Judge If Bethesda did this in first person, I would shit my pants. A Syrim where you can actually climb ANYWHERE; you could REALLY be a thief in a Bethesda game.
The point when I realized that BotW wasn't going to be a "normal" open world game was when, during the tutorial, Santa Claus tells you to climb up to the top of a tower to search for the shrines. I thought he meant I had to do something like in a Ubisoft, but no. He literally meant, "You should climb to the top of that tower. You can see further."
that's JUST LIKE santa claus. He asks you what you want, you tell him it's a paraglider, then he says if you're a good boy you'll get it so you be a good boy no paraglider! "oh, you have to wait til Christmas morning" YOUUU DIDNT SAY THAT.
@@jonathankreitler5045 I like making my own markers too... for certain enemies, I drop a skull and gem down. For others I might put a skull and arrows, depending on the loot or if they are a ranged attack. I drop 3 skulls in a triangle when there is a serious foe I can't hope to defeat yet. I really love how they let you make the game your own, play how you want and set up the map and exploration just the way you like and not clutter the map with junk like other games.
"You're not delaying your showdown with the big bad; you're training for it. Everything you do in the game is in preparation for that fight." -More open world games need to follow this idea. The freedom of letting the player choose when they're prepared, rather than the game telling the player when it's time to fight the big bad, is extremely underrated.
Unfortunately, people would then complain about the story not being dense enough. You can't really tell a linear story with BotW's open sequenced design-- which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned, but most people who play "open world" games don't really expect a loose, "open" plot like BotW's, which was so irrelevant to the player's actions, it wasn't even happening within the same time frame as the gameplay, but told through flashback sequences. BotW got away with it due to LoZ's history of keeping stories relatively simple, but try that with Fallout or Witcher, people would get all kinds of bent out of shape over not getting a intricate plot alongside their game.
Depends. If you incorporated many of the features present in BotW into fallout and Witcher like progressing your character through real world actions and training, as well as environmental hazards such as weather and other general ways to bring you down if you're unprepared, you could do well with those two games. More below... ... Give a general goal, like Ciri's been spotted here, here, and here, so you need to eventually investigate those three places, and can go to them whenever you like. However, getting there is no easy task. As well as when you get there you may have a hard time if you weren't familiar enough with the game's design or had invested in your character enough with equipment and experience. In Fallout, story is tricky to build as it is. Having one specific end goal in that game doesn't feel right to me. Maybe start it out with "here's the new world. good luck" and see where the player takes it. They could work their way up the ranks of any faction with plenty of different quests from each. Or maybe they could be tasked with investigating where the rest of the people in their vault went, something that doesn't give off such an urgent vibe like finding your son did. However, same situation... if you are not prepared to go there, you probably shouldn't. But that doesn't mean that you can't.
I can't tell you how many times I've said "there's no way that was the intended solution" in this game. They really did something special with the utility of items in this game, especially the runes and the glider.
am I the only one who would go back and try to make sure I at least knew what the intended solution was? Like, until I knew it, i hadn't MENTALLY solved it even if I was happy to save myself the effort of actually solving them that way.
Afrohawk Exactly, there was a puzzle that required you spin a block to light torches attached to it. But I just shot the torches with fire arrows and finished the temple in 30 seconds.
Corvo Attano I did that one that way as well, just spinning the block to an angle where no water was on the torches and then lighting them with arrows.
Chris Essick there was this dungeon where you had one iron block and a bunch of chains. You had to figure out where to put it to finish an electric circuit and open up another block and then do the same with another block. And then use all three to open the exit. Instead I just piled up a bunch of swords and shields in a trail from the energy source to the exit and it worked.
I mean Can you set the Master Sword on fire for bonus fire damage? No you cannot It's not even a fair competition for Master Sword if I am being honest
Only things the Pro HUD lacks are the Champion powers on the HUD, because it's annoying to go through the inventory, and the weather forecast, which I can't access outside of the standard HUD.
This game is so genuinely amazing. Playing it with my young son on my lap with him always asking, "what's that? What's over there?" makes my day. What makes it even better is that I can say, "I dunno. Let's find out!"
I think it goes without saying that BoTW has been a huge success. What I really really really hope comes from this, is that open world games as a genre improve, by doing more of the things Zelda's hit out of the park, and less of the things that Ubisoft has shoveled into every game for the last ten years.
That's cool that you enjoy them. Ubi definitely gets it right magnificently in some cases, but I just haven't gotten excited about any of their new releases in way too long. The formula just doesn't do it for me anymore.
That's cool that you enjoy them. Ubi definitely gets it right magnificently in some cases, but I just haven't gotten excited about any of their new releases in way too long. The formula just doesn't do it for me anymore.
THRILLHO That's probably because they use most of their assets to develop on their other open world titles far to much. They are good at building their world's and world designs but often enough they go through the process of filling the world with far to much with little breather in between and its not a bad thing but it happens all to often. I feel as if they listen to our criticism amd are actually improving with each game. Watch Dogs 2 was proof of that and its the reason why it was my top game of 2016.
Nothing against Nintendo (I actually think they're a pretty good company) but I can't justify buying another console just so I can play Nintendo games. I personally only buy one console a generation and if Nintendo would get past their third party problems I'd totally buy their systems.
The Witcher is based on a series of novels, therefore it makes sense to have something like tracking down your adopted daughter. Deciding the fate of New Vegas is also far more compelling because you learn about it as you play the game and that affects your decision making. With Fallout 4 you're thrown in with no idea why you should give a shit about your son because the game doesn't give him a personality because he's a newborn, and honestly when you get to the Institute it's this moment of 'okay that's cool main quest over? Nope here have a couple more hours of pointless bullshit, and if you haven't done every sidequest you're shit out of luck cause a whole bunch will disappear'
ロボット鳥山 Actually in new vegas the main point is that you want to enact revenge. You don't have to get involved with anything beyond the main the question, but the places you visit while going on that quest end up being so interacting you can't help but get involved for better or worse. In fallout 4 tho which has a similar premise honestly since revenge is also a motive for trying to go through the main story, the amount of actually interesting side quest feels smaller. The world feels a lot more cluttered but only as a way to pad out the run time.of the game and to give you little things to do before the next main mission point not to mention the constant stream of enemies that can hold up a place.Which can make the game feel.more alive but it honestly gets boring after mowing down your 5th raider base. So no its not a bad game but its not an exceptional one either and isnt really comparable to new vegas.
I don't really understand this criticism because it suggests applying traditional narrative urgency in an open world game is inherently flawed. Think about it, if that's really such a problem then logically there's only 2 solutions, either go the Jak 2 route and have no side content to get distracted by or go the Minecraft route and have no story at all. Clearly then there's no conflict right? Except the former pretty much overlooks the point of an open world and the latter limits the potential awarded. Zelda doesn't really buck this as you can still ignore your memories and monsters destroying the land in favor of wandering around. Why can't we have a story where there is actual progression, stakes and the like throughout the journey? Because at least Fallout 4 has proper acts and rising actions with its story wheras something like New Vegas is much more reserved. The latter is not inherently worse as a result.
Hahah! Well great minds think alike :P If anything it just proves how good the game actually is. And yeah man, anytime a creator makes a video, it's gonna be different just because of different perspectives and all that, keep doing great work :D
I can't stand BotW, because: 1. There should have been a level up system 2. Kokiri and Minish should have been in it. BTW, Zora are in that game, so why not Kokiri too? 3. The weapons are useless 4. Completely messed with my Zelda senses, what with the need to cook and Deku leaves making you sail faster, yet you can't glide with them or move boulders with them 5. Crafting is useless outside of HP/Magic 6. The Master Sword needs to recharge 7. Metal armor is useless 8. Need to memorize where the good weapons are every 5 mins 9. Climbing is so tedious and slow 10. It makes a HUGE mess of the timeline, what with it being WW inspired, yet OOT being canon. Plus the game overall goes less for "Use the tools you're given" and more "Anything will do...".
Ueda Yuuji Fan i can respect your opinion but just wanted to poin out a few things. it has been official lore since WW that the kikiri turn into the korock. (cant remember how to spell the name) they can shape shift and a zelda theory that could very well be true is that the monkeys in TP are also the kikiri. the minish also all returned to the light realm in the minish cap and thats why you never see them in other zelda games. regarding the timeline being messed up, OoT is cannon to all three timelines. not only that, if you take a good look at the game with stacks of cheat sheats of zelda knowlage, the only timeline BotW makes sense in is the fallen timeline. (no, im not taking game theory's reasons for it) as for the official placement being all three timelines, i feel like nintendo just slapped it there to fix the mess of the timelines. they even said their own timeline was wrong and made a new one before, wich made a new link. the reason why you cant glide with the deku leaf also makes sense lore wise. the only reason why link in WW could use the deku leaf to glide was because he was a young kid. since he wasnt heavy at all, the leaf could just barely support him. BotW link is much older and much heavier. the deku leaf just wouldnt hold him, wich is why you use a paraglider. as for moving boulders, i dont remember that ever being a thing. you could move nuts with the deku leaf. like i said, i respect your opinion and the other reasons you have for not liking the game are fair enough. its just these points that wernt quite accurate. hopefully you will enjoy the next main title zelda game more once they worked out the kinks of the new style
I got to play this game for the first time the other day, continuing a save file of my friend's for about an hour. In that hour, I: Was stalked by Yiga assassins Learned to cook Went to Death Mountain and experienced what it was like to be cooked firsthand. Paraglided miles away Chopped down a tree Pushed said fallen tree into a river But lastly, I climbed atop that log floating downstream and (despite the occasional need to snipe an octorok) I just... absorbed the atmosphere. For the first time in a game, I felt connected wholly to what was going on, as I rode a tree that I felled downstream like a rambunctious adventurin' boy waiting for wherever the stream was going to take me. Because I felt confident it would take me somewhere, and if not, then just the option to make my own makeshift raft was an experience in its own right. And I've never wanted to own another game quite so badly.
wow! I have 200 hours in the game and never thought to ride a log down the river. more games need to be like this- giving each person that plays the game a unique experience
@danculp3136 that sounds a lot like General Tao/Taopaipai from Dragonball throwing a log really hard into the air and then jumping on top of it to ride it as it flies through the sky! Lol
i had a opportunity to play BotW for a few hours... it was heartbreaking that i had to stop... "Breath of the Wild" is literally one of the BEST Sandbox Games in this Century.
It was my very first Zelda game, and definitely not my last. I know I'm late to the party, but the game sparked my love for the series and is currently my favorite video game of all time.
I agree with everything Mark said about traversal, enemy layouts and map design. However, one thing Mark failed to talk about is the physics and chemistry systems. The fact that the world feels so reactive and physical just makes it that much more immersive and tangible.
You don't even have to get the major dungeons marked on your map as you can ignore Impa alltogether. And if you turn the HUD option to PRO (which you should do after the tutorial), the quest markers don't appea anywhere. The greatest thing about this game I think is that it actually gives you directions and doesn't assume that Link is strapped to a bloody GPS. This is what I've always wanted on an adventure game : you, a map showing north, and people telling you where to actually reach the things they're talking about (I would even have liked it if you could remove the icon showing where you are on the map).
