I’m not going to deny that they are good games, they definitely are. However, there are some design choices made with BOTW and TOTK that really make me separate them from the rest of the series.
The item degradation, the voice acting, the open worldness, all these things aren’t what I want from a Zelda, and because of that, I doubt I’ll ever replay those games again. Again, not bad games at all, and if anyone said they were their favorite games, I’d totally understand that.
But does anyone else wish that we would get a more traditional Zelda game again?
I hated BOTW but love TOTK. I think the expanded world, new mechanics, and story make it really fun.
Links Awakening (GB) is my comfort food though, I’ve always considered top-down Zelda games to be the best ones. Idk why but the lack of a jump button in older 3D Zeldas always screws me up.
Really the only thing I wish would go the hell away is item durability. It makes the rewards for things less cool. Like, oh look I did this long ass chain of fetch quests and got a beautiful sword that’s a reference to a past game; better make the most of it before it fucking explodes. Get outta here with that.
I do wish the world was more open. I despise huge walls and climbing. Especially when explosives are abundant. We invented dynamite specifically to not have to deal with huge fucking cliffs everywhere; let’s use some bomb flowers and really open shit up.
BotW was my first Zelda and a gateway drug. I didn’t really enjoy TotK as it was too much of a sandbox. I preferred the creative ways you were forced to use your limited abilities in BotW. Then I played Twilight Princess HD and was at first disappointed at how linear it was but later absolutely loved the story and characters (it took the first spot for me). I guess I did myself a disservice by playing TP so early because I’m playing other Zeldas now and I’m still searching for that type of experience knowing that it may probably not be reproduced.
deleted by creator
I understand that desire a lot!
I do miss traditional dungeons, but as a person who likes playing a ton of different games and genres, I think TOTK (far more than BOTW) really does some incredible things with it’s systems and really invites true creativity. I think, overall, that outshines the very enjoyable, but linear approach of the older games.
I would love a next gen, classically dungeon based Zelda game too, but I think that if one of the older Zelda games came out today (skyward sword, ocarina, wind waker, etc) it simply wouldn’t have the universally fun pull of BOTW or TOTK.
They have big issues, yeah. But they are doing more to advance gaming as a whole by a huge amount and I can’t help but appreciate them.



