Current Events > Finally started playing BotW, regretting I didn't do it earlier

(+) Yeah! (+)

PrettyBoyFloyd posted...

The game is overwhelming.

It's like the GTA games.

You'll find yourself mindlessly wondering instead of having a direct goal.

This is honestly how I feel too. I'm a Zelda fan and I feel like I should love BotW, but something about it just doesn't vibe with me.

I've started it from the beginning like 3 different times and even beat 1 of the (minor spoilers?) DivineBeasts but it still just didn't capture me.

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Jetblackmoon posted...

This is honestly how I feel too. I'm a Zelda fan and I feel like I should love BotW, but something about it just doesn't vibe with me.

I've started it from the beginning like 3 different times and even beat 1 of the (minor spoilers?) DivineBeasts but it still just didn't capture me.

I did try it once before, and lost track after reaching Hateno village. I almost lost track again before I used a guide to nudge myself forward and now I'm loving it.

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scar the 1 posted...

Yeah, that one. I stumbled upon it super early before I really knew the game very well. It seemed like a hassle so I left it for later. I like the concept though, just not that I got owned by it. Not sure what Typhlo Ruins is?

Also, is there like a gauntlet type challenge somewhere in the game where you just fight tons of floors of enemies? Or am I confusing that with Windwaker?

Wow! I got it after the first beast. I figured that since I needed 36 shrines for it, I was meant to get it around before the halfway point.

I don't, but I'm considering it, since I like the game a lot. But I've no idea if it's good.

A lot of people were underwhelmed by the dlc, but I really enjoyed it. Several extra challenges, a few more memories, another dungeon, and a fun new tool that makes exploring more fun IMO.

Edit: And a Savage Labyrinth-style gauntlet is in the dlc too.

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Hambo the Hog posted...

Edit: And a Savage Labyrinth-style gauntlet is in the dlc too.

Saw someone stream a little bit of it and it looked pretty fun. I'm probably gonna get it. It's too bad that there's no extra map in the DLC.

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Lairen posted...

Easy joke?

How old are you? What odd reference.

Eh I got it immediately.

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Maybe my most wanted feature in this game would be the ability to switch between premade armor sets the same way you do weapons and shields and stuff. It's far from a dealbreaker but it's a little heavy to go into the menu every time I wanna climb/sneak/fight/temperature.

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scar the 1 posted...

Maybe my most wanted feature in this game would be the ability to switch between premade armor sets the same way you do weapons and shields and stuff

OMG YEE

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scar the 1 posted...

I don't, but I'm considering it, since I like the game a lot. But I've no idea if it's good.

The DLC has a lot of nice QoL additions, with some decent content as well. It's definitely lower "bang for your buck" and it's kinda shitty some of this stuff is behind the DLC.

Content:

• Master Trials - some gauntlets of enemy encounters, where the reward for beating them is powering up the master sword in both strength and durability. It can be pretty difficult, but the challenge is fun and the reward is pretty nice.
• Champion's Ballad - a meaty side quest that gives you a little bit of extra lore on the Champions. Includes new shrines, flash back scenes, and nice rewards (including buffing your four Champion's powers). This quest also let's you get (quest reward/story spoilers) the motorcycle you might have seen online.
• Master Mode - this is more for a replay. Master Mode is basically the base game but with all the random enemies buffed to the next color (reds become blue, blues become black, black to silver, silver to gold - and gold is exclusive to master mode iirc). My second playthrough was on Master Mode and it was nice in the early game, but the difficulty falls off as you gain power.

QoL stuff:

• Hero's Path - the DLC allows you to see where you have been on the map for up to 200 hours on the map, making it very obvious where you have and have not explored. Good for looking for shrines.
• Korok Mask - there is a mask you can find in the game that will shake and make noises any time a korok is nearby. Wore this my entire second playthrough and it helped a lot.
• Ancient Horse armor - there is a set of horse gear added to the game you can find that allows your horse to teleport to you when you whistle. Makes horses actually usable.
• Teleport rune - there is an added little quest that allows you to get an upgrade to your Shiekah slate. The upgrade lets you place one teleportation point anywhere on the map. So if you want to leave an area really quickly and come back, you can pop the rune to return promptly. A nice little addition.

There are other features I'm probably forgetting, or items I don't think are that important (Majora's Mask, random low defense outfits) but these are the things that really mattered to me.

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Deuceswild posted...

I wish there were more Hyrule Castle style dungeons in the game.

This is one of my top hopes for BotW2.

