Same. Never thought I'd see the day but it came and I've made my peace with it because I know if I bought TotK, I wouldn't "get" it and, ultimately, I'd just regret it massively as I should have known better. The building and swimming up-through-ground mechanics look like they could be fun in a smaller, more restrained game. Make it a third of the size of BotW and I'll take a punt on it. It'd still be humungous.  Because I know I can enjoy smaller, more organised open-world games from having played the likes of Immortals: Fenyx Rising, Burnout Paradise and Lego City Undercover this past year or so.  I'd like to eventually go back on BotW after looking up some pointers to actually direct me to something to do in that game. If I ever get around to that and successfully come away enjoying it, I could consider moving on to TotK at some time way beyond that. For the time being though, Zelda has sadly joined a list of Nintendo games I'm just not into.

Yeah, the map orientation is a bit naff, especially when hunting for stuff. As for the petals, they are pretty easy to find when that ability is active. You should have no trouble nabbing them all. Same goes for the treasure chests.

Got some more quality time on this today. Bought a few pieces of equipment (haven't reached a point where I'm overflowing with gold yet) so reading this, I'll stick with purchasing and let the upgrade materials accumulate in the background. Then use them to bolster the raid arena.   I wasn't sure about getting all the petals but thanks to Anemona's Third Eye Gift, I've collected them all in at least two areas now and can conceivably see myself hunting down the rest. I enjoy putting her in the lead—which isn't necessary to use her Gift—purely because of the way she skates when you're dashing. It was nice to get outside city walls, the stuff with the doppelganger group was a good laugh (reminded me of Ozzy in Chrono Trigger when they pulled the lever...!) and it was fun to later hack and slash up Mount El Dore for exp aplenty and a nice view from the top. Then a sidequest took me back there so I was happy to lay waste to a portion of it again. Currently, I have a pair of sidequests on the list then before I push it forward again, I'll have a look for more petals and speak again to some characters as I go around just on the off chance it triggers anything. Pretty sure it won't, but just in case. As for Hawk. There are some signs he might be coming around but, like, I don't actually want him to do a miraculous u-turn and lose his attitude because it is funny the way he gets on. I just want to know he's definitely part of the team and he can be a cheeky sod all he wants. Minor quibble: I'd like to set the map so it's always oriented north. Every time I open it, I'm immediately pressing X to get it pointing N. And sometimes I'm in and out of the map screen pretty frequently!

Just watched the first episode, was fun, nothing special but I’m sure it may have just been setting the stage. There was definitely a few moments that seemed to suggest more was to come. 
I did like the “step on a butterfly” gag. 

  That ray-traced Mystical Ninja tease at the end!