Zelda: Breath of the Wild thread

[|darc|]

This ain't your daddy's Zelda. The leap is like playing OoT for the first time.

Got the Wii U version. Don't have the money to pull a Switch right now, especially when this is the only real killer title for it atm.


I'm like 2-3 hours in, and this game is very different than previous Zeldas. Makes me want to ask.... "Nintendo... what took you so long?"


Who else is playing?

[Specially Cork]

I picked up a Wii U boxed off eBay for £125. I'll play Zelda on it then pop it all back on eBay and sell it on. I have no interest in the console other than this one game. Thought about diving right in and getting a Switch but I'm only really interested in Zelda and Mario from Nintendo so not sure what would make it worth it for 2018 and beyond. I'd need a price drop and some decent other games on the way.

Having said that...I've not even started it yet. I can't believe it's the start of March as there's been so many great games already - RE7, Gravity Rush 2, Nioh, Tales of Berseria, Yakuza 0....

I'm currently playing Horizon Zero Dawn which is absolutely fantastic, and Nier Automata is out Tuesday which I loved the demo of. They're both massive open-world games along with Zelda.

And then after that there's Yooka Laylee, Mass Effect Andromeda, Persona 5...and that's all before summer. I can't keep up. If Red Dead Redemption 2 and Mario Odyssey both keep their Q4 release dates this could be one of the greatest gaming years of all time.

Back on topic though, I desperately want to start it, but it needs my full attention. I have so little time these days. I'd also be interested to hear your opinion on all the survival open world stuff, as the critics fucking loved it and threw 10/10s everywhere...but I hear a lot of moaning from fans - especially regarding the weapon durability stuff.

[|darc|]

Well, when asking my opinion, keep in mind that 90% of the gaming I do is on NES, and the rest is other classic consoles, and Nintendo first-party titles on Wii U. I never owned a PS3 or PS4, I had an Xbox 360 but that's only because I bought it with RROD from Jeeba, and I fixed it, played a little bit of GTA4, and never touched it again. I just am not that into new games anymore, but I do buy Nintendo stuff because I love all the Nintendo franchises. I don't think I've played a single third-party title on my Nintendo consoles since the Wii came out. I buy an occasional PC game here and there (got really into Minecraft back in 2011/2012 but haven't played it since then, and got into in Prison Architect and Civilization VI recently). I have never even heard of most of the games you just mentioned and the ones I have heard of I don't even know what they are.

I don't pay attention to gaming media at all, aside from when Nintendo announces something and I see it on facebook. So I went into this completely blind, aside from a Breath of the Wild video I saw like a year ago when they announced it.

As far as Zelda goes, I am a huge fan of Wind Waker (beat the Wii U HD version, which was great), but I barely even played Twilight Princess (even though I own it on both Wii and Wii U), and even though I own Skyward Sword I never even played it once. I did absolutely love A Link Between Worlds though.

Breath of the Wild has been absolutely great so far, I'm about 5 hours in and I just got off the beginning part of the game (Great Plateau). I could have gotten out of this part way faster but I was getting into all of the survival and exploring stuff and not touching the game's quest much.

The survival stuff really changes up the weapons system and the health system mainly. In earlier Zelda games (and by that I mean Wind Waker, maybe it's changed in Twilight Princess/Skyward Sword, but I haven't played those enough to say), you could pick up other weapons but it was fucking pointless, you might as well just use your sword. The only thing it added is that you could throw non-sword weapons, but I never did care about doing that. I just used my sword.

Now you have to choose the weapon for the task at hand; different weapons can affect enemies differently. Since your weapons have a durability, you have to weigh in when you want to use which weapons. When I'm just roaming the overworld I equip basic weapons that break easily, just because I'm not worried about getting into any tight spots. But when I'm doing something serious in my quest I'll equip better weapons so as to not get caught in a bind. It adds an extra dimension to the game not just having a default "sword," because you have to constantly seek out newer and better weapons, as well as weapons that might apply to the enemies you're facing. Some might see weapons collecting as an annoying grind, but for me, that's part of playing a game.

