Those of you who actually enjoyed BotW, what are some minor flaws you would fix for the next open world Zelda game?

Those of you who actually enjoyed BotW, what are some minor flaws you would fix for the next open world Zelda game?
HARDMODE: Only suggestions that are easily doable from a game development perspective.
I’ll start 1/2

>Dungeons: have more of them, make them longer and feel unique. Bring back some old-school puzzles if necessary. Same with the bosses, make them unique.
>shrines: make them fit the area they’re in, like a Gerudo aesthetic for those in the desert etc. To compensate for more and larger dungeons, have fewer shrines throughout the world, maybe 60 and have 9-10 dungeons.
>by having fewer shrines, make sure they’re all puzzle ones.
>to tie in with the above point, do away with useless side quests entirely. Instead make all of them meaningful shrine quests that reveal a hidden shrine, allowing developers to flesh out the game world
(Cont.)

some fucking variety

>only things that are easy to do from a gamedev perspective

>immediately suggests huge content changes and additions

2/2
>Koroks: have a full inventory from the start, so that instead of adding to the inventory space, Koroks (or their replacement) contribute to developing a new town somewhere, a bit like Tarrey Town. The bigger the town gets, the more useful shops open for items, armour, etc. This would make finding them meaningful (it could tie in with the story more)
>Cooking: simples recipes never give incredible stat boosts like the simple durian one, if you want great effects the food should require at least 4 ingredients, one of them at least quite rare and harder to farm.
>Fishing: tying in with above point, bring back fishing rods and make it impossible to fish with bombs. Ice rune or something else could still be used, but fish can’t be caught just by swimming. And make Hylian loach appear somewhere super secret on map in certain conditions for the fishing mini game fanatics (it’s woeful there wasn’t proper fishing given the gyro and HD rumble)
>make sure the Rito town is a comfy snow one, or at least have one comfy snow settlement.
>flesh out local towns’ delicacies, unique culture etc more (for lore and gameplay)
>Bring back a spooky area like the well/spirit temple/graveyard in OoT, they’re always fun

actual dungeons instead of the beasts

Carry on after defeating ganon

It would be feasible for a next game? All assets etc are there to be reused.

Fucking forgot one last point: bring back some classic enemies or peoples like the Deku scrubs etc., since all the bokoblin etc AI is already developed.

See This one I like

the philpsophy of those dungeons would not connect with BotW's philosophy

Suggestions for a new game ITT, not BotW. Read OP before posting or lurk moar.

i have a problem with the aesthetic according to the region they are located, consider that Hyrule is a land habitated by mankind, they are capable of change the landscape in little time, so that would mean that Hyrule's landscape could have changed drastically between the 10,000 years were the Shrines were created and the 100 years were they were rediscovered, it wouldn't not make sense if the shrines are aestheticaly similar to the actual overworld or the 100 years ago overworld.

Make at least the master sword unbreakable in Master mode or recharge immediately, instead of waiting for it to break first and then wait 10 minutes. To keep other weapons still viable, boost dmg and durability of same tier weapons (30ish attack).

Dungeons to discover in the world and a lot more enemy variety

Tell me that discovering a secret dungeon out in the world, tucked away in a cave system or maybe under snow or sand, would not be the most exciting moment of the game to you. What is BotW's philosophy if not exploration?

add hidden optional (real) dungeons that give you new tools to fight/move/interact with.

That's literally all the game needed. I went into it blind and expected something like this all the way until I beat ganon.

I didn't enjoy breath of the wild so I can't really help

-Get rid of the shrines entirely, they are a terrible concept.
-Don't make the world post apocalyptic, it's boring especially for a world that seems as tame as this one.
-Get rid of that annoying delay that Link does when you attack. Makes the combat too slow. Make the combat a bit more fast and ferocious.
-Get rid of the focus on lots and lots of items. It messes with the flow of adventuring and combat to have to go through the menus so much.
-Some more memorable music
-Allow you to get the normal green tunic early on. I just think Link never looks as cool in anything else.

More enemy variety. This should be easy. 5 unique enemy types per region, in addition to the base enemy types. As 3 unique "boss" type enemies per region, in addition to the base boss types.

