vanguard333

I just started playing and I just completed chapter 8, so this is going to be more of a first-impressions than an overall opinion. The gameplay is a lot of fun so far. I don't really have much to say about it. That said, I am getting a bit tired of always returning to a base that's stuffed full of mini-games that I have to do because they provide useful benefits. I enjoyed it for the most part in Three Houses because that game was going for the duality of being both a teacher and a tactician; this game is far more singular in its focus, so stuff like the exercise minigame doesn't fit. The story has a lot of potential, and so far has largely squandered a fair bit of that potential. Take Lumera's death: we get introduced to her character at the end of chapter 1, she spends most of her screen time either giving foreshadowing about Alear or saying things that only a character doomed to die soon in a story normally says, and then dies in chapter 3. I sat through her death scene and thought, "This would be a really heartbreaking scene... in chapter 7, not chapter 3." The simple fact of the matter is that we weren't given enough time with Lumera as a character for her death to be impactful; there's a reason that Greil was killed off at the end of chapter 7 of Path of Radiance after being introduced at the start of the prologue chapter; it meant that we were given time to see what the status-quo of Greil being alive and in charge of the Greil Mercenaries looks like before that status-quo is suddenly broken and Ike has to fill Greil's shoes. Another example gets into parts of the story I haven't reached yet but have been spoiled on, and is a bit of a waste in both story and gameplay: I have long criticized the lack of a dragon form for Alear in the game itself. I am far enough that I have seen Alear's dragonstone in Veyle's possession, and it's pure red; indicating that it's still a fell stone despite the divine dragon essence that Alear was infused with, and the most common defense I've seen is that it would've made the big twist too obvious too soon. My response to that is this: then why not use Alear's dragon form for the big reveal? Have it that Alear gets the stone back, uses it to transform, and everyone can see that there's something wrong. The parts of the game that I've played so far would appear to be building up to that idea, with the king of Brodia wanting to spar with Alear while Alear's in dragon form and Alear can't remember if they can transform or how, but I know that's not how the twist happens. But of course, I'm sure IS was probably thinking, "Why put an actual dragon in the base game when we can put dragons behind a DLC paywall in the form of Emblem Tiki, Nel and Nil?" Of course, a number of FE games have had fairly lackluster stories; it's usually the characters where the writing shines, and the characters in Engage so far don't disappoint.

Yeah; I have never played Super Mario RPG, so this is a great opportunity. Regarding the new graphics, I'm reminded of Ocarina of Time 3D in that it seems like the type of graphical update that will be described in a lot of reviews as, "Looking the way that you mistakenly remember the original looking". I wonder if it really will end up being described that way.

Okay. Thanks. When will I be able to get bond rings (right now I'm at the Somneil for the first time)? Thank you.

Drat; that's annoying. If only I had begun this thread before I started the game. Thanks. Where can I see character build and weapon weight? I tried looking for those stats during the first three chapters, but I was able to find every stat except those two. Sadly, I am already aware of what happens in chapter 10. I would've liked to go into this completely blind, but six months and being on the internet = inevitably seeing spoilers.

Thank you very much. Can I switch to classic or am I stuck in casual mode? Thank you. I had heard that this game encourages replacing early game units with later units and I have already been playing with that in mind. Thanks everyone.

I finally began my first playthrough of Fire Emblem Engage, and I just completed chapter 3. For this playthrough, I don't intend on using any of the DLC with the sole exception of the Tiki Emblem, which I intend to give to Alear since I feel that Alear should've been given a dragon form. I do intend on later doing another playthrough that uses all the DLC. I picked normal difficulty since it's been a while since I played a Fire Emblem game and I went with casual mode, despite my preferring classic mode in FE games, because the ability to freely save is often tied to casual mode for some reason. Since this is my first playthrough, is there anything I should know in advance?

