PullHard
☂
- Jul 18, 2007
- 28,409
- 2,492
Ok very late to this game due to life getting in the way, not quite done it yet (done divine beasts and have 3/4 of shrines found), but finally played enough of the game to really venture into the online discussion without fear of key parts being spoiled for me.
I had an interesting relationship with this game as I got it at launch on my Wii U, played it for about 3 hours and was decidedly against the whole premise of it. I was calling it Zelder Scrolls. It was like the developers thought "how can we make this as western as possible while still applying the Zelda flourishes to it?" to me.
I was wanting to hop in and get some engrossing story and maybe beat most of a dungeon/ temple within the first few hours. Instead I was waylaid by the paraglider tutorial fetch quest.
I put it down just as I got to Zora's Domain after maybe 10 hours of gameplay over the course of the next week or two and thought it was obviously a well made game but not at all for me. I don't mind linear, hand holding Zelda games if the story actually grabs me and the dungeons are satisfying and rewarding with the items and puzzle solving. What was so wrong with that formula that they had to do away with it completely?
Anyway, in late August I picked up a Switch in anticipation for XCOMario, as well as SM Odyssey and other games. Was told by numerous friends and family members that having Zelda on the Switch is worth buying it a second time because it is nice to be able to play in bed/ commuting/ etc. I thought what the hell I should justify owning this console with a couple of games and bought it again.
Went in with a completely different mindset of purely hunting out good items, shrines, finding all of the memory locations, etc. and it was A LOT more fun and rewarding. The memories specifically were fun because I was getting backstory while having fun seeking out all the little spots throughout the giant map. Found a lot of shrines along the way, as well as the master sword and doing a lot of fun little side quests.
I've probably sunk in between 50-100 hours now (is there somewhere to see this info? I see people posting specific numbers on here and my friends mention it to me too but I'm ignorant of it if it appears in the game menu somewhere) and I've gotten a lot of the extras. Still a ton more to find obviously with there being so many shrines and koroks and side quests, but I'm through the bulk of the game.
So, after doing all of the adventuring and beating the four divine beasts I'm back to where I started. Obviously a well made game, had more fun than I realized/ was willing to accept at first, but the divine beasts were all able to be beaten in about half an hour to an hour, required very little skill due to me having found the master sword first, and I'm still back with the opinion that this game is SEVERELY lacking in all of the things that has made Zelda so beloved by the fanbase over the last couple of decades. There were maybe 5 times that I completed a puzzle and was really satisfied with the feeling of having figured it out. The shrines are so small and quick that once you figure out the mechanic for that shrine the last obstacles which are supposed to be challenging aren't usually very challenging at all. I am pretty disappointed, honestly.
I'm not trying to have a scorching hot take, it is obviously a great game for a lot of reasons, but has anyone else felt this way? Walking around is fun, but most of this game is comprised of scaling cliff faces and paragliding across canyons. That to me is not super fun, and definitely not what I play Zelda for. There is a lot of content in the game, as it is massive and they put in so many shrines and little fetch quests, but I'd argue that a lot of it is really shallow and doesn't allow the player to really dig in and get into the same sort of groove that say a dungeon from past Zelda's have.
I get that it is a trend in gaming to have big open worlds, and that the hand holding and linearity of Zelda titles is often restricting, but to take it to this extreme seems disappointing to me. If I wanted to play Skyrim I would just do that. Again, not saying this game is actually BAD in any way, just that I really hope that they straighten themselves out from that big shift and maybe find some middle ground. If they had made the divine beasts bigger, or had say 8 instead of just 4, I would have even just appreciated that much more legitimate dungeon puzzle solving fun.
I'm rambling at this point, but does anyone agree with me?
I had an interesting relationship with this game as I got it at launch on my Wii U, played it for about 3 hours and was decidedly against the whole premise of it. I was calling it Zelder Scrolls. It was like the developers thought "how can we make this as western as possible while still applying the Zelda flourishes to it?" to me.
I was wanting to hop in and get some engrossing story and maybe beat most of a dungeon/ temple within the first few hours. Instead I was waylaid by the paraglider tutorial fetch quest.
I put it down just as I got to Zora's Domain after maybe 10 hours of gameplay over the course of the next week or two and thought it was obviously a well made game but not at all for me. I don't mind linear, hand holding Zelda games if the story actually grabs me and the dungeons are satisfying and rewarding with the items and puzzle solving. What was so wrong with that formula that they had to do away with it completely?
Anyway, in late August I picked up a Switch in anticipation for XCOMario, as well as SM Odyssey and other games. Was told by numerous friends and family members that having Zelda on the Switch is worth buying it a second time because it is nice to be able to play in bed/ commuting/ etc. I thought what the hell I should justify owning this console with a couple of games and bought it again.
Went in with a completely different mindset of purely hunting out good items, shrines, finding all of the memory locations, etc. and it was A LOT more fun and rewarding. The memories specifically were fun because I was getting backstory while having fun seeking out all the little spots throughout the giant map. Found a lot of shrines along the way, as well as the master sword and doing a lot of fun little side quests.
I've probably sunk in between 50-100 hours now (is there somewhere to see this info? I see people posting specific numbers on here and my friends mention it to me too but I'm ignorant of it if it appears in the game menu somewhere) and I've gotten a lot of the extras. Still a ton more to find obviously with there being so many shrines and koroks and side quests, but I'm through the bulk of the game.
So, after doing all of the adventuring and beating the four divine beasts I'm back to where I started. Obviously a well made game, had more fun than I realized/ was willing to accept at first, but the divine beasts were all able to be beaten in about half an hour to an hour, required very little skill due to me having found the master sword first, and I'm still back with the opinion that this game is SEVERELY lacking in all of the things that has made Zelda so beloved by the fanbase over the last couple of decades. There were maybe 5 times that I completed a puzzle and was really satisfied with the feeling of having figured it out. The shrines are so small and quick that once you figure out the mechanic for that shrine the last obstacles which are supposed to be challenging aren't usually very challenging at all. I am pretty disappointed, honestly.
I'm not trying to have a scorching hot take, it is obviously a great game for a lot of reasons, but has anyone else felt this way? Walking around is fun, but most of this game is comprised of scaling cliff faces and paragliding across canyons. That to me is not super fun, and definitely not what I play Zelda for. There is a lot of content in the game, as it is massive and they put in so many shrines and little fetch quests, but I'd argue that a lot of it is really shallow and doesn't allow the player to really dig in and get into the same sort of groove that say a dungeon from past Zelda's have.
I get that it is a trend in gaming to have big open worlds, and that the hand holding and linearity of Zelda titles is often restricting, but to take it to this extreme seems disappointing to me. If I wanted to play Skyrim I would just do that. Again, not saying this game is actually BAD in any way, just that I really hope that they straighten themselves out from that big shift and maybe find some middle ground. If they had made the divine beasts bigger, or had say 8 instead of just 4, I would have even just appreciated that much more legitimate dungeon puzzle solving fun.
I'm rambling at this point, but does anyone agree with me?
i remember that feeling. 
