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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild |OT2| It's 98 All Over Again

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If you want to fight silver lynels with good armor then it's very worth it. The upgrade from rank 3 to rank 4 defense values is huge and much bigger than the first three rank ups.

I also found the rank 4 upgrade materials for
Ancient Armor
were easier than the rank 2 and rank 3 upgrades. So the only cost is finding the rupees, which takes 1-2 hours of hunt grinding.
 
Man is 10,000 Rupees for the
Great Fairy
even worth it?

Selling a bunch of gems, i have enough, but I'm not really going for 100% or anything. Do you get anything special for getting all of them?

I was real surprised by how worth it it was. The final upgrade nearly doubled the armor value of some of my pieces. Level 3 Climbing gear is 12, Level 4 is 20. Level 4 Ancient or Soldier stuff is **28**.
 
Just finished my final Divine Beast. Man,
Thunderblight Ganon
is a pain in the ass. It took me probably 6 or 7 attempts before I was able to take him down. That was the only boss I had problems with in this game so far.

I'm going to run a few more errands in the game, including the
master sword
, and then go take on Ganon.
 
Read the bolded again and be ashamed of your words & deeds.

Now stop dude. It's enough.
I have. Maybe you should read the post again, if rupees rewards aren't enough, buy stuff at the half way point. That you grinded is your own problem.

Now please, take your own advice.
 
You can fast travel even to shrines you didn't complete.

Sounds like you rushed through the game honestly. I'm over 60 hours in, did only 2 dungeons and i keep finding new interesting shit that makes me go "holy fuck" pretty regularly, not to mention that the gameplay keeps getting better as you get to experiment more and more with the new systems. I didn't even set foot into like 1/3 of the map yet.

I'm also curious to know if other open world games (including Wind Waker) gave you a different "feel" about exploration between 4 hours and 40. Honestly the only one i can think of is Xenoblade Chronicles X, thanks to the introduction of the Skells at a certain point in the game, but Zelda manages to outdo everything else even if only for
Revali's power
and (even more so) due to how much the map can vary in terms of verticality and geography between areas, which encourages different ways to traverse. Same goes with fighting enemies: thanks to level design, how weapon durability encourages you to use different weapons and change your approach to fights, and obviously the runes/physics, i feel that it's pretty hard to get into too many that feel too similar, unlike any other open world title. I feel that the game always gives you as many options as possible to explore different approaches and exploit different possibilities, both in terms of traversal and fights, so from my experience i find it pretty odd that you had these issues in this game, of all games (especially considering how open world usually are with these aspects), just because of how it works at its foundation.

What, every zelda game except has a different feel in all it's locations throughout its 40-50 hours. Sure it's mostly gated but that's why it's always introducing new concepts and gameplay mechanics, actual new things to explore and do. Not the same korok puzzle 50 times or another camp with the sane 8 enemies over again.
 
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
stalnox
which upon defeating him rewarded me with
A Hylian Shield
The way I went in didn't have a mine cart. It certainly didn't reward me for my troubles with one of those. That's on my to-do list.

You got 120 shrines in 40 hours with no guide? That's crazy!

Teach me your ways
No kidding! I'm at roughly 35 hours and have finished just under half (50 someodd) of the Shrines. I've put stamps on a few of the ones I've found to come back to later; those are all "Major Test of Strength" ones. I hate having to chew through 3-4 weapons and a shit-ton of arrows to beat them.
 
Well, I'm a fan of open-world games like Skyrim and Fallout, where the primary content is quest and story-driven and focuses on world-building. Those games are a lot easier for developers to keep fresh so long as the writing's good. BotW's primary content is its gameplay, which is understandably harder to keep fresh over 40+ hours. I have similar problems with the Assassin's Creed franchise, where there's no real sense of progression beyond completionist upgrades. Some open-world action-adventure games manage this, though... I like the gameplay of the Crackdown and Just Cause franchises, for example (although they have other problems).

I agree about Revali's Gale. That's exactly the sort of progression that was fun for me. And I enjoyed encountering Lynels and Hinoxs, and that one island in the southeast was a lot of fun. But mostly I disagree that the map differed much between areas outside of aesthetics. And I didn't find the weapons and enemies to be particularly diverse.

