Zelda Breath of the Wild - Wii U vs. Switch

[noiseredux]

The convenience of extra stamina is less pronounced if you don't spend all your time climbing every mountainside like I did.

this is me. There are some very long stretches of my playtime that are just me watching Link very slowly climb something haha.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Y'all have talked up this game REALLY well for me. I've been contemplating pre-ordering Mario Odyssey on Amazon as my next purchase, but this very well may might be instead!

[BogusMeatFactory]

So over the weekend, I visited my brother, who recently bought a PS4 to play Lego Dimensions with his son who is getting to the age where he enjoys video games. He also got for himself Horizon: Zero Dawn and the Uncharted games. I brought my Switch for us to play as well and have fun, since he hasn't played it before, only seen it.

He is asking questions about Zelda and I was enthusing about it and I let him play. He played for about 15 minutes and was like, "Wow...this game is great." He then went to show off Horizon and it looks amazing, but he gets to a cliff and stops and says, "I wish I could climb this." He never thought about it until he played Breath of the Wild, but that freedom to see something and climb it really changed something in him in such a brief time. It was profound!

[noiseredux]

that's a cool story, man. BOTW is sparking in me things that I've only felt in certain games - GTA5 and Skyrim come to mind - this sort of feeling of "I can do whatever the F I want in this game." And it's a great feeling. It gives you a world that you just want to spend time in. Some nights I fire it up with the intention of accomplishing something specific; some nights I just pick a direction and start walking and just let whatever happens happen. It's pretty great.

[Michi]

The convenience of extra stamina is less pronounced if you don't spend all your time climbing every mountainside like I did.

this is me. There are some very long stretches of my playtime that are just me watching Link very slowly climb something haha.

And even then, I've found that if you survey the area you plan on climbing, you can usually find a way up that will grant you rest stops to replenish your stamina. Which makes sense, since the whole game is built around the idea of being able to go anywhere from the get-go.

There's only been a couple of places so far where I've needed more than my original stamina wheel to get anywhere. And if I'm not mistaken, both of those were challenge related (free Barbarian Helm ftw!)

That said, now that I have the Master Sword (yay!), the next upgrade I get will probably be stamina. If for no other reason than I'll be able to run a little farther for a bit.

[SamuraiMegas]

The convenience of extra stamina is less pronounced if you don't spend all your time climbing every mountainside like I did.

this is me. There are some very long stretches of my playtime that are just me watching Link very slowly climb something haha.

And even then, I've found that if you survey the area you plan on climbing, you can usually find a way up that will grant you rest stops to replenish your stamina. Which makes sense, since the whole game is built around the idea of being able to go anywhere from the get-go.

There's only been a couple of places so far where I've needed more than my original stamina wheel to get anywhere. And if I'm not mistaken, both of those were challenge related (free Barbarian Helm ftw!)

That said, now that I have the Master Sword (yay!), the next upgrade I get will probably be stamina. If for no other reason than I'll be able to run a little farther for a bit.

If you don't feel like having that many hearts is needed

there's a statue in Hateno you should talk to

[alienjesus]

The convenience of extra stamina is less pronounced if you don't spend all your time climbing every mountainside like I did.

this is me. There are some very long stretches of my playtime that are just me watching Link very slowly climb something haha.

And even then, I've found that if you survey the area you plan on climbing, you can usually find a way up that will grant you rest stops to replenish your stamina. Which makes sense, since the whole game is built around the idea of being able to go anywhere from the get-go.

There's only been a couple of places so far where I've needed more than my original stamina wheel to get anywhere. And if I'm not mistaken, both of those were challenge related (free Barbarian Helm ftw!)

That said, now that I have the Master Sword (yay!), the next upgrade I get will probably be stamina. If for no other reason than I'll be able to run a little farther for a bit.

My counter argument is that hearts are easier to replenish mid-battle than stamina is, and hearts are necessary less often than stamina, which you use basically all the time. Having the convenience of running everywhere and jumping up walls and spinning clubs around in boss fights with hinoxes for ages is way more useful overall than having a few permanent hearts for the one or two encounters where that's useful, especially with how easy it is to add extra hearts with food.

[noiseredux]

hey, I stumbled upon one of my first memory thingies by accident which was pretty cool.

I've just been kind of working on unlocking more towers and shrines right now.

I've got a few of those shrines that involve fighting a guardian that I need to go back to also, but I get so frustrated with them. Even with five hearts they're able to generally one-hit kill me. I did manage to beat the one that gives me a shield, though which is nice.

Oh oh, I did that little "Zelda News" thing from the home screen to launch the game and get some free items... which immediately rolled off the cliff I was next to haha.

[noiseredux]

so here's my current sitch: I've got those electric arrows. I'm facing the beast that Zora needs me to kill. But I can't. Because my bows keep breaking. I don't have enough of them. And this brings me to one of my major annoyances with this game. Breakable gear sucks. And I can't just go buy a bow can I? So I'm stuck until I get lucky enough to find some new bows because the ones I have just aren't durable enough. Ugh.

[prfsnl_gmr]

so here's my current sitch: I've got those electric arrows. I'm facing the beast that Zora needs me to kill. But I can't. Because my bows keep breaking. I don't have enough of them. And this brings me to one of my major annoyances with this game. Breakable gear sucks. And I can't just go buy a bow can I? So I'm stuck until I get lucky enough to find some new bows because the ones I have just aren't durable enough. Ugh.

You don't have to kill it if you have electric arrows. You can just meet the sofa prince by the reservoir.

Also, Lynels are really tough. They are easily the toughest enemies in the game. Unless you are really great at dodging and countering, you may want to hold off on it until you have more hearts, better food, and better gear.