I agree with all your points, but we have to accept the stuff we want won't be in the next zelda with the massive success it has. I see the sequel just changing the map with much better graphics and performance.

It's like with Elden ring. i think it can be the perfect game with more NPC'S and NPC'S side quest, maybe 50/50 some that need guides and some that are doable with out a guides  but add's to the story but i don't see it happening in Elden ring 2.

RDR2 could be my game of the forever if they had a fun combat system like MGS5 or last of us.

Once these developers find success they play it safe and stick to the same old formula with just adding more instead of addressing the issues.

This game is steaming garbage compared to Skyward Sword.

Tears is my all time favorite game followed by Breath. Both are flawed but I find the world and atmosphere addicting. I lose time when I play either of the games. Which is interesting because there are games with less flaws that just don't resonate.  I suppose flawed and exciting simply trumps less flaws but bland.

Contrary to what some have said, I do think there are perfect games. Or, at least, perfect in what they do. Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario, Super Metroid, Metroid Prime, Demon's Crest, Gears of War 2 and some Monster Hunter titles, among others, are perfect for me: games in which you don't miss anything, in which all the content you could want is already there.

With The Legend of Zelda, maybe by its "expansive" nature, and because the high number of possibilities its gameplay create, I always find myself missing something. As I already said, it is my favourite series of videogames, but somehow it always manages to leave me expecting more. For example, I really missed somethign like a Colosseum where you could fight the thoughest regular enemies (Wolfos, Lizalfos, Stalfos...) wherever you wanted in OoT and Majora's Mask. Its combat system was so good that I really missed facing that kind of awesome foes whenever I wanted, but there wasn't a place to do so  =( . In Skyward Sword I really missed the chance of having loftwing races versus other loftwing riders. A loftwing championship based in Skyloft, with several, diferent sky circuits would have been awesome. It also lacked a good shooting gallery/minigame. With BotW and TotK, as I said, having all those water mases and being unable to explore its depths, and having so many ruined villageds and towns (specially Hyrule Castle Town) and being unable to rebuild and let the people settle and repopulate them, even if Zelda hinted to the reconstruction of the kingdom at the end of BotW, was a letdown for me. And we had so may nice actual horse races in several titles of the series, but you are never allowed to race against others in BotW and TotK. Even The Witcher had several races and circuits for that  =(

So... all this is just to say that, even if I love both games and if they're already humongous, can't help but think on how much is still possible and remains unexplored in this new Hyrule. I really hope the next Zelda (or the DLC) goes in these directions, or at least doesn't include things that open the door to gameplay possibilities that remain undeveloped, specially when many previuos titles (for example, when talking about diving and underwater exploration) have already walked that way =P

Personally, it has been a long time since I played Skyward Sword so I'm in no position to comment, just saying that for the consensus critic, I doubt TOTK will ever drop to an 80 in Meta as SS did in its re-release.

I always loved SS, best dungeons in the franchise. 8 never got the hate. The motion controls are not bad.

Perfect in what they do is different then what i consider a perfect game there are many games perfect at what they do imo. It's much easier to be the perfect fighting game, racer, FPS, third person shooter and 2d platform then a open world game.

You guys are right the game design in Tears make the game far far less fun to explore because of two things: you can fly from skies island to anywhere, and the tower can catapult you to everywhere

Because of that I've spend way less time exploring overworld by foot, and once I've unlocked Tulin this become even worse. In Breath I generally took a time to explore every corner of a region and see what it had to offer organically. On this game I honestly didn't even bother with exploration, it was more like a quest-hunting experience. I fixed a goal and I finished that goal

However

I think I actually like that, because the map was reused. One of my concerns about Tears ir because it was going to fail the feeling of excitement and discovery we had on Breath and in the end I was 100% right, this game has no "own" moment for me.

I'm right now so familiar with Hyrule that walking there is liking walking at home, and when you remove that you unfortunately have a game with much less steam compared to its original. Indeed, as far as I descend from the Skies I realized that I was annoyed to still have to walk and proceeded to unlock all towers asap

So in all, having a way to quickly advance the map makes me happy 

There’s undoubtedly a lot of room to improve. My main complaint is the shrines. I think they don’t fit the universe at all. The Zelda team should completely ditch the shrines. Some are fun but most of them involve solving some stupid puzzles that feel more like work than anything else. What we should get instead is more expensive dungeons spread across the world that we could explore at own pace much like Hyrule castle.

The idea of the shrine design was to not make people stay "locked" in someplace instead of exploring the world. They wanted to put a puzzle to make use of the mechanics, but to not make you spend more than a couple of minutes because they wanted you discovering the world 

It was always a dumb reasoning of them. Elden Ring has extensive dungeons and they are the highlights of the game

That's said, I really liked thr shrines, I think most of puzzles are fun, and I never wanted them to let go. Just wanted them to abandon the stupid and clunky motion controls , and they did that so I'm pleased 

Doing the sky islands and even some overworld puzzles makes me think the shrines are necessary to create self contained puzzles that otherwise impossible to design in a open map. I very much prefer the puzzles in the overworld/skies/dungeons compared to shrines, but without shrines I can't see many of Zelda puzzles being possible to make