I've switched back and forth so I could charge and play, as well as fuck with the Pro controller.
Love the controller, not a big fan of docked mode for BotW specifically. The image quality is kinda butt, and the framerate drops don't really seem to happen in handheld whereas they seem frequent docked. Once my power bank arrives and I can get even more playtime out of handheld mode I probably will stick to that as much as possible.
the shrine detector works. Once it beeps I don't seem to find a pattern that would tell me whether I'm getting closer or not. What am I looking for here?
The island in the SE corner of the game is absolutely amazing. One of the best experiences I've had with the game. Some real Robinson Crusoe type shit.
On the other hand, that Assassin's Creed style tailing mission in the forest? No thanks. That sucked.
Game is astounding, though. Straight to number 1 on my 'best of all time' list.
See, the thing about this crazy game is that I'm 45 hours in now and had no idea that item existed and you think it's a '3 hours in' item. That's amazing. You didn't spoil me, btw, as I do have the other pieces of the set. I'm just saying that we'll all have such crazily different experiences. I wish I had gotten a piece like that before getting 40 hours or so into the game - it makes a big difference.
I thought it was all random myself but there's an area I got to where the weather was the same the entire time I was there through a couple day cycles. Very stormy, couldn't climb the walls around there.
I like this game, although I'm definitely less stoked about it than I was expecting. Some thoughts:
-The story is really not gripping at all, although I just got to Sidon's stuff and things are starting to pick up.
-The world just feels a bit... flat and devoid of any real sense of mystery to me so far. Right now exploration boils down to getting up real high and looking for the bright lights. Shrines are puzzles or combat trials. Hopefully I'm just early and things start mixing up a bit, because right now everything I can find already sort of feels like a known quantity. This is a super tough thing to solve in open world game design obviously, but so far I'm a little bit disappointed in just how little exploration has surprised me so far. There's nothing I've discovered yet that feels like it provides insight into the world, story, lore, themes, etc.
-Playing on Wii U, the framerate is truly unacceptable. I can grin and bear it but I don't think the game should have released in this state.
-I don't like the soundtrack. The light piano is nice sometimes, but it often gets irritating. The battle music is a whole new level of annoying though, my god. Free jazz piano mixed with what sounds like an egg timer and a 90s instant messenger notification sound. It sucks.
-The interactivity of the items, powers, physics, and AI is astoundingly good. This is what's keeping me interested right now. I've had so many "woah!" moments noticing the AI do something clever like adjust their chase of me to avoid a bomb after getting hit with them a few times, baiting the enemies into fighting each other, seeing fire completely screw up a camp, etc etc. All the best aspects of MGSV and Far Cry are here - namely the way the game accounts for real world logic and provides satisfying payoffs for asking "would THIS work?"
-The durability and stamina systems work really well not only as a limiter, but as a way to get you to get out of your comfort zone and try different weapons, or really feel like you're scrounging. It's well balanced and enriches the experience.
-The game is way harder than Zelda has been in a long long time, but in a way that encourages you to try something different next time.
-Seriously fuck that battle theme
Obviously I'm gonna stick with it. This post might seem harsher than I mean it; it's an incredibly good game and I'm excited to play more, I just feel a bit disappointed by the world so far.
The story just isn't the focus of the game, and it never 'gets good', I'm afraid. There's not much more to it than the original LoZ - 'Go kill Ganon and rescue Zelda'. It's entirely intentional, and people will either be able to deal with that or not. That emotional resonance of other Zelda games and stories isn't here, and the lack of a 'helper' character like Midna, Navi or Fi takes away a lot of the charm. It is what it is.
Only about 30 shrines are 'go up to a tall peak and look around to find them'. After that you really do need to get on foot and start exploring the world. I've found 50 and already at this stage they are tough to find, and usually involve doing something interesting to do so.
But as for the world, I was trying to explain this to people beforehand - it's not a 'real' place with environmental storytelling so much as it is a huge level, designed for gameplay. That amazing Witcher feeling you get when you deduce what happened in an area from a tableaux of items or a ruin or whatnot, or that amazing depth of lore, the sense that you can really understand how people live in this world just from looking at it - none of that is present. Again, it's not that kind of game. It's the exact opposite of the Witcher, really. Hyrule is utterly incredible to play in, but is it a beautiful, memorable place? Not really, it's a bunch of flat textures with some interesting stuff here or there.
As for the framerate, yes it's totally unacceptable.
The soundtrack is a little disappointing indeed. There are some nice callbacks and themes though, but typically it's just not really there.
And yep, the interactivity of the game is astounding, and the entire point of the whole enterprise.
I'll echo the not being able to rotate objects with magnetism is frustrating. I honestly find magnetism annoying as a mechanic since it seems no matter how well I place something it just falls ruining my make shift bridge or ladder :/
the shrine detector works. Once it beeps I don't seem to find a pattern that would tell me whether I'm getting closer or not. What am I looking for here?
