Author Topic: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U)  (Read 359730 times)

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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #675 on: March 30, 2017, 11:25:54 PM »
As for yesterday's play session, now that I had found the Spring of Wisdom and Power, I was really itching to find the Spring of Courage and to finally use one of the dragon scales I had been carrying for it once I clued in that the other springs had required them.

The first time I encountered Farosh was in the Faron jungle as I was trying to get to different towers and fill in my map. As I encountered him, my shrine seeker was beeping. I saw him go into some water and then come out. I thought there might be something hidden around the water there. So, off I went to the Faron region. I hurried over to the spot of water I had seen him go in. I battled a few enemies on the way and my Shrine Seeker would beep intermittently. But arriving at the spot didn't really yield anything but a couple treasure chests. So, I decided to thoroughly cover the area since I'd now gone through it a bit and had run through it before so best to make sure it was complete and keep from having to cover the same ground again later. As I began to cover the jungle area around Lake Floria and its surrounding falls, I encountered a Stalnox (I think is how you spell it). I had encountered one before but day came before I finished fighting it and it disappeared before the battle I could defeat it. This time, I was able to take it out. Much like a Hinox, the battles against these guys aren't as scary as they initially were. Later, I encountered a Stone Tanus which I think can be a little bit tougher than a Hinox, particularly if the ore weakness is on the side of the body where it is hard to swing and hit. Fortunately, this one was on the top and after climbing to the top once, I was able to take it down on that first try thanks to the Royal Claymores I'm rocking. I uncovered all kinds of treasure chests in the area and a few Koroks. I found out why my Shrine seeker was kind of useless for awhile and that's because there are 3 shrines in that area and are all kind of hidden. Part of the reason I haven't gone on a Shrine hunt is because I like how they sort of break up the game when you just come across them in your trials. After uncovering some treasure and carefully searching the land, its nice to have a puzzle break to do something different for a bit.

Having come up empty on my search for the Spring of Courage, I kept debating myself if I should get back to my Mei search or finish searching some other areas I'd been putting off. However, I'd just keep covering a bit more of the Faron region and a bit more. Suddenly, I heard the roar of a Lynel as I was exploring. I figured it must have been coming from the top of a plateau nearby that I couldn't see from my vantage point. I carefully climbed up to be able to see with my camera but not let myself be spotted and, sure enough, there was the Lynel. A white haired one also. Thinking about the Link memory a couple days ago of him having defeated a bunch of these guys at once, I decided to go for it and see if I could take down one of these guys. I equipped myself for that battle, ate a bit of food to make sure I was at full health and then went for it. It went pretty darn smooth. I was a bit more aware of it's attacks so I knew to jump when it struck the ground with its spear and was able to dodge out of the way of its charge attacks. I wasn't able to activate any fury rushes but using other weapons to shock and stun it, I was able to take it down anyways and didn't even run out of hearts or need to recover anything during the battle. This time I got some better gear and parts out of it. A short while later, I also encountered a Red Hinox and took him down. I was just dominating all the powerful enemies of the game. Having thoroughly covered a good portion of the map with easy to remember borders of where I left off and prevent missing or redoing parts of my Hyrule exploration, I decided it was time to move on.

Looking at my map, there was one area that sort of intrigued me between Lake Hylia and the Lake Floria/Faron region. It was in the back end of some woods and looked like it might be a structure or villain dwelling of some sort but definitely almost like a mouth of some sort. Heading in that direction, I encountered some rusted old Guardians stuck in the ground. I always have my guard up when encountering them and, sure enough, one came to life which was good. I was hoping to get the chance to try deflecting the laser beam with a shield like Luigi Dude and Nickmitch were talking about and this one would be stationary. It fired its beam and I knocked it right back destroying it which is good and bad. Well, it was another great game ego boost to take it down instantly, I don't know if I already have the timing right for deflecting it or just got lucky so I'll have to find some more to see for sure. Got to a point where I could see my objective and began paragliding down to it.

As I got close, I could see something sparkling since it was night time but the sparkle reminded me of a Metroid Prime save station. I was wondering what the heck this object might be. Landing on top of the stone structure, I realized it looked sort of like a lizard with an open mouth and surrounding this structure amongst the ruins were a bunch of Lizalfos. Had I come upon the Lizalfos home or some sacred Lizalfos spot? I snipered away a few I could reach but was eventually spotted and had them sounding their horns of danger. Fortunately due to the positioning of them, I ended up just going through one on one battles against the rest so it was an easy enough task to defeat them all. With that taken care of, I went into the gaping maw to this mysterious glowing only to see it was a circular glow around a Goddess statue surrounded by water. I had just found the Spring of Courage after all! And here I thought I was wrong about it being in the Faron region! Offered a scale, got the blessing of a shrine and that was that.