Like i said though, i don't get how. The introduction of the heat/cold system makes you reconsider how exploration works in certain areas, especially if you don't have equipment that is especially good in helping you handle those temperatures because potions don't last forever. The map varies between large plains, mountains that extend greatly in terms of verticality with several different heights (and they also get colder and colder the more you go up, so potions can protect your ass only to a certain extent, then you have to figure something else out), canyons, deserts, intricated forests... i mean the difference between areas like
Faron Woods, Hyrule Field, Zora's Domain and the mountains
is giant in terms of how you approach exploration because level design is so different, and the many interconnected gameplay systems do the rest. The result is a map that actually feels different and made of unique - although seamlessly interconnected - areas, while the thing you noted ("aesthetics are the only difference") is something that actually happens in games like Skyrim, where between Whiterun and Riften the only thing that changes is how the region looks.

Other games, although *partially*, try to do what BotW does, like for example The Witcher 3. If you played it, think of how Skellige feels compared to Velen/Novigrad: there's much more verticality, mountains and water because of what kind of territory that is. The problem though is that the game does it horribly, because the gameplay system isn't built with a certain type of exploration in mind, so it takes ages on your little boat to get to another island (with virtually nothing in between to keep you interested), and the verticality of some parts of the map only gets in the way of you getting from A to B, but there's no challenge or reward in overcoming it - it's just annoying, and it's the reason why for as much as i love its music and aesthetics, i hated exploring Skellige compared to Velen. So i'd say that the problem you had with how the world feels in Breath of the Wild is actually the problem that most other open world games have, and Zelda fixes it.

Same goes for enemies and weapons. You have light weapons that deal less damage but are really fast and have more reach, others more balanced and others heavy and slow. With some you can use your shield at the same time, with others you can't because you need both hands to handle them. I felt many time that changing my weapon actually helped during fights. For example, using heavy weapons against the slow Hinox is ok, while trying to use them against the super fast Lizalfos means it's easier to get your ass kicked. Especially if they have a long weapon, it's not advised to go against them with a short weapon, otherwise they'll hit you many more times. Not to mention the bow, which helps you exploiting stealth mechanics and has all those different kind of arrows that are especially useful to deal elemental damage (which is a thing, try to shoot fire to an ice enemy), not to mention the rods in this regard. This is without touching the physics system and the runes, because you can create tons and tons of other unique situations without even using your weapons. This isn't something that the typical open world games do, so again, i found odd to read complaints about it in the only open world game where fights don't feel the same.

What, every zelda game except has a different feel in all it's locations throughout its 40-50 hours. Sure it's mostly gated but that's why it's always introducing new concepts and gameplay mechanics, actual new things to explore and do. Not the same korok puzzle 50 times or another camp with the sane 8 enemies over again.

Did you actually read my post? I said "other open world games including Wind Waker" because of how WW works, not "every Zelda game with restricted areas designed to be different". In fact, thanks - BotW feels much like those, but bigger, seamless and with more possibilities throughout each area (instead of being limited to exploit some new gameplay situations in the specific area that introduces them) thanks to its expanded gameplay. Especially story related places like
Zora's Domain
have exactly that kind of feel, to the point that while doing it i was thinking "lol at those people saying that this doesn't feel like Zelda", and i even posted this in the other thread.
 
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. And use your other tools too. Using your sword alone to fight will leave you lots of grief.
 
So another question, can you have two separate games/saves? I've beaten the main story quests in the game and wanted to know if my brother could do a separate save/game. Or will it just overwrite mine?
 
Sad map spoilers :(

Ranch Ruins. The attention to detail is pretty great, even located at the same place on the map relative to Hyrule Castle and Death Mountain. But to see it like that...
 
BTW zelda 1 costume is amazing. The real way to play the game. But you need Star fragments to upgrade if, I ran to one last night and as I was about to pick it up, it vanished. I was crushed. Now at night I sit at towers looking for falling stars.
 
