The first and most important thing to address is the the map. They took the map of Breath of the Wild and added above it and below it. I think the lands of Hyrule faces the biggest criticisms because it's the same, but for me, it adds so much nostalgia. If you played Breath of the Wild correctly, you spent hours and hours and hours and hours exploring. Coming back to it now feels like home. Returning to iconic places, recognizing different ruins, remembering where I almost got murdered by a guardian, the climbing the mountain I almost fell off that one time..... It's nostalgic and makes me remember a game that was so great. There isn't much to spice it up aside from caves and side quest, though a few different enemy types goes a long way. Like the trees. What the heck is up with those! And the gloom hands!!!!! Terrifying - Big nope for me.
The sky and the depths honestly add a whole new layer of terror. Travelling the sky islands is a bit of a puzzle on it's own. Considering that gliding and free falling are imperative mechanics, one wrong leap and you're gone. The depths are almost the size of Hyrule itself. I still have yet to see a full map of it. It's pitch black, all the monsters are gloomed up and extra dangerous. You go in blind every time. It's scary. There is something epic though when you have the opportunity to dive from a sky Island all the way down a chasm into the depths. Now that is really cool.
While I like some of the old abilities from Breath of the Wild, the new abilities you get in Tears of the Kingdom pretty much make up for it. The time turner thing and ultra hand are so great for puzzles and exploring. Ultra hand and fusion is where all the chaos happens. There are very few limits and it gets ridiculous. I'm talking like minecart shields kind of ridiculous. And also. Ascend. Blessed be thy name.
One thing that really shocked me is that the handglider is not just handed to you like before. I don't even remember how you get, I just know that getting it is like a surprise or comes out of nowhere. I don't know. But with a feature like sky islands, get that thing as fast as possible. I love all the armor you can get. They bring back a lot of Breath of the Wild armor, but there are dozens of other options out there. Including armor that helps you stick to walls even when they're wet...... blessed be thy name.
Now one of Breath of the Wild's biggest criticisms were the temples, or lack of. We had shrines instead and the divine beasts just did not fulfill the temple need enough. While I still would say the temples of Tears of the Kingdom are stand outs or highlights of the game, they are definitely an improvement. Just reaching the temples seem different every time. Like the one in Eldin is actually in the depth and the water temple requires an adventure to the caves. And the final bosses of all temples are different, not just an evil shadow of Ganon.
Overall, this is a solid continuation of Breath of the Wild. The music, art, story, and voice acting are all great. Matt Mercer is thirst trap daddy Ganon - blessed by thy name. I feel like it's the perfect sequel. It's such an expansion of Breath of the Wild by bring what worked best and giving new and better mechanics on top of it all. I do wonder where the series goes from here. What does the future of Zelda look like? Nintendo has been so successful over the last 40 years in continuously being innovative and reinventive of their biggest franchises. What else could they possibly do?
