Current Events > Is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild the Definitive Zelda?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Darmik posted...

Which were there in the form of Divine Beasts and Shrines. Even the mazes to an extent.

Like you're entitled to your opinion that they aren't as good but they're not disregarded either. Traditional Zelda dungeons don't really for the feeling of freedom BOTW is going for so there was always going to be some sort of change.

If you really think about it there's 6 dungeons. The 4 DBs, Hyrule Castle, and the Korok woods.

There's also two shrines that are fucking massive in scope equal to one of Zelda's smaller dungeons like LttP Hyrule Castle.

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Yep. Once you use the amiibos and have all of the different Link's tunics and armors, have Wolf Link acompany you on your journeys, it becomes the definitive Zelda.

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Darmik posted...

Not really. Open world games were heading in a mission focused direction.

BotW has plenty of missions and side quests. Those are the divine beasts and Ganon. They might not always have glowing symbols to mark them, but it's still a mission-based game with open world collectibles. In fact, it's got the same "collect a huge number of this useless thing" system as Assassin's Creed, Grand Theft Auto, etc. in the form of Korok seeds.

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Gobstoppers12 posted...

BotW has plenty of missions and side quests. Those are the divine beasts and Ganon. They might not always have glowing symbols to mark them, but it's still a mission-based game with open world collectibles. In fact, it's got the same "collect a huge number of this useless thing" system as Assassin's Creed, Grand Theft Auto, etc. in the form of Korok seeds.

You're not really understanding my point.

Again BOTW is designed like a theme park. You go to a place and you do stuff there. After the tutorial area you can go wherever you like and that includes the final boss. AAA open world games have not been designed like this. They're designed by working your way through story missions/quests.

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Darmik posted...

Which were there in the form of Divine Beasts and Shrines. Even the mazes to an extent.

Like you're entitled to your opinion that they aren't as good but they're not disregarded either. Traditional Zelda dungeons don't really for the feeling of freedom BOTW is going for so there was always going to be some sort of change.

Oh I completely agree with you, and I never said Breath if the Wild wasnt good or wasnt a Zelda game. Im saying its not the definitive Zelda game because it is lacking in a hugely defining part of the series.

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Rikiaz posted...

Oh I completely agree with you, and I never said Breath if the Wild wasnt good or wasnt a Zelda game. Im saying its not the definitive Zelda game because it is lacking in a hugely defining part of the series.

But it's not lacking them at all. It has dungeons. It just doesn't have as many as some previous installments.

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s0nicfan posted...

malenz posted...

I don't agree. The first one had 9 dungeons and special subweapon items. BotW was in its own direction.

It's not about the number of dungeons. It's about being put in a world and being left to explore and discover, to forge your own path in whatever order you choose.

Completely agreed

I love all the Zelda games, but some really miss the mark when it comes to what makes the series great. BotW is an absolutely perfect mix of time spent in dungeons and time spent in the overworld imo

Games like TP and SS have such barren boring overworlds that it just doesn't feel right
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Tyranthraxus posted...

But it's not lacking them at all. It has dungeons. It just doesn't have as many as some previous installments.

Its a game thats much bigger than any other, but has very few dungeons and the ones it does have dont feel like other Zelda dungeons at all. At least to me. The game is still fire regardless.

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Rikiaz posted...

Its a game thats much bigger than any other, but has very few dungeons and the ones it does have dont feel like other Zelda dungeons at all. At least to me. The game is still fire regardless.

They don't "feel" like other dungeons because they removed the "item of the week" gimmick that didn't even exist until LttP. The items you found in the original were all straight combat upgrades for the most part. There's a few exceptions like the raft.

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Ocarina if Time is 3D AND uses the bare bones formula of dungeon + new item = fight boss and go to new dungeon.

Games that followed added to the formula. Most major Zelda titles are 3D now so I would count that as a definitive characteristic. So Ocarina of Time doesnt fall far from the tree. It is the tree.

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8-bit_Biceps posted...

Ocarina if Time is 3D AND uses the bare bones formula of dungeon + new item = fight boss and go to new dungeon.

Games that followed added to the formula. Most major Zelda titles are 3D now so I would count that as a definitive characteristic. So Ocarina of Time doesnt fall far from the tree. It is the tree.

It can't be the tree because those weren't the roots.

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no, but its great. way better than 90% of open world games released in the last 10 years

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Tyranthraxus posted...

They don't "feel" like other dungeons because they removed the "item of the week" gimmick that didn't even exist until LttP. The items you found in the original were all straight combat upgrades for the most part. There's a few exceptions like the raft.

Zelda 1's dungeon Items
Level 1 - Bow/Boomerang
Level 2 - Magic Boomerang
Level 3 - Raft
Level 4 - Step Ladder
Level 5 - Whistle
Level 6 - Magic Rod
Level 7 - Red Candle
Level 8 - Magic Book
Level 9 - Silver Arrows
Zelda 1 had plenty utility items


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SSJKirby posted...

Zelda 1 had plenty utility items

None of them were necessary to complete any dungeons except the silver arrow (and you needed the raft only to reach one dungeon and wasn't used elsewhere). And all of those items except the raft have combat applications.

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And a lot of the items in ALttP have combat applications too, doesn't mean that's a bad thing

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Do people really care about having a korok leaf permanently in their inventory?

I was pretty happy getting those elemental and buffed up weapons as I progressed through the game.

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Tyranthraxus posted...

They don't "feel" like other dungeons because they removed the "item of the week" gimmick that didn't even exist until LttP. The items you found in the original were all straight combat upgrades for the most part. There's a few exceptions like the raft.

Dungeon item or no I think part of the reason they didn't feel like dungeons is because they had very little combat, fewer puzzles, and all sorta looked the same. As people noted, MM has only four main dungeons but each are expansive, with a clear, realized theme and never boring.

I get that some of BotW's design philosophy would make having those kinda dungeons difficult, but that doesn't mean that people aren't going to be disappointed they aren't there.

And personally I think the Open World experience is underserved by not having unique items that could expand exploration as you unlocked them.

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^Honestly, they could have pulled off traditional dungeon design by making the divine beasts some sort of mechanical core at the center of temples in their respective regions, but that's neither here nor there I suppose
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It was for me, but its somewhat Spartan approach to dungeons certainly allows me to understand fans that weren't thrilled by it. If you combined and condensed all the shrines into like a dozen dungeons, I do think that the fans disappointed would be extremely happy as the dungeoning aspect was too broken up for them despite there being loads of puzzles.

For me, BotW set aside the aspects of the franchise that I cared less about while significantly improving on the parts that most interested me, so it was almost tailor made for me.

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At the very least, I hope people can agree that BOTW had one of the most compelling trailers ever made:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pA0Ia0G9Ac

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