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Post by SL the Pyro on Mar 3, 2017 17:31:23 GMT
 actual ingame screenshot courtesy of myself and an unopened microSD I had lying aroundSo. Now that the release date for the Nintendo Switch has actually come, I'd say it's time to finally get this thread started. Breath of the Wild is the latest entry in the Legend of Zelda series, taking a sharp departure from its dungeon-crawling predecessors and instead giving us a vast, open-world experience. And we do mean "vast", as this new world is massive and non-linear. The basics are all the same: you are Link, the hero destined to save Hyrule from the evil Ganon, with the help of Princess Zelda and whatever other friends you meet along the way. The difference is that this is an open world game and have the freedom to do it however you want. Feel free to share your experiences in this thread, but remember to use the spoiler tags for... well, spoilers! |
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Post by SteveT on Mar 3, 2017 18:47:38 GMT
I am downloading the update right now. About to dive in!
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Post by DarkJuno on Mar 3, 2017 19:11:12 GMT
Picked it up and am currently fighting between my desire to tear right in and my body insisting I'm sick and should lie down.
We shall see who wins.
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Post by SteveT on Mar 3, 2017 23:57:04 GMT
The only thing that's really bugging me about this game is that soundtrack. There's something about the piano that annoys me to my core (probably years of unwanted piano lessons). It has neither the majesty of typical Zelda soundtracks nor the folksy charm of Link Between World's string remixes.
Everything else, tho...
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Post by SL the Pyro on Mar 5, 2017 1:39:04 GMT
So I think DarkJuno may have been at the same store I bought my Switch at (no not seriously I'm pretty sure he isn't Canadian or anywhere close to Ontario???), because I have also come down with a cold that is miring my experiences. The headaches are real. On the bright side, what little bits of the game I've been playing have been excellent. It's very much a situation of early-game hell though, so here's a few spoiler-free beginning tips: -Try to have an axe/blade and a Torch/Tree branch handy at all times. I cannot stress how helpful it is to be able to make your own campfires. -Mark every Cooking Pot location on the map. Seriously, you have a Cooking Pot map stamp for precisely this reason. -Make lots of food. You will need to heal a lot. -Cook stat-boosting foods with multiple of the desired boosting item - they stack! -Dilapidated (buried) Guardians are easy kills once you have halfway-decent weapons (no, not the Bombs, sadly). Get their material drops early for easy Rune upgrades! -On that note, the Runes can be upgraded. I will really, really recommend getting the Shiekah Sensor+ (available immediately after getting the Camera rune) because things you take pictures of will be registered in the Hyrule Compendium , which is a godsend when looking for specific items. -Use crafty tactics to deal with large amounts of enemies, especially enemies that can do lots of damage in one hit (monsters that do 11 HP per hit is a thing that can happen in the early-game). Don't be afraid to Sneak Strike a powerful enemy's skull with your trusty Sledgehammer before dealing with his friends, and don't be too prideful not to chip away at enemies from a distance where they can't return fire. -Completing a previously-undone Shrine Trial fully restores your HP. -Don't spit in the wind. -After you meet the tree-thing (you'll know what I mean), don't leave any stone unturned when exploring random areas. You never know what you might find! |
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Post by DarkJuno on Mar 5, 2017 4:45:33 GMT
Oh man, part of this is going to be in spoiler tags, but I have to tell this story. After getting off the Plateau, I figured I would ease myself in by following the Main Quest Path to go to Kakariko Village, and just wander off here and there if I saw something interesting. For the most part, I did, and I gotta say, I really like how they've turned the trope of climbing a tall tower to fill in the map into something kinda fresh. I love that you have to survey the land and mark the map yourself instead of it auto-populating like in our Assassin's Creed's or Far Cry's. Anyway, I followed that progression and got to that point where, I'll be vague here, you're given hints to certain locations you have to find in the course of the game. I was going to ignore it and start exploring, but one guy I helped asked to see one of the clues, and he said he recognized it. Spoilers now.
He pointed out that the gate in the picture looked a lot like the one at the base of Mt. Lanaryu, on the East end of the snowfields. I kinda like that it didn't mark it on the map for me, and left it up to me to remember and note it. I made my way over there and I got lost, I couldn't find what the guy was talking about and was running out of my cold weather food items and decided, what the hell, let me climb this mountain until I run out of time and just teleport back to a shrine. So I ran, avoiding all the crazily strong enemies in my upgraded but still dinky armor, freaking out because this place was so cold that you're supposed to have an even higher level of cold protection then I had access to at the time, and I was pretty surprised that I made it all the way to the top. Now, earlier in the game an NPC had mentioned that dragons used to live in the Lanaryu region, and at the time I made a comment that legends are always true in video games. As I rounded the corner to the mountain summit, I ran into a Goddess' Spring from Skyward Sword....with a giant dragon literally as big as the mountain I was on wrapped around it.
