Adam P wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 10:01 pm

Adam P wrote: Sat Nov 12, 2022 8:22 am

biscuitdough wrote: Tue Nov 08, 2022 7:23 am I found the hollow knight was like most other bosses and just took a couple attempts to get the rhythm down. I would say that I straight up can’t do the traitor lord, at least with Cloth’s “help”. That fight and the dream version of Zote are impossible for me.

It seems counterintuitive but staying close to the Traitor Lord is the way to go. Slash and hurdle repeatedly.

I just completed the 3rd Pantheon last night and made it to the end of the 4th today. Now I have to figure out how to defeat the Pure Vessel.

Achieved 112% Steel Soul last weekend

Defeated the 5th Pantheon a couple days ago and all bosses in Hall Of Gods on Ascended difficulty today.

VaticanShotglass wrote: Sun Apr 30, 2023 11:57 am
My brother has been doing the same. It’s mildly disappointing. He’s a huge Zelda fan and likes the game but finds the combat and enemy variety repetitive. The world map is impressive as a whole and early on hunting and scavenging was fun but there’s not enough variation. I agree. It’s like they built the world but hardly populated it. The shrine puzzles are really disappointing and just feel like a boring mini game that interrupts things instead of something integral to a dungeon or world.

Sooo we started playing Zelda 2 on the switch console. That game has problems but it is a blast revisiting it with more info than being utterly obliterated by it as a kid.

I came here to rave about TOTK, but this is more interesting to talk about. I see your and your brother’s point: BOTW (and from my first few hours, TOTK) is not a great action game or dungeon puzzler (though I remember the camel beast being the standout of the four). But that’s not what the game’s going for: the joy’s in traversal and finding stuff, spotting something interesting, making your way in that direction before being diverted by the unexpected. I put over 100 hours into BOTW and still have pangs for going back - the different zones felt distinctive, and I’ve already got that feeling from TOTK, despite having only just finished the tutorial island.

The new skills in TOTW are brilliant. As others have pointed out, the ascension skill feels like no-clipping.

I’d be curious to see people critically compare it to Elden Ring, which has a very different weighting of experience, while sharing a glorious, crammed world.

Still haven’t finished ER, despite having started over a year ago, even getting in on the network test. Combination of a baby and one bedroom flat stalled me, though I’ve inched my way to the end of Leyndell Castle. Still think it’s one of the best, most impressive games I’ve played, though I’ve overlevelled to the point where the action part has become more a case of “hit boss until it oh its dead already…” but hey, Malenis awaits.

I downloaded Hunt Showdown on a lark after reading people raving about its originality. In short, it's a sort of cross between a battle royale with a boss objective that everyone races to do first and Tarkov, but in a supernatural US civil war era bayou (there's a mouthful). It's the latter aspect that makes it so fun - the weapons are all ancient, slow-loading and usually kill you in a couple of shots. They've put a lot of work into the sound design, so that accidentally startling some crows or talking to your teammates too loudly can alert nearby players to your presence (chat is not restricted to just your party). The maps are huge and atmospheric (quite similar to the environments from Red Dead Redemption 2) but the max number of players is 12, so you're never sure if someone's in the next location you wander into.

It's absolutely frustrating as hell to spend 10 mins loading into a game and getting sniped by someone in a forest from nowhere, and the controls are basically shit on consoles, but absolutely nothing beats the panic and adrenaline of seeing a team of three sneaking up on your location, then laying a bear trap, running around their back and successfully blasting them with a shotgun where, if you miss, it's so slow to reload that you're probably fucked.

sparky wrote: Thu May 25, 2023 5:05 am

VaticanShotglass wrote: Sun Apr 30, 2023 11:57 am
My brother has been doing the same. It’s mildly disappointing. He’s a huge Zelda fan and likes the game but finds the combat and enemy variety repetitive. The world map is impressive as a whole and early on hunting and scavenging was fun but there’s not enough variation. I agree. It’s like they built the world but hardly populated it. The shrine puzzles are really disappointing and just feel like a boring mini game that interrupts things instead of something integral to a dungeon or world.

Sooo we started playing Zelda 2 on the switch console. That game has problems but it is a blast revisiting it with more info than being utterly obliterated by it as a kid.

I came here to rave about TOTK, but this is more interesting to talk about. I see your and your brother’s point: BOTW (and from my first few hours, TOTK) is not a great action game or dungeon puzzler (though I remember the camel beast being the standout of the four). But that’s not what the game’s going for: the joy’s in traversal and finding stuff, spotting something interesting, making your way in that direction before being diverted by the unexpected. I put over 100 hours into BOTW and still have pangs for going back - the different zones felt distinctive, and I’ve already got that feeling from TOTK, despite having only just finished the tutorial island.

The new skills in TOTW are brilliant. As others have pointed out, the ascension skill feels like no-clipping.

I’d be curious to see people critically compare it to Elden Ring, which has a very different weighting of experience, while sharing a glorious, crammed world.

Still haven’t finished ER, despite having started over a year ago, even getting in on the network test. Combination of a baby and one bedroom flat stalled me, though I’ve inched my way to the end of Leyndell Castle. Still think it’s one of the best, most impressive games I’ve played, though I’ve overlevelled to the point where the action part has become more a case of “hit boss until it oh its dead already…” but hey, Malenis awaits.

