Been going over BOTW and TOTK in my mind, comparing the two.
While I'm still relatively early in the latter, having just reached the first of the regional phenomena (The Rito/Hebra one) so far I feel like each exceeds the other in different areas.
BOTW has more of a sense of wonder and discovery as both the map and its elaborate physics and chemistry system were new.
This feeling is less prominent in TOTK as these elements are now familiar, but the way it builds on its predecessor's foundation with Fuse and Ultrahand, the Depths, the sky islands, and clever twists on old places is fantastic in its own right. It's less groundbreaking, but more varied and tightened up.
They also have a very different vibe.
BOTW was a game about loneliness and introspection, about trying to reclaim a lost land. TOTK on the other hand is a game about people, about working together to rebuild.
Each achieves what it sets out to do in spectacular fashion, but despite their outward similarity, they each branch out in separate ways.