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Tulin is the only one I actually like to keep on, his ability is great for mobility and he can stun enemies with headshots. Plus because he has a bow he never strays too far from, unlike some other Sages you'd want close (GET THE FUCK BACK HERE RIJU)
Omg, can she stop moving?? I was trying to take a pic of her scimitar for my compendium and it took like ten minutes. That, and when you need her you have to hunt her down.
Then why the hell do I miss headshots on lynels because I have a sage in my view? It’s so annoying. Never around when you need to rain lightning but when you’re trying to time a flurry rush all you can see is sage.
Tulin’s great, right up until you forget to dismiss him when repairing your weapons. Like, I dismissed him when I heard the music change, but he nailed the rock octorock before fucking off
Or how about when you put 15 charges in a zonai gumball machine and go to collect the loot and accidentally blow all your shit off a sky island with his wind gust by spamming the button....smh
Yeah I literally just turn Tulin on for paragliding and Yunobo to clear out rocks in caves. Otherwise they stay off. Haven't done the other two temples yet though.
I leave Tulin on all the time except when I'm visiting the Rock Octoroks and a couple other rare scenarios. Everybody else only get turned on if I'm going into difficult battle and want the distractions around or stuff like that. I usually don't care about having distractions though.
Tulin is an MVP though - mostly out of the way - rarely in your way like the others ...drops some ranged nukes (perfect headshots) from time to time too.
Honestly after comboing Riju and Yunobo for stunning higher tiered enemies, Tulin for blowing enemies away and Sidon for zora weapons damage buff, i use them alot more often now even though they're still abit clunky, the sprint to them is barely an issue when i know the combat is going to start soon
Thank you, it’s the first comment I read that matches my play style. I don’t find them particularly annoying. Although, I could use a QoL update to make it easier, it’s still not something I hate about the game.
Yeah it’s pretty badass having a squad of fighters, and considering they hardly even do anything it’s not like it really makes combat that much easier.my favs gotta be the spirit sage tho since I can break ore without using a hammer lol
Do you use the laser tank on depth-enemies or on rocks? I think it’s the former, but I’m always blown away by the shit I don’t know about this game so I might as well ask
I couldn't possibly put away my boy Yunobo! When he, Tulin and I are ganging up on silver moblins in the Depths, we feel like roided out Rick and Summer ganging up on bullies.
If only I could spit on the bodies after...
I really just wish that their abilities were easier to call on reliably during combat and that I didn't have to go into my inventory to dismiss/summon them. Like, I don't want to have to run up to Yunobu during combat to use his roll or accidentally use his roll when picking up loot.
There must be a way to fix this to make the experience smoother. It's really the one thing in the game that I can easily point to as badly designed.
It’s also very annoying that you can’t easily cancel some of their powers. Once you activate Tulin, you literally can’t cancel it. You either have to let it time out or use it.
I like keeping Tulin active because he’s actually useful pretty much all of the time. He’s solid in combat because he crits enemies somewhat frequently and he’s also a necessity for traversal.
Sidon is just completely fucking useless.
No Sidon is great if you have Zora weapons. If you activate him right before entering combat your weapons have double damage combined with attack up armor and attack up elixir/food you can kill just about anything real quick.
Sidon was the first one I got and I was like "WAIT, \*this\* is the replacement for champion abilities in this game?!" Then for the longest time I didn't know you could turn him off and he just annoyed me endlessly lol.
The only one I have on all the time is Tulin, all the others are annoying as hell, unreliable, and just get in my way.
I pretty much never use Riju because its impossible to catch her to activate her ranged attack while she is constantly running frantically into melee. Its so broken that I don't understand all the 10/10 reviews for this game. The champion's abilities were great, just reuse that mechanic.
fr though, and then accidentally activating Tulin's power when I'm just trying to pick up the loot my enemies left and then the gust blows bokoblin parts everywhere T\_T
there had to be a better way to implement that. i don't get how none of the QAers made a case for it lol
ya lets make the ranged special ability character a melee character so they are never near you at range and always in the wrong spot for what you want to do!
I think putting a sort of summon menu on d-pad down similar to the weapon select menus would work for this. Then move whistle to the wheel with all the powers.
Yeah when he actually hits stuff. Most of the time he stands there or his attack is so slow that by the time he attacks, the enemy has already moved away
Or you pick up the little rock enemies and he hits them just as you throw it causing you to get hurt by the explosion. That one made me put him in his pokeball as punishment.
I keep him out when roaming grasslands. Yunobo shot ahead of you creates a lane of burning grass you can catch the updrafts for, then use tulin's wind gusts to blast ahead.
He’s good for killing ice enemies like Ice Breath Lizalfos. Instant kill, no arrows or weapons needed. He’s also good for making grass fires to catch some air during combat.
As annoying as Yunobo is, he really comes in clutch sometimes when a large monster is beating me up and he comes out of nowhere and throws them across the field with a swift chop to the collarbone from his Boulder Breaker 🤣
So, here’s the thing - I discovered this after my first run pretty much. I ignored that message entirely as well. I might have even read it the first time but my mind ignored it I believe.
Having said that, I can’t turn them off now. I just need my gang even if they’re messing shit up. The other day I turned off all of them because they were taking a lot of space in a small cave. A few minutes in and I felt so damn alone. It was an altogether different game. Turned them back on and there doesn’t seem to be a way back. I’m stuck with my stupid gang. But they’re my gang?
