Since it's a slow news day, here's (barely) a rumor about Zelda content arriving later this year.

Insider Jeff Grubb noted on a podcast that "Something not-related to Tears of the Kingdom is happening with Zelda this year." Not a lot to sink your teeth into, I'm afraid. Here's the video:

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Some of these shrine quests are a bit unreasonable lol. I got to one where someone claims ownership of the crystal that needs moving. Oh I'm just here to save the world don't mind me, it's your crystal you say? The first guy that did this could be paid off (150 rupees I think), this guy wants me to fetch him the legendary great white stallion, wtf. Back track to the stable first to get directions, then to where he's supposed to be. I found him but it seemed to be glitched. I have 3 stamina wheels which should be plenty to tame it, but he just kept throwing me back off. I fed him apples, no difference. Tried different patterns of soothing, holding the button, no luck.

I was about to give up so googled it, says it only needs 2 stamina rings. Back to spamming the L button (soothe) and finally after well over a dozen attempts it worked. Very poor that there is zero feedback whether you're on the right track or why it's not working. Now I've got to find the shrine crystal again with this horse that won't walk straight. I need to bond with him first before trading for the crystal doh.

I've been to a bunch of stables now but don't seem to run into anymore musicians for the troupe, to unlock the fairy buds. I guess they are on the west side of the map (been exploring east side so far) Oh and I ran into the monster squad or something. Rag tag militia trying to clear the land of another pirate ship (third time now). Of course they were all silver Lizalfos and Moblins who knocked the entire army (half a dozen NPCs) out pretty quickly so I climbed into the crows nest and let all the silver mobs duke it out against each other with muddle buds. Then a simple sneak strike for the remaining one. (Eight fold blade with improved sneak strike plus silver boss horn works very well).

The captain of the bunch congratulated the crew for a job well done. Err they're all dead... Oh nvm, they were just sleeping, monsters only kill Link in this world! Dunno why everyone is so worried... Oh wait they are not, all have more important requests than saving the world :p Open world 'threats' get sillier and sillier the more filler there is!

A fun cave system in the area led me to a rubber head piece for the fetish collection. It came in handy as there was a Thunder Gleeock in the area which I decided to take on after find a 5x savage Lynel bow earlier (in a chest in a cave). Jeez these things are hyper and the shock prevention, what does it do actually? He still easily kills me and I still drop my bow when struck by lightning. (Had 2x shock resistance, Barbarian legs and attack food for 2x attack) The thing goes ballistic under half health so if you want to kill these, do it fast. Rapid firing bomb arrows with a 5x bow in bullet time was the way to get him. He goes up high though, rocket shield only got me halfway up to him, but in range enough for the bullet time bomb arrows to hit. It didn't drop anything special. (I guess resources for fairy fountain upgrades I won't have access to until completing the game basically)

Oh and I found a bunch of Dondons and a table full of gems. Can't have the gems of course, can't steal em either. (She never goes to sleep, is immune to puff shrooms, can't be reasoned with, and can see right through any kind of ultra-hand shenanigans) So I tried feeding the Dendons luminous stones as per her instructions. I fed them all multiple stones, waited all night and half the day, nothing. Just looked it up now, apparently you have to leave the area for at least 10 minutes (and only feed them one stone). Dunno if they will be there now as a blood moon interfered again (right in the middle of the Gleeock fight, several times as I died a few times and had to start over, thus blood moon kept happening during the fight doh!)

It's a weird game. Very polished on one side, very rough on the other. Yet even though a lot of parts are very rough, nothing lasts all that long and there is variation everywhere. Most is repetitive but with enough variation it's like an MMORPG, every day a different story you make yourself.

I just finished the water temple and I thought it was actually ok with one major glaring problem: Why the fuck this game’s developers have such an aversion to having strong and challenging enemies in these dungeons?

