The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

 Switch
User Score
8.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 20981 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17,830 out of 20981
  2. Mixed: 1,176 out of 20981
  3. Negative: 1,975 out of 20981
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  1. geodeath
    Mar 9, 2017
    6
    Blows my mind, how many people give this a 10/10. It has serious flaws. I never read reviews or watch trailers because i prefer to play a game myself but in this case, if i knew what it is about, i would never have bought a switch and zelda on day 1, but would rather wait for mario first.

    First of all, the game has a few serious flaws: 1. ALL EQUIPMENT BREAKS. Yes, you heard that    Blows my mind, how many people give this a 10/10. It has serious flaws. I never read reviews or watch trailers because i prefer to play a game myself but in this case, if i knew what it is about, i would never have bought a switch and zelda on day 1, but would rather wait for mario first.

    First of all, the game has a few serious flaws:

    1. ALL EQUIPMENT BREAKS. Yes, you heard that right. EVERY SINGLE thing you will ever equip, weapon, shield or arrow WILL BREAK REALLY REALLY quickly. To give you a quick example a NEW just picked up weapon of any kind, let's say a sword (metal), WILL BREAK and will be discarded and not able to be repaired at most after killing 2 enemies. Read that again: to beat a mob of let's say 5-6 enemies (and it is quite common for them to mob like that, usually 3-6) you WILL HAVE to equip 2-3 weapons. You think i am crazy? Try to find youtube videos about it. BEFORE YOU BUY IT.

    This issue alone is so infuriating that makes me want to sell my copy and not play it altogether until they fix it with a patch. I understand the idea here is to introduce weapon degradation but you cannot repair anything and the degradation happens IMMEDIATELY. I like the degradation as it happens e.g. on Dying Light! Here it is a real nightmare and makes the game a hoarding exercise.

    2. Believe it or not, if you want to restore energy (your heart meter) you have to COOK. You have to actually remember recipes and find pots scattered around the open world to cook elixirs and foods to carry around. If you simply eat the raw materials you only get half a heart to a heart. They turned an adventure game into a SURVIVALIST game. Dear lord!!

    3. They really wanted to one-up the open world games by showing they can do it. The bad thing is they WAY overdid it. The world is exceptionally large, to the point where it is uselessly so. I can easily run for 5-10 minutes without encountering a SINGLE THING AT ALL. Yes, the environment is nice and all, but it is also repetitive. At the end of the day, is the size that matters or if the locations stuck to your mind because they were important and nice? They just wanted to boast about the size of the world. Good Nintendo, good. We knew you can make the world large. Now, make it interesting please?

    4. All of the classic Zelda stuff are missing: hookshot, boomerang, etc etc etc. Somehow, all weapons are not breakable really easily, arrows run out like farts, yet bombs are not a rune, so infinite? lol

    5. NO DUNGEONS! The one thing this series was known for, the clever dungeons, some of which were real mind crackers to solve, are not there anymore. In their place, are **** 2 minute "shrines" that give you some orbs that you can exchange for heart containers or stamina boosters. NO DUNGEONS!!!!!!

    By all means, this is not a bad game at all. It is just an OK game. If you have a WiiU, get it. If you have to buy a switch to play this DO NOT DO IT unless you read all the non 10/10 opinions here and check videos and the faqs. I did the same and am supremely disappointed by this.

    This is not Nintendo. This is not Zelda at all. It feels like a mix of Far cry/Witcher/Dying Light that tries to do everything but fails to do well in all aspects. Nintendo simply over-reached and did not manage to get to the level of quality we expected.

    Now, for the good parts:

    1. It is nice that the environment plays a big role. For example, when it is raining, you cannot climb some walls or you can be struck by lightning. The environment is very nicely thought out.

    2. Although the graphics are nowhere near other current gen titles, you cannot blame how good they are for the hardware they run on. The world is beautiful and vast, if bland.

    3. You get a nice sense of being out, it is quite beautiful in that way if you like exploration.

    4. You can play this on the go!

    Please, take this review seriously. This is coming from a 35 year old gamer, having played all consoles and games from the Atari 2600 to the Switch & Ps4 Pro. I have no bias towards Nintendo, actually it is my favourite company, but they do seem to tend to get all the wrong decisions lately.

    I am afraid to say that i am much more inspired by Horizon than Zelda and it is a crying shame. If only they took care to address the few things i am mentioning (or even provide them as options!) then we would be talking about GOTY. In it's current state, GOTY will only be because of bias or because Nintendo needs a kick and everybody is hyped.

    Sorry Nintendo.

    You blew it!    … Expand
  2. SpideyWebs
    Mar 12, 2017
    6
    I found the game to be more frustrating than fun and more monotonous than interesting. It was just a generic open world game with The Legend of Zelda slapped on the cover. Not much in this felt like a LoZ game and in my opinion that was a negative not a positive. Definitely the worst Zelda game I have ever played.
  3. douglasgomes1
    Mar 13, 2017
    6
    o jogo não esta em portugues, os graficos não são la muitos bons, ate pq o console é bem fraco em si, só tem para o console da nintendo alem de que o console da nintendo é inferior é esta custando mais do que um ps4
  4. ThaDudeMan
    Apr 25, 2017
    6
    Has anyone who gave this game a 10/10 ever played inquisition? if not, go play that and edit your score, because i believe most zelda fans never played an open world game before, this game is cryptic, boring, looks dull after the first couple hours, is tedious, and progression is slow, leading most people ive talked to to have stopped playing the game half way through due to lack ofHas anyone who gave this game a 10/10 ever played inquisition? if not, go play that and edit your score, because i believe most zelda fans never played an open world game before, this game is cryptic, boring, looks dull after the first couple hours, is tedious, and progression is slow, leading most people ive talked to to have stopped playing the game half way through due to lack of progression, all in all where a game like inquisition kept my attention the whole way through with good progression, this game gets boring fast and farming gets annoying as progression is slowed to a crawl at some points… Expand
  5. pghdave420
    Mar 21, 2017
    6
    well i was dissapointed.been gaming since 85 have all nintendo consoles.this game is very boring.you climb a hill glide down fight a grp of mobs climb another hill fight the same mobs.to much land to little mobs.even the 4 beast are so boring when i think of zelda games i think dungeons and enemies which this had none.all it is,is puzzles and climbing.sorry nintendo to much hype for awell i was dissapointed.been gaming since 85 have all nintendo consoles.this game is very boring.you climb a hill glide down fight a grp of mobs climb another hill fight the same mobs.to much land to little mobs.even the 4 beast are so boring when i think of zelda games i think dungeons and enemies which this had none.all it is,is puzzles and climbing.sorry nintendo to much hype for a boring game.if this game is 10 out of 10 the plenty other games that are 20 out of 10… Expand
  6. chad_pattan
    Mar 27, 2017
    6
    I already know I'll be attacked because I'm not going along with "the flow" of reviews. So let's start out by quantifying that 6. For the record, the last Zelda I played was Twilight Princess. Last Zelda I beat completely was A Link To The Past. Last Zelda I enjoyed was Adventure of Link (the only real "RPG" of the bunch, IMO.)

    Graphics: 3 points. Yes, half the score is the graphics.    I already know I'll be attacked because I'm not going along with "the flow" of reviews. So let's start out by quantifying that 6. For the record, the last Zelda I played was Twilight Princess. Last Zelda I beat completely was A Link To The Past. Last Zelda I enjoyed was Adventure of Link (the only real "RPG" of the bunch, IMO.)

    Graphics: 3 points. Yes, half the score is the graphics. They're beautiful. But they're limited, especially on the handheld. World of Final Fantasy on Vita is a great example of how it can be done.

    Story: 2 points. I feel that the story is compelling and interesting. You feel like you want to help the world. You connect with most of the characters. Nicely done.

    Sound: 1 point. Ambient sounds, voices, music, are all done decently. I didn't hear anything that bothered me, put it that way.

    But that's all the game has really. I get it - it's Zelda. It's a throwback to the first game. But quite a few things annoy me, and most of them have to do with UI (User Interface) decisions.

    You can't tell when weapons are degrading. I'm generally not a fan of the weapon break mechanic, but I can live with it so long as I can tell the life of my weapon, and I can repair weapons, ala Dark Cloud 2, or that I can easily create new ones, ala Dragon Quest Builders. Neither is the case here and it's annoying.

    Weapon strengths are illogical. Why it takes 9 swings to kill an enemy with an axe yet only three with a club makes no sense whatsoever. A fan leaf one-shots flying enemies yet a stick takes two, sometimes three hits. Why?

    Link will happily plummet to his death when you try to tell him to gently drop down from a climb to a ledge, and instead he jumps off the wall. I'd just as soon not have a jump from a climb at all.

    The button configs are a nightmare. Two different ways of using the Sheikah Slate rather than just one map with functions. Forced to move your thumb down to a touchpad that's not in a comfortable place just so you can switch weapons. Forced to press a tiny "minus sign" on the pad just to view the map and a tiny "plus sign" to view inventory. One trigger does something, one bumper does something else, another trigger does something else...It's too much! I thought FFXV's was bad, it's a work of art compared to this.

    The stamina bugs me only because it's so short. No human is that out of shape. At least let him sprint after a fast run.

    For all the criticism laid at the feet of Dragon Quest Builders I frankly felt that its battle "engine" was much more logical, as petty and simplistic as that was, for a very similar experience (legendary hero wakes up in a cave with no recollection of why they're there and now have to rebuild the world. Same. Exact. Story.)

    The world is massive, and while I do enjoy massive worlds (Dragon Quest VIII is an all-time great for me), the world has to interest me. Navigation is a pain in this game, and I assume they wanted you to feel the "realism" of it. But when you're playing a fantasy game, too much reality is not a good thing. (DQ8 and riding on a tiger to get around certainly isn't realistic.)

    Game directions are also lacking. You'll get instructions to go to a place, and in some situation it's a breeze, where in another situation they don't even bother trying to at least point you in the right direction. Again, too much realism.

    Yes, I know. "Explore". That's fine. But clear directions are a hallmark of roleplaying games, and it saddens me to see modern RPGs forget this.

    I discovered that the game feels much more "comfortable" in docked mode. The framerate drops don't bother me.

    It's a beautiful, well storied, average game. I'll keep the Switch in the hope the Seiken Densetsu Collection comes stateside *eeek*, and hopefully Octopath Traveler will be a much better experience. As for this, those that think this is a perfect game certainly must not have played Dragon Quest VIII on PS2 - thus far the only RPG to check off all of the boxes.    … Expand
  7. Greenbob
    Jul 22, 2017
    6
    I really tried to like this game as a sort of returner to the series #linktothepast. Alas, I found the game to be tedious and boring like many of other open world games these days. BOTW has the same rinse and repeat pitfalls of farming materials endlessly for little to no reward, Vapid fetch quests and an almost empty landscape of a sandbox that gives me no immersion. Due to the weaponsI really tried to like this game as a sort of returner to the series #linktothepast. Alas, I found the game to be tedious and boring like many of other open world games these days. BOTW has the same rinse and repeat pitfalls of farming materials endlessly for little to no reward, Vapid fetch quests and an almost empty landscape of a sandbox that gives me no immersion. Due to the weapons being fragile I found myself skipping any fight I could in a bid to just get the game over with. the game felt like a chore most of the time and I'm just not having fun.… Expand
  8. SuperRockman
    Mar 29, 2017
    6
    I have played about 12 hours of this of Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild for the Nintendo Wii U.
    I will weight my review in 3 areas. Overall impression, Gameplay, and Graphics. I will not dock points for performance as mentioned above i played this game for Wii U. This is also 100% my opinion of the game based on my experience so far. i have not read a single review yet as i want to    I have played about 12 hours of this of Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild for the Nintendo Wii U.
    I will weight my review in 3 areas. Overall impression, Gameplay, and Graphics. I will not dock points for performance as mentioned above i played this game for Wii U. This is also 100% my opinion of the game based on my experience so far. i have not read a single review yet as i want to have the least biased review possible.

    Overall Impressions:
    The game starts off with a voice speaking to link. I was surprised that a Zelda game could finally have some sort of voice acting. It was also nice that the game doesnt force you into pointless tutorials, the game teaches as you play and become immersed in the world around you. after you leave the starting room, the title appears and introduces you to the massive world you will soon explore. Overall a decent start to the game. The starting section of the massive world however is linear at first with little to do except power through.

    Overall 2/3

    Graphics:
    The look and atmosphere of BOTW is stunning, even on Wii U. The world seems to be alive. plants regrow, the textures look well designed and the sound track is incredible. Not much else to say here

    3/3

    Gameplay:
    While it is refreshing to depart from the old Zelda formula, this does have its clear flaws. Alot of element of gameplay are simply borrowed from other games ex: Elder Scrolls, Far Cry, Assassins Creed. But what the game does barrow makes sense for an open world game. The Combat leaves much to be desired. I enjoy learning my enemies and figuring out how to use my weapons to win a combat, this quickly becomes tedious when constantly switching to different weapons when they break. Crafting is bare bones with little customization and some enemies can attack from what seems to be outside of the render distance. What first impressions i had and the appearance of the game makes up for lacks heavily in overall game play. i found looking for new weapons to be more of a chore. Perhaps the biggest drawback to the combat is the lack of rolling. Im not against changing the zelda formula, i welcome it, but removing such a useful game play mechanic made my experience suffer greatly. Just try to play any Dark Souls game without rolling at all. you cant. Links powers on the other hand are creative original and fun to experiment with. On a final note, WHERE DID THE DUNGEONS GO?????? its just simple and easy challenges like, 1 puzzle or 2 despite being hundreds of these locations in the game. this just seems like lazy game design to me.

    1/4

    Final Score 6/10

    I enjoy this game, but it still leaves much to be desired. i have been a Zelda fan for years, and i praise all additions to the series. But i think there is a long way to go, i hope Nintendo can at the very least going forward(for a new zelda game), bring back the roll, fix the weapon degrade system and include ACTUAL DUNGEONS.    … Expand
  9. rsid
    Apr 1, 2017
    6
    I am a fan of Zelda games, but in my opinion, Breath of the Wild (BotW) is not the best Zelda game, and as a Zelda game it has to stack against its siblings in the franchise. As a stand alone game, I think it is a great open world game, but it is not as good as the other games in the series. That being said, my gripes with the game are:

    1) Tiny dungeons: Majora's Mask (MM) had only 4    I am a fan of Zelda games, but in my opinion, Breath of the Wild (BotW) is not the best Zelda game, and as a Zelda game it has to stack against its siblings in the franchise. As a stand alone game, I think it is a great open world game, but it is not as good as the other games in the series. That being said, my gripes with the game are:

    1) Tiny dungeons: Majora's Mask (MM) had only 4 dungeons as well, but they were huge in comparison (even to other Zelda games), full of creative puzzles, and quite hard for a first timer. In this regard, BotW dungeons were a complete let down. This is a main sore spot for series fans.

    2) Quiet ambiance music that cannot compare to the classic overworld epic themes of games like A Link to the Pass, Ocarina of Time (OoT), Wind Waker (WW), etc. with a few exceptions on old theme remakes such as the Rito village (I admit that Gannon's castle theme was pretty good, but it doesn't redeem the rest of the huge world having so poor music). I understand that open worlds should not have intrusive music, but WW had a pretty open sea and the Great Sea epic theme was amazing and fueled a sense of adventure and exploration hard to match, so, this is a bland excuse for the lack of memorable themes in BotW.

