>>713820482It doesn't lean into what it does well enough and has shit QoL. Combat would be interesting/good except there's relatively low enemy variety and no danger ever. Everything basically does a quarter hit of heart. They do a good job of having different utilizations for different items and yet you never use them.
Puzzles or knowing what you want to do is generally pretty straightforward, but doing it is just slower than other Zelda titles. The grapple is slower than the hookshot, playing a song is slower, changing the wind direction is slow, etc. The game does not trust you well enough to figure out puzzles so it constantly directs you to solutions. You are railroaded into certain islands for the majority of the game. It severely limits your picture-taking ability if you did want to get all of the figurines. There are some relatively long stealth sections which are tedious upon replay. It is painfully unfinished and it does not do a good job of hiding it, with certain items that would certainly have been dungeon ones previously just being given to you. Pacing is terrible due to how the game gives you information, wallet sizes, etc.
All of that said, it is a very soulful game in other aspects. It has pretty good music, embraces its own design choices instead of recycling previous designs, and they succeeded in Link being very expressive. It just is riddled with "why the fuck Nintendo?" moments.