Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

'Finished' the game after 95 hour mark, all shrines completed before heading off to face the final boss, so max hearts and max stamina wheel. Without spoiling anything, the journey to the final boss wasn't fun, easily my least favourite part of the game but everything else has been excellent.

I still don't think that they've cracked how to make amazing dungeons with this open world formula yet, the dungeons are good but they still don't stand up to the greatest dungeons of the 2d Zelda and pre-BOTW Zelda games. The shrines seemed to be a bit easier, although ultrahand may have played a big part in that, I did however enjoy the shrines more in TOTK than in BOTW. I did notice that some ideas were only used in a single shrine and didn't come back which was a little disappointing and one of the shrines without a 'pre shrine puzzle' just gave you a blessing for free which I found very odd, (only happened once if I remember correctly).

Played a bit since the credits, built a house, collecting the armour sets that I missed and I do need to finish collecting Zonaite for the batteries, (I have the base 8 currently). I also need to finish activating all of the roots in the depths, I have most of them but there are spots here and there that aren't yet uncovered. I recommend exploring the depths if you're missing a shrine and can't find it, as the roots and shrines are always in the same places on the map. You don't even need to find the root, if there's a suspicious small black circle in an otherwise uncovered area, then there will be a shrine in the middle of it above ground.

Great game and definitely better than Breath of the Wild, where do Nintendo go from here?

@Buizel
I never replay games unless enough time passes and a new remaster releases that gives me a reason to re-experience it. Not that I'm against replayability, but it's not something I actively want every single game to have. Like Metroid Prime Remastered, Mario 3D World or DKC Tropical Freeze. Exception would be games like Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak that never really end. But ya, I'm all about one and done games. If I wanna play it again, I'll start a new save file on a future system when it gets a patch or remaster/port.

That said, TotK is probably one of the better games for replayability I've seen. Every playtbrough can be completely different with new ways to solve puzzles, new discoveries, new progression... it's just so massive and so fluid in how you approach it.

@Arnie4490
I don't see any way the next Zelda is as big as TotK, since it built on BotW to contain 3 tiers of map. Idk how they top it or even match it, but we always say that, and they always find a way. Guess that's why they're the devs and not me.

@Arnie4490 that suspicious blessing shrine is the one in a cave close to the first tear right? I think the idea is that it serves as a trap to make new players acquainted with the gloom hands. The shrine itself is even in a raised platform from where you can comfortably aim down at them and accidentally trigger Phantom Ganon.

So in a way, although it’s not very hard to avoid the cluster of hands once you have enough stamina, the mere act of reaching the shrine safely is the trial itself. It’s basically a tutorial.

@JaxonH sennheiser is unbeatable for non wireless stuff

@Eel Aah that makes more sense, it was one of the last shrines I found so I just flew straight to it and landed right next to it, missing the gloom hands completely. I remember it being on the left hand side of the map somewhere so it was likely that one.

@JaxonH That's true, Nintendo definitely haven't made it easy for themselves for next gen. They have to try to one up/match Zelda, Smash Bros and Mario Kart, the latter 2 of which are arguably the pinnacle of their respective series.

@Rambler English dub and English subtitles.

Now up to 7 battery wells of pure Heisenberg blue. Keep getting sucked into the depths despite my earnest effort to explore above ground.

Finished all the memories, got the master sword, upgraded Tulin with 4 sages will orbs, up to 14 hearts and max stamina, and ready to find that 4th Great Fairy. Oh, I did get my first piece of gloom armor, so I'd like to find the other 2 pieces. And the other two zonaite battery armors (not that I need them when I'm bathing in blue now). Do need to head to Goron area though and get some fire-proof armor. Can't count how many times I entered a spot too hot down in the depths and caught on fire.

@Arnie4490 @Eel
I've encountered about 10 Rauru's Blessing shrines (I've probably done close to 100 shrines now, at the very least 90-95). So about 10% of them in total are blessing shrines (152 shrines total, so I estimate 12-15). Typically they're placed wherever getting to or unlocking access to the shrine is the challenge/puzzle. And usually they're a relief when I get one, since I just got done doing all that work to get access.

