The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I think it's fair to say that it is kind of slow, or relaxed/relaxing imo, and, yes, it could take up a fair amount of time. If you're not into it at this point, maybe just give up? I thought it was totally absorbing from very early on, but if you're playing out of cultural obligation, that seems unfun

Well, tbh, the world is cool and absorbing, but the story isn't terribly compelling to me, because it is boilerplate (which is not necessarily a bad thing, just video game par for the course) and everything is just so chill and weirdly jovial. The bigger issue I have (which is probably surmountable) is that the quests I keep going on take 10 times as long to get to as they do to complete, which is kind of a drag. Even with the glider or a horse, it's just slow going. It makes me think I must be doing something wrong.

(Though I appreciate a response that is more than just "ban him for being bored!" It's a well made game and I want to get the most out of it! But it's also the first Zelda I've played since the first one 30 some years ago and also the first open world game I've played, so maybe I'm not automatically invested in the mythology and concept?)

I found the story so compelling in the way it was told with the world-build itself. I got emotional arriving at Akkala and seeing the remnants of a terrible battle, etc.

While for me the narrative was kind of a background hum most of the time--one that I enjoyed engaging with periodically when I'd want to do something more dramatic. The best thing about this game from a retrospective/bird's-eye view is how many different ways there are to play it. I'm not sure what to suggest you do differently Josh, but maybe try to consciously alter your approach? Ignore all the side & shrine quests maybe? Try to open the whole map by finding all the sheikah towers first? Do you like doing the shrine puzzles once you find one?

Josh - you know you can warp to any shrine or tower you've visited, right? That will (of course) take away some of the walking/riding tedium.

Oh, shit, that's right! That'll help.

Moving on:

Can I ignore the side quests? Or will they earn me important/powerful things that will improve the gameplay?

Can I really ignore the shrines? They get me the power balls, and those seem essential to getting more hearts and stamina, which would definitely improve the gameplay. I don't know if they're fun, per se, more like little in-game puzzles, but at least the rewards seem worth the time.

Opening the map sounds like it could be a productive endeavor; I've only activated two of the towers so far. Is there a secret to finding weapons that I'm missing?

Oh, and the horse: Is my horse my horse, or will any horse do? I keep losing the horse when I glide off, do I have to find my way back to that horse or can I just jump on a different one?

Blowing up rocks for amber and stuff: useful endeavor or boondoggle? I don't know what the minerals and whatnot are good for just yet.

If you take your horse to a stable you can leave it there and then any stable you visit will have the horse for you.

Collecting gems pays off to some extent later, and they are also worth more if you sell them in the villages.

I mean worth money.

The shrines were pretty important in my enjoyment of the game.

And the shrines are where you find the fancier weapons.

Is my horse my horse

of course!

there was nothing more inevitable than josh not loving this game

xposts
Using the warp points is fundamental to the game, so that will change your life.

The majority of the side quests result in rupees, iirc, though there are some much more rewarding ones and no way to tell which is which. But if you're not into running errands for people, you could def ignore them for now and do them later when/if you get more into the game or you stumble into the solution while doing other stuff.

I wouldn't ignore shrines *across the board*, but if the shrine *quests* (your adventure log has main quests, shrine quests, and side quests listed) are annoying you, you should just run into shrines or see them with your, uh, telescope thing as you explore and your shrine detector starts pinging (which you might not have yet?). I might also say just peace out of any of the combat trial shrines if they're draining your inventory (you can warp directly back to them later). They come in Mild, Moderate, and Major strengths, and even Mild is pretty hard for a while.

Sell amber for rupees. The more valuable rocks will be useful for other things, though if you really need armor or something else expensive just sell them, you can always get more later. Indeed, I wouldn't bother blowing up every rock you see, they're everywhere. In general, there's little need to be comprehensive; the blood moon dynamic also means you don't need to clear areas of monsters.

I did very little horse stuff, but I liked painstakingly exploring areas on foot. Yes you can ride any horse you see (also deer and bears and other creatures!), it only becomes "your" horse if you board it at a stable, which you do not have to do. You can have, iirc, five total boarded horses, but you can switch them out if you find better ones.

I was trying to post a big long thing about how I also neglected horses the entire game and now feel weirdly sad about it. Didn't tame one or anything. But ilx died and I lost the post.

i mean if the story's boring and you don't want to do the side quests or the shrines, that's pretty much the whole game?

i never really understood boarding horses. your horse is kept at the stable for you, but then if you're out riding around having an adventure and you need to get off your horse to explore some area, that horse is lost unless you come back for it within a certain amount of time? or do they go back to the stable? it always felt like more trouble than it was worth

i liked in witcher how you could just whistle for your horse anywhere and it would magically appear, even if you had abandoned it on the other side of the map

If you feed your horse three or four apples, it gets more obedient and easier to steer.

NB - you don't have to complete a shrine to be able to warp to it. You just have to activate it at the entrance.

Once you have enough stamina (from completing shrines) it gets a lot easier to tame horses, as it takes longer for the horse to throw you off.

do they go back to the stable?

There's a shrine next to every stable, so theoretically if you lose your horse you can just warp back to the stable and pick it up.

Or, er, go to the horse god to resurrect dead horses.

I turned off the shrine ping because it got pretty annoying, but I should probably turn it back on again.

The flashing dot on my map, is that my next major quest goal, or only the most recent/top of the queue? Every place I go I seem to encounter people telling me to go somewhere else, but I'm not sure what to prioritize. I'm also having trouble with scale. Dots that seem close by take forever to get to, and sometimes I get to where the flashing dot is but somehow fail to satisfy whatever completion criteria I'm meant to satisfy.

