I guess this is a mini, mostly-non-spoilery review after playing this game, almost 24hrs worth. That was the plan. Then this happened. Also you guys can discuss your opinions.
[spoiler]Just to note, I've barely even dented this game, and I have indeed bought the Switch. I'm trying to spoiler free 100% (or as close as I can without a guide), which means where I could have gotten to the first town with people in about an hour, took me like, 3 because I'm looking around. Sometimes I go back to places and see that I STILL Miss things, so yeah.
In short, I want to talk about the game and share what it's all about because reasons.
Basically, this game, so far, is awesome. However, this is not a traditional Zelda game in any sense of the word. This game takes the Character names, races, and story elements, but literally nothing else is the same. Not even the buttons! I STILL hit B to swing the sword, which is the sprint button, which causes Link to put his weapon away automatically. And no, you can't change the button configuration (unless you can, in which tell me, please. And yes, I know you can switch the Jump/Sprint with each other, but neither help, as either way, I try to hit A to jump, just to do nothing/swing my shield, and accidentally fall without jumping).
This game, at the very beginning of the game, gives you almost literally EVERYTHING in terms of equipment (pretty sure, not positive). The only thing that REALLY changes later is some items get slightly better, and you get a Camera.
I love/hate the Camera. I wish it were near the beginning of the game that you got it, because I am a completionist, I want to get EVERYTHING. There's a thing where it wants you to take pictures of ALL of the Weapons, ALL of the Bows, ALL of the Shields, ALL of the Enemies, ALL of the wild animals, ALL of the bugs, and ALL of the Collectible Plants/Mushrooms, and even treasure chests, which is weird. AND I'M DOING IT! But you have to go through a lot of the game without it, now there's some weaker weapons that I need to find in order to complete it. Not only that, but I refuse bad pictures. The game is quite lenient on how good the picture can be, I am not. If it looks like crap, I will take another. Only exceptions are when it's a bug that won't intercourse ing stop moving, or an enemy is going to kill me, in which case, for both, I'll come back to it to later try again. I'm actually enjoying it because of this. I'm finding my inner photographer, and trying to get good enemy poses, or good lighting for the items. But I like it, so when I inevetibly want to replay it in the future, I'll have the option to kind of rush through that thing, and just take crappy pictures. Doubt I'll let myself do that, but I at least don't HAVE to get a good one.
And no, these are not for Figurines (or at least I don't think those exist in this game), you get the picture saved to your Sheikah Slate, and it is the picture you took.
And Selfie mode is back, except instead of it looking like you're taking a Selfie, it looks like you handed the camera over to your buddy Link2 to photograph your whole body.
Now back to the items, so spoilery, but you get them right away. There's bombs (Round & Square oddly enough, and they aren't timed bombs, you can choose when they detonate). A Magnet to get Metal items from a distance (The boomerang of this game I guess?). A Time Freezing thing (only freezes some objects, and later enemies too. Hit things frozen in time multiple times to make them fly away, and the cost of the durability of your weapon). Ice
breaker maker. Makes "ice" platforms on top of water sources. Can also be done on waterfalls. Can be used to get slightly submerged items, or make a path you don't have to swim on. All of those, are bundled onto the Sheikah Slate (Totally not a Game Pad), along with the Camera, but later. You get a Paraglider (They just keep expanding that Sail thing from Wind Waker), which allows you to fly around if you jump from high heights.
The Sword, you don't get to keep. Everything breaks, which makes a poop ton of variety. Sheild, same thing, and you get the Bow. Though super useful, I'm pretty sure it isn't required for much (I use it all the time, I just don't remember too many times I NEEDED to use it). But these also break. Arrows are everywhere (most enemy types can also use a Bow, and when you find groups, there will usually be one using one, and you'll usually get arrows from them), and not just from enemies, I walked on top of a mountain with no enemies in sight, and there are just arrows in the ground. There's no magic for the different arrows, there are just other arrow types. Which there are few of, and can't be spammed well.
