Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The DLC sounds pretty solid if you're a fan. I'd still like to see a NG+ option. To me it's odd that you jump through a bunch of hoops to get weapons and armor that you needed before jumping through all of those hoops. In games like Dark Souls, Deus Ex, Resident Evil, Diablo, etc. you get some level of payoff for end-game goodies.
 
Verge and Jamsomito - That makes sense, and I sort of gleaned that from this thread a bit, but wasn't entirely sure. I've been trying not to read much game-content related material while still reading and commenting on the game itself. Cool. Yeah, I'm still not done doing my wandering thing yet, but good to know there's some big stuff to do, and something a bit more like the classic dungeon/underworld type things.

So... it's not exactly what you're looking for. But you might like it. I don't want to say too much. I agree, some bigger dungeons or underground cave areas would have been cool. Also an idea - ancient high-tech ruins that still half worked would have been a really cool addition.
 
So... it's not exactly what you're looking for. But you might like it. I don't want to say too much. I agree, some bigger dungeons or underground cave areas would have been cool. Also an idea - ancient high-tech ruins that still half worked would have been a really cool addition.

Agree. Maybe like the sky level of Twilight Princess with a few less annoyances. (wasn't a big fan of having to wear the iron boots up there for example) There are a few ancient tech areas in Skyward Sword too that were pretty cool.
 
Anyone liking this game even more on the second playthrough? Now that I understand the combat mechanics, I find the game more enjoyable. Also found that I didn't boost my stamina wheel enough or early enough on my first playthrough. It really helps exploration, along with Revali's Gale.

If you pump up your stamina wheel and get the climbing gear early, the rest of the game is a lot more fun, except of course, when it rains.
 
Stamina is definitely underrated. It's easy to get preoccupied with heart containers thanks to the Master Sword. At least getting 1-2 expansions on your stamina bar makes almost everything easier. The climbing heights in the game feel very deliberate. I can't count the number of sheer faces I climbed where the default stamina meter was barely enough with a hop at the end. Even just a tiny bit more stamina makes a lot of that less stressful and tedious.
 
From what I have read, most folks get enough hearts to get the Master Sword, then trade some back for stamina at the demon shrine guy.
 
From what I have read, most folks get enough hearts to get the Master Sword, then trade some back for stamina at the demon shrine guy.

I kept my hearts. By the time I got 13 hearts I was able to craft numerous stamina potions and food to help scale that wall I underestimated. After I got the Master sword I put future shrine upgrades into stamina for a full 2nd ring and then kept feeding the rest into hearts.
 
Does anybody else think this game is too easy? I know people say that this is the Dark Souls of Zelda, but I've been through 3 divine beasts so far and the boss fights have been a joke. All you do is shoot arrows at them until they die.
 
I kept my hearts. By the time I got 13 hearts I was able to craft numerous stamina potions and food to help scale that wall I underestimated. After I got the Master sword I put enough into stamina for a full 2nd ring and then kept feeding the rest into hearts.

That's what I did, too. I kept my hearts but got enough seals to fill up like 90% of a 2nd stamina ring. That was enough to make me wish I did that earlier. The additional hearts only mattered in the areas with lousy climates. At least prior to you finding the right clothing. The stuff that hits hard hits hard enough to take out 7-8 hearts at a time and the resurrection ability essentially doubles 'em anyway. More stamina gives you the tools to simply play better. Longer climbs, more swings, etc.
 
Does anybody else think this game is too easy? I know people say that this is the Dark Souls of Zelda, but I've been through 3 divine beasts so far and the boss fights have been a joke. All you do is shoot arrows at them until they die.

Try fighting a Lynel...those seem to one-shot me pretty regularly even with 10 hearts.
 
Try fighting a Lynel...those seem to one-shot me pretty regularly even with 10 hearts.


I did lightning guy first and he whipped my arse over and over. Arrows had little effect and I only had a few.

