I bought Zelda TotK right after release for Switch 1, just to be presented with a bright, blurry game with loading screens that I, personally, couldn't live with. I retired it after about an hour, uninstalled it from my console and sold the game on eBay.
Years later, the Switch 2 released and I was hyped. Bought it on release day and had the urge to give TotK another go. This was the start of something beautiful.
This game is an absolute blast. I wasn't as hooked since Elden Ring. The map design, the sheer possibilities, the love for detail, the way the game guides you in the right direction: it's absolutely fantastic.
This game is a master piece, and on the Switch 2, the game feels the way it should have felt on the day it released.
I can not recommend this enough.
Except for that it isn't. The map has 3 layers now, and what was formerly BotW has been filled with life, adventure, story, and things to explore.
The sky islands aren't very interesting, but it certainly adds some variety. The Depths is pretty cool though.
I feel like the sky islands were meant to be more of a problem-solving adventure, like how to get to certain places that are quite far, but the crafting system was so complicated/poorly implemented, imho, that it made them into a giant pain in the ass.
I ended up just making a platform hot air balloon (three balloons, three pieces of wood, and a fire weapon to light them), and using that for vertical.. was the only thing I could get working consistently that didn’t cost a lot of batteries and flame spitters and shit. That plus the gust ability when you’ve reached as high as the game lets you.. helps a lot..
TotK felt more empty to me, but that's probably a combination of already knowing the map and lacking Kass.
They recycled the best features and broke up empty space while filling out travel paths with content. This really never was the dunk people thought it was.
If you want this criticism to land, look at the map of far cry: primal and the preceding far cry game.
So? It has way more content and features than BotW. Saying it's BotW 1.5 frames it like DLC. It has entirely different mechanics though and you play it extremely differently.