The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/YMMV: Difference between revisions

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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(Doesn't fit the bill for Hype Backlash: it's generally a very popular game and even somewhat of a sacred cow with its small amount of detractors criticizing the direction it's taking the series as opposed to claiming that it's overhyped.)
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* [[Americans Hate Tingle]]: Invoked. The [[Trope Namer]] doesn't appear, but in the DLC, Link can gain the Tingle Set as a [[Joke Item]]. Its only real benefit is that it increases walking speed at night, but it has ''horrible'' defense, and NPCs will be noticeably frightened if Link talks to them while wearing it.
* [[Americans Hate Tingle]]: Invoked. The [[Trope Namer]] doesn't appear, but in the DLC, Link can gain the Tingle Set as a [[Joke Item]]. Its only real benefit is that it increases walking speed at night, but it has ''horrible'' defense, and NPCs will be noticeably frightened if Link talks to them while wearing it.
* [[Anticlimax Boss]]: After all the hype he gets as being the greatest threat Hyrule has ever faced, Calamity Ganon just doesn't live up to it. Usually. {{spoiler|Calamity Ganon is, on paper, a powerful foe worthy of being the final boss, at least at first. But if you play the game as recommended: freeing the Divine Beasts and Champions from Ganon's control and getting the Master Sword, you end up with a final boss that's weak to your overpowered unbreakable weapon, at the mercy of your hilariously overpowered Champion abilities, and missing half his health thanks to the Divine Beasts' laser bombardments}}. But he at least puts up a fight, which ''can not'' be said about {{spoiler|Dark Beast Ganon}}. {{spoiler|Don't get hyped when you're forced to fight a rampaging Godzilla-sized boar across the entirety of Hyrule itself on horseback: he's ridiculously slow, and his sole attack isn't even sort of a threat and will never hit you unless you intentionally let it.}}
* [[Awesome Bosses]]: {{spoiler| [[Warrior Monk|Monk Maz Koshia]], the [[Final Boss]] of the [[Bonus Boss| Champions Ballad DLC]]. Yeah, first of all, the very revelation that you have to fight a Sheikah monk hits most players as a shock, as most of them do nothing except sit in their Shrines and give Link instructions on how to complete their Trials. Then you find out [[Badass Grandpa| just what this guy is capable of]]. In effect, he is a [[Final Exam Boss]], his attacks and abilities reminiscent of other enemies you fought previously, including the Yiga Footsoldiers, Yiga Blademasters, Thunderblight Ganon, Master Kohga, Hinoxes, and the Guardians, but also has a few tricks of his own like creating multiple copies of himself. Yeah, you truly want a challenge, this is the guy.}}
* [[Awesome Bosses]]: {{spoiler| [[Warrior Monk|Monk Maz Koshia]], the [[Final Boss]] of the [[Bonus Boss|Champions Ballad DLC]]. Yeah, first of all, the very revelation that you have to fight a Sheikah monk hits most players as a shock, as most of them do nothing except sit in their Shrines and give Link instructions on how to complete their Trials. Then you find out [[Badass Grandpa|just what this guy is capable of]]. In effect, he is a [[Final Exam Boss]], his attacks and abilities reminiscent of other enemies you fought previously, including the Yiga Footsoldiers, Yiga Blademasters, Thunderblight Ganon, Master Kohga, Hinoxes, and the Guardians, but also has a few tricks of his own like creating multiple copies of himself. If you truly want a challenge, this is the guy.}}
* [[Base Breaker]]: Princess Zelda is popular among some circles for being hot and having one hell of a tragic backstory, but other people simply find her whiny and dull, with her voice going hand-in-hand with the annoying factor. Her serving as the last line of defense against Calamity Ganon for over a hundred years has also won over fans for being a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], but to others it just feels like a dolled-up version of her usual [[Damsel in Distress]] treatment.
* [[Base Breaker]]: Princess Zelda is popular among some circles for being hot and having one hell of a tragic backstory, but other people simply find her whiny and dull, with her voice going hand-in-hand with the annoying factor. Her serving as the last line of defense against Calamity Ganon for over a hundred years has also won over fans for being a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], but to others it just feels like a dolled-up version of her usual [[Damsel in Distress]] treatment.
** Ask any Zelda fan what they think of Revali, and you'll probably get an equal amount of responses along the lines of "Oh my god, I love that guy!" and "Oh my god, fuck that guy!". To his fans, his cold, aloof, and downright ''mean'' personality make him a breath of fresh air compared to the other Champions, and his grudging respect towards Link that builds up while you explore Vah Medoh is a nice bit of character development. But people who hate him simply find him to be too mean to like, making him come across as a total asshole who some argue ''had his death coming to him''.
** Ask any Zelda fan what they think of Revali, and you'll probably get an equal amount of responses along the lines of "Oh my god, I love that guy!" and "Oh my god, fuck that guy!". To his fans, his cold, aloof, and downright ''mean'' demeanor make him a breath of fresh air compared to the other Champions, and his grudging respect towards Link that builds up while you explore Vah Medoh is a nice bit of character development. But people who hate him simply find him to be too mean to like, making him come across as a total asshole who some argue ''had his death coming to him''.
