Very late on my save I found this southern coastal village all by myself, almost by accident really, just messing around in an area I had barely touched for some reason (most landmarks happen to be up north). I was genuinely thrilled about it. It felt like I wasn’t guided there at all… because I wasn’t! I just explored this beautiful world with no motivation but my own curiosity, and was thoroughly surprised by a game I had played more than 50 hours. I felt that place alive and huge and real.

And then I talked to the people there and felt a sudden disappointment. None of them told me anything, whatever made the world feel real doesn’t extend to the actual people you meet nor the stories they tell you. The (frankly) abysmal writing just isn’t at odds with the excellent world design, and how sweet it feels to discover it. I can’t help to remember, let’s say, Deadfire, where the worse secondary objectives are at least decent, like at least try to tell you something funny or cool or curious. Breath of the Wild pales in comparison.

This is an excellent game that gets worse the more you play it.

PS. Stop putting bosses with invincibility phases on good games, I’m begging you.

Cool and stylish action game that is at least as good as the other high profile shooters on the console. I liked it, but it is perhaps a bit convoluted to control, although it does feel unique in a good way, tank controls and everything. It is brief and lighthearted, as I think these weirder experiences should be. Do yourself a favor and don’t read the diary entries (evil chinese empire wants to expand its territory opressing the poor and defenseless japanese people? Projecting a bit motherfuckers???)

Too imprecise to adequately do some of the cool things the game asks of you, I found myself being frustrated even when I did manage to succeed in the extra (and harder) objectives, for example in the third level, which kicked my ass the first few tries, I don’t think I performed that good nor did I do something that different from those first attempts. Or like when you maneuver around the many fire hazards in the next level and you NEED to hit those fireballs to recover some health, but you need to hit them quick and the controls just kinda don’t let you, because the aim is always relative to where you are or where you are moving so there is this extra step that just doesn’t feel right to me. The free mode in particular never felt fun or rewarding, I just think the game believes it is much more controlable than it actually is. And I know there are folks that will beat this in like 15 minutes with no damage or whatever, and there probably are at least a couple that could do it blindfolded and with one hand, etc. but that doesn’t make the controls good, at least to me, it’s just passionate players doing crazy shit around some pretty flawed mechanics that were designed for a time when two sticks sounded insane.

And that’s the point, really, it just feel like you’re playing against the outdated control scheme as much as you’re playing against the cool enemies and levels of the game itself.

Pretty much a perfect game, I’m extremely surprised this even runs on the NES. And not only that, like, this game is kinda gorgeous, and full of very charming sprite work. The type of thing people can come back to every once in a while and not only for nostalgia reasons, it is also cool to play this, and there is an amazing variety of abilities that constantly changes the way you play. The controls aren’t perfect but damn it they are not that far either.

People seem to love this music and I frankly didn’t see why. But the biggest negative is by far the final boss. You know the drill; much harder that the rest of the game and invincible for large periods. I would fight to death to whomever came up with this. Seriously.

I could probably play the first two levels blindfolded. It is safe to say a really like this game. They even did the Dark Souls thing where they make a level everybody hates but there’s a reason for it, like it is bad and hard and kind of a chore for a purpose (and they will do it again!).

The first five levels are truly phenomenal, but the second half of the game shows that Bungie was running out of money, time or ideas, even when they introduce a new type of enemy. This is an evolution of the genre, at least on consoles, and should be recognized as important and historically relevant. The original Xbox version is lacking content, unless you had like 3 other Xboxes and 15 spare controllers or whatever, and an absurd amount of friends.