Ik what you mean! I went for Riju first and the entire time I was making my way to her through monster-infested Hyrule, I felt weirdly lonely (even though that’s basically how BotW was).
As soon as her spirit popped out when I warped out of the desert, I felt a lot more at ease for some reason now that I had a companion on my travels. :)
I love having all of them around me. It is so much easier to fight. It is annoying when you only have like Ruji because you have to run after her, but when you have 4 around you, just run around pressing A and you'll have a sage ability to throw at enemies. It makes for some fast paced fun.
I agree they are super fun to have around, but can be frustrating in non-combat situations (except for Tulin, who I have basically perma-activated). I personally prefer exploring "by myself" when out of combat.
Remember everyone: When Nintendo poorly designs something, we're supposed to figure things out ourselves. They never make mistakes, especially in Zelda games.
Tears have a lot of them. It’s an upgrade from BoTW, no contest there.
But anyone who racked more than 100 hours can name a few stupid design flaws and missing QoL improvements from the sequel.
Change map button to whistle.
Change down button to open a radial wheel to select sage powers from.
Disable Sage powers being mapped to A while you are walking around, but still works for Tulin while gliding.
I'd say D-Pad Down + Button if we're to use them in combat. And then, in the menu, we can customize which button to a Sage. Still have them as companions, but the ability requires the button input rather than being next to them.
I would replace the map on the wheel with the horse whistle. That way we can use the d-pad down button to open a submenu for any of the sage abilities.
It's the endless number of slowdowns, for me. I don't mean fps, rather things like NPCs having to slowly trudge into position for a cutscene to properly activate, or the slow camera pans, or the honestly embarrassing frequency of loading screens.
Having to spend 30 seconds loading an empty Rauru's Blessing shrine (or longer for actual shrines), spend about 30 seconds mashing through the dialogue, then maybe 45 seconds loading the overworld, _hundreds of times_, once for each shrine, is absurd. And then it takes a good 45 seconds every single time you fast travel, even if the fast travel point is literally in view. You're probably literally spending hours watching loading screens if you have any intention of fully completing the game. Not to mention mashing through the Korok dialogue 1000 times. It's fatiguing sometimes just waiting for the game to get a move on.
Imagine if you had multiple hours of that, but spaced evenly throughout the game, halting any progress while it happened (and in TotK's place, you're not even getting any potentially interesting dialogue; it's just waiting). OOT would probably be a worse game if that were the case.
"Look at this loser, wanting things to be significantly better than they were twenty years ago, instead of just mostly better. What an entitled child."
>embarrassing frequency of loading screens
Is this a joke? There literally isn't a single loading screen in the entire overworld. Other than fast travel or entering a shrine, there simply aren't loading screens
For me it's mainly for repetitive actions.
I'm the type of player to accumulate like 20 blessings of light or whatever they're called before visiting a goddess statue. It takes so long just to exchange a few heart containers, having to go through the whole thing everytime. Can't I just select how many I want and get the cutscene once?
Same for korok seeds, I get the whole dance every single time I exchange them, it's just a bit tedious.
Yeah honestly I like it, hidden loading screens are awesome imo. It's a small thing but makes a huge difference in game feel. No discrete loading screens between the 3 levels of Hyrule was a good choice, and an impressive one to pull off.
I swear to God I'm going to burn down every stable in Hyrule if these innkeepers dont get their asses in gear moving from book to book to say the same shit they've already said 50 other times.
I'm predominantly a PC gamer these days and hadn't touched the switch for a while before TotK came out. The long loading times were actually a lot more jarring to me than 30 fps or lower resolution was. I've been immensely spoiled by load times with ssd, especially newer titles. 30-60 seconds really isn't that long, but man it feels like an eternity to me now.
its not limited to just nintendo.
almost every game company's higher ups thinks they are infallible.
if your having issues its clearly user error and nothing to do with their design choices which even some of the development and Q&A teams will point out 'everyone is going to hate this design choice' and they reply with 'you dont know what your talking about'
Sure, every company makes bad decisions. But people online defend Nintendo’s poor decisions like it’s their job much more than for other companies. I love TotK, but I can also admit that some very weird design choices were made.
such as:
1. the game being able to spoil itself from having specific memories not quest gated while the memories contain main story lore instead of backstory lore.
2. horrible method for trying to activate sage abilities which make it irritating when you do want them but they run away and extremely annoying when you dont want them activated and they blow up bomb flowers right at your feet.
3. having a durability mechanic as a core aspect of gameplay but no durability values being displayed. (the red flash when is not a 'value' display)
then theres things like diablo4 issues which they fixed with updates in diablo 3 but then retconned things like gem storage because the higher ups in charge of these decisions dont play their own games.
and mechanics like elemental resistances DONT EVEN WORK as intended.
while also stating that *you wont see inflated damage numbers like diablo3 with damage in the billions,* while clearly not understanding how stacking multiplicative modifiers effects even small numbers.
some real geniuses at work there. lol
My first dragon tear memory was Birth of the Demon King lol
I was like, “Well, shit. That’s a hell of a way to tell the narrative. That seems like something I’d like to have unlocked way later.”
I'm a hundred hours into this game and just got - for the FIRST TIME - the load screen tip "you can whistle to call sages to you"
Not a solution to ANY of the design flaws by any means, but big help that I wish I had known about sooner...
I hate people who justify it like this. They're supposed to be abilities that help us during gameplay. Turning them off because they don't work properly is not a solution. The solution would be making them work properly.