Robert Berthier YES. Absolutely. It's a small thing, but the moment I went up to a guy to ask for directions to Kakariko village and he said "Head north and then west at the first fork in the road" as opposed to "Here, I'll mark it on your map" was when I knew I was going to adore this game.
Robert Berthier yeah I loved the quests where you're given clues but the quest marker lands on the original NPC. so you don't have the location you need to get to.
Robert Berthier yeah I loved the quests where you're given clues but the quest marker lands on the original NPC. so you don't have the location you need to get t o.
Honestly, I want to see more open world games that don't rely on waypoints, but directions instead. Because the huge downfall with being reliant on waypoints is that those games are not designed to be played without them. Even if you can turn waypoints off, the game doesn't give you other directions to where you need to go because the developers are completely expecting you to use the waypoint, so you just get needlessly lost and are forced to turn waypoints on again. Finding the memories in BOTW was fun, because I had to actually search for them, given directions like "It's southeast of the stable, but west of the castle" or "It's at a place just past this specific hill." Now *that's* what I want to see more of in open world games.
keeping the marker on the original NPC instead of getting rid of it altogether was a pretty great choice too. It happens fairly often that you have to return to the quest-giver, but forgot where it is or it changed locations in the meantime. And sometimes you just want to hear the clue again.
This is the first Zelda game I have fell in love with. I have bought, played and said "Why do people like like???" to five previous Zelda games. So, I made my peace with the series and accepted that I respect it, but it isn't for me. Then I borrowed this from a coworker and life changed. The completely open nature of it, the story, the art, the way music drifts in and out, the feeling of discovery and reward, just on and on but mostly, it is a game that (like old games did) does away with mind numbing tutorials and RESPECTS the players intelligence. It is a Masterpiece.
@Arte Floe To be honest, I'm not sure that I can, sadly. I'm looking for more games like these myself! Although I've heard really good things about Gris, Journey, Celeste, to name a few. They're on my bucket list. OH! And the Ori games (1 and 2). I've heard they're similar to Hollow Knight. Or maybe just wait for the sequels to the games, they may both come out this year even! Hope that helps a little at least =/
@Arte Floe Spelunky is pretty good. It's a Rougelike, but like BOTW and Kollow Knight, it's got that initial difficulty, and then you start slowing down and looking at the arrow traps, saying, "Do I try to whip it or just drop a bomb?" Not sure if it's up your alley, but there are two out, and the Classic is free on PC.
I think one of the "big wins" of this game within the environment is that EACH REWARD is different, and you don't know what that reward is. It could be a seed, a new shrine with a new puzzle, it could be a great place to parasail from, a new monster with great loot, a new "combat puzzle" (in which you have a new situation in how to defeat a group of enemies), or even a new environmental puzzle to get past. Knowing that you always have the ability to do so is even better, that no matter what you find, you can complete it with the tools you have (it just may be harder or easier depending on what skills or tools you have) is even more exciting. It isn't like Metroid where, once you find that door that's green, you just have to simply go past it until later, you can actually do something about it RIGHT AWAY.
Or just spend some time learning how to time flurry rushes and shield parries. Once you get used to it, they actually project their attacks most than most enemies do. I'd just get a bunch of food together, go all in on one and see how you do. Once you get used to their main attack patterns, it's really not so bad. Just one thing to note: NEVER fight them at long range.
I really think that other opens world games in future should take notes from botw.And i say that as someone who loves open world adventures,but has become tired of the genre in recent years.
Bethesda might actually make a great game for the first time in 15 years. In all seriousness though, I hope the Todd realizes that when he tells me "see that mountain, you can climb it" I assume I'm going to be looking at the mountain, navigating by the actual world, not lining myself up with a quest marker and pressing W.
I wonder if you can modify enough skyrim so that it could have a more BotW feel... climbing isn't possible (unless you make specific climbing point a la horizon zero dawn) but removing quest markers (by simply making the texture), adding voiced npc to hint you, modifying dungeons to be better in generals (seriously, a lot of them suck), and lot of things like this should be possible...
Problem with Bethesda games is that they are on an ancient engine at this point. There is no way Gamebyro could give the freedom and mechanics BotW has. Hell Gamebyro doesn't even allow ladders.
Why, Thiago? Zelda doesn't add anything new to the open world games more than a bigger focus on puzzles (something that makes sense in Zelda but not in a, let's say, shoter). It's Zelda who took note from other open world games.
it's not spoilery, and since you've not played, you don't need to worry about spoilers. The main plot line is not where you get your enjoyment out of this game. Everything you do is uniquely yours - no one else most likely will do exactly what you did. Don't worry about spoilers. This is a game like no other. I've sucked probably 80 hours in and almost nothing I did is what the dev intended.
Hey I just found your UA-cam channel and when I was scrolling through your old videos to add to my watch later I found at the top that your UA-cam name is "McBacon1337", back in 2002-4ish I use to be part of the Mario Kart Central forums and there was a dood called McBacon who was into making custom sprites and comics back in the day... Was that you by any chance ? Love the videos and the way they look at video game design by the way, some really good thinking and analysis here :)
I don't know why some people are dismissing the fact that Nintendo addressed so many issues of the open world genre with BoTW. Despite its shortcomings, it's such a clever game.
Getting to gerudo town was amazing for me. After climbing over the treacherous mesa and discovering ancient construction sites and sneaking past enemies and finally disguising myself to enter, it was so rewarding.
Seth the neko I know I’m late by one year, but don’t you mean, and don’t kill me for this pun, an EyePad? BaDunTsssssss!!!!!!! Don’t worry, eye will see myself out.
I thought distraction had a more negative connotation. But distracting is such a perfect word. I got myself every spirit orb and yet the memory that sticks out most was the repeated anticlimax of scaling mountains and other landmarks only to find a lone korok seed at the top. The fact they attached inventory space to such a sheer number of inane, copy-pasted tasks is downright insulting. If they removed a square meter of land for every seed in the game I don't think it would have hurt my perception of the product as a whole.
Three years later and I still just love hearing this games praises sung. The first play through was so magical, seeing the flying divine beast for the first time and having no idea what it was but knowing I wanted to go there and COULD was such a good feeling.
I would consider this game a Work of Staggering Genius. I am astounded at how deliberate Nintendo's game design feels, from Super Mario 64 to Breath of the Wild, and how much care goes into it. This is hands down the greatest game I have ever -played- experienced.
One of the coolest thing about this game is that everytime I watch a video of it I see something I haven't done yet. Could be an armor set, a location I've yet to explore or a game mechanic I haven't tried. And that's after spending tons of time exploring the map on my own
Wow. I love this game. It is my favorite in the Zelda franchise.. I haven't played it in a while This game is special for being where I realized that my Bartle type was explorer. It was a joy to watch the video filled to the brim with positive criticism. It is informative in explaining what works. I would add that there is a benefit in not having a leveling system. Link doesn't start at level 1 and go up to level 100 or whatever the cap is. This gives freedom to go wherever I want without worrying about whether a zone to going to be too hard or too easy. Link relies on upgrades scattered around Hyrule in order to get stronger. These upgrades are rewarding enough without a leveling system. This fits in with the theme of freedom and open world. This video makes me want to play the game again. I can just pick up where I left off and find new adventures to perform. Even going in the wilderness for hunting, gathering and mining is fun in and of itself. Link dies a few times in this video. I am so invested, I say "Ouch". Death is so brutal. However it is also a learning experience. Thank goodness for the automatic, frequent and multiple save points. They turn death from a devastation to a wrist slap. I think there are things to learn just from this video. Number 1, avoid lioness like the plague, unless you are really prepared. Number 2, don't swim in freezing cold water. In my current playthrough, I died that way during the Great Plateau tutorial. How embarrassing. The only way to complete it is to find a bridge and use magnesis on metal slab to bridge the gap. Pun intended. Just don't swim in the friggin water. It is not going to work. Number 3, for the love of the Triforce, always take off your metal gear during a thunderstorm.
This formula of using the entire game as preparation for the final battle is similar to Chrono Trigger. However, in Chrono Trigger, the only way of fighting Lavos early is hours of grinding, or trying it in New Game+. Breath of the Wild, being an action RPG, can actually allow you to fight the final boss AND win at any time.
Can't wait to see your Boss Keys video about the dungeon design in Breath of the Wild! (The main dungeons, not the shrines - there isn't anything to analyze there, really)
I also can't wait for it. Although this dungeons are small, they feel like something completely new, and they introduce really interesting concepts. If anything, I'm really excited about where they can go with these ideas in the next game.
Hope that it includes the thing in the Nabooris Dungeon how you can do the switch puzzle by making a line of metal weapons/objects to power both switches instead.
I hope he talks about both Shrines and Dungeons. Overall I like the Shrines in Breath of the Wild. However I have played through the first dungeon and I didn't care for it at all.
Breath of the wild is the best exploration based open world game i ever play. World of hyrule is filled with secrets like shrines, mysterious ruins, mysterious creatures, mini games, korok seeds, quests, new settlements, some environmental details, etc. But they also hides this secrets most likely shrines by using vast stretches of land and it's terrains like mountains, cliffs, ruins, etc. This make finding them a navigational challenge. This force you to explore every nook and cranny to find everything. This makes world more immersive and interactive than any other open world game i ever play. Shrine quests give you many varieties in quests. Shrine follows old Nintendo rules to make their puzzles intriguing. I mean they introduced a concept in earlier part of shrines and increases challenge in later rooms. But many shrines are also one room which gives you a target but you had to find a way to solve puzzles by experimenting with its surroundings. It also causes many new ways to solve shrine puzzles. They are also physics based. It means you can find your own way to solve these puzzles. But this game has also some flaws like weapon durability system, small dungeon with same aesthetics, combat is fun because it encourages creativity but it also has too many flaws like flurry rush is broken, etc. But this game does many things better than any other games. It's main purpose are fulfilled.
I'm excited for Boss Keys with this game. The "dungeons" are much smaller geographically than previous 3D Zelda's but they are pretty creative and original in their approach, and I've felt very satisfied by them so far. It's a big departure from the usual "room, door, key, room, door, key" approach of previous games.
Steven Bowser Steven Bowser Honestly, I love this game so much. I've put over 70 hours into it and the only thing that has let me down so far, are the so called dungeons (Devine beasts) These are not dungeons, they are glorified shrines. I finished the elephant one in 15 minutes, 20 including the boss. This was my first time going through and I did not use a guide (who would use a guide anyway) It's honestly a massive let down. The dungeons were the biggest thing I was looking forward to. Either way, it's still an amazing game, but I hope the so called DLC adds an actual dungeon.