    3) Breaking weapons: I was already a little upset that my shields kept breaking in Skyward Sword (until I got the hang of it and eventually went for the Hylian shield), and then this game makes everything breakable. Even the Master Sword gets spent and has to recharge before it can be used again. I prefer the progression method where either your weapon gets stronger by some leveling means, or you collect stronger weapons throughout your journey until you find the ultimate weapon(s). But I don't like the idea of breaking equipment.

    4) Low enemy variety: Basically, Bokoblins, Moblins and Lizalfos made the bulk of the enemies found in the game (with different colors to signal difficulty). I found it boring and even started to avoid their camps at some points because I was bored with them.

    I am fine with Link being given all his tools at the start of the game, and I also enjoyed having to obtain them somehow like renting in ALBW. I always found moronic that the item needed to beat a dungeon was kept inside of it. But I would prefer some variant where players have to work for it, such as having to find important items somewhere first, like a mini-dungeon before being able to beat a dungeon with them (read iron boots in OoT). I like the feeling of accomplishment when I find an epic item such as the double claw shoots or the lens of truth or the mirror shield from previous entries in the series.

    Oh, and I would have loved indicators of how many shrines and Koroks were left to find in each area, a la OoT Golden Skulltulas or Poes in Twilight Princess HD, but that's just me.

    Everything else in the game is great and makes it a great open world title full of exploring (except maybe fixing cooking to make it less tedious and have a recipe book).

    I believe that if Nintendo had put these ideas in the game, this would have been a perfect Zelda. But, as it is, this game didn't manage to climb into my top 5 favorite Zelda games.    … Expand
  10. alesx7817
    Apr 2, 2017
    6
    O jogo é horrivel mesmo, eu nem liguei muito para os frames, o pior é o excesso de neblina presente em quase todos os cenarios, falta dos efeitos sonoros característico da serie, durabilidade das armas, nem parece zelda esse jogo
  11. funkjaw
    Apr 26, 2017
    6
    Straight to the point: for a Zelda game, this deserves a 5. For an open world action RPG, it deserves an 7 - which is why I settled on a 6. There are a lot of fun, addicting aspects of the game no doubt, which is why many, including myself played from start to finish. However, the lack of Zelda charm, how repetitive it is, the dull story, and the very annoying breakable weapons system, allStraight to the point: for a Zelda game, this deserves a 5. For an open world action RPG, it deserves an 7 - which is why I settled on a 6. There are a lot of fun, addicting aspects of the game no doubt, which is why many, including myself played from start to finish. However, the lack of Zelda charm, how repetitive it is, the dull story, and the very annoying breakable weapons system, all keep this from being as good as it could be.… Expand
  12. Manc_Prophecy
    Nov 25, 2017
    6
    Breath of the wild is as pleasant to listen to as it is to look at, with its visually stunning scenery Zelda:BOTW is almost like a fine painting! I use the key word almost as what the game lacks is character. Breath of the wild's open world is often empty and pedestrian, I almost felt the map could have been downsized by 40% at the very least.

    The main quest objectives were fun and    Breath of the wild is as pleasant to listen to as it is to look at, with its visually stunning scenery Zelda:BOTW is almost like a fine painting! I use the key word almost as what the game lacks is character. Breath of the wild's open world is often empty and pedestrian, I almost felt the map could have been downsized by 40% at the very least.

    The main quest objectives were fun and enjoyable, but I felt forced into doing the tedious side quests in order to gain some advantage at the end game. So like the map I reckon the playtime could have been cut down by about 50 hours also! At the end completing the game didn't feel like an accomplishment, as by the midway point i had already lost interest, but didn't want to add the game to the list of games I've played yet not completed.    … Expand
  13. Grimmke
    Apr 23, 2017
    6
    My feelings on this game are terribly mixed.
    Good: a truly excellent open world, beautifully designed, artistically gorgeous, endlessly explorable. It brings fresh life to the now-standard idea of an open world. The new Link is full of personality for a guy who never really talks. NPCs are charming, quirky, and often funny, and exhausting their dialogue options is always worthwhile. The    My feelings on this game are terribly mixed.
    Good: a truly excellent open world, beautifully designed, artistically gorgeous, endlessly explorable. It brings fresh life to the now-standard idea of an open world. The new Link is full of personality for a guy who never really talks. NPCs are charming, quirky, and often funny, and exhausting their dialogue options is always worthwhile. The physics engine was incredible! One thing they really did right was in all the little details. There are plenty of joyous surprises for those who want to experiment and explore. So let me repeat--this is an excellent game, and it's worth you time. A superlative game, compared to others on the market. It is not, however, without flaws, even quite serious flaws.

    Bad: The enemy variety is uninspired. A handful of enemies that are repeated endlessly, with different skins and colors. Unlike previous Zelda games, you won't find any redeads, wallmasters, poes, or any unexpectedly terrifying monsters like Dead Hand from OOT. No scary enemies or creepy dungeons where you might hear the telltale shriek of a redead paralyzing you.
    Hand in hand with that is the boss variety. Unlike previous Zelda games, there aren't new and exciting, visually impressive bosses that challenge you to use the skills and tools at your disposal. You fight the same boss 4 times, and then again as the end-game boss. Over and over, with slightly different elemental powers. The final boss looks like it's trying to pass for a monster in Yharnam--but if I wanted to fight Yharnam monsters, I'd be playing Bloodborne, not Zelda. It's nothing like Ganon. It doesn't have the crushing difficulty to match a Bloodborne enemy anyway.

    Combat quickly becomes lackluster with the frustrating weapon durability mechanic. Rather than encouraging variety, it encourages you to use your worst weapons the whole time for fear of losing your good ones, or the ones with elemental powers that you need for special enemies. The master sword's "energy limit" is some serious garbage too. A breakable master sword? Really? In the end, the durability mechanics turned the MS from the Blade of Evil's Bane to the Blade of Chopping Down Trees Because I Don't Want to Waste My Other Blades.

    The story is often charming and could have been great, if they had put more focus on developing a compelling story. But, like the music, it's so downplayed it's barely noticeable, so that when the occasional familiar Zelda element slides in, it feels weirdly out of place. The music is not very memorable, and nothing like the sweeping epics of its predecessors. Once in a while, a familiar tune will play, and in the final castle, it finally comes in full-force. But it feels like a fun musical Zelda reference in a non-Zelda game. Jarring.

    Dungeon variety is woefully nonexistent. Arguably the most impactful element of the franchise's incredible legacy, sprawling, complex, rich, and sometimes nerve-wracking dungeons are part of what made the series so famous. They're iconic. But they're totally excised this time. You have shrines, 120 samey mini-dungeons with repetitive puzzles. And you have divine beasts, 4 samey, slightly larger mini-dungeons. There's no variety to them at all, nothing to make them even visually distinct and interesting. Even exploring the beautiful open world begins to lose its appeal when you realize that the only rewards you will find are shrines and korok seeds.

    I could go on. But it boils down to this one sad, strange feeling. There's a difference between shaking up convention and straightforward iconoclasm. And this game falls too hard toward the latter. Utterly gutting the series icons gave us a breathlessly beautiful product, with nothing under the surface, least of all a Zelda game. Maybe it sounds trivial, but I find that Link's redesign is not only one of the worst offenses, but emblematic of the underlying problem. They took Link's iconic green outfit with his pointy hat away, reportedly because it doesn't "look cool." Sure, in isolation, there's nothing especially cool-looking about the green tunic. But it DOES look cool--because it looks like Link, from the Legend of Zelda, and Link is cool. He makes it look heroic. There are lots of cool-looking video game characters out there, but there's only one who looks like Link. The attitude among the devs that said Link isn't cool-looking enough is the same attitude that said Ganon needed to look like a Soulsborne villain. It's the same attitude that took away deep dungeons, exciting bosses, creative enemy designs, and cool weapon variety. It never felt like I was playing Zelda. As an open-world RPG with a barely passable Zelda skin, it was neat. But it soured so fast I was feeling heartbroken by halfway through the game. It's sad to see the devs disregarding the legacy of such an important series. In the end, what makes Zelda so special was gone, and that, for me, outweighed the joys.    … Expand
  14. ZaniceDG
    Jun 21, 2017
    6
    I have very conflicting feelings about the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Let me start with the game play. First off the dealer ability system I really didn't like it I think durability can work in some games if you do it correctly and I don't think it was done well on this. The fact that every single weapon breaks overtime made me not care about finding new weapons. It's nice thatI have very conflicting feelings about the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Let me start with the game play. First off the dealer ability system I really didn't like it I think durability can work in some games if you do it correctly and I don't think it was done well on this. The fact that every single weapon breaks overtime made me not care about finding new weapons. It's nice that there is such a wide variety of weapons this game but I just can't care about them because they all break. Another reason why this hurt the game is because it made me not want to fight enemies. I also want to point out how completely ridiculous it is that the master sword can break even temporarily. It also doesn't help that you have such a limited amount of weapons that you could carry at one time. Another thing is the combat. It wasn't terrible, it worked, but I really don't think it was that good. Most every fight with normal enemies boiled down to me just mashing the Y button. The only fun I had with the combat was with bosses and extremely tough enemies. And even then the AI for most enemies with so bad and they rarely put up a challenge. The exploration in this game is great and I loved it but I think many other games did it better. I loved exploring and seeing all the different parts of the world but there wasn't a lot to do in it that I thought was fun. There's a big beautiful world in this game but what is there to do in it. Fight monsters? Find korok seeds? Do side quests? Sure I could do all those things, but I honestly didn't have a lot of fun doing it. I'm not really a big fan of puzzles so finding the korok seeds and completing the shrines really didn't do a lot for me. I did find everything collectible and did complete every side quest but that's mostly because I'm a completionist and not because I enjoyed doing it. Really nothing about the gameplay is TERRIBLE. But I don't think anything about the gameplay is particularly great. The weather mechanic in this game however was absolutely horrible to me. I can't tell you how many times I groaned and annoyance every time it started raining. This game requires you to do a lot of climbing and I don't mind that. The fact that it rains almost every in-game day and makes it impossible to climb and that is incredibly obnoxious. The rain is probably one of the most hated things about this game for me. Whenever it rained I would literally have to put down my game and just wait for it to stop raining. And that is not fun. How the hell am I supposed to explore when the game is constantly putting impossible barriers in my way. Also, this game's dungeons sucked. Overall I would say that the gameplay was just disappointing. That's enough about the game play for now. For now I want to talk about the writing in the story because that's what really made me dislike the game. I know Zelda isn't about writing or story. That's not the point. It's all about the gameplay. It's 2017 and I expect better writing out of this game. First I'll talk about what I like. I think Princess Zelda and a few of the Champions had very interesting and likeable characters. There was also a few very interesting Side characters you see throughout your adventure. However there were a couple of things that really annoyed me and kept me from being immersed in the story. One of which is being Link. Link has traditionally never had a character, personality or a voice. This was fine back when Zelda was 8 Bits. But it's 2017. And the fact that link constantly stands there in the cutscenes with no emotions and no personality like a plank of wood completely takes me out of the story. I actually couldn't take a lot of the cutscenes and seriously because of how funny I thought it was that link just stood there with absolutely no emotion to everything he was seeing. I don't think there is any reason why link shouldn't have a voice and personality in these games. Zelda has a personality, why can't he? But now I want to move on to the thing that angered me more than anything else. More than the rain. More than the most confusing puzzles. And that would be Ganon. This game has the worst villain I have ever seen in anything ever. Has to be one of the lamest final boss fights I had ever seen. He had no motivation, explanation or character. He never says a word in the entire game. The game defines him as being just a big evil demon who wants to destroy the world because reasons. It's probably the most lazy writing I have ever seen in any game I've heard of. As the credits were rolling the only thing going through my mind were the words "f*** you Nintendo". I thought that because I know that Nintendo is better than this. They could have made a better game. A better story. I did have fun playing it but there are just too many inexcusable problems and I don't think it's worth playing a second time. I don't believe I can justify a score any higher than 6. I had to chop this review severely to fit it in 5000 characters.… Expand
  15. njasa10
    Apr 25, 2017
    6
    With time, perhaps I'll look back on Breath of the Wild more fondly than now. It has some major pitfalls and really falls short in a lot of the areas that it is trying to mimic from Western games, namely voice acting, gameplay, lack of enemy diversity, and story (although it was good for a Zelda story but compared to many of the modern games it is similar too such as Far Cry or Horizon, itWith time, perhaps I'll look back on Breath of the Wild more fondly than now. It has some major pitfalls and really falls short in a lot of the areas that it is trying to mimic from Western games, namely voice acting, gameplay, lack of enemy diversity, and story (although it was good for a Zelda story but compared to many of the modern games it is similar too such as Far Cry or Horizon, it is much weaker). Unfortunately, the addition of voice acting is actually a detriment to the game and at times was borderline unacceptable. The gameplay was much less fluid than Far Cry or Horizon or even Assassin's Creed, a series which has been riddled with bugs and frustrating moments. By introducing these open world elements that have become a staple in modern western games, it forced comparisons to those games. However; if Nintendo would have made a more traditional Zelda game then perhaps it would have left me with a more positive impression of the game. As much as I tried to separate my expectations, to be honest, my opinion of the game was hurt by the overwhelmingly positive reviews it received from critics. I try not to let expectations affect me, but unfortunately that's a reality of gaming. The game isn't without it's merits though. The primary positives are the ability to go/climb anywhere and it's choice to not hold your hand (although even here, Dark Souls did it better). I appreciate both of these things immensely and my first few hours and last few hours of the game were very enjoyable. But somewhere around 30 hours in, I became fatigued and was ready to sprint to the finish. In the end I spent nearly 50 hours on my playthrough and had some wonderful moments in the open world and some unfortunately burdensome moments. Overall, it's an experienced that was very mixed for me, with very high highs and some extremely disappointing lows.… Expand
  16. Nightbreedgamin
    Apr 27, 2017
    6
    While no doubt beautiful the legend of zelda breath of the wild is receiving to much credit for what it actually is. Overrated. It brings nothing new we haven't already scene from superior games like Skyrim and The Witcher 3. Weapons break all the time making them borderline useless. Also the open world of Hyrule is surprisingly empty for a open world of it's size. Games like Watch Dog'sWhile no doubt beautiful the legend of zelda breath of the wild is receiving to much credit for what it actually is. Overrated. It brings nothing new we haven't already scene from superior games like Skyrim and The Witcher 3. Weapons break all the time making them borderline useless. Also the open world of Hyrule is surprisingly empty for a open world of it's size. Games like Watch Dog's 2 were not as large but still had more content and several stories at once. Also in this new Zelda game we have no iconic music and terrible voice acting. Also when can we get a villain that actually claims a victory or two? Ganon is getting pitiful. This game does not deserve a perfect score due to it's flaws but anyone who gives it under an average score is obviously a hater.… Expand
  17. Cdom
    Oct 1, 2017
    6
    The game itself may be fun at first but the more you play it the more dull it feels the combat isn't very interesting and the types of weapons that aren't just different because of their higher damage, is low and the enemies aren't much of a threat if you think that the "Master" mode will be more difficult you are wrong, what is actually does is make gameplay MORE dull and boring as theThe game itself may be fun at first but the more you play it the more dull it feels the combat isn't very interesting and the types of weapons that aren't just different because of their higher damage, is low and the enemies aren't much of a threat if you think that the "Master" mode will be more difficult you are wrong, what is actually does is make gameplay MORE dull and boring as the enemies have more health and regenerate said health making any strategy that doesn't involve damaging the enemy every 2.5 seconds invalid. The map design although is pretty enjoyable and by far the best part of the game is just exploring and doing puzzles but even then the puzzles can be pretty dull sometimes. There is also very little true adventure in the game it never feels as though you really are at risk, making you just get bored and listen to a podcast or something while walking through the open plains of hyrule.… Expand
  18. SomeGamerGuy123
    Oct 17, 2017
    6
    Very fun game. However it's 6/10 because

    - Yiga Clan Hideout Stupidity

    - Regular Monsters are stronger then Divine Beast Bosses / Ganon Blights

    - Stupidic one hit attacks from Lizards etc even at 10 hearts with 7/7/7 armor and armor bonus.

    and finally

    - Unrealistic stamina system.
  19. ReiAyanami
    Nov 16, 2018
    6
    To Accurately review such a disappointing & overrated game a lengthy analysis is Requiered. Part 1:

    First let's talk about the hero. In a good story, being an amnesiac means having something interesting in your past. Something that would change you and the world around you upon recollection. That is unless your name is Link. Recovering your lost memories changes absolutely nothing.    To Accurately review such a disappointing & overrated game a lengthy analysis is Requiered. Part 1:

    First let's talk about the hero. In a good story, being an amnesiac means having something interesting in your past. Something that would change you and the world around you upon recollection. That is unless your name is Link.

