Tears of the Kingdom First Impressions

[Jotari]

Has anyone discovered how to use the great fairies? I've completed both the Rito and Gerudo dungeons and got a bunch of heart containers yet most enemies are still wiping me out in two attacks. I need defense upgrades yet I don't know where to get the musical instruments the fairies are asking for (if that's even what they mean).

[vanguard333]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Has anyone discovered how to use the great fairies? I've completed both the Rito and Gerudo dungeons and got a bunch of heart containers yet most enemies are still wiping me out in two attacks. I need defense upgrades yet I don't know where to get the musical instruments the fairies are asking for (if that's even what they mean).

There's a sidequest where you help a travelling band at the stable near the crossroad to Death Mountain and Korok Forest. You have to fix their wagon, attach one of your horses to the wagon, and escort them to the nearby Great Fairy. Once you do so, that specific Great Fairy will emerge from her flower. Only after that can you unlock the other Great Fairies.

For all the rest of the Great Fairies, the process is as follows:

1. Find the missing band member in the region where the Great Fairy resides.

2. Go to the stables in that region that's closest to the Great Fairy

3. Fix the band's wagon

4. Escort the band to the Great Fairy's flower.

I only know this because I went to the Gorons after completing the Rito dungeon.

 

Incidentally, the Gerudo region is the only one I haven't been to yet (I completed the Rito, Goron and Zora dungeons in that order). Without spoilers, what's that region like?

Edited June 1, 2023 by vanguard333

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

There's a sidequest where you help a travelling band at the stable near the crossroad to Death Mountain and Korok Forest. You have to fix their wagon, attach one of your horses to the wagon, and escort them to the nearby Great Fairy. Once you do so, that specific Great Fairy will emerge from her flower. Only after that can you unlock the other Great Fairies.

For all the rest of the Great Fairies, the process is as follows:

1. Find the missing band member in the region where the Great Fairy resides.

2. Go to the stables in that region that's closest to the Great Fairy

3. Fix the band's wagon

4. Escort the band to the Great Fairy's flower.

I only know this because I went to the Gorons after completing the Rito dungeon.

 

Incidentally, the Gerudo region is the only one I haven't been to yet (I completed the Rito, Goron and Zora dungeons in that order). Without spoilers, what's that region like?

Don't know how I can describe it without spoilers. Good, I guess. If you don't consider it a spoiler, Riju is the focus character again which I found a bit dissapointing despite it being nice to see her aged up. After the Rito section I was hoping we would have different main companions to Breath of the Wild and thought Riju's bodyguard would have been a great fit. But it is what it is.

[vanguard333]

9 hours ago, Jotari said:

Don't know how I can describe it without spoilers. Good, I guess. If you don't consider it a spoiler, Riju is the focus character again which I found a bit disappointing despite it being nice to see her aged up. After the Rito section I was hoping we would have different main companions to Breath of the Wild and thought Riju's bodyguard would have been a great fit. But it is what it is.

Ah. I don't consider saying who the focus character is to be a spoiler. Just so you're prepared for the next two areas: the Rito area, sadly, is the exception rather than the rule for focus characters. The Zora area does introduce a new character that's cool and helps out, but Sidon is the focus character again.

[Etrurian emperor]

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

Ah. I don't consider saying who the focus character is to be a spoiler. Just so you're prepared for the next two areas: the Rito area, sadly, is the exception rather than the rule for focus characters. The Zora area does introduce a new character that's cool and helps out, but Sidon is the focus character again.

It’s a good thing the new Zora girl is a sweetheart because she sure stepped on peoples hopes and dreams just by existing.

[vanguard333]

On 6/1/2023 at 11:45 AM, Etrurian emperor said:

It’s a good thing the new Zora girl is a sweetheart because she sure stepped on peoples hopes and dreams just by existing.

The moment she introduced herself as Sidon's fiancée, I laughed and immediately thought, "The Sidon x Link shippers are going to be furious."

Anyway, she's a cool character, and I like Sidon's arc of needing to overcome his fear of losing another loved one, but I do wonder if it would've been better for her to have been the new sage of water rather than Sidon.

[Etrurian emperor]

Everyone's in love with this new version of Ganondorf and I don't entirely disagree, but I do think he makes Calamity Ganon less interesting in retrospect.

