VideoGame_Discussion

It’s just kinda how Nintendo operates. Fire Emblem Engage was announced in September and releases in January. I don’t remember seeing much of BotW besides the Great Plateau before that game released either.

Nintendo has done this plenty of times. There was so little info known about Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Super Mario Maker 2 after their announcements until they finally hit us with a Nintendo Direct in the weeks leading up to their releases that gave us more info about them. I would expect the same for this game.

I'm nervous the collector editions are gonna sell out instantly like BotW. Just hope we get insight to when they'll drop.

MrBean wrote:
Yeah, same here.

And if there's a nice Zelda OLED, if I can get one, that'll be when I make the upgrade.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

BloodPuppetX wrote:

Interesting. The lack of info seemed unusual to me, especially with such a highly anticipated game. But it sounds like this isn't unusual.

nonamesleft wrote:

Aw crap, forgot about that... They for sure will. I have a masters and collector's unopened for BotW. I will pay scalper prices if I have to but damnit I hope I don't have to!

I've been replaying BOTW, still good. I'm glad this sequel looks similar in style.

bill wrote:
Have you played the expansion? I played the game a lot, and enjoyed it, but hadn't tried any of the content that was released later.

When I bought the game, I got all the DLC. So, I never played without it. But, I suspect I would have been fine without it too.

I never completed Trial of the Sword (it was hard and takes a while with tons of combat), nor did I play the game in Master Mode. Generally, I'm not looking for combat challenges. The combat is OK but it wasn't what I'm into (weapons always breaking is an annoying feature imho).

I was more into exploring and doing the shrines and getting all the upgrades and such. I think one of the DLCs did add some shrines. So, that was OK. I also liked the Travel Medallion. I think I got the motorcycle thing but wasn't that into it. There's a lot of junk EX quests in the DLC too for frivolous stuff I didn't care about or promotions for other games like Xenogears (that bugged me because it felt "immersion-breaking"), that I mostly skipped.

If I remember correctly, it was the same with BotW. For the longest time, all we had was that cinematic trailer of Link running from a Guardian. Then, just a few months before it released, Nintendo released an amazing trailer for it during a Direct, easily one of my favorite video game trailers ever.

As excited as I am for the game, I wish I had a bit more time before it's release. I really want to finish Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword before it comes out. I'd even like to re-play BotW on Master mode, but I definitely don't have time for that.

I loved the DLC. Trial of the Sword was a really fun challenge with a great reward, and the Chamption's Ballad added some really cool shrines, plus some challenging boss re-matches. The Travel Medallion was pretty helpful, as was the Hero's Path.

I'm sad that I never did the dlc. BotW has a weird place in my mind and heart. Beat it within two weeks of release, doing everything sans the seeds. I regret rushing it because the memories are pretty sparse.

Then my sister discovered it and became legit addicted. It was her favorite game of all time. She grew up watching me game and getting all my pass me downs. I did good as an older brother, raising two younger gamer sisters. She, more so than my other sister, got really good. Took her to some SSBM contests back in the day and she'd win every time. She was good... No big brother, but damn good!

She'd camp out at my house for a weekend, play all day, take insane hand written notes. She had hundreds of hours logged, but was maybe half way through the actual story. She loved just wondering... Exploring, crafting. She was insane and I'd make fun of her all the time. She always told me she didn't want it to end. She loved figuring everything out on her own with no help. I still have her notebook. She has pages and pages of notes, recipes, things to do. I got her a Switch for one of her bdays and BotW. She resumed her play and still never finished! Just continued to explore and love her time with the game.

After she died, I've wanted to play again as a means of connecting, but it just makes me fudging depressed anytime I think about it ... Kept wanting to get to the DLCs, but I just can't =(

Hoping I'll be able to enjoy TotK without losing my crap as a way to remember and honor her.

Fudge I hate that I just relived this memory... Time to turn it off and drink more wine!

Botw is great for just wandering and exploring. There's so much to find wherever you go. I should try to do that more. I tend to get focused on something I want, then I go to a wiki/map to make it happen faster.

One of my best gaming experiences was replaying Fallout 3 but avoiding quests and just wandering around the wasteland.

re:grief - I think it helps to talk about it, remember, relive, etc. Try not to push it away, turn toward how you feel and the memories you have, lose your crap, let her spirit burn through you, purifying you. Be grateful you have such intense feelings, it's the best part of life even though it can hurt.

Thank you @bill, that was really helpful and impsctful to read. It's honestly not a way I've thought about it. Hope you and yours have a great New Year!

