So review embargo has been lifted and (like expected) scores are off the chart…98, today is unheard of.
Didn't play enough ( Ocarina and part of Skyward Sword) to call myself an expert, but can't for the love of god see what is the appeal of it?
Story/characters/etc? From what I've seen it's childish( though fitting) and unexceptional even by even video game standards.
Combat can't also be a part of it…very simple mechanics with little development.
Puzzles are a nice addition, but absolutely pales in comparison to likes of Portal, Witness, etc.
Exploration…probably the best aspect as world is full of secrets, but nothing about it's world feels organic or genuinely lived in.
Anyone else puzzled by this series?
I think their versions of Hyrule feel lived in. Even as far back as the SNES A Link to the Past game, they had little towns and NPCs about. But I don't really think a game world needs to be hyper-realistic to be interesting. The game world in that game, the original Zelda, Ocarina of Time and so on is an interesting one to explore. Full of secrets as you say and lots of interesting locations and lore-filled, quirky areas and characters. And most of all, very strong ambiance.
The puzzles are often pretty good, sometimes challenging. Look at the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time, or some of the dungeons in Link to the Past, etc.. Considering Portal and games like that are 100% about the puzzles, it's not really a great comparison since Zelda games are a sum of the total parts and don't just focus on that one element. But even as a kid playing these games over the years there were always brain-teasing puzzles, secrets and things to discover.
The music is always brilliant and beautiful, magical, even. The game is humorous and light-hearted, "childish" in a sort of innocent way you could say, but also has some darkness and weird aspects as well (check out some of the Majora's Mask elements, etc..) The first dungeon in Link to the Past, for example, your uncle got ran through by an enemy and presumably died on the spot, etc.. Combat generally was a challenge in games past as well, where you had to use a certain item to exploit a weakness of an enemy, or time something just right. Most of the bosses in the Zelda games require careful movement, proper item use and timing. And so on.
It doesn't hurt that the franchise has been around forever and very successful at every turn. I was very young playing the original Zelda on NES and even then it was just awe-inspiring at the time. Since those were the days before internet we all would chat about the game at school, on the school bus, etc.. We'd have to ask each other how to do certain things in the game, where certain secrets were and so on, and it added greatly to the mystique. The game has mostly been popular with every iteration since then, has an (obviously) very large fan base and gets probably the largest budget from Nintendo for their development. These things all add up to make it what it is today.
It's pretty staggering when you think about how long they've been developing Zelda games and had mostly a lot of success with every one. That said, I'm probably not going to jump into this game anytime soon but being a new open-world-style Zelda I can see why people are going nuts over it.
