flawed masterpiece is the easiest way to describe this game, which is a really generic way to do so and also applies to BotW, but idk, there's really not a better way of encapsulating how I feel about this game
overall the improvements from BotW are fantastic- plenty more things to explore within the overworld, the physics were dialed up to an 11 and the things you can do with Ultrahand are near endless, side quests feel more involved and shrines are 10x better than BotW
exploring the depths was great imo, it definitely could've used more varied biomes but overall I really enjoyed the process of exploring through the darkness and atmospherically it was genuinely fantastic.
the sky islands, while repetitive after a bit, had a lot of cool puzzles. I wish there was more going on with them though, different biomes, unique animals or enemies, especially with how heavily advertised they were.
this game completely fails narratively imo though, it's desire to skirt any sort of connectivity with not just the rest of zelda but the very game it's a sequel of is genuinely disgraceful. Going through each temple only to get hit with the same exact cutscene at the end is awful, the memories being able to be seen outside of order despite them being such a linear narrative completely destroys any impact they may have. It's such a drag to be having so much fun with the game itself and then the second I do any sort of story it just makes me unhappy. People can say whatever they want about Zelda lore (doesn't make it true) but it's something I personally enjoy a lot and TotK's lack of care when it comes to it dragged down my enjoyment a lot. BotW got the same amount of flack but connecting it properly wasn't difficult at all if you actually paid any attention, but TotK, while not impossible to do so with (and potentially interesting depending on how it goes), definitely showed a lot less care in that same respect.
even beyond that though, Ganondorf, pretty much all of the races' stories beyond the Rito and maybe the Gerudo, they're all so lame.
second biggest gripe after story is the temples though. I enjoyed the Fire and Lightning temples, but the other two, especially the Water temple, didn't succeed at making a good middle ground between the open-air and more structured dungeons like the other two did for me.
the good obviously outweighs the bad with this game for me, that's why it's getting an 8, but it just didn't capture me as much as BotW did, and it didn't feel as impactful a sequel to BotW as MM did to OoT. Probably cause the game itself almost feels like it didn't WANT to be a sequel, but whatever, still a great game.
overall the improvements from BotW are fantastic- plenty more things to explore within the overworld, the physics were dialed up to an 11 and the things you can do with Ultrahand are near endless, side quests feel more involved and shrines are 10x better than BotW
exploring the depths was great imo, it definitely could've used more varied biomes but overall I really enjoyed the process of exploring through the darkness and atmospherically it was genuinely fantastic.
the sky islands, while repetitive after a bit, had a lot of cool puzzles. I wish there was more going on with them though, different biomes, unique animals or enemies, especially with how heavily advertised they were.
this game completely fails narratively imo though, it's desire to skirt any sort of connectivity with not just the rest of zelda but the very game it's a sequel of is genuinely disgraceful. Going through each temple only to get hit with the same exact cutscene at the end is awful, the memories being able to be seen outside of order despite them being such a linear narrative completely destroys any impact they may have. It's such a drag to be having so much fun with the game itself and then the second I do any sort of story it just makes me unhappy. People can say whatever they want about Zelda lore (doesn't make it true) but it's something I personally enjoy a lot and TotK's lack of care when it comes to it dragged down my enjoyment a lot. BotW got the same amount of flack but connecting it properly wasn't difficult at all if you actually paid any attention, but TotK, while not impossible to do so with (and potentially interesting depending on how it goes), definitely showed a lot less care in that same respect.
even beyond that though, Ganondorf, pretty much all of the races' stories beyond the Rito and maybe the Gerudo, they're all so lame.
second biggest gripe after story is the temples though. I enjoyed the Fire and Lightning temples, but the other two, especially the Water temple, didn't succeed at making a good middle ground between the open-air and more structured dungeons like the other two did for me.
the good obviously outweighs the bad with this game for me, that's why it's getting an 8, but it just didn't capture me as much as BotW did, and it didn't feel as impactful a sequel to BotW as MM did to OoT. Probably cause the game itself almost feels like it didn't WANT to be a sequel, but whatever, still a great game.