Apparently, I stumbled into what would've been the equivalent of a late game puzzle boss fight, but due to the nature of this game, i ran into it in a pathetically weak state on my first day of playing. At this point, my second layer of cold shielding was gone, and my health was draining, and as a result I was in a total rush trying to figure out what I could even do. So, the dragon is infected by corruption, and like this sort of thing does in Zelda games, it manifested in giant evil eyeballs all over him. After shooting the first one, the dragon took off and started flying around the mountaintop. I noticed the updrafts beneath him, so I used the sail to get up there and perch, and shoot another eyeball. Then, the dragon flew off, taking the updrafts with him. I figured that that would give me the lift to keep up, so I glided after him. At this point I actually ran out of health, but had a fairy so that held off the inevitable for now. Now, there were no perches, and I remembered the mechanic of jumping off things and pulling out your bow to slow down time. Giving it a shot, I glided into position and let go, pulled the bow out, and surely enough, time still slowed down, and I shot more evil eyes off while free falling, and re-opening the glider at the last minute since I didn't have enough stamina or time to do it slowly/properly. Finally, I got the last eyeball and was teleported back to the summit, where I was gifted a scale from the dragon and they revealed a hidden shrine behind the statue after offering that scale to the goddess.
Then I died.
Fortunately, I had another fairy, so that didn't end with me punching the TV.
This is why I love this game so far. It makes you explore and learn mechanics on your own without holding your hand, and then expects you to apply those skills and knowledge of how physics work in this game to get things done. On top of that, even if you get to it way too early, if you've learned the game, it'll be more difficult, but you CAN do it. And you feel awesome and are rewarded for accomplishing it. I really hope that once I get context for this scene, they'll work in a comment from Link as an option that you already started doing this.
This game is amazing, and I went from feeling a little intimidated by how big the map is to looking forward to uncovering all of it, bit by bit. The little details are incredibly, like this other little story from just after leaving the Plateau, one that I know other people have seen and is making the rounds right now.
I was crossing the long bridge headed to Kakariko and saw something down below, and went to jump. The NPC whom I had just spoken to walking down the opposite direction yelled at me to wait and came running, and proceeded to try and talk me down off the ledge. The guy was coded to notice me and think I was committing suicide, and came to try and stop me. I ended up not doing it and just marked what I saw for later.
Gah, this game! |
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Post by SteveT on Mar 6, 2017 5:00:51 GMT
I just unlocked my first memory and it's a doozy of a timeline hint. A character references various incarnations of the hero, and talks about flying around the sky, time travel, and twilight. So that means this game's history includes Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time (which are common to any timeline), but also Twilight Princess. Using the official chart, that means Breath of the Wild is in the Child Timeline. A shame. I was really hoping for Decline. |
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Post by DarkJuno on Mar 13, 2017 19:40:28 GMT
I did the first official dungeon. Not saying much, but I can't wait to do the others.
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Leo
Member
I don't believe in the moon, I think it's just the back of the sun.
Posts: 282 
Original Join Date: September 30, 2008
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Post by Leo on Mar 18, 2017 4:13:06 GMT
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Selena
 Admin
Odinsdottir
Posts: 320
Original Join Date: February 13, 2003
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Post by Selena on Mar 19, 2017 21:35:23 GMT
Oh yeah, if anyone feels like writing up a review of BotW for our website, feel free. I won't be able to play it any time soon. We're getting a proper domain name soon, so now's a good time.
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tydaze
Member
Posts: 72
Original Join Date: 2004
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Post by tydaze on Mar 28, 2017 23:35:42 GMT
Major spoilers for the ending So... Zelda had the entire Triforce all along, right? |
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Leo
Member
I don't believe in the moon, I think it's just the back of the sun.
Posts: 282
Original Join Date: September 30, 2008
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Post by Leo on Mar 29, 2017 21:14:30 GMT
Major spoilers for the ending So... Zelda had the entire Triforce all along, right? Evidently so - Link never shows anything close to ToC in those flashbacks, and I don't think they mentioned Ganon having Power either.
The timeline hints are all over the place in this game - the TP reference in Memory #1 but Steve's theory on the Rito and certain races being exist which only occurred in Downfall. |
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Post by DarkJuno on May 2, 2017 2:13:35 GMT
So they've finally said what the first DLC is.
Costumes and masks (including Tingle), details on the Trial that seems to do something to the Master Sword, the map let's you see where you've been, and a handy way to create a single warp point. Still looking more forward to what the second one will be, but the map feature seems handy in letting you know where you haven't been yet. Oh, and apparently the newest patch lets you change the spoken language into Japanese (or Spanish, or German, and others). Neat.
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Leo
Member
I don't believe in the moon, I think it's just the back of the sun.
Posts: 282
Original Join Date: September 30, 2008
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Post by Leo on May 2, 2017 13:05:47 GMT
For what the DLC costs I'm pretty happy with the first half of content. I wasn't expecting something like the Hero's Path but it'll be cool for tracking shrines and seeds without a guide.
It's also nice they're releasing gear that isn't Amiibo exclusive.
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Post by Jasi on May 2, 2017 14:49:20 GMT
The only thing that's really bugging me about this game is that soundtrack. There's something about the piano that annoys me to my core (probably years of unwanted piano lessons). It has neither the majesty of typical Zelda soundtracks nor the folksy charm of Link Between World's string remixes. Everything else, tho... I just got the game so I'm just now going through everyone's comments... It's definitely out of the ordinary, isn't it? I had the same complaint in the GOT finale from last season—after 7 seasons of string instruments, an entirely piano score was unsettling. I think it works in BOTW for communicating this vibe of emptiness. The piano timbre is super spare compared to the majesty (as you put it) of earlier games. For me the choice of piano really brings out the "wild" theme. It actually jerks me out of my Zelda vibe sometimes and makes me think "whoa." hah. What I really hate is the voice acting. Come on, Nintendo, this is Zelda, one of the most successful video game franchises ever, I know you can pay better voice actors. Like, for starters, can you get an actual British person to voice the characters with British accents? Or an actual old person to do the King? |
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