One thing I want to mention before I forget it is that having unlocked the last Great Fairy, I was down to 799 rupees. However, my careful examination of the Faron region and uncovering various treasure chests meant that by the time I left it and moved on to other stuff, I was at 3,200 rupees. It's part of why I like looking for treasure chests and taking my time with this game. Instead of trying to grind away at rupees and find ways to acquire them and other things instantly, if I just take my time, I will get everything I need. I'm in no rush. Plenty of other stuff to explore and cover with what I do have. There's always something to discover whether big or small. It also hit me that the Korok seed search is like the biggest game of Video Game Hide and Seek yet created.

Wanting to work on upgrading my Champion's tunic, I needed some shards of horn from Naydra. Off I went to Mt. Lanayru in hopes of spotting it. I finally saw it come into sight but it was flying off to the valley with the Lanayru Prominade. I went in that direction. I remembered still about a Lynel and Hinox I saw early, early on in this game by an Eastern gate of the Lanayru Prominade. In fact, this was the first Lynel I had encountered in the game. I took a picture of it from far away but it somehow noticed and spotted me far up on the mountain I was on and started shooting arrows at me. This surprised me as most other enemies didn't have that range so I began running in the opposite direction I was I was running, I was hit by something from above and got a Game Over. That left me stunned because I couldn't see the Lynel from behind the mountain after I put some distance on it and me. Could it fly? Had it been flying above me and shot me down? I later learned that Lynels just have great aim with arrows but that encounter left me very, very wary about Lynels ever since. Well, here was a chance to get revenge. I paraglided down to it but was surprised to see it was also a white-haired Lynel. I could have sworn it was red before. No matter. My sudden sky attack began the battle and it was on! Having gotten more use to Lynel attacks I was able to dodge him even better. Still got knocked around a bit but it never ended up being anything too serious and I took him down. One thing I noticed was that at times it would blow fire at me causing the grass to burn which then signaled there was an updraft. So I started paragliding up into the air and back down on it from different angles and could even mount it a couple times this way. Another successful Lynel battle. I then went to the Hinox I knew was nearby and quickly dispatched it to. My Link is now a warrior and I'm feeling close to invincible in this game provided I don't go making a bunch of mistakes like my encounter with the Bokoblins on horses. Got my items and then went to upgrade some more armor and call it a night.

That's when I realized what the difference has probably been between my disaster encounter with the first white-haired Lynel I tried to fight and the recent ones I have fought. The first one I fought was in the Gerudo Highlands which are covered in snow. This meant I was wearing different clothing to counter the environmental effects and that clothing was weak / hardly upgraded. The other Lynels I've been fighting have been after I've equipped my best clothing. At this point, I have some items that are fully maxed in upgrades. For instance, the Hylian outfit is completely maxed. It was easy enough to do and I always had the needed products to do so. As such, my defenses have been much higher in these other battles. That's why I've only been losing half a heart of so when I Lynel does get in a blow compared to the first battle where it could wipe out most of my health in a couple hits. Some of you players, maybe even all of you, may have clued into that fact but it only hit me last night and it was a revelatory yet "oh duh" moment that I figured I should mention it in case it hasn't occurred to others who may be struggling with Lynels or other tougher enemies still. While the Zora's Domain Lynel may be weaker than other Lynels, better armor is probably the bigger factor in why that was my first successful encounter besides how powerful or weak it may be.
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Offline Evan_B

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #676 on: March 31, 2017, 12:25:51 AM »
As I said, Khush, the more Shrines you complete, the tougher the enemies become. That white maned Lynel was a red haired Lynel.

I actually find horseback archers to be some of the toughest encounters in the game. Lots of moving parts, high-level Boko bows pierce through decent-level armor, and the risk of riding on horseback and getting your steed killed means you might want to tackle these encounters without one, but that just makes them more difficult.

Of course, the difference between horseback archers and say, Lynel fights is that Lynels drop meaningful materials and equipment. Horseback archers are relatively high-risk, low-reward.
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Offline GoldenPhoenix

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #677 on: March 31, 2017, 12:38:12 AM »
I recently completed the main story. It is strange I still feel I haven't quite scratched the surface of all there is to see and do in the game but after near 80 hrs of gameplay I am extremely happy with my adventure. Here are some of my final thoughts on the game. Is it a masterpiece? I guess that depends on how you define one, but I say it is a great game even if it has some flaws. How does it rank with other Zeldas? I'm leaning towards it being my favorite but it is really hard to compare it to some of my favorites like Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Ocarina, LTTP and LoZ since it has a different feel and focus.

