Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

So... about that Kara Kara Bazaar memory. Did Link really just straight up kill that Yiga dude who was about to slash Zelda? He collapses, in a series that generally goes out of it's way to avoid onscreen bloodshed of human-like characters (also seen in Oracle of Ages). I wouldn't say it's out of character or anything, but it's an odd contrast to how the game handles the rest of Yiga encounters.

Just wanna hop in this thread to say...wow, what a damn game this is.

I've been playing for about a month and a half straight - and I normally NEVER do that with a game. I would usually be sick of it by then. But not this game. And it's strange - I'm not typically into the whole open-world thing as much as other people, but I am so attracted to everything in this game and what it offers.

I have all four divine beasts, so now I'm just relaxing and going from village to village to do side quests and shrine hunt. Ganon can wait!

Just clearing up my side quests now! Did the Zora monuments last night. That was super cool. Zoras domain is a really big place and the history of the Zora race, alongside their Hylian counterparts is really interesting. The armour isn't bad either. Wish I'd did this earlier though!!

Lonely Arrow Girl FINALLY restocked some arrows. She hasn't restocked again since But at least I know it's capable of restocking and not totally broken in the save! It seemed to happen after I dropped into the 70's of normal arrows after trying to take on a Silver Lynel which costs me like 20 arrows per run.

@CosmicLight That's a super good tip! I only have arrows or so, and I can scarcely find cores these days, but I'll have to do a few more castle raids on guardians to see if I can get some more to make more arrows. I never thought of using them on lynels. They just have SO many hit points, and I can't get flurry attacks on most enemies except by dumb luck, I just never have good timing (did I mention I don't play fighting games? ) so I end up forever trying to do stasis, then hit him in the head with an arrow, then hit him in the head with an arrow again to stun him, attack, repeat and it takes SO many rounds its just not fun. And more importantly it costs at least 3 top shelf swords (or more) to take him down. And I need to down a lot of them to upgrade that barbarian armor (plus the knight's armor, just because.)

@Maxz Same! I thought that was a super special thing. Turns out the fireflies was the only thing I needed....never thought to check that location to do anything, ugh!

@KirbyTheVampire I love the Rito village itself, and the music, but I do wish it were bigger. Kind of makes sense that an avian race wouldn't use much space on land though. But the beast quest did feel truncated. "Go do one little training minigame then off to the best!" IMO the Rito area serves mainly as the "yeah, you're REALLY going to need the snow gear to do the snow areas that make up like 1/5 the entire game world" area. But since the location of it means that you're probably only going to get to it later in the game, it feels weird that it's so short. I ended up doing Naboris second, it just seemed the next logical location (only to find out after it's the hardest one), and it seems like the game really sets you up to do Rudania last since it has not one but two guardians blocking the roadway that leads up the mountain.

Personally I just find it weird that Rito AND Zora exist at all in the same game as two separate kingdoms, while the Kokiri and Koroks do not. That's a Miyamoto-sized timeline continuity tea table upending. I suppose that means that WW is the timeline of Link Failing in Ocarina, AND Link failing in BotW. So basically WW is the timeline of if there really is no legendary hero to begin with, so to make it canonical you should just throw yourself off a cliff on the starting island and declare it the "true ending"

@meleebrawler If this was a Zelda game without the imposed lightheartedness that man would have been exploded after getting 'kalima'd by a giant glowy hair-hand.

And yes, I also spammed shops until I had purchased 200 of each type of elemental arrow and like 600 regular ones, and now no arrow shop will sell to me. Breath of the Wild really hates players becoming powerful and subverting the typical gameplay loop.

@NEStalgia Yeah, I missed the exact same quest. I actually looked for help online (it was one of my final five), and there was definitely a bit of an "oh... is that it?" moment.

In fairness to Rito Village, it at least makes some use of the surrounding area, which makes it feel a little more than a single rock. The Warbler's Nest quest definitely established that area as part of the village's community space, and the Pride of the Rito shrine quest also neatly tied together the town and the ring of land surrounding it. It would have been nice to see more of that though, as it doesn't have the majesty of Zora's Domain or the lively, bustling, market-town feel of Gerudo City. If there had been more bits of the village dotted around on separate islands in that water basin, it might have really expanded the sense of scale of the place - like a giant open air aviary. Similarly, I'd also liked to have seen Goron village extend a somewhat underground, as that would have provided a very unique 'cavey' feel to the city, like in OoT. The only other properly enclosed place in the game I can think of is the Yiga Hideout. Oh, and Hyrule Castle for large sections. But I don't feel there's a lot. Someone made the remark of BotW having the best overworld they'd ever enjoyed, but practically no 'underworld'. Thinking about it, I can see what they mean.