Sure. If you've done 80 shrines, probably much easier. I had 5 hearts!
 
The "trick" to Lynels seems to be to shoot them in the face when they charge followed by a few melee attacks and running like hell. It's easily the hardest thing you have to do in Zelda, although it's only par for the course for anyone who has played Dark Souls. You can try to play the attack and dodge melee game, but it's risky and takes forever. You do additional damage after an arrow to the head when they charge.

IMO, those battles almost don't fit in the with the game. The rest of Zelda is pretty forgiving and the other boss encounters revolve around using specific powers more than combat precision.
 
Try fighting a Lynel...those seem to one-shot me pretty regularly even with 10 hearts.

Yep, the Lynel is waaaay more difficult than the shrine bosses which is weird.
However, with a defense elixir even the Lynel is pretty easy. Once you get the rhythm of his charges down he's pretty easy to dodge.
 
One thing that really throws me off is the timing of dodges for flurry strikes. It seems like you have to hit the dodge basically as you are being hit, rather than as the enemy is stating the swing as you would think intuitively.

I need to put more time into practicing I guess. I seem to be able to parry the Guardian lasers pretty well, which is an awesome ability and makes them far easier to deal with. I also find Hinoxes to be fairly easy as they are slow and you can basically just spam them with arrows and bombs.
 
One thing that really throws me off is the timing of dodges for flurry strikes. It seems like you have to hit the dodge basically as you are being hit, rather than as the enemy is stating the swing as you would think intuitively.

I need to put more time into practicing I guess. I seem to be able to parry the Guardian lasers pretty well, which is an awesome ability and makes them far easier to deal with. I also find Hinoxes to be fairly easy as they are slow and you can basically just spam them with arrows and bombs.

The flurry stuff felt inconsistent to me, too. I couldn't tell if you were supposed to do it really early or late or what. Both seemed to work to varying degrees even against the same enemies and same attacks. I general, I didn't like the dodging mechanics. There were some times where I swear it just didn't work right. Either way, I barely used the flurry and I didn't dodge all that much either.
Not sure if it's a "trick" necessarily, but I used the blue on-screen flash as a cue when to parry guardian blasts. It doesn't work when they're super far away, but it's a 90% effective technique when you're anywhere but super close or super far.
With Hinoxes I'd just shoot them in the eye and land 5-6 swipes before running away and doing that again. When they start guarding their eye you have to run around a little, but they'll eventually stop and you can repeat the process. If you're running low on weapons, you can actually steal weapons off of them mid-battle!
 
The flurry stuff felt inconsistent to me, too. I couldn't tell if you were supposed to do it really early or late or what. Both seemed to work to varying degrees even against the same enemies and same attacks. I general, I didn't like the dodging mechanics. There were some times where I swear it just didn't work right. Either way, I barely used the flurry and I didn't dodge all that much either.
Not sure if it's a "trick" necessarily, but I used the blue on-screen flash as a cue when to parry guardian blasts. It doesn't work when they're super far away, but it's a 90% effective technique when you're anywhere but super close or super far.
With Hinoxes I'd just shoot them in the eye and land 5-6 swipes before running away and doing that again. When they start guarding their eye you have to run around a little, but they'll eventually stop and you can repeat the process. If you're running low on weapons, you can actually steal weapons off of them mid-battle!

Yep, seems pretty consistent with my experience as well.

Unrelated, but I really think this game would have benefited from some sort of crafting/repair system. Being able to craft arrows and repair weapons (even if expensive) would really be a boon. I feel like I am always low on Rupees and they seem fairly rare in general compared to other games. I guess the idea is that you sell items, but it seems like most (if not all) items end up being used elsewhere, so I am hesitant to sell. I've heard selling cooked meat is a good way to make money, since it's not really that much better than cooking mushrooms/fruit for health, but is worth a lot more money.
 
I need to put more time into practicing I guess. I seem to be able to parry the Guardian lasers pretty well, which is an awesome ability and makes them far easier to deal with.