I agree that the elephant was very easy and not the best. I then went to the desert beast and it was supremely satisfying. Give the other ones a try, the elephant one is the worst. The other ones give you more control over the beast and its movement is much more impactful and interesting for the puzzle solving. It's like being _inside_ a Rubik's Cube and you have to move it around in order to traverse the dungeon. It was challenging but always fun to me because I knew that if I observed well enough I could figure it out, and I did. I loved it.
Steven Bowser I actually finished all the dungeons a while ago. They're all the same, with a single gimmick. There's no variety. They aren't very interesting either. How ever, the Rito one was probably my favourite, but even that was very simple.
I love how the game rewards you different playstyles. I had to rely on lots of guides and such to discover things and figure out quests the guidebook is a godsend. But I figured out the battle mechanics on my own and literally created plans to farm lynels around the map and the guardian turrets in hyrule castle to upgrade my equipment but it never felt like grinding because the combat is very satisfying.
I want to say yet again that this is my favorite channel on youtube. Mr. Brown, I took your last video about Mario's jump, and am applying the same principle to different game interfaces. It has been eye-opening. You can press a button, but what can you do with a deck of cards? You can shuffle it. You can put it in any order, and distribute the cards however you wish. Cards can be face-up or face-down, reversing a card's orientation may be significant - just a few examples. Please keep being amazing!
This is exactly right! BotW is the first game I played that did open world the right way. Everything is optional but useful, no icon splurge on the map whenever you climb a tower, instead you look out and discover stuff yourself, really fun sidequests (would have liked more though), so much cool stuff to discover (animals, enemies, ruins, fossils, mysterious areas) and designed tightly enough to not feel messy or cramped (looking at you Witcher 3). On top of that it's also actually an RPG because you can decide yourself what approach you take, without leveling or boring skill trees with +5% to damage upgrades etc. One of the best games ever made.
i really like how the game feels like there's a leveling system, when there is no exp system at all. Just hearts, clothes, equipment, and special powers
Kind of off topic but, it seems Nintendo is really trying to innovate in popular genres lately. They took a try at multiplayer shooters with a new IP in Splatoon and it turned out to be a hit. They're working on a unique approach to the fighting genre with ARMS. And mostly recently BOTW which based off critics and public reception(I've yet to start it) seems to revolutionize the Open World genre. I really appreciate Nintendo being confident enough and ambitious to want to change the way we experience these genres forever.
Mark. You get it. This video is a perfect picture that explains what makes BotW so amazing. Thanks for creating a fantastic video. I am curious on what your approach is when creating an episode of GMTK. Is everything regarding GMTK a one man show (Script writing, footage gathering, editing etc.)? As a content creator myself, I hope that one day I could have videos that so well put together and well polished. Keep up the great work!
Mark Brown that makes your series that much more amazing! My channel is also a one man show and it can be daunting at times when trying to come up with ideas for content. I'd love to see what your process is when creating an episode! I plan to support your channel via Patreon in the near future. As your channel is one of my favorite channels on UA-cam. Again keep up the great work! :)
From what I took from this analysis, this game took all of the stuff of open worlds that work and get rid of what doesn't. The sign posts remind me of the sign posts and map from earlier Elder Scrolls games. Another attribute that makes the game better.
That's honestly one of its biggest assets. It legitimately feels like Nintendo studied the genre and they analyzed which aspects work, while ditching the bs. A bit like Shovel Knight did when it comes to retro platformers. I know a lot of people harp on BoTW for not being the most innovative game ever, however I commend what Nintendo did with it. It's quite impressive and it will yield some fascinating discussions in game design circles for years to come.
I'm now picturing a bunch of devs in a meeting brainstorming games and things in those games they can take inspiration from, and "Skyrim horse bugs" being written in big fat letters on a whiteboard.
Even in the case of the tutorial, you can beat that part of the game any way you want too. You can complete the four shrines on the plateau in any order and can use a number of different solutions for any given obstacle, one notable example being the cold climate surrounding Mt Hylia. Link can trade a specific meal in order to acquire the warm doublet, or he can just use the hot food itself to navigate his way to the peak, where the king will give it to him as a reward. One very small feature I wish BOTW had was the option for Link to sit down. You have this gorgeous, quiet, scenery, but Link himself can never relax and appreciate it without skipping about six hours of the day at a campfire. It's amusing to think of what idle animations he might have and other possibilities could open up as a result of the player just slowing for a moment, like in the Champion's Ballad where you have to wait for the sun to rise over the sea to open up a shrine or for a dragon to fly down a gorge so you can hit it's horns (which is a neat way that the game drops the hint that the horns are the best place to strike a dragon -- as if the Shekiah monks are actively trying to teach the player about the world and give him more conceptual tools to fight Ganon as well as physical ones, like the Shekiah slate.) While the mechanic of preparing for Ganon is clever, it's something of an illusion. Even a semi-competent player doesn't need to beat even half of the game's content to be in a position to beat Ganon. This is okay because not every player is going to be up to the same skill level, and requiring the player to go that far would have the effect of limiting their options too much again, but it can make the fight somewhat anticlimactic considering just how many hours of "training" Link puts in towards bringing him down. Ganon honestly feels cornered by the time you beat the DLC content. A way to perhaps address this would be to make Ganon's difficulty scale based on how much time has passed, but that might needlessly complicate matters and frustrate plays looking for the ultimate boss-rush challenge by making them wait. The game only marks the main questline on your map if you feel like going to Kakariko in the first place, but if the player was adventurous enough not to listen to much of what that silly old man said in the tutorial, they probably won't follow his lead. In which case, the player can stumble across them on their own. I was guilty of following the nav points in my play-through, but the game is so rich with adventure that I often go sidetracked and did much of it undirected anyway. A second playthrough won't rectify that, but I'll be up for the challenge when it comes to doing it all again in master mode, and I'll make a point of using the pro hud and turning of the Shekiah sensor.
I follow the channel for a while now and always wanted to watch this video, but wouldn't watch until I finished playing the game. Now, after 6 years, I finally finished the game, just to find that the video contained no major spoilers LOL
Something interesting is that those yellow dot markers will only appear if the person who assigned the task to you already told you to go there. They're more reminders than anything, and they save you time scouring the map for the name of the location. If the questgiver didn't tell you where to go, like in quests where they tell you to bring them enough of a certain item or if they just don't _know_ where you should go, the yellow dots will instead show you where the questgiver is.
If you play Breath of the Wild, I would recommend that once you get beyond the sort of "tutorial" section, turn off all of the quest objectives and set the HUD to "Pro" to explore for a while. Things are incredibly reward to find when you have no direction. It's what I did.
I usually preffer to have at least *some* direction, so I really appreciate having the option to use basic markers and a minimap. Even with those on I've still lost myself exploring so many times, and I've usually ended up finding my way to those areas when I wasn't even intending to go that way, like with the Zoras.
I think sometime without map markers is nice because it forces you to find things to do. When you find a major settlement or landmark without a marker, it really feels like you've discovered it instead of it feeling like you've followed a guide.
I dunno I appreciated knowing the names of landmarks. There's no other good way to do that The example he cherrypicked with the rivers was good actually, but signs get more sparse the farther you get from necluda.. and it is easy to get turned around. In a game that took me 200 hours to beat WITH the map, I'm thinking without it I'd still have barely anything done.
Really enjoying these videos you are making. Was introduced to it by a co-worker and have been watching hour after hour of them. It's great to listen to someone who looks at video games from a creator and artistic sort of view.The Same way that I do, thanks, Mark Brown! Appreciate the hard work that goes into these quality videos, keep it up!
This video was not made, it was crafted. your insignt on the game is inspiring. I have checked out Horizon Zero Dawn together with Breath of the Wild, and I feel exactly the same. The limits of Horizon and artificial "borders" make me feel like i what to go back to Zelda every time i play it. Besied all of these "dumb" paths in LoZBotW, that you take (for example climb a hill instead of taking the road) - just creates this sense of wonder. Most of Zelda games was a gamechanger of sorts - but this one (in an industry where open world - is jsut must have becasue you need to stall the player not to finish the main story too fast - becasue it is not that long) made me understand why Nintendo spends so much time on their games. They craft games, not make them.
Thanks Mark for making this video as spoiler free as possible, I'm waiting a while before buying the console and it's becoming complicated to play a game these days without getting spoiled.
Botw has the best horse riding system. we can attack with weapon like an cavalry warrior or point arrow accurately while riding on the horse. The control is so well and if you miss the attack or shoot you know that is our own fault , not the mechanism failed. No any game can do that well in the open world game where object are freely moving around. Most of the game the horse itself has too many bugs and stuck on the environment
My favourite part of BOTW is getting lost and finding my way to a location with a blind map. I remember I was trying to find Zora's Domain and went completely off tangent and off a cliffside and got separated from my horse. I stole a horse from a Bokoblin which I named Coco and tried to find my way south east, STILL looking for Zora's Domain while my map was blank. The whole time I've just been hoping to find a town and try not to lose my horse by climbing up a mountain and accidentally unspawning it. It was my greatest relief when I found Lurelin Village and it became one of my favourite towns because of the exhausting travel it took for me to get to it. I was then hoping to find a stable and had the fright of my life when I reached the Faron's rainforest and nearly got struck by lightning way too many times. I immediately got the map from the tower and found my way to the stable. I got emotional to let Coco go. I already had 5 horses who had better stats than him. We've been through a lot together and now we have to part ways. ;n; It was the best adventure I had in BOTW and I only wish I can wipe my memory of the game so I can experience the blind adventure again. :)
"Hey, you need to find these 800 eggs!" "Oh is it mandatory because I don't really want to." "No, it's not mandatory." "Oh ok-" "Unless you want to get the TRUE ENDING" "goddam-"
The main thing that many modern open world games are missing and what BotW apparently offers in spades is a sense of mystery. Most games think they have to give you all information from the start and make all the activities and mechanics super clear, but that only makes the entire world feel artificial. Games like BotW, Gothic, Deus Ex or Dark Souls, on the other hand, throw you into a big world filled with secrets, hidden treasures and stories you might completely miss if you're not careful. It feels mysterious, even scary at first, but also exciting. These games trust the player to go out, explore and interact with the world organically, not just pick up 50 stupid collectibles that might as well be from a completely different game. And that Eureka feeling when you notice a hidden passage after walking past it 20 times, find the hidden strength of a seemingly useless item or overcome an enemy by thinking out of the box and using the environment against them, that's often stronger than anything in 20 hours of filling checklists and having mediocre fun.
To be fair, The Witcher 3 is more about narrative payoffs and it's writing then about exploration. The same goes for how Horizon handles it's opening. It keeps you from the world until after the Proving to make it clear how little Aloy knows about the world, and to make her awe and excitement at see the rest of the world more felt by the player. (I can say, having left The Embrace recently myself, the sight of a Tallneck walking through ruins with Aloy watching from the Cliffside was breathtaking, and really made me stop and take in the world) A lot of critics have been calling Zelda BoTW the new standard for open worlds, but it's nice to see that you acknowledge that open worlds aren't only about one thing, and can be used for a variety of purposes.
