Topic: Your Latest Switch Purchase

Cowabunga collection 😍

Cowabunga Collection (Physical)

Live A Live, physical copy.
I've already ordered a physical copy of the Cowabunga Collection, but the shop's still sorting out the inventory situation with it.

Bishoujo Battle: Double Strike
SD Gundam Battle Alliance
Koumajou Remilia Scarlet Symphony
River City Saga Three Kingdoms
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Burst Forth!! Choro-gon Breath

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

@KilloWertz You're in for a ride.... such a great game mate!

It is probably in my top 3 open-world games of all time, sat comfortably alongside Elden Ring & Ghost of Tsushima.

(NB. My Xenoblade 3 has now arrived, and I plan to kick it off - finally - later this week when I'm travelling for work!)

@CJD87 I hope I agree in the end. It's may be a while before I play it, as I am still playing Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition and then I'm not sure what my next long game will be (I have Fire Emblem: Three Houses already), but it was on sale for $40.

My only concerns really are whether the climbing and weapon breaking frustrate me enough to want to tap out. Well, that and the story being thinner than most other open world 100+ hour games, but I know I have to experience it regardless. It's almost an obligation after getting my Switch over a month ago.

Just got myself a Switch with Super Mario Party, Pokemon Sword, Mario Kart 8 and Zelda: Links Awakening. I'm super excited to play Links Awakening! Still got the original for Gameboy lol. I eventually want to get BoTW somewhere down the road as well.

Some great purchases, hopefully, you'll enjoy your time with each game. The only thing I might have done differently would have been getting Mario Party Superstars over Super Mario Party.

@Lony85 Is Superstars the superior Mario Party game? I know some people dislike the motion controls for Super Mario Party, but I don't mind it that much.

@KilloWertz Yes I would definitely recommend you use a 'breather' game between XCDE and either FE/BOTW.... I often struggle to jump straight from one 100hr epic into another!

I really really like BOTW, but can also see why elements of the game could be considered contentious. I actually think its traversal mechanics and exploration are the best within any open-world game I've played, but plot is pretty much absent and the land can feel quite barren at times.

Weapon breakage isn't actually too much of an issue IMO, as the new weapons are plentiful...

How's Xenoblade, and what chapter have you hit? I recall some pretty meaty twists around the mid-game mark, the story definitely kept me going when the gameplay got a bit samey

The Takeover.

@KilloWertz Most people that complain about weapons breaking in botw never found the workarounds.

You can fight with bombs. It's not optimal, but it allows you save good swords for when you need them. The bombs rune you get at the beginning of the game, which gives you infinite bombs, they never run out, and can be upgraded, boosting the power of the bombs and reducing cool-down time. MANY people that complain about weapons breaking never upgraded their bombs fully when he game directs you to the lab & character that offers to upgrade your Shieka Slate (the source of your infinite bombs).

There is a way to farm arrows, and get lots of arrows. So, shooting arrows is another way to save swords for when you need them.

And, the best place to reliably find shields & swords is kind of a spoiler? If you get 10-15 hours into the game and haven't found this good place for stronger, more powerful weapons, just ask in the botw thread.

@CJD87 Yeah, I had planned on doing that after Xenoblade Chronicles. I just haven't decided what for sure. I was considering getting Bayonetta, as it was a game I was really looking forward to trying but it didn't work for me as hoped when I did several years ago, but I don't believe I gave it enough of a chance. That and I've ended up liking several games over the years after giving them a second chance, plus wanting to play the sequel (and upcoming other sequel). We'll see.

I may very well end up agreeing with you in the end, as it wouldn't be the first time I've been wrong with my expectations for parts of a game. Aside from the weapon breakage, I did like what I say from gameplay footage of the combat, so gameplay wise I should be ok as long as I am wrong about traversal (hopefully rain doesn't have me throwing my controller, gently of course. lol).

I'm at the beginning of Chapter 13 at a little under 70 hours. I have admittedly been slacking off on it a bit over the last week playing stuff on my PS5 when I should be focussing on Xenoblade Chronicles, but I'm all in again after experiencing the great Fiora rescue, the great scenes between her and Shulk at the beginning of Chapter 12, and then the rest of that chapter over the last two days.

