Let me just say this game was amazing. It felt like the perfect sequel to a game as great as BotW. I don't know how they did it, but despite the world being the same, it has enough changes and additions to feel fresh again. The tons of new enemies, caves and wells, a "home base"-like area in Hyrule field, and numerous changes to each of the villages as well. I haven't been to Lurelin yet, but Kakariko and the 4 other towns all got at least slight makeovers to the towns themselves or the areas surrounding them. Hateno also seemed to have some changes but I didn't stick around for too long to see all of them. Another cool thing was the new theme for each town before doing the story quests there and completing their respective temples. Speaking of the temples, not only are there more than in BotW but there is also a HUGE step in quality for said temples. The divine beasts were very meh in both looks and overall quality. The temples in this game have better maps, layouts, more varied looks and locations, (two being in the sky, two in the depths, and 1 on the surface (2 if you count Hyrule Castle)), better puzzles imo and for the most part more than just a couple lame enemies lying around.
I have to say with ranking them the lightning temple was by far the best, having the closest to a traditional Zelda feel and a cool atmosphere with fun puzzles and a good amount of enemies ending with a cool and difficult boss. Water temple on the other hand was by far the worst, being one of the worst Zelda dungeons I've probably ever played. It didn't feel like a dungeon at all, didn't have many enemies, and the puzzles were all way too easy, with also probably my least favorite (though still not terrible) boss in the game. The ability from that temple as far as I can tell is not very useful either, but having Sidon's clone fight alongside you is nice. Once you do all of the temples and have 5 clones (idk what else to call them) fighting alongside you it's pretty cool, like you have your own squad going around kicking enemies around. The only issue is triggering their abilities. I wish there was a button to call on their ability from afar instead of going up to them and saying "Let's go!" to use their ability. I often couldn't find the one that I wanted mid-battle, or would accidentally use the wrong character's ability. That may be my biggest complaint in this game to be completely honest, I didn't have many issues with it at all.
I know this game isn't perfect and it does have some issues as did BotW, but none of them are big enough for me to care as they are all relatively small and are vastly outweighed by everything else that I love about this game and the countless things that it improves over BotW. Even things so small and simple as your armor staying sorted after upgrading pieces, keeping your same horses from BotW, customizable paraglider, new status effects like increased attack based on the weather, being able to throw normal items, lightning even having a different look, automatically swimming up waterfalls when you glide into them, and having a little shine on items still at full durability, etc. (those last two may be in BotW but I don't remember).
I also love the new shrines and abilities, and was amazed to find out that there are even more than in BotW with a staggering 152 shrines (along with even more collectables, side quests, minibosses, etc.). Some of the abilities are almost too good though allowing for some easy cheese in a lot of shrines. I also like a lot of the new korok puzzles besides the ones where you have to reunite them with their friend. Those at least give you 2 seeds for your trouble though so it's not that bad. While I am sad to see test of strength shrines go, I do like there being multiple tutorial shrines that go more in-depth with your abilities, as opposed to just the one in Kakariko that teaches you the very basic stuff and sends you on your way. It's also nice when shrines give you Zonai devices either prebuilt or not, it's a good way to see what different devices exist and what they can do, along with get ideas for contraptions you can build to torture koro- I mean kill enemies with. The possibilities really are endless when you combine your new abilities with all of the different Zonai devices.
I've said so much yet I haven't even touched on the sky islands or mini-bosses yet. The sky islands are cool to explore but there really aren't many of them. There are huge chunks of the map where none exist and where they do exist are for the most part small clumps and archipelagos. I still enjoy the islands and have fun exploring them, but I feel like they could've done more with them. The shrine and mini-boss islands are cool though, I for the most part have enjoyed the shrine quests and love fighting the Flux Constructs. Of the 3 new mini-bosses I have only fought Flux Constructs and Frox though since I'm not strong nor brave enough to fight a Gleeok. Between Flux and Frox though I like fighting the Flux Constructs a bit better. I also like the addition of the Battle Taluses, they are a fun, fresh take on both enemy camps and Stone Taluses. While they're easy to take down on their own, these combinations are a whole 'nother story making you have to change your approach to fighting them. It's also cool how some enemies have new attacks that use their new, sharp horns. It has caught me off guard on a few accounts, and makes those fights a bit more interesting than the enemy just spamming the same 1-2 attacks.
Finally, down into the depths we go. While there is a lot of nothing in the depths, and it can be kind of boring to explore at times, it's still a whole new world with a lot of cool stuff to explore. The lightroots also have a direct connection to shrine locations making them a bit easier to find if you already have a few shrines going down there. The same of course works the other way where after exploring a bit and finding some lightroots, you can pinpoint the locations of certain shrines, which I thought was pretty neat. The depths are also where you get autobuild. An incredibly fun and useful ability for so many things. There is no limit to what you can save and rebuild for later use. It's also nice how the depths have enemies that can give you gloom damage, which makes them more dangerous than normal enemies as healing gloom damage takes a bit more than just eating a few apples.
The Yiga clan is also back with some interesting new ideas. I don't believe there are any story quests that involve the Yiga but you can find their hideouts and get their armor to infiltrate the base in the Gerudo region, which allows you to train there and get a new ability. They also have vehicles there that you can buy and use for autobuild. The Yiga also have bases in the depths that you can raid for autobuild schematics and you can fight a certain someone making their return. The depths also have a lot more that I'm yet to experience, and have only even heard about from other people telling me/watching streams of the game, so I can't wait to find and experience all of those things.
