Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

@gamer1000k The start feels open, but no where near as open as once you start to build up your skills with the game. This is a game that feels easy to figure out right way and a person might feel like they understand things from playing previous games, but once you figure out that you are always learning and gaining skills as you keep playing, you understand the learning curve always is teaching you something.
Even the environment is an enemy that needs to be dealt with.
I am over 300 hours in and I keep finding strategies and things I had no idea were in the game.

Weapon breaking is a challenge at the start, but once you get better weapons and learn, not only how to use each weapon best, but which weapons are right for each situation and how and when to use them. It gets easier, a lot easier. I do not even think twice about common enemies anymore. After I wrapped my head around how the game wants you to use weapons, many weapons are basically throw away items and yet also items to hold onto for specific enemies. Figuring out the balance is key. I found the weapon durability a necessary and elegant control method in exchange for a completely open world game. Since you technically can run right to the "end" and grab some of the best weapons right away, (if you know where they are), not having them "break" would make the game way too easy. Initially I would hold onto everything and use everything sparingly, but then I realized that weapons are everywhere and it is very hard to really ever run out. You will figure out that even the weapons have a strategy to them. What do you keep, what do you discard.... You will figure out which ones are good for the easy guys and which ones to hold on to.

About dying quickly, especially at the start, treat this game like a stealth type game. Think about every battle you get into, later on in the game, it gets much easier. And you will not need to give typical battles even a second thought. Do not rush into battles early in the game. And figure out early what kind of armor suits your game play style and focus on getting that first. Figure out how to sneak up on enemies and use strategy.

You will have many, many aha moments. And figuring out how to use items in ways not initially obvious is fun too.

I hope you are playing on "normal mode" and not Master Mode first. Jumping into Master Mode would be very difficult without knowing the mechanics and having good game strategy under your belt.

Have fun, and try not to look too many things up, discovery is way more fun in this game (and there are a lot of things to discover) than just looking things up. But do not let yourself get stuck too much either. I can honestly say I have never played a game like it. Few games brought me back to 10 year old me with the wonder of exploration of the original Legend of Zelda like this one did.

So it sounds like the main issue with BoTW is the early game difficulty curve then (ramps up way too fast). Still a fairly major flaw, but glad to hear it gets better later on. Maybe they could have put one of the combat shrines on the Great Plateau (along with some sneaking challenge) to highlight how different these aspects are in this game and provide some tips for new players.

Seems like Nintendo has had trouble with the early game in the Zelda series since OoT and haven't really nailed it since (Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword had ridiculously long tutorials, but now it's gone the other way and doesn't really teach you much of anything before throwing you into the fray).

@gamer1000k - I wouldn't call the difficulty curve a flaw, more a delight of the game.

There were times at the start where I had to run away from confrontation, which yes, was frustrating at the time but later on you can revisit that area stronger.

One of the joys I had with the game was the Guardians. To begin they are genuinely run away! when they lock on and the music starts - but eventually you get strong almost without realising and start actively searching the Guardians out to fight.

Taking my first Lynel down was a moment too. There was a real sense of growing within the game.

@gamer1000k I spent a long time on the Great Plateau before I left and that might have given me an advantage. So I was fairly well equip and skilled up before I left. I had a ton of arrows and I had most early weapons and enemies understood. I did not feel the drastic difficult spike you speak of. I guess if you get off the great plateau and did not take much time to gather any resources but just do the minimal required, it might be more difficult. And it will depend what direction you go too. Some area of the map are far more difficult than others. I got a horse right a way. That made travel easier at the start until I unlocked more jump points. But once I learned that death has very little consequence, I did not let it bother me so much. It is just a little bump on the road. Most other games, death can have a big penalty, but here it is just part of the learning curve. Initially I let it bother me, even now, it just tells me I did something wrong and I need to figure it out.
I hated the hand holding in previous game. I gave up on both of those games out of boredom before the tutorials were done and I never went back. But I really thought BotW was refreshing. But I had not really enjoyed a Zelda game until BotW since Link's Awakening. I am sure I would enjoy ALBW though. I just need to play it.

I pretty much just followed the main quest markers as soon as they came up and headed east to Kakariko village and then off to Hetano village, and grabbed shrines along the way. I haven't spent a lot of time grinding, other than gathering random ingredients I come across to cook and sell.

