The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild Catch All

Is Zelda on Switch worth the upgrade from Wii U

Eurogamer / Digital Foundry wrote:

We've already confirmed the resolution differential between Wii U and Switch, and it's also fair to say that in almost every other respect, the visual make-up of both games is identical. Draw distances, shadow resolution, model quality, texturing, effects, and even the thick, volumetric lighting seen in the first shrine are all exactly the same. In a core visual sense, Wii U owners really aren't missing out at all. Besides resolution, each version turns in nigh-on identical graphics settings.

Nintendo's promise of higher audio quality on Switch turns out to have only the most minimal of impact. Whether that's running water, footsteps or swaying grass, the idea is that Switch can tap into its 2x boost to system memory in order to support a richer soundscape. But overall, having spent the day comparing both with closed-cup headphones on, it proved difficult to hear any difference at all. For those using audiophile grade monitors, or high-end surround set-ups, perhaps the Switch's higher quality could shine through. But for most players, the Wii U version's sound isn't falling short in any radical way.

However, stacking up Switch as a home console in docked configuration up against the Wii U offers up fascinating performance metrics. The basics first: Breath of the Wild targets a v-synced 30fps on Wii U and Switch, but that huge open world design creates problems sustaining it. Because this is a double-buffered form of v-sync, when it can't sustain 30fps on either console, it drops to the next major factor down, hard-locking to 20fps.

Remarkably, based on Great Plateau tests at least, Switch drops with the same severity as Wii U - but in other sections of the area. There are no obvious causes for this divide either: the rendering load is mild compared to the game's more built-up woodlands, suggesting a bottleneck behind the scenes in the background streaming of data. One theory here is the world is partitioned differently for each machine's RAM setup, creating lurches to 20fps in different spots for each device.

However, in the here and now at least, based on these first tests, there is indeed a general parity in the experience between the docked Switch and the Wii U experiences - and it is a shame that in both cases, Zelda cannot run at a locked 30fps. Each version drops frames in similar circumstances but in different places.

It'll be fascinating to see if differences do turn up as we progress further into the game, but these initial tests confirm that Wii U only loses out to Switch in terms of the raw pixel count - visual differences are at a minimum, and the game's visual make-up is virtually identical regardless of the system you choose to play it on. Performance requires further testing, but again, there's little to choose between Wii U and a docked Switch based on what we've played thus far.

It will also make the Master Sword more special. I just finished a combat trial temple and it was tough! I wish I upgraded health over stamina first.

Not sure if this is obvious or if it is needed later in the game but..

A Bomb Strategy:

Spoiler:

You can have two bombs active and then trigger them.
Choose either the orb or cube then drop/throw it. Before you trigger it chose the opposite bomb and drop/throw it. Voila! You can now trigger two bombs.
I found this useful when I am outnumbered/surrounded.

I figured out what happened to me in the tutorial that was messing me up and compounding frustration. Mostly just a dumb goof up last night that messed me up today.

Spoiler:

Last night I accidentally pinned a far off location thinking it was 1 of the four shrines when in reality it was something far off in the distance. So, after trying to get there today, I finally figured out what I did and found the last shrine in the starting area. Despite using up most all the hot peppers, I probably would have been just fine and not frustrated falling off cliffs if I hadn't goofed up in the first place. Whoops.

Got my four BotW Amiibos today. They're cool, and that guardian is huge

How do I shield slide once I have the paraglider? I equip my shield, jump, and then try to shield slide, but it always just uses the paraglider instead of shield slide

Awesome game! Feels pretty much like playing the first Zelda about 30 years ago! I can't remember feeling like this about a game after the SNES Zelda. Really captures that feeling of exploring the woods behind your house with a stick for a sword that Miyamoto wanted to capture when he created the series.

The world feels like a world not like a videogame playground with tons of attractions. For me, this is open world done right for the first time! I'm doing stuff because I want to achieve things inside the game not because I want to check some boxes in a questlog or get rid of some markups on the map.

But since this is the first game in ages I play more than 2 hours on a Nintendo platform the fact that the buttonlayout is different from the 360 layout I got used to over the last 10 years is killing me. Especially when I have to switch weapons in combat.

Also wish that you could just trop the weapon/shield/bow you're holding for the one lying on the ground by keeping A pressed.

But these are small things. This game deserves to kick Ocarina of Time from the number one spot on metacritic!

