Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

@Pizzamorg Actually, I to had a sort of, Dislike for the game, but like you said, coming back, its just so refreshing, Playing AOC made me kinda, idk, love the world a little more, So Maybe I might finally beat the game LMAO.

Yeah, there are some games you can just absolutely marathon but I don’t think this is one of them. Play it for too long, the frustration and repetition starts to really overwhelm the magic. I quite enjoy playing for an hour or two and taking big breaks in between with this game.

I'm back on another hard mode playthrough. I still don't love it as much as other Zelda games, but it's definitely a game that grows on me more and more, and I have put the most hours into it of any Switch game.

Sort of objectively speaking, it really is a masterpiece of a game. The thought they put into the characters, the locales, the physics, the various gearing systems, even the low-key music... it's absolutely amazing what they produced.

I also agree that playing Age of Calamity gives you a nice boost/perspective on the world and generates some hype to get back to the actual game.

BOTW improved for me without even playing it again tbh. The core of the game's strengths are so fantastic that the issues I have with it feel nearly irrelevant by comparison (and some of them only annoy me in the larger context of mainstream gaming trends). Though that might change if BOTW2 is able to successfully keep those strengths and deal with the weaknesses the first game had.

@kkslider5552000
Honestly, if BotW2 can reintroduce some of the more successful "traditional" Zelda elements while keeping the core of what makes BotW so remarkable, it will probably be one of the greatest video games ever made, in my opinion.

That sounds super hyperbolic and we have no idea at the moment, but I'm getting more excited whereas a couple months ago I felt almost nothing about it.

@Pizzamorg
For me, I'd love to see a return of thematic dungeons. I'd also like to see the return of tools like the hookshot and boomerang and block rod in more of a puzzle-solving way, though I think they will most likely add some functionality to the sheikah slate instead.

In my heart of hearts I would like a small chunk of the game to be somewhat linear before you are released into the world, though I doubt that will happen. Kind of like LttP or Ocarina when you have to do the first three dungeons before the game really gets started.

I think a return of the magic meter could be interesting instead of just recharge times. Maybe they could even do something where you can use some magic to repair weapons. Could be cool.

Cleared my second Divine Beast - the bird one. The boss battle was only a challenge really because I didn’t go in with enough arrows, so it required a lot of patience and dodge button mashing to get my attacks in, but I beat it first time mostly through attrition. The Gale ability doesn’t seem as useful as the self res, but I wonder if it is what I need to be able to climb the tower covered in all of the Ganon corruption.

I also now have two more heart containers than I did beforehand and I made a couple of lightning resistance meals, so I might see if I can find some weapons somewhere and try and face the lightning boss again. If I can beat them, it’ll be three down and one to go in less than thirty hours.

Lol, freaky timing! I wanted to post about my progress and you hadn’t replied, so I deleted my last post to not double post, then you replied exactly as I posted, so it looked like you replied to nothing, I am sorry!

@Pizzamorg
Ha! No worries!

The lightning boss is usually the one people consider to be the most challenging (I think).

The gale ability is not my favorite either, but you'll definitely find uses for it as you explore the terrain. If you're still finding towers and shrines, it will help with that obviously, and then it becomes more of a convenience thing once you've discovered most shrines/towers.

Every time I replay I often determine my route based on which ability I want first. The gale ability is much more useful if you get it early and your goal is lots of exploration and finding everything.

@rallydefault I mean, the Sheikah Slate doesn't exist anymore for one, and scondly they tried to experiment with things like the hookshot in the original game, and it didn't work with the climbing system, so they scrapped it. The Fire Rod is already in the game however, but it's mostly for attacking, since they wanted to keep the world as open as possible. They also experimented with a magic meter, and scrapped that as it didn't mesh well with the gameplay.

The only thing I can see happening is themed dungeons with their own unique bosses, puzzles, ad mini-bosses, but other than that, I feel like the puzzles will be like BotW's other puzzles, where you can solve them with this game's equivalent to runes, and you can solve them in multiple ways.

Classic Zelda is dead, and will never come back, unless they make a new 2D entry. The 3D games are probably going to be open world moving forwards, since BotW is the Ocarina of Time of this generation.

@VoidofLight
You sound like you're part of the dev team lol

Why don't we just wait and see what the next game's like before we go dictating the direction of the series?

