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1
Other Games / Re: Tears of the Kingdom
« on: November 02, 2023, 09:30:19 pm »
I am only about 100hrs in, been getting in and out of it over the past months. I admire your dedication though! Do you think you're done with TotK forever, or do you intend to replay it?

How do you track old maps? I think I have them all just based on my thorough exploration of the sky islands, but would be cool to know for sure.

2
Other Games / Re: Tears of the Kingdom
« on: September 03, 2023, 02:56:26 pm »
Got back to TotK after a summer break. I have two temples done, and all 12 tears, and seen most of the surface world other than the areas around Gerudo and Zora domains.

Did a quick trip to Hyrule castle, and explored the surface and floating areas, since a note from Zelda implies you should visit the throne room. It felt less epic than in BotW, but I assume because there is more left underground. Without spoilers, should I be leaving the underground part of the castle until the endgame, or is it fine to visit earlier?

3
Other Games / Re: Tears of the Kingdom
« on: June 18, 2023, 04:03:33 am »
They also despawn after a while, not sure what causes it. They drop dark clumps instead of spawning Phantom Ganon. That's what happened to me in all encounters before the Lost Woods one, but I've since also defeated them outside and spawned phantom Ganon too.

4
Other Games / Re: Tears of the Kingdom
« on: June 17, 2023, 06:00:15 pm »
Beat my first Gleeok miniboss. It was the one in Hebra, nominally blocking the way for a stable quest. I had put it off for a while, because it looked pretty intimidating, but I thought I was ready with level 2 armor and weapons in the high 30 damage stat. Boy was I wrong. First death since the early game that didn't involve my equipment being taken away. My weapons barely tickled it, and each attack took over half my health. I did eventually defeat it, but it really feels like Gleeoks are meant to be very late game enemies, unless there is some way to cheese them I am not aware of.

Also beat my first Gloom Hands. It was the one in the Lost Woods, and I had to look online how you actually beat them. I ran through all of my arrows because I didn't realize you have to kill all five of them at once, and they just kept respawning on me. Unfortunately in the process I also got spoiled that Gloom Hands have a uh second phase. It wasn't quite what I expected based on the name, pretty good at ramping the tension in a different way.

Got the Master Sword. I went to the Lost Woods and cleared the quest there, got the GPS tracker, and jumped on the dragon from a sky island. I did all this before completing all the memories, so I just thought it was the most metal way to get the Master Sword from any LoZ to date. Then I got some extra memories and realized it might actually be the saddest way.

Also completed one of the labyrinths. For how involved they are this time around, I certainly was disappointed by the reward.

5
Other Games / Re: Tears of the Kingdom
« on: June 16, 2023, 09:13:00 am »
I like how Ocarina of Time really solidified the idea that Gerudo dungeons always come last even when it's not mandatory.

To be fair, when the big bad is Ganondorf (unless there is a last minute twist I didn't reach yet), it makes sense to have his birth place be the last dungeon before the final one.
EDIT: the Gerudo are actually fairly rare in games! Only OoT/MM, Four Sword Adventures, and now BotW/TotK have Gerudo in them (excluding Ganondorf and Twinrova). 

6
Other Games / Re: Tears of the Kingdom
« on: June 12, 2023, 06:54:26 pm »
Completed my second temple too, the Goron one. Almost felt like a (shorter) proper Zelda dungeon, only less linear; I did end up brute forcing some parts because I couldn't figure out the solution, and I am ambivalent about that being an option. Boss was ok too, although also open to brute force solutions.

Overall I prefer it to the Rito one, whose focus was more on figuring out how to navigate it.

7
Other Games / Re: Tears of the Kingdom
« on: June 10, 2023, 04:05:39 pm »
On a related note, I do really love the interactions with the Yiga Clan in this game. Much more interesting than how they were in BOTW; to the point where some of them will actually give you helpful information that would normally come from other random friendly characters, before turning on you and fighting.

I love that those interactions aren't relegated to 99% getting "ambushed" by travelers. They have a more spread out influence in the overworld, some quests associated with them, and entirely new gameplay in the depths.


