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[Yam's]

I think BotW's emptiness actually helps it tbh. It makes discoveries more meaningful.l and it works hand in hand with the lack of handholding

If the world was densely packed with stuff it would feel overwhelming or like it's too much.

It had the opposite effect on me. Because there's so much emptiness, the world size ended feeling overwhelming for me. And I don't think its world has a lot of meaningful places to discover. It has nice vistas for sure, but I didn't get as many "where the fuck am I?" moments like I had in Souls, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Xeno X, etc. I fully explored the world and got all 120 shrines btw.

In my opinion they should've made a world half the size with more variety in discoveries. Climbing your 100th mountain only to find another strength shrine or some stone puzzle was not rewarding.

 

[Deleted member 231381]

If these three major points were different I would have considered the game a 9.5+. (As it is, it's an 8.)

- Get rid of the breaking weapons crap
- Add more meaningful character progression
- More challenging content that actually warrants all this sidequesting and thing hunting / more enemy and boss variety in general

The weapon degradation system is fundamentally important to how the game works. The game would be noticeably less enjoyable for its absence.

Character progression I'm indifferent to. Happy for others if they get what they want, but ultimately this is a video game and it's stunningly unlikely to be delivering the next Pride & Prejudice. It's just not something that holds my personal interest.

More challenging content, yes, absolutely! That said, the problem isn't so much that the enemies aren't challenging in and of themselves, it's that food is overpowered and the Champion abilities are broken. I think you'd only need to make minor changes to fix this one and I hope the hard mode DLC addresses them.

 

[Chaos17]

I'm not a gigantic fan of the genre, no. I've played a few hours of Horizon already and it has a much stronger story, which is a strong motivator for me. BotW never really gave me any characters to care about, partly because of poor voice acting but also because the development just isn't there. It's not the game's focus and that's fine.

That said, there was enough there for me to put 45 hours into the game. It's just that after the first ten, I started to recognize that I'd seen all the game has to offer and the rest was just hunting for further shrines and seeds, which wasn't very compelling to me so I wrapped it up as soon as I felt strong enough.

I feel that the Zelda franchise is not for you and you should avoid it in the future because the strength of this game is the gameplay so if you didn't enjoyed the freedom of exploration and the battles that let you beat the enemies how you want... then avoid this serie if you prefer more story driven one (that is not an insult).

This game is for freedom players who had enough of shackles of scripted (interaction) open world games and we all want Nintendo to continue that way. We're adults players who want discover things by ourself.

 

[Garrett Hawke]

Am I reading into it or is Hudson gay

 

[Jobbs]

The weapon degradation system is fundamentally important to how the game works. The game would be noticeably less enjoyable for its absence.

Character progression I'm indifferent to. Happy for others if they get what they want, but ultimately this is a video game and it's stunningly unlikely to be delivering the next Pride & Prejudice. It's just not something that holds my personal interest.

More challenging content, yes, absolutely! That said, the problem isn't so much that the enemies aren't challenging in and of themselves, it's that food is overpowered and the Champion abilities are broken. I think you'd only need to make minor changes to fix this one and I hope the hard mode DLC addresses them.

After a certain point everything feels trivial. Food is near limitless (especially if you actually enjoy making food and do it routinely, which I do) and the enemies and bosses are pushovers. The only enemy that really fights back is the centaur. Every other enemy and boss in the game -- save for maybe thunderbird gannon in gerudo -- basically just let you kill them.

In the opening hours I had a feeling of mystery and danger because there were difficulty spikes, and with only 3 hearts, there were things that could one shot me. The lightning could kill me. Lightning bats could kill me. That was fun.

But there's no curve. After you gain a few hearts and the threats never increase the fun and feeling of danger and adventure of the experience falls off a cliff -- and it just becomes a thing where you run across pretty scenery and climb and jump and glide because those things are fun in and of themselves -- but that's about all the experience had to offer for me after those amazing opening hours. Those hours were full of promises that the rest of the game never lived up to.

 

[theSlacker]

After 2 weeks of playing I finally cleared my first divine beast, the Zora one. Any recommendations for the order I should take on the others so I just don't wander the world for 2 weeks again? Really happy about the items I got on the lead up to that dungeon and they help a lot with water travel, and seeing if there is something similar for the other ones/why I should hit up another region sooner rather then later.

