 So let's just get this in this next topic out of the way because This is the only game Eric has played And that's obviously the premiere launch game once you switch Once you switch maybe no breath of the wild so Just just to frame the conversation a little bit Probably while it's currently sitting at a 97 on Metacritic it did go down a point after two Metacritic calls them mixed reviews The one was by Jim Sterling who gave it a seven out of ten and He looked like what people don't understand about Jim Sterling's radiance is that it's not like most of the industry A seven is really damn good Like that's really high for Jim Sterling And I know some people like oh, but he gave horizon at 9.5 because he liked horizon better Then that's okay. It's okay for someone to like a game better than Zelda. It's not the end of the world but we've all played Zelda and Right now it sits as like the best-selling launch game in Nintendo history and Obviously getting lots of praise so let's just sit back for a moment and We'll keep it spoiler-free. You know full disclosure. I've beaten the end boss in the game Have not beaten everything. I won't I think I've just now passed 10% today like 10% of 100% completion So like I have a long ways to go to 100% this game long ways But I know Eric's probably just a little bit off the plateau and I don't have no idea how far Mason is Yeah, I'm past the plateau. I would say I'm probably 25 hours in just a lot of exploring rather I'm not too far into the story itself, but I've just done a lot of explaining. I've seen a lot of places so far So let's just talk about what How do we feel about this game, you know We've talked about it before like Eric and I've talked extensively about our e3 experience with it But now we have it. It's in our hands. The only thing preventing us from playing more of it is our lives So like Mason, let's start with you. What's your takeaway now that you have this game? Like like what what impression does it leave on you? All right. Well, the thing was whenever I got I was obviously really hype. We've been waiting for forever But whenever I started playing it, believe it or not, I was not a fan I'm gonna get like killed for that But hear me out like it was it's my first open world game like true open world And it was almost overwhelming in a way at the start I didn't know I was trying to advance to the plot and stuff and I was trying to get things done I had no clue where to go because you know, but as I played through I began to just learn The exploration is what makes this game fun, you know It's like you can't expect to just miss every single thing you walk past because look at what's all around you There's so much so much to do so much to see and all of that it's just like you can't not go explore and While you do that you get weapons you get food all this stuff that you can use to advance this story then after So it was just kind of a learning experience more than anything after the beginning I wouldn't say it was boring at the start It just had me with very mixed feelings because I want to like it because it was Zelda But at the same time I'm like I can't bias myself like that like be real Mason But I wanted to love it and as I play through more and more now. I'm just this game is incredible Yeah Is there anything you don't like about it so far? Um, that's kind of I mean one thing I really really wish they could change maybe is like for New beginners all the players, you know, I would probably in all seriousness I played a few Zelda games before this, but I'd probably use this mode where they dialed out enemies a little bit in terms of power like You can go and find I think his name's a lineman or something like that. He's like he's very I'm not gonna say the thing more actually, but he can take you out in one hit Right no, yeah, and like guardians, you know, if you shield parry them That's not big of a deal or you can take them out kind of easily now But it's just like to think that you walk into one area when you're seemingly hundreds of feet away from some enemy And they all they hear you or something they turn to shoot you and you're done and I'm like, what was that and Then you know, I mean and then going from point A to point B. There's such a Distance between those and like not say it's bad because like I said exploration is a fun thing for this now That's that's probably what their intention was but it's just like It was very it's a very overwhelming game if you never played open-world. I think yeah Well, like I said It's a lot like Zelda one Very easy to die in Zelda one you don't even have a weapon right away just like in this game, you know And if you don't go down to the cave and get your sword you're probably gonna be dying a lot So And I think that was the goal with this game It wasn't it didn't want to hold your hand like at all Right, like you could go throughout most of this game and not even know you could shield serve Like it's crazy one of League's primary abilities and you could just like never use it because you don't know it exists So it is a game that doesn't do a lot of explaining I personally like it But I'm also a Zelda veteran. So like I don't want to