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

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So I finally found the Goron to send to Tarrey Town and now
the town music has a shitty horn in it. It was one of my favorite tunes. :(
 
Merchants slash their prices during bad weather. And also put up their best goods for sale.
WiiU_screenshot_TV_01C95.jpg

So I decided to track down the ancient parts merchant to see if he would sell any ancient cores...

Got nothing else to say.
 
So I finally found the Goron to send to Tarrey Town and now
the town music has a shitty horn in it. It was one of my favorite tunes. :(

haha I kind of liked it better before as well. It does improve later on though
(even though the horn remains lol)

Merchants slash their prices during bad weather. And also put up their best goods for sale.


So I decided to track down the ancient parts merchant to see if he would sell any ancient cores...


Got nothing else to say.

I continue to be impressed with this game.
 
haha I kind of liked it better before as well. It does improve later on though
(even though the horn remains lol)
I sent the Gerudo over there right away cause I already knew where to find her, and it got a little better... But man it honestly bothers me, haha
 
Merchants slash their prices during bad weather. And also put up their best goods for sale.


So I decided to track down the ancient parts merchant to see if he would sell any ancient cores...


Got nothing else to say.

Holy crap. If I knew that I won't go into guardian hunting lol.
 
I find peoples experience with the mountain shrines interesting. I took two steps into the snow, saw Link was freezing, and turned around and left. I explored to the point of receiving the Warm Doublet and realized I could now travel safely in the snow.

Others skipped the Warm Doublet (and the cooking tutorial, for that matter) and ended up cooking spicy food with peppers without instruction. They climbed the mountain pounding peppers and fast traveled away.

At least one other person lit a torch and climbed the mountain while avoiding combat the whole way up.

I guess no matter which way you do it, it teaches you about the game. You either explore properly and discover the method of earning the Warm Doublet or you apply your creativity in an exercise of problem-solving.

Breath of the Wild lets you do it however you want.

I had warm food which is how I got up there in the first place. I just didn't have two portions so I couldn't get down :p

I found the warm doublet side quest I think - in a tent? But doesn't that require me to catch fish or something? I assumed I couldn't do that so early in the game.


Shrine sensor - is there a way to just have it visible without owning an annoying sound all the time? As soon as I got it I pretty much turned it off, but I expect it is useful - especially if more shrines are hidden in holes in mountainsides and not easily visible from the ground
 
Knocked out the Goron dungeon and then the Rito one was a total joke, as was climbing up Hyrule Castle with the climbing gear and then thwomping climate change Ganon. I only saw one sentry and one immobile guardian. I expected a lot more.

So Gannon is totally dead now. This is officially last of the Ganon saga in the Zelda timeline? I wonder if they'll move on to do other interesting things with the universe.

Art was great but performance a constant bother. Game would have greatly benefited from being on PC.
 
Wow.

Haven't had as a gaming day like that in a LONG time. Finally got my Switch today and started BOTW. While I still enjoy gaming, the long play sessions have been a thing of the past for the last 5 years or so. Even if I'm loving a game, after an hour or two my brain just says "okay, it's time to stop." I loved Horizon but the same thing happened, which is why it took me much longer than expected to beat it.

Today I booted up Zelda, turned off my HUD, and now it's midnight. I can't remember the last game that did that too me, but I know that I was much younger. It's actually a nostalgic feeling to have had the entire day pass by without me knowing.

I'm generally a fan of open worlds as long as it's not crap Ubisoft design or just shoe horned into the game for no real reason. But I've never been able to just walk without an objective to head towards. Until today. I'm know I'm weeks late to the party so you all know how great the world is already, but god damn it's so fucking good. I start walking, find something, see something nearby, repeat. And completely forget what I was doing before. The shrines are the perfect thing to make you feel like you are still making progress with your aimless wandering. I appreciate the quick but rewarding puzzles too, big fan of shrines so far.

I've never played a Zelda game in my life. But I just had an awesome fucking day, so thank you BOTW. I hope I have more in the future.

