Breath of the Wild - Busted Buttons Ep. 24

Red and I talk Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild for the entire episode!

We start with the overall game world of Hyrule and its locations, regions, and towns.

Then we hit on the gameplay. What did we think about the new climbing and paragliding mechanics? What about the weather and day/night cycles? Do we like the combat with all the various weapons? How about our opinions on the Sheikah Slate runes?

Afterwards, we discuss the story. Did Red and I like it? What about the memories?

We then tackle the Divine Beasts and shrines. How did we feel about the new type of dungeons in the Divine Beasts? What about our feelings on the shrines, which many consider to be the mini-dungeons in the game?

Later, we quickly address the characters and enemies in the game.

We end with a discussion on the side quests and shrine quests in the game before giving our final thoughts.

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Transcript

Hick: 0:17

Here we are Episode 24. And for all our two guys playing Zelda fans, this is the episode for you all so long we're talking Breath of the Wild one the best Zelda depends who you ask. If you ask us, we don't even think it's the best but one of the better games I think most fans would agree like one of the better Zelda games in the franchise, but we've already had an episode where we talk basically all Zelda kind of went through all the games, but this one we're just going to focus on Breath of the Wild because last week red shows that went over all Korea time. Not gonna lie. I was a little bit upset about that. But anyways, we will talk about occurring at a time someday. But yeah, today is not that day. You

Red: 0:58

probably have fans out there who've never even played soccer in time. So we had to go a little more modern game.

Hick: 1:04

We're gonna talk about the world the gameplay story dungeons, if you want to call them dungeons, yeah. Characters enemies quest, we're gonna talk about all of it. Now, here's the things folks are the thing, folks, we we kind of went, we went back, we did do some research, we looked up some things. But we played this game three years ago, when it came out a while we're not gonna remember every quest, we're not going to remember every shrine, there's like 70 120, like there's 78, psych West 42 Shrine quest, how know these numbers is spectacular. 120 shrines, we're not going to know all of them. We're not gonna know all the characters. We're not gonna know every single detail of this story. But we did go back, we researched it, we know we know it pretty well. So read, let's go ahead, I'm gonna throw it to you. The one thing that I want to talk about first is just this gorgeous world that we got, unlike any other world that we got in a Zelda game. What did you think about it?

Red: 2:02

And I think that's really where you have to start with Breath of the Wild, because in my opinion, and I'm pretty sure you agree with me, the world of high rule that they created for Breath of the Wild is truly the star of the game. I mean, this game is all about exploration, just exploring this massive, varied, beautiful world that's bigger than obviously, than any high rule we've ever gotten. It's bigger than a lot of open world games out there. And first of all, I'm amazed they managed to get this big of a world this beautiful and still make it a relatively small game download on the switch. But that's Oh, that's a whole technical thing that I don't know the details behind, but it blows my mind. But it's a massive world, you've got all these different areas with their own climates, with their own environments with their own like animals and things like To me it is one of the most fully realized and realistic not in terms of like graphics, because it's not let's be honest, yeah, but realistic in terms of like, night and day cycle weather cycle, the, you know, the wildlife, the plant life, it's just, and just the varied terrains that you get and the effects that they have on you as a character. And we'll get into that a little bit more down in like the gameplay section. But just to me, it blew my mind how big and varied this world truly was. And like if I have one thing that I necessarily didn't care for, is that most of Hyrule is in ruins. Yeah, at this point in the game. So to me, that was like the only turn off Yes, there were some villages, there were some towns, but a lot of Hyrule was destroyed. And like I said, we'll talk we'll talk story a little bit later as well. So we'll get into that. But that was like my only knock on this version of hierro. Because let's be honest, it was an absolute joy to explore. It was gorgeous with the art style that they managed to pull out. It's just to me, it is probably my favorite. Even if it's not my favorite Zelda game. It's probably my favorite version of Hyrule so far, and I'd say a lot of people probably agree with that. But yeah, so what are your thoughts on just the overworld in general?

Hick: 3:59

Well, first of all, I love the terrain or you know, if you watch any of our videos, you know, we guys say it in this one verticality, we love the verticality of the game, but not all the terrain like you know, that is just like a lot of mountains. Then there was also just a lot of flatland to kind of run through grass and everything but just here's the thing about Zelda like, oh, okay, they do awesome with all the different areas like you know, you got yazar you got snow, you got like Hylia with the water. You got a forest which you know, had plenty of water in itself. In this game. They had Aquila, which was like, you know, like, fall, fall, fall, fall foilage kind of area. And I think that Zelda does that better than or at least a breath of the wild? Did that better than any other open world game I've played? Yeah. And he's open world games, you do go to different areas. Like there'll be like some snow, some desert, but Zillow breaks them up, or Nintendo breaks them up the best, but at the same time also brings them together within a big map if that makes sense. You know, I'm going for there but they just, I mean, they could put desert area right against the snow area which they kind of did this game you had Hebrew and then Groucho not necessarily right beside each other but they weren't close and they just make it work somehow like they're really good they're a lot better transitions than we are at transitions even though we are getting better but we're trying with I'm with you like right here. I mean the world was just I mean first of all, it was humongous. Absolutely beautiful. We talked about art styles on the last podcast so we're not gonna talk about a lot on this one. But just the art style that used and even though it was only like around 900 p that art style still look beautiful. I mean just all the water like just look fantastic in the game you got waterfalls everywhere you go to the freakin zoras domain which I ran through today just kind of you know literally just run through the game the map there's you know reminiscing but also like you know, reminding myself of the game you know, that played three years ago but like this isn't Okay, this is the world you got water run down like the side sidewalks wherever you want to call in zoras domain. Yes, it's one of the most beautiful world games that I've ever played in. Did you have like any regions that were really your favorite in the in high rope? Oh,

Red: 6:09

absolutely. I think everyone will kind of have different ones that they consider their favorites just depending on what you like, you know, the terrain and the environment and all that but to me, the one that comes to my mind first is the Farren grasslands region. And that's the region it's got like highly it's got like these deep woods with all like the zone I ruins in them that look like dragons or serpents you've got a river that runs like all the way through it so to me that was one of the most absolutely stunning sections of the game because Lake Hylia and the Great Bridge of Hylia is just gorgeous and it's massive and then you get like past that and it's just like this great like jungle area with just a river kind of running through it and all these mysterious ruins which aren't even like they're mentioned in the game like the the tribe or whatever that allegedly built them the zone I aren't even like mentioned in the game like I think it was the one of the supporting books that first mentioned them so to me it's like that area just between the lake the jungle and then the ruins and the history that it seems like is in that area really jumped out to me is like when I think of Breath of the Wild that is one of the like that is one of the first regions that truly pops to my mind. What were your thoughts kind of on the fairing grassland

Hick: 7:22

First of all, it rained too damn much there. I would have loved it if it didn't rain. Much like obviously beautiful, but it was even like it was gorgeous when there was sunlight in that light in it because Nintendo did great with the light FX I think in this thing Yeah, that was surprising really for the art style. It only be at 900 p i thought that was something they might have to sacrifice but may look beautiful but they didn't absolutely love the area. I just didn't go there a lot because it was always fucking raining so beautiful. The fairway woods is one of my favorite areas in any Zelda game if it's in a particular Zelda game you think Becca Skyward Sword like you know as beautiful Twilight Princess you know it was okay. And then well you didn't parent would you had Kokiri force in Korea time but say that areas naturally usually beautiful so grew to just rained a little bit too much for me. My favorite area in the game was Akela or I think it's how you say I'm not really sure I will say that. But just the fall foliage like I love that stuff that is my jam. It just getting out there and just seeing all these different color trees. There wasn't a lot to the area but well there's a big dip there. Like there's a big Valley, which I absolutely love that because it made you see all those trees and you could see really far in the distance and then you're gonna hear about 50 times in this podcast waterfalls. headbands, yes. Beautiful looking waterfalls, so just absolutely loved running around that area. And here's the thing you kind of talked about Lake Hylia Lake Hylia look beautiful. It was humongous. It was so underutilized in this day, like it was upsetting like there was so much more I don't know exactly how much they could do with like Hylia Yeah, basically put like a couple of CO rocks around it. I think they had something else in that little island that was within like Hylia but it was utilizing this is the reason that you need to be able to swim underwater and Breath of the Wild. Hopefully Nintendo hopefully we get that in the cycle. But um other than that Rito village I'm not sure exactly what area that was but Rito village was absolutely gorgeous and then it will desert areas we always love the desert area. So brutal desert and Garuda Highlands. I just absolutely love going through there those areas um, did you have any more that you wanted to touch on?

