[sparsevector]

For me the magic of BOTW was the way its design encouraged you to approach the game more as an environment for free form play. My best experiences with BOTW were when I turned the HUD off and just enjoyed the world, finding Koroks, clearing enemy camps, but mostly just wandering. There are a lot of design elements that come together to make this play style really rewarding and fun like the density of Korok placements and the way you can easily spot shrines from a distance. I think it's hard to compare BOTW to OOT since they have such different designs. OOT is like a carefully constructed theme park ride where BOTW is more like an enormous playground filled with toys. But BOTW succeeded at giving me the same childlike sense of wonder I had with OOT (despite now being an adult).

[jghn]

Exactly. I played the hell out of BotW, but I never came anywhere close to beating it. I spent countless hours just running around and seeing what I could see and do.

I think I might have beaten one or two of the beasts and probably about half the shrines. And most of that came in the tail end of my many hours of gameplay. Yet I'd been all over the world, and had all kinds of fun adventures.

[johnchristopher]

That's how I played Horizon Zero Dawn. I am playing Botw at the moment but it lacks that Alttp or Oot or Link's awakening spark. I guess the zelda novelty wore off along the years because I can see how BOTW has better mechanics than Horizon (but I prefer Horizon settings much more).