Played some more TOTK…
This new formula has high jacked the Zelda IP. This formula would fit so much better with Super Mario and its universe. He’s a plumber, right? Handy with tools. How is that not more fitting for this building/crafting type formula? Mario Maker already winced in that direction and was successful. On top of that, who wouldn’t want an open world/hub 3D Mario with said tools/abilities? Odyssey kinda reaches there, but could be more grand in scope, other than using enemy’s abilities. It’s still neat, but could be so much more with this ‘new Zelda formula’ instead. Just imagine building such a contraption, or pipework, to reach other parts of certain levels for stars, or whatever, hidden areas, or even using the goombas (or any other creative enemies) fusing them to said contraptions, on top of the 2p-4p coop like 3D World. Holy shit it would be incredible… It’s baffling that they only keep Mario to his jumpman ways, but that’s it. They just change the platforms and switch out hats for abilities.. (Mario becoming someone/thing else, not him being a constructive character.) Zelda should have stayed in its high fantasy ways with magic, swords and sorcery and dungeon crawling; puzzle solving with adventure, not making goofy contraptions that fail half the time. That would be a million times more acceptable (and fun) for the Mario universe.
Sheeeyit… even Metroid would’ve made more sense as well… Arm Cannon that had a grapple ability even back in the SNES days… using it to create platforms to reach new areas like the freeze beam did over 30 years ago… And not that I’ve played much of the series, but Pikmin would’ve been an even MORE fitting. … seriously.. why, oh why, did they use Zelda for this ‘new’ formula?? jfk You done fucked up, Nintendo. You’re good… but you’re still missing the mark by far.
The sense of reward is practically insulting in this game.. Just like BOTW. I rarely go fight encampments or anything because.. why? You use up resources just to replace the resources you just used. (Hell, Zelda 2 used xp and made you want to engage in fights. And the battles are more intense that, if you get hit, your xp gets taken away on top of your health. It’s a brutally engaging encounter/fighting scenario and is quite brilliant.. doing what Dark Souls hasn’t even thought of yet.) When it comes to weapons, this just feels cheap. It's a reflection of planned obsolescence, and frankly, is a poor approach, IMO. In other games, and IRL, there's no greater feeling than holding a weapon and depending on it as your trusty sword/gun, whatever... Something you feel as an extension of you.. You can rely on protecting you... that's proven it's worth on the battlefield or helped you survive in the wilderness.. Yeah, that sense does not exist in BOTW 1 or 2. Everything you wield is cheap... even the Master Sword. In regards to the fuse ability, more than half the time when fusing weapons, they come out looking goofy AF. It's the same feeling like watching TMNT2: Secret of the Ooze; Like a 5 year old came up with the fight scenes and is afraid of using weapons. Guess that shouldn't be a surprise being a Nintendo 1st party game.
Overall, this new Zelda is too much a far cry of what I loved about a Zelda game. Yeah, I’m getting old AF now, but there’s not really much left here that stokes those Zelda vibes of old. There’s fun to be had, but it’s a huge shame it’s at the expense of overtaking the Zelda IP of all Nintendo IPs in which it would’ve worked so much better on..
