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The abilities themselves are pretty great (besides Sidon's which I only use on accident), but the activation definitely sucks.
Also no, the same thing does not improve this; it just makes them more strong when fighting
I agree with the idea that they should be set to down on the D Pad especially for Yunobo who likes to stand on different elevations and I can't get him to where I want him when he's activated, and this would make Sidon more useful when I actually need a barrier.
There’s an extra slot in the ability wheel for the map which is a wasted slot, just put them in their.
Any time you click on it, the spirit versions come out and the rest of the time they’re bound to button inputs like Sidon can be holding the shield button for a few secs spawns his water shield, then just attack to throw a water attack, easy.
Tulin is bound to A in midair so that’s already fine.
The other two, can be input to holding A, X or B while on the ground
I thought for sure riju was gonna have the prompt show up when you aim with the bow, and if you went to throw yunobos one would pop up, the shield idea for sidon is a good one
I don't know if it's coincidence or not, but anecdotally I've noticed that if you whistle during a fight the avatars will start heading towards you. But still, there was no reason to make you have to talk to them to activate them.
I did this once while fighting a gleeok. Downed the heads, and whistled to get Sidon to come over and activate my zora longsword with a silver lynel horn on it. I run over to the gleeok and start spin attacking the heads while it’s down and the next then I know my horse comes running in straight into my super charged weapon swings. Insta trip to Malanya. 😭
The same thing almost happened to me with the Ice Gleeock up in the Hebra Mountain area, there's a stable nearby and I had Epona out 🫠 I was able to get her out of that mess, and the lesson I took away from that was board the horse before fighting again. I'm sorry your horse had a worse time of it.
Yeah I don’t use the horse whistle enough that it needs it’s own dedicated button. It being one option among a wheel of sages would work perfectly. And I would have used Sidon and Riju wayy more often - it just isn’t worth chasing them down during battle most of the time. And I definitely would have wasted less time running around chasing Yunobo when trying to blow up some rocks lol.
I find that when I want to use them I can’t get to them and when I don’t want to use them I activate them by mistake lol.
Like I love them running around helping me during battle - that part is great - but the way to activate the abilities is my biggest gripe with the game. Especially since I had no problem with the abilities in BOTW.
I mean, we had the shield champion ability in Breath of the Wild that was even better and didn’t require chasing a brain dead fish dude down in combat.
it goes away pretty quick if ur not in combat too.
if i could just turn it on and run around for 3 mins with it on i would use it, but i gotta go find sidon whenever im about to start a fight.
it making u wet is really strong tho, can easily have 120+ damage weps with the zora stuff.
Yea it lasts 10 seconds and auto parries one hit while it's up. It's a little worse than Daruk's in some ways, but you trade that out for the fact it's completely passive when activated and available far more often. You can sprint around, throw stuff or use a bow without needing the inputs or timing for perfect Daruk shenanagins.
Making you wet is the least interesting thing it does. You can do that on demand by throwing a blue chuchu jelly or splash fruit at your feet.
It's best intentionally used for setting up headshots or where you just need to be unmolested for a few seconds. So it's especially good with enemies like lynels or hinoxs where the attacks are infrequent but heavy. You can just grab Sidon and run into (or not run away from) the attack instead of dodging, and then by time the enemy is winding up for another attack it's off cooldown again. It's also not hard to get them in those fights since the AI is a lot more focused with a single enemy and tends to either hang around you or is running at the same enemy as you.
In more generic multi enemy brawls the spirits tend to spread out and hold aggro so when there's 5 enemies it can be a mess. So for that you just want to treat them more like reaction prompts than something you intentionally go for. But it's not like a group of bokos are dangerous enough to need any elaborate strategizing either. If you're not getting them at all, that's partly on you: If your focusing on enemies they're not tanking for you, they're not going to be near by.
Are we forgetting the very obvious Goron shaped hole here? Darukes ability was a free counter/block you could do 3 times in a row by holding up your shield. Sidons ability is quite literally a watered down version that only blocks a single hit without stunning and has an arguably weak water attack that you have to
Actively chase him down to even use. It’s only really good for making Zora weapons stronger and protecting against heat
Sidon's can be useful for activating Zora Weapons 'Water Warrior' effect.
Cross your Lightscale Trident with a White Lynel Saber Horn, you've got yourself a spear with 132 damage for about 90 seconds after using his ability.
I've already given up on the idea of getting any sleep before work, so I can definitely confirm it lasts between 60 and 70 seconds after leaving a constant state of wet.
I have to go find him in battle. But in any other situation, he's constantly on my back and blocking my view. Until I get to a rock wall that is, then he runs away again.
The way I have to chase him down to activate it and anticipate a hit just doesn't come easy to me. I think the fact that his boss battle really impacted my ability to move around just resulted in me using water items the entire time compared to the other champions that actually needed the abilities in battle. His short range attack ability in that battle also wasn't very useful. I feel that a less evasive boss that didn't nuke mobility and accentuated his defensive ability would have been a better example of his use.
it goes away so fast! it only stays on u like 5 secs, so ur punished if u dodge.
also if u attack u just shoot the shield away, u cant fight till its gone.
That's true though I don't have enough diamond for any of the champion weapons yet and would have to remind myself to go get the Zora weapons, so I just haven't taken advantage of that yet (I could try the new dupe methods for the diamond on 1.1.2 but idk, I go slow anyway)
Sidon's ability is great if you're battling flame enemies or enemies that hit hard as the bubble protects you from 1 hit. My only complaint is that it, like the other powers, shut off after a few seconds.
Honestly unless Im fighting a fire enemy of some kind, I dont even know what Im supposed to do with Sidon's ability. I guess thats basically its intended use outside of the dungeon.
I don't understand why they can't just bind Sidon's ability to your block and Rijus ability to shooting arrows. Like with Tulin, they would be so much better if you could just press A) while performing a block or a shot in order to activate them
I mean, in the case of blocking, A is already shield bash but I know what you mean.
Riju isn't too bad really because she has a long wind up already, so it's not convenient to have my Bow out early anyway—the annoying bit was after chasing her down and activating it, the boss would stun her out of it and it was so annoying so I would use her to bring the boss down and then used Topaz arrows instead.
its really counterintuitive that her sage ability is something that utilizes a ranged weapon but to use it you have to get into melee range usually coz thats where she is fighting.
Yes. Should've been a Button combination with remote activation.
Then again we can argue that link can't talk and He has to tug their Shirt to get their attention.
He doesn’t talk, he just does some hand gestures and it’s enough to convey what he wants to tell the characters. I like to imagine he does little hand puppet shows
Link can definitely talk. We just don't get to hear/see any of it. When people ask him questions and he gestures and then everyone is like "Oh yeah totally".
For all the amazing things these games do, this is the most annoying to me. Half measures with voice overs and character dialog. Either have spoken dialog for all/most things or just make it all text. I don't know why Nintendo is so intent on making modern N64 games.
Well, if they voiced him like they voice the rest of the characters (aside from Ganondorf) then I agree with you. The voice overs are so campy. Looking at you Zelda.
