What game are you playing?

[BenSolace]

TotK needs these changes from BotW for me to even consider buying it.

1. Get rid of weapon breaking. Degradation is fine so long as there's adequate ways to repair them, but finding a great weapon only to have it break with no way of repairing it is complete bullshit.

2. Dungeons. Give me back the traditional Zelda dungeons because those are what made a Zelda game a Zelda game. Further, get rid of those stupid puzzle shrines and let me collect pieces of heart the old fashioned way.

3. Don't create another giant open world and fill it with nothing but shrines. BotW's map is seriously lacking everything. So few wildlife, so few people, so few anything that isn't grass or a shrine.



I REALLY didn't like BotW for the above reasons. I put it below Adventures of Link. I know a lot of people love the ever living crap out of it, but for me it was terrible.

This is why I didn't get much further past the first divine beast in BotW. Literally these three (but mostly the first two) reasons. If they at least amended the weapon breakage system I'd play it and then Tears, but I don't want to find a great sword then have to switch to some stupid boomerang or club twice my size when it inevitably breaks. In a pinch it would be fine, but a repair mechanic would completely turn me around.

 

[wankerness]

This is why I didn't get much further past the first divine beast in BotW. Literally these three (but mostly the first two) reasons. If they at least amended the weapon breakage system I'd play it and then Tears, but I don't want to find a great sword then have to switch to some stupid boomerang or club twice my size when it inevitably breaks. In a pinch it would be fine, but a repair mechanic would completely turn me around.

Either a repair mechanic, or just some kind of scaling. The game has a "sweet spot" where the durability really isn't a nuisance for like the middle 2/3 of the game. It's hard at the beginning and feels like a survival game (but I will admit there it's effective in creating a vibe), and then it becomes awful at the end when all the enemies suddenly switch over to all being silver rarity and thus having approximately 5x the HP as they previously did, while the weapon damages don't increase to match (the game "caps out" with the basic, common weapons being the "royal" ones and those take over the loot tables pretty early on), and the weapon durabilities don't increase at all. Sure, you can get better weapons off Lynels, but they have the same crappy durability and are gone in a big hurry if you say, use them on another lynel!! Unless you do one of those weird strats designed explicitly around maximizing weapon durability like chaining headshots and the backstabs.

I wish BOTW 2 would have an Elden Ring -style system where there's a variety of starting weapons and you have to expend a number of resources (or XP, or something) to keep them scaling with you, so initially you can do whatever you want but you eventually have to choose something and commit and there's a pretty decent cost to having to "respec" to using a different weapon. If all weapons were equivalent, didn't have to be upgraded, and didn't have durability it might feel TOO open, or something. Though who knows, that would be fun, at least.

I'd also be OK with a traditional Zelda style where you basically only have one weapon (there was usually something else like a Biggoron sword or upgrades from a blacksmith) and it's infinite use. But, we'll see. Nintendo's really playing this one close to the chest.

I started up FF8. Jesus Christ, does this game feel like wallowing through mud with the framerate at regular speed. You can play it at 3x which is much better, except good luck nailing the timing on the gunblade attacks. I think I'll be going through this very slowly over a long time between other games! I haven't yet learned "boost" on any of my GFs, but I'm hopeful that I can just avoid ever having to do that (the game gives zero explanation of the QOL features besides showing a control scheme when you boot up, but R3 was labelled "boost" so I'm hopeful that's some kind of auto-boost mechanic). That was the worst part of this game, having to mash square (and stop every time the X appeared), for over a minute with some of the ridiculous summon animations like doomtrain. After going through a few fights and drawing 100 of some spells to a couple characters at 3x speed, I can't believe I had the patience back in middle school to get 100 of each spell on all 6 (or however many) characters without the ability to fast forward the game!!

 

[Mathemagician]

Anybody picking up Diablo 4 to try the open beta this weekend? I’m waffling on it, but I miss exploding a screen of baddies to try the slot machine gear wheel, lol.

