While, given the cooperative nature of WoW, I haven't really been playing it much on my ancient laptop while I'm out of town, I did find in my email an invite to the Diablo III Necromancer beta test.
Diablo III's in a weird place where content is coming in entirely patches. The Necromancer will be paid DLC, but it's not a full expansion.
The Necromancer was, of course, a popular class from Diablo II (and Xul, the character who represents the class in Heroes of the Storm, is my favorite character in that game,) so it's exciting to get to play it in Diablo III, even if some of us (me) don't really feel incentivized to keep playing much given the lack of a new campaign act (and I long-since got multiple full gear sets for each class.)
Still, I dig the necromancer aesthetic (I was never a goth, but Halloween was my favorite holiday as a kid) and wanted to give it a go.
Now obviously, the first thing that comes to mind playing the necromancer is its similarities with the Witch Doctor. The Witch Doctor is also an intelligence-based caster who tends to command undead legions. Indeed, I think the Witch Doctor was heavily based on the Necromancer, but given a decidedly different aesthetic. So what does this new version of the Necromancer bring?
Well, one thing is that, mechanically, when you kill enemies, you get corpses on the ground. Certain abilities (the first one you get and probably the most iconic being Corpse Explosion) use these corpses as a kind of alternate resource. You can explode corpses without any cost as long as there are some on the ground, but positioning enemies to be near corpses will require a degree of skill.
Necromancers use Essence as their resource, which seems to build and spend at roughly the same rate, though in my mere 14 levels of experience, I've tended to just let my skeletons and by builder ability drop a couple of monsters and then wipe up the rest with corpse explosions (sometimes I use Bone Spear, a spender, to get the ball rolling.)
A bit like the Scourge in Warcraft III, the Necromancer seems to be pretty powerful if you can build up momentum, and if there's a large swarm of enemies, you can devastate them with amazing speed (though to be fair, this tends to be the case with most Diablo III classes after you get a decent complement of abilities.)
I don't know off the top of my head how much the DLC will cost, but right now I think I'd be willing to pay something under twenty (preferably under fifteen) dollars for it. I'm curious to see what the set bonuses do.
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
The Apotheosis of Nerdery - Imagining a Warcraft D&D Module
While I'm back east, I've been more or less WoW-less (my laptop was new during Wrath of the Lich King, and makes Legion content kind of slow - and I'm definitely feeling that MMO FOMO effect, and thus limiting my visits to Blizzard Watch and MMO-Champion.) But it has given me a lot of time to work on my D&D campaign (one of our party members is also out of town for an extended period, so this would be downtime anyway.)
My D&D setting is wholly original (to the extent that anything is truly original) because making up fantasy worlds is basically my life's calling, but I couldn't deny the influence that Blizzard's flagship universe has had on my own tastes, and while it might have begun its life as a Warhammer clone, the amount of work that the creative folks at Blizzard have put in to making Azeroth (and the larger Warcraft universe) dense and interesting has made for one of my favorite fictional settings.
D&D, largely due to its pencil-and-paper system and a human dungeon master, is a game that is pretty easily modifiable. They do have their own standard setting in the Forgotten Realms (as well as some other settings like Greyhawk, Ebberon, and Dark Sun,) but the Dungeon Master's Guide has a pretty sizable portion of its text dedicated to ensuring that those who want to build their own setting have plenty of tools to do so.
Apparently, long before I started playing D&D (which was only like... a year and a half ago or something?) and possibly before I started playing WoW (which was ten and a half years ago,) there was actually an officially supported Warcraft D&D module. I believe it spun off to become its own RPG, but then was canceled and even declared officially "non-canon unless we say otherwise" much like the Star Wars Expanded Universe (goodbye, Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin Solo! Though Grand Admiral Thrawn has apparently been salvaged.)
Anyway, whenever that RPG ended, I think we've seen a lot of things in WoW change. The Chronicle books have gone to huge lengths to put together a comprehensive canon in a way that never really existed before.
So, I love the Warcraft setting, and would find it a lot of fun to play a D&D game set in it (though probably not as DM, as I think any games I DM would probably be in my own setting(s.) How would we go about translating the game?
And to be clear, this is basing all of this off of 5th Edition rules, which is the only version of D&D I'm familiar with.
Races:
A lot of races would translate easily. D&D does a lot of sub-races, and so while in WoW, Night Elves and Blood Elves might as well be entirely different from a gameplay perspective, you could easily make them into sub races of the broader Elves in a D&D setting (and this would make it simpler to add High Elves, Nightborne or Highborne as additional sub races.) Likewise, you could use this to distinguish out the three major dwarf clans (even adding the Frostborn - remember them?)
WoW races tend to go a little broader, especially as you get the added ones and the Horde ones (though Volo's Guide to Monsters adds some more outside-the-box races.) There could be some questions about what exactly constitutes a sub-race. For instance, Trolls are pretty diverse on Azeroth, and so you could imagine making sub-races for Drakkari, Farraki, Gurubashi, and Amani trolls (Darkspear count, I believe, as Gurubashi, as their original homeland was Stranglethorn Vale.) But when it comes to Orcs or Tauren, it's not totally clear to me whether the different clans and tribes would count as totally different sub-races or just kind of cultural differences that wouldn't really count except for RP purposes. (And that's also setting aside the issue that I think the canon is that most Orcs basically stopped caring which clan they were from when the Horde joined - and there's probably a lot of mixed-heritage Orcs these days.)
A fair number of races would probably have to be made whole-cloth unless you really wanted to stretch things. Would Draenei simply use the stats of the Aasimar? They're both very light-based, even if their backstories and looks are pretty different. Another interesting issue is that of Worgen and Undead. In both of these cases, the "race" is really just human, and so you'd have to figure out how the other effects interact. In WoW, they decided to make Undead count as humanoid and not speak Common for balance and gameplay purposes, but in D&D, having everything tightly balanced is not really as important as making for a good story. So giving Forsaken characters the "undead nature" effect that many monsters have would make lots of sense. You'd also have to see if the effect of Lycanthropes in D&D would have to have some other effect given that the Worgen curse is a little more specific and harder for other people to catch than standard werewolfism.