I know what it's like to lose a sister too soon, MrBean. My sister was 32 when she passed and loved the Mario series.

Not sure if i want this to be real or not:

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/12/rumour-l...

Even if it's real, and really slick, I can't get myself to buy another Switch until it's a Pro or successor.

Since launch, I've been rocking my regular Switch and dabbled a little bit with a Switch Lite. I ended up getting rid of the Lite and using my V1 Switch primarily docked.

I love Nintendo, and always want to get the special edition consoles, but have yet to actually get one. I'm usually an early adopter, especially when it comes to legitimately new Nintendo consoles. By the time special editions release, I already own a stock console. And since I spend my time looking at the TV, and not the unit hooked up, I can't justify double dipping.

Honestly having come from a discussion (elsewhere) on the Switch hardware, I really hope Tears of The Kingdom doesn't have performance issues. Nintendo really needs to up its hardware, even if they remain at 1080p resolutions.

@BloodPuppetX sorry man, same age as Noelle... Just not fair at such a young age.

They'd be insane not to release a Zelda Switch. It'd sell out instantly. I don't know if I would justify two, but I'd definitely buy one to collect dust!

BloodPuppetX wrote:
Are you disappointed by it?

Frank wrote:
Do you consider the OLED to be a succesor?

nonamesleft wrote:

No way! It's just a minor upgrade. Like the DS to the DS Lite, or the 3DS to the 3DSXL. Switch OLED isn't even on the same level as DSi and New 3DS.

Pictures of the possible Zelda OLED Switch that BloodPuppetX mentioned:

image

Was it leaked or "leaked"? Time will tell if it's real.

If there's one word I'd use to describe it, I'd say elegant.

I'd say "yellow".

i've been holding off on an OLED model since i figure they'll be moving on to something new in a couple of years...but this would definitely make me reconsider...i love it

Looks pretty cool. I'm not dropping $350 on it though. I wouldn't mind just getting the joy-cons though. I use a dock cover and a grip, so the designs on the dock and the back of the Switch wouldn't be any good for me anyway.

That has to be real, feels like too much effort to make a fake, but who knows this day in age ...

Even if it's not real, there is definitely a new Switch coming out with this release.

A little over 4 months until the (current) release date. I wonder if some stores will have some sort of midnight event release for the game, especially with how anticipated it has been.

I'm going to be watching this like a hawk (as possible) for CE/LE/Console, whatever. Please for the love of god, tag the crap out of me when/if any one gets news. Ya'll know how batcrap crazy I am and I truly don't want to miss out on this one.

I managed to get the BotW CE + Masters, but I don't remember how much of a craze it was? Did they sell out immediately or was there ample time? Feels like a lifetime ago ...

MrBean wrote:



They sold out quick. I assume there will be a mini-direct where they'll announce the CE's, and pre-orders will go up within a day or two of that.

MrBean wrote:
I'd like some sort of collector's edition of this. Especially if it's something unique, like a gold/white Zelda themed Switch pro controller + game. Or something really cool.

Obviously someone just needs to time travel to the future and bring this game back with you. Don't forget to get the winning numbers for tomorrows Mega Millions jackpot for tomorrow as well since its 1.1 Billion dollars again and quart of milk. Might as well get it all while you're in the future. LOL

ManiacMadman wrote:
I could picture that being said in stand up comedy.

Less than 4 months to go.

Hoping I can beat several games from the backlog before then.

Another week down. That much closer.

I wonder if the game will keep the breakable weapons mechanic. I didn't mind it that much, but I know that others really didn't care for it.

One thing though, the breakable weapons made me hesitant about using the legendary weapons. I hung them up in Link's house, rather than risk breaking them. They're unique weapons, so I used them as decorations. Would have liked to use them, but it wasn't a big deal.

You can rebuild the Champion weapons.

I feel like getting rid of breakable weapons would require them changing up quite a bit from how BotW worked, which I really don't think they're going to do. I'd rather not have breakable weapons, but I got pretty used to them in BotW and didn't mind them too much, so I don't really care if they're in TotK.

Scott wrote:
Wait, really? You can rebuild those? Wish I had known. I would have liked to have used them. I don't know if I'll replay the game, having put a LOT of hours into it, but it's still cool to know.

from what i remember, i liked it. the alternative would've been to have a LOT less variety in weaponry, leading to less variety in chests and whatever all over the map...and then the whole aspect of taking weapons from enemies wouldn't happen...just because there would be no point.

i didn't really find it frustrating #most# of the time, just had to have some basic resource management in the back of your mind before going into a big fight. something that happens in a lot of games, just not in a zelda game until then.

i feel like they might tweak the system a bit, but overall, i'd be shocked if it was gone.

nonamesleft wrote:

Yeah, there's a blacksmith that can do it in each of the 4 villages of the Champions. You just need the similar looking weapon that you find a lot of in that area (e.g. Boulder Breaker), plus some various materials (different for each weapon).

