The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

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caponeadam
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Re: Our next podcast recording (11.3.19) - 360: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by caponeadam »

When I think of Zelda BOTW I very much recall my lack of excitement in the long buildup to the game's release. On the surface it looked closest to the only Zelda game I couldn't bring myself to finish in a long time, Skyward Sword. Even during the Zelda only Nintendo E3 presentations it just seemed to be Link wandering around similar looking environments and solving puzzles in the repeatably generic samey locations that I were to later understand as the shrines.

When the reviews came in I remember being genuinely shocked but also incredibly skeptical when people were saying this was the best Zelda since Ocarina of Time, something I hear every single time a new Zelda game comes out.

I won't go into too much detail but the game really was an instant classic for me, all the hours of pre-footage available of this game just wasn't able to convey the sense of adventure and exploration that is the core of this majestic experience. The most exciting aspect of this refreshing new take on the Zelda series is that as much as I loved it there is much room for improvement with this new direction.
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Re: 360: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by RCheeze »

seansthomas wrote: February 5th, 2019, 9:27 am One last minor point:

Seeing that blank screen do nothing throughout the entire final game, and knowing of the potential it had, was the one telltale sign of the games cross platform transition and left me with a slight twinge of what might have been.
Agreed 100%.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (11.3.19) - 360: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by RCheeze »

I was burnt out on 3D Zelda games before I played Breath of the Wild. I was just tired of the formula. Tired of the rote nature of the series. Just tired. Then, I bought myself Breath of the Wild for my birthday in May 2017 and I realized in the following weeks that I would never have to return to any other 3D Zelda game again. This game is a perfect Zelda experience for me. As someone gets equally overwhelmed and bored playing open-world games, I cannot seem to pull myself away from this realization of Hyrule presented in BotW. The vistas. The colors. The graphics. The exploring. The locations. Even the shrines, which I never really got tired of, or the breakable weapons, which never bothered me. They all equaled for me a perfect videogame experience, one that I can see myself revisiting in the years to come.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (11.3.19) - 360: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by BlueWeaselBreath »

This is the only 3D Zelda I’ve ever finished. I had a great time doing almost everything; I would’ve gotten more seeds, but I found out the reward for doing so is a disappointing turd.

BOTW was neat because it appeared to be an answer to what Zelda fans had been asking for for years. Nintendo, while they appear to love their fans, are not exactly known for taking direct feedback to heart (at least, that’s how they sometimes appear). And yet, the BOTW team seems to have heard fans’ opinions that Zelda should get back to its free-exploring roots, break the formula, do less hand-holding, incorporate a different setting with a bit of “modern” technology, and so on. I loved it.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (11.3.19) - 360: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by ThirdDrawing »

I've never been able to finish a Zelda game and this one was no different. I should have known better than to listen to the hype on a Zelda game, but I fooled myself into thinking "this will be the one I finish" when I bought it and my Switch at the same time.

I was playing, and enjoying, BOTW until a certain sidequest where I had to sneak into a thieves hideout. I tried and tried and tried and just kept getting spotted and gave up out of frustration. I never went back because Octopath Traveler came out soon after.

I like linear story telling. I like when a game tells a good, engaging story. Unfortunately Zelda games don't really have stories that I find that engaging. However, I don't think turning Zelda into the Elder Scrolls was necessarily the best idea for the series. either. It wasn't enough to keep me playing.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (11.3.19) - 360: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by SludgeWizard »

When I bought my Switch in early 2018 I was given the option to get either Mario Odyssey or Breathe of the Wild, and I went with Mario and regretted the decision almost immediately. So I traded in old games and pinched a few pennies and before I knew it I was back in the skin of Link saving the most beautiful and exciting Hyrule yet. I was giddy.

That's why I'm so surprised to say that this is, by a significant margin, my least favorite Zelda (to be fair I have not played Skyward Sword or a few of the portable offshoots).