With that said when completing this game I felt accomplished, like I was on a grand adventure, and surprisingly I don't feel as if I ran into any artificial padding to extend the game, but that is likely due to the open world nature of the game. I hesitate to call this the most difficult Zelda because the game centers on survival and chipping away at things until you can take less care and be more direct with enemies. Also if you cook a lot you have plenty of health for many of the things you need to do. It is interesting that while it doesn't rely on finding equipment to progress, it does have another sense of "I can attempt to do that now" as you get stronger.

Don't want to write too much more so I'll break my pros and cons up to bullet points, but overall I am so happy with this game.

Pros:
-Story for the most part especially the hidden memories, while not the most complex it is one of the more human feeling stories of the Zelda series with real emotion in places.

-Sense of wonder and exploration. There is always something to see and do, it creates lasting memories. It has multiple moments that will forever be cherished by me and created awe in me. Kind of like in Wind Waker when you first discover Hyrule castle which is still one of my most cherished Zelda memories

-Weapon system. I wavered a bit on where to put this, but overall I think it is a positive. While it may need to be tweaked in future games to make weapons a tiny bit less durable I think they solve the issue that plagues not on previous Zelda games but games in general that emphasize exploration, and that is finding meaningful things. This is especially true throughout the first part of the game, you want to explore shrines to not only improve stamina and hearts but also to find brand new weapons, and since weapons break so often you almost always appreciate what you get.

-Visual design

-Side Characters are all pretty interesting

-Humor. Multiple times I encountered some LOL moments

-Cooking is a ton of fun

-Shrines

-Final Boss

-Weather system (mostly)

-Likely the Iwata memorial. Wont' say anymore but there is a place that appears to be dedicated to Iwata and it is beautiful

-Side quests in generals were solid; I didn't even mind the fetch quests. Heck I despise stealth and escort missions but this game made it fun since you had different ways to approach them

-Getting to the divine beasts. These segments were always enjoyable to me.

-Overworld creatures, especially the larger ones. Still remember a particular encounter I had on a mountain several hours into the game. They can be especially intimidating when you are so weak

-While slow going when you do progress and find new more powerful things it is a wonderful feeling

-Quick travel system

-Selfies. Nothing like taking selfies in front of a creature that wants to eat you.

-Gliding through the skies. One of my favorite mechanics in any Zelda game

-Puzzle design and the fact you have most of the tools you'll need after the first area. While some puzzles relied on what I consider lame motion controls so many more were a blast with some out of the box design.

-Overall sound design, especially the wildlife and nature noises. While seemingly minor they really help immerse you in this world

-No underwater levels or places. LOVE this, no chance for giant eels or some other creature of the deep to terrify me

-Finally, the overworld design in general is diverse and vast. Clearly a lot of time and love was put into this. And the fact you can climb or explore every mountain you see is exciting in of itself.



Cons:
-Enemy variety, felt there could have been more variety instead of color coding them.

-Rain. While I like the concept of rain it more than once caused the games exploration to grind to a halt since you can't climb wet surfaces. Also it seems to rain too much in places.

-Horses. I wasn't quite sure where to put this but overall I felt horses were pretty useless in the game.

-Ending of the game. All I will say is that I felt it had much to be desired especially compared to other Zelda games

-Primary bosses excluding Ganon. Uninspired is how I can best describe them

-Primary dungeons. While I don't hate them I didn't feel they were that great either. Not to mention I felt they were kind of unnecessary which is weird to say since I love dungeons in Zelda games, but in this game I think the shrines and the world itself was more than enough.

-Voice acting. Not horrible (I've heard worse) but not good either.

-User interface for item selection felt clunky could have been a bit more intuitive.

-Frame rate issues. Not sure why the frame rate chugs in places so bad, but it is some of the worse I've experience in a Zelda title. Can't help but think the game may not have been given enough time to optimize especially on Switch

-Music while solid was never memorable to me, so for that reason I'll put this as a con.

-No traditional fishing. Definitely a personal preference but I really miss relaxing and fishing in the game, swimming around to catch fish or bombing them just doesn't compare

Conclusion: I loved mostly every minute of Breath of the Wild, and even with its flaws it didn't change the great time I had with the game. I have to say though I do hope the next Zelda takes place in a Hyrule that is decimated by Ganon, I would love to visit the Hyrule from the past, heck maybe even the Hyrule that created the Guardians that would be cool. Looking forward to see what Nintendo does with the DLC for this game.

On top of all that I can't wait to see what Nintendo does with Zelda in general in future titles. While BOTW is great, there is room for improvement and so much more to, ahem, explore.
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Offline Evan_B

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #678 on: March 31, 2017, 02:01:00 AM »
I don't really understand your criticisms, especially those that focus on aspects of the game that are ancillary towards it feeling natural. Horses are wildlife. Rain is a natural weather occurrence. Fishing rods are stupid. All of those elements are meant to enhance a certain atmosphere (the same can be said with the music, which I constantly hear dislike towards, and I constantly don't understand), which I think the game nails. It's about going on an adventure. It's about gaining courage. If you feel that your experience delivered that, I'd say the Zelda team did a pretty good job.

