Board 8 > Zelda finally plays Breath of the Wild

(+) Yeah! (+)

After 6 years of waiting, improving my own financial condition so buying a Switch feels like less of a dumb decision, and having my sister travel to USA for work so she could bring a Switch back at 2/3 of the price, I finally got one, and a copy of BotW.

So it's time to figure out why this thing rekt the last contest so hard.

I've been posting a playthough in a discord channel since I started, so I'm gonna copypaste it here too so more people get to read. Apologies if there are some typos since I'm typing quickly on phone as I play.

THERE WILL BE UNMARKED SPOILERS

I started playing BotW last week. Pretty impressed at the visuals. game seems fun too. Got to the end of the first shrine. Weapon breaking mechanic is a bit annoying but I like the concept of grabbing stuff enemies drop to get stronger. theres no shortage of weapons to use in this game

From what I got this game feels very different than previous 3D zeldas. First, there is some effort to make it compare to modern open world rpgs now. With weapons and armor that have actual stats, food that can be carried to heal different amounts of hearts and cooked together. Nintendo certainly leaped out of the comfort zone here. It's no wonder people said this compared favoravly to things like Skyrim and Witcher

Also Link can jump anytime now. And climb trees or walls (limited by stamina). This is huge. For some reason Link has always been barred from jumping before, to the point where entire dungeons could be designed over the need to overcome a fence about half of Link's height. This is over. We are finally 3D.

Yet core combat and movement controls are still classic zelda so its not like nintendo just overhauled the formula

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I need to beat three more shrines to leave the great plateau. So Im told to look around from a tall place and put pins on the map at interesting places I find. I do that. Then I check the map and the pins seem to be outside the great plateau. Now I gotta remove the pins. But I cant see them in the full map. wth?

Then I look online, and Im told to zoom out

I zoom out to the max abd discover great plateau is like 2% of the game's map, I just placed the pins too far. Lmao

Meanwhile I get killed by a beamos who has too much hp. Kill some bokoblins. Lose to a bokoblin with a shield. Try to come back with arrows but realize they have to much hp. Go to a different bokoblin camp and manage to loot an old shield from them.

Then I try to enter a snow area and the game immediately tells me Im gonna die if I do that without winter clothes. Ok

Ok I think I found the shrines. One is behind the invincible beamos. One is behind bokoblin with a shield. One is in snow area. Fun

I assassinate a bokogoblin family by firing a bomb arrow at some powder kegs. But their leader, a green one, survives and avenges his kin with a spiked club. After trying again a few more times, I best him. My shield is gone, but I have his spiked club now, and some fire arrows they had in a chest

I manage to sneak around the beamos statues. Climbing walls op. Enter the shrine and beat it. The first shrine gave me magnetic powers, this one gives me remote detonated bombs. In sphere and cube formats, for some reason. And they are infinite! But they have cooldown, and don't seem strong enough to kill the beamos. I bet the bokoblins with shields wont have as much resistance though

Shielded bokos are gone. The spiked club I stole from their cousins carried. Then after some cooking and A LOT of climbing, I make it to shrine 3, earn the power to stop time and complete it

Now all thats left is the cold area. I find a diary from Unammed Old Man saying there are recipes that let me survive in the cold. I make one. It lasts for 8 mins

I need more. But old man says if I help him remember the super recipe he made, he'll give an item that protects me from cold.permanently. I then go hunt some boars in the forest and fish some bass in the nearby pond. Add a pepper, and theres the dish. Old man gives me winter clothes. Snow area is next

Also I'm getting good at killing bokoblins lately. they always have a guy on lookout. so you shoot an arrow on his face. Then grab a bomb and rush the camp, throw it as the bokoblins are grabbing their weapons. After the blast, finish them off one by one with the clubs you stole from the previous bokoblin camp. Grab more clubs to replace the broken ones. Rinse and repeat.

Cold area beaten. Got the last rune, which makes ice pillars. I go to the temple of time and a statue gives me a heart container. You get 1 for each 4 shrines beaten, or a stamina upgrade (you pick each time). Old man reveals he is the ghost of hyrule's king and more of the plot. The invincible beamos are actually ancient guardians that the kingdom dug underground and was gonna use to beat Ganon. But ganon somehow "hacked" them and used them to destroy everything. The game's bosses are the 4 biggest guardians. Cool. I gain a much better bow and a paraglider so now I can cross chasms and explore the rest of the land. Im told to go to Kakariko Village.