I just played through and finished Tears of the Kingdom. I didn't explore every cave or well, but I fought every type of enemy, completed all 152 shrines, did all the main story content and every sidequest that I found interesting. It was a ton of fun; the reused map still provided a fresh experience for me, but I am a bit biased in that it's been long enough since I played Breath of the Wild that a second playthrough of Breath of the Wild would be a somewhat fresh experience. I hope the next game uses a smaller overworld that can be more densely-packed, and I hope Link is left-handed in the next game. I also finally started my first playthrough of Fire Emblem: Engage. I had been holding off on getting the game, despite being a big Fire Emblem fan, as I wanted to wait until I could find a copy that was either used or on sale. On the same day that I got Tears of the Kingdom, I found a used copy of Fire Emblem Engage that was on sale, so I finally got the game, and now I have started playing it. I just beat chapter 3, so I'm not very far in the game. Speaking of sales, when looking to get the expansion pass for Engage, I found Persona 5 Royal on sale for 40% off. I've gone back and forth on whether or not to get the game, usually leaning towards getting the game, so I decided to get the game since it was on sale. I probably won't start playing it for some time, since I also have Fire Emblem Engage, Ocean's Heart, and Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak that I need to complete.

Now that the direct is finished, here are my thoughts: I was going to make a joke prediction that they would announce a new Paper Mario game, but I decided not to because I couldn't think of a papercraft pun that the last three games haven't already used. To say that I was surprised by the announcement of a Super Mario RPG HD re-release would be an understatement. The biggest surprise, however, would have to be the reveal of a new 2D Super Mario game that actually looks new: a ton of new mechanics, new map & level themes, and new ways of using the 2D side-scrolling view. I've been meaning to try the first three Metal Gear Solid games, so the Switch port & bundle announcement was very well-timed in that regard. Dragon Quest Monsters seems like another interesting competitor to Pokémon after Monster Hunter Stories, but I found it a bit weird how much emphasis was placed on the protagonist essentially being a monster summoner as if it were new to the series; I've been researching the old Dragon Quest games recently along with other classic game series from the NES era, and I could've sworn that there was a mainline Dragon Quest game; I think either 3 or 5, where the protagonist is a monster summoner rather than a swordsman; this isn't anything new for the series. New Detective Pikachu seems neat; sad that Pikachu isn't voiced by Ryan Reynolds. I've never heard of the Star Ocean series, but this remake of "Star Ocean the Second Story" looks interesting. I probably won't end up playing it, but it looks interesting. I expected that this would heavily feature DLC for recently-released games, and I wasn't wrong.

There's another reason behind the assassination: the apostle was going to publicly reveal that all apostles have been Branded; the senators didn't want this to happen, both out of their own prejudices and because many of the systems they've benefitted from, such as Laguz slavery, depended on the Laguz and Branded continuing to be part of the underclass of Begnion society.

Predictions: 1. Tears of the Kingdom DLC announcement. No details on what the DLC will include; just confirmation that DLC for Tears of the Kingdom is in development. It's funny that a game born from the dev team having too many ideas for Breath of the Wild DLC has itself left a lot of room for DLC. 2. Genealogy Remake announcement. 3. A bunch of DLC for some recently-released games. 4. Some more Switch ports of games. Hopes that I don't think will happen: 1. Switch port of Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn as a bundle. Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn don't need full remakes, and after seeing a lot of remakes these days, I can't help but fear that a Path of Radiance remake would change everything that shouldn't be changed and leave intact everything that could've been improved upon. 2. Zelda Oracle Remake announcement. I hope that a remake of the Oracle games is announced that remakes all three games as a bundle; yes, I said three: I hope that an Oracle games remake includes the third game that was cut. 3. A Switch remaster of Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks. I'm not sure how this would work, given that these games were entirely dependent on the dual screens and touchscreen controls, but that's part of the point: these games are going to need to be reworked to work with ordinary controls if they are to have any hope of being effectively preserved, and it would be a real shame for these two games to never see a re-release. Joke Predictions: 1. Yet another brand new Fire Emblem game that was being developed around the same time as Three Houses and Engage, and this time, the DLC for the game releases a full month before the base game does. 2. A new Hyrule Warriors game that claims to be about an event in the backstory of Tears of the Kingdom, but is actually a story about how a Zonai Construct shaped like a robotic celery stick travels back in time to prevent that event from happening.

