Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is crazy good
Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2017 6:32 pm
I liked Zelda games. Ocarina of Time is my favourite game ever and the first big one I played start to finish.
So last Friday I impulse-bought a Switch and jesus christ the console is worth it for BotW alone. If they'd done the Zelda formula wholesale it would have been good but instead they've gone completely off the beaten path. This is 3D Zelda with the best parts of Skyrim and Dark Souls bolted on.
There's a new combat system. The old one had an attack, a block, a dodge and enemies that had one or two attack patterns. The new one has two-handed combat, one-handed combat, long-and short-range melee weapons, different parries and counters, sentries, enemies that attack in groups...
Also: this game is HELLS TOUGH. You die. A lot. Fail a parry? You take a club to the face and lose half you health. Didn't spot the sentry? Arrows up your ass. And then your sword breaks because your only weapons are the crap you can scavenge from mooks.
The visual design is amazing too. Sprawling ruins, enormous fields, a visual style that's like a more detailed Wind Waker. If this is a first-gen Switch game ported from the Wii U looks like I can see why Nintendo decided to try the docked-portable console idea.
I'm about six hours in and it feels like I've just started. At the moment I have covered *maybe* one-sixth of the map and most of that was trying to reach towns without dying. If you have a Wii U or a Switch, buy this game. If you don't, find someone who does and give it a try.
So last Friday I impulse-bought a Switch and jesus christ the console is worth it for BotW alone. If they'd done the Zelda formula wholesale it would have been good but instead they've gone completely off the beaten path. This is 3D Zelda with the best parts of Skyrim and Dark Souls bolted on.
There's a new combat system. The old one had an attack, a block, a dodge and enemies that had one or two attack patterns. The new one has two-handed combat, one-handed combat, long-and short-range melee weapons, different parries and counters, sentries, enemies that attack in groups...
Also: this game is HELLS TOUGH. You die. A lot. Fail a parry? You take a club to the face and lose half you health. Didn't spot the sentry? Arrows up your ass. And then your sword breaks because your only weapons are the crap you can scavenge from mooks.
The visual design is amazing too. Sprawling ruins, enormous fields, a visual style that's like a more detailed Wind Waker. If this is a first-gen Switch game ported from the Wii U looks like I can see why Nintendo decided to try the docked-portable console idea.
I'm about six hours in and it feels like I've just started. At the moment I have covered *maybe* one-sixth of the map and most of that was trying to reach towns without dying. If you have a Wii U or a Switch, buy this game. If you don't, find someone who does and give it a try.