Honestly my most memorable story and the time I first truly felt the game was really special was when I was being chased by a bokoblin on a horse during a thunderstorm near death one arrow and I'd be dead and then I saw the lightning spark on my metal sword and remembered what happened last time I got struck and figured....maybe? Waited for the appropriate time near the thunderstruck and chucked my sword at him and watching them get struck by the lightning because of what I did recognizing the games universal rules honestly made me feel smart and was super fun
I love that it feels like real world rules a lot of the time. Where things like lightning hitting metal or its cold so if i hold the fire sword it just makes sense. Dipping your regular arrow intofirr to make a fire arrow. Things that just naturally make sense to you will just work, its great.
Totally agree on the idea of ignoring the boring science of "the best way to play the game" and just doing what piques your interest, I remember starting my own unprompted quest to try and cook every type of dish in the game and it resulted in a really memorable journey of learning regional ingredients and such! Felt much more rewarding than just farming hearty foods and exclusively cooking full-heal dishes :))
That sounds like a fun idea. I definitely just focused on max health potions but that opens up a whole new way of playing. Would be fun just exploring and making recipes
One of my best memories with this game is in my 2th playthrought. On my first, I had never explored the Hebra region, so I decided to do that pretty much as soon as I left the Great Plateau. Slowly climbing the cliffs up to the region was just epic, and then when I arrived at the top, I realized that getting to the tower required either a lot of stuff to melt the ice, or revali's gale. So I made my way to the nearest shrine in Hebra that I could find, almost dying in the process multiple times, before teleporting down to get revali's gale to climb the tower. Absolutely wonderful experience.. Althought it did reveal how hilarious the temperature system sometimes is. One moment it's 15 celcius, the next moment it's -20 celcius somehow.
@@legrandliseurtri7495 That's not as ridiculous as Eldin. You go from "this temperature is fine, no I don't need my desert gear, I'm all good" to "HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK I'M LITERALLY ON FIRE" by stepping over an invisible line. It always makes me laugh.
As a person who used almost all heart foods, I was fine with it. I felt the other ascpects where soo good that it was fine that I didnt master cooking. It felt like just one of the many things you could do and made it okay, which is why I loved this game so much.
I would have liked a recipe book. If I would know what food I already knew and already cooked, I would have cooked all possible meals, too. But this way, it was just for as many hearts as possible.
This just goes to show how different people can have a completely different experience with BOTW. That was one of the first things I tried when I saw a hinox (besides staying as far away from it as possible when I first saw it)
You absolutely nailed why I've sort of diverted from the "open world" genre as of late. I think the term "open world" has now become associated with a genre of game that has now superseded the term, filled with the generic Ubisoft offering like Far Cry and Assassin's Creed, Bethesda games and, while I admit better but still victim to the same tropes Horizon. I think BOTW is a game with an "open world" but is not an OPEN WORLD game. It's certainly a different breed from the template so many games seem to follow. Admittedly I loved RDR2 for it's amazing story and uncompromised immersion (definitely a personal preference though), BOTW is different. It respects your intelligence whilst also expertly guiding you, it shows you options and gives you options to make your own. I'm insanely excited for Elden Ring because I think FromSoft's formula would work insanely well in a similar fashion; they stick you in a world with endless options for player expression and say "go on, have fun and good luck". Not to lay into the journalist "Elden Ring is BOTW mixed with Dark Souls", not at all, but I think they will share similar factors that set them apart from the "open world" genre whilst still retaining the open world map design. Amazing video as always Yakko-man, much love!
It's a ping pong game of inspiration. I bet breath of the wild would not be like it is without from software doing its thing since 10 years ago. Rewatch the moments of the video when he talks about silence, about music, about the game not telling you what you can expect from it, about the environment telling the story by itself, etc (it's almost all of the video at this point).
@@gnanay8555 and the cool thing is that dark souls had its inspiration from Zelda, the original one, and a link to the past. Sometimes I dream of a game where Miyamoto and Miyazaki combine forces to great the ultimate open ended adventure game Edit: which, as I think of better, will probably be close to elden ring ol
One of the funniest things about this game is that rewards are often not worth the adventure- but in a good way. Like, you can have a simple quest request, and then that leads you on a long adventure, like a REAL adventure, an actual meaningful experience with ups and downs, with mistakes and successes- something you will remember. And then you get an almost useless reward, but you don't feel jipped: You earned a lot more than an in-game reward.
THIS!! There's this 1 mission to take a photo of leviathan eldon skeleton ?? I dunno i forget. I met 2 lynel 1 weird shrine fighting hinox pitch black. Wooo i want to play again
The craziest thing that happened to me in BotW was falling to my death because i forgot i had no stamina potions left just to realize i was going near a horse, so i did everything i could to aim it and avoid death by taming a horse midflight. it was amazing and i'll never forget it.
20:41 One of my absolute favorite things about the town themes in this game is that when the sun sets, The music starts to slow down and get lower in pitch, and then returns to normal at the break of dawn.
I've heard a lot of people complain about the weapon system in Breath of the Wild. Many people find breaking weapons to be an annoying hindrance in this game, but, at least in my experience, it led to some of my favorite moments in any video game. If I were to just run around slapping everything with the strongest sword, then combat would be constantly bland. But because the weapons break, you have to improvise at nearly every instance. Freezing a log and sending it flying toward an enemy, creating a bomb catapult out of the surrounding supplies, and just beating the shit out of a moblin with a metal crate were all some of the most fun moments that I've had in a video game. By forcing you to actually think in a fight, nearly every combat experience becomes unique. This, among many other reasons, is why Breath of the Wild is one of my favorite games. Thanks for making a video on funny elf man game Dr. Yaggo, glad you had fun with it.
I love how dynamic it makes any encounter the only real criticism I have is not really knowing how much until it breaks that is something I hope they rectify in BotW 2 (kinda hope it's not a durability meter because that defeats the point imo but something more visual)
I stand by my view that the biggest issue with the weapon breaking isnt so much the breaking itself and more that it can be kinda a pase breaker to change them
The breaking weapon system makes finding new weapons rewarding. Other wise only finding stronger weapons would be rewarding. Something like a Black smith where you could repair almost broken weapons would be a very good and amazing addition tho.
I agree I never had any issue with the breaking as it made each weapon special. Finding something powerful and having to weigh the options with limited inventory. Or if you come across something you want to take down, have to weight if you have enought for the fight, or get creative. It also makes for memorable moments. My favorite moment in memory was I was fighting a lynel off north of death mountain. Gear was running out and thing was making plugging it with arrows difficult. It was storming too. Then the fire dragon flew past, making an updraft which I caught, and notching my last set of bomb arrows rained them on it but the bow was metal and I was about to get lightning clapped. Took out my metal boomerang tossed it towards and switched to emergency low damage wood gear I kept just for these situations with storms. Got to watch the final blow come from the sky itself, broke the boomerang, dragon flies away and new gear from the lynel. All this cause I had to think on the fly rather then disengage and use what was happening around me.
I have lots of problems with BotW that lead to me hating it. The weapon system wasn't among them. Yeah, weapons break regularly, but most are easy enough to replace. If anything, I felt it actually brought a nice breath of fresh air to Zelda's combat system.
breath of the wild is one of, if not the best open world game ever made because despite having over 130 hours put into it in across two playthroughs, there were multiple times during this video where i saw a clip of some shrine or area, paused for a minute and said "what the HELL is that"
You probably asked that about the shrines because there are so many of them and they blend together due to how they all have the same styling and visuals tbf
I couldn't disagree more. I found the world boring and the shrines repetitive, and the lack of quality mechanics that are necessary for any open world game to be a comeplete turn off.
It's able to play you or with you. I wonder what made mmorpgs flow nice for me before, and that was that I had no idea what to do than fish or something, and chat away some bullshit with others, and then combine some stories about the progress in the game. Pretty much how you deal with this game, but not so much chatting or fishing with others maybe. "Selling lobsters"
i feel like the game is never portrayed on how flexible it really is, yakko talks about how the game can be played in any style and is not meant to be played by picking up every thing, and searching for all 900 korok seeds, but that was the way i played it, and still play it, I play the game for a week or two every once and a while searching for that mystic 100% in the bottom left corner of the map. And even through it drives me everywhere with a purpose more than to just look around, it *forces* you to look around, and its truly amazing, I can play the game 4 years later and constantly find new beautiful locations i never knew about (the waterfalls behind zora's domain that lead into akkala are I think the prettiest thing in the game and I only found them this year). Yet I never feel like I miss out on anything, this game is more sandbox than any other sandbox game, it can truly be played in any way that you would ever desire, and every part of the game just points to that, letting you mend the world to your own design and allowing you to play however you want. Also yakko you gotta stop hitting me with so much nostalgia by talking about games I love, putting it all in a climax, and then leading into meteor heard at the end, you can't keep getting away with this.
Breath of the Wild took the hollow open-world game developer phrase, "You see that mountain? You can climb it." and actually made it a reality. That's all you need to know about this game. No review can do it justice.
@@orangepotato2112 Was hoping someone would mention X. It's always swept under the rug when open world games are discussed in spite of just how many common pitfalls of the genre it manages to avoid while feeling unique and fresh even now.
I learned two major points from this: one, you and I apparently share the same braincell when it comes to playstyle ("gotta climb it!" "ooh a shiny thing!" "WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T KEEP THE SKELLY HORSE" "haha bombs go brrr") and two, subconsciously the biggest reason I haven't beaten Ganon yet despite having freed all 4 Divine Beasts is because I'm not done finding all the cool things in the world. I love hunting down rare and secret things; not because they're strong or anything, but because they're hidden! I always worry that beating the final boss of a game will roll the credits and end the run, and lock me out of that optional content.
Luckily BotW will just revert the file to just before you enter Ganon's sanctum. You never miss out on content by beating the game, it just gives your save file a little star saying you've beaten Ganon at least once.
@@jarizoller1911 It's still probably a good thing that they didn't do that, because it unlocks some of the completion percentages and counters Yakko said he didn't want to see lol
BotW is not like that, you beat Ganon once? Cool, now back to Hyrule you go. Do it again and again and again till your heart desires. Hell you can even keep fighting the blights when you get the expansion pack
I've seen people dislike the game and explain why, and I've seen many people love the game and explain why. but a ''I didn't like it now I love it'' is REALLY interesting!
Ive seen many of those now and theyre my favorite and its usually the same. I finished the game main objectives the first time and there was nothing much in the empty world to the second time around i got lost in the game and went to explore and wow i get it now.
There were certain mechanics like durability that caused a friend or two to not enjoy the game. I personally loved it because it made me be strategic and what I felt to be clever, rather than just constantly spamming the best-performing attack. People who seemingly loved the old Zelda games for what they were have complained that it's just not a Zelda game to them, and it turned them off to it. I don't agree, but that's what I've heard from people.
@@marcopoloonpollo5937 yeah it was a very good choice actually. but you know my one issue with the game is the time spent in the inventory, changing weapons, changing clothes, eating etc... you do that a LOT and it can cut the action. but I have a theory, the game was supposed to be made on the Wii U, so the gamepad would have shown the inventory and you would have been able to change stuff via the touch screen without going into a pause menu, similar to twilight princess hd. it would have made the game absolutely perfect imo if you could just change weapons instantly
Elden Ring is probably gonna redefine the open world design again! Or it'll build from what BOTW established, after all we saw yesterday that you can set beacons on the map and so on and it's far more like BOTW than say *gags* Ubisoft open worlds
Another thing I’m really excited about with Elden Ring’s open world is how dynamic it all looks. Most open worlds have the vast majority of terrain on the same level but that doesn’t seem to be the case with Elden Ring. Huge chunks of land seem to rise above others while others sink so low that they’re shrouded in fog. I also love how many cool landmarks there are to spot no matter where you look, the dungeons seem so huge while still connecting seamlessly to the world.
