Board 8 > Zelda finally plays Breath of the Wild

(+) Yeah! (+)

I don't think I explored it thoroughly on my first playthrough, which is what enticed me to go there immediately on a replay (also for another secret reason). I was determined to see it all, and the lack of gear made it incredibly tense, especially with limited prior knowledge of how all the paths connected.

I dunno I guess I'm just more careful when it comes to exploring places in games. But I'll remember this if I ever replay this game.

Yeah I am kinda sad that I never went into Hyrule Castle til the very end of the game and also kind of was fatigued with the game in general at that point and just wanted it to be over.

I ended up just climbing over all the walls and getting right to the Ganon fight without actually doing much of the castle proper. Maybe if I ever end up replaying it I'll try doing it earlier and without cheesing it.

Count me in the Hyrule Castle is the best part of the game and possibly the entire series camp

Count me in the "i was ready to finish the game and basically skipped exploring the castle and went straight for the end, and didn't truly appreciate it until my 2nd playthrough" camp

I appreciate how the game nudges you to explore it before the endgame, with quests and a memory that require you to go in and get back out to turn them in before you go to Ganon (because you dont know how the post-game is structured at that point!)

Yeah that's definitely what they were trying to do, but personally my interpretation of those quests on my first playthrough, was:

• "oh ok, they're reminding me I can go beat the game early if I want to"
• or "oh ok, this is like an endgame quest, stuff to do after I've beated the game I bet"
• or "oh ok, they want to annoy me by making me get halfway through the final dungeon, and then I have to back out and do it all over, typical video game BS".

That last one might be 'cause I played too much early World of Warcraft, where there are constantly annoying quests that ask you to go halfway into a dungeon, exit, turn it in, then go back inside to do the next quest, all only to annoy you.

The Zelda series does have precedent for having to go through a major dungeon multiple times, a little deeper each time

Shrine 77 found behind a waterfall in Faron. I'd actually guessed this one ages ago, but was too lazy to go look for it. The Faron region might be the least exploration friendly in the map. The shrine radar gave me the extra nudge I needed to beat the laziness.

I went to the castle. Spent a while farming guardians (can't believe that's a sentece I wrote) then got close enough that the game showed a cutscene with ganon flying around, and EPIC music started playing.

After a couple minutes, I just stop. it feels wrong. The music is epic, but I'm arbitrarily sneaking in before the right time to steal a memory and some royal guard items or whatever. I'm very invested in the plot at this point, and I want the attack on the castle to be the real deal. This ain't it. I teleport out.

Shrine 78 is gotten on death mountain, from a quest about finding a hungry goron lost in a tunnel, then carrying a meat-shaped rock uphill to feed him (a classic from majora's mask). The game tries to make this difficult by spawing more moblins than logic should allow and have all of them spam fire arrows while fire chuchus attack

But...

Is it just me but getting the full flame set and upgrading it twice trivializes the whole region. Link just casually NOPEs all the fire attacks and takes the rock all the way to the top.

Well, at least watching the happiness with which gorons "cook" a piece of rock then chew it is pretty amusing. And the shrine is a weird one, with a slope that drops both endless deadly boulders and endless money. Greedy Hill or something. Cool theme. Shrine 78 down.

Akkala is really beautiful when you jump from death mountain and look at the region from the top. The NPCs say it's empty, but it's really full of landmarks, like a platformer game or something.

I challenge a blue lynel. One mipha's grace, 2 fairies and a broken guardian axe ++later, I realize this isn't working. Gotta start with the red one first, I guess.

Also I feel like I already skipped most of the "magic" I would have gotten from going to it very early in the game. Right now I'd just be doing it in two parts.

Nah. I wanna come in, with 4 champions and 120 shrines, from the front door, as if I own the place and Ganon just had a nightmare about me coming to kill him, which is about to come true in the most epic way imaginable.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

The NPCs say it's empty, but it's really full of landmarks, like a platformer game or something.

BotW's map design is essentially perfect and what every open world game should strive for. The landmarks are set up so that you can find your way around by just observing your surroundings (npcs and signs pointing accurately to specific locations can help too).