So, how do you dodge a lightning strike charging on you? My auto-save has me at a point where a lightning strike is about to happen to me so I'm just constantly dying to it and spawning in the same condition. I can't seem to escape it no matter what I try or where I go.
 
Hmm really? Some of the few reviews I read only mention the memories as being the story. They were spoiler free reviews tho. I guess they didn't mention it since they expected you to go there.

Well I'll come back later. I'm not a fan of open world games and I just don't want to burn myself out. After 35 hours I was almost at that point. Felt the needed to beat it and set it down for later.

Memories are backstory and the dungeons help give context and enrich them. There are additional cutscenes and memories in each dungeon as well. Not only that but each dungeon has their own arc apart from the main story that are interesting and you encounter a lot of awesome characters and missions along the way. Its always fun to see how completing a divine beast affects the world around you.

Plus the main quests have some of the best characters, music and moments in the game, and the dungeons themselves are really fun to go through, even though some might be easier than others. When you're ready to jump back in, I highly recommend going through them. Otherwise your experience will be left incomplete.

I'm not the biggest fan of open world either so I also struggled with the balance and creating an "itinerary" for this game. I felt like I had to do a lot of planning to maximize my enjoyment. That became too much of a burden so I just simply did whatever I felt like and when I got bored, I did something else.

Just cycling between main quest, side quest, shrine discovery, shrine completion, exploration, and just sandboxing in the world. 70 hours later and about half of the main quest done, I'm still having a good time.
 
So, how do you dodge a lightning strike charging on you? My auto-save has me at a point where a lightning strike is about to happen to me so I'm just constantly dying to it and spawning in the same condition. I can't seem to escape it no matter what I try or where I go.
Fast travel away?
 
So, how do you dodge a lightning strike charging on you? My auto-save has me at a point where a lightning strike is about to happen to me so I'm just constantly dying to it and spawning in the same condition. I can't seem to escape it no matter what I try or where I go.

You don't, it's attracted to the metal you've got equipped.
 
So, how do you dodge a lightning strike charging on you? My auto-save has me at a point where a lightning strike is about to happen to me so I'm just constantly dying to it and spawning in the same condition. I can't seem to escape it no matter what I try or where I go.

It's your metal gear.
(Metal... Gear??)
If you go into inventory, you can see sparks on stuff that's attracting it. Don't forget to check your bows.
 
Has anyone gotten any update on when to expect the Deluxe Edition strategy guide? It's been sitting at March 31 forever on Amazon, but nobody else seems to have a date and Amazon's seems like a generic placeholder.
 
Decided to finally climb the Dueling Peaks. It took me all (in-game) night, so as soon as I made it to the top I was greeted by a beautiful sunrise and a subtle piano melody.

It's all about the little moments, man.
 
Did you actually read my post? I said "other open world games including Wind Waker" because of how WW works, not "every Zelda game with restricted areas designed to be different". In fact, thanks - BotW feels much like those, but bigger, seamless and with more possibilities thanks to its expanded gameplay throughout each area instead of being limited to exploit some new gameplay situations in the specific area that introduces them. Especially story related areas like
Zora's Domain
have exactly that kind of feel, to the point that while doing it i was thinking "lol at those people saying that this doesn't feel like Zelda", and i even posted it in the other thread.

Yeah you are saying most games lose that sense of doing something new after 40 hours, but I would argue almost none of the zelda games do, except this one. I always felt zelda games were 40-50 hours of pure non stop brilliance, excellent variety, level design, puzzles, exploration, a nice balance of it all. This a lot bigger so it's a lot less focused. Plus because you have all the tools at the start of the game there aren't many surpirises along the way.

I loved the game at first, then like 30 hours in I felt like I figured out the game. I could see how they just placed a korok puzzle there, a hiniox there, another enemy camp there, a shrine riddle here, a stable there, the same few enemies over and over. The magic of what i get from zelda games which is I know every single new location I go into will bring some new gameplay situation or new game mechanic is gone.

Now that I have accepted tha 60 hours later I am enjoying it a lot more. The main quests are still great. Every once in a while you do stumble into something unique but it's no where near as common as in past zelda games. But of course past zelda games never had core gameplay mechanics this good. So it's a trade off, and I think different people value different aspects of game design so that's going to shape the different opinions.
 
