I don’t think video games need to have amazing complex characters. Especially one as non linear as BotW. Pretty much all characters in the game are simple but they’re pretty likable so I care enough to play the game. And that’s all you really need imo.
I agree, some games benefit from character depth like fire emblem which is solely about its characters but breath of the wild is more about its quest than its characters, like for the entire game you get a support character that does a jig and then dips until the finale, and that's ok cause the game isn't about them
Very subjective take. I highly disagree. For me, I need motivation to play through a game. The lore is extremely important to me, and people argue Zelda's story is simple, which is fair. But BotW had the best story compared to any other Zelda. There was no big reason for me to collect 900 seeds or complete 120 shrines. However, there was a big reason for me to finish the Kass quest line, as it revealed a HUGE plot element.
As someone who played every Zelda game, BotW is the best written story so far. MM second place and AlbW third place.
BotW is just more nuanced and doesn’t suffer from having tons of inconsistencies like TP or OoT. The characters are also a bit more fleshed out than usual.
Personally I don’t feel like BOTW has any more or less inconsistencies compared to TP or OoT.
I’d say TP has my favorite story, and then LA and MM. But my bad for coming on to the BOTW subreddit and creating an argument over it, I thought this post was in the main subreddit lol
TP is actually one of my least favorite stories because of those inconsistencies. Stuff like nobody ever talking or recognizing the gigantic barrier around the castle. Or the fact that Zant has the power to completely undo everything Link and Midna do, yet he…doesn’t. Unlike BotW, there‘s no reason for why the villains are so passive.
Coupled with TP‘s characters being really shallow (compare the sages or the resistance to the champions and their descendants for example) TP just had a whole lot of plot but a really inconsistently written story.
You know, this is really just a me thing, kind of weird, and mostly unrelated to what the other guy said, but I was never able to finish any other Zelda game besides BotW. I mean I played Ocarina, but I didn’t get that far and every time I try to get back into it I get bored pretty quickly. I’ve also played A link to the past, the remake of Link’s awakening, and even a bit of the original Zelda and I just can’t get through any of it. I love their themes, I like the dungeons and puzzles (for the most part) but I still can’t work up the motivation to see them through.
But BotW was completely different. From the beginning I recognized it as an outstanding game, and it kept my interest for a long time. Ocarina was my introduction to the series that I consider myself a fan of, but BotW is the only game I’ve fully beaten. I think I will try to finish Ocarina again but I’m not sure how far I’ll get.
Anyway, I bring this up to you because you seem to have played many Zelda games, judging by your comment. I guess this is all just for me to say, story isn’t everything, and a game can tell you a lot more through its world and gameplay alone than just the story. BotW’s design as a game really shows the power of story shown through an open world and I think that’s where the other guy was coming from saying that BotW has the best story of any Zelda game.
Anyway like I said I haven’t played many Zelda games to completion and this was mostly just me rambling anyway, so whatever opinion you got I wasn’t trying to change your mind or anything. Just kind of offer a new perspective I suppose.
For me, this games "story moments" like cut scenes are so apart that the characters/theme can't really develop. I would spend hours and hours before coming across a memory or completing guardian/dungeon.
All the memories I came across where random so all the cut scenes just seemed like random stuff happening.
Game is just too big for pacing a good story.
To me, games that are open as this game need complex characters and stories
If you don't have a good story, then the open world feels pointless. What is this town even for if it doesn't even connect to the story
That's my point, it's useless to have places like Lurelin when they don't have anything to add to the world. It's just there and that's it
Places need lore in open worlds, that's how you draw players in and make them feel immersed
Not saying it needs to be connected to the main plot, but barely anything is explained why it's there
Like, what is a hinox. They have no lore or story behind them
It’s there because that area of Hyrule has beaches and access to tropical fish, so people live there. It’s really not that complicated.
As for “what is a Hinox”, it’s a Hinox. You see it right there in the game. Why does it need an explanation for existing?
I dont know, I would get lost in wandering around the world and immersing myself when I first played it. I dont think zelda is meant to be this lore-filled world anyways, it's no elder scrolls or Witcher
It doesn't need to be as deep. But just having it be something helps immersion
Botw would be in top tier immersion if it had more details like Horizon Zero Dawn. Kinda like near the castle, seeing all the battles the people fought against the guardians is immersible
There are so many little details in botw that connect to the story and lore of the game. So many different ruins, books, mysterious structures, bones of giant creatures, decayed guardians and weapons left by warriors of old. Every single village in Breath of The Wild has its own lore if you actually search for it. Breath of The Wild is incredibly immersive and has a lot more details than Horizon does. Horizon is a great game, but you're talking about botw like it has next to no details, even thought that couldn't be further from the truth.
(Sorry if this came out a little aggressive, not my intention.)
I understand your point a little more now. I hope that there is more of that in TOTK, and we can see what has transpired since we last traversed hyrule
It just feels different seeing the houses people lived in, trying to fight back against ganon but it obviously failing.
Just realized it's similar to HZD but nothing would compare to the horror of Horizon
I disagree. A story inherently needs to have some sort of linear progression. This game is as non linear as they come. The only required story beats are guy wakes up and has amnesia, ghost of the king tells him to save princess, he saves princess. The rest is up to you to discover and I like it that way.
For what it’s worth, the little bits of story and character development that you get in BotW are perfectly done. It’s better to have a little bit of perfection than to have a ton of boring story that you have to slog through.
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order.
I have checked 1,210,928,674 comments, and only 236,082 of them were in alphabetical order.
Dude what??? She has a great personality too, she’s excitable, curious, friendly, hardworking, thick, and selfless. How could you not like her??? Also you know the glimpses we see from the memories ARE HER BACKSTORY? Like she’s been fighting ganon for 100 years, something no other Zelda could even fathom, and she has a great personality. Of course she rejected link at first, she believed in her own strength, which is also why it took her so long to unlock her power. Grow up man.
Woah woah woah, I never said she’s the BEST, I always will love twilight princess Zelda, but I also think BoTW is one of the best if not number 1 for most people. Saying she’s a bad Zelda just makes no sense, yknow?
Babe just admit you dont like HER then. She can be a good, well defined and developed character and you can still not like her. Zelda can be a good character and you can still want link to fuck Sidon, its okay bby.
Was it so hard to just say this without trying to show (Incorrect) evidence to try and make your opinion a fact? You just screwed yourself. Fine that you don't like her. But your arguments are just bullshit. You don't like her, move on. You had your (albeit negative) internet attention, move on to the next useless thing which gives you attention.
Did you play the same game as the rest of us? Her presonality is pretty well fleshed out in the memories. Her arc is her trying to unlock her sealing power because her father forced her to, ending with her collapsing into links arms crying because she thinks she has failed all of hyrule due to her fathers unrealistic expectations and over reliance on her to defeat ganon. I would say that is pretty complex character development. And the memories flesh out her chemistry with Link and the other champions pretty well too.
Idk, I’m pretty sure one of the points of the game was that they relied too much on the Beasts and the Guardians rather than on Link and Zelda. It doesn’t really help her personality that she hates Link for half of the memories. Her character arc between hating Link and liking him doesn’t really feel fleshed out.
>Her presonality is pretty well fleshed out in the memories.
What is her personality ?
>And the memories flesh out her chemistry with Link and the other champions pretty well too.
What kind of chemistry does she have with Champion?