Checked out Wolcen while I was at it but reviews were uh, mixed at best.

 

[BMFan30]

Anybody picking up Diablo 4 to try the open beta this weekend? I’m waffling on it, but I miss exploding a screen of baddies to try the slot machine gear wheel, lol.

Checked out Wolcen while I was at it but reviews were uh, mixed at best.

I would get it in a heartbeat. I got a permanent claw hand from playing D3 to near death but my graphics card crapped out on me a several years ago so I had to revert to my backup card which I never re-upgraded since so I can't do anything but record, produce and maybe not run anything heavy other than some low end games, or on super low graphics settings.

Grim Dawn is getting me back into ARPG's and scratching my PoE/Diablo itch for me since I can't run D4 worth a squat.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Wo Long- I wanted something to fill the Soulslike void but I can't really recommend it, especially at full price. The UI and inventory management are fucking awful. The enemy variety is pathetic too. I'm gonna go start another Elden Ring playthrough.

 

[wankerness]

Wo Long- I wanted something to fill the Soulslike void but I can't really recommend it, especially at full price. The UI and inventory management are fucking awful. The enemy variety is pathetic too. I'm gonna go start another Elden Ring playthrough.

I downloaded the demo, haven't played it yet. I wasn't real optimistic anyway.

I'm currently playing Code Vein cause it's in the conversation right now due to being a PS+ monthly game. I'm currently halfway through the infamous level that's high on many who've experienced it's "worst videogame level of all time" list. And it is really bad!





What this 3D map of the level doesn't show are that a TON of those towers have locked doors that can only be opened from the back (if you approach them from a roundabout way ala Dark Souls). Or that, as you progress through the level, fewer and fewer of those thin walkways have guardrails, and any enemy that attacks you, even if you block, is highly likely to send you flying to your instant death if you aren't keenly aware of placement at all times. Or that there are only like 3 checkpoints in the whole thing and everything looks exactly the same!!!! Also, the majority of the walkways have things blocking you or holes in them so the paths are all about peeking over the edge of ledges to see where you can safely fall to the level below to actually progress. I spent 2 hours last night and only died a couple times just getting through the first HALF of the level (it teleports you out to a new level after you beat the midway boss, for some bizarre reason).

The game at least has a minimap that shows a trace of where you've been (it shows all your path that you've been, but fades over time, like it only traces X number of your footsteps, so if you meander around in circles for way too long it will eventually erase your early footsteps and thus you won't be sure where you've been and where you haven't).

This game also has ENDLESS fucking cutscenes that are just horrible. And all these "memory" segments where you have to very slowly plod through a landscape of memory tableaus while voiceovers happen. This game's plot is so incoherent and also boring I can't even believe it.

The gameplay is actually pretty fun, though. I'm playing with a Zweihander and it's almost as satisfying as doing so in Dark Souls. The game also has an interesting system where what you'd think of as "character builds" with different stat distributions are tied to equippable items, so you can in practice pretty much instantly respec at no cost any time you switch your "code." It's a good idea. I just have not made any use of it at all cause the Zweihander blocking build is too much fun/too effective.

Additionally, you have a companion that follows you at all times unless he gets killed, which really isn't that often - the AI is not amazing, but it's infinitely better than Ashen, where on later levels your help was guaranteed to suicide off a ledge almost immediately and leave you screwed. It makes the boss fights probably too easy since you can pretty much just block most of the time while your companion does all the work. But the actual boss fight mechanics are pretty nasty, more like Nioh than Dark Souls in terms of speed and damage dealt.

Also of note is this game is super anime style with characters, and has one of the better character creation tools I've ever seen. Though the game really tries to funnel you into making either a huge boobed anime waifu or a prettyboy anime guy. There's just a ton of variation within those templates and it's WAY better than anything Fromsoft has ever pumped out. Too bad about the Anime style.

 

[BlackMastodon]

I got a permanent claw hand from playing D3 to near death

Get an ergo-mouse, my dude.

