Poll of the Day > Finally playing through Breath of the Wild.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Just got those bombs.

Haven't you played like five video games in your entire life? What compelled you to play this?


I can tell you that you are barely at all into it if you've only just got bombs.

GOATTHlEF posted...

How are you liking it

It's good. I'm making my way to Impas now. The world is huuuuuge and I keep dying but it's a lot of fun to just trek around.

DorkLink posted...

Haven't you played like five video games in your entire life? What compelled you to play this?


I can tell you that you are barely at all into it if you've only just got bombs.

More like 15-20, but yeah.

I keep hearing this is a real good game and I'm not doing anything for a few weeks so I thought I'd give it a go. I really liked OoT, and I got to the master sword bit of TP, so I figured Zelda games are enjoyable enough that it'd be worth the money.

Lots of backtracking. Just got done lighting the blue fire and upgrading my tablet, and now I have to go back to impa's.

How do you feel about the lack of handholding and linearity that tends to plague today's games?
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I'm not really familiar with what you mean. The last "new" game I played was either MGS IV or Kingdom Hearts 3D, whichever came most recently.

I do like how you can solve things in different ways, though. Like I just did this shrine where I started a fire with a bomb, and my brother (who was watching) said he had done it with some flint and a torch.

"Handholding" like things are hella easy and forgiving and if you mess up it's NBD, whereas BotW is like figure out the mechanics yourself fam

"Linear" meaning you have to do objective A before objective B, and B before C, and etc., whereas BotW, if Z is the final boss, you can start with Q and then go to D and then Y and then R and then whatever you want. Or, you can go straight to Z.
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Well, I guess it's kinda cool? But it's a lot more open than I thought it would be tbh and that's not totally my thing.

Like right now I'm supposed to be looking for these picture spots, or I can find the fairy, or I can go get the beasts, or do a bunch of side-quests, look for shrines and towers, or go face the big bad.

I decided to look for the places in the photo album, but I guess I'm just wandering around an enormous overworld looking for things that resemble stuff in the pictures, which means I sometimes get caught up in a shrine or trying find those little forest peoples. Exploring is fun but I sometimes come across a place I can't actually get to, and I sort of wish the game was more linear so that I could have a clear place to go or thing to do and I could focus on that.

PurpIePerson posted...

post

Yeah that's fair.

It's not everyone's thing. It took me a bit to get sucked in because I also find direction to be helpful, but once you get the hang of it, you'll find out how easy it is to play for a bit, look up at the clock, and realize it's 5 hours later.
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PurpIePerson posted...

I decided to look for the places in the photo album, but I guess I'm just wandering around an enormous overworld looking for things that resemble stuff in the pictures

A little hint for the memories, if you want it: There's a guy who shows up at stables and I think some towns that gives you hints on their locations. I think you first have to find the great fairy near Kakariko before he shows up, though.


Muffinz0rz posted...

How do you feel about the lack of handholding and linearity that tends to plague today's games?

Contrary to what seems to be the popular opinion, I like a degree of linearity in Zelda games. There are definitely some that are too linear, but I almost think BotW took it too far the opposite way. I mean, I enjoyed all the freedom and the exploration, but it ended up feeling like that's the main draw of the game and the "main" quests were like side quests. I expect some degree of accomplishment and "epicness" to the progress, but that was almost completely lacking for me when I did the main objectives.

Ocarina of Time was the best at nailing the balance - as soon as you enter Hyrule Field you can go almost anywhere on the map, even places that have no real significance til later in the game. There are, I think, six different orders you can do the adult temples, and that doesn't factor in when you choose to do the side dungeons.

Stumbled upon a shrine that had a hundred rupees in it; used those to awaken the fairy. Used chewy' bit of help to talk to the guy in town. Now I'm looking for a gate by a river.

This is looking promising!

Woo boy. This is going to take a while.

Unlocked three memories, and I'm already tired of this. I might try to do a Divine Beast now.

Or maybe just stop for the day... or forever.

Maybe I'll play through Ico/SotC/Last Guardian instead. I've seen walk throughs of the first two and they seem like short games.

Made it to Zora's Domain. Have to get arrows and take down the elephant now. That can wait until tomorrow.

