Archive / Ramblings / Modern Zelda: A Second Chance (12/14/2025)

I recently made a deal that resulted in one of my friends watching the entirety of Guilty Gear's story modes. However, this came with a terrible price: I have to give a fair second chance to the two Zelda games on the Switch. I have historically disliked these games for quite a while, especially following my playthrough of the far superior Twilight Princess. But now, I must try them again. I will completely finish the games, and decided to document my playthrough here.

I don't really like Bread of the Wild, for many different reasons. For one, the combat system: breakable weapons have always sucked, but I am also just not a fan of how limited the combat feels. Secondly, the open world. There is a big difference between a "world that is open" and a "true open world". I just really dislike when the player is thrown into the world with very limited direction. It has always felt like bad design to be. Thirdly, the dungeons suck. Older games have complex labyrinths with complex puzzles and some difficult navigation. Breath of the Wild has nothing close to that. Basically everything is just a physics puzzle, and it gets old really fast. I stopped playing after the first dungeon, and though I have seen multiple parts of the game I have not gone back.

Tears of the Kingdom inherits every mediocre part of Breath of the Wild, but makes things even worse. The implementation of vehicles and building in general turns the game into a sandbox building game, which is not what a Zelda game should be in the slightest. The majority of puzzles can all be solved in the same way, and it never feels like a challenge. I gave the game an honest chance and cleared the first dungeon (which in my case was the sky one) and haven't touched the game since.