A masterpiece, soooo much better than BOTW, and on a technical side probably the most impressive game ever made. It still has some work to do with dungeons and more scripted gameplay sequences, the ones it had are some of the best of the entire series. It needs more, lots more, that's when the game is at its best.
Would love to find out in what areas you feel BOTW is better cause I can't find anything. Story not even close TOTK is leagues better. Dungeons, no contest TOTK is vastly better than the extremely simplistic boring beasts. Gameplay, TOTK lets you do pretty much everything BOTW does but 100x more freedom, it's BOTW on steroids. The quests are better, the exploration is better (sky, depths, caves), the combat is better because of the tolls you have. Bosses are a massive improvement.
The only only thing I can think of is the shrines were kind of a disappointment in TOTK. They rarely went passed the first level of a puzzle and all felt like just a tutorial for something you can build.
Obviously freshness is a thing so if that's key for you ok.
Would you? Because it doesn't sound like you're open to other interpretation.
I like BotW's story better.
I find the world to be more cohesive with less busy work for the sake of it.
I'm not wandering into cities wondering why people interacted with don't recognize me.
Armors are better by a mile and the unlocking the fairies is less of a chore.
Wasn't a fan of the menu for arrows compared to just having elemental arrows.
The champion abilities are worse and more difficult to control to a baffling degree.
I like the dungeons better. There's no multi hour climb to them. Boarding them was legitimately some of the most fun I ever had playing Zelda. And being able to control them from the inside is a solid mechanic.
In TotK's favor
I like the look of the shrines better.
I like single weapon type challenges.
Enemy raids were cool.
I like the central town.
Rewind was the coolest new ability.
A lot of its additions I just straight up didn't like. More isn't necessarily better, it's just more.
Took a Friday and Monday off work on release. Paid my $70, jumped in, wondered why it felt off, restarted again and tried and got through dozens of hours before accepting that I just like id moment to moment.
You are going to be in the extreme minority if you think the story of BOTW is better than TOTK, just look at the worst 3D Zelda story thread, BOTW is in the lead.
And? Do you shape your opinions on the thoughts of others? Also, you say this like TotK isn't in second place so "extreme minority" isn't even accurate.
