Slownenberg said:
Well then I'm gonna have to take your opinion on Elden Ring being a few grades above Zelda with a grain a salt, considering you found BotW to be weak while I find it to be incredible and the exploration is just insane - I usually end up spending 2 to 5 hours just exploring between two points of interest in the game that I could travel between in like 15 or so minutes if I just went straight there, and that just keeps happening over and over. It's an absolute delight. I think all Nintendo needs to do is build on what they created in BotW. Tinker with things they think they can improve, give us plenty more areas to explore different from the first game, but the main thing is just add in a bunch more content (like more enemy types, more enemy points of interest, normal Zelda dungeons, and much more of a story with gameplay plot points). Considering they are spending five years on the game despite having a huge base to start from thanks to the first game, I gotta figure the sequel is going to have the same incredible exploration as the first but up the content by a lot. Which is saying a lot, considering based on being 50 hours in right now I'm pretty damn sure the first game is gonna take me over 200 hours. |
"give us plenty more areas to explore different from the first game, but the main thing is just add in a bunch more content (like more enemy types, more enemy points of interest, normal Zelda dungeons, and much more of a story with gameplay plot points)."
And that is part of the reason I found it weak - as an idea it was very good, I just didn't care much for execution - for me it felt like very advanced prototype, with lot of features not finished or cut out - that's why I'm hoping BotW2 will rectify all those things (and much more). I've played once through it, and (due to my older son being on autism spectrum) I had to sit through his whole playthrough as well - and let's just say, I liked it even less the second time.
As for Elden Ring - maybe you will some day play it and see what I mean. Elden Ring was advertised as open-world Souls game, and it delivered exquisitely on that promise. It's not perfect, especially if one is hoping for full RPG experience (as with all Souls, it is completely exploration and combat oriented, with 3rd (social) pillar being very rudimentary), but it feels and plays like Souls games and really shines at it.
Mnementh said:
In regards to BOTW influence - Hidetaka Miyazaki said he was impressed by BOTW and it influenced his design. The funny thing is, that many games took inspiration from things present in Breath of the Wild, like climbing everywhere or the glider. Yet Elden Ring took it's influence from the things that were absent in BOTW. For instance BOTW explicitly decided not to put target markers on your map, except the ones you put there yourself. Elden Ring does the same. And building upon it, the guidance of grace is ingenious, because it gives you some orientation in the world, but instead of presenting the goal it shows the direction. So you still need to interact with the world to find the goal. |
Yeah, I have no doubt Miyazaki was influenced by some of BotW design - as I have no doubt he was influenced by some of decades old PC RPGs (whether he said it or not, it is very, very obvious in ER design).
As for things from BotW - I'm so happy there is no climbing in Elden Ring, execution of that in BotW majorly ruined it for me - Elden Ring has wonderful verticality and such non-punishing implementation of climbing as it was in BotW would just cheapen its exploration. As for guidance markers, I disliked them in BotW, I dislike them in Elden Ring as well and never use them - to be honest, I would like if there was an option not to even know where I am on the map (like in Outward). I like the idea of Torrent (horse-yak?), how you call and disband it reminded me of Despair from Darksiders 2. I would still take DS2 mechanically over ER, but ER is such a joy to explore.
