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150 Tiny Things That Make Breath of the Wild a Game for the Ages

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is four years old, and yet, we’re as entranced with it now as we were in 2017.

We’ve compiled 150 tiny things that make Breath of the Wild a game for the ages, covering off a wide array of topics including how to take advantage of Blood Moons, hidden shield surfing mechanics and facts, how elemental weapons impact Link’s temperature, how to create instant updrafts, how cooking works, how to utilise dragon horns, the best inns to get bonus effects, the banana-based link between the Yiga Clan and the Sheikah, tips for taking on Guardians, tips for parrying, tips for interacting with Bokoblins and Moblins, how to take advantage of thunderstorms, how to fully utilise your stamina when climbing, which animals can be tamed and ridden, how to do Link’s quick spin, how to chain sneak strikes, how to use Korok leaves, how to get extra selfie poses, how to get bonus fairies, tips for using Stasis, Magnesis, Cryonis and Remote Bombs, the fact that some weapons can be repaired, how to aim elemental rods, how to get infinite arrows, fishing tips, horse tips, Master Cycle Zero tips, how the Game Over text changes color and how to see the Northern Lights in Hebra. Plus so much more. Enjoy!
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Did they mention that you get to dress like a girl among those 150 tiny things that makes it game of the ages?

images_blog_posts_Adam-Dupuis_2017_03_04_c5xxsaeuoaaghmv.jpg


58b890584601781c008b45bd
 
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LMJ

Member
I repeat the sense of exploration in this game is unmatched, like they handed each developer the job of making one item and giving it as many uses as possible :D

Only hope the sequel fixes the many shortcomings and becomes more like an actual Zelda title...
 
I repeat the sense of exploration in this game is unmatched, like they handed each developer the job of making one item and giving it as many uses as possible :D

Only hope the sequel fixes the many shortcomings and becomes more like an actual Zelda title...
I haven't played this game actually, so I have some questions about this. I really love a sense of exploration, but only if there's something worthwhile to explore, that feels rewarding.

Is that the case with BOTW? Exploring is great and all, but not just only for the sake of exploring or playing around sandbox style - I need goals, something to strive after and like tasks or a bigger mission to feel like there's a purpose to the exploration.

Is there weight to it? 🙂
 
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BigBooper

Member
What a mess of a theme. The downfall of grammar. Which is it? 150 things, reasons, or tips?

It's going to be a memorable game for sure, and has earned it's attention and loyalty.
Sure does suck to me though.
 
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BlackTron

Member
I haven't played this game actually, so I have some questions about this. I really love a sense of exploration, but only if there's something worthwhile to explore, that feels rewarding.

Is that the case with BOTW? Exploring is great and all, but not just only for the sake of exploring or playing around sandbox style - I need goals, something to strive after and like tasks or a bigger mission to feel like there's a purpose to the exploration.

Is there weight to it? 🙂

Nope.

It's a technical marvel and is impressive with its various systems interacting with each other (physics, weather, noise etc). This makes it a slick piece of software for "playing around with". Because it doesn't tell you where to go or what order to do everything in, it's apparently this massive innovation in player choice -the game is about the freedom of completing unfulfilling, meaningless tasks in any order you choose, solved your own way using the games impressive core of systems, which should have been put to use in a better game.

Other than literally just locations/graphics to look at, the most interesting thing you will find is a shrine, aka a tiny mini-dungeon that all have exactly the same tileset and music. Your reward for completing them is just stats or a breakable weapon. Personally, I think this makes this game a total dud for exploration, despite supposedly being its biggest selling point. SNES games understood this, Nintendo has fallen greatly.

Dungeons? Solve 4 giant mech puzzles instead, with similar bosses.

Combat? Well the clunky combat system that expects you to switch gear constantly, with a mechanic to switch in real-time that's unreliable and context sensitive, would be a big problem. Except it doesn't really matter, combat is meaningless anyway, all the enemies are just copy/pasted with bad variety, and present little in the way of rewards for taking the time to fight them. May as well just walk around them.

