It's the toy looking aesthetic they used in the Link's Awakening remake a few years ago. It worked for me with that game, but the orchestrated arrangements of songs I used to hear so much on my brick Gameboy might have helped in selling it.

Half agree there, I wanted a full zelda game, but I'm spinoff pilled and think a lot of the best ideas Nintendo actually implements are in spinoffs these days, mainline games are generally too "safe" even if they are polished

It reminds me of how they handled Princess Peach Showtime. The game was clearly aimed at children, which is good of course, but it felt like it could have been more complex. It's just that they will only make one game and then revisit her only in that format.

I'd have loved to see a Zelda- focused game that had the ambition of Breath of the Wild.

Just feels like a concession to give detractors an example so the woke would stop complaining.