Masahiro Sakurai may be best known for creating Nintendo franchises like Kirby and Super Smash Bros., but he isn’t a strict Nintendo loyalist when it comes to his own gaming habits. Sakurai is known for commenting on games from other publishers, and in his most recent column for Japanese gaming mag Famitsu (translated by the folks at Source Gaming) he compares The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn.
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Sakurai was impressed by both Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn, calling them masterpieces, and finds plenty of similarities and differences between the two…
“A week before writing this column, two wonderfully outstanding works were released and I was torn between how to spend my time. Horizon Zero Dawn and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — by all means, play them both, because they really are masterpieces. With that being said, I am surprised by the fact that although there are aspects that are very close, there are other aspects that are very different.”
Sakurai runs through a long list of comparisons, and, surprisingly, his final conclusion may favor Horizon Zero Dawn ever so slightly!
“Overall, Horizon is more stress free and Zelda is becoming a tiresome routine. However, if you’ve played Zelda, you probably understand this well: the chores of Zelda are the most fun part! Comfort and the fun of resource management are two different things. Purposely doing things in a roundabout way, or steadily doing things one at a time can be enjoyable, and leveling up your character’s stats creates a really good feeling on top of that. As a principle, I think both are the right answer.”
In other words, Breath of the Wild can feel like a bit of a chore, but doing your chores can be fun and lead to a greater feeling of accomplishment. So, Breath of the Wild being “tiresome” isn’t necessarily a knock, although I do get the sense Sakurai may have liked Horizon just a little bit more. Make sure to check out Sakurai’s full breakdown of both games at the Source Gaming link, below!
You can check out WWG’s previous The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild coverage here, and our Horizon Zero Dawn coverage, right here.
[via Source Gaming]
