So with Breath of the Wild having had so much hype behind it, and it somehow still exceeded many people's expectations, I thought about how rare that seems to be. More often than not, games which are hyped to this level end up dissapointing (it has happened in the Zelda series before with Twilight Princess, for example.)  What are some other instances of games which were hyped to crazy levels and lived up to or exceeded their hype? 

Maybe I'd say... Half-Life 2? With the first one being so good, expectations were through the roof and the game brilliantly managed to meet or surpass them.

San Andreas

Maybe not BOTW levels of hype, but still hyped games that lived up to the expectations:

Uncharted 4
Horizon
GTAV
TLOU
Bayonetta 2
Doom (2016)
Bioshock: Infinite

I'd say Uncharted 4 did. It didn't exceed expectations like BotW, but it was everything most fans of the series wanted from the final chapter. It has flaws (the inconsistent pacing in the first half being arguably the largest), but overall it was almost exactly what it needed to be.

Sticking with ND, i think TLOU2 is going to have a hard time meeting the hype though. Many (myself included) consider the first one of the best games ever made, and UC4 has already spent the "next gen ND game" card. I'm hoping for it to be as good as the first, but to meet the hype it needs to be even more than that. It has to be brilliant in a way we aren't expecting.

Uncharted 2. The E3 trailers made a HUGE splash at the time.

Skyrim. Journalists were going nuts about it and even after release it was being talked about on the internet for weeks and weeks.

Final Fantasy VII. Not necessarily because I think it was the best game, or even the best Final Fantasy, but because it blew everyone away with cut-scenes and dramatic moments. It consumed gaming mind-share for quite a long time. There was a time when every other person in AOL chat-rooms was named after an FF7 character.

You are talking about the naughty gods dude. Nothings impossible.

Oh it's absolutely possible, i just think it's going to be a challenge even for Naughty Dog. If they can pull it off, it might be the 2nd game I've ever given a begrudging 10 too  

I think if ND manages to create the AI they showed off at TLoU1's E3 showing years ago, that would be a step in the right direction.

That's peak success right there.