The Legend of Zelda : Breath of the Wild (Wii U / Switch)

[Ryan]

This is the first game I've wanted to play in 5+ years.

[FuryFox]

Bleh, what is that gross stuff around the edges of the world map screen?

It looks like a really, really good Zelda game. That said, I feel like once you're off the Zelda train, there's no getting back on. The characters and lore are annoying, if not inscrutable, and you have to own some weird hardware to play it.

[kedawa]

So is this coming to Wii U before the NX launch?

[Shin Johnpv]

It sounds like they'll launch at the same time.

[Opaque]

I need to figure out how to build a business on setting expectations well below all of my competitors and then consistently getting immense credit for surpassing them.

I'm not excited because this looks good by Zelda standards, letsrbe clear.

I'm excited because every physics, combat, hit box, graphics style, inventory and world layout decision or mechanic I have seen so far is spectacular. That it's going to have the Zelda coat of paint is just icing on the cake.

This combat looks better than Skyrim with a just as larger world. These physics look better than Just Cause but with a better visual style. The weather effects on everything look more meaningful than any game I've ever played.

What is you think this is doing poorly, specifically? Even if a singular game has done one thing better than this game looks, I can't think of any that have down two things or all these things. As a total package this looks amazing. I also can't name a Zelda that under delivered when it was finally released, if anythign they usually end up being even better than we think they're gonna be.

[Diff-chan]

We are all adults. I can buy any videogame I want on any platform because I have all of them. If a game looks good I can go buy it. If I didn't think Zelda looked legitimately amazing I would move on to a game that did. I think this goes for all of us. It's not 1993 anymore and we aren't forced to play bloodless Mortal Kombat because we have a SNES. There's no need to defend Nintendo or cut Zelda slack or anything like that.

This game just looks awesome.

[Yoshi]

I'm not excited because this looks good by Zelda standards, letsrbe clear.

I'm excited because every physics, combat, hit box, graphics style, inventory and world layout decision or mechanic I have seen so far is spectacular. That it's going to have the Zelda coat of paint is just icing on the cake.

This combat looks better than Skyrim with a just as larger world. These physics look better than Just Cause but with a better visual style. The weather effects on everything look more meaningful than any game I've ever played.

What is you think this is doing poorly, specifically? Even if a singular game has done one thing better than this game looks, I can't think of any that have down two things or all these things. As a total package this looks amazing. I also can't name a Zelda that under delivered when it was finally released, if anythign they usually end up being even better than we think they're gonna be.

I'm impressed with your ability to draw comparative conclusions on gameplay from a video or live stream. I'm going to try to stick to things that are objectively clear from those formats:

Does the combat have the freedom of Skyrim? Can I use nothing but a bow the entire game if I choose? That's what I did in Skyrim. I don't know how something can be objectively "better" while also more limited. It may be more focused.

Is it the gif of the elf floating in mid-air that is the evidence that the physics are better than Just Cause?

I'm also glad you had realistically low expectations for Spirit Tracks.

edit: Let me say this differently. You're cherry picking specific perceived strengths of the game and then asking me to name a game that is better across all of them. You could make that argument for damn near any competent game, because the scope of the argument is so flattering to whatever game you use as the basis.

edit2: Can you name a game that has done cinematic presentation, alternate history, and letterboxing better than The Order? Of course not, because I'm cherry picking things that its developers clearly focused on and executed well, despite the game's faults in other areas.

[Opaque]

I'm impressed with your ability to draw conclusions on gameplay from a video or live stream. I'm going to try to stick to things that are objectively clear from those formats:

Does the combat have the freedom of Skyrim? Can I use nothing but a bow the entire game if I choose? That's what I did in Skyrim. I don't know how something can be objectively "better" while also more limited. It may be more focused.

I just want to make sure you understand the first thing you said. You're impressed I can draw conclusions of game play from a video. That's what you said.

That's like sarcastically saying that you're impressed that I can draw conclusions about instruments used in a song by listening to it. So I'm going to ignore that first part.

As for the second thing, I don't know that it will be more free than Skyrim in, that's why I phrased it as an entire package being super impressive. Skyrim had shit physics, shit hit boxes, bad characters by most standings, I didn't think the art style was as interesting, no weather really mattered in skyrim and even by Elderscrolls standards it was limited in terms of what potions and magic could accomplish. All that being said I loved Skyrim because of what it did do right. This game so far hasn't shown me nothing it's done wrong, maybe that will come to light later, but so far it's either average or better in every single category I could get into a debate with you about. It's hard to not be impressed with how many things they've shown already when you know what percentage of the game we've actually seen.

I think the physics look better than just cause based on the rolling boulders, amazing hit boxes, whether patters interacting with the environment and the sledding. That all looks tight and impressive. Just Cause is super fun, but even it's physics don't look as tight as these videos of Zelda.

That it's not literally the best at every single thing possible is a weird standard for you to get upset about. I mean, only one game can have the best combat system even if it's preference, so you just don't play any games other than Skyrim since only it let's you use just a bow the entire game?

[MechDeus]

Combat is Skyrim is not great. It technically worked and had a lot of freedom but felt like shit most of the time.

[Yoshi]

I just want to make sure you understand the first thing you said. You're impressed I can draw conclusions of game play from a video. That's what you said.

That's like sarcastically saying that you're impressed that I can draw conclusions about instruments used in a song by listening to it. So I'm going to ignore that first part.

I'm not sure you could have come up with a worse simile. Your ears hear a song and hear instruments. Your eyes see a video, while gameplay is largely tactile.

As for the second thing, I don't know that it will be more free than Skyrim in, that's why I phrased it as an entire package being super impressive. Skyrim had shit physics, shit hit boxes, bad characters by most standings, I didn't think the art style was as interesting, no weather really mattered in skyrim and even by Elderscrolls standards it was limited in terms of what potions and magic could accomplish. All that being said I loved Skyrim because of what it did do right. This game so far hasn't shown me nothing it's done wrong, maybe that will come to light later, but so far it's either average or better in every single category I could get into a debate with you about. It's hard to not be impressed with how many things they've shown already when you know what percentage of the game we've actually seen.

The bolded part is exactly the problem with making positive conclusions based solely on a video or publisher-sponsored live stream. Did you think they'd highlight weaknesses in the spirit of objectivity?

That it's not literally the best at every single thing possible is a weird standard for you to get upset about. I mean, only one game can have the best combat system even if it's preference, so you just don't play any games other than Skyrim since only it let's you use just a bow the entire game?

I didn't say I wouldn't play anything else. I said that it's hard to objectively say that more limited combat is better than more flexible combat. The Witcher would have been a better comparison, since that also forces melee, and it's not the game's strongest point.

edit: I'd feel differently if this were a third party game, but I don't think Nintendo should get a pass on using a visual style to hide the weakness of the hardware that they designed. Obviously that's not Aonuma's fault, so he and his team deserve a lot of credit for squeezing everything they can out of the hand they were dealt, but that credit shouldn't go any higher.

edit2: Is anyone aware of a way to objectively compare map sizes? I'm curious how much, if any, that was affected by the hardware as well.