As far as the health system goes, there's a familiar formula in previous Zelda games: enemies drop hearts which you use to replenish your health as you go, and then when you know you're going to be facing a big boss or something, you grind and grind killing enemies for rupees, you save enough rupees for potions, you buy potions and then you go fight that boss. It's a monotonous task that you do in every Zelda game. In Breath of the Wild, no hearts are ever dropped; instead, you must hunt for food. The most basic foods like mushrooms and acorns give you very little health (like a quarter of a heart), but when you get a variety of food ingredients you can use a fire to cook the ingredients to make a dish, which replenishes several hearts, and then you can store up those dishes and use them when you're in a tough spot.

You can also use certain ingredients to make dishes have certain effects on you, e.g. eating a dish with peppers will help you survive in the cold regions for a fixed amount of time. Some dishes can make you run faster, have enhanced stamina, walk quieter, etc.

If some people are whining about the survival stuff being a grind, I think that's ridiculous because it essentially replaces the boring grinding parts of Zelda games with actually interesting grinding parts.

Now I could be a bit off because I haven't even gotten to a point where rupees exist yet (nothing ever drops rupees on Great Plateau but I know the game still has rupees because there's a rupee counter on my screen). Maybe potions still are a thing. I dunno.

Zelda has always been considered an "action RPG", but now there's a larger amount of RPG elements added in (a large variety weapons with different power levels, different armors and shields can be equipped, etc.), with a twist of a little bit of Minecraft-style survival (items of varying quality breaking, hunting and gathering for items then crafting/cooking those ingredients into things more useful). So far I think it's really awesome. I unfortunately have to go to bed and go to work in the morning, and I can't wait to get off of work and get back on this game. Sucks that it didn't come out until this weekend, I actually had this whole week off of work for Mardi Gras, and I could have been playing this all week!

[not just souLLy now]

I'm a bit further on from Darc, and yeah it's really good.

The level of detail is insane. I just found my second town and it could honestly be the setting for a Ghibli film, I can see where every second of the extended development period has gone. I wouldn't like to guess an average first play through for this, I'd be shocked if we're not talking 80+ hours. Normally this would be a bad thing for me, but even a short burst feels great.

I saw a theory today that the game may be a remake of the original game and I'd believe it, it's almost intimidating how much choice you have and you definitely get the sense that you're vulnerable.

[|darc|]

I'm a bit further on from Darc, and yeah it's really good.

The level of detail is insane. I just found my second town and it could honestly be the setting for a Ghibli film, I can see where every second of the extended development period has gone. I wouldn't like to guess an average first play through for this, I'd be shocked if we're not talking 80+ hours. Normally this would be a bad thing for me, but even a short burst feels great.

I saw a theory today that the game may be a remake of the original game and I'd believe it, it's almost intimidating how much choice you have and you definitely get the sense that you're vulnerable.

I can definitely see 80+ based on how I play; I like to explore every nook and cranny in Zelda games.

I'm gonna spend a lot of time on this game, I can see it

[Specially Cork]

Well I just set the Wii U up. First time I've actually seen one up close and personal as I was in China during it's brief life. Good lord that tablet controller really is a hideous thing. So much bigger than I thought - in all the wrong ways. Got a pro controller coming first thing tomorrow morning.

[|darc|]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the tablet controller. Good idea, poor execution. I think they were trying to take the DS idea of dual screens to the console, and it just didn't work. I always play with the Pro Controller.




Just went mountain climbing, got myself a horse, and got to Kakariko Village. The immensity of the world is breathtaking.

There's also some good laugh-out-loud moments. Here's a funny for you guys.

[Specially Cork]

Put my first hour in and got a feeling I'm going to love this. Really enjoyed simply being told an area was too cold and being left to sort it out by myself rather than having some infuriating mascot pop out of nowhere and start shouting directions at me.

It's funny how you ask "Nintendo what took you so long?" as it feels like the original NES game coming back in many ways.

[|darc|]

Really enjoyed simply being told an area was too cold and being left to sort it out by myself rather than having some infuriating mascot pop out of nowhere and start shouting directions at me.

This game is really good at being very balanced with this. There is a strong element of self-discovery, yet at the same time you don't ever feel lost, although you might feel a little overwhelmed with the massive amount of freedom you have.

