Hey ,

I've recent been replaying Breath of the Wild, and I'm consistently enjoying myself once again.

Thinking of all the experiences I have had in single player games, I can't think of many that I have ever enjoyed more.

I remember a lot of people bouncing off this game because it's frustrating at first. I feel those people, because I'm the same way with Dark Souls type games, feel free to express frustrations about the game.

So, wnderful GB community, what are your thoughts on BotWs ranking among the best SP games, and what other games they would say you enjoyed more. Personal Zelda rankings would be welcome as well!!

I think it's probably my favourite single player game. I can't think of very much that comes close. When I was a kid I always used to dream up what my "ultimate" game would be, and it really struck me when I was several hours into Breath of the Wild how that game is pretty much it. I remember spending quite a while trying to chase that dream, too: I was one of those people who spent hours exploring the open, empty world of Shadow of the Colossus desperately hoping I would find something. I also think it's specifically the exploring that pushes Breath of the Wild over the edge: open world games, at least to me, have only ever really been about existing in that space, unlike Zelda which is very specifically about exploring the space.

I'm not one for rankings but I've always found the Zelda games to be hit or miss. Loved Link to the Past and Ocarina, was indifferent to Majora's Mask, didn't care for Wind Waker, thought Twilight Princess was okay. I bounced on the new Link's Awakening pretty quickly too, though I want to get back to it sometime.

Don't know if I could rank it among Zelda games, let along best single player games, personally. I liked it a lot, but it wouldn't hit anywhere high on either types of rankings for me.

But to throw ranks aside and just talk about the game, I think BotW is certainly an amazing take on open world design, as far as how they built the world and how they designed it for you to explore. Creating a map full of landmarks to motivate you through curiosity rather than "Go here now" style arrows and checkpoints is a really smart solution to how rigid that sort of action/adventure game had gotten. And how you have to consider your abilities to best navigate the world made that "wandering" consistently engaging.

I do think this emphasis that the game places on that open world design did end up hurting some of the stuff I love in Zelda (particularly dungeon depth). And once you've filled that map out, there is a bit of a come-down where it felt more like a begrudging, "Well, I guess it's time to fight the final boss" rather than being pumped up for one final epic fight.

I'm not gonna nitpick it beyond that, though because the game is very good. I do think better, more fleshed out dungeon design is still possible in a BotW-style Zelda game. But there are plenty of Zelda games that delivered on the things BotW doesn't go for. So I'm not gonna totally hold it against this game for trying a different approach, especially when it does so much successfully.

It doesn't rank in my top five. Or top ten. Or top twenty. It's possible I'd put it in the bottom end of a top 50 on a good day.

When BOTW first came out, I played it rather obsessively for about two weeks. Every night, came home, played until bed, and put about seventy hours into it in two weeks. I rarely do that with games. There's a lot to see and do and I look back on that time fondly.

But I eventually stopped playing and have never really returned to the game for a few reasons.

There are two mechanical reasons - the weapon degradation and sliding down mountains when it rains. It's an example of how, no matter how brilliant your design is, a shit mechanic or two can really ruin everything. It's easy to throw away Boko clubs and generic Traveler Swords, but when you fight a difficult monster and the giant flaming sword +1 you got as a reward breaks within the hour, it's really disappointing and made me wonder what the point of it all was. OK, yes, I get the point is to explore, find and use new things, solve all the puzzles, and such, but I still want my upgrades to stick.

Another point that made me lose interest - the world is empty. I mean, there's a lot of stuff in it to see and wonders to gawk at and nooks and crannies to look in, but there's nothing much to do around a lot of these. Frequently, when you do find some sort of activity or secret or something, it just leads to another short puzzle dungeon with the same blue aesthetic and the same small mechanical enemies. At some point, that just got really boring and I had seen more than enough of those puzzle dungeons. There are quests and stuff, but too rarely does it feel impactful or interesting.

Ultimately, the game is gorgeous and a joy to wander around in and it is one of the defining examples of emergent gameplay. It's certainly worth your time and brilliant in a lot of ways. But a handful of its mechanics really, really drag the whole experience down and it really could use a smaller world with more significant, memorable things to do in it.

Now I might just be a dog but something about this post smells auto-generated,
but then the misspelling of "wonderful" seems kind of deliberate.

I got so bored and frustrated by the mechanics that I didnt even finish the tutorial. This is coming from someone who's been playing Zelda since Awakening on my black and white game boy pocket

Same here. I did try giving that game a chance, but after about 30 hours I gave up. I put it right above Spirit Tracks as one of the most boring and frustrating Zelda games to play.

@geirr: The whole topic is lifted from the GB subreddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/giantbomb/comments/hok941/where_does_breath_of_the_wild_rank_on_your_all/

The reddit and GB usernames don’t match, so I don’t think it’s the same guy posting it in both places. Some spammers copy real posts/comments and repost them elsewhere, I guess to create legitimate-looking accounts which they can later use to spam links to whatever.

