I didn’t play any Zelda since Ocarina of Time which I loved. I was expecting to have the same feeling in BOTW but I just can’t get into it.

After a few time into it I feel lost. I know that I have to go to some dungeon in the mountains but I just can’t because the character is freezing to death. I cannot afford spending hours randomly exploring the map, relying on luck to discover which mechanic protects agains the cold. There is no guidance except for the fact that there is a dungeon to explore.

I looted a nice sword but after very few encounters it broke in the middle of a fight. Weapons being so fragile just do not make sense, maybe some people appreciate that but knowing that whatever looted is going to be destroyed just make me want to stop playing.

If anyone felt the same, did it click at some point into the game ?

  • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️English
    3•1 year ago

    A large part of the progression in BOTW (and to a lesser extent, its sequel) is getting the means to permanently or at least easily deal with the various types of environmental challenges, to the point that the ones that were tough to surmount in the early game aren’t even really an inconvenience in the end.

    These are, in no particular order:

    • Areas that are cold.
    • Areas that are hot.
    • Areas that are on fire.
    • Eventually finding stronger weapons that don’t break as fast.
    • Getting better armor, and improving it, to make combat easier.
    • Getting a horse to make traveling to new areas easier.
    • Improving your maximum health and more importantly, max stamina so you can climb more stuff and glide longer distances.
    • Getting a movement technique that allows you to yeet yourself to the top of objects.

    FWIW, if you stick to the “intended” path on the Great Plateau (the starting area of the game, where you seem to be) the old man will explicitly tell you what to do to deal with the cold. There are actually multiple solutions for getting up there without freezing your nads off.

    spoiler

    The most straightforward one is to use one of the cooking pots, either the one at the old man’s cabin or the one outside of the cave where you first meet him, to cook up some spicy peppers and eat them. This gives you a time limited buff that makes you immune to the cold. You can also carry a lit torch, which keeps you warm as long as you’re holding it. You can also find the recipes for two special cold resistance dishes in the old man’s cabin if you read his diary on the table, and if you bring him both of these at the top of the mountain he’ll give you the Warm Doublet, a piece of armor that permanently protects you from cold. But anything you cook a spicy pepper into will give you a cold resistance buff.