Why Breath of the Wild's Empty Space is So Important
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 มี.ค. 2017
- Spoiler-free, don't worry!
So, that new Zelda sure is a beaut, huh? I can't remember the last time a game instilled such a childlike sense of awe and desire for exploration like Breath of the Wild has. In this episode of Writing on Games, I explore the idea that the reason the game can accomplish this is because of its use of space-both in its world and game design.
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Got a bunch of people asking me about the music in the video lately. I make all the music for the channel, and it's available for patrons to download: www.patreon.com/writingongames
thank you very very very very much
Yo…that’s impressive! Great track man! Loved the video as well. Subscribed
Excellent video title / thumbnail. Not clickbaity at all and reading the thumbnail got me interested enough to read the title, which in turn, got me interested enough to watch the video. Expectations met, great video, well said.
Lol Its probaby "intimidating" and very new and refreshing for Nintendo fans because they have either never really played sand box or open-world games before, or just never really experienced that in Zelda games before.
Ive felt like I was the ONLY Zelda fan who had been screaming out for the Zelda games to go full sandbox for frickin years! I hated Skyward Sword and refused to play it when I saw exactly how small the game was. I felt Wind Waker's story of Hyrule being flooded in sea, a piss-poor excuse for the fact Ninty were just not ready or comfortable making a Zelda game big and open.
I apreciated Twilight Princess for it's return to the proper modelling of Link, and the feel of Ocarina of time, a masterpiece in the Zelda series. Breath of the Wild has become the greatest ever Zelda game because of the gameworld itself. Giving you so much to explore and do, but the story is actually really refreshing and quite different too I might add.
Believe it or not, whether you favor this new direction in the Zelda series or not, Ocarina of Time was one of the first ever video-games on a console to be a sandbox game, especially the N64. Rivals like Xbox and eventually PlayStation took note with the Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and GTA3 on the PS2.
Writing on Games man, I think I need to buy this again and a Wii U, I must have missed something in the 20/30 hours I wasted on BOTW, it was one of the most boring unfulfilling games ever nevermind it being a zelda game, Im a massive zelda fan, this is not a zelda game. Maybe its because I played the witcher 3 for so long that it truly has ruined any open world rpg for me for the next 10 years 😟
*sees empty space*
i think theres a lynel here
*Walks into empty field*
I CAN SENSE GANOOOOOOOOON *Pulls branch out*
@Jonathan Soko it's taken me 6 months
I still havnt killed one...
@@liammcmanus3226 hey if you've beaten the gerudo beast then it should be easy. Freeze it with stasis+ then swing your strongest double handed sword. When it gets back up, let go and electrocute it. It'll fall back down so you have time to repeat (or another easy way is to mount the lynel and attack)
Cludora lynels are easy
THAT ROCK IS ALIVE ISNT IT?!
''WHY ZELDA'S SPACE MATTERS''
Yeah, Link. Can't you leave her alone for a second?
TheMarionick Well excuuuuseeee me princess...
Oh boy smooching time!
I mean he gave her 100 years
Link: Dat bitch keeps running into trouble!
And STOP *FOLLOWING M E*
my favorite empty space is in the middle of hyrule field. there’s no gaurdians, no enemies (except the occasional chuchu that pops up or skeleton enemies at night). i love the sparse piano that plays in it and it’s so beautiful during the day when it’s windy and you can hear the grass rustling and you can see hyrule castle in the distant background :’)
The fact that Hyrule Field is so empty is also great visual storytelling. There's nothing there, Ganon wiped it all out. You wouldn't even be able to tell anyone lived there if it weren't for the occasional ruins scattered about telling you otherwise.
I think theres a mod that makes a house in a place like that, on top of a hill in hyrule field
*the space is for setting everything on fire*
Eh Yo literally the first thing I did
12345 67890 *yes definitely good point*
F is for fire that burns down the whole town
@@kozmikkindergarten7505 I got that reference. 😋
Ny's Art U is for Uranium bombs!
Great analysis! I also think that Link's amnesia helps, because it means that character and the player are both learning the story together. Even though Link was there 100 years ago, he doesn't remember any more about it that we do, and by the time he remembers something, we've also had time to find out about it, which lets us identify with the character throughout the entire game.
C. Scott Davis tru
It's one of the few times I haven't been infuriated by an amnesia storyline
The amnesia aspect definitely welcomes newer Zelda players too. I had never previously played a Zelda game and only ended up getting BoTW because of the incredible reviews it got and I am so glad I did. One of the best games I've played, and it's all I've played on my Switch since getting the game last week!
@@ShaneHastings All the Zelda games are like that, so if you see a game and think you might like it, just jump on in. With a few exceptions, every game has a different kid named Link as the protag. The ones that continue other stories are also easy to pick up and play standalone, as the connections are so loose until you go looking for them. Basically, Link is sword-Mario.
No its got like no story
The only thing I didn't like about the game was that Link can't dive underwater, that would add an extra layer in exploration but they just didn't make it possible and that makes no sense to me.
Yes I found that annoying too. In Zora's domain where you have to find the ceremonial trident. You first hear of it's location on the bridge so I tried to dive for it, but it didn't work. And since magnesis didn't reach from the shore I thought it had to be retrieved by diving and that I had to learn that ability by finding the zora cap for example (it took me very long before I finally had that piece of armor, so I left the puzzle there). Later I found another underwater chest that I couldn't reach with magnesis and left it there. Hours later I finally started using cryonis (I just never used it outside of shrines before) and I realised what I had to do. I felt really stupid XD.
Kyo Yamato I agree, especially the Zora Armor was a disappointment to me because I thought I could swim like a Zora and dive underwater but nope.
No one ever likes water levels. Also mentioned in the video is the game makes use of vantage points. You wouldn't be able to see underwater really well from on top of a mountain or spire
@@Cyphyx But didnt Link have the ability to swim underwater in Twilight Princess? I can't remember it vividly, but I recall being able to sink with the magnet boots and swim with Zora Armour, and that was on the Wii. Should have no problem running on WiiU and Switch.
The only thing I didn’t like about BOTW was that you cannot continue after defeating Ganon
this "breath of the whale" game seems very interesting.
HAHAHAAHHA
hahaha good one man
GODDAMNIT I saw this as soon as he said the title and now i can't unhear it. XD
Lmaooo I noticed that too
What a weird accent
The video is 9:59, and the uploader could've added an extra second for more ad revenue... I respect this guy
Maybe the ten minute thing is a joke
@@haferman92 like u
Timothy James what’s wrong with The creator getting ad money?
You respect him for making less money for virtually the same work?
@@ProdbyVicky0 jesus he never said there was anything wrong with it...