Really cool start to the game. If you think about it, it was a fancy tutorial, but one with a lot of combat and freedom. They should make more tutorials like that

Yeah it's a great tutorial area. And not too annoying to redo if you're replaying

Do you want any hints or guidance?

Tagged, this should be good!

Tag

An amazing experience to play this for the first time. Have fun!

Tag

Jakyl25 posted...

Do you want any hints or guidance?

Generally I'm casual about spoilers. I don't seek walkthroughs unless I'm stuck, but I like to learn about interesting stuff I might miss. Like, yesterday I spent a few minutes figuring out how to increase inventory size, so I might go check that one circle of rocks in the snow area again before I leave the great plateau.

So maybe say a few things, but not too liberally. Spoiler tags are cool too since depending on how it's phrased they let me choose if I wanna read or not.

Preferably no plot spoilers, though.

BotW is good stuff

The only kinda vague guidance I really want to give is follow the Impa quest line first until you get your Sheikah Slate upgraded. Itll be at the next place you go after Kakariko.

After that you should honestly feel free to explore literally anywhere in any manner you want.

Since you already learned about inventory expansion, thats a big one I dont have to tell you.

For a battle tip, try to parry the Guardian lasers. I dont think the game ever expressly tells you this.

Also did you buy the DLC? If so theres a must have DLC chest on the Plateau <_<

I did not.

So I played a bit and grabbed that korok seed I had spotted before. I love how apparently the biggest quest in the game is a huge OCD sequence.

However Ive been having a dry eyes condition from too much screen usage lately (a combination of work and gaming), so I guess I wont be playing this a lot during weekdays for the time being. Not the best timing to get a new system, I know. But what can I do.

On a side note, Link looks pretty cool walking with a spear. Its like Im playing monster hunter or something. Why did it take 30 years for the series to consider giving you different melee weapons from is what I wonder.

On another side note, they told me the Switch was good for travelling and for when the TV is contested, but not when you are just tired and dont want to sit on a chair. This is a great advancement for gaming.

I play my Switch in handheld like 85% of the time

It's just so convenient.

I use the glider to fly down from the Great Plateau. The letters "Hyrule Kingdom" appear. I'm immediately attacked by moblin. They somehow made moblins even uglier in this game.

It's tough and hits like a truck but also is easy to dodge so I kill it.

Then I'm ambushed and mauled by some bokoblins. This game pulls no punches.

The game has been giving me arrows more liberally lately so I'm trying to abuse them to die less. They don't hit super hard though. I miss TP where every moblin was critically weak to arrows for some reason. That game really wanted you to abuse the bow.

I find a camp of bokoblins surrounded by TNT barrels for some reason. I learn the hard way regular arrows don't explode barrels. I run, then watch as the bokoblins cutely get up, look around, then give up and go back to sleep.

Idiots. The second time, I use a fire arrow.

After walking through a long af plane wilderness, I made it to the game's 2nd tower which unlocks me the area map and a shrine search function. There be more shrines nearby.

But the JRPG player in me is telling to stop wasting time and get to Kakariko already.

I think I died like 50 times before kakariko, at least 20 of which were accidental bomb self destructs

ZeldaTPLink posted...

But the JRPG player in me is telling to stop wasting time and get to Kakariko already.

This game is all about exploring and getting lost in the beautiful world, so don't feel too bad about wasting time.

CassandraCain posted...

This game is all about exploring and getting lost in the beautiful world, so don't feel too bad about wasting time.

I disagree, at least until you access inventory expansion and the compendium

Once you get those, absolutely

Arrows hit as hard as the power of the bow youre using. It doesnt really make a ton of sense

the strength of the bow determines the speed of the arrow

Jakyl25 posted...

I disagree, at least until you access inventory expansion and the compendium

Fair enough, for a first playthrough that is certainly true.

Every time I've started a new game since though, it takes me a very long time to get to Kakariko. I'm pretty sure one of my playthroughs didn't even see me approaching the town until near the end of my journey.

In fact I usually start by going directly to Hyrule Castle. It's super fun exploring there when you have nothing, then when you're done you have some of the best equipment to continue your adventure. It was especially enjoyable the first time I did this because I had yet to explore the castle in full, since in my initial playthrough I just skipped everything and went straight for Ganon.

also you can do headshots with the bow if you're not already

WazzupGenius00 posted...

also you can do headshots with the bow if you're not already

Noted. Will try next time.

Arrows seem harder to aim this game, especially in far distances. They tend to curve and have more realistic trajectories. While in previous games they would just travel straight. In the N64 games you had to aim a little above the target, but it was always by the same amount so you could memorize the length. In TP you could just aim the tip of the arrow to the target, making for some fun moblin sniping times (Hidden Village, anyone?).

