Being a moderately experience Zelda fan (there are many games in the series I have not yet played), this was both an exciting and mildly disappointing entry for me. I love the open world take on the franchise and I think they did a really great job with the level design and the incredible atmosphere. The variety in weapons and armor is fantastic as well. The whole cooking mechanic is a ton of fun as well. However, where there are many positives to this title, and I certainly recommend this game to anyone with even a remote interest in it, there are several things that I found to be disappointing.
As much as the story tried to feel epic, there were a few design decisions that caused that feeling to be lost on me. Side quests weren't that interesting and only netted the reward of rupees (none of them reward you with cool items or anything). The fact that themed dungeons with a story have been all replaced with shrines and the Divine Beasts was a bit of a letdown. While the Divine Beasts were supposed to feel like dungeons, they just felt like extended shrines with a Ganon variant at the end. And speaking of Ganon, instead of being an actual character, Ganon was replaced with more of a concept of himself, and his boss fight is unfortunately underwhelming. Probably the easiest fight in the game for me. The weapon durability system would have been really cool if the weapons didn't break so freaking fast. The voice acting also kind of detracted from the experience, as it was wildly varied in quality. It's the most ambitious entry to the Zelda franchise, and it's certainly a great game, but it was a little underwhelming. I am excited to see what they do with the sequel, though!

I respect the hell out of Nintendo for taking a swing as big as this, mostly blowing up the Zelda formula and giving us something that plays out more like a Western RPG. It wasn't quite my cup of tea- my favorite parts of Zelda games is how incredibly dense and meticulously planned Hyrule always feels, whereas Hyrule here felt a little bloated and repetitive. But Nintendo took the "try the temples in any order" from Link Between Worlds to its natural conclusion, adopting that philosophy even inside the non-linear temples themselves, with a final boss you can take on an hour into the game should you feel up to it. I really hope the upcoming sequel strikes a better balance between this open-world ethos and the classic Zelda formula.

The world is gorgeous, the gameplay is tight and feels good to be good at, and the freedom to explore and approach battles at your own pace and with your own methods is delightful. That's about it.
Despite being open world, the world is very empty. There's hardly any beautiful music the Zelda series is known for, towns are all the same just with different aesthetics, and the exploration, while fun, will only ever get you a non-special weapon that will just break eventually, a shrine, or a Korok seed. Of course there are the three mazes that do get you an exclusive armor set, but in such a vast world, only getting one set of armor that barely does anything isn't much. The shrines are fun, they create small, easy to grasp yet challenging puzzles and have some battles that force you to play to the best of the game's combat parameters, but they're not a good substitute for long, intricate dungeons, and neither are the sacred beasts which pale in comparison to any dungeon and get more monotonous with each one because they have such little variation from one another. Completing a shrine, however, only nets you a champion's seal, an item that, when four are gathered, can be exchanged for either a heart container or stamina container. I love this because it allows for you to pick and choose how to build your character but fights are so easy and you have so much food and potions at your disposal that getting a ton of hearts isn't much of a concern. Obtaining the Master Sword is what incentivised me to even focus on hearts rather than stamina, which increases your scope of exploration, but after getting it, all incentive to search for shrines withered to nothing, and once you have an ample amount of pocket space for your weapons and shields, there's little to no reason to explore for korok seeds. Shrines and koroks are the only real reasons for exploring so once you lose those incentives, the game's vast world becomes hollow and boring. There are no dungeons, the Sacred Beasts are no substitute, the lack of varied locales fails to breathe depth into the world, and after completing what little the gsme has to offer, it's easy to see just how boring and empty it really is.

A game that deludes itself into thinking it's a return to form to some completely imaginary past, and ends up just removing a lot of what made Zelda what it was, now replaced with quantity over quality. This philosophy permeates throughout the entire game, with tons of really bland puzzles that never fundamentally change because the game wishes you to always be able to take everything on, which only removes a lot of sense of progression and variety. There's never any new ways to do anything, solving puzzles is always the same, and for enemies you just use your strong weapons if you're having trouble. Main dungeons have never been this bland and lifeless before, as, again, you don't come across any new mechanics and all bosses are a joke to ensure you can beat them no matter the order you took them in. The overworld is huge but really uninteresting to explore, and exploration itself is a pain, with rain, an entirely pointless mechanic, coming down every time you ever try to climb something. The game is alright if you just to play by shutting down your brain

If I could just review Eventide Island I would give it five stars. The problem lies in that the vast majority of Breath of the Wild is effectively another Map Game, indistinguishable from the likes of everything Ubisoft churns out year after year (though with much better aesthetics, admittedly). In many ways, it feels like a proof of concept for the best game ever made, rather than that final result so many seem to adore. I don't blame them; if I could enjoy it that much, I would jump at the chance. As is, I'm eager for the Majora's Mask equivalent: the follow-up which fulfills its latent promise.

