As far as TP's items go, your "generic Zelda items" (Bow, Claw Shot, etc.) are useful enough, and Dominion Rod is an obvious if enjoyable gimmick. Spinner DEFINITELY needed a soup-up off-rails. By no means would it have left Epona obsolete (you can't use any other items on the Spinner, after all), but just giving Link some ability to "pump" it forward, perhaps having the attack button push it forward a bit, would have worked wonders. In that sense, Superbat's "skateboard" analogy was right on the mark.
Ball And Chain was awesome, and by its nature kind of has to be unwieldy. But I'm not sure if it was really necessary for it to limit Link's walking speed that much.
Face it, Epona was always obsolete.
Sadly true, that's what I like about TP. The field is actually large enough that Epona has a point. Further, combat on her back is controlled MUCH better than previous titles. Bad enough that a game like OoT feels very claustrophobic on a horse, but remember the big Poe hunting?
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