I love the emptiness because it gives me time to relax. My peak was when I was riding my super fast horse through grass fields when I could have just fast-traveled. Maybe I find an extra shrine or seed, maybe not. I still have loads of fun.
I really appreciated this game as someone who doesn't play a lot of games, if that makes sense. Having the ability to run away from obstacles and do something else when I got stuck or overwhelmed by an enemy was a big relief.
Hayley Tilghman I’ve played sessions of the game just running around or spending time in the villages, I completed the Tarrey town quest which sent me all over the place, there was always something to do or something to see. I got stuck on one of the divine beasts and the boss was infuriatingly difficult but because there’s no right or wrong way to play the game I was able to leave it and build up my strength and building Tarrey town and a load of other stuff was a result of that, I went back the other day and defeated the boss without dying even once and the sheer exhilaration and victory was so sweet, if it was like many other linear based games, I would’ve got stuck at the boss and just never go back to it again and it would end up being a waste. I love BotW.
This zelda looks like what I wished ocarina of time was when I was 10. You can literally go anywhere. There's no "invisible walls" and other things that stop you from doing what you want that you just have to explain away like you do in other games.
For example: In zoras domain you need to go up a cliff. Normally you could just climb up, but it is constantly raining because of something relating to your objective, and you can't climb well when it's raining. So now you have to find another way up. They don't want you to just climb up, so instead of just putting a wall or making the wall unable to be climbed for no reason, they used the mechanics and story of the game to do it
Matthew Busch there is an invisble ceiling. Bitch
Getting all the way to that invisible ceiling is done using exploits, if players were to normally play the game they wouldn't encounter it
Derp Person Walking through the desert isnt normal?
I climbed it.
^the valley leading to zoras domain, eventide island, that castle around that one tower. Prince sidroc, mipha, Impa, paya. Not hard when you pay attention
It's the same reason why so many modern films are disappointing and dreary experiences. The volume and action is permanently ramped-up to eleven with dizzying editing and that means that you lose all sense of contrast, because you're constantly saturated by poorly-executed spectacle. This means the overall experience is flat, like a Transformers movie. Zelda, as a game, feels like a well made film. A well made film will cut quickly when needed, slower when not, turn up the soundtrack when an incident needs emphasis, like a Lynel or Guardian (incidental music needs incidents, otherwise it's just random music!) and fade it to silence when nothing of note is happening...and in doing so, the absence of the music becomes noteworthy in itself. It's really a very cinematic experience and very absorbing.
This was a very well-written comment. It really makes you think. ^^
This guy gets it
I think that analogy can kind of explain why I prefer the more linear Zelda style: I like the way those film-like elements are paced better. The player controls the pace in BotW, but the developer (mostly) controls the pace in the linear games. I personally feel like the developers are much better "filmmakers" than I am, and so I prefer the linear structure.
That's just my experience though, and both pacing options are equally valid! Even preferring the linear games, BotW is hands-down the best open world I've played. :)
I love the "empty" space in the game. It makes it much more realistic when you see and NPC or enemy randomly. it also makes getting to objective feel more rewarding. One thing I have really enjoyed is when you are traveling between villages and stables is how the NPCs travel and how you can often see enemies hunting or attacking NPCs.
I think one of the strongest things about these empty spaces in Zelda as opposed to other open world games is that you CAN genuinely explore pretty much everything. My favorite thing about BotW is the ability to climb everything. So many times in MGSV, another favorite of mine, I was massively frustrated by Snake's inability to climb up to what looked like an excellent vantage point, or even up a small hill that was just a few degrees too steep. BotW seems to truly make the player feel empowered to feel like they have the potential to traverse any obstacle.
The Wandering Shadow Couldn't agree more.
Funnily enough, when the younger developers were working on the game, they were afraid to mention to Miyamoto the climbing feature for a beta build. So they took rupees and put them at the top of trees and cliffs and other incentives to climb. And when they let Miyamoto play without telling him anything, he wouldn't stop climbing trees once he figured out the mechanic. They eventually had to ask him to go somewhere else too. And that's how the climbing and gliding feature became so prominent.
The Wandering Shadow Yeah MGSV makes you feel very limited sometimes. It feels REAL empty sometimes. Besides, this game clearly haves a STORY.
I disagree, MGSV gives you so many ways to tackle any situation that it never feels limited or boring. The times where physical barriers become an obstacle are almost always used in such a way as to make missions feel more focused but in free roam there is plenty of freedom. In the African map there are barely any places inside the actual bounds of the map you can't go, and the few that exist are there to make infiltrating certain outposts more interesting by forcing you near a heavily defended entrance.
I get that feeling with Horizon too. I just want to climb everything because that world is so interesting.
Which really makes the "You can't travel any further" at the end of the map sucks. They should have something that can't be passed, but isn't an invisible wall and a message! Say, a monster that will always kill you, no fail, or a horde of beasts. Maybe a drop so far down that not even a paraglider will help? Or just a wall, even.
One of my few nitpicks with the game.
You used the right word: "pioneer". That's just how I felt going through the BOTW world. And I relished the space not so much because it made the next encounter so exciting. For me, it was more about the sense of wonder. Being able to catch wild horses, getting ingredients that would become part of recipes to give me super-human abilities, gliding over vast expanses on a whim, teleporting, being able to climb virtually any surface. It's like a lucid dream!
Same! Can't help hoping that someday, someone might turn this game into a true VR experience...
Oh my God my dreams are like that too! I've always been someone who loves exploring or making anything into an exploration. As a kid, finding anything that seemed weird or off-the-beaten path was very exciting to me. The joy of exploring never gave me a clear incentive or reward. But maybe I'd get to wonder at the giant industrial kitchen in the church basement or find the perfect place for rolling down hills with my cousins outside a family reunion. The exploring was the incentive, mostly. That excitement hasn't really gone away but now I can explore in different ways. Like, when my friends and I drive around in a rural area and find random landmarks or like, this weird monastery-church that sold just sliced bread which you could get from the grocery store? Why? That's fun and interesting, though.
I have weird dreams which usually limit my ability to do things and demonstrate frustrating and confusing obstacles. One thing I will say though is that my dreams almost always involve exploring. Which I reference sometimes to tell people why I find exploring seemingly limited or uninteresting spaces exciting.
Okay so my comment wasn't really relevant to your comment. I'm realizing now after reading again. But definitely agreed anyway haha
You used The Legend of Zelda as another example of a game that uses space. I would also like to bring up that The Wind Waker uses that same concept.
Same with twilight princess, skyward sword, and ocarina of time imo
@@harikohli541 nah skyward is waaaaaaaay more linear
@@therandomguy2212 wdym
@@harikohli541 skyward didn’t really emulate empty space, no unscripted quiet moments to be enjoyed
It's important to note the player's active participation in the exploration of said empty space. With Breath of the Wild, you're constantly running, climbing, fighting, and what have you as you explore. In Wind Waker (GameCube), I recall too many times where I'd literally set the controller down and just wait a few minutes until I got to my destination. That was boring. Thankfully, I heard they sped up travel in the port.
