#anyway Cadence of Hyrule is still my favorite Zelda Switch game

[kokiri]

Finally pinned down why TotK's story was so unfulfilling:

It was too safe and inconsequential. It's too happy of a happy ending. Zelda conveniently returns to being a mortal while Link gets his arm back. I mean, yeah, it's expected and I was unsurprised but that doesn't mean that I can't be disappointed. The only sad bittersweet departure was Minearu; who felt sorely underdeveloped imho.

I actually quit playing the game when I had to assemble her construct because I was bored of it the game itself. The story lost its engagement after the Light Dragon reveal and the crafting mechanics were getting really old really fast. I ended up just watching the final boss stuff on YouTube and it just continued my disappointment. I'm sure the boss fights themselves may be fun but I genuinely just don't care about beating TotK to get to them.

Obviously Zelda stories have happy endings, some more so than others. But I think back to how lonely the endings of OoT and MM are. How haunting LA is for how Link is both a hero and a villain. How TP has Link leave his home to wander who knows where alone. And for as happy of an ending WW has, it carries this lingering feeling of "now what?" which was appropriately continued later and its finale felt like a real closure to OoT's adult storyline.

TotK lacks that kind of impact and closure, for me. It's nice that Link and Zelda get a happy ending given all the sacrifices they've made but... it's, again, too happy of a happy ending.