@@xXxthe_epic_gamerxXx Yep it's very vertical even for a FromSoft game, I think that's an important thing for a good open world game as it allows the world to be dense rather than just vast. And knowing FromSoft, exploration will be extremely rewarding and interesting, we're talking about a studio that has some of the best level designs around!
BOTW is the game where I wish I could forget about it completely and play it again. The excitement I had in discovering I could pick up the axe stuck on the tree on the Great Plateu, and discovering I'll die after falling off the cliff - they're such wonderful experiences I can no longer experience having played the game
I think people who don’t like botw are gamers who prefer a linear game with clear direction,a clear path,objective and overall sense of progression. Once you throw them into botw however they are lost and believe there’s nothing to do cause the game doesn’t really say what you should do except beat ganon Botw relies on players to create their own fun and if that’s not your thing it’s understandable you wouldn’t like it but for me I much prefer this open sandbox gameplay
Well, that's how most games are, mainstream ones at least. Very narrative/story driven, tell you where to go, what to do, in order to progress forward with the story. They're set pieces to be enjoyed as they take you on a ride throughout their world. It's nice, but for gamers who want more freedom and exploration out of their games, to go at their own pace, sandbox openworld games are usually where it's at. Though, most openworld games, thanks to Ubisoft, follow a similar structure of, "go to waypoint/tower/beacon to uncover more of the world, go to other icons seen on map to uncover secrets and extra bits". There's no real secrets to be found, when the game TELLS you how many secrets in that area you've unlocked, or overall objectives you've found in order to be able to progress onwards. That kind of kills any fun and excitement of the unknown that the game may have. BotW on the other hand just say, "Okay, you know the basics, you know who you need to fight and kill to beat the game. Go get'em tiger!" and promptly puts you in an open world sandbox to tackle any objective and any manner you want. Even then, if you don't want to go through the main game, you can take your time out finding Shrines, exploring the world, collecting Korok Seeds, and just playing around with the physics/world interactions. I'll never forget finding that island far off the coast, and trying to figure out a way out there(I didn't notice the raft at the time), using the highest point of a mountain top to glide all the way out there, and swimming the remainder, using potions/foods to replenish my stamina to make it there. Only to be greeted with the challenge of having my gear stripped from me, and trying to complete the task the island asked me to do. As well as going to Sotaru Mountain at night, and coming across the Mountain Guardian, and mounting it to ride back to the stables. My first sighting of the elemental dragons. The list goes on. This game truly is a master class of how open world games should be handled and done. The new standard, I'd say.
which is funny because i do think BOTW does have a linear game progression. To a point. The great Plateau is pretty linear, you just gotta find it. Then you go to kakariko, then follow a bunch of Impa's quests, then it's pretty strongly suggested you go to ruta since it's right there. And by that time, you've figured it out. Sure, it's not as super linear as some games, but the game does heavily point you in a certain direction
I agree with the first sentence, but I didn't really feel lost, so much as bored. In order to make the game super non-linear, a lot of stuff has to be repeated and kept at a fairly even level of difficulty, making it pretty unsatisfying to me. I'm not gonna be excited about discovering a world if I already know that stone in the distance is gonna have yet another korok seed inside, or that skull rock enemy camp is gonna have the same three types of enemies again.
The amazing thing about Breath of the Wild is that it can only really be appreciated as a holistic experience. Every bit of it that might seem iffy on paper (less music, open spaces, durability, etc.) comes together to enhance the experience rather than distract from it. Combat only "sucks" if you ignore the chemistry system and snappy controls. The scale only "sucks" if you ignore the movement mechanics and meticulous world design. It's one of those unique works that, despite its flaws, feels like a perfect and unforgettable experience. It's not perfect because it has no flaws, it's perfect because it captures something that only everything it does all together could capture.
Not going to lie, this video brought up (weirdly, considering it's only 4 years old) nostalgia. It really captured the fantastic design of Breath of the Wild, and made me remember the feelings I had when I played through the first time. Just seeing something in the distance and saying "I want to go check that out" and ACTUALLY being able to just go ahead and do that, was a strangely rare experience among open world games. The amount of freedom the game affords the player, without losing sense of the games identity or overwhelming the player, is pretty amazing.
I 1000% agree! I just logged my 100th hour on BOTW (I’m late to the game , pun intended ^.^) I resisted the urge to do what I thought I was “supposed to” and I’ve just being going where and doing what I want, and having a darn BLAST!!! My first self-assigned mission was to activate every tower so I had a full map bc npc kept telling me to go places I had NO IDEA where they were 🤣 All in all, I feel like a kid again with the excitement this game brings on and I think that is remarkable to be able to say. I can’t wait for BOTW 2!!!
Honestly, BotW is one of the best games I've ever played. Just the fact that it's a good open world game that actually feels full, and with so many secrets and hidden details that the game doesn't force you to discover, but instead is designed in a way that you'll probably find them on your own, and even then they aren't even required! You could always just go to the end, the ability to do so is always there, you just don't have the skills or knowledge you need to beat it once you first play it, and the games just dedicated to you getting those skills and tools since it knows that that's the fun part. Not to mention the music, since it's so good, especially looking back on it and realizing just how good of a decision it was to restrict it to only play when it was needed, and not just do it to sell a soundtrack and make fans happy. Honestly, it's no surprise that I like BotW so much, since it shares some of the best traits of my favorite game of all time Outer Wilds! Oh, you thought that BotW was my favorite? Maybe you should play Outer Wilds (NOT Outer Worlds, that ones different) and see why. Nothing can stop me from shilling for that game, it's so great. Nothing.
Breath of the Wild was my comfort game when I was depressed months ago. I'm an artist and I was suffering from extreme burnout, feeling like I needed to put out a lot of art to make people happy. You're spot-on saying the game lets you take your time, and I really needed that.
I'm never gonna forget the first time I was fighting some Lizalfos on Hylia Bridge and then turned my head just to see a big ass electric dragon next to me going "Well hello there"
i would argue that breath of the wild is extremely friendly to a first time video game player as well, the fact that it always allows different approaches and doesnt have a set play style really lets you experiment and figure things out in your own way
I don’t know if you’ve seen Razbuten’s videos on the lady that lives with him (inside joke), but she doesn’t play video games. When he decided to do a bit of an experiment having her play games, he realized that too many games provide a linear path and a linear path only. She had trouble enjoying games because she decided she wanted to do something one way, and it made sense that she could do it that way, but the game didn’t let her. BOTW is the opposite. You need to defeat a Boko camp without alerting the towers because all you have is a tree branch and a Boko arm? Sneak strike one, hide behind a rock, throw a bomb in and take out another one, snipe the tower guard with an arrow, shoot a fire arrow at an explosive barrel, do whatever you want. It’s why I love this game.
Let’s gooooooo, literally breath of the wild left me like the person who was left by their partner who was incredible, and every time they try to be with someone new, they end it because they seek their ex’s traits again and again. It happened to me with horizon zero dawn, xenoblade, and almost any game with an open environment, I miss the tight and smooth controls and the freedom haha. Damn the editing with the stasis joke XD, so on point.
Your mention of how the game’s attention to detail allows for creative solutions is why games such as Thief, System Shock 2, and Deus Ex are still considered some of the greatest ever made. They were designed with an “immersive sim” philosophy; give the player all the tools they need to progress, and then step back and let them figure out the solutions themselves, even allowing the systems to open up paths that the designer may not have even thought up, but the player can still find them simply by using the systems and their interactions with the world. Breath Of The Wild’s biggest strength imo was in taking that design philosophy that the aforementioned three titles had, and transplanting it into an open world setting. There’s a reason why people are still, years later, posting new strategies and exploits, along with surprising anecdotes. Because like those classic titles from Looking Glass and Ion Storm Austin, the game gives you all these mechanics and systems, and then simply allows you to do whatever you want with them in what way you see fit. Heck, BOTW goes even further via implanting an entire chemistry system with the different elements at play. Yeah, it’s my all time favorite game of the 2010s for a reason. :)
When I first played Breath of the Wild I felt like it was the open world game in its most mature form, making any open world game that came before it look outdated. It acknowledged everything that worked and didn't work in previous open world games and built upon every single part of it
the eagle bird formation quest is i think the best i ever came cross in any open world game. it reminded me how we imagined future video games back in the early 90s
Fantastic job with this video! You managed to put into words how magical it feels to play through Breath of the Wild, and why it's open world feels so much better than your average Ubisoft game. It's really hard to go back to other open world games after playing this one. Nintendo themselves described it as an "Open Air Experience" and I think that's the perfect way to describe it.
Dude. Your review style is so nuanced and well thought out, but also so light, awkward and funny, it was so good to just chill and watch this video. Subbed and I'm already craving more. Cheers!
The "it's just an empty open sandbox" comments some people say just confuse me... I know some of them are from people who haven't played the game, but other times it makes me wonder what they're actually doing in this game? Also, I was driving from Dallas to Lubbock (about 5 hours), and for some reason thought about open world games. Like some people expect there to be a quest, enemies, animals, crazy landmarks, weapons, traps & secrets every 5 feet, but why? Even while driving 75 mph for 5 hours, I saw damn near nothing as far as the eye could see. I saw a few birds and fields of open grass, yay? Then I thought about growing up in Virginia & playing in the woods/forests as a kid. Never once did I see a million animals to hunt & crazy events jammed together. Maybe once every week or two I'd see a deer, and if I was lucky, maybe a snake or turtle every few months? I once saw a black bear... once. Other than that, lots of plain ol' trees, some squirrels & birds, and yep...sums it up. But for some reason people claim video game worlds aren't realistic enough or too empty without a billion things going on every few feet! Even the most empty open world sure has far more visible activity in a much more compact area than the majority of our lives. And forget trying to hang-glide everywhere or find boulders to push down mountains, or floating down rivers with trees you cut down, all in close proximity... Have these people ever been hunting in a real nature? How about fishing in a real lake/river/ocean? Yeah...slow & time consuming. A lot of down time. Games are supposed to be fun, absolutely, but stop claiming "there's not enough to do" or "it's too empty/not realistic" in a game like BotW when being realistic would make it FAR less interesting/empty, and you'd have a fraction of the things to do! /rant
when you put on the rito village music, i almost fell out of my seat from getting so jazzed hearing it 😂 i've played about 500 hours of botw now and began selecting different versions of "homes" to visit. for example, lurelin village is my "vacation home", hateno is my "canon home", some random spot is my "camping grounds" and i'd visit these places often for different types of gameplay i want to do on a session. rito village, for me, felt like my "home" home. it just reminded me so much about my city and why i love it so much. every time it's night, i stare at the lampposts and walk very slowly, recapturing the feeling of walking around one of my favorite places in my city. the music also reminded me of my home so much, it aches me to leave rito village because i have somewhere else i need to go. i just wanted to ramble because god fUCKING DAMMIT, RITO VILLAGE IS SO FUCKING COOL 😭
I think the best memory I had was seeing the sacred mountain mount. I had no idea it was in the game and I basically stumbled into it randomly. This was such an amazing feeling as I had already well over 80 hours into the game, trying to find every shrine there was without help. Unfortunately I wasn't able to actually mount it, but it was an amazing moment I won't forget any time soon.
omg yes, I saw the glowing light it emmited during the night and went to explore, and just seeing all the spirit animals there in front of the lake it was amazing
4 years, so many videos praising this game, and yet still you manage to captivate me talking about this game, i have to go play this game again now thanks a lot
My favourite parts of this game for me was just going to a town and pretending like a normal citizen, not chasing the goal but just taking everything in.