Since its inception the Zelda series has coasted on getting the player to ask two questions: "What do I do?" and "How do I do it?" In Breath of the Wild, the first question is almost completely absent. This isn't necessarily a problem, as the game markets itself heavily on the second. However, while the "how do I do it" has brief flashes of greatness, it quickly fades away into nothing. The first time you defeat a guardian, it's exhilarating. Once you master parrying lasers, which doesn't take long, it becomes tiresome. Planning out how to take out a band of bokoblins is engrossing initially, but realizing that it'll only result in a dent in your stash of good weapons and the enemies respawning in a few days makes it more of a chore than anything. The champions' abilities are the worst offenders- each of them simply makes the gameplay less complex, the opposite of what upgrades should do. Revali's gale makes figuring out how to gain height almost a non-issue, avoiding damage is trivial once you have dozens of hearts, a second life, and a shield than can block any blow, and Urbosa's fury is just a win-this-fight-for-me button. They wouldn't even be that bad if there was some task you had to do to earn using them, but it's bafflingly just a cooldown.

In short, Breath of the Wild is filled with great "firsts." The first time you find one of the dragons just flying around the open sky, it's mesmerizing, but it becomes less so when you realize that it's one of the few unique entities in the massive world that you can just stumble upon. I feel like these first experiences are why people connect with the game so much- I'd consider it a great game too if the entire experience was like the first few hours. This definitely seems like an impossible task, but it's also the reason I'm optimistic about the fact that Breath of the Wild is getting a direct sequel. I just hope Nintendo takes some risks with the next one.

An addicting new take on the Zelda series with a pleasing new artstyle, voice acting that actually works quite well, and a non-linear approach to all dungeons. Though the game breathes new life into Zelda, and makes it far more welcoming to newcomers of the series, there are a plethora of things that it falls flat on (especially if you're an avid fan of Zelda.)

Some of the most recognizable aspects of any Zelda game, the unique bosses, different themed dungeons, iconic music, Ganondorf himself, are all mostly absent from the title.

When music is used, it's no doubt beautiful, but it's nothing that you'll remember and hum in your head for the rest of the week.

The bosses feel uninspired, and while the first few are fun, by the fourth, you realize they're all basically the same thing, their designs looking exactly alike.

All four of the main dungeons in this game look identical, and almost play the same. They're atrocious compared to the unique dungeon design of the Zelda games before it.

Ganondorf has always been the main antagonist of the Zelda series, and most of the games do a good job at setting him up as a dark villain to be reckoned with. Though, this game does do a pretty good job at establishing him as a villain, what with him being responsible for the collapsed landscape and the death of the champions, you never really get a sense of his true character, as in the final encounter with him, he's nothing but a giant blob creature that has little resemblance to the Ganondorf we've come to know.

Although there are several design and story elements that make this game seem forgettable, at the end of the day, it does what every game should aim to do: be fun, and addicting.

For many, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Twilight Princess were the standard bearers of 3D Zelda games for years to come. But then came a game that took everything we knew about the series and turned it on its head for the better. Gone were the linear dungeons, items that were good for only one or two parts of the game. Now there's a gigantic wild Hyrule to explore, of which EVERY part of the map can be traversed with the proper gear. Hyrule IS the dungeon, because Ganon rules it all.

This is the first open-world adventure game where I don't feel overwhelmed. There's no complicated crafting, and for the crafting that is there, it's easy to follow: just pick up the parts you need, that you likely already have, and hand 'em over or cook them, no complicated methods of doing so. For me that's a huge plus.

Honestly, it's a beautiful game, very detailed with lots and lots of things to do, the open world really did justice.

But for me it's too childish, the lack of objectives with so much UI to do it, the NPCs are empty and they barely add anything to this game, the story is cliché but that shouldn't surprise anyone, you don't play for the story, but for the adventure.

Again, the game is superb in so many aspects, i just could not play this, not my thing.