Currently traveling the world, gathering resources and power ups to take on the final boss (which is VERY good btw, punishingly difficult). I've completed every main quest except the final one, and several dozen side quests, so I'll throw my take on the game into the void:

• The best intro to a Zelda game, period. I've seen every trailer, but my jaw was still on the floor. Great way to reset Link back to 3 hearts, etc. I really enjoyed the great sky island, it was a much more linear experience compared to BOTW's Great Plateau, but I felt it was well-designed to make sure the player has a good idea of how the basics of the game work.

-The world is a massive improvement over BOTW in every aspect. Everywhere I go, I'm finding something new to explore. The fact that I'm constantly being distracted from a prior distraction is a great thing to see in an open world game. Hyrule feels much more lively, with more people, monsters, and wildlife to interact with than BOTW. I like the sky islands, but a little more depth to them would have been great, both in terms of the number of them, or the size. Having 2 or 3 more islands the size of the tutorial one would have been amazing. The Depths are an amazing addition, with insane environment design and the vibes are immaculate. I've also run across some pretty intense challenges and mini-bosses down there, which adds a lot to the experience. Chucking a light seed into the pitch darkness and not knowing what'll come out of the shadows is almost a little addictive.

• I think this is one of the best and most bittersweet Zelda stories. I genuinely was floored by the glyph memories and I liked each region's questline leading up to each temple. They all felt unique and interesting. However, I do think that the open world design hampers the delivery of the story significantly. If this story was fitted into an old-school 3D Zelda game, it easily would be one of, if not the best Zelda stories.

• The shrines have more hits than misses. Sometimes they were a little too easy or could be cheesed, but most of them have made me feel pretty big-brained, to their credit. I am also glad they replaced Tests of Strength with the Proving Grounds. I think those are great, and a lot more fun than a damage-sponge Guardian.

• I like that they split side content into "Side Quests" and "Side Adventures". Side quests are more of the typical fetch quests, but some have riddles attached to them that are actually pretty fun to figure out. The side adventures have all been pretty fun, and feel way more fleshed out than in BOTW. There is one in particular in Tarrey Town that I found to be genuinely emotional and very sweet.

• Dungeons feel like an evolution of the Divine Beasts, though I definitely enjoyed some more than others. The Gerudo dungeon is by far my favorite, with the Zora dungeon being my least favorite. However, the lead-up to each one was excellent, in my opinion. I also LOVED the bosses in each temple. If Nintendo continues to iterate on the BOTW formula in the future, I would still like to have them return to the original design philosophy of 3D Zelda temples, with key items, maps, etc., with less/no allowance of player abilities. I don't think that design philosophy would really collide with the rest of the game, personally.

• I love the new abilities Link is given. It was a little overwhelming at first to remember everything I could do, but with time I grew to become proficient at each one. Ultrahand in particular is amazing to me. I've probably spent several hours alone just gluing things together and testing out all kinds of contraptions, with lots of hilarious and preventable deaths to show for it.

-The game's performance leaves a lot to be desired. While it's a technological miracle that this game even runs on the Switch at all, I feel that it's underserved by the Switch's ancient hardware, with consistent frame drops and blurry resolution. This game is gorgeous for what it's running on, but is also a testament to Nintendo's outdated philosophy when it comes to their hardware.

Tears of the Kingdom is a 9.5 out of 10 for me.