 

[MFB]

Get an ergo-mouse, my dude.

I'm coming up on 10 years of using a vertical mouse, and I'll never go back to traditional.

 

[BlackMastodon]

I had a wired Anker one I used at work years ago but haven't gotten around to getting a new one. Think I'll come back to them soon, though, just to get ahead of any carpal tunneliness since I'm trying to be super conscious of office/desk ergonomics lately.

 

[MFB]

I had a wired Anker one I used at work years ago but haven't gotten around to getting a new one. Think I'll come back to them soon, though, just to get ahead of any carpal tunneliness since I'm trying to be super conscious of office/desk ergonomics lately.

I started with that one as it was a cheap test, I now use the Logitech one and after a few years, the material of it holds up much better than then Anker; doesn't have that same feel too it that the other one got to.

 

[BMFan30]

Get an ergo-mouse, my dude.

My right mouse hand looked fine, looked just like that^ Clathrus archeri looking like it's reaching for the clitoris of thy cherry.

It actually was my left button hand that had the claw, not my right clicking hand. I even set my D3 action buttons one level under to minimize the claw, like instead of 1234, it was QWER + Left Alt, so after an 8 hour session of D3 my hand would peel back with resistance. I could not tell which side of my hand I was looking at.

Changing my button scheme has done nothing for anything as you can see. My hand used to be more trusty than the cupholder in your car, I guarantee it. I could Chuck Norris anyone in flip cup at a party back then doe with my steady tree stump of a hand. LOL

 

[BenSolace]

Either a repair mechanic, or just some kind of scaling. The game has a "sweet spot" where the durability really isn't a nuisance for like the middle 2/3 of the game. It's hard at the beginning and feels like a survival game (but I will admit there it's effective in creating a vibe), and then it becomes awful at the end when all the enemies suddenly switch over to all being silver rarity and thus having approximately 5x the HP as they previously did, while the weapon damages don't increase to match (the game "caps out" with the basic, common weapons being the "royal" ones and those take over the loot tables pretty early on), and the weapon durabilities don't increase at all. Sure, you can get better weapons off Lynels, but they have the same crappy durability and are gone in a big hurry if you say, use them on another lynel!! Unless you do one of those weird strats designed explicitly around maximizing weapon durability like chaining headshots and the backstabs.

I wish BOTW 2 would have an Elden Ring -style system where there's a variety of starting weapons and you have to expend a number of resources (or XP, or something) to keep them scaling with you, so initially you can do whatever you want but you eventually have to choose something and commit and there's a pretty decent cost to having to "respec" to using a different weapon. If all weapons were equivalent, didn't have to be upgraded, and didn't have durability it might feel TOO open, or something. Though who knows, that would be fun, at least.

I'd also be OK with a traditional Zelda style where you basically only have one weapon (there was usually something else like a Biggoron sword or upgrades from a blacksmith) and it's infinite use. But, we'll see. Nintendo's really playing this one close to the chest.

I started up FF8. Jesus Christ, does this game feel like wallowing through mud with the framerate at regular speed. You can play it at 3x which is much better, except good luck nailing the timing on the gunblade attacks. I think I'll be going through this very slowly over a long time between other games! I haven't yet learned "boost" on any of my GFs, but I'm hopeful that I can just avoid ever having to do that (the game gives zero explanation of the QOL features besides showing a control scheme when you boot up, but R3 was labelled "boost" so I'm hopeful that's some kind of auto-boost mechanic). That was the worst part of this game, having to mash square (and stop every time the X appeared), for over a minute with some of the ridiculous summon animations like doomtrain. After going through a few fights and drawing 100 of some spells to a couple characters at 3x speed, I can't believe I had the patience back in middle school to get 100 of each spell on all 6 (or however many) characters without the ability to fast forward the game!!

