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[ghibli99]

This is one of those games I'm having a really hard time putting down. And when I do, all I can do is think about what I want to do next.

It's a marvel of a game that nails moment-to-moment gameplay, and that sense of discovery isn't something I've experienced in a game recently outside of Fromsoft's titles. In a way, it does feel like Nintendo's spin on that formula... and it's not because I've died a couple dozen times already. LOL Like those games, death and failure are a way to learn and adjust for next time. It's done pretty masterfully here, and makes things like traversal, combat, and environmental hazards so much fun to figure out and overcome.

Speaking of traversal, the ability to scale just about everything is so good. It turns things in the world from being simply decorative into places you *want* to climb and explore.

And I just love that almost every frame of this game makes me feel like I'm in the middle of a Hayao Miyazaki film. It has its technical shortcomings, but when it's banging on all cylinders, it is lovely to look at.

 

[Griss]

I have so many god damn korok seeds why did this fucker

Spoiler

have to move to another fucking spot

I NEED THE INVENTORY SLOTS I'M ALWAYS FORCED TO THROW AWAY WEAPONS. Fuck this shit, I'm dropping everything to go find this fucker.

I just want to warn you (and everyone else) that no matter how many weapon slots you get, it changes nothing. Why? Because the second you unlock a new slot you'll pick up two weapons, and then you're back to the same old song and dance of 'which one should I throw away'? And later in the game, you're gonna come across tons of amazing weapons and not want to throw anything away, so when you get something new it's torture.

Anyway, the due you're looking for is in

Spoiler

Hyrule Forest / Korok Forest, north of Hyrule Castle.

 

[Red]

I can fast travel to shrines I haven't completed, right? As long as they are present on my map? I think I may scout the overworld first thing and then go back and fast travel to all the shrines.
I was disappointed to find the meteor I saw land outside the Great Plateau had vanished by the time I could reach it.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

The magnet ability is super useful for recovering boomerangs.

I swear to god I threw it at an enemy, he stood up, took it and when I killed him he didn't drop it.

The fucker must've went in a cloud of smokes holding on to it.

 

[Riposte]

Think I just cleared the tutorial/first area. It has been incredibly smartly designed so far and probably leads the player better than any 3D game that comes to mind, light years away from what you'd expect from Zelda.

I think what really impressed me is the area where the old man is acting like a lumberjack. Judging by the lack of enemies and the fact it's already lit (and the journal talking about recipes), I assume the hut's pot suppose to be the introduction to the deeper cooking system. Surrounding this hut are a bunch of stamina healing ingredients, which is subtly nudging you to climb the mountain right next to it so you can reach the shrine. If you don't do this, then you basically have to run all the way around in freezing weather. To reach the shortest cliff, you have to cut down a tree so it forms a bridge. This mechanic, clever in itself, doesn't have any sort of tutorial and as far as I can tell isn't even explicitly mentioned, but it's fairly obvious from reading the environment that the devs want you cut down some trees here. They are pretty direct about telling you how to deal with cold temperatures (and directly mention a side-quest for a coat), but it's hardly a tutorial at all.

To it's fault, I haven't had a single combat encounter I would consider exciting, and, despite death coming quickly, there isn't much tension to encountering enemies (managing stamina while climbing or trying not to freeze to death is mildly scarier lol). What makes this okay is that almost every camp has one or two "clever" solutions to them that are fun to pull off. Basically, the attention to detail and ingenuity in how the game's puzzle-ish physics are implemented, even on an open-world scale, is the real highlight. I wonder how it's going to keep up this pace, since apparently I've only explored 10% of the game and ran into this many ideas.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

I just want to warn you (and everyone else) that no matter how many weapon slots you get, it changes nothing. Why? Because the second you unlock a new slot you'll pick up two weapons, and then you're back to the same old song and dance of 'which one should I throw away'? And later in the game, you're gonna come across tons of amazing weapons and not want to throw anything away, so when you get something new it's torture.

Anyway, the due you're looking for is in

Spoiler

Hyrule Forest / Korok Forest, north of Hyrule Castle.

I know it won't, but at the very least I will have more wiggle room. Consider that you always want to have:

- 1 torch
- 1 woodcutter axe
- 1 steel sledgehammer
- 1 korok leaf

The axe you can maybe do without if you're willing to use a shitty sword to cut down trees, but I have already come to so many places where I had to pray I could find a nearby shrine because my sledgehammer was destroyed and I passed through so many god damn ore deposits. At least with more slots I could carry more weapons and never be forced to use the hammer or the axe during a tough fight.

 

[OkayRene]

Is there some secret stat I need to build up to tame certain wild horses?

Also, what happens to registered horses after you leave it behind? I ditched mine and tried to call it back but it said it was out of earshot. I assumed it would go to some standby, omni-present state like Epona used to.