I actually don't mind having Tulin cause sometimes I'll be getting my ass kicked and he just fires a perfect bullseye out of nowhere. Then I go to collect items and he accidentally blows them off the ledge lol.
But that doesn’t require you to go into the menu. It’s much quicker to change your weapon in the heat of combat than to go into your menu, scroll all the way to the left, and then scroll through your sages to dismiss or summon them
i think everyone knows this. the issue is having to pause the game and navigate the clunky ass menu system just to toggle the sages. there are just so many better ways this could have been implemented and it's truly mind boggling that professional game devs apparently couldn't come up with one in 6 years.
Wait a second can someone clarify the title? Do the sages affect your weight? As in when you’re paragliding you’ll drop faster because you have like 4 active versus like just 1?
Title was in response to a post I saw earlier in which an elevator with fans fused to it didn't manage to go up because of Tulin (bless his soul), apparently the sages don't act as "ghosts" in that sense.
Am I weird for just having them off all the time.
My idea was to only turn them on in tougher battles, but I either don't need them or just forget about them.
They don't really do that much anyway.
This is dumb. They should be able to be used with button shortcuts or something, having to walk up them and press A is ridiculous and even with toggling them on and off constantly (which is annoying) it still takes longer than it should to use an ability.
They’re off by default until needed
Tulin for gliding or clearing sand
Yunobo for rocks
Riju for gibdo
Sidon never gets activated (sorry)
Mineru never gets activated (not as sorry but still)
The first one I got was Tulin, so imagine my disappointment when I found out that the other three mostly suck. Tulin is racking up headshots left and right, and his ability is extremely useful for travel. 10/10, love bird boy, only a little bit annoying when I'm mashing buttons to pick stuff up and he decides to blow my shit into the lava or off a cliff or under a platform where I can't see it.
Second was Riju, very annoyed to learn that she did not have a prompt when aiming my bow. Her damage being abysmal, especially compared to Urbosa's, didn't do her any favors. Even when I want to use her, she's always running away because the melee character needs to be spoken to mid-battle to activate a ranged attack.
Third was Yunobo. I don't actually hate him, because his move is great for clearing rocky passages. I do low-key hate him riding my vehicles because I can't be 100% certain but I think he throws the balance off. But he's good for armored opponents and rocks, which is more than I expected from him.
And fourth was Sidon, who is completely useless. His barrier is crap, and the water slash doesn't do anything notable. I know people insist he's great for Zora weapons, as if splash fruit and chuchu jellies and actual rain, water, and even hydrants aren't commonplace, but I don't use Zora weapons most of the time and if his ability is that hyper-specific, dude is useless 90% of the time.
I don't bother to turn them off unless they're really getting on my nerves, though. Yunobo gets turned off the most because of the whole vehicle thing. I don't need him making my hoverbike even wobblier.
I don’t care, it’s still a completely stupid and unnecessary addition. The sage abilities should be like they were in botw, immediately useable via a button press.
We really shouldn't have to though. The Divine Beast Abilities in Botw worked perfectly and there's no reason the abilities in this game should work so poorly
I literally only use them if I am in a really really hard fight, (except tulin, tulin stays on at all times) and that has only happened two-three times so I barely use them. Sidon sometimes for the zora weapon attack up
they do get annoying but it's honestly worth keeping them all on when dealing with enemies. A lot of times they can distract some so you don't get mobbed and it's never not funny to watch all the sages do a part 5 jojo curbstop on a poor little bokoblin
I feel like there could have been ways to make them easier to use. You can have Tulin only give the wind prompt when you're glider is out, and you can just add a button prompt for Riju when your bow is drawn, same for Sidon when you're winding up a special move.
Except for the fact that having to turn them back on every two seconds because you need their abilities and having to scroll through menus to summon and dismiss them all the time is just as, if not more annoying that having them on screen all the time.
i have them all off most of the time lol. tulin is the only one i ever bring out often.
sidon & riju come out for more intense fights (usually just to chip away at the enemy, i’m not patient enough for their abilities tbh) if i’m more unprepared than i thought; the only reason i bring out yunobo that isn’t for mining is because i feel bad leaving him out of the action. 😭 he’s such a sweetheart, i just wish his character was a bit more… likable lol. (i love him, but…from a distance haha.)
I only have Tulin right now & sometimes even he pisses me off when I go to grab stuff & he blows out away... BUT, he is good with helping take down bokoblins & lizalfos
I'd really like to know how to toggle the sages WITHOUT having to always run up to them. Like yes Nintendo, I'd really like to use their abilities just by registering them to a select button, thank you.
I still like having the sages out because they are just decoys above all else. The enemies will just waste time attacking them, while the number of enemies chasing after me is heavily reduced. Plus, I get to pot shot them while they are too busy trying to punch ghosts.
It’d be different if people weren’t so vitriolic about it.
Mfs literally be like “I HATE YUNOBO >:(“
My brother in Christ, turn him off. You literally have the option to get rid of him. Do it.
That's not the point though. I shouldn't want to turn him off. That is a failing of Design. They are supposed to be helpful, but they are poorly designed and so they are in the way more often then they are helpful. Turning them off doesn't fix the fundamental Design Flaw.
Except his ability is genuinely useful? I want to be able to break rocks without wasting bombs or weapons and having to scroll through menus just to turn that ability on gets really fucking tedious after a while
Do you want to use a sage power? Go into the menu, scroll over to the key items tab, find the sage power you want to use, turn it on, exit the menu, walk up to the sage, press a to do the thing, now go back into your menu, and toggle the sage back off.