Did you actually read my post? I said "other open world games including Wind Waker" because of how WW works, not "every Zelda game with restricted areas designed to be different". In fact, thanks - BotW feels much like those, but bigger, seamless and with more possibilities thanks to its expanded gameplay throughout each area instead of being limited to exploit some new gameplay situations in the specific area that introduces them. Especially story related areas like
Zora's Domain
have exactly that kind of feel, to the point that while doing it i was thinking "lol at those people saying that this doesn't feel like Zelda", and i even posted it in the other thread.
Not every open world game is focused on exploration, so they don't need to keep this aspect fresh in order to stay entertaining. Games like BotW however, have nothing but their exploration to offer. Which means that once the magic is gone, by which I mean that you start seeing the building blocks the world is made of, it's all over. Every stone circle, every enemy skull cave camp, even the shrines are a constant reminder that you are playing an open world game that needed to be filled with recycled content. It gets tiring after some time and considering how big the world is, there just are not enough Eventide Islands and Yiga Hideouts to keep things fresh.
 
You can make 10,000 Rupees in about 30-45 minutes consistently, I wouldn't sweat it.

Mind sharing how? I must be doing something very wrong. Most I've ever had at one point was about 1,500... most the time I run around with a few hundred.
 
Decided to finally climb the Dueling Peaks. It took me all (in-game) night, so as soon as I made it to the top I was greeted by a beautiful sunrise and a subtle piano melody.

It's all about the little moments, man.
Nintendo magic. Stuff like that is what banks up the score to a 10/10 rather than frame rate dips.
 
Yeah you are saying most games lose that sense of doing something new after 40 hours, but I would argue almost none of the zelda games do, except this one. I always felt zelda games were 40-50 hours of pure non stop brilliance, excellent variety, level design, puzzles, exploration, a nice balance of it all. This a lot bigger so it's a lot less focused. Plus because you have all the tools at the start of the game there aren't many surpirises along the way.

I loved the game at first, then like 30 hours in I felt like I figured out the game. I could see how they just placed a korok puzzle there, a hiniox there, another enemy camp there, a shrine riddle here, a stable there, the same few enemies over and over. The magic of what i get from zelda games which is I know every single new location I go into will bring some new gameplay situation or new game mechanic is gone.

Now that I have accepted tha 60 hours later I am enjoying it a lot more. The main quests are still great. Every once in a while you do stumble into something unique but it's no where near as common as in past zelda games. But of course past zelda games never had core gameplay mechanics this good. So it's a trade off, and I think different people value different aspects of game design so that's going to shape the different opinions.
Yeah and I wasn't bashing older entries of my favorite series, i was saying that this game manages to keep most of the feeling that you're playing a Zelda game throughout a much larger adventure, which is no easy task. It doesn't happen 100% of the time (but it's also true that there could be some less good parts in older games of the series, which are also way shorter than this one, so i guess that should be taken into account as well), but at the same time the core systems are much better, so i agree on that part of your post. I find the way you're describing the koroks puzzles and the enemy camps to be way too dismissive though, as they're usually much better than how you make them sound like, and especially since that's far from being all that the game has to offer.

Not every open world game is focused on exploration, so they don't need to keep this aspect fresh in order to stay entertaining. Games like BotW however, have nothing but their exploration to offer. Which means that once the magic is gone, by which I mean that you start seeing the building blocks the world is made of, it's all over. Every stone circle, every enemy skull cave camp, even the shrines are a constant reminder that you are playing an open world game that needed to be filled with recycled content. It gets tiring after some time and considering how big the world is, there just are not enough Eventide Islands and Yiga Hideouts to keep things fresh.
This is just not true at all.
 
I love accidentally stumbling into Major Test of Strength shrines, LOL.

After meandering around the world map for a while, even reaching the edge of the Hebra province, it's amazing how ugly the Great Plateau is in comparison. It gives people a terrible impression of how gorgeous the art style in this game actually is. Feels like playing a dream sometimes.
 
