Hooo boy where do I start? Going into this game I was extremely excited, but also cautious. Very cautious. The trailers up until the final one didn't really show that much to divert it from Breath of the Wild, so I was wondering about how much they would change to make it worth of a sequel. Well I finally finished the game and the end result? They did it. Thay absolutely fucking did it. IDK how Nintendo was able to make a sequel to a game that was already highly praised and beloved, but they somehow managed to top and create a game fully worth of sequel status. Firstly, while the world is mostly the same, they have added and adjusted many locations in the game to make it feel fresh. The central Hyrule grounds have been converted into a base camp for the main game, making the story feel alot more centralized I guess? Basically not like BOTW where you get off the Great Plateau and the game says "Go." Alot of development and story stuff mainly near early and late game will surround the camp. There's also a fuck load of wells to dive down and caves to explore that the world feels even more vast. Kakariko now has floating rings scattered across the village, Hateno has a weird, mushroom fashion epidemic going on with elections? Each of the 4 regions now have a decently sizeable visual change, with the "phenomenons" going on in each region giving them a new feel and vibe. Shrines are back, and while I was a bit skeptical about their return (Tests of Strength my beloved), overall I'd say the quality is much better for these. They still do have a repeated shrine throughout called "Proving Grounds" where they strip away all your gear and leave you with a set list of items to use in the shrine, but these are actually designed shrine arenas and not the exact same one copy and pasted X amount of times which didn't make me immediately leave the shrine when I saw what it was.
Dungeons also the a HUGE step up in quality. They have the same general idea of the Divine Beasts where you have to interact with 4-5 different "switches," but holy hell they actually made the dungeons look different from each other. Having the successors here with you giving you powers to use kinda felt like a substitute for new items in traditional Zelda games. However, these still aren't as good as those imo. While they are enjoyable, the nature of BOTW and TOTK's "give you all the toys at the start of the game" made them all feel very simple in design, while in older games they can base an entire dungeon's design and puzzles on the item you get in there. Also the ending cutscene of each dungeon being literally the exact same but just the different race is retarded. Like I swear the dialogue is the exact same word for word. But idk cause holy fuck actual bosses that use the gimmick of each champion in the fight. Each boss was a fucking blast to fight and one of them made me so excited to fight. Having the dungeons take place in the Sky, the Land, and the Depths also helped make them feel even more unique. Also yeah, holy fuck this game was so much bigger than I anticipated. I knew about the Sky Islands, but going into a chasm in the middle of Hyrule Field and entering basically a second map was fucking jaw dropping. The atmosphere was alot more tense and it was alot of fun just wandering around down there and seeing what else it had to offer, what with abandoned mines and Zonai Constructs or abandoned fortresses and Yiga Clan Hideouts. The Sky Islands were also very expansive with the amount of different varieties scattered in the clouds such as shrine puzzles and mini boss fights or full on thunderstorms integral for Main Quests.
The amount of new enemies in this game surprised me a decent amount. There are the Constructs of course, but there's also Horriblins, Aerocudas, Like Likes, Evermeans, and new mini bosses like Froxs, Gleeoks (which I still haven't beaten one yet), Battle Talus which are cool as hell, and Flux Contructs which are so much fun to fight and probably my favorite mini boss in the game. Durability is back and somehow feels weaker than in BOTW? Feels like 2 hits and it's onto the next weapon. Weapons also have less damage as well but I'm guessing that's to force you to use the new powers, which are great. I was surprised on how much I actually used them in the game, and the vehicle building aspect of the game was fun to tinker with as well. Fusing random bullshit together to create the wackiest builds and dumbest shit was so much fun. Finally, the story. still not as coherent as traditional games, but they were able to actually have a structured narrative in this game, which I really appreciate. None of this "beating Ganon as soon as you get off the starting area" stuff like in BOTW, you gotta do all the dungeons first. Overall still a pretty simple story, but it's alot more put together than the memories in BOTW. And the Final Boss. HOLY FUCK IT WAS SO GOOD. Just the atmopshere, the music, the buildup to the fight, it was all so good and was so much better than BOTW's and I really don't wanna spoil any of it. Overall, even with the amount of doubt most people probably had going into this game being worthy of a sequel. It absolutely deserves it. It improved upon BOTW in nearly every way so much so that I can't really think of 1 think it does better, besides the starting area of the Great Plateau. I would highly recommend playing this game whenever you get the change because you'd be shocked with how much they actually did to improve the overall formula. Now that it's over, I think we're back to traditional Zelda next game and I'm so excited to see what the team has in store