I WONDERED if anyone ever went straight to the coliseum from the plateau. it's kinda riiight there. Really, trying to examine what the designers sort of 'intended' and expected you to do is easily half the fun in this game once you've beaten most of it.. analyzing and re-analyzing where things are located relative to other things.. the way I keep getting surprised at which things are near which things actually reminds me of how if you extract and analyze a lot of older PC game maps you'd find they actually loop in on themselves like a bunch of intestines, but while you're playing you THINK you're really far away.. in reality right across that wall is where you started.. or how if you do the same in a 2d game you find everything, all textures, map files, whatever, are stored in an efficient smushed-together package So here for the first time there's not one single inaccessible square inch in Hyral meaning A) it's a giant square (which they werent really obligated to do, if you think about it), and B) every spot is squished up against every other spot.. so everything has to go SOMEwhere, and that means it's "on the way" if you take a certain path. I can't count how many times I came up "Behind" something, and only later saw the "front door" that simply wasn't in my line of sight, and seemed to far away to run to while i was busy climbing this way.
@@legrandliseurtri7495 That's incredible! it's one of the really obvious landmarks in the area around the plateau. At the same time, not only does nothing important lead to it, the standard path to it is fucking hazardous and it requires you to go AWAY from your first goal, so I can imagine going toward it and NOPEing out, on the road to Kakariko.
I remember once I was exploring hyrule on my second playthrough and I had never killed a lynel before, so one time, after getting through a hinox, some other enemies and solved a Kass riddle, I got to a peninsular, and there was a lynel perfectly position for a dramatic boss battle and I killed it. There was also 600 rupees in the chest behind it so it felt like a proper reward, it just shows you don't need linear story telling to have dramatic experiences.
The is the best video about the game I've seen so far explaining how well Breath of the Wild conveys it's sense of adventure with it's open world. Excellent video!
Breath of the Wild fills in what Witcher 3 lacked, and that is no criticism of CD Projekts masterpiece... While playing Gerald's adventure, more often than not I wished to explore more of the forests and country-sides around, I remember being utterly bored in cities and so on. And Nintendo's latest Zelda just hits the spot for me, it gives me that exploration feel. Lovely.
Excellent video as always! I'll admit: for the first time on my life, I played the original Zelda for NES last two weeks, drawning my own map, discover by myself the secrets of the game and about the series. And all this was possible because of your last video! Thanks Mark! And sorry about my terrible english!
My only real problem with the game was the dungeons. All four of them felt to visually similar and I found them to be too easy(I was never stumped and never died in any of them). Besides that, BOTW is definitely one of the best open world games I've played, because a lot more exploration is involved, rather than simply going from point A, to point B, to point C.
+EPM 101 I personally didn't think so. I felt that all of the main dungeons had generally the same difficulty level, I would have liked more variation with that.
Yeah, I was bummed about the dungeons, or lack thereof depending on how you look at it. Even the first Legend of Zelda game had decent dungeons. The ones in Breath of the Wild don't really feel much like LoZ dungeons.
divide two Yea but Xenoblade Chronicles X is too difficult to get into. And its also crap how your forced to randomly go around and get collectibles for quest with no hints to where they are.
Loving this game so much. Just spent about 3 hours just wandering around looking for things. Found hidden caves, got stranded on an island with no items, took a glide through a canyon. It's all just pure choose your own adventure. I'm not quite ready to take on Hyrule castle yet but a few more shrines to get some extra health and I should be. There's whole areas of this game I've not even explored yet. Genuinely a magical experience.
I LOVE this video. I think it hits everything perfectly on the head when people complain about this game- "not enough story, combat sucks, where do I go?" Thex point of this game was to be an adventure- and it absolutely nails that by kicking other conventional open world staples. People say that if you took Zelda out of the title it's just another open world game. However, I truly believe that, on its own, it stands out from the Witcher, Skyrim, etc. because of the freedom it gives the player
A little annoying but it makes a lot of sense - it leads to really dynamic fights, encourages improvised kills and using different weapons, avoids anyone becoming overpowered in hour 1, makes finding new weapons always exciting. Benefits outweigh the drawbacks in my opinion.
Mark Brown Well said! I think people who hate on it just need to get over the fact that they'll have to part ways with (most) their gear after a short while. I think a lot of the fun and balancing hinges on that.
IMO the really bad part about the weapon system is not necessarily them actually breaking, but the fact you have to pause mid-combat just to switch to a new weapon. Really breaks the flow.
Taliias There's that too. Though it doesn't bother me too much to be honest. Maybe they could auto equip your next weapon when your current one breaks. But if we're griping about the inventory, I wish there were more sorting options. Like an option to sort your gear/food in increasing/decreasing power regardless of type.
IMO it's one of the worst parts of the game: they break too fast. It wouldn't be an issue with a system to repair them, or if you would start with a bigger storage limit, or if the cost to make it bigger would be cheaper.
Yeah, that’s why now that I’ve beaten the game completely I have five saves that we’re just me playing on the great platue again. I guess that’s what makes eventide so great though
I think old-school dungeon crawlers and RPGs had a similar vibe - you're exploring a world with just a few progression blocks and nobody prevents you from stepping into a cave with a huge cyclops that will wipe the floor with your low-level party. Some of these games even had you draw your own dungeon maps on paper instead of uncovering them on a in-game feature.
i liked the gothic open word design, i always say why people don use the Gothic example, good news to hear there are an modern good example, just let me tell you that botw was that miyamoto wanted to do in 1986 in firts zelda.
That music that starts at 2:56 gave me a flashback when I played Zelda in March for 15h a day. It was the first game since Skyrim in 2011 when I got really addicted to a game.
The thought of the devs explicitly researching Skyrim horse bugs and implementing them amuses me greatly.
That is pretty hilarious
They also thoroughly researched skyrim's rock climbing mechanisms and discovered they're none existing... they fixed that too!
Judge Yup.
Judge If Bethesda did this in first person, I would shit my pants. A Syrim where you can actually climb ANYWHERE; you could REALLY be a thief in a Bethesda game.
Climbing in first person? You'd be staring at walls for 50% of the time :D
The point when I realized that BotW wasn't going to be a "normal" open world game was when, during the tutorial, Santa Claus tells you to climb up to the top of a tower to search for the shrines. I thought he meant I had to do something like in a Ubisoft, but no. He literally meant, "You should climb to the top of that tower. You can see further."
"Santa Claus".
That's the perfect non-spoiler name for him.
that's JUST LIKE santa claus. He asks you what you want, you tell him it's a paraglider, then he says if you're a good boy you'll get it
so you be a good boy
no paraglider!
"oh, you have to wait til Christmas morning"
YOUUU DIDNT SAY THAT.
Lucas Exempli Gratia Smith it's really refreshing and you have to actually put markers down if you want to remember going back
@@jonathankreitler5045 I like making my own markers too... for certain enemies, I drop a skull and gem down. For others I might put a skull and arrows, depending on the loot or if they are a ranged attack. I drop 3 skulls in a triangle when there is a serious foe I can't hope to defeat yet.
I really love how they let you make the game your own, play how you want and set up the map and exploration just the way you like and not clutter the map with junk like other games.
his name wasnt santa claus it was gru
"You're not delaying your showdown with the big bad; you're training for it. Everything you do in the game is in preparation for that fight." -More open world games need to follow this idea. The freedom of letting the player choose when they're prepared, rather than the game telling the player when it's time to fight the big bad, is extremely underrated.
Unfortunately, people would then complain about the story not being dense enough. You can't really tell a linear story with BotW's open sequenced design-- which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned, but most people who play "open world" games don't really expect a loose, "open" plot like BotW's, which was so irrelevant to the player's actions, it wasn't even happening within the same time frame as the gameplay, but told through flashback sequences.
BotW got away with it due to LoZ's history of keeping stories relatively simple, but try that with Fallout or Witcher, people would get all kinds of bent out of shape over not getting a intricate plot alongside their game.
Depends. If you incorporated many of the features present in BotW into fallout and Witcher like progressing your character through real world actions and training, as well as environmental hazards such as weather and other general ways to bring you down if you're unprepared, you could do well with those two games. More below...
...
Give a general goal, like Ciri's been spotted here, here, and here, so you need to eventually investigate those three places, and can go to them whenever you like. However, getting there is no easy task. As well as when you get there you may have a hard time if you weren't familiar enough with the game's design or had invested in your character enough with equipment and experience.
In Fallout, story is tricky to build as it is. Having one specific end goal in that game doesn't feel right to me. Maybe start it out with "here's the new world. good luck" and see where the player takes it. They could work their way up the ranks of any faction with plenty of different quests from each. Or maybe they could be tasked with investigating where the rest of the people in their vault went, something that doesn't give off such an urgent vibe like finding your son did. However, same situation... if you are not prepared to go there, you probably shouldn't. But that doesn't mean that you can't.
@@Graphomite Linear storytelling is for movies and books. Games can be much more. If only people stopped limiting themselves to mimicking a movie.
@@2sallads How about, instead, you stop limitting yourself to thinking games can only do one type of storytelling?
Finn Underwood my only complaint is the big bad was too easy
I can't tell you how many times I've said "there's no way that was the intended solution" in this game. They really did something special with the utility of items in this game, especially the runes and the glider.
am I the only one who would go back and try to make sure I at least knew what the intended solution was? Like, until I knew it, i hadn't MENTALLY solved it
even if I was happy to save myself the effort of actually solving them that way.
Afrohawk Exactly, there was a puzzle that required you spin a block to light torches attached to it. But I just shot the torches with fire arrows and finished the temple in 30 seconds.
SPOILERS
Corvo Attano I did that one that way as well, just spinning the block to an angle where no water was on the torches and then lighting them with arrows.
Chris Essick there was this dungeon where you had one iron block and a bunch of chains. You had to figure out where to put it to finish an electric circuit and open up another block and then do the same with another block. And then use all three to open the exit.
Instead I just piled up a bunch of swords and shields in a trail from the energy source to the exit and it worked.
There is no option between the master sword and the mop. The mop is so powerful, it's basically the only choice.
I mean
Can you set the Master Sword on fire for bonus fire damage? No you cannot
It's not even a fair competition for Master Sword if I am being honest
Probably has more durability too
mop? more like pot lid!
But nothing beats the famed MASTER TORCH!
Are you being sarcastic, dood?
makes me happy to see lots of footage with the Pro HUD turned on. first thing I did was get rid of that mini map and I never looked back. great video.
NakeyJakey makes me happy to see YOU HERE 🤗🤗🤗
Our Hot Boi is here
Nakey "Hot BOI" Jakey is here!
Only things the Pro HUD lacks are the Champion powers on the HUD, because it's annoying to go through the inventory, and the weather forecast, which I can't access outside of the standard HUD.
NakeyJakey I’m seeing you everywhere. Love your channel my dood
This game is so genuinely amazing. Playing it with my young son on my lap with him always asking, "what's that? What's over there?" makes my day. What makes it even better is that I can say, "I dunno. Let's find out!"
