I've recently read Jim Sterlin's review of Breath of the Wild, it can be found here: http://www.thejimquisition.com/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-review/ and there were parts where I understood and could sympathize with Jim's opinion and there were other portions where I was shaking my head in disagreement.
I'd like to go into some of these moments starting with this portion:
"These are the sorts of annoyances Breath of the Wild is full of. Minor inconveniences and shows of disrespect toward the player’s time.
... Frequent interruptions when monsters respawn during a “blood moon” – the modern equivalent of Castlevania II‘s notorious “curse” text box."
An interesting comment regarding BotW's blood moon mechanic so I did a quick experiment. I gave a watch to the Castlevania 2 longplay video below which is 5,155 seconds in length:
I counted 12 times in which the disruptive curse message comes up and they last about 8-10 seconds each (2:10, 13:10, 17:40, 20:50, 30:08, 33:24, 44:14, 47:33, 52:11, 55:30, 1:09:00, 1:19:11).
Next, I watched a playthrough of BotW by youtuber Rurikhan. Three videos, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbB0c7BfpY0 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z-QtPmjtqU , and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMWwoAufMgE , lasting a total of 31,627 seconds and in that amount of time, I was only able to find the blood moon sequence coming up only once at 2:23:35 of the second video and it lasts about 40 seconds. When you skip it, it lasts about 20 seconds.
So for Castlevania 2, we get about 9*12=108 seconds of "curse text box" out of 5,155 seconds of play and for BotW, we get about 40 seconds of blood moon out of 31,627 seconds of play.
Based on this, I cannot agree with Jim that the blood moon is "the modern equivalent of Castlevania II‘s notorious “curse” text box". Plus, the blood moon sequence looks pretty freaking cool and the music is great.
There are other portions of the review I'd like to comment on but for now, I'll leave it at that...
What say you?
UPDATE: a bit more of the review before I go to bed:
"Minor inconveniences and shows of disrespect toward the player’s time.
Enemy encounters that suck up your resources"
If you're referring to enemy encounters in the wild, you can usually outrun your enemies. If they're hot on your tail, drop a bomb and time its detonation. That should get them off. I do this all the time when running about and don't feel like fighting. Sometimes I wanna stock up on weapons and bombs can at times relieve enemies of weapons. Bombs are unlimited as well.
"cluttered menus that are a hassle to get through,"
Cluttered how? Explain, Jim.
I press plus and I see my weapons like swords and spears. Right on the right joystick I get to bows and arrows. Right again and I get shields. Right once more and I get clothes. Then materials and then dishes and finally key items. Right shoulder button and you can save and load your game among other things. Left shoulder and you get adventure log: quest stuff and memories.
Pretty simple.
"the same old fucking cutscenes every time you open, enter, and complete shrines."
You can skip those, Jim. Outside the "glass shattering" cutscene, you can skip 'em all. Opening a shrine door takes under two seconds when you skip for example.
UPDATE:
"the proper way of handling shrines is to complete them on sight lest lose track of them"
How do you lose track of them Jim? As Goodnightmoon points out below, "you can put markers on them from the distance to know where they are but also once you go close to one the map already shows you where they are and wether they are only discovered (orange), opened but not completed (orange and blue) or completed (blue) yet he says you need to do them all from the moment you see them otherwise you lose track."
I'd like to add that you can put stamps down on the map as well as you see fit.
"it has Ubisoft-style radio towers in it."
A shame you didn't say much about them and I'm not sure I'd describe them as such. From what I understand, Ubisoft towers basically give you all the points of interest and landmarks the moment you unlock a portion of a map. Breath of the Wild towers only reveal the altitude and shape but not points of interest. BotW towers offer you the chance to spot points of interest yourself visually or you have to run into them on foot.
Not the same, fyi.
