Quite possibly the most overrated game of the previous decade. I've been playing Zelda games all my life. In fact, the very first video game I ever played was Link to the Past. I enjoyed the sense of exploration, the Metroidvania-esque progression of items, the dungeons, the challenges, etc. Breath of the Wild is lacking in all those areas. I got this feeling in the tutorial

Quite possibly the most overrated game of the previous decade. I've been playing Zelda games all my life. In fact, the very first video game I ever played was Link to the Past. I enjoyed the sense of exploration, the Metroidvania-esque progression of items, the dungeons, the challenges, etc. Breath of the Wild is lacking in all those areas. I got this feeling in the tutorial plateau, but it was pretty much gone after I left it. The Zelda portion of this Zelda game ended after the tutorial. After that, they could have just renamed the characters (and modified their appearances) and it would be unrecognizable as a Zelda game. The biggest gripe I have with this game is the weapon durability system. The sense of wonder when you find a neat weapon is quickly squashed when you realize it will break and disappear in the next 5 minutes. It's like "Oh, hey, I found a neat wea - oh, it's gone." It saps all the fun out of the combat, promoting running away from every fight rather than going on the attack. This leads me to my next gripe: Not everything needs to hit like a truck. Getting heart containers is almost pointless because enemies regularly take down at least 10 hearts per hit. It reminds me of Dark Souls, honestly, except Dark Souls actually rewards you adequately for the challenge. BOTW does not. This also promotes just running away from every fight, as the fights just aren't worth the trouble. Combine this with the terrible durability system and the fun of fighting is gone. I would rather have more interesting challenges than the "challenge" being the enemies can 1-shot you by farting in your general direction. My third biggest gripe: the dungeons. They are fun, but lacking. They left me wanting more. There is no awesome moment of finding a new exploration item because there isn't one. Your inventory going in is your inventory going out, save for a few weapons that will break before too long. The dungeons are also super short, ending before they really seem to get going. I had trials (mini-dungeons scattered throughout the world) last longer than some of the actual dungeons. I will say that I did find the trials fun. My fourth gripe is one of the things Nintendo loved to promote: the open world. It is barren. You can run for long periods of time without running into anything interesting. You can climb the mountains, which is challenging until you get things like stamina containers and climbing gear, and be rewarded with...nothing. You just see another mountain in the distance and more empty areas. You might see an enemy camp, but you are far better off not wasting your time with it. I feel that they could have put in a decent tutorial for the mount system. It isn't clear what you need to do at all. The mounts don't really even feel useful as most of your exploration on the overworld is done via climbing, which a horse obviously can't do. Next gripe: The Master Sword. I actually don't mind that finding this isn't obvious and can be easily missed. The feeling when you get it is awesome: a sword that does not break. Except it does, in a sense. Before too long, it has to recharge. This means you can't use it until it does, meaning it is pretty much broken. The food system is annoying. Really really annoying. You find ingredients throughout the world and cook them to make various types of food that have some nice benefits. What I don't like is that there are exact recipes that they don't tell you that you have to follow or your ingredients will be wasted. It gets very annoying, especially when the food/elixirs are necessary for progression. In summary, this game basically takes everything I like about the other Zelda games and almost strips it out. The dungeons are lackluster, the combat is an exercise in frustration, the sense of exploration reduced to a huge barren world, and the sense of finding that next new progression item is gone. I regularly see websites proclaiming that this is the best Zelda game ever, so I'm going to be a fanboy and list where I think it should be. From best to worst: A Link to the Past Ocarina of Time Link's Awakening Majora's Mask Wind Waker Link Between Worlds Phantom Hourglass Twilight Princess Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks Oracle of Seasons/Ages (low just because of that stupid dancing minigame) Breath of the Wild (yes, I would absolutely rate Spirit Tracks above BOTW) Skyward Sword Adventures of Link (LoZ 2 for the NES) Others I can't think of atm. In short, it is most definitely, in no way shape or form, no way no how, the best Zelda game ever created. It is extremely mediocre and overrated.