The decision to cut out almost any semblance of a story and the complete lack of dungeons completely turned me off, and made me question what makes a Zelda game a Zelda game in the first place. The shrines were nice, but Forest Temple they were not.

I still powered through, convinced the first great moment was right around the corner, but sadly, for me, it never came. It's the only Zelda game I've ever traded in for store credit.

I wish BOTW was for me, but it just isn't.

P.S. whoever made the decision to make every sword, stick, and club out of glass spiderwebs should be in prison.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (11.3.19) - 360: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by Lokhe »

At first I looked at the promos for this game and felt it just wasn’t for me, then the January Direct happened...

Best trailer in recent memory? Probably. And boy did it live up to the hype.

Not in many years has a game captured my inner child like BotW did. In a way I didn’t quite think possible anymore.

Truly magical.
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Good Shot Janson
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Re: Our next podcast recording (11.3.19) - 360: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by Good Shot Janson »

3 words: Played Nier Instead.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (11.3.19) - 360: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by Simonsloth »

I was never going to finish this in time but Breath of the Wild reminds me of Zelda 2 in the sense it does not feel like a Zelda game. I’ve never been the biggest fan of the franchise so it’s the entries that offer variations on the ordinary theme which hold my interest the most. The world is barren, oppressive and the game does not hold your hand. Zelda 2 gave me the same sense of place and the triumphant feeling when I conquered the odds felt very familiar also.
I look forward to finishing it but like a fine wine I’m going to sip and savour it because the first impressions are very special. Here’s hoping the aftertaste is as rewarding.


Three word review:
Breadth of the wild
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seansthomas
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Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by seansthomas »

Loved the discussion about differing ways to tackle puzzles in this game. The anecdote Michiel told around his friend trying to cross the river on the Great Plateau was exactly what I did on my second playthrough.

But on my first, I read a book in the Old Man's hut, earned a Warm Doublet, cut down a tree to cross the chasm, cooked up some Spicy Peppers and climbed the rear face of the mountain, unaware that ice lake even existed.

What a game...
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Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by MarkFM »

Great episode. Shame not to have Leah on, just because she's been on so many and seemingly would have offered a different opinion to others. I guess if she didn't stick with the game it makes sense though, and ultimately the community offered a great range of opinions anyway.

I've not played this game, maybe will one day, but I find it fascinating. I wonder if I would like it, if it's maybe too much of a step in the opposite direction from the more prescriptive side of Zelda, and sacrifices progression for exploration. It's certainly a series that needed a refresh in my view, and it's nice to hear a balanced take on the affect of these changes, even if personally you all clearly found it an overall positive.

I found the talk about weapon breaking really interesting, particularly Josh's point about how it influences you to use the environment. I hadn't thought of that. I guess the issue is weapons are weapons, and seeing them as a limited resource like grenades etc. is a difficult one to make, particularly (as Leon said) with a heavy sword rather than a tree branch. Particularly with the history of Zelda games, it's a difficult thing both to get across and for players to appreciate.

Maybe a weaker permanent weapon with scattered stronger but brittler weapons might improve things? That way you don't have the constant frustration of having to find a new one, but you also are encouraged to explore and use the environment, as your default option is just that, the equivalent of the starter pistol in a shooter. I should probably actually play the thing rather than speculate...
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Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by ratsoalbion »

Funnily enough, Leah has gone back to the game very recently and, while still not as in love with it as some of us, she is enjoying it a lot more second time around.
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Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by KissMammal »

I know it maybe sounds a bit ungrateful, but I can't help but wonder what a proper sequel would look like. It's an astonishing game in a lot of respects, but there's certainly room for a lot of improvement and tightening up of certain things.

I'm in two minds about the weapon deterioration - initially it really put me off, but it actually didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. I totally understand the reasoning behind it, but agree that perhaps a more elegant solution could be found.

