Let me go ahead and start with my few praises for this game. It can be fun to mess around with the physics and find out solutions to things that have so many different ways of solving them. There's a lot to experiment with and they give the player a lot of freedom to really do anything they want. I had some fun with the game. That's just about it.
However, it's hard for me to give this game the praise I guess it deserves, because it is a good game. A good video game. But I don't think it's a good Zelda game. When I play a Zelda game, the main things that I want out of it are as follows: I want a memorable story with lovable characters set in some weird world that has some big twist to it (the Twilight Realm in TP, Great Sea in WW, the Sky in SS, etc), as well as an incredible soundtrack that sets you up for the adventure of a lifetime. And on that adventure you find incredible dungeons with well-thought out puzzles and memorable themes to distinguish them. And then, finally, a big emotional confrontation with whoever is behind all of it, and a satisfying ending to top all of that off.
Breath of the Wild has none of that to me. Its story is bland, being just that Zelda's father comes to Link and asks him to save her. There was a big battle 100 years ago that left Link with amnesia (meaning they removed all the personality he had in SS before this). There really isn't much in the realm of story, it's mostly just exploration. The characters aren't that great either. The only memorable ones are the Champions, but even then, none of them really stuck out to me much. One main thing I dislike about the story is how disconnected it is from Zelda. Not the character, even though it is, but the series as a whole. There's no mention of the triforce, past games or events, or really anything that makes this feel like a Zelda story. It really isn't.
But on the topic of the exploration- there isn't much I like there either. The world feels incredibly empty with copy + pasted korok seeds all around and not much else to do other than shrines (i'll get back to those in a minute.) Not to mention that I'm personally not that big on the art direction of the game, it looks kind of muddy and gross a lot of the time. I much preferred the art styles of previous games like WW and SS. And while you're exploring the empty world and seeing the somewhat ugly art direction, you'll hear- get this- the most underwhelming and unmemorable soundtrack in the series. Some piano notes. Sure, the music is decent at setting an atmosphere. But other games have set an atmosphere while still having their soundtracks be memorable and interesting. This game's just isn't. I've listened to the entire soundtrack multiple times outside of the game and I just can't find myself remembering any of the songs, even though half of them don't really have melodies or tunes at all, they're just scattered notes. There aren't really any bombastic adventure-like songs that really stick out to me.
You know what else doesn't stick out to me in this game? The dungeons. First, let's talk shrines. There's 120 of them scattered across the world for you to find. Going inside them gives you a small puzzle section or copy + pasted fight against a single miniboss, and what is this game's piece of heart. The shrines really make me angry. Since every shrine has to be short and bite-sized, it leaves the puzzle shrines feeling incredibly simple and shallow, because they don't have the time to build up their mechanics enough and since the game is open-world it can't rely on you having done any other shrines to flesh a mechanic out from another one well. They feel like hollow shells with nothing to them. And then, half of them are either just a single miniboss fight, or a "blessing" shrine which is just one where there's nothing inside it and you just take your piece of heart. Also, not to mention, all of the shrines look the exact same and not a single one is very memorable to me. But wait! There are other dungeons too! There are 4 dungeons that are more traditional- the Divine Beasts. As you might've guessed- I don't like them either. To start, as with the shrines, they all look the exact same, having a palette of tan and gray. Not exactly interesting to look at. Next, they're all incredibly short and simple, one usually taking me like maybe 10-15 minutes max. What really annoys me is how they're set up- they're basically just a couple shrines mixed into one. The progression of difficulty problem still lies here, because you can solve any of the puzzles in any order, with each of them being completely unrelated to each other. There's no items you get, nothing that progresses you as a player, nothing.
Once you've solved a few puzzles and activated everything, you fight one of the most bland and uninspired bosses in the entire series. A Blight Ganon. They're just blobs of goo that all look the exact same (noticing a pattern?) and don't have any interesting gimmicks to fighting them. Since this game's dungeons don't have key items you get to progress your character, there isn't really anything they can teach you and put to the test during the bossfight, Usually, bosses are a test of your ability to see if you've been paying attention and learned something new about the game and its world. This just isn't that. These bosses are no different from the other minibosses in the world, which are easily more interesting but not by much. One of the minibosses in the world is just a pile of rocks. However, some of the other ones like the Lynel and Molduga are alright. But those are the minibosses. What about the other standard enemies in the world? Don't even get me started. There is so little enemy variety in this game. It's all just bokoblins or moblins or lizalfos. Maybe an occasional guardian or chuchu. What happened to deku babas, leevers, peahats, beamos, stalfos (that aren't just normal enemies made out of bones), and DARKNUTS? the fights get very uninteresting very quickly when you're constantly fighting the same things over and over again. But here's the thing about fights- there's no reason to fight them. Because the game is so open, you have zero reason to fight enemies because there's obviously no EXP system or anything that promotes engaging in battles. Sometimes there's a random chest. It might give you a weapon worse than you already have, or a completely throwaway item you don't need. Because of weapon durability, you'd just be wasting your weapons on these kinds of fights. There's zero incentive to actually engage with them. The weapon durability on its own is fine. It's the way it's used to promote not fighting that bothers me.
Now, I feel like I've covered most stuff, so let's talk about the final boss and ending. It's not good. Not good at all. You fight another Blight Ganon, this one just being a combination of all of them. Then you go outside and fight a giant boar Ganon with light arrows. Sounds cool! But in actuality, it's just a playable cutscene. There isn't any challenge or intrigue whatsoever. Then, the game just ends. Ganon's gone and Zelda is saved. The end.
To wrap up, my main point here is that this game, while fun at times, feels incredibly directionless and bland. There is absolutely zero progression in this game, in the story or characters or in you. You don't get any new abilities or items, nothing happens in the story, it's all just sitting there static. I can't bring myself to be interested in anything it's trying to do or present to me. It's not what I want from Zelda.
