The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - May 12th, 2023

[x Tame Impala]

It's not a Souls game but the combat feels much more punishing and it takes more to survive in this Hyrule than in BOTW. There are a lot of tools at your disposal to fight your enemies that i should start using but i've been really impressed nonetheless. They undersold us on the Hyrule map too. The landscape is very different, many things aren't where they used to be, and it doesn't feel like a copy/paste situation at all.

I haven't taken a huge dive into the building aspect yet and I'm not sure how i feel about the weapon system. On one hand it's extra rewarding to go fight enemies and fuse their leftovers with your plucky wooden sticks and traveler's swords, on the other i wish i could find better weapons and not have to craft everything.

This game will take me months to beat and i love it already. With all the flying around everywhere i'm upgrading my stamina to the max first and then will add hearts as i go along. I'm also doing my best to look things up online when i'm stuck or if want the locations of fairy fountains/specific armor/etc...instead letting things happen as they come to me. You only get one first playthrough so i want it to be as much of my own experience as possible.

Amazing job done by this team. I read that they had the game basically finished a year ago but instead of releasing the game they spent that time running through everything and working the bugs out. Like Elden Ring, yet another example of a big f*** you to modern gaming.

 

[Emperoreddy]

The story is something I actually care about too. I don't remember caring for BOTW's plot. Or many other Nintendo games for that matter.

This Hyrule feels lived in and not just a desolated field.

Question: Do those monster camps with the combined health bar come back after the blood moon?

They do

 

[Randy Butternubs]

They do

Does this mean the seaside village just keeps having the monsters come back?

 

[Blitzkrug]

I won't spoil too much, but that final fight with Ganondorf was f***ing fantastic. By far the best showdown with him in the history of the series. The entire endgame quest post 4th teme honestly felt like old school Zelda in all the best ways.

Now that i've finished it at about 80 hours i can say; masterpiece. It was basically Breath of the Wild, just more fleshed out/realized. Great gameplay as always, doubly so with the build mechanic adding a new wrinkle. Story was surprisingly engaging since usually it's just there in the background for Zelda. Just a well made, well thought out piece of gaming.


Now, can i get this style of game on the Great Sea? I think this formula would lend itself incredibly well to sailing.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

I'm doing some extra shrines and side quests right now. Should probably upgrade some armor too.

Will probably get to the fourth temple tomorrow or Tuesday.


My favorite Ganon fights were the ones in Wind Waker.

 

[Blitzkrug]

TIL Matt Mercer is the voice of Ganondorf.

Makes sense. He did a really good job imo. Really sold Ganon's straight up obsession with power/malice.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

I stumbled upon a different main quest from what I meant to do. And I meant to only play for an hour tonight. Instead of 3+ hours completing that main quest I randomly found.

It was a hell of a surprise to me.

 

[x Tame Impala]

This game is massive. Idk how people are finishing it already. Feels like it’s going to take me months of playing

 

[ChaoticOrange]

I am honestly shocked at some of the stuff they pulled off with the Switch's aging hardware.

The polish puts most other AAA developers to f***ing shame too

Big "Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave with a box of scraps" energy.

This game is going to have a BOTW effect on me where I go back to other games once I've finished and nothing else seems remotely good enough.

 

[HanSolo]

This game is massive. Idk how people are finishing it already. Feels like it’s going to take me months of playing

Some people rush to do the main story and enough shrines to be able to take more than one hit. Or don't have jobs and play the game all day every day.

 

[HanSolo]

Feels like Nintendo could print money if they released DLC with additional zonai devices.

 

[x Tame Impala]

The Zoanite—>Crystalized Charges—>Battery Pack conversion is pretty tedious off the bat. AFAIK there are no Shrines in the Depths so I’ve mostly been staying above so far.

I get the design choice, it keeps the player from being a god builder too soon. I wish there was an easier way to upgrade however

 

[Unholy]

Yeah it took me until just the other day to come across the other location where I could finally process for more than 10 charges at a time

 

[Emperoreddy]

The Zoanite—>Crystalized Charges—>Battery Pack conversion is pretty tedious off the bat. AFAIK there are no Shrines in the Depths so I’ve mostly been staying above so far.