 

[Wanderer5]

I can fast travel to shrines I haven't completed, right? As long as they are present on my map? I think I may scout the overworld first thing and then go back and fast travel to all the shrines.
I was disappointed to find the meteor I saw land outside the Great Plateau had vanished by the time I could reach it.

As long as you activated the shrine via the panel next to the door, you can fast travel to that shrine even if you haven't beaten it.

 

[BorkBork]

It's funny. I got this game first day just because I want to share and read experiences from other people on GAF.

But now that I'm playing it, I don't want to read any other experiences or share my own. I feel like that to talk about the game outside of experiencing it first-hand seems wrong. It's almost too personal.

Maybe that will change. But I've never felt that way about any game before.

 

[Papercuts]

Think I just cleared the tutorial/first area. It has been incredibly smartly designed so far and probably leads the player better than any 3D game that comes to mind, light years away from what you'd expect from Zelda.

I think what really impressed me is the area where the old man is acting like a lumberjack. Judging by the lack of enemies and the fact it's already lit (and the journal talking about recipes), I assume the hut's pot suppose to be the introduction to the deeper cooking system. Surrounding this hut are a bunch of stamina healing ingredients, which is subtly nudging you to climb the mountain right next to it so you can reach the shrine. If you don't do this, then you basically have to run all the way around in freezing weather. To reach the shortest cliff, you have to cut down a tree so it forms a bridge. This mechanic, clever in itself, doesn't have any sort of tutorial and as far as I can tell isn't even explicitly mentioned, but it's fairly obvious from reading the environment that the devs want you cut down some trees here. They are pretty direct about telling you how to deal with cold temperatures (and directly mention a side-quest for a coat), but it's hardly a tutorial at all.

To it's fault, I haven't had a single combat encounter I would consider exciting, and, despite death coming quickly, there isn't much tension to encountering enemies (managing stamina while climbing or trying not to freeze to death is mildly scarier lol). What makes this okay is that almost every camp has one or two "clever" solutions to them that are fun to pull off. Basically, the attention to detail and ingenuity in how the game's puzzle-ish physics are implemented, even on an open-world scale, is the real highlight. I wonder how it's going to keep up this pace, since apparently I've only explored 10% of the game and ran into this many ideas.

The way they handled the old man was pretty amazing to me. He pops up and basically works as a tutorial without being overbearing, it's much more natural. He does the same thing in the other forest, crouched down hunting. Subtly showing off stealth and how to get meat.

 

[SpiceMelange]

I know it won't, but at the very least I will have more wiggle room. Consider that you always want to have:

- 1 torch
- 1 woodcutter axe
- 1 steel sledgehammer
- 1 korok leaf

The axe you can maybe do without if you're willing to use a shitty sword to cut down trees, but I have already come to so many places where I had to pray I could find a nearby shrine because my sledgehammer was destroyed and I passed through so many god damn ore deposits. At least with more slots I could carry more weapons and never be forced to use the hammer or the axe during a tough fight.

You know you can bomb trees and mineral nodes right

 

[jimmytutron]

does anyone know where the shrine is by lakeside stable. THE THING KEEPS BEEPING BUT I CAN'T FIND IT. It's driving me mad.

nvm i found it

 

[Papercuts]

I know it won't, but at the very least I will have more wiggle room. Consider that you always want to have:

- 1 torch
- 1 woodcutter axe
- 1 steel sledgehammer
- 1 korok leaf

The axe you can maybe do without if you're willing to use a shitty sword to cut down trees, but I have already come to so many places where I had to pray I could find a nearby shrine because my sledgehammer was destroyed and I passed through so many god damn ore deposits. At least with more slots I could carry more weapons and never be forced to use the hammer or the axe during a tough fight.

You can bomb ores.

Though be aware shit goes flying, lol.

I'm starting to not really use torches either. Anything wood works like a club, and you can use a bow and arrow, cock the arrow and ignite it in a flame to generally accomplish things.

 

[amnesiac]

Am I just supposed to stumble upon the memory locations purely based on the photos? The painter helped with the first one but I can't get any info on any of the other ones.

 

[TheGoreMagala]

Is there some secret stat I need to build up to tame certain wild horses?

Also, what happens to registered horses after you leave it behind? I ditched mine and tried to call it back but it said it was out of earshot. I assumed it would go to some standby, omni-present state like Epona used to.

Certain horses can only be tamed with certain amounts of stamina

Nothing, they just stayed where they last were, marked on your map. Alternatively you can go to a stable and teleport it to that stable by boarding it and then releasing it

 

[Admiral Woofington]

You know you can bomb trees and mineral nodes right

I ain't risking the good shit flying away when I'm climbing walls/ there is a huge drop son lmao. Particularly since I still don't know the respawn rate and I've only gotten one god damn diamond this whole time that I've been mining, who knows if I lose one.

