Nintendo Switch Topic; #byebyenx

[Lemonray]

I beat BoTW. Some more thoughts.

Spoiler

I have mixed feelings on the final boss. The first phase was a letdown, what you get is pretty much a bigger, more edgy version of the four dungeon bosses. No dialogue, no characterization. This version of Ganon is my least favourite yet. The second phase, I thought, was better. He becomes Dark Beast Ganon and you fight him in the overworld with a unique bow and light arrows. Except for the very last shot, which requires precision, he is incredibly easy, but it was nice to fight him in a more Ganon-like form which wasn't the case for the first messy amalgamation.

All along I was hoping he would just assume a new version of his classic trident wielding pig form, but that didn't happen.

Another thing that rather disappointed me was how the Master Sword was used. When I first saw some of the artwork where the sword looks like this:

Spoiler

I was interested in what could have caused the apparently unbreakable, divine Master Sword to become rusted and damaged like that. Only, in the game it only looks like this in two flashback cutscenes, the damage having been caused by Link using it against guardians. By the time you get it, it is back to normal. So, there is no interesting explanation, no quest to restore the sword's power, nothing. The Master Sword is present, but irrelevant. Use the sword, don't use the sword, it doesn't matter. Finish Ganon with a Bokoblin club instead.

Looking back on it, the world could have done with more unique and interesting locations. Perhaps some Bottom of The Well style mini-dungeons would have been enough, but really there should have been at least a couple of traditional dungeons with keys and puzzles and enemies and such. It's not as if the developers didn't have enough time to design a dungeon or two, they have had at least five years to work on the game so I'm guessing they simply chose not to include standard dungeons for the sake of BoTW being different.

The lack of variation among the four bosses you fight in the four beasts is also an issue because they're more or less four versions of each other. Having a similar visual theme could have worked if they were shaped differently- One could have been the big guy + weapon while the others could have been more like various animals, or whatever. Imagine if every one of the adult Link temples in OoT had featured Phantom Ganon as a boss, only with an altered moveset depending on the temple. That is essentially what BoTW does. I would much rather have bosses like Jalhalla and Goht to fight instead. I don't know how they managed to mess up something as important and simple as boss variation. The number of different regular enemies is also a problem- There just aren't enough of them.

I'm still finding the game enjoyable, however. I got the Dark Link costume and have spent some time finding more shrines and exploring the interior of Hyrule Castle (you can get to Ganon by climbing the walls, you're never actually made to enter the interior to reach him) and doing some of the side quests. You can also get other costumes and items from previous games like the OoT outfit and Biggoron's Sword, if you're willing to spend more real-life shekels on the various amiibos that unlock them. The Wolf Link companion is acquired this way and summoning him to join you on your adventures is fun, although he is a bit of a psycho since he will immediately seek out and kill even passive wild creatures on sight.

There's also the DLC to think about. The one promised for the end of the year seems to be offering a new dungeon, which could be interesting.