Story, worldbuilding, dungeons, combat, and especially graphical performance are all universally better in Horizon. The only reason people care about Zelda is because “muh Nintendo”, and the fact that it is a good set of ganes. However, I’ve seldom seen any criticism of Horizon outside of outright misogony and xenophobia, or “Assassin’s Creed did it first”, as if Guerilla has any control over history.
Sony ownership is valid criticism. The Zero Dawn remaster forces PSN sign-in. Yet, Nintendo owns Zelda, and is easily a shittier company–with a crowd of zombies lined up to lick their boots. Horizon isn’t the series with the cult following, here.
None of that changes the fact that people find it so important to mention their disdain for Horizon the moment it’s brought up. Everyone within my space who has tried the game has admitted it’s quite a well-designed set of games. If you don’t like it because of its genre, then that’s completely fine, but stop saying it’s “unorignal”. If Horizon is unoriginal, so is Zelda. They’re both unique compared to their predecessors.
“QUIT HAVING FUN!!”
Not to mention Forbidden West’s status as a sequel, and Tears of the Kingdom’s status as a “sequel”. TotK decides it took place after BotW (makes sense), but it can’t decide if any of BotW happened at all. Case in point: Everyone supports Link in his goal to stop the calamity, he stops the calamity, and Hateno collectively forgets who Link is–where children go to learn about that calamity, from none other than Zelda herself.
On the other hand, HFW takes place immediately after ZD, and therefore feels like a part of a larger narrative, as opposed to a standalone one. This is why I’m fine with the narrative not being up to par with ZD–all of ZD is still there. I liked the games focus on Aloy’s development. Her portrayal at the end of FW is very different than the start of ZD. She feels a lot less abrasive, and this growth makes sense.
Versus “DemON KinG?! SEcrEt StoNEs!?” I feel like TotK treated me like I’m incompetent, incapable of understanding narrative. It’s baffling how much praise the game got, while FW was out getting either slammed with the same old uninspired complaints, or unfortunately lynched by Elden Ring.
I’m sure Horizon 3 will be an incredible game, yet see the same reception.