Game of the Year (So Far)

[Mnementh]

Shatts said:

Mnementh said:

It is funny, how after the success of BOTW, games started to copy elements of the game, yet missed the mark on what made it great. They copied the ability to climb everywhere or the glider or stuff like this, even visual stuff. But all this was not getting to the core of what made BOTW great and different. Elden Ring is as I feel the first game taking the rigth lessons from BOTW, yet it didn't copy climbing or gliders or visuals. But the basic idea of subtly guiding the player *without* taking away the incentive to explore is retained by Elden Ring. The guidance in BOTW was Hyrule castle and the divine beasts, all visible from afar. Similarly in ER you always can see the Erdtree. ER does add another layer to this, with the guidance of grace, which gives you a basic idea, but no exact goal. Guidance of Grace is guiding the player to their goal, but it still demands exploration, as it doesn't tell what to look for and how far away. Yet if you found it, you always will know that this is what the guidance was pointing to. The exploration aside the main path is reinforced, as on your first guidance you have the Tree Sentinel as a block and later on that path Margit. These are clearly guiding the player towards exploring besides the main path. Well, that is unless you are one of the players trying to bash their heads in these enemies.

I personally thought the biggest value of BOTW was the physics in game.

Yeah, the physics were quite cool, but for me the exploration was the great thing. And Elden Ring did great exploration as well.