Zelda Breath of the Wild - Wii U vs. Switch

[Sarge]

Might be a good idea to play a shorter game in the interim as well, much as I did with Blaster Master Zero. Maybe I'll do an NES game.

Aw, who am I kidding, I'll probably spend another two or three hours on it this evening.

[Tanooki]

I overdid it last night for too many hours, kind of wish I hadn't but the reward was there.

Ended up exploring most of Hyrule Castle interior that's possible. I tried to scale that Zelda tower for the memory but couldn't get the height from the only place safe enough to try (+3 stamina would do it I think.) I bailed before being roasted alive. With that, decided to poke around the Rito area and ended up taking that entire section on and finishing it off divine beast and all. That bird puzzle interior was interesting, lost on it at first but tried another angle and it was fine. I figured from there I'd go and look at Gerudo. First time the game pissed me off, that stomping sob with the lightning strikes. It's not the problem, but being at the mercy of a twitchy little girl and her protection circle who would shift and I'd get electrocuted hard core a few times, many other close calls. First time I croaked on a divine beast too. Once inside that body had me confused for a long while, couldn't get to any of the terminals. I ended up cheating it a bit I guess not doing as designed and using Revali to fly over an electric barrier for one, and using it again for two other in the central area. The tail part had me pissed, couldn't get it raised for awhile but ultimately it was. I saved the game, then slept it before the boss fight.

I also snapped up my 4 orbs for a heart, and then the +1 from Rito so I now possess the Master Sword which makes slicing up guardians far easier. I plan to drop that into that boss later along with feeding it some bomb arrows if it tries anything snarky from a distance. I did that with the Rito boss and it got laid out pretty fast bombing it into submission.

Playing less I think would be more at this rate as I do want to play with Blaster Master and in 2 days Binding of Isaac should be here unless Amazon ships early and perhaps another week out I Am Setsuna. So it's like do I push more on Zelda or break it up and go back later as I'd hate to leave it hanging. I think I need a guide as these shrines are not obvious to find anymore for me and I have no idea why.

[BogusMeatFactory]

I overdid it last night for too many hours, kind of wish I hadn't but the reward was there.

Ended up exploring most of Hyrule Castle interior that's possible. I tried to scale that Zelda tower for the memory but couldn't get the height from the only place safe enough to try (+3 stamina would do it I think.) I bailed before being roasted alive. With that, decided to poke around the Rito area and ended up taking that entire section on and finishing it off divine beast and all. That bird puzzle interior was interesting, lost on it at first but tried another angle and it was fine. I figured from there I'd go and look at Gerudo. First time the game pissed me off, that stomping sob with the lightning strikes. It's not the problem, but being at the mercy of a twitchy little girl and her protection circle who would shift and I'd get electrocuted hard core a few times, many other close calls. First time I croaked on a divine beast too. Once inside that body had me confused for a long while, couldn't get to any of the terminals. I ended up cheating it a bit I guess not doing as designed and using Revali to fly over an electric barrier for one, and using it again for two other in the central area. The tail part had me pissed, couldn't get it raised for awhile but ultimately it was. I saved the game, then slept it before the boss fight.

I also snapped up my 4 orbs for a heart, and then the +1 from Rito so I now possess the Master Sword which makes slicing up guardians far easier. I plan to drop that into that boss later along with feeding it some bomb arrows if it tries anything snarky from a distance. I did that with the Rito boss and it got laid out pretty fast bombing it into submission.

Playing less I think would be more at this rate as I do want to play with Blaster Master and in 2 days Binding of Isaac should be here unless Amazon ships early and perhaps another week out I Am Setsuna. So it's like do I push more on Zelda or break it up and go back later as I'd hate to leave it hanging. I think I need a guide as these shrines are not obvious to find anymore for me and I have no idea why.

I was able to get that memory with zero stamina upgrades. I just entered from the rear of the castle and took a West route up. Was not that hard actually. To keep the Guardian turrets off me I just shot their eye and as they were stunned ran by

[Tanooki]

I had entered from the rear, worked through the castle and all the interior completely. I then popped out over near the dining hall and tried to approach Zeldas tower from the south/west wall and it just didn't have enough give. I probably could do it now though with Revalis wind getting a huge free leap then latching on. I'm really not that hung up on it though as I'll be back there soon enough.

[Xeogred]

Last night I actually started experiencing a bit of burnout. I don't think it's because I don't like what's there, I think it's because I'm a little overwhelmed. The scope is absolutely massive. I also poked around and have now found all of the major towns leading to the guardians. So... I probably just need to start drilling down a bit to get things moving in the story.