One of the benefits of doing Warcraft as a tabletop is that you could more easily add in other playable races. Having Ogre, Vrykul, Furbolgs (which are pretty different than D&D Firbolgs) and Naga are easier to fit in when you don't need to worry about the knife-edge balancing we expect for the computer game (and you don't always need to worry about making an equal number of Horde and Alliance races - hell, you could even do buddy-cop stories where the party is of mixed Alliance/Horde make-up.)
Classes:
Like races, there are a lot of direct-translations between the classes in WoW and those of D&D. Paladins are Paladins, Druids are Druids, Rogues are Rogues, Warlocks are Warlocks. Monks are Monks. Rangers, Fighters, and Wizards work out as pretty clear analogues of Hunters, Warriors, and Mages. On the other hand, D&D has a few classes that would probably fall under another class's domain in WoW, like Sorcerers (which is like a Mage who got power from raw talent rather than years of study) and Barbarians (where are like Warriors who are more primal and spiritual.)
WoW, on the other hand, has a couple classes that are pretty unlike anything you find elsewhere. Death Knights could maybe-kinda use the Blackguard (which is only found in D&D's Unearthed Arcana blog) or Oathbreaker Paladin oaths, but one sort of feels like it should be its own thing. And if Death Knights do sort of have precedence in other fantasy stories (like the Nazgul in Lord of the Rings. I'd call those guys Death Knights) Demon Hunters really feel pretty unlike anything I've seen anywhere else, and you'd probably want to just create a whole new class for that.
Then you'd also have to ask if you wanted to kind of orient classes more around their WoW specializations or keep the D&D variants. For example, Warlocks in D&D can have different sources of magical power - from the standard Demonic/Devilish (in D&D there's a distinction) Fiend, to the Archfey (anything from a Faerie being that would probably be someone like Cenarius or Goldrinn in WoW) to a Great Old One (which in WoW would basically have to be an Old God or at least some high-level C'thraaxi or N'raqi.)
Though to be honest, D&D generally gives players more options to vary their classes. Priests can choose from a wide variety of domains (based on the god or principle they worship) and Wizards can specialize in several different schools of magic (but are not typically stuck to one element or the other.) For a lot of WoW classes, the specializations don't have all that much to do with flavor as much as they do with mechanics, but some are a big deal (like Holy versus Shadow Priest.)
Either way, D&D classes don't really have anything like tanking, and everyone has to be a little more self-sufficient given that you can't really play a class as "the one who never gets hit by anything" which is like, most WoW characters.
Monsters and Dungeons:
Dungeons are, in a way, the easy part. WoW has a huge number of dungeons that you could use as inspiration, or you could turn any number of memorable questing zones into dungeons, or just make stuff up.
Of course, it wouldn't really be a 1 to 1 translation, as a computer game can generally handle combat very easily and quickly and handle character interactions less easily. But imagine a version of Deadmines where you sneak into the place disguised as bandits, maybe try to convince one of the bosses to let you get through to the ship, and then have a climactic fight with Vanessa at the end. D&D certainly lets you have exciting combat encounters, but it provides a whole lot more freedom to either avoid combat or seek other outcomes (actually, forget that climactic fight with Vanessa. Imagine instead convincing her to denounce violence and reform the Defias into a political advocacy organization.)
Like a lot of D&D modules (there have been a number of ones based on Magic: The Gathering settings, which is my first deeply nerdy love,) you could simply use "close enough" creatures from the Monster Manual to remake iconic Warcraft creatures. Kua-Toa are almost exactly Murlocs, but you could also translate something like Modrons into various Titan creations like Mechagnomes.
Campaigns:
Of course you could easily come up with new threats for players to deal with. There's plenty of stuff to choose from. Alternatively, you could kind of remake some of the WoW expansions as campaigns.
Of course, WoW's level cap keeps going up and D&D is set up to go from 1-20, which makes each level a lot more significant. But for a long time now, level in WoW has been a purely mechanical thing. I don't think anyone would argue that Blackhand, even with all his Iron Horde tech, was truly more powerful than the Lich King. So it wouldn't be hard to simply start new campaigns as "new adventurers coming off the boat in Northrend."
But the freedom of D&D would also let you do stuff that WoW is unlikely to ever do - like having players fight their way through a post-Arthas Northrend.
D&D&WC:
Ultimately, D&D and its variants can be used to play through most fantasy settings. And given that WoW is one of the most popular RPGs that owes a big debt to the quintessential one, it might be a fun project for anyone involved to create a campaign that has you adventure across Azeroth.
And it's probably the only way you're ever going to play that Tauren Bard you always wanted to play.
My D&D setting is wholly original (to the extent that anything is truly original) because making up fantasy worlds is basically my life's calling, but I couldn't deny the influence that Blizzard's flagship universe has had on my own tastes, and while it might have begun its life as a Warhammer clone, the amount of work that the creative folks at Blizzard have put in to making Azeroth (and the larger Warcraft universe) dense and interesting has made for one of my favorite fictional settings.
D&D, largely due to its pencil-and-paper system and a human dungeon master, is a game that is pretty easily modifiable. They do have their own standard setting in the Forgotten Realms (as well as some other settings like Greyhawk, Ebberon, and Dark Sun,) but the Dungeon Master's Guide has a pretty sizable portion of its text dedicated to ensuring that those who want to build their own setting have plenty of tools to do so.
Apparently, long before I started playing D&D (which was only like... a year and a half ago or something?) and possibly before I started playing WoW (which was ten and a half years ago,) there was actually an officially supported Warcraft D&D module. I believe it spun off to become its own RPG, but then was canceled and even declared officially "non-canon unless we say otherwise" much like the Star Wars Expanded Universe (goodbye, Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin Solo! Though Grand Admiral Thrawn has apparently been salvaged.)
Anyway, whenever that RPG ended, I think we've seen a lot of things in WoW change. The Chronicle books have gone to huge lengths to put together a comprehensive canon in a way that never really existed before.
So, I love the Warcraft setting, and would find it a lot of fun to play a D&D game set in it (though probably not as DM, as I think any games I DM would probably be in my own setting(s.) How would we go about translating the game?
And to be clear, this is basing all of this off of 5th Edition rules, which is the only version of D&D I'm familiar with.
