Woe betide me, because BOTW is for some reason the first Zelda I am playing, and I decide to post here
For some reason Zelda never clicked with me, I remember giving OoT a few hours and not really feeling it. BOTW obviously doesn't tick any of the traditional Codex indicators of RPG quality, but then I'm not really treating it as that, I'm treating it as its own thing (action adventure whatever) and it's very enjoyable. And I obviously am clueless as to how it compares with other Zeldas.
Is it more fun than Skyrim? By a mile. It has a far better sense of art direction and style, and one that ages far better than Skyrim's pseudo-realism, which is killed off by the Witcher series conclusively. With BOTW there is far more creativity, and the delight of walking past a giant set of bones in a clearing, then later discovering it's an undead Talus thing (sic), blows past anything you'll ever get from Skyrim exploration. The scattered 'goblin' camps and horseriding is pretty humdrum, but finding the little hidden nooks and crannies and tricks - those korok challenges, or specially hidden shrines, really give exploration a superior rhythm as well. Combat is nothing innovative or spectacular, but has a nice concrete feel to it, a set of clearly defined tools to use, and feels far better. The only thing Skyrim has that BOTW doesn't is a wealth of pointless subsystems that create time-consuming makework. And a retarded inventory UI.
I think with open world games in particular, it's never a single feature making or breaking the game on its own, it's always how it all works together to create the gameplay loop. Koroks, gliding, horses, etc. are all pretty simple and even stupid if you dissect them on their own. But the loop of entering a new map area, seeing the tower rising high into the sky and aiming for it to map the place out, spotting the shrines with your camera from a vantage point, being sidetracked by the little koroks as you wander about, etc. - it's a fantastic and charming loop.
I just wish you had more clever 'puzzle' environments, more axing down trees to build bridges, etc.
edit: I have no idea whether BOTW is a radical departure for the series or not. All I remember from trying OoT hey, listen! I'm not sure that it's the open world aspect that' simportant for me - I usually dislike it in other games like TW3, and I feel like I would enjoy BOTW equally (or even more) without it being fully open.
