RolStoppable said:
The shrines are fine because they are short. The divine beasts, however, are the low point of BotW. They are huge elaborate puzzles and those are really the main reason why people stop playing a Zelda game; for Ocarina of Time the Water Temple in particular is often cited as a problem, and the Water Temple is a convoluted elaborate puzzle. The style of the divine beasts should be done away with and be replaced with monster-infested dungeons of a similar size as the divine beasts were. The size and freedom of the BotW overworld is great, but all the exploring and stocking up on good equipment and items would be meaningless without Hyrule Castle. Heck, some players complained that they were too overpowered when they finally visited Hyrule Castle. Dungeons throughout the game - say, if every region has a tower, every region should also have one dungeon - would serve as checks that the player is on the right track with building up their equipment and provide diversity to the exploration of the overworld and the puzzle-solving in shrines. 30-45 minutes long dungeons for every 5-10 hours of exploring wouldn't make dungeon time take over. |
The divine beasts still serve as ‘checks’ throughout the game. Especially since they prepare you for Hyrule Castle. Its all connected, granting you more abilities, taking out one of the bosses earlier, seeing how strong you are at the current point compared to the bosses. And weakening Ganon, of course
Hyrule Castle may be the final main area and the primary reason to explore, but the DBs are as well and connect directly to Hyrule Castle to begin with. What you want is what BOTW already does, just with dungeons you prefer or, rather, what you would call ‘actual dungeons’.
I don’t recall anyone quitting BOTW over a divine beast because
1) They’re short
2) They’re not frustrating
3) You can skip them if you want to anyway
Past games, I tend to hear people getting stuck and quitting in massive, frustrating dungeons like the Water Temple. I think this would happen less with shorter dungeons and I believe BOTW has proven that. Certainly helps that you can skip them, too.
45 minutes is too long and padded. More of them + 30 minutes max seems like a better compromise.