The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild Catch All

IGN has an article about differences between the Wii-U and Switch versions:

http://m.ign.com/articles/2017/01/17...

- Both launch on the same day, March 3.
- Both have a frame rate of 30fps.
- Both versions of the game offer the same content.
- On a TV, the Nintendo Switch version of the game renders in 900p while the Wii U version renders in 720p.
- The Nintendo Switch version has higher-quality environmental sounds. As a result, the sound of steps, water, grass, etc. are more realistic and enhance the game’s Open-Air feel.
- The physical copy of the Wii U version will require 3GB of available memory on the Wii U system or an external drive.
- Some icons, such as onscreen buttons, differ between the two versions.
- A Special Edition and Master Edition of the Wii U version are not available.

Posted this on Miiverse: It took 3 Zelda Amiibos, but Wolfie is now ready for Breath of the Wild!

IMAGE(https://d3esbfg30x759i.cloudfront.net/ss/WVW69j_8YyQUaQlmr2)

I can't imagine doing it with less than 3. It's really hard to avoid taking damage and frustratingly unfair feeling to boot.

Does using Zelda count against anything?

ahrezmendi wrote:

Does using Zelda count against anything?

Well, it does show the x3 there showing I "cheated". I don't think so. I've been puzzling over the +<3x7 number because it has my worried. I'm pretty sure it's just saying I upped my remaining heart record from 13 hearts to 20 hearts, but I'm not 100% certain that's what it is. I think I had 11-13 hearts after completing the second stage and saving. This was my first completion of the whole thing.

If you really want to game it and not deal with Cave of Shadows, you could get all the 20 hearts in the game then go do the cave of shadows and make sure you get through just the first stage with all 20 hearts. It'll let you save all the hearts to the Amiibo at that point, and you wouldn't have to return and do the 2nd or 3rd stages unless you want the 9999 rupee wallet.

But... increased wallet size! It doesn't matter that there's nothing to spend 10k rupees on, must have!

ahrezmendi wrote:

But... increased wallet size! It doesn't matter that there's nothing to spend 10k rupees on, must have!

There's the magic armor where damage loses you rupees instead of hearts.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Posted this on Miiverse: It took 3 Zelda Amiibos, but Wolfie is now ready for Breath of the Wild!

IMAGE(https://d3esbfg30x759i.cloudfront.net/ss/WVW69j_8YyQUaQlmr2)

I can't imagine doing it with less than 3. It's really hard to avoid taking damage and frustratingly unfair feeling to boot.

You talked me into picking up Twilight Princess HD with the wolf:) But do i need 3 different zelda amiibos? How does this work?

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Posted this on Miiverse: It took 3 Zelda Amiibos, but Wolfie is now ready for Breath of the Wild!

IMAGE(https://d3esbfg30x759i.cloudfront.net/ss/WVW69j_8YyQUaQlmr2)

I can't imagine doing it with less than 3. It's really hard to avoid taking damage and frustratingly unfair feeling to boot.

What do you get from doing this in Breath of the Wild?

Ganondorf makes the game overall harder. Zelda can be used for free heart refills, up to maximum per play session (I think it's 3 times). Link does... something? I don't remember, I'm sure Google can tell you.

So, I didn't realize this beforehand, but it would be very hard to beat the all 38 levels without at least two Zelda Amiibos which restore all hearts. The wolf can actually be used to give you hearts but only as many as are previously saved on it. So, at this point, mine would restore 20 hearts if I used it to recover in the Cave of Shadows.

There are three stages to the Cave of Shadows. After you beat a stage, you are allowed to save your remaining hearts to the wolf Amiibo. So, theoretically, you could not do any of the Cave of Shadows stuff, play the game until you get all 20 hearts, and then beat the first stage of the Cave of Shadows which is like 10 levels or something taking no damage and save all 20 hearts to the wolf Amiibo.

After you beat stage 1 of the Cave of Shadows, stage 2 unlocks and you then have to beat stage 1 again to move on and then beat stage 2. When you beat stage 2, you can save hearts to the Amiibo again and then stage 3 unlocks and you have to beat stage 1, 2, and then 3 to save again. Beating it all gives you the 9999 rupee wallet.

Regardless of the Amiibo stuff, it's a fun game to play and a fantastic remaster that fixes some annoyances of the original. There are a few small problems here and there with the game I think but, it does have the biggest and most challenging dungeons out of all the 3D Zelda games. I hope BotW has some equally challenging dungeons in terms of size and puzzle design.

