Yeah thats part of the problem for me with that kind of spoiler, in fact ive lived that... ive been spoiled in this way for some games lately and ive been able to predict exactly what was gonna happen in the ending.

Not to mention it takes away the shock value and emotion in the ending for me, for example when i get to the sad ending (that i already knew was gonna happen) im not sad in fact im angry at the dude who spoiled me, so the ending for me is practically ruined since i saw it coming and i didnt get to feel what the game wanted me to feel, instead im just mad at whoever spoiled me.

And lately ive been seeing a lot of people (in other forums) openly discussing stuff like this without marking it as spoilers so i wanted to know what the general consensus was about this being a spoiler or not.

It is a spoiler, but it isn't really that big of a spoiler. It also depends on the game. With tLoZ, some of the different endings are bittersweet.

Just in case someone would feel spoiled about the games. Ocarina of Time, Windwaker, Twilight Princess are pretty good examples.

In my opinion, those may be spoilers, but only with good context for the game/franchise do I consider it damaging. I fully expect BotW to be bittersweet.

Here's a good example of a spoiler that is bad:

A sequel/spinoff of a highly rated game comes out. Let's say its an openworld JRPG. The scenario is that the game releases in Japan, but takes months before it is localized. Ok. Some "fans" who have yet to play the game will go ahead and fully take about the spoilers of the game well before it is localized.Some will even go through lengths to post pictures on articles that do not relate to the game. Some will even put a huge spoiler on their avatar, which is the absolute worst on threads of websites such as this one. Nevermind posting within the week of release when you know full well they haven't beat it, they do it before it is even localized and you know full well they didn't buy it yet and it is in Japanese and they ask in other threads for translasitions for Japanese info of other things. Like why do this? What kind of fan are you? Some people might even debate buying the game because of this.

No. The end of the Story in a Zelda game doesn't really matter.

Yes, especially if this kind of Spoiler is what follows a big plot twist, to keep your example, if a bunch of characters died near the end of BotW I would already be expecting a sad ending so it wouldn't bother me a lot but if everything was going just fine until suddenly Ganon split in 9 clones to go and kill all the main characters including Link and Zelda to then insititute a 1000 years reign it'd be a pretty big deal for me to be spoiled about the ending beeing bad

It would be minor, but yes, I would consider it as a spoiler.. especially if it's a game I really don't want to know anything about

everybody has certain limits as to what theyre okay with. saying "it has a sad ending" can imply a lot, especially if the story uses foreshadowing at any point, or any kind of nods throughout the game. like if you said that and then as I started playing the game i noticed Zelda acting weird as i got closer to the ending, that will ruin it because i already know that whats coming up will be sad. not necessarily me specifically, but other people might feel that way.

when it comes to vague spoilers like that i usually give my opinion on it. I will say its good, or its bad, or i will say that you might want to prepare yourself for it.

This, it spoils the game so much, I avoid buying those 60 hour rpgs! If I didn't know it's another time sink I would start a lot more rpgs!

But one man's sad ending is another's happy ending, so that's not much of a spoiler. I don't remember any specific Zelda endings anyway, it's more about the game than the story. I played Windwaker 3 times, can't remember the ending story wise. Zelda  = have to defeat some magic dude at the end. I don't expect botw to be any different. Plus it's always a sad ending, cause you reached the end of the game!

It's a spoiler, though not one of the highest degree like for example spoiling big plot-twists or spoiling the specifics of such an ending.

Yes it is.

Dude wtf, you ruined it for me...