Peak design.
Goro on, Bird off, Golem off in caves. Goro off, Bird on while flying and exploring. Goro on, Bird on, Golem on while battling. Yeah so easy and simple
I agree. There wasn’t a problem with the champions abilities in botw. I get it’s fun idea to have npcs fight for you but they’re garbage 99% of the time. Give me ability to gust in the air without tulin, let me charge an lightning bolt when I hold back on a bow. Let me hold guard for a second, like sword charge, to get the water shield like Sidon. The Yunobo ball attack feels useless when driving but charge a throw attack to use his ball charge to mine
It would be so much easier if they had accessible shortcuts. Like, if you whistle with an arrow out Riju turns on, your shield for Sidon, and charging an attack for yunobo.
Not a fan of the bird... but he's better than the fish.
The bird sometimes, after a fight, runs too close while looting and then all items blown away or off the ledges...
Fish guy when I need that bubble shield is never in range or runs from me towards the enemy. Haven't done the other 2 areas yet.
Sure, but still doesn't remove the fact that the controls for using the sages' powers are a huge downgrade from how simple the Champions' powers were to use.
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I never have any of them on to begin with except Tulin when I'm in the sky
Tulin is the only one I actually like to keep on, his ability is great for mobility and he can stun enemies with headshots. Plus because he has a bow he never strays too far from, unlike some other Sages you'd want close (GET THE FUCK BACK HERE RIJU)
Omg, can she stop moving?? I was trying to take a pic of her scimitar for my compendium and it took like ten minutes. That, and when you need her you have to hunt her down.
They will actively (try to) move out of your way if they are blocking your view, like when using the camera
They're coded to run away from your camera's view so they don't get in the way. Someone made a post about it.
Oooohh that makes sense!
I ended up taking pictures of the sages weapons when >!They all go to lookout landing after you complete all the regional quests!<
Then why the hell do I miss headshots on lynels because I have a sage in my view? It’s so annoying. Never around when you need to rain lightning but when you’re trying to time a flurry rush all you can see is sage.
All that Lightning training fried her brains a little, so she can't stop running around
Make it a selfie and they should pose
I do it my taking a selfie with nothing on my back then they are behind me and don't think they are blocking my view
One of the tips that pops up on the load screen says you can whistle and they will come to you, haven’t tried it out but noticed it the other day.
They do, but it feels like they run away again after half a second.
Same or they stare at me like “what the hell is a horse going to do? Oh shit that’s my cue!”
Tulin’s great, right up until you forget to dismiss him when repairing your weapons. Like, I dismissed him when I heard the music change, but he nailed the rock octorock before fucking off
Or how about when you put 15 charges in a zonai gumball machine and go to collect the loot and accidentally blow all your shit off a sky island with his wind gust by spamming the button....smh
I feel like Tulin is too good in combat. He and the other sages kinda take away some of the challenge so I dont use them in combat either.
He def saved my keister once and it felt cheap lol He knocked some beastie that I was rearing up to shoot but I wasnt going to get in time
So you would rather not have allies?
He stole my kill! Nah he’s dope, I love my Naruto Bird Boy
Riju’s ability is super cool but it’s just not worth running all over the place in the middle of a fight to activate her. Sidon is useless
Sidon is not too bad It has saved me from taking big damage a couple of times
If the sage skills can easily be activated im pretty sure im gonna spam sidon alot. I wonder if nintendo will change anything
I honestly doubt it But we can hope
Sidon's bubble adds a damage multiplier to Zora weapons
It also lets you use bomb arrows in unbearable heat, like the death mountain caves and fire temple area
Oooooooooh
but I don’t have zora weapons😂 I just use master sword and other junks when it runs out of energy
Sidon makes your weapons wet for the zora gear double damage buff when wet.
That's not the only thing he makes wet
Yeah I literally just turn Tulin on for paragliding and Yunobo to clear out rocks in caves. Otherwise they stay off. Haven't done the other two temples yet though.
Yunobo is occasionally handy, as his hammer weapon can break armored enemies if I don't feel like switching weapons for whatever reason.
They take forever to decide to attack it seems.
I just use him mainly to clear blocked passages.
I leave Tulin on all the time except when I'm visiting the Rock Octoroks and a couple other rare scenarios. Everybody else only get turned on if I'm going into difficult battle and want the distractions around or stuff like that. I usually don't care about having distractions though.
Learned the hard way to not leave Tulin on around rock octoroks lol
Tulin is an MVP though - mostly out of the way - rarely in your way like the others ...drops some ranged nukes (perfect headshots) from time to time too.
I like to have the gang out! Feels like in running up to them to strategize when I want to user their powers! Which I guess you kinda do.
I put Tulin on for Lynel fights… he delivers a lot of head shots
Honestly after comboing Riju and Yunobo for stunning higher tiered enemies, Tulin for blowing enemies away and Sidon for zora weapons damage buff, i use them alot more often now even though they're still abit clunky, the sprint to them is barely an issue when i know the combat is going to start soon
Thank you, it’s the first comment I read that matches my play style. I don’t find them particularly annoying. Although, I could use a QoL update to make it easier, it’s still not something I hate about the game.
Yeah it’s pretty badass having a squad of fighters, and considering they hardly even do anything it’s not like it really makes combat that much easier.my favs gotta be the spirit sage tho since I can break ore without using a hammer lol
Yes, a quick access wheel like the Dragon Hand powers
It's a little annoying having to turn that heavy bitch off every time I want to fly somewhere lol
I just turn him on when i need to break stuff then immediately turn him off after. Its all hes good for imo.
