4847 replies to this topic

[Cukeman]

   So I bought ALBW tonight for $28 (great deal if you ask me) and played as far as the villain intro. I was worried that re-using an overworld would be a gimmick, and in a way, it probably is, but damn did I get excited when the intro showing Hyrule Castle popped up! I guess Nintendo can still sell us old stuff. Well, not Link sleeping at the start, I'm tired of that trope, but still, visiting Sanctuary and hearing the revamped music was a big deal to me, thrilling in fact. Interesting to see the Triforce cross, since Nintendo has gone back and forth on censoring religious-like imagery. The torchlight effects in dark caves looked great, and I'm getting a vibe that this game might have some decent enemy challenge for a change, fingers crossed. The camera angle and "tile pattern" has some resemblance to PH, but everything here feels like such a far higher quality production in visuals, detail, music and control- excited to see what's in store.

   Oh, and I finally went back to using my real name instead of Link, like I did when I started playing Zelda. It makes it more fun, interesting and feels personally relevant, more like I'm in the adventure, which is what the developers intent is, I feel. They always talk about Link being the player, and your connection to the world of Hyrule. Sure I had about a ten plus year period where I called my character Link, but that feels so bland and boring to me now, always a generic hero name, much more fun to have my identity tied into the game I feel.

   So far Buzz Blobs don't even buzz though, which is disappointing. Oh, and a certain mask in Link's house being a mere decorative easter egg is way too far-fetched, I guess it's there to tease a game that was in development, but...

Edited by Cukeman, 29 August 2016 - 02:08 AM.

[Orithan]

The enemy difficulty is arguably the easiest of any Zelda game, even when the Lorule enemies start hitting for heavy damage, because of the amount of hitstun all but a handful of enemies get when they are hit easily allowing for you to chain-hit strike them to oblivion before they get to attack. If that's not enough, the Boomerang and Tornado Rod are both absurdly powerful stunning tools which almost always allow you to get the first hit in. The only enemies that should be threatening are the Red Lynels and one of the Lorule minibosses. It's so easy that Nintendo made the game's Hero Mode do 4x Damage instead of the normal 2x Damage.

In this game, the Green Buzz Blobs buzz. You have only been encountering the Yellow Buzzblobs so far, which only seem to exist to look pretty before they get splattered all over the ground.

Edited by Orithan, 29 August 2016 - 03:21 AM.

[HylianGlaceon]

The enemy difficulty is arguably the easiest of any Zelda game, even when the Lorule enemies start hitting for heavy damage, because of the amount of hitstun all but a handful of enemies get when they are hit easily allowing for you to chain-hit strike them to oblivion before they get to attack. If that's not enough, the Boomerang and Tornado Rod are both absurdly powerful stunning tools which almost always allow you to get the first hit in. The only enemies that should be threatening are the Red Lynels and one of the Lorule minibosses. It's so easy that Nintendo made the game's Hero Mode do 4x Damage instead of the normal 2x Damage.

In this game, the Green Buzz Blobs buzz. You have only been encountering the Yellow Buzzblobs so far, which only seem to exist to look pretty before they get splattered all over the ground.

Indeed, also something else to note is that you can upgrade the Hammer pretty early on and it is stronger than even the final Sword in terms of damage.

[Cukeman]

Buzz Blobs that are green do nothing, yellow ones buzz visibly, but where's the surprise factor ?

 

Anyway WTF is up with the timeline backstory making zero sense?

Edited by Cukeman, 30 August 2016 - 12:36 AM.

[Avaro]

Anyway WTF is up with the timeline backstory making zero sense?

 

What about it makes no sense? If it's inconsistency between this and something from another zelda game I wouldn't mind too much. xD

[Cukeman]

It gives us the OoT history, then tells us that after a long time LttP Link and the maidens (descendants of the sages) defeated Ganon, which is alright, sure. Then at the end it says Ganon was sealed and the Triforce split? That part I don't get. That happened at the end(s) of OoT not LttP.

Edited by Cukeman, 30 August 2016 - 11:50 PM.

[The Satellite]

It's a very good question and we can only wonder whether there's now a new story post-ALttP or they retconned ALttP. Neither option seems all that appealing (since Ganon-sealing is so generic at this point) but I'd take new story over retcon. Plus that means a potential new game.

[Cukeman]

I just hope they don't start intentionally putting errors in the backstories so they can claim 'inaccurate legends' were passed down just to cover up inconsistencies.

 

Also, updated SFX like rupee still have "the same" LttP sound while being new- very cool!

[The Satellite]

I think they actually used a handful of the same sound effects directly from ALttP, maybe slightly touched up a bit digitally. I'm not complaining.