You parry those? I just run right up to the guardian and run circles around it. No need to lock on or dodge. It can't hit you when you're that close, as long as you're running circles around it.

I also just found out yesterday that you can use your wind sail when the guardian is doing that 360 degree laser/wind thing. I used to just wait for them to stop spinning but you can actually ride the updraft and do a drop attack on them.
 
The good thing about parrying Guardian lasers is that it doesn't take any resources. It works the same with any shield and it doesn't degrade anything. It's a 1-shot for all of the stationary ones, although it takes 3 for the moving ones. I generally either parried the lasers or just ran like hell when I encountered one.

Money-wise, I never did any sort of grinding, but I did grab whatever the hell I encountered along the way. I always bombed ore reserves, which was where most of my $ came from. Near the end of the game I just started selling off anything I had more than 50 of. I didn't even sell food as I was never sure if I'd eventually need it. I ended up making something like 15,000 rupees off of the various ores, springs, and random monster components. That was more than enough to max out the Hylian gear, which was what I stuck to outside of extreme climates.
 
Folks still playing this? I am deep into it and still loving it...3 beasts down, ~16 hearts, 2.4 stamina wheels and it feels like I still have a lot to do...I just completed the final tower to unlock the whole map.

Unfortunately it feels like the game involves a lot of farming for the higher-end gear, which is kind of boring. Rupees, Ancient Cores, Star Fragments, etc. But the exploration is a lot of fun.

I am probably going to end up getting the DLC, though I wish the first part was already out so I could do the Master Sword trail thing and get the Korok mask.
 
I wish there was more to do tbh... the towns and stables are relatively empty. Don't get me wrong, the game is great; it just feels a bit empty.
 
I wish there was more to do tbh... the towns and stables are relatively empty. Don't get me wrong, the game is great; it just feels a bit empty.

Yeah, there sure is a lot of just running around...the sprint distance is pretty sad even with ~2.5 stamina wheels. I know you can do horses or whatnot but I honestly find them to be a bit of a pain...they are like the opposite of Skyrim horses; you hit a tiny pebble and they just rear back and refuse to move. And given how uneven the terrain is, you are better off just fast-travelling close to where you want to go and running on foot.

EDIT: Also, if you are needing to make rupees, holy shit Pondo's bowling game is so easy. It's tedious and boring but you can make a ton of money.
 
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I wish there was more to do tbh... the towns and stables are relatively empty. Don't get me wrong, the game is great; it just feels a bit empty.

Name one open world game of this scale that doesn't have large empty stretches of land to traverse through. It's a problem of the genre. Yes it's realistic. And yes it's boring.

I suppose GTA V is the exception, but that's different since it's a big city setting.
 
Name one open world game of this scale that doesn't have large empty stretches of land to traverse through. It's a problem of the genre. Yes it's realistic. And yes it's boring.

I suppose GTA V is the exception, but that's different since it's a big city setting.

I get the empty stretches of terrain but the towns feel almost lifeless. I would like to have seen triple if not quadruple the amount of inhabitants in each town and stable.

I hope they don't put too much time into revamping the engine/graphics for the next one and just focus on creating more characters and variety of things to do. Don't misunderstand my criticism though, I'd still give the game a 9.5 and is the first game that I've 'finished' in 5+ years.
 
Name one open world game of this scale that doesn't have large empty stretches of land to traverse through. It's a problem of the genre. Yes it's realistic. And yes it's boring.

I suppose GTA V is the exception, but that's different since it's a big city setting.

There are plenty of empty areas in GTA5, too. If anything GTA4's probably the one with the least amount of empty space, although that's mainly because it's entirely urban.

With Breath of the Wild, it feels like there's more plot to be had, but they backed off of it. There are people around, but they don't really have much to say and they don't really impact as much as they should.
 
