The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Like Wario First Thing in the Morning)

I do feel they could have done with the odd decor change, mind. The consistent music is fine, but they are all a bit Tron x Raiders of the Lost Ark.

In the meantime...

Zora beast spoilers:

Thank goodness I've maxed out the food inventory. The Korok challenges in a similar vein can get stuffed likewise.

I think that I'm at the same bit as Rum and Balladeer here, and that's after playing it for about ten hours. Expecting to complete this at some point in late 2043. It's good though.

Apparently they've patched in playtime counters on Switch. I'm scared to look at my Zelda time. . .

In other news: I did my second Divine Beast and I'm about to make a second excursion to the castle, from the other end this time!

Zora stuff:

After that, I'll need to some proper boots-on-the-ground exploring to find the next legs of my journey.

I'm enjoying this game so much that, like a good novel, I'm only engaging with it in short bursts because I don't want it to end (not that it will anytime soon, and but that short bursts doesn't include the odd 3+ hour session)

Just found my first memory, and Din above is Zelda's voice actor utter tripe.

Also bumped into a massive lightning dragon. So I got that going for me, which is nice...

Just did your Eventide Island, then. It was very good, people weren't lying about that, but I don't think it's the best part of the game because most of the appeal comes from the way it counters the rest of the game. If that weren't all so brilliant, it wouldn't be so mind blowing how well this bit works.

Spoiler:

Muss wrote:

I'm enjoying this game so much that, like a good novel, I'm only engaging with it in short bursts because I don't want it to end (not that it will anytime soon, and but that short bursts doesn't include the odd 3+ hour session)

I feel that a little, but I'm also outrageously addicted. Fortunately, even at the 50 hour mark it feels like there's loads to do still. That said, I definitely feel like I'm way past the half way mark on the main quest now, with 2 divine beasts, the master sword, 50 shrines and all but two of the memories under my belt.

Balladeer wrote:

Just found my first memory, and Din above is Zelda's voice actor utter tripe.

Zelda's voice leaves a lot to be desired, but it's not so bad as to ruin what is proving to be a very engrossing story. This game is really playing with the Zelda idea of a legend repeating and destiny and all that. The princess didn't ask for this and doesn't feel cut out for the spiritual maiden life, Link is the hero who failed and the world loves to remind him. They're already up there with SS' lovey dovey couple and Link and Tetra's hijinx.

Also, I'd say not to cast too many aspersions on Zelda's actress specifically. There is some awkwardly expositional dialogue you can hear the cast trip up on, and overall a lot of the deliveries come across like obvious line readings, with weird inflections and so on. I think it's a case of poor, inexperienced directing more than anything else. When she gets a chance to emote in a natural way, or when she's talking directly to the player, I love Zelda. There's a reason our first introduction to the game was the "open your eyes" line. . .

Overall, I'm quite happy with the way the voice work has been done. The combination of text and animation works as well as it always has, and fills the world with a sense of character that would be lost by hearing the same five or six voices repeated in every corner of the map, while proper voices in key scenes gives the old world a unique, separate feel.

What a bloody videogame, hey?

I actually like Zelda's voice honestly, which is surprising because I hated it at the start. But I think it suits who she is in the game, or at least who she seems to be in the flashbacks I've seen

Spoiler:

I love it personally. Keep in mind I've only seen the memory at the snowy gate and Gerudo desert so far though.

The only issue is that english accent, which is about as forced and awful as the typical attempt at an Australian accent.

Favourite shrine name: "Rota Ooh"

Everyone's excited when they get their work schedule, for sure.

Athrun888 wrote:

Keep in mind I've only seen the memory at the snowy gate and Gerudo desert so far though.  

The snowy gate one's a lot better than the first one I saw, granted.

Did anyone else know you could destroy certain enemies ice blocks by using Cryonis to destroy them like they were your own ice blocks? I wasted so many arrows and then when I ran out of arrows I just let them hit me. I feel so stupid

Anyone else thinking of doing some kind of challenge run of this game on the second playthrough?  I've had my head stuck in the clouds with such an idea for a few days now.