Races:
A lot of races would translate easily. D&D does a lot of sub-races, and so while in WoW, Night Elves and Blood Elves might as well be entirely different from a gameplay perspective, you could easily make them into sub races of the broader Elves in a D&D setting (and this would make it simpler to add High Elves, Nightborne or Highborne as additional sub races.) Likewise, you could use this to distinguish out the three major dwarf clans (even adding the Frostborn - remember them?)
WoW races tend to go a little broader, especially as you get the added ones and the Horde ones (though Volo's Guide to Monsters adds some more outside-the-box races.) There could be some questions about what exactly constitutes a sub-race. For instance, Trolls are pretty diverse on Azeroth, and so you could imagine making sub-races for Drakkari, Farraki, Gurubashi, and Amani trolls (Darkspear count, I believe, as Gurubashi, as their original homeland was Stranglethorn Vale.) But when it comes to Orcs or Tauren, it's not totally clear to me whether the different clans and tribes would count as totally different sub-races or just kind of cultural differences that wouldn't really count except for RP purposes. (And that's also setting aside the issue that I think the canon is that most Orcs basically stopped caring which clan they were from when the Horde joined - and there's probably a lot of mixed-heritage Orcs these days.)
A fair number of races would probably have to be made whole-cloth unless you really wanted to stretch things. Would Draenei simply use the stats of the Aasimar? They're both very light-based, even if their backstories and looks are pretty different. Another interesting issue is that of Worgen and Undead. In both of these cases, the "race" is really just human, and so you'd have to figure out how the other effects interact. In WoW, they decided to make Undead count as humanoid and not speak Common for balance and gameplay purposes, but in D&D, having everything tightly balanced is not really as important as making for a good story. So giving Forsaken characters the "undead nature" effect that many monsters have would make lots of sense. You'd also have to see if the effect of Lycanthropes in D&D would have to have some other effect given that the Worgen curse is a little more specific and harder for other people to catch than standard werewolfism.
One of the benefits of doing Warcraft as a tabletop is that you could more easily add in other playable races. Having Ogre, Vrykul, Furbolgs (which are pretty different than D&D Firbolgs) and Naga are easier to fit in when you don't need to worry about the knife-edge balancing we expect for the computer game (and you don't always need to worry about making an equal number of Horde and Alliance races - hell, you could even do buddy-cop stories where the party is of mixed Alliance/Horde make-up.)
Classes:
Like races, there are a lot of direct-translations between the classes in WoW and those of D&D. Paladins are Paladins, Druids are Druids, Rogues are Rogues, Warlocks are Warlocks. Monks are Monks. Rangers, Fighters, and Wizards work out as pretty clear analogues of Hunters, Warriors, and Mages. On the other hand, D&D has a few classes that would probably fall under another class's domain in WoW, like Sorcerers (which is like a Mage who got power from raw talent rather than years of study) and Barbarians (where are like Warriors who are more primal and spiritual.)
WoW, on the other hand, has a couple classes that are pretty unlike anything you find elsewhere. Death Knights could maybe-kinda use the Blackguard (which is only found in D&D's Unearthed Arcana blog) or Oathbreaker Paladin oaths, but one sort of feels like it should be its own thing. And if Death Knights do sort of have precedence in other fantasy stories (like the Nazgul in Lord of the Rings. I'd call those guys Death Knights) Demon Hunters really feel pretty unlike anything I've seen anywhere else, and you'd probably want to just create a whole new class for that.
Then you'd also have to ask if you wanted to kind of orient classes more around their WoW specializations or keep the D&D variants. For example, Warlocks in D&D can have different sources of magical power - from the standard Demonic/Devilish (in D&D there's a distinction) Fiend, to the Archfey (anything from a Faerie being that would probably be someone like Cenarius or Goldrinn in WoW) to a Great Old One (which in WoW would basically have to be an Old God or at least some high-level C'thraaxi or N'raqi.)
Though to be honest, D&D generally gives players more options to vary their classes. Priests can choose from a wide variety of domains (based on the god or principle they worship) and Wizards can specialize in several different schools of magic (but are not typically stuck to one element or the other.) For a lot of WoW classes, the specializations don't have all that much to do with flavor as much as they do with mechanics, but some are a big deal (like Holy versus Shadow Priest.)
Either way, D&D classes don't really have anything like tanking, and everyone has to be a little more self-sufficient given that you can't really play a class as "the one who never gets hit by anything" which is like, most WoW characters.
Monsters and Dungeons:
Dungeons are, in a way, the easy part. WoW has a huge number of dungeons that you could use as inspiration, or you could turn any number of memorable questing zones into dungeons, or just make stuff up.
Of course, it wouldn't really be a 1 to 1 translation, as a computer game can generally handle combat very easily and quickly and handle character interactions less easily. But imagine a version of Deadmines where you sneak into the place disguised as bandits, maybe try to convince one of the bosses to let you get through to the ship, and then have a climactic fight with Vanessa at the end. D&D certainly lets you have exciting combat encounters, but it provides a whole lot more freedom to either avoid combat or seek other outcomes (actually, forget that climactic fight with Vanessa. Imagine instead convincing her to denounce violence and reform the Defias into a political advocacy organization.)
Like a lot of D&D modules (there have been a number of ones based on Magic: The Gathering settings, which is my first deeply nerdy love,) you could simply use "close enough" creatures from the Monster Manual to remake iconic Warcraft creatures. Kua-Toa are almost exactly Murlocs, but you could also translate something like Modrons into various Titan creations like Mechagnomes.
Campaigns:
Of course you could easily come up with new threats for players to deal with. There's plenty of stuff to choose from. Alternatively, you could kind of remake some of the WoW expansions as campaigns.
Of course, WoW's level cap keeps going up and D&D is set up to go from 1-20, which makes each level a lot more significant. But for a long time now, level in WoW has been a purely mechanical thing. I don't think anyone would argue that Blackhand, even with all his Iron Horde tech, was truly more powerful than the Lich King. So it wouldn't be hard to simply start new campaigns as "new adventurers coming off the boat in Northrend."
But the freedom of D&D would also let you do stuff that WoW is unlikely to ever do - like having players fight their way through a post-Arthas Northrend.
