[Franky Family]

They're riddle-like and perplexing most of the time...

I've been stuck on a handful of them for a while now, and have about twenty or so before I've complete them all. Some I've even spent an hour in the area trying to complete, surveying the land high and low, looking for clues, re-reading the cryptic riddle or sidequest objective

How difficult would you guys say the sidequests in BOTW are overall? And which were your favorites, the ones that stood out?

 

[Chopper]

I don't remember any... I loved it though and wanted to replay it but Tears of the Kingdom is coming soon.

BOTW is mostly good at exploration. Relaxing, slow paced exploring. I didn't like it at first, thought wait is this Zelda? Then ended up putting dozens of hours into it. But the dungeons, side quests, and combat are nothing special. Combat is harder than older Zeldas so that's an improvment, but not by much.

 

[Franky Family]

Yeah, exploration is easily the greatest part of BOTW. There's really not much for me to do besides the sidequests and Shrines now besides explore and collect everything available for survival purposes. That, and to admire the game while exploring. It's easy to find yourself in the overworld exploring for 30-40 minutes at a time, trying to figure out a sidequest and look for any clues in the riddles. It's difficult though, sometimes you'll scale an entire area several times and come up short with no answers and not even an idea of what to do; all you know is that you're probably in the correct area. This is the first time in a Zelda game I've felt like the sidequests are too difficult and time consuming. Usually that would be what I want but most of the time trying to solve is merely traversal; Link going to from point (A) to point (B) and sometimes there's a lot of ground to cover

 

[Chozofication]

Not going to lie a number of them stumped me, but I didn't want to spend hours on them either to figure them out since I wasn't exactly loving the game in general

Like I remember one saying you have to throw a trident over the waterfall or something, never did figure that one out.

I don't think they're well thought out tbh. And what's the payout? Another weapon that breaks in 3 swings? I had no motivation bro.

 

[Epic Nemesis]

I don't remember any... I loved it though and wanted to replay it but Tears of the Kingdom is coming soon.

BOTW is mostly good at exploration. Relaxing, slow paced exploring. I didn't like it at first, thought wait is this Zelda? Then ended up putting dozens of hours into it. But the dungeons, side quests, and combat are nothing special. Combat is harder than older Zeldas so that's an improvment, but not by much.

I don't trust any Zelda release timeframe until it is released.

Twilight princess got delayed and delayed until it came out on GameCube and wii at the same time. Same thing with BOTW and Wii U and switch. Tears of the Kingdom comes out over 6 years after the switch launch. I could easily see them pushing it to launch switch 2, especially since it comes out in less than a year and we haven't seen a live gameplay demo on any stage or direct.

 

[Chozofication]

I don't trust any Zelda release timeframe until it is released.

Twilight princess got delayed and delayed until it came out on GameCube and wii at the same time. Same thing with BOTW and Wii U and switch. Tears of the Kingdom comes out over 6 years after the switch launch. I could easily see them pushing it to launch switch 2, especially since it comes out in less than a year and we haven't seen a live gameplay demo on any stage or direct.

True but they wanted TP on Wii because of the Wii mote and they wanted botw on switch because Wii u didn't have a big enough audience.

Switch has a huge audience and presumably switch 2 will be backwards compatible so I don't think they would delay Zelda to launch on two consoles again. And graphically it looks like og switch should have no problems with it.

My 2c, if anything they would just release tears of a kingdom director's cut on switch 2 later

 

[Optimus]

I remember there being a pretty cool side quest for a hidden treasure. You overhear two treasure hunters talking at one of the stables near the split peaks or whatever it's called. Some great master thief has hidden his spoils in a cave, and you have to trek up a stream and follow the clues to find this cave. I believe this is even a multi layered reward where one set of treasure is meant to obfuscate you from finding the real hidden treasure. In all it was a pretty cool little side mission in a game that doesn't throw quest markers all over the place, so it's not like you're going to just run straight to the cave entrance and then spend 45 minutes slashing your way through a very linear set of corridors. You actually gotta think and explore to find it.

Not going to lie a number of them stumped me, but I didn't want to spend hours on them either to figure them out since I wasn't exactly loving the game in general

Like I remember one saying you have to throw a trident over the waterfall or something, never did figure that one out.

I don't think they're well thought out tbh. And what's the payout? Another weapon that breaks in 3 swings? I had no motivation bro.

The lack of motivation is something I feel throughout BotW and also other Zelda games. You've got your main class of weapons (usually the Mastersword and its various forms) and shields, and then there's the general list of accessories for solving and unlocking puzzles like the bow, boomerang, hookshot, etc. There's rarely ever anything that is purely optional that would require going on a totally separate quest to retrieve. I can still recall finding the ice wand in Link to the Past and having this feeling of pure discovery because at the time it felt so random to come across and yet it had a definite role in the completion of the game.