It's funny how you ask "Nintendo what took you so long?" as it feels like the original NES game coming back in many ways.

That's a pretty fair point.

I remember when my sister and I were kids, and we had beaten dungeons 1-6 and 8, but could never ever find dungeon 7. Not having the internet, it took me years to stumble upon dungeon 7. I still remember running through the house screaming for my sister that I had finally found it when I just so happened to play the whistle on the lake screen.

[Specially Cork]

Really enjoying this. I thought I'd care about the durability system but it makes exploring for treasure more worthwhile. One of the problems with games like The Witcher and Skyrim is being rewarded with gear that's worse than what you've got. In Zelda though it's almost all useful because that decent sword you picked up a while back is almost done.

I like the little inverted tropes too -

Spoiler!

like the shrine sealed off by an obvious bombable boulder. That just means 'come back later' in every other Zelda game. Here though you just easilyclimb over the wall and ignore the obstacle. And of course, it's the shrine for bombs.

I must have a quick moan about the performance though. I'm not going to excuse it because it's cross-generational or so huge in scope - it runs awfully sometimes. It reminds me of when Oblivion came out but I had no way to play it, so I installed Oldblivion on my aging PC. 20fps, bland textures, objects popping in everywhere. The game's so good that I'll put up with it, but I'm sure they could have optimized the experience a bit more.

[bogglez]

I haven't played the game myself yet, but I sometimes don't really get Zelda vibes from what I've seen so far. I feel like it would've worked as well with a different IP.
Immediately in the intro scene you get an iPad in a fantasy case. I don't get any feeling of agency, just a lazy "This game is called Zelda, this place is Hyrule and you're Link, so shine once more!". The OoT and MM openings were very different and made me feel connected with the game world, understand the agency of Link as a character.
Skyward Sword also had this annoying Sword AI character with calculations, authorizing things, blah blah. Is that supposed to click with young people who grew up with tablets and such more?

So do you feel like this is Zelda? If so, when?

[not just souLLy now]

Honestly it feels like Zelda with the safety net taken away

[|darc|]

Really enjoying this. I thought I'd care about the durability system but it makes exploring for treasure more worthwhile. One of the problems with games like The Witcher and Skyrim is being rewarded with gear that's worse than what you've got. In Zelda though it's almost all useful because that decent sword you picked up a while back is almost done.

I like the little inverted tropes too -

Spoiler!

like the shrine sealed off by an obvious bombable boulder. That just means 'come back later' in every other Zelda game. Here though you just easilyclimb over the wall and ignore the obstacle. And of course, it's the shrine for bombs.

I must have a quick moan about the performance though. I'm not going to excuse it because it's cross-generational or so huge in scope - it runs awfully sometimes. It reminds me of when Oblivion came out but I had no way to play it, so I installed Oldblivion on my aging PC. 20fps, bland textures, objects popping in everywhere. The game's so good that I'll put up with it, but I'm sure they could have optimized the experience a bit more.

I agree on all of your points. I am enjoying the weapon system a lot tbh, it adds a lot more challenge to the game. When I come upon one of the monster outposts, in earlier Zelda titles I'd just run in and kill 'em all and get the treasure. In BotW, I have to take a look at my inventory, decide if I have enough to take them on, and if I do, what will be my strategy based on the items I have, the layout of their outpost, whether they're sleeping or watching intently, etc.?

I also noticed the entrance to the shrine you mentioned, and thought "whoa, this is different!" Bombs in Zelda have pretty much always followed the same formula, maybe adding a "super bomb" or bombchus, but mostly the same formula.

And yeah, the performance is a bit disappointing, hopefully it'll get fixed in a patch? Probably not, but the game is good enough to move past it, and I'm fairly used to gaming on low end PC hardware, so it's not jarring to me, but I was surprised they shipped it like that. When I first walked out of the cave in the beginning of the game I got a harsh framerate drop and was like "WTF, Nintendo, really?"

I haven't played the game myself yet, but I sometimes don't really get Zelda vibes from what I've seen so far. I feel like it would've worked as well with a different IP.
Immediately in the intro scene you get an iPad in a fantasy case. I don't get any feeling of agency, just a lazy "This game is called Zelda, this place is Hyrule and you're Link, so shine once more!". The OoT and MM openings were very different and made me feel connected with the game world, understand the agency of Link as a character.
Skyward Sword also had this annoying Sword AI character with calculations, authorizing things, blah blah. Is that supposed to click with young people who grew up with tablets and such more?

