A Breath of Fresh Air?

On 11/27/2017 at 01:08 PM by transmet2033

I just saw a tweet from Cheap Ass Gamer for pre-ordering Kingdom Hearts III. I remember when that was announced, and how it helped sell me on the PS4. I wonder if this game is ever going to come out, my interest has waned significantly in the 4 years since it was officially announced.

That is not really what I wanted to talk about today. I wanted to talk about Breath of the Wild, but as I type and review my thoughts become muddled. I have written, and deleted the following paragraphs at least a half-dozen times by this point.

This is what I know for sure, I am having very conflicted feelings about Breath of the Wild. I think that stems from the fact that BotW seems to pull equally from two different genres that I have polar opposite feelings about.
Firstly, the immersive-sim... and maybe I am mistaken. I LOVE the immersive-sim. They set you in a world, give you tools and you get to solve the puzzle... however the heck you like. I get some of the same joy when playing Breath of the Wild as I did playing Dishonored, or Prey. The game doesn't penalize you for "cheating" the system. The developers obviously pictured you solving a shrine one way, but if you find an alternate solution, awesome.

Secondly, BotW is an open-world game. I hate those games. Hate is probably too strong, but they rarely pull me in... because nowadays they are so formulaic... and BotW does take some of that formula... They have towers to climb, just like Assassin's Creed. There are other checklist-y things like Shrines and Korok seeds... That's the kind of stuff I don't like.

The thing is, that I cannot stop playing. BotW does not make any of those checklist-y things an actual checklist. In fact, climbing the tower doesn't fill in your map with a bunch of stuff to do, it just shows you the lay of the land. You have to find the shrines yourself. Finding something of interest doesn't automatically add it to your map, you have to place a marker, and hope you remember why you placed it in the middle of nowhere.

There is one other thing that bugs me a little bit about BotW. I don't feel compelled to keep moving forward with the main story. That is an issue inherent to the open-world game.

I just don't know. Am I overthinking it? Am I trying to sabotage my enjoyment of the game? I am going to keep plugging away, but I hate that I feel conflicted on the game.

Super Step Contributing Writer

11/27/2017 at 02:32 PM

I hate that open-world games make me waste time getting from point a to point b, and I too need some form of story going on to care about what I'm doing.

I feel your pain.

It's why I honestly don't think I'd like BotW, personally.

transmet2033

11/29/2017 at 08:48 AM

If i remember your tastes correctly, you would probably hate BotW.

12/04/2017 at 04:44 PM

I bet I would too. I never understood the appeal of having a "sandbox" without any clear goals.

At that point, I'd rather just go for a drive in the real world.

KnightDriver

11/27/2017 at 10:40 PM

The open world formula certainly provides a lot of distractions from the main story, making you forget what it was. The complete story really didn't hit home for me in Fable 2 until I had played it three times. The first time I was consumed with doing every side thing. The second and third time I was focused on specific achievements. That third time, though, I actually saw the main story clearly because I wasn't chasing all those other things. Open world kind of works against story telling, I think. It's hard to follow a narrative. You end up making your own side story instead.

Cary Woodham

11/28/2017 at 12:39 AM

I had a few problems with Breath of the Wild, but I certainly enjoyed it a lot more than Mario Odyssey.

11/28/2017 at 08:34 AM

Wait, how did I miss that you are apparently the only person to not enjoy Mario Odyssey?

11/29/2017 at 12:30 AM

Oh I enjoyed Mario Odysssey, I just enjoyed Zelda so much more.

11/29/2017 at 09:31 AM

I boarded the first Divnie Beast last night, and tinkered around a little bit. I was a little underwhelmed, but maybe as I finish it up I will feel better about it.

I did watch my brother-in-law play a little bit of Mario Odyssey... I really want to play that game so bad. It looked like so much fun.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

11/28/2017 at 06:24 PM

I hear you about Zelda. Still, it's a damn amazing game. It's just different. I will say it's one of the best open world games I've ever played though.

11/29/2017 at 09:09 AM

I will not deny how fantastic the game it, but there is just something that isnt for me.

NintendoFanJon

11/30/2017 at 06:20 PM

For me BoTW was great for the exploration aspect. The problem with it though was that it's quite a bare game. It's been a complaint of mine for a while in most open world games and especially some other Zelda games had this problem too. Wind Waker had a bare ocean, Twilight Princess had a bare hyrule field, and Skyward Sword had a bare sky. Maybe they'll get it right and BoTW certainly is making a step in that direction. Take what people say worked, maybe do a crafting system for better weapon durability, and make it so that the story doesn't take a backseat as much as it did in BoTW. Hopefully the 2nd DLC does something to rectify this.

12/01/2017 at 11:25 AM

Eventhough there is quite a bit of space between points of interest, they are scattered just so that it's so eay to get distracted... or pulled halway across the map because a tower looks so much closer than it really is.

goaztecs

12/04/2017 at 11:33 AM

CAG! I used to use that site relgiously. Now sometimes I check it once a week, but I'm using looking through r/gamedeals on Reddit, but I still listen to their podcast.

I like that some open world games give you the option of taking your time through a game, so your experience isn't the same as someone else's, but it is nice to have some structure to move you along from A, to B, and so on.

12/04/2017 at 12:33 PM

I find that it is most effective for me to build a wishlist on a specific platform and check it to see if anything is on sale whenever the weekly reset occurs.

Machocruz

12/05/2017 at 06:53 PM

Old open world games like Ultima were the original immersive sims. But they're smaller world scale and focus on the main adventure meant they avoided the pitfalls of modern open world games. An open world used to be just that, a world. Not an amusement park, but something to heighten the sense of adventure and immersion.

12/06/2017 at 09:49 AM

Yes, you have summed up exactly how I feel about open-world games.... i want a world, not an amusement park.

PixlBit