 

[Monkeylord]

I started off hating the whole weapon durability thing, but as the game went on it became much less of an issue. I just wish there was some kind of durability indicator other than the "your shit's gonna break soon" message and flashing icon.




I've got 39 Shrines left to find, and it's getting tough to locate them. I may have to bust out a map soon just so I know which general areas I still haven't checked thoroughly. Don't really want to, but if I get home from work and start playing and spend more than an hour without finding one then I may have no other choice

After 2 weeks of playing I finally cleared my first divine beast, the Zora one. Any recommendations for the order I should take on the others so I just don't wander the world for 2 weeks again? Really happy about the items I got on the lead up to that dungeon and they help a lot with water travel, and seeing if there is something similar for the other ones/why I should hit up another region sooner rather then later.

I found that Zora, Rito, Goron and lastly Gerudo was the right order for me, but to be honest they've left it so equally balanced that you can do any order you want. I suggest just going in and fucking about for a while, exploring and what not. Eventually you'll decide you need a change of pace and at that point just go for whichever one's nearest.

 

[gweemz]

In terms of the Lost Woods, can I get the

Spoiler

master sword

right away or is there some story elements I need to complete first?

 

[jb1234]

I feel that the Zelda franchise is not for you and you should avoid it in the future because the strength of this game is the gameplay so if you didn't enjoyed the freedom of exploration and the battles that let you beat the enemies how you want... then avoid this serie if you prefer more story driven one (that is not an insult).

This game is for freedom players who had enough of shackles of scripted (interaction) open world games and we all want Nintendo to continue that way. We're adults players who want discover things by ourself.

No, I didn't take it as an insult. It was condescending as fuck, though. I've played almost every game in the Zelda series, since I was a kid (starting with the very first). This game didn't have everything I look for in the series. I'm glad it did for you but don't patronize me for wanting something a little less open and a little more guided.

 

[Nosgotham]

The weapon durability really does kill the game. Without it it'd easily be one of the greatest games of all time.

It's sad they had to ruin their game with something any idiot could tell them isn't fun

I think it's fun. I like it. I think the game is better for it.

 

[aparisi2274]

Aside from equipment, no.

Spoiler

But it's not like you're taking it from Hateno - there's a blue flame pretty near by.

There is?

Spoiler

Where is this nearby blue flame? Everything I have read said that I would need to get the blue flame from Hateno and make it all the way over to Akkala.

 

[Anteo]

The only reason why people call Zora first is because it starts pretty close to kakariko, I saw some shirines nearby and a Zora told me to go to their domain. Meanwhile rito is on the other side of the map.

 

[Greddleok]

There is?

Spoiler

Where is this nearby blue flame? Everything I have read said that I would need to get the blue flame from Hateno and make it all the way over to Akkala.

The quest marker points you to it. I did that quest this morning.

 

[Nosgotham]

Am I reading into it or is Hudson gay

He is definitely flamboyant. Nothing that points to his sexual orientation other than a stereotype unless I missed something

 

[Jintor]

someone described weapon degredation as 'melee ammo' and that kinda makes sense to me. it's a resource management challenge.

it's why sneaking into hyrule castle to steal rad swords early on will make you OP, but not necessarily OP for the rest of the game

 

[Heysoos]

In terms of the Lost Woods, can I get the

Spoiler

master sword

right away or is there some story elements I need to complete first?

As long as you meet the requirements you can grab it. You need

Spoiler

13 heart containers

 

[Thud]

The only reason why people call Zora first is because it starts pretty close to kakariko, I saw some shirines nearby and a Zora told me to go there. Meanwhile rito is on the other side of the map.

If you go west a bit from the great plateau, there are NPC's directing you to Rito.

 

[Hylian7]

Hyrule Castle question:

Spoiler

I've seen mention of a Hylian Shield somewhere, but I made it all the way to right in front of what is obviously where Calamity Ganon is, and I never found it. Did I just miss it, and if I go back and look for it, will it be easy to find? Don't tell me exactly where it is, just point me in a direction.

Also I finished all the memories last night. The last one took me a while to find. It was the one with the two trees on the northwest side of the castle. I kept thinking it was east of the castle, then thought it was south, southwest, and eventually I figured out it was northwest.