Spoiler

The implications of Calamity Ganondorf in BOTW was that he was the culmination and degeneration of all Ganondorfs that came before him. Ganondorf reincarnating so much that he ultimately degraded into a feral force of nature. But this game shows that's not the case. Instead Calamity Ganon is just the evil of one singular Ganondorf leaking out while he's sealed, and this Ganondorf isn't the long lasting form of Ganondorf that emerged in Ocarina of time, but an entirely new and fresh Ganondorf.

Not that this is some huge problem though. Its not like Calamity Ganon was ever interesting to begin with. A human ganondorf will always be preferable over some feral beast.

[vanguard333]

2 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Everyone's in love with this new version of Ganondorf and I don't entirely disagree, but I do think he makes Calamity Ganon less interesting in retrospect.

  Reveal hidden contents

The implications of Calamity Ganondorf in BOTW was that he was the culmination and degeneration of all Ganondorfs that came before him. Ganondorf reincarnating so much that he ultimately degraded into a feral force of nature. But this game shows that's not the case. Instead Calamity Ganon is just the evil of one singular Ganondorf leaking out while he's sealed, and this Ganondorf isn't the long lasting form of Ganondorf that emerged in Ocarina of time, but an entirely new and fresh Ganondorf.

Not that this is some huge problem though. Its not like Calamity Ganon was ever interesting to begin with. A human ganondorf will always be preferable over some feral beast.

I understand. I personally just think it makes sense; I think it was clear as early as Breath of the Wild that the Zelda team wants to wipe their hands clean of all the timeline stuff and start fresh, and how they've written this version of Ganondorf comes across to me as an example of that desire.

I just hope that at least one phase of the final boss fight has him still be mummified; I think it's a lot scarier than how he looked in any of the flashbacks (and I have seen all of the dragon's tear flashbacks).

[Jotari]

Nintendo ruined timeline speculation by having an opinion on it, so colour me very pleased to see them making games without considering it at all.

[Etrurian emperor]

19 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

I understand. I personally just think it makes sense; I think it was clear as early as Breath of the Wild that the Zelda team wants to wipe their hands clean of all the timeline stuff and start fresh, and how they've written this version of Ganondorf comes across to me as an example of that desire.

They kinda did a half hearted approach on that front though. On one hand the team wants to wipe the slate clean but on the other hand they made sure the ruins of the Temple of Time was the first thing players would find in BOTW. FI's presence in the master sword is occasionally implied and things like Ruto and her crush on OOT Link is directly referenced. 

[vanguard333]

On 6/5/2023 at 12:12 PM, Etrurian emperor said:

They kinda did a half hearted approach on that front though. On one hand the team wants to wipe the slate clean but on the other hand they made sure the ruins of the Temple of Time was the first thing players would find in BOTW. FI's presence in the master sword is occasionally implied and things like Ruto and her crush on OOT Link is directly referenced. 

True. In the case of the Temple of Time; I imagine that was at least in part because existing fans would have in their head an image of what the temple should look like; the same reason there's the ruins of Lon Lon Ranch (which is still there in Tears of the Kingdom).

[Jotari]

Tears of the Kingdom isn't entirely devoid of such references either. They have Ganondorf kneeling before the King of Hyrule in that one scene purely for a reference to Ocarina of Time.

[vanguard333]

5 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Tears of the Kingdom isn't entirely devoid of such references either. They have Ganondorf kneeling before the King of Hyrule in that one scene purely for a reference to Ocarina of Time.

Indeed. Plus, the name Rauru is obviously a reference to the Sage of Light from Ocarina of Time; he even has light magic.

Speaking of which, TOTK Rauru is a lot smarter than the Ocarina of Time King of Hyrule:

Spoiler

He knows that he shouldn't trust Ganondorf and only accepts the offer of fealty in order to keep an eye on Ganondorf. Unfortunately for him, Sonia, and all of Hyrule, Ganondorf figured that they wouldn't fall for it.

 

[Jotari]

Also a Twilight Princess reference that felt somewhat contrived

Spoiler

Ganondorf had a fake Zelda...for some reason. Fake Zelda didn't accomplish anything and, from what I've seen so far, is only in one scene that I doubt will get expanded on unless the Zelda image everyone is seeing is Ganondorf's work. It's just so random and unnecessary I can only see it as some way to force a reference to the final battle in Twilight Princess (and to a lesser extent Spirit Tracks).

