I think every major addition was amazing, and improve on the foundation of BotW. The depths, the sky, the caves, the new abilities. Everything is just excellent and well worth the effort I imagine the development team had to go through to achieve it all with basically zero technical issues for the players.
Unfortunately, every criticism I had with BotW remain here.
-The dungeons are worse or just as bad as the divine beasts. (The bosses are an improvement)
-The environmental hazards were interesting in BotW, but eventually just became annoyances when the solution is simply open the menu and change clothes. I think some rewards could be permanent (e.g. when you finish the sky dungeon you get an item that permanently makes you immune to cold weather)
-The side quests are just a bunch of nothing. Why bother tracking it? Just make it open. If someone has a problem that needs solving, their dialog is more than sufficient motivation.
-The story feels like it is written in autopilot to be as close as possible to OoT. Majoras Mask remains the highest point of the series, and it is not even close. Zelda writers are at their best when they get weird.
-Like BotW, 80% of the shrines solve themselves, and now there are 152 of them. It's just too much. More of mediocre stuff is not good.
I think the sense of freedom and discovery remains here in TotK, but since it's a very direct sequel to BotW, it has been diminished. This is not even a criticism, but for obvious reasons it is not as innovative or groundbreaking as its predecessor.
Unfortunately, every criticism I had with BotW remain here.
-The dungeons are worse or just as bad as the divine beasts. (The bosses are an improvement)
-The environmental hazards were interesting in BotW, but eventually just became annoyances when the solution is simply open the menu and change clothes. I think some rewards could be permanent (e.g. when you finish the sky dungeon you get an item that permanently makes you immune to cold weather)
-The side quests are just a bunch of nothing. Why bother tracking it? Just make it open. If someone has a problem that needs solving, their dialog is more than sufficient motivation.
-The story feels like it is written in autopilot to be as close as possible to OoT. Majoras Mask remains the highest point of the series, and it is not even close. Zelda writers are at their best when they get weird.
-Like BotW, 80% of the shrines solve themselves, and now there are 152 of them. It's just too much. More of mediocre stuff is not good.
I think the sense of freedom and discovery remains here in TotK, but since it's a very direct sequel to BotW, it has been diminished. This is not even a criticism, but for obvious reasons it is not as innovative or groundbreaking as its predecessor.