I look to the sky and the moon looks like a sun. Then the sky starts getting redder. Zelda warns me the night of the blood moon is when Ganon revives all the monsters. Oh, so thats why they never respawned! It's a timed event. Cool

Found a butcher, who buys all my crap bokoblin materials for hundreds of rupees. I guess thats the only way to get money in this game since enemies dont drop it. Or grass. Gone are the days of cutting grass for cash. I also buy some premium bird meat from him, cuz why not

Life hack: eat a meat skewer while you fall into a bottomless pit so your fall doesn't result into a game over.

How to get a horse in previous zeldas: Complete a long side quest involving saving a young farm girl and winning some mini games. Learn a song that summons the horse and develop a friendship with it

How to get a horse in BotW: Find a bokoblin riding a horse. Shoot it in the head. Take the horse for yourself

I love the song that plays while you ride.

I decide to explore some shrines before kakariko. The first one has wind puzzles. Next one has some rafts, but before I enter I have to avoid a flower maze, or a neaby lady who planted them will get angry and beat me to near death. Yeah

Before I know it Im venturing outside the kakariko region into who knows where, to kill lizalfos skeletons. I get now why people like to explore instead of going for objectives. But one more shrine and I'll go to kakariko, I swear

I find a woman being tormented by a bokoblin. I save her - by having my horse trample the bokoblin to death - she says she will go back to her stable. I follow her. When I arrive, I learn of the stable system. I can tame and then register up to 5 horses so I can pick them up at any stable. I name my horse Trampler.

The game warns me not to wear metallic equipment during storms so I dont get hit by lightning. The realism is going too far.

Npc: "the stable system can bring horses instantly from any part of the map."
Also npc: "you can whisper to your horse to call it. But your horse is not magical so it can't hear you from too far!" .
..
Alright mister, where are you keeping the ocarina?

Player some lego with iron blocks and magnetism and beat shrine 7

It's Beedle! I forgot which game he was from, but there was a guy named Beedle who sold stuff in other games. I think Minish Cap?

I try to reach what seems to be this area's tower. However it's an open grass field, full of guardians. I only make it out because my horse doesn't have an hp bar. The poor thing is literally set on fire but doesn't take damage. Alright, I got the memo. Lets go to Kakariko now.

On the way to Kakariko, Shrine 8 get. It was surrounded by spikes so I had to climb a mountain and jump from it to reach it. I teleport back to the temple of time to raise my stamina.

I find the game's second stable. I think it was supposed to be the first, if I hadnt taken a detour. Beat some dumb guy on a horse taming minigame where the actual challenge is not to be killed by octoroks while you tame the horse. I pick up some new horses, but they all got 2 stars on each stat, while Trampler has 3 on stamina. I don't see a point in getting a second horse now.

NPC tells me Kakariko is to the nothwest and some science city to the northeast. Resist the urge to go to science city first.

Beedle might have been in Minish Cap too, can't recall, but he originally appeared in Wind Waker.

Horses do have hp btw, it's just a lot. They can indeed die though, so be a bit more careful with your equine friend!

Zelda wiki says Beedle is in:

The Wind Waker
The Minish Cap
Phantom Hourglass
Spirit Tracks
Skyward Sword
Breath of the Wild

So he gets around.

Oh yeah I knew there was more than one game. I also saw him in WW. But I havent played SS or the DS zeldas.

That shrine surrounded by spikes is a great example of how the game allows creative puzzle solving. You can get into it either by the way you did, or by making an ice pillar with Cryonis and jumping over

Ive seen plenty of people just completely forget about Cryonis there though

You can also just burn the thorns away.

Good advice not to forget about Cryonis though, it's embarrassing the amount of times I didn't think about using that rune to make life a lot easier.

Can you burn thorns that are in the water?

Oooh I was thinking of a different shrine, sorry.

Looked online and the place full of guardians is right in front of Hyrule Castle.

Yeah ok I suppose I can come back when I have 115 shrines or something.

The first red moon I ever got freaked me tf out

There are two horse riding songs for day and night. They're phenomenal. Rearrangement of old tunes. I purposefully road around without getting into fights just to listen to those tracks

BTW in case you didnt know, there is at least one chest in every Shrine, and there will be a chest icon by the name of the Shrine on the map if you got every chest within.

Jakyl25 posted...