 

Edited June 7, 2023 by Jotari

[vanguard333]

On 6/6/2023 at 8:19 PM, Jotari said:

Also a Twilight Princess reference that felt somewhat contrived

  Reveal hidden contents

Ganondorf had a fake Zelda...for some reason. Fake Zelda didn't accomplish anything and, from what I've seen so far, is only in one scene that I doubt will get expanded on unless the Zelda image everyone is seeing is Ganondorf's work. It's just so random and unnecessary I can only see it as some way to force a reference to the final battle in Twilight Princess (and to a lesser extent Spirit Tracks).

 

Spoiler

I began predicting very early on that the Zelda that everyone is seeing is a fake created by Ganondorf, because every mention and appearance involves Zelda acting explicitly out-of-character. The Goron storyline, the stables where Zelda's golden horse is kept, and Kakariko Village are the places where she's the most explicitly out-of-character. I won't say if I'm correct or incorrect, as either answer would be a spoiler.

Also, I don't think the fake Zelda in the past is a Twilight Princess reference; Ganondorf didn't have a fake Zelda in that game; he possessed the real Zelda's body. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but, it's really closer to an episode of the terrible cartoon that should never be referenced, as an episode of that apparently had Ganon create a fake Zelda.

That out of the way, it's time to repeat my hypnosis. There is no Zelda cartoon within the walls of Ba Sing Se. Here, we are safe. Here, we are free.

 

EDIT: When the trailers revealed some of Ganondorf's lines, I was skeptical of the voice acting, as it really was not good; it sounded like just some guy; it didn't sound menacing or dignified or anything like I figured Ganondorf would sound. Now, however, after hearing some of his actual lines in the game, I'm wondering if the trailers used bad takes that had been thrown out, as Ganondorf in the game actually sounds deep, booming and imposing, and the voice acting is a lot better than it was in the trailers.

 

EDIT: Anyway, I just completed the four regions' questlines, with the Gerudo area being the one I finished last. Does anyone know where I can find more Gibdos? They essentially disappeared from the desert after the main questline, and I need more Gibdo wings in order to fully upgrade the Glide Armour Set.

Edited June 13, 2023 by vanguard333

[Florete]

Just beat the game, ~115 hours. For context, here was my early impressions post:

Spoiler

On 5/18/2023 at 3:27 AM, Florete said:

My early impressions are, uh...mixed. I don't think it's bad, but it's not grabbing me like BotW did (which I consider the best Zelda game). I really don't like playing Minecraft with Ultra-Hand, and basically every unfun thing that's happened in the game was a result of Ultra-Hand. I recently did a shrine with shifting sands and completing it while getting the chest (which had 10 arrows...woohoo) was probably the worst experience across these two games.

I kind of feel like it's both too much BotW and not enough BotW at the same time. It's the same engine, same controls, and in many ways the same world as BotW, which makes it not feel very new; even if a lot has changed, I still know where most things are. And as a result, it's lacking what made BotW so special, the vast exploration and finding something new around every corner. They seem to have considered this possibility and added a bunch of caves, the depths, and the sky area, but the result is that the surface feels a lot more barren than before. In BotW I could look out from a high point and see a bunch of shrines and points of interest, in TotK I do the same and sometimes I just feel like I don't see anything worth investigating. In BotW it felt like I couldn't go anywhere without finding enemies or a chest or a Korok or something, in TotK it seems to be happening all the time.

I also liked how BotW's story felt very "go at your own pace," while TotK is much more story-driven and cutscene-heavy. And the story thus far isn't very intriguing. I know they weren't obligated to make Zelda playable in any capacity, and I technically don't know yet if it will happen or not, but it looks pretty likely it won't, and that's a real downer because this was the perfect opportunity to finally really let her shine in some way. There was a big call for it before the game started development and if they just let that pass by, I don't know what they were thinking.

And yeah, BotW's story wasn't exactly an Oscar winner, but it did well what it wanted to do. TotK is clearly presenting its story as something more, but so far, it really isn't.

Current feelings:

Spoiler

Once I got accustomed to using Ultra-Hand and stopped (mostly) pressing the wrong buttons to switch gear, the game certainly flowed better and got a lot more fun. There were many instances of "I need to stop playing" but I just kept going anyway. I did a lot more shrines and side quests than in BotW because the gameplay loop really is better. The game improves on BotW's structure, which I already thought was amazing, so in that regard the game is pretty perfect.