6:42 I recently encountered an example of this in my second playthrough of BotW, I was going through one of the lebrynths when a found a sorta hidden passage with an extinguished campfire and a pile of rubble. I got sorta sad and just looked at it for a moment thinking, "someone got lost in here before me"
I know it's a game. I was just saying that moment set an atmosphere. Why would the developers put that there if it wasn't meant to show that? You htink I really thought there was another human being? Maybe I'll stop being wierd once you get an imagination.
Yeah honestly looking back I was exaggerating quite a bit. But I do need to get out more, and I will do that. Thanks.
@Logic honestly looking back on this comment it was really dumb. It's a literal piece of wood and cloth they put there probably without thinking about it. I just made a big deal out of everything when I wrote that.
@@boastfultoast7066 nothing wrong with your initial comment, that's why there are little abandoned camps in desolate parts of botw. Don't let rude people crush your imagination, especially that logic person. All there comments are how much they hate this game and anyone who enjoys it.
@A World Under A Spell How is that weird. Do you also think it's weird if people get emotional over movies? There's a story and it get's an emotional reaction, whether things really happened or it's all fictional, that's just being human, not being weird.
I've played for about 20 hours now, and there is not one place that felt empty. Fields have trees, flowers, bugs, animals, traveling merchants, enemies, and a view of what's to come. Anyone that says BotW's fields are empty, would say the same about a real field.
Aurum Arma thats why you rarely see people in the fields other than people who likes nature, there is really just nothing to do there other than admiring the vastness of nothing.
I think I've found about five or six notable cities, with multiple shops, mini quests, and npcs to talk to.
Sword Four so far and I am not even done with the map. There is nothing ridiculously populated and it shouldn't like the way Twilight princess handled hyrule. The game characters are still under a threat from Calamity Ganon and there are
areas near some villages that still show the damage and remains of the battle that took place 100 years ago.
Definitely the most filled up field in any Zelda game. OoT is SO EMPTY and so is TP. WW had the right idea, and I think BotW took it in another good direction (especially for a field open world and not an ocean)
IMO, if you were to compare 'fullness' of BotW to an open world like Skyrim (I know, it's a drastic comparison), BotW feels empty. There have been countless times where I come upon ruins or some sort of thing and have found nothing to collect, leaving me a little disappointed wishing it felt more full.
I can agree with this whole-heartedly. The expanse of the world is just so damn massive, when you find something whether it's an NPC, or you even find one of the points in Link's memory, it's a total shocker when you come across it because of that essence of discovery.
This is exactly why Minecraft was so successful, you always had an objective but you were never forced to do it. You could play for the longest time roaming around, building, and doing other things the world had to offer without completing one single objective. I used to play Minecraft back in 2013, I stopped playing because (like all open world games) it became stale and boring because I did almost everything. Botw is an amazing game and I will hate the day the game will become stale and boring because of how much the game has to offer, but I play it so much and can't put my switch down its started to get boring, I started playing less and less... Maybe sometime soon I might stop. lol jk I can't stop playing and there still plenty I have to do ;)
I have so much to do in both BotW and Minecraft. (Need to board Vah Naboris and I heard it's HARD) (building a castle in a creative world
Cameron Townsend You think that's long?Are you fucking new to youtube there has been waaaaaay longer
I agree that this game has more in common with Minecraft than past Zelda games.
LucyByTheOcean Well when it was good
chex mix In BOTW and Minecraft I have a lot to do! They offer a lot to do and it makes them fun! And your not really forced to do the things you do it on yor own whill, Im building a minigame map in Minecraft and in BOTW I wanna find the shrines and do the side quests
recently got the game, best game i've ever played.
Me to. My first zelda ever. play it for 3 weeks now, just can't put my switch down. That world out there is BIG REALLY BIG.
Positive Vibration yeah I thought the old games were great but this is the best one, there is no argument
Gave me the same feeling i did as a kid playing Zelda. Just amazing.
Arguably the best game ever made. There are barely any other's I'd even consider close. Breath of the Wild is a masterpiece. One of the best pieces of *art* ever created, period.
Trust me, there is an argument. Most people are just blinded by its praise they rather not focus on other's views.
Can't just run up to Ganon? Guess what speedrunners are doing right now... :D
Oh, I don't doubt it! It's weird how the very idea of seeing someone manage that has me immensely excited.
Yes, it's great, you can clearly see that they let you run up to the boss on purpose. The speedrunner who came up with the route was convinced that they even left in a certain glitchy behavior in the game (walking up a huge pillar that is technically not climbable). It makes sense: if the player discovered how to glitch their way up that pillar, it's their reward to get a shot at the boss fight - the game is all about discovery after all.
i tried to walk up that pillar in the full game and it simply didnt work.
I'm sure that someone is trying to do a "naked sticks only" playthrough! XD
Vívio CA2 You can't really do it, because of the limited inventory and the durability of the sticks. But it will be interesting to see how speed runners plan their routes to get the most efficient way to Ganon.
This is the kind of Open World design I've been begging for, unfortunately I don't own a platform to play this on.
Well Wii U's go for a bout $200 on ebay nowadays.
If you are willing to get a WiiU you might as well get a switch
louisgworld then buy one
if you want to take this game everywhere with you. get the switch. if you want to go the cheaper route get the Wii U. graphics are almost the same
Get with the times and get a Nintendo dawg
Breath of the WHAJLD
Breath of the Wiald laddie
Dujma i ess looking for this.
Breath of the Whiled
It's crazy that accents exist!
Lauren Harmon It’s crazy that jokes exist!
Breath of the waile
Limon Lemon I was waiting for one of those comments so lol
What kind of english accent is this?
Rekty Rektingson it's Scottish. Where are you from?
hahhahahha
accents are not race based. Fucking idiot lmao
I absolutely agree with you.
Open world games have lost their way by getting bigger and bigger and then starting to compensate for the difficulties that come from it. What is an open world more than a glorified level selection screen when exploration has no role?
There is no "empty space" in this game. Every area of land contains materials or hidden treasures for you to find. If you do your due diligence, you will have bustling loads of mushrooms and apples to cook.
+nahor88
I don't really get your point.
"Empty" is a bit vague. There's probably always something to find, but it still takes a while to get from A to B, but as navigating is fun on itself it makes quite a difference.
I also think it makes quite a lot of difference on how you approach it:
I hardly ever sticked to roads and fields but climbed through everything, it really was a matter of climb up a mountain and float to the next interesting looking point.