be told things And I almost feel like this game This I don't think this game is to it I think this game is going to going to do something in Kind of ironic way because I think Nintendo built this game to be for hardcore Zelda fans and Ironically, I think it's going to actually expand the Zelda fan base like opening of time did Where you're gonna get a bunch of people who've never played Zelda kind of like Eric over here Into the game because of the kind of game it is like people who don't like Zelda or don't usually play it or going to play And I don't think Nintendo intended that with this game Based on everything that's set up. It's definitely for like Zelda veterans and yet every time Nintendo seems to do this That's when the series gets its broadest appeal And every time Nintendo tries to cater it for a specific like a younger audience as an example like say With the Wind Waker they chose an art style to try to appeal to children as an example It ends up doing the opposite and children don't want to play So it's a very weird thing that this is probably Nintendo's most hardcore game. Maybe they've ever made and You know, it's most serious game It's most lack of hand-holding the most catered to people who are highly experienced with Zelda And it's gonna be the game that appeals to more people It might even become the best-selling Zelda game of all time Which you know, it only has to cross like 8 million in sales or whatever to pull that off But yeah, I This game man Even after finishing the end game, which apparently there's multiple endings So I've been told It's just one of those things that I Have a hard time putting it down I will be like, oh, I'm just gonna play a half hour here. I look up and it's been two hours Because you just get lost in this world And there's always something more Something to see in the distance You think oh, I'm just gonna beat this enemy or beat the shrine to be done And all of a sudden you're about to shut it off and on the distance you spot something You really want to go check out. You're like, oh, how's this go? I'm just gonna take 10 minutes to check that out and then Let alone it takes a half hour to find the get there and then when you do get there You got all these enemy camps to go through and like oh, I should stop like oh before I stop Maybe I should unlock that tower so I can get the math And then you fight the way to the top of the tower and like I know some people don't like the towers because it Apparently feels a lot like Ubisoft games where they have towers that unlock maps and stuff like that kind of like an assassin's creed But I think what's different about the Zelda towers is they made it a challenge just to even get to the top Whereas in like games, it's just you know, I just climb off the building and get as high as you can get to the top And in Zelda, it's like no you have to basically complete a puzzle to even get to the top You have to figure out how do you get around these thorns? How do you get around this gunk? How do you all you don't have enough stamina to climb from the bottom? How do you know how are you gonna get high enough up on it? To have enough stamina to get to the top if you fly to it You're gonna be using up too much of your stamina to fly to it So like there's just so many different ways. They made it interesting to get to the top of those towers Sometimes it frustrates me because sometimes like I just want to unlock the map. I don't want to do this Like I just wanted to spend two minutes on a lot the map I didn't want to spend a half hour to figure out how to unlock the map But again, that's not a frustrating thing. It's just This game grabs you and doesn't let you go And I think that's like my biggest takeaway after spending over 40 hours with it Is that it's so hard to put down and I haven't felt this way about a video game Years decades Yeah, I mean maybe Man, I'm trying to even remember the last time I got so immersed in the game that I could not put it down Maybe Banjo-Kazooie back in the day. Yeah, Conker's Conker's bad for a day after that Especially the first time through. Yeah You know, obviously opening of time. It's kind of one I was I still took two years with it So I obviously put it down quite a bit, but I didn't own it for most of those two years You know, even most of all the games they don't grip me or if they do grip me It's one of those games that by this amount of hours that I put in I not only Beat the game. I 100% of the game. Oh, yeah, like that. I did all there was to do And in about for a while, I'm 40 hours in I've already beaten the emboss and I have only completed 10% That means, you know, you extrapolate that 10% by time. I mean 9 times 40 hours, that's how many hours I have left to sing into this game before DLC even hits Like you're starting to talk about Hyrule Warriors kind of hours and Hyrule Warriors is most of grinding, right? Yeah, so it's like man You know, I'm gonna spend 400 hours the breath of the wild It's crazy. Yeah, but the thing is it's easy to do. It's not like it's one of those Things is you don't it's not one of those things where like in Hyrule Warriors. Oh, I gotta grind my character up I got a grind for