This game is not easy to rate at all. Should it be considered for itself or with BOTW in mind? Can I even base my review on my experience or I have been exposed to too many opinions to be free of influence?
It's hard to answer these questions but i'd say we can't take BOTW out of the équation so easily for now and I certainly noticed more things (or more quickly) because of other's reviews.
I have to admit that it has tons of flaws.
- The two new maps are under exploited. The sky (which could've been my favorite map) is almost totally optional (beside the tutorial and water temple), is small and only contains some shrines. The depths, on the other hand are way too big for nothing. It's almost a bonus area, artificially filled with bosses and pieces of equipment. The exploration is not worth it. I lit all the bulbs and then...left. Because there wasn't anything left for me to do here.
- The bestiary lacks variety, especially when you consider that most of the players played BOTW and already know most of the monsters.
- The shrines also lack variety. There are way too many Rauru's blessing and those don't feel like blessings at all but as a lazy way to not create more puzzles.
- The main quests are also in the same locations as BOTW's, but the temples aren't better. I found myself thinking that the path to access them was sort of funnier than the temples in themselves.
- The inventory is a pain to use. It was definitely possible to do better than that and it makes the combats unbearable (and I don't even like BOTW's combat system in the first place).
The story could be a strenght of the game. But even if they made an effort compared to other Zelda games, it can't rival with a real good story.
Even if all these this things had a negative impact on my experience (and made the game begin to feel boring after something like 100h), I enjoyed it a lot and prefered over BOTW.
I'm convinced that in five or ten years people won't play BOTW anymore and straight up start with TOTK to get the best experience.
To me, TOTK felt more engaging. There was always a thing to do, a cave to explore, a shrine to check, a weapon to make, a little line of quest to follow, etc. And it was addictive. BOTW didn't feel like that to me.
The new powers are neat and made the exploration feel unlimited.
People might have felt that with BOTW, but the magic didn't exactly worked for me before TOTK (I liked BOTW tough).
Everything was better executed than in BOTW and the feeling of freedom reach the maximal amount of its potential. I felt really happy when I discovered the 5th temple by myself, at the begining of the game, and completed if before the others. Others felt excited to find the master Sword on their own.
Everything encourages exploration and exploration is always rewarding. It made me realize that it was the reason why breakable weapons were so important; which BOTW didn't make me manage to understand.
It was also even more gorgeous and technically impressive than BOTW.
That's why even if the game has lots of flaws, i'm giving it a really good grade. It made me feel what BOTW couldn't, an unlimited sense of freedom.
It's hard to answer these questions but i'd say we can't take BOTW out of the équation so easily for now and I certainly noticed more things (or more quickly) because of other's reviews.
I have to admit that it has tons of flaws.
- The two new maps are under exploited. The sky (which could've been my favorite map) is almost totally optional (beside the tutorial and water temple), is small and only contains some shrines. The depths, on the other hand are way too big for nothing. It's almost a bonus area, artificially filled with bosses and pieces of equipment. The exploration is not worth it. I lit all the bulbs and then...left. Because there wasn't anything left for me to do here.
- The bestiary lacks variety, especially when you consider that most of the players played BOTW and already know most of the monsters.
- The shrines also lack variety. There are way too many Rauru's blessing and those don't feel like blessings at all but as a lazy way to not create more puzzles.
- The main quests are also in the same locations as BOTW's, but the temples aren't better. I found myself thinking that the path to access them was sort of funnier than the temples in themselves.
- The inventory is a pain to use. It was definitely possible to do better than that and it makes the combats unbearable (and I don't even like BOTW's combat system in the first place).
The story could be a strenght of the game. But even if they made an effort compared to other Zelda games, it can't rival with a real good story.
Even if all these this things had a negative impact on my experience (and made the game begin to feel boring after something like 100h), I enjoyed it a lot and prefered over BOTW.
I'm convinced that in five or ten years people won't play BOTW anymore and straight up start with TOTK to get the best experience.
To me, TOTK felt more engaging. There was always a thing to do, a cave to explore, a shrine to check, a weapon to make, a little line of quest to follow, etc. And it was addictive. BOTW didn't feel like that to me.
The new powers are neat and made the exploration feel unlimited.
People might have felt that with BOTW, but the magic didn't exactly worked for me before TOTK (I liked BOTW tough).
Everything was better executed than in BOTW and the feeling of freedom reach the maximal amount of its potential. I felt really happy when I discovered the 5th temple by myself, at the begining of the game, and completed if before the others. Others felt excited to find the master Sword on their own.
Everything encourages exploration and exploration is always rewarding. It made me realize that it was the reason why breakable weapons were so important; which BOTW didn't make me manage to understand.
It was also even more gorgeous and technically impressive than BOTW.
That's why even if the game has lots of flaws, i'm giving it a really good grade. It made me feel what BOTW couldn't, an unlimited sense of freedom.