Although, Gilbert Godfrey would be amazing lol.
You deeply underestimate how large audio files are. The full dialogue of this game would be the only thing on the cartridge if every single of the probably hundred thousand lines of dialogue was spoken. You also have to have voice actors for an INSANE variety of characters and good VA direction for all of them in at least two languages, if not more.
You are going to stay annoyed for a long time. Think back to Skyrim and how after a few cities you could hear the same voice actors beginning to repeat. Do you REALLY want that for this game over written dialogue?
File size has nothing to do with my consideration here. I'm confident Nintendo could figure it out. It doesn't necessarily have to be *every* bit of dialog but more than just major cutscenes would be nice.
If you are going to ignore the practical realities that keep what you are asking for from being feasible, I'm not sure if there is any point in continuing this conversation. It'd be like saying "I wish this game is in 4k, Nintendo should just make it happen," as if the technical limitations of the Switch didn't exist. Want what you want, there should be dreams of what could be, but I think you are setting yourself up for disappointment my guy
I strongly doubt file size is the driving force behind that decision. They could easily make a higher capacity cartridge, and that's even less an issue if you go all digital.
1) How does that make you lazy?
2) It’s just the games style, that’s what Nintendo chose. Every game company makes their own decisions about things like this, it being 2023 doesn’t matter. If every single game in recent years had fully voiced games, then a whole lot of those games would loose their style and a good bit would just feel off and even wrong. And if a character is supposed to have an annoying voice, just hearing a single noise is probably better than having their everything be voice acted.
3) I even it even weirder when games that only have text prompts for the player have the other character say something in response to nothing, and Link is supposed to be a somewhat self-insert character for the person playing the game, hence the role-playing part of RPGs. And that last part is pretty much what Nintendo says on the Link-speaking matter.
I understand entirely what you're saying. I just don't care for it. To me it doesn't add emphasis or make the few bits of spoken dialog better. It hampers their ability to tell a story IMO. I think the silent protagonist thing is a cop out for being afraid to add characterization to... A character. I would love it if Link actually had a personality beyond brave blond guy with sword. I love these games for so many reasons. This isn't one of them.
He does, they just fucked up the English translation. In the Japanese version (and other languages), the text for the quests is Links journal, where he writes not only stuff about the quest, but some personal opinions that relate as well, such as showing a great enjoyment for sand seal racing in BotW. And his expressions tell you a lot too, like how he is very much a foodie, and he also shows great interest to food in his journal as well.
Yeah I know that's the rationale. That's the rationale for most silent protagonists. I just find it boring at this point TBH and with the leaps made in storytelling in general and in the newer Zelda games, I personally feel it's starting to hold things back. But I'm sure I'm in the majority there.
It seems people kinda see Zelda as an almost religious experience and are afraid to rock the boat too much because of that. I'd love to see a Zelda game that's closer to Mass Effect or something narratively than the kind of bare bones stories they like to tell.
They’re really not perfect, but they also aren’t one to one with the previous sage abilities so having the same button inputs doesn’t work
My one gripe is that I wish tulin could only be activated while gliding. His ability is useless everywhere else and has more that once blown away items I wanted to pick up, very annoying
I've still not found a good use for Tulins ability outside of gliding. So far the only time i can think of being required to use his abilities on the ground was during the wind temple.
For traveling and his headshots i love him. But that ability seems worthless on the ground.
I wouldn't call it good, but you can use Tulin to dust away piles of sand (could also be made with other items, but it's a use). You can also use it while sailing (with or without an actual piece thing made of cloth for sailing. I managed to move with tulin even when I was just on top of a board with no accessories. It's both dumb actions, but they actually work.
He can knock enemies down and blow them off ledges. Not huge ones obviously, but it works on the small ones as well as bokoblins, and sometimes even moblins and lizalfos. Oh and it works quite well on soldier constructs.
It has helped me out in a pinch more than once.
There are other uses, like blowing sand off chests and other stuff in the desert. Using it to sail is another option, though not a very effective one.
Yeah I just keep most of them off until I’m gliding long distances which then I turn on Tulin, he can even 1 shot enemies with headshots.
Honestly he’s like the only decent one, I feel like rock obstacles won’t matter mid-to late game when your weapons do a lot of damage so you can just smash blue rocks with weapons, making the goron useless too
put a cannon onto something(zonaite wep is best).
you can then use the bumper to "throw" it and aim the cannon, it will blast thru rock walls way faster than yonubo ever could, his cooldown is just too long.
i think he shines when ur on a vehichle/cart. he becomes a gun basically, which u dont really have any other aimable weapon on a vehicle.
>My one gripe is that I wish tulin could only be activated while gliding.
I actually thought his ability could only be activated in the air at first and that made the first couple switches in the Wind Temple quite annoying
Same! I was gliding around those tiny rooms trying to aim up to have him blow at the target. Big “duh” moment when I activated him accidentally while walking.
>His ability is useless everywhere else
me who has blown dropped items into enemies to kill them.
useless you say.
will say its no where near as useful as his gliding push
Blowing items into enemies is useless when I can just throw items myself. Stupid bird blew 3 diamonds off a cliff in the depths when I was trying to fuse stuff
True most of them weren’t all that great either but they were so easy to activate, I don’t know why they went in this direction with them, even if they felt some of them being too OP, just put them on a longer timer :/
I honestly wouldn't have had a challenge with it if it would recharge after each use, it sucked a lot when you had only one fury left and knew you'd have to wait to recharge. but agree that the abilities were better and more seamless in botw.
My gripe is having to chase some of the champions around as I’m fighting a boss 😭 riju kept chasing the enemies but wouldn’t let me get close enough to her to activate her ability. I liked how the champions could be activated through actions, like holding your weapon or holding A
Only ability that matters to me is tulin, yunobo I’d good for giant rocks. Missing sage after Sidon.
I never use them in combat though, just let them have autonomy
I really like how yunobo activates automatically when piloting a vehicular. Makes me feel like I have an extra cannon I can fire at will, as the construct heads aren't perfect.
Sidon.. he was useful when I was trying to cross the desert without heat protection clothes.
Tulin, invaluable for gliding...
Riju... apparently can recharge electric batteries. I have an idea I'd like to test out with that which is it works will be ridiculous. But it probably won't work.
But yes, manual activation sucks
Currently I have 3. Tulin, Yunobo, and Sidon respectively.
My biggest gripe is "I need this guy", pause, activate, "WILL YOU SIT STILL AND LET ME USE YOUR GHOST MAGIC", then I forget about them, and my screen looks like the 3rd act of Ghostbusters.
As far as practicality, Tulin is sorta useful. I wish I could control how he uses his gust because it feels like a step down from Revali's Gale. Yunobo helps out when I've got those rock walls. Sidon has been extremely useless and I feel like that is a massive disservice since he's a great character and a COMPLETE bad ass in Age Of Calamity. He's more so just there to distract big enemies while they ragdoll me.
sidon is good for zora weapons when your wet zora weapons do double damage and the damage doubled is after any fuse item damage so a zora spear say does 10 damage and you fuse something to give it 20 more damage being wet doubles the total damage to 60
Could have just thrown them in the radial menu and had it queue the ability when you select it.
