Okay this review is gonna make me lose my credibility (if I ever had one)

I do love The Legend of Zelda series a lot and I remember being really really excited by this new title.
I love the series for different reasons, but if I gotta summarize what are the key aspects of a zelda game I always look for, it may be these 3: fun and addicting gameplay based on item variety and cool combat, challenging and creative dungeon designs and bosses, and enthrilling story full of memorable supporting characters.

I remember the day this game came out: I got it from my cousin, played it for a lot of hours, exploring around and trying to progress through the story, going all out until reaching the final confrontation with Ganon. And for all the game, I found 2 of these 3 key parameters to be really missing.

Don't get me wrong, this title is beloved for a reason: it's a open world that makes you wonder discorevries like no other, able to want you go around the land of Hyrule forever despite the common reuse of enemies and assets. The customization and ability to experiment with the game engines and physichs was so good that they perfected and used as a big selling point in the sequel. The breakable weapons can be annoying and weirdly restrictive at times, but the ability to improvise and use so many more options scattered around gives you enough incentive to move forward, instead of "farming for the best weapons over and over again".

In that regard, the gameplay and exploration is incredible...... but the rest of the things I love about a Zelda game got kinda sacrificed in the process:
If dungeons once where important world building assets, full of complex mechanics and cool menaces, now they are turned into the samey monotone sets of corridors and enemies..... sure you can break those dungeons with the game physics and you can solve a "puzzle" in more that one way because of it, but in all honesty I miss the more refined puzzle solving of older titles..... the dungeons are also cool in concepts (being some ancients mechanical beings used as guardians of the land) but I kinda wish they did more with that and gave a little more variety to the whole bunch.

And the story, one of the things I love the most about a zelda game.... is basically already finished: you wake up from a long slumber only to find out that all of your friends are dead, the evil resurfaced, and the only big ally you have left is fighting for her life as you go around and cook frogs and apples..... I kinda wish you will be able to... you know... actually live the story the game is trying to tell, instead of discovering it with bits and pieces. I feel like other videogames, like most of the Dark Souls titles, are able to introducing you into and already messed up world while still making you feel part of the narrative, in a way, something that I kinda wish this game did better. There are some fun characters like Sidon, RIju or the Yiga clan, but overall I felt a bit of... emptiness in the narrative of Breath of the Wild.
You are free to enjoy it of course, these are the best versions of Link and Zelda for many reasons, but it's just not for me.

Overall, I feel BOTW has many reasons to be considered an amazing game, but FOR ME PERSONALLY it's not able to translate well a lot of the mechanics that made me love the series in the first place, creating a new type of experience thhat in my opinion goes a bit too far from classic zelda titles.
I guess I just prefer the execution of titles like Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess or Wind Waker, I dunno..... so seeing this often considered "the best game of all time" is something I will entirely disagree.

I wouldn't play this game for the first 82 months it came out bc I was too scared of hurting the horsey's.

6 stars if I could.

I did end up hurting many horses.

It's very rare for the next game in the series to invalidate the previous one. Breath of the Wild was a really neat and cool experience but, unfortunately, at this point I wouldn't replay it over ToTK which did everything better.

I think my main issue with this game is that even on first playthrough you get what it's going for way too early: by dungeon 2 you realize that actually interesting landmarks are few and far between and your rewards will mostly consist of Korok seeds and Shrines.

Even if I know that Shrines act not only as a fast travel point but also a piece of heart, it gets grating to see them even if it's a reward shrine. You do a cool thing and then one of the things of which there are a hundred and twenty pops out, making it feel a little cheaper.

Nonetheless, it's still a good time and a welcome evolution of the Zelda formula. The characters and situations are neat, even if very poorly voiced in English, and various armors are hella cute. I just don't know if this game needs to exist at this point in time when it has its own evolution that's plain better.

Breath of the Wild is a breath of fresh air for the series with its focus on freedom and minimal story, but in that sense it's also a return to form. It perfectly captures the explorative spirit of the original Legend of Zelda more than any Zelda game since.

Open world games tend to bore me unless the core game systems themselves are fun to interact with. This is why I really enjoy the collectathon 3D Mario games (64, Sunshine, Odyssey) despite their often-poor level design and lack of well-crafted discrete challenges. Breath of the Wild follows in the footsteps of Mario 64 and Sunshine by having the most involved mechanics in the series up to this point. The core combat system isn't as advanced as Twilight Princess, but the gaps are made up by how exploration and combat are no longer separate things. Any part of the environment can be used against enemies or against you in some way. The enemy variety feels pretty low for a world this size, but I think the increased number of interactions and behaviors of each of them make up for it.

The world design is beautiful, as usual for Monolith, but they really outdid themselves here. It's amazing to me how every area has it's own distinct look, with dozens upon dozens of intricately-crafted landmarks. The villages are the most fully realized of any in the series aside from Clock Town. It's truly a delight to explore, and the vistas you see are rewarding in and of themselves.

What's most impressive is how they were able to create an open world that truly feels like a living, breathing place. The game doesn't string you along a long, boring story questline, but there are four mini-main quests if you want to do the main dungeons. The scenery isn't just props, almost everything is interactable. Everything exists for you to play and experiment with, as a sandbox should be. That's not to say there isn't any of the typical open-world garbage here like boring sidequests and meaningless collectables, there's just a lot less, and it's not the focus.

It's easy for me to say I am annoyed by the weapon durability system, but it really depends on the context. See, the game is at its best when it pits you against the wild and makes you use limited resources efficiently. The problem is that this scenario happens only twice; the Great Plateau and Eventide Island. If you take any time to explore at all instead of running straight to Hyrule Castle, you're going to easily stock up on resources. There are so many Korok seeds, weapons, and cooking ingredients to be found that you never really feel like you're in danger. And this is when the weapon durability shifts from tense scavanging just to survive into merely an annoyance that necessitates opening the menu to equip something else. It works on the Great Plateau, but quickly becomes balanced way too far in your favor to be a worthwhile or interesting mechanic to consider. You can just intentionally avoid gathering resources to challenge yourself, but the spongy enemies (which collectively get stronger as you keep playing by the way) keep this from being enjoyable. I think a better solution would be to either force more survival moments by limiting resources more, or to have a medium-strength weapon, bow, and shield always be available after a certain point, which could be upgraded similar to gear. The Master Sword doesn't count.

The Shrines and Divine Beasts are interesting concepts in theory, but they're unimaginative aesthetically and contain puzzles so simple that they're unsatisfying to solve even using unintentional methods. I would rather have seen dungeons that are built into the world itself. Hyrule Castle proves you can have seamless open-ended dungeons that still have some defined puzzles and combat encounters. Instead though, we have 120 ugly shrines which don't blend well at all with the environment.

Once you explore everything and do all the shrines, then what? Well, then the game turns into a sandbox. Open this up in Cemu and enable infinite weapon durability, then go do all sorts of crazy stuff. Kill Ganon with a spoon. Build a minecart flying machine that lasts forever unlike anything in Tears of the Kingdom. Again like the open 3D Mario games, this is a game that relies a lot on your intrinsic motivation to find your own fun.

I had a really great time with it, but honestly I don't think I would ever replay it from a fresh save. There's too much grinding and boring resource-gathering, none of it was that compelling the first time, and I'm not doing it again. But on a rainy day, I'll gladly emulate it with all the fun hacks and mods and whatnot that are available now.