Topic: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U)

[Caterkiller]

Wow you've got quite a lot done yourself and with only 3 Divine Beasts? I didn't get thorough with my searching until well after the story was completed.

And yes it seems you are right, I'm missing some locations. After the 120 Shrines and the 900 Koroks I would have assumed I covered every inch of the map. I got 112 Shrines all on my own, it became so hard to find them eventually I turned on the beacon but even then the ones I were missing weren't all able to be tracked by that thing.

I really like the gift that was given after the Shrines are all complete, I hope to see that in the next Smash Bros, it has such a classic Zelda NES feel. But now that it's all over I won't really be enjoying it.

[Stratos]

Finally cleared the final divine beast and got the Dark Link armor. Still got a number of things I want to complete, including all of the new DLC content, so I'll still be trolling about for a while before I go after Ganon. Debating on if I will try for a straight to Ganon run on normal or a thorough playthrough on hero/hard mode.

[Khushrenada]

Finally made a deep dive back in this game today. Maybe I shouldn't have save the Hebra region for last. A snowy, rocky landscape isn't the most exciting thing visually to be exploring. Finally began working my way around in it. Now at 93 shrines complete with 11 others on my map I need to play. Based on the map, I think I know where there are most likely 6 others so there are 10 surprise shrine locations left out there. I'm now at 652 Korok seeds which means just 248 left! Although part of me just feels like looking at a guide this point and speeding the process up. Hebra region you are just not that fun to explore.

Finished up the Tarrey Town quest today. 5 side quests left but there are 3 I haven't discovered. I think it was ClexYoshi one time in this thread that mentioned hunting for 30 acorns for "reasons". I've figured it must have something to do with a sidequest and yet I've never encountered a moment yet where I've need acorns for anything so I'm becoming curious as to what that was about and if it was for a sidequest or not. More disconcerting is shrine quests. I've got 36 so there are 6 more out there but based on the shrines I've found and all the places I've been to in Hyrule, I'm wondering why I haven't seen any sign of these last 6.

Just a couple pieces of armor I need to finish upgrading. If I can get 11 more smotherwing butterflies then my Flameproof set will be fully 4 starred and I just need 5 ancient cores and I can 4 star my Ancient Armor headpiece. However, I was able to 4 star the Diamond headpiece so I can use that for now to complete the armor at max. There are still 3 pieces of armor I need to acquire. The Rubber Suit's body and the Barbarian helmet and pants. I'm kind of surprised I haven't got them yet. I figure they've got to be in a shrine considering the other pieces were in shrines yet I don't want to play shrine after shrine to find them and then have no more shrines left to play while exploring. In Tarrey Town, I discovered Robbie's kid living there. Don't know how I missed him before but it turns out he will sell all the pieces for the Climbing gear, Rubber gear and Barbarian gear for 4,000 rupees each. At this point, money is no issue for me so I could complete my sets that way but I'm not sure if I want to or not. On the one hand, I've been hoping to have the Barbarian gear to see what that might be like in a Lynel fight and by the time I finally get the set, I may have explored all of Hyrule making it useless. On the other hand, I could very well come across these pieces in the next few shrines I explore that I'd have might as well waited. Anyways, I remember people asking about which shrines they need to go to for the climbing gear so I was surprised to find this alternative method to acquiring this gear and thought I'd mention it. I still need to acquire the Dark Link armor and the Classic Link armor from beating all the shrines so a bit more work to go on the armor side. After I get through Hebra, I'm thinking I'll finish off that last divine beast to get that Dark Link armor.

According to Kilton, I've got 8 more Stone Talus's to fight and 15 more Hinox. That Hinox number surprises me. I'm running out of room on the map for where they could be hiding. You'd think they'd have been spaced out like Stone Talus's but maybe they're each clustered more in certain regions.

Encountered one cool shrine today called The Winding Path. It has a great entrance and is very basic and easy but I liked the premise of it a lot. While I was playing A Minor Test of Strength shrine it occurred to me that it would have been nice to fight something other than robots every time. Then it occurred to me that the tests of strength could have been like sub-bosses / minibosses one often would encounter in shrines. There'd have been different kinds for different levels. Could have had Darknuts included in this way or other crazy boss ideas. There's an idea for the next Zelda game in this style.

