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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 randomly decided to walk into Hyrule castle. Had some trouble beating a blue lynel, but after that I basically climbed through the outside of the castle, reached the very top and then glided down to the boss room.

Gotta say Ganon was pretty underwhelming, though. The final fight being all but scripted felt really weak, and it was kind of funny that
the game gave me the first horse I had captured, which was actually pretty meh and died to Ganon's laser. I effortlessly got to shoot all his weak points by running around while Zelda had him stunned, and tried and failed to hit his final weak point enough times that the princess herself pointed out I was supposed to ride the updraft created by Ganon's laser.

I'd probably rank BotW's final boss way below OoT, WW, MM and even below TP's (which was on the weaker end of the spectrum, imo). Honestly, it felt like a mishmash of the previous bosses' attack patterns and lacked any sort of identity, and having the final section be
"attack its weak spot for massive damage, or do no damage at all"
was also pretty underwhelming.
 
Can't remember when was the last time I had so much fun with the game without doing anything. I always start with the plan what to do and 30 minutes later the plan is gone and I just run around doing some stupid shit and having tons of fun. Really fantastic game.
 
Two weird things just happened to me, but I thought someone might know about them here.

Firstly, when looking for the
last memory
spot to complete the quest, the blood moon appeared suddenly at about 8pm and triggered its cutscene. It was immediate, the sky didn't turn red progressively and the music didn't change like it used to do normally. Is there a reason for this, or is it a glitch? Anyone else had something similar?

Another thing right after this was when I found the spot I was looking for. The cutscene started as usual, but when Link watched his sheikah slate, he looked at a random photo which had nothing to do with the
last memoy
. I think it was the first photo I made myself. Is that normal?
 
Quick question. So my 9 yo daughter decided to go right to the castle after the plateau. She's somewhere inside I think midway threw. I'm trying to not watch her play because I don't want to get spoiled but I was wondering can she technically defeat him with basic gear and a weopon found a long the way?

Also any tips to speed up cooking? It's cool but I'm not a fan of the time it takes some times.
 
So shit, i was going to tackle my first divine beast in the gerudo area, but im reading know its the best area.
Can someone tell me without spoilers from worst to best in which order do I tackle the divine beasts so i can finish with a good build up?

Here's my top two for each area (though it's quite personal I think):

Best village
Zora then Gerudo

Best village approach
Goron then Zora

Best sidequests from village
Gerudo then Rito (note: haven't done as many Goron quests)

Best beast approach
Gerudo or Rito (I think most will prefer Zora, but I found Rito to be especially epic. All four are great though, and varied)

Best beast
Tough call, all four have some great puzzles, but for me it was a case of diminishing returns: I played them Zora-Gerudo-Rito-Goron and was less impressed each time, which has more to do with slight overlap/sameness than individual quality

Best boss battle
Gerudo then Zora (none are especially great, but I don't hate them as much as some seem to)
 
Got a couple of questions, I am not sure in which order should I do the Divine Beasts quest. I first thought of going towards the Death Mountain as that is probably where the Goron leader is, but along the way I've encountered 2 Zoras telling me that the prince of Zora's is looking for me, so I guess now I am on the way to meet with him first? Is this the right way of doing things, or should I change my way towards the Death Mountain?

Second question: should I keep the stones such as amber, ruby, saphire, etc. or sell them for rupiees? Can I use them for anything else?
 
Got a couple of questions, I am not sure in which order should I do the Divine Beasts quest. I first thought of going towards the Death Mountain as that is probably where the Goron leader is, but along the way I've encountered 2 Zoras telling me that the prince of Zora's is looking for me, so I guess now I am on the way to meet with him first? Is this the right way of doing things, or should I change my way towards the Death Mountain?

Second question: should I keep the stones such as amber, ruby, saphire, etc. or sell them for rupiees? Can I use them for anything else?

There is no "right" order in which to do the beasts. If you want to see the Gorons first, go ahead and go to Death Mountain first. If you want to meet the Zora Prince, go towards Zora's Domain. If you want do something else entirely, do it. Just do what you feel like!
 
There really isn't much story to miss.

