okay i apparently have a lot of thoughts on this game so in no particular order:

- i really liked the additions of rods, runes and flurry rushes. really added a lot of variation to the gameplay compared to the original hyrule warriors, which was basically combos + an item each for the recurring bosses. i like the original a lot but the combat can become tiring, which was significantly less of a problem here!
- it was nice to have a botw story with a lot of plot at its centre! i know people felt it went kinda off the rails but tbh i wasn't really expecting a 'true' prequel so i wasn't disappointed.
- i've actually been playing a bit of that game for my sister because she makes me do all the bits she finds hard and it reminded me how irritating i find to have a weapon break on you mid-combat - i like what this game has much more, where i get loads of weapons but can power up the specific ones i want to use and choose what stat boosts to apply to them
- as much as i like the adventure mode in the original hw i appreciated that the map here provides a more focused, contained experience which still feels fulfilling to complete! apart from the korok seeds, because by the time i got to the end and they were the only things i had left to collect so i was just trawling through stages i'd already played. i guess the moral is just pull up a walkthrough with their locations on the first go through but overall i think the skulltulas in the original worked better for what the game was - i'm not particularly inclined to comb over stages in this kind of game and maybe that's a me problem but it DID impact my enjoyment
- other minor quibbles: playing as the great fairy wasn't always great because the stages DEFINITELY weren't built with a character that size in mind, and sometimes the camera could be a bit janky. but otherwise i had a lot of fun, and enjoyed most of the 60+ hours i spent with the game