I think the future of Zelda appears to be open world, but if the next game was a series of thematic hubs - mini, pocket, open worlds, you clear in a structured order, I think I would actually prefer that. If they want another big open world, I do think adding in more tools/equipment for traversal would be good to stave off some of the repetition that creeps in from the open world. It would also be nice to see some of the dungeons reflect the area of the map they are in.

I personally though have zero interest in another meter to worry about, it is already way too much for me in the survival mechanics, the breaking weapons, the stamina meter etc etc if anything I would prefer less of that the next time around, rather than anything else.

Also, yah, that lightning boss… oooft. Just absolutely destroyed me the first time, tried dozens of times and just couldn’t beat them. Even with a lightning resistant tonic/meal, get hit once, be disarmed and then killed on the next hit. Absolutely brutal. Hoping these extra couple of hearts might give me some more breathing room. If not, I guess I’ll try and work out how to get to the last beast in that fiery mountain place.

@rallydefault I'm not apart of the dev team, but gathering what we know from interviews with the dev team, and Creating A Champion, which was written with the dev team's support, we know a lot about the future direction of the series.

@VoidofLight
For sure. They've made it clear BotW is the future of the series, but I'm not writing off any supplementary elements until I see the new game. But to each their own, no worries.

I don't see why we can't have both. I.e. The big open world of BotW but with a few themed dungeons of the sort exemplified between Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword within it.

Obviously such a game would take a long time to make, but they've had nearly five years now.

@Matt_Barber The thing is, Ocarina and Skyward Sword was more linear, and the dungeon progression was linear. Even if we get themed dungeons in BotW 2, they won't be the exact same that they were before in previous entries. The puzzles would be able to be solved with any solution, and there'd be no key items, given that those items would block progress within the overworld otherwise.

@VoidofLight I'd just like to see dungeons that are larger, with unique themes, and much greater variety among the bosses. The thing is, once you've seen the inside of a shrine in BotW, you've pretty much seen them all and that's something that can be fixed without needing to change the formula of the game as a whole.

There's no need to bring back key items or otherwise force linearity onto the game's overall structure. The dungeons can still be linear in themselves, and indeed most of the shrines in BotW already are; you've even got literal keys in some of them. They just won't stop you from progressing anywhere else, and I'd think that's a good thing that's worth keeping.

@Matt_Barber Ah yeah, I hope that dungeons with proper themes will make a return as well. Unique bosses, proper themes to them, and mini-bosses would be awesome.

Went back with my bonus hearts and meals and it was still hopeless. I actually think I did worse, I wasn’t able to get a single bit of damage off before I burned through every meal I had.

I genuinely don’t understand how anyone beats Thunderblight Ganon, I think it’s just beyond my gaming skill level. And if that is the case, then I guess I am just stuck forever? I just don’t know what I am supposed to do, I have never faced a boss so hard in a regular game before.

I understand the principle of what you are supposed to do in the fight, but the teleport breaks the lock on, so I can’t consistently trigger the bullet time which appears to be the only way to do damage. I also understand you need to use one handed weapons, so you can put up a shield to soak up the absurd amounts of damage it does, but all the one handed weapons I find are rubbish. Low durability, low damage. They break and I am barely into the fight and I am left with one handed weapons again.

Should I just come back at the end of the game when I have maximum hearts? I think I am on about 10 hearts and he can still two shot me, even with meals. Is there like a number of hearts that is required for this? Is there somewhere I can better one handed weapons? Do I bother locking on or do I just absolutely mash the dodge button with all of my might and just pray to the above that the bullet time activates? I wanna rip my hair out because the game has just put a massive, smooth, wall in front of me that I just can’t climb to get over.

@Pizzamorg Sorry to hear that, Thunderblight is a beast. I would maybe head over to the last divine beast, usually I'll leave Vah Naboris for last. The last power will help you out, and you'll get some more hearts, try cooking things with the word "hearty" in it for some big health boost meals.
If you can't beat that boss all you can really do is come back later, that one's a toughy.

I'm playing this for the first time and honestly it's the most fun I've had since the N64 Zelda titles. It's different, but familiar. Although I've enjoyed every Zelda title, this has been a refreshing experience. It's hit me with vibes from when I was young. I haven't been this immersed in a game in a while.

A bit late to the party I know, but great job Nintendo.