Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 1st playthrough thoughts

First off, I absolutely loved the dungeons - exploring them was easily my favorite part of the game.  Each dungeon had its own theme/flavor; and they all felt much more distinct from each other than the LTTP dungeons they were based on.  Palace of Darkness was probably my favorite, between the visual style, light-based puzzles, and minimalist music that gave the sense of exploring a dark & empty place.

I thought the wall merging ability was a fun mechanic that never really got stale despite being needed heavily all throughout the game.  Having to approach overworld/dungeon areas with wall-based movement and depth perception (since you can't move vertically while on a wall) in mind put a pretty neat new twist on the classic 2D Zelda exploration model.

Having a lot of nostalgia for LTTP, the Light/Dark World maps being probably 90% the same as LTTP's made the 10% that was different feel weird/awkward to explore (like the Ice Palace and Turtle Rock being swapped, the Light World desert region being mostly closed off until midway through the Dark World, and Ganon's Tower being a minigame location).  I'd have preferred either more changes (50% or more) or none at all.

I didn't like the item rental/purchase system.  It was obvious to me that one of the developers' main goals was to make the game more flexible/nonlinear than previous 2D Zelda games, between the 'utility' items being mostly available near the start and there being no numbering for the dungeons (or other obvious order to play them in - I just ended up playing the Dark World dungeons in LTTP 1-7 order).  Each dungeon required one (and only one) item for solving its puzzles and fighting its boss; so I didn't really see how having to buy that item elsewhere and bring it into the dungeon was 'better' than the traditional Zelda model of finding the item inside, and then using it to reach previously inaccessible rooms.  Deaths causing you to lose all rented items also seemed needlessly punishing (especially in the 1st half of the game, before you're capable of affording many item purchases) since you either have to return to the shop and re-rent the items after each death, or load a save and lose (possibly significant) progress.  This only ended up mattering once in my playthrough, when I used up all of my Bottle Faeries and then died to the Palace of Darkness boss (if I hadn't already purchased the Bombs at that point, having to backtrack to the Light World, rent them again, and then get back to the boss's room would have been pretty annoying & tedious).

I definitely liked items using a recharging stamina meter instead of finite ammo or MP.  The stamina system was balanced well enough that I felt incentive to use items like the bow and elemental rods in addition to my sword for fights, but I couldn't just spam them indiscriminately.

Probably the strangest aspect of the entire game to me was the dashing mechanic.  Instead of being something given to you and then required for puzzles or exploration (as in all other 2D Zelda games I've played), dashing was 100% optional, with no real in-game guidance on when or where to look for it (and barely any clues that it even exists in the 1st place, outside a few out-of-reach minor items).  I ended up playing from start to finish without ever finding the Pegasus Boots/Seeds equivalent (which I kept expecting to find in a dungeon, as ended up being the case for the Blue/Red Mail and Titan's Mitt).  Outside of the out-of-reach Maiamais and a few boss attacks that were barely possible to dodge at normal movement speed, I honestly rarely felt the absence of a dash - probably due to normal movement being pretty fluid with the analog stick, the smaller field of view on the 3DS's screen compared to a TV meaning the maps/rooms had much less empty space in them, fast travel being available between save points, and wall merging already being the game's main form of movement besides walking.

All in all, definitely enjoyed and recommend ALBW - might give Hero Mode a try someday.