How did an open world game designed to be playable for literal children manage to have more unforgiving terrain and weather mechanics than Elden Ring?
How did an open world game designed to be playable for literal children manage to have more unforgiving terrain and...
Dylan Sanchez
Jonathan Stewart
Literally just stop thinking about elden ring if it makes you so mad lmao
I'm sure it'll get ported in 5 years or so when the switch 2 comes out
Benjamin Sullivan
Neat triplets, bro.
Next, the answer to your question:
Nintendo has always worked with the "Gameplay first" mentality.
Where as all these Souls-games are literally nothing but glorified hack & slash games, pretty much 3D Diablos if you really thing about it, Zeldas have always wanted to deliver a feeling of adventure.
Read any book or watch any movie about adventures, and you will see that overcoming the natural challenges of the world is often a key aspect in the experience, not some casual slaughter of countless foes again and again.
BotW goes an extra mile to take the series back to the very 1987 roots and re-introduce that open-ended exploration and personal discovery of things.
In this internet-era of the 21st century, merely hiding a couple dungeons and shops wouldn't do much, and everyone can easily Google up the "best meta / gear" for any action game and just repeat the needed steps to achieve that status.
Thus, Nintendo completely changed their approach. Instead focused on delivering a wide variety of interactive, integrated "Systems" into BotW, laying numerous seeds for emerging gameplay. Alongside with the truly intoxicating levels of freedom to go where ever you want, where you want, and how you want, this means that no two playthroughs will ever play quite the same, but also ensures that different player types will prioritize and discover different kind of methods, tactics and events.
All this was fuel for the community, which to this very day keeps comparing and sharing their experiences, showcasing their crazy tricks. I've already lost count how many times I've seen a post saying (or myself out loud), that "I never knew this was possible!", or alternatively "How could anyone NOT know about this??". That there is a testament to the game's freedom, depth and replay value.
In a way, BotW's also a return to the good old "Nintendo Difficulty".
It's honestly crazy to think that Nintendo of all groups could release a title this unpatronizing.
Jace Cox
>Unforgiving terrain
John Sanders
You say “manage” as if those things are good or interesting game design.
Matthew Bennett
if you used the glider, you didn't beat the game.
Easton Kelly
I unironically think the game would probably have been a bit more interesting if the glider wasn't so powerful. Would have made climbing in dangerous high places feel a bit more exciting.
Nathaniel Ortiz
Glider literally is a non-issue, and not as "OP" as you claim it to be.
Of course if you only bee-line from one story mission to another, tower to tower, you won't see much challenges ahead.
If anything, it's the limitless teleportation that ruins the excitement from the exploration. They should've made it a limited resource, or at least restrict teleportation initialization to the Shrines' / Towers' crests only.
Christian Hall
We know it's aimed at kids, but a lot of BOTWs mechanics surprised me.
>barely holds your hand
>need to craft items when going to hot and cold regions
>weapons break
>the lightning boss that was fast as fuck
>all those tougher enemies that hit hard like lynels and guardians
I seriously doubt a lot of kids even finished the game, let alone finish the game without help.
Blake Moore
FROM goes all-in on combat, every other aspect of their games is secondary. Nintendo split their focus more and invested in dynamic systems, traversal, the ability to interact with the environment, etc.
Survival mechanics in ER could be interesting but it would be a bit of a shift from what FROM usually does.
Matthew Lewis
>I seriously doubt a lot of kids even finished the game, let alone finish the game without help.
I doubt kids really care that much, they just love to fuck around and play with shit in a sandbox, which BotW is excellent for. The game's ending is arguably one of its weakest aspects anyway.
Adrian Flores
>Glider literally is a non-issue, and not as "OP" as you claim it to be.
It almost completely destroys any danger of dying if you fall from great height, and in a game that's got such a big focus on climbing that's a pretty big problem.
It's also a very confusing inclusion from a design perspective because the game's tutorial has an entire area designed to teach you about stamina management while climbing and how to use parts of the environment to traverse obstacles, both of which are immediately rendered obsolete by the paraglider.
