Horizon: Zero Dawn Is the Best WRPG Ever. The Best.

[ktchong]

... and I've been playing WRPG since Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar since the 1980s.  Horizon: Zero Dawn has the best story and best character arc I've ever seen in a WRPG.  I'd let the following playthrough videos speak for the game. 

 

The first video and the first twenty minutes of the second video form the "first act" of the story.  The first act plays out like a captivating movie.  The gameplay in the first act is strictly linear.  It serves as the game tutorial (and a very well-paced one) while setting up the story and character, (i.e., the best character in a WRPG ever,) her backstory and motivation. It is a the formulaic "hero's journey", but it is a fresh take and  extremely well executed and well told.

 

The second act opens up the whole world, (i.e., it is an open-world game,) and at that point the game becomes open and less structured, and it has ****loads of side quests, errands. random and scripted encounters, etc.

 

 

Edited March 9, 2017 by ktchong

[kirottu]

Does the game have day and night cycle? If so how many dawns does it have? More than zero? I ****ing knew it. "Best WRPG Ever" my butt! Your game is just a big fat lie.

[ktchong]

Does the game have day and night cycle? If so how many dawns does it have? More than zero? I ****ing knew it. "Best WRPG Ever" my butt! Your game is just a big fat lie.

 

Yes, many players have been complaining that the day/night cycle goes by too quickly, and they want a patch to slow it down.

 

The "Zero Dawn" has something to do with a big reveal/twist in the game, so I am not going to spoil it.  The subtitle seems stupid at first, ("Zero Dawn?  How the hell did they get that name?  Did they get that name by randomly picking words out of a dictionary or bag or something?")  But, once you find out one of the big reveals of the story, (IMO the biggest reveal,) then the name/subtitle makes perfect sense.

Edited March 9, 2017 by ktchong

[algroth]

Based on what I've seen of the game so far, I really doubt I'll agree, but I'll know for sure when I get around to it.

[HoonDing]

Binary Domain was a great game with robots.

[ktchong]

Based on what I've seen of the game so far, I really doubt I'll agree, but I'll know for sure when I get around to it.

 

I am not the only one who thinks it is the best RPG.  A bunch of YouTube LP players, (and they play games for a living,) and many commented that Horizon: Zero Dawn is one of the best RPG they have played.  i.e., TeamNinja, (who said something like, "wow, this is one of the best if not the best RPG I've played" when the end credit rolls - he even decided to do a review after finishing the game, and he does not usually do game reviews on his channel,)  ChristopherOdd, (who usually played several games at a time on his channel, but said, "I think this is my favorite RPG so far" and just stopped playing all other games and focus on Horizon because he said he is "addicted and can't stop playing it,") farfromsubtle, theRadBrad, etc.  All of them have commented that Horizon is either one of the best or the best RPG they've played.  And those guys play games for a living.

 

BTW, I don't necessarily agree with them.  As a RPG, some may think Horizon falls short.  However, it is, IMO, no doubt the WRPG with the most engrossing overarching story and most memorizable character with a fully-realized character arc.  The story of  Aloy, of course.  The story is about her personal story to find out who her mother is and why she was abandoned/cast out as a child, but her personal story happens to tie into the story of the bigger world. IMO, that is the best way to tell a story: the protagonist did not set out to save the world.  She sets out for something more personal and relatable, but then ends up being entangled in the the bigger story.   It is the story and storytelling that puts Horizon above and beyond other WRPG.  (I don't play JRPG so I can't speak for them.)

Edited March 9, 2017 by ktchong

[algroth]

 

Based on what I've seen of the game so far, I really doubt I'll agree, but I'll know for sure when I get around to it.

 

I am not the only one who thinks it is the best RPG.  A bunch of YouTube LP players, (and they play games for a living,) and many commented that Horizon: Zero Dawn is one of the best RPG they have played.  i.e., TeamNinja, (who said something like, "wow, this is one of the best if not the best RPG I've played" when the end credit rolls - he even decided to do a review after finishing the game, and he does not usually do game reviews on his channel,)  ChristopherOdd, (who usually played several games at a time on his channel, but said, "I think this is my favorite RPG so far" and just stopped playing all other games and focus on Horizon because he said he is "addicted and can't stop playing it,") farfromsubtle, theRadBrad, etc.  All of them have commented that Horizon is either one of the best or the best RPG they've played.  And those guys play games for a living.

 

That's all fine, but the judgement I trust above all others' is my own. I'm not saying you have to agree with me or anything, mind, just that I don't expect to share the sentiment is all.

