Poll of the Day > Why is breath of the wild's main quest so short? (minor spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I just got my switch last week and it came with Zelda. I'm loving the game so far, it's a lot of fun. I just beat the fourth divine beast and figured I'd check online to see how far into the main quest I was. Found out that I'm basically done. Which just left me with this "That's it?" feeling.
Like I've probably put about 30 hours into the game so far, but I was expecting more. 4 Dungeons and 5 boss battles feels like a lot less than the norm. And the bosses and dungeons were really easy (aside from that stupid camel boss). Like this morning I decided to go do the lizard divine beast. Took me literally 40 minutes to go from the Goron city to beating the boss. Which is okay, if there are like 10 dungeons in the game... I guess my biggest complaint is that I wish there were more dungeons, and that they were harder. I can't believe I actually miss the infamous water temple...

Heck I haven't even gotten the Master Sword yet (made the wrong decision to put some of my spirit orbs into stamina instead of just maxing health). So now I'm just going around aimlessly, which is still fun, don't get me wrong. But exploration and side quests can only keep me distracted from the main quest for so long...
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heck, the topic title is minor spoilers
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Thats the beauty of the game, you can go beat it shortly after starting or take your time (in my case 410 hours) slowly exploring, locating all the shrines, keeping an eye out for Korok hidey holes, doing quests (taking them then heading off to where you need to be), figuring out new recipes and my favourite, setting up camp in a beautiful location and watching the sun set.

But what kept me distracted from the main quest was everything inbetween where you just finished and where you needed to go next
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Breath of the Wild's main focus isn't the dungeons or even the story really, it's all about exploring the world.

Which is good if you're into that sort of thing, but if you're more used to the traditional Zelda format of conquering long dungeons and discovering items within them to unlock new areas of the overworld, then this game might not be your cup of tea.

It took me 4 hours before I got to my first "main" dungeon (the Zora one), and I spent nearly 10-20 hours in between the others. I spent most of the game just wandering the huge overworld and finding shrines, sidequests, and collectibles.
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You're totally missing the point of the game (and to a lesser extent, Zelda games in general) if you're just trying to go through and get the main quest done. People wanted more exploration, so that's what they did with this. Personally I find the exploration a lot of fun, I felt compelled to do all the shrines and after that a lot of Korok seeds before it eventually got boring. Even sometimes if you don't find stuff it's just fun to explore because the world is so carefully-crafted. You rarely have any long dull stretches; there's always a sense of purpose to areas, even if it's just aesthetic.

Also 30 hours isn't really that short for a main quest, that's about where other Zelda games are, or less.

Virtually all open world games have a short main story. The meat of the game is running around, doing all the side stuff.
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I think I beat it in about 35 hours on wiiu

I'm strongly considering getting it again in switch though

At least now you have time to find all 900 koroks to get the golden turd!
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Like I've probably put about 30 hours into the game so far, but I was expecting more.

This is part of the problem. 30 hours is a decent amount of time for a single player game. Even for a Zelda game. And I can guarantee that in 30 hours you've only uncovered a fraction of what the game has to offer.

Younger gamers seem to think that games today are short. Most of the classics (SMB 1-3, SMW, Super Metroid, Contra, Double Dragon, even the first couple Zeldas) can be beat in an afternoon. Some even under an hour. That gamers are expecting 100+ hour games with every release is troubling. There's a certain sense of entitlement within a small but vocal portion of the gaming community that expects too much from games and from developers.

I'm not saying people shouldn't have expectations or shouldn't express disappointment when those expectations aren't met, but a dose of reality and understanding goes a long way.

Some perspective:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Legend_of_Zelda_speedrunning_records
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Yeah I don't think a single other Zelda game took me 30 hours to 100% (I don't remember all my first-playthrough clear times exactly but Wind Waker was probably the longest at around 20 hours) so just the main campaign being 30 hours sounds like you're at least getting your money's worth.
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Honestly, game was crap, i played xenoblade chronicles 2 before breath of the wild and i couldnt find a thing i liked more in BotW than XC2

T0ffee posted...

Breath of the Wild's main focus isn't the dungeons or even the story really, it's all about exploring the world.

Which is good if you're into that sort of thing, but if you're more used to the traditional Zelda format of conquering long dungeons and discovering items within them to unlock new areas of the overworld, then this game might not be your cup of tea.

It took me 4 hours before I got to my first "main" dungeon (the Zora one), and I spent nearly 10-20 hours in between the others. I spent most of the game just wandering the huge overworld and finding shrines, sidequests, and collectibles.

See I basically followed the main quest at first because every time I veered off the path I ran into monsters that would kill me in one hit. Eventually I learned that basically every enemy will either one shot you, or do absolutely nothing. I started exploring a bit once I beat my second guardian. But after a couple hours I'd get the urge to take on another dungeon. I figured that because the dungeons were so short, that meant there was more to the main quest than just defeat the 4 beasts and kill Ganon. So I kinda wanted to know what happens next.
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Sounds like you played the game wrong.

