This one hit me totally out of left field. What started as a cute-looking little fairytaleish "brother searching for his sister" plot, turns out to be one of the most atmospheric and intriguing games I played in recent years.

The tension is tight; there is a lot of gore and disturbing images; a beautifully designed world with a huge amount of nice little and scary details, packed in a coat of Norse fables.

But what impresses me the most are the boss fights. It's not just the design of the actual boss, but it's its staging. The camera work, juggling with depth of field, and the brilliant use of exposure result in a stunning audiovisual experience.

I highly recommend to check this one out, especially because it's part of the microsoft game pass (as of 04/26/2024), so its more or less free to play if you have a subscription.

Across every horizon, under every mountain, past a bokoblin camp, there is another task, another chest, a Hudson construction sign to hold up. Through the crevasse, a hill, river, there is a cave, forest, or lake, a stray enemy to defeat and collect it's part. Through it all there is more more more.

My longest consecutively played game at 100 hours, and there is still so much more I could have done.

Every addition is good and serviceable. Shrines are more fun because you get to use the more fun (than BOTW) abilities. Abilities are all cool and there is only a baseline amount you need to interact with something like ultrahand, but it's always pretty fun when you must do. I have to imagine some people autobuilded a machine to defeat ganon and other cool stuff like that. I like thinking of those possibilities.

Funny they took the one off eventide island and littered them into boring and basic shrines. Disappointing that none of the base mechanics where investigated. Progression paths (getting hearts, stamina, inventory slots untouched), dungeon structure, crafting, gathering. Nintendo did really just continue developing breath of the wild but also remade the same formula again.

When every hero and link linked hands to transfer the power the soundtrack plays a singular timed clap as their grasp meets. The soundtrack that plays at a Goron outpost with a chef is one of the most whimsical songs in a way the Zelda team does really well. The soundtrack just rules. There's awesome synth stuff, cool horns, and standout tracks left and right.

Where BOTW is lonely and being overwhelmed by the wilderness, totk is about community. This is an obvious continuation as totk is built right upon BOTW and realizing that botw was scoped smart. Botws emptiness is it's strength, but it was also a development necessity.

I like the sense of community. This is reinforced ludically by monster hunts with the crew, the heroes you get throughout your journey (this I liked a lot,) and narratively in many ways, including chill side quests like helping a town's election. This also fills up the world giving this game it's whole vibe, much more lived in obviously, and established. But it's filled with even more content to do.

The story isn't good or interesting at all. The emphasis on the master sword is boring, and the time travel sucks especially in displacing Zelda as a character. Also it would've been awesome if she stayed a dragon. But yeah Nintendo are deeply conservative, and you can't throw away your princess even though it seems like they are always retconning.

Look at what they did to eventide island. The whole game seems more focused on combat? Eventide is just 4 battles, you have to go Hyrule castle just so fake Zelda can set up a bunch of fights for you (also a disappointing inversion from a BOTW standout), the whole things kinda tougher but dying less isn't about getting better at the actual combat it's just getting more hearts, stamina, and equipment.

There's a solid argument that this might be the finest game ever crafted in terms of what we expect games to be right now. Mind bogglingly technical, vast, a perfectly laid out map with obvious and non obvious progressive treats, too much to do. The way the caves have bright seeds, the skies have maps for the underground, all that sortve cyclical collection stuff is so Nintendo, so clean, such a flex of skill and smarts. It's so clean and tidy and sewn up.

One disappointment is that there's no amazing environmental moment. I can't help but think of elden rings liurnia or altas plateau, leyndell itself, the whole underground. The depths are cool and there is very little like going from sky to depths in one dive, but ultimately the depths are a little dreary and not super motivating to explore beyond the story content.

It's like ultrahand, you can build anything, it all works, but did I particularly love the game for that? Some people will. Ultimately, there's not enough grip in this one for me to love it, but I liked it.