6th March 2017, 10:00 PM
(This post was last modified: 7th March 2017, 10:14 AM by A Black Falcon.)
So I've watched several hours of BotW footage, and it looks alright, but has some real issues.
On the positive side, the graphics are great, first. Yes, the art style doesn't match the series' best-looking game, TP, and technically it doesn't match the kind of graphics modern PC/etc. games can do, but it looks really nice for the hardware, and the art direction is very good.
Additionally, at least some elements of world exploration look like they could be fun. I really like that it lets you put icons on the map instead of doing that for you, and the shrines and dungeons look fun. Some elements of trying to get places in the overworld could be fun too, but I think that's get old after a bit, because of some of the issues below. Combat also looks alright, though apparently you have fewer moves than you do in some previous 3d Zelda games, which is unfortunate.
But for the negatives, the big ones are the stamina, weapon-durability, and food systems, as well as the directionless nature of open world games as well of course, since I always end up either overwhelmed by choice or bored by the things after a while. That latter issue is a huge one and I'm very doubtful about if I'll ever finish this game whenever it is I get it, since the world is huge and I doubt I'd stay interested long enough to get through its apparently quite lengthy run.
But as for those former issues... first on stamina, is there actually someone out there who likes stamina systems? Anyone? Or does everyone hate them, but accept the things because they make this kind of games harder? Because seriously, they're so annoying! That there's actually a Zelda game where you can drown when you run out of stamina, climb only for a limited amount of time, etc... that would be so, so annoying, and I do not think that that is good design. And then the game also has weapon durability, which is just as bad or maybe even worse! Apparently it isn't even directly shown with a durability meter, and preferably a way to repair things like slightly less irritating weapon durability like better-designed games have, but instead it just warns you when something is about to break, which sounds like it happens all the time. Sure, weapons are apparently plentiful, but forcing people to constantly switch weapons is not great design, particularly when you have such a limited inventory. Weapon durability does work in the Fire Emblem games or some others, so you can do it right, but it's a difficult thing to do well and those weapons last a lot longer than these sound like they do. And then in contrast armor never breaks, which is strange compared to the constantly failing weapons and shields. Huh.
And last, food and the crafting system... well, with how much I hate almost all crafting in games, it is probably unsurprising that this one sounds kind of terrible. If you just collected ingredients and then chose things from a list of things you can make, okay, it'd work, but you don't. You have to choose the ingredients, and it apparently never has any kind of in-game list of which recipes make something and which just waste your food! Why would you actually do anything ever that way, that's terrible! There is no reason to have such an annoyingly unhelpful crafting system today; this would encourage me to not bother trying to figure out how to use the system if you don't absolutely have to, instead of messing with the stuff -- see the Class of Heroes games, where the multi-step process that is figuring out what are good crafting combinations is enough to make me really not want to bother spending much time with it. And those games actually have a combinations list, it's just in a different place in the menus from the place where you do the crafting. This one's even worse, you'll have to guess or look them up online. Seriously, no. I do not want to do that.
On the positive side, the graphics are great, first. Yes, the art style doesn't match the series' best-looking game, TP, and technically it doesn't match the kind of graphics modern PC/etc. games can do, but it looks really nice for the hardware, and the art direction is very good.
Additionally, at least some elements of world exploration look like they could be fun. I really like that it lets you put icons on the map instead of doing that for you, and the shrines and dungeons look fun. Some elements of trying to get places in the overworld could be fun too, but I think that's get old after a bit, because of some of the issues below. Combat also looks alright, though apparently you have fewer moves than you do in some previous 3d Zelda games, which is unfortunate.
But for the negatives, the big ones are the stamina, weapon-durability, and food systems, as well as the directionless nature of open world games as well of course, since I always end up either overwhelmed by choice or bored by the things after a while. That latter issue is a huge one and I'm very doubtful about if I'll ever finish this game whenever it is I get it, since the world is huge and I doubt I'd stay interested long enough to get through its apparently quite lengthy run.
But as for those former issues... first on stamina, is there actually someone out there who likes stamina systems? Anyone? Or does everyone hate them, but accept the things because they make this kind of games harder? Because seriously, they're so annoying! That there's actually a Zelda game where you can drown when you run out of stamina, climb only for a limited amount of time, etc... that would be so, so annoying, and I do not think that that is good design. And then the game also has weapon durability, which is just as bad or maybe even worse! Apparently it isn't even directly shown with a durability meter, and preferably a way to repair things like slightly less irritating weapon durability like better-designed games have, but instead it just warns you when something is about to break, which sounds like it happens all the time. Sure, weapons are apparently plentiful, but forcing people to constantly switch weapons is not great design, particularly when you have such a limited inventory. Weapon durability does work in the Fire Emblem games or some others, so you can do it right, but it's a difficult thing to do well and those weapons last a lot longer than these sound like they do. And then in contrast armor never breaks, which is strange compared to the constantly failing weapons and shields. Huh.
And last, food and the crafting system... well, with how much I hate almost all crafting in games, it is probably unsurprising that this one sounds kind of terrible. If you just collected ingredients and then chose things from a list of things you can make, okay, it'd work, but you don't. You have to choose the ingredients, and it apparently never has any kind of in-game list of which recipes make something and which just waste your food! Why would you actually do anything ever that way, that's terrible! There is no reason to have such an annoyingly unhelpful crafting system today; this would encourage me to not bother trying to figure out how to use the system if you don't absolutely have to, instead of messing with the stuff -- see the Class of Heroes games, where the multi-step process that is figuring out what are good crafting combinations is enough to make me really not want to bother spending much time with it. And those games actually have a combinations list, it's just in a different place in the menus from the place where you do the crafting. This one's even worse, you'll have to guess or look them up online. Seriously, no. I do not want to do that.