Played until like 4 am
! Really enjoyed the experience of riding a horse in this game, particularly since the controls feel more like I'm nudging the horse towards a direction than it feels like I'm handling the horse. It's more rough, but it makes sense? And overall the whole getting a horse and naming it feels a lot more mine than just getting Epona (though, to OoT's credit, the sidequest of getting Epona is structured very nicely in order to make it a super memorable moment)
! Structure of the map is also pretty cool, namely doing that thing I enjoy of telling you where you have to go, but then peppering topography, obstacles and distractions all over the path. Also, in my effort to keep riding my horse all the way, I had to investigate the paths which led me to different areas altogether and lots of discoveries. So yea, the open world aspect of the game is pretty robust
! Shrines are pretty enjoyable as well. The puzzles in them have for the most part been pretty fine, and the power ups you get in the plateau are plenty versatile in allowing you to cheese a lot of things and doing what you want. I like that. That said, so far only one thing has stumped me (getting to a chest in the wind shrine), while everything else was completed nearly immediately, out of 8 shrines I've done. I hope there is some sort of difficulty rise somehow
! Korok seeds are pretty cool to get ignoring the whole inventory debacle. Like, it feels nice and rewarding already to figure out an environmental quirk and see the little thing rise going "yahaha!"
It kinda makes me wish seeds were for something else more interesting, since they seem to be rewards for curiosity. I'm guessing the design intent is that since they are aimed at curious people, curious people can be expected to find more equipment in general, therefore give them more equipment. But eeh…
! That kinda leads to the weapon system, which I still don't like. What it has effectively led to, for me, is to a point where I'm for the most part just not fighting with anything. If I see an enemy shrine, my favorite is hands down using the bow to snipe the watch (btw, bonus points for the arrow physics being more realistic and making distant headshots sooooo satisfying) and then just running in and overwhelming everyone with bombs.
Actual combat with shields and weapons feels extremely weak and annoying to me in comparison. Things break extremely fast, most of the time the weapons you get in return are just not as interesting (since so many of the enemies are bokoblins), and the sheer lack of combat options like parries and evasion so far make it pretty goddamn boring. Oh yea, and I still don't like that song.
So yea, between the weapon system and the combat system being very not Zelda, fighting anything is just not something I want to spend time on, especially if the reward is usually ores I haven't been led to care about.
Bows are the best though XD
! And yea, music. It's pretty goddamn boring. Like, I'm immersed and active in doing things, so I'm not going to be falling asleep just yet, but come oooon. Random interspersed notes when things happen so zero for motivation. They make it a pretty chill game to play, for sure, but even goddamn animal crossing has more interesting tunes going on while you do nothing. And honestly, when I got on that horse I started going around all fast and epic, I was hoping there would at least be an overworld hype song playing along as I ride, like Wind Waker escalating the overworld music when you are sailing fast on the day with seagulls following you. But nope, in this game you don't get hype music. You just get near sheer silence... hey, also, why can I not zoom out the camera? Or can I? Because it would be pretty fucking nice if I could while on a horse to have a better idea of my surroundings relative to my speed.
! Controls I'm still getting used to, but there's little bits of stupid all over. X to jump makes sense to me, because I'm playing the Wii U version, but how the balls did they not adjust it to be B for the Switch? That's just stupid, especially when you hold that button to glide, right? (can't remember). Also, the other problem the controls have for me, a problem that will admittedly go away, is that they fly in the face of my Zelda intuition. Want to roll? NOPE. Pulled out a bomb and want to throw it? Gotta press a different button for throwing.
So it's led to more than a couple situations of growing pains with the controls, or things like wanting to pull out the bow and then accidentally wasting an arrow since it immediately starts loading and pulling an arrow.
! But yea, ultimately, I'm having a lot of fun and I'm eager to keep on going back into the world and discover more, get better things to safely access more challenging areas, finally kill those stone bitches, etc.
! Also, has anyone else been using shirtless Link? May sound silly, but I honestly think he just looks better, at least in a way that fits the world more. But then I've also yet to find more than one shirt.
For those asking for overworld music, consider the songs from xenoblade chronicles and xenoblade chronicles x. Personally, I also get tempted a lot to just put Wind Waker stuff in the background.