 

[Raw64life]

Played a few hours of this yesterday and found one shrine. I'm at 76 shrines currently. Don't know how much more there is to explore before I need to just start looking stuff up. Hard to believe there's still so many shrines still out there. I'm at the 65 hour mark.

He is definitely flamboyant. Nothing that points to his sexual orientation other than a stereotype unless I missed something

Seeing as

Spoiler

he gets married to a woman

I'd say it's pretty cut and dry.

 

[Garrett Hawke]

He is definitely flamboyant. Nothing that points to his sexual orientation other than a stereotype unless I missed something

Nah that's Balson, I meant Hudson, the guy with the moustache.

After you finish that side quest there is a very intimate exchange where he expresses sadness about not seeing Link and then invites him to come visit him, before looking longingly at Link and walking away.

 

[Metroid]

Seeing as

Spoiler

he gets married to a woman

I'd say it's pretty cut and dry.

Edit: nevermind^^

 

[Garrett Hawke]

Played a few hours of this yesterday and found one shrine. I'm at 76 shrines currently. Don't know how much more there is to explore before I need to just start looking stuff up. Hard to believe there's still so many shrines still out there. I'm at the 65 hour mark.



Seeing as

Spoiler

he gets married to a woman

I'd say it's pretty cut and dry.

 

[Vampirolol]

In terms of the Lost Woods, can I get the

Spoiler

master sword

right away or is there some story elements I need to complete first?

No story elements are required, but there is still something you'll need to achieve before getting it. Personally, I love how they managed it in Botw, it's simple and satisfying.

By the way, I'm at 80 hours and I finally decided to stop searching for every little detail, and just let the game go. I will just explore with less attention now, and follow the story more. No need to 100% the game on the first run... next time I will take a different route maybe!

 

[lvl99 Pixel]

never once ran out of good weapons in the time playing so far (working on a second dungeon now). Feels like the durability complaints are way overblown or people are just doing something weird with them.

 

[giapel]

The reason people dislike the weapon degradation system is because we've been conditioned to collect everything in games. So when you get an awesome sword only to be taken away from you later on, the reaction is understandably negative. The alternative though, is what we've been having in games for years where weapon progression boils down to 3-4 swaps during the game for something better while everything else is junk that'll never be used. At least in Zelda I'm encouraged to use every weapon I find.

 

[JaffeLion]

Beat it. It was good, a solid 8/10. Ultimately, an obnoxious degradation system, a gigantic open world with not nearly enough content to justify its size, weak dungeons and a poor story sapped away at the score. I don't regret playing it but it's near the bottom of my favorite 3D Zeldas. Only Skyward Sword is less satisfying.

On to Horizon!

what are you talking about? did we play the same game? Have fun with horizon though. lol

 

[Jintor]

never once ran out of good weapons in the time playing so far (working on a second dungeon now). Feels like the durability complaints are way overblown or people are just doing something weird with them.

the only annoying thing i've run into is that i wrecked all my shields trying to surf down a mountain and I only know one place to buy more

 

[theSlacker]

As long as you meet the requirements you can grab it. You need

Spoiler

13 heart containers

Heh, I've only just done one dungeon and I've got that. Think I found the area for it too but didn't go in yet.

I found that Zora, Rito, Goron and lastly Gerudo was the right order for me, but to be honest they've left it so equally balanced that you can do any order you want. I suggest just going in and fucking about for a while, exploring and what not. Eventually you'll decide you need a change of pace and at that point just go for whichever one's nearest.

Thanks.

 

[VistraNorrez]

never once ran out of good weapons in the time playing so far (working on a second dungeon now). Feels like the durability complaints are way overblown or people are just doing something weird with them.

Everytime I've reached a next level of weapon, I've never been without that level. I also keep some low spec ones to use when I fight lower spec enemies. It's pretty easy to maintain.

 

[sazzy]

has anyone tried talking to Bolson after taking all your clothes/gear off?

 

[XaosWolf]

Am I reading into it or is Hudson gay

Hudson? I can say with certainty that he is not.

Did you mean Bolson?

 

[sazzy]

Am I reading into it or is Hudson gay

take off all your gear and talk to his boss, Bolson

 

[DrArchon]

never once ran out of good weapons in the time playing so far (working on a second dungeon now). Feels like the durability complaints are way overblown or people are just doing something weird with them.