Except you can do the same thing, but way better in other games like the Elder Scroll series since NPC's will react to way more things you do, but in BOTW they hardly do anything. You can talk to them and hear the same thing every time, or you can attack close to them and scare them; oh and sometimes they start running for cover if it rains; that's about it. Compare this to something like RDR2 and the difference is insane. You can say nice or mean things to people and have them react in different ways; you can pull your gun out of the holster and make them uneasy and more likely to attack you. You can follow them for too long and they start to get agitated and paranoid. You can try to calm things down when people want to fight. You can commit a petty crime and follow the person reporting the crime and you can try to calm the Sheriff down and he'll tell you to get out of there instead of attack or take you to jail. There are many more things possible. There are way better games for walking around and taking in the sights.
My heart soared through this video! You perfectly described how I feel about this game. It's my little escape when I'm stressed, as a result I'm on my THIRD go around in 2021. 😂 I just love exploring every little inch and finding new surprises in every corner!
One thing I did to spice up my playthrough of the game was to limit my inventory to 10 slots for weapons and a free slot to pick up a weapon during a fight. It forces you to really think about which weapon you'd rather keep, between yet another Royal Sword or a Korok Leaf that could come in handy, or between a rock-smashing spear and a flame weapon to light up those peppers for little updrafts. As for the free slot, it's a neat idea to disarm an opponent and then use their own weapon against them, or even take it and throw it in a river nearby... Makes the combat a lot more dynamic and interesting in my eyes !
Glad you came around and saw this gem for what it is :) For me, it was a constant experience of getting distracted by something shiny on my way to something and just losing track of what I was doing in the first place. And the open nature of the game and its mechanics allowed me to solve things in my own way. I remember once struggling with a shrine and finally finding a solution that took me to the end, and I looked it up because I wanted to see if others had the same experience as me, and lo and behold, there had been a simple solution there the whole time that I had simply not seen. Yet my solution still solved it in the end. So while it was kind of a derp moment, the fact that there wasn't just one specific set solution for it didn't end up making me feel stupid, because I still solved it in the end. And I absolutely loved the way the game did the map. Because it wasn't cluttered up with icons, it made it so I could go and inspect it to find interesting topography to inspect closer and it actually helped me out with solving a couple of missions, plus steered me in the direction of a few other interesting areas that I might have otherwise overlooked.
There were so many awesome game released in the past decade but Botw was the only game to make me feel like a kid again and reminded me why i fell in love with video games.
Riding the horse in botw is actually a cool hidden rhythm game where you need to click the boost every 4 or 5 steps until you spend all boosts and then pat the horse at the right moment. It's not stated anywhere in the game, it just comes to you naturally as you spend a few hours on the horse. And you may never realize you were doing this the whole time, because it's so subtle and so comfortable. And then if you maintain the speed a playful piano soundtrack kicks off and its just feels awesome to move with speed and grace with little to zero effort. It somehow reminds me of these moments in my childhood when I was looking out of the car window and imagining a dude running and jumping from one pole to another to keep up with us
18:03 I think there's a way to remove the annoyance of breakable weapons without intruding on other options. Give Link a small buff for killing enemies in any way that isn't a sword or bow - you could give him health or stamina back, boost his speed and damage, temporarily raise his max health, improve his resistance to knockback, etc. You could also give debuffs to enemies in the same ways. This would make using as many options as possible the dominant method and encourage players to constantly look for opportunities. It also introduces more strategy by giving a choice of different buffs to go for. Reward players for being creative rather than punish them for not being creative.
Here is the thing people forget, YOU HAVE INFINITE BOMBS and blowing up an explosive barrel means you don't get overwhelmed by enemies and get hit less meaning you have more healing/food items or hit them while they are down. The game itself would incentivize using these tools like how Bokos are platforms are easy to hit in the head with bows.
Hey, great video like always, I realñy like when you talk about your experience with video games and also the music involved with it, so I dont if you would like to, but I must say that xenoblade chronicles 2 music is really good, one example is the title screen music, when you hear it after you beat the game it has a different meaning than when you started to play. If you wish you could hear a couple of songs.
I can totally FEEL what you mean by : players seeking dominant strategies even if it makes the game less fun. I had a wonderful time playing breath of the wild, until the last boss. When I felt like it was the time for me to kick ganon's booty, I went there with the greatest gear I had accumulated throughout my journey, my food inventory filled to the brim with full restore meals, preparing myself for what felt like the greatest battle of my life. And like. As you might guess, if you have healed all the divine beast, and if your inventory is optimized as much as mine was, it's just a cake walk. I could have forced myself to not use food item, but by the time I just thought that there were gonna be a new phase, something much harder right around the corner. And it ruined it for me. Don't get me wrong, this game is amazing, but by seeking the dominant strategy, I kinda ruined the fun of a thrilling boss battle. It's a bit annoying but to me it's also a good lesson about how much we need to take our game seriously and how much we need to prioritize fun besides everything else (still I would have love for the final boss to be much harder
I had the same situation, but I actually liked it. It felt sooo good to know how much I achieved. Knowing I started out dying to a bokoblin 3 times in a row and now beeing able to take on this massive monster gave me flashback about everything I had done to get here. This was awesome especially after I beat the dlc. I cannot describe how I felt when I drove all the way from the Great Plateau to hyrule castle on a badass motorcycle and wheeling into the boss fight ready to beat ganons ass.
I'd say making the final boss easier (half of its hp being taken off) is a pretty rewarding experience I feel but yeah that final phase might as well just been a playable cutscene great game though
That's why I made a point of defeating Ganon once without freeing any of the Beasts. It becomes a challenging boss rush, which I quite enjoyed. Having done that, I continued playing the game, took my sweet time to free the Beasts in between lollygagging around the world and proceeded to steamroll Ganon this time around.
I did something similar. I asked for a spoiler free approach on Reddit, and the best advice I got was "go fight Ganon whenever you feel ready -- don't wait until you've done "everything" just raid the castle whenever you feel confident enough. Don't treat the game like a checklist." I made several raids into the castle after the first divine beast, and looted some good weapons... But I was NOT good enough to handle all the guardians and strong enemies there. So I would raid the castle every so often, push a little further, then fly away when it got too tough. At some point after the 2nd divine beast, I felt confident enough with the combat, so I went to fight Ganon. It was really challenging, and an amazing moment! After I beat him, I finished the rest of the game and fought him again after get ting all the memories. From what I've read from tons of other people, anyone who did 100% the game before facing Ganon basically ruined the experience for themselves. I'm glad I took that advice. BotW really taught me to immerse in games like I used to as a kid. Treating games like a linear checklist really does suck the fun out of it. BotW retrained my brain to just get lost and have fun with games again.
Underrated channel! It’s weird that you made this video at the same time that I’ve decided to replay breath of the wild for the first time since 2017. I’m loving the game throughly, couldn’t agree more with the video, thanks for the content! You’ve earned a sub
I 100% this game. My first and only save file is 235 hours, and I have not started the DLCs yet. If this is not a testament to how amazing a game this is, I do not know what is.
As much as this game is talked about on youtube in terms of game design, you still managed to bring up a lot of insightful points I hadn't thought of before and made me appreciate the game more. Great video!
I remember being so invested in the memories and finding towers I always found non-combat ways to sneak through because I was scared of fighting guardians and each time I got a memory and opened more of the map I felt so proud and happy :) ❤️
I have played through at least 8 times. I still discover new areas. I think I fell in love with this game sneaking around in the silence, watching the boboklins/enemies dancing and sharing stories. Sometimes intently speaking with each other while on guard. The coolest.
Amazing video Yakko! Proud of u for not only getting over your original distain for the game, but diving head-first and truly understanding whats so beautiful about it!
The thing that tells me BotW is truly an amazing game is that every time I see it brought up, I still learn something new about it. I cleared through it and watched most of my cousins run as well, yet this video still gave out new surprises. Like I have the same sort of cynical view towards open world games yet this one effortlessly captivated me. And I just think like "so this is the sort of feelings everyone had for Ocarina of time back when it redefined games huh?". Like it's not beyond having flaws but just the fact that this is gonna be iterated on again makes the sequel an amazing prospect.
20:42 not only that, but the music is also a straight up reference to other games. The rito village ost is a gentle version of Wind waker's Dragon Roost Island theme
In my first playthrough I have not even found the dude to trade Korok seeds in for inventory space, because I never went through the main entrance to Kakariko and honestly, I didn't even miss anything off of it I still collected all the Korok I have spotted and I never had any problems with my limited weapon space
I needed this video, lately I wasn't feel so good and hearing you talk about one of my favorite games made my day so much. I also rediscovered why I love that game so much.
This is the first open world game where I decided to completely ignore the main quest. Did not speak to Lady Impa until I had defeated all Divine Beasts.
I grew up with playstation and my older sister brought a switch to play animal crossing then didn't use it anymore. So I decided to buy BOTW during 2017 when I heard all the hype and just thought it was overrated because its zelda, a legendary IP. It was the time as well when I got extreme bored of open world games. I played Zelda and my god, its so open and theres so much freedom. I love how silent Link is and it allows me to just take in the environment. I became a fan of this game during my first hour already.
I've been down in the dumps lately on what games to play. I have modern day systems (PS5,Switch,PC), yet I still find myself thriving to find a game to play from my huge library. I constantly find myself laying in bed bored out of my mind when I have a huge catalog of games that I could go through. I just miss the old days where I wasn't so concentrated on finishing game and was actually fulling enjoying it for what it was entirely worth. I'm what most would call an achievement hunter, I find enjoyment in complete trophy lists for most games I own, that started making sour towards games that I had previously loved as a kid. I've stopped trophy hunting and turned over a new leaf in order to truly understand what it's like to enjoy games again. This video very well establishes the feeling I once had playing my old games on 360 and ps2. Thanks so much for giving me a new outlook on how I could possibly evolve and enjoy games in transcending lights.
Now that you like it, I suggest watching those million “things you didn’t know about BotW” videos you mentioned. Because there really is that much. There are so many tiny, hidden details in this game, new ones will likely still be discovered 100 years from now I’ve 100% completed this game (except for the koroks) three times, and there’s still tons of stuff I never would have noticed
10:08 -- after being overwhelmed for a few days in this game ("where should I go? what should I do?") I did exactly what you did here. Picked a direction and just... went that way. And then, the game just clicked with me and I lost countless hours to it..
This video right here.. you get it the beauty, this is exactly why I get soo pissed off at people who shit on it say it's horrible and really anyone who doesn't give games an actually fair chance, I can understand somone not liking things about a game but what I cant except is when somone mocks a game, then isn't willing to discuss there reasoning because they say it's there opinion, opinions are formed from reasoning and I love hearing those, this is why it pisses me off so much when on almost any video I go and watch friends without bennefits or see people trying to be like alpha rad, it's not actually ok to mock because you can. This video was actually perfectly said.
I think one of the things that makes Botw one of the best Open-World games in my opinion, is that its one of the few Open-World games where the devs actually thought "why does this game need to be Open-World" while makeing the game.
I used to love games like Far Cry, Fallout and Assassin's Creed. But ever since I played BotW, I can't enjoy them anymore. It has spoiled me. I tried the LotR games (Shadow of Mordor, Shadow of War) but they are so... World Mappy. And even Genshin Impact, as decent as it is, just pales in comparison to Breath of the Wild...
