Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I've got about 82 shrines now...I'm wandering around the world a lot now, and I'm having a hard time believing I'm actually missing 38 shrines. I tried using the radar today, found one, but it doesn't appear that the radar works on hidden shrines, as I can't seen to find the location for a quest shrine I got, and it didn't work on Eventide Island.

Oh wow, that's hilarious.

Ha ha, then it's funny you happened to pick that one out of the bag, because whenever anyone mentions the Creator's Program that's the first thing that comes to mind. I don't really understand...who would actually use the program if the games are restricted? It's a classic Nintendo move. Create a limited system, then when anyone complains or asks questions, direct them to the limited system. Then when people complain about the system, they point out that at least they're giving you an option; they didn't have to create this option. Well in some cases I'd rather not have the option. But anyways, that's a can of worms I'd rather not open any farther, but since it was brought up, thought I'd share my input.

Me too! I've checked every corner of the map, and I don't know how I'm still missing shrines. Some of them are really hidden well.

@Pigeon The bosses aren't particularly hard, so it's entirely possible. The first story objective will give you waypoints for the dungeon-oriented towns. However, not doing much of consequence is definitely a concern, and you will die easily and be generally weak without finding at least 20 or so shrines.

Breath of the Wild is also a pretty short Zelda game if you only do meaningful content.

I'm pretty sure I already have 125 hours of meaningful content.

I also only get up to an hour at a time to play and it's a great game for that, or for marathon sessions. You can choose to progress the story or do something else. The options to fit your play style are the beauty of it for me.

@Pigeon But a big part of the fun of this game is just going off and doing whatever it is you want. I've played for 30 minute to hour blocks and felt like I didn't do much and yet it was still so fun. Ignoring all you listed would defeat the purpose of playing this game.

@Pigeon One of the fantastic things of this game is that you can do what you want, when you want, in the order you prefer. Just play it like you want and prefer, you will not regret it either way

@Spanjard Making excuses for copy paste game design is your choice. I like some open world and 'emergent' games that have shades of that, but I don't think Breath of the Wild has the appeal of Monster Hunter, Skyrim, or even Minecraft. Zelda went from being the jack and master of all trades, to just being the master of a physics and towns.

If you really look at what is in a thing, you could speed full playthrough Breath of the Wild in probably the low end of 10 to 20 hours. More if you explore the repeated content past the main quest as well as the towns / springs.

@Haru17 Maybe in your reality. But in mine it went from becoming stale to being a fresh series again with all kinds excitement and wonder I haven't felt in a game in a long time. Don't forget to have fun!

@Tsurii Monster Hunter, Skyrim, and Minecraft (among many other games especially this gen) all recycle and slightly alter content to support a large amount of playtime as opposed to a shorter, finite, and in all likelihood higher quality experience.

You guys make me wonder which 'reality' you are talking about, because as far as I can see this was a video game created by people to match a certain budget and direction. You can was poetic about a game if you choose, but in the end it's not the feelings you put onto it, but rather a piece of software. An artistic piece designed to inspire those illusions to be sure, but finite nonetheless.

For me, it's hard to excuse a game that gives me to the freedom to kill the same few enemies over and over wherever I want without some sort of meaningful story to go over it all. Without that, it's just an empty play space where all the cracks shine through and the game has to stand entirely on the merits of its gameplay — just the combat and physics system, and some pretty redundant puzzles, most of which take place in the
featureless Mario Sunshine dimension.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The game could really use some different types of enemies, at least a good handful of them. It's weird, I liked the game for what it is, but after 50 or 60 hours or so, I had pretty much seen it all. Spent another 20 hours "completing" the game, because that's what I always do with Zelda games, but those last 20 hours were the least interesting IMO. The concept is good on paper, but could've used a little more time to fully develop. 120 shrines in neat, but I got tired of the combat shrines pretty quickly, and 80% of the puzzle shrines ended before they even started. I missed the memorable boss fights and dungeons. I'm okay with the next Zelda being another open-world game, but I hope they take some notes from previous games (even Skyward Sword for dungeon design!). I hope I'm allowed to say all of this here I liked the game for what it was, it was great, but I also found it lacking in some areas.

