Board 8 > Just beat LoZ:BotW. *SPOILERS*

(+) Yeah! (+)

My background: I didn't get into Skyrim, Sark Souls, or Twilight Princess...probably ten hours between them all. A friend right before Breath of the Wild said without knowing my experience with those games that BotW fixes those three games' issues. It then won GotD, so I caved in after waiting on it three years.

Hot-damn, this is a good game. I'm still trying to process what this does so differently from Skyrim and DS -- I remember not loving Skyrim's combat or DS not lruly pausing in menus, plus I don't know that either of them allow paragliding -- but between this and Link Between Worlds we're seeing modern Zelda games shine in a way that's different from TP's style. Instant classic.

The cons: I don't like Zelda's voice-actress's performance here. She also has a good final line for the ending, but I wish we would have Link's response to a heavy question like that -- it doesn't do much for me to leave that up to player interpretation.

The frame-rate dips the lowest I can recall the series ever dropping sometimes. Menu controls -- not the menu interfaces as much and maneuvering between them -- took the entire game to adjust Motion controls with those augmented roll-the-ball-around segments felt inaccurate (though my Switch has to face what might be the wrong direction, in which case I accept the blame). Rain is a problem for mountain climbing and lightning is a problem in general.

The pros: seriously, paragliding is so cool. The shrines effectively pass for dungeon puzzles and the Divine Beasts pass for small dungeons. Link's dialogue choices were fun for somebody who doesn't traditionally speak. You feel amazing after taking down your first Lynel or Guardian. Cooking was less clunky than I feared. It's exciting to detour from your chosen path to see new things.

Weapon breaking: I'm settling this debate right now -- it's 90% fine. I would have liked seeing the other weapons and shields gained from defeating Divine Beasts be rechargeable like the Master Sword was, perhaps at the expense of being a little weaker for overall balance. Otherwise, man, yeah, improvising's alright. I just used my weakest weapons I had and stored my strongest weapons for when I needed them most -- that way it only bothered me to lose a weapon but I also got to upgrade my weapon. That worked alright for me. When I got the Master Sword, I think the game gives bad advice about not using the sword until Divine Beasts...but nah, I used that sword as much as I could to preserve my other degradable weapons and they kept improving because of that. This was fine.

Beaten and enjoyed:
LBW > BotW = LoZ > WW >= OoT > LttP > MM

Played but not beaten or particularly appreciated:
LA
TP
FSA
Zelda 2

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I should beat this game today

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You can build new copies of all the divine weapons if you want to use them again!

HaRRicH posted...

She also has a good final line for the ending, but I wish we would have Link's response to a heavy question like that -- it doesn't do much for me to leave that up to player interpretation.

Whats left up to interpretation there? You literally re-experience up to 13 of Links memories of her throughout the world.

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You dont even get that ending unless you get all the memories, so yeah
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Hey, I just beat it the other day too.

I liked it a lot after not being a big fan of TP/SS.

The shrines had some fun puzzles but I did not like the Divine Beast dungeons at all.

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Holy hell, that's a lot to unpack.

First of all, weapon durability in BotW is the single worst game mechanic in any game I have ever played. It absolutely destroys the pacing of the game in order to artificially increase the play time.

Secondly, what the absolute fuck is that ranking list?

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The ending would be better if you got a choice option to say no or yes. I wouldve said no for the fun of it

BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

Holy hell, that's a lot to unpack.

First of all, weapon durability in BotW is the single worst game mechanic in any game I have ever played. It absolutely destroys the pacing of the game in order to artificially increase the play time.

Secondly, what the absolute fuck is that ranking list?

Sounds like you just refuse to adapt. Which is fine if you don't want to play a game like that, but then don't go acting like the mechanic is terrible.

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I love the durability mechanic. Whenever I play now I purposefully limit how many slots I have for weapons to make it an actual challenge bc otherwise there are so many weapons and ways to circumvent degradation. The game becomes too easy.

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Its an opinion and a lot of people are split on the weapon durability. Nothing wrong with saying its terrible. Sure there are tons of weapons to replace them, but its still tedious having them break constantly and having to pull out a new one mid battle. None of them really feel different enough either so its not like it matters what weapon you are using anyways

you can also just not fight any enemies. theres no reason to anyway and you dont have to menu fumble

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swordz9 posted...

None of them really feel different enough either

????

