eRonin

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: open your eyes and die a lot

Recommended Posts

So the preview embargo lifted on this game recently, and the various outlets seem to be unanimously in agreement that this is an extremely impressive game that many are calling the best Zelda of all time. I've only read two previews, and don't intend to read more, though there are still a lot of embargoed elements of the game so these previews don't go into spoiler territory at all. I've linked the two that I've read here:

 

http://www.polygon.com/2017/2/24/14723308/pre-review-the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-nintendo-switch-wii-u

 

https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/breath-of-the-wild-is-shaping-up-to-be-a-beautiful-zelda-adventure

 

What is interesting from the Polygon preview is its discussion of how difficult the game is, which is a sentiment shared by other folks I've seen comment on Twitter/other forums. The open nature of the game means you have to pay close attention to where you are wandering, lest you enter a zone filled with strong monsters that you are ill-equipped to deal with. There are no more hearts that drop in the wild, and instead it seems healing is done entirely through eating food, and more elaborate recipes that you cook will let you recover more hearts or give you a temporary boost in health. The dynamic weather system adds extra challenge through the temperature gauge, which freezes Link to death if you are not wearing enough clothing, or thunderstorms that strike you if you are wearing metal armour. Despite being such a huge game, however, evidently the game has a far shorter "tutorial" than recent 3D Zelda games, allowing you to start roaming free within the first few minutes. I enjoyed the Waypoint preview for its paragraphs briefly touching on the history of the game franchise and the author relating his own childhood to Miyamoto's. 

 

The main criticism that I've seen echoed is the weapon durability system, which seems to be a slight nuisance. When I played the demo last month, the early weapons you can pick up will break very quickly; within 5-10 hits. Hopefully you can quickly find weapons that last a lot longer, and I hope there is also a way to repair weapons. The lack of touch screen to do inventory management is also going to bother me a little, but I imagine folks who aren't accustomed to playing the Wii U HD remakes of Zelda games won't really miss it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Six days anymore. I just hope the Finnish retailer I ordered the Wii U version from will deliver it so I get it on Friday and don't have to wait over weekend.

 

It's a shame they removed features from the Wii U version like the gamepad touch screen map handling and inventory management.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Just seen it got a 10/10 in Edge magazine.

 

just preordered the WiiU version from Amazon.co.uk, I thought it was supposed to be sold out, but it's in stock with launch day delivery 👍🏻 

 

I litterally know nothing about this game, really hope I like it. I haven't played something stellar in ages and am craving just a good fucking game. I have trust in Zelda 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think I better turn my WiiU on as I'll no doubt have an hours worth of updates to get through. Haven't touched it since Mario kart 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm on a media blackout now but am also eager for a great Zelda-y game. I'm trying to finish Oracle of Ages and it is TOUGH going backwards - hitting pause to change items EVERY 5 SECONDS is tedious. Good to hear positive vibes about this. My main reason for wanting a Switch asap is to be able to play this on the train.

 

Does anyone know if the touchscreen functions AT ALL on Switch? I'd hope you'd be able to select items with it once you open your inventory, but maybe that's asking too much. Anyone heard anything?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Nope, touch-screen doesn't do anything. You have to pause to open the inventory, but when it comes to weapons, that's handled on the d-pad and you can swap them out on the fly. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My big concern right now is that my Switch may not arrive before the game does. Here in Canada, pre-orders are hard to come by and I though I put myself in for one the morning they became available, looking at shipping dates saying "before March 31st" has me concerned that I got a second shipment pre-order rather than a first. While this is definitely not "the biggest deal in the history of ever" or anything like that, it does mean that I may get the Switch at the END of March break rather than before it, so will have a week off work where I could be playing Zelda but will instead be looking at a boxed copy of the Switch game and wondering when the console will arrive. March is going to be a painful month for this unrepentant Nintendo fanboy.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It'll be probably years, if ever, before I play Breath of the Wild, but I'm still excited for its release. It feels like a very long time since a Zelda release was a big deal. There have been great games - A Link Between Worlds is roundly praised, but its release was not the huge inhale, hold your breath here it comes, that this game appears to be. Skyward Sword was not universally acclaimed. I'd say this is the biggest since Wind Waker, and the last time since Twilight Princess since a release was such big news.

 

The flip side is it's unavoidably a huge deal because this game has to literally carry an entire console. But we won't worry about that for right now if the game is great.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Badfinger said:

There have been great games - A Link Between Worlds is roundly praised, but its release was not the huge inhale, hold your breath here it comes, that this game appears to be. Skyward Sword was not universally acclaimed.