With Ocarina of time and Majoras Mask playing big parts in my childhood gaming I've often fantasized about what BotW weapon system could be like to suit me more. I imagine something like, you have a set sword like in the aforementioned games, however there are also "disposable" weapons that will generally be more powerful than your sword and do damage appropriate for that area of the map.

Say there are 6 divine beasts/temples - every time you beat one you get a weapon upgrade that will buff damage, up to a maximum of 5 boosts - this sort of "suggests" an order for the temples as each surrounding area will have enemies tank more of your damage given you're lacking the sword upgrades, however you still have a freedom to tackle them in any order as you can use the area appropriate "disposables" (as is the way currently) and fall back on your sword if they all break. Naturally you will struggle more if you choose to take on a higher level area and run out of disposables!

Yes, I've thought way too much about this!

 

[TheBlackBard]

With Ocarina of time and Majoras Mask playing big parts in my childhood gaming I've often fantasized about what BotW weapon system could be like to suit me more. I imagine something like, you have a set sword like in the aforementioned games, however there are also "disposable" weapons that will generally be more powerful than your sword and do damage appropriate for that area of the map.

Say there are 6 divine beasts/temples - every time you beat one you get a weapon upgrade that will buff damage, up to a maximum of 5 boosts - this sort of "suggests" an order for the temples as each surrounding area will have enemies tank more of your damage given you're lacking the sword upgrades, however you still have a freedom to tackle them in any order as you can use the area appropriate "disposables" (as is the way currently) and fall back on your sword if they all break. Naturally you will struggle more if you choose to take on a higher level area and run out of disposables!

Yes, I've thought way too much about this!

As someone who isn't bothered by the weapon breaking system, I think this is a really good compromise. Something you will always have, but give you incentive to play with other weapons, even if they will break.

 

[CTID]

With Ocarina of time and Majoras Mask playing big parts in my childhood gaming I've often fantasized about what BotW weapon system could be like to suit me more. I imagine something like, you have a set sword like in the aforementioned games, however there are also "disposable" weapons that will generally be more powerful than your sword and do damage appropriate for that area of the map.

Say there are 6 divine beasts/temples - every time you beat one you get a weapon upgrade that will buff damage, up to a maximum of 5 boosts - this sort of "suggests" an order for the temples as each surrounding area will have enemies tank more of your damage given you're lacking the sword upgrades, however you still have a freedom to tackle them in any order as you can use the area appropriate "disposables" (as is the way currently) and fall back on your sword if they all break. Naturally you will struggle more if you choose to take on a higher level area and run out of disposables!

Yes, I've thought way too much about this!

it would totally break the progression of the game, i just think that the master sword shouldn't "break". maybe even if that means that once you get it you have to power it up like they added in the DLC, but just make it a permanent fixed weapon after that? i don't think there really is an easy answer for it though. i think weapon breaking is amazing for the first half of the game when all of your weapons kind of suck and you only have a few slots to put them in so when one breaks you just grab one off the enemy you knocked over/killed or you cycle through the few that you have. but when you're in the late game and have like 16 weapons that are all pretty decent the decision making ends up taking away from the combat imo

anyway started a new game in sekiro and trying to decide if i'm gonna go for the best ending or the shura ending. still have plenty of time to decide because jesus christ i need to shake the rust off

 

[NexusMT]

Wo Long- I wanted something to fill the Soulslike void but I can't really recommend it, especially at full price. The UI and inventory management are fucking awful. The enemy variety is pathetic too. I'm gonna go start another Elden Ring playthrough.

i played the Demo and i kinda like it but the performance on PC is just horrible, i can't justify paying that price to suffer with the game plus the performance.

 

[Alberto7]

Been playing more Sekiro, and now VERY close to finishing NG for the first time. FINALLY got done with the Demon of Hatred. I found Owl Father harder, but the Demon of Hatred fight was just dreadful. I don't think I fully mastered that one and really think I eventually just lucked out. Kinda glad that one's over. Really sad story behind that one, too. Did not see that coming. The whole last act of this game (if you can call it that, and assuming you didn't go with the Shura ending) is just so sad.

