Tonight on GeekNights, we review the fantastic The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, bringing to fruition many of the core ideas Miyamoto envisioned when Zelda 1 was being designed. We could talk forever about this game, so we stick to a core review (TL;DL: buy it). We'll be talking more about this game in the future. In the news, Mad Catz shuts down, grenade bugs plague competitive Counter-Strike, and GeekNights will be Live at Zenkaikon!
Things of the Day
Episode Links
Oh my god, I think it’s been literally a decade since I’ve heard Banana Man.
I also fucked up the horse race but then realized from talking to NPC what I did wrong. You can win the horse race going fairly slow. Horse balks come from whipping them too close to an obstacle. One of the obstacles is particularly finicky. The instinct is to go faster but if you just waltz up to it slowly, no problem.
Also, this game is fucking riddled with sexual innuendo. The trio of builders are the icing on a sexual Zelda cake.
A few things:
Power Shrine: You just shoot Dinraal to get a scale or horn. Horn is used for upgrades of Champion gear. Recommend doing dragon hunting at night for better view of the scales when they fall because it’s shiny and you can’t miss it. One dragon, you can easily get when you’re in the jungle area near the stable. He will straight up fly along the bridge for you to easily hit with arrows for scales or horns.
Power controller is too big for me. I like the normal controllers just fine and find them way more comfortable. I think it’s do to hand size. Also, agree on crouch function fucking me up so badly.
Scott sucks at cooking. For someone who did a video on cooking and following the recipe, you fail to read what each item in your inventory does. You mixed Hearty stuff with Stamina stuff once and I was like “NOOO!” Mixing various effect items with similar but different ingredients like herbs, mushrooms, fish, fruit, you will get better bonus or the special music when you cook. Cooking wasn’t hard for me to figure out.
I’m ok with the voice acting. The memories are so brutal. I get full of feels every time with all the cut scenes. I find the cut scenes as a tiny rewards for all the exploring and playing I’ve put into the game.
[quote=“Matt, post:5, topic:638”]
Also, this game is fucking riddled with sexual innuendo. The trio of builders are the icing on a sexual Zelda cake.
[/quote]Keep doing the trio quest. It leads to a marraige, normal woman/man but it leads you to building a whole new town in central Akkala called Tarrey Town and I got to resupply my arrows when I already have over 100 arrows for each of the basic arrows. I was so happy to be able to buy arrows again.
I am getting there with Tarry Town. They sent me off to find a Gerudo next. Slowly but surely.
Also in that area of the world: I found the monster vendor guy but then he fly away before I took a picture for that side quest. Fffffffff.
Same thing happened to me. After he flew away I loaded the most recent save (which was very recent) and got him again. You can get your pic by visiting him in pretty much any town at night.
With all the things you said you liked about BotW like exploration and challenging combat I’m surprised @SkeleRym and @Apreche never got into Souls or Bloodborne.
Honestly, I actually loathe the combat in Zelda, and most other 3D action games. I want to avoid having to fight things if at all possible. It’s just not fun. Press parry with perfect timing, dodge, now hit as much as you can, now defend again. Just die, give me your loot, and save me from this tedious bullshit.
And that’s another thing that is great about BotW. I will always try to avoid combat if at all possible by using some other means. There are so many ways to avoid this tedious combat, besides just running away. Bombs, arrow sniping, stasis, throw guys off a cliff, hit them with a metal block, murder in their sleep, fire, bees, etc.
When I have to fight, my primary strategy is to just be so strong, and use enough food and buffs, so that I can mash Y and win without having to play the combat game. I hate Lynel and ancient robots so much because they almost force me to actually engage “properly” or die.
I hate Souls because the game consists almost entirely of this sort of combat. Exploring my ass. It’s walk around and hit things. In Zelda there is a lot of walking around, but hitting things is pretty far down the list, and often optional. I know nothing of any game called Bloodborne, but I assume is the same brand of garbage.
I didn’t mention that I hate the combat on the podcast because I recognize that’s just my personal thing. Other people seem to fucking love fighting things in games. It’s also obviously very well executed in Zelda. Like, when I can recognize and respect a high quality beer that others will enjoy, but I just don’t drink, so I don’t give a shit.
I can dig it that you’re not into combat and that it is a heavy aspect of Souls games but you’re dead wrong about the not being exploration in them. As usual you make shallow judgements and dismiss things other people are interested in after a cursory look. This is why I learned long ago to take your opinion with a grain of salt.
I played one of them, whichever one is in my Steam library. I’ve also seen much of them while other people are playing or on streams. Walking to the next giant boss fight is not exploration. What is there to even find? A town full of adventure and fantasy? No, just more loot and more things to kill with that loot.
If you look around, examine things in the environment and things about the enemies, examine your equipment and weapons, you learn about the world and about the things and people in it and​ unravel the story. There’s whole zones that are secret and hidden unless you look all over the place or figure out how to unlock them. And you talk about your love of Super Metroid and what is that but exploration, killing dudes to get to new areas to get more things to kill more dudes?
For the sake of humoring you, I’ll answer your question.
You’re going around killing stuff but smart people might ask themselves the question. Why am I doing this? Who are these people I keep killing and why do they keep coming back. These questions have answers that you need to explore to find.
Lol. Same thing happened to me. But I did tell you to take a picture first to not repeat my mistake. Just go to any town at night and he should be there.
I got the Lizalfos helm and took pics with them. I want to get that Lynel help from that guy.
There is nothing I enjoy less in games than pieces of equipment or sections of maps that have blocks of lore text to read.
I’m in a weird position here. On one hand, I agree with Scott - once you master the combat, which isn’t exactly difficult, it just becomes a memorization game. Remember the guy around the corner who positioned so that you can only discover him by dying to him the first time. Remember to whack chests. Remember the attacks for this boss. Remember the trigger for this other dude’s ambush, etc, etc. It’s tight, focused, well made, but ultimately just kind of rote.
On the other hand, they do put a great deal of effort into burying every bit of story somewhere for you to find, practically everything has something to tell you. There’s a lot there if you want to look for it, slowly piece it together bit by bit. It’s an interesting, and provided you can find the pieces, surprisingly well told. I appreciate that in a game, compared to just being told everything, or just big blocks of story in text form being “hidden” behind a single layer of signposted abstraction.
[quote=“Matt, post:5, topic:638”]
Also, this game is fucking riddled with sexual innuendo. The trio of builders are the icing on a sexual Zelda cake.
[/quote]To add to this as well. A lot of NPCs/quests where a guy likes a girl are so hilarious. They don’t always end up like the classic trope of guy gets girl sorta thing, but you have the girl rejecting the guy or strong female characters like this:
Also, I really enjoy the News part of the Switch. It made me discover these videos of behind the scenes of BotW. Got a lot of cool background of what the creators were thinking and all the fun stuff.:
Really? That’s the best thing when items give you story and lore. What’s your issue with that?
