This review contains spoilers
Coming off of playing this game in the past when I was younger and thinking "I like zelda" into adulthood down the pipeline having played A Link to the Past a bunch randomized for some multiworlds with friends this game felt very good to come back to and 100%.
I can't really offer much more than what hasn't already been said in terms of the good, with an overall not unusual zelda experience with 4 opening dungeons to kick off the adventure and 8 more in the latter half, the main difference between this game and most others is the non linearity it gives with item choice as it provides you with a rental system in which you can get all of your traditional zelda items, such as the boomerang and hookshot, almost immediately, with the caveat the you will lose them upon a game over as it is a rental system. This brings me to the next point, the rental system is such an odd take to the Zelda series formula but works very well in the understanding that traversing the world rarely if ever actually required any items throughout the whole journey, just some actual action upgrades to pick up rocks or be able to swim, and to top it off made it really easy to rent your items and eventually buy them via the overabundance of rupees, the staple Zelda currency. Alongside the changes in which you obtain your items this adventure, another major change is your resources, gone are arrows and the bomb bag and instead you get to use an "energy" meter A.K.A this games magic meter that replenishes over time instead of needing a collectible on the ground the drops from enemies or breakable terrain such as tall grass. The only real reason this review is left down half a mark is due to one reason which you get access to once you have bombs, the Maimai collect-a-thon, the purpose of this game's collection quest is to collect cute sea-snail like creatures to bring back to their mother whom offers upgrades for every 10 you bring back with 100 in all, and, you're even provided a filter for your over world map to see how many remain in sections of it! The problem that comes with the collection process begins almost immediately if you can't play with sound on because all of them emit noise to let them know you're close, so if you don't have headphones, are hearing impaired or your audio for your device does not work, you HAVE to use a guide for several that just aren't on screen. Otherwise, the overall collection and use of this collect-a-thon is not nearly as bad as newer Zelda collection side quests both in terms of usefulness and 100% collection. This game also being a direct sequel to A Link to the Past has some nice callbacks throughout the whole game from the whole map being nearly one to one in terms of locations with only some being hugely different both in the light and dark world (known as Lorule instead of just the dark world in link between worlds) and the secrets that it calls back to with small caves and such. The whole Lorule segment of the game is also an amazing improvement to the previously mentioned dark world from Link to the Past, with the introduction of the game's flagship mechanic being wall merging, which lets you do exactly as the name suggests, and when doing so has you become a mural like painting of yourself and move around walls only being limited to what blocks where you move (broken walls or blocks in the 3d space in front of you) and your magic meter which drains relatively quickly. This also lets you get between worlds (ha) via portal cracks that appear in the world once you obtain this ability the first time you've gone into Lorule, another thing that returns in this game from its predecessors is fast travel, this time, using a bell as your music instrument of the game, but, in order to actually fast travel, you need to interact with weather veins that also act as save points in this game which will usually be in major point of interest, such as entrances to dungeons or the shop you purchase your items, after which you will be allowed to fast travel to any of these weather veins you've unlocked as long as you're in the overworld, and not just the Hyrule, but Lorule as well, in comparison to Link to the Past where you could only fast travel to specific points in the light world. Additionally, this game makes use of the 3d capabilities in such an amazing way by making it seem like you're peering down into this amazing top down adventure and sometimes even seeing it pop out of the screen from the pit that was seemingly being created to make a window to a new world. Overall, if you're down for a nice few days to a week of playing a top down Zelda game, I'd highly recommend playing it as it's definitely something you won't want to miss if you're playing this series and the experience will only be supplemented with cool callbacks if you've already played A Link to the Past!
I can't really offer much more than what hasn't already been said in terms of the good, with an overall not unusual zelda experience with 4 opening dungeons to kick off the adventure and 8 more in the latter half, the main difference between this game and most others is the non linearity it gives with item choice as it provides you with a rental system in which you can get all of your traditional zelda items, such as the boomerang and hookshot, almost immediately, with the caveat the you will lose them upon a game over as it is a rental system. This brings me to the next point, the rental system is such an odd take to the Zelda series formula but works very well in the understanding that traversing the world rarely if ever actually required any items throughout the whole journey, just some actual action upgrades to pick up rocks or be able to swim, and to top it off made it really easy to rent your items and eventually buy them via the overabundance of rupees, the staple Zelda currency. Alongside the changes in which you obtain your items this adventure, another major change is your resources, gone are arrows and the bomb bag and instead you get to use an "energy" meter A.K.A this games magic meter that replenishes over time instead of needing a collectible on the ground the drops from enemies or breakable terrain such as tall grass. The only real reason this review is left down half a mark is due to one reason which you get access to once you have bombs, the Maimai collect-a-thon, the purpose of this game's collection quest is to collect cute sea-snail like creatures to bring back to their mother whom offers upgrades for every 10 you bring back with 100 in all, and, you're even provided a filter for your over world map to see how many remain in sections of it! The problem that comes with the collection process begins almost immediately if you can't play with sound on because all of them emit noise to let them know you're close, so if you don't have headphones, are hearing impaired or your audio for your device does not work, you HAVE to use a guide for several that just aren't on screen. Otherwise, the overall collection and use of this collect-a-thon is not nearly as bad as newer Zelda collection side quests both in terms of usefulness and 100% collection. This game also being a direct sequel to A Link to the Past has some nice callbacks throughout the whole game from the whole map being nearly one to one in terms of locations with only some being hugely different both in the light and dark world (known as Lorule instead of just the dark world in link between worlds) and the secrets that it calls back to with small caves and such. The whole Lorule segment of the game is also an amazing improvement to the previously mentioned dark world from Link to the Past, with the introduction of the game's flagship mechanic being wall merging, which lets you do exactly as the name suggests, and when doing so has you become a mural like painting of yourself and move around walls only being limited to what blocks where you move (broken walls or blocks in the 3d space in front of you) and your magic meter which drains relatively quickly. This also lets you get between worlds (ha) via portal cracks that appear in the world once you obtain this ability the first time you've gone into Lorule, another thing that returns in this game from its predecessors is fast travel, this time, using a bell as your music instrument of the game, but, in order to actually fast travel, you need to interact with weather veins that also act as save points in this game which will usually be in major point of interest, such as entrances to dungeons or the shop you purchase your items, after which you will be allowed to fast travel to any of these weather veins you've unlocked as long as you're in the overworld, and not just the Hyrule, but Lorule as well, in comparison to Link to the Past where you could only fast travel to specific points in the light world. Additionally, this game makes use of the 3d capabilities in such an amazing way by making it seem like you're peering down into this amazing top down adventure and sometimes even seeing it pop out of the screen from the pit that was seemingly being created to make a window to a new world. Overall, if you're down for a nice few days to a week of playing a top down Zelda game, I'd highly recommend playing it as it's definitely something you won't want to miss if you're playing this series and the experience will only be supplemented with cool callbacks if you've already played A Link to the Past!