- Pronouns
- He/Him
Read the 6/10 review and found it disappointing, because I actually think it captures an important (but probably minority) perspective: that of the long time Zelda fan who bounced off of Breath of the Wild. It's a completely valid thing to argue, and completely understandable, that you might be alienated by a radical shift in direction for a style of game design that you'd loved for years or decades. To then wait six years for a new Zelda, only to get a game that doesn't address anything you'd hoped for satisfactorily, is bound to be a largely unenjoyable experience.
The issue is the writer spends half the review trying very hard to act as if their discomfort and dissatisfaction is in some way a majority perspective, going so far as to claim that Breath of the Wild is a massively divisive game and that many players bounced off of it. While it's likely true to suggest that only a small portion of the audience played with the physics for months or years, you can't justify the claim that the title was substantially divisive or that people fell off of it quickly. The title's high appraisal at launch has had longevity in critical circles despite repeated claims to the contrary, it has had a demonstrable influence on game design, and an ongoing level of commercial success that demonstrates its ideas resonated with a large audience for years on end. And ultimately this is something the reviewer doesn't need to do; their personal dissatisfaction is as valid as any other response, but it doesn't need to be leant a false authority by making tenuous claims.
So I don't really think it's a troll review so much as it's redolent of what so much gaming discourse used to be, and what too much cultural discourse has become: it's utterly tribal, appealing to like-minded people only, with no recognition that their subjective feeling and analysis may not actually be shared by all that many. And, like I said, their view doesn't need to be widely shared to be valid.
The issue is the writer spends half the review trying very hard to act as if their discomfort and dissatisfaction is in some way a majority perspective, going so far as to claim that Breath of the Wild is a massively divisive game and that many players bounced off of it. While it's likely true to suggest that only a small portion of the audience played with the physics for months or years, you can't justify the claim that the title was substantially divisive or that people fell off of it quickly. The title's high appraisal at launch has had longevity in critical circles despite repeated claims to the contrary, it has had a demonstrable influence on game design, and an ongoing level of commercial success that demonstrates its ideas resonated with a large audience for years on end. And ultimately this is something the reviewer doesn't need to do; their personal dissatisfaction is as valid as any other response, but it doesn't need to be leant a false authority by making tenuous claims.
So I don't really think it's a troll review so much as it's redolent of what so much gaming discourse used to be, and what too much cultural discourse has become: it's utterly tribal, appealing to like-minded people only, with no recognition that their subjective feeling and analysis may not actually be shared by all that many. And, like I said, their view doesn't need to be widely shared to be valid.
I could go on even more, where there are some odd inconsistencies that make me wonder if this is a troll review; early they suggest the N64 and GC Zeldas are the peak of the series, before later deciding that the series went downhill Wind Waker onwards. But I'm choosing to engage in good faith in the spirit of the reviews threads, despite this aside. Woops.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24582680/Screen_Shot_2023_04_13_at_9.19.41_AM.png)
