While Masahiro Sakurai works for Nintendo, that doesn’t mean he avoids games produced by other developers. In his recent Famitsu column, the Kirby creator discussed the differences between Breath of the Wild and the PS4 exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn. While he seems incredibly positive about both games, it’s interesting to see him classing Horizon Zero Dawn as “stress free” and Zelda as “tiresome”. Check out the full list of differences translated by Source Gaming here.
A week before writing this column, two wonderfully outstanding works were released and I was torn between how to spend my time. Horizon Zero Dawn and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. By all means, play them both because they really are masterpieces.
With that being said, I am surprised by the fact that although there are aspects that are very close, there are other aspects that are very different.
Overall, Horizon is more stress free and Zelda is becoming a tiresome routine. However, if you’ve played Zelda, you probably understand this well: the chores of Zelda are the most fun part!
Hmmmmm
He’s right though. Zelda got so tiresome for me and I went back to my PS4. I put 80 hours into BoW, and only beat the second stage. I honestly don’t wanna play it anymore. This is coming from a person who owns, beat, and loves all Zelda games expect Spirit Tracks.
I appreciate that he seems to be speaking honestly and not just sucking up to the almighty N
about time someone isn’t on this website…
Next he should play another platform fighter like Rivals or brawlout
Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale
He already probably played it Sakura isn’t the type that sticks with one brand he has a great and Sony collection and I like it to its better to expose yourself to different game companies rather then trying to choose sides and talk bad about the companies
Rivals is what Sakurai doesn’t want Smash to be….
Sounds like there might be errors in translation here….
“tiresome routine”
That’s an interesting way to put it. Has anyone else had that experience yet? For me, it doesn’t feel that way, but I’m only 75 hours in.
I’m 120 hours in. Got a bit tiered of it a few weeks after launch, playing Zelda, and only Zelda. But I would just say I got tired in general, something breaks from playing and a few other games solved. Now I can’t find enough time to roam through Hyrule.
Any game becomes a bit of a chore when you aim to complete as many aspects of it as you can. It’s huge, relatively empty and repetitive when you get to a certain point. I was 170+ hours in when I stopped playing, and had only found about half the Koroks, not even all the secret locations, and had to “cheat” to get like ~20 pictures of weapons.
Yeah I guess that’s to be expected. Happened to me when I finished the story of Arkham Knight. I decided not to bother with the 200 or so Riddler trophies that I hadn’t found yet. It was too much. I feel the same way about the Korok seeds, but at the very least I’ll use a guide and take the time to find them all; just because Zelda is one of my favorite series’ and I want 100% completion.
By the way, is your profile picture Arriety’s bedroom? I was watching that movie just the other day.
(I’m not the only one who can’t reply to second replies, right?)
Yeah, it is Arrietty’s bedroom! I adore Ghibli.
I’m pretty sure it’s everybody. It seems that you can reply to an original comment and you can reply to a reply of an original comment, but you can’t reply to a reply of a reply. (My head hurts.)
That was the first Ghibli film I ever saw. It’s still one of my favorites, though I know most Ghibli fans would place it low on their list.
Nah…I’ve played BotW practically every evening since launch, I’m 160hrs in and still completely enthralled by the game. For me, this is the best video game I have ever played and also manages to be so by a margin. The thought of the game ending at some point makes me sad.
The only thing I’ve gotten tired of is actively seeking out Korok Seeds to boost my inventory. Thankfully, I’ve already maxed my inventory slots & have so far only gotten Korok Seeds that I’ve come across while roaming Hyrule now. I wish they’d release the Korok Mask as soon as it works in the game instead of waiting til the entire first DLC pack is ready, though. Honestly, they should do like Splatoon & release stuff to the game as soon as it’s functional instead of waiting to release a ton of stuff all at once.
I will say that the game is demanding and actually difficult at times. I love it, but there are a few things that I just haven’t completely got down. One being jumping out of the way in time.
Pro tip…sideways attacks require back flip to get slowmo….. Vertical requires any side jumps for slowmo.
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That’s interesting. I have had Horizon Zero Dawn since launch and really enjoyed playing it for 3 day. Then Breath of the Wild came out and I could never get back into it. I have tried but, funny enough, I find HZD much more tiresome and the game feels (like most open world games) more like a big to-do list which is something Zelda somehow managed to avoid. Of course, that’s just my viewpoint. And I do agree with him, both are great games.
I’ve heard a few people say the same thing. Some say that Breath of the Wild ruined open-world games for them.
How so?
Simply because of how well BotW approaches open-world gameplay: the amount of freedom, both the physics and chemistry in the game, the way the game world and its inhabitants respond to player actions. BotW seems to have set a new standard for all future open-world RPGs, at least for some people. They find it hard to “go back” and play RPGs that don’t offer the same experience.