A lot of controls in this game, or actions that need to be performed are rather obtuse (why can't I fuse objects to weapons the same way I fuse objects to arrows?)
Honestly how would you do it? The arrow you have the pre-position of aiming. With the weapon or shield you don't and these are fusions that stay whereas the arrow is a one time
There's dead buttons in the quick menu, have one for sword and one for shield on top of being able to do the method we have now. (still need them rocks, you know?)
Should be hold down on d-pad to bring up sages and horse. 9/10 times I whistle it’s by mistake. I don’t need a whistle button, it can just be an option in a menu like all of the other d-pad directions.
What i hate is that nearly everytime i am trying to line up a shot with my bow, my line of sight is blocked by a blue elbow or something. They should go invisible when aiming with a bow or something.
I think the abilities themselves are very cool, I like how often we get to use them (yonobo being a cannon on vehicles is so fun) but the activation is awful. I would love for sage abilities to replace the map on the L bumper wheel
I think its a very popular sentiment that the activation for these suck. What I, and many others do, is turn them all off except for lil rito dude. Ocassionaly turn on rock guy for caves and stuff.
Hey, Tulin is good! And Yunobo... saves me bombs and hammers on rock walls. And Sidon and Riju... okay they're a bit useless.
Definitely with the method of activating was better, no arguments there.
> They’re overly convoluted
Personally, I feel that's an overstatement. It's only mildly inconvenient imo
> why couldn’t they just bind them to the same held inputs as botw abilities.
I agree this is a better solution, but I understand why they did it. They wanted to have the sages with you in the temples, which is fun imo, and after they kept it activated the same way for consistency. They still could have (and really should have) changed it to a button after, but I understand the thought process.
> Some of them seem pretty useless too outside their specific story beats with like only one or two of them actually being good additions.
I feel the opposite way. I can glide further, do a ton of damage to enemies, and save weapon slots for slashers and spears instead of using hammers for rocks. One or two only being good? Imo the only useless one is Sidon's.
While I feel like they still missed on the activation by not switching to a button, overall I'm content with them. Nothing game ruining for me.
I like Riju's for mining and Yunobo's for sniping people from a distance (In combat it's too awkward waiting for Riju to glow far enough and Yunobo tends to knock ore way too far).
Sidon's I'll activate when I can but its purely random. And Tulin I keep around because I'm too lazy to whip out the Autobuild when traversing a lot of the time.
I think it might have been a balance thing. Unlike the champions, the sages actually fight by your side. That's both free damage and enemy aggro off of your back. That's so useful that it's honestly the real reward in my book. Having easy access to stronger abilities and combat assistance might have been too much.
With that said, I think they could have at least improved the way to activate powers. Why can you only cancel out of some of them? Why are my sages only near when I don't want them to be? The design definitely could have used another draft.
What I would have done is add a few more frames where you can't activate your power after prepping it, and let you cancel all powers. That would solve the first problem. Secondly, I would replace that worthless map button on the ability wheel with an ability that lets me command my guys directly. Have it be like putting the light pins down with the right stick, but without the zoom. Each pin would represent a character, you could scroll through them. You put a character's pin down, they go there. Put it on an enemy to force sage aggro onto them. You want someone to come to you to make use of an ability? Just put one nearby.
Totally agree. I enjoy having them with me during fights because it feels like the whole squad is teaming up, but I've activated their abilities more by accident than on purpose.
for real, in botw they would activate automatically with certain inputs (blocking, dying, spin attack, etc) but in totk you gotta go out of your way to walk up to them and press a
Yep. I only ever use Yunobo's and Tulin's powers. Sidon's and Riju's powers activate only when I don't mean for them to. The way the powers only become active when you're in proximity with the avatar is a mess, especially in battle situations. Without having access to unlimited bombs, Yunobo's power is the only one that is consistently useful. I find myself missing Revali's gale and Daruk's protection all the time. I'd trade the gale for ascend any day of the week.
Sidon’s shield is basically Daruks protection with an added water attack as the water shield blocks attacks too, it sounds great but it’s on a temp shield timer meaning you have to run out of your way to not only anticipate the attack but active him in time and at that point just dodge or block with a shield, no one in their right mind is going to chase Sidon down mid boss/lynel fight for a block that may work if you can get it in time.
They should have just bound it to holding shield up like Daruk as it’s basically the same ability with an extra attack, it’s such a mess tbh.
Ya they only have really niche utility. Like I love Tulin for getting around, and pretty much always have him active because of that. Yunobo is great for destroying those annoying rock walls in the depths, or even making a fire. Riju is probably the coolest, but its clunky and not always worth the hassle. I really dont know what Im supposed to use Sidon's attack on, unless its a fire enemy of some kind. Which is just really specific so not very useful.
Their most useful "ability" might be just diverting the attention of large mobs of enemes to make them easier to fight. Otherwise, Im pretty underwhelmed by the whole thing. Its cool still though, just doesnt work like I wish it did. Its OK to me that their abilities arent super useful and are more situational.
I turned them off entirely, even Tulin. By the time I had them all I was really strong so didn’t need their abilities. Hell, even ignoring the use of their abilities they would just get in the way of what I was trying to do sometimes by attacking enemies.
Because I don't want them to be on my screen all the time. And also their skill being on A button is annoying.
Plus, it makes the game easier which I personally dislike.
I only have Tulin active for the gliding and headshots. The other sages aren't really that worth it since I have to chase them down to activate them in combat.
They should be activated by holding L to bring up the wheel then using the face buttons to activate.
The abilities themselves are pretty useful but the activations aren't well done. I've been turning off their avatars altogether when I'm collecting materials to avoid all the accidental activations.
Sidon is great when you dont have anti Heat Armor for the Dessert yet, and to Fight the mudd Thingy oh and the redeads. A Bit specific but Not exactly useless
The best way imo would be LB+a button to activate the abilities, A for Tulin, LZ for Sidon, RZ for Riju, and B,X or Y for Yunobo and Mineru.
While paragliding they could keep Tulin as is
If only the abilities (Sidon/Yonobo/Riju) were activatable by pulling up the material menu... Trying to track down an NPC as they're running about is a real pain. (Save for Tulin, which is why I always have him out)
Boy, are you going to be disappointed about the Sage "upgrades," lol.
The only Sage I keep out regularly is the fire Sage for busting open ore to keep my weapon degradation down, and I had to permanently lock up the wind Sage because he kept killing my pet rocktorocks.
They proved that they could make them be used conveniently by having tulin behind you when youre gliding. They should make the same effect selective for the others
I miss the champion abilities. I don't get the "they were OP" argument because this is a single-player game. There's nothing to balance and it's fine that progression makes you feel like a God. It's not like using an ability made you insta-win, and imo they enhanced my experience.
The sage abilities replacing the champion abilities is a hard pill to swallow.
I usually keep Sidon and riju turned off, which is sad because they're definitely my favorite of the main 4. I only turn yunobo on for mining basically. They just get in the way and don't do much.
