I think there’s a lot you could do with “huge magitech city” as a setting. Like, how do you fit the concept of “dungeons” into a populated urban setting? Are they somehow disguised as regular buildings? Are they sealed-off bunkers? Who put them there, and why? Also, a version of Ganondorf that’s just Dennis Hopper Bowser would be 
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The Rito quest is definitely the least developed and the Zora the most, but I don’t think that means there’s a lack of things to enjoy in Rito and the other two. Certainly the fights against Medoh and Rudania could’ve been a lot cooler, but they were still big action-packed setpieces, if not quite as much as Ruta and Naboris.
This would be a cool way to give us a so-called “modern” Zelda too. I definitely don’t see them making another giant Hyrule of this size.
Though, a Wind Waker-esque Great Sea with BOTW’s world design and climbing mechanics might actually be the coolest thing ever.
Right? Imagine having a whole ship at your command, like maybe Link is the first mate on Pirate Queen Tetra’s ship or something, and you have to do ship-to-ship combat with moblin pirates and board them to take them down and all that shit. Give us the grappling hook back and give us the level of freedom with it that BotW gives us with climbing, so we can just swing all over the place and have a great time.
Yeah, I’ve wanted an “urban Zelda” game for a long time, and the last couple of games slowly amping up the presence of ancient magical tech really makes me want to play a game in the society where that technology came from.
I’ve beaten the game and started exploring areas i ignored and its still so… addicting. It’s like Dark Souls to me. Where I don’t find it absurdly fantastic and perfect as most people, yet I’m still constantly pulled into it. It’s a subconscious love i guess lol?
I’m still HEAVILY disappointed by the story and characters(besides Zelda herself lol) and main villain(god I wanted a 3rd phase 1 on 1 sword fight so bad 
the one tradition I was hoping they’d keep. Pig ganon is boring to me and Ganondorf/Demise have the coolest designs. Hell the closest this game has to a sentient villain is maybe the leader of the Yiga clan and thats… not great imo especially compared to Ghirahim or Zant) Also weapon durability can continue to fuck off. Jim Sterling put into words how I feel about it.
Though I feel i never talk about the positives of something enough, I love the customizability and sheer absurdity of Link in this game. I love running around in booty shorts and a metal orb on my head. The overworld is so pretty and vibrant and fucking dense as hell. And while story is eh and characterization is meh, I do generally love most of the character designs barring Ganon. (Yunobo and Sidon are my husbands)
Seriously, [spoiler]I was expecting a Ganondorf fight so hard that I didn’t bring out the big guns against Calamity Ganon, i.e. the Master Sword, x3 Bows, and Hylian Shield, because I thought I would need them against the final form that was totally going to be something like Divineblight Ganondorf.
And then the credits started rolling.[/spoiler]
Oh yeah, i just went nuts with a 3x lynel bow and bomb arrows
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I WAS SO READY FOR IT especially after replaying Twilight Princess last year. I mean, this game did break shit tons of traditions, but I was still so hopeful especially since the first form felt very… weak.
Not enough Paya love in this thread.
On the whole, while no NPC plays a large role who grows alongside Link (which is, imo, part of the drawback that an open world exploration game has; narrative is really damn hard to do), I found the sheer amount of unique NPCs pretty damn impressive, especially how each town felt unique
I think my favorite non main-story NPC in this is Kass, the accordion-playing Rito. Just generally a cool dude and the resolution to his quest chain is pretty good, too. Maybe my favorite thing about him is just wandering around and hearing his accordion tune out of nowhere, and you know there’s a cool guy around the corner.
I finished the game late last night at 27.46% and ooooooh, I love so much about this game, and the overall experience. All I can reasonably form a thought around at the moment is that I think this is a one-of-a-kind Zelda, possibly a one-of-a-kind game in general. I definitely don’t think they can or should make this exact style of game again.
Also, did some rough maths based on my playtime according to the Switch:
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Yeah, with regard to the Devine Beasts I want to apologize for jumping the gun about the effort/design put into them since I finally beat Van Naboris.
[spoiler]I’d say the Zora and Gerudo ones are the best since you actually do learn and start to have a relationship with both Sidon and Riji, with the Zora having scouts out looking for you (and at least another NPC talking about getting tricked by Sidon, making you think he’s going to end up being a jackass), and the Gerudo having not only the small quest to get the Vai outfit*, but the Yiga clan quest (which after about two failed attempts at sneaking in the last room, I just went wild with bomb arrows).
I’d say the “worst” of the four to me is the Rito one, since you just find their descendent just up the road, with the Goron one being ok until the mountain climb to calm their Beast just kinda gave me a bad taste in my mouth. But I liked the other calming sections, mostly because you were fighting alongside an ally, where the Goron one ended up feeling like I was fighting with his ai more than the flying Guardians.
