[spoiler]I just took down a guardian
and there’s another one nearby
[/spoiler]
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Breath of the Wild is so good!! I haven’t even done any of the major plot stuff, but I’ve done 24 shrines and found some like - pretty rad stuff. Even from what little I’ve seen - the village design is sooooo good!! They’re really distinct and and feel like villages and they’re cute and I love them
If any of y’all haven’t been up to the top of Mount Lanaryu yet I highly recommend it!! You’ll want to take arrows!! Also if you find yourself going to like the edge edge of Lanaryu, like as far as the map goes let me know how that works out for you because I found a buncha cool stuff (At one point a pair of chests with 600 rupees between 'em) but the monsters out there… I cooked a thing that gave me +19 hearts but it made no difference lmao
Importantly though - there’s this really shear cliff face I haven’t been able to climb up yet, always seems to be raining when I try. If anyone figures that out hmu because I’ve been pumping stamina but I dunno what good it’ll do if it’s always wet =/ Maybe there’s a thing that lets you climb wet surfaces? Or maybe there’s another way around and I’m a dork /shrug
Ah, it always rains in the Lanayru region, if that’s where you’re trying to climb. Have you climbed the Lanayru Tower?
I’ve been on a whirlwind tour of the land this weekend. I did one of the dungeons — Zora, as you can tell from my previous post — and pretty much no main quest progress otherwise, just riding and running and climbing and gliding every which way. I’ve got one tower left to activate in the Eldin region, if I can cook up something that can withstand the heat.
I am all about this game. On the most mechanical level, the way that all the systems connect with and enhance each other. Aesthetically, the way every region is basically a world unto itself, with its own texture and atmosphere. If you haven’t explored the Faron region at the south-east edge of the map, I highly recommend it.
The game sets up such a good, basic introduction to each area with the towers. After the first couple of easy ones, each of them puts a unique twist on the challenge, and the surrounding areas of the towers do such a great job of highlighting how they very recently burst out of the ground without regard for what was there before. Some of them took me over an hour to get to the top of from a combination of environmental hazards and masses of enemies, and I love that.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t really played a big, sprawling open world game before, save for some amount of Xenoblade X, but I just really like the tower mechanic when it’s done so right. I know how much Ubisoft’s treatment of it has spoiled the general concept, but I think this is the way to do it, and it provides a few very tangible rewards as incentives to seek them out at the earliest convenience when you enter an area. As well as getting location names and topography, you get a warpable vantage point to observe and get a good jumpstart on travelling to locations of interest; that’s all good stuff!
I feel super good about how I have barely done any story quests over the entire weekend. I just keep wanting to run around and explore the nooks and crannies. Even though there’s so much stuff that I likely won’t find everything before the end of the year, I just don’t feel pressured to do anything, story or otherwise. I had a similar experience playing Wind Waker HD, since I already knew how the game went and I wanted to relax and take my time getting everything.
Even after only a couple of days I want to say so much about the game. I legit don’t think I’ve felt so giddy about a game/games in general since I watched the Nintendo Direct at E3 2014. We got the first teaser for Zelda and the mention from Aonuma that it would be a more open world like the original game. The whole Direct was super exciting and had stuff I was hyped for, and that was just the perfect end cap to the presentation.
I’m so keen on seeing and doing everything and everyone else doing so as well so I can talk about it with everyone. Already we’re getting water cooler stories, so when the game isn’t so new that everything specific needs to be blurred it’ll hopefully be really good for discussion. Like, you know when you’re enjoying something so much you kind of just go “Ugh, this game is good”? 'Cause ugh, this is so good! It’s so good!
Oh, also: with each successive encounter with the guardians they become more and more the most terrifying things I think I’ve ever encountered in a game.
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I stumbled upon the zoras by accident and ended up beating my first boss! BTW boss do drop heart containers still.
So I’ve spent probably a combined 24 hours playing Breath of the Wild and in case you haven’t heard this game is, like, good or something.
[spoiler]The very first enemy I actually encountered was not a Bokoblin, but Thardus’ jerk cousin Stone Talus. It went about as well as to be expected, but I did come back later and get all Shadows of the Colossus on its rocky butt.
After getting off the Plateau, the first thing I did was head straight to the southwest towards the desert. That also went about as well as to be expected, but through stamina food and extreme cowardice, I somehow managed to activate the tower and take out a few enemies along the way.
My first blood moon happened at a very… awkward moment. I had just cleared out a campfire site with giant Moblins, using Bombs from high up above to cheese fighting them. Further up the road there were more enemies, and since it was night there were skeletons spawning too, so I thought I’d just use the fire to pass the time.
Then blood moon happened and when morning came, I was surrounded by all the enemies I had just killed (all of which could one-shot me). Let’s just say I’m glad Link can run as fast as he does.
After a bit of desert exploration, I headed through the Lake Hylia area and wandered around Faron for awhile, getting lost in the jungle and pissed at my Shrine Radar. Damn trees. Eventually, I decided to head to where the game actually wanted me to and go to Kakariko to progress the plot. Some dyed clothes later and one Moblin-throwing-a-Bokoblin-at-me incident later, I’ve explored a lot of the south end of Hyrule and am still absolutely nowhere near done with it all. And I STILL have another half+ of the world I haven’t even touched yet.
Other notable things I’ve done include the top of Mount Lanaryu which was totally badass, and flying out to the south-easternmost island for one of the absolute coolest challenges I’ve yet seen (and haven’t completed! It’s hard!). From the robot battle shrines to the weird electricity puzzles I’ve seen, I have yet to encounter a shrine I haven’t enjoyed solving.