Red: 9:36

I will say it's funny for as much as I sit here and talked about loving like the rain forest area and the lake and everything. I loved the two bantha region and the Hebrew mountains like up in the northwest part of the map where like you've got the tundra and the icy snowing mountains like I do really love snow areas in Zelda games and I thought this area there wasn't a lot up there except for like, you know, a few shrines rocks things like that that we talked about yeah but like none of the main villages were up there anything like that but to me like going and exploring that like snow area I thought was just a great change of pace and like the music change when you get in that area like the music fits that region perfectly so I actually really did like the like the the snowy area there in the top left part of the map but I will say I really liked you mentioned a collar or accola whatever like the Citadel there yeah i thought was such an interesting location and it's like the history with it with it being like the high rules last stand in front of the calamity like it I really liked like just having this giant fort there you had like cannons and stuff around it, but to see it invaded by are infested with like guardians and malice and everything, which we'll get to a little bit more when we talk about enemies and stuff. But like, I just thought like just anything like that, in this world that had that sense of history, added something to it. And one other area that I do kind of want to mention that kind of ties into that a little bit as well is actually in the Nehru area, the promenade, like this beautiful like paved area that was once all built up with pillars and just and it's obviously kind of in a state of ruins like most of Hyrule now, but it's one of those where you look at it and you think about like Roman or Greek stuff that survived all this time and you're like wow,

Hick: 11:25

this place used to be back in a day. That's what you think about you see that place

Red: 11:29

exactly and it's just gorgeous and of course now it's in ruins and it's infected with I think Liz alphas are all over that area now but just just seeing this awesome like thoroughfare or highway you know, for lack of a better word a highway basically going through the lane or route or lenay route area like that was another one of the little areas that definitely blew my mind but kind of shifting a little bit from the bigger regions high rule like or this version of high rule like every Zelda game also had villages in it and I thought that they did a great job of varying like the villages and they all felt very distinct and very unique. I know we've already mentioned zoras domain and how beautiful it looked. Yeah, but what what were some of your other favorite towns or villages in Breath of the Wild?

Hick: 12:15

I'm kind of looking here at the list that we made basically all of them like every single one really kakariko Hey like you know that Japanese slash Asian kind of culture to it. Absolutely love it like that was so new and so unique. I know that you know a Japanese company Nintendo produces Zelda but they really haven't had like, you know, like that Asian culture like really in their games that at least Zelda games I don't feel like they've done it a lot so you're I love that they put that in there now just kind of reminds me It goes to Tsushima which I've not gonna play as much as I want to but you know what? That's not for this episode. No different episode. Yeah, hit Tino village just as a great village like I don't know what else to say about that. The characters the people were fun. The whole town was just fun. Zora eautiful real village he had all those little walkways going up that stone pillar like that made that area just awesome. Oh Goron city I wasn't huge on Goron city. I wasn't really huge on the whole Death Mountain area so gorgeous city it was just okay No, I usually like the gorons a lot but in this game I don't know I don't know if it's like the whole Death Mountain thing I just didn't really care for the gorons in their city in this particular game I've loved and other ones but not this one real town on that place is absolutely stunning. I ran around there today in like you know with a water where the water goes through like those little waterways on top of our buildings whatever Yeah, yeah, like there's like it's got that stone color that's different colors it makes the water and like you know the buildings just look absolutely beautiful on top so absolutely love that area lurline village probably my favorite in the game just oh you get peaceful what's an underutilized underutilized Nintendo you had a home run right there and you just didn't use it enough but just the peacefulness of that area and maybe that's why Nintendo didn't use it so much but just going there and kind of chilling out was just a ton of fun. Yeah and then lastly for me, I actually I'm gonna take them all read I'm sorry town in the believe it was from the ground up sidequest Oh, I just going through and building that thing. And then seeing what it becomes any achla region just absolutely loved that whole experience of the side quest and then seeing the town come together and how beautiful it was absolutely loved it, count with all of them, but otherwise speak on any of them.

Red: 14:30

I will like I I'm also going to quickly hit on all of them as well. Kuk Rico was great. Of course it's a staple of Zelda games. You know, you've got the Sheikah in there like said had that Asian kind of persuasion to it. I liked the waterfall that was right behind Emperor's house like I just thought it was like the way it was kind of nestled in that little area. I thought it was very pretty Latino village. I liked how they said it was like the one part of Hyrule that wasn't really affected by the calamity and I think that's why it's you know, village felt a little bigger. Maybe then some of the other villages they're like yeah we we didn't get destroyed like most of the most of the country here so I like to to village like the fort around it as well was cool obviously that's where we get to build our home for the highly and hohner homeowner requests so you know it's at no we'll always have a little bit of a special place just for that zoras domain is just it's absolutely beautiful the colors like the waterfalls just the fact that the whole thing is shaped like a giant fish I mean it is it is an absolutely gorgeous area Rito village you really hit on it like just climbing around that giant pillar of rock and going like it's several layers up which of course makes sense for a bird race like the Rito plus i thought that that village had some of the best like side slash side slash shrine quests. That was tough to spit out in the entire game the Rideau Of course were a lot of fun they were a fun race anyway Goron city I'm kind of with you I like the fire and the lava and all that around Death Mountain in that whole region. But I feel like the gorons were kind of underutilized a little bit in this game like other than I don't know every race kind of had its it's time to shine depending on I think

Hick: 16:09

a lot that might had to do with you had to have a certain equipment to go up in the yeah so like you like it took me a long time to even get there because it had to figure out the equipment so thank you didn't didn't explore as much that area as you want to but go ahead yeah

Red: 16:22

plus that city kind of look around town whatever you know, they call it a city but it was it looks kind of rundown and like it had been destroyed and was kind of like just almost like a shanty town I just didn't think it looked very attractive compared to some of the other ones grew to town. absolutely nailed it. Like just being out in the desert but then like you mentioned the water and the different colors that are out there. Yeah, absolutely looks stunning. Plus Hey, it's a whole town full of nothing but women you turn you loose in there. I'm happy guy. Yeah. Exactly. But so it's like Garuda town. I just loved having this. It felt big as well. You had the bar in there like you mentioned, I mean, just like grew to town to me, was a very fun area and very pretty for being out in the middle of nowhere. In the desert like in the wasteland laureline village, you hit it, it's the most peaceful, I think like of the cities or towns in the game, massively underutilized. But it was great for going and loading up on like different kinds of like crabs and fish and things like that, that you can make your elixirs out of. So I did like it or meals, not just elixirs, but meals as well. So I did like it from that standpoint. Plus, it was just this little seaside fishing village. And I like the theories that are out there that it is the it's the same as Oh, what's the opening outside Island from from WinWaker. Like, I like that theory out there. I don't know if 100% buy into it. But it's got a little bit of credence to it. So I really like that. And then and then terrytown like you said just and we'll talk about side quests a little bit later as well. I know I've said that a few times now. But just like this, the quest to build it up and watching it get built up and then the payoff of the ceremony you get at the end of it and then the town itself just down in that like in that little valley or on the lake that it's in is just a really pretty area and just seeing it all come together. I thought was just such a well done. side quest and it just really made that town worthwhile to me. So my only other thing on the worlds here that I really like is how they have a bunch of little easter eggs to pass Zelda games. Yeah, and whether it's like areas that are strict like straight up taken from past Zelda games. I know we get like the lawn lawn Ranch, we get Arbiter's grounds and they're all ruins of course.

