Horizon: Zero DawnandThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildwere both released within four days of one another. As two massive, open world, action-adventure games it was inevitable that they would be compared to one another. People have spent far too much of their lives tr🦩ying to argue which game is better. The truth is, that while they are both very similar to one another, the approach they ta🗹ke is very different. So, it is hard to definitively say which of the two games is better overall. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have their individual strengths and weaknesses.

Each game has things that it excels at. One is better at character personalities while the other has stronger character designs. One game is obviously superior ✅to the other for a few of the categories. In other cases, it is practically a tie. Overall the differences between them are —for the most part— extremely small. So most of what is listed below is nitpicking.

BothHorizonandBreath of the Wildare excellent games. There is no disputing that fact. Nor am I trying to claim that one game is better than the other. In reality, they are extremely close in quality. But I want to celebrate what each game did better and highlighted the strengths of both games. Below I list ten things that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wilddid better and ten things thatHorizon: Zero Dawn did better.

20 🌌 Horizon: Enemies

Let’s be honest. Most of us picked upHorizonbecause of ꦰthe giant robot dinosaurs. Just the idea of running around with these monstrous m🍸echanical nightmares strewn about is a dream come true. When it comes to robots,Horizonabsolutely delivers. There are a total of 25 different machines, and that isn’t included their corrupt counterparts. Each machine has a different weakness an𝕴d requires a different strategy in order to beat it. Some of the machines wander alone, others like to pair🍬 up. The rest live in herds.

Horizondoesn’t just stop at machines. It also offers a se🎃ries of human antagonists to fight. 🥀Bandit camps and various missions pit you against mobs of other humans. It is an unfriendly world inHorizon.

Of course,Breath of the Wildhas its own slew of enemies. It does offer a wider selection than Horizon. But most of the enemies are familiar. We’ve seen them before. They can be challenging. Variations on location and strength help 🌼to keep things fun and interesting. ButHorizon’s baddies absolutely outshine anythingBreath of the Wildcan throw at you.

19 🌳 Zelda: Combat ⛄

This is a point o✅f contention for a lot of people. Many will argue thatHorizonhas the better combat system. The varied enemy types combined with the diverse weapons and ammo types make it so that each kind of machine requires a different strategy. There is a heavy emphasis on stealth, but you can go in guns blazing if you’re good enough. Although it’s limit🐻ed, there are some spots that let you deal environmental damage by having logs fall onto machines as they run by. Except, the controls are a bit of a mess. It takes a lot of time to get used to the system. Plus time slows down while you switch weapons and ammo type, but it doesn’t stop completely🤪. So it’s easy to get bulldozed while trying to change or craft weapons.

Breath of the Wildalso has a var🔴iety of enemies and weapon type⛄s. Granted, the enemies are all very familiar, and many have similar weak points. However,Breath of the Wildactively encourages players to strategize. Food will give you different buffs, and there are over a dozen different armor sets that have their own, uജnique abilities. Weapons break, and you can’t just craft more ammo. That means you have to learn to utilize what’s around you. Boulders can be pushed down cliffs to crush enemies below. Shock arrows can stun a bunch of enemies at once if they are in the water. Opposite elements can be taken advantage of for one hit KOs. Plus, just about every weapon type is available right from the start.

18 Horizon: The Challenge 🌊

One of the biggest differences betweenHorizonandBreath of the Wildis the difficulty. LongtimeZeldafans tend to agree thatBreath of the Wildis one of the harderZeldatitles. Not the hardest, not by a long shot. But it is at least harder. However, that doesn’t actually mean the game is hard. It offers some challenge here or there, but ot🥂herwiseಌ, it’s a breeze.

Horizon, on the other hand, isꩲ a very different story. Getting your can creamed is part of the experience. It takes on aDark Souls-esque feel as you desperately try to roll out of the way of a rampaging robot. One of the harder dinos𒀰, the Thunderjaw, is a robotic t-rex with an attitude.This monstrosity is armed with a cannon and laser disks﷽ for long range attacks. It is capable of charging at high speeds and has a tail that can send you flying. Not to mention the insane amount of armor a🔴nd health it has. Nowhere is safe when a Thunderjaw is near.

Dying inHorizonis easy. One wrong move an💫d it’s th🎐e end for you. However, it isn’t unfair.Horizon just requires a lot of practice and skill🃏 to play well.

17 Zelda: Detai🌼🌳ls

The devil’s in the details andHorizonjust doesn’t pay enough attention to them. I’m not talking about how many leaves are rendered on a tree. Th🐼e details I’m refe🐈rring too are the little things: tiny secrets or minute changes.

For๊ example, wild animals will run away from you in both games. However, inHorizonthey’ll just run in a straight line. InBreath of the Wild, they will zig an🉐d zag, changing direction at random intervals to avoid getting caught. Fish will even try to flee from you. InHorizon, you cꦏan just swim right through the fish without tꦉhem ever taking notice. InBreath of the Wild ,differen꧒t ite🌠ms will float or sink in water. Whereas inHorizon,they will always 𝕴sink. Arrows will react to surfaces differently inBreath of the Wild.They’ll sin🧸k into the ground or wood, but bounce off of stone or walls. InHorizon, they will always impale themselves in w💜hatever medium they are shot at.

Horizonis meant to be a more realistic game, ꦛbut if anything, this attempt at realism only hurts the gam﷽e. The lack of attention to detail breaks the illusion thatHorizontries to create. It’s those same tiny🌄 deta𝓡ils that makeBreath of the Wildfeel more alive.

16 𒊎 Horizon: The Main Character ༺

Th🧜is one is a bit unfair. Link is still the same character we know and love. He has a biꦬt of a snarky side to him and he looks killer in girls clothes. Nintendo did work to give him something of a personality, but in the end, he’s still a silent protagonist. There isn’t a lot we can work with. Link, as a character, is pretty flat. He’s that way by design.