The climbing mechanics are kind of amazing and I think are what makes this game work as well as it does. They absolutely nailed the “if you see it, you can get to it” aspect, plus it’s fun to just fly around after getting to a high point on the map.
[/spoiler]
I’ve got 7 hearts and 2 Stamina upgrades and still haven’t really done a ton of the main story. Loving every second of this game. Shame about that whole sleeping thing getting in the way of playing.
My horse is dead, it was a dumb horse who never listened to me so I named him dinner (I later learned you cant actually eat your horse). he was okay until I was attacked by a group of guardians i took off with him, (since he could only trout 2 of those little spur symbols) we didn’t get very far and the guardians started to lock on to me. BUT there I saw a cliff! knowing hyrules fate was in my hand I did what a hero does…I ditched the horse and paraglided over that cliff to saftey while dinner ate a laser
RIP Dinner the horse.
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[spoiler]the deserted island challenge + the nearby Major Test of Strength one kicked my ass, but those cyclopses (cyclopi?) can be dwindled down by letting them run into enemies, especially fire chus, and into trees. still havent beat it though.
Major test, well, let’s just say that I was about three hits away from finally beating it on my 10th try. 
[/spoiler]
I’ve completed two of the main four Divine Beasts and I’ve done a ton of running around otherwise. I went exploring off of a shrine in the Abandoned North Mine near Goron City and ended up walking on foot across an entire province before I found the tower, but not before I walked into super spooky dark woods (like, literally pitch black in there, you need a torch and some way to figure out where you’re going), got struck by lightning, rode desperately away from one of those centaur assholes on a horse that I had just robbed from a bokoblin, and snuck around a military training camp so I could climb the tower and eat several stamina-replenishing fish as I did so.
I echo everyone’s sentiments: ugh, this game is so good!
[spoiler]Managed to kill the centaur-lion thing in the coloseum… after I cheated and summoned Wolf Link (in my defense I was actually critically hitting and stunning the centaur with arrows, so). Maybe I did something wrong but I didn’t get a reward besides its spoils.
Mostly just unlocked Central and Lake towers, with maybe like 5ish temples? Also feel like I haven’t actually accomplished much, like I’m playing “wrong”.[/spoiler]
I played BotW for like 16 hours or something this weekend. I probably damaged my eyes lol
Anyway, I did at least one major quest totally out of order by accident after getting lost looking for an unrelated thing, and also in all that time I’ve only done one actual dungeon. The game is HUGE.
Breath of the Wild is so good, but I think it’s time to take a brea-what do you mean it’s monday
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Also, I don’t actually want to know the answer to this, but I spent yesterday like actively searching for other Great Fairy Fountains besides the one they practically give to you, and haven’t spotted any. There’s still like almost half the map that I haven’t even been to.
I’ve been going hard stamina with the upgrades and I absolutely do not regret it. each upgrade is a fifth of a wheel, fyi.
I can climb pretty much anything now, and I found two pieces of clothing that increase climb speed. Getting to the top of a mountain and then paragliding around is so fucking satisfying.
It blew my mind when I learned you can shield parry and dodge, which activate counterattacks.
Everything about this game feels good. I love knocking an enemy’s weapon out of their hands, picking it up and then throwing it in their stupid face. All the weapons feel good and useful.
I found a guy in one of the horse stables that gave me a sidequest to find a great fairy fountain, as well as directions to a nearby one. Now I have level 2 armors.
Reading about BotW makes me want to play some more of it, which is bad when I have homework and classes to do, especially since it’s finals time!
Anyway, I think I’m going to spend the next session or two activating as many towers as possible in the west and lower east, plus trying to find more recovered memories — but I think most of those are in Central? Trying to avoid the castle until I have the Master Sword
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My next session (a shortish one because it’s a weeknight) is probably gonna be spent practicing my dodges and parries. I’ve been always trying to press forward, so I haven’t been taking advantage of the fact that there’s no real penalty for dying by just practicing the timing for that stuff without regard for staying alive.
The real goal is to be able to consistently Perfect Parry the Guardian Lazers, but it would also be nice if I can train myself to side-dodge the spears instead of backflipping and getting hit anyway.
I’m sorry, that’s a thing? What? 
this fucking game!
Practicing dodging is probably a very good idea – I got my shit wrecked by the boss of Vah Rudania because I was never able to dodge his attacks unless I specifically ran away. I don’t suppose backflipping and sidehopping have any invincibility frames, do they? Or is it just a matter of backflipping horizontal attacks and sidehopping vertical attacks?
Yeah, you can parry them with a shield if you press the parry button right as the eye starts glowing blue. Tends to halfway kill them too.
I can’t wait until I feel strong enough to go after that huge fuckoff electric dragon who keeps on following me around Faron (?)
I’ve found one of the dungeons, but haven’t tackled it yet. I’m still being blown away by the amount of really cool, unexpected things that I’m finding in the world. Spoilers for the southwesternish part of the map:
[spoiler]Multiple times now, I’ve seen a weird aura coming off a certain mountain. I’d climbed up there a few times trying to figure out what it was, but the aura would disappear every time I got near it. The third time it happened, I got to the peak of the mountain in time. Suddenly, the music got a little creepy, and after following a small path, I ended up standing in front of a small pond filled with glowing rabbits that had the heads of owls. There was a big, glowing deer in the middle of them that also had the head of an owl. I have NO idea what they’re about, but they disappear if you get to close to them.
I took a picture of the deer and it said it was known as “The Lord of the Mountain”. It’s super mysterious! I have no idea what they’re about or what they do, but it’s constantly in the back of my head while I play the game. That’s the kind of mystery that I’ve felt has been missing from Zelda for a very long time.[/spoiler]
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