Does Breath of the Wild hold your hand too much?

[sys0nar]

Been thinking about picking up BOTW for a while now, Zelda is pretty much the only Japanese RPG series I like besides Dark Souls, but I've heard many people compare it to Skyrim, all I wanna know is does this hold your hand too much or are you kinda free to go along freely.

 

[Citizen]

How can it hold my hand if both my hands are busy holding MUH DICC

 

[Ol' Willy]

-Zelda
-RPG

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

It does not play anything like Skyrim, and certainly holds your hand way less than recent main entries in the Zelda franchise. It also doesn’t play particularly like a Zelda game though, which some people found disappointing.

It’s good though. Very, very good. Just don’t go into it believing the hype that it’s the GOAT

 

[Caim]

Been thinking about picking up BOTW for a while now, Zelda is pretty much the only Japanese RPG series I like besides Dark Souls, but I've heard many people compare it to Skyrim, all I wanna know is does this hold your hand too much or are you kinda free to go along freely.

Its map will point out where you have to go for the quests. Except it's only the destination, and it is up to you to figure out how to get there. For example, after completing the tutorial and getting into the main world you are given two pointers: one for the final boss of the game, and one for people who can help you not getting your shit kicked in if you try to fight the final boss right away. Going towards the second you'll enconter another of the game's Ubisoft Towers, one of the few safe havens out in the wilds, have the first encounter with the merchant to increase your item slots before finally reaching your destination. From there you can discover more of the main quest, be told how to upgrade your armor and your iPad, and gain access to story bits.

The game does not force you to do any of this, mind you. You're just given a destination and off you go. Entire sections of the game world do not need to be visited at all to complete main story or its DLC. The great mazes? Not required. The Bolson Company quest line? Not required. Pretty much any snowy area aside from the one in the tutorial? Not required. The Master Sword, aka one of the most important items in the franchise? Not required. If I were to start circling on the map which areas are required and which ones aren't, I'd cover only half the map. Sure, not every square meter of the world is interesting, but if you do only what is required and don't explore you only get fraction of the experience. So not only is your hand not being held, you're actually encouraged to explore. And while you sometimes get a Skype call from the princess during certain plot beats you don't have a nagging fairy, long-winded owl, grumpy captain, driven boat or extremely bottom-heavy imp telling you what to do, where to go or when to do so.

 

[Tigranes]

No, there's really not much handholding. And it's far more organically open world than Skyrim. It's not particularly challenging. Works well to roam around and let the lay of the land take you where you will.

 

[Reality]

I remember the quest markers thankfully are mostly just the main quests, and for sidequests and stuff, when it gives you an actual riddle or tries to get you to do stuff based on a description of the land-marks, it'll actually hold you to finding that place with the three trees, etc.

As far as the combat, eh - I personally find the parry/counter timing too easy and I was picking apart the strongest enemies pretty soon (granted they WILL 1-2 hit kill you if you try to fight them entirely in lock-on mode / without using the parry system constantly)

 

[sys0nar]

-Zelda
-RPG

Yes I know it's not TRVE.

I don't see anyone else saying long scientifical names for thre wsed

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

"Action-Adventure" has been the preferred genre name for this kind of game since the US release of The Legend of Zelda in 1987 --- at least until people started referring to them as "Zelda-likes".

 

[Tiger]

Just download it on CEMU and try it for yourself.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

I would say no
Like Caim you get quest markers for quests, but it's only the destination, the game doesn't tell you how to get there or how to solve them like every RPG since Skyrim does
Then most of the content in the game is completely optional and you get barely any indications on them
The tutorial is the most "hands-on" part of the game, and even than you're mostly left to your devices
So no not very hand-holding as far as AAA games go

But since it's a Zelda game don't expect the game to be very challenging
After the learning curve and early game, if you prepare yourself well you can curvestomp every challenge the game throws at you
Particularly the alchemy system reminds me a bit of Morrowind

I would say however that if you want to do quests, then ignore the NPC sidequests as those are basically MMO fetch quest.
Stick with the main quest and sidequests directly connected to it.


Also:

Zelda is pretty much the only Japanese RPG series

What?