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Veknoid_Outcast on 30 September 2018
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HoloDust said:
Veknoid_Outcast said:

I wouldn't be so quick to label those who hold BotW aloft as either ignorant or inattentive. I think you can make a solid case for its exceptional qualities as an open-world experience.

I too have absorbed a great deal of Zelda titles and open-world games, and I am confident that it's the best of both categories.

There's nothing in BotW that's unique per se, but the way in which it folds together several different physical, chemical, mechanical, and general gameplay systems is extraordinary.

Think of the ways the player interacts with the game environment. Yes, there are the usual open-world staples, like the ability to delay the main quest and experiment with the surrounding sandbox, but there are also scores of intentional and unintentional gameplay scenarios created by realistic weather, complex artificial intelligence, chemical reactions, physical reactions, and Link's rune abilities -- magnesis, stasis, cryonis. Not only can Link change the environment around him, by interacting with flora, fauna, and inanimate objects (each of which has its own chemical and physical reactions), but he can stop the flow of time, freeze water, and manipulate metal objects. He can electrocute enemies in a lightning storm by throwing a metal sword into the fray. He can trick a Moblin into striking a Cuckoo, which will summon a vengeful swarm. He can use a leaf to propel a sailboat. 

Then there's the spatial freedom allowed by climbing, which is informed by friction/stamina and weather systems; and improvisational combat, dependent on weapon fragility/durability; and food preparation, which opens up many new avenues for experimentation.

I haven't encountered a game that unpacks all these different ideas and mechanics as masterfully as Breath of the Wild.

BotW is very fun sandbox game - but it's pretty average open-world game - and those two terms are something that many seem to confuse or even eqaute.

As I said earlier, people do tend to mostly praise it for its "fuck around" mechanisms - politely known as sandbox. Yes, some of its mechanisms are quite fun (until you try something like choping bokoblin tower and your axe goes through it like it doesn't exists and you realize how limited those mechanisms in fact are), yet I find something like Just Cause to be vastly superior as fuck around game. Why it's not rated higher and showered with praise? Because it doesn't have Zelda or any big IP coat of paint.

While many find some of those mechanisms enhancing the game, I actually find some of them detrimental - especially climbing in this form breaks the world design, that is already not so great to begin with. If anything, BotW is for me perfect example of how loosely intertwined mechanisms, world design and character abilites can actually ruin open-world game, making it fuck around game.

And, IMO, Zelda should not be fuck around game - exploration, yes, by all means...and that is where open-world should come in - a well thought out open-world, designed to properly  accomodate for exploration, puzzles and story. Nintendo only needs to look a bit further in the past for some games and take some notes from them and build on it, instead of being mostly influenced by more modern designs (Just Cause included) and making mishmash of what current mass-market expects.

Listen, I get that you want a Zelda game in the Ocarina/Wind Waker/Twilight Princess mold—I too love that formula—but you’re not exactly engaging with or disproving my point. I spent a long time explaining how the game is special, and you just dismiss it all as a “fuck around” game. 

Can you point to an open-world game that does what Breath of the Wild does, in terms of emergent gameplay and environmental manipulation? Please do so, because I’d love to play it.