I’m not going to deny that they are good games, they definitely are. However, there are some design choices made with BOTW and TOTK that really make me separate them from the rest of the series.
The item degradation, the voice acting, the open worldness, all these things aren’t what I want from a Zelda, and because of that, I doubt I’ll ever replay those games again. Again, not bad games at all, and if anyone said they were their favorite games, I’d totally understand that.
But does anyone else wish that we would get a more traditional Zelda game again?
I understand that desire a lot!
I do miss traditional dungeons, but as a person who likes playing a ton of different games and genres, I think TOTK (far more than BOTW) really does some incredible things with it’s systems and really invites true creativity. I think, overall, that outshines the very enjoyable, but linear approach of the older games.
I would love a next gen, classically dungeon based Zelda game too, but I think that if one of the older Zelda games came out today (skyward sword, ocarina, wind waker, etc) it simply wouldn’t have the universally fun pull of BOTW or TOTK.
They have big issues, yeah. But they are doing more to advance gaming as a whole by a huge amount and I can’t help but appreciate them.