This was the "last" pokemon before the slippery slope that placed the series in the position it finds itself in nowadays.

Despite the fact that 5th gen Pókemon (BW & BW 2) were the last 2D games, and by default, the last "good" ones, Pokemon X and Y still hold up as a nice experience in the Pókemon world where players can expect some challenge.

My biggest criticism is that from this game on, the games were way more "hand-holdy" and VERY linear, making every single player neglect the exploration of the world that surrounds them.

Breath of The Wild isn't particularly astoundingly good, it's just that it makes other similar games seem embarrassing.

IT captures the feeling of travel travel only if one doesn't use the terrible quick travel system, it has a lot of interesting systems that make the fact it takes place in a world actually mean something that the player doesn't really need to engage with, and it has a lot of detail that makes it feel distinctly palpable. It just feels like a game that is building up to something that never really comes, everything is made accessible enough where nothing can really be too deep. Shrines are enjoyable little challenges, but never too advanced, combat is really pleasantly desperate feeling ,even in some cases later on in the game, but a lynel is still harder to kill than the final boss, and the game provides palpable rewards for things like quests, that honestly would be more pleased if they rewarded nothing at all.

But it has a lot of beauty and loneliness and exploration that do feel meaningful, when one tries even a little bit to make it so.

The first ten hours or so are magical, just an incredible experience exploring and adventuring and for some people that feeling continues for hundreds, even thousands of hours
But idk man the longer I played it the more I disliked it. The combat is actually terrible, the puzzles being split into one offs is super unfulfilling, any challenge from the weapon degradation is lost when it starts throwing powerful weapons at you like they're candy halfway through, the enemy variety is bad, the four "dungeons" are boring gimmicks, the story is uninteresting... you get the point, it just didn't click for me

sorry in advance for the wall of text, but playing the totk leak is making me want to write down my thoughts i've had on this game since early 2020.

i've completed this game 4 times, and every time it's gotten worse and worse. my memories of my first playthrough are awesome, but somewhere in between 2017 and now i became way less fond of massive open world games in general. don't get me wrong, i still really enjoy a well executed open world, but i just don't feel like botw's world fits that bill. yes, the physics are fun to fuck around with, but after you're done playing around with that, what else is there to do? fight the same 5 enemies and 3 bosses over and over? find koroks? it gets stale FAST.

shrines are cool except for the fact that 20 of them are tests of strength and 29 are empty (yes i know that the empty ones usually have a puzzle in the overworld you have to solve but idk 29 of the 120 shrines being completely empty just feels wrong).

my favorite parts of the game are where the narrative takes the main focus, so basically going to every civilization and doing the divine beasts, even though i feel like they are weaker than a good majority of 3d zelda's other dungeons. i like most of the characters in the game, especially zelda, very fond of this version of her, urbosa and revali. mipha is cool too but a little too plain to be one of my favorites. final boss is bad overall.

calamity ganon is just okay and i guess a nice shake up after fighting the blights. but dark beast is just a pathetic way to end the game off. was not satisfied with that at all, even after my first playthrough.

and outside of all that, i've got a lot of nitpicks that have built up over the 215 hours i've put into this game, my biggest of which would be having to pause every time i want to heal during a fight. not only does this completely break the pace of the game every time you do it, but it makes every fight braindead easy. it's literally impossible to die as long as you're prepared to hit the pause button.

some other nitpicks i have are the cooking system feeling a little pointless, not being able to fast travel with your horse (to fast travel points where nothing would change if your horse was with you), and the ost while roaming the overworld becoming really dull after hours of hearing the same 3 piano notes played over and over and over (the music tracks that aren't ambient are amazing though).

to wrap everything up, i would still say this game is fine overall despite my tastes changing, but unless i get amnesia i can't see myself ever coming back to it again because it feels like i've done everything a million times over. praying the next 3d zelda after totk is much more linear!

I tried so hard to like this game but it just very unfortunately was not my cup of tea. This game is so BORING.

It has an expansive map with little to do in it but random pockets of caves with some enemies in them or a single NPC waltzing around with little to say. I blame this game for the constant onslaught of empty open worlds we keep getting today, too many companies trying to copy what this game did and I don't understand why??? The world is bland, and I can applaud it for making climb mechanics actually function without looking like ass, but I just simply wasn't engaged. The only thing this game revolutionized was a new way to piss me off.

For a game that wants you to explore, it sure makes you work hard for it. The 3D puzzles are cool at first until you're on your 34th shrine with the same physics puzzles you've already seen. Or another shrine with the same enemy standing in it... again.

The weapon durability in this game is just infuriating and made me less likely to fight enemies because I'd know that my entire inventory would probably be broken by the end of it, so there was little point to fighting anything. There are some games that I love to death with durability features, but this game likes to leave you empty handed most of the time and struggling to find a good replacement often times in terrible spots, making it painful for the sake of being painful. Even then, the rewards were usually garbage and not even worth it anyways.

There are some NPCs who ask you to play games with them, but they're just time sinks. I would think "finally, something interesting to do" and then watch as all of my weapons shattered in my hands while doing it. It's like the game noticed I was enjoying myself for a minute and then said, "Wait- You gotta stop."

I cannot stand how the most basic features of upgrading your inventory slots and armor is blocked behind chores and Rupee paywalls in this part of the series. The memories feature has to be the worst feature of them all though because it directly affects the plot. If I want to learn anything about Zelda at all, I have to find these very specific parts of the map using only photographs as clues. She's meant to be an extremely important character with the highest priority of helping, but everything about her as a character is hidden behind optional content.

The best moment for me was when a Guardian vaporized my horse, now that shit was funny as fuck. Other than that though, I just don't find it enjoyable.