** Is Calamity Ganon's status as an [[Eldritch Abomination]] force of nature a cool new take on the franchise's oldest foe, or does it ''rob'' him of his cool factor? These detractors tend to prefer Ganon as a properly sentient [[Chessmaster]] and view the Calamity as just a mindless monstrosity that may as well have been its own thing, and his [[Anticlimax Boss]] status doesn't help.
* [[Broken Base]]: Many players were upset that the game had proper voice acting at all; others didn't mind so much. Though there's another [[Broken Base]] within that [[Broken Base]]: is the English dub better than the Japanese original? But that's just another battle in the ongoing [[Subbing Versus Dubbing]] war.
* [[Broken Base]]: Many players were upset that the game had proper voice acting at all, while just as many others didn't mind so much. Though there's another [[Broken Base]] within that [[Broken Base]]: is the English dub better than the Japanese original? But that's just another battle in the ongoing [[Subbing Versus Dubbing]] war.
** Going even deeper is a third [[Broken Base]] within the voice acting conundrum: is Zelda's English voice ''specifically'' good or bad? Even people who generally like the English dub criticize her for sounding too weepy and mopey, while others argue that it's fitting given the tremendous amount of pressure she's under.
** Going even deeper is a third [[Broken Base]] within the voice acting conundrum: is Zelda's English voice ''specifically'' good or bad? Even people who generally like the English dub criticize her for sounding too weepy and mopey, while others argue that it's fitting given the tremendous amount of pressure she's under.
** Is the weapon durability a cool new twist on the Zelda formula that encourages you to play carefully and smartly, or an annoying hassle that shouldn't have made it past the playtesting stage?
** Is the weapon durability a cool new twist on the Zelda formula that encourages you to play carefully and smartly, or an annoying hassle that shouldn't have made it past the playtesting stage?
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** Bomb/Fire arrows + [[Exploding Barrel]]s = Entire Bokoblin settlement destroyed. Simple, but satisfying.
** Bomb/Fire arrows + [[Exploding Barrel]]s = Entire Bokoblin settlement destroyed. Simple, but satisfying.
** Once you complete the goal at Eventide Island, you can go back and wreck revenge against the mobs that kept smashing you - including that Hinox - with your real weapons. You don't have to, but it's SO satisfying.
** Once you complete the goal at Eventide Island, you can go back and wreck revenge against the mobs that kept smashing you - including that Hinox - with your real weapons. You don't have to, but it's SO satisfying.
** When you finally get the Thunder Helm, lighting is [[No Sell]] against Link, and it's ''extremely'' satisfying to simply stroll untouched through one of the thunderstorms that had previously OTKed him.
** When you finally get the Thunder Helm, you become immune to those annoying bolts of lightning that plague you during thunderstorms. Suck it, Zeus!
** When you start the game, Guardians are nearly indestructible and unbeatable juggernauts of death. When you finally gain the weapons you need to blow them into spare parts, [[Who's Laughing Now?|try not to smile as your former tormenters lay broken at your feet]]. Though if you're good at timing your shield counters, the catharsis can come as soon as the very start of the game as you deflect their heavily-damaging beams right back into their faces.
** When you start the game, Guardians are nearly indestructible and unbeatable juggernauts of death. When you finally gain the weapons you need to blow them into spare parts, [[Who's Laughing Now?|try not to smile as your former tormenters lay broken at your feet]]. Though if you're good at timing your shield counters, the catharsis can come as soon as the very start of the game as you deflect their heavily-damaging beams right back into their faces.
** Slaying a [[Boss in Mook Clothing|Lynel]]. These mini-bosses are ''hard'', with a wide variety of attacks, ''ridiculous'' damage output, and they [[Evil Is Cool|look pretty awesome]] to boot. A battle against one of them will likely be long and hard, but winning feels ''very'' rewarding.
** Slaying a [[Boss in Mook Clothing|Lynel]]. These mini-bosses are ''hard'', with a wide variety of attacks, ''ridiculous'' damage output, and they [[Evil Is Cool|look pretty awesome]] to boot. A battle against one of them will likely be long and hard, but winning feels ''very'' rewarding.
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** Electric, Black, and Silver/Gold Lizalfos are just as annoying as their weaker counterparts. But unlike the wimpier Green and Blue ones that have low health and the Fire and Ice ones that can be one-shot with the element they're weak to, these guys are annoyingly durable and are often packing nasty weapons such as Tri-Lizal Boomerangs and Lizal Spears. And unlike the elite Bokoblins and Moblins that are slow and easy to hit, these Lizalfos are bonafide [[Lightning Bruiser|Lightning Bruisers]] that will zip and zoom all over the place. The Electric ones also have the nasty ability to discharge a powerful electric field with a ''huge'' radius, and they have no elemental weakness to instantly kill them with. If you're visiting the Faron jungle early on to stock up on Hearty Durians and Mighty Bananas, ''be careful'' because the place is infested with these damn things.