Overall I think it's great and a lot of fun, but I don't think it's touching BotW in terms of sheer awe-factor. I'm sure there are some people out there who are playing TotK without having played BotW and it would be really interesting to know how differently the game plays for them. But like, for the most part, I've been here before. It's just about seeing what's different this time around, so I feel motivated to check out the places where I expect a lot of new stuff happening (towns, stables, the sky islands, the depths), but I'm not feeling a real drive to scour every corner of the map to see what's there any more. I think the criticisms from before release that the game was going to be nothing more than $70 DLC are unfair, since there really is a ton going on in terms of story, side quests, etc., but it feels maybe more like BotW 1.5.

I don't play many video games outside the Zelda series--are there other examples of a sequel that's structured as a new story taking place in literally the same map as a previous entry in the series like this?

I agree with your point that knowing what and where the main landmarks are has influenced the way I play, where I fwoosh across the map at the sky island level as much as possible, jumping from stable to sky tower to town and so on. When I do bother with riding from point A to point B, I enjoy the new content around (minigames, caves, the Hudson construction dude, zonai device shenanigans)... but I've already seen the vistas, collected Korok seeds and hunted minibosses before, so exploration is not as motivating. The first dragon I saw in BotW, while I was crossing the Hylia bridge at night, is one of the most magical moments I've ever experienced in gaming. But you can only see it for the first time once.

That being said, TotK is still a marked improvement over BotW in so many ways. I'm withholding a definitive opinion until I finish it (will take a while), but so far it seems like it obsoletes its predecessor. They're both such long games, I would recommend a new player to only play TotK.

On your final question, I think the only time I had experienced this before was in Pokemon Silver/Gold, which "reuses" the map from Pokemon Red/Blue, but mixed up. It was only applicable for the second half of the game, and it was a cool surprise at the time. You're still breezing through it because it's paced like an extended postgame. From Zelda games, I understand a Link between Worlds reuses the map from A Link to the Past, but I haven't played it (and I played aLttP so long ago, I wouldn't even recognize the map anyway). Quick search online brings up the Yakuza games, which are always set in the same town district, and it's a big part of their identity. The Far Cry games reuse their maps for their different-setting DLC, but it's not actually meant to be the same place; this one seems to mostly have met with bad reception, unlike the previously mentioned cases.

There are also a ton of games that have you go through the entire map again, remixed, as part of their main quest, but that's not what is being discussed here. Or sequels that nominally happen in the same place but in practice use a new map, at most reusing only small areas that were too distinctive to change.

8
Other Games / Re: Tears of the Kingdom
« on: June 09, 2023, 09:04:35 pm »
Well just ran into yet another frustration as a result of a poor game design... spent well over an hour doing a quest in the depths, only to eventually give up out of frustration and look it up. Turns out it's a place we just weren't supposed to be yet, and have to come back later after doing another side quest. Related to the "Mystery in the Depths" sidequest that you get after completing the first dungeon:

While exploring the depths, we randomly came across a statue of a woman, and noticed she was looking directly at another identical statue. We remembered Josha's sidequest which says that there are a series of statues, each looking at the next until the last one is looking at a special building/temple. So we followed from statue to statue, on and on. Found a couple lightroots along the way. Eventually got to a statue and could NOT find the statue it was looking at. Walked in a straight line to where it was looking a really long way. Went back to the statue a couple times to make sure we had the trajectory correct. Made sure the statue wasn't looking at any interesting building nearby... it was in a mine where there were some helpful constructs, but not looking at anything in particular. So it turns out that these statues are for another quest which is only unlocked after doing A Mystery in the Depths. The last statue we found really was the last one, and had we already unlocked this other sidequest, something interesting would have happened at the final location.

We did know (or at least my wife did), that these statues looked different than the ones in Josha's mural, and the one we had found originally as part of the getting the Camera quest. But still, they were a series of statues that clearly were supposed to be leading somewhere.


I don't know if it's the same one, but I found a series of statues that eventually lead to a dead end, with a yiga clan member saying that the statues usually lead to an abandoned mine, but this one seemed to be buried somehow (then attacking you, of course). Got there before unlocking the Mystery in the Depths sidequest, but after a quick look around, decided I was missing some sort of ability to proceed - the game had already suggested it could hold things back from you, based on the paraglider *not* being compulsory.

