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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Preview Thread

J

Jb

Member
Ugh, I told myself I'd get the game with a Switch in a few months but reading these previews is like some next level edgeplay...
 
MikeBison

MikeBison

Member
foxbeldin said:
I can already see the thread in two years. "2017 was the best year in gaming. Period."
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We're a couple of months in and I already feel like that. A few of the traditional big hitters coming back strong with things like RE7, Mass effect and Zelda, with new IP's like Horizon and Nioh. It's like were in a time warp where Capcom, Nintendo, Sony, Bioware and others are smashing it.

Anyway, the thing I'm most excited about by all these previews is the comments that BOTW seems to have tonnes of fresh ideas and keeps coming up with ways to surprise you. From enemy encounters, to dramatic weather in interesting areas, to physics based puzzles in the mini dungeons. Can't wait to explore the 'proper' story dungeons fresh for the first time. Will certainly be careful about which reviews I read next week.

To think I can be playing this at home and pick up the console, sling it into my bag and continue at work like the jabroni's in the adverts. That will be me!

NOTHING CAN STOP THIS HYPE TRAIN BABY!
 
K

Kthulhu

Member
Chaos17 said:
8fa456a2b2.png
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Not to downplay his experience, but we're only like two months in fam.
 
S

Skittzo0413

Member
MHWilliams said:
I find myself carrying extra crap weapons just because I'm not sure when my good stuff is going to break. I also stamped locations of good weapons on the map, so I can go back to restock.

Like this shot:



I'm carrying weapons of wildly divergent quality because of the durability thing. I only have Bokoblin Arm because of that! It turns the game into a "What's on hand?" combat experience. I don't enjoy it, but it is what it is. I played through Scholar of the First Sin with its durability bug because I didn't know better. This feels about the same.
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Interesting, thanks for sharing. I feel like this is something I personally would enjoy as it prevents even minor combat encounters from becoming bland (like in the Witcher) but I can certainly see how people may not like it.

I think the major difference between this and SotFS is that there seems to be no way to actually repair weapons (that we know of).
 
H

Harmen

Member
Sounds great! I really hope other developers look at this game for some examples on how to make their exploration more interesting (especially Ubisoft). I still don't think the game looks all that good graphicswise, but that is only a minor complain when the rest of the game is stellar.



As for the inevitable Horizon comparisons, that game may share some basic similarities but is much more cinematic/narrative/lore focused and this one seems to be all about adventuring/interacting with the world. Both titles seem to be a treat for gamers.
 
RPGCrazied

RPGCrazied

Member
One more week!! Ahhh. Got all the new amiibo's preordered(had to do bestbuy, Amazon seems to be sold out of them). I will double dip this game for sure. Day 1 is Wii U, then when I get a switch around summertime I will buy the game again.
 
P

Plum

Member
Quote from the video discussion on GameXplain

GameXplain said:
"The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of those rare games. It is an Ocarina of Time level game. It is a Super Mario Galaxy level game. This is a game we're going to be talking about for decades to come. It's going to be a reference point for these discussions 10, 20, 30 years from now. So you're going to want to remember where you were, what you were doing in your life, when you played Breath of the Wild for the first time. It is that good.
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C

Coffinhal

Member
papercan55 said:
so the first gameplay footage grass really is still in the game.
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And look at how the lighning is cutting it by putting fire to the whole area where Link is. Glorious. I believe the rain is also turning off the fire.

I love how the clouds, and therefore skyboxes, don't have linear paths too.

ToD_ said:
Also, that's clearly a screenshot taken in undocked (handheld) mode at native 720p. I'm glad Gamespot took a bunch of those. Looks great.
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I'm a bit concerned with the aliasing around Link, or maybe it's the jpeg ?
 
A

anddo0

Member
The weapon durability sounds a bit off-putting.. I wish all games handled weapons like Soulsborne.. Either games have too much loot (Nioh) or durability issues causing constant weapon switching (Zelda). I wonder if HZD has these issues.
 
T

The Big N

Banned
MHWilliams said:
There are hammers. Two handers early on.



As far as I know, they've only sent out the Switch version.



All the screenshots in my preview are from the in-system Capture tool.



No major spoilers - plot, boss, bad guys, main, and supporting characters. No direct puzzle solutions. There are two fairly major aspects of the open-world we're not allowed to talk about. Any extra named NPCs on the map. Certain Sheik tablet abilities. We were only allowed to talk about certain weapons, armor, and items. Oddly enough, some of them I'd be hard pressed to reach in five hours.



You're welcome and thanks for the compliment!
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I've notice most of the previews listed are based off the first 5 hours of gameplay. Is Nintendo limiting previews to the first 5 hours of gameplay you encounter, or is that just a number most reviewers are considering fair for a preview article?
 
G

Griss

Member
Master Yoshi said:
I know I may be buried under the vast ammount of activity in this thread, but does this game set the new bar for every Zelda game going forward? Will every Zelda title from here on out be expected to be a vast, open world experience?
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No one can know, but given current gaming trends you have to assume that's the case.

I'd love to see them go back to Wind Waker and do another of those games, but with ginormous islands the size of parts of the BotW map. Now that would be a pirate game to remember.
 
