Zelda: Breath of the Wild

My kids kept taking my Switch, so my wife just got me another one. Decided to start playing this again, and actually having more fun than the first time I played through it.
 
I'm sooooo tempted to get another Switch, but I'm gonna hold out and see what Nintendo does (or not) with the next iteration of the console.

:D Oh, I'm sure I'll get that too! Can't really have too many N consoles in the house when there're kids around. They all just kinda trickle down. The Wii-U is still in circulation in my daughter's room. They all have 3DSes that got passed down after I got new editions, etc. That and PCs. We're a PC+N house. :D I drew the line there though. I use Dolphin for Wii or GC games. I still have my discs for those, but they just sit in a box in the garage. I like to have clean setups.

The cool thing with multiple Switches, is it's starting to open up some interesting multiplayer scenarios that normally were reserved for the PCs/LAN.
 
Just finished my 2nd 100% playthrough, all koroks, all chests, no fast travel, blood moon challenge. 115 hours total, although I still need to kill Ganon, pull the Master Sword, and wrap up a couple quests.


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What's so terrible about it? I've yet to play it.

I really don't find it a terrible game. Its different from previous Zelda games though in that its essentially an open world adventure closer to Assassin's Creed Origins / Odyssey / Valhalla etc.. and the gatcha-game Genshin Impact was based on BOTW style movement, animation, and combat in an open world. One thing that annoyed many was how quickly most weapons "broke", which I understand - but it was a critical mechanic to encourage users to get an armory of weapons and use them properly. There are quite a few puzzles and collectibles (though you do NOT have to find everything to fully 100% complete the game. Most notably there are about 900 "Korok seeds" hidden all over the world and you only need about 350 in order to unlock all real rewards. In fact, finding all of them literally mocks you by handing you a useless "joke" item. ), but there aren't the traditional Zelda style dungeons - instead, there are a bunch of "mini challenges/puzzle shrines" and a handful of independent boss fights, rather than the classic Zelda model of "Do dungeon, get new item, beat big boss at the end of it". Some critiqued the game for not totally revamping the open world mechanics of the time (ie lets not forget it was 2017 when it launched) as it still has "towers" you use for quick travel and the like, but that's not a major element. Many critiqued it primarily for not being either a classic linear Zelda title or for the rate at which weapons broke (note: some of the latest-game signature weapons do NOT break - but they understandably take a LOT to get and even more to power up to maximum).

If you're okay with this, its actually quite an innovative Zelda game. The open world gameplay is noteworthy and is kept fresh (ie as you defeat camps of enemies and hit special milestones, they will be replaced by stronger enemy types ), movement and combat are both very active and enjoyable, the story is solid (once you play BOTW to completion, I HIGHLY suggest playing Age of Calamity on Switch, a Musou/Warriors type game which is its...prequel-ish that gives more backstory. However, play BOTW first by far. Of course, BOTW2 is on its way and that will bring some of the things that didn't get full on closure in BOTW into the next game). BOTW can be played on either WiiU or Switch and between the two consoles the Switch has a few minor benefits. However, if you're [H] and have a gaming grade PC, I HIGHLY suggest that you play it via emulator.

BOTW can be played most comprehensively by the CEMU (WiiU) emulator. You can run it at resolutions at or above 1080p and It can even run at 60FPS without negatively affecting the play experience most of the time (faster than that the physics get wonky. There's like 1 boss fight you need to kick it back to native 30 mode if I recall). There are also tons of mods including graphical and functional ones . You can also play the Switch version in either the Yuzu or Ryujinx emulators if you wish (not quite as many mods or as far along, but now fully playable and without graphical issues. There are some individual tradeoffs - ie Yuzu doesn't yet have internal rendering resolution changes but overall its not a problem). So yeah, its certainly playable via emulators and is well worth playing if you like Zelda and /or open world adventures.
 
I really don't find it a terrible game. Its different from previous Zelda games though in that its essentially an open world adventure closer to Assassin's Creed Origins / Odyssey / Valhalla etc.. and the gatcha-game Genshin Impact was based on BOTW style movement, animation, and combat in an open world. One thing that annoyed many was how quickly most weapons "broke", which I understand - but it was a critical mechanic to encourage users to get an armory of weapons and use them properly. There are quite a few puzzles and collectibles (though you do NOT have to find everything to fully 100% complete the game. Most notably there are about 900 "Korok seeds" hidden all over the world and you only need about 350 in order to unlock all real rewards. In fact, finding all of them literally mocks you by handing you a useless "joke" item. ), but there aren't the traditional Zelda style dungeons - instead, there are a bunch of "mini challenges/puzzle shrines" and a handful of independent boss fights, rather than the classic Zelda model of "Do dungeon, get new item, beat big boss at the end of it". Some critiqued the game for not totally revamping the open world mechanics of the time (ie lets not forget it was 2017 when it launched) as it still has "towers" you use for quick travel and the like, but that's not a major element. Many critiqued it primarily for not being either a classic linear Zelda title or for the rate at which weapons broke (note: some of the latest-game signature weapons do NOT break - but they understandably take a LOT to get and even more to power up to maximum).