D&D&WC:
Ultimately, D&D and its variants can be used to play through most fantasy settings. And given that WoW is one of the most popular RPGs that owes a big debt to the quintessential one, it might be a fun project for anyone involved to create a campaign that has you adventure across Azeroth.
And it's probably the only way you're ever going to play that Tauren Bard you always wanted to play.
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Breath of the Wild - Open World Zelda: Is That a Good Thing or a Bad Thing?
Breath of the Wild famously breaks the Zelda formula that has arguably been in place since a Link to the Past. Zelda games have generally had a pretty clear linear progression, with a formula of doing a build up of quest-like tasks that would lead you into a new dungeon, after which you would defeat a boss and then, using the new weapon or tool found in that dungeon, be able to go onto the next.
In Breath of the Wild, you start in a sort of kiddie-pool area (though combat is legitimately tougher than most Zelda games have been, so it's not like it's super-easy) where you get access to the puzzle-solving tools you'll need for the rest of the journey almost immediately.
Once you get access to the parasail, you'll be able to go pretty much anywhere in the world, and while I do feel pretty strongly that you're pushed to go to the eastern part of the map first, there's nothing stopping you from going in other directions.
There are four major dungeon-like structures, but they don't really work totally like dungeons. Combat and puzzles are somewhat more segregated - with shrines found throughout the world that serve both as teleportation nodes (along with Assassin's Creed-style map-revealing towers) and also serve as explicit "there are puzzles here" locations that award Spirit Orbs - which work mostly like Heart Pieces did in prior games (though you can also trade them in for more stamina to let you climb and run and glide longer.)
The world of Breath of the Wild is desolate. There are people - in fact, beyond the many towns you find you'll also come across little stables that serve as country inns - but the plot is all about how things basically fell apart a hundred years ago. Link - explicitly named Link in this entry, rather than that just being the default name - actually has a history, but his 100-year slumber (an emergency procedure after he took an otherwise fatal wound) has left him an amnesiac.
So you actually wind up with a few checklist items pretty early on that you can work on for the rest of the game - recovering important memories and restoring the massive Divine Beasts to bring the fight against Ganon (and give you some very useful combat powers.)
There's incredible freedom - a lot of games tout the ability to go anywhere, but in this game, with the generous (but stamina-limited) climbing, you really can get to just about anywhere you see. And also, the draw-distance more or less makes the entire game world visible (admirably without making it seem small.)
This is a game about survival, and as such a lot of the things you used to be able to count on in a Zelda game are no longer true. Simply smashing pots and cutting down grass won't get you hearts to recover your health. Instead, you'll find tons of fruits, vegetables, and meats in the world that you can cook into food. Cooking is pretty fun (you can experiment with different ingredients, though eventually you'll figure out a relatively straightforward formula) but you'll need to do a lot of it if you want to really stock up on health-replenishing items before going into a tough fight or area. As funky as the little cooking music is, this can get a little tedious.
Likewise, your weapons are not built to last. Granted, we tend to expect way more from video game weapons than their real-world counterparts (there's no way that an actual broadsword would be able to take the punishment your average WoW weapon does without breaking after like three fights,) but in Breath of the Wild, until you get the Master Sword (which itself will power-down if you use it against anything but the most obviously corrupted stuff after a while, giving it a recharge period) you'll be churning through weapons. You can strategically use weaker weapons when facing easier opponents, but just remember that nothing lasts, so don't be precious.
The open-world nature of Breath of the Wild does give you incredible freedom, but I do think you pay a bit of a price. The dungeons and shrines wind up feeling somewhat same-y. There's a lot of stuff in the open world that feels pretty unique (when you find the Lost Woods it definitely feels different) but the nonlinear nature of the progression means that a lot of the bokoblin and moblin camps kind of feel interchangeable.
There's also the fact that you have so much freedom in when you take things to Ganon that the pacing gets odd. For example, in my first play through I've found myself gravitating toward the Divine Beasts, and I left home in the middle of my fourth (the camel one in the desert.) I know there's a ton more to the game, but because everything has to be doable in any order, it means that you can burn through a lot of the "main event" stuff and then find yourself with a ton of side-missions (even if they're interesting side missions. I haven't even begun to explore Faron, for example) and a kind of nagging question of where it's time to just go and fight Ganon.
I really like the game, but I think I might have liked a more curated, guided tour of this iteration of Hyrule. The open-world aspects are arguably the fulfillment of the genre that Zelda spawned, but in embracing this freedom, the game also feels a bit more like other open-world games in ways that are perhaps not terrible, but not inspiring either.
In Breath of the Wild, you start in a sort of kiddie-pool area (though combat is legitimately tougher than most Zelda games have been, so it's not like it's super-easy) where you get access to the puzzle-solving tools you'll need for the rest of the journey almost immediately.
Once you get access to the parasail, you'll be able to go pretty much anywhere in the world, and while I do feel pretty strongly that you're pushed to go to the eastern part of the map first, there's nothing stopping you from going in other directions.
There are four major dungeon-like structures, but they don't really work totally like dungeons. Combat and puzzles are somewhat more segregated - with shrines found throughout the world that serve both as teleportation nodes (along with Assassin's Creed-style map-revealing towers) and also serve as explicit "there are puzzles here" locations that award Spirit Orbs - which work mostly like Heart Pieces did in prior games (though you can also trade them in for more stamina to let you climb and run and glide longer.)
The world of Breath of the Wild is desolate. There are people - in fact, beyond the many towns you find you'll also come across little stables that serve as country inns - but the plot is all about how things basically fell apart a hundred years ago. Link - explicitly named Link in this entry, rather than that just being the default name - actually has a history, but his 100-year slumber (an emergency procedure after he took an otherwise fatal wound) has left him an amnesiac.
So you actually wind up with a few checklist items pretty early on that you can work on for the rest of the game - recovering important memories and restoring the massive Divine Beasts to bring the fight against Ganon (and give you some very useful combat powers.)
There's incredible freedom - a lot of games tout the ability to go anywhere, but in this game, with the generous (but stamina-limited) climbing, you really can get to just about anywhere you see. And also, the draw-distance more or less makes the entire game world visible (admirably without making it seem small.)
