I finished BotW a while back, and it’s definitely my favorite 3D Zelda
at this point. But it’s not just a good Zelda game – I think it
completely destroys all the other modern “open world” games on the market.

Things I liked:

– Freedom right from the start. The Great Plateau was the best tutorial
I’ve ever played because it wasn’t linear and rarely interrupted the
gameplay with exposition. Not much is explained to you at first, and
you’re given the freedom to explore the entire plateau with no limits.
It’s not a safe training ground either – monster camps are scattered
about, the cold weather in the southern plateau can kill you, and the
guardians to the east can one-shot you.

– The world is dangerous and is often out to kill you, which places a
premium on any upgrade you can find. Hearts, stamina vessels, armor
upgrades, and inventory expansions are so satisfying because of how
dangerous the world is. 3D Zeldas became so easy that heart containers
and other upgrades felt like empty collectibles. BotW gave me the
feeling of a world out to kill you that I haven’t felt since the dark
world in ALTTP.

– This game seriously respects the player’s intelligence. It’s up to you
to explore whatever interests you. Side quests require you to figure out
where you’re supposed to go, and without any map markers or a fairy
partner nagging you the whole time, your only help is your own wits and
the occasional clue given by an NPC. The open world helps a lot here,
since you can easily skip most tasks that have stumped you. You’re
driven by your own curiosity and ingenuity, not by tons of pre-placed
map markers and heavy-handed explanations every step of the way.

– While the story wasn’t mind blowing, I enjoyed piecing together the
pre-calamity events by uncovering memories out of order.

– The Divine Beast boss fights aren’t the lame puzzle bosses from
previous 3D Zeldas. You know, you solve the puzzle, stun the boss, then
whack away until it gets up before you do it two to four more times?

– Hyrule Castle kicks ass.

– Calamity Ganon was a fun battle.

– There’s some really good music in this game, despite how most of it is
subdued due to the very bleak situation the game takes place in. I love
the Korok Forest theme, the Hyrule Castle themes, and the Vah Rudania
(lizard divine beast) theme.

Things I disliked:

– Breakable weapons is a fine mechanic as a whole, but I find it clunky
in the early game and late game. I was irritated early in the game when
I came across some enemies that I couldn’t kill before all my weapons
broke. Later in the game, easy enemies do nothing but break your
powerful weapons while dropping weak-ass spears and clubs, which is why
I started running past them.

– The combat system feels clunky compared to previous 3D Zelda games.
Telegraphing is very inconsistent, and the camera often fucks you over
once the action gets hectic. This is puzzling because the combat
controls way better in Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.

– Armor upgrading was done all wrong. It’s a pain in the ass to keep
finding obscure ingredients to upgrade armor, and it’s a pain in the ass
to keep going through the great fairy dialog for every piece of armor
and every upgrade tier. This wouldn’t be so bad if the armor calculation
in the damage formula was percentage-based instead of subtractive. This
means that you get punished hard for not upgrading your gear.

– The shrines were a nice break from the overworld at first, but they
really started to ruin the adventure after a while. The combat shrines
are lazy copy-paste content, and the non-combat shrines are condensed
versions of the exact shit I hate about 3D Zelda games.

– The divine beasts aren’t real dungeons. They’re 3D spaces that can
spin around for puzzle-solving purposes. The only thing they did right
was the boss fights.

– This is weird but… I think the world was a bit too big. I have no
logical explanation for it, but near the end I started getting this
feeling that the world didn’t have anything new to show me, and
exploration was feeling like a drag. This might be because the shrines
are so hollow as content, as are the divine beasts, so there’s nothing
to do but explore the overworld in this game. The overworld is very
strong, but it shouldn’t need to carry the entire experience.

My last criticism is the most important imo because it’s something the
Zelda team needs to address in the new game they’re working on. They
know how to get the overworld right. Now they need to add meaty dungeon
content that doesn’t ring hollow like the shrines and divine beasts. I
want dungeons that are dangerous. I want dungeons that I can get lost
in. I want dungeons that have secrets that need to be discovered. I even
want there to be some mysteries or mechanics that need to be solved or
mastered. I just don’t want more puzzle gauntlets. I’d rather be an
adventurer.

I’m not a fan of the bosses because I am not a fan of boss battles in general. The bosses were all the same ‘akira’ themed ‘corruption’ which got old to me. I also despise timing puzzles which Nintendo loves to put on every boss encounter. I think the game would be more interesting if you could leverage the terrain of the overworld for the boss battles. For example, lead the boss to a certain place that makes it easier to kill. And why weren’t there overworld bosses roaming the map? Opportunity lost. The closest we got were the dragons which were quite annoying to shoot due to how time sensitive they were.

Anyway, emailer, you need to play the game in Master Mode. It’s worth the DLC payment. The game world feels smaller because the graphical arc of ‘I’m too weak’ to “I’m too powerful’ encompasses most of the world. You become overpowered much faster in normal mode.