There's not a huge variety, but saying none of the weapons feel different is completely false

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swordz9 posted...

Its an opinion and a lot of people are split on the weapon durability. Nothing wrong with saying its terrible. Sure there are tons of weapons to replace them, but its still tedious having them break constantly and having to pull out a new one mid battle. None of them really feel different enough either so its not like it matters what weapon you are using anyways

There's no problem with not liking it. There's a lot of problem with acting like it's indefensible. This sounds like kind of the point of the game though.

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HanOfTheNekos posted...

????

There's not a huge variety, but saying none of the weapons feel different is completely false

When they almost all shatter in 1 fight it hardly matters if your long sword swings slower or if you jab with a spear and have more range. Like yeah they arent all literally identical, but it also doesnt matter what weapon you ever use for 99% of the enemies in the game either.

swordz9 posted...

When they almost all shatter in 1 fight it hardly matters if your long sword swings slower or if you jab with a spear and have more range. Like yeah they arent all literally identical, but it also doesnt matter what weapon you ever use for 99% of the enemies in the game either.

So you say they don't feel different because they all break?

???


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The extra range or the ability to use a shield makes a difference. Enemy speed and ability makes a difference in what type of weapon is best to use too. Yes, you can power through the game with mostly everything, but that doesn't mean it's the same.

I don't mind if people didn't enjoy some of the mechanics, but stop trying to talk it's fact that there's less detail in them because you didn't enjoy them. That's needlessly annoying. And if you're actually serious about 99% of your weapons breaking against the first enemy you used them against, then you went against too strong stuff and that's a fault on you and not the game.

HaRRicH posted...

and lightning is a problem in general.

I hated it at first, but once I understood how it worked and could prepare, I thought it was a cool thing. I get not liking it though.

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swordz9 posted...
When they almost all shatter in 1 fight

Yeah this isn't true.

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HanOfTheNekos posted...

So you say they don't feel different because they all break?

???

No? Other than the 2 types of weapons good against Guardians it never really matters what you use. I used everything I found and other than the magic weapons none of them were different enough for me to care at least. They dont all play exactly the same, but nothing ever really needs you to use a spear over a sword or to use an axe instead of a long sword or anything. You just shoot everything in the face/eye with an arrow because literally every enemy in the game has that as a weak point and then smash it with whatever weapons you have on you regardless of whatever they are.

Breath of the Wild is the best Zelda game by a decent margin.

Also i think I'm officially at the point where o am done debating the weapon breaking mechanic. My will has been broken like everything else in the game

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swordz9 posted...

No? Other than the 2 types of weapons good against Guardians it never really matters what you use. I used everything I found and other than the magic weapons none of them were different enough for me to care at least. They dont all play exactly the same, but nothing ever really needs you to use a spear over a sword or to use an axe instead of a long sword or anything. You just shoot everything in the face/eye with an arrow because literally every enemy in the game has that as a weak point and then smash it with whatever weapons you have on you regardless of whatever they are.

It sounds like your gripes with the game are more on the combat system than the weapon breaking mechanic then, when the weapons breaking serve to extend combat, even if just by a minuscule amount per instance.

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This is the problem when games are too easy. All 3 weapon typrs have very different functions but it doesnt matter because you have infinite health restore and people just mash A and eventually win

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swordz9 posted...

No? Other than the 2 types of weapons good against Guardians it never really matters what you use. I used everything I found and other than the magic weapons none of them were different enough for me to care at least.

Spoken like someone who's never done the BotW axe spin-to-win

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The combat is ok-ish and wouldve been better if my bows and melee weapons werent breakable. I dont care if there are thousands in the wild to pick up its still annoying to me. There wasnt a whole lot I liked about BotW in the end despite having an extremely good first impression of it so Im probably harsher on it than most.

I started off really loving it other than weapon durability, but after my first DB the rest just felt boring and kinda lifeless. You see 98% of the enemies you will ever see in the world on the Great Plateau, some of the voice acting is embarrassingly bad, rain & storms are so annoying it makes me wish you could disable weather altogether, the bosses are all lame, the dungeons are laughably bad and dont even have any real enemies in them, the 100~ shrines are too repetitive and samey other than the horrible motion control ones and the world is way too empty for how huge it is unless you have the most severe OCD in the world and feel you need to gather all 1,000 seeds in a 10,000,000 mile sandbox

Well now you're talking some legitimate gripes here. Weather impacting climbing is horrible, and enemy variety is very weak. I also agree that the "dungeons" don't replace real dungeons. The game has a lack of meaningful content for people that aren't good with internalizing goals.

