breaking the flow of the game, and if some games, like skyrim or witcher 3 builded arround this concept wisely, here i feel it a bit empty, a bit ubisofty if you ask me/ Its good game, but not 10out10 in any way.… Expand

Halyo

Oct 8, 2020

7

The game has enough good things about it to make it at least somewhat enjoyable throughout, but there is simply a lack of meaningful progression to make the journey throughout the open-world truly worthwhile like a supposed masterpiece would have.
It was stated by devellopers that the design philosophy here was to make everything accessible from the start. Well, I think this is an awfulThe game has enough good things about it to make it at least somewhat enjoyable throughout, but there is simply a lack of meaningful progression to make the journey throughout the open-world truly worthwhile like a supposed masterpiece would have.
It was stated by devellopers that the design philosophy here was to make everything accessible from the start. Well, I think this is an awful philosophy, considering that "go anywhere you want from the plateau on" really means "do basically the same things you've already done over and over again because there is no progression".
The cooking system is shallow and repetitive, not to mention it can be used to break the game because you can just stack food indefinitely.
Every progression mechanic in the game is basically an RPG-lite mechanic that boils down to "kill x to upgrade x's stats", or "find same weapon with better stats", with stats only referring to durability and damage output.

The combat is ok, but for most encounters, spamming the attack button will suffice, and you can avoid nearly all ennemies quite easily. That would be ok if the loot you get from ennemies would be worthwhile, or fighting ennemies would grant you access to more unique areas, but unfortunately it's pretty much a self-contained loop, making it better to disengage from combat most of the time.
Environmental interaction, for being praised so much, is NOT significant most of the time, fire and ice suck, electricity is only good in that it's an OP mechanic that can be used anywhere (only that in water it's completely busted). Also the game severely lacks ennemy variety. In the overworld, you'll encounter about 4 ennemies with re-skins (really not counting the blobs and the bats, because those are just pathetic), and 3 bosses.

Now, exploring the world itself feels satisfying enough. The traversal mechanics are good. The shrine quests specifically are good, but they are too few and far between to completely redeem the game's open world. The 4 basic dungeons are also good, as is the DLC dungeon, and trials of the sword is also pretty fleshed out.
Those are all good things that taken together make the game stand a little bit above most open-worlds, but it just doesn't wash away the fact that you are playing a tech-demo that overstays its welcome.… Expand

Ubermonkey88

Jul 17, 2017

7

I must admit I've never been a massive Zelda fan over the years - I've enjoyed some of the games but it's not a series I've been mad for. However, with the hype surrounding this latest installment, I thought it's time to dust out the Wii and have a go! After playing through it, here's my thoughts from a neutral standpoint!

The Good Given the Wii U or Switch can't compete with PC orI must admit I've never been a massive Zelda fan over the years - I've enjoyed some of the games but it's not a series I've been mad for. However, with the hype surrounding this latest installment, I thought it's time to dust out the Wii and have a go! After playing through it, here's my thoughts from a neutral standpoint!

The Good

Given the Wii U or Switch can't compete with PC or other consoles from a hardware point of view, Nintendo have done very well to create a distinctive style for this game, and I think it works very well. Sunrises and sunsets are pretty, character models are well designed and the landscape is nice and varied. It's a cartoony style that I think works very well.

Combat, although basic, is grand. There's a variety of melee, ranged and magical weapons available and encounters with groups of enemies or strongholds include a degree of strategy or planning required. There are some annoyances though, which I'll mention later.

The inclusion of shrines was a sore point for many but I enjoyed looking for them and completing them, especially as each shrine gave you a token to use toward increasing your heart containers or stamina. Some are very short and simplistic but the majority of them are well thought out.

The Bad

The open world, although well designed and very pretty, can be a bit barren at times. There are very few major settlements throughout the map, aside from a handful of villages and stables to rest. I found myself spending too much time running across landscapes looking for something of interest, only to find very little.

Combat, although quite good, does have it's issues. Firstly, the lack of variety in enemies means it can get repetitive very quickly. Secondly weapon degradation is an issue. Many have pointed out this to be a minor annoyance, however I disagree. There's nothing worse than finding a great weapon only not to use because you don't want it to be destroyed after 3 hits. It takes away from the enjoyment of finding weapons. Also, during battles it's incredibly frustrating to have a weapon break and have to pause the game mid-battle to change it. It certainly helps break the immersion of the game.

Story is something that is an issue for many open world games (The Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption being exceptions), and BOTW is no exception. There's a story in there somewhere, but it's very bare bones, and the open world format takes away any urgency of the main quest - "Please Link, you must get to Castle Hyrule as soon as you can and help Princess Zelda!" "Sure, but after I find 300 Korok seeds and all 120 shrines, then we'll think about it".

Overall, BOTW is a very good game, and is worth playing if you have a Wii U or Switch (well if you have a Switch, you've already bought it!). However, it's not the best open world game out there, and i fear that the very high scores are a lot to do with the fact that it has "The Legend of Zelda" tacked on to it. There are definitely much better open world games out there (Witcher 3, Skyrim, Horizon ZD, Red Dead Redemption, GTA V) but again, it's faults aside, it is worth playing and is an enjoyable game.… Expand

ZombiCoon

Mar 23, 2020

7

First (roughly) half of the game is great, but then it becomes repetitive and quite boring at times. Excitement about puzzle dungeons starts to wear out, the enemy variety (especially the robots) is poor, loot is unexciting, and that ridiculous durability system for weapons... Not a bad game though, the "openness" of the world is well done and what I liked the most is the divine beast puzzles.

Carl042

Aug 23, 2018

7

Excellent game with fun mechanics but I did start to feel bored with repetition and the story plateaus adding to a feeling of indifference. Others clearly don’t share my thoughts so subjectively I’m in the minority but still, try to manage expectations. If you go in believing the hype it may colour your experience.

night4

Dec 31, 2017

7

It's a walking simulator with weapons that break. Meh.

It looks decent, so at least there's that positive thing to say about it. I don't think it deserves "Game of the Year" by a longshot.

SubjectG

Mar 6, 2017

7

The game was good, yes, but lacked the plethora of interesting characters and deep personality that made me love The Witcher III so much, Gameplay was sort of bland, inventory management was a pain, and the world often just felt... empty to me. Sure, the art style is interesting to look at, but the Switch's technical shortcomings meant that we weren't given a lot of the environmental soundThe game was good, yes, but lacked the plethora of interesting characters and deep personality that made me love The Witcher III so much, Gameplay was sort of bland, inventory management was a pain, and the world often just felt... empty to me. Sure, the art style is interesting to look at, but the Switch's technical shortcomings meant that we weren't given a lot of the environmental sound effects, lush greenery and scaling environments that have sorta become a must-have for open world games, nowadays.

The 'story' is interesting enough, and the puzzles and shrines are definitely creative and provide a healthy challenge, but I feel that Breath of the Wild is lacking in a lot of subjects.

Do I think the game is bad? Not in the slightest.

Is it perfect? Absolutely not.

I've had a lot of fun with it despite my gripes, and I think that I will continue to do so...

...After I finish Horizon Zero Dawn (Which I prefer because I like having linear stories to follow, with activities on the side to complete, but that's just me).… Expand

Antioch

Mar 13, 2017

7

I, like many others bought the Switch solely for this game. I bought a console, for one game... and note that I'm predominantly a pc gamer. Not many games has that power over me but I have had a thing for Zelda games since childhood. So needless to say I had high expectations.
This game delivers on alot those expectations but also comes with alot of dissapointment and some frustratinglyI, like many others bought the Switch solely for this game. I bought a console, for one game... and note that I'm predominantly a pc gamer. Not many games has that power over me but I have had a thing for Zelda games since childhood. So needless to say I had high expectations.
This game delivers on alot those expectations but also comes with alot of dissapointment and some frustratingly annoying obstacles and imo mindblowingly stupid decisions that does not add but detracts from the gameplay and ultimately stops it from reaching a higher score.
It's a beautiful world filled with alot of stuff to do but there are also alot of empty areas. You are completely free to explore it at your leasure. You can even run to Ganons castle and take him on right off the bat, of course your chances of success are very slim to none in doing so wich in a way forces you to play certain areas in order to get your character strong enough.
There are shrines with puzzles around the world that can give you uppgrades and four big bosses to take on in what you could call dungeons, even though they are more like puzzle rooms with a boss at the end.
The enemies arn't at all that waried and mostly comes in the form of the same enemies with a different color, but they behave in quirky funny ways reacting to what you do. They even goof around going about their business even when not engaging you.
Normally most games borrow from Nintendo games but there are aspects in this game that you can clearly see they have borrowed from other games like the "Far cry towers" and some DS influences.
Combat is generally fun although the difficulty in this game is just making enemies hit harder and be damage spoonges. It also borrows from survival games and the witcher where you can cook and make elixirs. The menu/item management for this task is a bit fiddly. In fact inventory and menu management overall are a bit fiddly and non intuitive.
Motioncontrol is implemented but in a smart, good and creative way, it never felt like a chore.
The bad comes in the form of frames tanking heavily alot. Maybe I'm more sensitive to this than others beeing a pc gamer, but when it happens during combat it has such a negative impact on gameplay, especially when the max is already a low 30fps.
"Link" also has a ridiculous low level of stamina to start with. Stamina shows up as an ugly bloblike green circle above your character that drains when you sprint, swim, climb etc. And I kid you not a fat legless man can outrun "Link" and you need to spend atleast 4 upgrades on stamina to even get to the level that I think is the very least Link should have started with. And these upgrades comes at the cost of much needed health.
Also when you climb Link slips ALOT if it rains (and it rains ALOT), most of your stamina is drained while getting nowhere... wich means if you're half way up the mountain and it rains you are utterly f*cked. A pointless frustrating gamemechanic that adds nothing, it doesn't really add challenge, it only adds frustration based on bad luck.
Unlike some previous games you don't really get a specific special magical bow. You can find alot of bows but they are utterly useless because arrows have a dropchance akin to legendary drops in a Diablo game and are too expensive to buy.
But one of the worst things they added to the game is weapondurability. I never really cared for weapondurability but they were okay and manageable in some games like the DS series. There resource managment and preparation was a huge part of the gameplay. Also the weapons lasted pretty long and could be repaired to their former glory.
Weapons in BOTW are made cheaper than the cheapest chinese fake copies and rarely last you more than a few enemies. And each time a weapon breaks you have to pause mid combat and choose another weapon, if you don't have any you have to scroungefor defeated foes to pick up their sh*tty sticks to fight with.
The few weapons that can be repaired are needed to be taken to certain npcs and they cost so much to repair they are never worth the resources to repair to just last a couple of enemies more.
The only weapon I came across that breaks but can return to it's former glory is the master sword, but even that comes with alot of caveats.
This constant breaking of weapons means you never look forward to looting new weapons and you are put off using the better ones because you want to "save them" for a special enemies, meaning you will be fighting mostly with crapweapons the entire game.
This was to me a mindblowingly unnecessary sh*t gameplaymechanic that detracts so much from the game. Constant interuption of flow and combat with frustration as a result. Atleast if the durability and repaircosts were somewhat reasonable it'd be a bit better but as it is now... no it is a HUGE negative.
But despite that, overall this is still a good game but it is not the masterpiece alot of people claim. I do recomend it to anyone having a wii u or switch… Expand

multiplat_gamer

Mar 30, 2017

7

As a Zelda fan, I consider Breath of the Wild a good game but it's not as perfect as most reviewers say because:

1. Poor acting choices (Zelda) If you decide to include a few (and just a few) voices in the game just do it right! Zelda has always been one of my favourite characters since Ocarina of Time. She was mysterious, daring and somehow cool. I'm so disappointed with herAs a Zelda fan, I consider Breath of the Wild a good game but it's not as perfect as most reviewers say because:

1. Poor acting choices (Zelda)

If you decide to include a few (and just a few) voices in the game just do it right! Zelda has always been one of my favourite characters since Ocarina of Time. She was mysterious, daring and somehow cool. I'm so disappointed with her ridiculously trembling voice that no one can believe nor take seriously.