 

[victreeb3l]

Holy shit FUCK those ice ball throwing flying wizard enemies. I went through 10 of my meals because those assholes keep freezing me. Doesnt help they did some blizzard spell so i couldnt stand in one place for more than 2 seconds before getting frozen.

Fuck

 

[foxuzamaki]

I just realized that something magical is keeping me from entering great hyrule forest

 

[Swimmer9800]

I can't put into words how special this game is.

 

[foxuzamaki]

I just realized that something magical is keeping me from entering great hyrule forest

To clarify, I meant flying into the forest

 

[Papercuts]

Holy shit FUCK those ice ball throwing flying wizard enemies. I went through 10 of my meals because those assholes keep freezing me. Doesnt help they did some blizzard spell so i couldnt stand in one place for more than 2 seconds before getting frozen.

Fuck

I've only fought a fire one but...

Spoiler

it died to a single ice arrow. Maybe fire works the same on that.

 

[Wanderer5]

You know you can bomb trees and mineral nodes right

Wouldn't bombs destroy whatever is in the mineral nodes? Least that how it seems to be, or that they just fly out fast.

 

[OriginalPoe]

The magnet ability is super useful for recovering boomerangs.

I wish you could retrieve items with the boomerangs. I really don't like what they did with that weapon.

 

[Griss]

I know it won't, but at the very least I will have more wiggle room. Consider that you always want to have:

- 1 torch
- 1 woodcutter axe
- 1 steel sledgehammer
- 1 korok leaf

The axe you can maybe do without if you're willing to use a shitty sword to cut down trees, but I have already come to so many places where I had to pray I could find a nearby shrine because my sledgehammer was destroyed and I passed through so many god damn ore deposits. At least with more slots I could carry more weapons and never be forced to use the hammer or the axe during a tough fight.

I found that the korok leaf was the only essential. Wooden weapons are everywhere that can act as torches, and you'll get plenty of fire arrows.

I used claymores to break rocks as they're better in combat but I don't care if they break. I never once chopped down a tree in 50+ hours of playing the game, either.

The real necessities are:

Spoiler

One fire weapon (meteor rod all day every day)
One thunder weapon
One ice weapon
One guardian weapon for guardians
One single handed blade so you can shield parry
One heavy 2 hander to knock enemies off balance
One spear for quicker, harder to hit enemies

Once you have all of those you can be a legendary

Spoiler

silver lynel

slayer like me

 

[LProtag]

My entire day was pretty much just sucked into this game. Last weekend was Nier, now Zelda.

So many games out lately that just make me lose track of time.

 

[ZeroX03]

Just took the boat over to Koholint and surprise! and now I can't save the game until this is done lol.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

Is there some secret stat I need to build up to tame certain wild horses?

Also, what happens to registered horses after you leave it behind? I ditched mine and tried to call it back but it said it was out of earshot. I assumed it would go to some standby, omni-present state like Epona used to.

Yeah the horse system kind of blows in this game. Witcher 3 and Ocarina of Time had it right, if you whistle and aren't looking it should make them appear behind you. If you leave your horse behind somewhere you have to go back to a stable and ask it to be prepared again. Unless you want to go back to where you left it lol.

As to the 'secret stat' it's simply stamina. I wasn't able to tame the single colored/non spotted horses in the first area until I upgraded

Spoiler

my stamina once

. Now I have Obama with me.

 

[foxuzamaki]

Ok, I just went in by foot, and it got all foggy and found out that its

Spoiler

the lost woods, and then soon they teleported me out again

 

[Wanderer5]

Wizzrobes (I think that what they are called here, I mean they are regular wizard enemies that teleport around) can sure get annoying in this game heh.

 

[victreeb3l]

I've only fought a fire one but...

Spoiler

it died to a single ice arrow. Maybe fire works the same on that.

I wanted to save them but thats what i had to do in the end. Goddamn that was awful lol

 

[CouchMaster]

I know it won't, but at the very least I will have more wiggle room. Consider that you always want to have:

- 1 torch
- 1 woodcutter axe
- 1 steel sledgehammer
- 1 korok leaf

The axe you can maybe do without if you're willing to use a shitty sword to cut down trees, but I have already come to so many places where I had to pray I could find a nearby shrine because my sledgehammer was destroyed and I passed through so many god damn ore deposits. At least with more slots I could carry more weapons and never be forced to use the hammer or the axe during a tough fight.

You don't need the hammer, many heavy weapons have similar effect for

Spoiler

stasis rune

and breaking minerals.

 

[Papercuts]

I wanted to save them but thats what i had to do in the end. Goddamn that was awful lol

Yeah the one I fought made it rain meteorites and I was in a grassy area, everything burned and I blew through multiple shields be accident, lol.