Not sure when I encountered or it but I think close to the time I finally beat Ganon I came across a shrine quest that most of you probably discovered early in the game but since I was avoiding Central Hyrule, I just got to it recently. The Flower Lady shrine quest was a great little moment especially when you get her to snap and go crazy. Thanks for including that Nintendo. As well, there was an odd shrine I came across called something like Money Hill. Basically, you just walk up an inclined path to the end of the shrine. However, you have to get out of the way of large metal spiked balls rolling down the hill. As well, groups of rupees will slide down the hill for you to go after if you want to. I like how there are shrines like this. There's no puzzle to it or combat but it's just a fun little surprise of something different. It's little touches like that which have kept me motivated to put in so much time into this game. But I'm definitely reaching a point where I'm ready to wrap this up and move on. I'm getting close to running out of surprises and new things to see and the Korok seed quest isn't as motivating as it used to be.

[Stratos]

Lots of camping/travelling has put this on the back burner, but I was having a blast exploring Hyrule Castle. I've found all of the Dark versions of the Royal Guard weapons and stockpiled a few of each. They go well with the Dark Link outfit and I imagine a few customer colored outfits as well.


I've avoided save-scumming my amiibo until now, but I plan to start doing that to finish off all of the missing pieces.

[Order.RSS]

All right I finally got BOTW (on Wii U, I'm a while off still for Switch), am about 4 hours in, breathtaking so far.
However I have a question: how doable is it to go the whole game without hunting and fishing?

The reason I ask is because the Old Man promises to give you his warm cloak to go to the icey top for the fourth shrine, but the recipe requires both raw meat and some kind of fish.

However once I found a few boars happily running around I found myself truly rather repulsed at the idea of killing one. They were just so happy running around like a family!
Close by however were a few bokoblins chasing a boar, and I contemplated waiting for them to slay it so I wouldn't have to, then stealing the meat. Here's an ethical conundrum: how moral is it to refuse to slaughter animals, but be perfectly fine sitting around for others to do it? My intervention was too late however, I killed 2 of the bokoblins but the third had already shot the boar.

I took the meat, not wanting the boar to have died in complete vain either, but surprisingly dissapointed in myself for not saving the life earlier. So that's part 1 of the recipe done, but the fish you genuinely have to get yourself it seems - I've not found any fishing bokoblins at least.
I think I'm hedging towards "standing idly by and in position to stop a killing" is not much better than doing the killing yourself, so I didn't scoop up a bass.

Instead I ate a whole bunch of spicy peppers for cold protection, sprinted past bokoblin camps up the mountain and just barely made it to the shrine with seconds to spare. Later I found the cold-proof jacket in the Old Man's hut after having talked to him on the top of the Time Temple

This leads me to believe it should theoretically be possible to do a more or less "no hunting" or even almost vegetarian playthrough. And I'm quite interested in trying this, really. How doable is it to survive on mushrooms and stuff? Do the meat/fish recipes give you a lot more hearts and stuff than just plant-based recipes?

[nickmitch]

It's pretty doable once you find certain items.  Some vegetables can restore a lot of hearts. There are truffles and radishes that restore 100% of your hearts and give you temporary hearts.  That's a pretty interesting approach to the game.

[Khushrenada]

Yeah, no hunting could probably be done. There's a deer hunting mini-game you probably won't want to play in that case but, I believe, rupees are the only reward for it. There are a couple sidequests that may require meat but you may be able to acquire that meat elsewhere as there are also travelling merchants who do sell meat.

The most powerful meals I cook don't even require meat. It's just hearty radishes, hearty truffles and durians. Once I upgraded my armor to powerful levels, I pretty much stopped cooking anyways since I also acquired a power that will instantly heal me if I run out of hearts and so the damage I take in between the time that power recharges is often never dangerous enough for me to need meals to survive. On occasion, I still may do a brief bit of cooking in order to get benefits like extra stamina or cold resistance but all that can be done with none meat dishes.