There are a few other issues with the game but Zelda's voice is something that could have been chosen right easily!

2. Frustrating climbing

It rains a lot in Breath of the Wild and whenever it rains, you can't climb. It's that simple. I was stuck on an island with no shrines around and no way to make fire but I wanted to explore it anyway. All I could do was wait a long while until I was able to climb to keep checking the island. Another good example is when you are near the top of the mountain and then it starts raining and you fall all the way down. Lovely! To make things worse, 90% of the terrain requires climbing.

3. Disappointing dungeons (including the mystical ones)

I firmly believe that they are the worst in the series. Mostly, they are superficial and gimmicky.

4. Awkward inventory system

You have to eat food to restore hearts and stamina in a pause menu which feels very awkward to do while climbing and fighting. Also, all weapons break easily so you have to hold right to open the weapons menu and select another weapon in the middle of almost every single fight, which literally breaks the action.

5. Technical issues (choppy frame rate and game freezing)

Noticeable technical issues don't make a good game bad but they are detrimental to the enjoyment of the game, period.

6. Visuals are good and bad

Some places look quite good, like the beaches and sea, while other places look not exactly pointillist but just blurry a la Skyward Sword.

7. Music (where?)

Seriously, where's the music? All you are going to hear most of the time is some short harmonies (no, it's not your phone's notifications) or background sounds. And why did they replace the old ranch music with the new and much worse one? Zora's music is still awesome but it's drowned in the water and can hardly be heard.

Conclusion

I still like the game quite much regardless of its issues but after over 80 hours I can't see why it should be considered the best Zelda game ever. Reviewers will admit this eventually, once enough time has passed by. There are a few articles daring to say so already. I think some hidden Switch marketing is the reason for many websites to crown Breath of the Wild. Nevertheless, it's a good game that is so overrated.… Expand

Wimpher

Nov 9, 2022

7

Wow like wth is up with all these 10’s? I think everyone just WANTS this game to be the greatest of all time. They’ve decided this long before the game even came out. It’s ZELDA, after all…and Nintendo. They can do no wrong, right?
So yeah, has anyone figured that maybe, just maybe those 0 reviews are just counterweight to all the mindless, brainless 10’s this game is receiving? Because toWow like wth is up with all these 10’s? I think everyone just WANTS this game to be the greatest of all time. They’ve decided this long before the game even came out. It’s ZELDA, after all…and Nintendo. They can do no wrong, right?
So yeah, has anyone figured that maybe, just maybe those 0 reviews are just counterweight to all the mindless, brainless 10’s this game is receiving? Because to me this is nowhere near as charming of a game as Ocarina of Time was. And that game I bought day one and even got the gold cartridge. I find BotW to be one of the most grossly overrated video games I have come across.
There’s greatness in there, sure…but overall I find the games design to be bland and dull. The dungeons are a huge yawn fest compared to the masterfully designed areas of OoT and I found the entire soundtrack to be lazy and boring. Also I can’t stand the new design for Link.

I don’t know….I just feel this game isn’t really the Zelda I once loved. OoT and TP are both vastly superior Zelda games to me.

Lastly, the original Final Fantasy VII is still the greatest video game ever made and no one will ever change my mind.

See? Opinions. Not everyone is going to be brainwashed into praising this game like it’s the second coming of Christ. Seriously based on all these 10’s that’s what I was assuming and came out absolutely disappointed. I ain’t gonna give it a 0 ad it’s a solid video game but I understand why some are gonna want to give it a 0.
There are so many games that I find far more superior such as Shadow of the Colossus (ps4), God of War, A Plague Tale (both games), Resident Evil 2, The Last Guardian, etc.

Honestly, I think I have very particular tastes and unique style and many games of this new generation don’t even really appeal to me anymore. Most of my other all time favs ever come from the past like Silent Hill 2, FFVII, FFVIII, FFX, Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver, ICO, Vagrant Story, Chrono Cross, Tekken 3, Prince of Persia Sands of Time, Contra, Streets of Rage, Ninja Gaiden I can go on and on…..

Breath of the Wild isn’t my cup of tea but it is simply a good game. Nothing more, nothing less.… Expand

Dalith14

Mar 6, 2017

7

(SWITCH VERSION)
THE GOOD:
from a technical standpoint this game is astonishing. The game truly gives you unlimited freedom as the player, and not only that but the world itself interacts with the player, whether it be through the weather or terrain. The Shrines you visit (Their are a lot) are truly entertaining as each one is typically a puzzle that requires you to use multiple(SWITCH VERSION)
THE GOOD:

from a technical standpoint this game is astonishing. The game truly gives you unlimited freedom as the player, and not only that but the world itself interacts with the player, whether it be through the weather or terrain.

The Shrines you visit (Their are a lot) are truly entertaining as each one is typically a puzzle that requires you to use multiple abilities to solve, and more times than not you can solve in more than one way.

While the story itself requires you to flesh it out, it is a very enjoyable story and probably the most well told in the series.

THE BAD:

With this being a massive open world, it is also a massive barren world with little incentive to explore every nook and cranny. All the equipment in the game can be obtained through shops (With the exception of about 6 pieces in shrines) and the few areas you find that are guarded by enemies or require some clever routing to get to often reward you with a chest that has arrows or other negligible items.

The cooking system is cluttered and unnecessary and the time required to cook detracts from the enjoyment of the game.

The controls could of been much more refined and can lead to some silly mishaps.

THE UGLY:

The FPS is extremely inconsistent.

The beautiful music of the Zelda series we have grown to love is very scarce in this installment (This is most likely due to the developer wanting you to enjoy the "ambiance")

Pop in textures are extremely common.

Overall I have really enjoyed my time with the game and I plan on putting in much more, however I do not believe this to be the masterpiece it is touted as, but I do believe it is the framework to something truly amazing in the future.… Expand

Tselel

Mar 14, 2017

7

Story - Of course, its your typical Zelda game with good vs evil or to be specific Link (amnesiac) vs. Calamity Ganon. The difference in this installment is that before the start of the game. Zelda lost...thats that. Nothing really interest me the whole campaign nor there was any good characterization of each and every character. Its like the game assumes you know who is who and what isStory - Of course, its your typical Zelda game with good vs evil or to be specific Link (amnesiac) vs. Calamity Ganon. The difference in this installment is that before the start of the game. Zelda lost...thats that. Nothing really interest me the whole campaign nor there was any good characterization of each and every character. Its like the game assumes you know who is who and what is and whats not. I cant say it is bad, but on today's standards...Typical doesn't do anymore. A score of 7/10

Gameplay - Now this is where the game shines. Its gameplay is great! The open world is interactive, storms gets you lightnings if you wield a sword, rain makes climbing slippery and boxed, things, etc. actually hurt when it falls on you, Fruits actually grow on trees through time. The fighting mechanics is also good, with the addition of parries and slow motion mode. Added those things with the unique and classic great puzzles of the zelda franchise. However, not everything is perfect in this aspect. The durability system is **** up that weapons get destroyed in 5-6 hits used. in fact you need atleast 20x of each types of weapons to actually not worry about losing them, next the bosses as well as ALL enemies of this game has bad AI, other than them looting weapons on the ground(which is cool btw) nothing really gives me any challenge from any of them. You just need to press that attack button and no need of actual dodging to actually beat most of the creeps ingame and lastly, the world despite being ok, is lifeless. Therefore, a score of 8/10

Graphics - Well, its cartoonish, colorful but....Its butt ugly as of today's console standards. Yeah the graphics IS decent in handheld mode, but the console is really a pain in the eyes to see. Its so outdated, the design of walls, etc. pixels are so obvious its painful. Thus, a fair score of 6/10.

Sound - I dont have any complaints with the soundtrack of the game. Its great, the intruments used are good, pleasant to the ears and soothing. The same could not be said to the character voice though, i could say the devs didnt really put any effort on that aspect which clearly showed how lazy they are in doing atleas a decent job in putting gooding voice acting to the game's characters. A score of 8/10

Total average = 7.25

First of all. Imo, seeing how HIGH this game in the critics column of the game page. I could say its really overrated. Seeing as most of the reviewers that made it where mostly likely been a fan of the franchise since they were little and that feel of nostalgia got them to be biased with the game. As for me, its not right, BOTW IS A GOOD GAME, but no way in hell it is a masterpiece. The game doesn't really did any revolutionary in its gameplay to consider it a "best" nor its story is that engrossing too as well its graphics and environment ist really that good or anything. IT IS JUST A GOOD GAME WITH A ZELDA TITLE. hell, i think if its another title an d without "zelda" in it then this would be averaging 70-75 in the metacritic. regardless, i gave what i feel a score that shows what the game is to those potential buyers. Is it worth it if you have a switch? well, you dont have a choice since its the only decent out there. But imo, wait for more good games to come out before buying switch.… Expand

AngerIssuez

Sep 14, 2019

7

Most open-world games suck; but this is not one of them. Being out in the world is a blast, and is what carries this game to success. The problem is that the dungeons (which are designed as keystone moments in this and every older LoZ game) are just terrible, and the shrine system feels totally divorced from the beautifully-realized world that the rest of the game takes place in. AlsoMost open-world games suck; but this is not one of them. Being out in the world is a blast, and is what carries this game to success. The problem is that the dungeons (which are designed as keystone moments in this and every older LoZ game) are just terrible, and the shrine system feels totally divorced from the beautifully-realized world that the rest of the game takes place in. Also the weapon durability system feels like quite a nuisance, even if the design compensates for it.