Balthezor wrote:

What do you get from doing this in Breath of the Wild?

You get a wolf pal!

Didn't you say that, for the hearts to carry over, you need to complete all three stages?

And is the Cave of Shadows that dungeon up in the desert where you go from floor to floor killing sh*t?

Sh*t, really?

I respect that a great many people enjoy collecting tchotchkes like amiibos, and it's a fun thing to have them provide little cosmetic things in games, but sh*t like this feels like the absolute worst nightmare scenario extension of preorder/exclusive DLC nonsense.

ccesarano wrote:

Didn't you say that, for the hearts to carry over, you need to complete all three stages?

And is the Cave of Shadows that dungeon up in the desert where you go from floor to floor killing sh*t?

I don't think so, but I'm not 100% sure. There was a similar cave I think that might have been found in the desert, but now you just scan the wolf Amiibo anywhere to go to it.

zeroKFE wrote:

Sh*t, really?

I respect that a great many people enjoy collecting tchotchkes like amiibos, and it's a fun thing to have them provide little cosmetic things in games, but sh*t like this feels like the absolute worst nightmare scenario extension of preorder/exclusive DLC nonsense.

Yeah, I've been able to safely ignore all the small Amiibo bonuses up to this point, but that wolf companion is not a small cosmetic bonus, and it is something that I'll be bummed to miss out on.

This is the kind of crap I was afraid of when they introduced these things. I have zero interest in physical toys, and in the case of this particular physical toy, I would need to first prepare it in a different game that I don't own and don't like. Lame.

Hopefully there's another way to get it in game.

Hopefully there's another way to get it in game.

Yeah, or something else that fulfills the same role.

Like, if this was a thing where there was a game system where you could find/choose a few different companion types -- like, trap and train various wild animals and have them be your buddy! Then having an amiibo provide an option that slots in a special character for that system wouldn't be terribly egregious.

And, who knows, there could be such a system. (I hope there is -- it would be a really cool addition!) After all, it is a bit nuts to think that they programed an entire system like this and then locked it behind the presence of an additional costly item of variable interest to players of the game. But, that video did start off with them saying "there is no companion character normally, but here's how you can get one." So who really knows, but taking them on face value it feels like a bit of (a gigantic) f*ck you to anyone who isn't interested in their toys and/or buying re-releases of old games.

zeroKFE wrote:

Like, if this was a thing where there was an in game system where you could find/choose a few different companion types -- like, trap and train various wild animals and have them be your buddy!

They were showing off a system like this in the Treehouse stream.

Huh. Interesting. To me it would be a real problem if whole chunks of the game were removed. I feel like that wolf is just a neat bonus.

Demyx wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

Like, if this was a thing where there was an in game system where you could find/choose a few different companion types -- like, trap and train various wild animals and have them be your buddy!

They were showing off a system like this in the Treehouse stream.

Ah, okay -- I retract my harsh criticism then.

EDIT:

I assume you mean the streams this weekend, yeah? Not having any luck finding info on the topic with a quick search.

zeroKFE wrote:
Demyx wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

Like, if this was a thing where there was an in game system where you could find/choose a few different companion types -- like, trap and train various wild animals and have them be your buddy!

They were showing off a system like this in the Treehouse stream.

Ah, okay -- I retract my harsh criticism then.

EDIT:

I assume you mean the streams this weekend, yeah? Not having any luck finding info on the topic with a quick search.

I was only kind of half-watching but they were talking about how you can tame horses and dogs by feeding them.

Can't I send the wolf amiibo to tuffalo and he can save that stuff for me so I can get that wolf pet?

Balthezor wrote:

Can't I send the wolf amiibo to tuffalo and he can save that stuff for me so I can get that wolf pet? :)

Ha! I'd be fine with that if anyone wanted a full-heart wolf but doesn't have TP or want to put the time in getting everything. Definitely would want to wait and see how everything works, exactly, though. My guess is that if you haven't played any Cave of Shadows, the wolf Amiibo spawns a wolf with 3-5 hearts or something.

They also may just scrap the heart thing and have the Amiibo spawn the same wolf for everyone.

ccesarano wrote:

I feel like that wolf is just a neat bonus.

A cool new hat or some bedazzled elf slippers would be neat bonuses. That wolf serves some notable gameplay functions in addition to just being a cool companion.

The video linked above implies this is the only way to have a companion. If you can get other companions that serve similar functions, it's not as big of a deal, but gating in-game bonuses by linking them to Amiibos for entirely different games is just bad.

