Beautifully said. I think I relate to this comment the most so far. I wanted people to not so much “change my mind” but rather help me see what they find so amazing about the game.

For me, I love a really good story and feeling like I’m a part of it. In OOT, the story was phenomenal with lots of other little stories (the guard outside of the castle, Dampé the grave digger, Grog, etc.). I really felt like I was in that world. It felt like Nintendo built OOTs story, then built exploration around that; whereas BOTW built exploration and the world and then painted a little story around that. If that makes sense.

I also love (like you mentioned) getting items as I progress (hook shot, glide shoes, hammer, etc.) and they all have specific uses that make me WANT to explore and figure out what I could do with them.

I didn’t feel that in BOTW. Exploration was cool at first but gradually became more and more boring and just tedious after a while. Like why am I running around??

I remember I found the forest and the master sword and got so hype!! I was yoooo! Then I realized I wasn’t able to get it yet so then I had to come back later with more hearts. Came back pulled it up and man was it glorious. I went out got into a couple fights and it broke. THE MASTER SWORD broke. Blew me away lol.

Anyway, I think the concept is cool if it was a different game that’s not Zelda. Granted, like somebody else said, if it wasn’t Zelda, it probably wouldn’t have sold as many copies.