Waiting to Exhale of the Wild · 10:09pm May 21st, 2018
I don't know why I went with that title, but whatever . . . .
So, I know I'm a little late to this one, but I've been playing a crap-ton of "Breath of the Wild" lately on my Switch. I wasn't quite into it at first, but the more I play and the more progress I make, the more I like it. It is equal parts fascinating and frustrating, and I really like it.
I've put so much time into this game (as a method of procrastinationI would say "SPOILERS", but the game's been out for over a year. Chances are, you've already played it. 
This game differs from other Zelda titles, and I can easily say that even as someone who's not as into Zelda. You play as a different kind of Link, an amnesiac Link that has been asleep for 100 years after a tragic fight against the scourge of Hyrule, Calamity Ganon. Somehow, you and Zelda both survived, and while she's holding him off at the castle, you have to get your shit together and help her. Find weapons, forage food, explore a huge map teeming with life, the whole nine yards. Along the way, you'll find shrines, which are kinda like dungeons, and you have to solve puzzles or fight monsters to get through them. You get Spirit Orbs as a reward, which go to adding to your health and stamina, so finding as many shrines as possible is key.
Also, you need to find these four ancient mechs that were made to stop Ganon 100 years before, but are now all currently rampaging and fucking things up. You need to get inside these mechs, which I guess are the true dungeons in this game, and chill them out so they can help beat Ganon like they were supposed to. Each one unlocks a piece of Link's memory, so these are important to the story.
The world is so massive and offers so many different landscapes and settings that it will be impossible to beat this game in just a few hours, or even a few days. And every environment has its own hazards: tundras and high mountains cause you cold damage, deserts and volcanoes burn you up, rainy areas make climbing difficult, forests have low visibility, and grasslands have no cover and lots of monsters to fight. Every monster you beat drops materials and weapons you can use, so collecting them is important, as well.
The game does have its downsides. When you start, you start weak, and the difficulty curve . . . well, there isn't one. It varies depending on where you go, and if you explore too far out while unprepared, you will get thrashed. The problem is, you spend so much time building yourself up to explore more that the game turns into a slog at first. Same goes with buying armor and weapons--not gonna happen unless you explore and find stuff to sell at various vendors that travel the land. But once you get used to the game mechanics (and learn from a couple dozen deaths), it gets easier to gather materials and rupees and build yourself back up to the champion you used to be.
That . . . and the map is totally blank. You need to find these big towers and unlock them in order to fill up parts of the map. However, these towers, and the shrines you visit, allow you to transport yourself to them from wherever you are, so it makes traveling the obscenely huge landscape that much easier.
The issues I've heard about the game are not nearly as bad as people say. Frame rate drops do exist, but they are so infrequent and have such little impact on the experience that it's practically a non-issue. The weapon durability mechanic is annoying at first, but resource management is one of the biggest things about the game, so it comes with the territory (and you can expand your inventory slots by trading Korok seeds you find in the field). And the loading times are a tad much, but not that much, and they come with helpful little factoids that help you progress (which aren't particularly helpful when you see the same two tips crop up every time the loading screen shows up after a death, I WASN'T JUST THROWING MYSELF AT THE ENEMIES, ASSHOLE!!)
That, and evidently, if you walk around with a metallic weapon in a thunderstorm for too long, you can get struck by lightning. This is a really stupid mechanic. I can't think of a single game in which natural lightning is a hazard. 
Overall, I like this game, but the mechanics frustrate me sometimes. I'm getting better, though; I have about ten hearts, almost a full second circle of stamina, and have converted two of the four divine mechs. If anyone wants an update on how I'm doing, I'll post again.
In the meantime, I found a list of stupid nitpicks of the game that some jackass posted a while back on GameFAQS.
And for maximum hilarity, read the list in the same voice as Arin in this video:
Enjoy. 
Do you think Breath of the Wild is better than Skyrim, or any of the Elder Scrolls games for that matter?
I kind of like the lightning mechanic. It makes sense, walk around with a long metal pole in lightning, bad idea. Also, Skyrim with the Storm Call Shout?
4866142
I sure do. For one thing, it's a heck of a lot bigger, and a lot less glitchy.
I love this game, because it's very clear to me that someone decided "hey, what if Link was in a Fallout game?"
4866142
I've only ever really played Oblivion (I have Skyrim, but I haven't played it yet), so I can't judge. But I don't think I'd say one is better than the other. More like two peaks of two different mountains.
4866151
Is that really natural lightning, though?
4866590
Fair point