@Maxz Yeah, though for the Gorons there's also the Southern Mining Camp that's semi-enclosed in a cavern (or surrounded by huge sheer cliffs somewhat enclosing it) that's certainly a big part of the village including quests. And the hot springs. And the northern mining camp that was abandoned but still has signs of being part of the town before it was abandoned. So Goron City itself feels small but it spreads into the surrounds arguably more permanently than the Rito.

I loved Warbler's Nest though! Best quest in the game

And I agree there really is no underworld. All shrines are underground, but that and the Yiga (and parts of the castle is about all of it.)

Awesome, thanks for confirming that mate! I'm going round sweeping up as many Koroks as I can find first, and want to farm a few more star fragments to do some costume set upgrades so that I can go in there super leveled up. But upon getting my last shrine last week, I nearly accidentally got locked in with Shadow Ganon (so I just reloaded from my last save just in case it was the point of no return and screwed up my chance to do all the other things I wanted to get done first), but knowing that you don't lose anything, I'll probably just fight him and carry on from there if anything like that ever happens again.
Thanks for the heads up!

@NEStalgia I took it as the koroks changing with the birth of the deku tree sprout in OoT (and likely the corruption of Ganon on the land). The Kokiri/koroks are spirits as much as plant beings (including the kokiri) so I'd imagine that they would be able to change and adapt much more quickly. What reason do they really have to look like kids other than to protect Link. For all we know they took on that form (or had it granted to them) by the deku tree when Link's dying mother came to the forest for help/shelter/childbirth. Deku Tree has always been insightful...maybe he knew Link was Courage's Chosen?

I think the Rito (bird) and the Zora just haven't started breeding together yet and that they still sire the rito (WW) tribe. Although it gives new meaning to the saying "A bird may love a fish but where will they live?". Although it would have been a fun nod if there was a zora/rito couple somewhere in the game. The yiga are idiots. I get why they are evil, but why are they old school ninja as well like the Sheikah? I would have restored and kept the abandoned tech (that wasn't possessed) and just shot up everything.

Didn't get to play this weekend. Been in the workshop building.

This is brilliant @Som64

@Ryu_Niiyama They kind of changed and adapted from a playful race of kids with the wisdom of elders into a bunch of spirits with the personality of a 3-year-old and a kitten though Though I'm much more fond of the Koroks than the kokiri because of it

The Rito....but here's the thing. The Rito did not exist in the past. We've been to the past (OoT) and there were no Rito. We've been to TP and there were no Rito (can't count the NES/SNES games because there were no other races at all except the Zora who were actually evil in the first game...). So the Rito (tribe?) as we knew them in WW seem to have been a pure evolution of Zora into birds rather than crossbreed of Rito and Zora into....other Rito (implying it's really just Rito and the Zora are effectively extinct.) The implication is that the Rito WERE the Zora, transformed. Not that they were the result of the fish people and bird people cross breeding until only one remained.

So we know there were no Rito of any kind in OoT era, and now we have Ritos and Zoras together. And sometime after that Hyrule flooded (Aonuma told us BotW is before WW), and ONLY the Rito remain? But then where did the Rito come from to begin with? Maybe they ate the Zora?

Worse, we were told WW flooded because the Hero of Time was off in Termina when Ganon returned and wasn't there to stop him causing the King to use the triforce to flood the kingdom. But if this takes place BEFORE the flooding it mans while we're doing this, THAT link was still in Termina, so the Rito appeared AFTER he got the Ocarina but BEFORE returning from Termina) That means the 10,000 year old tech should have still been around during Ocarina....which means Ganon appeared 10,000 years before OoT and was defeated by the tech. Which means OoT is NOT the Ganon origin story, nor a prequel to ALttP. Meanwhile the map references characters and places from other games INCLUDING MM, AND WW, implying this must take place AFTER (Mekar lake!)

More practically Aonuma should just say "yeah we frelled up the storyline, it makes no sense and has nothing to do with the rest of the series, just erase what you know and reboot it here."

@meleebrawler Perhaps he was unconcious and would be tended to by well meaning individuals who reform him into a civilized do gooder. He wouldn't be the first Yiga to be reformed.

...what?

@Octane what part are you confused by? Your "what" gives me nothing to respond to.

@Ryu_Niiyama Everything.

@NEStalgia maybe the botw Rito decend from loftwings?

@Octane ok still nothing to work with so forgive me but I'm going to move on since you won't clarify.

@NEStalgia A lifetime of looking over your shoulder for your murderous former friends doesn't seem a much better alternative. And I don't see how you can KO someone with a sword. The Master Sword doesn't magically not kill non-evil beings, it just acts as a normal (if unbreakable) sword.