So do you feel like this is Zelda? If so, when?

I do feel like it's Zelda, but Zelda evolved and taken to a new height. The iPad thing did feel a little anachronistic at first, but when you start getting into the story it makes sense.

Spoiler!

The game revolves around the idea that you are 100 years removed from the decline of the Hyrule Kingdom civilization (a common theme in Zelda titles), but the previous civilization was highly advanced and used technology against Ganon, and it ended up backfiring on them. In a way, it feels like you are in the Dark Ages, where civilization had declined but everyone knew of years past where the Romans and the Greeks built amazing architectural wonders but no one in this period knows how they accomplished it because that knowledge had been lost to time and war.

I see this game as a fusion of several other games within and outside of the Zelda franchise:
- the original Zelda: the sense of open world freedom with no fixed, defined path
- Zelda II: many "real RPG" elements, increased difficulty, required mastery of swordfighting techniques if you want to not get your ass kicked
- Ocarina of Time: the day/night system, serious dark themes and tone
- Wind Waker: being able to use additional weapons found in your environment, lighthearted NPCs with great expression, a larger variety of sidequests
- Metal Gear Solid: required use of stealth and utilizing limited resources in taking out foes
- Minecraft: crafting items (through cooking), weapons breaking, being in a wild environment and having to seek/find resources and use them wisely

When you break it down like that you can ask: is Nintendo doing anything here that hasn't been done before? and the answer is definitely "no," but all of these elements are put together in a way that is uniquely still Zelda, and still feels evolutionary yet revolutionary at the same time. Despite all of the things Nintendo added to Zelda in the last few titles, the franchise was still pretty much following the same formula that Link to the Past established and it was getting stale. This title is seriously injecting a breath of fresh air into the franchise. No more do I have the attitude "I've been here before and I know exactly what I need to do next, because this is a Zelda game and this is what Zelda games do." I really haven't fully "grasped" the game yet.

[pixel]

What makes this title great is the gameplay. I was worried it would be a slog trying to manage your weapons and other tools, based on the preview footage. But Breath of the Wild feels so good to play.

Another thing, it's refreshing to start off with all the gadgets and what not. In the previous games, the items you had determined what you could unlock. But with BotW, they've made puzzles and exploring much more intuitive. It's now up to the gamer whether they'll find a way through a challenge.

[Specially Cork]

It all seemed so straightforward..."Go to Kakariko Village in the East" as an icon popped up in the adjacent area.

It's been hours. Hours! and I'm still closer to where I came from than the village...there's way too many distractions. And I'm in a tiny portion of the map with vast swathes still completely blank.

I have such limited gaming time. This is going to be a massive undertaking. I just hope I don't go all Bethesda and burn out before I reach the end.

[|darc|]

I'm so grateful that I'm single and childless right now

But still, I've only been able to play for about 3 hours a day, since I still have to eat, sleep, shower, and go to work (and trust me, I've considered skipping some of these things just to play more...).

I'm about 10-12 hours in I guess, I've gotten to Kakariko and Hateno villages, but I've spent so much time exploring. I've gotten 13 or so shrines so far, but there's 120 of those damn things so it's gonna take me a while. And even though I'm still so early on in the game, I have so many things in mind that I want to do that it's hard to keep them all straight. Luckily the adventure log makes it a lot easier to keep your goals.

I have no specific plans for this weekend, so I'm sure I'll just spend all day and night playing this

[Specially Cork]

120?!? I assumed 24 or something. Holy shit. I guess that explains why the ones I've done so far felt far too easy.

[not just souLLy now]

There are 900 korok seeds you can collect. Yeah.

[Specially Cork]

Still not made it to the village. i'm just messing about on the dueling peaks. Just when I think I'm done something else catches my eye. I want to play all day. Wish I was born 10 years later then I'd be a carefree student and could bin everything off.

Also my son just bought Lego Worlds for the PS4 with his pocket money so I have to play that now too.

[|darc|]

me right now