The point it in an open world game, the objective should never be "get from point A-B". There are glowing points on your map where the game suggests you should eventually go, but you have complete freedom. Thus, the game never "loses its way".
+nahor88
"The point it in an open world game, the objective should never be "get from point A-B"." Pretty mental how many get that wrong.
I didn't mean you're supposed to go in a certain direction in Breath of the wild but when you decide to move in a certain direction it's actually fun. It's more of a matter of: let's say you see a random mountaintop and decide you want to climb it. There's more to it than just holding forward.
It's 2 reasons why Breath of the Wild's world stands heads and shoulder above the competition.
1: It's actually designed to be explored.
2: You have more methods of movement compared to other games.
There's some games that allow for more advanced movement systems but those tend to be plagued by quest markers as well. Most open worlds are even worse as it just becomes a matter of walking to the point on your mini-map, other ways of traversal are just faster ways of moving across a flat terrain.
I feel like most open worlds serve no other mechanical purpose than being a glorified level selection screen for combat encounters.
I think we're talking about two different things... you didn't specify in your original comment that Breath of the Wild doesn't fit the comments you made, so I assumed you were referring to it as well.
That's why I've been defending it specifically. I've never played any other games with an open-world.
Couldn't agree more. Breath of the Wild may seem "empty" at first compared to other open world games, but it does such an incredible job of making your journeys interesting by inviting exploration. I told myself I was going to just ride to the next dungeon at one point, and what could've been a 15 minute ride took probably 6 hours. I haven't been so invested in a game world in a very long time
Agreed. I started my game on May 2nd, and as of today (July 7), I've only beaten one dungeon, and I barely did that like two weeks ago. I even got the Master sword before beating the first dungeon. The game is so vast!
I found the hero's path feature added later on really fun for this specific reason. Average session:
Look at map, plan out where I need to go, set off....arrive 6 hours later, look at hero's path, realize I went halfway around the map because of this little interesting nugget I saw on the way and that everything just spiraled from there.
I don't mind the vast open world. I just wish my horse would come to me wherever I am and not just when it's close enough to hear a whistle.
DLC pack 2 provides a new saddle that allows you to warp in your horse from anywhere.
I’m glad it doesn’t let you call it wherever you are. This is another mechanic that encourages exploration.
I would wish the horse would be better to handle never Understood why zelda games could never do that correctly, or maybe its on purpose
lol justifying running across the map on foot.
I never used a horse.
I absolutely LOVE space design done right. I really can't understand why people complain about this so often.
5 words, 1 game: SHADOW OF THE FUCKING COLOSSUS!!
Eu I *5 words
LOL that was a bummer. I edited it now, thanks hahaha
I'll never forget the time I climbed the tower and entered the hidden garden.
It's the little things that really count.
Sad that the fruit in the tree actually _depowered_ you. Kind of a dick move, but whatever. The journey was worth it. :/
And people loved shadow of the colossus. This does space especially well too though. I usually walk instead of rude my horse because I'm looking for odd sights that contain one of the 900 seeds you collect
Eu I nice comparison nicely said totally agree
I understand where you're coming from and I went into Breath of the Wild thinking that I'd have a similar experience. However, I'm not the same type of gamer and the more I look into others' BOTW experiences, I come away with the conclusion that there are two main types of gamers on this topic. There's the type of gamer that experience open world games in the manner that you describe, where curiosity and the desire for exploration is the meat of their enjoyment and other aspects like the "why am I doing this?" or "How did this world get this way?" are left to their own imagination. Then there's the other type of gamer, where I and many others fall, where the meat of their enjoyment is understanding what exactly happened, who was involved, and all the precise details of how things happened. After which gaining that understanding, they're far more enthusiastic to explore the world and they want to learn precisely how certain things fit. Their enjoyment is that they are in this fictional world trying to help it after learning so much about it.These players are sort of at odds with one another. The first type of player, fueled more by curiosity and the desire for exploration, have their enjoyment hindered when the game tells them more about the world because it's interfering with their own desire to fill in the blanks. For the second type of player, there's no real point to explore a world they know very little about. Sure, they can find out that there's this structure here and that structure there, but so what? From this perspective, without much knowledge of the world, there's a literal endless spree of possibilities as to how exactly this world got the way it is. Players may be one way in BOTW and different in other games, but nonetheless, where they fall on this spectrum for BOTW determines if that empty space was a good thing for them. Sorry for the wall of text. Just wanted to add my thoughts and why I feel that I and other players disagree with your reading.
This post is woefully underappreciated and I wholeheartedly agree. Your categorisation of the two different types of players is spot on and, whilst some people may enjoy the self-discovery and sense of what/where/why in other games, it definitely does feel somewhat out of place in a Zelda game because the player is usually more well informed in past games. Well, maybe not so much the very first one on the NES, but that is often where people draw a parallel with BotW.
Well said, and completely agree.
- F0x
Mucho texto
Some people want a guided story or guided experience, where when you drop them in a box the first thing they say is "what do I do?".
These are usually the people who call games like BoTW or Minecraft boring.
The only reason I don’t like BOTW is precisely because I fall more into the second category, for me curiosity needs to be fulfilled by narrative , I need to feel like what im doing impacts the world and it’s characters. Exploration has to compliment the story, i could care less about most of the discovery in BOTW because it is all geared towards your gameplay but I don’t care about the world they created.,it’s ironic OOT has a similary empty land from which you get to every location. Yet that version of Hyrule feels more like a living breathing world than BOTW ever has. Why? Because my actions have weight and importance to the world and the characters . I was so bummed when I realized that aside from Terry Town, nothing i did had any meaningful impact on the world or characters in BOTW.
I feel like there is no true emptiness to this game. There might be a lack of enemies but it's replaced by hidden chests or items, a shrine, kurok, or something to note for a later quest .
It is the most handcrafted open world O have ever played. Even small pointless paths may have a small spring of water.
@@Skullkan6 Yeah I say BOTW and Elden Ring are probably the most groundbreaking open world games of our time.
What's ironic is that both korok seeds and shrines are practically checklists. Also after getting the first divine beast the enemy encounters get way too easy.
So glad you made the Shadow of the Colossus comparison. Exactly where my mind went to.
same
That sort of non-eventful travel is not right for a game like Zelda.
yeah, but tbh, they said for years before release they were doing away with a lot of zelda conventions. some of them i hope they bring back, but this is the first game specifically like this besides the original which is a stretch to say open world in today's standards. if you don't like it, that's another thing, but i completely respect what they have done here. Zelda has always been a fantasy/adventure like game. They did that to the fullest here with some nice RPG elements thrown in.
This is really the building blocks for a deeper experience in the next Zelda game they choose to make.
Roger Levy it's absolutely right.
