This review contains spoilers
The completionist in me wouldn't let this be my only unfinished Zelda game. All of my critiques from my first log hold true, but honestly the thing that bothered me the most about this game was the story.
Why complain about a Zelda story right? The story doesn't matter! Actually, I think Zelda games almost always have phenomenal stories. They're usually quite simple, sure, but they're impactful and usually pair your ultimate triumph with some kind of bittersweet loss.
BotW was the first time I thought a Zelda story was genuinely bad. And it's pretty easy to see why. You get one lore dump from the king after the tutorial and that's the whole story, everything you need to go defeat Ganon straight away. You get some additional detail about past events throughout the game, but the core story was dumped to you at the start.
TotK realizes this problem and you don't have much info to go on at the start other than "Find Zelda." That's cool! You do get the same exact lore dump cutscene after each temple - I can think of a few different ways this could be solved - but it doesn't reveal the whole story to you. You have to piece together various memory scenes and these are great. The most impactful of all is when you discover Zelda turned herself into a dragon to heal the master sword and deliver it to Link. This was my favorite emotional beat in ANY Zelda game. Realizing the dragon flying around is actually Zelda? The titular tears are from Zelda? The reason you need to find her is because she permanently transformed into a dragon and she can't communicate with you herself? Amazing stuff. Then the final boss battle with Ganondorf when he transforms himself into a dragon? And you and dragon Zelda fight dragon Ganondorf? So sick.
I was prepared to leave on a high note and maybe even love this game. But the deus ex machina moment that followed the final boss fight caused me physical pain. The reason Zelda's choice to turn into a dragon packs such an emotional punch is because it is irreversible. The game specifically states there is no going back. And it's heartbreaking! Seeing the ghosts of Rauru and Sonia show up and reverse the dragon transformation completely undermines the whole narrative. Nevermind that those ghosts showing up makes no sense in the first place - they should not have any power to affect the situation! I am in utter disbelief. I have never gone from loving to hating a game's story so quickly.
Why complain about a Zelda story right? The story doesn't matter! Actually, I think Zelda games almost always have phenomenal stories. They're usually quite simple, sure, but they're impactful and usually pair your ultimate triumph with some kind of bittersweet loss.
BotW was the first time I thought a Zelda story was genuinely bad. And it's pretty easy to see why. You get one lore dump from the king after the tutorial and that's the whole story, everything you need to go defeat Ganon straight away. You get some additional detail about past events throughout the game, but the core story was dumped to you at the start.
TotK realizes this problem and you don't have much info to go on at the start other than "Find Zelda." That's cool! You do get the same exact lore dump cutscene after each temple - I can think of a few different ways this could be solved - but it doesn't reveal the whole story to you. You have to piece together various memory scenes and these are great. The most impactful of all is when you discover Zelda turned herself into a dragon to heal the master sword and deliver it to Link. This was my favorite emotional beat in ANY Zelda game. Realizing the dragon flying around is actually Zelda? The titular tears are from Zelda? The reason you need to find her is because she permanently transformed into a dragon and she can't communicate with you herself? Amazing stuff. Then the final boss battle with Ganondorf when he transforms himself into a dragon? And you and dragon Zelda fight dragon Ganondorf? So sick.
I was prepared to leave on a high note and maybe even love this game. But the deus ex machina moment that followed the final boss fight caused me physical pain. The reason Zelda's choice to turn into a dragon packs such an emotional punch is because it is irreversible. The game specifically states there is no going back. And it's heartbreaking! Seeing the ghosts of Rauru and Sonia show up and reverse the dragon transformation completely undermines the whole narrative. Nevermind that those ghosts showing up makes no sense in the first place - they should not have any power to affect the situation! I am in utter disbelief. I have never gone from loving to hating a game's story so quickly.