Hick: 18:33

Yeah. looks nothing like the arbors right, the Twilight Princess at least long, long, long range looks like the one in Austria.

Red: 18:40

I agree completely. But then you have so many areas that are named after characters. Like I know you've got like the tingle islands and you've got a couple of like areas that are named after the scarecrows. You've got stuff that's named after Link's Awakening characters. I mean, it's just to me I really love those little throwback some of them are a little to like, beat you over the head with them, but some of them are really well done. But is there anything else about the world that you want to hit on before we kind of move on?

Hick: 19:04

No, not really. We can go and kind of talk about gameplay cuz that was changed in this game also, and I'm gonna start right off the bat. You know, we've had climbing and other open world games, but you know, not everyone. So like you're climbing. Yeah, it was huge. It was talking about that. Maybe a little bit more. But the one thing the one thing that sets this game apart from other open world games, was the paraglider man absolutely humongous. And as I played other open world games, like I just get mad, like even like the Witcher three, I just get mad that they don't have a paraglider because it came in handy so much like a game changer on top of a mountain you won't go here Well, I don't have to walk all the way down. I can just glide there so then mechanic that was absolutely Margus, obviously I think they got the idea from a Skyward Sword and kind of self cough. Oh, that game. I mean, that really changed the game. Like I said climbing was a big deal. But we've had climbing and other games like Assassin's Creed, a lot of If not all those games have climbing in them. So that's a mechanic that we've seen before, but that paraglider mechanic. We've not seen that at all. So I absolutely love those two things. Kind of what did you like so far as gameplay in the game?

Red: 20:14

Well, I think the climbing and the paraglider are definitely two of like the most exciting for Zelda fans. Like I said, I know we've had Parker and climbing and that kind of thing in Assassin's Creed style games, but to finally get it in Zelda game and where you could literally climb almost any surface in the entire game I thought was a huge deal. The paraglider I love from the first time they showed it off, and like a teaser video, like before the game was even released. Because not only is it great for traveling and getting down from like I said, mountains or high areas, but you can also do like you can drop bombs from it, you can do like a pound the Ground Type moves from it with your weapons, like the way it was integrated was just so seamless. And really, at the end of the day, that's what the gameplay for Breath of the Wild came down to me. Was that just anything you could imagine doing? You almost could do? Yeah,

Hick: 21:04

like they built the engine bay animals. You could have pet animals. Animals. Yes.

Red: 21:08

You can't pet all the animals, unfortunately. But like, it's just one of those where the engine is so well done. Yeah, you can do just about anything that you like, oh, maybe I can go cut down those trees. Oh, guess what it works. You know, maybe I can do like wind effects or like, you know, you like grass on fire. And you get an updraft, I mean, the the engine to me, beyond just the art and the art style and everything, but just the underlying mechanics in this game. I thought were mind boggling. Just the freedom you had. And it literally was Oh, I think I can do this. Oh shit. I really can't. Yeah, so it blew my mind that they were able to integrate the world with your actions. So well like other games you like okay, yeah, you run into a tree you can't cut it down. You know? Yeah, breath the wild get you can clear a fucking forest if you want

Hick: 21:58

to. I mean, it's a build target tower, you're at it. You

Red: 22:03

have to get enough wood to do that. Yeah, so So to me, just the underlying engine just really blows my mind and and then kind of built on top of that is like the weather cycles and the day and night cycle. Yeah, I like it. Okay, I think we can both agree that it probably rains a little too much in this game. Everybody agrees on that one. Yeah. But it's just like the fact that whether it's rainy or Sunny, or it's day or night means you had different enemies, you had different animals, you had different plants out like it just the detail that went into this. And that kind of overlaps with just the world in general, the detail in this world blew my mind. I mean, you see stuff like it starts raining and the side characters all start running forever. Or, you know, it's like when evening time is rolling around, they all start heading back to their villages or their shelters. So just like the underlying mechanics, it's like it took the concepts of like a clock town or something where everyone's kind of on a schedule, and like cranked it up to a million and they absolutely nailed it. So what about combat though? combat is a huge part of gameplay. What did you think of the combat in Breath of the Wild? First of all, the weapons broke too damn

Hick: 23:08

quickly. That's one of my main complaints with the game but oh, I just love the combination of like, all the weapons that you could get all the different shields, the swords and so yeah, like, this is spirits of stuff in the game, too. What's that? They had spirits like and stuff too.

Red: 23:23

It wasn't. Yeah, spears tried in second. Yeah,

Hick: 23:26

tries. Yeah, that's so but you know, he had that. Yeah. Oh, so we got a sword Spears, tridents. Yet, the bows you got the shield? So I mean, there's so many different things. And what you did was in May, it allowed you to fight enemies, so many different ways. Like you've seen people in all these videos out there, like doing certain things a certain way. And just, it's so cool. Because the tenos even said, we didn't plan on people doing things this way. Oh, yeah, I thought of it. And that's what happens when you combine like all these different elements into the combat, like you can have all these different things that happen. And you can have different ways to go about things. So I thought the combat really was like, you know, rock solid as I use the exact words from your outline. Like No, I really did think you like rock solid. I thought all the use of the weapons was you know, just really great. And then here's the thing. Okay, let's talk about some of these Sheikah Slate runes, no, I like them. I think for the most part, I did like amino status, magnesium Cronus. And I think I'm missing one

Red: 24:27

of

Hick: 24:28

the bombs. Yeah, um, but I did like this. I thought, like, you know, contribute to some, like, you know, good puzzles. We use them a lot in the shrines. We use them a lot throughout the games. And like, say going back to the shrines. It was how we solved a lot of puzzles. I think I might as most of you to myself on that. But anyways, I noticed that the first time I've repeated myself on a podcast, but I don't know man, I really liked him. Like I think magnesium was my favorite one. I didn't use spaces a lot, you know, except set when it was necessary. A lot of the tricks that are online And then videos actually use spaces for most of those tricks. Um, crona zz just pisses me off man, because I didn't know exactly how to use it. I didn't know that you could use it on the VA Ruta boss, so they Oh no, it's cool. Use water to make ice. Okay, fun. I just didn't know how to use it. I didn't know when you could use it. So I need a better guide, I need more detail. You need to tell me exactly how to use this Nintendo you should give me a guide or something. Damon, I want to be guided sometimes everybody wants to go and go wherever they want to. I won't do that for the most part. But you got to understand what I'm not gonna know something and how you do that? I don't know. But anyways, if I don't know how to use something helped me out a little bit on it. But um, what was your feeling on the Sheikah Slate runes?

