Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Mchart said:
I thought this helped, but it doesn't. The game still renders at 900p and it just outputs at 720p. Hopefully Nintendo offers this as a solution if they don't patch some of the performance drops out anyways.
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Damn it.
 
This game alone makes it 100% worth the purchase of my Switch. I haven't played a game this good in....... well........ a very long time.

I work from home 2x a week and lucky for me, today and tomorrow are my days from home. I thought I would get over playing it on the handheld, but I'm not. It's very convenient when I have some slow time during work. I'm actually shocked how much I like this game. I have a very bad habit buying games and getting over them in a couple weeks. I definitely don't see myself getting over this anytime soon.

*cries of joy*
 
I noted while in 720p still had slowdowns, so no help there. On a different note, the game is a lot of fun. Up to 9 hearts now, 4 more (16 more shrines) and I'm pulling the master sword.
 
Mchart said:
I thought this helped, but it doesn't. The game still renders at 900p and it just outputs at 720p. Hopefully Nintendo offers this as a solution if they don't patch some of the performance drops out anyways.
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Maybe they can add some more fog and haze to boost the FPS a bit more... already looks like shit anyway. I have no problem waiting to play this on an emulator one day, sharp, crisp, clear, 4K Resolution, HD textures, running fast and VIBRANT, no shitty haze, at least greatly reduced with shaders or even removed! Crap ton of games in my backlog as it is.
 
Dion said:
there is more people
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There are... and of course it's too early to tell how well it'll sell... but this at least supports the idea that people are buying the thing despite it having horrible, eye-raping, graphics...
 
Youn said:
There are... and of course it's too early to tell how well it'll sell... but this at least supports the idea that people are buying the thing despite it having horrible, eye-raping, graphics...
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I wouldn't call eye raping but with some a bump in res and some AA this would be a beautiful game.
 
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I can only play a few hours a day, if that, due to work but I'm enjoying the game immensely. Graphics do not look the greatest on a 4K TV but I've seen and played much worse in my 30 years of gaming. Luckily, I have a friend who is a diehard Nintendo fan and has all the Amiibos that function in BotW.
 
Slade said:
I noted while in 720p still had slowdowns, so no help there. On a different note, the game is a lot of fun. Up to 9 hearts now, 4 more (16 more shrines) and I'm pulling the master sword.
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How many shrines in total do you need to get the master sword? Or do I need a total of souls?
 
Nytegard said:
What exactly are amiibos, and how do they enhance botw?
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Basically, little plastic toys with NFC chips in the base sold by Nintendo. They can give anything from various food ingredients, enhanced weapons, gems, amiiboo only clothing, a Wolf companion, or the horse Epona from previous Zelda games depending on what specific amiibo you've used. And all of them can be used once a day.
 
I don't find the amibos to be necessary to the gameplay. Some provide nostalgia items (some link outfits, a wolf link and epona), but they are not critical to the gameplay. Every item is available for you to tackle, its just 'hard' for some things. I say hard because tackling Ganon with only a tree branch and 3 hearts is theoretically doable.

What I am liking is that if you are so inclined, you can always pop in an amibo for some free food/mat items once per 24 hours. So if you have a decent collection, you can keep your toon fed well.

I think this game really brings out the explorer aspect for people. You'd have to play it a bit longer than the tutorial to get it. There's no rush to fight Ganon. Just a rush to get away from the enemy that can 1 shot you...
 
65 hours played, only at 66 shrine completion, 1 dungeon completed, and about half of the map explored. Average 9 hours per day.

I did spend most of my time collecting and maxing out gear, though. Spent a lot of time farming Lynels, Hinoxs, Guardians and the 'flying bosses' cough cough.

I estimate I have another 70+ hours left to do everything except all 900 Korok Seeds.
Not sure I'll make it that far, though.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
65 hours played, only at 66 shrine completion, 1 dungeon completed, and about half of the map explored. Average 9 hours per day.

I did spend most of my time collecting and maxing out gear, though. Spent a lot of time farming Lynels, Hinoxs, Guardians and the 'flying bosses' cough cough.

