Breath of the Wild's Exploration Cycle ~ Design Doc
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 พ.ค. 2018
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a wonderful exploration game. Let's talk about the game design techniques it uses to make the focus on exploration unforgettable.
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/ warbot400 - เกม
"Aha!" moments? I think you mean 'Yahaha!' moments
I don't think any game map has made me think "holy shit what's that?" More times than BoTW
NOW THE ELDER RING IS
IKR!?!?? 😱
Then I am sorry to say that you probably haven't played a lot of open world games because that is objectively the worst part of zelda botw.
@@huks9380 people are just supposed to know what everything is from the get-go?
@@huks9380I always struggled to have fun in the game, I think it’s just underwhelming after playing the Witcher 3. My preferences are for the old school Zelda design, if they’re going such open world, I want something more out of the narrative to keep me invested.
If weapons never broke, I would've always stuck with great swords and would've never cared for how spear-fighting felt...
But because they broke, I was forced to start using spears... And boomerangs... And clubs...
And because they all broke eventually, I started using them a bit more recklessly the closer they got to breaking... Which made me find more creative uses of them.
By a hundred hours in, I was flinging clubs from afar, shooting arrows into fire places, javelin throwing spears, throwing multiple boomerangs, and tornado-swinging my way through enemies while locking a bomb nearby so it'd slam into a nearby archer tower.
And that was just one fight.
Did I need to do all that? Nope.
Was it a ton of fun, especially compared to my original stance of sticking to only one weapon throughout the game? Most definitely.
By that point of the game, I actually started to look forward to weapons breaking. Because it meant I had an excuse to use them recklessly, and it meant I could switch it out for a new weapon.
I explored and re-explored areas so much that I knew where to go to get a restock of reliable weapons, so losing one was never a terrible thing.
By the end of the game, I grew to love the weapon breaking mechanic. (Even when I was eventually left weaponless after an insane ambush... I had to rely on branches and a quickly made campfire throughout the fight, and it was glorious) And spears became my 2nd favorite weapon.
Those giant boomerangs are #1 for me. Nothing's more satisfying than seeing that thing come flying back to you while you're surrounded by enemies, pummeling through a majority of them.
I couldn't agree more , breaking weapon is a cool mechanic when you really think about it as it force you to change your normal playstyle on the go and let you think what other way you could use that item , personaly ice weapon + korok leaf is so fun , one shotting mobs in water with a leaf is fun , electric weapons and arrows are clever as you can use your surrounding to do cool things like shoot an elettric arrow on a poddle of water or piece of metal as it create an electric burst. I think people complain about it cause they used to stick with a weapon or a weapon type the majority of the game but wouldn t work here it will just create the same fight all over the map. Favorite weapon si the Wind Katana form the Niga
The problems with the system is that people don't like it when their shit breaks, it happens too often, you're forced to stop using weapons you want to use, it makes fighting enemies when you have anything better than garbage clubs & shit pointless (since why break your better weapons when you get absolutely nothing but their garbage clubs?) so you start avoiding fights, you might end up having to use the good weapons you have for garbage ordinary tasks (interacting with shrine puzzles or whatever), etc. It even makes shield surfing not really viable since your shields keeps breaking if you use it, so don't you dare do something fun!
It's a system with BOATLOADS of problems that only feels slapped on to act as a sort band-aid on their game. The combat system is very basic so if you ended up sticking to your favorites it would get boring extremely quickly, finding new weapons acts as "loot" and so on. Instead of adressing those individual problems they came up with this clumsy durability system.
I never ever want to see this system in any Zelda game ever.
My friend you couldn't of word this more perfectly.
Disagreed there a way to design weapon to make them fell all unite an interesting to use and let ppl that don't want to switch it up well do it (Breaking weapon just reduce option It doesn't give you more option)
Charlé Ouel most players stick to one weapon and one weapon only because even if weapons are diferent there are weapons that are definetly better than others, botw forces you to change
This game's graphics also serve the gameplay really well, the game is so beautiful that often I found the view atop a huge mountain or great vantage point was a reward in and of itself. Love this game!