Personally, I don’t see it being a problem for me. I haven’t played any open-world games since starting Zelda, but I do look forward to getting back into FF XV once I’m through with BotW.
answer to that is simple ZELDA is better and there BUTTHURT
This is for Skelly, but I can’t seem to comment on his post. Might be the now blog format? Sheesh, I leave for a month and all the furniture got rearranged! D; (Lol) – In many ways, it ruined open world for me, because Zelda takes open world to a new level. You don’t just move in 3D space, but the environment interacts with you. You can climb. you can use the physics of the world to do almost anything you want, however you want. – most open world games have a much smaller set of rules and ways to accomplish things. It’s open world, but you cannot explore quite everywhere. You can’t be like, “I’m going to go climb that mountain and see what’s up there.” – so it made open world games feel a bit more… less open. – Still, I play AC4 Black flag – it’s still fun as hell, but Zelda really raised the bar.
Zelda Breath of the Wild is the only open world game I’ve ever enjoyed. That said, it’s also the first Legend of Zelda game I’ve actually enjoyed and finished.
Ah I see what you mean. I can’t say that I have that issue. I’m currently playing Zelda:botW, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Dragon Age Inquisition and love all the games fairly equally. Hell, I even picked up Skyrim the other day and wanted to start over there. I’m a RPG whore…. I have others I need to play…:(
Honestly, both Zelda and Horizon, to me, had very meh stories.
Horizon’s characters were okay, but some felt under developed.
Zelda had some amazing characters but Zelda herself felt a bit brattish instead of royal.
Both games are just fun in their own way.
You are casual gamer your opinion is not worthy to make it appear as a professionall for these games. Keep your personals opinions to your self. and stop making casual reviews or atleast put a tittle “A casual Botw Review” and dont pretending you are some kind of Pro Reviewer. you are by far not on this lvl yet.
Chill dude, it’s just an opinion. No one said it was a review
Isn’t the comments section the perfect place for opinions?
this Thanos dude makes it appear as if his goal in life is to protect gaming XD
Man, it is just an opinion. accusing someone of casual does not make you a hardcore gamer.
You are wrong he made a Demo review on this site on the article that says about the hardcore metacritic score for zelda and that person make a demo review and put 7/10. OK as a gamer you can put what ever score you like. But as a reviewer..you have to make real points to support the 7/10 and that guy failed miserably to support “hes opinion”
The problem is not only that he even mention to Visit hes site..you see where this is going? he is a whore who is trying to get traffic on hes site and what is the best way to do it? To put low score and go around on the internet and articles who are talking about the good metacritic score and get trafic to hes site even for negative comments.
There are other sites who doing exacly like this to get visitors from metacritic.
There is even a site that puts 6/10 on zelda and 9/10 on No mans sky.
A game that get perfect score=low score
A game that getting a massive attack for been shit. =high score
But i dont know if that person represents these kind of people i think he is more a /==/casaul gamer who doesn’;t know to entertaining himself/==/ also i make a full detailed answer to hes “demo review” Also i have put a massive text and i aswered him for EVERY negative points he make to put such a low score on zelda.
This is me when im not trolling and when i am deadly serious unless if i miss something then i can always change my mind
Maybe people would take you more seriously if you learned to talk properly.
maybe. Still not hard to understand english is not my language. and i dont have money to spend to go in a school to learn to speak properly english. happy now? all the english i know are thx to Ocarina of time back then when i was around 8 i had a book to traslate and type on a paper EACH english word to understand the game so i can finish it and the rest are from the Movies.
after all, sakurai is a well known pony.
how does that feel, Quadraxis?
– Church of Sasori
We all know The commander is just another account from you..so stop talking to your self..and dont even bother to login with the commander account to answer to your self…we all know your game..get over it
It is always amusing when a new “genius” comes along, by the sheer fact that you think you are right albeit being utterly wrong.
Lol social reject thinks am Quadraxis.
LOL the the old pervert from the church thinks i am serious
^ Lol clown confirmed
you need all this process to comfirmed that? jesus just ask me from the start :P
as a fellow nintendrone exposer, may the glory of Obinna Mii bless your “red ring of death”.
– Church of Sasori
Sassy, Sassy, Sassy… Lord Sakurai is not a mindless drone, hence the title of Lord. He is illustrating the differences between two great weapons, not elevating one over the other. Besides, the translator was obviously a Sonyan and used a poor choice of words for the translation. Lord Sakurai will use his knowledge of the enemy to surpass them in every way in his own time.
am going to laugh is sakurai’s next game is for the ps4..
As i said, sakurai is an out of the closet pony.
– Church of Sasori
Wouldn’t that be “Out of the stable”? :p
The nuances of language elude you, huh?