The best thing about the minimap is that it is a contour map! I can't think of another game that has used a contour map in that way.

I wish they had explained cooking more clearly. Once I stumbled upon holding multiple items in the inventory, then I figured it out.

MEATER wrote:

Especially when I have to switch weapons in combat.

Also wish that you could just trop the weapon/shield/bow you're holding for the one lying on the ground by keeping A pressed.

I really wish it would autoswitch to the next weapon, rather then leaving you without anything.

WizKid wrote:

I really wish it would autoswitch to the next weapon, rather then leaving you without anything.

Maybe they didn't want you to break a weapon by accident when mashing buttons in the heat of combat.

Some of the shrines are fairly complex. I just went through a real head-scratcher, and it felt great when I figured it out.

It's also a lot of fun just finding out things I didn't know existed in the game. I just found out

Spoiler:

I can dye clothes

, and it was great.

Wow, I just ran into a big rocky surprise on my way to a shrine.

Spoiler:

A giant earth golem thing popped up out of the ground beneath me. After running around it a few times to see its attacks and watching my sword bounce right off, I tried jumping on it. Sure enough, I could climb right on. I scurried up to the top of its dome where there was a protruding mining vein ripe for some sledgehammer action.

They spilled some Shadow of the Colossus in my Zelda! It took 8 solid thwacks to pop it. Ore and gems rained down like candy from a piñata.

This game is good, ya'll.

Also, the chest in that shrine had a headpiece that

Spoiler:

noticeably increased my climbing speed.

I don't foresee myself removing that for quite some time.

WOLF LINK IS SO AWESOME! You can summon him whenever, not just once per day. I swam across a river, and he didn't follow, but then he teleported to me with the Twilight Princess teleport sound and visual effect. So cool.

unlocked a few things in the game and hit a keybord key that somehow worked as a short cut to trigger this forms italics setting so I'm just going to run with that but anyways. I unlocked a few more things and the random stuff makes a little more sense though it hasn't really made things feel less empty. They say Skyrim is a mile wide and an inch deep but this game is about six miles wide and maybe an inch-and-a-quarter deep.

I also came across a character that I would all but guarantee was a homophobic stereotype that was plastered over by the translation team. So that's less the great.

This here is why reviewers went gaga over the game:

I have played the opening hours of Breath of the Wild four times now, and every time I tackled the problem of the game’s first snowy mountain differently.
The first time, I ran into the cold, realised my health was quickly dropping, retreated to a warmer area and collected peppers and mushrooms to cook a dish that would provide me with three minutes of basic cold resistance. In nothing but their underwear, Link sprinted straight for the quest location, ignoring all side objectives on a three minute dash. When descending the mountain, I had to run my fastest to warmth, ignoring personal safety and munching food to survive the return trip without another cold resistance meal on hand.
The second time, I cooked a stronger cold resistance meal giving me more time to explore. I scaled a mountain with the intention of viewing an area from above, and was rewarded by an NPC with temperature-resistant clothing because having made it so far into cold territory unclothed was admirable.
The third time, I located a diary explaining a partial recipe for a cold resistance meal. I pieced together the rest, told the diary owner what was missing from his recipe, and he gave me his cold-resistant clothing as a reward.
The fourth time I avoided all of these solutions, scaled the mountain successfully without preparation based on my route, and ultimately found cold-resistant clothing in a treasure chest left behind by the NPC who might, in other circumstances, have granted it to me. His diary explained why he had left it.
When I first learned that Zelda: Breath of the Wild was going to be a non-linear, open world game, I was dubious. After over sixty hours exploring its world, I am sold on the merits of good open world game design in a way I have never really been before.
Hyrule is a world. It’s living, it’s breathing, it’s explorable, and it wants me dead.
I did not expect myself to fall in love with this Zelda the way I did.

That's from Laura Kate Dale, she of the Switch leaks. One of her chief complaints is how quickly weapons break early on, but it gets better so that's good to know.

Oh and this little nugget of info:

Within a couple of hours, I found myself rarely caring about weapon durability at all. The only real annoyance is that during my first few hours with the game shields were not sturdy enough to use as snowboards, which was a shame. Snowboarding had to wait a couple of hours before being viable.

Sounds like you need stronger shields before you can sled with them. Good to know.

