Tobold's Blog
Sunday, January 21, 2018
 
I finished The Legend of Zelda - Breath of the Wild

Of course you can't actually finish an open world game. Even if you used the game's internal 100% completion counter, that still doesn't cover all the content there is. So when I say I "finished" the game, I'm using the goals that I set for myself: Do all 120 shrines and kill the end boss to get to the closing credits. I did a lot of other content, but for example not all Korok seeds, of which there are far more than you actually need.

I still think Zelda - Breath of the Wild is one of the greatest games ever. I really liked all the discoveries, the open world without invisible walls made possible by the ability to climb vertical surfaces, and the numerous puzzles everywhere. I would have preferred a less action-centric combat system, but I appreciated that it wasn't so hard that I would have needed more skills than I have in button-mashing. My biggest gripe with the game is that the sensor you get at some point to find shrines or resources you have previously photographed is terribly imprecise and unclear. Some of the shrines I could only find by looking them up on the internet, for example because they were in a cave half way up on a cliff face hidden behind a breakable wall, with no quest giving you any hint that they were there. But then you don't actually need all 120 shrines to finish the game, so that is hardly a big problem.

My biggest mistake in this playthrough was keeping all my gems. Yes, there is a quest rather late in the game where you can sell gems for more money than usual. And yes, you can use some gems to upgrade some armor. But the gem-selling quest pays only like 10% extra, and you don't really need to upgrade all your armor to maximum. I only upgraded the ancient armor to maximum, which both gives very good defense and even adds to offense when using ancient or guardian weapons. Most other armor sets need only to be upgraded twice to get the added set bonus. The armor class is mostly irrelevant for armor that you wear for other bonuses, e.g. for faster climbing or swimming. If I had sold all gems found earlier, I would have spent less hours farming materials which I only used to make elixirs which I then sold.

Ending the game produces an automatically saved game marked with a star, which has some added features like the completion counter I mentioned. Besides that some DLC content unlocks only after having done the four divine beasts, so I haven't done that yet. However I'm not yet convinced that this DLC content is worth doing, as a lot of it appears to be somewhat grindy in nature, like the gauntlet of 45 levels of the Trial of the Sword. I think I will at least try some of that stuff before stopping to play. And I do consider that I might want to play the game again from the start after a while. However I won't play in Master Mode, because I tried that and it just made combat incredibly hard, which isn't what I am looking for.

I don't regret having bought a Switch to play Zelda, but now it might be time to give some other Switch games a chance.

Comments:
Congrats on beating BotW! I really need to sit down and make some time to pick up my game again. I really enjoyed what I played of it, but got sidetracked. The Switch has far too many great games to play.
 
I bought a switch and Zelda because of your glowing recommendation and I'm not disappointed. It's a fun game that's not too difficult even for an old guy like me. I love the shrine puzzles and it seems most combat is optional. I seem to get stuck crouching almost every battle which is annoying. I just wish weapons didn't break so easily. I'll get a nice sword with good damage and it seems to break after killing like 3 people. I finally got a horse and still not sure if I like it. They are great for travelling long distance but I'm still having a hard time manoeuvring them in tighter spots.

Congrats on beating the game, I think I still have many many hours to go before that happens.
 
You should probably skip the first DLC and try the second. Champions Ballad had some pretty fun and interesting puzzles in it's shrines. Since you enjoyed that aspect you would probably enjoy Champion's Ballad.
 
Post a Comment

<< Home
Newer›  ‹Older

  Powered by Blogger   Free Page Rank Tool