I was actually really sad to hear that Breath of the Wild was going to be an open world game when that was announced. I was sick and tired of the same broken mechanics that come with your typical AAA open world game, and thought it would do the Zelda universe a massive disservice.

And then I played it and holy hot damn was I wrong, I think it will go down as one of my favorites of all time. So so so well executed, the world never once felt empty and pointless, as was one of my main issue with other attempts at open world. Just an amazing title.

What I loved about Super Mario 64 was that it used the same area for 6 stars (+ coin star). But for Galaxy for instance, you would just land on another area of the same planet and kinda follow "rail tracks" to the star. Haven't played Odyssey, but that's because I was a bit put off because of this. Is it better in this regard?

Odyssey is closer to 64 than Galaxy. You don't repeatedly enter the level for different stars, you just enter the level once and there's different objectives that reward you with stars. Definitely not on rails at all.

Yes, Odyssey feels much more like Mario 64 in that regard. Each level has many moons (like the stars in Mario 64). There’s even one level which is straight out of Mario 64, just expanded and updated.

While I love both I find them pretty repetitive and I had a hard time saying why until I watched Joseph Anderson's videos on it:

Mario: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYJx5xt2cB0 Zelda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T15-xfUr8z4

I think that eariler titles in both series had better balance between quantity and quality of content and what I like best about both titles is the mechanics while the content it acts upon feels sort of thin.

And then Pokemon Sword/Shield came along and did the exact opposite, sadly.

Really funny how that works out.

Sadly, the Pokemon series is stuck in a situation where it doesn't 'need' to innovate or do anything ambitious to sell well/get good reviews, so its creators basically don't bother and coast along without trying too hard. It's kinda like YouTube under Google to be honest.

Extremely high levels of popularity + no competition + unambitious creators that are out of touch with their audience/userbase can equal a mediocre product or series that just ticks along without any attempt to live up to its own promise.

It's kind of funny being 30 and loving Pokemon. I have been dying for a good Pokemon game since I was a kid. The GBC games were addictive, but I wanted something that would feel more interactive and require realtime battle skills. The RPG-style battle mechanics got really old. Pokemon Snap was and still is magical, but the user was stuck on rails. Pokemon Stadium was at least 3-d, but the battle mechanics were the same. I fantasized about having an open world with the battle mechanics of Super Smash Bros. A BOTW-style Pokemon game would be just incredible!

Nintendo benefits from the Tesla/Apple/Jeep effect.

Fanboys will be happy regardless.

As time goes on BOTW is being realized as lackluster. Empty, bad graphics, same story, boring environment.

Counterpoint: BOTW single-handedly got me back on Nintendo systems. I was not a Nintendo fanboy before. I had a Wii back in the day, but it was mostly a gimmick, never substituted the PC as the "serious gaming platform" for me. BOTW is one of these rare games that was so attractive that I bought the entire console just to play it. I am aware of and recognize its flaws, but I have over 200 hours in this game, so obviously it can't be all that bad. Heck, I watched a BOTW speedrunner on Twitch just yesterday. The community around that game is still going strong.