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[Hardensoul]

Nah, it’s best to ignore metacritic/opencritic entirely.

I agree somewhat. The score should be ignored. I’ll clarify further, anyone should at least read/scan over what these reviewers write/say. Filter through the praise reviews or the negative reviews then weigh that to determine if you should buy the game.

Sure there are other reviewers but sometimes those didn’t have the game earlier. Many times the reviewers I trust don’t have certain games. It’s hard to determine if the game is worth it to wait. Especially if a game interest you but don’t want to wait another month or so for your trusted reviewers or trusted friends to play through.

If I buy game without much knowledge of what the game is and it turns out bad! I would wasted my time or money.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

BOTW solved staleness in the franchise by going back to the drawing board, asking what was the core subjective experience that drove the 1st NES Zelda (open world of possibility, exploring a deep weird forest of secrets), and building a low-level prototype (with NES graphics!) of what a more open & systems-based take on that original experience might feel like.

I haven't seen any evidence of the FF devs stepping back, going to the roots of the franchise, re-evaluating all gameplay according to the original idea rather than the specific gameplay styles have been added on top... I don't see that level of care. Instead they just seem to want to build bigger and bigger, more stuff, more scale...

 

[SenkiDala]

I'd say otherwise, FF maintained its status while Zelda couldn't.

 

[MiguelItUp]

I feel like Zelda is an IP that speaks to more people as a whole than Final Fantasy. Doesn't mean one is bad, doesn't mean one is better than the other, I just think one is just more welcoming to more people than the other. Maybe even more recognizable.

I also think that while the Zelda IP has had its ups and downs, I don't think its downs have been as steep as Final Fantasy's.

 

[Kururi]

Kitase and Nomura are Simply not on the same Level of the Guch. too early for these kids to carry the FF burden.

 

[LordBlodgett]

I think that Zelda games, even when they try new things, stay pretty true to our nostalgia. Zelda games are about exploration, have always had live action fights, and the main character the same. Their quality has never really been terrible either. Even Skyward Sword was a great game outside of its annoying controls. Final Fantasy has been all over the place. It doesn't help that their newer games have not stood up to the test of time. I am still nostalgic for Final Fantasy IV, VI, VII, IX, and X to a lesser degree (FF Tactics is another one I go back and play often, but it really isn't mainline at all). I do not have the same feeling for anything after that. I don't really like MMORPGs so XI and XIV are unknown to me, but XII was just ok, and XIII and XV were huge letdowns. I finished both of them, but overall didn't love them, and I wouldn't go back to them. In fact I basically had to force myself to finish XV.

 

[LakeOf9]

I'd say otherwise, FF maintained its status while Zelda couldn't.

I mean personal preferences are what they are but by literally any objectively measurable and quantifiable metric that exists you would be wrong if you said that

 

[Trilobit]

I feel like Zelda is an IP that speaks to more people as a whole than Final Fantasy. Doesn't mean one is bad, doesn't mean one is better than the other, I just think one is just more welcoming to more people than the other. Maybe even more recognizable.

I also think that while the Zelda IP has had its ups and downs, I don't think its downs have been as steep as Final Fantasy's.

I've never played a FF game. I'm not really into RPGs overall as I feel they can require excessive time for grinding. I'm not sure if FF is as anthological as Zelda or if they require that you've played earlier games to appreciate the storyline. If Zelda BotW was called Zelda XV then I think it would cause some newcomers to hesitate to dive into the series.

Also due to Zelda being an action-adventure game it's easier for me to dive into it than learning the RPG mechanichs of FF.