Cut down shrines to like 50, make those meatier, and have like 5 or 6 Hyrule Castle esque areas.

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I went ahead and bought the DLC because why not. Finished the first trial of the sword and it was pretty hard! Then I went to Gerudo City and bought some armor that I've spent time collecting materials for now. Was a hassle finding White Chuchus but I have enough ice arrows to just go for the blue ones. So that's the plan for tomorrow. I want the set at level three before I start exploring the desert very much.

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I honestly prefer shrines. There doesn't need to be 100+ of them this time, but dungeons have always been my least favorite part about Zelda.

I just want to explore

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scar the 1 posted...

I went ahead and bought the DLC because why not. Finished the first trial of the sword and it was pretty hard! Then I went to Gerudo City and bought some armor that I've spent time collecting materials for now. Was a hassle finding White Chuchus but I have enough ice arrows to just go for the blue ones. So that's the plan for tomorrow. I want the set at level three before I start exploring the desert very much.

I know you can place the drops of normal chuchus (jelly?) in fire and they will turn to orange. Maybe you can kill chuchus with whatever and drop the jelly in a cold place and they will turn? Worth trying, to save arrows!

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you can use an elemental weapon with regular chu jelly to make elemental jelly

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Yeah, but I'm thinking of farming them in the trial of wood. The only ice weapon allowed there would be ice arrows :)

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Gobstoppers12 posted...

It had a lot of potential, but needed more dungeons and longer (even if fewer total) shrines.

Agreed. I like the big open world direction, but missed dungeons. They used shrines to pick up the weight. While I like the puzzles, the recycled setting started to feel repetitive fast.

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Hayame Zero posted...

I honestly prefer shrines. There doesn't need to be 100+ of them this time, but dungeons have always been my least favorite part about Zelda.

I just want to explore

Honestly, this. Dungeons simply ended up getting too long and bloated from OoT onward, and for every dungeon I genuinely liked, there were probably three I considered to be absolute slogs. When I look back on my favorite moments / aspects of the 3D Zelda games, dungeons are rarely if ever among them. But it's something I just accepted as a necessary evil of the 'Zelda formula.' The Shrines were much more my speed though, and God bless BotW for introducing them: bite-sized dungeons that took the kind of one-off complex puzzles and combat challenges I liked in 'classic' dungeons and distilled them down into something more manageable and enjoyable.

I wouldn't mind seeing the Shrines get more aesthetic variety, obviously. And I adored Hyrule Castle - a massive, brutal combat gauntlet where you can choose to explore it's every nook and cranny or beeline to the throne room if you so desire. I'd be happy to see both of these aspects developed further. But if Ninty caves to fan backlash and completely restores the 'classic' style of dungeons in BotW 2, I'm gonna be sorely disappointed.

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masterpug53 posted...

Honestly, this. Dungeons simply ended up getting too long and bloated from OoT onward, and for every dungeon I genuinely liked, there were probably three I considered to be absolute slogs. When I look back on my favorite moments / aspects of the 3D Zelda games, dungeons are rarely if ever among them. But it's something I just accepted as a necessary evil of the 'Zelda formula.' The Shrines were much more my speed though, and God bless BotW for introducing them: bite-sized dungeons that took the kind of one-off complex puzzles and combat challenges I liked in 'classic' dungeons and distilled them down into something more manageable and enjoyable.

I wouldn't mind seeing the Shrines get more aesthetic variety, obviously. And I adored Hyrule Castle - a massive, brutal combat gauntlet where you can choose to explore it's every nook and cranny or beeline to the throne room if you so desire. I'd be happy to see both of these aspects developed further. But if Ninty caves to fan backlash and completely restores the 'classic' style of dungeons in BotW 2, I'm gonna be sorely disappointed.

FWIW the original design for the game involved more divine beasts but they cut them due to a combination of time and resource constraints since it was also releasing on the Wii U.

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This game basically saved me during the height of the pandemic last year. Spent 200 hours on the game, loving every minute of it.

I loved the new idea of bite sized puzzles in the shrines rather than one long tedious dungeon that you lose track of after a while. Not that I don't love the OoT games, but BotW was a breath of fresh air and most of the other stagnating series in video games should follow its example.

And the fact that puzzles can be solved in multiple ways, is basically what I've always wanted in these games, rather than being pigeon-holed into solving the puzzle the way the developers want you to solve it. Another really great feature.

I'm not in love with weapon breaking, and would have been fine without it, but it didn't bother me during playing and didn't affect my overall enjoyment. That's mostly other things that I had beef with, little things here and there.
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s0nicfan posted...

