let's take out everything that made the zelda games so loved (amazing music, unique dungeons, fun enemies and bosses, cool equipment) and replace it with a barren wasteland of an open world thats filled with the exact same mini-dungeons that get boring after like the fourth time you do them, and populated with the same 3 types of enemies. the exploring gets so boring so fast, because it's just the shrines, korok seeds and towers, that are all the same. even the rare unique puzzles just open up another shrine when you complete them
there's no incentive to exploring either, cause your only rewards are health/stamina and ocassionally a rare weapon/armor - but those dont matter, because weapons break after like 4 hits and theres no way to fix them, so your best bet is to just avoid combat altogether.
also, lets make it rain every 10 minutes to to make the best part of the game (the climbing) stop working
honest to god dont understand how people gave it 10/10s
Did you play the same game I did? The open world in BOTW is one of the most dense in any AAA game. You'll never run for more than a minute in any direction without passing up something to do.
Have you played the Zelda series at all? Heart pieces and rupees are pretty much it for exploration rewards, BOTW has the best variety in the series since the very first game where you would find progression-critical items by bombing/burning random walls/trees.
BOTW (and ALBW) is the breath of fresh air that the Zelda series desperately needed after Skyward Sword took the game's linear aspects to ludicrous heights.