Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[TheBronzePickle]

Part of the thing that makes the game work is that there is so little direction for where to go and what to do. It's the only open-world game I've played where just wandering around didn't get really, really boring. Since there's very few markers indicating where stuff is, you actually have to go explore the world to find what you want, and that exploration is,

A. far more gratifying and rewarding than just following a dot until you get to a quest that itself ends up feeling trite and routine because of the lack of engagement,

and B. allowing you to find even more things you didn't know about on your own, which makes you feel like there's more to do in the world and gives you a chance to either take on a new challenge while on the way to your current goal or mark something you can check up on later.

With the sheer size of the game world, not encouraging you to explore would have destroyed a hefty chunk of the gameplay. Not grindy gameplay, either. Taking a walk and trying to find things you missed in the world is actually pretty engaging, at least far moreso than a lot of other open-world games I've played.

[IWishIWereSarah]

OzyTheSage: Thanks, I'll pass that tip about the quest log on. It wouldn't surprise me if he'd managed to completely miss it.

About the quest log, I think he may wants to try the (non finished) quest the most at the bottom of the list : that's where the last one he got is, so it will be more specific.
I mean, the one at the top always is "Defeat Ganon" (once you've finished the tutorial part), and the second is "Defeat the 4 beasts". Of course, he should try and defeat the 4 beasts, but he may have some things to do before, or simply he may have a more precise plan to defeat one of them if he's been in one of the 4 special villages (goron, Gerudo, Zora, and Rito).

[Nighthawk]

Has anyone done the tower paragliding minigame and enjoyed the heck out of the music that plays during it, as I have? I just absolutely love that theme! In a game where music doesn't play particularly often, it made my day the moment it started playing.

[wierd]

I kinda like the happy sounding music in the gutcheck challenge, and mountain shield surfing minigames.

[pikachu17]

So, what would go guys rate the game?

[NullForceOmega]

Legendary out of ten, with irritating weapon breakage that could be completely mitigated by slightly buffing the number of hits a weapon can deal out before going splinters.  As far as my experience, every other part of the game is straight up excellent, but the weapon breakage, while not by any means a deal-breaker, is annoying.

[SOLDIER First]

It's for game balance. Next question.

[NullForceOmega]

It's for game balance. Next question.

That's a load of shit and every living being knows it, and furthermore I did not suggest that it be removed, just that use time be slightly extended.

Don't go getting all defensive over a mechanic I didn't even suggest was bad, I just would prefer to not have weapons that fail mid-fight against multiple opponents.

pikachu17 asked for a rating, I gave an honest opinion.

[SOLDIER First]

That was meant as a joke, so I'm sorry. I forgot the godly .


.....

[Nighthawk]

It's for game balance. Next question.

That's a load of shit and every living being knows it, and furthermore I did not suggest that it be removed, just that use time be slightly extended.

Don't go getting all defensive over a mechanic I didn't even suggest was bad, I just would prefer to not have weapons that fail mid-fight against multiple opponents.

Permission to get defensive anyway?

First, even if weapon durability was boosted across the board, you would still have weapons breaking mid-fight, because... they would. Durability has to run out eventually, so regardless of how much you boost it, you will still run into the annoyance of having to switch, albeit to a lesser extent.

Second, weapon durability is how BoTW makes loot meaningful, and boosting durability would lead to a different annoyance rearing its head even more than it already does: weapons you can't pick up. Having played the game for 100+ hours, I have had a full weapon inventory surprisingly often, and run into weapons in chests that are simply not worth picking up because they're not as useful as what I have on me. If I have an open weapon slot because I just broke a weapon, however, then I just pick up the weapon in the chest. Great. I have another weapon to use.

If you boost all weapon durability, you're just going to A) run into more weapons you leave in chests or on the ground because they're not worth it and B) spend more time looking at your weapon inventory to decide if the thing lying in front of you is worth dropping another weapon for.

Granted, it's not a perfect system: decreasing durability would make loot more important to the player, and therefore more gratifying to find, but would cause weapon breakage to become super annoying. Increasing durability would make weapon breakage less annoying, but would make looting a waste of your time a lot more often. So it's kind of a lose-lose.

What I WOULD like to see is a feature where Link just auto-equips the next available weapon when one of them breaks, instead of forcing you to open up the quick-menu. That would largely fix the issue of breaking weapons being an annoyance while still retaining the positive aspects of the system. An actual durability meter on each item would also be nice. Hiding detailed information from the player is generally not a positive design decision in any game.

[NullForceOmega]

That argument is the most tired trite trash floating around the internet ever.  Durability systems are garbage.  I don't give a damn what kind of 'value' you feel it adds, from my perspective it is a time waster in a game that already eats a phenomenal amount of time in casual play.
This stupid argument that it makes loot somehow more 'valuable' by making it completely throwaway is the most contrived thing I have ever seen.

I HATE maintenance tasks in everything that isn't a survival game, BotW is an adventure sandbox, and adding durability is a purely gamey way to force players to do shit they may well have no interest in doing.