That shrine surrounded by spikes is a great example of how the game allows creative puzzle solving. You can get into it either by the way you did, or by making an ice pillar with Cryonis and jumping over

Ive seen plenty of people just completely forget about Cryonis there though

Not just puzzles but combat. I can't believe how fun raiding bokoblin camps has been. Every time I come with a different strategy. And sometimes I have to improvise on the spot, because arrows miss or bokos get stronger weapons.

Oh for sure, if you have a creative mind, every combat scenario can be unique

One negative (IMO) though is that you are disincentivized to fight, not only because of weapon durability, but also because overworld enemies level up based on how many of them you kill

Like a camp of 3 red and 1 blue Bokoblin now will eventually respawn as 3 blue and 1 black Bokoblin after a blood moon if you kill enough Bokoblins

But their weaponry will also level up, giving you ample opportunity to replace the weapons you use to defeat them.

CassandraCain posted...

But their weaponry will also level up, giving you ample opportunity to replace the weapons you use to defeat them.

This. I never felt disincentivized to fight, because I always came away with more weapons than I lost.

Yeah I had a bigger problem with never having enough space to keep all the shit I found. Maybe I was just way too efficient at fighting but I started to learn to just let loose and throw my weapons willynilly.

I swear I was going to Kakariko.

But then, in the road to it, there were blocks on a wall, an obvious puzzle. Gave me an OCD seed. Then I realized the blocks could be climbed to get to the top of the peak. Then I realized I could reach an even taller peak beside it. Then the next one. Before I knew it, I was trying to summit every peak in the region, to reach a shrine at the other side of it. Ive already seen all of Kakariko from above, too.

Btw, dodging guardian lasers while gliding hundreds of meters above the ground is fun. Scary, but fun.

Also met the npc who buys the OCD seeds for inventory upgrades. Though he only wanted 2 for now.

I spend minutes just watching the view of Hyrule from the top of the Dueling Peaks. What a game.

Shrines 9 and 10 gotten. With a single puzzle, a memory game shared between both shrines, representing the two peaks. Neat.

Also found a sword that has 32 attack, more than double of anything I've found so far. I feel like I'm gonn hoard this one for a while.

Everything the light touches is your kingdom. That could be the game's quote

Unless its raining. Then the mountains are wet and you cant climb shit. Not much light in rainy days.

And at last, Kakariko.

Is it just me or this city has more sheikahs than the entire franchise combined. Where were they before?

I meet Impa and get a lore dump. Cool cinematics with the battle against Ganon being shown in a scroll. And now I have to go to Hateno, the science village, to get my sheikah tablet fixed before I can go to the dungeons.

After I get another 5-10 shrines, though. Ofc.

You like Hestus dance? Hes the best

Jakyl25 posted...

You like Hestus dance? Hes the best

It... exists.

I'm more stunned that the biggest sidequest in the entire franchise was triggered by a pack of bokoblins who stole a pair of marakas and dumped its contents in the nearest river or something.

Can you imagine the poor people who didnt take the road to Kakariko and never found Hestu until WAY later if at all? Stuck with the base inventory the whole game?

Hestu should be at stables like Beedle

Well he's on the road leading from Kakariko to Hateno, so if you followed Impa's advice (as I assume most people would their first time playing) then Hestu is hard to miss. Of course, there definitely had to be some poor souls that didn't spot him until much later one way or another.

I actually prefer playing with limited inventory space now. I found that with too many slots I would just hoard some weapons and never use them, which bothered me. The limited space forces me to use everything. Except shields, they rarely break on me since I exclusively use them for parrying and well... because I visit Hyrule Castle right after leaving the plateau >_>

Those are victims of unnecessarily extreme no spoiler policies.

I always try to find out how to get rid of annoying gameplay restrictions as soon as I can. No point in suffering all game.

Jakyl25 posted...

Can you imagine the poor people who didnt take the road to Kakariko and never found Hestu until WAY later if at all? Stuck with the base inventory the whole game?

Hestu should be at stables like Beedle

While I did find Hestu, I only ever found enough seeds for like 3 extra slots in my inventory so I can sort of imagine it. >_>

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Those are victims of unnecessarily extreme no spoiler policies.

I always try to find out how to get rid of annoying gameplay restrictions as soon as I can. No point in suffering all game.

If that's the case, then there is one specific Divine Beast I would suggest you do sooner than later.

TeamRocketElite posted...

While I did find Hestu, I only ever found enough seeds for like 3 extra slots in my inventory so I can sort of imagine it. >_>

wow

Dropping glowing weapons on the floor to pick up a torch never stopped hurting.