If you're okay with this, its actually quite an innovative Zelda game. The open world gameplay is noteworthy and is kept fresh (ie as you defeat camps of enemies and hit special milestones, they will be replaced by stronger enemy types ), movement and combat are both very active and enjoyable, the story is solid (once you play BOTW to completion, I HIGHLY suggest playing Age of Calamity on Switch, a Musou/Warriors type game which is its...prequel-ish that gives more backstory. However, play BOTW first by far. Of course, BOTW2 is on its way and that will bring some of the things that didn't get full on closure in BOTW into the next game). BOTW can be played on either WiiU or Switch and between the two consoles the Switch has a few minor benefits. However, if you're [H] and have a gaming grade PC, I HIGHLY suggest that you play it via emulator.

BOTW can be played most comprehensively by the CEMU (WiiU) emulator. You can run it at resolutions at or above 1080p and It can even run at 60FPS without negatively affecting the play experience most of the time (faster than that the physics get wonky. There's like 1 boss fight you need to kick it back to native 30 mode if I recall). There are also tons of mods including graphical and functional ones . You can also play the Switch version in either the Yuzu or Ryujinx emulators if you wish (not quite as many mods or as far along, but now fully playable and without graphical issues. There are some individual tradeoffs - ie Yuzu doesn't yet have internal rendering resolution changes but overall its not a problem). So yeah, its certainly playable via emulators and is well worth playing if you like Zelda and /or open world adventures.

I did a bit of research and really have no idea on where to start with the CEMU version but I'd probably prefer to play it that way if I could. It just went on sale for switch, which barely ever happens, and part of why I was considering getting it. If you have any more info on CEMU version and how to get it / get into it, PM me. Curious to see what it takes, haven't played anything via emulator in quite a long time.
 
I did a bit of research and really have no idea on where to start with the CEMU version but I'd probably prefer to play it that way if I could. It just went on sale for switch, which barely ever happens, and part of why I was considering getting it. If you have any more info on CEMU version and how to get it / get into it, PM me. Curious to see what it takes, haven't played anything via emulator in quite a long time.

CEMU is cool, but the Switch is definitely the way to play this game. The Wii U is great too, but the performance is a touch lower. If you can get it on sale for the Switch I’d suggest doing it.
 
If you have a gaming PC built within the last 5+ years, it's better on PC. It will run 4K 60fps on anything around a GTX 1080 or better lol. Switch runs the game at 720p/900p 30fps, it is very much a "last-last-gen" experience.

I would only play it on Switch if you needed the mobility aspect or you can't figure out how to setup the emulator. The game uses cel-shaded graphics and it's not twitchy FPS shooter, so increasing the resolution/fps isn't a total game changer in BOTW. But if you have the hardware sitting in front of you, you may as well use it to play the game if possible.

Google BSODGaming's YouTube channel, he has the best guides for CEMU.
 
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I did a bit of research and really have no idea on where to start with the CEMU version but I'd probably prefer to play it that way if I could. It just went on sale for switch, which barely ever happens, and part of why I was considering getting it. If you have any more info on CEMU version and how to get it / get into it, PM me. Curious to see what it takes, haven't played anything via emulator in quite a long time.

Okay, I'm guessing you have some experience with emulators in general? If you need a step by step of terms or the process to get going, that's okay I just will assume for now that you generally can install an emulator, its requirements (ie some require dumps of system BIOS others don't etc) know about game images or ROMs as general concepts etc. Anyway, since that copy of the Switch version might not be on sale for much longer, I'd decide now if you want to buy it. As J3RK says, between playing it on native hardware on the WiiU vs the Switch, the Switch version is the better of the two, with minor increases in resolution, performance and the like. If you are interested in having a legit Switch copy, etc.. you'll have to make your decision. I'm not sure about the sale parameters, but its worth noting there is an Expansion Pass necessary to get all the in-game DLC (some of which comes late game, some does not ) ; much of it is worthwhile so I would look to see if the Expansion Pass itself is on sale and/or if there's a Complete/Deluxe/Bundle edition that has a similar discount percentage. If so and you decide to buy, I'd take it - typically bundled editions w/ DLC passes/expansions are usually discounted more heavily than the DLC/expansions by themselves.