Another challenge I had in place for my second playthrough was no map and no fast travel. It added an extra level of immersion that felt completely unique and incredible. Finding my way around an open world without a compass/markers is not something I would ever try in another game, but it works so seamlessly in this one.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Also I feel like I already skipped most of the "magic" I would have gotten from going to it very early in the game. Right now I'd just be doing it in two parts.

Nah. I wanna come in, with 4 champions and 120 shrines, from the front door, as if I own the place and Ganon just had a nightmare about me coming to kill him, which is about to come true in the most epic way imaginable.

If you do that, at least don't go straight to Ganon when you go in. Revali's gale lets you skip like the whole castle, but it's by far the most fun place to explore in the game. It's sprawling and filled with loot and secrets. I just feel like beating the final boss only after exploring and dominating the place is the way to go.

I'm really hoping Tears of the Kingdom has a bunch of "open dungeons" like Hyrule Castle. I would be cool with a mix of like four or five of these massive open dungeons and four or five more traditional, linear dungeons.

If they could pull off a mix of both, it could be a perfect game.

_Blur_ posted...

If you do that, at least don't go straight to Ganon when you go in. Revali's gale lets you skip like the whole castle, but it's by far the most fun place to explore in the game. It's sprawling and filled with loot and secrets. I just feel like beating the final boss only after exploring and dominating the place is the way to go.

I'm really hoping Tears of the Kingdom has a bunch of "open dungeons" like Hyrule Castle. I would be cool with a mix of like four or five of these massive open dungeons and four or five more traditional, linear dungeons.

If they could pull off a mix of both, it could be a perfect game.

Oh definitely. I gotta at least kill every single thing in the castle.

I already noticed the master sword doesn't break while in there.

One of the Shrines is on the Castle grounds, so you cant actually go in with 120

Clearing the shrines in Ridgelands now. 79 is at an island west of Hyrule Castle. 80 is the trial of Thundra Plateau, which involves taking four colored orbs to corresponding platforms while a horrible wheather goes on. This is mostly a test of patience on dealing with the effects of wheather. Climbing structures, finding the right place to hit the orb so it reaches the plateau, putting the sledgehammer away before a thundebolt hits you.

I also see the fire dragon, which is weird because I thought it would be a death mountain. I try to teleport to a shrine near it and it vanishes. Meh.

Find another shrine. To unlock it, it serms I have to stand naked on a platform under a red moon. The problem is how do I trigger a red moon? They are weekly or something. And I havent found any shortcuts nearby so I can just come here next time there is one.

Seems like I'll have to do it the old fashioned way. Link is standing naked on that platform while I type this sequence.

The real test is enduring the Rito Bard's repetitive song while you wait.

While I wait, Link stops to flex his own biceps and look at them. That's uh... some characterization

A shooting star just fell a mile away. It taunts me to give up on this wait and go pick up the space rock.

I get tired and decide to explore a nearby hill with a cherry tree on top. The tree is actually a korok. And I've actually been here before. There was a ghost horse that I tried to tame and failed to (forgot to write about it back then). But there is also shrine 81, in the middle of some rocks, which I didnt find last time because the radar wasnt on. Well this is a decent shortcut to the red moon shrine, I guess I'll try to use it when there is a red moon because waiting is so boring.

Continuing to clear the shrine quest list, I climb the Gerudo Highlands, to find a marking in the mountain that seems man made. It is a huge target that Im supposed to hit with a lightning arrow. A tad arbitrary I'd say. 82 shrines.

I get to Gerudo Summit, where Farosh (you again?) and a white lynel (a new benchmark for strongest being in the game) wait for me. Pass.

Why is there a sword the size of a house here?

I return to Ridgelands for the dragon I'm actually hunting, the fire one. Getting a scale from it is rather easy now that I know when it appears. It tries to burn me but have I mentioned I have a fire suit? The only annoying part is fighting the guardian scout IV at the Spring of Power, which at this point of the game is just a glorified damage sponge. Shrine 83 get.

