The Legend of Zelda series has been highly praised for years and despite how much love the series has gotten over the years, several games still had some issues. Windwaker and Twilight Princess were too disgustingly easy and Skyward Sword's motion censor controls were more of a hindrance than a help at times. Perhaps the biggest complaint of all? The games all were too similar. However, this game indeed breaks away from everyone of those valid complaints.
This Zelda takes all the elements of previous games and puts a brand new spin on them. This game 1st of all couldn't be less linear. You can go where you want, do whatever you feel like doing and great news. NO MORE PARTNER CHARACTERS!! Finally, Link is not led and held by the hand of a character who basically does all the talking for him and tells him what to do like they are his boss. No more Navi, Midna, Fi. If anything Zelda's voice is the closest to being a guide character which is good enough where she helps without getting in the way, finally. So as you can see here, this game does not baby sit you and it throws you in a big world to explore. It's a great homage to the original NES Zelda which virtually did the same thing.
To further talk about challenge, boy this is not your father's 3-D Zelda. Games like Windwaker and Twilight Princess were examples of games where the combat and enemies were so easy, it was insulting. In both games, Link was extremely over powered and could virtually kick enemies ass without much of a fight at all. You had enemies with attacks that took off only a quarter of a heart piece! A freaking quarter! That meant at only three hearts, Link would die in 12 hits!!! Think about that for a second? As those games progressed, enemies damage barely raised; some damage did half a heart and maybe one heart for bosses or really powerful enemies. As Link gained more hearts after each boss, he was almost indestructible. Skyward Sword did finally raise the combat difficulty and some enemies did do more damage but this is the Zelda that finally took it to another level.
Link is human in this game, not indestructible which means he can get his ass handed to him if not prepared. This game has a new element of having weapons constantly breaking so Link has to use numerous weapons from one fight to the next. He is constantly using weapons he picks up from enemies and chests to progress. That's a nice realism element. Weapons can break after usage and no weapons are indestructible. This will be a big adjustment for Zelda players use to the much easier games but it adds a big challenge that is welcoming. Furthermore, enemies do damage to Link based on what weapons they are using so if you see a Bokoblin carrying a powerful weapon, it can one hit kill Link easily, even if he has even 5-6 Hearts. Kid you not. Your strategy it to make them drop their weapons and then use their own weapons against them. There are many enemies that can one hit kill you. Be warned. Boy is that a 180 degree from WW/TP in every respect.
The challenge doesn't end there. This game is gigantic and comparing it to the Elder Scrolls series is not an exaggeration. There are numerous side-quests and things to do, a big part of this game is shrines. There are many shrines in the games that are like really small dungeons that can be completed in 3-10 minutes. They range from different puzzles to combat challenges and Link's reward is getting orbs where 4 can be used to get more hearts or increase Link's stamina. The game does have some main dungeons to but it's a much smaller number than previous games. That's the downside but the game's main objective is exploration, not tons of dungeons. However the dungeons themselves have very challenging bosses that take strategy and preparation to beat and best of all, their are several optional bosses, you can find outside dungeons infield. Most will be very hard to beat without a lot of good weapons and stamina, be sure of that. So on a challenge level, this Zelda is indeed a slam dunk. As you get better and know which weapons, armor, to use, the enemies won't be a powerful as they once were but this is the Zelda that finally listened to critics like myself who bitched for years that the games were too damn easy and also for those who were sick of partner characters getting in the way.
Another thing this Zelda did that every Zelda has avoided like the plague. Voice Acting. This has been highly debated for years but Nintendo finally decided after 30 years, having some voice acting isn't such a bad idea. How was it? A mixed bag, not great but not horrible. Voice Acting is used in a way where Zelda gives Link some guidance and a couple main characters in the story had speaking roles in selected cut-scenes. However, if you think this is a game that has a ton of voices and all cut-scenes had voices, you are mistaken. What I didn't like is surprisingly, most of characters who did have voices in a few scenes still talked in text most of the time. So this game is still much more texted base then voiced. It's obvious Nintendo played it safe and decided to use voice acting as an experiment and not something that was instrumental to the game. I'm all for having minor characters not voiced but having main characters in the game talk in text for most of the time and then only to talk in a few chosen moments felt strange. I think either certain characters should either be all voiced or not voiced at all. It's a mystery how Nintendo will use voices in Zelda going forward. Will they expand it? Or will this be a one time deal? Many people forget another Nintendo game, Super Mario Sunshine experimented and had voice acting for a main Mario title one time, then abandoned it and never tried again. Good news is the voice acting in this game was not bad to the extend Sunshine's was.
In essence, this Zelda has delivered on many fronts and is finally the Zelda game that moved the series in a brand new direction and brought a ton of new ideas to the table while keeping a few core aspects of the classic games. This game was an experiment and for the most part was a huge success. Some die hard fans might be disappointed in the lack of main dungeons, the rather simple plot, and the voice acting being used rarely but this Zelda game proves this series future is indeed a bright one.