So, I'm gonna be frank here. I came into this game expecting to dislike it.
Don't get me wrong; I'm pleasantly surprised at how on point and amazing Breath of the wild has been. this is the Legend of Zelda game that has made me stop and truly question my blind love of the 2D Zelda games over the 3D ones, and my overall waning interest in the franchise since 2011. This game is SPECIAL. it should be remembered and celebrated for more reasons than I can name. Simply put, I'm having a blast in a way that I haven't with a video game in a LONG ass time.
That isn't to say I don't have criticisms. Far from it!
First and foremost, This game's soundtrack. Most of the time, it's simply just not present, or it's someone diddling a few notes on a piano, getting up, taking a sip of Oronamin C, going to a curry restaurant, taking a stay at a nap hotel, only to come back to the sound recording studio and tapping out a few more notes.
This soundtrack is good when it decides to get anthemic. as it is, it sounds royalty free and minecraft-y. Please never use this game for Radio trivia because I will never get it unless it's something that cribs on previous themes of the series or the music that plays when A Yiga tribe guy comes to ambush you
My other issue with this game is that HOLY **** they found a way to keep you in the inventory management screen for longer than they do in Link's Awakening. you CONSTANTLY have to pitch things or switch clothes for the situation or eat something or sit down for 15 minutes to cook all the crap you've accumulated or you're messing with map markers or photo management or unequipping crap because it's going to burn or get you zapped or SOMETHING and it's mega, MEGA tedious sometimes.
These are small peas though. This has got to be the first open world game I've played where I feel like the game feels really balanced, and that somehow Ragdolling doesn't cause horrible glitchiness... the only time I've really encountered a major issue was one time I got my huge ass horse caught in an underpass where I couldn't get on it's back and it couldn't move so I had to board it at the stable, but like... Everything is great. I'm LOVING This game SO much for just... subverting all my expectations and being awesome in a way I could not have foreseen.
also, I have to give special shout-outs to the character design here, because usually there's NPCs in these 3D Zelda games or an enemy that gives me weird uncanny valley syndrome and that's not the case. It feels like every returning race in this game from another Zelda game is reprisented by the best versions of their designs throughout the years, and for ones that just... didn't work (The Rito in wind waker creep me the **** out for some reason and just are like... creepy people wearing duck bills on their faces) and things just... work. I even feel this is probably my favorite design for Impa, who is somewhere in the happy middle ground between something from a Miyazaki film, A Naruto Hokage, the original LoZ Impa, and Grandma from Wind Waker
Like.... EVERYTHING just looks good. even the Great Faries look good, and they're some of the most nightmare inducing things from Ocarina of Time.