Taluses are fun to kill (I needed the interet to help me, but the solution was ingenious. Just climb them!) but the best part of how they might be the most profitable hunts in the zelda series. Each Talus drops almost 1k worth of ores. The biggest wallet in Ocarina of Time can't hold the value of a single Talus's loot.

Each dragon travels multiple regions

Blood moons trigger when youve killed X amount of enemies and the game needs to clear its memory of which ones are dead, so the only way to trigger it really (aside from some goofy speed run strats) is to go on a murder spree. Theres a guy at the stable on the road to Kakariko that can tell you what moon phase is coming that night even in the middle of the day, if you want to use that to predict when you need to get nakey nakey

If you want to save yourself a small bit of time later, snap a pic of that huge sword

Jakyl25 posted...

Each dragon travels multiple regions

Blood moons trigger when youve killed X amount of enemies and the game needs to clear its memory of which ones are dead

What

This is incorrect. I've definitely had blood moons occur where I've killed next to nothing. They just happen after a few real world hours, though there are caveats and specific instances they can happen quicker.

E: If you want the most in-depth explanation possible of the system used to trigger blood moons, here you go

https://www.reddit.com/r/Breath_of_the_Wild/comments/9t0xdz/clarifying_the_time_system_blood_moons_and_lord/

(See the panic blood moon section for the explanation of why the memory resetting thing for enemies specifically is "total nonsense")

Yeah I noticed dragons travel a lot becsuse I've seen Farosh in 3 places already.

Just thought it was weird Ive never seen the fire one at death mountain or Akkala but its on the other side of the map.

_Blur_ posted...

What

This is incorrect. I've definitely had blood moons occur where I've killed next to nothing. They just happen after a few real world hours, though there are caveats and specific instances they can happen quicker.

E: If you want the most in-depth explanation possible of the system used to trigger blood moons, here you go

https://www.reddit.com/r/Breath_of_the_Wild/comments/9t0xdz/clarifying_the_time_system_blood_moons_and_lord/

(See the panic blood moon section for the explanation of why the memory resetting thing for enemies specifically is "total nonsense")

Well I suppose Ive been bamboozled!

So there is this platform with a hole for an orb near the Kakariko fairy fountain that is an obvious shrine. Problem is that I'd never figured out how to unlock it. Normally there is either a bard nearby, with a dong that says exactly what you have to do, or a very visible NPC at the nearest town who will give you the quest as soon as you talk to them. I spend a good hour at Kakariko talking to everyone, but no dice. Until I find the orb inside Impa's house. However Impa forbids me from grabbing it since it's a sheikah heirloom. Crap.

So what do I have to do to get the orb? Find all 12 memories? All 4 beasts?

I check a guide.

But I make a point to only get the minimum info, which is that the quest to get the orb will appear once I do all the other major quests the village has to offer. And I'm just missing one, which requires talking to the armor shop girl at night after leaves work but before she goes to sleep, so she will ask you for some fireflies.

This game could have used a Bomber's Notebook.

After the quest, I go to sleep, and next day, the orb gets stolen. The shrine quest is to figure out whodunnit, and punish the criminal.

The guards of Impa's house only saw two people come in, the shopkeeper girl, and an old lady who plants carrots. I start patrolling the city at night, and soon I find both of them doing shady things. However both those things are completely unrelated to the stolen orb.

Finally, it turns out one of the guards also had an agenda. I spot him going to the shrine pad, and follow him. Turns out he is not the thief, instead, it's a guy from the Yiga Clan. The guard used to be part of the clan, but he fell in love and defected. But the clan killed his wife and started threatenining to kill his children, so he has been giving them information since then. When he finally decided to cut ties, they stole the orb and decided to eliminate him. I put an end to this madness, by taking down the yiga with the good ol' rain + thunder blade combo. The guard then asks me to hide what happened, and pleads loyalty to my quest. I put the orb at its rightful place and get shrine 84.

Very cool quest. 9.5/10. It just needed to have some hint for the firefly quest that preceeded it to be perfect.