I'm not a fan of breakable weapons. I'd say there's too much weapon variety in botw, with most weapons being fairly pointless and thus clutter in the game. I agree, it's unlikely they would change this, though.

I think they could do a few things to make it less annoying. For example, when you open a chest and it has a weapon in it. Instead of saying "inventory full" then closing the chest; give us a way to drop/replace something we are carrying so we can easily take the usually-better weapon in the chest.

I love botw, but I think it's fair to say it has a number of user-interface annoyances like this in it. Another thing that always bugs me is the way they only partly let you skip cutscene-like moments. For example, every time I find a shrine, there's a short movie for activating it, then another as you step on the elevator, then another as you enter the shrine (still on the elevator). So, I end up hitting 'x' to skip those, 3 times and it's only partial because it always starts the movie before I can skip. Finishing the shrine is similar with 2 skip points and also some unskippable parts mixed in it. These are things that are always the same, or maybe you get some semi-pointless little message in the middle. It's like the developers are in love with their little videos and expect you to want to watch them 100s of times.

100% agree with the inventory full/chest situation. that was a huge pain.

and there's always going to be quality of life issues...i do hope they fix what they can and don't ignore the complaints out there. the skipping of the cutscenes are complicated though, as i'm sure some are hiding loading screens. if that's the case, adding variety would be a good start

@bill @bogo

Regarding the inventory full/opening a chest situation, you can then drop an item from your inventory and then go back to the chest. Are you saying that it would be a good addition to allow a swap during the chest opening sequence, as opposed to the chest closing, going into your inventory, dropping an item, and then reopening the chest?

bogo wrote:
the skipping of the cutscenes are
This reminds me of the elevator/train cutscenes in Metroid Dread. Those scenes were on the screen for a very long time, but that's probably because it's rendering the map/content in the background.

I agree that some variety would be nice. Maybe some combat scenes or something. Not just the same screen.

The weapons are the biggest point of contention in BOTW. Just increase durability a lot and that probably eliminates it. Like 400%. Let the Master Sword last a lot longer too, or have enemies that can nullify its damage or something.

@nonamesleft yes

I could complain about cooking too. It could be streamlined quite a bit.

Breath Of The Wild is a terrible Legend Of Zelda game. More worse than Phantom Hourglass.

Bring back the hookshot!

Weapon durability is nothing once you get the master sword. You chuck weapons left and right. Leave them in the shrines. I don't know a better solution... Fallout 3 where it slows you down to a crawl? Witcher 3 where you sell 100's of things for peanuts in a town? Not a fan of infinite storage as it creates huge imbalences. Wind Waker where the weapons disappear as soon as you leave an area. Old school Zelda where you only get a dozen weapons or tools? I see Fallout 3 and BotW equivalent. I'd rather not spend hours in shops selling crap. Either one of the former, doesn't bother me.

Also could go RE4 style where you get so many "blocks" of storage, and items take up different amounts of space. This would be terrible.

lordly_llama wrote:
Ouch. I don't hear that too often about BOTW, but you're allowed to have your opinion. What didn't you like about it?

Have you played many games in the series? Which Legend of Zelda game did you like the most?

bill wrote:
:) Brings me back to Oracle of Ages. Hookshot was great.

nonamesleft wrote:


It's actually a very common response on boards and forums.

thats one of my biggest grips with BotW...you get all of the fancy new things on the Great plateau and then thats it (minus the Champion abilities). if there were old school tools like the hookshot that helped you to get to new areas in the overworld, that would make things a bit more enjoyable.

although, half of the fun with BotW was that you could go anywhere and everywhere right from the get go if you were crafty enough

KCPenguins wrote:
Interesting. Is there a commonly disliked element to the game?

Yeah, I'm curious what @lordly_llama doesn't like about BotW.
I can imagine since BotW was different in many ways.

Phantom Hourglass is the worst for me, I didn't even finish it.

bill wrote:
What about Spirit Tracks?

Never heard of it! bad?

bill wrote:
I don't know. It was the 2nd one released for DS, after Phantom Hourglass. I heard good things about it, but haven't played it.

Here is Spirit Tracks, bill:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E99t054qlwA

It uses touch controls just like PH. If you didn't like that one you probably wouldn't like ST either. It also has the worst rhythm sections of any Zelda game ever.

