It puts me to sleep after a few hours, but I DO keep returning to it a couple times a year. Occasional moments of quiet beauty, dignity, heroism. Far more moments of dumb samurai cliches and tired game design. There are a handful of missions that capture the breathless excitement of a climactic village-battle like you remember from Seven Samurai. The combat system is at it's best when you are racing around a chaotic fight, barely managing to save less skilled warriors (or farmers) than yourself, using whatever tools you have at the moment.

Incredible art direction. Stuff I liked:
- the main city's big, clear light bulbs
- high noon light filtered through rough fabric, scaffolding, and leaves
- hot desert wind at dusk
- the way that the dust kicks up and arcs over you as you slide down a dune when travelling with the wind
- the glow of the moon overlapping linework
- gradients of pale atmosphere joining background elements together
- choosing glider engines based on sound
- finding a glider setup that doesn't bonk on the ground after a jump
- countless mysterious, grand pieces of architecture in the distance that hold up upon closer inspection
- cool clothes that don't have stat modifiers
- good fishing minigame made better by the easy setting
- the chunky run animation
- the fire particles run inconsistently but are, occasionally, the best I've ever seen in a game

Yes the game runs inconsistently, but so what? Just look at it.

I imagine the Zelda team was weeping with envy as they toiled away on TotK. I wouldn't be surprised if their next project looked a lot like this.