Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@Judal27 It didn't hurt visibility necessarily in terms of being able to play the game, but all the sand in the air made the dungeon murky. Not an aesthetic choice I was a fan of. The layout of the dungeon made it much easier to know where I was, though.

Still haven't run across a Gleeok normally, although they must be massive, as I was flying over a portion of Hyrule, looked down, and literally see this giant dragon thing way below me. Needless to say, I kept my distance.

In terms of frightening enemies, however, I did run across something new recently. I was just minding my own business kicking around Death Mountain when some black blob... thing snuck up on me. Probably the scariest enemy I've encountered in a non-horror video game. Cue a lot of panicked button mashing as I tried to kill it lol.

I died a couple of times, but I learned how to deal with it effectively. Used up all my healing items in the process, though.

@LtSarge I played the first 'arc' of that before setting it down. There are aspects I don't like (chief among them, the always on-screen cursor), but it definitely feels like a lot of work was put into it.

Having to fight the JoJo stands of other curse bearers did significantly rob it of its horror feel, though.

@Ralizah I ran into that thing in a cave in Hyrule Field just minding my own business and then this....cluster of Wall Masters? Just spawned, speeding after Link, reaching for him, screeching and laughing.

Needless to say I absolutely wet myself.

And then I killed them. And then it got worse. Oh so much worse. From fear to anxiety.

@Haruki_NLI It's worse if you're outside. The sky literally changes when you're around one of them, like they're able to distort the fabric of the universe itself. It's freaky.

Eventually, I just learned to zone it out with bomb arrows (which also solves the hydra problem you'll have if try to focus on the hands one at a time), but the second form took time to not die from.

@Ralizah I've run into a few of em outside and maybe two in caves. The rest were underground. I can't tell if they're random or not.

But I do want Guardians back.

@Ralizah Yeah the cursor is definitely annoying. I try to use the d-pad as much as I can in order to avoid it, but obviously you still need to use it when exploring environments.

Do you mean when you'd die if you picked the wrong dialogue choice or just in general? I can see why based on the former reason, but I didn't really think much of it. I thought it was scary not knowing what the other person could do. However, you don't really get punished in this game or at least not in the first act. So I guess the game does lose a bit of its horror feel in that regard.

@LtSarge It feels like a game that was designed around PC and then dumped on Switch with a minimum of optimization. Considering it's a Switch/PC release, I suspect this is exactly what happened. Not the biggest issue in the world, but yeah.

No, I mean the edge of the supernatural horror is dulled when I'm getting into silly Shounen Jump battles with other curse-bearers.

Of course, the game's tone is sort of off-beat in general. I like what I've played, but I just need to adjust my expectations, I think. That initial arc reminds me more of Death Note than anything. You know, where it thinks it's edgier and a lot more clever than it actually is, but this just turns out to be part of its charm.

The Tarrey Town quest was really great once I worked out I could bomb trees to get wood. I did some quest that I assume was part of the DLC as well where I had to run around the Great Plateau with a one hit kill stick. I guess I’m in the point of the game where I can go to Hyrule Castle whenever I want, but it’s not time for me to go beat the game yet, I still have more to do!

@nessisonett Made any progress on the memories?

@Ralizah Ah I see what you mean, but I think it's like you say that the game's tone is off-beat in general.

I've played a fair amount after the first act when the story "actually" begins and I haven't seen a moment like that yet. In fact, it feels like they've cooled down with the showdowns. Maybe they just went all out in the first act in order to draw people into its story. Hopefully it gets better after this point.

@Ralizah I’ve wandered about a bit looking for them but I’ve mostly got the ones near landmarks that I recognise!

@LtSarge Sounds good. I stopped playing after that initial arc, which was sort of like a self-contained death game.

I'll be glad if the story expands more after that, and it's not an action movie with a horror-tinged gimmick.

@nessisonett Some of them can be tricky tbh. TotK makes its version of memories a fair deal easier to spot, thankfully.

About 25 hours in to TOTK, and I'm only just now approaching Eldin now to do my first story segment. I don't like my games to go on for too long, so I'm hoping the gap between this dungeon and my next one will be smaller, but needless to say this game is massive, and I feel like everything I do sidetracks me to do 5 more things. I still think there are fairly big issues: combat hasn't really been improved, eating food in the menu is a rubbish system that definitely shouldn't have been implemented a second time, the enemy variety is better but still not good enough, etc. I'm nervous about the dungeons as well, but keeping an open mind! The thing is though, whilst these complaints aren't unsubstantial, I can't deny just how much fun I'm having with this game. 2 hours feels like 5 minutes and I love it.