There seem to be a handful of such trails, and I am currently doing them in the suggested order by Josha. Good to know you *have* to. It's funny because I started the Mystery in the Depths quest because Robbie implies he will give you the sensor "ability" afterwards, but turns out you unlock something arguably much more important first.

9
Other Games / Re: Tears of the Kingdom
« on: June 02, 2023, 07:06:26 pm »
Related to the complaint multiple of us have had with how they didn't make it obvious when something needed more progression before being possible... a friend of mine just told me that last night he got to the Wind Temple, but hadn't yet talked to Tulin at all. Spend literally hours trying to complete it before finally giving up and looking up a guide, only to find out that it wasn't at all possible. Now has to spend a long time doing the very long path to get back there after finding Tulin.

I am assuming the teleport spot doesnt activate if you get there without Tulin, but even then, there is a shrine most of the way up there. Shouldn't be too bad.

But yes, it's part of the reason I am focusing on the main quest a lot.

You can activate the teleport spot, but it doesn't help because Tulin won't follow you when you teleport. Same is probably true for teleporting to the shrine.

WTF, ok that's terrible.

10
Other Games / Re: Tears of the Kingdom
« on: June 01, 2023, 02:01:02 pm »
Related to the complaint multiple of us have had with how they didn't make it obvious when something needed more progression before being possible... a friend of mine just told me that last night he got to the Wind Temple, but hadn't yet talked to Tulin at all. Spend literally hours trying to complete it before finally giving up and looking up a guide, only to find out that it wasn't at all possible. Now has to spend a long time doing the very long path to get back there after finding Tulin.

I am assuming the teleport spot doesnt activate if you get there without Tulin, but even then, there is a shrine most of the way up there. Shouldn't be too bad.

But yes, it's part of the reason I am focusing on the main quest a lot.

11
Other Games / Re: Tears of the Kingdom
« on: May 31, 2023, 03:17:28 pm »
Finished the main Rito questline, got back to Lookout Landing. There's what seems like a short quest there that will draw you into a definitely-not-short bit of exploring. Don't be like me and try to finish it just before going to bed.

Was it the Royal Secret Passage? If so, then we were indeed like you and now it's past 1:30 am and I have work in the morning. Like really, how long could a cave possibly take to explore?

I tried to warn you!

12
Other Games / Re: Tears of the Kingdom
« on: May 29, 2023, 10:09:19 am »
Finished the main Rito questline, got back to Lookout Landing. There's what seems like a short quest there that will draw you into a definitely-not-short bit of exploring. Don't be like me and try to finish it just before going to bed. EDIT: for the sake of future readers, the name of the quest is "Who goes there".

In other news, I systematically forget about ascend being a thing.

13
Other Games / Re: Tears of the Kingdom
« on: May 23, 2023, 01:34:31 pm »
Finished the tutorial (which, as pointed earlier in this thread, doesn't quite end when you "descend", but when Purah tells you to go out and explore). Got a horse (you keep the ones from your BotW save!), and chose one of the many threads the "starting town" points you towards, though there is one that they insist on - kinda like BotW pointed you towards Dueling Peaks, then Kakariko, then Zora domain, even if technically you could go anywhere.

Really enjoying ultrahand, and the flexibility it gives you for puzzles. The "snapping" when glue-ing things together is a plus in my book, less fiddling about when the game only allows some angles. Bit annoying that one of the rotations is not allowed, so you have to twist things around quite a bit sometimes to do a simple turn. I haven't played around too much with Fuse hand, but I appreciate that it means you're never far from having a hammer/axe/fan, without having to constantly carry them around. And it can probably lead to silly moments, once I have enough resources to not fret about sticking them on a stick to see what happens (only death so far was against an enemy in the tutorial area that had a flamethrower on its sword, you probably know the one). No thoughts yet on how it affects "hoarding" good weapons.

Zonai devices seem interesting, but haven't used them too much yet. It looks like they might trivialize puzzles, if you're willing to spend them that way. Haven't figured out yet how to actually launch wings without a proper launchpad.

Shrines coming back in such a similar form was a bit eyebrow-raising, but to be fair they filled a very important role in BotW, which is hard to replace in any other way. And I am enjoying the new puzzles so far. I do hope it doesn't mean we're not getting proper dungeons in this one either, that would be a bummer.

