Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

@Nicolai The cel-shaded Zeldas tend to look really bad if cast in realistic lighting (TWWHD treasure chests). I think it's to do with the simple textures on the models, but I'm not sure.

Well, considering their "textures" are solid colors... If you remove the high-contrast toon shaders, you end up with a boring, plain, shovelwarely model.

@Meowpheel Yeah, there's not a lot of detail in the assets themselves, the filter does a lot of the work in giving them definition and 'depth.' Since some people can apparently emulate Breath on Wii U you'd think we'd have seen this before. The emulation is really crap, but I know they can do screenshots.

@Nicolai Cut out the climbing. That ruined the game's progression I think. Limit Link's climbing to a certain amount of time instead of his stamina (+ ladders can be climbed forever). That way you can introduce actual physical barriers. Two of the springs in BOTW were completely ruined for me since I approached them from the wrong side, I hopped down a ledge, discovered a spring and got the reward shrine. Only later I discovered the dozens of Lizalfos that were supposed to guard the entrance to the spring...

But yes, ideally we go back to a pre-SS 3D Zelda game after this one.

Oh, and by the way guys, about The Witcher 3, I have yet to see a game with an hour long optional side quest that may or may not end up with the death of one or two major characters. That's how you do side quests. What the game lacks in combat, it makes up in every single other aspect of the game.

@Octane There's also situations like when you meet your first Lynel and Hinox, you can either go through a long snowy area to get to Hateno or just climb up and completely skip the snowy area. The game expects you to go through the snowy area and learn about cold enough weather that can't be negated by any clothing.

@Octane - Hi, you have removed my post about Donkey Kong - this is valid information, yes its my YouTube channel, but how am I supposed to spread news if not myself. That's like saying Nintendo can't advertise themselves about current news...

Do you not feel a Donkey Kong ride at Universal Studios is relevant???

A Cranky Kong ride at Disneyland? Boy howdy!

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@Wdk408 This is a forum, not a public billboard. Additionally, I already told you not to post your videos here. Anyway, this thread isn't the place to discuss this. Should you have any further inquiries, please contact us directly: https://www.nintendolife.com/contact

@rjejr I saw you beat BotW. What did you think of the final boss fight?

@Octane Hey Octane when did you get all "we" and have that star put next to your name? I know you've been here awhile but I still view you as a Pushsquare guy. (Don't ask me why, nobody knows why I think anything that I do.)

@rjejr It's been there a while, one or two years I think? And I'm more active here than over at PushSquare

Though I wish the forums got more traffic, I feel we need a general PlayStation thread or something like that.

one of the perks of being a mod is that we get to use the royal "we" every now and then

@shadow-wolf I know my avatar pic could be a bit spoilery, but it's small and most people are probably going to zoom right by it, and I doubt anyone can read it. And I think most people here finished the game months ago anyway. And I usually change my avatar every month or so anyway so it won't last.

Final boss fight was weird. I already knew about the half-health, both my kids finished it way before I did, though they got to Ganon about 50 hours in, I was up to 175, I play thoroughly. I've never ever liked timing compents in games so that shielded part was annoying. And my kids had warned me about it, they said the only way to beat it was jump avoid his attack. Fortuantley after breaking about 3 shields - never did find shield of Hyrule in the castle - I realized I could send back the laser, then he died right quick it maybe 3 hits. Arrow thing was a bit too weird and easy, even for me, and I hate hard, but it just didn't seem to make any sense. Why does Ganon have weak points? I think there were several similar battles in Hyrule Warriors w/ Link on horseback that were much better.

As for the after game, well I had already been playing for 175 hours so I wasn't expecting much. It was better than the end of the 4th Hunger Games movie but I suppose that isnt' saying much. If you want a really good boss battle I hated the heck out of the single player Spaltoon boss. Took me 13 tries to beat it, cursing like a madman all the way. But Ganon is Ganon, at least it made sense. I finished Ni No Kuni on the PS3 last year and the final boss, well it was just stupid and made absolutely no sense. My entire family watched me play that entire game and they were all like WTF was that?!?!

Let's just say it isn't the reason to play the game, but it didn't hurt the game any. Zelda. Link. Ganon. The end.

@Octane Wow really, that long huh? Sorry I never noticed. Do you mean the PS forums? These always seem pretty active on NL but yeah it's slow over there. Even back in my 100 comments per day years I wasn't in those over there. I just assumed older crowd over there, people w/ jobs; younger fans over here, millennials own the internet. Well have fun, next time you give me a right talking to I'll pay more attention.

@rjejr Yeah, I meant PushSquare. Since the NL forums are more active, it's easier to spam nonsense over here. Tasuki would've kicked me out if did the same in the PS forums.

Never really thought about it, maybe the kids have their own PlayStation forum? But I don't really know of any other PS focused forum.

Can you elaborate? I'm struggling to think of any difference (the stamina meter is sort of a timer).

But... wasn't that the shrine the Treehouse team used to demonstrate how areas could be approached by any side?

I was disappointed the tree mechanic wasn't expanded upon. I can think of just three places in the entire map where a tree could be chopped and used as a bridge, and none of them specifically required the player to do so. I was expecting all manner of interesting tree-based puzzles. Nope, mere scenery for the most part.

And that could sum up BotW: loads of potential, most of it wasted. Exploration seldom led to anything worth finding; I completed it a few months ago and already forgotten most of the experience. It's certainly not as memorable as most of the other Zelda games.

I am of course looking forward to BotW2.

@Monkey_Balls Gliding, swimming, and running would still be bound by the stamina meter, in case you want to upgrade that one. Climbing would have its own fixed (small) stamina meter. That way you can't cheat your way over mountains with enough food, and they can also implement real physical barriers. Yes, there were some walls you couldn't climb, but mountains and castle walls can now also be used as actual barriers. You can still climb stuff, but your range is limited. I think that would help narrow the ''freedom'' down in some areas, and they can have actual level design in some areas, linearity can be a good thing.

@Octane Ah, that makes sense; thanks. Yeah, I'd welcome something like that, especially if they fixed the climbing glitch/trick (that ruined the game for me; I can't recall using many food buffs to climb. Didn't need to).

The idea of a truly open world was good in theory I suppose but (as mentioned in my last post) the sense of discovery was lacking somewhat. That probably wouldn't have mattered as much if they had included a bit more linearity (actual level design, as you say). Rather than spot something and merely need to climb endless mountains to reach it (only to discover it was nothing great), having a few challenges or set-pieces along the way would have at least made the trek seem worthwhile.

One could argue that the shrines provided the set-pieces/discovery. While a welcome distraction they were too short-lived and isolated to really make a dent on the experience. I struggle to recall any of the 120 shrines with much enthusiasm (if at all), which is rare for a Zelda game. I hope Nintendo ditch the "open-air" aspect in the next installment.

Right!? The Great Plateau and two platforms in Tabantha! Of course there were reasons to use trees as things other than bridges here and there, but few felt like intentional Zelda puzzles.