On the contrary, Zelda has always been full of non-eventful travel. Try running from Death Mountain to Zora's Domain in OOT and tell me all these events you encounter. Enemy camps are plentiful in this game, sometimes right on the road sometimes just off it. You'll come across events such as saving npcs from bokoblins, ambushes from yiga clan in the form of a helpless npc and so many other events. This is problem the most eventful travel ever introduced into Zelda, especially when you take the exploration aspect into the account and you're not just giving a place to go to, i.e go get the forest medallion from the forest temple, you have to actually find the shrines and you can do it so many different ways. Plan your route from a vantage point and mark the shrine with the "binoculars", rely on the shrine sensor or identify shrine locations by reading the map in a particular way. Seriously this game is a modern marvel, it incorporates all this without being over the top with it. It's there for you to explore, to find and to enjoy.
I get the impression a lot of people in the comments either haven't played the game, or didn't even watch the video the whole way through
I think that describes at least 90% of youtube comments actually.
I mean I disagree with him and have played the game and watched the video so???????
I get the impression A LOT OF PEOPLE in the comments either haven't played the game, or didn't even watch the video the whole way through
SoRoN good for you man
It's a long video.
You nailed! This is part of the exact reason I think that this game great for lovers of the outdoors. Between this and the way they manage to capture the essence of outdoor environments with thier sound effects and wind mechanics and lighting. It's amazing.
reading through all the comments and all the negative reviews of other gamers one thing has become clear to me that we have been conditioned into thinking what open games should be like. We all think that all these types of open world games need to be like another GTA clone. Now don't get me wrong GTA games are amazing achievement and set alot industry standard. But that's not the only way to make open world games. Games like zelda are a breath of fresh air. It's shows the industry and gamers that open world games can be alive without holding your hand via guide points or destination points and the environment is just a scenery you pass on your way to the next objective. I feel with this game Nintendo have shown the industry that's it's ok to trust the player to make their own path through the game and it's ok to let the environment and the world it self tell the story. Work of genius.
Fahad Ahmed If you watch the interviews with the makers of BotW you can see that they didn't just want to make it open world to cram in all of the side quests and padding they could, they did it to emphasise one of Zelda's core design philosophies, which is allowing the player to explore.
You missed a perfect pun opportunity. Im mad now
Hmmm... Sorry, not buying this game as a "masterpiece". So many design decisions that make the game unrewarding. Breakable weapons isn't gameplay "bliss". Massive areas to explore would be nicer if there was actually something to find other than shrines and korok seeds. Exploring in Ocarina of Time was more rewarding because you never knew when you would find something unique. Heart pieces are more rewarding than shrines, any treasure in OOT trumps what you find in Breath of the wild, outside of the master sword (which ended up being sort of anti climactic, because I couldn't pick it up anyway... So much for freedom) there wasn't anything I discovered in this game that got me excited... Every venture into an unknown area led to the exact same thing : A Shrine. After #50 or so this stops being exciting. There wasn't any interesting NPCs, special quests, special items, dungeons or really anything that interesting (save Eventide Island) that you could uncover from adventuring in this game. I was loving this game until I slowly realized that there wasn't anything worthwhile left to find. 40 hours in I had finished the 4 beasts, found most of thee memories and had the master sword, and the fun of walking around and climbing started to get more and more stale by the hour. Usually I try to pick up all the heart pieces and all the items in a Zelda game before finishing the game but I really didn't want to grind for armor or find shrines for another 40 hours so I went straight for the final boss. (which was extremely anti climactic and easy). In summary Breath of the Wild is a very good game that has plenty of flaws. Not the best in the series (link to the past and OOT are way better imo)
Breath of the wild easily also proves this is why Morrowind was better than every game that followed it. Those other games held hands. Morrowind did not. Breath of the Wild really is a modern take of the OG Zelda.
I'm curious about one thing in that response. What exactly about heart pieces are more rewarding than shrines? Four heart pieces make up a new heart container, and so by finding a heart piece, you're essentially finding a quarter of a heart container. Shrines give you spirit orbs, and four spirit orbs makes a heart container, just like heart pieces. In fact, you can even choose to receive a stamina vessel instead of a heart container, which adds more depth to the rewards you get from shrines. Not only that, shrines give you miniature dungeon experiences, while heart pieces just hand themselves over and you're on your way. It seems like shrines should be more rewarding in every way.
Still to this day one of my favourite games of all time, I only wish i could play it for the first time again!
Gamers in the 90s and 2000s: "BIGGER! Make maps BIGGEEER!!"
Gamers now: "...This map is too big!"
I love zelda and I'm just now playing this but even I think it's to big lmao like they did way to much in this game oml
@@TonyKnight1208 I know
Tony Knight I love the big map to be honest.
@@spaceace2126 It was cool but I'm the type of person that will want to look everywhere n it was just to much. i still dont think i saw everything.
Tony Knight makes sense. I ended up sinking a lot of time into the game, but I love doing that
I get exited every time I see a lonely tree
Wiald
I wouldn;t say world is empty at all. I mean yea, Hyrule Field is pretty much a grassy plain empty area with fallen Guardians and buildings, but i think it works well because it's a big battle arena with lots of guardians walking around. Overall when I define myself a new goal to go to, I always get distracted by a lot of things on the way, so I really wouldn't say that world is empty.
This is an excellently articulated video on that breathless feeling I get when I climbed the top of the dueling peaks, and saw the two shrines along with the massive landscape. Thank you!
This video is great, and interested me just by the title and thumbnail while not being clickbait, you just earned a sub!
in a way it feels like older games from the 90's or early 00's. they didn't hold our hands from point A to B, they allowed you to explore in order to proceed. 90% of video games since recently follow the same route. they give you a small area that only allows you to go from A to B and saves every 2 minutes. I'm glad BoTW has thrown that formula out the window and given us a retro style game.
MyOcarinaBroke Game has quest markers out the ass. Breakable weapons. Stamina. 100s of collectibles. A season pass for dlc.
How is any of that 90s?
Thanatos388 Have you ever heard of a collectathon like dk64 that shit had like a trillion bananas. Breakable wepons could be in a retro game i don't know why you say it can't. Stamina was in a lot of retro games. And season pass is included because hardware limitations are no longer a thing so now devs can add more to their game after launch that people want or a fix to things people don't like. If retro games had dlc i think a lot more of them would be masterpieces.
Yeah true but wyf were is hookshot, and all kickass items and wtf best tunics are amiibo exclusive, and side quests are usually a to b then done....
Thanatos388 lmao yup idiots, and jeez less dungeons, best tunics are amiibo exclusive, no good items after the original finds, as in they coulda given the slate powers more slowly or given more of them or given items like real bombs, or hookshot, or well anything but just bows swords shields...