That said, no matter what you do provided you have a gaming-capable PC as others have mentioned, you should be set up nicely hardware wise for both CEMU (WiiU) and Yuzu / Ryujinx (Switch) emulators. As previously mentioned, you can play BOTW on either and get at LEAST parity with the Switch experience, if not considerable improvements in terms of rendering resolution, FPS, mods, and more. For along time CEMU had a huge leap in terms of performance and features for BOTW as it had a long development arc focused near entirely on that game, but Yuzu is coming very close these days (I'll have to see about mods, but i know there are resolution upgrades and 60FPS tweaks) which is great considering that means that when BOTW2 shows up this or next year, Yuzu may be able to play it near perfectly from the start. Anyway, the first things you'll need to do for either / both emulators is to find/acquire/make a backup and dump the game files. You'll need the base game image itself, an update patch for the latest version, and all the DLC - to ensure you get all the features. The game's ID will also differ slightly based on its region - typically "North America " "Europe" or "Japan", though things can be region free as well - so make sure you get compatible image, update, and DLC. Note that the versions are not necessarily the same between Switch and WiiU so just keep that in mind - I think the latest Update patch version of WiiU is 1.5.0 and Switch is 1.6.0, for instance . A word of advice - like all other games these days, Switch (and Wii U ) games can take up a considerable amount of space so make sure you have room to store your game image files (ie maybe a NAS or storage drive) , and room on the SSD you'll be using to play to have them "installed". Also, do not ask any emulation channels about where to find direct game images or files of any sort (mods and emulator stuff is fine ) - they tend to crack down hard on "piracy" so they can survive without Nintendo (known to be insanely litigious) taking a shot at shutting them down. If you have any difficulties, PM me.

After you have your BOTW game files ( Base game image, latest version update, all DLC) for one or both platforms, you'll need to pick up the emulators themselves and configure them. Cemu can be found at http://cemu.info/ - the public version is available and is usually frequently updated. It offers a Patreon option too which will allow patrons to pick up the fastest and newest updates before they're on the main channel by about a week, but this isn't really necessary unless you wish to support the project. Yuzu is found at https://yuzu-emu.org/ and it too has an Early Access build. I HIGHLY suggest using the Early Access build as Yuzu has big feature updates on a frequent basis and these come to EA builds for testing. For instance, there is a recent update that enabled the Buffer Cache Rewrite which has greatly increased performance at times and fixed many bugs; its currently only available on the EA version. Patreon for Yuzu is $5/month and its supporting a good cause as the emu is open source!

When it comes to configuration of each emulator, it can be somewhat a comprehensive step. As TalentedSquirrel mentions there is a YouTube video maker who focused on these more recent system emulators and he makes from scratch configuration videos too - his name is BSODGaming. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCex2B-k-ZIJhcjRdlYUz4MQ/videos

Here are his most recent config videos. - Cemu - Yuzu . Its important to think of these as starting places as he doesn't do an entirely new config video each update, so sometimes they're a little out of date (at time of writing the CEMU one is from 3 months ago and the Switch one is 1 month back, though I think it has been updated given some of the text in the info bar about the very recent buffer cache rewrite) . That's okay, just pick up the newest emu version available and generally stick to these features -you don't need to use all of his tweaks and whatnot, if you don't wish to do so. Feel free to check out some of his more recent videos on the emus of which you are interested, as he'll typically do a video dedicated to some of the changes in a given update that were not released at the time of the last config-from-scratch video. Configuring these emulators can take a little time initially, but as you become familiar with the various settings and your hardware etc.. its much less daunting. You may also be interested in joining the Cemu and Yuzu Discord channels (which BSODGaming also frequents) ; links are found on their homepages. Hope this helps to get you started and feel free to PM me!
 
If you have a gaming PC built within the last 5+ years, it's better on PC. It will run 4K 60fps on anything around a GTX 1080 or better lol. Switch runs the game at 720p/900p 30fps, it is very much a "last-last-gen" experience.

I would only play it on Switch if you needed the mobility aspect or you can't figure out how to setup the emulator. The game uses cel-shaded graphics and it's not twitchy FPS shooter, so increasing the resolution/fps isn't a total game changer in BOTW. But if you have the hardware sitting in front of you, you may as well use it to pla60y the game if possible.