I started the main story, got my ass kicked by the first boss. Then decided to explore to make myself better. Found the Master Sword just by accident through doing that, which lead me on a full blown journey to be able to actually obtain the Master Sword. After that, I went back to do the main quest and kicked ass.

The game puts a huge focus on exploration and growth. If you choose to ignore that, you won't get as much out of the game.
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faramir77 posted...

Sounds like you played the game wrong.

I started the main story, got my ass kicked by the first boss. Then decided to explore to make myself better. Found the Master Sword just by accident through doing that, which lead me on a full blown journey to be able to actually obtain the Master Sword. After that, I went back to do the main quest and kicked ass.

The game puts a huge focus on exploration and growth. If you choose to ignore that, you won't get as much out of the game.

See, my experience was the opposite. I found that going off the main path got me killed very quickly. I had no trouble with the bosses, so I figured "Oh, I have to follow the main quest in order to get strong enough to explore off the beaten path".
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IceDragon77 posted...

See I basically followed the main quest at first because every time I veered off the path I ran into monsters that would kill me in one hit.

Git gud

But seriously, it's not like you even have to fight that much stuff. Other than the bosses basically everything is avoidable. The game also encourages you to be creative in how you attack things, to try to get the drop on a camp, etc. Are you doing these things, or are you just going after enemies swords blazing? You can't just expect to go and mash the sword button and win in ten seconds like previous Zelda games.

I couldn't manage myself against the water boss (that was the first one I did) with only 4 hearts. I still don't know if I'd be able to.
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faramir77 posted...

I couldn't manage myself against the water boss (that was the first one I did) with only 4 hearts. I still don't know if I'd be able to.

That was my first boss and I beat him with 4 hearts... granted I died the first time, but beat him on my second attempt. The only boss that gave me trouble was that stupid camel boss.
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IceDragon77 posted...

faramir77 posted...

I couldn't manage myself against the water boss (that was the first one I did) with only 4 hearts. I still don't know if I'd be able to.

That was my first boss and I beat him with 4 hearts... granted I died the first time, but beat him on my second attempt. The only boss that gave me trouble was that stupid camel boss.

I did the whole game with only hearts from the divine beasts. Put my all my stuff into stamina.
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chaosbowser posted...

I did the whole game with only hearts from the divine beasts. Put my all my stuff into stamina.

So you only did 40 shrines?

I don't even think I went to my first divine beast until like 100 hours in. I did run into Sidon early while going from tower to tower. But I kinda blew him off. Though, I did feel bad because he was so nice. And I love the shrines, tbh. I also found the Master Sword by accident while just wandering. I think I found it before doing any of the divine beast. Haha. Also, for the spirit orbs, you should max out stamina, then the rest into hearts. Mainly because if you do that, you have 27 hearts and 3 stamina bars, and can get an extra full stamina bar and three extra hearts from resting in certain inns. But if you max out hearts, you still get and extra stamina bar and no extra hearts. So it's either 30 hearts and 4 rings of stamina if you max out stamina or 30 hearts and 3.4 rings of stamina if you max out hearts. But it's up to you. Also, There's a statue you can find during a quest in Hateno that allows you to switch your spirit orbs to get more health or stamina...
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Far-Queue posted...

(SMB 1-3

Only if you use the warps.
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Revelation34 posted...

Far-Queue posted...

(SMB 1-3

Only if you use the warps.

Exactly. Can still complete it in short time.
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Far-Queue posted...

Exactly. Can still complete it in short time.

The game is more fun without warping.
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Revelation34 posted...

Far-Queue posted...

Exactly. Can still complete it in short time.

The game is more fun without warping.

Agreed. I was just making the point that there is a sizable portion of the gaming community who seem to think games are too short today, when in reality they're much longer in many cases. SMB 3 can be beat in less than an hour, even without being some world-class speedrunner, and it's widely considered one of the greatest games of all time. 30 hours for BotW is pretty good by comparison, and that's discounting the fact that TC likely has barely scratched the surface of that game.
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Far-Queue posted...

30 hours for BotW is pretty good by comparison, and that's discounting the fact that TC likely has barely scratched the surface of that game.

Most people seem to have logged hundreds of hours into that game. Well, the ones I know, at least. It seems like he's been missing out on some things, maybe...
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LinkPizza posted...

Far-Queue posted...

30 hours for BotW is pretty good by comparison, and that's discounting the fact that TC likely has barely scratched the surface of that game.

Most people seem to have logged hundreds of hours into that game. Well, the ones I know, at least. It seems like he's been missing out on some things, maybe...

I've got over 200 hours into it, and I know for a fact that I haven't seen everything in the game yet.
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Far-Queue posted...

LinkPizza posted...

Far-Queue posted...

30 hours for BotW is pretty good by comparison, and that's discounting the fact that TC likely has barely scratched the surface of that game.

Most people seem to have logged hundreds of hours into that game. Well, the ones I know, at least. It seems like he's been missing out on some things, maybe...

I've got over 200 hours into it, and I know for a fact that I haven't seen everything in the game yet.

255 or more for me. And I still definitely haven't seen everything. Haha.
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If anything I felt like the game went on too long
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