Now I'm onto Sword Saint Isshin. Now this... THIS is a good fight. Holy fuck. So satisfying. Makes fighting him in the Shura ending seem like a cakewalk. Genichiro is child's play (easier than Emma in thr Shura ending), Isshin's first phase is hard but relatively straightforward, the ass spear from the second phase is a bit of a nightmare but I'm starting to get the hang of it. I'm still getting used to the lightning from the third phase. Hopefully I'll be able to finish him off soon enough.

I've also been paying a bit more attention to the story and piecing the puzzle together now that I'm at the end and... I find the story surprisingly really good, despite not caring much for it from the beginning and kinda leaving it on the side. I love how the story and the lore are given to you in bite sized pieces for the most part, makes the world building feel a lot more organic. The more I play this game the more I appreciate it.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

In the wait for Trails to Azure to drop on my side of the southern hemisphere, I went back to replaying Chrono Cross that I abandoned a while back for whatever reason (Trails and Xenoblade perhaps). Decent timing too since it took Squenix a full year to patch the damn game. I think one of the bugs were for a beyond useless character so no big deal.

My last save point was where I had to start trapping summons, which was tedious and why I initially abandoned it. Now I'm in the part where I'm suddenly flooded with a massive selection of playable characters. It's no Suikoden with its 108 Water Margin inspired cast, but with 45 characters in a 3-member party, and you can't really switch out your protagonist until new game plus anyway is too much. So, you're forced to spend upgrading elements, weapons and armour on your 2 or 3 favorites anyway, while the over surplus bunch remain on bench warming duties. There are times where you want to pick specific characters for addition plot a la Trigger or FF6, but being an older game, you have to do the hop skip jump procedures to make a lineup change. I guess being where I'm at is the equivalent of FF6's World Of Run segment, but more overflooded, and even more useless characters. I've said before that the overbloated cast harms the plot, and should this get remade (ha!), clean up some of the loose ends like Guile.

I guess I'll try to finish at least one full playthorugh of Cross (true ending first, then NG+ muckabouts later), since I really do like the plot. Well, at least until I abandon it again when Azure drops anyway.

 

[p0ke]

I downloaded the demo, haven't played it yet. I wasn't real optimistic anyway.

I'm currently playing Code Vein cause it's in the conversation right now due to being a PS+ monthly game. I'm currently halfway through the infamous level that's high on many who've experienced it's "worst videogame level of all time" list. And it is really bad!



View attachment 122578

What this 3D map of the level doesn't show are that a TON of those towers have locked doors that can only be opened from the back (if you approach them from a roundabout way ala Dark Souls). Or that, as you progress through the level, fewer and fewer of those thin walkways have guardrails, and any enemy that attacks you, even if you block, is highly likely to send you flying to your instant death if you aren't keenly aware of placement at all times. Or that there are only like 3 checkpoints in the whole thing and everything looks exactly the same!!!! Also, the majority of the walkways have things blocking you or holes in them so the paths are all about peeking over the edge of ledges to see where you can safely fall to the level below to actually progress. I spent 2 hours last night and only died a couple times just getting through the first HALF of the level (it teleports you out to a new level after you beat the midway boss, for some bizarre reason).

The game at least has a minimap that shows a trace of where you've been (it shows all your path that you've been, but fades over time, like it only traces X number of your footsteps, so if you meander around in circles for way too long it will eventually erase your early footsteps and thus you won't be sure where you've been and where you haven't).

This game also has ENDLESS fucking cutscenes that are just horrible. And all these "memory" segments where you have to very slowly plod through a landscape of memory tableaus while voiceovers happen. This game's plot is so incoherent and also boring I can't even believe it.