I estimate I have another 70+ hours left to do everything except all 900 Korok Seeds.
Not sure I'll make it that far, though.
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How do you check your hours played?
 
This game is just ungodly good in every way. It just keeps getting better. Its so immersive that it could physically kill you. I just don't want to stop playing. The graphics are awesome I think. It is just overwhelming huge and jam packed with content.

I just think they set out to make something different and they succeeded way beyond expectations.

I think the graphics are really clean and visually engaging.

Yes the GPU chokes on foliage and wooded areas a bit but I'd rather have that than a dumbed down game.

There were a lot of great games on Wii U by end of life. Two great Mario's, the best Mario Kart ever made, an awesome Pikmin 3, a really exciting Hyrule Warriors, Smash Brothers, and they all looked and played great.

Most Nintendo games don't have so much foliage so I expect you won't see frame rate issues in most games.

I can't wait for the inevitable Metroid Prime for Switch with the joy cons' motion controls for aiming. I'm stoked.
 
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The dungeons are disappointing, they're just shrines basically. In fact, some shrines took me longer than the dungeons. The dungeon bosses are WEAK too, they die in about 3 or 4 hits compared to the dozens of hits to kill a Lynel... Weird.

The storyline sucks, but it's par for a Zelda game.

The voice acting sucks, shouldn't have used it at all. Apparently the original Japanese VA's are very good.

Inventory management sucks. Stuff breaks too often but that is debatable. When a weapon breaks, the game should automatically select your next weapon OR most similar weapon. Stopping combat every ~10 swings to grab a new weapon really breaks the flow.

Not enough enemy variety. I actually just skip most of the weaker mobs since it's not worth breaking a good weapon for a few moblin guts or whatever.

Eating is over-powered. This game suffers the same issue as Skyrim, ie: Pause and eat 100 cheese wheels. "Hard Mode" should put a cooldown on food. It seems so obvious.

Cooking food one at a time is tedious.

Can't wear metal during lightning storms. Can't climb walls during lightning storms. In other words, just stop playing the game during lightning storms!

The menu system is super clunky, especially as you collect more stuff. Swapping between armor sets gets so annoying after a while. At least they have a sorting feature.

And personally my biggest complaint, BY FAR, is the uselessness of horses. They should be summonable from ANYWHERE. I've only actually used my horse a handful of times even though I need it about 90% of the time. With climbing and gliding, you will lose your horse within about 30 seconds of getting it.
 
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Why is everyone so hooked onto this game? What does it do that is so satisfying compared to other open world games that routinely get a 9. For example, Witcher 3 vs. this game? Or Horizon Zero Dawn vs. this game? Or FO games vs. this game? Or even GTA games vs. this game?
I am so intrigued that I want to indulge but honestly the gameplay videos really were just OK and nothing extraordinary.
 
It's not the same type of game as Witcher 3 and GTA. Fallout is pretty close, though.
The difference between those and BOTW is that BOTW is not a quest-focused "Go here and complete the objective" theme park but more "Explore and see what you find" and Nintendo has genuinely done a good job populating the massive world with interesting things to find. There's around 50 hours worth of puzzles to solve by itself (Shrines + Dungeons).

My first playthrough of FO4 was 150 hours, and Skyrim 200 hours. I doubt I'll get that kind of time out of BOTW but I'd certainly say it's my 3rd favorite open world game ever made right behind those other two. Anyone who says it's the best open world game ever made is probably exaggerating... It's not that good. It's overly simplified in many areas (for kids, maybe?) and held back by Nintendo's weak hardware.

Fallout is an apt comparison. BOTW feels like a Zelda-themed mix of Fallout exploration and Witcher 3 game world design. It works very well.
 
