I used to think that this was the perfect open world game, but after my recent playthrough I've come to realize that it's not that good at all. Most of the game is just vast, empty stretches of land with almost nothing noteworthy to do in it. It's either a goblin camb, another boring shrine or just some npc who will only task you with some random fetch quest. The game is still good no doubt but it's really shallow.
totk is a better Video Game™, but the subtlety, minimalism, atmosphere, and nostalgia to a lesser extent of botw made me rate this one a 10 and the sequel a 9, although i very well may adjust those scores at some point. funny that i would rate this one higher even though today i would rather play totk and consider that one to be much more fun, at least for someone who's spent as much time screwing around in botw as i have. this game was pretty much my favorite thing when i got it. "Confirmed: Best Zelda Game Objectively One That Came Out When I Was 11" etc etc. it's far from perfect and i could go on for hours talking about every little detail but it's one in the morning rn
What about the whole “see that mountain? you can climb it” thing? AFAIK no previous open world game operated without an out-of-bounds of sorts. Sure you could horse-force your way up mountains in Skyrim but to what end? BOTW actually encourages, rewards, and was built for this exact thing, and I do think that’s innovative. Perhaps I lack context though and there are other games that did this earlier.
had to bump this to a 5 after reflecting on it for a while after finishing it earlier this year. by no means a perfect game but unparalleled in terms of atmosphere, exploration, and atmosphere. i could live in this game.
only other game that gave me the same sense of freedom was subnautica and this is clearly a much more polished and crafted game with much more to actually do.
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