FWIW the original design for the game involved more divine beasts but they cut them due to a combination of time and resource constraints since it was also releasing on the Wii U.

Sounds like a happy accident on par with the mechanical shark in Jaws not working, tbh. The Divine Beasts were probably the least enjoyable part of the game (apart from those motherfucking gimmicky gyro puzzle shrines *shudders*), but they were just short enough that they didn't overstay their welcome and slip into bloated 'classic' dungeon territory.

On that subject though, I do miss variety in the boss fights. Four slight variations on the same evil goo amalgam (five if you count Calamity Ganon's first form) wasn't cutting it. The in-world bosses - Hinox, Talus, Molduga - were a blast though, so I think that's where they ought to put the greater variety, since they quickly got repetitive.

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I hope enemy variety in general is improved for BotW2. Give me dodongos!

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Edit also holy crap at everyone already having said what I was gonna say, I'm so glad other people share the same opinion regarding this game and overall Zelda series.

It was already mentioned but yeah Hyrule Castle was fucking amazing. If this was a template for a new dungeon design, that's the way to fucking go. All the hidden entrances, all the secrets, all the places I discovered completely by accident or through ingenuity, just made it one of the best end game places.

It felt so satisfying to A) finally get to it and B) either evade the defenses or when I became powerful enough post-endgame, defeat the defenses and C) discover all the secret routes and and feeling like I was the first one to uncover all these entrances.

Little did I know there were youtube videos with like a hundred different unique ways to get to hyrule castle, some absolutely berserk ones that make your jaw drop.
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If they expand the labyrinths in the next game you could very easily end up in a situation where you have multiple locations that are like Hyrule castle. The three that are in breath of the wild could have easily been their own "zones" if the developers had a little bit more time rather than being relatively simple mazes with a shrine and maybe a weapon in it.

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Jabodie posted...

I hope enemy variety in general is improved for BotW2. Give me dodongos!

Yeah I gave enemy variety (or lack thereof) a pass but contingent on the sequel including all the classic enemy monsters. Even the annoying ones.
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I can't let myself get too hyped on hypothetical features... there are so many things that make BotW2 so good lol.

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FF_Redux posted...

Still costs too much :(. I really want to play it.

Your the guy I made a topic about. It's 30 bucks today at Best Buy. Price match it at wherever is close to you.

@FF_Redux

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saspa posted...

Edit also holy crap at everyone already having said what I was gonna say, I'm so glad other people share the same opinion regarding this game and overall Zelda series.

It was already mentioned but yeah Hyrule Castle was fucking amazing. If this was a template for a new dungeon design, that's the way to fucking go. All the hidden entrances, all the secrets, all the places I discovered completely by accident or through ingenuity, just made it one of the best end game places.

It felt so satisfying to A) finally get to it and B) either evade the defenses or when I became powerful enough post-endgame, defeat the defenses and C) discover all the secret routes and and feeling like I was the first one to uncover all these entrances.

Little did I know there were youtube videos with like a hundred different unique ways to get to hyrule castle, some absolutely berserk ones that make your jaw drop.

I got in through the prison island right outside of the castle walls. There's a mine track there, used stasis and a hammer to hit myself along the tracks until I was inside. Ended up being in either the dungeons or the dock, I forget, and from there I just worked my way up. Probably won't ever do it again cause it took over an hour to go the "proper route" in my mind but goddamn it was a great experience the first time.

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I definitely just flew up, walked into a part that looked interested and went "wtf I'm already at the boss?!"

I didn't really explore the castle until the post game, when I wanted the shield.

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Makeveli_lives posted...

Your the guy I made a topic about. It's 30 bucks today at Best Buy. Price match it at wherever is close to you.

@FF_Redux

I live in Sweden

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I'm glad I didn't google this game and just explored naturally, but I'm also glad I did the divine beasts in this order: Elephant/Mipha's Grace > Falco's jump ability > Gerudo land > and finally lizard/goron's fire mountain

That first powerup helps dramatically in all things, and the second powerup is extremely helpful to cheese through puzzles. The 3rd powerup is relatively useful as a fighting skill not unlike the one in oot, and the last one has a relatively lame powerup so it's good to get it last.

If I ever replay the game the first 2 are a must before the latter 2.

Also this is the first Zelda game that I actually 100% and did all the shrines and finally had all the hearts. Before, the closest I ever got was majora's mask missing a couple heart pieces.
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Honestly, it sometimes feels like BotW was a game made specifically for me, and the things I wanted to see in an open-world exploration game at that time.

