Agree with a lot of the gripes from the video above even though the goddamn rhyming is annoying as fukk. I think this game got the "Nintendo bump".
I think the gameplay loop at it's core is great. Finding shrines and the riddles and puzzles that go along with finding them are usually pretty fun and interesting. But at the end of the day, that's all the game is. It's just a continuous loop of finding shrines. I give it MAJOR props for how the gameplay loop is perfectly installed into the open world however. It probably is the best open world ever in that sense. And the first dozen hours of exploration are pretty damn fun. Still though, the core of the game is very basic because as fun as the gameplay loop is, it's not really rewarding at all. It plays very much like a handheld game in that sense. Because of that the game never really immersed me as much as other open world games. Might just be me, but I just felt like I was playing the same mini game again and again. Probably the GOAT mini game, but a mini game none the less.
Also going back to the lack of rewarding factor, I think most will agree that this is a full fledged RPG. But it's an RPG with literally no story. And without a story to get invested to to keep rewarding you and wanting to push you forward into the game, then there's little incentive to do so. Why should I beat the game? I have no desire to save Zelda. Why should I to be honest? She's barely in the game, her voice acting is garbage, and the game didn't do anything to spark my investment into saving her. She's a bareboned character that I don't give a fukk about. I also have little desire to kill Ganon. Again, he hasn't really done much to me for me to want to kill him. There's no background information on the guy or any threat level/tension for me to have the desire to do so. And also no reward from a storytelling standpoint. It also attributes to the lack of immersion in my opinion. If there's no story to lose yourself into, it just plays like any other video game.
Those were the main things I wanted to take note of but there's some things I didn't really discuss so I probably should. Combat is pretty good. I liked it for the most part. The weapon durability thing is kind of annoying but I can appreciate the extra dimension it added to the gameplay. However fighting the same 3-4 enemies all game was a bit of a drag.
Music was fukking nonexistent. I get where they were going. They wanted to really focus on the natural sounds of the wild. And I get that. Still would've just preferred to have music playing throughout the game. Even the music that was there was kind of average to be honest. The Shrine music just got annoying after a while.
The characters were wack from a sense that they had no character. Again, none of the characters had any development. BUT, I did love the mannerisms and quirks the characters had. It was funny and endearing like a Pixar movie. All the characters were likable and charming, but extremely forgettable because of the lack of development. Just another missed opportunity. I should mention the designs of the characters were some of most charming I've ever seen in any video game. Really well done.
The shrines, the dungeons, the riddles were all extremely well done. Not going to lie a couple of shrines stumped me for a good hour or so. Most of them were pretty straight forward but still pretty satisfying to complete.
I know this review, or impression, sounded pretty negative at times but I really did like the game. I don't necessarily believe this is an all time great video game like it has been crowned as, but it is a great game. Personally I would take more than a couple of games this gen over it, but Witcher 3 and TLOU-R are still the two masterclass videogames of this gen, and Zelda just isn't. But I can totally get if you love the game and give it a 10. For me though it missed it by a fair margin. I'd give this game a score of somewhere in the 8.5-9 range. I've done about 80 shrines and all 4 dungeons so I'm pretty locked into that score. When I decide to actually beat Ganon and if the ending blows me away it could possibly change, I don't see that happening though.
fukk this ended up getting long as hell and now I doubt it'll get read. I might cut it down later.