This review contains spoilers
God, where do I even start or how do I even begin to put my feelings into this game, I've been thinking about it for a few days and I've been going from really good feelings and mixed ones, but my experience was thankfully mostly great and I don't think I regret any second of playing it
If I were to express what genuinely does gripe me… is the story and I wish it didn’t cause I loved what it does on paper but it’s execution just didn’t fit the landing, it's beautifully tragic but also weird in its execution, still miles better than what BOTW had tried
Everything from about Rauru and Sonia, the first king and queen of Hyrule to the new Ganon is awesome (and Mineru is also awesome, like dawg that Spirit Temple and you getting a mech??? THAT’S SHIT AWESOME), and this possibly has one of the coolest premises a Zelda games has ever had, like the opening is so intriguing,
Link and Zelda start exploring the underground of Hyrule Castle and find that there's an arm sealing a who knows how old Ganondorf from way back and then accidentally awakening it, and Link getting his arm damaged and replaced with Rauru’s arm, Zelda goes back in time and, it’s almost the opposite of OoT, where Link goes back and forth in time but, here it’s Zelda and she’s also stuck there BUT it's all so perfectly executed.
Even in the introduction island you witness Rauru’s ghost here and there telling you about the place, but shortly after the introduction island, it’s mostly just a lot of playing the actual game and witnessing how the Upheaval has affected the world, which is awesome, but then you start seeking out the memories and watching all the cutscenes related to what the story pieces together, and it’s almost the same structure as BOTW had? Close to it at the very least if I remember correctly, but this is where my problems starts, anything story related is just insanely short and it feels like there’s not a lot of time given to establishing it all.
It felt like by the time that I had reached the Mastersword and the finale of the game, it felt like I only saw bits and pieces of the story, and it trying to tie it all together nicely, but it all seemingly not managing to stick, and I had played this for about 16 days straight, not actual gametime but I took about 2 weeks or around there to beat it and still am wanting to play more but…
Even with the dungeons, at the end there’s a cutscene explaining their perspective on the imprisoning war, and it’s… about the same each time, it’s really cool the first time and how there’s a article about that this game is about making connections but again, it’s the same each time with the imprisoning war,
While they could’ve given me more cool tidbits about their lives, living in the old Hyrule, Rauru etc, just anything that’ll make it so the player gets more from the world of past Hyrule, or the characters and everything else they had established in the memory cutscenes or JUST ANYTHING, but it doesn’t and that’s what bugs me, but none of the Zelda games were ever like this, their total cutscene runtime reaching maybe 1-3 hours, but it makes sense why they never were as big or as expansive games that reached the height that TOTK does with all of it’s aspects combined, but why does it have to fall short on the one thing that many people do love about these games? I’m just very confused on how I feel about the story structure and it being immensely short by the time I was at the finale, and anything else in the game reaches it’s highs really high, but the story not…
Everything from draconification, Ganondorf and how he came to stealing the secret stone, becoming the demon king, how Rauru underestimated him in that moment of weakness and used it to his advantage, are all so awesome, hell the final fight between Link and Ganondorf here is so fucking cool and awesome, he taunts you the ENTIRE fight and also even has flurry rushes like you do??? IT TRULY FELT LIKE THEY MADE ONE OF THE COOLEST GANON FIGHTS EVER, AND THEN THE FINAL FINAL BOSS IS GANONDORF ALSO TURNING INTO A DRAGON WITH THE LEITMOTIF PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND, AND YOU RIDING ON THE LIGHT DRAGON’S BACK, IT’S SO AWESOME.. but also just felt flat on me despite it all, it felt like the story didn’t have enough time to marinate in my head, and I had no real expectations besides it being better than BOTW but, seemingly them using the same format to hand me these really short cutscenes in the midst of this really huge game felt like nothing ever stuck with me as hard as the beginning and the ending, my journey itself was amazing, but anything I learned from Hyrule’s long gone past just didn’t manage to stick, despite it being so awesome to witness and journey through
All in all, even though my gripes only reach the main story of the game and how it didn’t live up to the impact I would’ve wanted it to give, this is regardless an amazing open world experience, there are not many games out there being able to hand you such a huge beautiful open world meshing 3 landscapes on top and down each other, the depths are eerie, creepy and full of secrets from the past, and them using ideas that they couldn’t fully execute in Skyward Sword here are also awesome, in my lifetime I’d never have expected a Zelda game where I’d be skydiving or flying in some jet in made towards a mini dungeon that looks like a cube, just one of the many examples I can give, but that’s also what’s so great about this series’ evolution, it’s puzzles and the ideas they’ve had, them having no restrictions and limitations created something truly amazing, but also something that can feel very flawed at times, but those flaws don’t ever hinder the experience itself ever, and always reach for new heights that I’m always excited for in the future of gaming and these games
If I were to express what genuinely does gripe me… is the story and I wish it didn’t cause I loved what it does on paper but it’s execution just didn’t fit the landing, it's beautifully tragic but also weird in its execution, still miles better than what BOTW had tried
Everything from about Rauru and Sonia, the first king and queen of Hyrule to the new Ganon is awesome (and Mineru is also awesome, like dawg that Spirit Temple and you getting a mech??? THAT’S SHIT AWESOME), and this possibly has one of the coolest premises a Zelda games has ever had, like the opening is so intriguing,
Link and Zelda start exploring the underground of Hyrule Castle and find that there's an arm sealing a who knows how old Ganondorf from way back and then accidentally awakening it, and Link getting his arm damaged and replaced with Rauru’s arm, Zelda goes back in time and, it’s almost the opposite of OoT, where Link goes back and forth in time but, here it’s Zelda and she’s also stuck there BUT it's all so perfectly executed.