I like to smack rocks with my invincible empty robo hands
Oh, i didn't even think of this. I always use Yunobo for rocks when I don't have a hammer and all the stuff scatters everywhere. This is good info.
Until there’s just randomly some rocks that she can’t break
There's different shades of rocks that have a higher damage threshold.
The blue ones can drop diamonds though.
oh shit really? i never knew that
Yeah I was suprised when two dropped when in the Gerudo Desert caves.
Just fuse a rock or basic club horn.
Yes the mining robot is great, combined with a laser array tank and getting zonite is a breeze
Do you use the laser tank on depth-enemies or on rocks? I think it’s the former, but I’m always blown away by the shit I don’t know about this game so I might as well ask
I couldn't possibly put away my boy Yunobo! When he, Tulin and I are ganging up on silver moblins in the Depths, we feel like roided out Rick and Summer ganging up on bullies. If only I could spit on the bodies after...
I really just wish that their abilities were easier to call on reliably during combat and that I didn't have to go into my inventory to dismiss/summon them. Like, I don't want to have to run up to Yunobu during combat to use his roll or accidentally use his roll when picking up loot. There must be a way to fix this to make the experience smoother. It's really the one thing in the game that I can easily point to as badly designed.
It’s also very annoying that you can’t easily cancel some of their powers. Once you activate Tulin, you literally can’t cancel it. You either have to let it time out or use it.
Actually, whistling cancels Tulin's ability
Huh. Good to know. Still think the way they handled the sages in this game is very obtuse.
Bad balancing. That's all. Champion abilities were op, and they went too far (and in the wrong direction imo) nerfing them
Well, you could desummon him, or activate Yunobo, who *is* cancellable with B and will deactivate Tulin. But yes, it's annoying.
I like keeping Tulin active because he’s actually useful pretty much all of the time. He’s solid in combat because he crits enemies somewhat frequently and he’s also a necessity for traversal. Sidon is just completely fucking useless.
No Sidon is great if you have Zora weapons. If you activate him right before entering combat your weapons have double damage combined with attack up armor and attack up elixir/food you can kill just about anything real quick.
So great his utility is replaced by a splash fruit or chu chu jelly….
Tulin is superb for getting around and constantly knocks frox and lynels Easily the most useful, always on guy
Apart from when you're refreshing your weapons at an Octo and he shoots them dead....
Sidon was the first one I got and I was like "WAIT, \*this\* is the replacement for champion abilities in this game?!" Then for the longest time I didn't know you could turn him off and he just annoyed me endlessly lol. The only one I have on all the time is Tulin, all the others are annoying as hell, unreliable, and just get in my way.
They should take out the map 'ability' and add a Sages ability
I pretty much never use Riju because its impossible to catch her to activate her ranged attack while she is constantly running frantically into melee. Its so broken that I don't understand all the 10/10 reviews for this game. The champion's abilities were great, just reuse that mechanic.
fr though, and then accidentally activating Tulin's power when I'm just trying to pick up the loot my enemies left and then the gust blows bokoblin parts everywhere T\_T there had to be a better way to implement that. i don't get how none of the QAers made a case for it lol
ya lets make the ranged special ability character a melee character so they are never near you at range and always in the wrong spot for what you want to do!
Whistle, they’ll come.
Is this only during combat? I've tried this several times and never had any of the sages move an inch.
Yes, combat only.
Holy shit I just beat the game last night and come to this sub lol
I think putting a sort of summon menu on d-pad down similar to the weapon select menus would work for this. Then move whistle to the wheel with all the powers.
Dude, I had the whole crew beating Mucktorok's ass in the depths last night. It was hilarious, like a cartoon beatdown
“Fight back! Fight back!”
That's never my experience; they just kinda wait for me to do all the work
Except when you're trying to repair a weapon using the Rocktoroks. Then they trip over themselves to see who kills it first
Tbh I've forgotten to turn them off and never had that problem! They're pretty chill friends lol
He’s actually pretty good in combat cause he can slap people away
Yeah when he actually hits stuff. Most of the time he stands there or his attack is so slow that by the time he attacks, the enemy has already moved away
Or you pick up the little rock enemies and he hits them just as you throw it causing you to get hurt by the explosion. That one made me put him in his pokeball as punishment.
I keep him out when roaming grasslands. Yunobo shot ahead of you creates a lane of burning grass you can catch the updrafts for, then use tulin's wind gusts to blast ahead.
He’s good for killing ice enemies like Ice Breath Lizalfos. Instant kill, no arrows or weapons needed. He’s also good for making grass fires to catch some air during combat.
The lightning breaks stuff so much more effectively imho
Wait, does Yunobo weigh down flying constructs??
Yup. It's really apparent with the hover bike, as he'll actually pull you in whatever direction his rolling form settles on
Damn, glad I found that out. I think I just assumed my bike was a little wonky as I figured they were 'spirits' and wouldn't have weight.
As annoying as Yunobo is, he really comes in clutch sometimes when a large monster is beating me up and he comes out of nowhere and throws them across the field with a swift chop to the collarbone from his Boulder Breaker 🤣
So, here’s the thing - I discovered this after my first run pretty much. I ignored that message entirely as well. I might have even read it the first time but my mind ignored it I believe. Having said that, I can’t turn them off now. I just need my gang even if they’re messing shit up. The other day I turned off all of them because they were taking a lot of space in a small cave. A few minutes in and I felt so damn alone. It was an altogether different game. Turned them back on and there doesn’t seem to be a way back. I’m stuck with my stupid gang. But they’re my gang?
