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

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brandonh83 said:
On the other hand it would feel kind of shitty to wait years for this game, finally get it, be disappointed with the dungeons, and Nintendo being like oh sorry but here's what you're looking for but you have to pay more money for them.

I mean I'd do it, I've actually already bought the expansion pass because I'm a Zelda whore but I do think that'd kind of suck.
Click to expand...

It does suck but they nailed almost everything else so i'm content with the base game even though i'm gutted that it doesn't include more unique dungeon content.
If the DLC does fill that dungeon void with a few unique dungeons and new enemies then i'll be more than prepared to pay extra for it.

Half of me thinks they should really just not do any DLC, instead spend 2-3 years and do a similar title to majora's mask.
Reuse all the assets from breath of the wild, shrink the world a little and focus a little more on dungeons and add new enemies.

They spent so long creating this game and all the assets that it seems such a huge waste to move straight on to a completely different title again.
 
It's only now that I have realized that you haven't played this game to the fullest, if you haven't run around with the sheikah outfit, armed with a katana-like sword to the backdrop of a full moon by night!
 
ridley182 said:
I liked the beasts I've completed thus far, but I mean I wouldn't say no to traditional dungeons obviously.
Click to expand...

I like them. I would just feel better about them if they had a few more series staples in them, like minibosses, better/different bosses, more puzzles. I know that there's this argument going around that it's fine that they changed things up because things need to evolve or whatever and I agree with that sentiment, but the problem here is that, IMO, what they've done isn't a better trade. Show me a better trade and I'll roll with it. The beasts are a very cool and interesting concept, but the execution wasn't there and they absolutely made me miss traditional aspects.

Get it to where I don't miss old things and I'll happily roll. That did not happen here. I don't want change for the sake of change; they wanted to throw out certain staples and do new shit. That's totally cool but in this case it did not result in something even remotely superior. They're okay enough on their own and visually dazzling especially with how you can see the outside world from within and how the day/night cycle still applies and changes the atmosphere, but I'm still largely bugged about the things I've noted.
 
I got to the Lost Woods an it is super easy to get through it taking into account what the guy from the stable near it tells you. But I have a questionabout something that you find in there:

How many hearts should you have to pull out the Master Sword? I have 10 and I can't make it.
 
Here is someone beating that first Lynel really early on.

They have pretty mad dodging skills. There is an easier method if you wait a while later in the game than this to
use stasis+ on him then shoot him in the face with a shock arrow to make an opening.
And the most potent attack+ elixirs you can manage would also help since your weapons break so easily.
 
tauroxd said:
I got to the Lost Woods an it is super easy to get through it taking into account what the guy from the stable near it tells you. But I have a questionabout something that you find in there:

How many hearts should you have to pull out the Master Sword? I have 10 and I can't make it.
Click to expand...

You need
13
 
Dice said:
Here is someone beating that first Lynel really early on.

They have pretty mad dodging skills. There is an easier method if you wait a while later in the game than this to
use stasis+ on him then shoot him in the face with a shock arrow to make an opening.
And the most potent attack+ elixirs you can manage would also help since your weapons break so easily.
Click to expand...

To add onto the video,
after they do that charging lung move they leave themselves open to be mounted where you can just wail on them for a while. You'll take damage if you run out of stamina but you'll usually automatically jump off after doing enough damage before getting kicked off.

Also, the fireballs are perfect opportunities to abuse focus by using the updraft to paraglide up and fire at its head to stun it. In that case, if you have a good 2h weapon, it's better to channel a charge attack rather than mount it.
 
tauroxd said:
I got to the Lost Woods an it is super easy to get through it taking into account what the guy from the stable near it tells you. But I have a questionabout something that you find in there:

How many hearts should you have to pull out the Master Sword? I have 10 and I can't make it.
Click to expand...

One more than in the Original.
hqdefault.jpg
 
brandonh83 said:
When I get to a dungeon: "wow this looks so cool, this is fucking awesome!"
When I get out of a dungeon: "ok but for real bring back the traditional dungeons and what the hell was that boss"
Click to expand...
I prefer this setup. You're clearly not going to be able to get 100+ brilliantly designed shrines as well as 4+ huge traditional dungeons. Nor is their need for dungeons to be many-hour affairs when you abandon the structure of a dungeon being designed around a specific item and being 90% of what you use the item for in the game.
Only did one beast so far (Ruta) but it was fantastic and including the lead-up to it (
road to Zora's domain, taking down a Lynel for the first time, very cool battle to enter the dungeon itself
) it was more than enough of an epic undertaking to me. Maybe the others won't be as good but I feel the shrines scratch most of the dungeon-itch for me anyway which is why I'm 60-some hours in and have only done the 1 beast.
 
I don't know if this has been pointed out already (it probably has!) but I felt the need to talk about this because I think it's such a cool detail.