Also, there are more than just Swords. First, before we talk about weapons, I want to mention the mechanic for Throwing your weapons. You can throw a weapon if you so choose, which I usually do when it's weak, or about to break. If a weapon breaks while you're fighting, it will do some weird explody thing which usually stuns the enemy you're fighting, but it's very satisfying to chuck your weapon at them.
There's the traditional 1 Handed Weapon (sometimes swords, sometimes clubs, etc.), there's 2 handed weapons (Large swords/clubs, sometimes axes, sometimes hammers, etc.), and then there's Spears, which also use 2 hands, but for different reasons. Last 2, you can't really use your Shield. However, in 1 handed weapons, there's also Magic Rods, which I haven't used yet, but I'm pretty sure you can't hit an enemy with them at all, or they'll break (swing from a distance to shoot balls of magic I think). The interesting one was the Boomerang. It's used like a Sword if you want, but it's gimmick is that you can throw it, and it will come back. Now the poopty part of this, is that it doesn't come back in your hands (or I haven't gotten it to yet), it comes back and stick in the ground behind you. VERY inconvenient when you're trying to fight a bunch of enemies. There's also torches, which are used for Fire Transfer, not really much for fighting.
And that's it. Those are all of the items. Which isn't bad.
So far, I haven't seen a single dungeon. I'm pretty sure there are none. However, there are tons of "Trials" which are basically mini dungeons, or more specifically, puzzles, that double as Teleportation points, so you don't have to walk everywhere. And you get this power to teleport right away too, no need to find a song or anything like that (the world is HUGE, so this is awesome).
Now, no dungeons, means no Bosses, which means no Heart Containers. Now, there are Bosses, but they're optional and scattered (at least I think Giant Rock Monster [which you can find at the beginning of the game] counts as a boss. Ran away, will deal with later). I haven't beaten any yet, so I don't know if they drop anything like Heart Containers or Stamina Increases, though I'm pretty sure they don't.
Whenever you complete a Mini Dungeon, you get a little Spirit Orb. Every 4, you can get either another Heart Container, or more Stamina Gauge by going to a Goddess Statue and Praying.
Something that I love, that I thought I'd hate, is the climbing mechanic. You can climb just about anything, and it's very useful. Helps you get around places too. Climb high, soar through the sky.
Cooking exists. It's there, not too fond of it, but almost required if you want to heal well. I have so many things that heal over 5 hearts (note, I only had 3 for super long time, and 4 for a long time too). Limited space, which isn't terrible.
You can make things that give you MORE hearts (for as long as you don't lose them. lose it? it's gone). Things that make you go faster, raise defense, raise attack, refill stamina, keep you warm (as cold climates will hurt you if you're not wearing the right clothes), make you resist elemental attacks, make you sneaky (sneaking is a thing, sometimes you need to hunt if you want good food, or sometimes you want to sneak on enemy camps, or even sneak away)
Swimming is now a Stamina based thing. Spoiler, you eventually get Zora Armor, but you can still drown if you run out of stamina in the water.
Armor is a thing too. You start out basically naked, and get clothes right away. I found you swim faster naked, at least until you get the Zora Armor.
I personally love the idea of having to change periodically throughout the game, changes the character's appearance, which is cool. Dying clothes is a thing too, so you don't just have to wear what it gives you, but change how it looks too. You can upgrade your armor too. So you don't just find an outfit and wear it 97% of the game. You can, but you'll probably die quite often.
Rupees are sparse. In most Zelda games, I never had to sell things, just collect 99 of everything and have all the money I need. Not here. You need to find chests, and sell things (all enemies have drops, and will always drop SOMETHING), or you will not be able to buy everything you want (mainly armor, maybe arrows).
Sidequests are now recorded, so you can save it to do later, and still be able to remember it when it's been a week.
