As I said I'm doing my cozy Skyward Sword playthrough and while I'm digging the game one peculiar issue I'm having with it is "dungeon exhaustion" in a way. To me Zelda at its core (and it's obvious in the original game) is a mix between exploration and dungeon content. Some games go to extremes but most try to strike a balance. But because Skyward Sword kept the exploration at an extreme minimum, most of the game is some kind of variation of dungeon content. The area that would traditionally be exploration based like Faron Woods are tightly designed and while it's very well made, by the time I'm getting to the dungeon, I'm not itching to engage with more of that type of content.
I just replayed OoT and the balance there is really good, so much so that every time you start a dungeon, you're ready to go. You've galloped through Hyrule field, visited a few towns, learn a song, did a fetch quest, ok let's go! In SS, I just went through Lanayru Desert which felt like an outdoor dungeon, then on top of it the game made me go through two shrine-like rooms just to make the actual dungeon appear! And when it was time to actually start it, I just needed a break.
BotW went the opposite, dialed the exploration way up but still kept plenty of "dungeon content" peppered throughout the adventure. Maybe it lacked the big cohesive mythical "dungeon" but the actual content was definitely in there. And after SS which in my opinion went too far with it it was a good decision. Now with TotK they have the opportunity to rebalance it further with I think more unique content instead of the same shrines and Divine Beasts which were clearly concessions made to actually ship the game in a timely fashion after spending so much time designing the world of BotW and its rules.
trials and then hopeful just wrapping up a few small loose ends and defeating Ganon.
