The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

i just got the first dozen memories photographs. after defeating the 4 guardians i decided to try to get all of these and it has been a lot of fun. many of them have some very nice cutscenes that are strong in lore, i highly recommend finding all of these to really "complete" the game. it is interesting that they are just scattered around the world. the ideal way to find them is just to explore.

SPOILERS the last one i found (photo 8) involved Princess Zelda and the King and was a revealing look at life at Hyrule Castle before Calamity. when the King appeared they played a musical cue from ALTTP and it was very nice to hear.

as for the weapons degradation mechanic, i love it, it is one of the brilliant choices they made, one of the design decisions that gives this game life. most RPGs i am on a mission to only use the best of the best and ignore everything else. in BOTW, the game facilitates constantly switching it up, and as a result, the weapon/equip options end up being as exploration-based as the game world.

I've never run out of weapons - they're everywhere! If anything, I don't have enough inventory space for them. I really don't understand why people would have a problem with that setup.

A con of having rapid weapon breaking is that I struggled to develop a single style of fighting, because I had to change between so many different types of fighting. But that’s a pretty minor con, especially since it’s not until you’re fighting lynels that the fighting requires you to know how to backflip, dodge and block, and by then you’ve learned how the weapons work so you can git good on more complex techniques.

I wish I’d started fighting lynels earlier, they drop such amazing gear.

I got all the memories and enjoyed the “extra” ending after beating Ganon that my boy didn’t get since he didn’t bother much with the memories.

Oh! That's a good tip. I got two left to collect and I'll do that before Ganon now.

Although one of the memory photographs - that the painter doesn't give you a clue about - is basically "some trees somewhere". I've just been hoping I'll stumble on it.

I never really got the hang of dodge/flurry rush so my lynel battles all involved savage lynel bows + bomb arrows. Fire off a barrage of those babies over and over and he's going DOWN.

The point where you're riding a Lynel and stabbing him in the head with a sword is the only jarringly violent part of the game, like Link is straight-up murdering them.

My Lynel strategy: use stasis, whack him with a spear as many times as poss, run away, repeat

my general lynel strategy: aim to shoot them in the face so that you can get on their back and pound them. your weapons don't degrade when you do that so you can use your best (probably lynel) weapons for your four bashes, then re-equip something less precious once you're off. the easiest way to shoot them in the face is to catch updraft from the fire they breathe. this doesn't work in places without grass like the snow, but it works for the places most lynels are ime.

Huh, I didnt know about the non-degradation tip. Wish I'd known earlier!

This weekend Im gonna try and finish the Champion Ballad trials. Want dat bike!

The bike owns

there was a point about halfway through the Lomei Labyrinth Island where i was about to declare it the greatest level/puzzle/whatever that I have ever played, of anything. that first descent into the area from the nearby akkala ancient tech lab was incredible. i hadn't done much advance scouting of the area so i just kind of impulsively jumped toward it, even though it was during the middle of a really long and loud lightning storm. i loved the way the sheer magnitude of the labyrinth reveals itself as link floats toward it. and it's psychedelic as hell once you land, consulting the map to determine correct paths, switching between the deep canyons and the peaks, finally finding the ladder. then a barbarian helm at the end? fuck yeah! 10.0 album of the year

Oh that barbarian gear set is ultra useful, I wish I'd found it a lot sooner, but somehow all the labyrinths didnt show up that obviously for me til ages into the game!

Known in our household as “male empowerment armor”

with the exception of one set that's pretty much all the armor in the game

Eh I dunno about the Tingle armour...

yesterday was zelda of july. i played maybe 12 hours?? that's off the chart for me.

so many sex and drugs references in this game! “when we get into hyrule castle we’re gonna light that thing up!” hell yeah, you know the drill, daruk. we're gonna have sex with four 100-foot tall fairies too, it'll be amazing.

i've finally unlocked all the towers, found the master sword, getting ready to take down the final divine beast (the one in the Hebra region, for me). i still haven't ventured anywhere near hyrule castle yet. i have used my charge-up special attack (augmented by the gerudo thunderblast special ability thing) twice, maybe three times, total?

This game is absurdly horny, Link is a tiny long-haired androgyne constantly being objectified by women ranging in size from large to enormous, not to mention Bolson.

last night they mentioned his "perfectly symmetrical face"

I know ive said this before:
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/zelda/images/2/2d/Bolson_comment_%28Breath_of_the_Wild%29.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/596?cb=20170411172618

And yeah all the great fairies are awesome, like these 10 foot tall drag queens or something.

i'm not even sure that i've met Bolson!

i love how the game manages to feel huge and still accessible and explorable at the same time.

bolson is camp af

Bolson and co are working on the house behind Hateno village you can opt to buy.

oh thanks! that explains why i haven't seen them in a while - gathering 30 wood has taken way longer than i expected, although i guess i'm not going out of my way to find any. i guess the benefit of buying a house is that you get to own a house in zelda, and plus store extra weapons there?

Yeah thats about it really, haha. Only 3 of each item as well (3 weapons, 3 sheields, 3 bows). Ive kept the really rare/unfarmable stuff like the royal guard gear and forest dweller gear (I thought I read somewhere the sword doesnt respawn Not sure tho. )

update: yep it doesnt, teres only 4 korok swords in the game. Its p useless as a weapon anyway.