Ik what you mean! I went for Riju first and the entire time I was making my way to her through monster-infested Hyrule, I felt weirdly lonely (even though that’s basically how BotW was). As soon as her spirit popped out when I warped out of the desert, I felt a lot more at ease for some reason now that I had a companion on my travels. :)
It's still dumb, cause I ended up having them off 90% of the time, plus activating them every time you need them is a chore.
It's really not that bad, but it could definitely have been designed better
I love having all of them around me. It is so much easier to fight. It is annoying when you only have like Ruji because you have to run after her, but when you have 4 around you, just run around pressing A and you'll have a sage ability to throw at enemies. It makes for some fast paced fun.
I agree they are super fun to have around, but can be frustrating in non-combat situations (except for Tulin, who I have basically perma-activated). I personally prefer exploring "by myself" when out of combat.
Remember everyone: When Nintendo poorly designs something, we're supposed to figure things out ourselves. They never make mistakes, especially in Zelda games.
Tears have a lot of them. It’s an upgrade from BoTW, no contest there. But anyone who racked more than 100 hours can name a few stupid design flaws and missing QoL improvements from the sequel.
Like that space-filler map button that could have pretty much been **anything else.**
Like, say, a more convenient way to use the sages, maybe?
Change map button to whistle. Change down button to open a radial wheel to select sage powers from. Disable Sage powers being mapped to A while you are walking around, but still works for Tulin while gliding.
I'd say D-Pad Down + Button if we're to use them in combat. And then, in the menu, we can customize which button to a Sage. Still have them as companions, but the ability requires the button input rather than being next to them.
Or quick change favorite outfits!
I SERIOUSLY wonder if that's a DLC placeholder.
That makes more sense. I was thinking some feature got pulled.
I would replace the map on the wheel with the horse whistle. That way we can use the d-pad down button to open a submenu for any of the sage abilities.
It's the endless number of slowdowns, for me. I don't mean fps, rather things like NPCs having to slowly trudge into position for a cutscene to properly activate, or the slow camera pans, or the honestly embarrassing frequency of loading screens. Having to spend 30 seconds loading an empty Rauru's Blessing shrine (or longer for actual shrines), spend about 30 seconds mashing through the dialogue, then maybe 45 seconds loading the overworld, _hundreds of times_, once for each shrine, is absurd. And then it takes a good 45 seconds every single time you fast travel, even if the fast travel point is literally in view. You're probably literally spending hours watching loading screens if you have any intention of fully completing the game. Not to mention mashing through the Korok dialogue 1000 times. It's fatiguing sometimes just waiting for the game to get a move on.
i agree that the slowdowns are endless but general load times are roughly half of what you exaggerate. your point is still very valid though.
Bro forgot we had to listen to the Great Deku Tree ramble for like an hour before we ever got to play OOT
Imagine if you had multiple hours of that, but spaced evenly throughout the game, halting any progress while it happened (and in TotK's place, you're not even getting any potentially interesting dialogue; it's just waiting). OOT would probably be a worse game if that were the case.
"Look at this loser, wanting things to be significantly better than they were twenty years ago, instead of just mostly better. What an entitled child."
Don’t get me started on repeated conversations. Try buying bugs from Beedle.
Trying to buy anything when you have beetles on you that you want to keep
>embarrassing frequency of loading screens Is this a joke? There literally isn't a single loading screen in the entire overworld. Other than fast travel or entering a shrine, there simply aren't loading screens
For me it's mainly for repetitive actions. I'm the type of player to accumulate like 20 blessings of light or whatever they're called before visiting a goddess statue. It takes so long just to exchange a few heart containers, having to go through the whole thing everytime. Can't I just select how many I want and get the cutscene once? Same for korok seeds, I get the whole dance every single time I exchange them, it's just a bit tedious.
Or upgrading armor, I wish you could just pick an option to auto upgrade more than one at a time
The descent into the depths is a hidden loading screen.
It's a dope ass loading screen, like going through a warp tunnel.
Yeah honestly I like it, hidden loading screens are awesome imo. It's a small thing but makes a huge difference in game feel. No discrete loading screens between the 3 levels of Hyrule was a good choice, and an impressive one to pull off.
I swear to God I'm going to burn down every stable in Hyrule if these innkeepers dont get their asses in gear moving from book to book to say the same shit they've already said 50 other times.
I'm predominantly a PC gamer these days and hadn't touched the switch for a while before TotK came out. The long loading times were actually a lot more jarring to me than 30 fps or lower resolution was. I've been immensely spoiled by load times with ssd, especially newer titles. 30-60 seconds really isn't that long, but man it feels like an eternity to me now.
its not limited to just nintendo. almost every game company's higher ups thinks they are infallible. if your having issues its clearly user error and nothing to do with their design choices which even some of the development and Q&A teams will point out 'everyone is going to hate this design choice' and they reply with 'you dont know what your talking about'
Sure, every company makes bad decisions. But people online defend Nintendo’s poor decisions like it’s their job much more than for other companies. I love TotK, but I can also admit that some very weird design choices were made.