Mind sharing how? I must be doing something very wrong. Most I've ever had at one point was about 1,500... most the time I run around with a few hundred.

Bowling game is a sure fire way if you can find the sweet spot
Ore mining, Talus hunting and selling the gems


My favorite is hunting in the far north.headshot the wildlife and the will drop 2 to 3 prime or gourmet meat and will freeze. They sell for 40 (frozen gourmet meat) and 28 (prime)

An hour of exploring up there nets you bank when you go sell all that frozen meat.
 
Oh dang selling meat is a good idea. I have so many hearts at this point that it's pointless to eat anything that isn't Hearty.
 
So for the main quest in Zora's Domain
I had to go up the mountain and fight that Lynel. I tried it a few times with my best swords and bomb arrows and I barely hurt him and he..... He just one shotted me constantly.

Then I decided to sneak around a bit, see if there's something. Yup, I saw a few shock arrows and sure enough I eventually got all 20 of them.

Am I a wuss for this or did you guys do the same? Be honest! :)
 
So for the main quest in Zora's Domain
I had to go up the mountain and fight that Lynel. I tried it a few times with my best swords and bomb arrows and I barely hurt him and he..... He just one shotted me constantly.

Then I decided to sneak around a bit, see if there's something. Yup, I saw a few shock arrows and sure enough I eventually got all 20 of them.

Am I a wuss for this or did you guys do the same? Be honest! :)

That's what you're supposed to do, the game tells you as much.

I fought him though, because I am a mad man.
 
It's your metal gear.
(Metal... Gear??)
If you go into inventory, you can see sparks on stuff that's attracting it. Don't forget to check your bows.

Funny story. I didn't figure this out and had to stand inside a well during a thunderstorm to avoid getting struck.
 
So for the main quest in Zora's Domain
I had to go up the mountain and fight that Lynel. I tried it a few times with my best swords and bomb arrows and I barely hurt him and he..... He just one shotted me constantly.

Then I decided to sneak around a bit, see if there's something. Yup, I saw a few shock arrows and sure enough I eventually got all 20 of them.

Am I a wuss for this or did you guys do the same? Be honest! :)

I killed it. Then again I had already killed one out in the world so it wasn't a big deal to me.
 
Bowling game is a sure fire way if you can find the sweet spot
Ore mining, Talus hunting and selling the gems


My favorite is hunting in the far north.headshot the wildlife and the will drop 2 to 3 prime or gourmet meat and will freeze. They sell for 40 (frozen gourmet meat) and 28 (prime)

An hour of exploring up there nets you bank when you go sell all that frozen meat.

Yeah this is how I have been getting money. At this point it is just to fund mass arrow purchases. But 10k within an hour is not a hard thing to achieve if you do the Talus hunting and a combination of food prep and sales.
Some food dishes net massive bank. I think the Endura carrot dish goes for 420+ (not sure its been a few days)
 
Older Zelda games aren't 40 hour games for a first playthrough, nevermind 50 hours. Where do you people pull these numbers from?

I took my sweet time with Skyward Sword. Took me around 42-45 hours on my first playthrough. Though a lot of those hours weren't productive since I just didnt want the game the end so I tried to visit every nook and cranny without much to show for it.

I love accidentally stumbling into Major Test of Strength shrines, LOL.

After meandering around the world map for a while, even reaching the edge of the Hebra province, it's amazing how ugly the Great Plateau is in comparison. It gives people a terrible impression of how gorgeous the art style in this game actually is. Feels like playing a dream sometimes.

Seriously. Every new region you unlock is more glorious than the other. I thought the Wasteland and Gerudo Highlands were boring chunks of rock but there are lots of neat details and pathways waiting to be discovered.
 
So for the main quest in Zora's Domain
I had to go up the mountain and fight that Lynel. I tried it a few times with my best swords and bomb arrows and I barely hurt him and he..... He just one shotted me constantly.

Then I decided to sneak around a bit, see if there's something. Yup, I saw a few shock arrows and sure enough I eventually got all 20 of them.

Am I a wuss for this or did you guys do the same? Be honest! :)

You're no wuss :P
 
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