Is Breath of the Wild the best game of the generation?

It's interesting how the weapons degradation was a mechanic a lot of people had a hard time wrapping around. Easily the most divisive mechanic in the game, that's for sure.

There's cases why people loved/accepted it and cases where people hated it.

I've never actually had any issues with it because the game is always generous about giving new ones. Never had issues with it, not even with playing through Master Mode and the DLC expansion.

@jaydan: Yeah, I dunno why people hated it so much. I had a neat set of weps all the way through. I liked how the degradation made you experiment with different kinds.

I guess either you understood the mechanic or you didn't.

Even when I had a full inventory of weapons (which is most of the time), if I came across a cool weapon, I'll discard any of my current ones. Usually the ones I discard are the ones that are either weaker or the ones I have been using enough they're bound to break soon anyways.

I always took the weapons degradation as a big part of the survivalist element of the experience that actually makes me consider when and where to use certain items.

If I got a particularly cool weapon with special abilities - let's take a flame sword, for example - I never just carelessly use that sword and let it break right when I get. Usually I'll reserve it for situations when I need fire or when enemies are weak against it.

Take those magician enemies with the elemental rods, for example. They can be a challenge if you don't have the right tools, yet they're literally one-hit kills if you use an element that contradicts theirs.

A lot of people seem to have thrown inventory management out the window with this game, cause weapons degradation was truly that alarming when in reality it's pretty easy to work with it in your favor.

If they go with weapons degradation again in the sequel, I'll have no problems with it.

@jaydan: honestly, i feel like the backlash must be mostly due to a collector instinct. People feel like "I found this weapon, I like this weapon, it's mine - my preciou... *snap*" and then unload on the game on the forums. But the weapons are meant to be disposed of, like bullets, and getting new ones is part of the drive to explore

@xantufrog: People need to learn to adapt to new systems.

Most of the mechanics in BotW work like a double-edged sword, mechanics can work for or against the player. A lot of people seem to have only been blinded by the systems working against them they chose not to see how they can be at advantage.

Just like how a user earlier in this thread claimed weather is a nuisance. Umm, excuse me, clearly this user never used a sword as a lightning rod against enemies with the magnesis ability.

BotW actually doesn't hold your hand, more than most Nintendo games. It leaves most of its pleasures up to your own discovery.

Nahh, game of the gen would The Last of Us 2 followed by Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (a proper ending and all content would be 11/10 GOAT) - instead we got 10/10 GOTG.

Zelda: BOTW get's third place. Red Dead 2 in 4th.

You also know BotW is a highly misunderstood game when actual game journalists call it an RPG.... like did the world suddenly forget what an RPG is?

@jaydan: yup - the weather adds a ton of depth to the world, including combat options. It's really quite a clever game - I hope they push the envelope on the sequel more

Having never played the game this feature seems to be redundant then, why have them break if the game is always giving you new ones.

Would have been better if they were scarce making the player be careful how they use their weapons, seems to be a wasted feature here.

Yeah for sure.

Would be cool if you could queue up multiple melee weapons, say like 4 at a time, and do real time weapon switching on the fly a la DMC. Still have the option to menu switch to the rest of your weapons mid-combat, but have a small pool that can be cycled through at the press of a button.

Hell, suppose that pool wouldn't even need a hard limit, leave it up to the player with the only limit being the max inventory limit. Though I'd assume most people would want to "curate" with a limited amount.

Might be a bit too busy on the controls to dedicate a button to weapon switching, but I'm sure there are ways. Maybe make it a two button thing. Pressing jump and attack at the same time does a specific move that leads to the next weapon in queue. Or maybe make it some type of combo ender that leads to the next in queue, though that would be less flexible.

Anyways, not the game designer here, I'm sure Nintendo could figure that one out lol. And yeah I hope they do. It doesn't top my list of things that could be improved, but it's definitely an aspect of the combat that could use some work.