The gameplay is actually pretty fun, though. I'm playing with a Zweihander and it's almost as satisfying as doing so in Dark Souls. The game also has an interesting system where what you'd think of as "character builds" with different stat distributions are tied to equippable items, so you can in practice pretty much instantly respec at no cost any time you switch your "code." It's a good idea. I just have not made any use of it at all cause the Zweihander blocking build is too much fun/too effective.

Additionally, you have a companion that follows you at all times unless he gets killed, which really isn't that often - the AI is not amazing, but it's infinitely better than Ashen, where on later levels your help was guaranteed to suicide off a ledge almost immediately and leave you screwed. It makes the boss fights probably too easy since you can pretty much just block most of the time while your companion does all the work. But the actual boss fight mechanics are pretty nasty, more like Nioh than Dark Souls in terms of speed and damage dealt.

Also of note is this game is super anime style with characters, and has one of the better character creation tools I've ever seen. Though the game really tries to funnel you into making either a huge boobed anime waifu or a prettyboy anime guy. There's just a ton of variation within those templates and it's WAY better than anything Fromsoft has ever pumped out. Too bad about the Anime style.

At first glance I thought that was a map of the painted world of Ariamis

Oh and speaking of mice. Back when I was ~14-15, I managed to get some little particle inside my Logitech MX-laser that made the right button get stuck sometimes, so I developed a habit of doing extra right clicks to get it unstuck. I got so used to doing it, that even though I bought a new mouse that same year, I still do extra right clicks on my Magic Mouse to this day. And it's been almost 20 years since I had the actual problem!

And to get back on topic: I'm still playing Cyberpunk 2077. I recently noticed there were a bunch of side quests I had somehow missed, so I went and did those. I guess I reached the level cap a while ago, so my character is basically a terminator now Whenever I see one of those NCPD scanner things, I just walk in there and slice the enemies apart with a machete. I don't even care if they shoot at me as their bullets are mostly like mosquitos. I've done all but one ending too, gotta check that one out someday soon. I really like that you can resume the game at the point of no return after finishing, so you don't have to replay the whole game to get all the endings. That said, I'm planning on starting over too, as I didn't understand many of the things in the beginning last time so I missed a lot.

 

[wankerness]

Been playing more Sekiro, and now VERY close to finishing NG for the first time. FINALLY got done with the Demon of Hatred. I found Owl Father harder, but the Demon of Hatred fight was just dreadful. I don't think I fully mastered that one and really think I eventually just lucked out. Kinda glad that one's over. Really sad story behind that one, too. Did not see that coming. The whole last act of this game (if you can call it that, and assuming you didn't go with the Shura ending) is just so sad.

Now I'm onto Sword Saint Isshin. Now this... THIS is a good fight. Holy fuck. So satisfying. Makes fighting him in the Shura ending seem like a cakewalk. Genichiro is child's play (easier than Emma in thr Shura ending), Isshin's first phase is hard but relatively straightforward, the ass spear from the second phase is a bit of a nightmare but I'm starting to get the hang of it. I'm still getting used to the lightning from the third phase. Hopefully I'll be able to finish him off soon enough.

I've also been paying a bit more attention to the story and piecing the puzzle together now that I'm at the end and... I find the story surprisingly really good, despite not caring much for it from the beginning and kinda leaving it on the side. I love how the story and the lore are given to you in bite sized pieces for the most part, makes the world building feel a lot more organic. The more I play this game the more I appreciate it.

Sword Saint is like, mechanically the most complex, but you can do horribly the whole fight and then get lucky with a mikiri and a lightning reversal and he's dead regardless of if he had full health beforehand. I found him much, much easier than the demon of hatred and owl father. I think maybe the fire phase of the shura ending is harder, too.

 

[wankerness]

At first glance I thought that was a map of the painted world of Ariamis

If only! That level is easily 10x bigger than Painted World.