That being said, I can understand why people think this is the best in the series.… Expand

kimitake

Apr 22, 2018

7

After I complete this game (main quest and most part of the side quests, almost 100 hours of game) I can say that has too much weak points to be considered a masterpiece, it's a good game but 97/100 is simply ridicolous. I will not gonna explain the merits this game has cause everybody has already done, but i want to focus on the problems it has.
The combat system is obsolete and lightAfter I complete this game (main quest and most part of the side quests, almost 100 hours of game) I can say that has too much weak points to be considered a masterpiece, it's a good game but 97/100 is simply ridicolous. I will not gonna explain the merits this game has cause everybody has already done, but i want to focus on the problems it has.
The combat system is obsolete and light years back compared to competitors, all the weapons have just 2 move sets in total, there are just a few type of enemies mixed in colours, the puzzles in the dungeons after a while start to be repetitive and not stimulants.
I also didn't like some game design choices (this is personal maybe someone could enjoy those) like the weapons that disintegrate after a few hits (arches included) and the fact it's almost impossible to climb when it's rainy is so frustrating.
I can't understand how this game could be compared to Ocarina of time a game that is 20 years older but better in every way (except for graphics of course).
Reading the others reviews I also can't understand how almost nobody highlights the problems this game has, exalting only the good parts of it.
In the end i can say also the plot is for sure not one of the best we ever see,
on the contrary it is really trite and banal.

P.S. I forgot the stamina managment is really stupid… Expand

LudwigBeethoven

Jul 27, 2017

7

•No music
•No renaming Link
•No other player profile (only 1 player save) •No forward rolling anymore (can't hit/ram a tree to shake it like in all zelda games) •No first person camera view (like in all 3d Zelda games) •No large dungeons with items! •No quiver, bottles, wallet or hookshot !!! •No witches, or witchshop or elixir shop •No diving !!! and No fishing ! •No caves or•No music
•No renaming Link
•No other player profile (only 1 player save)
•No forward rolling anymore (can't hit/ram a tree to shake it like in all zelda games)
•No first person camera view (like in all 3d Zelda games)
•No large dungeons with items!
•No quiver, bottles, wallet or hookshot !!!
•No witches, or witchshop or elixir shop
•No diving !!! and No fishing !
•No caves or holes in ground to discover

•Annoying stamina meter
•Annoying cooking animation every single time you cook!
•Annoying animation and text popup when upgrading armor.
•Annoying animation everytime you complete a shrine, and there are hundreds of them!
•Annoying breaking weapons, even Master Sword breaks and needs to reload.

•Inventory (WAY too many different items + too much time spend in inventory menu)
•Bad / Inconvenient inventory management (to drop item or weapon you have to press start first)
•Durability of damaged weapons/ shields, doesn't show how many more strikes until it breaks.
•Sprint and jump button layout very inconvenient
•WAY too many armor sets and pieces. And most of the armor makes Link look even more feminine.
•Link looks like a girl / shemale / very feminine
•Link is Spider-Man. Link can climb ALL walls like spiderman, even flat surfaces.
•Link can't climb walls in shrines = Inconsistent!
•Link can't DIVE UNDER WATER in this game! Not even with Zora armor.

•Combat feels clunky, jumping instead of rolling
•No more Z-Target Bow/Arrow shots
•Swordplay is big degradation compared to all other 3D Zelda games. No horizontal or vertical attack with sword anymore, only one type of attack.
•Little to no enemy variety. Same enemies over and over. After first couple of hours you have seen all enemy types.
•Bombs are infinite , overpowered and boring.
•Bombs are infinite , why bomb arrows not? =Inconsistent
•Map is way too big, therefore empty and boring most of times.
•Your horse wont hear your call 99,9% of the time, have fun walking around this huge map.
•You spend 90% of the time climbing some damn rock!
•Game physics: items and bodies tend to slide/roll very fast, as if the ground is out of ice
•Killing harmless animals (birds, squirrels, fox) and eat their flesh? WTF Nintendo?
•Stupid animation when killing an animal = animal turns into a steak!

•Fairies look like fat transvestites. -No joke. What happend to OoT good looking fairies?
•Korok Seeds are boring and very, very cheap map filler. Have fun finding 900 of them.
•NPCs have no character, are not memorable and look like anime cartoon.
•Shopping is boring. Shopkeeper in old zelda games had charisma and were memorable. Not in Breath of the Wild.
•Sheika Slate, an electronic iPad like device in a Zelda game WTF? It just doesn't fit!
•Chests and sidequest will only give you useless rupee or another breakable item. After a while you wont even bother openening chests anymore.

•Very bad voice acting. Not only the voices are bad, but also the usual zelda npc noises sound worse compared to other zelda games. One example: Beedle, the merchant from Wind Waker, sounds overly exited, as if he was on drugs, which makes him sound silly, and he doesn't say "thank you!!" anymore. The overall voice acting is just disappointing. Also, speaking voices don't fit in a Zelda game at all. They should stick with noises and text.

Final thoughts:
Breath of the Wild is like a very expensive bottle of whiskey or wine, which has been mixed with too much water. There are very good elements in this game, but it is watered down by the overly huge map size, which makes it feel empty and boring at times. The lack of connection to the actual story, the fact that the sidequests and the million chests that you can find in this game are completely unrewarding, the lack of background music combined with the fact that there are no valuable weapons or items since all of them break, makes this game feel more like an open world, survival, climbing simulator, than a real Zelda game.… Expand

DeLaGuardia

Mar 12, 2017

7

A new Zelda with new features, but in overall an empty trial of innovation who forgets the roots of an unforgettable saga in the wake of an huge open world. Definitely a great point unless you remember its poor graphics and minimalist even silent music. In addition, its story fluctuates between the tasteless and the power of emotional remembering of Ocarina of Time's plot and world.

InA new Zelda with new features, but in overall an empty trial of innovation who forgets the roots of an unforgettable saga in the wake of an huge open world. Definitely a great point unless you remember its poor graphics and minimalist even silent music. In addition, its story fluctuates between the tasteless and the power of emotional remembering of Ocarina of Time's plot and world.

In overall, a good game in THE LEGEND OF ZELDA's saga, but definitely not the definitive ZELDA.… Expand

BarronOfDune

Mar 13, 2017

7

Eh, it was pretty good, certainly not bad, but not as euphorically amazing as a lot of reviewers seem to be claiming. Here's a rundown:

GOOD - Solidly implemented open-world mechanics for combat, survival, exploration, and stealth. None of it is particularly groundbreaking but all is done well with the usual Nintendo polish. - Hyrule is varied, colorful, and appealing, reminiscent ofEh, it was pretty good, certainly not bad, but not as euphorically amazing as a lot of reviewers seem to be claiming. Here's a rundown:

GOOD
- Solidly implemented open-world mechanics for combat, survival, exploration, and stealth. None of it is particularly groundbreaking but all is done well with the usual Nintendo polish.
- Hyrule is varied, colorful, and appealing, reminiscent of a Miyazaki movie
- Plenty of good music
- While some dislike the breakable-weapon system, I think they implement it well and like the way it forces you to use a wide variety of weapons throughout the game
- I really like the design of the Divine Beasts and the general concept of having dungeons inside these massive lumbering cyber-steampunk monsters
- In general they do a good job of letting you go everywhere practically right from the start, with the caveat that many areas are dangerous and require specialized gear to traverse safely. It gives the world a good sense of mystery and adventure
- Good sense of character growth & progression throughout the game as you gain better equipment, new abilities, and more life/stamina
- They do a good job of incentivizing you to constantly collect whatever you can, as ingredients wind up having lots of uses in cooking and upgrading

BAD
- Story is very thin, and if you don't bother hunting for (totally optional) memories practically nonexistent: "Calamity Ganon is in the castle! Go stop him and save Zelda!" "OK, sure" THE END
- The characters were pretty weak too IMO. The only one of the Champions who left any impression was Mipha since she actually seemed to have meaningful connections to other people. The rest were blah.
- I wasn't a fan of this angsty, conflicted version of Zelda too, especially since she doesn't get a proper arc: basically she's worried she's a failure because her powers haven't materialized, then they eventually materialize at the last possible moment and everything works out THE END
- Later in the game the lack of enemy variety becomes pretty annoying. Palette swaps of Bokoblins, Moblins, and Lizalfos constitute the vast majority of enemies you'll face and it all gets very same-y.
- The prospect of slaughtering and eating countless wild animals (including wolves and foxes) is pretty grim for Nintendo. I must have farmed hundreds of moose for their precious, precious meat and did not feel like a legendary hero while I did it.
- I was very annoyed at the section where Link dresses up like a harem slave to sneak into an all-woman city. That kind of stuff doesn't belong in a family-friendly game, Nintendo.
- The actual design of the Divine Beast dungeons was unimpressive. They're all basically just variations on "tilt it this way, now that way" over and over again.
- Hyrule Castle itself was a huge disappointment. I guess it's tough if you actually WANT to spend tons of time poking around and dodging Guardians, but I just swam up the waterfall and climbed up to a window, whole thing took less than 10 minutes
- Once you've beaten Ganon it sinks in that there's not much point in continuing to explore the world, since you're not going to find any bigger challenges and there's little point in trying to get even stronger (especially if that means farming the same stuff over and over again). All that's left is OCD collecting and box-checking.… Expand

josei1985

Mar 24, 2017

7

Zelda Breath of the Wild es un grandísimos videojuego que sin tener los gráficos de la actual generación es realmente bello. Cuando estamos en la cima de una montaña o en una torre y nos lanzamos con la paravela nos damos cuenta que estamos ante un espectáculo visual. Y si coincide con un amanecer dejaremos la misión o lo que quiera que estemos haciendo para observarlo.

Es un juego queZelda Breath of the Wild es un grandísimos videojuego que sin tener los gráficos de la actual generación es realmente bello. Cuando estamos en la cima de una montaña o en una torre y nos lanzamos con la paravela nos damos cuenta que estamos ante un espectáculo visual. Y si coincide con un amanecer dejaremos la misión o lo que quiera que estemos haciendo para observarlo.

Es un juego que te atrapa, donde estaremos horas y horas que se pasarán en un suspiro. Podrás jugar seis horas seguidas sin darte cuenta, sin apenas avanzar en la historia principal o haciendo apenas un puñado de misiones secundarias o superando santuarios. Más de 105 horas tengo a mis espaldas tras habérmelo pasado.

Los detalles según lo que hagamos, las físicas, son sin duda una lección magistral para otras desarrolladoras. Ver la hierba moverse según sopla el viento, como ésta va cediendo a nuestros pasos, cómo podemos cortarla cuando está alta y pueden aparecer animales que hacia un rato se había escondido a nuestro paso, cómo nos cuesta escalar cuando llueve (todo cuanto veamos es escalable, según la resistencia que tengamos), cómo podemos quedar achicharrados si en una tormenta de rayos vamos equipados con nuestro escudo/espada, el movimiento del agua cuando estamos en ella, poder cortar árboles al golpearlo ver cómo se deslizan si hay pendiente, la IA de los enemigos al eliminar o devolverte las bombas que les lanzas, ,... Alguno le parecerá una tontería pero no muchos juegos atienden a estos "detalles".