The really annoying part is that I love stealth, so sometimes when I'm getting in position to attack a monster encampment tulin will just randomly hit a nasty shit and alert all of the enemies.
Sidon's is extremely useful, don't get what people are saying. No I actually like em, being able to instantly use them whenever and have teammates would be broken, though I do think we should be able to whistle and have them come to us or something
On every subsequent iteration of that boss fight, I didn't bother to use him.
In fact, you don't need any of the champions for their respective boss fights, except for maybe Mineru.
They should let you activate sidons automatically when drawing a sword, riju's when drawing the bow, and other three dont really need to be used in combat
Yeah, it should just be the icons on hold D-Pad down to have one selected and then tap Down to activate, with Tulins behaving as it does anyway when gliding and Yunobos when on a vehicle.
Basically never use whistling, it's supposed to have them form up as well but that doesn't really do much and only risks bringing your horse in if it is nearby. Having whistle as a sixth icon in there would be fine too.
Or even just using the exact same trigger mechanism for each champion but for sages instead, it’s not like those inputs are needed in this game anyway.
Hold shield for Sidon, aim arrows for Riju, tulin is already fine in midair and the other two have 3 buttons left A, X or B held while on the ground.
Could have easily implemented them like that.
No, I don't want the shield popping every time I need to block and having it on cooldown (It's better with full control because of the Zora weapon buffing, current implementation means you're better off looking for a puddle to step in) and I definitely don't want that huge yellow circle popping every time I aim an arrow or having to cancel it each time because I don't need to set fire to everything around a Bokoblin.
The issue is the lack of control, binding it to other actions also costs control, I want to be able to activate them exactly as I need them, this is why Tulin is great because he's right there when I need him and off firing arrows when I don't. My least favourite part of the Champions were the fact I'd have to cancel/disable any ability I didn't want to waste a charge of. I want to be able to just pop it in real time as I need. Miphas and Revalis were great because they activated in a way that didn't get in the way of using something else.
The whole reason I keep them deactivated now is because they're bound to the interact button, the last straw is when I passed an insect, quickly turned around to grab it and triggered every fucking one of them instead of grabbing the insect, then jumping on the fifth while I was trying to catch it as it was flying away
I only have Tulin, but a couple of times he's activated when I'm trying to press A to collect items which he literally scattered to the wind instead.
I was on the floor, so I wasn't expecting it to activate. He must have been stood just behind me. I know you can deactivate the sages, I just got caught out.
Between that and what I've read about the others it just seems like the curse of having AI companions in games generally. I don't know if it's something that anyone thought a Zelda title needed.
They could have ditched all the AI companions for the option to **befriend dogs** - the AI was already mostly there for Wolf Link in BoTW, who I believe is absent from ToTK! Even petting the stable dogs would be *sooo* good and more interactivity with the dogs is 100% something I've seen people express a desire for.
I completely agree, I always have them turned off. My theory is that they are mostly for people that aren't using Link's abilities in a creative way. Yunobo can be replaced by fusing a cannon on a spear, tulin with a glider, mineru with a vehicle, riju and sidon with fuse. Once you have upgraded your battery, the sages are useless in comparison.
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The abilities themselves are pretty great (besides Sidon's which I only use on accident), but the activation definitely sucks. Also no, the same thing does not improve this; it just makes them more strong when fighting
That’s a shame, hopefully they’ll patch it or something
I agree with the idea that they should be set to down on the D Pad especially for Yunobo who likes to stand on different elevations and I can't get him to where I want him when he's activated, and this would make Sidon more useful when I actually need a barrier.
There’s an extra slot in the ability wheel for the map which is a wasted slot, just put them in their. Any time you click on it, the spirit versions come out and the rest of the time they’re bound to button inputs like Sidon can be holding the shield button for a few secs spawns his water shield, then just attack to throw a water attack, easy. Tulin is bound to A in midair so that’s already fine. The other two, can be input to holding A, X or B while on the ground
I thought for sure riju was gonna have the prompt show up when you aim with the bow, and if you went to throw yunobos one would pop up, the shield idea for sidon is a good one
yeah. it's really awesome when im running towards a sage and they run with me so i cant catch up to them, really awesome
Yup, so very awesome.
I don't know if it's coincidence or not, but anecdotally I've noticed that if you whistle during a fight the avatars will start heading towards you. But still, there was no reason to make you have to talk to them to activate them.
I did this once while fighting a gleeok. Downed the heads, and whistled to get Sidon to come over and activate my zora longsword with a silver lynel horn on it. I run over to the gleeok and start spin attacking the heads while it’s down and the next then I know my horse comes running in straight into my super charged weapon swings. Insta trip to Malanya. 😭
The same thing almost happened to me with the Ice Gleeock up in the Hebra Mountain area, there's a stable nearby and I had Epona out 🫠 I was able to get her out of that mess, and the lesson I took away from that was board the horse before fighting again. I'm sorry your horse had a worse time of it.
Nope, I totally got a tool tip during a loading screen about pressing down to bring them closer to you!
Thanks for confirming it, I prefer to be giving out accurate information when I'm trying to help.
Yeah I don’t use the horse whistle enough that it needs it’s own dedicated button. It being one option among a wheel of sages would work perfectly. And I would have used Sidon and Riju wayy more often - it just isn’t worth chasing them down during battle most of the time. And I definitely would have wasted less time running around chasing Yunobo when trying to blow up some rocks lol. I find that when I want to use them I can’t get to them and when I don’t want to use them I activate them by mistake lol. Like I love them running around helping me during battle - that part is great - but the way to activate the abilities is my biggest gripe with the game. Especially since I had no problem with the abilities in BOTW.
Hold down, then press x y a or b. Press down to whistle
Sidon's would be outright busted if it was easier to activate. The bubble is a 10 second single hit iframe. Also you should probbaly use it more.
I absolutely love using his ability, mostly for Zora weapons. You can get some great damage out with them.
I somehow always forget how op Zora weapons are when they're wet
Yeah they're a straight-up doubling of everything
Adjust cooldowns I don’t care…just change how they activate is all we ask my man
I mean, we had the shield champion ability in Breath of the Wild that was even better and didn’t require chasing a brain dead fish dude down in combat.
there was also the rez effect which was even better.
Okay, that's fair. He's just never around when I need him but maybe I'll get used to it
it goes away pretty quick if ur not in combat too. if i could just turn it on and run around for 3 mins with it on i would use it, but i gotta go find sidon whenever im about to start a fight. it making u wet is really strong tho, can easily have 120+ damage weps with the zora stuff.