Re: the horse, I meant is it better to have one dedicated horse, or do all horses fundamentally serve the same purpose? For example, I misplaced the horse I had been using so later hopped on a different horse, and it seemed pretty much the same to me. Can I train it to do different stuff? Like, I dunno, fly? Fight battles for me?

う...うまー！

...！？

う..うまー！

#ゼルダの伝説 #ブレスオブザワイルド #任天堂 pic.twitter.com/X2ELHrI6Ka

— ゴリライブ(イカ絵RTマン 及び クソリプマン） (@untiiiiiikong) March 4, 2017

https://i.imgur.com/pK74g.gif

I turned off the shrine ping because it got pretty annoying, but I should probably turn it back on again.

yeah you should turn it back on

the best way to play this game is to just noodle around in pursuit of some proximal goal and not worry about if you get distracted and wind up somewhere else. Just live in the game, man.

The yellow dot on the map is an indicator for your current activated quest; you can make a different quest active in your quest log in the + menu.

But it doesn't matter which quest is foremost?

Matter in what sense? There is no ulterior reason to prioritize anything over anything else.

Because if you don't do quest X you can't get reward Y and you need reward Y to complete quest Z?

You cannot move on to Y until you do X?

i turned off shrine ping until i had traversed the entire map on roads and hit up all the obvious ones like the ones in towns and next to stables, then turned it back on to find the out of the way ones

Because if you don't do quest X you can't get reward Y and you need reward Y to complete quest Z?

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, January 31, 2019 9:36 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there's vanishingly little of this other than in the sequence of events leading you into each divine beast, and that's pretty linear and easier to keep track of.

You cannot move on to Y until you do X?

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, January 31, 2019 9:37 AM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Y = enjoying the game
X = stop worrying about playing it "correctly"

Yeah, it's easier to just fart around and do whatever makes you happy. The quest log keeps track of things pretty reliably.

There are three types of quest:

Side quest: Like, "fetch me the ingredients for a delicious devil stew from the castle and i will give you a disappointing 20 rupees" or "guide this message in a bottle down the river for a disappointing selection of rubies." These quests are all totally optional. Some are really fun, it's not just fetch quests.

Shrine quest: These are totally optional too. They're like side quests, but if you beat it, you'll uncover a new shrine.

Main quest: If you just want to complete the plot and finish the game as quickly as possible, you have to do (most of) these.

Then there's completing the shrines (these are optional but build up your health and stamina for battles) and finding your lost memories (which are totally optional, but if you get them all, you get a slightly better ending and a bunch of fun cut scenes during the game)

And theoretically you don't even have to get the divine beasts, but three of them are awesome fun dungeons, and the camel is a fucking wanker.

the divine beasts should not have been so dungeon-like. the shrines are better, optional dungeon puzzles. the initial catching/taming part was a good idea, but you should just fight the boss when you get inside.

josh I was only joking about having you banned

and every boss fight should have involved controlling the divine beast in order to deliver a final death blow

you should maybe prioritise the main quest and you’ll find yourself ambling into side quests along the way

I suggest you start by locating kakariko village (is that what it’s called? the first main village) and going from there

Yeah, I've been there, then to the annoying j-pop scientist, then ... back?

go to Zora Domain imo

And theoretically you don't even have to get the divine beasts, but three of them are awesome fun dungeons, and the camel is a fucking wanker.

― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, January 31, 2019 11:30 AM (thirty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I had no idea if there was a particular order to them when I first played (before losing the first switch), and this was the only one i made it to/beat. definitely looked up tips on how to beat it tho

Josh, generally, when I played the game, I did the following:

1. Did not cook at all, but explored every realm and used shrine-completion as an opportunity to heal.
2. Stuck to the main quest religiously until Zora's Realm was completed, as the ability you get from defeating the Divine Beast there is extremely useful.
3. Prioritized exploring the map, activating the towers.
4. Prioritized finding all four fairy fountains and upgrading my armour-- not cooking meant that I had naturally acquired most of the required ingredients to do so.

Because if you don't do quest X you can't get reward Y and you need reward Y to complete quest Z?

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, January 31, 2019 5:36 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there is very little of this in the game (if any?) which is very unusual for a zelda game (a franchise which is big on this type of gating). if you’re skilled enough, you can walk off the plateau and straight to the final boss

I remember the early game being very difficult - requiring careful management of weapons, use of situational advantages in combat (bombs, barrels, stealth etc). there comes a point where you stop picking up clubs and sticks and start collecting swords and spears etc

this is a little way into the game and is the fun of progressing

for travel you can fast travel - a lot of the wonder comes from just traversing the world on foot and coming over small settlements, set pieces, large towns, merchants etc

fgti’s scheme is good

we are here for you josh. this is a safe space. I will not call for your removal from the board and have removed you from my badposters.xls

Cool. Coming from Dark Souls, there is no "right" way there, but there are wrong, practically irreversible things you can do, and big mistakes to make, that can seriously impair enjoyment.

I think dark souls was a really weird entry point for you. DS is awesome and there’s a reason there’s an entire genre called “soulslike” games. But it’s no sort of measuring stick other games. In general, although it sometimes makes sense to compare one game to another, especially games in the same series, I try to approach each game on its own terms.

the best way to play this game is to just noodle around in pursuit of some proximal goal and not worry about if you get distracted and wind up somewhere else. Just live in the game, man.


Otm

^yes so many play sessions were like shaggy dog stories