Just started ocarina this is pretty good so far

Every point he made was completely correct lol

I think criticizing the map recycling is pretty fair tbh while I don't think it was a bad idea the execution leaves a lot to be desired imo

Like you get areas that are completely overhauled like gerudo desert and death mountain but it feels like they got lazy and didn't bother to change most of the other regions on such a level...

For a game based on BOTW that had that long of a development cycle it's honestly pretty bad how much of the content is recycled

I can think of something that was made a big deal in the marketing of this game that ended up not being all that as well

The flaming hoops people are jumping through to justify 6 years is crazy. I think it’s pretty telling that the discussion surrounding the game is getting less and less positive as time passes since it was released. People are discovering that it didn’t really do as much as it looked to within the first few hours

A lot of the points they raised were either exaggerations, oversimplifications, and/or not engaging with the mechanics of the game to solves some of these issues (like the glyphs for instance, build a hot air balloon, you don’t have to, nor are you supposed to, scour the surface, even the tutorial for that aspect of the game takes place on a hot air balloon).

Also the conceit that Zelda is dungeons. The entire f***ing map IS the dungeon. Every region in the game corresponds to a different dungeon with its own rules that force you to engage with the game’s mechanics differently.

You mean like pretty much every Zelda that has ever released?

(This scene is from BotW, not TotK)

I haven’t played this since a while lols
Like I will be playing it on my flight to Japan though and maybe after I finish FF16 which I’m playing now.
I just felt that I was going too much through it too fast so I had to take a break.

What marketing

Lol. Going by internet forums botw would be mid too but its still top ranking in gaming sites all time lists, still in the best selling games lists 6 years later with no price cuts, still talked about in social media. The same will happen for totk, vocal minority will be the loudest again and again most people and publications will praise the game for years to come

I don’t think it’s really comparable. BOTW reception was much more universally positive than this

yup. most main critiques stem from this. I do have a few issues but so many people just seem to simply not engage with the game's core game play.

It’s because you’ve seen all the core gameplay 2 hours in and it’s never expanded upon. Like, ever

you expand on it tbh. There are plenty of different Zonai devices to build from. You are basically making the game exciting. Combat improved drastically due to this. At first I was beating down enemies just like I did in BOTW but once you get creative it can be really fun.

Botw was a phenomenon that hasnt been replicated since, was a new direction for a 30 year old series almost on its last legs, relaunched Nintendo to the highest peaks after Wii U, of course totk reception wont be as Universal. But in terms of quality and quality alone, it comes pretty damn close, and at the very least definitely not less positive like you've claimed. Look at final fantasy XVI if you want a true example of a controversial game.

Best thing about the depths is the music

While I agree with your point I don't think the game does a great job at inviting you to come up with your own solutions, everything is always right in front of you, it holds your hand a lot more than botw ever did, it feels like they weren't confident enough to let the players figure out things on their own

If you take the game at face value you never actually need to build crazy ass contraptions to do anything

Yeah but doesn’t that kinda suggest that they didn’t do enough with the new mechanics? You never, ever have to spend more than a few minutes on a puzzle or build anything complicated and if you can’t figure it out you just Autohand your way around. It all kinda wraps back around to the refusal to use any sort of progression gate being a big design flaw that ironically prevents you from progressing much at all. Pretty much every player creation I have seen that actually utilized the new mechanics in a complex interesting way is only good for Reddit upvotes and doesn’t actually have any use in game. It

I don’t think combat ended up hugely different because for me it was mostly limited to just fusing stuff to my weapons. Maybe I’m doing it wrong but it never really felt that cost or time effective to use the devices or especially built things in combat.

The most fun I had with the game was before I realized this spent an hour trying to build a launch mechanism for a wing in a mini game before i realized you didn’t need to and you could just put fans on

I mean, in these 2 games almost nothing is mandatory. Mfs have finished botw without fighting at all besides the bosses for fear of losing their precious weapons, and the game lets you do that. This doesnt mean they didnt make a whole refined system around combat, durability, challenge and reward. It just means they dont want to pressure you into doing it if you dont want to. Sure, ultrahand isnt needed, but it makes the game tremendously more fun, ingenious, rewarding, creative. Its simplicity, snappiness, intuitiveness and versatility makes it that you can find It fun whether you're building a simple raft, airplane or a more complex machine of death or korok torture device. Ive heard from so many skeptical of ultrahand that actually playing around with it in game is fun. And for those who dont like it, like you've said, its mostly not needed, and they can enjoy the 3 other abilities which are more universally beloved, or worst case scenario use the blueprints you get as reward. Its not bad necessarily, player agency is almost a lost concept on modern AAA games, so its nice to have here. And the only incentive it needs to have is to be fun really, which based on places like twitter and reddit, id say it meets that requirement. This game more than botw rewards experimentation with its systems simply by being more accessible to the average player and by being silly, goofy looney tunes comedy most of the times

I think what separates people who absolutely love botw and totk and people who hate em is why they play games. Also how much they like twilight princess but thats another story
Is it to have fun playing or to reach an objective. Is It to simply play that level in Mario or reach the goal line. Is it to fight malenia or get her rune, see to the end of the story and read her lore, is It to play around with fuse, ascend, recall and ultrahand in that huge enemy camp in the depths or get to the chest and hope for a good reward. To me, going from one sky island to another to reach the big spherical island above gerudo highlands was more fun than finding the rewards around there. I have more fun witnessing the level design of ds1's lordran than looking for the cool sword hidden behind a black knight. Rewards are important too, but they're always the cherry on top, the end of that Adventure for me. For every game ive ever played i remember the journey with the most fondness, not the reward.