I LOVE this game, I like everything in it except the durability system, as long as the durability system exists I personally will never be completely happy.  I will still play the game, I will still recommend the game, but I will never try to do this miserable fanboy thing where you defend what is in essence a fucking stupid design decision.

That is my perspective, your argument is moot to me and I have no interest in debating the subject further.

[Neonivek]

I wouldn't go as far as to say Durability itself is bad... So much that just about every game that features durability does it really badly for the most part. The point of durability is usually to increase vermisiltude and supply some sort of dramatic tension or strategic layer... as well "repairing" adds a level of involvement that can aid the player if done well.

This game is kind of no exception to the whole durability trend... in fact the argument that the durability system makes the loot more special is interestingly false because of one primary reason.

BECAUSE loot is so destructible the only appropriate way to play... is to completely not care about loot in anyway shape or form... and you see this in gameplay where only Bows are really cared about (because they are the only Loot that matters... and the good ones are bought...)

So I understand the whole "every weapon is special" but Breath of the Wild EXPLODES past that to "every weapon is pointless, just get more weapons"

[Nighthawk]

@NullForceOmega
Allow me to address each point you made in a quote-by-quote basis.

Spoiler: A fair amount of text (click to show/hide)

from my perspective it is a time waster in a game that already eats a phenomenal amount of time in casual play.

The only time the durability system could possibly waste is the time you spend switching weapons, and the time spent looting for more weapons. This time is already relatively negligible really, but as I said, I would like to see a feature where Link auto-switches when a weapon breaks, which would remove some of the tedium from the weapons breaking in the first place. The fact that you did not even comment on that aspect of my post leads me to assume you did not read it. I would appreciate it if you would read everything before assuming I am making the exact same arguments everyone else is making with no other stipulations.

This stupid argument that it makes loot somehow more 'valuable' by making it completely throwaway is the most contrived thing I have ever seen.

If the weapons you acquired were completely throwaway, you would have no problem hurling them at enemies and breaking them instantly, correct? I can say with confidence that you don't do that in-game, because if you did, you would run out of weapons. You don't want to do that; you would rather have a full weapon inventory. That itself is proof that they have value. If every weapon you acquired had infinite uses, weapons you found later that were weaker would instantly become throwaway, and stronger weapons would cause all weaker weapons to become throwaway, right? Isn't that the same issue appearing due to a different cause?

I HATE maintenance tasks in everything that isn't a survival game, BotW is an adventure sandbox, and adding durability is a purely gamey way to force players to do shit they may well have no interest in doing.

What part of this is maintenance, aside from switching items and figuring out which ones you want to keep? Maintenance is being forced to play a silly minigame to repair your weapons. BoTW avoids that by just having them break. Players WANT to kill enemies, explore dungeons, and open chests, and guess what? All of these things reward you with weapons to refill your stock.

---


Like I said before, it's not a perfect system, but I think it works well. I've gone so far as to make attempts word my arguments in a civil manner when your last post exhibited a lot of really apparent aggressiveness. I'm not trying to make you angry, here, I'm trying to bring to the table a different perspective. If you really don't want to discuss further, feel free to ignore this post, but if you would like to, I'm always open to PMs.

[Neonivek]

What part of this is maintenance, aside from switching items and figuring out which ones you want to keep?

Do not save weapons just use them!

[NullForceOmega]

I read everything you wrote, including your wish for an auto switch, the only thing I agree with you on is adding a durability meter.  I didn't comment on it because the last thing I want a game to do is just drop the next available weapon into my hands, especially if it does something asinine like give me a two handed sword/club when I was using a spear or one hander.

Let me lay down a scenario for you: You are reasonably well outfitted with a full load of weapons, but haven't come across any fresh ones you want for some time, none are flashing but all have an unknown degree of wear from incidental combat, you spot an area with good ingredients to gather with a mid-sized encampment of mixed bokos/mobs.  You decide to clear the encampment and loot the area.  First you sneak up and sneak kill a sleeping boko, then a mob spots you and engages, the camp awakens and you are thrust into a general melee.  Your weapon breaks, you select another, it breaks, you select another, it breaks, once again you select another and change up your tactics, you get blindside by a sniper and drawn back into melee, you break another weapon.

You manage to clear the camp, but are down four solid weapons, and the only replacements on hand are shitty base-tier boko weaps that you really don't want to pick up because, and here's the big surprise, if you have to use them in combat they'll break in a few swings.

So in order to get useful replacements for the weapons you just wasted, you have to go travel around, maybe for an hour or more, and find things you can use.  Clearly a maintenance task.

BULLSHIT MECHANIC.  It doesn't 'work well', it promotes a 'only engage if I stand to benefit' mindset, yes, players want to fight enemies, but they also don't want to expend large amounts of time dicking around with hunting down decent weapons.

You don't agree, and that's fine, but your perspective on the matter is nothing I haven't heard dozens of times before, and the logic is still trash.