The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Guide Highlights Range of Puzzles and Side Quests

I don't know why, but with this huge map 76 side quests feel a little bit low on number to me. Maybe the entire experience will full the gap but...

By the way don't get me wrong: i can't wait to play this game and i think will clearly be by far the best game and best Zelda to me. It's just that little number...

Still a little worried whether there will be any/enough full-sized dungeons, though. We´ll find out soon enough.

Sounds like it'll take hundreds of hours to complete

Either way, I'm down!

This is gonna be a monster to 100%. Good thing we'll have it on the go for those long car trips or waits.

The portability of the Switch will make completing this monster of a game much faster!

Only 76 side quests? Ok that's a lot for Zelda to be fair.

@Dudikowski There are. It was confirmed by Aonuma a while ago, IIRC.

Edit: Found it:

At first, we were planning to include more large, labyrinth-style dungeons, the sort of things you’d expect in a Zelda title. But the reason we decided to include the smaller shrines—which isn’t to say there aren’t some larger dungeons in Breath of the Wild—was to strike a balance, between this extremely large (over)world that you’re exploring, and these goals and objectives to explore within that.

Hopefully you'll get to play as Kirby when you complete it 100%

I wonder what main dungeons there will be?

Finally pre-ordered during the week for Wii U, can't wait. Currently playing Color Splash and absolutely loving Splatoon all over again after giving it a break for a while.

Quality over quantity is always a must for sidequests. A hundred variations of "talk to guy, collect X number of troll sphincters, return for underwhelming reward" is worth quite a lot less than its number.

But the real question is - fishing minigame?

I know a lot of people want to avoid spoilers, but I still think we need a Zelda Direct in early to mid February. Version differences, amiibo, maybe some NPC interaction. It doesn't have to be long, 20 minutes will do.

They really almost need a ND just for Switch controls; portable mode, Pro controller, Joycon grip. Is the touch screen used like it was supposed to be on the Wii U Gamepad?

If there isn't a ND to show off why people should buy a Switch for Zelda BotW I'm going to assume the Wii U version is good enough, b/c there's no way I want to play that beautiful big world on a 6" screen when my TV is 52". And I really like my surround sound system over headphones. For those who like portable play over tv, that's great, I'm not knocking it, it's just not for me, that 720p does looks like a HUGE improvement over the 3DS, very impressive generational leap, enjoy.

I'll have to bid goodbye to my social life when I play this game. XD

lol, that is huge they mentioned mini-dungeones / side quests puzzles etc and not even mentioned the main story.

man this will take a year to complete

@FGPackers Well, think of it this way. Would you rather have 200 side-quests that all turn out to be fetch quests with little to no world and/or character development, or 76 high quality quests that make you feel closer to the world you're exploring and those you're exploring with?

As I always say, it's quality over quantity.

Well, I'll be very busy with this game when it releases. It's going to be huge.

B... b.... b-but there's no Japanese VO option!!!
PRE-ORDER CANCELLED!!!!!!

See you all this time next year.

Preordered

@FGPackers
Bet today's a pretty bad day for you, eh?

I took a week off from work. Hoping its enough. ^_^

Sounds more Majora's Mask: more side quests, less dungeoning.

This is a great thing.

@FGPackers i'm sure we might get DLC for this game

@rjejr I don't think a Zelda Direct is needed. It might be desirable for some, but I don't think Nintendo could do any more to hype the game. Maybe one last trailer?

I'm glad to see this Zelda guide is made by Piggyback not Prima. Whilst the Prima collector's guides of the Zelda games of the last 10 years or so have looked great, their content has left a lot to be desired. Their recent Twilight Princess HD guide included the same errors as the guide they did for the original Gamecube version, so basically they just rehashed the content and didn't even bother to correct it!

Piggyback's Wind Water guide for the GC was excellent, so I have high hopes for this. Pre ordered it.

