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[Prof. Bathtub]

Yeah, having an underworld of the same scale as the overworld seems a bit much. Actually, TP had a couple of caves which continued in multiple directions. Implementing something like that, with added details and challenge, would work nicely.

 

[bumpkin]

Talos is down here? Time to swing my hammer then, lol

There was one if the underground passage you took is the same as the one I found. Mine went through the Library, intersected with some docks, and there was a Shrine down there too (a "Major Test of Strength").

Pop a high-defense (3 shirt icons?) food. Those help A LOT against super hard hitting enemies like these.

I didn't even bother fighting him. I just snuck around avoiding him and collected the 20 shock arrows from the area and made a run for it. It's those moments of freedom of choice that make BOTW so awesome!

 

[WrenchNinja]

So I got my

Spoiler

master sword

last night. I love it. I think I may try to go to my first dungeon tonight.

Do you get anything for completing dungeons? Should I try to tackle them in any particular order?

Chests usually have pretty good weapons if you're under equipped with low power weapons or ancient materials and rare minerals.

You do get something by beating the dungeon.

 

[Chezzymann]

I just met my first lynel on the quest to getting items for Vah Ruta..

Holy shit, I couldn't deal with it... do they get easier as the game progresses?

Yeah the reward you get for the gerudo and goron dungeon makes them really easy

 

[OrbitalBeard]

well what I wrote in my post was to dump the formulaic stuff but keep the part that creates better gameplay variety and moments. I guess I should ask are you completely satisfied just messing around the world, even if it's mostly the same stuff repeated a lot. I'm not, I want there to be more stuff like eventide island where here is this very specific challenge unlike anything in this world. Those are the stand out moments of the game for me, not the simple wandering around "oh look I can climb this mountain just because I can". I want more of the standout moments and I truly believe it doesn't have to sacrifice the openness to have more.

There's tons of stuff like this.

A few days ago,

Spoiler

I stumbled upon a pitch black forest and had to use fire to make my way through. If your torch goes out, you can see literally nothing.

But I agree even more content like this would be great in a follow-up.

 

[Nosgotham]

So I got my

Spoiler

master sword

last night. I love it. I think I may try to go to my first dungeon tonight.

Do you get anything for completing dungeons? Should I try to tackle them in any particular order?

Yes you get great stuff. Honestly it doesn't matter what order but

Spoiler

Gerudo

was significantly harder for me than the others.

 

[patrickthehedgehog]

I've had some really amazing moments in this game. Many due to close encounters with the Guardians.

Grabbing a horse near a guardian and having to outrun it right after mounting it. It didn't take much soothing, thankfully.

In the northwest area

Spoiler

there's a canyon with entry to an area where you have to glide past a dozen or so Guardians to get to a shrine.

That's been the most thrilling moment so far.

I had a memorable experience surveying Hyrule field for the first time from a high up rock on the east side, then circling around the bottom and cutting through it after activating the tower. (another thrilling moment) Pretty weather and huge fields of grass gave me the feels.

I think this game is at its best when you are slowly proceeding through an area on foot and searching for interesting things just off the beaten path. I wonder if it's a coincidence that some of the magic felt lost when I hopped on a horse and rode to one of the first two villages. Up until that point the game was giving me feelings I haven't felt since Mario 64.

I've played several open world games leading up to this such as FFXV and Xenoblade Chronicles X. I loved XCX so I'm happy to know that team contributed to this amazing game. XCX and Zelda really highlight what FFXV does wrong so I don't think I'll ever be going back to it.

The Switch console itself has really made this an enjoyable experience. A hard to put down game has become an impossible to put down game.

 

[boxter432]

So I got my

Spoiler

master sword

last night. I love it. I think I may try to go to my first dungeon tonight.

Do you get anything for completing dungeons? Should I try to tackle them in any particular order?

yes you get things for completing dungeons, and I believe some more sidequests open up in the town/city affected.

 

[Muffin Awesome]

congrats! few tips:

turn on pro hud straightaway
play smart, don't just go thru the motions - especially battle
follow the main quest till you fully unlock your slate
go nuts

Pro hud?

Continue informing please.

 

[Abandapart82]

Is there a quest to get the master sword and Hylian shield or do you just have to stumble upon it? I don't need to know where it is just curious.

 

[Nosgotham]

Pro hud?

Continue informing please.