I’m on the totk train. I found the tutorial really odd and brutish! At least the first half. And thematically I feel that it’s correct to have done it this way. It highlights how desolate botw was, while excusing it and also giving direct comparison to what you’re about to experience. I landed in hyrule proper only two sit-downs ago. I walked into a little township and spent well over an hour just talking to people. I don’t think that’s a spoiler? It’s really very different down there! I’m excited to see how it’s all advanced since botw. Everything feels matured in a way that’s sort of inexplicable. It’s the sort of subtle thing that’s exclusive to good art. I’m also not clouded by blinding hype cos my life right now is just so distracting amid a 7 month old and general life events that force me away from games. I’m also super appreciative to Nintendo for giving this an extra year to bake. It feels so solid that nothing could fall through the bottom. A game that deserves your time and attention. I expect I’ll be devoting my little play time to this game exclusively for a long time to come. With small bouts of shin megami apocalypse on the 3ds just to make sure I don’t lose my spot.

My son has inherited my botw link soft toy and it’s lovely and cute seeing the protagonist amid my very real life and seeing my son enjoy his frozen expression of determination. I think these two Zelda games together as an entity will occupy a very beautiful time and place for those invested. Anyway, it’s all just very lovely. I spent like half an hour trying to get some salesman’s sign to stand upright and I had a BLAST! Maybe I’ve got mould on my brain though.

I’m thoroughly and possibly meanly enjoying the absolute torrid release of Gollum. Seeing the polar opposite thing thrust into the universe is something else. Rushed, underbaked, and entirely shit by all reports. Sort of makes me think the financiers were like “look fuck it, we can’t compete with this. Just release it as is and let’s make a quick dollar and try and recoup and come back next year.”

My daughter played BOTW to death and now she's demolishing TOTK. I don't have time for games like this in my life right now but I can observe vicariously, like a vicar.

What a difference it makes to have an already-complete game in BOTW to build everything onto. I think BOTW is a great game and this is still that, but more.

The verticality feels like something new. This is what Skyward Sword was meant to be, I guess. The physics sandbox, building of contraptions etc, that's a left turn for Zelda but ok! Yeah it's a logical extension of the physics sandbox aspect of BOTW but still it's a pretty kooky direction for an erstwhile sword-slashing adventure series to be leaning into.

The way this Zelda team quite blatantly incorporates external influences feels a little bit distracting to me - I never got that impression from Wind Waker. But you know, in Skyward Sword how they were all attending some wizarding school or something, because Harry Potter. And in BOTW, so much Miyazaki, so much Shadow of the Colossus. TOTK feels like it cribs even more from Team Ico, including moments that hark back to the game Ico. And Link's got a God Hand now, say what?

All the goofy humour and wacky characters are present. It's a fine game.

I'm a teacher on summer break. Now that my oldest kid is 6 it felt an okay time for Mario escapism. The new Nintendo switch has been a hit but getting myself Zelda BOTW has lead to sleep deprivation. The immersive world is so seductive I've often lost two hours in a sitting. I've had to self parent and write to do lists required before any gaming.

I don't even want to think about TOTK for a long while. I have self control challenges.

not sure if anyone can relate to this but after BOTW and my complete immersion (completed literally everything I could find on master mode and by everything, I mean down to every single korok seed), I bought TOTK and left it in the shrink wrap since its release because of what FM LH said directly above.

I finally cracked it open last weekend. It's great. New enough to be fresh/invigorating, familiar enough to not feel like you're at the very base of a learning curve. So far, I've been able to do it in semi-self-controlled chunks and not stay up ALL night playing it but also I think the summer has taken the edge off my normal state of near-depression to help not become a giant couch chuchu.

If I had a criticism, it's that I find the building aspect of it real fucking tedious right now.

Garth wrote: Wed Jun 21, 2023 11:09 am If I had a criticism, it's that I find the building aspect of it real fucking tedious right now.

I'd agree with that -- I've been spending more time exploring and trying to complete the map and hit shrines than spending time with the building of contraptions. I keep seeing cool videos pop up in my Facebook feed from people that are already hundreds of hours into the game and creating all sorts of crazy shit and it makes me feel like I'm missing out on a fun and hilarious aspect of the game, but I just have to assume I haven't played far enough to really figure all that out.

DrAwkward wrote:

Garth wrote: Wed Jun 21, 2023 11:09 am If I had a criticism, it's that I find the building aspect of it real fucking tedious right now.

I'd agree with that -- I've been spending more time exploring and trying to complete the map and hit shrines than spending time with the building of contraptions. I keep seeing cool videos pop up in my Facebook feed from people that are already hundreds of hours into the game and creating all sorts of crazy shit and it makes me feel like I'm missing out on a fun and hilarious aspect of the game, but I just have to assume I haven't played far enough to really figure all that out.

since posting this, I've at least gotten better at it. Things are going together much quicker as I've been getting more familiar w/ the manipulation and understanding the building components. You'll find the building part to be a major component to the shrines if you haven't already.

Still haven't come to any point where I feel like I need to create a wagon though...

I think where this building concept will come into focus is really giving the game some replay value after the game itself is beaten - just to come back and see what kind of silly nonsense I can come up with.

I know it's a manifestation of their multiplicative design philosophy, and I do think that what they've done with the gadgets is really cool. But it is also getting WAY off track for the Zelda series. Zelda fans don't play Zelda to mess with gadget-building physics sandboxes, or didn't use to at least. It feels like this set of mechanics would be more at home in a Lego game.