rupees. Yeah, I don't ever feel like I'm grinding here. Yeah, I'm not you know Like yeah, I'm exploring and being rewarded for my exploration with better gear. I am Wanting to see what's over that next mountain range. In fact, there was one point I did this one area I won't I won't spoil what it is, but it was towards the edge of the map and One thing I haven't done is see what happens when I get to edge of the map There was a mountain range and according to EJ Noah, you see it. You can go to it Can I get to it? What the heck happens? Yeah, is this actually an island? Is there more going on? Is this where the DLC is gonna take place? So like I haven't even done that yet and I really really want to do that And I've said this before and I'm gonna keep saying it because the only other game I think has made me feel this way I've played a bunch of open-world games put lots of Zelda games You know got my witchers and my skyrims and all that stuff in my background. I Have never felt this sense of exploration with any game Except for world of warcraft the like vanilla world of warcraft And it feels very same except it's an MMORPG The point is is to do your do your dungeons, you know, do your raids have fun gear up Etc. Etc. But there was always this aspect of will a warcraft that I think went completely Unappreciated back when it came out and that was a sense of exploration It wasn't so much that I was always looking for new enemies I just wanted to see what was next what was over that mountain top or like they would be like Oh, we're gonna have this in this area opening up right for like the room and release a patch It's unleashing this new dungeon in this one area that you can't access yet well that area technically exists in the game is there a way I can find to traverse the mountain to get to it and Oftentimes you would find a way to do it. Do they want you to do it? Well, of course they did you kind of had a glitch your way in but I still did it anyways There's that sense of exploration. I want to know what's next. What's there? What's out there? and Zelda not only delivers that sense of I just want to keep going. It's they deliver the world size wise That doesn't that that makes me feel there's always something more there's like there's so I could be in an area I said the Great Plateau I can spend 20 hours there probably still find something new somewhere You know like like right before I left the Great Plateau Because I thought I had done everything there was to do in the Great Plateau I discovered a new coraxie puzzle that I didn't even know existed Like okay, that's crazy like I'm still finding new stuff So it's just a very interesting game And it's a very almost a unique experience as I said outside of World of Warcraft where I just don't experience games that make me want to explore it like this And I could talk about the story, but as I'm going to try to keep all the spoilers out I'll say that maybe for the review. I did reveal that when I do review Breath of the Wild I'm not putting like a big thing under the like I'm not doing that I can't talk about spoilers thing That's what pretty much all the 90 plus reviews out there. I've done so you don't want spoilers Don't watch my review. I Don't know how many spoilers are gonna be in because I haven't wrote it yet But it just like I'm gonna be talking about story and stuff in there because I feel like To probably review something. How can you review the story without talking about the story, right? And that's usually what people care about the most of spoilers So I'm going to be talking about story in my review, so I won't talk about that here But just gameplay wise You know what one thing I like about this game that surprised me The breakable equipment Yes, so a lot there's been a lot of hate going around for this breakable item system Especially early on because sometimes you won't even defeat one enemy before your bogey club breaks or whatever But dude I Love this system. I almost feel like all other systems are inferior to this and I feel like my opinion on this It's severely in the minority Um Just like my opinion of voice acting in the games probably the minority too, you know spoiler warning, I guess I liked it Yeah, I do too Well, I do too so many people like this is just bad voice acting. I'm just like, okay. Well, that's fine Maybe my expectation Maybe my expectation of a voice acting just aren't as high as some people. I don't expect this to be a movie It's a video I feel like Yeah, I was gonna say real quick Everybody was like I've seen people beg for voice acting in this all the game and then once they get it They're like so I'm grateful. I'm like, this is cool though, you know, like still doesn't talk He still has that character to him and it's great to see I'm sorry. He doesn't okay. I would say he does it in this game He does not physically like there's no voice acting for him I thought it was really that's why I mentioned I know that I totally just ruined it for me since like what? No, I'm mind blown. No, I'm sorry. I thought it was confirmed elsewhere That's why I mentioned it, but I didn't know that was a thing. You know, what's really cool about what this