Whenever I’m in a really large empty space and there’s no enemies or anything it makes me SO anxious because I’m constantly thinking I’m gonna get sneak attacked 😅 love the exploring tho
Frick Not fr same😂
i love all of the space and the exploration and your point about being in good company with link as being clueless about the environment is an interesting thought.
now of only there werent SO MANY one shot mechanics in the game
This would make more sense if what you eventually ran into was something other than a shrine or a korok seed. You run for 10 minutes then find a korok seed.... then run another 10 minutes and find a shrine..... then run some more and.... another korok seed. Repeat forever. Also LOL @ the bit about experiencing "panic" from running into enemies. More like "oh boy more (insert one of the three types of enemies)."
Breath of the Wild has the most satisfying navigation I’ve ever come across, including the mechanics
I just got Zelda a couple months ago. Been a fan since I was a kid in the 90's.
This video was fantastic. You explained so well what makes the game special and why. Very well versed too. Definitely subscribed.
This is really well put! Honestly I've gotten used to games hand-holding me so much that when I got to BOTW I was overwhelmed and even put-off at first. I was annoyed that they didn't give me the waypoints for the shrines off the bat, and that I had to figure out what to do with the main quest-lines just by running into them by chance while exploring. I kept at it, though, and felt a sense of accomplishment I hadn't felt in a long time from a game- I felt like it provided me the map but, and as you said, the game trusted my own intelligence to find my own way around it- which I hadn't found in a game for quite a long time. The more I played, the more satisfying my own choices and exploration became, and now I'm full-on obsessed with it, haha.
Today i played Zelda and found a freaking HUGE flying dragon that went left and right in a Hylia bridge. Aside the fucking scare to get eaten but that shit, once i discovered he ignored u, i could admire it well...it was magnificent and i preferred to let him be because of it. Best thing is, i found it from chilometers when i saw it's tail disappearing near some mountains. Any open world game so far couldn't give me the same. This was a HUGE +100 to the beauty of this game and i never played a Zelda game since so i can imagine how fans with better knowledge of the little things connected to Link previous adventures may feel about this game.
sasuke65743 Zelda games like to try new things and so some are considered to change the way all games are made moving forward
You found Farosh! Congrats!
Thank you!
Then should i hope in a accessory like a VR to have the option to enjoy a game like that in first person? Because it's clearly the next big step in a open world game *_*
Next time you see the dragon, shoot it with arrows. You'll get something nice from it :]
And don't forget: Every minute you just run along the road without exploring is atleast another 3 korok seeds missed. Seriously, there are SO FREAKING MANY of them.
The German Mason I think there's about 900
I got the Switch recently and this game is great. It's like I always have something to do, I sunk several hours into it already and I haven't even opened up my quest thing.
When I did the tutorial I just turned right to check out some ruins and before I knew it, I was half way across the map doing shrines, climbing towers, clearing out enemy camps, finding secrets, collecting everything I could etc.
This is my first Zelda game I ever played and it's already one of my favorite open world games and the best thing about it is, I'm just barely starting out, there's so much left for me to explore!
This is exactly why I love open world, single player, serene experiences in gaming, with emphasis on storytelling and lore elements. I like your style and taste, you got yourself a new subscriber 😉
As soon as this video was over I turned on my wii u to play this beautiful game
there is a NPC that will give you hints on the photos, but generally he will just tell you what the landmark is and in what direction the photo was taken from
Ah, see I didn't even know that. I just found a couple of them by chance by exploring. It was a really great feeling.
Writing on Games impa's attendant though.... she is the resson why i now want to save hyrule! as a man this hurts me to say but daaaaaaaamn she's cute af!
I was trying to figure out why I love exploring this game. Your video helped put it all into words. Thank you my dude.
I love how poetic you talk about the game. And your voice really aids the experience. Great video!
I completely agree with this video, this is by far the greatest open world game I have ever played!
This and Skyrim.
Blakkheim nah not really Skyrim dungeons are so generic and all the same
Man, that accent is thick
You mean EXTRA THICC.
In Scotland his accent is actually very soft.
Thay numpties dinna ken.
Trust me, it's not.
Source: Scottish.
Lol, that’s like the mildest sort of east coast Scottish accent - hear some *actual* heavy Scottish accents and your mind will be blown…
This is the best video I've seen discussing the open world of Breath of the Wild. Well done!
There is a lot of empty space between major landmarks, but also enough hidden gems (Koroks, underwater treasure chests, monster encampments) to reward players who take their time to wander from the beaten path. The Lanayru Promenade was my favorite location, evoking much of what you described in this video. I felt completely dwarfed by the architecture. Great analysis.
This guy's accent is awesome!
Dude i can't stand it. Canadian accent is english killer
Squirrel Hallowino you’re saying that accent is Canadian?
thats definitley not a canadian accent
It sounded like an Northern Irish accent but not that I think about it, it could be some British accent. (there's lots of British accents not just one)
Adventures With Sean its scottish, unless im mixing him up with someone else
Damn, that actually sounds like an open world game I would enjoy, though the constantly pulsating marker on the minimap leaves much to be desired.
I think the marker is something you can place yourself though.
That’s what you place
I use as motivation as many other videos but i find yours one of the best.
Fantastic writing. You did an excellent job on the script and delivery! 10/10 :)
"When you have been traversing desert for upwards of 20 minutes" - sorry mate I have basically 3 hours of free time per day, and I don't wanna spend 20 minutes of that time traversing empty desert.
Elden Ring, and Dark Souls had this feeling of exploration without feeling empty, so you can definitely do it without having giant 20 minute empty areas
Everybody's getting all hype about Horizon: Zero Dawn and Breath of the Wild...
Whilst here I am only playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for the first time.
1. Horizon ain't worth the hype from what I've played. Seems like a pretty version of Far Cry.
2. The Witcher 3 is such a dope game! I wish I could experience it for the first time again if that makes sense.
Gotta disagree with you there man, I've got about 8 hours or so in on Horzion and I'm loving it so far. I'm no fan of Fry Cry either, this is just a well crafted game. Nice video by the way.
I'll keep playing it, for sure. I hope I'm wrong about it. Just ain't grabbed me in the five or so hours I've played of it. Thanks for watching!
I think it'll probably get there for you eventually. Though it does fall
into some of the basic open world traps of too many quest markers and such but it still has an overall interesting world to explore. I'm enjoying it much more than I expected I would but I definitely want to jump on Zelda once I get a Switch.
Ironic that you say that, I just got witches 3 from gamefly to try it out again (didn't like it much the first time) after I've played Zelda some more.