Remove pause healing. You get a fast heal- handled by potions/elixers you craft, and slow heals- food, which can heal over time, but also you have to sit through the link eating animation. Enemies can also attack you and knock food out of your hand when you pull it out to eat. Potions work faster, animation for drinking is faster and isn't interrupted. Limited to bottles. At start only 1 bottle at a time. Upgradable to 5 bottles. You can only keep one food item on you at a time, and it will cool and lose effectiveness over time. Korock seeds upgrade bottle storage and increase the time until stored food cools.

Remove massive inventory. Korok Seeds grant you saddlebags you can put on your horses that offer you additional inventory space, you can only swap inventory when standing in close proximity to your horse. The bike offers a teleport function that finally gives you TONS of inventory space, allowing you to pull from a sci-fi chest in your house. Place things there, and you can pull it from proximity to the bike. Link's own inventory is limited to 2 melee weapons, 2 bows, and 1 shield. The shield slot can be replaced with an extra bow or melee weapon. More weapons slows link down, slows climbing and swim speed and increases stamina drain of all actions. Adding an incentive for playing light.

Weapon durability increased, but only by 25-50%, depending on the weapon. Blacksmiths in towns can be paid and given ore to repair weapons and add the durability up, attack up, long throw, ect upgrades that are already found randomly throughout the game. This durability increase and added functionality is mainly to reduce RNG and counteract the negative balance of keeping inventory space smaller.

What philosophy, the philosophy that things you find in the overworld can't be too fun or interesting?

Divine beast size increased. 25 points instead of 5 per dungeon. Strong and unique miniboss each dungeon. Blight Ganons each given 2 new phases in addition to ramping up their existing 2. Damage increased and health increased to be balanced and designed to be fought against upgraded armor and master sword.

Ganon himself has at least 2 new phases, damage and health scaled up and balanced for a maxed out player. For the game's structure, anything less is silly and trivializing the game's content past a certain point. Dark Beast Ganon must be tougher and a more interactive fight.

Glider should be earned. Make it a long and effort filled side quest that requres you to do things in Hebra, Akkala, and Faron. Until then, you can use Korok leafs as parachutes, but they are ineffective for covering distance and one fall from a mountain should drain most if not all of a korok leafs durability.

Similarly, fast travel must be earned. All shrines in a region should be completed to unlock an extra pedestal at the base of each tower. After using this pedestal, fast travel for that region (and only that region) should be unlocked. You will be able to fast travel from one shrine to another shrine or from a shrine to a tower, ect. Not from anywhere. Only the medallion should allow you to fast travel from anywhere.

Flesh out Rito and Goron questlines, they were woefully lacking. Increase the length of each photo memory to about 11 minutes, to give us a complete story.

Each shrine should be roughly double in length, combat trials should be against unique enemies or minibosses, and instead of being elevators, they should be integrated into the environment, found deep inside caves or other structures. Instead of Monks saying very slowly the same boring things each time, they should each drip feed you with a tiny morsel of interesting lore about "10,000 years ago", This game's version of ganon, and the ancient technology, all adding up to a single cohesive backstory.

Not have the weapon durability be so goddamn low. I get why they did it, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating.

>I would make the world a bit smaller. Maybe 2/3 the size
>I would cut the number of strines by 4 and make them 4 times longer. Plenty of puzzles for some and enemies with puzzles or just enemies
>Have more dungeons like the 4 beasts. Preferably 8 + 1 with the 9th being the final boss
>Have 4 end game dungeons to restore stuff, possibly the 4 guardians who died
>Add more variety in attacks and combat
>Keep the durability shit, but only for the crappier weapons. Master sword, mirror shield, hylian shield, top tier bows shouldn't break, but they are hard to get. I loved the boomerang/sword weapons I would make a shield one too and make shields thowable
>add 2 more powers of somesort
>Add more variety of enemies and have a lot more big bosses. I liked the rock monsters, cyclops guys, dragons and what not
>no fucking amiibo shit

Any suggestions for the next game in the series that don't just fix flaws? I like a dark world setting that you can access similarly to ALttP

Get rid of shrines altogether and add dungeons that look like the Forgotten Temple and Hyrule Castle instead of shitty tiny animal dungeons

>directional attacks for swords, give swords t
>the ability to craft rods using gems, wood and monster parts i have a fuck load off like chus
>make shield surfing and horseback combat more even like TP.
>Pegasus boots equip for faster run speeds/less stamina used or roc's cape for a higher jump for climbing.
>a recruit able companion like Moosh and the other animals.

add underwater exploration and caverns

More enemy variety, rework the cooking system so things like Hearty Radish's aren't OP.