Yes, the above is pretty much all the content, spread over an insanely large map.

The truth is, it's a title worth playing, but don't go in expecting Ocarina of effing Time or you will feel depressed as reality sets in about 15 hours into the game that this really is it. I fell for all the hype and marketing and thought this might be the next OOT-level Zelda, lol it doesn't even deserve the Zelda name. Nintendo made a polished tech demo for a Zelda game engine and sold it as a full game with a pathetic amount of content copy/pasted over a GIANT map.

And oh. There's no overworld music either.
 
Nope.

It's a technical marvel and is impressive with its various systems interacting with each other (physics, weather, noise etc). This makes it a slick piece of software for "playing around with". Because it doesn't tell you where to go or what order to do everything in, it's apparently this massive innovation in player choice -the game is about the freedom of completing unfulfilling, meaningless tasks in any order you choose, solved your own way using the games impressive core of systems, which should have been put to use in a better game.

Other than literally just locations/graphics to look at, the most interesting thing you will find is a shrine, aka a tiny mini-dungeon that all have exactly the same tileset and music. Your reward for completing them is just stats or a breakable weapon. Personally, I think this makes this game a total dud for exploration, despite supposedly being its biggest selling point. SNES games understood this, Nintendo has fallen greatly.

Dungeons? Solve 4 giant mech puzzles instead, with similar bosses.

Combat? Well the clunky combat system that expects you to switch gear constantly, with a mechanic to switch in real-time that's unreliable and context sensitive, would be a big problem. Except it doesn't really matter, combat is meaningless anyway, all the enemies are just copy/pasted with bad variety, and present little in the way of rewards for taking the time to fight them. May as well just walk around them.

Yes, the above is pretty much all the content, spread over an insanely large map.

The truth is, it's a title worth playing, but don't go in expecting Ocarina of effing Time or you will feel depressed as reality sets in about 15 hours into the game that this really is it. I fell for all the hype and marketing and thought this might be the next OOT-level Zelda, lol it doesn't even deserve the Zelda name. Nintendo made a polished tech demo for a Zelda game engine and sold it as a full game with a pathetic amount of content copy/pasted over a GIANT map.

And oh. There's no overworld music either.
Damm.. That's what I was afraid of. Sounds like it's not for me then, but I'll give it a try if I have the opportunity.

(My absolute favorite Nintendo era is the SNES era...)
 

Gandih42

Member
Didn't watch the whole video (is a bit long), but while the game is great and some of these details are quite neat, honestly most of this is just "things that are in a game". Going up to 150 details is a little excessive. With 30, perhaps you'd trim it down to the actual really cool details in the game.
 

NikuNashi

Member
These articles always read of me like 'my first zelda game'. I get the sneaking suspicion that a lot of people who really love BOTW haven't played many zelda games.

Start with some 2d (link to the past). Play some groundbreaking, game changing 3d versions (OoT). Give WW a shot because it's the closest to a fully interactive cartoon I ever saw back in GC days, then come back to me about BOTW. I thought it was a good game, not great but good.
 

BbMajor7th

Member
These articles always read of me like 'my first zelda game'. I get the sneaking suspicion that a lot of people who really love BOTW haven't played many zelda games.

Start with some 2d (link to the past). Play some groundbreaking, game changing 3d versions (OoT). Give WW a shot because it's the closest to a fully interactive cartoon I ever saw back in GC days, then come back to me about BOTW. I thought it was a good game, not great but good.

Same to be honest - so much of what is in Breath of the Wild was prefigured in prior entries, to such an extent that when I finally played it, I was like 'duh?' of course it does all these things, it wouldn't be Zelda otherwise. The climbing was the big change, but the stamina wheel that controls it made it feel like a natural progression of what had come before. The use of verticality was genuinely cool, but the shallowness of the open world and the laziness of the questing was just... put it this way, I'll never forget the side quest about lightning striking the roof of someone's hut: climbed on the roof, found an axe embedded in the top, returned to the quest giver in about twenty seconds and handed it over in exchange for an armour piece.