** Electric, Black, and Silver/Gold Lizalfos are just as annoying as their weaker counterparts. But unlike the wimpier Green and Blue ones that have low health and the Fire and Ice ones that can be one-shot with the element they're weak to, these guys are annoyingly durable and are often packing nasty weapons such as Tri-Lizal Boomerangs and Lizal Spears. And unlike the elite Bokoblins and Moblins that are slow and easy to hit, these Lizalfos are bonafide [[Lightning Bruiser|Lightning Bruisers]] that will zip and zoom all over the place. The Electric ones also have the nasty ability to discharge a powerful electric field with a ''huge'' radius, and they have no elemental weakness to instantly kill them with. If you're visiting the Faron jungle early on to stock up on Hearty Durians and Mighty Bananas, ''be careful'' because the place is infested with these damn things.
** While most Keese are literal examples of [[Goddamned Bats]], Electric Keese cross over into this territory. While they're still fragile and only take one hit to kill, that's of little comfort when they can electrocute you for massive damage and sometimes attack in ''swarms''. Even if you kill them they're still a threat, because their electrically charged bodies will often come hurtling straight towards you before vanishing.
** While most Keese are literal examples of [[Goddamned Bats]], Electric Keese cross over into this territory. While they're still fragile and only take one hit to kill, that's of little comfort when they can electrocute you for massive damage and sometimes attack in ''swarms''. Even if you kill them they're still a threat, because their electrically charged bodies will often come hurtling straight towards you before vanishing.
** Fire and Ice Wizzrobes can be annoying, but all it takes is the slightest exposure to the element they're weak to to kill them. You get no such mercy with Electric Wizzrobes, who have no elemental weakness and thus must be fought the hard way. And not only do they constantly disappear and only briefly reappear to attack you, but their attacks, like all other electric attacks, hit ''hard'' and will force you to drop your weapons while stunning you. That's already bad enough, but Thunder Wizzrobes are even worse, because they can ''summon thunderstorms'' to ruin your day.
** Most wild animals aren't a threat in the slightest. Unfortunately, bears ''aren't'' most animals. They're tanky, fast, hard-hitting, and can't even be L-targeted. And in the colder parts of the map, you'll find Bokoblins ''riding'' them into battle. Luckily they're rare to the point that it's not uncommon for players to never run into them in over hundreds of hours of gameplay, but it doesn't make their rare encounters any less tense.
** Most wild animals aren't a threat in the slightest. Unfortunately, bears ''aren't'' most animals. They're tanky, fast, hard-hitting, and can't even be L-targeted. And in the colder parts of the map, you'll find Bokoblins ''riding'' them into battle. Luckily they're rare to the point that it's not uncommon for players to never run into them in over hundreds of hours of gameplay, but it doesn't make their rare encounters any less tense.
* [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]: The Four Champions are all runaway successes despite their meager screentime. Mipha for being an [[Cute Monster Girl|attractive fish girl]] with a gentle heart and an adorable crush on Link, Urbosa for being ridiculously cool and drop-dead sexy, Daruk for being a total bro, and even the controversial Revali is wildly popular for being able to back up his boasting with his skills and for having a good character arc. The fact that they aren't in the game anywhere near as much as they should be is one of the major complaints fans have, which would be rectified with the Ballad of the Champions DLC as well as their prominence in ''Age of Calamity''.
* [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]: The Four Champions are all runaway successes despite their meager screentime. Mipha for being an [[Cute Monster Girl|attractive fish girl]] with a gentle heart and an adorable crush on Link, Urbosa for being ridiculously cool and drop-dead sexy, Daruk for being a total bro, and even the controversial Revali is wildly popular for being able to back up his boasting with his skills and for having a good character arc. The fact that they aren't in the game anywhere near as much as they should be is one of the major complaints fans have, which would be rectified with the Ballad of the Champions DLC as well as their prominence in ''Age of Calamity''.
** Among their successors, Mipha's brother Sidon is another smash hit. But why wouldn't he be? He's a [[Nice Guy|friendly]], [[Mr. Fanservice|ridiculously attractive fishman]] with a [[Hot-Blooded]] personality, and for [[Yaoi Fangirl|Yaoi Fangirls]], he makes good shipping fodder for Link.
** Among their successors, Mipha's brother Sidon is another smash hit. But why wouldn't he be? He's a [[Nice Guy|friendly]], [[Mr. Fanservice|ridiculously attractive fishman]] with a [[Hot-Blooded]] personality, and for [[Yaoi Fangirl|Yaoi Fangirls]], he makes good shipping fodder for Link. His appearance in the Champion's Ballad DLC only further endeared him to people because you see him as a kid. And by god, is he ''adorable''.
** Paya's cute as a button and [[Adorkable]] to a fault, and her popularity rivals that of the Champions and ''Zelda'' as a result.
