This review contains spoilers
-Gameplay
--Outstanding. Nothing to add that hasn't already been said. So many options to solve puzzles/accomplish goals that you set for yourself. You set the difficulty and get to live in a world that feels mostly alive.
Moderate/Major complaints that folks often overlook because the gameplay is THAT outstanding:
-Story
--Pretty mid
-Final Boss fight.
--Calamity ganon phase is good. Was really fun and had multiple phases and it paid off the divine beast/champion story well, with the health reduction @ the start and also using the abilities at the right time.
--Then the beast ganon feels like - a good BONUS phase to a 3 phase fight..... but it turns out its the 2nd and final phase, so overall leads to just feeling underwhelming ending
-Durability System
--This system makes way more sense in a world where the master sword doesn't exist.
--The TOTK version is clearly the superior, final version of this because how melding/combining stuff works. it feels REALLY cool in that game, but also again still sorta doesn't make sense in a world where master sword exists.
--Master sword should basically never decrement 'energy' when fighting specific enemy types. Which, they SORTA do but they don't go all the way with it.
--Otherwise, this does feel like a good way to get players to experiment with different weapon archetypes (spear, broadsword, greatsword, boomerang, 2h axe, 2h hammer) and their paired elements (fire, ice, electric). So there's definitely good design in the durability system, I just don't know how it makes sense in a world where the Master Sword exists and the series has had significant weapon upgrades/acquisitions in the past.
-Shrines
--Any shrine that requires joycons is completely absurd. those gizmos that like, require motion control basically discriminates against people who don't have joycons. luckily fortune had joycons i could use for those ones.
-Divine Beasts
--Divine Beasts didn't feel like temples, they felt like SUPER SHRINES.
--So in a world where there are shrines and super shrines, i'd expect there to be a 3rd difficulty up... which should've been the divine beast difficulty
--Outstanding. Nothing to add that hasn't already been said. So many options to solve puzzles/accomplish goals that you set for yourself. You set the difficulty and get to live in a world that feels mostly alive.
Moderate/Major complaints that folks often overlook because the gameplay is THAT outstanding:
-Story
--Pretty mid
-Final Boss fight.
--Calamity ganon phase is good. Was really fun and had multiple phases and it paid off the divine beast/champion story well, with the health reduction @ the start and also using the abilities at the right time.
--Then the beast ganon feels like - a good BONUS phase to a 3 phase fight..... but it turns out its the 2nd and final phase, so overall leads to just feeling underwhelming ending
-Durability System
--This system makes way more sense in a world where the master sword doesn't exist.
--The TOTK version is clearly the superior, final version of this because how melding/combining stuff works. it feels REALLY cool in that game, but also again still sorta doesn't make sense in a world where master sword exists.
--Master sword should basically never decrement 'energy' when fighting specific enemy types. Which, they SORTA do but they don't go all the way with it.
--Otherwise, this does feel like a good way to get players to experiment with different weapon archetypes (spear, broadsword, greatsword, boomerang, 2h axe, 2h hammer) and their paired elements (fire, ice, electric). So there's definitely good design in the durability system, I just don't know how it makes sense in a world where the Master Sword exists and the series has had significant weapon upgrades/acquisitions in the past.
-Shrines
--Any shrine that requires joycons is completely absurd. those gizmos that like, require motion control basically discriminates against people who don't have joycons. luckily fortune had joycons i could use for those ones.
-Divine Beasts
--Divine Beasts didn't feel like temples, they felt like SUPER SHRINES.
--So in a world where there are shrines and super shrines, i'd expect there to be a 3rd difficulty up... which should've been the divine beast difficulty