Funny cause nowadays Genshin Impact has a longer story and way more content than BOTW, I have played both and find BoTW to be less focus in many ways, I know Genshin Impact is technically a rip off but that's just IMO
I had a similar experience with animal crossing, where I had a great time the first month and a half but after seeing what other people were capable of with terraforming and custom designs, I felt like I wasn’t reaching the full value of the game. After never being able to surpass four stars, I gave up. A few months ago I deleted the old island and tried again with minimal terraforming (I legit only added two little waterfalls by my house) and as many flowers and weeds as possible. I threw fossils next to the museum and called it “the boneyard”. I didn’t farm villagers because they were popular, and found some of my favorite villagers through chance (Lionel, filbert, and Knox have a special place in my heart). After a while I decided to check with Isabelle and it turned out I had a five star island! Now I have the update to go through and I’m actively avoiding seeing any content on the internet so I can experience things the natural way. I’ve even expressed wanting to get an entirely new switch so I can play the game front to back with the update, but not wanting to lose this island. Even now I have this on in the background while I chop trees on a mystery island just to build and sell furniture for funsies.
I think my favorite part about the music is the contrast you get between the open world and the significant locations. It's partly *because* music is otherwise so sparse through the game that the full orchestra's return in the theme for Hyrule Castle feels *so* bombastic, underscoring and enhancing the heightened drama of the game's finale.
It amazes me how it can be so much fun to just enjoy this game. A lot of my hours that I spent on this game where just me taking everything in, often ignoring if I made any progress. The landscapes, the physiks, the enemy's. It was so much fun to just be creative and find new ways to accidentally murder yourself.
17:45 Oh you can't just remind me of the Stalhorses. I remember deciding to just lug one around for as long as possible when they wouldn't let me register him. And I walked right outside to watch him crumble away to the sunrise. It was tragic bro.
I have created a mandatory rule for every breath of the Wild Play through. “Unlock the whole map while doing shrines by the side and then acquire the master sword. And only after that are you ready to fully find the divine beasts and kill ganon.”
That is going to be my next play through. Or get the master sword. Do the trails and then divine beast, some shrines along the way, champion dlc and then Ganon. Do that on master mode
By far, my favorite thing was just seeing an island off in the distance, and then spending at least an hour trying to figure out how to get to it and explore! Of course, it ended up being even tide, and I hated everything thereafter haha
Ok so here's something people didn't ask but should know: You can drift while shield surfing by pressing the R button Also this video summarizes all of my feelings with this game perfectly, Amazing job making it.
Thank you for making these kinds of video essays. They are very relaxing to listen to and keeps the thoughts in my head from turning into a storm at times.
It's funny, Breath of the Wild and Persona 5 are two of my favourite games of all time, and both of them encourage you to take your time and immerse yourself in the game world.
Botw and hollow knight were the only games I could actually enjoy and find any joy in spending my time. I'm truly thankful to those games, their artists, musicians, directors, programmers and whoever helped in allowing them to come into existence. I really wish I could experience these games again, though I believe letting go of these memories and hoping for the next thing.
Try and play a souls game or any fromsoftware title really. After I played botw, these were the only games that really gave me a similar feeling, although they aren’t really open-world.
18:10 I even nullified the weapon durability mechanic for myself by re-visiting all the major test of strength shrines every blood moon i.e. I have as many ancient weapons as I could ever need, oo and Lynels for bows
I think you stumbled upon the exact reason why nintendo/switch doesnt have profile achievement/trophies - it encourages play for play's sake instead of imposing a competitive checklist to compare with your relationships. For the love of the games.
Agreed, Nintendo games/consoles embody the concept of "Just for fun, purely for fun." I also think that Nintendo's history of fun factor, gameplay, and art direction totally make up for any graphical/performance limitations.
Loved this video! You completely summed up why I live BotW so much and continue to replay it over and over after killing Ganon. It’s just such an absorbing and interesting game.
I hate that I was led to believe that this game was just complete fucking silence with just the sounds of nature in the background, and then I played it and I stood in place for literal hours just listening to the music.
What’s great is that elden ring seems to take the approach of open world design of breath of the wild, then adds the amazing aesthetics, art direction, storytelling, bosses, music and combat of dark souls. I can’t wait to see what elden ring has to offer!
I got the game and a switch for christmas this year. I’ve already put in at least 20 hours, I can’t believe how much I love it. Yesterday I fought my first Lynel, and as the battle went on, all of my weapons were breaking. By the end all I had was a 12 damage sword and a bow. I had to continually dodge every rush, shock arrow, and axe slice, the flurry strikes were my only opportunity to successfully attack. After a long battle, I finished him off with not much left, picked up his loot, collected my shock arrows, and dove off of the cliff into the lake with Ruta. I’m super excited to continually replay this game with new challenges for myself, I can tell each playthrough is going to be a hell of a ride.
I've heard that Breath of the Wild has pretty meaningful weather, which is nice. Weather with actual impact is really cool (also, gnarly thunder like Minecraft has) and having the game force such a change can be a risk, but can also have big payoff. Starbound (at least in my memory of it) has pretty neat weather. Rain actually produces water, meaning it can build up in ponds or flood your base if you don't allow some drains. Sandstorms litter the landscape with sand. Acid rain hurts you. Is cool.
Actually yeah, weather plays a huge part in botw's gameplay, for example thunderstorms force you to unequip all metal equipment or you get struck by lightning (and lightning HURTS), and rain makes all walls slippery so they're really tough to climb (also rain will pool up in ditches and stuff over time and will very slightly raise the water level of lakes and ponds, then it will evaporate in sunny weather, this doesn't really affect gameplay much but it's cool that it happens)
I think the coolest aspect of Breath of the Wild's rain is that it turns electric weapons from an obnoxious inconvenience into an incredibly powerful roadblock. Electric shocks can jump to metal objects from much farther away in the rain, and can create large zappy areas which last for a second or two and make you drop your weapon. Then they have an area where it rains all the time for story reasons, and you need to work your way up a winding path to get to the town (because _you can't climb the cliffs in the rain)_ and all the Lizalfos have shock arrows and there's an Electric Wizzrobe and it's quite the challenge. When you manage to turn off the rain it's a huge relief, like "OK now I can properly explore this area without getting shocked for half my health every two minutes." (I realize that might sound like a bad thing, but I meant it as a good one. They managed to increase the impact of the weather as a plot point.)
you nailed it my dude, the music in this game always give me chill and i just don't know why. i guess it's just gorgeus and unspeakably beautiful, at least that's how i feel.
I've been on the complete opposite end of this. Everything in BotW has the same reward, some bits of monsters, and a weapon that will break in four swings. I never felt like I had any reason to ever actually do anything. Finding anything just felt like more busy work, because the reward for it was the ability to have an item that would help me find more of that same item. It was like playing No Man's Sky on release. An empty husk of an environment whose only real purpose was to have me repeatedly do the same annoying puzzles and fight the same enemies for the same useless rewards over and over for eternity.
How do you feel about nature? Did you ever climb a mountain in this game, and gasp at the awe of the scenery? If not, then this game may not be for you.
@@justinrinker2480 My point was that the game resonates most with people who appreciate nature and art. If you dont find the artstyle to be beautiful, then thats a highly unusual opinion. If you dont enjoy nature, and spending time in the woods, and hiking, and climbing mountains… then this game probably isnt for you.
I saw your content years ago, think on Smash related stuff. Neat to stumble across you again years later and see how significantly you've improved, this was a great video, good work!
By far my most fun memory of BOTW, is with the Yiga clan stealth mission. Because after having failed it some times, I got so frustrated by the forced camera angel, that I just fuck it and brute forced my way through. And the best part, I was allowed to do it. They didn't make it easy, but if u managed they actually opened the doors for u.
I wasn't able to play ocarina of time, so for years I fantasized about it, the exploration, the secrets, the world... when I was finally able to play it it was a old clunky game and the magic was lost, it was a very underwhelming experience. Well, BotW was my Ocarina of Time, this video summarized my experience during weeks I obsessively played it, figuring out things for myself, exploring the world for the sake of it, fully immersed, the only open world game I ever enjoyed, my number two game of all time, my ocarina of time, the one I was able to experience as an adult. I truly love this masterpiece.
On my second playthrough I tried a "no fast travel run". Setting aside the immersion factor, you can't really "unknow" this game once you've played it. What I found in that run is that this game does a really good job of making the task retreading old paths, such as returning to a great fairy or visiting Impa after securing a memory, a fairly painfree experience. The paths that crisscross Hyrule, which many might mostly ignore when trailblazing to new areas and activities, are simple and relatively safe ways to return to places you've already explored, especially with a tame horse. At the same time, you naturally find yourself being more resourceful, as instead of warping to Satori mountain every few days for food, you might just have to get good at hunting ostriches, mark every cooking pot, or even pay for a night at an inn when you find one. Overall I wouldn't say that forcing yourself not to fast travel is the superior experience, but it's a great way to change up the game when you're beginning from a place of foreknowledge of the game's secrets.
Also, movement in BotW is fun. Sometimes I just Boot up the game, pick a place on the map I haven't exactly been to, and just go there. Chances are I'll find nothing New since I've been pretty close already, but going there is fun enough.
Honestly my most memorable story and the time I first truly felt the game was really special was when I was being chased by a bokoblin on a horse during a thunderstorm near death one arrow and I'd be dead and then I saw the lightning spark on my metal sword and remembered what happened last time I got struck and figured....maybe? Waited for the appropriate time near the thunderstruck and chucked my sword at him and watching them get struck by the lightning because of what I did recognizing the games universal rules honestly made me feel smart and was super fun
You just had a JoJo piano moment right there
truly
I could feel the bliss you felt when u did this, that's so cool
Time to play BOTW
Holy shit that is amazing experience
I love that it feels like real world rules a lot of the time. Where things like lightning hitting metal or its cold so if i hold the fire sword it just makes sense. Dipping your regular arrow intofirr to make a fire arrow. Things that just naturally make sense to you will just work, its great.
Totally agree on the idea of ignoring the boring science of "the best way to play the game" and just doing what piques your interest, I remember starting my own unprompted quest to try and cook every type of dish in the game and it resulted in a really memorable journey of learning regional ingredients and such! Felt much more rewarding than just farming hearty foods and exclusively cooking full-heal dishes :))
That sounds like a fun idea. I definitely just focused on max health potions but that opens up a whole new way of playing.
Would be fun just exploring and making recipes
One of my best memories with this game is in my 2th playthrought. On my first, I had never explored the Hebra region, so I decided to do that pretty much as soon as I left the Great Plateau. Slowly climbing the cliffs up to the region was just epic, and then when I arrived at the top, I realized that getting to the tower required either a lot of stuff to melt the ice, or revali's gale. So I made my way to the nearest shrine in Hebra that I could find, almost dying in the process multiple times, before teleporting down to get revali's gale to climb the tower.
Absolutely wonderful experience.. Althought it did reveal how hilarious the temperature system sometimes is. One moment it's 15 celcius, the next moment it's -20 celcius somehow.
@@legrandliseurtri7495 That's not as ridiculous as Eldin. You go from "this temperature is fine, no I don't need my desert gear, I'm all good" to "HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK I'M LITERALLY ON FIRE" by stepping over an invisible line. It always makes me laugh.
As a person who used almost all heart foods, I was fine with it. I felt the other ascpects where soo good that it was fine that I didnt master cooking. It felt like just one of the many things you could do and made it okay, which is why I loved this game so much.
I would have liked a recipe book. If I would know what food I already knew and already cooked, I would have cooked all possible meals, too. But this way, it was just for as many hearts as possible.