I completely agree, I finally started playing a couple weeks ago and have been loving the whole experience. I had no idea where to go after the Great Plateau, so I just started going wherever and eventually ended up stumbling upon the zora prince a couple zora I had run into told me to find. After doing that whole section, I had no idea and went around doing random things before deciding to get the couple of towers on the outskirts of the Death Mountain section.... Well done, and it was very refreshing not to have my map screen overloaded with icons just because I scaled a tower. I have to carve out the map myself and it feels much more satisfying this way.
This was so beautiful! I've been playing BOTW so much lately and to have my captivation explained in such a beautiful way was eye-opening and just makes me want to explore Hyrule even more than I have been.
I get what he's saying, but it's all a pretty big exaggeration. He's pretty much describing how I expected the game to be before playing it. I've never felt like I'm just traveling through hours of endless space. There's tons of stuff to do all over and the design of the world makes it all seem like it all belongs there, not just a huge empty field. Plus, having your horse and paraglider makes traveling never seem like a chore or pointless.
yes exactly. in other openworld games, (havent played but have seen hours of gameplay from them), it doesnt seem that enemies are in the wild too. they only exist in camps, where as in breath of the wild you can suddendly stumble apon a group of bokoblin on horseback and either beat them or have to run away
+toaf loast I don't know which open world games you're talking about, but there's human and other fauna enemies all around of the worlds of Far Cry and Witcher. Definitely not just in camps.
I really don't think this is some kind of Nintendo's grand reinvention of the wheel. They took the working aspects of every open world game out there, then balanced and polished them to a mirror sheen. I've loved my time with the game so far, but the macro experience is definitely closer to a really good ubisoft-open world trinket gathering game rather than a decent zelda game.
+OrangeVision The only similarity I can put to a Ubisoft game are the towers, which aren't nearly as prominent and prolific as they are in Ubisoft games. As someone that has exceeded the point of exhaustion of titles from Ubisoft and their many clones, I have not been bothered once because the towers are only really there to show of the game's climbing function and get you a higher view to look for things yourself, rather than automatically mark a bunch of fetch quests and side activities.
We're definitely seeing this differently then. I've played and enjoyed
certain open world ubisoft titles and they have the same ingredients,
not-quite-copy/pasted enemy camps, billions of different flowers to pick and beasts to hunt while marching towards your next objective, side quests full of fetching junk, trials spread across the map that gives you better stats and equipment.
To me, the experience is largely the same. I have a lot of fun for hours and hours until collecting mostly useless things off the ground, raiding the samey enemy encampments and doing your 30th trial starts to feel a bit of tedious busywork. It doesn't have the same type of urgency or tight structure of your zelda games of old, because that's how ubisoft/bethesda games play out.
I'm guessing it's going to be at least my second favorite open world game (botw's side quests have nothing on witcher 3's), but it's still very much comparable.
I know he wasn't complaining about it and I did get his point, but you won't really spend 20 minutes riding around in vast nothingness before finding one enemy camp. I do get that he was saying it in a very positive way, but it was pretty exaggerated. Finding one guy on a horse that will give you a tip about how swimming naked will make you go faster will not make your day because you spent the last 3 hours in an empty mundane field.
I've been saying something similar for a long time. Exploration feeling rewarding is key. WoW for example never had much mystery. You always knew what you were going to do because the quest tells you exactly what you're going to do, and it wasn't going to take much more than a few braincells to accomplish.
I feel like Nintendo has broken the mold and reinvented the wheel with this game. I hope to see more from many other companies as well.
While I still think the game could benefit from having more interesting stuff in the overworld, more settlements and whatnot and some areas not being entirely empty, I also do think that the game is not only completely empty, but trying to fill up every empty spaces isn't the way to go. Just more interesting settlements and some areas filled but the rest still staying "empty" to make finding those new interesting things (that I hope show in the sequel) more rewarding. Either that or maybe just more variety in enemies, bosses, races and maybe biomes to keep things fresh after already having reached the point where you've seen it all
1000+ hours in this game (over several play-throughs) and just tonight, I was running through the field at night for a while and I was jolted in surprise by stalmoblin popping up from the ground. My heart skipped a beat. This game still surprises me in this and many other ways, 3 years later.
I love this game but dang there's so much to do lol I don't see the ending happening anytime in the near future.
When this game first came out, the only thing I really wanted to do was get a horse and ride through this fucking beautiful landscape! Now I still didn't buy a Switch but I want to play this game. Damn I want to explore the world. I'm not a player who likes action games too much. I love exploring. I like that in Botw you can simple enjoy the world without having to be alert all the time. It's like going for a walk in a really beautiful world and from time to time you stumble across something funny, dangerous etc. I'm so curious but don't have money. God I hate it.
Well done for not using spoilers, and for telling us that at the start.
I'm also looking forward to finding the fighter jet. Those clever Sheika.
This hits the nail on the head so well. I haven't been hooked into a game like this in years. I just can't stop exploring. And the crazy thing is I've barely seen any of what is in much of this video and I've probably played 30+ hours so far.
This game is lovely and I agree that it sparks my inner childlike curiosity. Great video!
I love your idea on why it's "empty". But still, this is a post-apocalyptic world, so the people who ultimately ended up complaining that the ground wasn't littered with herbs to pick and items all over the place, are just idiots.
Yeah... anyone who complains that the landscape of Zelda is "empty", gets no sympathy from me.
@Logic Only you think its boring.
@Logic Also its ironic you have a skyrim picture. imo skyrim was 100x more boring than zelda botw. I didnt even finish the game because it was such a borefest
@Logic So you come, to respond to comments from 10 months or 5 months to talk shit of the game, congratulations, you are a piece of shit.
@@adonailr9667 nah logic has a point, no one wanted her sympathy. And an elder scrolls gane with the same development time would kill this game. Tbh I think this game is alright, it just could have been great with some changes
@@xyon-jp8eh The thing is,that he comments insulting everyone that likes the game
When I first started this game I knew nothing about it going in and went so long without seeing non hostile npc in the vast expanse because I spent 4 real days just exploring I absolutely panicked when I saw one in the distance. I thought link was alone for the most part so I snuck around the npc and crept closer incase they weren't friendly
This is an old video now, but the subject is just so near and dear to my heart!
I agree 100%. There are certainly other games that succeed in doing the same thing (Fallout- not 76 - or Skyrim come to mind) but there are many more that stumble. That empty space feels so necessary in order for the player to not feel overburdened with objectives and possibilities. It really shifts the focus from open-world for the sake of having as many objectives as possible to open-world for the sense of real exploration. Some of my favorite moments from Breath of the Wild were those unscripted ones. Discovering the locations of the memories were such an old-fashioned kind of exploratory fun, and in between big discoveries like those there were so many little details to absorb about the world. That's what distinguishes Zelda to me from a lot of open-world games, every piece of Hyrule felt hand-crafted in a way that something like GTA or even like The Witcher hasn't felt because of the way developers (understandably don't get me wrong) reuse assets and focus on the Big Picture. Some of the coolest discoveries in that game for me were tiny things, like the apple grove I found on the side of a mountain that I spent ages picking apples in just for the hell of it. That's such a silly little detail in a huge game but it really what made the experience so enchanting to me.
