What an exceptional game, honestly. I'll admit it took 3 attempts. The first attempt I tried to just mainline the story and horde all my shit. I was very underpowered for every major fight and was really frustrated. So months (maybe years?) later when I tried again, I overcorrected and thought I'd do all the side stuff first. I bounced off trying to run around the mountains without having first gotten far enough to get cold-resistant armor. This time, I approached with a healthy balance of exploring off the beaten path but always rounding back to main story spots to keep the ability progression going. The sweet spot. You could fault the game for all that I suppose, but I don't. Thoughts in the finale:
- Hyrule Castle music didn't have to go that hard but we're blessed that it did.
- Zelda really is that bitch; more like Zelda, Hero of Hyrule, amirite.1
- The scale of enemies in this game has been and continues to be so awesome and good.
- lmao that this game expected me to be adept at shooting from horseback by the end. I fast-traveled everywhere! I never rode horses! Zelda sobbing, crying, throwing up, begging me to land one god damn shot on this pig monster and I simply cannot (we got there eventually lol)
In the end I did all shrines and all quests, lots of level 4 armor upgrades but I got burnt out farming lynels; fuck lynels, even when they're beatable. Also burned out farming ancient parts so I didn't get the ancient helm, just stuck with the diamond circlet. I meant to go get the dark link tunic too but forgot. All things I'd like to finish up (including the compendium which I got very far in, and all koroks) but realistically I'll never come back. What a great time though, damn. I miss it already.
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Thinking about this more while proofreading, I've heard a lot of ppl kind of "meh" the story, and that's very fair but completing all the sheikah slate memories and hearing Zelda struggle to fill her role with no guidance, I really loved that part of it.