    Recovering your lost memories changes absolutely nothing. Link remains the same empty shell that he was before. You never know what is going through his head. How can there be no character development for the protagonist? You can end the game without getting any of the memories back and nothing would be different. It goes to show just how shallow the story is, because it only matters that you slay Ganon. You can even skip straight to the castle, dismissing everything else be it the people in need or your lost love. You don't care about them, because you're the legendary hero of legend.

    And if you can beat the final boss so early in the game, it makes it look like Ganondorf was no big deal after all, and your defeat 100 years ago was a mere fluke. You didn't even need to activate any of the ancient machines to stop him.

    The Champions had little screentime, and to think Nintendo actually gave them voices and then had them say things like "Three terminals left. Good luck." What a waste. They should've given Link, the protagonist, a voice instead if they had to be selective like that. Mipha is baring her soul before him, and he's just sitting there, saying nothing. It was so awkward I was expecting her to ask what was wrong with him. They had a close relationship, right? So why is it that you never see Link as much as change his expression when they're together? He's treating her the same way he does any other Champion--the silent treatment. Did he love her? What about his opinion on the princess and her troubles? What does he think of his own position in all that is happening? He's so emotionless, so indifferent, it's just awful.

    With the inclusion of the voice acting, the issue of his silence is elevated in BotW more than in any other Zelda game, and now Link stands out a lot. In a bad way. Nintendo won't consider giving him a voice and personality, because they're stubborn like that and cling to their traditions, but this tradition exists for its own sake, not because it's anything good. The same can be said about the size of this game's world. It's pointless.

    You've heard this one before, how the game world is empty. It's not far from the truth. At one point the game is telling you that you should let the horse run on its own so you can enjoy the scenery. That's this game in a nutshell. You're not supposed to engage in any sort of meaningful activity--just climb someplace high and take in the sights. Appreciate it like you would a beautiful painting. There's not much to play here.

    "But what about the NPCs? The Korok Seeds? There're, like, 900 of them! Isn't that enough to keep you busy, you preachy bastard?"

    It matters not what dungeon it is, because it's always the same design. The first thing you notice is the lack of magical atmosphere. It's very ugly and unsettling somehow. There's a big heart-shaped thing in the middle of the room, which you don't have access to yet. There's nothing to get excited about, however, since it's just a switch™, the last one in a long sequence of switch activating. Your interest is fading with each passing minute, but the real tedium is only about to begin. As you look around, a number of odd objects catch your attention, their purpose unknown. Seems like you can manipulate them with one of your powers, but doing so yields no visible results, so you decide to leave them be and explore the Beast. The layout here can get pretty confusing, and it's changing as well--the design of the dungeon is over-complicated, and it doesn't feel like you're making any progress at all. Gotta love that feeling of being **** stuck. New places bring more of the same + occasional enemies. Let's have a look at them:

    Flying Cow Skull (special ability: bore you out of your mind)

    Tentacle Garbaggio (SA: will touch you)

    Octorobot (SA: irritation booster)

    It's the same trio whichever Beast you choose to enter, and that's pretty bad to say the least.

    So we're back in that same dungeon again, and things haven't changed much. The sight of all this technological **** is starting to make you feel sick. Tentacle Garbaggio is staring at you from the wall. It wants to tell you how it understands your suffering for it's been watching these walls for 100 years straight. You decide to kill it out of mercy, but now there's nobody left to spare YOU from this torture. It's almost as if a special care went into this to ensure you're slowly driven to insanity. The way you progress through the dungeon is one big mess: keep poking around until you bump into a solution. It makes you want to throw your controller through the **** Screen, i hate this game, 5/10    … Expand
  20. Hwl
    Feb 16, 2018
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Well, First of all, if youre a Zelda fan, go buy this game. You will love it, and it will suck all your nostalgy out in seconds. But if youre an demander costumer, youll see that BOTW is not what everybody says, this is not a game of the year. You have probably heard that this game is difficult and does not treat you like a child. FALSE. This game is NOT difficult, this game uses artificial difficulty. EVERYTHING KILLS YOU BY 1 HIT. Till you have a better armour and tons of health. When your stats are comparable to the mons stats EVERYTHING gets so easy. So, this way the game offers you a false sensation of getting better and a false evolution as a player. The game has just 4 type of relevant enemies, that are the same on all the map, on each zone you will bore of just finding bokoblins, moblins and things like that. The game still being childish, the bosses are ridicously easy and the game does not present a single real challengue all the way throught. I'ts true that you have total liberty of solving whichever kind of situation by your own way, but BOTW gets sickly repetitive till you go defeat ganon (who is a real dissappointing boss). The puzzles that you'll find on the sanctuaries will always be or stupidly easy or ridicously incomprehensible. Whenever you need to heal you up you'll have to pause the game and go to your inventory. This constantly gets you off from the expirience and reminds you that it is just a game, and youre almost always able to save your game so you never are on real danger, because if you die, you just have to load your last save and try again. This game rewards bad players instead of good players because if you fail, just try again, but this time you know what you gotta do. The legend of zelda still being a good game, but is truly disapponting if you were expecting all the ratings promised to you.… Expand
  21. LoganMic
    Mar 20, 2018
    6
    From what I have played, it decent. Is it a masterpiece? No, not even close. But it still can be a fun game to play from time to time. So why would I consider this game to be decent? Well the story isn't that interesting, the controls feel a bit too weird, and Link isn't really that of a interesting character at all.
  22. gckwolf
    Apr 23, 2018
    6
    It is a very good title but it lacks a linear history, if you want to know how it is that a whole kingdom ends, it is necessary to do the missions, the bad thing is that they do not give it to you in a linear way, and the environment is so big that even though it is a world Open and full of possibilities sometimes you feel very lonely. You can improve the armor get better weapons or ride aIt is a very good title but it lacks a linear history, if you want to know how it is that a whole kingdom ends, it is necessary to do the missions, the bad thing is that they do not give it to you in a linear way, and the environment is so big that even though it is a world Open and full of possibilities sometimes you feel very lonely. You can improve the armor get better weapons or ride a motorcycle but once you finish the game and all the missions you realize that you wasted more time in getting an item than in the game itself. Its strong point is the simple fact of exploring the whole landscape by breaking weapons and getting them back in the same dungeons… Expand
  23. SplitMind
    Mar 27, 2022
    6
    I missed out on BOTW when it first released, and I think that's where the real problem lies. It is not over 5 years later and the game has not aged well compared to what we have in 2022. I am hot off the heels of completing Elden Ring, so I should have expected this. Still, there are elements of BOTW that deserve criticism even in 2017.

    The graphics are a strange one. Simplistic and    I missed out on BOTW when it first released, and I think that's where the real problem lies. It is not over 5 years later and the game has not aged well compared to what we have in 2022. I am hot off the heels of completing Elden Ring, so I should have expected this. Still, there are elements of BOTW that deserve criticism even in 2017.

    The graphics are a strange one. Simplistic and charming, they are also challenged by performance issues and when confronted by a huge landscape, simplistic graphics can backfire, which it does here.

    The gameplay of BOTW is unfortunately aged and superseded by many other games. It seems Nintendo have tried to capitalise on the open-world trend, but the end result is BOTW playing like a hastily-patched together mixture of games like Skyrim, Witcher and Horizon.

    One of the earliest missions involved marking four shrines on my map, however it was not made clear that the goal of the mission was to travel and complete the shrines - there was no prompt to move the mission along organically. I looked this up online and many others faced the same dilemma, which tells me it is very bad game design to have such ambiguity.

    The most frustrating aspect of this game is just how slow everything is. It takes forever to travel. I see a horse is added eventually but this is really needed from the beginning and fatigued me quickly. The stamina bar is a ludicrous design choice also, making Link the most physically unfit protagonist I've seen.

    BOTW loves to tout itself as open-world, but this is more like an empty world than an open world. It would have been much more enjoyable for me had it been compressed so that there was less banal running and backtracking.

    The story of BOTW plays a minor role and at this point needs a serious shake up. It's as lazy as Mario with the whole princess and bad guy concepts.

    Overall, this is not the masterpiece it's made out to be. I don't even find it to be a quality open-world game of its time when it was released the same year as Horizon Zero Dawn and two years after The Witcher 3. Avoid.    … Expand
  24. FlipSideKiller
    Nov 25, 2018
    6
    I hate to be the opposition, but this game bored me about the time I got to my 3rd divine beast. It wasn’t linear for sure, but it felt... Boring. I felt the combat lacked depth, and was boring. The puzzles were great, but Power Creep is real. You could have a 45 Attack Royal Greatsword, and have it absolutely E X P L O D E D by a Lynel greatsword with 90+. Yeah, I 100%’ed it, so you can’tI hate to be the opposition, but this game bored me about the time I got to my 3rd divine beast. It wasn’t linear for sure, but it felt... Boring. I felt the combat lacked depth, and was boring. The puzzles were great, but Power Creep is real. You could have a 45 Attack Royal Greatsword, and have it absolutely E X P L O D E D by a Lynel greatsword with 90+. Yeah, I 100%’ed it, so you can’t say anything about me not playing it. I found myself playing Hollow Knight, or Stardew Valley more. Good game, but it’s no Masterpiece.… Expand
  25. Rezoman
    Jun 17, 2019
    6
    I see this game as the first step to something great. The game looks beautiful plus combat feels good and at times I really enjoyed it, but unfortunately there are quite a few things I disliked. There are so many empty parts of the world, dungeons are way too easy and repetitive, the weapon deterioration system gets annoying, and the sidequests feel like a chore to do. I think they missedI see this game as the first step to something great. The game looks beautiful plus combat feels good and at times I really enjoyed it, but unfortunately there are quite a few things I disliked. There are so many empty parts of the world, dungeons are way too easy and repetitive, the weapon deterioration system gets annoying, and the sidequests feel like a chore to do. I think they missed the mark with this one but if they were to make a sequel I know that they would get it right.… Expand
  26. Mindurbidniss
    Jan 31, 2022
    6
    The hype for this game is outrageous. Sure it's fun, but it's designed to discourage such paper mache' weapon durability, ultra thin stamina and health meters, quests that are structured to frustrate. This game will take more from you than it will give. Prepare for boredom, frustration, and the urge to just quit. After you can get past these initial feelings the game opens up and you beginThe hype for this game is outrageous. Sure it's fun, but it's designed to discourage such paper mache' weapon durability, ultra thin stamina and health meters, quests that are structured to frustrate. This game will take more from you than it will give. Prepare for boredom, frustration, and the urge to just quit. After you can get past these initial feelings the game opens up and you begin to understand its systems. After reaching this point countless hours will pass and you won't even realize you've been playing that long. A sense of accomplishment will come with each shrine puzzle completed or mini boss defeated. You'll become immersed. If only it were a more reciprocal relationship.… Expand
  27. slohobo
    Feb 4, 2019
    6
    I really did enjoy most of this game due to its puzzle design and combat mechanics. At best I would give the combat mechanics a 7 because it feels cheezy once you get a hang of it (simply switching to master mode won't fix this). The story is absolutely atrocious. I mean -1000 out of 10. If you can get past a terrible story then have fun. The puzzle design is a 8/10 for me. I've seenI really did enjoy most of this game due to its puzzle design and combat mechanics. At best I would give the combat mechanics a 7 because it feels cheezy once you get a hang of it (simply switching to master mode won't fix this). The story is absolutely atrocious. I mean -1000 out of 10. If you can get past a terrible story then have fun. The puzzle design is a 8/10 for me. I've seen better from indie titles.

    I really was expecting more from the story.    … Expand
  28. leguizamo182
    Oct 25, 2018
    6
    It's a good game, but not amazing, very ugly and repetitive for this generation of consoles, i don't like the characters narrative, is very large world but is empty, the repetition of enemies, trees, zones and charactes doest help.
  29. SpiderGuy
    Oct 25, 2018
    6
    A pathetic main story with copy and paste dungeons, with the same objective for each dungeon, copy and paste bosses, the weapon system is terrible due to weapons breaking, and Ubisoft like open world. This game is not worth getting unless you're a Legend of Zelda fan.
  30. CheeseKnight64
    Nov 11, 2018
    6
    Let me preface this review by stating that i thought this game had it's merits and can be a fun experience at times. I truly believe that the next game in the series will be groundbreaking and that BOTW has huge potential, that being said i find the gushing praise this game has received to be completely unfounded, as such i'm going to primarily be covering the issues i found with the gameLet me preface this review by stating that i thought this game had it's merits and can be a fun experience at times. I truly believe that the next game in the series will be groundbreaking and that BOTW has huge potential, that being said i find the gushing praise this game has received to be completely unfounded, as such i'm going to primarily be covering the issues i found with the game and how they deduct from the overall experience. I'm going to be breaking my grievances down into 4 categories: story, world, character progression and gameplay verity.
    Lets start then shall we, breath of the wilds story is incredibly linear, as a newcomer to the series i was surprised by how such a generic fantasy story of (save the girl, defeat the bady) could captivate so many, you follow link as he explores the world, meeting uninteresting characters, adventuring from area to area solving it's respective problem until moving onto the next zone. it doesn't go any deeper than this, with the main villain feeling removed with little to no story elements apart from residing in a menacing castle acting as a final destination. Main quests have poor moment to moment writing and lack an overall polish and scale, with side-quests being nothing but glorified fetch quests seen in many MMO's. Now to the world, it feels empty barren and repetitive, this may have been the intention, but it doesn't change the fact there is a distinct lack of settlements with most areas within a zone feeling similar to the next and devoid of life, not much to say on this topic but in general the game world is slightly bellow average, this is made worse by the game's primary focus being a sandbox. Character progression, again very lacking if not non-existent, link has no progression, he plays the part of the silent protagonist, iv'e seen people defend this as the player being supposed to project themselves on link, but to me it feels like a lack of work and writing, especially when in comparison to other game of the year winners, comparing geralt to link is a futile effort, the writing quality is just day and night. Now to undoubtedly the longest section of my review, gameplay verity. Lets start with shrines, you better like puzzles, because shrines are all but a requirement and with 120 of them using the same assets textures and music, those hours can certainly feel like a chore. Combat verity, this is also lacking, little enemy variation, with only a few types across the game, i'm surprised at the lack of overall criticism on this, the recent god of war was hammered for reusing a few mini bosses, Zelda is far worse with almost every enemy encounter feeling the same and very lacklustre, the weapon durability definitely plays a part in this, the gameplay loop especially at early levels includes a lot of pausing combat (not what you want to be doing to engage a player) to cycle through weapons after one breaks after a few swings, i'm not going to be going too in-depth on this because it's been covered enough, but in my opinion it's a real detriment to the gameplay. Movement verity, this is also lacking, climbing is immensely tedious, not helped by the fact it rains almost all the time inhibiting the player from actually getting anywhere, it involves staring at a blank wall for several minutes until reaching the stop of a cliff or mountain to only travel to the next vertical wall and repeat the process, needless to say this is not the most engaging task and can be completely mind-numbing. People have heralded this "clime anywhere" system as groundbreaking, but it seems no different to what we have seen in games like assassins creed, saints row and shadow of war, with this system being significantly slower and less graceful. And thats it, most of what you'll be doing in this "10/10 experience" ,climbing, running about fighting the same enemies, and doing shrines.

