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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Discussion (Nintendo Switch) [game]
 
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Switch
9.62/10 from 40 user ratings

Welcome to the official discussion thread for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Switch!

To start, please add this game to your log, add it to your collection (if applicable), and (when you are ready) rate it using the link above!

The wait is nearly over. The game is being detailed left and right by the media,… the amiibo have been announced,… and the Nintendo Switch is imminent… The Legend of Zelda series has been a special one for Nintendo fans since it began and the next chapter starts on March 3rd, 2017.

A hero's tale begins anew.
Open your eyes and see what is true.

Fun Facts:
Vast open world where you could go find the end of the game within 15 minutes… but you won't survive it.
Weapons have stats and durability.
Climb pretty much anything you want.
Eat and cook to regain health.
Full voice-acting for all except Link

Lets use this thread to discuss the game on the Nintendo Switch. To help hold the tide of the wait, here are some beautiful screenshots and links for your perusal.





Negative World Threads:
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild for SWITCH and Wii U
BotW Sounds Pretty Expansive (Amount of Content Spoilers)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at launch, comes with Special and Master Editions

News:
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - More Dungeon Details
Game Informer Interview - Getting away from traditions and making dying fun

YouTube Videos of Interest
Nintendo Switch - Legend of Zelda 2017 Presentation Trailer
Nintendo E3 2016 Legend of Zelda BotW Trailer
Nintendo Switch Super Bowl LI Ad (2017)
Nintendo Switch Extended Superbowl LI Ad (2017)
The Legend of Zelda Art & Artifacts Book Tour – Nintendo Minute
Fan-Made Old-School Zelda Breath of the Wild Commercial

URL to share (right click and copy)
01/29/17, 18:20    Edited: 02/12/17, 21:42
 
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03/08/17, 03:56   
God almighty. Some NPC hinted at a hidden spring located at the top of a mountain so I ran there searching with barely any warming items not knowing what to expect and it was a struggle just getting there and I just made it and then I had to free a dragon from corruption by shooting it off of the dragon while it flew around and it was this multi-part thing which involved chasing it down while climbing mountainsides and gliding across huge canyons and such and as usual I barely had any arrows so it totally came down to the wire. SO FREAKING EPIC.

How is this just a random sidequest?! Is the game really packed with stuff like this?! It seems unfathomable.

PS. I was not aware of the Matrix-like slowdown you get when firing arrows while gliding is this explained in the game anywhere? Not that I'm complaining but it felt kind of random, like... why would Link only be able to do this while gliding?! Or can I do it on the ground too and I just never knew? Hmm.

@carlosrox I'm not disagreeing! I'm saying the Western game media which seems to like to downplay Japanese developers a lot lately might disagree. They tend to talk like only Western developers are pushing gaming forward, and in many ways that has been somewhat accurate in the sense that Western developers have definitely been at the forefront of a lot of the big games that push things to the next level nowadays, but I hate how the Western media ignores the many things Japanese developers are doing as well.

But Zelda... doesn't seem like many are disagreeing there. It's getting called the new standard in open world gaming by tons and tons of sources.
03/08/17, 04:04   
Edited: 03/08/17, 04:18
@Zero
You can do it any time mid-air (short jumps are bit too low, you need a bit of height). It drains stamina though so use with caution.

Did you go blackout for this game? That was shown in 2014. There's shield surfing as well which I haven't really bothered using.

Ha, yes, this game is that packed.
03/08/17, 04:27   
@Zero

I did that last night. It was a pain in the ass. I burned through nearly my entire arrow supply. And I built a fire along the way because otherwise I was screwed.

...Wait, bullet time?! No wonder I was having such a tough time, I was trying to take that bastard down from the ground.
03/08/17, 04:29   
@Zero Since I don't really play open-world games (Xenoblade X is mostly it), I'm be curious in what ways Zelda is a step forward for them. I'm not doubting it could be true, I simply don't know since I don't have enough experience. That would probably warrant its own topic though, seems a bit off topic for here, somehow...
03/08/17, 04:33   
@carlosrox I more or less was on blackout except for an odd trailer here and there. I used to absorb every little morsel for games I was anticipating but now I like to have some distance.

@Shadowlink I was trying from the ground too at first and it seemed next to impossible. After dying a few times I accidentally triggered the... thing while floating down thinking "it's probably impossible to hit while falling but I'm super close so I'm going to try it!"

...I don't even know how to build fires, lol.

@Mop it up My guess is that the gameplay is actually fun. BAZING. Seriously though... I haven't played many open world games either but one I tried to get into and couldn't was Elder Scrolls Oblivion, because it was huge and had a lot to do but the core gameplay kind of sucked. I think a lot of those type of games get a free pass on that because of how vast and varied they are, but maybe now Zelda comes along and says hey, you can do both!

Then again, Arkham City had good core gameplay. But it didn't feel nearly as huge and varied and alive of a world.
03/08/17, 04:34   
Edited: 03/08/17, 04:36
@Zero Oh, and where did you find this NPC? This sounds like something I missed and should check out.

