Man, I have a lot of thoughts on this one, and I mean A LOT. I think there are a few aspects where this shines and is the best Zelda game. There's a few aspects where the game sucks, and there are a few things that weren't my cup of tea
I think one of my biggest frustrations with the game was how empty it feels, and how much it seems to lack exploration and progression compared to other Zelda games. When it first came out I heard people say it was "too linear" and i was like "well yeah compared to BotW all Zelda games are too linear" but now that I've played it I totally get it. I think the best example I can give here is that there are way less heart pieces in this game than any other Zelda game I've played, and almost all of them are gained from either completing fetch quests, or opening goddess chests. There's really no other collectible worth exploring for either, no MaiMais, no Kinstones, nothing of that sort. The closest thing to that I guess are the goddess cubes and all of those are still just along the beaten path, and it's always more of a "how do I strike it" than a "how do I find it". Generally speaking you just go through the levels in a linear fashion, and get basically no incentive to go off the beaten path. Also you go through the same 3 levels several times each, which is kinda annoying even though they are well made
I also got pretty frustrated with the combat. The whole "you are Link, control how he swings the sword" idea was really neat at first, but got extremely boring after a while, both with motion controls and button controls. All the fights were very one-note and same-ish, with the whole "swing in a direction that you enemy isn't blocking" being the only depth to the entire combat system. Also, it was incredibly unfair and frustrating at times when the enemy would clearly be blocking one direction, I'd swing in an unblocked direction, and then it would change its direction before my block got there. And this wasn't like a "oh he just read my attack, no, the AI just randomly changed its position between when I input the attack and when it was executed. Wasn't a big deal for common enemies as i could still steamroll them even with the blocking issue but got really frustrating during certain boss fights. Also, while I didn't die much in this game, the few times that I did die came during boss fights, and the game asked me if I'd like to retry and I said yes, and it pit me back right before the fight with only 6 hearts and all my consumables that I uses during the failed attempt gone, with no easy way to heal or replace those consumables. This is extremely poor game design.
My final issue with the game is the fact that it just felt too long. I believe this is the longest game in the entire Zelda series (obviously excluding a 100% run of BotW) and guven the issues I had with its linearity and emptiness, it really felt like it was dragging a good bit at times.
Alright, so you may be wondering, with all this complaining I did, why did I still give the game a solid score? I'm glad you asked, hypothetically person. Here's why:
First and foremost, the level design. Even though the level motifs of forest, desert, and volcano got old quick, the actual layout of the levels, the puzzles, the challenges, and the Dungeon design were all pretty expertly crafted. I think this is the largest factor that kept me going through all my issues. Secondly, the story. I'd say that this game actually has a much better story and characters than any other game in the Zelda series, or at least the ones I've played. I really did want to see the story through to the end. Also, I really did like a lot of the items. The bow and arrow is the best here that it's maybe ever been in the series (basically sniper mode), the whip is dope, and I think the beetle may be my favorite Zelda item possibly ever. The way that these were incorporated into the puzzles was dope too
So yeah sorry for going on too long but that's my thoughts. I'll be honest I was really wavering back and forth between giving this game 3.5 or 4 stars, and the rating may even change over the coming days, but right now I think im going to go with 4 and then keep an eye out to see if it changes at some point as I let the game settle and think about it some more
I think one of my biggest frustrations with the game was how empty it feels, and how much it seems to lack exploration and progression compared to other Zelda games. When it first came out I heard people say it was "too linear" and i was like "well yeah compared to BotW all Zelda games are too linear" but now that I've played it I totally get it. I think the best example I can give here is that there are way less heart pieces in this game than any other Zelda game I've played, and almost all of them are gained from either completing fetch quests, or opening goddess chests. There's really no other collectible worth exploring for either, no MaiMais, no Kinstones, nothing of that sort. The closest thing to that I guess are the goddess cubes and all of those are still just along the beaten path, and it's always more of a "how do I strike it" than a "how do I find it". Generally speaking you just go through the levels in a linear fashion, and get basically no incentive to go off the beaten path. Also you go through the same 3 levels several times each, which is kinda annoying even though they are well made
I also got pretty frustrated with the combat. The whole "you are Link, control how he swings the sword" idea was really neat at first, but got extremely boring after a while, both with motion controls and button controls. All the fights were very one-note and same-ish, with the whole "swing in a direction that you enemy isn't blocking" being the only depth to the entire combat system. Also, it was incredibly unfair and frustrating at times when the enemy would clearly be blocking one direction, I'd swing in an unblocked direction, and then it would change its direction before my block got there. And this wasn't like a "oh he just read my attack, no, the AI just randomly changed its position between when I input the attack and when it was executed. Wasn't a big deal for common enemies as i could still steamroll them even with the blocking issue but got really frustrating during certain boss fights. Also, while I didn't die much in this game, the few times that I did die came during boss fights, and the game asked me if I'd like to retry and I said yes, and it pit me back right before the fight with only 6 hearts and all my consumables that I uses during the failed attempt gone, with no easy way to heal or replace those consumables. This is extremely poor game design.
My final issue with the game is the fact that it just felt too long. I believe this is the longest game in the entire Zelda series (obviously excluding a 100% run of BotW) and guven the issues I had with its linearity and emptiness, it really felt like it was dragging a good bit at times.
Alright, so you may be wondering, with all this complaining I did, why did I still give the game a solid score? I'm glad you asked, hypothetically person. Here's why:
First and foremost, the level design. Even though the level motifs of forest, desert, and volcano got old quick, the actual layout of the levels, the puzzles, the challenges, and the Dungeon design were all pretty expertly crafted. I think this is the largest factor that kept me going through all my issues. Secondly, the story. I'd say that this game actually has a much better story and characters than any other game in the Zelda series, or at least the ones I've played. I really did want to see the story through to the end. Also, I really did like a lot of the items. The bow and arrow is the best here that it's maybe ever been in the series (basically sniper mode), the whip is dope, and I think the beetle may be my favorite Zelda item possibly ever. The way that these were incorporated into the puzzles was dope too
So yeah sorry for going on too long but that's my thoughts. I'll be honest I was really wavering back and forth between giving this game 3.5 or 4 stars, and the rating may even change over the coming days, but right now I think im going to go with 4 and then keep an eye out to see if it changes at some point as I let the game settle and think about it some more