This is a game about survival, and as such a lot of the things you used to be able to count on in a Zelda game are no longer true. Simply smashing pots and cutting down grass won't get you hearts to recover your health. Instead, you'll find tons of fruits, vegetables, and meats in the world that you can cook into food. Cooking is pretty fun (you can experiment with different ingredients, though eventually you'll figure out a relatively straightforward formula) but you'll need to do a lot of it if you want to really stock up on health-replenishing items before going into a tough fight or area. As funky as the little cooking music is, this can get a little tedious.
Likewise, your weapons are not built to last. Granted, we tend to expect way more from video game weapons than their real-world counterparts (there's no way that an actual broadsword would be able to take the punishment your average WoW weapon does without breaking after like three fights,) but in Breath of the Wild, until you get the Master Sword (which itself will power-down if you use it against anything but the most obviously corrupted stuff after a while, giving it a recharge period) you'll be churning through weapons. You can strategically use weaker weapons when facing easier opponents, but just remember that nothing lasts, so don't be precious.
The open-world nature of Breath of the Wild does give you incredible freedom, but I do think you pay a bit of a price. The dungeons and shrines wind up feeling somewhat same-y. There's a lot of stuff in the open world that feels pretty unique (when you find the Lost Woods it definitely feels different) but the nonlinear nature of the progression means that a lot of the bokoblin and moblin camps kind of feel interchangeable.
There's also the fact that you have so much freedom in when you take things to Ganon that the pacing gets odd. For example, in my first play through I've found myself gravitating toward the Divine Beasts, and I left home in the middle of my fourth (the camel one in the desert.) I know there's a ton more to the game, but because everything has to be doable in any order, it means that you can burn through a lot of the "main event" stuff and then find yourself with a ton of side-missions (even if they're interesting side missions. I haven't even begun to explore Faron, for example) and a kind of nagging question of where it's time to just go and fight Ganon.
I really like the game, but I think I might have liked a more curated, guided tour of this iteration of Hyrule. The open-world aspects are arguably the fulfillment of the genre that Zelda spawned, but in embracing this freedom, the game also feels a bit more like other open-world games in ways that are perhaps not terrible, but not inspiring either.
Thursday, March 23, 2017
7.2 Tomb of Sargeras Drops March 28th
While those of us who raid LFR are probably still working on filling out tier sets in the Nighthold, this coming Tuesday we're going to be getting 7.2, the first big patch (not that 7.1 was small) and with it, eventually, the second official raid tier of Legion.
And we got a pretty kick-ass patch trailer too!
It looks like Kil'jaeden is not so happy about the repeated failures of the Legion to conquer Azeroth, and even gets into a little tiff with...
Oh crap, that's freaking Sargeras.
So if there were any doubts that Sargeras was running the show, here we see Kil'jaeden expressing a surprising amount of frustration with the Dark Titan. And we even get a glimpse of Argus, cracked by fel magic but still somewhat intact - the price that Kil'jaeden paid for the power Sargeras gave him.
So let's go over the major features of the 7.2 patch:
New Zone: The Broken Shore:
Technically you can already go to this zone in-game, but there's not really anything here (maybe some of the Kosuth the Hungering quests.) But with the Legion amping up their invasion, this place is the major battlefront.
The Broken Shore will see the various class orders allying as the Armies of Legionfall (the Ebon Blade/Silver Hand alliance might be a little awkward...) with new world quests and bringing back the Nethershard currency. Servers will be able to build up various structures that give bonuses to those questing on the isles.
New Raid: Tomb of Sargeras:
The second major raid tier and fourth raid of Legion (yep, already past Warlords) will see us delving into the Tomb, fighting demons and some allied Naga, as well as the construct that once served as the Avatar of Sargeras, as well as Kil'jaeden the Deceiver himself.
The raid will have nine bosses and has the tier 20 sets. These sets are based on the tier 6 (Black Temple/Hyjal Summit) sets, with the obvious exceptions for Death Knights, Monks, and Demon Hunters, who get new designs.
New Dungeon: Cathedral of Eternal Night:
This 4-boss dungeon will see us accompanying Illidan and Maiev to the top of the old Temple of Elune (under which is the Tomb of Sargeras) as we attempt to unlock the temple using the Aegis of Aggramar and fight the dreadlord Mephistroph.
CoEN will have a Heroic and Mythic mode, as well as a Mythic Plus mode. Additionally, heroic versions of Arcway, Court of Stars, and Return to Karazhan (divided into two wings) will be added, which means all the dungeons will be queue-able. CoEN's mythic mode should also have higher-quality gear (I think comparable to Nighthold LFR.)
New Class Content:
Each class gets a second part to their campaigns, culminating in a quest that rewards flying class mounts. Many of these mounts come in various colors - either duplicates that are available for purchase once the first one is attained or colors that shift as you change specs.
New Artifact Traits and Knowledge:
AK will go up so that we can get more AP to fill up new artifact traits. There will be a relatively short quest chain that players get after doing the initial Broken Shore stuff - one chain for each artifact, though you'll need to get the 35th trait to unlock the chain. In addition to a number of all-new traits, all 3-point traits will get a third rank for you to invest in.
Challenge Artifact Appearances:
Continuing, I believe, the chains that unlock the new traits, you'll be able to do a very challenging scenario to unlock a new artifact appearance. The first attempt will be free, but subsequent attempts will cost Nethershards, so this is something players might want to gear up for (it's being compared to the Green Fire quest from Mists of Pandaria, that was quite the challenge.)
Flying!
Broken Isles Pathfinder part two will be achievable this patch, which will allow your characters (account wide) to fly around the Broken Isles. This involves getting revered with the Armies of Legionfall, finishing the new class campaign, and some other things (I believe getting a certain number of Nethershards, for example.)
Legion Invasions:
Invasions will be hitting the Broken Isles - attacking all five of the main zones. These don't work quite like the pre-expansion event. Instead, it appears that you'll have world-quest-like objectives to fight off the invading demonic forces. Then, a quick series of quests will lead to you boarding the demonic assault ship and defeat the leader of the invasion, which takes the form of a three-player scenario. These will reward gear and, I believe, Nethershards.
