This review contains spoilers
I came into this expecting something like Ocarina of Time—generically good, in the sense that it does the things you expect, just really well. And well, for the most part, yeah it is like that. But there's a little dash of weirdness in there that I like.
You turn into a bunny. No reason in particular why a bunny specifically. You just do. There's a massive pyramid in the middle of Hyrule. For 95% of the game, it's just kinda there. Your house is a bomb shop in the Dark World, for some reason. It doesn't try to draw a parallel between you and the bomb shop owner or anything, he's just some other guy. And everything to do with the mirror is fascinating. They let you warp back to the Light World just about anywhere, and that's crazy, and I wish they used that mechanic more fully. Also, the Triforce talks.
I played A Link Between Worlds before this, and I'm glad I did. The plot of that game works a lot better if you can't see it coming from a mile away. Also, enemies don't get stuck overlapping your sprite and take you from full health to death nearly as often, which is a plus in my books. I think both games are equally good, although ALBW leans slightly more towards "generic good" in a way that's not for everyone.
Link to the Past's dungeons are nowhere near as interesting as in a 3D Zelda game, but they're probably my favorite dungeons of the top-down games. They still lack the puzzle-box quality that makes me actually enjoy playing a Zelda dungeon, though.
The overworld, on the other hand, is very rich and alive. I found it was surprisingly easy to navigate, despite how limiting the game is on where you can fast travel to & where you can start when you load up the game. I like the open-ended progression (even if you need to deliberately ignore the game to achieve it sometimes).
For all the things I dislike about top-down Zelda gameplay, I feel like finding collectibles in them is much more fun than the 3D series. Searching every inch of the map for the last few Heart Pieces without a guide genuinely made me feel like a kid again, and it was probably my favorite sequence in the game.
I like this game. It lives up to its legacy.
How did the duck find you in the Dark World though? That was weird.
You turn into a bunny. No reason in particular why a bunny specifically. You just do. There's a massive pyramid in the middle of Hyrule. For 95% of the game, it's just kinda there. Your house is a bomb shop in the Dark World, for some reason. It doesn't try to draw a parallel between you and the bomb shop owner or anything, he's just some other guy. And everything to do with the mirror is fascinating. They let you warp back to the Light World just about anywhere, and that's crazy, and I wish they used that mechanic more fully. Also, the Triforce talks.
I played A Link Between Worlds before this, and I'm glad I did. The plot of that game works a lot better if you can't see it coming from a mile away. Also, enemies don't get stuck overlapping your sprite and take you from full health to death nearly as often, which is a plus in my books. I think both games are equally good, although ALBW leans slightly more towards "generic good" in a way that's not for everyone.
Link to the Past's dungeons are nowhere near as interesting as in a 3D Zelda game, but they're probably my favorite dungeons of the top-down games. They still lack the puzzle-box quality that makes me actually enjoy playing a Zelda dungeon, though.
The overworld, on the other hand, is very rich and alive. I found it was surprisingly easy to navigate, despite how limiting the game is on where you can fast travel to & where you can start when you load up the game. I like the open-ended progression (even if you need to deliberately ignore the game to achieve it sometimes).
For all the things I dislike about top-down Zelda gameplay, I feel like finding collectibles in them is much more fun than the 3D series. Searching every inch of the map for the last few Heart Pieces without a guide genuinely made me feel like a kid again, and it was probably my favorite sequence in the game.
I like this game. It lives up to its legacy.
How did the duck find you in the Dark World though? That was weird.