ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD DISCUSSION

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

hey before anyone else says anything maybe think about trying to debate with someone who's name starts with "contentious" and where that might go.

[odessasteps]

At least it's not Overly Ciritical Man.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

if i hadn't just changed my name I would take this opportunity to become Lamp The Complicator

[odessasteps]

2 minutes ago, Lamp, broken circa 1988 said:

if i hadn't just changed my name I would take this opportunity to become Lamp The Complicator

Worst Green Lantern villain ever. 

[Death From Above]

6 hours ago, Lamp, broken circa 1988 said:

hey before anyone else says anything maybe think about trying to debate with someone who's name starts with "contentious" and where that might go.

I live solely for online misery and now you want to take that away from me too? You've become a tyrant.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

21 minutes ago, Death From Above said:

I live solely for online misery and now you want to take that away from me too? You've become a tyrant.

Hey, I said "maybe!"

[Contentious C]

Now that I'm some distance into it, I feel settled in, but the gushing masterpiece stuff still seems overblown. OoT was better for its time and place, I figure LttP probably was, too.

Perhaps it's because so many of the quirks of this particular entry have become rote in other, similar games, or maybe because the bar is set so fantastically high for LoZ games to blow you out of the water, but this is merely a lot of fun. The developers have had however long it's been since the last game to start seeing what the rest of the field has done, and if BotW had done anything less than incorporate the stronger aspects of those games, I feel like people would see it as a huge disappointment. This isn't like, say, Resident Evil 4 (a game I loathe, btw), where the prior games were so mechanically fucked-up and useless that any improvement makes even chicken shit seem like chicken salad. This is the series that has always done this kind of stuff better than anyone else. Continuing to do so isn't unusual.

Maybe the next 90 shrines and the divine beast stuff will change my mind.

EDIT: Having said all this, it was funny to search "Thundra Plateau" online and see people crowing about how hard it is. I owned that with a bow and arrow, as well as some stuff lying about. Take that, Internets!

[Victator]

On 2/12/2018 at 11:03 AM, Contentious C said:

Now that I'm some distance into it, I feel settled in, but the gushing masterpiece stuff still seems overblown. OoT was better for its time and place, I figure LttP probably was, too.

I love the game but I do agree with this. I think my issue is that Ganon did not play a big enough role in the story. He is more of a means to drive the action than a part of the story. With Ocarina Of Time and A Link To The Past, Ganon felt like a big integral part of the story. While here we never learn much about him or how he became what he was at the end. A lot of it depends on you knowing who Ganon is and at this point we all do. 

I also found the dungeons lacking in comparison to Ocarina and Link To The Past. The bosses don't have as much variety as I would like 

That said I love the game and I think it is a classic. 

Also
 

 

[twiztor]

i miss the days when Ganon was an evil warthog wizard.  Ganondorf the tall evil Gerudo dude just isn't the same.

[Contentious C]

I got about 80 shrines in, then decided to punt the game I was running and start a new one, with a little more focus on doing the Korok seeds, Fairy Fountains, side quests, dealing with the starter zone in a more orderly fashion, and getting to a few key areas (like Rito) sooner rather than later. 

There's just no way around how disappointing the Divine Beasts feel. I can still recall from being a kid that level of almost-nice frustration as you cling by your fingertips to a dungeon that's more or less owning you, and that feeling like you just skated by it by the thinnest of margins felt a little like stealing something. It was nice. I felt like OoT & LttP had times that were like that, when you didn't do things in the right order and bit off a little more than you could chew. This...this has none of that. At all. Even getting to all the treasure chests within a Beast (at least for the 2 I've done so far) is a cakewalk. And yet the alternative is running towards the Castle and having some techno-spider blast you into molecules. The lack of in-between, or the sense that the progress being made in the game is truly getting you there incrementally, is a serious shortcoming.

I also just don't need the puzzles that are there. They aren't clever, they aren't challenging, and it isn't merely because I'm an adult and I can look things up on the Internet. It's that, if I wanted to play some of these games, I'd go eat at Cracker Barrel and do the exact same puzzles there. It's dull. I'd almost rather have more strength tests (or more varied ones) than some of the puzzle bullshit.

***

Having said all this, I did have one of my best experiences in 30+ years of gaming a few nights ago, the second time I climbed Akkala Tower (which is also way, way easier than people made it out to be).

