it's crazy because TOTK is essentially better than BOTW in every single way, but because it holds so closely to BOTW, i'd still argue that Breath of the Wild is what stands out to me more today because it introduced so many brilliant concepts.

If BOTW was the Nintendo Wii of free roam exploration games, Tears of the Kingdom is a lot more like the Wii U. Iterative and more advanced than its predecessor, but far less unique therefore, much less special. That being said, it's still a beautiful game.