I disagree, I think that by dropping all the safe conventions that made Zelda familiar for many years, they went back to rediscover what really made the franchise special, and realized it wasn't the conventions that were added to the series but rather the foundations that the conventions were originally built on to begin with.
I'm a Zelda fan who has played the series since the very first entry as a kid. Zelda is my favorite franchise of all time. Zelda is what makes me buy new Nintendo consoles. And I think this is the best one they have ever made.
Before playing BotW, I went back to complete the first two Zeldas on the NES Classic in the past few months. It's really awesome to see how the newest Zelda feels like a true evolution of Zelda from the points of origin, just like LttP and OoT were at their times.
Ok and I am massive zelda fan, I grew up on it. 100% every zelda game. I think it's easily the greatest franchise in gaming. It has every element I want in gaming, that perfect mix of gameplay systems from action, exploration and puzzle solving. It is the king of the gaming world. And I think this is one of the more repetitive not interesting zelda games they have made.
Dropping the safe conventions is fine, removing the best section of gameplays which were the complex dungeons or very guided overworld experiences is not fine. They didn't have to follow the same rules as past games, hell they didn't have to even be "dungeons". But this game needs more than a ton of little puzzle rooms. Or four larger puzzle rooms that are all kind of similar and all use the same abilities you have been using since the start.
Every other zelda game is introducing new gameplay elements and situations constantly, almost never repeating (SS started doing the reacting that and it was my least favorite 3D zelda). This one repeats the same loop all over the world over and over again. Yes they have moments of uniqueness like eventide but that is so rare. Even the labyrinths that I thought was unique, nope there are three of them. There is nothing in this game as amazingly designed as the best dungeons throughout the series. I enjoy the pattern bosses of past games that make use of new skills more than this games bosses which after you become powerful are pushovers.
The beauty of going to a new area and knowing you will get a new item, you will experience brand new gameplay, brand new puzzles and an incredible designed gameplay segment filled with new enemies and ideas, that's missing in this game. Yeah you go to a new area but it's probably going to be the same enemies again. You will not get a new skill, you have them all. All the puzzles start to blend together and are some form of freezing or moving objects. You will see the same korok puzzle a million times, run up another hill, battle the same enemy camp, solve a simple riddle for a shrine and so on.
The changes this game made were great, the formula needed a shakeup. But that didn't have to mean the good level design had to stop. That doesn't mean they should have made a game with tons and tons of repetition rather than focus on a smaller but better world filled with more unique experiences.
