You're saying this like it applies to everybody, but it doesn't. I got stuck with puzzles in Oracle of Seasons as I just said yesterday.
Season was made with the intent to be more action oriented, all puzzles there are easier than what was found in Ages.
I'm surprised that this could if you had no issues with Ages!
Nah, Zelda puzzles are amazing. Most games that do puzzles just do shitty riddles that could also work with pen and paper. Hell, especially Layton. People don't know how thankful they can be there still is a series like Zelda which is doing meaty dungeons with actual puzzles that utilize unique gameplay elements and level design instead of just shit like this riddle/room:
Most of the time you don't really need pen & paper to finish any of the 1rst 3 Layton games. That may be me however.
i haven't played Witcher so I can't possibly see what you meant there.
If Zelda was meant to be about puzzles, it would be closer to something like Alundra that had actual challenge tied to a puzzle.
Even to this day you see people being stuck in the sky dungeon in Twilight Princess (usually that huge room that wants you to clawshot to a material that the game never even hints is working for this item) and every blind playthrough on Youtube or Twitch proves the puzzles can be challenging.
However, what Zelda needs is faster gameplay and puzzle solving that's, as soon as you get the idea, is done faster. Often you see what to do, in your head you basically cleared the whole room already, but the execution just takes too long, it's a waste of time and boring. Okami does this so much better. Skyward Sword, however, gave us the sprint button, drinking potions on the go and other great stuff, it just was way too much about puzzles and had terrible pacing in general for a number of reasons.
I have no qualms with the dungeons in SS, it's everything that is outside of dungeons that is kinda shitty.
The pacing in the dungeons are well made and really helped by the welcome additions although potions are kinda useless outside of red ones (although mileage may vary they had to balance the game I can get that some would need them and it's great they're not mandatory).
TP has the best dungeons IMO and that's probably because the puzzles there aren't braindead but the balance is not bad also.
I mean not everything is puzzle and everything is not combat either.
It's important to have negative zone with downtime for proper pacing.
If you favor puzzles, combat will be your downtime and vice versa.
It's important to have these places, a gauntlet of battle or puzzle is less interesting than the full package.
I favor combat but I'm not advocating for puzzles to disappear either.
If they go overboard on 1 side like in SS, puzzles need to be drastically more difficult otherwise it's a bore like in SS. Heck for all the talk about swordfighting and everything battle is vastly less interesting than in the gauntlet part of WiiSportResort!