I know that there isn't any penalty for death beyond having to sit through a loading screen, but it still does get annoying to die again and again and again (especially when a lot of those deaths are one-hit-kills from enemies that are obviously far above my character's equipment level).

Link's Awakening was the first Zelda game I played, and it does have a very good early game (like Ocarina of Time). Those games don't have enemies that can kill you in one hit in the starting areas, and generally do a good job of signaling which areas are appropriately difficult for your current equipment/hearts. BoTW IMHO doesn't do a good job of this, and even on the great plateau there's lots of enemies that can kill you in one hit, the freezing weather/water, not to mention what you'll run into just following the quest markers to the first few villages.

@gamer1000k I don't think I've ever come across anyone else with that view.

For me, the clue is in the name: Breath of the Wild

The only difficulty spike is when Link wakes up after 100 easy years of sleeping. Then BAM!... he's on his own, in the Wild.

If I woke up in the Wild, I wouldn't start approaching every creature I see with the assumption that they're willing to accept a can of my whoop-ass.

I would sneak. I would attack from distance with arrows. I would run when I had to.

No enemies are compulsory fights, apart from the obvious one at the end of the game.

The only difficulty in the opening stages of this game is the difficulty the player imposes upon themselves.

@gamer1000k I have found that I needed to think differently about how I play this game. The game is as difficult at the start as it will ever be. There is a slight ramp up as the game moves along, but figuring out how the world works is more important than grinding. There is a reason experienced players can "pass" the game shortly after leaving the Great Plateau, learning how the game plays is more important than gear obtained. The environment is as much of an enemy as any bad guy you will run into. Running away and not grinding are really good tactics. Find high ground and throw bombs. Keep a good stock of arrows and use them from far away, aim for the head. Especially early on, do not take on more than one guy at a time. Sneek up and use stealth. Remember that enemies do not respawn until after a bloodmoon, so take your time and isolate one enemy in a group. If the rest of the group sees you, then run away and wait until they get distracted before attacking again. Running into battle with multiple enemies is a bad idea.
To be honest, if you are getting many deaths, that is the game's way of telling you to try another method. Try this idea, search for Shrines to complete and avoid all battles. Then exchange them for hearts.

I went very far in the game without knowing that I could "level up" my armor per se. I was at the default level for all my armor until I was about 150~200 hours in or so. So I know it is possible to get far in the game with "low armor". Actually, I thought the "armor", or clothing, were just skills or enhancements for Link. I just kept ample food for when my hearts got low. Hearty ingredients are good for cooking.

Maybe this is not the game for you? There have been many games that I found frustrating, but others have really enjoyed.

I don't think this was any type of flaw at all. Similar to what @gcunit said, Link has been sleeping forever after being on death's doorstep and is thrust out on his own as a last hope. Monsters have been basically ruling the land, and Guardians stalk everywhere. Essentially, it's Fallout: Hyrule. Unless you bust out of the cave thinking it's Hyrule Warriors, the difficulty is quite balanced.

Come to think of it: pretty much the only thing I find frustrating is that I can't choose from more than one 'saveslot', as in most other (Zelda-)games. I feel like experiencing the first couple of hours on the plateau again every once in a while, but I don't want to lose my ~300 seeds and and all shrines and beasts save again (did that once since I felt like starting over).

@gamer1000k The main thing is that BotW is more like your typical open world game like Skyrim, Fallout, etc. than a Zelda game. If you keep trying to compare BotW to other Zelda games you'll end up disappointed but if you think of it as its own entity you may be able to enjoy it more.

This style of gameplay has been confirmed for the future of the Zelda franchise so maybe the change from 2D Metroid to Metroid Prime is a decent comparison.

I know what you mean, but easily overcome by playing under a different profile.

I think I like the Great Plateau section of the game more than most other parts of the game.
I think it's very well designed, especially for a small(ish) space and allows for more creative gameplay when compared to most other areas. Playing with great armour and the Master Sword, all of the Divine Beast skills and tons of meat skewers just isn't as fun.
I didn't realise that was how I felt about it until starting Master Mode, but I can easily tell what areas are carefully designed and what areas where generated to pad to world - and the designed areas are almost always better.

I think if the next game has a smaller but more vertical world I would enjoy it more. I understand they wanted a large scale so you would hunt down the shrines but I don't know if I want that l feature to return in the same way...

I see what you mean, but I'm kind of the opposite. I'd be really happy if they'd create some kind of BOTW 2 with new parts of the world and extra shrines (and possibly other mechanics/enemies) as DLC. I was so sad to find out I was quite done exploring when I climbed all the towers and found all the shrines...