@AndrewWithEase11 11 ok
This game is so good at distracting when you first play it. When I wanted to go to the ice dragon, I ended up renovating my own house and building a village. As for suspiciously placed rocks: my girlfriend was often annoyed when I jumped off the horse because of every random rock at the side of the road. "Now this rock looks so special! ...ah, there's a frog underneath. But I still don't trust that rock! You have to be sure!"
Very true. It's so easy to get sidetracked. On top of that, multiple goals are in the back of your mind, particularly at the start of the game.
"I need to unlock more of the map."
"I need more stamina/hearts."
"I need more inventory slots."
"I need better weapons."
It says a lot about how good the art direction in BOTW is when most players don't even realize the "Triangle Rule" in the way the landmarks are designed
Gaming since 1983 and this is my favourite game.
I think what makes BOTW so brilliant is that, like you said, the world and map is not marked with things to do like a checklist. Instead, everything is simply suggested by putting it in the distance, allowing the player to decide for themselves to investigate. Like Minecraft, the game is driven by implicit goals. Also I didn't know about the triangle rule, that's so awesome! Well done as always man!
Daryl Talks Games what I love about this game is the fact that you make your own goals! I finished the game once, then I bought the dlc and am playing again in Master mode!
Yesterday, I was gonna get the master sword, but before that, there were somethings I had to do: get all the necessary hearts and get the hylian shield (for aesthetics)... It took me about 2 hours and I had a BLAST!!
Heck yeah! I'm taking a break for a bit and then I'm gonna start a new game on Master mode and try to do 100% (excluding the korok seeds because no)
Daryl Talks Games same here! Korok seeds are a no go for me lol
Exactly! I feel like people underplay this point sometimes. "Oh, it's the same as every other open world game but with no icons" - no! The fact that there's no icons changes the feel and pacing of the game entirely. Everything you go to do, every time you explore something, it's because YOU saw it in the horizon, and YOU decided to go explore it. You're an active participant and an active member of the world, not just somebody checking locations off of a list. That's a huge part of what makes BotW the best open world game.
I also love how much life there is in breath of the wild. And it really is that. A breath of thew wild. Grasshoppers, frogs, dragonflies. Lizards and beetles on the trees. Deer, bears, boars, goats, foxes, wolves, birds... the list goes on.
Ocarina is still my sentimental favourite, but Breath of the Wild is, I think, the BEST Zelda game ever made (and a close second-favourite). The exploration is such a huge part of that, the world feels so rich! I finished the game and only have about half the seeds - that means there's still SO much more than you'd find just in regular gameplay!
@AndrewWithEase11 11 Hohoho looks like we have a troll here, well i dont care about what you're doing live your life that i live mine's
5:00 You just showed me where to find a shrine that I spent a good 15 minutes searching for and could never find.
Sometimes the game rewards you with nothing but a fresh point of view and that feels rewarding in itself.
I remember saying something similar when discussing Assassin's Creed/Far Cry with a friend recently. Ubi-style open world games feel like a vague uneven landscape dotted with trees, that relies on mission waypoints peppered all over to catch your attention, without really building memorable worlds or locations, whereas every hill or grove or cliff in BotW feels purposefully designed, and no matter where you are in the game, there's almost always 1-3 "ooh what's that" if you just spin your camera around.
Ubi has tried to address this issue in AC by doing away with littering the map with icons upon synchronizing and now nudges players with ? icons on the map or small ones only on the minimap/HUD while exploring as well as the need for hunting to nudge you to travel all over. For Watch Dogs 2 while you explore your "phone" buzzes telling you something is nearby vs forcing you to hack towers to find a new icon to run to. These aren't perfect as it still relies on telling you _"HEY LOOK OVER HERE"_ but its been a welcome change from the monotonous mess of a map and exploration we knew before.
Too bad the activities feel slapped together or copypasted, like the Koroks and shrines which make up the majority of the stuff you find in the game. Every time you climb up a peak? There is most likely a rock with a korok beneath it. Every time you do some puzzle out in the world or maybe some quest? Just a shrine with an orb in it. Etc.
