The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

it takes a community steel anus

i fell off this game so hard, still haven't done two of the beasts or the castle and i'm not sure i ever will. my hero's path line is hilarious, like 2/3 of the map is completely covered in green and the other third just has a few big lines zipping around to some major landmarks

don't get me wrong this game world is a stunning accomplishment (and i feel bad saying anything negative about it) but i do wish it was smaller enough that it didn't have to recycle its interesting concepts. the most emblematic experience for me was finding the first labyrinth island, going "holy shit this so cool", then finding a second labyrinth island and going "oh this again?" and then finding a THIRD labyrinth island and saying fuck it i'm not doing this again, the first two were virtually the same

the world probably works better for people who are cool with leaving some content undiscovered and don't feel a need to overturn every rock. biggest thing i would change is the korok seed uhh economy... either make them rarer or gate more useful things behind them. in the beginning of the game those are your rewards for being an explorer, especially in the random patches of woods that don't really have anything unique going on aside from being named on the map. but they're designed to get less and less valuable the more you explore - both because it takes more of them to exchange for the same reward, and because you reach a point where you don't actually need more weapon or shield slots. eventually it didn't seem worth it to glide over ten feet to pick up a rock with an obvious korok under it. by that point the game just died for me.

i started to get that feeling toward the end of my time with it (100+ hours in, which is a very long time for me!), and i just concentrated on the castle to "beat" the game. no shame in that, i don't think!

the world probably works better for people who are cool with leaving some content undiscovered and don't feel a need to overturn every rock.

I did overturn nearly every rock and never quite got to being sick of the game, but in retrospect I wish I'd been less thorough and could now replay it with things left to discover

I need to redo more bits of the game nekkid. You get some good dialog then.

Anyone tried a replay on the harder levels?

I'm yet to try the Master Sword Trials, which is that Dead Souls style "do all these levels and start again if you fail" bit in the DLC. Master mode sounds nuts though. Gold lynels!? Rehealing monsters? Yike.

I've been running away from Blue Bobokins, so taking on Lynels (which I haven't even encountered yet) is probably a very long way off.

I just cheesed my first camp that had anything higher level than Red Bobokins (including Black Bobokins and a red Moblin) by throwing bombs from a bunch of a rocky overlook.

get em

i respect lynels theyll just look at you for a while before they fuck you up

"Is this peen worth bothering with? hmm. Nah... ok he's getting out some arrows fuck this shit"

We were gifted a Switch about two months into the pandemic. I had been confined to the house since mid-February because of an unrelated issue and I was really hobbled. Couldn't go outside and do shit. BOTW was almost therapeutic. Being able to run, explore, discover new places... it was amazing.

I'm not a video game guy. The last console I owned was the SNES, although I tried and failed to get back into gaming a few times. My favorite games back in the day were the 1st and 3rd Zeldas. The 2nd one was weird.

I've managed to do most of the big stuff. All of the memories, shrines, armor, and most of the side-quests. I finally started exploring the castle and I'm bummed that it's almost over. At the same time, I'm over it. I did most of the DLC but couldn't be bothered to work through the Master Sword Trials. We just got Mario Odyssey and I'm looking forward to something that is a little lighter.

My ten year old daughter has been playing BOTW at the same time as me. Seeing how she approaches the game is pretty interesting, because the language of video games hasn't become ingrained yet. Obvious prompts go over her head but she will notice other things that I would look past. She's managed to retake the divine beasts and has maybe 9 or 10 hearts. The army leader in Gerudo town invites Link to join them after he finishes his quest which made my daughter head over to Ganon and she beat him. She was in tears! She thought that the game would continue and the world would keep moving on. That she would see the results of conquering evil, and all of the good that she brought to the world would be on display.

I had to explain that there isn't enough memory on the card to accommodate an entire new version of the world of BOTW, and that like a movie it has an end. But I hugged her a lot and we talked. She's already on Mario and is having a lot of fun.

Daughter otm. I got really bummed out when I accidentally defeated Ganon and found out you can’t keep going after that. Would happily just wander about chatting to people, doing shrines and helping out with reconstruction work tbh

It’s been really interesting playing with my 6yo as well. He doesn’t like the fighting so I take care of that, but he directs the action and it’s just like you say - misses “obvious” signals but comes up with really interesting ways to solve puzzles I’d never have thought of. Also he makes me try things I’d dismiss out of hand as “not possible” and lo, they work. This game is amazing.

