Ok, so, I'm very close to beating the game. I just beat Skyloft: 3000 Years Later The City in the Sky, and then the Cave of Ordeals. I have all 60 Poes and am only 2 Heart Pieces shy of having all of them (Pretty sure they're in the next dungeon)
I know I have two dungeons left and then the final boss battle from remembering my Wii playthrough.
I'm still loving the playthrough, tho I have noticed a few things. I think the reason I'm loving this is… I remember the flaws TP had from when I originally played it and was always kinda critical of them. The very slow start that this game (and Skyward Sword) has, the Overworld being simultanously huge yet kinda empty, The tears of light segments, how fillerish some of the side quests are, etc. I remembered those things and my criticisms of them never went away, so since I expected them going into this playthrough, I came out the other end enjoying my experience because, at the very least, a few of my concerns were addressed to some degree.
First off, I originally played it on Wii, so the controls are instantly better to me. I like the Wii motion controls for Skyward Sword, but that game has 1:1 sword controls and the game was built around that, but the Wii version of TP always felt like what it was: A Gamecube game with tacked-on waggle. Having actual buttons for this is just so much better. Plus, I do find the touch screen has a lot of benefits. I don't use the onscreen map at all, and having a one-touch "Wolf Form" button on the touchscreen is super nice.
It's only a bit, but the removal of a few (I think 4 each?) of the tears of light from each of the 3 hunts DOES speed it up a bit and remove tedium. The Poe Lantern is a HUGE help too tbh. I remember playing it originally and thinking the Poe quest was a bit of a slog. It was always annoying having to hunt through every inch of every area for where the Poes were. Even if you look up a guide, unless you use the guide the entire way through, it's hard to remember which Poes you got when. Being able to just pop into an area's loading zone, pull out the lantern and be told "Yup, there's a Poe in this area" was nice while at the same time, it's not handholding me by leading me straight to them.
I remember just not doing this the first time around. After I got the 20 needed to get the Bottle from Jovani, I looked up what getting all 60 did and when I found out it was unlimited silver rupees, I didn't consider it worth it and decided to skip it. This time around, it felt way less tedious thanks to the Lantern. I just naturally went places I was supposed to go and carried the lantern when I wasn't fighting things, and took note of where I needed to get Poes.
I'm totally ignoring the stamps tho lol.
So yeah, they didn't reinvent the wheel or completely overhaul the game. Going in, it's still got a lot of the problems it had before, but they didn't make any aspect of the game WORSE IMO, so for the few improvements they did make, I'd say the HD Remaster is not only a great success, but the definitive version of the game.
If I were to put a number on it, I'd give the original a 7, and this maybe a 7.5/10