I don't know if it was meant to be a joke, but I actually laughed out loud.
 

LMJ

Member
I haven't played this game actually, so I have some questions about this. I really love a sense of exploration, but only if there's something worthwhile to explore, that feels rewarding.

Is that the case with BOTW? Exploring is great and all, but not just only for the sake of exploring or playing around sandbox style - I need goals, something to strive after and like tasks or a bigger mission to feel like there's a purpose to the exploration.

Is there weight to it? 🙂


Hmmm both, the game is far from perfect and once you HAVE explored everything iit does little to keep you invested, that having been said actually exploring is rewarding in of itself, go in sans guide and you'll be amazed at how rich the world is with landmarks, collectables and detail.


Cons are
Clunky combat with framerate hitches (camera mostly)
Enemy variety and auto leveling
Weapon degradation
Lack of reward outside of exploration
Weak boss fights and dungeons with an exception
Horrible side quests
The combat becomes dull and lifeless the more you play...I avoided combat myself most of the time
The Master Sword

Pros are
Weapon variety
Cool combat maneuvers and variety
Great enemy AI and behavior
The world feels alive (set fires, chop trees, see it climb it)
Amazing boss fight is you ignore the other boss fights and just take on the evil pig, also final dungeon is amazing
Elements effect both you and the world
Garudo village is easily some of the best variety in the game, even if it made link a sissy in nearly all fan fiction lol
And of course unbridled exploration, not just the world, but your powers, the environment, NPCs and AI behavior, etc

The game feels more like a building block to me, give me that sense of exploration and the variety of WW or MM, and the creativity of Two Worlds and a rich narrative and aesthetic like OOT and you may very well have one of the greatest games ever!

Hopefully the sequel does this :D

Season 3 Smiling GIF by The Simpsons
 

BlackTron

Member
Video game consoles are glorified electronic toys and all games are for playing with.

LOL. He was actually right, BOTW is an ideal game for a kid starting to play 3D games, because it allows you to really just mess around and experiment. Most little kids playing a game just want to play around with it and explore. Sure you can "advance" in the game if you want, but it's optional, so you can't get "stuck"; I would have a noob kid try BOTW before OOT. So not only was he making a light-hearted joke, it was also based in truth.

But, thank you for reminding us that games are to be played, we obviously need that reality check right? lol
 

brian0057

Banned
Video game consoles are glorified electronic toys and all games are for playing with.
There's a reason people are so desperate for games to be recognized as art.
They're too embarrased to play them and enjoy them as the toys they really are.
There's nothing more childish than saying you only play M-rated games because I'm an adult and those icky E-for-everyone games are for kids.
 

daclynk

Member
Nope.

It's a technical marvel and is impressive with its various systems interacting with each other (physics, weather, noise etc). This makes it a slick piece of software for "playing around with". Because it doesn't tell you where to go or what order to do everything in, it's apparently this massive innovation in player choice -the game is about the freedom of completing unfulfilling, meaningless tasks in any order you choose, solved your own way using the games impressive core of systems, which should have been put to use in a better game.

Other than literally just locations/graphics to look at, the most interesting thing you will find is a shrine, aka a tiny mini-dungeon that all have exactly the same tileset and music. Your reward for completing them is just stats or a breakable weapon. Personally, I think this makes this game a total dud for exploration, despite supposedly being its biggest selling point. SNES games understood this, Nintendo has fallen greatly.

Dungeons? Solve 4 giant mech puzzles instead, with similar bosses.

Combat? Well the clunky combat system that expects you to switch gear constantly, with a mechanic to switch in real-time that's unreliable and context sensitive, would be a big problem. Except it doesn't really matter, combat is meaningless anyway, all the enemies are just copy/pasted with bad variety, and present little in the way of rewards for taking the time to fight them. May as well just walk around them.

