To build on the UI part, particularly the final battle with Ganondorf, in my first playthrough I actually had a personal experience that *enhanced* this detail. I had been using a different TV at this point than the one had had when I first got my Switch, and the TV in question had a smaller aspect ratio than the previous one. A natural by product of this is that the display of everything that would show on the screen would escape the screen's bounds I didn't know at this point that I could readjust the aspect ratio in the Switch's settings, so I had learned to just deal with it. During the fight with Ganondorf, the wonky aspect ratio made it seem that instead of his health bar just being bigger, it instead actually extended past the end of the screen. This absolutely fucking blew my mind, and never had, nor has, a Zelda boss instilled as much raw fear in me as TotK's Ganondorf fight did during this playthrough

I had organically found that droplet by chance looong before I reached the quest to shoot through it, and I remember feeling so damn excited to have found something that clearly is important with no explanation yet. I flew through it, tossed water items through it, and generally explored the area despite thinking "this is probably for something later in the story" because it was just a fun thing to do. Moments like that made the game feel like a real adventure. That's just one of the reasons why I put several hundred hours into both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. They're comfortable games, which is not a feeling I share with most AAA games. There's no replay value in games that just try to be movies (or rather there's faux replay value). Games like BotW and ToTK have replay value because they represent the magic that draws people in to video games in the first place.

I like the fuse mechanic a lot because it really inproved BotW's breakable weapons in the way that I don't feel as compelled to hoard good weapons and avoid fights where the enemies don't possess weapons I want. The horns make enemies more valuable as a resource. However I do think that the final boss should have forced the need for the Master Sword simply because it would be more interesting to me thematically. Imagine, you go to Ganondorf holding this awesome weapon with crazy damage, but as soon as you hit him with it, it shatters. I understand why they wanted to make it technically possible to fight Ganondorf, but in regards to the story, I think requiring the Master Sword would have been more dramatic. Maybe there are certain ways to get around this like equipting yourself with Light Dragon scales and stuff, but the Master Sword would be the best against him. My first time again Ganondorf was spectacular because I actually went to fight him sooner than I otherwise would because I wanted to avoid spoilers. So after the Tears and the main question, I prepared as much as I could then made a beeline to him. My armour was only upgraded twice and I didn't have any passive buffs on it since it was just the Knights armour and the Hylian Tunic, I equipped myself with as much strong weapons as I could and a lot of healing items. It was a difficult battle but I was able to manage it. The first phase one on one went by then I thought I was screwed when he summoned more or himself, then the Sages came one by one to help me and then finally it was just one on one again. I screamed when he hit me in this phase because I like the Pro Hud and my health bar popped up and he literally shattered a heart oit of existence. It was so thrilling! And then I beat him on my first try and it was spectacular with the dragons in the sky. I absolutely LOVED everything about it. It's my favourite final battle in a Zelda game hands down. I beat him again recently after upgrading more and just having stronger stuff and it was quite a cakewalk. I realized that if I didn't go after him as soon as possible, I wouldn't have had as spectacular of a time. My cousin didn't even know that the third phase destroys your hearts because he didn't get hit once. So personally I think that it would have been more effective to make the Master Sword basically required for the end game or else the battle is a lot more difficult because then there's an opportunity to pursue that difficulty. I think it would have been cool to see weapons break so fast against Ganondorf like in the opening scene. He is supposed to be stronger and the Master Sword is supposed to be special. Anyway, loved the game. I definitely think that the future for Zelda is really exciting and I can't wait to see what they do next

The last part, you hit right on the nails what I have said several times in the past. A lot of people when saying "video games are art" almost always point to those AAA games with all the cinematic cutscene, emotional story, high fidelity graphic, etc. as the argument, because with them, movie/tv (the medium that are closest to video games) are art and no one going to argue against that, so they think and use that as a blueprint for what video games as an art form should be. So they seek validate from that, there is a reason why Geoff Keighley like to bring all the movie/tv star to his TGA show despite most of them has no interest in video games, a lot of people thought those was somehow superior (the way Broadways play actor/actress used to feel superior over film, tv actor/actress). But they shouldn't, art is the way human express their creativity, and video games can be, and should be art with their unique way of expression - gameplay (not that the other thing like story don't matter, but don't shy about that and only think story make art).