Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

So someone just posted this somewhere:

So assuming those are both the final version, it looks the Switch applies various lighting shaders at a much larger radius than the Wii U does. Specular lighting and rim lighting in that screenshot.

That was a technique they used in the original Dark Souls if anyone's interested.

The draw distance for the actual environment models looks the same though as far as I can tell.

I'm eagerly anticipating all the times of day and reflections on water in Zelda.

Something I just noticed about horses, they have X/5 stars strength, speed, and stamina stats; a bond pie chart that looks like it tops out at 100; and a temperament category (gentle, wild, or nothing else I've seen). The wild horse seemed to have much higher stats and start with a much lower bond, suggesting that weaker horses will be easier to tame, but more disposable.

So far, the number of horse whip boosts has corresponded with both the strength and stamina star rank. The stable keepers' horse-taming dialogue option read that horses may change direction or slow down on their own until their bond is high, with nothing to suggest that horses with higher bonds would improve stat-wise.

So my question is, what do we think strength, speed, and stamina refer to? Are strength and stamina always going to match? Are either of them health? What would a horse need strength for? Carrying? Does stamina increase the duration of boosts? If it doesn't seem to refer to the number of boosts, is speed just the horse's base movement speed?

@Dezzy The Wii U version in that image is the old build from the E3 demo, whereas the Switch version is the final build. I think that the Wii U version will look better than that. Aonuma never mentioned draw distance to be the difference in versions (he did say higher quality sound effects and resolution), so it's very possible that the draw distance will be the same in both versions, who knows? DF will probably sort that out on release.

@Haru17 Stamina corresponds probably with the boosts. No idea what strength does, inventory items don't have weight like TW3, do they? I can't be that. Maybe strength is the boost as you said, and stamina is the duration of the boost, that seems plausible.

Can it possibly be this way about horses stats?

Strength: damage when riding over enemies (bokoblins?)
Speed: only while boosting (so base speed will be the same for every horse)
Stamina: for speed boosting duration

Maybe horses will get tired after some time riding.

@Octane

Doesn't really bother me if that's as good as it looks. The number of times in the game you'll have long distance views like that will be pretty minimal anyway.

Correct. Kinda Funny's video actually showed the person playing, which was Chiko from Nintendo Treehouse.

I think that's all very possible, but I think Nintendo has the MMO lust in their blood with this game. I think base speed is going to be affected, and stamina will refer to horses tiring and slowing down. Strength is interesting, since horses just kinda clip through enemies now. We'll have to see whether there's any sort of carrying capacity mechanic. That seems too micro manage-y for what we've seen of this game's design.

@Dezzy True, I'm more worried about the actual content in the game that what I can see from a distance. The water effects in the Switch version look nice, but from what I can tell, there's a slight time difference between the two screenshots. Maybe the that old Wii U build was capable of rendering the same water effects just mere minutes between that screenshot was taken? I find it difficult to compare two different builds of the same game that are taken on slightly different times during a crucial part of the day for lighting effects. I want to see a 1:1 comparison of the final builds of each version before judging how the Wii U version looks.

Themed dungeons are gone unfortunately. The only dungeons in the game are the shrines; however, some are bigger and have boss battles.

http://www.perfectly-nintendo.com/legend-zelda-breath-wild-ao...

That has been my main worry about the game, and now it's confirmed.

Quite frankly i don't mind it, i like the shrines and the difference between huge outside world and little dungeons below it. While playing other Zeldas i asked myself (especially during latest dungeons) "do i miss too much to reach the boss?", and that's because i'm a completionist and i like to take all treasure chests inside them. So that's a point i'm willing to smile for, also because shrines didn't seem to be without any kind of themes, at least for ones we watched inside the Plateau

If some are actually big and have boss fights then what's the difference really?

I'm worried about the wording, he said a bigger Shrine with a boss and no theme which doesn't automatically mean dungeon sized and a boss that's not another Guardian.

In any case there's been back-pedalling in the article with a note against the comment.

[tl note: this is meant to say dungeons/shrines found in an area do not necessarily have a theme based on that area, not that there are no dungeons or themed dungeons in the game period]

They included this line in that article. So it looks like there will be regular dungeons.

As long as they're not all just gray with blue light everywhere you won't hear me complaining

@jump just read the article, doesn't seem to be an issue, just the way it's worded.

However, there’s no more “themed” dungeons: if a shrine is found in a forest, it will not necessarily have a forest theme [tl note: this is meant to say dungeons/shrines found in an area do not necessarily have a theme based on that area, not that there are no dungeons or themed dungeons in the game period].

Regardless, I think that the 4 dungeons rumour is BS, 120 shrines and that's all. Sure, Aonuma didn't say that none of them will be themed, but I'm getting the feeling that's how it'll turn out anyway..

I don't think they are silly enough to not include dungeons which are such a big thing to the core of Zelda but I also think they are silly enough to think Shrines will make up for it.

"In the past, Eiji Aonuma often talked about Skyrim as a source of inspiration for Zelda games, and in that interview, he explains which element in particular caught his interest. What he really liked in that game was the surprise of finding new towns while exploring the world, seeing for himself how different they were from each other."

Ohhhh yes! Sounds like there might be quite a few towns then.

Finally a new screenshot after the Switch thing. Note the Sheikah eye on the chief-lookin' house and the Goddess statue enshrined in the pond.