I’ve finally been getting into Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and I’m always learning new things (I just learned you can take video clips on the Switch!). While trying to make my way to Zora to tackle my second Divine Beast (I did the one by Gerudo first) I was met with a blood moon. So far in the game I’ve always just gone to sleep to wait out blood moons, usually when I’m near stables. I happened to clear out a pack of enemies just before the moon rose at this camp, and figured I’d just wait it out there. I should have known better. I awoke surrounded by enemies and was thrust immediately into battle. Luckily they weren’t difficult to dispatch, especially with the help of Wolf Link.
Breath of the Wild has ignited an interest in Zelda games that no other game has been able to do. As I’ve said before, my first experience with Zelda came from renting Ocarina of Time as a pre-teen and being completely confused about what I was supposed to be doing. Even then, part of me was mesmerized by the art and music, and I enjoyed running around the world so much that I rented it twice and just poked around in other people’s saves, not really getting anywhere in the game.
I tried to go back to Ocarina of Time once or twice in recent years, and but I ultimately got put off by the clunky feeling controls and my inability to competently fight off most enemies. I also didn’t have the patience to try to figure out what exactly I was supposed to be doing as the game didn’t make it very clear (yet unlike Breath of the Wild there are many roadblocks preventing you from doing anything you want at any time).
Now, however, I’m interested in checking out a few of the other Zelda games. I don’t really want to try out Majora’s Mask as it seems too much like Ocarina, which, unlike a majority of gamers, I’m just not into. Instead, I’m somewhat curious about Windwaker and Twilight Princess. I figure these games could allow me to get some more use out of my Wii U after I finish Breath of the Wild, and I’ll be able to see how the series has matured into its more modern state.
Windwaker HD sure looks pretty
Which game do you think I should start with after Breath of the Wild? Which is the most accessible? I understand the recent games are often looked down upon, but part of me wonders if the negative perception is more from fans of the series and could easily be looked past from an outsider like me.
Should I dive into Zelda’s past, or will playing anything after Breath of the Wild only disappoint?
Check out Austin Walker’s non-review of Breath of the Wild on Waypoint, especially the audio version (available at the top of the article).
Austin’s write up is beautifully written, but it’s especially mesmerizing in its audio form. The way it’s read by Austin made me feel like I was listening to something on NPR. His voice is soothing, yet you can hear his enthusiasm about the game in every single sentence. If you weren’t sold on the game before, listening to his story might just do it for you. Even if you’re not interested in Zelda at all, I still recommend listening to the story, as it’s an incredible piece of video game journalism.
I’ve never been a huge Zelda fan, but with the release of the Switch and the huge amount of hype leading up to the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I figured I needed to see what all the excitement was about. I never did get into Ocarina of Time on the N64. I rented it a few times, but as an impatient eleven year old I never could figure out what I was supposed to be doing. Even in recent years I’ve tried to give it another shot, but often found myself running in circles trying to figure out what to do, or if I did find myself headed in the right direction I would repeatedly die at the hands of the enemies I’d encounter.
My time with Breath of the Wild so far has been pretty positive. First off it looks great, with a beautifully unique art style and it runs relatively smoothly even on the Wii U. I absolutely love the way they handle the map in the game, where you do all of the icon placement yourself. This keeps the map from becoming overwhelming early on, as you can climb a tower, mark a few things on your map and then set out to see what you’ll find there. That doesn’t mean you won’t get sidetracked along the way, however. I’ve found myself headed toward a tower or shrine, only to veer off in a different direction when a camp of enemies catches my eye.
The game has a reputation for being a little difficult, and that may prove to push me away from the game eventually. I’ve died a handful of times in my first hour or so with the game, but the quick reloads into a recent autosave make it more bearable. Oftentimes I’ve found that I died because I’m rushing into combat with multiple enemies and missing a way to use the environment to my advantage.
One other minor gripe, is that the Wii U version completely ignores the gamepad. I assume it’s because Nintendo has basically abandoned the Wii U at this point, which is a shame, because there are many ways they could have effectively used the gamepad, and therefore justified its existence one last time. Of course you can play the game on the gamepad (though I’ve found this seriously detracts from the game’s beauty), but otherwise you’ll just get a black screen with a message telling you that you can play on the gamepad.