No spoilers here apart from names of landmarks that are revealed when you unlock towers. I haven't even finished the game.

While I'm positive that people have pointed out how landmarks are sometimes named after places and people from previous Zelda games, I noticed that the landmarks named after places from The Minish Cap actually closely match up to the map from that game... if you turn BotW's map to the side.

Minish Cap's map:
V4I1op9.png
Click to expand...

Section of BotW map turned sideways (some Central Hyrule and western Lanayru):
kwjaJbw.png
Click to expand...

As you can see, some of the names have changed slightly, and others are totally different -
Castor Wilds seem to be represented by the Lanayru Wetlands
, for instance. And since Minish Cap was very early in the timeline, perhaps the small body of water that BotW calls
Pico Pond (named after the Picori, another name for the titular Minish)
may have once been named
Lake Hylia
before the Hylian people spread out further across the land.

There's even the moat surrounding Hyrule Castle at the top, which splits into two rivers.
 
Just finished the game (although will go back and do all side quests and finish 120 shines). It does have a few flaws but on the whole I absolutely loved it. It's a thoroughly brilliant game and a VERY brave take on the Zelda series in my eyes.

Spoilerific thoughts about the final boss:
Really liked Calamity Ganon's design - it could have been something out of Stephen King's IT. I am disappointed that this game only gave us Ganon and no Ganondorf though. I love a villain to have some proper characterisation to explain their motivations. As it is, a 'primal evil' just because is a bit of a tired trope and a cop out from writing a compelling antagonist.

It just felt a bit weak to have this uber malevolent force that supposedly brought the kingdom to ruin 100 years ago do nothing but sit in a castle waiting for you to arrive and fight it, even with the whole Zelda seal thing.
 
Anteo said:
I cant test right now but generally just adding 2 or 3 of the key ingredient makes it more effective.

You can also cook under the blood moon get guaranteed critical cooking.

Also clothes and food effect stack. So using anti cold clothes and eating for cold at the same time shoukd work.
Click to expand...

Found one that is really easy that gives you 11:50 of HIGH-level warming.

4
Warm Darner
1 Monster Part
 
Quite possibly the worst story and worst ending to a Zelda game ever, if it weren't for the gameplay, dungeons, shrines, some of the final boss and change up of the series, this would be the worst 3D Zelda.

Luckily the gameplay itself changes everything, 9/10, maybe high 8. So, its not my favourite Zelda, and its not in my top 5 like I thought it would have been.
 
IceDoesntHelp said:
Quite possibly the worst story and worst ending to a Zelda game ever, if it weren't for the gameplay, dungeons, shrines, some of the final boss and change up of the series, this would be the worst 3D Zelda.

Luckily the gameplay itself changes everything, 9/10, maybe high 8. So, its not my favourite Zelda, and its not in my top 5 like I thought it would have been.
Click to expand...

So it's a good game, just not necessarily a good Zelda game?
 
aett said:
I don't know if this has been pointed out already (it probably has!) but I felt the need to talk about this because I think it's such a cool detail.

No spoilers here apart from names of landmarks that are revealed when you unlock towers. I haven't even finished the game.

While I'm positive that people have pointed out how landmarks are sometimes named after places and people from previous Zelda games, I noticed that the landmarks named after places from The Minish Cap actually closely match up to the map from that game... if you turn BotW's map to the side.

Minish Cap's map:


Section of BotW map turned sideways (some Central Hyrule and western Lanayru):


As you can see, some of the names have changed slightly, and others are totally different -
Castor Wilds seem to be represented by the Lanayru Wetlands
, for instance. And since Minish Cap was very early in the timeline, perhaps the small body of water that BotW calls
Pico Pond (named after the Picori, another name for the titular Minish)
may have once been named
Lake Hylia
before the Hylian people spread out further across the land.

There's even the moat surrounding Hyrule Castle at the top, which splits into two rivers.
Click to expand...

I too noticed this and think it's a very cool detail. There's also Veil Falls which is around there as well (by Zora's Domain).

I like to imagine that these locations are, in fact, where MC took place and not just easter eggs. This gets strengthened by the fact that it seems Nintendo was planning Minish-like characters at one point (shown in the making of videos).



On a similar note to this, there's a large stone structure carved into the cliff right where the Canyon Stable is in the Gerudo Highlands area. It's very reminiscent of Gerudo Fortress from OoT, and there's also a "Desert Gateway" (as the game calls it), right next to it that is more or less the official entrance point into Gerudo Desert. This is much like how Gerudo Fortress had the gateway that led to the Haunted Wasteland/Desert Colossus in OoT.
 
