I know I'm way late to the party, but I recently picked up Breath of the Wild Switch 2 Edition and I have to say I am really enjoying it! 

I want to start off by saying I'm not the biggest Zelda fan. I appreciate the series more from the outside. I've played and completed many games from the series, but it's just not one of my favorites from Nintendo. I did however absolutely love Wind Waker. The cel shaded art style reeled me in as soon as I saw it and the game currently sits among my top 5 games of all time. So I do have SOME love for the series!

I gave BotW a shot twice on Switch, once when it first came out and then again years later, but I both times I got about 5+ hours in and eventually got bored and never returned. I was determined to give this game a real shot since it lands on many lists top game of all time. I knew I was doing myself a disservice by not giving it a fair chance.

Switch 2 came out and I downloaded BotW Switch 2 Edition and decided to give it one more go after my time With Mario Kart World. And wouldn't you know it, I got up to the same area about 5+ hours in, but this time DK Bananza took my attention away from it. I swore I would go back to it once I completed DK, but then Hades II came along and that made BotW a distant memory yet again. But I made a promise to myself to return to the land of Hyrule.

I picked up BotW where I left of 5+ hours in after finishing Hades and I was skeptical about not remembering the controls or what I was supposed to do. After a couple hours of wrangling my pro controller and figuring out where I needed to go, I wasn't going to be stopped this time. 

So currently I just got to my 2nd divine beast in Goron City. The open world is truly massive, and the scope is even bigger. Between the behemoth divine beasts and other larger than life characters like the Great Fairy, it all feels so epic! The cut-scenes make this game stand out from other Zeldas and makes the game feel big. I can't believe this was a Switch game, let alone a Wii-U game! I'm excited to continue this journey and I promise I will make it to the end! 

Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom combined are nearly half of the Zelda games I've played. I haven't tried over half of them. It hasn't really been my thing. I did play Ocarina of Time 3D as another 3D Zelda before the Wild duology and it's my favorite Zelda game.
I actually prefer Breath of the Wild over Tears of the Kingdom. It felt more fresh for sure. And I guess I'm a scrub, but it was a little easier too. I had no issues with the final boss of Breath of the Wild, but it took multiple attempts for me to beat the final boss of Tears of the Kingdom.

Breath of the Wild was literally the game that got me interested in video games. That and TotK are my all time favorites— combined, I have nearly 700hr poured into them.

Thats great. Kinda odd, considering its a universally beloved game for good reason, but good for you all the same. Botw is a fantastic game, probably my favorite NS1 game (other than MK8) and it hits highs i dont think TOTK comes even close to reaching. Im feeling the itch to replay it again.

It's a good game, be sure to play it however you feel like, you can go anywhere you want.

I love the fact than you can go anywhere and everywhere

I was a “lapsed Zelda fan” for lack of a better term. I loved the NES/SNES era, but not so much the Ocarina of Time era…

Don’t get me wrong, I think some of the innovations in the old style 3D games were quite fun when they first came out. But all that dungeon crawling along a critical path, and “find the key/switch/puzzle if you wish to proceed in this game” wasn’t my bag. It often felt like the game was about 2-5% exploration, and most of the rest just wandering back and forth to find the thing you needed to find… it was like an analogy for losing your keys over and over again.

Breath of the Wild brought back the focus to exploring a vibrant overworld full of wonders and secrets. And it did it in such a huge way. Truthfully though, it was Link Between Worlds, but that was just the appetizer.

And it’s not like many Zelda fans weren’t hoping for an open world experience where the adventure was the direction we took it, or dreaming of standing atop one of the game’s mountains and overlooking Hyrule. That iconic scene from Breath of the Wild wasn’t out of nowhere.

Loved it, because the discoverable elements matter. Shrine means more hearts or stamina. Seeds mean hold more items. Armor sets have specific and impactful benefits. Too many large games have collectibles I don't understand. Like Tsushima, which I did really like, they Haiku stuff. Why? I get a hand band that does nothing. BotW did a great job of making things matter.

I do find this to be a big problem in gaming.  Like Oblivion and Skyrim, after a while I stop exploring caves, because why bother?  Doesn't matter if I do or don't explore.  

 Good exploration is a surprisingly hard thing to implement in games. For one you need incentives to get people going, not just that they have all parts of the map, but that they find something useful. On the other hand it should be about the wonder what to find around the corner, not just the benefits. To balance that well is hard. And I think BOTW nailed it. As you said you get some benefits. But on the other hand you also find just wonderful things if you explore.

Fair, it is a balance and Breath nails it.  As much as I like Elden, after a while I couldn't find the energy to do another catacombs.  Boring, uninteresting and no benefits.  Simply put, don't just put things in a game, give a reason to care.