Sakurai is taking a jab at Horizon and disguising it with PR talk.
“Stress free” just means basic.
Sakurai is implying he can breeze through Horizon with ease because of how plain and uninspired the gameplay is, because the game is all lights and trumpets and when the push comes to shove it turns out to be a linear, “Press X to win” bore with no depth.
Ya’ll think even the slightest honest opinion is all PR talk…-_-
Fear not, Sassy. You and your ilk are closer than ever to annihilation. I’m sure The Commander will hear your pleas and try to make it as painless as possible… wait… No, that’s not The Commander… It’s gonna hurt. :p
there not comparable zelda is leagues ahead
Two mastervideos for this:
https://youtu.be/aVPXKdSEGNQ
https://youtu.be/qEGWtyJAkO0
These videos are epic….. Lmao!
Gameplay > Graphics in a nutshell.
Completely different types of gameplay. Both games are great in achieving what they set out to accomplish – two different things.
Hey on part 2 you can see my comment on the top btw
THIS is me when im not trolling:D
“Sprinting is punctuated by resting from time to time so that your stamina gauge doesn’t run out”.
hey, kid icarus uprising has a similar mechanic XD!
PR and nothing more, he’s basically calling Horizon “basic”.
And I guess he’s right, Horizon is a good game, but it’s far more linear and has far less interest in actually building an organic world, Zelda in contrast is tiresome as in “complex” because there’s a thousand things that require your attention.
Why do you think he thinks Horizon is more stress free than Zelda? Haven’t played Horizon…
Who knows? Just his opinion. Maybe because there’s less to keep track of in Horizon. It’s a different type of gameplay. So you don’t have to worry about the weather, weapons breaking, eating, sleeping, that type of stuff. It’s more combat focused than anything else.
i can agree that BotW is tiresome but that is the fun part and you can just play for years and not even progress the story other than just subduing the divine beasts and a few main quests that will get you to unlock more of the sheikah slate.
I have no clue what Horizon Zero Dawn is. But when I looked at the wikipedia and read that it’s based on a world overrun by robots, I knew that comparing this to Breath Of The Wild was an insult. Robots is why I hate Xenoblade Chronicles, and won’t give it a chance. There’s nothing exciting about fighting robots. Aside from maybe the few exceptions in Zelda games. Like those annoying guardians etc. Mainly because robots aren’t alive. Satisfaction usually only comes from fighting something that’s living.
The machines in Horizon are alive and they’re not the only enemies. Comparing it to Zelda isn’t an insult, it’s just not very sensible since they’re two different types of open world games.
You have no idea what your missing and since you wont play the game, the bad guys are not robots (just the minions) it has a very memorable story and it’s amazing.
I’ve played through both games. However, I didn’t pick up Horizon until after I finished BotW. I have to say, playing other open world games after BotW has changed my perspective on the genre. While playing through HZD, I constantly felt restricted, and traversing the world felt incredibly tedious in comparison. The objectives and missions were very repetitive, and it felt more like just going from waypoint to waypoint, instead of making my own discoveries, or being intrigued by something along the way. I also didn’t find the characters very likeable or original in HZD. The story only got interesting in the final third, but by that point, I was so tired of scavenging and crafting that I avoided all the enemies I could to make the credits roll asap. The combat in HZD was definitely fun at first, but after 10 battles or so you start to see the limitations. It didn’t do anything really new for the genre, so I think that’s the big difference between it and Zelda. BotW feels like a living, breathing world, where the environment and life that inhabits it react to everything you do. I didn’t get that feeling once during my playthrough of Horizon. Horizon is also a game that I never see myself returning to. I will definitely go back to Hyrule for more exploring. Overall, I think Zelda offers a lot more variety and is much more rewarding.
Sums up why I’m not interested in BOTW.
I really like how they returned to Zelda’s non linear, open world roots but they overdid it.
Sometimes less is more. If there were a few less mechanics and the map was a little bit smaller with less shrines, then it would’ve been day one purchase for me. And maybe that’s what would’ve happened if they didn’t delay it so many times.
After playing a smaller version, then I might look forward to an even bigger game like BOTW is next time. But instead they went and took a big leap to where they should’ve gradually walked a couple of steps.
If they released the cut down version I suggested above in 2014 or 2015 and then released the end result as an enhanced version on Switch, I might have a Switch by now and the Wii U wouldn’tve been a flop. But instead I’m saving for upgrading my PC or getting a scorpio and never planning on getting BOTW.
“…it’s interesting to see him classing Horizon Zero Dawn as ‘stress free’ and Zelda as ‘tiresome’.” — This is taken a little out of context because he goes on to say:
“However, if you’ve played Zelda, you probably understand this well: the chores of Zelda are the most fun part!”
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