Red: 25:44

I'm kind of torn on this because I do like the fact that they gave you all those tools basically at the very beginning of the game, you get all your runes, yeah, except for like the camera you get a little later on but whatever. Like you get everything within the first couple hours of the game. So having those tools and then just being thrown out into the world and said yeah, go Go do your thing. Like it is refreshing and it's freeing and it gives you like that freedom to really play the game the way you want to. I do kind of miss the traditional items though. I miss having the hook shot I miss having a spinner of course would be nice, you know things like that, but I think you know the fact that we still had a bow You said your boomerangs in terms of like your weapons it kind of alleviate some of that I do miss kind of having those items that you get in a traditional dungeon that help you beat that dungeon we'll get into a little bit that a little bit we'll talk about the divine base, but you know I liked the freedom of just getting all those items or all those runes I should say up front and then being thrown out and said go play the game however the hell you want yeah and yeah, you get to upgrade them a little later in the game which is awesome. But yeah, I've just so I supported I it was kind of like the next evolution of A Link Between Worlds approach where you could just kind of rent whatever items you wanted from the beginning so I was on board with it I really liked the idea and the freedom that it gave you pardon me Mrs the the like I said the getting a dungeon specific item but all in all, I think the rooms were the right way to go now. We have hit on a couple of our annoyances with the gameplay we said you know, the weapons can tend to break a little too quick climbing when it's raining. Yeah, pain in the ass. Yeah, you can load up on like a speed elixir and stamina and still kind of do it. But it's such an annoyance. And how about lightning? You're wearing or carrying any metal and you're in a lightning area, which there's a few of them throughout the game. You get struck by lightning so those were kind of my the few annoyances that I truly had with the gameplay. But I know you mentioned the weapons, things like that. But was there anything else in terms of gameplay that kind of got under your skin? Or that you didn't? Like?

Hick: 27:49

No, I mean, the lightning strikes, you could just change your outfit. Like even though you're paying the butt to do you could like help that situation out how the tendo never released. Any outfits in the DLC allowed you to climb while raining. That was a nice opportunity. I would pay 20 bucks for that DLC because that's how bad it pissed me off. So yeah, the fact that we never got anything or could earn anything that would allow us to climb in rain just a huge missed opportunity to me but let's kind of get away from the gameplay and this kind of talking about the story you know this? We both don't really care for the story too much. Yeah, well, so much time on it. Yeah, I mean, it was weak in our opinion by Zelda standards, but kind of going to the store I mean, I don't know don't go into too much because most people probably know the story is but can I just what are your overall pains are the stories like the memories, just how it plays out throughout the game?

Red: 28:38

You're totally right, we're I think we're on the same page in terms in terms of story. It's just to me, the backstory for Breath of the Wild is great. I love the backstory it's like you know, the Sheikah created these beasts and guardians to fight Ganon It was a successful like 10,000 years ago, but then you know, just 100 years ago Ganon comes back takes over the champions or takes over the beasts kills the champions takes over the guardians and basically destroys Hyrule like that backstory to me is actually pretty fun and pretty exciting but then once you actually start the game nothing happens yeah your little you get off the great plateau the kind of the tutorial area and they say yeah go began and that is your quest maybe go free the four divine beasts if you want to you don't even have to do it like so to me every going back as far as linked to the past almost every Zelda game has had like phases or stages to it like Link to the Past had light world Dark World ochrony time had you know child link adult link Twilight Princess had you know the beginning where you're getting the oh my god I just blanked the view shadow and sorry like isn't Skyward Sword had its phases too So to me it just like I was very disappointed with the story itself once you actually started the game like said the backstory. Fantastic, very interesting, but and I'm kind of Do do some wishful thinking here I wish the first half of the game would have been you doing the fighting 100 years ago and yeah when you and when you fit you're trying to help Zelda Awakener powers you're recruiting the champions and you fail like die and then the second half of the game should have been what we got like I rule is in ruins go for the divine beast go began and you know so to me, I thought it was I know that's asking a lot from a game you basically have to have two versions of high rule like we did all the way back when Aquamarine of time and yeah, I'm not sure how possible that would have been. So the story to me is a backstory. Absolutely amazing. The actual games plot i thought was non existent.

Hick: 30:39

And makes the past all they did was change the color. So all the different hiral you just had to change the colors. I work kind of with you like the backstory was cool, it was good. But the backstory was the past. Like you said, once we started playing the game, there was really nothing there with as far as planned stuff. So yeah, I was not a huge fan of the story. I absolutely hated all the memories like being random, which made sense while they were random. And don't bring up something here at the end of the story that kind of want to talk to you about but overall the memories been random doing it any order if like create a disjointed story. So I didn't I didn't care for that. There was no plot development, kind of like I'm saying, because like, you know, everything's the past, as we're playing throughout the game. There's nothing really building it's just find out what happened, basically, you know, 100 years ago, yes, some of it does apply. You know, today, there's interesting side plot with a Sheikah and the yiga don't really remember that so I'm not going to go into it. I'm just going to address it say it was there. Oh yeah. Here's the thing. I want to kind of bust through the story really quickly. But um, it kind of made me thinking like, you know, I've I've had this idea in my mind. Oh, man, I'm gonna kind of throw it off top off topic, but rarely don't have this on the outline. I feel that's talk so much behind the scenes stuff. Just so y'all know what's going on. Okay, this is off the top of the dome. Yeah, going prepared it's your fault. Well, I do say so you kind of get start thinking but yeah, here's the thing going forward everybody wants Breath of the Zelda to be open world and I think a lot of these issues come from being open more because it's not like your other open world games like you know the Witcher and stuff like that like you run through you fight enemies but for the most part there's no dungeon like you know there's there's bosses but there's not like dungeon in a bossing like you know get the items in the dungeon Zelda is structured a different way that most of the other open world games that you play so going forward Do you think Zelda needs to be open world or would it be more beneficial to still kind of be open world but kind of having sections that you progress through and have phases throughout

Red: 32:39

I think you can do open world and still have like phases and an actual like a stronger plot and dungeons and I think A Link Between Worlds and I know occasionally we kind of bash on that game a little bit even though I mean we absolutely love I don't love it but like it let you it still had the dungeons it still had the items and it let you tackle them in whatever order you want it like that's where it's open world came from and I think yes Breath of the Wild you could tackle the divine beast and whatever or you wanted if you even wanted to you could ignore them altogether. But like I do think it needs something to happen to like advance the story oh yeah but like yes dungeons I mean, and you get to the whole like traditional Zelda versus Breath of the Wild and like it needs dungeons back I truly believe that and I know we hold up Witcher three is like a pinnacle of open world gaming for a reason like even though it was an open world game it still had phases to the story like the beginning it was like hey go investigate these three sightings and then once you did all three of that it was like Nova grad It was skalka and and the main area I just we

Hick: 33:47

couldn't go scale again until later in the game.

