The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

https://i.imgur.com/663B3wD.jpg

Yiga clan hideout was so much fun

I beat the last divine beast today. It was the fire lizard. When my teammate looked up and saw his phantom ancestor I was profoundly moved, like, death is an end but for years afterward the dead live actively, and my rock buddy sees this and is so happy.

I have 103 shrines so I may go for 120 before Ganon. I don’t want it to end.

I did find the ancestor spirits appearing after each divine beast quite moving also!

I have tiptoed in and around hyrule castle, avoiding the final showdown out of similar not wanting it overness. Tho I dunno why, after that I still have all the DLC to do haha

I am in this same boat with you both

I did finish it, and then put down the controller and never played it again. Don't go to the castle.

Well I just did ganon this afternoon anyway after all that, lol. I knew more or less what I'd be up against. It was really way too easy tbh. Wish they'd let you keep that bow tho.

i played up to the first boss, and then put down the controller and never played it again

Yiga clan hideout was so much fun

yes! the first time i got caught i realized doing so was pretty much an insta-kill (though technically you can still fight, but the large guards can kill you in one hit). so i went slow and methodical with stealth gear and dropping bananas. still kept getting caught, but i got further and further each time. it was like a little puzzle figuring out just how to get through it all.

what finally cracked the puzzle was figuring out that you can stealth kill the big guards, as long as you are wearing the stealth gear you can just run up behind them and take them out. ofc i had to take out all guards in the base, scouring the treasure chests for precious jewels. the actual Yiga boss fight was a lot of fun. after 60+ hours of hearing about these guys the whole trip was worth the wait.

I didnt even think that the yiga hideout really was the only genuine stealth bit - much like that very first castle you do in windwaker with the similar guards now I think about it (and I hated that haha). I think I cheated a bit in that part, maybe killed them with ancient arrows or something.

Honestly didn't love that part, because for some reason I had the hardest time finding the entrance. (like, i spent hours searching that that canyon). I don't even remember how i did it at this point. Then, it turned out to be a stealth section which was odd for the game

Odd for the game yes but that’s one thing I love about it: it covers a wide range of playing modes but doesn’t repeat itself very much. You can force repetition by grinding for ingredients to build armor etc but you don’t need to.

for some reason I had the hardest time finding the entrance

yeah at first i warped to a tower and headed straight for the yellow dot and ended up on top of it, like on the mountain above. but then i re-talked to the person who gave the me quest and saw where the valley was on the map, made sense it would be a desert trip into the valley. seeing the tumbling boulders while riding the seal let me know i was on the right path.

I'm in a similar place to you folks, I don't want the game to end. I spent the past month just farting around with side quests so I could put off finishing my final divine beast. I'm in the camel right now!!

Agree the Yiga hideout is great - although after all the running and hiding, it was a bit of letdown *to *spoiler** be stumped by a DOOR, the one you have to open to with Magnesis. It's amazing how often I get stuck for an hour and then think, "oh yeah, Magnesis, DUH."

The Yiga baddie was fun but also surprisingly silly. Those assassins are super sinister ("AND NOW YOU MUST DIE!") and their leader is a fucking goofball. True to life, I guess.

Love this game.

Also, I love the fact that almost everyone sees through Link's cross-dressing disguise straight away.

i love what Karson says if Link walks up and talks to him without any gear on!

Bolson rather

made my first attempt at Hyrule Castle last night. glided over the chasm surrounding it and landed next to a spire or some other castle structure then watched a cutscene of the vista unfold before me. there was of course the living red smoke writhing around like a moat. i couldn't get inside so i explored and came upon a mine entrance. i was in the mines fighting bats for a while, really enjoying it, and came upon a giant rock monster. it was strong against pretty much everything i threw at it, sans some well positioned bombs. at one point i decided to run away further into the mines but i couldn't find my way and i ended up slain by the titan of rock.

it is interesting that you can go conquer the castle from the start. in TLOZ you have to get all Triforce pieces before you could enter the final dungeon. imo the game is best enjoyed by experiencing the world, seeing the story, playing the scenarios. but it is nice to have it there for speedrunners and people who want a challenge.

That mine is an entrance into the castle but its tricky. If you have revali's gale it will help, as a hint.

Yeah, I freakin' love that the capability is there to go into the castle - and there are definitely quite a few entrances, at least three that I remember - right from the getgo, if you're crazy enough to try Ganon with 3 hearts and no Guardian abilities. I'm guessing there's a speedrun on YouTube somewhere doing this already.

The first time I think I just climbed up over the front gate, lol. Then ended up locked in that first gatehouse with the lynel and was like 'ohhh shiiii'

lol that just happened to me several times in a row. the castle is hella lethal. i really love the way it looks but it's kicking my butt.

ancient arrows & ancient shield help against the insane amt of guardians up thar. i’m still trying to find some of the internal rooms - i defeated gannon but can’t find some of the quest items

immediately upon coming into possession of a nintendo switch console, i knew what i had to do. i have been doing little else but playing botw since i got it. looking forward to reading through this thread as i occasionally come up for air! i'm not too far yet. i've collected one memory, i've unlocked all the iphone freatures, all the runes. haven't met one of the divine beasts yet but i'm working my way toward the NE. this game rules so much it almost makes me cry.

let those tears flow man, this game deserves it

:)

some of the memories could legit make u cry imo

also love the primary element it borrows from assassin's creed (which maybe borrowed it from somewhere else?), which is the tower puzzles that then unlock the map of the surrounding area. i love that you still have to manually go in and mark things using the scope/pins, though. so satisfying to survey the landscape and think about next steps.

also fuck, this map, FUCK, it's so good

about to enter the zora zone. i like these zoras. i like this zone.