Interesting order. Mine would probably be Rito -> Gerudo -> Goron -> Zora, excluding dungeon approaches (though it is hard to not include the dungeon approaches in the comparison since the Gerudo dungeon approach is technically within the dungeon itself). Yeah; I'm hoping so as well. I suspect, however, that it will be more like a linear gauntlet. I'll be finding out soon since I've completed all the other main story content; I just want to hunt enough monster parts to upgrade certain armour pieces first. I would say Hyrule Castle counts more than it did in Breath of the Wild, since this time around, a certain character forces the player to explore the whole thing this time around. I like the open structure of the castle, but, in Breath of the Wild at least, that was mitigated by the fact that there wasn't much reason to explore the entire dungeon; I just found the quickest route directly to the throne room and fought Calamity Ganon. I agree that the game should've been willing to assume that the player has the sage abilities at that point. EDIT: Yesterday, I fought all four King Gleeoks (three in the sky, and one in the Depths), which was a lot of fun and meant that I had done almost everything in the game (I have by no means 100% the game; not even close; I just mean that I've done every bit of story content, every dungeon, all the sky islands, a lot of the Depths, etc.), so, today, I decided to fight Ganondorf and complete the game. Here are my thoughts on the final boss approach, final boss fight, and ending:

Yeah; the Spirit Temple was really anticlimactic. The Spirit Temple approach is fantastic, and I was really looking forward to the dungeon itself, only for the dungeon to just be a boss arena. I was picturing a combination of ancient ruins and modern factory; that the explanation for the secret stone room being inaccessible would be an elaborate security system that has to be deactivated at 4 or 5 points, etc. The Gerudo dungeon definitely had the best puzzles, with the Goron dungeon being a close second for me (but I actually used the railway carts). However, my overall favourite dungeon would have to be the Rito dungeon, if only because of how much it makes use of the air and gliding and how unique it is. Ah; thanks. Speaking of houses, I like the customizable dream home overlooking Tarrey Town as a concept, and it is by no means bad in execution, but I wish there were more types of connecting rooms and more than one room type that has a door. I basically just use the house I built for storing extra weapons and shields.

Another thing I thought of giving my completed thoughts on, now that I've explored them all: the sky islands. Overall, they are a ton of fun to explore. I'm probably biased because I find sky islands a really cool fantasy concept, so actually being able to explore a set of them seamlessly is really cool and they make great use of the zonai devices and the skydiving mechanic. That said, there is one thing I would've liked to see more of with them. I don't want more sky islands, but I want them to have more context. The Great Sky Island was part of old Hyrule that was lifted into the sky, the flower-shaped islands were made to record bits of the history of the founding of Hyrule, the skydiving challenge islands were a coming-of-age trial for young Zonai, and there's one sky island that's an old Zonai forge... and I've just exhausted the list of sky islands that have any context or history behind them whatsoever. The Sky Islands were probably the game's best opportunity for letting the player uncover knowledge of the lost Zonai civilization, which was already lost around the time Rauru and Sonia founded Hyrule. The skydiving challenge islands are fun, but the fact that they shed a bit of light on Zonai society makes them even better than they would've been if they were just three minigames. I've heard that, if the player has completed the Champion's Ballad DLC on Switch, the group photo will be in Link and Zelda's house in Tears of the Kingdom. Importing pictures for the compendium would've been neat.

There are 20 hearts per row. However, this game, like Breath of the Wild, has it that you can't achieve the maximum for both hearts and stamina. In addition to the shrines, there is one sidequest that offers a choice of either a heart container or a stamina wheel. Including that and all the heart containers obtained from main story bosses, the maximum health & stamina the player can have is 38 hearts and two extra stamina wheels or 40 hearts and 1-&-2/3 extra stamina wheels. In total, there are 152 shrines in the game. Exploring the depths helps a ton with finding shrines, as each lightroot in the depths corresponds to a shrine on the surface; it helped me a lot with finding the last few shrines that I was missing.

