No, I couldn't disagree more. You could totally take, say, Twilight Princess and move the mechanics from this game into that one wholesale and make the game 10 times more than what it is.
And vice versa, they could have made this huge map and had Link control like TP link with the same old bow, boomerang, hookshot and the same brain-dead and easy enemies and dull Zelda caves as side content and it would have been terrible. Not only that, but the latter example is pretty much exactly what I was expecting from the game which is why I was so utterly taken aback by the genius it actually is.
To add to what you're saying, as I play the game I appreciate more and more how finely balanced all of these elements are. I feel like if the game got rid of the crafting system or the Koroks or didn't have people wandering around the environment or had less shrines or just half assed one of these things then the game wouldn't work. Areas would feel same-y, the environment would feel barren or artificial. As it is now, the "gameplay loop" is so satisfying because in the space of 10 minutes you can indulge in all of the games different subquests/subsystems.
It was truly bold for them to ditch so many Zelda's conventions but if they didn't the game wouldn't work at all IMO.
Can anyone offer any tips for getting better at combat? I'm finding myself getting one-shotted constantly, and this might be because I hardly have any armor--but this is because I almost never have any money. In general, I find it extremely hard to effectively dodge enemy attacks, and I'm often spotted from a pretty long distance, ruling out stealth.
No really. That's the area I went to first. It was a slog to get through, lots of running, quick attacks and whatnot. But I use their weapons against them
(handheld boomrang thing is powerful for quick slashes)
In future games they will undoubtedly take the lessons learned here and adapt them to new experiences (like all Zelda games), but they wouldn't have gotten here in the first place without all the decisions that went into BotW.
I'm looking far more forward to future Zelda games after BotW. They've finally had the balls to throw all the antiquated rubbish. Trivialized combat, hour long "find small key"-marathons in the overlong temples, held to gether by a not freely explorable overworld with item driven progression vs. freeform exploration, the whole item based progression system, totally mute characters, limited "village" locations only inhabited by a dozen or so puzzle relevant characters and the otherwise pretty lifeless overworlds.
I don't feel like buying any Zelda based on the AlttP template anymore, now that they've shown they can also make a game that's not stuck in the early 90s with a new lick of paint.
Personally though, I would love if they follow up BotW with a game that throws the whole Hyrule setting out of the window. Just like Majora's Mask did. Not having the story play in Hyrule and center around Zelda, Link and Ganondorf opens up possibilities to build entirely different worlds. And with such a well defined open Hyrule world in BotW, a good path seems to move the next game somewhere else, into a place with its own rules and background, so as to not have immediately comparable worlds. Not that I expect another such "main" Zelda before another 5 to six years have passed. ^^
Can anyone offer any tips for getting better at combat? I'm finding myself getting one-shotted constantly, and this might be because I hardly have any armor--but this is because I almost never have any money. In general, I find it extremely hard to effectively dodge enemy attacks, and I'm often spotted from a pretty long distance, ruling out stealth.
You can upgrade even the most basic armor to be pretty effective.
If you're spotted, you can retreat and regroup, my favorite way to play Zelda is like a sniper elite game, spotting enemy encampments in the distance and then making my way to a good vantage point to snipe them with arrows.
Use objects in the camp to your advantage. If there is a metal box then magnetize it and swing it around to devastating effect.
Go for the little guys first, they'll often have some kind of weapon that you can then use if you need.
In the end, if you're getting one shotted by dudes on your way to Zora then you may need to go back and farm up some armor or hearts. I ended up heading toward Zora about 20 hours in and had zero problem. Remember to use the battle arenas to your advantage.
Can anyone offer any tips for getting better at combat? I'm finding myself getting one-shotted constantly, and this might be because I hardly have any armor--but this is because I almost never have any money. In general, I find it extremely hard to effectively dodge enemy attacks, and I'm often spotted from a pretty long distance, ruling out stealth.
I just saw a chest buried in the ground and thought to myself "huh, I wonder if I can get what's inside that." Used magnesis, pulled it out, and the chest went flying... somewhere.
Did anyone else get weird slowdowns/freezes with the Moblins on Death Mountain?
Like after knocking them over, the game stopped completely for like a second or 2.
I was able to replicate thus consistently.
Wow this game!
I saw a tower near a more tropical region that I haven't yet entered (after around 40 hours the last region in the east that I haven't marked on the map yet and I still haven't seen ANYTHING from the west regions lol), marked it and said to myself: this time I'm gonna go straight ahead, no distractions. Just walk up to the tower and explore the rest later once you have the map.
