[hospitalJail]

>The fan base is very loyal to the Pokemon brand

I find it interesting that Nintendo fans can recognize they are slaves to the IP, but they don't change their buying habits.

For instance, if BOTW was released under a different IP skin and released for xbox, it would probably be a 6-8/10.

Since we were marketed to as children, I think we have limited free will when nostalgia comes up. We automatically give our childhood friends(corporate mascots) a pass on quality.

I am guilty, I keep playing every Zelda religiously, despite thinking BOTW wasnt good, I still plan to play TotK. I don't know why I do it. I feel like I need to play it.

I might have been a pokemon go addict, but the closest pokecenter(or whatever) was like a 5 minute drive/10 minute walk away.

Scary stuff. I know some people who are similar with Disney IP.

[sangnoir]

> For instance, if BOTW was released under a different IP skin and released for xbox, it would probably be a 6-8/10.

Hard disagree. I was a PC gamer since forever and decided to buy a Switch when I had to travel a lot (pre-Steam-Deck days). BoTW was my first Zelda game (and second Nintendo game ever, after playing Mario on PC). I'm not a Nintendo fan, I'm not a Zelda fan, and I still consider BoTW to be a 10/10 game. It's the best game I've played in years and it's in my top 3 games of all time. The only quibble I have is with the crafting system, but I'm not big on crafting in any game, everything else is perfect: combat, open-world roaming, pacing, puzzles, character design, level design - everything. Nothing was half-assed.

[kbenson]

> For instance, if BOTW was released under a different IP skin and released for xbox, it would probably be a 6-8/10.

If released today, then maybe. BOTW being a good game has nothing to do with it being on the switch. Getting enough audience immediately to be a phenomenon and enough people/press interested in it to spend time so it it got enough reviews that everyone saw them, sure, but the game itself is extremely good based on most people's opinions I've heard, even people that are routinely playing Xbox, PS or PC games.

I think perhaps your experience is colored by you not quite liking it as much as others so assuming it was nostalgia goggles. I can assure you, in many many cases (IMO the vast majority of them), that's not what was going on.

> I am guilty, I keep playing every Zelda religiously, despite thinking BOTW wasnt good, I still plan to play TotK. I don't know why I do it. I feel like I need to play it.

I felt like this back when Metroid Prime came out. It was okay, and fun, but I also didn't really feel a huge urge to play the next game in the series, and I haven't played a Metroid in some time (even though metroidvania is one of my favorite genres and I play other games in it).

Different people like different aspects of games. Sometimes games lean into one aspect or another, often when there's a major shift in them (such as 2d to 3d, but not always), and people that likes that aspect are happy and people that weren't as interested in that aspect may be disappointed to varying degrees.

For me, Zelda was always at least partially about exploring everything. I remember revisiting every screen on the map over and over after I got new items to see if I could get to new areas of do new things. BotW brought that in spades, since you could literally go everywhere, and that was rarely done as well in prior games on any systems (it gets easier/possible to get to new sub-areas as the game progresses and you get more stamina, which is a nice way to promote revisiting areas to explore where you couldn't get previously, or novel approaches to getting to areas). I'm sure some people dislike that, or feel bored by it, but many do not.

[praisewhitey]

>For instance, if BOTW was released under a different IP skin and released for xbox, it would probably be a 6-8/10.

That game is Genshin Impact and it's very successful

[hospitalJail]

Genshin Impact was actually good though.

[rjh29]

> For instance, if BOTW was released under a different IP skin and released for xbox, it would probably be a 6-8/10.

This reads like an attempt to justify why you didn't like the game but other people did. You know, you can just say "games are subjective" without reaching into this whole meta theory that people are slaves or somehow don't know what a good game is.