Yea it lasts 10 seconds and auto parries one hit while it's up. It's a little worse than Daruk's in some ways, but you trade that out for the fact it's completely passive when activated and available far more often. You can sprint around, throw stuff or use a bow without needing the inputs or timing for perfect Daruk shenanagins. Making you wet is the least interesting thing it does. You can do that on demand by throwing a blue chuchu jelly or splash fruit at your feet. It's best intentionally used for setting up headshots or where you just need to be unmolested for a few seconds. So it's especially good with enemies like lynels or hinoxs where the attacks are infrequent but heavy. You can just grab Sidon and run into (or not run away from) the attack instead of dodging, and then by time the enemy is winding up for another attack it's off cooldown again. It's also not hard to get them in those fights since the AI is a lot more focused with a single enemy and tends to either hang around you or is running at the same enemy as you. In more generic multi enemy brawls the spirits tend to spread out and hold aggro so when there's 5 enemies it can be a mess. So for that you just want to treat them more like reaction prompts than something you intentionally go for. But it's not like a group of bokos are dangerous enough to need any elaborate strategizing either. If you're not getting them at all, that's partly on you: If your focusing on enemies they're not tanking for you, they're not going to be near by.
Are we forgetting the very obvious Goron shaped hole here? Darukes ability was a free counter/block you could do 3 times in a row by holding up your shield. Sidons ability is quite literally a watered down version that only blocks a single hit without stunning and has an arguably weak water attack that you have to Actively chase him down to even use. It’s only really good for making Zora weapons stronger and protecting against heat
Sidon's can be useful for activating Zora Weapons 'Water Warrior' effect. Cross your Lightscale Trident with a White Lynel Saber Horn, you've got yourself a spear with 132 damage for about 90 seconds after using his ability.
[удалено]
I've already given up on the idea of getting any sleep before work, so I can definitely confirm it lasts between 60 and 70 seconds after leaving a constant state of wet.
I absolutely hate having to run to Yunobo to use his ability. Costs precious time in a battle.
I have to go find him in battle. But in any other situation, he's constantly on my back and blocking my view. Until I get to a rock wall that is, then he runs away again.
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I've had that work zero times. Maybe I need to try it when I'm not in battle to see how it works.
really? i use sidons bubble a lot its great. can totally deflect an otherwise one shot
The way I have to chase him down to activate it and anticipate a hit just doesn't come easy to me. I think the fact that his boss battle really impacted my ability to move around just resulted in me using water items the entire time compared to the other champions that actually needed the abilities in battle. His short range attack ability in that battle also wasn't very useful. I feel that a less evasive boss that didn't nuke mobility and accentuated his defensive ability would have been a better example of his use.
it goes away so fast! it only stays on u like 5 secs, so ur punished if u dodge. also if u attack u just shoot the shield away, u cant fight till its gone.
Zora weapons and Sidons ability is a great combo since he always keep you wet for the power bonus.
That's true though I don't have enough diamond for any of the champion weapons yet and would have to remind myself to go get the Zora weapons, so I just haven't taken advantage of that yet (I could try the new dupe methods for the diamond on 1.1.2 but idk, I go slow anyway)
Sidon's ability is great if you're battling flame enemies or enemies that hit hard as the bubble protects you from 1 hit. My only complaint is that it, like the other powers, shut off after a few seconds.
Yeah, you have to anticipate the hit and then wait for the cool down if it wasn't needed. I just need to remember to chase him down.
Honestly unless Im fighting a fire enemy of some kind, I dont even know what Im supposed to do with Sidon's ability. I guess thats basically its intended use outside of the dungeon.
I don't understand why they can't just bind Sidon's ability to your block and Rijus ability to shooting arrows. Like with Tulin, they would be so much better if you could just press A) while performing a block or a shot in order to activate them
I mean, in the case of blocking, A is already shield bash but I know what you mean. Riju isn't too bad really because she has a long wind up already, so it's not convenient to have my Bow out early anyway—the annoying bit was after chasing her down and activating it, the boss would stun her out of it and it was so annoying so I would use her to bring the boss down and then used Topaz arrows instead.
its really counterintuitive that her sage ability is something that utilizes a ranged weapon but to use it you have to get into melee range usually coz thats where she is fighting.
Sidons is the second best imo, infinite health shield, Reduced your temperate, deals good splash damage, and activities water weapons.
Yes. Should've been a Button combination with remote activation. Then again we can argue that link can't talk and He has to tug their Shirt to get their attention.
I'd argue that he shouldn't really need to talk to them when their ability is embedded in his arm.
I know it’s been pointed out that you’re wrong, but I’d just like to say that made me chuckle at the thought of it. You have my thanks.
Link does talk in BOTW/TOTK, such as when you respond to character dialogue. We just don't ever *hear* him vocalizing other than his iconic "HYAAAHH"
His speaking voice is too high pitch for humans to hear. Perfectly perceptible to hyruleans though.
He doesn’t talk, he just does some hand gestures and it’s enough to convey what he wants to tell the characters. I like to imagine he does little hand puppet shows
Link can definitely talk. We just don't get to hear/see any of it. When people ask him questions and he gestures and then everyone is like "Oh yeah totally". For all the amazing things these games do, this is the most annoying to me. Half measures with voice overs and character dialog. Either have spoken dialog for all/most things or just make it all text. I don't know why Nintendo is so intent on making modern N64 games.
Link has never had spoken dialogue, and I’m good with it. That way I can keep imagining him sounding like Gilbert Godfrey.
Well, if they voiced him like they voice the rest of the characters (aside from Ganondorf) then I agree with you. The voice overs are so campy. Looking at you Zelda. Although, Gilbert Godfrey would be amazing lol.
Can't believe you point out Zelda's VO when Yunobo is right there.
The only spoken dialogue is in cutscenes or the rare spoken word, as in singular word, when it’s a character special enough. Right?
Yes. And I find that very annoying. Call me lazy. But it's 2023. Just give them all spoken dialog all the time.
You deeply underestimate how large audio files are. The full dialogue of this game would be the only thing on the cartridge if every single of the probably hundred thousand lines of dialogue was spoken. You also have to have voice actors for an INSANE variety of characters and good VA direction for all of them in at least two languages, if not more. You are going to stay annoyed for a long time. Think back to Skyrim and how after a few cities you could hear the same voice actors beginning to repeat. Do you REALLY want that for this game over written dialogue?
Also Zelda characters sometimes have different dialogue depending on the situation. So saying the same lines but differently would add to that.
File size has nothing to do with my consideration here. I'm confident Nintendo could figure it out. It doesn't necessarily have to be *every* bit of dialog but more than just major cutscenes would be nice.
If you are going to ignore the practical realities that keep what you are asking for from being feasible, I'm not sure if there is any point in continuing this conversation. It'd be like saying "I wish this game is in 4k, Nintendo should just make it happen," as if the technical limitations of the Switch didn't exist. Want what you want, there should be dreams of what could be, but I think you are setting yourself up for disappointment my guy
I strongly doubt file size is the driving force behind that decision. They could easily make a higher capacity cartridge, and that's even less an issue if you go all digital.
1) How does that make you lazy? 2) It’s just the games style, that’s what Nintendo chose. Every game company makes their own decisions about things like this, it being 2023 doesn’t matter. If every single game in recent years had fully voiced games, then a whole lot of those games would loose their style and a good bit would just feel off and even wrong. And if a character is supposed to have an annoying voice, just hearing a single noise is probably better than having their everything be voice acted. 3) I even it even weirder when games that only have text prompts for the player have the other character say something in response to nothing, and Link is supposed to be a somewhat self-insert character for the person playing the game, hence the role-playing part of RPGs. And that last part is pretty much what Nintendo says on the Link-speaking matter.
