I like about BOTWs story, that it isn't told, but discovered. Usually you have long cutscenes or whatever that tell you the story. In this case you have only the memories as cutscenes. Other than that you discover the stories simply by discovering the ruins. Do I need a cutscene to know Hateno was under siege? No, I just need to discover the enormous amount of broken Guardians before the walls. I really like if you learn about the backgrounds this way. I have to look around. But someone else goes through it without thinking why all the guardians lay around here. He may complain the game has no story, because he didn't discover it. But it feels rewarding making the discoveries on my own.

I also agree that the game is heavily overrated and there are much better Zelda games. There are so many design flaws, especially the bad many usability and boring cooking system and the lack of music, story, dungeons, heart pieces and signature items, paired with an empty world. And the boring enemies and broken bloodmoon system which provides an incentive to completely avoid fighting. I do not know any other game that wasted so much potential, because the game could be the best game ever made if the story actually continued after the 2nd village.

Breath of Wild has its NPCs, but they are bland and as memorable as my ex-girlfriends' birthdays

Ehm, anyway, i agree with him on most things.

It'a good game, but really too overrated.

Maybe. I tend to look at the genre first. A Mario-game that is highly rated is probably not good for me, as I'm not into Jump&Runs. If the genre fits my tastes I look into gameplay. Does it use gameplay-elements I like. Last I scan review-texts about things I hope or fear. This all helps me to put the score into relation.

I have to disagree. Of course, its fine to have an opinion. However, I find it hard to overate a game that I invested so much time, so much that I even had a 10+ hour play session for this particular game. I rarely do that due to other priorities, but I was so engulfed with the world (which I don't believe is lifeless) and the ability to discover something new along the way, that I was just focused on the game. Very few games in my life has allowed me to do that. The atmosphere, the placement of the music, the quality of the music itself (and what was shown from behind the scenes), the puzzles in the shrines, the emphasis on exploration and creating your own legend, and the survival elements of this game really blew me away. And I have to agree with whoever mentioned the story being discovered through game play and exploration. I don't really mind that as it helps me create my own story and share my experiences with others. This game...I haven't played in a while due to new games and other priorities, but damn, if I have an opportunity to play more of BoTW, I will not hesitate, especially once all the DLC are released. Is it the GOAT? I don't know, but its up there for me.

It's more like 'I hate that Nintendo fans have an opinion, so I say their opinion is wrong'. But whatever. He thinks the game is bad. Good for him. He thinks his opinion is objective. Not so good for him.

To comment on that: overrated means just you think that the game is worse than most critics voted. But that is something that is completely subjective. Every game is rated exactly right, because the general consensus rate (like Metacritic) is just the average of multiple persons opinions. And rating means exactly that. So if people say 'I think the game is overrated/underrated' they actually mean 'I have a different opinion than the majority consensus'. Which hopefully happens to everyone once in a while.

I mostly agree with the author. The exploration aspect is well-designed, but there aren't many interesting places to discover. After enabling all of the towers it felt like I was traversing the same mountains, fields, or forests ad nauseam. Hyrule is a massive and beautiful landscape that should be full of history, but instead we encounter bland NPCs and copy-and-paste ruins all over the map.

Actually it's even more than that. All viallages that are intact are at the border of the map in mountain areas or protected (in case of Hateno through the wall). Outside these few villages the civilizations spreads through the stables, which are glorified tents, so it has an improvisional tone. It's easy to see that these stables develop into stable settlements, but currently they aren't. So if he isn't seeing the destruction of Hyrule it is because he isn't looking. As I said, this game is designed so that you have to discover the background story instead of telling you (with a few exceptions). So he didn't discover it (because playing with metaphorical closed eyes probably), so the world feels instantly more empty and the story more hollow.

I agree that it's overrated, and I've been saying that since launch.

But I'll also say that it's still the best title released this year.