After the release of "The legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" which literally changed open world gaming, people have been impatiently awaiting the release of this title and let me tell you that the 7-year wait was worth it. This game is simply a masterpiece in every meaning of the word. The gameplay, the puzzles, the various areas to explore, which is packed with so much content that it is able to give Skyrim or Elden Ring a run for their money. I don't know why Nintendo didn't simply call this game "Breath of the Wild 2" because of how similar everything is.
The story:
The story is nothing to brag about. It's about a hero who has to find a princess and save the magical land of Hyrule. It's your simple Princess-knight story. Zelda has been running the exact same story for 30 years now. There is nothing I could tell you about the story that you don't already know from other Zelda games. An evil wizard shows up, kidnaps the princess, spawns monsters and takes over the kingdom. A young "unpromising" boy has the task to set out, find the magical sword and defeat evil.
The gameplay:
The game tasks the hero "link" with defeating the Demon King by recovering 5 spirit sages and their power to defeat the evil. You will have to carry out simple quests around Hyrule (mostly in the form of fetch quests), play around with special powers, weapons, solve puzzles inside shrines to increase both attack power, health and stamina.
The puzzles:
The puzzles are quite easy in comparison to other games. They are more of a showcase of the game mechanics and powers rather than being hard. The puzzles are quite easy and can be solved by anyone. It's simply amusing to use all the new abilities to solve them. What is amazing is that puzzles can be solved in various ways, so different people will have different solutions.
The combat:
The combat is straightforward, you can simply swing in a few directions, however there are so many items available that there are over 100x strategies you can use to defeat enemies ranging from sneaking, magic, bow attacks, sword fights, explosions or tinkering with technology. There are so many ways to win a fight, which makes it very interesting for every type of player.
The open world:
This game has so many quests, bosses and things to do that it might take someone over 300 hours to get 100%. Every inch of the map has something to do, it's simply crazy how many things were packed into a Switch game. So many treasures, mini bosses, dungeons, caves and things to explore... simply wow!
The performance and graphics:
The game runs poorly at barely 30 fps with frequent dips. The graphics are old-generation, however they do have that beautiful cartoony look. Unfortunately, this game was released at the end of the Switch's lifecycle. However, the graphics are still decent enough.
What I didn't like:
The game lags sometimes. You get fps drops during combat or explosions.
The first 3 hours of the game serve as a tutorial area and might be annoying for Zelda veterans like myself.
The weapons break easily and the enemies in this game are much stronger than Zelda BOTW. You will literally break a weapon after 5 hits on some enemies, which forces the player to get more inventory slots and collect a massive arsenal of weapons. To defeat some stronger enemies, you will sometimes need 4 or 5 weapons (even with upgrades)
Depending on the items you have, a boss can take a few seconds to kill. The game's difficulty depends on what item you have during your fight rather than sheer skill.
The underground section is huge but barely has any interesting quests.
I never felt rewarded for beating a dragon boss or completing an underground Colosseum. The rewards are never big or significant.
This game is BOTW on steroids. The sheer amount of things to do will guarantee hundreds of hours of exploration and adventure.