I didn't find that Zone until way into the game!

Yeah its interesting that the game somehow guides you towards Zora domain first, but not everyone ended up there.

it seemed to be the closest of the four divine beast zones, so i figured i'd start there. i love that Sidon's catchphrase is "whoa"

that's probably not the best example of writing to highlight before saying this, but the writing for all the different characters is very good.

also, when will i learn that effects don't stack? i keep on wasting my best elixirs because i use a second one on top of it immediately after, canceling the first out (i think?)

Yep, you can only have one of the em at a time - and also dont mix up stamina boost with stamina extensions, theyre different!

So for eg, stamella mushrooms will create a stam-boosting dish but using ENDURA mushrooms, or carrots, will do that over and above. But mix the two and I think they cancel out.

BTW I stumbled on this neat item the other day:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Breath_of_the_Wild/comments/627w5e/thundra_plateau_biome_with_giant_mushrooms_based/

I'm fascinated by the depth of flora and fauna in this game.

some of the memories could legit make u cry imo

― valorous wokelord (silby)

the voice acting legit makes me cry

lol yes.

I watched all the memories in a row with the 10 year old kid a while back, cos it was like watching a little movie. And he was all "this Zelda is a really WHINY lady. Why would anyone wanna rescue her!?"

I love this game so much but I am thinking it is time to fight Ganon and move on. I have all 120 shrines now, most of the armor fully maxed, and enough side quests to satisfy me. My son continues to play just to fight lynels, which is fun! but he doesn't feel the dumb need to "finish games" that I have.

I've completed all the divine beasts, found all the fairies, got the sword, but still have 50 (!) shrines left to find. I'm guessing most of them are shrine quests - the old days of finding a conveniently-placed outdoor shrine are well behind me.

Is all the construction-work-y stuff on the desert mountain valley worth exploring? I've mostly been flying or jumping over it.

Right now I've been using my radar to find wildberries for the irresponsible litterer in Gerudo. It's suddenly hard to find them when you *actually* need them.

i've only completed about 15 shrines so far, but i'm enjoying them. i made it to the entrance of the zora domain last night without too much trouble. the balance was kind of weird, actually - everything was a breeze, and then suddenly a couple electricity-wielding sorcerers almost wiped me out instantaneously, even though i was using the electricity-defense buff elixir that joey lawrence handed me on the bridge beforehand. my plan today (because why go to work, or look for a job?) is to try to knock out a divine beast, then shrine it up and improve my heart/stamina count. so far i'm up to 6 hearts, haven't increased my stamina yet.

karl! you got a switch! good work dude

good strategy

sometimes it's fun to try something above your level (like another divine beast or a lynel) and get the stuffing kicked out of you

THEN, when you go back and try again in a couple of weeks/months/blood moons' time, kicking its ass feels even more satisfying

more random thoughts probably expressed upthread:

- i turned off the HUD a couple hours in, and i loooooooove it. do you all play with the HUD? gotta turn that shit off.
- with no HUD/minimap, it really forces you to pay attention to your position in the landscape, and that's where the game's use of landmarks really shines. the positions of the Castle and the giant Mountain (mount doom?) become key. the Castle is in the middle of the map, and then the relative position of the mountain lets you calibrate NWSE from there. it's sooooo pleasant to be making my way down a river, lose track of myself for a second, then glance to the right to see the tip of mount doom, thinking "ok, i'm heading west", or whatever
- i'm still on the fence with the constant weapon breaking. i've gotten used to it, and i'm glad it forces me to use new weapons pretty consistently. i just wish there was a quickbutton/shortcut for dropping/switching out melee weapons without going into the inventory.
- goddamn, let me cook in bulk. let me save recipes, once i discover them, and then cook that way (just gray out the options where i don't have the correct ingredients). cooking is cool when you have a specific meal in mind that will help with a situation, but most of the time it is tedious.
- can you give apples to horses? my horse and i don't get along that well, yet, and it would be nice to feed it

karl! you got a switch! good work dude

i had some help :) i've been so addicted

"- i'm still on the fence with the constant weapon breaking. i've gotten used to it, and i'm glad it forces me to use new weapons pretty consistently. i just wish there was a quickbutton/shortcut for dropping/switching out melee weapons without going into the inventory."

right on the d pad ?

I wish there was a way of removing the HUD but keeping the map

I found changing the camera speed from normal to fast during big fights was really helpful. But you don't need it when you're just wandering.

right on the d pad ?

right, so d-pad brings up onscreen quick-inventory. but what if you try to pick up a new weapon and you get the warning that your melee weapons inventory is full? is there anything you can do other than pausing and going into the the full inventory? i would prefer to be able to drop them from the quick-inventory, onscreen. just a nitpick, but i really dread inventory management in all games so the less time i'm dealing with it, the better

oh, yeah, can't do that.

in retrospect I wish I'd gotten more roster spots sooner, but I couldn't remember how to do it & at that point I wasn't looking things up

also, one more question: how does sorting work? i can kind of see how it's working, sometimes, and at others (like with food) it seems to just arbitrarily reorganize. it'd be cool to be able to sort by item value, rarity, monsters vs critters, the kind of buff an item gives (stamina, attack up, defense, etc).

i went from hating weapon (non-)durability to loving it. making you constantly care about getting new weapons all thru the game was v cool