Old people playing BotW

[AwdryFan1997]

Nintendo's "back", with a modernized version of their Wii marketing strategy. The Switch is on its way to overthrowing the PS2 as highest-selling videogame console of all time. And all of this is ignoring Nintendo's disgusting business decisions lately.

Recently, many ZD users have had the pleasure of helping the older generations with the newer Zelda games. But now, one's gotta wonder: What's the real appeal of Breath of the Wild? Seriously, as someone who really likes the game, I don't really see why people want to play it. And yet Breath of the Wild might be the new Wii Sports.

So, what's your thoughts? Why is BotW so appealing to the casual market? And other questions too, such as why did AwdryFan make this thread?

 

[Dizzi]

Its easy and annoying...

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

I don't recall a bunch of really old people asking for help with BotW around here. I think Mario Kart 8 Deluxe fits the Wii Sports analogy better because it's usually bundled with the Switch.

 

[Azure Sage]

BotW has a gorgeous world that's practically at sandbox levels of freedom. It's massive, it's got interesting things around every corner, and it has a story that you can tackle at a pace you're comfortable with. There's a huge amount of content that's made to be done at an individual pace, the gameplay is extraordinarily fun, and it's not so difficult that your average player wouldn't be able to jump in with it as their first Zelda experience. Given all that, it's hardly surprising at all that it's popular with the casual market.

 

[Mikey the Moblin]

it's got interesting things around every corner, and it has a story that you can tackle at a pace you're comfortable with. There's a huge amount of content that's made to be done at an individual pace, the gameplay is extraordinarily fun

I disagree tho

Look there's no way you can objectively present botw as a game with a huge amount of content when games like skyrim had already existed from the turn of the decade, and the vast majority of people consider botws replayability to be poor

 

[Fraxinus]

I think it's that the Zelda series has always appealed to gamers of all ages, but Breath of the Wild is so tedious in new areas that past games haven't been, that you see our older generation of gamers joining ZD to ask for help on those things, so it's being pointed out more than it has in the past. The game is a huge departure from what we're all used to from the series, and some stuff is harder to learn, figure out, and adjust to. I highly doubt it's specifically that BotW appeals to a "casual" audience.

 

[Azure Sage]

I disagree tho

Look there's no way you can objectively present botw as a game with a huge amount of content when games like skyrim had already existed from the turn of the decade, and the vast majority of people consider botws replayability to be poor

I can, actually. BotW is enormous. There's hundreds of hours worth of activities. Even if open world games have been around for a while, that doesn't make BotW any less than what it is. Skyrim specifically doesn't do a single thing better than BotW, as far as what they have in common is concerned. I can absolutely present BotW as a game with loads of content, because that's exactly what it is. It's ridiculous to claim otherwise even if you don't like the game.

 

[Mikey the Moblin]

I can, actually. BotW is enormous. There's hundreds of hours worth of activities. Even if open world games have been around for a while, that doesn't make BotW any less than what it is. Skyrim specifically doesn't do a single thing better than BotW, as far as what they have in common is concerned. I can absolutely present BotW as a game with loads of content, because that's exactly what it is. It's ridiculous to claim otherwise even if you don't like the game.

This has nothing to do with whether or not I like botw and everything to do with what constitutes content. Even if you're perfectly happy running around in circles picking apples for hundreds of hours, most people aren't. BOTW is no more contentful of a game than any other 3D zelda, and certainly pales in comparison to skyrim's content. I never said skyrim was a better game than BOTW, either, just that it has more things to do, which is absolutely true.
You literally can't say botw has hundreds of hours worth of activities, that's like me saying Dark Souls has 700 hours worth of content because I played it for that long
if botw was decently replayable the lack of content wouldn't matter as much, but as I said most people don't find BOTW to be particularly replayable, from what I've seen.
Content in a video game is somewhat nebulous and I would argue that SS have more postgame content than most mainline pokemon games, but some people don't consider the wild area to be postgame content and it comes down to where you personally draw the line. I think you are more easily entertained in botw than the average player, which is fine, but you can't then turn around and say "yes this is hundreds of hours of content" when the activity in question is something most people would spend a half hour on at most before getting bored of the repetitive-ness

 

[Azure Sage]

This has nothing to do with whether or not I like botw and everything to do with what constitutes content. Even if you're perfectly happy running around in circles picking apples for hundreds of hours, most people aren't. BOTW is no more contentful of a game than any other 3D zelda, and certainly pales in comparison to skyrim's content. I never said skyrim was a better game than BOTW, either, just that it has more things to do, which is absolutely true.
You literally can't say botw has hundreds of hours worth of activities, that's like me saying Dark Souls has 700 hours worth of content because I played it for that long
if botw was decently replayable the lack of content wouldn't matter as much, but as I said most people don't find BOTW to be particularly replayable, from what I've seen.
Content in a video game is somewhat nebulous and I would argue that SS have more postgame content than most mainline pokemon games, but some people don't consider the wild area to be postgame content and it comes down to where you personally draw the line. I think you are more easily entertained in botw than the average player, which is fine, but you can't then turn around and say "yes this is hundreds of hours of content" when the activity in question is something most people would spend a half hour on at most before getting bored of the repetitive-ness

I can easily say it's got hundreds of hours of content. It took me 110 hours to beat it initially. That's just "beat the game", by the way, not even close to 100%ing it. Master Mode doubled that time, and the Master Trials and Champion's Ballad added even more to it. There's 120 shrines initially, plus the extra DLC ones, over 100 shrine and side quests, and there's the main story. Not even counting the 900 koroks, that's indisputably a lot more content than any other Zelda game. I have no idea how you can think the volume of BotW compares to the average 3D Zelda. And I've played Skyrim and I definitely don't think its content is on BotW's level. When I said hundreds of hours, I was not factoring in the time I spend running around the world doing whatever I want. Cuz we all know that I do that a lot. But I didn't have to do that to spend a couple hundred hours on the game's actual content.

As far as replayability goes I can understand why some might say it's not as replayable, mostly just because starting from zero without having your complete file to return to when you want is discouraging. That's pretty much the only barrier to replaying, though. At least, in my view. Plus you can get around it using other switch profiles.

 

[Mikey the Moblin]

If you completed everything in the game except for all korok seeds and ended up with say 70% completion
And you logged over 200 hours doing that
You either left the game on overnight or spent 50+ hours farming/cooking

 

[Ernestine Williamsflah]

Well being a old person. I like the Zelda serie. I have played all off the 3DS’s games. I probably have 100 hours in them.
BoTW I wa Ted to play when it came out. But I didn’t want to put the switch on the TV.
so I was happy to see the light switch come out.
Just something about it. You ne er know what going to be around the corner.
And yes I will be here to ask for help.
Thanks