WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD
At 205 hours (or more, says my Switch) I finally have seen, uh, most? of what Breath of the Wild has to offer. I tried out my Amiibo early on, and saw Wolf Link and Epona, but honestly I used the royal horse and a black one I named Snowball far more often than Epona. Also that giant horse was fun to ride simply because it looks so ridiculous. But I didn't find Wolf Link all that useful. His attack animation is WAY too slow to make him all that useful. But I didn't get any Amiibo armors or anything. But I completed all 120 shrines, found all the in game armors and upgraded all of them, and upgraded all my "stashes" except shields, because over 380 Korok seeds seemed like plenty to me. By the time I faced Ganon on Saturday, I was as ready as one could be.
So, first thing's first - this game is WAY bigger than HZD. I've talked a lot about the similarities, but this is one noticeable difference. I got through HZD in 70, maybe 80 hours - and that was getting the platinum trophy. The nice thing about BotW is I only rarely felt like I was grinding (for instance when finding certain items to upgrade armors and such). To me it just felt like playing a really fun game. In fact, a lot of that time can be chalked up to wandering around, looking at things just to see what was there. I'm sure if I'd been more focused I could've gotten 100% a lot faster.
That said, that Ganon fight... Woo. I mean, graphically it looked nice, but what a let down. Granted none of the boss fights really were that challenging, mostly because I was always very prepared by the time I got in. But that's true in EVERY Zelda game I play. I like having all the heart containers, and all the extra little knickknacks and weapons and items. So every time I face Ganon I'm stocked up like some survivalist facing that dreaded economic collapse.
I've played all the "main" console Zelda games except Majora's Mask. And I maintain the best Ganon fight is still the one in Ocarina of Time. I mean that fight is just the definition of epic. It feels like it's never going to end, and when it finally does, you breathe a palpable sigh of relief. At least I know I did, all those years ago.
With this one, Ganon's last form isn't even dangerous. I mean maybe it is, but you have to really work hard to receive any kind of damage from him. And the battle up to Ganon in Ocarina of Time is also pretty epic. Going through Hyrule Castle in BotW seems like it should be awesome. But it really wasn't. The Guardians aren't the problem, either. With the ancient armor and some decent ancient weapons (namely the bow and arrows), Link can make short work of these horrible monsters.
I was expecting there to be some traps or maybe some puzzles to solve utilizing the runes to find your way to Ganon, but there was nothing like that. I guess Nintendo figured everybody would get their fill from the shrines. Ugh. I'll get to those in a minute.
I get that there's a way to challenge yourself and make the game harder - you could do a minimalist run or go in wearing just the Switch shirt and your underwear, or you could use only bokoblin weapons and shields or what have you. But if I'm the one that has to make the game interesting, isn't that a failure on the part of the game designers? I'm not a huge fan of so-called "emergent" gameplay. I think it's an excuse for lazy design and even when it works well, it still is not truly emergent in the way the term is meant in actual programming circles, nor is it really emergent in the way that one would expect an actual game of Calvinball to be emergent. But that's a topic for another day.
Now, the interesting thing about this anticlimactic boss tussle with Ganon is that it actually is similar to Horizon Zero Dawn. Now granted, the action is a little faster paced in HZD, but the last enemy isn't even special - it's just another giant robot that Aloy has faced before (Deathbringers? I think?), only now it has a little bit of help and you're confined to a really small area. But it still wasn't all that challenging. Both were equally as anticlimactic.
The endings to Breath of the Wild weren't all that much to write home about, either. Now, I'm still kind of fuzzy on the ending to Ocarina of Time. I only ever played it once, when it came out, and never played it again. That final battle with Ganon sticks out (probably because Nintendo repeated it several more times), but what happens after I don't remember at all. But it HAS to be better than this. I still think Link to the Past has the best Zelda ending. You make your wish, get to see all the people you helped, you return the Master Sword to its pedestal, and you basically live happily ever after.
But I guess since it's not called the Fable of Zelda, Nintendo didn't feel like doing anything like that. So there's just the two endings - one for doing 100% of the main quests and finding all the memories, and one for doing less. The "better" ending has more words in it, but essentially it's just Zelda and Link having two different conversations about things.
And I'm sorry to all who like the voice acting, but I didn't think it got better at the end. Before I set out to storm Hyrule Castle and get the last memory, I re-watched all the memories in order. And while my memory was refreshed regarding the story and the characterization of Zelda (so much so that I actually felt a much stronger connection to the world afterward) it didn't change my mind regarding the voice acting. The scenes carry the same weight no matter the language, and that tells me that it's the direction, music, and lighting that cast the scene more so than the inflection of the speakers.