No hay mucha gente con la que charlar salvo en postas y aldeas y los que nos encontremos en el camino nos podrán dar pistas de tesoros o lugares que hasta ese momento no hayamos tenido noticia o puede que se conviertan en enemigos. En las aldeas, lógicamente, no hay muchos edificios pero en todos ellos podremos cotillear, sin excepción. Lo cual deja a otros mundos abiertos como una decoración de cartón piedra.

A continuación les paso mis puntos negativos:

- Poca profundidad en la historia y escasas misiones principales. Eso sí, las cinemáticas son muy bonitas y bien hechas.

- Quitando postas y aldeas, poca vida (humana). La interacción con estos poco profunda.

- Misiones secundarias decepcionante. El héroe de Hyrule reducido a recadero: tráeme X gemás luminosas, X setas raudas, etc. o busca a menganito que no sabemos dónde está. Ni rastro de misiones secundarias tan buenas y con tanta enjundia como una principal, que vimos en juegos como The Witcher 3.

- Sistema de combate ortopédico (hasta que con el paso de las horas vamos puliendo, pero es malo). Venir de jugar Nioh y encontrarte con esto.. cierto, no son géneros comparables, pero deja mucho que desear la simplificación del combate.

- Dificultad del juego. Nula. Nula para jefes finales de las bestias divinas y Ganon. Si no estás pendiente de la vida, si no tienes flechas ancestrales o no cuentas con la espada maestra, puede que te cueste. Si tienes todo eso, prácticamente a la primera los vencerás. En cambio, los guardianes pero especialmente los centaleones son muy complicados. Lo curioso es que son enemigos opcionales. No tiene lógica.

- Algunos tirones en modo TV, no molestos, pero siendo exclusivo es imperdonable. También el último día me hizo una cosa extraña en modo portatil, auqnue aquí el juego es estable y se ve de lujo. En modo TV jugando con el mando pro gana muchísimo.

- Esto es más subjetivo: tras 105 horas y con estos puntos negativos, no entiendo tanto maldito 10 de la prensa. Maletines?

Para mi estas contras le hacen bajar mucho y por eso le pondría un 7,5.… Expand

Leo_Manzano

Jul 22, 2019

7

Your experience with Zelda BTW will be defined by yours expectations, if you are waiting for a great open world game with good puzzles and that let you do you do all you want zelda will be incredible.
if you want something more like a rpg with remarkeble npc and lore you will be disappointed, the game is empety and lacks of content and also the weapon breake system is horrible and onlyYour experience with Zelda BTW will be defined by yours expectations, if you are waiting for a great open world game with good puzzles and that let you do you do all you want zelda will be incredible.
if you want something more like a rpg with remarkeble npc and lore you will be disappointed, the game is empety and lacks of content and also the weapon breake system is horrible and only makes you avoid combat.… Expand

DoomCritic

Apr 6, 2018

7

The term glass cannon comes to mind when playing this game–as well as tedium. Before I go into the shortcomings of this game let me just say that this is one of the best Hyrule universes that I have been able to experience in a Zelda game… Now, with that said, it seems that for everything that could have been amazing about this game is then dialed back a few notches with some strangeThe term glass cannon comes to mind when playing this game–as well as tedium. Before I go into the shortcomings of this game let me just say that this is one of the best Hyrule universes that I have been able to experience in a Zelda game… Now, with that said, it seems that for everything that could have been amazing about this game is then dialed back a few notches with some strange in-game mechanic choices…
Creating fake difficulties with cheap game design, like enemies that give you forever and a day to hit them only to be hindered with your porcelain weapons constantly breaking all the time… Dialog choices that don’t lead to different outcomes (like the damn paraglider tasks). And a little green doughnut that is fighting hard to become even more notable than the tri-force…
So, to sum up my opinion, Breath of the Wild is a great game that takes three steps forward but two back as with features that do not really add to the game’s difficulty or enjoyability as much as attempt to pad the amount of time spent playing it.… Expand

ivanhellsing

Mar 6, 2017

7

Im playing on Wii U, and i have to say, this is not ALL what they are saying. Just finished Witcher 3 and this dont come close. I really think that Nintendo paid some reviews, cuz i cant see the 10/10 on this game.
Many drops of framerate, poor grafics, bleached colours does't surprise me at all.

Liverpoolgamer

Mar 7, 2017

7

Well i have been playing this and horizon since their launches to get a good feel of both games. I am not a fanboy, i own every console currently on the market and a P.C. Nintendo has been with me since a very young age, and i will always continue to invest in them for myself and my kids. But in my opinion this just is not the perfect game that a lot are making out. I can see the positivesWell i have been playing this and horizon since their launches to get a good feel of both games. I am not a fanboy, i own every console currently on the market and a P.C. Nintendo has been with me since a very young age, and i will always continue to invest in them for myself and my kids. But in my opinion this just is not the perfect game that a lot are making out. I can see the positives but it just does not give me the enjoyment i have experienced with past Zelda games. The visuals are not stunning for a brand new console, the textures seem very outdated and this affects the overall effect. Because there is a lot of empty space, the views of the world just dosn't have that wow factor. There is also alot of pop ins which can be distracting. Don't get me wrong it still has some of the charm you come to expect but comparing to HDZ this dosn't have the same appeal. Once i spend more time i may review my score, but at present it is only slightly above average.… Expand

kohto

Mar 3, 2017

7

The stellar reviews really do not accurately portray the game. While it is a good game at its core, it is missing a lot that previous Zelda games had, most notably a memorable soundtrack. Gone are the tunes that we'll forever remember from OOT and Majora's Mask, they have been replaced with completely forgettable ambiance. The game is also incredibly open ended with no sense of objectiveThe stellar reviews really do not accurately portray the game. While it is a good game at its core, it is missing a lot that previous Zelda games had, most notably a memorable soundtrack. Gone are the tunes that we'll forever remember from OOT and Majora's Mask, they have been replaced with completely forgettable ambiance. The game is also incredibly open ended with no sense of objective or urgency. Whether you do anything or nothing at all, the game's world seems indifferent to your presence. While this is on par with most open world games, it seems out of place in a Zelda game.

I would liken this to Skyrim with a Zelda skin, rather than an actual Zelda game.… Expand

Attila_The_Fun

Mar 16, 2017

7

Okay, so I beat the game to give it a final review and I must say I was reallllly disappointed. I'll just make my list now.
Cons:
No enemy variety. Maybe 8 total enemies in the game reskinned several times. Shrines are boring and take about 5 minutes or less to complete. 4 dungeons in the game if you can even call them dungeons that is. These dungeons are just huge empty spaces withOkay, so I beat the game to give it a final review and I must say I was reallllly disappointed. I'll just make my list now.
Cons:
No enemy variety. Maybe 8 total enemies in the game reskinned several times.
Shrines are boring and take about 5 minutes or less to complete.
4 dungeons in the game if you can even call them dungeons that is. These dungeons are just huge empty spaces with one 20-minute puzzle and a boss.
Calamity Gannon shot at me one time and stood there the rest of the fight.
This is somewhat of a nitpick, but the music is really bad. If you have such an epic open world area the music should not have been soft piano. Ocarina of Time of time felt like an adventure with the music.
The framerate is also very bad on the Switch. It was advertised to run at a "smooth 30 fps" and it doesn't if too many enemies are in one area and especially around the Great Deku Tree.
The rain mechanic is very annoying. You can't just start a fire and wait either because that puts out your fire. So, then you need to go back to a town or a covered area and make your climb all over again.
Chests are kind of pointless. They all hold some crappy weapon that breaks in a couple hits.

Pros
You can do a lot of silly stuff, but that's about it.
The visuals look nice when they don't lag.

That's about it.… Expand

Pain118

Mar 3, 2017

7

Buenisimo, pero no merece un 10, en aspecto como graficos, se nota que el aspecto artistico e bueno pero eso no es excusa para ponerle 10 teniendo un sistema de antialiasing de x4 y que va a 30 fps y con tirones a 1080p, pero por lo demas, un gran juego, pero no es razon para comprar la switch, lo mejor es esperar y ver que contenido habra, psdata:#HAILGDLG :V , y recordar no hablar malBuenisimo, pero no merece un 10, en aspecto como graficos, se nota que el aspecto artistico e bueno pero eso no es excusa para ponerle 10 teniendo un sistema de antialiasing de x4 y que va a 30 fps y con tirones a 1080p, pero por lo demas, un gran juego, pero no es razon para comprar la switch, lo mejor es esperar y ver que contenido habra, psdata:#HAILGDLG :V , y recordar no hablar mal del juego porque sino te vienen muchos nintendero ratas a decir a insultar :V , psdta: nintendero pls, no sean ratas . ;v… Expand

AAAaaades

Mar 4, 2017

7

Le tengo que dar 7 ya que nunca he jugado un zelda, nunca me ha llamado la atención pero bueno...
He visto un directo de casi 11 horas y por lo que he visto:
Graficos Bonitos: Me explico, no son los mejores, pero tampoco son malos, son coloridos, molan, gustan verlos. Modo de juego diferente: Yo normalmente a los juegos que he jugado las armas no se rompen a la velocidad de la luz, queLe tengo que dar 7 ya que nunca he jugado un zelda, nunca me ha llamado la atención pero bueno...
He visto un directo de casi 11 horas y por lo que he visto:
Graficos Bonitos: Me explico, no son los mejores, pero tampoco son malos, son coloridos, molan, gustan verlos.
Modo de juego diferente: Yo normalmente a los juegos que he jugado las armas no se rompen a la velocidad de la luz, que bueno, eso le da algo más de tener que hacer tus tácticas, preparte las peleas y resguardar el uso de las armas que tienes.
FrameRate mejorable: Durante ese directo muchas veces habían bajones de Fps hasta el punto que en el directo se pillaba la imagen, no eran consecutivos, por lo que en lo que te olvidabas no aparecen, pero si eso se pudiese mejorar sería genial para todo el que tenga una Switch y el Zelda.
Modo Historia rápido: Según me he enterado, hay gene que se ha pasado el juego en tan solo 35 minutos, lo cual dice mucho lo poco que se habrán currado la historia principal, pero eso no quita que el mundo abierto haga de puente entre lo malo y lo bueno, ya que según he visto es enorme, y eso puede dar muchas horas de juego.
Esta ha sido mi valoración de un usuario que ni ha jugado un Zelda nunca y lo jugará, y si lo juego, será para ver si se merece este 7 o no.… Expand

Pirante

Sep 16, 2018

7

These are the positives and negatives, as much as I am able to sum up.