• give me a beautiful, varied open world so large that I'll probably never explore all of it
• give me a challenging game with a central focus around which all the side content revolves
• give me true freedom to approach the game however I see fit, without feeling like you skimped on game design
• do something similar to ALBW's item approach where I can play with all my toys from the start, and with tight enough mechanics to allow for player experimentation
• give me a final dungeon that, for once, is actually fun, exciting, challenging, and epic
• take what made the 'classic' dungeons fun and pepper the land with more bite-size puzzle challenges, wherein a single dungeon never goes on so long that it wears out its welcome
• give me a good reason to use all the neat and varied weapons I find in my travels, instead of just defaulting to my favorite for the entire game like usual
• give me an open-world collectathon sidequest wherein said collectible is ridiculously numerous, and you're not obligated to collect even half of them to get the full gameplay-related rewards, so that for once you can actually enjoy a collectathon organically without having to check a walkthrough every five minutes

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Makeveli_lives posted...

I got in through the prison island right outside of the castle walls. There's a mine track there, used stasis and a hammer to hit myself along the tracks until I was inside. Ended up being in either the dungeons or the dock, I forget, and from there I just worked my way up. Probably won't ever do it again cause it took over an hour to go the "proper route" in my mind but goddamn it was a great experience the first time.

See I love that this time the items or powerups as it were are actually useful throughout the game and not just for the one dungeon (it got so ridiculous before, twilight princess probably being the most egregious with the damn ball and chain item that's straight out of a parody)
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Nice discussion. Currently farming Dinraal's horns and it's the most annoying dragon. Maybe I just haven't found a good spot.

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saspa posted...

the last one has a relatively lame powerup

you can counter White Maned and Silver Lynels blast fireball attack with a perfect counter though which is pretty cool tbh

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scar the 1 posted...

Nice discussion. Currently farming Dinraal's horns and it's the most annoying dragon. Maybe I just haven't found a good spot.

He is the biggest pain in the ass, yes. Naydra is like clockwork - warp to the shrine beneath the waterfall in Laranyu River Valley sometime around midnight, climb up, and look east to Mt. Laranyu, she'll be down to greet you shortly, every time. Farosh is also pretty reliable schedule-wise (at least at the Faron falls), and shows up in so many random-ass places that you'll have a hard time not running into him. But Dinraal says 'fuck schedule, I'll show up when I feel like it.'

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saspa posted...

See I love that this time the items or powerups as it were are actually useful throughout the game and not just for the one dungeon (it got so ridiculous before, twilight princess probably being the most egregious with the damn ball and chain item that's straight out of a parody)

You could definitely tell they were running out of ideas in TP in this regard. I'd wanted a ball n' chain as a weapon ever since getting my ass whupped by the first mini-boss guarding Zelda in LttP as a kid, so was so giddy to finally get one that I looked past a lot of its shortcomings. The Spinner was probably the worst offender - really cool for all of thirty minutes, almost-completely useless for the rest of the game (not to mention having zero thought put into its name). And then by the end of the game the devs just threw up their hands and said 'whatever, fuck it, let's throw in...I dunno, a second Hookshot or something.'

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masterpug53 posted...

He is the biggest pain in the ass, yes. Naydra is like clockwork - warp to the shrine beneath the waterfall in Laranyu River Valley sometime around midnight, climb up, and look east to Mt. Laranyu, she'll be down to greet you shortly, every time. Farosh is also pretty reliable schedule-wise (at least at the Faron falls), and shows up in so many random-ass places that you'll have a hard time not running into him. But Dinraal says 'fuck schedule, I'll show up when I feel like it.'

Figured out a consistent way to spawn him in the end: sit by Tabantha bridge and wait. The issue is that he spawns at night, and a new day is at midnight. So if you hit him after midnight, you have to fast forward time a lot before he can spawn again. On the flipside, you can ideally have him spawn early in the evening then again after midnight.
The fight with Naydra was pretty cool though. Makes me a little sad that the dragons weren't a little bit more involved in the main story.

Today was a productive day. I finished the final beast, Tarrey Town, and a whole bunch of shrines. Still kinda going back and forth on whether I should go for the Ancient armor set or not. It seems pretty good, but on the other hand the Champion's tunic (that I've now maxed) along with Diamond jewelry seems pretty good too. And I more or less just have one Star Fragment left to find to be able to max that one out. Definitely going for 120 shrines though.

