Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
I recently came across Xe Iaso's post (which was much more timely than this one!) about Tears of the Kingdom. And I feel almost the opposite.
As a non-3D gamer and non-Zelda player, Breath of the Wild was completely amazing, and I played it through twice. The graphics were incredible, the movement was fluid, and the boss battles were great. They were unique and memorable. I even managed to beat them. I spent 485 hours playing the game, which puts it at 2nd most-played, behind Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
My 3rd most-played game is Tears of the Kingdom at 205 hours, and the biggest problem is the controls do not work for me. Even after all this time, they are clumsy, interrupting flow, and they bother my RSI. (The Switch 2 Joy-Cons make it even worse. Because mouse mode exists, the L/R buttons are wrapped around the 'side' to a point where I can accidentally trigger them. I'm really torn between a Pro Controller 2 and the cost of that affordance for one game.)
Outside of that, they made the game too big and too much of a grind for everything. There's so much armor in the game, which all require so much materials and so many scarce Rupees to upgrade. There are more materials, which require more time dedicated to collection. On top of those systems, any time a weapon breaks, I'm forced to make a choice about fusing with a new one. It's dreary.
I didn't spend a lot of time collecting Captain Construct II horns when they would have been common, and now that the Zonaite outfit requires them to upgrade, I can harvest a few per Blood Moon. I am being punished for choosing stealth and exploration. It's even rougher than normal "collect 99 Rushrooms!" challenges.
From a technical perspective, though, Tears of the Kingdom is a great accomplishment. It's awe-inspiring how much content they were able to fit on that game card. I love the labyrinths, the look of the Depths, and low gravity areas. My partner loves the caves. Nintendo expanded the world enough that it was fully worth being a separate game, and not DLC for its predecessor. But as a game, it just isn't fun. For me.
P.S. I think, in a vacuum, I would have decided Tears of the Kingdom was too hard, and quit at maybe 100 hours. It's because of my experience with enjoying and finishing Breath of the Wild—and going back for more—that I stayed the course for so long.
(I'm trying to avoid making this a comparison. They feel like different games, and I want to evaluate each on their merits. But it's hard to talk about two games without comparisons sneaking in.)