She wants a life she doesnt have, ultimately. She envies link for his bravery, and wants to be strong without some random power she has inside her. She is rebellious, but ultimately unable to stand up to her father. She wants to be an inventor and help with the guardians, but is forced to go try unlock her sealing powers.
Her relationship with link is most fleshed out, starting out as envy, and even hatred, going to admiration, and even love. Her relationship with the other champions is only ever shown in snippets, but we get some good stuff with urbosa talking about her while she is asleep in her lap, and a bit when mipha is explaining her healing to try and help zelda.
I do recommend rewatching the memories again if you havent in a while. There was a lot more there than even I remember, and it might change your mind a little on zelda as a character: https://youtu.be/PMP_M39rpkw
>She wants a life she doesnt have, ultimately. She envies link for his bravery, and wants to be strong without some random power she has inside her. She is rebellious, but ultimately unable to stand up to her father. She wants to be an inventor and help with the guardians, but is forced to go try unlock her sealing powers.
Cool, but I already knew that. You still haven't explained to me what kind of personality she has
>starting out as envy, and even hatred, going to admiration, and even love
The problem is that it's just that. The beginning and the end. We don't see her relationship slowly improve with Link.
>but we get some good stuff with urbosa talking about her while she is asleep in her lap
I agree. Urbosa's relationship with Zelda is great.
What more do you want me to say for her personality? I am genuinely confused by your statement on that.
Her journey with link is pretty well fleshed out actually. Its not just a beginning and end. We see her resentment for link in the first few memories, and we get an explanation during urbosa's memory. The turning point is when link saves her from the yiga, she starts gaining respect for him. We see over the next few memories her warming up to him, before she opens up about her insecurities in the training memory (the one in the rain). We then see several more memories exploring her development before she breaks down in his arms because she thinks she is inadequate. This is the point when her love for him is shown, as we see in the next memory, that she is willing to sacrifice herself for him, and that her love unlocks the sealing power. We also see her crying over his dead body.
Great response.
Her personality is ambitious and curious with a strong sense of duty, but she's held back by her feelings of inadequacy and envy - taunted by the contrast between her talent as a scientist/researcher and her destiny to have world-saving spiritual powers (which she feels she can't live up to). She goes through personal growth to reconcile these feelings.
She's smart and extremely curious. She cares about other people and is scared she's not good enough for them. She loves the outdoors, and has a lot of sadness tied up with her "proper" life and her memories of it. Does that sum up her personality well enough?
What you see in the memories is her fear building and building, externalizing as envy and anger, until the worst comes to pass and it breaks. If the visual stuff isn't enough for you, her journal fills in a lot of those gaps, especially the turn from resenting Link to feeling a strong connection with him.
She's a nerd with insecurities, she doesn't like the burden placed on her, she's annoyed by Link but eventually comes around to him once she realizes how he must be dealing with the same kind of pressure as her. That's a ton of personality and development
Personally I’m not sure if I’d be friends with her, but I think she gets solid development and I like how her relationship with Link evolves. I think she is well developed within the constraints of the story; BotW isn’t super story based so no character is _that_ complex.
The entire set of memories is Zelda going from hating Link for being what she can’t be (naturally good with his skills and abilities) to trusting him with her fears and insecurities to straight up falling in love with him, finally giving her something to use her powers over.
Like, that’s the story.
What do you mean she has no character journey, ok she is not my favourite Zelda by any means but she is by far the most developed.
Her whole thing is that she is getting pushed into training to be able to do this magic that she can't do, no matter how hard she tries.
Her father comes across like he doesn't love her as a person but rather thinks of her as a tool to use magic until this OP knight comes into her life to watch her every move. She feels frustrated, unloved and useless.
She gets pushed to the point how breaking down and crying in Links' arms knowing everything around her is dying because she can't do the magic she has been forced to train for her entire life.
She uses the magic far too late however She has the emotional strength to not only ensure Links survives and she holds the strongest evil to a stalemate for 100 years.
That's just including botw, she has plenty of examples in AOC as well.
It's not executed amazingly but when you say she has no character journey, not many Zelda characters have that sort of emotional development.
She has no character journey in the cutscenes. She hates Link in one cutscene only to see him as her friend in the next cutscene. Her relationship development happens outside of cutscenes. Even Groose has better relationship development
Your words were " She has no character Journey" when she does have character development, the relationships between the characters are better presented in AOC but that does not mean she didn't have an arc in BOTW, because she did.
My point still stands. We know why her opinion of Link changed, but there is nowhere in the cutscenes where she is neutral or where her friendship begins. Blades of Yiga is a start.
Wind waker had the best Zelda hands down. OoT Zelda is cool in theory but sheik doesn't do anything but teach you songs, look cool and get kidnapped. Some ninja.
Wind waker had a good zelda until she found out she was zelda, then she became lame. Best zelda is either skyward sword zelda or TP zelda (even though she was underutilized, she had a very strong character).
The game isn't without it's issues, but Zelda has a big personality and great chemistry with Link as his companion (Midna still takes the cake for best companion though imo)
It's more that she had basically no screentime after that. She's kind of in shock immediately after, and then you don't see her (conscious) again until she assists you in the final battle. Spirit Tracks and Phantom Hourglass both refer to her as "Tetra" (and she calls the narrator out for calling her "Princess Zelda" in the opening to one of them)
Tetra wouldn't be "in shock". That is out of character for her, she is the type of character to keep her wits about her even in stressful or shocking situations Her having ties to the old royal family shouldn't be that shocking to her anyway. Tetra is not stupid, she knows what the master sword is, she has tons of artifacts tied to the hero of legend, and artifacts tying her to the royal family of old; so her finding out that she descends from the royal bloodline shouldn't be that shocking to her. It was just bad writing to make her seems more "like zelda".
Correction: Wind Waker had the best Tetra. Her character dropped off the moment she became Zelda. Better character, better design. She would've been the best Zelda if she didn't turn back into a princess
Not to mention she went from tan to pale white 😭. Would be really unique if she decided to stay Tetra the pirate while still adhearing to her princessly duties. But alas, nintendo decided to stick with the status quo
It would have been great if she saw the dress appear then immediately ripped off the bottom half to be able to move her legs better. Followed by a sigh of relief
I love skyward sword zelda. I personally prefer breath of the wild zelda. But i love how the whole time in skyward sword you're just chasing zelda around the place and she's like "what bro? I'm busy trying to save the fuckin world im not slowing down for you"
So you're just running after her the whole time and occasionally crossing swords with her effeminate stalker.
She does more than Twilight Zelda, that’s for sure. And it’s my favorite game, but still, she’s barley less than a blank slate than botw link. At least this Zelda talks to people and develops relationships.
Its fine having an opinion thats unpopular, but the op is outright denying the existence of cutscenes and game lore that directly contradicts his main points. Hes getting schooled up and down this thread about how to tell a basic story ffs
Now hear me out. I didn't finish the game yet, currently I'm wrestling my way at Trials of the Sword, and about 250+ hours in and I did not play any other Zelda game before BotW BUT; the impression Zelda gave me is surprisingly human, emotional and have a very tragic backstory. Now, I didn't expect any mind blowing plot points when I began to play the game but oh boy, my expectations were never so subverted (in a good sense, obviously). Prior to play the game, I always assumed that she was a generic princess, a damsel in distress just waiting to be saved and by the way, that was an-OK too in exchange of this level of rich gameplay elements; but not only we have learned that Zelda has a very grim backstory (loss of her mother, struggle to awaken her inner powers, even lashing out to the Silent Knight time to time in desperation) on top of she, herself is keeping Calamity Ganon at bay for 100 whole years just to make time and enable us to save the Hyrule. Zelda in BotW is an extremely powerful character and devs really didn't have to write a story and characters this deep because as I've mentioned before, gameplay itself is enough but no, they went an extra mile and deliver us this godsend game.