Before leaving, I also spot one if the guard's kids going to the graveyard in the morning, to mourn her mother. I love the little details.

There is a huge canyon separating Ridgelands and Tabantha. When I shot fire dragon for his scale, it fell inside. I had initially assumed the canyon was bottomless, but when I stopped to look, I saw lizalfos on the ground, as well as some ruins.

I looked at the world map and saw a place called Forgotten Temple in the northern edge of the canyon. Alright, I need to check it out.

The temple is a massive structure. The fact it's so out of place (literally inside a hole) suggests it's from thousands of years ago. It's also packed full of decayed guardians, over 10 of them. I managed to get past that madness to claim shrine 85.

I then buy the 2nd piece of ancient armor. Should have done that before facing the dozen guardians, but better late than never I guess.

I suppose it's the perfect timing to attempt another labyrinth, though. There's one in the desert and one in the snow area. I do the desert one.

Before I get there, I go over a hill, where someone left an abandoned camp near another shrine. Their diary says I have to make a cold shadow over the shrine pad, and the NPC lacked the means to do it. This stumbles me at first, but eventually I figure out you gotta make ice cubes with cryonis to block the sun. Shtine 86 get.

I get to the labirynth. Which is rather lame because this one doesn't have guardians. Shrine 87 is quite tricky to find but eventually trial and error gets it done.

I cross over to the desert and see another shrine in the distance, near the egde of the map. Seems to easy to be true, and it is. There is a thirsty gerudo who decided to faint on the pedestal that opens the shrine door. She wants a specific drink i've never heard about, and now I suppose I need to find the one NPC in the game who randomly mentions the recipe when you talk to them. I guess they are probably in Gerudo Town. Let's try this the normal way before I check a guide.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

eventually I figure out you gotta make ice cubes with cryonis to block the sun.

What?! Never even thought to use cryonis on that puzzle, I always went through the trouble of rolling up one of those snowballs and using its shadow.

Still learning new things even after all these years, what an incredible game!

And you are correct about the npc being in Gerudo town, shouldn't be too difficult to figure out which lady serves drinks ;)

...You can use cryonis??

Wow

I like to watch BotW LPs and youre only the second person Ive seen use Cryonis there

The Forgotten Temple is meant to be the temple from Skyward Sword leading to the huge Goddess statue from Skyloft, as are the Springs which match 1:1 to the Springs from that game

I didn't know snowballs were a thing in this game.

But yeah there are small puddles of water right at the spot and I thought they looked conspicuous.

Jakyl25 posted...

I like to watch BotW LPs and youre only the second person Ive seen use Cryonis there

The Forgotten Temple is meant to be the temple from Skyward Sword leading to the huge Goddess statue from Skyloft, as are the Springs which match 1:1 to the Springs from that game

Haven't played SS so I didn't get the references.

Oh jeez, theres a reference later on youre REALLY not gonna notice then

The Forgotten Temple was the very last thing I found in this game (funny enough your reward for all 120 shrines spawns there too) and it filled me with joy as a huge Skyward Sword fan.

I took down a lynel.

I went to fight the one at the entrance of Mt. Lanayru. Then I got there and realized it was blue, and I wanted to start with red. I decided to go anyway.

It wasn't that hard? I dunno, I guess it weapon was weaker than the weapon the Akkala lynel uses. Because my lv 3 soldier armor could take a lot of hits. I was still terrible at dodging it, but after a while I started catching some patterns. I had to stop to eat some food mid fight, so I still can't kill one without healing, I suppose. But that's on the game for making food OP. Its HP is still obscene so this was a long battle of resistance. Eventually it fell, and just I was collecting the loot, the ice dragon passed flying above, as if to congratulate me.

With that I managed to complete the Riddles of Hyrule quest and also start upgrading my Barbarian gear, both which require lynel parts.

On the way to the lynel, I also spotted shrine 88, behind a waterfall at some watery ruins. I had spent some time exploring the place before, but it had so many interesting bits I couldn't look at everything. I need to remember stuff behind waterfalls are a gaming staple.

