Yeah they really dropped the ball on the dungeon aspect. They were far too easy and just dull.
For the Switch exclusive Zelda I want BotW with the following changes:
- At least 8 proper Zelda style dungeons, with maybe a temporary power up (such as the hover or iron boots from OoT) you get half way through that's needed to complete the dungeon and beat the boss.
- Remove all test of strength shrines and make all of the shrines meet the quality of the best 15 shrines in BotW. The quality of some of the shrines was atrocious.
- If they can't have a decent story, then make the characters deeper with recurring characters throughout the game. Tarrey Town and The Observatory are really nice concepts that could have been used for so much more. Majoras Mask did this best, Wind Waker and OoT show the minimum that should be acceptable.
- The first 30 hours were perfect and then you just need to mash "A" against everything as you become so overpowered . Make more of the game like those first 30 hours where boulders, metal crates and explosive barrels were actually useful (% damage to enemies rather than fixed damage).
- Enemy variety please, and enemies should be specific to certain regions.
BotW is very good, but now that they have the engine and over world in place they can really focus on fleshing out another "best game of all time".
I pretty much agree with this. I would have liked proper dungeons. The Divine Beasts were...ok - I enjoyed the puzzle factor to them (but not the whole 'moving the dungeon around), but really they were just a bigger shrine and I had 120 of them to do already. I would have liked dungeons to involve more fights with interesting and unique monsters. As you mention, remove the Test of Strength shrines for more puzzle shrines instead, then the dungeons could be more combat orientated (well, at least more like older games with puzzle and combat mixed)
It wasn't until the DLC where I realized just how bad at combat I was due to relying so much on my food and upgraded gear and the overall lack of any real challenging combat throughout the game - My bash and Dodge timing was awful at best, I have been far better in previous games and I think the lack of need to be good at them throughout the game is what caused me to be sloppy.
I actually didn't like the cooking aspect of the game....or rather, the ease of getting health back. When first reading about the game and they talked about how you couldn't just break jars or cut grass for health or rupies, I thought it would make the game more difficult, but actually keeping health was far easier due to the abundance of food.
Rupies are my other criticism - too hard to get throughout the world (especially when you consider the cost of gear). I am sure some may dispute this, but in reality I bet most players resorted to 'farming' a game or dragon for money due to not getting it more naturally. If nothing else, maybe more side quests could have offered money, I mean some would give you crap like an Endura Carrot.
All that sounds rather negative ninny, but they are fairly small gripes, overall I have loved the game (still not finished) with over 110 hours against it and for me it is the best Zelda so far. I just see some improvements could make the next one even better. Though of the things I mentioned, the dungeons are probably the main change I would like to see
