This game is a fantastic evolution for the series but has a lot of small issues and strange design choices that leave me a bit conflicted.
First off, Oatchi is way too strong. Any challenge that was present in the previous games' combat encounters is entirely gone in this game thanks to his charge, which is essentially an instant kill when you have more than 50 Pikmin riding along. Even just on his own, as you get more upgrades for him, he becomes a solo powerhouse. Their brute strength, combined with the ability to remove all Pikmin from nearby harm and trivialize all water encounters makes nearly all of the game a breeze. I love Oatchi but his inclusion (alongside the lack of respawning enemies) really makes this game too easy.
Plenty of other strange design choices bothered me throughout the game as well, such as constantly being forced to lock on when aiming, a feature which hindered me about as much as it helped me. I also don't understand why you're only allowed 3 types of Pikmin at a time in the game with the most variety. These features alongside the inclusion of the ability to automatically take out recommended Pikmin take away an incredible amount of player agency and decision-making that was a big part of the earlier games.
Despite these issues and a few other minor nitpicks I have, this game is so incredibly fun and varied that I can't help but love it. The overworld maps are the most expansive and fun to explore they've ever been, and I really like the style of caves in this game far more compared to the exhausting endurance challenges in 2. The gameplay stays interesting throughout thanks to the different fun styles of encounters present in the dandori challenges and battles, as well as the night encounters which break up the regular exploration nicely. I also loved the inclusion of Olimars mode in the post-game, being a more challenging experience following closely in style to the original game. This game looks incredible and is bursting with charm in its writing, design, and world, just like all the other games before. While I do feel this game smooths away a lot of the edges and quirks I found so charming in the earlier entries and has far too easy of a main experience, this game is still incredibly fun and consistent, constantly giving the player new things to do.
I have become the master of dandori.

This is probably the single most disappointing game I have ever played, considering the prior two entries in this franchise were masterpieces and arguably two of the best games ever made. Never has a game felt more like a chore to complete than this one. In fact I had to invent a new word "Anti-Quality-of-Life" in order to properly convey why I don't like this game. Unfortunately this one of those cases where I have so many complaints that I would have to make a video on the game to properly explain them all.

As a fan of Xenogears and the first Xenoblade game, I actually really like Xenoblade 2, despite it all. Sure, it has many glaring faults and its fanservice is detrimental to the game as a whole but, once you got the hang of it, the combat was really fun to play. Fixing the tutorials, redesigning the characters, and not being another Xenogears episode V rehash could've made the game better, at least in my opinion. Not as good as the first game but still a great game and story. Have a soft spot for this game.

Tears of the Kingdom takes so many steps to improve upon the formula of its predecessor, but it also falls flat and feels so underwhelming in many different aspects.
I put over 100 hours into this game and was really impressed with a lot of the new content and tools the game gives you, but I feel it relies too heavily on the foundation Breath of the Wild provided and ends up failing to innovate in a really substantial way.
I'll write more of this later. Overall good game, but I have my problems with it.