Go to options. Turn on Pro mode. Never turn back. Also turn off tracker device. Best experience imo

 

[Nosgotham]

Is there a quest to get the master sword and Hylian shield or do you just have to stumble upon it? I don't need to know where it is just curious.

Regarding the sword, you'll hear a few npc talk about where the legend says the sword is. Not a mission but you gotta talk to people. Or just stumble upon it lol

 

[Kyzon]

any way to keep the

Spoiler

Lord horse

?

Nope, it's not a

Spoiler

horse

so you can't

Is there a quest to get the master sword and Hylian shield or do you just have to stumble upon it? I don't need to know where it is just curious.

There's a quest for the sword. It's where you expect it to be as usual. (lolzelda) I just randomly found the Hylian shield and I'm almost 80 hours in and am just finishing the Divine Beasts. Not sure if there's a quest for the shield but I believe there's another one. Don't rely on my info though, haha

 

[sanstesy]

ALBW is a really easy game as far as death failure, you'd have to really try hard to die in it. It's one of the big problems with it. So you want to try silly stuff out...why don't you just save beforehand? If it's on the overworld, you have plenty of places to save. If it's in a dungeon, well you've already said you think the dungeons are short and easy, so what's your issue again? You make it sound like warping between Link's house and a dungeon is really hard. Youre not making any sense.

I didn't find your initial argument flawed, I just disagree that the dungeons are easier than the shrines and the divine beasts. Most of the shrines and the divine beasts are pretty easy, hell the name of the challenges in shrines telegraph everything. Dungeons have the same rotate the thing to shift a room around, some like Rudania are incredibly simple.

Complaining about having to grind for rupees to buy equipement in a game where you don't need to grind while also lambasting the game for giving you rupees as rewards everywhere is pretty contradictory. You keep making nonsensical complaints for I'm not sure what reason.

Not only did I clearly separate the rupee and encouraging grinding problem, you try too hard to see a contradiction where there is none. Rupees becoming useless is a simple thing that happens in ALBW no matter what because after you spend them on buying the items at any point in the game, they are literally useless rewards as there is nothing else to spend them on (which eitherway happens halfway through, no grinding required!). But here is the other deal! Grinding rupees at the start of the game saves you the tedium of ever having to deal with the awful rental system and the fear of losing them and having to backtrack - which is indeed the thing that happens when you inevitably die! It's a simple thing I have to do. I don't care if you didn't die because the game is baby easy. You should also notice the word "encourage" rupee grinding, I have never said you have to. But the rental mechanic is so useless and tedious that it - indeed - encourages rupee grinding!

Either you understand or don't! Now if you please excuse me, princess.

 

[Kinsei]

Is there a quest to get the master sword and Hylian shield or do you just have to stumble upon it? I don't need to know where it is just curious.

There's a quest to get the Master Sword but you don't get it until

Spoiler

you find the sword. The quest is to just pull it out.

There is no quest for the Hylian Shield.

 

[Hellshy.]

I just finished my 4th shrine and think the gsme is pretty cool. Do you ever get more carry capicity for weapons? I have to admit the weapons break way too fast and it's killing my enjoyment of the game so far. I always just end up using the worst weapons and shields.

 

[Majukun]

Nope, it's not a

Spoiler

horse

so you can't

sad...wanted to keep my

Spoiler

alien-monster-god-thingy

 

[Kyzon]

There was one if the underground passage you took is the same as the one I found. Mine went through the Library, intersected with some docks, and there was a Shrine down there too (a "Major Test of Strength").

!

Oh no, I took a different path, but now I'm curious about yours. I went through a mine shaft with a minecart I rode in, came into the prison area and found a

Spoiler

stalnox

which upon defeating him rewarded me with

Spoiler

A Hylian Shield

sad...wanted to keep my

Spoiler

alien-monster-god-thingy

Me too

The

Spoiler

unlimited stamina

is so good!

 

[Tavernacle12]

Then skip it.

To be fair, it's probably too ambitious to be implemented. I'd be fine with a handful of traditional dungeons instead, so long as they have absolutely no impact on the open world structure of the game and all of the amazing dynamic moments and gameplay systems Nintendo has created.

I think a few 'bonus' dungeons would be really fun. Stuff like

Spoiler

Eventide Island

and the

Spoiler

Black Forest Shrine

(I forget it's actual name) have gotten lots of applause from the community and I personally really enjoyed the

Spoiler

ancient ruins full of Guardians

,

Spoiler

island labyrinth

, and

Spoiler

that one shrine that was almost an actual dungeon complete with plenty of enemies

.