...Except for the partners thing. It's cool that you can have avatars of the sages with you, but actually using their powers in (and sometimes out of) battle is so goddamn annoying. I can never catch them, sometimes they straight up run away from me. Even pressing down on the D pad rarely felt like it actually helped. They really needed some remote way to trigger the sage powers.

And then...I still prefer BotW's story. My impressions mentioned in my previous post really haven't changed. Zelda (the character) was done dirty (as was Sonia, tbh. This game definitely ain't receiving any feminism awards). I don't tend to like using this word, but the story feels so pretentious. It presents itself in such a grandiose manner, but it's a more basic Zelda story than BotW. Every time I would watch a memory and hear Zelda talk about "a noble swordsman named Link" I would just cringe. Something about the name "Link" just feels so dorky and un-epic to me, and they play him up so much.

There was that cutscene where Fake Zelda "lured" Sonia out and they were like, "Ha, we saw your deception" but then Ganondorf just kills Sonia from behind and I honestly just fucking laughed. The whole situation and Dorf's face were just so comical to me.

Now that I've played Octopath Traveler 2 (~80 hours) and Tears of the Kingdom (~115 hours) back-to-back it's time for something shorter.

[Jotari]

32 minutes ago, Florete said:

Just beat the game, ~115 hours. For context, here was my early impressions post:

  Hide contents

Current feelings:

  Hide contents

Once I got accustomed to using Ultra-Hand and stopped (mostly) pressing the wrong buttons to switch gear, the game certainly flowed better and got a lot more fun. There were many instances of "I need to stop playing" but I just kept going anyway. I did a lot more shrines and side quests than in BotW because the gameplay loop really is better. The game improves on BotW's structure, which I already thought was amazing, so in that regard the game is pretty perfect.

...Except for the partners thing. It's cool that you can have avatars of the sages with you, but actually using their powers in (and sometimes out of) battle is so goddamn annoying. I can never catch them, sometimes they straight up run away from me. Even pressing down on the D pad rarely felt like it actually helped. They really needed some remote way to trigger the sage powers.

And then...I still prefer BotW's story. My impressions mentioned in my previous post really haven't changed. Zelda (the character) was done dirty (as was Sonia, tbh. This game definitely ain't receiving any feminism awards). I don't tend to like using this word, but the story feels so pretentious. It presents itself in such a grandiose manner, but it's a more basic Zelda story than BotW. Every time I would watch a memory and hear Zelda talk about "a noble swordsman named Link" I would just cringe. Something about the name "Link" just feels so dorky and un-epic to me, and they play him up so much.

There was that cutscene where Fake Zelda "lured" Sonia out and they were like, "Ha, we saw your deception" but then Ganondorf just kills Sonia from behind and I honestly just fucking laughed. The whole situation and Dorf's face were just so comical to me.

Now that I've played Octopath Traveler 2 (~80 hours) and Tears of the Kingdom (~115 hours) back-to-back it's time for something shorter.

I haven't finished yet but my thoughts are pretty similar to yours. One thing I'll add is that I kind of didn't like that they tell you were all the geo glyphs are with the map in the sealed temple. It made it trivially easy to just collect them all in one sitting. Which is funny as one of my major complaints with Breath of the Wild is that the memories are nearly impossible to find, being just ten random spots on the giant map that you can only recognize from a pretty specific angle. But they already fixed that problem by making the geo glyphs big honking light houses on the landscape advertising the memory's location. It really wouldn't be hard to find them all without that map and encountering them gradually and marking their distance from afar would be fine. I guess I could just not use the guide the game gives me, but if it's there it feels like that's what you're meant to do.

[vanguard333]

3 hours ago, Florete said:

 

  Hide contents

…Except for the partners thing. It's cool that you can have avatars of the sages with you, but actually using their powers in (and sometimes out of) battle is so goddamn annoying. I can never catch them, sometimes they straight up run away from me. Even pressing down on the D pad rarely felt like it actually helped. They really needed some remote way to trigger the sage powers.

Trying to use the sages' abilities in combat is annoying, so I usually just leave them to auto-attack. For me, the bigger problem is that it's ridiculously easy to use their abilities accidentally when trying to be stealthy or when trying to collect items on the ground. Tulin usually keeps his distance, so I almost never activate his ability by accident at a bad time, but I can't count how many times Yunobo has run over and incinerated the very insects and plants that I was trying to collect. I'm just glad that nothing bad can happen as a result of Sidon or Riju's abilities being activated accidentally.