Stop focusing on the "wide open-world collectible" shit and add in things you can actually explore.

No matter where I go it's just shrines and korok seeds. I can even fly off to another island and all I get is a shrine.

dungeons are easily the biggest flaw. instead of a change of scenery from the shiny blue shine interiors and having some nice tradidional dungeons we get loading screen shrines at the end that serve no purpose other than grab an orb and leave. the forgotten temple had me giddy the first time i found it but turns out its just a guardian shooting gallery with a loading screen shrine at the end of that big room. exploring really takes a hit when that happens

Add more attacks to literally every boss and miniboss and make the attacks harder to dodge but not impossible.

leveling
collectibles
bike armor dlc

The focus on shrines is definitely a huge problem. Its lame how even the quests and labyrinths are about finding shrines.

The environmental puzzles and based Eventide Island were the best part of the game, and in the end all of them are tied to more Shrines anyway.

I know I'm in the extreme minority but I don't like the climbing very much. I could honestly do without it.

Climbing should honestly have it's own upgrades, it's cool until you have to do it long distance.

Speak for yourself, i honestly loved finding the forgotten temple but then again i had no illusions to what was likely at the end of it.

>Better fighting system than just spamming Y
>Better sidequests, not just Shrineshit and fetchquests
>Open world filled with interesting sidequests rather than fucking Koroks and Shrines
>Better music
Thats it actually.

Yeah, good content might distract people from the boring open world. That must be why all the usual Zelda content was removed for BoTW to force people to focus on the open world.

Shrines themselves don't connect with the game's philosophy.

One word.
DARKNUT

...and have the battle with one(or more?) be ten times as epic as a fight with a Lynel.

Weapons break easier
Food is eaten in real time
Hard mode means double enemy count instead of health
No fast travel
No champion abilities
Armor upgrades cut in half

>finding the Forgotten Temple relatively early on
>"oh boy this sounds interesting."
>*piano music playing*
>parry parry arrow arrow spin to win >everything dead
>"alright to room 2. oh its just a shrine"
>"time to grab a drink since ima be waiting in loading for this orb"

>actual gameplay content would not connect with BoTW's philosophy

Gee, that might be why it gets so much flak from people who find wandering around like an idiot for 50 hours and picking mushrooms boring.

Add caves. Add more variety of aesthetics. More story and lore.

-Dungeons: if they go back to the shrine concept, focus on quality over quantity. Also have more that focus on combat in a more substantial way.
-Cooking: only allow a few food slots (no more than 4) make fairies take up a food slot, and if they bring back temporary hearts, make it so that they don't automatically give you full recovery (same with stamina) and no more healing while paused
-Armor: if they bring back armor, make just one change; make the armor values percentage based rather than additive.
-More enemies

>i had no illusions to what was likely at the end of it

This might have allowed me to enjoy BoTW more if I gave up any hope of finding anything interesting.

>find a cool cave behind a waterwall
>get excited
>it's just a shrine
>find a rock face on the side of a mountain, might hold a cave inside
>bomb it and enter
>it's just a shrine

What I wouldn't give for an actual bunch of caves with some actual stuff to do in them. Fucking Minish cap had a cave that cut through the world and acted as a shortcut from the plains to the swamp.

hup hup heeyah

I really want them to fix armor. Enemies either one-shot me or scratched me depending on how far I was into the game.

they do going by the lore of the game

They should just use ALBW's item renting if they want a big world and freedom. You are overloaded in BOTW with rupees with nothing to spend them on, item renting would be perfect. I don't even mind if shrines return as opposed to puzzles for heart pieces, but get rid of ALL the challenge ones unless you make them each a unique encounter and not small medium big robot.