It sounds like you aren't taking much time to explore and do anything besides the main quest :/

Mmmm I guess I'm not, not really. I do side-quests if they seem simple enough, and I always try to find a shrine if my sensor goes off, but otherwise I'm sticking to what I need to do to advance. Trouble is, I'm sucking pretty hard at it <_< I can't seem to find ANY of the memory places except the three I've already found. I'm hoping that going to the Beasts will lead me to a couple more.

I dunno how much gets explored just by doing the main quest, but I might do some more exploration after the big bad if there's any left to do.

PurpIePerson posted...

I dunno how much gets explored just by doing the main quest, but I might do some more exploration after the big bad if there's any left to do.

Trust me, there will be tons. I explored much more than you did before going to Ganon (or at least from the sounds of it), and I still ended up playing the game about as much, if not more, after the final boss than I did before.

Sounds good. My biggest worry right now is that all my equipment is really weak. I don't know what the numbers mean on things, but if bigger number = better, then my sword is 20, shield is 6, bow is 10, and I'm still wearing all the same clothes as when I started except I have a zora shirt now. I guess we'll see how it goes on this first beast.

I might just look up a guide on where to find the places in the photos tomorrow.

PurpIePerson posted...

I might just look up a guide on where to find the places in the photos tomorrow.

Laaaame


Just go to the stables, it's kind of hard to miss them provided you make an effort to reveal all of the sections of the map. Why are you rushing to get all the memories at once? They're meant to be an objective you can sort of put to the side and chip away at as you explore throughout the game.

Yeeaaaah I guess this just isn't really the game for me. Aimless exploration is kinda cool, but not something I find enjoyable for hours and hours. Maybe I like games to be more direct and linear. I really just want to finish the story asap so that I can enjoy everything else more.

What I liked about OoT was that the dungeons and temples were puzzling, but getting to them and knowing what to do and who to talk to was never vague (except maybe having to talk to Saria to learn that song...) because of Navi.

Sounds like you should have done a little more research before you bought this, because it was pretty clear that this isn't like OoT or TP and that the exploration/open-world nature was the main draw. And did you buy a completely new console too, just to play this? Or are you borrowing from somebody?

I guess I was hoping the actually story bits would still be direct, just in a much larger world you can explore. Didn't think exploring would be most of what the game had to offer. I am enjoying it, though. The fighting is fun, and some of the shrines are really good. I haven't visited any DBs yet, but if they're like bigger shrines or other Zelda dungeons they'll probably be great.


So it's not really a waste of money, it's just too big of a game for me to love. Games should take like 10-13 hours max to finish. Even that long is kinda pushing it. Much more than that and it's a reaalllly long game.... which I guess is fine? As long as the main stuff is concise and you don't need the extra things to get through the main things (all of which OoT did perfectly, imo).

I'm using my brother's WiiU. Definitely was not going to buy a console for one game, especially since I wouldn't even be able to use it at school so I'd have to leave it at home.

Since you're so close to it, at least go to that Divine Beast you were heading for. The fight against it was IMO the most fun moment in the entire game for me,
Getting the shock arrows first can be tough, whether you sneak around for them or try and fight directly, especially the latter. But I did the latter, and it was a good challenge, had to reload quite a lot.

Okay shooting down the elephant was hella epic. Now to explore its insides!

PurpIePerson posted...

Okay shooting down the elephant was hella epic. Now to explore its insides!

:D

Yeah, it was my favorite part of the game, easily.

Alright that was all pretty good. The puzzles were way better than those in TP (in general), maneuvering Ruta was fun, the boss was challenging, the reward is actually rewarding, not being able to reenter makes exploring to find chests more important, and the following cutscenes all make me want to keep going.

I'm going to make myself find at least 4 more memory spots and then reward myself with another beast.

You should just do more beasts first, the memories (besides the first one you find; that unlocks one of the best armors in the game from Impa) only really matter at the very end. I didn't even find my 2nd memory until after I had 3 beasts defeated.

But then I'll have to do the worst part of the game right between what looks like the best part and the last part. I'd rather get the boring bits out of the way first.

PurpIePerson posted...

But then I'll have to do the worst part of the game right between what looks like the best part and the last part. I'd rather get the boring bits out of the way first.

