Okay, mind as well put some impressions of Zelda up. I've only put in about 10 hours so far.
This Zelda is a lot harder than the recent ones, combat wise. I've died probably a good couple dozen times already, but thankfully the game autosaves every few minutes, so you don't lose much progress at all when you die. Just get right back there quickly, so you maybe try a different way to get through the part you died in.
The enemies do a lot of damage, and like to attack you in groups. The weapons have durability, and most of them will break very quickly, after fighting just one or two enemies, but you're running into more weapons all the time, from taking them from the enemies you fight, to finding them in chests, that I'm not having a problem with running out of weapons.
And I guess that just forces you to use a bunch of different weapons too. I like that they all have their on special attacks and the like, and they control differently. Lots of variety in the combat.
In the first hour or two, you'll get all of the different 'runes' for your shiekah slate, that give you different physics based abilities, like picking up objects, bombs, freezing water to make platforms for yourself, and freezing objects in place.
From what I've seen, you get all of this stuff from very early on in the game, and all of the dungeons and shrines (they're like mini-dungeons) all use these different abilities. So, I think you can do any dungeon or shrine you want after you get the runes. Haven't run into anything where I thought (Bleh, can't figure this out, I probably need some other item form later In the game to do this then.) I think they give you everything at the beginning you need, and it's just a matter of trying to figure out the puzzles with what you already have.
It's more like an rpg in a way, where you're not getting new items like in older Zelda's, but just getting better gear and weapons, and getting things that increase your inventory space, max hearts and stamina, and the like.
Now for a little story, I think I'll need a ton more stuff before taking on the final boss.
I tried heading to Hyrule Castle to see the final boss after just playing a few hours. Let's see, I died 6 times just trying to get though Hyrule field in front of the castle. Even when I was paragliding in the air most of the way, the guardians love sniping you out of the air with their eye lazer shots, and when there's 2 or 3 trying to aim at you at once, it's really hard to try and avoid them.
When I finally made it to the castle, I decided to go the underground sewers route under the castle, as there was too many nasty things above ground trying to kill me, then I ran into...something I haven't seen before in the game, and it killed me instantly in the first room of the sewers.
After that, I just gave up on the final boss for now. I'm not anywhere near good enough to 'darksouls' it, like I'm sure some people already have done.
Not spoiling what it is, but there is some kind of big main quest objective in this game, that the npc's are telling me will weaken Ganon. I"m sure it's optional, as Nintendo's been saying you can try and take on the final boss right from the beginning of the game, but they do try to discourage you from doing that. "It would be foolish to try and face him now" one of old lady's told me.
Overall, I'm really loving the game. I still have a long way to go, so much of the map I haven't even been to yet, so much more preparing I need to do for the final boss. It's gonna be fun I imagine.