Was Skyward Sword not almost universally acclaimed, though? I understand that it's criticised for its compartmentalised world structure. But a quick search shows multiple perfect scores and almost unanimous praise.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

review zeitgeist

 

public opinion on skyward sword is (mostly appropriately) rather poor

 

between the hand-holding and the repeated use of worlds with boring collectathons that arbitrarily lengthened the game, it had some pretty big problems

 

fuck it had some great core gameplay tho ):

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, dartmonkey said:

Was Skyward Sword not almost universally acclaimed, though? I understand that it's criticised for its compartmentalised world structure. But a quick search shows multiple perfect scores and almost unanimous praise.

 

It's a Zelda game. I don't want to be too dismissive of reviews and reviewers, but we both know that Zelda starts at a 9 and then reviewers see if it's a 10. It's been over a decade, but the Gamespot debacle over "travesty" of Gerstmann giving Twilight Princess an 8.8 still reminds me that bias is implicit in both reviewers and the public.

 

It's also demonstrative that where you get your information informs your opinion. I checked the Metacritic list, and of the sites that reviewed Skyward Sword I probably would have checked out Eurogamer, Giant Bomb, and Gamespot at the time. That's a 10/10 and then an 80 and a 75, which is pretty low for Zelda standards. So my memory is discussion of a good game with notable flaws. The public metascore is a 7.9, which checks out to me. I'm not by any means suggesting that it's a bad game.

 

And above all, this is purely my observation from perception and memory. I'm happy to have it corrected. I haven't played a Zelda game at the same time it was current on a console since the 90s. This FEELS important in a way that Skyward Sword did not feel like it had Nintendo's fortunes riding on it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I just remember having a really great time with it - much more than Twilight Princess. The gyro aiming instead of IR irritated me. Otherwise I really felt it was what TP should have been. I agree it didn't shoulder the burden of needing to shift consoles. But if it had been a dud, they might have considered metroiding the series.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
34 minutes ago, dartmonkey said:

metroiding the series

not sure what that means? I'm not familiar with the metroid series, so some clarification would be appreciated.

 

Otherwise I'm very excited for this installation.  not sure why people keep saying this is a break from formula....because it's open world?  I remember as a kid feeling that OoT is large enough to feel open world.  Did people get spoiled with the map size of other games?

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Kind of 'putting it into hibernation'. Metroid is an acclaimed series with vocal fans but I suppose the sales numbers don't match up so it's been put on ice for years.

 

Realistically Zelda might need several duds to be at risk, but it's never sold Mario numbers.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I mean Skyward Sword is a good game. I stand very firmly in the position that there are no Bad Zelda games. (I haven't played A Link Between Worlds! Or Spirit Tracks!) There are some that are worse than others, sometimes dramatically, but they're still decent games, if not great. Twilight Princess would be the highest on my list of "bad" Zelda games, but I still thoroughly enjoy it.

 

And yes I'm ignoring the CDi games you BUTT. You know who you are! I see you smirking, there, in the shadows.

 

But. Skyward Sword still has some very glaring flaws. The hours-long dull-as-heck tutorial, he hand-holding at every turn... That's my bugbear.

beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep LINK DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN SOLVE THIS PUZZLE BY PUSHING THAT BLOCK OVER THERE?! beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep

Navi ain't got shit on Fi.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

On the subject of Zelda reviews, it seems Famitsu have tabulated their four reviews and discovered their first ever 41/40!

 

😉

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If you're curious about how the WiiU version looks/performs there's some videos with a lot of footage on YouTube: 

 

 

Sees perfectly acceptable to me, I notice frame rate drops a good bit but nothing so bad that it seems to be ruining the game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Reviews have been released. So far, perfect scores from: Edge, Famitsu, IGN, Polygon, Giantbomb, Vooks, Destructoid, USGamer, and Gamespot. That's what I've seen so far! My excitement for this game no longer has an upper bound.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

A game just just landed in my doormat which in excitedly ripped open to find deus ex that I bought yesterday for cheap and completely forgot about :( guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow then.

 

stupid postman

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Shame no site seems to have been given copies of the Wii U version, mine just shipped so I may actually get it on launch day tomorrow!

 

Is that above video from the pirated version that has already been in the wild for some days?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm just guessing, I heard that Youtubers/streamers have been playing the pirated version already for days during this week since the Wii U version got pirated and posted online. I've been trying to avoid many sites where there might be spoilers.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I can't really afford the whole shebang of both Switch and Zelda, so I think I'll settle for just getting the Wii U version. From comparison videos of the final versions it doesn't really look all that different (though I assume the resolution on the TV is different)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now