Oh yeah, and bring back traditional fishing!

It is funny to hear ppl talk about what this game lacks and so easily forget what this game brings to the table. I guess for some it will take a few years to fully appreciate how much of a game changer this beautiful gem is.

Someone's "meaningful" story I could do without.

@Octane Forget traditional fishing. I now want a Windwaker : Breeze of the Sea. Where underwater diving is a thing and your Master Harpoon is you main weapon.

Starting to take things a bit more serious now. I've taken down my first four Lynels and first dozen guardians. Might go and grab the Master Sword before I take on the Divine Beasts.

I also managed to get up Ploymus mountain using fire arrows and a couple of stamina potions, before visiting Sidon and being given the Zora's Armour. Oops

That would be really a blessing

@shaneoh IMO, I wouldn't recommend grabbing the master sword before the divine beasts. It kinda makes link a bit OP so they become less difficult. That's your choice though! Have fun!

I can always grab the sword and choose not to use it. Dunno, I'll see how I feel about it tomorrow.

I don't think that's the case. There are Korok Seeds puzzles that are almost mandatory for an important aspect of the game. Shrines too. Monster camps, materials gathering, and other things. As i said: it's just up to you. You choose, you decide

@Pigeon Honestly, I don't think you have to worry about being bored when not following the main path. I'm not usually into Open-World games since I get tried of them really quickly but I found myself constantly immersed in BOTW. There's literally secrets everywhere on the map and the game is designed in a way so that you're always rewarded for your exploration in some form be it shrine, korok, korok, fauna, animals and valuable materials. You're also rewarded in the way you meet NPCs. I literally found a random town that I didn't know about 20 hours in and simply over a hill I hadn't thought to climb until then. And just the other day, I met an NPC I hadn't met before despite having over 200 hours. The landscape itself is also just really fun to explore. Areas are able to stand out from each other with subtle and some not so subtle differences, and it's through genius design that you can tell where the points of interest are. This game is just amazing in that you don't feel like you're doing the wrong thing for going off the main path. In other games, it was annoying when you feel like you lack specfic powers or weapons when going into a different area thats not on the main path, however in BOTW you constantly have all the tools you need, so you never feel like you're playing the game wrong for simply not follwoing the main quest. Sorry if that's worded horribly. That's just my opinion and I hope it helps you. Either way you play you'll have lots of fun and I hope you have an Amazing experience!

@Pigeon You can always mark mission objectives whenever you want if you want to stay focused on the main goal. There will be a beacon mark on your map to follow so that part is really not overwhelming and very linear if you so choose. The map makes this game so in-depth and for me is the best map in any game I've ever played. Even unlocking some of the towers to reveal the map parts is a puzzle as well.

@Pigeon
Hrm... now, I'm not a big open-world guy, but this game's world drew me in. And believe me, I can make criticisms of the game: the ending, I think, is terrible and a shame given how great the game itself is; horse controls are stiff and unintuitive, in my opinion; the nature of the Korok Seed grind frustrates a person like me who wants to complete the game but isn't willing to give up another 20 hours of my life finding 900 seeds - I find it a bit ridiculous.

But all that being said, to say "copy-pasted" forestry/mountains/etc. sounds wrong. We all know that @Haru17 has played the game quite extensively, but that comment is wonky. I've gotten all the shrines, all the side quests, and a good chunk of the seeds/upgrades/etc. Basically, I've plumbed this world pretty deeply, and I'm amazed at how no two places feel alike. You could stick me into any location on this map, and I could tell you exactly where I am without a map. That's because every little grove and grotto is unique, whether through landmarks or NPCs or monsters or rare spawns, or whatever. His comment just strikes me as odd.