Even in the introduction island you witness Rauru’s ghost here and there telling you about the place, but shortly after the introduction island, it’s mostly just a lot of playing the actual game and witnessing how the Upheaval has affected the world, which is awesome, but then you start seeking out the memories and watching all the cutscenes related to what the story pieces together, and it’s almost the same structure as BOTW had? Close to it at the very least if I remember correctly, but this is where my problems starts, anything story related is just insanely short and it feels like there’s not a lot of time given to establishing it all.
It felt like by the time that I had reached the Mastersword and the finale of the game, it felt like I only saw bits and pieces of the story, and it trying to tie it all together nicely, but it all seemingly not managing to stick, and I had played this for about 16 days straight, not actual gametime but I took about 2 weeks or around there to beat it and still am wanting to play more but…
Even with the dungeons, at the end there’s a cutscene explaining their perspective on the imprisoning war, and it’s… about the same each time, it’s really cool the first time and how there’s a article about that this game is about making connections but again, it’s the same each time with the imprisoning war,
While they could’ve given me more cool tidbits about their lives, living in the old Hyrule, Rauru etc, just anything that’ll make it so the player gets more from the world of past Hyrule, or the characters and everything else they had established in the memory cutscenes or JUST ANYTHING, but it doesn’t and that’s what bugs me, but none of the Zelda games were ever like this, their total cutscene runtime reaching maybe 1-3 hours, but it makes sense why they never were as big or as expansive games that reached the height that TOTK does with all of it’s aspects combined, but why does it have to fall short on the one thing that many people do love about these games? I’m just very confused on how I feel about the story structure and it being immensely short by the time I was at the finale, and anything else in the game reaches it’s highs really high, but the story not…
Everything from draconification, Ganondorf and how he came to stealing the secret stone, becoming the demon king, how Rauru underestimated him in that moment of weakness and used it to his advantage, are all so awesome, hell the final fight between Link and Ganondorf here is so fucking cool and awesome, he taunts you the ENTIRE fight and also even has flurry rushes like you do??? IT TRULY FELT LIKE THEY MADE ONE OF THE COOLEST GANON FIGHTS EVER, AND THEN THE FINAL FINAL BOSS IS GANONDORF ALSO TURNING INTO A DRAGON WITH THE LEITMOTIF PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND, AND YOU RIDING ON THE LIGHT DRAGON’S BACK, IT’S SO AWESOME.. but also just felt flat on me despite it all, it felt like the story didn’t have enough time to marinate in my head, and I had no real expectations besides it being better than BOTW but, seemingly them using the same format to hand me these really short cutscenes in the midst of this really huge game felt like nothing ever stuck with me as hard as the beginning and the ending, my journey itself was amazing, but anything I learned from Hyrule’s long gone past just didn’t manage to stick, despite it being so awesome to witness and journey through
All in all, even though my gripes only reach the main story of the game and how it didn’t live up to the impact I would’ve wanted it to give, this is regardless an amazing open world experience, there are not many games out there being able to hand you such a huge beautiful open world meshing 3 landscapes on top and down each other, the depths are eerie, creepy and full of secrets from the past, and them using ideas that they couldn’t fully execute in Skyward Sword here are also awesome, in my lifetime I’d never have expected a Zelda game where I’d be skydiving or flying in some jet in made towards a mini dungeon that looks like a cube, just one of the many examples I can give, but that’s also what’s so great about this series’ evolution, it’s puzzles and the ideas they’ve had, them having no restrictions and limitations created something truly amazing, but also something that can feel very flawed at times, but those flaws don’t ever hinder the experience itself ever, and always reach for new heights that I’m always excited for in the future of gaming and these games