Finished my first playthrough of Breath of the Wild. Did all the shrines and all the memories too. Zelda is so hot.
Overall I liked it very much. Though it isn't a perfect game, there are plenty of things I enjoyed, and many of the gameplay decisions and innovations worked quite well.
Firstly, it's a massive game, full of beautiful and interesting sights as well as interesting gameplay. The shrines generally tended to give my noggin (as well as my fingers and my sense of timing) some good exercise. And the combat was very satisfying after I got the hang of it. The first time I took down a guardian with only perfect shield parries was nothing short of orgasmic. The breakable weapon mechanic annoyed me at first, but I grudgingly came to like it because it forced me to try different weapons and playstyles. Though after I got the Master Sword, it basically became "use the Master Sword until it runs out of energy, then use random weapons until the Master Sword recharges, repeat". Some of the stuff was annoyingly obscure though, like harvesting dragon parts. I had to look up guides for them, because I would never have figured it out on my own.
The cooking mechanic was also interesting, but it's unbalanced because certain recipes simply outclass others. Why would I make stuff like Meat Stew or Egg Pudding to heal a few hearts when I could just toss two Hearty Durians in a pot to make a max-heal-plus-eight-overmax-hearts meal? Once I realized that I could make the best version of every buff just by tossing five of the same ingredient in a pot, there was no longer any need to ever cook anything else. I think the cooking mechanic could've been improved by allowing mixed buffs. For example, maybe I could cook a meal that mixes Razorshrooms and Ironshrooms to give me both attack and defense. The tradeoff would be that it would give less attack and defense than a pure Razorshroom/Ironshroom meal, so I'd have to decide how I want to arrange my buffs.
In terms of the story, the game's plot itself is kind of bare-bones, but that's ok because the world is fleshed out through the background lore and the sense of discovery you get as you play the game. Recovering Link's memories, discovering what happened with each of the four Divine Beasts, etc, these all kept me engrossed in the game world.
Finally, I think it's a pity that there's no post-game for after Calamity Ganon is defeated. It might've been interesting to wander around the world and see how it looks free of Ganon's influence.
Still, though, on the whole this was an excellent game, fully deserving of all its accolades, and I look forward to playing it more and finding stuff I didn't discover the first time around. Also might grab the DLC, haven't decided yet.
Overall I liked it very much. Though it isn't a perfect game, there are plenty of things I enjoyed, and many of the gameplay decisions and innovations worked quite well.
Firstly, it's a massive game, full of beautiful and interesting sights as well as interesting gameplay. The shrines generally tended to give my noggin (as well as my fingers and my sense of timing) some good exercise. And the combat was very satisfying after I got the hang of it. The first time I took down a guardian with only perfect shield parries was nothing short of orgasmic. The breakable weapon mechanic annoyed me at first, but I grudgingly came to like it because it forced me to try different weapons and playstyles. Though after I got the Master Sword, it basically became "use the Master Sword until it runs out of energy, then use random weapons until the Master Sword recharges, repeat". Some of the stuff was annoyingly obscure though, like harvesting dragon parts. I had to look up guides for them, because I would never have figured it out on my own.
The cooking mechanic was also interesting, but it's unbalanced because certain recipes simply outclass others. Why would I make stuff like Meat Stew or Egg Pudding to heal a few hearts when I could just toss two Hearty Durians in a pot to make a max-heal-plus-eight-overmax-hearts meal? Once I realized that I could make the best version of every buff just by tossing five of the same ingredient in a pot, there was no longer any need to ever cook anything else. I think the cooking mechanic could've been improved by allowing mixed buffs. For example, maybe I could cook a meal that mixes Razorshrooms and Ironshrooms to give me both attack and defense. The tradeoff would be that it would give less attack and defense than a pure Razorshroom/Ironshroom meal, so I'd have to decide how I want to arrange my buffs.
In terms of the story, the game's plot itself is kind of bare-bones, but that's ok because the world is fleshed out through the background lore and the sense of discovery you get as you play the game. Recovering Link's memories, discovering what happened with each of the four Divine Beasts, etc, these all kept me engrossed in the game world.
Finally, I think it's a pity that there's no post-game for after Calamity Ganon is defeated. It might've been interesting to wander around the world and see how it looks free of Ganon's influence.
Still, though, on the whole this was an excellent game, fully deserving of all its accolades, and I look forward to playing it more and finding stuff I didn't discover the first time around. Also might grab the DLC, haven't decided yet.