YOU CAN STAND ON THE HAND OF A HINOX AND GET UP ON HIS BELLY WHILE HE'S STILL ASLEEP??? I have played through this game twice now and never knew that
i learned like ten new things watching the developer documentaries nintendo posted on youtube
This just goes to show how different people can have a completely different experience with BOTW. That was one of the first things I tried when I saw a hinox (besides staying as far away from it as possible when I first saw it)
Bruh, it took me 3 playthroughs to realize you can press the up arrow when holding items to throw them farther
@@equinox-XVI What the actual fuck? I've spent 300 hours on the game and I had no idea
@@equinox-XVI Wait, you can?
You absolutely nailed why I've sort of diverted from the "open world" genre as of late. I think the term "open world" has now become associated with a genre of game that has now superseded the term, filled with the generic Ubisoft offering like Far Cry and Assassin's Creed, Bethesda games and, while I admit better but still victim to the same tropes Horizon. I think BOTW is a game with an "open world" but is not an OPEN WORLD game. It's certainly a different breed from the template so many games seem to follow.
Admittedly I loved RDR2 for it's amazing story and uncompromised immersion (definitely a personal preference though), BOTW is different. It respects your intelligence whilst also expertly guiding you, it shows you options and gives you options to make your own. I'm insanely excited for Elden Ring because I think FromSoft's formula would work insanely well in a similar fashion; they stick you in a world with endless options for player expression and say "go on, have fun and good luck". Not to lay into the journalist "Elden Ring is BOTW mixed with Dark Souls", not at all, but I think they will share similar factors that set them apart from the "open world" genre whilst still retaining the open world map design.
Amazing video as always Yakko-man, much love!
It's a ping pong game of inspiration. I bet breath of the wild would not be like it is without from software doing its thing since 10 years ago.
Rewatch the moments of the video when he talks about silence, about music, about the game not telling you what you can expect from it, about the environment telling the story by itself, etc (it's almost all of the video at this point).
Damn, couldn't have said it better myself
After playing it, I can see why the devs kept trying to push the term "open air" game instead of open world during all the pre-release interviews
@@gnanay8555 and the cool thing is that dark souls had its inspiration from Zelda, the original one, and a link to the past. Sometimes I dream of a game where Miyamoto and Miyazaki combine forces to great the ultimate open ended adventure game
Edit: which, as I think of better, will probably be close to elden ring ol
@@federicosavorani6320 oooOOOOohhhhh
One of the funniest things about this game is that rewards are often not worth the adventure- but in a good way. Like, you can have a simple quest request, and then that leads you on a long adventure, like a REAL adventure, an actual meaningful experience with ups and downs, with mistakes and successes- something you will remember. And then you get an almost useless reward, but you don't feel jipped: You earned a lot more than an in-game reward.
THIS!! There's this 1 mission to take a photo of leviathan eldon skeleton ?? I dunno i forget. I met 2 lynel 1 weird shrine fighting hinox pitch black. Wooo i want to play again
The craziest thing that happened to me in BotW was falling to my death because i forgot i had no stamina potions left just to realize i was going near a horse, so i did everything i could to aim it and avoid death by taming a horse midflight.
it was amazing and i'll never forget it.
20:41 One of my absolute favorite things about the town themes in this game is that when the sun sets, The music starts to slow down and get lower in pitch, and then returns to normal at the break of dawn.
I've heard a lot of people complain about the weapon system in Breath of the Wild. Many people find breaking weapons to be an annoying hindrance in this game, but, at least in my experience, it led to some of my favorite moments in any video game. If I were to just run around slapping everything with the strongest sword, then combat would be constantly bland. But because the weapons break, you have to improvise at nearly every instance. Freezing a log and sending it flying toward an enemy, creating a bomb catapult out of the surrounding supplies, and just beating the shit out of a moblin with a metal crate were all some of the most fun moments that I've had in a video game. By forcing you to actually think in a fight, nearly every combat experience becomes unique. This, among many other reasons, is why Breath of the Wild is one of my favorite games. Thanks for making a video on funny elf man game Dr. Yaggo, glad you had fun with it.
I love how dynamic it makes any encounter the only real criticism I have is not really knowing how much until it breaks that is something I hope they rectify in BotW 2 (kinda hope it's not a durability meter because that defeats the point imo but something more visual)
I stand by my view that the biggest issue with the weapon breaking isnt so much the breaking itself and more that it can be kinda a pase breaker to change them
The breaking weapon system makes finding new weapons rewarding. Other wise only finding stronger weapons would be rewarding. Something like a Black smith where you could repair almost broken weapons would be a very good and amazing addition tho.
I agree I never had any issue with the breaking as it made each weapon special. Finding something powerful and having to weigh the options with limited inventory. Or if you come across something you want to take down, have to weight if you have enought for the fight, or get creative.
It also makes for memorable moments. My favorite moment in memory was I was fighting a lynel off north of death mountain. Gear was running out and thing was making plugging it with arrows difficult. It was storming too. Then the fire dragon flew past, making an updraft which I caught, and notching my last set of bomb arrows rained them on it but the bow was metal and I was about to get lightning clapped. Took out my metal boomerang tossed it towards and switched to emergency low damage wood gear I kept just for these situations with storms. Got to watch the final blow come from the sky itself, broke the boomerang, dragon flies away and new gear from the lynel. All this cause I had to think on the fly rather then disengage and use what was happening around me.
I have lots of problems with BotW that lead to me hating it. The weapon system wasn't among them. Yeah, weapons break regularly, but most are easy enough to replace. If anything, I felt it actually brought a nice breath of fresh air to Zelda's combat system.
Yakko: talks about the variety in BOTW
Meanwhile every two minutes: BOMBS
explosion funy
Lamp oil
Bomb arrows are very efficient and satisfying in Botw so can't argue with that lol
I mean... they're fun, aren't they? Remote bombs were a genius idea.
Yakko Warner
SORRY IT WAS TOO GOOD
breath of the wild is one of, if not the best open world game ever made because despite having over 130 hours put into it in across two playthroughs, there were multiple times during this video where i saw a clip of some shrine or area, paused for a minute and said "what the HELL is that"
It is the best
You probably asked that about the shrines because there are so many of them and they blend together due to how they all have the same styling and visuals tbf
I couldn't disagree more. I found the world boring and the shrines repetitive, and the lack of quality mechanics that are necessary for any open world game to be a comeplete turn off.
It's able to play you or with you. I wonder what made mmorpgs flow nice for me before, and that was that I had no idea what to do than fish or something, and chat away some bullshit with others, and then combine some stories about the progress in the game.
Pretty much how you deal with this game, but not so much chatting or fishing with others maybe.
"Selling lobsters"
@@D.J.Paige71mechanics were quality tho?
i feel like the game is never portrayed on how flexible it really is, yakko talks about how the game can be played in any style and is not meant to be played by picking up every thing, and searching for all 900 korok seeds, but that was the way i played it, and still play it, I play the game for a week or two every once and a while searching for that mystic 100% in the bottom left corner of the map. And even through it drives me everywhere with a purpose more than to just look around, it *forces* you to look around, and its truly amazing, I can play the game 4 years later and constantly find new beautiful locations i never knew about (the waterfalls behind zora's domain that lead into akkala are I think the prettiest thing in the game and I only found them this year). Yet I never feel like I miss out on anything, this game is more sandbox than any other sandbox game, it can truly be played in any way that you would ever desire, and every part of the game just points to that, letting you mend the world to your own design and allowing you to play however you want.
Also yakko you gotta stop hitting me with so much nostalgia by talking about games I love, putting it all in a climax, and then leading into meteor heard at the end, you can't keep getting away with this.
Wait there are waterfalls that lead into Akkala???
@@FafliXx exactly
Breath of the Wild took the hollow open-world game developer phrase, "You see that mountain? You can climb it." and actually made it a reality.
That's all you need to know about this game. No review can do it justice.
Exactly
Xenoblade X did do that too and the team that worked on that game (Monolithsoft) also helped with making the world of BotW
@@orangepotato2112 Too bad Xenoblade combat is the most boring shit ever
@@orangepotato2112
Was hoping someone would mention X. It's always swept under the rug when open world games are discussed in spite of just how many common pitfalls of the genre it manages to avoid while feeling unique and fresh even now.
@@DaDinkler that’s because you didn’t learned it properly
I learned two major points from this: one, you and I apparently share the same braincell when it comes to playstyle ("gotta climb it!" "ooh a shiny thing!" "WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T KEEP THE SKELLY HORSE" "haha bombs go brrr") and two, subconsciously the biggest reason I haven't beaten Ganon yet despite having freed all 4 Divine Beasts is because I'm not done finding all the cool things in the world. I love hunting down rare and secret things; not because they're strong or anything, but because they're hidden! I always worry that beating the final boss of a game will roll the credits and end the run, and lock me out of that optional content.
Luckily BotW will just revert the file to just before you enter Ganon's sanctum. You never miss out on content by beating the game, it just gives your save file a little star saying you've beaten Ganon at least once.
Even if we have never met, I feel weird brotherly bond with you because of this speech
@@iamdivan7368 I honestly can't tell if you mean Yakko or me but I did pour my heart and soul into "haha bombs go brrr" so I feel flattered anyway
@@jarizoller1911 It's still probably a good thing that they didn't do that, because it unlocks some of the completion percentages and counters Yakko said he didn't want to see lol
BotW is not like that, you beat Ganon once? Cool, now back to Hyrule you go. Do it again and again and again till your heart desires. Hell you can even keep fighting the blights when you get the expansion pack
I've seen people dislike the game and explain why, and I've seen many people love the game and explain why. but a ''I didn't like it now I love it'' is REALLY interesting!
Ive seen many of those now and theyre my favorite and its usually the same. I finished the game main objectives the first time and there was nothing much in the empty world to the second time around i got lost in the game and went to explore and wow i get it now.
There were certain mechanics like durability that caused a friend or two to not enjoy the game. I personally loved it because it made me be strategic and what I felt to be clever, rather than just constantly spamming the best-performing attack. People who seemingly loved the old Zelda games for what they were have complained that it's just not a Zelda game to them, and it turned them off to it.
I don't agree, but that's what I've heard from people.
@@marcopoloonpollo5937 yeah it was a very good choice actually. but you know my one issue with the game is the time spent in the inventory, changing weapons, changing clothes, eating etc... you do that a LOT and it can cut the action. but I have a theory, the game was supposed to be made on the Wii U, so the gamepad would have shown the inventory and you would have been able to change stuff via the touch screen without going into a pause menu, similar to twilight princess hd. it would have made the game absolutely perfect imo if you could just change weapons instantly
Elden Ring is probably gonna redefine the open world design again! Or it'll build from what BOTW established, after all we saw yesterday that you can set beacons on the map and so on and it's far more like BOTW than say *gags* Ubisoft open worlds
Another thing I’m really excited about with Elden Ring’s open world is how dynamic it all looks. Most open worlds have the vast majority of terrain on the same level but that doesn’t seem to be the case with Elden Ring. Huge chunks of land seem to rise above others while others sink so low that they’re shrouded in fog.
I also love how many cool landmarks there are to spot no matter where you look, the dungeons seem so huge while still connecting seamlessly to the world.
@@xXxthe_epic_gamerxXx Yep it's very vertical even for a FromSoft game, I think that's an important thing for a good open world game as it allows the world to be dense rather than just vast. And knowing FromSoft, exploration will be extremely rewarding and interesting, we're talking about a studio that has some of the best level designs around!
Yep it definitely has my interest for sure. From Software seem to get better with each entry. So we’ll see.