Currently saved before doing the one Gerudo Town mission to find the soldier near the Leviathan bones to hopefully get the Thunder Helm. Then going to do a mix of shrine quests + Great Faries + remaining memories (plus the town in Akkala) before I finally do the Castle.
*: Ok, so Discourse isn’t letting me put this up there, but here’s a good article talking about the Vai outfit quest and how it’s a disappointing/sketchy part that is kinda-sorta transphobic, which even a white bread dude like me is uneasy with.
[/spoiler]
I’m probably one or two play sessions away from completing the main story. I’ll probably take a break to play some other games afterwards, and return eventually to do some of the side quests I didn’t get around to.
This game has been a really good ride. The last Zelda I played was Twilight Princess back in Gamecube times, and while I was in love with the aesthetic style of the game, and thoroughly smitten by my abusive demon waifu, Midna, the game itself often felt like a brutal deathmarch through a lot of empty space.
In comparison, Breath of the Wild is a joy to traverse. I’ve had entire play sessions that consist of me setting a waypoint in some remote corner of the map and just going there, and every time the game has rewarded me for this course of action by letting me find some shrines and Korok seeds, and the occasional quirky NPC.
It’s been really good. I’m really glad this was a game that got made.
I think I found the Goron one to be good because it’s not really a stealth section. If you do it that way it sucks, but if you just leave Yunobo behind until you kill the sentries with bombs or dropping metal stuff on them, it’s pretty fun.
Unrelated thing: my favorite part of the ending was seeing DESTROY GANON: COMPLETE after Zelda sent him into a black hole or something rad like that. I love when games use common things like quest completion notifications in unexpected ways. It was super satisfying.
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Yeah soon as I realized you could do that I was like yeah there’s no problem with this sequence at all.
Many of life’s problems can be solved by dropping a heavy metal crate on them
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Did a loop of sorts around [spoiler]the north-most edge of Eldin. Conquered:
• Memory wherein Link kicked the asses of a bunch of enemies
• Goron Climbing test Shrine Challenge
• Lethiathan Bones
• Zebra Lyonel
• Shrouded Shrine Challenge/Labyrinth
• Bridge memory about Zelda not feeling like she wants to/can be who she’s destined to be
• Serpent’s Jaws, at least up to where I have to get Farosh’s scales
Plus, found the Hinox Bros shrine quest on accident, though I resorted to a guide for where to put the orbs they fell, because I completely missed the huge flags by the platforms.
So, in all, a good night… and I mostly started just wanting to finish the Tarrin Town quest and check out the shrouded area above Lost Woods 
[/spoiler]
I’m hoping that Hard Mode being DLC is going to mean that it’ll have more substantial changes than just tweaking damage/HP numbers. Here’s my little Hard Mode wish list:
- Stasis+ still lets you stun enemies, but you can’t damage them and the cooldown is longer.
- You can only have one Champion power active at a time and they share a cooldown, so if you switch when one’s on cooldown, you don’t immediately have a new one available.
- Rebalance all the Champion powers so needing to choose between them makes sense. Maybe: less healing/no temporary hearts from Mipha’s Grace, fewer uses on Daruk’s Protection, smaller radius and no damage on Urbosa’s Fury (basically just adds a stun to your normal charged attack), Revali’s Gale can’t be used in dungeons.
- Some limit on eating. The more I think about it, I think a “fullness meter” might make the most sense. Eating makes Link full, and the better the food he eats, the longer he’s full. Link refuses to eat when he’s full, so using good food means you can’t eat again for a while.
- Eating makes you do the little eating animation in-world, rather than in the menu. We can make an exception for eating while climbing, unless they want to make a new one-handed eating animation for when Link is clinging to the side of a cliff.
- Temporary hearts and stamina (from Hearty and Enduring food) should expire after a short time. Rather than being able to just get 12 temporary hearts easily from a few durians, you should be able to get those, but they go away after 30 seconds or so, meaning that they’re only useful as a temporary over-shield for one fight rather than a serious way to extend your maximum hearts all the time. Hearty and Enduring food should also trigger the longest possible “fullness” cooldown so there’s an opportunity cost to using those.
- Fairies no longer revive you on death. They’re still useful for helping you cook and make elixirs, but now Mipha’s Grace is the only way to survive a death.
Walking home from getting groceries and I see lightning off in the distance, and I thought “Huh, time to take off my metal stuff — oh wait, I have the Thunder Helm — wait, what?”
This game has rot my brain. Next week I’ll be trying to climb my apartment, looking for Korok Seeds. The next week, in my underwear, swinging tree branches at cops.
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I’ve been replaying Wind Waker and caught myself thinking “oh shit, it’s raining, I’m not going to be able to–wait a minute…” more than once. Not quite the same as thinking that in real life, but, y’know, the game’s definitely in my head and I haven’t even played it in a week and a half.
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