I think it goes without saying that BoTW has been a huge success. What I really really really hope comes from this, is that open world games as a genre improve, by doing more of the things Zelda's hit out of the park, and less of the things that Ubisoft has shoveled into every game for the last ten years.
THRILLHO Na chill i enjoy Ubisoft game.
That's cool that you enjoy them. Ubi definitely gets it right magnificently in some cases, but I just haven't gotten excited about any of their new releases in way too long. The formula just doesn't do it for me anymore.
That's cool that you enjoy them. Ubi definitely gets it right magnificently in some cases, but I just haven't gotten excited about any of their new releases in way too long. The formula just doesn't do it for me anymore.
THRILLHO That's probably because they use most of their assets to develop on their other open world titles far to much. They are good at building their world's and world designs but often enough they go through the process of filling the world with far to much with little breather in between and its not a bad thing but it happens all to often. I feel as if they listen to our criticism amd are actually improving with each game. Watch Dogs 2 was proof of that and its the reason why it was my top game of 2016.
I've heard a lot about Watch Dogs 2 being a big step in the right direction. I hope the trend continues!
I think everyone should play this game. It truly feels like going on an adventure, every corner hiding a new marvel
If it didn't come with the added price of needing a new console to run it on (either Wii U or Switch) I would totally play it.
Well, that's the purpose of an exclusive.. Switch is worth it in the long run!
Nothing against Nintendo (I actually think they're a pretty good company) but I can't justify buying another console just so I can play Nintendo games. I personally only buy one console a generation and if Nintendo would get past their third party problems I'd totally buy their systems.
Yeah, I see that. What if you bought it like it was a handheld? Or by 'one console a generation' you also mean either a home console or hanheld?
Actually don't buy handhelds at all. Just not my preferred way of playing games.
"In a world were you need to track down your kidnapped son, but you'll get to that after you've explored the entirety of Boston." Epic Fallout 4 haul.
Fallout 4 is so bad now that I look back at it.
The Witcher is based on a series of novels, therefore it makes sense to have something like tracking down your adopted daughter.
Deciding the fate of New Vegas is also far more compelling because you learn about it as you play the game and that affects your decision making.
With Fallout 4 you're thrown in with no idea why you should give a shit about your son because the game doesn't give him a personality because he's a newborn, and honestly when you get to the Institute it's this moment of 'okay that's cool main quest over? Nope here have a couple more hours of pointless bullshit, and if you haven't done every sidequest you're shit out of luck cause a whole bunch will disappear'
ロボット鳥山 Actually in new vegas the main point is that you want to enact revenge. You don't have to get involved with anything beyond the main the question, but the places you visit while going on that quest end up being so interacting you can't help but get involved for better or worse.
In fallout 4 tho which has a similar premise honestly since revenge is also a motive for trying to go through the main story, the amount of actually interesting side quest feels smaller. The world feels a lot more cluttered but only as a way to pad out the run time.of the game and to give you little things to do before the next main mission point not to mention the constant stream of enemies that can hold up a place.Which can make the game feel.more alive but it honestly gets boring after mowing down your 5th raider base.
So no its not a bad game but its not an exceptional one either and isnt really comparable to new vegas.
I don't really understand this criticism because it suggests applying traditional narrative urgency in an open world game is inherently flawed.
Think about it, if that's really such a problem then logically there's only 2 solutions, either go the Jak 2 route and have no side content to get distracted by or go the Minecraft route and have no story at all. Clearly then there's no conflict right? Except the former pretty much overlooks the point of an open world and the latter limits the potential awarded. Zelda doesn't really buck this as you can still ignore your memories and monsters destroying the land in favor of wandering around.
Why can't we have a story where there is actual progression, stakes and the like throughout the journey? Because at least Fallout 4 has proper acts and rising actions with its story wheras something like New Vegas is much more reserved. The latter is not inherently worse as a result.
I tried to get into character when I played Fallout 4, and I couldn't.
Great work Mark! This is exactly why I love this game so much :) I think future open world games will have to start taking notes to hold up
Thanks dude - I was bummed when I saw your video crop up but in the end we actually touched on slightly different points SO ALL GOOD
Hahah! Well great minds think alike :P If anything it just proves how good the game actually is. And yeah man, anytime a creator makes a video, it's gonna be different just because of different perspectives and all that, keep doing great work :D
snomaN Gaming hi snoman :)
I can't stand BotW, because:
1. There should have been a level up system
2. Kokiri and Minish should have been in it. BTW, Zora are in that game, so why not Kokiri too?
3. The weapons are useless
4. Completely messed with my Zelda senses, what with the need to cook and Deku leaves making you sail faster, yet you can't glide with them or move boulders with them
5. Crafting is useless outside of HP/Magic
6. The Master Sword needs to recharge
7. Metal armor is useless
8. Need to memorize where the good weapons are every 5 mins
9. Climbing is so tedious and slow
10. It makes a HUGE mess of the timeline, what with it being WW inspired, yet OOT being canon.
Plus the game overall goes less for "Use the tools you're given" and more "Anything will do...".
Ueda Yuuji Fan i can respect your opinion but just wanted to poin out a few things. it has been official lore since WW that the kikiri turn into the korock. (cant remember how to spell the name) they can shape shift and a zelda theory that could very well be true is that the monkeys in TP are also the kikiri. the minish also all returned to the light realm in the minish cap and thats why you never see them in other zelda games. regarding the timeline being messed up, OoT is cannon to all three timelines. not only that, if you take a good look at the game with stacks of cheat sheats of zelda knowlage, the only timeline BotW makes sense in is the fallen timeline. (no, im not taking game theory's reasons for it) as for the official placement being all three timelines, i feel like nintendo just slapped it there to fix the mess of the timelines. they even said their own timeline was wrong and made a new one before, wich made a new link.
the reason why you cant glide with the deku leaf also makes sense lore wise. the only reason why link in WW could use the deku leaf to glide was because he was a young kid. since he wasnt heavy at all, the leaf could just barely support him. BotW link is much older and much heavier. the deku leaf just wouldnt hold him, wich is why you use a paraglider. as for moving boulders, i dont remember that ever being a thing. you could move nuts with the deku leaf.
like i said, i respect your opinion and the other reasons you have for not liking the game are fair enough. its just these points that wernt quite accurate. hopefully you will enjoy the next main title zelda game more once they worked out the kinks of the new style
I got to play this game for the first time the other day, continuing a save file of my friend's for about an hour.
In that hour, I:
Was stalked by Yiga assassins
Learned to cook
Went to Death Mountain and experienced what it was like to be cooked firsthand.
Paraglided miles away
Chopped down a tree
Pushed said fallen tree into a river
But lastly, I climbed atop that log floating downstream and (despite the occasional need to snipe an octorok) I just... absorbed the atmosphere. For the first time in a game, I felt connected wholly to what was going on, as I rode a tree that I felled downstream like a rambunctious adventurin' boy waiting for wherever the stream was going to take me.
Because I felt confident it would take me somewhere, and if not, then just the option to make my own makeshift raft was an experience in its own right.
And I've never wanted to own another game quite so badly.
wow! I have 200 hours in the game and never thought to ride a log down the river. more games need to be like this- giving each person that plays the game a unique experience
@@leafyeaveeey me neither! My preferred method is stasis tree rocket jumping
@danculp3136 that sounds a lot like General Tao/Taopaipai from Dragonball throwing a log really hard into the air and then jumping on top of it to ride it as it flies through the sky! Lol
the thing I like most about this game is, that it makes me feel really clever, when I discover something or solve a riddle
Clever girl.
One of the best games I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing
i had a opportunity to play BotW for a few hours... it was heartbreaking that i had to stop...
"Breath of the Wild" is literally one of the BEST Sandbox Games in this Century.
It was my very first Zelda game, and definitely not my last. I know I'm late to the party, but the game sparked my love for the series and is currently my favorite video game of all time.
I agree with everything Mark said about traversal, enemy layouts and map design.
However, one thing Mark failed to talk about is the physics and chemistry systems. The fact that the world feels so reactive and physical just makes it that much more immersive and tangible.
You don't even have to get the major dungeons marked on your map as you can ignore Impa alltogether. And if you turn the HUD option to PRO (which you should do after the tutorial), the quest markers don't appea anywhere.
The greatest thing about this game I think is that it actually gives you directions and doesn't assume that Link is strapped to a bloody GPS. This is what I've always wanted on an adventure game : you, a map showing north, and people telling you where to actually reach the things they're talking about (I would even have liked it if you could remove the icon showing where you are on the map).
Robert Berthier YES. Absolutely. It's a small thing, but the moment I went up to a guy to ask for directions to Kakariko village and he said "Head north and then west at the first fork in the road" as opposed to "Here, I'll mark it on your map" was when I knew I was going to adore this game.
Robert Berthier yeah I loved the quests where you're given clues but the quest marker lands on the original NPC. so you don't have the location you need to get to.
Robert Berthier yeah I loved the quests where you're given clues but the quest marker lands on the original NPC. so you don't have the location you need to get t
o.
Honestly, I want to see more open world games that don't rely on waypoints, but directions instead. Because the huge downfall with being reliant on waypoints is that those games are not designed to be played without them. Even if you can turn waypoints off, the game doesn't give you other directions to where you need to go because the developers are completely expecting you to use the waypoint, so you just get needlessly lost and are forced to turn waypoints on again.
Finding the memories in BOTW was fun, because I had to actually search for them, given directions like "It's southeast of the stable, but west of the castle" or "It's at a place just past this specific hill." Now *that's* what I want to see more of in open world games.
keeping the marker on the original NPC instead of getting rid of it altogether was a pretty great choice too. It happens fairly often that you have to return to the quest-giver, but forgot where it is or it changed locations in the meantime. And sometimes you just want to hear the clue again.
I keep going back to this game. The opening scene of the entire world revealed to us never stops being Breathtaking
Excalibur01 I feel exactly the same way.
9:24 Horse's rear in Skyrim
other side ended up all the way at Hyrule lol
talk about a "dig a hole to china" allegory
Thicc Boss Lol
This is the first Zelda game I have fell in love with.
I have bought, played and said "Why do people like like???" to five previous Zelda games. So, I made my peace with the series and accepted that I respect it, but it isn't for me.
Then I borrowed this from a coworker and life changed. The completely open nature of it, the story, the art, the way music drifts in and out, the feeling of discovery and reward, just on and on but mostly, it is a game that (like old games did) does away with mind numbing tutorials and RESPECTS the players intelligence.
It is a Masterpiece.
bobcharlotte that’s one of the reason I love Hollow Knight as well. Highly recommend
@Arte Floe To be honest, I'm not sure that I can, sadly. I'm looking for more games like these myself!
Although I've heard really good things about Gris, Journey, Celeste, to name a few. They're on my bucket list. OH! And the Ori games (1 and 2). I've heard they're similar to Hollow Knight.
Or maybe just wait for the sequels to the games, they may both come out this year even!