Edit:
Oh god, top of page. Sorry it's just me gushing/rambling
 
All the location names that reference past games really makes me nostalgic, especially the Link's Awakening ones.
Kanalet Ridge and Mabe Village (RIP) are the obvious ones, but I think Rok Woods, Ulria Grotto, and Malin Bay are pseudo-references to Roc's Feather, Ulrira, and Marin.
The fact that I immediately remember those names shows how big of a deal LA was to me as a kid. <3

Tingel Island
was a funny tease... But
Kaepora Pass kind of hurt. I spent thirty minutes looking around just to triple check that he doesn't actually show up. I love that old owl.
 
This game didn't really feel like a Zelda game until (Memory #17 spoiler)
Zelda gets the Triforce of Wisdom
. I've only done one Divine Beast so far, but I did something that makes it really feel like Zelda.

 
Any tips for battling white Lynel?
Got my ass handed to me

Just fought two of them, and if you can evade to flurry attack, they can be pretty easy. When they charge you (both a straight charge or with their weapon), evade and flurry. When they do the fire breathe, quickly do an arrow to their face (if you have them on lock and pull out your bow, you'll automatically aim at their face), or just run around them (they'll do it 3x or until they hit you). When they do a jump attack, just run away a bit. If they roar, give them a lot of space. Don't go too far from them or they'll pull out their bows. Good defense/hearty potions help if you're not that good at evading yet.
 
Any tips for battling white Lynel?
Got my ass handed to me

Depending on the weapon it carries apply the usual lynel strategy. When it starts roaring, either shoot it fast to the face to stun it or run away as far as possible, because it will launch a devastating AOE attack and can deal a ton of damage if armor is not strong enough.
 

This turned out to be one of the best quests! At first I was like "oh lame not another zzzz quest..." but goddamn it felt like a mini Duck Tales episode. Kickass shrine reward too: a shrine that isn't a combat trial or a free gimme! I love actual puzzle shrines so much. I get depressed every time I step into a combat trial shrine.
 
This turned out to be one of the best quests! At first I was like "oh lame not another zzzz quest..." but goddamn it felt like a mini Duck Tales episode. Kickass shrine reward too: a shrine that isn't a combat trial or a free gimme! I love actual puzzle shrines so much. I get depressed every time I step into a combat trial shrine.
Did you go back to the village afterwards to find them?
 
My minor gripes for the game have evolved into full blown criticisms. I no longer unconditionally love the game besides a few small annoyances. I love the game a lot, but the stuff that bothers me really takes me out of the experience.

Right now I'm 50 hours in and I've knocked down 2 Divine Beasts and 52 Shrines (aye New 52). But my biggest problem with the game is how aimless I feel for such long stretches of time. I'm wandering around with giant long term goals of "find Shrines and Korok seeds" but there's nothing in the short term moment to moment gameplay that keeps me going. I'm lacking motivation hard, in other words. The game poorly sets up stakes for its main villain and throws you to the wolves and yeah I get it, but as a goal oriented player I need things to do and accomplish. I want more structure and context. The sidequests feel insubstantial and I outright loathe the shrine quests/NPC songs/vague hints at where shrines are. "Just tell me where it is so I can find it, dammit" is my response to them generally. The lack of enemy variety and repetition of the main gameplay loop have also been bothering me. But not as much as the crushing aimlessness and lack of motivation I have when going around. Honestly I'd love the game a lot more if there were achievements.

Definitely solidified that it's not my favorite 3D Zelda (Majora's Mask is). Hell, I enjoy Skyrim more. At least in that game, I always had a goal to accomplish at every beat and clear direction to what I needed to do, where I had to go, why I wanted to do it, etc. I love Breath of the Wild, but I wish it did more to appeal to me.
 
Wow.

Haven't had as a gaming day like that in a LONG time. Finally got my Switch today and started BOTW. While I still enjoy gaming, the long play sessions have been a thing of the past for the last 5 years or so. Even if I'm loving a game, after an hour or two my brain just says "okay, it's time to stop." I loved Horizon but the same thing happened, which is why it took me much longer than expected to beat it.

Today I booted up Zelda, turned off my HUD, and now it's midnight. I can't remember the last game that did that too me, but I know that I was much younger. It's actually a nostalgic feeling to have had the entire day pass by without me knowing.

