I can agree with this to a long degree!

If the open world, single-player stories were focused and made your efforts FEEL truthfully impactful AND important, they would be SO much better all-round. But eh...too much work for the writers to have to bounce around, I guess. : /

lol. amusingly that is basically why i avoid most open world games--am actually slowly getting into them as they're like dead to fans though :)

I agree with this so much that my soul rockets out of my body and smashes into Bethesda.

>Top half
Breath of the Wild only follows the first one, and a bit of the third one. Would hardly say there's more than 120 quests, and the cooking is practically necessary to get enough healing out of the food. Often, I find myself running out of cooked meals halfway through an important mission.

You're too hard on modern open-world games. They're not all the same, just most of them.

I'm not hard enough, honestly. No focused/great narrative or character development to keep me motivated to press on, and lack of consistency = complete waste of my time.

Plus, not enough emphasis is put on soundtracks anymore either. The OST should be a big fucking deal. Not just generic orchestral bullshit. We need more clear and memorable melodies in game music.

Sooooo you're saying you dislike or even hate Breath of the Wild? And Dark Souls? And even Wind Waker? I mean, shit, if there wasn't so much featureless ocean in that game, I'd actually find it to be pretty good.

Pretty much, yeah. Those games don't do a single thing for me. Wind Waker, however, had at least some kind of personality/style and plot though. It's the best 3D Zelda as far as I'm concerned for just that reason.

Did you even PLAY Breath of the Wild? That game has personality and style up the ass.

It just looks like your standard 'wander around for hours and hours doing nothing but killing everything for no real reason' type of game to me. I also find it funny how Link is the only character who doesn't speak at all when everyone else does. He robotically stares forward with his soulless eyes as Zelda rambles on about being a failure. X3

Not entirely true. You're generally looking for either an item you need, or a shrine to get a spirit orb from...or you're attempting to do a quest...or exploring...or climbing a tower to fill out your map.

Yeah, it does get a little boring when you're just grinding, but the quests are pretty fun. And there's plenty of humor. Don't get me started on the sand seal lady. Dear Goddess, seal puns for days.

Open world is usually awful, indeed. There's one game that did it perfectly though and that's Witcher 3 XP.

A certain blonde-haired Hylian would like to have a word with you.

I miss the days of the Level Select button.

I'd recommend Prey. It's a nice single player experience with a massive amount of things that are going on, side quests that make sense, etc.

Well, that's a matter of personal taste, I think. I love open world RPGs, but I also have nothing against a nice single player with simple, but good design.