I don't really feel that the Divine Beasts could be considered a negative element either, except that there's a clear sense of growing complexity in how you should tackle them, rather than all four being equally difficult. I'm also surprised you fault the four main bosses, but not the final boss. Anyway, of course there's room for improvement. That isn't to say the game isn't one of the best products on the market right now, or even that it's not great. I really don't get this argument, because people bring up Ocarina of Time as one of the best Zelda games so often, even though there's tons of room for improvement there, that later games then delivered.

Glad you liked it though.
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Offline GoldenPhoenix

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #679 on: March 31, 2017, 03:08:42 AM »
I don't really understand your criticisms, especially those that focus on aspects of the game that are ancillary towards it feeling natural. Horses are wildlife. Rain is a natural weather occurrence. Fishing rods are stupid. All of those elements are meant to enhance a certain atmosphere (the same can be said with the music, which I constantly hear dislike towards, and I constantly don't understand), which I think the game nails. It's about going on an adventure. It's about gaining courage. If you feel that your experience delivered that, I'd say the Zelda team did a pretty good job.

I don't really feel that the Divine Beasts could be considered a negative element either, except that there's a clear sense of growing complexity in how you should tackle them, rather than all four being equally difficult. I'm also surprised you fault the four main bosses, but not the final boss. Anyway, of course there's room for improvement. That isn't to say the game isn't one of the best products on the market right now, or even that it's not great. I really don't get this argument, because people bring up Ocarina of Time as one of the best Zelda games so often, even though there's tons of room for improvement there, that later games then delivered.

Glad you liked it though.

Let me clarify my statement regarding horses since I did not provide much detail, I feel they are too restricting to use and because of that I barely road mine. I do agree though that them being apart of the wildlife is a great feature, that isn't my complaint, it is that they were more hassle then they were worth to me when it came to horseback riding especially them needing to be in the vicinity in order to call them. I understand why they made that choice for realism I just hope in future games they find a better way around it.

In regards to rain, I don't mind the weather system but I feel the rain can halt exploration way too often and it happens too much for my taste. If they had a way to negate slipping while climbing, whether it was an armor set or some other ability, that would have been fine, they had a way to limit lightning strikes.

Music, I state I felt it was decent, just not memorable like previous Zelda's. Like many of my "cons" they aren't really what I would call horrible, just things I hope they work on for future games.

Dungeon bosses, I felt they were uninspired in character design and I didn't find them that engaging when facing them, I actually enjoyed fighting Ganon and how he looked. I think the only dungeon boss I found interesting was the desert one. Overall I had far more fun facing the boss esque creatures in the overworld. In fact some of my best memories from this game will have come from them. The dungeon's themselves aren't bad, but I found the shrines to be more interesting. They have one feature that I would like to see further explored in future games though (Sorry I'm attempting to be vague to not spoil things). Honestly I think it is a testament to the game itself that I didn't feel it needed the dungeon aspect of the divine beasts. I have a feeling years down the line I will barely remember the divine beast dungeons or the boss fights.


Fishing rods, they may be stupid to you, but I enjoy the serene and calm nature of fishing in games, whether it is Zelda, Animal Crossing or something else. Bombing or swimming up to fish in order to catch them doesn't offer the same amount of joy to me. It seemed to be an odd feature to leave out, especially since the game is built around exploration, I think it would be wonderful to find a secluded pond or lake on the map and fish perhaps even tie it into some quest.

Overall I think my biggest complaint about the game are more the performance issues (slow down has always been something that bothered me). Everything else in the cons are more personal preference and things, while decently implemented, could be improved. It doesn't change the fact the game is one of the best games I've played in years and nails open world exploration in a way that few games have ever done.

Also I don't believe I said anything about other Zelda games not having room for improvement. Twilight Princess is my favorite out of the 3D Zelda's prior to Breath of the Wild, and even that has room for improvement. I adored Wind Waker but realize it had issues as well. With Ocarina of Time, I think that game gets a pass because it was pretty revolutionary when it first came out and helped inspire various mechanics in gaming, it is similar to Super Mario 64, while not perfect had such an impact that its faults are easily overlooked by many.