I'm in agreement about the open world aspect - it's by far the best thing about the game. I can understand why some people would find the world empty and boring, but the sparseness and sense of isolation was part of the magic for me. Most open worlds in games feel so small and the openness is more illusory. It takes a lot of confidence for a developer to not constantly bombard the player with shiny objects for fear of them getting bored.

But I was less enamoured with the shrines and especially the four main guardian temples. The loose, freeform approach to the game extends also to the puzzles, and the result is very hit and miss. For whatever reason I often found the solutions very unintuitive and the logic of a lot of them never really clicked - where usually in a Zelda game I kick myself for not figuring something out, in this game when I inevitably googled the answer, I had more of 'really?' response.
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Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by ratsoalbion »

That’s also interesting because I never needed, or wanted, to look any of the solutions up.

That’s not a ‘cleverer than thou’ thing, it’s just fascinating how different types of puzzles click with different types of brain.

There are plenty of games where my response was much more like that, KM!
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Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by KissMammal »

I think it's mainly because the puzzle design in Zelda is usually so tight and prescriptive, and the ones in this one felt so different.

I remember having a particular problem with the puzzles with the rolling boulders, or the ones where you had to freeze something, then apply force to it. Maybe it's just my brain, but it never really seemed intuitive to me why that would work. I also had the issue - I think Mikel touched on this in the podcast - where I would spend so long out in the world exploring that I would simply forget about abilities I had once I got to a shrine or temple that required it.

As I say, it was limited to shrines and especially the guardian temple things. I never normally get stuck for long on regular Zelda dungeons, but for whatever reason I was really flummoxed by those and didn't enjoy them at all, so just ended up resorting to walkthroughs. The rest of the game - the open world stuff - I wanted to discover for myself.

I never had the completionist bug with BotW - I really couldn't imagine having the patience to try and to find every last shrine. I think it's designed that way to an extent. Once I unlocked the last tower and had seen most of the map I lost interest quite quickly. I will probably end up going back to it at some point though.
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Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by Alex79 »

This game is amazing.

I am, however, totally stuck on the third shrine :oops:

I figure you need to slice that ball somehow. There's a funnel you can put it in, but it's too big for the pipe, so not sure what's happening. I've broke my hammer whacking it so much too. The third shrine. How embarrassing.

I thought maybe you put the ball half in the pipe the other end and stasis it and the moving platform would slice it but that doesn't seem to work.
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Michiel K
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Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by Michiel K »

That the one with stasis? There's no real order in the shrines.

You're probably overthinking it. Use your new power on the ball and then start whacking it. Then watch the magic happen.
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Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by hazeredmist »

No shame! Many times you'll come across shrines where the solution is pretty simple but the brain over-complicates it like Michiel K says. You can YouTube solutions, they're all up there. I did that a few times on shrines I couldn't seem to work out at the time. One in particular I won't spoil (but it involved fans / wind...) I felt certain I'd never have worked out on my own, but when I saw the solution it was devilishly simple and made me feel like a complete tit.
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Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by Alex79 »

Ok guys, I have tried freezing and smashing, smashing and freezing, breaking all weapons, smashing with the hammer, the claymore, nothing works! It just keeps telling me I need to extract the rune from the guidance stone then return. I can't do it, nothing is working! Have to keep reloading saves to get my weapons back! This is one of the first three shines you have to solve to get the paraglider, but I'm really lost. I don't want to look it up, though :( The one thing niggling me is when you enter the shrine, it says bomb trial. I don't have any bombs. Would that be a clue than I can only destroy the orb with a bomb maybe?

EDIT: Alex, you utter twat. :lol: :lol:

So you know when you enter the shrine there's the thing that gives you a new ability.

Yeah, missed that. I'd been breaking the rocks with my hammer. A bomb rune would be useful, wouldn't it. Oh hang on...

:lol:
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Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Post by Suits »

Right, OK, I know the exact Shrine now after loading up save.

Are you stuck in the first room that you spawn into ??

You have the Bombs, right ??
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