Board 8 > Initial reaction: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild vs Super Mario Odyssey

(+) Yeah! (+)

I am absolutely loving Mario but Im still leaning towards Zelda.
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Honestly...

I didn't think Mario would have a chance. But it's strong enough to give me pause.

I can't answer yet.

I worship BOTW every night before bed

but Odyssey is realllly surprising me
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I love BotW immensely so I can't put Odyssey ahead yet, but it's certainly looking like the best Mario yet.
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SMO is good but Im not yet convinced its amazing like BotW. BotW is way more ambitious for one thing.
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Odyssey, but I'm a huge Mario fan and not a huge Zelda fan.
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Im ecstatic that Mario is even in contention considering how great Breath of the Wild was. Its nice to see Nintendo with a great release schedule again.

I love my Wii U, but it most definitely had huge gaps between major releases.
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I'm really loving Odyssey.

But holy shit Zelda is HUGE. I'll see something that looks close enough to glide to from jumping off a cliff and I don't even make it a third of the way there. And it's like a tiny speck on the map.

Odyssey was super fun but it's nothing more than that for me.

BotW for sure
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I agree with all of the first 5 posts.
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CelesMyUserName posted...

I love BotW immensely so I can't put Odyssey ahead yet, but it's certainly looking like the best Mario yet.

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is odyssey short? you're all talking about it in the past tense and it's been out two days
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I imagine if you just want to beat the game, it probably won't take very long.

Getting all the Moons and purple coins would probably take a bit longer.
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howlongtobeat says 11.5 hours for the main quest. that's still a lot for two days!
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Yeah, I don't feel like I'm that close to beating it yet, but I've been breezing through the worlds when I have been playing.
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transience posted...

howlongtobeat says 11.5 hours for the main quest. that's still a lot for two days!

I mean if you really want to do it that way you can, each world only requires 3-4 moons to move on to the next

but that's usually only about 10% of the total moons available in in each world
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transience posted...

is odyssey short? you're all talking about it in the past tense and it's been out two days

the required number of moons to move on to the next kingdom is like 10% of the total moons available

I do think it's a bit early to make definitive statements one way or the other though

edit: I started typing before I saw that shine post but my nephew wanted to show me something in Odyssey
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I hit the credits about 40 hours into the game and that was trying to get all the moons possible in each world

and even then that's not even 50% of the total moons available in the game because the postgame is massive
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I'm having fun in Zelda but clocking in at 90 hours and only two of the main dungeons and I'm feeling the fatigue.
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Wow what an epic GotY battle we'll have!


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Ngamer64 posted...

Wow what an epic GotY battle we'll have!

if only

reality isn't so kind
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Ngamer64 posted...

Wow what an epic GotY battle we'll have!

Even if Mario is close in quality (and it is) BotW is going to run it over like a freight train...

They both take things in opposite directions

Mario's so jam packed with Moons to collect that you often bump into them without even meaning to, which could theoretically make it feel kinda bloated

Zelda's a huge world that has a lot of vast areas of... Nothing, and feels pretty empty. Which makes it a bit more exciting when you find stuff, but...

I think I like the first more.
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I played Odyssey for the first time last night for about 2 hours and holy **** I did not expect it to be this good. Like I expected it to be an amazing game and all but did not expect it to be on par with BotW and P5's level of GOATness.

I cannot believe the kind of year we are having for gaming. I will be stoked if 2018 is even half as good as 2017.

INCEPTlON posted...

Im ecstatic that Mario is even in contention considering how great Breath of the Wild was. Its nice to see Nintendo with a great release schedule again.

I love my Wii U, but it most definitely had huge gaps between major releases.

Do they have a great release schedule for 2018? Feels unimpressive at the moment.
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Metroid maybe
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Anyway this choice is easy for me, I will take contained worlds with loads of exploration over open world almost any day of the week.
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Can't say for sure because I'm still in the middle of Odyssey but honestly I'm being completely fucking blown away by this game. I really appreciate and like BotW for what it is, but it didn't fully knock my socks off. Odyssey is feeling like what I would imagine a nearly perfect video game to be, I'm seriously falling in love with it.

