As someone who thinks BOTW and TOTK have a TON of glaring flaws that modern game journalism refuses to critique, this is disapointing to hear. I fear they’re just gonna keep making BOTW clones with different powers and I’m never gonna get a traditional zelda game that isn’t a remake again.
The worlds are largely empty and boring to explore even compared to some much older open world titles
movement/controls are clunky
the combat system is incredibly simplistic especially compared to other games and makes combat largely uninteresting and unchallenging
the weapon durability system is terrible and not only discourages exploration (to save your good weapons), but also prevents more complex combat mechanics from existing at all
the plots really aren’t good at all
the shrines are repetitive
the side quests have no good rewards and often aren’t worth bothering with. This is due to any substansial rewards (health and stamina) being locked to shrines, main tools being given to you at the start, a lack of proper progression, and other tools like weapons being disposible.
Because they give you all the tools at the start of the game, there’s really no sense of progression making the game feel stale a lot more quickly then it otherwise should
TOTK doesn’t really address any of these problems from BOTW. It does address things like enemy variety, and dungeons/bosses (barely), but both games share so many of the same issues I struggled to get through TOTK.
I disagree with all and every single point you made, to the point that I think the complete opposite about most of them. So I guess those are subjective, not objective issues, and the game is not for everyone. I don’t think every game has to be for everyone, but it’s clear looking at popularity, sells, and cultural impact, that both BotW and TotK are liked by a huge amount of people just as they are. And I for one would definitely like to have a third installment.
The final point really gets to me. New items and abilities were such a great part of pre-BotW era Zelda games. I get why they did it. The open world being so large means you aren’t likely to want to re-explore the same location again once you get the requisite item. It’s a sacrifice they made to avoid gating content off and allowing you to go anywhere and do anything at any time. I just don’t really think that sacrifice is worth it.
I’d agree with the others who said to go for games that can be played as co-op, rather than competitive with each other.
Some good ones include: Don’t Starve Together, Valheim, Deep Rock Galactic, Minecraft, Portal 2 (main co-op campaign, and the somewhat hidden co-op free dlc campaign that also exists and is imo even better).
Most survival games that have multiplayer have a co-op/no friendly fire option, and they have adjustable difficulty oftentimes, so you can set it up to be as easy or hard as you want.
Or you could go fully the other way and try the old classic Magica (not Magica 2, the first game is much better) and kill each other in ridiculous ways
My top recommendation for you though is Divinity Original Sin 2, and Divinity Original Sin 1 as well. The second game especially is the king of co-op RPG’s, and both have an incredibly fun combat system, to the point that part of the game would be fun even without the rest of it. And each player in the 2nd game can play a pre-made character with their own story, or they can make a custom character.
Edit: actually I’m not sure of the system requirements for the divinity games, so my top recommendation is now Minecraft and other survival games. They can be really good for hang-out games partly because you can usually wander off and do your own thing while you talk if you want, or you can collaborate, and they leave a lot of room for talking about stuff besides the game.
I’d also suggest trying synchronized movie/tv watching, if ya’ll are the sort to enjoy talking over movies or tv like that. Just pick one, set up voice chat, and press play at the same time. Bonus points for “so bad it’s good” movies like birdemic etc.
this has been my longest-lasting phone game by a significant margin. I love that it’s portrait mode so I can play a game while holding a phone the way God intended
I’m in the same range, and have moved from Canada to the UK. So basically multiplayer games and the Internet are the only way for me to reconnect with buddies back home.
One game we’ve been rocking pretty hard when we all have time is Deeprock Galactic. It’s good fun, team based mission shooter-looter. Don’t really need super tight controller skills, spray and pray is a viable strat. And rounds are usually like 15-30mins which is great for some of my friends back home with kids.
I just started playing it last night, and I guess I’d so far wish I’d been told just two simple things.
It’s still pretty stiff and janky. The post on Reddit a while back that said they “fixed” it was being generous
There won’t be an overarching plot for at least an hour into the game, maybe more, so be patient (?)
Point (1) isn’t that it’s unplayable at all, it’s running pretty decently. But there have been times where I’ve completely lost my immersion because the NPC does something absolutely physics breaking. The most comical example was where my friend (forgot his name) walked through a series of lockers and caused them to explode open and dump their contents into the room! Took me out of the moment but was still somewhat hilarious
For point (2), I’m still waiting to see what my motivation is. I’ve done the intro and the tutorials, and the first mission, and I still don’t see where the game is going. What is my end goal? What am I building up towards? Or will I just perform contract jobs the rest of the game and that’s the whole loop.
Give me OOT with the systems created with BotW /TotK. There is so much potential here for freedom here the way you could complete dungeons in different orders, while still adhering to a classic dungeon-with-items Zelda formula. Lighting fires with bombs vs arrows vs thrown torches. Reflecting light with mirrors or a mirror shield. Even using enemies’ attacks or weapons to do so. If this was part of the core design of the game, it could be treated like how sequence breaking is now sanctioned in Metroid games and part of its design.
I think a 3rd party might be able to do this while Nintendo charges forth with their new vision, and this would probably be my favorite style of Zelda game.
What exactly from OoT are you missing in those two games, though? I’m honestly curious, because there’s very little that is objectively ‘missing’ compared to OoT
Outer Wilds. I consider it the best video game ever made and I’ve spent quite some time thinking about if there’s something I could add, change or remove that would improve it and so far I’ve yet to come up with anything of substance (beyond tiny QoL changes or reeeally nitpicky stuff).
I’ve just joined beehaw, this is my first browse, and one of the first comments I see is for Outer Wilds… Feels good. One of my favourite games / stories / media / art pieces ever. I love it and all of the brilliant minds behind it, I’ve never thought so about a game once finished anywhere near as much as this one.
Outer Wilds is one of the more interesting games to come out in recent memory, but personally I just didn’t like the
spoilerfairly tight (for me) time limit. I like to do things at a slower pace for a variety of reasons, and I’d love to have a way to change the time scale so that things don’t happen in just 20-something minutes. I know it theoretically gives you infinite time to explore and do stuff, but that one cycle is always ~20 minutes, and that’s what I’d love to be able to slow down.
I still need to get around playing the DLC but I feel like I’d need to watch a video to get caught up on the story. That said, yeah, the gameplay and story is absolutely incredible. Perfectly-executed mystery box.
I’ve just started playing Etrian Odyssey 1 and been liking it a whole bunch. And have ignited a general interest in this genre of games, I normally play lots of different Traditional Roguelikes (not lite) and find many of the game mechanics the same / interesting.
Does any have recommendations for other First-person Dungeon Crawlers?
Been looking into the original Wizardry series and new game in early access: Wizardry: The Five Ordeals.
I’ve always enjoyed left 4 dead as a casual co-op, and Back 4 Blood is a great revamp of the originals. Idk about others, but I’ve always had a hard time getting competitive in these games. Though if you want a little friendly competition, versus still exists with a lot of fun new special zombies.
I know how ubiquitous it is, but I still replay it on a regular basis. Its perfectly designed, balanced, simple… Im not saying its superior to modern games or something stupid, I just think its pretty flawless. That is all.
Have you ever looked into any randomizers for ALTTP? They’ll give you a whole new experience in playing the game.
With Archipelago, you can even play with other people playing other randomized games. A Hollow Knight player might need you to find their mantis claw so they can get to the boss that has your hookshot and so on.
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