I'm also not a huge fan of knowing that most secrets in the overworld map will lead you to a shrine. And inside the shrine? Well, you're pretty much aware what's going to be in there. There's no sense of mystery in them.

If anything, finishing Botw made me go DL OoT from the eshop, and I'm about to finish that tonight— moving on to WW and TP HD later.

I agree 1000% on this. The fact that you could remove the name of the game, swap the characters, and probably not know this was a Zelda game, is a bit unnerving to me.

I mean, there's not much here that follows in the zelda franchises footsteps. I'd sacrifice cooking, weapon durability, all in wonder shiekah slate abilities, etc. for the 'metroid' style item progression, theme'd dungeons, interesting bosses, etc.

Botw has no real caves, that's a problem, imo. Zelda has been known to have secret areas and all that, vendors inside, npcs inside, items inside, whatever.

Like how WW and MGS2 are some of the finest in their respective franchises, and Botw/MGSV are both super far removed from either? :P

An extra dozen battles? Ha.

I still feel like the story part sort of got lost in Botw.

LttP will always be my #1, it's the prototypical Zelda game, and that sweet 2d pixel art which will always be timeless.

Problem is, most times it's a Shrine. And what's inside the shrine is never a mystery, its the blue mist looking mini-puzzle. Old Zelda games would at least keep you guessing what's inside that cave or hidden entrance you found.

If this article is praising the Divine Beast dungeons at all, I give up.

Edward Norton in Kingdom of Heaven.