Fishing, on the other hand, is different but I'm not sure it should be such an issue of feeling sorry for the fishes. All you do is get near a fish and hit A to grab it and you've caught a fish. There are other ways to do that. You could throw a harpoon at a fish and kill it causing it to float and lay still at the surface of the water for you to collect. You could bomb the area and kill the fish that way. You could shoot an electric arrow at the water and fry the fish that way. But, aside from testing those methods myself in the game, I'm usually just hitting A and collecting fish into my pockets as I swim by them much like you hit A around a tree and grab its fruitage. I know there is one piece of armor that requires fish in order to upgrade it and it is not a fish I've found that is sold very much throughout this world. Thus, you may need to do some fishing in this particular case. I just remembered there is a second piece of armor that required fish as well. So, yes, fishing may test your resolve. Still, hitting A and collecting a fish is very different from shooting a deer and hearing it scream as it falls to its death.

I have a feeling that as you wander some areas of Hyrule and have stray wolves and packs of wolves annoy you as they try to attack/hunt you that you may be less willing to spare them. Killing one wolf will send the pack retreating. These days I just get a bomb ready and throw it and then blow up a wolf or two that way because I've gotten tired of trying to run after one and stab at it with a weapon. There's also another particular animal that you may be more concerned about fleeing and fighting against for survival than trying to spare it's life but I'll let you potentially discover that on your own.

Best of luck and fill us on your story. This is a really spectacular game and people approach it so many different ways. Your non-interest in hunting is a new twist we haven't seen someone mention before so I'm curious what other choices you will make for this game and what you think of this vast world.

[Stratos]

You just swim up to the fish and grab them. No need to kill them.


Also, you will be given the warm doublet if you finish the "tutorial" without giving him the the recipe. After the "reveal" go back to his house and it is sitting in a chest with a note telling you it is yours.

[Order.RSS]

All right, thanks so much for your helpful comments everyone!
Breath of the Wild Mushrooms update:

It's definitely going to be hard, and additionally, what counts as animals I wouldn't want to hunt is proving surprisingly difficult to determine. Khush mentions being attacked by wolves; that hasn't happened yet, but I did get swarmed by bees. I felt justified in setting off a bomb, for purposes of self-preservation. Will invoke that clause too if wolves should appear - aiming to injure/kill just one to send the pack running is probably the most proportional response in that case.

I've caused the death of another beehive too - by shooting it down above an enemy, so as to enact the scene from Hunger Games 1. This was intentional on my part, which leads to wondering whether insects should be included. On the one hand, without them it'll be really hard to make elixers at all, and they're good sources of protein too haha. On the other, are they not animals too? So far I've released a beetle I caught on accident, as well as a butterfly.

Taking the life of bokoblins and other aggressors (keese, etc.), even pre-emptively, I find less troublesome. Even if they're not provoking violence, they still are hell-bent on the murder of myself, wildlife (as evidenced by the boars and fish they grill), and presumably the other human inhabitants of the world. They appear unwilling to attempt even the most basic form of communication; I wistled at one to establish vocal contact and was greeted with an arrow to the butt. (It is possibly I was mistaken for a wolf-whistling moron deserving of a smack, but their violence was not proportional regardless.) Lastly, their alignment with essentially a Great Evil (whether voluntary, forced, or by nature) make them a threat to the world I feel justified in removing.

Lastly, domestication of horses has come up recently, as well as the capture of a fairy. I feel that fairies are fair game to hold captive for now, since they can clearly leave on their own accord after performing some magic. (Also I'm super **** and die to even the most basic monsters so I'll need them.) The horses... Judging from the quality of life offered by stables, plus the protection Link can offer against potential predators, I'd say it's fine to domesticate one even if it does constitute removing them from their initial habitat against their will.

You just swim up to the fish and grab them. No need to kill them.

Also, you will be given the warm doublet if you finish the "tutorial" without giving him the the recipe. After the "reveal" go back to his house and it is sitting in a chest with a note telling you it is yours.

Yes, I discovered that! Really happy the designers thought of that. I feel like just scooping up a fish would still remove it from a place where it can breathe though; plus cooking it would result in its death too, so ideally I'd go without it haha.

[broodwars]

So, I picked up this game when I bought my Switch, and I put a weekend into it. Completed the Zora dungeon and...
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*sigh*
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...I ****ing hate this game. Zelda is my favorite franchise of all time, and I despise this game. It's like it's made up of a million little things all specifically designed to piss me off.