 

Also I can't say I know those names, but I for one am as hesitant of the videogame "press" as I am of music "journalism". I appreciate the points I read from the reviews, streamers and gamers I check on but I always feel that my own expectations and beliefs as to what a good game ought to be differs greatly to their own. I'm good with the entertainment value I get out of a game but I also have the continuous expectation of stumbling across a game that works as a great piece of art as well, and as such I cannot consider a game that works on a story and theme as if to only meet the basic requirements as "great", let alone "the greatest". And just to be clear, I'm not saying this is the case of Horizon (though, as I've mentioned in the Tides of Numenera thread, I am not convinced by what I've seen of the story so far either), but it is what I frequently find myself thinking when I play so many of the so-called "greatest RPGs of all time", be it Diablo II, the Elder Scrolls series, Dragon Age: Origins, *many* JRPGs or else (at least the latter two I find to be good too, mind, but certainly not great).

Edited March 9, 2017 by algroth

[ktchong]

Just so you know, I bought a PS4 to play this game after watching some LPs on YouTube, and I am not a console person.  I love WRPG.  I love Tomb Raider 2013.  I saw the videos.  I love the main character Aloy.  I loved her story.   I was engrossed in the first act of the game.  I wanted to find out how the story play out myself. So I bought a PS4 just to play this game.  (Of course, I had also wanted to played Uncharted series and The Last of Us, but they were not enough to close the deal.  Horizon is the final push that's needed.)

 

I had never owned a PlayStation, and the last console I bought was a Xbox 360 that red ringed on me, and that's ten years ago.  (No way in hell I'd ever buy another Xbox, especially now that Xbox does not even have any good exclusive that interests me.  I bought Xbox 360 for the first Mass Effect, whose IP Xbox no longer has as an exclusive.  Now the only exclusive IP that Xbox has are Halo and Gears of War, and neither belongs to a genre that I like, and neither is as good as it was ten years ago.)

Edited March 9, 2017 by ktchong

[sorophx]

I'm not sure I'd ever call Diablo II an RPG. seems like the term has become really broad.

[algroth]

I'm not sure I'd ever call Diablo II an RPG. seems like the term has become really broad.

Maybe. I have always heard it referred to as an RPG (or an ARPG at least), but I see how it could not be one.

Edited March 9, 2017 by algroth

[Fenixp]

Binary Domain was a great game with robots.

Right?

[GhostofAnakin]

I'm enjoying it, but best ever seems a bit hyperbolic.

[Bartimaeus]

Based on what I've seen of the game so far, I really doubt I'll agree, but I'll know for sure when I get around to it.

 

I think I've seen literally about 45 seconds of somebody playing it, and already I feel knowledgeable enough to disagree strongly. ...But of course, 45 seconds isn't exactly a great way to judge a game.

[algroth]

I understand that you specifically used Wrpg because Nier is getting better reviews and reception, yes?

And the new Zelda even better.

 

(Slightly more serious, he did say he used WRPG because he doesn't usually play JRPGs.)

Edited March 10, 2017 by algroth

[Lexx]

So why exactly is this the best wrpg? Also is it an RPG or just yet another sandbox stroller that everyone keeps calling an RPG? Does it have the same chores as any other such games, like climbing random towers and stuff?

[Katphood]

To me the best WRPG is and will always be Fallout 2. I love Arcanum and Planescape too but the former has a bad combat system while the latter has none.

[Hurlshort]

I picked it up based on this emphatic review, so it better not disappoint. So far so good though.  

[Flouride]

The game does have a good Lead Writer though, John Gonzalez who was the Lead on FNV.

 

But since it's PS4 exclusive I doubt I'll ever play the game. Stupid Sony.

Edited March 11, 2017 by Flouride

[GhostofAnakin]

So why exactly is this the best wrpg? Also is it an RPG or just yet another sandbox stroller that everyone keeps calling an RPG? Does it have the same chores as any other such games, like climbing random towers and stuff?

 

It's got some bare-bones RPG elements.  There's a "dialogue wheel" and there are a few rare moments when you can answer in one of three different tones (caring, smart, aggressive) that determines how certain quests play out (I just played one tonight where I could "fight" someone or agree to a compromise to solve a situation).  Plus there's the ability to level up your character's various abilities and modify their armor.

 

And no, no climbing towers in this game.  You climb the backs of giant machine dinosaurs to unlock points of interest in an area.  Completely different.

[Sarex]

From what I've seen of the game, it seems to be Tomb Raider (the latest one) with robots.

[algroth]

[sorophx]

Rich Evans seems to hate all games. I'm not sure his gamer credentials are in order

[algroth]

Rich Evans seems to hate all games. I'm not sure his gamer credentials are in order

He seems to really like Zero Horizon's Dawn of the Machines though.

Edited March 13, 2017 by algroth

[Hurlshort]

I am really enjoying this game though.  Ktchong may be on to something...

[majestic]

Rich Evans seems to hate all games. I'm not sure his gamer credentials are in order

 

He's just a member of the master race and bothered by peasant imperfections. Understandable, if a bit extreme in his outlook.