    My overall opinion is that this game will lay the foundation for many great future zelda games but by no means is a masterpiece or even a great game, it has many fundamental flaws that are often looked over by the community and reviewers. But i guess as a reviewer it's much easier to put down a 10/10 score than to face backlash and potentially lose your job. Objectively i think the fun factor can only make up for so much, i voiced my main issues but didn't even cover other problems like sound and music.    … Expand
  31. adversebeast
    Nov 25, 2019
    6
    Es un juego entretenido al principio, pero con el paso de las horas se torna un poco monótono. El mapa gigantesco dividido en zonas, donde en cada una hay una torre (tipo atalaya de assasins creed), ademas de 4 templos los cuales debemos pasar una serie de pruebas. Esto se hace EN TODOS los mapas, es como una rutina, llegas a una zona y a hacer lo mismo. El sistema de combate es excelente,Es un juego entretenido al principio, pero con el paso de las horas se torna un poco monótono. El mapa gigantesco dividido en zonas, donde en cada una hay una torre (tipo atalaya de assasins creed), ademas de 4 templos los cuales debemos pasar una serie de pruebas. Esto se hace EN TODOS los mapas, es como una rutina, llegas a una zona y a hacer lo mismo. El sistema de combate es excelente, pero no así el sistema de armas. Creo que hacer armas que con un par de golpes se rompen no es una buena idea y tampoco nos permite hacernos una "build" debido a que constantemente hay que estar cambiando de armas. Insisto, el juego no es malo, pero teniendo tanto juego de mundo abierto con el que comparar la verdad no es la gran cosa. Aparte de los "secretos" que podemos encontrar en el mapa, en si es un mapa vacío en cuanto a ambientación, pero tampoco soy tan riguroso en ese aspecto, ya que por lo general los juegos de nintendo son así. Claramente no todo es malo, si te encanta la exploracion claramente este es un juego que te dará horas y horas de entretencion, llevo 40 horas jugadas y para ser sincero me está aburriendo un poco, pero quizá es porque ya estoy viejo y mis expectativas a la hora de jugar después de tantos años cada día son mas exigentes.
    En pocas palabras, buen juego... pero no se compara con el Ocarina of Time o el Twilight Princess.    … Expand
  32. Xplocion
    Nov 8, 2019
    6
    The good: another "Zelda" with a mature cut. An "like a Nintendo" approach to the open mute.

    The bad: There are no temples. There are no cities. Few NPC to interact. It takes a long time to boot. The open world looks empty (on certain occasions). The story is silly. The hero mode came in a DLC. The best sword came in a DLC. There is no variety of enemies. There is no variety of bosses,    The good: another "Zelda" with a mature cut. An "like a Nintendo" approach to the open mute.

    The bad: There are no temples. There are no cities. Few NPC to interact. It takes a long time to boot. The open world looks empty (on certain occasions). The story is silly. The hero mode came in a DLC. The best sword came in a DLC. There is no variety of enemies. There is no variety of bosses, always facing the shadow of Ganon and the Guardians. The graphics are bad, it doesn't look even remotely close to how it was presented or how it looked in trailers

    Lo Meh: that of being looking for seeds on the map to receive a troll item breaks your morale. The hyper-sexual of Princess Zelda. The Wii U tablet control functions are lost in the Switch version. Legendary beasts are a bad joke    … Expand
  33. TheSora4K
    Oct 22, 2021
    6
    El mundo del juego está prácticamente sin vida, este título está sobrevalorado y es un insulto con un escupitajo en los zapatos de los anteriores.

    La fórmula ha cambiado y no le ha sentado bien, no compraré más juegos de Zelda hasta que vuelvan al estilo de los anteriores.
  34. SirAwesomeness5
    Jun 30, 2020
    6
    I gave the game a chance, but I could not get into it at all. However, I can tell that it is a very polished game, and that everyone should at least give it a chance.
  35. Epic-jakeyo
    Jan 21, 2021
    6
    As a long time Zelda fan all I can say is if you enjoy frustration then this is the game for you. The game fights against you at all times and takes the fun out of everything you do. New Weapon? Yeah that will break in ten hits. New area to explore? Yeah, die. Here's an enemy to one hit you because you have no way of judging it's power. Climbing a mountain ? Here's some rain, enjoyAs a long time Zelda fan all I can say is if you enjoy frustration then this is the game for you. The game fights against you at all times and takes the fun out of everything you do. New Weapon? Yeah that will break in ten hits. New area to explore? Yeah, die. Here's an enemy to one hit you because you have no way of judging it's power. Climbing a mountain ? Here's some rain, enjoy slipping and falling to your death but if not here's some lightning to finish you off. Want to heal? Cook some meals one at a time! hot area? Cook some meals one at a time! Cold area? Cook some meals one at a time! Nintendo can release whatever they want and it's an instant 10/10, doesn't that seem strange to you ? I can guarantee if this was on Playstation it wouldn't be higher than a seven. Don't believe the hype.… Expand
  36. WreckingGames
    May 7, 2019
    6
    This Game Is Good, But The Game Is A Little Blurry, The Game Is Really Easy At Some Points, and Parts Of The Game Are Bland, But Still Better Than a Score Of 5.
  37. MATHEFREECK
    Jun 2, 2019
    6
    First, I think this game is great, but when I see other Zelda games, I have to say: they are much better than this one.
    Everything was personal to me Zelda has always been missing in this game simply.
    I loved to play through the big dungeons in the predecessors. The shrines rarely have variety are far too short, and offer no real value. The map is big, but not well filled. The only    First, I think this game is great, but when I see other Zelda games, I have to say: they are much better than this one.
    Everything was personal to me Zelda has always been missing in this game simply.
    I loved to play through the big dungeons in the predecessors. The shrines rarely have variety are far too short, and offer no real value.
    The map is big, but not well filled. The only thing you can find are "Krogs" ... Nothing else.
    The story is good but far too short.
    Weapons break down too fast.
    Nice that Nintendo has tried something new, it's also a fantastic game, but then I say: Please next time more in the direction of a classic Zelda.    … Expand
  38. Nevermber
    Nov 26, 2019
    6
    I understand why people praise the game, but it did not catch me. “Entertain yourself” in this game did not work for me. Objectively - a good game, but something was not enough for her.
  39. Sean-od14
    Jul 30, 2019
    6
    Over rated game the story is terrible and the characters are boring, worst Zelda game I’ve played and I’ve played ocarina of time, majoras mask, wind Waker, twilight princess, phantom hourglass, spirit tracks and skyward sword the game is lucky to get a 6 from me as it is missing all the things i like about Zelda games
  40. JesterTRT
    Aug 26, 2019
    6
    I really tried getting into this game, as I loved Zelda games. But When I played it, I just couldn't really get huge into it. There was fun parts, but I never got incredibly absorbed into it like the older games.
    When I got to the point where I was deciding what game to play, I often found myself pushing this to the side for another game. Thus the average middle score. Not a bad game, but    I really tried getting into this game, as I loved Zelda games. But When I played it, I just couldn't really get huge into it. There was fun parts, but I never got incredibly absorbed into it like the older games.
    When I got to the point where I was deciding what game to play, I often found myself pushing this to the side for another game. Thus the average middle score. Not a bad game, but I feel it was far to over hyped for me, that it fell short.
    I'd love to see another game in the ways of OOT.    … Expand
  41. mixxtell
    Aug 17, 2019
    6
    It’s a beautiful game that does not incentivize playing it. Exploration for explorations sake will and does thrill some people, but after 60 hours and less than half of all the collectibles, I don’t ever need to play it again. Would love to see this open world treatment infused with meaningful character development and some sense of accomplishment.
  42. SomaKurusu
    Nov 19, 2019
    6
    Es un videojuego que tiene un maravilloso diseño artístico, un mundo bastante grande que parece que está vivo y es el Zelda más grande en cuanto a producción que ha realizado Nintendo. El problema es que no tiene mucho que ver con la saga. Su banda sonora es bastante pobre (casi inexistente), la historia brilla por su ausencia, las mazmorras clásicas se han perdido, Los santuarios de esteEs un videojuego que tiene un maravilloso diseño artístico, un mundo bastante grande que parece que está vivo y es el Zelda más grande en cuanto a producción que ha realizado Nintendo. El problema es que no tiene mucho que ver con la saga. Su banda sonora es bastante pobre (casi inexistente), la historia brilla por su ausencia, las mazmorras clásicas se han perdido, Los santuarios de este juego dan bastante pena y son bien fáciles, hay poca variedad de enemigos, las misiones secundarias, son la mayoría de recadero, y aun así, te dan recompesas bastante malas. Es decir, este juego es bueno, pero como Zelda falla.… Expand
  43. Cafe_8bits
    Nov 14, 2019
    6
    BoTW its a nice game. I had a great time with it last holiday season, and i realy liked it. Thought it have many issues, such as backtracking, lack of any interesting quest, and not the best plotline ever, is still a nice game.
    But i would not play it again, would be boring. I hope the sequel can improve the formula and expand the universe created here.
  44. Congothecon
    Nov 13, 2019
    6
    This game has its really fun moments, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of the weapons breaking throughout the game
  45. Poochingus
    Nov 14, 2019
    6
    Not the best in the series, not by far. What Breath of the wild shows us however, is potential. This game lays the groundwork for what a truly great breath of fresh air the series could see. However ambition clearly outpaced the ability to make a game as deep as previous titles. Zelda games are known for being handcrafted experiences with unique areas, wonderful music, and compellingNot the best in the series, not by far. What Breath of the wild shows us however, is potential. This game lays the groundwork for what a truly great breath of fresh air the series could see. However ambition clearly outpaced the ability to make a game as deep as previous titles. Zelda games are known for being handcrafted experiences with unique areas, wonderful music, and compelling characters and story.

    While this game is huge, most of it feels the same. The same looking NPCs fill the roads and stables wearing the same clothes. The same design is even used in every dungeon and shines(the mini dungeons littered across the land). In addition you only get the sword, bow, bombs, and 3 other dungeon tools, the fewest tools we have ever seen. Considering how much they did with these tools though, it makes me wonder what amazing things they could have done with a few more fun toys to play with.

    At the end of the day, the story takes a backseat to gameplay too. What little story we do get is almost entirely optional, and that feels bad, like the noble sacrifices made, and the people inhabiting the world don't matter.

    Music was the biggest letdown for me. The lack of any real music outside a handful of tracks made me very sad in a series that utilitzes music as a gameplay mechanic extremely often(ocarina of time, Link's awakening, spirit tracks, oracles).

    After a while I got tired of fighting the same enemies and finding rewards that were just more items meant to be sold for money to buy what, a house?

    That being said the item system was exciting. Shields as surfboards, elemental swords and weapon types were fun to use. While breaking weapons was a little easier than I wished, it was fun to try new strategies on enemies and in boss fights. The combat is where the game shines.

    Overall I would say the game is great as a game first, and that must be remembered. I hope the next main title learns from the mistakes here and can try to use the new systems in a fun and unique way while bringing back what made zelda games so beloved.    … Expand
  46. Kanto255
    Nov 14, 2019
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game without a doubt is a fresh breath of air with its open world, exploration and combat, and in the first hours the game is exhilarating to play with all the different possibilities. However, once you have sunk some time into it, the game doesn't offer much depth, with the 120 shrines scattered around being fun to find, but extremely repetitive in aesthetic and gameplay. There are only 4 dungeons akin to what we are used to from the series, and they all look the same and are short and simplistic, feeling like small sidequests. The story is a bland amnesia plot and very much copies the formula we have always seen (which isn't a bad thing itself but they seemed to care about expanding the story this time around with having voice actors and a better developed world). My biggest complaint might sound petty, but the visual grey "filter" really hurts the aesthetic experience for me, and I wish they could have stuck with the colours of the E3 reveal trailer. With that said, the world itself is surprisingly well-designed, with the shrines always making you scout and wonder how to progress. I would recommend borrowing it, but keep your money for BotW 2. I trust that Nintendo will listen to feedback and improve on the numerous faults of this title.… Expand
  47. Chupintias
    Mar 21, 2020
    6
    The game is just a big sandbox full of shrines (little puzzles) and reskinned enemies. As an open world game, it's just not on par even with mediocre games like Fallout 4. Also, it is very, but VERY far from being the best 3D Zelda because that would imply that this game is better than masterpieces like Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker, which is not.
  48. Poti
    Jun 4, 2023
    6
    I love Zelda games and I thought that this could be the best, it is not even close for me, fun but I don't see what everyone sees in this game, the story is empty and badly told. The side quests are all something like: give me 10 apples and I'll give you 50 rupees. Link seems like a lifeless being, no matter what happens he doesn't show any facial expression, something that happens inI love Zelda games and I thought that this could be the best, it is not even close for me, fun but I don't see what everyone sees in this game, the story is empty and badly told. The side quests are all something like: give me 10 apples and I'll give you 50 rupees. Link seems like a lifeless being, no matter what happens he doesn't show any facial expression, something that happens in Zeldas from dozens of years ago. and among many other things (The variety of enemies is ridiculous, the "dungeons" are very bad, the menus are clunky and stop the gameplay a lot, and more), people say that the exploration is the best thing about this game, but in My opinion feels very empty, I felt a loop where I said: Look what a beautiful place, let's see what there is, and there was a chest with a weapon worse than all the ones you already have or 1 kolog with the same puzzle that you have done 40 times. Morrowind feels much more alive and came out in 2001.… Expand
  49. Passwurdz
    Jan 12, 2022
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Considering this is an open world game and people highly praise it for being so. I felt encouraged to just go my own direction and not focus that much on the main quest related stuff for a while. The result of this bad choice was that I explored over 60% of the map, maybe even more. By not having the sword that seals the darkness nor any upgraded inventory space since I first encountered the kuko seed guy.
    How it affected my gameplay:
    While having quite a limited amount of breakable melee weapons.. you don't exactly wanna use up your best ones on trash mobs or worst of all, risk having almost no weapons before a proper battle. This made me feel somewhat forced to use the bombs with nearly all the enemies in the game, which played out like this: Drop bomb, kite, drop bomb, kite, repeat until victory. In some cases I could drop the round bomb and then the squared one and stagger the enemy which was quicker. But was it fun? Not particularly.
    Another consequence of this inventory space is that damn near every chest that provided me with a weapon was one I just had to pass on due to being full. Which doesn't exactly increase motivation to find chests.
    So in conclusion, it is open world with the emphasis on how you should go to one exact place on the map for an unbreakable sword and inventory upgrades in order to have a good experience. However this location isn't marked on the map and needs to be found. A rather idiotic design choice, why have markers on the beasts for instance? You could see them from across the other side of the map almost..
    So why did I not go into the forest to get the sword? Well after having cleared the third beast and seen 75% of the map or so. The area grabbed my attention. One thing thats actually really great about the game is the climbing and glide mechanics. You don't have to walk around a mountain, you can go over it if you want to. I often did such things. So I was in the lava area and decided to glide into that dark forest. As I got close to it I got teleported away. Why would that happen? Naturally I assume that this area is locked, off limits for the time being. That I must probably do something main quest related to make it available to me. So while being relatively sick of my weapons and inventory space I proceeded to get the 4th beast and I actually just went straight to ganon afterwards. I have had enough at that point.
    It was a pretty tedious experience towards the end and I really missed a more propper rpg feeling, it wasn't very engaging to focus on armor or weapons or the character progression. It was in fact very limited and underwhelming.