Hm, I still have my old DS in the closet.

Spirit Tracks was better than Phantom Hour glass IMO.

bogo wrote:

Therein lies the problem. Open world doesn't really mesh with the Zelda formula. I'd much rather have a traditional Zelda game that takes place in a huge world with tons of room for exploration, but you slowly gain access to all of it as you acquire new items and abilities. I don't need to be able to go literally everywhere right from the very start. People's obsession with that is what forced this to be a "bad Zelda game". It's still a great game though.

It's been awhile, and I binged/rushed through BotW; however ... at first I hated the durability, but because of it, it created more diversity in being forced to have to change weapons. Again at first, hated it, but later ... I kinda grew fond of it. How many games out there do they give you tons of options, but ultimately you use 10% of them? While annoying, it does create/force you to check out more options and adds some diversity into the gameplay.

With Nintendo constantly relying on their old IP, and re-releasing stuff, I'm still amazed we haven't seen re-releases of the handhelds. Oracle games, Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, etc. EASY cash cow that they're not milking nearly enough.

@bill I played through PH and ST not long ago. IMO, ST is better than PH in MOST ways, but the main way that's it's worse is a big one. The travel system in ST is just awful. I'm not even a big fan of the water travel in PH/WW, but the train in ST sucks big time. It's actually kind of fun when you first start, but it very quickly becomes a huge chore to travel anywhere as your map gets bigger and bigger. They tried to help with this by adding a fast travel system, but it's kind of cumbersome to use and really doesn't help that much. If you can get past the train though, it's a very fun Zelda game. It's still touch-controls though, so if that's what you hated about PH, forget about it.

I think I still have the cart of PH. Maybe I should try it again. I can't remember specifically what I disliked about it. I think it was something about returning to a central dungeon that had timed elements (the hourglass?). I didn't enjoy that play and/or struggled with it. In most games, I disliked timed stuff.

Honestly, Spirit Tracks doesn't look great to me and it seems like it's not especially easy/cheap to acquire, so we'll see.

I actually picked up Skyward Sword for Switch recently (never played it), so I should do that next regardless. But, I'm still replaying BotW some right now. Not sure I'll do the endgame, but I did the divine beasts and have plenty of shrines still to do.

MrBean wrote:

I've been dreaming about an 'all stars' type release of the GBC/GBA games, but the PH/ST would likely be too difficult to port to anything because of the touch controls. they would have to completely redo the major function of the games. It's not impossible, but not as easy of a cash grab

That said, from what i remember, i actually enjoyed both PH and ST. they were different and the touch controls were a bit cumbersome at times, but the games were short enough, where i was still able to finish them

I agree that BotW wasn't a great Zelda game, though it was a good game overall if you're into open world. For me, when I have the ability to randomly wander I tend to get disconnected from / not give a crap about the main story / quest line. Also, the temples where you just fought the machines over and over again got old really fast... though I did enjoy the ones with the puzzles.

I also wish there were more challenging aspects to the game.. the only thing truly challenging was the black minotaur/tiger thingey.

I agree with whoever said the cooking mechanic needed to be streamlined.. it wasn't really fun after the novelty wore off and just became a chore where you needed a guide to know how to cook good dishes.

Lastly, I wanted more quest lines like the one where you helped build that new village on the lake island... or more things to do to upgrade your house, more challenges/meaningful reasons to use shield surfing which was fun as well. I thought it could have gone alot deeper on the quest line side of things I guess. Quantity =/= quality.

bogo wrote:

I doubt they'll ever re-vamp these two games to use traditional controls. Changing the movement to a control stick or dpad and swinging your sword to a button would be easy enough, but there were a lot of other things that required touch controls, like mapping out the path of your boomerang and stuff like that. They would have to change a lot. The games were completely designed around using touch controls for everything.


I really enjoyed both of them as well. I first played PH shortly after it came out. I was enjoying it, but for some reason only made it about 1/3 of the way through the game before getting sidetracked. I finally returned to it a couple years ago and beat it, then went on to beat ST as well. They're very solid Zelda games if you can get past the touch controls, and that stupid train!

bill wrote:

Yeah, a lot of people don't like that dungeon that you return to multiple times. I actually liked it quite a bit. That bad news is, there's something similar in ST, and it's even harder IMO.


If you ever want to play it you can borrow my copy.

