I was wondering when a thread like this was going to show up.
I went into this game knowing absolutely nothing beforehand. I really enjoyed my time playing the game overall, though a few things did irk me quite a bit:
- I HATED how Fi would always explain what to do and how to do it. It just seemed like there was a little too much hand-holding in this game for the puzzles (and she was pretty-much Captain Obvious for me the whole game).
- The text was so slow (even when holding A).
- I don't need to know what an object is after I've collected it quite a few times (see Red Rupee from a chest/rare treasure from a chest/anytime I load the game back up).
- The swordplay for me was a bit wonky at times, and I found myself fighting with the controls more than the actual enemies. A good example of this was the last fight with Demise. I wanted to raise my sword up, but it wouldn't actually happen in the game. I had to recalibrate it everytime I actually managed to raise my sword up, or else it wouldn't raise anymore (and I also hurt my arm a bit during the Ghirahim/Demise fights). Another example would be the 3 headed dragon enemies where you have to hit all 3 heads at once. I would swing from left to right when they are in a straight line, but sometimes my sword would swing bottom left to top right.
- Adding to the swordplay, there was about a 1 second delay for when I was trying to do a stabbing motion. This was annoying with that Scorpion boss when I wanted to stab the middle eye, only to have him hit me before my stab could register.
- Rolling/throwing a bomb was another issue for me. Sometimes I would want to throw a bomb, but it would end up rolling instead. Overall, the controls were the biggest issue for me (and it's a pretty major one in my eyes).
- Too many recurring bosses. Oh my god I HATED the Imprisoned fights. I could handle 1 of them, but the second and third time just aggravated me. I would have loved more variety with the bosses. This is particularly evident when you're doing the boss rush mode.
- Those damn enemies with the electrical weapons that would guard with them....argh!
- The sky itself felt....quite empty to me. Sure there were little islands here and there for opening treasure chests, but I guess I was just expecting there to be more to it. Not only that, but moving around in it is quite slow. I reached a point where I wished I could just drop through any part (red, yellow or green), and then pick and choose where I wanted to land between all 3 regions (instead of being forced to a specific section, depending on which one I went through).
- The game itself felt a little too linear. I like to explore a little more in my Zelda games.
- Why does Hero Mode have to overwrite my save? I'd like to create a new save in Hero Mode.
However, the game had some pretty awesome positives going for it:
- The music. All of it. Oh my God thank you SO MUCH for the orchestrated music!!! It's about damn time! And I'm happy they included the main theme in the credits. It made me all giddy inside! Though I'd like to see that song return in an actual overworld sometime.
- The story. I really, really enjoyed it and saw it as the beginning to everything. The fact that you actually collected the pieces of the Triforce was really cool.
- The dungeons. Wow. Some of them were just flat-out amazing and I had a blast going through them. The only dungeon I thought was a little boring was the first one (which I expected).
- The puzzles. They were really, really well done (it just sucks that Fi would have to explain almost all of them). My favorite parts had to do with the Timeshift Stones.
- The beetle. That gadget was really cool (especially when upgraded)!
- The fact that you can actually upgrade your equipment. That was a pretty cool surprise for me.
- I never ran out of room in my wallet for rupees because of how many times you can upgrade it!
- I liked the idea of the adventure pouches as well, and you had to pick and choose what types of stuff you wanted to bring.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought of Zelda II when Zelda was about to be put to sleep.
As for the story - I really liked how we actually got to see some of Zelda's character in the beginning. It made me actually want to see what happened to her. It was also pretty cool how the credits showed her side of what happened to her after she fell. The Ghirahim thing being Demise's sword was pretty interesting and I wasn't expecting that at all.
Speaking of Demise - he's totally the beginning of Ganon, and this is pretty much explained in the ending dialogue with him. Not to mention I heard Ganon's theme right before fighting him.
The old woman being Impa was a bit of a shock for me too (I was expecting her to be a descendant or something) But after thinking about it some more, the hair on the old woman and Impa makes sense now for me.
Anyway, I enjoyed the game overall. I had fun and that's what matters to me! But do I think the game is and deserves 10/10? Nope. Although it was a really fun game to play, there were some pretty serious issues in my opinion that made me a bit frustrated with it at times (see above). They should ask in the beginning of the next game if you're a veteran Zelda player or something (so to not give all the hints away and not explain the same thing over and over again for collectables).
Oh, and the Water Dragon is a huge bi*ch. That was my thought from the first till the last time I had anything to do with her.