Well... no! On my way to the unknown region I discovered the singing rito from the staples who sang a song of a hidden shrine deeper in the jungle, so I turned my back to the tower and explored the jungle in the exact opposite direction that I intented to! And I have to say, what was lying ahead of me was some serious Uncharted shit! Tough enemies, lizzards shooting electric arrows everywhere - geez, I think I had to fight my way for around an hour until I discovered the shrine and even something bigger that I didn't expected. I mean this in itself was a perfectly crafted adventure and it was in only a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of the map in a random forrest!
Now, off to the tower though!
And I have to ask this just for my inner peace's sake (mythical creatures spoilers!):
Am I supposed to fight the
dragons
or not?
I already encountered two - one I had to free from this dark goo stuff by shooting arrows and the other one was just peacefully gliding above me and I was able to shoot down a scale. Can I do anything else with them? Or is it enough to just get one Scale of each?
I mean, it's still a videogame. With all due respect to your opinion, for me personally I'm thrilled that they did an open world game yet it still feels like "levels." I don't really want Zelda getting too realistic. I think having the environments like they are in this game gives it a sense of variety and keeps the traversal interesting enough.
Like I get what you're saying, but I feel like this is about as far as I need them to take an open world Zelda. I already think the world might be too big in fact. But then again I'm more of a fan of level design rather than giant open worlds. It's why I loved Skyward's environments so much, they felt like big levels to me.
The open world they've made here is kind of like other open worlds, but with that Nintendo touch where despite how big it is, it still feels like it has "sections" but again for me that gives it the variety and "color" that I want out of the series. I don't really want to see something like Witcher's world in Zelda, those aren't really the same kinds of things IMO.
I like that it kind of feels like if you were to take say Super Metroid's map, where you have Brinstar, Norfair, Maridia, etc but mashed them together in this massive, seamless 3D space. Each area provides its own feel and theme. A lot of other open worlds feel VERY samey.
I know! I didn't mean that to be criticism, just commenting on the design and to construe that I think there is still room for improvement. My point is that I think they can retain the gameplay while still making the world more real - one doesn't have to come at the cost of the other (but it so often does).
I also believe that there is room for improved narrative/storytelling and that a more "real" feeling world would augment that. Good narrative adds to the depth of the experience and can heighten the sense of emotion. And again, I don't believe this has to come at the cost of top-tier gameplay, it's more of a matter of developers choosing to prioritize one over the other due to XYZ constraints. Nintendo has shown that with grand enough ambition, this can be overcome, but they did not quite strike the perfect balance just yet.
As far as I'm concerned, this is a point of encouragement, because ideally we can get something even better in the future.
That said, I don't mean to sound like I am complaining - BOTW feels like the best "gameplay" experience I've ever had, bit that doesn't mean I can recognize where it stands to improve further.
Elemental weapons (outside of rods from wizzrobes) seem to be chest items for the most part. If you find one from a respawning enemy camp chest I'd mark it on your map.
Regarding 2 I don't think anyone has all that mapped out yet. Most of those are in multiple regions besides
Buying my house felt like a huge accomplishment in the game. It was one of the more fulfilling quests so far. Not only because of the stuff you need to do to get it, but what it means.
Whenever I'm done playing for the night, I go to either Kakariko or Hateno and find a cozy place to rest. Its dumb but I got so engrossed in the game I feel weird letting Link just hang out in the middle of nowhere overnight. So I look for cozy places like that one cooking area in Hateno under a shelter. I did that for a few days and though it was nice, it never felt like a home.
Then I finally bought my home in Hateno.
After a long day of adventuring, I headed home and went to sleep. And that felt fucking amazing.
That's why I don't get the complaints about it being empty or too spacious. I think it's exciting to see something off in the distance that grabs your attention. From the landmarks like the volcano and the castle, to the shrines and towers, etc. It's deliberately designed that way so that it compels you to want to go and check it out.
Yep, and this game nails that! There were so many things I was psyched to check out just from what I could see from the plateau. This game has to be doing some impressive tricks to allow you to see things from so far. And because of this, elevation really does become its own reward, even if there are also other rewards up there.
Cool, hopefully by then I will have a solution to dinraal as I still need their horn lol
The maxed out champions tunic looks game breakingly strong.
It's got 32 defense on just one piece! I am using a level 3 one with 2 level 3 solider pieces to slay lynels for a crazy 48 defense or something like that and I already feel unkillable.