** Paya's cute as a button and [[Adorkable]] to a fault, and her popularity rivals that of the Champions and ''Zelda'' as a result.
** Kass already has plenty of fans thanks to being a friendly musician and a uniquely designed parrot Rito. But he's also got a huge furry fanbase for being a ''hunky'' parrot Rito.
* '''''[[Hype Backlash]]''''': The game is arguably gaming's ultimate example of this, due to a very unfortunate combination of its nearly unanimous "10 out of 10" magazine review scores and the infamous "''[[Skyrim]]'' with a ''[[The Legend of Zelda|Zelda]]'' skin" stigma that it is plagued by.
* [[Game Breaker]]: Oh ''boy'' are there a lot of these.
** And that's not even mentioning how much controversy was stirred up by the game's numerous '''incredibly''' massive changes to the "formula" that ''[[Ocarina of Time]]'' had previously served as for the ''[[The Legend of Zelda|Zelda]]'' franchise...
** All four Champion abilities are hilariously overpowered. With Urbosa's fury, you get a three-use lightning attack that deals a ton of damage, has a huge radius of effect, and will make all enemies it hits drop their weapons if they aren't instantly killed. With Daruk's protection, you get a three-use perfect shield that will block any attacks that come your way. With Revali's Gale, you have a single use updraft you can use to take off into the skies and glide around wherever you want, making exploration and certain climbing puzzles a joke. Last but not least is Mipha's Grace, which is basically a free Fairy with the added bonus of giving you some extra hearts after saving you from death. Each ability has a sizable cooldown to balance out how powerful they are, but you can greatly cut down on it by beating the Ballad of the Champions. And that buff ''stacks'' with Hyrule Castle's hidden attribute that also speeds up their cooldowns.
** Despite how weak they are, Link's bombs have a ton of utility. They're essential for getting the game's [[Goddamned Bats]] to fuck off without using up your weapons' durability, can scatter mobs of enemies and send them flying off of cliffs and into deep water, and can even launch you across huge distances if you know how to exploit the game's busted physics. You can also use them as decent hunting and mining tools (though you might want to use proper arrows on bigger game, and sledgehammers and Cobble Crushers on ore positioned on the edges of cliffs), and they're not even that bad of a weapon to fall back on if all of yours break: both types of bombs have short cooldowns and you can easily cycle back and forth through your cube and sphere bombs while the other charges back up.
** Multi-shot bows are this because even when they're firing three or five arrows at once, they technically only use one at a time. Not only is it easier to hit speedy enemies or those zippy Korok balloons, but you can do a ''lot'' of damage when you fire them point-blank at enemies.
** Cooking as a concept busts the game's difficulty right open. All you need is the right ingredients, and you can prepare meals that give you some ridiculous stat boosts. You can get huge attack, defense, and speed boosts, give yourself extra hearts and stamina wheels, restore ''tons'' of hearts and stamina, and because eating is a free accent, you can scarf down plate after plate of food if you have to in order to do whatever it is you need to get done.
** In terms of ingredients, Mighty Bananas, Hearty Durians, Razorclaw Crabs, and Ironshell Crabs can be easily found in massive numbers around the Faron region, even in the early game. While getting the fruits can be dangerous because of the [[Demonic Spiders|high level Lizalfos]] infesting the jungles, you can find dozens of each food in one round trip, allowing you to cook plenty of health, attack, and defense-boosting meals once you get back to a cooking pot.
* [[Goddamned Bats]]: Who else but Keese? They constantly show up to harass you at night, can travel in massive flocks, and in certain regions you can be attacked by elemental keese that can set you on fire, freeze you, or electrocute you for massive damage.
** Lower-tier Lizalfos are ultimately not much tougher than Bokoblins, but their jumpiness and speed make them annoying to hit. And if you want to run from them, prepare to run for a ''long'' time because they can easily keep pace with you.
** Stal- enemies aren't threatening in the slightest since they have terrible weapons and can be dispatched in two hits. You'll still ''groan'' in exasperation every time you run into them, because they attack you in trios, can chase you over long distances, and pop up all over the place at night. They're prone to disrupting your fights against dangerous monsters like Stone Taluses and Lynels, or scaring off prey you're hunting for meat or Blupees you're trying to steal money from. And to make things worse, the Lizalfos variants are just as annoyingly nimble as their living counterparts!
** After you've beaten Master Kohga, you'll be randomly ambushed by Yiga Clan assassins all over the map. At this point they won't be a threat, but it's still annoying having them pop up and break the flow of whatever you're doing. Especially if you're attacked by a Blademaster, because they're a lot more aggressive and take a lot of punishment before going down.
* [[Moral Event Horizon]]: The Yiga Clan are already firmly on the side of the [[Eldritch Abomination]] threatening to lay Hyrule to waste, but they truly cross the line with {{spoiler|the murder of Dorian's wife when he had enough of them and left.}}
* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: Magda, aka the "crazy flower lady". Quite a lot of [[Memetic Mutation]] with her [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDiSci_6zVc like this one.]
* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: Magda, aka the "crazy flower lady". Quite a lot of [[Memetic Mutation]] with her [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDiSci_6zVc like this one.]
** {{spoiler|Fi's voice-only appearance in the final flashback is brief, but incredibly memorable for its poignance despite her divisive reputation from her home game.}}
** {{spoiler|Fi's voice-only appearance in the final flashback is brief, but incredibly memorable for its poignance despite her divisive reputation from her home game.}}
* [[The Scrappy]]: Yunobo is hated not because of his personality (he's a friendly guy with a solid character arc) but because of the hellish escort mission where you have to slowly lead him up Death Mountain, where just about any obstacle or enemy will send him into a panic that actively gets in the way.
* [[The Scrappy]]: Yunobo's personality is actually fairly well-liked since he's a friendly guy and a [[Lovable Coward]] with a solid character arc. But when it comes to gameplay, he's ''hated'' because of the hellish escort mission where you have to slowly lead him up Death Mountain while hiding from Vah Rudania's drones.
* [[Scrappy Mechanic]]: While most players don't have an issue with the game's realistic environmental effects, ''the rain'' is their biggest beef. You need Link to climb a mountain, a tower, or a wall, and and he's like [[Spider-Man]] ''until it starts to rain'' and he slips and falls. Even worse, waiting the rain out is a problem, seeing as the only way to suppress time is using a campfire, which you can't start very easily if it's raining. Yeah, rain is pretty annoying. And god help you if the current storm is a ''thunderstorm'', because if you currently have ''anything'' metallic equipped, lightning will home in on you, knock you flat on your ass (when it doesn't kill you outright), and make you drop your weapons.
* [[Scrappy Mechanic]]: While most players don't have an issue with the game's realistic environmental effects, ''the rain'' is their biggest beef. You need Link to climb a mountain, a tower, or a wall, and and he's like [[Spider-Man]] ''until it starts to rain'' and he slips and falls. Even worse, waiting the rain out is a problem, seeing as the only way to suppress time is using a campfire, which you can't start very easily if it's raining. Yeah, rain is pretty annoying. And god help you if the current storm is a ''thunderstorm'', because if you currently have ''anything'' metallic equipped, lightning will home in on you, knock you flat on your ass (when it doesn't kill you outright), and make you drop your weapons.
** Weapon durability also catches a lot of flack because there's no way to get around it, and they all break after mere minutes of sustained use. This wouldn't be so bad if A: you had a decently-sized weapon inventory and B: there was a way to repair your weapons like in other games with weapon durability, but you're out of luck here. Weapon inventory is ''painfully'' limited even with Hestu's upgrades, and the only weapon you can "repair" is the Master Sword, which takes a while to restore itself after having its durability worn out.
** Weapon durability also catches a lot of flack because there's no way to get around it, and they all break after mere minutes of sustained use. This wouldn't be so bad if A: you had a decently-sized weapon inventory and B: there was a way to repair your weapons like in other games with weapon durability, but you're out of luck here. Weapon inventory is ''painfully'' limited even with Hestu's upgrades, and the only weapon you can "repair" is the Master Sword, which takes a while to restore itself after having its durability worn out.

Revision as of 03:20, 30 June 2021


  • Americans Hate Tingle: Invoked. The Trope Namer doesn't appear, but in the DLC, Link can gain the Tingle Set as a Joke Item. Its only real benefit is that it increases walking speed at night, but it has horrible defense, and NPCs will be noticeably frightened if Link talks to them while wearing it.
  • Anticlimax Boss: After all the hype he gets as being the greatest threat Hyrule has ever faced, Calamity Ganon just doesn't live up to it. Usually. Calamity Ganon is, on paper, a powerful foe worthy of being the final boss, at least at first. But if you play the game as recommended: freeing the Divine Beasts and Champions from Ganon's control and getting the Master Sword, you end up with a final boss that's weak to your overpowered unbreakable weapon, at the mercy of your hilariously overpowered Champion abilities, and missing half his health thanks to the Divine Beasts' laser bombardments. But he at least puts up a fight, which can not be said about Dark Beast Ganon. Don't get hyped when you're forced to fight a rampaging Godzilla-sized boar across the entirety of Hyrule itself on horseback: he's ridiculously slow, and his sole attack isn't even sort of a threat and will never hit you unless you intentionally let it.
  • Awesome Bosses: Monk Maz Koshia, the Final Boss of the Champions Ballad DLC. Yeah, first of all, the very revelation that you have to fight a Sheikah monk hits most players as a shock, as most of them do nothing except sit in their Shrines and give Link instructions on how to complete their Trials. Then you find out just what this guy is capable of. In effect, he is a Final Exam Boss, his attacks and abilities reminiscent of other enemies you fought previously, including the Yiga Footsoldiers, Yiga Blademasters, Thunderblight Ganon, Master Kohga, Hinoxes, and the Guardians, but also has a few tricks of his own like creating multiple copies of himself. If you truly want a challenge, this is the guy.
