While I'm absolutely sure this game is deserving of a 96, I feel a lot of people are giving it perfect scores for fear of fan retaliation. I wish they would more honestly address everything rather than just fangasm about Zelda.

...So...

Did you not see that the game already has 56 reviews out, of which the average is 98?

Yea i think we all thought that. Most of our lower predictions were based on the fact that we expected a couple 70's or some BS score from someone trying to be edgy or get clickbaits, ect.

Beyond no clickbait scores, the thing i'm most surprised about is the lowest score is a 90. The is nothing below a 90 so far. That is amazing to me. Regardless of if you think this score is overinflated at all, the very fact that there has yet to be a score lower than 90 out of near 60 reviews is astounding.

Oh my Hylia that's a high score. Now I regret not taking off work to play this masterpiece.

Only downside I can see is that it'll set my expectations way too high for future games.

Edit: Double post. DON'T READ THIS

A good chunk of the reviews (well, the veridicts, I can't read all of those reviews fully) are giving it high praise because of the significant change it brings to the Zelda formula (at least in terms of design, not story) and that it feels like the franchise its reinventing itself. It's still being reviewed as a great open world experience but the "masterpiece" status is being focused more on how to changes the franchise going forward. I can see reviewers being reluctant about giving it lower scores (even if it's just 5 or 10 less) but I don't think it takes away from the game just being fantastic or it should completely undermine its achievement

And some people predicted it would score below 90

There's still time for some clickbaity scores. There should be around 100 reviews on metacritic in the end, right? I wonder how long it'll take for to fully fill in.

I just feel that any criticism for the game should disqualify it of the perfect score many sites are giving it (and from what I hear, the Motion controls would have been better off not included). I dunno, when I see a perfect score, I expect a perfect game.

That aside, this is currently the highest reviewed game of Eighth Generation. And anything MC95+ warrants a purchase. I'm not denying it's amazing direction or anything, as I've been a fan since it's unveiling. I just feel like a game like this should get honest scores based on the game itself and not "OH FUCK IT'S A CONSOLE ZELDA".

My vote was mostly a joke. I've been super excited for BotW since it was unveiled.