LogFAQs > #975108806

Definitely stamina. Having more hearts doesn't actually reduce the damage you take (and therefore doesn't reduce the amount that eventually needs recovering), whereas having more max stamina increases the rate at which your stamina regenerates (it always takes the same amount of time for stamina to go from empty to full, regardless of how much you have)

Due to the system in place that protects you from being 1-shotted by most things if you're at full health (present in both BotW and this game, but not in BotW's master mode), it's arguably beneficial early on to have fewer hearts so that you need less healing after something chonks you to 1 hp.

With the sheer amount of raw damage output enemies can have, your defense matters far more in these games than your number of hearts. If your defense sucks, it doesn't really matter how many hearts you have; anything of remotely decent power is still gonna basically 1-shot you unless your health is full. Therefore, the easier it is to reach full health, the better.

If you're getting bodied too hard in these games, it's always been better to look into armor upgrades than it is to try to get more hearts.

If you ever notice a blood moon coming, take the time to cook simple foods between 11:30pm and 12:15am. Stuff you cook during this time will always be a "critical" cook, meaning that if you cook something without any status enhancement, it will gain 3 hearts worth of healing. Cooking a single apple (for example) during this time will produce a food that heals 4 hearts, making it a crazy simple, economical, and effective full heal -- assuming you don't go over 4 hearts of course. Works in either game.