I was curious if the guy was needed for something else in game??
I think this is literally the only puzzle in the game that I found to be difficult.
Hero mode is kicking my ass.
Not really, you encountered the same markings on the walls with switches just 2 rooms earlier.
but honestly while puzzles were clever, none of them really stumped me. Savage Labyrinth was harder than Treacherous Tower too, it required quite some preparation and was a grueling experience, I had just beaten Treacherous Tower an hour ago and it was a cakewalk. Maybe because it's easier to break than Savage Labyrinth, but I did not prepare for Treacherous Tower nearly as much as I did for Savage Labyrinth.Nope. The previous room to the north shows you that the orbs flip walls.
Finally got this game today. Played through the first dungeon and got the sticking-on-walls ability. So much fun! And so much charm. I love this
And man... that chicken avoiding minigame... played through the first two difficulties, but failed twice at the third difficulty. 100 rupees down the drain. Is it worth it or is this minigame just for doubling your money?
Maybe I played too much and too many Zeldas before
Skyward Sword was definitely harder and it wasn't cheap difficulty either.
I thought the Tornado Rod was quite cool. You could say it's ALBW's RF/RC, but in terms of implementation, they're very different. Tornado Rod does provide means for vertical evasion, but in the context of a game clearly not built to allow actual, consistent jumping; and it also serves the purpose of stunning enemies with a 360 degree area of effect attack. I actually wouldn't characterize it at all the way you did. It has a fully realized design of its own. I love the animation, too: a gust of wind so powerful that it lifts Link into the sky is generated, stunning all the enemies around him - awesome.
I do think ALBW could have benefited from more new items, but still, I was very impressed by how useful almost all the items were. Going from dungeon to dungeon and exploring the world without an exact sense of what collection of items you should have, and just trying out a variety of them, was very satisfying. They're mostly all very powerful, with smart individual quirks, and the game does a great job presenting consistent opportunities for most to shine (which means enemy design, dungeon design, leveraging the 3D, etc. etc.). The one exception is the Boomerang, which mostly sat rotting in my inventory. I never found a strong use for it.
So while I don't totally disagree with you, I found the items to be a strong point overall. And that's partly because they benefited from strong execution of the, "At any point, you can approach this or that with almost any variety of items in your inventory" concept. Really, it's on the items front that I felt the non-linear design proved itself most.