I think Dread's controls and moveset have sort of ruined any other 2D Metroid titles for me. The controls felt pretty stiff, even though I know it was an improvement over previous titles. The boss battles I found quite infuriating because of the way things controlled. The space jump felt a bit awkward in its timing, but I'm unsure if that's due to the emulation or the controller.

I don't mind the more linear approach as the maps you're presented when you arrive at a level aren't always what they appear to be, so there are some explorative elements to it. The pixel art is wonderful. The soundtrack and level design provide a great sense of atmosphere. The SA-X is a solid idea from a narrative and gameplay scenario.

I'm glad I gave this a try, but if I'm diving back into 2D Metroid, I will just play Dread again.

Booting into ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ for the first time, it’s immediately obvious why this is one of the most discussed games of the last decade. The mysterious world you step into, the massive and diverse landscapes in the distance, slowly uncovering the mechanics of this complex but intuitive sandbox feels like the beginning of an incredible game, but I’d quit this one twice before.

Back in 2017, I’d played it on the Wii U but put it down around the first Divine Beast. Still, I remember frantically informing my friends in school how I learned to start a fire and cook food, praising the sandbox for its mind-blowingly intuitive design.
My second attempt, in 2019 on the Switch, ended only a few hours after where I’d quit the first time, so I made sure to play it all the way through that now. Those first 5 hours combined with the interesting sandbox gave me the gusto to finish this game, and I’m glad I did.

The overall gameplay feels amazing. The simple sensations of movement sink deep into your unconscious mind. Jumping off a hill, climbing a cliff face, working your way towards a distant location, are all magical. I can still feel my Link avatar dashing across the vast green fields of Hyrule, shield-surfing desert sands, and trudging through snowy mountaintops. Rain and lightning are often a bother, but when the sun starts shining, the wind starts blowing, and those ambient piano notes start playing, you truly get that breath of the wild you signed up for. This- dare I say, strand type gameplay loop provides a beautiful, zen-like pleasure. It didn’t have me fiending to grind all day, but each time I booted back on it instantly reminded me of it’s simple pleasure.

From the moment you step out of the resurrection cave, the massive landscapes of Hyrule radiate a deep sense of mystery. Is anyone alive? What else is out there? The opening sets up for an epic narrative, but it never advances the story even a step. No matter where you go in this world, over and over again you are told the exact same synopsis(that is probably on the back of the box); 100 years ago Calamity Ganon took back Hyrule. You were critically injured and put to sleep in the resurrection cave. Now you must save Zelda and Hyrule by conquering the four divine beasts and defeating Ganon. I mashed the A button through this pointless exposition dialogue repeatedly, impatiently waiting for the next quest marker or thing to do. Characters with narrative potential spew this exact same dialogue in your face over and over. 10 hours into this game I was groaning out loud every time they had to remind me of the game’s synopsis. The story is easily the weakest point of this game, not only on its own, but because the handcrafted world is constantly begging for narrative depth.

As far as the world design at large, there is ton of detail put into the nooks and crannies of Hyrule, but 90% of it revolves around shrines, which are frequently hollow in design, containing basic puzzles or repeat combat encounters. There are certainly some fun and interesting ones, but I felt the most bored when they were the main thing I was doing. Entering and exiting these things triggers the same tedious animations of Link opening the doorway and descending the elevator, artificial game lengtheners you’ll find a host of all around this game. Most shrines took me only a few minutes to complete, but contain maybe 30-40 seconds of forced animation, even when mashing the skip button. I found myself agonizing over this shrine to shrine gameplay before I realized this is exactly where I’d quit in my last two play-throughs, right after the first divine beast in Zora's Domain, and there was an obvious reason for that; the narrative simply dies out.
You are again where you were at at the beginning of the game, left to complete this divine beast checklist and take out Ganon. My quest to reach the Impa character unraveled into nothing besides the usual exposition and a new location-based quest for Link to recover his memories; short flashback cutscenes with no depth, corny dialogue, and horrible voice acting. Most of these scenes surround Zelda and her weight to bear as the princess, and how she is unsure of Link’s ability to face Ganon. The corny writing and voice acting comes to a peak as she monologues to a blank-faced, silent Link about her problems.

So after several hours of grinding shrines and climbing towers, I booked it towards the next divine beast in hopes of something fun to do.
Each of the four divine beasts occupies a unique, detailed city, with its own biome, race of people, and architecture. The craftsmanship here is fantastic, and every time I stepped into one of these cities I was inspired to continue grinding the game. They each have a nice charm to their respective people and environment, but consist mostly of fetch quests or shrine quests. The activities and abilities required to tackle these cities were unique enough to keep me engaged, but I wish there’d been some storytelling that made me want to save these places, something to actually make me care as a human being. Nevertheless, Gerudo Town is the standout here, with beautiful lighting, design, music, and engaging new mechanics involving the sand dunes. This is the one city with not only an intriguing setup and intro quest, but two memorable quests where you fight a giant sand worm and infiltrate a ninja base.
This area was so great it had me ready to give a close to perfect score, but the last hour proved to me how desperate this game is for some sense of narrative weight. As I approached Hyrule castle for my final confrontation with Calamity Ganon, it felt like the opposite of what every character in every location had told me repeatedly. This wasn’t a final, epic battle to save Hyrule, it was just a quest marker and boss that would trigger the end of the game.

Breath of the Wild’s cover art, opening, and concept all had a massive scope, but it relies on its fairy tale storytelling to spell out gameplay opportunities, rather than actually tell a story. I wanted so badly to get further immersed in this world but it failed to ever make me care, about Link, Zelda, or even Hyrule.
With that said, I still love this game. It’s hard to put into words the sandbox gameplay that makes it so good, and there’s a solid amount of surprises in the world that I’ve left out. The creativity this sandbox allows, along with the feeling of just being in the world, can only speak for itself. The flaw’s aren’t exactly small, but they pale in comparison to the overall experience of playing through the game.