As for gerudo town it's honestly the only area that feels complete. Most fleshed out town and side quests, themed shrines that tie into the beast, most substantial lead-in to the beast, the beast actually had a second layer to its puzzle design, and an actul payoff for for doing everything in the town.

Yeah even Hateno and Kakariko had more going for them town-wise than say Goron city. Zora had a bunch of sidequests but most of them weren't that interesting. I'd guess that every story region had a team and a lead, with the Gerudo team knocking it out of the park.
 
Quick question. So my 9 yo daughter decided to go right to the castle after the plateau. She's somewhere inside I think midway threw. I'm trying to not watch her play because I don't want to get spoiled but I was wondering can she technically defeat him with basic gear and a weopon found a long the way?

Also any tips to speed up cooking? It's cool but I'm not a fan of the time it takes some times.
Yeah, there's plenty of good weapons/arrows in there, if she masters flurrying and the battle system she could beat it.

Well, there's a skip button when cooking...
 
Guys, I have a bunch of Korok seeds I'd like to turn in. I've already found the big Korok guy on the road to Kakariko, but he isn't there anymore. Where has he gone? I need new inventoty slots!
 
Quick question. So my 9 yo daughter decided to go right to the castle after the plateau. She's somewhere inside I think midway threw. I'm trying to not watch her play because I don't want to get spoiled but I was wondering can she technically defeat him with basic gear and a weopon found a long the way?

Also any tips to speed up cooking? It's cool but I'm not a fan of the time it takes some times.

She can defeat him but he will have a lot of hitpoints.
 
randomly getting 1 shot by seemingly normal enemies is still weird, especially since theres no leveling in the game. Im on my way to the Zora place, I run into one of those chameleon guys, take him out no problem, another one down the road just like this one but with a big sword (granted that is a big sword) one shots me.

Im not even necessarely complaining, its just...strange.

(I love those Chameleon guys btw)
 
damn, the path to the
Zora
place, with the rain and the lizard guys, my FPS took a huge dive (the first real noticiable one to be honest), I assume its the same for everyone?

playing Switch docked
 
Damn, a brief exploration in Hyrule castle has now left me feeling extremely OP with some of the weapons that are just left lying around! Put three most powerful in
my house.

Quick question, do the weapons in racks/on ground in castle respawn after a blood moon?
 
randomly getting 1 shot by seemingly normal enemies is still weird, especially since theres no leveling in the game. Im on my way to the Zora place, I run into one of those chameleon guys, take him out no problem, another one down the road just like this one but with a big sword (granted that is a big sword) one shots me.

Im not even necessarely complaining, its just...strange.

(I love those Chameleon guys btw)

There is leveling, it just takes the form of completing shrines for health and stamina, collecting materials to upgrade armor sets. and using a particular set for specific boosts to abilities.
 
There is leveling, it just takes the form of completing shrines for health and stamina, collecting materials to upgrade armor sets. and using a particular set for specific boosts to abilities.

I returned to the great Plateau and noticed many more white colored - strong - bokoblins.

Also weapon drops had better stats too.

And I still didn't go to Ganon.
 
I returned to the great Plateau and noticed many more white colored - strong - bokoblins.

Also weapon drops had better stats too.

And I still didn't go to Ganon.
There must be a mix of area-specific enemies and difficulty scaling. After the Plateau, I first went through the Gerudo highlands, and then the desert, which was pretty difficult. I defeated every enemy I stumbled across, including Molduga. I then went north to Hyrule castle, again pretty difficult. I don't know if any of the guardians scale. I defeated many on my way to the Sanctum. On reaching the Sanctum I went northwest to Hebra, but ran out of food and could not completely explore it. I only ran into a couple of Lizalfos so can't speak to difficulty. Then I wandered through Tabantha which I would call sort of medium difficulty. Near the Tabantha/Hebra border there was a Lizalfos camp that put up a decent challenge. It is one of my favorite encounters so far. There are maybe ten or so Lizalfos, a mix of red through blacks. Besides that, there is not much there that poses a challenge. After combing Tabantha, I went east. Difficulty plummeted as I approached regions near Kakariko. The most difficult encounter I have had for nearly ten hours is a run in with two red bokoblins on horseback. There are many low-level encounters with basic enemy types and the weapon drops have gone from a typical 35-75 attack range to 2-15. I have played for 40 hours and destroyed many enemies. This leads me to believe scaling occurs differently for different regions. There is still kind of a roadmap of difficulty meant to tunnel players a certain direction.