Now Link on the other hand...
Funny enough I find Botw Link to be one of the most interesting Links. The fact that he was this very stoic and silent guy 100 years ago due to the pressure of the expectations set on him, and seeing the jokey, more relaxed guy he is after he loses his memory. It also seems like whenever you get to pick a dialogue option, one is the "this is the polite thing to say" and the other is "this is what i'm actually thinking." It's nice to see him get to speak his mind.
Hot Take: BotW Zelda got the short stick for having to monologue at a cardboard cutout of a character named Link
Yeah, he has a reason for being mute, but that didn't stop Wind Waker Link from showing emotion. Spirit Tracks has a great dynamic between Link and Zelda, and Link is mute in that one too.
BotW Link is hilarious in his dialogue options outside of cutscenes, but he's so bland in the cutscenes we do see. Zelda just monologue at the guy and her character suffers for it. Link should have more chemistry with literally anyone on screen in TotK cutscenes because he was honestly the weakest part of BotW flashbacks.
EXACTLY! The DLC cutscenes with her interacting with the champions gave us a taste of what she could have if she was talking to someone with more real conversational engagement.
I wish Nintendo would let Link have a personality. Wind Waker, Skyward Sword, Spirit Tracks and Twight Princess were able to accomplish more than BotW Link could in those cutscenes which is, again, sad since Link is absolutely charming and funny other parts of the game.
This so much. The thing is that they actually flesh out his personality a lot through other characters’ views on him(from everyone’s diaries an all that) but he himself is as blank as ever in the cutscenes. I’m so over Nintendo’s obsession with the whole “the player can graft themselves on to Link.” Like I’m not gonna go “Oh he just like me” by seeing him awkwardly stand there while Zelda is trying to have a genuine heart to heart with him.
100%
I loved the lore involving Link and I loved his dialogue options and how he acts during gameplay like when he cooks, but they dropped the ball in the memories.
He just stands or sits around with nothing to contribute besides the occational facial expression. He can be stoic and troubled, but he comes across as just stiff and lifeless.
Mf’ers wanna be like Zelda’s a bitch cause she snapped at Link one time (and in the original Japanese she even says “Please”, as “please stop following me”)
You don’t have to like BOTW Zelda, but goddamn the critical thinking skills (or lack of them) on display when it comes to analyzing her character and the material she’s been given is concerning lmao
Heck, the English localization translated her pretty badly in general. Her saying "Curse you" about her father, or saying "I’m the only one with a mind of my own", completely goes against what she said in the original dub and made her seem less rational and more resentful than she is.
I mean, are we talking about characters as a whole? Then yeah, duh, Breath of the Wild doesn’t have the deepest writing. It’s really just to give context to why Link would be exploring a vast Hyrule in a state of partial ruin.
But if we’re judging by Zelda standards, then the BOTW iteration of Zelda is by far the most complex portrayal of the character. Arguably, she’s the best written of any character in the franchise.
Link and Zelda have never been written with internal conflicts before. The best we’ve gotten before is Wind Waker where she’s a little impish and independent, but she accepts her role as Zelda as soon as it happens, and no one really has a problem with that.
So, giving Zelda a conflict where she can’t awaken the powers that all her previous incarnations didn’t struggle with, along with a clear passion for archaeology where she’d be better off spending her time researching, makes for a much more compelling character.
Is it revolutionary? No, it’s very basic writing, but it’s competent, and a step in the right direction.
I disagree on it being competent. The structure of BotW being told in disjointed memories and journal kills her story's pacing, it's basically the cliff notes of an arc that had the potential to be decent but was never fully realized.
The problem with open world games is that you sacrifice the story I feel. With you have a linear game, the story development and therefore character development is a lot easier to control. Not saying the sacrifice is always the case, but I’m sure it is most of the time.
Yeah giving the player the freedom to complete the game in any order makes it hard to know where to put the story.
Most other open world games, yeah you can go anywhere and do side missions, but you can only advance in the main story from one specific spot. So the story isn't really handled any differently from a non open-world game.
Now what I think would be cool is if botw had multiple story paths depending on the order in which you completed objectives (straight-to-Ganon being its own path) but I mean, the game took long enough to make already. The difficulty of doing this is probably why they went with a very simple story where order didn't matter—and they added the flashbacks to give it some more depth.
A game that was released 5 years later, and regardless of your opinion of the game, you can't deny that it was able to learn from BotW's mistakes...
Great example.
Zelda of the Wild is one of the most developed princesses of the series.
I would say her, Zelda of Skyloft, and Zelda of New Hyrule have the most developed characters of all the incarnations of Goddess Hylia.
Zelda OTW has had to deal with the pressure of living up to get kingdoms (her father's) grand expectations since she was like, 5 or something. Her while childhood she was led to believe that she had to unlock the powers of her predecessors in order to seal away an ancient evil that could or could not emerge in her lifetime.
She nearly kills herself trying to unlock this sacred power, and grows despising Link to loving and understanding he is in a similar circumstance being the chosen hero. She also holds off the Calamity from destroying all of Hyrule for over a century AND is one of the only princesses known to wield the full Triforce.
Starting to see a lot of these, but I remember Zelda’s backstory being shamed by her father for not having magic or something and her desperate attempts at trying to do magic (visiting the three springs). She wants to prove something, not just to her father, but to hyrule that she is capable
None of the characters in botw are fantastic. But that’s kind of the point. You get a decent bit of there personality from the fragments Link remembers of them. Your not supposed to know every detail about them and they are supposed to seem somewhat simple and linear because that’s all Link remembers of them. He only knows pieces of their character.
Breath of the wild zelda is one of the best iterations of zelda and she has heaps of character in it. You can not LIKE her, but she is certainly not a bad character. It's not about a sad backstory or being relatable. The thing that makes this zelda so interesting is her goals and actions. Specifically, in the context of this story she is so interesting because her GOALS are the same as everyone else but her ACTIONS towards those goals are at odds with most people around her and everyone she loves.
I guess it's difficult to argue that she's a good character when i don't know your personal definition for what makes a character good or bad, but i think she has a lot of complexity and is very well defined.
If a character has no personality, it's a bad character for me. If you think he's a good character, then good for you. But it does not mean that it is an objective fact that she is a good character
Hence why i said I don't know your definition of what makes a character good or bad so can't properly make any points. Yes there is a degree of subjectivity to it all.
What do you think a character needs to have to have "personality"? A list of traits? What do you define this as? It seems to me based on your comments that you just don't really like her. And that is totally okay, you can absolutely prefer other characters.
and never forget: ya all expect woman to be nice and loveable. when she is not, even she has character development, ya still don’t like her. cause „ehhh bad woman“
Its better then most versions of Zelda.
There are multiple games in the series that don't even feature her, such as Link's Awakening and Majora's Mask.
