Board 8 > The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Discussion 2: President Hudson 2024

(+) Yeah! (+)

I love these puzzles so much.

Here Addison, Im gonna hold the sign still with Ultra Hand and you can tie it down

problem solved

relevant

https://twitter.com/CriticalRole/status/1663621298843684864?s=19

I was getting destroyed by the Lynel coliseum in the depths and then I learned about fusing ancient blades to your arrows

colliding posted...

I was getting destroyed by the Lynel coliseum in the depths and then I learned about fusing ancient blades to your arrows

I don't think you get parts if you use that. The whole point to those fights are to get a bunch of fuse materials.

finished all the side adventures, but only 50 side quests so far

GranzonEx posted...

I don't think you get parts if you use that. The whole point to those fights are to get a bunch of fuse materials.

the whole point of that one for me was getting the chest with majora's mask in it. also I had been gloomed down to three hearts and no food, and I didn't feel like running away to try again another day.

but yes, you don't get parts

35 hours and only now really looking for my first dungeon (think I could have done the Zora route recently but went looking for the Rito instead in the northwest):

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/6/4/AABgm0AAEho8.jpg

colliding posted...

also I had been gloomed down to three hearts and no food, and I didn't feel like running away to try again another day.

Same here, so I just tried over and over until I could beat the last lynel without getting hit

Lynel coliseum is where I discovered the real efficacy of Puffshrooms. The enemies just... stop attacking you and let you wail on them.

I accidentally cooked my puffshroom

Tag

Get to the final boss, barely lose

Try again, start doing really bad early

load game

realize it didnt auto save after all the previous fights

oops

I think it's amusing you can basically get through the entire game without learning how to parry

And then in the final boss it's basically required

Anyways game beaten. Extremely fun. Had a great time, but didn't do anything memorable or unique enough to really crack my top games of all time list.

9/10

I assembled the Hebra Great Skeleton. But nothing happened. Maybe a quest I haven't found yet?

Yeah you need a quest first unfortunately. Same with all the great skeletons.

Speaking of, is there anything to do with those tiny bones you can find in certain places? I put some together a couple times, but nothing really happened.

Will I have already completed it by then lol?

Nope. The pieces will be back on the ground. (I think. one of them was like this for me, the others might not be.)

So are Calamity Ganon and Ganondorf entirely different entities? There doesn't seem to be anything connecting the two in this game...

The prologue seemed really explicit to me that Calamity Ganon was the malice pouring out of the sealed Ganondorf directly below it, but tons of people seem to be confused about that so maybe I'm wrong and there's something later in the game that debunks that?

Yeah, that's how I understood it.

Xiahou_Shake posted...

The prologue seemed really explicit to me that Calamity Ganon was the malice pouring out of the sealed Ganondorf directly below it, but tons of people seem to be confused about that so maybe I'm wrong and there's something later in the game that debunks that?

Nah you're probably right. Nothing contradicts that.

I finished the game tonight. Spent a lot of my time over the weekend and holiday just exploring for a while and building up my hearts and armor instead of just seeing what I found as I did the main quests. I ended with 71 shrines, 27 lightroots, and 26 korok seeds, while my Switch says that I played for '55 hours or more' (so I assume 55-60 hours). The final boss was a little underwhelming for me, since he was more or less a Phantom Ganon with a few extra tricks. I never had to parry him, either - I just did a second dodge after his dodge/counterattack and he never dodged that. It also helped that at one point, he more or less backed himself into a wall and let me whale on him for a while without actually dodging any of the attacks. The final phase was disappointing for me, too, since it felt like 90% of the fight was just wasted time spent gliding and diving onto his back.

I'll avoid rambling any further and say that while I think the story was a step down from BotW, just about everything else was better. BotW had a bigger impact on me when it released, though, as I'd never played anything like it, so I'm not sure which I would say I enjoyed more. I'll have to replay them both at some point in the future and see how I feel then.

After finishikg Hebra I chose to explore what I guess is south central hyrule (the place that includes great plateau). This was a good next step because some of this is clearly intended to be found early, which a lot of Hebra was not.

I dont do anything remotely like the methodical searching other people are doing, but finishing the game with only 26 koroks is insane to me. Ive probably done close to 26 my friend and I got separated puzzles, let alone the single ones Ive found

Lazy_Haar posted...

I finished the game tonight. Spent a lot of my time over the weekend and holiday just exploring for a while and building up my hearts and armor instead of just seeing what I found as I did the main quests. I ended with 71 shrines, 27 lightroots, and 26 korok seeds, while my Switch says that I played for '55 hours or more' (so I assume 55-60 hours). The final boss was a little underwhelming for me, since he was more or less a Phantom Ganon with a few extra tricks. I never had to parry him, either - I just did a second dodge after his dodge/counterattack and he never dodged that. It also helped that at one point, he more or less backed himself into a wall and let me whale on him for a while without actually dodging any of the attacks. The final phase was disappointing for me, too, since it felt like 90% of the fight was just wasted time spent gliding and diving onto his back.