  • Base Breaker: Princess Zelda is popular among some circles for being hot and having one hell of a tragic backstory, but other people simply find her whiny and dull, with her voice going hand-in-hand with the annoying factor. Her serving as the last line of defense against Calamity Ganon for over a hundred years has also won over fans for being a Crowning Moment of Awesome, but to others it just feels like a dolled-up version of her usual Damsel in Distress treatment.
    • Ask any Zelda fan what they think of Revali, and you'll probably get an equal amount of responses along the lines of "Oh my god, I love that guy!" and "Oh my god, fuck that guy!". To his fans, his cold, aloof, and downright mean demeanor make him a breath of fresh air compared to the other Champions, and his grudging respect towards Link that builds up while you explore Vah Medoh is a nice bit of character development. But people who hate him simply find him to be too mean to like, making him come across as a total asshole who some argue had his death coming to him.
    • Is Calamity Ganon's status as an Eldritch Abomination force of nature a cool new take on the franchise's oldest foe, or does it rob him of his cool factor? These detractors tend to prefer Ganon as a properly sentient Chessmaster and view the Calamity as just a mindless monstrosity that may as well have been its own thing, and his Anticlimax Boss status doesn't help.
  • Broken Base: Many players were upset that the game had proper voice acting at all, while just as many others didn't mind so much. Though there's another Broken Base within that Broken Base: is the English dub better than the Japanese original? But that's just another battle in the ongoing Subbing Versus Dubbing war.
    • Going even deeper is a third Broken Base within the voice acting conundrum: is Zelda's English voice specifically good or bad? Even people who generally like the English dub criticize her for sounding too weepy and mopey, while others argue that it's fitting given the tremendous amount of pressure she's under.
    • Is the weapon durability a cool new twist on the Zelda formula that encourages you to play carefully and smartly, or an annoying hassle that shouldn't have made it past the playtesting stage?
    • Overall, the vastly different feel of this game and what it could potentially mean for the future of the series has attracted a lot of debate. Plenty of fans feel that this game was the breath of fresh air Zelda desperately needed while fans who prefer the older style of games feel that Breath of the Wild barely feels like a Zelda game at all thanks to the lack of dungeons, unfocused story, and the emphasis on crafting and breakable weapons. The game's massive success and sequel has led to that camp of fans worrying that the series could never return to its old formula since it's clear that this one sells.
  • Catharsis Factor:
    • Bomb/Fire arrows + Exploding Barrels = Entire Bokoblin settlement destroyed. Simple, but satisfying.
    • Once you complete the goal at Eventide Island, you can go back and wreck revenge against the mobs that kept smashing you - including that Hinox - with your real weapons. You don't have to, but it's SO satisfying.
    • When you finally get the Thunder Helm, you become immune to those annoying bolts of lightning that plague you during thunderstorms. Suck it, Zeus!
    • When you start the game, Guardians are nearly indestructible and unbeatable juggernauts of death. When you finally gain the weapons you need to blow them into spare parts, try not to smile as your former tormenters lay broken at your feet. Though if you're good at timing your shield counters, the catharsis can come as soon as the very start of the game as you deflect their heavily-damaging beams right back into their faces.
    • Slaying a Lynel. These mini-bosses are hard, with a wide variety of attacks, ridiculous damage output, and they look pretty awesome to boot. A battle against one of them will likely be long and hard, but winning feels very rewarding.
  • Demonic Spiders: Despite the game's small enemy variety, there are still plenty of beasts to be on your guard around.
    • The key threat of the game would be the Guardians: every last one of them is a pain in the ass, even the decayed, immobile ones. They relentlessly target you before firing beams of energy that have good tracking and hit hard. And by hard, we're talking six hearts worth of damage hard... in a game where you start with three. As long as there's ample cover the Decayed Guardians and Guardian Turrets aren't so bad, but the Guardian Stalkers will chase after you, and there's a flying variant too. Killing them can take forever with conventional weaponry which will lead to several broken weapons, and even though you can easily kill them by parrying their beams back at them, you better not flub up the timing because the result will either be one heavily injured Link, or one dead Link. And in Master Mode where they delay their shots, it's all too easy to botch a parry.
    • Lynels are mercifully rarer than Guardians, but are every bit as threatening. They've got the speed and ferocity you'd expect from a lion-centaur hybrid, and it doesn't matter if they're wielding a sword, crusher, or spear: they hit hard, even the "weakest" red variety, and they've got huge health pools that will take a while (and several weapons) to eat through. Fighting them at range isn't an option since they'll bombard you with volleys of Shock Arrows, meaning that you'll often want to fight them up close and personal, which demands you to have mastered the art of Perfect Dodging so they won't utterly maul you.
