That is not my defination of hand holding. What I consider hand holding. Is when a game told you what to do. IE: Got here. Now go here, to use this item. VS It's Dangerous out there. Here, take this. Not the fact that things where gated off. I never ever thought walls, to prevent game explotation. As hand holding. Never have. Than every regular video game, in existance, would be hand holding. I don't see how that makes much sense.

But that is hand holding. A gated off area, or some barrier limited you until you reach a certain point or get a certain item is teh game devs saying "Go here, now do this, ect"

It's just hidden behind "plot" It's what Zelda did for years. THey would have a dungeon/area be unessecable until you got a certain item, which was found in another dungeon. Thus you always went in a order they planned.

"It's just hidden behind "plot" It's what Zelda did for years." No. It's what every regular video game has done, in exsistance. Not soley Zelda. I only see that as block game explotation. Will never agree. Since this is the fundimental reason why I want the old system back. That is not hand holding, to me. It's just there, to prevent you from reading the end of the book, first. I'm figuring out the story, of the writer(s). That's what I find acompishing. Getting all the unlocks. And seeing my item screen complete. I don't have that anymore. Because I throw out boomerangs, like nothing. Doing it, in a broken fashion. That has annoyaces, to slow you down. Just for the sake of skipping from page 35 to 47. Isn't fun. That's the flaw with BOTW, for me. There needed to be a better balance, between the two narative types.

This is what Resident Evil did to me. RE 5 and 6 crossed the line, of the reasons why I played and loved the series. I didn't buy them anymore. BOTW Is basically RE4. It's right at the line of. This game is good. But, changed things I want from the series. If more changes, in a future game. I will not buy anymore Zelda games. The game stops being Zelda, for me.

All it would of taken for me to not complain about BOTW:

Horse whistling, has no limitation. The horse teleports to you, no matter what. IE: Older Zelda games. Witcher 3.

Base starting weapon break limit 30. Or repairing option.

Durability health indicator. By number or visible bar. No blinking. No "your BS sword is about to break" prompt.

Health gained by the original heart containers quest. Not tied to the Stamina upgrade system.

Hot swapping weapons without menu pause.

Quick reload. To deal with wasted attempts, to solve the puzzle. So you don't have to do a force sucide.

Weapons stack to 5.

Being able to drop an item. When it says you're full. So you don't have to click on the chest a second time.

No other changes done to the game. Except rebalancing enemies, for the 30 hit base limit.

And yet. even in Breath of the Wild there are all kinds of things that are gated off until you reach a certain point or complete a certain quest. The Master Sword has been mentioned plenty, but there are abilities hidden behind beating the Devine Beasts that you can only face after completing a bunch of quests to unlock it. You can't even get off the Great Plateau without beating the srhines that unlock powers.

Zelda is still doing it.

You are really grasping at straws here. No one said that this game has no handholding, at all. A bit of handholding is necessary to teach the player the basics and get him used to the game. After the tutorial level, you are free to do what you want. The Master Sword is an optional story element. You don't need it, but if you want it, then you still need a prerequisite to attain it. The same with death mountain. You can't just walk up there without preperation.

The same as you can't see the ending of the game without beating Ganon first.

That's still not the point people are making.

You actually can get off the great plateau without beating the shrines.  And those other things you mentioned aren't required to beat the game.  

Instead of telling me what's not the point how about telling me in the same post what it is? It just saves time.

The fact that this game changed the core mechanic, of what makes Zelda, Zelda. For not much of anything better. An issue like linear limited story telling. Is just replaced with another system that does cause an equal annoyance. Have almost all access, to the world. But, the so called gate, is the items the user has. On top of it. Causes issues in classical elements kept from past Zelda games. Example: Weapons break. This now hampers puzzle solving. By forcing people to reload. To undo the testing attempts.

Stamina/health tied to one upgrade system. Instead of being two different ones, as before. So you have to pick and choose. No longer able to max out both, at even paces. Do I increase stamina. So I can cross that river. Or do I get more health. No longer can some people explore everything. This group of enemies will drop garbage. I'll just run past. Hording of weapons, and not caring of weapons. These people are now disconnected. They don't care about the item. Just get whatever has the higher number. Drop things, all the time. I've never used the bomerrang. Don't care too.

This causes an increase of frustration. So you just end up going for the explotation route, of finishing the game. You aren't fully enjoying the game, either. You have to micro manage. Deal with a stupid horse. That you rather just not use. Play a location, a few extra times. Only because you ran out of stuff. The world is open. Great. Link's legs, arms, and pockets, are what's gated off. I'd rather have the reverse. It's what I liked from Zelda. And changing it, isn't actually better. I prefer to be frustrated, by a wall. That has to use certain items. Which are aquired, in another area. That has its own puzzle. Was the Water Temple annoying a hell. Yes. But, I prefer getting iron boots, the hook shot, and blue Tunic. Over dying, in water. Because my Stamina Bar ran out. People can like this game. But, I don't like that weapons, even the master sword, is now junk. That is the flaw of BOTW. 

The giant overworld map. It's great to look at. But, it's still pretty boring. It randomly raning. And you having to wait, till it stops. Is not really fun. Just climb a wall. Certain realistic aspects, shouldn't be in a game. All I'm gonna do: Is stand there and wait. Go play Minecraft. Than go back. It's just a time waster. Also, since you're fustrated. You start looking at the limitations. That are only there to annoy you. Why can't Link carry a cooking pot. He can carry wood. I know the point. It forces the user to "explore". But, it doesn't. Due to the annoyaces that other issues cause. Why can't our placed map makers, be visible, in the world. Like the shooting stars? I pay attention to these things. Because I was broken out of my enjoyment. Caused, by the new system.

The game makers where trying to figure a way to do new things. So that the tired formula of Zelda, stopped. Which I commend them. This game does 80% of that right. The last 20%, causes more issues, than the older way of doing it. That's the point. That's why people would rate the game lower. Zelda could eventually turn into what Resident Evil has done. Who do you cater to? Tank overhead camera. Or action people?

I'm just relating my own experiences from last night. White one drops an 18 spear. I use that spear on the next white one, it broke before the fight was over. Again with the next one. They don't go down in 10 hits anymore. I have them stun locked for 30 hits or more with a spear. Even with my 54 two hander it's run up 2 hits, run up 2 hits knocking him around all over the place taking about 15 hits. All with barbarian armor with +2 attack.

I'm not throwing away weapons anymore, I ended up with free slots for the first time in the game, filled with a dmg 4 boku club, torch and pitch fork!

The game doesn't become more difficult since once you knock them down (just one tap with a lightning sword will do) it's just a matter of raining hits on them until they're dead. Sneak attack with dmg 60 doesn't even take half their health anymore. I wonder if there's an end to the enemy leveling as camps do indeed become a place to avoid at this rate. And I just had another blood moon, yay.

I've found a few Koroks close to camps (even on top of one skull) yet that's very rare so I guess it's fine to avoid them. It's just a shame they turned from being fun risk vs reward challenges to durability drains. It's no longer can I survive this, it's can I afford it... They drop gems, I'm swimming in rupees, can't buy weapons though.

It's probably fine again when I get to an originally tougher zone so the normal enemies drop decent weapons again. Hateno region is a bit borked atm.