Breath of the wild is a fun open world game that if it manages to charm you and engage you with its world I can see why you would absolutely adore this game. If you become invested in the game there is a lot of different content to keep you busy and occupied while you explore Hyrule.
However, this only applies if you become invested. If you are one of the seemingly few people not memorised by the game, the flaws start to show and unfortunately that's what happened to me. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my time with the game and I'm glad I gave it another chance, because now I understand a bit better why so many people love this game. Did I end up loving it? No but that's ok, I don't have to love it to understand why others do. There are merits to the game that just didn't click for me. I think a large part of it was the hype, when so many people and outlets praise this as almost the holy grail of modern gaming, that's a high bar to surpass and it's why I am fairly nitpicky in my gripe list as I expected a much more polished and refined game due to this unfair hype.
Gripes/QoL requests:
-Back flip dodge is bad with camera controls, a dodge roll would work better
-Exploration isn't as rewarding as it should be due to most rewards being a sword or a bow that will just break if you use it or collect dust if you don't.
-Not all shrines are created equal, I think rather than having health/stamina tied to shrine completion, you can cut back on shrines and have the upgrading orbs just littered around the map as rewards for exploring
-A lot of the side quests are woefully uninspired and just generic fetch quests
-Fuck the stealth segments and also the blue fire torch segments
-I understand you are supposed to feel weak starting off and progressively get stronger but it didn't feel as well done as I would have liked, maybe Elden Ring spoiled me with that
-Better instructions on some aspects of cooking would be nice as I'm still clueless as what some items were supposed to be used for
-Stop weapons from breaking. If you don't want people using the same stuff over and over then add stats and stat decay. Weapons not breaking also fixes part of the issue with lack of good exploration rewards.
-Test of strength shrines should have had different enemies rather than just the robots
-Going off the beaten path to get to an area rather than follow the "normal" path is punished at times because you miss out on how to get a required item or other info until you backtrack.
-Rain can fuck off
-I think some of the guardians are a bit too aggressive in terms of chasing you down, a bit fucking annoying for something that can one shot you if it hits
- I personally did not enjoy how the story/lore is told through the fragmented memories. It doesn't exactly flow well for me when they can be found in any order.
- I know it's a switch but come on fam, I didn't expect a launch title game to be lagging if I'm in a forest or using statis/magnet power in the rain. Definitely had more lag in areas than it should have and I have concerns for an ambitious sequel running on the same hardware
For me, a lot of that list is what stopped me from truly engaging with the world and the game as I do think it's a game you are meant to soak in for a while, rather than beating it to move onto something else like myself. If you can manage to get invested, I'm sure a majority of the list is something you'll overlook and that's fine also, just not me.
However, this only applies if you become invested. If you are one of the seemingly few people not memorised by the game, the flaws start to show and unfortunately that's what happened to me. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my time with the game and I'm glad I gave it another chance, because now I understand a bit better why so many people love this game. Did I end up loving it? No but that's ok, I don't have to love it to understand why others do. There are merits to the game that just didn't click for me. I think a large part of it was the hype, when so many people and outlets praise this as almost the holy grail of modern gaming, that's a high bar to surpass and it's why I am fairly nitpicky in my gripe list as I expected a much more polished and refined game due to this unfair hype.
Gripes/QoL requests:
-Back flip dodge is bad with camera controls, a dodge roll would work better
-Exploration isn't as rewarding as it should be due to most rewards being a sword or a bow that will just break if you use it or collect dust if you don't.
-Not all shrines are created equal, I think rather than having health/stamina tied to shrine completion, you can cut back on shrines and have the upgrading orbs just littered around the map as rewards for exploring
-A lot of the side quests are woefully uninspired and just generic fetch quests
-Fuck the stealth segments and also the blue fire torch segments
-I understand you are supposed to feel weak starting off and progressively get stronger but it didn't feel as well done as I would have liked, maybe Elden Ring spoiled me with that
-Better instructions on some aspects of cooking would be nice as I'm still clueless as what some items were supposed to be used for
-Stop weapons from breaking. If you don't want people using the same stuff over and over then add stats and stat decay. Weapons not breaking also fixes part of the issue with lack of good exploration rewards.
-Test of strength shrines should have had different enemies rather than just the robots
-Going off the beaten path to get to an area rather than follow the "normal" path is punished at times because you miss out on how to get a required item or other info until you backtrack.
-Rain can fuck off
-I think some of the guardians are a bit too aggressive in terms of chasing you down, a bit fucking annoying for something that can one shot you if it hits
- I personally did not enjoy how the story/lore is told through the fragmented memories. It doesn't exactly flow well for me when they can be found in any order.
- I know it's a switch but come on fam, I didn't expect a launch title game to be lagging if I'm in a forest or using statis/magnet power in the rain. Definitely had more lag in areas than it should have and I have concerns for an ambitious sequel running on the same hardware
For me, a lot of that list is what stopped me from truly engaging with the world and the game as I do think it's a game you are meant to soak in for a while, rather than beating it to move onto something else like myself. If you can manage to get invested, I'm sure a majority of the list is something you'll overlook and that's fine also, just not me.