Memories aren't the worst part....korok seed collecting is. It's cute the first 50 or so times, then you just get sick of that shit. There's about 900 of them, btw (but the last ~450 aren't even needed for upgrades and are just there to make 100% completion more distant...heck, you could get like 300 and get all but about 3 upgrade slots filled)

In any case, the memories are pretty unnecessary, too. Don't need to kill your enjoyment of the game just to get everything, I'm certainly never going to.

Also: Once you get good at fighting Lynels, doing that is right below divine beasts for fun, and you can do that interspersed throughout the game.

I really doubt I'm going to do all the collecting and upgrading nonsense unless I absolutely need to. I'm just interested in the main story. Maybe when I finish I'll try finding all the shrines. That'll be it for me, though. At least until next year~

I did end up finding all the shrines, but I imagine you'll start to find (if you haven't already) that not all of them are great and they start to get old after a while.

So yeah, memories are the worst part as far as I'm concerned, but they're also the most important and I need to get through them.

I also need to talk to impa since I never went to see her after I got my first memory...

So I currently have 6 hearts and standard stamina. So far stamina has not been an issue, but I have 4 orbs right now. Should I start praying for stamina, or will the one wheel be enough to get me through everything I need?

PurpIePerson posted...

So I currently have 6 hearts and standard stamina. So far stamina has not been an issue, but I have 4 orbs right now. Should I start praying for stamina, or will the one wheel be enough to get me through everything I need?

I like having stamina more than hearts, leaves me freer to run and jump-climb. Plus you can just keep a ton of cooked dishes of hearty food and get a full heal + extra hearts anyway.

I guess my answer depends on how many shrines (including the mandatory first four on the great plateau) you think you'll do. If it's say...24 or greater (assuming you also do all four divine beasts)...you might want to keep pumping hearts. For reasons...

Found the fourth. Eight to go.

You're really disappointing me with the memories. I'm convinced you're still putting an unnecessary emphasis on them and consequently ruining your own enjoyment of the game. Just chiiiiill a little bit, man. You called them the "most important" part so it sounds like you obviously got the wrong idea in your head at some point. Doing Divine Beasts is a bigger deal.


I'd recommend you stop actively looking for the memories and just enjoy the world. Just go all over the map, talk to the painter guy at the stables, put a marker down where he describes and then go to that marker whenever it's convenient. Not that I want to tell you how to play the game or anything, but the way you're stressing out over an objective that naturally flows pretty well into the game is driving me nuts.

yeah the memories were literally the last thing I did. The main focus is the divine beasts
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Up to you if you want to look at these, but I'm gonna tell you what you get for doing the memories. My only spoiler-free version is: It's not worth focusing so much over. I'd say you probably shouldn't look at these tags, but if you're not enjoying the game that much anyway, maybe they're more good than harm:

The reward for doing all the Divine Beasts is removing half the HP from the final boss and, as you probably already know, the special abilities for each Champion.

The reward for doing all the memories is a minor change in the ending cutscene. I also think doing so might unlock one shrine quest, but I'm not 100% sure if that one is actually tied to doing the memories.

Well I'm certainly not reading those :b

I promise I will enjoy this game waaaayyyyyyyy more once the memories are out of the way. Then I can explore for fun instead of having this huge objective hanging around. And it looks like a lot of the story is going to come from the memories, so I'd argue they're definitely the most important part, since they give you context for the other parts.

And I am enjoying the game. I just want this one bit to be clearer so I can finish it.

PurpIePerson posted...

Then I can explore for fun instead of having this huge objective hanging around.

See, this is your problem. This sentence implies that you believe objectives are some inhibitor to you being able to explore for fun. You should be exploring "for fun" the entire game, doing objectives either as the urge comes to you or they are convenient. You have main objectives pretty much the whole game and you have the ability to explore pretty much the whole game. Those ideas are supposed to coexist.

You're not going to have a fairy lighting up your C-up button or be unable to access a certain area if you don't get the memories. I know that in previous Zelda games the main objectives loom a bit larger, but you have to approach BotW with a different mentality.

I kinda got burned out after I walked to a tower in a pond, and kept getting brutally murdered by wizards and some sort of alligator-bird people or something.

DorkLink posted...

PurpIePerson posted...

Then I can explore for fun instead of having this huge objective hanging around.

