The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (LttP Sequel) Catch-All

Blind_Evil wrote:

I love the look of that gold 3DS XL. So if I get weak and buy that, the game comes with. The only thing that'd get me to consider a standalone purchase would be a trusted person telling me the concerns I raise above are not present.

Solution! Buy the Zelda XL and sell me the download code. I'll tell you if it's worth playing or not.

Well the good thing is, there are warps from the dungeon entrance to the floor right before the boss. At least on the first 3 dungeons I have finished so far.

So that makes it pretty easy to repeat, if you need to. I still haven't died yet though. So you know... if you suck at games and need it, it's there.

Anybody found any bottles besides that first obvious one? Spoiler tag please. I could really use a 2nd one for some

Spoiler:

bee catching

or something.

EDIT: Never mind, one of the wikis has bottle locations.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:
trueheart78 wrote:
Aristophan wrote:

Quick question: how many save slots?

3

Oh the sweet sweet nostalgia! amiright!?

:)

Thanks. I figured there were three but I wanted to check. Otherwise my two sons and I were going to have a battle royale.

Stele wrote:

Anybody found any bottles besides that first obvious one? Spoiler tag please. I could really use a 2nd one for some

Spoiler:

bee catching

or something.

EDIT: Never mind, one of the wikis has bottle locations.

Answering anyway, but there's one in the lower right corner of the map that requires Zora flippers.

Blind, I have a feeling the game's going to continue with the Link to the Past style of difficulty. Actually, I've found myself having trouble with the soldiers due to the new style and hit detection. However, I've yet to die or drink a potion, and I feel that a lot of improvements have been made. Even so, I'll still wait until I've finished the game to give final judgment.

Played through Hera this evening after browsing everywhere for collectibles. I need one more piece of heart and I'll have 7! I thought I'd be more disappointed that you can just rent all the items at once and head to the dungeon, but it actually makes me more worried about dying since I'd lose everything I'm renting, and the dungeons are so well focused on their puzzle design that it's hard to think about anything but moving from one puzzle arena to the next.

So good.

EDIT: And right outside the Tower of Hera was that ONE piece of heart. God this game is great, and it's so awesome going through almost-Link-to-the-Past having to rediscover locations and secrets.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:
trueheart78 wrote:
Aristophan wrote:

Quick question: how many save slots?

3

Oh the sweet sweet nostalgia! amiright!?

:)

It's not nostalgia when Nintendo is still doing 3 slots on the Wii U for everything :p

Blind_Evil wrote:

Too many of the bosses were A) hard and B) a PITA to reach. I don't like slogging through 15 minutes of a difficult dungeon time and again to lose to the same boss in <15 seconds. It's not the kind of game where you can beef up to better your chances, either.

I think this issue may have been addressed actually. When you reach new floors in dungeons the game spawns wormholes back to the entrance. If you fail a boss, you don't have to walk all the way back through the dungeon to try again.

I spent a bunch of time wandering the overworld tonight. I acquired:

Spoiler:

- Power Glove
- Zora's Flippers
- Piece of heart from the Rupee Race mini-game (I finished with 0.27 seconds left on the clock, on my first try too)

and now I've rented the Hammer and am going back for more chests. I love this game, it's so awesome.

I love it.

Spoiler:

Got to the dark world and a dungeon, the game just opens way up.

ahrezmendi wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

Too many of the bosses were A) hard and B) a PITA to reach. I don't like slogging through 15 minutes of a difficult dungeon time and again to lose to the same boss in <15 seconds. It's not the kind of game where you can beef up to better your chances, either.

I think this issue may have been addressed actually. When you reach new floors in dungeons the game spawns wormholes back to the entrance. If you fail a boss, you don't have to walk all the way back through the dungeon to try again.

I dunno. The other two light world bosses both can knock you off the ledge easily, though I think the Moldorm is the more merciful one. But he fights exactly as he did in Link to the Past, and if you found him annoying, then you'll find him annoying here.

I spent a bunch of time wandering the overworld tonight. I acquired:
Spoiler:

- Power Glove
- Zora's Flippers
- Piece of heart from the Rupee Race mini-game (I finished with 0.27 seconds left on the clock, on my first try too)

and now I've rented the Hammer and am going back for more chests. I love this game, it's so awesome.

Yeah, I rented everything as soon as I could, and started wandering the world. However, they still manage to keep a lot of stuff out of reach in a sense even with what feels like a full inventory.

I'm about to snag the Master Sword (and if you call that a spoiler I want you to go in the corner and contemplate your gaming life), and I'm all kinds of giddy.

Also: chicken dodging. Holy crap why's it so fun?

ccesarano wrote:

Also: chicken dodging. Holy crap why's it so fun?

I think it's the 3D effect with the high overhead chickens that you don't have to avoid.

Actually I didn't have the 3D on when playing that game. However, I DID have the 3D on when climbing the tower of Hera for a while, and while my eyes still feel a bit strange when looking at the 3D screen, it's implemented pretty well here. In fact, of all the games I've tried the 3D on, I think this one implements it best.

Yep. This is the only game I've kept 3D on 100% of the time. Even in MK7 where it's very cool, I turn it off sometimes because I have a tendency to move the system when I'm steering.

I've noticed a tiny bit of divergence/ghosting in the 3D when traveling through dark areas. Otherwise, the 3D is flawless. The only time I ever turn the 3D off is to take screen caps.