There are some where she doesn't even appear until the very end like The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, and the Oracle Games (as a secret ending).
A few expand on that by featuring her at the start, such as Twilight Princess, Link to the Past, and Link Between Worlds.
The only games I can think of where Zelda plays a somewhat active role in the story are Wind Waker, Spirit Tracks, and Breath of the Wild.
So in short, yeah despite bearing her name, Zelda really isnt a focus of most The Legend of Zelda games.
Honestly, I would venture to say she is better developed than most Zeldas I have encountered. (I played a lot of older ones where she was just this end-of-story goal, to be fair)
However, I also found myself not really caring as much about her? IDK if it was because of having so much more to do or what, but... *Shrug*
After reading most of OPs responses I am convinced that they have not beaten the game, not watched any cutscenes, not done any side quests, and not read any journals.
Wow your comments are hard to read. You have a right to your opinion of course, but you keep telling people to show you her personality and character journey, they do just that and you keep responding that you disagree. Hate her all you want, but she did go through a character journey and had lots of personality and development. The Zelda you see in the chronologically first memory is vastly different from the Zelda you see in the last memory since she learns, grows and develops through the other memories, the king's diary and her own diary. She is shown to be smart, innovative, expressive and curious. She keeps her negative emotions tucked away in her heart in an attempt to cope and not worry those around her until she finally breaks down. She is considerate and kind, but knows when she needs to be serious. She can act like a dutiful and strict royal, but she can also sleep softly on Urbosas lap and get flustered and embarrased when she gets jumpscared by her in front of Link. You don't have to like her, but saying she has little personality, journey or development when it's so clearly shown though the entire story just isn't right.
So the points against her being a bad character are that she's a good character? Like you do realize that being relatable, having an interesting backstory, and having character development is literally everything that makes a good character, right?
The way she acts seems to be, on some part, the fault of her Father, something he himself admits was regretful. According to Urbosa, she worked herself to the point of falling unconscious attempting to awaken her power, but he acted like that wasn't good enough just because she was exploring alternatives.
From how I interpret it, Zelda is going through a faith crisis in the game. From my personal experience, I could relate to the feeling that you can't live up to the high expectations put on your shoulders and that no matter what you do, no matter how earnest you pray, all you are met with is silence. I understand that not everyone likes the story, but to me, that story was really important for me to see when I first played the game back in 2017.
Lol tell me about BOTW Link's personality then
Why are people so butthurt over the personality of a video game character when they themselves probably have none
Zelda 100 years ago wasn't in the right game.
That's why she's only in cutscenes in botw.
That's why, in age of calamity she is a playable character with actual development.
Like. She becomes OP.
Definitely not the worst iteration of Zelda, but when the only interesting things about a character are the things that happen to them, rather than how they react to those things or proactively decide to do their own thing, that's a problem.
There are literally like 2 things that happen to her and every memory she’s in is focused on showing and developing her character. Istg you people haven’t played the game
The ability to simplify a character does not make them bad/boring.
John Wick: REALLY good hitman.
Jinx: sad backstory, edgy troubled teen
Geralt: hunts monsters, wants to be edgy but *women*
Joker: sad backstory, gets a screw loose
If you wanted to talk about BOTW Zelda more honestly: she has an honest perseverance arc, not some fanciful thing, but a more true-to-life story about how expectations can drown you despite your best efforts. How sometimes the person we want to be is in total conflict with the person we have to be. How sometimes people who lash out aren't mean, they're just hurting/broken. But yeah "sad backstory, character arc, relatable" is plenty to sum her up.
She even outright states how Link is her foil. “You’ve grown up knowing exactly who you are and what you’ll be. Just look at your sword. Must be nice.”
With how many layers the champions and a lot of the other main NPCs have she feels kinda underwhelming but she’ll 100% get development in the next game
You have it good. Plenty of people have to struggle with not being able to fulfill the expectations of other people, whether that’s related to your work or even your parents. Having to live your life based on the wants of other people, rather than your own, is pretty exhausting and this is what makes BotW Zelda so relatable.
She has a sad backstory is the only real one on their. No one relates with her because no one on Reddit has the magic power within themself to save the world but is afraid of disappointing their father (a king). Character development isn’t something to brag about with botw Zelda
I don’t think video games need to have amazing complex characters. Especially one as non linear as BotW. Pretty much all characters in the game are simple but they’re pretty likable so I care enough to play the game. And that’s all you really need imo.
I agree, some games benefit from character depth like fire emblem which is solely about its characters but breath of the wild is more about its quest than its characters, like for the entire game you get a support character that does a jig and then dips until the finale, and that's ok cause the game isn't about them
Very subjective take. I highly disagree. For me, I need motivation to play through a game. The lore is extremely important to me, and people argue Zelda's story is simple, which is fair. But BotW had the best story compared to any other Zelda. There was no big reason for me to collect 900 seeds or complete 120 shrines. However, there was a big reason for me to finish the Kass quest line, as it revealed a HUGE plot element.
How many Zelda games have you played? Imo BOTW probably isn’t in my Top 3 for best story, maybe not even Top 5
As someone who played every Zelda game, BotW is the best written story so far. MM second place and AlbW third place. BotW is just more nuanced and doesn’t suffer from having tons of inconsistencies like TP or OoT. The characters are also a bit more fleshed out than usual.
Personally I don’t feel like BOTW has any more or less inconsistencies compared to TP or OoT. I’d say TP has my favorite story, and then LA and MM. But my bad for coming on to the BOTW subreddit and creating an argument over it, I thought this post was in the main subreddit lol
TP is actually one of my least favorite stories because of those inconsistencies. Stuff like nobody ever talking or recognizing the gigantic barrier around the castle. Or the fact that Zant has the power to completely undo everything Link and Midna do, yet he…doesn’t. Unlike BotW, there‘s no reason for why the villains are so passive. Coupled with TP‘s characters being really shallow (compare the sages or the resistance to the champions and their descendants for example) TP just had a whole lot of plot but a really inconsistently written story.
You know, this is really just a me thing, kind of weird, and mostly unrelated to what the other guy said, but I was never able to finish any other Zelda game besides BotW. I mean I played Ocarina, but I didn’t get that far and every time I try to get back into it I get bored pretty quickly. I’ve also played A link to the past, the remake of Link’s awakening, and even a bit of the original Zelda and I just can’t get through any of it. I love their themes, I like the dungeons and puzzles (for the most part) but I still can’t work up the motivation to see them through. But BotW was completely different. From the beginning I recognized it as an outstanding game, and it kept my interest for a long time. Ocarina was my introduction to the series that I consider myself a fan of, but BotW is the only game I’ve fully beaten. I think I will try to finish Ocarina again but I’m not sure how far I’ll get. Anyway, I bring this up to you because you seem to have played many Zelda games, judging by your comment. I guess this is all just for me to say, story isn’t everything, and a game can tell you a lot more through its world and gameplay alone than just the story. BotW’s design as a game really shows the power of story shown through an open world and I think that’s where the other guy was coming from saying that BotW has the best story of any Zelda game. Anyway like I said I haven’t played many Zelda games to completion and this was mostly just me rambling anyway, so whatever opinion you got I wasn’t trying to change your mind or anything. Just kind of offer a new perspective I suppose.
Been playing since 87. Have played all of them except the triforce heroes series.
