Would've been happy to but beaten to it, thanks for your vigilance ThiefofRPG 😄

I've heard it was a bit of a monster for lower-spec PCs to load, but the effort you went to is so appreciated! I've left the original open in a tab to enjoy a scroll down looking at all the box art before I vote on the proper poll regardless.

The moments where it asked me to just kill like 500 guys in a time limit or divide and conquer with my team to go get outposts etc were refreshingly fun in comparison but also mainly because they were excessively rare. I feel like AoC had many more unique feeling gameplay scenarios than AoI did.

Yeah my main issue is actually fighting the enemies/minibosses with health bars, which is what you spend 90% of your time doing through the game / each one always takes just about 20% longer than I want it to/every side challenge is just fighting 4-5 of them in a row basically with a few exceptions.

I only ever played the Wii U version so I can't really comment on Linkle beyond "she's cute", lol.

(I do feel it's unfair when AoC/AoI get compared to the first game on a characters/world basis, but I understand desiring another game like HW1 obviously makes AoC/AoI's existence a frustration).

So yeah, more the fool me for being roped in hoping for a good story (but in my defense, that's kind of a major selling point of the game, and I was really hoping they'd keep the momentum going of TotK having a decent story with room to improve).

And uhh... gameplay-wise it's pretty much just Age of Calamity again lol. Swap out stunning enemies with the correct runes against enemy attacks for zonai devices and character abilities. I find it all a bit repetitive tbh, not really my thing, but again, has it's moments.

I dunno, I obviously hoped for too much here. I just want to see the kind of nuance and characterisation we got from the secret diaries and such of BotW/TotK to actually show up in the cut-scenes for once. Unfortunately, narratively, AoI ended up being a novelty companion piece and nothing more.

There's a scene where Rauru does the cheap-ass "Wait, Zelda... ... ...Actually no, it's nothing..." and Zelda is like "Okay goodnight :)". They just aren't interested in telling a story with living thinking characters.

The creators see the cast as action figures and nothing more.

The experience really was one of genuine frustration as they actively ignored opportunities for intrigue, conflict, emotion or nuance. Characters constantly say things like "it seems the only way forward... is to fight... to win... together!" as if they're profound moments of clarity.

[Mild spoilers- mainly on what it lacks than what it has]
It starts out quite promising, but none of the named characters from TotK get any new development or insight in the end.
The new storyline with two new characters here is nice enough, but seems they thought it was ALL this game needed to add.

Would have thought Shadow of all people loves to edge that's like his whole thing isn't it