Red: 33:49

Yeah, yeah, you're right you're right but like it's one of those once you like explore those three areas and do those main three quest lines then it moved to the next phase of the game. Yeah, and like stuff actually happened. So I would like I think you can do open world still have your dungeons still have a plot progression? Yeah, you know, and I honestly don't think that's the point of Breath of the Wild I know we chatted about this on our discord a little while back is like you know, yes Witcher three was setting out to be a cinematic experience it's a strong single player franchise all three games whereas breath the wild was just built to give people a sandbox to play in Yeah, and and it did an amazing job of that. I mean, like, like we talked about in the gameplay, the freedom you have is unbelievable. But I need I want a little bit more structure to come to the next Zelda game, whatever it was right, the wild to whatever they decide to call it. I just think it needs a little more structure. Bring it back a little bit towards the traditionals Zelda experience read I'm not saying you need to go all the way back to like a straight ocher in a

Hick: 34:56

time. I don't think that either But like I say like, yeah, you can have like you said you You can have sections that are pretty much open world you just can't go everywhere route the bat and that will allow you to progress and kind of tell more of a story in these dungeons I know people want dungeons out of order I think Zelda games work better when there actually is an order because it progresses you through the game so you can call traditional because whatever you want to yes that's what we are. We want we like so much additional elements. We want some of them back but anyways you know, kind of a topic I don't think you know, I think it's it I don't think it worked out too well. Breath of the Wild is not most people's favorite Zelda game and there's a reason for that. Yes, there are like great things about it. You know, this is probably more for the final thoughts of the podcast but anyway so like weather are like great things about like people have a lock in points because the structure was so different and they kind of go into that structure more and the dungeons the dungeons were really different and Breath of the Wild basically what

Red: 35:53

dungeons Yeah,

Hick: 35:55

you know for divine beast was what I think served as the dungeons Some people say you know, the shrines are many dungeons agreed with dad but we were talking dungeons I still only think of Breath of the Wild as having four or five if you want count, what kinds of DLC Yeah, five dungeons in the game. But um, for me, I'm gonna go ahead and say right off the bat I'm with you. I went traditional dungeons back I was not a fan of the Divine beast even though I did have fun with the divine beast overall Zelda fan. I thought they could have been better um, you know, like they weren't there. I was looking at knows I didn't know where I wanted to go next. But um,

Red: 36:32

yeah, it was cool that you could tackle them in any order, you know, wasn't linear, but at the same time we kind of talked about like, you know, the difficulty didn't go up at all like you know, you can go you could go to any of them first and so they were also basically the same difficulty yank any items you know, you could go back and forth if you really need that Zelda game. Like you said, A Link Between Worlds didn't do that. But I'm kind of getting off I'll let you talk about for a little while. What was your overall opinion on the dungeons or divine beast in the game? They were a disappointment at the end of the day, I mean, they all looked the same. None of them had a good distinct feel, or appearance or theme or music or anything like to me they all blended together. Except like you can manipulate each each of the Divine beats you could manipulate in a different way like you could like so vile roots of the elephant you could move the trunk vadhana Boris the camel, you could rotate the discs to get the electricity flowing vara Dania the lizard you could tilt it like 90 degrees on its side, and then Vaughn Meadow the bird it could tilt side to side not as far as you could with her Dania, but you could go side to side so like I liked the manipulation, and it made each one at least have something of a unique feature to it. But at the end of the day, I thought they were a massive letdown. They barely had any enemies in them. The puzzles almost entirely revolved around opening up a door to activate a terminal and like do they were repetitive they were just generally boring the way they looked especially on the inside the feet the musical themes for all of them were very disappointing. Yeah. And to me the thing that stood out the most about each of them was not even the beast themselves. It was the approach Yeah, like the approach to the beast. I thought that each one had kind of a unique way that you got to it and you got into it to tackle it and to me that really stood out because even when you look at the bosses Yeah, they all had different attacks and they all looked a little different. But in general the four blight ghanians you had water blight you had Thunder blight, fire blight and wind blight now just repetitive as well so like I said the high point for me was honestly the approach yeah each of the dungeons and I'm 100% with you I want to go back to a more traditional you know every dungeon is distinct and different and either has a theme or matches the area it's in or something but let me What do you think about the divine beasts

Hick: 38:55

I agree with you almost have that like the inside was very yes it was different but overall is very similar the bosses were very similar those things were very similar so all three of those things to me were just a humongous letdown that kind of gritty beforehand like given to the divine beast you know you're right on side ons back you know breaking those ice blocks or whatever and then in the desert you Ron sand seals and then all that was a Death Mountain and Barbara dhania you were shooting you know bow or whoever's name was you know, up to like hit rue dhania and so like and also the bird like you know, you're up in the air using your paraglider shooting something hey, can a can is that you were shooting so those were all very good, but do what you got to the divine beast. That just wasn't a lie. And that's why we're not going to talk about a lot because they're all similar. You all have heard most of you have heard us because we you know we got a lot We got large Zota audience Yeah, just yeah, give me the traditional dungeons back. If that makes me traditionalist. I don't care. That's how I feel. But um, yeah, just not just not a fan. Now. I will disagree with you on one thing. I actually did. like quite a few of the puzzles in the divine below, kind of like you know, turn them different directions. And how that played in I did really like that. But um, one dungeon that was kind of cool. I guess we really didn't talk about the DLC divine base, which actually was my favorite because the same thing again, like, you know, it looked the same. I like it the most because I thought the puzzles were a lot better and then obviously the boss fight was a lot different. So that was a lot better. So I don't even know what that DLC device was called. But it was it was called either the hero castle I won't get your opinions on this, because this was more like a traditional dungeon. What are your thoughts on high rocastle?

Red: 40:39

Well, I love Tyrell castle. I mean, it did feel the most like a traditional dungeon like you said, but it also still felt like another ruined part of Hyrule because it was a castle that had you know it had an armory it had the barracks it had a library it had a kitchen like it had you know Zelda his room the throne room like it had all these traditional areas you had had I fucking came to and it had actually had a theme that was distinctive and really stood out plus you had you know so many of the Guardians The malice the enemies in this area you know so to me Hyrule Castle was definitely the best of the you know the quote unquote dungeons because I thought it mixed a dungeon feel as you were working your way higher and higher towards the sanctum were climbing again and was stuck but it also felt like a real place it felt like a real castle so yeah, it reminds me of some of my all time favorite Zelda dungeons where it's not just a dungeon it's a part of the world you know, you think like snowpeak Manor is one that always comes to mind it's a mansion did they turn into a dungeon you

Hick: 41:41

know bigger accounts close What's that? No big ruins ah still big ruins Yeah,

Red: 41:45

it was a mansion before it was ruins Come on. Later I think I think I did say manner but but uh but Hyrule Castle felt that way too It felt like a natural part of the world and not just oh hey boom, here's the temple go conquering you know so in you know, not getting into the climate again and fight too much because you know, there's not a whole lot to talk about my opinion. But like I loved Hyrule Castle you mentioned the theme so but what did you think about Hyrule Castle?