I assume the GB forums have negative growth in the past 5 years or so, so any user with <5 posts and default user picture who suddenly decides to start using the forums is pretty much guaranteed a spam account.

No matter how hard I try I always bounce off Nintendo's stuff. Breath of the Wild being no different tons of empty space interspersed with childrens puzzles.

I don't like these new sneaky bots.

Pretty low. I think its a very good game and I did enjoy my time with it quite a bit but its just not a masterpiece by any means. The world is pretty empty people made it seem like there was a ton to do, 4 dungeons that are pretty meh, and the combat is feels really bad and frustrating which I don't understand why no one talks about that flaw. Personally I would take Minish Cap, The Legend of Zelda, and Phantom Hourglass over BOTW

Definitely a contender for possibly one of the best games ever made, I may consider it the best game of its type I’ve ever played.

I am also someone who considers A Link to the Past a perfect game, so take that for what it is.

number 83. Also this is a new user with a firstname+surname accountname, and i assume the question has be pulled from Reddit. If this post gets a decent amount of traffic i imagine the top post gets edited to include a few spam links.

This is a bot that's already been banned, but sure, I'll play along.

BotW is great, but I'm not sure if I'd really say it's number one. As good as it is in many respects, the tedium of inventory management and middling boss dungeons are enough to keep it out of first place for me. Certainly still a contender for my personal top 10 or top 20 though.

I'm on pretty much the same page. It's great, but not in consideration for number one. An additional minor flaw: the game suffers from a real lack of variety if you actually explore the whole map.

Take a miniboss like the Black Knights in Dark Souls; same enemy over and over, but you encounter them in a variety of different environmental contexts throughout the game, in and around different hazards and enemies.

Take the minibosses in Breath of the Wild (Lynel, Hinox, Stalnox, Stone Talus); same enemy over and over, and 99% of the time you encounter them in exactly the same deliberately giant, unobstructed clearing with maybe some trees around the edges, where no other enemy interferes and the same strategy applies every single time. Test of Strength shrines have the same issue, and pad out something like 20% of all shrines. The enemy variety in general is kinda weak; you fight so many reskins of Bokoblin, Moblin, and Lizalfos (and the more harmless chuchu jellies, octoroks, and bats for flavour), and almost no region gets a unique enemy type.

It'll never crack my top 100, but it's still a game I'd give an almost perfect rating. Ignoring my reviewer's tilt, it's far from perfect, but I was swept up by it in just about every way.

i think BotW unintentionally revealed that mechanics-first (or alternatively narrative-secondary) open world games have limited appeal for me. i really enjoyed my 200ish hours with it- it's finely crafted with some truly thoughtful and imaginative game design. but as soon as i completed the last shrine it left my mind entirely.

by comparison something like horizon: zero dawn, which i completed earlier this year- has been far more resonant. i think that's due to many factors, but story and setting (i have zero nostalgia for zelda despite being raised on OoT) are critical for me.

i think BotW will certainly remain an important game, and i'm glad i got to play it at the peak of its relevance- but it's not really a personal favourite.

I watched my sister play 6 hours of Botw and that was enough to know that I never want to play or even think about it.

For what it’s worth, she also hates the game and fell off it damn near instantly after that.

I find it fun to muck around with the systems in it and experiment, but other than that I don't think it rates on my sp list at all (if I had one).

This is one of those divides between people who like big open sandboxes that rely heavily on the 'make your own fun' type of entertainment and people who would prefer more interesting characters, stories, etc.

It's either number 1 or 2 for me. Between that and Metal Gear Solid V for my favorite single player game.

Easy top 10, probably top 5. I am interested to see how I feel after Nintendo releases a sequel with a (presumably) very similar gameplay. Right now there is no other game like it. The sequel likely changes that and even has huge potential to improve upon the games relatively few flaws.

I played it two years after release, having heard all of the hype around it and love for it, and often in that situation I can be overly critical or less likely to love a thing. But I absolutely adored Breath of the Wild. I bought all the DLC because I just wanted to play more of it and spend more time in the world, and that doesn't happen very often with me. I never expected to come away from it thinking it's maybe the best Zelda game, because I was an N64 kid and Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask are both god-tier to me. But that's how good BOTW is.

All of my favourite games are single player games, and even those with MP elements I only play SP. I think if I did a top ten list of my favourite ever games, Breath of the Wild would miss out, but it would definitely be in a top 25.

I do think it's a bit of a slow-starter/slow-burner, because I remember talking to a friend about some of my early reservations, but a few days later I was just gushing about the game with that same friend.

I think BOTW is now my new shadow of the colossus, take that however you want to

@mellotronrules: That was my exact experience with BotW. As soon as I beat it I realized I hadn't been having a lot of fun for a good while, just carried through on momentum.

Not my favorite single player game. Not my favorite Switch game. Not my favorite Zelda game.