 

[foxuzamaki]

You don't need the hammer, many heavy weapons have similar effect for

Spoiler

stasis rune

and breaking minerals.

Spoiler

The remote bombs

help too

 

[Rainy]

The music in Hateno Village is just so relaxing and nice. A great track.

 

[The Illiterati]

For some reason the game finally clicked for me after getting the camera and going down to the little forest behind the lab. I creeped around and took pictures of a dozen different animals and all the plants. Simple, but that are felt the most "alive" of any wilderness in the game so far.

Then I got to a shrine that REQUIRES you play with the WiiU Gamepad and not the pro controller. Garbage. I have to charge mine up as it's barely ever been used.

 

[AppleSautts]

lmao Paya is adorable.

There's too many qt's in this game

 

[victreeb3l]

Lmao the

Spoiler

zoras

are pretty funny in this game. They get so excited to see you. That poor guy stuck on top of the tower. I wanted to push him off.

Yeah the one I fought made it rain meteorites and I was in a grassy area, everything burned and I blew through multiple shields be accident, lol.

Dude that sucks lol. I would have just teleported outta there. Unfortunately i needed to fight my wizard guy since he was at the base of a new tower 😫

 

[Master Yoshi]

Just got absolutely incinerated by the

Spoiler

Dragon that flies around

near Death Mountain.

 

[megalowho]

I must have just spent an hour figuring out a (what i consider) a really hard korok seed puzzle.

The solution was so clever. Moments like these are what is great about this game. Same feeling the puzzles in The Witness gave me.

I got that vibe from the korok seed puzzles as well. Makes it seem like anything in the environment could be a potential puzzle.

 

[AppleSautts]

I played a couple hours in TV mode today and the few framedrops I had seemed minor at worst. The game looks nice on my 55inch 1080p

 

[Five]

Am I just supposed to stumble upon the memory locations purely based on the photos? The painter helped with the first one but I can't get any info on any of the other ones.

if you find the painter again he'll give you another hint

 

[Red]

I've only fought a fire one but...

Spoiler

it died to a single ice arrow. Maybe fire works the same on that.

Yeah i did the same thing.

Spoiler

One ice arrow before he detected me and poof he was gone. I thought it was too easy, he must have teleported but nope. Fire rod was on the ground, and he never showed up again.

Creepy scene though, him dancing around a destroyed caravan.

 

[McBryBry]

So, behind

Spoiler

Kakariko

Village...

Spoiler

I found the great fairy, and there looks to be something to place a shrine ball into but I have no clue where it is. Any hints?

 

[DrLazy]

Game is amazing. But on Wii U why can't the map be on the gamepad? Sooooo stupid. I want it there so bad

 

[ASIS]

My entire day was pretty much just sucked into this game. Last weekend was Nier, now Zelda.

So many games out lately that just make me lose track of time.

Nier, Horizon, Zelda, and a couple others in sure I missed.

This line up alone is wnough for the entire year. And then we have stuff like Mario Oddyssy in the holidays... yikes.

 

[Triforce141]

Master sword spoilers:

Spoiler

THIRTEEN HEARTS
THAT'S HOW MUCH IT TOOK TO PULL THAT SONVABITCH OUT
JESUS CHRIST THAT FELT SO GOOD

It takes that much?

Spoiler

Shrine

hunting, away!

 

[Griss]

Am I just supposed to stumble upon the memory locations purely based on the photos? The painter helped with the first one but I can't get any info on any of the other ones.

I did about 5 of them from the photos themselves, 5 of them had hints (that I found) from the painter, and then after 20+ hours of not being able to figure out the other two while I explored the world I just gave up. And one of them (the forest) really is just bullshit. It could be anywhere, there's no hints at all.

One thing I'll say, and this applies to everything in the game, is that if you're like me you're been climbing and paragliding everywhere. But if you don't use the paths (take your horse) you'll miss a surprising amount of stuff like stables etc that have important info and side quests. One of the memories I didn't find myself I would have found easily had I just stuck to the paths in the middle of the map.

It's why the horse mechanics (both calling them to you and riding them) being so damn mediocre is one of my complaints with the game. I never used my horse, he sucked.

 

[Edzi]

if you find the painter again he'll give you another hint

Is there any way to see the hint again?

 

[Wallach]

I stumbled into two shrines on the far eastern edge, a "moderate" and a "major" combat test

Holy crap

Yeah those were a real bitch if you got there as early as I did (I think 4 hearts or something). If I found them in the opposite order I probably would have left and come back later, actually.

 

[KingBroly]

I have an EXTREMELY good Recipe

Spoiler

Raw Meat + Apple + Hearty Radish

Which wields

Spoiler

Hearty Steamed Meat, Full Recovery and +3 Gold hearts; maybe 2 radishes gives you 6 hearts, I dunno