Nintendolife just posted an article asking if people wouldn't mind using the same Hyrule for a third time, and most staff members and commenters seemed quite keen for that. I was wondering what people here thought, because I honestly think that would be a huge mistake. They've got away with it for this game - the world feels different enough, and having an overworld you vaguely know the layout of makes it easier to orient yourself when exploring the sky and the massive depths, but personally I think a third time is far too cheeky

@BranJ0 I think there’s almost a 0% chance of Nintendo using the map a third time. For better or worse, it’s incredibly rare for Nintendo to have even made TotK a direct sequel and it still seems to be wildly ambitious and do its own thing. With the rumours that Aonuma’s stepping aside for the next game as well as the very real possibility that it would be developed for a console that doesn’t completely resemble the Switch, I could see them developing a new engine and going in a different direction. What that direction would be though, I have absolutely no clue. Part of the fun with Nintendo is that you really don’t know what you’ll get and sometimes they create games that you never knew you needed until you played them. Still maintain Wuhu Island deserves to be fully explorable in a game but that’s why I don’t work at Nintendo 😂

@BranJ0 The one thing I feel that holds dungeons back in this game is that while they are grander in scope than BOTW they are still limited by the fact the game doesn't load them. They exist as part of the world you can go to at almost any time, like everything else except for shrines and fast travel.

@nessisonett Id say they'd develop a new engine...if TOTK wasn't already running on a different engine to the first game. I believe the only games to use that engine are BOTW and Ring Fit, whereas TOTK shares it's tech with Splatoon 3 and Switch Sports of all things.

Then again, these could just be newer forks of the Lunchbox engine they used for Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2, Animal Crossing and others.

@nessisonett I'd like to think so too! Whilst I'm adoring totk, I can't QUITE get rid of the feeling that I would like something brand new, and I'm sure the Zelda developers are aware that they can't get away with this a third time. No idea what direction it would go in - I do imagine it'll maintain this completely free open world approach though. I'd love for them to develop both types of 3D Zeldas, the more linear ones with puzzle box dungeons, and these more open ones. I'd also love for more original 2D Zeldas! But we unfortunately can't have everything (not even an explorable Wuhu island!)

@Haruki_NLI Yeah this is a good point, and as a result it ends up not quite fulfilling the wonderful open world freedom or the tightly designed puzzle boxes of older games. That said, I'm judging too early as I've yet to do a single dungeon yet, so maybe I'll be happy with them!

I managed to play a fair bit this weekend finally, did the wind shrine and I’ve been exploring a lot of the depths. My earlier impression of the depths was kinda meh, but actually it’s a lot of fun going from light root to light root, uncovering the map as you go.

Look, I’m never going to finish this game - it can be really, really good, but I won’t be able to stick with it for as long as it requires and once I have forgotten the controls I am not sure I will go through learning them again lol. Or maybe it’s one I will keep coming back to, controls be damned. Glad I went digital so it is always ready to go, I suppose.

Have we spoken about DLC yet?

Considering it'll be late in the next console's lifecycle before another Zelda releases, I'd imagine they're going to build a new world with the improved hardware in mind.

BotW and TotK are games that feel like they're designed to get the absolute most out of the Wii U and Nintendo Switch hardware, respectively. Same will be true next time as well.

@kyleforrester87 The Depths have surprisingly in-depth sidequests and a ton of cool stuff to find. There's even an optional rune, if you haven't found it yet, that makes building vehicles about 100x easier.

I hope there's not DLC. This game really, really doesn't need it, lol.

@Ralizah yeah I know the rune is down there somewhere, trying to find it naturally but will look up it’s location if need to I think

Man, that last memory in BOTW was pretty grim. I quite liked that it actually feels like a love story for once as well. Can’t believe Fi was acknowledged either, although I guess Skyward Sword was the previous main series game sort of.

@nessisonett I really, really need to play Skyward Sword lol.

Speaking of, wasn't that game pretty explicitly a love story?