Yeah; it was definitely much better on an island that in enclosed areas. Incidentally, I never played the Master Sword DLC quests for Breath of the Wild, or any of the Breath of the Wild DLC; I never bought the DLC and, with the Wii U eshop now closed, I can't. Yeah; the Zonai devices are probably the reason. The zonai devices offer a greater variety in what the puzzles available. Incidentally, only once in Tears of the Kingdom did I solve a shrine puzzle using an unintended method: the very last shrine I did, which involved using ultrahand to combine metal spheres so they roll down a ramp a specific way and hit the target. The first two puzzles I completed as intended, but the very last puzzle was so flimsy that, even though I was sure I had the correct way to arrange the three spheres, they still didn't hit the target. So, I just fused the largest sphere to a two-handed sword and threw it at the target, and it worked! Yeah, 152 shrines is a bit much and makes some of the teleportation points redundant and unneeded. That said, while I could be wrong about the numbers, I think the number of shrines on the surface is the same as in Breath of the Wild: 120 shrines on the surface, and 32 shrines in the sky, so the number of shrines is only larger because of the sky. How close are you to completing the shrines?

I like the ending of Majora's Mask as is, but that is a neat idea. By the way, what do you think of TotK's shrines compared to the ones in Breath of the Wild?

I think the implication in the golden ending is that the goddess of time essentially combined all the loops at the end, making it that everything Link did matter. Maybe that would also solve the bank fraud issue. Otherwise, it would be best that Link never return to Termina. To me, the Hebra ice region felt a lot less like filler this time because there's a stable, a geoglyph, a Great Fairy and a maze in it. But yeah, it was disappointing that the Gerudo Highlands is just the area between the Rito and the Gerudo again. I'd say it's especially disappointing here, at least from my perspective, because I used the Gerudo Highlands in my Breath of the Wild playthrough as the way to get from the Gerudo Desert to the Rito location (I completed the Divine Beasts in this order: Zora, Gerudo, Rito and Goron). Since I went Rito -> Goron -> Zora -> Gerudo this time around, there was no reason to visit the Gerudo Highlands except for the one geoglyph. I finally completed all 152 shrines, so I can give my complete thoughts on the shrines and the reward: The reward: The shrines (no real spoilers; this spoiler tag is just to keep this from becoming long):

I wouldn't know; I've only played Oracle of Seasons. If that is the case, then, with Tears of the Kingdom and Majora's Mask are the only two Zelda games with internally consistent time travel mechanics.

I see. Thanks. In that case, that would be another example of a closed time loop in a game that also has Link outright change the past to affect the present (the Life Tree sapling).

Remember what Ganondorf says when the seal is undone? Ganondorf recognizes Zelda immediately, and, even before Zelda goes back in time, he criticizes how quickly Link was defeated by saying, among other things, "Rauru placed his faith in you". I can't say much more without spoilers, so I'll just say that Rauru didn't learn about Link from any prophecies or anything like that; he learned about Link from Zelda. Exactly. Thanks. Of course, I say that a closed time loop being core to the plot would make it impossible for Nintendo to pull another Age of Calamity, but, the more I think about it, the more I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled another Age of Calamity anyway. Nintendo hasn't exactly been the best at being consistent with how time travel works even within one specific game: Ocarina of Time had both closed time loops and altering events, with the Song of Storms being an example of a closed time loop and the magic beans being an example of altering events in the past to affect the future. Skyward Sword was just as inconsistent, and that time with plot events: the crystal that encases Zelda is an example of a closed time loop, while the Life Tree sapling is an example of Link changing the present by altering the past. And then there's Link somehow killing Demise in the past without changing the present, and that's best left not thinking about too much. What do you think? If Nintendo makes a Warriors spinoff for Tears of the Kingdom, do you think they'll do what Age of Calamity did again?