Unsatisfying as fuck which made me no longer care about exploring the world.
Rune Soldier
I don't know man. Orbs increase your total hearts or stamina wheel. Korok Seeds, on the other hand, increase your inventory limit for a specific category. So I never feel at a loss when I discover those as it serves to improve my experience in the long run. Especially shrines as I find it rather rewarding to discover the solution even if it's a simple puzzle. Helps breakup the exploration as wall in small chunks that rarely take up much of your time. Korok Seeds are similar to shrines in that there's only one solution to them with few being more advanced. But it hardly takes up my time compare to everything else in the game. So why ignore them? Just complete the puzzle and move on. The sense of exploration never fades as my curiosity always leads me somewhere, and the reward never feels lacking as it always leads to something that'll satisfy a certain craving. Mainly more inventory space. The exception are most quests that reward little rupees that I could obtain for just selling stuff in my inventory. Oh I reunite you with the love of your love at a heart shape pond?! Here's 20 rupees. "Tony, get the boulder".
Exploration is one of my favorite parts of videogames and I am very thankful for BotW, as it shows the world how exploration can be done right. Compared to other games that rely on exploration it just felt so much more alive. We've seen so many games fail at betting it all on exploration yet this game gave me hope for the future.
I'm always surprised when people shoot the Vah Ruta ice cubes with arrows, because I noticed that the iconography on them was the same as the Cryonis blocks straight away, and always used that method.
I really love the attention to detail they gave in the sightlines specifically. There are so many scenic spots and the placement of shrines etc with deliberate intent to entice you not only to spot one or two, but to force you to make choices of whether you want to continue down your current objective, turn left to that stuff over here, or turn right to the stuff over there.
For a game that some complained was too empty, I had the feeling like I was constantly being torn left from right on which direction I wanted to explore next. I liked the tree and fenced area in Kakariko village, a little cutout from the surrounding mountains that gives you a look off into the distance, and you have to decide... do I want to go down this way to all these shrines and cool stuff, or go the other way to the divine beast from the main quest?
Also, the Bird in the Mountains shrine quest. I loved that the placement of the shrine was really only visible if you went from the spot where the disjointed mountain tops have a perspective of a great bird. Very well done.
I love the exploration in this game. Every playthrough I set a goal, and every time I get sidetracked and end up doing only a fraction of what I intended. And I love it.
I really must applaud Nintendo for really working on the world, and taking the bold step of making the journey memorable through the player's experiences and not the story or combat. Almost every memory you make in BotW feels like something you earned. One of my favorites is what I call "The Story of Me, Eventide Island and the Floating Orb", in which one thing led to another and I ended up transporting an orb on a raft half-naked in a thunderstorm. Also everything involving the dragons was just fantastic. It says something when I refuse to shoot them for good loot because I just love seeing them flying across the landscape with the pretty music.
This is something I've experienced bits and pieces of in previous Zelda, but it was never fully realized until now. For example my fondest memory from Twilight Princess was the one time I missed a Poe by a second, and not wanting to redo a flying puzzle to get back to the same place, I sat on the floating raft for the entire in-game day just taking in the scenery and music. And from Minish Cap it's not the story or freeing Zelda, it was the locations and music - the Minish woods, the top of Mount Crenel, the sanctuary and top of the wind ruins, finally going above the clouds... BotW made me feel like that again.
If I had any gripe, it'd be that the lack of proper dungeons. Booting it up I expected to find hidden temples and strange complexes, and while you sort of do with the labyrinths and the forgotten temple, they're too brief to feel like proper dungeons. The divine beasts and shrines were fine, but were repetitive, and towards the end I was hungry for delving into a deep, dark brooding dungeon. It also plays into what I think was a missed opportunity: caves. Those were one of my favorite things from Twilgiht Princess, and with the way BotW works they'd be perfect. Imagine delving into a dark cave, just you and your torch, not knowing what was deep inside. This would've also put the luminous armor to good use. They touched on this with the Leviathan in Hebra, and seeing that I just wanted more!
