I beat the game last night , as in, I defeated the 4 divine beasts and Ganon, nowhere near done playing it and exploring the world..
This game easily lands somewhere in my top Zelda list, yet it in some ways it feels nothing like the Zelda games I grew up with (LttP, OoT), so in some ways I'm still craving that more linear feel. I've got Twilight Princess HD & Wind Waker HD in my backlog, I'll need to pick between those two here and move on to that one next.
A few thoughts in a block of spoiler text, since I know many haven't gotten quite as far:
The game IS sparse on story, and I won't disagree that it's largely forced to, due to the "choose your own direction" nature of the game. That said, I DON'T agree that the story is weak, moreso that they are letting the player piece together the events through the hidden memories, and more importantly, the NPC's dialogue regarding the events following Calamity Ganon. If you go by solely the hidden memories, you'd see the story primarily about Zelda trying desperately to unlock her power and failing to in time, only to obtain it in a final fleeting moment to save Link after Calamity Ganon had already won, setting up the events 100 years later. The dialogue with the various NPCs provide a breadth of information on Calamity Ganon, the events immediately afterward, how it's changed their lives, etc.
Calamity Ganon's fight was underwhelming...but I remember Ganondorf being underwhelming in Ocarina of Time as well, so I wasn't necessarily surprised by that. I struggled taking down his last quarter of life until I remembered the Gerudo Champion's electrical powerup. I was a little disappointed how he was basically portrayed as a spider centaur, felt kind of lazy in that regard. That said, I appreciated the direction they took generally with him as more of a force of nature rather than an entity.
Breath of the Wild taking place after Ocarina of Time confirmed?? The Gerudo Champion after you free their divine beast mentions that Ganon had been a Gerudo male in a prior Incarnation.
I liked all the Champions' characters besides Mipha, but was kinda hoping the people from each race who help you get to the divine beast were going to become the new "Champion" for the final confrontation with Ganon.
Finally, voice acting wasn't great. I really wish Nintendo didn't think all women have weak frail voices..
What's everyone think the likelihood is that Nintendo takes the framework of this game and tries to expand upon it and add a new twist for their next Zelda game, a la Ocarina of time/Majora's Mask? Seems like an awful amount of time and effort was spent on such a well-received game to just start from scratch for the next game, and I hope we don't have to wait until the Switch successor for another Zelda game.
Never thought I'd say this, but thank god for the DLC, I'll probably be playing this game throughout the year, but it'll be nice to have some story beats to hit later on this year, and hopefully it'll feel meaningful/worthwhile.