Been playing this game for weeks. I completed it and then started a new game.
The game's story is excellent, but it absolutely does not justify the tedium it makes you endure to experience it.
In a 40 minute sitting, I'd spend the entire thing simply having characters dialogue at me. What's the point of the open world then? Car chases are scripted so that you don't even have to fire a single shot. The enemies will just eventually blow up. 70% of dialogue choices are just for roleplay and don't change a thing or make extremely minor changes. The combat and shootouts are mid.
Act 1 is a chore to get through on replay. There are so many touches they could have added to make it interactive. The Flathead robot mission... why not let us pilot the bot in first-person to do all the tasks, like a stealth minigame? I can think of a few games that let you do something similar. Instead, it is 20 or more steps that are essentially "look at this object and wait."
The best part of the game for me was the middle, where the plot becomes more elaborate, evocative and the relationships with Judy, Panam, Johnny etc develop. But even there the game was navigating me through a seedy open world in order to show me glorified cutscene after cutscene. Then shootouts that were really nothing special.
Witcher 3 was dialogue heavy, nuanced and compelling. It had tedium, but I never felt like the open world was superficial or that the tedium overshadowed the rest of the game. Side tasks like Gwent or contracts were fun and absorbing. The most boring expositional bit was using Witcher sense to explore, but even then at least you were interacting with your surroundings more, not just sitting there being talked at.
Did anyone else feel this way?
I agree with you about BoTW. I played the whole thing. It is actually overrated. Maybe I just needed to soace it out a bit since I played it a ton in college.
Nah you're right. It's overrated. It shaked the Zelda formula up and that's all that people see in it. It has a ton of fun details in the world sure but let's be honest BOTW has like 8 different enemies you will fight over and over. The shrines aren't even a challenge after the first third of the game since you know the ins and outs of your abilities. Your abilities are all gained right at the start too and there's no cool loot other than another bow or a random melee weapon.
The open world nature kills so much of the story pacing and cinematic elements we have come to expect from the series. Then there's the whole no real dungeons thing. a Zelda dungeon used to be an all day affair. Took you hours with a challenging unique boss fight at the end. The beasts we got and the copy pasted phantom ganons were so lame.
I honestly feel like they serious took a dramatic dip in theming and focus with BOTW. It took a dramatic leap forward in innovation for the series but it really doesn't feel like a legend of Zelda game anymore.
Tears of the kingdom is just The Legend of Zelda Nuts and Bolts. Change my mind