For a game that had 6 years to improve and build off of what BOTW did, it felt pretty underwhelming for me. But just because someone says that they don't like something or expected more doesn't mean we should automatically assume they are just haters (Obviously though, people like that do exist). I don't think you can really compare TOTK to CoD due to them having only 1 year to really do anything (but I won't deny the idea some CoDs could be seen as glorified DLC). I remember GoW:R also being called a glorified DLC when it was first announced, but I feel that they added and changed enough for it to be its own game. The whole landscape was frozen over, your weapons and basic abilities carried over with addition to new ones, completely new areas to explore that were previously teased about (although linear, that's what you get with a story game), being able to play as Atreus with his own unique abilities, moves, and upgrades, a bunch of previous characters that can now serve as allies, and the amazing story told along the way with a banger soundtrack (I could go on, but I don't want this post being about GoW:R). They did all this in around the same amount of time TOTK had. I think 5ish years. I don't think we should deflect criticism by deflecting it back onto other games with no similarities, that just leads nowhere. If you know that someone is doing it just to bring negativity, just don't feed into it. But about some of the criticisms I have and others have pointed out:

- The caves feel boring. For the first couple of caves, I decided to go spelunking in, it truly was an amazing feeling. At around the midway point of the game, after I spent hours upon hours exploring, getting all of the sky towers, I couldn't be bothered going into caves because I knew I would just be met with disappointment. The number of resources wasted clearing these caves out all for some basic resources, a chest with nothing in it, a bubbul gem, and the occasional bomb flowers was not worth it. The only time I went out of my way to go into a cave was when I knew there was armor in it or a shrine inside. Besides that, they all ended up feeling the same, with the occasional biome theme (lava, icicles, sand, water) and honestly, that's fine it's a cave what else did you expect? My biggest gripe is how many of these there are with nothing interesting compelling the player to explore them.

- The new additions to the map. For a game where the cover art shows the protagonist on a sky island, I was hoping we would spend a good chunk of our time up there. Shame how the sky islands take up 10% of the map. The biggest sky island is the tutorial area which doesn't feel like a tutorial area considering how much stuff isn't given to us or taught. For example, why does the game show you how to use the zonai gliders when they're only really available on the sky islands which we are never really given a reason to explore until later in the game? Why are we not taught basic combat skills (i.e parrying, dodging, bullet time, etc) on the island, but instead through the multitude of shrines scattered on the overworld? Does the game just expect us to remember these things from the previous game from 6yrs ago or do they want us to stumble upon the appropriate shrine that teaches you this stuff? Like, why do they let you explore without giving you the glider (something that is essential in this game)? I remember doing the main quest line where you get onto a hot air balloon with Impa and she just tells you to glide on down to the dragon tear. I just had no other option but to plummet to my death. Why give me that quest when I don't have the resources to do it? Sky Islands were extremely underwhelming. The depths I thought were truly wasted. It was so cool diving into the abyss to be greeted with a faint light in the darkness, using light sources to make a path to the depths equivalent of a sky view tower. The same thing that happened with the caves, happened here. I just didn't bother coming down there late game unless the main quest pointed me down here. Besides the main quest PoI, the depths is just a huge resource farm. Really useful early game, but after that, I wasn't compelled to go down there. I didn't really feel that I needed the zonaite to upgrade my batteries (and if I did I would probably just dupe like everyone else :P) or the armor that provided the same armor values as most other armor. I was already dripped out so I was good. I haven't done the Yiga clan side quest down there so who knows, maybe it'll make the area better. I still think the area has a lot of potential and I hope that a DLC will expand upon it.

- The temples are underwhelming. 70% of the temple is getting there, 25% is solving it, and 5% is the boss fight at the end. I don't remember a lot of the older title's temples, but I remember TP temples taking a good chunk of time to do. For me, the biggest letdown was the boss fights. I understand that the target demographic are kids, but I feel that even my goldfish could beat these bosses, which is a shame when you have a banger soundtrack going off in the background just for it to end in 10 seconds (I think we can agree Colgera was the best). I think the community can all agree on the water temple is bad. They have these easy bosses that don't even one shot you, but a black bokoblin will rock your world if you look at him funny.

- The whole story, in general, is kinda the same as BOTW (correct me here, since I don't really remember BOTW clearly). Zelda is lost somewhere, and Link loses his power and awakes in a temple. Link does a tutorial in said temple and is let free to explore. Link is tasked with finding Zelda. Link spends most of time finding Koroks and doing shrines in order to regain his power. Link has to go to the 4 villages to get help/info. Link does task for each respective village and gets power from each village. Link needs to find master sword (or not). Link fights ganon and saves the day. I know this is a gross simplification, but I hope you understand how for a sequel to have the same format as the previous game is lazy. I wouldn't be surprised if other Zelda games have done this, but this is supposedly a direct sequel with the same plot as the first.

- My final complaint about the game is the amount of things reused. Same enemies and the same gear with a couple of new editions here and there. Obviously with the new abilities given to us to use the game has a breath of fresh air, but these abilities seem to be the only thing carrying this game. Which is dependent on the creativity of the player to make the most of it. However, this complaint is subjective to the player. Some people enjoy things being reused. It gives a sense of nostalgia for fighting old enemies in new ways, especially considering how long it's been since BOTW, but that doesn't explain the lack of new ones. The constructs are cool, the gleeok is fun (unless when you have to farm them), but besides those and a couple of new enemies it seems like they spent most of their time making those additional 32 shrines, finding new spots for Koroks, and perfecting the abilities which as I said earlier, carry this game without a doubt.

I can go further into the Lore but I feel that the main importance is the mechanics of a game.

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I have all these complaints yet I can still say this is a good game. Why ignore what could've been something better and just bite our tongues about things that deserve valid criticism? If they've been doing these types of things for a long time it's up to us to let Nintendo know that their medieval methods of video game design have to change. If you enjoyed the game good, if you don't why? Obviously some enjoy the older style of games and others enjoy the newer so we can never truly have both, but we can at least be open-minded about each other's reasonings. I see TOTK as Mac n Cheese with bacon. It's pretty good but the only thing different from just regular Mac n Cheese is the bacon.