After having slept on this and from reading your comments, I think I'm understanding better why I'm disappointed with BoTW. Like has been mentioned, it is very different than other Zelda games, and I was hoping for another traditional Zelda adventure.

Another thing is that the core gameplay reminds me a lot of Dark Souls. Dark Souls is largely considered to be a masterpiece of game design, yet I found it incredibly frustrating to play. Both games use player skill as the main progression mechanic, and punish the player for failure until they "git gud" and learn how the game works. Granted, BoTW is much more forgiving than Dark Souls, but I still frequently find it much more frustrating than fun.

Hopefully Nintendo won't go all-in with this new gameplay (though with all the glowing reviews it seems inevitable). I still very much enjoy the style of the more "traditional" Zelda games and would like to see at least a few more of those in the future.

Don't get me wrong I enjoy the game and its mechanics and it is my dip in and out of game so I rack up the hours with it but I've not had the best game of the year experience. I don't know why it never clicked for me I love open world games and have enjoyed all of my previous Zelda's especially Wind Waker but something just didn't feel right for me. Regardless I wouldn't change anything because of what it and it's popularity have done for the Switch and Nintendo but envious of everyone's incredible time with it

@bluemage1989 I think it is good that many Zelda games have resonated with people over the years. I would find it interesting if a survey would be done to see how the demographics play out. I feel, in general, most people enjoyed BotW enough to say it is a great game. Anecdotally I have also noticed that there is a divide between people who say BotW is the best Zelda game ever and BotW is my second favorite Zelda game after ___________. Without any kind of research at all, I have noticed that people who liked the 3D Zelda games such as Ocarina of Time or Wind Waker often will say they prefer that style of Zelda over BotW. But for example me, after A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, I had a hard time getting into any Zelda game until BotW. I went through a huge drought before I played a Zelda game that resonated with me, I mean decades. I mean I would try and play them, but I would never get very far. But BotW absolutely grabbed my attention unlike any Zelda since prior to the series going 3D.
On a side note, I really should play A Link Between Worlds, I am sure I would enjoy that.

@gamer1000k
I'm with you. It's a "good" game, but it's a horrible Zelda game and really not even a Zelda game at all. And that disappoints me, ultimately.

I get MORE disappointed when I read articles about the devs wanting most future Zelda games to be more like BotW (and from a business standpoint, who could blame them?).

I've always been a bigger fan of 2D Zelda, though. Link Between Worlds release on 3DS was just an awesome time, so I'm really hoping they have a small team maaaaybe working on a 2D "classic" Zelda for those of us who just can't move on? lol

edit:
@Hikingguy
I posted this and then read your post - I'm the total opposite of your theory lol - whoops! Oh well, takes all different sorts.

I will say, I've tried multiple times to get into Twilight Princess/Skyward Sword, and I just couldn't. But I never tried them when they were current games, only years later because I never owned Gamecube or Wii. I don't know if it was just that the games were old and I was subconsciously turning myself off from them or what, because Ocarina/Majora's are REALLY good games that I replay all the time.

I like all Zelda games, top down, sidescroller, 2D, 3D, open world. I can get used to everything and can love them equally.
I think BotW is one of the best though because of many reasons, but mostly because it did many things differently. It was a fresh experience needed after about 15 games with the same old formula. I hope all kinds of Zelda games continue.

@rallydefault No offense at all. I assume everyone will have their own experience.
I actually tried to play TP and SS when they were first released and I was board out of my mind. I could not get past the tutorials. I went back a few times, but I always had the same result.
My first Zelda game that I did not enjoy was Ocarina of Time and basically every 3D Zelda game until BotW. I did enjoy all the 2D games until they went 3D.
I always bought them in hopes that I would be drawn back in like I was when I played the original.
BotW was the first game that made me feel like I did when I played the original Legend of Zelda for the first time.

@rallydefault Twilight Princess is a good game and really picks up as it goes on, but it IS very hard to get into. I hated the first 3 or so hours with a passion, and had a difficult time getting into it until around the second major dungeon.

I didn't care for Ocarina of Time that much more, though. Its bland high fantasy is much less memorable to me than the existential darkness of Majora's Mask, the cheerful adventurousness of The Wind Waker, and Breath of the Wild's post-apocalyptic vision.