Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Actually, after listening to BotW's soundtrack, I think it's really a very good soundtrack. The reason I probably don't recall it as much is because they intentionally made it sparse and hush. So it didn't really stand out as much, and I assumed it as being meh.

Kind of a big transition from playing the Unseen Village in Bloodborne to traveling through Kakariko. Still I really enjoyed hearing the music again, and it evokes a great sense of emotion. I like.

Just listen to this

@DarthNocturnal I really liked how the theme switched from incorporating the Song of the Hero (series main theme) on the outside to symbolize Link's assault on the castle, to Zelda's theme on the inside representing her captivity within. And of course Ganon's theme playing throughout symbolizing his dominion of the area.

So I'm on my second playthrough now. I love how much stuff I've found that I completely missed on my first playthrough. This is a very replayable game.

-Got the Hylian Shield, which I didn't on my first playthrough.
-Got all of the dragon scales, just by sheer luck. Didn't happen to see a dragon nearby at all on my first playthrough, only in the distance. Whereas I just happened to catch all of them this time, entirely unintentionally.
-Half way through doing Tarrey Town, which I did none of on my first game.
-Figured out the 'shoot an arrow through 2 rock rings' this time after failing last time.
-Found the shrine inside Hyrule Castle, which I just ran past last time without thinking.

I really hope the DLC does connect onto the main game in some way so it feels like it's part of your main playthrough.

@Chandlero Oh my god, yes, the reveal trailer music is PERFECT for a big symphony! I bet that was overwhelming when heard in person. It's almost overwhelming just listening to it in the trailer.

@Ralizah @Chandlero This is why I loved the final fight against Dark Beast Ganon. The music during the fight was exhilarating and amazing. Had it just been a bit more difficult (Ganon moving around more and perhaps Bokoblins on horseback attacking you) it would have been my favorite Zelda final boss fight ever.

"Open your eyes...."

I'm currently on my 2nd playthrough of the Wii U version and am at 62% completion.

Here's what I've been done so far:
I've 4★'d all the Armors that can be upgraded. Found 460 Korok Seeds. My Tarrey Town is done. All 120 shrines completed. Ganon defeated. All saddles/bridles obtained. All memories regained. All Divine Beasts done. Completed Hyrule Compendium. 100% tamed all of my horses.

Here's what I'm currently doing post game:

• Kilton's "About Monsters" sidequest (over halfway there, but I'm not using the internet to find these monsters so it's taking some time....I like discovering them on my own)
• Going to each stable and making sure I have a picture of the recipe on the wall (since the game doesn't have a recipe book I decided to visually make my own)
• I need to somehow get some Twilight Princess HD save data onto my Wii U console so I can have Wolf Link be at a full 6 hearts.
• I have 4 side quests left to discover and complete (another good reason to revisit each stable....)
• I still have to do Trial of the Sword (I attempted this once and didn't get past the 3rd stage ..... )
• I need to get the 4 Champion's amiibo (but not sure this will happen anytime soon, or ever).

When I was going around looking for shrines I rarely ever used a horse to travel (because of mountains and such in the way). But ever since defeating Ganon and doing post-game stuff, I find myself warping less and less and, instead, now using a horse to get where I'm going. Since 100% taming all of of my registered horses I can now leisurely ride along the roads of Hyrule on the back of one without ever having to worry about going off the beaten path.

I've done almost no sidequests in the game at all. Do any of them have any good rewards? It all seemed to be meaningless stuff.

Their rewards are all pretty bleh, and the quests are usually boring.

It's more of a world building deal with the side quests.

Yeah the Zelda series sucks at this stuff. You really need a sense of achievement for doing all the optional stuff. A lot RPGs do this so much better. Experience points for doing sidequests and for things like exploring more parts of the map, like in Xenoblade (and Kingdoms of Amalur).
Zelda struggles to incentivise things outside of the main quest.

@Dezzy The side quests are awful. You can spend like 15-20 minutes running around gathering mushrooms for someone or killing enemies (since the side quests are all just filler stuff like that), and the reward is usually like 10-20 rupees.

You know, if the weapons didn't break, you could have unique weapons as a reward. Or armour.. You get nearly all of that in the shops anyway.

Tbh the dungeons and bosses are side quests.

Weapon durability was a mistake.

Another noob question regarding Hyrule castle, any idea what works best on Stalnox’s eye once it falls out? I’ve got to that point numerous times but failed to destroy it and got killed in the process.

@KirbyTheVampire There are a lot of funny sidequests that reward you in a more subtle way than in-game achievements. However, I agree: Collecting mushrooms is not one of them. But this would be a sidequest to which you can come back after a lot of hours when you randomly collect enough of these mushrooms.

The durability system in Zelda did more harm than good for the game. It barely contributed anything, and served more as an annoyance. The same can be said to an extent to the stamina system which wasn’t well implemented and served to slow down progress needlessly.

It’s good to experiment but their attempts were half baked.

@DarthNocturnal Wind Waker had wallet upgrades, bomb bag upgrades, quiver upgrades, and a magic upgrade too. None of these were present in BOTW either, they were either infinite from the start, or not present at all. That's why I think they can improve a lot on the ''current'' formula by simply looking at previous 3D Zelda games.

I get that people liked the freedom, but it also meant that any sense of progression was going to be hard to find in the game.

@-Green- I'm actually a fan of the durability system - even if it feels a bit annoying in the early game when weapons are especially fragile - it forces you to use the weapons you find. Wind Waker let you pick up and use different weapons but why would you (except for the one boss that requires it)? "Here's a spear, here's a dagger, here's an axe!", "meh, I've got the master sword - I'm good".

BoTW by contrast is able to build its encounters around the idea that if you go into an area then eventually you'll be using the weapons they've supplied for that area. So if you're approaching Zora's domain you have to get good at using the spears and that's a different game than it would be if you had more swords available.

It's also a proposed solution to the "loot problem" that almost all RPGs face. There has to be a value to fighting and that value is provided by the weapons you can choose to pick up. If your weapons last forever then it's not a problem solved. Playing through Skyrim at the moment I much prefer BoTW's solution to the loot problem than Skyrim's (which is to give you a carry limit).

I'm also definitely a fan of the stamina system - it creates soft limits on the world where you might not be able to climb or glide until later. It's one of the ways in which they gate you off from certain challenges until later in the game.

Without it you'd also create another problem - either a slower pace or a game where you're running constantly.