However, it's hard for me to give this game the praise I guess it deserves, because it is a good game. A good video game. But I don't think it's a good Zelda game. When I play a Zelda game, the main things that I want out of it are as follows: I want a memorable story with lovable characters set in some weird world that has some big twist to it (the Twilight Realm in TP, Great Sea in WW, the Sky in SS, etc), as well as an incredible soundtrack that sets you up for the adventure of a lifetime. And on that adventure you find incredible dungeons with well-thought out puzzles and memorable themes to distinguish them. And then, finally, a big emotional confrontation with whoever is behind all of it, and a satisfying ending to top all of that off.
Breath of the Wild has none of that to me. Its story is bland, being just that Zelda's father comes to Link and asks him to save her. There was a big battle 100 years ago that left Link with amnesia (meaning they removed all the personality he had in SS before this). There really isn't much in the realm of story, it's mostly just exploration. The characters aren't that great either. The only memorable ones are the Champions, but even then, none of them really stuck out to me much. One main thing I dislike about the story is how disconnected it is from Zelda. Not the character, even though it is, but the series as a whole. There's no mention of the triforce, past games or events, or really anything that makes this feel like a Zelda story. It really isn't.
But on the topic of the exploration- there isn't much I like there either. The world feels incredibly empty with copy + pasted korok seeds all around and not much else to do other than shrines (i'll get back to those in a minute.) Not to mention that I'm personally not that big on the art direction of the game, it looks kind of muddy and gross a lot of the time. I much preferred the art styles of previous games like WW and SS. And while you're exploring the empty world and seeing the somewhat ugly art direction, you'll hear- get this- the most underwhelming and unmemorable soundtrack in the series. Some piano notes. Sure, the music is decent at setting an atmosphere. But other games have set an atmosphere while still having their soundtracks be memorable and interesting. This game's just isn't. I've listened to the entire soundtrack multiple times outside of the game and I just can't find myself remembering any of the songs, even though half of them don't really have melodies or tunes at all, they're just scattered notes. There aren't really any bombastic adventure-like songs that really stick out to me.
You know what else doesn't stick out to me in this game? The dungeons. First, let's talk shrines. There's 120 of them scattered across the world for you to find. Going inside them gives you a small puzzle section or copy + pasted fight against a single miniboss, and what is this game's piece of heart. The shrines really make me angry. Since every shrine has to be short and bite-sized, it leaves the puzzle shrines feeling incredibly simple and shallow, because they don't have the time to build up their mechanics enough and since the game is open-world it can't rely on you having done any other shrines to flesh a mechanic out from another one well. They feel like hollow shells with nothing to them. And then, half of them are either just a single miniboss fight, or a "blessing" shrine which is just one where there's nothing inside it and you just take your piece of heart. Also, not to mention, all of the shrines look the exact same and not a single one is very memorable to me. But wait! There are other dungeons too! There are 4 dungeons that are more traditional- the Divine Beasts. As you might've guessed- I don't like them either. To start, as with the shrines, they all look the exact same, having a palette of tan and gray. Not exactly interesting to look at. Next, they're all incredibly short and simple, one usually taking me like maybe 10-15 minutes max. What really annoys me is how they're set up- they're basically just a couple shrines mixed into one. The progression of difficulty problem still lies here, because you can solve any of the puzzles in any order, with each of them being completely unrelated to each other. There's no items you get, nothing that progresses you as a player, nothing.
Once you've solved a few puzzles and activated everything, you fight one of the most bland and uninspired bosses in the entire series. A Blight Ganon. They're just blobs of goo that all look the exact same (noticing a pattern?) and don't have any interesting gimmicks to fighting them. Since this game's dungeons don't have key items you get to progress your character, there isn't really anything they can teach you and put to the test during the bossfight, Usually, bosses are a test of your ability to see if you've been paying attention and learned something new about the game and its world. This just isn't that. These bosses are no different from the other minibosses in the world, which are easily more interesting but not by much. One of the minibosses in the world is just a pile of rocks. However, some of the other ones like the Lynel and Molduga are alright. But those are the minibosses. What about the other standard enemies in the world? Don't even get me started. There is so little enemy variety in this game. It's all just bokoblins or moblins or lizalfos. Maybe an occasional guardian or chuchu. What happened to deku babas, leevers, peahats, beamos, stalfos (that aren't just normal enemies made out of bones), and DARKNUTS? the fights get very uninteresting very quickly when you're constantly fighting the same things over and over again. But here's the thing about fights- there's no reason to fight them. Because the game is so open, you have zero reason to fight enemies because there's obviously no EXP system or anything that promotes engaging in battles. Sometimes there's a random chest. It might give you a weapon worse than you already have, or a completely throwaway item you don't need. Because of weapon durability, you'd just be wasting your weapons on these kinds of fights. There's zero incentive to actually engage with them. The weapon durability on its own is fine. It's the way it's used to promote not fighting that bothers me.
Now, I feel like I've covered most stuff, so let's talk about the final boss and ending. It's not good. Not good at all. You fight another Blight Ganon, this one just being a combination of all of them. Then you go outside and fight a giant boar Ganon with light arrows. Sounds cool! But in actuality, it's just a playable cutscene. There isn't any challenge or intrigue whatsoever. Then, the game just ends. Ganon's gone and Zelda is saved. The end.
To wrap up, my main point here is that this game, while fun at times, feels incredibly directionless and bland. There is absolutely zero progression in this game, in the story or characters or in you. You don't get any new abilities or items, nothing happens in the story, it's all just sitting there static. I can't bring myself to be interested in anything it's trying to do or present to me. It's not what I want from Zelda.