Did a very quick trip to the Depths. It seemed a bit barren to me, but maybe it gets better later. The twist on semi-persistent heart damage might force me to actually learn how to fight, we will see.

Very strong start to the game so far. About the only snag for me is that I moved recently, so I don't have a proper TV/monitor to play on, and the game doesn't always look very crisp in handheld mode.

14
Other Games / Re: Tears of the Kingdom
« on: May 14, 2023, 03:56:29 am »
I assumed you would start a new thread, given how engrossed you were with BotW :) Haven't had the time to get it yet, but I have a long weekend coming up next week, where I think I might be less productive than I should ;D

Been doing my best to avoid spoilers, but I am pretty sure I should avoid this thread until I've got at least 10h in or so. Hope you're enjoying it!

15
Other Games / Re: Spirit Island
« on: November 24, 2022, 10:18:13 am »
I have given it a couple of tries on Tabletop Simulator, solo but with multiple spirits, to get a feel for the game. Once I actually figured out the rules, it's still a long game (playing solo, about 2h per spirit/board, depending on their complexity and interplay). Best I can give to speed things up is to only plan your fast powers, and avoid overthinking slow powers : too many options to work through otherwise, given fear cards / events / explore actions can make it hard to predict what the board will look like by then.

16
General Discussion / Re: STAR WARS
« on: October 17, 2022, 04:30:04 pm »
I am really enjoying it too. Ep 6 in particular was something else.

17
Upvoted the original post just for the sheer audacity of the "copper strategist" phrase. ClouduHieh, if that's the way you enjoy playing the game, then all the more fun to you!

18
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Prosperity 2E Preview 1
« on: June 03, 2022, 07:30:15 pm »
I struggle to see why Magnate costs 5$, when it's rarely better than Smithy, and often worse. I'll be curious to see what the consensus on the card is after people have had time to play with it.

19
Non-Mafia Game Threads / Re: Cardle
« on: March 16, 2022, 08:39:15 pm »
Nobles

20
Non-Mafia Game Threads / Re: Cardle
« on: March 16, 2022, 12:15:58 pm »
Ritual

21
Non-Mafia Game Threads / Re: Cardle
« on: March 15, 2022, 06:27:53 pm »
Procession

22
Other Games / Re: Outer Wilds
« on: March 07, 2022, 05:06:43 am »
I get what you mean. I did need a walkthrough for a couple of puzzles for the reason you stated. In all the cases, I basically had the right idea, but implementation was slightly off, and waiting 10 mins to try again was too much to ask for me. But I felt that was only a problem for the final hour of the game or so. Before then, you can just go explore elsewhere during those 10 minutes, then try again.
I also found the freedom to explore anywhere pretty well realized, not overwhelming: no matter where you go, there is stuff to uncover. There is no *wrong* choice. Plus, you’re expected to visit most places multiple times as you get “hints” for how everything works, so it’s fine to miss stuff the first time around. The hollow planet is by far the densest, so I could understand feeling overwhelmed if you start the game there and try to 100% it before moving on to the next, it gives you the wrong expectation about how “big” everything else is going to be.

23
Non-Mafia Game Threads / Re: Cardle
« on: March 06, 2022, 02:29:34 pm »
I feel like splitting between just Support (draw/actions/sifters), deck building (trashers/gainers), payload (coins/+VP/attacks) would be a better split. Some cards would be straddling categories, but that's what orange is for. Not saying these three are the only way to split it (e.g. is Duchy payload? I would argue it isn't, it's a stop card. It doesn't do anything for you once it's in your deck), but your distinctions were too narrow / numerous.

Even then, it can still be redundant depending on the other categories in the round. If you put cards in, and you find out it gives +3 cards, you don't learn anything from also figuring out it's a Support card.

24
Non-Mafia Game Threads / Re: Cardle
« on: March 05, 2022, 02:19:20 pm »
Treasure Trove

I think "purpose" is too vague a category, unless you list all possible categories ahead of time.

25
Non-Mafia Game Threads / Re: Cardle
« on: March 03, 2022, 06:19:10 pm »
Mountebank

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