Oh boy, I have a lot of feelings on this.

BotW gave me the same feelings as you. It was like you were forever stuck in the menu screen and never playing the game. Honestly? Worst Zelda game lol. Tears hasn’t done away with the weapon breaking or cooking (but I like cooking in games). It has a new fuse ability that delays the weapon breakage. I think its much better; higher quality parts make the weapons/shields last for multiple fights now and give you a reason to hunt down monsters unlike BotW.

The new abilities in general are more practical and stupid fun. I can fuse a stick of butter to the Master Sword LOL The Shrines are easier, which I enjoy because there’s like 1000 so I don’t want to be too bothered by them. There are endless short quests, but some longer quests this time like being a stable photographer, making a monster museum a la Wind Waker (my true love), being a “journalist” to unravel a mystery! The temples and their bosses are way better! I absolutely hated the Guardian temples in BotW. The new Sky and Underground areas are fun. I love the Underground. I’m always looking for an excuse to go down there and suffer.

Overall, it feels like Tears was the game that should have come out years ago. It feels more silly, at times serious, but really captures the “Adventure!” feeling I was missing from BotW. Although I’ll never understand why the Master Sword “breaks” why, Nintendo?!? It still has some jarring issues that will make this post way too long to talk about and it’s already long lol. I give BotW like a 3/10 and Tears is easily an 8/10.