I got halfway through the lightning temple last night. Finally! The kind of dungeon I expect in a game like this. It's instantly my favorite dungeon.
(I did the other 4 minus the boss fight in the wind temple due to getting there too early) You can't really find it by accident so this one is the only one I went in without prior knowledge. The way to get to it is a puzzle that fits perfectly withing Zelda and the open world, and is not something that draws unwanted attention earlier (like all the other temples, no big visual phenomena broadcasting their existence)

It's indoors so you can't easily cheese traversal, but still leaves plenty room to use all the other abilities and stuff you bring in yourself. The puzzles inside are a prefect marriage between open world and a more linear dungeon style. Sure it's the same concept (activate 4 buttons) yet it feels much more coherent and integrated in the temple design than the other 4 temples. (which feel more like 4 or 5 shrine puzzles put together) Plus the central atrium reminds me of ICO a lot, this is a proper dungeon, majestic and mysterious. And puzzles involving light and mirrors are always my favorite :)

Good place to farm gibdo bones as well, let a little homing cart with flame throwers run around for a while then pick up all the gibdo bones for arrows. They keep spawning until you destroy the nest.

Fire temple: Messy temple of doom ride, found it early exploring the Depths, confusing intended paths, easier to climb/fly instead.
Water temple: Disconnected shrine puzzles, found it early exploring the Sky, solved half and backtracked to the start to figure out how to finish it.
Wind temple: Simple pirate ship, found it early exploring the Sky, solved it but need Rito to actually activate the buttons.
Spirit temple: Disconnected shrine puzzles, found it early exploring the Depths, solved most of the 4 areas before finding the start too early while exploring the sky.
Lightning temple: Perfect balance! Well hidden and it feels like one coherent temple.

Sure it could be longer (I have one button left and then I guess the boss fight) but it's the right way to do dungeons in open world imo.
I guess I saved the best for last :) (Hope the boss fight isn't a dud /knock on wood)

Btw it was weird walking through the Yiga hideout without having to sneak and hide. All those passage ways triggered bad memories from the one thing I hated in BotW. That annoying sneak quest at the Yiga clan. I failed so many times there and restart from the beginning every time, that place is haunted now lol.

Never thought we would see a LoZ game sell 20+ million units, but it is about to do it within a single generation.

I still struggle to comprehend the success of BotW and TotK. For 30 years, the ceiling for Zelda games was ~9 million lifetime. Now we live in a time when a new entry can pass that benchmark in 72 hours.

Do you think it's because of the combined user base that Zelda got such a big boost or is it the open world formula?

I guess the open world formula does keep the game in the spotlight a lot longer, especially with all the crazy things you can do. Previous Zelda's had a review and then at most another article with tips, BotW and TotK get daily attention.

I guess we won't see a traditional style Zelda like Skyward Sword anymore, but I do hope we get better streamlined dungeons in future Zelda games. I just finished the lightning temple, was great from start to finish. I only didn't know what to do with the lights during the 2nd phase of the boss battle, no time to start messing with mirrors when I'm busy dodging everything lol. Autobuild came in handy to spawn in my Gibdo exterminator :)

I think Zelda was always like Roquefort - well known, but somewhat of an acquired taste. New formula is more like Gouda - everyone knows it, and almost everyone likes it.

It's both. Switch has given all Nintendo franchises a huge boost, but 18 million in 45 days just show zelda is on a new level in terms of sales. this easily gonna hit 40-45 million. one has to wonder what nintendo games would do if they were available on pc as well just insane.

Ok, do all Light Roots have Shrines above them?

Yes, every single one of them, even when in some cases it doesn't seem like that way at all upon first inspection.

I spend half an hour looking for a shrine that doesn't exist. I copied all the blue diamonds from the Depths layer to the surface layer (mapped the Depths first) yet one is not like the others! There is a 121th blue diamond, for the Great abandoned central mine. It looks slightly different, easily missed when copying icons to another layer.

Anyway 120 shrines and light roots total, then you still have the sky ones to find that don't have any mirrors. (But easily found) A few shrines on the surface don't react to the shrine locator as those require a quest to appear. But if you're stumped, simply reverse the name of the lightroot and google it ;)

I thought this time we had way more Shrines so that we didn't have to choose between max stamina and max hearts.