I snuck up the (I think) southeasternmost corner onto the Citadel Ruins, where a Moblin & a Bokoblin look over the edge and oink at who-knows-what. And just behind them is the only weapon in sight, a spear. Donned my stealth gear, snuck up and tucked the spear into my inventory and then jumped out at them. 
 

Me: "Haha! You don't have any weapons! Have at you!"

Moblin: "Haha, yes I do!" and the bastard PICKS UP HIS BUDDY and lawn-darts him at me. I had to pause the game and laugh for a minute straight before going back to kick their asses.

[Matt D]

I definitely felt incremental growth in my play. And it was actually a little baffling because I couldn’t even tell you what changed but I absolutely felt it. Much of that is about exploration, not dungeon completion and how hard clearing a skull full of enemies might be.

It felt like a metroidvania where you really struggle through an area the first time and later on you could just run through it. Some of that was the enemies but some was also moving around the map.

[Victator]

20 hours ago, Contentious C said:

Having said all this, I did have one of my best experiences in 30+ years of gaming a few nights ago, the second time I climbed Akkala Tower (which is also way, way easier than people made it out to be).

What was your stamina?

[Contentious C]

Two upgrades and the Climber's Bandana. The way I've done it was to get on the bluffs in Zora territory that overlook the main section of the Citadel, glide in to the east/southeast near the lower Guardian patrol, then kite along the very edge of the zone (between the gray stone-paved section and the cliff edge) until an opening appears to climb straight up the nearest corner of the lower building (where the Moblin/Bokoblin are). From there, it's a pretty quick climb up the side to just below the tower, clear the jokers in the surrounding area, climb that little shepherd's hook-shaped bit, then glide over. I wonder if the people suggesting Magnesis or some other weird crap even did proper recon first.

[Victator]

Spent the night getting back my memories. Boy was Zelda whiny and unlikeable in the flashbacks. 

Had this awesome moment happen playing. So I am being attacked by Bokoblins and I use fire arrows on them and the field is ablaze. At this point one of those Yiga Clan assholes pops into the burning field and is on fire. It is much cooler than I described. 

[Contentious C]

I dunno, I could empathize with Zelda in a lot of those situations. I'm not sure I would handle being someone's cats-paw any better when I was a teenager. 

Then again, I'm the kind of guy who feels like the hero in the Bible is Judas, so what do I know?

After my Boko-Bowling incident, I found a few Youtube videos showing it, and one of them showed a scene not dissimilar to what you're describing (though I think the person used Daruk's special ability to light everything on fire). The level of chaos was pretty funny.

[Victator]

My friend thinks that the voice acting made her come across worse. I think the only scene she bugged me was her mouthing off to LInk for no reason. Though I did get to say "Well excuse me Princess!!"

The hardest memory to find was in Hyrule Castle. I almost walked into Ganon at  least four times. I am holding off going back until I have all my memories. 

[Contentious C]

Hah. I finally finished up all the memories myself yesterday.

The real achievement of the weekend, though, was finally taking down a Guardian Stalker. I was Korok hunting and saw one of the ones lurking near the mountains north of Kakariko and I just said, "Fuck it". I didn't realize before you could chop the legs off, though that makes a lot of sense. After I beat one...I just started beating every goddamned one I could find. Nothing scares me anymore.

ExceptLynelsFuckThoseGuysIRunSoSoSoFarAwayEvenThoughIHaveKilton'sMaskIsItStillBehindMe.

Completing the memories really does add something to the story. I guess I'm still spoiled on games with, you know, real voice acting and an overall lack of cutscenes, but it helps a lot. Getting to see someone so pointed inward finally rise up hit me right in the feels.

And is it just me, or does it seem like they might have modeled Zelda a little bit after Holly Taylor (who plays Paige on The Americans)? Or maybe it's just that Holly Taylor looks rather elfin in the first place.

[RIPPA]

Quick question that I think I know the answer to but I am asking before I fuck everything up

For the moment my son is focusing on other games (mainly on his DS/3DS) so he said I can use his Switch

Clearly I want to play Zelda... however I don't want to override his save files.

If I just make a new profile for myself on the Switch - it won't FUBAR his save(s)... right????

