I did see a pretty gnarly enemy dropping into the depths one time, instant one killed me - I didn’t return lol.
Zora thoughts
I finished the Zora bit, I thought the lead up and mechanics were amazing, but that the dungeon itself was a bit meh. The feeling I have is that I’m often playing the game wrong. I have too many hours of BOTW under my belt and I play the game in that way, often not utilising all the abilities available to me.
Usually once I finish a quest, I check in on some YouTubers to see how they did it, and I’m always blown away by their game sense and how they did everything in the way that was intended. Whereas I seemed to do it some really daft, old school way.
For instance, the spinning tower - I couldn’t figure it out so I just shot some arrows into and landed a shot - but bullet time is the payoff answer here. Also the boss - its projectiles are blockable by Sidons ability, had no idea and I was jumping over that stuff like an old person. To me that stuff just speaks to forcing more toward a certain answer - make the projectile un-jumpable, make the tower un-hittable by a non-bullet time arrow - that way your player can get where you want them to be rather than not
I also found the Sidon AI to be a bit daft during this whole section, kinda just standing there doing nothing, also the cool off period for his ability just a bit long.
I also had no idea splash fruit could have the same intended use as hydrants or Sidons thing.
It all just adds up to the feeling that while openness offers creative ways to approach things, you can miss out on payoffs if less rewarding solutions like just jumping or paragliding somewhere did it for you rather than the intended solution.
The game teaches you a lot, but it’s also easy to forget about a lot since there are so many abilities. A part of me does love that more gated or forced approach of Zelda games where there is only one solution - that kind of tunnel visioned game dev can really force that payoff, whereas just getting it done any old hack way can often be a bit of a let down.
edit: non spoilery musings - I often feel like in TOTK one must use self-imposed limitations in order to play the game correctly, or to get the intended payoff. For instance, giving in to using the paraglider in a certain situation might get the job done, but it might not be the actual solution that gives the player any kind of creative reward for solving anything. that sort of thing is a bit of a bummer for me, as player imposed limits can vary wildly. I’d rather not have access to an item that could taint a puzzles pay off than have it