Arrrgh this last champions ballad shrine is fucking doing my head in. Needlessly, pointlessly hard. Being thrown right back to the start every time... I tried about 10 times then just gave up, grr.

i have finally defeated The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

i only regret that i didn't pick up the final memory before beating it, which i'm 99% sure was hidden somewhere hyrule castle. but damn, that was so much fun! i'm at 100 hours or so right now, but i'll probably add on more as i revisit. plus i might end up getting the master sword DLC

jesus you finished that fast!

Get the DLC - it has a map addition that shows you where on the map you've been. I guarantee you'll find you missed a ton of areas/things.

yeah, getting to Ganon didn't take nearly as much work as i thought it would! i ended up approaching Hyrule from the east, just kind of gliding over the moat and climbing up a ledge. after accidentally finding the library and fucking around in there for about an hour, somehow i just popped up near the end. i think i was probably a little overleveled, too - i accidentally had zora outfit equipped the whole time and still managed to get through without getting damaged too badly.

the DLC will be a great way to revisit this in a month or two!

i just opened this for the first time since january and i have NO idea what’s going on.

when i stopped playing i had massively cracked the shits with the zora boss, so i’ve left that dungeon with the intention to level up or embellish tunic or whatever people do in this game. having forgotten like 2/3 of the commands i’m stumbling around some rocks just utterly confused, like when you give your grandparents an android phone and ask them to check the weather. i’m not even THAT old. this morning i beat mario odyssey for the fourth time ffs.

Haha I get that when swapping from Wii to PS, cos the controls are exactly the reverse of each other nrrrghhh.

so i just spent several hours wandering around completely empty countryside, occasionally getting one-hit killed by things i never even got to see, then i got caught up in some terrible platformer with rubbish edge detection, and now i'm following some bastard leaf creature into a forest even though i can't fucking see him (because i'm not supposed to?) and the game keeps throwing me back to the start without any warning. i get most people like this game but for the life of me (and after 30+ hours) i don't get why. this is not fun.

and now i'm following some bastard leaf creature into a forest even though i can't fucking see him (because i'm not supposed to?) and the game keeps throwing me back to the start without any warning

just finished it

Haha, yeah I failed that one several times before figuring it out.

The nice thing about botw is that you can wander aimlessly if you want to, or focus on the next task if you get bored. What’s left for you? You could try to take down a divine beast? Or head toward one of the labyrinths that’s visible from the map?

if you haven't journeyed into the desert, that was my favorite beast. i stumbled onto it after getting momentarily bored with the game and it was so great i wholeheartedly dove back in

i will say this, though - i was a bit disappointed in the divine beasts, especially because whilst hyping myself up by reading ILG before starting it seemed like they were some people's favorite part of the game. i think that whatever divine beast you tackle first is a wonderful experience. there's a little build-up to it in the surrounding area, often you have to prepare the elements by getting special equipment or cooking, and there's a nice action-puzzle even to get access into the beast. then you approach the second beast (whichever one), and it's the same exact process. even the same little messages you get from within the beast are the same. then the third. then the fourth. by the time i got to the fourth one i wasn't even thinking about what would happen when i approached the beast; it was all preordained. kind of a missed opportunity there to make these giant huge setpieces a little more unique.

xp that camel was a drab hell

I agree, Karl. I think wandering around the hugeworld, finding the occasional shrine or challenging monster is much better than the divine beasts experience. However, the rewards from beating the divine beasts are good.

i agree the beasts themselves were kind of a letdown. the camel itself was my least favorite beast but the journey to get there was my favorite and more than makes up for it.

oh ok. that makes more sense. think we can all agree: fuck that camel.

heheh yeah. the beast puzzles are just a bit overkill. they work in the shrines cos it's one puzzle and you can go off and do something else if you get stuck, whereas in the beasts it's several in a row and they are more complicated and you know you HAVE to sit there and work it out. by the camel i was immediately looking at youtube walkthroughs.

however i did enjoy the design of them, the story around them, and the way you have to approach each one in a different manner, like shooting the camel's glowing feet. but then the gameplay comes crashing down again, it feels like the puzzles are there for padding. still, you only have to do it 4 times in the entire game.

I think the idea of them was cool because there was a natural element of infiltration and taming THE BEAST*. But the puzzles inside felt even more contrived because of this more natural intro. Ok, so you have to manipulate the beast's controls to gain access to certain areas, but there's still no reason for that box to be on rails up there on the ceiling.

*hello, king's island fans

hated the dumb beasts and just youtube’d my way through them as quick as possible

What’s left for you? You could try to take down a divine beast? Or head toward one of the labyrinths that’s visible from the map?

honestly i think 95% of the game is still left for me! i just finished all the korok trials (surprised myself tbh – that last one was frustrating until i went crazy with bombs), but since that seems to have gotten me nowhere (what the fuck??) i'm at a bit of a loss as to why i just did all that. appreciate your tips btw.

also the reason i've been able to play loads of zelda is i'm sick as hell this week, which is probably also the reason i don't have a lot of patience.

i hit a nice gameplay loop that lasted for hours 30-60 which was basically:

find a new tower and climb/unlock the 'district' (note: i am the only person who calls these districts)
find and explore the main town and stable in the district
find and beat 4 (or more) shrines in the district
upgrade heart/stamina
do a sidequest or two involving the people in the main town/stable of the district
find the memory/photo for the district
at this point you've probably accidentally made progress on something in another district, so go back there and explore some new stuff, then go find a new tower or take on a divine beast if you've found one