I've run out of decent shields against a

Spoiler

White Mane Lynel with Savage-tier weapons

but that was because I hadn't gotten used to the timings on it's attacks and it hit hard enough to break any shield I had in one go.

In terms of weapons though, yeah never had a problem there. Closest thing has been not having a non-metal weapon on me during a thunderstorm because I'd been hoarding all of the significantly better metal ones.

 

[Jintor]

Also i really disagree on calling BoTW's open world empty, there was only really two places I found where I wasn't stumbling across something of interest every few seconds (the cliffs around Zora's domain and parts of the Gerudo highlands). The level design is really amazing, the way sightlines and things to visually catch one's eye work, it's really an astounding feat of open world design.

I admit I haven't played an open world game in ages, but the way BoTW's world is designed is the antithesis of everything I despise about open world games - there's always something to do, something to look at or that evokes a feeling or maybe just for you to move a rock from point a to point b and a floaty leaf guy gives you a seed. And I guess most importantly you can always get there if you plan it out or think about it for a second.

It's going to be tough going back to games with walls after this.

 

[Rodin]

These were pretty much my exact thoughts just two hours ago. I'm also curious about that last point. Speaking of that particular item,

Spoiler

what is the proper way to navigate the Lost Woods? I accidentally just wandered in the correct direction, but I'm curious to know what hints I could have gotten from an NPC or something that would lead me to the Master Sword.

Spoiler

Lit a torch and follow the direction of the fire.

Beat it. It was good, a solid 8/10. Ultimately, an obnoxious degradation system, a gigantic open world with not nearly enough content to justify its size, weak dungeons and a poor story sapped away at the score. I don't regret playing it but it's near the bottom of my favorite 3D Zeldas. Only Skyward Sword is less satisfying.

On to Horizon!

I won't go again into a discussion about the degradation system, because i'm pretty tired of talking about it (i'll just post this arlo video again), but the bolded is incredibly false. ESPECIALLY the part about the open world being too big. I also don't know about "poor story", doesn't look poor to me but i haven't finished it yet.

Also i really disagree on calling BoTW's open world empty, there was only really two places I found where I wasn't stumbling across something of interest every few seconds (the cliffs around Zora's domain and parts of the Gerudo highlands). The level design is really amazing, the way sightlines and things to visually catch one's eye work, it's really an astounding feat of open world design.

I admit I haven't played an open world game in ages, but the way BoTW's world is designed is the antithesis of everything I despise about open world games - there's always something to do, something to look at or that evokes a feeling or maybe just for you to move a rock from point a to point b and a floaty leaf guy gives you a seed. And I guess most importantly you can always get there if you plan it out or think about it for a second.

Yeah, exactly.

 

[Raw64life]

I didn't like the sound of the weapon degrading when I first heard about it but it ended up not being nearly as much of a problem as I thought it would be. There's plenty of ways to manage around it and I've found that most other methods of killing enemies you can come up with are more fun than just running in swinging anyways.

The most annoying part of this game for me was the pathetic amount of stamina you start off with. Link gets winded after literally 2 seconds of running. I pumped all my shrines into stamina in the beginning but then regretted it when I found out what you have to do to get the Master Sword. I'll probably never replay this game from the beginning as a result.

 

[Anteo]

If you go west a bit from the great plateau, there are NPC's directing you to Rito.

Yeah but Zora is the closest to the main quest path, close to both Kakariko and Hateno.

 

[McBryBry]

Had a hell of a moment last night. Central Hyrule, stable on the west side.

Spoiler

Talked to painter guy and he pointed out the memory at the horse statue, so I went for it. Was walking around the hills having trouble finding it, but I come across a lone white horse with blonde details. I hop on and its pretty damn good too! I know there's a quest about a Royal Horse but I haven't gotten it, but I'm assuming this is the horse. So, before taking it to the stable, I keep searching for the memory. Hop off the horse and start it. And in comes Zelda riding the same fucking horse. Made me look at it in a whole different light and made the horse mean a little more to me. Took it back to the stable and named it Daphne after her father.

 

[Syinn]

I didn't like the sound of the weapon degrading when I first heard about it but it ended up not being nearly as much of a problem as I thought it would be. There's plenty of ways to manage around it and I've found that most other methods of killing enemies you can come up with are more fun than just running in swinging anyways.