I don't think the game needs a full on Fire or Water temple or anything, but a Forest Temple (an old manor in the woods to stumble upon) or Snowpeak Ruins (another grand castle/manor to explore) would have been fun additions to the game, and both of these examples at least offer various ways in and out and the opportunities for larger scale boss battles and what have you. The

Spoiler

Faron

region, with its huge tropical ruins, feels like there really ought to be something hidden away in the mountains somewhere.

 

[Muffin Awesome]

Go to options. Turn on Pro mode. Never turn back. Also turn off tracker device. Best experience imo

At work, high level what does it do?

 

[Nyoro SF]

I just finished my 4th shrine and think the gsme is pretty cool. Do you ever get more carry capicity for weapons? I have to admit the weapons break way too fast and it's killing my enjoyment of the game so far. I always just end up using the worst weapons and shields.

Early game weapons and shields are just burners. Use them, smash them then pick up the discarded enemy weapons left over. Sneak up on enemy camps and steal their weapons before they can pick them up. Use magnet power to kill enemies without using any resources and pick up the leftovers.

Once you reach midgame you'll have the opposite problem. There will be so many good weapons you won't know what to do and you'll have to toss good weapons away to make room for weapons that have good utility.

And yes, there will be a way to upgrade your inventory slots later.

 

[Kinsei]

At work, high level what does it do?

It turns off some Hud elements like the weather tracker. Turning off the weather tracker is a really dumb thing to do.

 

[MiamiWesker]

There's tons of stuff like this.

A few days ago,

Spoiler

I stumbled upon a pitch black forest and had to use fire to make my way through. If your torch goes out, you can see literally nothing.

But I agree even more content like this would be great in a follow-up.

There is more than just eventide to be sure, but I would have expected one thing like that per region. I explored quite a few regions where it was nothing but the usual stuff you see everywhere else (obviously shrines help with the variety) Again the gameplay makes all of it fun but it's not that memorable.

 

[Akiyama_AE]

Just beat the game it was great, but is there anything out there tougher than a Lynel?.

 

[Abandapart82]

I just finished my 4th shrine and think the gsme is pretty cool. Do you ever get more carry capicity for weapons? I have to admit the weapons break way too fast and it's killing my enjoyment of the game so far. I always just end up using the worst weapons and shields.

Sounds like you're pretty early. Yes you get more storage but it's tied to

Spoiler

Korok Seeds, there little puzzles you find in the open world and you trade in those seeds to special vender you encounter

and you'll find better and cooler weapons.

 

[Nosgotham]

I just finished my 4th shrine and think the gsme is pretty cool. Do you ever get more carry capicity for weapons? I have to admit the weapons break way too fast and it's killing my enjoyment of the game so far. I always just end up using the worst weapons and shields.

Yes. You can upgrade weapon, shield slots. As you fight tougher enemies you get weapons, shield that last much longer. Youre supposed to feel weak and powerless to the world right now. As you play, you will get stronger and would stronger weapons

 

[grap3fruitman]

So I'm just starting out... I got out of the cave at the start and headed towards the skull cave with the three baddies off to the side and died pretty easily. Any pointers for starting off?

 

[Nosgotham]

It turns off some Hud elements like the weather tracker. Turning off the weather tracker is a really dumb thing to do.

Why is it dumb? I've never had it on.

 

[Tavernacle12]

Just beat the game it was great, but is there anything out there tougher than a Lynel?.

Did you

Spoiler

discover the secret room in the north east island labyrinth with like 20 Guardians in it and wake them all up at once?

 

[Akuun]

What's the pro hud?

I didn't even bother fighting him. I just snuck around avoiding him and collected the 20 shock arrows from the area and made a run for it. It's those moments of freedom of choice that make BOTW so awesome!

Indeed! I didn't even know

Spoiler

there were already arrows in the area. I thought I was supposed to lure him into shooting arrows at me until I collected enough of them... except I suck at stealth lol. He caught me right away.

I couldn't have taken the guy on if I didn't have that food on me, so I figured he had to be optional because the game never suggested that I should take the guy head-on.

That was the most fun combat encounter I've had in the game so far. Actually, I've had a blood moon or two since then, so I bet I can go take him on again...