I will admit that I haven't loved it quite as much as I had hoped, but the story is still really good for the most part and I like most of the characters. Side quests are boring mostly, with combat being a bit of the JRPG equivalent of button mashing (just spamming all attacks without any thought needed) until you reach a fight where you have to actually use your brain, and the Colony 6 reconstruction bogging down to just randomly fetching things that are sometimes ridiculously hard to find even if you are still in the early stages of it. Still, expectations might have been a tad high given that it's one of the major reasons I bought a Switch, and I am still enjoying the game on the strength of the story and a portion of the characters alone. That does say something that I've been willing to put almost 70 hours into a game so far that I have issues with. I guess they aren't quite as big of a deal as they may seem.

@WoomyNNYes Thanks, I appreciate all the tips. I will try to remember them whenever I end up actually playing Breath of the Wild. Actually, I'll just copy and paste your post onto my computer. Then I can't forget it, as those will probably be very helpful.

The weapon breaking thing is a non-issue in BotW. You're practically swimming in weapons through most of the game. My biggest consistent issue with the game was trying to find the materials to upgrade my weapon storage slots so that I didn't have to keep passing them up.

tbh after playing The Witcher 3 and practically swimming in weapons that I kept needing to put into storage, I really missed Zelda's approach.

Just think of weapons like ammo and you'll have a better idea of what to expect.

@KilloWertz Climbing in rain is undeniably annoying. No getting around that. Thunderstorms are even worse. Wear metal gear (heh) during one and you'll quickly see what I mean.

The game prominently features survival/simulation elements, and the developers clearly wanted weather to be something that impacts the gameplay. Although the... interactivity and 'livingness' of the world is part of what I love about the game. The open world isn't just a big space to run through when going from objective to objective. In many respects, the open world itself IS the game. How you feel about this design philosophy will heavily influence your overall feelings on the game itself.

@Ralizah Thanks, and I look forward to giving my verdict on whether the game works for me or not. Again, it will likely be a while, but I will check that required box at some point.

Now I'm wavering between Bayonetta and Splatoon 2 as my next game before I tackle another long game. Just reading about Splatoon 2's singe player portion basically being a 3D Mario game intrigued me. It seems that finding levels can be annoying at times, but otherwise it seems surprisingly good. I still won't jump into the multiplayer much, as I don't play multiplayer games much, but oh well.

@KilloWertz I agree with all your comments on XBDE, and especially the monotony of the side quests. I actually think of XBDE in a similar vein to the DeS remake on PS5..... sometimes it is easy to forget these games are nearly a decade old, despite looking graphically comparable to their modern contemporaries.

@Ralizah is right about BOTW, once you start thinking of 'weapons' as 'ammo' then it becomes a lot less heart breaking when something you've grown fond of shatters!

BOTW is truly an excellent game though, probably still the ultimate 'showcase' game for the Switch. It has aged really well actually, I can't quite believe it is now 5(?) years old. Let me know your thoughts when you kick it off!

XC3 has some of the best side content I've ever seen in a JRPG. The main story is probably a little shorter than in previous games, but there's SO much stuff to see and do throughout the various environments now, most of it is worth experiencing on its own, and some of the side quests rival main story content in terms of quality. Monolith Soft's game design has improved so drastically over the years.

@CJD87 I'd say BotW was the 'proof-of-concept' game Nintendo absolutely needed to ship alongside the Switch. It's one thing to hear about 'home console gaming on the go.' It's another to literally have a gorgeous, vast open world adventure in the palms of your hands. Playing it at launch remains one of the most memorable and surreal gaming experiences I've ever had. Imagine going from 3DS to this
.
I am excited to see how the sequel improves on the design of the previous game, though, as a ground-up, late-gen Switch release. Expectations will be sky high coming off the original, so hopefully Nintendo is equal to the task.

Yes, I'd say it is. I actually played Super Mario Party with a friend online sometime after playing Mario Party Superstars (my friend didn't have MPS at the time, that's why), and I just had a much better time with Superstars. SMP's minigames were generally decent, but I didn't really like how the team-up mechanic was implemented, and the boards weren't too great. MPS's boards and minigames are just so much better I think, and it's a loving tribute to the classic Mario Party games. I just wish it had one more board or two, and I would've loved to see boards from the GameCube games complement the ones from the N64 games.