I get the design choice, it keeps the player from being a god builder too soon. I wish there was an easier way to upgrade however

There are no shrines but there are fast travel points that also serve a purpose to make exploring easier.

But yeah you need to explore the depths more to more effectively speed up upgrading your batteries. The forge on the first sky island isn't effective.

It's in everyone's best interest to do the first couple of depth quests given in Lookout Landing as it both nets you the Autobuild skill, and leads you to a furnace that exchanges charges and crystallized charges in higher quantities.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Here is a tip where the depths suddenly become more valuable that i didn't figure out until i was done with the game;

Look at your map. Look at where lightroots are and then flip to the surface level. You should notice something that will serve as a guide to finding things elsewhere.

 

[Blitzkrug]

This game is massive. Idk how people are finishing it already. Feels like it’s going to take me months of playing

I'm more "i had my fill" than "i'm done"

"Finishing" this game is a herculean task given there's quite frankly. a lot of filler/stuff that doesn't matter.

I put in about 75 hours, did just over half the shrines, filled in the map, lit up probably about 40% of the depths and felt "okay, time to squash Ganondorf"

Weird effect of this game as opposed to other open world games is i don't feel compelled to chase everything and actually feel satisfied at the end.

 

[x Tame Impala]

I'm more "i had my fill" than "i'm done"

"Finishing" this game is a herculean task given there's quite frankly. a lot of filler/stuff that doesn't matter.

I put in about 75 hours, did just over half the shrines, filled in the map, lit up probably about 40% of the depths and felt "okay, time to squash Ganondorf"

Weird effect of this game as opposed to other open world games is i don't feel compelled to chase everything and actually feel satisfied at the end.

I felt that way about BOTW too. You don’t need max hearts to beat any boss. You can finish as much as you like and still feel satisfied on any given playthrough.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I do expect I will eventually do all the shrines and try to find all the armor pieces before I eventually feel satisfied and put it down.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

I'm hoping to finish the main story tonight.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Lol I'm hoping to simply finish my second temple tonight.

 

[HanSolo]

I could never.

Lol I'm hoping to simply finish my second temple tonight.

Lol yeah I've only done one. I happened upon the water temple while randomly exploring the sky and wasted too much time trying to get it open, without realizing I probably need to do its quest first.

 

[Andrei79]

I could never.


Lol yeah I've only done one. I happened upon the water temple while randomly exploring the sky and wasted too much time trying to get it open, without realizing I probably need to do its quest first.

What... just happened there ?

 

[Dr John Carlson]

What else is there in the depths beside battery upgrades? I feel no inclination to explore the depths. I don't like not being able to tell what I'm walking towards. So I've spent probably 35 minutes total down there out of the 65-70 hours I've spent on the game.

I've also had no trouble getting around the sky islands without any battery upgrades.

 

[HanSolo]

What else is there in the depths beside battery upgrades? I feel no inclination to explore the depths. I don't like not being able to tell what I'm walking towards. So I've spent probably 35 minutes total down there out of the 65-70 hours I've spent on the game.

I've also had no trouble getting around the sky islands without any battery upgrades.

It's not that bad once you've unlocked a fair share of lightroots. Other than battery upgrades, just more bosses and lynel colosseums. Oh and bomb flowers that grow on the ground. And one of the temples is down there. But other than that, yeah not too much.

 

[Emperoreddy]

What else is there in the depths beside battery upgrades? I feel no inclination to explore the depths. I don't like not being able to tell what I'm walking towards. So I've spent probably 35 minutes total down there out of the 65-70 hours I've spent on the game.

I've also had no trouble getting around the sky islands without any battery upgrades.

Lots of armor pieces (old maps found on sky islands mark where they are), a couple side quests, one of which leads to a useful ability, and really useful arrow materials in bombs, puffshrooms, and muddlebuds.

You can also get weapons that haven't decayed.