[Craig H]

4 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Quick question that I think I know the answer to but I am asking before I fuck everything up

For the moment my son is focusing on other games (mainly on his DS/3DS) so he said I can use his Switch

Clearly I want to play Zelda... however I don't want to override his save files.

If I just make a new profile for myself on the Switch - it won't FUBAR his save(s)... right????

That's the way it's worked with Mario Odyssey, Splatoon, and Mario Kart for my daughter and me. When she's on her profile, it's her saves, and on my profile, it's my saves. I would assume Zelda works the same way.

[J.T.]

14 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Quick question that I think I know the answer to but I am asking before I fuck everything up

For the moment my son is focusing on other games (mainly on his DS/3DS) so he said I can use his Switch

Clearly I want to play Zelda... however I don't want to override his save files.

If I just make a new profile for myself on the Switch - it won't FUBAR his save(s)... right????

Yep, this is the way it works.

It used to be frighteningly easy to overwrite saved games since BotW can only handle one manual save at a time, but the established workaround is to use multiple profiles.

You guys need to be careful when logging on so you don't boot up the wrong profile and nuke the other person's game.

[Matt D]

We can probably convince Phil that if you name one profile "Zelda" you can skip right to the second quest.

[Craig H]

4 minutes ago, J.T. said:

Yep, this is the way it works.

It used to be frighteningly easy to overwrite saved games since BotW can only handle one manual save at a time, but the established workaround is to use multiple profiles.

You guys need to be careful when logging on so you don't boot up the wrong profile and nuke the other person's game.

I've come close to doing this a couple times. The other issue is that when you go into sleep mode on the Switch you're basically pausing your game. There's been other times where I start the Switch and just start playing only to realize that I was playing where my daughter left off.

[Craig H]

My daughter and I started playing this. She turns 8 in May. Uh, I don't think this game is remotely kid friendly with regard to teaching you how to do shit. You're pretty much plopped into the world and then it's, "ok, figure it out." 

Even when you go with that old ass man to one of those towers, he's like, "what are you talking to me for, I can't help you, go figure it out."

She really wants to enjoy it, but even I'm having a hard time learning how to play the game. I basically stumbled on carrying a torch in the cold to prevent myself from dying, but then learned that if you sprint while holding the torch the flame goes out and you die from the cold.

I'll keep at it...

[Matt D]

2 hours ago, Craig H said:

My daughter and I started playing this. She turns 8 in May. Uh, I don't think this game is remotely kid friendly with regard to teaching you how to do shit. You're pretty much plopped into the world and then it's, "ok, figure it out." 

Even when you go with that old ass man to one of those towers, he's like, "what are you talking to me for, I can't help you, go figure it out."

She really wants to enjoy it, but even I'm having a hard time learning how to play the game. I basically stumbled on carrying a torch in the cold to prevent myself from dying, but then learned that if you sprint while holding the torch the flame goes out and you die from the cold.

I'll keep at it...

That made me curious about the ESRB rating and it's 10+. Hey, Twilight Princess was T. Who knew?

[Craig H]

Couple more thoughts...

This game is really beautiful. Everything from the super serene score to the visuals is just amazing. 

Unfortunately, I keep running into slowdown whenever I climb a tree or the camera goes bugfuck if I'm climbing a wall. I'm playing in docked mode if that makes a difference. It's just weird for the game the take a framerate hit for being up in a tree.

I figured more shit out! I figured out that I could just drop food into a fire to cook it. Here I was thinking that doing that would burn the food up. You never know until you try, I guess. I also tried dropping food into one of those pans over a fire that's setup at some of the camps and figured that's where I could concoct recipes. I quickly learned to NOT add all of my mushrooms into the pan at once because I'll make one huge mushroom skewer that heals 5+ hearts when I only have 3 hearts at the moment.

Can anyone explain how to switch to a bow if one breaks? If I have a bow before it breaks, it's fine. I can freely switch to another bow on me. If it breaks though, I have to go into my inventory screen to select a new bow. It's not gamebreaking or anything, but it is cumbersome.

The button mapping is infuriating. X to jump?! WTF. There's so many times I would hit B to jump, only to run. Like, all of the buttons are all fucked up and completely unconventional. It's the most Japanese shit ever. You'd think this was put out by Konami.