But that said, I'm amazed at the quality and originality Nintendo keeps putting out. I wouldn't call this my favorite Zelda game, but it's up there and will be one of the most memorable playthroughs of any game in recent years. And I'm sure sooner or later I'll get the urge to return to those verdant fields.
Good news, judging from what's been seen so far, there are probably going to be some caves and dungeon-esque areas in the sequel!
I just got this game in November when I bought a Switch and I couldn't have felt like it was a better deal than I had anticipated. I've only put 100 hours into it and I'm still enjoying it like crazy.
This is one of those games that make you wish you could relive your first playthrough again
What kept me going into BOTW was the amount of references of the older games kept me looking for them. "Aww look Lonlon ranch, I love this place."
This made me appreciate my favorite game even more
it just hit me, at 7:00 every time you use the guardians abilities you get to see your dead best friends again.
And yet I've played Skyrim so many times that I instantly identified the shot as being the snowfield between Whiterun and the wrecked watchtower... =p
It's a cliche at the point, but I'd never realized you could exploit a guardian's laser attacks by getting them to fire at other enemies for you.
While I understand that many people were left disappointed with this game because of the complete 180 it did for the Zelda formula, this is probably the only other good open world game I've played besides spider man 2 back on the gamecube. Even ignoring the world itself, the mechanics just have so much depth and interactivity with the environment is on a level that no other game has in decades (and all of this on an underpowered console like the Wii U too), making it fun to mess around with all the different paths you can take and fighting styles to adapt in non-binary ways.
@@JoelBaulidaAyerbe how was the main quest bad? Yeah it was "kill ganon" but whats bad about it? If you want you explore or you can beat the game in half an hour
My biggest distraction during my first playthrough: I was doing the Vah Ruta quest and after I beat the lynel, I saw the Dah Hesho shrine (aka the one near the fairy fountain and Tarrey town) and then I ended up doing Robbie's quest instead, long story short.
I love your delivery. Most TH-camrs bank a lot on their personality and charm, with mixed results. Others are so drab it sounds like we're bothering them. You my friend are perfectly in the middle! Not to mention you always have something to add to the conversation. I hope to do the same, to conceptualize possible futures for games.
Keep up the great work!
Very strange that you mention Skyrim as an example of undistinct areas because Skyrim definitely has distinct areas. All the holds have purposely been designed to have different geographical landscapes. Whiterun hold is sprawling plains. Winterhold is a snowy wasteland. Riften hold is a big forest. etc. The cities have wildly different architectural styles and layouts too.
Weapon breaking is definitely an interesting mechanic. In Dead Rising 1 and 2, I rarely switched weapons (unless I was dicking around) once I found one I really liked because you can get magazines that will significantly increase the weapon's durability. Like in Dead Rising 1, once you get the mini chainsaws, you basically have one of the best weapons in the game and with the right magazines you can hold on to several until the end of the game.
I felt my curiosity being rewarded constantly. Took me 80 hours to finally put the controller down.
I just find it funny those "game critics" saying "BotW map is sooo shallow, there is no depth, you only walk around to find at best a Korok seed or a mini boss that is copy pasted all around the map". Dude after 100 hours in the game and defeating all the guardian beasts, OF COURSE it will be hard to find new things like armors or new setpieces. Duhhh. Those guys tend to forget what drew them in the adventure all over the map in the first place. It's like those people WANT games now to be filled with Ubisoft-like achievements that artificially stretches the game.
I've played this game for over 160 hours and only now just realized you can swipe the piles of leaves with a sword... I always bombed them, and thought it was either that or find a korok leaf. The fact that you can be so wrong yet still be right is another thing I love so much about this game.
Just found this channel - and I love it!
Good job man
love your stuff man keep it rollin
Fantastic review and commentary. Sincerely enjoyed.
Keep up the high quality content, Doc.
I have to say I only just found your channel. Thanks to youtube's usually bad recommendations actually.
And I absolutely love this video. The script and the explanations and even your phrasing. You didn't sound like you were just reading a script out loud.
Also the visuals, you always showed engaging examples. I even saw landscapes and korokpuzzles I never found myself.
