The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was incredibly well received critically and among players for a number of reasons, but it's really choice that is the allure here. I personally didn't think the game was flawless by any means, but damn appealing for some reason and with that I thought I'd look closer into it. It would seem what makes the experience such a draw is the choice that's allowed at any point in the game. You're free to run towards the final boss from the start which while foolish, is an option.
There's no narrative or quest that's pushing you to do anything at all. You have this basically endless world to just explore and do whatever in. It's also a lively world filled with bustling places to visit, NPCs to meet or enemies to take care of. You could sit there for hours just basically cooking food if you'd like. It has a surprisingly in-depth system for cooking and harvesting things from the world such as plants for special effects. The world in general fully embraces this by having any peak you see to be reachable and the traversal methods to do so. While you're somewhat locked in stamina, there are options to creatively climb any mountain, soar through any valley or even ride across great plains.
Link not only has access to the basic tools for getting places, but also runes which further this progression. The Shrines give glimpses and ideas of how to use them, but in the open world of Hyrule they can be easily forgotten. At times I would sit there thinking about how to get something out of the way or how to cross water. It took time to recall that it's easy to place an ice block for water crossings or that most objects can be manipulated by Magnetism or Stasis. The ability to use runes at any point is there and it was nice extra layer of gameplay.
By having a world that has the intricate placing of a mass landscape without random generation and giving people the choice to go anywhere they've created an amazing landscape to explore. This is also carried with any sort of combat as the destruction of weapons which I hate, actually forces you to get creative. Any of the regular enemies or even larger bosses can be defeated through multiple means and everyone tackles it differently. There was one point where I needed to hit an aerial enemy and did so by chucking some old scrap weapons or also bombing it after awhile. Probably not the most efficient way of getting things done, but it's an option. Some bosses I watched others battle online would take out their special attacks by a completely different way than I would, but it all works. Nintendo really has given players the ultimate allure for an open world by making it detailed and granting complete freedom.
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