Tag: BOTW Diary

Zelda BOTW Diary (2)

games
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I started playing Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild today.

The last Zelda game I played for the first time was Ocarina of Time on the N64, basically 25 years ago.

In BotW, Link wakes up after 100 years of sleep, remembering nothing.

This is pretty much how I feel too.

So far, I don’t want to do the main quest at all, I just want to wander around and interact with things and discover things on my own. Still, I’m basically following the game’s directions prompting me to go here, do this, do that. But mainly I just want to walk around slowly, taking in the sights, and observe the environment changing over time as the weather changes, time passes, etc.

I have avoided reading spoilers and instructions for the most part, but of course I have read/watched some reviews, and have a spotty understanding of what to expect.

I know that I’m confined to an area of the world called the Great Plateau at first, so I haven’t tried to climb down off of it. I’ve run around the plateau and tried to find things. One of the first things I did after leaving the cave where Link wakes up is meet an old man who was sitting by a fire. He is friendly and gave me some information about things that I can do in the world. I can sit by the fire to pass time, and I can cook things in the fire — I cooked an apple.

I have rudimentary clothing from the place where I woke up, and all I have for a weapon is a tree branch. I feel like if I get into anything with this armament that I will be in trouble, so I’m avoiding fights with random monsters for now. I hope I can explore a bit and discover a better weapon, or some armor, or at least some items that can heal me before I get into any big fights.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Diaries (1)

Game Design, Nintendo, reviews
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I bought a Nintendo Switch last spring, two years after launch, when Super Mario Maker 2 was announced, and I bought my obligatory copy of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the same day.  And then didn’t play it until a global pandemic swept through the country and forced everyone into becoming homebodies.

I guess that’s weird, right? You should see my backlog of Steam games I have purchased but never played.

So, I’ve read reviews and know a bit about the game ahead of playing it, but I’m trying to experience this game as much as I can by figuring it out on my own, and not going to walkthrough sites and reading how to win the game. I think this is the best way to enjoy the game, because it seems like the designers meant for it to be a journey of discovery, and I want to experience it that way, and not as a list of tasks that I need to complete in order to say I’ve experienced the game.

So far, I’m liking the game. I think my response to the experience of playing BOTW is more interesting and nuanced than gushing fanboy praise. Zelda games are Top Shelf, and typically get high 90% reviews. And while they’re clearly lavish, and intended to be special, I think I’m enjoying being critical of it as well, perhaps more than I would enjoy the game if I felt nothing but awestruck by the whole thing.

I’m playing it handheld, and I wonder if maybe the small screen contributes to my feeling this way. There’s no denying the graphics are beautiful, but maybe they’d be much more impressive on a 40+” screen rather than on a 7″ or however big the Switch’s screen is.

At any rate, I started posting my progress and impressions on Facebook, and as I’ve gotten into it more, I think it’s more fun to post this sort of thing on the website too.

I haven’t done something like this before, but I think what I’ll do is continue posting to Facebook, journaling my progress in the game, and then re-publish them, cleaned up, here, later. The Facebook posts aren’t public, but these articles are. They’ll be published on a delay, so commenters won’t be able to spoil the experience for me. Hopefully this will be interesting and worthwhile for people to read along.

I get that these days the hip thing to do is stream and talk, and that’s where the monetization is (or was, for a while), but I’m a bit more old school than that, so it’ll be text, and occasionally images. Assuming I can remember to take screen caps, and then post them. While pictures are great, I’m not really here to sell the game, but to talk to my experience of it and my reflections on those experiences. And I’m not sure that images are all that necessary for this. If you’ve played the game, you know what I’m talking about.

And it’s been out almost 3 year snow, so if you haven’t, well, you should have already. What’s wrong with you?

Oh, and it goes without saying, I’m not worried about posting spoilers. The game’s been out.