@8itmap_k1d As long as that one last trailer explains why people need to buy 2 Link amiibo, one on horseback and one with a bow, for $15 each with their game. If the Zelda amiibo lets you play as Zelda they will be going for $50 each on eBsy. Anouma did say alternative ending, amiibo could be involved. Hopefully not though.

@Alucard83 i don't think so, development took too much time
@Tingle_The_Great i just want to forget it...
@yannah21 i think you're right...

@Baker1000 Yes it is a lot for Zelda, but in any case if they are more substantial than simple fetch quests it is more than enough! Other games have more quests, but they are too much in the line of "go talk to this guy", or "bring x amount of items"

Has Nintendo announced anything relating to people who purchase the Wii U version possibly getting the Switch version for free or even a discount? They did say both versions are the same so you would think they would at least do something along the lines of getting both versions free or at a discount.

@remlapgamer Why do People always want stuff for free? I mean seriously for other Games from other Company you also would never get such a upgrade.

Assuming this is more Majora's Mask (or even Wind Waker) than Skyward Sword (in my world, shooting sword power at boxes and then getting a treasure chest is not a sidequest), this is reassuring news. All about those sidequests.

Looks like taking a week off work for this game was a good idea.

If they're high quality side quests, like the ones in Majora's Mask, then that's incredible news. 900 seed puzzles, though?

76 seems like plenty to pad out the main adventure. I hope I'm so enthralled by the main plot the sidequests are as secondary as they are intended to be.

@Link1309
Sony actually did give out some free versions of the same game if they were both released for PS3/PS4 and Vita

If they are all quality quest like Witcher 3 then that would be great.

900 minipuzzles......in an open world game? how the hell what the .....erm.....?

@Dudikowski Possible spoilers, but a leaked map of the game seemed to indicate the game will have 5 main dungeons. I'm assuming though that each of these dungeons will be much, much larger than any dungeon we've ever seen in the Zelda series.

What if there's even more content but the guide doesn't cover it all? The guide might not have every side quest in it and instead have other stuff since it's open world.
That would rock!

@yannah21 Exactly. It's Fallout 4's biggest problem compared to every Bethesda/Obsidian/Interplay game prior. Too much quantity, and because of that they didn't have time to focus on making those quests quality. Instead you end up with what every gamer hates most: radiant fetch quests.

Skyrim, Oblivion, Morrowind, Fallout NV, Fallout 3, and Fallout 2 all had great quests, because time was taken to make the world feel alive, rather than to fill the world with stuff to see. Fallout 4 had too much to see, and too little to actually DO.

@LiberatedAnimal I prefer side quests to be on-par with the main story, otherwise there's no reason for them to exist. They need to have their own stand alone importance to them.

@ZurapiiYohane64 You'll get stories, worldbuilding, and character growth from npcs. All of these are way more important than little heart pieces. There's nothing to say that you won't get rewards for helping people anyway.

@Tarvaax So you're gonna through the whole game with 3 heart pieces?

I don't know what a Korok seed puzzle is, but there are 900 of them!? 900!? It took me long enough just finding 100 gold skulltullas in Ocarina of Time! This game is going to be the bane of 100% completionists for sure.

@Link1309
I don't think it's wanting something for free quite as much as it is me paying for the same thing twice. It's a common courtesy and practice. iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, any new movie you purchase usually offers a slightly higher price for the Blu ray-DVD-digital copy. I also said get the game for free or a "possible discount" for the Switch version. I have double paid for countless games Nintendo has released over the years and they did offer discounts on Wii U virtual console games you already had registered on Wii so Nintendo understands where me and many other fans are coming from. From a business perspective you'd think Nintendo would highly promote this incintive to attract more fans to make the Switch over to the new console. Not giving getting the game for free or a discount would be a reason to not move onto the new console.

@remlapgamer This makes no sense. Why would Nintendo give away their system-selling flagship title for free?

Jesus 900 korok puzzles. That's pretty intense.

I think this will be the first game I actually care to 100%

I want to find gold skulltullas!