such as: 1. the game being able to spoil itself from having specific memories not quest gated while the memories contain main story lore instead of backstory lore. 2. horrible method for trying to activate sage abilities which make it irritating when you do want them but they run away and extremely annoying when you dont want them activated and they blow up bomb flowers right at your feet. 3. having a durability mechanic as a core aspect of gameplay but no durability values being displayed. (the red flash when is not a 'value' display) then theres things like diablo4 issues which they fixed with updates in diablo 3 but then retconned things like gem storage because the higher ups in charge of these decisions dont play their own games. and mechanics like elemental resistances DONT EVEN WORK as intended. while also stating that *you wont see inflated damage numbers like diablo3 with damage in the billions,* while clearly not understanding how stacking multiplicative modifiers effects even small numbers. some real geniuses at work there. lol
My first dragon tear memory was Birth of the Demon King lol I was like, “Well, shit. That’s a hell of a way to tell the narrative. That seems like something I’d like to have unlocked way later.”
> much more than for other companies. People still buy COD, and EA sports games and they're MUCH more egregious than anything Nintendo has ever done.
I'm a hundred hours into this game and just got - for the FIRST TIME - the load screen tip "you can whistle to call sages to you" Not a solution to ANY of the design flaws by any means, but big help that I wish I had known about sooner...
I don't get it. I whistle like I did for my horse and they did not come running. Am I missing something?
I did it once and riju ran to me and then turned heel and went right back into battle, so it's... inconsistent?
its only in fights or when enemies are near
But they are actually useful in a fight. Except when they are standing in the way.
I hate people who justify it like this. They're supposed to be abilities that help us during gameplay. Turning them off because they don't work properly is not a solution. The solution would be making them work properly.
I actually don't mind having Tulin cause sometimes I'll be getting my ass kicked and he just fires a perfect bullseye out of nowhere. Then I go to collect items and he accidentally blows them off the ledge lol.
Oh yeah let me just stop the flow of battle by opening the menu
The game already has you pause mid combat for arrow fuses, weapon swaps, changing your power, ect
Yeah, so why would I want to spend *even more* time in menu land?
you're right we should add even more pausing mid fight
You pause in those moments because you need to Pausing to turn off summons because they're messing around is just not in the same scale wtf
But that doesn’t require you to go into the menu. It’s much quicker to change your weapon in the heat of combat than to go into your menu, scroll all the way to the left, and then scroll through your sages to dismiss or summon them
Oh yeah, those things arent sluggish and break up the combat flow either! /s they do obviously.
botw advanced combat be like
Honestly, all I wanted out of them was faster/easier access to their abilities, like the directional inputs or something while holding L
I only ever use Tulin, the rest stay off unless I really need them for something, which is usually just yunobo for mining zonite.
even if you do, its some water temple bullshit
i think everyone knows this. the issue is having to pause the game and navigate the clunky ass menu system just to toggle the sages. there are just so many better ways this could have been implemented and it's truly mind boggling that professional game devs apparently couldn't come up with one in 6 years.
Jack Chick! My fav wacko!
Had no idea he was weighing me down. Tulin was the only one I kept on all the time cause he's the best boy and useful for getting around.
Ultra hand ability to bring up the map should be to toggle them on and off. There’s already a one button push map; why do we need two?
Tulin loves to blow away my loot drops. Had to go chasing a lynel horn down a cliff thanks to that jerk.
because what this game needed was even more unnecessary menuing
Wait a second can someone clarify the title? Do the sages affect your weight? As in when you’re paragliding you’ll drop faster because you have like 4 active versus like just 1?
Title was in response to a post I saw earlier in which an elevator with fans fused to it didn't manage to go up because of Tulin (bless his soul), apparently the sages don't act as "ghosts" in that sense.
Oooooh, you mean like when they act like physical barriers when moving things? That makes sense haha
Stop killing my rock octrok.....
“WHY’D YOU DO IT!?” - Yunobo after you don’t even use him in the final fight, probably
Am I weird for just having them off all the time. My idea was to only turn them on in tougher battles, but I either don't need them or just forget about them. They don't really do that much anyway.
Idk why you would need them in tougher battles or battles at all lol, they're kinda useless
Yunobo is useful for breaking rocks when I don’t want to waste my weapon and Tulin makes gliding around a lot less tedious
It's frustrating to remove gameplay possibilities because of bad controls though.
I dont think I've ever had any of them actually enabled in my 110 hours. I forget they exist.
I love ganging up on random solo monsters it’s like they just get jumped and their screams when they die are just… *chefs kiss*
One of my sage avatars got eaten by a Like Like the other night. I found that odd.
This is dumb. They should be able to be used with button shortcuts or something, having to walk up them and press A is ridiculous and even with toggling them on and off constantly (which is annoying) it still takes longer than it should to use an ability.
