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

(+) Yeah! (+)

hombad46 posted...

I don't think the one blur is talking about is marked on those maps

99% confident it is because I believe that's how I found it

Looking at the map, the location for the Blademaster test is not marked and I think that's the one in question here

So there's a cave with the Yiga Tights that's marked on those maps but yeah, I don't think the one I'm talking about is. Those maps show the locations of the three pieces of armor and the fourth circle is just the main hideout. This one is on a cliffside somewhere kind of close to where the Yiga Tights cave was. I tried to retrace my steps with the hero's path and it just led me back to that damn cave I'll figure it out.

Sounds like it's most likely that Blademaster test

Ohhh, I see. I misread the original post and assumed it was the main hideout he was talking about.

Lightning Temple done. My god, what a reversal from the Water Temple! An actual, good dungeon! Probably the best boss battle yet too.

After that, I went to Hyrule Castle and did the hide and seek with Zelda. Finished the Phantom Ganon battle there, though it's making me realize I really need to upgrade my armor.

Not quite sure what to do next. I suppose I should try to investigate the Spirit Temple again.

I could also try to go back down into the caverns beneath Hyrule Castle again. I went down there before doing any dungeons and there was a multi-round fight against waves of enemies that I wasn't prepared for. Unfortunately it was also before I got the Purah Pad waypoints, so I'll have to find my way back down again. I assumed at the time that that would be where the end game was...

Seanchan posted...

I could also try to go back down into the caverns beneath Hyrule Castle again. I went down there before doing any dungeons and there was a multi-round fight against waves of enemies that I wasn't prepared for. Unfortunately it was also before I got the Purah Pad waypoints, so I'll have to find my way back down again. I assumed at the time that that would be where the end game was...

I did that like 10 hours in the game, exploring the Royal Hidden Passage. And if you want the answer to your question: yes it is.

Also I just had a Bubbulfrog disappear on me wtf. I was thinking it was some cool Bubbulfrog that disappeared to different parts of the cave or something...but I think it was just a glitch (I hopped on Mineru to try and hop off and get a slow-mo shot, but maybe Mineru's too tall and was too close and caused it to glitch). It didn't come back even after exploring around the cave a bit, so I reloaded the save and it didn't disappear on me that time.

Also also it's soooo dumb that they just stop giving you rewards for bubbulgems so early. There's so much junk to farm for upgrades, including 103 goddamn star fragments, that they really should keep giving you rewards for every 5 or so. What an odd design decision.

_Blur_ posted...

Also also it's soooo dumb that they just stop giving you rewards for bubbulgems so early. There's so much junk to farm for upgrades, including 103 goddamn star fragments, that they really should keep giving you rewards for every 5 or so. What an odd design decision.

Yeaaah I kinda get it though. There are a LOT of caves, and you don't wanna burn the player out on them, unless they're really enjoying them and wanna get 100% of them.

It's similar to koroks--they wanted to have a ton of them, so wherever you go you feel like you're constantly finding them, BUT, they didn't want to signal to the player that they should keep doing them forever, even when they're sick of doing them.

Didn't know there was an end to the bubbulgem rewards. I've got another 8 or so I need to cash in and I'd already gotten like 6-7 things already.

Epyo posted...

Yeaaah I kinda get it though. There are a LOT of caves, and you don't wanna burn the player out on them, unless they're really enjoying them and wanna get 100% of them.

It's similar to koroks--they wanted to have a ton of them, so wherever you go you feel like you're constantly finding them, BUT, they didn't want to signal to the player that they should keep doing them forever, even when they're sick of doing them.

In that case, they should have stopped giving out rewards with like 50 to go or something. I think they stop with over 100 bubbulgems to go and only the first 45 or something give any rewards.

The quantity of caves is probably about as it needs to be to make them easily and frequently discoverable. I hit the end of the bubbulgem rewards just a little bit before being finished with all the story stuff before the final boss and when he said he needed the remaining 100-however-many, I just said "lol yep, not doing that."

I think it's fine that there's content in the game that's ignorable. Even armor upgrades you 1000% don't need to go beyond like, level 3 at the absolute max no matter what you're doing. It's all just extra fluff that leads to a smoother experience if you're playing organically. It does suck that it ends up feeling like a compulsion for some people and probably makes the game less enjoyable as a result, but that compulsion sucks in most games so having a game this big kind of on-ramping someone to building up a tolerance to it feels like a good thing to me.