Positives: - Gorgeous visuals. - Gorgeous, vast open world. - A wonderful music score. - Good link-up with the lore of the franchise. - Exploration is, by and large, fun. - Secrets are still plentiful and a joy to find, it really helps push the drive to explore. - A challenging level ofThese are the positives and negatives, as much as I am able to sum up.

Positives:

- Gorgeous visuals.

- Gorgeous, vast open world.

- A wonderful music score.

- Good link-up with the lore of the franchise.

- Exploration is, by and large, fun.

- Secrets are still plentiful and a joy to find, it really helps push the drive to explore.

- A challenging level of difficulty which makes this a game in which you need to focus on, hack and slash will not serve you well (as it does in many previous Zelda titles).

- SOME really fun puzzles (others not so much).

- A lot to do, sinking 100+ hours into this game is easy to do.

- I like the story, it fits the game and makes sense to me.

- Variety of locations and environments is excellent, you really do have a sense of exploring a real world.

Negatives:

- Lack of intuitive controls. Combat in particularly feels clunky and inaccurate.

- Baptism of fire. The game tells you how to do very little at the beginning. This resulted in me wandering about for hours getting one-hit killed by enemies and not understanding why. [Pro-tip: Upgrade your armour as soon as possible, enemy avoidance will be a key strategy early on]

- The weather. The idea of changeable weather is good. The idea that wet weather makes climbing more difficult is plausible. The idea that rain can stop you climbing an average sized tree - you who have literally scaled mountains - is absurd. It can also cause you to waste time waiting for weather to pass, this is annoying.

- Breakable weapons. Not being able to keep pretty much all of your weapons makes you hoard good weapons, I think this detracts from the game play. Having to collect Korok seeds to increase inventory space is also very tedious.

- Puzzles. There are some unbelievably tedious puzzles in this game and, with the sheer number of shrines, these really grate. The puzzles using the gyroscope are a nightmare to use as the controls are so absurdly awful. How this passed the play-testing phase without being removed is a mystery to me.

- Tedium. I think there are too many moments in this game whereby the action you are required to do is more tedious than fun. Cooking, whilst a good idea in principle, loses its charm after the 100th cut scene and subsequent musical ditty. Some of the items required to upgrade armour are a chore to find and frustrate rather than entertain. The game suffers from too many of these moments.

- Cut-scenes (or lack of them). They do exist in the game, but much of the dialogue takes place via scrolling text. They were doing this with the very first Zelda games. They should really have better developed and more extensive cut-scenes in 2018, scrolling text as the predominate means of conveying the story is pretty poor in my view.

- Complete lack of tuition. The idea of a free world to explore is great, but some hints/teaching mechanisms to help players adapt and understand the game would be a big help. This is the first Zelda title where I have had to use guides in order to figure out how to progress.

Conclusion:

I really like the game but I cannot fathom the perfect and near perfect scores. This is a game that does lots of things well but that has some pretty big issues as well. The beauty of the game should not be able to conceal the fact that there are flaws that can be improved upon. Is this a good game? Absolutely. Does this game have flaws? Certainly. It is/was it the game of 2017? I don't think so. Is it the best Zelda game? Unequivocally no for me. The biggest plus for this game? The world itself, it is truly exceptional and a huge amount of fun exploring. The biggest negative? The tedium/wasted time in some of the game play - these are a real negative. Feeling like you're having your time wasted due to a games mechanics seriously impacts on your ability to enjoy the game and I found myself putting it down, on more than one occasion, when presented with such tedium.… Expand

Firenation78

Mar 4, 2017

7

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Un juego bastante divertido si te gusta explorar un mundo abierto gigantesco y bellísimo pero tristemente pierde la esencia de lo que es legend of zelda. El juego abandona la mecánica de templos que a distinguido a la saga todos estos años y los replaza por los shirines que son mini mazmorras repetitivas y monótonas, las armas se destruyen muy rápido incluso la espada maestra se agota lo que como fan de la saga me parece un falta de respeto hacia la misma, y por último la música es muy mediocre comparado con lo que nos tiene acostumbrado un juego de Zelda. En resumen un juego divertido pero como fan de Zelda me decepcionó bastante.… Expand

xTZ

Mar 5, 2017

7

It is a very nice game but the score people give is about 60% only because it is zelda and they loved the old games this is not something new it is a good mix of other games nothing more and nothing less.

fabiomartinazz

Mar 6, 2017

7

Ok so, how should I begin?

First off, completely forget "extremes" scores. If the game would be a 10, it would not have so much negative reviews. The opposite is obviously true. You check that the review score of the "professionals" are a way different from the user scores. So, it's the main evidence of payed reviews. It's a modern way of marketing, so we must accept and deal withOk so, how should I begin?

First off, completely forget "extremes" scores. If the game would be a 10, it would not have so much negative reviews. The opposite is obviously true.

You check that the review score of the "professionals" are a way different from the user scores. So, it's the main evidence of payed reviews. It's a modern way of marketing, so we must accept and deal with it.

Now, introductions done, let's off to the point:

Zelda always had some characteristcs that went down in inheritance from the first game to the last (until now). These characteristics made fans and built up the game as we known it.

BotW broke up the main characteristics of the serie in many ways. It was a very risky and ambitious move from Nintendo (not really surprised of that move from them, by the way).

Now the game looks like much more as a survival game then the classic adventure/RPG.

That's not that bad, when you're reaching a public that like this genre of game (survival/RPG). But not all the Zelda fans could like the same concept now adopted.

That's being said, I will try to impersonate more a player and less a critic to say: I like survival like games. But, that's not the only stone on the road.

Since the game tried to secure some of his characteristics, and to not made a completely genre change, it's not a survival game in all the main concepts. For example, the game lacks the weapon/armor crafts elements (still, you can upgrade your armor, but not as a basic craft system, but as a trade). Also, the main character does not have some basic needs, like hungry or sleep. Even with the game trying to counter-balance the needs of food, with battles that almost ensure you to eat something after (or during) them. But it's a immersion breaking anyway, one of the main characteristics of a survival like genre.

One simple solution adopted by various actual developers to deal with the genres problem is the adoption of mods. The game can be completely modified so to better suits the playstyle of different kind of players. I do have a small hope for this, even it's being highly improbably to happen, since Big N delivered Mario Maker, as it's a kind of similar concept.

Another problem of the game is when the marketing sold us the idea of a Skyrim like one. When we compare a modern game with a game not that new (even being an excelent game, still for nowadays) we expect a game that would be better in almost every concept. But BotW is not better then Skyrim. So, the comparison, used by the market, was a complete bad idea.

Things that Skyrim is more than better than BotW:

1) You have a highly density map in Skyrim.
2) The dungeons are really dungeons. Not small puzzles like in BotW. And there are many. So many!
3) You have a huge variety of enemys. And not the same, with different colors by almost all the times, like in BotW.
4) Complete and rewarding questing system.
5) Access to lots of mods.
6) Character customization.
7) Lots of side quests and not only one or another like in BotW.
8) Side stories in some terms so well developed like the main story.
9) Decisions does matter. You can choose to be a good or bad guy.

Probably there should be much other points to enlist here. But I think that those are already enough to have an idea that these changes on Zelda genre/theme wasnt complete.

Also, another thing to enlist. The concept of battle system. The weapons break very, very, very faster. Even being part of the strategy, it's another immersion breaking for the game (a concept, already told, crucial for a survival game).

I think that this enlist well the bad points of the game. I'll try to not enlist in this critic the good ones, since they're already well broadcasted.

I hope for some upgrades to better suits the Zelda game for both the Zelda classic fans, as for the new genre.… Expand

DanielloJG

Mar 6, 2017

7

Good game but graphically is of the previous generation.
Much smoke but the notes is for being NINTENDO and for the Hype.
And it does not mean a novelty in any section or anything original in anything

GhettoBoxMan

Mar 8, 2017

7

This game does not deserve a 10/10. People who give Zelda BOTW that score are being completely bias because they are a "Fan Boy" and by giving the game a 10/10 they are staying that nothing is wrong or should be changed in the game, which is ****

This is the first Zelda game I have ever played and the only reason I played it is because there were no other good launch titles for theThis game does not deserve a 10/10. People who give Zelda BOTW that score are being completely bias because they are a "Fan Boy" and by giving the game a 10/10 they are staying that nothing is wrong or should be changed in the game, which is ****

This is the first Zelda game I have ever played and the only reason I played it is because there were no other good launch titles for the Switch. Many people say this is the best Zelda game in the series but of course as this is my first Zelda game I can not confirm that. I am pleased with the game and have a sorta "Addictive" feeling to keep playing it, but I also have many issues with the game.

Yes, the game looks amazing and it is kinda fun to play but that doesn't mean its a perfect game.

What I mostly don't like about the game is the Lack of purchasing weapons. This is an open world game where weapons, shields, and bows have a breaking point. It is very hard to get through harder portions of the big map because you have to find weapons and you can't just go to a village store and purchase some like almost every other RPG game has, Instead you have to find chest hidden throughout the map with items in it. With weapon degeneration this makes it especially hard to fight bigger enemies since you have very limited item space for weapons and once your weapon is broken you lose it forever and can't go purchase a replacement.

The music in this game is ABSOLUTELY annoying and repetitive in the Villages or Stables, all you hear is "DO DO DO DOOOOO" on a repeat and it pisses me off to the point where i just have to turn my volume off.

On that point I would like to complain on the lack of settings the game has. There is no Audio control for the sounds and music in the game like every other modern game has, there is no button remapping, and overall the settings are just so basic that it makes me wonder who the **** made this game. I feel like a mental retard must of made the setting tab because it seems like they forgot most things that belong in a settings menu.

Now lets get to the gameplay, the fighting mechanics can surly 100% be improved upon. This is a up close and personal combat game that does't have proper DODGING OR ROLLING! Like WTF basic movements are not even in the game. There's really no combos ether (or at least the game hasn't told me how to do them).

Most of the time when doing missions the game doesn't even tell you in detail where to go or what to do, the game gives you a brief "Clue" on what to do and expects you to know exactly what to do. Most of the time I'm left looking up the game guide to know.

The shrines in the game are repetitive, its the same room just a different puzzle and they get harder depending on where you are on the map.

The map is big but it is also very empty, where is all the big villages? All you get to go to are small villages that have more people than they do houses.

Where is the in game voices? You get little voice acting in the game. You can go from a character talking in a cutscence to being quite back in the game. They shouldn't of put voices in some parts of the game but then leave the rest quite. Surly the Zelda creators have enough money to have everyone in the game speak, but I guess they were to lazy to do that.

There is also a lack in dialog you can say and the outcome you will have, you get no sense of choice in the game.

There is a lack of places to explore to, all you really explore in the game is the wilderness that's it. No caves, no abandon places, no random structures, nothing other than the shrines.

There is no recipe book ether for cooking, most of the time you have t go off memory on how to cook certain stuff. I don't get why they couldn't add a basic book or recipe tab in the inventory menu.

