Since its inception the Zelda series has coasted on getting the player to ask two questions: "What do I do?" and "How do I do it?" In Breath of the Wild, the first question is almost completely absent. This isn't necessarily a problem, as the game markets itself heavily on the second. However, while the "how do I do it" has brief flashes of greatness, it quickly fades away into nothing. The first time you defeat a guardian, it's exhilarating. Once you master parrying lasers, which doesn't take long, it becomes tiresome. Planning out how to take out a band of bokoblins is engrossing initially, but realizing that it'll only result in a dent in your stash of good weapons and the enemies respawning in a few days makes it more of a chore than anything. The champions' abilities are the worst offenders- each of them simply makes the gameplay less complex, the opposite of what upgrades should do. Revali's gale makes figuring out how to gain height almost a non-issue, avoiding damage is trivial once you have dozens of hearts, a second life, and a shield than can block any blow, and Urbosa's fury is just a win-this-fight-for-me button. They wouldn't even be that bad if there was some task you had to do to earn using them, but it's bafflingly just a cooldown.

In short, Breath of the Wild is filled with great "firsts." The first time you find one of the dragons just flying around the open sky, it's mesmerizing, but it becomes less so when you realize that it's one of the few unique entities in the massive world that you can just stumble upon. I feel like these first experiences are why people connect with the game so much- I'd consider it a great game too if the entire experience was like the first few hours. This definitely seems like an impossible task, but it's also the reason I'm optimistic about the fact that Breath of the Wild is getting a direct sequel. I just hope Nintendo takes some risks with the next one.