Finished the Tower of Hera, very fun dungeon. The verticality somehow reminded me of Sen's Fortress ( Dark Souls ).

mcwizardry wrote:

The verticality somehow reminded me of Sen's Fortress ( Dark Souls ).

Quick! Someone compare it to Darksiders!

Got to the Dark World, and just...I don't know if I can evaluate this game in a fair manner. I'm having too much damn fun.

I actually realized/noticed that the soldiers are intended to be approached a bit differently in this. In A Link to the Past, it was actually easier to angle yourself to dodge their weapon while striking with your own. Here it's a bit more challenging, BUT if you catch them unawares, they won't have their weapon at the ready. This also works in with how I noticed they didn't respond as easily to your presence. It makes it easier to sneak up on them, potentially stunning them with the hookshot before going in for the kill.

My approach is quite different from how it was in Link to the Past as a result, but probably ups the difficulty a bit. In fact, I feel like the Dark World is even harder here as enemies are just as strong as they were, but I have fewer heart containers. Then again, I also know of two pieces of heart in the light world I COULD get, but have not.

For anyone browsing the Dark World (pre-dungeons):

Spoiler:

Is there ANY control over where the ball goes in that baseball game? I mean aside from the three stances. Otherwise, it feels like a crapshoot.

I like using boomerang to stun the soldiers myself.

Also works good against Shadow Links from StreetPass. I have got 2 of those already.

Stele wrote:

I like using boomerang to stun the soldiers myself.

Upgraded my Hookshot (it's now a "Nice Hookshot") and it does a bit of damage when I hit something with it.

I wasn't sure about the need for purchasing the tools, but it looks like you can't upgrade what you don't own. So I bought a Hookshot, Icerod, and some bombs. Upgraded Icerod is pretty nice.

Finally got a play a bunch. Holy sh*t this is good. Loving the speed of combat, the responsive controls and the liquid smooth 60fps. And like always it has the absurd amount of Nintendo polish. Like the weather vane doesn't need the satisfying animation flourish and sound effect but it does. And Ahrez was right about the music man. The music!

Edit:

I was worried about the mechanic changes but I'm really digging them. Fast travel is a nice convenience to have and the rental system allows for more open gameplay. The wall mechanic really does add a nice new dimension to the game as each environment has that extra layer of puzzle solving/exploration/platforming involved. And mana for item use is great too as it lets you mess around and experiment with them more.

And there is barely any hand holding in this game. I got lost for a bit just wandering around adventuring and it was awesome!

Oh, and the 3D effect is great. I usually don't have it on in most games but I've have it on all the time in this one.

Upgraded the Fire Rod tonight - it's *so* much better, and has gotten me out of a lot of jams already.

Having trouble deciding which tools to buy. Picked the hookshot for my first half price buy because I was pretty sure I needed it for a certain thing I was searching for. Guess you should buy one of the rods first since they are 1200 vs 800 for everything else. Only have around 3k rupees and I hate to blow them all buying everything.

How do you upgrade? Is it just something you purchase or something with items to find? I know I found something that is supposed to upgrade the Master Sword through the blacksmith, but haven't found anything similar for other items.

Stele wrote:

How do you upgrade? Is it just something you purchase or something with items to find? I know I found something that is supposed to upgrade the Master Sword through the blacksmith, but haven't found anything similar for other items. :?

Every 10 maiamais returned gets an upgrade for an item you own from the shop.

Nice Hookshot is good (does damage, maybe more?), nice bombs give bigger/stronger blasts, nice ice rod creates a 4-large-stone size freeze, nice fire rod sends a swirling pillar of fire that does more damage and can hit floating/flying enemies.

For the lurkers: yes, it's that good. I remember the wonder of playing LTTP on a SNES a friend had smuggled to summer camp, and this takes me right back there.

What the Hell is a maiamai?

In fact, what do you do with Monster Guts and Monster Tails?

Have you not met a witch yet?

Ooooh, I met the witch BEFORE I started finding that stuff. I'll stop by her house after I try to do the race thing again. The first time alone was a Female Doggo and I made it just by the skin of my teeth, and now they're shaving ten seconds off the requirement. JOY.

That's the one game that has me missing the tediousness that is shoveling for a piece of heart.

ccesarano wrote:

What the Hell is a maiamai?

1 screen to the right, and then 1 screen down from Link's house in Hyrule there is a bombable cave entrance - that opens up the maiamai collectible.

trueheart78 wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

What the Hell is a maiamai?

1 screen to the right, and then 1 screen down from Link's house in Hyrule there is a bombable cave entrance - that opens up the maiamai collectible.

I highly recommend you acquire the Pegasus Boots before you start chasing the maiamais, I've spent half the game not knowing how to get them out of trees :/

I love that you can attack the dark world in any order. Feels very Zelda 1.
I'm in my last dungeon and am fighting the urge to go be crazy about maimais and pieces of heart.

Alright, this time race mini-game thing is pissing me off. I found a route where making it in 65 seconds is possible, but it requires a friggin' perfect run of it without getting hit by soldiers. And there are trees EVERYWHERE.

If it didn't reward you with a heart piece I'd have given up long ago.

EDIT: Finally got it with .9 seconds to spare. Criminy.

Anywho, something that occurred to me not long after diving into the Dark World:

Spoiler:

So Queen Zora is a descendant of the Sages. In A Link to the Past, all the sages were human.

So I guess the appearance in Ocarina of Time is a result of a bit of cross-pollination, if ya know what I mean.

This was mentioned before but I feel like emphasizing the Paper Mario influence on this game. I really like it.