Some rules I'm thinking of imposing, spoilered to save room:

I'm gonna wait and see what the actual hard mode they're cooking up looks like first. The other thoughts I've had are to try and speedrun straight to Ganon (as Miyamoto and Aonuma so famously said is possible) or to play the game a second time in Japanese, as part of my learning the language.

Need to finish it once yet, mind!

Gwyn400 wrote:

Did anyone else know you could destroy certain enemies ice blocks by using Cryonis to destroy them like they were your own ice blocks? I wasted so many arrows and then when I ran out of arrows I just let them hit me. I feel so stupid

If we're thinking of one particular big enemy, yeah I cottoned on pretty quick. Such a smart game.

Gwyn400 wrote:

Did anyone else know you could destroy certain enemies ice blocks by using Cryonis to destroy them like they were your own ice blocks? I wasted so many arrows and then when I ran out of arrows I just let them hit me. I feel so stupid

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...derp.


Also the single-colour horses are a pain in the backside to catch. I just got a brown one, mind. I'm not asking you lot for name ideas, not after the suggestions I've read - it'll end up being called 'Brown' or 'Poop'.

Balladeer wrote:

Gwyn400 wrote:

Did anyone else know you could destroy certain enemies ice blocks by using Cryonis to destroy them like they were your own ice blocks? I wasted so many arrows and then when I ran out of arrows I just let them hit me. I feel so stupid

...derp.


Also the single-colour horses are a pain in the backside to catch.  I just got a brown one, mind.  I'm not asking you lot for name ideas, not after the suggestions I've read - it'll end up being called 'Brown' or 'Poop'.

Y'all are daft! I'm not especially talented at video games but I managed to work that one out. *super smart*

Balla - call it Jobby! Authentic Scottish terminology. Inspiring.

Rum wrote:

Balla - call it Jobby! Authentic Scottish terminology. Inspiring.

Shorthand for Jobsmith/workhorse, isn't it?

On ice:  I'll admit freely that using cryonis on the ice attacks went straight over my head, when it comes to using the slate powers in actual fights I absolutely suck at remembering.  The Gerudo divine beast boss fight is one such example, took a good five minutes before I remembered metal conducts electricity.  

On horses: Psh, horses are easy to catch.  Haven't had any issues in any of my four attempts, three being pure coloured!  

On fun killing methods: anyone killed a guardian parrying its beam back at it yet?  Absolutely hilarious to pull off, although the punish for mistiming it is brutal either way so I can't see myself using it much.


On progress: Nice to see the bosses aren't the absolute push-overs the series usually puts forward, second Divine Beast down after a duel with a lightning swords-ganon-man.  First phase was, admittedly, easy, took me a while to work out the second phase.  Third was where things got rough, guy started busting out shield bumps and actual combos, which took me by surprise, although made it susceptible to flurry attacks just like lynels are.  

Also got a certain sword recently.  Might revise my sword rule in the challenge run seeing how low on power it is, we'll see what the recharge times for it breaking are.  Either way getting more inventory expansions was a massive plus.

Drunkalilly wrote:

I'm gonna wait and see what the actual hard mode they're cooking up looks like first. The other thoughts I've had are to try and speedrun straight to Ganon (as Miyamoto and Aonuma so famously said is possible) or to play the game a second time in Japanese, as part of my learning the language.

Good luck on that speed run if you do one!

Record for straight Ganon wins are under fifty minutes!

Athrun wrote:

On fun killing methods: anyone killed a guardian parrying its beam back at it yet? Absolutely hilarious to pull off, although the punish for mistiming it is brutal either way so I can't see myself using it much.

Yes! If you pull it off it is one of the best feelings any action game can give you, I also recently found out that you can chop off the legs of a guardian as well.

I wasn't very good at the parry, the Ancient Shield helped fix that for me though, it made the Guardians ridiculously easy. I quite enjoyed using bomb arrows to destroy the flying Guardians propellers and watching them struggle to fly with just one

Parrying the Guardians is so much fun. There's one particular shrine in the game that makes you feel like an absolute bad-ass if you can consistently pull off a beam parry. My armour is at a level where I could afford a missed parry or two as well.