    I do understand that if one isn't as unlucky as me and goes to the forest early, the experience would be better. Most likely a 7/10 experience, maybe even a 8/10 experience. But that this game is considered the holy grail and a 10/10 from so many is just absurd. But maybe most Nintendo players aren't PC gamers as well? If this is about all you know or have tried in your life then I can understand it to be an overwhelmingly good experience. If I were to rate it on my experience alone instead of considering the technical elements of the game then I would go as low as 4/10. But since I understand the potential of the game and its many good aspects, I landed on 6/10.

    Considering how its such a perfect game you'd probably expected me to be done with the negatives, in fact how could I even write this much? Oh I am not done yet.
    Let me introduce the lightning effect. The first time it took place was when I had ventured a bit far north and was about to rescue an npc. The lightning begun and struck me twice until I died. I thought it was rather strange and wonder why it happened, concluded maybe I needed some special lightning gear or that I wasn't really supposed to be that far north so early.
    Eventually it happened in other places and I didn't understand why it was so aggressively targeting me. Eventually I noticed the dragon and concluded it must be his fault and that I must kill him. I tried once but my attacks didn't land.. Ever since then I felt like I had no choice but to teleport away from my area if the lightning arrived, very fun! After my playthrough I learned that it happened because of the metal sword/shield I was carrying. Is that a connection everybody but me just knows just like that? There's plenty of metal in most umbrellas that people carry around in rain and thunderstorms, you don't see them getting struck every second. I can take some self criticism on this part, but I felt like at least some in-game characters could have warned me.
    Coincidentally I learnt about the thunder crown in the desert not long afterwards and thought it was the solution! However I had to do all the quests in the desert and instructions like "go directly south of the village" to find someone etc wasn't sufficient. I didn't find what I was supposed to and gave up.
    I think I'll get my N64 out now and have a proper Zelda experience.    … Expand
  50. Aoudess
    Feb 4, 2020
    6
    Beautiful world with lot of variety/possibility.
    But it doesn t feel zelda, lot of useless things/zones. No dugeons!!!! I used to love those. Chests and puzzle that don't matter at all. Previous zelda u got the feel of big achievement and rewards for what you do. Here u doesn't, it s just grindy.
  51. dromero88
    Feb 27, 2020
    6
    Es un juego un diez en cuanto a gráficos, diseños, música, y bueno en puzzles pero...
    En el intento de acercamiento a un sandbox, esa libertad de la que presume el juego hace que sea extremadamente sencillo a partir de las 5 primeras horas de juego, al ser tan sencillo, todas las misiones extra o santuarios para aumentar corazones, conseguir armaduras y armas potentes o mejores    Es un juego un diez en cuanto a gráficos, diseños, música, y bueno en puzzles pero...
    En el intento de acercamiento a un sandbox, esa libertad de la que presume el juego hace que sea extremadamente sencillo a partir de las 5 primeras horas de juego, al ser tan sencillo, todas las misiones extra o santuarios para aumentar corazones, conseguir armaduras y armas potentes o mejores ingredientes carecen de sentido, ya que con un nivel medio de equipamiento puedes asumir casi todos los retos, exceptuando los centaleones. Esto hace que la experiencia de exploración de un mundo tan grande resulte poco gratificante ya que el premio por hacerlo no es minimamente necesario.
    Si han intentado hacerlo mas RPG, se han quedado cortos en el sistema de progresión dándote todas las habilidades necesarias en la primera hora de juego. Como juego de Zelda, la desaparición de los clásicos templos relacionados a objetos concretos para progresar y las excentricidades en la narrativa, con una historia bastante típica, lo hacen irreconocible. Los personajes principales y secundarios, y que se profundice en ellos tan tan poco dejándolos planos en su mayoría, no ayuda.
    Es un juego está lejos de los mejores de la saga, donde la innovación se confunde con el tedio.    … Expand
  52. kinktwink
    Mar 16, 2020
    6
    I know a low(er) rating on Breath of the Wild is considered blasphemy in the gaming community, but I'm convinced this game just isn't my cup of tea. I really enjoy games with large, open, sprawling worlds and Breath of the Wild does promise this. However, the world here often feels flat and empty. The enemy encounters quickly became repetitive and boring and there simply wasn't enough toI know a low(er) rating on Breath of the Wild is considered blasphemy in the gaming community, but I'm convinced this game just isn't my cup of tea. I really enjoy games with large, open, sprawling worlds and Breath of the Wild does promise this. However, the world here often feels flat and empty. The enemy encounters quickly became repetitive and boring and there simply wasn't enough to actually do (besides struggle to climb mountains in the rain and complete an obscene amount of similar trials) to keep my interest. The visuals are gorgeous and it was certainly fun for the first handful of hours, but I eventually grew tired of doing the same things over and over again.… Expand
  53. Wulfy
    May 12, 2020
    6
    Well...what can I say. I wanted to like this game. But I guess it's just me. I didn't find this game entertaining enough for me to play...even 15 hours of it. I just got bored, i found that the narrative, of what I played of course, wasn't appealing to me at all. But I do respect the heavy work on gameplay, Nintendo have tried to make this game fun to play, and it is in some respects. ButWell...what can I say. I wanted to like this game. But I guess it's just me. I didn't find this game entertaining enough for me to play...even 15 hours of it. I just got bored, i found that the narrative, of what I played of course, wasn't appealing to me at all. But I do respect the heavy work on gameplay, Nintendo have tried to make this game fun to play, and it is in some respects. But I wish it was more diverse. Walking around finding shirnes does get a little old, and seems like theres limited variety in what you can find around the map. Its just shrines, settlements and a big ass volcano with Ganons castle. Yes, there are ruins and cool cinematics that go to Links past, but they are not incredibly interesting to me. As far as ruins go its mainly just broken down castles or stone structures, and most of all the Guardian robots that I feel like Ive seen enough of by 7 hours in. Now im not the biggest lover of RPGs of any sorts but I know what I find cool and appealing, and i also know what an RPG needs. This has all of it, but for me its lacking somewhere. The reason I don't much like RPGs is because I like the structure of a linear story...when its done right. In an RPG you do what quests you want at any time. Theres no proper route to the story, making it less of a believable experience. Games that do this well are TLOU and LiS, because their shorter stories are played out the way they should be, making the player on edge, rather than constantly making you feel like you're playing a digitalised checklist...like in an RPG. All im saying is that if you are not too fond of RPGs and want to play one...I would honestly play Skyrim or The Witcher 3 than this. Don't get me wrong, there are things I love about BOTW. The art-style is a joy to look at and take in, the inventory management system and some combat mechanics are good and enjoyable at some points. But some enemies I find lackluster, and I can't stop thinking about how the Guardians remind me of the Ball robot from the Incredibles. I'm sorry, I saw a meme once and now I can't unsee it. If you like BOTW, then great. Enjoy the game, but in my opinion, it's not the masterpiece that everyone says it is.… Expand
  54. Morrigan99
    Jun 17, 2020
    6
    I tried to like this game but I cannot. I like the inital exploring and walking around but after a while it gets really boring, really fast. (I'm 50 hours in) There is no sense of progression. You can do shrine quests (to get more hearts or stamina) but that gets very old after a while and there is no other way to improve those stats. If you find you don't like those shrines (like me) youI tried to like this game but I cannot. I like the inital exploring and walking around but after a while it gets really boring, really fast. (I'm 50 hours in) There is no sense of progression. You can do shrine quests (to get more hearts or stamina) but that gets very old after a while and there is no other way to improve those stats. If you find you don't like those shrines (like me) you are in for a bad time. You can also search for korok seeds to expand the inventory (which is also not very fun) or do some of the sidequest. (which are often fetch quests) The story is lackluster and you don't really get to care for the characters. The weapon system is the worst I've seen in a while - "burning" through weapons is not fun and rewarding in any way for me - you can get used to it but you'll end up not using certain cool weapons in fear they might break. This is not fun. I liked the paragliding and climbing in the game, as well some of the physics mechanics. The cooking and dyeing was cool but I missed more crafting mechanics like that, as well more armor and enemy variety. For someone who never played an open world game I could recommend it, for anybody else: be wary. Borrow it from a friend or something to see if you like it.… Expand
  55. Con1212
    Jun 9, 2021
    6
    The spoiler alert is that there is zero plot to spoil!!!!!

    Distinctly average. Lacks any kind of strong plot, characters have little to no development, and therefor no reason to care about them. The main antagonist has no reason, and really, gives no grief to the worlds inhabitants who live a cushty life style in their unharmed cities/towns/villages (of which there are very few) The    The spoiler alert is that there is zero plot to spoil!!!!!

    Distinctly average. Lacks any kind of strong plot, characters have little to no development, and therefor no reason to care about them. The main antagonist has no reason, and really, gives no grief to the worlds inhabitants who live a cushty life style in their unharmed cities/towns/villages (of which there are very few) The expansive open world is boring to traverse with very little to really see. Non of the extra grind for heart containers, weapons, shields etc feels compulsively like a must do! Having heard so much good about it, I’m struggling to find what game people were playing. It had a little charm, the animation and cell shaded look was, well, ok, but nothing mind blowing. In summary, a great concept that could have been stunning if the story wasn’t written by someone who quite obviously doesn’t know how to grab an audience    … Expand
  56. DingerDonger
    Jul 5, 2020
    6
    I really wanted to love this game. I wanted to be able to give it a perfect ten score. But try as I did, I could not ever get sucked into the game. Most of the time I just wished I was playing Skyrim instead.

    The two biggest bummers by far are the lack over music throughout the game and the fact that breakable weapons follow you all the way to the endgame. The former is what keeps me    I really wanted to love this game. I wanted to be able to give it a perfect ten score. But try as I did, I could not ever get sucked into the game. Most of the time I just wished I was playing Skyrim instead.

    The two biggest bummers by far are the lack over music throughout the game and the fact that breakable weapons follow you all the way to the endgame. The former is what keeps me from really being sucked in, and the latter just wastes so much of my time that I lose motivation to play,    … Expand
  57. Trashpanda25
    Sep 24, 2021
    6
    One of the most beautiful Zelda's to date. Lots of fun mechanics and great additions to this game including some great gliding and shield surfing. There's tons of classic Zelda gameplay as well and fun puzzles with multiple ways to solve them creatively.

    I'd argue it's one of the best games ever... except the inventory system is so infuriating that I consistently log off the game. I    One of the most beautiful Zelda's to date. Lots of fun mechanics and great additions to this game including some great gliding and shield surfing. There's tons of classic Zelda gameplay as well and fun puzzles with multiple ways to solve them creatively.

    I'd argue it's one of the best games ever... except the inventory system is so infuriating that I consistently log off the game. I can't play it long. I havn't beaten it and I walk away from it for weeks or months because of the inventory and weapons breaking system. I hate it so much and is one of the biggest misses in the history of video games.

    I felt this way with skyward sword and it's controller mechanics. To this day that's only other Zelda game that I have not beaten (besides the weird 3d0 PC games that came out woof).

    A huge swing for Nintendo and a huge miss with the weapons and inventory. Disappointing.    … Expand
  58. svensenk86
    Feb 15, 2021
    6
    well to be honest, I don`t know when to rate this game a 10, I bought it because of the overwhelming numbers it got here, but at the end, it is a Nintendo game with typical Nintendo sounds, mid graphics and a story which seems very standard for me. seems like it is more for kids, but when you grew up with Elder Scrolls, Gothic, Kotor, then this game cannot be a serious threat for them. Iwell to be honest, I don`t know when to rate this game a 10, I bought it because of the overwhelming numbers it got here, but at the end, it is a Nintendo game with typical Nintendo sounds, mid graphics and a story which seems very standard for me. seems like it is more for kids, but when you grew up with Elder Scrolls, Gothic, Kotor, then this game cannot be a serious threat for them. I mean it is nice and simple, no bad things there, cute monsters. But I do not like this typical Nintendo stuff with anime looking chars and why the hell I have to read dialogues in todays games? they make stupid sounds when they "speak" like a broken babyphone noise at the beginning, no this is not my standard. But it is anyones opinion, I have tried it, I think I will never finish it though.… Expand
  59. Shenandoah
    Dec 25, 2020
    6
    Zelda BOTW is probably the most overrated game on the Switch. Don‘t understand me wrong, the game is not bad at all, but it has some weaks, like: broke items a way too fast, repetitive world with less attractions, less towns and less NPC‘s, less diversity at all. The rare story elements did not catch me. The color tone of the game is a bit muddy and needs some more vibrant colors. I‘m alsoZelda BOTW is probably the most overrated game on the Switch. Don‘t understand me wrong, the game is not bad at all, but it has some weaks, like: broke items a way too fast, repetitive world with less attractions, less towns and less NPC‘s, less diversity at all. The rare story elements did not catch me. The color tone of the game is a bit muddy and needs some more vibrant colors. I‘m also pretty sure that the game world isn‘t rendered at 1080p in dock mode, the antialiasing looks terrible. It has no option for „new game +“. The game and its extensions are too pricy 3 years after release.… Expand
  60. mtkf
    Sep 4, 2021
    6
    This game is OK, but highly over rated. As far as Zelda games go, the puzzles are either super easy or super frustrating, but most are not fun and are surrounded in these bland boring looking shrines. The music is almost NON EXISTENT which is an absolute crime in a Zelda game. Besides the divine beasts and ganon, there are about 5 different enemy models. Hang gliding is fun, but climbingThis game is OK, but highly over rated. As far as Zelda games go, the puzzles are either super easy or super frustrating, but most are not fun and are surrounded in these bland boring looking shrines. The music is almost NON EXISTENT which is an absolute crime in a Zelda game. Besides the divine beasts and ganon, there are about 5 different enemy models. Hang gliding is fun, but climbing mountains is not. Weapons constantly break. The open world is barren, empty and uninspiring. I've tried so hard to love this game, I've put many many hours into it and overall I just think it's a decent action rpg without any REAL Zelda charm.… Expand
  61. MiroirNoir
    Nov 18, 2020
    6
    Is it kind of lame to play the contrarian and dunk on a beloved game? Yes it is.
    But after putting in many, many hours into this game I feel like I have earned the
    right to voice my complaints. Now, I don't think I have to spend too much time on the positives, as they've already been praised enough. This beautiful fantasy world really does feel more alive than in pretty much any    Is it kind of lame to play the contrarian and dunk on a beloved game? Yes it is.
    But after putting in many, many hours into this game I feel like I have earned the
    right to voice my complaints.

    Now, I don't think I have to spend too much time on the positives, as they've already
    been praised enough.
    This beautiful fantasy world really does feel more alive than in pretty much any game I've played before and the things you can do within this world are very engaging. In other words: The game really has a "feel", if you will. It has its own style and just walking around, interacting with the game world is fascinating.

