I also left a comment in another one of your UC4 threads: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=216361&page=1

Bolded: nope, categorically not true. Only the first Zelda is truly "open world". Do Zelda games have a large overworld? Yes. Do Zelda games allow you to tackle the game in a non-linear fashion? No, the vast majority of the time they do not. They almost all feature exclusively or largely linear progression, with travel through the over-world and completion of the dungeons/plot points reliant on linear progression through objectives gated behind different requirements. Breath of the Wild also features:

• Breakable weapons and armour, rather than set, story-imparted tunics or swords
• A complex crafting system
• Hunting
• Emergent physics and chemistry systems
• 100+ shrines, rather than dungeons, and no dungeon related items. As I said above, overworld traversal and game progression is no longer gated behind dungeon imparted items.
• New main story dungeon structure. Rather than a labrynthine maze with a new item and a boss battle, the dungeon starts as a boss battle, and requires you to manipulate the dungeon once you are inside it: there are no new abilities gained in this dungeons, breaking from the conventions of the series established in and followed since A Link to the Past.
• Survival system (e.g. food to heal, weather extremes draining your health)
• A traversable world which uses physics based movement, and not a 'navmesh' (i.e. a navmesh features surfaces which are never traversable, in Breath of the Wild you can climb/run/walk/swim over everything)
• Physics based puzzles with multiple solutions, rather than a puzzle system reliant on item-based puzzle solving.
• Little things such as: No guide companion (no Navi/Fi etc, a feature in every 3D Zelda), no chest opening music.

Take it from someone who has completed every Zelda game bar Triforce Heroes and Adventure of Link. I haven't played Breath of the Wild, but perhaps take a look at what reviewers have said before demonstrating your ignorance of the series and Breath of the Wild.

And if Camry didn't have Toyota before it...

It might be a long shot, but I'll take the highly unpopular side and kind of agree with the OP. Without the Zelda name, the game wouldn't have the same impact, and probably not the expected sells. Can't speak much about the latter because the game won't release until tomorrow. People already have extremely high expectations about this series and they might be biased on their opinions about it.

It would be interesting if this game, containing the same mechanics, the same story and the same environment, didn't have any of the Zelda characters. Would it really be the same?

I do think exactly the opposite: having "Zelda" in the name would actually make the game pottentially get a lower score, because critics tend to be a lot more demanding or strict about old, stablished franchises than new ones, specially when a franchise is well known and praised for its excellence.

Good point.

I mean....you are correct about that :P.

I think you're right, The Legend of Link: Breath of the Wild doesn't really have that catchy sound to it, smart from them to call it Zelda

When some reviewers say it's the best game ever made or one of the best, I doubt they just believe it because it has the name Zelda and not because they felt it is the best game ever made.

Maybe, just maybe some big games from Nintendo are just that good because that's what Nintendo is good at and that's what Nintendo really looks at because they need that quality to "stay alive"

So, you think everything is in the name? That's a bit extreme to me. A game is amazing and overall rated as amazing based on countless reviews has to have some merit at being an amazing game.

Allow me to explain further. A name definitely has some impact in terms of expectation. That expectation can actually hinder the score of a game if it doesn't meet your personal opinion of what the franchise is supposed to be like. In this case, BOTW has purportedly changed many Zelda standards for the better. Name can't be much of an impact.

Less of an impact than the OP is insinuating with "far worse" statement for sure. Without data, I'd suggest that any big sequel to a major franchise could be slightly inflated or deflated based on the view of that franchise.

The trend of the summation of reviews is what is important and defines if the scores are accurate. With Zelda I think we have a clear indication that this is a remarkable game, well worth the perfect and near-perfect scores.

Ya know I'll be extremely happen later tonight when I grab my copy with my new Switch. Can't wait!!!