Chests don't appear to scale at all. Sometimes special effects are randomized. I have been so used to seeing 30+ value shields, that I felt a little insulted finding one with a value of 3 near the dueling peaks stable.

I will hold onto my Lynel shield, thank you.
 
Finished. 8/10

Couldn't help to think of the witcher 3 many times during my playthough of zalda. As in "main quest and side quests were so much better on the witcher "

Some shrines and the camel dungeon are good.
 
I'm an idiot, I still couldn't figure it out and my girlfriend came out and solved it in under a minute.

She's a keeper, me and my own GF couldn't solve it for a long while. The one puzzle that has stumped us the most.

My question is, has anyone broken these reward weapons and refound them again?
I am very interested in the answer to this. I am sitting on the trident and scimitar right now because I am loathe to lose them.

There is a person in every of their towns that will reforge them when broken, for a diamond and a weaker version of the weapon. Seriously, people don't like to explore, huh? I found most of the blacksmiths before getting the weapons and they even spoil that such weapons exist.
 
OfT is still the better Zelda.

This game had the potential but repetitive game play, not as good story and not fleshed put bad guy, give the edge to OfT.
 
Do you guys still play the game after completing the main quest?



I'm about to finish it and I can't wait to be able to tackle shrines, sidequests, exploring, Master Sword etc without the main quest looming over my head. So relieved to get it out of the way!

Wait, what have you actually done before doing the quest? I think the idea is that you do that towards the end.
 
after the divine beasts were freed, i went after a
silver lynel:

1. snuck up on it and smacked it around with a savage lynel spear.
2. put it into stasis and beat up on it a little bit more.
3. lightning -> stasis -> lightning
4. savage lynel bow with 5x arrow shot to the face

and that was one dead silver lynel in the span of about 20 seconds
 
Finished. 8/10

Couldn't help to think of the witcher 3 many times during my playthough of zalda. As in "main quest and side quests were so much better on the witcher "

Some shrines and the camel dungeon are good.

I'm sorry, dos the witcher have a
banana salesman that suddenly turns into a ninja assassin trying to kill you
? I think not sir!

(that just randomly hppened to me lol)

but anyway, it seems you went in with some strange expectations, why would you expect Zelda to have as good a story or sidequests as a proper RPG like Witcher?
 
I think the discussion on how big BotW needs to be is a super interesting and complex one. One interesting effect of its large size is the feeling of nothing you get when entering a new region. Before you start to read the tells in the environment, go off the beaten path and following the string of what could be interesting diversions, the environments just look like nature. Making discoveries really feel like something you discover.
 
Do you guys still play the game after completing the main quest?



I'm about to finish it and I can't wait to be able to tackle shrines, sidequests, exploring, Master Sword etc without the main quest looming over my head. So relieved to get it out of the way!

I play the game instead of completing the main quest. ;-) I'm more interested in finding new areas, or new stuff at places where I've been. Sorry Zelda, you really have to wait to be freed from Ganon. Played it for close to a month now, and it seems like every day there are new surprises on how this game could be played.

I think the discussion on how big BotW needs to be is a super interesting and complex one. One interesting effect of its large size is the feeling of nothing you get when entering a new region. Before you start to read the tells in the environment, go off the beaten path and following the string of what could be interesting diversions, the environments just look like nature. Making discoveries really feel like something you discover.

For some reason, I seem to miss almost every korok seed on the first visit to a region. On subsequent visits, I find so much more.
 
Do you guys still play the game after completing the main quest?



I'm about to finish it and I can't wait to be able to tackle shrines, sidequests, exploring, Master Sword etc without the main quest looming over my head. So relieved to get it out of the way!


Yeah! Although the I got the Master Sword before finishing the game. Now I am searthing for the remaining 50 or so shrines and Then I'll finish the game again. 90 hours in and I still love it.
 