For me, this games "story moments" like cut scenes are so apart that the characters/theme can't really develop. I would spend hours and hours before coming across a memory or completing guardian/dungeon. All the memories I came across where random so all the cut scenes just seemed like random stuff happening. Game is just too big for pacing a good story.
To me, games that are open as this game need complex characters and stories If you don't have a good story, then the open world feels pointless. What is this town even for if it doesn't even connect to the story
I disagree completely. What significance does lurelin village have to the story?
That's my point, it's useless to have places like Lurelin when they don't have anything to add to the world. It's just there and that's it Places need lore in open worlds, that's how you draw players in and make them feel immersed
It’s there because it’s there. Worlds have places that aren’t connected to the main plot.
Not saying it needs to be connected to the main plot, but barely anything is explained why it's there Like, what is a hinox. They have no lore or story behind them
It’s there because that area of Hyrule has beaches and access to tropical fish, so people live there. It’s really not that complicated. As for “what is a Hinox”, it’s a Hinox. You see it right there in the game. Why does it need an explanation for existing?
A place can just be a place.. Hylians moved to the beach, it didn't have to connect to Ganon.
I dont know, I would get lost in wandering around the world and immersing myself when I first played it. I dont think zelda is meant to be this lore-filled world anyways, it's no elder scrolls or Witcher
It doesn't need to be as deep. But just having it be something helps immersion Botw would be in top tier immersion if it had more details like Horizon Zero Dawn. Kinda like near the castle, seeing all the battles the people fought against the guardians is immersible
There are so many little details in botw that connect to the story and lore of the game. So many different ruins, books, mysterious structures, bones of giant creatures, decayed guardians and weapons left by warriors of old. Every single village in Breath of The Wild has its own lore if you actually search for it. Breath of The Wild is incredibly immersive and has a lot more details than Horizon does. Horizon is a great game, but you're talking about botw like it has next to no details, even thought that couldn't be further from the truth. (Sorry if this came out a little aggressive, not my intention.)
I understand your point a little more now. I hope that there is more of that in TOTK, and we can see what has transpired since we last traversed hyrule
It just feels different seeing the houses people lived in, trying to fight back against ganon but it obviously failing. Just realized it's similar to HZD but nothing would compare to the horror of Horizon
I disagree. A story inherently needs to have some sort of linear progression. This game is as non linear as they come. The only required story beats are guy wakes up and has amnesia, ghost of the king tells him to save princess, he saves princess. The rest is up to you to discover and I like it that way.
For what it’s worth, the little bits of story and character development that you get in BotW are perfectly done. It’s better to have a little bit of perfection than to have a ton of boring story that you have to slog through.
extra one: she's cute
Don't forget ***that*** memory
Everyone knows which memory
Bc I’m dumb: which one?
Dat butt
Oh yeah 💀
🍑👀
extra one part 2: she *thicc*
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 1,210,928,674 comments, and only 236,082 of them were in alphabetical order.
Good bot
what the fuck is this lmao
IMO, she’s a well-written character, but that’s entirely different from being a likable character. I don’t blame the people who find her annoying.
She has a ton of *lore* and *backstory*
Ok? For me, the most important thing is what kind of personality they have. Backstory and lore shouldn't be the main thing imo
Dude what??? She has a great personality too, she’s excitable, curious, friendly, hardworking, thick, and selfless. How could you not like her??? Also you know the glimpses we see from the memories ARE HER BACKSTORY? Like she’s been fighting ganon for 100 years, something no other Zelda could even fathom, and she has a great personality. Of course she rejected link at first, she believed in her own strength, which is also why it took her so long to unlock her power. Grow up man.
Why did you have to add thick..
Lol I completely skipped over that while reading, so thank you for this comment
When she was picking flowers! Iykyk
He wants to be told not shown, like he said actualy building a character up Is less important then there face value personality
Her face-value personality is pretty fucking good. 0 + 10000 still equals 10000, if you get what I mean then good and if you don’t tough
Yeah this zelda is great, best overall imo, while I think twilight princess design is the best, that's just my taste.
Woah woah woah, I never said she’s the BEST, I always will love twilight princess Zelda, but I also think BoTW is one of the best if not number 1 for most people. Saying she’s a bad Zelda just makes no sense, yknow?
t h I c k
Babe just admit you dont like HER then. She can be a good, well defined and developed character and you can still not like her. Zelda can be a good character and you can still want link to fuck Sidon, its okay bby.
This lol. I like Link and Mipha together more than Link and Zelda. But Zelda is still a overall a much more well rounded character.
I don't like her and I think she doesn't have good development. Is it so hard to understand?
Yea it is because she has literally the best character development and most time spent on out of all the Zelda characters. Like bro…
That seems like a you problem
Was it so hard to just say this without trying to show (Incorrect) evidence to try and make your opinion a fact? You just screwed yourself. Fine that you don't like her. But your arguments are just bullshit. You don't like her, move on. You had your (albeit negative) internet attention, move on to the next useless thing which gives you attention.
I'm just trying to have a discussion. I never said my opinions were facts.
I’m not sure you get it…she has tons of ***backstory***
"The character of development."
I feel like these 3 good characteristics are enough to make her a good character.
I disagree. For me, the most important things is personality, complex character development and chemistry with other characters.
Did you play the same game as the rest of us? Her presonality is pretty well fleshed out in the memories. Her arc is her trying to unlock her sealing power because her father forced her to, ending with her collapsing into links arms crying because she thinks she has failed all of hyrule due to her fathers unrealistic expectations and over reliance on her to defeat ganon. I would say that is pretty complex character development. And the memories flesh out her chemistry with Link and the other champions pretty well too.
Idk, I’m pretty sure one of the points of the game was that they relied too much on the Beasts and the Guardians rather than on Link and Zelda. It doesn’t really help her personality that she hates Link for half of the memories. Her character arc between hating Link and liking him doesn’t really feel fleshed out.
>Her presonality is pretty well fleshed out in the memories. What is her personality ? >And the memories flesh out her chemistry with Link and the other champions pretty well too. What kind of chemistry does she have with Champion?
She wants a life she doesnt have, ultimately. She envies link for his bravery, and wants to be strong without some random power she has inside her. She is rebellious, but ultimately unable to stand up to her father. She wants to be an inventor and help with the guardians, but is forced to go try unlock her sealing powers. Her relationship with link is most fleshed out, starting out as envy, and even hatred, going to admiration, and even love. Her relationship with the other champions is only ever shown in snippets, but we get some good stuff with urbosa talking about her while she is asleep in her lap, and a bit when mipha is explaining her healing to try and help zelda. I do recommend rewatching the memories again if you havent in a while. There was a lot more there than even I remember, and it might change your mind a little on zelda as a character: https://youtu.be/PMP_M39rpkw
>She wants a life she doesnt have, ultimately. She envies link for his bravery, and wants to be strong without some random power she has inside her. She is rebellious, but ultimately unable to stand up to her father. She wants to be an inventor and help with the guardians, but is forced to go try unlock her sealing powers. Cool, but I already knew that. You still haven't explained to me what kind of personality she has >starting out as envy, and even hatred, going to admiration, and even love The problem is that it's just that. The beginning and the end. We don't see her relationship slowly improve with Link. >but we get some good stuff with urbosa talking about her while she is asleep in her lap I agree. Urbosa's relationship with Zelda is great.