 

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

I haven't finished yet but my thoughts are pretty similar to yours. One thing I'll add is that I kind of didn't like that they tell you were all the geo glyphs are with the map in the sealed temple. It made it trivially easy to just collect them all in one sitting. Which is funny as one of my major complaints with Breath of the Wild is that the memories are nearly impossible to find, being just ten random spots on the giant map that you can only recognize from a pretty specific angle. But they already fixed that problem by making the geo glyphs big honking light houses on the landscape advertising the memory's location. It really wouldn't be hard to find them all without that map and encountering them gradually and marking their distance from afar would be fine. I guess I could just not use the guide the game gives me, but if it's there it feels like that's what you're meant to do.

I didn't mind the map, but that's probably because the picture I took of the map was from a bad angle, so it only gave me a vague, rough idea of where to start looking and I still had to rely on actually seeing them from afar and marking their location on the map. My bad photography kept finding the geoglyphs from being too easy.

That said, I did have a similar experience of finding something being too easy: the flower-shaped sky islands that contain ancient text. I found the first one by accident while exploring, saw that Link couldn't read the ancient text, and figured "this is something to come back to after learning the ancient text", so I marked it on the map. When I got the sidequest where a scholar in Kakariko Village asks Link to take photos of the ancient texts on these islands, I looked to my map to find it, and it became clear that each of these islands is clearly visible on the map because, despite being small, they all have a very distinct shape, so I was able to find them just using the map. They're not even hard to reach most of the time, and the game clearly isn't expecting the player to easily find them using the map, as the painter Pikango can be found making portraits of these islands and he points Link to them.

 

One complaint I have about the game: certain monster part drops are far too rare. I'm not going out of my to avoid enemies; I fight most mini-bosses that I come across, but even then, I have been having trouble getting enough materials for certain armour upgrades:

1. Upgrading the soldier armour, fierce deity armour, and royal guard armour requires hinox guts. These are an almost-guaranteed drop from blue and black Hinox thankfully, but, most of the time, I'm finding red Hinox, for whom Hinox guts are an extremely rare drop. So far, I have obtained enough to upgrade the fierce deity armour and two pieces of the soldier armour.

2. Upgrading the royal guard armour also requires Gleeok guts. I've fought at least one of each type of Gleeok except for King Gleeoks. Gleeoks are a very fun, but also very long and reasonably difficult fight, so the monster part drops from these monsters should not be rare. I have yet to obtain even one Gleeok gut.

3. The final upgrades for the fierce deity armour and soldier armour require Lynel guts, which only drop from Blue Lynels, White Lynels, and Silver Lynels. The fierce deity armour parts require two Lynel guts each, and the soldier armour parts require five Lynel guts each. I will admit that I haven't fought very many Lynels, but I have fought at least three, and I have zero Lynel guts.

4. Perhaps the most infuriating one is fire-breath Lizalfos tails. The Yiga armour and Snowquil armour upgrades require fire-breath Lizalfos tails: the Yiga armour require three tails each, and the Snowquil armour parts require thirteen tails each (three for the tier-three upgrades and ten for the final upgrades). Finding fire-breath Lizalfos is very easy and very common in the right locations, and I have dozens of fire-breath lizalfos horns, but I have not obtained nearly enough fire-breath Lizalfos tails for upgrading any of these armour sets.

Anyone else having trouble obtaining enough of a certain monster part for armour upgrades?

Edited June 14, 2023 by vanguard333

[Jotari]

50 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

 

 I've fought at least one of each type of Gleeok except for King Gleeoks.

I haven't fought it yet but I've seen the King Gleeok if you're looking for it

Spoiler

On sky island on the extreme west of the map, between the Rito dungeon and the giant sphere.

 

[Florete]

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

I haven't finished yet but my thoughts are pretty similar to yours. One thing I'll add is that I kind of didn't like that they tell you were all the geo glyphs are with the map in the sealed temple. It made it trivially easy to just collect them all in one sitting. Which is funny as one of my major complaints with Breath of the Wild is that the memories are nearly impossible to find, being just ten random spots on the giant map that you can only recognize from a pretty specific angle. But they already fixed that problem by making the geo glyphs big honking light houses on the landscape advertising the memory's location. It really wouldn't be hard to find them all without that map and encountering them gradually and marking their distance from afar would be fine. I guess I could just not use the guide the game gives me, but if it's there it feels like that's what you're meant to do.