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Yeah most of those complaints on the other hand are totally warranted. I often think of BotW as a great illustrator of the difference between "playing a game" and just "playing." It gives you so many amazing tools to just faff around but holy moly would I love more than the skeletal content it has on offer to apply those mechanics against.

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I wanted to mention bad side quests too, but since I only saw a few and didnt do them I restrained myself. Go collect 100 of creature X came up like 3 or 4 different times and I didnt feel like wasting any time on that

Yeah, I understand not enjoying these things even if I don't share the opinion. It's just frustrating when people that didn't like their game extend criticism to things that literally aren't true. I don't believe some critiques are more warranted that others though, as long as whatever thing you don't like is actually a thing.

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Yeah I heard there was criticism over BOTW having weaker dungeons and plot than some past Zeldas.

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I am just done with the weapon durability argument at this point

I hope the sequel gives weapons like about 2x durability to address it and that's it

durability is fine

i don't love it but people who bitch about it are the worst

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Not sure if anyone will find this interesting, but I wanna talk about something other than durability.

I set up some rules for myself to make the game way more fun, it actually becomes a true role playing game this way. It goes to show why Link is the best silent protagonist, he's easy to project myself onto.

So here are the rules

• Absolutely no fast travel - This alone makes the game a whole lot better. Hyrule is such a wonderful open world, and every inch of it deserves to be explored. Feels like it does the game and myself a disservice when I just fast travel everywhere, miss out on a lot that way.
• Pro hud - Should be kinda obvious, the hud is an eyesore and isn't needed.
• No map - That means I don't even bother getting the towers, never open map for any reason. The world has landmarks purposefully placed everywhere so it's easy to figure out where I'm going. If I do get lost (which happens once in a while sometimes I get turned around) then it enhances the role-playing aspect. For real lost and can't rely on a map, so gotta climb up and get to high ground so I can see which direction is where.
• Only change clothes while in town - More specifically I usually go to an Inn or somewhere I can have some privacy. This way I have to plan ahead on which outfit I wanna wear depending on which terrain I'm heading towards... although this rule has become somewhat useless since I very rarely change my clothes now. But for instance going into Gerudo Town requires me to stop at the Bazaar so I can change into my girl clothes first.
• No stocking up on food - If I cook a meal the intention is to eat it right away, gotta have that fresh taste. If I'm out in the wilderness and low on hearts, well then I gotta scrounge up some sustenance. Mushrooms are my favorite so hopefully there's some around (without collecting, don't want in inventory), place a bundle of wood next to it for a campfire to roast it real quick (or use a fire sword) and chow down on some tasty health. Or in a worse case scenario I would have to shoot a bird or maybe a moose and use the same campfire/sword method to roast the meat. But never a fox. Never hunt foxes.
• Limited potions - Personally I never used potions before, which is part of why I have the no food stock rule. That persuades me to search for critters which are a little tricky to catch. Because I am allowed to carry potions with me, but I limit them to two each, and none of them for health. If say I'm low on health and want to use a potion for cold resistance that also restores hearts, then I have to find food for recovery first before downing that chilly elixir.

...And I think that's it. Sorry if this was a waste of everyone's time, but these rules have increased my enjoyment of the game about tenfold so I wanted to share.

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WazzupGenius00 posted...

You can build new copies of all the divine weapons if you want to use them again!

Not worth it to me. I'd rather them lose a bit in stats and become rechargeable instead of breakable -- otherwise, they're just another strong weapon.

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CassandraCain posted...

Sorry if this was a waste of everyone's time, but these rules have increased my enjoyment of the game about tenfold so I wanted to share.

Nah these are the kinds of things I love attempting on subsequent tries. Usually there is some feature I'm taking advantage of that makes the game too easy and thus more boring for me, but I'm not really the type to artificially challenge myself on the first run.

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Yeah those are pretty good rules. The "Only change clothes while in town" one I came up with as well, for my second playthrough, because it sounded more fun to have to decide what clothes to wear on each mini-adventure, rather than swap at will.

The map restrictions are not my kinda thing though, the map is like 60% of the fun of the game for me! Staring at it, exploring it, unlocking pieces of it, marking things...so much fun.

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