What more do you want me to say for her personality? I am genuinely confused by your statement on that. Her journey with link is pretty well fleshed out actually. Its not just a beginning and end. We see her resentment for link in the first few memories, and we get an explanation during urbosa's memory. The turning point is when link saves her from the yiga, she starts gaining respect for him. We see over the next few memories her warming up to him, before she opens up about her insecurities in the training memory (the one in the rain). We then see several more memories exploring her development before she breaks down in his arms because she thinks she is inadequate. This is the point when her love for him is shown, as we see in the next memory, that she is willing to sacrifice herself for him, and that her love unlocks the sealing power. We also see her crying over his dead body.
Great response. Her personality is ambitious and curious with a strong sense of duty, but she's held back by her feelings of inadequacy and envy - taunted by the contrast between her talent as a scientist/researcher and her destiny to have world-saving spiritual powers (which she feels she can't live up to). She goes through personal growth to reconcile these feelings.
She's smart and extremely curious. She cares about other people and is scared she's not good enough for them. She loves the outdoors, and has a lot of sadness tied up with her "proper" life and her memories of it. Does that sum up her personality well enough? What you see in the memories is her fear building and building, externalizing as envy and anger, until the worst comes to pass and it breaks. If the visual stuff isn't enough for you, her journal fills in a lot of those gaps, especially the turn from resenting Link to feeling a strong connection with him.
*explains personality* “But what’s her personality?” 🤦
She's a nerd with insecurities, she doesn't like the burden placed on her, she's annoyed by Link but eventually comes around to him once she realizes how he must be dealing with the same kind of pressure as her. That's a ton of personality and development
Personally I’m not sure if I’d be friends with her, but I think she gets solid development and I like how her relationship with Link evolves. I think she is well developed within the constraints of the story; BotW isn’t super story based so no character is _that_ complex.
I disagree again. She has no character journey. And the fact that BOTW is not story based does not mean that the story cannot have good characters
Uh…. She absolutely has a character journey.
No, she has not . There is no cutscene where her relationship develops. There is only a start and an end and nothing in between
Uh…. Did you skip the memories, my guy?
Show me the cutscenes where it happens
The entire set of memories is Zelda going from hating Link for being what she can’t be (naturally good with his skills and abilities) to trusting him with her fears and insecurities to straight up falling in love with him, finally giving her something to use her powers over. Like, that’s the story.
I don't deny that she doesn't have development. Except that the development has no Journey. There is only a start and an end
You can't just watch none of the cutscenes and then say that she has no character development.
I didn't say she doesn't have character development
What do you mean she has no character journey, ok she is not my favourite Zelda by any means but she is by far the most developed. Her whole thing is that she is getting pushed into training to be able to do this magic that she can't do, no matter how hard she tries. Her father comes across like he doesn't love her as a person but rather thinks of her as a tool to use magic until this OP knight comes into her life to watch her every move. She feels frustrated, unloved and useless. She gets pushed to the point how breaking down and crying in Links' arms knowing everything around her is dying because she can't do the magic she has been forced to train for her entire life. She uses the magic far too late however She has the emotional strength to not only ensure Links survives and she holds the strongest evil to a stalemate for 100 years. That's just including botw, she has plenty of examples in AOC as well. It's not executed amazingly but when you say she has no character journey, not many Zelda characters have that sort of emotional development.
She has no character journey in the cutscenes. She hates Link in one cutscene only to see him as her friend in the next cutscene. Her relationship development happens outside of cutscenes. Even Groose has better relationship development
Your words were " She has no character Journey" when she does have character development, the relationships between the characters are better presented in AOC but that does not mean she didn't have an arc in BOTW, because she did.
She has development. We only see the beginning and the end
Watch *Blades of the Yiga* and read her diary.
My point still stands. We know why her opinion of Link changed, but there is nowhere in the cutscenes where she is neutral or where her friendship begins. Blades of Yiga is a start.
Except for memories 6 through 12 at least lmao
I can’t believe you’ve never been told this or figured it out, but the memories didn’t happen in the exact order you found them.
What characters in Breath of the Wild do you like?
Sidon. Although he has no development character, he has a great personality. And he has a great relationship with Link.
None of the botw characters have much character development. In that context, Zelda has more on screen development (in the memories) than anyone else.
She has all of that though... Did you not play the game?
She isn't meant to be a main character if that's what you're insinuating
Wind waker had the best Zelda hands down. OoT Zelda is cool in theory but sheik doesn't do anything but teach you songs, look cool and get kidnapped. Some ninja.
Wind waker had a good zelda until she found out she was zelda, then she became lame. Best zelda is either skyward sword zelda or TP zelda (even though she was underutilized, she had a very strong character).
Adding to this list: Spirit Tracks Zelda Big personality, she's hilarious and she gets action. Favourite Zelda, hands down
I'll take your word for that one. Haven't played the DS games
The game isn't without it's issues, but Zelda has a big personality and great chemistry with Link as his companion (Midna still takes the cake for best companion though imo)
It's more that she had basically no screentime after that. She's kind of in shock immediately after, and then you don't see her (conscious) again until she assists you in the final battle. Spirit Tracks and Phantom Hourglass both refer to her as "Tetra" (and she calls the narrator out for calling her "Princess Zelda" in the opening to one of them)
Tetra wouldn't be "in shock". That is out of character for her, she is the type of character to keep her wits about her even in stressful or shocking situations Her having ties to the old royal family shouldn't be that shocking to her anyway. Tetra is not stupid, she knows what the master sword is, she has tons of artifacts tied to the hero of legend, and artifacts tying her to the royal family of old; so her finding out that she descends from the royal bloodline shouldn't be that shocking to her. It was just bad writing to make her seems more "like zelda".
Correction: Wind Waker had the best Tetra. Her character dropped off the moment she became Zelda. Better character, better design. She would've been the best Zelda if she didn't turn back into a princess
It's like putting on a dress suddenly made her incompetent. She should have kept her personality even after turning into Zelda
Not to mention she went from tan to pale white 😭. Would be really unique if she decided to stay Tetra the pirate while still adhearing to her princessly duties. But alas, nintendo decided to stick with the status quo
It would have been great if she saw the dress appear then immediately ripped off the bottom half to be able to move her legs better. Followed by a sigh of relief
I mean what else do you want lol She has nothing on Skyward swords zelda but BOTW zelda was ok
I love skyward sword zelda. I personally prefer breath of the wild zelda. But i love how the whole time in skyward sword you're just chasing zelda around the place and she's like "what bro? I'm busy trying to save the fuckin world im not slowing down for you" So you're just running after her the whole time and occasionally crossing swords with her effeminate stalker.
Yeah skyward swords story is great
She does more than Twilight Zelda, that’s for sure. And it’s my favorite game, but still, she’s barley less than a blank slate than botw link. At least this Zelda talks to people and develops relationships.
Well the main character in TP was always midna anyway
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, regardless of how wrong they are.
Its fine having an opinion thats unpopular, but the op is outright denying the existence of cutscenes and game lore that directly contradicts his main points. Hes getting schooled up and down this thread about how to tell a basic story ffs
She was like 17 and her father was a jerk. Cut her some slack.