Aloy, on the other hand, has personality leaking out of her ears. She’s courageous, daring, blunt, and has empathy in spades. She has little respect for authority✨ and will break an🥂y rule in a heartbeat if she doesn't think it's fair. Plus, she is given a chance to grow throughout the game and evolve as a person. Aloy is a well-written, three-dimensional character. Yet, you can still make her your own through the various dialogue options. Players can choose to emphasize her compassion, intelligence, or brute strength. Compare her to Link, and there is no contest. Aloy is just a better lead.

15 Zelda: Crafting

The crafting systems inHorizonandBreath of the Wildare difficult to compare. InHorizon, you can craft ammunition for your various weapons and more slots for your pouches, potions, and traps. You c♏an also upgrade your armor and weapons by filling slots with modifications. It is all fairly standard.Horizon’s crafting 𒊎system, while useful, isn’t very𒈔 unique.

Crafting inBreath of the Wildis a little more limited in terms of variety. The only thing you can truly craft are potions and food. There is also an upgrade system for your armor that requires item collection. Once you have the ingredients,🀅 you can stop by the nearest fairy fountain for a maximum of four upgrades per piece of armor.

The biggest di♚fference between𝓀 the two games is in the presentation. Crafting inHorizon⭕is done through the user interface menu. You press a button, and it's done. Crafting inBreath of the Wildrequires a pot over a fire or a fairy fountain. While it may seem tedious, it’s actually a lot of fun. There are tons of recipes, and many of them have subtle variations that give different status effects. You select your ingredients and Link will toss them into the pot, humming while they cook and drooling when the food is ready. With the armor, each level has a different animation that ranges from a simple peck o🤡n the cheek to the fairy grabbing Link and dragging him into the fountain as he screams. It’s hilarious.

14 Horizon: T✨he Map

BothBreath of the WildandHorizonhave incredible maps. There is n🐼o doubt about this. However,Horizon’s map is just a little bit better.

Breath of the Wildwent for a topographical design. It is easy enough to read and looking for cl🌸ues or landmarks in the map is actually kind of fun. It isn’t overly busy and has a wealth of fast travel points. You can mark the map with pins or stamps to your heart's delight. However, it is pretty bland to look at. Most of the map is one sha💙de or another of brown. There just isn’t a lot of color to it and it isn’t exactly nice to look at.

Horizon’s map, on the other hand, is astounding. It has a three-dimensional look to it and a level of detail that needs to be applauded. There is a lot of color and variety to it. It al♕so shows what kind of machines can be found in certain locations and maps out every campfire location. But the detail is a double edged sword. The map gets too busy at times and if you buy a few maps from a trader, it will po𓆉i🉐nt out the approximate location of every major hidden item in the game. But overall, the map is very strong.

13 Zelda: Polish

Bugs are a fact of life. Video games will always have glitches, for better or for worse. This has always been the case and will always be the case. Except, the trend in recent years for a lot of games is to not bother fixing the worst and most commo🎐n bugs before launch. Day one patches are almost to be expected.

Horizonis no exception. It only took me a few hours of gameplay to experience my first crash. There are a whole host of game breaking bugs. Many people🗹 have reported that main quests won’t spawn or that random, invisible walls will appear where they aren’t supposed too. Sometimes, the character animation will glitch out during cutscenes, making everyone look like they are having seizures.

Breath of the Wildis a lot more polished. I’m not saying there aren’t any glitches. But they are few and far between. This is especially true for game breaking bugs. I only encountered two minor glitches after playing over🍰 100 hours ofBreath of the Wild.I’ve lost count of ♉how m🔥any bugs I’ve come across inHorizon,and I haven’t even spent a quarter of that timꦐℱe with the game.

12 🤪 H🌳orizon: Quests

BothHorizonandBreath of the Wildhave maﷺin q𝄹uests and side quests. The side quests inBreath of the Wildalso include shrine quests to help you locate the shrines. However, the side quests can be fairly generic and unimaginative. Many are simple fetch quests and they don’t♛ have any bearing on the overall story. Almost all of the quests are found in villages or stables.

Horizonhas an insane number of quests that fall under several different categories. There are main quests, side quests, errands, bandit camps, Tallnecks, hunting grounds, corrupted zones, and cauldrons. Most of these tie into the main story in one♒ shape or another and are scattered throughout the game, not just in villages. They really add a sense of depth to the world and help to reinforce the events that occur in the 🧜game. Many offer important decisions and can be very unique. Not all of them follow a predictable pattern, so the resolutions to the quests can be a surprising treat.

11 Zelda: Mounts

Alright. Admittedly, riding mechanical horses and cows is pretty cool. However, the mounts, while faster that walking, are sometimes not worth the effort. You also have to override a rideable machine first (there are only three). You can’t heal your mounts, so don’t get too attached to them. They can’t enter towns, and if you die, they despawn. A special skill will let you call a mount at any time, but it’s not always the same one. Plus, the mounts don’t maintain their speed. They automatically slow down aﷺfter a time.

Breath of the Wildhas a variety of mounts available. Horses are the first and most important kind. If you can catch one and tame it, you can take it back to the stable to be registered. You can even give your horse a name. It costs 20 rupees for a saddle and bridle, but once you do that horse is yours. Horses can die, but there is a way to revive them. As an added bonus, the horses can indefinitely maintain three of 𝓡their four speeds. Other animals like bears, deer, stalhorses, the Lord of the Mountain, and even lynels can be ridden for a short ♐period of time. You can’t register them, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try! It’s actually pretty funny to see the stable master's  reaction when you try to register something other than a horse.