The Official Legend of Zelda Thread: Echoes of Wisdom Sells 2.58 Million Units

[The_Liquid_Laser]

HylianSwordsman said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

Depends on what you mean by combat. 

If you mean just the basic swordplay, then I kind of think of the combat as decent but nothing special.  But then again, I don't really like the combat in most 3D games.  (I like Hyrule Warriors and the Dynasty Warriors type of games, but that is mostly it.)  BotW's basic combat is better than the God of War series basic combat, but overall it wasn't anything special.

On the other hand if you think of combat as being the physics engine and the environment plus all of the things you can do, i.e. magnetism, archery, wands, korok leaf, etc..., then yeah the combat is super fun.  I've never encountered anything like it and the possibilities seem endless.  If you think of combat as "every possible way to defeat an enemy", then it's one of the main draws of the whole game.

When one group says the combat is great and another says it's "meh", they might be talking about two different things.

Hmm, that's an interesting way of thinking about it. I guess if I had to reduce combat to the "basic combat" systems and swordplay, I actually like Twilight Princess' combat the best, but it doesn't feel right to say that because in BotW the elements of the more expanded definition feel like a natural part of it that fits in organically. It doesn't feel right to separate them. Kind of like Minecraft. If you reduce Minecraft's combat to swords and bows and arrows, it has some of the shittiest combat in 3D gaming. But combat in Minecraft is so much more than that, and everyone knows it. It's the whole experience of dealing with enemies. The combat system in games with elaborate physics and chemistry engines become more than the some of their parts because they integrate with all the other systems seamlessly.

Heh, I do, in fact, consider Minecraft to have some of the shittiest combat in all of gaming.

It might have something to do with what a person wants out of a game though.  If I want a satisfying experience of Link hitting things with a sword then I will play Smash Bros or Hyrule Warriors or one of the old NES Zeldas.  Swordplay in all of those games is satisfying.  But if I want a huge world where I can explore and overcome the challenges however I choose, then BotW is by far the best choice.

So in some other thread I might be one of those people who says the combat in BotW isn't so great, but I mean the basic swordplay.  Taken as a whole, in the context of the whole game, the combat is extremely fun.