@i_p_daily: Well I think it could be said the other way around, too. If the game is generous on the weapons, why is it such an issue they break for some?

What I enjoy about the mechanic is you're never stuck on any one weapon. I feel like games we tend to stick with our favorite weapons even if there's a whole gallery of others to choose from, but in BotW you get pretty well acquainted with them all because you're always going through them and finding new ones.

I might be slightly exaggerating on the weapon generosity. They're not just raining out of the sky, but they're also not out-of-reach either. You can pick up a tree branch in the game and it's considered a weapon, but obviously not ideal. You'll find a lot of rusted weapons which are also not ideal. You can find a lot of good stuff but they take a little more effort.

Well there seems to be no strategic reason they break, which I can see as an annoyance to players.

I'm not sure how anyone could enjoy such a feature.

It's a absolute nuisance.

The weapons break for no reason as your always with 5-6 weapons in your weapon wheel, them breaking adds no depth to the game-play, all it makes you do is swap out a weapon mid fight.

Also people are overlooking a huge part what makes a open world game a open world game when it comes to Breath of the Wild they focus so much of "gameplay" even though it's filled with trivial mechanics but forget the fact that its the most bland environemt with a step back in story, characters, side quests to any modern open world rpg like game like Red Dead 2 and Witcher 3.

There's more to a RPG/Open world game than pure gameplay mechanics, because your only drive to keep playing is to keep playing which is fine for a MP game but a single player experience needs more than that to get my attention, I need a reason to explore and Breath of the Wild gives me little to no reason to go forward other than just trying to finish the thing.

Definitely one of those you'd have to play it to know how you'd feel. I remember my gut instinct was thinking it would be garbage.

It's not like weapon durability in other games, where it's just an annoying stat you have periodically keep an eye on.

On the smaller scale, there is a degree of strategy to it in combat. A well timed break hit is a critical hit (double damage) and throwing the weapon as projectile increases the chance of that critical hit. Definitely nothing big tho.

But it does add some other nice wrinkles to the combat as well when you know weapons are disposable. Moment to moment stuff that can enhance an encounter. Every enemy has a weapon, so there''s a constant pool of weapons to choose from. Quickly throwing one to fend off an enemy while grabbing another. Those scenarios where both you and the enemy are without a weapon, scrambling to get the closest one in reach. In a similar scenario, could be during a storm, you purposefully discard a metallic weapon and the enemy picks it up only to get fried by a lightning bolt. No biggie as you know the weapon is a disposable thing. So it allows for a lot uniquely dynamic moments to play out.

It's really better to look at them like ammo or cards rather than weapons to hoard forever.

And if you find yourself without them (admittedly difficult), using your Runes comes into play, or stealth play can take the spotlight until you re-up.

It really adds a lot of possibility where things would otherwise be pretty straight forward. And that's all fine.

But I'd imagine the biggest reasons for this system would boil down to two things:

1. Forcing variety early on. There are plenty of weapons classes and within each class there are plenty of sub-types with unique properties. As you progress, you naturally find better gear, and weapon durability becomes less of an issue. But by that point you've become very familiar with all of what these weapons have to offer.

2. A steady stream of rewards. Probably the driving factor behind it all. It's a huge world with tons to do and tries to reward the player consistently. Fodder weapons are everywhere, but the better shit is always locked behind a greater effort. Not that you can't do that without breakable weapons, I pretty much described countless games lol. But in the case of BotW, it's not just cool to find a bad ass weapon, it's necessary as you're regularly filtering others out.

-

All that being said, it's easily the most divisive aspect of BotW. I think it's cool. Some people hate it lol. Is what it is. Wouldn't be surprised if it sees a massive overhaul or is outright done away with in their next game.

I also think the whole world was superbly designed and crafted. Just standing atop a pillar or mountain and looking around filled with a sense of wonder and desire to just travel and explore all those far off places.