There are many more things in that this game has wrong/lack with it that I can't get into because of the 5k character limit but what I can say is that this is just an average game in its series. It may be the best since is is now open world but it does not deserve a 10/10.

This game is a very basic Open World RPG. In fact if you took away the Zelda name it would really just be an "Okay" game. You add Zelda to the title and everyone instantly gives it a 10/10 because they are fan boys who find nothing wrong with it.… Expand

Billydju

Mar 8, 2017

7

As an old zelda fans, this game is quite nice

But man, ignoring the fact that Nintendo switch works really bad with this game isn't going to make your reviews valid.tbh the game got a bunch of potential, i don't even mind they decrease the graphic so the game can be playable.

Oizoz

Mar 9, 2017

7

Honestly, i have no idea of where all this hype comes from and i think the critics are paid to give it high rating. After this i'm not gonna trust any site that gives this game 10/10.

I thought this game was gonna be something to redefine gaming after reading so many positive reviews, but boy was i wrong. After spending 20 hours+ playing it, i still do not understand the reviewsHonestly, i have no idea of where all this hype comes from and i think the critics are paid to give it high rating. After this i'm not gonna trust any site that gives this game 10/10.

I thought this game was gonna be something to redefine gaming after reading so many positive reviews, but boy was i wrong.

After spending 20 hours+ playing it, i still do not understand the reviews being overwhelmingly positive. Sure it gets great many things right like the wast open world that is free to be explored but so does many other games.

Probably the stupidest thing ever, is the weapons breaking after hitting something like 2 times. Great, you spent few hours finding insane weapon and decided to kill 2 birds with it and it's now totaled.

Voice acting is also pretty average and don't get me even started on the fps issues. I must have had like 10 or less fps in lost woods and many other areas.

It's pretty difficult game so that is a + and i also got somewhat addicted to it so that is why my score is relatively high, but it does not deserve 10 that is for sure.

I only made this account to warn people to not go into the hype as i did. Maybe if you have played Zelda before you will find this game enjoyable but i haven't and so i'm rating it not due it being zelda but being just a game.… Expand

MakkaTheSlayer

Mar 10, 2017

7

Game is quite good.. However, I find it quite tedious and generally boring a week after launch, I love how they have some voice acting, it's a great addition. Love the freedom of the game, but still don't find it enjoyable. This is my first Zelda game, the first 30 hours were magnificent. I loved finding random bosses and shrines. But i found this euphoric feeling while playing dissipateGame is quite good.. However, I find it quite tedious and generally boring a week after launch, I love how they have some voice acting, it's a great addition. Love the freedom of the game, but still don't find it enjoyable. This is my first Zelda game, the first 30 hours were magnificent. I loved finding random bosses and shrines. But i found this euphoric feeling while playing dissipate rapidly after a week.
Recommend it to Zelda fans as you will probably enjoy it, but as a massive Skyrim fan I feel as if this doesn't completely do it for me.

TL:DR
Love the art style.
Voice acting is great
Feels a bit basic
FPS drops
Tedious… Expand

HeartThrobinson

Mar 12, 2017

7

Good: This game explores open world in a brand new way that hopefully other triple A games pick up on. The way Link moves around and explores the map from climbing to custom map markers makes this world more open than any open world before it. The map is bigger than Skyrim and smaller than the Witcher 3, but it is the only one where 100% of the maps surface is explore-able, thanks to theGood: This game explores open world in a brand new way that hopefully other triple A games pick up on. The way Link moves around and explores the map from climbing to custom map markers makes this world more open than any open world before it. The map is bigger than Skyrim and smaller than the Witcher 3, but it is the only one where 100% of the maps surface is explore-able, thanks to the mechanics of exploration.

Te combat is interesting and makes you think more than past Zelda titles. You can't just charge into a battle with even smaller enemies and expect to live. The world is full of things to do, and the biggest problem with completing objectives is how easy it is to get distracted on your way. The funny but sensible cartoon physics make the game more interesting.

The NPCs are all super interesting, and dialogue with them is snarky and funny. They also act like a regular village or explorers and make the world feel alive.

Bad: Despite how excellent an open world game this is, it did make mistakes.
The destructible weapons mechanic is one you can get used to. But that is the best I can say for it. It doesn't really add much to the game. It gets you to try more types of weapons, but there are only about 5 types and worrying about breaking your good ones actually locks you into using your worst and least enjoyable weapon most of the time. They could have included the varying weapon system and allowed people to keep the best weapons they got and achieved the same effect.

The cooking mechanic is kind of fun for the first couple meals you cook, but then it gets tedious. They should have used it exclusively for stat buffing, and left in game health recovery and buy-able health potions, so only those who wanted to cook a lot had to, and no one had to spend twenty minutes preparing their health recovery items.

Zelda does dungeons better than any other series out there. There are plenty of great dungeon crawlers, but none of them have the unique, beautiful, puzzling, and epic dungeons the Zelda series is famous for. This game does away with that.

There are few dungeons, and they are all short and have a bland, brown aesthetic. They combined could have made a single dungeon in another Zelda game, and not a very interesting one.

They used shrines, mini-dungeons, to address this. The problem is the shrines also have a consistently boring aesthetic, and aren't that interesting either. I completed every single shrine in game, and maybe 10 of them had interesting puzzles. The rest of the shrine puzzles were pretty obvious, and more designed to show of the game mechanics than to puzzle you. On top of that a huge chunk of them was just a repeat of the same three kind of boring fights with the same slightly varied enemy. An enemy that could have easily just been an over world enemy.

The side quests are almost all just fetch quests. There are a few really interesting and fun ones, but overall they are kind of boring, and most of the interesting ones are just a shrine in disguise.

Shrines end up making up for what the game is lacking in both dungeons and side quests, and while they are cool on their own, they are not enough to make up for either of those things. They at best can replace the over world puzzles that led to getting heart pieces before, they serve the same purpose and have the same length and difficulty. So they took three of the best parts of the series and tried to bundle them into one inadequate mechanic. If the shrines were put together you would have enough content for just under two dungeons in this game, including all of the actual dungeons.

Concerning other reviews: Yes, this is getting extra high scores because people are on a New Zelda high, and that will die down eventually. However anyone who has tried the game obviously knows it isn't a zero either. These people are just petty and for some reason offended that a game which isn't their favorite got good reviews.Ignore those morons, and don't believe people who overpraise it either. In a few months they will stop being so hyped up they can more accurately assess this game.

Its great, but could have been much better. This game does the worst thing you could to a lifetime Zelda fan. It gives you the craving to play Zelda, but it doesn't satisfy or meet that craving. This is mostly because of the lack of interesting dungeons and in depth side quests.

I give it a 6.5 out of 10.… Expand

Terry98

Mar 12, 2017

7

Not as great as everyone is claiming.
Yeah, the game is pretty, but honestly it doesn't hold up for the entire game, the game gets very boring when you are 5h in.
The story is very predictble and the gameplay is patheticaly boring.
I won't recommend it.

wpatri04

Mar 12, 2017

7

The Bad:
The breakable weapon system is flawed because it does NOT redeem itself later by allowing the player to find an ultimate, unbreakable, reliable weapon to give closure to the system. It forces you to deal with its breakable weapons the entire game, INCLUDING the Hylian Shield, and having to recharge the Master Sword. The player NEVER gets the feeling of satisfaction and securityThe Bad:
The breakable weapon system is flawed because it does NOT redeem itself later by allowing the player to find an ultimate, unbreakable, reliable weapon to give closure to the system. It forces you to deal with its breakable weapons the entire game, INCLUDING the Hylian Shield, and having to recharge the Master Sword. The player NEVER gets the feeling of satisfaction and security and completion knowing he has finally worked his way up and acquired the final unbreakable weapons. There ARE NO unconditionally unbreakable weapons. This is DEEPLY disappointing, and an absolute deal breaker! Even at his most "leveled up" in the game, no matter how much time you spend building up Link, he will ALWAYS be forced to walk around Hyrule, as the Hero of Time, with BREAKABLE weapons. Again, this would be fine if it redeemed itself later on, but it doesn't. It's an open-ended, ongoing weapon breaking system. No unconditionally powerful Master Sword or Shield. It's a disastrous decision for the series.
Overworld music: THERE IS NONE. Did you love the sweeping Hyrule music in Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess? Did you love the atmospheric overworld music in Majora's Mask? Did you love the liberating sailing music of Wind Waker? Well, it's GONE. NO OVERWORLD MUSIC. And things get boring really fast. The only sounds you get are some random flourishes or taps of piano keys, some quick stringed instrument sounds, and everything else is nature sounds. This is virtually a universal complaint at this point, and a very bad decision by the developers. Music gives the world it's character. Breath of the Wild has to rely SOLELY on the beauty of its landscapes, because there is no overworld music which would have COMPLETED the experience of travel and exploration. Instead, it leaves much to be desired, unfulfilling, and at times boring.
On to the good:
The scenery is breathtaking, the glider is a magical experience, horseback travel is the best of any game to date, and the actual combat gameplay is very challenging, engaging, and much more intellectual and skilled than any Zelda game before it. Skyward Sword tried to become more realistic with its motion controls, but didn't quite live up to the hype that Nintendo tried to make for it. Breath of the Wild's engaging combat is much more natural, much more realistic. The bosses and common enemies are more mature in their design (much less kiddy than Windwaker and Skyward Sword.)
All in All, this is a good game, but a letdown for a Zelda game. It is an open-world (open air) game more than anything else. It does the open world aspects right, with the exception of not including music. The voice acting is mediocre (more British voice acting {For Zelda}), and the story is pretty average. If you are a longtime Zelda player, this will likely disappoint. If you are looking for a change of pace for the series (and i mean a COMPLETE CHANGE), while not doing everything better, then this will be a good choice.
--- I gave this review score based on what I literally think it should be scored. I was not trying to engage in a battle of averages. I truly believe my score is just.---… Expand

Hiljim

Mar 13, 2017

7

Its MEDIOCRE. almost if not all reviews are from fanboys and hardcore fans. I mean i understand its a huge thing compared to past games, but a perfect game? Far from it. These people need to stop with their biased reviews.

