eRonin

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: open your eyes and die a lot

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So wife update:

 

She has fallen off the game, the controls were too hard of a thing to overcome and shes put it down, we still are playing it together, just me at the helm though.

 

I may actually introduce her to Persona 5 next week, I think if she can get over the anime aspect of it she'd really enjoy the turn based combat and the relationship building.

 

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Spoiler

It doesn't melt while in shade. Even if you let it sit on the ground.

 

That's all there is to it.

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I'm still having a lot of fun with this game, but I want to highlight something that has been really amazing about my experience - I've been really moved by the score, more so than in other games. I want to point you to this video (there are some spoilers, I suppose, but if you've played enough of the game you can probably watch) which dissects the way the music works in the game and calls back to famous Zelda songs from previous games. If you haven't gone out riding at night in the game, I'd recommend it, because the music that's specific to this event is really, really well done, and like, the first time I heard this I felt a lot of things. 

 

The composer is highlighted in this video, Manaka Katoaka, and I went to look at her previous work. It turns out, she worked on a few of the more recent Animal Crossing games, which makes sense insofar as those games had scores that were very driven by the time of day, similar to Breath of the Wild, but more importantly, she's the composer for Spirit Tracks, which, while slightly maligned, has an incredible goddamn score.

 

 

I think that this is perhaps the best song in the entire Zelda series (seriously! It's so evocative of adventure, and the kind of theme that the game was going for), and it's too bad it was the overworld theme for a DS game that people didn't pick up because it came out late in the DS life cycle (2009), and Phantom Hourglass wasn't so well received. 

 

Anyway, I am glad that Manaka is still working on wonderful projects with Nintendo, and producing such good work. 

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Apparently there's a new patch out today for the game on Switch (and Wii U?) which fixes some things. Detective Neil Gaf and some folks I follow on twitter are saying it brings notable framerate improvements, so it's probably worth grabbing ASAP. 

 

On the subject of music, I remember reading an interview with Koji Kondo where he spoke about how most of the Zelda music was really about creating a sense of atmosphere, rather than the grand 'overworld' themes that people typically associate with that series. I think Breath of the Wild works wonderfully well in that sense; I still have to catch my breath when the sun hits a certain angle off the long grass, and the music responds with a few scattered piano chords. In a strange sense it reminds me of Minecraft - of how the music in that game will kick in when it doesn't feel like you're doing anything in particular, but how it seems significant despite that, or perhaps because of it...

 

The one big musical moment that really got my attention so far was in a super incongruous place - it's during the glider challenge that becomes available after you finish a certain (very complicated) shrine quest. After a long period of fraught struggle, you launch yourself into the air to do this thing, and the game starts belting out this absolutely amazing, totally straightforward song - it's like the game says 'you've done the hard part, now go mess around'. It's glorious.

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Zoink. This video shows before and after the patch - still not perfect but a significant improvement. The third area shown is the only one where I've felt my enjoyment affected by the choppiness, mainly because it's one of my favourite places. Minor location (and equipment) spoilers, I guess (it's woodsy).

 

 

Good call @RubixsQube on the Spirit Tracks score. The credits music really highlights how great it is.

 

 

 

It says I'm over 95 hours into BotW now. I've been to the castle on a recce but without fighting Ganon. I was going to do the Death Mountain dungeon last night but I keep getting distracted.

 

 

Edit. Okay, just tried out the patch. It's a real improvement in the third area - docked is far less choppy, and handheld is better than that. Obvious issues remain but I'd say it's no longer distracting.

 

I'd be really interested to hear more about the process and the tech behind the port. Is it emulating any part of the Wii U here? With such different architectures I'm assuming it's doing a lot of work that's not immediately obvious, and that the framerate would be solid were it built from the ground up for Switch (and maybe 60fps?!) It'll be really interesting to compare it to Mario and other bespoke Switch games - a category which, I think, only includes 1-2-Switch atm, no?

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God damn I love this game. I climbed a mountain again and I'm rolling around snowballs now. the way heat acts with the snowballs is just so perfect.

 

Like I had a flamespear on my back and started rolling a snowball, it was all fine until the snowball got huge, then the spear was close to it so the ball started melting, same if I keep some heat object in Link's hand close to the snowballs.

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I agree the music is v good.

 

It's petty, but I've tried watching a bunch of different streamers play this game and have been quickly turned off by (apparently common among pro streamers??) vocal sentiments at how 'terrible' the music is. Baffling. 

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Has anyone done the Ishto Soh shrine? 

Spoiler

Bravery's Grasp, in the mountains between Faron and the desert in the South West. It involves a gem switch that activates alternating platforms/stairs behind a fence that lead up to the mummy dude.

I fudged it by using an alcove in the wall but it didn't feel like the proper answer.

 

The details give this game so much personality. I've just got some masks that alter Link's idle animations. Tip top.

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Not sure if I'm thinking of the same shrine, but:

Spoiler

there's a way to set it up so the gem switch gets triggered repeatedly.