I just finished my naked run!
It was a ton of fun and it really pushed me to experiment with the game's mechanics. I had to put on some clothes for two specific sequences where I had no choice for story reasons and I ended up skipping the
Goron dungeon
because I didn't want to spend too much time farming lizards. Other than that, it wasn't too difficult but very enjoyable. It creates the opportunity for some hilarious dialogs. Too bad
Zelda
is pretty much the only character that didn't make remarks about my nakedness though. Missed opportunity, Nintendo!
 
cool ran into the seed dude again finally, had quite a few seeds already, and really needed more shield space. I was just about ready to look up online where to find him so that was cool.
 
Do you guys still play the game after completing the main quest?



I'm about to finish it and I can't wait to be able to tackle shrines, sidequests, exploring, Master Sword etc without the main quest looming over my head. So relieved to get it out of the way!

Think I'm done with the game now, but have to say that maybe half of my playtime was after I beat the final boss. Getting the 120 shrines, exploring regions I hadn't done thoroughly before, finding the final sidequests... Kept me busy for an entire week. I even enjoyed it more after finishing the story because after that it become more of a relaxing exploration experience.

Time for other games now, but it will be weird saying goodbye. I played most hours in launch week, but for over 3 weeks this was the only game I touched. Clocking out at 120/130 hours.
 
Finished the game last night. Decided to go straight at Ganon without upgrading any armor. It was fairly easy with the right amount of meals with stat boosts. Man, I really enjoyed every second of this.
 
I beat all the Divine Beasts.

Nintendo obviously wanted to completely reinvent the Zelda conventions, and it's interesting to see that they went this direction with the dungeons. I think most people were not really clamoring for dungeons to be dramatically altered. Many enjoyed the dungeons in Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, even if they weren't keen on the game overall.

I really enjoyed them, though some were better than others. I often hear that they are too short, or too similar, but I disagree. Yes, your time inside the actual dungeon is shorter compared to other titles, but the whole quest line to get in the beast, and heck to actually traverse the landscape to get to the city in the first place, are substantial. I think if you just visit the city, then warp back when you want to tackle the dungeon (which I admittedly did with all of them), it does make the journey seem a bit less epic since it seems like it boils down to "Ok I'm ready, can you give me a ride?" I thought the aesthetics of the actual beasts were really cool, so I didn't mind that they lacked an elemental theme interior.

They do manage to reflect the openness of the game as a whole. The terminals do not have to be accessed in a set order and you are given free reign to manipulate the beasts early into the dungeons. They encourage experimentation and problem-solving similar to the shrines. Though like past dungeons, each terminals basically have one solution you have to figure out as opposed to the free-form solutions you can create in shrines or in battle. The previous Zelda dungeons are the very definition of lock-and-key, where you cannot progress unless you have done a very specific thing in a very specific order. You know how far you are by what items you've obtained (you get the map, then the compass, then the item, then the boss key etc.).

My main criticism is the lack of combat in them. Zelda is known for its enemies and bosses, so it's so strange to see these beasts almost completely vacant. I think they could have done a lot, like having malice-infested or guardian versions of existing enemies. The Master Sword being super powerful, while cool in a story sense, makes the bosses way to easy. Speaking of the bosses, while they were diverse in how you battled them, they all looked way to similar. Think of the wild designs in past Zelda bosses. This time it's just goop with a guardian weapon and Ganon's haircut. They seem so uninspired when compared to everything else in the game.

I feel like there's a lot to like about these dungeons, but they can also be improved upon. I would like to see the more open aspects of the dungeons retained, while also incorporating more traditional elements like distinct enemies and more elaborate puzzles.
 
Maybe I am asking too much here, but what are mobilins and where do they come from exactly? I have played though a fair few zelda games, but I've only completed four or so, but in most modern zeldas we have entire domains for various races in hurdle, but I don't think we've bee seen a moblin city.

Yeah, yeah... I understand this is Nintendo and lore is just something designed around giving us a gameplay framework, but I love the moblin designs so much I'd love to see an expansion of their culture.
 
Damn, a brief exploration in Hyrule castle has now left me feeling extremely OP with some of the weapons that are just left lying around! Put three most powerful in
my house.

Quick question, do the weapons in racks/on ground in castle respawn after a blood moon?
For the most part, yes (I haven't confirmed the
Hylian Shield
respawns but I'll check it out and report back). I've farmed it a couple times and weapons were there again after some time, my guess would be they respawn after a blood moon.
 