game? So in most in most other games, right? Link is just silent to be silent. It's just a gameplay gimmick for Creating a connection between the player and the character In this game, I won't say where I won't say how you find it out because again, I don't want to get spoilers But it does there's there's a part of this game that and you only find this if you explore right? It there's no cutscene for it There's part of this game that explains exactly why link doesn't talk in this particular game by this version of link rarely if ever speaks and It's an extremely deep Deep thing that's to do with link the character I Can't wait for you to find it out because it's now is when you post a little small video of Link with the Vietnam war stuff going on in the background because he's seen some That's not even why It's it took me a back that they put that they put this in the game Like as it's always just been a gameplay gimmick and in this it's not a gameplay gimmick There is a lid like the reason that he doesn't speak is just Man, yeah, I don't want to say it, but it is just When you guys find out about it, we got to have a conversation. I feel like you should just tell me like Actually, I'll mention something to you after this all over. I don't know anything Eric didn't a lot of talking yet. Yeah So you got the plateau yep in the first area haven't even got to your first village yet Nope What's your take away so far this game? Um, I kind of would agree with Manson that when you first start out You really don't know what the hell they do if there is so many opportunities to Do things that it's kind of like well, what do I want to do first? Do I want to do this first? Do I want to do that first? I I don't really know what to do first and so and then at the same point time that is a Good thing because there are so many opportunities Well, let me counter this for a second Because I hear people on the on you know, then maybe it's a little too free at the beginning The game tells you like literally you you walk like 30 feet. I don't feel this is a spoiler This is like the very beginning you walk like 30 feet from the game the game and a voice title says link Go to this place mark on your she come out. So like the game's giving you direction. You just don't have to do it. Yeah Yeah, no, I know but Yeah I'll give you that one Well, they like How the main quest works is always that way you always know where you're supposed to go next for the main quest It's just the game doesn't be like oh now you need to go there So go there now like in previous all the games would be like okay Well, you're supposed to go to this dungeon So just go there now and that's the only choice you really have yeah, and this game It's like oh, yeah, so here's some story and oh by the way, here's where you can go next for the main quest, but like Have fun. We don't really need to you you want to go help this kid find a dog. You want to go You know collect bugs you want to go you want to just go explore go with the nothing in this games Holding you back from doing anything you want to do And that's something I really appreciate But obviously I just want to get that point in that like I Feel personally the game gives you enough direction if you just want to do the main story Because you have no direction with side quests. Yeah at all Outside of in-game hints which again, I think it's another thing this game does brilliantly, but I'm sorry go on yeah No, you're fine Overall though, I am definitely still Impressed with this game. It is still meeting my expectations and exceeding them The more I get into it Yeah, even just from like it like e3 it is still getting better So that's kind of impressive because I know it with e3. I was really impressed so Yeah, I can still the craziness in me as I'm already beating the emboss. I still don't want to stop playing. Yeah, I Still don't even know the full story That's crazy. I beat the emboss. I know how it ends. I Still know the full story. I don't have all the memories done. I Don't know what I'm doing. Huh. Yeah, I mean I know what I'm trying to do next right now But after I complete that I don't know what I'm doing and even as I'm doing it I find new things I want to do like I already got lost in the desert. I got completely lost finding the Master Sword like it's scheme man this game So I'm gonna move on from breath of the wild because I don't want to get too in-depth Right now. I think there's gonna be a time and a place for us in the future to have a really in-depth Conversation on this and I think that time and place is gonna be when you've had a chance to be in there when Mason's being it when We have gone through enough of this world and there's been enough time. Let's say maybe a month from now Where I feel like look, we're just telling one right away. We're gonna be talking in-depth about our thoughts on lots of spoiler stuff But I don't think that time is right now. Yeah, I know you don't have enough experience I Have you have eaten boss and I feel like I still don't have enough experience Which again is why our review of breath of the wild is not being rushed. I am not rushing this this game deserves Real time put into it