I understand entirely what you're saying. I just don't care for it. To me it doesn't add emphasis or make the few bits of spoken dialog better. It hampers their ability to tell a story IMO. I think the silent protagonist thing is a cop out for being afraid to add characterization to... A character. I would love it if Link actually had a personality beyond brave blond guy with sword. I love these games for so many reasons. This isn't one of them.
He does, they just fucked up the English translation. In the Japanese version (and other languages), the text for the quests is Links journal, where he writes not only stuff about the quest, but some personal opinions that relate as well, such as showing a great enjoyment for sand seal racing in BotW. And his expressions tell you a lot too, like how he is very much a foodie, and he also shows great interest to food in his journal as well.
i've heard that Link purposely doesn't have a voice because it helps the players immerse themselves into the character.
Yeah I know that's the rationale. That's the rationale for most silent protagonists. I just find it boring at this point TBH and with the leaps made in storytelling in general and in the newer Zelda games, I personally feel it's starting to hold things back. But I'm sure I'm in the majority there. It seems people kinda see Zelda as an almost religious experience and are afraid to rock the boat too much because of that. I'd love to see a Zelda game that's closer to Mass Effect or something narratively than the kind of bare bones stories they like to tell.
Should have tap for whistle and hold down on d-pad to active what power you want to use.
They’re really not perfect, but they also aren’t one to one with the previous sage abilities so having the same button inputs doesn’t work My one gripe is that I wish tulin could only be activated while gliding. His ability is useless everywhere else and has more that once blown away items I wanted to pick up, very annoying
I've still not found a good use for Tulins ability outside of gliding. So far the only time i can think of being required to use his abilities on the ground was during the wind temple. For traveling and his headshots i love him. But that ability seems worthless on the ground.
I wouldn't call it good, but you can use Tulin to dust away piles of sand (could also be made with other items, but it's a use). You can also use it while sailing (with or without an actual piece thing made of cloth for sailing. I managed to move with tulin even when I was just on top of a board with no accessories. It's both dumb actions, but they actually work.
the sailing is actually brilliant
Not exactly on ground, but wind steared vehicles (hot air balloon, something with a sail, etc.)
He can knock enemies down and blow them off ledges. Not huge ones obviously, but it works on the small ones as well as bokoblins, and sometimes even moblins and lizalfos. Oh and it works quite well on soldier constructs. It has helped me out in a pinch more than once. There are other uses, like blowing sand off chests and other stuff in the desert. Using it to sail is another option, though not a very effective one.
He's good with the Korok dandelions but that's about it in terms of ground use.
Blowing the sand piles in the desert caves and temple
\*blows away items "DAMMIT TULIN!" \*headshots Bokoblin "alright, good job, kid." \*headshots rock Octorok "DAMMIT TULIN!"
Yeah I just keep most of them off until I’m gliding long distances which then I turn on Tulin, he can even 1 shot enemies with headshots. Honestly he’s like the only decent one, I feel like rock obstacles won’t matter mid-to late game when your weapons do a lot of damage so you can just smash blue rocks with weapons, making the goron useless too
When Tulin headshots a Lynel I can almost forgive the times he yeets away my items.
Blue rocks dont seem to be based off damage, its just hits. Also if you upgrade him hes not a bad free projectile honestly
put a cannon onto something(zonaite wep is best). you can then use the bumper to "throw" it and aim the cannon, it will blast thru rock walls way faster than yonubo ever could, his cooldown is just too long. i think he shines when ur on a vehichle/cart. he becomes a gun basically, which u dont really have any other aimable weapon on a vehicle.
>My one gripe is that I wish tulin could only be activated while gliding. I actually thought his ability could only be activated in the air at first and that made the first couple switches in the Wind Temple quite annoying
Same! I was gliding around those tiny rooms trying to aim up to have him blow at the target. Big “duh” moment when I activated him accidentally while walking.
They really just need to make it so drops from kills wouldn't be blown away.
>His ability is useless everywhere else me who has blown dropped items into enemies to kill them. useless you say. will say its no where near as useful as his gliding push
Blowing items into enemies is useless when I can just throw items myself. Stupid bird blew 3 diamonds off a cliff in the depths when I was trying to fuse stuff
Can't you just recall them?
>Blowing items into enemies is useless when I can just throw items myself. like to see you throw 20 at once.
I usually dismiss him and then summon him while gliding!
Easily the worst part of the game for me Sage's Wills don't help with it
The Champion abilities in BotW weren't completely perfect or anything, but it is so frustrating that the sage controls are a huge downgrade.
i think i would prefer riju if she would ever stay close for me to activate her ability
Same lol, she's always miles away from me.
Having them tank damage is the main selling point i feel.
they also knock down/headshot sometimes, which can stop really strong enemies from hitting you at times.
True most of them weren’t all that great either but they were so easy to activate, I don’t know why they went in this direction with them, even if they felt some of them being too OP, just put them on a longer timer :/
BOTW champions were way better in my opinion.
Except for the annoying recharge bark.
"DARUK'S PROTECTION IS READY TO ROLL!" was the highlight of every play session. How dare you.
I honestly wouldn't have had a challenge with it if it would recharge after each use, it sucked a lot when you had only one fury left and knew you'd have to wait to recharge. but agree that the abilities were better and more seamless in botw.
My gripe is having to chase some of the champions around as I’m fighting a boss 😭 riju kept chasing the enemies but wouldn’t let me get close enough to her to activate her ability. I liked how the champions could be activated through actions, like holding your weapon or holding A
Apparently if you whistle, it calls them to you.
I just saw a post about that last night 😭😭 why wouldn’t they tell me that when I got the sages LMAO
Only ability that matters to me is tulin, yunobo I’d good for giant rocks. Missing sage after Sidon. I never use them in combat though, just let them have autonomy
Yeah I only keep Tulin active. By far the most useful one
When he randomly headshots a Lynel \**chef's kiss**
I really like how yunobo activates automatically when piloting a vehicular. Makes me feel like I have an extra cannon I can fire at will, as the construct heads aren't perfect. Sidon.. he was useful when I was trying to cross the desert without heat protection clothes. Tulin, invaluable for gliding... Riju... apparently can recharge electric batteries. I have an idea I'd like to test out with that which is it works will be ridiculous. But it probably won't work. But yes, manual activation sucks
yunobo has such a long cooldown, i just use a cannon on a sword and use the bumper to aim.
