Six years later…

[The Wolf Among You]

And people are still using “barren and empty” as criticism towards Breath of the Wild despite that being done on purpose.
It’s in the title of the game. WILD.
The theme of the game’s premise is Hyrule being largely uninhabitable due to Calamity Ganon and his horde of monsters pushing Hylians into small barely surviving pockets of civilization.
I understand people not liking that direction, but I don’t understand criticizing the game as if this was unintentional.
The game is about exploring uncharted territory and surviving…in the wild.
Who would’ve thought?

It tells me exactly who did and didn’t play the game.

 

[Rekkapryde]

Any other game would be punished having barren open empty land with nothing to do.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

And people are still using “barren and empty” as criticism towards Breath of the Wild despite that being done on purpose.
It’s in the title of the game. WILD.
The theme of the game’s premise is Hyrule being largely uninhabitable due to Calamity Ganon and his horde of monsters pushing Hylians into small barely surviving pockets of civilization.
I understand people not liking that direction, but I don’t understand criticizing the game as if this was unintentional.
The game is about exploring uncharted territory and surviving…in the wild.
Who would’ve thought?

It tells me exactly who did and didn’t play the game.

I love breath of the wild and understand how they explained why its “barren and empty” but people don’t really keep the same energy for other open world games that also juelz about why their open worlds are barren and empty. It only seems to apply to zelda and elden ring

The only difference is zelda is mostly puzzles and elden ring is just fighting. ‘Empty open world’ is more of a low effort criticism about the genre at this point which is why i can’t even take it seriously anymore

 

[The Wolf Among You]

Any other game would be punished having barren open empty land with nothing to do.

There’s plenty to do though.

 

[Rekkapryde]

There’s plenty to do though.

 

[The Wolf Among You]

I love breath of the wild and understand how they explained why its “barren and empty” but people don’t really keep the same energy for other open world games that also juelz about why their open worlds are barren and empty. It only seems to apply to zelda and elden ring

The only difference is zelda is mostly puzzles and elden ring is just fighting. ‘Empty open world’ is more of a low effort criticism about the genre at this point which is why i can’t even take it seriously anymore

I can’t speak for Elden Ring, but BotW has story based context that explains why the decision was made.
Some other open world games will have a fully functioning world where it makes little no sense why there aren’t people everywhere.

 

[DaSk8D00D]

Any other game would be punished having barren open empty land with nothing to do.

I definitely wouldn’t say that there’s “nothing to do” however if you’re not the explorative type or need to be directed along a set path, the game can defintely seem that way. Especially early on with limited resources and abilities. Even as an open world game there’s a hefty amount of content there overall tho


BotW was a slow burn for me. I got it when I bought my switch and it seemed OK at first but it didn’t really hook me in. Eventually I figured out all the mechanics and systems within the game and it “clicked” for me which was when I started really playing it regularly in longer sittings.

It’s not a top 5 all-time GOAT game to me but I did put 150+ hours on it and played the dlc so I’d consider it an A-Tier game and put respect on its name

 

[CoolinInTheCut]

Lmao the new Juelz gif is fukking killing me every time I see it

 

[The Wolf Among You]

120 shrines throughout the world, with some being puzzles in and of themselves.
Enemy outposts with loot and weapons.
Hyrule Castle is a dungeon.
The Divine beasts(dungeons).
Side quests(could’ve been fleshed out better).
Mini boss battles.
Memories.
Korok seed puzzles.
General exploration.

You may not have been interested in it but “nothing to do” isn’t accurate.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

120 shrines throughout the world, with some being puzzles in and of themselves.
Enemy outposts with loot and weapons.
Hyrule Castle is a dungeon.
The Divine beasts(dungeons).
Side quests(could’ve been fleshed out better).
Mini boss battles.
Memories.
Korok seed puzzles.
General exploration.

You may not have been interested in it but “nothing to do” isn’t accurate.

And…you can pretty much make that argument for every single open world game out, aside from the divine beast which are just more traditional dungeons i dont even think any of those things are unique to BoTW, they are just called different shyt than say horizon or hogwarts

 

[The Wolf Among You]

And…you can pretty much make that argument for every single open world game out, aside from the divine beast which are just more traditional dungeons i dont even think any of those things are unique to BoTW, they are just called different shyt than say horizon

nikka.
My point isn’t to differentiate BotW from other open world games, my point is that the game is criticized for something it intentionally leaned towards.
There is quite a lot to do in BotW but because it’s not densely populated people call it “empty and barren” despite there being context as to why.

 

[Legal]

And people are still using “barren and empty” as criticism towards Breath of the Wild despite that being done on purpose.
It’s in the title of the game. WILD.
The theme of the game’s premise is Hyrule being largely uninhabitable due to Calamity Ganon and his horde of monsters pushing Hylians into small barely surviving pockets of civilization.
I understand people not liking that direction, but I don’t understand criticizing the game as if this was unintentional.
The game is about exploring uncharted territory and surviving…in the wild.
Who would’ve thought?

It tells me exactly who did and didn’t play the game.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but I think the wall you're going to hit is that this could easily be positioned as conflating the writing covering up game design as opposed to game design following lore writing.

Either way, the barren and empty argument is usually incredibly subjective at best.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

nikka.
My point isn’t to differentiate BotW from other open world games, my point is that the game is criticized for something it intentionally leaned towards.
There is quite a lot to do in BotW but because it’s not densely populated people call it “empty and barren” despite there being context as to why.

Yeah, so you don’t have to be defensive cause im not disagreeing, im saying the criticism has less to do with zelda and more to do with open world games in general and that it isn’t a constructive argument

 

[The Wolf Among You]

I don't have a dog in this fight, but I think the wall you're going to hit is that this could easily be positioned as conflating the writing covering up game design as opposed to game design following lore writing.

Either way, the barren and empty argument is usually incredibly subjective at best.

I don’t think so, breh. The game design follows the lore to a T. You can clearly tell the world was designed this way with a purpose.

Yeah, so you don’t have to be defensive cause im not disagreeing, im saying the criticism has less to do with zelda and more to do with open world games in general and that it isn’t a constructive argument

My bad, breh. I agree.

 

[Rice N Beans]

There is enough to do. They spaced towns out far, sure, but in between with the people and world events, shrines, and puzzles (be it enemy, korok, shrine, etc.) there really is enough.

One thing it doesn't get commended for is the world itself is fantastic for traversal. Truly an exploratory landscape, but you get such good tools that you don't need to use fast travel, and getting stuck or finding something unsurmountable is rare, if not unseen.