Hope that helps a little at least =/
Arte Floe no problem!
And you are very correct, there are very few games that I can get so immersed into
HK and BOTW are special
@Arte Floe Spelunky is pretty good. It's a Rougelike, but like BOTW and Kollow Knight, it's got that initial difficulty, and then you start slowing down and looking at the arrow traps, saying, "Do I try to whip it or just drop a bomb?" Not sure if it's up your alley, but there are two out, and the Classic is free on PC.
I think one of the "big wins" of this game within the environment is that EACH REWARD is different, and you don't know what that reward is. It could be a seed, a new shrine with a new puzzle, it could be a great place to parasail from, a new monster with great loot, a new "combat puzzle" (in which you have a new situation in how to defeat a group of enemies), or even a new environmental puzzle to get past. Knowing that you always have the ability to do so is even better, that no matter what you find, you can complete it with the tools you have (it just may be harder or easier depending on what skills or tools you have) is even more exciting. It isn't like Metroid where, once you find that door that's green, you just have to simply go past it until later, you can actually do something about it RIGHT AWAY.
I’ve beaten the game with all 4 dungeons, 100+ shrines, and 100+ hours. And yet there are places in this video that I’ve never seen before
i beat all the shrines, killed gannon, and explored every part of the map....but i still cant kill a lynel
I suggest you try upgrading Stasis. That makes Lynels a joke.
Or just spend some time learning how to time flurry rushes and shield parries. Once you get used to it, they actually project their attacks most than most enemies do. I'd just get a bunch of food together, go all in on one and see how you do. Once you get used to their main attack patterns, it's really not so bad. Just one thing to note: NEVER fight them at long range.
If you hit their face enough to stun them you can keep chaining a ton of damage to their face using x3/x5 damage bows.
get a spread shot bow.
glide down on one.
spam bomb arrows until dead
Urbosa's Fury helps
One of the best channels on UA-cam about game content/design. Glad to be a subscriber!
Dantess26 I absolutely feel the same!
I really think that other opens world games in future should
take notes from botw.And i say that as someone who loves open world adventures,but has become tired of the genre in recent years.
I don't think they'll take any notes but rather just cheat off of it
Bethesda might actually make a great game for the first time in 15 years. In all seriousness though, I hope the Todd realizes that when he tells me "see that mountain, you can climb it" I assume I'm going to be looking at the mountain, navigating by the actual world, not lining myself up with a quest marker and pressing W.
I wonder if you can modify enough skyrim so that it could have a more BotW feel... climbing isn't possible (unless you make specific climbing point a la horizon zero dawn) but removing quest markers (by simply making the texture), adding voiced npc to hint you, modifying dungeons to be better in generals (seriously, a lot of them suck), and lot of things like this should be possible...
Problem with Bethesda games is that they are on an ancient engine at this point. There is no way Gamebyro could give the freedom and mechanics BotW has. Hell Gamebyro doesn't even allow ladders.
Why, Thiago? Zelda doesn't add anything new to the open world games more than a bigger focus on puzzles (something that makes sense in Zelda but not in a, let's say, shoter). It's Zelda who took note from other open world games.
I want to watch this so bad, but I'm not getting BOTW for a few months and I don't want to spoil it....DAMN IT.
it's not spoilery, and since you've not played, you don't need to worry about spoilers. The main plot line is not where you get your enjoyment out of this game. Everything you do is uniquely yours - no one else most likely will do exactly what you did. Don't worry about spoilers. This is a game like no other. I've sucked probably 80 hours in and almost nothing I did is what the dev intended.
Watch it without looking at the screen, the only thing that could spoil anything is the visuals, not what he says.
I'd recommend you don't watch it. Save the mystery and surprise until you've had a chance to play it yourself!
There are spoilers for shrines and dungeons and puzzles throughout the world
It's actually kind of hard to review this game without spoiling something
UserX-1099 I can wait. This video isn't going anywhere and I'd rather save the surprise for myself.
Hey I just found your UA-cam channel and when I was scrolling through your old videos to add to my watch later I found at the top that your UA-cam name is "McBacon1337", back in 2002-4ish I use to be part of the Mario Kart Central forums and there was a dood called McBacon who was into making custom sprites and comics back in the day... Was that you by any chance ? Love the videos and the way they look at video game design by the way, some really good thinking and analysis here :)
Haha, yep that was me!
this situation is the pure opposite of the word "awkward"
Is this real?! This is magical, man
The world is a small place
Magical
I don't know why some people are dismissing the fact that Nintendo addressed so many issues of the open world genre with BoTW. Despite its shortcomings, it's such a clever game.
Getting to gerudo town was amazing for me. After climbing over the treacherous mesa and discovering ancient construction sites and sneaking past enemies and finally disguising myself to enter, it was so rewarding.
"Magical ipad."
Ancient tablet with apps for bombs, magnetism, cryonis, and time stasis. And with a GPS and camera! SheikaOS is some technology
I know right!
Seth the neko that made me crack up.
Seth the neko I know I’m late by one year, but don’t you mean, and don’t kill me for this pun, an EyePad? BaDunTsssssss!!!!!!! Don’t worry, eye will see myself out.
Lol
“Lost and Distracted” could have replaced the “Breath of the Wild” in naming.
More like Distracted and Entracned, cuz lost gives too much of a negative and fearful connotation.
I thought distraction had a more negative connotation. But distracting is such a perfect word.
I got myself every spirit orb and yet the memory that sticks out most was the repeated anticlimax of scaling mountains and other landmarks only to find a lone korok seed at the top. The fact they attached inventory space to such a sheer number of inane, copy-pasted tasks is downright insulting.
If they removed a square meter of land for every seed in the game I don't think it would have hurt my perception of the product as a whole.
Cooperal did you know that you don’t have to find all the seeds?
@@melted553 there are more secrets than seeds. They are not big enough to distract you.
Three years later and I still just love hearing this games praises sung. The first play through was so magical, seeing the flying divine beast for the first time and having no idea what it was but knowing I wanted to go there and COULD was such a good feeling.
I would consider this game a Work of Staggering Genius. I am astounded at how deliberate Nintendo's game design feels, from Super Mario 64 to Breath of the Wild, and how much care goes into it. This is hands down the greatest game I have ever -played- experienced.
One of the coolest thing about this game is that everytime I watch a video of it I see something I haven't done yet. Could be an armor set, a location I've yet to explore or a game mechanic I haven't tried. And that's after spending tons of time exploring the map on my own
Wow. I love this game. It is my favorite in the Zelda franchise.. I haven't played it in a while This game is special for being where I realized that my Bartle type was explorer. It was a joy to watch the video filled to the brim with positive criticism. It is informative in explaining what works. I would add that there is a benefit in not having a leveling system. Link doesn't start at level 1 and go up to level 100 or whatever the cap is. This gives freedom to go wherever I want without worrying about whether a zone to going to be too hard or too easy. Link relies on upgrades scattered around Hyrule in order to get stronger. These upgrades are rewarding enough without a leveling system. This fits in with the theme of freedom and open world. This video makes me want to play the game again. I can just pick up where I left off and find new adventures to perform. Even going in the wilderness for hunting, gathering and mining is fun in and of itself. Link dies a few times in this video. I am so invested, I say "Ouch". Death is so brutal. However it is also a learning experience. Thank goodness for the automatic, frequent and multiple save points. They turn death from a devastation to a wrist slap. I think there are things to learn just from this video. Number 1, avoid lioness like the plague, unless you are really prepared. Number 2, don't swim in freezing cold water. In my current playthrough, I died that way during the Great Plateau tutorial. How embarrassing. The only way to complete it is to find a bridge and use magnesis on metal slab to bridge the gap. Pun intended. Just don't swim in the friggin water. It is not going to work. Number 3, for the love of the Triforce, always take off your metal gear during a thunderstorm.
"The world no longer felt like a playground to enjoy but a daunting world to survive"
Thank you Dark Souls.
Is Dark Souls to blame for the useless weapons that break every 5 hits and the Master Sword that stops working after every 20 swings?
@@YujiUedaFan Maybe it was Minecraft
@@TechBlade9000 Minecraft is nowhere near that bad in terms of weapon durability
@@Orange_Swirl Yeah realised that after getting addicted to the 1.17 snapshots with cave changes
More Breath of the Wild videos please! This game has so many brilliant mechanics that need more discussion and explanation.
This formula of using the entire game as preparation for the final battle is similar to Chrono Trigger.
However, in Chrono Trigger, the only way of fighting Lavos early is hours of grinding, or trying it in New Game+.
Breath of the Wild, being an action RPG, can actually allow you to fight the final boss AND win at any time.
Can't wait to see your Boss Keys video about the dungeon design in Breath of the Wild! (The main dungeons, not the shrines - there isn't anything to analyze there, really)
I also can't wait for it. Although this dungeons are small, they feel like something completely new, and they introduce really interesting concepts. If anything, I'm really excited about where they can go with these ideas in the next game.
Hope that it includes the thing in the Nabooris Dungeon how you can do the switch puzzle by making a line of metal weapons/objects to power both switches instead.
Sato I disagree. I think (some) of the shrines have very thoughtful level design.
But they are just a puzzle, not a series of different ones interconnected into one area.
I hope he talks about both Shrines and Dungeons. Overall I like the Shrines in Breath of the Wild. However I have played through the first dungeon and I didn't care for it at all.
5:06 this quote is the entire basis of why Mario Oddessey is so fun
2:53 yet another reason to look forward to the sequel: the devs confirmed they would be adding the ability to pet dogs!!
Source??
It's like Nintendo watched your Witcher 3 video and took it to heart. :D
Just recently found this channel and as an aspiring game designer, it’s quickly become one of my favorites. Top tier content for sure!
It's so heartwarming when a game come out, and everyone love it or just apreciatte the work it has behind.
Breath of the wild is the best exploration based open world game i ever play. World of hyrule is filled with secrets like shrines, mysterious ruins, mysterious creatures, mini games, korok seeds, quests, new settlements, some environmental details, etc. But they also hides this secrets most likely shrines by using vast stretches of land and it's terrains like mountains, cliffs, ruins, etc. This make finding them a navigational challenge. This force you to explore every nook and cranny to find everything. This makes world more immersive and interactive than any other open world game i ever play. Shrine quests give you many varieties in quests. Shrine follows old Nintendo rules to make their puzzles intriguing. I mean they introduced a concept in earlier part of shrines and increases challenge in later rooms. But many shrines are also one room which gives you a target but you had to find a way to solve puzzles by experimenting with its surroundings. It also causes many new ways to solve shrine puzzles. They are also physics based. It means you can find your own way to solve these puzzles. But this game has also some flaws like weapon durability system, small dungeon with same aesthetics, combat is fun because it encourages creativity but it also has too many flaws like flurry rush is broken, etc. But this game does many things better than any other games. It's main purpose are fulfilled.
