The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (contains spoilers)

No the tower by the lakeside is the one with the huge monster camp in front of it. The one with the many Wizrobes is in that area by the thunder trial whose name I always forget because it is just the filler region between Hebra, Hyrule field and Tabantha

You’re thinking of the Ridgelands.

Anyway, I just finished the game the other day, after having taken a lengthy hiatus from it.

Calamity Gabon was decently challenging, although I was wearing fully upgraded armor, wielding the Master Sword and the Hylian Shield, has freed all of the Sacred Beasts and stocked up on healing items, so...well, I wasn’t really in any danger of dying.

Dark Beast Ganon was pretty underwhelming, though. I might have enjoyed it more if my horse hadn’t gotten stuck in his body and died.

Oh well, I’m still glad I played it. Now I’m curious what the series will do next. Personally, I think it’s time for the return of Ganondorf proper, but...less evil, maybe? I don’t know, maybe they could say that the defeat of Calamity Ganon managed to purge Demise’s curse from him or something.

edited 17th May '18 11:46:10 AM by KarkatTheDalek

That doesn't sound like a fun place. I really need to buff my weapon slots.

Edit: Alright. Got that Tower that I was looking for. turns out I went right by it on the way to Deeper Faron. So my bad.

But now I can get back to hunting for Korok Seeds.

edited 18th May '18 3:32:08 PM by HandsomeRob

And now I've gotten all the Duelling Peaks Korok Seeds.

Also got the Rubber Helm as well from the Lakeside Stable. I may see about getting the next two pieces at some point. I believe one is in a place called the Thunder Plains (that sounds like fun) and the other is somewhere in Faron (which I'd just explored not too long ago).

At some point I'm gonna have to head to Death Mountain finally. I've been putting it off for a while now.

Hope you have lots of elixirs against flames. And don't carry wood weapons.

Either that or carry a lot of healing items as you climb up Death Mountain.

I have heat elixirs, but not really flames.

What do I need for the latter?

Though I'm not quite ready to do it yet so it's a moot point.

You specifically need Fireproof elixers, heat resistance doesn't work (which kind of confuses me, but whatever).

You'll have to buy them from someone at the stable since the lizards you need are only in the incendiary areas of Death Mountain, I think.

The stable on the way to Death Mountain right?

Ok. I'll remember that.

By the way, I tend to sell my ambers for money, but will I ever need them for something else? Gathering them is pretty easy (kill lots of Stone Taluses), but I'd like to know ahead of time.

Yeah, the stable right before Death Mountain has elixirs that you can buy that will take care of the "catch fire" problem that you'll have before getting the heatproof armor. If you really book it and specifically avoid/flee from combat, you can get to the Goron village with just one, but if you want to not basically run past everything, you'll want at least two (unless you're super good at catching lizards, because catching enough at a mining encampment halfway to the Goron village will get you the fireproof breastplate for free, which will let you complete the trek at your leisure).

As for the amber, yes, there is eventually a use for it - once you finally unlock all of the fairy fountains, you can use an appropriate amount of amber to upgrade a few equipment pieces (in particular, the Hylian armor) to level 4. I remember the best use of them was upgrading amber earrings all the way up to level 4; it's tied for best raw defensive headgear numbers with the Hylian helm, but without the clanky factor of the helmet.

But don't worry too much about amber, you'll find tonnes of it.

That's why it's the only thing I'm selling. Every other metal, I hold onto.

What metals are there?

Amber is a fossil, usually considered a stone... It's not a metal.

Sorry. I meant Ore.

Double post. Ended up going back to the stable where one dude offers a new saddle if I beat an obstacle course. I wasn't able to beat his 1 minute 15 seconds time, but I did get in in less than 1 min 30 secs, so he gave me that saddle.

Then I travelled to the Horse God's fountain. Gonna miss that 1000 rupees, but that money can be replaced. So now I can revive dead horses when necessary. That'll be quite useful.

He gives you the bridle if you beat it within 1 min 15 sec.

You need a single-colour horse for that trial; patchy horses just don't have the stats.

Also I am not sure about this but I think that the herds that are in more remote locations have generally better stats than the ones close to the stables. I caught my best horses with three 5 Stars and one 4 Star in that area where the giant horse is.

edited 22nd May '18 11:13:20 PM by Kiefen

The obstacle course is actually easier if you do it counter-clockwise. First time I attempted it, I struggled for ages going the normal clockwise way, and completed it on the first try going the opposite way.

edited 23rd May '18 5:02:52 AM by TheHeroHartmut

So I started playing Twilight Princess HD, because I've never played it before, and boy has BotW spoiled me with all the multiple solutions to puzzles and the freedom to run/climb wherever I want.

I'm only up to the Goron dungeon, but I can't help feeling that TP's Hyrule is emptier than BotW's post-apocalyptic desolation. Maybe because in BotW there may not be many people, but there's lots of ways to interact with the environment?

Also, I gotta ask you guys, did the original version of TP suffer from the Uncanny Valley? Because I'm feeling that a lot, and I wonder if the upgraded visuals contributed to it.

But enough complaining. Midna's awesome.

TP was a cinematic game, but yeah, its overworld was rather empty. There's a lot of speculation that it was a proto-overworld for Skyward Sword, but I doubt it. I think they just wanted an epic-scale game, but didn't fill most of the space.

Now, I do like the TP overworld during the times you're actually there for stuff (i.e., the battles against King Bulbin and Ganondorf, the journey to Kakariko with Ralis, etc.) because it was made for riding around on Epona.

But places like Gerudo Desert, where you don't have Epona, suffer quite a bit because they're just as empty and you can't just zip on through it except with the slower Wolf Link.

I played the Wii version of Twilight Princess, and I don't recall any uncanny valley

I said earlier that Calamity Ganon was underwhelming, which is a pretty popular opinion. Ganon in Twilight Princess is the opposite - he's a huge, long, epic battle that requires every tactic and trick in the entire game to beat. Plus Zelda plays an active role!

Yeah, TP probably has the best Ganon fight in the franchise. It certainly has the best music.

The WW Ganondorf Battle was also really good.

As for BotW, I really liked the final phase of the first half of the battle because he's attacking very quickly with a variety of attacks that all require very different reactions with very different timings. It was actually a lot of fun unlike every other boss in the game other than the Yuga Master whose name escapes me.

Right now, I have the Master Sword, but I decided to beat as many shrines as I can (I am at the 60s) and finding the other Fairy Fountains (got two). Any advice?

I presume that one of the fountains you've found is the one outside of Kakariko Village. Which is the other you've found?

Just beat all of them. Max out the stamina gauge, with 28 hearts (assuming you have the Champions Ballad DLC). Then start farming monster parts to beef up your armor.