Some games from the past play a lot worse in hindsight than others. What recent, decently-liked video games do you expect to suffer this curse?
Some games from the past play a lot worse in hindsight than others. What recent, decently-liked video games do you expect to suffer this curse?
I think that someday people are going to look back on Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom and go “what did anyone ever see in this soulless open-world sandbox mush”
I’ve never played them but I’m thankful for Twink Link and Femboy Link
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For me the moment-to-moment gameplay of BotW is significantly marred by the awful durability system, where fighting a monster is always a drain on your resources and basically never a good idea.
Tears of the Kingdom has a much better gameplay loop in that regard, where fighting monsters gives you components to make better weapons to fight more monsters. However, it is also marred by an even wider and less defined concept, and just the whole existence of the depths in general, and also a focus on Just Cause style physics fuck-around gameplay that basically doesn’t interact with any of the core systems. In other words, Breath of the Wild doesn’t do it for me because the core gameplay loop sucks, and in Tears of the Kingdom the core gameplay loop was improved but all this other shit was tacked on that I don’t think serves any purpose.
I am the complete opposite. The durability system for me makes the combat considerably more interesting because it prevents me from just finding 1 single thing that works and using that. It forced me to use whatever I had available and I really enjoyed the creativity that forced on me. It’s a game that asks you to adapt.
I get really bored in other combat systems once I’ve established a winning formula. It just becomes repetition. There’s no more cerebral element.
It’s not like any of the weapons in Breath of the Wild are actually different from one another though. You mash the same button with all of them until the enemy dies. BotW weapons aren’t like Dark Souls weapons or something, they’re more like ammo in an FPS. There’s never a situation where the solution is anything but “select highest damage weapon, mash Y”
Have you tried dropping a large rock on an enemies head
I find myself switching between one handed if I expect to need a shield, spear if I want range, and two handed if I’m dealing with a group of enemies. Respectively lynels since I like to parry their attacks, bats, and the two handed charge attack comes in handy a lot.
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Thank you. I wasn’t able to put my finger on why I hated it so much, after awhile.
In my explore and fight monsters game, I want to be rewarded, not punished, for fighting the monsters!
Just avoid the fights.
Right, I did. That’s the problem with the game. They put the fights there, and there’s no reason to participate in them so I didn’t. Then they put loot around the map, but there’s no reason to go find it so I didn’t. They put story around the map, but there’s really not much reason to go find it so I wish I hadn’t.
There’s really nothing in either of these games that actually feels productive to do aside from walking into the final boss room and smacking the final boss to death with a variety of funny sticks. Everything else is chores.
I don’t want to be productive. I wanna fuck around and see things. Tears of the kingdom is an excellent fuck around and see things game.
Imagine if you create an awesome combat system and then most players had to avoid it because of resource management.
Imagine if you created many systems and let players engage with them as they prefer
Imagine calling “preventing the player from fighting enemies for fun” a system.
It’s like saying not being able to open doors is a mechanic.
Nobody is preventing anybody from enjoying fights. Some people like the fights.
Enjoying the fights comes at a real cost to your materials. You can either enjoy getting into random fights, or enjoy having good weapons.
It pits resource management against fun and that’s a shit trade.
I played and completely beat (minus korok seeds) BotW and TotK and I just cannot understand the hype around these games which bothers me (me not understanding, not the hype itself) because I wanted to like it. I’ve spent too long trying to figure out what I didn’t like about those games.
Long-Winded Thoughts
Open World: After over a decade of similar game design, I’m completely burnt on the concept. Inevitably, I’m going to run straight to as many towers as possible to fill the map out and then fast travel across the map as needed because it’s the most efficient thing to do, which is what it did for both games. Traversal in TotK was a cop to that, I feel, because the overworld was recycled. Everything from the towers flinging you into the sky to being able to build vehicles was to increase the speed you could explore. Unfortunately, upgrades to the battery were behind such a grind, it forces you to be efficient in your designs which always means the two fan-and-control stick combo.
Progression: Completely lacking. One of the things I love about other Zeldas is going through the dungeons and accruing power ups that open up new methods of traversal and increase Link’s power throughout the game. BotW and TotK both give you all the tools you’re going to get in the first two hours and then tell you to enjoy the other hundred. There is gear, but the environmental effects in a lot of zones strongly encourages you to wear what’s required. Upgrades are behind quite a grind.
Time vs Reward: There’s a lot to explore in these games and the sight of a far off platform that requires some kind of solution to reach draws me in. I’d spend a good 5-10 minutes getting to it only to be rewarded with 5 arrows or I’d look in yet another cave just to break two weapons digging through a bunch of rocks for a bunch of amber and a sapphire. Eventually, I just stopped doing it because the rewards never justified the time I’d spend doing it.
Story Delivery: For me, a good story can outweigh gameplay I don’t like, but both games miss the mark for me here as well. The open world design they went with is at odds with story delivery because you can possibly go anywhere. Memories made sense in BotW, but the tear drop system in TotK is really confusing. Being able to get the story out of order (which I ended up doing), really defuses what little narrative tension the game has. I don’t know why they couldn’t just play the next cutscene when you get the next drop. It is also perplexing that finishing the dungeons in TotK ends with you getting the same exact sage cutscene telling you the same exact information with a little bit of vocal inflection depending on character.
Dungeon Design: Recycled ___blight Ganon in BotW was a real letdown compared to past fun boss designs. In TotK, it was real disappointing that the dungeons all had the same fundamental design – unlock four locks and fight the boss. It was fine the first time I saw it, but when I realized that was all the dungeons were going to do, it sucked the enjoyment right out of me. Also, I understand that the journey of getting to the dungeons is part of the experience, but in both games, they were so lackluster and few in number that it felt like a waste of time.
Shrines: The shrines are so fire and forget I question why they were even there beyond padding out the map. I would’ve vastly preferred breaking the total into groups to make the dungeons into proper dungeons or at least consolidating them into shrine complexes that were more meaningful rather than a timesink.
Weapons: Yes, the durability system. I don’t have an issue with it per se, but its design encourages habits. What it encouraged me to do is hang all the cool race specific weapons on the wall because I couldn’t afford to replace one if they broke. I never used them. Also, the Master Sword running out of juice makes my eyes roll back in my head.
Amber.
Those are some of the only decent ones, though. Nearly every other sandbox/survival/open-world game will be relegated to the dustbin of history, though. Can’t wait for the survival fad to die.
Yeah, they’re quite possibly the only open world games that made traversal and exploration fun. In 5 years the only difference will be BOTW haters seething at it appearing in every top 100 of all time list.
Nah. I don’t think that their reputation will increase (the gaming landscape is just way too fractured for that and “gamers” have shown they are fine just eating slop) but both of those games have given me joys and wonder that no other game has since I’ve stopped being a teen.
I sincerely wish I understood this.
It’s fine, there’s no game that’s perfect for everyone, just games perfect for someone. If this isn’t one of yours then no worries.
I totally agree. I’m just usually pretty consensus on these things. I’m worried I’m getting old haha!
They’re going to be remembered as masterpieces
I’m looking forward to that. Right now, I’m in the prophecy portion of the Cassandra myth.