I'll avoid rambling any further and say that while I think the story was a step down from BotW, just about everything else was better. BotW had a bigger impact on me when it released, though, as I'd never played anything like it, so I'm not sure which I would say I enjoyed more. I'll have to replay them both at some point in the future and see how I feel then.

Completely agree with the BotW thought. It was so similar to BotW that its hard for me to be wowed. Was it a lot better? I think? I think everything was just better in general from the abilities to the shrines.

But it was so similar that it wasnt nearly as impactful or surprising.

Lazy_Haar posted...

The final boss was a little underwhelming for me, since he was more or less a Phantom Ganon with a few extra tricks. I never had to parry him, either - I just did a second dodge after his dodge/counterattack and he never dodged that. It also helped that at one point, he more or less backed himself into a wall and let me whale on him for a while without actually dodging any of the attacks. The final phase was disappointing for me, too, since it felt like 90% of the fight was just wasted time spent gliding and diving onto his back.

I get that the final part is basically meant to be a victory lap which I was fine with, but yeah, the other parts suffer from the same problem the rest of the game (and most open world games in general) does/do in that it's mostly just the same content you've already seen repeated for the umpteenth time. It's also incredibly easy like the rest of the game once you have enough armor to avoid dying in a single hit.

And I only had 15 armor (and 3 hearts) which means not having done the side quest to be able to upgrade my armor was also irrelevant. You don't need to be particularly skilled to immediately beat the game, just explore enough to have enough armor and preferably have halfway decent weapons so it doesn't take forever.

I was making decent main story progress until I found the side quest that leads you to the Fierce Deity armor, now Im completely sidetracked

I flew onto that island in the storm and stumbled on the fifth sage stuff. She blew me up almost immediately after finishing her quest, so I swapped her hands for Hudson cardboard cutouts and now she's just a walking advertisement. When they break, I'm going to put bees on there instead.

holy shit just realized these are the same three headed dragons from zelda 1

I was hoping they would lose their heads which would start flying around the room like in the original, but alas.

I still want to see a modern take on Aquamentus sometime.

JackMan posted...

I flew onto that island in the storm and stumbled on the fifth sage stuff. She blew me up almost immediately after finishing her quest, so I swapped her hands for Hudson cardboard cutouts and now she's just a walking advertisement. When they break, I'm going to put bees on there instead.

amazing

GANON1025 posted...

I was making decent main story progress until I found the side quest that leads you to the Fierce Deity armor, now Im completely sidetracked

I've been wearing the boots most of my playthrough - be curious to find it as a quest

HanOfTheNekos posted...

I've been wearing the boots most of my playthrough - be curious to find it as a quest

I believe I found the start of the quest in a cave near Cephla Lake

I found a great fairy and it sounds like there's some quest involved with that. I could not do anything with it.

Finished the Goron dungeon.

That was awesome! Leadup was not as good as the Rito but the dungeon itself was up there.

https://twitter.com/cianindublin/status/1663872558821933057?s=20

holy shit hahahahaha

my dungeon boss ranking

Zora > Rito > Goron > Spirit > Gerrudo

Game beated, credits are rolling. 100% shrines and lightroots. Only 142 koroks.

Overall an amazing game that I think improves in some ways over BoTW but not enough. It also is in many ways worse. The story is better than BoTW's, and the dungeons/bosses are largely improved. Both the sky and the depths feel a bit like missed opportunities - if there were just one or two more interesting places/events in those areas, instead of just the same shrine puzzles and yiga bases, they would've been perfect. The game feels impossibly big at first, but once you realize the sky and the depths are basically the same stuff repeated over and over again, the magic gets sucked right out of it. I also think some QoL stuff with the menus/inventory/loot would help immensely.

Ultrahand is fine I guess. I actually was wishing for some stasis/cryonis puzzles though. And yeah, I mentioned this earlier, but there are a ton of Shrines without trials inside. This makes the game feel more annoyingly open world-fomulaic than BoTW I think. Not to mention Addison and Separated Korok puzzles.

Endgame story spoiler discussion: The last battle was great I thought. Yes it was easy but it's kind of tradition at this point for the last phase of the final boss to be pure spectacle. I never got good at flurry rush or parrying so Ganondorf himself was a decent enough challenge.

I kind of think the story would've been better if they didn't bring Zelda back from dragon form. That could've opened up room for a post-credits scene that teases for the third game/dlc which could involve searching for a way to bring Zelda back,, more time travel shenanigans and maybe meeting human versions of Farosh, Dinraal and Nayru or something.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/7/7/AAK53VAAEiJ9.jpg

muh megatank

I agree with your last paragraph, wouldve made for a stronger story IMO

Beat the game.