So I beat the game. I had the following parameters:
-3 hearts
-Full stamina
-No main missions finished
-Upgraded armor
-Used all the healing items and 2 fairies (lol)
Like... despite being well equipped and spamming all the items, that shit was pretty hard.
In particular, the boss was interesting because
I had to fight like 4 phases before Calamity Ganon... and the last half of that final phase before the boar version was pretty tough because I had to utilize slow motion in order to hit it during the brief second it lets its guard down, so I had to channel my inner Bayonetta skills to get those crucial slow-mos.
I am very curious what this boss fight is like if you actually do the
4
relevant main missions and actually get the
Master Sword
...
So of course I'm still gonna mash the game lol
Having played around a bit in post-game content, I noticed that, because I wasn't doing any of the missions, I was missing several integral functions for the slate thing >_>
I'm under the impression that the freeze enemy thing would have made the last half of Calamity Ganon less miserable lol
But yes... playing the way I did was very interesting in that I could observe how flexible you can be with regards to playstyle... you could literally just finish the tutorial then walk up to the final boss (and even put up a decent fight since damage output is tied to gear)... it's not easy, but it's POSSIBLE, which is very impressive.
In fact, Hyrule Castle itself is designed really brilliantly since I had several approaches in order to make it from the field outside to the boss layer.
(rain can fuck off though... I kept getting trolled... also, watch out for blood moons... that shit will actually boot you out of the boss fight and restart it from the very beginning and it was completely miserable)
Overall, very pleased with the game and I'm still really hype about playing now that I've discovered the compendium thing :v
It depends on the region you are in, the eastern side of the map rains the most. The other parts of the map don't rain nearly as much from my experience.
Can anyone offer any tips for getting better at combat? I'm finding myself getting one-shotted constantly, and this might be because I hardly have any armor--but this is because I almost never have any money. In general, I find it extremely hard to effectively dodge enemy attacks, and I'm often spotted from a pretty long distance, ruling out stealth.
So not sure what's going on, but during lightening storms
when lightning strikes any where near me, all of a sudden, some item on me starts to spark. It keeps sparking faster and faster until it explodes damaging me. No clue what it is or why this happens.
Last zelda I played was The Legend of Zelda for the NES. About to be finished with Horizon Zero Dawn and am intrigued by this new title.
Seen some of the previews and they mostly showed what it seems an empty world and a "dragon quest builders" combat mode. With that in mind and avoiding nostalgia have the best judgement I find it hard to justify the purchase.
Now that my perception of the game is said, any grounded review that will surely enlighten me regarding this new title that you can recommend?
So not sure what's going on, but during lightening storms
when lightning strikes any where near me, all of a sudden, some item on me starts to spark. It keeps sparking faster and faster until it explodes damaging me. No clue what it is or why this happens.
So not sure what's going on, but during lightening storms
when lightning strikes any where near me, all of a sudden, some item on me starts to spark. It keeps sparking faster and faster until it explodes damaging me. No clue what it is or why this happens.
Lynels can be found inside hyrule castle and the coliseum, guardians swarm hyrule castle and the area around it, Hinox can be found in Eventide Island, the Giant Forest, and the watery area west of the skull island in Akkala. Don't forget Stalnox, which is can be found at the south end of the river near the stable to the right of the twin peaks among other places
Thirty hours in, and several deaths due to bombs rolling back into me and exploding, I find out about the cube shaped bombs via the loading screen tips.
So not sure what's going on, but during lightening storms
when lightning strikes any where near me, all of a sudden, some item on me starts to spark. It keeps sparking faster and faster until it explodes damaging me. No clue what it is or why this happens.
Thirty hours in, and several deaths due to bombs rolling back into me and exploding, I find out about the cube shaped bombs via the loading screen tips.
Why would a metal weapon pulse like that though? I could understand if I was struck by lightning that having a metal weapon equipped would be bad. Thought maybe something in my inventory was have an elemental reaction to the lightning.
So not sure what's going on, but during lightening storms
when lightning strikes any where near me, all of a sudden, some item on me starts to spark. It keeps sparking faster and faster until it explodes damaging me. No clue what it is or why this happens.
If you die from this, pay attention to the hint that displays on the loading screen afterward. They are always (from my experience) contextual to why you died and how to avoid dying that way in the future.
Damn, I haven't been using my map to its fullest but you guys really made me realize how to use the stamps properly---only thing I've marked is Shrines I haven't beat, didn't think about marking ore deposits and mini-boss spawns! :0
I just noticed the Korok Seeds are marked on the map though, that's nice. Unlike those damn Zygarde Cores in Sun and Moon.