I was also on blackout and didn't know a lot of the little things about this game. I find that even small things are fun to discover.

@Zero I remember playing Morrowind on Xbox and thinking the same thing, the game was just boring to me. I can't really remember the details though, it was almost 15 years ago now.

I should probably try that Batman game I have for Wii U...
03/08/17, 04:47   
Zero said:

...I don't even know how to build fires, lol.

Do you have any flint? Drop that next to some wood, then hit it with a metal weapon.
03/08/17, 04:57   
I have the quest to do what @Zero is talking about, but I went back onto the main questline before doing it. I'll have to go back and do it sooner than later, sounds like it was exciting! I've got another SUPER AMAZING quest to go back to as well, we'll definitely be talking about it quite a bit once we all finish the game, haha.

Did mostly side-stuff tonight, which was a lot of fun. Finished up some side missions around a town I was at recently, and figured out how to solve a previous side quest in a really awesome way. Sure, I probably did more than I needed to, but the extra detective work that I did made it a lot more fun to solve. Again, I love -- LOVE -- that the information to complete a lot of these quests is there for you to find and figure out on your own, without the game holding your hand constantly.

Big chunk of what I did tonight was explore a region that I skipped over (it was sandwiched between main story quests, so I deemed it "less important" at the time), but so far I'm finding a lot of good stuff there. And hell, so much for not being important -- a random NPC I talked to gave me a pretty nice little nugget of info as to where I might find a very important sword. That's the great part about BotW though -- it's not clear if this is *A* important sword or *THE* important sword (I'm crossing my fingers that it's the latter, but either way, something else to look forward to).

@Zero

For me, the biggest takeaway is that there's not a clear drop in quality in terms of game design, or level design, or polish with the shift to open-world. It has the consistent quality of a Zelda game that you'd expect, but on a much more gargantuan scale. Most open-world games aren't like that. And I've put probably 50+ hours into the game, and I've yet to run into a single glitch or anything that I'd consider "janky". No floating NPCs or anything. Maybe others have, but I haven't. The level of polish at this scale is remarkable.

Another thing that's really working for me is that the world still has strong, memorable level design, especially the further away you get from the Plateau. I fully explored games like Witcher 3 and GTA V, but you could drop me at a random point on the map and I probably couldn't tell you immediately where I am. A lot of open-world games don't really end up establishing a strong sense of place for me, as a result. They feel like worlds that exist for them to put stuff in, but the world design itself comes across more as window-dressing, a means to an end. In Zelda, the world design is really crucial to the experience and I really feel like a part of it, and that's only getting stronger the more I play of it.

"New standard in open-world" I think is accurate. BotW really takes advantage of being "open" in ways that a lot of other open-world games do not, and I'm not seeing the drawbacks. If anything, the Zelda series is really going to benefit from it.
03/08/17, 06:30   
@Mop it up Honestly forget where... probably in one of the first two towns.

@Shadowlink Oh yeah flints. Haven't had one of those in a long time.

@TheBigG753 Yeah I guess I haven't played enough of these type of games but Elder Scrolls seems to be one of the standards for the HUGE OPEN WORLD games, yet the actual gameplay? Meh. This game just feels good on every level.

I can't really comment on GTA though, which seems to be one of the other standards for these type of games.
03/08/17, 06:55   
@Zero
I do find flints hard to come by as well lol.

My bro isn't the greatest at combat but he forages like crazy. He has sooooooo many materials
Like, is 60 apples just off the plateau overkill or is it just me? I always comment how much fish and shit he has.
03/08/17, 07:37   
I don't think I've ever seen the realization of a series so well in my life!!!
03/08/17, 08:02   
IS THERE A FUCKING GALAXY INSIDE THIS VIDEOGAME?!??!?!?!?!?!?!??!
03/08/17, 08:03   
Seriously Clicky Sticks suck ass. How am I supposed to be effective in full combat if I keep going into a fucking crouch?
03/08/17, 08:29   
@Shadowlink
Are your thumbs made out of iron?! I have never had this issue with clicky sticks.
03/08/17, 09:23   
@Shadowlink

Same. Each time I panic I seem to crouch, get my slate out, then (for some reason) whistle for my horse!
03/08/17, 09:31   
Edited: 03/08/17, 12:26
So now I can see the HP of monsters? Where did this come from?

Is this because I put my own heart levels up? Or because I've been taking photos?
03/08/17, 13:08   
@Shadowlink

You weren't paying attention when you earned a new piece of clothing I bet...
03/08/17, 13:23   
Ohhh.That's why! No I just hadn't been using it much I kept switching back to my warm doublet, haha.

Just did those twin shrines. That was neat.
03/08/17, 13:31   
There are definitely a few things with the controls that I'm still getting used to as well. I wish holding down L brought up the option to toggle runes, instead of D-pad up. It would feel a lot more natural that way. I still have a tendency to pull out a bomb before I switch runes.

@Shadowlink

Did you just get the Champions Tunic? That's one of its features.
03/08/17, 13:34   
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