If you ever need a base Red Lynel for farming or a compendium shot or whatever, the one from the Shock Arrow quest never upgrades

Short session this time. I did the red moon quest for shrine 89 that requires Link to stand naked on a platform, thanks to an NPC who can predict the next red moon.

Spent some time farming cold chuchu jellies and ice keese wings at Mt. Lanayru to upgrade heat clothes since I'm going to the desert next. I also need to upgrade my winter clothes, but those require warm staffinas, which are found in the desert. That's a bit of a paradox going on.

Beat a quest about finding a zora's dude lost wife after multiple searches, by just bumping into her at lake hylia. She was just fishing and didn't notice the time pass. So she dumps all the fish she has caught on me as the quest "reward" and rushes back to Zora Domain.

Also advanced the city building quest, by recruiting a Rito named Feyson to be the city's shotkeeper. I'm enjoying this quest but also doing it slowly because it keeps asking for increasingly larger amount of wood, and gathering that is annoying.

Great way to get wood is to go behind the stable near Rito village and just go crazy bombing every log and tree

I go to the desert. They don't let me take my horse into it. Lame.

Sand seals will have to do

I ride one to some ruins that really remind me of Arbitrer Grounds from TP. The location matches too. After solving a puzzle with some metal balls, I find shrine 90.

Yesterday I had a different nostalgia session, when I found a place named Ranch Ruins at hyrule field. Very dangerous, with guardians and silver bokos, but after I dispatched them, I realized it's a replica of Lon Long Ranch, but in ruins. You can see where each building used to be, from the central fence, to the barn in the back that had a heart container, and even some pots at the entrance. Damn.

Shrine 91 is a puzzle about shooting the sun with an arrow at the right spot at the right hour of the day. Which I'm sure I'd have had a lot more trouble to figure out if I hadn't played Ocarina
Completed the ancient armor set, which is ugly as fuck but means guardian beams probably deal puny damage to me now.

The rito who opened a shop at my city sells every arrow in the game (except ancient) at rather cheap prices. Neat.

There is a sand seal racing tournament. The prize is the orb that opens a shrine. The champion is a gerudo with a red afro, who has a coach following her around and praising her skills. Amazing.

I can only race after I deal with mecha camel, though

Fought a thing named molduga, which is a giant sand fish. It nearly kicked my ass, but it folds if you leave a single bomb on its path while its coming for you underground. Then it stays above ground for the rest of the fight. The song that plays while you fight it it awesome though

Gerudo Town's security is absolutely tight and stone masks aren't a thing in this game.

Clearly there is only one thing left for Link to do if he wants to get in.

Dress like a girl.

Gerudo town is a cool place. Lots of shops, gerudos very different from each other, some quests. There are also hylian girls, rito girls, a goron dude... wait what

Are gorons genderless or something? Now that I think of it Ive never seen a female goron. This raises a lot of questions. Are they born from rocks like in Steven Universe maybe? Or are they allowed in because they provided all the ores in hyrule? I can't imagine that would make good politics though.

I meet the gerudo chief, a teenage girl named Riju.

She is... incredibly clever. She instantly figures out who Link is. Then shes like "well you are a dude but if you say you can control mecha camel I'll let it slide". We need a thunder helm to approach it though, and "conveniently", it has been stolen. Time for a quest.

One thing I really like about the gerudo in this game is that the thieves theme is completely gone. They are merchants not thieves. They live in a town not a fortress. Which has shops and houses and bars, with gerudo drinking and gossiping and reading books, not just walking around with weapons. There are gerudo children and elderly too. It makes them feel more like a civilization instead of an entry in the bestiary. The gerudo felt kind of out of place in Ocarina and Majora imo.

Theres a shop that lets me buy accessories that increase resistance to elements but those seem completely outclassed by all my +2 full sets.

I thought only the sheikah knew Link slept for 100 years, but so does Riju. That's some good intel. Other races basically forgot about it, if they ever knew.

IIRC the Goron implies that other races cant tell Goron men and women apart.

