I’ll be honest, I was prepared to shit on this game way more than I feel compelled to. It’s still pretty meh all things considered and does basically require a walkthrough, but I can understand more of why this would appeal to audiences of the past in a way I didn’t think was possible.

The very beginning and Dungeon 8 are the parts that stick out as just being a shitty experience all around (I’ll say this is also true with BotW in the former case though), but for the most part navigating the overworld and naturally becoming more prepared for different combat scenarios can be a suitably satisfying distraction; the general Zelda framework seen in later games is visible here under some layers of abstraction, and remains fun for a reason.

It is good that the game decides that enemies should sometimes drop bombs after being defeated to compensate for the player’s limited supply. It is bad when the game chooses to have those enemies be a hoard of Blue Darknuts that have to all be defeated to progress. This game is a land of contrasts, to be sure.

Regardless, most of the game isn’t nearly as agonizing to play as I had assumed based on the first 10 minutes or so, and that’s worth something. Maybe a whole 25 cents.