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[fart town usa]

ER and it isn't even close. BOTW is a fantastic game but not one that I can (or want to) go back to over and over. No coop either, because of course it doesn't, it's a Zelda game (not a negative).

Not exactly the best head to head comparison. The games could be made to look similar on paper but they are vastly different.

 

[Trunim]

Elden Ring recycles all their bosses. 20 copy and pasted Trees and Dragons.

Every "side dungeon" in Elden Ring is literally the same copy and pasted mine or cave filled with the same boss except with an extra copy then two.

Having worse graphics than Dark Souls 3 makes the world look the same but with a shitty yellow filter, except for the underground places. Big whoop.

No, they don't recycle all their bosses. Go play the game instead or watch a playthrough, because you don't know what you're on about.

 

[begotten]

No, they don't recycle all their bosses. Go play the game instead or watch a playthrough, because you don't know what you're on about.

I got the platinum in the opening week and then gave it away. Unlucky.

 

[ChoosableOne]

BOTW. Elden Ring is too easy and the map is wasted. The environments are beautiful and there is a lot of variety. Hyrule in BOTW had me wanting to constantly explore. In Elden Ring I didn't feel it was rewarding to explore every inch of the map. As for difficulty, I'd much rather play BOTW on Master Mode than Elden Ring.

I'm not sure if I will be able to bring myself to replay Elden Ring in order to access the DLC/Expansion which I know I am going to need to do. Not only have I played BOTW multiple times but I am excited for TOTK which is just the "same game" anyway. I hope that the ER Expansion makes a lot of changes to the base game instead of slapping on a new map area. If we ever get a ER sequel then they need to do much better with the map and make the game more challenging.

At first, I misunderstood and thought you were talking about the Elden Ring, our opinions are completely opposite. I'm curious about the master mod though, the fact that it's being sold with a dlc is a shame.

 

[Trunim]

I got the platinum in the opening week and then gave it away. Unlucky.

Then you're either lying or played through it blindfolded, because what you say is factually wrong. Simple as that.

 

[begotten]

Then you're lying or played through it blindfolded.

Nope.

I don't even think ER is bad, but you have to be a delusional & insecure FS fanboy like yourself to think that the comment I was replying to of BOTW being "repetitive and having a dull world" doesn't apply to ER also. ER had all these (repeat) bosses yet only had 2 standout ones. 1 or 2 standout locations because it lost the dungeon formula from the other games.

 

[Trunim]

Nope.

I don't even think ER is bad, but you have to be a delusional & insecure FS fanboy like yourself to think that the comment I was replying to of BOTW being "repetitive and having a dull world" doesn't apply to ER also. ER had all these (repeat) bosses yet only had 2 standout ones. 1 or 2 standout locations because it lost the dungeon formula from the other games.

In your first post you stated that Elden ring recycles all their bosses. I called you out on your bullshit and now you start to spin the thing in another direction and also adds that it had "2 standout ones" now. Replacing the first lie with another. I don't care what you think about ER or whatever game, just stop saying shit that ain't true to try to make a more effective argument.

/yours truly, the FS fanboy

 

[Holammer]

BotW easy.
If Elden Ring had been developed with a climbing mechanic and made vertical movement more interesting, it would have been a harder choice. But BotW would still win.

 

[begotten]

In your first post you stated that Elden ring recycles all their bosses. I called you out on your bullshit and now you start to spin the thing in another direction and also adds that it had "2 standout ones" now. Replacing the first lie with another. I don't care what you think about ER or whatever game, just stop saying shit that ain't true to try to make a more effective argument.

/yours truly, the FS fanboy

It was clearly an exaggeration to go with the number given after. If anything this conversation just shows how sensitive you are over your precious overrated game.

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

Elden Ring because of combat

 

[Trunim]

It was clearly an exaggeration to go with the number given after. If anything this conversation just shows how sensitive you are over your precious overrated game.

Naah, just sensitive to people exaggerating. Good on you to admit it.

 

[AJUMP23]

Both are incredible and extremely fun but for different reasons. I like the open worlds of both. The combat in Zelda is creative, the combat in ER is precise. Shrines were fun and so were all the extra Caves in ER with Crystal bosses. Both have rewarding exploration. From finding a town of Pot people to running across Lon Lon ranch.

I probably prefer Zelda slightly more just for the nostalgia bit, but both are incredible.

 

[SnapShot]

Honestly I like both, both kept me entertained all the way to the end and they each excel in different areas

Elden Ring kept me hooked with its satisfying combat and engaging encounters and exploration, and its excellent FromSoftware Level designs and Legacy dungeons

Breath of the Wild just as much eventhough its admittedly easier and focuses a bit more on puzzles with its shrines and divine beasts

 

[lostinblue]

I never finished Elden Ring so I won't vote.

Breath of the Wild was awesome for me, and I definitely felt it was more gripping, this said, they're quite different.

 

[brian0057]

Breath of the Wild.
Because the fact that you can just go beat the final boss as soon as you clear the tutorial (which is really good by itself) is indicative of a level of freedom that tickles me in all the right places.