If you get the chance, try to attend the classroom where theyre teaching each other how to attract a man. Its good stuff

shrine 92 is the one the thirsty gerudo was blocking. turns out you don't have to make a drink for her, just tell her to go to the bar. But the bar is out of ice, so you have to fix that first, by carrying an ice block through some ruins full of fire breathing enemies. I somehow make it to the end with a very small cube that is apparently enough

I continue the main quest, by going to the Yiga clan. It's s stealth mission. Well, you can try to fight all Yiga, but they have insta kill weapons here, no matter how much defense you have.

There is a salvation, though. Bananas! The Yiga love it so much they will stop whatever they are doing if they see a banana on the floor, to go grab it.

This raises some questions. Are all sheikah addicted to bananas? Or just the ones who defected to ganon's side? I haven't seen any bananas in Kakariko. Perhaps Impa banned the fruit because of all the misery the addiction was causing, and the reason some sheikah decided to defect is so they can eat bananas all day, free from the shackles of society.

The mission is still pretty hard, though. There's this room with like 4 of them and just a few blocks to hide behind. Stealth missions are annoying. I give up to try again later.

Did you skip the Gerudo Village fast travel Shrine?

Hints for that stealth room:

Going up to the rafters is the easy path. Plus youll find their secret stash

Also you can set fire to one of the banners on the right side for a lucrative secret path

Jakyl25 posted...

Did you skip the Gerudo Village fast travel Shrine?

No, I did that like 20 shrines ago when I briefly explored the desert to complete the map.

Jakyl25 posted...

Hints for that stealth room:

Going up to the rafters is the easy path. Plus youll find their secret stash

Also you can set fire to one of the banners on the right side for a lucrative secret path

I found both, but the secret stash is still closer to the entrance than to any exit (I think), unless there is some clever way to jump from it without being found. And I died twice trying to get to the secret path.

I'm probably missing something obvious because in general those main quest sections have been really easy compared to the game's optional content.

I guess I could glide straight from the stash to the path behind the banner? Dunno if the yiga can see me flying above them, but it doesn't hurt to try.

The worst part is how you have to redo the whole dungeon from the start if you are seen even once.

No I dont think youre missing anything

And yeah I feel pretty confident Link could take all these dorks if it wasnt magically OHKO. I understand the frustration

I wonder if you could cheese everything with ice arrows

What happens if you try and fight and are actually strong/good enough to get the job done?

TeamRocketElite posted...

What happens if you try and fight and are actually strong/good enough to get the job done?

You can do it.

They're just coded to always OHKO you so you have to fight perfectly. On the flip side, they're also coded to always die in one hit from stealth strikes.

EDIT: Also if you really wanna cheese it, just go farm a couple ancient arrows to one shot them from a distance.

You could probably also kite them around with bombs

I give up on the banana infiltration for now and go explore the area to the south of lake hylia, which is a bit untouched.

Finding shrines now is like looking for a needle in a haystack, but I find one (93). In a classic case of the developer doing drugs, the orb is right in front if the keyhole but a random lady has it, and she is in love with it. But show her some photos of guardians and she will give you the orb, because she loves those too. Whatever, Nintendo.

Also see a thing in the map that looks promising, and it's a fairy fountain! Wait no it's the horse god. It asks me to give it 1k rupees so it can bring dead horses of mine back to life. I have no dead horses, but I pay anyway because I'm curious. The horse god has a really cool design, which reminds me from Majora's Mask, so I'm only a little sad for throwing all those rupees away.

Also found a horseback shooting minigame that I'm terrible at, and heard some stuff about a giant horse that I have to check out later.

Test results: freezing the Yiga guard will make them call their friends, even if they can't see you.

This is an open world game that rewards creativity, but nintendo wanted to railroad the player in this specific dungeon and they are not taking no for an answer.

Yeah I kinda figured that would be the result of using ice arrows. You'd have to rush through the hideout before they unfreeze and call the alarm. Using ancient arrows seems like the only real cheese method.

I enjoy that sequence of forced stealth quite a bit though, as I'm a naturally sneaky person. It might help to cook some food that will give you a stealth boost, pretty much the only instance in the game where that's useful.