One of my favorite parts of returning to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, has been how clearly I remember it and how much fun I still have in the game despite my near-perfect recall of every part of it. I can probably direct anyone who wants it to about two hundred or so Koroks, I can find every single shrine unaided, I know where all the good armor is located, and I can beat more bosses without much effort because I can perfectly recall how each battle goes, how to apply the mechanics, and know the game’s systems well enough to show up with weapons powerful enough to make short work of any fight. Despite this, I still enjoy every single moment I’m playing the game. Though it might be better said that I remember so much of the game because of how much I enjoy it, how deeply engaged I am with it at all times, and how playing it gives rise to a delightful mixture of familiar comfort mingled with striking wonder every time I find something I never encountered before. Truly, there is no game that I have a better recollection of or active experience with. What strikes me as odd is that, despite the similarity in overworlds, I only have a somewhat normal recollection of Tears of the Kingdom. Sure, I know where stuff is with my usual familiarity (my greatest skill in most games is never getting lost and remember where random things were, which has mostly only served me well in games without maps like Minecraft), but I can’t just walk up to a shrine and perfectly recall what’s going on inside it before I’ve entered.
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