This should be a nice and big patch, adding to an expansion that I already find quite excellent.
And we got a pretty kick-ass patch trailer too!
It looks like Kil'jaeden is not so happy about the repeated failures of the Legion to conquer Azeroth, and even gets into a little tiff with...
Oh crap, that's freaking Sargeras.
So if there were any doubts that Sargeras was running the show, here we see Kil'jaeden expressing a surprising amount of frustration with the Dark Titan. And we even get a glimpse of Argus, cracked by fel magic but still somewhat intact - the price that Kil'jaeden paid for the power Sargeras gave him.
So let's go over the major features of the 7.2 patch:
New Zone: The Broken Shore:
Technically you can already go to this zone in-game, but there's not really anything here (maybe some of the Kosuth the Hungering quests.) But with the Legion amping up their invasion, this place is the major battlefront.
The Broken Shore will see the various class orders allying as the Armies of Legionfall (the Ebon Blade/Silver Hand alliance might be a little awkward...) with new world quests and bringing back the Nethershard currency. Servers will be able to build up various structures that give bonuses to those questing on the isles.
New Raid: Tomb of Sargeras:
The second major raid tier and fourth raid of Legion (yep, already past Warlords) will see us delving into the Tomb, fighting demons and some allied Naga, as well as the construct that once served as the Avatar of Sargeras, as well as Kil'jaeden the Deceiver himself.
The raid will have nine bosses and has the tier 20 sets. These sets are based on the tier 6 (Black Temple/Hyjal Summit) sets, with the obvious exceptions for Death Knights, Monks, and Demon Hunters, who get new designs.
New Dungeon: Cathedral of Eternal Night:
This 4-boss dungeon will see us accompanying Illidan and Maiev to the top of the old Temple of Elune (under which is the Tomb of Sargeras) as we attempt to unlock the temple using the Aegis of Aggramar and fight the dreadlord Mephistroph.
CoEN will have a Heroic and Mythic mode, as well as a Mythic Plus mode. Additionally, heroic versions of Arcway, Court of Stars, and Return to Karazhan (divided into two wings) will be added, which means all the dungeons will be queue-able. CoEN's mythic mode should also have higher-quality gear (I think comparable to Nighthold LFR.)
New Class Content:
Each class gets a second part to their campaigns, culminating in a quest that rewards flying class mounts. Many of these mounts come in various colors - either duplicates that are available for purchase once the first one is attained or colors that shift as you change specs.
New Artifact Traits and Knowledge:
AK will go up so that we can get more AP to fill up new artifact traits. There will be a relatively short quest chain that players get after doing the initial Broken Shore stuff - one chain for each artifact, though you'll need to get the 35th trait to unlock the chain. In addition to a number of all-new traits, all 3-point traits will get a third rank for you to invest in.
Challenge Artifact Appearances:
Continuing, I believe, the chains that unlock the new traits, you'll be able to do a very challenging scenario to unlock a new artifact appearance. The first attempt will be free, but subsequent attempts will cost Nethershards, so this is something players might want to gear up for (it's being compared to the Green Fire quest from Mists of Pandaria, that was quite the challenge.)
Flying!
Broken Isles Pathfinder part two will be achievable this patch, which will allow your characters (account wide) to fly around the Broken Isles. This involves getting revered with the Armies of Legionfall, finishing the new class campaign, and some other things (I believe getting a certain number of Nethershards, for example.)
Legion Invasions:
Invasions will be hitting the Broken Isles - attacking all five of the main zones. These don't work quite like the pre-expansion event. Instead, it appears that you'll have world-quest-like objectives to fight off the invading demonic forces. Then, a quick series of quests will lead to you boarding the demonic assault ship and defeat the leader of the invasion, which takes the form of a three-player scenario. These will reward gear and, I believe, Nethershards.
This should be a nice and big patch, adding to an expansion that I already find quite excellent.
Sunday, March 19, 2017
Breath of the Wild: "Dungeons" and Resources
Traditionally, in a Zelda game, you smash pots or cut grass to replenish your health and supplies. Zelda never had a rebounding health meter the way some games did, but healing up didn't take a lot of effort, and getting things like arrows after you ran out was not the most difficult task.
In Breath of the Wild, you need to conserve like crazy. Even the important weapons that you get from beating major bosses will break after a bit of use. Link is constantly picking up new stuff, and if you go into a dungeon, you're going to want to have supplies - not just arrows and a full arsenal of weapons, but also good food to heal up with.
Cooking takes time, and sometimes you find that all the standard ingredients - apples, mushrooms, etc. - are out and all you have is the makings for some kind of buff elixir - which are fine, but not what you want to see when you're looking at a very small number of hearts left.
Breath of the Wild is not linear. I've been following what seems like the natural path - I went to the Zora and helped them get the Elephant Divine Beast online again and then headed north to Death Mountain to help out the Gorons and their Salamander thing. For all I know, the game steers you in this direction, or it's possible that I could have just gone west after Kakariko Village and done entirely different things.
The Ancient Beasts serve, I assume, as Breath of the Wild's main dungeons. These massive constructs (the open world of BotW recalls Shadow of the Colossus, and these beasts certainly seem of a similar style to the Colossi) must first be neutralized, which seems to be a unique quest chain for each, and then you go inside and solve puzzles.
While there are little bits of corruption to fight inside the Beasts, dungeons in Breath of the Wild are really puzzle-focused. Fighting is for the outdoors, and you'll get plenty of combat against Bokoblins and Moblins (and other things, though it's mostly, at least so far, those guys) as you explore.
While the Divine Beasts are almost entirely puzzle-based, they each end with a boss fight. Strategies are actually a bit less obvious in this game, given that you have all the "tool" abilities pretty much from the moment you leave the starting area.
Restoring a Divine Beast to order will not only bring its aid against Ganon, but you'll also get a passive effect based on the champion who piloted it a century ago. These seem like pretty powerful bonuses, which really incentivizes you to get those beasts, even though technically I think you can actually go straight to Ganon pretty early in the game.
I do have a little worry that I'm focusing too much on the main quest. In open-world games (and to an extent Zelda games have always been open-world games. You could argue they were the first major example of the genre) I am often driven to see the plot and not get overwhelmed by the many, many side activities one can do. With two major bosses down after having the game for only a day and a half, I do want to stop and smell the roses a bit. I guess the question is which roses first.