I'm generally a fan of open worlds as long as it's not crap Ubisoft design or just shoe horned into the game for no real reason. But I've never been able to just walk without an objective to head towards. Until today. I'm know I'm weeks late to the party so you all know how great the world is already, but god damn it's so fucking good. I start walking, find something, see something nearby, repeat. And completely forget what I was doing before. The shrines are the perfect thing to make you feel like you are still making progress with your aimless wandering. I appreciate the quick but rewarding puzzles too, big fan of shrines so far.

I've never played a Zelda game in my life. But I just had an awesome fucking day, so thank you BOTW. I hope I have more in the future.

Edit:
Oh god, top of page. Sorry it's just me gushing/rambling

Yeah, I feel the same way. I often will play a game and then be like "ok, time for a break to check the news/read a comic/watch a show", but the moment I get into a game of Zelda, I just can't fucking stop. I keep wanting to do just one more shrine, or see what's just over that next ridge, etc.
 
This turned out to be one of the best quests! At first I was like "oh lame not another zzzz quest..." but goddamn it felt like a mini Duck Tales episode. Kickass shrine reward too: a shrine that isn't a combat trial or a free gimme! I love actual puzzle shrines so much. I get depressed every time I step into a combat trial shrine.

The cutest!

One of the few sidequests I really liked. A self-contained story with an excuse to take a little stroll around the village, involves some little item acquisition (that you don't have to fetch far for, if at all) and a problem solved in a unique context. Is that too much to ask?? I wish more of the sidequests made me feel a bit closer to the residents of their respective, colorful place like this one.
 
Art was great but performance a constant bother. Game would have greatly benefited from being on PC.

Being primarily a PC gamer I've long thought this, but I've since changed my tune a bit. This game was made as the result of Nintendo having their backs up against the wall, hungry for success after the floundering Wii U, and the next Mario game appears to be on the exact same track. I don't think game would be possible with a hypothetical 3rd party Nintendo, but I agree with you it would be really amazing all the same.
 
Some of the well hidden Shrines are really fun to find, especially in places like Hebra. I just wish that there weren't so many Blessing and Test of Strength shrines.
 
The cutest!

One of the few sidequests I really liked. A self-contained story with an excuse to take a little stroll around the village, involves some little item acquisition (that you don't have to fetch far for, if at all) and a problem solved in a unique context. Is that too much to ask?? I wish more of the sidequests made me feel a bit closer to the residents of their respective, colorful place like this one.

So far I've felt that the quests you get from the main cities are like that. I've only done Gerudo and Rito so far. But there are some really good unique quests from both.
 
*critiques*
I agree. It's like a real Zelda game had been broken down into a thousand meaningless pieces, and yet when you put them all together they don't gain their meaning back. It's like whatever you do or get is completely pointless, and the only "awesome experience" you get in return is running around looking for those thousand little pieces, mostly repeating the same shit over and over again. Discovery has some share of fun in it, yeah, but it doesn't carry a game IMO. Every time I went to a new place I wanted to do something cool to help them, but the dungeons were trash. Then the people I help give me their sacred stuff and it's mostly trash, and when it breaks it is harder to get the mats to replace it than it is to simply get a better item, which will also break 1/5 the way through one meaningful fight, which won't be a boss. The white bokoblins are harder than any form of Ganon.

Seriously it starts out okay but then you realize absolutely everything you do is pointless and you wont be seeing anything good, so hopefully you enjoy running around with the pointless things to do because that is apparently in itself the meaning of the game. I agree Skyrim was better at kind of a similar concept, as were Fallout 3/NV. Witcher 3 falls more into a BotW zone where the overabundance of minor crap to do becomes too repetitive and meaningless, but at any time you can just blast through the main story when you get tired of it, and it's pretty good, although similarly lacking nice boss fights. Also, at least the small things you do have little stories attached.

Toss in all the faults with menus and controls and crap performance and it's really a mediocre game IMO.

Being primarily a PC gamer I've long thought this, but I've since changed my tune a bit. This game was made as the result of Nintendo having their backs up against the wall, hungry for success after the floundering Wii U, and the next Mario game appears to be on the exact same track. I don't think game would be possible with a hypothetical 3rd party Nintendo, but I agree with you it would be really amazing all the same.
No it wouldn't have, because BotW in its current form wouldn't exist if it were a multiplatform release.
I'm mostly talking about 60fps here, although draw distance and resolution would also add a lot to the main positive aspects of the experience.
 
