I remember spending a whole hour building a huge catapult to throw a korok i had to carry to the other side of a river to reach his friend. I had a airplane blueprint i could use and it would've taken me 20 seconds at best, but building that stupid catapult was funnier and watching the korok fly away was memorable. I saved the clip on my switch too. I wonder what the creative geniuses on twitter have done instead with that korok

Just beat the final boss

Amazing experience

I absolutely agree tbh I don't think any of the things I've said are really a negative, imo the freedom the game provides you with is a beautiful thing.but I also feel like the game doesn't know what stand to take in relation to that freedom, like I said I feel like it's very hand-holdey which goes against the whole basic idea of the game. Worst offender is probably the story, the non linear storytelling thing worked alright in botw but here it feels so messy and unfocused, and in some way it's how the whole game feels imo.

I don't know how to really put it into words without sounding like I'm straight up hating on it, I still really like it but it's a very confusing game imo idk what it's trying to do most of the time, it contradicts itself all the time, which was already a problem in botw but here it's pushed to an extreme

The sky islands are a good exemple of what I'm trying to get at, sure it's fun to navigate them but once you've done a couple of them you pretty much know everything you need to know about them, there's pretty much no need to experiment in these areas since all the work is already layed out for you with already built up machines everywhere, it was super disappointing imo because I was looking forward to figuring out how to move through the sky

Oh i didnt take it as you hating on the game (even if you did, as long as its fair criticism there would be nothing wrong) and you have brought up understandable criticism in the posts ive read. In regards to the hand holding, i disagree simply because ive read online tons of people having trouble with getting one shot by enemies cause they cant find the damn great fairies to upgrade their armor lol. The game does have a guiding hand, but it does in the most Nintendo way - its subtle, its gentle and its not pushy. I do agree that at times it feels more linear, but as long as its light guidance to me it isnt a problem. The game has an almost oppressive amount of content and mechanics so i see why they went this route.

I think you find it confusing because It has a lot going on, to the point it can feel like too much, like it could lose its identity at any time.
Im sure when you replay the game in a couple years you'll have a more positive view on it - i mean it when i say this game is incredible, and im only 2 dungeons in. Not to say your current feelings arent valid or anything, like i said your takes are perfectly agreeable!

Glad i never updated my game, the dupe glitches make this game so much more fun

Yah honestly a lot of my criticism also has to do with the way I play and the fact I've tried to master BOTW as best as i could, I think it gave me expectations that weren't met, I do think replaying this one will be a better experience than this first playtrhough, maybe when they release master mode and DLCs I'll finally get the challenge I wanted

Just finished this....what an experience...

It was f***ing beautiful.

I almost don't even feel the need to pick it up again because it ended so perfectly.

Without writing too much I do wanna say, while the puzzles could seem very "safe" / spelled out oftentimes, there's nothing that says you have to do them that way. I'd say in shrines I've done maybe 50-60 out of 100 with completely different solutions. Bomb shields, lifting, recalling ascending.

I feel like this is actually 10x better than the options you had to non-traditionally solve a shrine in botw.

(That being said there's still a lot more I wish they did, specifically more variety in sky islands / depths. Both very cool but once you've done ~5 things in each you're basically repeating that until you do it all.)

Drop master mode

I'm 10+ hours into the game now.

I'm having a little difficulty navigating the sky islands because the map doesnt account for the different islands being at different heights and overlapping.

A Metroid style 3D map would've been nice but I didn't find it too difficult to navigate

Im not finished with the game, far from it, but yet so far i can see and agree with this take. Maybe the quests arent as well written as in Red dead 2 or witcher 3 or cyberpunk, but damn they make you do different things everytime. In gameplay variety, totk quests really might be in the upper echelon of open world side quests, easily.

The shading on the islands themselves are different I believe, denoting their heights.

Yeah, ultimately the writing in the game is what holds them back.

Nintendo just can’t seem to get away from infantilizing their writing. Works okay with something like Mario, but it feels outright condescending at times in this game. By far my biggest issue with the game.

That and a lot of the voice work is just not good.

I think when writing these games they want them to feel universal, stories that can speak to children but that also can be interesting for the more mature part of the fanbase. I wouldnt say they always nail this, but imo they're pretty good at it. The only problems ive encountered so far with totk's writing Is the awkward curscene that plays after every dungeon that is literally the same exact one. A strange, baffling decision on their part that slightly ruins the payoff of these dungeons. For the rest, im liking the themes of human connection, collaboration and community, thats felt in both story and gameplay, in every single moment you play. This is their greatest strength too, making central themes in their stories prevalent in gameplay too. It also means that the story always comes after the gameplay Is finalized, so it can lead to slight inconsistencies or straight up bad moments.

I also have to say i find the dichotomy of botw's lonely adventure and totk's communal epic very fascinating

Need all my bralosers for this last temple

Some of the caves are really unique

Just found a cave that has a laser puzzle that’s different than any I’ve seen before

If you drop a pin on an island via the map, you can tell exactly where it is by looking in that general direction via the zoom/scope

The clearer it is the higher it is in the sky

so last night i beat the lightning temple and went to the Hateno lab to unlock more Purah Pad skills love how i’m still unlocking s*** like that ~40 hours in, keeps the gameplay fresh

I realized there’s no point in upgrading most armor sets past level 2. The amount of star fragments needed is ridiculous and combat feels too easy with maxed out armor.

Level 2 or 3 is good enough

I think after about 3 months its finally time to go to Ganon lol. Found all the special swords, shields and armors i needed. Got several fusions in rotation. The octorok blacksmith system is a fop 5 new feature.