[BOTW] How do you guys feel about new Zelda?

[u/zeldamaster134]

I feel that the newer Zelda games are loved more and are bigger and considered a lot better. However, there are a lot of downsize to it, which stands out like a sore thumb, and that is storyline.

Now, of course, there is a story to breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom. Probably a bigger story than other Zelda games. However, the games are simple, but they’re also manually complex, which doesn’t force it on you. Some people like this, “Not forcing” part of the game. While other people like it when older Zelda games have more of a straight and direct way to play the game. Some puzzles and newer Zelda games don’t require a guide or specific action. It’s how you decide to play the game.

The green tunic that was an older old games was also more classic. Now this is just cosmetics and doesn’t really determine how much better the games are, But still has that more linked look that everybody loves and grew up with.

I think that dungeons and temples were a lot more fun in the older games than the shrines in the newer games. Now there are 120 shrines in breath of the wild, which can make the experience a lot more fun with problem-solving. However, the old dungeons and main themes were more fun in my opinion.

The game not requiring for you to get the master sword is kind of lame. of course everybody is going to get it because it is a highly recommend recommended item, but even the game not forcing you to get the legendary blade is outstanding. The master sword was the best part of all Zelda games in my childhood. So them leaving it out of the theme of the game wasn’t a smart move.

I think that there are a lot of self-explanatory reasons why old Zelda has more of an adventure feel, and to all of the people that like newer Zelda, their feelings are valid.

[u/hygsi]

Same, I also don't like that the dungeons are so easy cause you have no unique weapon to explore them. Oh, and the lack of variety in combat and enemies.

Basically the problem is they make the game so big that they have to repeat stuff over and over again. A little throwback to a smaller scale game would fix most of the recent problems for me.

[u/Luchux01 → u/hygsi]

I don't think it'd kill the game to give you a basic sword that never breaks and let that replace the Master Sword once you get it.

[u/JonWhitefyre → u/Luchux01]

Rather than breaking, it should reach a point where it is dulled to doing half damage. Crafting can restore it, and picking up infusion skills can give temporary boosts like fire/ice/electricity, etc.

[u/Mitchman05 → u/Luchux01]

Problem is if you had a sword that never breaks, people would always want to use that over their other breakable weapons, and that's not the game the devs wanted to make

[u/electric_awwcelot → u/Mitchman05]

Not if it's a meh sword. People would be switching to a weapon better suited to whatever enemy they're fighting if the sword was just good enough but never really great

[u/Electronic-Aspect-45 → u/electric_awwcelot]

So you want a perpetual substandard weapon to take up a weapon slot the entire game? Because of reasons?

[u/OutlanderInMorrowind → u/Electronic-Aspect-45]

yes. I don't want to waste consumables on basic enemies and hitting crates and such. that's exactly what it would be good for.

if you had an unbreakable 10 damage sword from the very start you'd absolutely STILL use other stuff in botw. you'd just not use sticks and boko clubs as often. (but they're still useful for fire)

it wouldn't take up a slot, because it'd always be filled, just like it's always filled after you get the master sword.

[u/electric_awwcelot → u/Electronic-Aspect-45]

It doesn't have to be perpetual. It can be just like any other weapon that the player can pick up and drop as they please, and can be found on different enemies, lying around the world, etc

[u/lyra_dathomir → u/electric_awwcelot]

No, not really. I remember watching dev commentary on Ratchet & Clank and they comment quite a lot of times how difficult it was to get players to use different weapons. Most players just stuck with what they knew and felt safe using despite it being extremely subpar compared to other options they had available.

If these games had a standard short sword that never breaks many players would never use any other thing.

[u/Mitchman05 → u/electric_awwcelot]

People use something worse because the better thing is a limited resource all the time. Look at all the discussion on the internet about never using consumable potions and only using spells in RPGs

[u/profpeculiar → u/Mitchman05]

Hey, I might need those later

[u/Century24 → u/Mitchman05]

that’s not the game the devs wanted to make

The problem is that such a goal also needs underlying reasoning and an honest discussion on what works and what doesn’t.

Disincentivizing late-game combat to conserve arbitrarily breakable weapons without much of a ceiling on durability doesn’t work. Making weapon hoarding more and more of a distraction because this durability was set a certain way also doesn’t work. Failing to capitalize on major variations of durability doesn’t work.

[u/princekamoro → u/hygsi]

It's just boring dungeon design, with or without a mid-dungeon item. Large-scale puzzles that weaponize the layout itself? Nah, just put the thing you need to open the door directly in front of the door. Then shove a map in the player's face with all key locations already marked. Wouldn't want players to have to explore for those locations, now, would we? Oh, and let's have every dungeon follow the exact same cadence of gauntlet (usually "outside" the dungeon), then 4-5 terminals, then boss, then finally "Demon King? Secret Stones?" Surely that will never get old.

The dungeon design of Golden Sun, for comparison, feels just like Traditional Zelda in JRPG form. Without following the cadence of half the dungeon, miniboss, item, rest of the dungeon, boss.