Google BSODGaming's YouTube channel, he has the best guides for CEMU.
60FPs kinda breaks the game because the game wasn't designed for it. Some things get wonky with it. So, it's better to play at 30fps, which makes the entry to playing it on CEMU even easier. CEMU is def the way to play it.
 
If you can't get gyro controls on cemu then I think playing it on the switch might be a better experience honestly. Note I haven't played on cemu but the switch is nice for convenience/portability etc as well
 
If you can't get gyro controls on cemu then I think playing it on the switch might be a better experience honestly. Note I haven't played on cemu but the switch is nice for convenience/portability etc as well

Just letting you know that gyro controls are available on both Cemu and Yuzu! Depending on what hardware you have the process may be a little different, but if you have a Switch Pro Controller / JoyCons, DualShock 4 / DualSense , or Steam Controller you can make use of their built-in gyro axis flawlessly! I've been using a Switch Pro as its the closest for button prompts and the like, and it needs the open source "BetterJoy" software package for maximum compatibility ; For DS4 / DualSense I think the ryochan7 fork of DS4Windows is the way to go. I think SteamController is now nearly natively supported for both, but there are projects for it as well. So yeah, its nice to see these develop!
 
Don’t neglect your audio too. If you on switch use good headphones. The sound design is excellent.
 
Nice! Last I had checked, and it was a while ago, real gyro stuff wasn’t in yet. I have multiple Pro controllers and Joycons, so maybe I will give it a whirl. I’ve been using emulators since the early 90s but just got to a point where if I had a seamless alternative, I preferred it. Like playing on my Switch, PC, and MiSTer for classics. I still do most of my Switch playing in bed at night, but CEMU does seem like it might be the way to play at least a few games on the 86” TV in the living room.
 
Just letting you know that gyro controls are available on both Cemu and Yuzu! Depending on what hardware you have the process may be a little different, but if you have a Switch Pro Controller / JoyCons, DualShock 4 / DualSense , or Steam Controller you can make use of their built-in gyro axis flawlessly! I've been using a Switch Pro as its the closest for button prompts and the like, and it needs the open source "BetterJoy" software package for maximum compatibility ; For DS4 / DualSense I think the ryochan7 fork of DS4Windows is the way to go. I think SteamController is now nearly natively supported for both, but there are projects for it as well. So yeah, its nice to see these develop!
Did not know Steam Controller had a gyro. Maybe I will bust mine out next time.
 
I love this game. Starting my 3rd playthrough, this time on Cemu at 4k 60fps. Only played for a few minutes while tweaking settings, graphics, etc. I don't think surround sound is working properly so that's my next issue to resolve.
 
I love this game. Starting my 3rd playthrough, this time on Cemu at 4k 60fps. Only played for a few minutes while tweaking settings, graphics, etc. I don't think surround sound is working properly so that's my next issue to resolve.
god i'm so tempted to get cemu and try this myself, but i'm such a purist and i won't be able to look past little bugs or inaccuracies... damnit nintendo, where the hell is the switch 2/pro?
 
god i'm so tempted to get cemu and try this myself, but i'm such a purist and i won't be able to look past little bugs or inaccuracies... damnit nintendo, where the hell is the switch 2/pro?
Haven't played CEMU in about a year but at this point it's borderline flawless, you can actually use mods and tweaks to improve the game.
If you have a gaming PC with good specs, CEMU offers a better overall experience vs Switch.
 
Haven't played CEMU in about a year but at this point it's borderline flawless, you can actually use mods and tweaks to improve the game.
If you have a gaming PC with good specs, CEMU offers a better overall experience vs Switch.
well shoot... i'm just going to have to give it a go. any tips you've learned that you might be willing to share? thanks!
 
Obtaining the game/update/dlc files is the hardest part of setting up CEMU. A friend asked me to help a few months ago and the previous methods (the ones I used back in 2018) no longer work.
 
the emulation is so well done... this is the first time i've played an emulated game from a modern console/handheld that not only plays flawlessly but literally better than the native version. cemu is really something else.
 
the emulation is so well done... this is the first time i've played an emulated game from a modern console/handheld that not only plays flawlessly but literally better than the native version. cemu is really something else.
The devs got showered in crowd funding back in 2017, so they put everything they had into building the emu around BotW. As a result it progressed very fast.
They've only been making minor bug fixes the last 2 years or so, when I played January 2018 it was already better than the consoles. The biggest problems have been bugs related to the 60fps patch. 30fps mode has been solid for years.

"PC port of Zelda Breath of the Wild now rakes in $30,000 per month in funding."
https://nintendotoday.com/pc-port-o...wild-now-rakes-in-30000-per-month-in-funding/
 
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