I take turns with his cooldown and bomb arrows
Currently I have 3. Tulin, Yunobo, and Sidon respectively. My biggest gripe is "I need this guy", pause, activate, "WILL YOU SIT STILL AND LET ME USE YOUR GHOST MAGIC", then I forget about them, and my screen looks like the 3rd act of Ghostbusters. As far as practicality, Tulin is sorta useful. I wish I could control how he uses his gust because it feels like a step down from Revali's Gale. Yunobo helps out when I've got those rock walls. Sidon has been extremely useless and I feel like that is a massive disservice since he's a great character and a COMPLETE bad ass in Age Of Calamity. He's more so just there to distract big enemies while they ragdoll me.
sidon is good for zora weapons when your wet zora weapons do double damage and the damage doubled is after any fuse item damage so a zora spear say does 10 damage and you fuse something to give it 20 more damage being wet doubles the total damage to 60
Could have just thrown them in the radial menu and had it queue the ability when you select it. A lot of controls in this game, or actions that need to be performed are rather obtuse (why can't I fuse objects to weapons the same way I fuse objects to arrows?)
Honestly how would you do it? The arrow you have the pre-position of aiming. With the weapon or shield you don't and these are fusions that stay whereas the arrow is a one time
There's dead buttons in the quick menu, have one for sword and one for shield on top of being able to do the method we have now. (still need them rocks, you know?)
Apart from the map which one would you replace?
Honestly the bottom D-pad could just open another radial menu, with the sages + whistle all there.
quick menu. Press up d-pad. hover item. use one of the unused buttons for "bind item to weapon"
I don't feel they're subpar, but feel that how you activate them makes them incredibly cumbersome
Should be hold down on d-pad to bring up sages and horse. 9/10 times I whistle it’s by mistake. I don’t need a whistle button, it can just be an option in a menu like all of the other d-pad directions.
What i hate is that nearly everytime i am trying to line up a shot with my bow, my line of sight is blocked by a blue elbow or something. They should go invisible when aiming with a bow or something.
I think the abilities themselves are very cool, I like how often we get to use them (yonobo being a cannon on vehicles is so fun) but the activation is awful. I would love for sage abilities to replace the map on the L bumper wheel
I think its a very popular sentiment that the activation for these suck. What I, and many others do, is turn them all off except for lil rito dude. Ocassionaly turn on rock guy for caves and stuff.
Hey, Tulin is good! And Yunobo... saves me bombs and hammers on rock walls. And Sidon and Riju... okay they're a bit useless. Definitely with the method of activating was better, no arguments there.
Riju's great for walking underground unlit areas and can be convenient for 1 hit kill some enemies.
I use riju to hit flux constructs easy when they're in that stupid platform formation
When they turn into UFO mode the easiest way to get to them is stand on a block that they throw at you and rewind it
I did this (and thought I was very clever) until I saw my wife just Ascend through the UFO platform and then felt dumb again.
You can do that but the higher tier constructs will fly too high up to ascend through.
I used Riju to navigate the sky islands surrounded by thunderstorm 😂🙈 only time I actively used her
Riju is my favorite she can stun enemies and adds a bunch of damage. I wish Sidon's shield just stayed there and didn't go away when I attack tbh
If you're good on arrows, alternating Riju and Yunobo on rock walls is pretty quick.
> They’re overly convoluted Personally, I feel that's an overstatement. It's only mildly inconvenient imo > why couldn’t they just bind them to the same held inputs as botw abilities. I agree this is a better solution, but I understand why they did it. They wanted to have the sages with you in the temples, which is fun imo, and after they kept it activated the same way for consistency. They still could have (and really should have) changed it to a button after, but I understand the thought process. > Some of them seem pretty useless too outside their specific story beats with like only one or two of them actually being good additions. I feel the opposite way. I can glide further, do a ton of damage to enemies, and save weapon slots for slashers and spears instead of using hammers for rocks. One or two only being good? Imo the only useless one is Sidon's. While I feel like they still missed on the activation by not switching to a button, overall I'm content with them. Nothing game ruining for me.
Sidon is nice for fighting lynels if you can't parry the AOE explosion.
That’s been my experience for most of the game, it’s incredibly agitating to play
I like Riju's for mining and Yunobo's for sniping people from a distance (In combat it's too awkward waiting for Riju to glow far enough and Yunobo tends to knock ore way too far). Sidon's I'll activate when I can but its purely random. And Tulin I keep around because I'm too lazy to whip out the Autobuild when traversing a lot of the time.
Absolutely. They’re easy to activate on accident and hard to activate on purpose. Pinnacle of poor UX.
Honestly I think I've activated them more on accident than on purpose
I think it might have been a balance thing. Unlike the champions, the sages actually fight by your side. That's both free damage and enemy aggro off of your back. That's so useful that it's honestly the real reward in my book. Having easy access to stronger abilities and combat assistance might have been too much. With that said, I think they could have at least improved the way to activate powers. Why can you only cancel out of some of them? Why are my sages only near when I don't want them to be? The design definitely could have used another draft. What I would have done is add a few more frames where you can't activate your power after prepping it, and let you cancel all powers. That would solve the first problem. Secondly, I would replace that worthless map button on the ability wheel with an ability that lets me command my guys directly. Have it be like putting the light pins down with the right stick, but without the zoom. Each pin would represent a character, you could scroll through them. You put a character's pin down, they go there. Put it on an enemy to force sage aggro onto them. You want someone to come to you to make use of an ability? Just put one nearby.
Totally agree. I enjoy having them with me during fights because it feels like the whole squad is teaming up, but I've activated their abilities more by accident than on purpose.
for real, in botw they would activate automatically with certain inputs (blocking, dying, spin attack, etc) but in totk you gotta go out of your way to walk up to them and press a
You didn't have to say "etc" dawg. It's literally just one more. You could've listed it lol
typing “etc” is faster than typing “hold x for a couple seconds”
Fair enough
Easy Solution, use D-pad in ability wheel for Sages. Would be lifesaving
Nah the abilities are great they’re just implemented terribly.
Yep. I only ever use Yunobo's and Tulin's powers. Sidon's and Riju's powers activate only when I don't mean for them to. The way the powers only become active when you're in proximity with the avatar is a mess, especially in battle situations. Without having access to unlimited bombs, Yunobo's power is the only one that is consistently useful. I find myself missing Revali's gale and Daruk's protection all the time. I'd trade the gale for ascend any day of the week.
Sidon’s shield is basically Daruks protection with an added water attack as the water shield blocks attacks too, it sounds great but it’s on a temp shield timer meaning you have to run out of your way to not only anticipate the attack but active him in time and at that point just dodge or block with a shield, no one in their right mind is going to chase Sidon down mid boss/lynel fight for a block that may work if you can get it in time. They should have just bound it to holding shield up like Daruk as it’s basically the same ability with an extra attack, it’s such a mess tbh.
They honestly shouldve just done it almost exactly like botws champion abilities
Remove the map from the ability wheel, put in Sage Powers and make it a list like Auto Build.
They should replace the map function on the ability wheel with the sage abilities
Ya they only have really niche utility. Like I love Tulin for getting around, and pretty much always have him active because of that. Yunobo is great for destroying those annoying rock walls in the depths, or even making a fire. Riju is probably the coolest, but its clunky and not always worth the hassle. I really dont know what Im supposed to use Sidon's attack on, unless its a fire enemy of some kind. Which is just really specific so not very useful. Their most useful "ability" might be just diverting the attention of large mobs of enemes to make them easier to fight. Otherwise, Im pretty underwhelmed by the whole thing. Its cool still though, just doesnt work like I wish it did. Its OK to me that their abilities arent super useful and are more situational.