I just did the Ishto Soh Shrine ( Bravery's Grasp). Really clever. I was close to solving it in a really obtuse way and would have, had I not figured out the proper method at the last second when I was setting up my bombs. That shrine can be done with nothing but bombs and arrows. It's a time hassle, but it's super cool that that is a secondary solution.
 
tauroxd said:
I got to the Lost Woods an it is super easy to get through it taking into account what the guy from the stable near it tells you. But I have a questionabout something that you find in there:

How many hearts should you have to pull out the Master Sword? I have 10 and I can't make it.
Click to expand...

There's a way to cheese this:
there's a statue in Hateno near the house you can buy, a little gremlin guy. He offers to buy heart and stamina containers from you for 100 rupees, then he'll offer to sell you a container of your choice for 120. So you could sell 3 stamina containers and then buy 3 heart containers, pull the sword, then return to him and make the deal in reverse if you want to return to your status quo. You're out 20 rupees per transaction, but that's nothing. I sold off a bunch of heart containers just for laughs to go fight Lynels on hard mode to force myself to get better at dodges and parries.

I just wish the interface wasn't so clunky. I'd rather just have two sliders and a price than go through the dang dialogue tree for every transaction.
 
One of the loading screen tips mentioned that Lizalfos horns can be used as lightning rods, which would then create an aoe effect with lightning.

So I was fighting a few lizalfos and one of the archers actually shot one of his comrades in the horn with a shock arrow and the aoe managed to hit me.

this fucking game
 
Common Knowledge said:
I too noticed this and think it's a very cool detail. There's also Veil Falls which is around there as well (by Zora's Domain).

I like to imagine that these locations are, in fact, where MC took place and not just easter eggs. This gets strengthened by the fact that it seems Nintendo was planning Minish-like characters at one point (shown in the making of videos).



On a similar note to this, there's a large stone structure carved into the cliff right where the Canyon Stable is in the Gerudo Highlands area. It's very reminiscent of Gerudo Fortress from OoT, and there's also a "Desert Gateway" (as the game calls it), right next to it that is more or less the official entrance point into Gerudo Desert. This is much like how Gerudo Fortress had the gateway that led to the Haunted Wasteland/Desert Colossus in OoT.
Click to expand...

I haven't explored much of the Gerudo area yet, so that's another cool detail they added. My one complaint about the map is that the new areas (most of the stuff on the edges of the map) lack these sorts of touches.
 
Hah, I loved the 'cast a cold shadow' shrine puzzle. Close to 100 shrines done.

Anyone who has the game since launch still at it? I find it's a relaxing game to play after a work day. I just hunt for some shrines/sidequests.

Can you see the Hebra mountain
Leviathan skeleton on the map?
I have the other two
 
pringles said:
I prefer this setup. You're clearly not going to be able to get 100+ brilliantly designed shrines as well as 4+ huge traditional dungeons.
Click to expand...

I'm... honestly not even asking for shrines at all. I didn't want over 100 shrines. They just don't do much for me. They did it because the world is suuuuuuper huuuuuuuge and thought they needed that many dungeon-like things to compensate. Only they're brief spurts of okay-ness that don't really amount to anything satisfying IMO.

I want a smaller world populated by bigger dungeons. I think that would be fantastic. When I say smaller world I don't mean a small world. The thing about the world here is that if you cut it down by even 50% it would still be fucking huge. Have a big open world, great, but to me they made it way too big and tried to compensate with over 100 samey shrines-- sure you do different stuff in them, but after that many it still starts to feel worn out, especially with the same visual aesthetic.

I just think the world size and number of shrines is absolute overkill. They could make a much smaller world and organically work in a number of bigger dungeons and it would feel far more focused and well designed than this does, to me anyway. I don't see a massive-ass open world and think "oh my, what great game design!" When I get to certain subsections like the woods, or the various mazes, I'm much more engaged than I am just out roaming around looking at mountains.

Have some roaming and some mountains! I liked the freedom-- but the freedom here came at a cost IMO :p
 
That map stuff is cool. This game has a real Dark Souls 2 & 3 vibe, where a ton of stuff in the game is like... echoes of previous games without clearly being continuations of them. Except sometimes a location is straight out of a previous game. Zelda's always had that sort of feel with repeated characters and musical motifs but there's something about this one that really escalates that. Might be the location names that put it over the top. Like I clearly remember all the Ocarina of Time sage names but almost all the rest I can't even quite remember which game they're from, even when I can picture them. (I suppose it's mostly been making me realize that Dark Souls had a real Zelda vibe but I just didn't draw that line until now.)

I frequently feel like I'm right on the edge of making some solid connection to a previous game but either I can't remember the detail from the old one or it's actually incoherent. Gives the whole thing a good nostalgia vibe and makes the amnesiac protagonist kind of work. Like Link, I too constantly feel a deja vu I can't quite peg down into anything concrete.
 
Creamium said:
Hah, I loved the 'cast a cold shadow' shrine puzzle. Close to 100 shrines done.

