Honestly higher than I expected.
It just doesn't look as polished as I expect a zelda game to be.... plus it looks pretty dated graphically.
I think it scored much higher than it would, have, had it not used the zelda name and brand.
Like if you used differnt characters, and named the game something else.... its score would be like 10-15 points lower probably.

Solid reviews. Will get it...eventually.

Can't wait to play it. Just a couple more hours.

Already got my copy today and I enjoy it way more than I thought. It's hilarious to experiment with echoes and find stupid, but effective ways to solve a puzzle. I only played for an hour though, so it could get worse. Framerate is pretty stable at 60 FPS, only in the first town I noticed some drops.

About what I expected. Looks like a fun game with a great visual look and with a fresh gameplay twist to take Zelda into true spinoff territory. Still not sure personally if I'll get it cuz of no active combat, maybe later on if it's on discount at some point.

Ooook people calling it a spin-off because it wasn't developed by Nintendo can right go politely somewhere else for that debate.

It's a mainline in the 2D series, period.

Anyway, great score for what's a more experimental game in the series with it's free&flowing mechanics. Did think it was gonna fair a bit better than Link's Awakening, but doing about the same is more than fair.

As for that debate with the Astro Bot game. It's going as well as I expected it to go. (Critically for Astro, Sales will go for Zelda)

Disappointing tbh. It’s a perfectly fine meta for most things, but this is mainline Zelda. It’s never gone this low critically before, not even Spirit Tracks. I guess playing as Zelda is a bit of curse for the franchise…

I can't stand the look of most 3D games that are played in 2D perspective (there are exceptions like Metroid Dread and FIST which also feel different). Stunning 2D games are near-exclusively made by indie developers these day. Shame.

Proper 2D games let your brain magnify the scale of the world. Pseudo 2D on the other hand feel like cheap claustrphobia-inducing 3D games. I wonder how younger gamers who never grew up with 2D or early 3D feel about this.

Kinda agree.

2D is just better, doesn't mean 3D models in 2D can't be good tho.

Aside from some low assets, Sonic Superstars can look pretty good... would still take Sonic Mania visuals any day of the week, though, as an example.

As of I'm writing this at 86 it's only one point behind Links Awakening's 87 on Metacritic.