I've yet to play a game, period, that was perfect but that doesn't mean they can't be great and BOTW is one of them. Even after finishing it I still have a drive to play it, which is odd because I tend to be someone that isn't a completionist in games and when I finish the main game I move on to something else. Time will tell where it ranks compared to not only the Zelda series but my favorite games period but it will be well up there.
« Last Edit: March 31, 2017, 03:29:45 AM by GoldenPhoenix »
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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #680 on: March 31, 2017, 03:38:02 AM »
I'm still really early on in the game, but I just had it start raining during a sequence where the quest called for me to carry a flame from one place to another and I had no choice but to just wait it out before I could continue playing, so suffice it to say I'm not a big fan of the rain mechanic right now.
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Offline GoldenPhoenix

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #681 on: March 31, 2017, 03:46:47 AM »
I'm still really early on in the game, but I just had it start raining during a sequence where the quest called for me to carry a flame from one place to another and I had no choice but to just wait it out before I could continue playing, so suffice it to say I'm not a big fan of the rain mechanic right now.

I have a pretty good idea of what you are referring to, if it is what I think it is there are some covered lanterns you can light on your way that serve as "check points" but yeah it can get annoying. Maybe Nintendo should make an umbrella item for Link, maybe Umbrella of the Hero. Have that be a reoccurring item like the master sword in future games.

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« Last Edit: March 31, 2017, 04:29:28 AM by GoldenPhoenix »
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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #682 on: March 31, 2017, 03:57:52 AM »
Yeah, that's the place. The lanterns made sure I didn't lose all my progress, but you can't carry a lit torch in the rain, so I got a quarter of the way there and then had to sit around for 5 or 10 minutes waiting for it to let up before I could continue.
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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #683 on: March 31, 2017, 04:37:37 AM »
You could always exchange it for a piece of stamina. 1/5th of a stamina wheel is less impactful than a whole heart container.

Also, does anyone know what the new update for the game is? Just loaded it up and was notified of the update.

Nintendo's official line regarding the version 1.1.1 update doesn't say much:

Quote
Adjustments have been made to make for a more pleasant gaming experience.

However, I'm seeing a lot of people claim that the frame rate has improved significantly in some areas. I played for a little bit myself tonight post-update and I didn't notice anything, but I was mostly just doing a couple of shrines and I wouldn't expect to see a big difference there.

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #684 on: March 31, 2017, 08:36:50 AM »
You could always exchange it for a piece of stamina. 1/5th of a stamina wheel is less impactful than a whole heart container.

Also, does anyone know what the new update for the game is? Just loaded it up and was notified of the update.

Nintendo's official line regarding the version 1.1.1 update doesn't say much:

Quote
Adjustments have been made to make for a more pleasant gaming experience.

However, I'm seeing a lot of people claim that the frame rate has improved significantly in some areas. I played for a little bit myself tonight post-update and I didn't notice anything, but I was mostly just doing a couple of shrines and I wouldn't expect to see a big difference there.

Appears they did improve the framerate in various areas, still seeing issues in an important forest area though but the villages seem to have been improved.
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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #685 on: March 31, 2017, 08:59:34 AM »
I somehow logged over 100 hours in 3 weeks with this game (something I haven't done in over 10 years) but I've played only 3-4 this entire work week.  I'm going to keep playing but it looks like I'm finally starting to slow down.  I'll pick away at the side quests and shrines I haven't gotten yet (I'm at 98 shrines currently) over the rest of the year.  NO plans for trying for all the seeds. No thanks.


Now would probably be a good time to pick up Human Resource Machine, a game that's been on my wishlist for a long time now (being sort of a programmer by vocation).  Being able to play it on the go on my Switch seems like the best way to play it.  Work on algorithms during my lunch breaks....from creating algorithms  ;D
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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #686 on: March 31, 2017, 10:36:05 AM »
You could always exchange it for a piece of stamina. 1/5th of a stamina wheel is less impactful than a whole heart container.

Also, does anyone know what the new update for the game is? Just loaded it up and was notified of the update.

Nintendo's official line regarding the version 1.1.1 update doesn't say much:

Quote
Adjustments have been made to make for a more pleasant gaming experience.

However, I'm seeing a lot of people claim that the frame rate has improved significantly in some areas. I played for a little bit myself tonight post-update and I didn't notice anything, but I was mostly just doing a couple of shrines and I wouldn't expect to see a big difference there.

Appears they did improve the framerate in various areas, still seeing issues in an important forest area though but the villages seem to have been improved.

The biggest improvement is that Moblin deaths don't grind the game to a halt anymore
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Offline Evan_B

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #687 on: March 31, 2017, 10:58:58 AM »
I've yet to play a game, period, that was perfect but that doesn't mean they can't be great and BOTW is one of them. Even after finishing it I still have a drive to play it, which is odd because I tend to be someone that isn't a completionist in games and when I finish the main game I move on to something else. Time will tell where it ranks compared to not only the Zelda series but my favorite games period but it will be well up there.
I spent the first 12-14 hours on horseback, getting it into all sorts of ridiculous scenarios, and thoroughly enjoyed the taming, riding, and combat mechanics. I wouldn't say that they're poorly implemented, or even mechanically unsound. They're just an element you didn't fully implement in your own playthrough. Likewise, is say that two of the most interesting sequences in the game took place in and around the Divine Beasts, so I'm likely to remember them more than the specific shrine challenges.