Ending: The last segments were OK to start. The sages showing up was already sorta done in BotW, so a bit underwhelming but still kinda cool. The "army" fights were a short waste of time but are probably a great test for the people who want to speedrun the game. The finale Temple Bosses will be interesting to see how people speedrun. Ganon was kinda cool but felt like I saw him too much in the phantom fights. I think this section was screaming for a diabolical gloom hands fight/element. The ridiculous life bar is a classic, loved it. The dragon fight at the end was really cool. I was fairly hype for it. I don't disagree that it went on a little long, but, that's fine. I took a pic but Koltin won't make a model :(

Temples: Rito > Gerudo > Zora > Spirit > Goron.
Rito, from the start of the Sage quest, climbing to the temple area, jumping over the storm, the ship theme, and the puzzles - very cool all around. Boss was easy but very cool.
Gerudo, I didn't love the quests but I did enjoy the actual puzzles more than most people. It was late in the game for me, I had a lot of zonai devices to try and send mirrors all over the place. I didn't really like how the heat armor/boots are in the hidden store. The gibdo nests were kinda cool. Boss fight was OK.
Zora was just fun and easy. I enjoyed it but maybe it was borderline too easy, which is saying something because I love easy stuff. Might have been my favorite temple/region but the boss fight is just boring outside of the funny running octopus.
Spirit - the limb with the lava and wheels was great. Some of the other limbs were OK. I think two of them you can just put a rocket on the container and call it a day. Boss was cool in theory but I had the shock weapon and just kept the guy stunned most of the fight.
Gerudo - fire temple was the only one I didn't enjoy. I didn't really 'get' the minecart paths but it didn't matter, I just randomly showed up at the switches. the boss was OK.

Annoying: the sages running around and having to talk to them to activate their powers.

Overall: 10/10? There's so much to the game. A lot of it became tedious but it was easy to switch to a different activity when one became boring. I think they had room for the Depths to be truly amazing but stuck with "it's dark". At first it was fun to explore but around midgame it wasn't. The sky started off promising but it was sparse and repetitive. Masterhand is awesome. The shrines are easier yet better this game. There's almost too much to TotK, but it does a good job of balancing it (aside from activating sage ghosts) I don't consider it as good as BotW.

finally beat the game after 200+ hours. loved it. pretty sure I enjoyed it more than BotW in every way but BotW was so long ago that I can't recall. They're at the very least on par.

I think the music was used extremely well in this game, despite my complaints about the lack of title screen music (which I still believe). When it hits, it hits hard, like in the Colgera battle and in the ending. Now could there have been a bit more somehow incorporated into the overworld? Maybe, but I also understand why the game doesn't just play the main theme the entire time.

Also mark me in the finally beat the game category. Funny, I thought I had all the memories but ignored the Crisis at Hyrule Castle quest or whatever it's called. Found Zelda in the gatehouse right away and couldn't find her again and just beat the game.

First try, but what a fight. The health bar moment is so funny and an obvious callback to BotW doing the opposite and taking away his health bar with the Champions. Then just keeping the visual gag of the health bar reaching the end of the screen: 10/10

Disappointed they didn't flesh out Ganondorf more story wise and give him some better motivations than just being evil. Besides his look, they never really brought up Demise or his curse or anything, which I hoped they would. Oh well, us Zelda timeline nerds are more confounded than ever, especially since the existence of the Zonai and Rauru contradicts all the origin story in Skyward Sword. At least we know Fi is still in the Master Sword!

The fight itself is fantastic though and there's just so much to go through, even with the sages taking care of the other bosses. But I definitely gotta do a run just getting shrines and taking on all the bosses at some point.

I beat Ganondorf before the dragon transformation first try with no more gloom healing items and literally one heart left, so that was special. Just unleashed my Savage Lynel Bow at the end with Gibdo Bones attached.

Then the spectacle fight, just unbelievable. An incredible way to end the game and probably up there with some of my favorite bosses ever. Easy again sure but the lead up to it is brutal and this is your reward. Then catching Zelda, chef's kiss

165 hours so I'm quite beat, but this is definitely a game I want to see everything and get all the shrines. Might be time for a little break from the game, but I also might be kind of addicted still! Also I did the Zelda stuff and finally got the last memory, so now I can play the boss again with the post-credits ending, yay. I'll do that tonight

Also I think my biggest disappointment with the game is the lack of Hyrule Castle like "open dungeons" which I was hoping they'd double down on here. Would have been cool to have like castles in the Depths or something to make the Depths a little more interesting. And the sky. Put like three Hyrule Castle style areas hidden in the world and my god. But an amazing game that blew out my other expectations for it and it's almost certainly cracked my top 10.

One other theoretical improvement I've seen is making the D-Pad down a quick select for different outfits that you can favorite. There's too much pausing in this game still. I think an even better idea is making certain abilities from outfits just things you get. Call them charms or something and you can turn them on and off. Like a charm for detecting the Koroks instead of walking around with a stupid leaf on your head all the time. The climbing gear and the Zora armor should have also been charms that you just have. Anything that improves movement basically. But the attack up and stuff should be limited to special armor and elixirs.

okay done rambling

Yeah, those all sound like great upgrades to me!

I beat it at 141 hours, all shrines, all lightroots, 265 Koroks. Excellent game, kinda like BotW but better. It does lose some of the "magic" BotW had by being so similar, so I'm hoping we at least get a different world map in the next game of this style.

Would probably say it's my second favorite open world game, after Elden Ring. Having one of Elden Ring's legacy dungeons in the Depths somewhere sure would've been cool.