This review contains spoilers
After almost exactly 10 months I have finally beat TOTK. And I have a lot to say.
For starters, the story is amazing. I could not believe the twists and turns this tale took throughout it's run, and I genuinely did not see most of them coming. I have no gripes with the story.
The abilities in this game are leagues better compared to the ones in BOTW, but unfortunately I think that's a downfall on occasion. The game and a lot of its puzzles are incredibly easy to cheese with very basic understanding of the abilities you have. I rarely ever beat shrines how they were intended to be beaten, and I only ever really explored with the "airbike" that gained a lot of popularity in the community. In BOTW, you had to be creative in every shrine, in TOTK, you really only have to be creative until you find the best way. And I think that's a small flaw, despite how cool and impressive the abilities are.
The gameplay itself was pretty fun. I enjoyed completing all 152 shrines, however, I feel that far too many of them were crystal shrines or environmental puzzles to GET to the shrine that only had a treasure in it. I would've liked it a lot more if there were more challenging puzzle shrines. Exploring the depths and getting all the lightroots was one of my favorite parts ironically. Despite the monotony, I feel like the constant obtaining of zonaite which can then be turned into batteries allowing you to explore the depths better was a fun incentive and reward to keep doing it. And the depths being all lit up late game was VERY helpful. The combat was fun as always, I don't think it changed very much from BOTW but that's not necessarily a problem, since they're VERY connected sequels.
The final boss was overall good, although the third phase was very hard and a little frustrating for me personally. Ganon counters almost all of your abilities in phase 3 except for the standard Parry, which by that point in the game I'd forgotten about since flurry Rush is the far superior ability in my opinion. Phase 4 or "Dragon Ganon" was definitely my favorite fight in the series. It was incredibly shocking and I didn't see it coming at all, and it was incredibly cinematic and impressive for the switch.
After 100+ hours spent with this title, I can say firmly that it's very good, and an improvement on BOTW. I have minimal complaints in comparison to the amount of fun and joy I've had on this 10 month journey with Link, Zelda, and Ganon.
For starters, the story is amazing. I could not believe the twists and turns this tale took throughout it's run, and I genuinely did not see most of them coming. I have no gripes with the story.
The abilities in this game are leagues better compared to the ones in BOTW, but unfortunately I think that's a downfall on occasion. The game and a lot of its puzzles are incredibly easy to cheese with very basic understanding of the abilities you have. I rarely ever beat shrines how they were intended to be beaten, and I only ever really explored with the "airbike" that gained a lot of popularity in the community. In BOTW, you had to be creative in every shrine, in TOTK, you really only have to be creative until you find the best way. And I think that's a small flaw, despite how cool and impressive the abilities are.
The gameplay itself was pretty fun. I enjoyed completing all 152 shrines, however, I feel that far too many of them were crystal shrines or environmental puzzles to GET to the shrine that only had a treasure in it. I would've liked it a lot more if there were more challenging puzzle shrines. Exploring the depths and getting all the lightroots was one of my favorite parts ironically. Despite the monotony, I feel like the constant obtaining of zonaite which can then be turned into batteries allowing you to explore the depths better was a fun incentive and reward to keep doing it. And the depths being all lit up late game was VERY helpful. The combat was fun as always, I don't think it changed very much from BOTW but that's not necessarily a problem, since they're VERY connected sequels.
The final boss was overall good, although the third phase was very hard and a little frustrating for me personally. Ganon counters almost all of your abilities in phase 3 except for the standard Parry, which by that point in the game I'd forgotten about since flurry Rush is the far superior ability in my opinion. Phase 4 or "Dragon Ganon" was definitely my favorite fight in the series. It was incredibly shocking and I didn't see it coming at all, and it was incredibly cinematic and impressive for the switch.
After 100+ hours spent with this title, I can say firmly that it's very good, and an improvement on BOTW. I have minimal complaints in comparison to the amount of fun and joy I've had on this 10 month journey with Link, Zelda, and Ganon.