Still nothing about regular dungeons,wich should be the main point of the Zelda games.If BOTW is another MM,I'll buy a used copy or wait for a discount.My dislike for the sheika smartphone should have waned by then.

How come the Amazon link doesn't work anymore?

Not sure if it can be considered completely accurate... but it certainly gets us closer.
These listings are just a summary, so might not list everything, and what they do list may not be word-for-word accurate.
But regardless, it's certainly looking good.

@8itmap_k1d
Why would they charge you twice for the exact same game released at the exact same time. I didn't only say for free, I also said a "possible discount" would be fair offer to customers. There are tons of people posting they just plan to only pick this up on Wii U. I think Nintendo would be wise to offer a discount for the Switch version to customers already owning the Wii U version as an incintive to purchase a Switch. I honestly believe Nintendo will offer this in the future.

@Captain_Gonru I'm not promoting amiibo as DLC, that's what they are, toys-to-life. If they didn't unlock something in the game then they wouldn't be amiibo, they would just be toys or statues or collectibles. But they made them as amiibo, and they announced their amiibo as better than the rest b/c theirs work in multiple games but the others only work in.

They "spring to life" and "give you new ways to play".

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QK9ip7Z3Xjw

All amiibo should do those chest drops, once every 24 hours like in Hyrule Warriors. The new Zelda:BotW amiibo better do more than that. Arrow Link should give you unlimited arrows for 60 minutes, horse whistle as you said is the obvious choice. Zelda playable would melt the Internet, even if it's only a skin. If she worked like Peach hologram in Paper Mario Color splash giving you clues that could be cool. Guardian should let you ride a Gurdian, or be different and blow up any on screen. Boboklin is useless any way you slice it, collectors only, but since it's useless it should unlock a bottomless battle dungeon like one did in TP HD, I forget which one. Or maybe Gananforf should do that. Boboklin should unlock Link's Crossbow Training HD. That game needs a port.

But they're amiibo, toys to life, they better do something cool. The Nintendo effect kicks in when it only works on the Switch edition, not the Wii U, we know that garbage treatment of Wii U owners is in there somewhere.

120 mini-dungeons are fine, but I really wish they put some full sized normal dungeons in it. It's ok to innovate sometimes, but there are things that should be standard, big dungeons with puzzles and a final boss at the end is one of them.

@FGPackers To me it depends on whether those 76 side-quests are actually hand-crafted sidequests or just generic "Give me N of X" quests. If those are totally original side-quests which actually add depth to the game, then that number sounds fantastic to me.

@george82 yeah I think we've been spoiled with games the Xenoblade Chronicles games because they have hundreds of quests, but a lot of them are just fetch quests. Hopefully these quests give reason to some of the parts of the map you'd otherwise have no purpose exploring.

@IcaroSan There will also be full-sized dungeons like you'd expect from a Zelda game. The listing here is only for optional "extras."

76 side-quests doesn't sound like much when you compare it to the hundreds of missions in Xenoblade chronicles/Xenoblade X. However, those missions are all samey (collect certain amount of item x, bring it to character z, etc), while Zelda side-quests are always fun and with lots of variety. That, together with the seeds and mini-dungeons could get us going for quite some time. Through I still hope there are also traditional dungeons (not very likely though).

@Captain_Gonru amiibo does that to everyone. If you don't want to buy them then it's too much but if you do want to buy them it's never enough. Physical DLC means half the people are always unhappy. Best thing to do is make some of them do almost nothing - Squid Sisters in Splatoon - and some do something - Shovel Knight multilayer and Yoshi Wooly World companion. Yoshi is still my favorite use, though if I got TP HD I'd go with Wolf Link. Too bad that game was just a port of a game I already played. Zelda BotW has SO FREAKIN MANY amiibo to choose from, I'm guessing some do a lot, some do a little. I really hope Switch and Wii U versions are the same though. And we get a Zelda Direct in February.

@Captain_Gonru Off topic - do we even care at this point, have we ever? - but I saw this pic on Twitter and immediately thought of you. I know we're past it, but whatever.