You do realize that most Zelda dungeons are Portal for toddler, just a bit longer than most of BOTWs dungeons, right?

Gameplay wise, there’s nothing special about dungeons from OoT, TP or SS in comparison to BOTW dungeons. Butthurt Zelda fans over BOTW tend to highly overrate past game dungeons simply because they were longer or had better aesthetics/atmosphere. The fact that they’re long and look visually interesting doesn’t make them play any better. Most dungeons are actually very, very simple. Including the bosses, too. 

I like dungeons in Zelda and all, but lets be honest here, BOTW dungeons aren’t a farcry from past games. They’re just shorter and revolve around a ‘moving the dungeon’ mechanic, but the puzzles and tasks really aren’t any worse. Heck, its way better than OoT’s 300 block and torch ‘puzzles’ in most of its dungeons.

I agree (Especially with the bolded part). The formula needed fixing instead of straight up replacement. To me open-world exploration is the definition of filler, it feels like I'm just walking for 5-10 minutes straight until I find anything worthwhile. As for the puzzles, I thought they were ridiculously easy as well. Sure, the puzzles in the older games weren't super hard either, but at least you could get stuck in the dungeons for a while before figuring out where to go/how to solve a puzzle since you couldn't just cheese them with physics or by using metal weapons, etc. BotW is the "westernized/mass market" version of Zelda and it just makes me sad.

No previous games would have people get stuck because they hide a switch or chest in a secluded corner the puzzles themselves were significantly easier than those in BOTW in comparison, BOTW is not westernised it's built on the original LOZ's approach which is why the development team even made a 2D version of the game to get a feel for things the formula was replaced because it had reached its limit the's no fix for that. Moving away from dungeons is the best move they've done as dungeons became too central to the adventure rather than only being a part of the adventure.

I don't find open-world to be bad per se, after all first Zelda was open world, I've been playing and liking open world games for some 30+ years...and anyone who knows me around here has a fair impression of what I think of Aonuma and his approach to Zelda. Yet I found this specific implementation of open world just plain bad and pointless, so much that I got bored of it after 10 or so hours and had to muscle through the game (only interesting area for me was Gerudo town).

This is indeed, unfortunatelly, mass market Zelda that follows lot of bad trends that became popular over the last decade or so. But I'm fairly old and I have seen lot of IPs that I liked a lot go down that road - in the end, you just learn to let it go and find something else...with a little bit of hope burried somewhere deep that sometime in the future maybe things will change for the better for IP you liked so much.

The dungeons are why I loved the games though. I never found the overworld exploration to be fun in the 3D games, which is one of the reasons I adore Skyward Sword. BotW is overworld x100 and not enough dungeons, it needed better balance between the two. The only Zelda game where exploring the overworld was fun to me was ALBW, which was (and still is) the only 2D Zelda I've played to completion. Also, BotW may be based on the first game but it still takes much more inspiration from modern western games (Survival elements like weapon durability (ugh) and crafting (In the form of cooking), the "Ubisoft" towers, voice acting, etc). Zelda 1 was open but not this open. It also worked in that game because technology didn't allow for a proper story imo.

Well, BotW was basically my introduction to open-world games, so other games may do it better. In any case it really tainted my view on those types of games.

@bold, the biggest issue I have in Zelda's case is that 3D Zelda was pretty much its own thing, there really aren't other franchises out there with that exact same gameplay style. There's a bunch of one-offs like Okami, Sphinx and from what I hear Darksiders (Kind of), but that's it. Beyond Good and Evil was the closest I ever got to the same "feel" as Zelda, but the sequel is going in the complete opposite direction of the original game too, so there's nowhere to go. It's the same for fans of old-school Tomb Raider from what I've seen/read around the internet.

The dungeons were the things holding the games back that's the problem the series started to deviate from being an adventure series to a glorified dungeon crawler this is why Hyrule in the games ended up being nothing but a barren loading screen as you go from one dungeon to the next and why the formula started to feel stale, it had reached its limit and could progress any further. The Zelda team finally realised this and made the world of Hyrule the focus instead of the dungeons which is the best move they've done for the series because since OOT it was never about Hyrule just the 12-16 buildings you go to before going on to fight the final boss, TP was the prime example. By making Hyrule the main focus the games become more about the adventure again and the type of adventure the player has, dungeons can still be a part of the adventure as BOTW showed but they should not be the main focus like before.

Zelda 1 is open and BOTW is the evolution of it plus you do know that western open world games are based on the original LOZ starting with GTA being inspired by the game, the features you're mentioning are natural progressions for design in open world games. Also Zelda 2 had a proper story.

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this. I just don't like exploring the overworld (And neither do I like most AAA games and the things they do for that matter), so I was perfectly content with Zelda being its own thing. I adore the old gameplay and since I grew up with post-OoT Zelda, that's what the franchise is to me (Heavy on dungeons/puzzles with light adventure elements).

 I just replayed MM and the dungeons are a million times more complex than botw and frankly way  better than Portal. You need to replay those n64 games dude. Where is stone tower in botw or portal?

Congrats and well deserved.

BotW is the first Zelda since my childhood favorite Wind Waker that captivated me as much, such an amazing world with tons of charm and exploration, clever puzzles, one of my favorite stories and cast of characters too.

And what is probably the best thing about BotW is that there is a ton of potential to be tapped, the foundation has so much possibilities compared to previous styles.