Day 50 of Breath of the Wild (9/08/17)
I know, I know, I haven’t checked in with my BOTW progress for about three weeks (unacceptable) I put a massive amount of time in about two weeks ago, and then dropped it because of a lack of internet and time. I haven’t played for more than a half hour in about ten day and the next couple entries (now that I am back on the interweb) will come quickly to catch up on those last big sessions before I dropped off. I promise I am committed to this game!
My hours played is about 80 right now and I am just under halfway through all the shrines (55 I think). There are just less than an infinite number of options for how to spend your time in Hyrule, and something I have been thinking about since I started this play through is what does a completed game look like. The two obvious objectives are defeat Gannon in Hyrule castle and clear each of the four divine beasts. I made my first visit to the castle the other day as I’ve read that a lot of the best weapons can be found within and I was down to running around with a bunch of spiked moblin clubs, which can make any combat a bit of a slog. Anyways, I’ve been to the castle and the next time I go back will hopefully be when I am ready to face Gannon and finish the game; the final act as it were. Because of the blood moons that occur every three or four days the monsters (as well as the weapons) regenerate meaning that even if you clear everything except Gannon, in a few day they will all be back. Thinking about this maybe I should make a caveat that I might have to make another visit to the castle if my weapons are running low. (Will talk more in depth about visit to the castle in another entry)
I have cleared and activated two of the divine beasts and am currently (in a roundabout manner) making my way to Gerudo Town and Goron City for the last two, so that objective will hopefully be done soon. Tied to that is my desire to acquire the Dark Link armor from Kilton at the Fang and Bone. I’ve been aware of the rumors about Kilton since my first trip up to the Akala region, but I finally ran across his misshapen monster shop the other day. Once that first contact is made, he appears at night at the edge of whatever village you are in. I was traveling out of Zora’s Domain at night and just the sight of his sparkly purple shop up on the cliffs overlooking the city was so delightful, a monstrous surprise only for those who are willing to look. Another example of the joy of this game, that the effort of your adventure is constantly rewarded if only you will seek it out.
Others tasks that are part of what I am calling my complete game are finding all 120 shrines, collecting 120 spirit words, and acquiring the cap, tunic and legging of the wild armor reward. This is the version of the classic green Link outfit that was made specially for this game and it (along with the dark Link armor) are the coolest in game armor options (uugghh why do amiibo have to be so popular). I don’t have the goal to acquire all of the possible in game amours as they don’t all look that great and some of the masks/helmets for the armor sets are terrible. I would though like to get those two. Two more exploratory goals are to find all five fairy fountains (found two already) and complete Link’s captured memories checklist. I suppose these goals are related to completing all the shrines as finding shrines requires a lot of exploration and just spending time in the environment. I particularly enjoy the captured memories quest. Link has a set of pictures and has to find the spot where each picture was taken to unlock a memory. Finding the general area where a picture was taken is not too hard but within an area finding the spot is really challenging because these pictures where taken 100 years ago and things have deteriorated. Everyone is always telling you about how the world has gone to ruin since Gannon invaded and Princess Zelda went away, but this exercise is where you find the physical evidence of that ruin.
I am leaving two big tasks off my list. One is finding all 900 Korok seeds and the other is completing the Hyrule compendiums. In regard to the Korok seeds, I have found about 60 of them (so less than one per hour of gameplay) and I am content to find enough seeds to expand my inventory but I really don’t think I can come up with 900 of them. I will find as many as I can, but that’s not part of my complete game. I wanted to complete the Hyrule compendium but set that as a goal after clearing my first divine beast and missing the opportunity to take a picture of Thunderblight Gannon. There’s one chance to take that picture and without it the picture inventory of all the material, enemies, animals and weapons in Hyrule cannot be complete. I think that will have to be a goal for my next play through.
I haven’t mentioned anything about the Trials of the sword DLC yet. I want to complete the trials, but I think that will be its own separate undertaking after Gannon is defeated and the other task are complete. I mentioned in my last post I was headed to the Korok Forest to finish all the Korok trials and while there I gave the Trial of the Sword a go… and it did not go well. If I am going to complete the trials my combat has to get more efficient much smarter. Knowing that the trials will be my next objective after this game I am trying to approach enemies differently and be use the environment more often.
I think that’s all for now I have another couple entries coming right after this about what I’ve been doing in the game, but just for the sake of summation the following list is what will be my version of completion for this play through of BOTW.
My Complete Game (subject to updating)
- defeat Calamity Gannon
- defeat 4 divine beasts (DONE)
- acquire Wild armor set
- acquire Dark Link armor set (DONE)
- find 120 shrines and collect 120 spirit orbs
- climb all 15 resurrection towers (DONE)
- find 5 great fairy fountains
- complete Link’s captured memories checklist
Comicsly 