Breath of the Wild Combat and Enemies

[the8thark]

@Lozjam It looks like there is hard and easy ways to explore. Hard as in before you get the items to make exploring easier. Ysing your example, it's harder to make a line of fires then it is to put on a warm coat. But until you have the warm coat you have to make the fires if you want to traverse that area. I do have a feeling some areas will require exploring the hard way initially before the easy way unlocks.
A good exmple of this is Zelda 2. It's very short but you have to go through one cave to reach Palace 1 and the candle. So one cave you must traverse in the dark. Also you must traverse through the Palace 4 maze until you get the boots and can bypass the maze.

This is all very smart thought from the team making the game. Something XCX does not have. Travelling around in XCX is either running everywhere on foot (the high level things do not affect you much for pure exploring), ior a flying skell for the last 20%. There is no sense of one are is more difficult to explore than an other. BotW seems to have this with hot areas, cold areas etc etc. OOT has this too with the volcano and swimming as well till you got the right colour tunics. I wouldd guess BotW takes this to a whole new level though.

 

[Turo602]

As great as all that sounds, I hope the actual 1 on 1 combat is better in the full game. From what they've shown, the moves themselves look pretty basic so hopefully Link does end up learning new skills.

 

[Azure Sage]

Something I noticed in the gameplay footage: you can do more damage to enemies if you hit them in the right spot. For example, if you shoot a boar or bokoblin in the head it's an instant kill, if you shoot them or stab them in the chest it does a fair bit of damage but doesn't kill them right away. This is useful when you're trying to hunt or take down sentries. I find that neat.

 

[Triforce King]

I saw in a video once that if a guardian shoots it's beam at you, you can reflect it back by timing your shield bash.

 

[Lozjam]

I saw in a video once that if a guardian shoots it's beam at you, you can reflect it back by timing your shield bash.

Man... There's just so many ways to almost everything. Skill, strategy, innovation, problem solving...

It's going to be amazing finding out new ways to take on enemies.

I have also noticed that enemies can actually use Link's own weapons against him if he does a well timed throw. I bet you there will be enemies that are focused on disarming. These mechanics, with this structure, really. The sky is the limit.

 

[Triforce King]

Man... There's just so many ways to almost everything. Skill, strategy, innovation, problem solving...

It's going to be amazing finding out new ways to take on enemies.

I have also noticed that enemies can actually use Link's own weapons against him if he does a well timed throw. I bet you there will be enemies that are focused on disarming. These mechanics, with this structure, really. The sky is the limit.

I know right! It just keeps getting better and better. Also Link can shield board in the snow, SHIELD BOARD!

Yeah I agree, so what's going to be your approach? stealth or just going in head first?

Yeah I'm loving how much they improving the enemies AI.

 

[Castle]

The additional combat variety and versatility is a massive pro. This is what Zelda's been needing. An open world exploration game can easily become stale if it gets repetitive. Combat variety and more advanced challenges (intelligent enemies, not scripted ones) are gonna allow players to have all sorts of creative fun surviving and dispatching evil minions this time around.

But once again those darsh garn aesthetics. I shouldn't have to apologize for my personal beliefs but it's just really hard to take the endeavor seriously when I'm beating up Sesame Street monsters. In fact I actually feel sorry for them. Way to make me feel like (more of) a jerk nintendo. There's no satisfaction in beating up cartoony monsters that don't appear even remotely threatening. If my job is to quest forth into the wide world seeking adventure and lost treasure to save the realm, I need to feel like I'm up against something clearly sinister.

In Skyward Sword there's a boss monster I swear ninty ripped directly off of Monsters Inc. The moment that thing appeared I groaned in dismay. Now compare that with the likes of Queen Ghoma's creepy giant eye rolling back from the darkness to reveal itself before dropping down from the ceiling to land right in front of you, or Volvagia's terrifying resurrection, or the haunting wail of wolfos, the sinister cackling of poes, or the eerie moan of redeads. The moment in Ocarina when you see what Ganondorf's done to castle town would have been utterly ridiculous if the redeads looked like the creatures from BotW.