Not sure where all the rating hate is coming from, but Nintendo always gets high marks from the amount of polish in the gameplay and design. The biggest thing B

Not sure where all the rating hate is coming from, but Nintendo always gets high marks from the amount of polish in the gameplay and design. The biggest thing BOTW accomplished was taking the "you can go anywhere, basically" approach from the original NES Zelda and translated that to an open world game far better than any game previously. Most open world games gate players hard with obvious gated entry to areas. BOTW integrated natural progression in a much more thematic way. The destructable/interactable environment was also a big innovation that only a few other games had attempted at the time. You can argue the shrines were repetitive or the fighting too easy but that is complaining that the game isn't what you want it to be and not looking at it for what it is and who it is for.