Hick: 42:12

I mean most of the my opinions are exact same as yours again. Yeah,

Red: 42:16

like a real place your thunder I'm sorry

Hick: 42:18

yeah. But just going through was a lot of fun even though it wasn't like you know Bruins obviously from the rest of the game you didn't get to explore as much of it as I would have liked but you still did get to explore quite a bit but you know, wills things like you know, kind of like you know, summing up the ruins overall. Like That was one thing that really disappointed me in the game because I want to see what some of these places were like like in their heyday Yeah, because of that it contribute to some places really overall not being that big like in the Witcher three and not to keep on comparing it to the Witcher three get Nova grad like you know a humongous city you know then we get to Breath of the Wild and castle town is all in ruins and there's nothing there and I'm like what could this place have been so you know yes I love hydro castle but the whole ruin standing kind of took away from it a little bit but still loved exploring it love me Diem just kind of know love find the enemies. You know there wasn't really any puzzles or anything like that. And then I love getting to the top and you know going to the sanctum ain't fighting Calamity Ganon I'm with you not gonna spend a lot of time on claim again i thought was a huge disappointment. Free easy boss to eat especially be especially he can't eat them in the game. Especially to the four divine beast in you know you beat him. You get dark be scan just one of the worst boss fights in the game. So simple. I be on the first time. I blame you being the first time just a joke. So how Nintendo did that is disappointing. Like it's the worst file boss experiences I've experienced in Zelda. So we're not gonna spend a lot of time on it. Because no, there's really nothing to it. So here's what I do want to talk about. And that's the shrine's. Yes, this is the mechanic, not mechanic, but um, I guess he's a mechanic in a way. But this is the one thing in the game Park. You know, if people ask, what was your favorite thing or new thing about Breath of the Wild, I would say the shrines like you know, he's many dungeons. Just absolutely loved them. The theme the theme was, I think one of the best themes in the game. There was so many of them and allows you to fast travel to these different points. But let's get to the meat of the shrines, the puzzles, the hustle, were so much fun and using like spaces, basically, in some of your weapons to get through these shrines. They were just absolutely a blast on the test of strengths, the blessings, you know, get those out here. We don't care. Let's get those out of here that they're not they're just filler. I don't know why Nintendo did that. Like I know. Okay, you can say okay, we had shrine quest and that was actually the shrine. I don't give a shit. Give me a shrine quest. Give me a shrine with a puzzle. That's what I wanted. And every time I did shrink was and then got a blessing shrine. I was pissed off because I wasn't puzzle shot, because that's why I love so much in the game. You can see how he did I'm getting about it. I love the shot. shrouds, so I got 120 but there was like 40 fake ones, you know, kind of or 51 say, oh, that pissed me off but you know, kind of one of your overall pains and the shrines and I don't think he really want to talk about any particular but do go ahead but what's your just you know, what do you think about the shrines?

Red: 45:24

It just to me it it gave the creators like Nintendo a reason or an excuse to have a bunch of different puzzles that they didn't have to fit into a dungeon like yeah, you know, normally you have to have puzzles that fit a dungeon theme or like a divine beast, you know, with how you manipulate the beast. But the shrines gave them just, they can take their most off the wall, crazy puzzle ideas and just throw it into a room and say go solve it. It doesn't have to fit with anything else. And it like like you mentioned the theme forum, the futuristic look, I really liked the the kind of like that neon, it was darker with the neon lights. It almost reminded me of the room you fight like Gaudin, in tower of the gods, which was a test as well similar to the shrines or a test to earn a spirit or so I liked the look to them and you hit it right man the puzzles, just the sheer variety of them. I mean, you did we did use like Stacy's crown we use all of our runes a lot, but some of them dealt with electricity, fire, water, wind, I mean like they hit on all the different things that you could in these dungeons are in dungeons in the in the shrines throughout the game and I'm with you I could have done without the test of strength I could have done without the blessings. I and I'm not sure how you feel about the so I'm going to ask you the apparatus shrines. I hated them just tried to use motion controls to move a part of the shrine around was fucking frustrating as hell to me. What did you think about the apparatus? Right? Yeah,

Hick: 46:57

I love them. I'm not gonna lie. Because I don't know if you remember like, it might be called like a labor or something but used to be like a metal marble ball. It was like wooden puzzles and like you would move the knobs. And the ball would go through like, you know, you try to dodge the hose. Like this is actual toilet you could play with. Yeah, I don't know if you know I'm talking about but I do. I do. Like, that's what the apparatus has reminded me of was doing things like that, especially that one that like, you know, you took the ball to the hole, which was actually a pain in the ass. I don't know why I said Well, given that one credit, but no, I really did like them because they were different. And I didn't think the motion controls were that bad. Yeah, struggled like here and there. But for the most part, I think they were good. I thought it was really different motion controls weren't used a lot in the game. So I don't really mind it when they're used just a little bit. So overall, I was a fan of the apparatus. Is there anything else you really want to say on the shrine? I think most people know that we feel very highly of them.

Red: 47:50

I just I really thought that they gave us a purpose to explore the world. Like it gave us a great reason to I mean, other than the korok seeds, which you know, whatever. But like I thought having 120 of them spread throughout the world. A lot of them attached to like, like you said, a shrine quest, they thought it gave us a really good reason to explore the world. And it also gave us I thought some of the strongest side quests in the game. Yeah, talk about that here in a few minutes. But that's really all I had on the shrines. I loved them. I thought it was great in all those different puzzles in there, and Nintendo didn't have to worry about, you know, shoehorning them into a dungeon somehow, like, just Hey, this puzzle sounds like a shit ton of fun. Let's make it a shrine

Hick: 48:26

that will tell you that we actually did a video of our top 10 shrine. So we'll put a link down in the description. Go check that out. See, we're not gonna go to all of them, because we'll be here all day. But you can check out that video and see which ones we thought were the best. Yeah,

Red: 48:39

but you know, moving on from the shrines a little bit. You know, all Zelda games have the side characters, they can really either add to the experience or in the cases of some looking at a few of them out there kind of detract from the experience, but rather the wild was no exception. Of course, being a huge open world game. There were a lot of side characters. Let's start with you know, the main Girl of the franchise. Let's start with Zelda. What did you think of this particular version of Princess Zelda? Well, first of all love their hair, man.

Hick: 49:07

I thought her hair was absolutely gorgeous. So right everybody was like all huge on the Breath of the Wild to trailer and Zetas hair being sure I was like, oh, Her hair was absolutely gorgeous. But you know, I'm like Zelda in this one I thought was a good one. Um, I really liked it. She had somewhat of a relationship with blink, like, you know, it wasn't just link going like, you know, to say you're a princess like there was actually substance there. So I liked that. They gave her more of a personality. Now I know. It's like, you know, a newer game. They can do more with characters, but they gave her a little bit of a personality. And we saw that she was like, kind of struggling with not being able to get some of these powers. Like, you know, she was trying to go around, you know, fine guy. And so, overall, I really did like her champions like mytho, rukh ravalli. And our boserup really liked all of them. I know a lot of people have a problem with rebolledo I kind of like his cockiness, I think it's good for the game. I think it's a little bit something different. He was demise me of somebody that I know that lives in this house. That reminds me of me. Right? That was kind of going towards my wife. Stop clarify, was actually talking about talking about majors. His personality, like, you know, in certain ways, reminds me of myself, you know, kind of in the more playful manner like, you know, but yeah, overall, I was just really impressed with all the champions like their stories, kind of like, you know, their dialogue, just overall, I was a fan of the champions, but what the modern day champions like, what did you feel about those? I know, one that you're going like, probably that everybody like, but overall, what is your opinion of those four modern day champions,

Red: 50:44

I actually really liked all four of the modern day ones too. And I thought that they both kind of represented or not both, but all four of them kind of represented almost the opposite of what their their predecessors were. So like side on was like the brash, kind of cocky, not cocky, he was just more confident. Like he's like, he felt like he could take on the world. Like almost that young, naive, I can go do all this and he's got the charisma to him. Whereas mefa was like very much more like quiet reserved. So I love those two opposites sight on plus, like writing his back to take on vol Ruta was so much fun.

Hick: 51:21

Um, you know, both sides. Simon was awesome. Everybody knows sounds awesome. And again, everybody loved

Red: 51:27

his character was just his character was just honestly just a lot of fun. Like, I love science. Like, you got the, like, the flash on his teeth when he smiled. I mean, it was Yeah, it was just a fun character, you know, but I like like, was like, like, cowardly Goron It was kind of a direct change of pace. I, you know, just kind of helping him like freeing him and then helping him find his like courage and everything to tackle

Hick: 51:48

and usually don't think of gorons like that being cow, right?