So uhm, thank you. Not only for giving me an awesome video I can link to all my friends bragging about how amazing breath of the wild was...
Also for giving me the urge to pick up the game again to fill out my own map.
Thank you so much! Glad you like it!
I'm in love with your content! Every video you make is informative and extremely well made. I always end up coming out with a piece of information I would have never known otherwise
The exploration was great except when I was climbing and the game would randomly pause for an unknown amount of time. Or as the developers would call it, rain.
I swear, no other game made everything I do feel so rewarding quite like botw. I never really played exploration games (aside from maybe minecraft) like skyrim ect. but this game sucked me in so hard. Multiplayer games are easy to rack a lot of hours on the switch but looking back that I had like 200 some hours on that game of just pure running around, and I haven't even come close to 100%-ing the game yet
Video was very well done. Great work
Just seeing this video makes me want to start up another playthrough. Love this game more than any other Zelda I've played, and deserves a place in my alltime top 5 videogames. Zelda games immersion for me was so often broken by the relative small scale of Hyrule up to that point, the 'walls' surrounding what's supposed to be natural areas and the plot coupons. They ditched all that and focused on the landscape and the exploration, which were allways my favourite bits. Feels like they made this game just for me.
Loved BoTW, you really opened my eyes with the Korok puzzles since I've seen most of those puzzles that aren't lights but I would never even thought that there might be something missing or that I have to complete a figure, like I swear to god I did the whole story and never did one of those puzzles, jus the flower. I might need a gestaltic psychological assessment
Great video as always!
Thank you for articulating the things that my brain could never nail down about this brilliant game.
This is the perfect game for people that are naturally curious and love exploring on their own without having the game drop dozens of markers on its map every time you climb a tower, which you then just take care of one by one like chores on a checklist. The only other game which similarly excels at self-directed exploration is Outer Wilds.
Good analysis man
Wish you posted content more often. Your videos are great.
Nice video! Cool analysis.
Very informative. Makes me want to play again
Really nice video! Subbed
Great video dude
There are puzzles in Genshin Impact feel like the BotW puzzles to me. I think they get a lot of exploration aspects right in both games.
You just won a new subscriber man.
Definitely deserved the best game of the year, such fun and so much to do with master tier craftsmanship behind it.
Sweet educational video!
I haven’t played Genshin Impact yet but I’ve seen my friends play it and this review reminds me a lot of that game, and how they both nail the exploration concept!
Great video
Aha! So I'm not the only one who shot those ice blocks with arrows! 5:45
It wasn't until later I realized I could save arrows and just bust those ice blocks with my rune.
I love botw, I just don't like how it really supports hoarding, I found myself with hundereds of items and foods and always thinking; "I will not use this now, I might need it later." But of course, getting those items back is so easy, I could probably hold the max amount of an item but still feel like I will need all of them sometime.
This was really interesting
great video :)
If weapons were one-of-a-kind, didn't break and were found as rewards for quests, clearing monster camps etc, then I'd feel more inclined to explore.
As is, I'll pick a shrine or quest location I need to go to, and if I see something on the way I ignore it because:
Enemies = Damage/break weapon, get another worse weapon
Korok seed = Wow, like I need more of those
NPC on the road = Yiga
NPC attacked by enemies = mediocre food reward
Great video. Really acessible and informative at the same time. Like and subscribe :)
Here’s something interesting that I did in this game, see, I was doing Champion’s Ballad, and I had a quest where I had to get a ball out of the Yiga Hideout and throw it down the pit at the exit, since I’m not crazy enough to sneak around the last part with that thing, I decided to do a better decision. I figured it would be easier if I just eliminated everyone before getting out. I brought out my Barbarian Armor, and also my Master Sword, and used the amazing tactic of spamming Urbosa’s Fury to clean out the room. Surprisingly, that worked.
Since BOTW 2 might be getting rid of towers and shrines, I wonder how they'll get us to explore.
A design i'd like you to tackle is Fire Emblem Heroes, which, despite being a gacha, has a really informative and good-looking UI.
great video! what other videogames you think also acomplish/succeed as a "exploration game"??
