Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review

25 hours in and haven't had a single notable frame rate issue, so it's a 10 for me.. Maybe you missed the day one Patch... Damiani certainly didn't have it for his review... lol... Oh and Lackluster is one word btw.

Its a great game definitely not a 10. 9 maybe the frame rates is some areas make it almost unplayable and the dungeons are lack luster but i still love it

Kc Wright

I am playing this game right now, AND it is AMAZING hands down.

One of my favorite reviews yet.

Daniel Askew

I think people getting upset over arbitrary numbers need to take a good hard look at their lives.

Daniel Askew

Great review Damiani

Great review! And so much on time! It's already in your top 10 most viewed videos.

Great review! Thanks for getting it to us so fast :) Damiani the Zelda Veteran, I couldn't think of a better person to review it! Thanks again! L&R

Mumble Mumbleton

Reading performance issues minimized in day 1 update

Jeff Robertson

Theres a fix for performance issues in the day 1 update. Recount?

Jeff Robertson

I don't agree with all the bitching about the score b/c at the end of the day, a 10/10 for Damiani might not be a 10/10 for you. BUT, I do agree that the 10 point scale more accurately illustrates what the reviewer thought of the game. Damiani's 7.8 for Windwaker HD comes to mind. lol

I have a feeling they will patch away the framerate issues in the coming weeks/months.

Breath of the Wild Hunt

EZA was one of the highest reviews on Metacritic for the Last Guardian and bottom 5 last I checked for Zelda BOTW. I don't really have an issue with the 5 star system but I do just feel that the 10 pt system makes the most sense rationally. We count by 10s, most people can easily convert x/10 to a percentage, it gives u more room to wiggle with for scores, etc. I'd even be happy with a .5 system on a 10 scale. Example: .5, 1, 1.5, ... 9.5, 10 (w no variation in between) it would be similar to 5 of scale in that it wouldn't leave a lot of fiddle room with pointless 9.2 vs 9.3 etc... The difference between a 4.5 and a 5 on metacritic is huge and goes against the group's mentality of staying positive. For people that don't know EZA it looks like they are being overly critical in some cases bc metacritic converts the 5 pt scale to a 10 pt scale

Brogan Trull

I haven't been this excited for a Zelda game in over a decade. This is the only reason I'm giving Nintendo a chance with the Switch. That and Mario Odyssey looks awesome.

The Confident Turtle

Solid reviewing here Damiani ! I know some will complain that you didn't give it a perfect score but you outlined just enough small issues for people like me to understand why. Unplayably bad framerates during a few moments of gameplay , silent protagonist detracted a little from the over all plot and ... seemed kind of a comment more than a negative but - the difficulty. My real question here is the 600$(canadian) question - when I know I'm going to grab a switch for Mario whenever it comes out ,is it worth holding off on this game entirely or slumming it out with the apparently only slightly worse Wii U version ... a console that I already have a pro controller for where the price of entry will only be 80$ ...

RJC

I take issue with the fact that The Last Guardian will forever have a higher score on EZA than BTOW when one is obviously better than the other.

I think the only reason people have an issue with the score.. is because of the score system itself.. most other outlets have a flexible score out of 100. In this case, because the game does have some frame rate issues, Damiani takes off 10 POINTS!!! rather than the 2 or 3 that other outlets docked.. simply because a half star = 10 points in this review system.

David Curtis

I think the only reason people have an issue with the score.. is because of the score system itself.. most other outlets have a flexible score out of 100. In this case, because the game does have some frame rate issues, Damiani takes off 10 POINTS!!! rather than the 2 or 3 that other outlets docked.. simply because a half star = 10 points in this review system.

David Curtis

So excited to play the game on my... Wii U. I can't find a Switch to play it on the go.

Well I had something thoughtful written and then somehow through the magic of the internet it got removed from patreon. So I'll shorten it, Zelda is not perfect. I'm glad Damiani thought us knowing it's imperfections meant more than his hype for the game and franchise, and I respect the dedication. And every reviewer has different methods for scoring, period. Every review site scores games differently with each person on staff. That's why Gears can get scored high, and another reviewer will mark a game low for the same things another reviewer praised in gears from the same site. It's not a major outlying score, chill.

ZyloWolfBane

I like the review but I am a bit sad to see the EZA review score on the lower end of all review scores for the game. Normally I don't care that much, but this time it is really something special. The game has the chance to knock Ocarina of Time from the spot of the best ranked game, and I just would love to witness that. So every score counts in that regard. I also don't buy into the "different reviewer" argument that much, the scores should be normalized under the EZA brand. Now you will forever have to deal with memey "Last Guardian > Zelda" comparisons unfortunately. Anyway, now we should all just enjoy the game :)

This review actually got me hyped to play Zelda. Frame rate issues being the only concern.

What a great review. When I first started seeing BotW, I was a little sad, like I am at every Zelda game announcement, that they wouldn't go back and capture what I felt when I played the original Zelda on NES. I am excited to hear that they have captured that feeling again, and I appreciate your thoughtful comparisons to the rest of the series..

Good question. Based on the limited info that is out there, the switch's GPU can produce about 4 times more polygons per second than the Wii U. The Wii U must have a real hard time with BOTW.

Has anyone tried it on Wii U ?

Whiskeyjack

Great review Damiani. I'm not traditionally that into Zelda, but this sounds different enough to where it might be a game I finish. Now if only I could get a Sweeeatch...

Bradley Spies

Another great review from EZA, didn't expect anything less from Mr. Damiani ;)

Because different people rate differently. Damiani mentions the frame rate drops that make the game unplayable at times. I'm guessing that's what made him dock 0.5 pts off the game. To Damiani, this is a fantastic review. It talks about the major pros and cons of the game and tells me exactly what I need to know. Really well done review.

Dileepan M

I get the frame rate issues, but my comparison is The Last Guardian. How did that game get a Masterful score with its issues, but BotW got docked half a star?

They mentioned frame rate issues and lackluster dungeons, the former of which was enough to dock point from even DS3 and bloodborne

confusedhulk

As I wrote on YouTube: a stellar review with a puzzling score if you take into account the games that received 5 stars from EZA. Especially when it was argued that 5/5 doesn't mean "perfect" but "masterful" and I watch the review and in the end I keep asking myself... how in the world is this game not "masterful" then? But well, still a great job from Damiani and Jones :D

Sebastian Erben

Iconic moment in videogame history

44stars

Your score has already showed up on VG 24/7! Not sure how many other folks are fans of that site but it's the first EZA review score I've seen show up on their "Review Round-Ups". So, yay! Also, excellent review, Damiani & Jones.

Jereme Hiestand

Getting it tomorrow. Little worried about those framerate drops though... Unplayable framerates at times? Cautiously optimistic. Great review though I didn't actually watch it. I just listened to it to avoid spoilers.

7.8 joke here

9... so since Domiani game WW a 7.8 this must translate to an 11/10?

Jeff Robertson

Ahhh!

confusedhulk