I'm excited for Boss Keys with this game. The "dungeons" are much smaller geographically than previous 3D Zelda's but they are pretty creative and original in their approach, and I've felt very satisfied by them so far. It's a big departure from the usual "room, door, key, room, door, key" approach of previous games.
Steven Bowser Steven Bowser Honestly, I love this game so much. I've put over 70 hours into it and the only thing that has let me down so far, are the so called dungeons (Devine beasts)
These are not dungeons, they are glorified shrines. I finished the elephant one in 15 minutes, 20 including the boss. This was my first time going through and I did not use a guide (who would use a guide anyway)
It's honestly a massive let down. The dungeons were the biggest thing I was looking forward to. Either way, it's still an amazing game, but I hope the so called DLC adds an actual dungeon.
Short but sweet, and the 100 scattered shrines really make up for the length.
I agree that the elephant was very easy and not the best. I then went to the desert beast and it was supremely satisfying. Give the other ones a try, the elephant one is the worst.
The other ones give you more control over the beast and its movement is much more impactful and interesting for the puzzle solving. It's like being _inside_ a Rubik's Cube and you have to move it around in order to traverse the dungeon. It was challenging but always fun to me because I knew that if I observed well enough I could figure it out, and I did. I loved it.
Vah Medoh was the best one imo
Steven Bowser I actually finished all the dungeons a while ago. They're all the same, with a single gimmick. There's no variety. They aren't very interesting either. How ever, the Rito one was probably my favourite, but even that was very simple.
I love how the game rewards you different playstyles. I had to rely on lots of guides and such to discover things and figure out quests the guidebook is a godsend. But I figured out the battle mechanics on my own and literally created plans to farm lynels around the map and the guardian turrets in hyrule castle to upgrade my equipment but it never felt like grinding because the combat is very satisfying.
The amount of time it takes for the patreon credits to finish makes me happy. Great content as always :)
That file has crashed Photoshop once or twice #humblebrag
I want to say yet again that this is my favorite channel on youtube. Mr. Brown, I took your last video about Mario's jump, and am applying the same principle to different game interfaces. It has been eye-opening. You can press a button, but what can you do with a deck of cards? You can shuffle it. You can put it in any order, and distribute the cards however you wish. Cards can be face-up or face-down, reversing a card's orientation may be significant - just a few examples. Please keep being amazing!
This is exactly right! BotW is the first game I played that did open world the right way. Everything is optional but useful, no icon splurge on the map whenever you climb a tower, instead you look out and discover stuff yourself, really fun sidequests (would have liked more though), so much cool stuff to discover (animals, enemies, ruins, fossils, mysterious areas) and designed tightly enough to not feel messy or cramped (looking at you Witcher 3). On top of that it's also actually an RPG because you can decide yourself what approach you take, without leveling or boring skill trees with +5% to damage upgrades etc. One of the best games ever made.
3 yrs later, still playing it now and back here to watch this review for the 10x. Absolute masterpiece.
i really like how the game feels like there's a leveling system, when there is no exp system at all. Just hearts, clothes, equipment, and special powers
Kind of off topic but, it seems Nintendo is really trying to innovate in popular genres lately. They took a try at multiplayer shooters with a new IP in Splatoon and it turned out to be a hit. They're working on a unique approach to the fighting genre with ARMS. And mostly recently BOTW which based off critics and public reception(I've yet to start it) seems to revolutionize the Open World genre. I really appreciate Nintendo being confident enough and ambitious to want to change the way we experience these genres forever.
Mark you should analyze the world of Gothic 1-2 they are made in similar way in zelda with different approach by social interaction with npc.
Jonok So was Elder Scrolls.
not so much, they have different style to build up the world, Gothic is more driven in a invisible way TES is all about do what you want to do.
Jonok No i mean the older elder scrolls games. Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind.
In both BotW and the original Zelda you are also also driven in an "invisible" way.
Yes that is his point.
Mark. You get it. This video is a perfect picture that explains what makes BotW so amazing. Thanks for creating a fantastic video.
I am curious on what your approach is when creating an episode of GMTK. Is everything regarding GMTK a one man show (Script writing, footage gathering, editing etc.)? As a content creator myself, I hope that one day I could have videos that so well put together and well polished.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks! Yep, it's all me :D
Mark Brown that makes your series that much more amazing! My channel is also a one man show and it can be daunting at times when trying to come up with ideas for content. I'd love to see what your process is when creating an episode!
I plan to support your channel via Patreon in the near future. As your channel is one of my favorite channels on UA-cam. Again keep up the great work! :)
Mark Brown
You're doing great work, then! By far one of my favorite youtube shows
Spinning around with a dog is very relevant
take that back!
From what I took from this analysis, this game took all of the stuff of open worlds that work and get rid of what doesn't.
The sign posts remind me of the sign posts and map from earlier Elder Scrolls games. Another attribute that makes the game better.
That's honestly one of its biggest assets. It legitimately feels like Nintendo studied the genre and they analyzed which aspects work, while ditching the bs. A bit like Shovel Knight did when it comes to retro platformers. I know a lot of people harp on BoTW for not being the most innovative game ever, however I commend what Nintendo did with it. It's quite impressive and it will yield some fascinating discussions in game design circles for years to come.
I'd like to think Legend of Zelda Breath of the wild put in the horse bugs on purpose
I'm now picturing a bunch of devs in a meeting brainstorming games and things in those games they can take inspiration from, and "Skyrim horse bugs" being written in big fat letters on a whiteboard.
Even in the case of the tutorial, you can beat that part of the game any way you want too. You can complete the four shrines on the plateau in any order and can use a number of different solutions for any given obstacle, one notable example being the cold climate surrounding Mt Hylia. Link can trade a specific meal in order to acquire the warm doublet, or he can just use the hot food itself to navigate his way to the peak, where the king will give it to him as a reward.
One very small feature I wish BOTW had was the option for Link to sit down. You have this gorgeous, quiet, scenery, but Link himself can never relax and appreciate it without skipping about six hours of the day at a campfire. It's amusing to think of what idle animations he might have and other possibilities could open up as a result of the player just slowing for a moment, like in the Champion's Ballad where you have to wait for the sun to rise over the sea to open up a shrine or for a dragon to fly down a gorge so you can hit it's horns (which is a neat way that the game drops the hint that the horns are the best place to strike a dragon -- as if the Shekiah monks are actively trying to teach the player about the world and give him more conceptual tools to fight Ganon as well as physical ones, like the Shekiah slate.)
While the mechanic of preparing for Ganon is clever, it's something of an illusion. Even a semi-competent player doesn't need to beat even half of the game's content to be in a position to beat Ganon. This is okay because not every player is going to be up to the same skill level, and requiring the player to go that far would have the effect of limiting their options too much again, but it can make the fight somewhat anticlimactic considering just how many hours of "training" Link puts in towards bringing him down. Ganon honestly feels cornered by the time you beat the DLC content.
A way to perhaps address this would be to make Ganon's difficulty scale based on how much time has passed, but that might needlessly complicate matters and frustrate plays looking for the ultimate boss-rush challenge by making them wait.
The game only marks the main questline on your map if you feel like going to Kakariko in the first place, but if the player was adventurous enough not to listen to much of what that silly old man said in the tutorial, they probably won't follow his lead. In which case, the player can stumble across them on their own.
I was guilty of following the nav points in my play-through, but the game is so rich with adventure that I often go sidetracked and did much of it undirected anyway.
A second playthrough won't rectify that, but I'll be up for the challenge when it comes to doing it all again in master mode, and I'll make a point of using the pro hud and turning of the Shekiah sensor.
But you can't pet the dogs. 9/10 needs dog pets.
Sam Shields you can pet dogs if you remove your amour.
Next patch better add a message telling you about naked dog petting.
...That sounds really wrong, but I'm posting the comment anyways.
suddenly nintendogs
Why would anyone add a dog when there is already wolf Link...
Michael Ward I can't believe you never changed this for weapon xD
Pro HUD is an absolute must. I have never played this game with the HUD on, and it’s been amazing
I follow the channel for a while now and always wanted to watch this video, but wouldn't watch until I finished playing the game. Now, after 6 years, I finally finished the game, just to find that the video contained no major spoilers LOL
Something interesting is that those yellow dot markers will only appear if the person who assigned the task to you already told you to go there. They're more reminders than anything, and they save you time scouring the map for the name of the location. If the questgiver didn't tell you where to go, like in quests where they tell you to bring them enough of a certain item or if they just don't _know_ where you should go, the yellow dots will instead show you where the questgiver is.
If you play Breath of the Wild, I would recommend that once you get beyond the sort of "tutorial" section, turn off all of the quest objectives and set the HUD to "Pro" to explore for a while. Things are incredibly reward to find when you have no direction. It's what I did.
I usually preffer to have at least *some* direction, so I really appreciate having the option to use basic markers and a minimap. Even with those on I've still lost myself exploring so many times, and I've usually ended up finding my way to those areas when I wasn't even intending to go that way, like with the Zoras.
I agree, knowing my destination and location does not stifle my creativity or curiosity one bit. I don't know why people assume that it does.
I think sometime without map markers is nice because it forces you to find things to do. When you find a major settlement or landmark without a marker, it really feels like you've discovered it instead of it feeling like you've followed a guide.
Casey Legolopi I did that. Then, I froze to death. Turned it on again. Should probably turn it off again, but I'm already 80 hours into the game
I dunno I appreciated knowing the names of landmarks. There's no other good way to do that
The example he cherrypicked with the rivers was good actually, but signs get more sparse the farther you get from necluda.. and it is easy to get turned around. In a game that took me 200 hours to beat WITH the map, I'm thinking without it I'd still have barely anything done.
Really enjoying these videos you are making. Was introduced to it by a co-worker and have been watching hour after hour of them. It's great to listen to someone who looks at video games from a creator and artistic sort of view.The Same way that I do, thanks, Mark Brown! Appreciate the hard work that goes into these quality videos, keep it up!
Help my Switch needs an ambulance!!
Wii U Wii U Wii U Wii U Wii U
Someone upvote this comment now!
TheLuisberg Top Commentor I ruined the 100 likes
. . .
🤣🤣🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
then instead of saving my Switch I just play botw on the Wii U instead
Awesome video. Still not able to play the game but I couldn't resist the urge to see a video of yours.
Thanks, Mark.
This video was not made, it was crafted. your insignt on the game is inspiring. I have checked out Horizon Zero Dawn together with Breath of the Wild, and I feel exactly the same. The limits of Horizon and artificial "borders" make me feel like i what to go back to Zelda every time i play it. Besied all of these "dumb" paths in LoZBotW, that you take (for example climb a hill instead of taking the road) - just creates this sense of wonder.
Most of Zelda games was a gamechanger of sorts - but this one (in an industry where open world - is jsut must have becasue you need to stall the player not to finish the main story too fast - becasue it is not that long) made me understand why Nintendo spends so much time on their games. They craft games, not make them.
Makcraft
"Instead of taking a minute to walk around this mountain, I'm going to spend 15 minutes trying (and failing) at climbing it!"
