A bit of old hat by now, but I thought I’d bring it up since I’m replaying it now, this time on the Switch I bought for myself rather than the WiiU much earlier this year.
Maybe I’m just not the sharpest eye but as far as technical stuff goes, it doesn’t feel like much of a difference. The major parts for me are using the joycons separately, and of course prior knowledge of my previous play through.
The joycons at least remind me of the Wii remote + nunchuck days, and the gyro not actually having to lift my hand to point at the screen feels better than the cumbersome gamepad. For the latter I’d like to play it fresh all over again but it does ensure I’m not having as rough a time as before.
Beyond that,I have pretty mixed feelings on a lot of things in the game. The difference in quality feels very drastic. On one hand you’ve got a great open world that is distinct enough for near about every square inch to be memorable in some way. On the other, there’s nowhere near enough enemy designs to keep encampments from being boring. Plenty of towns but npcs largely lack depth. Tons of shrines and koroks but many are recycled. Etc.
Unfortunately I don’t think anything will top my three favorites, Wind Waker, Majora’s Mask, and Skyward Sword. Perhaps tied with Ocarina of Time. Twilight Princess has a strong story potential during the first half but falls flat and everything else about it is far too derivative and restrictive. I’d go through the rest but it’s harder to compare the handheld and 2D games.
What I’d really like to talk about is the story. Many say the series isn’t about that but I’d argue they may be the best parts of my favorites. WW has a whimsical fairy tale charm about it and moving on from the past, MM is clever about letting the player find the story to put all the pieces together, and ultimately about the nature of bonds and how they last, SS might not be so clear but I at least enjoyed how it wasn’t a huge cast so they were able to focus on writing good characters and arcs.
BotW sort of does the player exploration storytelling thing, but I feel the execution is poor in its case. In a way it almost feels like MGSV in regards to both Link and Snake finding themselves again, only as much as I dislike MGSV, the cutscenes there do have some artistic merit in restraint and being very particular.
The cutscenes in BotW…well…the terrible voice acting for one. I don’t understand why Nintendo is unable to get anyone good with how much they tend to polish everything else. Zelda’s was so bad it usually distracted me from how generic and over the top many of the scenes were. And the characters – too many were shallow and just plain bad. Having straight up Falco be a crucial character, that would be like making Talon or Ingo sages in OoT.
Lastly is the hero saving the princess trope present in most of these games. Something feminists critique for dumb reasons but I’m sure many MGTOW would not care for because of our own sound logic. Even so I feel it important to talk about.
At least I can say Zelda herself had her own arc, very different from the usual, having to learn that her strength was borne within and had to culminate from protecting loved ones, much like the champions find later on, as contrast to Ganon having always searched for power from external things, this time in the ancient machines and Guardians and beasts. Not much unlike the Last Guardian, only there it was done much better. So in this way I can be glad the story is original in a way for a Zelda game, if nothing else.
"I have the fury of my own momentum." "With this ring I thee wed. Fire walk with me."
Jim01 2 years ago.