The world is needlessly vast & empty. It's incredibly boring & tedious to traverse, not helped at all by the music being so understated it's practically nonexistent. I'm questing out on an epic adventure, and some asshole in the background is occasionally plunking a keyboard while ambient noise makes up 90% of the soundtrack.

The weapon degradation doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would, but the constant inventory management sure does. I have tons of crafting materials for "elixers" that I never end up using because I almost never actually have any critters unless I occasionally find a store.

I try to get a horse, and after 15 minutes of chasing horses because they start running away the moment I'm remotely close to them in stealth mode, I end up with nothing. It doesn't matter that I'm doing nothing wrong, because there's always another horse or a rider enemy around spooking them, no matter what I do.

The game is gigantic, empty, not particularly visually-interesting, and not particularly engaging. I try to explore to find the towers so I can explore to find ANYTHING else, & I get one-shotted by Guardians. I try to climb something to get the lay of the land, I get near the top, & suddenly it starts raining so I get sent right back down. This is one of the most needlessly-fruatrating games I've ever played. I'm absolutely bewildered at how this piece of **** is one of the highest rated games of all time. Sure, the cinematics are generally well-directed (if abysmally acted), & the shrines are genuinely enjoyable, but I've seen NOTHING so far to justify this game's critical reception.

I'm a Zelda fan, so I'm going to keep playing it & see if it ever improves, but I'm not optimistic.

[ShyGuy]

I recommend following the main storyline for the first few hours off of the Plateau.

[broodwars]

I recommend following the main storyline for the first few hours off of the Plateau.

Well, I did...kind of. I pretty much stumbled into the Zora quest line & completed that.

[nickmitch]

I try to get a horse, and after 15 minutes of chasing horses because they start running away the moment I'm remotely close to them in stealth mode, I end up with nothing. It doesn't matter that I'm doing nothing wrong, because there's always another horse or a rider enemy around spooking them, no matter what I do.

I'm sorry, but if you find horses and can't mount one in 15 minutes, you're doing something wrong.  Have you tried killing the rider enemies?  By stealth mode, do you mean doing the crouch walk thing or are you wearing the Sheikah set?  Or both?  Have you tried mounting a horse from above?

I find almost all of your post completely baffling.  I get that this time of game might not be someone's cup of tea, and the understated soundtrack is admittedly weird.  But saying the world is empty and not engaging confuses me.  I remember when I was first playing and how I felt completely the opposite.

[ShyGuy]

I recommend following the main storyline for the first few hours off of the Plateau.

Well, I did...kind of. I pretty much stumbled into the Zora quest line & completed that.

Did you visit Kakariko village then Lurelin village, then back to Kakariko THEN Zora?

[broodwars]

I try to get a horse, and after 15 minutes of chasing horses because they start running away the moment I'm remotely close to them in stealth mode, I end up with nothing. It doesn't matter that I'm doing nothing wrong, because there's always another horse or a rider enemy around spooking them, no matter what I do.

I'm sorry, but if you find horses and can't mount one in 15 minutes, you're doing something wrong.  Have you tried killing the rider enemies?  By stealth mode, do you mean doing the crouch walk thing or are you wearing the Sheikah set?  Or both?  Have you tried mounting a horse from above?

I was referring to the crouch walk, but I've also tried eating food I've cooked with stealth enhancers. Just without faiil I'll sneak up on a horse, & a nearby horse will run at them & spook them, or a rider will run by & spook them, or they'll just suddenly decide to run off. Then I spend several minutes chasing after them until they stop, & then the cycle starts all over. It's incredibly frustrating because it's not clear at all what I'm doing wrong. And yes, I've tried killing the riders when they show up.

But saying the world is empty and not engaging confuses me.  I remember when I was first playing and how I felt completely the opposite.

Seriously, if this were any other game than Zelda, I would have quit hours ago. I've probably wandered over 1/4 - 1/3 of the game world by now, & every place I've been except Zora's domain has just been barren & empty. Some trees here, an enemy camp there, but otherwise it's just big empty space that takes forever to get around. I get that this is a posts apocalyptic world, but when your game is making Fallout 3 look stuffed full of interesting content, you've messed up.