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what I like most about the open world part of Zelda is more what it doesn't do than what it does. It has towers.. but they only reveal the geography and topography of the map.. they don't reveal the contents. So you never get bogged down with "there's x number of these kind of quests, dozens of ?'s where I don't know wtf they are (looking at you TW 3), x number of monster dens, etc. in this area". As for things it does, It gives you nearly complete freedom to go to and climb over anything you find.. it's not "see that mountain? you can go there" it's "see that mountain? go climb it and see what else looks cool when you get to the top". It's never a question of "Can I get up there?" it's only a question of "how can I get up there and what will I find when I do?"

Secondly, I like the physics and "chemistry" systems that they have in place. The world has rules.. and they apply to the monsters and other creatures as much as they do to you. If you wear metal objects, you can be a lightning rod in a thunderstorm. You can also use your magnetic power to turn your enemies into a crater by dangling a metal weapon near them when there is lightning. Most things in the open world have more than one way to approach them, many of which the designers might not have even explicitly thought of.

I'm having such a wonderful time exploring the world and I'm always discovering something I haven't seen before or some new area that I haven't been to. It feels absolutely huge and it makes Link feel very small. I feel more compelled to explore this world than I ever have the likes of skyrim or fallout. Part of that is the fact that I almost always find something useful.. because my weapons and my shields break and I need to replace them. If I find a chest in a house in a game like "The Witcher 3" and it doesn't have something that is better in every way than what I'm currently using, then I don't pick it up. In Zelda, I pick up everything.. unless every single item I have in my weapon slots is better than what's on the ground. It usually isn't, so everything I find is useful.
 
For me, BotW is half Assasin's Creed, half Witcher 3, with a bit more interactivity than either of those series. On a few occasions, I'm quite sure I managed to get to an area I wasn't suppose to because I found a spot on a mountain surface I could regenerate my stamina, or a place I could eat food to regen health where I was suppose to die because of improper clothing. I do like that there aren't a quadrillion side quests. But where the game suffers is the shrines and seeds. The game world should have been a bit smaller and more refined with shrines and dungeons similar to previous games, rather than "solve three puzzles and get a spirit orb. If it's really dangerous, we'll put in a simple monster or two who are far weaker than the monsters in the open world". And each spirit orb grants a full heart or stamina, rather than needing 4.
 
I rather like how short and sweet the shrines are. You only spend minutes in there and more time in the outer world. I also found it dumb in previous games that this crazy elaborate dungeon with its Gold-Ruberg mechanics exist for only the 1 person to figure out and solve for the 1 calamity of the time. At least here it's like. Ok our champion got beat bad, but not dead, the regeneration will wipe memories and he'll need to re-learn practically everything. In this way, I've found that each shrine adds to your skill set and critical thinking gradually and opens the thinking outside of the box. I'd rather get some guidance on cooking as I'm pretty random on making stuff right now based on existing stuff I found/given.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
It's not the same type of game as Witcher 3 and GTA. Fallout is pretty close, though.
The difference between those and BOTW is that BOTW is not a quest-focused "Go here and complete the objective" theme park but more "Explore and see what you find" and Nintendo has genuinely done a good job populating the massive world with interesting things to find. There's around 50 hours worth of puzzles to solve by itself (Shrines + Dungeons).

My first playthrough of FO4 was 150 hours, and Skyrim 200 hours. I doubt I'll get that kind of time out of BOTW but I'd certainly say it's my 3rd favorite open world game ever made right behind those other two. Anyone who says it's the best open world game ever made is probably exaggerating... It's not that good. It's overly simplified in many areas (for kids, maybe?) and held back by Nintendo's weak hardware.

Fallout is an apt comparison. BOTW feels like a Zelda-themed mix of Fallout exploration and Witcher 3 game world design. It works very well.
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I'd say it's easily the best when viewed from a polish standpoint and how well thought out everything is. It also has arguably the best combat mechanics of any open world game.

But this depends on the person, you don't like certain features that some others do enjoy. For instance complaining about lightning storms. I personally like this aspect as it forces you to be aware of what you're doing and keep wooden objects on you.
 
Of course he does; It'll get him more clicks.

I do see people that don't enjoy choice and want more cutscenes/dialog not liking the game though.

