It reiterates on a lot of the things that made BoTW such an impressive milestone and it also addresses in even surprising ways the very few gripes I had with it. At the same time while ToTK is mostly a triumph and a gorgeous game that you'll sink hours into without realising, it does create a new set of issues which do detract from it being the masterpiece it could've been.
While it was jarring having a lot of the rune abilities from BoTW outright gone, I did quickly warm up to their replacements as the new mechanics gives ToTK a fresh identity of its own. The Ultra Hand ability is a delight and I sunk so many hours just toying around with it and seeing what was possible. Fusing is also a fun way to mix up combat and adds a degree of customisation and strategy. However I wish there was a much more intuitive way to sort through your inventory to pick out the materials you wanted, like setting desired materials as favorites could've made it much more seamless during combat instead of awkwardly cycling through menus for a good minute to use the materials I want.
The sky islands gave me a fantastic first impression but overtime they start to feel very samey and limited which I would have minded less if the game's marketing didn't try to sell them as being more exciting than they ended up being. There were some cool islands that were a blast to explore but they are few and far between. The depths on the otherhand are a lot more exciting offering a lot of fun treasures and a breathtaking sense of wonder and an eerie vibe coming with exploring a dark vast land. However at times it can get exhausting to navigate with the abundance of content and the darkness making it tricky to navigate sometimes. However I will praise how seamless it is traversing between the sky islands to the surface and to the depths without a loading screen. It gives the world this awesome feeling of scale and immersion which sucks you in even more. Moving onto the dungeons, they are a vast improvement over the divine beasts using more specific theming and actual puzzle solving. However they do fall flat compared to the 3D dungeons for Ocarina to Skyward Sword as they lack the rising tension and clever use of specific item puzzle solving that those games used much more effectively.
The story has some absolutely breathtaking moments especially in the final act but man it can get repetitive. After each dungeon you're forced to watch a retelling of a major event in the pass and it makes for some sloppy storytelling. The story is a lot more exciting than BoTW's but that game offered a lot more variety and intrigue in uncovering the events of the past more than Tears does.
Finally the side quests in this game are actually really well done. There's a lot more layered and structured sequential scenarios going on, making me look forward to a lot more content to complete now that I finished the main campaign.
Overall while it does seem I'm listing a lot of gripes, the overall playthrough of this game was some of the most fun I've had playing any open world game. This is a case of the good eclipsing the bad but the bad still becoming an annoyance occasionally.
While it was jarring having a lot of the rune abilities from BoTW outright gone, I did quickly warm up to their replacements as the new mechanics gives ToTK a fresh identity of its own. The Ultra Hand ability is a delight and I sunk so many hours just toying around with it and seeing what was possible. Fusing is also a fun way to mix up combat and adds a degree of customisation and strategy. However I wish there was a much more intuitive way to sort through your inventory to pick out the materials you wanted, like setting desired materials as favorites could've made it much more seamless during combat instead of awkwardly cycling through menus for a good minute to use the materials I want.
The sky islands gave me a fantastic first impression but overtime they start to feel very samey and limited which I would have minded less if the game's marketing didn't try to sell them as being more exciting than they ended up being. There were some cool islands that were a blast to explore but they are few and far between. The depths on the otherhand are a lot more exciting offering a lot of fun treasures and a breathtaking sense of wonder and an eerie vibe coming with exploring a dark vast land. However at times it can get exhausting to navigate with the abundance of content and the darkness making it tricky to navigate sometimes. However I will praise how seamless it is traversing between the sky islands to the surface and to the depths without a loading screen. It gives the world this awesome feeling of scale and immersion which sucks you in even more. Moving onto the dungeons, they are a vast improvement over the divine beasts using more specific theming and actual puzzle solving. However they do fall flat compared to the 3D dungeons for Ocarina to Skyward Sword as they lack the rising tension and clever use of specific item puzzle solving that those games used much more effectively.
The story has some absolutely breathtaking moments especially in the final act but man it can get repetitive. After each dungeon you're forced to watch a retelling of a major event in the pass and it makes for some sloppy storytelling. The story is a lot more exciting than BoTW's but that game offered a lot more variety and intrigue in uncovering the events of the past more than Tears does.
Finally the side quests in this game are actually really well done. There's a lot more layered and structured sequential scenarios going on, making me look forward to a lot more content to complete now that I finished the main campaign.
Overall while it does seem I'm listing a lot of gripes, the overall playthrough of this game was some of the most fun I've had playing any open world game. This is a case of the good eclipsing the bad but the bad still becoming an annoyance occasionally.