I actually found all the geoglyphs before finding the map, so I didn't have that issue.

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

Trying to use the sages' abilities in combat is annoying, so I usually just leave them to auto-attack. For me, the bigger problem is that it's ridiculously easy to use their abilities accidentally when trying to be stealthy or when trying to collect items on the ground. Tulin usually keeps his distance, so I almost never activate his ability by accident at a bad time, but I can't count how many times Yunobo has run over and incinerated the very insects and plants that I was trying to collect. I'm just glad that nothing bad can happen as a result of Sidon or Riju's abilities being activated accidentally.

Yeah, I ran into this as well. In fact, the most common thing that happened here for me was Tulin blowing stuff away.

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

Anyone else having trouble obtaining enough of a certain monster part for armour upgrades?

I didn't go out of my way to obtain monster parts, but as a result the only armor set I got substantial upgrades for was the Miner set since Brightbloom seeds are handed out like candy on Halloween.

58 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I haven't fought it yet but I've seen the King Gleeok if you're looking for it

  Reveal hidden contents

On sky island on the extreme west of the map, between the Rito dungeon and the giant sphere.

 

I fought two King Gleeoks myself...and that one wasn't one of them.

[vanguard333]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

I haven't fought it yet but I've seen the King Gleeok if you're looking for it

  Reveal hidden contents

On sky island on the extreme west of the map, between the Rito dungeon and the giant sphere.

 

I know where King Gleeok is; I just haven't fought one yet because I encountered that exact King Gleeok very early in my playthrough and decided "I'm not ready to fight the regular Gleeoks yet; I'm not going to try fighting the king until later". But thanks.

In any case, have you obtained any Lynel/Gleeok guts?

It's funny; Molduga is an example of what I'd prefer, as I have yet to fight a Molduga that didn't drop Molduga guts.

 

19 minutes ago, Florete said:

Yeah, I ran into this as well. In fact, the most common thing that happened here for me was Tulin blowing stuff away.

I didn't go out of my way to obtain monster parts, but as a result the only armor set I got substantial upgrades for was the Miner set since Brightbloom seeds are handed out like candy on Halloween.

Tulin blowing stuff away has happened to me once or twice, but it's very rare for me.

I see. Funny enough, I haven't explored the depths as much as I probably should have at this point (though I have found all the statues and obtained the entire "Of the Depths" armour set), so I still only have the Miner leg armour; I don't yet have the helmet or chest armour. I have encountered Frox and Obsidian Frox quite a few times, so the "Of the Depths" armour set was my best armour set for the longest time, but I have yet to find a Blue-White Frox, so that armour set has fallen behind.

Incidentally, I essentially stockpiled Light Dragon parts early on since their healing properties are useful and I completed the geoglyphs quest, restored Korok Forest and obtained the Master Sword about halfway through clearing the regional phenomena, so upgrading the Champion's Leathers: the strongest armour in terms of defense, was really easy for me (upgrading it requires light dragon parts, sundelions and silent princess flowers, all of which I had in abundance).

[Jotari]

6 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

I know where King Gleeok is; I just haven't fought one yet because I encountered that exact King Gleeok very early in my playthrough and decided "I'm not ready to fight the regular Gleeoks yet; I'm not going to try fighting the king until later". But thanks.

In any case, have you obtained any Lynel/Gleeok guts?

It's funny; Molduga is an example of what I'd prefer, as I have yet to fight a Molduga that didn't drop Molduga guts.

 

Tulin blowing stuff away has happened to me once or twice, but it's very rare for me.

I see. Funny enough, I haven't explored the depths as much as I probably should have at this point (though I have found all the statues and obtained the entire "Of the Depths" armour set), so I still only have the Miner leg armour; I don't yet have the helmet or chest armour. I have encountered Frox and Obsidian Frox quite a few times, so the "Of the Depths" armour set was my best armour set for the longest time, but I have yet to find a Blue-White Frox, so that armour set has fallen behind.

Incidentally, I essentially stockpiled Light Dragon parts early on since their healing properties are useful and I completed the geoglyphs quest, restored Korok Forest and obtained the Master Sword about halfway through clearing the regional phenomena, so upgrading the Champion's Leathers: the strongest armour in terms of defense, was really easy for me (upgrading it requires light dragon parts, sundelions and silent princess flowers, all of which I had in abundance).

