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

I had a Toon Link amiibo before I got BotW, so yeah, I've had fun summoning fish into the middle of Kakariko tons of times. And yes, I try to "aim" (inasmuch as one can; it's a bit easier when using Ganondorf) to have the spawns fall on villagers.

Is it just me, or do Epona's mane & tail look odd? Like, the color is strange. In some lights it's neon-yellow or neon-green. It's ugly. (Or maybe I need to change the color settings on my TV, IDK.) Also, I wish I could change her tack and hair, etc. Seems weird that we can't.

Of all the Hero outfits, I like Twilight gear the best. And I like the bulkiness of the Trousers of the Sky. They look like they'd wear well.

The Fierce Deity outfit is amazing. I love it.

I started another playthrough, and you know, I appreciate that amiibo prevent (or lessen) the need to grind. Not that grinding is bad, because it forces you to explore and really learn the map, but once you've got that part down, you can concentrate on exploring for the heck of it and enjoying the view.

The lighting in general in BOTW is something that just looks weird when the colors aren't "earthy".

I like the Tunic of Twilight too. It kind of looks like practical armor, with a chain shirt underneath.

Random amusement: When fiddling around on that archipelago off the eastern coast of Hyrule I popped the Skywatchers, figuring I'd harvest some ancient parts while I was there anyway.

Given there's water all around it's not surprising that the parts from the second one fell into the sea, but apparently some of the parts fell just right into one of the updrafts. I was sitting there in the water wondering where they went, and then looked up. They were hovering mid-air in the updraft.

I eventually managed to get all of them, but it was somewhat of a pain to get the timing just right for snatching the parts out of the air while flipping the paraglider open and closed to keep from going back in the drink (had swam to the shore first, and set up a Cryonis platform nearby since you can't jump out of the water straight into the updraft) or winding up shooting up past them.

Edited by Nohbody on Sep 7th 2018 at 4:11:49 AM

Got to the shrine of the Forbidden Temple, I think? That one old temple with the updrafts and full of Guardians you have to glide through. It has to be done right lest you become a living target.

Forgotten Temple, if you mean the one at the northern end of Tanagar Canyon.

The Guardians' Rave.

I believe that it's called "Don't wander into firing range,"

I call it the Hall of Kill Everything.

Isn't that pretty much every hallway in the game?

[edit] On further thought, the Yiga Clan hideout penalizes you for killing in the hall during the Thunder Helm quest.

Edited by Nohbody on Sep 10th 2018 at 8:30:47 AM

Not if you use Ancient arrows.

Sounds expensive

I personally refer to it as "Parry Practice". And also "Ancient Parts Farm".

Well, I can affirm that you can get away with murdering your way through the first set of Yiga during the Thunder Helm sequence. I was a bit bloodthirsty and sneaky, and I managed to take out most of them without causing an alert. Of course, I did screw up at the end and was dodging a couple of Yiga Blademasters after immediately dispatching the last small mook, but it wasn't that bad since I was able to keep them both in front of me (just had to time dodges well).

The second set, though, in that grand warehouse... I've theorized that it might be possible to murder your way through things if you cleverly isolate each guard (mostly by using that large cache of mighty bananas to distract other guards who'd otherwise be watching each others' backs) and sniping with thunder arrows (among other things, to give you time to reposition yourself if you can't fell the guard during the stun), but that's going to be a level of excitement saved for a future run through the game.

yikes. I hated that mission so bad.

Both times I did that segment I killed all the Blademasters, though in the grand hall I was never able to properly stealth-kill all five(?) of them without fucking up halfway through and having to fight the remaining ones head-on.

In a 1997 “Dexter’s Laboratory” episode, Dexter and his friends are playing a Dungeons & Dragon-type game with Dee Dee as Game Master.

In Dee Dee’s story, one of Dexter’s friends is a knight who receives a motorcycle shaped like a horse.

I’m sure “Dexter’s Laboratory” wasn’t the first TV show or movie to show a horse-shaped motorcycle but it’s still funny to see “Dexter’s Laboratory” showing a knight with a horse motorcycle 20 years before “Breath Of The Wild”.

pozzle design

Either that, or some of those monks were psychic.

Going off that topic, when my brothers and I were all playing this, we joked a few times about the monks getting in a room to brainstorm shrine ideas. We kept picturing that one asshole who followed up tamer stuff (adjusting scales, stacking metal boxes, etc.), with something like “I’m gonna roll giant spikeballs down a chute at him.”

I think it started when one of my brothers solved Kass’ lightning riddle by standing on top of the mound, having the lightning hit him directly, and letting Mipha’s Grace cover damage control. We got a lot of mileage about what a sick piece of work that monk must’ve been. Then we realized that the intended solution was probably to drop a metal weapon up there.

Edited by SapphireBlue on Sep 23rd 2018 at 9:52:37 AM

I always wondered about that particular "puzzle" with the thirsty Gerudo.

I'm pretty sure there's some other "by setting foot in here you've already proved your might" shrines that don't make sense unless the monk was precognizant. Remind me, was the shrine risen by Roscoe's sacrifice one of those types?

Edited by Anomalocaris20 on Sep 23rd 2018 at 1:16:12 PM

For that one, I assumed there was a puzzle to find Roscoe or bring him to the pedestal, but Loone had already solved it.

That's my assumption too. That shrine is deeeeep in the desert. The original puzzle may have simply been to locate the damned thing.

Super Butter Buns has a beginner's guide to BOTW. It's pretty fucking great!

The shrines are slowly running out of places to not be.

SapphireBlue: Phew, I'm not the only one who thought Link himself had to be struck by lightning to open that shrine! My first playthrough, right after I got hit, it dawned on me that I could've dropped a sword there instead.

I'm still in awe of how beautiful this game is. I keep taking screenshots. IDK why. It just blows me away how well the cel-shading works, how it makes the game look like an animated painting. And that volumetric lighting, holy crap! Gives it such atmosphere!

Skyward Sword was made to look like watercolor, and BotW like gouache. What d'you suppose Nintendo will try next? Chalk pastel, maybe?