R

Raw64life

Member
Not that anything I would've heard would stop me from getting the game, but nice to be reassured it will be GOTY quality.

My only worry is the survival stuff as I never enjoy equipment degrading/crafting/cooking shit in games, even though the previews say it's well done. In the Gamespot video nearly half the highlights have "your X is about to break" messages in them. I love the Souls series but it's pretty hard to have your shit break in those games unless your really not paying attention. Seems like it'll be happening constantly in this game.
 
M

Master Yoshi

Member
Raw64life said:
Not that anything I would've heard would stop me from getting the game, but nice to be reassured it will be GOTY quality.

My only worry is the survival stuff as I never enjoy equipment degrading/crafting/cooking shit in games, even though the previews say it's well done. In the Gamespot video nearly half the highlights have "your X is about to break" messages in them. I love the Souls series but it's pretty hard to have your shit break in those games unless your really not paying attention. Seems like it'll be happening constantly in this game.
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Keep in mind this is within the first five hours. I presume more durable weaponry will become available the further in the game you are...

I am curious if there will be unbreakable swords and shields? Surely the Master Sword and Hylian Shield won't be breakable? (I know the Master Sword will likely break as a plot point to restore it.)
 
G

Geg

Member
I'm too busy at work to look at any previews right now, but I saw someone mention framerate issues when the switch is docked? Is this true/how bad is it?
 
L

LotusHD

Banned
Holy shit, did they really do it? Did they create the first open world game I will genuinely attempt to explore the entirety of it?
 
O

Octavianus

Banned
Sir_Crocodile said:
Gamecentral's:

http://metro.co.uk/2017/02/24/the-l...the-wild-hands-on-preview-eye-opener-6470487/

Some exceprts:

Nintendo has talked about how they went back to the very first NES game for inspiration, which sounds like hyperbole given the technology gulf between 1986 and now. But actually, the comparisons are entirely valid.

Having just completed it, we couldn’t help but think of Horizon Zero Dawn while playing Breath Of The Wild, and how simplistic it now seems compared to Zelda. You also have a bow in Breath Of The Wild, but you have to account for how arrows arc through the air, rather than it just acting like a low-tech sniper rifle. Boomerangs have to be caught manually on their return and the best way to defeat the skeletons that appear at night is to chop of their head and punt it into a river, like a goalkeeper trying to make a clearance.

You always expect a Zelda game to be good, but the attention to detail and willingness to innovate in Breath Of The Wild is well beyond our expectations. We wouldn’t suggest that any of this necessarily has anything to do with the Switch though, as the game was originally designed for the Wii U. As such the graphics are certainly not a match for the likes of Horizon, with often very simple geometry and textures. The frame rate sometimes becomes a little syrupy too, and there’s obvious object pop-in if you look for it.

We’re doing our best to find faults here but the truth is we’re hugely impressed. We already know some things we can’t talk about here, and other secrets that have been hinted to us by Nintendo. At this stage we’d shocked if this didn’t turn out to be the best Zelda since Ocarina Of Time. It may even surpass it, and since many still regard that as the best video game ever made it becomes almost impossible to overstate just how good Breath Of The Wild is.
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6bl4fZU.gif
 
Yoshi

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Rodin said:
The fact that you always find new weapons with very different movesets and you can select them via quick inventory makes it very different from games like TW3, where it's just a pain in the ass to restore them if you don't want them to deal less damage. It's done right here, what aren't you liking?
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I see no value in the additional work required to obtain these additional copies of weapons. To have a great array of weapons with individual gameplay at your disposal does not mean they need to be distructible. It just adds some overhead that requires redundant work, but offers not meaningful challenge and therefore is necessarily without a value. In Skyward Sword (or TP, after the intial stretch of boredom) you didn't have to do anything just to restock your basic weaponry and I expect a lower density of relevant gameplay content in BotW as a consequence. Having a decent amount of traditional dungeons and 120 puzzle oriented shrines (possibly mitigating my general issue with open world games: Nothing mechanically interesting in the world, all superfluous "immersion" fluff) on top of that might apeace me, but I am certainly not happy about weapon breaking.
 
M

-MB-

Member
Tertullian said:
Yessssss let the salt flow through you.

I'd better get some good meltdowns out of this launch. Whether from Zelda fans if the game metacritics below a 90, or Sony fans if it crushes Horizon, or whoever. I need to bathe in those tears.
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How childish of you.
 
B

bigol

Member
Salex_ said:
I've never seen any post say that and I've clicked on that thread whenever it was on the first page.

I don't see a reason to try to create drama to fuel this stupid fanboy war.

The thought of people feeling threatened by having multiple great games coming out in the same week is weird.
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There were many posts. One of them joking or not was hoping to see Zelda review just one point under Horizon for the meltdowns.

As for myself, i don't have a Switch, i have a Ps4, i should be excited for that PlayStation exclusive but looking at these gameplay videos i am tempted to buy the Switch too just for Zelda. It appeals to me so much more than Horizon.
 
T

ToD_

Member
Coffinhal said:
I'm a bit concerned with the aliasing around Link, or maybe it's the jpeg ?
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Doesn't look like a compression issue. It's just normal aliasing. 720p, no AA in handheld mode. Should look great on the small switch screen. I wouldn't worry too much.
 
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