>they are a terrible mechanic
>but it's fine, the lore says they are ok

Lore can easily be rewritten.

I want combat shrines to be Eventide shrines.

>all your food and weapons are taken away
>guardians chasing you
>run, hide and scavenge to survive

now that they have the engine down, they just need to further expand on it's foundation.


not that I didn't enjoy exploring the overworld, it does get a bit boring after some time so some spice in the mix wouldn't be too much to ask for

>better sidequests
>more complex main dungeons
>flesh out cryonis
>flesh out combat
>more enemy variety
boom, best open world game ever.

-Better music with actual melodies and themes
-Remove Shrines
-Remove voice acting
-Reduce rain frequency by 50%
-Weapons have more durability (don't break as quickly) but you get a limited number of them; use items found around the world to fix your broken weapons like whetstones, plant fibers and ore
-Have an elaborate system of underground caves, rivers and abandoned temples to find under the overworld; abandoned Temples would have stuff like puzzles and traps to navigate through as if they were never explored, with some unique items to find at the end; hopefully tie the temples to the main story but still keep them optional
-More overworld mazes and other new overworld areas
-Allow people to explore the massive plateau north and west of Hebra and the sea east of Akkaad; have these areas influenced from Zelda 2
-Each of the four major races of the game give you skills that help you, much like in Majora's Mask, but this time you can use them without transforming or wearing armor
-Brand new story about something besides Ganon; Maybe Link has to go around destroying all the enemies that were left behind by Ganon and they don't revive with Blood Moon this time, essentially he is cleaning up Hyrule

They're not a terrible game mechanic. They fit what they were trying to do in BOTW very well

I can see why people but would be disappointed but for someone like me finding the forgotten temple alone is its reward.

Yeah, give you miniscule amounts of content every half an hour to justify the open world

Yes. Also, the shrines and the sheikah slate go hand in hand and one couldn't exist without the other so they fit very well

Gate able progression in such a way where the game gives you more tools to complete puzzles and fights with outside of the first 2 hours of the game.

You could do this by either not allowing you to travel the entire map from the beginning of the game.

Another way would be that after you complete so many shrines another set of shrines/dungeons unlock that give you new items/skills. This could also be part of unlocking knew shrines/dungeons in areas you have already explored.

Also there needs to be more than 4 mini dungeons and 1 big dungeon.

pet dogs

>Gate able progression

Fuck off with that shit. Ask any competent developer and will tell you that gating is the lowest form of game design in any open world game. It's outdated design.

The shiekah slate was literally a pause menu, it's not exactly groundbreaking.

Neither are shrines which are inferior to basically everything, even Zelda 1 had stuff to find in caves and hidden areas other than a single thing.

But the person said they didn't go with the game's PHILOSOPHY. He didn't mention the lore. By "philosophy" I assume he meant the game's design of being about freedom and exploration.

philosophy =/= lore.

And what did that bring to BoTW?

>Instead of the Fire Dungeon with unique mechanics the Water dungeon with unique mechanics and the Wind dungeon with unique mechanics
>We got Dungeon A, Dungeon B and Dungeon C, all with the same puzzles and gimmicks

Good thing open world is shit and is mostly padding and samey content.

Instead of giving us all the tools at the start let them have us get them from places or dungeons around the world. Bigger dungeons would be nice.

If there is something I never really understood in BotW is why there are no weapon shops at all in the world. I mean, they are technically at war and living in fear. A weapon shop with simple weapons or a smithy that could repair/upgrade your regular weapons with the buffs we saw throughout the game would be nice. Having weaker, non breakable weapons would be nice in some situations and would make hunting higher level monsters more intuitive since they would have the most potent gear.

Pegasus boots for added running power and hookshot would be great with the new engine. I would also love to see more places in the overworld that would make use of the items of old and unreachable otherwise, but nothing like spinner tracks on a natural rock wall like in TP, that shit made no fucking sense...