 

Re: music -- I'm really impressed with the way the score calls back to familiar Zelda tunes without being overbearing on the fanservice. Also, I never would have expected so much piano in a Zelda score, but it's an inspired choice.

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That's the one - I couldn't work out how to change the 'rail' the moving platform was on. My solution involved bombs.

 

Has anyone noticed the percentage on the map screen? Was that there before the patch? At around 100 hours with all the map unlocked, all the divine beasts, and Ganon defeated...I'm at 38.87% :/ I've been taking LOTS of photos, too. I like that, even with the towers activated, most placenames still don't appear on the map until you actually go there and it fades up onscreen and saves. It seems they all contribute to that percentage.

 

I was going to say that no normal person is 100%-ing this game but maybe that's only true in a traditional timeframe. In a year from now I may still be firing it up for half an hour to cruise around grabbing a few Korok seeds. It's an excuse to spend some more time in the world.

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I finished the 120th shrine last night and got my special armor set as a reward. I still have a bunch of sidequests to do and have only (!) found about 150 korok seeds, but I think I'm ready to call it and head for Ganon. I didn't notice a percentage counter. When I fire the game up next to make my run at the castle, I'll take a look.

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33.66%? What the hell? I got EVERY shrine, took photos of almost everything I could, had all 4 beasts, and beat Ganon. What is this percentage counter nonsense?

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It's kind of messed up... Korok seeds contribute to the percentage, so that's why most people have relatively low %.

 

Also, I think beating Ganon is what makes the stats show up.

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On 4/2/2017 at 4:11 PM, miffy495 said:

33.66%? What the hell? I got EVERY shrine, took photos of almost everything I could, had all 4 beasts, and beat Ganon. What is this percentage counter nonsense?

 

The percentage thing is a bit of a joke:

 

Quote

Dungeon Clear (Boss Defeated) = .08% x 4 = .32%
Shrine Discovery = .08% x 120 = 9.60%
Location Discovery = .08% x 226(?) = 18.08%
Korok Seeds = .08% x 900 = 72%

 

http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/303124/do-shrine-treasures-count-toward-the-completion-percentage-on-the-sheikah-slate

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I think I'm finally going to try to finish this game this weekend! I've played about 70-80 hours, done almost 90 shrines. I have two more memories to pick up, then I think it's straight to the castle I go.

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Spoiler

Just saw this...any of you tried any crazy physics nonsense?

 

 

 

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I beat the game on Sunday! Then I realised I was actually missing a memory so I went and found that, then beat the game again the following day just to get a bit more closure in my playthrough. I fully intend to keep going and finding all the shrines I haven't found though (30 of them)

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re: memories once you find them all

there is a 13th one, if you go talk to ol' sheikah gal

 

just fyi in case you don't know :D

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I haven't played Zelda for over a week now. Was sad that the 1.1.2 update did not come to Wii U when I checked yesterday.

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I've just completed Zelda today. I really enjoyed it, but I'm pretty sure I got through the game mostly by slamming my head against the systems, fudging my way through puzzles, and doing absolutely nothing as intended.

 

There were a few times where I should have been solving a complex shrine only for me to freeze the floor switches, and run for the exit, skipping puzzles entirely. I'm sure I solved puzzles by slowly skirting around water puzzles that I was meant to turn off somehow.

 

I never once took out a Hinox, Guardian, Rock Giant thing, Lynel, or Modest / Major test of strength. I ran past them like a ball of fear, not learning a thing about the fighting mechanics. It bit me pretty hard in the Phase 2 Ganon fight, I had no idea how to reflect lasers, or do any cool acrobatic attacks. I died 4 times unloading a ton of bomb arrows, doing no damage.

 

I feel like I completed this game, knowing nothing.

 

I love this game.

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12 hours ago, gerbilsinspace said:

I never once took out a Hinox, Guardian, Rock Giant thing, Lynel, or Modest / Major test of strength. I ran past them like a ball of fear, not learning a thing about the fighting mechanics. It bit me pretty hard in the Phase 2 Ganon fight, I had no idea how to reflect lasers, or do any cool acrobatic attacks. I died 4 times unloading a ton of bomb arrows, doing no damage.

 

So did you learn how to reflect lasers during that fight, or did you beat the boss another way? I got pretty good at reflecting lasers by that point so I found the final boss a piece of cake, but I did wonder how someone who never learned how to reflect lasers would do that part. I wasn't sure if there was another way. I guess this is pretty spoilery, so maybe respond with spoilers unless you simply did just learn to reflect lasers in the fight.

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I thought circumventing the shrine puzzles was one of the best parts. There was one where you had to start a bunch of giant spike balls swinging with the proper timing to run through them, but I noticed that if I messed with magnesis just right I could loop the chains they were suspended from around the rafters. I looped all of the chains around a few times so the spike balls were suspended a good few meters above a height where they could ever hit me and just ran through the whole thing like a few simple hallways. Best.

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