Elden ring doesn't need to redefine anything, as long as it has cool enemies, weapons and bosses then I'm set.
The footage looks to me they learned the geography and density from BotW, which is beautiful
BOTW is the game where I wish I could forget about it completely and play it again. The excitement I had in discovering I could pick up the axe stuck on the tree on the Great Plateu, and discovering I'll die after falling off the cliff - they're such wonderful experiences I can no longer experience having played the game
Ugh SAME
Part 1: silence is golden 2:35
Part 2: the magic of exploration 8:44
Part 3: a living, breathing world 15:58
Part 4: taking my time 21:53
I think people who don’t like botw are gamers who prefer a linear game with clear direction,a clear path,objective and overall sense of progression.
Once you throw them into botw however they are lost and believe there’s nothing to do cause the game doesn’t really say what you should do except beat ganon
Botw relies on players to create their own fun and if that’s not your thing it’s understandable you wouldn’t like it but for me I much prefer this open sandbox gameplay
Well, that's how most games are, mainstream ones at least. Very narrative/story driven, tell you where to go, what to do, in order to progress forward with the story. They're set pieces to be enjoyed as they take you on a ride throughout their world. It's nice, but for gamers who want more freedom and exploration out of their games, to go at their own pace, sandbox openworld games are usually where it's at. Though, most openworld games, thanks to Ubisoft, follow a similar structure of, "go to waypoint/tower/beacon to uncover more of the world, go to other icons seen on map to uncover secrets and extra bits". There's no real secrets to be found, when the game TELLS you how many secrets in that area you've unlocked, or overall objectives you've found in order to be able to progress onwards. That kind of kills any fun and excitement of the unknown that the game may have.
BotW on the other hand just say, "Okay, you know the basics, you know who you need to fight and kill to beat the game. Go get'em tiger!" and promptly puts you in an open world sandbox to tackle any objective and any manner you want. Even then, if you don't want to go through the main game, you can take your time out finding Shrines, exploring the world, collecting Korok Seeds, and just playing around with the physics/world interactions.
I'll never forget finding that island far off the coast, and trying to figure out a way out there(I didn't notice the raft at the time), using the highest point of a mountain top to glide all the way out there, and swimming the remainder, using potions/foods to replenish my stamina to make it there. Only to be greeted with the challenge of having my gear stripped from me, and trying to complete the task the island asked me to do. As well as going to Sotaru Mountain at night, and coming across the Mountain Guardian, and mounting it to ride back to the stables. My first sighting of the elemental dragons. The list goes on.
This game truly is a master class of how open world games should be handled and done. The new standard, I'd say.
@@XDarkEcho
Yes I absolutely hate it when every objective,sidequest and secrets are written on the map,then it just becomes boring chores.
which is funny because i do think BOTW does have a linear game progression. To a point.
The great Plateau is pretty linear, you just gotta find it. Then you go to kakariko, then follow a bunch of Impa's quests, then it's pretty strongly suggested you go to ruta since it's right there. And by that time, you've figured it out. Sure, it's not as super linear as some games, but the game does heavily point you in a certain direction
Isn't botw quite linear tho
I agree with the first sentence, but I didn't really feel lost, so much as bored. In order to make the game super non-linear, a lot of stuff has to be repeated and kept at a fairly even level of difficulty, making it pretty unsatisfying to me. I'm not gonna be excited about discovering a world if I already know that stone in the distance is gonna have yet another korok seed inside, or that skull rock enemy camp is gonna have the same three types of enemies again.
The amazing thing about Breath of the Wild is that it can only really be appreciated as a holistic experience. Every bit of it that might seem iffy on paper (less music, open spaces, durability, etc.) comes together to enhance the experience rather than distract from it. Combat only "sucks" if you ignore the chemistry system and snappy controls. The scale only "sucks" if you ignore the movement mechanics and meticulous world design.
It's one of those unique works that, despite its flaws, feels like a perfect and unforgettable experience. It's not perfect because it has no flaws, it's perfect because it captures something that only everything it does all together could capture.
“Taking your time” is the key to enjoy a game
Not going to lie, this video brought up (weirdly, considering it's only 4 years old) nostalgia. It really captured the fantastic design of Breath of the Wild, and made me remember the feelings I had when I played through the first time. Just seeing something in the distance and saying "I want to go check that out" and ACTUALLY being able to just go ahead and do that, was a strangely rare experience among open world games. The amount of freedom the game affords the player, without losing sense of the games identity or overwhelming the player, is pretty amazing.
I 1000% agree! I just logged my 100th hour on BOTW (I’m late to the game , pun intended ^.^) I resisted the urge to do what I thought I was “supposed to” and I’ve just being going where and doing what I want, and having a darn BLAST!!! My first self-assigned mission was to activate every tower so I had a full map bc npc kept telling me to go places I had NO IDEA where they were 🤣 All in all, I feel like a kid again with the excitement this game brings on and I think that is remarkable to be able to say. I can’t wait for BOTW 2!!!
4 years is a long time
Honestly, BotW is one of the best games I've ever played. Just the fact that it's a good open world game that actually feels full, and with so many secrets and hidden details that the game doesn't force you to discover, but instead is designed in a way that you'll probably find them on your own, and even then they aren't even required! You could always just go to the end, the ability to do so is always there, you just don't have the skills or knowledge you need to beat it once you first play it, and the games just dedicated to you getting those skills and tools since it knows that that's the fun part. Not to mention the music, since it's so good, especially looking back on it and realizing just how good of a decision it was to restrict it to only play when it was needed, and not just do it to sell a soundtrack and make fans happy. Honestly, it's no surprise that I like BotW so much, since it shares some of the best traits of my favorite game of all time Outer Wilds! Oh, you thought that BotW was my favorite? Maybe you should play Outer Wilds (NOT Outer Worlds, that ones different) and see why. Nothing can stop me from shilling for that game, it's so great. Nothing.
Breath of the Wild was my comfort game when I was depressed months ago. I'm an artist and I was suffering from extreme burnout, feeling like I needed to put out a lot of art to make people happy. You're spot-on saying the game lets you take your time, and I really needed that.
I'm never gonna forget the first time I was fighting some Lizalfos on Hylia Bridge and then turned my head just to see a big ass electric dragon next to me going "Well hello there"
Learning new things in a 4 year old game is just showing how well put together this game was made
i would argue that breath of the wild is extremely friendly to a first time video game player as well, the fact that it always allows different approaches and doesnt have a set play style really lets you experiment and figure things out in your own way
I don’t know if you’ve seen Razbuten’s videos on the lady that lives with him (inside joke), but she doesn’t play video games. When he decided to do a bit of an experiment having her play games, he realized that too many games provide a linear path and a linear path only. She had trouble enjoying games because she decided she wanted to do something one way, and it made sense that she could do it that way, but the game didn’t let her. BOTW is the opposite. You need to defeat a Boko camp without alerting the towers because all you have is a tree branch and a Boko arm? Sneak strike one, hide behind a rock, throw a bomb in and take out another one, snipe the tower guard with an arrow, shoot a fire arrow at an explosive barrel, do whatever you want. It’s why I love this game.
Let’s gooooooo, literally breath of the wild left me like the person who was left by their partner who was incredible, and every time they try to be with someone new, they end it because they seek their ex’s traits again and again. It happened to me with horizon zero dawn, xenoblade, and almost any game with an open environment, I miss the tight and smooth controls and the freedom haha. Damn the editing with the stasis joke XD, so on point.
Your mention of how the game’s attention to detail allows for creative solutions is why games such as Thief, System Shock 2, and Deus Ex are still considered some of the greatest ever made. They were designed with an “immersive sim” philosophy; give the player all the tools they need to progress, and then step back and let them figure out the solutions themselves, even allowing the systems to open up paths that the designer may not have even thought up, but the player can still find them simply by using the systems and their interactions with the world.
Breath Of The Wild’s biggest strength imo was in taking that design philosophy that the aforementioned three titles had, and transplanting it into an open world setting. There’s a reason why people are still, years later, posting new strategies and exploits, along with surprising anecdotes. Because like those classic titles from Looking Glass and Ion Storm Austin, the game gives you all these mechanics and systems, and then simply allows you to do whatever you want with them in what way you see fit. Heck, BOTW goes even further via implanting an entire chemistry system with the different elements at play.
Yeah, it’s my all time favorite game of the 2010s for a reason. :)
When I first played Breath of the Wild I felt like it was the open world game in its most mature form, making any open world game that came before it look outdated. It acknowledged everything that worked and didn't work in previous open world games and built upon every single part of it
the eagle bird formation quest is i think the best i ever came cross in any open world game.
it reminded me how we imagined future video games back in the early 90s
Fantastic job with this video! You managed to put into words how magical it feels to play through Breath of the Wild, and why it's open world feels so much better than your average Ubisoft game. It's really hard to go back to other open world games after playing this one. Nintendo themselves described it as an "Open Air Experience" and I think that's the perfect way to describe it.
Dude. Your review style is so nuanced and well thought out, but also so light, awkward and funny, it was so good to just chill and watch this video. Subbed and I'm already craving more. Cheers!
The "it's just an empty open sandbox" comments some people say just confuse me... I know some of them are from people who haven't played the game, but other times it makes me wonder what they're actually doing in this game?
Also, I was driving from Dallas to Lubbock (about 5 hours), and for some reason thought about open world games. Like some people expect there to be a quest, enemies, animals, crazy landmarks, weapons, traps & secrets every 5 feet, but why? Even while driving 75 mph for 5 hours, I saw damn near nothing as far as the eye could see. I saw a few birds and fields of open grass, yay?
Then I thought about growing up in Virginia & playing in the woods/forests as a kid. Never once did I see a million animals to hunt & crazy events jammed together. Maybe once every week or two I'd see a deer, and if I was lucky, maybe a snake or turtle every few months? I once saw a black bear... once. Other than that, lots of plain ol' trees, some squirrels & birds, and yep...sums it up.
But for some reason people claim video game worlds aren't realistic enough or too empty without a billion things going on every few feet! Even the most empty open world sure has far more visible activity in a much more compact area than the majority of our lives. And forget trying to hang-glide everywhere or find boulders to push down mountains, or floating down rivers with trees you cut down, all in close proximity...
Have these people ever been hunting in a real nature? How about fishing in a real lake/river/ocean? Yeah...slow & time consuming. A lot of down time. Games are supposed to be fun, absolutely, but stop claiming "there's not enough to do" or "it's too empty/not realistic" in a game like BotW when being realistic would make it FAR less interesting/empty, and you'd have a fraction of the things to do!
/rant
This game is the incarnation of the magic of childhood
I want to copy paste this comment everytime someone says the world is empty
But I can’t
Umm. First off; why are you looking for realism in a video game? Second off; when has Nintendo prioritized realism in their games?
dude you nailed it! This is all why I love this game and have not been able to move on from it since I started playing it two years ago.
when you put on the rito village music, i almost fell out of my seat from getting so jazzed hearing it 😂
i've played about 500 hours of botw now and began selecting different versions of "homes" to visit. for example, lurelin village is my "vacation home", hateno is my "canon home", some random spot is my "camping grounds" and i'd visit these places often for different types of gameplay i want to do on a session. rito village, for me, felt like my "home" home. it just reminded me so much about my city and why i love it so much. every time it's night, i stare at the lampposts and walk very slowly, recapturing the feeling of walking around one of my favorite places in my city. the music also reminded me of my home so much, it aches me to leave rito village because i have somewhere else i need to go.
i just wanted to ramble because god fUCKING DAMMIT, RITO VILLAGE IS SO FUCKING COOL 😭
i think your short edits in this are some of the best you have done in terms of comedic timing
I think the best memory I had was seeing the sacred mountain mount. I had no idea it was in the game and I basically stumbled into it randomly. This was such an amazing feeling as I had already well over 80 hours into the game, trying to find every shrine there was without help. Unfortunately I wasn't able to actually mount it, but it was an amazing moment I won't forget any time soon.
omg yes, I saw the glowing light it emmited during the night and went to explore, and just seeing all the spirit animals there in front of the lake it was amazing
4 years, so many videos praising this game, and yet still you manage to captivate me talking about this game, i have to go play this game again now thanks a lot
My favourite parts of this game for me was just going to a town and pretending like a normal citizen, not chasing the goal but just taking everything in.