 

[Kinsei]

Why is it dumb? I've never had it on.

Because then you can't when it's going to rain. In the early game when you don't have a lot of stamina and

Spoiler

Revali's Gale

it makes trying to climb a mountain a crap shoot. You could make it or it could start raining halfway through and stop you. It's better to know if it's going to rain so you don't bother wasting your time.

 

[Hellshy.]

Early game weapons and shields are just burners. Use them, smash them then pick up the discarded enemy weapons left over. Sneak up on enemy camps and steal their weapons before they can pick them up. Use magnet power to kill enemies without using any resources and pick up the leftovers.

Once you reach midgame you'll have the opposite problem. There will be so many good weapons you won't know what to do and you'll have to toss good weapons away to make room for weapons that have good utility.

And yes, there will be a way to upgrade your inventory slots later.

OK sounds good. I really wasn't sure just how many weapons were in the game. Still be nice if they didn't break so fast but maybee instead of constantly having to go to inventory I'll do what u suggested and just pick them up as I fight. Do the better weapons degrade slower?

 

[Nosgotham]

Did you

Spoiler

discover the secret room in the north east island labyrinth with like 20 Guardians in it and wake them all up at once?

That was a pretty intense moment that somehow I survived. Great reward too

 

[WordAssassin]

But while I'm at it...
I haven't reached it yet, but from the impressions I've read, I take Eventide to be at least inspired by

Spoiler

Homer's Odyssey—the capture on the cyclops' island, in particular. In keeping with this, I thought it would be cool to have a sort of maze out on the water (as there are labyrinths, including the Lost Woods, on land)... a raft would be required. Link sets off from a beach, toward a dark area on the water. A fog settles over him, and a soft voice begin to sing something familiar to long time Zelda players (Zelda's theme?); the player must head in the direction of this voice, and use its increasing volume to guide the way. Eventually he makes it a clear area, where there is perhaps a shipwreck, and where the song is loudest. He leaves his raft, and climbs aboard the ship, where he is ambushed by sirens.

This is a super cool idea but they can't do something that relies only on sound, there would have to be some kind of visual cue as well. Personally I play a lot of the time with the volume off or down very low but for people that are hearing impaired or deaf they'd need some kind of visual thing to follow as well. Maybe floating musical notes?

 

[Akiyama_AE]

Did you

Spoiler

discover the secret room in the north east island labyrinth with like 20 Guardians in it and wake them all up at once?

I skipped that maze LOL

 

[Aaronrules380]

Just beat the game it was great, but is there anything out there tougher than a Lynel?.

Harder lynels

 

[Kyzon]

Did you

Spoiler

discover the secret room in the north east island labyrinth with like 20 Guardians in it and wake them all up at once?

That was such an amazing place. So intense. It's where I learned to parry, hahaha.

 

[Nosgotham]

Because then you can't when it's going to rain. In the early game when you don't have a lot of stamina and

Spoiler

Revali's Gale

it makes trying to climb a mountain a crap shoot. You could make it or it could start raining halfway through and stop you. It's better to know if it's going to rain so you don't bother wasting your time.

I disagree.i think fighting the elements is part of the joy of the game.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Not only did I clearly separate the rupee and encouraging grinding problem, you try too hard to see a contradiction where there is none. Rupees becoming useless is a simple thing that happens in ALBW no matter what because after you spend them on buying the items at any point in the game, they are literally useless rewards as there is nothing else to spend them on (which eitherway happens halfway through, no grinding required!). But here is the other deal! Grinding rupees at the start of the game saves you the tedium of ever having to deal with the awful rental system and the fear of losing them and having to backtrack - which is indeed the thing that happens when you inevitably die! It's a simple thing I have to do. I don't care if you didn't die because the game is baby easy. You should also notice the word "encourage" rupee grinding, I have never said you have to. But the rental mechanic is so useless and tedious that it - indeed - encourages rupee grinding!

Either you understand or don't! Now if you please excuse me, princess.

I'm not really trying hard at all here, I mean you're saying things that are in complete conflict with each other. Of course youre going to run out of much use for a currency once you buy everything, that's a given within any game. So is your issue that the game still gives you rupees at all after the halfway point? Which is what, 5 or 6 dungeons in? Maybe if you played normally instead of grinding out of some weird fear of dying in a game with plentiful save points and enemies that do very little damage, you'd have a use for those rupee rewards in those later dungeons. The game doesn't encourage rupee grinding, that's pretty much all you.

