I was shocked that there wasn't more to the main quest. That the four divine beasts and Hyrule Castle was it. My memories must have been mixed with the things you do between "dungeons" in Tears of the Kingdom (whose campaign was ALSO poor). Again, you can't build good dungeons around the acquisition of new items and have that kind of adventurous progression if the world is so massive that tracking back to locked-off areas and secrets with the new items is too tedious. Fans who say "I liked it but want better dungeons" miss the point.
Eiji Aonuma speaking at the Game Awards 2023:
"It's interesting when I hear people say [they prefer the old entries] because I am wondering, 'Why do you want to go back to a type of game where you're more limited or more restricted in the types of things or ways you can play?' But I do understand that desire that we have for nostalgia, and so I can also understand it from that aspect."
https://www.ign.com/articles/zelda-...iew-nintendo-eiji-aonuma-hidemaro-fujibayashi
Aonuma doesn't get it either. Assumes it's only nostalgia, doesn't even try to think about WHY fans want the more linear experience.
Didn't write this response to Aonuma's quote, but thought it was a good post.
"That’s quite a clueless statement. It reeks of the same philosophy of the advent of 3D gaming and why anyone would prefer 2D when they can have 3D.
"Player agency has never been Zelda’s core appeal, a grand sense of adventure has. If they want to turn the franchise into a physics-based sandbox toy at the expense of marginalizing that sense of adventure, then attribute players’ desires for it to return to basic nostalgia (an incredibly reductionist viewpoint, IMO), then it’s obvious the game is in the hands of a current designer who holds no sense (or care) of the original spirit it was conceived in. I believe many fans of the franchise would be willing to sacrifice the freedom these sandboxes afford for that magical and wondrous feeling of progression through a more linear and structured framework, even if quite a bit more restrictive.
"Not everyone wants to play with a toy, they want to experience a journey. Unfortunately, that’s not the philosophy that Nintendo builds their games upon anymore."