I do this all the time
Based
Except you can do the same thing, but way better in other games like the Elder Scroll series since NPC's will react to way more things you do, but in BOTW they hardly do anything. You can talk to them and hear the same thing every time, or you can attack close to them and scare them; oh and sometimes they start running for cover if it rains; that's about it.
Compare this to something like RDR2 and the difference is insane. You can say nice or mean things to people and have them react in different ways; you can pull your gun out of the holster and make them uneasy and more likely to attack you. You can follow them for too long and they start to get agitated and paranoid. You can try to calm things down when people want to fight. You can commit a petty crime and follow the person reporting the crime and you can try to calm the Sheriff down and he'll tell you to get out of there instead of attack or take you to jail. There are many more things possible.
There are way better games for walking around and taking in the sights.
My heart soared through this video! You perfectly described how I feel about this game. It's my little escape when I'm stressed, as a result I'm on my THIRD go around in 2021. 😂 I just love exploring every little inch and finding new surprises in every corner!
One thing I did to spice up my playthrough of the game was to limit my inventory to 10 slots for weapons and a free slot to pick up a weapon during a fight.
It forces you to really think about which weapon you'd rather keep, between yet another Royal Sword or a Korok Leaf that could come in handy, or between a rock-smashing spear and a flame weapon to light up those peppers for little updrafts. As for the free slot, it's a neat idea to disarm an opponent and then use their own weapon against them, or even take it and throw it in a river nearby... Makes the combat a lot more dynamic and interesting in my eyes !
Glad you came around and saw this gem for what it is :) For me, it was a constant experience of getting distracted by something shiny on my way to something and just losing track of what I was doing in the first place. And the open nature of the game and its mechanics allowed me to solve things in my own way. I remember once struggling with a shrine and finally finding a solution that took me to the end, and I looked it up because I wanted to see if others had the same experience as me, and lo and behold, there had been a simple solution there the whole time that I had simply not seen. Yet my solution still solved it in the end. So while it was kind of a derp moment, the fact that there wasn't just one specific set solution for it didn't end up making me feel stupid, because I still solved it in the end. And I absolutely loved the way the game did the map. Because it wasn't cluttered up with icons, it made it so I could go and inspect it to find interesting topography to inspect closer and it actually helped me out with solving a couple of missions, plus steered me in the direction of a few other interesting areas that I might have otherwise overlooked.
from my experience botw tells the completionist part of your brain to go take a nap, and it makes the experience very pleasant
Your edits are always so good. That stasis punch was a real highlight.
There were so many awesome game released in the past decade but Botw was the only game to make me feel like a kid again and reminded me why i fell in love with video games.
Riding the horse in botw is actually a cool hidden rhythm game where you need to click the boost every 4 or 5 steps until you spend all boosts and then pat the horse at the right moment. It's not stated anywhere in the game, it just comes to you naturally as you spend a few hours on the horse. And you may never realize you were doing this the whole time, because it's so subtle and so comfortable.
And then if you maintain the speed a playful piano soundtrack kicks off and its just feels awesome to move with speed and grace with little to zero effort.
It somehow reminds me of these moments in my childhood when I was looking out of the car window and imagining a dude running and jumping from one pole to another to keep up with us
18:03 I think there's a way to remove the annoyance of breakable weapons without intruding on other options. Give Link a small buff for killing enemies in any way that isn't a sword or bow - you could give him health or stamina back, boost his speed and damage, temporarily raise his max health, improve his resistance to knockback, etc. You could also give debuffs to enemies in the same ways.
This would make using as many options as possible the dominant method and encourage players to constantly look for opportunities. It also introduces more strategy by giving a choice of different buffs to go for. Reward players for being creative rather than punish them for not being creative.
Here is the thing people forget, YOU HAVE INFINITE BOMBS and blowing up an explosive barrel means you don't get overwhelmed by enemies and get hit less meaning you have more healing/food items or hit them while they are down.
The game itself would incentivize using these tools like how Bokos are platforms are easy to hit in the head with bows.
Hey, great video like always, I realñy like when you talk about your experience with video games and also the music involved with it, so I dont if you would like to, but I must say that xenoblade chronicles 2 music is really good, one example is the title screen music, when you hear it after you beat the game it has a different meaning than when you started to play. If you wish you could hear a couple of songs.
I can totally FEEL what you mean by : players seeking dominant strategies even if it makes the game less fun.
I had a wonderful time playing breath of the wild, until the last boss. When I felt like it was the time for me to kick ganon's booty, I went there with the greatest gear I had accumulated throughout my journey, my food inventory filled to the brim with full restore meals, preparing myself for what felt like the greatest battle of my life.
And like. As you might guess, if you have healed all the divine beast, and if your inventory is optimized as much as mine was, it's just a cake walk. I could have forced myself to not use food item, but by the time I just thought that there were gonna be a new phase, something much harder right around the corner.
And it ruined it for me.
Don't get me wrong, this game is amazing, but by seeking the dominant strategy, I kinda ruined the fun of a thrilling boss battle. It's a bit annoying but to me it's also a good lesson about how much we need to take our game seriously and how much we need to prioritize fun besides everything else
(still I would have love for the final boss to be much harder
I had the same situation, but I actually liked it. It felt sooo good to know how much I achieved. Knowing I started out dying to a bokoblin 3 times in a row and now beeing able to take on this massive monster gave me flashback about everything I had done to get here.
This was awesome especially after I beat the dlc. I cannot describe how I felt when I drove all the way from the Great Plateau to hyrule castle on a badass motorcycle and wheeling into the boss fight ready to beat ganons ass.
I'd say making the final boss easier (half of its hp being taken off) is a pretty rewarding experience I feel but yeah that final phase might as well just been a playable cutscene great game though
That's why I made a point of defeating Ganon once without freeing any of the Beasts. It becomes a challenging boss rush, which I quite enjoyed.
Having done that, I continued playing the game, took my sweet time to free the Beasts in between lollygagging around the world and proceeded to steamroll Ganon this time around.
I did something similar. I asked for a spoiler free approach on Reddit, and the best advice I got was "go fight Ganon whenever you feel ready -- don't wait until you've done "everything" just raid the castle whenever you feel confident enough. Don't treat the game like a checklist."
I made several raids into the castle after the first divine beast, and looted some good weapons... But I was NOT good enough to handle all the guardians and strong enemies there. So I would raid the castle every so often, push a little further, then fly away when it got too tough.
At some point after the 2nd divine beast, I felt confident enough with the combat, so I went to fight Ganon.
It was really challenging, and an amazing moment! After I beat him, I finished the rest of the game and fought him again after get ting all the memories.
From what I've read from tons of other people, anyone who did 100% the game before facing Ganon basically ruined the experience for themselves.
I'm glad I took that advice. BotW really taught me to immerse in games like I used to as a kid. Treating games like a linear checklist really does suck the fun out of it. BotW retrained my brain to just get lost and have fun with games again.
Hooooooly fuck same
I was kitted out in full guardian/ancient gear with all the ancient arrows in the world
Underrated channel! It’s weird that you made this video at the same time that I’ve decided to replay breath of the wild for the first time since 2017. I’m loving the game throughly, couldn’t agree more with the video, thanks for the content! You’ve earned a sub
I 100% this game. My first and only save file is 235 hours, and I have not started the DLCs yet. If this is not a testament to how amazing a game this is, I do not know what is.
As much as this game is talked about on youtube in terms of game design, you still managed to bring up a lot of insightful points I hadn't thought of before and made me appreciate the game more. Great video!
I remember being so invested in the memories and finding towers I always found non-combat ways to sneak through because I was scared of fighting guardians and each time I got a memory and opened more of the map I felt so proud and happy :) ❤️
I have played through at least 8 times. I still discover new areas. I think I fell in love with this game sneaking around in the silence, watching the boboklins/enemies dancing and sharing stories. Sometimes intently speaking with each other while on guard. The coolest.
It's nice to see other people go the "who needs a horse" route
Amazing video Yakko! Proud of u for not only getting over your original distain for the game, but diving head-first and truly understanding whats so beautiful about it!
The thing that tells me BotW is truly an amazing game is that every time I see it brought up, I still learn something new about it. I cleared through it and watched most of my cousins run as well, yet this video still gave out new surprises. Like I have the same sort of cynical view towards open world games yet this one effortlessly captivated me. And I just think like "so this is the sort of feelings everyone had for Ocarina of time back when it redefined games huh?".
Like it's not beyond having flaws but just the fact that this is gonna be iterated on again makes the sequel an amazing prospect.
20:42 not only that, but the music is also a straight up reference to other games. The rito village ost is a gentle version of Wind waker's Dragon Roost Island theme
In my first playthrough I have not even found the dude to trade Korok seeds in for inventory space, because I never went through the main entrance to Kakariko and honestly, I didn't even miss anything off of it
I still collected all the Korok I have spotted and I never had any problems with my limited weapon space
I needed this video, lately I wasn't feel so good and hearing you talk about one of my favorite games made my day so much. I also rediscovered why I love that game so much.
This is the first open world game where I decided to completely ignore the main quest. Did not speak to Lady Impa until I had defeated all Divine Beasts.
the editing on this video and the spirit of the script is phenomenal. great work yakko!!
I grew up with playstation and my older sister brought a switch to play animal crossing then didn't use it anymore. So I decided to buy BOTW during 2017 when I heard all the hype and just thought it was overrated because its zelda, a legendary IP. It was the time as well when I got extreme bored of open world games.
I played Zelda and my god, its so open and theres so much freedom. I love how silent Link is and it allows me to just take in the environment. I became a fan of this game during my first hour already.
I've been down in the dumps lately on what games to play. I have modern day systems (PS5,Switch,PC), yet I still find myself thriving to find a game to play from my huge library. I constantly find myself laying in bed bored out of my mind when I have a huge catalog of games that I could go through. I just miss the old days where I wasn't so concentrated on finishing game and was actually fulling enjoying it for what it was entirely worth. I'm what most would call an achievement hunter, I find enjoyment in complete trophy lists for most games I own, that started making sour towards games that I had previously loved as a kid. I've stopped trophy hunting and turned over a new leaf in order to truly understand what it's like to enjoy games again. This video very well establishes the feeling I once had playing my old games on 360 and ps2. Thanks so much for giving me a new outlook on how I could possibly evolve and enjoy games in transcending lights.
Now that you like it, I suggest watching those million “things you didn’t know about BotW” videos you mentioned. Because there really is that much. There are so many tiny, hidden details in this game, new ones will likely still be discovered 100 years from now
I’ve 100% completed this game (except for the koroks) three times, and there’s still tons of stuff I never would have noticed
10:08 -- after being overwhelmed for a few days in this game ("where should I go? what should I do?") I did exactly what you did here. Picked a direction and just... went that way. And then, the game just clicked with me and I lost countless hours to it..