Played the game a few hours last night didn't leave Plateau yet but I'm loving the game already. The game is full of little wonderful details like the subtle use of music and I felt totally immersed from the beginning. Really feel like you're taking an adventure and I enjoy how the game doesn't hold your hand at all. Can't wait to continue today.
yeah the tower thing is really fascinating. Like even though the towers themselves, climbing it is usually pretty easy, but sometimes they have little quirks to them like thorns or no ledges or whatever that makes it that bit more interesting. but the main thing is actually SEEING IT and GOING TO IT.
I haven't played an ubi game with towers in a long time now, but I was sick of them 3-4 years ago and this is just such a surprising take on it. It's so utterly satisfying because even getting to the base of a tower feels like an achivement to me.
The blue flame will make sense pretty soon. Unless you've already done the thing and you just asking about the lantern themselves, in this case I don't think they do anything.
The blue flame will make sense pretty soon. Unless you've already done the thing and you just asking about the lantern themselves, in this case I don't think they do anything.
Do you guys also feel that when you see something in the distance you think "man, that's probably a long way" but in the end it wasn't that much of a long way?
The other way around I'm so often sure I can climb somewhere because it looks doable with my current amount of stamina just to find out that it's actually not enough. I tried to climb a flag pole once... didn't make it to the top.
Haha, my plan for when I got off the plateau was to head northeast, find a boat, and ply the rivers of Hyrule. I was worried it wouldn't be possible. Not only is it possible, I can fly down the river at 50mph and run over ducks
By having such a vast field to explore with no boundaries, you can go into any area anywhere from any direction, so the puzzle-solving in the game begins the minute the player starts thinking about where they want to go, how they'll get there and what they'll do when they arrive
Not finished the game but have 50 hours of playtime and all I can say is that it was way better than I ever imagined even though I was hyped as hell for this game. I don't like open world most of the time because every time there is something that turns me off (witcher 3 and skyrim have great open world but are lackluster in terms of movement and combat, assasin's creed have great movement but the open world is most of the time beautiful but not fun to visit, etc.), but this game has everything I wanted in a open world : good combats, great moves, amazing level design (I dare to say this is the best level design I ever seen in a open world) and beautiful world.
And even after 50 hours, this game surprises me. I even like the story and the characters. The game has its flaws and like every Zelda game since Ocarina of Time, there will be people who like / love it and others not so much. But for me, it's probably one of the best game I've ever played, probably the best zelda game, even better than
Just came across something strange in the Wii U version. Playing with the pro controller has been fine so far but when I tried to register a horse I couldn't use the on-screen keyboard. Had to grab the Gamepad.
Several hours in: this game is amazing. The game systems, they absolutely nailed. Physics, stamina, warmth, weather, time of day. Parts of this play like Portal.
I feel completely and utterly lost in the game. I find myself reading sign posts on roads for directions, and frequently not even knowing what my objective is. That feels glorious. I tried taming wild horses but had no idea what I was doing, and failed. That failure felt right. I'll be playing this for years.
omg so I did a trial yesterday that involved a ball in a maze:
you control it by tilting the controller and navigating the ball around... pretty standard. I thought I was clever by rotating it so the ball would drop into a different part of the maze, but then I tried turning the whole thing upside down and it actually worked.
I didn't realise you needed the leaf to control the raft.
I climbed onto it and managed to dislodge it using a bomb, and then watched myself slowly drift towards the bridge for almost 3 minutes lol.
Luckily I had stocked up on pepper-flavoured food.
This game is stunning me. Such a breath of fresh air after so many similar Zelda games.
omg so I did a trial yesterday that involved a ball in a maze:
you control it by tilting the controller and navigating the ball around... pretty standard. I thought I was clever by rotating it so the ball would drop into a different part of the maze, but then I tried turning the whole thing upside down and it actually worked.
Just came across something strange in the Wii U version. Playing with the pro controller has been gone so far but when I tried to register a horse I couldn't use the on-screen keyboard. Had to grab the Gamepad.
initial 4 shrines, got the backstory and told to go to the village
. Should I keep mainlining for a little bit and go towards the objective or is it OK to go exploring in the plateau area? I want to get more shrines and level up but not sure if it becomes easier to do so after a bit more of mainlining... I wish I knew how many shrines existed per area but maybe that comes later.
initial 4 shrines, got the backstory and told to go to the village
. Should I keep mainlining for a little bit or is it OK to go exploring? I want to get more shrines and level up but not sure if it becomes easier to do so after a bit more of mainlining...
Just to confirm, there is no way to get BOTW's japanese dub with English text, right? Changing system language or anything? I really think the English dub is plain bad.
Really enjoying so far. I'm off the great plateau on my way to Kakariko village. Maybe I should have stayed longer on the plateau, just to settle into the controls more, and practice combat etc. The game throws quite a lot at you in terms of tools and stuff in a fairly short period of time.
Playing in handheld mode only so far. Not sure if some of my control clumsiness is due to that or just getting used to everything, but I might try some of the alternatives later. Don't have a pro controller for now.