Oh, I meant to hit you up concerning the shrines - have you gotten to some of the more complex ones? While about 2/3 of the ones I've encountered have been built around a fairly rudimentary puzzle, the remaining 1/3 are surprisingly ambitious, multi-room puzzles that echo classic Zelda dungeons. I was rather surprised…

I think, strangely, the climbing and the paragliding are two of the most beguiling features of the game, and part of what suggests the fusion of Nintendo's two greatest properties - Mario & Zelda. The game has taken all of the best aspects of the Legend of Zelda (puzzles, quirky characters, tactile weapons-based…

Yes! I'd be lost without him. I've also been documenting his paintings using the screenshot feature, as they're eternally charming/odd. Have you seen his painting of… what I think is a horse? It's my favorite of the bunch so far.

I'm really looking forward to hearing your take on Persona 5. Is it still coming out in the US on PS3? If so, I'll pick it up on there - Persona 3 and 4 are two of my favorite RPGs, though I'll confess I haven't finished either. My wife loves the music in the former, so the fifth iteration has some big shoes to fill!

That's nice that they added 3 orb quests to Fire Emblem. I wondered what they would do once the 2 orb bonus ended, since that was really the only reasonable way to get a full draw of five characters. I haven't kept up with the game, feeling like I got my enjoyment out of it, but I keep it on my phone for the…

One of the ways that I've been enjoying Zelda, and last night's session was even more like this than most, is just talking to villagers, hearing about some peculiar feature of the surrounding area, and then browsing towards it semi-aimlessly on my horse. It's very relaxing, as there's not really a fail state for…

Part of the reason that Breath of the Wild has been a very odd and delightful experience for me so far is that it's effectively a perfected version of No Man's Sky. It has most of my favorite elements from that game - exploration, cataloging discoveries, evading dangerous environmental hazards/hostile life forms - but…

I've been entirely out of the loop on the pre-release buzz for Mass Effect, so I'll be curious to hear how it plays. The original trilogy was, for me, the defining series of the Xbox 360 era, though I don't feel any particular yearning to return to that universe, well-drawn as it was.

Huh, I don't remember ever encountering warm saffina. I've encountered oodles of cool saffina, but never warm. To be fair, I've barely begun exploring the Western half of the map, so I assume it's somewhere over there. Maybe in Gerudo?

Agreed. I like the degrading weapons (and somehow seem to accrue new weapons significantly quicker than mine degrade), but I don't understand how someone could take criticism of a game so personally. DDoS'ing a media personality for their take on a game really reveals a staggeringly screwed up sense of morality.

That is one of the game's most compelling fights so far for me too. I just narrowly squeaked by.

It's such a great game! Are you playing on a Wii or Dolphin? Wii might have slightly more stable motion controls, but it looks absolutely incredible on Dolphin.

Haha, you did indeed guess wrong. Would you like a tip on this quest? Despite being reasonably far into the game, I just happened across this particular Kass quest last night.

The horses are not functionally necessary, but they do seem to add a vaguely swashbuckling charm to the game; sometimes I travel between places on my horse just for the thrill of watching the beautiful world go by. Plus jousting with bokoblins is consistently engaging.

That horse-riding theme is top-notch. Much like the music that plays when a Guardian attacks, it gets me hyper-invested in the moment every time (which is really saying something more than 60 hours into the game!).

Seriously?! I feel like it's one of the more populated Zelda titles, with multiple towns, trading posts, and various traveling people. That's one of the aspects that I like most about it, as so many of these NPCs have the odd personality quirks characteristic of the series' best entries.

I would disagree wholeheartedly on Skyward Sword looking generic, especially as it acts as the clearest template for Breath of the Wild's visuals, but would more broadly agree with you - Zelda had become fairly staid in its visual style, and Breath of the Wild shakes it up pretty dramatically.

Did you ever play Hyrule Warriors? The portion where you play as Ganondorf and his officers is pretty bizarre, for exactly this reason.

I like the idea pitched by one of the GameXplain writers - a 2 player, cooperative top-down Zelda on Switch would be a natural, since the console already comes with two controllers. It would alleviate most of the hardware/software coordination that past multiplayer Zelda games featured.

I've played so, so, so much Breath of the Wild, and I'm ready to play some more! Concerning the central quest, I'm roughly 50% done, having completed 2 Divine Beasts: Vah Ruta and Vah Rudania. I'm currently finishing up what I can on the Eastern half of the map before moving over to the Western half.