This review contains spoilers
[Edit: I mulled it over and decided this game deserves to sit among my other 5 star rated games. It's kind of a masterpiece the more I think about how well all its gameplay systems work together. Even if exploring the world can get repetitive at times, I'm certain I will revisit this game every once in a while.]
I'm sort of torn between giving this game 4 and 4.5 stars. This game has so much charm and clever design in how it lays out characters and stories throughout the open world. Revisiting old friends in each region and seeing how the Upheaval has affected them managed to retain a feeling of mystery and intrigue despite being set in the same locations with the same characters. The temples in this game are a vast improvement from the Divine Beasts of BotW, and I found almost all of them exciting to tackle. I almost feel like I enjoyed the build up to each temple more than the temples themselves. Diving into Death Mountain to discover a lost underground city and braving a sandstorm to see an abandonded Gerudo Town overrun by Gibdos were highlights. Stumbling upon the Spirit Temple and getting to build an pilot a mech was such a great surprise that I'm happy wasn't spoiled for me in any way.
The story as a whole was pretty lacking, with all of the regional characters referring to the big bad in the same exact way. I understand why they had to tell the story this way, but I don't think that excuses it or makes it good. What is much more compelling about the narrative are all of the smaller stories you will come across in the world that have nothing to do with Ganondorf.
Discovering new monsters and ways to use their body parts as weapons was such a fun experience akin to a Monster Hunter lite game. I couldn't help but grin each time I discovered a new combination that made a strong and badass looking weapon. The fuse mechanic in general is incredibly satisfying to use, and it made hunting down Koroks again actually bearable for a while. That being said, there is still an insane amount of repetition and filler in this game. Addison puzzles were cute at first, but less cute when I saw this incompetent man trying to put up some monstrosity of a sign in every corner of the map. Fighting the same Hinoxes and Taluses again all these years later gave me little enjoyment. The Battle Talus was ok, but it was still just a rock monster with some Bokoblins on it. Gleeoks were a terrifying and incredible addition to the game, I found myself desperate to find more miniboss enemies like this, but unfortunately there aren't that many.
The sky islands and chasms were initially mind blowing, I couldn't fathom that there was an entire map beneath the overworld of the same size. I guess I should have been more skeptical because there just isn't anything down there. Hunting down Kohga and seeing the Divine Dragons flying through the chasms was pretty entertaining though, but other than that there's just kind of nothing to do. I could look for all the statue merchants so that I could buy armor that I wouldn't even be able to upgrade fully without some grinding, but that didn't seem very fun to me. Similarly, a lot of the sky islands offer a lot of the same challenges as well. Go to this island to get a crystal so that you can go into a shrine and get a weapon or resource. The only thing that made the sky islands more interesting than the chasm were their vibrancy and the fact that you could just jump down to the overworld from them.
I don't think I will ever be able to go back and play BotW again as this game is just kind of everything BotW had, but better. I was also one of the few people that thought BotW was pretty overrated, and honestly I'm torn on whether or not I feel the same about this entry. However, I do think it deserves the high marks as it's a technical marvel and filled with charming moments.
If you stick to the critical path, you'll have an amazing, physics driven, Zelda experience with total player freedom in how you approach your tasks. If you try to turn over every rock and explore every cave, you will absolutely burn out on the game like I did. There were several times, specifically after my first region clear of Hebra, and during my third region clear of Necluda, that I felt unmotivated to continue playing. I do think I can see myself revisiting this game someday, but I will absolutely not spend as much time scouring the map as I did on my first playthrough.
I'm sort of torn between giving this game 4 and 4.5 stars. This game has so much charm and clever design in how it lays out characters and stories throughout the open world. Revisiting old friends in each region and seeing how the Upheaval has affected them managed to retain a feeling of mystery and intrigue despite being set in the same locations with the same characters. The temples in this game are a vast improvement from the Divine Beasts of BotW, and I found almost all of them exciting to tackle. I almost feel like I enjoyed the build up to each temple more than the temples themselves. Diving into Death Mountain to discover a lost underground city and braving a sandstorm to see an abandonded Gerudo Town overrun by Gibdos were highlights. Stumbling upon the Spirit Temple and getting to build an pilot a mech was such a great surprise that I'm happy wasn't spoiled for me in any way.
The story as a whole was pretty lacking, with all of the regional characters referring to the big bad in the same exact way. I understand why they had to tell the story this way, but I don't think that excuses it or makes it good. What is much more compelling about the narrative are all of the smaller stories you will come across in the world that have nothing to do with Ganondorf.
Discovering new monsters and ways to use their body parts as weapons was such a fun experience akin to a Monster Hunter lite game. I couldn't help but grin each time I discovered a new combination that made a strong and badass looking weapon. The fuse mechanic in general is incredibly satisfying to use, and it made hunting down Koroks again actually bearable for a while. That being said, there is still an insane amount of repetition and filler in this game. Addison puzzles were cute at first, but less cute when I saw this incompetent man trying to put up some monstrosity of a sign in every corner of the map. Fighting the same Hinoxes and Taluses again all these years later gave me little enjoyment. The Battle Talus was ok, but it was still just a rock monster with some Bokoblins on it. Gleeoks were a terrifying and incredible addition to the game, I found myself desperate to find more miniboss enemies like this, but unfortunately there aren't that many.
The sky islands and chasms were initially mind blowing, I couldn't fathom that there was an entire map beneath the overworld of the same size. I guess I should have been more skeptical because there just isn't anything down there. Hunting down Kohga and seeing the Divine Dragons flying through the chasms was pretty entertaining though, but other than that there's just kind of nothing to do. I could look for all the statue merchants so that I could buy armor that I wouldn't even be able to upgrade fully without some grinding, but that didn't seem very fun to me. Similarly, a lot of the sky islands offer a lot of the same challenges as well. Go to this island to get a crystal so that you can go into a shrine and get a weapon or resource. The only thing that made the sky islands more interesting than the chasm were their vibrancy and the fact that you could just jump down to the overworld from them.
I don't think I will ever be able to go back and play BotW again as this game is just kind of everything BotW had, but better. I was also one of the few people that thought BotW was pretty overrated, and honestly I'm torn on whether or not I feel the same about this entry. However, I do think it deserves the high marks as it's a technical marvel and filled with charming moments.
If you stick to the critical path, you'll have an amazing, physics driven, Zelda experience with total player freedom in how you approach your tasks. If you try to turn over every rock and explore every cave, you will absolutely burn out on the game like I did. There were several times, specifically after my first region clear of Hebra, and during my third region clear of Necluda, that I felt unmotivated to continue playing. I do think I can see myself revisiting this game someday, but I will absolutely not spend as much time scouring the map as I did on my first playthrough.