Yes, the above is pretty much all the content, spread over an insanely large map.

The truth is, it's a title worth playing, but don't go in expecting Ocarina of effing Time or you will feel depressed as reality sets in about 15 hours into the game that this really is it. I fell for all the hype and marketing and thought this might be the next OOT-level Zelda, lol it doesn't even deserve the Zelda name. Nintendo made a polished tech demo for a Zelda game engine and sold it as a full game with a pathetic amount of content copy/pasted over a GIANT map.

And oh. There's no overworld music either.
devs, critics and the overall general public all tell how wrong you are. its going to revolutionize the open world games years to come the same way Ocarina of Time did to action adventure games.
 
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Keihart

Member
Nope.

It's a technical marvel and is impressive with its various systems interacting with each other (physics, weather, noise etc). This makes it a slick piece of software for "playing around with". Because it doesn't tell you where to go or what order to do everything in, it's apparently this massive innovation in player choice -the game is about the freedom of completing unfulfilling, meaningless tasks in any order you choose, solved your own way using the games impressive core of systems, which should have been put to use in a better game.

Other than literally just locations/graphics to look at, the most interesting thing you will find is a shrine, aka a tiny mini-dungeon that all have exactly the same tileset and music. Your reward for completing them is just stats or a breakable weapon. Personally, I think this makes this game a total dud for exploration, despite supposedly being its biggest selling point. SNES games understood this, Nintendo has fallen greatly.

Dungeons? Solve 4 giant mech puzzles instead, with similar bosses.

Combat? Well the clunky combat system that expects you to switch gear constantly, with a mechanic to switch in real-time that's unreliable and context sensitive, would be a big problem. Except it doesn't really matter, combat is meaningless anyway, all the enemies are just copy/pasted with bad variety, and present little in the way of rewards for taking the time to fight them. May as well just walk around them.

Yes, the above is pretty much all the content, spread over an insanely large map.

The truth is, it's a title worth playing, but don't go in expecting Ocarina of effing Time or you will feel depressed as reality sets in about 15 hours into the game that this really is it. I fell for all the hype and marketing and thought this might be the next OOT-level Zelda, lol it doesn't even deserve the Zelda name. Nintendo made a polished tech demo for a Zelda game engine and sold it as a full game with a pathetic amount of content copy/pasted over a GIANT map.

And oh. There's no overworld music either.
Boomer bad take.

Zelda combat was never good but serviceable, shrine rewards can be more than breakable weapons and even are contextual with what it takes to get to the shrine or beat it , for example the highest shrines give you the climbing suit. Breakable weapons are only a balancing act so you never stop looking for loot, the master sword kind of goes against it but it balances it out being kind of weak against regular enemies. BoTW it's the best Zelda since the first one, there is no hand holding and the world it's full of objectives that require for you to find your own solutions and mysteries to discover. Quests don't use markers to tell you what to do, requiring that the player pays attention to the context and solve it by their own. I could go on, it's beautifully designed and the overworld does have music, it's dynamic and changes depending in what is going on and where you are.

Edit: I think the game really divides people, are you task oriented or objective oriented?
 
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clem84

Gold Member
Weapon degradation and low inventory space was a big problem for many. I don't understand how they didn't see this in play testing. I hope both are fixed in the sequel.

Despite that it was a true gem. Superb in almost every way.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Gaining control of the divine beasts
to use against the main, final bad guy Calamity Ganon is next level, the “Sheikah Slates” offer more than Navi, Fi, or Midna ever did, this game is incredibly established for being year 1 of the open world approach by Nintendo.
 

SlimeGooGoo

Party Gooper
I still don't understand how people can get triggered by the quality of this game.

