Finished my 2nd full playthrough of BOTW with this DLC.
The Ballad is an incredibly welcome and challenging piece of additional content. It leans on your familiarity with the overworld to discern secret locations, and then it tests you with the one-hit weapon challenge, cool new shrine concepts, and one hell of a final boss. Having to fight all the blights again was a bit weak, but the rest of the trials all pay off in a wonderful little bit of extra story content, and the absolutely badass addition of the Master Cycle Zero. Worth every penny.
As for my 2nd overall playthrough: It was just as immersive and thrilling as it was back in 2017. I challenged myself to beat the game with the HUD turned off and without activating any towers (which I was able to maintain until the Ballad, which REQUIRES some map knowledge). Approaching the game in this way gave me an appreciation for how thoughtfully designed each region is, how much personality is on display in each environment. This is an iconic open world for a reason: It's such a unique organism filled with so much to discover, and barring that, so much for you to play around with to your heart's content. It's the ultimate adventure simulator.
Swimming overall is probably the worst traversal mechanic, and it sucks that not even the Zora suit can speed it up. That aged pretty hard for me on this run, especially during the Water Blight fight. Ganon's final form is underwhelming in one manner, but I also kind of appreciate that his first form is meant to be your definitive skill test, and then his second form can be seen as a "victory lap" to cap off a long journey.
Other than that I'm just an unapologetic lover of this game. The Ocarina-Skyward era still holds a place in my heart, and I think Majora is probably overall the best Zelda game. However, I'm fine with this being the present day state of Zelda. The amount of innovation it has brought to the open world genre is an absolute good, and the freedom and possibility it gives the player is still astounding. Bring on the Tears!
The Ballad is an incredibly welcome and challenging piece of additional content. It leans on your familiarity with the overworld to discern secret locations, and then it tests you with the one-hit weapon challenge, cool new shrine concepts, and one hell of a final boss. Having to fight all the blights again was a bit weak, but the rest of the trials all pay off in a wonderful little bit of extra story content, and the absolutely badass addition of the Master Cycle Zero. Worth every penny.
As for my 2nd overall playthrough: It was just as immersive and thrilling as it was back in 2017. I challenged myself to beat the game with the HUD turned off and without activating any towers (which I was able to maintain until the Ballad, which REQUIRES some map knowledge). Approaching the game in this way gave me an appreciation for how thoughtfully designed each region is, how much personality is on display in each environment. This is an iconic open world for a reason: It's such a unique organism filled with so much to discover, and barring that, so much for you to play around with to your heart's content. It's the ultimate adventure simulator.
Swimming overall is probably the worst traversal mechanic, and it sucks that not even the Zora suit can speed it up. That aged pretty hard for me on this run, especially during the Water Blight fight. Ganon's final form is underwhelming in one manner, but I also kind of appreciate that his first form is meant to be your definitive skill test, and then his second form can be seen as a "victory lap" to cap off a long journey.
Other than that I'm just an unapologetic lover of this game. The Ocarina-Skyward era still holds a place in my heart, and I think Majora is probably overall the best Zelda game. However, I'm fine with this being the present day state of Zelda. The amount of innovation it has brought to the open world genre is an absolute good, and the freedom and possibility it gives the player is still astounding. Bring on the Tears!