    • Electric, Black, and Silver/Gold Lizalfos are just as annoying as their weaker counterparts. But unlike the wimpier Green and Blue ones that have low health and the Fire and Ice ones that can be one-shot with the element they're weak to, these guys are annoyingly durable and are often packing nasty weapons such as Tri-Lizal Boomerangs and Lizal Spears. And unlike the elite Bokoblins and Moblins that are slow and easy to hit, these Lizalfos are bonafide Lightning Bruisers that will zip and zoom all over the place. The Electric ones also have the nasty ability to discharge a powerful electric field with a huge radius, and they have no elemental weakness to instantly kill them with. If you're visiting the Faron jungle early on to stock up on Hearty Durians and Mighty Bananas, be careful because the place is infested with these damn things.
    • While most Keese are literal examples of Goddamned Bats, Electric Keese cross over into this territory. While they're still fragile and only take one hit to kill, that's of little comfort when they can electrocute you for massive damage and sometimes attack in swarms. Even if you kill them they're still a threat, because their electrically charged bodies will often come hurtling straight towards you before vanishing.
    • Fire and Ice Wizzrobes can be annoying, but all it takes is the slightest exposure to the element they're weak to to kill them. You get no such mercy with Electric Wizzrobes, who have no elemental weakness and thus must be fought the hard way. And not only do they constantly disappear and only briefly reappear to attack you, but their attacks, like all other electric attacks, hit hard and will force you to drop your weapons while stunning you. That's already bad enough, but Thunder Wizzrobes are even worse, because they can summon thunderstorms to ruin your day.
    • Most wild animals aren't a threat in the slightest. Unfortunately, bears aren't most animals. They're tanky, fast, hard-hitting, and can't even be L-targeted. And in the colder parts of the map, you'll find Bokoblins riding them into battle. Luckily they're rare to the point that it's not uncommon for players to never run into them in over hundreds of hours of gameplay, but it doesn't make their rare encounters any less tense.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: The Four Champions are all runaway successes despite their meager screentime. Mipha for being an attractive fish girl with a gentle heart and an adorable crush on Link, Urbosa for being ridiculously cool and drop-dead sexy, Daruk for being a total bro, and even the controversial Revali is wildly popular for being able to back up his boasting with his skills and for having a good character arc. The fact that they aren't in the game anywhere near as much as they should be is one of the major complaints fans have, which would be rectified with the Ballad of the Champions DLC as well as their prominence in Age of Calamity.
    • Among their successors, Mipha's brother Sidon is another smash hit. But why wouldn't he be? He's a friendly, ridiculously attractive fishman with a Hot-Blooded personality, and for Yaoi Fangirls, he makes good shipping fodder for Link. His appearance in the Champion's Ballad DLC only further endeared him to people because you see him as a kid. And by god, is he adorable.
    • Paya's cute as a button and Adorkable to a fault, and her popularity rivals that of the Champions and Zelda as a result.
    • Kass already has plenty of fans thanks to being a friendly musician and a uniquely designed parrot Rito. But he's also got a huge furry fanbase for being a hunky parrot Rito.
  • Game Breaker: Oh boy are there a lot of these.
    • All four Champion abilities are hilariously overpowered. With Urbosa's fury, you get a three-use lightning attack that deals a ton of damage, has a huge radius of effect, and will make all enemies it hits drop their weapons if they aren't instantly killed. With Daruk's protection, you get a three-use perfect shield that will block any attacks that come your way. With Revali's Gale, you have a single use updraft you can use to take off into the skies and glide around wherever you want, making exploration and certain climbing puzzles a joke. Last but not least is Mipha's Grace, which is basically a free Fairy with the added bonus of giving you some extra hearts after saving you from death. Each ability has a sizable cooldown to balance out how powerful they are, but you can greatly cut down on it by beating the Ballad of the Champions. And that buff stacks with Hyrule Castle's hidden attribute that also speeds up their cooldowns.
    • Despite how weak they are, Link's bombs have a ton of utility. They're essential for getting the game's Goddamned Bats to fuck off without using up your weapons' durability, can scatter mobs of enemies and send them flying off of cliffs and into deep water, and can even launch you across huge distances if you know how to exploit the game's busted physics. You can also use them as decent hunting and mining tools (though you might want to use proper arrows on bigger game, and sledgehammers and Cobble Crushers on ore positioned on the edges of cliffs), and they're not even that bad of a weapon to fall back on if all of yours break: both types of bombs have short cooldowns and you can easily cycle back and forth through your cube and sphere bombs while the other charges back up.
    • Multi-shot bows are this because even when they're firing three or five arrows at once, they technically only use one at a time. Not only is it easier to hit speedy enemies or those zippy Korok balloons, but you can do a lot of damage when you fire them point-blank at enemies.
    • Cooking as a concept busts the game's difficulty right open. All you need is the right ingredients, and you can prepare meals that give you some ridiculous stat boosts. You can get huge attack, defense, and speed boosts, give yourself extra hearts and stamina wheels, restore tons of hearts and stamina, and because eating is a free accent, you can scarf down plate after plate of food if you have to in order to do whatever it is you need to get done.