He’s really mad he can’t join the Yiga clan though, that first interaction with them where they invite you to join had him completely sold. So now we have to traipse about trying on different clothes in the hope they won’t recognise us and will finally let us join

lol

You can't keep playing after beating Ganon? I think she's still playing, running around and doing stuff.

?

poss spoiler?
You can reverse back to the time before you beat him (the game knows you've beat him and you get some extra stats) to continue playing, but you can't continue beyond a story point where Ganon has been defeated if you see what I mean. Whenever you're playing, Ganon has to be in the castle awaiting a showdown with you.

great post, cow_art!

you really should be able to join the yiga clan

yeah i love that post cow_art

Questions.

1. Early on, I assume the best way to spend spirit orbs is on heart containers?
2. How does cold resistant equipment work? I bought a warm tunic and still ended up shivering when I was wearing it.
3. I assume that beating some shrines require special abilities or equipment or levels first?

1. balance spirit with stamina for improved climbing and whelping
2. there are three 'levels' of cold protection. in addition to early cold-weather gear, you may need to eat some peppers to stay warm enough
3. beyond the first half-dozen... not really? once you're off the plateau, you can basically do anything.

Yeah you get a couple extra abilites after you defeat each champion, but theyre gravy really (though Ravioli's Gale is v useful). Its not like other Zelda's where you have to do dungeons to get iron boots/hookshots/etc

Speaking of the champion abilities, I almost never used daruk's protection. It just seemed to get in the way of my default sheild button mashing?

Yep always spend your spirit orbs on hearts - it's dead easy to equip yourself with stamina potions for those long climbs xps

The extra Champion abilities don’t work in shrines either so yeah, every shrine should be doable once you’re off the plateau.

Oh: you do need arrows for a few, and a couple I found a lot easier with fire arrows/bomb arrows.

the combat trial shrines (are those DLC?) are much easier with some extra hearts and better weapons

second play through i maxed out stamina and just farmed durian for hearts having max stamina makes the game so much more enjoyable imo just flying climbing running where ever you want

max stamina helps out with the most difficult boss in the game: a mild upward slope in the rain

lol

a BOTW Musou prequel in a few months? I liked Hyrule Warriors so getting to play as Urbosa, Mipha, Daruk and Revali sounds good to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifm8tpcO4vw

hyrule warriors botw sounds fun

oh its out in a couple months too. unironically love it when nintendo just announces stuff for the first time 3 months out

you should be able to kill kass in that

Champions Amiibo too

Amiibo for the four Champions: Daruk, Urbosa, Mipha, and Revali will be relaunching alongside #HyruleWarriors: Age of Calamity on 11/20! pic.twitter.com/eGynZdKfSA

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) September 8, 2020

lol plz tell me that Hyrule Warriors is not the "sequel" that everyone has been freaking out about for a year

ok never mind he explains that

yeah totally a stopgap release. i might even bite

Speaking of the champion abilities, I almost never used daruk's protection. It just seemed to get in the way of my default sheild button mashing?

― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Monday, September 7, 2020 7:41 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

otm, I always disable it when I need to shield parry

Thanku, "sheild parry" is totally what I meant rather than the word salad I actually posted there haha.

max stamina helps out with the most difficult boss in the game

ITYM this one rite
https://www.zeldadungeon.net/Zelda16/Shrine-Quests/Watch-Out-for-the-Flowers/03.jpg

So with this Hyrule game ... is the implication that there will be no BOTW2 this year? Or perhaps any time soon?

no one knows, man. just give in to it

prob be out in like a year

i heard that hyrule warriors really is the sequel, as well as the final zelda game

The trailer I saw for Hyrule Warriors had the main BOTW guy announcing it and he basically said the sequel's quite complex so needs a little more time to work on. I was never expecting it before 2021 anyway. But this prequel snuck up out of nowhere!

(well to me it did, I dont keep my nose jammed in Kotaku updates)

Most gaming websites now seem to think BOTW2 will be October/November 2021 at the very earliest

So what does anyone think Nintendo's big holiday releases will be? Or, for that matter, big releases in the next 12 months or so?

there are too many games already

sad truths