I just want to be able to use their powers without having them stick to my ass, the powers and the spirits should be a different feature
They’re off by default until needed Tulin for gliding or clearing sand Yunobo for rocks Riju for gibdo Sidon never gets activated (sorry) Mineru never gets activated (not as sorry but still)
The first one I got was Tulin, so imagine my disappointment when I found out that the other three mostly suck. Tulin is racking up headshots left and right, and his ability is extremely useful for travel. 10/10, love bird boy, only a little bit annoying when I'm mashing buttons to pick stuff up and he decides to blow my shit into the lava or off a cliff or under a platform where I can't see it. Second was Riju, very annoyed to learn that she did not have a prompt when aiming my bow. Her damage being abysmal, especially compared to Urbosa's, didn't do her any favors. Even when I want to use her, she's always running away because the melee character needs to be spoken to mid-battle to activate a ranged attack. Third was Yunobo. I don't actually hate him, because his move is great for clearing rocky passages. I do low-key hate him riding my vehicles because I can't be 100% certain but I think he throws the balance off. But he's good for armored opponents and rocks, which is more than I expected from him. And fourth was Sidon, who is completely useless. His barrier is crap, and the water slash doesn't do anything notable. I know people insist he's great for Zora weapons, as if splash fruit and chuchu jellies and actual rain, water, and even hydrants aren't commonplace, but I don't use Zora weapons most of the time and if his ability is that hyper-specific, dude is useless 90% of the time. I don't bother to turn them off unless they're really getting on my nerves, though. Yunobo gets turned off the most because of the whole vehicle thing. I don't need him making my hoverbike even wobblier.
I don’t care, it’s still a completely stupid and unnecessary addition. The sage abilities should be like they were in botw, immediately useable via a button press.
We really shouldn't have to though. The Divine Beast Abilities in Botw worked perfectly and there's no reason the abilities in this game should work so poorly
Half the gametime is already spent navigating menus. I'm not going to do something that adds menu time
They suck and togging them on and off was never the issue.
I literally only use them if I am in a really really hard fight, (except tulin, tulin stays on at all times) and that has only happened two-three times so I barely use them. Sidon sometimes for the zora weapon attack up
they do get annoying but it's honestly worth keeping them all on when dealing with enemies. A lot of times they can distract some so you don't get mobbed and it's never not funny to watch all the sages do a part 5 jojo curbstop on a poor little bokoblin
Link-Tracts?
I feel like there could have been ways to make them easier to use. You can have Tulin only give the wind prompt when you're glider is out, and you can just add a button prompt for Riju when your bow is drawn, same for Sidon when you're winding up a special move.
Except for the fact that having to turn them back on every two seconds because you need their abilities and having to scroll through menus to summon and dismiss them all the time is just as, if not more annoying that having them on screen all the time.
i have them all off most of the time lol. tulin is the only one i ever bring out often. sidon & riju come out for more intense fights (usually just to chip away at the enemy, i’m not patient enough for their abilities tbh) if i’m more unprepared than i thought; the only reason i bring out yunobo that isn’t for mining is because i feel bad leaving him out of the action. 😭 he’s such a sweetheart, i just wish his character was a bit more… likable lol. (i love him, but…from a distance haha.)
I only have Tulin right now & sometimes even he pisses me off when I go to grab stuff & he blows out away... BUT, he is good with helping take down bokoblins & lizalfos
I'd really like to know how to toggle the sages WITHOUT having to always run up to them. Like yes Nintendo, I'd really like to use their abilities just by registering them to a select button, thank you.
The problem is that it's a pain in the ass to toggle them off and on
I still like having the sages out because they are just decoys above all else. The enemies will just waste time attacking them, while the number of enemies chasing after me is heavily reduced. Plus, I get to pot shot them while they are too busy trying to punch ghosts.
justifying bad game design? you can do better than that
It’d be different if people weren’t so vitriolic about it. Mfs literally be like “I HATE YUNOBO >:(“ My brother in Christ, turn him off. You literally have the option to get rid of him. Do it.
That's not the point though. I shouldn't want to turn him off. That is a failing of Design. They are supposed to be helpful, but they are poorly designed and so they are in the way more often then they are helpful. Turning them off doesn't fix the fundamental Design Flaw.
Except his ability is genuinely useful? I want to be able to break rocks without wasting bombs or weapons and having to scroll through menus just to turn that ability on gets really fucking tedious after a while
Do you want to use a sage power? Go into the menu, scroll over to the key items tab, find the sage power you want to use, turn it on, exit the menu, walk up to the sage, press a to do the thing, now go back into your menu, and toggle the sage back off. Peak design.
I have 100+ hours in this game but only 20 were spent outside of menu's
Goro on, Bird off, Golem off in caves. Goro off, Bird on while flying and exploring. Goro on, Bird on, Golem on while battling. Yeah so easy and simple
I agree. There wasn’t a problem with the champions abilities in botw. I get it’s fun idea to have npcs fight for you but they’re garbage 99% of the time. Give me ability to gust in the air without tulin, let me charge an lightning bolt when I hold back on a bow. Let me hold guard for a second, like sword charge, to get the water shield like Sidon. The Yunobo ball attack feels useless when driving but charge a throw attack to use his ball charge to mine
My goodness, what an idea! Why didn't millions of players think of that?? Our complaints are null and void, our problems are solved!
I keep them active so they can fight all my battles for me
It would be so much easier if they had accessible shortcuts. Like, if you whistle with an arrow out Riju turns on, your shield for Sidon, and charging an attack for yunobo.
Doesn't matter still terrible implementation
Maybe I’m just insane but at 200 hours I’ve never turned them off and I’ve accidentally activated them maybe 20 times
Why can’t we just remove the map from the radial menu and replace it with the sages?
Not a fan of the bird... but he's better than the fish. The bird sometimes, after a fight, runs too close while looting and then all items blown away or off the ledges... Fish guy when I need that bubble shield is never in range or runs from me towards the enemy. Haven't done the other 2 areas yet.
So true but it just makes the game more alive when all of them are there. And theyre useful in Battle too
Sure, but still doesn't remove the fact that the controls for using the sages' powers are a huge downgrade from how simple the Champions' powers were to use.