I've said it before, this is excellent, but I also seem to appreciate linearity a little more in my games these days as well. So prior Zelda games weren't a problem for me.

(I'll probably be gushing about the game again tomorrow as I get more done than randomly dashing around the landscape. Also, I'm at 46 shrines right now.)

Yeah, I was feeling the burn after getting the master sword, so I decided to do one of the first, "dungeons," and feel a lot more energized with what I received after completing it. It made me feel a bit more bold to enter more dangerous areas and explore more surprisingly. It bumped me up to the next tier of gameplay.

This is like the first hugely open world game that actually gives me a sense of accomplishment like I can actually finish the majority of this and fully explore the entire map. I don't fully plan on getting all the Korok seeds or completing every shrine, but I'm feeling super accomplished and content with the areas I've covered so far. Maybe like 40% of the map. It feels like I'm getting so much done exploring this world, charting the compendium, and at this rate I don't think I'll ever feel annoyed or overwhelmed with the side quests or other BS most open world games shove down you.

Time for other devs to take some notes.

[bmoc]

I got the Master Sword over the weekend and last night I started farming Guardians for Ancient Cores to get my Ancient armor. I got the all the cores for the Ancient Armor in one sitting and upgraded the armor twice. Now I'm at the point where I need 15 cores for the next upgrades.

The method I used for farming was to start after a Blood Moon and hit up the only "Test of Major Strength" shrine that I have found so far. I cheesed the Guardian to death by alternating between frost and electric weapons (keeping him perma-stunned) to get its weapons and shield. That way I'd have some extra weapons for when the Master Sword is recharging. Then I would hit up all the mobile land Guardians around Hyrule Castle and the bottom level of the labyrinth in the top right corner of the world map. Doing that netted me enough cores for the armor in one sitting (9 cores).

Anyone got a way to knock out cores a little faster? There are probably other good areas for fighting Guardians that I haven't come across yet. I know there are more "Major Strength" shrines. My next stop will be finding those and looking for other armor pieces between Blood Moons.

[casterofdreams]

bmoc: you raised a serious question for me.

Does the blood moon thing respawn guardians? Including the lesser guardians in the tests of strength shrines?

[bmoc]

Indeed it does

[casterofdreams]

This made my day! I've been sitting here hording (read: saving them) the big ol' axes that does 60 damage and I now can actually farm them!

I also need the parts for the second level of upgrades for the armor.

[Tanooki]

This is like the first hugely open world game that actually gives me a sense of accomplishment like I can actually finish the majority of this and fully explore the entire map. I don't fully plan on getting all the Korok seeds or completing every shrine, but I'm feeling super accomplished and content with the areas I've covered so far. Maybe like 40% of the map. It feels like I'm getting so much done exploring this world, charting the compendium, and at this rate I don't think I'll ever feel annoyed or overwhelmed with the side quests or other BS most open world games shove down you.

Time for other devs to take some notes.

Could not have put that better on any write up of the game without really explicitly detailing things that could spoil something about it either. That really is how the world works and works so well in Breath of the Wild. I have the same problem and HATE open world games, but this one is so radically different and still not in such a way it's not a bullshit slog with lots of forced garbage. The sides come up often enough, but they get filed never with harassment or cares again unless you want to do it to add time to the clock or self worth to the game.

As it stands I'll have Binding of Isaac tomorrow, I am Setsuna probably next week is my guess on that one. I could happily put down Zelda and just pick at it now and again at a later date given the heap of hours I've dropped into it right now and feel I got more than my moneys worth and that's not a common thing anymore with full price new games for me at all. I'm so apathetic against so much of it I play until I self distract (usually not intentional) and move along, or I find reasons to sit on here or something else and leave things. I willingly pick this game up and do it and stick on it for hours, usually a few more than desired some of those days.

Currently I've got all 4 beasts downed, did the thunder fight and the entire water blight last night and parked it staring at Impa to move the quest along today. I have no idea if I could tackle Ganon right now, if I came up against a Lynel I'd be dead, no questions, they're too hard. I can't handle the red one near the shock arrows, accidented on a silver one in the castle the other day and couldn't land a blow. Ganon I don't see being anywhere as hard as those furry bastards and more on a level of the 4 blights but a bit meaner which is fine. If I did that later successfully clearly only 40%(maybe) of the shrines are done with me at 14 or 15 hearts and 2 pieces of stamina boost, koroks not that many at all either as I jsut do them as I see them (still haven't figured out that ticking clock one some do.)