In Breath of the Wild, you need to conserve like crazy. Even the important weapons that you get from beating major bosses will break after a bit of use. Link is constantly picking up new stuff, and if you go into a dungeon, you're going to want to have supplies - not just arrows and a full arsenal of weapons, but also good food to heal up with.
Cooking takes time, and sometimes you find that all the standard ingredients - apples, mushrooms, etc. - are out and all you have is the makings for some kind of buff elixir - which are fine, but not what you want to see when you're looking at a very small number of hearts left.
Breath of the Wild is not linear. I've been following what seems like the natural path - I went to the Zora and helped them get the Elephant Divine Beast online again and then headed north to Death Mountain to help out the Gorons and their Salamander thing. For all I know, the game steers you in this direction, or it's possible that I could have just gone west after Kakariko Village and done entirely different things.
The Ancient Beasts serve, I assume, as Breath of the Wild's main dungeons. These massive constructs (the open world of BotW recalls Shadow of the Colossus, and these beasts certainly seem of a similar style to the Colossi) must first be neutralized, which seems to be a unique quest chain for each, and then you go inside and solve puzzles.
While there are little bits of corruption to fight inside the Beasts, dungeons in Breath of the Wild are really puzzle-focused. Fighting is for the outdoors, and you'll get plenty of combat against Bokoblins and Moblins (and other things, though it's mostly, at least so far, those guys) as you explore.
While the Divine Beasts are almost entirely puzzle-based, they each end with a boss fight. Strategies are actually a bit less obvious in this game, given that you have all the "tool" abilities pretty much from the moment you leave the starting area.
Restoring a Divine Beast to order will not only bring its aid against Ganon, but you'll also get a passive effect based on the champion who piloted it a century ago. These seem like pretty powerful bonuses, which really incentivizes you to get those beasts, even though technically I think you can actually go straight to Ganon pretty early in the game.
I do have a little worry that I'm focusing too much on the main quest. In open-world games (and to an extent Zelda games have always been open-world games. You could argue they were the first major example of the genre) I am often driven to see the plot and not get overwhelmed by the many, many side activities one can do. With two major bosses down after having the game for only a day and a half, I do want to stop and smell the roses a bit. I guess the question is which roses first.
Saturday, March 18, 2017
First Impressions of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
So I got it for the Wii U. Don't get me wrong: I really want the Switch to succeed. But right now it's hard for me to justify getting a console for which there's really just one game I want. And my Wii U library's pretty thin as it is, so it's nice to get another entry there.
Moving on to the actual game:
Breath of the Wild is and isn't Zelda as you know it. The plot and art style is totally in keeping with Nintendo's traditions. But Breath of the Wild is somewhat more like an RPG than previous Zelda games have been. Weapons have stats and you'll burn through them really quickly. I imagine at some point you'll get the Master Sword and perhaps that one will either never break or be repairable, but for now, any given weapon lasts for a few fights at most. Thankfully, the enemies you fight often drop their own weapons (at least in these early hours, about four out of five things you fight are Bokoblins, who carry a variety of weapons.) So you're basically going to cycle through these things.
Rupees and Hearts are also tougher to come by. Recovering health is all about gathering food and cooking it. Cooking has plenty of benefits. In the kiddie-pool area (something I clearly did not explore fully because when my friend was playing it he found a named boss enemy in the wilds there) you'll find one snowy area where you take cold damage from the environment, but you also have a number of hot peppers that you can find there which, when cooked with other ingredients (actually, maybe by themselves as well) you can get food that gives you a couple minutes of cold resistance, which is just about enough to get you where you need to go.
One of the other breaks with tradition is that this Link is already a hero of legend. 100 years ago, Link (and it's explicitly Link, not "insert your name here") was Princess Zelda's chosen knight, and after being fatally wounded by Calamity Ganon (which seems like a much more elemental force than an individual) he was sealed away in a kind of stasis chamber. When he wakes up at the very start of the game, Link has no memories - only the voice of Zelda in his head.
I'm only a few hours in, but I believe that Breath of the Wild doesn't technically have dungeons. There are four Ancient Beasts that I suspect will serve as the major bosses, but the world is really wide open pretty early on. This game stresses survival and exploration. And the world is freaking enormous.
While much of the game actually has the open spaces that might remind you of Shadow of the Colossus, you're not actually alone here. There are a few towns and NPCs scattered about, and you'll actually have an honest-to-Hylia quest log.
But while there are waypoints that will tell you the general direction of where to go, you're going to need to do some exploring and strategizing to get there.
I think I'd still be playing now if my Wii U controller hadn't run out of batteries. I'm certain I'll post more about this game as I play through it.
Moving on to the actual game:
Breath of the Wild is and isn't Zelda as you know it. The plot and art style is totally in keeping with Nintendo's traditions. But Breath of the Wild is somewhat more like an RPG than previous Zelda games have been. Weapons have stats and you'll burn through them really quickly. I imagine at some point you'll get the Master Sword and perhaps that one will either never break or be repairable, but for now, any given weapon lasts for a few fights at most. Thankfully, the enemies you fight often drop their own weapons (at least in these early hours, about four out of five things you fight are Bokoblins, who carry a variety of weapons.) So you're basically going to cycle through these things.
Rupees and Hearts are also tougher to come by. Recovering health is all about gathering food and cooking it. Cooking has plenty of benefits. In the kiddie-pool area (something I clearly did not explore fully because when my friend was playing it he found a named boss enemy in the wilds there) you'll find one snowy area where you take cold damage from the environment, but you also have a number of hot peppers that you can find there which, when cooked with other ingredients (actually, maybe by themselves as well) you can get food that gives you a couple minutes of cold resistance, which is just about enough to get you where you need to go.
One of the other breaks with tradition is that this Link is already a hero of legend. 100 years ago, Link (and it's explicitly Link, not "insert your name here") was Princess Zelda's chosen knight, and after being fatally wounded by Calamity Ganon (which seems like a much more elemental force than an individual) he was sealed away in a kind of stasis chamber. When he wakes up at the very start of the game, Link has no memories - only the voice of Zelda in his head.