The game just feels huge for the sake of being huge, like they took a traditional Zelda Overworld & just stretched it out without filling in the space between interesting locations. I've played good open world games like Witcher 3, and that game just continually pings the player with points of interest & quest lines. I just feel like I'm spending all my time trying to GET to interesting places in Breath of the Wild (while no epic music of any sort plays). It's the kind of game where I long for a fast-forward button.

[broodwars]

I recommend following the main storyline for the first few hours off of the Plateau.

Well, I did...kind of. I pretty much stumbled into the Zora quest line & completed that.

Did you visit Kakariko village then Lurelin village, then back to Kakariko THEN Zora?

No, I stumbled into the Zora's while trying to find my way to Kakariko. I was getting tired of not being able to see where I was going, so I looked for a tower to fill out the map. That led to me running into the Zoras. Judging by some podcasts I've heard, that happens to a lot of players. I'm trying to get to Kakariko now, now that I have a shirt (I seriously didn't have one until the Zora Armor).

[broodwars]

Incidentally, this is where I've been.

[ShyGuy]

Kakariko is a great little place to visit. Make sure to complete all the quests in the village to get an interesting side story.

...How did you miss the two shirts on the plateau?

PROTIP: Horses near the stable between Kakariko and Lurelin are the easiest to catch.

[BranDonk Kong]

So you've basically been nowhere :/ Not that it means you'll start to love it...but you still have 10 towers to open and 104 shrines to visit. Gerudo is probably one of the most barren places in the game.

[broodwars]

...How did you miss the two shirts on the plateau?

I have no idea. I've scoured that goddamn plateau & only found a pair of pants (& later on the Switch shirt). It doesn't help that everything on that plateau, including the chests, are beige & gray.

[broodwars]

Finally made it to Kakariko, got the stealth armor, & with it finally got a horse (3 star). Dont have the stamina yet to capture one of the all-black 4 stars. The game is growing on me a bit now that I'm finally in an area where the designers bothered to put content

[ShyGuy]

Make sure you visit the Great Fairy!

[Khushrenada]

I've probably wandered over 1/4 - 1/3 of the game world by now,

Incidentally, this is where I've been.

Oh man. You are really overestimating how much of the world you've seen. I'm not even sure you've seen 1/10th of it from your journey so far. There's a lot more barren landscape to see yet.

[azeke]

I've probably wandered over 1/4 - 1/3 of the game world by now, & every place I've been except Zora's domain has just been barren & empty.

Open your eyes.

[ejamer]

The soundtrack is one of my peeves too - there is good content there, but it seems like 90% or more is ambient sound with a few notes strewn in. Calling it "understated" doesn't come close. This was especially disappointing because I really enjoy the sounds and music from other Zelda games.

However, I'm going to side with the others on some of the other complaints.

Horses can be caught, but it takes a bit of patience and practice. Some horses are harder to catch than others; start out trying to catch the mottled ones, as they tend to be easier. Approaching at night or during rain, while crouching, is often your best bet. Increase your stamina when you can, as you'll need to tame horses once you manage to catch one. (Stamina will also make traversing the world much easier in many other ways - gliding, running, climbing, swimming. I found it a much better upgrade to chase than adding more hearts early on...)

To avoid one-hit kills, be sure you hearts are full. That will always allow you to absorb at least one hit... you might need to quickly eat afterwards to refill those hearts, so hopefully you've been able to do some hunting/gathering along the way. Also don't feel that you need to rush into combat; that's often a bad strategy early on, especially if you will be outnumbered.

Maybe it's just not the right game for you - but I remember always having something catch my eye while traveling from place to place. The fun part for me was just setting random target ("oh - there's a tower over there; that's my next destination") and stumbling into trouble on the way there. It helped that each target for me was a lofty peak; gliding gave me a nice head-start when moving to the next destination.

Last note from me: this is a wildly different Zelda experience. If you loved the dungeons and puzzles most from other games, then Breath of the Wild might be a disappointment. But if you loved exploring the overworld and hunting for small secrets, then you should find quite a bit to enjoy here.