I must say I loved it too. I just recently replayed it again, this time on Dolphin (Wii version). And let me tell you, graphically-wise it's such a HUGE improvement over playing it on the Wii or GC. To think that a game developed for a console which was pretty much finished back in 2000 (11 years ago!) can look so great if you apply some simple tricks like setting the internal resolution to Full HD and applying anti-aliasing (unfortunately the Wii can't do neither of both things which makes the game look extremely blurry on a 46" screen) is really amazing and shows me how much dedication was put into it.
My theory is that they first intended the Wii to be an HD console and therefore developed the game with high-res textures and detailed polygons, which is very apparent if you play the game on Dolphin! I played WW on Dolphin too so I can see the difference.
I also really liked the art style which was in fact a combination of realism and fantasy and not purely realistic as some people say (I mean, it had it's very silly moments too, for example the look of Fyer and Falbi is very toonish, same with the Gorons, Zora , Oocca etc.). At the same time it was very detailed, unlike WW or SS. I prefer it over hyper-realism like in CoD games as well. TP just had the right mixture between realism and fantasy so graphically-wise it's really a 10/10. A cousin of mine has a PS3 with those new games like FIFA12 and NBA2K12 and both games look really much inferior to TP, even after 5 years (TP has really much more love put into it). This shows me that even in the graphics department, Nintendo is clearly ahead of its competitors, it's just the hardware that is lacking.
But of course gameplay is the mot important thing and I think that TP had very many unique ideas there like the many different sword techniques and creative items like the spinner or the ball and chain. I also really liked it that bomb arrows returned in TP, they were so useful! The items just could've been used more and I also think that overall the game was a bit too easy for an experienced Zelda player, maybe a difficulty setting which would've changed damage formulas and enemy AI would've been helpful here, but for some reason Nintendo somehow doesn't like this idea :/ But there were also some parts which I had my difficulties with like the miniboss in Snowpeak or in minigames like the snowboard race or the boat game. I think that if every Ironknuckle would've been as hard as the final Ganondorf battle (being quite fast and dodging many attacks), then this would've been the right difficulty setting for me. For comparison: I still fail at AoL (dying a lot, >20 times) but I can beat aLttP 100% in 4 hours without dying once.
But the overworld and dungeons were so much better than in WW, even though Hyrule Field was quite big you could quickly cross it with Epona and warping was available quite early in the game, unlike in WW where sailing took ages and for some unexplainable reason you couldn't even warp to every square after learning an optional song which I guess many players have even missed. I also liked the dungeons' themes a lot, especially Death Mountain, Arbiters' Grounds, Snowpeak Mansion and City in the Sky really made you feel as if you were just there! The other dungeons were all unique from each other too!
Storywise they could've done a bit better. While I really think that Midna was the best sidekick in terms of character development in the whole Zelda series before Tatl and WAY before Navi (I wonder how Phi will do), they could've done more with Ilia and the other village kids, especially Colin. I also think that the introduction of Ganondorf into the story wasn't executed perfectly, but generally I don't mind his inclusion that much. I also liked those little twists, like the Gorons being against you in the beginning but turning to your side after beating the dungeon.
Overall, after previously rating it 8/10 because of the flaws, upon further and more "neutral" thinking I'd give this game a 9/10 now, making it equal to OoT and only falling behind MM and aLttP (both 10/10 for me). If they had included some of their beta ideas, like keeping the magic meter (+ fire/ice/light arrows and medallion spells from aLttP) and having this über-awesome Gohma battle, then I'd probably give it a 9.5-10/10.
.o