Yeah, I could definitely see a Warriors game set before and during the Imprisoning War. I'm not sure about a time mechanic, since the memories clearly establish that Zelda's travel to the past is a closed time loop: not of what she did in the past changed anything in the present because the present had already accounted for her presence in the past. Incidentally, I'm glad that the closed time loop is so important to Tears of the Kingdom's story, as it keeps Nintendo and Koei Tecmo from creating a Zonai Construct equivalent of Terrako going back in time and changing events.

Not just one big drug addiction reference; it's very similar to some moments in human history when someone deceived a community into taking something addictive. We have a very recent example of a corporation knowing a substance was highly addictive but pretending it wasn't so they could reap a bigger profit; the Goron situation wasn't done with a profit motive; instead a conquest/sabotage motive, but it's still very comparable. By the way, I made a joke about Nintendo having Koei Tecmo create another Warriors spinoff with misleading marketing, but what do you think are the odds of them making a Warriors spinoff for Tears of the Kingdom?

I'm not either, especially since I can't remember any single-player Zelda game that came with a multiplayer mode. I imagine that part of the death of optional multiplayer also has to do with the rise of online multiplayer. Funny enough, I didn't recognize Yunobo initially when I did the Goron quest (I had forgotten his name in the time since I last played Breath of the Wild since I don't remember names very well), so when his brainwashed self appeared, my first thought was that some brand new Goron character was working for Ganondorf out of greed. Then I saw how NPCs talked about him, realized that was Yunobo, and only then immediately realized that he had to be brainwashed. For me, what made the Goron regional phenomenon interesting was not Yunobo's situation, but the distinct phenomenon that was plaguing the Gorons. I've seen some people describe it as the comparatively more lighthearted and comical regional phenomenon, but I think it's really the opposite; if anything, it's the scariest of the regional phenomena; it's just a lot more subtle about it. There's a certain element of, for lack of a better word, reality to it: tricking a community into taking a highly addictive substance is something a number of empires and government agencies in our actual history have done, and those historical examples came to mind immediately when I saw what was happening to the Gorons. EDIT: I just have six shrines left to find before I find all 152 shrines in the game. I must say, the Depths are very helpful for figuring out the location of the last remaining shrines thanks to the lightroots in the depths corresponding to shrines on the surface. I don't think I would've found all 120 shrines in Breath of the Wild in a reasonable amount of time if I hadn't bought the guidebook for Breath of the Wild, but with Tears of the Kingdom, I'm confident that I can find all the shrines without a guide.

Funny; the order I did the dungeons was Rito-Goron-Zora-Gerudo. I thought it would make sense to save the Gerudo for last since I incorrectly thought the fact that Ganondorf was a Gerudo would factor into that part of the storyline, and, after I completed the Rito storyline, I saw some NPCs in Lookout Landing talk about the Gorons and I thought the game was suggesting I complete the Goron dungeon next. Unfortunately, I can't remember which fingers the rings appeared in. That would be neat. Another option would be Unfortunately, the precedent is that any hope for mission-based multiplayer will be in the form of Nintendo making a Warriors spinoff; this time, Nintendo will claim that it takes place during the Imprisoning War, but it'll actually be about how a Zonai-built celery stick travels back in time and prevents the Imprisoning War from ever happening.

I imagine the problem with trying to make an open world co-op game is that you need to make sure the players stick together and that they're all doing the same quest. I imagine that this is one reason that every multiplayer Zelda game (Four Swords, Four Swords Adventure and Tri Force Heroes) were mission-based and didn't have proper overworlds. Incidentally, I actually really enjoyed playing Four Swords Adventure single-player and I would've liked to see a single-player game with a proper overworld and dungeons use the four Links mechanic that that game used. A co-op side mode for Tears of the Kingdom that's mission-based would be cool. That could work.