And this is a game with capital 'G', as it above all respects the medium it belongs to, and doesn't attempt to be a Hollywood movie like some, and it doesn't shy away from having "video game interactions" (i.e. interactions that only make sense in a video game)

Seriously, some people deserve boring corridor shooters and cinematic 4K walking sims with lootboxes.
 

Fake

Member
Can i ask what's the point of this gif?

To tell every game is unique.

Was very used when games release after BOTW and people call them clone, ctrl+c/ctrl+v. Actually, before BOTW every game/open world was a AC clone, after BOTW every game/open world was a BOTW clone.
 
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GymWolf

Member
I still don't understand how people can get triggered by the quality of this game.

And this is a game with capital 'G', as it above all respects the medium it belongs to, and doesn't attempt to be a Hollywood movie like some, and it doesn't shy away from having "video game interactions" (i.e. interactions that only make sense in a video game)

Seriously, some people deserve boring corridor shooters and cinematic 4K walking sims with lootboxes.
Having different opinions is being triggered now?! In a vg forum where people can share...you know, different opinions?!

Are nintendo fan triggered when they talk shit about successful "cinematic games" from other companies?! Like you are doing in your own post?!

giphy.gif
 

GymWolf

Member
To tell every game is unique.
I still don't understand :lollipop_grinning_sweat:

Edit: oh ok, i readed your edit.

Yeah sure, don't you know, botw invented any gameplay mechanics of the last 10 years, you can't make this shit up :lollipop_squinting:
 
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Fake

Member
I still don't understand :lollipop_grinning_sweat:

Edit: oh ok, i readed your edit.

Yeah sure, don't you know, botw invented any gameplay mechanics of the last 10 years, you can't make this shit up :lollipop_squinting:

Is a parody. If I have any critic against 'gamez' was about overating some game. Every game create a new style and others find inspiration or try to improve some ideias.

I remember seeing people over the twitter telling BOTW created the open world genre... imagine that.

No big deal. There are no games beyond GOD. Even Bloodborne with is my GOAT have their flaws.
 

Jokerevo

Banned
No dungeons. Apart from lynels the enemies are....trivial. If you count seed collecting etc as exploration...

Oh and pause to heal...wtf is this? I can just repeatedly heal myself and carry infinite amounts of food
 
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fart town usa

Gold Member
My favorite feature is that a fire based sword keeps your temperature up so it's not necessary to have winter attire. Helped with exploring various spots when I lacked the proper gear. Same applies for certain hot spots with an ice based sword.
 
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Lethal01

Member
The terrain design in BOTW is one of its biggest success. You got to place on the map because they actually look and end up being interesting rather than just a quest marker. And you never go more than a couple minutes without seeing something interesting..
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
The terrain design in BOTW is one of its biggest success. You got to place on the map because they actually look and end up being interesting rather than just a quest marker. And you never go more than a couple minutes without seeing something interesting..

Look! There's another camp with the same enemies I already fought 10,000 times! Cool, an apple tree! Now I'm going to spend ten minutes climbing those mountain ridges and then hang glide to the bottom once I find out there's absolutely nothing there!
 

Lethal01

Member
Look! There's another camp with the same enemies I already fought 10,000 times! Cool, an apple tree! Now I'm going to spend ten minutes climbing those mountain ridges and then hang glide to the bottom once I find out there's absolutely nothing there!

Every other open world has about 10x more nothing in the places that look interesting, and that's on top of the place already looking less interesting.
 
In time, it'll only be remembered so fondly for the people whose first zelda it was, and anybody else is hopeless on the level of thinking GTA4 is a good game.
 

Diddy X

Member
2 has chances of being close to "perfection" if they fix and expand, 1 clearly lacks on some aspects, you can't call it GOAT or any of that nonsense. Great game tho.
 

Lethal01

Member
2 has chances of being close to "perfection" if they fix and expand, 1 clearly lacks on some aspects, you can't call it GOAT or any of that nonsense. Great game tho.

Can and will, it's got flaws just like all other great games, but the positives outweigh it.
 
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