A weekly cycle would make sense for some NPCs, would give them a routine and would open doors for more creative sidequests, and while on that subject, more rewarding minigames, let us work hard for a heart piece or armor piece. Make areas like the Pirate's Fortress in Majora's Mask that would work as a pseudo dungeon but also as a place for multiple pirate related sidequests.

Like many anons said, expand on what's done, add more caves and labyrinths of the sort. Dungeons.
I think if they keep going it can only get better.

>They fit what they were trying to do in BOTW very well

What were they trying to do in BotW?

Lore is literally fluff dialogue and can excuse anything, like how the lore accounts for the Ubisoft Far Cry/ Assassin's Creed towers.

large dungeons and fixable/upgradable weapons are all I want

You don't need "gates" necessarily but I still feel like there are ways to mark game progress. Look at GTAV. You can go anywhere from the start, but you unlock new safehouses along the way. When you unlock Franklin's nice house, or the strip club, there is a definite feeling of progression and accomplishment, a sense that you are getting something new.

Whether you like the shrines or not won't change the fact that they fit the lore of Breath of the Wild pretty well which is also why the sheikah slate was designed like that. It's cohesive and it works for the game.

The shrines actually have a very shitty lore reason to exist. Its basically just "the sheikah built these shrines to prepare and test the hero". They obviously just wrote that AFTER putting all the shrines in to justify their existence.

Exactly, which is why the lore in question excuses the shrines so it doesn't matter because it fit what they did in this game.

Nigger, that's what lore is fucking for. They didn't create shrines because the lore said so.

There isn't some holy bible the devs read for gameplay mechanics, lore is literally written to do that.

>Lore can easily be rewritten.
Zelda and Star Wars are the biggest examples of series which prove this wrong. They can't get away from the lore, even when rebooting themselves. The fans are obsessed with it.

I feel like you just have very circular logic, I feel like you can make anything in a game "fit" by writing the lore to make it fit...

And you seem to be missing the point, people aren't talking about the lore so much as the game's design philosophy.

So if Breath of the Wild 2 is 30 minutes long with a single boss fight because the lore says so, does that make it ok?

Gameplay/story segregation, user.

It is explicitly stated that the shrines exists as trials for Link so he can get stronger and defeat Ganon. Did you not pay attention to the game?

Sure, rewriting Link or Zelda is an issue. This is some fucking minor gameplay mechanic that isn't even a good gameplay mechanic.

Do you see people rioting because we no longer have the Harp of Ages or the Staff of Seasons or the Ocarina of Time of the Phantom Hourglass of the Dark World or Lorule?

what's wrong with that reason? i mean it makes sense

...Is that not what I said?

>Its basically just "the sheikah built these shrines to prepare and test the hero".

More big dungeons in the overworld, not beasts
Cave systems
More enemy variety
More weapons that handle differently
More armors that can be mixed and matched without losing bonuses
More music, keep ambience in certain areas
No voice acting
Less focus on a story since they can't write for shit
A fucking fishing rod
A fucking cook book to record shit you make
A final boss that isn't shit
A final boss that isn't fucking gimped because you chose to do the story. Make it stronger if you do that, give it a new phase or something

Big whoop. This isn't even multi-game Zelda lore like the hero being reincarnated, you are taking this too far.

Part of the problem with BOTW is that you got everything you need in the first 2 hours of the game. When you enter the world you are like 'man there's all this stuff for me to discover and explore' but really the same 6 enemies types, alot of climbing, and using the few items you have to complete the same puzzles over and over in shrines.

It becomes tedious and boring when I know that when I discover a shrine that it will take me about 5 minutes to complete, which I will do with all the tools I have owned and mastered since the beginning of the game, and only get 1/4th of a heart piece I didn't really need to begin with.

In the end there's nothing to be excited about. At least if they gated certain areas off (in the enormous fucking map) or unlocked new areas once you progress in the game you wouldn't know whats next or what to expect.

Yes, user which is why I don't understand why are you making such a big deal about it. What exactly is wrong with Link having to do the shrines to become a proper hero? I mean at least it's a better excuse and it makes more sense compared to other Zelda games.

