Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

@Tsurii I'm quite happy going for the whole mountain range. Ive come across a blip on my radar and a Korok puzzle I can see from the map itself

There is definitely an overabundance of combat trials and shrines that just reward you for finding them.

Anyone else come across the shrine in Akkala's Skull Lake that "is a trial just to get there?" It was so easy getting there. I gotta wonder if there are some areas of the game that was designed before certain items were worked in.

@DreamyViridi When it told me to shoot an arrow at them I wasn't sure what to do since I thought that would kill it haha. I've gotten a couple from each now and I found out you can also get different materials for hitting somewhere else like their claws.

Defeated my third Divine Beast yesterday so I just have one left. Although I haven't even explored much of the south part of the map at all so it will be awhile longer before I finish that. With shrines I think I've cleared about 66 or so and I have 119 lorikeets seeds at the moment... just another 800 to go

@JaxonH Not to sure, didn't pay attention to the little details.
@-Green- Ya, and you need full health to use it, still wears it out, alright if you got no arrows.

So these big metal doors in Hebra. Unless I have walked past them a few hundred times...there aren't any.

Found the doors. Thought it was another instance making that colour correcting glasses a good investment at first but no, its just a few ridges over from where you'd logically look knowing there are doors to a shrine.

Nintendo had the audacity to release a mini-mini-pdf through MyNintendo that contains the "first part" of the strategy guide for the game. For 10 gold coins. First part. Strategy guide.
I'm not going to get it because I'd rather spend the coins on something that isn't already available for free anywhere, but most people have coins that are about to expire, so you might want to give it a look!? I wouldn't but...it might be well done, who knows.

The feeling when you find Dinraal, chase it to try and get a scale, bump into a white-maned Lynel, kill said Lynel and then moments later, the Blood Moon respawns it...

Just my luck. Oh well, it's not too bad. They are very fun to fight at times.

See, there was a time when I was maybe around my 20-30 hours in the game when I thought the same thing. I was like, "Come on! ANOTHER combat trial!? Where are my PUZZLES, yo??"

And now over the next 20-30 hours, I feel like ALL of the shrines have been puzzles, some even relatively longer.

From what I'm seeing, certain parts of the map contain clusters of shrines that tend to be combat. Once you deviate away from that area, they become sparse again.

@DreamyViridi
Know exactly where you're talking about. I saw Dinraal but he was out of reach, but I got bored waiting after he no showed the next night, and decided to toy with the white lynel. Heh... he toyed with me. After like 4 fairies, 3 broken shields and 4 broken swords, I died. And died again. And died again. I hate those freakin things so much

@Maxz I'll see what I can find. I haven't really explored Hebra, it's big, boring and bumpy. I don't like it. All those mountains, the snow, and the enemies. Nope. It's the last part of the map I have yet to explore, I did the bird shrine, and another hidden one, but that's all.

@Haru17 Talking about game memory.. It's pretty annoying when animals simply vanish into thin air when you're chasing them. But recently I've found that entire groups(flocks?) of darners don't even exist. I can see them, but when I approach them, they disappear. Not in the way the real bugs do, but like they're part of the background and disappear when you get too close. Like an inverted draw distance or something like that.

@JaxonH - Yeah, Lynels are just savage. I'll never forget the first time I encountered one, I didn't game over (still haven't) but it resulted in several broken shields and weapons alike, ate through all of my fairies and ended up eating a dozen-or-so food items. And that experience was from the weakest of the species!

My best way of dealing with them is to play defensively, wait for them to attack and hit 'em hard with flurry rushes as well as a slash or two if they open.

Things are starting to get interesting for me: finally reached Korok Forest, it was pretty simple, now i started all to get the Master Sword. Can't wait to get it!! Meanwhile i was finally able to upgrade the weapon's bag. I maybe have more than 20 slots!! Next time i'll play i'll finish that zone and do whatever i can to get the Master Sword!!

@Tsurii No. I know what you're talking about, but I don't think they're Korok related either. I've seen them everywhere. I'm talking about entire groups of darners/dragonflies that sometimes just vanish when you approach them. Yes, even with the Sheikah stealth set and while crouching. They're just fake, background decoration or something like that. But they're pretty annoying when you're trying to hunt down some bugs.

Finished the Hyrule Gallery. I got lazy and just decided to buy all the missing pictures.

I think BotW does a lot of things better than most open world games when it comes to exploration. In a TES game in particular, sure you can go to anything you see, and yes there are a lot of interesting looking things to look at but for the most part, it's all just visual with very little substance. Most of the time it's just something that looks cool and magical, but it doesn't develop beyond that. With BotW, when you see something interesting you can be almost absolutely certain that your journey to it will be rewarded with an interaction of some kind. There's always depth and something behind the interesting things you can see.

I'd also say the side quests are the best out of every open world game I've played. Ever since Majora's Mask I've always had a certain bar that a sidequest in any game has to reach, and I've never seen a game afterwards come close to reaching that kind of depth. That is, until BotW came out. Rather than having side quests that send you on a separate grandiose adventure or force you to fetch things just because, it has sidequests that give you a "slice of life" feel. You do things to help out people with their mundane problems, but you also learn a lot about them, their relationships, and the world while you do it. I love having that feeling back, especially in a Zelda game. It makes it feel like a real adventure, like you're interacting with real people and going to real places on your way to gaining the strength you need to beat Ganon. It's almost like an anime that you get to control.

@Tarvaax Play The Witcher 3. BOTW's side quests are still pretty shallow compared to the side quests in TW3. The depth of some of those side quests are absolutely insane. I still remember one that ended up in killing off two major characters and affecting the ending of the game. And all of that was optional!

I've played the Witcher 3. Sidequests were too action focused, not people focused. Peasants were too samey. No individuality. I like the game, but the sidequests aren't "slice of life". The towns all feel samey as well. It's only the big cities that have aesthetic variety.