Finally got around to getting a switch and decided to play this game first given the amazing reviews. This was probably the most I've been disappointed in a game that I can remember. I doubt anyone cares about my opinion, but I felt like I wanted to leave my review somewhere just given how disappointed I was.
It is the first Zelda I have ever played, so maybe I lack the nostalgia that other's are experiencing, but I guess I just don't get the hype. It is a very good game, it is definitely unique and creative in some aspects, but the story, character, side quests, enemy, and dungeon design feels exceptionally lazy. There is basically like 6 or 7 total basic enemies that you fight throughout the game with various subcategories separated by color and HP. The dungeons/"shrines" are incredibly repetitive and have very little payoff, as the best you get out of it are breakable weapons and occasionally armor. The story is probably the most paper thin story I've ever seen in a console RPG. The main story essentially can be completed in about 30 minutes of gameplay. In fact, there is a youtube video of a guy that does it in 35 minutes. There is also no character development whatsoever and the side quests are boring. There is just very little payoff in this game. What's the point of grinding korok seeds past 50? What's the point of grinding out shrines past 40 when the best you are going to get is a weapon you can only use for 10 minutes? I just have no reason to keep playing when there are no backstories to anyone, no interesting side quests, no special weapons outside the master sword. I basically just got to a point in playing when I felt I was powerful enough to plow through Hyrule Castle, and then just did that. There was no emotional payoff because there was no character development, there was really only relief that I was finally finished with the game, as it had become tedious by the end. It seems that the creators of this game focused too much on making everything in the game environment interactive, and not enough on the things that give a game heart, like characters and story. There is just no emotion in this game, it just feels very hollow and robotic.
The only thing I can think of as to why this game is rated higher than a game like Witcher 3, which I consider to be about as perfect as an RPG can get given its exceptional story/characters/side quests/mini-games, is that 1. It is graded on a different scale given that it is a Nintendo game (much like how animated movies are graded on a different scale), and 2. Nostalgia. Again, it is a very good game, but it probably wouldn't even break the top 30 games I have ever played, much less one of the highest rated games ever on metacritic.
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