@Goat_FromBOTW
Quality audio adds so much to the gaming experience. I was naiive most of my life about it. Now when I hear audio without using quality gear, be it surround or headphones, it sounds so flat and lifeless. I can make due in handheld mode on the go, but even then I have a pair of planar magnetic in-ear headphones. They're nowhere near as good as the Sennheiser 800S, but for costing 20x less and being tiny IEMs, they're pretty impressive.

I accidentally found the wind temple lol. I was having way too much fun on those sky trampolines and made it all the way to the top.

I ended up leaving right away and I'm doing some more exploring first.

@Chaotic_Neutral Fusing things to weapons doesn't seem to improve durability. Fusing allows you to create higher damage, or add abilities. (Edit: Correction: I believe @JaxonH is correct below, that fusing does increase durability, but I agree with @Chaotic_Neutral that fused weapons still break quicker than I'd like. /Edit)

Regarding durability, you can take a damaged weapon to a Rock Octorork, they'll inhale the weapon and you know they fix the weapon when they chew on it for a moment. Rock Octoroks are found around the base of the volcano. I avoided the volcano for a long time because I assumed I needed fireproofing, like we needed in botw, BUT fireproof armor is not needed to traverse the volcano in totk. Fireproofing is only needed for when you in volcano caves.

In totk, the rock octorok will often give you buffed stats when repairing a damaged weapon. Like durability up, or attack up. I don't know if I saw a buff the first time, but I have with later repairs.

Note, a rock octorok only repairs one weapon in a day (as far as I've seen?). If you have multiple weapons, you'll need to find & visit multiple rock octoroks. And if I went back to the same spot another day, I coudln't find them. So, I've had to keep traversing the area with my Sensor+ searching for more.

I finally took a moment to experiment, and attached two beam emitters to a spinning big wheel sitting on it's side. It took out most of a bokoblin group. However, the hinox will smash your zonai death devices before they do too much damage - booo.👎😆 Making these death dealing devices is pretty easy.

I'm really disappointed an how quickly canons destroy whatever weapon you fuse them to.

@NintendoByNature Yeah, sky temple is great!! Love the flying viking ships

@WoomyNNYes
Fusing does increase weapon durability, as was showcased in the reveal before the game launched. Tree branch broke in a few hits. But then fused to a Boulder it had much better durability. I believe this also explains why the fused portion breaks first before the base weapon does, as the fused weapon exhausts the fused durability first, then the base weapon durability last after the fused portion breaks.

@NintendoByNature
Doing the wind temple should help you explore more since the ability you get from Tulin provides a gust of wind which lets you sail faster and farther per unit stamina. Highly recommend.

@JaxonH Yeah, thanks for the correction.

@WoomyNNYes so cool. Once of the best parts so far.
@JaxonH ah shoot. I already left and for some reason, you can't activate it and return like botw divine beasts. At least I don't think you can. I did try though.

I know it's only a game but there is something really disconcerting about swimming in the depths especially when it's dark and you haven't activated a light root yet.

@MarioBrickLayer
I would have loved ( and hated) if Nintendo put some sort of shark enemy in the waters. Would have truly made swimming in the dark terrifying.

@blindsquarel you just spoiled the DLC.

Breath of the Shark: Seafood Ballad

Ok the Floating Colosseum can pound rocks. Got down to the last enemy and I think I only needed a hit or two and I got one shot after my shield shattered. I also don’t appreciate that Lynels can teleport now. Edit: apparently that isn’t new and I am unlucky.

@Owl1
I would never spoil anything!

Although, my source may have mentioned something about it.

@Ryu_Niiyama
I loved the floating colosseum. Yeah it was insanely hard, but it was also really fun trying to beat multiple lynels back to back.

@Ryu_Niiyama The Lynels aren't able to teleport. That's most likely some sort of glitch. I tried the same colosseum and was worn down to three hearts. The last Lynel didn't really teleport at all, even though I kept constantly dying over and over due to not learning where and when to dodge.