I also killed my second Lynel today! Man those fights are still sweaty as heck. And I killed a bunch of Guardians. Turns out they're pushovers if I can take them one at a time, especially if I brought Guardian weapons.

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Lynels are a lot of fun to fight once you get their patterns down. Mounting them is the best.

And on my last playthough I finally took the time to learn how to reflect Guardian beams back at them. Took some time to get used to it and I'm still far from perfect at it, but man do my trousers tighten with satisfaction whenever I manage to do it.

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Bump. Won't have time to play until Sunday, so I'll have to remember to keep the topic alive.

masterpug53 posted...

Lynels are a lot of fun to fight once you get their patterns down. Mounting them is the best.

And on my last playthough I finally took the time to learn how to reflect Guardian beams back at them. Took some time to get used to it and I'm still far from perfect at it, but man do my trousers tighten with satisfaction whenever I manage to do it.

Yeah I've considered trying to learn the deflect thing but it's like.. I'm a bit too lazy and I'm currently killing them super easily anyway.

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its definitely one of the must buys for the Switch along with Super Mario Odyssey, Smash Bros Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Ive been thinking for years why I like this game so much when Im kinda eh towards other Zelda games

Then I realize that its basically Fallout 3s setting and premise meets Zelda gameplay

Has the best incarnation of Zelda too

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AvantgardeAClue posted...

Ive been thinking for years why I like this game so much when Im kinda eh towards other Zelda games

Then I realize that its basically Fallout 3s setting and premise meets Zelda gameplay

Has the best incarnation of Zelda too

I could go on forever about how this is the "true" spirit of Zelda they tried to achieve in the first game. The whole point was to have a non linear game that maximized the sense of exploration. None of the other installments succeeded (or even tried) quite as well, with the exception of ALBW which I didn't try yet. I do like the 3D games, but they went in a different direction. BotW feels to me a lot more faithful to the Zelda I grew up with.

I'm generally pretty skeptic towards remakes, but if they made a loose remake of Zelda 1 in the BotW engine I'd be ecstatic.

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I adored that game. Sadly it was one of those games for me where much of the enjoyment came from the sense of wonder and being immersed in the world, so I couldn't play it a second time.


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pinky0926 posted...

I adored that game. Sadly it was one of those games for me where much of the enjoyment came from the sense of wonder and being immersed in the world, so I couldn't play it a second time.

Yeah. I'm pretty hesitant about a second playthrough, even though Master mode sounds fun. On the other hand there are plenty of difficult fights even on normal.

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pinky0926 posted...

I adored that game. Sadly it was one of those games for me where much of the enjoyment came from the sense of wonder and being immersed in the world, so I couldn't play it a second time.

I felt this way too, but I still very much enjoyed my second playthrough. Or rather, I'm still enjoying it, as I started it over two years ago and haven't finished it (currently sitting at all Divine Beasts and Shrines completed, poised to play the DLC for the first time). I've never had a game before where I could start a new character / playthrough, play it for a few days, let it sit for a few months, and then pick it up again without missing a beat.

The one thing I just don't think I'll ever enjoy is Master Mode. I tried it when starting up my 2nd playthrough, and after a few hours I said hell with it and restarted on regular. The enemy toughness in and of itself isn't the issue, it just throws the entire game balance completely off its axis in regards to weapon degradation, to the point where you simply don't have the resources to battle most enemies you encounter. An adventure game where I'm spending hundreds of hours running from / avoiding most enemy encounters is simply not fun.

But then again, I once made a similar declaration against Mario Kart 8's 200cc mode for similar reasons, and I love that shit now. So it's possible that I could warm to Master Mode someday.

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pinky0926 posted...

I adored that game. Sadly it was one of those games for me where much of the enjoyment came from the sense of wonder and being immersed in the world, so I couldn't play it a second time.

Yeah I already don't really do replays of games anymore what with the backlog and stuff but especially in this case.

I want to try master mode and encounter the tougher gold lynels, but I'm upset that they won't let me carry all my food items and weapon items and whatnot. I wasted 200+ hours collecting all that stuff and to see it all thrown away in a new playthrough to start from scratch is definitely demotivating. If they let me carry all my items to the new playthrough I might try it just to see all the differences in master mode and fight those gold lynels I've got my eye on.
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ZevLoveDOOM posted...

its definitely one of the must buys for the Switch along with Super Mario Odyssey, Smash Bros Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

@ZevLoveDOOM

what about super mario 3d world bowser fury, is it one of the must haves on that list?
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