Yeah, Aonuma was serious about cutting the hand-holding bullshit. May it never return to insult our intelligence.

@GameDadGrant
You're a strange one my friend.

@Hinph
How freaking amazing is it to play a Zelda game that is this fast? No big walls of text every two minutes, even the load times have been cut down to practically nothing. I love it, it feels like the NES game in a lot of ways to me, nothing holding you back, just go.

This game is amazing so far. It's the game I've wanted since A Link to the Past came out so long ago. With everything being unlocked from (almost) the start of the game, there is a true sense of exploration and wonderment when running around. I feel like I'm 8 years old again, playing the original Legend of Zelda.

Even when I THINK something has been gated off from me ("I can't get past this huge rock!") there's always a secondary path around it for me to access the dungeon! It's so open! GAAAH I LOVE IT SO MUCH THIS IS THE ZELDA I'VE BEEN DYING FOR!

God, this game!

(Minor Skull Woods dungeon spoiler!)

Using the Wallmaster to smack a button above you, BRILLIANT! I laughed out loud when I figured it out. I tried to get it to hit a different button earlier on and I guess I just missed, so when I did it right I was overcome with joy. Such a simple, obvious mechanic but something about it was immensely satisfying!

@deathly_hallows

Yeah, I'm a story minimalist with games like these... it seems like there is just enough of it to make you feel like the hero without slowing you down. I often replay Zelda games, and it can seem like a downright chore with some of them.

I'm just so ridiculously happy that they actually succeeded in doing a proper LTTP successor... even Miyamoto made a note of this one being especially good.

They nailed just about everything right with this game.

I hope they take this engine and have somebody get right to work on another one. Even if their internal teams are too busy with Zelda U, they can always outsource the project to an outside developer like they did with the Oracle games and Capcom's Flagship team. They can release the enhanced port of Majora's Mask next year and the new one the year after. I don't want to go without this style of Zelda game for so long ever again!

Majora's Mask sequel with this engine??

That is all.

Just beat the game. Didn't quite 100% it. Not sure if I'm going to go back and try to find the stuff I missed, or if I'm just going to start on Hero Mode next. (Though if I do decide to go with Hero Mode, I'll be waiting until exams are over before I give that a shot.)

Vague spoilers below:

Likes: The ALttP bosses that had something new added to them, the ability to go anywhere you wanted almost from the beginning, the story*, the music (I LOVED the music; possibly my favorite part of the game), the weapon upgrade system, most of the minigames, most of the dungeons...

Dislikes: The ALttP bosses that reappeared that didn't have anything new added to them or that were downgraded from their ALttP appearances, a couple of minigames (especially the one where you have to race from Lake Hylia to the miner's house), how little development there is of the important NPCs, and the story (i.e., the reason it ends up on both of my like and dislike lists is because taken by itself, the story is actually kind of awesome; it's definitely one of the more surprising and intriguing stories in the series; however, when you take it as a follow-up to the events of ALttP (or just the events of the Zelda universe in general), it doesn't make a lot of sense, and it's completely unnecessary; by the end of the game it felt like nothing of any real significance had happened, like the story was just a bonus story in Hyrule's history rather than an important event for it; it's difficult to explain this one without being more specific in my spoilers). Also, I finished the game with two item slots empty, but I thought I got every item except for the final mail/tunic (and two or three Heart Pieces). Maybe there's a bonus item that shows up only in Hero Mode? But even still, I have no idea what could fill the other slot.

I'm not sure just where I rank ALBW amongst the other Zelda games yet. It's not my all-time favorite, but I do think it's going in my top 5, which means it's going to be pushing ALttP out of my top 5. Yeah, surprisingly enough, I think I preferred ALBW to ALttP with everything considered. It just pushed a few things that particularly appeal to me over the top of what ALttP did in those areas. And its faults were small enough that I can mostly ignore them (or rather, they only cause the game to drop a few ranks away from the top of my list).

@Xbob42 I loved that! I was super impressed by that. So simple, but so clever.

May I say that 3D Wallmaster silhouettes that appear above you while you're in a dark room are terrifying? Because they are.

What's up with Majora's Mask hanging on the wall of Link's house? Fan service, or...?

geez its getting beaten already??

Wellsy529 said:

geez its getting beaten already??

I'm sure many people beat it in the first 24 hours. It's a pretty lengthy game, but it's no OoT length-wise.

I feel some are just gonna marathon it. And why not? Game is brilliant, and then there is Hero Mode afterwards. Win/win.

I'm taking my sweet time with this one, probably won't beat it for 2 or 3 weeks. Then there is hero mode… my backlog am cry.

@GameDadGrant

Seems to be just fan service as far as I can tell; could possibly be construed as evidence that there is no child/downfall split in the timeline, and that ALBW does follow the events of MM (just many millennia down the line) since that's the only timeline in which Majora was stopped, leaving the mask as just a spiritless ornament, but for the most part it just seems to be an unimportant decoration.

@V_s

Yeah, I'm guess fan service. Or Nintendo's hinting at a 3D remake, a la Ocarina of Time 3D. Speaking of which, there was a hidden "advertisement" for Skyward Sword in that game. So this wouldn't be out-of-line for Nintendo to do...