Alexander Murphy
>Survival mechanics in ER could be interesting but it would be a bit of a shift from what FROM usually does.
That would be a good thing though, Sekiro was one of their most different games in recent years and it was fantastic. Elden Ring had the potential to really try some weird shit since it was a new IP. But the game is honestly Dark Souls 4 in everything but name, the open world feels more like a sequel hook than a revolution.
Colton Peterson
I'm not really seeing it.
The stamina management remains a crucial part of the game for the entire experience. The game's clearly designed with numerous vertical walls in mind, with enough space in between to allow you only glide from a top of one peak to the base or maybe mid-level of the next cliff.
This alone forces you to scale the risks and rewards of approaching the area in such manner, with the other alternative obviously being sticking to the pre-made paths and playing it more akin to the other generic video games.
During cliff climbing, the glider really only gives you a short window to save your butt from a sudden death. If you start free falling with stamina on red, the glider's not gonna do you any good.
Of course it does not take much mastery to learn when to give in and just dive back down voluntarily in order to save yourself from a Game Over, but that still requires some effort.
And this is not even touching upon the various elemental hazards that may render gliding and unfavorable option, such as extreme cold / heat, strong winds, etc.
I'm not saying that it would be the most perfectly balanced feature out there, but it really isn't some easy 1-trick pony solution for all situations.
Gavin Cruz
why does the boss just wait for you?
Cameron Scott
It's because Zelda devs know the recipe for actually good videogames
Realty > realism
gameplay > graphics
sandbox > story
freedom > restrictions
puzzling > punishing
Colton Brown
>Realty > realism
That old thing Miyamoto used to say about how Zelda is "about conveying reality, not realism" was super eye opening to me. Something doesn't have to be straight up realistic to make intuitive sense, I think this is something a lot of game designers miss. It's often realism in a very literal, visual sense; instead of something that makes sense for video games.
Cameron Ortiz
I'm genuinely shocked that a BotW thread on this board with an OP comparing it to a hot new game is this civil and more or less positive. Nice to see.
This was what prevented me from really getting into ER. After beating Godrick it set in that that process of building up for combat then throwing myself at the boss a dozen times until it dies was essentially the entire game, and I pretty much immediately lost interest. BotW holds my interest a lot better even though the combat isn't nearly as involved because it's just so densely packed elsewhere. The sort of variety in gameplay that BotW has fits an open world really, really well in retrospect.
Zachary Myers
I would have liked Elden Ring to try to incorporate more Survival elements, but I know I'm in the minority of that. I'm not exactly a huge fan of the survival genre, but I played Subnautica recently and holy moly that game blew me the fuck away, I'm an old boomer who don't care much about new games but Subnautica is one of the greatest open world games I've ever played.
Jayden Garcia
While I do love ER, and it feels like the best "Dark Souls" since the first one, I will admit that BOTW does the open world "meme" better and on Master Mode is actually still harder than ER.
John Mitchell
Holding forward and up is unforgiving? I dont understand, i never once even came close to climbing in BOTW, it was ao stupid easy, it made me bored. Rain just made it so you have to wait at worst for most of the time.
Seriously, can tendies stop pretending this game did anything really well? Its not even a rewarding game. Elden Ring mogs it in every possible way.
Andrew Baker
You sound like the biggest fucking loser, this better be copy paste. I bet you also look like a huge asshole irl.
Noah Ortiz
>actually waited for the rain to pass instead of timing the climb jumps before the slipping animation
Touch grace, casual.
Cooper Hernandez
>Master Mode is actually still harder than ER.
My casual girlfriend beat master mode, increasing damage values doesnt make an easy game harder. You can literally chain cinematic slo mo on every enemy in Zelda.
Xavier Moore
Did she do Trial of the Sword?
Unless you did all the DLC, you didn't "beat" Master Mode.
Leo Nelson
Yes, because rain never lasted long enough and again, the game was fucking boring so it hardly did much.
Stamina management isnt hardcore dude, you are just a loser pretending it means something great. The game is piss easy though and through and is a glorified tech demo that focuses on physics puzzles that reward one thing every time.
Ayden Wilson
Nah, Master Mode is still very forgiving.