This game beat the "Breath of the Gmod" and "Glorified DLC" allegations. It totally leapfrogged BOTW and kinda embarrassed that game in hindsight. It does carry some of its flaws--the memory system doesn't really fit the game well, the durability system is more annoying since the weapons actually have far more meaningful differences in utility now, the music could've been less minimal in places, and the game is still tied down to the decrepit Switch hardware.

But I'm glad to see my general skepticism disproven. The main quest is generally far stronger, as the dungeons and bosses are much better and the finale is a lot better as well. It feels slightly more restricted and "guided" than BOTW which I think is a plus, as BOTW was so free and open right from the start that in retrospect, it kinda trivialized a lot of that game. Also, there's now an absurd amount of side quests in every town. The game even helpfully differentiates between "side quests" which are often filler-adjacent, and "side adventures" which are usually more substantive.

I was frustrated with some of the building controls (and controls in general, it's like there just aren't enough buttons on the controller for the amount of actions they wanted to give you) but it's objectively impressive how much flexibility Nintendo managed to accomplish with it. Fusing stuff was surprisingly quite fun to play with and helped with the durability. I'd say that overall the sandbox systems are deeper and more fun to play around with.

I'm curious to see how wider reception for this game will change after its honeymoon period is over. But for the moment, I get the hype. Fantastic game.