Dyni wrote:

A cool new hat or some bedazzled elf strippers would be neat bonuses.

This is how I first read this oh god where is my mind today.

No, I definitely see the point. It's kind of crappy to be robbed of a useful wolf companion just because you lack an Amiibo. But the extent of rage, where this is what people "were afraid of", is far below what I would have been worried about.

I am not saying it is invalid to be upset, though. I'm instantly reminded of how much I loved having the dog in Fable 2.

Demyx wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

I assume you mean the streams this weekend, yeah? Not having any luck finding info on the topic with a quick search.

I was only kind of half-watching but they were talking about how you can tame horses and dogs by feeding them.

This seems to be the segment you are referring to:

https://www.twitch.tv/nintendo/v/114...

Which, as you said, briefly touches on systems that allow you to catch, tame, and train wild horses and dogs -- a very cool and welcome feature.

So basically the presentation back at E3 was (intentionally or not) misleading in how it presented the Wolf Link feature. The specifics are still a bit unclear even based on the presentation last week, but it really appears to be more along the lines of what I was postulating as an acceptable scenario -- a cosmetic/convenience feature that adds a little something special on top of a system available to all players, rather than unlocking a completely unique and substantial feature on its own.

ccesarano wrote:

But the extent of rage, where this is what people "were afraid of", is far below what I would have been worried about.

Well, as presented in that E3 video, I think it does qualify as what people fear in this realm. And, I say this as a person who isn't actually terribly bothered by most preorder/other tie in exclusive incentives -- I understand the realities of the business, and I don't generally begrudge companies for working within them even if I wish it wasn't necessary. Thankfully, though, it appears that Nintendo didn't cross the line in this case from minor cosmetics/conveniences into major gameplay features -- their marketing team just did a particularly lousy job of communicating what they were offering. (Maybe intentionally? Maybe not. But that's a whole other can of worms.)

ccesarano wrote:

It's kind of crappy to be robbed of a useful wolf companion just because you lack an Amiibo.

This assumes it would have been a feature regardless. I don't see this as robbing people who don't have the Amiibo, as this feature likely would not have existed period if the Amiibo wasn't a factor. We'll never know for sure, since we can't view the alternate universe where Amiibo don't exist. It's very risky to assume that a feature which hinges on a secondary product would have existed without that connected product.

ccesarano wrote:

No, I definitely see the point. It's kind of crappy to be robbed of a useful wolf companion just because you lack an Amiibo. But the extent of rage, where this is what people "were afraid of", is far below what I would have been worried about.

First of all, it is not rage, just disappointment. I save my rage for things other than video games

When I said that, it was based on the video linked above, which implied that was the only way to get a companion in game. It has since been made clear that there will be other companions in game, so thankfully, that's not really a concern. I can deal with missing out on a particular companion for Amiibo reason, just not entire gameplay systems.

Eurogamer has a lengthy interview with Eiji Aonuma about Breath of the Wild.

The earlier parts of the interview are basically "Stop asking me for story spoilers. I don't wanna spoil it. Let people play the damn game what is wrong with you."

But then it goes into the decision to bring the game to Switch, and that has some interesting info. The decision wasn't set in stone until last Spring, which would have been just a couple or a few months before E3 (and in hindsight, looking back on 2016, no wonder they only showcased Breath of the Wild). Once they made that decision, they removed GamePad functionality. The Sheikah Slate was intentionally designed to resemble the gamepad, and based on Aonuma's phrasing regarding its in-game use, I'm expecting some of the functionality would have been holding the pad up and such. I also imagine inventory was handled through gamepad originally as well.

What I think is more important is that they're not adding Switch features that wouldn't be in the WiiU version. Now, this might not sound like much, but recall that Twilight Princess was delayed on GameCube to match the Wii release. I imagine same can be said for Breath of the Wild, but unlike Twilight Princess, they're making sure the games are generally 1:1 so that the only benefit to the Switch version is 1) portability, 2) performance. Otherwise the WiiU owners don't suffer just for not jumping in immediately. Contrast to Twilight Princess, where the game was used to showcase the new Wiimote functionality.

I'm hoping this is a sign of Nintendo learning restraint, and that Star Fox Zero is the last stubborn attempt to prove something.

And lastly: Aonuma says a female Link or playable Zelda is a possibility for the future, but that could be polite corporate speak for "Shut the f*ck up about that sh*t already".

Zelda: BotW Official Guide Reveals Amount of Shrines & Sidequests (Mild Spoilers)

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