This is another “this is not the game I expected” thread.
Some may think it is crazy to compare two completely different games.
In any case, I will be honest and write what I feel.
I have just plunged into Nightmare.
And after completing one dungeon, I felt I had enough for today and logged out.
I bought another game for a while. The Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom.
While playing The Legend of Zelda, I never once felt that I had played enough for the day.
I would play a little more, just a little more… and at the end of the day, I would look at the clock, sigh, put the game in sleep mode, and go to bed.
What exactly is the difference between these two games?
My strong feeling while playing Diablo 4 is that it feels like the developer is dictating to me how to play.
With The Legend of Zelda, I feel like I can play it the way I want to play it.
Diablo 4 has many side activities.
Collecting Lilith statues, collecting Legendary Powers in dungeons, etc…
Many of them lead to character enhancement, and you cannot ignore them.
In the game you are informed that you have collected X out of X.
It’s as if…you are being told that you still have work to do.
I worked hard in Tier 2 and finished collecting the Lilith statue.
Was it a pleasant experience? No.
Many of the Lilith statues were so cleverly hidden that I could not find even a tenth of them in a normal playing.
I, like probably many players, followed the guide and worked my way through them one by one.
When it was all done, my sense of accomplishment was negligible, and I was both very disgusted and very sad that such content had been introduced into the game I had hoped to play.
The Legend of Zelda also has many side activities.
And the fact that many of them are tied to enhancements in the game is similar to Diablo 4.
Yet, not once during my time playing The Legend of Zelda did I feel compelled to complete any of the side activities to perfection.
Why is this? I honestly don’t know.
One thing I can say is that many of the side activities in The Legend of Zelda are completed “naturally” as the player plays out of sheer curiosity.
Of course, if you want to do everything perfectly, you will have to spend a lot of time exploring or rely on guides.
But the game never said to me, “You haven’t done everything yet,” and I never felt like I had to do everything perfectly.
I just play normally and complete the side activities that I can find on my own, and I am happy enough with my gaming experience.
By the way, I am Japanese and I play this game in the Japanese version.
Japan is probably a small market for Blizzard, and they don’t even have an official forum for Japanese.
But I am very grateful to Blizzard for releasing the Japanese version of the game.
The Japanese version is not only translated but also dubbed by Japanese voice actors, and I was very surprised at the quality of the voice actors, many of whom seem to be well-known people.
I still have faith in Blizzard.
I have been familiar with Blizzard games since I was a child.
Perhaps Blizzard is not what it once was, but I think it is still one of the greatest game companies in the world.
Whether I will continue to play Diablo 4 on a regular basis remains to be seen, but I have high hopes for a better gaming experience in the future.
Thank you for reading to the end.