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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Why BotW's review scores will be lower than expected

irstupid said:
Man you guys really gave the troll the food he wanted.

Yup, and that was a very hungry troll BTW, lol




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BotW is going to finally dethrone OoT. I have been a gamer for a looong time and this game is definitely going to live up to the hype. This is not another No Mans Sky, where it obviously has glaring issues, yet people still ate it up. No, this game has had so much exposure and hands-on by people everywhere and yet you would be hard-pressed to find someone say something negative about the game. Experience over the years tells me this game is the real deal and that it will deliver more than I even expect. This will be the game of the generation.



Zelda will still score well but reviewers get more harsh when a genre has more competition to review against or comparatively to. Zelda has never had that type of competition until now since the WItcher 3, Skyrim and Final Fantasy 15 came out. They were lucky to have been alone in their type of open world for some time, but that time is definitely over now. They most likely have added mechanics that are from newer games as well as their old ones.



I don't really think any of your points is relevant for the score



Wildcard36qs said:
BotW is going to finally dethrone OoT. I have been a gamer for a looong time and this game is definitely going to live up to the hype. This is not another No Mans Sky, where it obviously has glaring issues, yet people still ate it up. No, this game has had so much exposure and hands-on by people everywhere and yet you would be hard-pressed to find someone say something negative about the game. Experience over the years tells me this game is the real deal and that it will deliver more than I even expect. This will be the game of the generation.

Its tough to do that when there is a lot of competition. Oot came out in a time when what it was doing was novel. People forget that review scores are a reflection of the time period and not a basis for all time.



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S.T.A.G.E. said:

Its tough to do that when there is a lot of competition. Oot came out in a time when what it was doing was novel. People forget that review scores are a reflection of the time period and not a basis for all time.

I agree, but I still believe that it will happen. Nintendo is hitting all the best nostalgia points and improving on them. It also helps that the game has taken so long and has only improved each showing. People are desparate for this game, for good reason.



If fucking Skyward Sword could wind up with a 93, I have no doubt that BotW will at least wind up with a 90.



S.T.A.G.E. said:

Zelda will still score well but reviewers get more harsh when a genre has more competition to review against or comparatively to. Zelda has never had that type of competition until now since the WItcher 3, Skyrim and Final Fantasy 15 came out. They were lucky to have been alone in their type of open world for some time, but that time is definitely over now. They most likely have added mechanics that are from newer games as well as their old ones.

Open world doesn't make Zelda BotW same like other games on market, 3D Zelda games were always pretty different to rest of games on market.



Miyamotoo said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:

Zelda will still score well but reviewers get more harsh when a genre has more competition to review against or comparatively to. Zelda has never had that type of competition until now since the WItcher 3, Skyrim and Final Fantasy 15 came out. They were lucky to have been alone in their type of open world for some time, but that time is definitely over now. They most likely have added mechanics that are from newer games as well as their old ones.

Open world doesn't make Zelda BotW same like other games on market, 3D Zelda games were always pretty different to rest of games on market.

Its open world fantasy action with soft rpg elements. There will be some overlap when they are reviewing. All of those games learned from Zelda and I am sure Nintendo has been watching the list of great open world fantasy rpg's that have come out. Zelda is the basis for open world RPG even though it isnt considered one itself. There are also no leveling mechanics for your character.



irstupid said:
Man you guys really gave the troll the food he wanted.

I find it funny how you automatically assume I'm a troll when I stated that these are nitpicks that MAY happen.

darkrulier said:
monocle_layton said:

I see many people (including I) expecting the game to score at least a ninety. After looking at BotW and seeing the five years of its creation, I think there will be a rather wide gap in reviews ranging from the low seventy's to close to one hundred. Here is the logic to my thinking. I have bolded the main points for convenience. 

 

1) Long wait

There is no point in denying this- we waited very long for this game. Delay after delay, we eventually had concerns of the Wii U's version being cancelled. Thankfully, that isn't the case, and we shall finally be able to play the game in exactly ten days.

"What the hell is your point then?" you may ask.

To establish my point, I'd like to refer to a game which was delayed for more than twice as long as Breath of the Wild- Final Fantasy XV. If you were to read many reviews and listen to opinions of gamers, a decent amount of people felt as though the wait did not compensate for the final product. With the lofty standards we typically put on the Legend of Zelda series, who is to say reviewers will not remove points for similar reasons? 

 

2) Lack of Wii U exclusivity 

While the majority of people do not view this as an issue (I honestly don't), I feel like there may be someone who will nitpick and lower their intial score due to this. Many people anticipated this game to be the final gem to a forgettable console, so seeing it be shared with the Switch was anticipated for two reasons- at the same time, it definitely sent the Wii U down to the center of the earth. 

At the same time, Twilight Princess was released on both the Gamecube and Wii. Is this simply a tradition from Nintendo, or did they do cross-platform releases due to the Gamecube not being successful? depending on how a reviewer may view the situation, this may change their reception of this game.

 

3) Poor DLC execution

Many people felt a bit disappointed when they say the season pass. While the third DLC release did have content, the first two "packs" felt like a rushed attempt to make the $20 price tag worth it. 

Will this affect me? Personally, no. Keep in mind however that reviewers may also take the DLC into consideration when playing the game. After all, it is still part of the game- it is just locked behind a paywall. They may lower their review due to the actually desired DLC (excluding the "new hard mode") will not arrive for quite some time. It would be completely justified for them to be disappointed in what will be given at the beginning.

 

4) Differences between Wii U and Switch

As we know, the Switch in docked mode is equivalent to approximately eighty percent of the Xbox One's power. When undocked however, it is closer to a more powerful Wii U. Does this mean the Switch will create Nintendoom? No, but the lack of an insane difference between the Wii U and Switch version will probably bring grumbles from the graphic-obsessed gamers. 

I do not condemn people who desire the highest resolution in 60fps+ gameplay. I just don't want anyone to criticize the Switch version for not bringing major improvements versus the Wii U version.

 

5) voice acting and open-world gameplay

We have never receiving voice acting in a Zelda game- that is, any good Zelda game (Legend of Zelda CD-i is a pure mess). We are also being introduced to open-world gameplay in the series. Add in additional new features, and we are basically departing from the traditional Zelda games we are used to. 

I anticipate some reviewers slashing off points due to it "not being an actual Zelda game". From time to time, we have always seen nostalgia and presence of change cause anger from some people. We see it from Pokemon all the time. We need Kanto back, the original starters were cool, Brock was the best waifu, etc. This constant reference to the past hinders some series due to people always pushing away change. It'd be a disappointment if Breath of the Wild was given lukewarm treatment just because it is different from other Zelda games.

 

Conclusion/TL;DR:

No, this isn't a "Breath of the Wild is a failure" thread- it is the opposite. It will definitely sell well, but I am concerned that we will see a lot of nitpicking from reviewers. Worst case scenario, the game gets a score around the low eighties and is still a tremendous game. Just because it does not excel ninety, that does not signify that it is trash or anything bad. 

You don't know what you're talking dude, none of you reasons matter when reviewing a game. Game reviews are based on how well the game is made, is it fun to play? is there enough content? are graphics, sound and storyline good???  That's what matter and a range starting in the low 70's?????????? FOR A ZELDA GAME?????? yeah right...

Perhaps if you didn't just skip everything I said, you'd realize the low seventy's to one hundred comment was referring to single reviews, not the overall score.

 

A bummer how I'm automatically tied to being a troll just because I say something that wasn't 100% correct.