It's my game of the gen, and the only acceptable way I'll play a Zelda game now. It's too bad that the Zelda game that's the most open and free is the one that the loud minority of Nintendo purists hate the most.

Damn, I really need to get back to this game. Some of the shit people are coming up with is wild.

Didn't even know jump cancelling was something you could do in combat.

But yeah this dudes whole feed is just nuts.

(shit, GS won't link the tweets with Japanese characters)

https://twitter.com/Switch_movie_SS/status/1219673647951953921

https://twitter.com/Switch_movie_SS/status/1215689570018189312

https://twitter.com/Switch_movie_SS/status/1205180705870770176

^

Would've never considered stacking throwing weapons like that last one.

@ConanTheStoner: Get the DLC expansion if you don't have it already.

That goes to anyone that liked BotW enough and have plans to play it again in the future.

Lots of new content plus Master Mode - that will be my way of playing the game from now on.

I hear it's a good game. I liked the Zelda games as a kid but if I am being honest, outside of 10 minutes of the one on Wii (Ocarina?), I haven't played a Zelda game since the NES days.

It's probably one of the few console exclusives I wish was on PC.

Yeah yeah.... beggar race...

Indeed.

Nah, people who say that kind of shit come off as corporate shills, screw em.

Imagine calling someone a port beggar because they'd like a game on their preferred system. A system that could run the game better at that.

Of course it being Nintendo, obviously a hard nope on this one. But even as someone who played it on Switch and plans to do it again, would love to play an official release on PC.

No. I mean, it’s okay. Fun enough, but it’s easy for me to get bored. There are better open world games out there with better stories. Hell, there are even better Zelda games.

Sadly, i think you are wrong ... this is System Wars ... the place you come to discuss games and "Systems" ... this is the whole deal of this, granted ... abandoned place.

Mods should not need to change anything about here because this website has its own place to have much less "fanboys" discussions like Games Discussion ... i for once still like to play this childish game ... i've always been respectful to everyone here, but i won't ever deny i'm a Sheep and i heavily dislike Xbox and yeah, i think is as fun as it can be for a gaming forum called System Wars.

Also, and this is a very different topic ... but i think this so called "society reform" is tremendously overrated and shallow in nature ...

Firstly, this. It's the best game of the generation by a long shot. The only complaint anyone could make is that the graphics are not the powerhouse display that you might see in say in God of War 4.

As good as it is - and it's incredible - I found that it was missing a few things:

• Traditional dungeons;
• The music, while good (the Castle theme is amazing), there was not enough of it and the shrine and guardian themes did get tiring (especially when you 100% the game and both DLC);
• The boss fights did get repetitive, especially guardian scouts;
• More diversity in the boss fights; the fights with the various incarnations of Ganon were okay, but the Molduga, Talos, Hinox, were more interesting to me.

Just a few thoughts.

It's also nice to see I'm not the only one from 2003 still on here.

Yea not a fan of the degradation system.

In a game like Stalker, when weapon jams up or straight up breaks, it creates tension, shit yourself and panic, especially against it's dastardly human enemies.

In this, i grumble, hit pause, and switch weapon, breaking whatever moment of flow was there to begin with.

We can talk about throwing weapons and the difference movesets, the weather effects, but the game is never really difficult or impactful enough for it to operate as anything other than novelty.

You theoretically can bypass upgrades, but realistically how many people are going to do that? Or going to want to do that?

I'd say so. It's so simple in everything it does right that it more makes one wonder why more developers haven't tried it before. Like, the answer was staring everyone in the face and no one acted on it.

For me it's not even close. I got the game and didn't enjoy it that much at all... It wasn't bad, just not that good either. The annoyance of weapons breaking on every 3rd enemy and very repetitive puzzles kind of killed it for me. I'm sure I'll go back to it eventually, and perhaps I'll have a different view of the game when I do (wouldn't be the first time that has happened and likely wouldn't be the last).

