Not much I can say about this excellent game that countless others haven't said so I'll try not to repeat too much, but I'm honestly just blown away with how much more I liked this game compared to BOTW. I think it fixed almost every gripe I had on list against the original game and a large reason for that is just the open ended-ness of how to approach any given objective.
Shrines and side quests are a large example of this, shrines in particular in this game are lightyears better than botw shrines, and side quests, while still fairly basic at their core, feel more fun to do because of the wider sandbox approach of how to complete them.
I also much preferred the story here compared to botw. It still largely takes place in the past like the memories of botw, but it does feel a bit more immediate/impactful, because its sort of two stories playing out at once and you don't immediately know the outcome of the past storyline like you did in botw where you know they lose. The story does repeat itself a small bit however, all the temple cutscenes are basically the same. I also still don't love how memories can be unlocked out of order, I think its very easy to spoil yourself on big plot points early by mistake, I'd hate to have been spoiled on the conclusion to where is zelda and the location of the master sword.
In terms of gameplay, this one is a bit more of a mixed bag and part of what holds it back from a 5/5. I think exploration is vastly improved here, I do feel more rewarded for exploring because even basic resources are more usable now compared to botw, but I think the sky islands concept feels slightly underused and I don't think weapon fusing is the solution to weapon durability as it may initially seem, it just becomes another essential required process to keep up with the damage scale of enemies. I also wish the combat had been fleshed out more, its basically the exact same as botw and something just a bit deeper would have gone a long way.
Overall, an excellent game that proves that once you can see past graphical fidelity as the end goal, fun and interesting gameplay mechanics will always triumph over photo realism generic shite.
Shrines and side quests are a large example of this, shrines in particular in this game are lightyears better than botw shrines, and side quests, while still fairly basic at their core, feel more fun to do because of the wider sandbox approach of how to complete them.
I also much preferred the story here compared to botw. It still largely takes place in the past like the memories of botw, but it does feel a bit more immediate/impactful, because its sort of two stories playing out at once and you don't immediately know the outcome of the past storyline like you did in botw where you know they lose. The story does repeat itself a small bit however, all the temple cutscenes are basically the same. I also still don't love how memories can be unlocked out of order, I think its very easy to spoil yourself on big plot points early by mistake, I'd hate to have been spoiled on the conclusion to where is zelda and the location of the master sword.
In terms of gameplay, this one is a bit more of a mixed bag and part of what holds it back from a 5/5. I think exploration is vastly improved here, I do feel more rewarded for exploring because even basic resources are more usable now compared to botw, but I think the sky islands concept feels slightly underused and I don't think weapon fusing is the solution to weapon durability as it may initially seem, it just becomes another essential required process to keep up with the damage scale of enemies. I also wish the combat had been fleshed out more, its basically the exact same as botw and something just a bit deeper would have gone a long way.
Overall, an excellent game that proves that once you can see past graphical fidelity as the end goal, fun and interesting gameplay mechanics will always triumph over photo realism generic shite.