MEATER wrote:

But since this is the first game in ages I play more than 2 hours on a Nintendo platform the fact that the buttonlayout is different from the 360 layout I got used to over the last 10 years is killing me. Especially when I have to switch weapons in combat.

I'm having the same problem. I got used to the far right button being cancel and the bottom being action. It's hard to break those habits.

On another note, I havent done any cooking yet and so far getting by fine. I probably need to learn that part of the game soon-ish.

Has anyone figured out how to sail a raft? or can you?

Dammit....I'm going to have to see if I can hunt down a WiiU copy of this today, aren't I?

Good job I have a bunch of stuff I need to trade-in anyway...

Bam! Last copy in the shop is mine!

...plus my trade ins left me enough cash left over to pay for neir on steam. Bonus.

That's a good shopping day!

IHateDRM wrote:

unlocked a few things in the game and hit a keybord key that somehow worked as a short cut to trigger this forms italics setting so I'm just going to run with that but anyways. I unlocked a few more things and the random stuff makes a little more sense though it hasn't really made things feel less empty. They say Skyrim is a mile wide and an inch deep but this game is about six miles wide and maybe an inch-and-a-quarter deep.

I also came across a character that I would all but guarantee was a homophobic stereotype that was plastered over by the translation team. So that's less the great.

What character?

How is everyone playing the game?

I am been running around doing whatever I feel like and have no complaints. I have about 16 shrines done and found roughly an equal number of the seeds. I still haven't repaired my tablet though. But, I have a buddy that has been doing the main quest and has said it takes forever to get from one point to another, I'm not sure if this is a common complaint or not.

RooksGambit wrote:

Has anyone figured out how to sail a raft? or can you?

Chop down a few trees and you'll get a Korok Leaf to drop. Swing that to make wind.

Also, random pro tip:

If you need cash, be wary of selling stuff even if it is abundant -- there are a variety of ways to use things that you'll discover along the way.

Instead, cook and sell your most abundant food ingredients. For example, five apples cooks into food you can sell for 40 or 50 rupees. (Suddenly they don't seem so useless, right?)

Thankfully you can change the jump button to the B button. I was really baffled by that control choice.

Chimalli wrote:

How is everyone playing the game?

I am been running around doing whatever I feel like and have no complaints. I have about 16 shrines done and found roughly an equal number of the seeds. I still haven't repaired my tablet though. But, I have a buddy that has been doing the main quest and has said it takes forever to get from one point to another, I'm not sure if this is a common complaint or not.

I have about ten shrines done, about to do more and am about to get my third tower. I am not rushing through but I guess I'm not exploring every nook and cranny as everyone else, so I imagine I'll be through this game faster than others for a... switch.

Unfortunately I hadn't thought to create a separate save/account for my friends last night when they were giving it a try so I don't know exactly where I am now. On the fortunately side, they did take me to a new shrine and horse stable I hadn't marked.

Morning everyone. I'm lightly skimming the thread to avoid learning much about the game. I haven't seriously played a Zelda since the original. I have a dusty old Wii U. May I ask the consensus on the Wii version of Zelda Breath of the Wild?

chooka1 wrote:

Morning everyone. I'm lightly skimming the thread to avoid learning much about the game. I haven't seriously played a Zelda since the original. I have a dusty old Wii U. May I ask the consensus on the Wii version of Zelda Breath of the Wild?

Digital Foundry's thoughts on this.

Basically. Get it for Wii U if you don't have a Switch. Not missing much.

One thing that is annoying me. The controls. Why put crouch as a Left stick toggle. AAAH! I've pushed that many times when I'm trying to run away.

If I could switch the buttons for run and stealth. I'll be happy.

garion333 wrote:

This here is why reviewers went gaga over the game...

Yea, it was fun watching my girlfriend play through the introduction, she did it quite a bit different from me. As a result she found several cool things I didn't, and she mostly avoided having to deal with the cold.

Sadly, I don't get my Switch until tomorrow. I can't wait to play Zelda though, and am really interested to see how this more open gameplay design works, not just open world. I've been trying to stay pretty much spoiler free, so I can start exploring on my own tomorrow. I haven't been this excited for a Zelda game, probably since wind Waker.

Balthezor wrote:

One thing that is annoying me. The controls. Why put crouch as a Left stick toggle. AAAH! I've pushed that many times when I'm trying to run away.

If I could switch the buttons for run and stealth. I'll be happy.

Push stick to run?! Never!

That is one control convention I have never gotten used to.