I hit the bubbulgems reward like halfway through the story or a little more. Yeah they took the Korok approach and I get it, but even then not really because even more caves are worthless reward-wise, and I just wish it was more in parity. Over two-thirds worthless is just wild to me.

It's not a huge deal - caves are intrinsically rewarding to explore to me, and every 1 in 5 or so is something really freaking cool that I'm grateful I experienced. But that dumb, more artificial layer of reward to coincide with the reward of exploration itself would still make it even better. I think, actually, I just really like the idea of another way to get upgrade materials besides, well, farming them. Farming is not fun and that is compulsive. Tying that tedious stuff into caves is brilliant! ...and then they didn't really execute that idea well at all when the rewards end so soon.

I'm *100%ing this game not out of compulsion, just because I love it so much, and it's just unfortunate. Again, it's intrinsically rewarding so it's not a big deal, but it's the only thing I'm doing that isn't also rewarding me in some way. Shrines - still rewarding me with hearts with only 12 to go. Lightroots - they light up the fuckin Depths yo and there's cool gear down there. Koroks - at 330 something and they're still unlocking slots! Bubbulgems - these stopped mattering 50 ago! It's completely out of line with the rest of the game.

*My version of 100% is all Shrines, Lightroots, sidequests, and I guess at this point enough Korok seeds just to upgrade the inventory slots (that one is mostly because I'm close now anyway, hah). Armor, ehhh, I'll 4 star my favorites.

Caves are at least where you get most of your gems and stuff though

Did the Spirit Temple yesterday, which is really more about the run up to the Temple. Nice to finally get to do something with the Construct Factory and those Depots, as I couldn't figure out what was going on there. I did use some internet hints with the Surface level stuff, as I just didn't feel like wandering around at this point.

Didn't someone in this topic say that they did the Spirit Temple first? If so, that's absolutely wild to me. I mean, I guess it's technically possible but that's a lot of non-obvious stuff that you need to do.

It's clear that they expected you to do the Master Sword stuff AFTER that but I did all that stuff before taking on any of the Temples. Basically, all I've got left now is to take on Ganondorf, which the game now explicitly tells you where to find him, though I already kinda knew.

I'm about ready to be done with the game but my armor levels are way too low, as every hit just decimates me. I should probably try to do something with the Great Fairies first. No chance I'm otherwise doing all the side adventures/quests and shrines and all that.

I stumbled onto the whole Spirit Temple quest before getting all four sages. I tried to glide onto the Thunderhead Isles, undershot it, but managed to land on a broken spire pointing out from the bottom of Dragonhead Island and ascended into the room with the mask and went from there.

It actually highlighted one of this game's weaknesses, which is that, although you can do stuff out of order, the game doesn't acknowledge that you have until it has to. I got all the memories, Master Sword and fifth sage before chasing down Puppet Zelda and the entire time, Link says nothing (moreso than usual, I mean) even though he knows where Zelda is. Similarly, after the Phantom Ganon fight, they're discussing the fifth sage and what to do next for a while, whilst Mineru is just standing there ignored, before Purah eventually goes 'Oh, you found her already?' and then the plot continues from there.

> Didn't someone in this topic say that they did the Spirit Temple first?

I did but thats because im crazy and I explored for 200 hours first. also went through (spirit temple stuff) Thundercloud Isles without figuring out how to remove the mist/thunder (I still havent figured it out and that's where my last shrine is according to my radar)

Ayyy apparently I did mark that Yiga Clan cliffside entrance on my map. It's directly north of the Gerudo Canyon Skyview Tower, Taafei Hill is on your left. In fact, it's about exactly parallel with the text that marks Taafei Hill.

It's the Blademaster test alright and it's required for a shrine.

Now that the trophy contest is over can finally get back to this after only playing it the weekend it came out 2 months ago

Played like 30 hours but other than a few shrines and koroks haven't actually made any significant progress

I think I was heading northwest first

most of the things I need to upgrade require a lizalfos tail

Man, I didn't realize I missed the Gazette HQ because of the non-direct ways I took to the Rito Village. Anyway, I finished all the music troupe quests and got all the Great Fairies unlocked.

