This game is frigging amazing and they somehow were able to get it to continue the vibe of BOTW while expanding on it. So far I'm taking my time and simply exploring and barely in Hyrule.

Feel free to add some tips, tricks and random musings.

Preordered and loving all the additions. I'm in the Hebra region and the story there and play mechanics so far are well-crafted. Why did anyone doubt this sequel?

but I wasn't sure it wouldn't feel like simply more of the same but the changes improved it. Loved that I could get my giant horse back from the first one.

I felt lost and without direction at the start of BOTW. I didn't want to come across any enemies.

I'm still in the first part on this, haven't had much time to play. I hadn't played BOTW since 2021 apparently but decided to defeat Ganon finally before I started TOTK.

When they first announced the new capabilities I was meh on it because I thought it was just going to be the same gave but with more capabilities to do things aimlessly. When they second trailer hit I was more hyped. Now that I have started playing I'm really enjoying the new abilities lol I find myself wanting to explore everything and eager to attack enemies.

Hopefully I can spend more time with it this weekend.

I just forget they are there sometimes but have started to improve on that end.

I am more focused on sticking to the main line this time but these enemies are much harder than the ones in the training island lol

I didn't understand that the new abilities replaced the old. I was thinking I was going to get unlimited bombs to keep rolling over at Hinox from a safe distance lol Now I gotta figure out a new way to beat them or actually get good at this.

I haven't had much time to play but hopefully I will over the holiday weekend.

where the devs give you a bunch of tools to solve problems with and no real direction other than 'go solve this problem.' i love the conceit of super gluing stuff together and having it work 99% of the time. there are a lot of busted (in a good way) mechanics in this game and you aren't punished for finding the most broken combos (boko arm + boko arm) and exploiting them. i feel encouraged to explore and experiment and that's really drawing me in and immersing me. this might be my goty depending on how ffxvi turns out

might get flamed for this but this is the first zelda game i've enjoyed playing. i bounced off of botw bc of pacing and performance issues. never played any of the nes/snes/n64/wii games or the ones on handheld systems. i might have briefly played and hated the side scrolling one on nes. i did try the gamecube one but couldn't get into it

• got the master sword without activiating a quest. tracked down the light dragon in great sky island, navigated to the highest point i could get to, built a makeshift hot-air balloon with wing + balloon + flame emitter, spammed zonai charges to get enough height, and had just enough stamina (2.2 wheels) to make it. very satisfying to put that plan into action and have it work

• ascend is pretty busted. you can find all kinds of weird little seams in the geometry that don't seem like they should work but they do. i scaled king dorephan's tall vertical cavern area using nothing but ascend and jumping

• rocket fused to shield is a short but strong vertical boost. you can similarly use recall on fallen debris from the sky to quickly get to those islands. i assume it's the best way to get to some of the isolated ones

• the menus suck, especially for how much time you spend in them. selecting an aerocuda eyeball to attach to your arrow shouldn't take this much scrolling

• enemies tend to drop weapons when they are knocked down and will usually beeline for a weapon when they get up, making knockdowns effectively a very long stun. time bombs attached to arrows are good for this purpose