    Exploration is rewarded (kinda) and there are tons of quests and secrets to be discovered. I'm just not sure if the rewards are worth the effort. More inventory space, a new weapon that will break after 10 hits or a health container - to me, that's not incredibly motivating. But maybe that's different for you.

    But here's the thing. All of this is in service of a story that is completely forgettable. And I think the problem lies in the fact, that most of the really interesting things in the story have already happened by the point Link wakes up and the player takes control. You effectively run around in a desolate world shaped by fascinating events, but you only ever learn of them through reading stuff, listening to characters talk about them and watching flashback sequences.
    The characters are all flat and there's no way to really form a bond with these cardboard cut outs.
    The central conflict in the flashbacks revolves around Princess Zelda's feelings of self-doubt, which could've been interesting if you, the player, were actively involved in that drama or affected by it. But it all happened in the past and so you just watch a spoiled princess whine about how she doesn't feel ready to take responsibility. Now, maybe it's because I'm a guy and my parents aren't royalty, but I really have a hard time empathizing with that. Not great storytelling, to be honest.

    My next big complaint is in regards to some of the game play mechanics. The game can make the simplest of tasks feel frustrating:

    Oh, you're trying to climb this mountain while your stamina keeps steadily decreasing? How about some rain, that'll make you slip and fall to your death?

    Oh, you could really use a horse to speed up travel right now? Well, tough sh*t - your horse needs to be within hearing distance - no really! - in order for it to come find you.

    You found this really cool weapon? Let's see just how quickly it'll break. Will it take 10 or 15 before it breaks? Find out in the next really tough battle!

    Now I, for one, don't think any of those mechanics are fun. I feel like they're wasting my time and they're frustrating. But I get it. The devs wanted to make this a realistic adventure experience.

    But this is where the biggest flaw of the game comes into play: a contradiction at the heart of this game that it never manages to overcome.

    So on the one hand, you have this living, breathing world and all those survival mechanics that make interacting with it feel meaningful. You can freeze to death if you don't wear warm (or magic) clothes, you have to tame horses before riding them and you have to cook food before it becomes really effective.

    But on the other hand, this game is trying to keep true to its roots, and so you still have heart containers, dungeons and all the Zelda things that long-time fans have come to expect.
    And since those elements all come from a time where games had technical limitations and game play took priority over immersion, they feel incredibly out of place in this fantasy world.

    The game never lets you feel completely immersed. Every time you pick up a floating heart container, every time you enter one of the - oof! - 120 puzzle shrines and every time you think for a second about how weird it is that the economy of this world runs on gems, you are reminded that you're playing a game. Because in all three of those cases, the explanation for why they chose to do things that way is: because that's part of the brand.

    And those two elements: "Zelda" the traditional franchise and "Zelda BotW" the modern game copying the latest trend of survival games never really mesh together and I am utterly convinced that a majority of people is blinded by their nostalgia to not see that.

    This is a good game. Maybe even a great game. But it's so far from being a master piece that I cannot take anyone seriously, who declares it as such. Saying this is ONE OF THE BEST GAMES EVER is, simply put, lowering the bar. And I don't think that's a good thing because we should ask for more.    … Expand
  62. Krockys
    Feb 22, 2022
    6
    Very good gameplay mechanics and Shrines, but without of this nothing special. Its too poorly elements for game in my opinion. Need something more than this. Hope sequel is being give more than first part.
  63. Hewron
    Mar 28, 2021
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game is really overrated!
    The story is ok, combat is annoying, enemies are far too obnoxious to fight, bosses are actually kinda cool except for ganon in his second phase and the divine beasts were god-awful. The worst one was the fire one. Jesus christ. Looking back at the game it was not worth the 60$ price tag.    … Expand
  64. ThatguyUknow
    Apr 14, 2021
    6
    As a game, it's good but poorly implemented grind (to showcase features of hardware) and weapon deterioration, as a LOZ game, it's terrible because it's story felt like it got thrown in late in the game's development so what little story we did get was reminiscent of Destiny 1's launch story. My gripe of lack of character maybe because it's a massive world and so the characters of theAs a game, it's good but poorly implemented grind (to showcase features of hardware) and weapon deterioration, as a LOZ game, it's terrible because it's story felt like it got thrown in late in the game's development so what little story we did get was reminiscent of Destiny 1's launch story. My gripe of lack of character maybe because it's a massive world and so the characters of the world are spread out.… Expand
  65. MatchlockSamura
    Apr 15, 2021
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I do not understand why this game has so many 10 and 9 reviews. In my opinion, most things that 10 and 9 reviewers say is not true or at least shows inexperience with games - and what's more - Zelda games.

    Let me start by saying what many "negative" or mediocre reviews say: this game isn't bad. It's actually pretty good on its own. But it's a terrible Zelda game. It really is. I came into this game expecting an amazing way to experience what I experienced in Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time, etc. That did not happen, and if you're hoping for that, well you'll be as disappointed as me, sorry to say.

    1. Exploration: That's the number one feature of this game. You explore, you see incredibly beautiful things, you climb mountains, soar the skies and swim up rivers. It's the definition of adventure. But here's the negative bit: it's. REALLY. boring. I don't know why, but there are very few rewards for exploring. What you get are Korok Seeds that you find throughout the map (there are over 900 of these lol) and you find Shrines. Korok Seeds get pretty pointless midway into the game because the upgrades you use them on get so expensive. But, this is what you get for exploring. Scenery, shrines and a pretty meh currency. That's it. You very very VERY rarely get unique weapons, clothes, or anything else for that matter.

    2. Shrines: These are not fun. Please stop praising them. 80% of them are puzzles made either by or for children, 10% are just a freebee with no level and 10% are obscure puzzles (like the constellations one) that you will probably go online to see how to solve.

    3. Story: People say the story, cutscenes and whatnot are very compelling. They are not. This is the most basic Zelda formula since the first Zelda. It's literally "Gather X Y Z W and save Zelda." I will, however, praise the freedom. The game is anything but linear, at least (which can be confusing at times, but it's alright). None of the characters are particularly interesting nor captivating but I suppose that's a matter of perspective. I find myself skipping 70% of the dialogue, and the cutscenes are some cringy **** sometimes. I don't know why there's voice acting either. Another "new" feature that has never been in a LoZ game, added for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

    4. Music: The music is also very lackluster. It's quiet, and I respect what they were going for, but it's just too bland for me. Zelda has always had beautiful orchestral or woodwind scores, and for this game they heavily relied on the piano and silence. I personally really dislike it. Climbing a giant mountain in silence is really dull.

    Now here's why this game is not a Zelda game:

    There are no dungeons with mini-bosses and cool unique items.

    There is no rolling.

    There is no green tunic/hat unless you do all the shrines.

    Most themes from past games aren't there.

    The Triforce barely ever gets mentioned despite being consistently central to the series.

    There are no unique bosses. Most "bosses" you fight are aspects of Ganon or overworld big mobs that you can find more than once or twice throughout the world.

    There is no main gimmick like in many other LoZ game. In TP you can become a Wolf. In Minish Cap you become tiny and explore the world in that perspective. In OoT you travel time. In BotW there is nothing of the sort.

    There is NO companion like Midna, Navi, Tatl, Fi, King of Red Lions, Ezlo, nothing. You play the game on your own, basically. Which is AWFUL because Link's companions have always been there to fill in the silence. Link never speaks and barely has any reaction to anything. The companions have always filled that void with their intricate personalities or interesting input. This is no more in BOTW.

    There is voice acting.

    Regular ****ty mobs can one shot you a lot of the times.

    There are health bars for some reason.

    I could fill a small book with many other complaints about this game, and I wish people would read it and stop looking at this game with such dramatic and in my opinion misguided opinions. Fanboys of the game tend to call negative opinions bots or triggered rivalry or even worse, "purists" for criticising the odd, new formula the game follows. It's a terrible witch-huntish way of thinking that curbs any and all discussion this game might summon.

    I was very hyped to play it until I figured 5 hours into it that it just wasn't the type of game I wanted or thought it would be: a Zelda game. Many will call me a purist and say the old Zelda formula was stale: I disagree wholeheartedly. The "old" "formula" was Zelda's identity, and in my eyes, Nintendo has made BotW to be a generic open world RPG with no particular identity. It does nothing new, at best it improves features that other games had before it. It's a beautiful and alright standalone game, but it's certainly not groundbreaking and certainly not a 10, not by a longshot. It's likely the worst Zelda game in years.    … Expand
  66. MaddoxWhite
    Apr 24, 2021
    6
    Oh boy. People are gonna hate me for this.

    I understand people LOVE this game. I'm just sharing my really terrible opinion. Please look away if you like this game. Ight? Ight. It's a pretty decent game, but it just feels too empty. You just run around looking for more weapons after your old ones break. It's too different from the older games for me to enjoy it. The changes are all    Oh boy. People are gonna hate me for this.

    I understand people LOVE this game. I'm just sharing my really terrible opinion. Please look away if you like this game. Ight? Ight.

    It's a pretty decent game, but it just feels too empty. You just run around looking for more weapons after your old ones break. It's too different from the older games for me to enjoy it. The changes are all just not what I prefer personally. More open is NOT what I like in games. Sorry.    … Expand
  67. Jattaman
    Sep 17, 2022
    6
    Forse prende voti così alti perchè si chiama Zelda.
    Mondo di gioco inutilmente grande, vuoto e dispersivo.
    Nemici poco vari nelle dinamiche. Armi che, seppur differenti nell'aspetto, sono molto simili tra loro nell'utilizzo. Trama piatta e personaggi poco ispirati. Missioni secondarie poco interessanti. Dungeon principali solo "discreti". Dinamiche di gioco e controlli poco    Forse prende voti così alti perchè si chiama Zelda.
    Mondo di gioco inutilmente grande, vuoto e dispersivo.
    Nemici poco vari nelle dinamiche.
    Armi che, seppur differenti nell'aspetto, sono molto simili tra loro nell'utilizzo.
    Trama piatta e personaggi poco ispirati.
    Missioni secondarie poco interessanti.
    Dungeon principali solo "discreti".
    Dinamiche di gioco e controlli poco ispirati.
    Bellissimo invece lo stile grafico.
    Gioco non completato: dopo circa 10-12 ore ne ho avuto abbastanza.    … Expand
  68. shadowbocksin
    Nov 5, 2021
    6
    The game is a 6/10 and once you take off the fanboy goggles the game isn't the 10 it deserves, okay maybe I should add more to that. The game is 6/10 IF you played other zelda games and other and better open world games and I've done both while not fanboying over this game. So you might be thinking "why would I give this a 6/10" and you're more and likely quick to get fanboy elitist likeThe game is a 6/10 and once you take off the fanboy goggles the game isn't the 10 it deserves, okay maybe I should add more to that. The game is 6/10 IF you played other zelda games and other and better open world games and I've done both while not fanboying over this game. So you might be thinking "why would I give this a 6/10" and you're more and likely quick to get fanboy elitist like fanboys do nowadays thinking I'm some troll but no, compare this game to other zelda games and the only thing it does right is the open world AND THAT'S IT.

    It does story in the WORST WAY POSSIBLE not just for legend of zelda standards but for gaming standards in general. The story is optional, let me repeat that, the story is optional. Now I understand zelda isn't really about story that much but again compare this to other zelda games like ocarina, majora's mask, wind waker, and twilight princess and it makes no sense why the story is something that can be ignored.

    The game play is decent that's it, I'm not gonna go to far into it but it just does things that are basic like wall climbing, sprinting, and freedom to do fight however you want.

    The game is way to easy to the point you're not punished for anything and don't sit there telling me about how you died because that tells me you didn't use (abuse) the cooking system and the stupidly endless amount of ways to help yourself out in a fight. In past zelda games if you died it's because of a certain curveball that was thrown your way unexpectedly but here it's mostly because "I thought the healing/defensive/offensive items I had were enough" which I found that I never ran out of. Again I understand games have to be casual to attract a certain crowd but BoTW is so casual that people go in as their first zelda game and walk out thinking the games have always been this childish of a baby's first open world game that makes even star fox adventures look like ninja gaiden.

    The shrines are dumb, stupidly easy, pointless unless you REALLY want the master sword, and not worth it at all since you can still increase your health (temporarily) with potions and food. Now what does shrines have to do with health? When you complete a shrine you get a spirit orb, collect four and you can either increase health or stamina, both of which aren't really needed for the completion of the game since you can just use potions and food to do that for you.

    The dumbest one of all that gets defended the most by fanboys, the weapon durability. Compare the weapon durability to something like elder scrolls and if you still defend how quick the weapons break then you're a deluded pathetic fanboy. There is no reason a sword should break by swinging at the air (I'm not even kidding) and by all means please go and explain that I'll grab a chair and listen to whatever pathetic excuse you have for that. And shockingly, the master sword doesn't break but has to "recharge" which wouldn't be so bad if you still could use the sword just as a weaker variant but you can't. It just becomes unusable for 20 minutes and by the time you get it if you decide to go after it the thing does pathetic damage, all that hard work for a sword that does as much damage as a basic hyrule sword and less than the other more powerful weapons.

    Overall the game isn't even that good it's just beautiful to look at, enemy variety is basic, like PS1 basic. Have you seen grandma's boy? You know that part where the asian guy tells JP about re-coloring the enemies to save time and not have to re-design them? Yeah that's what it is here like they took a page out of a typical mario game and slapped it on here and before you go "well this is nintendo they always do this" then it means you haven't played any nintendo game outside mario, pokemon, and zelda. At the time of this games release sure it MIGHT've been something worth playing on switch because there wasn't much worth playing till splatoon 2 or Xenoblade 2 dropped but now? Amongst the entire library available? I can think of five better open world games and that was just a 2 second quick thought process, also keep in mind this is a wii u game and even for wii u Xenoblade Chronicles X is FAR more interesting than this and offers a BETTER open world experience with a BETTER VARIETY OF ENEMIES native to each new location.

