I don't think your opinion is as unpopular as you think. In the zelda discussions I frequent, this is a reoccuring opinion, especially from long time fans.
In my opinion, the last 2 Zeldas sacrifice a well designed linearity for freedom at every turn. The games offer so many different approaches to playing, that in their entirety, they feel completely different. However, depending on your playstyle, this freedom can fall flat. Once you figure out how to solve a certain challenge, you can adopt this and keep using the same solution for the next 100 times this challenge is thrown at you, OR you can force yourself to creatively come up with a new solution. Some gamers really like optimizing how they play and "powergame" and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Once they figure out the optimal strat for anything, the games become boring and monotonous to them, as they are more interested in solving the challenge in front of them, than in messing around with different approaches. This happened to me when I was playing Breath of the Wild.
With Tears of the Kingdom, I thankfully managed to avoid that trap and keep myself entertained for longer, but I can definitely see how one could have the same thing happen again: Find optimal strat -> Use it everywhere -> get bored with how monotonous the game is.
While this freedom approach offers a lot of new things, it fails to statisfy the same itch, that a traditionally designed zelda game would with it's plentiful dungeons. Yes, the physics puzzles are great and the creative approaches offer a lot of various solutions to the same thing, but they aren't a SS Ancient Basin or a TP Snowpeak Ruins.
Too much freedom can be a bad thing for games. Think about how many open world games there are, it’s overdone. The older Zelda’s had an openness to them, but with restrictions, and I think that was it’s golden formula.
I highly, highly recommend Prodigal. It’s an absolute gem of a game if you’re a fan of the Oracle games, and it’s currently on sale too. It nailed the GBC art style and palette, and it has an interesting story full of mysteries.
There’s also Beyond the Mountains, which is a passion project by a single developer. It’s not as polished as one would hope, but it’s free, and it’s a fun game that can be completed in a couple of hours.
Whoa. Both those games are exactly what I was looking for. Beyond the Mountains looks like it even uses graphics from the games. I gotta give it a try. Prodigal too. Can't believe I've never heard of those. Thanks!
If you happen to find any more, please let me know! I have a special place in my heart for the Oracle games, and I would love to play more games like them.
If you haven't played Anodyne or Lenna's Inception you 100% need to do so. Lenna's Inception also has a 'meta-game' aspect that is by far the best in it's genre (beating out Evoland).
Seems like the author never played A Link To The Past. Not that there weren’t a lot of firsts in Occarina of Time, but wow, there is just so much they attribute to it here that it didn’t do first …
… and a lot of what they mention are experiences available in the later games if you just ignore the available game guides and discover the mechanics organically. Sure, I had the tools to access this area I’ve gone back to after 30+ hours of play time as soon as I made it off The Great Plateau, or dropped off the Sky Islands in TOTK, but I didn’t know that yet, until the game forced me to learn it or literally taught me via a random shrine or riddle.
Why is this even a comparison? There are literally over 15 years of advancements in gaming between the two titles, so no shit OoT is going to be more focused.
Garbage article. Just summarizes OoC and barely mentions other titles until the end where they just repeat the title but with a few more words without ever explaining why the author said it made them feel that way.
You have to change your normal tactic to account for these new deficiencies. They were added to actually enhance playability by introducing a player handicap, which slows your progress at first and forces you to focus on perfecting your technique. Really focus on the skills taught in the shrine overlooking Kakariko Village; they will help you immensely.
Have you already found out what Koroks are and what they do?
They are hidden throughout the world and are important, and help alleviate the stress a bit when a sword/shield breaks.
There is a character on the road to kakariko, between Twin Peak Stables and Kakariko. Keep an eye out for them.
To be fair, TOTK is profoundly harder than BOTW in early game. There’s nothing wrong with you, it’s just easy to break stuff and die until you’re geared up.
If fighting out in the open is not your cup of tea, you need to get to the shrines as soon as possible to unlock some very valuable tools. Remember that enemies can see and hear you, so if you want to sneak around encounters, keep an eye on that pink squiggly line for how much noise you are making. And above all else there is no right or wrong way to play this game.
You gotta learn to sneak. At least half the game, for the first half anyway, is learning to sneak around, run away, and who you’re totally not ready to pick a fight with yet. Once you level up your hearts and equipment, you can start really ripping into monster hordes.
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