Lorenzo92_

Mar 13, 2017

7

I'm a great fan of Zelda series;
I have completed most of Zelda's games from "A link to the past" to "The wind waker".
I have bought Zelda and the Nintendo Switch to revive my old passion for this beautiful series, but it has really disappointed my expectations. After entering more and more on the real gameplay of Breath of the Wild, i feeling annoying and unsatisfied. After i haveI'm a great fan of Zelda series;
I have completed most of Zelda's games from "A link to the past" to "The wind waker".
I have bought Zelda and the Nintendo Switch to revive my old passion for this beautiful series, but it has really disappointed my expectations. After entering more and more on the real gameplay of Breath of the Wild, i feeling annoying and unsatisfied.
After i have discovered first villages and played "dungeons", i feel playing another game.
Zelda of the past years contains long and difficult dungeons, in those Zelda they are only mini games and four - five dungeon.
Let's talk of the World Map: what the meaning of having a really extensive world map but with only few contents?
This is not the game that i expect;
This is a Zelda too different from other games.… Expand

yugonaraku

Mar 13, 2017

7

el juego es bueno, pero sinceramente llega un punto en donde no sale de lo mismo, le faltó mas diversidad, el tipo de control es regular, tiende a causar ciertas molestias con tan solo de haberlo jugado 3 horas. los gráficos son excelentes, el juego en si no es muy largo, es menos de lo que podría ser ocarina del tiempo.

nintenbr0

Mar 13, 2017

7

Worthy addition to the Zelda franchise! Has the freshness and brilliance of pulling ideas and gameplay from OTHER open-world games that you love and expertly fuses them with the nostalgic elements, settings, and quirky characters from the Zelda games that you love as well. Absolutely love this game!

But I can't deny that it doesn't really do anything monumentally different, as most ofWorthy addition to the Zelda franchise! Has the freshness and brilliance of pulling ideas and gameplay from OTHER open-world games that you love and expertly fuses them with the nostalgic elements, settings, and quirky characters from the Zelda games that you love as well. Absolutely love this game!

But I can't deny that it doesn't really do anything monumentally different, as most of the game mechanics and "ideas" are just watered down versions that you've seen done in other games. That's not to say this game doesn't do it just as well, if not better. But I can't praise a game for simply taking elements from other games and jamming them into a Zelda game and calling it innovation. Love the game, and having a blast playing it, but don't go in expecting a "true" Zelda game, 'cuz it ain't. It's Skyrim with rupees and no outstanding musical scores to even mention. Ouch.… Expand

GalacticWorld

Mar 13, 2017

7

Okay, all reviews here are either 10/10 or 0/10 so This game needs a FAIR review. The game is amazing, but not without its fault. Its graphics are good, it's mechanics and game design are pretty decent. It's a nice open world game, but it isn't perfect. I would prefer OoT or maybe even the original, although I did like WindWaker. I think the game is fun, but I think it needs a tad bit ofOkay, all reviews here are either 10/10 or 0/10 so This game needs a FAIR review. The game is amazing, but not without its fault. Its graphics are good, it's mechanics and game design are pretty decent. It's a nice open world game, but it isn't perfect. I would prefer OoT or maybe even the original, although I did like WindWaker. I think the game is fun, but I think it needs a tad bit of more tutorial. The fighting mechanics are nice, but not the best again. The story might need a slight bit more work, but I will wait for the expansions. The soundtrack is also another plus. In my opinion, the main points holding it back for me is the lack of a tutorial and the fighting mechanics. The world is massive, and if you are a die-hard fan, go get it. If you're a casual Zelda player, go get it. If you've never played, it's a nice entry to the series. If you don't like open world or adventure, I would not recommend. I think the story is nice, but once again, slightly lacking.… Expand

Xeliassame

Mar 14, 2017

7

It's an okay game. The world is cool, there's lots of stuff to do, but sadly there's too many things interrupting you from playing the game (limited stamina, weapon made of glass, constantly having to faf through the menus.) And while the puzzle are fun, they feel extremely out of touch with the rest of the universe, confined in very one-tone mini dungeons, while the rest of the game seemsIt's an okay game. The world is cool, there's lots of stuff to do, but sadly there's too many things interrupting you from playing the game (limited stamina, weapon made of glass, constantly having to faf through the menus.) And while the puzzle are fun, they feel extremely out of touch with the rest of the universe, confined in very one-tone mini dungeons, while the rest of the game seems to ignore the fact that this is a zelda game.… Expand

Tenks

Mar 14, 2017

7

Legend of Zelda BoTW what is there to say about this game that hasn't already been said. Its a huge open world adventure game that puts you in the shoes of the hero of hyrule yet again.

Pros: Open world Lots to explore with the shrines and side quest Voice acting Hours and hours of content. Cons: This may be me but if feels as if it spikes in difficulty to fast Weapon durabilityLegend of Zelda BoTW what is there to say about this game that hasn't already been said. Its a huge open world adventure game that puts you in the shoes of the hero of hyrule yet again.

Pros: Open world
Lots to explore with the shrines and side quest
Voice acting
Hours and hours of content.

Cons: This may be me but if feels as if it spikes in difficulty to fast
Weapon durability is way to small this is a big sticking point for me
Finally Dungeons there are only a hand full and they are short I guess you
could say that it was balanced out with the shrines but they could of used a
little more for the big dungeons.

Thoughts: Should you play this game? Yes I recomend this game whole heartedly. It is a good game just has a few design choices that make it feel more like scavenging game than an adventure game.… Expand

Toast1124

Mar 14, 2017

7

Its just ok. Simple. Don't listen to the Nintendo fanboys; this is NOT a perfect game. Let me explain:
Cons:
- The story is good, but I haven't found myself really into it. There isn't any real urgency to it. Just do what you want and oh yeah maybe save this princess. - Weapon durability system is actually awful. I'm not saying the mechanic is bad, but this game does it awful. NothingIts just ok. Simple. Don't listen to the Nintendo fanboys; this is NOT a perfect game. Let me explain:
Cons:
- The story is good, but I haven't found myself really into it. There isn't any real urgency to it. Just do what you want and oh yeah maybe save this princess.
- Weapon durability system is actually awful. I'm not saying the mechanic is bad, but this game does it awful. Nothing ruins a game more than giving you something cool only to take it away a few seconds later (And i'm serious, weapons break in just a few swings in this game. Nothing like Dark souls).
- Combat is just meh. Everyone claims that the durability system is to encourage you to try different weapon types, yet the combat is just so bland. Sure, maybe this is great for casual players, but this game doesn't feel like it was made for new gamers.
- The side quest are very generic rpg quests. Nothing like The Witcher 3 's quests which would draw you down a rabbit hole of action, adventure, and feels.
- No crafting?? Only crafting is cooking food that give you boosts. Thats it.
Pros:
- The game world is beautiful. There are things to do everywhere it seems. Only gripe is that the switch cant handle it, but that's not the games fault i guess.
- The puzzles are all really creative and take full advantage of the rune mechanic.
- The world is really open. Go anywhere, do anything. There are a few ways the game limits you from just running to the final boss of course.
- The physics in this game is great. Light a bush on fire, let it burn the whole field, and ride away on the updraft. You can be really creative in this game because of its great physics engine.

In conclusion, its just another open world rpg game. The fact that Link is in it doesn't make it any different. If you like Zelda games, grab it. If you want a open world rpg with, maybe get Witcher 3 or Dark souls 3.… Expand

BouncingBest

Mar 14, 2017

7

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Before you lose your minds, understand this is a good game and it's worth a purchase if you enjoy Zelda and I love Zelda, it's my favorite series.

With that said - Breath of the Wild tries very hard to be a modern open world Dark Soulsy meets Skyrim kinda game but the mechanics cause it to fall on it's face. One hit kills are a thing. Lock on isn't as easy to use as before. Weapons are as durable as icicles on a hot summer's day (unless in the enemies hands, they never break then) until you have grinded hours and can get better ones and the promise of "do anything you want, BotW says YES" comes with the fine print of "as long as you have the right gear/food/hearts/stamina/amiibos/etc". The Pay To Win amiibo aspect is also predictable but disappointing. Be warned that things like getting Epona via Amiibo comes with the fine print of "if you turn off your game or don't stable her, it never works again". Also be warned the strategy guide seems to purposely be missing things like amiibo functionality which is unforgivable and should be there to prevent things such as having to restart due to losing Epona.

So with that out of the way, let's talk about the positives. This game is beautiful. The world is beautiful. Finally being able to scale mountains is amazing and the fact that you can take your time and do numerous side quests or just explore instead of being stuck in the main story is a huge improvement. Cooking your own elixirs and food can give you a near limitless supply of health, stamina, and other items so you don't need to worry about purchasing them or having the luck to find them. There are so many great things that were added to this game that it's a shame the bad mechanics and flaws bog them down. This could have easily been a truly incredible experience, not a 10 because few games are that perfect, but at least a 9.

If you love Zelda, buy this. Don't be afraid of the Wii U version if you can't get a Switch, there isn't a huge amount of difference. If you're not into Zelda, then this is probably a skip. Other games did open world better and those will be more to your liking but if you feel little tingles of excitement every time you get a new chance to adventure with Link like me, you want this - flaws and all - just because it's Zelda.… Expand

licorice

Mar 15, 2017

7

Breath of the Wild is a very fun game, and it has voice acting which is generally pretty good but can be dodgy at times. However it loses major points with its weapon durability system that proves to be nothing more than an enormous headache. Aiming is a bit of a pain in the ass as well and arrows never seem to go as far as you'd expect.

It's a good game and it looks like a lot of fun,Breath of the Wild is a very fun game, and it has voice acting which is generally pretty good but can be dodgy at times. However it loses major points with its weapon durability system that proves to be nothing more than an enormous headache. Aiming is a bit of a pain in the ass as well and arrows never seem to go as far as you'd expect.

It's a good game and it looks like a lot of fun, but the intense frustration of the poorly designed weapon durability system is no end of frustration.… Expand

DeViLzzz

Mar 15, 2017

7

Here is why Zelda Breath of the Wild is not a 10/10 game -

1. Frame rate (FPS) .... abysmal at times dipping below 30 which is totally unacceptable for this sort of game. 2. Copy and pasted towers all over the place that you need to go to. I couldn't believe Nintendo couldn't do better than that. 3. A bad camera where you have no options to change things. 4. Enemy AI at times isHere is why Zelda Breath of the Wild is not a 10/10 game -

1. Frame rate (FPS) .... abysmal at times dipping below 30 which is totally unacceptable for this sort of game.
2. Copy and pasted towers all over the place that you need to go to. I couldn't believe Nintendo couldn't do better than that.
3. A bad camera where you have no options to change things.
4. Enemy AI at times is pathetic. Enemies staying up in towers when it is clear they are getting nowhere firing at your with arrows from there and also even when they see their foes dying they don't come to their aid.
5. Stamina meter
6. Weapons breaking all the time for so little use. What in the hell was Nintendumb thinking?
7. The game on the Nintendo Switch barely looks better than the Wii U version as only a few simple lighting effects add more glare which is actually blinding at times so there may be players that don't even like the so called extra graphical feature.

ETC. ETC.… Expand

eaboo316

Mar 16, 2017

7

I have super, super mixed feelings about this game. To provide some context, I have grown up playing games from Japanese RPG series, and I only play JRPG's mostly because I know I'll enjoy them, and there's too many games in the world to try with too little time, so I limit my choices to games I know I'll love - games from the Legend of Zelda series being one of them. I am also prettyI have super, super mixed feelings about this game. To provide some context, I have grown up playing games from Japanese RPG series, and I only play JRPG's mostly because I know I'll enjoy them, and there's too many games in the world to try with too little time, so I limit my choices to games I know I'll love - games from the Legend of Zelda series being one of them. I am also pretty flexible with the games I like, the FF series has changed their gameplay style almost every game, and besides the online games, I've played and enjoyed all of them. So, I have played a mix of open-world and linear games, and tend to prefer something in the middle.