I’m looking forward to spending more time with Breath of the Wild, but at the same time Horizon Zero Dawn is also calling my name (and Mass Effect Andromeda is quickly approaching). If you have a Wii U and want to dust it off one last time, I can definitely recommend picking up Breath of the Wild for it.
Hey there, haven’t posted a whole lot lately and just wanted to apologize for that. It’s been a busy week and I’ve been getting dragged into a Persona 4 wormhole of sorts lately. I’m enjoying the game a lot on the Playstation TV and have probably spent more time playing it after work than I should.
I love Teddie’s facial expressions!
I am a bit sad that Persona 4 feels like it’s slowing down a bit now that the game is starting to open up. I miss the fast pace and voice acting of the first few hours. Now all of a sudden most of the dialogue is no longer voice acted and there’s not a whole lot going on. Trying to figure out what to do after school hasn’t really been appealing. I’ve just been doing the first thing available and skipping through dialogue hoping for something cool to happen soon.
I haven’t played any Dying Light since getting sucked into Persona 4, but I hope to spend more time with it this weekend. I’ve played a little Shin Megami Tensei IV and have made some slight progress, but I feel like the game has started to slow down now that I’m in Tokyo and I’m finding it difficult to stay interested.
I have had The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds sitting around for a few weeks and haven’t gotten around to trying it out yet. I also have barely put any time into Fantasy Life, and my town in Animal Crossing is probably burning to the ground right about now.
Consuming Surge and playing Persona 4 has pretty much been my after work routine this week.
There’s been just so much going on and not enough time to get into any of it (besides Persona) lately. I’m taking three weeks of leave starting on February 28th so hopefully I’ll have some time to make some progress on a whole list of things (I really should finish Dragon Age!).
Hopefully I’ll be able to post a few things this weekend! Don’t hate me, okay?
I’ve only played about two hours of Zelda in my life, shared between the 20 minutes I spent with Ocarina of Time back when it first came out (I couldn’t figure it out), A Link to the Past (got stuck) and Skyward Sword (got distracted and never progressed far at all).
With this extra time off for Christmas I decided to give Ocarina of Time another try and stream it to Twitch. Initially I got to the first boss (Gohma) and got destroyed. I couldn’t figure out exactly what I was supposed to do and the 3 minions that it spawned ended up killing me. When I respawned at the beginning of the level (Inside the Deku Tree) I thought I’d have to do the entire sequence over again and decided to quit. Fortunately it turns out you can just jump down the holes and go back to the boss chamber to try again.
My second attempt was much more successful and I got further into the game than I ever have before. It’s been enjoyable so far, but I think in the long run I’ll get easily frustrated and probably won’t finish. Anywho, you can view my second session below.
So yesterday for my birthday I received a case of my favorite beer from back home (not available anywhere but the East Coast) and to my surprise, a restored and completely functioning NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). I haven’t touched an actual NES since mine stopped working sometime in the early 90’s. I, like many, have relived old NES games via emulators, but there’s just something special about putting a cartridge into a NES and seeing it in all its 8-bit glory on your TV. Surprisingly it manages to look pretty good on an HDTV when hooked up via A/V cables (though it’s slightly distorted since the TV I tried it on last night scaled it to widescreen. Using the coax hookup keeps the 4:3 ratio but gets fuzzy here and there).
I picked up a handful of games last night at a mom and pop video game store, and they were surprisingly cheap (Zelda being the most expensive of the bunch at $15). I’m going to check out the other store in town today to see if I can add anything more to my new collection.
Also, I thought I’d share two anomalies from last night:
At P.F. Changs I mixed up our fortune cookies before opening them….It turns out we got the exact same fortune…Creepy!
My first Loot Crate arrived in the mail today and opening it and discovering the goods inside was quite a bit of fun. The items will definitely liven up my desk 🙂
So I was browsing eBay one day and decided to bid on a Nintendo Wii. I ended up getting one for $60 and I’ve had it for about two weeks now. My game library is pretty small, I have Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword and Red Steel 2. I also have New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy from GameFly at the moment.
I’ve only played Skyward Sword and New Super Mario Bros. so far but it’s been pretty enjoyable. I haven’t really had the time to get deep into either game but they were fun to play for a few minutes here and there. I look forward to getting deeper into Zelda as the controls feel great with the Wii Motion Plus controller and the game world is pretty interesting.
avideogamelife 