I'm only a few hours in, but I believe that Breath of the Wild doesn't technically have dungeons. There are four Ancient Beasts that I suspect will serve as the major bosses, but the world is really wide open pretty early on. This game stresses survival and exploration. And the world is freaking enormous.
While much of the game actually has the open spaces that might remind you of Shadow of the Colossus, you're not actually alone here. There are a few towns and NPCs scattered about, and you'll actually have an honest-to-Hylia quest log.
But while there are waypoints that will tell you the general direction of where to go, you're going to need to do some exploring and strategizing to get there.
I think I'd still be playing now if my Wii U controller hadn't run out of batteries. I'm certain I'll post more about this game as I play through it.
Friday, March 17, 2017
A Nintendo Loyalist's Conundrum - Zelda: Breath of the Wild
We waited a long time for Twilight Princess.
During the Gamecube era, Nintendo announced there would be a new Zelda game after Wind Waker. I did eventually play Wind Waker, which actually deserves a little more credit than teenager me wanted to give it (this was an era when Pokemon was exploding in popularity and Nintendo was being seen as the "little kid" video game company, which as a teenager was something I resented - you know, like how teenagers suck? Anyway, the graphic style of Wind Waker was not the for-the-time high-rez Zelda game that the tech demos for the Gamecube seemed to have promised.)
Twilight Princess wound up being a launch title for the Wii, but it was also released on the Gamecube (actually later I think,) and sort of left those with Gamecubes in a conundrum of whether they wanted to invest in the new system or play it on the old one.
Personally, Twilight Princess is up there in maybe my top three Zelda games (Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past being in the top two spots, though I vacillate on which order to put them in.) I love the style and dungeon design, and I find it pretty ironic in retrospect that it got such underwhelming reviews while Skyward Sword was given sweeping 10/10s.
I wound up getting a Wii and Twilight Princess as my first game for it.
Now, we wound up getting a truly Wii-centric Zelda game in Skyward Sword, which I didn't actually wind up liking as much.
Now we're in a kind of similar state with the Wii U and the Switch.
The Wii U seemed like a great idea at the time, and Nintendo came out with some cool concepts for it. But ultimately, it feels like half a system. I realize it's been almost five years since it came out, which is kind of average for a console generation (the fact that it seems short must mean I'm getting older) but there was just never a big library for it. Even Nintendo didn't really seem to fully believe in it, with first and second party games from big franchises never appearing. Unless I'm really missing something we never got a Metroid game for the Wii U.
But while Nintendo will put out tons of Mario games, Zelda is something that is typically once or twice in a console generation - but it's always there.
Breath of the Wild was supposed to be a Wii U game (I think you even get a tablet in-game that is kind of a proxy for the Wii U controller,) but now it's basically the reason to get a Switch.
I have such fond feelings for Nintendo, and if the reviews are to be believed, the company can still come out with utterly amazing games. They are a seriously quality over quantity company, which I respect (to be honest, I think that these days I'm much happier to have one game I play for a long time than a bunch of games I can cycle through. Like a certain MMORPG that dominates this blog.)
But I also feel a little burned by the Wii U. The Wii U concept was much less gimicky in my opinion than the Wii (ok, it had more gimicks, but it was still giving you something recognizable as a video game controller) but a system is nothing without a good library.
So right now, they want people to roll the dice on the Switch, and for the record, I really, really hope the console is a huge success for them. But this early on, I'm hesitant to plunk down for a new console (especially since I just got a PS4 last year) with only one game I'm super excited to play.
During the Gamecube era, Nintendo announced there would be a new Zelda game after Wind Waker. I did eventually play Wind Waker, which actually deserves a little more credit than teenager me wanted to give it (this was an era when Pokemon was exploding in popularity and Nintendo was being seen as the "little kid" video game company, which as a teenager was something I resented - you know, like how teenagers suck? Anyway, the graphic style of Wind Waker was not the for-the-time high-rez Zelda game that the tech demos for the Gamecube seemed to have promised.)
Twilight Princess wound up being a launch title for the Wii, but it was also released on the Gamecube (actually later I think,) and sort of left those with Gamecubes in a conundrum of whether they wanted to invest in the new system or play it on the old one.
Personally, Twilight Princess is up there in maybe my top three Zelda games (Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past being in the top two spots, though I vacillate on which order to put them in.) I love the style and dungeon design, and I find it pretty ironic in retrospect that it got such underwhelming reviews while Skyward Sword was given sweeping 10/10s.
I wound up getting a Wii and Twilight Princess as my first game for it.
Now, we wound up getting a truly Wii-centric Zelda game in Skyward Sword, which I didn't actually wind up liking as much.
Now we're in a kind of similar state with the Wii U and the Switch.
The Wii U seemed like a great idea at the time, and Nintendo came out with some cool concepts for it. But ultimately, it feels like half a system. I realize it's been almost five years since it came out, which is kind of average for a console generation (the fact that it seems short must mean I'm getting older) but there was just never a big library for it. Even Nintendo didn't really seem to fully believe in it, with first and second party games from big franchises never appearing. Unless I'm really missing something we never got a Metroid game for the Wii U.
But while Nintendo will put out tons of Mario games, Zelda is something that is typically once or twice in a console generation - but it's always there.
Breath of the Wild was supposed to be a Wii U game (I think you even get a tablet in-game that is kind of a proxy for the Wii U controller,) but now it's basically the reason to get a Switch.
I have such fond feelings for Nintendo, and if the reviews are to be believed, the company can still come out with utterly amazing games. They are a seriously quality over quantity company, which I respect (to be honest, I think that these days I'm much happier to have one game I play for a long time than a bunch of games I can cycle through. Like a certain MMORPG that dominates this blog.)
But I also feel a little burned by the Wii U. The Wii U concept was much less gimicky in my opinion than the Wii (ok, it had more gimicks, but it was still giving you something recognizable as a video game controller) but a system is nothing without a good library.
So right now, they want people to roll the dice on the Switch, and for the record, I really, really hope the console is a huge success for them. But this early on, I'm hesitant to plunk down for a new console (especially since I just got a PS4 last year) with only one game I'm super excited to play.
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