I was just joking about fishing being stupid. It's extremely stupid. Just wanted to clarify that.

And you've never played a perfect game, eh? Might I recommend Paper Mario: Color Splash...?
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #688 on: March 31, 2017, 12:38:27 PM »
Boy, this thread suddenly jumped to life again.

As I said, Khush, the more Shrines you complete, the tougher the enemies become. That white maned Lynel was a red haired Lynel.

I actually find horseback archers to be some of the toughest encounters in the game. Lots of moving parts, high-level Boko bows pierce through decent-level armor, and the risk of riding on horseback and getting your steed killed means you might want to tackle these encounters without one, but that just makes them more difficult.

Of course, the difference between horseback archers and say, Lynel fights is that Lynels drop meaningful materials and equipment. Horseback archers are relatively high-risk, low-reward.

Good points on the horseback fighting. In the one I encountered, I wasn't on a horse which put me at a disadvantage. As well, there were a couple times I knocked off a bokoblin and was roughing him up when he started running away and disappeared only to reappear on a horse again which was frustrating since it seemed to start the fight all over. They were shooting flame arrows lighting the surrounding grass on fire and at one point, when I did take over a horse from them, the flame arrows killed that horse off putting me back on the ground. Unlike enemy camps where you can get a treasure chest from defeating the baddies or Lynel's and Hinox's that give you needed parts, it's true that horseback bokoblins aren't worth fighting unless you want more of a challenge than regular bokoblins and moblins can give you.

I'm just surprised the game is replacing some of my creatures with harder ones since I'm only at 56 completed shrines. However, I do appreciate the game keeping the challenge level up a bit for players as they get stronger though it still seems to be a bit limited in how much more difficult it can become considering I'm now at a point where white haired Lynels and Spider Guardians no longer pose much of a threat and the silver bokoblins I've encountered are just annoying because they take a bit longer to defeat since they require more hits but, aside from that, aren't that challenging.

However, I don't mind that. Now that I am more powerful, I don't mind just taking on every creature I see and raiding every villain's nest I see to get the treasure chest it may have. I no longer have to run or sneak around like a ninja allowing me to fully cover an area in my Hyrule expedition. There's still a lot I need to get better at in fighting at anyways and it gives me a chance to practice developing my skills as well as providing a brief break in my scanning and searching for Koroks.
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Offline KeyBilly

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #689 on: March 31, 2017, 12:57:12 PM »
I find fighting the Bokoblins on horses easiest on foot, since you have no need to steer the horse in its wide arc.  The bok boys tend to lead their shots, so they miss if you aren't moving.  Fire arrows with give you an updraft to slow-mo them.  As with most enemies in the game, I primarily struggle when I panic and try to just run at things to get a quick hit in.

Horses are a nice addition for atmosphere and making the world feel less empty, but I fall on the side of thinking they are more restrictive that they are worth.  It made more sense in the old games, where they essentially served as fast travel points, there was no emphasis on climbing, and Epona was integrated more into the story.  The big horse is funny.

Offline nickmitch

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #690 on: March 31, 2017, 04:02:04 PM »
I'm mixed on the Horse issue.  One of my favorite moments so far involved a horse.  I mentioned it in an earlier post.  I like having them around for some areas, but sometimes it feels faster to just go straight to where I wanna explore than to grab a horse and stick to the roads.  Right now, I'm following some roads, so I'm naturally exploring on horseback.  Finding a wild horse to help get me where I'm going seems like it's faster, but really it's just less boring because I take a break from walking (particularly in a flat area) to get the horse and then I'm moving faster than ever.

As for the horseback enemies, I hate those.  Honestly, Bokoblins don't feel worth fighting in general.  Lizalfos and Moblins are rarely worth it either at this point (except for the tails I need for upgrades).  But the added danger Bokoblins give when they're on horses is especially not worthwhile.  I usually try to steal one horse and then use it to ride off.
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Offline Ian Sane

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #691 on: March 31, 2017, 04:21:51 PM »
I like riding horses and pretty much do so anytime the game lets me.  I've gotten so used to it that covering large distances by foot feels really slow.  But the gameplay does tend to get into a groove where I'll ride and then think "hey I should check that out" so I'll stop the horse and go climb something, find the Korok or whatever and then return to my horse.  I really don't like horseback enemies as it is really impractical to fight them.  Ideally you should pull your bow and shoot them while on horseback but I find that really hard to do.  But for the enemies the AI can easily aim at you.  It just isn't as hard for them as it is for you so it's not really a fair fight.