The most annoying part of this game for me was the pathetic amount of stamina you start off with. Link gets winded after literally 2 seconds of running. I pumped all my shrines into stamina in the beginning but then regretted it when I found out what you have to do to get the Master Sword. I'll probably never replay this game from the beginning as a result.

There is a statue which you can give up stamina and exchange it for hearts... FYI.

 

[Rodin]

I didn't like the sound of the weapon degrading when I first heard about it but it ended up not being nearly as much of a problem as I thought it would be. There's plenty of ways to manage around it and I've found that most other methods of killing enemies you can come up with are more fun than just running in swinging anyways.

The most annoying part of this game for me was the pathetic amount of stamina you start off with. Link gets winded after literally 2 seconds of running. I pumped all my shrines into stamina in the beginning but then regretted it when I found out what you have to do to get the Master Sword. I'll probably never replay this game from the beginning as a result.

Go to Hateno and

Spoiler

talk to the statue

.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

Interesting, I didn't have any troubles with the Zora part of the game, but I did hide from the Lynel when gathering the arrows (that part seemed kind of...weird). I ran out of arrows during the Waterblight fight, not thinking to use Cryonis, so I had to chuck weapons at him to kill him. It was pretty funny.

The Zora chapter is hard for a new player for the following reasons

Spoiler

- It's long. Only the Gerudo chapter is longer. There's the hike through the mountains, the hike to collect thunder arrows, the hike to the lake, the battle with Ruta, the dungeon is fairly long and then you have the boss

- Only the Gerudo boss is harder. Windblight is comically easy if you just use the pile of free bomb arrows the game gave you 10 minutes ago, and Fireblight has obvious tells and can't even really attack you in his second phase as soon as you figure out what to do. Waterblight is fought in a constrained space, and as your first boss this one is rough. I had four hearts when I fought Waterblight. He could one-shot me. I had to carry tons of heart increasing food to just be able to survive one hit.

- The Lynel part is a test if you realized this game isn't like past Zelda games and you don't need to kill everything. Most would assume you have to fight him, which is close to impossible at the early game. It requires some experience to know to sneak around, and someone rushing into this game after playing Zelda games would just assume you have to kill the big bad. I know I did. It took a couple of Lynel deaths to realize I didn't need to kill him.

- The only challenges of Wind and Fire are money checks. Can you afford warm pants and can you afford the initial 2 potions + fire proof pants? The game gives you a freebie warm shirt literally in the tutorial and a freebie fire proof armor for a minor brain dead simple side quest. So it's just rupee checks, since the actual tasks of getting to the divine beasts are super easy and fairly quick. Neither require you to fight any random mook enemies. This means the only actual challenge is finding a couple hundred rupees. Heck, you don't even need warm clothes for the Rito dungeon because it's so short. A couple of easy to make warmth potions would do just fine. Versus the climb to Zora's domain where you're constantly forced to either sneak by (with constrained movement) or actively fight thunder arrow wielding Lizafos or Moblins.

- The Ruta fight is more action based and requires more complicated actions than the Rito and Goron chapters. One is a simple "can I aim my free arrows the game gave me using the free bow the game gave me specifically made for this task, at four glowing targets, and dodge hilariously easy to dodge beams" and "stupid escort mission where I throw rocks at robots." Neither are anything to write home about, but Ruta is actually a complicated, intense, fun fight with multiple phases.

- The gimmick of the Ruta dungeon is not readily apparent and even when figured out it's complicated. The Goron has exactly two directions to change, the Rito has 3. Ruta has like 8 different controls. It's obvious when you see chests slanted on the walls that you need to turn the beast. It's obvious to see dangling boxes that would move at a slight turn. It's not really obvious the trunk is going to throw water down the elephants back to power a turbine. Look how many questions have been asked the last two weeks about "how do I finish this elephant dungeon!?" versus people having trouble on the giant bird or the gecko.

The game seems confused in this regard. It naturally seems to want you to do Zora, Rito, Goron, Gerudo. But then they didn't really balance the length and difficulty for that order, which seems to be Rito, Goron, Zora, Gerudo.