Hmm, it's a bit early for my yearly replay of botw, but I kind of have to now.
Excellent video. Can you tell me where you find the translation for the CEDEC talk? Thank you in advance 👏
A game that did EVERYTHING right design-wise.
OMG when ever someone asks me what Wanderlust is I show them Zelda botw from now on.
My initial reaction was that the main storyline was fun and the characters were interesting, the whole game was for me between my first and second divine beasts. That's when I explored and hunted treasures. Probably the best week in gaming I've ever had. I never liked the fragile weapons though.
Honestly, the exploration cycle is, in a way, my biggest issue with TotK. It might not help that I got bought and completed BotW less than 2 weeks before TotK came out, but I hated the railroading in TotK. In BotW, on the Great Plateau, you are told to go to Oman Au shrine first, to get Magnesis, but your only guide as to the order of the other shrines is the terrain. By using only that, the devs basically guaranteed the sequence on a first playthrough: (probable lesson on stealth, courtesy of decayed guardians) -> Bomb runes -> (probable lesson on cooking, courtesy of old man's diary and the promise of a Warm Doublet) -> Stasis Rune -> (definite lesson on weather, courtesy of snowy mountain) -> Cryonis Rune. After the tutorial, you are told to head to Kakariko Village to meet Impa, who will tell you about the Divine Beasts and to meet her sister Purah in Hateno Village to get the Camera rune. When you get the Camera rune and Hyrule Compendium, you are told to head back to Kakariko to start the Captured Memories quest. From there, you will probably appease Vah Ruta, and then Vah Rudania, just based on proximity, but your next major objective is entirely up to you. However, despite how likely that path is, it is an easily avoided suggestion. TotK is a different story. There are also 4 shrines on the Great Sky Island, but unlike BotW, you're "forced" to do the Recall shrine last, and the first 3 can be done in "any" particular order. I say "forced" and "any" in quotes, because you are absolutely made to do all the other shrines in a very specific order, unless you break the game in ways the devs never intended. You WILL get Ultrahand first, because it is put on full display when you are told visit the shrines, and it is both a stones throw from the starting point, and the only one you can easily see from it. Then, you WILL use Ultrahand to get to the Fuse shrine, and you NEED to use Ultrahand to get there. Immediately after exiting that shrine, you will be given a straight tutorial on the Zonai Battery and devices, which you WILL use, along with a rather ham-fisted tutorial on dealing with cold weather, to get to the Ascend shrine. From there, it is a somewhat straight shot back to the Temple of Time. There, you will get the Recall ability, and be told to go to the shrine for it. You are even told where that shrine is. Then, after all that railroading, you then get railroaded through the entire game. I WANTED to go to Kakariko and Hateno Villages first thing, but I had to fight Purah, the people reading the newspaper, the guy running the mini stable at Lookout Landing, Penn (who works for the newspaper), and the harder enemies who were ALL telling me to go towards Rito Village, just to get halfway to Kakariko Village. Then I ran into Cado, who told me Impa was headed northwest towards New Serene Stable to investigate the geoglyphs. So I finally HAD to listen to the game, and head northwest. Then, I was told to go even further north, to the Forgotten Temple, to find a map of the geoglyphs. And guess where the next one was? Due west, straight towards Rito Village. Throughout the entire game, EVERYONE and EVERYTHING, tells you where to go next: from Rito Village to Goron City to Zora's Domain and finally Gerudo Town, you are told by Purah, the Lucky Clover Gazette, numerous random NPCs, and the geoglyphs PRECISELY where you should go next. TotK lost the freedom that made BotW so great, and suffered for it. Don't get me wrong: TotK is an AMAZING game, and I now have more play time in it than I do in BotW, but it was WAY too linear.
I wasnt paying attention at the beginning, so I went halfway through the main quests without a map :D.