I'm far from beating the game but if they were to make a sequel here are the things I would do differently:
-make the weapon breaking a little less annoying.  I suggest (unless this game DOES have this and I just haven't found it) a smithy character you encounter early on that you can register weapons with and he'll make you a new one if you provide him with the proper materials.  He can also fix existing weapons and we need some numerical indicator of how much durability a weapon still has.
-recipes need to go in a cookbook that store the details for you
-need some spells or something to adjust the weather if needed
-tools should be separate from weapons.  I shouldn't have to have a torch, korok leaf, axe or hammer eating up valuable weapon slots if I'm mostly going to use those as special items.
-the korok seed guy shouldn't bounce around from place to place and make you find him again.  I currently have 60 unused seeds!  I don't have to hunt around for a goddess statue to increase my hearts and stamina so why doesn't this guy stay put?

Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #692 on: March 31, 2017, 05:01:06 PM »
Lizalfos and Moblins are rarely worth it either at this point (except for the tails I need for upgrades).

Yeah, dude! Gotta get that Lizalfos TAY-YAL!!!


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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #693 on: March 31, 2017, 05:46:00 PM »
The biggest improvement is that Moblin deaths don't grind the game to a halt anymore

That is a good improvement. Now that you mention it, every time I thought the game might suddenly crash on me was during a Moblin fight. Glad that's been fixed.

Fishing rods, they may be stupid to you, but I enjoy the serene and calm nature of fishing in games, whether it is Zelda, Animal Crossing or something else. Bombing or swimming up to fish in order to catch them doesn't offer the same amount of joy to me. It seemed to be an odd feature to leave out, especially since the game is built around exploration, I think it would be wonderful to find a secluded pond or lake on the map and fish perhaps even tie it into some quest.

Actually, it is interesting the amount of ways you can catch a fish in this game without a fishing pole. You can swim up and grab them suddenly (which would be really hard to do in real-life). You can shoot them at arrows and hunt them that way. You can shoot an electric arrow and fry a whole bunch at once or a bomb arrow to blow up a bunch at once. Not sure what an ice arrow might do.... You can chase the fish out of the way where they flop around on the shore. I had that happen on my last play through. While in a shallow pool, the fish quickly swam away from me only to end up out of the water and flopping on the ground. I thought that was pretty stupid of them as it made them very easy to catch. Lightning from the sky can strike the water and fry them dead as well. While I was searching around Lake Hylia and uncovering all kinds of treasure chests, one of them had a fishing harpoon in it. It was just a weak 8 damage weapon but then I thought I'd try fishing with it. So, I aimed it a fish and threw it which struck the fish dead. Swam over and got the fish and the harpoon back and thought that was mildly interesting and moved on later discarding the fishing harpoon for a better weapon. Plenty of ways to fish without a rod.

Frankly, I'm kind of glad there is no rod. While I get the pleasant diversion of fishing that way like in New Leaf, I would hate to have to find a lake with fish, attach a piece of bait and then slowly wait to pull out one fish after another. Right now, I need to find 30 stealthfin trout to max upgrade my Sheikah outfit. I have no idea where to find these fish since I've yet to encounter them in journey but it would be a lot worse if I had to slowly fish away for them. I'm quite happy with the snatch and grab method.

Something else I was going to mention before in my long update posts but it slipped my mind was that I feel my Link is worse than Ganon. As I'm scouring the land, I am just devastating it of resources. I am just grabbing all the mushrooms, fruit, bird's eggs and other plant life I can see. Because of my Sheikah outfit, I'm able to sneak up on so much wildlife so I'm grabbing fish and insects and striking down animals with a quick sword swipe before they have a chance to notice me and flee. I wasn't always collecting a lot of stuff since always seemed to have enough food but this later burned me a bit once I wanted to upgrade armor and didn't have enough of a resource even though I could have had plenty of it by this point but I had just stopped grabbing it. So, now I'm grabbing everything just to be safe and maybe save myself sometime from having to hunt for it later. Link is devouring the land of all resources and wildlife. Ganon's just hanging out in a castle after his short burst of devastation.
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Offline Mop it up

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #694 on: March 31, 2017, 05:53:55 PM »
-the korok seed guy shouldn't bounce around from place to place and make you find him again.  I currently have 60 unused seeds!  I don't have to hunt around for a goddess statue to increase my hearts and stamina so why doesn't this guy stay put?
He does have a place he stays, you just haven't found it yet.

Don't want to write too much more so I'll break my pros and cons up to bullet points, but overall I am so happy with this game.
I pretty much agree with most of your points. This is a great game but for me, it'll probably end up in the middle-to-low range of my fave Zelda game list.

I definitely miss having a fishing rod and bug net, I think they should still have existed as an option since catching everything by hand can get annoying fast.

Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #695 on: March 31, 2017, 06:08:49 PM »
-need some spells or something to adjust the weather if needed

Yeah. Being stopped by rain is perhaps the biggest and most common complaint by every player of the game. It's pretty odd for a series that has had previous games of being able to shift time and create needed weather that there is no counter to it this game.

Quote
-tools should be separate from weapons.  I shouldn't have to have a torch, korok leaf, axe or hammer eating up valuable weapon slots if I'm mostly going to use those as special items.

I suppose but after awhile I stopped carrying most of these items aside from the sledgehammer from time to time. You don't really need a torch. Lose it. As long as you've got any weapon made of wood then you can use that as a makeshift torch when needed and it has the bonus benefit of being a weapon with higher damage than the torch. Or if you have fire arrows then you might be able to use those to light a needed fire. Same for the axe. Not a lot of times you need to be cutting trees and you can always use a sword or some other blade to chop a tree down. It might lead to the weapon breaking sooner than an axe I'm not sure since I've done no testing on that but weapons and low level swords like that are plentiful enough that I can also save my better things for later and just use something like that instead which has the benefit of also being a better weapon than the woodcutter's axe.

One of the few times I am chopping trees down is to get a Korok leaf. They can randomly appear when cutting trees. So rather than carry that around all the time in hopes of finally finding a raft to use it, I can just chop some trees which are all around and find one when needed then. Or, for another solution, if there is a large metal object, you can just used Magnesis to pull it against the edge of a raft. As the raft edge blocks the metal object from being able to pull closer to you, it will cause the raft to start pushing forward in the opposite direction of where the metal object is pushing against it. No Korok leaf needed.

The Sledgehammer is the only thing worth carrying if you don't want to wreck good weapons to smash ore deposits. However, I will often just use bombs to blow up the ore deposits and preserve my weapons without having to carry the sledgehammer. You have to be mindful of your blast so that the force doesn't push the ore in a bad direction on you but I find this method can be just as successful as having the sledgehammer around about 90-95% of the time and with the amount of ore and treasures I come across, I can live with a few missed ore pieces which are usually salt or flint anyways.

Quote
-the korok seed guy shouldn't bounce around from place to place and make you find him again.  I currently have 60 unused seeds!  I don't have to hunt around for a goddess statue to increase my hearts and stamina so why doesn't this guy stay put?

Fortunately, he only moves 2 times and then stays in a final spot the rest of the game but I agree that it was annoying when I wanted more spots but had to search around for him. However, I think the point of having him move along is to help lead the player to his end point which is an important spot in the game so they'll want to seek him out.
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Offline Evan_B

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #696 on: March 31, 2017, 06:26:56 PM »
Y'all are crazy.
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #697 on: March 31, 2017, 06:37:19 PM »
I pretty much agree with most of your points. This is a great game but for me, it'll probably end up in the middle-to-low range of my fave Zelda game list.

Wowsers, we are of a different mind. I've still much to do and see and am kind of at a half way point with shrines and dungeons but at this point, this is my favorite Zelda game finally knocking Wind Waker off that top spot. It's not just a great Zelda game. This is one of the best games I feel I've played in years. In fact, I decided to stop and scan my list of completed games from Backloggery while posting this (and it seems to be a smaller list than I thought) but 2013 looks to be the last time I was really as into and hyped about a game like BotW and that was Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure. Yet, that has a completely different appeal which worked for me. I just recognize it as the last time I really wanted to talk to all sorts of people to promote and hype that game like I do and have been with BotW so I'll use that as the checkpoint even if I think BotW is the better game in that comparison.

Heck, I've found 12 BotW pictures online that I could use for a computer wallpaper and have them cycling through the day and I'm listening to the BotW soundtrack on YouTube while posting this. I'm really into this game.
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Offline Mop it up

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #698 on: March 31, 2017, 06:47:57 PM »
When have we ever been of a similar mind, hee hee? We already know your fave Zelda games are way different than mine.

I'm listening to the BotW soundtrack on YouTube while posting this.
What soundtrack?

ZING!

Offline Ian Sane

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Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!
« Reply #699 on: March 31, 2017, 06:57:17 PM »
That last time I played a Zelda that hooked me like this was Minish Cap.  I never beat Twilight Princess, did beat Skyward Sword but had to push myself a bit to do so.  I didn't like the DS games and haven't played Link Between Worlds much at all.

This is one of my favourite games ever and the scary thing is that I'm certain they could use this template in the future and make even better games!  Though I don't really know if it actually scratches my Zelda itch.  This is triggering something a little different in me.

Oh and I think a fishing rod would be nice as an option at least.  It didn't make much sense to me to HAVE to dive into the lake and grab fish by hand like I'm Gollum.  And a soundtrack with more pizzazz would be great.