The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild Catch All

ClockworkHouse wrote:

And I'll be honest: I hated it. I'm normally the type of player who collects all the heart pieces and doodads in a Zelda game, but I actively disliked doing that in Skyward Sword. It wasn't fun to work my way to a chest only to get a handful of crafting materials, and it wasn't fun to have to hunt down the components I needed in order to upgrade my weapons and items.

I know the feeling. I've been poking at Link to the Past lately and I feel exactly the same way about Pieces of Heart. Incremental progress towards more power just doesn't feel as good as an actual increase in power.

Where will I land on Breath of the Wild? I think it depends on the execution. Will the crafting system be a series of interesting decisions on how best to use resources to tackle problems, or will it be a boring grind that just fills my inventory with more hit points? Will the weapon degradation be an annoyance, or will it be a fun incentive to vary my arsenal and engage with the combat system in new ways? Will I feel comfortable actually using the nice weapons that I find, or will I hack my way through Ganon with a tree branch while the wonders of a lost age gather dust in my bag?

(OK, that last one might be all on me.)

Are there any reviews up for the Wii U version? I'm not 100% sold on getting a Switch right now, but I'm not sure I want to wait on Zelda. Then again, as big as this thing looks like it is... I still play Skyrim a bit, so I might be wanting to play Breath of the Wild long after the Wii U is packed away...

@garion: Not sure if you're being facetious or not, but it was confirmed a long time ago that Monolith was assisting on this project.

shoptroll wrote:

@garion: Not sure if you're being facetious or not, but it was confirmed a long time ago that Monolith was assisting on this project.

Yup, well aware of that and all things Monolith.

They've talked about how they aided in developing the game, but the "great from far away, not so great up close" sounds exactly like whatever engine they use in the Xeno games.

To be fair, doing good LOD texture work is something a lot of games I don't think do great on, or at least not until very recently. There might also be some sort of limitation due to constraints put in place by the hardware. Like less than ideal system or graphics RAM, or read speeds from the media, etc.

I'm like 60% sure I want to pick this up tomorrow. Heaven knows I never buy $60 games but I am convincing myself that Nintendo games rarely drop in price so I might as well get it.

I'm also deep into FFXV, Super Mario 3D World, Doom, Stardew Valley, Lisa... plus I have Dark Souls 3, Ratchet and Clank on my backlog... I just don't have enough time for all these great games!!! But if the reviews are as good as they say I may just have to give it all up for Zelda, my fondest love.

Vargen wrote:

Are there any reviews up for the Wii U version? I'm not 100% sold on getting a Switch right now, but I'm not sure I want to wait on Zelda.

Spoiler:

IMAGE(http://dystify.com/images/banner01.png)

I finished the Cave of Shadows with all 20 hearts last night, so I am ready and raring to go with my Wolf Link companion. Let the deliveries commence!

On the one hand I'm glad as someone with a Switch and this game on the way that this game is pretty dang good but on the other I'm not looking forward to every compliant about Nintendo being met with "But Zelda is so good!"

"I'm really not thrilled with the way they sexually objectified minors in Fire Emble~"

"But Zelda!"

"The Microtransactions in this smart phone game are kin~"

"ZELDA!"

"The way they fired that women due to a targeted harassment cam~"

"BUT ZELDA!"

My switch came today with the game. I started playing just to test it out and didn't stop for an hour. Only stopped because my wife came home. So beautiful and very easy to get lost in.

Are you still talking about the game?

IHateDRM wrote:

On the one hand I'm glad as someone with a Switch and this game on the way that this game is pretty dang good but on the other I'm not looking forward to every compliant about Nintendo being met with "But Zelda is so good!"

"I'm really not thrilled with the way they sexually objectified minors in Fire Emble~"

"But Zelda!"

"The Microtransactions in this smart phone game are kin~"

"ZELDA!"

"The way they fired that women due to a targeted harassment cam~"

"BUT ZELDA!"

Dark Souls?

Aaron D. wrote:
Vargen wrote:

Are there any reviews up for the Wii U version? I'm not 100% sold on getting a Switch right now, but I'm not sure I want to wait on Zelda.

Spoiler:

IMAGE(http://dystify.com/images/banner01.png)

So are those numbers comparing it to the Switch version or against other Wii U games? That's assuming those numbers are reviews of the Wii U version. I assume they are from the thread context, but the image doesn't help.

Vargen wrote:

So are those numbers comparing it to the Switch version or against other Wii U games? That's assuming those numbers are reviews of the Wii U version. I assume they are from the thread context, but the image doesn't help.

I agree. None of the reviews I have seen have really talked about differences with the Wii U version. It is important to some of us.

Well not to me because I didn't order a Switch and I don't intend to buy one so I am Wii U all the way.

garion333 wrote:

Dark Souls?

