Hi everyone! Long post ahead!!
First of all this isnt a slight on the game at all - I know how well known it is and how many people still adore it ten years later, so I know I'm in the minority. I do also really like a lot of the *vibe* with the game, it's actually my first ever Zelda game! I was a playstation kid growing up so never got to experience the classics on N64/GameCube etc. I just.. dont really feel like I scratched the surface? Let me explain -
I'll start off with what I enjoyed - the general story is very cool, the four divine beasts needing to be taken back. I also love the freedom that you *can* go and beat the game any time. Very very cool idea.
Unfortunately, what I didn't enjoy -
I felt the combat was really poor throughout, perhaps I've been spoilt by fromsoft games and the like but I just didn't find it fun at all. I just also didn't really feel any pull to.. explore? I know that might sound strange but I just didn't, I found getting around in general to be a bit of a chore, and with enemies only dropping a weapon that will break after a few hits, I kind of just.. didn't bother?
Anyway, like I say - I am *not* slagging off the game at all, even if it seems like it right now, I will genuinely remember the four divine beasts arc and the idea of being able to beat a game immediately forever, it's very cool.
My main point here is this.. let me tell you how my game went -
Because I wasn't really vibing with the combat or the exploration, I just beelined for the first divine beast I found, elephant dude. I was quite lucky I think to come across the water people's trail up that mountain (it probably says a lot that I only beat the game today and already don't remember any of their names), and I just.. did the elephant guy. I left the boss until later as he was one shotting me.
Id actually found him by just immediately heading for all the towers, one after the other, to unlock the whole map, and in continuing this, I saw the flying one in the sky, and immediately worked out "oh okay so they're water, air.. the others will be fire and earth" which gave me a big hint they'd be on the volcano and in the desert.
So once my whole map was unlocked I just went for them, and with about 6 hearts or something I found 2 of them easy enough to beat. The main reason for this is I'd found a pretty steady food recipe for an omelette that gave me extra hearts, and I just had about 20 of them cooked. So with the temporary hearts I was running with 10/11 hearts, and managed to take down the flying ganonblight thing, and the volcano ganonblight thing, they were actually fairly easy I thought. Id been around doing a few shrines so I had a handful of guardian swords and that was enough to see it through. With the extra heart each beast gives you I was able to go and beat the elephant one finally, and then, after a few tries (as he was by far the hardest imo), beat the one in the camel.
This meant I had all 4 beasts done and was essentially ready to go for the castle, which I did - i now had a weapon from the volcano people called.. something crusher I think, 62 damage, and I used my super jump power thing to scale the wall of the castle. I *think* I got extremely lucky with the route up the castle walls I picked, as I immediately was greeted with ganon, I fell down into a hole with him, the 4 beasts all shot him, and I fairly easily finished him off with this giant crusher weapon thing, only getting hit once and getting restored by elephant lady's power (not a brag by the way, I just didn't find this fight difficult compared to the camel guy boss). This cued up the true final battle which I'm guessing you can't really lose? I bow and arrowed the giant ganon bull thing, and the credits rolled..
I spent some time afterwards watching videos about BOTW as I went in completely blind, and I was shocked by the amount I just hadn't come across
In total I had I think 22 shrines, 8 korok seeds (I never even met the guy who you give them to, I glided down the path towards karamiko village or whatever it's called and missed him on the way, so I never expanded my inventory), I understand I could've gone to some forest to pull out the main sword you're meant to use for the final boss? And in general I understand there's hundreds of side quests and fetch quests etc (of which I did one involving collecting 10 chickens in that karamiko place and it just wasn't for me so I didn't bother). I had no champion weapons, my armor had a rating of 3, id met no fairies in the fountains, I didn't defeat a single stone talus or hynox thing (I'd seen a few but didn't bother). I think I had 3 of the photos? And nothing else in the compendium? Total play time I believe was 22 hours.
The biggest revelation was then finding out that on a normal journey through the castle, you're meant to fight several bosses, a Lionel thing, all of the divine beast bosses again but as one continuous boss this time, and be greeted with loads of lasers and stuff on your way up too? I think I must have just accidentally super jumped to exactly the right doorway at the top of the castle and just had the final boss straight away. This is the biggest one for me, I just feel like I skipped the entire main dungeon, I couldn't even tell you what the orange dots in there were for 😂
My big question here.. is this a remotely normal playthrough? Forget me not really vibing with the game for a second, that doesn't really matter for what I'm asking - I just feel like having now "took off my blindfold" so to speak and read about everyone else's playthrough, people usually find hundreds of shrines, have the best weapons, loads of sidequests done etc and all the minibosses defeated, all the photos in the album and even the whole compendium filled out even getting 400 seeds or something?! I feel like I finished this game in the weirdest surface level way possible and I'm just curious if anyone had a similar experience I guess?!
Again, no hate on the game at all, it had some brilliant concepts and vibes at times, it just wasn't for me personally. Am I weird?