I understand that you don't want to talk about this anymore, so have it your way.

 

[Regginator]

So I beat the Vah Ruta temple, and ehh..... that was very underwhelming, way too short and pretty easy. This is not how I envisioned the main dungeons to be in BOTW. I hope the other three are better, longer and more challenging. It would be a shame if this would turn out to be like Majora's Mask, overall great game, crap dungeons (aside from STT).

 

[MadLaughter]

Just started a second inventory page for gear/clothes, is that infinite?

 

[Talka]

Finished it last night. I completed pretty much everything outside the Korok seeds.

I enjoyed it!

I'd give the first ~8 hours a 10/10 and the last ~30 hours a 7/10. That initial feeling of exploring and interacting dynamically with the environment was a blast. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the game evolved much after the initial hours. The only things that changed were the look of the terrain and increased enemy health and damage. Combat mechanics and world traversal mechanics were almost identical at hour 4 and hour 40, and the only thing that kept me going was my completionist habit. There were maybe five basic enemy types across 98% of the map, which is a shame since I looooved the moments when I encountered new enemies like Lynels and Hinoxs, or the moment when I finally learned to take down Guardians. But those moments were tucked between ~30 hours of the same stuff I encountered in the tutorial area.

Other major annoyances: low draw distance and occasional framerate issues, unmemorable story with a non-entity for a villain, terrible voice acting, and the same forgettable music on loop for 90% of the game. Other minor annoyances: repetitive shrines (so many tests of strength...), excessive weapon management, and occasional control frustrations when jumping and gliding.

I liked the dungeons. I agree with others who prefer the puzzle progressions of older games' dungeons, but I'm a sucker for giant creatures and enjoyed each one even if they were suuuper easy and short. A couple areas had memorable music. I liked the armor and horse systems. Minor NPCs were well-written and had fun side quests. Hyrule castle was neat. Loved the overall art direction.

Among 3D Zeldas I've played, I'd rank it behind Majora's Mask and Wind Waker, on par with Ocarina of Time, and ahead of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. Despite BotW's "main thing" being the environment... I felt a greater sense of exploration and wonder with MM and WW. Despite being smaller and less dynamic, I just felt those worlds had more character.

Looking forward to whatever comes next, whether its DLC, a MM-style sequel, or something totally new.

 

[SciencePilot]

So I'm just starting out... I got out of the cave at the start and headed towards the skull cave with the three baddies off to the side and died pretty easily. Any pointers for starting off?

You don't have to fight everything is my main tip. It's a scary world, and sneaking/running is 100% legit strategy.

Also, if you get too frustrated doing one thing, then just go do something else and come back later.

 

[Kinsei]

Just started a second inventory page for gear/clothes, is that infinite?

Yes.

 

[Kingpin Rogers]

Man the Shrine Sensor is so bad. It just seems random and never actually indicates the direction you'll need to go. I'll be following it when it's full strength and it'll just all of a sudden go to no strength in every direction. Useless.

 

[Brandon F]

It turns off some Hud elements like the weather tracker. Turning off the weather tracker is a really dumb thing to do.

I'm struggling to think of a sound reason as to why the tracker even exists at all.

"I see snow and frost up ahead and Link is standing here shivering and losing hearts by the second, one sec let me check my weather tracker!"

 

[Neoweee]

Just started a second inventory page for gear/clothes, is that infinite?

Yes. There's no limit. You can't even drop clothes.

 

[Kinsei]

I'm struggling to think of a sound reason as to why the tracker even exists at all.

"I see snow and frost up ahead and Link is standing here shivering and losing hearts by the second, one sec let me check my weather tracker!"

It's sunny right now, I wonder if I should climb this mountain, I should check the tracker. Oh, I see it will rain pretty soon so I guess I'll come back to this once the rain passes.

 

[Red]

I'm struggling to think of a sound reason as to why the tracker even exists at all.

"I see snow and frost up ahead and Link is standing here shivering and losing hearts by the second, one sec let me check my weather tracker!"

In the same, man. So much redundant info on the display. At least it isn't nearly as bad as the abomination in Skyward Sword.

 

[MadLaughter]

Yes. There's no limit. You can't even drop clothes.

Yes.

Thanks guys!