Anyone who has the game since launch still at it? I find it's a relaxing game to play after a work day. I just hunt for some shrines/sidequests.

Can you see the Hebra mountain
Leviathan skeleton on the map?
I have the other two
Click to expand...

That one isn't visible on the map (there actually is an enormous skeleton on the map near Hebra but it doesn't have a skull and its not what you need -- that was super frustrating for me).
 
Brakke said:
That map stuff is cool. This game has a real Dark Souls 2 & 3 vibe, where a ton of stuff in the game is like... echoes of previous games without clearly being continuations of them. Except sometimes a location is straight out of a previous game. Zelda's always had that sort of feel with repeated characters and musical motifs but there's something about this one that really escalates that. Might be the location names that put it over the top. Like I clearly remember all the Ocarina of Time sage names but almost all the rest I can't even quite remember which game they're from, even when I can picture them. (I suppose it's mostly been making me realize that Dark Souls had a real Zelda vibe but I just didn't draw that line until now.)

I frequently feel like I'm right on the edge of making some solid connection to a previous game but either I can't remember the detail from the old one or it's actually incoherent. Gives the whole thing a good nostalgia vibe and makes the amnesiac protagonist kind of work. Like Link, I too constantly feel a deja vu I can't quite peg down into anything concrete.
Click to expand...

That's a really good way of putting it. There are all sorts of names on the map that I KNOW sound familiar to me, but I just can't place it. Sometimes I google it, but usually I'm too caught up in what I'm doing to stop and check something. I look forward to someone making a detailed list, breaking down all of the references in this game.
 
Creamium said:
Anyone who has the game since launch still at it? I find it's a relaxing game to play after a work day. I just hunt for some shrines/sidequests.
Click to expand...
I had it day one and I haven't even reached the first dungeon yet
although I've set the wheels in motion at Zora's Domain. Need to visit the Lynel.

I'm perfectly content spending three or four hours roaming around, taking in the world, finding a few Koroks, completing a shrine or two and talking to NPCs.

If it takes me months to complete the game I'm fine with that. I love exploring Hyrule. I'm not even going near Ganon until I've completed every shrine, found every memory, finished all four dungeons and located between 300-450 Koroks.
 
How exactly DID the Goron in Gerudo get there? He's obviously male...

And I think it's really charming how the Gerudo women don't want men in their village YET they want to find love and are willing to even have classes on love. Lol

And I never wanna see this artstyle die. Either use it for another Zelda game or give it to Intelligent Systems or Monolithsoft for Xenoblade.
 
IceDoesntHelp said:
Quite possibly the worst story and worst ending to a Zelda game ever, if it weren't for the gameplay, dungeons, shrines, some of the final boss and change up of the series, this would be the worst 3D Zelda.
Click to expand...

This sounds like "If it weren't for almost everything about this game, this would be the worst 3D Zelda." Everyone has different priorities, of course, but I find that often times in Zelda the story gets in the way of what actually makes the games interesting to play.
 
Pinky said:
At this point, it would be easier to make a list of things you CAN'T do in this game. Considering new things are constantly being discovered, I'm starting to wonder if such a list would even exist!
Click to expand...

You don't get meat when you kill a horse.
 
60hrs in, I really love the story of this game. Maybe a better way to put it though is I love the world and its characters and how they interact with Link who has been missing for a century. The only voice acting I haven't liked at all so far was probably the King. Mipha was weak too but it kinda grew on me by the end. RIght now, I'd put it on par with Twilight Princess and Wind Waker in terms of story but below Skyward Sword which has my favorite story in the franchise.
 
pringles said:
I prefer this setup. You're clearly not going to be able to get 100+ brilliantly designed shrines as well as 4+ huge traditional dungeons. Nor is their need for dungeons to be many-hour affairs when you abandon the structure of a dungeon being designed around a specific item and being 90% of what you use the item for in the game.
Only did one beast so far (Ruta) but it was fantastic and including the lead-up to it (
road to Zora's domain, taking down a Lynel for the first time, very cool battle to enter the dungeon itself
) it was more than enough of an epic undertaking to me. Maybe the others won't be as good but I feel the shrines scratch most of the dungeon-itch for me anyway which is why I'm 60-some hours in and have only done the 1 beast.
Click to expand...

Same. I really dig the current format. It's more approachable and good for short spurts of play. That said, they could probably have made the beasts a bit more enticing for those that like traditional dungeons.
 
Mediking said:
How exactly DID the Goron in Gerudo get there? He's obviously male...
Click to expand...

Since Gorons are sexless, they might have a different concept of what 'male' means for them. Or even if he considers himself a man, the Gerudo might not see the need to throw him out compared to other species which have dimorphic sexes.

I feel like the whole reason he was placed there at all was as a sort of light-hearted acknowledgement of some of the ambiguities of Gorons as a species.
 
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