    For that true legend of zelda experience this ain't it chief unless you just want to experience the open world of hyrule that this game offers which is the ONLY highlight of the game, everything else is just mediocre and doesn't compare to other open world games.    … Expand
  69. Mike_Rotch
    Oct 28, 2021
    6
    The second worst Zelda game I’ve played. Story is not great. Glitchy. Controls are not reliable. 20% actual game. 80% hide and seek. This game should be called hide and seek Zelda. Needs more focus on the story and main quests. There is a reason why they are called side quests. You can beat the actual game at 25% completion. The rest is just a hide and seek map game. Not Zelda. HopefullyThe second worst Zelda game I’ve played. Story is not great. Glitchy. Controls are not reliable. 20% actual game. 80% hide and seek. This game should be called hide and seek Zelda. Needs more focus on the story and main quests. There is a reason why they are called side quests. You can beat the actual game at 25% completion. The rest is just a hide and seek map game. Not Zelda. Hopefully they change that in the next Zelda which I hope is not Breath of the wild 2. Still my favorite game series but they had the wrong ideas on this one. Lazy developers. Shame. Also the game literally floats around you having to buy amiibos. Unreal.… Expand
  70. Taesito
    Mar 4, 2022
    6
    Not bad if you haven't played Elden Ring. But if you have played Elden Ring then it doesn't feel that good.
  71. Zer0xl
    Feb 27, 2022
    6
    This game is ok, but it's not what i expect from a "Zelda game", the dungeons are awful, the story is weak, the shrines are repetitive, the games handles you the whole weapon arsenal which kills the sense of progression of past zelda games, the sidequest are bland. It's a revolutionary game for sure, but not by much, and this game doesn't give me what i wanted from a zelda game that isThis game is ok, but it's not what i expect from a "Zelda game", the dungeons are awful, the story is weak, the shrines are repetitive, the games handles you the whole weapon arsenal which kills the sense of progression of past zelda games, the sidequest are bland. It's a revolutionary game for sure, but not by much, and this game doesn't give me what i wanted from a zelda game that is supposed to be "The Best Game of All Time".… Expand
  72. thomanime
    Nov 26, 2021
    6
    Probably the most overrated game of the last 10 years. It has many solid aspects, as art direction, animations, and in my opinion, combat, but the repetition and design problems in this game go much deeper than the good aspects. There are pretty much two types of enemies in the open-world of Breath of the Wild, Bokoblins and Lizalfos. And that's such a weird decision for me, because thereProbably the most overrated game of the last 10 years. It has many solid aspects, as art direction, animations, and in my opinion, combat, but the repetition and design problems in this game go much deeper than the good aspects. There are pretty much two types of enemies in the open-world of Breath of the Wild, Bokoblins and Lizalfos. And that's such a weird decision for me, because there are many types of enemies in the game, but 99% of the population of the game is these two. Of course, there are various variations of these enemies in each region of the game, depending on the climate, but still, they have the same A.I. pretty much. It's fun for the first couple of hours, and considering how much variety the combat can have with sheikah state habilities, even more than that, but it eventually drains out. Doesn't matter how beautiful and interesting an open-world is, if there is the same type of enemy everywhere. Another overrated aspect of this game is exploration. I remember having really high expectations for the exploration of this game at the start, until I realized the only new thing you find is loot that will break in 3 hits, and...shrines. Some shrines work very well and are fun, especially considering how dynamic and flexible some of them can be, but those that are less flexible and depend on controller movement are just boring. And in general, they could be way more difficult.
    The weapons are also too fragile, and, the game uses that as an excuse for everyone to try new and different weapons, which is pretty valid by itself, but every weapon feel like it's made out of wood. There's no reward hunting new and better weapons, because all of them break in a feel hits. They could get rid of this system entirely, which would already make it more fun, because as much as it was made thinking about variation, in the end, everyone keeps some good weapons in the inventory and uses only the bad ones, because we don't want it to break. Another option would be making the bad weapons very fragile, and the good ones resist hundreds of hits. Or just make the better weapons unbreakable. That way you would try various weapons at the start of the game and then keep using the ones you know are good and more fun.

    Another problem related to design is the divine beasts. They look very interesting, I like their start, but the puzzles are just...awful. Badly designed, not making clear what your goal is. They are basically giant shrines, but, worse. And the boss battles are interesting until you realize all four are the same. It also serves as a base to the history, but, there's pretty much no history in BOTW. Everything is lore, there's pretty much nothing envolving the modern link and how he is adapting to the loss of memory, it's all about the stuff that happened with him 100 years ago, which makes the player disconnected with the world.

    The world is also way too bloated in relation to the content. You will expend most of the time of the game floating through air or riding a horse. It's just too little content spread out, unlike a game like The Witcher 3 for example, the density of the game just doesn't compensate the content.

    I could go on and on about how they could improve the systems and make the history, characters, boss battles, and weapons more interesting, but this is already a good enough summary of what I think. I hope Nintendo learns lessons with this game.    … Expand
  73. B00tador
    Nov 28, 2021
    6
    Maybe it was the wrong time for me, but I do not get the love for this game. Terrible dungeons and lack of purpose counteract all the positives around the game. The game being designed around an in-game "Wii U gamepad" irritated me no end as well.
  74. jELeeoo
    Feb 6, 2022
    6
    It seemed promising at first, but every aspect of this game has been outplayed by prior titles (except for graphics). This game is mostly proud of how big its open world is, but not what's actually in it, all you'll find is a barren wasteland that reminds you that the story you wish this game could have took place 100 years prior.
  75. Angelfuk83
    May 11, 2023
    6
    Un mundo abierto algo vacío, a veces no sabes muy bien dónde hay que ir, las batallas no son gran cosa y a veces provoca una sensación de aburrimiento atravesando zonas, como ocurre con el death stranding de ps4
  76. Snowyiscool45
    Mar 20, 2022
    6
    it was all right I enjoyed the gliding part i played on an emulator so the game looked better than usual
  77. klambert
    Jun 14, 2022
    6
    This game could be much better. They did a good number of things right, combat is entertaining, exploring the world is great, there are numerous ways to travel at various speeds both intended and otherwise, the abilities and weapons have a lot of variety. The shrines have a number of unique puzzles.

    Unfortunately, they did a hell of a lot wrong too. They put weather that makes climbing    This game could be much better. They did a good number of things right, combat is entertaining, exploring the world is great, there are numerous ways to travel at various speeds both intended and otherwise, the abilities and weapons have a lot of variety. The shrines have a number of unique puzzles.

    Unfortunately, they did a hell of a lot wrong too.

    They put weather that makes climbing impossible, that occasionally lasts for multiple straight days in game (two hours + real time where you're locked out of multiple game mechanics for literally no reason), in a game where 80% of your time early game is spent trying to climb things. Resting doesn't even always clear it, even if there was somewhere to reast nearby. Late game, you don't have to worry about it at all. This entire concept serves no legitimate purpose, it's an annoyance and a needless waste of time early game, and entirely pointless late game. Utter waste of time continuously fast traveling back and forth to rest repeatedly 2-10 times to clear rain so you can travel upward five feet.

    Durability. Makes. No. Sense.
    Seriously. The implementation is absolute garbage. "This weapon has low durability". So why is it in the game? To waste inventory space? Nobody is ever going to use it, partly because there's no indication of how much durability is left a la literally any game that's ever had a durability system, and partly because nobody is ever going to use anything with durability after they get the master sword because there's no durability indicators. "But muh weapon diversity". Congratulations. You made me use five different sticks to kill one enemy. "Diversity".

    Motion control shrines are a horrible idea horribly implemented that are mostly just cheesed because the intended implementation was a complete failure.

    It's a decent game. But it's not a good *Zelda* game.    … Expand
  78. Robephiles
    Jul 24, 2022
    6
    This game is probably amazing if you are the kind of person who really loves Zelda, and love a big open sandbox game like Skyrim. Me, I tried this game due to the hype, and it was one of the first Switch games I bought. I played forty hours of it, so can't say I didn't get my money's worth, plus the game is beautiful. However, I did not finish it. Lack of a story, an empty open world, andThis game is probably amazing if you are the kind of person who really loves Zelda, and love a big open sandbox game like Skyrim. Me, I tried this game due to the hype, and it was one of the first Switch games I bought. I played forty hours of it, so can't say I didn't get my money's worth, plus the game is beautiful. However, I did not finish it. Lack of a story, an empty open world, and breakable weapons bugged me more than most people. So my experience was very mixed.… Expand
  79. SaltyMarky
    Jun 9, 2023
    6
    BOTW is a game you play through gritted teeth.

    The game is incredibly mean-spirited and frustrating. The combat is basic and link has very few avoidance mechanics, leaving him standing there, dumbly unable to get out of the way of an instakill swipe from a early-game bokoblins. You are beset by mobs and then skeletons spawn from the ground to make it worst, you are then backed into a    BOTW is a game you play through gritted teeth.

    The game is incredibly mean-spirited and frustrating. The combat is basic and link has very few avoidance mechanics, leaving him standing there, dumbly unable to get out of the way of an instakill swipe from a early-game bokoblins. You are beset by mobs and then skeletons spawn from the ground to make it worst, you are then backed into a corner as the camera is pushed, dark-souls-like, into the back of link's head as he auto attaches to the wall, leaving you wondering why you can't do anything as an enemy kills you in one strike. The starting stamina is atrocious and is too slow to come back. Link doesn't simply move to where you want him to, but he does a little semi-circle circuitous move that punts you off of cliffs and makes it impossible to get onto ladders. All of this stuff came from skyward sword - the worst Zelda game.

    I used to think that they could improve all of this for the next Zelda game. I now know different. Screw you, Nintendo!    … Expand
  80. roaches_7789
    Oct 13, 2022
    6
    I don't hate this game, and I think it has solid enough core mechanics, I was just very bored while playing it. Most of the game consists of walking and climbing, which I didn't find fun. The enemies lack variety and are all just recolored versions of the same ten or so enemies. The combat is pretty good but the weapon durability makes it frustrating. The story is basically non-existent.I don't hate this game, and I think it has solid enough core mechanics, I was just very bored while playing it. Most of the game consists of walking and climbing, which I didn't find fun. The enemies lack variety and are all just recolored versions of the same ten or so enemies. The combat is pretty good but the weapon durability makes it frustrating. The story is basically non-existent. Again, I don't hate this game or anything, and I think a solid sequel could fix all of these problems, and I would recommend it if it looks interesting to you.… Expand
  81. 34elraaK
    Mar 21, 2023
    6
    walking simulator 2017 with a few things, havent really found the substance
  82. Renatopd
    May 12, 2023
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. E um jogo bem divertido...mas está com péssimo desempenho no switch, chegado há rodar abaixo de 20fps (e chega ha atrapalhar em algumas partes do game), até onde eu joguei grande parte do mapa do game é o mesmo do zelda anterior, é os gráficos estão praticamente o mesmo do jogo anterior, evoluiu muito pouco neste aspecto!

    A Nintendo precisa com urgência de um console com um hardware atual, e o zelda mostra isso claramente!    … Expand
  83. Nico_C
    May 14, 2023
    6
    Muy sobrevalorado. Inflaron algo que supone es revolucionario y ya estaba en wi u.
  84. daidalus33
    May 18, 2023
    6
    where the world is heading? Rating empty spaces with just puzzles and hidden objects 10/10....
  85. Stofi
    Jun 10, 2023
    6
    Well technically made, few good ideas and nice graphical style, but the game is empy without contend and overall boring. There is proclaimed freedom but nothing to do with that freedom. No quests or interesting activities.
  86. mitchferal
    Aug 30, 2023
    6
    The game I bought the Switch for.

    Bad stuff: - this game feels like playing World of Warcraft in Legion without a guild. Essentially the same cycle of activities, but with dramatically worse music. - there's no story here at all. I've gotten so used to AAA games being sweeping, emotional narratives, with engaging characters, wading into this quiet sandbox was disorienting. I havent    The game I bought the Switch for.

    Bad stuff:
    - this game feels like playing World of Warcraft in Legion without a guild. Essentially the same cycle of activities, but with dramatically worse music.
    - there's no story here at all. I've gotten so used to AAA games being sweeping, emotional narratives, with engaging characters, wading into this quiet sandbox was disorienting. I havent played a Zelda game since Ocarina of Time, so it might have been a misunderstanding on my part of what I was getting into, but this story is shallow to the point of tedium.
    - Almost everything is extremely easy - and then some random things are so absurdly difficult as to seem like you've started playing a different game. Not my favorite phenomena.
    - Just make the frigging horse magic. Just let me summon the horse wherever. I shouldnt have to buy a DLC to have basic transportation be fun and easy when the game covers such impossible distances. Everything about the horses is cool, except the sheer impossibility of using them with any regularity. In a game that wants me to treat my horse like a trusted companion, I ended up swapping them out like cars in GTA. Dreadful design.
    - Cooking is extremely endearing until it is agonizing. Terrible interface for something you have to do so much of, and while the noise they came up with for it is very good, there are limits - if a method of bulk cooking had been included, I suspect I never would have tired of the cooking music. Dreadful design.
    - No fishing pole. What on earth possessed them to not include a fishing pole?
    - The DLCs are just stuff they left out of the game. Nothing new, it's all stuff that genuinely should have been in the game, that already cost 70 dollars. Nasty business.

    Good stuff:
    - The puzzles, and the tools and interface for those puzzles, are magical. I never, ever wanted the shrines to end. Dazzling, imaginative work, Im only sad they werent more difficult, and more plentiful. Not worth 70 dollars, bc there simply isnt enough of them, but definitely the thing that best recommends the game.
    - the slate abilities, even outside the puzzles, are wonderfully good fun, and feel fresh and engaging long after everything else has faded.
    - It's a very pretty place to spend time.
    - Some really terrific set-pieces; the four big 'dungeons' felt great.
    - A quality of wonder and scale that is hard to overstate.

    I think if I hadnt kept playing WoW after my core group of friends moved on, and thus suffered the resource grind cycle of that game for so many hours, this one wouldnt have bothered me so much. But I did. And some design choices feel, even now, however many hours through, completely inexplicable - made worse when they rectified a number of them, but wanted me to pay to get them. Terrible cost to joy ratio when considered against most big titles.    … Expand
  87. DarthPadme
    Mar 3, 2017
    5
    It's not a bad game, but the performance from something that looks this mediocre should not be allowed in 2017. Don't get me wrong, I like this game, and I enjoyed playing it, which is why I'm giving it a 5. But running at 30 FPS is already bad, and with FREQUENT dips to the teens and low twenties just from running around in some grass (nevermind setting the grass on fire, or engaging inIt's not a bad game, but the performance from something that looks this mediocre should not be allowed in 2017. Don't get me wrong, I like this game, and I enjoyed playing it, which is why I'm giving it a 5. But running at 30 FPS is already bad, and with FREQUENT dips to the teens and low twenties just from running around in some grass (nevermind setting the grass on fire, or engaging in combat in the rain), my gameplay was SEVERELY detracted from. This happens on both the Wii U and the Switch. Nintendo needs to get out of the hardware game, and develop their titles for PC so we can actually enjoy looking at them and playing them. It is maddening that titles with frame rate issues this severe are still allowed to persist, and yet still get universal praise. Wake up.… Expand
  88. MikComposer
    Apr 22, 2023
    5
    It's not bad, but it's boring. Very boring. And even more annoying then boring. It is not the Zelda game I like. To much running around for nothing. I don't think I will be completing it. Previous Zelda's where much more driven and to the point.
  89. ihatecheez
    May 10, 2017
    5
    breath of the broken weapon, crappy controls, barely any story and repetitive gameplay. nintendo should stop relying on gimmicks and should focus on whats become industry standards
  90. voiders
    Mar 6, 2017
    5
    Ladies and gentlemen please welcome the most overrated game of all time!
    A simple Zelda game with a good world and physics but with a PS2 graphic!
    The funny part is this game has the exacly same camera problems from Final Fantasy XV. The camera is manual, the moviment is not relative and the objects between the camera and the character are allways solid. So you can't see link with a    Ladies and gentlemen please welcome the most overrated game of all time!
    A simple Zelda game with a good world and physics but with a PS2 graphic!
    The funny part is this game has the exacly same camera problems from Final Fantasy XV.
    The camera is manual, the moviment is not relative and the objects between the camera and the character are allways solid. So you can't see link with a tree is in front of he. Every reviewer complain about this problem in FFXV and in Zelda 'ow it's perfect'.
    Just a normal game nothing else. People pick a lot of hype and fanboysm to make other people thing that game is perfect. It's even can handle 30 FPS.    … Expand
  91. Spazzh20
    Nov 18, 2017
    5
    Breath of the wild wastes no time attempting to suck you into its world with gorgeous visuals and music. But don’t be fooled it doesn’t matter how beautiful the icing is that you put on a cake, if the cake is made of poop.
    The phrase Jack of all trades master of none is the best way I can describe Zelda Breath Of The Wild. It tries so many different things but none of them are ever fully    Breath of the wild wastes no time attempting to suck you into its world with gorgeous visuals and music. But don’t be fooled it doesn’t matter how beautiful the icing is that you put on a cake, if the cake is made of poop.
    The phrase Jack of all trades master of none is the best way I can describe Zelda Breath Of The Wild. It tries so many different things but none of them are ever fully developed. It feels as though Nintendo just took a bunch ideas for different smartphone games and compiled them into a $60 AAA game that tries to be so many things that it lacks its own identity.