It takes a lot of materials to upgrade stuff! More than I have, despite picking up everything and playing for like 150 hours. I upgraded a couple of things a few levels but ain't no way I'm grinding for that stuff. I'm sure I'll be fine to take on the endgame. I got like 8-10 full health meals, so that'll help ease the pain of not having super high level armor.

Tomorrow, we (maybe) finish this game!

GTM posted...

most of the things I need to upgrade require a lizalfos tail

YES and why are they SO RARE

It's weird how rare some things are. Wheat is like goddamn gold dust for how many recipes require it.

GTM posted...

most of the things I need to upgrade require a lizalfos tail

You can probably try to save and reload to try to get the drops you want.
Kill and reload until you get the drop.

I was testing this when I was looking for Hinox Guts from a Red Hinox. I saved before I fight the Hinox. When I didn't get the Guts, I just reload and killed it until I eventually did get the Guts.

Kara Kara Bazaar has the green Lizalfos Tails to buy at least.

Lizalfos tails are kind of annoying but if you explore Gerudo Valley for a couple of in-game days looking for Koroks and stuff, then they're all over the place there and you get a lot of fire and ice ones at least.

Zelda beated!

Fun final boss!

I'd been down to the bottom before doing any of the dungeons but only got to the 2nd wave of enemies before the battle against Ganondorf. That part was tremendously easier with a crew of 5 backing me up, as I basically just ran around and let them do all the work.

The multi-stage battle against Ganondorf was cool. I liked how the crew came in to help with the phantoms. Didn't even realize he was literally destroying my hearts at first. Had to make good use of Flurry Rush to bring him down.

After the 2nd part, when he pulled the stone from his head, I was like "OH SHIT DRAGON BATTLE!!!". Which...kinda but not really. That last part was very easy, but that's okay.

I know there's 30+ shrines I didn't find/do, loads of armor parts I didn't find/collect, and a lot of side quests. But I'm okay with that as I had my journey through a game that's overstuffed with content.

I can't help but feel that this game kind of makes BotW obsolete, right?

1 shrine remains.

Shocked that doing all the spring quests didn't give me a shrine!i Thought that would be it. I didn't see the lightroot needed to find the shrine and I scoured my map pretty damn thoroughly...wonder if it's in the sky. Hero's path tells me I basically explored everywhere up there, but also I never got the Zonai boots. Maybe there's an island I missed with those and a shrine.

Also I'm like 81 of 139 side quests so uhhh forget what I said about those counting to 100%. Only need like 10 more Korok seeds to fiiiiinally max out my inventory though!

Seanchan posted...

I can't help but feel that this game kind of makes BotW obsolete, right?

Nah. That game still stands as a 10 when compared to all other games. Still fun to go back to stasis, magnesis, remote bombs, etc. Stuff like this will never be obsolete:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dPhs8cfjH8&ab_channel=Frolt

Wow Kohga's final exit
nothing has made me laugh that much in a while

htaeD posted...

Wow Kohga's final exit
nothing has made me laugh that much in a while

One thing I still need to do! And get the rest of the Lightroots, less than 20 left. I know he's below Hebra now but not sure how to get there! Think there was a hint about a cave leading to the Depths which they do in another section in Necluda.

Finally got that last shrine after three days, but I was only playing like an hour or two a day. It was in a cave to the west of Akkala but before Hyrule field. Didn't have the Lightroot yet, but I just checked Hero's Path and found an unexplored swath of land on the surface. The shrine sensor popping for the last one was such a good feeling! Because I really had no idea if it would be around there.

Reward is indeed pretty cool. Hoping it does something neat after upgrading it twice, we'll see! Still OCD about not having 40 hearts too. Hopefully the DLC actually lets you max out both stamina and hearts this time.

Also 260 hours for all shrines for me. Maybe 10 of those was leaving the game on but that's at most. Pretty wild! Glad I took a three week break to keep the game feeling as fresh as it can after so much time.

I've got to playing a bit more recently. I had enough koroks for all inventory upgrades after exploring 6 regions (region meaning area unlocked by a tower).