Zelda BotW has realistic puddles that form and dissipate from weather cycle

[COKTOE]

Nuvendil said:

COKTOE said:

I haven't watched an especially large amount of video on BOTW, less that an hour, but I've seen this happen a couple times. One was in the Angry Joe review. Guessing it's a rare occurence.

This is not a glitch from what I can tell.  It actively despawns wild creatures if you pursue them too far.  I don't know why, it's not a hardware thing.  My guess at this point is to avoid the AI wandering into areas that it shouldn't where the terain may cause issues?  Or to keep creatures more or less confined to their natural habitat?  Not sure, but it doesn't appear to be a bug so much as a very odd design choice.

It's certainly possible that it was done intentionally, and like you say, it's not hardware related.