Red: 51:51

Yeah. So So I like to know about or you know, Bo teba. I felt like got the least because we all you did with tiba was you did the the Rio training ground and then just tackled the the divine beast. I love the approach to that divine beast as well, just using like, using her and then also the parrot paraglider to take out the cannons. But like I felt like TiVo was kind of underdeveloped a little bit, especially compared to ravalli, who like we kind of mentioned has the most personality probably have the four initial champions and then reiju was great. I loved that it was like this poor kid, there was thrust into this leadership role and just totally like, a little bit insecure, but still trying to do what's right by our people. Plus the Groucho we're just a fun race so I was on board with all four of the modern day champions side on is probably the most memorable character in the entire game but we also had a few other side characters and I think you were pretty big fan of one or two of these as well and one that I think we're both really loved was cast Yeah, what did you think? Yeah, it was I write Do you love Cal everybody I think

Hick: 52:52

loves cast with just him playing the songs and I don't remember exact like I think he went to him for shrine quest or something like that, or whatever, whatever you did, I did like him. I know you also get some story from him. But overall, I think he was a very good character in the game. absolutely loved hearing his sound like you know, you'd be walk up to an area that he was at and like, you know, you could hear his music so as you love that, just talking to him I thought was fun, like, you know, conversating um, other than that mean it was okay pyrrha and Robbie like you know, kind of with the she could technology and all that stuff. They were kind of cool. I didn't really have any other memorable ones. Did you have any?

Red: 53:27

And not really, I mean master Koga and honestly, he could kind of fall into the enemies category as well but I did like master Koga as like the leader of the Giga clan, just because like all the yiga that you encounter throughout the game are talking up like what an absolute badass he is. Yeah, kill you all this stuff. And he turns out to be an absolute joke of Yeah, I mean, being more of a joke character I was hoping for something a little more serious. But he did stand out to me then you know, just all throughout the world there were fun little characters that were doing their own little thing like you had you had treasure hunters you had people looking for the flowers that symbolizes love I mean you had adventurer so it really there were even though they may have not had a big role you could like imagine the stories that you know some of these other characters have especially like you said, your adventures your your vendors, your your treasure hunters, so, but none of them else. None of the other ones really stood out. You said the Sheikah kastmaster Coco were kind of the big ones but kind of speaking of enemies there with Master Koga. What did you think of the new enemies that we really got in breath a while because we've seen bokeh blends. We've seen Moblin lose alphas wisdoms, we've seen all those Yeah, in prior Zelda games they had a nice twist they had a nice look to them and breath the wild but let's talk about the new enemies in breath the wild What do you think about the new ones we got introduced to

Hick: 54:44

um, I thought the guardians were pretty cool. Really? Obviously they took me forever to figure out how to beat them cuz I could not party worth a crap. So like, you know, again, the ancient arrows. I think I did very later on like, like very late in the game. So kinda Really the guardians while they were cool and like while dude like them being a mostly one hit kill, like they just I struggled because I didn't know how to beat them early on. Yeah, so I ran into them and it made me not explore parts of hierro like I really want to explore Central High roll in depth and I just couldn't because there was always guardians out there so yeah, you know, I liked him but at the same time I didn't like him the yiga yet the foot soldier and a blade master I caught that like, you know, that whole race and the whole culture of the yiga I thought that was a good change of pace and like go and start hideout and just seeing how they were a little bit different. Like I really liked that addition and then like we said earlier you had that we didn't go into detail but yeah that Sheikah versus dziga kind of calm like you know a story like going on behind it so yeah, like that and then he got some mini bosses like we've seen some of these before the wine all the headaches talents small duga um, you know, I'm not really a huge fan of overworld bosses I'm just like you know Yeah, they're cool you go like the game away Yeah, you know I'm not patient guy I want to go from A to B they really just more guy my way but here Yeah, it was okay like you know the fight them but here's where I really did like a mini boss and we're gonna kind of round off you want to say thing about the enemies, but thankfully, she was kind of speed through that because you know what? This game they fucking have enemies in the game. Oh, yeah. I kind of wanna talk about the quest and I want to get some final thoughts and then wrap up because we're kind of we're getting way into this pocket. Yep. Okay, we don't want our podcast to be too long. No, the quest you know yet shrine quest. We got side quests. We're not going to go into all of them. But did you have a memorable ones? either side or shrine quests that you really enjoyed in the game?

Red: 56:38

Well, too many of the side quests were just go get this or go get 10 of this or 50 of this like Ico was like fetch quests and collection quest. And those aren't very mineral memorable. Some of them had to go in and fight and like, hey, go take on this Hinako take on that talus, go take on a mole duga like that those were fun. But the most memorable one and we mentioned this earlier with Tarrytown from the ground up I thought it was one of the yes side quests. I mean, just building up this whole town, and then bringing together everyone for the ceremony. At the end, I thought was such a great payoff. In my opinion. It's the best like cinematic moment and Breath of the Wild, even more so than any of the memories, any of the story stuff. Like I loved the payoff at the end. from the ground up, you know, a few of the other ones were kind of nice. You know, you had like the legend of the seven heroines and legend, there was an eighth heroine so you had to find that statue. Finding the three sets of Leviathan bones kind of scattered across the world, I thought was kind of interesting. And just trying to imagine what those leviathans were. And then the theories that have come with that of like, oh, one of them's love is one of them's the wind fish. One I'm like, I like that. Yeah, so I really like anything like that that really Stokes the conversation. So those were the ones that really jumped out to me in terms of just the generic side quest. The shrine quest, though Yeah, the shrine quest really those were by far the strongest side quest so like, they were a little more complex than your typical Hey, go here and collect into these. What were some of your favorite of the shrine quests in the game?

Hick: 58:08

What kind of taking it back to the enemies like I was talking about? We had three giant brothers, where, you know, I noticed kin or notice Hynix, which is oldest kin, and then the other one and then the youngest one. Like even though it wasn't huge on the mini bosses out in the open world. I did really like that shrine quest. And then he had the recital warblers ness like I love that one. Go around Rito village and just get all these um, forgot that are called but um, like Shogun Rito Yeah, just bringing them like all together to do this. Like recite don't play music, loved it straight on. Even Thai we usually hate weapons getting taken away from us, but kind of put us out in the stranded Island. vows to like kind of go through get our weapons by enemies is beautiful as hell like I really liked that when and some others that kind of had like stolen hair loom spring of wisdom where you fought that dragon up in the air that had the mouse. That was awesome. The perfect drink. Um, first of all, just move the girl off of the thing in front of shrine like that's all we had to do to get in the shrine. Yeah, anyways, we go get her a drink from the bar. That's really all that like about that shrine quest.

Red: 59:14

Any quest that has is going to get a drink from the bar. Yeah, pretty girl. I'm on board with best quest ever.

Hick: 59:19

Yeah. And then like the last one that I had was the undefeated champ where was st still racing, basically, racing through the desert. Huge fan of that one. Um, we, we met I'm gonna plug our videos, we made a video for top 10 Shrine quest. We'll also put a link for that one in the description, along with the shrine quests, or that strike was the shrine shrines that already mentioned. And then we also have a divine beast ranking. I'll put all three of those links down in the description, but definitely check it out. Did you have any more shrine quests that you wanted to talk about?