See, this is your problem. This sentence implies that you believe objectives are some inhibitor to you being able to explore for fun. You should be exploring "for fun" the entire game, doing objectives either as the urge comes to you or they are convenient. You have main objectives pretty much the whole game and you have the ability to explore pretty much the whole game. Those ideas are supposed to coexist.

You're not going to have a fairy lighting up your C-up button or be unable to access a certain area if you don't get the memories. I know that in previous Zelda games the main objectives loom a bit larger, but you have to approach BotW with a different mentality.

I know it's not an actual inhibitor, it's a personal inhibitor. I cannot have cool exploration time if there is something I'm supposed to do. I need to finish the main quest asap or I, not the game, will not have as much fun as I could.

Questionmarktarius posted...

I kinda got burned out after I walked to a tower in a pond, and kept getting brutally murdered by wizards and some sort of alligator-bird people or something.

There have been three towers now that I have died trying to go up -_-

Five done; found the one in the castle tower

PurpIePerson posted...

Five done; found the one in the castle tower

Careful exploring while you're there. I decided to after getting that memory and stumbled into the boss room. Then ended up beating the game b/c what was meant to be, "let me see what it's like" turned into, "wait, it's this easy?" :D

That's definitely the hardest one to get, though.
Also, if you are set on getting all the memories, you're gonna have to do at least 24 shrines. Why is a spoiler, but just trust me.

Whatever you say, man. It doesn't make any sense to me, but I know you aren't really big into gaming, and maybe stuff like this is why

Found the sixth memory m at that prayer place way in the northeast. I'm not totally sure what I'm supposed to do there but I'm guessing it has to do with the dragons that appear? I saw a giant green one while crossing a bridge and it had a goddess name, so I figure there'll be a red one and I'll need a scale from it.

Anyway, Got my first horse and met Robbie and lit his fire. Upgraded my bomb runes, too. Also killed my first guardian. Def thought I'd get more out of it.

streamofthesky posted...

PurpIePerson posted...

Five done; found the one in the castle tower

Careful exploring while you're there. I decided to after getting that memory and stumbled into the boss room. Then ended up beating the game b/c what was meant to be, "let me see what it's like" turned into, "wait, it's this easy?" :D

That's definitely the hardest one to get, though.
Also, if you are set on getting all the memories, you're gonna have to do at least 24 shrines. Why is a spoiler, but just trust me.

How strong were you at that point??? I don't think I'd be strong enough to take down the boss at this point.

I'm at 21 shrines right now. I'm sure I'll stumble upon three more.

DorkLink posted...

Whatever you say, man. It doesn't make any sense to me, but I know you aren't really big into gaming, and maybe stuff like this is why

Yeah, maybe :b

PurpIePerson posted...

streamofthesky posted...

PurpIePerson posted...

Five done; found the one in the castle tower

Careful exploring while you're there. I decided to after getting that memory and stumbled into the boss room. Then ended up beating the game b/c what was meant to be, "let me see what it's like" turned into, "wait, it's this easy?" :D

That's definitely the hardest one to get, though.
Also, if you are set on getting all the memories, you're gonna have to do at least 24 shrines. Why is a spoiler, but just trust me.

How strong were you at that point??? I don't think I'd be strong enough to take down the boss at this point.

I'm at 21 shrines right now. I'm sure I'll stumble upon three more.

I had three divine beasts defeated and around 50 shrines done. Also had killed a bunch of Lynels so I had some nice Lynel 3-shot bows.
Little of that really mattered, though. I had invested more in stamina than hearts and the hearty food makes hearts less important. Well, I guess having done enough shrines for [spoiler] helped...
The Champion abilities, only two really help w/ the fight and I only had one of those 2 at the time and didn't use it. The other effects of liberating divine beasts really didn't matter much. (final boss spoilers) Fighting less Blight Ganons before Calamity Ganon, and the beasts removing up to half his health for you...the first phase of Calamity Ganon when he's above half health is the easiest anyway.
Not sure if this really counts as a spoiler, but in terms of difficulty, I'd rate Calamity Ganon as easier than a Silver Lynel

Three more memories.

I'll probably try and do a beast before though, to amp me up. I also completed my 25th shrine.

PurpIePerson posted...

Three more memories.

I'll probably try and do a beast before though, to amp me up. I also completed my 25th shrine.

Out of curiosity, which regions have you explored / gotten the towers activated in?