Let me front load this - I'm not good at action games, but I enjoy a challenge a la Monster Hunter. But I suck at it, and I require a ton of time to get back into the action.
Where I Am in the Game:
I have a couple of sets of armour (Gerudo, climbing, sheikah, and a couple of others). I did 31 shrines (probably will do more), considering I want the master sword. I'm ready to open up Vah Ruta. I just finished with Van Naboris (the Gerudo one).
What I Love:
- BoTW saves before every main boss - dying means restarting and retrying your tactics. It's a quick load time too, meaning that you can try as many times as you want without sitting on loading screens.
- ambient music is very quiet and creepy. Upon starting the Gerudo divine beast, I got creeped out by the music...
- sentient bosses have personality!
- the fighting is not stiff like Monster Hunter. Sure, quick bosses require one handed weapons (urgh, I am not looking forward to taking down more Ganon constructs)...
- the survival aspect is very different from any past LoZ game. Fill Link's pockets with stuff, use the stuff to make food or potions OR use them to upgrade your armour. It's surprisingly complex.
What I Like:
- bosses can be flurry rushed with perfect consistency once you learn the cues/split second timing. Gives combat more options instead of Link bashing things with his sword. I get a little burst of endorphins every time I manage to trigger the prompt for "flurry rush".
- exploring in the game is rewarded with finding weird stuff. I ended up walking up to the Gerudo highlands in anti-cold gear, and I found a bear! I managed to kill it with arrows and it dropped a hearty salmon. In the close area, I noticed a rock covering a cave entrance, and I couldn't move it with magnetic force. I used statis and then bashed the rock, and found a treasure trove of stuff, including gold rupees in a chest and swords.
What I Dislike:
- the Blood Moon cycle. I get it, respawning all enemies makes it feel like there is tension in the air, despite Link exploring the land for no reason instead of recovering his memories or taking down Divine Beasts.
- taking weapons instead of buying them. I get it as a design choice - get good, destroy enemies with your current weapons and everything else. Encourages you to explore too, as different enemies hold different things (I just beat an Lynel just for his sword and shield.) I just broke most of my weapons on Thunderblight Ganon's face and now I'm using arrows to try to take weapons out of enemy mobs.
- motion controls for some shrines. I know, that was a selling point for the Wii U, but how imprecise the controls are makes me fear for my sanity. I had to shut down the game after failing a large marble maze too many times.
What I Don't Understand:
- the game released on March 3, 2017. I see people selling it and the Switch after they completed the game. Seriously - that's 18 days of gaming. How the hell are people bopping Ganon on the head so quickly? I want to explore every corner of the map, and meet all the NPCs, but apparently it's too much for some people.
- there is a serious lack of Wii U copies. What the hell, Nintendo? Not all people have $543 to drop on a new console and a new game. Plus, the Switch really doesn't have a pleasing lineup yet (I don't want to play Binding of Isaac on another console...) It's not that hard to print copies of the game, is it?
- all the LoZ amiibo are gone, off the shelves. I haven't even seen a Toon Link/Link/Ganondorf/Zelda amiibo in the wild in a long time. I saw someone at my local Toys R Us snag the last Guardian amiibo...seriously. (Oh, and they are going for $60 a piece on Kijii/Craigslist.)
Where I Am in the Game:
I have a couple of sets of armour (Gerudo, climbing, sheikah, and a couple of others). I did 31 shrines (probably will do more), considering I want the master sword. I'm ready to open up Vah Ruta. I just finished with Van Naboris (the Gerudo one).
What I Love:
- BoTW saves before every main boss - dying means restarting and retrying your tactics. It's a quick load time too, meaning that you can try as many times as you want without sitting on loading screens.
- ambient music is very quiet and creepy. Upon starting the Gerudo divine beast, I got creeped out by the music...
- sentient bosses have personality!
Fighting the boss of the Yiga clan, I expected a serious fight, like his minions, instead I got a tantrum throwing "little kid" who tried to crush me with metal balls. I so did not expect that...
- the survival aspect is very different from any past LoZ game. Fill Link's pockets with stuff, use the stuff to make food or potions OR use them to upgrade your armour. It's surprisingly complex.
What I Like:
- bosses can be flurry rushed with perfect consistency once you learn the cues/split second timing. Gives combat more options instead of Link bashing things with his sword. I get a little burst of endorphins every time I manage to trigger the prompt for "flurry rush".
- exploring in the game is rewarded with finding weird stuff. I ended up walking up to the Gerudo highlands in anti-cold gear, and I found a bear! I managed to kill it with arrows and it dropped a hearty salmon. In the close area, I noticed a rock covering a cave entrance, and I couldn't move it with magnetic force. I used statis and then bashed the rock, and found a treasure trove of stuff, including gold rupees in a chest and swords.
What I Dislike:
- the Blood Moon cycle. I get it, respawning all enemies makes it feel like there is tension in the air, despite Link exploring the land for no reason instead of recovering his memories or taking down Divine Beasts.
- taking weapons instead of buying them. I get it as a design choice - get good, destroy enemies with your current weapons and everything else. Encourages you to explore too, as different enemies hold different things (I just beat an Lynel just for his sword and shield.) I just broke most of my weapons on Thunderblight Ganon's face and now I'm using arrows to try to take weapons out of enemy mobs.
- motion controls for some shrines. I know, that was a selling point for the Wii U, but how imprecise the controls are makes me fear for my sanity. I had to shut down the game after failing a large marble maze too many times.
What I Don't Understand:
- the game released on March 3, 2017. I see people selling it and the Switch after they completed the game. Seriously - that's 18 days of gaming. How the hell are people bopping Ganon on the head so quickly? I want to explore every corner of the map, and meet all the NPCs, but apparently it's too much for some people.
- there is a serious lack of Wii U copies. What the hell, Nintendo? Not all people have $543 to drop on a new console and a new game. Plus, the Switch really doesn't have a pleasing lineup yet (I don't want to play Binding of Isaac on another console...) It's not that hard to print copies of the game, is it?
- all the LoZ amiibo are gone, off the shelves. I haven't even seen a Toon Link/Link/Ganondorf/Zelda amiibo in the wild in a long time. I saw someone at my local Toys R Us snag the last Guardian amiibo...seriously. (Oh, and they are going for $60 a piece on Kijii/Craigslist.)
