I think the actual world and the 'side content' here is really the main content because the main story has probably the worst dungeons the 3D series has seen, instead of an eveloution of the promising and interesting but lack luster temple design of breath of the world, this game instead features dungeons that are visually not very rememberable and some of the most basic and uninspired design Ive seen in a game about solving puzzles espiaclly when the mechanics of the game could allow for such rich puzzles. The only dungeon I'd say was at most above average would be the fire temple but even then the ideas are not expanded nearly enough to feel satsifying or be anything above a surface level enjoyment and most of the bosses are kinda bad just being abuse weakness and then slash at them which doesnt help much since the combat in this game is still pretty lack luster, mainly just being an awkward bout of slashing between you and the enemies. The only bosses are thought were cool were the wind temple boss and the final phase of the final boss which is mechanically lackluster but was a really cool spectacle.
Now I know I gave this a perfect score and this reads like I hate the game but, to me at least, this stuff is setdressing to the actual main game which is the actual main open world which is unbelievably close to perfect I've ever seen in an open world game, this game makes the last game look like shit in comparison, there is so much to do and see and most of it so good and enjoyable, I put in 100 hours before even doing a single dungeon because I was just having a blast exploring and doing shrines, speaking of which, the shrines have had big upgrade, there are still bad ones but a lot of them are actually really good mainly acting as kinda tutorials for how to use Link's new abilities and how to apply them in combat and hoe to interact with the world. The new abilities that link has are really the main inovation of this game especially ultrahand which is maybe the best mechanic I've ever seen in a game. Usally with a mechanic as potentially complicated as ultrahand it could lead players from not using it that much since it could've been unintuitive but nintendo have done such an amazing job at making ultrahand easy and convient to use allowing everyone to get creative. Ultrahand alone gives this game amble replay value and a near infinite amount of ways for traversal and puzzle solving. This also combined with fuse and recall make for abilities that allow for infinite ways to interact with the world and I think thats the main element of this game that ties it all together, that interactivity with the enviroment made breath of wild so revelutionary and tears of the kingdom just allows for more interactivity with the enviroment. To some this will make tears of the kingdom less special but to me it shows a clear evelution of what nintnedo were doing with breath of the wild. This does not only apply to the mechanics but also the actual scale of the world since there are 3 world maps in this game: Hyrule, the depths and the sky islands. The sky islands are a fanstic addition as it gives Hyrule much more scale and allows for more modes of traversal for both the sky and Hyrule and the sky islands have an orsortment of bosses, shrines, and trasures to find lending to that constant sense of curiosity that Breath of the wild did so well. I wont speak much about the depth but I think its a really cool inclusion and also lends to different ways of navigation that much be used in order to traverse the enviroment. This map also has itself so much content to do and provides different ways of interactions with Hyrule. Also enemy variety has been improved significantly with a whole host of new world bosses and regular enemies.
If I had to levy a couple more complaints it would be that the story is really bad and the dialog is terrible with custscenes that are really boring and have bland composition and cinematography but there are some that are pretty cool. I think if nintendo tighten down on dungeon design and makes the story actually interesting with fun story missions then the best Zelda game could be made and I would say this is the best if it werent for that and could lead to maybe the best game ever but I dont think nintendo are content with doing that, they are probably wondering on how do they increase the interactivity of the world which Im happy with but I will miss the traditional Zelda games but I think there is so much to be excited for with this current open world Zelda template. Also I don't know how they got this game to run on switch, sure the games performance tanks at times but I dont think that matters much since it doesnt really affect the game much and the developers are clearly pushing the switch to its absolute limits, nintendo are definetly the best at working on limited hardware which makes sence, they have the weakest hardware and they have the deepest knowledge of their own hardware architectue but this is still a technical and artistic triumph for nintendo and the Zelda series as a whole.
Also fuck nintendo for relasesing this game while I was working on universtiy CS coursework, you dont know how much time I spent playing this to distract me from the coursework and from revising for tests god why couldnt they release this like a week later jesus, this shit almost caused me to not finish that shit god this game ruined my life for a bit. If that doesnt tell you how good this game is then I dont know what will.
Now I know I gave this a perfect score and this reads like I hate the game but, to me at least, this stuff is setdressing to the actual main game which is the actual main open world which is unbelievably close to perfect I've ever seen in an open world game, this game makes the last game look like shit in comparison, there is so much to do and see and most of it so good and enjoyable, I put in 100 hours before even doing a single dungeon because I was just having a blast exploring and doing shrines, speaking of which, the shrines have had big upgrade, there are still bad ones but a lot of them are actually really good mainly acting as kinda tutorials for how to use Link's new abilities and how to apply them in combat and hoe to interact with the world. The new abilities that link has are really the main inovation of this game especially ultrahand which is maybe the best mechanic I've ever seen in a game. Usally with a mechanic as potentially complicated as ultrahand it could lead players from not using it that much since it could've been unintuitive but nintendo have done such an amazing job at making ultrahand easy and convient to use allowing everyone to get creative. Ultrahand alone gives this game amble replay value and a near infinite amount of ways for traversal and puzzle solving. This also combined with fuse and recall make for abilities that allow for infinite ways to interact with the world and I think thats the main element of this game that ties it all together, that interactivity with the enviroment made breath of wild so revelutionary and tears of the kingdom just allows for more interactivity with the enviroment. To some this will make tears of the kingdom less special but to me it shows a clear evelution of what nintnedo were doing with breath of the wild. This does not only apply to the mechanics but also the actual scale of the world since there are 3 world maps in this game: Hyrule, the depths and the sky islands. The sky islands are a fanstic addition as it gives Hyrule much more scale and allows for more modes of traversal for both the sky and Hyrule and the sky islands have an orsortment of bosses, shrines, and trasures to find lending to that constant sense of curiosity that Breath of the wild did so well. I wont speak much about the depth but I think its a really cool inclusion and also lends to different ways of navigation that much be used in order to traverse the enviroment. This map also has itself so much content to do and provides different ways of interactions with Hyrule. Also enemy variety has been improved significantly with a whole host of new world bosses and regular enemies.
If I had to levy a couple more complaints it would be that the story is really bad and the dialog is terrible with custscenes that are really boring and have bland composition and cinematography but there are some that are pretty cool. I think if nintendo tighten down on dungeon design and makes the story actually interesting with fun story missions then the best Zelda game could be made and I would say this is the best if it werent for that and could lead to maybe the best game ever but I dont think nintendo are content with doing that, they are probably wondering on how do they increase the interactivity of the world which Im happy with but I will miss the traditional Zelda games but I think there is so much to be excited for with this current open world Zelda template. Also I don't know how they got this game to run on switch, sure the games performance tanks at times but I dont think that matters much since it doesnt really affect the game much and the developers are clearly pushing the switch to its absolute limits, nintendo are definetly the best at working on limited hardware which makes sence, they have the weakest hardware and they have the deepest knowledge of their own hardware architectue but this is still a technical and artistic triumph for nintendo and the Zelda series as a whole.
Also fuck nintendo for relasesing this game while I was working on universtiy CS coursework, you dont know how much time I spent playing this to distract me from the coursework and from revising for tests god why couldnt they release this like a week later jesus, this shit almost caused me to not finish that shit god this game ruined my life for a bit. If that doesnt tell you how good this game is then I dont know what will.