Before I delved into BOTW, I decided to play and beat Wind Waker HD to get myself reacquainted with the Zelda series before this game, because the last time I played a Zelda game was Skyward Sword in 2011, which I loved. And I loved Wind Waker as well. I knew this game would be a bit different with an open-world concept, though I have played similar open-world ish JRPGs before, so wasn't too worried. Though, almost 20 hours put into the game, I did not feel the same level of engagement that I immediately felt with Wind Waker just a couple of weeks before, and I decided to pause playing it.

The story is not as engaging as previous titles. While the previous games pulled me in right away, I felt like I was trying to hurriedly get through the first four shrines in the beginning of the game just so I could get to what was happening. And this is the main issue I have with this game. As someone who appreciates a good story and character development in a game, the benefit of exploring a vast, virtual world in order to do so, is not appealing. I also enjoy doing side quests in JRPG's, and try to do all of them. But the side quests in here hinder me from progressing to the main story, and reap rewards that aren't very helpful. I also tend to hoard items and weapons whenever I play, and the fact that weapons and shields have to be thrown away or broken at some time, really bothers me.

I love the graphics and the character design, the world is quite beautiful. I liked how the runes are incorporated and can be used pretty flexibly (though would lead me to mostly try to use bombs to kill enemies because I didn't want a sword to break or arrows to run out -_-). The method of taming horses is cool too. For me, the fun kinda stops there though. I play games to destress from the difficulties of the world, and just kick back and play through a good story, and on the contrary this game stresses me out. @_@ A virtual world can be too vast for some people, perhaps.

I think I will try to beat this game at some point, but the excitement that I usually feel for a Legend of Zelda game isn't there. I could just be becoming a dated gamer (hopefully not, in my mid 20s here), but I miss the intricate dungeons, the different tools (hookshot, boomerang, etc), and most especially the engaging story and lovable characters. I think this game is more appealing to those who play Western RPGs more, though I hope the next title in the Zelda series tries to attempt a more universal appeal and mixes both linear and open world storytelling (maybe something like Xenoblade). If not, I think I will keep to re-playing the older games, which is fine with me, and stick with new games from JRPG series that release games that creatively build on their previous games without needed to transform it completely.

I'm glad most people are happy with this game and perhaps are even getting introduced to the Zelda series for the first time (because it's an awesome series!! Go to the LoZ concerts!!). Though for me, this is just an okay game outfitted with the Zelda name (did not mean to make that rhyme, but it came out well). There is not much really besides the names of the characters and typical Zelda items (master sword, boomerang) that make the connection with the rest of the series, and if these characteristics are swapped out, no one would know this is part of a series, and that's really disappointing to me. For now, I'll put it down and use my destressing time to play the recently new entry of another JRPG series that I am enjoying, and get back to this one later.

Overall, if you are like me and like JRPG games that put a lot of emphasis on storytelling and character development and have fun gameplay, this may not be your cup of tea. Though if you love open world games and exploring virtual areas with little direction to go through the story your own way, and don't mind doing tasks in video games w/o incentives, then you will most likely enjoy this game.

Whichever type of gamer you are, how well you enjoy a game is ultimately up to you, and don't let others push you down for what your opinion is, whether you love this or any game or don't (my wise words after reading forum discussions that are virtual war zones w/ words).… Expand

newrandomage

Mar 17, 2017

7

This is the most overrated game of 2017 so far, and I doubt that any other game in this year is going to be so expected and cause such dissapointment. This is the biggest bet on open world games from Nintendo until this day and while it isn't poorly executed and implements some interesting ideas, the reality is that it is far from the masterpiece everyone is selling that it is. The worstThis is the most overrated game of 2017 so far, and I doubt that any other game in this year is going to be so expected and cause such dissapointment. This is the biggest bet on open world games from Nintendo until this day and while it isn't poorly executed and implements some interesting ideas, the reality is that it is far from the masterpiece everyone is selling that it is. The worst part of all that should kill it for most people is performance; if we would ignore that 720p 30FPS is unnacceptable on 2017 (or 900p with bad performance), the game has unnacceptable fps drops and a graphic style that while it is unique, it isn't impressive at all. I'll overlook the last part just a bit to give it a 7/10. Strong contender for "Most overrated game of 2017" without any doubt.… Expand

ScoobTheNoob

Mar 18, 2017

7

Whilst this is a good game, for myself I do not like the weapon system, nor do I like the cooking of food.

The game is immense though, however really there is little incentive to enter combat, it serves no real purpose outside of boss fight's, and story fights, other than to absorb time/arrows and destroy weapons. I think we have been spoiled with previous Zelda games, and sadlyWhilst this is a good game, for myself I do not like the weapon system, nor do I like the cooking of food.

The game is immense though, however really there is little incentive to enter combat, it serves no real purpose outside of boss fight's, and story fights, other than to absorb time/arrows and destroy weapons.

I think we have been spoiled with previous Zelda games, and sadly breath of the wild falls well bellow the very bar Nintendo set in previous iterations.… Expand

ShadowMan64

Mar 19, 2017

7

It's good but not groundbreaking. Few technical issues that needs to be ironed out.

All in all it's fun to to play but the dungeons are a letdown for me.

spacebubbles

Mar 19, 2017

7

this game is a risk and its payed of them but lets get this right weapons breaking after three hits and changing weapon in mid battle is annoying .with stupid mechanic system they got in place needs addressing .yes it not a ps4 or xbox one but as a open world ... they have stepped up and shown that u can create a organic world .trees climbing coldness heat stamina .now that to methis game is a risk and its payed of them but lets get this right weapons breaking after three hits and changing weapon in mid battle is annoying .with stupid mechanic system they got in place needs addressing .yes it not a ps4 or xbox one but as a open world ... they have stepped up and shown that u can create a organic world .trees climbing coldness heat stamina .now that to me suprised me i died in water in the game lol due to my stamina .but ive given it 7/10 due to the fact aswell some of the chests are pointless u use a good weapon or a chest is underwater near rock thing u got some kid of decent reward to findout its bloody arrows or something pathetic . but well done nintendo on a game thats is amust buy for the switch and wii u.… Expand

MetalRobot69

Jan 31, 2022

7

It is a good game, I can see the amount of effort that the developers put into this game.

The only thing I didn't like was the story. I've felt a lack of a good story, it is just too generic about saving a kingdom, also I despise mute protagonists. Maybe I didn't like the story because I didn't play the older Zelda games, but I still think that the story is generic anyways and IIt is a good game, I can see the amount of effort that the developers put into this game.

The only thing I didn't like was the story. I've felt a lack of a good story, it is just too generic about saving a kingdom, also I despise mute protagonists. Maybe I didn't like the story because I didn't play the older Zelda games, but I still think that the story is generic anyways and I appreciate a good depth story in the games I play.

The gameplay is the best part of the game, the combat is awesome. The base is a "Souls Style of Combat" but it has some peculiarities that make it even more interesting. The weapons you use always will break there is nothing you can do to stop them to break so you need to change the weapons and each weapon has a different type of attack and some have special moves like light beams, that really incentive the player to try out different weapons and I really liked. It is cool you don't need to upgrade your weapon to use it, so you can pick up any weapon from the ground and you are ready to use it immediately.

Another peculiarity is how intuitive is the combat, pretty much everything you think works out like you can make things fall over the enemies to kill them, you can throw them on the water, you can use stealth. It is really fun.

The puzzles and the exploration are good, nothing at Mario Odyssey puzzles level but it is still better than the average puzzles you see in the games industry.… Expand

DMJohn0X

Mar 23, 2017

7

The best Zelda game? Maybe. Personally, LttP will always be the quintessential Zelda experience. But we are talking about BotW.

This game is a great entry into the 3D open world genre and the physics system is quite fun, allowing you do float objects with baloons. On the surface, it doesnt seem very special, but later when you find yourself bombing grass for flames just to swap to yourThe best Zelda game? Maybe. Personally, LttP will always be the quintessential Zelda experience. But we are talking about BotW.

This game is a great entry into the 3D open world genre and the physics system is quite fun, allowing you do float objects with baloons. On the surface, it doesnt seem very special, but later when you find yourself bombing grass for flames just to swap to your parachute to use the wind currents generated by the flames to drop in on an unsuspecting encampment and you gain an appreciation for the nuances this system lends to your playstyle.

The story is good for a Zelda game, but don't expect an epic tale of any sort. The worst here is how lame Gannon feels in this game. He doesnt come across as particularly powerful and dont expect to learn much about his character or motives. He's simply the generic bad guy this time around and hardly memorable.

Now the bad.

The UI is awful, you cant reassign buttons, they arent intuitive, and early game weapons break often times every other screen making the first 6 hours of the game feel like an exercise in menu navigation management. The interface doesnt lend well to how many weapons drops given your limited inventory space. Due to the frequency by which your weapons break, the band aid fix was to throw a limitless supply of loot at you so often you'll find yourself spending far too much time browsing your inventory and dropping weapons to pick up new ones, until you get to the point where you wont pick stuff up anymore.

Another issue is the lack of music, much of the game is supported by ambient noise and what music is here, isnt anything compared to older games in the series.

Lastly, On NX Switch, the game suffers frequent frame drops and stuttering in docked 900p mode. This is mostly resolved in portable mode. And DigitalFoundry on youtube has done a great video on documenting this topic.

Ultimately, I can only give this game a 7.5 out of 10. This game was a GREAT Zelda game, but just missed the mark on several issues and ultimately takes a hit due to performance. I think many of these reviewers are doing a disservice rating botw 10/10 which should be reserved for Genre defining works of art rather than just a good game.… Expand

blakehaas

Mar 24, 2017

7

This game looks beautiful, has some good game mechanics but has a pretty boring story (didnt grow up playing zelda). Ontop of the boring story, it quickly gets lonely in this large world. The primary fun things are the ruins but after a while the puzzles get tiring and you dont have much left to do but to fight random enemies that are scattered around the land.
This feels like a lord ofThis game looks beautiful, has some good game mechanics but has a pretty boring story (didnt grow up playing zelda). Ontop of the boring story, it quickly gets lonely in this large world. The primary fun things are the ruins but after a while the puzzles get tiring and you dont have much left to do but to fight random enemies that are scattered around the land.
This feels like a lord of the rings game without the ring.. I just dont feel any compelling reason to beat the game. I feel like this was beyond hyped and really is only for zelda fans.

Overall i was disappointed.
Snipperclips is the hidden launch title gem btw.… Expand

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