The bad stuff: Combat is average.  The mechanics need to git gud, none of this git gud to appreciate them malarkey please. It's not bad, but it's not in step with the leaps and bounds elsewhere.  Coming into the game, my main fears were a) it'd be too big, b) I'd miss proper dungeons and c) the combat wouldn't carry it.  As it turns out the size is fine, I do miss the lack of proper dungeons, but the functional battling only lands a glancing blow to the overall package because there's so much more to it.    More moaning:  The tilt controls, the Deku Tree's voice (Hey! Listen! You there on the street outside the recording studio!  Busy mate?), the music isn't Godly enough most of the time, there's not enough of the old Zelda magic feels.

That's enough of that though.  This game has something quite remarkable going for it.  You can strip it down and analyse it piece by piece, and possibly convince yourself it's merely 'good', but come on now - there's something about the adventuring in this that really nails the initial 'let's take Zelda back to an open world' thing.  You do feel like you're exploring when you head off in whatever direction you fancy, whereas in Horizon or Mad Max I was just thinking about crossing off the next section (or marking it on the map) rather than wondering or caring what it'd be like when I got there.  I'm struggling to describe what I'm on about without it sounding wanky, but there's some top tier pixie dusting going on in this game; the quest, and process of the proceedings, is gripping in a going-through-the-motions way.  The motions are the fun part, even though the inputs are behind many of the other open worlders.  It's closest rivals might have better mechanics, but somehow the motions are what cripple the competition when you put them on repeat, whereas here the repetition remains a delight.  This game doesn't get boring.  I finished it after 54 hours or so (BURN HIM!), but I could've carried on.  That's still the longest I've ever spent playing a story driven game (FFVII aside, or the most recent Fire Emblem if you count the three games as one), so it's absolutely definitely doing something right.  I don't play games for this amount of time, yet I played for 20hrs more than I had to and at no point did I get even a slight feeling of dread about an impending session.   The graphics are outstanding, I love the way it looks.  I enjoyed the shrines, loved the divine beasts and didn't even mind cooking or weapon degradation.  Even the horsey controls were okay. 

I can see why this is a [10] for some.  I applaud and admire what they've done with it, but I still would've preferred a new old one, so it's merely a [9] from me.  On top of how good this turned out, it's genuinely mind boggling how many foundations have been laid for the ultimate please-all sequel.  The next installment could quite genuinely be the best game ever, to the point where if it isn't I think I'll feel slightly let down.