 

[vypek]

The approach to this game is so different and feels very weird. Feels like I'm getting nothing done in the sessions that I have time to play. Kind of just wandering and doing the shrines that I can. Leaving behind moderate and major tests of strength. I got one divine beast and I'm just going wherever at this point.

 

[Grisby]

You guys might already know this but there's a good place to stock up on arrows near Tabantha Bridge Stable. If you head to the usual teleport shrine that's right beside/slightly above it you can see a little patch of woods to the left.

If you head there you can draw the attention of about 5(?) or so moblin horse archers that will start firing at you in the woods. You can basically play Indiana Jones and run serpentine circles in the woods while the arrows hit the surrounding trees and ground.

Feels like I got 100 arrows in a matter of a few minutes. You can get hit of course and I ended up using several health items but I got a ton of food anyways.

 

[vypek]

If I scared the fairies away from a great fairy fountain will they come back later so I can catch them? Like after a certain amount of time?

 

[Aldric]

l'll never understand the complaints about weapons breaking. lt's a system that is part of a gameplay loop: use your weapons, break them, get new ones instantly, whether by fighting or by exploring. You never run out of weapons and you quickly get enough space in your inventory to organize your stuff so that you have strong weapons for resilient foes and dinky ones for trivial encounters.

As for character progression, yes you eventually reach a point where you steamroll everything but that's sort of inevitable when you play a game for 150 hours. lf anything l thought regular enemies scaling up did a good job keeping combat threatening for a long time, l got owned by silver bokoblins quite a few times before upgrading my armors to the max and stocking up on hearts.

 

[Raw64life]

There is a statue which you can give up stamina and exchange it for hearts... FYI.

Go to Hateno and

Spoiler

talk to the statue

.

I eventually found that way later in the game when it didn't really matter anymore.

 

[gweemz]

As long as you meet the requirements you can grab it. You need

Spoiler

13 heart containers

Ah thanks! Maybe I shouldn't have been putting everything into stamina then!

 

[Deleted member 231381]

After a certain point everything feels trivial. Food is near limitless (especially if you actually enjoy making food and do it routinely, which I do) and the enemies and bosses are pushovers. The only enemy that really fights back is the centaur. Every other enemy and boss in the game -- save for maybe thunderbird gannon in gerudo -- basically just let you kill them.

In the opening hours I had a feeling of mystery and danger because there were difficulty spikes, and with only 3 hearts, there were things that could one shot me. The lightning could kill me. Lightning bats could kill me. That was fun.

Yeah, I agree with this.

For Hard Mode, I'd want these changes:

- Consumables require Link to complete a small real-time animation, which is interrupted by being hit (and can't be done under certain conditions where that would make sense).
- Consumables cause health to tick up slowly over time, rather than restoring instantly.
- Fairies can only restore Link to five hearts.
- If Link has three fairies in his inventory already, others will flee and can't be caught (or maybe fairies need bottles, which can be slowly unlocked, so early on you can have at most one fairy then by end-game three).
- Hearty items don't stack.

- All Champion Abilities reduced to one use, cool down increased so as to be usable once per reasonably long fight at most.
- Urbosa's Fury has its damage reduced to 100.
- Mipha's Grace restores Link to only five hearts.

- You can't inflict damage to an enemy under Stasis, only apply momentum.
- Enemies ought to be able to block arrows better if aware of them by using shields or even just swiping them out of the air.
- Reduce many knock-downs to hit-stuns and remove many hit-stuns outright.
- Common enemies move slightly faster - you need to use stamina to escape, rather than relying on the default run-speed.

- Multi-show bows do actually consume the correct number of arrows.
- Ancient Arrows have their damage bonus reduced to 15.

- Armour values are halved across the board.
- Parry requires an applicable shield - no smashing back lasers and fireballs with something made of wood.

- Defence Up bonuses are halved across the board.

- Slow-downs in general are reduced, especially Flurry but also Hang-Time.

The idea is not to increase tedium by just making all enemies hit sponges, but make sure you actually plan encounters.

 

[JakeD]

Horse hint ahead:

Spoiler

If you like special horses, check out the taobab grassland south of mt hylia. Make sure you have two wheels of stamina or a bunch of stamina boosting food

 

[Frillen]

I was very skeptical to the weapon durability feature as well, but five hours in to the game and I was already swimming in weapons, and 50+ hours in, I'm still swimming in weapons.