 

[xpresstuning]

Following Ranni's questline and exploring the depth of the underground areas is one of the most memorable experiences i have ever had in a video game. Elden Ring was an obsession for almost a year for me. The lore, the bosses and their backstories, the exploration, i still get an itch to replay even though i've exhausted myself of it, but i'll be sure to fully replay it once the DLC is out.

 

[SuperGooey]

Elden Ring

Far more interesting world, level design, art direction, enemy variety, bosses, quests, lore, etc etc etc.


BotW has no meat on its bones.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

I appreciate both and have enjoyed my time in Elden Ring, but it’s hard to ignore how accessible Zelda is in comparison. And it’s not just the git gud factor, it’s keeping track of all thing items and other knowledge you need to really understand all the systems in Elden Ring which is a bit daunting. You have to really pay attention to figure it out. But the feeling of accomplishment is all the better when you do.

Then again, Zelda has the master sword trials and fun stuff like that which make full use of your mastery of the systems in the game. It’s just that nothing felt quite as epic as exploring the underground area in Elden Ring.

Oh and I’m not a huge fan of the “soulsborn” campfire style of gameplay loop, though it clicked more in Elden Ring than it ever did in previous games

 

[Gaiff]

Choosing BOTW because there are 5 other games that can scratch the same itch or something similar. BOTW is really unique in what it offers.

 

[R6Rider]

Elden Ring easily.

 

[Astral Dog]

To be honest i believe these games have very little to do with each other

Do you enjoy Souls combat?Elden Ring main focus is on translating the harsh Dark Souls experience to an open world

Breath of the Wild does the same for Zelda,but the combat and difficulty have never been the point in this series,its weak, and more like a puzzle game with combat layered on top.
Breath of the Wild is not an action RPG, it does however have something Elden Ring is lacking and that's some good old fashioned TOWNS

 

[Sentenza]

Elden Ring recycles all their bosses. 20 copy and pasted Trees and Dragons.

That's NOWHERE NEAR to the degree BOTW recycles its own content.
One is a game that has a staggering amount of unique content and THEN repeats some of it.
The other is a Zelda game has a baffling lack of variety even compared to past and more linear titles in the same series.

Are people fucking delusional or what?

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

Some of the criticisms of Elden Ring in this thread are literally deranged. Reused bosses and dungeons? Are you fucking kidding me? Elden Ring has more boss and dungeon variety in its legacy dungeons alone than BotW has in the entire game.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

BOTW, by far.
Much more interesting to explore and discover. Much better traversal. Much better puzzles. Lots of variety (Elden Ring only varies in how you want to approach combat. Environment-wise it has plains, fire, and snow). Interaction on a whole other level.
But most of all, Zelda doesn’t systematically reward exploration with new cheap ways to die. Enemies will stop following you at one point, instead of chasing you to the edge of the world. It’s almost always your choice to stay and risk getting killed, while everything in ER will go out of its way to kill you. And if the rewards in Zelda are often not that interesting, at least the game doesn’t unleash 3+ eldritch horrors that take forever to die just because you went for a shiny thing the value of which is often inversely proportional to the strength of the monsters guarding it. Way too many times Elden Ring went full berserk if you went to pick up some cow dung heap or other superfluous trinkets.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Dark Souls was based/inspired/whatever you want to call it on the combat of LOZ:OOT.

So....Zelda...hands down (ps Miyazaki also agrees with me).

 

[Black_Mamba]

I love both, but ER left a better impression. Zelda's problems are more severe.

ER pros: deep combat system, challenging, well balanced progression, good variety of gameplay;
ER cons: lifeless open world, awful story/lore;

BotW pros: beautiful and lively open world, fun to explore, the typical Zelda puzzles, even better art than ER, imo;
BotW cons: terrible difficulty curve, with zero challenge from 1/3 of the game onwards, awful implementation of breakable weapons.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

I vastly prefer the darker tone of Elden Ring.
I miss so much the more realistic tone and art style from Twilight Princess, it was for me the perfect ratio between realistic and colorful style.

 

[-Zelda-]

Neither.

 

[R6Rider]

Neither.

 

[Pelao]

I love them both, but I prefer Elden Ring's combat and bosses, so it wins.

 

[SteelCurtain 59]

BOTW, ER is too repetitive, bland world as well.

Fixed

 

[Mozzarella]

Both are amazing, but Elden Ring takes the cake for me.
Breath of the Wild has great traversal, controls and puzzles, it also introduced fun mechanics to play with, and the art direction is pretty good.
Elden Ring has far better combat, enemy design, level design, atmosphere and art direction, it also boast a good chunk of lore to get into compared to the barebones world and quests of BOTW.

Breath of the Wild may be more important when you look at this comparison from the lens of game design, but actual fun and actual depth Elden Ring obliterates it.

 

[fran.fernandez]

I played demon souls, dark souls, etc. at elden ring I was already tired of “soul” games. Zelda was refreshing (my last zelda was Nintendo Wii and same, puaj after playing too many).

