The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

deathofcows wrote:I've really slept on the Master Sword Trials thing ... It's great.

I could have told you that!

Cool to see you reevaluating it somewhat. I really enjoyed running through the trials and agree it forces you to engage with some mechanics through its set challenge and scarcity of select resources in a way the open world doesn't.

deathofcows wrote:
Green Gecko wrote:I've finally got the master sword on my DLC / second play through on Switch (originally Wii U so this took a while). Does that unlock the master sword trials?

I don't know as I only embarked on them at the end of the game (I'd completed the game before the DLC was released).

Actually I just looked up and it seems once you've unlocked the Master Sword you can then put it back in the ground to unlock said trials!

I've just been trying it. I got to the second level :lol:

I am playing on Master Mode and just realised that if you change modes to normal your saves begin at the start :slol:

.

Master Mode upgrades all the enemy placements in the game by 1, e.g. red bokoblins become blue, blue become black, etc, and all the enemies hit about 4x harder. Where you would normally have maybe one stripey bokoblin you get three all with hard hitting weapons. Even a single arrow shot from a sentry (on the towers) can half your health and KO you while you're engaging 3 or 4 enemies. :dread:

I highly doubt I will make it through and just like the previous "endless" dungeons in other Zelda games if you die you go back to the beginning so it's pretty brutal. I think wind waker had "checkpoints", are there any?

Doing it on master mode sounds like a far from ideal experience tbh

I think I finished 2 of the 3 available stages for the Master Sword Trials, think I called it day on the 3rd set of ten levels when one was a level in the cold, against an Stone Talus when I'd barely got any food, no items to keep me warm (weapons or clothing) and kind of just kept chucking bombs at it aimlessly. No idea how far I was when that arose, or what I had left to face afterwards. power level 50 for the Sword was fine anyway, think if getting level 3 removed the need for it to be recharged every so often I'd have pushed through.

tbh chucking bombs or rather dropping them as "bait" while running like hell (first stage on Master mode there's a blue bokoblin with a spear that it deliberately sets on fire giving it ridiculous reach and hitpoints) was the best strategy.

I did find bombs to be the best strategy for most of it as well.

OrangeRKN wrote:
deathofcows wrote:I've really slept on the Master Sword Trials thing ... It's great.

I could have told you that!

Cool to see you reevaluating it somewhat. I really enjoyed running through the trials and agree it forces you to engage with some mechanics through its set challenge and scarcity of select resources in a way the open world doesn't.

Ya for sure!

And actually, when I went back into the world proper I was calibrated in a way, and used more of the possibilities - prioritising experimentation over efficiency. But the challenges are good because to be experimental is the most efficient and necessary way to get through them.

Then again, I did just die two rooms from the end because of some cavalier Guardian-parry timing so actually screw this game.

Now finished. Was a great, rewarding and satisfying challenge.

Feels different to the normal game in the way that a) there's a lot of stakes in terms of progress lost as you go up the floors which adds real fun and tension combined with b) unlike the more open world where you can 'flee' an encounter like in a JRPG, here you Have to take down ever enemy to progress which made it exciting and sort of resilient/thorough in spirit in later stages.

Also there's some nice wit in the design, like how Final Trials gives you loads of rusty weapons which are a liability in the storm rooms, then gives you a lava room with one of those vacuum-Deku things so that you can clean them (if you know you know).

Lovely! And working out a safe method to take down some of the later rooms felt properly strategic.

Yeah and once the enemies spot you the chase is on so it can feel a bit relentless as fleeing is always an easy option for potentially the entire game :lol:

Loaded this up earlier and had a run around, still one of the best looking games on the Switch :wub:

I’d forgotten I’d actually done everything bar the Korok seeds and the 3rd Trial of the Master Sword, tempted to try and get that done before Tears of the Kingdom comes out.

Just completed the Eventide island shrine :wub:

Gonna collect the rest of the memories then set off to the castle. The end is in sight, but will still have plenty to go back to for a dabble.

Been playing this all day. It's my second time through and I haven't played for ages. Struggling with the difficulty and low health so had a look online and used a glitch to get the master sword regardless of health and stamina.

Next plan is to some good armour and upgrade it.

Godzilla wrote:Been playing this all day. It's my second time through and I haven't played for ages. Struggling with the difficulty and low health so had a look online and used a glitch to get the master sword regardless of health and stamina.

Next plan is to some good armour and upgrade it.

Make sure you keep some previous saves. because that glitch can sometimes break other aspects of the game afaik.

Gone back to my second playthrough of this as I'd left it with just the Rito divine beast today. Knocked that off quite easily and finished off the memories and divine beasts quests for the first time.
Also started the Champions Ballad expansion quest for the first time and strawberry floating hell Rohta Chigah shrine 'Stop to Start' makes me want to break things

I never finished this game

Too late to do so before TotK arrives now (I would have to start a fresh save on Switch as my Wii U is packed up), but I have a sealed copy sat here next to me. Hopefully I can go back to it after TotK - it will probably have been 8 years or so since my first partial playthrough by then, and so everything should feel new again!

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:...I have a sealed copy sat here next to me...

You've never played it on Switch, kaz? Literally worse than me!

jawa_ wrote:
kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:...I have a sealed copy sat here next to me...

You've never played it on Switch, kaz? Literally worse than me!

I have not, no. I put 90 hours in on Wii U before I stopped playing for absolutely no good reason, and then kept putting off a fresh playthrough. When it got to February or so I decided it was too close to the launch of TotK and that I might "over-Zelda".

That does not sound Worse-Than-Jawa.

I wonder how much TOTK may or may not affect subsequent BotW. Will it be largely superceded or still have it's unique and discreet pleasures? think it's smart for Nintendo to use wholly different powers because I guess that alone will mean there's still a difference in gameplay styles?...

Yeah, I thought the same (about the powers). The effect they have on gameplay remains memorable to me after all these years (especially their special use cases in some of the shrines). The lack of overlap with the new powers (from what I understand, I have been trying not to read too much) means it may well feel very much its own thing still even after TotK launches.

Oh and I also agree that there is no way I have "worse-than-Jawa'd"

Nice wee video on how Nintendo solved some of the problems in designing BotWs open world.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

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