The AI in breath of the wild is bad design. They put too much effor into making it incredibly advanced so just one mob (bokoblins) can do a million things. That leads to tons of emergent gameplay scenarios, sure, but jesus christ who wants to fight the same goddamn enemies throughout the entire fucking game?
In a future design they should chop up these AI power houses into a multitude of specialized enemies.
TL;DR: More enemy variety.
Hell- they could have just changed a few enemy skins, keep the water octorocs, change the land ones to deku scrubs, and make the rock ones dodongos with a slow meandering AI. Why did they only make recolors of octorocs instead!?
All that said, I loved the game, and am literally playing it right now - I am really disappointed the DLC 'add a single weapon (I long for a hookshot like everyone else. It could have been so fun with the physics engine in this game.)

One minor gripe I have that probably no one else has: make crouching not put your shield away. You crouch by pressing down on the left stick, and I very frequently on the heat of a battle will accidentally push too hard and end up crouching. This makes me put my shield away, so the enemy hits me for free. It's annoying as hell.

>already shitting on other games

Sasuga BOTWfag. Other games had "trials" too. And they weren't 120 shitty padded out rooms.

That is a very stupid lore reason to exist. It feels extremely contrived. Maybe it might make sense if there were fewer and more elaborate shrines but as it stands now it feels like they needed to force a reason for them to exist.

The fact that they exists just FOR LINK is what makes the lore feel so weak.

>Hell- they could have just changed a few enemy skins
>tfw Lizalfos could have been Dinalfos and Moblins could have been Redeads since they flop around all stupid and have wide swings

I think hookshot is a believable weapon to add into the next Zelda.

As someone who unironically enjoys the shrine content, I 100% that the lore reason for them to exist is really weak. So weak it would have been better if they left it unexplained desu.

>What exactly is wrong with Link having to do the shrines to become a proper hero?

It's just a very contrived reason for them to exist. I don't really know what else to say. It feels so forced because it's all just for Link.

Minish Cap had 4 full dungeons and the reward of each was an item to power up the master sword. No 120 1-room dungeons. 4 full dungeons, multiple rooms long and 2-3 floors, and it was infinitely superior.

Here's hoping.
Right now I hope for a quick turnaround game where they reuse assets- basically everything but the map. Oh god, I hope they don't reuse the map.

How is it contrived when it makes perfect sense? Link isn't even forced to complete all of the shrines to succeed. The repetition of the shrines is deliberate because in order for a person to get better at something you need repetition and hard work. Like I said, you might not like the shrines but that won't change the fact that they make a lot of sense.

Instead of spending all that time on energy on building shrines, why not build some awesome technology that might be able to defeat Ganon or even help Link? Instead of building shrines why not build Link an awesome super weapon? If they can build shrines why not build massive shrine fortresses around the castle or something?

Also, why not just give Link all the orbs immediately? Say they could have one tough shrine and he could get all the orbs, then immediately have full hearts and stamina. I mean why not? Does it really make sense to make the hero take ALL that time and do all that just to "prove" himself?

How does doing physics puzzles actually prepare Link to face Ganon?

>Nintendo releases a new zelda with reused assets.

Can you imaging the shit posting that will inspire? Fucking hell.

Me neither. It's more of an issue the more you think about it. Climbing everywhere reduces the impact of great level design. It's like if you want to climb to the top of a castle on a mountain. You can approach it from the slope, fighting enemies in an arena ambush, climb winding stairs while flying guardians fly down and try and catch you, strider guardians display their unnatural mobility by coming at you like spiders, and when you reach the top you're rewarded with a spectacular view and a non-shrine non-weapon non-rupee reward. Something more substantial like some story significance or like a gear upgrade so you shoot out bombs quicker. Climbing everywhere makes it impossible to have those sorts of moments because it's too much freedom that the devs can't really flex their design chops without forcing some inane restriction. That's the reason shrines don't let you climb everywhere, because it breaks what design is capable of, and why the overworld is so lacking in overall feeling/impact beyond being a conveyor to the next shrine. I feel this was a large part of why they also didn't introduce traditional dungeons because the feeling of climbing everywhere on the outside would have conflicted too much with being unable to in a regular dungeon environment.

>shrines have you use slate powers
>you don't need a single one to beat Ganon