Yes, I understand. That's why my response answers both: 1) a Zelda game doesn't need to conform to the patterns and tropes of the last two decades of The Legend of Zelda to be a good Zelda game; and 2) the emergent gameplay and freedom of choice/mobility more than offsets what Wright has identified as weaknesses. 

Wright questions the quality of dungeons and shrines. In my post I agree they're relatively weak, but mitigated by other things. Wright criticizes the story, or, more accurately, his emotional attachment to the story. In my rant on freedom, I mention the story and how players can absorb as much or as little as they want -- a huge plus. He complains about shrines; I mention they're entirely optional. He laments that tools/items don't have a more pivotal role to play in dungeons; I argue that to "experiment with tool sets, enemy AI, and the game's physics and chemistry engines" is the true mark of BotW's genius.

You definitely should. It's a classic. It is also pretty much as I said, it is the inspiration of the first game that made Aonuma take this approach.

I mean, something doesn't offset something just because you say it does. BOTW is great, but I wouldn't say it's open ended nature off sets the terrible dungeons, in practical terms they don't really conflict with each other and there's no reason we can't have both. Your points would require that these things be mutually exclusive(they're not) or that they're small little nitpicks in an otherwise great game(I really wouldn't say they are). Fact is, at least for the first few hours of the game most people are going to be attracted by shrines and see what's up with them. If they suck than that taints their experience. And them being optional doesn't off set that, because everything that Wright has argued is questionable about the game is an "option", but it takes up so much of the game's content that the game's quality would go down if you completely ignored it. At least if we believe the shrines and dungeons and other criticisms Wright has listed to be valid, than we would essentially find ourselves in a lose-lose situation. Sure, we can just skip the content, but that's going to detract just as much value out of the game as having the mediocre content.

I attempted to answer Wright's criticism in a concise and interesting way. I didn't unpack every single element of the game, because it should go without saying I enjoyed the shrines, the story, the dungeons. Why would I justify the greatness of a game by producing a laundry list of things that aren't fun to do?

Anyway, if you're interested in a more complete breakdown of the game, check this out: http://www.vgchartz.com/article/267757/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-ns/

BoTW is ultimate Zelda experience imo, everything Miyamoto wanted it to be in the first place and wasn't possible till now.

By the way, here's some thoughts I wrote a while back about how I'd personally improve this new Zelda formula for the next game, seems fitting for this thread:

- Bring back traditional dungeons (At least 8 of them. 4 dungeons isn't enough for a map that big).

- Less shrines (40-50 at most), but they're bigger and don't share the same visuals anymore. Make the puzzles actually challenging.

- Make exploration more rewarding, because tbh once you realize that all you'll find are either Koroks or Shrines (Or disposable weapons), it becomes rather boring imo.

- Make voice acting optional if possible. I think Zelda worked better without it, I liked reading the story at my own pace and it was part of the charm for me. Light BotW spoilers: The flower lady cutscene wouldn't have been half as funny to me if it was voice acted, the exaggerated reactions are what made it good.

- More enemy variety. Each area of the map should have it's own exclusive enemies (Like Skulltulas and Poes in dense forest areas, for example).

- Less "copy-paste". What I mean by this is that I want more unique content in the overworld. Finding a labyrinth doesn't feel special when you discover that there are 3 more of them at the other corners of the map, only slightly different. Same thing for enemy camps.

- Main menu: Bring back the title screen, music (Fairy's Theme) and more save slots.

- Put music everywhere again. To avoid music getting annoying/repetitive, just make longer and/or dynamic themes (Kinda like how Mario music changes on the fly when going underwater). For example, if you have a theme for Hyrule Field, make it change depending on the weather/enemies/time/riding a horse/etc.

- Make the map a bit smaller, but add caves and underwater sections to the game.

- Completely revamp the weapon durability or get rid of it (Shields aren't damaged when shield surfing, weapons last longer, make it possible for us to repair them with certain items, etc).

- Give us the green tunic at the start of the game again. If people don't want to use it they can simply wear something else, since armor is likely staying for the next game.

- Good non-shrine quests, since most of them were just "Bring me X stuff and I'll give you something in return".

Of course this is all my opinion, sorry for the giant wall of text =P

I agree that it wasn't very Zelda. Even since Zelda 1, full-fledged dungeons were a thing. I would hardly call the Divine Beasts dungeons, and making Hyrule Castle 100% climbable ruined what could have been an epic climax. I wanted all my work to be cashed into a 3 hour expedition into Hyrule Castle, but all I got was a brisk climb followed by four cheap dungeons shooting Ganon's weak point for massive damage.

Fair enough. I'm not saying you should state an opinion you don't have, or that your opinion is wrong. Mind you, I agree with Wright in some ways but not others. I just think that a majority of his criticism was pretty fair and not really about it being non-traditional, and I think the idea that the content being optional is what makes BOTW so great is a slippery slope. It can come off as an excuse particularly when literally almost all of the game's content is optional, so that's a lot of the game that can be rendered irrelevant for criticism. 

Okay, I'll check it out later : ) 

When I think of the first three Zelda games I don't think about the dungeons I think of the over worlds. They're all about over world exploration.

I agree. But I feel the team did the best they could to retain some "Zelda" while rethinking conventions and taking inspiration from other developers.

I hope that Nintendo does find a better medium between the two styles in the sequel which Aonuma said, they're already working on. I just want clever and themed dungeons back, but with special items again that can be used in multiple ways. (Basically the Runes but with more variety and surprise) And a more engaging story. It doesn't have to be Final Fantasy but I dunno, BOTWs story after getting off the Plateau was kind of not very genuine to me.

The Divine beasts as dungeons were not satisfying to me. All I want for Nintendo to do is re-evaluate how they could insert themed dungeons into the game while not making the game so linear. Shrines are cool, but they're no replacement for dungeons. And I know a lot of friends who just completed half of them, missing out on a lot of Zelda's main appeal (puzzle solving).