is very different. Even after playing both of its open betas, I was shocked by how different the final game was from everything I had been expecting.
Not that I expected it to be an exact clone of, with its small-but-mighty world and acrobatic combat, or even a direct follow-up to, which brought mass worldwide appeal to the franchise at the cost of its characteristic difficulty.
isn't anything like classic, either — the series has come much too far in the 20-something intervening years to go back. In many ways,feels like a soft series reboot — it certainly makes enough changes to the core gameplay to qualify.
It simplifies some aspects while complicating others, making it an excellent series starting point that also has a lot to offer longtime fans.
In doing so, it creates a beautiful, immersive world, full of detailed creature designs and death-defying feats of battle. It's a world that's easy to get lost in, although it's hindered by performance issues and a story that plays out like a 15-hour tutorial.