Yes
The had a much better implementation in Botw where they were activated via context.
I turned them off entirely, even Tulin. By the time I had them all I was really strong so didn’t need their abilities. Hell, even ignoring the use of their abilities they would just get in the way of what I was trying to do sometimes by attacking enemies.
I only used Tulins(obviously lol) and Rijus. The others were kinda meh and not worth chasing them down in the middle of combat lol
Abilities are great but activation sucks!!!
Annoying to activate? Yes. Subpar? Only Sidon's, the other ones all have their place.
Sidon has his uses though fighting fire enemies and getting wet status to buff your zora weapons is very useful
I just disable them as soon as I get them lol Did the same in botw too though
why?
Because I don't want them to be on my screen all the time. And also their skill being on A button is annoying. Plus, it makes the game easier which I personally dislike.
I only have Tulin active for the gliding and headshots. The other sages aren't really that worth it since I have to chase them down to activate them in combat. They should be activated by holding L to bring up the wheel then using the face buttons to activate.
The abilities themselves are pretty useful but the activations aren't well done. I've been turning off their avatars altogether when I'm collecting materials to avoid all the accidental activations.
Subpar, not really. Annoying to activate, absolutely (except tulin sometimes)
I disagree about them being subpar, but they are super annoying to use.
I don't think I have ever purposefully used Sidon or Riju's ability after getting them. I only keep them around to help draw aggro.
Sidon is great when you dont have anti Heat Armor for the Dessert yet, and to Fight the mudd Thingy oh and the redeads. A Bit specific but Not exactly useless
I did the Lightning Temple first. Riju's damage output is such a massive boon to early-game combat.
The best way imo would be LB+a button to activate the abilities, A for Tulin, LZ for Sidon, RZ for Riju, and B,X or Y for Yunobo and Mineru. While paragliding they could keep Tulin as is
I’m pretty sure that is the consensus, I actually like the abilities though, even though I would only use yunobo to mine
Sage will only improves damage, sadly doesn't add anything else
Yea, I leave them in the inventory.
If only the abilities (Sidon/Yonobo/Riju) were activatable by pulling up the material menu... Trying to track down an NPC as they're running about is a real pain. (Save for Tulin, which is why I always have him out)
yes, the champions abilities are apparently a hard act to follow
The only one that is good is tilín, tubo o is kinda good if you don’t have bombs or a stone fused weapon, both which are easy to find.
Boy, are you going to be disappointed about the Sage "upgrades," lol. The only Sage I keep out regularly is the fire Sage for busting open ore to keep my weapon degradation down, and I had to permanently lock up the wind Sage because he kept killing my pet rocktorocks.
Yes
They proved that they could make them be used conveniently by having tulin behind you when youre gliding. They should make the same effect selective for the others
I miss the champion abilities. I don't get the "they were OP" argument because this is a single-player game. There's nothing to balance and it's fine that progression makes you feel like a God. It's not like using an ability made you insta-win, and imo they enhanced my experience. The sage abilities replacing the champion abilities is a hard pill to swallow.
I usually keep Sidon and riju turned off, which is sad because they're definitely my favorite of the main 4. I only turn yunobo on for mining basically. They just get in the way and don't do much. The really annoying part is that I love stealth, so sometimes when I'm getting in position to attack a monster encampment tulin will just randomly hit a nasty shit and alert all of the enemies.
Sidon's is extremely useful, don't get what people are saying. No I actually like em, being able to instantly use them whenever and have teammates would be broken, though I do think we should be able to whistle and have them come to us or something
I was getting so pissed during the boss fight using yunobo lol like bring your ass over here
On every subsequent iteration of that boss fight, I didn't bother to use him. In fact, you don't need any of the champions for their respective boss fights, except for maybe Mineru.
They should let you activate sidons automatically when drawing a sword, riju's when drawing the bow, and other three dont really need to be used in combat
Yes. Definitely. Also the fact that they run around randomly during a fight and sometimes block your view when you want to aim an arrow!!
https://i.redd.it/lf07ltxphj3b1.gif Just wish you can hold down and choose which ability to use instead of 'talking' to them
They REALLY should've been mapped to the "map" ability on the right hand. That thing is so fucking useless...
no1 talking about mineru??
Post #5,678 asking if anyone else thinks the sage abilities suck lol.
It helps when they all hang up on a bokoblin
Yeah, it should just be the icons on hold D-Pad down to have one selected and then tap Down to activate, with Tulins behaving as it does anyway when gliding and Yunobos when on a vehicle. Basically never use whistling, it's supposed to have them form up as well but that doesn't really do much and only risks bringing your horse in if it is nearby. Having whistle as a sixth icon in there would be fine too.
Or even just using the exact same trigger mechanism for each champion but for sages instead, it’s not like those inputs are needed in this game anyway. Hold shield for Sidon, aim arrows for Riju, tulin is already fine in midair and the other two have 3 buttons left A, X or B held while on the ground. Could have easily implemented them like that.
No, I don't want the shield popping every time I need to block and having it on cooldown (It's better with full control because of the Zora weapon buffing, current implementation means you're better off looking for a puddle to step in) and I definitely don't want that huge yellow circle popping every time I aim an arrow or having to cancel it each time because I don't need to set fire to everything around a Bokoblin. The issue is the lack of control, binding it to other actions also costs control, I want to be able to activate them exactly as I need them, this is why Tulin is great because he's right there when I need him and off firing arrows when I don't. My least favourite part of the Champions were the fact I'd have to cancel/disable any ability I didn't want to waste a charge of. I want to be able to just pop it in real time as I need. Miphas and Revalis were great because they activated in a way that didn't get in the way of using something else. The whole reason I keep them deactivated now is because they're bound to the interact button, the last straw is when I passed an insect, quickly turned around to grab it and triggered every fucking one of them instead of grabbing the insect, then jumping on the fifth while I was trying to catch it as it was flying away
I only have Tulin, but a couple of times he's activated when I'm trying to press A to collect items which he literally scattered to the wind instead. I was on the floor, so I wasn't expecting it to activate. He must have been stood just behind me. I know you can deactivate the sages, I just got caught out. Between that and what I've read about the others it just seems like the curse of having AI companions in games generally. I don't know if it's something that anyone thought a Zelda title needed. They could have ditched all the AI companions for the option to **befriend dogs** - the AI was already mostly there for Wolf Link in BoTW, who I believe is absent from ToTK! Even petting the stable dogs would be *sooo* good and more interactivity with the dogs is 100% something I've seen people express a desire for.
They suck so much
I completely agree, I always have them turned off. My theory is that they are mostly for people that aren't using Link's abilities in a creative way. Yunobo can be replaced by fusing a cannon on a spear, tulin with a glider, mineru with a vehicle, riju and sidon with fuse. Once you have upgraded your battery, the sages are useless in comparison.