My stubborn ass was off-script-b-lining for anywhere I thought the master sword might be. I went straight to the deku tree then the clouds got involved. I back pedaled to under the deku tree and then back up and then back down that root shoot and stayed there. For hooours. Finally beat this handsy nightmare I’m feeling like I improvised my way through the forest temple with 4 hearts and a lot of heart. Talk to the Great Deku and get no help to find the sword. Hat in hand (more accurately a random chest somewhere) I leave the Lost Woods. Wondering around there’s shot of cold fear when I heard that music again. In the wild, wide open field no platforms no rocket shield, and not during the scheduled boss fight almost ruined the game for me. I still hate them, scorched earth with a Lionel bow on sight.

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(I'm going to try and be vague in the interest of not being spoilery for those that haven't played.) So, I did a lot of TotK "out of order," being not very good at following directions and much more likely to follow whatever just caught my attention. Which meant that I found myself trying to skydive into the Lost Woods when I realized that I was above it. And then being determined to get in when I kept voiding out. All with 5 hearts and maybe two geoglyphs. So my first "hands-on" experience was during that quest with jack-all for maneuverability room. I died several times before going back with a ton of sundelion snacks. The encounter on the plateau still startled the hell out of me lol.

(Not too much later I finished that quest and got the sword glyph (I forget in what order)... and then I finally decided to follow Impa to the temple like she had suggested many game hours ago. And I could have saved myself some grief (and spoilers) if I had just followed instructions rather than rampage across the countryside willy nilly. >_> )

Reading these replies, it feels like I'm the only one that didn't automatically take the carpet bombing approach. 😂 They're doable with regular melee. If you suck at combat like me, tanking and food-chugging is a valid method. Dazzlefruit works (briefly), as do elementals. I wouldn't be surprised if someone figured out a way to chain ice and lightning strikes a la BotW to get a stun lock on the whole group at once.

That monster scared me so much I immediately switched to map and beamed to some shrine whenever I encountered that abomination. Was pretty proud when I didn't run away and (barely) made it to high ground.

Tldr: I'm an oldish, weathered guy scared to shit by some pixels 🙄

It's disorienting as hell. While there's valid criticisms about the emptiness of the depths, the feeling of initial exploration (pre-hoverbike etc.) was masterfully done IMO. I can't count how many times I went to throw/shoot a bright bloom and it landed three feet in front of my face on a wall or a root I couldn't see lol. Seeing the first Yiga base in the distance and wondering what that dim red sentry robot was, the first Frox, vast gloom swamps, armored freakin Lynels... yeah, it's creepy. And I loved it lol.