It's been a while since my last blog entry so I wanted to give you guys my two cents on Breath of the Wild.
First, I'd like to tell you a couple of things about myself just so you know where my probably a bit controversial opinion is coming from.
I wouldn't really consider myself a hardcore gamer, in the sense that if you name a couple of AAA titles, I probably haven't played them. I've never played a single CoD or Battlefield game, nor have I played Xenoblade or Final Fantasy, not even Skyrim. When it comes to games I usually stick to a small amount of franchises, that I'm a huge fan of. These franchises are mainly Pokemon, Assassin's Creed and Legend of Zelda with LoZ being the most important of all. I've completed every single player Zelda game up to A Link Between Worlds five times now, and I do mean 100% completion.
What made Zelda games so perfect for me in the past was their simplicity. I didn't need to worry about levelling up anything, gathering resources or whatever, I could just do all the different main and side quests without having to worry about anything else. That's basically the point, I like games that aren't very complicated. Probably because I do a lot of complicated stuff like programming or writing music when I'm not sitting in front of my TV.
Now Breath of the Wild came along and completely changed everything. Aside from working on quests you now have to worry about gathering enough food (not that that's really a problem), and even gathering weapons. The latter is what bugs me the most. In the older titles you just had your standard sword and shield which you'd upgrade every now and then but you never had to worry about losing them. Now my weapons break after what feels like every third or fourth enemy. I can't even go around Hyrule looking for all the Korok Seeds without going "Oh, I only have three weapons left, better look for stronger enemies to grab some new ones".
Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely not hating on the game. Playing through the game you can really notice how much thought the developers put into it, which is something I truly appreciate and I do notice that, objectively, it's a great game.
Basically, what my point is, is that Breath of the Wild is a very good game, no doubt about that, but it's not a Zelda game. I sometimes watch some of my friends play Skyrim or Dark Souls and that's what BotW feels like in my opinion, like any other RPG. I guess what Nintendo aimed at was to make the game appealing to hardcore gamers who wouldn't have bothered with BotW if they had made it like the old games and I can't argue with that strategy at all, and they deserve all the praise they are getting. It's just that I had wished for Nintendo to also make the game appealing to hardcore Zelda fans, not hardcore RPG fans.
I know, I'm whining around and you might say "but Michael, maybe the game isn't for you, if you don't like the game, just don't play it", but to be honest with you, I'm pretty disappointed, not in Nintendo but in myself as I can't enjoy the game as much as I'd like to. I even considered downloading the game for my Wii U and playing it with cheats so that my weapons wouldn't break etc. but that would be just plain stupid.
Anyway, I guess I'm gonna get a lot of abuse for this post but I just wanted to share my frustration I guess.
First, I'd like to tell you a couple of things about myself just so you know where my probably a bit controversial opinion is coming from.
I wouldn't really consider myself a hardcore gamer, in the sense that if you name a couple of AAA titles, I probably haven't played them. I've never played a single CoD or Battlefield game, nor have I played Xenoblade or Final Fantasy, not even Skyrim. When it comes to games I usually stick to a small amount of franchises, that I'm a huge fan of. These franchises are mainly Pokemon, Assassin's Creed and Legend of Zelda with LoZ being the most important of all. I've completed every single player Zelda game up to A Link Between Worlds five times now, and I do mean 100% completion.
What made Zelda games so perfect for me in the past was their simplicity. I didn't need to worry about levelling up anything, gathering resources or whatever, I could just do all the different main and side quests without having to worry about anything else. That's basically the point, I like games that aren't very complicated. Probably because I do a lot of complicated stuff like programming or writing music when I'm not sitting in front of my TV.
Now Breath of the Wild came along and completely changed everything. Aside from working on quests you now have to worry about gathering enough food (not that that's really a problem), and even gathering weapons. The latter is what bugs me the most. In the older titles you just had your standard sword and shield which you'd upgrade every now and then but you never had to worry about losing them. Now my weapons break after what feels like every third or fourth enemy. I can't even go around Hyrule looking for all the Korok Seeds without going "Oh, I only have three weapons left, better look for stronger enemies to grab some new ones".
Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely not hating on the game. Playing through the game you can really notice how much thought the developers put into it, which is something I truly appreciate and I do notice that, objectively, it's a great game.
Basically, what my point is, is that Breath of the Wild is a very good game, no doubt about that, but it's not a Zelda game. I sometimes watch some of my friends play Skyrim or Dark Souls and that's what BotW feels like in my opinion, like any other RPG. I guess what Nintendo aimed at was to make the game appealing to hardcore gamers who wouldn't have bothered with BotW if they had made it like the old games and I can't argue with that strategy at all, and they deserve all the praise they are getting. It's just that I had wished for Nintendo to also make the game appealing to hardcore Zelda fans, not hardcore RPG fans.
I know, I'm whining around and you might say "but Michael, maybe the game isn't for you, if you don't like the game, just don't play it", but to be honest with you, I'm pretty disappointed, not in Nintendo but in myself as I can't enjoy the game as much as I'd like to. I even considered downloading the game for my Wii U and playing it with cheats so that my weapons wouldn't break etc. but that would be just plain stupid.
Anyway, I guess I'm gonna get a lot of abuse for this post but I just wanted to share my frustration I guess.