I still never really saw the "bird" even completing the quest. So thanks for showing me what I was supposed to see lol
This video right here.. you get it the beauty, this is exactly why I get soo pissed off at people who shit on it say it's horrible and really anyone who doesn't give games an actually fair chance, I can understand somone not liking things about a game but what I cant except is when somone mocks a game, then isn't willing to discuss there reasoning because they say it's there opinion, opinions are formed from reasoning and I love hearing those, this is why it pisses me off so much when on almost any video I go and watch friends without bennefits or see people trying to be like alpha rad, it's not actually ok to mock because you can. This video was actually perfectly said.
I think one of the things that makes Botw one of the best Open-World games in my opinion, is that its one of the few Open-World games where the devs actually thought "why does this game need to be Open-World" while makeing the game.
So uh; why did BOTW need to be open-world?
14:41. Oh my wow. I cheesed my way through finding the shrine in the bird's belly, but I never worked out where the bird was. It looks amazing!
I used to love games like Far Cry, Fallout and Assassin's Creed. But ever since I played BotW, I can't enjoy them anymore. It has spoiled me. I tried the LotR games (Shadow of Mordor, Shadow of War) but they are so... World Mappy. And even Genshin Impact, as decent as it is, just pales in comparison to Breath of the Wild...
Maybe elding ring will fill that void. Looks like the open world is heavily inspired by botw. Dunno for sure tho
Funny cause nowadays Genshin Impact has a longer story and way more content than BOTW, I have played both and find BoTW to be less focus in many ways, I know Genshin Impact is technically a rip off but that's just IMO
I had a similar experience with animal crossing, where I had a great time the first month and a half but after seeing what other people were capable of with terraforming and custom designs, I felt like I wasn’t reaching the full value of the game. After never being able to surpass four stars, I gave up. A few months ago I deleted the old island and tried again with minimal terraforming (I legit only added two little waterfalls by my house) and as many flowers and weeds as possible. I threw fossils next to the museum and called it “the boneyard”. I didn’t farm villagers because they were popular, and found some of my favorite villagers through chance (Lionel, filbert, and Knox have a special place in my heart). After a while I decided to check with Isabelle and it turned out I had a five star island! Now I have the update to go through and I’m actively avoiding seeing any content on the internet so I can experience things the natural way. I’ve even expressed wanting to get an entirely new switch so I can play the game front to back with the update, but not wanting to lose this island. Even now I have this on in the background while I chop trees on a mystery island just to build and sell furniture for funsies.
You’re easy to listen to and have a ton of funny jokes, getting Scott the woz and nakey hairy vibes. I hope to see more videos out of you
Nakey is very hairy indeed
I think my favorite part about the music is the contrast you get between the open world and the significant locations. It's partly *because* music is otherwise so sparse through the game that the full orchestra's return in the theme for Hyrule Castle feels *so* bombastic, underscoring and enhancing the heightened drama of the game's finale.
It amazes me how it can be so much fun to just enjoy this game. A lot of my hours that I spent on this game where just me taking everything in, often ignoring if I made any progress. The landscapes, the physiks, the enemy's. It was so much fun to just be creative and find new ways to accidentally murder yourself.
17:45 Oh you can't just remind me of the Stalhorses. I remember deciding to just lug one around for as long as possible when they wouldn't let me register him. And I walked right outside to watch him crumble away to the sunrise. It was tragic bro.
I have created a mandatory rule for every breath of the Wild Play through. “Unlock the whole map while doing shrines by the side and then acquire the master sword. And only after that are you ready to fully find the divine beasts and kill ganon.”
that's what i did too i did all the shrines before getting the master sword and doing the divine beasts it felt really satisfying
That is going to be my next play through. Or get the master sword. Do the trails and then divine beast, some shrines along the way, champion dlc and then Ganon. Do that on master mode
By far, my favorite thing was just seeing an island off in the distance, and then spending at least an hour trying to figure out how to get to it and explore! Of course, it ended up being even tide, and I hated everything thereafter haha
Ok so here's something people didn't ask but should know: You can drift while shield surfing by pressing the R button
Also this video summarizes all of my feelings with this game perfectly, Amazing job making it.
you legend
WAIT WHAT?? oh my god????, ??????!!!!??? Shield surfing is my favourite thing to do in this game and I had no clue you could DRIFT
Thank you for making these kinds of video essays. They are very relaxing to listen to and keeps the thoughts in my head from turning into a storm at times.
I did not know that the goron weapons could break the walls as well as ore. 4 years later.
Yakko I just love your video (game) essays so much it's just so fucking fun to watch and vibe with them.
It's funny, Breath of the Wild and Persona 5 are two of my favourite games of all time, and both of them encourage you to take your time and immerse yourself in the game world.
This video really was a gem Yakko. Excellent job!
Botw and hollow knight were the only games I could actually enjoy and find any joy in spending my time.
I'm truly thankful to those games, their artists, musicians, directors, programmers and whoever helped in allowing them to come into existence.
I really wish I could experience these games again, though I believe letting go of these memories and hoping for the next thing.
damn dude you need to play better games
Try and play a souls game or any fromsoftware title really. After I played botw, these were the only games that really gave me a similar feeling, although they aren’t really open-world.
18:10 I even nullified the weapon durability mechanic for myself by re-visiting all the major test of strength shrines every blood moon i.e. I have as many ancient weapons as I could ever need, oo and Lynels for bows
I think you stumbled upon the exact reason why nintendo/switch doesnt have profile achievement/trophies - it encourages play for play's sake instead of imposing a competitive checklist to compare with your relationships. For the love of the games.
Agreed, Nintendo games/consoles embody the concept of "Just for fun, purely for fun." I also think that Nintendo's history of fun factor, gameplay, and art direction totally make up for any graphical/performance limitations.
@@eitanr Does it also make up for a lack of AAA 3rd party games on the console?
@@inputfunny Yes to an extent
Loved this video! You completely summed up why I live BotW so much and continue to replay it over and over after killing Ganon. It’s just such an absorbing and interesting game.
the level of betrayal I felt when varke said that he couldn't register mr. bones
I hate that I was led to believe that this game was just complete fucking silence with just the sounds of nature in the background, and then I played it and I stood in place for literal hours just listening to the music.
What’s great is that elden ring seems to take the approach of open world design of breath of the wild, then adds the amazing aesthetics, art direction, storytelling, bosses, music and combat of dark souls. I can’t wait to see what elden ring has to offer!
I got the game and a switch for christmas this year. I’ve already put in at least 20 hours, I can’t believe how much I love it. Yesterday I fought my first Lynel, and as the battle went on, all of my weapons were breaking. By the end all I had was a 12 damage sword and a bow. I had to continually dodge every rush, shock arrow, and axe slice, the flurry strikes were my only opportunity to successfully attack. After a long battle, I finished him off with not much left, picked up his loot, collected my shock arrows, and dove off of the cliff into the lake with Ruta.
I’m super excited to continually replay this game with new challenges for myself, I can tell each playthrough is going to be a hell of a ride.
I've heard that Breath of the Wild has pretty meaningful weather, which is nice. Weather with actual impact is really cool (also, gnarly thunder like Minecraft has) and having the game force such a change can be a risk, but can also have big payoff.
Starbound (at least in my memory of it) has pretty neat weather. Rain actually produces water, meaning it can build up in ponds or flood your base if you don't allow some drains. Sandstorms litter the landscape with sand. Acid rain hurts you.
Is cool.
Actually yeah, weather plays a huge part in botw's gameplay, for example thunderstorms force you to unequip all metal equipment or you get struck by lightning (and lightning HURTS), and rain makes all walls slippery so they're really tough to climb (also rain will pool up in ditches and stuff over time and will very slightly raise the water level of lakes and ponds, then it will evaporate in sunny weather, this doesn't really affect gameplay much but it's cool that it happens)
I think the coolest aspect of Breath of the Wild's rain is that it turns electric weapons from an obnoxious inconvenience into an incredibly powerful roadblock. Electric shocks can jump to metal objects from much farther away in the rain, and can create large zappy areas which last for a second or two and make you drop your weapon. Then they have an area where it rains all the time for story reasons, and you need to work your way up a winding path to get to the town (because _you can't climb the cliffs in the rain)_ and all the Lizalfos have shock arrows and there's an Electric Wizzrobe and it's quite the challenge. When you manage to turn off the rain it's a huge relief, like "OK now I can properly explore this area without getting shocked for half my health every two minutes."
(I realize that might sound like a bad thing, but I meant it as a good one. They managed to increase the impact of the weather as a plot point.)
you nailed it my dude, the music in this game always give me chill and i just don't know why. i guess it's just gorgeus and unspeakably beautiful, at least that's how i feel.
I've been on the complete opposite end of this. Everything in BotW has the same reward, some bits of monsters, and a weapon that will break in four swings. I never felt like I had any reason to ever actually do anything. Finding anything just felt like more busy work, because the reward for it was the ability to have an item that would help me find more of that same item. It was like playing No Man's Sky on release. An empty husk of an environment whose only real purpose was to have me repeatedly do the same annoying puzzles and fight the same enemies for the same useless rewards over and over for eternity.
How do you feel about nature? Did you ever climb a mountain in this game, and gasp at the awe of the scenery? If not, then this game may not be for you.
it's not about what the reward is, rather the fact that you got it, and what you did to get it.
journey, not the destination
@@TheAlibabatree not really no. The game is too washed out, and honestly plain looking to be memorable.
@@ramen3643 except the journey was boring, and in the end, pointless.
@@justinrinker2480 My point was that the game resonates most with people who appreciate nature and art.
If you dont find the artstyle to be beautiful, then thats a highly unusual opinion. If you dont enjoy nature, and spending time in the woods, and hiking, and climbing mountains… then this game probably isnt for you.
I saw your content years ago, think on Smash related stuff. Neat to stumble across you again years later and see how significantly you've improved, this was a great video, good work!
By far my most fun memory of BOTW, is with the Yiga clan stealth mission. Because after having failed it some times, I got so frustrated by the forced camera angel, that I just fuck it and brute forced my way through. And the best part, I was allowed to do it. They didn't make it easy, but if u managed they actually opened the doors for u.
I wasn't able to play ocarina of time, so for years I fantasized about it, the exploration, the secrets, the world... when I was finally able to play it it was a old clunky game and the magic was lost, it was a very underwhelming experience. Well, BotW was my Ocarina of Time, this video summarized my experience during weeks I obsessively played it, figuring out things for myself, exploring the world for the sake of it, fully immersed, the only open world game I ever enjoyed, my number two game of all time, my ocarina of time, the one I was able to experience as an adult. I truly love this masterpiece.
I always love how unique of a player Yakko is. He’s definitely not easy to design a game for, but his comments are always insightful
On my second playthrough I tried a "no fast travel run". Setting aside the immersion factor, you can't really "unknow" this game once you've played it. What I found in that run is that this game does a really good job of making the task retreading old paths, such as returning to a great fairy or visiting Impa after securing a memory, a fairly painfree experience. The paths that crisscross Hyrule, which many might mostly ignore when trailblazing to new areas and activities, are simple and relatively safe ways to return to places you've already explored, especially with a tame horse. At the same time, you naturally find yourself being more resourceful, as instead of warping to Satori mountain every few days for food, you might just have to get good at hunting ostriches, mark every cooking pot, or even pay for a night at an inn when you find one. Overall I wouldn't say that forcing yourself not to fast travel is the superior experience, but it's a great way to change up the game when you're beginning from a place of foreknowledge of the game's secrets.
Also, movement in BotW is fun. Sometimes I just Boot up the game, pick a place on the map I haven't exactly been to, and just go there. Chances are I'll find nothing New since I've been pretty close already, but going there is fun enough.