 

[Gojiira]

Lmao at people saying Souls/ER are all the same like Zelda isn’t…
Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Demons Souls, Dark Souls, take your pick, each offers a vastly different experience, with their own very deep and fleshed out Unique lore and universe. Each has iterated on gameplay, each has wholly unique aesthetics and enemies and locations etc. I could go on but its not even close.
Elden Ring is leagues ahead of BotW in just about every category.

 

[Laieon]

BOTW. I don't like hard games. The only FromSoft series I remotely care about is Lost Kingdoms and it's been dead for 20 years.

That being said, I also significantly prefer OOT-TP Zelda game design over BOTW because I also tend to prefer more-linear experiences.

Neither.

So, yeah... this pretty much.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Elden Ring and it's not even close.

I don't have to fucking switch weapons every two minutes in Elden Ring

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

Going Elden Ring, but it's really, really close.

 

[MagnesD3]

Elden Ring because it's superior in every way except BOTW has way more Puzzles. Elden Ring has the better Combat, Bosses, Ost, World Design, Art Design, Story/Lore, Dungeons, Reward Systems, Side Content, Build Variety, Quantity of Content, etc.

It crushes BOTW, BOTW isnt even the best Zelda Game.

 

[GeeseGoose]

Zelda, hands down. It is therapeutic to play and strips back a lot of bloat and/or boring/tedious/control-taking-away mechanics that the gaming industry stuffs into games nowadays (yes, it adds a lot of its own bloat, but a lot is optional, and anyway, it is a good kind of bloat, harumph)

Elden Ring is deep, pretty and overall should be something I enjoy... but nowadays I just cannot put up with overly punishing game mechanics. I'm older now, my vision is failing and my reactions are almost gone... no time for that.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

I put in 150 hours for BotW and finished it.

Played Elden Ring for 30 and tapped out.

 

[saintjules]

Odd comparison.

 

[Chinpoko_Master]

I'm also waiting to see ToTK, as its release date is closer to Elder Ring compare to BoTW, that would be a more fair comparison. Also I would suggest ask that question at least a year later for hype to cooldown, as Elden Ring will no longer has the hype factor, to make it more fair.

However for the sake of relevancy to OP's title, I think Elden Ring is overall a better game. BoTW do have a robust physic system compare to Elden Ring, but everything else the latter did better.

Personally I'm not a fan of Open-world design in general, I would have to go with Sekiro and Bloodborne over Elden Ring though (and Classic Zelda over BoTW), but that's just me.

------

Out of curiosity, I've also asked AI just for fun. The result is pretty surprising, this bot knows his stuff.

The AI makes a good argument, I think it may have convinced me that Elden Ring is better. I haven't finished it yet though.

 

[Captain Toad]

No offense to BotW, which is good, but this isn't a contest - Elden Ring 100 times over.

 

[ReBurn]

I don't really care for either, but between the two I'd pick Zelda. I don't enjoy punishing games.

 

[Tg89]

Elden Ring.

But it's neck and neck, the two best games of the last decade imo. And without BOTW I'm not sure we get the same ER.

 

[Pagusas]

Zelda, Elden Rings art style is just too damn ugly to me. I want to bask in artist beauty and atmosphere in a game, even if it’s dark, it can still be beautiful. Elden Ring lacks beauty.

 

[Raven117]

Elden Ring. And it’s not even close

 

[20cent]

Zelda. I hate soulslikes. I play games to have fun, not get pissed off and stressed out. If you took out the shitty git gud waste of time combat and maybe made the game world a little bit smaller, then ER.

Have you actually tried ER?

I used to think like you, ER was my first From and I kinda suck at games in general (well I never play harder than "normal" in any games).
But after 1-2 hours learning how to approach it ( like you are not supposed to beat or fight the first enemy you see.. i.e. the Tree Sentinel), it was not that hard at all, especially when summoning players for big bosses. Kinda similar to some turn based JRPG where you better grind a bit and retry few times against bosses. It's more about strategy than skills.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Botw has the king of open world title, it deserves the honor.

 

[Arsic]

I LOVE Zelda BOTW after completing it the other day. The amount of content and variance/possibilities in this game is wild. It’s one of the first games where I truly appreciated and played a sandbox. I’m typically a bigger enjoyer of guided experiences with limited exploration to keep a game cohesive and well paced.

BOTW is easily the best Zelda now to me, and Nintendos opus magnum game.

All that said I’d still give it to Elden Ring because the things I find important in games are all done well and elevated. Some of those things are :

Incredible atmosphere
Tight responsive gameplay
Challenging and varied enemies
Astounding bosses
Sense of accomplishment
Variety in ways to approach challenges
Character building
Wonderful world building
Fantastic art style
Excellent performance on PC/console

Zelda does some of these things too, and other things not on this list that I appreciate it for. It just isn’t in the same league but it isn’t trying to be. It helped pave a road for a lot of other games that borrowed from it. Genshin , wuthering waves, Elden ring, and more. Zelda made a statement and Elden ring elevated it.

I think if anything tears of the kingdom could rival what Elden ring did, but I don’t think it will. Why ? Nintendo doesn’t follow trends they make them and go their own way with game design. TOTK could absolutely be better than BOTW, but for me being stuck on Switch hardware limitations will likely sully the experience overall for me.