The worlds in Odyssey are so completely jam-packed with things to do that it's ridiculous. By comparison, BotW's world, while utterly and impressively massive, is mostly just empty space peppered with Korok Seeds and shrines.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

INCEPTlON posted...

Im ecstatic that Mario is even in contention considering how great Breath of the Wild was. Its nice to see Nintendo with a great release schedule again.

I love my Wii U, but it most definitely had huge gaps between major releases.

Do they have a great release schedule for 2018? Feels unimpressive at the moment.

Kirby Star Allies
Octopath Traveler
Runner3
Yoshi
Fire Emblem
Travis Strikes Again
Pokmon, which is currently slated for "2018 or later".

Not counting Metroid Prime 4 as that is likely 2019. Probably Pikmin 4 too, which they keep talking about but haven't formally announced yet. Also whatever Retro is working on, hopefully.

They have quite a lot given that this time last year they had exactly one 2017 release announced!

Anyway, I'd still just about go with BotW, but it's far closer than I thought it would be.
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it's really hard to say right now, I'm loving Odyssey, but exploring BotW was magical.
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Not to knock SMO, but Im kinda surprised that people are blown away by it. Its really the same formula as 64 and Sunshine but with the capture mechanic and way more moons. And reportedly a better post game. I avoided most footage after E3 and I still feel like I saw too much.
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I feel more surprised by BotW overall. SMO's really great, but I dunno, I could do with a bit more tight platforming instead of wide and open areas.
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I mean, yeah, I'm not "blown away" by Odyssey, but I guess that's because I expect Mario games to be great. It's not really doing anything extraordinary other than just be really, really good like most games in the series.
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EndOfDiscOne posted...

Not to knock SMO, but Im kinda surprised that people are blown away by it. Its really the same formula as 64 and Sunshine but with the capture mechanic and way more moons. And reportedly a better post game. I avoided most footage after E3 and I still feel like I saw too much.

I think the crucial formula change is, when you get a moon, you don't get sucked out of the level, you just resume whatever you were doing. I thought getting sucked off like that was pretty much a dealbreaker in those games, for secret shines and optional shines and such.
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People are right to say that SMO isn't reinventing the Mario formula, but I don't think it has to. The craftsmanship and creativity of its worlds is at a point that I'm comparing it favorably to SMG2 and SM64, two of the actual best games ever. BotW was great and dared to try something all new for the series, but not once did it ever come close to scratching Majora's Mask for me. The difference there largely has to do with design and content.
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The fact that this is even a conversation has me excited. Odyssey must be GOOD.
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Yeah I hate sounding like I'm down on SMO. It's still a 9/10 game so far. But 2 things are causing my negativity:

1. My own expectations. For some reason based on the first 2 trailers I expected this to be really ambitious. Ambitious for Mario like BotW was for Zelda. It's not, but that shouldn't be a bad thing.

2. Nintendo showed way too much in trailers. I'm nearing the end of the story and just now got to a level I hadn't seen before. And I avoided a lot of footage. Next time I'll try to take my media blackout more seriously.
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Epyo posted...

EndOfDiscOne posted...

Not to knock SMO, but Im kinda surprised that people are blown away by it. Its really the same formula as 64 and Sunshine but with the capture mechanic and way more moons. And reportedly a better post game. I avoided most footage after E3 and I still feel like I saw too much.

I think the crucial formula change is, when you get a moon, you don't get sucked out of the level, you just resume whatever you were doing. I thought getting sucked off like that was pretty much a dealbreaker in those games, for secret shines and optional shines and such.

At the same time though, a lot of these moons are about as exciting as finding a korok seed in BotW, rather than being designed as an individual level for each. Mainly because there's so many moons, but still.
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EndOfDiscOne posted...

2. Nintendo showed way too much in trailers. I'm nearing the end of the story and just now got to a level I hadn't seen before. And I avoided a lot of footage.

apparently not very much because I think the only world I knew about was New Donk City

Although at the same time I don't think showing off a lot in trailers is a bad thing for a game like Mario since it's not story-based. Some people want to see what sort of levels Nintendo is cooking up for a game like this.
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Vote is a perfect 50/50 split, holy moly.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ussCHoQttyQ
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