Red: 59:49

No, those were the ones that definitely jumped out the most to me. I mean, string and even tide was such a great throwback to Link's Awakening. You know, the Restylane warblers ness was just a great like feel good quest. You know, the Excuse me that beer is bubbling back up on the three giant brothers you know, you get to fight the three hawks is still an heirloom gave us a little more backstory on the EGA. And she Sheikha splits, perfect drink we already talked about. So like, those were really the ones that jumped out to me. So I mean, that's, that's really the meat of bread. Yeah, I mean, the world is unbelievable. The stories, you know, hit or miss. But you know, the gameplay is is as good as it gets, and gives you so much freedom, the quest could use a little bit of work. But you know, there were some good side quests. So when you take all that together, I know we've kind of compared it a little bit to other open world games, and also other Zelda games, but where anyone had to give an exact number or ranking or anything, but how do you think read the wild really stacked up to other Zelda games, and then maybe even other open world games from this generation?

Hick: 1:00:47

Um, I have it right now is number two, like, you know, kind of go back and forth on that a little bit. And the only reason I think it's that high, like, I have a lot issues with Breath of the Wild. But overall, I do think it's a very great game. But when you take that world, like this, what for me, what makes it number two is just how big the world was, how beautiful it was, how much there was to do. And so like I said, I have it at number two. But like, you know, some days I'm kind of like, but just that world right there, man, and all you could do, I think it deserves respect. Maybe it's not my favorite in like, you know, you can say oh, well, you have a higher than Link to the Past or Twilight Princess, or Skyward Sword, you know. Yeah. But I think it's because like I said, the world, it just had so much to it. So I think it's like a big respect thing, but I don't think I always hold it. Number two, I think, you know, a certain days, I might drop it down a little bit more. But yeah, you know, kind of Final thoughts. Well, you know, what we're talking about right here. Breath of the Wild is very upsetting to me. Because as I'm playing through it, like, you know, yeah, it's a great game, I enjoyed the hell out of it. But as I'm playing through it, like, you know, early on, I'm like, this can be easily the best game I ever played. And you just kept on hitting these things. Like, you know, the divine beast, you know, the disjointed story with like, you know, the memories. And just like, you know, the quest. Yeah, there were, there were some good ones. But there were a lot. They were just like you said, fetch quests and stuff. And so yeah, early on, I was like, Man, this is gonna be the grade Zelda game ever. And as you're going through, like, that kind of just went away. And that's why it's upsetting. Because I feel like it could have been the best Zelda game ever. But there's just so many things like we say like traditional dungeons, themed dungeons, like you know, your desert, your forest, your water, like it didn't mean that all the divine beasts were the same. The bosses are completely unforgettable. They like they don't mean anything, for sure. They're just there. They're in the way. So why did like great things in like, you know, that's why concept number two, there's so many things that are wrong with it. And that's why it's not my favorite Zelda game. It's not your favorite Zelda game, and for a lot of Zelda fans is not their favorite Zelda game. So hopefully, with the sequel, they correct some nice things. And they do create the best Zelda game ever. But what are some of your final thoughts?

Red: 1:02:53

So I mean, I generally agree with you, the world and everything you can do in it is so well done, and you can't take that away from this game at all. Like the world is massive and beautiful. And the freedom you have to just mess around in that world is an achievement. But for someone for both of us, we've both been playing Zelda games since like the early 90s I mean, we've been playing since linked to the past basically and we've gone back and played

Hick: 1:03:15

there is no basically we've been playing since linked to the past. Exactly.

Red: 1:03:19

And so to me, I'm all for trying to freshen things up and try to keep the series from getting stale and Nintendo does great at that. I just think breath the wild was too radical. Yeah, of a departure like I'm all for trying the open world. But you know, it was still missing some of those things that I think a Zelda game needs to make it a true Zelda game No, that's obviously just my opinion. There are people out there it's like oh, who are you to say what a true Zelda game is and I get that I totally get that but like To me it didn't have some of that structure it didn't have the strong plot with like the progression it didn't have the dungeon So to me it is an amazing achievement in terms of the world and what you can do in it but I don't even know if I put it in my top five Zelda games to be completely honest I mean I just appreciate the structure of some of the older Zelda games so much our but I'm but that being said though, it is I mentioned at the very beginning it is probably my favorite version of Hyrule I mean it's huge it's gorgeous and I'm hoping that there is now a like a skeleton upon which they can build the next one Yeah, they got the engine they've got the world they've got the assets the art all that so now let's make that next step. Let's bring back some of this traditional Zelda some

Hick: 1:04:37

dungeons give us some bosses getting some items in dungeons. And then was the other thing give us some themes in those dungeons and gives us that's all you need to do to to know and it will be the best Zelda game ever.

Red: 1:04:49

Yeah, but the structure is there now or like the the the foundation I shouldn't say not the structure, the foundation is there to build whatever the next one is called over just keeps going Breath of the Wild too, but I don't think they've ever just called something Since now Zelda two so I'm sure it'll have a different name. But you know, it even it really came out in the middle of a golden age for open world games in general. I mean Witcher three Horizon Zero Dawn Assassin's Creed Odyssey Death Stranding? I know I'm leaving a ton more out there. Yeah, like I just feel like in terms of collectibles and side quests, it definitely lags behind some of those other games. So the foundation is there in that sequel. Let's see a little bit more strength in those areas we've talked about and I do completely agree I think the sequel could be if they just you know, do it right could be the best Zelda game ever but we have blabbed on long enough

Hick: 1:05:41

how are you going to get us wrapped up? First of all, you can find all the links in the description for all this stuff and also those three videos earlier but you can support us on Patreon or PayPal. If you can support us financially please leave a review or rating it helps out our rankings when people are searching for like you know video game podcasts. Yeah, we also have merchandise on our websites too guys playing Zelda tg PC gaming and those are affiliate shops so we may earn a commission if you purchase through our links it just depends if it tracks correctly or not track correctly so that's why we may earn a commission on exactly what kind of talk about our face group Facebook groups and what else we got going on.

Red: 1:06:22

Yep, well we're all over social media you mentioned Facebook we've got two pages we've got the gaming realm where we talk about all the green groups sorry not pages sorry we got two groups we got gaming realm and we have Zelda realm where we talk specifically about Zelda Of course.

Hick: 1:06:36

Now we got juicy red, but we also have two pages. Yes.

Red: 1:06:40

Oh my goodness. We're gonna have to start putting more notes down here. Yeah, we also have YouTube we've got two guys playing Zelda and TGPZ Media check us out on there. Lots of videos, rankings, theories, all that kind of stuff. We've got a Discord server with a bunch of channels. We talked about just video gaming in general. We talk Nintendo Sony Xbox, we talk sports, we talk booze, we talk Star Wars, we talk just about everything on Discord. And then you can find us on Twitter, Instagram On Facebook. So I guess all it's left to do is decide what the hell we want to talk about in the next episode. So I'm kind of down for sticking with talking about some specific games here. Yeah, I wouldn't mind getting away from Nintendo a little bit. We've already done Odyssey and Breath of the Wild here. What do you think about something like maybe Spider Man or the original The Last of Us? Oh, man.

Hick: 1:07:27

I'm okay. Both those days. You know, I don't know if we say you got the last of us part two. You know, we might talk about those together because it's only two games we can do. Or we might not I don't know. I can't make a decision right now. So I guess we're gonna talk about Spider Man on ps4 next episode. But anyways, in the meantime, y'all stay safe. There's still that pandemic going on. We'll try to make more time for gaming and we will catch you on the next episode. I hope you all enjoyed this with Zelda fans. I hope you loved it. We had a blast. See you next time.