 

Spirit Tracks is down. What I enjoy about this game is that there's a lot more personality to it, in the graphics and cutscenes. While it's still ultimately a little dull just because of the DS's graphics engine, it's still far away an improvement from Phantom Hourglass and much nicer to look at. Dungeons especially stand out from each other much more, and are less of a blur in my mind than Phantom Hourglass's. And there's some fun dungeons and gimmicks here... even if it once again ends on a sand dungeon. The story is ultimately better as well, though I do wish they'd done more to expand the lore of a new continent instead of more or less use a classic-style storyline with names changed and a train slapped onto it.

 

Otherwise it doesn't do much to improve on Phantom Hourglass. Most of the tedium remains from its predecessor, including a helper that likes to point out the obvious sometimes (though not nearly as bad as Ciela), rooms that lock you in with enemies until you defeat them, and slow-ass event cutscenes. And since I don't feel like rewriting this huge-ass post whose contents were wiped courtesy of a site glitch while editing, bullet point time.

 

- Escort missions combined with fetch quests with the most arbitrary rules and signs to follow. Annoying and I'm already distracted enough trying to keep the train alive.

- Train itself is built well and adapted fine, just is kind of slow and the only fast travel that exists is basically pointless. It also hampers exploration, which is partially what I play Zelda for.

- Each individual station/village is pretty basic and barebones, not very deep or interesting, some Phantom Hourglass islands were more interesting.

- Tower of Spirits is decent, but despite breaking up each section, Temple of the Ocean King was more fun, and Tower of Spirits went on one section too long.

- Controlling Phantoms with Zelda is a neat concept, but she moves so slow and you're forced to wait for her to catch up when you want to change floors. This also removes Phantom Hourglass's sweet satisfaction of killing the Phantoms at the end. If we'd been allowed to kill the godawful bomb trains on the overworld, that might've been a fair trade, but noooooooooo.

- What is the stupid boss key garbage in either game? Why can't we just put it in our inventory, why do we have to carry it? And why did Spirit Tracks add in wallmasters to dodge to make it even worse? Only one time was carrying the boss key ever fun, and that was when mine carts were involved, otherwise, never do this again and it shouldn't have been done in the first place.

- Items and their usage just aren't as fun as Phantom Hourglass's.

 

The DS games ultimately are just not as fulfilling as most of the other games in the series, with aggravating moments that can mar the entire experience, no matter what high points they may have. I'm moving on to Skyward Sword and A Link Between Worlds, but I might need a mental break as well as mental preparation first...

[Cukeman]

I think PH had a more rewarding/meaningful ending.

[Avaro]

Weird, I found it great when I found out the tower of spirits is not over yet and there's more to it. I liked how the last few floors made you use all the phantom types. Agreed with everything else you said.

[The Satellite]

Courtesy of a server/site glitch managing to happen right as I was editing, trying to remove two words in that post ended up removing several paragraphs instead. I'm pissed, but I put up much of what I had written again in shortened bullet point form. I tried to recover what I had written through various means to no avail. I'm never using the quick edit function again.

[Shane]

I think PH had a more rewarding/meaningful ending.

I personally disagree. I got goosebumps when watching the ending of Spirit Tracks and that's something that most Zelda games don't even do for me. And I just found the setting, atmosphere, music and whatnot to be far better honestly.

As for what I'm currently playing, I decided to play Paper Mario Sticker Star because I did buy it and never really gave it a fair chance. Though I'm really mixed about the game currently. I probably will try to find the old Paper Mario games after this. There's also Xenoblade and another game I need to complete.

[Nicholas Steel]

I haven't played it yet but 3D Dot Game Heroes arrived today! Surprisingly it comes with a high quality coloured 25 page manual which is very nice (50 pages, but half the pages are the same stuff in another language).

Edited by Nicholas Steel, 02 September 2016 - 07:20 AM.

[Cukeman]

I haven't played it yet but 3D Dot Game Heroes arrived today! Surprisingly it comes with a high quality coloured 25 page manual which is very nice (50 pages, but half the pages are the same stuff in another language).

 

I wanna get that game so much.

 

I'm REALLY liking ALBW! It's unfortunate that the dungeons aren't very long, but dungeon puzzles are mostly great. There were a couple things that didn't seem well implemented, how was I supposed to know that Link plants his feet on a raft when using the Hookshot? And I also didn't know the Fire Rod could reach vertical targets. Those gameplay elements needed some kind of hints or introductions.

 

There are some minor issues, like not having anything to buy with all this money (unless it becomes a requirement to buy the rental items for some reason), but the enemies are much more plentiful and challenging than Ocarina of Time, which is hugely important to me. 

 

Progress so far: Thieves Town, Swamp Palace, and Skull Woods complete, saved at the entrance of Dark Palace.

 

This is minor, but why did they do away with the save anywhere feature of past games?

Edited by Cukeman, 04 September 2016 - 02:10 PM.