Legend of Zelda - Tears of the Kingdom

[dataDave]

We’re uncovering so many surprises at every corner that I’m still afraid to be reading other people’s posts, or indeed posting my own.

We’re still not thinking about the main quest at all. The priority is to complete some more armour sets, and then complete the stable quests to unlock the great fairies.

[briareos_kerensky]

We’re uncovering so many surprises at every corner that I’m still afraid to be reading other people’s posts, or indeed posting my own.

We’re still not thinking about the main quest at all. The priority is to complete some more armour sets, and then complete the stable quests to unlock the great fairies.

I've

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unlocked only one, but I don't think all great faeries are linked to stable quests. One of the band members is around the Goron land, IIRC.

[Ouenben]

I've

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unlocked only one, but I don't think all great faeries are linked to stable quests. One of the band members is around the Goron land, IIRC.

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They all do. Involves finding a lost band member and then getting the band to the Faery.

[briareos_kerensky]

I meant

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that not all stable quests are directly related to a great fairy. One stable in the north has the "proper" quest about getting back Zelda's horse and great fairy quests that unlocks after rescuing the guy with the horn.

[dataDave]

Right. We’ve only done one so far and the incomplete band were hanging out besides a stable. The great fairies we’ve found so far also seem to have pitched up besides a stable. Not to say that the great fairies are direct stable quests, but they do fall into that grouping when sweeping up a locality’s quests.

We found a band member randomly stuck somewhere near the desert, so that’s him resolved once we finally find his mates.

[Golgo]

I'm up to 90 hours and starting to feel a little bit of fatigue with the game - it's size overall, and the dull side quests, and the familiarity of the main map which is BotW. Moment-to-moment it's completely fun and that's the main thing. It seems designed with the overall aim to just to let you flow through the amazingly beautiful landscapes - above and below - encountering mild to moderate challenge, but nothing that will actually stop your movement for very long (High levelled enemies? Go round them. Need Zonai devices to make a vehicle but you're out of kit? Why not just take a peek behind this handy rock and see what you find?). I guess that's why it's so abundantly generous with every element - you can turn anywhere, start moving however you want (on foot, horse or some mad contraption you pull together) and find fun. My son does a nope/180 on every quest giver he's encountered, and he's gone to places and found things I had no idea about. But I don't think we'll ever see a Zelda game again where a totally devious dungeon just stops you dead in your tracks, and for me that's a shame. Also, the sky zones are sparse and highly repetitive in their challenges. In my view they definitely do not live up to the promise of the promo videos and cover art.

Also, with regards the combat. It occurs to me that combat has always been woeful and tokenistic in Zelda games (with the exception of the Wiimotion+ combat in Skyward Sword which I thought was great). I reckon the whole weapon degradation system with extra crafting/fusing, etc. is a way to distract from that while keeping the combat piss-easy. So basically you're just fighting with your kit rather than enemies. If the game was configured so that you got a good loadout/build that served all your needs - as in the Souls games - the shallowness of the combat would be really exposed.

[ItsThere]

This ^^

I finished the main story and loved the ending, well some of it, but I don't feel compelled to mop up what is left. I reckon I did 80% of the content which is 20% down on what I did for BotW.

That might be because I have kids now - I'm sure I'd be more interested in working through it if I had more free time.

[Tobal]

that sums up my experience, i've not played it for a couple of weeks after reaching 50 odd hours in, the tutorial island just isn't replicated in the open world and for most part even the temples and it's a poorer experience for it, brain dead puzzles just add to it.

If they take a 3rd crack at this formula they need to shrink the map and make more like a tutorial island like crafted experience than rolling fields of mostly nothing.

[dataDave]

I disagree.

[Adam Stone]

I've found the beauty of Tears is that it really does allow people to play and experience as they see fit. Ive also learned that is also its curse it seems.

For me Tears is way better than BOTW, and up there with the better Zelda titles - however it is also bravely its own thing. It has just enough of that Zelda magic and classic Nintendo-thoughtful design to hit those Zelda vibes, yet it truly is its own beast when it comes to the sense of freedom and discovery if offers players. Its done in a way that not everyone needs to bite, it allows you to nibble and chew through, but the fact it allows people to go all in - and still remain so polished - is an incredible achievement.

I do think some of it isn't so well done though, like the "temples" and other bits and bobs... however for the most part Tears is everything I missed from Botw and more so

The stuff people are creating on youtube is insane - i couldnt be bothered to spend that time doing that stuff but i love others are having that fun!

Im going to spend some time tonight reading through all the thoughts here and then i'll come back with some more of my own. Excited!

[Golgo]

Did the Water Temple yesterday, thought it was brilliant; terrific spectacle and one of the best of these new open style grand 'dungeons'. Really enjoyed the boss battle, too,

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especially the bit when it started riffing on Splatoon.

Three of the main dungeons down now and the bosses have been really good - big improvement on BotW. Still only about 2/3rds of surface map revealed and only about half of the Depths.

Have been doing lots of enjoyable mooching and finally opened up Hateno Lab

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and got the the pinger and Hero's Path.

Really glad to see the latter back in and not reserved for DLC as previously, as it's such a great feature.

[briareos_kerensky]

Yeah, among all temples, the Water one is my favourite, though it has my least favourite boss. As long as bosses don't involve plain combat, they are fun because they are centred around one single mechanic; one story boss was combat-only and it was an almost painful endeavour...I'll write something more in-depth soon, I think I'm close to completing the main storyline (I just received

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a "Destroy Ganon"

quest)

[briareos_kerensky]

Offered an apple to

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a sort-of Jizou statue on Mount Satori, a blue reindeer out of Mononoke jumped out and highlighted several caves around the map. One of those had a bunch of blue bunnies you could hit for rupees, one a stone telling there's a powerful sword north of somewhere, another had the phantom armour from Phantom Hourglass. Excellent piece of armour, high defence and attack up bonus. Cannot be enhaced, though.

I don't particularly like the combat (including weapon management) but exploration is done really well.

[Golgo]

Yeah, among all temples, the Water one is my favourite, though it has my least favourite boss. As long as bosses don't involve plain combat, they are fun because they are centred around one single mechanic; one story boss was combat-only and it was an almost painful endeavour...I'll write something more in-depth soon, I think I'm close to completing the main storyline (I just received

->Open Spoiler<-

a "Destroy Ganon"

quest)

Re. the 'painful' boss, perhaps you're referring to the

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Goron-themed one with the 'rock-spider'

? I thought this was an odd boss indeed, seeing as you can find the exact same creature all over the place.

[Golgo]

Offered an apple to

->Open Spoiler<-

a sort-of Jizou statue on Mount Satori, a blue reindeer out of Mononoke jumped out and highlighted several caves around the map. One of those had a bunch of blue bunnies you could hit for rupees, one a stone telling there's a powerful sword north of somewhere, another had the phantom armour from Phantom Hourglass. Excellent piece of armour, high defence and attack up bonus. Cannot be enhaced, though.

I don't particularly like the combat (including weapon management) but exploration is done really well.

That beast is the

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bubbul-gem mapper, basically. I collected so many of those things from inside the bubbul-frogs and fed them dutifully to the weird guy who wants to be the Mononoke beast, in exchange for weird costumes. I maxed out his trades and he still wants 93 bubbul-gems (i.e. incomplete caves I have to do) to complete his transformation. He may be waiting a long time.