Overall, this game blew me away beyond even my expectations. I can't think of a single thing that it does worse than BotW while I can think of several things that it does better. The world is now even bigger and more beautiful than ever and even offered a nice challenge compared to BotW. I haven't touched on the final boss at all but I don't want to spoil to much. Just trust me when I say it was a blast to fight and blows Calamity Ganon out of the water by a long shot.
Edit: You can make pizza. That's pretty cool
I have to say with ranking them the lightning temple was by far the best, having the closest to a traditional Zelda feel and a cool atmosphere with fun puzzles and a good amount of enemies ending with a cool and difficult boss. Water temple on the other hand was by far the worst, being one of the worst Zelda dungeons I've probably ever played. It didn't feel like a dungeon at all, didn't have many enemies, and the puzzles were all way too easy, with also probably my least favorite (though still not terrible) boss in the game. The ability from that temple as far as I can tell is not very useful either, but having Sidon's clone fight alongside you is nice. Once you do all of the temples and have 5 clones (idk what else to call them) fighting alongside you it's pretty cool, like you have your own squad going around kicking enemies around. The only issue is triggering their abilities. I wish there was a button to call on their ability from afar instead of going up to them and saying "Let's go!" to use their ability. I often couldn't find the one that I wanted mid-battle, or would accidentally use the wrong character's ability. That may be my biggest complaint in this game to be completely honest, I didn't have many issues with it at all.
I know this game isn't perfect and it does have some issues as did BotW, but none of them are big enough for me to care as they are all relatively small and are vastly outweighed by everything else that I love about this game and the countless things that it improves over BotW. Even things so small and simple as your armor staying sorted after upgrading pieces, keeping your same horses from BotW, customizable paraglider, new status effects like increased attack based on the weather, being able to throw normal items, lightning even having a different look, automatically swimming up waterfalls when you glide into them, and having a little shine on items still at full durability, etc. (those last two may be in BotW but I don't remember).
I also love the new shrines and abilities, and was amazed to find out that there are even more than in BotW with a staggering 152 shrines (along with even more collectables, side quests, minibosses, etc.). Some of the abilities are almost too good though allowing for some easy cheese in a lot of shrines. I also like a lot of the new korok puzzles besides the ones where you have to reunite them with their friend. Those at least give you 2 seeds for your trouble though so it's not that bad. While I am sad to see test of strength shrines go, I do like there being multiple tutorial shrines that go more in-depth with your abilities, as opposed to just the one in Kakariko that teaches you the very basic stuff and sends you on your way. It's also nice when shrines give you Zonai devices either prebuilt or not, it's a good way to see what different devices exist and what they can do, along with get ideas for contraptions you can build to torture koro- I mean kill enemies with. The possibilities really are endless when you combine your new abilities with all of the different Zonai devices.
I've said so much yet I haven't even touched on the sky islands or mini-bosses yet. The sky islands are cool to explore but there really aren't many of them. There are huge chunks of the map where none exist and where they do exist are for the most part small clumps and archipelagos. I still enjoy the islands and have fun exploring them, but I feel like they could've done more with them. The shrine and mini-boss islands are cool though, I for the most part have enjoyed the shrine quests and love fighting the Flux Constructs. Of the 3 new mini-bosses I have only fought Flux Constructs and Frox though since I'm not strong nor brave enough to fight a Gleeok. Between Flux and Frox though I like fighting the Flux Constructs a bit better. I also like the addition of the Battle Taluses, they are a fun, fresh take on both enemy camps and Stone Taluses. While they're easy to take down on their own, these combinations are a whole 'nother story making you have to change your approach to fighting them. It's also cool how some enemies have new attacks that use their new, sharp horns. It has caught me off guard on a few accounts, and makes those fights a bit more interesting than the enemy just spamming the same 1-2 attacks.
Finally, down into the depths we go. While there is a lot of nothing in the depths, and it can be kind of boring to explore at times, it's still a whole new world with a lot of cool stuff to explore. The lightroots also have a direct connection to shrine locations making them a bit easier to find if you already have a few shrines going down there. The same of course works the other way where after exploring a bit and finding some lightroots, you can pinpoint the locations of certain shrines, which I thought was pretty neat. The depths are also where you get autobuild. An incredibly fun and useful ability for so many things. There is no limit to what you can save and rebuild for later use. It's also nice how the depths have enemies that can give you gloom damage, which makes them more dangerous than normal enemies as healing gloom damage takes a bit more than just eating a few apples.
The Yiga clan is also back with some interesting new ideas. I don't believe there are any story quests that involve the Yiga but you can find their hideouts and get their armor to infiltrate the base in the Gerudo region, which allows you to train there and get a new ability. They also have vehicles there that you can buy and use for autobuild. The Yiga also have bases in the depths that you can raid for autobuild schematics and you can fight a certain someone making their return. The depths also have a lot more that I'm yet to experience, and have only even heard about from other people telling me/watching streams of the game, so I can't wait to find and experience all of those things.
Overall, this game blew me away beyond even my expectations. I can't think of a single thing that it does worse than BotW while I can think of several things that it does better. The world is now even bigger and more beautiful than ever and even offered a nice challenge compared to BotW. I haven't touched on the final boss at all but I don't want to spoil to much. Just trust me when I say it was a blast to fight and blows Calamity Ganon out of the water by a long shot.
Edit: You can make pizza. That's pretty cool