I'm still clunking through that game (Code Vein). I just started skipping all the cutscenes and memory bullshit, the game's story is 100% incomprehensible to me. It feels like it's based on an anime or something where if you had already spent 100 hours of your life on learning the lore the game would make total sense (much like FF12 or FF15, but even more so). It throws tons and tons of generic bullshit character names at you, some of whom are characters you interact with and some of whom aren't, and constantly uses specific jargon terms that have no meaning unless you really paid close attention to the scads of exposition. It's just total noise. It's constant cutscenes and almost none of them have ever made any sense to me (I did play the first maybe hour of the game about two years ago so that probably doesn't help, but still!!!). At least they're skippable!! It makes me appreciate Dark Souls even more - sure the lore's complicated, but it never rubs your nose in it. It's like the equivalent of if Dark Souls held you down and made you listen to someone read every single item description every time you picked up a new item.

Bosses are kinda fun, I think there are way too many abilities in the game, I've really only used buff ones like fire defense or ice weapon buff and never offensive spells/sword attacks or anything, and I've been doing totally fine. I'm coming up on the boss that everyone complains about, though, which I guess is this game's equivalent of Ornstein and Smough (boss duo where whichever you kill first buffs the other). Hopefully I can faceroll through it like I did the last few bosses. I've apparently only played the game for 12 hours and judging by trophies I'm probably about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through.

This weekend I watched my girlfriend go through more BOTW DLC. She actually completed all the shrines that reduce you to 1HP, and then completed the trials and the Ganon boss to buff the bird ability. This DLC had a LOT of content! I forgot that after you finish all the bullshit with the 1/2 heart cap, you then unlock four new shrines that give you three vague objectives that send you around that region (this one was like, shoot the horn on the red dragon, slide down a bunch of rings on your shield on the mountain, and shoot 4 targets while floating in midair on the target course), and then after you do THOSE you have to fight the boss of that dungeon with a bunch of limitations (it only gives you a few low-powered weapons so you can't just swat them down with the master sword). They are nice and give you 99 arrows and 5 bomb arrows, so she just chipped away with those till he died. They do NOT give you any healing items of note, though, so it gets scary.

She got through that miserable shrine with the spikes that chase you through spike traps on her first try (I did make her watch a video first of that final fifth to avoid my fate, where I died on it like 15 times). I'm so proud.

Watching her do a couple other shrines, I'm actually kinda dismissive of the criticism that ZELDA MUST HAVE DUNGEONS!!!! The puzzles in these shrines are a lot more interesting and fun in some cases than the average puzzles you get in a zelda dungeon, it just doesn't force you to do a whole bunch of them back-to-back. And they have the HUGE benefit of being able to be devoured in chunks. Zelda Dungeons, especially later ones in some of the harder games, frequently were a case of "well, unless I have 3 hours to do all this at once, this is never getting done." Ex the Water Temple in OoT or many of the later ones in Link to the Past or Twilight Princess or basically any of them in Majora's Mask.

And the "orbs reward sucks" argument wasn't good, either. I mean, getting the functional equivalent of a piece of heart for one puzzle, along with probably something out of a treasure chest either a weapon or rare material, seems better than many of those endless quest chains that would reward you with one freakin piece of heart after you'd wasted hours and hours of your time (ex the frog choirs). The game gives you all the "dungeon abilities" right out of the gate and thus the only "metroidvania" aspect to it is that some towers and cliffs are really hard to climb before you have enough stamina (but still can be done if you make a ton of stamina food). It lets you do whatever you want, whenever you want. I find that more fun than being required to do things in roughly the same order every time due to "this area has a DIFFERENT COLOR of boulder in front of it, so you aren't allowed to come back till you have magical glove of strength!!! Better hope you remember this spot in 10 hours when you finally have that ability!!"

Speaking of which I watched a video recently about the worst piece of heart in the entire zelda series. I guess some giant horrible money sink quest in Minish Cap, where you have to spend thousands upon thousands of rupees, yet you can only hold a tiny amount of the rupees required at once, so you're constantly having to pay to pull the lottery lever and see if you get a new item, and then having to go farm, repeat ad nauseum.