I think the problem with breakable weapons is that, as you said, it would be counterproductive if you get an unbrokable on early, cause it kills experimentation. Ok, but... why can't you stop experimenting after doing like, half of she shrines. That's the frustrating part: the game FORCES you to be crative and that's no good. Sometimes you just want to explore with the Master Sword and the Hylian Shield looking cool, but you can't. It's annoying. If they felt giving you an unbreakable weapon too soonn would ruin the game, fine, make it so you need 16-17 hearts to get the Master Sword and there you go, but don't force people into being creative for the sake of it.
2 playthroughs and I still haven’t found all the taluses or hinox giants and Im sure I haven’t opened all the chests either
I really liked the game, but after completing it I really was glad I was done with it. Many people complained about weapons breaking too fast. Maybe 50% more durability would have been nice, but the biggest improvement would have been a better UI/UX. The most annoying thing about this game was that interruption of flow whenever you switch weapons or want to heal.
1. Give me three weapon slots (for each type), which each behave like a queue. I can queue up weapons for each slot in the menu and whenever one breaks, the next weapon of that slot gets used automatically. Use a single button to cycle through the slots quickly. You have to tap it at most twice to get where you want and it won't pause the game.
2. Do that for food as well. When you consume anything, Link should execute the eating animation in the world, not in the menu. The game shouldn't pause. You should only be able to eat when standing on your feet. Eating should be interrupted by enemy attacks.
3. When finding a weapon that you can't pick up, directly open the menu and let me select which one to throw away. Don't put it back into the chest. That wastes so much time and it is so frequent.
The contrast between this and Ubisoft games is interesting. Ubisoft peppers their maps with icons, while BotW lets you find stuff on your own. You could make a good case for both sides, but I personally prefer this system. Much more immersive and personal.
i do feel they should fix the weapon durability but not by removing it, but by adding a second non degradable weapon system, perhaps you start with the master sword but its shattered so its equal to basic sticks and shit, but it never breaks, and over the course of the game you can find pieces and slowly put it back together increasing its power, so you always have a reliable weapon you can fall back on but it will still likely be weaker then the more fragile expendable weapons you have at that point, think of it like the infinte ammo pistol a lot of shooters have, you could also have side upgrade you can get that change how it functions, ei an extended handle if you prefer fighting with a spear, or some magic wind gem that causes it to spin and return to you liek a boomarang or elemental gems if you want to dick around with fire
it would also add an in story reason why you are dicking around so long instead of dealing with ganon like the divine beasts repairing the master swords really somethign you want to do before confronting ganon
10:22 Nice!
I think the spyglass idea would have fixed Dragon Age Inquisition's overwhelming map. I still remember when I first played it and freaked out when I first opened it in the Highlands. I couldn't tell what was what and went everywhere else but my objective for the first hour, lol.
All I'm getting out of this video is that I'm apparently playing BotW wrong. I didn't notice half of this stuff and just focused on pushing towards the next story objective or quest objective, in the shortest, most efficient route possible...
Do whatever you find to be the most fun. BoTW is meant to be explored but if you enjoy how you're playing it, keep doing it that way!
Although not perfect, and definitely more heavily reliant on plot to drive exploration, Pokémon Legends: Arceus does a pretty decent job at driving exploration through map design. Although you are given a world map that clearly depicts each of the five regions, each of them is sectioned off into smaller cells, with no apparent rhyme or season behind their sizes and shapes. These "cells" are outlined by dashed lines, and are slightly tinted in the map, until you visit them. This was more than enough to encourage me to visit each one. At first, I thought that was their only purpose, but that changed after I beat the game. Beyond that, a big part of the game, probably the biggest part of it, in fact, is completing the Pokedex, and unlike other games in the franchise, this means catching every species several times. As such, you will BURN through Pokeballs. The game accommodates for this by adding a crafting system, letting players make their own Pokeballs, medicines, and other consumables out in the field, but only if they have the proper items on them. As such, high use materials, like Tumblestones and Apricorns, the materials for Pokeballs, will be in constant demand. It is very helpful that Tumblestones are always dropped from the brightly colored crystals dotting the landscape, but their are other goodies found in them. The color of the crystal determines what kind of Tumblestone you get, with each being used for a different kind of Pokeball. If the crystal is sparkling, it contains any of the following: Iron ore (used to make higher grade balls), evolution stones, nuggets, star pieces, star dusts, and a number of other goodies. Crystals might also be shaking, and breaking one such crystal reveals a Pokémon. Some Pokémon, like Geodude, have Pokedex tasks that require you to see several of them jump out of these shaking rocks. Apricorns drop from specific trees, identifiable by their brown fruits. Other trees grown red, blue, or yellow berries, but only Apricorns have a unique color. What is even more useful is that the same trees always grow the same fruits, and ore deposits always come back with the same tumblestones, so players always know where to go if they need more of a specific kind. Another high use item are medicinal leeks, which are used to make potions. These are typically found in bunches of 3 or 4, and can be scattered just about anywhere, bridging the gap between groves where fruit trees might be, or rocks where ores can be found. It only takes a second to grab these goodies, but they are as consumable as they are plentiful, so you'll always be getting side tracked as you find more and more of them further and further of the "path" to your next objective.