Look, the design of the dungeon is not actually bad, specially the platforming sections, but this idea that Zelda dungeons are “all” about solving puzzles needs to die. Please Nintendo, allow me to be actually challenged!

What is the point of me exploring this beautiful world, if when I decide to progress in the game all that exploring serves no purpose?

Why man? Why? This game was so close to perfection to me. Just put some unique and challenging enemies in those dungeons. That is not a big ask. Remember those knights ,from like, every Zelda game? Start with those.

I got that white Stallion with less than 2 stamina wheels on first try. It's not about the amount of stamina but the number of button presses. You just need to press the button really fast.

Ah, my old age showing. I pressed it as fast as I could many times, after dozen attempts it finally worked before the 3 stamina wheels ran out. Nintendo doesn't do accessibility :/

@Valdney The problem is, the platforming sections are completely pointless once you have 'explored' for a while. Just hover bike, rocket launch glide, double trampoline launch glide, jump climb up the walls. There is no reason to follow any of the paths laid out by the developers and all that freedom actually makes it harder to figure out what the devs had in mind. That leaves 4 points to reach without any effort and a couple simple puzzles that would hardly fill one of the larger BotW shrines. And indeed, enemies scaled on you getting there in starting conditions?

It's like the game punishes progress by making it less fun the more OP you get. It's the biggest example of a reversed difficulty curve. Great sky island is the hardest part of the game and not even the proving grounds can recreate that since you still keep all your stamina, hearts and battery power. Hence I treat it now as a nice comfy blanket before going to sleep.

Last night I stumbled onto the start of the Construct Factory quest while exploring the sky. It was a cool sequence, very much felt like Zelda for a change :) So I'm suddenly back in the Depths, my home (now with medal for lighting up all of the Depths). I already thoroughly explored the construct factory when I found it in the Depths, however then all the doors gave me access denied.

Now I can get inside the proper way instead of forcing my way in backwards. I gathered one of the 4 items to check if it all really works now then had to quit (already past 2am). Looking forward to finish that quest tonight! It seems to be for the 5th sage and can indeed be done before getting the other 4 first :) Good dungeon overall, (already seen the other parts before) and since it's mostly inside, no cheesing it by simply flying in and out.

One little setback for my mild OCD. If there is a North, South and East well close together, I'm gonna look for a West well. Argh there isn't any :p I'm sitting on 26 light blessings now, can't be bothered to turn them in, 11 hearts is already so many lol. But a stone talus can still kill me with one hit. They are trivial to kill though, but a lucky shot when the camera spazzed out got me. Easy kill 'strategy':

Oracle of Ages & Oracle of Seasons coming to NSO!

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Finally beat the game.

Holy moly what a finale; an amazing ending to an amazing game.

It's really hard to sum up the experience as a whole, as it's such a massive, complex, and multifaceted game. On paper, it should collapse under the weight of its own ambition, yet somehow it comes together into something even more than the sum of its parts. It's not a perfect game, but its so creative, cohesive, organic and elegant that any problems I have with it pale in comparison. 

If BOTW was a game about discovery, then TOTK is a game about togetherness; Hyrule is no longer a wilderness, but a community, and where the last game was a quest to reclaim what was lost, this one is about people pulling together to protect what they've rebuilt.

It's a monumental achievement in game design, and quite possibly the crown jewel of the Switch's library.

Nice, guess I'll do the end fight after all. I'm reading too many good impressions of it to skip. It will be a while though. I just landed in the Gerudo desert. The sand storm isn't any impediment since you can simply set the map to the depths layer and have full navigation. The big mines are under towns after all. I left it after just getting to the city, curious to find out what happened!

Beat the game about a week ago.

Immediate first impression is this is yet another example of me enjoying a console's 2nd Zelda game over the 1st!
I enjoyed Majora's Mask over Ocarina of Time. I enjoyed Twilight Princess over Wind Waker. I enjoyed Skyward Sword over Twilight Princess. And now I enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom over Breath of the Wild!