Wright said: Really? I felt the dungeons and shrines very detaching in BoTW. That's not to say I disagree with your notion of other Zelda games being looked upon their dungeons rather than the world, the later being something that BoTW does in a fantastic way, always full of life. But the Divine Beasts acted the very same and the approach was constrained by the linearity of the gimmick arrow/goron battle, and basic, unavoidable puzzles to activate the core and spawn the boss. And shrines were always halved by a loading screen and the very same room with variations; sometimes offering a 10 second challenge and some others requiring more time, but never escaping the mantra of repetitiveness. A Link Between Worlds allowed for freedom within the world and approaching its challenges, but it maintained the spirit of the franchise itself much better, I'd say. Precisely because BoTW chooses the different path - the world - is what makes it a very strikingly different Zelda game. If this becomes the norm now, then I guess most of what I'm saying will be meaningless when more Zelda games keep coming, but as for now it seems for me like the odd game, similar (but miles better) to what Link's Adventure was.
As I told Wyrdness, the way you approach the world, its inhabitants and its dungeons reminds me much more of Link's Adventure, rather than the original one, which was pretty much dungeon-oriented for the main part (unless you're alluding to shrines here). |
The Beasts in BOTW are very much a part of the world you see them moving around and the effect they have on the world and even when exploring them you see the rest of Hyrule from them as opposed to other games where you enter them and it's a completely segregated area, dungeons never felt like part of Hyrule previously. In previous games one of the biggest problems with dungeons was that you get a load of items that have no use outside of the dungeons you find them and some items get replaced by others, essentially a load of clutter, in the end game it was only ever the bombs, bow and hookshot that were important throughout.
ALBW worlds suffered from the same issue as other games being dictated by dungeons you could just do them in any order provided you bought/rented the right item, it was minor freedom at the end of the day the only game that really detracted from things was SS which took a more Metroid like approach and is the foundation from BOTW's template. Aonuma has already said BOTW's template is what Zelda will be built on thankfully, taking a different path doesn't make it a bad Zelda game in fact this case it made it the best one solving a load of problems for the series and its future.