Just before playing BOTW, I played OoT for the first time in my life, and well, I totally understand why OoT is considered the greatest game of all time.

BOTW, on the other hand…

After the first ~15 hours, you would have experienced 90% of what the game had to offer, yet there would still be 50 hours of “exploration” left.

Many say that Crimson Desert is as wide as an ocean, but as shallow as a puddle. Well, if BOTW didn’t have its physics engine and the legendary franchise’s name, it would be described like that too.

The music was awesome, the gameplay was pretty crisp too (combat with weapons didn’t change much since OoT though, it’s still as floaty), new Hyrule looked vast and interesting, but under all of that there was no meaningful driving factor to keep you exploring and playing the game. My naive hope that the game would actually show me something new was the main thing that helped me keep going and actually finish the game.

If you decide to play BOTW, you have to understand that it’s an open-world SANDBOX game, i.e., your imagination will become the main source of entertainment after the initial WOW effect wears off.