I get it but I feel they went way past overboard with making it different.
While I do agree that there were a lot of changes very suddenly, I think that’s what Nintendo were trying for. There had definitely been complaints about SS and it’s linearity and the fact the game model hadn’t changed since OoT.
On the other hand, I personally think they reworked the formula well enough in ALBW, while still keeping the core aspects of the series people have come to love.
I definitely agree with you about the lacking music. I’ve been to Symphony of the Goddesses for about 5 years running (it seems to have gone on permanent hiatus now, which is a shame) and the last time I went, they included some BotW music and none of it seemed memorable to me, especially to the levels of OoT, WW or TP. My friend turned round and freaked saying: “oh wow Revali’s theme is so good!” I can’t deny, I honestly turned round and said “Wait, the champions had their own themes?!” I felt that because they tried to much for the ambient music effect, when there were pieces that were supposed to be more engaging or impactful, you didn’t necessarily notice them.
One thing I think Koji Kondo would have done better: So we have 4 or 5 different types of Talus overworld boss: Normal, Luminous, Rare, Frost and Igneo Talus. Now I can’t understand why the battle theme doesn’t change (even subtly) to represent the different versions. I mean, Koji Kondo always said Zelda was his favourite franchise to work on because he tried hard to help the players invoke certain feelings in certain situations. I always felt even if you hadn’t played a particular Zelda game but heard the music, you could take a reasonable guess as to the area/location a certain piece of music was played in. This seems to have nearly gone completely out the window with BotW. In my honest opinion, the best tracks from BotW are the recycled ones from earlier games, like Zora’s Domain or Rito Village. I was quite upset they didn’t reuse Gerudo Valley (the number of people who freak out when the do that for an encore at Symphony of the Goddesses). As for Goron City, I always felt the song invoked the feelings of strength, but also kind of slow pondering, whereas BotW’s version sounded just slow, overweight (if that makes any sense) and clumsy, like the Gorons don’t have any positive traits...
Now I do agree with some of
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PhantomShab
problems with BotW. I still have memories years ago that the developers said something like: The first dungeon we created was bigger than OoT’s Hyrule field and I did end up wondering did that one get cut out (unless it was Hyrule Castle). The dungeons would have been a lot better in my opinion if they were more a mix of Hyrule Castle and the Divine Beats, both puzzles AND enemies to fight. More locked doors with keys to gain for successes help the player feel satisfaction that the solved a puzzle or beat a challenging enemy. The fact that every dungeon in BotW boiled down to find a way to point a, touch Sheikah Slate to terminal, rinse and repeat was very disappointing. I spent most of my playthrough hunting shrines, leaving the dungeons as I was really looking forward to expansions on the traditional dungeons of previous games. God, I wish I hadn’t done that now as it was a bit of a recipe for disaster, from a gameplay perspective.
There are definitely things that BotW 2 could improve upon from the original. In my opinion, the story could do with a better way of being told that the memory system. Also characters shouldn’t have to be fleshed out dlc, that sort of thing should happen in the meta game. It seems so weird that I spent over 100 hours playing BotW and yet the whole story boiled down to about 30 minutes...
Some of your other improvements ring true for me as well, but I did like the climbing mechanic (although why it wasn’t used in the final Ganon fight beggars belief, as it was such a prominent feature). I actually thought the horse controls worked fine, more the horse combat was useless (unless that’s what you meant?) basically every time I enter 5 or 6 bokoblins on horseback, I got tired of being perfect shorted by arrows while Link jabbed ineffectually in the wrong direction more often than not. So I just got off my horse and threw bombs at them. Again considering how often you ride your horse around Hyrule, that seems a shame that the combat was a bit dodgy.
I’m a sucker for the amino (still trying to complete my Zelda collection) so locking things behind them doesn’t bother me so much but I understand why it would bother some, especially with key things like Epona and one of Link’s green tunics hidden behind them.