After almost 4 years of its release and other 4 years between BotW and this game's Playtroughs I decided to buy a Switch 2 alongside the enhanced edition, and I gotta say, it's one of those games that get better the more you play them.
I was sceptical at the beginning, as I left BotW in 90/95%. I knew how to windbomb, do most of the duplication or general glitches and advanced stuff that abused the game's mechanics to overall make Link an actual broken legend. At the start of my TotK playthrough I misstook the begining's ''Slow'' Pathing with Nintendo getting rid of ''Mechanics'' we used to have in the past. Truth is Windbomb was a glitch and there was almost no way of moving fast in the game without a horse, the bike or a fair amount of shrines to TP and a LOT of stamina to run.
So, to begin with, I was wrong.
I spent the first hours missing windbomb and the Sheikah Slate's abilities too, but ended up at the rest of the playtrough recognizing how much they actually gave us with the Ultrahand and even after giving BotW a go again, it felt ''Lacking'' to a certain degree to me, they are way too different and my error was to think they should be compared as much as I (And a lot of people) did.
Storywise, it was interesting, I absolutely enjoyed the Time Travel parts which involved Zelda eating the secret stone in order to heal the Master Sword. I love that in modern Zeldas she has a lot more of a Protagonist (because she is a protagonist after all) role in the story, it also made me appreciate her more than I already did as someone whose favorite Zelda game is SS. But I feel like it did not live to the big things they could have done. SS is another game that plays with time and IMO, those back and forth games they did with the time-gate were just better than what we had here.
The four Temples were not of my liking, I felt like they were soulless to a certain degree and I absolutely disliked the ''Do something with these switches untill your hand opens the bossfight'' mechanic, these coming with the annoying ways to summon the Sage's Abilities just made me feel like not using them at all in any moment of my playtrough because they were not very useful to begin with.
Don't get me wrong, the one I liked the most and even repeated was the Thunder Temple and I can recognize the fact that every one of said places have a beautiful art direction, It's the repetitiveness of doing the same with a different formula 4 whole times and hearing the War Stories from the sages With little tweaks over and over again what made me just skip the hell out of every single one except for Mineru's telling, since she is one of the Story ''Rich'' Sages. Overall, I enjoyed these places, but since SS and OoT (I will cry with the Remake) are my favorite Zeldas and they have really, really good dungeons in them, TotK falls a little low. IMO BotW's Beasts (the Divine Beast Dungeons) and bossfights are better, aside from the infinitely superior TotK Ganondorf's Bossfight, of course. Overall, I think they could have done something similar to SS with the Time Stones since they already took the sky Islands and air movement as a reference and it would have felt better.
- Personal Note, I HATE Yunobo, and I hated the fire temple (Except the Bossfight, I loved it) because I had to get pass through it with him. This is not Ideal or has much sense (even for a subjective post) but I cant stand him. I hate these Young + Big + Strong as HELL + Insecure of everything + ''I will still fight'' character they gave him. I dont feel like it fits a Goron Sage, its hideous and cringy for me, I'm sorry, Yunobo enjoyers.
Overall, Dungeons were not bad, and the bossfights were somehow more enjoyable than I care to give credit, still, I found preparing for said places and events far more enjoyable than going there (Its not the reward its about the journey ahh take).
Regarding the Open world, it feels amazing. I hate exploring the Underground. But at least with enough duped mats I can fly through fast enough to share a working life with its slow-intended exploration. I have yet to meet a lot of NPCs that were on BotW but one thing at a time. I liked almost every Side Quest I encountered so far and find myself doing them without tutorials, they feel great and having the ability to rewind objects (Rauru my beloved) makes things a lot easier alongside the amount of innovation and Player Expression the Ultrahand gave to all of us.
The Damned Master Sword, I think the only thing I regret about this game is not taking the MSGnotFound QR when I had the chance. if I and a lot of people are eager to play OoT's remake it is, among a lot other things, because we crave for a sword that doesn't fucking break and a Master Sword that actually lives up to the name and aura Nintendo has given it with the pass of these years. Howhever, I can understand that an Unbreakable Master Sword would Trivialize these two games (Wild Era Zeldas) and make them boring, so it is, in its own frustrating way, a weapon that I value a lot and use only in special places or fights, it is what it is. I still think it's durability should double after getting every shrine as Lorewise the Master Sword is an extension of Link's Strenghts and becoming stronger also means the Sword gets stronger as a result, but Alas, we are 15 days away from an unbreakable Master Sword in OoT.
So, I enjoyed the HELL out of the game, it is more BotW, and BotW was good as sleeping full 8 hours and actually resting. Finally, of course, and as always with every TLoZ game, almost shed a tear with the ending, saving Zelda and hearing the beautifull soundtracks they give Link whenever he is protecting her as the Hero of the Legends makes my brain tickle every single time. Do I think the dungeons could have been better? yes. Absolutely, I have played few Zeldas and calling them the worst would feel like a stretch, but they are my least favorite aside from two of them and the final fight, which became one of my favorites.
Regardless of my unpolite way of saying what I disliked about the game, it is still a Nintendo masterpiece to a certain degree and you all can, of course and without a doubt, disagree. I feel I can give it a solid:
8/10 - Would replay it? fuck no, the temples and Yunobo were bad enough for me not to want to go through them again, would I reccomend it? Absolutely, it is a game everyone should play at least once if they had the chance and everyone would be able to enjoy it until 80/90% completion easily.
Let me know what you think if you got this far. cheers!