Horse riding is interesting. Sneak up on a horse, tame it, then register it to a farm thing and you can ride it. There are different types of horses, some are faster, some have more stamina, and ones with multiple colors are easier to tame (single colored are harder, but better stats). I'm not too fond of how they did this. It's realistic in that, you can't be ANYWHERE and call your horse, you actually have to be nearish them.
My least favorite part about it is, I JUST NOW realized, I should get a horse, ride it to a town, then keep it in that town, and bring a new horse to the next. Instead, I've been bringing them back to the farm place (which was a pain), and now they're there, and if I decide to teleport, well, now I have to go by foot if I want to go somewhere new from that town, or go through the pain of bringing them back... Which I think I'm going to do... In my head, it would have been nicer for them to stay at the farm where I can get them anytime, but no, I was dumb.
Then there's Koroks. Interesting concept of, you find something slightly out of place, interact with it (ex: rock looking like it doesn't belong), and BOOM, Korok. They then give you a seed, which can be used later to upgrade how many Weapons/Bows/Shields you can hold. It's a fun thing, but I'm worried I'm missing A LOT...
That's all I have to say about it for now, and I can say more (I'll honestly probably edit in more)
[/spoiler]
I didn't say it in the spoiler box, but overall, the game is 1% like the Zelda Games of the past, being basically completely different, but that isn't a bad thing, though not a good thing either. It's just a thing. I love it regardless, though I wouldn't call it "better" than the traditional style.
What do you think of the game?
I would say that this game is a Breath of Fresh Air.
They changed around everything. Like this isn't just another copy/paste of the basic OoT framework. They actually sat down and made a new game entirely. It's pretty darn impressive. Enjoying it a lot so far.
I'm not really a fan of open-world games in general, but darn. Nintendo came out with something special.
This game is by far the best intercourse ing 3D Zelda, and I've only completed one of the main dungeons.
Everything else is watered-down poop compared to this game. It's unbelievable.
This game is really good. I thought I was sick of open world games and was convinced they are all dogpoop, but this one is good. Reminds me of Zelda 1.
it's my favorite 3d zelda since majora's mask
I heard somewhere that you could repair stuff, but I'm pretty sure they were mistaken. Though, not repairing, you CAN re-obtain the Champion's Weapons, which are arguably the best weapons in the game. You just need a Diamond to get new ones after they break, which honestly, isn't THAT hard, especially later in the game when Siver enemies become common. And the best Shield, Hylian, can be bought after obtaining and breaking it.
However, I find this breaking mechanic fine. I feel like if they could be repaired, it would take the value away from using all weapons thrown at you. Just use some Rupees and fix the best one, and go again. Though, not being able to repair does kind of make me not want to use some weapons, like the ones from the Amiibos, or the Champion Weapons. I hung some of those at the house because I don't want to break them. I want them forever.
So I finally beat the game guys.
It took me forever, but I 100%ed the game. All Shrines, all Side Quests, upgraded all Armor to max (except the Amiibo ones. Too many gosh darn Star Pieces. I found a "fast" way to find them, but not worth it), all Pictures (though I had to buy some Lynel weapon pictures, I never found some Lynels early enough to see their weaker weapons. Fairly upsetting), all the DLC, all Korok Seeds (I never planned to, but I kept having such huge gaps of not playing, I decided to reacquaint myself with the game by hunting, and eventually I decided to do them all. I regret nothing).
I love this game, and I personally hope they make another one like this. However, the ending, even the "special one" (which I didn't realize was special until I started to finally watch some BotW videos, and one said it only happens if you do this or that). It's awful. It's just... over. And that boss fight. It was Alright, nothing too special. Could easily be that I was just too overpowered, (All Shrines and Master Sword Boost). However the giant pig at the end, epic looking, disappointing in every regard. It's also upsetting that the Bow of Light can't join your inventory forever. Got all the darn seeds and there's a single slot open in my inventory that can never be filled, as it's forever saved for the Bow.
Anyway. I look forward to playing in Master Mode in the future someday. But not today.