With regards to story, Horizon Zero Dawn is the clear winner. There are more interesting characters, more to the story, and a more satisfying conclusion. Sure the facial animations are a disaster - though somehow better than Andromeda - but there's just a lot of cool stuff in HZD. A lot to think about and reflect on.
Breath of the Wild requires a little more imagination, though. There's actually a LOT of story here, IF you take the time to read various journals and things scattered about, and reflect on the unwritten clues like the Ranch Ruins and Castle Town ruins. But even then you only get hints and bits and pieces of what happened 100 years prior to Link getting out of that fancy bathtub. I suppose it makes sense, given what's happened. I just wish it were fleshed out as well as some other properties.
And, there is NO mention of the Triforce at all. The image of it is everywhere, given that it's integral to the Hylian crest and all. But nobody says anything about it throughout the whole game. The only time we see it is when Zelda's power finally awakens and it briefly flashes on her hand, as is the custom by now. We assume Link has access to the Triforce of Courage, given he wields the Master Sword, but we never see it flash on his hand, which I found odd, given how prominent the marking was in Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.
So back to the shrines. At first I was really enjoying them. But then I started thinking about interviews we've seen where they talk about how the shrines are bite-size slices of puzzles that would've been hard to integrate into larger dungeons. I have to call BS on that. First of all, a significant portion of the shrines have no puzzles to them at all, or the "puzzle" part is on the outside, or the shrine is dedicated to simply fighting Guardian Scouts. With 120 of these, there's no reason why they couldn't do something like they did in Link Between Worlds and group them by type, sprinkle in some Guardian Scouts, and have a good 10-12 full-sized dungeons scattered about the world, complete with external challenges, unique enemies, and unique bosses.
Honestly I was disappointed with the number of challenges to begin with. Every so often you have to burn some thorns away, or use Cryonis to raise up some ice, or use Magnesis to get a chest out of some water, or use Stasis to punt a boulder through some trees. But my most used rune was bombs, and the vast majority of things you get or collect in the world can be had with little thought. There is one place
I do wish there'd been a weapon wheel or something similar. The linear approach takes too long. I wish there was a way to more quickly stack useful weapons right next to each other. For instance, many times I liked swinging a Great Frostblade to freeze an enemy, then switch to a heavy, hard-hitting weapon like a claymore for massive damage. Or hitting an enemy with a thunderblade and then switching back to a sturdier weapon to finish them off.
I wish there had been items. I get the argument that the climbing ability negates a lot of the functionality of many of the items. I think this could've easily been resolved by decreasing stamina or having buildings with sheer sides like the insides of the shrines or other little tricks to "rope off" areas where items and tools would be needed. I missed the hookshot in particular, especially its uses in combat. Boomerangs are technically in the game, but they're awkward to use. Wands should not have been weapons at all, but unbreakable items, perhaps with a rechargeable magic meter like in Link Between Worlds.
In fact, I wish the game had been more like a 3D Link Between Worlds, and yes I get the irony of that 3D part. I really liked solving the puzzles in that game, and figuring out how to get through the dungeons - whether I needed this or that item from that obnoxious rabbit - was half the fun. And there were so many little nooks and crannies to explore. Seriously, when I first saw BotW, I thought, "Oh good, it's like Link Between Worlds, but the 2D wall mechanic has been replaced by climbing."
I don't want to sound all negative. I thoroughly enjoyed the game. I mean obviously if I put over 200 hours into it. I'm pretty sure a part of me was deliberately delaying the ending by trying to find all the bits and bobs I needed to upgrade all the armors to the maximum levels. The game is a LOT of fun in spite of these complaints.
But it's not a 10. It's a solid 9. The return to the premise of the open world suggested by the first Legend of Zelda is a welcome change. The lack of items, the repetition of some of the shrines and OH - I didn't even really get into how I didn't much care for the four giant animals. I mean they were sort of interesting, but I don't think they had any of the charm or personality of even the dungeons in Wind Waker.
And while it is a great game on its own, it's not my new favorite Zelda. I think that's still A Link to the Past. That said, I'm curious to see where Nintendo goes next. They certainly don't need to make Hyrule any bigger. But I do think they could find more ways to bring more traditional Zelda elements into the mix to make an already very lively world feel even more alive.
Also more monsters. Definitely need more monsters.