    Upon starting the game and awaking from your 100 year slumber you will most likely try to start up the main quest. However in order to do so you must first complete a side quest for an old man who tells you that you must complete a task for him so that he will give you the means of transportation that you need to explore this world. After completing it he tells me that he wants me to do more for him in exchange for a paraglider and the game forces you to obey if you want to traverse the world. At this point less than 1 hour into the game, it already felt extremely flawed. In a game like Skyrim if someone tries to screw you over you can fight them and change the course of the game. Sure they might not like you but that’s the point of an open world game, making every decision feel like your own. If I was link I would have said **** you old man give me the Paraglider or I’ll stomp your ass into the ground.”

    A true open world game would let you make decisions that affect people's perception of you and make the game easier or harder depending on your choices. Sure some people in the game might not like you if you don’t help them, but I can’t think of a time when not helping someone lead to a moment in the story where that person wants revenge or tries to make your life difficult. When I think of the term “next gen Zelda” I thought that Nintendo would finally give you choices that stuck with you and made you contemplate the morality of the situation. Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a situation where you had to lie to someone or betray someone who trusted you to get what you wanted, and then choosing to do so made them detest you throughout the rest of the game? Or how about giving you the option to not kill certain enemies, and bosses, and those same enemies and bosses end up helping you against the game’s final boss.

    But hey it’s not the story right it’s gameplay that matters, and boy does Zelda Breath Of The Wild
    have a lot of it. And somehow Nintendo managed to make the gameplay both too primitive and too complicated at the same time.
    One of the games features is letting you cut down trees with weapons for wood. When I stumbled across an enemy standing on top of a makeshift wooden ramp I thought to myself that I would be able to cut the thin wooden beams holding it up but when I tried it wouldn’t work. So you're telling me that Link is strong enough to cut down a massive oak tree with just 2 swings of an axe but a makeshift ramp that is clumsily put together with thin wooden support beams can’t be cut down.

    I remember PS2 games that let you destroy wooden guard posts. “Next Gen” my ass.
    Also why does swimming slowly cause you to lose stamina. Just like in Skyward Sword you have a stamina bar and it depletes quickly. I knew that swimming fast would probably cause it to diminish, but when I was just casually swimming slowly it went down. And when I just stood still in the water the stamina would not regenerate. And if that’s not bad enough when you are swimming and run out of stamina instead of just restarting you near the body of water, you lose health. Even when the water was only a few feet deep Link still drowned. How is link such a pansy that he drowns in water no deeper than a kiddy pool?
    So Link drowns in 2 meters of water yet he is strong enough to climb mountains with his bare hands, and traverse dangerous environments like Lava with ease. See what I mean when I say that the rules don’t make any sense.
    There's also a weapon upgrade system that I rarely ever used because weapons are so plentiful that it’s easier to just use the weapons that you pick up rather than spending dozens of hours to find the right materials to upgrade them.
    Finally the combat sucks ass.
    It was extremely difficult to target a specific enemy when there were lots of them, and the new weapon throwing mechanic gave my fingers carpal tunnel syndrome. You have to hold down R1 on the controller to aim where you want to throw your weapon and release it to throw your weapon. If you want to cancel the throw you have to press R2. However with my big sausage fingers this became difficult. Every time I accidentally pushed R1 I had to move my index finger to the top left of the button while using my middle finger to press R2. Why couldn’t you just aim with R1 and throw with R2.    … Expand
  92. Uhrmacher
    Mar 2, 2021
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Unpopular opinion: Playing Breath of the Wild through for the first time and I don't get the hype. It is no where near the quality of ALTTP and OOT. Definitely not the best Zelda ever. The weapon durability system is stupid. Everything doesn't need to hit like a damn truck. The dungeons are pitifully short. Most of your playtime is spent running around and climbing. The mechanics are poorly explained. The food system is interesting but annoying. The tutorial plateau was the most fun part until I was met with the disappointment that was the rest of the game. It's like they created this huge open area and then added the other stuff last minute. Even Phantom Hourglass was better than this. I'd maybe place it 5th or 6th in the list, below ALTTP, OOT, LA, and Link Between Worlds. I get that they wanted to change up the formula, but this just isn't good.… Expand
  93. chenson87
    Mar 17, 2017
    5
    Highly overrated. About the only thing good about it is its visual aesthetics and nostalgia.
    Cons: weapon degradation system, forced motion controls that do not respond accurately, "dungeons" all look the same and dont offer much, heat/cold that keep you from exploring, weather elements that keep you from exploring, lack of tutorials for vital information needed the whole game, 1 hit    Highly overrated. About the only thing good about it is its visual aesthetics and nostalgia.
    Cons: weapon degradation system, forced motion controls that do not respond accurately, "dungeons" all look the same and dont offer much, heat/cold that keep you from exploring, weather elements that keep you from exploring, lack of tutorials for vital information needed the whole game, 1 hit kills, weapons that are high level but hit like paper mache, game encourages NOT engaging in battles, small cities with very little going on, dodge/block system regressed from Ocarina of Time instead of improving upon.

    After having a great time with Horizon Zero Dawn, I expected so much more from BotW and was highly let down. It's a functional, sandbox sort of action/adventure with very little to actually do.    … Expand
  94. eldumloido
    Mar 3, 2017
    5
    Inputlag/problems with left controller and fps drops make the experience painful. Constant headache and eye pain, hope it's better on the wii U. The game it self looks nice and content rich but can't play more than 10 minutes at a time without vomiting. Shame as was used to stable 60fps on nintendo platforms and it was main reasons for me to buy nintendo products.
  95. MiawMix
    Mar 17, 2017
    5
    Far from perfect, this game is flawed in every aspect i know. Let's take look one by one:

    - Visual: Not even water color art style can hide the bad graphic performance. Low resolution 720p, sub-par 20fps and even slower in docking mode, bad texture, popping out objects, over use of bloom. Just name it. -Musics: No memorable track, or if you're optimistic you can call it full of    Far from perfect, this game is flawed in every aspect i know. Let's take look one by one:

    - Visual: Not even water color art style can hide the bad graphic performance. Low resolution 720p, sub-par 20fps and even slower in docking mode, bad texture, popping out objects, over use of bloom. Just name it.

    -Musics: No memorable track, or if you're optimistic you can call it full of 'ambience'. It is ok, but for some part there's no music at all.

    -The world: It's big and empty with monster settlement in between. You can count dungeon in one hand, and there're 120 'shrine'. The problem is you can finish any shrine in just 30 second. The puzzles are really simple, like just glide over 2 holes etc.

    -Enemy: Most of their design are copy-paste with slight alteration, even the bosses. The most depressing part is their AI. God they're as stupid as turtle.

    -Gameplay: Relies heavily on gear, not skill. The enemy AI obviously doesn't help. In high level area you can play around with them but you can't kill them, or you can try and broke your weapons.

    -Story: Hahaha, it's nintendo game, don't think too hard of this part.    … Expand
  96. svdbygrce
    Mar 3, 2017
    5
    i have to say I am somewhat disappointed in the game. The formula feels like a repackaged version of ocarina of time. The combat is lackluster. The climbing system feels tacked on. The world seems dull and washed out. Doesn't really feel like an immersive world like I was hoping it would. Overall just feel a bit let down. Disappointing
  97. RealHelghast
    May 15, 2019
    5
    I got BOTW as part of a Switch Bundle. Upon firing up the game, it is very gorgeous and a fine job was done with the graphics. However, as a real gamer goes, games are not all about graphics. While the game may look pretty, it's missing the core elements that made the first two Zelda games fun.

    Sure, exploring, finding secret areas, and getting more heart containers are all there.    I got BOTW as part of a Switch Bundle. Upon firing up the game, it is very gorgeous and a fine job was done with the graphics. However, as a real gamer goes, games are not all about graphics. While the game may look pretty, it's missing the core elements that made the first two Zelda games fun.

    Sure, exploring, finding secret areas, and getting more heart containers are all there. However, it's more like Skyrim than its predecessors. They introduced the weapon durability system into the game, so your weapon will break after a number of swings. There is no way to repair weapon durability, at least not in a conventional manner, like in Dark Souls. So you find yourself farming weapons from enemies which detracts from playing the game. But, you can of course, buy an Amiibo and get item crates which contain weapons. This is just a huge cash grab on Nintendo's part. On top of buying the system, plus the game, plus online access if you want it, players have to spend a lot of extra money on Amiibos.

    They also introduced the recipe system. Players gather food and can cook them by finding a pot and creating new food from resources gathered. This also detracts from playing the game. You have to spend time gathering resources and cooking to make dishes that restore stamina or increase movement speed. That's fine if you want to play a survival game like Ghost Recon Breakpoint. But, players like me just want to play the game and fight monsters.

    This game could have been much better if they didn't focus on making food and forcing players to pay cash to overcome the weapon durability system.    … Expand
  98. AwooGirl
    Mar 3, 2017
    5
    If you enjoy just messing around in a large, beautiful world then this game is perfect for you, lots to fiddle around with and definitely worth your money. Someone looking for a more engaging, focused experience will find Breath of the Wild somewhat lacking however. It's an okay game, and I hate to say this, but I can't think of it as anything but a bad Zelda game. Regardless I willIf you enjoy just messing around in a large, beautiful world then this game is perfect for you, lots to fiddle around with and definitely worth your money. Someone looking for a more engaging, focused experience will find Breath of the Wild somewhat lacking however. It's an okay game, and I hate to say this, but I can't think of it as anything but a bad Zelda game. Regardless I will give it a 5 since there are definitely many that will enjoy this type of game.… Expand
  99. MikeGold
    Jun 20, 2020
    5
    It's a beautifully crafted game in a vast open world. That is all good I have to say about it. It plays nicely, looks good, but the world is empty and boring. In about 50 hours I spent in the game I had a few frustrating battles that made me nearly drop my controller and never come back to this title (camel dungeon). Repetitive shrines, very thin story and the vast empty spaces withIt's a beautifully crafted game in a vast open world. That is all good I have to say about it. It plays nicely, looks good, but the world is empty and boring. In about 50 hours I spent in the game I had a few frustrating battles that made me nearly drop my controller and never come back to this title (camel dungeon). Repetitive shrines, very thin story and the vast empty spaces with nothing to do except killing time while traveling made this game mediocre at most.… Expand
  100. zekepliskin
    Mar 14, 2023
    5
    Some good bits and innovations, but It's painfully overrated at this point.

    There are a lot of clever bits, sure. Do the tutorial and go explore the map, getting to the top of those often pretty challenging in a good way towers, unlock the map. Initially the variety of the shrines is engaging. Interactivity like being able to make your own shelter and fire from flint you found, scale    Some good bits and innovations, but It's painfully overrated at this point.

    There are a lot of clever bits, sure. Do the tutorial and go explore the map, getting to the top of those often pretty challenging in a good way towers, unlock the map. Initially the variety of the shrines is engaging. Interactivity like being able to make your own shelter and fire from flint you found, scale any mountain you can see and have stamina for, prepare your own dishes. This sets a new standard for open-world games.

    The problem I found is, after a while it just gets repetitive and the flaws start to become obvious while the initial novelties of the gameplay mechanics start to wear thin. I did 30-50 hours on the Switch, put the game away and then never felt compelled to play it again. I got to the elephant Divine Beast, Ruta or whatever it was called, and was bored.

    I think what gets me the most is that basically all weapons other than the Master Sword break. No, you can't repair them. They all shatter. The Master Sword, while it doesn't have that problem, constantly needs recharging. I suppose if you own an iPhone you're used to that in the real world, but it doesn't make it acceptable in a game.

    Even if the weapons weren't constantly exploding, forcing you to kill the momentum of a battle by scrolling through your inventory looking for a suitable substitute, there isn't exactly a huge variety of enemies to dispatch with them. You'll see palette-swapped Hobgoblins or Bokoblins or whatever they're called all day long. Same old Guardians everywhere; when you learn the trick to destroying them that gets monotonous too. Lot of the bosses and mini-bosses get reused. I get it, animation is expensive, but I would have chosen a smaller map and more enemy variety, personally, spend the game budget there instead.

    You can tell it was designed for the dual-screen Wii U; there's a lot of legacy references to it left in. Nintendo spent too much money developing it to let it die on the Wii U, clearly, so they ported it here. Might explain the pretty poor DRS and frame rate issues; it's easy for the engine to get overstressed and start dropping those frames.

    The shrines, too, get overdone. Sometimes the biggest obstacle and most fun part is getting to them, only to find it's a rehashed Mini Guardian boss fight or some ever-so-slightly-different iteration of some puzzle that was only vaguely challenging the first time. Never seems like they get more complex or force you to think much, or combine the unlockable powers in interesting ways.

    The story is a bit thin, too. There's not much in the way of character development, or indeed many story-relevant characters at all. Zelda is somewhere between a cardboard cutout and a fairly standard warrior princess cliché; not much going on there.

    I'd like to say the music is memorable, but beyond reusing the standard Zelda themes and musical cues from older games I preferred (Link's Awakening, while pretty linear, was more fun than this is to me) I can't remember a note.

    I think I might have given the game a six or seven but the amount of praise heaped on BotW, I just don't get it, when people say "there isn't a thing wrong with it" and I can list a few things right away. A lot of the open world "innovation" is just stuff I thought you should always be able to do in games, and some that came before it had elements of those anyway, so I wasn't "blown away". Even reading through the most recent reviews it just reads like simping for the game while not even being able to articulate specific things they like about it before they hand it another easy 10. I wish it were better to me, I wish I was playing the same game everyone else was, but honestly it's a bit meh; certainly not terrible as there is stuff here to praise, but not the wondrous all-encompassing masterpiece some people seem to think it is.

    I personally think as hugely-praised and sometimes criticised for it open-world RPGs go, Skyrim and The Witcher 3 are the greater achievement. The Witcher 3 is dripping with fascinating characters, multi-part arcs, a nice balance of linear storytelling versus explore and find yourself. Stumbling onto quests and things in that game feels more organic, and I can tell you more about Zoltan and Triss from that one than I can about the lumps of unshaped clay that are the "characters" here. There's more world building, more lore. Actually the same is true about Skyrim, to an extent, and even though that's got a creaky old game engine powering it, was a more fascinating world too. I can't remember a lot about the questing I did in BotW, but I certainly remember things like the vampire DLC storylines, the thousand steps (and yes there are way less than a thousand) and Ebony Warrior character pretty well in that game.

    And you know the great thing? Both Skyrim and The Witcher 3 are also available on the Switch    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best Switch Game of 2017
1
#1 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2017
1
#1 Most Shared Switch Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
97

Universal acclaim - based on 109 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 106 out of 109
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 109
  3. Negative: 0 out of 109
  1. GameGrin
    Dec 12, 2017
    100
    Where it takes mechanics from others in the industry, it improves upon them; where it introduces new ones, you slap your forehead in amazement that it hasn’t been done before. Breath of the Wild is development done right, and damn near the best game you’ll play all year.
    Read full review
  2. Wired UK
    Aug 30, 2017
    100
    Breath of the Wild is a masterpiece.
    Read full review
  3. Games Master UK
    May 19, 2017
    96
    Up there with the finest Zelda games, Breath of the Wild is bold, liberating, and utterly astonishing. [Apr 2017, p.60]
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