I feel like Breath of the Wild gets a bit of a free pass from longtime Nintendo fans that wanted Zelda to be relevant again, which it now very much is because of the considerable success of the Switch/BotW launch. Zelda hasn’t been this mainstream relevant since Ocarina of Time. It doesn’t help that since OoT, Nintendo has mostly been copy-pasting the design doc/gameplay style of OoT into sort of the same console Zelda game over and over. A lot of people gradually stopped paying attention in this era, especially with the snooze fest that was Twilight Princess into Skyward Sword.

So BotW is a good game, but there’s lots of room for improvement. Compartmentalizing Zelda dungeons into the Portal-esque shrines/Divine Beasts was a nice...change of pace, but I think it outlived its welcome after one game. They’re just too short, have minimal themes/connective tissue. Like imagine all the desert shrines looked...deserts on the inside. Something? Anything?

It was really monotonous that all interiors in the game were so repetitive: stables are all the same, shrines have the same black/tan surface bathed in blue light, Divine Beasts all have the same tan surface bathed in natural light. On the inside they all feel the same. Not to mention like a third of the shrines are copouts that are just a copy-pasted dull mini boss fight, or “walk inside, get reward” if you had to expend even a modicum of effort on the surface to unlock the shrine.

The art design on friendly towns and ruined former towns has a cool feel, but the art design on threatening environment (“dungeons”) is just really forgettable. I guess the Yiga Clan hideout and Hyrule Castle infiltrations are the only exceptions to this; I wish the game had way more areas like this.

Agreed with your points on the story/characters being solid, though yes, the cutscenes are incredibly sparse and you might go like 10-15 hours without seeing any more story. The titular Zelda has a more interesting personal conflict than usual, though I feel like on the flip side this is the most dull Ganon has been since the NES games. He’s just a big smoke monster that possesses everything, and has 4 dumb looking forms in the Divine Beasts, then a slightly cool form in Hyrule Castle, then back to dumb again with his giant boar form you fight in the field.

Also, I think they have to do *something* with the nuts and bolts combat of Zelda, which is one of the few parts that still feels lifted from OoT/Wind Waker, other than “you can toss weapons whenever.” At least the enemies can do scary amounts of damage in BotW, but in general “lock on, spam the incredibly safe backflip” is still way too effective.

There are two images in this blog.

I feel lied to and want a refund.

@zombiepie: Did I lie?

Or did I do a Final Fantasy 7 Remake and subvert expectations?

@purpleshyguy@bisonhero

I can't disagree with any of the criticisms both of you bring up, I share them. I particularly agree they'll need to mix things up for the next game I can't see them reusing the Shrine concept, I miss proper dungeons. That said, BotW is still my favorite game of this generation. Zelda has always been about the over world and how rewarding it is to explore ever corner of it. Climbing may be sluggish, but the fact that you can climb anything is one of the biggest revelations in games. Plus, it feels damn great coming down!

There are a lot of improvements needed in the acting department, and BotW doesn't have the most memorable characters of the series. It's okay that Zelda is not Mass Effect, but I would like them to do better. I still think it is a powerful idea that Link doesn't speak. He's a blank canvas for the player to project themselves onto. It's up to the player to find the courage to save Hyrule, you can spend all day smashing pots and hurting chickens or stop playing and never make it to Ganon. Link is the prototypical Adventure Game hero, I'd love to see them stick to their guns. I'm not sure I would trust anyone to cast a good voice actor anyway, Nintendo especially.

Whatever you feel about the story telling in individual games, there is a powerful idea at the core of Zelda. Every game is essentially the retelling of the same story for a different generation. Like real world myths and the tradition of aural storytelling. OoT introduced the idea that the Triforce was the three powers that keep each other in check.

@bisonhero: The issue with Calamity Ganon is that he doesn’t do anything after he takes over Hyrule Castle. He never attacks any place of importance, and during the entire game he just flys around like a big angry cloud. In Ocarina of Time, you could easily see Ganondorf’s influence after the time skip.

@purpleshyguy: I mean, Ganondorf in OoT basically won, since Zelda goes into hiding/exile, while Link is trapped in limbo until he's old enough to be a hero. Literally no one opposed him. Comparatively, I think they lightly justify Calamity Ganon being inactive, though I still think it doesn't help that he's a dull, smoke-monster antagonist with no dialogue, motivation, or explanation.

I think the implication is that 100 years ago, when Ganon takes over all the Guardians/Divine Beasts, that is when all the human villages/farms anywhere near the castle got roasted. Then, after Link almost dies and Zelda goes Super Saiyan, she somehow confronts Ganon at the castle and somehow puts herself and Ganon in some kind of low power stasis. This lasts for 100 years, then her seal is starting to weaken and while Ganon is still trapped, his influence over Guardians/Divine Beasts reactivates, which prompts Zelda to reach out to Link and awaken him from his regeneration chamber to finish the fight, as it were.

I'm pretty sure the Divine Beasts were basically inactive for 100 years, because every major village in the game acts like their Divine Beast only recently reawakened and is causing problems, not that it has been terrorizing them for a century.

Anyway, I think that's what happened, though it's possible I am broadly assuming at least 50% of what I just said. They really don't spell out the timeline of the last 100 years in the game, and you have to do some guesswork based off of the cutscenes and what various NPCs say.