Ronnie

I've barely played any RPGs before with a couple of more basic exceptions like Mass Effect and erm, Paper Mario (?) so the whole thing is a little daunting at present, it just seems like there's so much to do. Yeah those things that kept replenishing their health must have been spirits of the earth. I have one more fledgling quest to do which is get 3 elder oak logs and I thought the floating one was the way to get the final one I need, but if you say that there are difficult areas everywhere that's probably one of them. The whole Elderwood section seemed filled with monsters I would struggle badly against. Not been given an option to invite anyone yet, I'm only a couple of hours in. Story wise a meteor has just hit my house so it's probably really early on. Basically I'm just a little unsure about how soon to switch lives, but I guess it can be done anytime from what you and Mr Master say. Currently fighting with just a basic dagger I think, that's probably why I'm struggling. Maybe I can find a place that sells better weapons?

Thanks for the advice. Should I get to the next rank after Woodcutter Apprentice or is now a good time to switch? I'm just finding that I seem to be struggling against some of the larger enemies already and just wondered whether moving to a combat orientated Life might help. There was this floating big oak tree in Elderwood but surrounded by 3 baddies that seemed a bit too tough for me.

Just started playing this, really enjoying it but I'm a little unsure about the progression and what I should be doing next. I picked the woodcutter as my starting Life and have made it to the Apprentice rank. Should I stick with this Life until I master it or should I change to a combat one to make exploring the world easier? It seems I need to head to Mt Snowpeak and Elderwood to do a few Woodcutter challenges, but should I get better at fighting enemies first? Loving it so far, seems quite a polished game full of content. Reminds me of Zelda in a number of ways.

Picked up a Yoshi from my local Argos today, last one they had in stock (I had to reserve it last night) and pretty much every other one was sold out today except for DK and Mario. Guy behind the counter commented that they were selling really well and that the Link model won their Smash Bros tournament last night. I do kind of wish they weren't releasing every Smash character though, it's going to make collecting them all far more unlikely for me.

Picked up Fox, Pikachu and Samus yesterday from Argos. They're really great. Fox especially is amazingly detailed. Amazon seem to have sold out of most of them!

Any idea how these are selling? They seem quite popular but who knows how many Nintendo shipped.

@Wii didn't ask for this game, therefore it should never have been made.

@Wii, you're in your 30s? I have a really hard time believing that. Please say it isn't so??

I love the aesthetic, a million miles from the craptastic OTT/uber-colourful/CGI-fest George Lucas "inspired" prequels. Back to basics, more basic look that fits in perfectly with the original trilogy. Great teaser, it's not supposed to flow, it's supposed to make you want more. The Avengers "teaser" gave away the whole film, even though you can practically write a Marvel superhero storyline in your sleep these days.

Do you always have to be so insular? Newsflash, Nintendo's business strategy shouldn't be catered to your exact wants and demands. Every post it's always "I don't care about it, why are they making it??" It's reviewing very well, people can't speak highly enough of it, that must hurt. "Too me it's another lazy effort, I didn't ask for it" You continue topping your cringiest lines ever, this is a new low.

There go 4000 stars, I'm a sucker I know but I think that's one of the better gifts on Club Nintendo in a while.

Those are lovely, what are the chances there'll be some available on eBay to pick up? Not sure I want to use 16 games worth of stars on them.

I've had this untouched for a year, looking forward to playing it over December

Was replying to this...

Good to see Nintendo nominated in Developer of the Year category. Quality wise they've been on fire for the last couple of years.

9.8 on IGN, their two highest rated games of the year are Wii U exclusives, and their GOTY will likely have Bayo2, Smash, MK8 and Shovel Knight on the final shortlist.

Yeah I don't think this game needs DLC tbh, there's enough content as is.

If you noticed it that says more about your own sexism.

Very well said. There's nothing cynical about the way Nintendo are doing this. If they do release a dedicated amiibo game down the line it will be to take advantage of all the figures people have been collecting thus far, not forcing you to buy them to be able to play the game like Infinity and Skylanders.

Because they've been last minute inclusions into games that were already finished or about to be. Of course they were rushed to market to take advantage of the xmas period but maybe you could wait until they're actually released before slating Nintendo's plan for them? Who knows their business strategy could be sell a load of these and build an install base, then release a killer game next summer/xmas and take advantage of that big user base. I think it's very naive to think they don't have that dedicated game in the pipeline. Probably another gem from EAD Tokyo.

I'd be very surprised if they didn't have a dedicated amiibo game ready to be unveiled next year.

Does seem strange, quality wise the Wii U is on fire! More than a dozen top quality 9+ out of 10 exclusives, so much marketing potential.

Is this really supposed to look good? Even without any islands in frame, give me this any day...

And while they're at it, reinstate the feather as an item and fix battle mode starting with a proper course:

They do work for those games, I just personally don't like that style very much for Zelda, apart from Wind Waker which dove straight into the cartoon vibe. Skyward Sword tried to have it's feet in both camps and it ended up being pretty forgettable to a lot of people. The original few Zelda games were far more serious than these days. Now we have things like clowns, trains, robots, Tingle etc. I dunno, I just wish they would reboot and go back to the vibe of the NES and SNES games, for at least one game. I replayed Zelda II quite recently, one of my favourite games of all time. You really felt like you were on an epic journey, moving from one area to the next without any backtracking (well unless you game over). Nowadays the "exploration" tends to be based around a conveniently centred hub world, Hyrule Field, with branching paths to the various themed locations. The sky/overworld in SS was the worst offender of all, it was an utter joke. I really hope Zelda U brings the series back to its roots.