The strength of this game is the amount of choice you have in getting from A -> B and the variety of things you can do in combat. If you are the type of person that just wants your hand held and just wants to enjoy a story you likely won't like it.
 
Mchart said:
Of course he does; It'll get him more clicks.

I do see people that don't enjoy choice and want more cutscenes/dialog not liking the game though.

The strength of this game is the amount of choice you have in getting from A -> B and the variety of things you can do in combat. If you are the type of person that just wants your hand held and just wants to enjoy a story you likely won't like it.
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He's done this so many times, it's predictable at this point.
Redditors called it 3 weeks ago.

I could see Jim Sterling doing it just to get more views.

Imagine you on metacritic on even reddit checking reviews. There is countless of 9-10 scores. Then you see a review showing 6. Of course that this link in special would receive a shitton of clicks.
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IMO, the comparisons to the Witcher 3 are pretty valid. There are some obvious differences, but I think anyone who likes the Witcher would be hard pressed to hate the core game of Breath of the Wild. I guess if you only played the Witcher for the plot you'd probably be disappointed, but the open world gameplay is similar enough.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
Surprising absolutely no one, Jim "The Troll" Sterling hates it.

http://www.thejimquisition.com/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-review/
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Hilariously (and pathetically for those doing it), his site got DDoSed after this review went up. I wouldn't call a 7/10 "hating" it but it yeah, it's pretty much the only non-9/10 review.

I like Jim, I think a lot of what he does is great. A couple times I have massively disagreed with him. VR being one of them...he thinks it is a fad and not worth investing in, because he has issues with his back so he can't do room scale very well (o_O:rolleyes:).

I can see his point about "open-world fatigue" but, it sort of is what it is with these types of games. He gave Skyrim a 10/10 and I'm guessing the same criticisms could be leveled against it. Granted, this is 6 years later and maybe we should expect more from open-world games at this point, but ultimately these games can only go a few different ways, and for a Zelda game this is a pretty new thing.
 
I need to make a small rant about the Goron and Rito armor sets.
To upgrade the Rito (Cold Resist) armor, you need FIRE MATS.
To upgrade the Goron (Fire Resist) armor, you also need FIRE MATS.

WHY you ask? Because the fire zone is a million times harder than the ice zone. You're stuck wearing the Goron Armor at all times or drinking elixirs so you don't catch on fire. There's also lava pits that burn Link and items if they fall in. This is a particular problem when trying to farm the 30 Red Lizalfos Tails as their corpses have a habit of flying into the lava.

Also, totally unrelated, somebody ripped all the Korok Seed locations from the game data.


They have the best POI map on their site, too.

https://zeldamaps.com/?game=BotW
 
Ugh. I have about half the shrines completed, and only 8 seeds. I don't look forward to this, but I guess it would have made my life easier than constantly having to decide which weapons to keep. As for that review, while Zelda is a good game, I do think (like many other Zeldas) the game is highly overrated. It's not about the game holding your hand. It's just that the novelty of exploring wears off long before you've explored the entire map. The one area I couldn't stand with The Witcher 3 was all those sunken chests. With something like A Link to the Past, the game felt fresh throughout it's entirety. You did your exploring on the overworld, with each section being new, and by the time you completed it, the dark world tested you, but it wasn't that long. It was more like an extended final dungeon. I've just never been a fan of padding for padding's sake.
 
Yeah, there is a lot of fluff in this game. Some people may like it, but I can see why some say: "Open World Fatigue," since it is just more of the same. Sure, there is a bit more freedom in the design, which allows a bit more player agency, but in the end, all of the clever little things in the game (such a shrine that needed a snowball to barrel through its door, in order to access it - critically, no handholding for this) only somewhat offset the usual open world gameplay negatives.
 
I think I'd probably rather have too much to do than too little, but there's a fine line. It can also be hellish for people with gaming OCD. I have a friend that either has to get everything or he'll just full-on quit playing early. Something tells me he'll bail on this pretty quickly once he learns there are 900 of those seeds.
 
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