HEY LISTEN! Spoilers ahead Link!

Finished A Link Between Worlds.

It was good, in fact very good. But, in the end, I feel somewhat dissapointed. Some parts of the game are good but others are easy and boring.

• Firstly, game is shorter than I imagined, or maybe I'm very good. I believe the former is the actual answer.
• Dungeons are short, very very short.
• Boss battles are easy, even the final boss.
• Lorule Castle is dissapointing.
• You have access to every item early in the game, with the exception of the sand thingy.

• Ganon-Yuga design is good.
• Hilda been bad was actually hinted since the beggining by Yuga. Still good twist.
• Ravio been Lorule's hero.
• Lorule's theme (Dark World remix)

I actually prefer the short dungeons. I hate when Zelda dungeons drag on.

The boss battles, though easy, have a few cool mechanics. The thieves guild boss where you attach to his shield as a painting is awesome. The final boss is great too.

Again, I liked the rental system and being able to have every item since the beginning. I loved finding early secrets.

I guess we have different Zelda tastes, but I respect your opinion.

I prefer big dungeons. Something like the ones in TP or Ocarina of Time. But I like when those are well designed. Like Spirit Temple, Shadow Temple or City in the Sky.

Boss Battles were easy, even Ganon.

Rental mechanic was well on paper, but I found the game being to easy because of that. They should have made the puzzles more difficult. I'm planing play it on hero mode and expect to be more like what they planned originally: having to explore with difficult the overworld to get ruppes to get more items that you need to get, in principle, more ruppes.

I'm nearly finished my 100% Hero Mode playthrough... I'll have detailed thoughts to share when I do. Not sure whether I should hold out for all of the StreetPass achievements though. They unlock a small amount of game content, but at this rate I'll be finished everything else before I hit 10/50 achievements, and who knows how long I'll have to wait to get enough StreetPass data to finish that.

Maybe I should take a field trip to a Nintendo Zone location or something.

Prepare to be let down. Hero Mode is difficult early on, when even the weakest enemies hit you for 2/3 of your health. But renting items costs so little that it won't significantly affect your wallet unless you try to rent every item every time you die. The second (or third, depending on the order you play in) boss is an absolute pushover because it doesn't directly damage you; it just pushes you into pits, which don't deal more damage in Hero Mode. So you have a Hero Mode dungeon boss dealing a half-heart of damage at a time, while you have at least four heart containers. Consider that the second boss in Link's Awakening hits you for a full heart when you have a maximum of four heart containers... and there is no Hero Mode in that game... yeah.

You can also get two or three bottles fairly early on, and there's a fairy fountain right next to your house.

Anyway, any difficulty Hero Mode brings is thrown out the window the minute you get the Blue Mail, which is accessible as soon as you enter Lorule.

Welp. I finished the game with only the blue mail. I cannot reach the red one in Lorule castle. Neither got the final golden sword.

That's what I loved from LADX, both Oracle and SS. Each enemy takes you at least one heart, and on hero mode in SS is the double damage and no hearts in the overworld. Only potions.

Same here. I intend to get both in Hero Mode, though. The final boss's strongest attack has a base damage of 5 hearts, so 20 in Hero Mode. Blue Mail will bring that down to 10, but I don't exactly want to be in a position to be two-shot by the final boss.

I will say that you really have to pay attention to what you're doing at the start of Hero Mode. There's nothing worse than losing your focus and bumping into a common rat, immediately dropping down to one heart of health. Once you have 5 hearts the game feels more lenient, and I had 8 hearts before I went to Lorule.

Still, there's one overworld enemy who can OHKO you on Hero Mode even with 8 hearts, which is cool.

I finally got the red mail. It was do'h moment.

Try hero mode for your difficulty issues.

The final boss was hard enough, but his second phase was pathetically easy. I still think it should of been Hilda who fought you and each item that you had collected would be used in the final fight. Just me though.

Personally, I found ALBW to be a quite refreshing entry and gave me the most fun with a Zelda game that I haven't had in a long time. I have beaten both normal mode and hero mode 100% and have experienced the game to its fullest.

Hero mode for me was definitely difficult in the early phases due enemies reducing you to say one heart but as I progressed, it got easier. Before I entered the first Lorule dungeon, I had nine or ten hearts (I forget), and I didn't have too much difficulty. I kept fairies on me at all times so whenever I did die, I didn't lose anything for I had all the items already purchased by then.

After beating the game, I can't say I was disappointed. Although the dungeons were short, you had all the items early, and the degree of difficulty was still lacking, the game is still great and still a worthy sequel to ALTTP. The exploration was fantastic, rewarding you for your curiosity, the puzzles were clever, especially the painting mechanic, and the game looked great on the 3DS.