World size could've been cut in half and the game would've greatly benefitted.
I've watched a few LP's of this game (after beating it myself ofc) and the barren, empty stretches of nothingness are really noticable.

If you could summon your horse anywhere, like OoT, I think that would mostly solve the problem.
 
World size could've been cut in half and the game would've greatly benefitted.
I've watched a few LP's of this game (after beating it myself ofc) and the barren, empty stretches of nothingness are really noticable.

If you could summon your horse anywhere, like OoT, I think that would mostly solve the problem.

They had to make it that big to fit in the, you know, 900 fucking Korok seeds. :rolleyes: :p

And I agree 100% about the horse. I never end up using it and I just fast travel instead because of how much of a PITA it is. Paraglider + shield surfing and you can get around pretty well.

I am getting to the point where I may need to use a guide to hunt down the rest of the shrines. I think I have about 70-80ish and I think for the most part I've found the obvious ones.
 
For the amount of work required to get all of the seed and to complete all of the shrines they should give you something worthwhile. You go through all of that just to get items that are no longer even of use to you.
They should give you a wing suit and a set of unbreakable uber-weapons for NG+ for as much trouble as you have to go through.
 
They had to make it that big to fit in the, you know, 900 fucking Korok seeds. :rolleyes: :p

And I agree 100% about the horse. I never end up using it and I just fast travel instead because of how much of a PITA it is. Paraglider + shield surfing and you can get around pretty well.

I am getting to the point where I may need to use a guide to hunt down the rest of the shrines. I think I have about 70-80ish and I think for the most part I've found the obvious ones.
http://www.zeldadungeon.net/breath-of-the-wild-interactive-map/

Impossible without this.
 
100 shrines down...definitely using that interactive map (I had used it a bit in the beginning of the game to get Korok seeds, but I gave up on that pretty quick :p). Maxed out the Ancient armor and the Champion's tunic, as well as the Climbing Gear and some other stuff. Need to farm more Star Fragments and start fighting more Lynels to make progress there.
 
Speaking of Korok seeds, I was never able to find the dude that you trade them to after the first encounter. Which is really annoying because I could really use some extra inventory space. Reading online some people say he's at one stable, others say he's at another. I checked all of the suggested stables and couldn't find him. I must be missing something.
 
Speaking of Korok seeds, I was never able to find the dude that you trade them to after the first encounter. Which is really annoying because I could really use some extra inventory space. Reading online some people say he's at one stable, others say he's at another. I checked all of the suggested stables and couldn't find him. I must be missing something.

He moves around to a couple different stables and you get to do a few upgrades at each. If you can't find him there, he ends up permanently in the middle of the Korok Forest. So if you can't find him at any of the stables, head there.

Also speaking of Korok seeds...I think I managed to find around 150 or so without guides...I can't imagine trying to do all 900, even with a guide. I might get to the ~400 or whatever to max out inventory upgrades, but beyond that probably not.


As far as longevity, I am wondering how much I will want to play once I get all the max armor/weapons/etc. and basically do everything other than Ganon. The blood moon concept is cool with respawning enemies, so you can go back and fight them again, but I just wonder how compelling the gameplay will be.

I guess the DLC is adding the Master Sword trial and Hard Mode, so maybe that will give enough incentive. People have asked for NG+ but I'm not sure what that would look like other than just the Hard Mode that they are adding, which might just end up being frustrating more than anything with the enemy health regen.
 
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He moves around to a couple different stables and you get to do a few upgrades at each. If you can't find him there, he ends up permanently in the middle of the Korok Forest. So if you can't find him at any of the stables, head there.

Also speaking of Korok seeds...I think I managed to find around 150 or so without guides...I can't imagine trying to do all 900, even with a guide. I might get to the ~400 or whatever to max out inventory upgrades, but beyond that probably not.


As far as longevity, I am wondering how much I will want to play once I get all the max armor/weapons/etc. and basically do everything other than Ganon. The blood moon concept is cool with respawning enemies, so you can go back and fight them again, but I just wonder how compelling the gameplay will be.