That's how i felt as well. Not to mention poor permance and trash dungeons that might've as well be randomly generated, that's how generic they all were. BotW ain't got shit on Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. But hey at least BotW is better than Zelda SS lol

No, its not. a childish game.

Doom and Doom Eternal are.

Yeah, my favorite Zelda games are still A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask. All of them are still above BotW for me. Hell, I might even throw a couple others in there as well, but like I already said, maybe when I revisit it one of these days I'll feel differently. I agree with your take that a lot of the dungeons/etc. almost felt as though they were randomly generated... and to tell you the truth I wouldn't be all that surprised to find out a lot of them were. See, that's a big problem, if you don't like the style of puzzles you encounter very early in the game you probably aren't going to have much fun since the majority of them are all very similar. (at least through the portion of the game I played through which admittedly probably wasn't all that far in the grand scheme of things but still felt like a slog the entire time)

the best, as in the best of them all for this gen?
then that would be a no
If you meant, ONE of the best,
then yes, it is one of the best games that is highly recommended for any Switch owners.

Y'awl need some new shticks...

It’s the worst 3D Zelda on a home console.

Lifelong Zelda fan here, breath was good overall but highly overrated to me. It had many highs and many lows. The open world design was nice but it removed so many things that made Zelda legendary in the first place

No

In the top five yes!

PUBG so far, for ultra-popularizing the BR thing, characteristic of this gen. Please don't laugh when you read this but I haven't played BotW yet. I want to play it though as I'm a huge Zelda fan from the days of the glorious SNES.

@dale_gunther: no offense, but the whole Far Cry meme is way played out. People insist HZD is Far Cry with robot dinosaurs, but now this?

Yes, the climb-a-tower-to-reveal is a Far Cry staple. But BotW, and to a lesser extent HZD, are holistically very different experiences. It's absurd to take core mechanics for any game and say it's the same game on that basis alone. Most games from all genres share key recognizable core mechanics. Forza Horizon 4 is a Mario Kart Klone because it has driving mechanics. Of course you wouldn't say that. But that's an extreme cartoonish example - what about Dragon Age and Divinity OS:2? Are they the same game because yaddayadda list of many identical staple design features? No.

Also consider this point, from an article some guy wrote about the Ubisoft Tower that I think is valid and an important one for BotW:

"In Breath of the Wild, nothing is given to you other than the topographical layout of a region. You scale a tower and look down on high to find physical points of interest that speak to you, and then place your own pins and stamps on the map. It's map-making, which speaks to the wanderlust of certain folks."

That's a pretty damn important difference from Far Cry and HZD.

So not only would I say featuring this tower mechanic is not grounds for going "they are just the same game" - but in BotW case it's not even the same mechanic in some important ways.

For me Personally the best game this gen is Yakuza 0 (which is funny because it's a cross gen game)

HOWEVER, I think a lot of people would agree that BOTW is the best this Gen.

I think a lot of other people would Add RDR2, Bloodborne, GOW, and Mario Odyssey

Don't want to type a book here, so I'll just say this.

The first few hours I spent with the game I will never forget- some of the best I've ever spent gaming. The game isn't perfect though- most notably the dungeons. Looking forward to the sequel though!

Highly overrated, good but nowhere near as the "best of the gen"!!!

Not even close.

If you do, play it on master mode. Multiple weapons break on one enemy. So the system becomes more than just an annoyance. You'll have to ration the good weapons and you'll have to find your ways around it, and IMO makes the game much better. Some of the fights become like puzzles, where you cannot miss a shot.

You could purchase the game and play it. Search on YT what it looks like. I think it looks fantastic with smooth framerates. I don't know how you'd purchase the DLC though and I do consider that pretty essential to this game. Ah I searched for you. There is actually a physical Expansion Pass you can buy. ^__^

Enjoy!

God no! I honestly wasn’t a fan I found the weapon durability just stupid and the world so empty and lifeless.