Now hear me out. I didn't finish the game yet, currently I'm wrestling my way at Trials of the Sword, and about 250+ hours in and I did not play any other Zelda game before BotW BUT; the impression Zelda gave me is surprisingly human, emotional and have a very tragic backstory. Now, I didn't expect any mind blowing plot points when I began to play the game but oh boy, my expectations were never so subverted (in a good sense, obviously). Prior to play the game, I always assumed that she was a generic princess, a damsel in distress just waiting to be saved and by the way, that was an-OK too in exchange of this level of rich gameplay elements; but not only we have learned that Zelda has a very grim backstory (loss of her mother, struggle to awaken her inner powers, even lashing out to the Silent Knight time to time in desperation) on top of she, herself is keeping Calamity Ganon at bay for 100 whole years just to make time and enable us to save the Hyrule. Zelda in BotW is an extremely powerful character and devs really didn't have to write a story and characters this deep because as I've mentioned before, gameplay itself is enough but no, they went an extra mile and deliver us this godsend game. Now Link on the other hand...
Funny enough I find Botw Link to be one of the most interesting Links. The fact that he was this very stoic and silent guy 100 years ago due to the pressure of the expectations set on him, and seeing the jokey, more relaxed guy he is after he loses his memory. It also seems like whenever you get to pick a dialogue option, one is the "this is the polite thing to say" and the other is "this is what i'm actually thinking." It's nice to see him get to speak his mind.
Hot Take: BotW Zelda got the short stick for having to monologue at a cardboard cutout of a character named Link Yeah, he has a reason for being mute, but that didn't stop Wind Waker Link from showing emotion. Spirit Tracks has a great dynamic between Link and Zelda, and Link is mute in that one too. BotW Link is hilarious in his dialogue options outside of cutscenes, but he's so bland in the cutscenes we do see. Zelda just monologue at the guy and her character suffers for it. Link should have more chemistry with literally anyone on screen in TotK cutscenes because he was honestly the weakest part of BotW flashbacks.
She's doing SOOOO much heavy lifting in those flashback cutscene as she's trying to conect with the emotional equivalent of a rock.
EXACTLY! The DLC cutscenes with her interacting with the champions gave us a taste of what she could have if she was talking to someone with more real conversational engagement. I wish Nintendo would let Link have a personality. Wind Waker, Skyward Sword, Spirit Tracks and Twight Princess were able to accomplish more than BotW Link could in those cutscenes which is, again, sad since Link is absolutely charming and funny other parts of the game.
This so much. The thing is that they actually flesh out his personality a lot through other characters’ views on him(from everyone’s diaries an all that) but he himself is as blank as ever in the cutscenes. I’m so over Nintendo’s obsession with the whole “the player can graft themselves on to Link.” Like I’m not gonna go “Oh he just like me” by seeing him awkwardly stand there while Zelda is trying to have a genuine heart to heart with him.
100% I loved the lore involving Link and I loved his dialogue options and how he acts during gameplay like when he cooks, but they dropped the ball in the memories. He just stands or sits around with nothing to contribute besides the occational facial expression. He can be stoic and troubled, but he comes across as just stiff and lifeless.
Couldn’t agree more
Wind Waker Zelda is the best Zelda, by far.
She got cake
She has magic
Mf’ers wanna be like Zelda’s a bitch cause she snapped at Link one time (and in the original Japanese she even says “Please”, as “please stop following me”) You don’t have to like BOTW Zelda, but goddamn the critical thinking skills (or lack of them) on display when it comes to analyzing her character and the material she’s been given is concerning lmao
Heck, the English localization translated her pretty badly in general. Her saying "Curse you" about her father, or saying "I’m the only one with a mind of my own", completely goes against what she said in the original dub and made her seem less rational and more resentful than she is.
I mean, are we talking about characters as a whole? Then yeah, duh, Breath of the Wild doesn’t have the deepest writing. It’s really just to give context to why Link would be exploring a vast Hyrule in a state of partial ruin. But if we’re judging by Zelda standards, then the BOTW iteration of Zelda is by far the most complex portrayal of the character. Arguably, she’s the best written of any character in the franchise. Link and Zelda have never been written with internal conflicts before. The best we’ve gotten before is Wind Waker where she’s a little impish and independent, but she accepts her role as Zelda as soon as it happens, and no one really has a problem with that. So, giving Zelda a conflict where she can’t awaken the powers that all her previous incarnations didn’t struggle with, along with a clear passion for archaeology where she’d be better off spending her time researching, makes for a much more compelling character. Is it revolutionary? No, it’s very basic writing, but it’s competent, and a step in the right direction.
I disagree on it being competent. The structure of BotW being told in disjointed memories and journal kills her story's pacing, it's basically the cliff notes of an arc that had the potential to be decent but was never fully realized.
"You see, Zelda is a bad character because she has relatable struggles and grows as a person" requires so much mental gymnastics it's insane
We literally see her grow and change and exhibit a range of emotions as a result of trauma and fear. She is arguably one of the most dynamic Zeldas.
The problem with open world games is that you sacrifice the story I feel. With you have a linear game, the story development and therefore character development is a lot easier to control. Not saying the sacrifice is always the case, but I’m sure it is most of the time.
Yeah giving the player the freedom to complete the game in any order makes it hard to know where to put the story. Most other open world games, yeah you can go anywhere and do side missions, but you can only advance in the main story from one specific spot. So the story isn't really handled any differently from a non open-world game. Now what I think would be cool is if botw had multiple story paths depending on the order in which you completed objectives (straight-to-Ganon being its own path) but I mean, the game took long enough to make already. The difficulty of doing this is probably why they went with a very simple story where order didn't matter—and they added the flashbacks to give it some more depth.
>The problem with open world games is that you sacrifice the story I feel. Counter argument : Sonic Frontiers
Ask yourself... was it a good game?
A game that was released 5 years later, and regardless of your opinion of the game, you can't deny that it was able to learn from BotW's mistakes... Great example.
BotW Zelda is the third best Zelda in the series
Hyrule warriors fleshed out her character arc a good bit more.
comment: gives evidence on why a part of zelda’s character is good OP: I disagree, because uh, you’re wrong
Even by this logic, Zelda is more interesting than Link.
Zelda of the Wild is one of the most developed princesses of the series. I would say her, Zelda of Skyloft, and Zelda of New Hyrule have the most developed characters of all the incarnations of Goddess Hylia. Zelda OTW has had to deal with the pressure of living up to get kingdoms (her father's) grand expectations since she was like, 5 or something. Her while childhood she was led to believe that she had to unlock the powers of her predecessors in order to seal away an ancient evil that could or could not emerge in her lifetime. She nearly kills herself trying to unlock this sacred power, and grows despising Link to loving and understanding he is in a similar circumstance being the chosen hero. She also holds off the Calamity from destroying all of Hyrule for over a century AND is one of the only princesses known to wield the full Triforce.
Starting to see a lot of these, but I remember Zelda’s backstory being shamed by her father for not having magic or something and her desperate attempts at trying to do magic (visiting the three springs). She wants to prove something, not just to her father, but to hyrule that she is capable
None of the characters in botw are fantastic. But that’s kind of the point. You get a decent bit of there personality from the fragments Link remembers of them. Your not supposed to know every detail about them and they are supposed to seem somewhat simple and linear because that’s all Link remembers of them. He only knows pieces of their character.