I guess the DLC is adding the Master Sword trial and Hard Mode, so maybe that will give enough incentive. People have asked for NG+ but I'm not sure what that would look like other than just the Hard Mode that they are adding, which might just end up being frustrating more than anything with the enemy health regen.

I'm waiting on the DLC to reroll in hard mode. Not sure if that will be fun or not.




They have this huge massive world with unlimited possibilities for DLC. Why can they have a monthly boss batttle somewhere that pops up, some impossible monster that decimates you over and over. I'd pay 5 bucks for something that challenged me for a few hours.
 
I'm waiting on the DLC to reroll in hard mode. Not sure if that will be fun or not.

They have this huge massive world with unlimited possibilities for DLC. Why can they have a monthly boss batttle somewhere that pops up, some impossible monster that decimates you over and over. I'd pay 5 bucks for something that challenged me for a few hours.

Yeah, the vast majority of the gameplay other than general exploration is just tedious collection and completionist stuff. Hoping the DLC brings some replay value.
 
People have asked for NG+ but I'm not sure what that would look like other than just the Hard Mode that they are adding, which might just end up being frustrating more than anything with the enemy health regen.

To me, NG+ actually adds some motivation to get some of the extra stuff like completing the various temples or maxing our your armor. As of right now, by the time you actually do those things, you no longer need the reward. You're just getting powered up for a Ganon fight that doesn't take advantage of any of your efforts. That's especially the case with the seeds. NG+ would be like hard mode only you'd have the spoils of your effort before moving forward instead of after.

One of the knocks of having a truly open game is that nothing can be inaccessible. Meaning that all of the temples and bosses have to be beatable as though you fought them first. That essentially means that nothing can really take advantage of the best stuff you find. Some sort of Chalice Dungeon (a la Bloodborne) that requires you to have cleared the 4 bosses and have certain gear could be cool.
 
To me, NG+ actually adds some motivation to get some of the extra stuff like completing the various temples or maxing our your armor. As of right now, by the time you actually do those things, you no longer need the reward. You're just getting powered up for a Ganon fight that doesn't take advantage of any of your efforts. That's especially the case with the seeds. NG+ would be like hard mode only you'd have the spoils of your effort before moving forward instead of after.

One of the knocks of having a truly open game is that nothing can be inaccessible. Meaning that all of the temples and bosses have to be beatable as though you fought them first. That essentially means that nothing can really take advantage of the best stuff you find. Some sort of Chalice Dungeon (a la Bloodborne) that requires you to have cleared the 4 bosses and have certain gear could be cool.

Na have the dungeon open from the start... if you go in there and die 200 times, you'll probably figure out that maybe you should stay out of there for the time being.
 
Na have the dungeon open from the start... if you go in there and die 200 times, you'll probably figure out that maybe you should stay out of there for the time being.

That's how From would approach it :p I dunno about Nintendo, though.
 
The game could be smart enough to scale to your active heart/stamina upgrades.

That's really my only key complaint with this game - They should have had more difficulty options out of the box.

I loved how challenging the game was in the first few hours of gameplay, but about 1/4 of the way through the map you quickly become far too powerful IMO.

This is why I quit playing half way through the game. I'm waiting for the hard mode as i'm the type of person that really doesn't like to replay through games.
 
That's really my only key complaint with this game - They should have had more difficulty options out of the box.

I loved how challenging the game was in the first few hours of gameplay, but about 1/4 of the way through the map you quickly become far too powerful IMO.

This is why I quit playing half way through the game. I'm waiting for the hard mode as i'm the type of person that really doesn't like to replay through games.

Yea you really do, I can kill most everything now without losing a heart. Now I do have 120 hours in the game... sooo I'm sure that helps.

I'll never forget jumping off the plateau for the first time, and having some turd one-shot me when I landed.
 
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