Not really. The Souls games problems with transmisogyny are often ignored as such things are and that's pretty bad no doubt but that never gets brought up in regards to any game (And again, that's a terrible thing that I am not making excuse for. I love the Souls games but no one is served by pretending they don't have issues with transmisogyny) but you do see a lot of people talking about how the PC ports are a mess and how the multiplayer is janky and stopped being fun ages ago and so on. For all the hype From gets I've never seen them held up as a Disney-esque company where as soon as something shiny comes out their issues are just plastered over. Mostly because as a company that more or less makes one game they just don't have as many to be plastered over.

IHateDRM wrote:

For all the hype From gets I've never seen them held up as a Disney-esque company where as soon as something shiny comes out their issues are just plastered over.

If by "Disney-esque" you mean their flaws are brought up constantly whenever they're even mentioned casually, then sure Nintendo is Disney-esque.

RoughneckGeek wrote:

Every reviewer I've read has been playing the Switch release. It's possible that Nintendo didn't even provide WiiU review copies to the press.

Side-by-side comparison of the final Wii U build versus the final Switch build. Part 1:

Part 2:

There transmisogyny in souls games?! O.O I'm been neck-deep into the series and this is the first I hear of it! I honestly never even noticed. Hell, first time I even read a mention of it. Oh, well...

I'm Wii U all the way, and should be getting my pre-ordered copy tomorrow. I don't have any work so that makes it a perfect day to enjoy... barring any delays.

There's an article on it here: https://deorbital.media/when-we-are-...

Since so many people here seem to like Giant Bomb

*I will admit the is about the best quick look I have seen.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Quick Look

IHateDRM wrote:

On the one hand I'm glad as someone with a Switch and this game on the way that this game is pretty dang good but on the other I'm not looking forward to every compliant about Nintendo being met with "But Zelda is so good!"

I'm all for advocating progressive stuff but how about we worry about this when it, y'know, actually happens rather than prematurely agitating for a Twitter fight that seems really unlikely to happen.

Because seriously, if you're expecting someone to trot out a "well this game got a 10, clearly the company can do no wrong" argument you're not arguing with people worth talking to.

IHateDRM wrote:

There's an article on it here: https://deorbital.media/when-we-are-...

I'm neither a big From Software fan nor well-versed in the intricacies of the lore of Dark Souls, but there's a lot in that article that as a trans person I find questionable. I'm sure there's a better thread to discuss this in, and I'd be interested in taking that conversation up.

There's not really a whole lot out there on the subject beyond the above article and this one: https://medium.com/mammon-machine-ze...

I also sort of have some qualms about outright calling it transmisogyny but as a cis man I'm not really looking to talk over people with more personal experience and would rather defer to those that do have that experience.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
RoughneckGeek wrote:

Every reviewer I've read has been playing the Switch release. It's possible that Nintendo didn't even provide WiiU review copies to the press.

Side-by-side comparison of the final Wii U build versus the final Switch build. Part 1:

Part 2:

Thank you for digging these up!

From what I can see, it looks like any differences are slight enough that they get lost in Youtube's video compression. That's certainly an impressive showing from the Wii U. I imagine the biggest difference will be in the resolution, and it's nigh impossible to see the real difference in that in an online video. I'll keep poking around to see if I can find any reviewers' written comparisons.

Load times are also naturally slower on Wii U if you're playing with the physical disc. And there's a mandatory install for Wii U physical as well.

If I go Wii U then I'll probably do a digital download. I erased all of my wife's college pictures* when I plugged that external HD in. I figure I should use it as much as possible so that her sacrifice isn't for nothing.


*External HD was a backup for an old laptop. When the laptop got reformatted my wife said "that's OK, I have the backup drive." When the backup drive got formatted a couple years later she mistakenly said "that's OK, I have the laptop." It turns out that I was smart and had backed her pictures up to my computer back when the laptop was rebuilt. Still, we thought they were gone for about a year before I found my copy...

Amazon have not dispatched my copy as of yet. It is still set to arrive tomorrow. Please!

It's soooo good. And the best thing has been the pacing. It's great.

I felt the pacing in Skyward Sword was a little wayward. One of few complaints I had with what is an excellent Legend of Zelda entry. I'm coming in hot on the heels of that one.

I'm tired now. Yay! Hopefully I am awoken by the postal delivery of Breath of the Wild. If not I shall sulk and play Horizon Zero Dawn until it gets here.

RnRClown wrote:

If not I shall sulk and play Horizon Zero Dawn until it gets here.

Poor thing. Life is rough.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
RnRClown wrote:

If not I shall sulk and play Horizon Zero Dawn until it gets here.

Poor thing. Life is rough. :P