I know what you mean about not wanting to fast travel. And I forgot that I used to do it much less before.

When you get around to not minding it as much, the flow of the game feels much different.

I have that special DLC teleport item too and you can place it basically anywhere. It's so weird using that thing lol. If I need arrows or whatever it may be and I'm by a camp (or whatever it may be) it's interesting just warping around quickly.

End of an era.

I finally got the bike in BOTW. It is so fucking cool. It doesn't work in the desert region and I assume it wouldn't work in the volcano region either, and perhaps a few other spots.

That's all the major content in the game done except for the Trial of the Sword. This trial is significantly harder on Master Mode so we'll see if I can get it done.

I haven't 100%ed it yet though as I understand you can still find every area in the game. Also I've still got Koroks to find. And a bunch of random side quests. The bike should help me out a bunch with both.

But anyways, the bike is soooooooo cool. Maybe I'll share some vids later.

Oh and it would be cool to fill out the camera, though I may never get the chance to as I never took pics of the Blight Ganons. I only thought of doing it during the DLC and just snapped one. I didn't think they'd be in the bestiary. Oh well.

@carlosrox

You can refight them in the DLC.

@TriforceBun
Oh REALLY? Interesting!
Why didn't they mention that? Same with the Monk? Pretty awesome boss fight, was definitely a challenge on MM.

3 shot Lynel bow seems to be the only thing that does significant damage on him. Everything else just wasted slivers.

The last post was nearly a year ago so I am obviously very late to the party but I finally got around to playing Breath of the Wild.

I've been engrossed to say the least. I finished my first major threshold Divine Beast Ruta and it was quite an experience. From the gauntlet trail, to fighting sneaking around the Lynel grabbing shock arrows, to fighting the Divine Beast and then finding out you have a dungeon ahead of you with its own boss. I will note that I did learn to fight and defeat Lynels later and man fighting them is so rewarding. Needless to say it was a great experience. But the thing that makes this game so amazing is that it's just a small piece of the overall world.

I also enjoyed how I was guided to that spot to begin with:
When I got the camera from Hateno I immediately felt a bit overwhelmed with a lot to do so I went back to Kakariko only to talk to a painter who told me about the Lanaryu gate in the memory picture. I decided to head towards that spot only to be turned back by Lynel first, and after I managed to sneak past him the cold weather. I then followed the directions past the opposite series of gates until I finally wound up near the Zora domain and guided along that path. While clearly I had some direction I can't help but feel I managed to stumble upon it organically as opposed to being told outright to "go to the Zora place."

I've invested quite a number of hours into this game already but I am still making little progress in the main story. The game is open in an interesting way where it feels the world is so open to you, but because of how it's all laid out it feels you're constantly encountering new obstacles and challenges. I keep going off on tangents using the towers as my guide because it's just so rewarding. It feels great to just keep wandering, stumbling upon new areas, and finding new quests. I'm letting wanderlust really get the better of me and I just can't stop because I am so engrossed in this world.



It also needs to be said how they managed to pare the collectibles down. It basically boils down two three things: towers, shrines and koroks. All three serve their purpose.

Towers are the obvious points that can be seen far away. They act as beacons for the player to explore. Once found they give the player the immensely powerful ability to look out on the world to spot new targets to explore. They serve a twofold purpose of both a goal to head towards and becoming a jump off point to your next goal.
Shrines meanwhile are another goal for the player to strive towards for their vast rewards, while serving as the primary source of puzzles of this particular Zelda game. It's clever how they area able to teach you to make use of the few abilities they give you in this game in new and unique ways. Constant lateral thinking using your existing technology. The exterior of the shrines are often laid out in ways where they appear to be obvious glide to points from the towers to give some sense of direction for the player. The shrine quests and their hints also help to push players into exploring the nooks and crannies of the world.
Lastly it's the korok seeds. What these strive to do is push the player to consider their environment at all times. Spot the tree(s)? The rock? Those boulders? It rewards players for consistently being aware of their surroundings and going off the beaten path and drawing even more discovery.

By pairing down to just those three "collectibles" the game strikes the right balance of not overwhelming the player while at the same time each one of them advances the exploration for the player.

@CPA Wei

Isn't it amazing!? Keep us updated, I could read people gush about Breath of the Wild forever!

@CPA Wei

Glad you're enjoying things so much CPA! You're having the best kind of experience with this game. I'll never forget the sense of wonder exploring it filled me with. It was something else.

I can only hope that it's sequel does something fresh enough with that same world to provide a sense of new discovery within what is technically a well traversed land.

It's rare that a game can have this kind of impact on me as a 30-something gamer. You'd think I've "seen it all" by now. Usually, I feel like it's the more experimental indie games that really wow me these days. But BotW was definitely an experience I'll never forget. Such a surprising impact on me, even for a Zelda game.

So not too much progress since my last post but there are a few discoveries of note...

So due to limited weapon space and the fact that I like to somewhat have a variety of weapons around for different situations (thunder sword, flame sword, great sword, spear, non-metal weapon, etc.) I tend to forego tools (hammer, deku leaf, torch, axe) and hope I stumble upon them when I need them. This does mean on occasion I stumble upon those giant stone slabs without the usual way to take care of them. I can try using my regular weapons but it drains their durability so quickly it's just not practical. So... it's been many hours since I did the side quest where I learned I can attach octorok balloons to an item to make it float. I haven't used it since and it never crossed my mind. Well I just happened to kill an octorok and raid its remains right before stumbling across another stone slab and it just reminded me of the balloons. Well apparently the balloons can lift the slabs too. This game really rewards thinking outside the box.

I also finally decided to make my way to move the story a bit whereupon I made another discovery. I already went to Mt. Lanaryu in the past so I am aware that the Warm Doublet is not enough warmth for some areas. I learned to cook up some peppers to provide the extra warmth I need. Well now that I am in the Hebra region and not knowing how long I will be around I decided to "extend" my cold resistance by waiting for a few hearts to drain so I can just fill up those hearts with the cold resist food when I eat it. During that period I learned that if I equip my flame sword I actually gain cold resistance from the heat on my weapon (works for the fire rod too). Also learned that Ice Breathing Lizalfos get OHKO by fire.

These are just slight details but it shows how flexible this game can be. Thanks to some of the aforementioned examples plus Link's climbing ability the game really never feels like it artificially restricts you but rather makes you always observe and figure out a way to solve each obstacle and challenge in your way.

A lovely little crossover video between the animated show Hilda's intro and Breath of the Wild.

^Dang! That's cool.

I'm finding myself rewatching the 2017 Breath of the Wild trailer lately. And reaction videos to it. And the same for the BotW2 trailer from E3 '19. Not sure whether it's an inkling that there's new Zelda excitement coming soon or just it's nice to feel something.

Infinitywave said:

I'm finding myself rewatching the 2017 Breath of the Wild trailer lately.

I go back to it every now and again, too. It's a real good trailer!

Same here. Game reveals have always been half the fun to me, and going back to watching other people's reactions to them is a really fun way to vicariously relive those moments.

Direct tomorrow.

Come onnnnnn...

@Infinitywave

I hope! They’ve had plenty of development time on BotW2. 2021 is the year.

You ever just daydream about how good this game is?

@Secret_Tunnel
Kinda, yeah! Best game of the millennium for me.

Oh wow, this was a great little video. What an experiment.

@DrFinkelstein

Wow!

@DrFinkelstein

Whoa!