botw is actually very definition of a game that isn't work very hard, but worked smart.
Your content is excellent, maybe consider putting yourself on camera a little in the future? You're a star man, embrace it!
I really, really like BotW (The Hyrule castle theme alone makes it at least the second best Zelda game for me, haha), but I kinda feel like it doesn't offer me that much anymore. I only played for like 40 hours and feel like I've seen everything the game offers. I often see other people with 140+ hours on it and I'm just wondering what else I could do besides continuing to look for shrines and korok seeds I guess
Great video btw, always excited to see new stuff from you
oh well, i have 135+ hours. Everytime i play, there is something new, at least for me
Le Derp I didn't see everything, of course, but I explored all the regions (for the most part at the very least), done the story, fully upgraded the Hateno house and Tarrey town, got the Master Sword, have as many equipment slots and hearts as I really need etc.
Don't get me wrong though, I love the game, it's absolutely fantastic. I'm 55 hours in now and I'm actually thinking of trying to complete the compendium
I would still like the weapon durability to be a little higher.
I am fine with a twig only lasting me 4-5 hits, but when you do a similar amount of durability for a sword it just gets silly.
I couldn't solve a puzzle once...
*DROPPED ALL WEAPONS*
And just like that I had enough electricity to advance!
It's interesting comparing this and your item hoarding episode. I get where you're coming from with weapon durability, but no one has ever said it better than Hard Drive, when they wrote a parody article titled:
"Devoted BoTW player unlocks legendary weapon after 1000 hours of gameplay to look at and never use."
Anyone know the song he uses at the end of the video? It's beautiful but I don't know what to search
"Zora's Domain" from BoTW
@@DesignDoc thanks so much keep up the awesome vids!
It was a very fun game, but I wish the final battle was actually challenging/fun/storyline important past "congrats, you win". I almost wish I didn't complete the 'temples' so that it could have lasted longer. I also feel Zelda's storyline ends with little fanfare. We have a giant set up and no real payoff. (and yes, I found every memory)
The first thing I did in BotW was activate all the towers, then I maxed out my stamina.
I'm probably an outlier here, but I actually dont enjoy the durability in this game. It actually stops me from exploring at a certain point. After spending time, careful planning, and skill to get a strong weapon, I dont want to even use it because I know itll just break after a bit of combat. I wish there was a repair system, that way, i can still feel free to explore and show off/use my cool gear without worrying about losing it and having to replace it with something inferior.
The background designers got PAID for this game
Imagine being a kid, and this game is your first
What's the music at the end?
BoTW's Zora's Domain (Daytime)
Nintendo designed this game great its like you see that place that looks cool go there
Great analysis
I don't get what's all the fuss about the durability.
I get more cool and strong weapons than I find weak weapons somewhere later in the first part of the game. Maybe I'm just not as picky as the lot of you because the point of a weapon is to be used, even more so if it's powerful, and if it breaks, oh well, good thing I have that other cool spear/bow/greatsword/hammer/boomerang/etc. I picked up earlier.
Song at the end?
BoTW's Zora's Domain (Daytime)