Aside from all that nonsense I just wrote, great video!
Simple answer: it's not Call of Duty where you need to kill something every 3 seconds.
And it takes place in a freaking wide-open fantasy setting.
"Breath of the Wild: Put the Gun Down, Dingus!"
Fatalsprigs lol
splatoon has killstreaks
Why is Call of Duty the only punching bag? Its not even the same genre.
Fuck CoD, this is the real deal GOAT.
as soon as I begin to say "this is so boring" I immediately get ambushed by a Guardian, some Bokoblins, a Yiga clan member, godforsaken Lynels. a Stable that has a few side quests for me to do, or a shrine that might have a brain taxing puzzle that'll take up to 30 minutes
it feels like the right kind of big to me
Really great video man, great analysis of open world games in general, I really enjoyed it
Great video. Saw your Blighttown video a few months ago and loved it and am happy this popped up. subscribed.
Please do a Witcher video :(
Harry LEVI I did one!
Writing on Games just watched it now ha I need more! Quench my Witcher thirst and desire ha
Fennec Besixdouze HZD falls almost the same way, but none dare say except probably a few botw lovers that either of them is better than witcher 3. For me botw and witcher 3 are master pieces in their own way.
I have to disagree on Witcher, somewhat .. Yes, you can main path your way through the entire game by following A, B, C, D, etc.. but (to me) Witcher's world is incredibly vast, in some ways much larger than Breath of the Wild. I applaud (and have and enjoy) Nintendo for taking Breath of the Wild this way, but they also liberally borrowed a lot from other open world games, e.g. mixing items to get various remedies, powers, etc. You can explore as much or as little of the Witcher world as you like. Some of my best screen grabs are just wandering.. watching a sunset or full moonrise, etc..
Jay Sottolano yea but the point is that there is really not an incentive to do so when it is an open world game. for those of u saying that witcher 3 isn't an "open world" game, do honestly want a map that big? That would probably take another year to finish and the Xbox 360 or PS3 might not even be strong enough to have such a massive active map all at once.
I love your accent. :3
Such good analysis! I loved the empty space so much that on my second play through of the game I've decided to not use fast travel at all. This is forcing my to be more thoughtful in how I traverse the landscape. Because I've embraced the vastness of this game, without using any shortcuts, I am appreciating it so much more and am even finding things I did not find in my first play through. I am also being really strict with my use of horses. If my horse gets stuck somewhere and I can't get it back to the stable then I consider it lost. I don't just call it back when I get to a stable. This has been a really fun challenge for me.
I love this. Thank you for writing/creating the way you do. Subbed.
Why am I here at 1AM I don't even own a Switch, I'm too broke
I agree and disagree. Shadow of the colossus works mostly because the size of the world is just right, and the game is not filled with side activities and things to do. You always know what your objective is but you explore the world because you want to learn more about it, its a mystery, a completely optional backdrop.
Breath of the wild is really an ubisoft style open world, the only difference is that the points of interest are not marked in your map. The map is also waaay too big and the enemies and weather make it annoying to traverse.
So instead of going to your map and marking your objective you "stumble" upon them after running around for long periods of time. You say there is mystery, but after the first hours you realize there is none. All you will get from exploring is YET another boring shrine, YET another weapon that will break soon, YET another collectible or if you are lucky a sidequest that will amount to breaking your weapons against a group of enemies. Of all the open worlds I have played in my life BOTW is the one that manages to kill all mystery to it.
Besides when your open world is so big, those map markers are a godsend if you dont want players to spend 400 hours looking around for stuff. If you want organic exploration look no further than a game like Gothic 2, scale is extremely important in open world games. The bigger they are, the less time I will spend looking around for things to do.
Thank you for captioning your video!!
At the beginning of the game, I would talk to literally every person I could find traveling, in a stable, or in a village.
Vergonha IGN.
Overrated, by this logic, The Wind Waker's Great Sea or the Sky from Skyward Sword should be considered masterpieces.
4:32 You’re wrong; the towers also upgrade your maps. The maps are purely topographical, though; it’s up to you to analyze the map and mark places of interest.
This reminds me of GMKTK video on following the dotted line in game maps. Good to watch both!
I think your commentary is valid, but.... I feel like you're talking about a different game from what I played. My experience with BotW was fairly disappointing simply because there was so little detail in the world. It sounds daft, but everything felt unusually regimented and repetitive when traversing an expanse marked by the same old stones and same old trees, interspersed only by the same old enemies. For such a large game, I was hoping for more diversity, but instead was stuck in a loop of veni, vidi, vici. I understand that enemies (and Korok seeds and the dragons) were used repeatedly so as to ensure that no matter where a player goes, they will inevitably encounter the same types of scenarios that every other player has, but that feels so unrewarding for people like me who want to explore every inch of the world. It was even more of a slap in the face when I quickly realized all of the bosses were identical, with hardly any effort taken in designing unique creatures as the series has always striven to do. This game didn't feel "wild" at all.
There wasn't much that stood out to me in my adventure, and if there was, reaching the location revealed that there was nothing exciting happening there anyway, or there was absolutely no reward whatsoever. Possibly the only time I felt surprised by a discovery was when I stumbled upon the ruins of Lon Lon Ranch as it appeared in Ocarina of Time. Then there were locations that felt like they would have some sort of significance, but turned out only to be identifiers for hidden shrines, like the cavity in Hebra Mountain (an NPC suggests the cavity was made by a giant laser, which had me foolishly expecting something cool to happen there). I couldn't shake the feeling that certain details had been forgotten in the rush to transport BotW to the Switch before its release, or that only by purchasing the season pass would the game become more alive. There was an air of incompleteness everywhere I went.
Hell, just look above Link's head--for a game that utilizes constellations as a motif, how did they forget to add stars to the night sky?
Michael Mannix um they didn't forget stars in the night (only bit I read do u really think people will take the time to read this shit)
Johnny the Gamer I read his comment because I was considering buying a Switch for this game and am looking for alternative points of views other than " o my gosh this game iz 1000/10!"
I feel exactly the opposite of what you said
Im having a fun time exploring the world but this guy needs to stop making excuses, we all know theres so much empty space because of the switches graphical limitations. This world is as the saying goes.. "As broad as an ocean, but as deep as a puddle"
Bringer of dis pear watching and listening is easier than reading.
"Enemy encounters hide their telegraphing enough that their appearance instils a sense of panic"...texture pop-ins will do that to ya! Stop giving Nintendo undue credit.