An alternative prequel to me.

Well done, congratulations. Expected since the userbase improved several folds from WiiU and the series was well received there already;

Exactly! I didn't think much of it because of that reason.

The majority of endgame occurs in the past. Would you call that an alternative prequel? As soon as time travel comes into play like with the little guardian, then it requires the future to happen, hence a sequel to me.

This doesn't quite seem like a spoiler, but I'm going to edit it anyway. Always err on the side of caution, especially with a brand new game.

Bold: just like when the timeline was split into:

1.Hero is success

2.Hero is defeated

Yeah, this is like that, hence i said "alternative".

Dude that's some major spoilers. Plus as I said, time travel makes it a sequel.

Bold: If you haven't seen the time travel part, not really though. 

'

Just finished it. Loved it. Storytelling is better than any Zelda game by a country mile. Visually this is one of the best looking games on the system. Shame it does not run better. Later maps can be confusing to navigate. Best Warriors game I finished yet. Even tho it's not, the areas feel very open. The gameplay blends so well with the BOTW aesthetic. Even tho at its core it's a Warriors game. It does not feel like they just took any DW game and reskinned it as the first game did. Now just working my way to unlock the first HW green tunic. I feel like AOC and Person 5 Scramble went well above and beyond past warriors games.

I've been discussing time travel myself.

Spoiler!

The major spoiler is the ending. Anyone with a bring can figure out that if BotW had a bad ending, that means this has a good one. That's major spoilers. And anything that requires time travel to happen is a sequel to me because you can't have the events happen without someone from the future coming to help you. If it had no time travel and a different ending, that'd be a true alternative prequel. Time travel hence sequel/spinoff for me.