Maybe I am asking too much here, but what are mobilins and where do they come from exactly? I have played though a fair few zelda games, but I've only completed four or so, but in most modern zeldas we have entire domains for various races in hurdle, but I don't think we've bee seen a moblin city.

Yeah, yeah... I understand this is Nintendo and lore is just something designed around giving us a gameplay framework, but I love the moblin designs so much I'd love to see an expansion of their culture.

I'm not sure any of the enemies are that civilized. I've also never seen a bokoblin city or a lizalfos city. I think the skull shaped camps are the closest I've seen to an enemy city.
 
So whats the best way to tackle these
octopus laser shooting
motherfuckers?

I hear you can
reflect the beams back at them
, is that with
shield? Is it just "parrying the beams"
?
 
Ended up buying this last night for Wii U and playing for a couple hours. So far I'm not sure what to think.

Is there no "dodge" button? I guess there's "jump" but that doesn't really offer much lateral movement... Also, I couldn't figure out how to cook stuff. Kept running around the pot on the fire with no luck. Ended up googling that you're supposed to "hold" the items you want to cook first. How the fuck is this not explained in the game?

Currently trying to get the
fourth spirit orb. Which I know is in the snowy area but Link keeps dying in the cold. So I figure I have to get that jacket from the guy who wants me to come up with a recipe which includes some meat, spicy pepper and something else. I tried a couple random things but that apparently wasn't it. Am I supposed to just guess? Seems kinda like shitty design? So not sure what to do at this point. Also, have no more peppers.
 
Maybe I am asking too much here, but what are mobilins and where do they come from exactly? I have played though a fair few zelda games, but I've only completed four or so, but in most modern zeldas we have entire domains for various races in hurdle, but I don't think we've bee seen a moblin city.

Yeah, yeah... I understand this is Nintendo and lore is just something designed around giving us a gameplay framework, but I love the moblin designs so much I'd love to see an expansion of their culture.
I agree. Monster culture could be expanded in the future. It's a shame it wasn't, here.

The rest of the world seems to exist independently of the player. But monsters, especially bokoblins, seem to exist only as obstacles for the player. This is never more clear than at camps where dispatching all monsters magically unlocks a treasure chest. As if the monsters exist only as a key to the chest.

This should be improved upon. They should have some real function in the world, with their own objectives and culture.
 
So whats the best way to tackle these
octopus laser shooting
motherfuckers?

I hear you can
reflect the beams back at them
, is that with
shield? Is it just "parrying the beams"
?

Yeah. Best to
parry around when the laser has circles around it right before firing. You can also cut off their legs if you get in close with a powerful enough weapon. And obviously something like Ancient Arrows are overpowered on them.
 
So whats the best way to tackle these
octopus laser shooting
motherfuckers?

I hear you can
reflect the beams back at them
, is that with
shield? Is it just "parrying the beams"
?

yes you can parry the beams with a shield. The timing is not that hard to figure out, you'll get it after a while. You can save before a battle, practice that and reload if you lose too many shields. You can also shoot them in the face and chop off their legs.
 
Ended up buying this last night for Wii U and playing for a couple hours. So far I'm not sure what to think.

Is there no "dodge" button? I guess there's "jump" but that doesn't really offer much lateral movement... Also, I couldn't figure out how to cook stuff. Kept running around the pot on the fire with no luck. Ended up googling that you're supposed to "hold" the items you want to cook first. How the fuck is this not explained in the game?

Currently trying to get the
fourth spirit orb. Which I know is in the snowy area but Link keeps dying in the cold. So I figure I have to get that jacket from the guy who wants me to come up with a recipe which includes some meat, spicy pepper and something else. I tried a couple random things but that apparently wasn't it. Am I supposed to just guess? Seems kinda like shitty design? So not sure what to do at this point. Also, have no more peppers.

The game's a bit weird with not giving a proper tutorial on dodging until a later Shrine, but you can dodge by leaping backwards or sideways with proper timing, giving you a special retaliation. You can also "parry" with your shield.

As for the recipe
re-read the name of the recipe the old man gives it. It's not bad design.
 
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