    • In terms of ingredients, Mighty Bananas, Hearty Durians, Razorclaw Crabs, and Ironshell Crabs can be easily found in massive numbers around the Faron region, even in the early game. While getting the fruits can be dangerous because of the high level Lizalfos infesting the jungles, you can find dozens of each food in one round trip, allowing you to cook plenty of health, attack, and defense-boosting meals once you get back to a cooking pot.
  • Goddamned Bats: Who else but Keese? They constantly show up to harass you at night, can travel in massive flocks, and in certain regions you can be attacked by elemental keese that can set you on fire, freeze you, or electrocute you for massive damage.
    • Lower-tier Lizalfos are ultimately not much tougher than Bokoblins, but their jumpiness and speed make them annoying to hit. And if you want to run from them, prepare to run for a long time because they can easily keep pace with you.
    • Stal- enemies aren't threatening in the slightest since they have terrible weapons and can be dispatched in two hits. You'll still groan in exasperation every time you run into them, because they attack you in trios, can chase you over long distances, and pop up all over the place at night. They're prone to disrupting your fights against dangerous monsters like Stone Taluses and Lynels, or scaring off prey you're hunting for meat or Blupees you're trying to steal money from. And to make things worse, the Lizalfos variants are just as annoyingly nimble as their living counterparts!
    • After you've beaten Master Kohga, you'll be randomly ambushed by Yiga Clan assassins all over the map. At this point they won't be a threat, but it's still annoying having them pop up and break the flow of whatever you're doing. Especially if you're attacked by a Blademaster, because they're a lot more aggressive and take a lot of punishment before going down.
  • Moral Event Horizon: The Yiga Clan are already firmly on the side of the Eldritch Abomination threatening to lay Hyrule to waste, but they truly cross the line with the murder of Dorian's wife when he had enough of them and left.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Magda, aka the "crazy flower lady". Quite a lot of Memetic Mutation with her like this one.
    • Fi's voice-only appearance in the final flashback is brief, but incredibly memorable for its poignance despite her divisive reputation from her home game.
  • The Scrappy: Yunobo's personality is actually fairly well-liked since he's a friendly guy and a Lovable Coward with a solid character arc. But when it comes to gameplay, he's hated because of the hellish escort mission where you have to slowly lead him up Death Mountain while hiding from Vah Rudania's drones.
  • Scrappy Mechanic: While most players don't have an issue with the game's realistic environmental effects, the rain is their biggest beef. You need Link to climb a mountain, a tower, or a wall, and and he's like Spider-Man until it starts to rain and he slips and falls. Even worse, waiting the rain out is a problem, seeing as the only way to suppress time is using a campfire, which you can't start very easily if it's raining. Yeah, rain is pretty annoying. And god help you if the current storm is a thunderstorm, because if you currently have anything metallic equipped, lightning will home in on you, knock you flat on your ass (when it doesn't kill you outright), and make you drop your weapons.
    • Weapon durability also catches a lot of flack because there's no way to get around it, and they all break after mere minutes of sustained use. This wouldn't be so bad if A: you had a decently-sized weapon inventory and B: there was a way to repair your weapons like in other games with weapon durability, but you're out of luck here. Weapon inventory is painfully limited even with Hestu's upgrades, and the only weapon you can "repair" is the Master Sword, which takes a while to restore itself after having its durability worn out.
    • Speaking of inventory, if you open a treasure chest and the item is a type with its inventory maxed out, you'll likely find yourself screaming internally at the sight of the "Your inventory is full." message, followed by you slooooowly putting it back in. While you can easily just toss a weapon and open it back up, it adds to the tedium where a simple option to toss a weapon in exchange for the weapon would have easily circumvented it.
    • As in Skyward Sword, the stamina wheel can be a real bother when you're sprinting. Even with it upgraded, unless you're ready to constantly pause and hork down stamina-restoring food and elixirs, anything more than a few seconds of sustained running will leave Link walking at a slow crawl as he waits for his stamina to build itself back up.
    • Merely getting across bodies of water can be a slog no matter what. Swimming usually isn't an option since it burns through stamina and you swim slow (and that's when you aren't actively being pushed back by a current), leaving you to either sloooowly cross rivers or swathes of ocean by carefully hopping across Cryonis blocks (which you can actually break if you land in the water and re-emerge from under them), using a hard-to-find Korok Leaf to steer a sailboat, or say "screw it" and glide across with the help of Revali's Gale which isn't an option across large distances like with Eventide Isle.
    • The enemy variety, or lack thereof, can be disappointing because in a mere hour or so in a game that can take hundreds to do everything in, you're likely to see every one type of every species there is. And not only is it repetitive, but it can be an active detriment to immersion since you'll be seeing them in every environment instead of ones they'd make sense to be fought in.
  • Take That, Scrappy!: The unlockable Tingle outfit added as part of the game's DLC comes off as a walking middle finger to the controversial Manchild. Its defense is terrible, its ability is situational to the point of near-uselessness, and to top it off, wearing it will freak out everyone you talk to.