While the game doesn't bombard you with Ubisoft checklist ?'s on the map. BoTW is very much similar with the repetitive content.
 
While the game doesn't bombard you with Ubisoft checklist ?'s on the map. BoTW is very much similar with the repetitive content.

BotW could literally be a map with 100 Sheikah Towers to climb, with nothing else, and it would still be better than every Ubisoft open-world game, simply due to the moment to moment gameplay, physics, world interactivity, and its harmonious gameplay systems. Even something as simple as farming guardians for armor parts is more enjoyable than most video games in recent memory, open world ones in particular.
 
BotW could literally be a map with 100 Sheikah Towers to climb, with nothing else, and it would still be better than every Ubisoft open-world game, simply due to the moment to moment gameplay, physics, world interactivity, and its harmonious gameplay systems

that said, id rather they had voice acting at least comparable to an AC game. And maybe the texture quality and framerate a lot of the time.
Not much else though.
 
So far I've felt that the quests you get from the main cities are like that. I've only done Gerudo and Rito so far. But there are some really good unique quests from both.

The Zora ones are good too, though not quite as good, you're in for a treat with that whole section's main quest line. I think its the best, outside of the dungeon.

What order did you guys do the Divine Beast dungeons in?

Zora>Rito>Goron>Gerudo for me

Mine was weird: I did Zora>gave up on Goron>Gerudo>Lost Woods>Rito>Goron
 
While the game doesn't bombard you with Ubisoft checklist ?'s on the map. BoTW is very much similar with the repetitive content.

The only ubisoft open world game I've played is Far Cry Primal and by comparison I think BotW has much more gameplay and level design variety. Plus many neat little details and just plain cool stuff to see.

Some elements do get repetitive but there's a lot on offer when you look at it overall imo.

I'd have a much bigger issue with the voice acting if it were a major part of the experience. If the next Zelda title has more of it, they need to step their game up.

They need to step their game up either way tbh, or just get rid of it altogether. When voice acting was first rumored I was worried it was gonna suck and well here we are. I don't understand why they struggle in this area. I mean hire a good acting director or something. Call Platinum they do a good job with va.
 
I'd have a much bigger issue with the voice acting if it were a major part of the experience. If the next Zelda title has more of it, they need to step their game up.

sure, but when the sparse but crucial emotional scenes in your game have this kind of voice acting I would rather they just didn't have any
 
sure, but when the sparse but crucial emotional scenes in your game have this kind of voice acting I would rather they just didn't have any

I agree regarding a couple characters
(mainly Mipha)
, but I'm fine with the voice acting for most of them. But the next game should strive to improve in this area. With that said, I'd also be totally fine with no voice acting, as I never needed it in Zelda to begin with. The less story, the better.
 
So far I've felt that the quests you get from the main cities are like that. I've only done Gerudo and Rito so far. But there are some really good unique quests from both.

I'd say most of the main areas have about one or two I can gel with, but among the majority I completed, they didn't constitute much. It was always pleasant when I did find a quest that made me feel a little warm inside though!

The Zora ones are good too, though not quite as good, you're in for a treat with that whole section's main quest line.

Zora's Domain has my favorite main quest character interactions (aside from the boring Champion). Had I known ahead of time, I would have saved it for last. :(
 
Just allow Japanese voice acting with multiple language options and that will solve just about every voice acting problems in Japanese games. BotW's Japanese VAs are superb if you watched it, and just having a pure text translation would improve the context because the meaning will remain close to what was intended as supposed to being lost in translation trying to match dialogue length and dub.
 
This just happened again. :)

It's cool you can just stumble upon him, but it's also neat that
you can find his notes detailing where he's located on the map.

Just allow Japanese voice acting with multiple language options and that will solve just about every voice acting problems in Japanese games. BotW's Japanese VAs are superb if you watched it, and just having a pure text translation would improve the context because the meaning will remain close to what was intended as supposed to being lost in translation trying to match dialogue length and dub.

This would be such an easy thing to patch in too, since all that data is already on the Switch cart.
 
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