Snappy wrote:

Yeah, I'm definitely hoping TotK has more challenging combat. We need more variety in how you can attack enemies, and how they attack you. Once you mastered the flurry rush in BotW, the game became way too easy. I eventually got to where even the Lynels were easy to beat. I used to go around after every red moon and re-fight all of the Silver Lynels to stock up on good supplies. I got to where I could defeat all of them in about 20-30 minutes, and that was including travel time.


I actually really enjoyed cooking. I spent a lot of time researching all of the best dishes, and used them heavily. I just wish there had been a section that saved any dish you had cooked in the past so that you could quickly cook it again without going through and selecting all of the ingredients every single time.

@Scott Thanks for the offer! ...we'll see.


Snappy wrote:

It's interesting you put it this way. I tend to really like open world games and also have mixed feelings about main story quests. I often wonder if they could just make an open world game without quests at all. I think I'd like that the most. Though, it is good to have some narrative reason for motivation. All the cutscenes, characters arcs, and boss battles associated with quests and such have less appeal for me these days. They feel mostly tedious (a bit silly, overwrought, similar to other stuff, etc.).

either way, based on the trailers, it looks like TotK will likely have 7 main dungeons (based on the number of 'tears'), so they will likely be traditional dungeons. just not 100% sure what the outcome of those may be. could be an item, could be vial of whatever the blue stuff is Link has in the trailers...or something completely different

Scott wrote:


I don't get this complaint coming from someone asking for a more traditional Zelda. BotW has a wide variety of ways to attack most enemies, including the environment. Traditional Zelda's typically have 1 way to attack, and it's usually spoonfed to the player.

What traditional Zelda had more challenging combat? I guarantee I died more in my first playthrough in BotW than my 1st playthrough of OoT, WW, TP and SS combined.

Do you want Zelda Dread? Remove exploration and turn it into a boss rush game?

KCPenguins wrote:

Fair question! There's not much they can do with combat in the 2D games so I accept it there, but one of my main complaints about the 3D Zelda games has always been that the combat is far too basic and simple (lock on, swing or jab, backflip to dodge, repeat). So traditional Zelda or not, I've always wanted more challenging, intricate combat. I do appreciate the ways Breath of the Wild "opened up the world" so to speak. There were tons of things you could do in BotW that had never been possible before, and I loved it. It's really just the sword combat that I want to see improved. I wasn't one to stay back and kill enemies by chucking a hundred bombs at them. I would do that sometimes when necessary (mostly in the early game), but the vast majority of my damage was done with the weapons. Improving enemy types and attack patterns would help tremendously. BotW was severely lacking in enemy variety, so you got very used to how to defeat the 3-4 main enemy types very early on, and then it became super repetitive. I'm hoping TotK brings in many more of the enemies that have been in the Zelda games throughout the years.

KCPenguins wrote:

I wasn't asserting that traditional Zelda had more challenging combat. I would like it if traditional Zelda and BotW both had more challenging combat in general, or at least more opportunities for challenging combat, even if they are optional.

I thought BotW had a good amount of challenging combat, and like most games once you figure out some tips and tricks they become easier. I still haven't beaten the boss in the DLC.

It's not really a tip or trick, it's one of the main combat moves that the game really pushes. As soon as you get good at it, it completely breaks combat. It makes a much bigger difference than just combat becoming easier as you get good at it, like in most games. Besides, in most games, enemies become harder as you progress, but in BotW, they don't really become harder, they just give them more hit points and weapons with higher attack. They just take longer to defeat, but they're not harder. The exception is Lynels, the higher classes actually have more challenging moves and patterns.

bill wrote:

This is why I've come to prefer open world over regular JRPGs. Just too much damn dialogue!

bill wrote:

You make a good point. Since I like to read a lot of novels I often find the actual plot lines in video games to be super shallow and boring, with some exceptions like some of the point and click adventures and a game like Heavy Rain.

So yeah.. maybe my problem isn't the open world as much as it is the storylines are super boring and uninteresting to me. LOL

KCPenguins wrote:

You're right that the trials DLC or whatever it's called is pretty darn challenging - forgot about that. The one where if you die you have to start over. I guess it was probably made to satiate people like me ha ha

@bill

1.) The Master Sword needs a cooldown/repair. THE FUDGING MASTER SWORD.

2.) There are no true dungeons. Only bullcrap puzzle dungeons.

lordly_llama wrote:

It's unfortunate that Nintendo looked to the West on this game. It's just open world trash, honestly. I was running across the map while simultaneously looking at my phone while playing it and was like... Yeah this is boring. And the tiny dungeons for hearts or whatever, not fun at all.

It sucks that the master sword can't be used much in BotW. Feels wrong, so wrong.

I like the bullcrap puzzle dungeons, though.