So... Breath of the Wild.
Ten days having stared at my Switch playing Zelda for 13 hours (still haven't connected it to a TV lol), I can confidently say it's my favorite addition to the series and an amazing experience. It is as big and beautiful as it was hyped to be--it's kinda amazing how it didn't disappoint considering. It's like this is the most different yet most true Zelda all at the same time. Although in the Korok Forest, and when using Stasis in busy areas, the game definitely became slow/choppy, probably because I elected to stay handheld.
I don't even know where to begin. The dungeons, they were short and simple, but the entry and mechanics were all so different from generic forest-lava-ice-water temples. My only complaint is that with the bird divine beast, the first I got into, I went through it without even realizing the map functionally existed, when the others were definitely impossible if you didn't make use of the controls. Also the bosses, they were pushovers, but they were still cool--and that includes Calamity Ganon. Hopefully we keep getting quality over quantity in the future.
The 120 trials were rewards in themselves, and it was so refreshing to do puzzles, again, still really simple 99% of the time, but they were dynamic. Multiple ways of doing any one thing, because everything is physics based. For that reason, it sucks that so many of them were the same thing--and by that I mean the combat trials. Really wish there were fewer or they were changed up more. Every time I came upon these I felt let down because I enter curious to see what's inside.
The durability concept also kept the game mostly evolving, especially from the get-go. An issue of previous Zelda games I've had were that they didn't require thinking in combat and I was just going through the motions. But now I'm keeping track of what I have, what I can get from drops, and how many precious arrows I have (seriously, they were a bit overpowered, if I had to start over again I'd be buying up arrows every chance I get). This aspect really drops off towards the end though, with expanded inventories and tools that last longer, but still always better than nothing.
And most of all, the world... the people, it all had just so much
life. NPCs moved based on time, weather, spoke differently if you have or done various things, spoke about other people, often changed their dialogue if you keep pestering them. Enemies even did all sorts of things based on the circumstances--my favorite thing was to wear the monster masks and get them following me around like an entourage. The lizalfos are so cute trying to "talk" to you with their tongue flapping out.
Definitely getting the DLC, no question. Would recommend it to anyone despite the lack of difficulty... though that isn't to say I still didn't find ways to die, because that actually happened a lot haha. Little things could be nitpicked, like Korok summoning being repetitive and other such little things, but it doesn't stop this from being a masterpiece in my eyes. There's so much more I could say, but this post is already way too big as is.