Some more notes since I'm finally done with this for now - finished the main quest stuff, the optional "dungeon", all of the minibosses, and (unless I've missed something) all of the combat related side content. Basically everything except for the collectible bloat and like 50 shrines (tapped out around 100, they're just too boring and spread out). Stalled a long time because I was kinda exhausted with the game.
Content
- The 5 Lynel gauntlet is just fighting 1 Lynel of escalating colors/tiers after another (really don't see any reason they shouldn't all be upgraded to Silvers if you're lategame enough). Here's what it looks like with optimized tactics, they get no chance to fight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQby0Cq4oBgNot sure if it's possible to set up a fight with two simultaneous Lynels. Iirc it was a thing in BotW but required you to "lure" one next to another or use glitches.
The other underground area/coliseum fights are meh. Overall the game still does almost nothing interesting with enemy composition or fight scenarios. Really could have used more interesting combat shrines/arenas with unique conditions etc.
- There are some combat shrines that strip you of all your equipment (like Eventide Island from BotW) but they're honestly pretty bad - you only see the same few 1-2 construct enemies.
- Remaining dungeons I did (Water, Lightning, Spirit) also had no enemies of note and no minibosses.
- Final boss humanoid Ganondorf (phase 3) has a surprisingly ok moveset - it's partially a composite of Phantom Ganon's 3 separate movesets but there's a bunch of new stuff - and he has some unique mechanics like autododges and some of his attacks bypassing held blocking.
- Really want Shrines gone with the next entry. Other than the aforementioned combat shrines they're either incredibly short puzzles you can skip (easier here than in BotW) or literally non-content (tutorials or "reward" shrines that are just a chest between 2 loading screens). I find it a bad way to structure content, you've got maybe 3-5 hours of gameplay across the 152 shrines split up by more than 300 loading screens.
Mechanics/weapons:
- There's 2 armor sets that buff anything the game considers "Bone" weapons/fusions by 1.8x, and it stacks with a normal attack buff (1.5x) - basically this game's equivalent to BotW's Ancient proficiency. This makes Molduga Jaws (32) technically stronger than Silver Lynel Horns (55) with the right setup. Gibdo Bones (40) are impractical for weapon fusions because they break immediately, but you can use them for arrows and the result is pretty ridiculous:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU6KmeX5p9c- Turns out there's actually one new move, has to be unlocked via collecting armor then completing a minigame. It's notably not tied to any weapon (i.e. is usable unarmed) but it's hilariously bad: slow startup, small hitbox, mediocre damage. Maybe ok for killing 1/low HP enemies without wasting durability, but otherwise not worth using. The damage is so low you barely see the HP bar move on Silver enemies, and this is while shattering Freeze (which gives a 2x/3x damage bonus):
https://files.catbox.moe/e4f36e.mp4- The ability of Royal Guard's weapons doubles their damage (including fusion) number just as they're about to break (like 4 hits from breaking), giving the Royal Guard Claymore the highest damage per hit of any melee weapon, but the activation condition is obviously impractical to the point where it's almost not worth carrying - however it is worth saving one for mounting Lynels as those hits are durability free.
- Zora weapons also have a double weapon+fusion damage multiplier ability that activates if Link is "wet", which you can maintain with the Zora party member's ability, and when active the Lightscale Trident (Spear) becomes the 2nd strongest weapon in the game behind the above mentioned Royal Claymore (making it the strongest melee weapon that's actually somewhat practical to use).
- Scimitar of the Seven (1H Gerudo weapon) doubles damage+fusion by default, no condition to activate, and also has the highest damage potential of any 1H. Its "downside" is that it has low durability but there's nothing stopping you from just getting more when they break, or using an exploit to force the Rock Octorok to repair it just before it breaks (as otherwise it's one of the weapons the game arbitrarily won't allow you to repair), it's just really annoying and tedious.
- Armor upgrades seem to work the same as in BotW (i.e. they're just as broken). Upgraded my Barbarian set - attack buff armor, so you'd imagine it would be on the squisher end - and enemies were dealing 1/4 of a heart of damage.
- Heard they nerfed the damage on Freeze shatters compared to BotW as well as the flat damage added to elemental hits, haven't tested/confirmed it but wouldn't be surprised.
Honestly feel like the game's overall a sidegrade to BotW. There's slightly more content but it's a lot grindier, emptier, removed Guardian enemy types (simple but killing them by deflecting their projectiles made them distinct and they were a bit less easy to ignore than most enemies), more pausing/menuing in combat (particularly with arrow use), weapon switches load slower, Champion abilities were replaced by dumb party members with finicky/worse abilities, some tech got removed (no more 2H charge attack double hits, champion ability stuff like instant spin Urbosa's) - and Link deals a lot more damage but enemies are basically the same (technically weaker until they add Gold variants back) so balance feels even more fucked.
The difference between the highest damage general weapons and the highest damage elemental weapons is also much bigger so it feels less worth taking advantage of elemental utility (can't think of any reason I'd carry an elemental that isn't a Rod in TotK endgame). I think they might have messed with the balance between weapon types too much as well: spears lost their main downside (having lower numbers) while 2H lost charge attack double hits and the only 2H sword with a higher number than the best 1H/spear weapons requires being like 4 hits from breaking to activate its conditional multiplier. 1H no longer has the instant Urbosa's Fury activation as an upside. Bows also just shit on melee in general now, becoming peak DPS in many situations while being the safe ranged option, but are also more tedious to use because you have to fuse materials before every shot.
Had fun overall but mostly for the same things from the first game. Probably won't replay it at all until the DLC releases - can't think of any full game challenge runs that would be interesting
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