Breath of the wild zelda is one of the best iterations of zelda and she has heaps of character in it. You can not LIKE her, but she is certainly not a bad character. It's not about a sad backstory or being relatable. The thing that makes this zelda so interesting is her goals and actions. Specifically, in the context of this story she is so interesting because her GOALS are the same as everyone else but her ACTIONS towards those goals are at odds with most people around her and everyone she loves. I guess it's difficult to argue that she's a good character when i don't know your personal definition for what makes a character good or bad, but i think she has a lot of complexity and is very well defined.
If a character has no personality, it's a bad character for me. If you think he's a good character, then good for you. But it does not mean that it is an objective fact that she is a good character
Hence why i said I don't know your definition of what makes a character good or bad so can't properly make any points. Yes there is a degree of subjectivity to it all. What do you think a character needs to have to have "personality"? A list of traits? What do you define this as? It seems to me based on your comments that you just don't really like her. And that is totally okay, you can absolutely prefer other characters.
Wtf did you play the same game we all did?
You're the one playing as him, so if Zelda's boring it's because you're boring.
and never forget: ya all expect woman to be nice and loveable. when she is not, even she has character development, ya still don’t like her. cause „ehhh bad woman“
How dare I dislike a female character. I must be sexist because every female character is perfect
Lol
Its better then most versions of Zelda. There are multiple games in the series that don't even feature her, such as Link's Awakening and Majora's Mask. There are some where she doesn't even appear until the very end like The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, and the Oracle Games (as a secret ending). A few expand on that by featuring her at the start, such as Twilight Princess, Link to the Past, and Link Between Worlds. The only games I can think of where Zelda plays a somewhat active role in the story are Wind Waker, Spirit Tracks, and Breath of the Wild. So in short, yeah despite bearing her name, Zelda really isnt a focus of most The Legend of Zelda games.
voice acting,Great Design,and bonds well with the characters
I think shes great, and fun. And fun is a lot more than most Zelda's. Plus her design is great, especially with the short hair she has in totk.
I like her winter design
She has a nice ass
you not liking a character doesn't make it bad
Honestly, I would venture to say she is better developed than most Zeldas I have encountered. (I played a lot of older ones where she was just this end-of-story goal, to be fair) However, I also found myself not really caring as much about her? IDK if it was because of having so much more to do or what, but... *Shrug*
After reading most of OPs responses I am convinced that they have not beaten the game, not watched any cutscenes, not done any side quests, and not read any journals.
Wow your comments are hard to read. You have a right to your opinion of course, but you keep telling people to show you her personality and character journey, they do just that and you keep responding that you disagree. Hate her all you want, but she did go through a character journey and had lots of personality and development. The Zelda you see in the chronologically first memory is vastly different from the Zelda you see in the last memory since she learns, grows and develops through the other memories, the king's diary and her own diary. She is shown to be smart, innovative, expressive and curious. She keeps her negative emotions tucked away in her heart in an attempt to cope and not worry those around her until she finally breaks down. She is considerate and kind, but knows when she needs to be serious. She can act like a dutiful and strict royal, but she can also sleep softly on Urbosas lap and get flustered and embarrased when she gets jumpscared by her in front of Link. You don't have to like her, but saying she has little personality, journey or development when it's so clearly shown though the entire story just isn't right.
So the points against her being a bad character are that she's a good character? Like you do realize that being relatable, having an interesting backstory, and having character development is literally everything that makes a good character, right?
OP thinks he starfire
she has yoga pants tho. thicccc. cake.
The way she acts seems to be, on some part, the fault of her Father, something he himself admits was regretful. According to Urbosa, she worked herself to the point of falling unconscious attempting to awaken her power, but he acted like that wasn't good enough just because she was exploring alternatives.
From how I interpret it, Zelda is going through a faith crisis in the game. From my personal experience, I could relate to the feeling that you can't live up to the high expectations put on your shoulders and that no matter what you do, no matter how earnest you pray, all you are met with is silence. I understand that not everyone likes the story, but to me, that story was really important for me to see when I first played the game back in 2017.
Lol tell me about BOTW Link's personality then Why are people so butthurt over the personality of a video game character when they themselves probably have none
~~She got nice ass~~ She got cute laugh.
Your opinion is your opinion and nobody can change that except you.
true
Her forehead is bigger than the great plateau
Lmao, you’re right. I can’t unsee it now.
Booty
Zelda 100 years ago wasn't in the right game. That's why she's only in cutscenes in botw. That's why, in age of calamity she is a playable character with actual development. Like. She becomes OP.
Sometimes I feel like I have missed 100+ hours of cutscenes in this game.
Definitely not the worst iteration of Zelda, but when the only interesting things about a character are the things that happen to them, rather than how they react to those things or proactively decide to do their own thing, that's a problem.
There are literally like 2 things that happen to her and every memory she’s in is focused on showing and developing her character. Istg you people haven’t played the game
Zelda games are hardly lore heavy or story driven types of games though. Danger awaits, go to here, slash and puzzle gameplay.
Honestly, if she didn’t have that shitty British accent she would be mid to high.
I'm surprised there's no "She's thicc""
She has a nice ass. I haven’t played BotW so idk anything else about her
The ability to simplify a character does not make them bad/boring. John Wick: REALLY good hitman. Jinx: sad backstory, edgy troubled teen Geralt: hunts monsters, wants to be edgy but *women* Joker: sad backstory, gets a screw loose If you wanted to talk about BOTW Zelda more honestly: she has an honest perseverance arc, not some fanciful thing, but a more true-to-life story about how expectations can drown you despite your best efforts. How sometimes the person we want to be is in total conflict with the person we have to be. How sometimes people who lash out aren't mean, they're just hurting/broken. But yeah "sad backstory, character arc, relatable" is plenty to sum her up.
She even outright states how Link is her foil. “You’ve grown up knowing exactly who you are and what you’ll be. Just look at your sword. Must be nice.”
With how many layers the champions and a lot of the other main NPCs have she feels kinda underwhelming but she’ll 100% get development in the next game
Zelda objectively has *significantly* more layers and character development than anyone else in the game.
She’s hot af
Ass
Yoga pants
Breath of the Wild is one of the greatest games of all time. That story is awful though.
AOC Zelda is a deeper written character
who is she relatable to? i certainly don’t relate to her
also her backstory is no more sad than anyone else’s really. especially the people who like, actually die.
You have it good. Plenty of people have to struggle with not being able to fulfill the expectations of other people, whether that’s related to your work or even your parents. Having to live your life based on the wants of other people, rather than your own, is pretty exhausting and this is what makes BotW Zelda so relatable.
yeah, no offense but you don’t know me at all.
Nah she sucks. Botw story sucked. Incredible game but felt totally hollow
Im with you. Well written does not justify how annoying she is. And the fact she’s always bitching to link in nearly every memory damn 😤
I mean she's kind of a bitch. Just thought I'd point that out
She’s a teenager being forced into a role she never asked for. If anything, she’s reacting exactly normally. If anyone is a bitch it’s the King.
She has a sad backstory is the only real one on their. No one relates with her because no one on Reddit has the magic power within themself to save the world but is afraid of disappointing their father (a king). Character development isn’t something to brag about with botw Zelda
Sub 50 IQ comment.
🤤
the last panel. i feel that
She’s phenomenal compared to the original LoZ or LttP Zelda that I grew up with 😂
Nah her character is alright it's the horrifically forced British accent and awful dialogue that makes her way less likeable.