I'm still trying to find those clothes so upgrading them hasn't been a problem, but you have to fight four lynnels consecutively in the coliseum in the abyss. That seems like the perfect place to try and get their guts each blood moon.

[vanguard333]

27 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I'm still trying to find those clothes so upgrading them hasn't been a problem, but you have to fight four lynels consecutively in the coliseum in the abyss. That seems like the perfect place to try and get their guts each blood moon.

Which colosseum in the depths? I'm pretty sure there's more than one colosseum in the depths; I found one in the abyss area under Eventide Island and I think I saw another one when exploring another part of the depths.

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Which colosseum in the depths? I'm pretty sure there's more than one colosseum in the depths; I found one in the abyss area under Eventide Island and I think I saw another one when exploring another part of the depths.

In the mid west. There's a treasure marked from an old map there containing

Spoiler

Majora's Mask

I think it's roughly where Breath of the Wild's regular coliseum is.

[vanguard333]

55 minutes ago, Jotari said:

In the mid west. There's a treasure marked from an old map there containing

  Reveal hidden contents

Majora's Mask

I think it's roughly where Breath of the Wild's regular coliseum is.

Thank you.

 

Incidentally, I've completed almost all the main story quests: I have recruited all the sages and fought the disc-one boss at Hyrule Castle, retrieved the Master Sword and obtained all the Dragon's Tears, so now the game is basically telling me, "You're ready to fight Ganondorf, but you need to explore the Depths more before you can", and I have found 132 of the 152 shrines in the game, so I'm mainly going to be a mix of exploring the Depths and finding the last 20 shrines that I've missed. I have about as many old map treasure locations on my map of the Depths as I have missed shrines.

(Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't fought the boss of Hyrule Castle or obtained all the Dragon's Tears):

Spoiler

I really, really wanted Zelda to adventure alongside Link in this game; not only because Spirit Tracks is my favourite Zelda game, but also because Breath of the Wild ended on Link and Zelda reuniting after 100 years and setting out together, and I really did not want the game to end on a "Sike! Now they're separated again and you'll have to wait for the very end of the game before they reunite again!" I figured it would've especially been bizarre as Spirit Tracks outright mocked the "Link, you must find Zelda" plotline, only for every Zelda game since, with the one exception of Tri Force Heroes, to still do exactly that plotline completely unironically. So, yeah; I am disappointed that the game once again did that plotline.

However, after seeing all the Zelda memories and going through the first half of the game where Phantom Ganon pretends to be Zelda, I will say that I do really like this game's version of the "Link, you must find Zelda" plotline and I understand why they went with it for this game.

The reveal that Phantom Ganon has been impersonating Zelda since the Upheaval extremely easy to predict and I called it very early into the game, but that does nothing to diminish how effective it is. The fake Zelda is immensely creepy and scary; I found the part where Phantom Ganon uses its illusion powers to restore Hyrule Castle's throne room to play on Link's memories particularly unsettling. This is without a doubt the best version of Phantom Ganon; it helps that this version is an actual character and not just a mindless being that exists solely for a boss fight.

Similarly, I liked Zelda meeting Rauru and Sonia and her time in the past being a closed time loop. I liked the reveal that Zelda is the Dragon of Light and that she willingly sacrificed who she is in order to prepare the Master Sword for defeating Ganondorf. It's a bit similar to Zelda sealing herself in crystal in Skyward Sword, but far better because it's something she chooses entirely on her own.

 

All that said, I think the story still could've worked, with Phantom Ganon impersonating Zelda and with the reveal that Zelda became the Light Dragon, while still having Zelda adventure alongside Link for the whole game. Picture this: after completing the four shrines and the Temple of Time, a small Light Dragon appears before Link and opens the way to Hyrule below. This dragon cannot speak, and it is clear that all it knows is that it must help Link. So, it accompanies Link throughout the game much like the sages do. The game still has the geoglyphs and still has Phantom Ganon impersonate Zelda, but now the reveal that Zelda is the Light Dragon comes with the reveal that Zelda has been with the player the whole time.

Of course, obtaining the Master Sword would have to be changed, and I honestly don't if this would've been better or worse overall compared to what we have now. Any thoughts on this idea?

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by vanguard333