This game is a piece of art.
The soundtrack at 9:40 gives me the chills how good it is, and this is awesome for a game.
Listening to the only the audio of the video keeps spoilers to a minimum while still being entertaining and interesting.
Thanks Mark for making this video as spoiler free as possible, I'm waiting a while before buying the console and it's becoming complicated to play a game these days without getting spoiled.
Botw has the best horse riding system. we can attack with weapon like an cavalry warrior or point arrow accurately while riding on the horse. The control is so well and if you miss the attack or shoot you know that is our own fault , not the mechanism failed. No any game can do that well in the open world game where object are freely moving around. Most of the game the horse itself has too many bugs and stuck on the environment
My favourite part of BOTW is getting lost and finding my way to a location with a blind map. I remember I was trying to find Zora's Domain and went completely off tangent and off a cliffside and got separated from my horse. I stole a horse from a Bokoblin which I named Coco and tried to find my way south east, STILL looking for Zora's Domain while my map was blank. The whole time I've just been hoping to find a town and try not to lose my horse by climbing up a mountain and accidentally unspawning it.
It was my greatest relief when I found Lurelin Village and it became one of my favourite towns because of the exhausting travel it took for me to get to it. I was then hoping to find a stable and had the fright of my life when I reached the Faron's rainforest and nearly got struck by lightning way too many times. I immediately got the map from the tower and found my way to the stable. I got emotional to let Coco go. I already had 5 horses who had better stats than him. We've been through a lot together and now we have to part ways. ;n;
It was the best adventure I had in BOTW and I only wish I can wipe my memory of the game so I can experience the blind adventure again. :)
"Can go anywhere you can see that interests you"
Except Mount Agaat.
I always wondered what is up there, maybe the dlc dungeon?
I just tried climbing up there last week and was disappointed to realize that I couldn't... why is it even labeled on the map!!
I've played this game for over 60 hours and still I didn't see many of the places you have shown in this video. I love that
"Hey, you need to find these 800 eggs!"
"Oh is it mandatory because I don't really want to."
"No, it's not mandatory."
"Oh ok-"
"Unless you want to get the TRUE ENDING"
"goddam-"
The main thing that many modern open world games are missing and what BotW apparently offers in spades is a sense of mystery. Most games think they have to give you all information from the start and make all the activities and mechanics super clear, but that only makes the entire world feel artificial.
Games like BotW, Gothic, Deus Ex or Dark Souls, on the other hand, throw you into a big world filled with secrets, hidden treasures and stories you might completely miss if you're not careful. It feels mysterious, even scary at first, but also exciting. These games trust the player to go out, explore and interact with the world organically, not just pick up 50 stupid collectibles that might as well be from a completely different game. And that Eureka feeling when you notice a hidden passage after walking past it 20 times, find the hidden strength of a seemingly useless item or overcome an enemy by thinking out of the box and using the environment against them, that's often stronger than anything in 20 hours of filling checklists and having mediocre fun.
OK, let me ask this. Is anybody reminded of the Omnidroid from "The Incredibles" when looking at the Guardians?
Yes. Those legs are identical.
Wonder if someone could use both designs to create new enemies.
"The only think hard enough to penetrate it is..." * shield reflect flashback * "...itself."
Who could dislike this guy's stuff? It's one of the best game channels I've seen by a wide margin.
To be fair, The Witcher 3 is more about narrative payoffs and it's writing then about exploration. The same goes for how Horizon handles it's opening. It keeps you from the world until after the Proving to make it clear how little Aloy knows about the world, and to make her awe and excitement at see the rest of the world more felt by the player. (I can say, having left The Embrace recently myself, the sight of a Tallneck walking through ruins with Aloy watching from the Cliffside was breathtaking, and really made me stop and take in the world) A lot of critics have been calling Zelda BoTW the new standard for open worlds, but it's nice to see that you acknowledge that open worlds aren't only about one thing, and can be used for a variety of purposes.
I know this is 6 years late, but after seeing all of your Zelda Boss Keys series, I would totally be down for you doing 45-1hr Zelda breakdowns.
I WONDERED if anyone ever went straight to the coliseum from the plateau. it's kinda riiight there. Really, trying to examine what the designers sort of 'intended' and expected you to do is easily half the fun in this game once you've beaten most of it.. analyzing and re-analyzing where things are located relative to other things..
the way I keep getting surprised at which things are near which things actually reminds me of how if you extract and analyze a lot of older PC game maps you'd find they actually loop in on themselves like a bunch of intestines, but while you're playing you THINK you're really far away.. in reality right across that wall is where you started.. or how if you do the same in a 2d game you find everything, all textures, map files, whatever, are stored in an efficient smushed-together package
So here for the first time there's not one single inaccessible square inch in Hyral meaning A) it's a giant square (which they werent really obligated to do, if you think about it), and B) every spot is squished up against every other spot.. so everything has to go SOMEwhere, and that means it's "on the way" if you take a certain path.
I can't count how many times I came up "Behind" something, and only later saw the "front door" that simply wasn't in my line of sight, and seemed to far away to run to while i was busy climbing this way.
3 years late, but I haven't found this coliseum in either of my two playthroughts, somehow.
@@legrandliseurtri7495 That's incredible! it's one of the really obvious landmarks in the area around the plateau. At the same time, not only does nothing important lead to it, the standard path to it is fucking hazardous and it requires you to go AWAY from your first goal, so I can imagine going toward it and NOPEing out, on the road to Kakariko.
I remember once I was exploring hyrule on my second playthrough and I had never killed a lynel before, so one time, after getting through a hinox, some other enemies and solved a Kass riddle, I got to a peninsular, and there was a lynel perfectly position for a dramatic boss battle and I killed it. There was also 600 rupees in the chest behind it so it felt like a proper reward, it just shows you don't need linear story telling to have dramatic experiences.
Excuse you; playing with dogs is ALWAYS a relevant activity.
The is the best video about the game I've seen so far explaining how well Breath of the Wild conveys it's sense of adventure with it's open world. Excellent video!
I have a lot to say but thank you for making a video where you compare Breath of the Wild to other games and never mention Dark Souls
Well I can't do that in EVERY video :P
I feel like I owe you money already for all of the good content I've watched. Signing up for your patreon tonight man. :)
Thank you Larry!
Breath of the Wild fills in what Witcher 3 lacked, and that is no criticism of CD Projekts masterpiece... While playing Gerald's adventure, more often than not I wished to explore more of the forests and country-sides around, I remember being utterly bored in cities and so on. And Nintendo's latest Zelda just hits the spot for me, it gives me that exploration feel. Lovely.
Excellent video as always! I'll admit: for the first time on my life, I played the original Zelda for NES last two weeks, drawning my own map, discover by myself the secrets of the game and about the series. And all this was possible because of your last video!
Thanks Mark! And sorry about my terrible english!
Awesome!
My only real problem with the game was the dungeons. All four of them felt to visually similar and I found them to be too easy(I was never stumped and never died in any of them).
Besides that, BOTW is definitely one of the best open world games I've played, because a lot more exploration is involved, rather than simply going from point A, to point B, to point C.
Aimela well, Vah Noboris was pretty hard.
+EPM 101
I personally didn't think so. I felt that all of the main dungeons had generally the same difficulty level, I would have liked more variation with that.
Yeah, I was bummed about the dungeons, or lack thereof depending on how you look at it. Even the first Legend of Zelda game had decent dungeons. The ones in Breath of the Wild don't really feel much like LoZ dungeons.
divide two Yea but Xenoblade Chronicles X is too difficult to get into. And its also crap how your forced to randomly go around and get collectibles for quest with no hints to where they are.
Loving this game so much. Just spent about 3 hours just wandering around looking for things. Found hidden caves, got stranded on an island with no items, took a glide through a canyon. It's all just pure choose your own adventure. I'm not quite ready to take on Hyrule castle yet but a few more shrines to get some extra health and I should be. There's whole areas of this game I've not even explored yet. Genuinely a magical experience.
The climbing mechanism is also taken directly from shadow of the colossus
@Jumbo Jango no you fucks. You could not climb EVERYTHING in those games
I LOVE this video. I think it hits everything perfectly on the head when people complain about this game- "not enough story, combat sucks, where do I go?"
Thex point of this game was to be an adventure- and it absolutely nails that by kicking other conventional open world staples. People say that if you took Zelda out of the title it's just another open world game. However, I truly believe that, on its own, it stands out from the Witcher, Skyrim, etc. because of the freedom it gives the player
That was beautiful. I waited for you to discuss BOTW! :D
Say... what do you think about the breakable weapon system in the game?
A little annoying but it makes a lot of sense - it leads to really dynamic fights, encourages improvised kills and using different weapons, avoids anyone becoming overpowered in hour 1, makes finding new weapons always exciting. Benefits outweigh the drawbacks in my opinion.
Mark Brown Well said! I think people who hate on it just need to get over the fact that they'll have to part ways with (most) their gear after a short while. I think a lot of the fun and balancing hinges on that.
IMO the really bad part about the weapon system is not necessarily them actually breaking, but the fact you have to pause mid-combat just to switch to a new weapon. Really breaks the flow.
Taliias There's that too. Though it doesn't bother me too much to be honest. Maybe they could auto equip your next weapon when your current one breaks.
But if we're griping about the inventory, I wish there were more sorting options. Like an option to sort your gear/food in increasing/decreasing power regardless of type.
IMO it's one of the worst parts of the game: they break too fast. It wouldn't be an issue with a system to repair them, or if you would start with a bigger storage limit, or if the cost to make it bigger would be cheaper.
This might be the best analysis I’ve seen on BotW yet. 10/10 video for a 10/10 game.
I feel like everyone is overlooking how front-loaded the difficulty is.
What does that mean
That's the case for practically every open world game.
Yeah, that’s why now that I’ve beaten the game completely I have five saves that we’re just me playing on the great platue again. I guess that’s what makes eventide so great though
I love rewatching this videos from time to time
so it took 16 years to re-discover level design approach of Gothic.. I'd say it's about time
DS did it though, but I think BOTW is the first to use it in a true open world
I think old-school dungeon crawlers and RPGs had a similar vibe - you're exploring a world with just a few progression blocks and nobody prevents you from stepping into a cave with a huge cyclops that will wipe the floor with your low-level party. Some of these games even had you draw your own dungeon maps on paper instead of uncovering them on a in-game feature.
And Deus Ex, and Morrowind. Technically its all Oblivion's fault.
I had exactly the same thought.
i liked the gothic open word design, i always say why people don use the Gothic example, good news to hear there are an modern good example, just let me tell you that botw was that miyamoto wanted to do in 1986 in firts zelda.
0:40
Wow, that sunlight looks amazing on the Lynel!
Almost a redundant statement at his stage but great video, mate. Can't wait to get a Switch and play BoTW.....eventually...
That music that starts at 2:56 gave me a flashback when I played Zelda in March for 15h a day. It was the first game since Skyrim in 2011 when I got really addicted to a game.