Game design decisions were poor

[jacker4584]

I cant really understand why the decision to include some of these systems made it pass the first play test of the game.
The whole breath of the wild stamina to run, swing, dodge, climb, etc is not adding to the experience.
The having way too many different items drop from everything leading the player to smashing things and farming enemies then having a limited bag space so you cant carry it all is not adding to the experience.
Tacking on a crafting system is not adding to the experience.
Having a dialogue tree that leads to the same response is not adding to the experience.
It seem like either they went 2 different directions with development and left all the planned open world survival crafting elements in or the game designers just went people like x game lets steal that mechanic without realising the basic of game design that an extra mechanic that does not directly effect the main game play are just bloat. All this padding the player quickly sees as a means to draw out game run time pointlessly. A long game isn't necessarily a good game.
This game could have been condensed down to about 5 hours of back to back boss fights with all the enjoyable bits of the magic system and massive boss fight switching between multiple weapons and style to fight and scale the colossus and i can guarantee it would have reviewed better

[ChubbiChibbai]

Yeah I really disagree with a lot of this.

Stamina is there so you have a limit. Have you even played the game?

With no stamina you could hang on to a giant infinitely and they could never shake you off. Removing it would be stupid and trivialize the combat and traversal.

Same with limited inventory. That design means I can't just do a single run and farm everything. If means I have to choose what I'm bringing back. Otherwise you could just level everything up in an hour.

Why is it always people that don't own the game that are the most critical?

[Savatage79]

I have to agree I really like the crafting system but it feels like you're being held way back with such limitations. It's like let me go out farm and craft, but you can carry so little. Not a game breaker but it's not ideal either.

And yea I gotta say that's what I don't like about botw is the stamina stuff, I don't mind it for climbing per say perhaps but there's times in battle it's happening and it a little frustrating.

[Cahalith]

I'm also firmly on board the "we don't need crafting systems in most games" train, but I think it works for me here because in the absence of an experience or skill point system, the resource gathering and crafting systems are essentially how you "level up" and improve your character. In fact, I like this crafting system way more than in many other games, because you can easily dismantle items or switch one material for another without destroying the item or losing crafting materials in the process.

I'd also like to go on record saying that if this game was 5 hours of back-to-back (boss) fights, I, personally, wouldn't have bought it. To me, one of the main draws of the game (in addition to creatively using the magical powers) is the exploration aspect. And believe it or not, I feel that aspect of the gameplay is enhanced by things like the stamina system, as you need to conserve your stamina when traversing the world or else you'll run into an enemy while exhausted, or you'll fall during climbing. A stamina system is by no means necessary to make exploration fun, but I've played games before where exploration consisted of little more than pressing "w" until you reach your destination, and that feels as unengaging to me as 5 hours of nothing but combat.