Speaking of shrines... I've beaten every shrine in the game!

I had to use a map to find some of the more out of the way shrines, but I reached 100 shrines without having to resort to that so I'm not too bothered about it. The reward for clearing them all is definitely worth it, so I recommend it to anybody fiending for something to do after beating the main quest. Seeing the culmination of Big Kass's storyline was worth the experience too.

Now all I've got left to do is collect every Korok seed... I've looked at a map and I've seen how many there are. I think I might just give this one a skip.

I just today stepped out of my 60th shrine. I'm perched above Death mountain with some elixirs to get me to the Goron village, then that'll be my final Divine Beast. I also have the Master Sword and all the memories, so I'm confident I'll finish the game by the end of the weekend.

I need to put the credits behind me just because of the way this game has consumed my life. After that, I'll definitely collect all the shrines, albeit at a more leisurely pace and taking full advantage of the console's handheld capabilities. After that, I can imagine myself filling up my encyclopedia and collecting all the Koroks, but not in any hurry. I'll just fire it up now and then to spend time in this world.

What a game.

I felt that way with my mad shrine hunt - I'm now at a stage where I could see myself firing up the game for a half hour here or there to nab a few Korok Seeds rather than having huge sessions in Hyrule.

The_Jaster wrote:

Rum wrote:

Balla - call it Jobby! Authentic Scottish terminology. Inspiring.

Shorthand for Jobsmith/workhorse, isn't it?

Har har. But seriously, if Cappa's horses aren't called 'Jobby', 'Mince', and 'Shite', I'll be massively disappointed.

Feeling somewhat smug to see all you blokeys finishing the game, and still having so much to play myself. Although I did have my first encounter with unburied guardians the other day. My new horse (Sparrow, incidentally - fast but no strength at all) got set on fire, so I reset and took the long way around.

Balladeer wrote:

The_Jaster wrote:

Rum wrote:

Balla - call it Jobby! Authentic Scottish terminology. Inspiring.

Shorthand for Jobsmith/workhorse, isn't it?

Har har.  But seriously, if Cappa's horses aren't called 'Jobby', 'Mince', and 'Shite', I'll be massively disappointed.

Feeling somewhat smug to see all you blokeys finishing the game, and still having so much to play myself. Although I did have my first encounter with unburied guardians the other day.  My new horse (Sparrow, incidentally - fast but no strength at all) got set on fire, so I reset and took the long way around.

Yeah, that's why I don't like taking horses with me - the worry that they'll cark it (and also, when I look at the map to see where I haven't explored yet, I tend to take Route 1, which is inevitably up a cliff). The trouble is, I've got a spectator watch me who strongly suggests I get as many horses as possible.
(I think I'm still only 25% through this dude after 40 hours)

The end.

There aren't many games that have taken over my life as much as that. Maybe Dark Souls or the Mass Effect trilogy, but even with those I didn't play 65 hours in two weeks.

Obviously, I've still git half the shrines, 100s of Koroks and dozens of side quests.
I've still got the DLC story, the hard mode, and challenges of my own to come up with.
Even after all that, I'll probably fire it up now and again just for shits and gigs.

But I am somewhat free from it now. I can happily play Mass Effect and Dark Souls and be ready to sell the XBox. I can switch on my Switch and play Shovel Knight or Fast RMX without wishing it was Zelda.

I can read, and write, and work and exercise and stuff.

I'm free!

Anyway, yeah, best game ever made. Game of all time. I loved it. I'll write up my thoughts at some point, but it'll be more love letter than useful review.

Most reviews so far have read like that, DrunkDevil, so I wouldn't worry. Amazingly, despite all the positivity towards the game out there, I'm still not convinced it's for me. I have precious little time for gaming as it is, never mind all this new-fangled open world business.

Essentially putting this here so I can eat my own words in a few months' time.